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[1/5] A Somali police officer uses his cell phone inside the rubble of the Pearl Beach Restaurant following an attack by Al Shabaab militants at the Liido beach in Mogadishu, Somalia June 10, 2023. REUTERS/Feisal OmarMOGADISHU, June 9 (Reuters) - Nine people were killed in an attack claimed by al Shabaab Islamist militants at an upmarket restaurant in the Somali capital Mogadishu on Friday night, police said. Those killed at the popular Pearl restaurant were six civilians and three soldiers, police said in a statement. Al Qaeda-linked al Shabaab said it was behind the attack. Al Shabaab controlled a vast area of Somalia before being pushed back in government counteroffensives since last year.

Persons: Al Shabaab, Omar MOGADISHU, al, Abdikadir Abdirahman, Hussein Mohamed, Shabaab, Abdi Sheikh, Feisal Omar, Jose Joseph, George Obulutsa, William Mallard, Frances Kerry Organizations: Pearl, REUTERS, Security, Somali National News Agency, Twitter, Mujahideen, Thomson Locations: Somali, Mogadishu, Somalia, al Shabaab, Shabaab, Lido Beach, Al Qaeda

CNN —Ugandan troops discovered the bodies of 54 Ugandan soldiers who were killed during an al-Shabaab attack on an African Union base in Somalia last week, according to Ugandan officials. “During that operation, UPDF discovered the lifeless bodies of 54 fallen soldiers, including Lt Col Edward Nyororo, the commander….,” the agency said. After Ugandan troops reclaimed the base, Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni announced that two commanders who ordered their soldiers to retreat during the May 26 militant attack would face a court martial. Ugandan soldiers are stationed at the forward operating base as a peacekeeping force. Unverified images shared on jihadi media channels showed about a dozen Ugandan troops, with arms restrained behind their backs, being captured by the militants.

Persons: UPDF, Col Edward Nyororo, …, Yoweri Museveni, Oluka, Obbo, Shabaab, ” Organizations: CNN, African Union, Uganda People’s Defense Force, Twitter, European Union, United, Somali, US State Department Locations: Somalia, Uganda, Buulo Mareer, Mogadishu, State, United States

☆ Uganda says 54 soldiers killed by al Shabaab in Somalia
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-03 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

KAMPALA, June 4 (Reuters) - Uganda's President Yoweri Museveni said on Saturday that 54 Ugandan peacekeepers were killed in an attack last week by militant group al Shabaab on a military base in Somalia. Museveni said the Uganda People’s Defence Forces (UPDF) had since recaptured the base from the Islamist group. “Our soldiers demonstrated remarkable resilience and reorganized themselves, resulting in the recapture of the base by Tuesday,” the president said. Al Shabaab fighters had targeted the base early last Friday in Bulamarer, 130 km (80 miles) southwest of the capital Mogadishu. Al Shabaab, which has said it carried out suicide bomb attacks and killed 137 soldiers at the base, has been fighting since 2006 to replace Somalia's Western-backed government with its own rule based on a strict interpretation of Islamic law.

Persons: Yoweri Museveni, Museveni, “, ”, Al Shabaab, Kanjyik Ghosh, Elias Biryabarema, Cynthia Osterman, Daniel Wallis Organizations: Uganda People’s Defence Forces, Somalia's, Thomson Locations: KAMPALA, Shabaab, Somalia, Uganda, Bulamarer, Mogadishu, Al Shabaab, Bengaluru, Kampala

☆ Somalia says it will revert to direct vote for officials starting next year
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-28 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

MOGADISHU, May 28 (Reuters) - Somalia will start electing its president and other officials by direct vote next year, the government announced on Sunday, ending a system of indirect voting in the Horn of Africa country that has endured three decades of conflict and clan battles. "Starting next year, there will be a one person, one vote election held every five years," said a statement tweeted by Somalia's state media SONNA. "The Premier post will be abolished and replaced with a presidential system where the president and vice president are elected directly by the people on a single ticket." The decision was reached after a four-day meeting in the capital Mogadishu, chaired by President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud. Reporting by Feisal Omar and Abdiqani Hassani Writing by Elias Biryabarema Editing by Frances KerryOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ Uganda confirms casualties among country's soldiers in Somali attack
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-28 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

