Saturday 9,August 2025 {HMC} The Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation of the Federal Republic of Somalia, Abdisalam Abdi Ali, accompanied by a high-level delegation, arrived today in Algiers, the capital of Algeria.

The delegation received a warm welcome from Somalia’s Ambassador to Algeria, Yusuf Hassan Ahmed, along with senior Algerian government officials.

The visit is part of ongoing efforts to strengthen diplomatic ties, strategic cooperation, and partnership between the two brotherly nations, Somalia and Algeria, in pursuit of sustainable development, stability, and mutual understanding.

Saturday 9,August 2025 {HMC} The Commander of the Somali National Army’s Ground Forces, Brigadier General Sahal Abdullahi Omar (Khaalid), today visited Bariire in Lower Shabelle, recently liberated from Al-Shabaab terrorists.

The Commander inspected the battle sites where the militants were decisively defeated, viewing the weapons, ammunition, and other equipment seized from the enemy. He also visited the facilities where captured militants are being held.

During the visit, Brig. Gen. Sahal met with the operational commanders, commending the bravery and unity of the Somali National Army and African Union stabilization Mission in Somalia (AUSSOM) that led to the victory in Bariire.

He stressed the importance of maintaining high vigilance and completing clearance operations to prevent any attempt by the enemy to re-infiltrate the area.

Saturday 9,August 2025 {HMC} United States President Donald Trump has confirmed he will meet with his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, on August 15 in Alaska to discuss efforts to end the war in Ukraine.

But, Trump added, any peace deal would involve “some swapping” of territory, a controversial prospect.

“We are going to have a meeting with Russia. We’ll start off with Russia,” he said on Friday, as he hosted leaders from Armenia and Azerbaijan at the White House.

Trump offered few details on what, if anything, had changed in his months-long effort to bring about a deal to end Russia’s invasion.

Still, he suggested any breakthrough would require the exchange of territory.

“It’s very complicated. But we’re going to get some back, and we’re going to get some switched. There’ll be some swapping of territories to the betterment of both, but we’ll be talking about that either later or tomorrow,” he said.

Ukraine and its European allies have long opposed any agreement that involves ceding occupied territory – including Crimea, Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson and Zaporizhia – to Russia.

But Putin has repeatedly said that any deal must require Ukraine to relinquish some of the territories Russia has seized since 2014.

He has also called for a pause to Western aid for Ukraine and an end to Kyiv’s efforts to join the NATO military alliance.

Questions about the meeting’s location

Still, the prospect of Trump meeting Putin has raised logistical questions in recent days, particularly since the Russian leader faces an arrest warrant from the International Criminal Court (ICC).

Prosecutors have sought his arrest for alleged war crimes perpetrated in Ukraine, and Putin’s travel through any ICC member countries could result in his detention.

The US, however, is not an ICC member and does not recognise the court’s authority.

While the Kremlin had previously floated the possibility of meeting in the United Arab Emirates, another non-member, Trump announced on Friday in a Truth Social post that he would welcome Putin to the US northernmost state, Alaska.

The state’s mainland sits approximately 88 kilometres – or 55 miles – away from Russia across the Bering Strait, and some smaller islands are even closer.

Friday’s announcement came on the same day as a deadline that Trump had imposed on Russia to reach a ceasefire passed without any new agreement.

In recent weeks, Trump had grown increasingly frustrated with Russia over the country’s continued attacks on Ukraine and its apparent unwillingness to come to an accord.

The August 15 meeting is slated to be the first tete-a-tete between the two leaders since 2019, during Trump’s first term.

‘Great progress’

Trump had broken with decades of diplomatic precedent by seeming to embrace Putin during much of his time in the White House.

Earlier this year, for instance, Trump appeared to reject Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in favour of Putin. He also blamed Ukraine’s ambitions of joining NATO for provoking Russia’s full-scale invasion of its territory in February 2022.

“Putin went through a hell of a lot with me,” Trump yelled at one point during a confrontational meeting with Zelenskyy broadcast from the White House in February.

But Trump has positioned himself as a self-described “peacemaker”, and his inability to bring the Ukraine war to a close has become a source of resentment between him and Putin.

At the same time, he took an initially permissive approach to Putin, but has since expressed growing frustration with the Russian leader amid Russia’s continued attacks.

Last week, Trump denounced Russia’s renewed attacks on Kyiv. “I think it’s disgusting what they’re doing. I think it’s disgusting,” he said.

He also demanded that Russia pause its attacks or face new sanctions and secondary tariffs on key trading partners.

On Wednesday, Trump appeared to begin to make good on that threat, raising tariffs on Indian goods to 50 percent in response to its purchase of Russian oil.

Still, this week, Trump hailed “great progress” in the peace negotiations as his special envoy, Steve Witkoff, visited Putin in Moscow.

But as of Friday, the date of the new deadline, no new US actions or Russian capitulations had been announced.

Some analysts have argued that Putin is intentionally teasing out talks to extend the war.

It remains unclear if Trump’s mercurial approach has meaningfully changed the ceasefire equation since he took office.

Source: Al Jazeera and news agencies

Saturday 9,August 2025 {HMC} Agriculture Cabinet Secretary Mutahi Kagwe has called upon the Common Market for East and Southern Africa (COMESA) to enforce a ban on hazardous pesticides across its member states.

Speaking on Friday, August 8, Kagwe warned that the continued circulation of chemicals banned in some member states but permitted in others is compromising food safety, public health, and the integrity of regional agricultural trade.

