Tag: africa

US Forces Leave A Major Airfield In Somalia After More Than A Decade

The U.S. military pulled all of its troops from a major air base in Somalia last month, after using the Baledogle Military Airfield for more than a decade as part of its counterterrorism mission in the country.

Troops left the airfield, located only a few dozen miles from the capital of Mogadishu, but will remain in the country. Horn Observer first reported the exit, citing multiple people familiar with the base. A military official familiar with the matter confirmed to Task & Purpose that the troops left the base for other parts of Somalia. The official said that U.S. forces might return to Baledogle in the future.

A spokesperson for U.S. Africa Command did not confirm reports of troops leaving, but said in a statement that the “U.S. military is an agile, mobile force. U.S. Africa Command repositions its forces to optimize for counterterror operations. In the interest of maintaining operational security, we do not discuss details of ongoing operations.”

It is not clear how many troops were assigned to the airfield before they were relocated, although the United States has kept dozens there in the past, supporting operations around the region.

The airfield is roughly 60 miles southwest of Mogadishu and has been a focal point of the ongoing Somali civil war.

In 2009, the militant group al-Shabaab captured Baledogle, using it as a training ground for its fighters for three years before African Union forces pushed them out. U.S. troops began operating at Baledogle in 2012, expanding their presence in the following years. Alongside counterterrorism missions, American troops trained Somali commandos.

On Sept. 30, 2019, al-Shabaab forces attacked the airfield using a combination of vehicle-borne improvised explosive devices and small arms. American and Somali troops at the base engaged the militants for an hour, eventually driving them back.

Despite some major shifts in U.S. operations on the African continent – including wrapping up combat missions against Islamic State militants in Nigeria and moving MQ-9 drones from Africa to Latin America – the military has continued its ongoing campaign against militants in Somalia. In October, American forces launched four separate airstrikes on al-Shabaab fighters in the country, per AFRICOM. Those are part of the expanded strike campaign since the start of the second Trump administration. Earlier this year the U.S. began a multi-million dollar upgrade project on an air base in Kenya that the American military uses for operations in the Horn of Africa.

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Cult Leader Gets 200 Years For Starvation Deaths Of 191 People, Nearly All Of Them Children

A Kenyan judge sentenced cult leader Paul Mackenzie to 200 years in prison on Friday over the Shakahola massacre, in which 191 people, 190 of them children, were starved to death.

Justice Diana Kavedza of the High Court in Mombasa imposed 100 years for the murders by starvation and a further 100 years for eight counts of murder by direct homicide involving child victims, The Star reported. Sentences within each set run concurrently, but the two sets run one after the other, which brings the total to 200 years.

Prosecutors had asked for the death penalty. The judge declined, saying it would “foreclose the possibility of disengagement and rehabilitation.” According to Kenyans.co.ke, she also noted that a convict who stays alive might disclose where the missing children’s remains are.

The court found Mackenzie, who led Good News International Ministries, bore primary responsibility as the overall leader of the Shakahola settlement. She said he ordered followers to fast to death, targeted children first and commanded violence against those who resisted or tried to escape. Witnesses testified that he told followers they would enter heaven through “punches and kicks.”

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Ugandan serial cannibal butchered, ate 38 people over 15-year reign of terror, general claims

Soldiers in Uganda caught an alleged serial killer cannibal who is accused of killing and eating 38 people over his savage 15-year spree, authorities said.

Mujurizi Moses is the “worst serial killer and cannibal in Uganda’s history” who devoured body parts of dozens of victims victims between 2010 and 2025, the country’s defense chief General Muhoozi Kainerugaba alleged on Monday.

The machete-wielding maniac is accused of slaughtering a pastor and his family, a witchdoctor, eight of his own relatives, and an elderly woman hacked to death in front of her two grandchildren, according to the Daily Monitor, a Ugandan outlet.

Mujurizi — who police believe was also working as a contract killer — would allegedly break through the walls of family homes, butcher everyone inside, and eat their body parts, the outlet said.

