Why Somalia’s drought and looming food crisis require an innovative response

Abdirahman Abdishakur - Global investment
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Updated 22 September 2022
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Why Somalia’s drought and looming food crisis require an innovative response

  • Presidential Envoy for Drought Response tells Arab News “famine could be here as soon as October”
  • Abdirahman Abdishakur says “humanitarian support is vital but it cannot be a permanent solution”

NEW YORK CITY: Just a few months ago, Somalia was promised a new era. After a peaceful vote and an equally peaceful transfer of power, many had hoped that a line had been drawn under decades of clan divisions, factious politics, heightened tensions between Mogadishu and the regions, and a persistent extremist presence.

In recent years, Somalia recorded encouraging economic growth as well, lifting the hopes of the international community further. 

A new president, whose election had crowned a period of hope that saw the drafting of a new provisional constitution, the establishment of a federal government, and the subsequent formation of five new federal member states, had promised to focus on national reconciliation and on further political and financial reforms.

James Swan, the UN special representative to Somalia, had told the Security Council that Hassan Sheikh Mohamud’s presidency offered a “long-awaited opportunity to advance urgent national priorities.”

Yet it is not because of this progress that Somalia is set to be a major focus of this year’s 77th session of the UN General Assembly. Once again, the country finds itself facing a state of alarming emergency resulting from multiple, overlapping crises.

The UN’s World Meteorological Organization has predicted that the Horn of Africa is likely to face a fifth consecutive failed rainy season over the months of October to December. Somalia is one of the most vulnerable countries to climate change and is ill-equipped to cope with this drought, the worst it has experienced in 40 years.

There is no end in sight, many say. Five years of drought have depleted the country’s water levels, leading to crop failure, with agricultural production falling 70 percent below average. More than 3 million livestock have perished. The animals that remained are now emaciated.

And getting aid to those in need remains a tremendous challenge. Some areas are hard to reach owing to poor road infrastructure. Others are under the control of Al-Shabab, an uncompromising, unpopular group with links to Al-Qaeda.




A mother gives water to her child at a camp for displaced persons in Baidoa, Somalia. Hungry people are heading to Baidoa from rural areas of southern Somalia, one of the regions hardest hit by drought. (AFP)

A deadly insurgency by Al-Shabab against the federal government has resulted in humanitarian aid convoys being attacked. In a vicious cycle, the scarcity that Al-Shabab is exacerbating is in turn leading to more young Somalis being vulnerable to recruitment.

Then came the war in Ukraine, the reverberations from which have been deeply felt in the Horn of Africa. The resultant spike in global grain prices has pushed millions of Somalis to leave their homes and look for food, carrying starving and malnourished children on the way.

Only those who are physically capable of leaving have left, however. As for the most vulnerable, the children, Somalia’s newest generation, they are perishing.

“Food insecurity is a global problem,” Abdirahman Abdishakur, Somalia’s special presidential envoy for drought response, told Arab News.

“The whole world has been affected by disruptions to global supply chains of grain, fertilizer and fuel arising from the conflict in Ukraine. Much like the rest of the world, Somalia has also been affected.

“The difference for Somalia is that this crisis is coming on top of many others that the country has been reeling from for decades.”

UN reports indicate that some communities, particularly agro-pastoral populations in Baidoa and Burhakaba districts and displaced people in the Baidoa town of the Bay region, will experience famine starting in October if aid is not immediately scaled up.

Abdishakur is in New York City to lobby and urge donors, the international community, and the Somali diaspora to support the drought response “before it is too late.”

Various UN bodies, including children’s fund UNICEF, the World Food Program, and the Food and Agriculture Organization, have repeatedly warned that the emergency shows no signs of letting up.

In a statement, the FAO said that “without action, famine will occur within the next few weeks,” adding that drought-related deaths had already been occurring and the toll could be much higher in hard-to-reach rural areas, compared with the number recorded in camps for displaced families.

