Kasmaal  Independent Somali news and analysis website .

  Hassan Ali Kheyre, 49, has been appointed as Somalia’s prime minister. PHOTO | AFP Sources in Mogadishu say that while the president was obliged to appoint a Hawiye as the prime minister as per the 4.5 power-sharing formula, the lobbying and the pressure from both Abgal and the Habargidir forced him to choose someone […]

More than 6.2 million people in need of urgent humanitarian aid, including nearly three million who are going hungry. There are worries that the drought is exacerbating the country’s on-going humanitarian crisis [Karel Prinsloo/UNICEF] Somalia’s new leader has declared a national disaster for a prolonged drought that has forced about half of the country’s population […]

Russia’s adversaries in the U.S. Congress are preparing an “economic blockade” against Russia, by pushing a bill that would prevent President Trump from easing sanctions against Russia, Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said in a statement Tuesday. “They are going out of their way to trample out any hope of improving our relations,” Ryabkov said, […]

US President Donald Trump is expected to retreat from his campaign promise to rip up a nuclear deal signed by Iran and the P5+1 group of countries, including the US, the UK, France, Russia, and China plus Germany in 2015, says an analyst. “Despite President Trump’s campaign promises in which he called the Iran nuclear […]

Salimata was always told she should be proud to come from a family of wife beaters. “You’re the daughter of a woman whose husband broke her hands. Your grandmother’s legs were fractured by her husband. You must be loved,” Salimata said, citing her mother’s words. The 19-year-old woman from Mauritania’s Soninké ethnic group, married to […]

TEHRAN – The Iranian navy wrapped the last phase of a weeks-long naval drill on Tuesday, launching an advanced torpedo dubbed “Valfajr” following successful test-firing of a marine cruise missile the day before. Footage put out by the navy forces showed the torpedo, fired from a submarine, blowing up a relict ship in Iran’s territorial waters […]

  MOGADISHU, Somalia (AP) — Somalia’s new president declared a national disaster Tuesday for a drought that threatens millions of people and is creating fears of a full-blown famine. The statement from the office of President Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed said he has appealed for help from the international community and Somalia’s diaspora of 2 million. […]

Last year Soma Oil and Gas, a London based energy company, searching for hydrocarbon deposits off the coast of Somalia, announced that it had completed a seismic survey to ascertain the potential for recoverable oil and gas deposits. Although further details have yet to be released, chief executive Rob Sheppard announced that the results were […]

Police outside the Fussilet mosque, now banned in Berlin. Photo: DPA. A Berlin mosque attended by the young Tunisian who attacked a Christmas market in December has shut its doors and been banned, as police on Tuesday launched a major raid against the capital’s Islamist scene. Berlin authorities have banned the Fussilet mosque, which Anis […]

E-mail Nineveh (IraqiNews.com) The number of Islamic State militants killed since the launch of Iraqi forces offensives to retake western Mosul has surpassed 900, the police service said as the army prepares to invade a strategic IS stronghold. Federal Police chief, Lt. Gen. Shaker Jawdat, said in statements Tuesday that 929 Islamic State members were […]