Children at a local NGO camp in the port town of Kismayo, Somalia, Wednesday, Sept. 12, 2007, where more than eight thousand Children live in camps. (AP Photo/ Nasteh Dahir Farah) |
MOGADISHU, Somalia, September 12, 2007 – Thousands of Somali children were facing starvation as attacks continued around the south of the country, the health minister and UNICEF said Wednesday.
"We have been receiving reports of an alarming rate of malnutrition in southern Somali regions, where thousands of children are on the verge of death," said Health Minister Isse Weheliye.
17 September 2007
Reporters Without Borders calls on the foreign ministries of the leading democracies to mark tomorrow’s sixth anniversary of the start of a wave of arrests in Asmara by summoning Eritrea’s ambassadors to express disapproval for a crackdown that led to the suppression of all freedoms and the imprisonment of more than 10 journalists in unknown locations.
Excerpt from report by Somali pro-Puntland government Puntlandpost website on 8 September
Garowe, 8 Sept 2007 - A delegation led by the Transitional Federal Government Abdillahi Yusuf Ahmad is expected to fly tomorrow from Mogadishu to Ethiopia, where it is due to hold talks with Dahir Rayale Kahin, the president of Somaliland.
Sgt. Mark Gonzales, 3rd Low Altitude Air Defense Battalion, hands out school supplies to children at a school in Shapalay Village |
DJIBOUTI CITY, Djibouti, September 10, 2007 – After six months of doing civil affairs projects in four different villages, the Marines of 6th Provisional Security Company delivered their last donation of school supplies to a school in Shapalay Village Sept. 10. On hand for the delivery were Marines of 3rd Low Altitude Air Defense Battalion, who are replacing 6th PSC at Camp Lemonier, Djibouti.
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BAIDOA, Somalia, September 13, 2007 – A Somali government official told AFP Thursday he had escaped an assassination bid in the central region of Somalia, the latest in a string of attacks in the volatile country.
Beledweyn District Commissioner Elmi Saney said insurgents hurled a grenade at his convoy overnight in the trading post, about 350 kilometers (215 miles) northwest of the capital Mogadishu.
GENEVA, September 11, 2007 – A dozen African would-be migrants died in "horrific circumstances" while attempting to cross the Gulf of Aden from Somalia to Yemen over the past week, the United Nations refugee agency (UNHCR) said on Tuesday.
Four boats carrying more than 300 Ethiopian and Somali migrants have landed on Yemen's coast over the past eight days, at the start of the annual smuggling season, UNHCR spokesman Ron Redmond told a news briefing.
NAIROBI, September 12, 2007 – Child malnutrition in Somalia is at critical levels due to violence and lack of access for aid workers, the U.N. children's agency said on Wednesday.
UNICEF said 83,000 children in central and southern parts of the Horn of Africa nation were suffering from malnutrition and 13,500 of those were severely malnourished and at risk of dying.
Eritrean President Isaias Afwerki |
Asmara, September 15, 2007 - Eritrean President Isaias Afwerki has backed a new Somali opposition alliance, saying arch-foe Ethiopia’s fight against insurgents in Mogadishu was doomed to fail, state media reported on Saturday.
Mogadishu, 15 September 2007 - Journalists working for Shebelle Media Network have vowed not to give in intimidation after sixteen of them have been briefly detained today by forces from the transitional federal government of Somalia.
"We are not going to stop our profession as journalists because of threat and intimidation as happened today" reads a statement issued in the name of all journalists working for Shebelle Radio which an independent media house based in Somalia's volatile capital city of Mogadishu.
Mogadishu, September 07, 2007 – Prime Minister Ali Mohammed Ghedi said the conference being in Asmara, Eritrea, by opportunists has no popular support as the Somali people are happy with the outcome of the recent National Reconciliation Conference.
Prime Minister Ghedi told WIC yesterday that ''opportunists exist everywhere, but the people of Somalia, the Transitional Government, regional countries and the international community are happy with the outcome of the National Reconciliation Conference held in Mogadishu.''
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Sultan Fowsi Mohamed Ali and Ahmed Mohamed Tarah were arrested on 28 August in Jijiga, the capital of the Somali Region (known as the Ogaden) in the east of the country. They are held incommunicado in Jijiga military barracks, where they are at risk of torture or ill-treatment.
