Somalia

Newsline

Somalia takes part in ‘World’s Biggest Lesson’ for equality in education
NAIROBI, Kenya, 8 May 2008 – More than 7.5 million people from over 100 countries joined together to simultaneously express their feelings about the importance of education last month, as part of a unique event called the ‘World’s Biggest Lesson.’

Temporary schools bring a sense of normalcy to young Somalis displaced by conflict
ALONG THE AFGOYE ROAD, Somalia, 7 March 2008 – Saadia, 18, last saw her husband more than a month ago, before fighting in Mogadishu forced her to flee with her newborn baby to safety some 15 km outside the capital.

Centre offers help for chronic malnutrition in Somalia
JOWHAR, Somalia, 7 March 2008 - Following heavy fighting in Mogadishu, Mumino Hussein Nuur, 32, fled her home and came to the Kalagooye Camp for displaced people in Jowhar. She brought her three young children – Hussein, Fatuma and four-year-old Mohammed.

UNICEF seeks emergency support for Somalia’s undernourished children
HARGEISA, Somalia 15 February 2008 – They were noises Khadra Abdullahi knew all too well: first, the blast from a bomb; then the screams and the clanging of pots as she threw her family’s possessions into a bag and fled.

A polio survivor dedicates her life to helping children get vaccinated
HARGEISA, Somalia, 25 January 2007 – When she was seven-years-old, Nora woke up feeling as if she had a cold. By the following morning, she was plagued with crippling pain and unable to walk. Now, as an adult, Nora must live with the devastating effects of contracting polio.

Providing water and sanitation to families displaced by conflict in Somalia
AFGOYE, Somalia, 9 January 2007 – Every day, hundreds of families flee insecurity in Mogadishu and seek refuge in overcrowded camps along Somalia's Afgoye Corridor. Many come terrorized, exhausted and in urgent need of food, water and shelter – especially the children.

Child-survival campaign reaches families displaced by conflict in Mogadishu
AFGOYE, Somalia, 18 December 2007 – Hawa Ali, a mother of two, fled fighting in the Somali capital of Mogadishu last month and found refuge in the makeshift Eelasha Biyasha settlement here. This camp and others like it, along a 30-km stretch between Mogadishu and Afgoye, are now home to some 200,000 children, women and men displaced by conflict.

Protecting children’s rights where they are not enshrined by treaty
HARGEISA, Somalia, 29 November 2007 – The Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) turned 18 last week – a momentous occasion for children all around the world. It was of particular interest to youths in Somalia, one of only two countries in the world that have not ratified the CRC.

Volunteer-staffed health centre helps save lives in Baidoa, Somalia
BAIDOA, Somalia, 2 October 2007 – It didn’t take long for Hawa to see that her frail, one-year-old son Saeed was not responding to traditional medicines. Her child was wasting away, his feet so bloated that they appeared they might burst. Hawa had to move quickly – her son was dying from severe malnutrition.

Mothers and children hit hard by nutrition crisis in Somalia
MOGADISHU, Somalia, 13 September 2007 – Following a recent nutrition survey, UNICEF and its partners estimate that 83,000 children in central and southern Somalia suffer from malnutrition – 13,500 of whom are severely malnourished and at risk of dying.

UNICEF Somalia relief efforts hindered by lack of access to conflict-affected areas
NEW YORK, USA, 25 April 2007 – Somalia’s security situation has been in a steady decline since the beginning of 2007 – along with all the consequent health and protection issues for children and families.

UNICEF Representative in Somalia assesses impact of conflict on children and families
NEW YORK, USA, 12 January 2007 – Children in southern Somalia are suffering from recruitment and abduction into militias, displacement from their villages and other ill effects of an increase in violence and instability in the region.

Rebuilding schools and communities in tsunami-affected Somalia
NEW YORK, USA, December 2006 – Two years after the Indian Ocean tsunami hit the northeastern coastline of Somalia, life is beginning to return to normal.

Frontline diary: Lives uprooted by Somalia floods
ARARE CAMP, Somalia, 21 December 2006 – The broad picture of the torrential rains and floods in Somalia is grim enough – a huge expanse of some 100,000 productive hectares lies submerged after the Shabelle and Juba rivers burst their banks.

Somalia floods devastate communities
JOWHAR, Somalia, 6 December 2006 – Central and Southern Somalia have experienced widespread flooding that has affected over 300,000 people in recent weeks.

Floods bring havoc to Dadaab refugee camp in northeastern Kenya
DADAAB, Kenya, 4 December 2006 – It was early Saturday morning and Kusa Yunis Hassan, 23, a Somali refugee mother of two, emerged from her plastic shelter. Her son Mohammed, 3, was playing outside. There had been a deluge for the past two weeks.

Severe floods ravage eastern Africa
NEW YORK, USA, 14 November 2006 – Tens of thousands of people in eastern Africa have fled their homes, and many have died, as a result of heavy flooding in recent weeks. Somalia in particular has been severely affected, along with neighbouring Ethiopia and Kenya.

Polio case in Kenya refugee camp raises fears and concerns
NEW YORK, USA, 26 October 2006 – As the escalating conflict in Somalia triggers an influx of refugees into neighbouring Kenya, a child living in a camp along the border has been diagnosed with polio. It is Kenya’s first reported case in 22 years.

