Minister of State for Environment in Somalia, Professor Buri Hamza, was among the 15 victims of the terrorist attack on a hotel in capital Mogadishu over the weekend. Hamza had collaborated with AFED on various initiatives. He recently was on the same panel with Secretary General Najib Saab at the United Nations Environment Assembly in Nairobi, where they talked on overcoming challenges to the implementation of Sustainable Development Goals.

 

AFED revealed that Hamza was on the list of speakers at its annual conference scheduled in Beirut in November, and he had confirmed participation in a message to AFED sent hours before he was killed. He was scheduled to speak in a session on integrating sustainable development principles in rebuilding programs in post-conflict situations.

 

Najib Saab extended AFED condolences to Hamza’s family, saying: “We lost a friend who was the voice of knowledge and reason in turbulent times. We were supposed to discuss with him in Beirut how to extinguish the fire of conflicts, by replacing it with inclusive development. It is unfortunate that those same fires burned him too early.”