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International News
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Opinion |
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By Mohamed-Amin Jibril
HARGEYSA, January 15 2009 – Improved healthcare facilities
have considerably reduced the rate of maternal mortality in
Somaliland, but officials say much more still needs to be
done.
In 1997, 1,600 out of every 100,000 women giving birth were
estimated to die in Somaliland.
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Hargeysa,
January 13, 2009 – Somalilanders availed a new private
company called SomGas which will be providing natural
gas to the residents of the country. The
company which is the first of its kind in Somaliland has
opened its doors yesterday with the presence of the
President, Dahir Rayaale Kahin.
"It took two
years and half to make this happen and we travelled more
than eight countries in order to buy products and
equipments" said the general manager of the
company, Mr. Abdikarim. "Due to the lack of expertise in
Somaliland, we had to go several countries and make sure the
good quality of the equipment and product” concluded Mr.
Abadikarim.
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Burao, Somaliland, January 15, 2009 – In
it’s latest expansion,
Admas University College - one of the pioneer privet
higher learning institutions in Ethiopia - opened a new
campus in downtown Burao (Burco) which is Somaliland’s
second largest city.
A ceremony held at Barwaaqo Hotel in
central Burao included attendants from all works of life
such as civil servants, politicians, aid agencies, students,
traditional elders known as Gurti and regional leaders.
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Somalis gather around a tank left by Ethiopian
troops formerly based in the former Somali defence
ministry in Mogadishu Thursday, Jan.15, 2009 |
Mogadishu, January 15, 2009 – The last Ethiopian troops left
Somalia's capital on Thursday after a two-year deployment
and Islamist militiamen took control of the bases, fueling
fears they could try to expand their power in this lawless
Horn of Africa nation.
Ethiopia's prime minister said he could not predict what
would happen when his troops leave Somalia completely, but
he expected the extremist Islamic group, al-Shabab, and
others to try to seize control.
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UNITED NATIONS, January 16, 2009 — The UN Security Council
on Wednesday gave Eritrea five weeks to withdraw its forces
from a contested area along its border with Djibouti and
demanded that it start talks with its neighbor for a
mutually acceptable settlement of the dispute.
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Mogadishu, January 16, 2009 – Thousands of Somalis have
gathered at the football stadium in Mogadishu to celebrate
the withdrawal of Ethiopian troops from the city.
The stadium was a former Ethiopian base and Islamist and
clan elders called for Somalis to solve their own problems
and not resort to more violence.
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MOGADISHU, Somalia, January 16, 2009 — Islamic insurgents
fired mortar rounds at Somalia's presidential palace and
clashed with government forces Wednesday, leaving at least
five civilians dead a day after Ethiopian troops handed over
security duties.
The violence underscored fears that Somalia could collapse
into further chaos following the Ethiopians' departure, with
extremists moving to seize power from the country's weak
U.N.-backed government.
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Hargeysa,
January 12, 2009 - Process said to be orderly and
transparent by international and national observers.
Below is an
article published by the
American Chronicle:
It is quite
clear that the international community are satisfied with
the successful and peaceful completion of the Somaliland
voter registration programme.
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Tuesday, 13 January 2009
Oral Answers to Questions — Foreign
and Commonwealth Office
David Evennett (Whip, Whips; Bexleyheath & Crayford,
Conservative) What recent assessment he has made of the
political situation in Somalia; and if he will make a
statement.
Gillian Merron
(Parliamentary Under-Secretary, Foreign & Commonwealth
Office; Lincoln, Labor)
The President resigned on 28 December 2008 and a
permanent successor has yet to be selected. The transitional
federal Government and the
opposition Alliance for the Re-Liberation of Somalia
have agreed to form a unity Government. We hope these
changes will help to promote the peace process.
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By Mohamed-Amin Jibril
HARGEISA, January 13, 2009 – Hassan* and Mohamed* were
fishermen in Bossaso, in the self-declared autonomous
region of Puntland, northeastern Somalia, but turned to
piracy out of desperation and lack of alternative
livelihoods.
However, in August 2008, coastguards from Somaliland
arrested them after they strayed into the region's
waters. In September, they were each sentenced to 15
years in prison for their role in the piracy that has
intensified off Somalia's waters in recent years.
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WASHINGTON,
January 15, 2009 – The U.S. Navy plans an aggressive effort
to capture pirates off the coast of Somalia with the aid of
a country in the region that would agree to prosecute and
hold them, a naval commander said on Thursday.
