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If this were a normal year, nearly 2 million people would have descended on Islam's holiest site in Mecca, Saudi Arabia, on Tuesday evening for the hajj, the annual pilgrimage meant to be carried out at least once in the life of any Muslim who is physically and financially able. The coronavirus pandemic forced Saudi authorities to  limit the hajj to just 1,000 peoplepeople a in the kingdom, crushing the dreams of millions of pilgrims — and those of the livestock breeders, traders and exporters who supply millions of cows, camels, sheep and goats to feed the foreigners who arrive in the desert city each year. That sudden drop in demand has been devastating for Somalia, where livestock makes up  three-quarters of total exports , around 70 percent of which are sent to Saudi Arabia in the months leading up to the hajj. Somalia’s livestock exports are expected to decline by as much as half this year,   according to the World Bank. ...

Turkey and Qatar recruited more than 2,000 Somali mercenaries to fight in Libya alongside the Government of National Accord (GNA) Some of the Somali youths recruited by Doha and Ankara told Somali Guardian that “many of their country-mates were already deployed on the frontlines in Libya and were waiting to be sent to areas of active combat.” Turkey had sent thousands of Syrian fighters to support the GNA Libya has plunged into chaos since the 2011 toppling of dictator Moammar Gaddafi. Clashes between the two main warring parties in the country, the Libyan National Army (LNA), commanded by Khalifa Haftar and the Government of National Accord (GNA), led by Fayez al-Serraj, have intensified recently. Many foreign powers have backed different sides of the conflict with varying degrees of support, with the most prominent countries being Turkey backing the GNA and Egypt backing the LNA. The possibility of further escalating the conflict in the North African ...

Internet services have been restored in southern and central Somalia regions after a 30-hour shutdown that began on Sunday at 10:00 a.m. local time. The internet shutdown, the cause of which is unknown until no, ended this evening raising more speculation on whether the internet was deliberately cut by the government to control the flow of information after the surprise ouster of ex-Premier Hassan Ali Kheyre. Somalia’s leading internet services provider, Hormud Telecom, attributed the outage to rough sea waves that damaged submarine cables. The government also denied reports that it was behind the outage and Posts, Telecommunications and Technology Minister Eng Abdi Anshur Hassan repeated Hormud’s explanation. However, many Somalis on social media insisted the internet shutdown was linked to Kheyre’s ouster

Internet services remain cut for the second day in the Somali capital and other towns in southern and central parts of the country. The real reason for the internet shutdown remains unknown though the Somali government attributed it to damaged undersea fibre optic cables. “Fibre optic cables under the sea may have been broken, and we are currently undertaking an investigation to ascertain that,” Somalia’s Minister of Posts, Telecommunication and Technology, Eng Abdi Anshur Hassan said. Southern and central regions of the country, including Mogadishu, experienced a similar internet shutdown in 2017 after undersea fibre optic cables were reportedly cut by a cargo ship. The internet shutdown came amid political tension in the Horn of Africa country after parliament ousted Prime Minister Hassan Ali Kheyre. Kheyre’s removal was criticised by the US, the EU and Somali opposition parties.

Somalia's parliament ousted Prime Minister Hassan Ali Khaire in a no-confidence vote on Saturday, as a simmering power struggle between him and the president came to the fore. Khaire and President Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed have been tussling over whether to delay a national election due in February next year, with the prime minister insisting it go ahead and the president favouring postponement. Mohamed elevated Deputy Prime Minister Mahdi Mohamed Guled to prime minister in an acting capacity, a statement issued by his office said, citing the need for continuity of government programs. The resident's allies have also accused Khaire of failing to stabilize the security situation. "The government failed in its promise on the preparation of a clear plan for the one-man, one-vote election," said Mohamed Mursal Sheikh Abdirahman, the speaker of parliament, referring to the first direct election since civil war erupted in 1991. The Horn of Africa coun...