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PRESS RELEASE
Mogadishu, 15 September 2007 - The National Union of Somali Journalists is powerfully denouncing the police's forced entry of the building of Shabelle Media Network, in which the police forces of the Somalia's Transitional Federal Government briefly arrested and terrified 14 journalists and 5 support staff, including the management of the Popular Radio.
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the Task Group exercising with a South African submarine and 2 frigates |
Indian Ocean, 7 September 2007 - On 30 July a Force of NATO ships set sail to make an historic 12,500 nautical mile circumnavigation of the African continent on a two month deployment from August to October this year as part of NATO’s commitment to global security. Standing NATO Maritime Group 1 (SNMG1), one of NATO’s four standing maritime forces, has sailed from the Mediterranean in early August past the west coast of Africa and the Niger Delta.
High Commissioner Louise Arbour |
Following is the speech by High Commissioner Louise Arbour to the United Nations Human Rights Council.
Geneva, 13 September 2007
Thank you for giving me this opportunity to offer you updates on some of the activities that we have undertaken since the last session of the Human Rights Council.
But first, let me congratulate you for the progress made this summer in your institution building process.
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Muhamed Ibrahim Warsame (Hadrawi. Left) and Muhamed Hashi Dhama (Gaariye. Right) |
Hargeysa, Somaliland, September 15, 2007 (SL Times) – In a press conference held on Tuesday in Maansoor hotel, Hargeysa, the arbitration committee which mediated last month the long stand-off between the president and the lower house of parliament has called on president Rayale to fulfill his part of the committee’s three point accord.
The chairman of the arbitration committee, M I Warsame (Hadrawi) along with a leading member of the committee M H Dhama (Gaariye) urged the president to honor the promise and pledge made to the arbitration committee where he had initially agreed to release the detained Qaran party leaders and accept the implementation of the 2007 national budget which was amended by the lower house of parliament early in the year.
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Wednesday's demostration in Hargeysa (Photo: courtesy sdwo.com) |
Hargeysa, Somaliland, September 15, 2007 (SL Times) – Qaran party officials organized spectacular public demonstrations in Hargeysa and Buroa on Wednesday calling for the release of their leaders detained in Mandhera prison.
Both demonstrations were held spontaneously at the same time in the two biggest regional capitals in the country. The Hargeysa and Buroa demonstrations attracted over 500 people who carried placards and banners calling for the release of their party leaders. Some of the slogans were directed at the current high food prices which have recently hit the country.
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British minister of state, Rt Hon Lord Malloch-Brown |
London, UK, September 15, 2007 (SL Times) – Lord Avebury wrote a letter dated 13/08/07 to the British minister of state in the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO), the Rt Hon Lord Malloch-Brown, asking the minister to express concern on behalf of the British government in a message addressed to the government of Somaliland regarding the detention of the Qaran party leaders.
Lord Avebury also asked Lord Malloch-Brown to explain the language used in the UN Security Council Resolutions on Somalia which often include the phrase “the territorial integrity and unity of Somalia”, and had also expressed concern about Somaliland being put under the control of the TFG.
September 10, 2007
Eritrean Americans are outraged by the vitriolic Statements made by Jendayi E. Frazier, the Deputy Secretary of State for African Affairs about the State of Eritrea, its government and people. Charged with an area in the world by virtue of the color of her skin, exposing her lack of knowledge about Africa and especially the Horn of Africa, she set out to blemish the continents image by presenting law abiding Africans as “terrorists”, “extremists”, presenting Africa as a haven for “terrorists”, “drug trafficking”, “diseases and crime”, while funneling illicit arms and weapons to mercenary regimes to the terrorist minority regime in Ethiopia led by her personal friend and Horn advisor, Meles Zenawi, the deceptive Tigrayan Prime Minister, who is responsible for chaos and mayhem in Somalia today.
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September 9, 2007 – Text of report by Khalid Mahmud in Cairo: " Somalia: Secret talks in Djibouti between Gedi and dissidents from Islamic Courts simultaneously with opposition conference in Eritrea" by London-based newspaper Al-Sharq al-Awsat website on 7 September
Somali Prime Minister Ali Muhammad Gedi yesterday began a surprise visit to Djibouti to meet with dissidents from the Islamic Courts organization, at a time when the groups that are opposed to the transitional authority and the Ethiopian military presence in Somalia have begun a conference in the Eritrean capital, Asmara, to unify their political stands and organizational cadres.
