NAIROBI, May 20, 2007 - The Italian government Saturday pressed Ethiopian troops to pull out from lawless Somalia and urged the rival factions there to observe a truce ahead of a key reconciliation conference in June.
During a one-day trip to Mogadishu, Italy's deputy foreign affairs minister, Patrizia Sentinelli, held talks with Somali President Abdullahi Yusuf and Prime Minster Ali Mohamed Gedi.
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Nairobi, 17 May 2007 - Local authorities in Somalia's southwestern town of Bardera, Gedo region, have appealed to international aid agencies to help up to 12,000 displaced people who have sought refuge in the town.
"They [the displaced] continue to arrive every day and we cannot cope," Muhammad Sheikh Hassan, the Bardera District Commissioner, told IRIN on 17 May.
He said the displaced urgently needed shelter, food and medicine. He said every lorry arriving in Bardera was bringing more people who have fled fighting in Somalia's capital, Mogadishu, between government troops and insurgents.
Stockholm, 19 May 2007 - Ethiopia has freed Swedish nationals detained for several months on suspicion of terrorism after having allegedly fought alongside Islamic militants in Somalia, a Swedish foreign ministry spokesperson said on Saturday. Two Swedish nationals and one permanent resident in Sweden were released on Friday and arrived in Sweden at midday on Saturday, spokesperson Cecilia Julin told AFP. Sweden has demanded the release of the detainees for several weeks and argued that the reason for their jailing had not been communicated officially.
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Nairobi, May 19 2007 - Newly appointed United States special envoy to Somalia John Yates has vowed to ensure that peace and stability return to the war-ravaged Horn of Africa nation.
Yates who was appointed special envoy to Somalia on Thursday to help the lawless country overcome violence said since the heavy fighting has subsided three weeks ago, the biggest challenge is to make progress toward holding a reconciliation conference.
MOGADISHU, May 19 - A senior Italian envoy flew into Mogadishu on Saturday urging warring Somalis to embrace a ceasefire and throwing Rome's endorsement behind an upcoming national reconciliation conference.
Patrizia Sentinelli, Italy's deputy foreign affairs minister, met with President Abdullahi Yusuf and Prime Minster Ali Mohamed Gedi on her one-day visit to Rome's former protectorate which has been in chaos for the last 17 years.
Mogadishu, 19 May 2007 - A Taiwan fishing vessel hijacked by pirates off the coast of Somalia on Wednesday has four Taiwanese sailors and eight workers from the Chinese mainland aboard, said sources from Taiwan.
The Taiwan vessel, "Qingzihao", whose captain was identified by his surname Chen, sailed out in February 2006 from Hsiaokang, Kaohsiung in southwestern Taiwan with the 12 crew members aboard, the sources said.
Ali Mahdi Mohamed, chairman for Somalia reconciliation conference |
Mogadishu, 19, May 2007 - Ali Mahdi Mohammed, the government appointed chairman for Somalia reconciliation conference has held a press conference in Mogadishu, the Somali capital, Saturday.
He revealed that the number of Somalis supposed to attend the national reconciliation conference would be reduced.
New York, May 17, 2007—Two radio reporters covering a provincial governor in south-central Somalia were gunned down on Wednesday after the official’s motorcade was ambushed by clan militia.
News editor Abshir Ali Gabre and reporter Ahmed Hassan Mahad of Radio Jowhar were killed when the motorcade of Mohammed Omar Deele, governor of the Middle Shabelle province, came under attack from gunmen of a rival sub-clan, according to local journalists. Deele was unharmed, but at least six people were killed and several injured in the ensuing gun battle, the independent station Radio Shabelle reported.
Mogadishu, 17 May 2007 - Around 500 Somali police force have had their police training concluded in the Somali police training academy on the southern outskirt of the capital Mogadishu.
Somali Prime Minister, Ali Mohammed Gedi, attended a ceremony held in the academy for the conclusion of the seminar, according to Gen. Abdi Qeybded, the commander of the Somali national police force.
The government spokesman, Abdi Hassan Goobdoon, said the new recruits will be provided with the police dress and operate in the capital Mogadishu where violence against foreign and Somali forces has become common.
