A state crackdown has silenced ethnic Oromo people in Ethiopia, but grievances over land and rights, and a lack of political options, could reignite protests Oromo people stage a protest against the government near the Hora Lake at Debre Zeyit. Photograph: Minasse Wondimu Hailu/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images By William Davison in Guder In a muted show...
Newly elected Somali president and former prime minister Mohamed Abdullahi “Farmajo” Mohamed in Mogadishu, Somalia on February 8, 2017. PHOTO | MUSTAFA HAJI ABDINUR | NATION MEDIA GROUP By AGGREY MUTAMBO Kenya may have to study Somalia’s new President a lot more to know how the two countries’ relations will be under his leadership. Elected...
By Yasmeen Maxamuud Soo dhowow Marwo Seynab, We want to welcome you to the cradle of your nation, the bosom of your people. We are part of you and you in turn have already become part of our hope and inspiration. On behalf of Somali women, please allow me to welcome you as The First Lady of...
Violent crime is relatively uncommon in Addis Ababa. But as The Economist’s correspondent there found out, that is changing fast BY TOM GARDNER A few weeks ago, walking back from my gym in Addis Ababa in the early evening, I was robbed. My rucksack contained most of my valuables: laptop, wallet, smartphone, interview notes. The...
By JEFFREY GETTLEMAN MOGADISHU, Somalia — Politicians have been peeling off wads of hundred dollar bills to buy votes. Others have shown up for parliamentary races standing next to a political nobody who was bribed or coerced into running against them, to make the race look fair. In one case, the mysterious candidate was the...
By PATRICK GATHARA A structure at the KDF’s base in Kulbiyow, Somalia, goes up in flames during an attack by al Shabaab militants, January 27, 2016. /COURTESY In the wake of last week’s sacking of a Kenya Defense Forces base in Somalia by the al Shabaab terror group, the Kenyan government’s communications effort have once...
MOGADISHU, The Somali elections will mark a new turn of governance in Somalia thanks to a bicameral Parliament which failed to come into being in 2012, experts say. The concept for an Upper House was first mooted in the 2004 by regional bloc IGAD which Somalia is a member in the National Reconciliation Conference in...
By Katy Migiro NAIROBI, Somali refugee Ahmed Omar Bihi said on Wednesday that he fears for his wife’s sanity following Donald Trump’s travel ban and accused the U.S. president of “dismantling all our dreams”. Trump’s executive order curbing immigration has sparked international outcry, provoking chaos for travellers and bewilderment among immigrants chasing the American Dream....
BY BROOKE SEIPEL Those who hold dual nationality in the seven countries banned from entering the U.S. by President Trump will also be barred from entering the country, the Wall Street Journal reported Saturday. The Journal said it got an advance look at a statement by the State Department that the refugee ban extends beyond...
By Abdullahi Hassan A quarter century is now gone since the collapse of the central government of Somalia 1990 and still peace is a distance in the horizon, even when every Somali-born living inside or outside the country loves it. The signs and the cryptograms that led to the civil war are not yet compromised...