By Somalilandtimes network
Sharif Hassan Shaykh Aden, Speaker of the Somali transitional federal parliament
Baidoa, Somalia, Feb. 08, 2006 – The speaker of Somalia's parliament on Tuesday appealed for international help for millions of Somalis threatened with starvation as he visited this drought-hit central town.
In Baidoa to assess conditions for the first meeting of the Somali legislature in its own country here later this month, Sharif Hassan Sheikh Adan said the world could not ignore the suffering of the Somali people.
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By Somalilandtimes network
NAIROBI (Feb. 09, 2006) - The United States warned of potential violence during protests against cartoons depicting the Prophet Mohammed planned this week in Kenya's capital.
Kenyan Muslims have called for demonstrations, including a possible march on the Danish embassy in Nairobi, on Friday to vent anger at the cartoons that have sparked deadly violence in parts of the Muslim world.
By Somalilandtimes network
Djibouti has banned the import and sale of products from Denmark after violent weekend demonstrations in the capital against the publication of cartoons depicting the Prophet Mohammed, officials said.
While boycotts of Danish products have spread across many countries with large Muslim populations, these have largely been led by consumers or the business sector and Djibouti's move is one of the harshest reactions to the cartoon row by a sovereign state.
By Somalilandtimes network
NAIROBI, Feb. 10, 2006 – Thousands of Kenyan Muslims took to the streets of the capital Nairobi on Friday to protest against the publication of controversial cartoon images of the Prophet Mohammad by a Danish newspaper.
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By Somalilandtimes network
Sunday, 5 February 200.-The state-owned Ethiopian Electric Power Corporation (EEPCo) has reached out to 47 towns over the past six months through its national power supply program, the management said Sunday.
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By Somalilandtimes network
Monday, 6 February 2006, At least one person was killed and seven others wounded in the Puntland region of Somalia on Monday as security forces clashed with hundreds of Muslims protesting against the publication in Europe of cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed, witnesses and police said.
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By Somalilandtimes network
Monday, 6 February 2006, About 100 Ethiopian nationals who were arrested last Wednesday allegedly for entering in the country through illegal routes from neighboring Kenya have been repatriated.
Addressing a press conference on Friday, the Acting Head of Criminal Investigation Unit of the Immigration Department in Kilimanjaro Region, Eddie Massanga said that 120 Ethiopians had been arrested and deported back to Kenya.
By Somalilandtimes network
Nairobi, Kenya, Jan. 29, 2006 – A multi-national force has been deployed at the Indian Ocean coast to combat [the] rising number of sophisticated pirates. It is feared that the activities of the pirates could cost Kenya 10bn shillings [about 139m dollars] in lost revenue.
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Nairobi, Kenya, Jan 31, 2006– The United States navy has handed over suspected Somali pirates it captured off the coast of Somalia after firing warning shots at their ship a week ago, in the first sign of a military crackdown on Somalia's anarchic coastal waters.
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By Somalilandtimes network
Pretoria, SA, February 10, 2006 – Hopes of recognition for Somali-land’s 15-year independence have been raised by the favorable report of an African Union mission that visited the territory last year.
The report, a copy of which the Mail & Guardian has obtained, comes at a time when signs of a new flexibility in African thinking on boundary issues are emerging. It suggests that official African aid be tapped by this country of 3,5million people that was effectively destroyed by the Somali dictator Siyad Barre.
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5 Dead And 11 Seriously Wounded In Hargeysa City Urban Unrest
One of Dumbuluq's streets, the scene of communal clashes last Saturday
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By Somalilandtimes network
Hargeysa, Somaliland, February 11, 2006 – Serious unrest and rioting last Saturday (04/02/06), by Dumbuluq residence in Ahmed Dhagah district of Hargeysa city left five people dead and eleven people hospitalized for serious gun shot wounds and scores of people suffering minor injuries were admitted to the out-patient department of Hargeysa Group Hospital.
The unrest started when a local private businessman in Dumbuluq area, begun to construct an additional warehouse store room space on a piece of land adjoining the warehouse leased to him by the local municipality.
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By Somalilandtimes network
Hargeysa, Somaliland, February 11, 2006 – The Norwegian Ambassador to Kenya, Elisabeth Jacobsen, arrived in Hargeysa on last Monday to visit a number of projects being implemented in Somaliland with funding assistance from the Norwegian Foreign ministry.
Shortly after her arrival, Ambassador Jacobsen went to Hargeysa’s public hospital where she inaugurated a new medical ward for the treatment of women traumatized as a result of female genitals cutting, which is widely practiced in Somaliland. This new unit together with a gynecological ward was funded by Norway.
