Fears are growing about the spread of coronavirus in camps where few can afford soap, water is rare and social distancing impossible
In the Nabadoon camp on the outskirts of Mogadishu, Asho Abdullahi Hassan, a 40-year-old mother of seven, has heard about the coronavirus on the radio.
“I am very scared about this deadly virus. I only heard about it from the news. It is like we are waiting for death to come,” she says.
Continue reading...Governments warn disease will cause huge challenges for continent’s health services
Countries across Africa have imposed wide-ranging and stringent new measures as the coronavirus begins to spread more rapidly across the continent.
Though the continent is still far behind Europe and Asia in the total numbers of Covid-19 cases, the disease has now reached about half of its countries. Algeria has 48 confirmed cases, Egypt 110, while South Africa has 62, according to the World Health Organization and national governments on Monday. Other countries have fewer cases, mostly in single figures.
Continue reading...Authorities face criticism for withdrawing teaching staff from an already marginalised region where education is badly needed
A series of targeted killings of schoolteachers by a militia group in Kenya has seen an exodus of staff and the closure of hundreds of schools across the north-east of the country.
Thousands of teachers have left their posts in the past two months following several suspected al-Shabaab attacks in the region.
Continue reading...Landmark law expected to replace clan system and lay groundwork for long-awaited ‘one person, one vote’ poll
The president of Somalia has signed a landmark federal law, paving the way for the country to hold its first popular election in half a century.
A long awaited “one person, one vote” election could be held by the end of the year.
Continue reading...Shootings, beatings and arbitrary arrests condemned as election candidates urged to protect freedom of expression
The increasingly hostile environment in Somalia has left journalists living in fear of both the government and militant groups, according to Amnesty International.
At least eight journalists have been killed since President Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed came to power in 2017, while others have survived assassination attempts or been targeted for arrests and censorship, the rights group has said.
Continue reading...The destructive migratory pest threatens catastrophe as it swarms through countries already plagued by food insecurity
A colleague at the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) tells a terrifying story about the desert locust.
In 2005 she visited farmers in Niger as they prepared to harvest their crops. Just hours later, a swarm of locusts swept through the area and destroyed everything. One month later, truckloads of families were forced to leave their homes because they had nothing to eat.
Continue reading...Forced from their homes by floods and fighting, 800,000 people have crammed into informal settlements in the Somali capital. Now efforts are afoot to bolster local resources
The number of Somalians being pushed out of the countryside and into the capital Mogadishu has reached an unprecedented high, putting pressure on the city’s already poor infrastructure and threatening its faltering recovery from three decades of conflict.
More than 800,000 internally displaced people dwell in informal settlements across Mogadishu, according to the office of the mayor. They are crammed into makeshift shelters with little or no sanitation and limited access to the most basic services. There are “critical” levels of malnutrition, according to an assessment by Somalia’s food security and nutrition analysis unit.
Continue reading...Huge locust swarms in east Africa are the result of extreme weather swings and could prove catastrophic for a region still reeling from drought and deadly floods. Dense clouds of the ravenous insects have spread from Ethiopia and Somalia into Kenya, in the region’s worse infestation in decades
Continue reading...From Somalia to South Sudan, torrential rains have devastated crops and made roads impassable, sending the cost of food soaring
Before the floods hit her village, crumpling buildings, ripping out pathways and submerging swathes of land, Nurto Mohamed Hassan could buy a kilogram of rice for the equivalent of about 70p.
Now the cost is more than £1. This may not seem a lot in isolation but, for people with little money and families to feed, it is a significant rise.
Continue reading...Dozens of people were killed, including many students, when a truck bomb exploded at a busy checkpoint in Somalia's capital on Saturday. The attack, one of the deadliest in the city's recent history, has not been claimed by any group; Al-Shabaab often carries out such attacks, but the al-Qaida-linked group was pushed out of Mogadishu several years ago.
Continue reading...At least 79 dead and more than 100 injured after morning rush-hour blast in Somali capital
A truck bomb has exploded in central Mogadishu, killing at least 79 people including many university students, and injuring more than 100 in the deadliest attack on the Somali capital for more than two years.
The bomber struck during the Saturday morning rush hour, the start of Somalia’s working week. The mayor, Omar Mohamud Mohamed, told reporters at the blast site that most of those killed were civilians, including two Turkish citizens.
Continue reading...Exiled Somali Kamil Ahmed says her job at Gargaar FM is more important than ever as the threat of closure hangs over the camp
Sitting in a small shipping container, Kamil Ahmed, 20, prepares to begin her live radio show.
“I feel like the whole community is waiting for me,” the only female reporter at the station says, flicking through her notebook.
Continue reading...Peace campaigner’s car struck by stray bullet while passing airport, security officials say
Almaas Elman, a prominent rights activist, was shot dead in Somalia’s capital Mogadishu on Wednesday.
Almaas, who came from a leading family of peace campaigners, was travelling by car inside the heavily fortified airport compound when she was hit.
Continue reading...Communities already hit by war and drought face fresh disaster as 370,000 are forced from homes
Ciraa Farah Ali was asleep when she heard the flood. It was dark, and the 45-year-old mother of seven was alone with her children in her small home in Beledweyne, central Somalia.
Related: Global heating supercharging Indian Ocean climate system
Continue reading...Jihadist group al-Shabaab suspected of placing roadside device
Several Kenyan police officers were killed on Saturday when their vehicle hit a roadside bomb near the Somali border, authorities said.
“Unfortunately we lost some officers and the vehicle they were travelling in has been severely damaged,” said the Kenyan chief of police, Hilary Mutyambai, without giving an exact number of fatalities.
Continue reading...Al-Shabaab claims its fighters launched raid on military base west of Mogadishu
A US military base used to launch drones and a European military convoy have been hit in separate attacks in Somalia.
A Reuters journalist saw a seriously damaged armoured vehicle bearing a small Italian flag sticker in the capital, Mogadishu, on Monday. It was unclear if there were any casualties.
Continue reading...Five killed and businesses attacked in wave of violence against immigrants
Police in South Africa are struggling to contain an outbreak of violence against foreigners in major cities that has claimed five lives, ruined dozens of businesses and brought condemnation from other African countries.
President Cyril Ramaphosa condemned the violence on Tuesday and said he was calling in ministers with responsibility for security “to make sure that we keep a close eye on these acts of wanton violence and find ways of stopping them”.
Continue reading...Aid efforts to help communities struggling to recover from drought compounded by continuing conflict, aggravated by al-Shabaab
Somalia faces a new humanitarian crisis with more than 2 million people now threatened by severe hunger, aid agencies say.
A further 3 million people are uncertain of their next meal, latest assessments suggest.
Continue reading...Abdirahman Omar Osman was a naturalised Briton who once worked as a council housing manager in London
The mayor of Mogadishu has died after being badly wounded in an al-Shabaab extremist attack in his office last week, the government of Somalia has announced.
Abdirahman Omar Osman was a naturalised Briton who returned to Somalia to help rebuild the war-torn country. He spent 17 years in the UK including a stint as housing manager at Ealing council in west London.
Continue reading...Briton and Canadian-Somali journalist among dead in suicide bombing and shooting in Kismayo claimed by al-Shabaab
Special forces in Somalia have ended an all-night siege at a hotel raided by armed Islamic militants, officials have said.
The death toll from the attack in the southern port city of Kismayo, which began on Friday evening, has risen to 26 people, including a prominent Canadian-Somali journalist and several foreigners.
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