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Addis Ababa, 17 May 2007 - The Chairperson of the Commission of the African Union (AU), Prof. Alpha Oumar Konare, has learnt with utter shock and disbelief of the attack on the members of the African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM), which occurred Tuesday in Mogadishu while they were on patrol, the AU said.
In a press release sent to ENA yesterday, AU said that Konare is deeply saddened by the death of four and injury of other six soldiers, all from the Ugandan contingent as a result of the unprovoked attack
JOHANNESBURG, 18 May 2007 – More than 20 people have been arrested after shops reportedly belonging to Somali nationals were torched during weeklong violent protests by residents in Khutsong township, outside Carletonville, a small mining town about 50km southwest of Johannesburg, South Africa.
"We are certainly concerned about the number of attacks on Somalis taken place over the last year," said Jack Redden, spokesman for the United Nations refugee agency, UNHCR. "Always, Somalis engaged in trade are targeted as, unlike other communities, they move out to open businesses in smaller towns."
KAMPALA, 18 May 2007 – The Ugandan military said Friday that the African Union (AU) was giving 50,000 dollars in compensation to each family of the five Ugandan soldiers who have been killed since April on a peacekeeping mission in crisis-ridden Somalia.
Four Ugandan soldiers died and five others were injured Wednesday in the Somali capital Mogadishu when a bomb suspected to have been planted by hardline Islamic insurgents exploded on a roadside.
Addis Ababa, 16 May 2007 - Prime Minister Meles Zenawi said on Tuesday his country was withdrawing all its forces from neighboring Somalia and wished African Union peacekeepers would deploy soon to relieve his troops.
In an interview with the BBC, Meles said he wanted to end the "onerous" financial burden of having Ethiopian troops.
"Things have improved significantly in Mogadishu, making it possible for peacekeeping troops to do their job,"he told the BBC.
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Hargeysa, May 19, 2007 (SL Times) - Somaliland celebrated its 16th year of independence today, the day when it revoked its 1960 act of unconditional union with the former south Somalia, the day when on May 18th 1991 the people of the former British Protectorate of Somaliland unanimously declared their sovereignty of statehood in Buroa.
The highlight of 18 May celebrations took place in independence square in Hargeysa. Thousands of Somalilanders attended the event, including the President of Somaliland Dahir Rayale Kahin and national, local government and opposition officials, as well as traditional leaders and foreign dignitaries.
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Somaliland Minister of Foreign Affairs Abdillahi Mohamed Dualeh answers media questions at a press conference held in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia |
ADDIS ABABA, 19 May 2007 - Breakaway Somaliland is gaining ground in its quest for international recognition as an independent nation, the region's foreign minister said Thursday.
"I'm back from a European tour in Belgium, Denmark, Germany, EU, where we have explained our point of view. These countries are listening to us," Abdelahi Duale told AFP during a stopover at Addis Ababa.
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President of Somaliland, Dahir Rayale Kahin |
ADDIS ABABA, May 15, 2007 - Somaliland challenged African leaders on Tuesday to have the "bravery" to recognise the sovereignty it said was an overdue historical inevitability for the breakaway Somali enclave. "We are a de facto state, a stable democracy in one of the most troubled parts of Africa. We have done all the things a good country is supposed to," Somaliland Foreign Minister Abdillahi Duale said in an interview.
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Addis Ababa, 20 May 2007 - Ethiopia said on Saturday its troops backing Somali government forces killed nearly 1,000 insurgents in Mogadishu in March and April during some of the heaviest clashes in the city’s bloody history.
“Some 200 to 300 Al-Shabaab fighters (Somali insurgents) and other extremists died in the fighting in late March and more than 600 in the fighting that ended on April 26,” the Ethiopian foreign ministry said in a statement.
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Washington, May 17, 2007 - The United States has appointed a special envoy to Somalia to help the lawless country overcome violence, U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said on Thursday.
The new envoy is John Yates, a career diplomat for 40 years who now leads the Somalia unit at the U.S. Embassy in Nairobi in neighboring Kenya.
