Latest news with #Mogadishu
Arab News
4 days ago
- General
- Arab News
KSrelief to operate Somalia's National Blood Bank
RIYADH: The King Salman Humanitarian Aid and Relief Center has signed an agreement with the International Wars and Disasters Victims' Protection Association to implement the second phase of the National Blood Bank project in Mogadishu, Somalia. The agreement for the project, expected to benefit over 10,000 people, was signed in Riyadh by Ahmed bin Ali Al-Baiz, the center's assistant supervisor general for operations and programs. Dr. Abdullah Al-Moallem, director of KSrelief's health and environmental aid department, said: 'The National Blood Bank in Mogadishu will operate under this agreement to help reduce mortality rates and limit the spread of bloodborne infectious and epidemic diseases. This will be achieved through the provision of a safe and secure blood supply for transfusions and medical treatments. The project will also support early detection of blood-related and other illnesses, strengthening the overall healthcare system.'
BBC News
4 days ago
- General
- BBC News
African legends bring hope to Somalian football
When the wider world thinks of Somalia, the first things that are most likely to come to mind are conflict and the pirates who have threatened ships around the Horn of Africa in recent instability has restricted the development of sport in the country and the men's national football team, nicknamed the Ocean Stars, have not played competitively on home soil since game has historically united a population of around 17 million troubled by clan divisions, and Mogadishu could soon be granted permission to stage international matches at its 65,000-capacity National legends of African football - Emmanuel Adebayor, Samuel Eto'o and Jay Jay Okocha - travelled to the Somali capital this week to take part in an exhibition match which players and officials hope will help pave the way for the continent's top stars to return on a regular basis."This football showcase is truly a historic moment. It marks the day Somalia earned a golden place on the world stage," local youth coach and player Cabdulaahi Geesey told BBC Somali."Sharing the pitch with Okocha, Eto'o and Adebayor, wearing the same kit and even scoring a goal is a dream come true."The image these guests will carry back with them is of a peaceful Somalia, a united people and a football culture that is rising once again."Somalia deserves the trust to start hosting matches on home soil again." Former Arsenal and Real Madrid striker Adebayor hailed the match, part of a 'peace tour' backed by world governing body Fifa, as a "wonderful" thousands in attendance created an electric atmosphere in a stadium that has endured a chequered past."I know a little bit about Somalia," the 41-year-old former Togo captain said."We just pray for God to give you peace so that you can build your country."Yet the security situation in Somalia remains challenging, and the mood was tense outside the stadium, with a heavy police contingent guarding the State-aligned Al-Shabab militants launched a major offensive earlier this year and have made territorial gains since in April killed senior Somali military officials in a village 30km from Mogadishu, while several people died this month when a suicide bomber targeted an army recruitment centre in the security minister Mohamed Ali Haga described the match as a chance to "change the perception of the world towards Somalia and show the world that Mogadishu is peaceful". 'First step' to international return Somalia's footballers have always struggled to make an impact on the continental stage, and its men are currently ranked 201st out of 210 national teams in the world – with only Seychelles and unranked Eritrea beneath them in have never made it past the preliminary round in qualifying for the Africa Cup of Nations and have only ever registered one win in qualifying for the Fifa World has become Somalia's most frequent venue for 'home' games during almost four decades in exile, during which time their stadium in Mogadishu was repeatedly requisitioned for military Football Association president Souleiman Waberi, who also holds high office at the Confederation of African Football (Caf) and Fifa, says the legends game is the first step to the return of the Ocean Stars."Maybe the next step will be a friendly match with another country," Waberi added."Then the Somalia FA can send a letter to Caf to request them to come to check the stadium."If it meets all criteria, Somalia can host international games here in Mogadishu."Recent home qualifiers for the 2026 World Cup have been staged as far afield as Morocco and Mozambique, but supporters are eager for their side to return to home Maxamuud was among the thousands in attendance on Tuesday to see Adebayor, Eto'o and Okocha in action."I'm genuinely very happy having three world-renowned footballers visit us, be warmly welcomed, and return safely," she told the BBC."To Somalia, I say may this peace last."Just as these players came and left in peace and good health, I hope the same will happen for others." A new dawn for stadium Built in 1977 with Chinese assistance, Mogadishu's main ground was closed in 1991 when the country descended into anarchy after the overthrow of President Siad Barre's military from the United States and Pakistan used it as a base for two years until 1995, when it reopened for a nine-year troops were then stationed there before Al-Shabab made it their main Mogadishu stronghold between 2009 and 2011.A new internationally-backed government was installed in 2012, leading to a new peacekeeping force using the stadium as an operational suffered heavily during the years of military use, but artificial turf was laid and facilities restored during a renovation in official reopening for a game between Horseed SC and Mogadishu City Club in July 2021 drew a capacity is now hoped the legends match will help demonstrate that sport can reclaim a space once dominated by violence."I know Somalia," Waberi said."It's a people of sport. There's football every day."We have a legends game, you see the stadium is full. I am sure this stadium will host international games."