The assailants numbered about 800 and during the attack the Ugandan troops were forced to withdraw to a nearby base, about nine kilometres away, he said. Al Shabaab fighters targeted the base early on Friday in Bulamarer, 130 km (80 miles) southwest of the capital Mogadishu. Al Shabaab said in a statement at the time that it had carried out suicide bomb attacks and killed 137 soldiers at the base. Al Shabaab tends to give casualty figures in attacks that differ from those issued by the authorities. ATMIS has so far not said how many troops were killed or wounded in the attack.

Now, according to an internal U.N. estimate obtained by Reuters, 5 million additional people in Sudan will require emergency assistance, half of them children. Even before the latest crisis, U.N. humanitarian appeals for Africa faced a $17-billion funding gap this year, risking leaving millions without lifesaving assistance. Last year, it spent a third of its overseas aid budget housing refugees inside the UK, a British aid watchdog said in March. Sudan was hosting over 1 million refugees, mainly from South Sudan, Eritrea, Ethiopia and Syria, before the outbreak of fighting last month. Aid workers have been killed, food aid looted, and WFP says it's running out of stocks.

☆ Genetic study details complex ancestry of East Africa's Swahili people
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-29 | by ( Will Dunham | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

REUTERS/Radu Sigheti/File PhotoMarch 29 (Reuters) - A study of centuries-old DNA has deciphered the complex ancestry of coastal East Africa's Swahili people, revealing how a cosmopolitan and prosperous medieval civilization arose thanks in large part to women from Africa and men arriving from Persia. After around 1500 AD, the bulk of the Asian genetic contribution shifted to Arabian sources, the study showed. "However, in this case, because Bantu populations in East Africa often have more matrilineal tendencies, African women likely had more autonomy in choosing their partners for building a family. It may be, the researchers said, that the African women and their communities chose to form families with Persian princes or traders, reinforcing trade networks of African and Persian merchants. The evidence of Indian ancestry adds a surprising new layer to the history of the East African coast, Brielle added.

☆ 18 countries sent sharpshooters to a US military base in Germany to see who has the best sniper team in Europe
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-22 | by ( Stavros Atlamazoglou | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

The 2022 version of the European Best Sniper Team Competition was one of the largest ever. The European Best Sniper Team CompetitionEstonian troops in a replica of a downed UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter during the European Best Sniper Team Competition on August 6. An Italian sniper team in a replica of a downed helicopter during the European Best Sniper Team Competition on August 6. The winnersCompetitors in the "1917" event during the European Best Sniper Team Competition on August 6. Snipers and modern warfareA Finnish Army sniper team at the European Best Sniper Team Competition on August 7.

☆ Actor Tom Sizemore, known for tough-guy roles and scandal, dead at 61
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-04 | by ( Steve Gorman | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +5 min

March 3 (Reuters) - Actor Tom Sizemore, known as much for his struggles with drug addiction and run-ins with the law as for his tough-guy roles in such films as "Saving Private Ryan" and "Black Hawk Down," died on Friday at age 61, said his manager, Charles Lago. Sizemore's first major leading role came in the 1997 horror thriller "The Relic," again playing a police detective. On television, Sizemore won plaudits for his starring role as a police detective in the short-lived CBS television drama "Robbery Homicide Division." He was arrested again on suspicion of domestic abuse in 2016 and the following year pleaded no contest, the legal equivalent of guilty in California, and was sentenced to three year's probation. Sizemore chronicled his turbulent life in the 2013 memoir, "By Some Miracle I Made It Out of There."