During the famine of 2011, 340,000 Somali children required treatment for severe acute malnutrition, James Elder, UNICEF spokesperson, said in Geneva, Switzerland. “Today it’s 513,000. It’s a pending nightmare we have not seen this century.”




Abdirahman Abdishakur, Somalia's special presidential envoy, has called for an immediate global response to the country's food crisis. (Supplied)

According to the FAO, approximately 6.7 million people in Somalia will likely endure high levels of acute food insecurity between October and December this year, including more than 300,000 who have been left “empty-handed” by the country’s triple emergency and who are expected to fall into famine.

Abdishakur said: “Needs have escalated, and funds remain below what is required. The window for the international community is literally now. If the world doesn’t scale up assistance, famine could be here as soon as October.”

Although such dire predictions have thrown Somalia into the limelight, famine projections were actually made back in March.

“Many governments have increased their funding over the course of the drought, and we are very grateful. However, the need for adequate levels of funding to contain the initial emergency was not met, allowing the situation to spiral into the crisis we are experiencing today,” he added.

Now, Abdishakur is leading a call for a more aggressive humanitarian response to the crisis to save as many lives as possible.

“The sheer severity of the situation demands a more aggressive, innovative, and tangible reaction from the international community,” he said. And he called on the international community to “rally in the spirit of humanitarian diplomacy” and increase their contributions “before it’s too late.”

“No one should be dying from starvation in 2022. In this world of staggering wealth, skills and knowledge, there should be enough support to go around,” he added.




A child sleeps in a makeshift tent at Muuri camp in Baidoa, one of 500 camps for displaced persons. (AFP)

It is not the first or even 10th time that an emergency appeal has been made for Somalia to donor countries, and Abdishakur noted that it would not be the last if the same approach continued to be taken each year by Somalia’s government or the international community.

He said: “I do not want to be knocking on doors again in five years’ time or ever. Around 1 billion dollars is spent on aid to our country annually yet needs continue to increase. Humanitarian support is vital during a crisis, but it cannot be a permanent solution.”

Somalis are aware of the progress they had begun to get a taste for, but now fear that their country’s full potential will not be achieved.

According to experts, had that potential been utilized, Somalia could have contributed to food security and sustainable energy production in the Horn of Africa and the world.

As the presidential envoy for drought response, Abdishakur is advocating a new way of working aimed at ultimately ending the cycle of hunger and suffering that focuses on long-term adaptation to, and mitigation of, climate change.

Along with the urgent funds needed to save lives, he has called for investments that focus on fighting food insecurity, help foster livelihoods, and build infrastructure, especially roads.

He said that between 20 and 40 percent of agricultural produce in Somalia was lost in transportation because of poor roads.

FASTFACT

• A famine is an acute episode of extreme lack of food characterized by starvation, widespread deaths, destitution, and extremely critical levels of acute malnutrition.

“Somalia needs partnerships that make its people thrive by continuing to live their traditional way of life with some added climate-adaptive and mitigation practices,” Abdishakur said

“Somalia has resources. We have minerals, rivers, wind, and natural gas. We have the longest coastline in Africa. We have a large agro-pastoral population, who live off ample pasture and export livestock to global markets when drought is not scorching their land.

“To break away from recurrent crises, we need the international community to understand the importance of building the resilience of our people to climate, economic, and security shocks.

“Along with urgently saving lives, international engagement in Somalia must contribute to livelihoods, develop vital modern infrastructure like roads and irrigation channels, and help families adapt to a new climate reality.”

Looking to the future, Abdishakur said: “We know that our government has a long way to go but we are committed to ending this crisis and stopping the cycle, including through improvements to the way we function, our transparency, and accountability.

“Our request to the international community, and any group with relevant expertise and resources, is to work with our government to urgently save lives today and make sustainable investments in the Somalia of tomorrow.”


