Former TFG fighters behind fresh wave of attacks, says official IN SUMMARY County boss says Garissa is one of several terrorist cells in Kenya and there are more in the refugee camps where police find it difficult to get crucial information on militants The Garissa County Commissioner Mohammed Maalim has attributed the series of terror attacks in the northeastern town to Kenyan- Somalis who deserted the Somali Transitional Federal Government forces in Somalia. Mr Maalim told the Nation in Garissa [...]

Waiting to strike the KDF? IN SUMMARY With contributions from the Somali diaspora drying up thanks to its growing unpopularity, al-Shabab knew, long before the KDF reached Kismayo, that it did not have the manpower or money to face a conventional army but this does not mean that they are out, writes James Verini Mogadishu is famous for its destroyed infrastructure. By contrast, Kismayo, home to about 180,000 people, is striking for its lack of infrastructure. Residents will tell you [...]

KDF breathe new life into Kismayu IN SUMMARY A port city that was for years deserted due to al-Shabaab terror is now teeming with smiling residents Incredibly, this small port city, a study in ruin in a country that is a parable of ruin, boasts two airports. There is the new airport, as it is known, laughably to all who touch down there, which lies 10 miles inland and consists of a couple of mostly tarmacked runways and the carcass [...]

Somali President in Uganda The Somali President Hassan Shiekh Mohamud is in Uganda to hold talks with his counterpart President Yoweri Museveni. The Somali leader arrived in Uganda from Kenya where he was visiting with a delegation of Somali government officials. This is the second time President Mohamud is visiting Uganda since he was elected this year. However, New Vision could not readily establish the issues to be discussed by the two Presidents. The Somali Shabelle Media Network reported that the Somali [...]

Kenya to send Somali refugees back home Kenya is set to work with Somalia in ensuring that refugees from the neighbouring country return to their homes. President Kibaki told reporters on Friday that “there is no dignity in living in refugee camps”, adding that he would like to see the thousands of Somalis hosted at Dadaab go back home. He spoke after hosting his Somali counterpart Hassan Sheikh Mohamoud. “Our two governments will work together to enable the hundreds of [...]

Writers from the Horn can no longer bear to be passive witnesses to conflict IN SUMMARY For decades, writers from the Horn of Africa have been seen as passive witnesses, who, despite experiencing the horrors of conflict, remain silent and immune to the destruction around them However, conflict and violence can became the fodder that feeds writers’ creativity A character in Somali novelist Nuruddin Farah’s novel, Links, remarks that “in civil wars, both those violated and the violators suffer from a [...]

Call to extend Amisom mandat IN SUMMARY Kenya and Somalia want troops to remain in the country longer to sustain the fragile government Kenya and Somalia have asked the UN Security Council to extend the mandate of African Union troops in the war-torn Horn of Africa country. The African Union Mission in Somalia (Amisom) should also be given more authority to sustain the fragile Mogadishu government in the road to stability, President Kibaki and his Somalia counterpart Hassan Mohamoud said [...]

One feared dead, scores injured in Eastleigh blast One person was feared dead and scores injured on Wednesday night following two explosions that went off near a mosque in Nairobi’s Eastleigh area. The 8 o’clock incident saw, among others, a young girl of about 16 years critically injured in the blast that occurred near Al-Amin Mosque along Eastleigh’s Ole Thoruba Road. The incident happened about 100 metres from St Polycarp church where a child was killed in September when an [...]

Foreigner arrested for smuggling six rifles and ammunition IN SUMMARY The Somali national, who was arrested in Mandera on Monday, had concealed the G-3 rifles in sacks stuffed with firewood Police confiscated six rifles and arrested a man who had smuggled them into the country from Somalia. The Somali national, who was arrested in Mandera on Monday, had concealed the G-3 rifles in sacks stuffed with firewood. He was using a donkey-drawn cart to transport them. A machinegun barrel and [...]

MP injured, two killed in Eastleigh blast Kamukunji MP Yusuf Hassan was last night injured in a grenade attack that killed two people in Eastleigh. The MP was said to have been holding a discussion with his constituents after evening prayers at Hidaya Mosque when a man hurled a grenade at them, injuring nine people. Mr Hassan suffered a fractured leg and was taken to the Aga Khan Hospital and the others to the Kenyatta National Hospital, six of them [...]