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Somalia to wrestle with crisis of youth migration

Storyline:National News

Somalia‘s  government is trying to come up with solutions for the crisis of youth migration and create more jobs barely days the country loss hundreds of its youth to Mediterranean sea while trying to cross into Europe.

The United Nations refugee agency said Wednesday that up to 500 migrants may have drowned in the Mediterranean Sea when their overcrowded boat capsized and sank earlier this month.

Somali minister for Defence Abdikadir Sheikh Ali Dini has express concern over the crisis of youth migration saying Somalia losses its young people while the country has natural sources which can satisfy the country’s population.

“I am very disappointed to see youth dying in the perilous journey through Mediterranean Sea when  Somalia is rich of natural resources” said Diini.

“We express our heartfelt condolences and deepest sympathies to the families and friends who lost their loved ones in the Mediterranean sea in this week” added Diini referring to the incident of the ship wreckage that claimed lives over four hundred migrants.

Finally the mnister urged Somalis to stand together in helping “stop such hazardous trips to overseas”.

More than 1.2 million African, Arab and Asian migrants have arrived in the European Union since the start of last year, many of them setting off from North Africa in rickety boats that are packed full of people and which struggle in choppy seas.

Somalia has a large diaspora, with many Somalis in Europe and the United States, after fleeing two decades of conflict. The Western-backed government is seeking to rebuild the Horn of Africa nation but is still battling Al-Shabaab.

Al Shabaab often carry out gun and bomb attacks, particularly in the capital Mogadishu, where some hardy Somalis business people are returning to from abroad to invest.