Hargeysa, Somaliland, May 31, 2006 -- Somaliland's Information Minister Abdillahi Mohammed Duale today vehemently denied allegations by Dr. Ali Khalif Galaydh, a former Somali Prime Minister, that Somaliland's late President Mohammed Ibrahim Egal didn't believe in Somaliland's independence but was waiting for the opportunity when a Somali government was established.
Talking to the local press, Duale described such allegations carried by the Somali newspaper Ogaal as a "slander against the late President and an insult to the people Somaliland."
Serious blasts in Ethiopia’s town of Jijiga in eastern region left at least 42 people injured at the weekend, a state Ethiopian news agency reported.
The three blasts which occurred at the same time on Saturday night, hit a hotel and two restaurants in Jijiga, about 720km southeast Addis Ababa.
DJIBOUTI, May 29, 2006 – Following the confirmation of the first case of the deadly H5N1 virus in a two-year-old girl in Djibouti in early May, the government has ordered the mass culling of all poultry in the country.
The destruction, which is being carried out by the army, began in the region of Damerjog, 30 km south of the capital, Djiboutiville, where the girl lived, and was expected to continue in other parts of the tiny Horn of Africa country. A government communiqué issued on Friday urged the population to cooperate in the exercise.
Warlords Or Counter-Terrorists: U.S. Intervention In Somalia
Washington DC, May 31, 2006 – As the insurgencies in Afghanistan and Iraq continue to dominate headlines, a new front in the war on terrorism has opened in Somalia. At a brutal cost to Mogadishu's civilian population, once-discredited warlords have reinvented themselves as "counter-terrorists," seeking and apparently gaining U.S. support by characterizing their Islamist opponents as agents of al-Qaeda. The warlords have grouped together as the Anti-Terrorism Alliance (ATA) and insist they are dedicated to expelling foreign al-Qaeda members they allege are sheltered by the Islamic Court Union (ICU).
Read full text...
Nairobi, Kenya, May 27, 2006 – President Mwai Kibaki has urged the U.S Government and the international community to assist the Transitional Federal Government of Somalia re-establish civil authority so as to bring the country back to normalcy.
He said the international community should also provide financial assistance to Somalia as it moves towards reinstating other essential structures of Government including the judiciary, army, police and immigration authorities.
Read full text...
PUTRAJAYA, May 29, 2006 – The Transitional Federal Government of Somalia Monday claimed that there was a presence of Al-Qaeda network in the east African country and called on the international community for help, saying that the current situation posed grave danger to the world stability and security.
Its Minister of Foreign Affairs Abdillahi Sheikh Ismail said that Somalia had been a breeding ground for extremist activities for the past 15 years and the situation remained so until today.
He said that Somalia had already become "another Afghanistan" and criticized the United States for not cooperating or coordinating with his government to tackle the problem but helping one particular group in Somalia.
Read full text...
AAI Prepares To Do An Assessment Of Somalia's Worsening Humanitarian Crisis
Country Overview
Date: 31 May 2006
The mainly Sunni Muslim population, which is in excess of 8 million people, lives in principally arid, desert conditions. The temperatures are moderate in the north of the country and very hot in the south, while the east of the country suffers from frequent dust storms in summer. Rainfall in the south is irregular, but often results in flooding during the monsoon season. The country consists of an undulating plateau rising to hills in the north. Less than two percent of the land is arable.
Read full text...
Thirteen years ago, the US pulled out of the east African country after the bloody events that inspired 'Black Hawk Down'. Now it is back, supporting warlords in their battle with Islamist militants. Kim Sengupta reports from Merka
Merka, Somalia, June 02, 2006 – Living in the anarchy of Somalia, the sights of violence are nothing new to Halima Ahmed. But a one-year-old baby lying in the street, one leg severed by a mortar shell, is an image of horror that still haunts her.
"I saw him at Yakshik district, someone's little boy," said Mrs. Ahmed, 50. "There was nothing I could do. His leg has been cut off, and he died. There were lots of dead bodies, but it is the boy I cannot forget. I keep on seeing him. It is terrible what is happening here, terrible."
Read full text...
Ethiopian Gov't denies blocking of websites
Addis Ababa, 27 My 2006 - Information Minister Berhanu Hailu told the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) that no websites had been blocked within Ethiopia in response to calls by global media watchdogs on authorities to unblock websites that have been inaccessible since 19 May and their expression of concern over censorship in the country.
