Mohammed Omer Mulla

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Monday that Somalia had invited Turkey to conduct energy drilling and exploration operations in its seas. “We had a proposal from Somalia. They said that Somalia had oil in its seas. [They said] as in Libya, [we] could do the same [drilling operations] in [Somalia],” Erdogan told journalists on the presidential plane returning from a summit in Berlin  on Sunday, where world powers discussed the situation in Libya. Erdogan said Ankara was intending to honour the invitation. “There would be steps that we will take there. This is something beneficial for us,” he said. According to seismic data processing firm Seismic Geo , there is a high potential for hydrocarbon exploration off Somalia's shores. The country last week passed a new petroleum law to attract foreign investment in the energy sector from giant firms such as ExxonMobil and Shell. Abdirashid Mohamed Ahmed, the Somali minister in charge of petrol...

100,000 hectares of land in Somalia is at risk of locust invasion threatening to wipe out food and fodder production for the October-December harvests, UN body warned. In a statement Wednesday last week, the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) a UN agency said looming locust crisis expected to hit southern regions and likely to cross to northeastern Kenyan is the worst outbreak in over 25 years. Aan estimated 70,000 hectares of land have been infested by the hoppers and breeding adults in Somalia and Ethiopia. The desert locust breeding is ongoing in Somaliland, Puntland and Mudug region in Galmudug state, FAO said. “We are talking about a medium to long-term intervention. The impact of our actions in the short term is going to be very limited, but we can make a difference to support livelihoods and avoid further disastrous consequences for the next Gu season in 2020 if we act now,” says Etienne Peterschmitt, FAO Representative in Somalia. Peterschmitt said i...

Security forces ended a deadly attack at a hotel in Somalia's capital Mogadishu on Tuesday after a seven-hour battle that left at least three civilians and two soldiers dead. The attack began when five heavily armed gunmen overpowered security guards and stormed the upscale SYL hotel, according to police and government officials. Eleven people were injured, including two members of the country's security forces, police said. The attackers, claimed by terrorist group Al-Shabaab, began shooting at responding Somali security forces, said police officer Ali Abdi. All five attackers were killed in the firefight, officials said. "The security forces have finally accomplished the operation they have been conducting in SYL hotel, the entire of the 5 attackers have been killed, (and) 5 people have been killed in the attack," government spokesman Ismail Mukhtar tweeted early Wednesday. Dozens of people were evacuated from the hotel, he also said. T...

Former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg announced he is running for the Democratic presidential nomination, offering his own mix of moderate policy stances and experience in business, government and philanthropy as the way to beat President Donald Trump. Bloomberg, 77, called Trump “an existential threat to our country and our values” as he joined a crowded field of candidates, with fewer than three months before the Iowa caucuses. His late entry will create added difficulties as he seeks to build a campaign infrastructure and support in key states. “I’m running for president to defeat Donald Trump and rebuild America. We cannot afford four more years of President Trump’s reckless and unethical actions,” Bloomberg said in a statement announcing his candidacy. “If he wins another term in office, we may never recover from the damage.” He reconsidered his earlier decision not to run in 2020 as he saw the Democratic field struggling to produce a front-runner to take ...