"...the more one relies on vice signaling as a style of action and communication, the less relevant and powerful the in-group’s moral compass is as a practical constraint on anyone’s behavior." latest for @bostonreview.bsky.social www.bostonreview.net/articles/emp...

If you want to zoom out on the Israel-Somaliland recognition story and what it augurs for the Horn of Africa region listen in. I joined colleagues at Al Jazeera's The Take to unpack it: www.youtube.com/watch?v=yAyx...

Israel has recognised Somaliland. I spoke with Somalia’s state minister for foreign affairs about the move. He is, unsurprisingly, unhappy and also warned that Israel may be planning to displacement Palestinians there. Somaliland says it isn't directed at anyone. www.aljazeera.com/news/2025/12...

For the past two months, I’ve been reporting on a US drone strike in northern Somalia. The strike killed a clan elder, whom the US described as an al-Shabaab weapons dealer. Local authorities and residents are challenging that account. For @dropsitenews.com www.dropsitenews.com/p/somalia-un...

The United States has dramatically intensified its military air campaign in Somalia, carrying out 111 strikes against armed groups, since President Donald Trump returned to office, according to the New America Foundation, which monitors the operations. www.aljazeera.com/news/2025/12...

"Arguably the most viral Somali social media moment since we found Nimco Happy or the 2020 Eid-ul-Fitr controversy..." africasacountry.com/2025/12/minn...

Trump has ended TPS for Ethiopian refugees in a move that could impact almost 5,000 people. Despite that decision to State Department still advises people not to travel there. www.aljazeera.com/news/2025/12...

This is not a good sign. Press Release: #Eritrea has withdrawn its Membership from IGAD shabait.com/2025/12/12/p...

I wrote this short essay for @africasacountry.bsky.social about Trump's attack on the Somali community and how smart their response to him has been.

I wrote about how members of the US Somali community responded to Trump’s racist remarks. Many are concerned, but others used the moment to satirically skewer the truisms Americans take for granted about their own history and about Palestine. www.aljazeera.com/news/2025/12...

Like in a lot of other places, we're striking to protect jobs here at Sheffield. Management have failed to negotiate with us in good faith, deliberately allowed this to escalate, and now want to lock us out of work for refusing to replace teaching that has been lost. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Algiers International Conference: Participants call for official acknowledgment of colonial crimes in Africa al24news.dz/en/algiers-i...

I wrote a piece on the 1969 coups in Sudan, Libya, and Somalia that reshaped the region and whose impacts are still visible t/day. I profile Barre, Nimeiri, and Gaddafi—the 'Class of 69'—exploring their ideological shifts and Nasser’s influence on them somaliarchive77.substack.com/p/northeast-...

The colleagues at @africasacountry.bsky.social have republished my article on the rise of the military class now steering politics in several African countries — with Madagascar the latest example — and what is driving this problem. africasacountry.com/2025/11/the-...

I joined Alex Thurston and @natkpowell.bsky.social for a conversation about how the end of the Cold War played out across the Sahel and Horn of Africa regions. We also looked at the characters from that era and the legacies of their rule today. Check it out 👇

@faisalahali.bsky.social, Alex Thurston, and I have done a podcast episode on the end of the Cold War in West and East Africa. The discussion is wide-ranging, covering a variety of experiences of the late 1980s/early 1990s, and their legacies. Have a listen! alexthurston.substack.com/cp/179131463

honestly DRC deserved to advance and hopefully they make the World Cup. but horrendous display from us. maybe we'll finally get reform at the NFF

Somalia’s immigration agency confirms a data breach and is investigating its scale/cause. Former 🇸🇴 telecoms minister Mohamed Ibrahim tells me authorities should’ve been more upfront instead of delaying. 🔗 aljazeera.com/news/2025/11...

"But a covert proxy war between Ethiopia, Eritrea and their allies has, in effect, already begun. It needs worryingly little to explode into the open." www.economist.com/middle-east-...

Samir Zitouni, 48, was left with critical injuries after he confronted the perpetrator, who wounded 10 people on the Doncaster to London King's Cross service on Saturday. www.newarab.com/news/algeria...

I spoke with three survivors of the RSF assault on el-Fasher. They described the city’s fall in harrowing detail and a desperate journey, carrying children and themselves wounded for days to reach safety in Tawila. www.aljazeera.com/news/2025/11...

An ad in today’s LA Times paid for by San Francisco-based pro-Israel organization “Facts and Logic About the Middle East” calls accusations of Israel committing genocide in Gaza “blood libel” and says “genocide liars deserve the label of ‘antisemite’”

Reading. www.nytimes.com/2025/11/01/w...

I interviewed Sami Hamdi's wife and his legal team. He's a British-Tunisian commentator and pro-Palestine activist that has been detained by US immigration authorities. He's been held by ICE for almost a week now www.aljazeera.com/news/2025/10...

