NAIROBI: Somalia’s “rapidly worsening” drought has left more than two million people facing severe food and water shortages, the United Nations said, warning of a fourth consecutive season of poor rainfall in the conflict-wracked country.
“About 2.3 million people in 57 of 74 districts... are ravaged by serious water, food and pasture shortages as water pans and boreholes have dried up,” raising the risk of water-borne diseases, the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said.
The Horn of Africa was “on the verge of a fourth consecutive failed rainfall season,” it added in a statement released late Thursday.
The dire situation has already forced nearly 100,000 people to flee their homes in search of food, water and pasture for their livestock, the UN agency said.
In recent years, natural disasters — not conflict — have been the main driver of displacement in Somalia, a war-torn nation that ranks among the world’s most vulnerable to climate change.
“A perfect storm is brewing in Somalia,” said Adam Abdelmoula, the UN resident and humanitarian coordinator for the country, calling for urgent action to prevent famine conditions from taking hold.
Somalia’s minister of humanitarian affairs and disaster management Khadija Diriye warned that families could starve to death as they lose their livestock and slide deeper into poverty.
“I am particularly worried about children, women, the elderly and disabled people who continue to bear the brunt of Somalia’s humanitarian crisis,” she said.
Failed rains and flooding have caused widespread crop failures and piled pressure on livestock-dependent communities in Kenya and South Sudan this year.
The United Nations refugee agency UNHCR last month described the South Sudan floods as the worst seen in some areas since 1962, blaming the downpours on climate change.
Somalia faces ‘rapidly worsening’ drought: UN
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Somalia faces ‘rapidly worsening’ drought: UN
In rare overlap, Chinese Muslims observe Ramadan with Lunar New Year
- Lunar New Year started on Feb. 17 and is celebrated for another two weeks
- Chinese Indonesians make up about 3 percent of the Indonesian population
JAKARTA: Every year, on the first day of Lunar New Year, Febriani visits relatives and gathers for a feast with her Chinese Muslim family, part of a long-standing tradition honoring their ethnic heritage.
But this year, as Thursday marks the beginning of Ramadan, she is celebrating two important occasions within the same week, in a rare overlap that last took place in 1995.
“I’m very happy and grateful that Lunar New Year and Ramadan are celebrated so closely. I observe both every year, so it’s truly special,” she told Arab News.
Widely observed across Asia, the Lunar New Year or Chinese New Year festival is believed to date back to the 14th century B.C., to the times of the Shang Dynasty, China’s earliest ruling dynasty, when people celebrated good harvests.
In 2026, it started on Feb. 17 and is celebrated for another two weeks. For many, celebrations typically involve elaborate feasts, giving children pocket money in red envelopes, and watching dragon dance parades.
In Indonesia, Chinese-descent citizens make up an estimated 3 percent of the country’s Muslim-majority population of more than 280 million. While most are either Buddhists or Christians, a small minority professes Islam.
For 25-year-old Febriani, both Lunar New Year and Ramadan are equally meaningful.
“The two celebrations teach us to strengthen bonds, to share with one another, and to become closer to family,” she said.
“They are both important to me because they happen only once every year and they’re always an occasion to gather with the extended family. It is also a chance to self-reflect and strengthen relationships with your loved ones.”
For Naga Kunadi, whose family lives in Central Java’s Cepu district, Chinese New Year is all about embracing his ethnic identity.
Earlier in the week, his family was busy preparing for the new year’s feast, which was a fusion of Chinese and Indonesian dishes, such as claypot tofu, meatball soup and shumai, or steamed dumplings.
“To celebrate Chinese New Year, we prepared halal Chinese food at home. It’s also a way to introduce to my children the traditions from our Chinese side, but there’s a bit of a fusion because my wife is Javanese,” Kunadi told Arab News.
Kunadi, an Islamic teacher at the Lautze Mosque in Jakarta, sees both Chinese New Year and Ramadan as opportunities to teach important life values for his two children.
Upholding Chinese New Year traditions with his family is for him a way of preserving his ethnic heritage.
“We want to preserve cultural values as long as it does not clash with our religion,” he said.
“If we leave our culture behind, we might lose our identity, so this is something I want to teach my children.”
The fasting month of Ramadan, on the other hand, gives him a chance to teach and practice honesty.
“I want to focus on the religious and moral aspects during the holy month of Ramadan, when we practice honesty on a personal level,” Kunadi said.
“There’s always an opportunity to eat or snack in secret without anybody knowing, but we train ourselves not to do that. For me, Ramadan is a time for everyone to put honesty into practice, including myself and my children.”
