Tristan McConnellOctober 29, 2012 06:11

KISMAYO, Somalia ― Kismayo’s southern entrance is flanked by pile after vast pile of charcoal, bagged and stacked in towering blocks on either side of the asphalt road. These shipments, stalled by a UN embargo, now threaten to undermine hopes of a lasting peace in Somalia.

Somalia's tenuous peace

Tristan McConnellOctober 29, 2012 06:15

Somalia's embattled port of Kismayo could fall back to Al Shabaab militants if UN doesn’t lift charcoal embargo soon.

16th Somali journalist killed this year

Jill LangloisOctober 25, 2012 15:57

The 25-year- old reporter for the London-based Universal TV was shot by assailants three times in the head around 9 pm Tuesday in the northern region of Somaliland.

Somali pirate attacks lowest since 2009

Daniel DeFraiaOctober 22, 2012 08:59

The number of Somali pirate attacks fell to its lowest point since 2009, said the International Maritime Bureau on Monday. Last year 233 attacks were reported. Just 70 attacks have been reported in 2012, according to the BBC.

Fighting Al Qaeda: Has Al Qaeda gained ground under Obama's watch?

Peter GellingOctober 22, 2012 06:28

The truth is while Obama has been tough on terrorism, in some cases dramatically expanding the hardline tactics of his predecessor — the use of drones, for instance — he has not exactly been successful.

Hassen Hussein October 13, 2012 08:59

Somalia’s fragile hope is linked to Ethiopia

Commentary: Ethiopian democratization is key to stabilizing Somalia

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A soldier of the Kenyan Contingent serving with the African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM) stands guard on a street in the centre of the southern Somali port city of Kismayo while a combat engineering team inspects the surrounding area following reports of a suspected improvised explosive device (IED) left behind by the Al-Qaeda-affiliated extremist group Al Shabaab. (STUART PRICE/AFP/Getty Images)

MINNEAPOLIS -- No sooner had Somalia's clan-appointed legislators elected a president, the first in more than 42 years in this Horn of Africa nation, than Kenyan troops dislodged the Islamist military group Al-Shabab from its last stronghold, the port town of Kismayo. As important a turnaround as this is, it hardly signals that two decades of anarchy have been overcome.

Saving Somalia: A matter of charcoal and UN bureaucracy

Somalia's tenuous peace

16th Somali journalist killed this year

Somali pirate attacks lowest since 2009

Fighting Al Qaeda: Has Al Qaeda gained ground under Obama's watch?

Somalia’s fragile hope is linked to Ethiopia

African Union, Somali forces take control of Kismayo, key port city and last Al Shabaab stronghold

Somalia: African Union troops to enter Kismayo after rebels flee

Somalia: Al Shabaab militants abandon Kismayo after African Union attack

Somalia: Troops storm Kismayo, the last Shabaab stronghold