Somalia

Last year, we filmed with Abdullahi, a mentally ill Somali man who had been in chains or 17 years. But one mental health nurse has changed his life forever.

Coming through passport control is an ordeal. I am followed on the street and hassled by security services. Not all citizens enjoy the same rights, writes Jamal Osman.

From Somalia to South Africa, our reporter Jamal Osman retraces the journey he took as a desperate refugee, fleeing Somalia’s brutal civil war 18 years ago. Follow his interactive video diary here.

Every year, thousands flee their country to escape war, drought or poverty. In 1996 in Somalia, Africa Reporter Jamal Osman was one of them. Here, he retraces his steps and meets those trying it now.

In 10 years only one of our journalists has been stopped at Heathrow and questioned but it happens virtually every time he goes through the airport, writes Channel 4 News Editor Ben de Pear.

Since the Westgate shopping mall attacks, many Kenyans now live in fear. But the government’s anti-terror crackdown has angered many Muslims, some of whom have flocked to al-Shabaab.

As a Japanese man is released after 48 years on death row – a new report shows that publicly disclosed executions jumped nearly 15 per cent in 2013.

A senior al-Shabaab commander, who was behind several suicide attacks, has been killed in an American missile attack in southern Somalia.

A UK ban on khat – widely used in the Somali community – comes into force in the next few months. But there is anger in Kenya, where thousands of farmers depend on exports of the herbal stimulant.

Last year, some couldn’t skate – but now a group of Somali refugees in Sweden are playing Bandy – a sport similar to ice hockey. They will be the first-ever African team to compete at world level.

Islamist militants from the al-Qaeda linked al-Shabaab group claim responsibility for a bombing attack on a hotel in Somalias capital, Mogadishu, in which 11 people have died.

Among the most feared of al-Qaeda’s affiliates, al-Shabaab was behind the Westgate shopping mall attack in Kenya. Jamal Osman attended one of its training camps in the Somali bush.

Today sees the publication of a series of cartoon strips depicting the lives of Somalis living in cities across Europe. Shamso & Family is the true story of one Leicester mother and her children.

Last month’s terror attack at the Westgate shopping centre in Kenya showed how media-savvy al-Shabaab is. As Jamal Osman writes, the jihadist group’s media office is small but determined.

The latest video from Somali-based terrorists al-Shabaab focuses on the killing of Drummer Lee Rigby. It names several “deluded” Muslims who condemned the killing: the police are offering protection.