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People
living with HIV are shunned by family and friends |
Hargeysa, Somaliland, December 19, 2009 –
When a young HIV-positive woman recently passed away in
Hargeysa, capital of the self-declared republic of
Somaliland, none of the women in her family volunteered to
carry out the traditional Islamic rite of washing the body
before burial.
“Her clothes are still hanging where she
died because people think they can be affected if they touch
them,” said Abdillahi Omar, a man in his 40s. Eventually, a
group of HIV-positive women volunteered to wash the woman’s
body.
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On the
final day of UN climate talks in Copenhagen, African
leaders have renewed calls for a legally binding deal to
fight climate change.
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Sweden's
PM Fredrik Reinfeldt (L), European Commission chief
Jose Manuel Barroso (2ndR), Ethiopia's PM Meles
Zenawi and AU Commission Chairperson Jean Ping (R)
give a news conference in Copenhagen, 16 Dec 2009 |
London, December 19, 2009 –
“The developing countries have the most to lose if there are
no concrete result of our discussions. We are therefore the
most concerned that we arrive at a successful outcome." -
Nafi Ali Nafi, Sudanese presidential assistant
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Dead
maize field in Kenya, 05
Oct 2009 |
Nairobi, Kenya, December
19, 2009 – Aid group Oxfam says millions of people across
East Africa are fighting for basic survival after another
consecutive rainy season failed. The next rains are not
expected in many of the hardest-hit areas until April -
although there is no guarantee these will come either.
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Uganda Bans Female Genital
Mutilation |
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Nairobi, Kenya, December 19, 2009 – The
Ugandan parliament has banned the controversial practice
known as female genital mutilation, or FGM. The traditional
rite - which critics decry as inhumane - is still carried
out across much of the region.
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Abdirahman Kwaral (C), a Somali journalist working
for a local TV station is tended to as he is
admitted into a local hospital after he was injured
in a suicide bomb explosion in Mogadishu, 03 Dec
2009 |
Nairobi, Kenya, December 19, 2009 – Many
analysts predict Somalia in the coming year will continue to
be engulfed in violent power struggles that could determine
whether Somalia unites under a central government or breaks
up into competing regions.
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Mombasa,
Kenya, Dec 19, 2009 – The government of Kenya said on Friday
that the Kenya Somalia border would remain closed following
fresh threats issued by militant groups in the lawless
country.
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Demonstration outside the Bella Center, the venue of
the U.N. Climate Conference in Copenhagen |
Copenhagen, December 19, 2009 – Dozens of Ethiopian Diaspora
members of the Oromo and Ogaden communities demonstrated
against the participation of Prime Minister Meles Zenawi at
the UN Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen.
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Ministers
and other government officials, responsible to
livestock development and regional relations from
Djibouti, Kenya, Ethiopia, Somalia, the Sudan and
Uganda, and the Executive Secretary of IGAD at
the signing event. |
Djibouti, Dec 19, 2009 - Member states of
the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) have
adopted a regional policy framework on animal health in the
context of trade and vulnerability, which will lead to
regional economic cooperation and integration in the
livestock sector.
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The
Eritrean national team before the start of the match
against Tanzania, which was held in Nairobi.
Photograph: AFP/Getty Images |
By Sarah McGregor
Nairobi, Kenya, Dec. 19, 2009 – The United Nations granted
temporary asylum to 12 Eritrean soccer players who didn’t
return home after playing a match in Kenya this month, the Standard said,
citing unnamed officials.
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World Urged To Help
Stabilize Somalia |
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Nairobi, Dec. 19, 2009 – A
UN-backed international meeting on Somalia has called on the
world community to support initiatives aimed at stabilizing
the Horn of Africa nation which has had no central
government for almost two decades.
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Somalia's Shabaab Loot UN
Compounds |
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Mogadishu, Somalia, December 19, 2009 —
Somalia's Al Qaeda-linked Shabaab overran and looted UN Mine
Action Service (UNMAS) compounds in the western town of
Baidoa, humanitarian sources and witnesses said Friday.
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Suspected Somalia Pirates
To Be Freed By Dutch Navy |
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Amsterdam, December 19, 2009 – The group of suspected Somali
pirates detained on a Dutch warship will be released because
no country has agreed to prosecute them.
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UN: 74,000 Africans Crossed
Gulf Of Aden In 2009 |
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GENEVA, December 19, 2009 -- The U.N.
refugee agency says a record number of Africans fleeing war,
droughts and poverty have crossed the Gulf of Aden into
Yemen this year.
