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FACTBOX: East Africa,
An Under Explored Oil And Gas Province |
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An oil
rig is seen on the outskirts of Havana April
5, 2011. |
Cape Town, SA, November 5, 2011 – Waters off East
Africa have yet to produce a commercially viable oil
source but gas discoveries off Mozambique and
Tanzania have prompted lots of interest.
Following are some facts about the state of
exploration in the frontier hydrocarbon industry of
East Africa, which is in focus this week at a series
of conferences that comprise the annual Africa Oil
Week in Cape Town.
- According to Michael Blaha, the executive chairman
of Britain's Cove Energy, there have only been 500
wells drilled in East Africa.
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By Jeremy B. White
Although a strenuous debate led the Obama
administration to tighten requirements for striking
suspected militants with unmanned drones, the
Central Intelligence Agency retains broad authority
to carry out such strikes, The Wall Street Journal
reported.
President Barack Obama has aggressively expanded the
use of drones, raining down missiles on suspected
militants in Pakistan and extending the campaign
into Somalia and Yemen. But the increased reliance
that strategy generated friction between the Central
Intelligence Agency, which directs the strikes, and
State Department officials who believe the attacks
are undermining already tenuous diplomatic
relationships.
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By Boniface Ongeri, and Adow Jubat
Two people including an 8-year-old boy were killed
in a suspected Al Shabaab attack at a church in
Garissa town.
Three others, a mother and her two grandchildren,
were seriously injured when the attackers hurled a
grenade at Pentecostal Church late Saturday.
Another bomb thrown at a busy taxi rank frequented
by military officers failed to explode. Both
incidents happened at about 9pm on Saturday.
The second bomb could have also plunged the town
into darkness as the taxi rank is near an
electricity transformer.
North Eastern Police boss Leo Nyongesa said the
injured are admitted in Garissa General Hospital.
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By OGJ editors
Houston, November 5, 2011 – The Somaliland Ministry
of Mining, Energy and Water Resources in Hargeysa is
offering open acreage in the country for oil and gas
exploration.
Interested parties were asked to approach the
ministry before being directed to TGS-NOPEC
Geophysical Co. for access to technical data to
assist in evaluating the acreage at data rooms in
Houston and Surbiton, UK.
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St. Louis, November 5, 2011 – A refugee from Somalia
who worked as an airport cab driver in St. Louis has
pleaded guilty to funding terrorism in Somalia.
The U.S. Attorney's office in St. Louis says
31-year-old Mohamud Abdi Yusuf entered the guilty
plea Thursday, admitting that he raised nearly
$6,000 for al-Shabaab, which was trying to
overthrown the provisional government in Somalia.
The U.S. government named al-Shabaab a terrorist
organization in 2008.
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United Nation, November 5, 2011 – Sierra Leone will
send 850 soldiers to an African Union peacekeeping
mission in Somalia, a military official said
Thursday. The official, Lt. Col. Ronnie Harleston,
Sierra Leone’s military attaché to the United
Nations, said the troops would deploy in the middle
of next year.
They will join approximately 9,000 peacekeepers from
Uganda and Burundi, who are currently trying to
secure the Somali capital, Mogadishu, from Islamist
rebels.
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Photo/FILE Kenya Army soldiers patrolling
the Kenya-Somali border. |
Nairobi, Kenya, November 5, 2011 – The recent surge
in explosion incidents and the invasion of Somalia
by Kenyan Defense Forces have once again brought the
lawless country back to the limelight, albeit for
the wrong reasons.
Under the prevailing circumstances, the mere mention
of this war ravaged Horn of Africa nation conjures
up images of exploding grenades, gun fights, piracy,
Al-Shabaab, starvation, warlords, mayhem and
anarchy.
But, apparently, Somali youths are not perturbed by
the chaos and turbulence that have rocked their
country for the last two decades for, according to a
recent survey, they are a most optimistic lot around
the region.
The research — conducted by Data and Research
Solutions (DARS) in conjunction with Kenyan research
firm Synovate as part of a drive to demystify
stereotypes against Somali and provide a credible
database on the country — claimed that more than 80
per cent of Somali youth consider themselves happy.
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Nairobi, Kenya, November 5, 2011 -- Kenya warned
aircraft against flying over an area of Somalia
where arms shipments may have been delivered to
al-Shabaab, as it reportedly summoned Eritrea’s
ambassador about allegations his country is
supplying weapons to the militants.
