Some in dry Somalia break Ramadan fast with little but water

Hadiiq Abdulle Mohamed speaks during an interview with AP at an internally displaced people camp on the outskirts of Mogadishu, Somalia. (AP)
Hadiiq Abdulle Mohamed speaks during an interview with AP at an internally displaced people camp on the outskirts of Mogadishu, Somalia. (AP)
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Updated 29 March 2023

Some in dry Somalia break Ramadan fast with little but water

Hadiiq Abdulle Mohamed speaks during an interview with AP at an internally displaced people camp on the outskirts of Mogadishu.
  • Ramadan brought an increase in food prices for a country already struggling with inflation caused in part by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine
  • Millions of livestock that are central to people’s diets have died

MOGADISHU: This year’s holy month of Ramadan coincides with the longest drought on record in Somalia. As the sun sets and Muslims around the world gather to break their daily fasts with generous dinners, Hadiiq Abdulle Mohamed and her family have just water and whatever food might be at hand.
Mohamed is among more than 1 million Somalis who have fled their homes in search of help while an estimated 43,000 people died last year alone. She and her husband and their six children now take refuge in one of the growing displacement camps around the capital, Mogadishu.
Ramadan brought an increase in food prices for a country already struggling with inflation caused in part by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the withering of local crops by five consecutive failed rainy seasons. Millions of livestock that are central to people’s diets have died.
Now food is even harder to come by for those displaced. For Ramadan, Mohamed and her family rely on well-wishers to provide their single meal a day. First, they break their fast with water and pieces of dates, then spoons of rice. Finally, they eat the donated meal of rice cooked with mixed meat, bruised banana and a small plastic bag of juice, which Mohamed waits in line for hours under the searing sun to obtain.
“I recall the Ramadan fast we had in the past when we were enjoying and prospering,” she said. “We would milk our goats, cook the ugali (maize porridge) and collard greens and drink water from our catchment. However, this year we are living in a camp, without plastic to cover us from rain, without food to eat, thirsty and experiencing drought. We have this small hot meal, but do you think that this can feed a family of six children, plus a mother and father? That is not possible.” The family once was prosperous and owned farmland and goats in a village about 140 kilometers (87 miles) west of the capital. Now they try to get by on the little money her husband makes by carrying goods in a wheelbarrow. But food prices have soared so much that his income is no longer enough to buy a 1 kilogram (2.2 pound) bag of rice.
The inflation in Somalia pinches the more well-off, too. The typical Ramadan fast-breaking meal includes samosas and other snacks; juice and tea and coffee; the main dish of rice or spaghetti or flatbread with camel, goat, chicken or fish; and finally, dessert.
The Horn of Africa country imports the majority of its food, from Ukraine-grown wheat to the bottles of Mountain Dew stocked in some gleaming Mogadishu shops. Meanwhile, prices of basics like rice and cooking oil continue to rise in parts of the country.
This month, World Food Program monitoring reported that supply chain resilience was generally good in Somalia, but the spike in demand for Ramadan would be “a disadvantage to vulnerable households who depend on local markets.”
“We are really experiencing a soaring price of food and another basic commodities,” said Ahmed Khadar Abdi Jama, a lecturer in economics at Somalia University. “Whenever there is an external factor that can reduce the supply of food, such as the Russia-Ukraine conflict, it is more likely that Somalis will feel a low supply.”
For example, a kilogram of camel meat that cost about $4 before the holy month now costs about $6. But this inflation will subside after the month is over, Khadar said.
Ramadan is a month of alms and forgiveness throughout the Muslim world. With the growing number of Somalis displaced by the drought, the imams of the mosques in Mogadishu are leading efforts to encourage the city’s wealthy and others who can afford it to sympathize with the poor and give generously.
“Some people need food to afford to break their fast,” said one imam, Sheikh Abdikarim Isse Ali. “Please help them.”


Ukraine’s Zelensky: NATO membership ‘impossible’ until Russia war ends

Ukraine’s Zelensky: NATO membership ‘impossible’ until Russia war ends
Updated 11 sec ago

Ukraine’s Zelensky: NATO membership ‘impossible’ until Russia war ends

Ukraine’s Zelensky: NATO membership ‘impossible’ until Russia war ends
KYIV: President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Friday he knew it would be “impossible” for Ukraine to join NATO while Russia was waging war on his country.
Zelensky has pressed for Ukrainian membership of the military alliance but allies are divided over how fast that should happen. Western governments are wary of any move that might take the alliance closer to war with Russia.
In a joint briefing in the Ukrainian capital with Estonian President Alar Karis, he said joining the alliance was still the best security guarantee for Kyiv.
“But we are adequate people and understand that we will not pull any NATO country into a war,” Zelensky said. “And that’s why we understand that we won’t be a member of NATO while this war is ongoing. Not because we don’t want to, because it’s impossible.”

Russian shelling kills two in Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia region — governor

Russian shelling kills two in Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia region — governor
Updated 27 min 17 sec ago

Russian shelling kills two in Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia region — governor

Russian shelling kills two in Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia region — governor
  • Yuriy Malashko said on the Telegram messaging app that Russian forces had hit a multi-storey residential building in the small village

KYIV: Two people were killed and four others were wounded on Friday in Russian shelling of the village of Komyshevaha in Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia region, the regional governor said.
Yuriy Malashko said on the Telegram messaging app that Russian forces had hit a multi-story residential building in the small village close to the front line in southeastern Ukraine.


