- Latest Popular Stories, Instablogs Community by Chris-m

Somali insurgents close in on Mogadishu

Chris — Wed, 20 May 2009 09:23:01 +0000

Islamist insurgents closed in on Somalia’s coastal capital after seizing another strategic town north of Mogadishu on Monday. Hardline al Shabaab rebels seized Jowhar on Sunday and witnesses said hundreds of gunmen from another insurgent...

Mugabe warns of attempted coup as Zimbabwe opposition claim victory in crucial election

Chris — Sun, 30 Mar 2008 20:19:29 +0000

Zimbabwe’s opposition said today it had won the most crucial election since independence, but President Robert Mugabe’s government warned premature victory claims would be seen as an attempted coup.

Tendai Biti, secretary general of the main MDC opposition party, told diplomats and observers overnight that early results showed it was victorious. “We have won this election,” he said.

Insurgents Briefly Capture Key Town in Show of Defiance

Chris — Thu, 27 Mar 2008 10:27:55 +0000

Islamist insurgents battling for control of Somalia briefly seized a strategic town Wednesday, the latest sign of how feeble the country’s internationally backed transitional government has become.

The takeover of Jowhar, about 55 miles north of Somalia’s capital, Mogadishu, was the most recent in a series of advances by a radical Islamist faction of a broader insurgency against the transitional government and the Ethiopian military that installed it more than a year ago.

In the past month, the faction — known as al-Shabab and recently designated a terrorist organization by the United States — has briefly asserted control of at least six towns in southern Somalia, a show of force underlining the fact that the Somali government has little control over the Horn of Africa nation.