US Senate Republicans pass measure to move forward on Trump’s tax cuts

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US Senate Republicans pass measure to move forward on Trump’s tax cuts

  • House Republicans now must weigh Senate’s work
  • Plunging stock market hovers over fiscal outlook

WASHINGTON: The US Senate approved a Republican budget blueprint early on Saturday that aims to extend trillions of dollars worth of President Donald Trump’s 2017 tax cuts and sharply reduce government spending.
The 51-48 vote, following a late-night legislative session, unlocks a maneuver called budget reconciliation that will allow Republicans to bypass the Senate’s filibuster — a rule that imposes a 60-vote threshold on most legislation — and pass Trump’s tax, border security and military priorities later this year without Democratic votes.
“Tonight, the Senate took one small step toward reconciliation and one giant leap toward making the tax cuts permanent, securing the border, providing much-needed help for the military and finally cutting wasteful Washington spending,” Senate Budget Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham said.
Two Republicans — Senators Susan Collins and Rand Paul — joined Democrats in opposing the measure.
The Senate’s action sent the measure on to the Republican-led House of Representatives, which is expected to take it up next week.
Non-partisan analysts say the Trump agenda, if enacted, would add about $5.7 trillion to the federal government’s debt over the next decade. Senate Republicans contend the cost is $1.5 trillion, saying that the effects of extending existing tax policy that was scheduled to expire at the end of this year should not be counted in the measure’s cost.
The measure also aims to raise the federal government’s debt ceiling by $5 trillion, a move Congress has to make by summer or risk defaulting on $36.6 trillion in debt. It aims to partly offset the deficit-raising costs of tax cuts by cutting spending. Democrats have warned that Republican targets would imperil the Medicaid health insurance program for low-income Americans.
Republicans warned that allowing the 2017 tax cuts to expire would hit Americans hard, imposing a 22 percent tax hike on the average taxpayer. The cuts, Trump’s signature legislative achievement of his first term, reduced the top corporate tax rate to 21 percent from 35 percent, a move that is not set to expire.
The remainder of the cuts, for individual Americans, were set to expire, a decision made to limit the 2017 bill’s deficit-raising effects.
“Donald Trump has betrayed the American people. Tonight, Senate Republicans joined him in that betrayal. In voting for this bill, Senate Republicans sided with billionaires against the middle class, in total obeisance to Donald Trump,” Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer of New York said after the vote.

BRUTAL SELL-OFF
Hanging over the debate, which began late on Thursday, was a brutal stock market sell-off following Trump’s sweeping new trade tariffs, which economists warned will drive up prices and could trigger a recession.
Some Republicans said economic uncertainty could slow the path forward for Trump’s agenda if market weakness continues.
“My concern is, if we are having the kind of conversation today three weeks from now, then the distraction will be so great that it will slow down what we try to do,” Republican Senator Thom Tillis told reporters.
During a six-hour “vote-a-rama” session to consider amendments, Senate Republicans altered the blueprint to add a deficit-neutral reserve fund to help protect Medicaid and the Medicare health care program for the elderly.
Republicans also turned away dozens of Democratic amendments aimed at rescinding Trump trade tariffs and protecting Medicaid, Medicare, nutrition support for low-income women and children, the Social Security retirement system, veterans benefits and other government assistance.
Republican Senators Lisa Murkowski, Josh Hawley and Collins backed Democratic measures to safeguard social safety-net programs, but their support was not enough.
If House Republicans get their way, Congress could enact $2 trillion in spending cuts by overhauling Medicaid and food assistance programs and by eliminating popular environmental policies.
The budget blueprint would also make room for tighter security measures along the US border with Mexico, fund administration efforts to significantly ramp up immigrant deportations and bolster US military readiness. 


