Somaliland

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,...

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...

September 19, 2021 | Aykan Erdemir, Varsha Koduvayur

Will Turkey’s Détente with Egypt and the Gulf Extend to the Horn of Africa?

Although the extent to which the climate of détente will affect the Horn is not certain, the relative calm offers a unique opportunity for Washington to claim leadership and prevent the kind of violent rivalry that proved disastrous in Syria and Libya.

June 8, 2012 | Bill Roggio The Long War Journal

7 Shabaab Leaders Added to Rewards for Justice Most Wanted List

The US State department has added seven senior leaders of Shabaab, al Qaeda's affiliate in Somalia, to the...

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...

February 9, 2012 | Bill Roggio, Thomas Joscelyn The Long War Journal

Shabaab Formally Joins al Qaeda

Shabaab and al Qaeda have announced their formal merger, according to a video disseminated online today and translated by the SITE Intelligence group. In the video, Mukhtar Abu al Zubayr (a.k.a....

July 11, 2011 | The Long War Journal

Senior Shabaab Commander Rumored to Have Been Killed in Recent Predator Strike

A senior Shabaab commander who fought in Afghanistan and has close ties with al Qaeda is reported to have been killed in the Predator airstrike that took place in southern Somalia late last month...

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...

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...

January 10, 2011 | The National Interest

A New Chapter for Africa

On Sunday, Southern Sudanese in their millions flocked to some three thousand polling stations set up not only in Sudan, but around the world to the accommodate the far-flung diaspora, to cast th...

December 20, 2010 | American Foreign Policy Interests

Review: Somalia, the New Barbary? Piracy and Islam in the Horn of Africa

Since the tattered remnants of what was the country's last central government fled the capital aboard a column of their last functioning tanks in January 1991, Somalia has been such a striki...

October 18, 2010 | World Defense Review

Somalia’s New Prime Minister: Not Quite What the Doctor Ordered

Just when it seems things can get no worse for Somalia's dubiously legitimate, utterly ineffective, and wholly self-serving "Transitional Federal Government" (TFG), the embattled clique pull...

October 7, 2010 |

Should the U.S. Help Break Up Somalia?

741752702.jpgLast month, the United States announced a new policy toward Somalia. In a September 24 press briefing in New York City, Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs Johnnie Carso...

September 30, 2010 | World Defense Review

A Subtle, But Significant, Shift in U.S. Somali Policy Opens the Door to Realism

Last Friday, speaking in New York to reporters one day after attending a major meeting on Somalia chaired by United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon at the margins of the 65th session the Un...

September 11, 2010 | The Long War Journal

Is ‘Constructive Disengagement’ the Solution in Somalia?

On Thursday, Joshua Foust published an article at PBS's Need to Know that, though avoiding the term "constructive disengagement," mirrors the arguments advanced by Bronwyn Bruton's repo...

September 7, 2010 | Journal of International Peace Operations

Beyond the Water’s Edge: Learning from the Somali Piracy Challenge

While military force combined with greater vigilance on the part of the commercial shipping and fishing industries can reduce the threat posed by pirates, achieving maritime security requires a l...

June 16, 2010 | Max M. Kampelman The Long War Journal

Hizbul Islam faction in southern Somalia defects to Shabaab

An important Hizbul Islam faction in southern Somalia has broken away from t...