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☆ I came to the US 10 years ago as a refugee. I went to college, got my citizenship and now I drive a long-haul truck.
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-14 | by ( Bianca Giacobone | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

After getting his bachelor's degree, he decided to get into trucking to buy a house for his mother. He says the American dream is all about having the freedom to work hard to achieve your own goals. There's something very American about the hard work of being a truck driver. And you get your truck, your license, and live the American dream, because you're making good money, and you achieve your dream. Some people come into trucking to buy a house, some people come into trucking to buy another truck.

Persons: Suud Olat, who'll, George Floyd, Bono, they're, You've, I've, haven't, I'm Organizations: Morning, Minnesota Department of Human Services, Young, UNHCR, UN Refugee Agency, Cloud State University, ONE, Washington State Locations: Kenya, Somalia, Minneapolis , Minnesota, America, Nashville , Tennessee, Nashville, American, Minnesota, St, Minneapolis, Salt Lake City, Dallas , Texas, Jersey City , New Jersey, Miami

CNN —Six civilians and three security force members were killed in a late-night attack by militant fighters on a beachside hotel in the Somalian capital Mogadishu, state media report. Shattered window panes could be seen at the site of the attack, as well as blood stains and debris. Feisal Omar/ReutersAl-Shabaab is the largest and most active al-Qaeda network in the world, according to the US Africa Command. The group controlled a vast area of Somalia before being pushed back by government counteroffensives since last year, according to Reuters. US forces have conducted numerous strikes in Somalia that have resulted in dozens of Al-Shabaab casualties, including one that killed 30 Al-Shabaab fighters in January, and three others in February that killed a total of 24 soldiers.

Persons: ” SONNA, Omar, counteroffensives, Al Organizations: CNN —, Security, Pearl, Somali National News Agency, African Union, Reuters, US Africa Command Locations: Somalian, Mogadishu, Al, Shabaab, Lido Beach, Somalia

[1/5] A Somali police officer uses his cell phone inside the rubble of the Pearl Beach Restaurant following an attack by Al Shabaab militants at the Liido beach in Mogadishu, Somalia June 10, 2023. REUTERS/Feisal OmarMOGADISHU, June 9 (Reuters) - Nine people were killed in an attack claimed by al Shabaab Islamist militants at an upmarket restaurant in the Somali capital Mogadishu on Friday night, police said. Those killed at the popular Pearl restaurant were six civilians and three soldiers, police said in a statement. Al Qaeda-linked al Shabaab said it was behind the attack. Al Shabaab controlled a vast area of Somalia before being pushed back in government counteroffensives since last year.

Persons: Al Shabaab, Omar MOGADISHU, al, Abdikadir Abdirahman, Hussein Mohamed, Shabaab, Abdi Sheikh, Feisal Omar, Jose Joseph, George Obulutsa, William Mallard, Frances Kerry Organizations: Pearl, REUTERS, Security, Somali National News Agency, Twitter, Mujahideen, Thomson Locations: Somali, Mogadishu, Somalia, al Shabaab, Shabaab, Lido Beach, Al Qaeda

CNN —Ugandan troops discovered the bodies of 54 Ugandan soldiers who were killed during an al-Shabaab attack on an African Union base in Somalia last week, according to Ugandan officials. “During that operation, UPDF discovered the lifeless bodies of 54 fallen soldiers, including Lt Col Edward Nyororo, the commander….,” the agency said. After Ugandan troops reclaimed the base, Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni announced that two commanders who ordered their soldiers to retreat during the May 26 militant attack would face a court martial. Ugandan soldiers are stationed at the forward operating base as a peacekeeping force. Unverified images shared on jihadi media channels showed about a dozen Ugandan troops, with arms restrained behind their backs, being captured by the militants.

