Puntland

July 5, 2024 | Caleb Weiss |

Jihadi archives: Islamic State’s eulogy of Sudanese jihadist Mohamad Makkawi Ibrahim

In May 2016, the Islamic State (IS) issued a eulogy for the infamous Sudanese jihadist Mohamad Makkawi Ibrahim through its weekly Al-Naba newsletter. The eulogy flew under the radar at the time but offers...

February 2, 2024 | Caleb Weiss |

Islamic State describes intense campaign against Shabaab in northern Somalia

In the latest issue of the Islamic State’s weekly Al-Naba newsletter, the global jihadist organization describes in detail a fierce campaign its so-called Somali Province waged against Shabaab, al-Qaeda’s...

July 29, 2023 | Caleb Weiss |

U.S. designates Islamic State financier in Somalia

On Thursday, the United States government sanctioned Abdiweli Mohamed Yusuf, the financial emir for the Islamic State’s Somali Province (or Islamic State-Somalia, ISS). In this capacity, Yusuf was responsible...

January 27, 2023 | Caleb Weiss, Ryan O’Farrell

Analysis: U.S. Military kills key Islamic State leader in Africa

The United States announced yesterday that it conducted a special operations forces (SOF) raid on a hideout of the Islamic State’s branch in Somalia. During the raid, the SOF troops killed Bilal al-Sudani,...

October 16, 2022 | Caleb Weiss |

US government sanctions several Shabaab officials and affiliated individuals

Today the United States government sanctioned a total of 14 individuals belonging to or associated with Shabaab, al Qaeda’s branch in East Africa. The U.S. Treasury Department sanctioned a list of nine...

September 12, 2022 | Caleb Weiss |

Contested area of northern Somalia witnesses rare suicide bombing

At least five people were killed yesterday in a suicide bombing at a crowded cafe in the village of Milxo in the Sanaag Region, a contested area laid claim to by both Somalia and Somaliland. No group has...

February 28, 2018 | Clifford D. May

Black lives in Africa

No nation in Africa is receiving more attention right now than Wakanda. And why not since, as Anthony Lane writes in The New Yorker, Wakanda is “a model of serenity,” that also is &ld...

February 21, 2018 | Thomas Joscelyn

Not So Fast

On January 19, the Pentagon released its new National Defense Strategy. The second paragraph of the 14-page declassified summary painted a dire picture. “Today, we are emerging from a perio...

February 17, 2017 | Daveed Gartenstein-Ross

Islamic State 2021

FDD Press

September 21, 2016 | Daveed Gartenstein-Ross

Limited Options

The Cipher Brief: What is your assessment of al Shabaab’s current capabilities?  Daveed Gartenstein-Ross: Al Shabaab’s current cap...

February 23, 2016 | Daveed Gartenstein-Ross |

Neither Remaining Nor Expanding: The Islamic State’s Global Expansion Struggles

Co-written with Nathaniel Barr Judging from the Islamic State’s propaganda, it would appear the group is rapidly overtaking the Muslim world. The Islamic State has declare...

May 31, 2012 | Emanuele Ottolenghi |

The Real ‘Spring’ is Not Arab

Buried beneath the news’ cycle of the Arab Spring is a much overlooked and potentially r...

January 25, 2012 | Bill Roggio The Long War Journal

Navy SEALs Free 2 Western Hostages in Somalia

US Navy SEALs from SEAL Team Six conducted a successful nighttime raid in Somalia to free an American woman and a Danish man being held by kidnappers in Somalia....

July 27, 2011 | Clifford D. May

In the Pirates’ Lair

Do Somalia’s buccaneers have legitimate grievances?

June 15, 2011 | World Defense Review

Around the Troubled Horn

Even by the much-reduced expectations of the subregion, the news emanating from the geopolitically-sensitive, but ever-volatile Horn of Africa has not been at all good these last few weeks....

June 14, 2011 | World Defense Review

The War on Terrorism in Africa: Assessment and Prospects

The end of one year and the beginning of another is a good time both to take stock of where we have been and to look ahead at the paths we are likely to take and the battles which we will have to...

June 14, 2011 | World Defense Review

Somalia Still Sinking as Eritrea Entertains Enemies

September has not been a good month in the sometime Somali capital of Mogadishu, even by the relative standards of a failed state that has not had an effective central government in the sixteen y...

March 3, 2011 |

The Pirates of Somalia

Not long after achieving independence, the United States faced its first foreign threat: pirates off the coast of Africa seizing American merchant ships. As Michael Oren recounts in...

February 24, 2011 | World Defense Review

Somali Piracy Hits America: Some Questions in Need of Answers

The murder earlier this week by their captors of four United States citizens aboard the SV Quest, a yacht hijacked last Friday off the coast of Oman, brought home to America the increasing toll o...

February 1, 2011 | J. Peter Pham World Defense Review

Somalia in Need of New Approach Two Decades after State Collapse

Last week marked the twentieth anniversary of the night when Mohamed Siyad Barre, president of the last entity that could plausibly be described as the government of Somalia, fled Mogadishu in hi...