So last night as I fell into a humid and troubled sleep, I was awoken by a gunshot nearby. Having gotten up and seeing nothing amiss I went back to my vain attempt to sleep. The shot fired killed one... I have just ignored it all through today and yet it feels as if he is added to my list. Had I not been here, he would have been home with his family... Not enough scotch on hand to blunt this one

By MALKHADIR M. MUHUMED NAIROBI, Kenya - The pirates who hijacked an arms-laden Ukrainian tanker off Somalia issued an ultimatum Friday and threatened to destroy the ship if no ransom is paid, a spokesman for the bandits said. The MV Faina is surrounded by U.S. warships, and a Russian frigate is heading toward the scene, raising the stakes for a possible commando-style raid on the ship. Pirates...

Короткий зміст серії: Кенія, природно, знову заперечила, що танки прямували до Південного Судану - і по-своєму розшифрувала абревіатуру GOSS. Ще щодо абревіатури GOSS: " Україна єдина із держав СНД...яким кінцевий користувач - Кенія, і вони його всім покажуть. Чекаємо і сподіваємося (без балди). Про що взагалі мова: Танки, Кенія і майбутній (колишній минулий) конфлікт у Судані (розклади від Бі-Бі-Сі)

I'm heading off to Somalia next week to do a mini gender analysis, not unlike the gender analysis we conducted in Aceh earlier this year. We're hoping to find out what roles women, men, girls and boys play in rearing livestock. Who takes the animals to pasture or to get watered? Who milks the camels and takes the milk to the market? Who owns and sells the animals? So today, we met to discuss the...

...policy of the USA to not give in to terrorist demands, even when they kidnap Americans.The recent history of terrorist atrocities has included a new element of terror. The Waters off the African coast of Somalia has become the home of the 21st Century pirates. In the past few years Somalia war lords have successfully pirated a dozen vessels and received 300 million dollars in ransom.The vessels are being...

What Nobody Wants To Know About Somalia And Why; And What That Means Friday, October 03, 2008 A huge war crime -- a massive crime against humanity -- is going on right now in Somalia, courtesy of (but only indirectly traceable to) the Bush administration and Washington's bipartisan power elite. But, aside from Chris Floyd and a few other internet madmen, nobody knows -- or even wants to know...

So here I am back in Nairobi after a three week stint in Somalia - well Bossaso to be exact. In the time I was there we attempted to do a food distribution - too little to too many. Always a sure fire way of getting people injured and killed. In one day 3 weapons related incidents, the final one involving three shots fired from a handgun at point blank range. Three misfires - ok so who says behaving...

That hijacked(?) Iranian ship, Gryphon Air, the CIA and the "Long War" The web site carrying a story on the "hijacked" Iranian ship, the Long War Journal is mobbed up with the Weekly Standard, the National...Judith Miller. One of the company's that support LWJ, is Gryphon Airlines, which has a number of "former" military and intelligence types on its board and flies into Iraq and the ME. --MORE--

Did you hear about the Somalians? (Do you even know where Somalia is?) All those Somalian pirates? (Did you even know about the recent spike in piracy?) The Somalians who hijacked the Deyanat? ("The MV Iran Deyanat is owned and operated by the Islamic Republic of Iran Shipping Lines - a state-owned company run by the Iranian military") These Iranians declared their cargo as 42,500 tons...

...contract with us. Or sacking staff for awarding contracts to family members. Or confronting village chiefs for pilfering funds intended for villagers in need. But alas, it seems like moving to a Somalia mission is like jumping out of the pan and into the fire. Yes, it's official. Somalia is the world's most corrupt country . Hardly surprising though. And when I first started here, I was told...