Opinion

The economic boom in Kenya’s major urban areas has not extended to the northern parts of the country, which remain neglected backwaters. Germany’s unification experience offers important lessons for addressing these disparities.   

   The plastic bag ban, intended to safeguard the environmental health of Somali cities, already appears to be stillborn policy. The government urgently needs to adopt a new approach that collaborates with communities instead of imposing top-down rules.  

Politicians and public figures in Somaliland have turned to name-calling and populist rhetoric. This diverts attention and energy away from the more serious discussions that need to take place about the country’s future. 

Somali-Australian academic, Najat Abdi, reflects on the genocide in Gaza and how we navigate grief as Israel’s US-backed destruction of the Strip appears to have no end in sight.   

As the Somali community in the US becomes more established, the formerly ironclad relationship between them and the Democrats is beginning to show signs of strain in some quarters. Trump has surprisingly been making inroads. 

The weakness of the Somali state has allowed it to become an arena in which the geopolitical contest between Ethiopia and Egypt is played out. Somali leaders urgently need to adopt a new approach to repair their fragmented country.

The African Union is failing to achieve the purposes for which it was established for several reasons. However, the dreams of pan-African unity and continental development still depend on it, making reform urgent. 

Somaliland’s leaders often tout the nation’s peace and stability in an otherwise volatile region. Yet beyond the rhetoric, corruption, economic inequality, and political decay are eroding its foundations. 

Domestic workers in the Gulf typically face a double bind: as a foreign worker, you are governed by kafala laws, while as a female, you are governed by the male guardianship system.