Climate change effects such as droughts, flash floods, erratic rainfall, disruption to the monsoon seasons, strong winds, cyclones, sandstorms, dust storms and increased temperature are being experienced across Somalia. These effects are affecting livelihoods, and contributing to local grievances and community tensions.
Some of these insights and conclusions were reached based on a special report done by the Somali government in 2013. This report remains the best estimate of the impact of changing weather patterns in the country as no newer data are available.
According to the report the country experienced a gradual and continuous increase in median annual temperatures between 1991 and 2013. Median daily maximum temperatures range from 30°C to 40°C. The report estimates that temperatures will increase by between 3.2°C and 4.3°C by the end of the 21st Century.
The last decade has seen the highest-ever number of people displaced by conflict and violence globally. There are an estimated 51 million people displaced within their own borders. And the number of refugees has doubled to 20 million since 2011.
Displacement creates vulnerabilities for both adults and young people. But adolescent girls, in particular, are at increased risk due to their age and gender.
With the onset of COVID-19, adolescent girls in conflict zones are 90% more likely to be out of school. And 70% of females in humanitarian settings are more likely to experience gender-based violence.
Globally, lockdowns and shelter-in-place policies are exacerbating domestic violence, with 15 million new cases estimated for every three months of lockdown.
Sudan’s political transition is in a precarious phase. Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok’s government is facing a wide variety of challenges, including protests over the price of goods and commodities, and a resurgence of violence in the country’s Darfur region. If the situation continues to unravel, the country could fall into crisis leaving parts of the old regime to retake control. Andrew E. Yaw Tchie assesses the transition’s status and explains what the new government must do to place the country back on track.
How do you rate the transitional government’s performance against its mandate and promises made?
One of Kenya’s best known government administrators, Mohamed Yusuf Haji, died recently aged 88, still actively engaged in public service as both senator and chairman of a constitution revision team.
Born in Garissa in 1940, Haji was a beneficiary of the pre-independence colonial initiative to identify young talents to fill the shoes of departing British colonial administrators. He joined the administrative service as a District Officer in 1960.
In that year, Britain called the first Lancaster House Conference to determine Kenya’s future. It decreed that ‘natives’ would rule. Officials then intensified recruitment of potential African administrators and bureaucrats.
Simeon Nyachae, another long serving administrator wrote in his autobiography that new recruits were trained to take over Kenya’s administration at independence.