Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh’s recent statement that he ‘rejects power’ and will step down in the coming days has become somewhat of a common refrain in recent months.

The African Union has formally requested that the United Nations Security Council support a naval and air blockade of Somalia in the hope that such a move will cut off the flow of material aid to al-Shabab.

Al-Shabab’s latest attack displays a level of planning and execution that doesn’t bode well for the AU-backed transitional government in Mogadishu.

The al-Shabab attack on World Cup revelers in Uganda three weeks ago has served as a wake-up call for African Union leaders.

This weekend’s double bombing in Kampala bears all the hallmarks of an al-Shabab attack. It seems that Somalia’s homegrown strain of the Taliban has struck outside its own borders for the very first time.

Two major developments occurred in Somalia last week: a merger between the Ras Kamboni Brigade and al-Shabab, and al-Shabab’s long-suspected but hitherto unmade declaration of open alliance with Al Qaeda. Both do not bode well for the survival of the beleaguered Transitional Federal Government (TFG) in Mogadishu.

After decades of anarchy and disintegration, Somalia may once again soon be united, albeit under the banner of a terrorist government.

The United States has begun signalling a new strategy in the seven-year long Afghanistan War: peace talks with the Afghan Taliban.

The Straits of Malacca are losing their status as the world’s most dangerous waters in exchange for a stretch of water off one of the world’s most lawless failed states.  The past week has witnessed what has become the most dramatic naval standoff since the Cuban Missile Crisis. 

A recent Amnesty International report documenting war crimes by US-backed forces in Somalia and US air strikes that have killed more Somali civilians than alleged al-Qaeda operatives underscore Washington’s role in Somalia’s humanitarian crisis.