Lack of awareness among Somalis that mental health problems can be treated successfully.
Inadequate facilities to handle the number of people needing help
NAIROBI - Prolonged conflict in Somalia, especially in and around the capital, Mogadishu, has contributed to an alarming increase in the number of mental health patients, according to health officials.
"There are a number of reasons why we are seeing so many mental health disorders but, in my opinion, the single biggest contributing factor is the conflict," Abdiaziz Mohamed Warsame, the only practising psychiatrist in Mogadishu and professor at Benadir University, told IRIN on 3 June.
"We can blame the consumption of khat [a mild stimulant], lack of employment and abuse of drugs, but all these are symptoms of the conflict."
He said most city residents had been displaced more than a dozen times, with some experiencing horrific violence against themselves, family or friends.
Ethiopia's government and a separatist group are trading accusations over the killing of a British geologist and two armed escorts in the country's troubled Ogaden region.
Thirty-nine-year old Jason Reid and two Ethiopian military guards died when their car was attacked by gunmen last Monday in a remote part of Ethiopia's eastern Somali region, known as the Ogaden. Reid was a geologist involved in exploring for oil in the area near the border with Somalia.
Authorities say a gun battle ensued when the victims tried to fight back. Their car, reportedly was riddled with bullets.
Government spokesman Shimelis Kemal describes the killers as 'highwaymen' intent on robbery. He says some of the attackers were captured. "Mr. Jason and his escorts were going to their camps after completing their day's work. The bandits ambushed and attacked them, and the law enforcement officials made a hot pursuit and were able to apprehend three of the suspected attackers," he said.
Marine monitors working with ECOTERRA Intl. reported that the captured foreign fishing vessel is said to be comandeered and on her way to Harardheere at the central Somali coast Reportedly two dead crew members as well as one dead and one injured Somali are onboard.
The vessel is said to have Spanish links, but the Spanish government says that none of the Spanish vessels were missing, though Spanish government officials said the same, when Spanish-owned but Kenyan flagged FV SAKOBA was seized.
Somali pirates told Reuters news agency on Sunday they had captured a Spanish fishing vessel in the Indian Ocean, but Spain said there was no sign that any of its vessels had gone missing.
A pirate who gave his name as Ibrahim told Reuters by phone: "My men have hijacked a Spanish fishing vessel from the Indian Ocean. They are on board and safe."
MADRID: The Spanish government on Friday authorised private security firms, which protect Spanish trawlers from Somali pirates in the Indian Ocean to use large-calibre weapons.
On-board security “for Spanish vessels in waters outside territorial waters and in particular danger, can be provided by agents from security companies using suitable weapons”, Deputy Prime Minister Maria Teresa Fernandez de la Vega said following a cabinet meeting.
She said the exact type of “military weapons” would be determined by the ministries of defence and the interior.
The couple posed for photos at the wedding celebrations
Hundreds of people have attended a wedding in central Somalia between a man who says he is 112 years old, and his teenage wife.
Ahmed Muhamed Dore - who already has 13 children by five wives - said he would like to have more with his new wife, Safia Abdulleh, who is 17 years old.
"Today God helped me realise my dream," Mr Dore said, after the wedding in the region of Galguduud.
The bride's family said she was "happy with her new husband".
Mr Dore said he and his bride - who is young enough to be his great-great-grand-daughter - were from the same village in Somalia and that he had waited for her to grow up to propose.
BRUSSELS — European Union warships have captured seven suspected pirates off the coast of Somalia after two fast boats attacked a French fishing vessel, the EU's naval force said Wednesday.
Soldiers aboard the fishing vessel fired on the pirates after they attacked it some 350 nautical miles east of Mogadishu Tuesday, said a statement.
A German warship was despatched to the scene, while a helicopter from a nearby Spanish naval vessel -- the ESPS Canarias -- was launched and located the two skiffs trying to flee the area.
"The helicopter fired warning shots to stop both skiffs, after which the pirates stopped and were seen throwing items, presumably pirate paraphernalia, overboard," the statement said.
Puntland officials say the most common game in the area is gazelle (such as this one above) and ostrich (file photo)
NAIROBI - Authorities in the self-declared autonomous region of Puntland, northeastern Somalia, are compiling data on foreign helicopters said to be poaching and stealing wildlife from the area while at the same time scaring off the farm animals.
"We have been getting reports in the past few months of unidentified helicopters swooping in from the sea and attacking and taking wildlife," Abdiqani Yusuf Ade, Puntland's Environment Minister, told IRIN.
He said the authorities did not have a clear picture of “who was involved or from what countries”.
Ade said Puntland was calling on countries whose forces were stationed off the Somali coast as part of the anti-piracy efforts to stop the poaching if they were involved.
The Kenya Meteorological Department says the much-anticipated El Niño rains have arrived in the drought-stricken African region. Humanitarian groups warn the long-awaited precipitation will provide little immediate relief to the troubled areas and will likely cause an array of new ills.
A vast region of East Africa has been suffering under an persistent drought that has left tens of millions in need of emergency food relief.
