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People gathered in several towns in the breakaway region of Somaliland on Sunday to celebrate its recognition by Israel — a decision condemned by the Somali president as a “threat” to stability in the Horn of Africa.Israel announced on Friday it was officially recognising Somaliland, a first for the self-proclaimed republic that in 1991 declared it had unilaterally separated from Somalia. Somaliland, which has for decades pushed for international recognition, enjoys a strategic position on the Gulf of Aden and has its own money, passport and army.Thousands of people thronged a stadium in the capital Hargeisa, where many dressed in the green, white and red colours of Somaliland’s flag.”Victory for Somaliland!” they chanted.The flag was hoisted alongside that of Israel in a ceremony broadcast live by Somaliland television stations.”Mass celebrations are taking place in Hargeisa and across cities of the Republic of Somaliland, as citizens proudly gather to commemorate the historic decision by the Government of Israel,” Somaliland’s foreign ministry said on X.Shamis Mohamed, one of those at a gathering, said people were happy at the development.”I have not slept since the day the recognition was announced because of excitement,” he told AFP by telephone.- ‘Violations’ – “My feelings cannot be estimated today…. Thanks to God for this victory,” enthused Abdirahman Keyse, another Hargeisa resident, also by phone.Jama Suleyman, another resident, said: “We welcome every country that recognises our existence.””For the people of Somalia, our neighbours should not be concerned about this victory; we know they are making noises, but there is nothing that will make Somaliland stop from aiming high,” he added.Local authorities questioned by AFP said gatherings were also held in the central town of Burao, and in Gebiley in the east.They came as Somali President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud addressed an emergency parliamentary session.He denounced Israel’s decision as “tantamount to a blunt aggression against the sovereignty, independence, territorial integrity, and the unity of the people of the Somali Republic”.He added that “the violations of (Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin) Netanyahu and his attempts to divide the Federal Republic of Somalia is (a) threat to the security and stability of the world and the region”.Somaliland has been diplomatically isolated since its unilateral declaration of independence, even if it has generally experienced greater stability than Somalia, where Al-Shabaab Islamic militants periodically mount attacks in the capital Mogadishu.- ‘Will not create violence’ -Regional analysts believe that a rapprochement with Somaliland would provide Israel with better access to the Red Sea, enabling it to hit Houthi rebels in Yemen.Israel repeatedly struck targets in Yemen after the Gaza war broke out in October 2023, in response to Houthi attacks on Israel that the rebels said were in solidarity with Palestinians in the Gaza Strip. The Iran-backed Houthis have halted their attacks since a fragile truce began in Gaza in October.In addition, press reports a few months ago said Somaliland was among a handful of African territories willing to host Palestinians expelled by Israel.Neither the Somaliland authorities nor the Israeli government has commented on those reports.”Somalia will never accept the people of Palestine to be forcibly evicted from their rightful land to a faraway place, let it be Somalia or elsewhere,” Mohamud told parliament. But at the Hargeisa rally, Khadar Hussein Abdi, minister of the presidency of Somaliland, sought to allay fears.”The recognition and the arrival of Israel will not create violence, will not bring conflict and will never harm anyone,” he said.Somaliland will collaborate with Israel on improving the economy, agricultural production and on water, he added.Israel’s recognition of Somaliland was criticised by the African Union, Egypt, Turkey, the six-nation Gulf Cooperation Council and the Saudi-based Organisation of Islamic Cooperation. The European Union insisted Somalia’s sovereignty should be respected.

