Ethiopia’s ruling coalition took a step closer to the creation of a national unity party as Africa’s second most-populous nation prepares for elections. The executive committee of the alliance voted for the merger of the four parties, Fikadu Tessema, a committee member, said in an interview with the Ethiopian Broadcasting Corp. The move will include...
November 14, 2026
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Turkey says it bought Russian S-400s to use them, not put them aside
ANKARA (Reuters) – Turkey bought S-400 missile defense systems from Russia to use them, not put them aside, the head of the Turkish Defense Industry Directorate said on Saturday, days after talks between President Tayyip Erdogan and U.S. President Donald Trump. Erdogan and Trump held talks in Washington on Wednesday to overcome increasing differences between...
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Press freedom under siege again in the new Ethiopia
James Jeffrey Ethiopian press freedom gained a much-needed push thanks to reforms by prime minister Abiy Ahmed. But already the push back is occurring. In a small barely furnished office with some of the electric wiring still showing in half-completed walls, Habtamu Mekonnen sits at his laptop putting the finishing touches to tomorrow’s Berbera newspaper...
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Somalia to Push for Voter Registration Ahead of 2021 Elections
Harun Maruf Somalia’s National Independent Electoral Commission (NIEC) has announced plans to register millions of Somalis to participate in what would be the country’s first popular elections in more than a half-century. NIEC Chairperson Halima Ismail Ibrahim told VOA that the commission would start registering voters in March 2020 in a campaign that could last months...
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Somali girls punished for arriving late at school after household chores
Sixteen-year-old Shukri Hashi Abdi’s mornings at home in Guriel, central Somalia, begin at the crack of dawn, making sure that her five brothers and two younger sisters are all fed and the house is clean. “After I finish cooking pancakes and soup, and preparing tea, I wash the utensils and then clean the compound,” Shukri...
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In Kenya’s fight against al-Shabab, locals say the military is fighting terror with terror
By MAX BEARAK KUTULO, Kenya — As the newly elected representative for this remote village of sheep and camel herders out in the expanse of Kenya’s red-sand borderlands with Somalia, Issa Ahmed Abdi decided to dig a well for his community. But the drill made a lot of noise — “like a chopper or a tank,” he recalled. “Mothers...
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The Case for Accounting Standards in Somalia
By Ali Haji Warsame Shortly after Somalia’s Auditor General published the annual government audit and compliance report (Annual Performance Report 2018) followed by an interview with the Minister of Finance in response to the report, the Somali public started to discuss the merits of the report and the ministerial rebuttal. An Auditor General passes a...
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We don’t see the peace’: Abiy’s Nobel queried at Ethiopian border
When Zaid Aregawi learned that Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed won this year’s Nobel Peace Prize, her first thought was of her brother Alem, who is languishing in jail across the border in Eritrea. He crossed over five months ago carrying wood for an Eritrean businessman — exactly the kind of trade that people in...
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Ethiopia PM Abiy warns ethnic violence could worsen
Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed warned Saturday of further instability and vowed to bring to justice those responsible for violence that left at least 67 people dead this week. “The crisis we have faced will become even more fearsome and difficult if Ethiopians don’t unite and stand as one,” Abiy said in a statement issued...
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Kenyan tutors claim recruiters lure them to exploitative labour in Somaliland
By BEATRICE KANGAI It came disguised as a once-in-a-lifetime job opportunity: a teaching job at a prestigious international school in Hargeisa, Somaliland, with a salary of Sh50,000 a month, free air ticket, work visa, meals and accommodation, and paid tuition outside of lessons. “That meant I would be saving nearly 100 percent of my salary,”...