Somalia's newly elected President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud used his inauguration speech on Thursday to appeal for international help to stave off a famine that threatens his drought-stricken country.

Aid agencies have warned of an approaching famine as cases of severe malnutrition among children shoot up in the troubled Horn of Africa nation, which is battling a record drought following four failed rainy seasons.

"There are fears that starvation may strike in some areas," Mohamud said, urging "the diaspora and the world to play a role in saving our people who were affected by the drought".

"These conditions were caused by accumulated problems including climate change, destruction of our economic resources and the weakness of our government institutions. Therefore, my government will establish an agency for environmental matters," he said.

Multiple appeals for aid have gone largely unnoticed so far, with nearly half the country's population going hungry and more than 200,000 people on the brink of starvation, the United Nations said Monday.

The drought crisis has also hit Somalia's neighbours, Ethiopia and Kenya, whose presidents were among the foreign leaders attending Thursday's ceremony, held under heavy security in the Mogadishu airport complex.

In addition to tackling the looming famine, Mohamud -- who previously served as president between 2012 and 2017 -- faces a grinding Islamist insurgency in parts of the country, making humanitarian access a challenge.

In a sign of the lingering threat, militants fired several rounds of mortar shells in neighbourhoods near the airport in an overnight attack.

- Foster unity -

A former academic and peace activist, Mohamud's first term was dogged by high-profile corruption scandals and political turmoil, with two of his three prime ministerial appointees forced out, and two central bank governors resigning.

The first Somali leader to win a second term, he has promised to transform Somalia into "a peaceful country that is at peace with the world" and repair damage inflicted by months of political infighting, both at the executive level and between states and the central government.

He vowed Thursday to foster "political stability through consultation, mutual endorsement, and unity among... the federal government and federal member states," striking a contrasting tone to his confrontational predecessor Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed, better known as Farmajo.

Somalia's international partners have welcomed the election of Mohamud, with many hoping it will draw a line under a long-running political crisis that has distracted the government from tackling the Al-Shabaab insurgency and the devastating drought.

The United Nations mission in Somalia issued a statement on Twitter saying it "congratulates President HassanSMohamud on his inauguration today, and looks forward to working with his administration in support of achieving national priorities".

Meanwhile, calls for international aid have raised less than 20 percent of the money needed to avert a repeat of the 2011 famine in Somalia that killed 260,000 people -- half of them children under the age of six.

Portugal faces severe drought after hottest May since 1931
Lisbon (AFP) June 9, 2022 - Portugal has recorded its hottest May since 1931, with severe drought now affecting most of the country, the national meteorological office said Thursday.

"It was the hottest May in 92 years," the Portuguese Sea and Atmosphere Institute (IPMA) said in its latest monthly climate bulletin.

The average top daily temperature was 25.87 degrees Celsius (78.57 degrees Fahrenheit), "the highest since 1931", it said.

Rainfall in May was "much lower than normal", amounting to just 13 percent of the average for May recorded between 1971 and 2000.

As a result, there was a "very significant spread of severe drought", which has affected 97 percent of the country, the IPMA said.

By the end of May, 1.4 percent of the country was suffering "extreme drought".

Scientists say repeated droughts are a sign of climate change.

They are expected to become even more frequent, more prolonged and more intense in the future.

"This deficit in rainfall that we are observing is in line with the trend of the last 20 years, marked by more frequent dry periods as a result of climate change," Vanda Pires, a climatologist at IPMA, told AFP.

After a winter that was already the fourth hottest and fifth driest since 1931, Portugal's summer looks "worrying", she added.

From Friday the country is expected to experience "a sharp rise in temperatures", which could reach 40 degrees Celsius, said Pires.

The civil protection authorities warned on Thursday of "an increased risk of fires" and mobilised some 5,000 staff for the weekend.

More bad news for wheat stocks from drought-hit Argentina
Buenos Aires (AFP) June 9, 2022 - With wheat prices skyrocketing due to Russia's invasion of Ukraine, major producer Argentina faces its "worst planting scenario in 12 years" of the crucial grain, a major trade forum said Thursday.

The Rosario Board of Trade said the area planted with wheat in Argentina for the 2022-23 season would be a lower-than-expected 6.2 million hectares.

This was 700,000 hectares smaller than the preceding season, which yielded a record harvest of 23 million tons of wheat.

Argentina was the world's eighth-biggest wheat producer in 2021-22, according to figures from the United States Department of Agriculture.

And according to the UN's Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), it was the seventh-largest exporter in 2021, behind Ukraine in sixth place.

This year, Argentina faces "a very complex planting scenario" for wheat due to three successive years of drought caused by the La Nina weather phenomenon, said the board.

Last week, the FAO said wheat prices were up 5.6 percent in May from a month earlier, and were 56.2 percent higher than a year ago.

This was the result of Russia's war on Ukraine as well as an export ban announced by India -- the eighth-largest wheat exporter in 2021.

The hottest March on record hit Indian harvests hard.

Ukraine's wheat harvest is expected to fall by 40 percent this season, according to the Ukrainian Grain Association.

The war has also disrupted deliveries of agricultural products from the country, fuelling concerns of a global food crisis.

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More bad news for wheat stocks from drought-hit Argentina
Buenos Aires (AFP) June 9, 2022
With wheat prices skyrocketing due to Russia's invasion of Ukraine, major producer Argentina faces its "worst planting scenario in 12 years" of the crucial grain, a major trade forum said Thursday. The Rosario Board of Trade said the area planted with wheat in Argentina for the 2022-23 season would be a lower-than-expected 6.2 million hectares. This was 700,000 hectares smaller than the preceding season, which yielded a record harvest of 23 million tons of wheat. Argentina was the world's ei ... read more