PLATFORMS

HARGEISA — Aid agencies are hindering development and undermining efforts to attract investment in Somaliland, according to a former World Bank and UN official turned entrepreneur. Ismail Ahmed, founder of the money-transfer company WorldRemit, claims Somaliland, his birthplace, has had to battle “negative PR” from aid agencies exaggerating their role …

ABU DHABI — The Emirates Red Crescent (ERC) launched a relief programme aimed at intensifying its response to the humanitarian crisis in Somalia, as part of the UAE’s relief and development initiatives in the country. The programme involves the establishment of an aid air bridge that consists of four planes …

MOGADISHU — A High-level climate change policy forum was held in Decale Hotel in Mogadishu organized by the Somali Institute for Environmental Peace (SIEP) with the collaboration of the Directorate of Environment and climate change in the Office of the prime minister. The forum’s objective was to discuss practical climate …

MOGADISHU — The UN humanitarian agency said Wednesday attacks on aid workers delivering humanitarian supplies in Somalia resulted in the death of 15 aid workers in 2020. The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said 12 workers were injured, 24 abducted and 14 arrested in 2020 in …

NAIROBI — Kenya on Wednesday ordered the closure of two sprawling camps that host hundreds of thousands of refugees from neighbouring Somalia and gave the U.N. refugee agency (UNHCR) two weeks to present a plan to do so, the interior ministry said. The Dadaab and the Kakuma refugee camps in …

BAIDOA — The UN migration agency said Tuesday it has relocated nearly 7,000 internally displaced persons (IDPs) who were facing eviction from their homes in Somalia. The International Organization for Migration (IOM) said the IDPs were relocated on Sunday to Barwaaqo, a new site for IDPs, in the South West …

HARGEISA —At least 49 people were injured late Sunday when a fire broke out at an Islamic learning center in Hargeisa, the capital of Somalia’s breakaway Somaliland. The wounded include 40 women and eight men as well as a firefighter, the Somaliland Fire Brigade said in a statement. “Hundreds of …

MOGADISHU — The government of Somalia and the United Nations are seeking more than a billion dollars to address a climate-related crisis in the Horn of African nation as locusts continue to cause devastation in most regions of the country. As CGTN’s Abdulaziz Billow reports, swarms of desert locusts have …

MOGADISHU — The UN office for humanitarian affairs Thursday said about 1.3 million people were displaced in Somalia in 2020. “Out of a total of 2.9 million IDPs [Internally Displaced Persons] in the country, 1.6 million are most vulnerable and will require humanitarian assistance in 2021,” the United Nations Office for …

MOGADISHU — The Government of Somalia and its international partners seek $1.09 billion to provide life-saving assistance to four million vulnerable people affected by a worsening humanitarian situation around the country. “We are launching the 2021 Humanitarian Response Plan today, in what is a critical time for Somalia,” the Humanitarian Coordinator for …