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U.N. Experts Get Threats In
Inquiry Into Somalia |
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Nairobi, Kenya, December 19, 2009 — United
Nations experts investigating whether Somali businessmen
are funneling aid money to terrorist groups have recently
received death threats warning them to stop their work,
according to United Nations officials.
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Carter Center
Says Sudan Voter Registration Largely Successful, But
Significant Challenges Remain |
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Khartoum, Sudan, December 19, 2009 – The Carter Center has
released its evaluation of Sudan’s voter registration
process, which ended December 7th. It says registration was
largely successful, despite logistical and security
problems.
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UN Says
Children In Somalia Making Strides Despite Humanitarian
Crisis |
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Geneva, December 19, 2009 – The U.N.
Children's Fund reports it is achieving significant results
for millions of Somali children despite the humanitarian
crisis gripping the country. While facing enormous
difficulties, UNICEF says it has been able to save many
children's lives through immunization, special feeding and
other assistance programs.
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Report:
Islamic Terror Rising As Al-Qaida Fades |
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By LOLITA C. BALDOR
Washington DC, December 19, 2009 – Targeted by drone strikes
in Pakistan, al-Qaida is losing ground and financing even as
attacks by Islamist groups are on the rise, according to a
report obtained by The Associated Press.
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full text...
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Somaliland Forces Nab Explosives
Near A Road That Connects Between Sheikh And Burao |
Hargeysa, Somaliland,
December 19, 2009 (SL
Times) – Somaliland
Police forces have
seized a sack full of
explosives left near a
bridge that connects
between Burao and Sheikh
in Sahil region.
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Human Rights
Organizations And Journalists Address Corruption And Human
Rights |
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Hargeysa, Somaliland, December 19, 2009 (SL Times) – Somaliland
human rights organizations and the union of Somali journalists (USJ)
issued last week a report accusing the government of Somaliland
of corruption and human rights violations.
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Eng. Bashe Abdi
Gabobe Defends Kulmiye |
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Eng. Bashe
Abdi Gabobe, Kulmiye’s Campaign Manager for the
western regions |
Hargeysa, Somaliland, December 19, 2009 (SL Times) – In an
indication that the political campaign is heating up in
Somaliland, Kulmiye party came under fire from the ruling
UDUB party.
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Osman Sheikh Abdi Appointed
Minister Of Minerals And Water |
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Eng. Osman Sheikh Abdi |
Hargeysa, Somaliland, December 19, 2009
(SL Times) – Somaliland President Dahir Rayale Kahin appointed
Osman Sheikh Abdi Sheikh Muhammad as the minister of minerals
and water. The new minister replaces the former Minister of
Minerals and Water, Qaasim Sheikh Yusuf who passed away.
Speaking to the press at the ministry, the new minister praised
the deceased minister for the good job he had done while he was
in charge.
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Hargeysa, Somaliland, December 19, 2009 (SL Times) – The city of
Hargeysa started a campaign to clear the city’s streets of
illegal structures. Many of these structures are not only an eye
sore and hazardous to the health of the city’s residents, they
also, as explained by Hargeysa’s Mayor, constitute a security
threat since no one knows who is inside them.
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Hargeysa,
Somaliland, December 19, 2009 (SL Times) – In an article for the
Somali language newspaper Haatuf, Abdirahman Nur Ahmed (Hiiraan)
drew attention to the worsening problem of huge amounts of
garbage strewn in Hargeysa’s streets. Abdirahman Nur Ahmed
touched on the traffic congestion that the vehicles transporting
food aid from Berbera to Ethiopia had created in Hargeysa. He
also blamed much of this problem on bus conductors and their
assistants who do not park their vehicles in specific areas
marked for parking but instead park in vital city streets thus
blocking traffic.
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Al-Shabaab Beheads Two Men; Hizb
Al-Islam Stones A Man To Death And Whips A Woman |
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BARBARIC:
Alleged adulterer Mohamed Abukar Ibrahim is buried
shortly before he's stoned to death. |
Mogadishu,
Somalia, December 19, 2009 (SL Times) – Two young men were
slaughtered with a knife and cut into pieces by al-Shabaab in
the Karan neighborhood of Mogadishu.
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Beheadings In Puntland |
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Galkayo, Somalia, December 19, 2009 (SL Times) – Three southern
refugees were killed in Puntland’s town of Galkayo. Two of the
victims were beheaded while the third was shot. The men are
southern refugees from the Bay and Bakool region who came to
Puntland to escape the war in their region.
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Two Of Sheikh Sharif’s
Parliamentarians Wounded |
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Mogadishu, Somalia, December 19, 2009 (SL Times) – A bomb thrown
at a hotel in Mogadishu wounded two parliamentarians as well as
nearby pedestrians. The parliamentarians lived in the hotel. One
of the parliamentarians was reported to have been seriously
injured.