Arab News
27-05-2025
- Health
- Arab News
US aid kept many hungry Somali children alive. Now that money is disappearing
MOGADISHU, Somalia: The cries of distressed children filled the ward for the severely malnourished. Among the patients was 1-year-old Maka'il Mohamed. Doctors pressed his chest in a desperate attempt to support his breathing. His father brought him too late to a hospital in Somalia 's capital, Mogadishu. The victim of complications related to malnutrition, the boy did not survive. 'Are you certain? Did he really die?' the father, Mohamed Ma'ow, asked a doctor, shocked. The death earlier this month at Banadir Hospital captured the agony of a growing number of Somalis who are unable to feed their children — and that of health workers who are seeing hundreds of millions of dollars in US support disappear under the Trump administration. The US Agency for International Development once provided 65 percent of Somalia's foreign aid, according to Dr. Abdiqani Sheikh Omar, the former director general of the Ministry of Health and now a government adviser. Now USAID is being dismantled. And in Somalia, dozens of centers treating the hungry are closing. They have been crucial in a country described as having one of the world's most fragile health systems as it wrestles with decades of insecurity. Save the Children, the largest non-governmental provider of health and nutrition services to children in Somalia, said the lives of 55,000 children will be at risk by June as it closes 121 nutrition centers it can no longer fund. Aid cuts mean that 11 percent more children are expected to be severely malnourished than in the previous year, Save the Children said. Somalia has long faced food insecurity because of climate shocks like drought. But aid groups and Somalis alike now fear a catastrophe. Former Somali Foreign Minister Ahmed Moalin told state-run TV last month that USAID had provided $1 billion in funding for Somalia in fiscal year 2023, with a similar amount expected for 2024. Much of that funding is now gone. A US State Department spokesperson in a statement to the AP said 'several lifesaving USAID humanitarian assistance programs are active in Somalia, including programs that provide food and nutrition assistance to children,' and they were working to make sure the programs continue when such aid transitions to the State Department on July 1. The problem, aid workers say, is the US hasn't made clear what programs are lifesaving, or whether whatever funding is left will continue after July 1. The aid group CARE has warned that 4.6 million people in Somalia are projected to face severe hunger by June, an uptick of hundreds of thousands of people from forecasts before the aid cuts. The effects are felt in rural areas and in Mogadishu, where over 800,000 displaced people shelter. Camps for them are ubiquitous in the city's suburbs, but many of their centers for feeding the hungry are now closing. Some people still go to the closed centers and hope that help will come. Mogadishu residents said they suffer, too. Ma'ow, the bereaved father, is a tailor. He said he had been unable recently to provide three meals a day for his family of six. His wife had no breast milk for Maka'il, whose malnutrition deteriorated between multiple trips to the hospital. Doctors confirmed that malnutrition was the primary factor in Maka'il's decline. The nutrition center at Banadir Hospital where Ma'ow family had been receiving food assistance is run by Alight Africa, a local partner for the UN children's agency, UNICEF, and one that has lost funding. The funding cuts have left UNICEF's partners unable to provide lifesaving support, including therapeutic supplies and supplemental nutrition at a time when 15 percent of Somali children are acutely malnourished, said Simon Karanja, a regional UNICEF official. One Alight Africa worker, Abdullahi Hassan, confirmed that the group had to close all their nutrition centers in several districts of Mogadishu. One nutrition project supervisor for the group, Said Abdullahi Hassan, said closures have caused, 'tragically, the deaths of some children.' Without the food assistance they had taken for granted, many Somalis are seeing their children waste away. More than 500 malnourished children were admitted to the center for malnourished children at Banadir Hospital between April and May, according to Dr. Mohamed Jama, head of the nutrition center. He said such increases in patients usually occur during major crises like drought or famine but called the current situation unprecedented. 'The funding gap has impacted not only the malnourished but also health staff, whose salaries have been cut,' he said. Fadumo Ali Adawe, a mother of five who lives in one of the camps, said she urgently needed help for her 3-year-old daughter, malnourished now for nine months. The nearby nutrition center she frequented is now closed. 'We are unsure of what to do next,' she said. Inside that center, empty food packages were strewn about — and USAID posters still hung on the walls.
