By Abdul Ghelleh I must come out of my procrastinating den in Doha and key in few words about the circumstances surrounding the terrorist attacks in Nairobi’s Westgate Mall. Exactly twelve days ago, I was in Nairobi. I lived in the city’s Hurlingham area for almost a year, not far from the Westgate Mall where...
By ELLIE BUCHDAHL Dr Muhammad Taufiq Al Sattar, 52, said he had planned to return home from Dublin on the night his wife, daughter and sons died at home. The neurosurgeon, who usually spent three weekends out of four in Leicester, said he last spoke to his wife of 20 years, Shehnila Taufiq, on Friday night....
By Mohamed Sheikh Nor Somalia named Yussur Abrar as the country’s first female central bank governor, replacing Abdusalam Omer, who resigned after a United Nations monitoring group accused him of mismanaging the government’s money. Abrar has spent the past 30 years working for international banks and insurance companies, Shador Hajji, a press officer in the presidency...
By AGGREY MUTAMBO Foreign Affairs Cabinet Secretary Amina Mohammed believes President Uhuru Kenyatta and his Deputy William Ruto are “not guilty” of crimes against humanity because three other suspects in their cases earlier had their charges dropped. Ms Mohammed who is in London told the BBC’s HARDTalkon Wednesday afternoon that the two shouldn’t be standing trial...
By Hassan M. Abukar “History has proven that the Somalis generally do not want any influence from Al-Qaeda or foreigners in their internal affairs.”—Omar Hammami. Omar Hammami, the American jihadist with Al-Shabab, Somalia’s Al-Qaeda affiliate, was killed on Thursday by Al-Shabab fighters according to a report by AP. He was 29 years old. He had...
By Muaz Shabandri The horrific story of Jawaid Khan and his tryst with Somali pirates took center stage at a special session on Wednesday’s anti-maritime piracy conference in Dubai. For 22 months, pirates off the coast of Somalia held Jawaid Khan and his crew from MV Albedo hostage. He recalled moments of anguish and helplessness...
By Nesru Jemal Dhaqabo Ebba, a retired farmer and well-known community elder from the Oromia region in Ethiopia, could be the oldest living person ever, says Mohammed Ademo after watching Ebba’s interview with TV Oromiya. ERTA has adapted his story as follows: At an estimated 160 years of age, Dhaqabo Ebba, a retired farmer and well-known...
WRITTEN BY RICHARD MUGISHA Four months into his new job, the UPDF Commander Land Forces (CLF) Maj Gen David Muhoozi visited Ugandan troops under AMISOM in Somalia for the first time last week. In an interview with Richard Mugisha, the general gives his candid assessment of the mission in Mogadishu. Below are the excerpts: General, this is your...
War-zone thrill seeker stumbles straight into jihadi torture trap By MAUREEN CALLAHAN Bored with her life and fresh off a New Year’s Eve epiphany, a 24-year-old Canadian named Amanda Lindhout quits her job as a cocktail waitress and decides to become a journalist. To get famous fast, she’ll start in Afghanistan, landing in Kabul in...
By Drazen Jorgic and Edmund Blair The president of Somalia’s semi-autonomous Puntland region said the central government was undermining plans to create a federal system and that he would develop potential oil resources in his area even without a revenue-sharing deal with Mogadishu. Abdirahman Mohamud Farole’s remarks in a Reuters interview show the deep national...