Geneva, Switzerland — During the Interministerial Meeting on Polio in the Horn of Africa and Yemen, held on the sidelines of the Seventy-ninth World Health Assembly (WHA79) on 20 May 2026, countries reaffirmed their commitment to ending variant poliovirus transmission through stronger cross-border coordination, strengthened surveillance and synchronized action. The meeting was jointly convened by…
Somali piracy, which was on the decline since 2011, has surged again since late 2023, when Houthi rebels began attacking ships in the Gulf of Aden and Red Sea. The attacks forced international navies to instead tackle the Houthi threat, thus allowing armed groups on the Somali coast to take advantage of the security lapse.
Listen to this article | 5 mins Sanaa, Yemen — Until a few years ago, Mehdi Galeb Nasr earned a living pushing an ice cream cart through the streets of the Yemeni capital, Sanaa, moving between neighbourhoods to support his family. His livelihood became impossible after his eyesight began to deteriorate rapidly. “Selling ice cream was my…
Somalia has torn up all agreements with the United Arab Emirates after UAE-backed Yemeni separatist leader Aidarous al-Zubaidi illegally entered the Gulf Arab country through the breakaway region of Somaliland, a top minister has said. The move also comes in the wake of Israel’s world-first recognition of Somaliland, which has been roundly condemned across Africa…
Landing at Aden International Airport on a trip in late 2017, the plane had two flags visible as it moved along the tarmac. One was the flag of the former South Yemen, resurrected as a symbol of Yemen’s secessionist southern movement. The other was of the United Arab Emirates (UAE), the movement’s primary backer. Passing…
The Saudi-backed presidential council in Yemen has expelled the leader of a separatist group and charged him with treason after he failed to fly to Riyadh for talks. Six other members of the presidency accused Aidarous al-Zubaidi, head of the United Arab Emirates-backed Southern Transitional Council (STC), of “undermining the independence of the republic”. A…
Pro-government officials on Saturday say they have regained control of the Wadi Hadramawt region.
A Cameroonian-flagged ship caught fire Saturday in the Gulf of Aden off Yemen after possibly being struck by a projectile, officials said, with at least one mariner missing and another still likely aboard the burning tanker after the rest of the crew abandoned the vessel. U.K. and European Union officials offered differing opinions about what…
The International Organization for Migration (IOM) reported that 56 people had died and 132 were missing after a vessel carrying 200 migrants capsized off the coast of Shuqrah, in Yemen’s Abyan Governorate on 3 August. With many victims believed to be Ethiopian nationals, this heartbreaking incident highlights the “urgent need to address the dangers of…
At least 76 people were killed and dozens are missing after a boat carrying mostly Ethiopian migrants sank off Yemen, in the latest tragedy on the perilous sea route, officials told AFP Monday. Yemeni security officials said 76 bodies had been recovered and 32 people rescued from the shipwreck in the Gulf of Aden. The…
