36 dead in violence in Somalia’s Puntland and Lower Shabelle regions – witnesses
Mogadishu, SomaliaReuters At least 36 people died on Tuesday in violence across Somalia that involved heavy fighting in the semi-autonomous state of Puntland and bomb explosions in the country’s Lower Shabelle region, witnesses said. In Puntland, heavy fighting broke out early Tuesday in the state capital Garowe as the local parliament debated changes to the […]
Al-Shabaab attacks African peacekeepers in Somalia, big death toll feared
Mogadishu, SomaliaReuters Islamist al-Shabaab militants attacked a military base housing Ugandan forces with the African Union peacekeeping mission in Somalia on Friday, and a Somali army captain said both sides suffered heavy casualties. Al-Shabaab has since 2006 has been fighting to topple the Horn of Africa country’s Western-basked government and establish its own rule based […]
UN gets $US2.4 billion in pledges for Horn of Africa aid efforts
United NationsReuters The United Nations received pledges of $US2.4 billion on Wednesday to help fund aid operations for some 32 million people across Ethiopia, Kenya and Somalia, but the donations fell short of what the UN was seeking as it warned against a possible “catastrophe.” The UN has appealed for more than $US7 billion for […]
Building resilience: As world’s poor face “compounding crises”, what could curb risks?
LAURIE GOERING, of the Thomson Reuters Foundation, reports that while climate change impacts threaten to overwhelm humanitarian aid systems, changes in how money is moved could help…
Almost 250,000 flee floods in Somali city that “became like an ocean”
Mogadishu, SomaliaReuters Floods have caused almost a quarter of a million people to flee their homes after the Shabelle River in central Somalia broke its banks and submerged the town of Beledweyne, even as the country faces its most severe drought in four decades, according to the government. Aid agencies and scientists have warned climate […]
Wow!: Nurse-midwife Edna Adan Ismail, opponent of female genital mutilation, wins Templeton Prize
Dr Edna Adan Ismail is the first African woman to receive the prize, which is valued £1.1 million. KATHRYN POST, of Religion News Service, reports…
Somalia’s drought killed 43,000 last year, half under five – study
Nairobi, KenyaReuters Somalia’s ongoing record drought killed as many as 43,000 people last year, half of them children under 5, researchers said on Monday in the first attempt to estimate country-wide deaths. After five consecutive failed rainy seasons, half of Somalia’s 17 million people are in urgent need of aid, the United Nations has said, […]
Italy’s Meloni urges EU to do more to halt people smuggling after tragedy
Crotone, Italy Reuters Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni on Wednesday called on fellow European Union leaders to do more to halt illegal immigration and prevent further tragedies at sea, after dozens of people were killed in a shipwreck off Italy. Meloni, who heads a right-wing coalition, said criminal gangs and people traffickers should not be […]
After Italian migrant boat wreck, police arrest three alleged traffickers
Crotone, Italy Reuters Italian authorities arrested three people and were looking for a fourth suspect who they believe trafficked up to 200 migrants aboard a wooden boat that smashed apart on rocks off southern Italy on Sunday, killing at least 65 people. The coffins of the victims found were laid out in an indoor sports […]
Fleeing drought, Somalis face malnutrition and cholera in Kenya
Dadaab, Kenya Reuters When her three-month-old baby fell sick from malnutrition, Dool Abdirahman Ismael left her village in Somalia and walked for three days through swirling dust and scorching heat to the Dadaab Refugee Camp just across the border in Kenya. Ismael, 26, said she had hoped Dadaab would be free of the hunger and […]