The New York-based CPJ said in a statement it issued on Wednesday that it had received reports that Ethiopian authorities were blocking several ‘blogs’, or Internet journals, containing content that was critical of the government.
Western Ethiopia Oil exploration well turns out dry
Addis Ababa, 27 My 2006 - The oil exploration well drilled in the Gambella region in, west Ethiopia has turned out dry, it was learnt.
The Chinese Petroleum Company, Zhougyan Petroleum Exploration Bureau (ZPEB), which has been contracted by the Malaysian oil and gas company Petronas, has been prospecting for crude oil in the Gambella basin for the past two years. Petronas, one of the top ten leading international oil companies in the global oil industry, signed a petroleum exploration and development agreement with the Ethiopian government in June 2003 that enabled it to explore the Gambella basin, near the Sudanese border.
SANA’A, YEMEN, May 31, 2006 — Media sources mentioned last Tuesday that top government directives were given to Al-Mokha Port officials to cease importing cattle from Somaliland Republic ports in Berbera and Hargeysa.
|
|
| Headlines |
Ceasefire Holds At Daroor
Daroor, Ethiopia, June 3, 2006 – A ceasefire agreement reached on Thursday between two tribes that clashed earlier this week near Daroor, a village in Ethiopia’s Somali regional state, is still holding.
The inter-communal fighting broke out following a dispute among two pastoralist communities over the construction of a water reservoir (Berkad in Somali).
Members of one community wanted to establish the Berkad while members of the other community opposed the idea on the ground that it would further damage the area’s fragile environmental.
|
Rayale Hails The SNM’s May Offensive
President Dahir Rayale Kahin |
Hargeysa, Somaliland, June 3, 2006 – Somaliland president Dahir Rayale Kahin has sent a congratulatory message to the war veterans of the Somali National Movement, the organization that liberated Somaliland from Somalia, on the occasion of the 18 anniversary of the May 1988 offensive.
On May 1988, the SNM Mujahideen attacked Buroa and Hargeysa. The military government of Siyad Barre, Somalia’s former dictator, retaliated with an indiscriminate aerial and artillery bombardment of the two cities and other urban and rural centers in Somaliland.
Read full text...
|
London, UK, June 1, 2006 – AN AFRICAN school where two North-East teachers were murdered by terrorists is to benefit from fund-raising by their friends.
Aid workers Richard and Enid Eyeington were shot dead by anti-western Islamic rebels in the breakaway east African nation of Somaliland, in October 2003.
The attack took place at the compound of a school where 62-year-old Mr. Eyeington took over as headteacher in September 2002, in the village of Sheikh, 87 miles north-east of the capital Hargeysa.
Read full text...
|
|
|
|
Ali Mazrui in conversation with the President of Somaliland, Dahir Rayale Kahin, Hargeysa, March 2006.
|
By Ali A. Mazrui
General Theme: Public Intellectuals in Africa’s Experience
Somalia versus Somaliland?
In 1960, former British Somaliland and former Italian Somaliland united into one country called the Somali Republic or Somalia. This was supposed to be the first step towards the reunification of all the five components of the Somali people, who had been fragmented by imperialism. It was hoped that eventually the Somali people of Northeast Kenya, the Somali of the Ogaden in Ethiopia, as well as former French Somaliland (now renamed Djibouti), would be integrated into Greater Somalia.
|
|
From left Muuse Quruh, Jamal Abdi Babobe and Mowliid Magarre
|
By Jamal Gabobe
Seattle, USA, June 3, 2006 – On Sunday, May 21, 2006, about 200 Somalilanders celebrated Somaliland’s restoration of its independence. The event took place at New Holly Gathering Hall.
Montenegro voted last week to split from Serbia, ending the last union between states of the former Yugoslavia. Nationalists in the Balkan republic (celebrating at left), which hopes to join the European Union, aren't alone in their secessionist spirit. Here are six other territories with aspirations to join the countries club:
Annalena Tonelli School Of The Deaf And The Blind Faces Bleak Future
|
Borama, Somaliland, June 01, 2006 -- The Annalena Tonelli School of the Deaf and the Blind faces uncertain future after an Italian organization decided to stop its financial support to the school. No explanation was given for Comitata's decision to suspend its assistance.
The announcement was made on Tuesday 30 May 2006 during a ceremony held to mark the end of the school's academic year 2005/2006 during which prizes were given to students who excelled in their exams. Attending the ceremony were government officials, elders and other community personalities.
