Somalia

RIYADH: The President of Somalia Hassan Sheikh Mohamud received the Secretary-General of the Muslim World League Sheikh Dr. Mohammed Al-Issa on Monday.

During the meeting at the presidential palace in Mogadishu, the two officials discussed various topics regarding MWL contributions to Somalia across religious, intellectual, and humanitarian spheres.

The president commended the efforts of the league in supporting the Somali people.

Earlier during his visit to the country, Al-Issa met with leading Somali scholars for an intellectual gathering and attended a forum where participants discussed efforts to confront extremist ideologies.

MOGADISHU, Somalia: Somalia’s business community is seeking alternative shipping routes due to disruptions and security concerns around the Bab Al-Mandab Strait and the Strait of Hormuz after Iran-backed Houthis captured a key port city and an island, sending thousands of Yemenis fleeing to neighboring Djibouti.

Companies have traditionally imported goods from Asia through Gulf countries, such as the United Arab Emirates, Oman, and Saudi Arabia. Now, some are trying a more direct approach.

“The latest tensions in the Bab Al-Mandab Strait, as well as those in the Strait of Hormuz, have negatively impacted us,” said Mohamed Ali Nur, director of Mogadishu Seaport. “But we have also taken measures to avoid that disruption.”

Nur said his port has worked with exporters to find alternative routes.

“For the first time, we brought a ship carrying sugar directly from Sri Lanka,” Nur said. “This could be a strategy we developed because of these tensions.”

Yemen’s internationally recognized government and Saudi Arabia have been battling the Houthis for 12 years.

The recent escalation has ended a ceasefire that had largely stopped civil war across Yemen since 2022.

Now the number of people from Yemen fleeing the fighting is soaring.

On Sunday, the International Organization for Migration said over 85,000 people have been displaced since the beginning of the month. More than 2,000 people have reached Djibouti, which neighbors Somalia, the agency said.

At Mogadishu’s busy seaport, cargo ships continue to unload food and other commodities. Somalia is particularly dependent on maritime trade for many of the goods its people use every day.

For ordinary Somali consumers, changes in shipping routes can eventually be felt in the markets, where imported food and other goods are sold. Longer or more complicated journeys can mean higher transportation costs and delays in getting products onto store shelves.

Capt Ali Jemdi, who is originally from Syria and ships cargoes of sugar, said uncertainty in the region is already creating concerns for ships operating along the routes.

“There is some trouble over there because of the war,” he told The Associated Press, referring to the Arabian Gulf and surrounding waters. “The Bab al-Mandab may also have some issues for the vessel.”

He said the instability could make maritime transportation and trade more difficult.

Somali authorities say 14 pirates were killed in the 10-day operation to free a Cameroon-flagged cargo vessel.

Turkish and Somali forces have freed a cargo ship held captive by pirates off the coast of Somalia’s semi-autonomous Puntland state, according to authorities.

In a statement on X on Saturday, the Somali Ministry of Defence said that “14 pirates” died in the operation to free the Cameroon-flagged MV Latuf.

Four of their boats were also destroyed, it said.

The Defence Ministry said that “sustained pressure from the forces ultimately compelled the remaining pirates to abandon the vessel”, allowing the forces to take control of the ship.

The rescue operation was conducted under a defence cooperation agreement between Somalia and Turkiye, aimed at strengthening maritime security, protecting Somalia’s coastline and combating piracy, it said.

The Somali Defence Ministry did not provide details about any casualties or the wellbeing of the ship’s crew.

A local elder, Abdullahi Warsame, from the Jiifle community in the Godob Jiraan district of Puntland’s Nugal region, told The Associated Press news agency that the vessel and its crew had been freed.

The MV Latuf left the Turkish Port of Tekirdag in late July. It was hijacked on August 17 in waters off the coast of the Nugal region of Puntland, a semi-autonomous federal state in northeastern Somalia.

According to the Marine Traffic website, the cargo ship has continued its voyage to its reported destination in Dar-es-Salaam in Tanzania.

Piracy was rampant off the coast of Somalia in the 2000s, peaking in 2011, before being curbed by international naval deployments and new protection measures for commercial shipping.

But attacks have surged since April, with at least 15 attacks off the coast of Somalia this year, the highest since 2013, according to figures from the International Maritime Organization. At least five cargo ships have been held hostage, the last of which was seized on August 20 off the coast of Yemen.