On 17 August UNHCR Kakuma hosted a visit by Mr. Allan Torrie, president and CEO of Morneau Shepell, a Canadian human resource consulting company which is emerging as one of Kakuma's primary private donors. Morneau Shepell is currently funding the construction of a Community Technology Access Centre...

By Abdi Sheikh and Abdirahman Hussein MOGADISHU, Aug 31 (Reuters) - Islamist rebels blew up a car bomb and gunmen attacked a national intelligence site in Somalia's capital where suspected militants are held, in an assault on Sunday that left at least 12 people dead. Three soldiers and two civ...

Planning is underway for a mission by UNHCR colleagues in early October to undertake an assessment of the environmental situation in the Turkana region of Kenya with the aim of developing a long-term strategy for mainstreaming climate change adaptation and disaster risk reduction into UNHCR operatio...

In Ethiopia, a large scale effort has meanwhile been underway to address the high mortality rates among new arrivals from Somalia. Malnutrition remains the leading cause of death but the situation is being compounded by suspected measles and other diseases. Children under the age of five, already...

Somalia's government has offered an amnesty to fighters with al-Shabab, the armed group whose leader was reportedly targeted on Monday night in a US air strike. Following a cabinet-level security meeting, Somali authorities gave al-Shabab fighters 45 days to take up the offer, Security Minister K...

In Kenya, UNHCR began populating yesterday (Thursday, 18 August) a new part of the Dadaab refugee complex to provide shelter for tens of thousands of new Somali refugees and to ease the chronic overcrowding of the existing camps - namely Dagahaley, Ifo and Hagadera. The first group to occupy ten...

Al-Shabab, the Somali armed group, has named Ahmed Umar, also known as Abu Ubaidah, as successor to Ahmed Abdi Godane who was killed in US airstrikes last Tuesday. The armed group on Saturday pledged to take revenge for the death of one its founding leaders. "Avenging the death of our scholars...

NAIROBI, Kenya, August 19 (UNHCR) – The UN refugee agency said Friday it is continuing to distribute emergency aid to displaced people in southern and central Somalia, reaching some 30,000 of them this week alone. Since early July, UNHCR teams have assisted some 180,000 people displaced by drough...

NAIROBI, Kenya, August 23 (UNHCR) – The UN refugee agency has sent a team of experts in several disciplines to a remote area of eastern Ethiopia where some 18,000 Somali refugees are in urgent need of aid after fleeing their country. The UNHCR team sent to Gode includes specialists in health, nut...

At least 12 people, including four Americans, were killed and 27 others wounded when a suicide bomber rammed a vehicle packed with explosives into an African Union convoy southwest of the Somali capital Mogadishu. The attack, the latest in a wave of violence, comes exactly one week after a US air...