Kagwe, speaking at the 9th Joint COMESA Ministerial Meeting on Agriculture, Natural Resources, and Environment in Lusaka, proposed the immediate harmonisation of chemical safety standards and the enforcement of collective prohibitions on hazardous substances across all member states.

“The current situation where a pesticide banned in one country continues to be used next door completely undermines our collective SPS [Sanitary and Phytosanitary] efforts,” Kagwe noted.

“We are exposing our farmers, our consumers, and our markets to unnecessary and unacceptable risk,” he said.

The lack of consistency, Kagwe noted, allowed unscrupulous traders to exploit gaps in enforcement, contributing to widespread contamination and the erosion of consumer trust in local and regional food systems.

At the same time, Kenya emphasised that effective regional food safety cannot exist without a common regulatory approach.

“We must not let fragmented policies stand in the way of our people’s safety. Harmonising chemical standards is not optional, it is urgent,” he stated.

Other proposals from Kenya during the meeting included the sharing of agricultural technologies such as livestock vaccines, the development of protocols for cross-border trade in certified seeds, and digital innovations for agricultural planning.

Kagwe reaffirmed Kenya’s commitment to supporting regional reforms, calling for bold leadership to transform COMESA from a “talk shop” into a functional platform for economic development, agricultural resilience, and food independence.

In Kenya, the use of hazardous pesticides has had a significant financial impact, not only from export rejections but also due to the economic consequences of banning those pesticides without providing farmers with clear, affordable, and effective alternatives.

If Kagwe’s proposal is accepted, the ban would affect 21 countries, including Burundi, Comoros, Democratic Republic of Congo, Djibouti, Egypt, Eritrea, Eswatini, Ethiopia, Kenya, Libya, Madagascar, Malawi, Mauritius, Rwanda, Seychelles, Somalia, Sudan, Tunisia, Uganda, Zambia, and Zimbabwe.

by Walter Ngano

Saturday 9,August 2025 {HMC} Forty-year-old Maryan Muse Magoye is caring for 28 children – 10 of her own, and 18 of close relatives – without an income or stable living conditions in a displacement camp in Mogadishu.

Her struggles illustrate the vulnerability of people living in the city without jobs or support services, amid the pressures falling especially on women by increasing numbers of broken families.

Her household in Koris camp in Deynile district more than doubled in February, when 18 children were dumped on her, including the children of her daughter who divorced, those of her brother who separated from his wife, and the children of her deceased sister whose husband was also killed.

“The family’s living conditions are very poor. The children you see don’t have a single consistent meal. It is difficult to get that one meal. Sometimes I take food on credit from a shop. I see the shopkeeper sometimes tell me, you still owe the money you took yesterday, I can’t add to it today. If I insist and say that these orphans need it, they give me the items,” she said.

“I have cried on social media for the sake of these children who have nothing.”

Maryan has shared her contact number on social media, appealing to well-wishers for charitable donations. The large family requires at least five kgs of food per day, and the amounts of donations she receives don’t cater for their needs.

“I am on the verge of talking to myself, and I also have diabetes. Our situation gets worse every day. I am asking my Somali brothers and sisters to support me. Allah said, ‘I will help the one who helps an orphan’. I am asking my brothers and sisters at home and abroad to give me encouragement, whether it’s for shelter, setting up a shop, or helping me with their daily lives,” she told Radio Ergo’s local reporter.

Maryan’s husband has been at home without work digging wells as he used to because of a nerve condition paralysing his leg and arm, and high blood pressure. He’s also become dependent on his wife for care, adding more pressure on her. She can’t afford to take him to a hospital nor to provide him with adequate nutrition.

For more than 20 years, Maryan earned a decent living of up to $200 a month making clay charcoal stoves. However, the market for these stoves has gradually dried up, as many people have switched to using gas and durable iron stoves that don’t burn charcoal and wood.

“This work has stopped one hundred per cent. No one cares about it, no one needs it. Everyone mostly uses SOMGAS. When these stoves sold well, my children’s daily life was fine. I used to earn seven to eight dollars a day in the market. I used to buy their rice, pasta, and meat from that, and their bread,” she said.

With no work since March, she still owes $300 to the people she sourced the clay from, at a location outside Mogadishu.

Most of the children she is caring for have reached school age, but financial hardship prevents them from starting formal education. Maryan currently sends 12 of the children to learn the Koran for $36 a month, a payment she is not always able to make.

“I can’t afford school. Sometimes the monthly fee is paid, sometimes it isn’t. The teacher is patient with us, and we pay him when we can. This girl you see here is an orphan; it’s her time to be educated as well as the others you see. School fees are five dollars per child, and I can’t afford it,” she said.

Maryan’s family moved to Koris camp in Deynile district in January, after landowners evicted them during the night from Iga Horkeen camp where they had been living in Garasbalay district.

Koris is home to nearly 300 families. The land is owned by local people and the camp dwellers have no contract or guarantee of tenure. They are able to live rent free, but there are no basic services like a school, water, or a health facility.

“Someone just told us that we could settle on this land until they need it. It’s an act of human kindness. When they need it, they will tell us to leave, and we will,” she said.

“One day we will have to leave. I am always being told to get up and move. I don’t own land, and I don’t have the money to buy it to provide for these orphans.”

Maryan’s own family have been evicted from four camps in Kahda and Garasbaley districts over five years, since leaving their farming livelihood in Marka, Lower Shabelle region, due to insecurity.