DADAAB (SoOHA) – Ibrahim Mohamed Mukhtar, 28, is running a thriving photography business in northeastern Kenya’s Dadaab camp and employing four other Somali refugee youth. Having lived in Dadaab since he was a baby, and coming from a poor family, Ibrahim started making a name for himself as a photographer after leaving primary school in 2017. …
Read More »Destitute pastoralists in Hargeisa confront hopelessness in IDP camp
HARGEISA (SoOHA) – In this week’s report from Somalia’s IDP camps, Radio Ergo visits Nasa-Hablood camp near Hargeisa, where destitute former pastoralist families face a lost past, an empty future, and constant threats of eviction from landowners. Fear and anxiety haunt the displaced pastoralist families in Nasa-Hablood camp, on the outskirts of the …
Read More »Local effort to help Somaliland villagers in water crisis
HARGEISA (SoOHA) – The community and local administration in Somaliland’s Saraar region havebrought relief to drought-hit families in villages facing acute water shortage. Ulasan and War-imran villages in Saraar have been facing a longstanding water crisisthat has forced some residents to move away to other areas. The nearest water source is 30 km away. Ahmed Mohamed Hashi, the mayor of Aynabo town, told Radio Ergo that members of the local assembly …
Read More »How women entrepreneurs are building resilience
Conflict and disaster have shaped the lives of the Somali people for the last 30 years. Now, a new initiative is helping women to develop their own businesses – making them and their families more resilient to any future upheaval. The security situation in Somalia is still unstable after years …
Read More »Water crisis puts Mudug pastoralist families on the move
GALKAYO (SoOHA) – An acute water shortage in a village in central Somalia’s Mudug region is affecting more than 1,000 families, some of whom have left their homes in search of water. Hirsi Omar Hassan, the chief of Tulo-Barwaqo, said the borehole pump broke down two weeks ago and could not be repaired. They tried to raise money locally but the price for a new pump …
Read More »Qatar Charity releases Arabic version of GRID
DOHA (SoOHA) – Qatar Charity (QC) has translated the Global Report on Internal Displacement (GRID) 2019, the world’s most important annual report on monitoring internal displacement worldwide, in cooperation with the Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre (IDMC) of the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC). Qatar Charity also announced the release of the …
Read More »Rain-fed farmers in Middle Shabelle turn to irrigation
JOWHAR (SoOHA) – Farmers in five villages in southern Somalia’s Middle Shabelle region have raised community funds to construct an irrigation canal to reduce their reliance on unpredictable rainfall. Adan Omar in Qafow village, near Jowhar, told Radio Ergo he was irrigating his two-hectare farm for the first time with water channeled from the river Shabelle. …
Read More »Debt collectors chase Somali pastoralists for cash borrowed to survive the drought
ADAADO (SoOHA) – Hassan Aabi is carrying the weight of a huge burden on his shoulders as he counts off the days before the debt collectors come for him again. With his pitifully depleted herd of 23 feeble goats, Hassan is struggling to support his three wives and 23 children in Benyo-ad village, 25 km south of Guriel in Galgadud. Earlier this month, his creditors had him arrested and they …
Read More »UN agencies call on all Somalis to vaccinate children against polio
MOGADISHU (SoOHA) – UN agencies have kicked off a four-day vaccination drive against polio in Somalia’s Puntland and Somaliland, targeting more than 945,000 children under five years of age. The campaign, which is backed by the World Health Organization (WHO) and the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF), targets all children in 12 …
Read More »Somalia .. IOM begins relocating families at risk of eviction
BAIDOA (SoOHA) – IOM has started the relocation of Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) who were at risk of eviction to the newly developed public site in Baidoa. Some 682 households, consisting of 3,914 individuals drawn from 12 out of 15 targeted IDP sites have been relocated to the new Baidoa public …
Read More »
Somali Observatory for Humanitarian Affairs The Voice of Reality.. The Eye of Humanitarian Truth in Somalia