He also allegedly lured women into romantic relationships before slaughtering them, according to local reports.

“We will try him in public, and definitely execute him,” Muhoozi wrote on X.

Mujurizi may have killed even more people.

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Somaliland Accuses Ilhan Omar Of Leaking Classified Congressional Info To Somalia

Rep. Ilhan Omar’s (D-Minn.) father participated in genocide in Somaliland, and Omar herself has connections to top Somali thugs, so unsurprisingly there is a natural antipathy between Omar and Somaliland. The latest (resurrected) accusation from the breakaway African republic against Omar is that she leaked classified information to Somali leaders.

Ali Hassan Mohamed, former Somaliland minister of information, originally posted his accusation against Omar in 2024, but the @RepOfSomaliland account, which Somaliland’s Foreign Ministry has said is not an official government channel, is highlighting the accusation again to emphasize why Omar is a threat to American security.

On Sunday, the @RepOfSomaliland account (which Somaliland’s Foreign Ministry has said is not an official government channel), wrote of Omar, “She served on that same [House Foreign Affairs] committee and pressed Somalian leaders to act against Somaliland before relations between the Republic of Somaliland and the United States grows stronger. Months later on 6 February 2023, the Las Anod conflict erupted. Hundreds were killed and thousands displaced in a move that sought to destabilize Somaliland – but failed. This is how a foreign agent operates.”

Omar, whose real last name is Nur Said Elmi like her murderous father, is in America just to exploit our systems for her own benefit while still helping out the Islamic dictators back home. Somaliland is pro-America, but Somalia definitely isn’t.

By the way, the U.S. federal investigation into Omar’s immigration fraud includes not only the evidence that she married her brother, but also the total lack of record for her father’s naturalization as a citizen. Omar asserted that she had become a United States citizen through her father while she was still a minor, although she likely tampered with her birth year and he apparently lied about his citizenship status. Given all this, it is entirely possible that we have had a noncitizen Somali warlord’s daughter sitting in Congress all these years. No wonder she said that she would represent Somalia’s interests in Congress.

Omar is not just a liar and a criminal; she is a foreign asset embedded in our government. It’s time she is out of Congress and deported back to the country she claims to love so much.

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Deported migrant who ’60 Minutes’ painted as sympathetic family man claimed he was gay on asylum application

Sunday’s “60 Minutes” featured the story of a deported Malian national who was painted as a loving husband and father despite insisting he was homosexual on his asylum application.

The CBS News segment focused on Moussa Diawara and his family, speaking to his wife, 16-year-old son and 12-year-old daughter. But the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) says Diawara, who arrived in the United States in 2001, is actually an example of widespread fraud throughout the immigration system.

“The ‘60 Minutes’ sob story tonight highlighted an illegal alien and his wife and two children. One problem. The illegal alien claimed he was a HOMOSEXUAL in order to try and dodge deportation to Mali,” ICE posted on X.

Fox News exclusively obtained Diawara’s 2009 asylum application in which he declared that he needed to remain in America because he was a gay man who could be killed if sent back to his native country.

“My asylum application is based upon ground of well founded past persecution and an undisputable fear of life threatening to my person if I were to return to my country Mali. In fact I had experienced extreme punishment and persecution based on the ground of my sexual orientation,” Diawara wrote in his asylum application.

“Since I came to the USA I had the possibilities to express my feelings to men without any embarrassment no reserve. Indeed, my tribal group and community as a whole had reported my sexual orientation to my family back home because such behavior is unwelcome in my society,” he continued. “My life is hence worth threatened if I have to go back to my country because I could be executed either by the Islamic group or the community.”

Diawara also wrote in the application that he was “banished” from attending Malian activities because he’s “a homosexual,” who has received threats.

“These are the reasons why I applied for asylum in the USA to seek protection from the US government,” Diawara wrote.

