PLATFORMS

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) – 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 …

MOGADISHU(SOHA) – Attacks on aid workers delivering supplies in Somalia resulted in the death of eight staff and injuries of 12 others between January and September, the UN humanitarian agency said in a report on Friday. The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said some 90 violent …

MOGADISHU(SOHA) – The UN migration agency said on Friday that it has helped 17 Somali migrants to voluntarily return home from Tanzania following months of confinement in detention centers. The International Organization for Migration (IOM) said the returnees who returned home on Wednesday were rounded up by Tanzanian authorities as …

LONDON(SOHA) – Global Somali Diaspora (GSD) is calling for a thorough investigation of the trafficking of young Somali girls. Indeed, it is very saddening and worrying development the news from the Chair of Somali Women’s Organisation in Banadir Region, Mrs. Jawaahir Barqab. Recently, there was an increase of reports on …

BOSSASO (SOHA) – Unidentified gunmen shot dead four Ethiopian refugees in Bossaso, the commercial capital of the northern Somalia semi-autonomous of Puntland, officials said Monday. Initial reports said that armed men have shot the four civilians thought be ethnic Oromos at a close range in an attack in Santos, a …

MOGADISHU (SOHA) – The Somali government on Monday called on Iraq to launch urgent investigations into a ship carrying 200,000 bags of charcoal smuggled out of the Horn of Africa nation. Somali Ambassador to the United Nations Abukar Osman said the ship, which has docked at the Iraqi port of …