Strategic Thinking on East Africa

By MOHAMMED IBRAHIM and JEFFREY GETTLEMANJAN. 22, 2016 MOGADISHU, Somalia — At least 14 civilians were killed and dozens were wounded after Islamist militants struck a popular beachside restaurant Thursday night in Somalia’s capital that had become a symbol of the city’s struggling renaissance, officials said Friday. The militants attacked from several directions, and security forces killed at […]

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Abductions in Kenya View Photos In Mandera, a city on the northeast border with Somalia, ethnic Somalis are vanishing amid a crackdown on Islamist extremists. By Ariel Zirulnick January 8 at 12:01 AM MANDERA, Kenya — A growing number of Kenya’s ethnic Somalis have vanished or turned up dead after being detained amid a crackdown by security forces […]

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The U.S. Air Force recently “neutralized” 69 enemy combatants — and has taken meticulous steps to cover its tracks This piece originally appeared on TomDispatch. On October 7th, at an “undisclosed location” somewhere in “Southwest Asia,” men wearing different types of camouflage and dun-colored boots gathered before a black backdrop adorned with Arabic script. They were […]

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BY THOMAS JOSCELYN | tjoscelyn@gmail.com | Three jihadists in Somalia, including the one pictured here, announced their allegiance to Abu Bakr al Baghdadi in a video released online on Dec. 7. Separately, an American jihadist reportedly surrendered to authorities.An American jihadist who fought in the ranks of Shabaab, al Qaeda’s official branch in East Africa, has reportedly […]

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New York Times Photo The White House adviser Gayle Smith attending a meeting with Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr last year.Credit Manuel Balce Ceneta/Associated Press Getting back to business post-Thanksgiving, the Senate is scheduled to vote Monday evening on the stalled nomination of Gayle Smith to be administrator of the United States Agency for International […]

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From International Crisis Group Africa Briefing N°11417 Nov 2015 REUTERS/Goran Tomasevic OVERVIEW Devolved government in Kenya’s newly formed north-eastern counties, designed to address decades of political marginalisation and underdevelopment, has been undermined by dominant clans monopolising power and growing corruption. Violent clan competition and antipathy between elected county elites and the remaining national administrative structures […]

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From BBC By Tomi OladipoBBC Monitoring Africa security correspondent Image copyrightAP Image captionAl-Shabab has so far avoided large-scale defections of its members to IS Somalia’s militant Islamist movement al-Shabab is battling to keep the loyalty of its fighters, as the Islamic State (IS) group tries to gain a foothold in East Africa. IS achieved a […]

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By JOHN NGIRACHU Pope Francis on Wednesday asked Kenyan leaders to take care of the needs of the poor and protect the country’s abundant natural resources to benefit future generations. Speaking at State House, Nairobi, last evening, the head of the Catholic Church, also sent his blessings, saying in Kiswahili “Mungu aibariki Kenya! (God bless […]

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From the International Crisis Group Africa Briefing N°11417 Nov 2015 REUTERS/Goran Tomasevic OVERVIEW Devolved government in Kenya’s newly formed north-eastern counties, designed to address decades of political marginalisation and underdevelopment, has been undermined by dominant clans monopolising power and growing corruption. Violent clan competition and antipathy between elected county elites and the remaining national administrative […]

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Center for Policy Analysis and Research If one looks at the conditions that exist in the Horn of Africa today in terms of its political and security conditions, it is clear that it is asymmetrical. This is when Ethiopia and Kenya are compared to Somalia. Somalia has totally collapsed after the last wave of democratization […]

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