An explosion ripped through a building full of small shops in the downtown area of Kenyan capital Nairobi today, wounding an unknown number of people.

African Union troops seized a rebel stronghold near Mogadishu from al-Qa'ida-linked insurgents today, marking a major blow against the al Shabaab rebels who have used the town to stage sporadic attacks on the capital.

A radio station producer says that gunmen in Somalia have killed a Somali journalist, the sixth to be slain in the country this year.

A military court in Somalia's breakaway region of Somaliland has sentenced 17 people to death for attacking a military base over a land dispute one day earlier, an official today.

Gunmen detonated grenades outside a night club in the Kenyan coastal city of Mombasa yesterday, killing one person and wounding several others in the latest attack since Kenya sent troops into Somalia to crush Islamist militants.

The European Union's anti-piracy force attacked pirate bases along the Somali coast for the first time yesterday, using helicopters to destroy suspect boats.

A Somali pirate says an airstrike by the European Union naval force patrolling the Indian Ocean has destroyed speed boats, fuel deports and an arms store.

Islamist rebels armed with mortars and machine guns attacked African Union forces in Somalia's capital Mogadishu overnight, sparking a battle that killed at least nine people, officials and residents said today.

At least two Somali MPs and three civilians were killed yesterday in two separate attacks.

Germans who claimed to be catching butterflies in pre-war Kenya caught the attention of British officials who feared the Nazis were plotting to invade East Africa, previously secret files reveal.

National theatre blast, blamed on Islamic extremists, shatters hopes of recovery in Mogadishu

He gained a reputation as a ruthless operator who jailed and sometimes killed his opponents

UK diplomats are investigating reports that a British man has been arrested in Somalia on suspicion of links to the Islamist rebel group al Shabaab.

A British man was arrested in the Somali capital yesterday for suspected links to the Islamist rebel group al-Shabaab.