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Somalia is experiencing a new wave of flash floods, acording to the recent reports, heavy rains is already wreaking havoc in some parts of the country while other riverine communities are left in fear as the Juba and Shabelle river levels continue to rise. On April 28th, heavy rains in Gardo town and surrounding areas caused flash floods killing at least 6 people, including 3 children and 31 people are still missing. The floods have also destroyed assets, food stores, markets, telecommunications and other public services. The Humanitarian Affairs and Disaster Management Agency ( HADMA) in Puntland confirms that at least 11,000 households ( about 66,000 people) have been affected and need urgent humanitarian assistance. Some of the households are seeking shelter in nearby schools as rescue operations continue. Recent reports confirm that heavy and persistent rains have led to a dramatic increase in river Shabelle with the river in Hiran region rising to up to 6. 5 meters--less th...

Somali militant group al-Shabab has executed three of its own members for alleged spying on behalf of Western intelligence agencies, local residents and regional officials said. El Bur district commissioner Colonel Nur Hassan Gutale says the three men were executed by a firing squad late Tuesday in the center of the town as dozens of people watched.  According to local residents speaking on condition of anonymity, an al-Shabab judge at the scene of the execution said the men had admitted to working for Western intelligence agencies and collaborating with the federal government of Somalia.  Al-Shabab has been trying to overthrow Somalia's government and turn the country into a strict Islamic state.  El Bur was once the commercial hub of Central Somalia and now is one of the main strongholds of al-Shabab in the Galgudud region.  They lost the control of the town late 2014 to Ethiopian troops backing Somali government forces but retook it in April 2017 w...

Female genital mutilation (FGM) will not be eradicated unless women are economically empowered to make their own decisions, an activist once stressed, as the United Nations released data warning that the ancient practice may take centuries to eliminate. Despite world leaders promising to eradicate the practice by 2030, FGM remains as common today as it was 30 years ago in Somalia, Mali, The Gambia, Guinea-Bissau, Chad and Senegal. "Some countries are not moving at all, and those that are moving are not moving fast enough," said Claudia Cappa, an analyst at the United Nations Children's Fund  (UNICEF). Estimated to affect at least 200 million girls and women globally, FGM causes multiple mental and physical health problems. A 12-year-old girl recently died in Egypt after undergoing FGM. The practice typically involves the partial or total removal of the external genitalia. Sometimes the vaginal opening is sewn up. Jaha Dukureh, a survivor of child marriage and F...

They're only between 0.5 to 3 inches long, but they have been wreaking havoc in East Africa, threatening the food supply and livelihood of one of the poorest regions in the world. According to the BBC, millions of locusts have been ravaging East Africa, eating away at vegetation and destroying crops across the region. Things have become so bad that Somalia recently declared a national emergency due to the swarms of insects. Before the declaration, the country's Ministry of Agriculture announced that the swarms of locusts posed a "major threat to Somalia's fragile food security situation." Locals have also said that some areas were so dense with flying insects that they could hardly see. The United Nations said that the swarms in Somalia and nearby Ethiopia are the largest recorded in the last 25 years and if uncontrolled could 'provoke a humanitarian crisis'.

A police officer in Somalia’s capital has been arrested in the fatal shooting of at least one civilian while enforcing coronavirus restrictions. The shooting Friday evening sparked protests in Mogadishu that continued Saturday with crowds of angry young men burning tires and demanding justice. There has been growing anger among some residents over alleged abuses by security forces, including beatings, while enforcing virus-related restrictions. Shouts of “No police, no curfew” could be heard as hundreds of protesters took to the streets and damaged a police landmark at a city roundabout. The country’s police chief on Saturday fired the commissioner in charge of security in Bondhere district where the shooting occurred.

A critical shortage of medical supplies and personnel continues to grip hospitals across Africa. In Somalia’s capital, Martini Hospital is the country’s only medical facility dedicated to treating its growing number of coronavirus patients. The people of Somalia have struggled through years of conflict, locust swarms and now COVID-19.

Somalia has recorded a rise in coronavirus cases in the past week, with the majority of those affected reportedly young people. So far there have been 237 confirmed cases and eight deaths in the country. A member of parliament and a state minister are among those who have died. “The sharp increase is due to the fact that we are testing patients with all symptoms, not necessarily contact tracing,” said Dr Mohamed M Ali Fuje, the government’s newly appointed chief medical officer. Ninety per cent of the confirmed cases are in the capital, Mogadishu, and although the government has introduced measures to contain the virus, widespread behavioural change is proving difficult. People continue to congregate in mosques, and gather in groups at teashops and restaurants, increasing the risk of infections. “Life is normal here,” said Khadija Hassan, a resident in Mogadishu. “It is like the global pandemic has not reached us yet. Personally, I won’t leave my house for two weeks becaus...