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World Leaders Reach Deal On
Climate Change In Copenhagen |
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President
Barack Obama says that the world's will to address
climate change "hangs in the balance" and insists any
deal must include transparency among nations. |
By Juliet
Eilperin, Anthony Faiola and Debbi Wilgoren
Copenhagen, December 19, 2009 -- World leaders reached a climate
deal Friday night, according to an Obama administration official
and other sources familiar with the talks. They said the deal
provides a means to monitor and verify emissions cuts by
developing countries but has less ambitious climate targets than
the United States and European governments had initially sought.
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Democracy In America: Alienating
Muslims |
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Muslim
community in US Capital |
New
York, December 19, 2009 – One factor that has limited the number
of terrorist attacks by Muslims on American soil has been the
generally patriotic and highly-assimilated nature of America's
Muslim community. But the New
York Times reports some
Muslim leaders are becoming reluctant to cooperate with the FBI,
due in part to efforts by FBI informants to solicit young men to
join terrorist sting operations and other high-pressure tactics.
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Hacker attacks cost public
companies $1.6 million in lost share value. For Twitter, it's
the firm's reputation that's at risk.
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After a hacker attack in August,
college student Joy Troy checked a Twitter page at the University of
Southern California campus in Los Angeles. A new attack by hackers Dec.
17 redirected users to a page from a previously unknown group called
the Iranian Cyber Army. |
By Laurent
Belsie
Toronto, December
19, 2009 – Thursday night's cyber attack against the Twitter microblogging
service was no routine assault to bring down a website. It was a sophisticated
online blitz –perhaps part of an online Iranian cyber campaign – that could
prove costly for social media networks.
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Saudi Arabia is set to punish
75-year-old woman with 40 lashes, imprisonment and deportation
for being in the company of a young man she once breastfed
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Riyadh, Saudi
Arabia, December 19, 2009 – A 75-year-old woman is set to be given 40 lashes,
imprisoned for four months and deported to Syria after Saudi religious police
caught her in the company of a young man she once breastfed and who claimed to
have been bringing her bread.
Khamisa Mohammed Sawadi, 75, and two younger men, known only as Hadyan and Fahad,
were found guilty of violating a sex-segregation law known locally as khilwa.
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The Copenhagen
climate change summit had been meticulously planned to produce a
streamlined agreement. Instead, it turned into an epic struggle
over the shape of a future world economic order
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US president, Barack Obama (right)
sits down for a 55-minute session with the Chinese premier, Wen Jiabao,
during the final hours of talks at the UN climate summit in Copenhagen.
Photograph: Pete Souza/AFP/Getty Images |
By
Suzanne
Goldenberg and Allegra
Stratton
Copenhagen,
December 19, 2009 – The world leaders invited
to dine by Queen Margrethe supped
on turkey and mushy peas, and were serenaded by the Danish Royal Life Guards
bands playing George Harrison's Here Comes the Sun.
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Mr. Abdillahi M. Duale,
Somaliland’s Minister of Foreign Affairs – Interview
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Abdillahi
Mohamed Duale,
Somaliland Foreign Minister |
Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, December 19, 2009 –
Somaliland is a self-declared state lying between the Gulf of
Aden and the Indian Ocean.
It got its independence in 1991 from the rest of Somalia. In
2003, the people of Somaliland endorsed a constitution. In a
referendum held the same year, they proved to the world that
they no more want to live with the rest of Somalia. However,
Somaliland did not yet get due recognition from the
international community. Kaleyesus Bekele of The Reporter spoke
with Somaliland's Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mr Abdillahi M.
Duale. Excerpts:
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Muhammed
Yassin Abdel Llahi, Ununley. Muhammed clearly does not
want to leave the village. "What would we do? Beg? For
now, we can only pray for rain. With a few days of rain,
everything can be good again," he told me. |
By
Louis Belanger
Oxfam International Spokesman in New York
Posted: December 19, 2009
I
went to Somaliland, the north western part of Somalia, back in
November this year. Going across this arrid region, I witnessed
the droughts that are now destroying a centuries-old way of
life, that of semi-nomadic herders.
November rains that were expected to ease the hunger crisis in
East Africa have failed yet again in some of the worst hit
areas, including Somaliland. The worsening of the conflict and
the drought has left 3.6 million people - nearly half of the
country's population - in need of aid.
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New York, December
19, 2009—2009 has been the bloodiest year for media
professionals killed in the line of duty worldwide since
1992, and has seen the highest death toll for journalists in
Sub-Saharan Africa in this decade, according to an annual
analysis of media fatalities worldwide released today by the
Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ).
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full text...