It only took a matter of minutes after the heavy overnight rain first began to fall for Jamil al-Sharafi’s tent in southern Gaza to flood, drenching his food and leaving his blankets sopping wet.The winter rains have made an already precarious life worse for people like Sharafi, who is among the hundreds of thousands in the Palestinian territory displaced by the war, many of whom now survive on aid provided by humanitarian organisations.”My children are shivering from cold and fear… The tent was completely flooded within minutes,” Sharafi, 47, said on Sunday. “We lost our blankets, and all the food is soaked,” added the father of six, who lives in a makeshift shelter with his children in the coastal area of Al-Mawasi.A fragile ceasefire between Israel and Hamas has been in place since October 10, following two years of devastating fighting.But despite the truce, Gazans still face a severe humanitarian crisis, and most of those displaced by the war have been left with little or nothing.Families are crowded into camps of tents hastily erected from tarpaulins, which are often surrounded by mud and standing water when it rains.”As an elderly woman, I cannot live in tents. Living in tents means we die from the cold in the rain and from the heat in the summer,” said Umm Rami Bulbul.”We don’t want reconstruction right now, just provide us and our children with mobile homes.”Nighttime temperatures in Gaza have ranged between eight and 12 degrees Celsius in recent days.- Insufficient aid -Nearly 80 percent of buildings in the Gaza Strip have been destroyed or damaged by the war, according to United Nations data. And about 1.5 million of Gaza’s 2.2 million residents have lost their homes, said Amjad Al-Shawa, director of the Palestinian NGO Network in Gaza.Of more than 300,000 tents requested to shelter displaced people, “we have received only 60,000″, Shawa told AFP, pointing to Israeli restrictions on the delivery of humanitarian aid into the territory.The UN refugee agency for Palestinians, UNRWA, said the harsh weather had compounded the misery of Gazans.”People in Gaza are surviving in flimsy, waterlogged tents & among ruins,” UNRWA chief Philippe Lazzarini wrote on X.”There is nothing inevitable about this. Aid supplies are not being allowed in at the scale required.”COGAT, the Israeli defence ministry body responsible for Palestinian civilian affairs, said in mid-December that “close to 310,000 tents and tarpaulins entered the Gaza Strip recently” as part of an increase in aid under the ceasefire.Earlier this month, Gaza experienced a similar spell of heavy rain and cold. The weather caused at least 18 deaths due to the collapse of war-damaged buildings or exposure to cold, according to Gaza’s civil defence agency, which operates under Hamas authority.On December 18, the UN’s humanitarian office said that 17 buildings collapsed during the storm, while 42,000 tents and makeshift shelters were fully or partially damaged.”Look at the state of my children and the tent,” said Samia Abu Jabba.”I sleep in the cold, and water floods us and my children’s clothes. I have no clothes for them to wear. They are freezing,” she said.”What did the people of Gaza and their children do to deserve this?”

Deep in Iraq’s southern desert, bulldozers and earthmovers spread layers of moist clay over sand dunes as part of a broader effort to fight increasingly frequent sandstorms.Iraq has long suffered from sand and dust storms, but in recent years they have become more frequent and intense as the country falls prey to the effects of climate change.Sand and dust storms — driven by severe drought, rising temperatures and deforestation — have cloaked cities and villages in an endless ochre haze, grounded flights and filled hospitals with patients suffering from breathing difficulties.Iraqi authorities have warned that these suffocating storms will intensify further, adding urgency to address the root of the problem.In a relatively small area between the cities of Nasiriyah and Samawah, not far from ancient Sumerian ruins, labourers are working hard to stabilise the soil by applying a layer of moist clay 20–25 centimetres thick.The project also includes planting heat-tolerant seedlings like Prosopis and Conocarpus to further stabilise the soil.”The main goal is to reduce the impact of transboundary dust storms, which may reach Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and Qatar,” said Udai Taha Lafta from UN-Habitat, which is leading the project to combat sandstorms with Iraqi expertise.”It is a vital area despite its small size, and will hopefully help reduce dust storms next summer,” Lafta said.A short-term objective is to shield a southern highway where many traffic accidents have occurred due to poor visibility during dust storms.- ‘Slow but steady’ -The Ministry of Environment estimates that Iraq now faces about 243 storms per year, and the frequency is expected to increase to 300 “dust days” by 2050 unless drastic mitigation measures are adopted.In 2023, Iraqi authorities teamed up with the UN-Habitat and the Kuwait Fund for Arab Economic Development in areas that have been identified as major sources of sandstorms.The project has been implementing several methods in three southern areas, including digging water canals and supplying electricity to pump water from the Euphrates river, preparing barren lands for vegetation. One of the project’s ultimate goals is to increase green spaces and for farmers to eventually sustain the lands after droughts and chronic water shortages have drastically reduced agricultural areas.Qahtan al-Mhana, from the agriculture ministry, said that stabilising the soil gives agricultural efforts in sandy areas a chance to endure.He added that Iraq has extensive “successful” experience in combating desertification and dust storms by stabilising sand dunes.Since the 1970s, the country has implemented such projects, but after decades of turmoil, environmental challenges have largely fallen by the wayside.With the severe recent impact of climate change, “work has resumed,” said Najm Abed Taresh from Dhi Qar University.”We are making slow but steady progress,” Taresh said.