Search Results for: Somali

Somali officials announced Sunday that the country would institute a direct one-person-one-vote democracy by 2024. This comes after years of attempts to implement direct universal suffrage, first mandated by the Somali legislature in 2019, failed due to political divisions and internal conflict.  The announcement came along with several other reforms to the current Somali electoral structure, including the [...]

Multiple global and local aid agencies called for $7 billion full funding for the UN response to food emergencies in the Horn of Africa Tuesday, ahead of Wednesday’s Horn of Africa High Level Pledging Conference. The conference is being hosted by the UN Secretary-General António Guterres and the governments of Italy, Qatar, the UK and [...]

The UN’s Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator for Somalia Wednesday appealed to the UN to support “one of the worst humanitarian crises in the world.” Adam Abdelmoula urged Member States in Geneva to avoid the “real risk of complacency” and provide funding as a durable solution to support the country. Nearly half of the population, 8.25 [...]

The World Health Organization (WHO), UNICEF and the federal government of Somalia Mondat released a report highlighting the frightening consequences of drought in Somalia. Compared to 2017 and 2018, the report states that famine-related deaths increased to at least 43,000 in 2022. The organization also decried the region’s lack of humanitarian aid. According to aid [...]

Organizations including Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) Wednesday urged a Somali court to dismiss charges against journalist Abdalle Ahmed Mumin. The groups also claimed that the government’s decision to apprehend Mumin was an attempt to victimize strong-willed Somali journalists. In a letter to Somalia’s attorney general, the groups [...]

The Somalian government is taking offensive action against the Al-Shabaab extremist group after decades of conflict. The action by Somali fighters is backed by the United States as well as African Union forces, making it the most significant course of action taken against Al-Shabab in over twelve years. Smaller resistance groups and clans initiated the [...]

Deputy Minister of Information of Somalia Abdirahman Yusuf Saturday declared a crackdown on media organisations that publish “propaganda” for Harakat al-Shabaab al-Mujahideen (al-Shabaab). Beginning on October 9, media outlets that disseminate al-Shabaab messages and news will be punished. Yusuf said that broadcasting al-Shabaab attacks will be recognized as a criminal act and declared that there [...]

The basic international law One of the most fundamental rules of international law is that States are prohibited from using force to resolve their international disputes. Any State that uses force against the territorial integrity or political independence of another State violates this solemn rule of international law. Applying this rule, the use of force [...]

Somali prisoner and Guantánamo Bay detainee Guled Hassan Duran was approved for transfer and will be released from detention, his lawyers announced Monday. According to the Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR), Duran is the first detainee designated as “high value” to be approved for transfer. Duran is a Somali citizen and was captured by the [...]

In the aftermath of the George Floyd protests, the legal doctrines shielding law enforcement from accountability have become increasingly scrutinized, with qualified immunity by far the most well-known (and most controversial). But on November 5, the Supreme Court announced it will hear at least one of three cases that address another form of immunity for [...]