Thousands rally for South Korea’s impeached ex-president Yoon

Updated 13 min 12 sec ago
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Thousands rally for South Korea’s impeached ex-president Yoon

  • The Constitutional Court unanimously ruled on Friday to remove Yoon over the December 3 attempt to subvert civilian rule

SEOUL: Thousands protested in the South Korean capital Saturday in support of disgraced ex-president Yoon Suk Yeol, who was removed from office a day earlier over his bungled martial law declaration.
South Korea’s Constitutional Court unanimously ruled on Friday to remove Yoon over the December 3 attempt to subvert civilian rule, triggering fresh elections to be held by June after months of political turmoil.
A long wait for the court’s ruling had heightened tensions in the Asian nation, fueling far-right support for Yoon and weekly rival rallies in capital Seoul.
His supporters took to the streets in the capital and braved the rain on Saturday, chanting “impeachment is invalid!” and “nullify the snap election!“
“The Constitutional Court’s decision destroyed our country’s free democracy,” said protester Yang Joo-young, 26.
“Speaking as someone in my 20s or 30s, I’m deeply worried about the future.”
Yoon had defended his martial law attempt as necessary to root out “anti-state forces” and what he claimed were threats from North Korea.
But there were many scenes of jubilation in Seoul on Friday from those opposed to Yoon’s rule, with people hugging and crying after the ruling was delivered.
Yet Yoon had found backing from extreme religious figures and right-wing YouTubers who experts say used misinformation to court support for the former star prosecutor.
“Yoon’s presidency has revealed the societal cracks based on political polarization and misinformation,” Minseon Ku, a postdoctoral fellow at William & Mary Global Research Institute, told AFP.
The court ruled that Yoon’s actions in December had posed a “grave threat” to the country’s stability.
Opposition leader Lee Jae-myung is seen as the frontrunner in the next election, experts say, and his party has taken a more conciliatory approach toward North Korea.
Some Yoon supporters were worried about the prospect of a Lee presidency.
“I honestly believe South Korea is finished,” said pro-Yoon supporter Park Jong-hwan, 59.
“It feels like we’ve already transitioned into a socialist, communist state.”


India’s Modi urges Bangladesh leader to avoid rhetoric that mars ties

Updated 05 April 2025
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India’s Modi urges Bangladesh leader to avoid rhetoric that mars ties

  • Indian official says both leaders discussed Bangladesh’s request for Hasina Wajid’s extradition
  • Public opinion in Bangladesh has soured over India’s sheltering of the former prime minister

BANGKOK/NEW DELHI: India’s prime minister urged Bangladesh’s interim leader to avoid rhetoric that marred bilateral relations during their first meeting on Friday since the ouster of Bangladeshi premier Sheikh Hasina, India’s foreign ministry said.
Relations between the South Asian neighbors, which were robust under Hasina, have deteriorated since she fled the country last August, in the face of massive student-led protests, and sought shelter in India.
Muhammad Yunus, a Nobel Peace Prize winner who took over as the chief adviser of an interim government in Dhaka after Hasina’s exit, met Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday on the fringes of the BIMSTEC summit in Bangkok.
“Prime Minister (Modi) urged ... that any rhetoric that vitiates the environment is best avoided,” India’s foreign secretary Vikram Misri told reporters.
“(Modi) reiterated India’s support for a democratic, stable, peaceful, progressive and inclusive Bangladesh,” Misri said, adding that the Indian leader had also stressed New Delhi’s desire for “a positive and constructive relationship with Bangladesh based on a spirit of pragmatism.”
Bangladesh described the 40-minute exchange between the two leaders as “candid, productive, and constructive.”
Yunus told Modi that Bangladesh wanted to work with him to set the relationship on the right track for the benefit of both countries, Yunus’s press office said in a statement.
Public opinion in Bangladesh has turned against India, in part over its decision to provide sanctuary to Hasina. New Delhi has not responded to Dhaka’s request to send her home for trial.
‘ATROCITIES’
The two leaders discussed Bangladesh’s request seeking Hasina’s extradition, Misri said, without elaborating further.
“She has consistently made false and inflammatory accusations against the interim government of Bangladesh,” the statement from Bangladesh quoted Yunus as saying.
Yunus requested New Delhi take appropriate measures to restrain Hasina from making incendiary remarks while she remained in India, said the statement, adding that Modi said India did not support any particular party in Bangladesh.
India’s Misri said Modi had asked Yunus to help maintain border security and stability, and expressed his hope that Bangladesh would thoroughly investigate all cases of “atrocities” committed against people from minority groups, including Hindus.
India has repeatedly urged Bangladesh to protect its minority Hindus, saying they were being targeted in the Muslim-majority country since Yunus took charge. Dhaka says the violence has been exaggerated and is not a communal issue.
“The hope would be that this meeting would start the process of rebuilding some engagement,” said Harsh Pant, foreign policy head at the Observer Research Foundation, an Indian think-tank.
“I think at this point, simply stabilizing the relationship perhaps should be the priority.”
With longstanding cultural and business ties, the two nations share a 4,000 km (2,500 mile) border. India also played a key role in the 1971 war with its rival Pakistan that led to the creation of Bangladesh.
Modi and Yunus met on the sidelines of a summit in Bangkok of BIMSTEC, or the Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation, a grouping that also includes Thailand, Myanmar, Nepal, Sri Lanka and Bhutan.


