MOGADISHU (SoOHA) – The Federation of Somali Trade Unions (FESTU) has welcomed the new comprehensive social protection policy which was launched on 17 September 2019 in Mogadishu by the Federal Government of Somalia with the presence of senior government officials, diplomats accredited to Somalia, UN agencies, development partners, trade unions and …

MOGADISHU (SoOHA) – The World Health Organization (WHO) has pledged to work with health authorities in Somalia to strengthen primary health care services and improve the capacity of national health workers. Ahmed Al-Mandhari, WHO regional director for the Eastern Mediterranean who ended his first visit to Somalia, said the UN …

AFMADOW (SoOHA) – Ismail Mohamed Shangolow used to keep livestock and grow crops on his six-hectare farm in Afmadow, in southern Somalia’s Lower Juba region. But following consecutive failed rains, he has been reduced to working as a middleman in a local livestock market trying to scrape together a living …

GALKAYO (SoOHA) – Kayf Mohamed Farah moved into a new two-bedroom house just outside Galkayo in central Somalia last week, putting to an end several years of displacement and uncertainty. With 12 children, Kayf’s family fled Galadi in Ethiopia’s Somali region in 2015 after losing their entire herd of 180 …

DUSAMAREB (SoOHA) – The number of girls going to school in Mudug region has more than quadrupled over the last two years as a result of free education and awareness campaigns. Mudug regional education commissioner, Ahmed Jama’a Qodeye, told Radio Ergo that the number of girls attending local schools had …

KISMAYO (SoOHA) – Dozens of families have been fleeing their homes in drought-hit villages in southern Somalia’s Gedo region, as telecommunications network outages have left them unable to buy food and water. Residents in Duya’a-Garon, Geriley, Awsquran, Darasalam, Damaso, Fafahdun, and Khadijo-haji in Elwak district have been facing intermittent network outages, …

MOGADISHU (SoOHA) – The United Nations is warning some two million people in Somalia are at risk of starvation, amid the country’s worst drought since 2011, and is calling for more support from the international community. Speaking at the end of a two-day visit to the country, UN Under-Secretary-General Mark Lowcock said decades of …

MOGADISHU (SoOHA) – Families from IDP camps in Mogadishu are being treated for free by a group of 10 local medical practitioners, who formed a group to visit people’s homes in IDP camps across the city. Abdulkadir Sheikh Hassan, the chairperson of the volunteers, said they have been treating 200 …

MOGADISHU (SoOHA) – The Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) on Tuesday called on donors to increase emergency humanitarian assistance to help avert further displacements in Somalia. A deadly combination of drought, conflict, and insecurity has forced more than 250,000 people in the first seven months of 2019 to leave their homes, a …

MOGADISHU (SoOHA) – Over a quarter-million Somalis have been displaced largely due to drought and conflict in Somalia in the January-July period of this year, the UN humanitarian agencies said on Tuesday. Most of the conflict-related displacement occurred in Lower Shabelle region where armed operations by Somali security forces backed by …