☆ Three dead after African peacekeeping mission helicopter crashes in Somalia
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-26 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

MOGADISHU, Feb 26 (Reuters) - Three people died and eight others were injured when a helicopter operated by the African Union peacekeeping mission in Somalia crashed on Saturday in the country's Lower Shabelle region, the mission said in a statement on Sunday. In the statement the African Union Transition Mission in Somalia (ATMIS) said the helicopter, carrying eleven passengers including soldiers from Somalia military, was participating in training drills for casualty evacuation when the crash occurred. Eight injured officers have been evacuated to Mogadishu for urgent medical attention," ATMIS said in the statement. ATMIS is assisting Somalia's central government in its war against the Islamist al Shabaab insurgency. The al Qaeda-allied al Shabaab group has been fighting for more than a decade to topple Somalia's government and establish its own rule based on its own strict interpretation of Islamic sharia law.

☆ Al Qaeda's new leader Adel has $10 million bounty on his head
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-15 | by ( Michael Georgy | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +6 min

Zawahiri's death piled pressure on the group to choose a strategic leader who can carefully plan deadly operations and run a jihadi network, experts on al Qaeda say. The department’s Rewards for Justice programme is offering up to $10 million for information on Adel, whom it says is a member of "al Qaeda’s leadership council” and heads the organisation’s military committee. He and other Al Qaeda leaders were placed under house arrest in April 2003 by Iran, which released him and four others in exchange for an Iranian diplomat who was kidnapped in Yemen. OPERATIVE TO LEADERAdel, one of the few remaining al Qaeda old guard, has been close to the central command for decades, experts say. Adel gained more jihadi credentials after he joined other Arab militants fighting Soviet occupation troops in Afghanistan, where he eventually headed a training camp before becoming a senior figure in al Qaeda.

☆ At least five injured after blast at mayor's office in Mogadishu
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-22 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

[1/5] Somali policemen prepare to take their positions near the mayor's office following a blast in Mogadishu, Somalia January 22, 2023. REUTERS/Feisal OmarMOGADISHU, Jan 22 (Reuters) - At least five people were injured in a blast on Sunday at the gates of the mayor's office in Somalia's capital Mogadishu and gunfire continued to sound, a member of the ambulance service and a witness said. Abdikadir Abdirahman, director of Aamin Ambulance Services, told Reuters that ambulance staff had so far evacuated five injured people from the scene of the blast. "We were in the office and we were deafened by a blast, we ran out, gunfire followed," Farah Abdullahi, who works in the mayor's office, told Reuters. The mayor's office is located in the local government headquarters building in a well guarded area of Mogadishu.

☆ U.S. military says Somalia strike killed 30 al Shabaab fighters
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-21 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

WASHINGTON, Jan 21 (Reuters) - A U.S. military strike has killed approximately 30 Islamist al Shabaab militants near the central Somali town of Galcad, where Somalia's military was engaged in heavy fighting, U.S. Africa Command said in a statement. U.S. Africa Command, the military arm of the American government's presence on the continent, said no civilians were injured or killed in the strike. Al Shabaab fighters had stormed a Somali military base in Galcad on Friday and killed at least seven soldiers, according to the Somali government and the militant group. Al Shabaab has been fighting since 2006 to topple the country's central government and install its own rule, based on a strict interpretation of Islam. Friday's attack underscored the formidable threat that al Shabaab poses for Somalia's military, despite government successes against the al Qaeda-allied militants last year.

☆ Russia’s war in Ukraine sparked a historic food crisis. It’s not over
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-15 | by ( Julia Horowitz | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +7 min

“All the major causes of the food crisis are still with us — conflict, Covid, climate change, high fuel prices,” Cary Fowler, the US special envoy for global food security, told CNN. But high food prices mean that funding can’t go as far, and Russia’s war continues to generate volatility. “The Ukraine crisis has had this ongoing negative impact on world food prices and [added] even more volatility,” said Abby Maxman, CEO of Oxfam America. Russia “is not assisting in alleviating the food crisis in slowing down the grain inspections,” Fowler said. Oxfam’s Maxman, who traveled there in September, said disruptions to food supplies were obvious in markets.

