US–funded Voice of America broadcaster revives Somali service

0 Comments | AFP, February, 2007

WASHINGTON (AFP) — The US-funded broadcaster Voice of America is reviving a Somali radio program for the Horn of Africa as it expands its service in a volatile region that has become a front in the US "war on terror".

The Somali-language service returns to the airwaves on February 12. Its last broadcast was in 1994 after the pullout of US troops whose mission in lawless Somalia was marked by the death of 18 soldiers in Mogadishu.

Washington's concerns in the Horn of Africa were highlighted in recent weeks by two US air strikes targeting Al-Qaeda suspects in Somalia, where transitional government forces recently ousted Islamists from the capital Mogadishu.

The US military has been active in the region for more than four years, operating from a former French...