It is the middle of the night in Eastleigh, a district of Nairobi mainly occupied by the Somali community. Jamal Sharif has not slept for 48 hours, steadily chewing miraa stems, which contain a mild amphetamine that dispels fatigue and makes people talkative. Sharif is terrified the rest of Kenya might "attack and kill" Somali residents, and even those of Somali extraction. Operation Linda Nchi (Protect the Nation), which Kenya launched in mid-October, is already yielding poisonous fruit. The army sent about 2,000 men across the border into Somalia to combat Islamist al-Shabaab insurgents who control much of the south.…

As Kenya's troops continue their incursion into southern Somalia in pursuit of Islamist militants, the BBC's Will Ross considers the motives behind the deployment. "I hope in three or four months, al-Shabab will have been removed from our region. Then one day I'll invite you to come to Kismayo to see what's going on," said Abdullahi Shafi, personal assistant to the governor of Somalia's Lower Juba region. He is hopeful that with Kenyan military help, he can soon return home to a new semi-autonomous region in southern Somalia. "We have been in hell for the last 20 years. We need…

30, September 2011 – The Security Council today called on the African Union (AU) to urgently increase the strength of its peacekeeping force in Somalia (AMISOM) to its mandated level of 12,000 to enable it to better carry out its United Nations-authorized mandate to stabilize the war-torn country. In a unanimously adopted resolution, the 15-member body extended AMISOM’s authorization until 31 October 2012, and called on Member States and regional and international organizations to provide additional equipment, technical aid and funding to the enlarged force, which since 2007 has been trying to bring peace to a country that has had…

Somaliland plans to send a delegation to Somalia's capital Mogadishu on Saturday, in what would mark the first Somaliland official visit there in more than 20 years. During a news conference Thursday, Somaliland Vice President Abdirahman Saylici downplayed any political significance, saying the trip is purely humanitarian. The delegation plans to deliver money to help Somali drought and famine victims. Somaliland's trade, industry and tourism minister, Abdirisaq Khalif, said Somaliland people have raised $700,000.   A second delegation from Somaliland will visit Kenya's massive Dadaab refugee complex near the Somali border on Saturday. Dadaab is home to more than 400,000…