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The Congo as a Site of Capital Accumulation: Erik Prince and the Privatization of War

A lot of news has circulated across various global media platforms following reports that militias affiliated with Erik Prince—the U.S. billionaire and founder of the infamous military contractor Blackwater, which has a track record of abuses and killings in several Global South countries—suffered significant field losses in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo. This followed an ambush that resulted in the death and injury of at least 20 people, including Tim Kennedy, a famous UFC athlete and former US Army Special Forces soldier.

Erik Prince is a U.S. businessman and former US Navy SEAL who founded Blackwater in 1997, transforming it into one of the world’s most notorious military mercenary companies. He capitalized on the U.S. military’s growing reliance on private military and security firms to provide paid combat and security services. Educated at Hillsdale College, a conservative religious institution, he later served in the US Navy SEALs. His career illustrates the intersection of private capitalist interests and U.S. military expansion, where wars and military interventions become profit-making ventures. After selling Blackwater in 2010, Prince continued his operations through other companies and networks, including Frontier Services Group, which expanded into providing logistical and security services for commercial and mining projects in Africa. In recent years, he branched out through Vectus Global, whose activities in the DRC expanded from collecting mineral resource revenues to providing operational support to the Congolese army.

Under President Felix Tshisekedi, a documented attempt to enlist foreign military contractors (mercenaries) dates back to 2023. At the time, the Rwanda-backed M23 militia was making field advances in North Kivu province, and the government was looking for ways to bolster its military capabilities and secure mining areas in the east. In this context, a plan was revived to bring in about 2,500 military contractors from Colombia, Mexico, and Argentina to halt the rebel advance and secure mineral-rich regions. Preparations included establishing barracks in Mubambiro, near Sake and adjacent to a Congo Protection training camp, to host the first batch in late July 2023. Containers of equipment arrived at the site that same month. Erik Prince spearheaded the negotiations to deploy these foreign contractors, part of a plan heavily promoted by Kahumbu Bula Mandungu, known as “Kao,” an advisor to President Tshisekedi, amid reports linking the scheme to arrangements between Kinshasa and Abu Dhabi. Ultimately, the project stalled, and the Latin American contractors never arrived in the DRC.

Prince returned to the Congolese scene through a seemingly different avenue in late 2024, striking an agreement with the Congolese government to improve public revenue collection from the mining sector and combat mineral smuggling in copper- and cobalt-rich areas. The government signed a five-year deal with Prince through a network of commercial shell entities. In June 2025, Quantum Global Consulting, a UAE-based firm linked to Prince, registered a subsidiary in the DRC, Quantum Global Consulting Africa, to act as its legal representative. This subsidiary then registered Vectus Global as a local legal entity. The contract with the Congolese Ministry of Finance included a financial mandate to increase government revenues from extractive industries while curbing smuggling, corruption, and tax evasion. However, it also contained a secret military component: advising the Congolese Armed Forces, providing aerial capabilities, and recruiting foreign military personnel. The contract was valued at approximately $700 million over five years.

The initial plan involved dispatching about 100 advisors and technical experts to monitor mining operations and revenues, starting with major mines before gradually expanding. The goal was to improve the oversight of production and exports and ensure compliance with the Congolese mining code. The priority was the Katanga region, particularly around the city of Kolwezi, the hub of the copper and cobalt industry. This area was far from the main combat zones where the M23 militia operated in North Kivu.

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Siad Barre, the Somali Dictator Ilhan Omar’s Father Served

Rep. Ilhan Omar describes her late father, Nur Omar Mohamed, as “an educator” in her memoir, according to Snopes. His 2020 Sahan Journal obituary describes a different career. He was a colonel in the Somali National Army who led a regiment in the 1977–1978 war with Ethiopia. His military career ended in 1991, when dictator Siad Barre’s regime collapsed.

A former army comrade told the paper that Nur joined the army after receiving a military education in Russia. The record of the regime he served explains why the distinction matters.