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NAIROBI, September 13, 2007 – Ethiopian rebels on Thursday urged the world to bring an end to an army crackdown in the restive Ogaden region, warning that another "African genocide" is unfolding.
The Ogaden National Liberation Front (ONLF) said thousands of displaced civilians had fled to neighbouring Somalia without food and medicine over the past four months.
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As Kulmiye Party convenes its congress to nominate its leadership in the run up to Somaliland’s Presidential elections due to be held around May 2008, many questions come in people’s minds such as can Kulmiye party remodel itself? Can it outgrow its narrow, jihadist, rabble rousing and everything goes strategy? Will the party welcome new blood into its leadership or will the old guard stay dead in the trenches? Will it adopt a more peaceful, reconciliatory and inclusive political debate or will it continue with its acerbic, partisan and divisive rhetoric?
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Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed - Chairman of the new Alliance For The Re-Liberation Of Somalia (ARS) |
ASMARA, September 14, 2007 – Somali opposition figures named on Friday a senior Islamist as chairman of a "liberation" alliance vowing war on Ethiopian troops and urging the exit of Ugandan peacekeepers from the Horn of Africa nation.
Hundreds of delegates meeting in Eritrea chose Sheikh Sharif Ahmed -- one of the two highest-ranking leaders of Somalia's Islamic Courts movement -- to steer the new opposition grouping.
New York, September 14, 2007 - Police have detained a journalist who was reporting on a security operation undertaken by Somalia’s Ethiopian-backed government in the capital, Mogadishu, according to the National Union of Somali Journalists and local news reports.
Mohamed Hussein Jimaale, a correspondent of the Puntland-based news Web site Puntlandpost, was among some 70 people still in custody today after Wednesday’s raid on the city’s main Bakara market
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Eritrea is accused of supplying weapons to Somali militant groups |
Asmara, September 11, 2007 – Western governments once held Eritrea up as a beacon of hope for Africa.
Fiercely self-reliant, the continent's youngest nation was hailed at its independence in 1993 for its determination to rebuild after its devastating 30-year liberation war from arch-foe Ethiopia.
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US Assistant Secretary for African Affairs Jendayi Frazer talks to the media in Addis Ababa, 08 Sep 07 |
Addis Ababa, September 09, 2007 – Washington's top diplomat on African issues says regional leaders must do more to ease simmering tensions in the Horn of Africa. Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs Jendayi Frazer made the comment after leading a team of senior U.S. officials on a tour of Ethiopia's tense Ogaden region bordering Somalia. VOA's Peter Heinlein reports from the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa.
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MOGADISHU, Sept 13, 2007 – Somalia's government on Thursday said a new opposition movement vowing war on Ethiopian troops in the Horn of Africa nation was a "terrorist alliance" posing no real threat.
Somali opposition figures forged The Alliance For The Liberation Of Somalia in the Eritrean capital of Asmara on Wednesday in a move analysts said may boost Islamist-led insurgents fighting the interim government and its Ethiopian military allies.
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President Abdullahi Yusuf and prime minister M Ali Gedi |
Djibouti, September 15, 2007 - There are few things that do not lose their currency once introduced as news items on the international media outlets such as the New York Times, the BBC, CNN, and since recently, Al Jazeera. More often than not this happens because the subject matters of the news just do not go away—lingering on both in the minds of the public as well as on the ground they transpire. The Middle East Conflict, the Sri Lankan Civil War, the War on Terror & others such are among the long-drawn-out and notorious newsmakers.
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After Ethiopian soldiers burned down her house and beat her, Fatima Abdi Mohammed and her 1-year-old child fled to Bossasso. International relief groups have been barred from most of the region. |
Bosaso, Somalia, 14 September 2007 - The Ethiopian government is starving and killing its own people in the remote eastern Ogaden region, according to refugees.
They describe a terrifying four-month crackdown in which security forces have sealed off villages, torched homes and businesses, commandeered food and water sources, and beaten, raped or executed anyone who resists.
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BRUSSELS, September 12, 2007 - The United States launches in Germany next month a new military command for Africa with small teams of key staff, but no troops, based on the continent, a senior US defence official said Wednesday.
The Africa Command (AFRICOM) will initially work from Stuttgart, and have a year to prepare six locations in, as yet, unidentified African countries, said US Principal Deputy Undersecretary of Defense for Policy Ryan Henry.