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With or without international recognition, Ahmed Hassan believes that his homeland, the breakaway would-be nation of Somaliland, is a remarkable success story
Somaliland residents queue up to cast their ballots |
HARGEISA, Somalia, May 13, 2007 - Somaliland, which sits on the northwestern part of Somalia, unilaterally broke away from the rest of the Horn of Africa nation in 1991, four months after the overthrow of former Somali dictator Mohamed Siad Barre.
This former British protectorate -- whose colonial rulers left in 1960 when it joined with Italian Somaliland to form the then new state of Somalia -- has since mapped out a path of relative security and prosperity, unlike greater Somalia where 16 years of unrest caused chaos and anarchy.
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Somali Prime Minister Ali Mohamed Ged |
Mogadishu, 17 May 2007 - Somali government spokesman, Abdi Haji Goobdoon, has told Shabelle that two men threw a hand grenade at the prime minister's convoy that was passing near Ministry of Information.
The bomb did not explode, however.
"There was no explosion and the government soldiers soon seized one suspect while the other one escaped," he said.
Patricia Santaneli, the deputy Italian foreign minister at Mogadishu airport |
Mogadishu, May 19, 2007 - A high level delegation headed by the deputy Italian foreign minister has on Saturday arrived in the Somalia capital Mogadishu and held talks with top government officials over the coming national reconciliation process.
Patricia Santaneli along with ten Italian government members landed at the main airport of Mogadishu this morning around 9:30am local time where they received a warm welcome from officials of the interim government.
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Kampala, 16 May 2007 - FOUR Ugandan soldiers serving under the African Union force in war-torn Somalia were killed and five wounded by a remote-controlled bomb on their convoy in northern Mogadishu yesterday.
A child playing nearby was also killed and another wounded in the roadside blast, witnesses said. The children had been playing football.
An eye-witness was quoted as saying another man urinating in a bush near the bomb was blown to pieces.
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The ONLF attack on the Chinese explorers is reminder of how dry the savannas of the Horn are, and how easily they can catch fire
By lacha Dubbi
You can’t use kerosene to put off Sparks
May 12, 2007 — I read an article by Peter Pham which appeared in World Defense Review, under Strategic Interests, entitled "Additional Sparks Fly in the Horn of Africa", also distributed by the Sudan Tribune. I too see sparks dangerously flying all over east Africa, but I don’t see them the way Mr. Pham saw. His solutions are precariously short-sited despite they appear under "strategic interest", and inescapably one-sided. For this and more reasons, I saw his very paper as a piece of another ember, a blatant disfavor for a region that deserves more and better.
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MOGADHISHU, Somalia, May 12 2007 - Wearing a flak jacket over a blue pinstriped suit, the top U.N. humanitarian official crawled into a hut made of sticks and plastic tarp Saturday and asked the owner how he survives in one of the world‘s most violent cities.
"It‘s not safe here," Dahir said, surrounded by some clothes and a few pots. Read full text...
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Nairobi, 18 May 2007 - Whenever Ethiopia sneezes in the Horn of Africa - comprising Djibouti, Eritrea and Somalia - the region catches a cold.
Ethiopia's location in the Horn of Africa is strategic. It's a landlocked country with a land area of approximately 1.2 million square kilometres. The manifold linkages between Ethiopia and its neighbours in the Horn have an important bearing on conflict dynamics within Ethiopia itself and in the region.
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International News
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"Sub-Saharan Africa, Somalia and Ethiopia are areas where they'd like to be able to do more to build the capacities for local forces. The way they've proposed it would allow them to make proxy armies."
WASHINGTON, May 16 - Newly proposed legislation would expand existing Pentagon security and military aid programmes in Iraq and Afghanistan to "coalition partners" in Africa, Asia and Latin America.
The Building Global Partnerships Act of 2007 would authorise the secretary of defence, in consultation with the secretary of state, to allocate up to 750 million dollars to help foreign governments set up security and military forces to "combat terrorism and enhance stability".