Read full text...
|
|
Baidoa, Somalia, June 3, 2006 – Maryan Mohamed who works for Radio Shabelle was on Thursday beaten by the bodyguards of the speaker of Somalia’s parliament, Sharif Hassan Adan.
Read full text...
Bunches of khat can be bought for around £3
London, UK, May 27, 2006 – Doctors have issued a warning about severe heart problems associated with chewing Khat leaves.
The dangers of the drug have been highlighted by the case of a young man who suffered a major heart attack.
Long-term use could also increase risk of liver damage, and esophageal cancer, warns a report in the Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine.
|
Read full text...
|
|
International News
|
A armored militia vehicle moves towards gun battles in the Somali capital Mogadishu May 27, 2006. A top U.S. official handling Somalia has been transferred from his job after criticizing payments to warlords that are said to be fuelling some of Mogadishu's worst-ever fighting, diplomats said on Tuesday. REUTERS/Shabelle Media
NAIROBI, Kenya, May 30, 2006 – A U.S. official handling Somalia has been transferred from his job after criticizing payments to warlords that are said to be fuelling some of Mogadishu's worst-ever fighting, diplomats said on Tuesday.
Analysts in the close-knit community of Somalia-watchers in Nairobi said the State Department transferred Michael Zorick, formerly Somali political affairs officer at the U.S. Embassy in Kenya, to the Chad embassy after he spoke out.
|
|
|
NAIROBI, Kenya, May 30, 2006 – A U.N. official expressed deep concern Tuesday that weapons are flowing into Somalia and accused authorities in the violence-torn Horn of Africa country of doing too little to halt a new surge in fighting. Dennis McNamara, head of U.N. efforts to help people displaced in their own countries, said officials often obstruct humanitarian work rather than encourage it in Somalia, where bloodshed has surged in recent weeks between Islamic militias and secular Somali warlords who are fighting for control of the chaotic capital, Mogadishu. Hundreds of people have been killed, many of them civilians caught in the crossfire.
|
Read full text... |
RED-LETTER DAY: A Montenegrin holds up a photo of Djukanovic during celebrations in the city of Cetinje
Cetinje, Montenegro, May. 28, 2006 – As if E.U. expansion wasn't complicated enough, Europe woke up last week to find a brand-new baby on its doorstep: the tiny republic of Montenegro, tucked between Albania and Croatia on the eastern Adriatic coast. By a slight majority, Montenegrins voted to break away from Serbia, driving the last nail in the coffin of what was once called Yugoslavia. It was a great victory for the leading advocate of independence, Prime Minister Milo Djukanovic, whose supporters were out on the streets of Podgorica, Cetinje and Budva celebrating, dressed in the bright red of their newly minted nation and waving flags, before the votes were even counted.
|
|
ROTTERDAM, MAY 31, 2006 – Immigrants in the Netherlands have had enough. Four years ago, populist Pim Fortuyn promised voters in Rotterdam he would stop the building of a huge new mosque near the city's Feyenoord soccer stadium.
Today, the country's biggest mosque is nearing completion and immigrants have helped oust Fortuyn's party from power. While immigrants in France have expressed frustration by rioting, in the Netherlands they are using the ballot box.
|
|
|
Dutch Want Hirsi Ali Out Of Parliament
Amsterdam, Holland, May 28, 2006 – Adults in the Netherlands are disappointed with the actions of a lawmaker, according to a poll by TNS NIPO. 83 per cent of respondents believe Ayaan Hirsi Ali should resign from the lower house.
The Somali-born Hirsi Ali was first elected as a representative of the People’s Party for Freedom and Democracy (VVD). She had been a target of at least one militant organization due to her critical views on Islam.
On May 15, Dutch officials revealed that Hirsi Ali provided false information when she applied for refugee status, and then when she sought citizenship. The next day, the lawmaker announced that she would leave the Second Chamber immediately. Hirsi Ali confirmed that she intends to move to the United States and work at the American Enterprise Institute.
|
Read full text... |
|
Four Nominated Envoys To Africa Testify In Senate Hearings
South Africa, Benin, Kenya, Djibouti slated to receive new ambassadors
Washington DC, USA, May 27, 2006 – Nominations to four ambassador posts in Africa - South Africa, Benin, Kenya, and Djibouti - were considered by the Senate Foreign Relations Committee in a May 25 hearing. Senator Mel Martinez, who presided at the hearing, said the nominees "bring a variety of backgrounds and skills to the table."
|
Read full text... |
WAR MEMORIES: Libya Ships Nerve Gas Consignment To The Somalians
This article was reproduced from THE INDEPENDENT newspaper, Great Britain, Wednesday, November 23, 1988.
