Ismaïl Omar Guelleh has secured another presidential term in Djibouti after winning 97.8% of the vote, according to state media. This victory grants him a sixth term and extends his nearly three-decade leadership of the strategically positioned country. Following the announcement, he publicly acknowledged the outcome on social media by sharing a message declaring his “re-election.” The election outcome was largely anticipated, given the limited competition and the prevailing political environment. Guelleh’s only challenger, Mohamed Samatar, represents a minor party without parliamentary…
A remote military base in western Ethiopia has emerged as a central node in the rapidly expanding geography of Sudan’s war, according to an investigation by the Yale School of Public Health’s Humanitarian Research Lab (HRL). Drawing on months of satellite imagery and open-source analysis, the Yale HRL report concludes “with high confidence” that activity consistent with military support to Sudan’s Rapid Support Forces (RSF) took place at an Ethiopian National Defense Force (ENDF) base in Asosa between late December 2025 and March 2026. The findings point to both logistical assistance and an…
Somalia on Friday welcomed the Turkish deep-sea drilling vessel Çağrı Bey at the Port of Mogadishu, marking the launch of the country’s first offshore oil drilling campaign. The vessel will begin exploration activities in offshore blocks located in parts of Galmudug State, according to Somalia’s Minister of Petroleum, Dahir Shire. The project also represents Türkiye’s first deep-water hydrocarbon exploration venture outside its own waters. Energy Minister Alparslan Bayraktar described the initiative as the beginning of a “new era” in Turkey’s oil exploration efforts. The planned drilling…
Kenya has found itself unexpectedly entangled in a widening geopolitical confrontation between Iran and the United Arab Emirates, after a public statement by a senior government official triggered a response from Tehran. The controversy began when Korir Sing’Oei, Kenya’s Principal Secretary for Foreign Affairs, said in a post on his official X account that he had held a phone conversation with UAE Assistant Minister for Foreign Affairs Abdulla Balalaa. In the post, Sing’Oei described the situation in the Gulf as serious and expressed concern over what he termed “unjustified attacks” he…
Forces aligned with the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) have arbitrarily detained, tortured, and otherwise abused civilians in areas under their control, often denying them due process, Human Rights Watch said. The rights group reported that the military and affiliated security units have carried out a “campaign of retaliation” against individuals accused of collaborating with the rival paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), which has itself been accused of committing widespread violence. Civilians have frequently been targeted based on ethnicity, perceived political affiliation, or involvement…
A month after violence tore through Abiemnhom, women survivors are left to care for displaced families, mourn the dead and navigate daily survival in uncertain conditions, with little assistance and no clear path to justice.…
From Yemen’s mountains to the Bab al-Mandeb strait, the Houthis have turned geography into strategy. As the Iran–Israel war widens, the Horn of Africa sits across the water from a conflict that could yet reach its shores..…
Styled as a project of modernisation, Addis Ababa’s ongoing transformation discloses a governmental logic in which development and infrastructure function as technologies that produce an ordered and controllable urban space, revealing not a city insulated from national crises but one that is intensely governed to confront their urban form.…
In war-torn Sudan, narcotics production is expanding as militias consolidate power. From desert routes to Red Sea ports, the drug trade is becoming part of the country’s wartime economy.…
U.S. crackdowns on Somali communities in Minneapolis echo a longer history of American intervention that helped drive displacement in the first place. From the Cold War to the war on terror, foreign meddling has fueled Somalia’s crises – now haunting those who fled them.…
The International community (IC) and African Union (AU) have spent a fortune and tremendous military resources in Somalia since 2006 to fight Al Shabaab. But their strategy has failed because it betrayed the interest of the Somali people. The making of the catastrophe Somalia’s civil war led to state collapse in 1991 and consequently death and despair became the norm. Alarmed by the calamity, a small UN military contingent intervened to ensure that food reached the victims. But cruel warlords thwarted the mission and subsequently precipitated famine. Thereafter, President Bush sent a huge…
How the post-2018 optimism in Ethiopia–Sudan relations gave way to renewed rivalry, driven by border disputes, Nile politics, Sudan’s civil war, and the competing influence of Gulf powers within a regional security complex where domestic instability rarely remains contained.…
The UK government claims Sudanese students are exploiting its generosity. The data suggests otherwise — revealing instead how statistics, stripped of context, can justify policies that punish those fleeing one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises.…