Persons: UPDF, Col Edward Nyororo, …, Yoweri Museveni, Oluka, Obbo, Shabaab, ” Organizations: CNN, African Union, Uganda People’s Defense Force, Twitter, European Union, United, Somali, US State Department Locations: Somalia, Uganda, Buulo Mareer, Mogadishu, State, United States

☆ Uganda says 54 soldiers killed by al Shabaab in Somalia
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-03 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

KAMPALA, June 4 (Reuters) - Uganda's President Yoweri Museveni said on Saturday that 54 Ugandan peacekeepers were killed in an attack last week by militant group al Shabaab on a military base in Somalia. Museveni said the Uganda People’s Defence Forces (UPDF) had since recaptured the base from the Islamist group. “Our soldiers demonstrated remarkable resilience and reorganized themselves, resulting in the recapture of the base by Tuesday,” the president said. Al Shabaab fighters had targeted the base early last Friday in Bulamarer, 130 km (80 miles) southwest of the capital Mogadishu. Al Shabaab, which has said it carried out suicide bomb attacks and killed 137 soldiers at the base, has been fighting since 2006 to replace Somalia's Western-backed government with its own rule based on a strict interpretation of Islamic law.

Persons: Yoweri Museveni, Museveni, “, ”, Al Shabaab, Kanjyik Ghosh, Elias Biryabarema, Cynthia Osterman, Daniel Wallis Organizations: Uganda People’s Defence Forces, Somalia's, Thomson Locations: KAMPALA, Shabaab, Somalia, Uganda, Bulamarer, Mogadishu, Al Shabaab, Bengaluru, Kampala

☆ Uganda confirms casualties among country's soldiers in Somali attack
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-28 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

The assailants numbered about 800 and during the attack the Ugandan troops were forced to withdraw to a nearby base, about nine kilometres away, he said. Al Shabaab fighters targeted the base early on Friday in Bulamarer, 130 km (80 miles) southwest of the capital Mogadishu. Al Shabaab said in a statement at the time that it had carried out suicide bomb attacks and killed 137 soldiers at the base. Al Shabaab tends to give casualty figures in attacks that differ from those issued by the authorities. ATMIS has so far not said how many troops were killed or wounded in the attack.

☆ Somalia says it will revert to direct vote for officials starting next year
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-28 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

MOGADISHU, May 28 (Reuters) - Somalia will start electing its president and other officials by direct vote next year, the government announced on Sunday, ending a system of indirect voting in the Horn of Africa country that has endured three decades of conflict and clan battles. "Starting next year, there will be a one person, one vote election held every five years," said a statement tweeted by Somalia's state media SONNA. "The Premier post will be abolished and replaced with a presidential system where the president and vice president are elected directly by the people on a single ticket." The decision was reached after a four-day meeting in the capital Mogadishu, chaired by President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud. Reporting by Feisal Omar and Abdiqani Hassani Writing by Elias Biryabarema Editing by Frances KerryOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ How do you stop a pirate? Put more fish in the sea.
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-20 | by ( Katherine Tangalakis-Lippert | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

Fishermen in east Africa and the South China Sea turn to piracy when the fish supply is low. As climate change kills fish, the former fisherman grow more desperate in their attacks, the study's authors told Insider. Between 1995 and 2013, Time reported, 41% of the world's pirate attacks took place in Southeast Asia. The increasing water temperatures have benefited fish in the South China Sea, increasing production, but harmed fish off the coast of Africa, decreasing it. "So we have this really great experiment where we show that, essentially, when fish production goes down, piracy goes up.

rules governing how asylum seekers must be treated. We showed the video in person to three senior officials from the European Commission in Brussels, describing how we had verified it. asylum rules and international law, including ensuring access to the asylum procedure,” said Anitta Hipper, the European Commission spokeswoman for migration. Greece and the European Union hardened their attitudes toward migrants after the arrival in 2015 and 2016 of more than one million refugees from Syria, Iraq and elsewhere. Poland, Italy and Lithuania have recently changed their laws to make it easier to repel migrants and to punish those who help them.