 By Harvey Morris
Middle East Editor
LIBYA has shipped a consignment of nerve gas to Somalia, prompting fears that it may be used against anti-government guerrillas, the Parliamentary Human Rights Group said yesterday.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Editorial
|
|
The clashes of earlier this week between two fraternal tribes in Daroor, a valley in Ethiopia ’s Somali region, have already caused the death of close to 40 people with an equal number receiving injuries.
Before these skirmishes, the two neighboring tribes were known to have peacefully coexisted in the area for a long time. The eruption of the hostilities and the intense nature of the fighting actually came as a shock to everybody else on either side of the Somaliland-Ethiopian border.
|
Read full text...
|
|
Special Report
|
|
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.
Read full text.
|
|
Opinions
|
|
A Weird Psychological Hold On Somaliland
By Rhoda A. Rageh
A psychological hold on anything is an unhealthy emotional state of mind. Somaliland has made a decision to disassociate itself from a union that was regressive, repressive and disastrous. For the Southern faithfuls, it seems to me, Somaliland is like a mother who refused to take her baby on a journey and whatever they write is a child’s howl even long after the mother left the scene. These writers who call themselves Somalilanders insist that Somaliland does not exist. If they deny the existence of Somaliland, how can they be its citizens? Their psychological hold on Somaliland is for a very good reason because they were the ones who hijacked Siyad Barre’s government for their own gain. Therefore, in their amnesia, they think things will return to the way they were.
|
|
|
There is ample material to draw on in order to establish a clear understanding of the political, economic and socio-cultural landscape in Somaliland. However, there is a general weakness running through much of the literature in that it continues to regard Somalia as a single unit of analysis, failing to clearly differentiate between Somalia and Somaliland. It is becoming increasingly important to conceptually break down data and take into account the de facto separateness of the north-west. This is simply due to the fact that Somaliland is rapidly growing politically, economically, socially and legally. Without making this distinction it becomes increasingly difficult to get a clear picture of the reality on the ground.
|
Read full text... |
|
By John Drysdale
HOW, AND FOR WHAT PURPOSE, I asked myself in the fishing village of Lughaya, could British officers, about 120 years ago, have traveled on camel-back in heavy, military clothing over and over this blistering, humid coastal belt of Somaliland?
Astride a camel they wore black, knee-high riding boots and woolen breeches to their waistline, tunics of dark-blue surge buttoned up to their necks; they carried service swords, with metal-carved hilts, driven into shining, leather sheaths; Winchester repeaters were poised, ready for action, in their saddle-buckets; Colt Service revolvers were strapped to their waists; scarlet epaulets displayed their ranks; their heads were helmeted against the sun.
|
|
|
Peaceful Separation Between Somaliland And Somalia Is An Alternative To War
Dr. Abdulkadir Askar,
Member of Somaliland House of Representative,
Elected from Sool region
While many of the world press covered the on-going war in Mogadishu, an almost state of war was looming last week over Las-Anod, a disputed town between Somaliland Government and Puntland Administration of Somalia. Entirely un-noticed at the moment, the Las-Anod dispute could develop into Ethiopia-Eritrea kind of War between Somaliland and Somalia in the near future. Peaceful negotiation between Somaliland and Puntland could be an alternative to war over Las-Anod.
|
|
By Hassan A. Mohamud, Columbus, Ohio
Somalia, a war zone of death, destruction, and rampant violence and more at war with itself than with the outside world, doesn't yet seem to grasp its inherent inability to get its' house in order and cease its vicious fratricidal war. A deadly combination of subtle ethnic rivalry and overzealous leadership with a greed of grand scale fanned the flames of unbridled hatred and factional fighting that shattered the nation into dozen fiefdoms preyed on by brutal warlords. The ensuing anarchy and chaos sent Somalia into the intensive-care hallways, instantly transforming the country into dysfunctional and politically vegetative state beyond their capacity to deal with.
|
Read full text... |
“Great spirits have encountered violent oppositions from mediocre minds”
(Albert Einstein).
