Three airstrikes targeted al-Shabaab extremists in Somalia on Sunday, one day after a deadly car bombing in Mogadishu claimed scores of lives and left dozens of people injured. The United States Africa Command (AFRICOM) said it conducted the airstrikes near Qunyo Barrow and Caliyoow Barrow in the Lower Shabelle region…
Services will be held Friday for Almaas Elman, the Somali-Canadian human rights activists and former diplomat killed earlier this week in Mogadishu when she was shot by unknown assailants. Ilwad Elman, the prominent sister of Almaas, announced Thursday that “we will lay my sister to rest” during Friday prayers at…
The death toll has risen to at least 30, as Somalia once again grappled with a massive terrorist attack in Mogadishu that became a daylong siege near the Maka Al Mukarama Hotel and Hilaac UK restaurant. The attack began about 9 p.m. Thursday when a car loaded with explosives crashed…
Somali-American Ilhan Omar has become one of two Muslim women who are the first to serve in the United States Congress, after easily winning her race in the state of Minnesota. The Democrat Omar was declared winner of her U.S. House of Representatives race with 78.7 percent of the vote…
Both the African Union and the United Nations condemned on Sunday the two suicide bombing attacks that struck Baidoa over the weekend, leaving at least 16 people dead. The bombings at the Beder Restaurant and Bilan Hotel left another 50 people injured in the town about 130 kilometers from Mogadishu, in…
The death toll in Saturday’s bombing attacks in downtown Mogadishu, which targeted the complex where the country’s ministries of interior and security are housed, has risen to 13. More than 21 people were injured, many of them seriously, according to local news outlets who reported the initial car bomb blast…
The death toll in Somalia has risen to 18 following Thursday’s car bomb attack at the Wehliye hotel in Mogadishu. Most of the victims were civilians, according to local media accounts. At least one of the victims was a foreign national. Hussein Mohamed Dirir, a Norwegian citizen of Somali descent…
Amnesty International says new satellite images show the damage to settlements near Mogadishu that were destroyed last month, leaving some 24,000 internally displaced persons forcibly evicted without any notice. The human rights NGO released the images on Friday with an analysis of the before-and-after results. “These satellite images give a…
The United States military says its investigation into civilian deaths in Somalia in August concluded that only armed enemy combatants were killed in an incident that brought protesters into the streets and sparked global outrage on social media. Yet that assessment contradicts reporting on U.S. Special Operations activity that says…
United States citizens were warned on Saturday to leave Somalia’s capital, just one day after U.S. military officials announced air strike missions against ISIS in the northeastern part of the country. “Due to specific threat information against U.S. personnel on the Mogadishu International Airport, the U.S. Mission to Somalia has…
The death toll in Somalia has now reached more than 300 people following the worst bomb attack to ever happen in the Horn of Africa nation. The massive truck bomb that exploded Sunday at the KM5 junction in Soobe, one of the busiest areas of Mogadishu, also left hundreds of…
Laureen is the editor of Africa Times
Somalia is opening its first tech hub in Mogadishu this month, in what is another positive sign of the nation’s future amid the many challenges that remain. The vision for the iRise hub in Mogadishu began with the popular #SomaliaRising hashtag. Its founders, led by Abdihakim Ainte, decided to capitalize…
A bold attack on a restaurant in the Somali capital of Mogadishu on Wednesday continued late into the night, as armed men held an unknown number of hostages inside. An updated story from the Associated Press said that at least 31 people had died in a violent and confusing attack…
Somalia on Thursday mourned the death of Minister of Public Works and Reconstruction Abbas Abdullahi Siraji, who was laid to rest following a state funeral in Mogadishu. President Mohamed Abdullahi Farmajo attended the funeral service after cutting short a three-day state visit to Ethiopia, as did Prime Minister Hassan Ali…
The death toll in a Mogadishu car bombing has risen to eight people, with several others injured. Radio Shabelle in Somalia said that Wednesday’s explosion at a restaurant in the capital happened near the Ministry of Youth and Sports. The bomb destroyed the Coffee Break restaurant and caused chaos in…