Conflict over scarce resources in drought-stricken Somalia
BAKOOL REGION, Somalia, 6 June 2006 – In a country that is ungoverned and ungovernable, men with guns are as much a part of the Somali landscape as are the dusty roads.

The burden on children: Searching for scarce resources in drought-stricken Somalia
BAKOOL REGION, Somalia, 23 May 2006 – The families walk for days across the vast parched landscape of southern Somalia, children and goats in tow, following rumours of rain. Finally, rare showers bring them to a halt around fresh watering holes and they settle down. Just hours later, though, all that’s left are puddles of fetid water.

Despite recent rains, Somalia uniquely devastated by drought
NEW YORK, USA, 19 April 2006 – UNICEF’s Representative in Somalia, Christian Balslev-Olesen, was in New York earlier this month discussing and planning UNICEF’s efforts to provide humanitarian assistance in the drought-stricken Horn of Africa.

Somalia afflicted by worst drought in decade
WAJID, Somalia, 8 February 2006 – Like thousands of others in Somalia, 26-year old Faduma Adow Bolis is dealing with the latest misfortune to beset her people. The country, challenged by years of inter-clan conflict and limited access to basic social services, now faces the worst drought in a decade.

UNICEF Executive Director Ann M. Veneman: Urgent action needed in drought-stricken Horn of Africa
NEW YORK, USA, 7 February 2006 – UNICEF Executive Director Ann M. Veneman is calling for immediate action in the drought-stricken Horn of Africa to keep children from dying.

UNICEF appeals for $16 million to fund emergency drought relief in the Horn of Africa
NEW YORK, USA, 3 February 2006 – UNICEF has launched an appeal for $16 million dollars to fund emergency aid in the Horn of Africa. More than 8 million people in Kenya, Somalia, Ethiopia and Djibouti are affected by a worsening drought. With rain not due until April, UNICEF fears the situation will deteriorate even further.

For Somali children, every minute in school counts
BOSSASO, Somalia – On a hot, dusty morning in Askar Internally Displaced Persons camp, one of many settlements made of cartons and boxes in Somalia, a little girl flips a pancake on a traditional stove.

Somalia: Local community celebrates bigger, better school after tsunami
HAFUN, Somalia, December 2005 – Like an oasis, the new primary school in Hafun is a welcome sight amid the devastation still evident almost one year after the Indian Ocean tsunami.

Somalia: Recovery effort aims for better basic services than before tsunami
NEW YORK, 22 June 2005 – Reconstruction in the tsunami-affected Puntland region of north-eastern Somalia is well under way, thanks to a broad alliance involving UNICEF, other UN agencies, relief organizations and local partners.

In Hafun, a girl's dream comes true
HAFUN, Somalia, 7 April 2005 – Nine-year old Faduma Farah Aden always wanted to go to school but never thought she would have the chance. Like most of the girls in Hafun, a fishing village in northeast Somalia, she was resigned to spending her days looking after sheep and fetching firewood. However, that all changed the day the Indian Ocean tsunami struck the Somalia coastline.

Communities unite around education in Somalia
MOGADISHU, Somalia, 7 April 2005 - In war-torn Somalia, where a devastating civil conflict has fractured families and ravaged national institutions, communities are finding common cause in the drive for education for all.

After the tsunami, better health care for Hafun
HAFUN, Somalia, 22 March 2005 - The devastation inflicted on the fishing village of Hafun, Somalia by the tsunami on 26 December 2004 has led to a development rebirth.

Post-tsunami school project galvanizes Hafun, Somalia
HAFUN, Somalia, 22 March 2005 - Before the tsunami of 26 December 2004, Hafun was a thriving fishing village off the coast of north-eastern Somalia, with a population of 5,000 and a quiet existence in an otherwise conflict-ridden country.

European Commission grant boosts education in Somalia
NAIROBI, 3 February 2005 – A new €4.5 million grant (over $5.8 million) from the European Commission will help ensure that 80,000 more Somali girls and boys will be able to go to school.

Tsunami highlights 'forgotten emergency' in Somalia
HAFUN, Somalia, 17 January 2005 - Located far out on the eastern edge of the Horn of Africa, where no proper roads exist and the airstrip is the desert, the remote Somali fishing village of Hafun hasn’t had so much attention in decades.

Children in remote fishing villages get help
HAFUN, Somalia, 11 January 2005 - Children in the fishing villages of Hafun, Gara’g, Bender Byla and Eyl on the north-eastern coastline of Somalia are suffering the aftermath of last month’s tsunami.

After the tsunami Somalia is the worst-hit country in Africa
MOGADISHU, Somalia, 5 January 2005 - UNICEF has mounted a rapid relief effort to aid the approximately 15,000 people who have been affected by flooding along the country’s coastline following last Sunday’s massive earthquake.

Relief supplies reach Somalia’s children
MOGADISHU, Somalia, 30 December 2004 – As countries in South Asia are dealing with the devastation caused by the surging tidal waves, Somalia - a coastal nation in Africa - is also suffering from the effects of the disaster.