The UN Food and Agriculture Organization warned that the Middle East and North Africa risk becoming uninhabitable in a few decades, with water reserves falling dramatically.
Somalis who captured an oil tanker later released it with no ransom paid, and said they had seized it to protest toxic waste dumping and over-fishing in their waters.
More than 40 Somali refugees were killed when an Apache helicopter fired on a boat in the Red Sea off war-torn Yemen, but the Saudi-led coalition denies responsibility.
At least 100 Somali refugees previously cleared for resettlement in the US are stranded in Kenya in the wake of President Trump's travel ban.
The International Court of Justice ruled that it has the authority to adjudicate a dispute between Kenya and Somalia over an oil-rich stretch of the Indian Ocean.
Shabaab militants are disappearing after turning themselves in under Kenya's amnesty program. Are the security forces responsible or jihadist hit squads?
Ethiopia's Amhara people are staging a local uprising to oppose a change to internal borders that would favor Tigray region, homeland of the country's ruling elite.
Ethiopian security forces have killed more than 400 since November, and arrested tens of thousands more, in efforts to quash protests in the Oromia region.
Independent sources say the ominous border clash was sparked when Eritrean troops shot at military deserters and an Ethiopia-backed armed opposition group returned fire.
Somalia has made a $1 million donation to the drought-hit breakaway region of Somaliland, ahead of controversial talks between the two sides to clarify their future relations.
Ethiopia has completely halted the flow of water into Somalia by closing the gates on irrigation dams along the Shabelle River—leaving dry a key agricultural region.
US drones and warplanes killed more than 150 al-Shabab militants in Somalia, with the Pentagon citing an "imminent threat" to US and African Union forces.