A Sh500 million Kenyan plane crashed in Somalia after rogue donkeys got onto the runaway during landing. Preliminary reports from the Somali Civil Aviation Authority indicate a number of the beasts were grazing on shrubs close to the runway when they got frightened by the landing aircraft and dashed towards the flight path. The plane took an unusual altitude and swerved off the runaway before crashing into heaps of sand on the flight strip. The crash happened last week and air crash investigators flew to Somalia to investigate what transpired. After the Somalia incident, the pilot, captain Farah Ahmed and first officer Shukri Farah, both Kenyans, were flown back to Nairobi. The captain, first officer and another passenger did not sustain any injuries during the incident.

The self-defense airstrike was carried out after ISIS-Somalia fighters attacked forces in a remote location near Timirshe about 140 km southeast of Bosasso. “This strike supported the efforts of the Federal Government of Somalia and Federal Member States to rid Somalia of the atrocities of ISIS Somalia and al-Shabaab and to provide a better future for the Somali people,” said the ministry. It said the allied forces have taken measures to prevent civilian casualties in the fight against the group and investigate each reported allegation fully. “At this time, no civilians are assessed to have been killed or injured in the attack. The efforts we take to protect and safeguard civilians starkly contrasts the indiscriminate attacks that ISIS Somalia and al-Shabab regularly conduct against the civilian populace of Somalia,” said the ministry

In CARE-supported health centres in Somalia/Somaliland, the number of people seeking consultations for communicable diseases has fallen by more than a quarter [26 per cent] since the first case of COVID-19 was recorded, with fear of stigma for having the virus being a major factor. "Our teams are seeing people who have tested positive running away from their homes out of fear of being stigmatized by the community," said Abdinur Elmi, CARE Somalia/Somaliland's Emergency Director. "We are deeply worried that whole communities can get infected if we don't address the stigma, which is being fuelled by cultural and religious beliefs," he said. Somalia's health system is already at breaking point following decades of instability caused by conflict, neglect and climate shocks. The country ranks 194th out of 195 on the Global Health Security Index, and according to a study by US-think tank The Rand Corporation, is the country most vulnerable to the sp...

The UN children’s fund (UNICEF) and the government of Puntland in northeast Somalia on Monday [20th July] launched the Learning Passport, a digital remote learning platform where children can access educational content both online and offline from their homes. Abdullahi Mohamed Hassan, Somalia’s minister of education and higher education, said children will be able to access high-quality lessons in line with the official curriculum and not become the hidden victims of the Covid-19 crisis by missing out on an education. The initial stage of the rollout will see more than 11,000 children, almost half of them girls, being able to access over 600 recorded lessons and videos for Grade 8 students, with 12 subjects already uploaded. It can be accessed using a computer or through a mobile application. According to UNICEF, Puntland’s ministry has become the first ministry of education from Africa to adapt the Learning Passport platform for the dissemination of their curriculum to r...

At least two people have been killed and 10 others wounded in Warta-Nabadda district of the Somali capital, Mogadishu, after a gunman opened fire on a house where “demon cleansing” rituals were being held. The gunman, reportedly armed with an AK-47 rifle, opened fire indiscriminately at the people in the house, who included women before fleeing from the crime scene. The motive of the attack is still unknown with the authorities evacuating the wounded people to hospitals in the area. Police have also started investigation into the incident.

Bardera town experiences cyclical river flooding as a result of heavy rains in the Juba Basin and the Ethiopian highlands. This year’s Gu long rainfall caused flooding which affected more than 4000 households by destroying livelihood assets including farm lands, irrigation pumps and crops, displacing families and damaging shelter. ACTED immediately conducted need assessment to identify the impact of the flooding, in order to take a quick action to support households in Bardera whose homes, livestock and farms were destroyed. The cash given allowed people to at least access their basic needs, taking into account that they may differ from one family to another. A triple-crisis: flooding, locusts and covid-19 Over the years, Bardera town experienced river floods as a result of heavy rains in the juba basin and the Ethiopian highlands. The heavy Gu rains which hit Bardera late in April caused massive destruction to the sources of livelihoods such as farm lands, irrigation pumps, ...

