Saturday 25, Jun 2025 {HMC} More than 100 dead dolphins have been found on the coast of Somalia’s semi-autonomous Puntland region, with officials yet to establish what caused their deaths.

The region’s fisheries minister, Abdirisak Abdulahi Hagaa, told Reuters that so far at least 110 dead dolphins had been counted, not far from the port of Bosaso, and that samples had been taken to try to establish what happened.

“So far, we know their death was not caused by wounds from nets because there were no wounds or cuts on them,” he said, adding that officials did not believe toxic materials were to blame since fish in the area did not appear to have been affected.

Local residents and soldiers gathered to look at the grim sight, holding their noses because of the smell from the carcasses.

Reporting by Feisal Omar; Additional reporting by Abdi Sheikh and Hereward Holland; Writing by Elias Biryabarema; Editing by Alexander Winning and Alison Williams

SOURCE

Saturday 25, Jun 2025 {HMC} A drone attack on one of the last functioning hospitals in El-Fasher in Sudan’s Darfur region killed 30 people and injured dozens, a medical source said Saturday.

The bombing of the Saudi Hospital on Friday evening “led to the destruction” of the hospital’s building where emergency cases were treated, the source told AFP, requesting anonymity for fear of retaliation.

It was not immediately clear which of Sudan’s warring sides had launched the attack.

Since April 2023, the Sudanese army has been at war with the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces, who have seized nearly the entire vast western region of Darfur.

They have besieged El-Fasher, the state capital of North Darfur, since May, but have not managed to claim the city, where army-aligned militias have repeatedly pushed them back.

According to the medical source, the same building had been hit by an RSF drone “a few weeks ago.”

Attacks on health care have been rampant in El-Fasher, where medical charity Doctors Without Borders said this month the Saudi Hospital was “the only public hospital with surgical capacity still standing.”

Across the country, up to 80% of health care facilities have been forced out of service, according to official figures.

The war has so far killed tens of thousands, uprooted more than 12 million and brought millions to the brink of mass starvation.

In the area around El-Fasher, famine has already taken hold in three displacement camps — Zamzam, Abu Shouk and Al-Salam — and is expected to expand to five more areas including the city itself by May, according to a U.N.-backed assessment.

SOURCE VOA

Saturday 25,Jan,2025 {HMC} The Security forces in Bosaso successfully neutralised a Daesh ISIS-affiliated militant on Thursday night after he planted an improvised explosive device (IED) intended to target Somali civilians. The operation was carried out following intelligence from local residents who alerted authorities to suspicious activity near the site of the IED.

Authorities confirmed that the militant was a foreign national and a member of the Daesh ISIS network operating in the region. His actions were part of a broader campaign to destabilise communities in Puntland.

In a related development, Puntland’s Darawish forces have intensified their offensive against Daesh ISIS militants entrenched in the Al-Miskaad Mountains in the Bari region. Recent operations have resulted in the capture of strategic territories and key strongholds, significantly disrupting the group’s operations.

These successes underscore Puntland’s commitment to eradicating terrorist threats and ensuring the safety and stability of the region.

Source SONNA

Saturday 25,Jan,2025 {HMC} Somali President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud met with the Speaker of the Arab Parliament, Mohammed Ahmed Al-Yamahi, in Cairo on Friday during his official visit to Egypt.

The discussions focused on the Arab Parliament’s role in supporting Somalia’s statehood, unity, and independence at regional and international levels.

President Mohamud emphasized the Somali government’s commitment to enhancing cooperation with the Arab Parliament, including exchanging expertise and unifying Arab positions on global affairs.

Speaker Al-Yamahi commended the cooperation between Somalia and Arab nations in advancing shared Arab causes.

As part of his visit, President Mohamud and Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi signed a joint political declaration in Cairo, elevating the relationship between the two nations to a strategic partnership.

Saturday 25,Jan,2025 {HMC} Somali government forces, supported by local militias, clashed with al-Shabaab militants in Masagawa town in the Galgaduud region on Saturday morning.

The fighting erupted when al-Shabaab launched an assault beginning with a vehicle-borne explosive device detonated inside the town, which was followed by direct combat between the two sides.

Details on casualties remain unclear, but preliminary reports suggest there were deaths and injuries as a result of the explosion and ensuing battle.

In a brief statement, the Federal Government of Somalia confirmed that its forces had successfully repelled the attack. “The heroes of the Somali National Army and the Defense Forces in Masagawa town in the Galgaduud region have foiled an ambush by the Kharijites and inflicted casualties on the militants,” the statement read.