☆ Masked men working with Greek authorities stole refugees' belongings before dumping them in the middle of the sea: New York Times
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-19 | by ( Grace Eliza Goodwin | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

Refugees told the NYT that men sent by Greek authorities robbed them and abandoned them at sea. Greek authorities did not respond to the new investigation from the New York Times. The group was eventually rescued by Turkish authorities and are now in a Turkish detention center while they wait to find out if they'll be granted asylum. Greek authorities did not respond to multiple requests for comment from The New York Times. "We didn't expect to survive on that day," Naima Hassan Aden, a 27-year-old from Somalia, told the Times.

☆ Last ship to leave Ukraine as fate of Black Sea grain deal in Russia's hands
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-17 | by ( Michelle Nichols | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

UNITED NATIONS, May 17 (Reuters) - The last ship is due to leave a port in Ukraine on Wednesday under a deal allowing the safe Black Sea export of Ukraine grain, said a U.N. spokesperson, a day before Russia could quit the pact over obstacles to its grain and fertilizer exports. To convince Russia in July to allow Black Sea grain exports, the United Nations agreed at the same time to help Moscow with its own agricultural shipments for three years. Senior officials from Russia, Ukraine, Turkey and the U.N. met in Istanbul last week to discuss the Black Sea pact. RISKSOfficials from Russia, Ukraine, Turkey and the U.N. make up a Joint Coordination Centre (JCC) in Istanbul, which implements the Black Sea export deal. The United Nations, Turkey and Ukraine did continue the Black Sea agreement in October during a brief suspension by Russia of its participation.

☆ UN efforts to save Black Sea grain deal to continue in coming days
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-15 | by ( Michelle Nichols | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

The final two ships are due to leave Ukrainian ports on Tuesday under the Black Sea deal, said a U.N. spokesperson. "The (Black Sea) Initiative refers to the export of ammonia, but this has not yet been realized," Griffiths said. "While Russia keeps Ukrainian grain supplies from feeding the hungry, Russia is successfully exporting its own bumper crop of grain," Deputy U.S. 'CRUCIAL'Nebenzia again complained that not enough poor countries were benefiting from the Black Sea grain deal. Russian President Vladimir Putin has offered to deliver Russian grain and fertilizers free of charge to African countries.

☆ 5 Moments That Defined Trump’s Record on Immigration
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-14 | by ( Maggie Haberman | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Mr. Trump began his presidency by signing an executive order that sought to limit travelers from seven largely Muslim countries for 90 days. The order, with some exceptions, affected travelers from Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, and Yemen. Advocates sued, and the case went to the Supreme Court, which upheld the policy in a 2018 ruling. The Border WallIn 2017, Mr. Trump began focusing on one of his earliest campaign promises — building a physical wall along the border between the United States and Mexico. The idea was initially suggested by a Trump campaign aide, Sam Nunberg, as a memory aid to prompt the candidate to remember to talk about immigration in his speeches.

☆ Ukraine says it has alternatives if grain export deal not extended
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-09 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

KYIV, May 9 (Reuters) - Ukraine has alternative ways of transporting grain if a deal on safe Black Sea exports is not extended on May 18, and would not see that outcome as an "apocalyptic scenario", its agriculture minister said. Ukrainian Black Sea ports were blockaded after Russia's invasion last year, but access to three of them was cleared last July under a deal between Moscow and Kyiv that was brokered by the United Nations and Turkey. The United Nations said on Monday that so far nearly 30 million metric tonnes of grain and foodstuffs had been exported from Ukraine under the Black Sea deal, including nearly 600,000 metric tonnes of grain in World Food Programme vessels for aid operations in Afghanistan, Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia, and Yemen. Russia's state-owned RIA news agency quoted Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Vershinin as saying a high-level four-way meeting on the Black Sea grain deal would take place in Istanbul on May 10-11. Ukraine also exports grain via Danube River ports and has said previously that what is known as the Danube Cluster offers a viable alternative export route.

Now, according to an internal U.N. estimate obtained by Reuters, 5 million additional people in Sudan will require emergency assistance, half of them children. Even before the latest crisis, U.N. humanitarian appeals for Africa faced a $17-billion funding gap this year, risking leaving millions without lifesaving assistance. Last year, it spent a third of its overseas aid budget housing refugees inside the UK, a British aid watchdog said in March. Sudan was hosting over 1 million refugees, mainly from South Sudan, Eritrea, Ethiopia and Syria, before the outbreak of fighting last month. Aid workers have been killed, food aid looted, and WFP says it's running out of stocks.