Somalia’s Covid-19 cases have soared to 135, five times the number at the start of last week in what is turning out to be a frightening tally for the Horn of Africa country. The Federal Ministry of Health on Saturday night issued a statement outlining that the number of individuals found positive in Somalia had gone up by 19. Health Minister Dr fawzia Abikar Nur said that cases had risen from 116 on Friday, with the trend standing at at least 15 people per day since Tuesday last week. “Today we tested 25 persons, resulting in 19 positives,” said Dr Nur. On Thursday, the positive cases stood at 80 and increased to 116 when 36 tested positive on Friday. The numbers given are apparently shocking, considering that out of 47 tests on Friday 36 were found positive while 25 tests on Saturday gave 19 positives. Authorities in Somalia were now scrambling to prevent spread beyond the capital Mogadishu. Already, the government imposed a dusk-to-dawn curfew in the capital an...

The Somalia National Army marked its 60th anniversary on April 12, however the once powerful army is currently a pale shadow of its former self. The biggest task the army faces is whether it can—with the support of donors and the African Union Mission in Somalia (Amisom)—secure the country as the African peacekeepers prepare to exit by the end of 2021. According to the United Nations’s Amisom exit plan, the African peacekeepers were supposed to train and equip a minimum of 30,000 SNA soldiers before the phased out withdrawal started in 2018. But this has remained a challenge with Amisom suffering from reduced and irregular funding, and Somalia still under an arms embargo since 1991, when the state collapsed. So far, only 10,000 soldiers have been trained and have the capability to undertake serious security operations. The head of Amisom, Francisco Caetano Madeira, said the African peacekeepers are committed to supporting the SNA in combating Al-Shabaab and achieving lastin...

At least six health workers including doctors in Somalia have contracted coronavirus, officials said Thursday. According to the country's Health Ministry, the officials contracted the virus from a patient in the capital Mogadishu. Dr Ibraahim Guled, the secretary general of Somali Medical Association, is among the infected. Somalia confirmed its first COVID-19 case in mid-March. Since then, a total of 80 people have been diagnosed with the disease. Five people have also died, along with two regaining health. The African nation, in order to contain the pandemic, imposed a night curfew in Mogadishu from Wednesday. Schools and universities, meanwhile, are already closed. Hospitals, pharmacies and food stores are not subject to the restrictions, as per Somali police chief Abdi Hassan Mohamed Hijar. The virus, which was first detected in Wuhan, China late last year, has spread to 185 countries. It has killed more than 137,000 people and infected over two million.

Large swarms of locusts have ravaged crops in East Africa, prompting authorities in Somalia to declare a national emergency, making it the first country in the region to do so. This locust storm came across the Red Sea from Yemen and first attacked Eritrea, Djibouti and Ethiopia. Some Ethiopian farmers lost their entire crop yield to the notoriously voracious pests, which can eat their entire weight in 24 hours. Put another way, a small swarm can eat enough food to feed 35,000 people in 24 hours. The ravenous swarms that have migrated over Somalia pose "a major threat to Somalia's fragile food security situation," said the country's Ministry of Agriculture in a statement, as the BBC reported. The invasion has authorities worried that the situation will not be under control by the time the harvest season begins in April. Food sources for people and their livestock are at risk, the desert swarms are uncommonly large and consume huge amounts of crops and fora...

Somalia confirmed its second death from coronavirus on Sunday. Khalif Mumin Tohow, justice minister of Hirshabelle state, succumbed to the novel coronavirus in Mogadishu's Martini hospital a day after he tested positive in the town of Jowhar, the administrative capital of Hirshabelle. Ali Gudlawe Hussein, vice president of Hirshabelle, confirmed his death to the media. According to local media, Mumin, who was Somali British, travelled to the U.K. in February before he came back to the Horn of Africa nation. On Wednesday, Somalia confirmed its first coronavirus death. According to the Health Ministry, the country has 21 coronavirus cases, including several government employees.

