Eloge Willy Kaneza Says Maine’s Immigrants ‘See Themselves in Us’

With its reporting on ICE raids and foreign wars, Amjambo Africa aims to build a more inclusive community.

Since January 20, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has arrested more than two hundred people in Maine, which has one of the smallest immigrant populations in the country. The operation, which ICE dubbed “Catch of the Day,” was largely aimed at immigrants from Somalia who are part of a long-standing diaspora community concentrated in Portland and Lewiston. For the Trump administration, it seems to have been a natural follow-up to ongoing operations targeting the Somali community in Minnesota.

The staff at Amjambo Africa, a nonprofit news outlet based in Portland with a mission to bridge the gap between Maine’s newcomers and longtimers, has been covering the operation’s fallout for its tens of thousands of readers. “We are obliged to give more to our people online and respond urgently,” Eloge Willy Kaneza, the publication’s deputy editor, told me. Founded in 2018, Amjambo Africa publishes a mix of local and international news in English, French, Kinyarwanda, Portuguese, Swahili, Somali, and Spanish. Kaneza, who is originally from Burundi, described it as a place where anyone can “belong.” ICE has halted its surge in Maine, but many of the state’s immigrant communities still live in fear.