Mapping Digital Media: Digital Media, Conflict and Diasporas in the Horn of Africa

Al Shabaab opened an account on social media site, Twitter, last week and has exchanged goading messages with Kenyan military spokesman Emmanuel Chirchir.

Al Shabaab tweeted that it published the scans because the Burundian authorities were unable to identify the soldiers. Burundian government spokespeople did not immediately comment.

Kenya, the region's biggest economy, has been plagued by a wave of low-level strikes since crossing the border.

Such were the fears for their safety - and so dangerous is Somalia - that the injunction set out two criteria that needed to be met before we could report the couple's release; first Paul and Rachel Chandler must have left Somalia, and second, they must be in the custody of Foreign Office officials.<br />
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The family, their lawyers, and observers in Somalia feared that the couple might be freed by their original captors, and then seized by others seeking further ransom for the Chandlers' release.<br />
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The BBC and other news organisations observed the injunction issued by the High Court.

So why don't we hear more about Somalia? One simple reason: it's just too dangerous. Nearly five years ago my BBC colleague Kate Peyton was shot dead outside her hotel in Mogadishu; there are very few journalists who dare to report from there. After all, how many people reported from Aghanistan before September 11, 2001?

The winners of a quiz organised by Somali Islamists have been given weapons and ammunition as prizes.

Reporters Without Borders is shocked that the two French government security advisers who were abducted in Mogadishu this morning had been posing as journalists. Gunmen kidnapped them from the Sahafi Hotel, located in the safest part of the capital. No group has so far claimed responsibility for their abduction.

He called on the Somali public to support the Mujahideen who are fighting against the "failed government" while warning the media to "report the truth."

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