My name is Hashi Hassan Hashi Urdooh. I have been out of my motherland for over 20 years, coming back was an honor. While I was over seas, Somaliland went through a catastrophic and horrific ordeal. I feel agonized when I listen to the brave women and men who dealt with this bitter situation. But make no mistake the sons and daughters of this soil came back from dead with flying colors; Where in Africa or the world for that matter, do we see a de facto unrecognized nation with full administration, sustainable peace and stability but with no bilateral aid nor development assistance?
|
Read full text... |
KA KUFRIYEY JACAYLKII (1978) or I Have Become An Apostate Of Love (1978)
|
A Poem by Mohamed Hashi Dhamac Gaariye
Translated and commented by Rhoda A. Rageh
This is a poem in which the poet blasts a love that has gone sour. His hot spur attitude lashes on the woman he once loved. He is young, impatient and uncomfortably honest. Not only does he tell his ex lover to go to where sun never shines but he renounces the idea of love.
|
|
Mr. President: Thanks, But No Thanks
|
By Farah Ali Jama
The President’s dark past, suspicious ascendancy to power; sheer ineptness, unfavourable policies, corruption, and shadowy actions are an embarrassment to the intrepid people of Somaliland, an insult to the long and bitter liberation struggle of this country, and a chagrin to the Somali national Movement (SNM) and its living and martyred Mujahideen (may God rest their soul in peace). In addition, his boring leadership style; imprudence, uncharismatic nature, lack of pragmatism, dishonesty, and constant blunders are a colossal combination of political deficiencies and a liability to UDUB Party as well as a set back to the cause, aspirations, and interest of the people and existence of the democratic Republic of Somaliland.
|
|
|
By Abdirahman Ibrahim Abdillahi
A general definition of corruption is the use of public office for private gain. This includes bribery and extortion, which necessarily involve at least two parties, and other types of malfeasance that a public official can carry out alone, including fraud and embezzlement. Appropriation of public assets for private use and embezzlement of public funds by politicians and high-level officials (associated with "grand" corruption in various countries, some of which are beset by kleptocracies) have such clear and direct adverse impacts on a country's economic development that their costs do not warrant sophisticated discussion.
|
|
| FEATURES & COMMENTARY |
Fighting In The Shadows
Battles rage near the scene of 'Black Hawk Down'—And a covert American hand is tied to the warlords.
By Michael Hirsh and Jeffrey Bartholet, Newsweek
Mogadishu, Somalia, June 5, 2006 – Mogadishu is a place most Americans would rather forget. During the 1990s, the "Black Hawk Down" debacle symbolized the dangers of dabbling in far-off lands we don't understand.
|
|
|
The Wages Of Chaos
Rumors that the US is backing anti-Islamic insurgency in Somalia may obscure simple commercial realities for the conflict, says Xan Rice
Somali militiamen go on a patrol of Mogadishu. Photo: Albadri Abukar, EPA
Mogadishu, Somalia, May 31, 2006 – The guns of Mogadishu are seldom silent. Since Somalia's last functioning government fell in 1991, the sound of militiamen clearing their weapons by firing into the air has become as common as the muezzin's call to prayer.
|
|
A camp for migrants in Boosaaso, Somalia. Many seek a way to Yemen.
Evelyn Hockstein for The New York Times
By MARC LACEY
BOSASO, Somalia, May 29, 2006 — Luckily, Farhia Ahmed Muhammad knew how to swim.
As the rickety fishing boat Ms. Muhammad and 94 other desperate souls took out of Somalia last fall approached the Yemeni coast, the smugglers forced them all overboard into the surging, shark-infested sea.
|
|
Guardian
Chris McGreal
The first soldiers to arrive on Khalil Bashir's doorstep in Gaza five years ago explained the new geography of his home in terms he understood only too well. His three-storey house was to be like the West Bank, the Israeli officer said, with its areas of divided security and administrative control.
The army designated the living room as "Area A", after the part of the occupied territories where the Palestinians have control, and told all three generations of the Bashirs, from 81-year-old Zanah to her five-year-old granddaughter, that they were confined there for most nights and sometimes for much of the day. It was the only part of the house they could still call their own.
|
|
Somalis' Struggle In The UK
|
Adam Dirir: "We need one voice"
London, UK, May 30, 2006 – Highly visible on the street, but paradoxically a largely unknown people, uncomfortable questions are being asked about Britain's Somali immigrants - and the answers are by no means easy to find.
|
|
|
|
By Dr. Abdishakur Jowhar
A heart-wrenching cry for help is coming from the peaceful and hospitable people of Mogadishu. The sandy streets are soaking with blood. Hospitals are overflowing with the dead and the dying. And no body is listening. At least no Somali is listening. Have we given up being human? We lost the capacity to feel? Are we bereft now of empathy?
Read full text...
|
|
