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2 Minnesota Women
Convicted Of Funneling Money To Terror Group In Somalia |
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Minneapolis, October 22, 2011 – Two Minnesota women
who claimed they were helping the poor in Somalia
were convicted Thursday of conspiring to funnel
money to a terrorist group as part of what
prosecutors called a "deadly pipeline" sending funds
and fighters to al-Shabaab.
After the verdicts, one of the women, Amina Farah
Ali, told the judge through an interpreter that she
was happy because she was "going to heaven no matter
what," and condemned those in authority, saying:
"You will go to hell." She was ordered into custody
pending her sentencing.
Ali, 35, and Hawo Mohamed Hassan, 64, were each
charged with conspiracy to provide material support
to a foreign terrorist organization. Ali also faced
12 counts of providing such support, for allegedly
sending more than $8,600 to al-Shabaab from
September 2008 through July 2009, while Hassan faced
two counts of lying to the FBI.
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Nairobi, Kenya, October 22, 2011 — As Islamist
militants displayed scores of blood-soaked bodies,
the African
Union on
Friday acknowledged that itspeacekeeping force
in Somalia had
sustained heavy casualties in its battle against the
Shabaab, the deadly insurgent group squaring off
against a multi-pronged assault by troops from
Kenya, Uganda, Burundi, the Somali government and
local militias.
The precise number of peacekeepers killed in the
fighting remains something of a mystery, with the
militants saying they killed nearly 80 and witnesses
saying that approximately 60 peacekeepers had been
killed Thursday on the outskirts of Somalia’s
capital, Mogadishu. But the African Union said 10
had been killed, and the Burundi military, which
provides soldiers to the peacekeeping force, said
only six had died in the fighting.
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Mogadishu, Somalia, October 22, 2011 - Kenya intends
to push its troops to Somalia's insurgent stronghold
of Kismayo and will stay until there are no Islamist
insurgents left, a Kenyan military spokesperson said
on Thursday, as the militants were pushed back on
two fronts by pro-Somali government forces supported
by foreign troops.
"We are going to be there until the [Somali
government] has effectively reduced the capacity of
al-Shabaab to fire a single round... We want to
ensure there is no al-Shabaab," Kenyan military
spokesperson Emmanuel Chirchir told The Associated
Press. "We want to destroy all their weapons."
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A
Somali refugee cooks a meal for her family
in Yemen. |
Geneva, October 22, 2011 –The deteriorating
humanitarian situation in Somalia has forced almost
320,000 Somalis to flee their country so far this
year. "While the majority are seeking safety and aid
in neighboring Kenya and Ethiopia, many Somalis
continue to head northwards to embark on the risky
sea journey across the Gulf of Aden," UNHCR
spokesman Andrej Mahecic told journalists in Geneva
on Friday.
He added that 20,000 new Somali refugees had reached
Yemen since the beginning of the year. "In Yemen's
reception centers, new arrivals have been telling
our staff that drought, famine, conflict and forced
conscription are the main reasons for their flight
from Somalia," he said.
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President Kibaki and Chief of Defence Forces
Julius Karangi during for the Mashujaa Day
celebrations at Nyayo National Stadium,
Nairobi, October 20, 2011. The President
vowed to defend Kenya's territorial
integrity. STEPHEN MUDIARI
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Nairobi, Kenya, October 22, 2011 — President Kibaki
has vowed to step-up an ongoing purge against
militants as Kenyan and Somali troops advanced on
Islamist-held zones not far from the port city of
Kismayu.
Kenya, the Transitional Federal Government of
Somalia with backing of the African Union and the
Inter-governmental Authority on Development (Igad)
launched a cross-border operation to flush out
rebels linked to the al Qaeda-backed al Shabaab who
are blamed for a series of raids.
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Nairobi, Kenya, October 22, 2011 – After months of
getting by on poor quality and unreliable supplies,
mother-of-five Asha has clean drinking water for her
family.
Nearby, her neighbor 60-year-old Dahabo and her
children are sleeping under a mosquito net and for
the first time have better protection from
contracting malaria.
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Special Report
So a few years ago when Ethiopia invaded Somalia I
suggested that the United Nations should send a
larger peace keeping force to try and stabilize
Somalia and return its Government to power.
Since I made that topic a lot of things have
happened in Somalia to solidify this idea in my
head.
Elections is a perfect example. The democratic
Government was due to hold elections awhile ago.
However since they only control Mogadishu and a few
towns and cities in the country. They lack control
of the majority of the country. Holding elections
would be seen as illegitimate since a large amount
of the population couldn’t vote. The Government
delayed the votes and cancelled the elections
something that is very damaging.