Trump dismisses stock market’s tariff plunge, says ‘China played it wrong’ by hitting back

Updated 05 April 2025
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Trump dismisses stock market’s tariff plunge, says ‘China played it wrong’ by hitting back

  • Says critics got it all wrong, even as the Fed warned that the tariffs could lead to “higher inflation and lower growth”
  • “This is a great time to get rich,” he wrote on social media, adding, “ONLY THE WEAK WILL FAIL!”

WASHINGTON: President Donald Trump goaded China on Friday after the US’s chief economic rival retaliated against his tariffs, and he dismissed falling stock markets over the growing global trade war, touting it as a chance to “get rich.”
“China played it wrong, they panicked — the one thing they cannot afford to do!” Trump posted on Truth Social, writing the message in his trademark all-caps.
For a second day, markets plunged, wiping vast sums off investment and retirement portfolios alike. US Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell warned the tariffs were likely to spur “higher inflation and lower growth.”

 

Wall Street went into free fall, following similar collapses in Asia and Europe. The Dow Jones dropped 5.5 percent and the S&P 5.97 percent.
Trump, who unveiled his barrage of import duties against dozens of countries Wednesday, was unrepentant, posting that “my policies will never change.”
“This is a great time to get rich,” he wrote.
The 78-year-old Republican, who was spending a long weekend golfing at his course in Palm Beach, Florida, is banking on the theory that the might of the world’s biggest economy will force foreign companies to manufacture on US soil, rather than continue to import goods.
“ONLY THE WEAK WILL FAIL!” Trump touted in yet another Truth Social post Friday.

China, however, responded by announcing its own new 34 percent tariffs on US imports starting April 10.
Beijing said it would sue the United States at the World Trade Organization and also restrict export of rare earth elements used in high-end medical and electronics technology.
Other big US trading partners held back as they digested the unfolding international standoff and fears of a recession.
EU trade chief Maros Sefcovic said the EU, which Trump hit with a 20 percent tariff, will act in “a calm, carefully phased, unified way” and allow time for talks.
However, he also warned the bloc “won’t stand idly by.”

EU leaders mull retaliation
France and Germany have said the 27-nation EU could respond by imposing a tax on US tech companies.
Economy Minister Eric Lombard urged French companies to show “patriotism” after President Emmanuel Macron argued it would send the wrong message if they pressed ahead with investments in the United States.
Lombard said the EU’s retaliation would not necessarily involve tit-for-tat tariffs and could use other tools, pointing to data exchange and taxes instead.

In Tokyo, Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba called for a “calm-headed” approach after Trump slapped 24 percent tariffs on Japanese-made goods.
Trump said he’d had a “very productive” call with Vietnam’s top leader after the southeast Asian manufacturing hub was hit with extraordinary 46 percent US duties.
Separate US tariffs of 25 percent on all foreign-made cars went into effect this week, and Canada swiftly responded with a similar levy on US imports.
Stellantis — the owner of Jeep, Chrysler and Fiat — paused production at some Canadian and Mexican assembly plants.
But Japanese carmaker Nissan said on Friday it would revise plans to reduce production in the United States. And Sweden’s Volvo, owned by China’s Geely, said it would increase its US production.