For months observers have been predicting the regional arrival of the El Niño rains, which are caused every few years by a periodic temperature change in surface ocean waters, resulting in temporary shifts in regional weather patterns.
NAIROBI - As countries across East Africa and the Horn of Africa begin to receive El Niño-related enhanced rainfall, disaster risk reduction experts from 10 countries in the region are meeting in Nairobi to develop strategies for reducing the negative impact of the evolving El Niño phenomenon.
"Africa, and in particular the Horn of Africa, suffers more and more the impact of climate-induced hazards," Pedro Basabe, the Africa programme representative of the UN International Strategy for Disaster Reduction (UNISDR), said on 19 October at the beginning of the three-day conference, organized by the InterGovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) and World Bank. "Drought and floods affect directly or indirectly millions of people each year, in particular the poor who are the most vulnerable."
According to the IGAD Climate Prediction and Applications Centre (ICPAC), which produces monthly and seasonal climate outlooks, the Greater Horn of Africa is prone to extreme climate events such as drought and floods, which often have severe negative effects on the region’s key socio-economic sectors.
Like the rest of eastern Africa, central Somalia is in the grips of a debilitating drought. As a result, more than half of the population is in need of emergency food aid and one in five children is acutely malnourished. Large segments of the population have been displaced due to drought and ongoing conflict. Aid workers predict that food aid will dry up by mid-November, making an already desperate situation even worse.
Five consecutive rainy seasons in the Mudug region with no rain.
The few remaining animals scrounge for what little pasture exists.
Now, 51 percent of Mudug's population is in need of emergency food aid.
Malyuun Islan is one of them. She and her five children fled to a camp in Mudug's capital Gaalkacyo because of war and famine. "Not much has changed, except there is no fighting here. I'm still poor. I still have no access to water, no access to food," she says.
NAIROBI — The capture in the Indian Ocean of the Spanish tuna hauler FV Alakrana has revived controversy over the protection of French and Spanish tuna boats threatened by pirates off the coast of Somalia.
"We're in danger the whole time and we're fed up with it!" complained the captain of a Spanish fishing vessel who has been working in the region for the past 25 years.
"For years we've been watching piracy develop in the Indian Ocean and we've been trying to draw public attention to the problem. The situation has become unbearable for tuna boats," complained the captain, speaking by phone from the high seas.
The Alakrana, a 100-metre industrial purse-seiner, was seized Friday on the high seas between Somalia and the Seychelles with 36 crew on board and was brought closer to shore by the pirates.
Subsidised Spanish Fishing Vessel was out of bounds when it was captured by Somalis. FV ALAKRANA, the huge tuna-hauler owned by Pesqueras Echebaster S.A.had been hunting the highly-priced yellow-fin tuna around 800 miles from the secured fishing sector designated by the Spanish government for Spanish-flagged vessels in the international waters governed by the Southern Indian Ocean Agreement and monitored by the Indian Ocean Tuna Commission when it was boarded, the Spanish government declared. The Alakrana was clearly outside of the perimeter protected by Spanish naval vessels.
Spanish Minister for Environment, Elena Espinosa, has so far not commented.
"This boat has been fishing illegally for a long time and fortunately it is now in our hands," a pirate who gave his name as Abdi Mohamed told AFP by telephone.
But the daughter of the ship's captain, Cristina Blach, said the trawler was in international waters and operating legally. "They had licences to fish in the area," she told reporters.
The ship Alakrana sent out distress signals advising of a pirate attack and since then its owner has not been able to communicate with it, said Echebastar Fleet, the firm that owns the ship.
Whilst it is sad that these men were hijacked, the BIG question is that what are they doing off the coast of Somalia? It clearly shows that Spanish fishermen are looting illegally from a poor country that can't patrol it's own borders. This theft is also some how supported by EU / NATO Navy which turn blind eye to large trawlers blundering natural resources and no regard to the environment.
In this case who is the criminal and who is the victim and who is getting military support? It seems that Somali waters are accessible to all except Somali fishermen who can't make their meagre livelihood offshore or in-shore.
HARGEISA - Recent rains in eastern parts of secessionist Somaliland have done little to improve drought-affected pastoral and agro-pastoral livelihoods in the region, says a local official.
"[By] Allah’s mercy, rains were received in most of the region's districts, but the problem is that the people and the animals are still [affected]. I [still have] to send my relatives in the remote areas animal [feed] and food," Ahmed Aw Dahir, the mayor of Las’anod, in Sool region, told IRIN.
Aw Dahir estimated that about 400,000 people would still need assistance in the coming months due to the effect of the prolonged drought.
"The people in the region will need food assistance in the forthcoming months not only in the countryside, but even in the capital of Las’anod [where] about 20 percent of the population is suffering [a] lack of food," he said, adding that appeals for food have been made at mosques.
"The pastoralists used to sell milk to the urban centres; unfortunately the drought led to the deaths of most livestock," he added.
Subsidised Spanish Fishing Vessel was out of bounds when it was captured by Somalis