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Nazareth, Ethiopia, October 22, 2011 – At least 1
000 houses in Ethiopia’s town of Nazareth are set to
be demolished to make way for the construction of a
recently launched Ethiopian railway project, as one
of the train stations will be located in that area.
Nazareth is about 100 kilometers east of Ethiopian
capital, Addis Ababa.
Last month, Ethiopia launched the construction of
the more than 5 000 km rail network that aims to
link the capital to various regions of the country.
The Ethiopian Railway Corporation (ERC) assured that
all those displaced by the construction works would
be moved to another location that had all the
necessary residential facilities.
Already a committee has been established to deal
with compensation and related issues for those
affected by the massive construction project.
The project is expected to cost the Horn of Africa
country more than US$1 billion, the ERC announced.
Loans from foreign partners and the Ethiopian
government will finance the construction of the
railroad.
The ERC said the rail network will stretch out in
eight directions across the country, with a 655.7km
track – the longest- between Addis Ababa and
Djibouti and should help the country enhance its
local trade as well as its foreign export market.
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Defence minister Yusuf Haji (left) and his
Foreign Affairs minister Moses Wetangula
(right) during a news conference at the
Wilson Airport October 19, 2011.Mr Wetangula
said the Kenya delegation to Somalia
narrowly escaped a bomb attack in the
capital Mogadishu that killed five people
after changing their travel plans at the
last minute. JENNIFER MUIRURI
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Nairobi, Kenya, October 22, 2011 – The full impact
of Kenya’s war on Somali terrorist group al-Shabaab
started to emerge on Wednesday after the Treasury
warned of possible spending cuts in some ministries
to finance the effort.
(Also read: Price Kenya must pay to keep al-Shabaab
at bay)
Joseph Kinyua, the permanent secretary at the
Finance Ministry said the war that began on Sunday
had created a new challenge for the ministry
responsible for the national budget.
“We intend to have a fresh look at our Budget to
ensure that we are able to fight this war without
putting ourselves in a situation where expenditure
starts to swell,” he said at the launch of the IMF’s
October outlook for Africa.
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Somaliland On China Radio International: 2011-10-10
Phantom States |
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Interview
On Chinese-Somaliland Agreement |
Click
here to
listen to
Radio France
Internationale's
interview
with Jamal
Gabobe about
the
agreement
between
Somaliland
and Chinese
investors.
The
Interview
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President Sillanyo:
Give Somaliland The Tools So It Can Deepen Its
Democracy |
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Somaliland president, Ahmed Mohamed Mohamoud
(Sillanyo) |
By
Ahmed M.
Mohamoud
Sillanyo
Drought,
famine,
refugees,
piracy and
the violence
and
terrorism
endemic to
the
shattered
city of
Mogadishu, a
capital
ruined by
civil war:
These are
the images
that flash
through
peoples’
minds
nowadays
when they
think of the
Horn of
Africa. Such
perceptions,
however, are
not only
tragically
one-sided;
they are
short-sighted
and
dangerous.
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Somaliland: French Delegation Signals Increased
Cooperation |
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Hargeysa, Somaliland, October 22, 2011 (SL Times) –
Somaliland’s President Mr. Ahmed Mohamoud Siilaanyo
on Thursday met with a French delegation that is on
a short visit to Somaliland. The meeting took place
at the presidential office in Somaliland’s capital
of Hargeysa. Somaliland president briefed the
delegate about the general situation in the country.
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French
Reporters Visit Somaliland |
Berbera,
Somaliland, October 22, 2011 (SL Times) - Two French
reporters arrived in Somaliland’s coastal city of
Berbera. The purpose of the visit is to see for
themselves conditions in the country and
Somaliland's progress.
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World
Food Day Celebrated In Somaliland |
Hargeysa, Somaliland, October 22, 2011 (SL
Times) – The world food day (Oct.18) was marked
in Somaliland this week with a big celebration
at Hargeysa’s Ambassador hotel. The event was
spearheaded this year by the ministry of
fisheries with the assistance of the ministry of
agriculture and the UN food organization (FAO).
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Arab Livestock
Merchants Arrive In Somaliland |
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Hargeysa,
Somaliland, October 22, 2011 (SL Times) –
Businessmen from the Emirates-Saudi International
Company including its General Manager, Mr Hasan
Khalaf al-Hasani, arrived in Hargeysa to inaugurate
the company’s second livestock health inspection
facility.
