In a significant development for Somalia and Kenya, the long-awaited reopening of the border between the two nations has been officially announced. The decision, which comes after extensive consultations between high-level officials, signifies a major milestone in regional cooperation. The reopening of border points in Mandera, Lamu, and Garissa marks the end of a 12-year closure that began during Kenya's Operation Linda Nchi, aimed at combatting the influx of Al-Shabaab militants.
Posts tagged as “Kenya”
In a historic move, the National Bank of Ethiopia has issued a license to Kenya's telecom giant Safaricom to operate mobile money services in Ethiopia. This marks the first time a foreign firm has received such a permit in the country, which has a population of over 110 million people.
On Wednesday, the Central Bank of Kenya (CBK) announced the release of the Kenya Quick Response (QR) Code Standard 2023, which is a set of guidelines for Payment Service Providers, banks, and other regulated institutions on issuing QR codes for digital payments. The launch was done in collaboration with Safaricom, Equity Bank, ABSA, KCB, Co-operative Bank, Visa, Mastercard, PesaPal, and FSD Kenya.
The UN Children's Fund, UNICEF, said Wednesday it has appealed for 759 million U.S. dollars to provide life-saving support to 16.6 million people, including 12.2 million children in Ethiopia, Kenya, and Somalia in 2023.
China’s loans for President William Ruto’s first full-year budget will be the smallest in 16 years as Beijing adopts a more cautious approach to lending in Africa where some nations have reached the limit of their borrowing capacity and the prospect of default looms.
In response to the conflict between the Sudanese army and paramilitary forces, Somalia has begun evacuating its citizens who are stranded in Sudan. On Wednesday, eighteen Somalis were successfully evacuated from Buluja, a town near Sudan's border with South Sudan, and arrived at Mogadishu's Aden Adde Airport. Abdirahman Nur Dinari, the acting permanent secretary of Somalia's Ministry of Foreign Affairs, expressed his gratitude to the Somali embassies in Sudan, South Sudan, and Ethiopia for their efforts in evacuating citizens.
Kenyan police have made a gruesome discovery in a forest in eastern Kenya, where they have recovered 73 bodies from mass graves thought to be followers of a Christian cult. The group reportedly believed that they would ascend to heaven if they starved themselves to death. The death toll has been rising as exhumations continue. Presently, the Kenyan Red Cross has set up a tracing and counseling desk for 112 missing persons.
Top officials from the African Union Transition Mission in Somalia (ATMIS) troop-contributing countries (TCCs) have gathered in Kampala, Uganda, for a four-day meeting to review and evaluate the mission's performance in Somalia.
The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) has deployed a team of disaster response experts for Sudan in the region to coordinate the humanitarian response as fighting rocks the country, USAID head Samantha Power said on Sunday.
The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) working with Japan launched a project Wednesday to provide relief to drought-affected herders and agropastoralists in East Africa.