Harvesting frankincense is risky. The trees can grow high on cliff edges, shallow roots gripping bare rock slithering with venomous snakes. In a tradition dating to Biblical times, men rise at dawn in the rugged Cal Madow mountains of Somaliland in the Horn of Africa to scale rocky outcrops in...
Slain Ottawa sisters mourned, brother charged in killings
Beyond drifts of snow at the gates of Ottawa Muslim Cemetery on Sunday, grief-stricken mourners said farewell to slain sisters Asma and Nasiba A-Noor, who in life touched many by their devotion to family, community and the Qur’an.Only 32 and 29, the sisters were remembered at their funeral as “inspiring...
Leading Experts At BIMCO Seminar Say Maritime Crime Increasing
Industry security experts have concluded that maritime crime will not be stopped any time soon – and that cyber incidents would continue to expand in frequency and severity. This was the consensus at BIMCO’s first ever Maritime Security Seminar in Copenhagen yesterday. (more…)
EU contributes €1 million EUR to IMF Somalia Trust Fund
EU contribution to IMF Somalia Trust Fund.Nairobi, 9 December 2017 – The EU has contributed €1 million EUR to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) Somalia Trust Fund as part of its long-standing commitment to support economic governance and capacity development in Somalia. The EU support will contribute to normalizing relations...
Assessing Castro’s mixed, bloody record in Africa
Say what you want about Fidel Castro, in Africa he was a liberator. His aid to the South African anti-apartheid struggle will forever be remembered as a grand stroke of moral leadership, in great contrast to American policy.That’s the theme of various sympathetic postmortems for the Cuban dictator, who died...
Somali civilians clash with al-Shabab over tax dispute
At least 10 killed after residents take up arms against fighters for trying to impose tax in central Galmudug region.At least 10 people were killed and dozens of others wounded in fighting that erupted over a tax dispute between al-Shabab and armed residents in Somalia's central state of Galmudug. (more…)
Somalia: Elders negotiate with al-Shabab over soldiers
Gal'ad, Somalia - "Line up in a straight line. We will do the talking on your behalf," an elderly man with a henna-dyed beard tells the group of young men. They are standing in front of an iron-gated compound in the centre of the town of Gal'ad in Somalia's central...
Men made a mess of Somalia, now women want to fix it
Raped, abused and subjected to genital mutilation, many women suffer terribly in Somalia, an unrepentantly patriarchal country shown by successive surveys as one of the worst places to be female.A quota reserving 30 percent of parliamentary seats for women in current elections is supposed to help bring change and place...
Islamic State is slowly encroaching on al-Shabab territory in Somalia — but can it take root?
NEWS ANALYSIS In late October, a faction of Somali militants aligned to Islamic State and led by long-time cleric Abdulkadir Mumin, walked into the town of Qandala along Somalia’s northern coast in the Bari region of Puntland, meeting little resistance. Whether or not they subsequently retreated to the town’s outskirts...
Piracy in Nigeria
People and Power investigates the rise of piracy in the oil-rich Niger Delta region. The event followed a now familiar pattern: a small convoy of dusty 4x4 vehicles drove on to the edge of the airstrip at Galkayo in Puntland, north-central Somalia; armed security guards took up watchful positions nearby...