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Wellington, September 12, 2007 – A Somali immigrant in New Zealand has been put behind bars for 21 months after using his wheelchair as a weapon.
36-year old Abdirashid Hirsi has a history of using his wheelchair to commit violent offences, and after his two most recent attacks was sentenced to spend nearly two years in jail.
He appeared before a Wellington District Court for sentencing on one charge of injuring with intent to injure, a charge of using a phone for fictitious purposes, a charge of assaulting police and a charge of willful damage.
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Doha, Qatar, September 7, 2007 – Aljazeera
Praise be to Allah who created the creation for his worship and commanded them to be just and permitted the wronged one to retaliate against the oppressor in kind. To proceed:
Peace be upon he who follows the guidance: People of America this talk of mine is for you and concerns the ideal way to prevent another Manhattan, and deals with the war and its causes and results.
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Like most Somalilanders we were happy when it was announced that the arbitration committee was able to midwife an agreement between parliament, the political parties and president Rayale. Little did we know then that President Rayale had no intention of honoring that agreement, but the signs were there. The first indication of something amiss was the fact that the President left the country for Ethiopia without meeting his end of the bargain. When he was asked by reporters at the airport about it, he sounded a bit evasive. However, given the positive atmosphere generated by the agreement, many people wanted to give him the benefit of the doubt. Then he came back. Days went by. Still he had done nothing.
In the meantime, Parliament moved quickly and voted twice on the two remaining candidates of the electoral commission, thus delivering on their promise.
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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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By Mohamed A.awale
According to the latest quips on Somaliland political twist, god has bestowed it with either half-naked kings or an empty royalty wardrobe that its rightful aspirant has yet to be found nowhere. By all accounts, at least that joke seems fitting when it comes in the recent much hyped and over-blown Kulmiye’s convention in Hargeysa.
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By Osman Hassan
The captivating paper by the Somali Intellectuals without Borders (SIWB) on the current situation in Somalia, which recently appeared in Wardheerews and Ethiopian websites, is to be commended
The thrust of the paper is that it has pronounced unambiguous judgment on the opposing sides fighting for power in Somalia. The Islamic Courts Union (ICU) has been depicted as the “proponents of anarchy” who “adhere to the support of most radical forms of terrorism and the indiscriminate killing of innocent civilians under most dubious and phony pretext of defending the country from Ethiopia”.
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By Yusuf Deyr, Hargeysa, Somaliland
Far away in the sunshine are our highest aspirations. We may not reach them, but we can look up and see their beauty; believe in them; and try our best to follow where they lead us to. Begin at once to live; and count each separate day as a separate life. The amount of sleep required by the average person is five minutes less. The difficult can be done immediately, and the impossible takes a little longer. If we don’t stand for something; that means we can fall for anything. If one way is better than the other; that you may be sure is nature’s way.
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The end of Young Dictator
By: Abdinasir Mohamed Abdilleh “Six‘
This is the end of an era for dictatorship days
This is the end of an era for a leader without vision
This is the end of an era for a president without Hope
This is the end of an era for Riyale’s corruption and greed
This is the end of an era for naked war of unknown reason
This is the end of an era for denial of the truth and the righteous
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Another Somali Plagiarizer
By Fowsi A Ismail
Mr. Mohamed Abdi Adaweh’s article entitled, “Youth of Somaliland must know how to be serious,” which was published in various Somali websites, fails, miserably, to exercise the primary academic discipline of giving credit to the author from which the entire material was taken.
Reading through the article, I suspected whether Mr. Adaweh was the author of the article as he claimed. Therefore, I attempted to Google parts of the article in order to ensure that Mr. Adaweh is the author.
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By J.M. Tamale
Kampala , September 9, 2007 – Many people have spoken about Buganda's desire for independence from Uganda.
However, they have not answered the most salient issue of all; whether Buganda can become a viable state.
While I support Buganda's cause let us be realistis. Buganda is not a viable state.
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With the resumption of the diplomatic relations between the then “ Somali Republic” and the United Kingdom in 1968 (which were severed on Kenya’s independence in 1963), Prime Minister’s Egal’s Government and the United Kingdom Government established a UK Scholarship programme for the graduates of the then (only) two Somaliland secondary schools of Sheikh and Amoud.
