ENVIRONMENT AND DISASTERS

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 …

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 …

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 …

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 …

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 …

UNITED NATIONS — United Nations partners are taking a different approach to famine prevention in Somalia: focusing on collaboration with local authorities and communities in at-risk areas, UN humanitarians said on Friday. “In 2016/2017, a similar shift coupled with timely and scaled up humanitarian assistance averted famine in Somalia,” the …

NAIROBI — Several parts of Somalia is expected to receive heavy rain falls in the coming days according to International organization. In a statement posted on its platform on Wednesday, the Intergovernmental Development on Authority (IGAD) Climate Prediction and Applications Center (ICPAC) forecasted the imminent rainfall in the Horn of …

GENEVA — UN agencies are calling on international donors to act now and provide the funds needed to prevent another potentially devastating famine in Somalia. Millions of Somalis are in need of life-saving assistance. Three years of extreme drought has brought Somalia to its knees. Some six million people or 40 …

NAIROBI — Millions of people in Somalia, Kenya and Ethiopia are experiencing a drought of a length not experienced in the last 40 years, the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) said Monday. IGAD, which has an eight-country trade bloc in Africa, through its Climate Prediction and Applications Centre (ICPAC) said at …

HARGEISA — In response to the destruction caused by a blaze in Hargeisa, the United Nations deployed an inter-agency team of technical experts to work with the government and the response committee to assess the damage and support the rebuilding of a marketplace. On the site of what used to …