☆ No Black Sea grain deal ships inspected as Russian deadline looms
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-09 | by ( Michelle Nichols | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

WASHINGTON, May 8 (Reuters) - The United Nations said no ships were inspected on Sunday or Monday under a deal allowing the safe Black Sea export of Ukraine grain, which Moscow has threatened to quit on May 18 over obstacles to its own grain and fertilizer exports. The U.N. and Turkey brokered the Black Sea export agreement in July last year to help tackle a global food crisis that has been worsened by Moscow's war in Ukraine. Officials from Russia, Ukraine, Turkey and the U.N. make up a Joint Coordination Centre (JCC) in Istanbul, which implements the deal. To help convince Russia to allow Ukraine to resume Black Sea grain exports, a three-year pact was also struck in July 2022 in which the U.N. agreed to help Moscow facilitate those shipments. The Black Sea export deal also provided for the export of fertilizer, including ammonia, but there had been no such exports so far, the United Nations said.

☆ US Declining Population, Worker Shortage Will Cause Economic Crisis Without a Fix
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-04 | by ( Gadel Valle | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +15 min

That means that unless people start having a lot more kids, the US population could eventually start to shrink — just like China's population has. While the US population has managed to avoid an outright drop, population growth reached an unprecedented low of 0.12% in 2021. One way the US could encourage more immigration is by focusing on temporary visas for specific industries that need workers. And the treatment of workers in the country on temporary visas has been a problem for decades. After all, the US is running out of options, and soon its growing people shortage is going to spell economic disaster.

☆ Sudan military faction chiefs agree May 4-11 truce in princple -South Sudan
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-02 | by ( Mohamed Noureldin | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

The credibility of the reported May 4-11 deal ceasefire deal between Sudanese army chief General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and paramilitary Rapid Support forces (RSF) leader General Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo was unclear, given the rampant violations that undermined previous agreements running from 24 to 72 hours. "The entire region could be affected," he said in an interview with a Japanese newspaper on Tuesday as an envoy from Sudan's army chief, who leads one of the warring sides, met Egyptian officials in Cairo. United Nations officials had said U.N. aid chief Martin Griffiths aimed to visit Sudan on Tuesday but the timing was still to be confirmed. "The risk is that this is not just going to be a Sudan crisis, it's going to be a regional crisis," said Michael Dunford, the WFP's East Africa director. That has raised the spectre of a prolonged conflict that could draw in outside powers.

☆ Famine still stalks Somalia
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-02 | by ( Ayenat Mersie | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

[1/3] Internally displaced Somali children gather outside their makeshift shelters at the Ladan camp for internally displaced people (IDP) in Dollow, Somalia May 1, 2023. Five consecutive failed rainy seasons pushed the fragile nation to the brink of famine, and this year is unlikely to be much different. Somalia managed to avert an official famine declaration last year thanks to a massive influx of humanitarian aid, but tragedies like Omar's persist. Even without the famine declaration, there were 43,000 excess deaths in Somalia in 2022 linked to the drought, researchers found. 'KEEP FAMINE AT BAY'"We're not out of the woods with regards to famine.

Cloetta AB, (CLOEb.ST) a Swedish confectioner which makes Lakerol lozenges that use gum arabic, has "ample" stock of the ingredient, a spokesperson said in an email. Global production of gum arabic is about 120,000 tonnes a year, worth $1.1 billion, according to estimates cited by Kerry Group. "Both buyers and sellers are clueless on when things will normalise.”Alwaleed Ali, who owns AGP Innovations Co Ltd, a gum arabic exporting business, said his customers are looking for alternative countries to source gum arabic. It accounts for the livelihoods of thousands of people and the more expensive variety can cost about $3,000 a tonne, according to Gum Sudan. There is a poorer quality, cheaper gum from outside of Sudan, but the preferred ingredient is only found in acacia trees in Sudan, South Sudan and Chad, Alnoor said.

