NEWS

OTTAWA (SOHA) – The United Nations refugee agency is asking Canada to resettle more refugees from the Horn of Africa, emphasizing the needs of particularly vulnerable Somalis displaced by a decades-long conflict in the war-torn country. Mohamed Abdi Affey, the special envoy of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees …

JAMAAME (SOHA) – Close to 200 families displaced by ongoing military operations in Jamaame in Lower Jubba are facing hunger and lack access to basic services. Local officials said 160 families uprooted from their homes are now camping in Kismayo with little humanitarian support. Somali and AMISOM forces launched major …

BARI (SOHA) – Local authorities in Bari region in Puntland are running a scholarship programme for children from displaced families to equip them for alternative livelihoods instead of relying only on livestock like their parents. With an annual fund of $24,000, the education programme is targeting children from livestock herders …

HARGEISA (SOHA) – For the last six years, Elmi Noor, 38, has been making $4,000 a month from what he terms a ‘lucrative business’ – smuggling young people from across East Africa to Libya, where they are invariably held for ransom by criminal gangs under cruel conditions. Noor coordinates a …

DADAAB (SOHA) – Over 10,000 Somali refugees, who have been denied legal refugee status in northern Kenya’s Dadaab camps, are lacking access to basics such as food, shelter, and healthcare. The UN’s refugee agency UNHCR reports that 10,454 Somali refugees, uprooted from their homes by drought and the threat of Al-Shabaab, …

MOGADISHU (SOHA) – This World Polio Day, UNICEF and WHO are taking a moment to acknowledge the tremendous efforts made by the polio eradication workforce and partners over the last two decades in Somalia. By way of one recent example, UNICEF, WHO, health authorities and partners are working tirelessly to …

MOGADISHU (SOHA) – At the recently concluded Somalia’s first Information and Communications (ICT) exhibition, Somalia’s country-code top-level domain (dotSO) launched the (.me.so) domain for the first time by giving out free domains to students and authors to promote blogging within the young people. Under the theme “Developing Vibrant ICT Sector”, …

MOGADISHU (SOHA) – Al-Qaeda-linked Al-Shabaab rebels are profiting from the illegal trafficking of charcoal exports produced in Somalia and transiting through Iran, United Nations experts said in a report recently shared with the UN Security Council. “The process involved using false Comoros, Cote d’Ivoire (Ivory Coast) and Ghana certificates of …

BOSSASO (SOHA) – The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization issued a new tropical storm watch Friday for parts of northern Somalia as Storm LUBAN is expected to lead to winds of medium strength with moderate rainfall. According to the alert issued by FAO, the tropical storm that developed in …

LONDON (SOHA) – Harriett Baldwin, the British Foreign Office development minister for Africa, has completed a tour of East African nations to announce development and humanitarian aid from the United Kingdom. Baldwin made stops in Uganda, Ethiopia and Somalia, including a visit with President Muse Bihi in Somaliland to pledge UK …