The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) has condemned in the strongest terms possible the arrest and continued detention without charge of the director of Shabelle Media Network, Abdirashid Omar Qase and the station's news editor, Abdi Mohammed Ismail who were taken into custody by members of the National Security Agency of the Transitional Federal Government (TFG). The journalists were arrested on Sunday, 27 March 2011, in relation to a story that was aired concerning the failure of the President, Sheik Sharif Sheik Ahmed, to tour areas captured from the extremists group, Al-Shabaab.

It's time to put the destiny of Somalia back in the hands of the Somali people, writes Afyare Abdi Elmi.

Up to 30 children suffering from acute watery diarrhoea (AWD) are treated daily at the Banadir Hospital in Mogadishu, capital of Somalia, medical staff told IRIN. Although the exact number of children affected by AWD across the city could not be established, the medical source, who requested anonymity, told IRIN some deaths had been reported.

Pro-government forces in Somalia Sunday attacked bases of the Al Qaeda-linked Shebab militants in a southern town sparking fighting in which seven people died, officials and witnesses said. The clashes erupted at noon on the fringes of Dhobley and continued for about five hours. Witnesses said both sides used heavy machine guns, mortars and anti-aircraft guns.

Unrest in Yemen has prompted hundreds of Somali refugees to once again risk a deadly sea crossing, this time to return to their home country, say officials and migrants. This year alone some 89 people drowned or went missing while crossing the Gulf of Aden from Somalia to Yemen. The worst single incident took place in late February when some 57 refugees died after their boat capsized, according to the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR). Since 2008, well over 1,000 people have failed to survive the crossing.

With drought spreading to almost all regions of Somalia, officials and aid workers have expressed concern for those affected, saying drought was now a major cause of displacement. 'Drought, not insecurity, is now the main reason for new displacement in Somalia,' the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA Somalia) said in a March update. 'More than 52,000 people have been displaced due to drought since 1 December 2010, many of them moving to urban areas in search of assistance.'

Two members of privately-owned Radio Shabelle were arrested 27 March in Mogadishu, while two other journalists have been held in the northeastern region of Puntland and the northwestern region of Somaliland for more than a week. Reported Without Borders has called for the immediately release of all four journalists and a halt to their persecution. 'The transitional federal government is doing nothing to encourage the work of the media in a country in which the constant fighting is already the source of a great deal of danger for reporters and the intolerance of the Islamist militias makes their work even more dangerous if not impossible,' Reporters Without Borders said.

Kenyan forces have crossed into Somali territory to fight al-Shabab militants, an official source has told the BBC. However, the reports were denied by a police spokesman. Twelve militants were killed in the raid near the border town of Liboi, Kenya's Standard newspaper reports.

With the escalation of fighting across Somalia since January, armed groups have reportedly recruited more child soldiers to their ranks, some even forcing teachers to enlist pupils. In a recent offensive against rebel groups in Bulo Hawo town on the border with Kenya, the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) stated on 17 March, '...children were involved as fighters and a significant number of them were killed. According to reports, intense fighting in the area between Dhusamareb and Ceel bur in Galgadud has also resulted in many child casualties.'

Despite the collapse of the formal economy and of central government in Somalia, a remarkably resilient 'parallel' economy has emerged, notes this briefing paper from Chatham House. Based on traditional clan relationships, a lack of bureaucracy and well-established channels for remittance payments from the diaspora, this model has travelled with Somali émigrés to Kenya. Some businesses that began in the informal sector are making the transition to formal enterprise and Kenyan authorities should seek to encourage this with an enabling regulatory environment, says the briefing paper.

A major offensive by African Union troops in Somalia, in which dozens of peacekeepers from Burundi and Uganda were killed, reclaimed 'significant' territory from insurgents, an African Union envoy has said. Burundi has announced that at least 43 of its soldiers were killed, but Uganda has yet to acknowledge any deaths.

Since 1992, 34 journalists have been killed in Somalia, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists. This doesn't take into account journalists who die in car accidents, but only instances where deaths are work-related. In 2010 two Somali journalists were killed as a direct result of their work, Sheikh Nur Mohamed Abkey, who worked for state-run Radio Mogadishu, was gunned down near his home, and Barkhat Awale, director of Hurma community radio, was killed by a stray bullet from nearby fighting. No Somali journalists have been killed this year - so far. Death is the most extreme example of the many dangers facing journalists in Somalia. Already this year, two journalists have been captured by militia groups, although both have been released.

The National Union of Somali Journalists (NUSOJ) has welcomed the resumption of the Radio Kulmiye of its normal operations on 4 March 2011. The radio station had been off air for at least 48 hours following a letter ordering the radio to go temporarily off air from the National Security Agency. The radio immediately went off air upon receiving the letter. The resumption came after the Minister of Information, Posts and Telecommunication, Dr. Abdulkadreem Jama authorised the radio back on air, according to the Kulmiye Radio Director, Osman Abdullahi Guure.

An offensive by pro-Somali government troops and Ethiopian forces against Al-Shabab militants in the western Somali town of Bulo Hawo has forced thousands of people to flee their homes there and in the nearby Kenyan town of Mandera, say witnesses and officials. One resident of Bulo Hawo, normally home to some 60,000 people, and also close to the Ethiopian border, said much of the now nearly deserted town had been destroyed 'after days of shelling'.

A suicide car bomber has attacked a police training camp in Somalia's capital Mogadishu, killing at least six people, officials say. The blast is reported to have happened near the Darwish Camp, which is next to a police academy. There are fears the death toll will rise.

The reconstruction of a viable Somali state depends largely on the rebirth of a united Ethiopia, writes Samir Amin.

Boys and girls should not sit in the same classroom, radical Islamist group Al-Shabaab has ordered. All lectures must also stop at ten minutes to noon, while teachers must inculcate in their students the importance of Jihad (holy war), said a senior official of the group which controls most of central and southern Somalia.

More than 3,000 people have been displaced from settlements in Somaliland's eastern region of Toghdeer following a five-hour-long battle on 7 February between the Somaliland National Army and clans loyal to the Sool, Sanag and Cayn (SSC) militia group. A long-standing dispute exists over the territories of Cayn, Sool and Sanag, with both the self-declared republic of Somailiand, in northwestern Somalia, and the self-declared autonomous region of Puntland in the northeast claiming them.

Somalia's self-declared independent region of Somaliland has experienced an increase in landmine and unexploded ordnance (UXO) explosions in the recent past, with officials calling for mine awareness education in schools, as children have been the main victims. 'Child victims of land mines have increased in Somaliland in the past two months,' Ahmed Ali Maah, director of the Somaliland Mine Action Center (SMAC), told IRIN. 'Some 93 children have been killed by landmines in the past three years.'

Sometimes the teachers make it to school but the children do not - when the fighting is too intense for them to venture outdoors. Sometimes teachers make it to school only to find it has been moved - to enable displaced children to continue learning. This is the nature of teaching in war-torn Mogadishu, Somalia's capital, considered one of the world's most dangerous cities. In the midst of the chaos and violence, teachers, students and their parents are confronted with a choice of obtaining a semblance of education or giving up altogether.