First Independent Mena Newspaper
Somalia has finally been admitted to the East African Community (EAC) as its eighth member, thirteen years after its original application to join, as the economic bloc seeks to expand free trade across the region. Somalia was officially admitted to the East African Community (EAC) at the Summit of the East African Community (EAC) Heads […]
Horn of Africa is concerned about a new war in the battle-scarred region after Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed’s call for a direct port access on the Red Sea, asserting that access to the sea is an existential question. Ethiopia is abuzz with rumors of a looming war in the region after Abiy reportedly told […]
Khartoum was rocked on Monday by heavy artillery fire from paramilitaries and the army, besieged on several fronts and once again calling for civilian reinforcements in a war with no end in sight, after around three months. The noise of the fighting “started at around 4 a.m. and hasn’t stopped since”, reports one of the […]
While China’s global competition has been a well-known fact, Beijing now signals an expansion of its ambitions in the Horn of Africa, as evidenced by Ethiopia’s recent acknowledgement that China has become the East African nation’s leading source of foreign direct investment, largest trading partner, and development financier. China plans to send more emergency food […]
US First Lady Jill Biden, who was on a two-day visit in Kenya over the weekend, called on wealthy nations to give more to countries in the Horn of Africa, which is experiencing its worst drought in four decades. Five straight seasons of poor rainfall have killed millions of livestock, destroyed crops and left some […]
Drought trends in the Horn of Africa are now worse than they were during the 2011 famine in which hundreds of thousands of people died, with a climate research center warning of below-normal rainfall that is expected during the rainy season over the next three months in parts of Somalia, Kenya and Ethiopia. “In parts […]
The lack of employment more than religious belief is what is driving people to join fast-growing extremist groups in sub-Saharan Africa, according to a report by the UN Development Program (UNDP) based on interviews with hundreds of former fighters across East, West and the Horn of Africa. The new UNDP report’s findings thus challenge traditional […]
Eritrea is intensifying its involvement in neighboring Ethiopia’s civil war, including by instituting forced conscription to strengthen its army, in a bid to crush the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF), the former ruling party of Ethiopia. Eritrea’s involvement in Ethiopia’s civil war is seen as effectively hampering efforts to end fighting that destabilized the entire […]
The first UN-chartered ship carrying Ukrainian grain to Africa since the flare up of the Russia-Ukraine conflict arrived in Djibouti on Tuesday (30 August) to be distributed in Ethiopia to help the drought-stricken nation cope with worsening hunger that threatens to become a famine. “The food on the Brave Commander will feed 1.5 million people, […]
Severe hunger is sliding toward famine-like conditions in the Horn of Africa, particularly in Somalia, United Nations (UN) agencies warn, which is the result of four years of consecutive drought that have wiped out peoples’ ability to grow the crops they need to feed themselves. The World Food Program (WFP) has reported that up to […]