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Hargeysa, Somaliland, October 22, 2011 (SL Times) –
On the occasion of Somaliland Martyr’s day, the
Somali language newspaper Haatuf had a conversation
with the poet Adan Tarabi about the famous battle of
Bur’o Duuray and the connection between Martyr’s day
and the Buro Duuray battle.
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Hargeysa, Somaliland, October 22, 2011 (SL Times) –
Somaliland’s Quality Control Agency destroyed 150
tons of expired drinks this week. The expired drinks
belonged to Oomar Company.
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A press release issued by SCTNW
Somaliland Counter Trafficking Network (SCTNW) has
issued a press release that they are urging
Somaliland Government to retreat its decision to
take foreign migrants in Somaliland back to their
home.
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Grenade attack on Nairobi nightclub blamed on
backlash by Somali militants
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REUTERS
A police officer stands outside the targeted
nightclub in Nairobi |
By Daniel Howden
Nairobi, Kenya, October 25, 2011 – Kenya has
confirmed that Western allies have joined its war on
Islamic militants al-Shabaab despite denials from
the US and France that they are involved in fighting
in southern Somalia.
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Libyans Prepare To
Bury Gaddafi Amid Calls To Investigate His Death |
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Amateur video has emerged purportedly of
Moammar Gaddafi being caught by Libyan
fighters in Sirte Thursday. His captors can
be heard shouting, "Don't kill him! We need
him alive!" throughout the footage. (Oct.
21) |
Tripoli, Libya, October 22, 2011 – Libyan
authorities on Friday prepared to bury slain former
leader Moammar Gaddafi amid calls for an
investigation into the circumstances of his death,
which came after he begged for his life and scolded
the enraged revolutionary fighters holding him,
according to new video footage.
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How A NATO Air Strike
Finished Off Gaddafi |
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By David
Williams
Tripoli, Libya, October 22, 2011 – To the jubilant
fighters on Sirte’s battered streets on last
Thursday’s night, the man known as ‘Mad Dog’ during
four decades of brutal rule had met a fitting end
trapped like a rat in a sewer pipe begging for his
life.
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Moments before death: Mutassim lies on a
sofa, his white vest bloodied after his
capture
The next time he was to be pictured he would
be lying dead on a stretcher having been
shot in the throat and abdomen. |
By Sarah Graham
Tripoli, Libya, October 22, 2011 – Sitting against a
wall and smoking a cigarette while swigging from a
bottle of water, his white vest covered in blood,
this is Gaddafi's loyal son Mutassim after he was
captured by rebels.
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By Richard Dowden
The
model for Somalia is Switzerland. Don't laugh!
Political power in Switzerland lies in the cantons -
the 26 proud self-governing communities. The state,
such as it is, deals with international matters and
national law.
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By Martin Asser
How can you adequately describe someone like Col
Muammar Gaddafi? During a period that spanned six
decades, the Libyan leader paraded on the world
stage with a style so unique and unpredictable that
the words "maverick" or "eccentric" scarcely did him
justice.
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Somalia, which is an East African country located on
the Gulf of Aden and the Indian Ocean, produced
small quantities of gemstones, granite, marble,
niobium (columbium), salt, sandstone, and tantalum
in recent years.
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Another
shot of the war memorial, Hargeisa
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By Sean McLachlan
One
of the fun parts of travel is discovering the street
art of a new place. Whether it's the elaborate
graffiti of New York or Madrid, the political murals
of Mexico, or the current craze of Yarn Bombing,
there's always something cool happening on the
street.
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By Emelda De Coteau
Statistics do not reach people, stories do.
Award-winning journalists Nicholas D. Kristof and
Sheryl WuDunn, the first married couple to win the
Pulitzer Prize, learned this truth long ago.
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The
Kenyan Invasion Of Somalia: Which Way? |
As the Kenyan
incursion into Somalia unfolds, one of two things could
happen. It could be an operation of limited duration and
scope whose aim is to provide better border security for
Kenya or it could be a more ambitious operation in which
Kenyan troops seize Somali territory. Based on the
pronouncements of Kenyan officials, it seems that it is the
latter case. And it is not by accident either, for there are
strong forces pushing Kenya in the direction of seizing
Somali territory, especially the city of Kismayo.
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The Finishing Line Of
Somali Reconciliation Starts Here In Somaliland |
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By Mohamed Khawi
The
Somali crisis has always been aggravated by foreign
involvement, whereby both the intent of in-depth
understanding and the instrument of enduring
goodwill lacked. Others with ulterior motives threw
spanners in the works and created non-starter
situations of entanglement and stalemate. The UN
efforts of reversing this enigmatic political
landscape would require re-tooled strategy to make
any headway.