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Sultan Mohamed Sultan Abdi-Qadir
By Somalilandtimes network
Hargeysa, Somaliland, February 11, 2006 – The Chair of Somaliland Sultans, Sultan Mohamed Sultan Abdi-Qadir issued a statement a day after Hargeysa witnessed the worst civil unrest since end of Somaliland civil war in 1995, when last Saturday (04/02/06) five people died and eleven people with serious gun shot wounds were admitted to Hargeysa Hospital and scores of other people were treated for minor injuries at Hargeysa Hospital’s outpatient department. The unrest occurred when a land dispute in Dumbuluq neighbourhood, district of Ahmed Dhagah in Hargeysa flared into a large inter-clan conflict.
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By Somalilandtimes network
Baidowa, February 11, 2006 – The Somaliland Times has learnt that four militia men from Majertenya were killed while 8 others sustainted injuries in Jowhar last month after they came unter attack by rival militia forces loyal to warlord Mohamed Omar Habeeb (Mohamed Dheere).
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By Somalilandtimes network
Jowhar, February 11, 2006 – Asked about Somalia’s “parliamentary” meeting scheduled to take place in Feb.26 in Baidoa, Mohammed Omar Habeeb (Mohammed Dheere), the man who controls the town of Jawhar said, “the only reason to go to Baidoa is to give condolences”. This was a roundabout way of saying he was opposed to holding the meeting in Baidoa, a position that he later expressed in more explicit terms.
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By Somalilandtimes network
Hargeysa, Somaliland, February 10, 2006 – The Mayor of the capital of Somaliland, Hargeysa, Hussein Mohamed Jiciir, is under fire following revelations that he had given the go-ahead to the construction of a hotly disputed piece of land In Dumbuluq in the south bank of the capital of Somaliland, Hargeysa, where four people were killed on Saturday and at least thirty others wounded in violent clashes between members of Arab and Eidagale clans.
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International News
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NRC Continues Operations
By Somalilandtimes network
10 Feb 2006, The Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) continues its humanitarian aid work in Muslim countries. Activities have been partly suspended or limited over the last week, due to the violence following publications of caricatures of the prophet Mohammed.
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By Somalilandtimes network
New York, February 9, 2006 – United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan today spoke out against those publishers who “pour oil on the fire” by reprinting controversial cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad while repeating his condemnation of the violent protests they have sparked.
“Honestly, I do not understand why any newspaper will publish the cartoons today,” Mr. Annan told reporters at UN Headquarters in his most extensive spontaneous comments on the controversy. “It is insensitive, it is offensive, it is provocative, and they should see what has happened around the world.”
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President’s Fiscal Year 2007 Budget Gives Refugees A New Opportunity
By Somalilandtimes network
WASHINGTON, DC, February 8, 2006 – Increases in refugee assistance funding in President Bush’s fiscal year 2007 budget, coupled with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice’s new transformational diplomacy initiative, create an opportunity for the State Department to fund innovative assistance methods resulting in self-sufficiency and dignity for millions of warehoused refugees. Current forms of assistance that treat refugees as passive beneficiaries of aid are inconsistent with the President’s call for freedom and the Secretary’s demand for accountability and results in foreign assistance programming.
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Ireland Pledges €5 Million In Aid To Drought-Hit Horn Of Africa
By Somalilandtimes network
Friday, 10 February 2006, Ireland announced Friday it is providing more than €5 million (US$6 million) to help drought-hit areas of eastern Africa.
The Department of Foreign Affairs said it is giving €3 million (US$3.6 million) to the U.N. World Food Program, UNICEF and the International Federation of the Red Cross for their relief work throughout the Horn of Africa.
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Shooting Of Mentally Ill Man Leads To Training
By Somalilandtimes network
COLUMBUS, Ohio, Feb. 07, 2006 – The fatal shooting of a Somali man who authorities said threatened sheriff's deputies with a knife has prompted plans to train deputies on how to deal with the mentally ill.
Local mental health experts will help the Franklin County sheriff's office design a training program.
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Editorial
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The European Union had in collaboration with IGAD and the UN succeeded in cobbling together the Transitional Federal Government of Somalia in October 2004 following protracted talks held among the country’s warlords in Nairobi, Kenya. The TFG wouldn’t have materialized had the EU not continued funding the Nairobi talks which went on and off for 2 years. EU officers and diplomats in Nairobi were so generous to Somalia’s warlords that they even accepted to pay the latters accommodation bills for staying in 5-star hotels. The TFG’s split into 2 factions immediately after its formation in Kenya, didn’t dissuade the EU from bankrolling the so-called Somalia peace process.
In fact when in mid last year the TFG succumbed to donor pressure and accepted to relocate to Somalia, the EU promised to underwrite all the needs of the new government. The EU fulfilled its promise only to find itself siding with one faction of the TFG headed by President Abdillahi Yusuf and his premier Ali Geedi while alienating the other TFG faction led by Parliament Speaker Sharif Hassan.