With the annual Muslim pilgrimage to Mecca, or hajj, canceled this year because of the coronavirus pandemic, the socio-economic lives of Somalis have been dealt a serious blow. Livestock accounts for almost 80% of Somali export earnings, providing nutrition and income to more than 60% of the population, according to a report by the Food and Agriculture Organization. “I have to sell my animals whenever I hear there is a market right now. COVID-19 has really affected us who used to export animals all the way to Saudi Arabia for Hajj,” livestock trader Cabdi Axmed told Anadolu Agency at an open-air Barwaaqo-sooraan market in Hargeisa, Somalia. He is part of routine cattle exporters of goats, sheep and camels in Somaliland and noted the cancelation of the annual pilgrimage left the entire Somali livestock industry at a crossroads. Many traders who have a surplus of animals reared for hajj are facing challenges. “I have sold hundreds of thousands of cattle to Saudi Arabia in ...

Somalia faces the triple threat of COVID-19, desert locusts and ongoing severe floods, with the number of people in severe acute insecurity expected to triple by September since the start of 2020. Against a population of 12.3 million, this amounts to one in every four Somalis facing severe acute food insecurity and in need of humanitarian assistance due to the combined impact of these newly emerging and past shocks. The COVID-19 pandemic was first reported in Somalia in March 2020, at a time when the country was dealing with two other shocks: the desert locust invasion in mid-2019 and flooding (riverine and flash floods). This builds on a high vulnerability context, with seven in ten Somalis living in poverty, experiencing wide gender disparities and facing multiple recurrent shocks as follows: • Severe drought in 2016–2017 resulted in the loss of livestock by 40–60 percent among pastoralists in northern and central Somalia, exacerbating rural poverty, which is currently at ...

A United Nations cargo plane carrying humanitarian aid has crashed at Beledweyne Airport in central Somalia. Sabrie Ahmed, from the local administration in Beledweyne town in the region of Hiran, told The Associated Press that the plane veered off the runway and crashed onto its belly on Tuesday, leaving thick black smoke visible for miles. The three crew members survived. The plane, flying from Djibouti, was delivering food aid for people displaced by heavy rains. There was no immediate word on what caused the crash. Ali Jeite Osman, the governor of Hiran region, told reporters that the plane caught fire after the crash. He added that rescuers could not extinguish it as the airport lacked firefighting equipment. "The plane crashed just as it landed. We managed to rescue three people before it burst into flames," a resident in the area told local media, without giving any more details on whether there were other occupants inside the plane or not. Aviat...

Qatari influence and Somalia President Mohamed Abdullahi Farmajo's over-reliance on Doha have reversed years of security progress. Somalis, both at home and abroad, were optimistic when Mohamed Abdullahi Farmajo was elected Somalia’s president in February 2017. Diplomats and the development community shared this optimism, believing Farmajo to be honest, energetic, and reformist. Forty months’ of Farmajo’s rule shows that initial optimism to be misplaced if not naïve. Today, Somalia is in a far worse state than it was before he took the helm. Security is dire; the economy has collapsed; federal states are alienated; and foreign policy is unfocused. Additionally, national institutions have been paralyzed while the coronavirus is slowly ravaging the population. At this point, Mogadishu is in lockdown more because of growing terror threats than public health. It did not have to get so bad. Somalia’s woes largely stem from the unholy alliance which Farmajo made with Qatar, an...

Somalia Army chief survived a suicide attack in Mogadishu on Monday after an explosion targeting his convoy occurred near the army hospital, officials said. Ismael Mukhtar Omar, government spokesman said the massive attack in Hodan district in Mogadishu targeted the country's army chief General Odawaa Yusuf whose convoy was passing near the main military hospital. "The explosion occurred near the Army Hospital, targeting the Force Commander. There were no casualties but resulted in injuries," Ismael said in a statement. The army commander had left the ministry of defense a minute before the massive attack that targeted his convoy, sparking heavy gunfire. A plume of black smoke could be seen billowing from the scene. Independent sources said one person was killed while another was injured in the latest attack in the Horn of Africa nation. "One person was killed, another injured but the army chief was not hurt," said a police officer who asked f...

