President Isaias Afwerki, authoritarian leader of Eritrea, defended both Russia and China while holding the West responsible for the situation in Ukraine, during a speech marking Independence Day in the Horn of Africa nation. Afwerki, in office since 1991—a tenure that places him among Africa’s longest-running leaders—drew parallels to his…
The European Union has committed €15 million to the fight against desert locusts, which have devastated crops in East Africa. It’s the worst outbreak in decades, and a new generation of locusts is now threatening the region with the potential to spread beyond the Horn of Africa and Yemen, into…
The European Union has announced €105.5 million in aid to Horn of Africa nations facing not just the coronavirus pandemic but also ongoing conflict, severe flooding and a months-long locust infestation that has destroyed crops and threatened food security. Somalia and Ethiopia will share €90 million nearly equally, while Kenya…
The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation is sending $10 million to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) to help combat a devastating locust infestation in East Africa and Horn nations. “The locust invasion is the worst Kenya has seen in 70 years, and the worst in nearly a…
The locust swarms wreaking havoc in the Horn of Africa have now spread across the Arabian Peninsula and into Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar and the southwest coast of Iran, according to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). They’re also affecting Red Sea nations, as well as those already hardest…
The desert locust swarms that have devastated crops on the Horn of Africa are rapidly multiplying in affected countries and likely to spread into other nations, according to an update from the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and partner agencies. FAO says swarms are the worst…
UNOCHA, the United Nations humanitarian agency, has released US$10 million to support an emergency response to the desert locust outbreak in East Africa – the worst Kenya has seen since 1950, and the worst for parts of the Horn of Africa in 25 years. The impacts in affected Red Sea…
Skywatchers and stargazers who rise early enough on Thursday morning may catch a glimpse of a partial solar eclipse visible across the Horn of Africa. The eclipse will move from east to west with a full “ring of fire” effect for other nations across the Indian Ocean and into Southeast…
Forecasters are calling for Tropical Cyclone Kyarr, now spinning in the Arabian Sea, to travel the southern edge of the Gulf of Aden before making landfall on the Horn of Africa. That’s posing a wind and potential flooding threat to Puntland and Somaliland, with rains pushing into Ethiopia and Kenya…
Djibouti is already feeling the impacts of climate crisis, and after a three-day tour of the Horn of Africa nation, the assistant secretary general for the United Nations humanitarian agency OCHA is calling for action. “Climate change is real, and I could see it here,” said UNOCHA’s Ursula Mueller. “I…
The United States says none of its personnel, nor those of its partners in Somalia, were injured on Monday when a car bomb attack happened at the Baledogle Military Airfield – but the attack was cause for a U.S. response. “This attack, though ineffective, demonstrates the direct threat al-Shabaab poses…
International aid organization Oxfam says more than 15 million people in the Horn of Africa region need assistance because of an ongoing drought, with lives at risk because lessons learned from drought conditions earlier this decade are being ignored. Parts of Ethiopia, Kenya and Somalia are affected again after sparse…
The threat of crop-destroying locust swarms remains for the Horn of Africa and some North African nations, according to the Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) and its new Early Warning Early Action report. The United Nations agency has been monitoring the threat following “unprecedented spring breeding” that happened earlier this…
More than 400 Ethiopian migrants who have been stranded in Yemen are headed home, as the International Organization for Migration (IOM) begins flights to take them to Addis Ababa. The first group of 102 Ethiopians landed in Addis Ababa on Monday, with another 316 arriving by Thursday through a Voluntary…
The World Food Programme says it’s been forced to cut rations to 420,000 refugees living in the Dadaab and Kakuma camps in northern Kenya because of insufficient funding. The United Nations food relief agency said Monday that those refugees will receive 70 percent of their current food allotment because of…