First Independent Mena Newspaper
The President of Djibouti, Ismail Omar Guelleh, received Wednesday in the Djiboutian capital royal envoy Mohamed Mehdi Bensaid, who handed him a written message from King Mohammed VI. In a statement to the press after the audience, Bensaid, who is Morocco’s Minister of Youth, Culture and Communication, said that the royal message he delivered to […]
The United States on Monday (7 November) imposed its second round of sanctions in less than a week on people and firms, this time targeting South African entities, who it says have provided financial or material support to the Islamic State (IS) group. Following the financial penalties against a Somali IS weapons trafficking cell imposed […]
There has been huge increase in death toll from the two successive car bombings in Somalia’s capital Mogadishu Saturday (29 October), blamed on the Al-Qaeda-allied al-Shabab terrorist organization, which has seen at least 100 killed and close to 300 others injured. Somalia’s President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud made the announcement after visiting the site of the […]
An attack claimed by the al-Shabab armed group on a popular hotel in the centre of the Somali port city of Kismayo killed nine civilians on Sunday, October 23, as the World Food Program (WFP) warned it is only a matter of time before the conflict-torn Somalia is hit with a full-blown famine and people […]
Botswana has expressed concern over an influx of asylum seekers who fled from countries, including 700 refugees from neighboring Zimbabwe and hundreds more from South Africa, where they had already been granted refugee status. Those who have arrived from neighboring Zimbabwe were citing poor conditions at the refugee camp, while others have come from South […]
The United States government on Monday (17 October) imposed sanctions on 14 men, including six it said were part of a network that has engaged in weapons procurement, financial facilitation and recruitment for the Somalia-based al-Shabaab militant Islamist group. This new, expansive round of sanctions is in addition to drone strikes and military advice from […]
An attack by Islamic extremist al-Shabab fighters on Somali government headquarters in Beledweyne, a town more than 300 km north of Somalia’s capital, on Monday (3 October) has left 20 dead and 36 wounded. Witnesses said two vehicles loaded with explosives detonated in the morning, and a third in the afternoon. “Heavy and disastrous explosions […]
Somalia’s government said it had killed Abdullahi Nadir, one of the co-founders of Islamist militant group al-Shabab, in an operation with international partners, as the United Nations warns the country is still teetering on the edge of famine. The announcement of the operation that killed Nadir on Saturday (October 1) comes as Somali security forces […]
Somali tribal militia backed by the Somali government have pushed al-Shabab terrorists out of large parts of the country’s central area in the latest gains in a large-scale offensive, the country’s state media said on Monday. The offensive was launched in the Hiran region a few weeks ago against the militants, liberating several key townships […]
Somalia announced Friday in New York its decision to open an embassy in Rabat and a consulate general in Dakhla. “Somalia decides to open an embassy in Rabat and a consulate general in Dakhla,” said the Somali Minister of Foreign Affairs, Abshir Omar Jama, after a meeting with his Moroccan peer Nasser Bourita, on the […]