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Saturday April 25, 2026 Severe drought has driven at least 62,000 people from their homes in five districts across Somalia since the beginning of 2026, as the country faces mounting climate pressures, the International Organization for Migration said on Friday. The United Nations migration agency said its data shows drought is now responsible for three out of every four new displacements, marking a 22 percent increase from a year earlier and underscoring the worsening toll of climate shocks. Manuel Marques Pereira, IOM’s…

Monday March 30, 2026 Mogadishu (AX) — Fresh fighting and mounting tensions in Somalia’s Southwest State have driven an estimated 45,000 people from their homes, pushing already strained families into areas where access to basic services and humanitarian aid is thin, the United Nations said Friday. In a statement released in Mogadishu, the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) cited Humanitarian Coordinator for Somalia George Conway as voicing serious alarm over the worsening crisis, especially for…

MOGADISHU (AX) — The Banadir Regional Administration will allocate $288,000 this year to strengthen education services and support the construction of new public schools in Mogadishu, Mayor Hassan Mohamed Hussein, known as Muungaab, announced Sunday, marking a renewed push to expand access to free public education in the capital. The funding, approved for the current school year, is expected to rise in subsequent years as the city advances a wider plan to improve public schooling. “I recently signed nearly three hundred…

NAIROBI, Kenya — Kenyan authorities have arrested a Chinese national at Nairobi’s Jomo Kenyatta International Airport on suspicion of attempting to smuggle more than 2,000 queen garden ants out of the country, in a case underscoring the growing global trade in exotic insects. Airport security intercepted the traveler, identified in court as Zhang Kequn, during screening as he prepared to fly to China. Prosecutors said Zhang is linked to an ant-trafficking network that was disrupted in Kenya last year; he has not responded…

TEHRAN, Iran — Israel launched fresh air strikes across Iran on Thursday, the fifth day of a U.S.-Israeli offensive that has killed more than 1,000 people, damaged security installations and residential buildings, and forced the postponement of funeral rites for Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Israeli strikes hit targets in Tehran, the holy city of Qom, western Iran and multiple sites in central Isfahan province, Iran’s Tasnim news agency reported. Israel said it targeted buildings used by the Basij, a volunteer…

Kenya’s spy agency says a trafficking pipeline aided by rogue officials has funneled up to 1,000 Kenyans into Russia’s war in Ukraine, with at least one death and dozens injured or missing, according to a report presented to parliament. The National Intelligence Service report, tabled Wednesday by National Assembly Majority Leader Kimani Ichung’wah, details alleged collusion by airport staff, immigration officers, investigators and labor officials to recruit and move Kenyans into Russia under false pretenses. It says 89…

MOGADISHU, Somalia — Somalia plans to recruit 12,000 government-employed teachers by the end of 2026, Prime Minister Hamza Abdi Barre said Saturday, framing the effort as the centerpiece of a drive to rebuild a long-fragile education system and place it on a domestically financed footing. Barre said his administration has already recruited and deployed 6,000 trained teachers in less than two years, a dramatic shift from the roughly 900 teachers on the federal payroll when the government took office. “In just two years, we…

Somalia to recruit 10,000 teachers, shift salaries to domestic revenue in education overhaul MOGADISHU — Somalia will hire 10,000 teachers over the next 45 months and pay their salaries entirely from domestic revenue, Prime Minister Hamza Abdi Barre announced Friday, framing the move as a cornerstone of state-building and economic independence. “For the first time in Somalia’s history, teachers’ salaries will be paid entirely from domestic revenue rather than external support,” Barre wrote on X. “This is not just politics,…

Iran acknowledges about 2,000 deaths in protests as U.S. imposes sweeping tariffs and weighs next steps DUBAI, Jan. 13 — An Iranian official said about 2,000 people, including security personnel, have been killed in two weeks of nationwide protests, the first time authorities have acknowledged a death toll from the crackdown that followed unrest over Iran’s collapsing currency and deepening economic pain. The official, speaking to Reuters on condition of anonymity, blamed “terrorists” for the deaths on both sides but did not…

MOGADISHU, Somalia — Somali security agencies say nearly 10,000 police officers have been mobilized to secure Mogadishu’s local council elections on Dec. 25, a vote billed as the capital’s first direct, one-person, one-vote poll in more than 50 years. Speaking to reporters Sunday, Internal Security Minister Abdullahi Sheikh Ismail (Farataag) said the Somali Police Force has finalized a citywide security plan to safeguard voters, polling stations, election workers and critical infrastructure throughout the Banadir region.…