Al-Shabaab has yet to issue a statement regarding the assault

Source Hiiraan online 

Saturday 25,Jan,2025 {HMC}  United States President Donald Trump has attacked the Federal Emergency Management Agency, known as FEMA, threatening to dismantle the organisation altogether.

In a visit to hurricane-ravaged North Carolina on Friday, Trump announced he would sign an executive order “to begin the process of fundamentally reforming and overhauling FEMA — or maybe getting rid of FEMA”.

In place of the agency, the Republican suggested shifting the burden of disaster management to states.

“ When there’s a problem with the state, I think that that problem should be taken care of by the state,” Trump said during Friday’s news conference.

“That’s what we have states for. They take care of problems. And a governor can handle something very quickly, you know?”

Trump was hazy about the timeline for his proposed changes to FEMA, despite repeated questions from reporters.

But Friday’s remarks continue a track record of attacks on the agency, as well as his predecessor, former Democratic President Joe Biden, in the wake of Hurricane Helene.

On September 26, the powerful Category-4 storm struck the Big Bend region of Florida. But even after it made landfall, it continued to plough north, wreaking destruction on parts of Georgia, North Carolina and Tennessee.

A total of more than 200 people were killed, as the hurricane brought record rainfall, flooding and tornadoes, leaving places like Asheville, North Carolina, flattened.

North Carolina was one of seven key swing states in the 2024 election that Trump eventually won.

As he campaigned in the days and weeks after the disaster, Trump spread misinformation about the Biden-led disaster response, including that federal relief workers had refused to serve Republican residents — a false assertion.

FEMA later reported that threats had been made to its staff, hampering a door-to-door wellness check operation in western North Carolina. And then-President Biden denounced the misinformation as “un-American”.

“Former President Trump has led this onslaught of lies,” he said in October.

But Trump has continued to hammer home his assertions that the disaster response in North Carolina was inadequate at best, including with a reference in his inaugural speech on Monday.

On Friday, he once again launched into criticisms of both FEMA and Biden, blaming them both for the slow pace of recovery.

“ FEMA is been a very big disappointment. And they cost a tremendous amount of money. It’s very bureaucratic. And it’s very slow,” Trump said at one point.

At another, he lashed out at his Democratic predecessor: “Biden did a bad job. Some residents don’t have hot water, drinking water or anything else. Many of them don’t have quarters. They don’t have anything.”

He also teased his trip later in the day to southern California, where wildfires continue to destroy areas in and around Los Angeles, amid unseasonably dry conditions.

He emphasised that he would place conditions on disaster aid to the Democrat-led state, including that California implements a voter-identification law.

While Trump has said such measures are necessary to prevent voter fraud — a favourite talking point — critics argue they can raise barriers for US citizens who might be eligible to vote but cannot afford or access ID cards.

On the roadside, as Trump’s motorcade passed through western North Carolina, a small group of demonstrators had gathered to protest the president’s repeal of climate-change policies. They pointed out that the climate crisis is credited with exacerbating extreme weather events, like hurricanes and fires.

Saturday 25,Jan,2025 {HMC} A joint political declaration signed by Egyptian and Somali leaders on Thursday has underlined Cairo’s commitment to providing military support to Mogadishu under their military cooperation protocol inked in mid-August 2024.

This military support aims to enable Somalia to fight and eradicate terrorism, leveraging the Egyptian capabilities and experience in this regard, the joint declaration read.

Moreover, the declaration includes enhancing counterterrorism cooperation between Egypt and Somalia through specialized training and the exchange of information between relevant authorities.

The two countries aim to capitalize on this collaboration to “assist Sudan in achieving the goal of eliminating terrorism and enforce the state’s sovereignty over its entire territory,” the declaration read.

The defense ministries of Egypt and Somalia are committed under the declaration to explore means of enhancing the two countries’ military relations, especially with regard to training and armament.

The ministries of defense will also work on fulfilling the needs of the Somali national army in various military fields, with a focus on combating terrorism and securing land and maritime borders.

The two countries will continue bolstering cooperation between the Ministry of Interior in Egypt and the Somali Ministry of Internal Security to enhance their law enforcement efforts.

President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi and his Somali counterpart, President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud, signed the joint political declaration in Cauri to elevate the relations between both countries to the level of strategic partnership.

Besides military cooperation, the declaration encompasses enhancing relations in the cultural and educational areas as well as judicial cooperation, political consultations, election management and economic collaboration.

Under the declaration, the two countries will enhance their economic ties in the fields of agriculture and livestock, fishing and fish farming, construction, transportation, financial and banking services, besides oil, gas, and renewable energy.