East Africa

Assessing al-Shabaab’s Mall Threat

By Joshua Meservey

Al-Shabaab, the terrorist organization that controls stretches of Somalia, made a splash February 21 when it released a video featuring a masked spokesman calling for attacks on malls in England, Canada, and the United States. This is the group that in 2013 attacked the Westgate Mall in Nairobi, Kenya with terrible result, giving its threat […]

Can al-Shabaab Strike the United States?

By Ashish Kumar Sen

Somali terror group has sympathizers, but no active sleeper cell in United States, says Atlantic Council’s Pham Al-Shabaab, the al Qaeda-linked militant group in Somalia, has sympathizers in the United States, but likely does not have the ability to strike targets in the West, despite its recent threat to do so, according to Atlantic Council […]

Anti-Terror Financing Rules Choke Somali Remittances

On February 6, 2015, one of the last Western banks willing to transfer money to Somalia on behalf of the country’s diaspora—transfers which represent up to 80 percent of all funds sent from the US to Somalia—ceased operations, cutting off one of the diaspora’s last options to support relatives and friends still in Somalia.

South Sudan Deal Buys Time for Warring Sides, Diplomats, Says Pham

By Ashish Kumar Sen

Atlantic Council analyst says track record of past ceasefires does not inspire confidence A new deal between South Sudanese President Salva Kiir and rebel commander Riek Machar to end the fighting that has devastated the world’s newest nation over the past year is likely just a delaying tactic that allows the two warring sides to […]

Ethiopia: Press Restrictions and the 2015 Elections

By Africa Center

Ethiopia, Africa’s second most populous country, will go to the polls in May. The election will be the country’s first since the death of longtime Prime Minister Meles Zenawi, and has brought into focus the state of independent media and citizens’ access to information in the East African country.