U.S. Navy Vice Adm. William Gortney, commander of the U.S.
5th Fleet, said the United States is nearing a deal with an
unidentified country that would agree to take the pirates
into custody once captured by U.S. forces in Indian Ocean
and Gulf of Aden waters off the Horn of Africa.
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By Javier Blas
and William Wallis | Financial Times
Sat, Jan 10, 2009
A U.S. businessman backed by former CIA and state department
officials says he has secured a vast tract of fertile land
in south Sudan from the family of a notorious warlord, in
post-colonial Africa’s biggest private land deal.
Philippe Heilberg, a former Wall Street banker and chairman
of New York-based Jarch Capital, told the Financial Times he
had gained leasehold rights to 400,000 hectares of land – an
area the size of Dubai – by taking a majority stake in a
company controlled by the son of Paulino Matip.
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MOGADISHU, Somalia, January 11, 2009 – The body of a Somali
pirate who drowned just after receiving a huge ransom washed
onshore with $153,000 in cash, a resident said Sunday, as
the spokesman for another group of pirates promised to soon
free a Ukrainian arms ship.
Five pirates drowned Friday when their small boat capsized
after they received a reported $3 million ransom for
releasing a Saudi oil tanker. Local resident Omar Abdi
Hassan said one of the bodies had been found on a beach near
the coastal town of Haradhere and relatives were searching
for the other four.
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Headlines |
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MEP: Recognize Somaliland
Independence To Stabilize The Horn Of Africa |
Dr Charles Tannock
MEP says Somaliland’s
call for sovereignty
should be reconsidered
Strasbourg, January 14,
2009 (SL Times) – The
time has come to
consider more seriously
Somaliland’s quest for
independence as the
situation in the Horn of
Africa deteriorates
further, Conservative
MEP Charles Tannock said
on January 14, 2009
ahead of a parliamentary
debate on the situation
in the Horn of Africa.
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UNITED NATIONS, New York,
January 17, 2009 – The United Nations Security Council
unanimously adopted a resolution Friday expressing its
intention to establish a UN peacekeeping force in Somalia,
but putting off a decision for several months in order to
assess the volatile situation in the Horn of Africa nation.
The resolution adopted by the council renewed the mandate of
the African Union force that is currently deployed in
Somalia for six months. It urged African nations to increase
its troop strength from the current 2,600 to the 8,000
originally authorized.
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“The British Government's Position Has Always Been To Be
Sympathetic To Somaliland's Demand For Independence” Lord
Malloch-Brown |
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House of Lords debates: Somaliland
& Somalia — Question
Wednesday, 14 January 2009
Lord
Avebury
(Liberal Democrat): To ask
Her Majesty's Government what steps they will take in the
United Nations Security Council to solve the internal
conflicts in Somalia.
Lord
Malloch-Brown
(Minister of State, Foreign & Commonwealth Office; Labor): My
Lords, we fully expect the efforts of the
UN Secretary-General's special representative to Somalia to
advance the political process in that country as envisaged in
the Djibouti agreement. The Security Council has reviewed the
situation in the country on a regular basis. A current draft
Security Council resolution is under discussion which envisages
a UN peacekeeping deployment in future if there is sufficient
progress on the political and security fronts.
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General Mohamed Ali Samatar |
Court's decision paves way
for individuals to be sued for violating human rights
For Immediate Release
Richmond, Virginia, January 8, 2009 – Today, January 8, 2009,
the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit
reversed a federal district court's decision dismissing the
human rights lawsuit filed against former Somali General Mohamed
Ali Samantar. As a result, the case against General Samantar for
his role in overseeing the widespread and systematic use of
torture, rape, prolonged arbitrary detention and mass executions
committed against the civilian population of Somalia in the
1980s, has been reinstated.
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Kerry McCarthy MP |
Bristol, Jan 17, 2009 – Office questions on January 13, 2009,
Kerry raised concerns that other countries were taking advantage
of the political situation in Somalia to dump toxic waste and
carry out over-fishing in Somali seas.
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Burao, January 17, 2009 - A foreign teacher
working in Somaliland was released Thursday after spending days
in captivity.
Mohamed Mustafa al-Khawi, an Egyptian working in Somaliland for
over a decade, was kidnapped by gunmen Tuesday afternoon in
Burao.