Somali security forces backed by the Southwestern state army killed seven al-Shabab fighters and injured five others on Saturday in an operation in Bardale town in the southern region of Bay, an official confirmed on Sunday. Mohamed Isak, governor of Bardale town, told journalists that the joint operation started when the army got intelligence that the militants were hiding in the area to plan further attacks in the area. "There was intense confrontation between the army and the militants in Bardale town, but our forces subdued the militants killing seven of them including a senior leader who was in charge of finance and we also injured five others," Isak said. He noted that a government soldier was killed and three others injured during the confrontation. The latest operation came barely two days after Somali National Army (SNA) killed five al-Shabab militants including two senior leaders in another operation in Janale town in the country's southern region...

Somalia with an estimated fishery production potential of over 800,000 tonnes per annum barely derives sufficient revenue from the sector, a report shows. A bulk of income in the sector is lost to illegal fishing trawlers. According to the report, Illegal, Unreported and Unregulated (IUU) fishing in Somalia’s Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) is costing the country more than $300 million yearly, causing a low output of $135 million in value per year (about 2 percent of its GDP). Mombasa, Kenya, is the main market for Somalia’s fish and fish products in East Africa, while Europe, the Middle East and Asia are some of its major destinations. On June 30th,  an NGO known as the Global Fishing Watch (GFW), in conjunction with Trygg Mat Tracking (TMT), employed the use of tracking technology to investigate the illegal fishing activity in the country’s waterways. It reported that about 200 Iranian fishing boats operating illegally had been detected in waters off Somalia and Yemen. A...

New cases confirmed today: 13 Benadir: 7 Puntland: 4 Somaliland: 2 Male: 9 Female: 4 Recovery: 51 Death: 0 Total confirmed cases: 3,028 Total recoveries: 1,147 Total deaths: 92

Somali National Army (SNA) killed three Al-Shabaab fighters on Tuesday in an offensive on the outskirts of the Somali capital Mogadishu, a military officer confirmed on Wednesday. Ahmed Mohamed, commander of SNA’s 27th Unit, told reporters on Wednesday that the army conducted a planned operation on the road linking Mogadishu to Jowhar town and inflicted casualties on the militants. “During the offensive, there was a confrontation between the army and the militants. The forces managed to subdue them, killing three of them,” Mohamed said. The latest onslaught came after the Al-Shabaab militants abducted and later killed a regional state lawmaker on the same road on Sunday. The Somali security forces backed by allied forces have stepped up their air and ground operations against the militants in the Horn of African nation despite the militants’ continued resistance, at times targeting military bases, hotels and other public places.

Somali National Army backed by Southwestern state forces on Sunday evening killed members of al-Shabab militants in a fierce fight in Awdinle town in the southern region of Bay, an official confirmed on Monday. Ibrahim Mohamed Nour, governor of Awdinle town, told reporters that al-Shabab militants launched an attack on a base run by the Somali soldiers and Southwestern state forces, but they were repulsed and pushed back. "Our forces foiled the militants' attempt to overrun the base. We killed five al-Shabab militants and injured six others," Nour said. He added that the army is now making operations to pursue the remnants of the militants. The latest attack came barely two days after a bomb attack in Baidoa town in the same region which left five people dead and 10 others injured. Meanwhile, the militant group abducted and later killed a regional State lawmaker near the town of Bal'ad, 30 kilometers north of the Somali capital, Mogadishu on Sunday. Al...

Somalia’s Covid-19 cases have surpassed 3,000, the latest Ministry of Health report has indicated. The country registered nine cases in the last 24 hours, the ministry said in its report. This brings the country’s Covid-19 tally to 3,006. Five of the 9 cases are from Banadir region, 3 from Somaliland and 1 from Jubbaland. All but one of the new cases are male. Meanwhile, 37 more people have fully recovered from the disease, bringing the total number of recoveries to 1,051. The death toll still stands at 92.