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Courts to decide if khat is an illicit drug or more like a double espresso
In Ohio's first khat trial in 2001, Mahad Samatar was sentenced to 10 years in prison. |
May 16, 2007
When federal drug enforcement agents announced last summer that they had arrested scores of suspects in an “international narcotics-trafficking organization” with operations in New York and Seattle, they hailed it as the first major crackdown on khat — a plant grown in the Horn of Africa and chewed like tobacco for its stimulant buzz.
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Minnesota, May 19, 2007 - Moslems who escaped the war-ravaged Somalia and were given refuge in the US are not sure whether they should feel happy in their new home, according to the May 18th segment of the NewsHour with Jim Lehrer.
Indeed, they face serious problems.
"For example, Islam forbids consuming alcohol or pork, but imams differ on whether it's OK to handle them on the job.
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US sponsored military partnership in the Far East and the Pacific Rim
by Mahdi Darius Nazemroaya
May 10, 2007
Although Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, South Korea and Japan are not formally members of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), they are linked through military partnerships, affiliated government agreements, a network of partnerships, and bilateral military agreements with the United States and Britain.
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Editorial
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It is too early to say whether the appointment of retired diplomat John Yates as special envoy to Somalia is going to help the situation in Somalia or not. It would depend among other things on what his portfolio entails and his government’s agenda.
But based on his recent statements, the outlook for US policy in Somalia does not look good because it is based on imposing the Transitional Federal Government (TFG) on Somalis, an overwhelming majority of whom hate and despise that nominal government. US policy toward Somalis is so lopsided that it has practically ceded the management of the June reconciliation conference to Abdillahi Yusuf and his minions.
Let’s face it, except for support from a few warlords, the US is friendless among Somalis. Most of the people of the south, especially Mogadishu hold the US as sharing in the responsibility for the Ethiopian invasion of Somalia which resulted in the death of more than a thousand people in just the latest battles, the driving of thousands from their homes and the destruction of their properties.
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Special Report |
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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Awdal News
Yes, it has been 16 long, arduous and lonely years since we reclaimed our sovereignty on May 18, 1991. Yes, the recognition that we have aspired to achieve may seem as distant as ever. Yes, detractors have called us and still call us all kinds of names. Yes, enemies who are hell bent on breaking our will and sowing discord among our people have used all kinds of deceptive tactics and hired spin-doctors to discredit our cause. Yes, the world refuses to look at our achievements, our democracy and the oasis of peace we have created. Yes, weasel-hearted African leaders have been warned that recognizing Somaliland would open the gates of hell and monsters would emerge in scores from their scandal ridden closets. Yes, our people suffer due to the absence of diplomatic relations, international credit lines and regular trade agreements.
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Kudos For Somaliland Forum Election Committee
By Abdi Goud Musa
My hat is off for the Election Committee that has tapped Rashid Nur Garuf for the Chairmanship of the Somaliland forum for the annual year 2007 to 2008. I also commend the committee for the good team they surrounded him.
For the record, I am not a member of the Somaliland Forum any more. The reasons I am not a member is for another day and for another piece of writing.
I met Rashid Garuf as a member of Somaliland Forum. Rashid has shown dedication, generosity, tirelessness, and vision.
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What role would Ethiopia/USA play to tackle the Somaliland/Somalia issue?
By Mohamud Samatar
There is no doubt that the Imbhagati made government of Somalia is contemplating how to create chaos and unrest in Somaliland to bring it under it's control, but the irony is Somaliland has a democratly elected government , has declared that she is no longer part of Somalia, withdrew it's union with Somalia and declared it's independent in May 18 1991. Somaliland has been peaceful and has held free and fair presidential election and Parliament. For the last 16 years since Somaliland declared it's independence, Somalia was in chaos and was ruled by clan/sub-clan Warlords, while in Somaliland there has been law and order.
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Somaliland; The Republic of Understanding..jamhuuriyada Isafgarad...
Buildings may burn, Bridges may crumble
Bodies may be butchered and buried,
Yet, people carry on and babies are born everyday,
Businesses boom and properties are rebuilt,
By Ahmed Kheyre, London , UK
Sir,
I have often mentioned the mantra of shared goals, dialogue, discussion and consensus, when I write about Somaliland, on this occasion I would like throw another phrase into the mix, Is afgarad, or understanding.
