WASHINGTON - Witnesses in Somalia’s capital say heavy exchanges of mortar fire have killed at least 29 people and wounded 60.
Mogadishu residents say the fighting began late Sunday when Islamist insurgents shelled two African Union peacekeeping bases, drawing return fire from the troops.
Some mortars landed in residential areas, killing at least 10 civilians, including a […]

WASHINGTON - Senior U.S. officials have disclosed that Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice will pay a historic visit to Libya next month.
The disclosure Tuesday came just weeks after the U.S. and Libya signed an agreement to compensate American victims of Libyan-backed terrorist attacks during the 1980s.
Rice has said she looks forward to visiting Libya now […]

WASHINGTON - A relief agency warns that failed harvests and high food prices have pushed the Horn of Africa to the “tipping point.” ActionAid says millions face hunger and destitution in Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia, Eritrea and Djibouti; it says if nothing is done, the situation could “easily become catastrophic.”

Roger Yates, head of emergencies for ActionAid, […]

WASHINGTON - Witnesses in Somalia’s capital say a roadside bomb explosion has killed at least 20 people, mostly women.
Sunday’s early morning blast ripped through a group of female street cleaners.
Witnesses counted 15 bodies at the scene, while five other people died after being taken to Mogadishu’s Medina Hospital.  More than 40 others were injured.
No one […]

WASHINGTON - The International Criminal Court’s, ICC,  prosecutor has filed charges of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes against Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir.
 
Luis Moreno-Ocampo Monday accused Mr. Bashir of masterminding a campaign of murder, rape and forced deportation against the Fur, Masalit and Zaghawa tribes in Sudan’s Darfur region.
Moreno-Ocampo asked a three-judge panel at […]

NEW YORK - UN humanitarian officials say the security situation in Somalia deteriorated dramatically over the past week. They say civilians, humanitarian workers and civil society groups have been targeted in various parts of the country.
For example, 40 civilians, mainly women and children, were reported killed in Mogadishu. Most were caught in crossfire or died […]

SOUTHERN ETHIOPIA - The international community is scrambling to meet Ethiopia’s latest request for emergency food aid. The Ethiopian government this month more than doubled its estimate of the number of people needing assistance to 4.6 million, and said 75,000 children are on the edge of starvation. 
The head of Ethiopia’s disaster preparedness agency, Simon Mechale […]

NEW YORK - The United Nations and Ethiopia’s government are renewing their appeal for emergency food aid in the face of a rapidly developing child malnutrition and hunger crisis. Official estimates of the number of people in dire need have doubled over the past few months.
The statistics are grim. They show 4.5 million Ethiopians need […]

KHARTOUM - Sudan’s President has told a U.N. Security Council delegation that his country will not cooperate with the International Criminal Court, which has accused his government of being involved in crimes in Darfur. The president met with the visiting delegation late Thursday in Khartoum, after the ambassadors returned from a brief visit to the […]

SHASHEMENE, ETHIOPIA - Humanitarian agencies are rushing emergency aid to drought-stricken central Ethiopia, where a sudden deterioration in food supplies has led to surge of child mortality. At least 23 children have died at hospitals and emergency feeding centers during the past three weeks, and authorities say countless others have died at home for lack […]

WASHINGTON - An upsurge of elephant poaching in the Democratic Republic of Congo has resulted in the killing of 14 elephants in the past two weeks by militias, the military, and local villagers.  Four were felled by an ex-Rwandan Hutu FDLR militia, formerly known as Interahamwe.  Three elephants were murdered by the local Mai-Mai militia […]

NAIROBI - Wildlife conservationists in Kenya say that a toxic agricultural pesticide, increasingly used by nomadic people to poison animals threatening their herds, is decimating the country’s diverse wildlife population and possibly affecting human health. The conservationists are urging the Kenyan government to stop the sale and use of the chemical before it destroys the […]

WASHINGTON - Ethiopia says it has broken off diplomatic relations with Qatar, accusing the Gulf state of supporting armed opposition groups in the Horn of Africa.In a statement Monday, Ethiopia’s government charged that Qatar is a source of instability in the region.
It alleged that Qatar supports armed opposition groups within Ethiopia as well as Islamic […]

DAKAR - Chad’s President Idriss Deby has imposed a state of emergency in his country, following a failed rebel attack on the capital earlier this month. Activists say he is taking advantage of the situation to tighten his grip on power. Concerns also remain over opposition leaders who were detained during the unrest. 
In a speech […]

WASHINGTON - While much attention is being focused on Kenya’s political turmoil, the situation in neighboring Somalia has gotten worse in recent weeks. The violence continues on a daily basis and more people are being displaced.
Dawn Blalock is a spokesperson for OCHA-Somalia, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. From Nairobi, she spoke […]

JOHANNESBURG - The World Food Program has begun delivering relief supplies by air to communities affected by widespread flooding in Mozambique.
The World Food Program says it has begun delivering food and other supplies such as tents, plastic sheets, and mosquito netting to areas in Mozambique cut off by flooding. About 76,000 people have been temporarily […]

GODE - Ethiopia says it has detained some American and European citizens on suspicion of terrorist activities in the restive Southeastern region known as the Ogaden.
The leader of Ethiopia’s Somali region, also known as the Ogaden, told visiting international journalists that his government is holding an unspecified number of American and European passport holders.
Regional President […]

GENEVA - The International Committee of the Red Cross says the humanitarian situation in Somalia continues to worsen. It says a year of relentless conflict and several natural disasters have taken a heavy toll on the population. A Red Cross Official tells the situation is particularly desperate in the capital Mogadishu, which has been the […]

LISBON - The summit of more than 70 African and European Union nations has opened in Portugal with an acknowledgment that conflicts, human rights violations and poverty continue to pose challenges. Portuguese Prime Minister Jose Socrates opened the summit on Saturday, calling it a meeting of equals in a community of nations that shares a […]

ADDIS ABABA - The United States says it is more than doubling humanitarian aid to Ethiopia’s troubled Ogaden region. The announcement was made Saturday following talks beween top U.S. foreign aid officials and Ethiopia’s prime minister on the importance of stability in the Horn of Africa region. The meeting came days before a deadline in […]

WASHINGTON - Rising violence in and around Somalia’s capital Mogadishu has forced thousands to flee the city for makeshift accommodations and camps along roads and towns outside the capital.  Somali-born professor of geography at the University of Minnesota, Abdi Samatar, says the disruption and displacement of thousands of people can be attributed to a complex […]

WASHINGTON - An advisory this week from the Brussels-based International Crisis Group is alerting world bodies and governments to stop Ethiopia and Eritrea from sliding back into a protracted border war.  Although both sides agreed in Algiers in 2000 to halt their boundary  dispute, which flared up in 1998, and abide by rulings of an […]

NAIROBI - The prime minister of Somalia’s beleaguered interim government has resigned, following intense international pressure for the leader to step down after three controversial years in office. But it is far from certain whether the resignation of Ali Mohamed Gedi will help the government unify or cause a further split along clan lines.
Speaking to […]

ADDIS ABABA - The U.S. Peace Corps is returning to Ethiopia to resume work that was interrupted by war in 1998. The Peace Corps program in Ethiopia has changed considerably since it first opened more than 40 years ago, but its mission remains the same.
Stephen Johnson was among the first American Peace Corps volunteers in […]

GENEVA - The World Health Organization says more than three-quarters of a million people in 19 countries, most in Africa, will receive life-saving anti-tuberculosis drugs over the next year and a half. It says UNITAID, an international funding agency, will donate nearly $27 million to the initiative.
The project is seen as an important stopgap measure. […]