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Abdirahman Ahmed was a prominent
politician in Kismayo |
Kismayo, January 16, 2009 – An Islamist militia has executed a
Somali politician who they accused of betraying his religion by
working with non-Muslim Ethiopian forces.
An Islamist spokesman in the port of Kismayo told the BBC that
Abdirahman Ahmed was shot dead on Thursday.
Mr Ahmed was also accused of spying for Ethiopian forces, said
to be backing the forces of warlord Barre Hiraale in trying to
recapture Kismayo.
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History Links King Holiday, Obama Inauguration |
In a Monday, Jan. 15,
2007 file photo, a mass of people march down historic
Auburn Avenue in Atlanta during the Dr. Martin Luther
King Jr. parade. For more than two decades, the federal
holiday observing the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.'s
birthday has largely been celebrated in his hometown.
This year's observance, marking what would've been
King's 80th birthday, will largely be commemorated in
Washington, D.C., as the date falls on the eve of the
historic inauguration of the nation's first black
president. (AP Photo/John Amis, File) |
ATLANTA, January 17, 2009 — Martin Luther King's flame has
always burned brightest in Atlanta, but in a real sense, the
torch is being passed to Washington, D.C., with his birthday and
holiday taking on dual meaning for many Americans because it
falls on the eve of Barack Obama's inauguration.
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The
worm can also spread via USB flash drives. |
Washington, January 16, 2009 – A worm that spreads through low
security networks, memory sticks, and PCs without the latest
security updates is posing a growing threat to users.
The malicious program, known as Conficker, Downadup, or Kido was
first discovered in October 2008.
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A US
Airways jet with 155 people on board has ditched in the
frigid Hudson River off Manhattan after apparently
hitting a flock of geese. |
New
York, January 16, 2009 – A US airliner on a domestic flight with
155 people aboard has ditched into the Hudson River in New York
City but with no loss of life.
All 150 passengers, three flight attendants and two pilots were
rescued in freezing weather, with a number later treated for
unspecified injuries.
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Buses
carrying the slogans are operating around the UK |
London, January 17, 2009 – A Christian bus driver has refused to
drive a bus with an atheist slogan proclaiming "There's probably
no God".
Ron Heather, from Southampton, Hampshire, responded with "shock"
and "horror" at the message and walked out of his shift on
Saturday in protest.
First Bus said it would do everything in its power to ensure Mr
Heather does not have to drive the buses.
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By Matthew Harwood
New York, January 16, 2009 – The U.S. Navy is
close to brokering a deal with an unidentified country to
prosecute Somali pirates it captures at sea.
Reuters reports:
U.S. Navy Vice Adm. William Gortney,
commander of the U.S. 5th Fleet, said the United States is
nearing a deal with an unidentified country that would agree to
take the pirates into custody once captured by U.S. forces in
Indian Ocean and Gulf of Aden waters off the Horn of Africa.
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The plane
ditched in the Hudson River shortly after take-off |
By
Joe Boyle
New York, January 16, 2009 – Dozens of passengers have had an
amazing escape after their plane came down in New York. One
theory is that the jetliner hit a flock of birds. It may sound
like a freakish event, but "bird strikes" are an age-old problem
for the aviation industry.
Even the earliest pioneers of flying machines, the Wright
Brothers, had trouble with birds.
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Thu, Jan 15, 2009
She was asked 3 Questions:
Describe yourself in 3 words.
In the next 10 years where do you see Africa?
If you had all the riches in the world, what would you do
with your fortune?
Hello… My name is Marian Fahen Samatar. I am representing
Somalia. I am 21 years old and I do Events Management.
Currently I work for Cypres clubs. They have about 20 venues
all around Europe. My job involves checking clubs out,
organize events, dealing with suppliers, customer needs and
expectations. I do a lot of promotional work, which takes me
to exciting new places. Even though I am busy most of the
times I try to fit MEA into my tight schedule!
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Birmingham, January 16, 2009 – Carolyn McKinstry was almost
killed in a racist church bombing in segregated Alabama in
the 1960s. The BBC's Matthew Price asks her what the
forthcoming inauguration of America's first African-American
president, Barack Obama, means to her.
Carolyn McKinstry was on her way through the church to its
office when she saw the four girls through the open door to
the washroom.
"Good morning," she said, and went upstairs.
When she reached the top, the phone rang. Normally there
would be an adult at the church and she would not have
answered it.
That day, though, she picked up the receiver.