The US-Israeli war on Iran is the latest expression of a long imperial pattern—one shaped by opportunistic intervention, Western alignment, and the enduring racialized logic of empire.…
Somalia’s parliament finalized a controversial constitutional review process, but the process -- overshadowed by haste, a lack of consensus, and a disputed approval threshold -- now risks undermining the federal balance that has anchored the republic since 2012.…
As colonial structures weakened and new nations took shape, writers began telling their own life stories. These narratives bridged older communal traditions and the rise of a modern literary self.…
The politics of recognition in the Somali Horn reveals a deeper structural convergence, where opposing projects mirror each other in privileging symbolic validation over the material reconstruction necessary for genuine sovereignty.…
In his latest work, Theft, Nobel laureate Abdulrazak Gurnah turns a false accusation into a powerful story about identity and injustice. Set between Dar es Salaam and Zanzibar, the novel reveals how history shapes even the most ordinary lives.…
Scholar, poet, and critic, Ali Jimale Ahmed devoted his life to reexamining Somalis beyond colonial tropes, insisting that their crisis was as much semantic as it was institutional — rooted in how Somali society has been historically narrated by inherited frameworks of conception.…
Before African salsa filled dance floors around the world, a Malian musician helped invent its sound in Havana. The life of Boncana Maïga reveals how a Cold War-era journey changed the course of West African music.…
Between languages lies a fertile distance where meaning is remade. To cross it is not to abandon one voice, but to discover many.…
Senegal won the final of AFCON on the pitch – but months later CAF rewrote the ending. The decision has triggered a fierce debate about power, fairness, and the credibility of African football.…
African writers are moving beyond the defensive posture of postcolonial discourse. Their work negotiates identity, recognition, and literary authority within an increasingly global cultural economy.…
conflicts in HoA
Wars and political conflicts have shaped the Horn of Africa for decades. Explore our articles, news, and in-depth coverage of the region’s crises.
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The War in Sudan
Since fighting erupted in 2023, we have reported from the ground with breaking news, cultural stories, and coverage centered on Sudanese voices.
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Trump and Africa
U.S. policy toward Africa shifted sharply under Donald Trump. Explore our reporting on foreign policy, drone strikes, and discussions on immigration.
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Palestine in Africa
Afro-Palestinian solidarity shapes how Africa writes about Palestine. Explore our coverage and analysis of these cross-border connections.
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Professor Hakim Adi, the first professor of the history of African heritage in the UK, speaks to Geeska about Pan-Africanism, Africa’s relationship with China, and his belief in history as a tool for change.Professor Hakim Adi is a prominent British-Nigerian pan-African. …
Why have I dedicated myself to this arduous task, you may wonder? Well, as Fanon himself eloquently stated in his treatise, “Each generation must discover its mission, fulfill it or betray it, in relative opacity.” …
Stuart Reid’s new book, The Lumumba Plot, revisits Patrice Lumumba’s assassination, with strong insight into the role of the US in assassinating Lumumba and bringing down the government of one of Africa’s most iconic leaders. …
Leaders across the Horn of Africa have touted the innumerable benefits of building ports for their people, putting them at the heart of their projects to develop their regions. …
South Africa’s decision to take Israel to the ICJ on charges of genocide could cost his country, says former South African ambassador and anti-apartheid activist Ebrahim Rasool, but is an act of “enormous integrity” …
Somalia’s parliament has passed controversial constitutional amendments, triggering a new political crisis at a time of rapid regional and global change. Somalia’s former Foreign Minister, Mohamed Abdirizak, reflects on what this moment reveals about the country’s institutions, politics, and future.…
Troops and heavy weapons movements have been reported across northern Ethiopia as friction intensifies between Addis Ababa and Asmara, fueling growing fears that conflict could once again engulf Tigray. Geeska spoke with Michael DeAngelo about the developments in northern Ethiopia.…
A South Sudanese writer reflects on literary courage, advocacy in times of war, and the power of storytelling across Arab and African worlds.…
A conversation with the Sudanese novelist Amir Tag Elsir on writing as fate rather than choice, and the exhaustion that never quite becomes silence. From medicine to myth, Sudan to the world, he reflects on language, identity, and why the novel remains impossible to abandon.…
Somalia’s former national security advisor, Hussein Sheikh-Ali, speaks to Geeska about Houthi cooperation with Al-Shabaab.…