A regional Somali lawmaker has been abducted and killed by al-Shabab militants near the town of Bal’ad, 30 kilometers north of Mogadishu. Mohamed Mohamud Siyad was travelling in a vehicle from Jowhar town to the capital Mogadishu when he was abducted on Sunday. The vehicle Siyad was travelling in was stopped near the village of Gololey, north of Bal’ad. The militants drove the vehicle off the road. Officials say they believe the lawmaker was killed soon after he was removed from the vehicle. The militant group claimed responsibility for the abduction and killing of the lawmaker. Al-Shabab has been attacking the road between Jowhar and Mogadishu frequently over the last three years. In September last year, five regional officials including a former trade minister, a finance official and a humanitarian worker were killed in an explosion from an improvised explosive device. In June of 2018, two regional lawmakers were among 11 people killed in an al-Shabab ambush while tr...

There have been a suicide bomb attack close to the port of the capital, Mogadishu, which injured at least seven. Militant group al-Shabab said it was behind both incidents. The UN-backed government has been battling against al-Shabab for control of the country for more than a decade The militants, who are allied to al-Qaeda, said that in Baidoa they were targeting tax collectors, who were holding a meeting at the restaurant, and soldiers. They added that two soldiers died in the attack but officials said the victims were all civilians Police reported that in Mogadishu officers opened fire on a vehicle after it failed to stop at a checkpoint. The suicide bomber driving the car is said to have tried to hit a police post in front of the port but the security forces shot him and the vehicle exploded. Two police officers and five passers-by were wounded.

July 1 will always be a memorable day in Somalia's history. It does not only symbolise the end of the Italian rule in the southern regions, but is also the day the former British Somaliland Protectorate and the Italian-governed Somali territory united to form the Somali Republic, thus called the Unity Day. British Somaliland had gained independence from the UK five days earlier on June 26, 1960, with Somalis earning their share of the glorious Year of Africa. After week-long jubilation, the united country in the Horn of Africa started a journey, exercising the democracy inherited from the two colonial powers. To start with, the two legislative assemblies, 33 members in the north (former British territory) and 90 from the south (former Italian Somalia) were united to form a national assembly in Mogadishu, the seaside city chosen to become the state capital Within its first year of independence, the new nation approved its constitution via a referendum, enacting that t...

A long 16-year wait has finally came to an end with a sparkling new Stadium Mogadishu reopened in the Somali capital on Tuesday evening. Civil unrest and occupation by various forces had seen the stadium fall into disrepair over much of the past two decades. Somalia's president, Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed, symbolically kicked the first ball to re-open the stadium. Top Somali Premier League pair Mogadishu City Club and Horseed Sports Club then had the honour of featuring in the opening match of the national facility, with the latter winning 2-1. The league returned to action a fortnight ago following a three-month hiatus due to COVID-19. The venue will also host national team matches in the future with the Ocean Stars forced to play recent matches away. Somali Football Federation president, Abdiqani Said Arab, said that the reopening match of the facility will be recognised as the biggest football development in the country in 2020. “Stadium Mogadishu is now ready and S...

Roughly 200 Iranian fishing boats operating illegally have been detected in waters off Somalia and Yemen. Global Fishing Watch (GFW) and Trygg Mat Tracking (TMT) are partners in a study that relied on increasingly available tracking technology – used to help boats avoid collisions – to identify the boats and their locations. The automatic identification system (AIS) on the boats, along with a series of buoys attached to fishing nets to track those too, delivered the research data. “A smaller subset of Indian, Pakistani and Sri Lankan flagged vessels have also been identified in these areas,” said Charles Kilgour of GFW and Duncan Copeland of TMT. They worked with regional organizations, including the Somali government, seeking to understand the scope of a longstanding illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing problem in the northwest Indian Ocean. Their results are released in the Fisheries Intelligence Report. “We hope that our analysis will be used to advance enfor...