Barre seized power in a 1969 coup and ruled Somalia until 1991, governing it as a one-party state through the Somali Revolutionary Socialist Party. His ruling council aligned itself with the Soviet Union and denounced American policy in Africa as imperialist.

In 1977, Moscow backed Ethiopia in the Ogaden War. That November, Barre abrogated the Soviet friendship treaty, expelled all Soviet military and civilian advisers, and ended Soviet access to Somali military facilities. Nur led his regiment against Ethiopian forces supported by the Soviet Union and Cuba and remained in Barre’s army after the break with Moscow.

After a 1971 coup attempt, Barre executed members of the three leading clans, including the Majerteen. He made clan membership the organizing principle of Somali politics, according to an account drawing on State Department and Africa Watch reporting.

Barre claimed that Islam and socialism were compatible but did not tolerate religious opposition. When 23 shaykhs protested his 1975 family law, his security forces arrested them. Ten were executed for “acting on behalf of foreign powers,” according to a CIA review.

After Majerteen officers attempted a coup in April 1978, the regime punished the entire clan. Africa Watch documented extrajudicial executions, rape, and the killing of livestock as part of a scorched-earth policy intended to cut off civilian support for Majerteen rebels.

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Ilhan Omar’s Father Was a Colonel Loyal to Brutal Somali Dictator, Served as Senior Officer During Genocide of Isaaq People – Then ‘Misrepresented Himself as a Refugee’

We now know why Ilhan Omar and her family lied on immigration forms and changed their name when they entered the United States.

Between 1981 and 1991, the Somali military in which Colonel Nur Omar Mohamed, Ilhan Omar’s father served as a senior officer, executed a brutal and systematic campaign of genocide targeting the Isaaq people of the modern day Republic of Somaliland.

This was first reported back in July 2025 at the Somaliland Chronicle in July 2025 but received little attention.

The Somaliland Chronicle reported:

This dark chapter in Africa’s history, which was known as the Isaaq Genocide, was a merciless military campaign that resulted in the killing of over 200,000 Isaaq civilians. It also involved widespread forced displacement, scorched‑earth destruction of the second and third largest cities (Hargeisa and Burao), aerial bombardement of almost every other single city, town and village in Somaliland, and two decades of large‑scale red-terror style tactics against the civilian population of Somaliland…

…At the heart of this brutal military regime was Colonel Nur Omar Mohamed, Ilhan Omar’s father. His rank, authority, membership of the regime Daarood clan, and 10+ years of having climbed the hierarchy in Somalia military to the rank of Colonel, placed him squarely in the Somali military’s command hierarchy during and at the height of its Isaaq genocide campaign. Based on his position, loyalty to the regime, and his role in the military, it is virtually certain that he had intimate knowledge of and involvement in the planning, conception, direction and execution of the genocide.

Today the children of former Somali dictator Mohamed Siad Barre, whose brutal regime has been linked to the deaths of as many as 200,000 people, are reportedly living quiet suburban lives in Columbus, Ohio.

According to an investigation by the New York Post, Barre’s son, Ayanle Mohamed Siad, and daughter, Deka Mohamed Siad, settled in the United States after their father was overthrown in 1991. Ilhan Omar’s father was a colonel in his regime.

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You Can’t Make This Up: Supreme Court to Decide If Nigerian Terrorist Group’s Personal Chef Deserves U.S. Asylum and Taxpayer Benefits

Just when you think the radical open-border lobby and activist judges have pushed the legal system to its absolute limit, the United States Supreme Court is now being forced to step in to answer a question that should take precisely two seconds to answer:

Should a man who cooked thousands of meals to sustain members of an armed terrorist organization be granted legal asylum inside the United States?

The case, Blanche v. Ozurumba, involves Izuchukwu Ozurumba, who entered the United States illegally in July 2023 after spending roughly six months in 2022 as a cook for a group known as the “Unknown Gunmen.”

Court records show he prepared three meals a day for 15 to 17 of the group’s leaders at a remote camp outside Lagos, potentially thousands of meals over the period. U.S. officials determined the Unknown Gunmen qualify as a Tier III terrorist organization, The Center Square reported.

