Somali President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud on Thursday called on international partners to help the nation avert a looming famine and defeat terrorism.
“We are now confident that with enhanced public support, our government will eliminate terrorism from Somalia,” Mohamud said in his address Sept. 22, 2022, to the U.N. General Assembly in New York.
“In Somalia, we are working tirelessly to transition from over two decades of devastating conflict, drought, famine and developmental stagnation to a new age of stability, progress and prosperity. However, despite our continuing efforts, Somalia and its resilient people are facing some of the most complex and interconnected crises in the world,” the president told the general debate of the 77th session of the UN General Assembly.
Somali army forces backed by local militias have retaken dozens of villages from the al-Shabab militant group in recent weeks, mostly in the central Hiran and Galgudud regions.
The U.S. military, which has backed the Somali government with airstrikes against Islamist militants for a decade, said Wednesday it had killed 27 fighters from al-Shabab in an airstrike in the Hiran region.
The crises, he said, included ongoing regional drought, which directly threatens the lives and livelihoods of Somali’s most vulnerable communities.
In a new report issued Wednesday, the UN warned that hundreds of thousands in Somalia are already facing starvation with staggering levels of malnutrition expected among children under five. This is the third time in 10 years that Somalia has been threatened with a devastating famine.
Mohamud called on Somalia’s partners to do everything possible to help avert a looming famine, which also threatens the wider Horn of Africa region.
