Lebanon, Somalia, Kenya.
Today's three stories you should know.
Lebanon
Voters went to the polls in Lebanon today, exhausted by years of political crisis and an economic freefall that has pushed almost three-quarters of the population into poverty. Only 41 percent of voters turned out and, with the biggest Sunni party boycotting the election, the status quo was expected to be maintained with Hezbollah, a Shia group, controlling the most seats in parliament. The election is the first since huge protests erupted in 2019 against government corruption, after which the country has lurched from one crisis to another. A raft of independent candidates, many from the protest movement, took part hoping to give a bloody nose to the traditional ruling parties. Though they may snag a few seats, it won’t be enough to change the landscape.
More from Al Jazeera here.
Somalia
Another election is happening today. But under a very different system to Lebanon and, well, most elections around the world. In Somalia, just 328 MPs will select the country’s next president. Some say this system is necessary due to insecurity. Others call it undemocratic. The vote has gone to a third and final round between President Mohamed Abdullahi "Farmajo" and former president Hassan Sheikh Mohamud. Whoever takes the job will have a full inbox as the country goes through its worst drought for four decades and deals with surging attacks from the al-Shabab armed group, which has been attempting to topple the government for a decade.
More from Africa News here.
Kenya
That drought Somalia is dealing with is biting across the entire Horn of Africa region. A top United Nations official has said that Kenya’s Turkana region is one of the worst affected, warning that children have nothing to eat and many have resorted to scavenging for food. “The world’s attention is elsewhere, and we know that,” Martin Griffiths, the UN under-secretary-general for humanitarian affairs, said during a visit to the region. “And the world’s misery has not left Turkana, and the world’s rains have not come to Turkana, and we’ve seen four successive failures of the rains.”
More from AP here.