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By Ahmed Abdulahi
Since the culmination of the union with Somalia in 1991, the issue of recognition has been a source of debate and great concern among Somalilanders. People from different walks of life including government officials, opposition political party leaders, from the Diaspora, etc. have been expressing their views (at times with anxiety) through the net and the weekly tabloids of the nation. In the mean time, the populace had the benefit of getting substantial information from different directions on the subject matter.
However, this time, there are some individuals of the view that Somaliland ought to reconsider its comprehensive relationship with Ethiopia and make shift to its arch enemy Eritrea and the then ICU to get the long awaited recognition.
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By Osman Ahmed H. Bahdon,
It was early in the morning of Tuesday, 15th of May, 2007. I have a habit to surf the net after my breakfast. In my search, I opened Harwo.com, clicked at The Local Awdal News Section of the web which is written in Somali language. Do you know what my eyes encountered? I set my eyes on apiece of news, unbelievable to the Awdalites who agreed to disagree in many issues even if one single case is believed to send tens of thousands of their own to Fardowsa Paradise. What I spotted was reported by Brother Hashim Goth, a true Awdalite, who is always alert to matters that concern his people. Allow me to share with you how the atrocity of our neighbors that used to take place in the dark corners of their houses changed the gearto a new course and come out to the public meeting places.
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By Ismail Ahmed, Dire Dawa, Ethiopia
Perhaps and most possibly, very few men had suffered so harshly at the hands of the newly minted Majeerteenian morons than Dr. Mohamed Jama, better known as Dr. Siffer. The Majeeretenian petty slobs, have been personally hand picked by Col. Abdillahi Yusuf himself, soon after he was elected as Somalia’s interim president in a scandalous conference held in the Kenyan city of Embagathi in 2004.
Dr. Siffer, who, before seeing behind his nose was driven by a non-existing imaginary Somali Republic, has become the victim of his elusive empty euphoria.
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| FEATURES & COMMENTARY |
Your Excellencies,
Preamble
Whereas the people of Somaliland have exercised their right to self determination in a Constitutional Conference held in the City of London, United Kingdom, between the government of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and the duly elected representatives of Somaliland, from May 2, 1960 to May 12, 1960; and whereas a Royal Proclamation dated June 23, 1960 set the date of independence as of 26 June 1960and whereas all the residuals of treaties, agreements, contracts, and other legal obligations made by the British government on behalf of Somaliland protectorate reverted to the duly constituted government of Somaliland;
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Somaliland has sent a formal request to the African Union asking to be recognised as an independent state. Somaliland is a former British colony with a population of 3.5 million which broke away from Somalia in 1991. No country yet formally recognises the de facto nation although several keep an unofficial diplomatic presence in Somaliland's capital Hargeisa.
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May 13, 2007
By Dr. Muhammad Shamsaddin Megalommatis
In two earlier articles we presented some of the reasons that imperatively prohibit the establishment of an independent Kurdistan in parts of today’s Turkey, Syria, Iraq and Iran. Here, we will analyze the consequences of such a demented attempt.
Turkey must deploy great effort in Kurdish Education
As it happens, with Turkey solidly rooted in Kemal Ataturk’s ideals of Secular and Laic Democracy, the Turkish part of what is imaginatively called Kurdistan will never have a chance of seceding. And there is practically speaking no reason.
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By mahad sheikh
19 May 2007
As I was surfing the net in search of my daily doze of news about the war back home, which is a routine that became a habit of mine since the arrival of the Ethiopian invaders in Somalia, I came a cross quotes from AFP news agency’s interview with the AU Commissioner, Alpha Oumar Konare on Moday, May 14, 2007. I was deeply shocked and disappointed with the commissioner in particular and the organization in general when I read these quotes
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by Ramzy Baroud
May 13, 2007
The Darfur crisis in Sudan is perhaps the most politically convoluted conflict in the world today. Its underpinnings involve local, regional and international players, all selfishly vying for power and economic interests. Alliances shift like quicksand, reminiscent of Lebanon. Neither the interest of the people of Darfur, nor the sovereignty of Sudan seem to be a major concern to any of those involved:
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