ACLU Lawsuit Charges in Amir Meshal v. Higgenbotham et al that an American Citizen Illegally Detained and Mistreated by U.S. Officials in Kenya and Ethiopia

The American Civil Liberties Union today filed a lawsuit on behalf of a New Jersey man who was illegally detained and mistreated by U.S. officials in Kenya and Ethiopia. After fleeing hostilities in Somalia in 2006, Amir Meshal was arrested, secretly imprisoned in inhumane conditions and subjected to harsh interrogations by U.S. officials over 30 [...]

Uganda, Burundi Condemn Threats By Al Shabaab

Uganda and Burundi have condemned threats made by Somalia’s Islamist Al Shabaab insurgents to strike Kampala and Bujumbura. The threats come in response to a firefight Thursday between peacekeepers and insurgents in the Somali capital, Mogadishu, killing at least 30 people.
The violence broke out after Islamists fired on Somali president’s plane as he headed to [...]

War crimes in Somalia

HRW has issued a 104-page report, “So Much to Fear: War Crimes and the Devastation of Somalia,” describes how the Somali Transitional Federal Government (TFG), the Ethiopian forces that intervened in Somalia to support it and insurgent forces have committed widespread and serious violations of the laws of war. Frequent violations include indiscriminate attacks, killings, [...]

U.S. Delays Somalia Aid, Fearing It Is Feeding Terrorists

American officials are concerned that United Nations contractors may be funneling American donations to the Shabab. United Nations officials say the American government has been withholding millions of dollars in aid shipments while a new set of rules is worked out to better police the distribution of aid the New York Times reports. Last year, [...]

U.S. covert operation kills alleged Al Qaeda terrorist in Somalia

On 14 September American Special Operations Forces from Africom killed Saleh Ali Saleh Nabhan, the alleged ringleader of an Al-Qaeda cell in Kenya, in Southern Somalia in a daylight raid carried out by four military helicopters. Commando’s firing .50 calibre machine guns quickly killed 6 militants. The helicopters landed, and the commandos inspected the wreckage [...]

Ethiopian Official Says Somali Militias Use Ethiopia to Attack Rebels

Ethiopia has confirmed that pro-government militias from neighboring Somalia are using Ethiopian territory as a base to launch attacks on rebel forces. An Ethiopian spokesman lashed out at Horn of Africa rival Eritrea for its role in the Somalia conflict.
Spokesman Bereket Simon says Ethiopia has not and will not stop its military support to Somalia’s [...]

John Brennan on the US counterterrorism policy

Remarks by John O. Brennan, Assistant to the President for Homeland Security and Counterterrorism, As Prepared for Delivery “A New Approach to Safeguarding Americans, 6 August 2009. Read the speech here.
Interview with Brennan here. Comments in the LA Times and the WSJ.

Eritrea Denies Arming Somali Militants

Eritrea brushed off a U.S. threat of sanctions Friday and said Washington is exacerbating the conflict in neighboring Somalia by providing the country’s government with tons of weapons and training. Eritrea has repeatedly denied it is supporting extremists in Somalia despite reports from U.N. investigators that document such arms shipments. But it has made clear [...]

Fears of al-Shabab infilitration in Kenya

Kenya is widely seen as a frontline state against the Islamist extremism smoldering across the Horn of Africa. Few expect the Shabab to make good on its threats to march en masse across the border. But the creeping fear, the one that keeps the security staffs at Western embassies awake at night, is that the [...]

U.N. Criticizes Beheadings in Somalia

Navi Pillay, the U.N. high commissioner for human rights, said Friday it is clear that grave violations of international human rights and humanitarian law – possibly amounting to war crimes – are being committed in Somalia, as fighting continues to ravage the capital Mogadishu, and the situation in South Central Somalia remains extremely precarious.
Witnesses have [...]