In Somalia, Al Shabab Is Stronger Now Than in Years
During the morning of April 1, 2018, a car drove up to an Ugandan army base in Bulamarer, Somalia, and blew up — the beginning of an Al Shabaab attack that, in combination with another suicide attack on a convoy of reinforcements, left at least 46 Ugandan soldiers dead.... Read more
The Enduring Horror of Al Shabab
On Oct. 14, 2017, a truck packed with 350 kilograms of explosives stopped at a checkpoint at a crowded crossroads in Somalia’s capital, Mogadishu, where it blew up. The driver, a former Somali soldier who switched sides to the terrorist group Al Shabab, killed more than 300 people in... Read more
A Lonely Elephant Cautiously Explores Post-War Somalia
Decades ago, tens of thousands of elephants roamed the shores of East Africa. A wave of poaching in the 1970s and ’80s wiped out many of the gentle creatures. And in 1991 Somalia collapsed into a bloody civil war that would grind on for 20 years. The elephants that... Read more
The Turkish Army Is Going to Somalia
Turkey is building its first base in Africa. Last week, Turkish Foreign Ministry official Emil Tekin confirmed that Ankara has broken ground on a new military installation in war ravaged Somalia. The Turkish army intends for the facility to be a training center for Somali troops. The fledgling Somali... Read more
After Setbacks at Home, Islamic State and Al Shabab Terrorize Abroad
Among the horror of the Paris attacks, a curious social media dynamic unfolded. Somehow, attention turned to a seven-month-old BBC article about a terror attack in Kenya, on a college campus in a town called Garissa. Perhaps assuming that the attack happened recently, readers widely recirculated the story, which received almost... Read more
Drones Don’t Work Alone — U.S. Patrol Planes and Fighters Teamed Up With Robots Over East Africa
In November 2002, the U.S. Navy command ship USS Mount Whitney dropped anchor off the coast of Djibouti in the Horn of Africa. American troops set up shop at Camp Lemonnier, a then-bare-bones French outpost in Djibouti that, 13 years later, is the U.S. military’s main base for launching... Read more
Al Shabab Refines Militant Tactics as Dozens of Peacekeepers Die
In the early morning hours of Sept. 1, 2015, an Al Shabab suicide bomber rammed his explosive-laden vehicle into an African Union peacekeeping fort near Janale, about 50 miles southwest of Mogadishu. The blast blew open a hole. Within moments, dozens of Al Shabab fighters poured through the gap and overran the... Read more

Peter Dörrie

Africa Correspondent

Journalist specialising in security politics on the African continent.