- The UN refugee agency has expressed regret over the forced repatriation of 40 Somali asylum seekers to Mogadishu.
The UN High Commissioner for Refugees said Djibouti authorities forced the 40 asylum seekers on to a plane which flew them back to the Somali capital on Tuesday.
The migrants, including six women and seven children, were among thousands of people to have braved the 30-hour journey to Yemen with little food or water, often on rickety vessels.
The migrants were rescued aboard a Dutch naval ship, the Evertsen by anti-piracy patrols in the Red Sea headed to Yemen late last month.
Yemeni authorities refused to accept them and Djibouti first agreed to take them in then sent them back to Somalia, according to the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees
Somali’s radical Islamist rebels group, Al Shabab has waged attacks against government, seeking to overthrow the Horn of Africa’s fragile transitional government in the last two years.
The insurgency has created one of the world's worst humanitarian crises, with 1 million internally displaced people in the Horn of Africa country and others fleeing to Yemen, Ethiopia, Kenya and Djibouti.
Al-Shabaab has also been accused by the US of providing safe-haven and logistical support to al-Qaeda, the terrorist organisation led by Osama bin Laden.
There has not been a functioning central administration in Somalia, since the ouster of Mohamed Siad Barre, the former dictator, in 1991.
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.
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