Rageh Omaar is International Affairs Editor at ITV News ( Crescent Films ) Somaliland, an unrecognised former British colony in the Horn of Africa, has been described as the African miracle that nobody knows about. It lies in a region facing severe challenges: political instability, the rise of extremism and conflict. But Somaliland has, somehow,

The U.S. military said it killed nine militants in an air strike targeting al Shabaab in Lebede, Somalia, as part of its operations to support the government’s efforts to weaken the militant group. The military’s Africa Command (Africom) said the strike was carried out on Friday. “We currently assess this airstrike killed nine militants with

Somalia’s South West state will delay a key presidential vote for the third time because it is not sufficiently prepared, the semi-autonomous region’s election committee said on Saturday.Tensions between the federal government and state authorities have mounted in recent weeks after Mogadishu tried to block the candidacy of former al Shabaab Islamist militant Mukhtar Robow.

Somali government has deployed over one hundred soldiers in the southwestern town of Baidoa ahead the region holds the much-awaited regional governor election . The development comes amid fears of violence and protests in the town as rival candidates have reportedly started mobilizing troops across the region, raising fears of armed violence on the backdrop

U.S. Marine Gen. Thomas D. Waldhauser, commander of U.S. Africa Command (AFRICOM), met with senior government officials during a visit to Somalia on Nov. 27, 2018. During the visit, Waldhauser met with Somali President Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed, also known as President Farmaajo, and key Somali defense officials. “AFRICOM and the U.S. government support the Federal

Gunmen kidnapped an Italian volunteer and wounded a woman and four children in Kenya late on Tuesday, police and witnesses said – the first abduction of a foreigner there since raids blamed on Somali Islamist militants six years ago. Men armed with AK-47 rifles seized the 23-year-old woman from a guesthouse in Chakama, near Kenya’s

The US military says it has carried out air strikes against al-Shabab in Somalia, killing at least 37 suspected fighters. In a statement on Tuesday, the US Africa Command (US AFRICOM) said the two strikes on Monday took place near Debatscile. “Air strikes reduce al-Shabab’s ability to plot future attacks, disrupt its leadership networks, and

Regional government asks aid agencies to scale up emergency response to the humanitarian crisis. Over 200,000 people fled ethnic conflict to camps in the Somali region of Ethiopia since July. This pushes the total to over 700,000 that fled inter-communal violence in recent years, according to the latest Displacement Tracking Matrix for Ethiopia. Most came

Zholia Alemi, 56, was convicted of fraud and theft offences at Carlisle Crown Court last month.Thousands of NHS doctors are to have their records reviewed after a woman with fake qualifications was found to be working as a consultant psychiatrist for 23 years. Zholia Alemi, 56, was jailed for five years in October after she

Police officers at the Kenya-Somalia border let in five Al-Shabaab suicide bombers in February this year after receiving bribes, a new United Nations report says. The report lays bare how Kenyan security forces routinely accept cash bribes from as low as Ksh2,000 ($20) from terror militants to wave them through. The Somalia Report 2018, released