by DAVID AXE U.S. Army and Congolese army doctors render free medical care at a clinic in Kinshasa, as part of the Medflag '10 exercise.......more

by DAVID AXE Kinshasa -- Corrupt and impoverished, Congo doesn't have much in the way of emergency services. Wrecked cars become semi-permanent urban art installations on the side of the road. When fires break out, it can take hours......more

by DAVID AXE Kinshasa -- A free health clinic was one of the culminating events of the U.S. Army-led "Medflag '10" training exercise in the Democratic Republic of Congo. While American instructors trained up Congolese medics, U.S. and Congolese......more

by DAVID AXE Kinshasa -- Soft power can be tedious, exhausting, frustrating. A hundred U.S. Army doctors and medics are in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo, to train several hundred medics from the Congolese Forces Armees de la Republique......more

by DAVID AXE Kinshasa -- Colonel Gilbert Kabanda, the surgeon general of the Forces Armees de la Republique Democratique du Congo -- the Congolese army -- is a tiny man, barely more than five feet tall. But he has......more

by DAVID AXE Sheikh Adan Madobe, speaker of the U.S.-and U.N.-backed Somali parliament, resigned today after his support in the weak governing body collapsed. Prime minister Abdirashid has also resigned after seeing his own influence wane amid continuing violence in......more

Guardian photo.by DAVID AXEJust two weeks ago Somali Islamic group Al Shabab advanced on a Harardere, a pirate stronghold in central Somalia. "The pirates began retreating with the hijacked vessels and crew to Hobyo, another pirate stronghold about 108 kilometers......more

Crashed Chadian helicopter. David Axe photo. by DAVID AXE On April 16, a Chadian helicopter with at least three people aboard crashed in Adre, a town abutting the border with Sudan in the desert region shared by the two countries.......more

Kenyan fisherman. Photo by David Axe. by DAVID AXE When the Somali government collapsed in 1991, so too did Somalia’s ability to police its waters and regulate foreign vessels. For corporate fishing fleets from Asia and Europe, that meant rich......more

Al Shabab. AP photo. by DAVID AXE On Friday Sheikh Moqtar Robow Abumansor, a top military leader in Somali Islamic group Al Shabab, declared war against the U.S.- and U.N.-backed Transitional Federal Government and the African Union peacekeeping force in......more