An immigration judge and the Board of Immigration Appeals found that this constituted “material support” for terrorism under the Immigration and Nationality Act, rendering him ineligible for asylum. He was later removed to Nigeria.

Ozurumba claims “he was lured” by a job tip, discovered the true nature of the camp, and was forced to continue working (including unpaid for part of the time) under threat before escaping during a grocery run and eventually fleeing to Venezuela and then the U.S. The Board of Immigration Appeals has held that the statute contains no duress exception for providing support to terrorist groups.

A divided panel of the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals reversed in September 2025. Judge Andrew Wynn (an Obama appointee) ruled that Ozurumba’s cooking, using food and supplies provided by the group itself, was not “material” because it did not provide anything the organization could “use or readily divert to plan or carry out its terrorist activities.” The majority described him as a “captive laborer.”

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Nigerian Man Accused of Running Fake Government Agency with Federal Budget

An enterprising Nigerian named Adeniyi Adeyemi is facing charges in the capital of Abuja for creating and running a fake government agency for over a year, complete with about $1 million in funding from the Nigerian federal government.

According to prosecutors, Adeyemi created an agency called the Presidential Foreign Investment Promotion Council (PFIPC) in 2024 and installed himself as director-general. He kept the phony agency going until he was arrested in October 2025.

Adeyemi was somehow able to secure office space for his fake agency inside the Federal Secretariat office complex in Abuja, along with a million dollars of funding. He got his hands on some presidential stationery and used it to request cooperation from other government agencies – and evidently some of his requests were taken seriously, although prosecutors have not yet indicted any other government officials for colluding with him.

Police investigators said they have traced a total of 34 bank accounts to Adeyemi, including nine of them that were opened in the name of various government agencies. According to prosecutors, Adeyemi even recruited staffers to work for his fake agency.

The ersatz Director-General of the Presidential Foreign Investment Promotion Council (PFIPC) also forged a realistic-looking letter of appointment from President Bola Tinubu, purportedly signed by presidential chief of staff Femi Gbajabiamila.

Gbajabiamila was the official who filed a petition to arrest Adeyemi, who faces eight counts of conspiracy, forgery, and impersonation alongside two accomplices known as “Femi” and “Anu,” who remain at large.

The Premium Times of Nigeria reported that Adeyemi appeared before the Federal High Court in Abuja for his arraignment on Wednesday “after several failed attempts to bring him before the court.”

Those previous attempts were unsuccessful “for various reasons,” including based on requests by his lawyers, his absence from court and the judge’s official engagement elsewhere. A judge swore out a bench warrant for Adeyemi’s arrest after he failed to appear for a July arraignment, and he was arrested within 12 hours, but it still took a surprisingly long time to get him into court.

Adeyemi said through his lawyers that he skipped out on his July arraignment because he “feared for his life” and had written an open letter to President Tinubu asking for protection. The Premium Times observed that he did not look particularly fearful when he finally made it to the courtroom on Wednesday, strolling cheerfully into chambers wearing a baseball cap and a white traditional robe known as a kaftan.

Adeyemi pleaded not guilty to all eight of the charges against him and was remanded to custody in the Kuje Correctional Center by the judge. He has claimed in media interviews that his PFIPC was a legitimate agency and he was working to bring foreign investment into Nigeria.

The case has become a hot topic among Nigerians, who have long complained about corruption and incompetence in their government, but are still shocked that a random con artist could create and operate a phony high-level government agency for months without being detected.

Some critics of the Tinubu government have postulated that Adeyami could only keep his scam running for so long if he was paying off legitimate government officials to evade oversight.

Adeyemi himself has claimed he paid Gbababiamila, the presidential chief of staff, a fee of 400 million Nigerian nairas (about $300,000) to help him forge his fake presidential appointment document. Adeyemi has asked Tinubu to establish an independent anti-corruption panel to investigate his case.

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