Six Somalis went on trial in Paris Tuesday charged with taking the crew of sailing boat Le Ponant hostage in the Gulf of Aden in 2008. The six men were arrested in a French operation and face life in prison if convicted of kidnapping and theft.
World leaders are gathering in London to map out Somalia's future. After more than 20 years since the country's central government collapsed, war, terrorism, piracy and famine remain. The international community is trying to bolster Somalian efforts to rebuild the fragile nation. A set of ambitious goals were set in London, but it remains to be seen whether militant Islamist group Al-Shabaab will hamper efforts to forge a path to a more stable and secure Somalia.
World leaders from some 50 nations and organisations met in London Thursday, vowing to help Somalia tackle al Shabaab Islamist insurgents, pirates and grinding poverty. The country has had only a weak nominal government since 1991.
The new chief prosecutor at the world's top criminal court is a female attorney from Gambia. We take a closer look at Fatou Bensouda. Meanwhile in Burundi, more and more opposition members and journalists are arrested, sometimes just for holding a microphone. Finally, we take a look at the nightmare scenario of a Somali fisherman who was mistaken for a pirate and imprisoned for three years.
Five Somali nationals were sentenced by a French court on Wednesday to between four and eight years in jail on charges including hijacking and armed robbery in the 2008 kidnapping of a French couple in the Gulf of Aden.
After 10 months as hostages, over a dozen Algerians held captive by Somali pirates have been freed. We go to meet them as they are reunited with their families. Also, Morocco is heading towards parliamentary elections but disillusioned voters label them a sham and warn of a mass boycott.
Six Somali men appeared in a Paris court Tuesday in France's first prosecution of alleged Somali pirates. The men face life imprisonment over charges of hijacking, kidnapping and armed robbery of a French couple's yacht in 2008.
The entire crew of the Marshall Islands-flagged oil tanker Cape Bird has been freed after it was hijacked last Saturday by pirates off the Nigerian coast, the Russian firm that hired the sailors announced on Friday.
Italy's defence ministry said Tuesday that British and US anti-piracy forces freed an Italian vessel with 23 crew onboard, after it was hijacked by 11 pirates off the Somali coast on Monday.
