At least 14 people were killed on Sunday as al Qaeda-inspired Shebab fighters attacked rival Hezb al-Islam militants and took control of a southern town some 100 kms north of Kismayo, a key port city.
The European Union plans to send troops to train Somali security forces in Uganda next year, as the interim government in Mogadishu struggles to maintain control over the embattled country.
Somali pirates have attacked a tanker loaded with weapons 1,000 nautical miles away from Mogadishu. The cargo was circumventing the UN arms embargo around Somalia.
Families of Spanish sailors held hostage off Somalia have appealed to their government to negotiate with the pirates, who have threatened to kill three crew members.
The Week in Africa looks at why there is a chance the Presidential election in Ivory Coast may be postponed once again, examines the humanitarian disaster in Mogadishu, and investigates diamond trafficking in Namibia.
Somali pirates holding a British couple kidnapped from their yacht are asking for a ransom of seven million dollars (4.7 million euros) to set them free, Britain's Foreign Office has said.
A European counter-piracy force have arrested seven suspected pirates after they opened fire on a French fishing vessel 650 km east of the Somalian coast. The attackers are being detained on board a German warship.
A fierce battle in Mogadishu on Thursday killed at least 21 civilians and wounded dozens after insurgents fired on the Somali president's plane, prompting an artillery response from peacekeepers.
Somalia's junior defence minister, Youssuf Mohamed Siad, has been released after being mistakenly arrested by Ugandan security forces overnight. The Somali government described the powerful Mogadishu warlord's arrest as a "humiliation".