“Messing around with people’s lives”
Democratic Senator Amy Klobuchar lashed out at the tariffs, saying they would hurt regular Americans.
Trump is “messing around with people’s lives... while he’s out golfing!” she said.

 

And there was rare criticism from the right too, with Trump loyalist Republican Senator Ted Cruz worrying that the tariffs could “hurt jobs and hurt America.”
The Fed chairman’s speech also highlighted concerns that the tariff shockwaves will reach deep into the US economy.
But minutes before Powell suggested the Fed will continue to hold off from cutting its benchmark lending rate, Trump pressured him to do so.
“CUT INTEREST RATES, JEROME, AND STOP PLAYING POLITICS!” he posted — once again defying the longstanding custom in which the White House respects the central bank’s independence.
In a more concrete sign of how tariffs are impacting trade, Nintendo announced it was delaying preorders of its hotly anticipated Switch 2 gaming console while it assesses “evolving” conditions.
 


Pro-Palestinian protesters interrupt Microsoft’s 50th anniversary party over Israel contract

Updated 05 April 2025
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Pro-Palestinian protesters interrupt Microsoft’s 50th anniversary party over Israel contract

  • An investigation by The Associated Press revealed earlier this year that AI models from Microsoft and OpenAI had been used as part of an Israeli military program to select bombing targets during the recent wars in Gaza and Lebanon

WASHINGTON: A pro-Palestinian protest by Microsoft employees interrupted the company’s 50th anniversary celebration Friday, the latest backlash over the tech industry’s work to supply artificial intelligence technology to the Israeli military.
The protest happened as Microsoft AI CEO Mustafa Suleyman was presenting product updates and a long-term vision for the company’s AI assistant product, Copilot, to an audience that included Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates and former CEO Steve Ballmer.
“Mustafa, shame on you,” shouted Microsoft employee Ibtihal Aboussad as she walked toward the stage and Suleyman paused his speech. “You claim that you care about using AI for good but Microsoft sells AI weapons to the Israeli military. Fifty-thousand people have died and Microsoft powers this genocide in our region.”

 pro-Palestinian demonstrator holds a kufiyyeh as they interrupt Microsoft AI CEO Mustafa Suleyman during a presentation of the company's AI assistant, Copilot, ahead of a 50th Anniversary presentation at Microsoft headquarters, Friday, April 4, 2025, in Redmond, Wash. (AP)

“Thank you for your protest, I hear you,” Suleyman said. Aboussad continued, shouting that he and “all of Microsoft” had blood on their hands. She also threw onto the stage a keffiyeh scarf, which has become a symbol of support for Palestinian people, before being escorted out of the event.
A second protester, Microsoft employee Vaniya Agrawal, interrupted another part of the celebration during which Gates, Ballmer and current CEO Satya Nadella were on stage — the first public gathering since 2014 of the three men who have been Microsoft’s CEO.
An investigation by The Associated Press revealed earlier this year that AI models from Microsoft and OpenAI had been used as part of an Israeli military program to select bombing targets during the recent wars in Gaza and Lebanon. The story also contained details of an errant Israeli airstrike in 2023 that struck a vehicle carrying members of a Lebanese family, killing three young girls and their grandmother.
In February, five Microsoft employees were ejected from a meeting with CEO Satya Nadella for protesting the contracts. While the February event was an internal meeting, Friday’s protest was far more public — a livestreamed showcase of the company’s past and future.
“We provide many avenues for all voices to be heard,” said a statement from the company Friday. “Importantly, we ask that this be done in a way that does not cause a business disruption. If that happens, we ask participants to relocate. We are committed to ensuring our business practices uphold the highest standards.”
Microsoft declined to say whether it would take further action.