ENVIRONMENT AND DISASTERS

JOWHAR — A massive fire erupted at a bustling market in Jowhar town, the interim capital of the Hirshabelle regional state. The blaze, which originated in a bakery located in the heart of the Hantiwadag neighborhood, quickly spread throughout the market, engulfing numerous businesses and sending billowing clouds of smoke …

NAIROBI — The Horn of Africa will experience higher than normal temperatures between October to December, a period when the region is also expected to have El Nino rains that would lead to heavy flooding, the East African bloc climate service warned Wednesday. The Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) Climate …

MOGADISHU — The Somali Ministry of Environment and Climate Change (MoECC) warned on Thursday that El Nino will likely occur in the southern part of the country due to the expected rainy season. The ministry has urged aid agencies in Somalia to closely monitor and prepare for potential flood-related consequences …

MOGADISHU — Somalia may have been pummelled by drought for five straight seasons, but officials in Mogadishu say the people here won’t give up yet. And Khadija Mohamed Almakhzoumi, the Federal Minister for Environment and Climate Change said this week the three-year dry weather, sometimes punctuated with sudden floods, has …

MOGADISHU — The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and the British embassy in Mogadishu on Wednesday launched a 3.8-million-U.S.-dollar anticipatory action ahead of the El Nino event in Somalia. The FAO said the anticipatory action and preparedness initiative will target about 1.2 million people who are …

MOGADISHU — The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations and Somalia are collaborating to help the country join the global fight against climate change. The FAO said Tuesday evening that the collaboration with the Ministry of Environment and Climate Change (CC)seeks to develop the country’s nationally determined …

MOGADISHU — Somali President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud has committed 10 million U.S. dollars to tackling the triple challenges of desertification, climate change, and biodiversity losses. The commitment will be part of the country’s allocation from the adaptation fund in collaboration with the International Fund for Agricultural Development, Mohamud said while …

ADDIS ABABA — The adverse effect of climate change is further worsening the existing “widespread food insecurity” in the East Africa region, Executive Secretary of the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) Workneh Gebeyehu has said. Gebeyehu made the call in his address at the 14th Ordinary Assembly of the IGAD …

MOGADISHU — Somalia is reeling from deadly flash and riverine flooding, with a staggering 468,000 people affected and 247,000 displaced as of June 6, according to a report by the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA). Experts argue that this natural disaster, which has emerged in the …

URUMQI — “Alone we go fast, but together we go further,” said Marcelin Sanou, who works for the African initiative Great Green Wall, emphasizing the significance of international cooperation in combating desertification. Sanou, chief of the planning, monitoring-evaluation and information management at the Pan-African Agency for the Great Green Wall, …