Armed men abducted a German nurse working for the International Committee of the Red Cross on Wednesday evening from a compound in Somalia's capital Mogadishu, the aid group said Thursday.
A Frankfurt court sentenced a Somali-born German national to two years and ten months in jail on Friday, for joining the Al-Qaeda-linked Shabaab group and fighting alongside the Islamists in his native country.
One year ago on Wednesday, Los Angeles native Michael Scott Moore was set free after being held hostage by Somali pirates for 977 days. The German-American journalist tells The Local how after his release Berlin became his sanctuary to recover from the trauma of captivity.
Information from security circles in Mogadishu suggests the suicide bomber who blew up a five-star hotel in the Somali capital on Sunday killing 15 people was a dual-national German from Bonn.
A German court has sentenced a Somali pirate chief to 12 years in jail for hijacking a ship off the Horn of Africa and tormenting its crew during an eight-month ordeal.
The first piracy trial in Germany for hundreds of years finished on Friday with jail sentences handed out to ten Somalis who were involved in hijacking the freighter Taipan off the Somali coast two years ago.
Germany could fly bombing missions into Somalia to destroy pirate bases, if a plan set to be discussed in cabinet on Wednesday is adopted. The idea has infuriated opposition parties who described it as senseless and dangerous.
Germans have increased aid donations to help East Africa after relief agencies complained the country wasn’t doing enough to stem famine in the impoverished region.
German ships braving the waters off Somalia will now be able to officially employ private security firms to fight off attacks by pirates, after the government admitted it could not provide the protection itself.
An anti-piracy protection vessel has fired on a hijacked German ship during a botched rescue attempt, panicking Somali pirates on board who shot dead one of the crew, the ship owner said Tuesday.
Somali pirates hijacked the tanker 'York' filled with liquid gas off the coast of Kenya on Saturday. The German captain was able to make contact with the Greek company that operates the ship 24 hours later.
US Marines rescued on Thursday a German-owned ship seized by pirates a day earlier, as part of multinational operations to stem piracy in the Gulf of Aden off Somalia, the US Fifth Fleet said.
More than 100 German mercenaries are on their way to Somalia to fight for a politician there who intends to overturn the internationally-accepted government, prompting warnings of a bloodbath.
The Somali pirates who recently captured a Hamburg freight ship are being extradited to Germany for what is expected to be the first trial of such pirates from the collapsed African nation on German soil.
The Dutch navy has freed a German cargo ship hijacked by pirates off the coast of Somalia and arrested 10 of the attackers, the Dutch defence ministry announced late on Monday.
The German military shot dead a suspected pirate off the coast of Somalia on Monday after a boat carrying five men failed to heed warning shots, the German military said.
The captain of the Hansa Stavenger, which was captured by Somali pirates and held for four months, may sue the shipping company for not trying hard enough to release the ship and its crew, according to a report in <i>Focus</i> magazine.
Defence Minister Franz Josef Jung intends to change the constitution to allow the army to deal with hostage situations, after the German ship held by Somalian pirates since April docked in Mombasa, Kenya.