☆ At least one killed in blasts targeting troops in central Somalia
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-14 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

MOGADISHU, Jan 14 (Reuters) - One person was killed and at least six others injured in a suicide car bombing at a checkpoint manned by Somali government troops in the central region of Hiran on Saturday, witnesses said, part of a twin suicide car attack. Federal government soldiers and allied clan militias launched a major offensive against al Shabaab last August. The group has retaliated with a series of attacks after they were driven out of some of the territories. "A suicide car bomb exploded at a government forces checkpoint near the bridge," said Seinab Abdullahi, a shopkeeper in Jalalaqsi, who counted one body and six injured victims. Reporting by Abdi Sheikh; Writing by Duncan Miriri; Editing by Christina Fincher and Mark PotterOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ From Ukraine to Yemen, UN seeks record $51.5 bln for 'shockingly high' aid needs
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-01 | by ( Emma Farge | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

The appeal represents a 25% increase on 2022 and is more than five times the amount sought a decade ago. "Humanitarian needs are shockingly high, as this year's extreme events are spilling into 2023," said U.N. Emergency Relief Coordinator Martin Griffiths, citing the war in Ukraine and drought in the Horn of Africa. But donor funding is already under strain with the multiple crises, forcing aid workers to make tough decisions on priorities. Unlike in other parts of the U.N. where fees depend on countries' economic size, humanitarian funding is voluntary and relies overwhelmingly on Western donations.

☆ Somalia: Gunfire heard inside besieged hotel, parliament session delayed
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-28 | by ( Story Reuters | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +2 min

Reuters —Gunfire was heard on Monday from inside a besieged hotel in the Somali capital that was attacked on the weekend, a nearby resident and a police officer said, while parliament said it had postponed a scheduled session. “There is still heavy gunfire inside the hotel, and we hear explosions from time to time … we are still in our houses since last night, when the siege started,” Ismail Haaji, who lives near the hotel, told Reuters. “The fighters who launched the attack are still fighting inside the hotel, and they are fighting with the forces of Haramcad and Gaashaan, and security forces are trying to rescue the people trapped inside the hotel,” the officer added. Government officials in Mogadishu frequently use the Villa Rosa hotel for meetings. Somalia’s parliament said it had postponed a scheduled session for both of its houses.

☆ Militants attack hotel used by officials in Somalia's capital
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-27 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

MOGADISHU, Nov 27 (Reuters) - Islamist militants attacked a hotel used by government officials in Somalia's capital Mogadishu on Sunday evening, police and witnesses said. Al Qaeda-linked al Shabaab, which controls large swathes of the country, claimed responsibility for the attack, saying in a statement that it was targeting the nearby presidential palace. Security forces were responding to an attack by al Shabaab on a hotel in the capital's Bondhere district, state broadcaster SNTV said on Twitter. The assailants stormed the Villa Rose hotel, which is close to the presidential palace, two police officers told Reuters. President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud, who was elected earlier this year, has been carrying out a military offensive against al Shabaab.

☆ Al-Shabaab terror attack targets Mogadishu hotel
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-27 | by ( Omar Nor | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +1 min

Mogadishu CNN —The al Qaeda linked terror group al-Shabaab has carried out a suicide attack and stormed a central Mogadishu hotel frequented by Somalia’s ministers and members of parliament, Somali police said Sunday. Al-Shabaab stormed the Villa Rose hotel near Somalia’s presidential palace following a suicide bombing at the gate at 8 p.m. local time (noon ET), according to police. Bishar Ahmed confirmed to CNN that a major attack occurred at the hotel, which lies in a heavily protected zone in downtown Mogadishu, where the state house, ministries and a high-security intelligence prison are also located. In May, US President Joe Biden decided to redeploy troops to Somalia in support of the local government and to counter al-Shabaab. The move reversed a decision by former President Donald Trump to withdraw all US troops from the country.

