This is an interview I did in January 2014 with 'Dr Habeb', the nurse who runs the Habeb Mental Hospital in Mogadishu, Somalia.

The Habeb Mental Hospital in Mogadishu

Eritrea is best known for two reasons. Last year it was the biggest source of African migrants to Europe. Last month (June) a United Nations Commission of Inquiry found crimes against humanity have been committed there since it became independent twenty-five yeas ago -- after a thirty year war with Ethiopia. Eritrea denies the allegations. But on a recent visit to the country, our Africa Editor Mary Harper found three generations of the same family who had returned from Europe to Eritrea. The grandmother, Lula Mesmer spends half the year in the capital Asmara, and half the year in Germany. Her daughter Alilta Mesmer was back for a holiday, as was her son Daniel. His grandmother explained that she fled Eritea in the 1970s after her husband was killed.

Eritrea Three Generations

Eritrea - radio report

Eritrea Economy BBC radio report

Farmajo

My BBC interview with Somali president Farmajo plus some analysis

Fuller interview with Turkey PM

Five years ago, the Al-Rahma Islamic Centre in London was burned down in what officials said was a deliberate Islamophobic attack. The building was used as a place of education and worship by a Somali minority group. Many Bravanese fled to UK in the 1990s after being massively persecuted during civil war in Somalia. The destruction of their centre meant they had nowhere to worship or gather during Ramadan -- until their neighbours stepped in to help, as our Africa Editor Mary Harper found out when she went to break the Ramadan fast with them.

SOMALI MUSLIMS BREAK FAST IN SYNAGOGUE

Somalia has been hit by its worst drought in sixty years. The United Nations says close to seven million people -- nearly two-thirds of the population -- are what it describes as 'acutely food insecure' and in desperate need. Livestock -- the mainstay of the economy -- has been devastated. Rain has now come to some parts of the country - and with it, cholera, which is known to have killed about 800 people. Our Africa Editor Mary Harper visited one of the worst-affected areas, Togdhher province in the east of the self-declared republic of Somaliland which broke away from the rest of Somalia 26 years ago. She reports from Bur'ao Regional Hospital, which serves parts of Somalia and Ethiopia as well as eastern Somaliland. She was shown around a ward for severely malnourished under-fives by the regional health officer, Dr Yusuf Dirir Ali:

My BBC report on the Somali drought

For Somalis, and other inhabitants of harsh, arid lands, the camel is a lifeline. These precious beasts carry their possessions, provide them with nourishing milk and meat, and survive the cruellest of droughts. Much Somali poetry and song centres around the camel. Somalis calculate bridewealth and blood feud compensation in heads of camel, and make millions exporting them to the Gulf. When our Africa Editor Mary Harper and her guide Said Yusuf Abdi visited a camel market in Hargeisa, the capital of the self-declared republic of Somaliland, they found themselves in the middle of a camel singing competition

The Somali Camel Market

This month marks the 150th anniversary of the battle of Maqdala when Britain sent a force nearly forty-thousand strong to Ethiopia after Emperor Tewodros the Second took some Britons hostage. The British soldiers won the battle and made off with precious treasure. More than ten years ago Ethiopia launched a formal claim to get the loot returned. Some of the artefacts has just gone on display at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London and there are hints they might soon be on their way home to Ethiopia. Our Africa Editor Mary Harper reports

Will Ethiopian treasure taken by the British ever be returned?

The king of the Somali lute, Hudaydi, meets the king of the New Orleans clarinet, Evan Christopher.

MaryHarper

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