UN says famine conditions in Somalia have ended
Nairobi (Alshahid)-Famine conditions have ended in war-torn Somalia six months after being first declared, the UN has said. The U.N. declared famine in two parts of southern Somalia last July and extended the famine warning in September to six out of eight regions in the Horn of Africa country. An exceptional harvest after good rains [...]
Turkish Secondary school to be opened in the Somali Capital
Mogadishu (Alshahid)-A Turkish Secondary school will be opened in the Somali Capital Mogadishu in the next month, according to an Anatolia news agency report. Bilal Çelik, chairman of Turkish charity the Nil Organization said Wednesday that while preparations for the school building were under way, a test was made to select the students to the [...]
OIC to dig 680 artesian wells in Somalia
Starting this month, about 680 artesian wells will be dug in 11 regions across Somalia at a cost of $82 million, said Atta Elmanan Bakhit, the Assistant Secretary General of Humanitarian Affairs of the Organisation of Islamic Co-operation (OIC). “This is a first step in our recovery programme for Somalia,” Bakhit added yesterday at a [...]
200-bed hospital to be established in Somalia
Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan gave instructions for a three-year medical presence and the construction of a 200-bed hospital in famine-stricken Somalia. In the first stage of the three-year plan, a rotation of doctors and nurses will be sent to the region on a voluntary basis to serve the medical needs of people in need. [...]
Possible link between mobile phones and brain cancer; WHO
Lyon, France (Alshahid) -A branch of the World Health Organization said Tuesday that there is a “possible” link between cellphones and cancer, but health experts say the risk may be small and further research is needed to draw a definitive conclusion. In a new report by 31 scientists meeting at the World Health Organization’s International [...]
Somalia:Cholera kills 85 in Somalia;WHO
Mogadishu ( Alshahid) World Health Organization says a cholera outbreak in Somalia has killed at least 85 people and infected dozens of others. WHO spokesman Pieter Desloover says Mogadishu, Afgoye and Baidoa have been hit hardest by the disease. Banadir hospital in Mogadishu alone reported 85 deaths. Desloover says the cholera outbreak was declared in [...]
Kept in chains: Mental illness rampant in Somalia
Mogadishu, Somalia (Alshahid) — Hassan Qasim lies shackled to a wall in a hallway with 25 other patients at a clinic for the mentally ill. He whispers under his breath and spits at his neighbors. Torn and dirty clothes hang off his skinny frame. Doctors say the 25-year-old’s brother and sister were killed in front [...]
Somalis’ Health Department at odds over autism, vaccines
St. Paul, Minn. (Alshahid) — Distrust of vaccines and the mystery behind autism’s causes have created a public health problem in Minnesota. Somali parents of children with autism and the Minnesota Department of Health are at a standoff over vaccines. The parents suspect vaccines have caused autism in their children, while the Health Department [...]
AMISOM hands over a school to Somalia Govt
Mogadishu (Alshahid) -Officials from the peacekeepers serving the African Union Mission in Somalia, (AMISOM) have handed over a school built at Jazeera location in the southern outskirts of Mogadishu. Asha Omar Ahmed, one of the initiators of the project, said that the school built by Amisom will cater for children of the Somalia military personnel. [...]
Somalia: mixed fortunes in Commerce amid chaos
Mogadishu (Alshahid) -Seven dhows and three freighters float in the sunlit port of Mogadishu. Fisherboys wade to the beach shouldering sharks and swordfish. Sandbagged machinegun nests protect African Union (AU) peacekeepers. Together with Somali soldiers, the AU has pushed the Shabab (an Islamist militia linked to al-Qaeda) deep into the city, so there has not [...]