MOGADISHU (SoOHA) – The UN migration agency said Friday it plans to relocate some 24,000 internally displaced persons (IDPs) at risk of eviction to public sites in Baidoa, southwestern Somalia. International Organization for Migration (IOM) said the regional South-West State has provided public land to humanitarian partners for development and …

The Kenyan government has ordered the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) to close the Dadaab refugee camp. It has not stated its reasons for this, but in the past it ordered similar closures on security grounds, claiming Dadaab could host terrorists from the Somali militant group Al-Shabaab. The camp, established almost 30 years …

MOGADISHU (SoOHA) – The Somali government needs to ensure that children from poor families are not excluded from accessing free state-run schools, according to a new report by a Somali think tank. The Mogadishu-based research centre, Somali Public Agenda, observed that despite commendable efforts by the government to increase school …

DHUSAMAREB (SoOHA) – Five villages to the east of Dhusamareb town in central Somalia’s Galgadud region have emptied as the pastoralist families living there have run out of water. Four boreholes in the area have dried up, leaving the villages of Qansahley, LabiRaac, Aweys-Raac, Meehanaw, and Galo without any access …

HARGEISA (SoOHA) – Osman Botan Mohamud, 49, a father of eight, has just returned home after receiving 15 goats from the Drought Response Committee in Somaliland to replace his losses in last year’s tropical cyclone. He is one of 600 people in Salal, Awdal, Gabiley, and Saahil who lost their …

MOGADISHU (SoOHA) – The U.N. estimates 1.7 million people in Somalia will “face crisis and emergency levels of food insecurity until June” after a second consecutive bad rainy season caused livestock losses and failed crops. U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric said Wednesday that this represents a 10% increase in food insecurity. …

GALKAYO (SoOHA) – In part three of our series on life in Somalia’s IDP camps, Radio Ergo meets a displaced woman whose daughter and grandson were born in the same camp in Galkayo.  The internal displacement crisis has endured across three generations in this family and many other families, who …

Deaths caused by infections from antibiotic-resistant bacteria will skyrocket over the next two decades, along with huge economic costs, without immediate, ambitious and coordinated action, the UN World Health Organization (WHO) and partners warned on Monday.  According to a groundbreaking report, the UN Ad hoc Interagency Coordinating Group on Antimicrobial Resistance warned that if no action is taken, drug-resistant diseases could cause …

“Development efforts are increasingly at risk. A faltering global economy, food and energy insecurity, conflict, global climate change, declining ecosystems, extreme poverty, and the threat of epidemics seriously challenge progress towards improving social welfare and economic growth in many developing countries.” That was the opening paragraph of the very first …

NEW YORK (SoOHA) – An estimated 169 million children missed out on the first dose of the measles vaccine between 2010 and 2017, or 21.1 million children a year on average, UNICEF said today. Widening pockets of unvaccinated children have created a pathway to the measles outbreaks hitting several countries around …