Axadle - Breaking news and analysis from Somalia, the Horn of Africa, and across Africa.

TRIPOLI — A rubber boat carrying 55 migrants from several African countries overturned off the coast of Libya after taking on water about six hours after leaving al-Zawiya, the U.N. migration agency said, in one of the deadliest incidents this year on the Libya‑Europe route. Only two women from Nigeria survived and received emergency medical care from the International Organization for Migration, the agency said. Survivors told IOM officials the overcrowded dinghy departed late at night and capsized north of Zuwara. One…

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer will chair a cabinet meeting after weathering fresh calls from within Labour to resign, as his top ministers moved quickly to close ranks and project stability at the heart of government. The routine session follows a day of turbulence set off when Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar urged Starmer to step down over the fallout from the Peter Mandelson controversy. Sarwar is the most senior Labour figure to demand the prime minister’s resignation, warning the “distraction” from Downing…

MOGADISHU — Somali Prime Minister Hamza Abdi Barre met Monday with a senior German delegation for talks on Somalia’s deepening humanitarian crisis, security cooperation and political reforms, as drought-driven displacement and hunger surge across the country. The delegation, led by Germany’s Minister of State for Economic Cooperation and Development, Niels Annen, and including Ambassador Sebastian Groth, discussed emergency assistance, stabilization and development priorities, according to Somali officials. The talks also…

Analysis: EU audit warning exposes risks at the heart of planned CAP overhaul The European Court of Auditors has fired an early warning shot over the European Commission’s plan to fold agricultural policy into a wider, performance-driven budget in the next Multiannual Financial Framework, saying the redesign could delay farm payments, heighten uncertainty and weaken the “common” in the Common Agricultural Policy. The critique goes to the core of how the EU intends to fund farming, rural development and cohesion from 2028 to…

CAIRO — Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi met Somali President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud in Cairo on Sunday, pledging deeper security cooperation and renewed economic ties while underscoring Egypt’s support for Somalia’s sovereignty amid regional frictions in the Horn of Africa and the Red Sea. Mohamud, on a two-day official visit, received full honors at the Ittihadiya Presidential Palace before the leaders held a closed-door session followed by expanded talks with their delegations, the Egyptian presidency said. In a…

King Charles voices ‘profound concern’ as police assess claims Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor shared UK trade files with Jeffrey Epstein London — King Charles has signaled “profound concern” over allegations about his brother Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor’s conduct and said he would “stand ready to support” police if approached, Buckingham Palace said Monday, as Thames Valley Police confirmed it is assessing claims the former prince shared confidential trade reports with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. The palace said the…

Opinion: Somalia Is Central to Red Sea Security — and the Arab World Can’t Afford to Overlook It Global markets don’t advertise their weak points; they reveal them when the world’s shipping arteries tighten, energy prices jump and supply chains falter. Few chokepoints matter more right now than the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden. And within that corridor, one actor remains consistently underestimated: Somalia. Somalia has long been reduced to a shorthand for fragility. That frame obscures a transition hiding in plain sight.…

In Cairo’s June 30 Stadium, under the bright floodlights and the pressure of a continent watching, Somali referee Omar Abdulkadir Artan took command of the CAF Champions League final between Egypt’s Pyramids FC and South Africa’s Mamelodi Sundowns. The match, which Sundowns edged 2–1, had all the urgency the occasion demands. Yet the deeper story was not the scoreline. It was the whistle in Artan’s hand — the first time a Somali official had been entrusted with African club football’s ultimate stage. For Somali sport,…

IOM: 53 dead or missing after migrant boat capsizes off Libya; two women survive Fifty-three migrants, including two babies, are dead or missing after a rubber boat carrying 55 people capsized off Libya’s northwest coast, the International Organization for Migration said. The boat departed from Zawiya on Thursday and overturned off nearby Zuwara on Friday, according to the IOM, citing accounts from the two survivors. Both are Nigerian women rescued by Libyan authorities during a search-and-rescue operation, the agency said.…

Egypt warns Israeli Red Sea access, North Western State of Somalia recognition pose major security threat CAIRO — Egypt has warned that any move by Israel to gain access to the Red Sea or to recognize North Western State of Somalia would constitute a grave threat to regional stability and to Egyptian national security, according to officials familiar with recent high-level discussions. The position was set during talks a day earlier between Somali President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud and Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi,…