Kremlin says Ukrainian NATO membership would cause problems for many years

Kremlin says Ukrainian NATO membership would cause problems for many years
Updated 36 min 13 sec ago

Kremlin says Ukrainian NATO membership would cause problems for many years

Kremlin says Ukrainian NATO membership would cause problems for many years
  • Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said: "Ukraine's membership in NATO, of course, is one of the main irritants and would be a potential problem for many, many years"
  • "The Russian Federation... will ensure its interests and its security"

MOSCOW: The Kremlin said on Friday that if Ukraine joined NATO then it would cause problems for many years to come, an issue he said many European Union countries understood though the United States ultimately called the tunes at the military alliance.
President Volodymyr Zelensky pressed his case on Thursday for Ukraine to be part of
the NATO military alliance and urged the alliance to provide security guarantees if membership were not possible for now.
Asked about Ukraine’s aspirations to join the alliance, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said: “We regret to state that this indicates the unpreparedness, the unwillingness and the incapacity of the Kyiv regime to resolve existing problems at the negotiating table.”
“Ukraine’s membership in NATO, of course, is one of the main irritants and would be a potential problem for many, many years,” Peskov said.
“Many EU countries, oddly enough, are well aware of this. But, unfortunately, Washington orders and pays for the tunes in NATO. The EU is simply an obedient instrument in this orchestra.”
NATO leaders agreed at a summit in Bucharest in 2008 that Ukraine and Georgia would one day become members of NATO. So far, however, no concrete steps or timetable has been published that would actually bring Ukraine closer to NATO.
“The Russian Federation... will ensure its interests and its security,” Peskov said. “This excludes the expansion of NATO and its direct approach to our borders.”
The Kremlin has long seen NATO’s expansion into eastern Europe as evidence of Western hostility to Russia and has cited it as a key reason for its decision to send tens of thousands of troops into Ukraine on Feb. 24, 2022, unleashing the biggest conflict Europe has seen since the end of World War Two.
NATO, which now numbers 31 member states following Finland’s accession this year, says it is a purely defensive alliance that poses no threat to Russia.


South Africa avoids Vladimir Putin arrest dilemma at BRICS meeting

South Africa avoids Vladimir Putin arrest dilemma at BRICS meeting
Updated 02 June 2023

South Africa avoids Vladimir Putin arrest dilemma at BRICS meeting

South Africa avoids Vladimir Putin arrest dilemma at BRICS meeting
  • Top diplomats from Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa meet for talks on the bloc’s ambition to provide an alternative to a western-led global order

CAPE TOWN: South Africa attempted to shift attention away from its stance on the Ukraine conflict on Friday, as it hosted a BRICS meeting overshadowed by questions about a possible visit to the country by Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Top diplomats from Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa met in Cape Town for a second day of talks on the bloc’s ambition to provide an alternative to a western-led global order.
However the question of whether Putin would attend a subsequent gathering of the bloc in August, having been invited before an ICC arrest warrant was issued, has dominated this week’s meeting.
Putin is wanted by the International Criminal Court over accusations that Russia unlawfully deported Ukrainian children.
A member of the ICC with strong trade and economic relations with the United States and Europe, South Africa would be expected to arrest him if he sets foot in the country.
The issue has put Pretoria in a tight diplomatic spot, and ministers largely dodged a barrage of questions about Putin during the first day of discussions.
On Friday, South African Foreign Minister Naledi Pandor sought to shift focus away from Putin and the war in Ukraine.
“As countries gathered in this room today... we all represent together a significant majority of the world’s territory, population and economy,” Pandor said.
Representatives of about a dozen other nations, including Iran, Saudi Arabia, Cuba and Kazakhstan, attended in person or virtually, for a “Friends of BRICS” session.
On Thursday, BRICS ministers welcomed what they said was the interest expressed by numerous countries to join the bloc.
“We in this room need to determine a plan of action for our countries and for the world,” Pandor said in opening remarks on Friday.
“We cannot allow a conflict in one part of the world to replace the ambition of eradicating global poverty as the world’s greatest global challenge,” she added, in an apparent reference to the war in Ukraine.
Russia’s invasion of its neighbor has sent food and energy prices soaring in much of the world, exacerbating food insecurity in poor countries.
Pandor took a swing at western nations, saying the world has “faltered in cooperation” since rich countries’ “attention and resources” have been “diverted” by the war.
“The plight of the poor is forgotten and the great powers are engaged in world conflict,” she said. “We need to turn this around.”


US seeks ‘just and lasting peace’ for Ukraine, Blinken says

US seeks ‘just and lasting peace’ for Ukraine, Blinken says
Updated 02 June 2023

US seeks ‘just and lasting peace’ for Ukraine, Blinken says

US seeks ‘just and lasting peace’ for Ukraine, Blinken says
  • Washington would also encourage initiatives by other countries to bring about an end to the conflict
  • ‘Putin’s war of aggression against Ukraine has been a strategic failure’

HELSINKI/WASHINGTON: US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Friday the United States was working with Ukraine and other allies to build consensus around the core elements of a “just and lasting peace” to end the war with Russia.
Washington would also encourage initiatives by other countries to bring about an end to the conflict, as long as they uphold the United Nations Charter and Ukraine’s sovereignty, territorial integrity and independence.
“We will support efforts – whether by Brazil, China, or any other nation – if they help find a way to a just and lasting peace,” Blinken said in a speech.
Still, Washington would continue to support Ukraine militarily as the prerequisite for meaningful diplomacy is that Kyiv is capable of deterring and defending against any future aggression.
“Putin’s war of aggression against Ukraine has been a strategic failure,” Blinken said.
Speaking in Finland, the NATO alliance’s newest member, Blinken said the US would help build a “Ukrainian military of the future.”
That meant “a modern air force, integrated air and missile defense, advanced tanks and armored vehicles, the national capacity to produce ammunition, and the training and support to keep forces and equipment combat ready.”