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Special Report
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REPORT ON FAMILIARISATION TOUR TO SOMALILAND
In November 2005, the Centre for Human Rights began investigating the possibility of a third destination for the LLM field trip. The reasons for increasing the number of field trip destinations to include Somaliland include the following:
• Somaliland is a state in the making; it would be ideal for students on the programme to have a first hand experience of this.
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Opinions
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Dear Editor,
I was visiting Somaliland in 2004 and had meetings with the Mayor of Berbera, the minister of fishing and many other ministers and the President. I was there on a fact-finding mission with the ''idea'' of involving world finance groups in ''alliance'' with our company and affiliated companies to develop the ''fishing industry''.
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There are strange and some very unorthodox things happening in Somaliland. Our confusion stems from the following catalogue of events:
1. Our President has become the Business Development Manager of Somaliland Private Company Ltd. He now travels around the World promoting business ventures!! Well, if that's what he wants to do, why not take the role of Chief Executive??!! What is perplexing is why our President discussing business ventures abroad without the appropriate Line Ministers, advisers and support?? Are his Minister of Information and his private secretary the only advisers he needs these days to turn around Somaliland Economy!!??
2. The present Government has often been criticized for its lack of transparency. It seems to us that there may be some very good reasons behind this. Some of these reasons are catalogued below:...
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By Mohamed A. Baranbaro
Joint Needs Assessment (JNA) and its advocates place Somaliland sovereignty in a catch 22 instead of a quid pro quo in which Somaliland could’ve made some concessions to get something in return. A catch 22 because advocates are willing to accept the implied intricacies of the JNA, as its currently constituted, knowing any aid that is given to Somaliland comes with stipulations whereby any hopes of future recognition is, at best, seriously jeopardized. Should Somaliland satisfy the short term urge for few million dollars while sacrificing the long term agenda? And since when do nations and major organizations give great sums with no expectations?
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By; Abdulkadir A. Hassan, Economist – Ph..D, (Pakistan)
Somaliland budget for the past several years simply narrated salaries of civil and military staffs with no meaningful allocations for the kind of social and economic development required in the country. More than 13 million dollars were allocated for salaries, fuel and stationeries for the past year alone without implementation of a single social or economic development project in the whole country. Salaries, fuels and stationeries of ministries and their staffs are not justified, if there are no social or economic programs that these staffs are supposed to manage for the country.
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Who Is Muhamed?
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Rashid Abdi [arashiid@yahoo.com]
You may be an atheist or an agnostic or you may belong to any of the religious denominations that exist in the world today. You may have been a Communist or a believer in democracy and freedom. No matter what you are, and no matter what your religious and political beliefs, personal and social habits happen to be – you still must know this man.
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Somaliland Telecom Industry At A Critical Crossroads
TDI VS Somaliland Telecoms
By Ahmed Sh. Farah
The recent controversy surrounding the dispute between TDI an American Telecom/venture capital company and the local Telecom operators in Somaliland is making allot of people lose their poise, it is symptomatic of the lack of civil, thoughtful and informative debate about important issues facing Somaliland’s political and economic development. Too often commentary about this hot-button issue has been less about how to improve the Telecom industry as a whole or the relevant technical huddles needed to overcome the present chaotic situation in Somaliland and more about pointless speculation unrelated to this subject.
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| FEATURES & COMMENTARY |
President Obasanjo’s AU Chairmanship
By Somalilandtimes network
President Olusegun Obasanjo was, for the past 18 months, a very busy man. Besides his onerous job as the President and Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, he was the Chairman of the African Union(AU). In his capacity as chairman of the AU, he piloted and coordinated the business of the AU Assembly, which is the highest decision making body of the AU.
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By Somalilandtimes network
February 6, 2006: The “Transitional Federal Government” of Somali is still struggling to convene a parliament in Baidoa, over the objections of the warlords who share control of the old capital, Mogadisciu. Meanwhile, the break-way region “Republic of Somaliland,” in the northern part of Somalia (more or less the former “British Somaliland”), has for many years asserted its independence, and maintained a fairly stable existence for over a dozen years now, aided by the fact that most of the clans are wary of any government emanating from Mogadishu.
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The Changing Face Of The Capital
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By Somalilandtimes network
Somali youth with Premier Dalton McGuinty - Ottawa,
Ottawa, Canada – There was a time — not that long ago — when Ottawa presented a pretty boring face to the rest of the country.
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In Destitute Djibouti, People Spend Inordinate Sums On Leafy Stimulant
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By Somalilandtimes network
DJIBOUTI, Feb. 06, 2006 — In this overwhelmingly Muslim nation, alcohol is frowned upon and hard drugs are exceedingly rare. But one stimulant dominates the lives of Djibouti's half-million citizens: khat, a green leaf that when chewed gives the chewer an amphetamine-like high.
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