Mohammed Omer Mulla

Due to logistical problems and some cases of violence, polls have been put back to a later date in a few areas.  President Muhammadu Buhari, 76, is seeking a second term. His main challenger is former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar, 72.  The election had been due last week but was delayed at the last minute. Whoever wins in Africa's most populous nation and largest economy will have to address power shortages, corruption, security threats, and an economic slowdown. President Buhari cast his ballot in his hometown of Daura in the northern state of Katsina. Asked if he would congratulate his rival if he lost, he said: "I will congratulate myself ." Mr Abubakar, a business tycoon, also said he was confident of victory. The main results centre is expected to open at 18:00 local time (17:00 GMT) in the capital, Abuja, but final results are not expected until Monday at the earliest. Most of the country was calm but there were reports of attacks by the Boko...

A U.S. citizen has been charged with kidnapping and other counts for his alleged role in the abduction of a freelance journalist who was held hostage in Somalia for nearly three years. According to a criminal complaint unsealed Thursday in federal court in New York, Abdi Yusuf Hassan and others conspired to kidnap the journalist in January 2012 in Galkayo, Somalia. The journalist was held until September 2014. The complaint says that during the journalist's time in captivity, Hassan directed the journalist to call a family member and to make a video demanding $20 million in ransom. Hassan was born in Mogadishu and is a naturalized U.S. citizen. He was arrested in Minneapolis on Friday and will be returned to New York to face charges. Source: star TRIBUNE.

The Kenyan government has warned that it will not cede an inch of its soil in the disputed maritime border with Somalia even as it affirmed that it is committed to a peaceful resolution of the row. At a Cabinet meeting at in Nairobi Thursday, chaired by President Uhuru Kenyatta, the government made the decision that was communicated by Foreign Affairs Cabinet Secretary Dr Monica Juma in a press briefing. The Cabinet also discussed and agreed on a roadmap for resolving the maritime border dispute with Somalia and measures for safeguarding Kenya’s territorial integrity, marine resources including offshore oil and gas exploration acreage in the Indian Ocean. Addressing the media at a city hotel after a closed-door session with members of the Defence and Foreign Relations committee of the National Assembly Thursday afternoon over the dispute, Dr Juma said the response given by Somalia does not meet Kenya’s expectations. “We sent a protest to Somalia on February 9, when we got...

A Somali deputy Attorney-General was shot dead by two armed men while driving a car in the capital Mogadishu, officials said late Wednesday. Mr Hassan Gelle, a police officer, said two men armed with pistols shot Mohamed Mursal, a deputy AG in Sigale village in Mogadishu's Hodan District. "The armed men ordered [him] to get off his car and shot him dead. They sped off with the car, [which] police later found abandoned on the roadside," Mr Gelle said. Eyewitnesses reported the incident saying they heard gun shots at the scene of the murder. "Two armed men riding in a three-wheeled motorcycle stopped the car of the deputy Attorney-General and then opened fire on him and he died on the spot," Hawa Hussein, a local resident told  Xinhua . On September 27, 2017, armed men shot Mr Mursal's mother, Anab Hashi, who was the general secretary of National Women Organization, at the junction of Hamar Weyne District of Mogadishu. Al-Qaeda affiliated al...

The Somali government has moved to calm diplomatic tensions following Kenya's decision to recall its ambassador to Mogadishu and instruct Somalia's ambassador to leave Nairobi.  The two counties are embroiled in a dispute over their maritime territorial boundary. The area in question covers an estimated 100,000 square kilometers of the Indian Ocean; the land beneath it purportedly holds large deposits of oil and gas.  In a statement issued Sunday evening, the Somali government denied that it had auctioned off exploration rights at a Feb. 7 Somalia oil and gas conference in London, saying it had merely  presented maps and seismic surveys . The government also said it would not undertake any other unilateral action in the disputed territory until the case is decided by the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in The Hague. A court date has not yet been set. On Saturday, Kenya's foreign ministry recalled Ambassador Lucas Tumbo from Mogadishu to Nairobi. The m...

Abdulle Abdi Mohamud stands outside Somalia’s National Theater seven years after a suicide bomb attack shut it down, and dares to dream of an unlikely second act for the venue - and his own acting career. Around him, builders heave loads of cement, saw at wooden scaffolding and shift piles of rubble as they prepare to reopen the building in May, even as the Islamist insurgency rages on. Organizers say they will premiere a classic Somali musical extravaganza titled “Caretaker Government”, though precise details of the production are still under wraps. Mohamud is hoping to get a role - a comic role. “Although I grew old, I am still strong ... I will act better than before,” says the graying 59-year-old, who performed in the theater several times before its dramatic closure. “In the past, we have been fleeing and thinking about survival. Now people want entertainment and plays ... We have hope now.” Hope is a precious commodity in Somalia, which has been mired in tur...

Puntland’s president Said Abdullahi Deni has installed his long waited new cabinet ministers with only one female minister appeared in the line-up, presidential decree issued overnight said.  He made 18 ministries, composed with deputies and state ministries. Hassan Shire was appointed as minister of finance, Abdisamad Gallan as minister of security and DDR, where Amina Osman Hajji who is the only female minister around will lead at the ministry of women and family development. Situated on the Gulf of Aden near the entrance to the Red  Sea, Puntland became semi-autonomous in 1998 and had escaped the  worst of Somalia’s civil war. It’s now tackling an insurgency by  al-Shabaab, the al-Qaeda-linked group that’s inflicted mass  casualties in southern Somalia, as well as a breakaway faction  that swore allegiance to Islamic State and has been targeted by  U.S. airstrikes.