DOLLOW — Blindness heightens the remaining senses. The thud of a toppling camel is more jarring, the feel of tightening skin more acute, the smell of death thicker after weeks and months and then years without the rain that’s needed to survive. Perhaps, as panic rose with the wind, Mohamed …
Read More »UN refugee agency: Climate change, conflict forcing more people in Africa to flee
GENEVA — The U.N. refugee agency, UNHCR, is warning that the displacement crisis in the Horn of Africa and Sahel is getting worse as the impact of climate change and conflict are forcing more people to flee in search of safety and humanitarian assistance. Climate shocks like floods and droughts are …
Read More »Amb. Gamal appointed head of IGAD climate centre
DJABOUTI — The Intergovernmental Authority on Development IGAD has appointed former Somali federal Planning Minister Amb. Gamal Mohamed Hassan as the head of the IGAD Centre for Climate Adaptation and Environmental Protection (CAEP) in Somalia. IGAD established the research center last December in Mogadishu to combat climate change. Former Somali …
Read More »Climate, conflicts raise stakes in hungry world
Food concerns deepen as 345m face acute shortages in UN famine warning Millions of people struggling for food every day are seeing their hopes dimmed by soaring grain prices and tight supplies amid the impact of climate change and Western sanctions on Russia. Wheat prices are likely to change unevenly …
Read More »Massive fire destroying iconic Gaacidh forest in Somalia
MOGADISHU — A wildfire in the Gaacidh forest in the eastern Sanaag region of Somaliland in Somalia is burning from an undetermined cause, authorities said Tuesday. The fire in the forest that is described as one of the most beautiful in the region and home to unique trees and dozens of …
Read More »WMO: Droughts may affect more than 75% of world’s population by 2050
ANKARA — Droughts may affect more than three-quarters of the world’s population by 2050, the UN said Friday as World Day to Combat Desertification and Drought is observed. The day that is annually observed June 17 since 1995, focuses on changing public attitudes toward the leading driver of desertification and …
Read More »Drought leads to hundreds of deaths in Somalia
GENEVA — The worst drought in the Horn of Africa in four decades has sparked efforts to prevent famine, with hundreds of people having died of malnutrition already in the region. Previously unreported data shared with the Associated Press show at least 448 deaths this year at malnutrition treatment centers …
Read More »Somalia warns it is facing famine-like conditions
MOGADISHU – Somalia is experiencing its worst drought in decades, approaching famine-like conditions amid a worsening hunger and nutrition crisis, the special presidential envoy for drought response said Monday. Abdirahman Abdishakur Warsame said 6.1 million Somalis are facing an extreme level of food insecurity while 330,000 children are facing severe …
Read More »As hunger spreads in parts of Somalia, babies start to die
DOLLOW — Hacked-off thorn branches encircle two mounds of earth heaped over the tiny bodies of Halima Hassan Abdullahi’s twin granddaughters. Babies Ebla and Abdia lived only a day. Weakened by hunger, their mother gave birth to the twins a month early, eight weeks after their exhausted family walked into …
Read More »Fire breaks out in central Mogadishu market
MOGADISHU — Firefighters in central Mogadishu are battling an intense flame that broke out in a market on Thursday evening. The fire broke out at a popular shopping block along Digfer road in Banadir junction in Mogadishu’s Hodan district. The cause of the fire is still unknown, but there is …
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Somali Observatory for Humanitarian Affairs The Voice of Reality.. The Eye of Humanitarian Truth in Somalia