During the three years from 1968, 10 students who graduated from both schools, each year, were selected, on the basis of their London University GCE Examination results, to pursue higher education at colleges/universities in the UK. These scholars arrived in the UK, a year after they left school, during the summers of 1969 to 1971.
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By Jamal Madar, London , UK
If the statement of Wubshet Demisse, the Ethiopian Ambassador to Somaliland, is to be believed, Rayale and his UDUB henchmen are really in dire straits. The propaganda that Ethiopian troops will be deployed in Hargeisa is beginning to backfire. It is now clear that there will be no cavalry coming over the horizon to rescue UDUB. This means UDUB will have to play hardball in the forthcoming local and presidential elections.
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At a meeting in Eritrea, various groups opt for armed resistance but elect a moderate Islamist to head the alliance.
Members of the Somalia opposition attend the closing ceremony of a weeklong conference in Asmara, the Eritrean capital. Peter Martell / AFP/Getty Images |
ASMARA, Eritrea, September 15, 2007 - Following a week of walkouts and heated arguments, an unlikely alliance of Somalian opposition groups found an ideological middle ground Friday, electing a moderate Islamist leader after agreeing to omit a reference to "jihad" from its charter.
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Reign of terror against Oroma population |
By Dr. Muhammad Shamsaddin Megalommatis
September 3, 2007
Refuting further points in Mr. Abebe Gelaw’s letter
Point 3. By calling my articles ‘controversial’, Mr. Gelaw achieves nothing else, except to make it clear that I gain support from some people as much as I provoke negative feelings among others; in other words, Mr. Gelaw proves through this statement of his that Abyssinia is indeed divided in two groups, with the minority of the Amhara and Tigray Abyssinians being rejected by the oppressed Ethiopian majority, namely the Oromos, the Ogadenis, the Sidamas, the Afars, the Shekachos, the Gambellas and others (70 - 72 % of the entire population).
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Sep 11, 2007
By Mark Abley
Sixteen years ago, I visited a country that didn't exist. It stands at the arid heart of one of the world's most dangerous, poverty-ridden regions, and it's doing surprisingly well. But its success raises all kinds of questions – because it still doesn't exist.
The country is Somaliland. It occupies the northwestern corner of what maps and globes call Somalia. Not wanting to admit that separatist revolts can ever produce a legitimate outcome, governments here and everywhere refuse to accept Somaliland as the independent nation it is.
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Stasi boss Erich Mielke, middle, with unnamed associates |
Did East Germany's feared secret police
help kill German businessmen?
September 15, 2007
Bad Homburg , Germany
The terrorists who killed Alfred Herrhausen were professionals. They dressed as construction workers to lay a wire under the pavement of the road along Mr. Herrhausen's usual route to work. They planted a sack of armor-piercing explosives on a parked bicycle by the roadside. An infrared beam shining across the road triggered the explosion just when the limousine, one of three cars in a convoy, sped by.
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By F. Hager
September 14, 2007 — Now that the Millennium celebrations are over, Ethiopia appears ready to attack Eritrea with tacit US backing.
Over 100,000 people were slaughtered the last time these two countries fought a war in 1998 – 2000. This time, the death and destruction as well as the long term dislocation and suffering could be worse.
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Discrimination in fashion world 'worst since 60s'
Monthly rallies planned to put pressure on industry
By Ed Pilkington
New York, September 15, 2007 - Several of the world's top black supermodels, including Naomi Campbell, Iman, Liya Kebede and Tyson Beckford, yesterday launched a campaign against race discrimination in the fashion industry - which they say is at its worst since the 1960s.
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Dr.Abdullahi Mohamed (Deputy Editor Geeka Afrika Online)
Djibouti (HAN) September 15th, 2007 - In the face of the East and Horn of Africa’s multiple security threats, integration and regionalization endeavours are increasingly seen as providing opportunities for establishing sustainable economic growth, peace and stability, and securing democratic consolidation.
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| Asmara, September 11, 2007 - Eritrea said on Tuesday it will take every precaution to avoid war with arch-foe Ethiopia over their disputed border, but demanded Addis Ababa comply with a five-year-old boundary ruling.
Ties between the Horn of Africa neighbours are at their lowest since a 1998-2000 war that killed 70,000 people, analysts say. And prospects of resolving the border impasse dimmed when talks in the Hague last week broke down.
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