☆ Climate Change’s Fingerprints Turn Up in Parched East Africa
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-27 | by ( Raymond Zhong | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

“Now we must ensure that the fund is made fit for purpose,” said Harjeet Singh, head of political strategy for Climate Action Network International. There, the drought may have caused 43,000 excess deaths last year, according to estimates issued last month. Scientists know that global warming is increasing the average likelihood and severity of certain kinds of wild weather in many regions. It’s like smoking and cancer: The two are undeniably linked, but not all smokers develop cancer, and not all cancer patients were smokers. To determine the effects of global warming on individual weather episodes, climate researchers use computer simulations to compare the global climate as it really is — with billions of tons of carbon dioxide pumped into the atmosphere by humans over decades — and a hypothetical climate without any of those emissions.

Ethiopia, Kenya and Somalia have endured five failed consecutive rainy seasons since October 2020, with aid groups labeling it 'the worst drought in 40 years'. "Climate change has made this drought exceptional," said Joyce Kimutai, a climate scientist with the Kenya Meteorological Department who worked with WWA to tease out climate change's role. Unlike with extreme heat and heavy rainfall, scientists have a harder time pinning down climate change's contribution to droughts around the world. Using computer models and climate observations, the WWA team determined climate change had made the Horn of Africa's long rains from March through May twice as likely to underdeliver, and the short rains from October through December wetter. In addition to less rain falling on the Horn, a warming climate means more water is evaporating from soil and transpiring from plants into the atmosphere.

☆ Catastrophic drought that’s pushed millions into crisis made 100 times more likely by climate change, analysis finds
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-27 | by ( Laura Paddison | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +6 min

CNN —The unrelenting drought that has devastated the Horn of Africa and left more than 20 million people facing acute food insecurity would not have been possible without climate change, a new analysis has found. In a world without human-caused climate change, this devastating drought would not have happened. The organization is made up of a team of international scientists who, in the immediate aftermath of extreme weather events, analyze data and climate models to establish what role climate change played. The scientists also looked at whether climate change was to blame for the lack of rain, but concluded there was no overall impact. “The country continues to pay the price of global warming and climate change,” he added.

☆ Earth Day 2023: The world just failed its annual health checkup
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-21 | by ( Laura Paddison | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +5 min

The WMO’s annual State of the Climate Report, published Friday ahead of Earth Day, is essentially a health checkup for the world. Global sea levels climbed to the highest on record due to melting glaciers and warming oceans, which expand as they heat up. “Communities and countries which have contributed least to climate change suffer disproportionately.”A man uses a hand fan in a park in central Madrid during a heatwave, on August 2, 2022. The hottest year on record, 2016, was the result of a strong El Niño and climate change, said Baddour. “This is really a wake up call that climate change isn’t a future problem, it is a current problem.

☆ Uganda’s anti-gay bill is the latest and worst to target LGBTQ Africans
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-06 | by ( Aditi Bhandari | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +14 min

Same-sex activity in Africa is punishable by … Map of the 32 African countries where same-sex activity is illegal. Same-sex activity in Africa … Map of the 22 African countries where same-sex activity is legal. In 1993, Guinea-Bissau became the first African country to legalise LGBTQ activity when it adopted a new Penal Code that didn’t include any laws criminalising it. Country Constitutional protection Broad protections Employment Hate crime Incitement Marriage or civil union Adoption Angola No Yes Yes Yes Yes No No Botswana No No Yes No No No No Cape Verde No No Yes Yes No No No Gabon No No No No No No No Guinea-Bissau No No No No No No No Lesotho No No No No No No No Mozambique No No Yes No No No No Sao Tome and Principe No No Yes Yes No No No Seychelles No No Yes No No No No South Africa Yes Yes Yes No Yes Yes YesNote: Broad protections include laws protecting against discrimination in at least 3 of 4 categories: the provision of goods and services, housing, healthcare and education. Namibia and Mauritius criminalise same-sex activity, but around 35% of respondents said they would dislike having a gay neighbour.

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