The night of rebellion that changed France and Algeria forever: On the night of 31 October 1954, a series of attacks across colonial Algeria marked the start of the Algerian War – a bloody conflict that would last eight years. rfi.my/B5iV.BS

Mohammed Zakaria lost sleep tracking el-Fasher’s fall, then saw on social media that his family had been killed. www.aljazeera.com/news/2025/10...

Africa has seen a wave of coups over the last five years. I dug into why this pattern keeps repeating itself, even in countries with totally different circumstances. somaliarchive77.substack.com/p/africas-mi...

The Madagascar coup, though popularly backed, continues a long-running trend of the militarisation of African politics in recent years, beginning with the belt stretching from the Atlantic to the Red Sea, to Gabon to now Madagascar. apnews.com/article/mada...

"Thirty-two African nations spend more servicing external debt than funding healthcare, while 25 allocate more to debt than to education." www.aljazeera.com/news/2025/10...

"While Mengistu’s move may advance Soviet aims in Africa (see box), it also relieves the U.S. of the moral burden of backing yet another bloodthirsty dictatorship." Archives, May 1977 time.com/archive/6881...

Been looking into why Jimmy Carter didn’t frame the 1977 Somalia-Ethiopia war purely in Cold War terms & back Mogadishu when Moscow supported Ethiopia. His administration was signalling it no longer wanted a reactive, anti-Soviet policy in the Third World.

My latest blogpost looks at the almost simultaneous collapse of Chad, Sudan, Ethiopia and Somalia's governments at the end of the 1980s and early 1990s 89'-91: Northeast Africa's “collective near-death experience” somaliarchive77.substack.com/p/89-91-nort...

the 18,457 children on Gaza’s list of war dead www.theguardian.com/world/ng-int...

Attackers wore military uniform and rode vehicles imitating security forces to breach a high-security prison in the capital. www.aljazeera.com/news/2025/10...

"Numbers matter... Yet Michael Spagat of Royal Holloway University of London fears the continent is now on the cusp of a new 'data dark age'." My latest 👇 www.economist.com/middle-east-...

THREAD: this investigation took up over half my year, but it's here in @thecontinent.org: A Djiboutian drone strike in January was depicted as a army operation targeting rebels. It was actually a massacre of civilians. The bloodshed & coverup implicating Ethiopia, Djibouti, France & Turkiye. #OSINT

Who doesn't like a September dramatic sky? Blue sky, white cloud and early autumn wind over the Canal, London, York St.

In my latest piece, I spoke with Ethiopian doctors who went on strike – many of whom were arrested – over pay and working conditions earlier this year. The strikes were suspended to give the government a chance, but they could resume this month. www.aljazeera.com/features/202...

Hundreds of workers in Ghana have been protesting on the streets of the capital, demanding the cancellation of Africa's growing debt... rfi.my/BxzT.BS

Alex and I wanted to craft our research philosophy, and, according to Alex, Mila was the best person to lead the project. The final philosophy was more like a manifesto with 7 principles. You can read it at www.dair-institute.org/research-phi....

This week's east Africa newsletter is up. This week: we spoke to Afyare Elmi on the state of the nation (not good); the body of a Somali woman found in London; US likely holding its line on Somaliland; Minnesota Democrats drop Omar Fateh, & more. www.geeskanewsletter.com/p/somalias-t...

Africa Is Big, and It Wants the World’s Maps to Show It www.nytimes.com/2025/08/19/w...

"Figures from a classified Israeli military intelligence database indicate five out of six Palestinians killed by Israeli forces in Gaza have been civilians, an extreme rate of slaughter rarely matched in recent decades of warfare." www.theguardian.com/world/ng-int...

Autocrats without borders -- my latest in this week's @economist.com, with reporting from Uganda. www.economist.com/middle-east-...

What are we missing when we talk about the arbitrariness of African borders and their economic/political impacts: kenopalo.substack.com/p/on-africas...

I wrote about Siad Barre’s use of storytelling and symbolism to create a heroic myth around himself. This myth, I argue, ultimately trapped him and led to the country’s downfall, rather than the rescue he promised the Somali public. somaliarchive77.substack.com/p/siad-barre...

Earlier this week, I spoke to Jama Ali Jama, a former Somali colonel, who recounted the military coup he took part in back in 1969 and its far-reaching consequences. He recalled speaking to Barre on that night, but a decade later he jailed him. somaliarchive77.substack.com/p/jama-ali-j...

Kwame Nkrumah. The Second Emancipation. My column. www.nytimes.com/2025/08/19/o...

New article just published! Alex Haley claimed to be a 'dispassionate chronicler', but he edited, omitted and even plagiarised parts of The Autobiography of Malcolm X. I wrote about the complicated history of the book for @aeon.co: aeon.co/essays/how-a...

Migrants fleeing Ethiopia killed in shipwreck off Yemen coast rfi.my/BteY.BS