Donald Trump’s administration is urging governments worldwide to endorse a sweeping shift in international development policy, calling for “trade over aid” and a reduced reliance on traditional humanitarian assistance, according to a diplomatic cable reviewed by The Washington Post. The directive, signed by Secretary of State Marco Rubio, instructs U.S. embassies and consulates to formally lobby foreign governments to support a joint declaration ahead of its planned introduction at the United Nations later this month. The proposal frames the policy shift as part of a broader effort to embed…
The U.S. Department of the Treasury on Friday imposed fresh sanctions targeting a network accused of recruiting former Colombian soldiers to fight in Sudan’s civil war. The measures, announced by the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), designate five individuals and entities linked to efforts to deploy foreign fighters in support of the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), which has been battling the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) since April 2023. “It is unacceptable that the leaders of the Sudanese Armed Forces and the Rapid Support Forces have not committed to a…
Somalia’s President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud on Friday offered a candid assessment of Somalia’s experience with multilateralism, saying the country has both benefited from, and at times been “betrayed” by, the international system over the past three decades. Speaking at the Antalya Diplomacy Forum, Mohamud said international diplomacy has played a critical role in Somalia’s recovery, particularly through reconciliation and peacebuilding conferences held over the past 36 years. “Somalia has benefited from international diplomacy, in terms of conducting reconciliation and peacebuilding…
Israel has formally appointed Michael Lotem as its first ambassador to Somaliland. This appointment follows Israel’s decision in December 2025 to recognize Somaliland as an “independent and sovereign state.” The move marks the first time any country has both recognized Somaliland and established formal diplomatic representation there. Michael Lotem previously served as Israel’s ambassador to several countries, including Kenya, Azerbaijan, and Kazakhstan. His appointment reflects Israel’s intent to build sustained diplomatic relations with Somaliland. Somalia has condemned the move, calling…
The African Union has declared Djibouti’s April 10 presidential election to be broadly “credible,” peaceful, and “in line with democratic standards,” despite concerns over the credibility of the election. The assessment comes from the African Union Election Observation Mission (AUEOM), deployed under the leadership of Bernard Makuza, following authorization by Mahamoud Ali Youssouf. The AU mission, composed of 26 observers from 16 African countries, was tasked with evaluating the electoral process “objectively and impartially.” The mission said in its preliminary statement that it “welcomes…
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.…
A documentary lens on Ethiopia’s industrial push shows how jobs, land, and livelihoods are unevenly reshaped—benefiting investors while burdening workers and farmers.…
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.…
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” …
In Slow Poison: Idi Amin, Yoweri Museveni, and the Making of the Ugandan State, Mahmood Mamdani draws on archival research and lived experience to reassess two pivotal regimes, challenging dominant narratives about Idi Amin and examining the long rule of Yoweri Museveni.…
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.…