The Independent
27-05-2025
- Health
- The Independent
US aid kept many hungry Somali children alive. Now that money is disappearing
The cries of distressed children filled the ward for the severely malnourished. Among the patients was 1-year-old Maka'il Mohamed. Doctors pressed his chest in a desperate attempt to support his breathing. His father brought him too late to a hospital in Somalia 's capital, Mogadishu. The victim of complications related to malnutrition, the boy did not survive. 'Are you certain? Did he really die?' the father, Mohamed Ma'ow, asked a doctor, shocked. The death earlier this month at Banadir Hospital captured the agony of a growing number of Somalis who are unable to feed their children — and that of health workers who are seeing hundreds of millions of dollars in U.S. support disappear under the Trump administration. The U.S. Agency for International Development once provided 65% of Somalia's foreign aid, according to Dr. Abdiqani Sheikh Omar, the former director general of the Ministry of Health and now a government advisor. Now USAID is being dismantled. And in Somalia, dozens of centers treating the hungry are closing. They have been crucial in a country described as having one of the world's most fragile health systems as it wrestles with decades of insecurity. Save the Children, the largest non-governmental provider of health and nutrition services to children in Somalia, said the lives of 55,000 children will be at risk by June as it closes 121 nutrition centers it can no longer fund. Aid cuts mean that 11% more children are expected to be severely malnourished than in the previous year, Save the Children said. Somalia has long faced food insecurity because of climate shocks like drought. But aid groups and Somalis alike now fear a catastrophe. Former Somali Foreign Minister Ahmed Moalin told state-run TV last month that USAID had provided $1 billion in funding for Somalia in fiscal year 2023, with a similar amount expected for 2024. Much of that funding is now gone. A U.S. State Department spokesperson in a statement to the AP said 'several lifesaving USAID humanitarian assistance programs are active in Somalia, including programs that provide food and nutrition assistance to children," and they were working to make sure the programs continue when such aid transitions to the State Department on July 1. The problem, aid workers say, is the U.S. hasn't made clear what programs are lifesaving, or whether whatever funding is left will continue after July 1. The aid group CARE has warned that 4.6 million people in Somalia are projected to face severe hunger by June, an uptick of hundreds of thousands of people from forecasts before the aid cuts. The effects are felt in rural areas and in Mogadishu, where over 800,000 displaced people shelter. Camps for them are ubiquitous in the city's suburbs, but many of their centers for feeding the hungry are now closing. Some people still go to the closed centers and hope that help will come. Mogadishu residents said they suffer, too. Ma'ow, the bereaved father, is a tailor. He said he had been unable recently to provide three meals a day for his family of six. His wife had no breast milk for Maka'il, whose malnutrition deteriorated between multiple trips to the hospital. Doctors confirmed that malnutrition was the primary factor in Maka'il's decline. The nutrition center at Banadir Hospital where Ma'ow family had been receiving food assistance is run by Alight Africa, a local partner for the U.N. children's agency, UNICEF, and one that has lost funding. The funding cuts have left UNICEF's partners unable to provide lifesaving support, including therapeutic supplies and supplemental nutrition at a time when 15% of Somali children are acutely malnourished, said Simon Karanja, a regional UNICEF official. One Alight Africa worker, Abdullahi Hassan, confirmed that the group had to close all their nutrition centers in several districts of Mogadishu. One nutrition project supervisor for the group, Said Abdullahi Hassan, said closures have caused, 'tragically, the deaths of some children.' Without the food assistance they had taken for granted, many Somalis are seeing their children waste away. More than 500 malnourished children were admitted to the center for malnourished children at Banadir Hospital between April and May, according to Dr. Mohamed Jama, head of the nutrition center. He said such increases in patients usually occur during major crises like drought or famine but called the current situation unprecedented. "The funding gap has impacted not only the malnourished but also health staff, whose salaries have been cut,' he said. Fadumo Ali Adawe, a mother of five who lives in one of the camps, said she urgently needed help for her 3-year-old daughter, malnourished now for nine months. The nearby nutrition center she frequented is now closed. 'We are unsure of what to do next," she said. Inside that center, empty food packages were strewn about — and USAID posters still hung on the walls. ___ For more on Africa and development: The Associated Press receives financial support for global health and development coverage in Africa from the Gates Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP's standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at
Washington Post
27-05-2025
- Health
- Washington Post
US aid kept many hungry Somali children alive. Now that money is disappearing
MOGADISHU, Somalia — The cries of distressed children filled the ward for the severely malnourished. Among the patients was 1-year-old Maka'il Mohamed. Doctors pressed his chest in a desperate attempt to support his breathing. His father brought him too late to a hospital in Somalia 's capital, Mogadishu. The victim of complications related to malnutrition, the boy did not survive.