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The
Question Yusuf Garad Will Never Ask |
The killing of students, teachers and politicians at a
graduation ceremony in Mogadishu’s Shamo hotel elicited
widespread condemnation, and rightly so. But in the midst of
that wave of condemnation there were also attempts to find
answers to burning questions such as who was behind it, and why
did it happen?
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1969 Military Coup In Somalia
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By Dr. Mohamed-Rashiid Sh. Hassan – Part V
The instability of the state structure in
Africa primarily comes from the actions of the leaders of
the state itself who are supposed to reinforce its
stability.
A close look at the political behavior of the military
regimes in Africa, strange as it may seem, shows that they
undermine their own achievements in the previous years of
their rule. They gradually destroy the very tools which they
could increase the capabilities of the state.
During the first years, the military power base rested on
seven major organizations which they set up immediately
after seizing power:
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Corruption Kills Human Rights
And Erodes Democracy |
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By Ahmed Arwo
Democracy is the best possible system of government, but
there is a dangerous disease that eats its body alive bit by
bit. Corrupt elite worldwide poison the system with ill
gotten money, buying votes in a different level of the
society. In election they do bribe the public with
fictitious programmes if not direct cash; in Parliament they
silence the critic with its venom. Families are adulterated
and children lose their decency. It is a sordid and
cancerous disease that leaves no one untouched.
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Somaliland: Through Ballot Or
Bullet, President Kahin Won’t Give Up Power |
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By
Dalmar Kahin
Surely, President Dahir Rayale Kahin signed a Six Point
Agreement with the opposition party leaders, Ahmed Mohamed
Mohamoud Sillanyo of KULMIYE and Faysal Ali Warabe of UCID
in October 10, 2009. And as predicted, Somaliland riots
subsided as fast as they exploded. Luckily, at least a
workable solution was reached. But was Mr. Kahin buying time
to consolidate his power?
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My Letter To the British Prime
Minister |
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By
Ahmed Abdi Isse, UCID Party International Secretary for
Cooperation
Date 16th November 2009
Dear Right Honorable Prime Minster, Mr Gordon Brown
Re: The Somaliland presidential election scheduled to take
place on 29 July 2009 had failed for the third time and is
threatening the stability of the country.
I would like to introduce first myself as a British Citizen
of Somaliland decent living in Leytonstone. I am a father
of five children and belong to the one of the Somaliland
political parties called Somaliland Welfare and Justice
Party. It is an opposition party and act on my capacity as
an International Cooperation Shadow secretary. In our
country Britain, I am a strong supporter of the labor party.
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Meeting With K’naan, The
Somali Celebrity Rapper |
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Written
by: Adnan Abdi,
Hargeysa, Somaliland
When I woke up this morning (December 15, 2009), I wasn’t
expecting to meet with K’naan, the shining Somali star and
well-known rapper. Several days ago, I heard the rumor from
a guy in my work place. But I considered that as mere
gossip.
May be it was a divinely pre-determined moment, but right
after when I arrived at my workplace, I experienced these
inner thoughts: why don’t you go and find out if the news of
K’naan coming to Hargeysa was a fact.
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Muslims, Beyond The Headlines
The Open Society Institute's report on Muslims
in Europe paints a picture that we're not used to seeing in the papers |
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By
Samia Rahman
Of the various
things to come out of the Open
Society Institute's report on Muslim communities in Europe, including
disturbing information about the level of discrimination they face, I'm not at
all surprised to read that Muslims living in Britain appear to be the most
patriotic. According to the research, on average 78% of Muslims in the UK
consider themselves to be British, compared with 49% in France and 23% in
Germany.
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Analysis:
Mapping Somalia Warring Factions |
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Somali
Islamist fighters (Reuters's photo)
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By
Mohamed Yusuf Abshir
Somali Political Analyst
Somalia suffered a lot from the oppressive, communistic military
dictatorship of Gen. Mohamed Siyad Barre form 1969 to 1991.
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K’NAAN A Light In The Tunnel |
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By Omar
M. Mohamed
The football loving world – players, trainers, and fans
alike – are following closely with interest the opening
ceremony on June 11, next year and the Official FIFA 2010
World Cup song performance by a 31 year old dark, slim
artist from a country notorious for violence and suicide
bombers. That country is Somalia, and K’naan is the artist
whose song “waving flag” was chosen to be the FIFA World Cup
song.
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The greatest strength
of America is that people want to live there
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ANNANDALE, VIRGINIA AND DALLAS, TEXAS,
December 19, 2009 – AT ONE of the many Korean restaurants in
Annandale, Virginia, a waitress cracks a raw egg into a
sizzling tofu-and-oyster stew.
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