At least 100 people died when two car bombs tore through a busy Mogadishu intersection on Saturday, Somalia’s president said Sunday after visiting the site of the attack, the same place where the largest terrorist attack in the country’s history killed more than 500 people almost exactly five years ago. President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud said at least 300 people were hurt in Saturday’s twin bombings, which he blamed on the al Qaeda-linked al-Shabaab group that has been trying to overthrow Somalia’s U.S.-backed government for more than a decade and a half. He said the number of victims was likely to increase as rescue workers continued to sift through the rubble. Mogadishu hospitals urged the public to donate blood to help treat the injured, and anxious relatives were frantically searching for their missing loved ones.

☆ Dozens killed in Somalia after explosions rock capital city
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-30 | by ( The Associated Press | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +3 min

One ambulance responding to the first attack was destroyed by the second blast, director Abdulkadir Adan added in a tweet. People observe a destroyed building and vehicles at the scene of two explosions in Mogadishu, Somalia, on Saturday Oct. 29, 2022. Farah Abdi Warsameh / AP“I was 100 meters away when the second blast occurred,” witness Abdirazak Hassan said. An Associated Press journalist at the scene said the second blast occurred in front of a busy restaurant during lunchtime. The attack occurred at Zobe junction, which was the scene of a huge al-Shabab truck bombing in 2017 that killed more than 500 people.

CNN —At least 100 people were killed after two car bombs exploded near Somalia’s education ministry in the capital Mogadishu on Saturday. There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack, but the Islamist group al-Shabaab has claimed other recent attacks. The two car bombs exploded near a busy intersection in the capital and near the Ministry of Education, according to an official with the president’s office. Mohamed Muhudin/Anadolu Agency/Getty ImagesMohamed Moalim, who owns a restaurant near the ministry, said his wife, Fardawsa Mohamed, a mother of six, tried to help victims of the blast. “We recognized the number plate of the tuk tuk, which was now rubble,” Aden said.

☆ Somalia president: at least 100 people killed in car bombs
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-30 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

[1/5] A general view shows the scene of an explosion near the education ministry building along K5 street in Mogadishu, Somalia October 29, 2022. REUTERS/Feisal OmarMOGADISHU, Oct 30 (Reuters) - At least 100 people were killed and 300 injured in two car bombs that exploded outside the education ministry in Somalia's capital Mogadishu on Saturday, the country's president said in a statement early on Sunday. No one immediately claimed responsibility for the attack, although the president blamed the Islamist group al Shabaab. The first of the explosions hit the education ministry near a busy junction in Mogadishu. The attack took place at the same place as Somalia's largest bombing, which killed more than 500, in the same month in 2017.

☆ Car bombs at Somali education ministry leave scores of casualties
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-29 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

MOGADISHU, Oct 29 (Reuters) - Two car bomb explosions at the education ministry in Somalia's capital Mogadishu killed or wounded scores of people on Saturday, police and the state news agency said. Authorities said the Islamist group al Shabaab carried out the attack, which they said had targeted the education ministry, an intersection and a school. "At 2:00 p.m. al-Shabaab terrorists carried out two explosions targeting civilians, including children, women and the elderly," police spokesman Sadiq Doodishe said. State news agency SONNA, said the blasts had caused "scores of civilian casualties including independent journalist Mohamed Isse Kona". [1/8] A view shows smoke rising following a car bomb explosion at Somalia's education ministry in Mogadishu, Somalia October 29, 2022 in this picture obtained from social media.

☆ Car bombs explode at Somalia's education ministry
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-29 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

MOGADISHU, Oct 29 (Reuters) - Two car bomb explosions at Somalia's education ministry rocked the capital Mogadishu on Saturday and blew out windows of nearby buildings, witnesses and the emergency services said. "Two car bombs targeted the education ministry building along K5 street," an inhabitant Ahmed Nur told Reuters. The first explosion hit the walls of the ministry while the second blast occurred as ambulances arrived and people gathered to help the victims, police captain Nur Farah told Reuters. A Reuters journalist near the blast site said the two explosions occurred within minutes of each other and smashed windows in the vicinity. Reporting by Abdi Sheikh; Writing by Elias Biryabarema; Editing by Andrew Cawthorne and Alison WilliamsOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

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