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Jan 16 2009 by
Lisa Jones, South Wales Echo
A CHARITY worker is preparing to swap her
cosy Cardiff home for one of the world’s poorest nations.
Oxfam Cymru’s communications officer,
Luned Jones, will travel to Sierra Leone where she will
undertake her first assignment abroad.
The country is still recovering from the
devastating civil war that broke out in 1991.
She will spend two weeks visiting Oxfam
projects in remote parts of Sierra Leone before she is
joined for a third week by Cardiff nurse Angela Gorman, who
runs her own charity to support the vital health needs of
pregnant women in Africa.
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| Our Trip to Somaliland |
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Africa's Best Kept Secret |
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Egypt And Piracy |
The recent upsurge in sea piracy in the Gulf of Aden and the
Indian Ocean has had ripple effects on many countries. Because
it owns and controls the Suez Canal, Egypt is one of the
countries most affected by these criminal activities. Naturally,
one would expect Egypt to have a lot to say, or to show some
leadership, on this matter. So what has Egypt done regarding
this issue? The answer is: very little.
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Somaliland Voter Registration: What Is Next? |
Wed, Jan 14, 2009
There is no denial that the voter registration in Somaliland is
a success story. With the limited financial aid and human
resources plus the lack of international recognition, Somaliland
still managed to go through the whole process and finally
succeeded in getting its people registered for the coming
elections in the first part of this New Year.
Read full text...
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OPINION |
Government Failed
To Stop School Children From Chewing Khat |
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By: Mohamed Osman
Ibrahim
Without any question our society has totally failed to do
anything about the increasing number of young khat chewers
including our under-age children. In the year 2008, a survey
bye AVU journalism student in Hargeysa showed that two of
every three students in Somaliland secondary schools chew
Khat. This is an alarming signal to every citizen.
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Puntland Parliament Appoints New Pirate
President |
By Abdulaziz Al-Mutairi
The parliament of the semi-autonomous
region of Somalia "Puntland" recently appointed Abdirahman
Mohamed Farole to be the new president of next four years.
The parliament is combination of tribes, where each tribe
has specified number of representatives in the house.
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An Awakening For
Somaliland Citizens: Somaliland Voter Registration |
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By Hussein D. Obsiye
Even though some Somaliland communities
erroneously believe that cheating the voter registration and
inflating the number of registered voters will put them in
an elevated status than the rest of the communities, such
fraudulent activities will definitely erode the
international donors’ trust in Somaliland, and will
undoubtedly derail the desperately needed international
communities’ attention and aid.
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Dr. Terry
Lacey
The possibility of finalizing a cease
fire in Gaza and ending the besieging and slaughter of
innocent civilians may hinge upon who is prepared to help
police the borders, especially the Rafah gate, to stop arms
smuggling, and end the blockade of the Gaza Strip.
The suggestion in the Jakarta Post
(Editorial Jan 15) that Indonesia should help coordinate an
international campaign to send UN peacekeepers to Palestine,
and consider sending its best military and police officers
to do this, might have some merits.
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By Bill Roggio
Have you ever wondered what Iraq might have looked like had
the United States quit the country Iraq in 2006 after it was
on the brink of civil war? Look no further than Somalia,
where the Ethiopian Army has completed its withdrawal of
Mogadishu and is preparing to pull out from other bases in
the countries just two years after ousting the al
Qaeda-backed Islamic Courts Union.
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By Dani Nabudere
Wednesday 14 January 2009
The present financial crisis afflicting the global economy
should not be seen from the narrow focus of the credit
crunch and its relationship to the subprime mortgage crisis
in the Western countries, especially the US. The crisis goes
to the very foundations of the global capitalist system and
it should be analyzed from that angle. What is at the core
of the crisis is the over-extension of credit on a narrow
material production base. This is in a situation in which
money has become increasingly detached from its material
base of a money commodity that can measure its value such as
gold.
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An Open Letter
to Martin Luther King |
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By
Philip Emeagwali
emeagwali.com
Walk with me down memory lane. The time: 1968. In 30 months,
one million dead. The setting: a dusty camp in Biafra where
survivors waited and hoped for peace. The survivors:
Refugees fleeing from the “Dance of Death.” My mentor: One
of the refugee camp directors, whom I called “Teacher” out
of respect.
