Detonation took place at security checkpoint in Beledweyne, killing at least 18 people
An explosives-laden vehicle detonated at a security checkpoint in the central Somalia city of Beledweyne on Saturday, killing at least 18 people and wounding 40 others, authorities have said.
Abdirahman Dahir Gure, the interior minister of Hirshabelle state, announced the toll to journalists.
Continue reading...Thousands more women will be forced into unsafe abortions and die in pregnancy and childbirth, ministers told
Hundreds of thousands more women will face unsafe abortions and thousands will die in pregnancy and childbirth as a result of UK aid cuts in 2023-24, Foreign Office ministers were warned in an internal assessment.
The Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) published its programme allocations for the next two years last month, showing that official development assistance (ODA) spend is due to rise marginally in 2023-24 and then increase by 12% in 2024-25 to £8.3bn.
Continue reading...President says Russia will replace blocked Ukrainian exports after it abandoned pact on passage of ships
Vladimir Putin has promised free grain supplies to six African nations as Moscow seeks to capitalise on the collapse of the Black Sea grain deal.
Speaking on the first day of a Russia-Africa summit in St Petersburg, the Russian president claimed his country would be able to replace Ukrainian grain exports blocked by Moscow’s decision to abandon the UN-brokered arrangement which had allowed the export of grain and other products from Ukraine through the Black Sea to markets, many of them in Africa.
Continue reading...Islamist militants claim responsibility for blast at popular restaurant on Friday night that injured 20 people
Nine people were killed in an attack claimed by al-Shabaab Islamist militants at an upmarket restaurant in the Somali capital, Mogadishu, on Friday night, police have said.
Those killed at the popular Pearl restaurant were six civilians and three soldiers, police said in a statement.
Continue reading...Death toll one of heaviest since pro-government forces launched offensive against jihadists last August
Fifty-four Ugandan peacekeepers died when militants besieged an African Union base in Somalia last week, Uganda’s president, Yoweri Museveni, has said, in one of the worst recent attacks by al-Shabaab jihadists in the war-torn country.
“We discovered the lifeless bodies of 54 fallen soldiers, including a commander,” Museveni said in a Twitter post late on Saturday.
Continue reading...NGOs dismayed at reduction in Britain’s contribution as crisis-hit region faces challenges from drought, rising prices and conflict
The UK has been accused of taking the “insulting and shortsighted” decision to cut humanitarian aid to east Africa at a time of chronic drought, conflict and rising food prices.
At a United Nations pledging conference in New York on Wednesday, which the UK is co-chairing, Andrew Mitchell, the UK’s international development minister, announced a humanitarian aid package to the region of £143m.
Continue reading...Torrential rain, coming on top of the country’s worst drought in four decades, has forced 250,000 people to leave their homes
Jamal Ali Abdi has seen flooding in Beledweyne before but never on the scale witnessed earlier this month when the Shabelle River burst its banks, causing devastation to the central Somali town and displacing almost the entire population.
As water gushed through the streets, Ali’s home was soon surrounded by murky brown flood water.
Continue reading...Climate crisis a key factor in flash flooding of Beledweyne as rains end drought and Shabelle River breaks its banks
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 that the climate crisis is among the most significant factors accelerating humanitarian emergencies, while those affected are some of the least responsible for CO2 emissions.
Continue reading...Access to PCV jabs in South Sudan, Somalia, Guinea and Chad ‘could save 40,000 children a year’
Delays in rolling out a vaccine against childhood pneumonia in four of the world’s poorest countries have been blamed for thousands of unnecessary deaths.
South Sudan, Somalia, Guinea and Chad are four of the last African nations without the pneumococcal conjugate vaccine (PCV), one of the most powerful tools against pneumonia in children.
Continue reading...New report uncovers tragic scale of climate-led crisis and warns of up to 34,000 more deaths so far this year
A new report released by the Somalian government suggests that far more children died in the country last year due to the ongoing drought than previously realised.
The study estimates that there were 43,000 excess deaths in 2022 in Somalia due to the deepening drought compared with similar droughts in 2017 and 2018.
Continue reading...Somalis arrive in Ethiopia from disputed town of Las Anod, where at least 82 people have died in fighting
More than 60,000 Somali refugees have fled to Ethiopia after an escalation in fighting in the town of Las Anod, in the Sool region, where tensions between local people and the governing Somaliland authorities have been building for weeks.
The UN said the refugees had arrived in part of Ethiopia that had been badly hit by drought after five consecutive failed rains, and that many people were sleeping in the open, or sheltering in schools and other public buildings.