Famously known as the “King of Oud,” Mr. Hussein was considered one of the giants of modern Somali music. He had the novel coronavirus. Ahmed Ismail Hussein, whose sweet-stringed and melancholic melodies captivated generations of Somalis and made him one of Somalia’s most important musicians, died on Tuesday in London. He was 91. He had been infected by the novel coronavirus, according to Hanna Ali, the artistic director of Kayd Somali Arts and Culture, based in London, with which Mr. Hussein had been affiliated in recent years. Mr. Hussein was famous for playing the oud, the pear-shaped lutelike instrument that is central to Arab and Middle Eastern music. “The oud is my greatest pleasure,” he told a BBC interviewer in 2003. “If there’s an oud lying near me, I’ve just got to play it.” He moved between Somalia, Djibouti and Britain over the course of his recording and performing career. His music was influential in defining and popularizing the traditional Somali style kn...

Somalia on Wednesday confirmed its first death from coronavirus. Ismail Mukhtar Orongo, Somali government spokesman, told Anadolu Agency over the phone that the patient succumbed to the deadly virus in the capital Mogadishu. "The patient is a 58-year-old Somali national who had no travel history in the past three years and who died from coronavirus in Martini Hospital in Mogadishu," he said. The Horn of Africa country has so far confirmed eight cases of coronavirus. On April 1, former Somali Prime Minister Nour Hassan Hussein Nour Adde died from coronavirus in London. The global death toll from coronavirus has crossed 83,600, with more than 1.45 million cases confirmed, according to U.S.-based Johns Hopkins University.

The U.S. military said it has killed a high-ranking leader of the al-Qaida-linked al-Shabab extremist group with an airstrike in Somalia. A statement by the U.S. Africa Command said Yusuf Jiis was one of three extremists killed in Thursday’s airstrike near Bush Madina in the Bay region. The U.S. called Jiis a “foundational member” of al-Shabab, which controls parts of central and southern Somalia and frequently carries out attacks in the capital, Mogadishu. “While we might like to pause our operations in Somalia because of the coronavirus, the leaders of al-Qaida, al-Shabaab and ISIS have announced that they see this crisis as an opportunity to further their terrorist agenda so we will continue to stand with and support our African partners,” AFRICOM commander Gen. Stephen Townsend said. The U.S. in a separate statement said an airstrike on Monday killed five al-Shabab members near Jilib. The statement said the U.S. was aware of reports alleging that the airstrike killed...

The government in Somalia has condemned the abduction and rape of two girls aged just three and four. The doctor in charge of the hospital where they are being treated says they need major surgery. An official said several arrests had been made following the attack which happened on Wednesday. The parents say that the two cousins were walking home from school in Afgoye, close to the capital, Mogadishu. They were seized by men who took them away and sexually assaulted them. Their parents desperately searched the neighbourhood and found them alone the following day. The fact that the girls are aged just three and four has added to the shock in Somalia where reports of rape have increased in recent years. It is thought that such horrific crimes have long been taking place but people are now more aware of the need to publicise the incidents in order to bring about change.

The U.S. announced it will provide $7 million to help Somalia deal with the COVID-19 outbreak. “The U.S. Government is providing $7 million in humanitarian and health assistance to #Somalia for #COVID19 response,” read a tweet by the Somalia chapter of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). “This assistance will primarily provide health-related support and supplies to bolster water and sanitation activities,” said the USAID Somalia. Somalia has five confirmed COVID-19 cases so far, with no deaths, and one recovery, according to figures compiled by the U.S.-based Johns Hopkins University. The data shows the coronavirus has now spread to 180 countries and regions since first appearing in Wuhan, China last December. Nearly 942,000 cases have been reported worldwide, with the death toll above 47,500, and 202,000 recoveries, according to the data.

Somalia announces three-day mourning period after Nur Hassan Hussein, celebrated as an influential leader, dies at 83. Popularly known as Nur Adde, he was the East African country's prime minister from November 2007 to February 2009. "Recognising the efforts made by the deceased for his country and his people, I hereby declare three days of national mourning, lowering of the flag of the Federal Republic of Somalia to half mast, to give Prime Minister Nur Adde the respect he deserves," President Mohamed Abdullahi Farmajo said in a statement late on Wednesday. Born in Mogadishu in 1937, when the southern part of the country was under Italian rule, Hussein was educated in the city before joining the police force when the country gained independence in 1960. After leaving the force, he worked for the Somali Red Crescent. He also served as the Horn of Africa country's ambassador in Italy. Hussein's family said the former leader will be buried in London. I...