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A mother
and her malnourished child in Beletweyne, Hiiraan
region: Somalia has one of the world’s highest
levels of malnutrition, with Global Acute
Malnutrition rates of an estimated 18.6 percent |
JOHANNESBURG, 12 January 2009 –
Ready-to-eat blended food has revolutionised the treatment
of children who are acutely malnourished. In a pilot
project, the UN Children's Agency (UNICEF) will use a
similar product not to treat, but to prevent malnutrition in
conflict- and drought-ridden Somalia.
In the biggest trial of Plumpy'doz, a
variation of Plumpy'nut, a
ready-to-use therapeutic food (RUTF), UNICEF plans to
reach 100,000 children by mid-January.
Plumpy'doz is similar to Plumpy’nut in
that it is possible to treat a child at home, without
refrigeration, even where hygiene conditions are poor.
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Every day, along the road I live on in Harare, there are
groups of people waiting outside houses that have bore
holes. They wait, sitting and standing, next to different
shapes and sizes of containers. They wait for water. People
carry the containers of water on their heads. They roll
drums of water down the road. They use shopping trolley’s
from the nearby TM Supermarket to push the water home.
In Greendale we haven’t had a consistent supply of municipal
water for over two years.
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London, Jan 13, 2009 – A voyage to fabled Timbuktu in a
flying car may sound like a magical childhood fantasy.
But this week a British adventurer will set off from London
on an incredible journey through Europe and Africa in a
souped-up sand buggy, travelling by road - and air.
With the help of a parachute and a giant fan-motor, Neil
Laughton plans to soar over the Pyrenees near Andorra,
before taking to the skies again to hop across the 14-km
(nine-mile) Straits of Gibraltar.
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By Bright B Simons
ACCRA, Ghana - Chinese Rear Admiral Du Jingchen's Lushan
naval contingent is settling into the Gulf of Aden, where
its objective is ostensibly to secure the shipping lanes
straddling the Indian Ocean and the Mediterranean as part,
presumably, of an international effort to sustain vital
commerce in an important corridor of world trade.
Some analysts, however, are drawing broader inferences from
this new development, viewing it in the light of China's
relative inactivity in the regional effort to combat piracy
across the Pacific, in the Malacca Strait, the Mekong Delta
and elsewhere.
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Jenkins Kiwanuka
It is a year ago since I wrote about Somalia in my article
about the ‘gagging’ of the media in Uganda. I said then that
the Somali communities indulge in fighting as a hobby, and
that some non-Somali parents had withdrawn their children
from a Scandinavian school to create ‘more fighting room’
for Somali children.
Now that the Uganda Government, following the withdrawal
from Somalia of the Ethiopian forces, is ‘mulling’ over the
idea of withdrawing its own troops from that beleaguered
country, I am returning to the subject.
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Money to fund shelter renovation project, raise
awareness for ShelterBox
Posted By JENNIFER PRITCHETT, WHIG-STANDARD STAFF WRITER
Not even a cold-weather warning could stop a group of
Kingston volunteers from sleeping in tents over the weekend
and braving -23 C to raise money and awareness about
homelessness.
Fourteen volunteers camped out for 48 hours, beginning at 7
a. m. on Friday until the same time on Sunday.
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By SAMUEL B. HOFF • January 15, 2009
After a year of unrelenting attacks by Somali pirates, it
appears that the international community is finally
coalescing together to fight the maritime marauders. This
article assesses the damage wrought by the pirates and how
various nations have reacted to the hijackings.
Before 2008, scattered attacks by pirates from Somalia were
reported but largely ignored. However, over the last year
piracy increased markedly in the Horn of Africa, from the
Gulf of Aden to as far south as Mombasa, Kenya.
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Source: United Nations Security Council
Date: 16 Jan 2009
SC/9574
Security Council
6068th Meeting (AM)
Renews Authorization for Current African Union Force for Up
to Six Months; Requests Report by 15 April on Security
Conditions, Possible Mandate of UN Force
The Security Council today expressed its intention to
establish a United Nations peacekeeping operation in
war-torn Somalia and called on Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon
to develop, by 15 April, a mandate for the proposed mission,
which would replace an existing African Union force.
Unanimously adopting resolution 1863 (2009), the Council
decided that deploying the proposed mission would "be
subject to a further decision of the Security Council by 1
June 2009". In the meantime, the Secretary-General was
called on to deliver a report that would include
developments in Somalia, progress towards full deployment of
the existing 3,200-strong African Union force, known as
AMISOM, and progress in the political process and security
conditions on the ground.
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