Continue reading...Party’s criticism of Omar’s Israel position has greased the path for Republicans to oust her from the foreign affairs committee
The resolution that set in motion the removal of the only African immigrant, Muslim and former resident of a refugee camp on the congressional committee overseeing US foreign policy paid scant attention to Ilhan Omar’s views on anything but a single issue: Israel.
“Omar has attempted to undermine the relationship between the United States and Israel,” said the author of the resolution, Republican congressman Max Miller. “She has disqualified herself from serving on the foreign affairs committee.”
Continue reading...Bilal al-Sudani, ‘responsible for fostering the growing presence of IS in Africa’, was killed in strike approved by Joe Biden
A US military raid in Somalia ordered by President Joe Biden this week killed a key regional leader of the Islamic State group, Bilal al-Sudani, according to US officials.
Sudani was killed on Wednesday during a gunfight after US troops descended on a mountainous cave complex in northern Somalia hoping to capture him.
Continue reading...MSF charity reports 33% rise in malnourished patients at giant Dadaab complex after influx from drought-stricken Somalia
Malnutrition among children in one of the world’s largest refugee camps has surged over the past year as concerns grow at worsening conditions at the site in Kenya.
Médecins Sans Frontières said its health facility in Dagahaley, a camp in the Dadaab refugee complex, has treated 33% more patients – mainly children – for malnutrition over the past year, while the rate of malnourishment in the camps grew by 45% in the last six months of 2022.
Continue reading...‘Famine in all but name’ ravaging Somalia, Ethiopia and Kenya, yet British aid is one-fifth of 2017 amount
The UK urgently needs to do more to help more than 28 million people in drought-stricken Somalia, Ethiopia and Kenya, two former secretaries of state for international development and the heads of 14 of the UK’s leading aid agencies have warned in a joint letter to the prime minister, Rishi Sunak.
They say one person is dying every 36 seconds, yet British aid to the region is only one-fifth of what Britain provided when the region was struck by famine in 2017. More than 7 million children are acutely malnourished across the three countries.
Continue reading...Abdalle Mumin was held after press groups said government edicts on coverage of offensive against al-Shabaab put them at risk
Authorities in Somalia have imposed strict bail conditions on a respected journalist and media rights campaigner that will prevent him from seeking medical attention for a suspected kidney condition aggravated by poor conditions during his detention by intelligence services and police earlier this year.
Abdalle Mumin, a co-founder of the Somali Journalists Syndicate and a frequent contributor to the Guardian, was arrested in October after press organisations protested that directives issued by the information ministry on coverage of an offensive against Islamic militants in the unstable east African state put them at risk.
Continue reading...Twin car bombs kill at least 100 in Mogadishu, the deadliest attack since more than 500 killed in same spot five years ago
Somalia’s president has said he will press ahead with a major offensive against Islamic extremists despite twin car bombings that killed at least 100 people and injured three times as many at a busy junction in the centre of the capital, Mogadishu.
The toll in Saturday’s attack – the country’s deadliest attack since a truck bombing at the same spot five years ago killed more than 500 – is expected to rise.
Continue reading...Two explosions occur at same busy junction where al-Shabaab blasts killed 500 people five years ago
Two car bombs have exploded at a busy junction in Mogadishu near key government offices, leaving “scores of civilian casualties,” police told Somali state media.
The attack on Saturday occurred five years after a massive blast at the same location killed hundreds of people.
Continue reading...With famine in Somalia almost inevitable, Martin Griffiths criticises opaque handling of $100bn a year promised to poorer countries
The UN’s humanitarian chief has questioned why billions of dollars pledged to tackle the climate crisis have not been used to fight famine in Somalia.
Martin Griffiths said he did not know where the promised $100bn (£87bn) a year to fight the impact of global heating in poorer countries had gone, and called for greater transparency around climate finance.
Continue reading...Urgent aid response needed as climate crisis, Covid, local conflicts and soaring fuel prices push millions more into hunger
• ‘We need urgent help’: Somalis displaced by drought and famine fight to survive
Decades of work to reduce hunger in Africa are being reversed as the continent struggles to cope with conflict, climate crisis and the global economic downturn, the UN’s Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO) has warned.
About 278 million people in Africa – approximately one-fifth of the total population – went hungry in 2021, an increase of 50 million people since 2019, according to UN figures. Based on current trends, this is projected to rise to 310 million by 2030.
Continue reading...