Tim Loughton had sanctions imposed on him in 2021 by Beijing, which has close ties to east African country A former government minister who has had sanctions imposed on him by China has said he was detained and deported by Djibouti as a “direct consequence” of the east African country’s close ties with Beijing. Tim Loughton, the Conservative MP for East Worthing and Shoreham since 1997, said he was held for more than seven hours at the airport earlier this month, barred entry to Djibouti, and told he was being removed on the next available flight ..read more

Children among those killed in second fatal incident in two weeks close to the Horn of Africa, says UN agency At least 21 people have died after a boat capsized off the coast of Djibouti, the UN’s migration agency has said. It was the second fatal maritime accident in two weeks off the Horn of Africa nation, which lies on the perilous so-called eastern migration route from Africa to the Middle East ..read more

Saleh Ahmed Handule Ali, now 33, had indefinite leave to remain in UK, but Home Office failed to keep a record A refugee who left the UK on holiday as a teenager in 2008 has been stranded in east Africa for the last 16 years in a case that senior judges have described as “extraordinary”. Saleh Ahmed Handule Ali, now 33, arrived in the UK at the age of nine in April 2000 with his mother and two younger siblings from Somalia. They came to join Ali’s father, who had been granted refugee status by the UK government. The family were also recognised as refugees by the Home Office and Ali was given a ..read more

Militants fired missiles at Greek-owned ship, says US military, in strike that raises questions over who Houthis are trying to target Iran-backed Houthi forces in Yemen have carried out their first attack in the Red Sea in six days, firing at an Iran-bound grain cargo ship, the US military has said, in a strike that raises questions about the group’s targeting. The lull in attacks on ships which the Houthis claim are linked to Israel has led to claims that US and UK strikes against the group have successfully neutralised its capabilities or that potential targets have been deterred from enteri ..read more

Khadar Ayderus Ahmed’s strong, big-hearted film is the classy story of a man seeking money for his wife’s operation Somali-born film-maker Khadar Ayderus Ahmed (who lives and works in Finland, the country he came to as a refugee in his teen years) has had a deserved festival success with this debut feature, set in Djibouti. It’s a gentle, humorous film in Africa’s quietist cinema tradition with grace notes of irony and wit. Guled (Omar Abdi) is a gravedigger, who lives with his wife Nasra (Yasmin Warsame) and young son Mahad (Kadar Abdoul-Aziz Ibrahim); he is in fact more like an itinerant lab ..read more

Farah grew up at a time of deep poverty and instability in the Horn of Africa, where criminal networks smuggling resources and people flourished When Sir Mo Farah was living on the Horn of Africa in the late 1980s and early 90s, it was one of the most unstable and troubled parts of the continent. Farah was born in 1983, at a moment of mounting chaos. He has said that he lived for several years in Somalia’s capital, Mogadishu, when very young, though he was not born there. The city was known in the 1970s for its beaches, seafood and architecture and was still a destination for adventurous trave ..read more

The new 750km line will link Addis Ababa to the sea in 10 hours, bypassing a potholed road that can take trucks days to negotiate With Chinese conductors at the helm, a fleet of shiny new trains has begun plying a new route from the Ethiopian capital to Djibouti, in a major boost to both economies. The 750km (460-mile) railway, built by two Chinese companies, which will link Addis Ababa to the Red Sea port city of Djibouti, was inaugurated at a new station just outside the Ethiopian capital ..read more

Since early 2015 Yemen has been gripped by civil war, with forces backed by a Saudi coalition fighting Iran-backed Houthi rebels. Since the start of the conflict, Britain has sold nearly £3bn worth of weapons to Saudi Arabia, a dictatorship accused of war crimes and human rights breaches by several NGOs. Owen Jones speaks to Yemenis whose lives have been destroyed by the conflict and to Sir Alan Duncan, the UK’s special envoy to Yemen ..read more

Man reported to have fallen out of hole in plane’s side following a blast that caused the flight to land at Mogadishu’s international airport An explosion and fire blew a gaping hole in a commercial airliner forcing it to make an emergency landing at Mogadishu’s international airport, officials and witnesses said. The pilot said he thinks it was a bomb. An aviation expert who looked at photographs of the hole in the fuselage said the damage was consistent with an explosive device ..read more

From a Somali love story to a deep dive into Congolese rumba, Guardian writers pick their favourite recent world cinema releases Read more: Books that explain the world: Guardian writers’ nonfiction reads of the year The Great Indian Kitchen ..read more