- Somali insurgents are searching for the wreckage of the United States drone aircraft shot down off the southern port of Kismayo earlier today, Sheikh Hassan Yacqub, spokesman for the al Shabaab rebels in Kismayo.
The al Shabaab official said the drone was reportedly hit by anti-aircraft guns and had gone into the Indian Ocean near the port of Kismayo, where the intensive search is being carried out by the groups.
Reports said the suspected US aircraft had been flying in Kismayo airspace for days before being shot down earlier today. The US forces launched a helicopter raid in southern Somalia last month.
Meanwhile, a group of heavily-armed al Shebab fighters raided the graveyard destroying the grave of a prominent Sufi cleric, Sheikh Ali Ibar in the central town of Galhareri earlier today.
Reports said the group raided the graveyard where Sheikh Ali Ibar, a respected Sufi cleric who died before the 1991 collapse of the central government, was buried and smashed his mausoleum with sledgehammers.
Sufism is dominant Somalia. Its leading clerics have voiced concern that hardline Islamist groups such as the al Shebaab were slowly eradicating it.
The al Shebaab controls much of central and southern Somalia since the middle of last year.
afrol News - It is called "financial inclusion", and it is a key government policy in Rwanda. The goal is that, by 2020, 90 percent of the population is to have and actively use bank accounts. And in only four years, financial inclusion has doubled in Rwanda.
afrol News - The UN's humanitarian agencies now warn about a devastating famine in Sudan and especially in South Sudan, where the situation is said to be "imploding". Relief officials are appealing to donors to urgently fund life-saving activities in the two countries.
afrol News - Fear is spreading all over West Africa after the health ministry in Guinea confirmed the first Ebola outbreak in this part of Africa. According to official numbers, at least 86 are infected and 59 are dead as a result of this very contagious disease.
afrol News - It is already a crime being homosexual in Ethiopia, but parliament is now making sure the anti-gay laws will be applied in practical life. No pardoning of gays will be allowed in future, but activist fear this only is a signal of further repression being prepared.
afrol News / Africa Renewal - Ethiopia's ambitious plan to build a US$ 4.2 billion dam in the Benishangul-Gumuz region, 40 km from its border with Sudan, is expected to provide 6,000 megawatts of electricity, enough for its population plus some excess it can sell to neighbouring countries.