Category Archives: Somalia

Wave of violence leaves journalists in Somalia ‘under siege’, says Amnesty

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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.

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A humanitarian crisis looms in Africa unless we act fast to stop the desert locust

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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.

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Mogadishu left reeling as conflict and climate shocks spark rush to capital

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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.

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Billions of locusts swarm through Kenya – in pictures

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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

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‘Food prices shot up’: floods spark a scramble for survival in east Africa

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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.

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Aftermath of fatal truck bomb explosion in Mogadishu – video

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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.

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Truck bomb kills scores including many students in Mogadishu

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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.

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Making waves: Dadaab refugee camp’s only female radio journalist

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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.

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Rights activist Almaas Elman shot dead in Mogadishu

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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.

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‘We have nothing’: Somalia floods raise spectre of famine

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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

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Bomb kills Kenyan police near Somali border

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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.

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Somali militants attack US drone base and European convoy

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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.

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South African president condemns anti-foreigner violence

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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”.

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Severe hunger threatens millions in Somalia as climate emergency deepens

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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.

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Mayor of Mogadishu dies as result of al-Shabaab attack

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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.

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Somali forces end siege at hotel raided by militants that killed 26

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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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How Ifrah Ahmed, the girl from Mogadishu, took her FGM story to the world

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As a Somali girl she underwent the horrific practice. Now a new film tells how she risked her life to end it

Ifrah Ahmed refuses to let the horrific female genital mutilation she suffered at the age of eight define her. “I don’t want to be a victim. I want to be a voice,” says the 32-year-old campaigner.

She is one of the first women to publicly speak out about female genital mutilation (FGM) in Somalia – a country where it is estimated that 98% of women have undergone the ritual – and now her journey from powerless victim to powerful role model has been dramatised in a film. A Girl from Mogadishu has just had its UK premiere at the Edinburgh film festival and will be released across the UK in cinemas later this year.

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‘If you pay, you’ll go’: Dadaab residents claim bribery is price of getting home

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Somali people at Kenya’s sprawling refugee camp allege that UN staff want money for everything from food to repatriation

Four years ago, Asha made what seemed like an impossible decision. She knew the journey from Kenya’s Dadaab refugee camp back to her native Somalia was risky. But after an attack by the Somali Islamist group al-Shabaab, the Kenyan government had threatened to close the vast, sprawling camp for security reasons. Asha feared for her family’s safety if Kenyan soldiers moved in to evict them.

“I wanted to be gone before the rough-up,” recalls Asha. “I didn’t want my girls raped by [the] military forcing them on buses. I wanted to protect myself too.–

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From Somali refugee to England’s first female Muslim football referee

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Jawahir Roble’s love of football was forged on the streets of wartorn Mogadishu. Now she is training and inspiring young female footballers in the UK

On a sunny afternoon, a group of mothers in hijabs sit on the bench of a football pitch, watching their daughters play football at the Stonebridge recreation ground in north-west London.

As World Cup fever grips the UK, the girls’ enthusiasm for the training session is matched by their obvious adoration of their coach and referee, Jawahir Roble, known as JJ to her friends.

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Roadside bomb kills Kenyan police officers near Somali border

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Blast claimed by Islamist insurgents follows attack in Mogadishu that killed eight

A roadside bomb hit a police vehicle patrolling near Kenya’s border with Somalia on Saturday, killing several of the 11 officers inside, a Kenyan police spokesman has said.

Separately, another blast in Somalia’s capital, Mogadishu, killed eight people, according to emergency services.

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