First and foremost the role of any envoy had proven
to be a total failure heretofore. Invariably the
Somalis had shown repellant ill-disposition towards
a lone actor with semblance of colonial style
viceroy. A better approach would be replacing the
envoy mission by a multilateral Adhoc
commission for Peace and Restoration. Such
commission would better engage if co-chaired by
Britain and Italy, the two former colonizing
patrons, until mission accomplished. It might be
desirable to beef up the commission with a component
of Somali nationals, whose record of leadership,
patriotic performance and knowledgeable experience
in handling Somali affairs is verified. The number
and the role of the Somali add-ons, if any, would be
stipulated by the UN. However, the final selection
of qualifying incumbents would be determined by
mutuality.
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NGOs: Help Or
Hindrance? |
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By Liban Obsiye
Many NGO (Non Governmental Organizations) skeptics
welcomed the president of Medicins Sans Frontieres,
Dr. Unni Karunakara, honest analysis of the famine
in Somalia. Having visited the war torn country now
struggling to feed its population, he made it clear
that despite the drive by international NGOs for
more donor support, there was very little that they
could do to change the “profoundly distressing”
picture. He urged the NGO community to be honest and
open about their inability to reach those that their
donors imagined they are supporting through their
donations. Rather than it being an attack on the way
they spend donor money, Dr. Unni, wanted NGO’s,
usually supported by sensationalist Western
reporting, to be up front about the challenges that
they face in delivering aid to the most vulnerable
in Somalia and not gloss over these difficulties in
the marketing drive for cash donations.
In a meeting of students in England’s second city
Birmingham, concerned with discussing the role NGOs
should play in the post Arab spring reconstruction
and development, many of the participants were of
the opinion that those engaged in the so called
moral economy should not be allowed to play a part
at all. One international relations student who
wished not to be named even stuck to the mantra “let
the people help themselves” throughout the debating
session.
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Kenya Must Not Play
With Somali Fire |
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By Yusuf Dirir Ali
Long before Restore Hope, the joint UN and USA
humanitarian campaign in Somalia in early 1990s, a
consultant to the UNO on Somalia, advised the USA
administration to attempt everything else but not
war with Somalis, in his opinion; war is the thing
Somalis know best. The USA did not heed to that
precious advice and we all remember the way that
campaign went wrong – it ended with the famous Black
hawk down and that was the last USA chapter of
waging war in Somalia – at least an open and all out
ground war. That UNO consultant is called Mr. John
Drysdale. He knew the closing stages of the campaign
even before it was waged. He was not a fortune
teller; Mr. Drysdale was some one who had first hand
experience of what Somalis are capable to
accomplishing in the war field. He was the British
administrator of Somaliland more than four decades
prior to the debut of that campaign.
Read full text.....
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Conditions Of
Somaliland Roads And Traffic Fatalities |
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Introduction
A driver on vehicle A and going straight was hit by
another vehicle B turning left at T- junction and
intersecting the path of vehicle A. Both cars
stalled at the junction hanging on one another. The
pedestrians hanging around in the area had given
their verdict in favor of vehicle B which was
turning left. Traffic police were busy on other
vehicles on the road few yards from the junction for
their own personal reasons and never bothered to
intervene. We are fortunate, urban road accidents
are limited to vehicle scratches and less bodily
harm.
Roads are part of transportation infrastructure and
must be constructed to meet traffic safety standards
to reduce accidents at all costs. In spite of its
poor condition it ought to be made to function to
serve the public safely. Considerations should be
given to remedy locations upon which many lives were
lost.
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Current Status Of Forests And Woodlands In
Somaliland: (Threats And Opportunities) Part VI |
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Photo on the cover : Berde Ficus spp which
has the biggest DBH in Somaliland according
to Somaliland Ecological Society
(Somaliland) near QABUURTA village, Baki,
Awdal Region |
SES Fact-Finding
Mission to Somaliland
August /
September 2010
Mohamoud Omer
Sh. Ibrahim BSc (For) MA
[Continues from our
last edition]
6 REFERENCES:
John
Miskell (2000) an ecological and Resources
Utilisation Assessment of Gacan Libaax, Somali
Natural Resources Management Programme, IUCN,
Eastern Africa Programme
Doris
Klughardt and Mohamed Eggeh (2002) Environmental
Study: Community Based Rehabilitation of Wadi
Management in Baki District, Awdal Region,
Somaliland.
Eggeh
and Awale (2003) Impact Assessment Dulcad Communal
Range Reserve Restoration, Ministry of Information
(1975) Somalia Today, Published by Ministry of
Information and National Guidance.
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