At least three aircraft have landed in southern
Somalia carrying weapons suspected of being for the
al-Qaeda-linked militia, which is being targeted by
Kenyan military forces that began an incursion into
Somalia on Oct. 16.
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Geneva, November 5, 2011 – On Friday the United
Nations agency responsible for coordinating and
aiding refugees announced that it has stepped up its
effort to provide aid to thousands of Somali
refugees and refugees in other countries within the
area after heavy rains in Horn of Africa have
flooded regions and refugee camps.
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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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Vice President
Promises To Hit Terrorists Hard |
Hargeysa,
Somaliland,
November 5,
2011 (SL
Times) –
Somaliland
Vice
President
Abdirahman
Abdillahi
Ismail (Zayla’i)
said this
week that
his
government
will crack
down hard on
terrorists
and enemies
of
Somaliland,
and will
work closely
with
neighboring
countries on
security
issues. He
also added
that the
security
forces and
the people
are united
on this
matter.
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Veteran Omar Adan Kahin Warns About The Loss Of SNM
History |
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Hargeysa, Somaliland, November 5, 2011 (SL Times) –
SNM Veteran Omar Adan Kahin issued an appeal and
made suggestions to SNM veterans, the veterans
organization SOOYAAL, and the legislature, that the
history of the SNM will disappear if it is not
compiled and recorded now before it is too late.
He also criticized the many dates in which various
events that took place during the SNM struggle are
marked, and proposed that the various dates for
honoring the struggle for liberation be combined
into only two dates, Oct. 17 which is the date when
Muhammad Hashi Diriye (Lihle) and other SNM warriors
were martyred, and Jan.23, 1991 which is when
Somaliland was liberated from Siyad Barre’s troops.
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Lawya Ado
Administration Defends MERLIN |
Lawya Ado,
Somaliland, November 5, 2011 (SL Times) – The
administration of the border town of Lawya ‘Addo
announced that MERLIN NGO does not use clan criteria
when hiring individuals.
The administration was responding to allegations
that appeared in Haatuf newspaper which said MERLIN
hired people based on clan consideration.
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Traffic
Police Having A Tough Time |
Hargeysa, Somaliland, November 5, 2011 (SL
Times) – The financial situation of Somaliland
traffic police is getting more and more dire.
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Somaliland Government
Says It Does Not Suppress The Media |
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Hargeysa,
Somaliland, November 5, 2011 (SL Times) – Somaliland
government said this week it has no policy of
suppressing the media and that any attempt to
prevent the media from doing its job would violate
the principles on which the country was founded.
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London, UK, November 5, 2011 – Hotel staff donated
hundreds of televisions to an organization which
helps change the lives of less fortunate people in
Somaliland.
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By Ed Stoddard
Cape Town, SA, November 5, 2011 – Somaliland is open
for hydrocarbon business and has a message for
investors worried by its rough neighborhood: this is
not Somalia and pirates here go to jail.
Hussein Abdi Dualeh, the minister of energy and
mining, said it was unfair to lump Somaliland with
lawless Somalia, where pirates have captured oil
tankers and headlines.
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Minneapolis, MN, November 5, 2011 – Abdisalan
Hussein Ali, who attended the University of
Minnesota as recently as fall 2008, is believed be
the man who blew himself up in a suicide mission in
Somalia Saturday.
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Nairobi, Kenya, November 5, 2011 – Somaliland is a
self-declared sovereign state internationally
recognized as an autonomous region of north-eastern
Somalia.
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Millions Of Muslims
Begin First Day Of Haj Rites |
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MECCA, Saudi Arabia, November 5, 2011 – More than
2.5 million Muslim pilgrims began on Friday the
rites of the annual haj pilgrimage, leaving the holy
city of Mecca for Mount Arafat, where the prophet
Mohammed is believed to have delivered his final haj
sermon.
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'Iran Attack Will Drag
ME Into Total Chaos' |
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Paris, France, November 5, 2011 – French Foreign
Minister Alain Juppe warns that a military attack on
Iran over its nuclear program could create a
"totally destabilizing" situation in the Middle
East.
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Faisal AlYafai
MECCA, Saudi
Arabia, November 5, 2011 –
Of all the holy sites of the Islamic world, none is
more sacred than Mecca, the Saudi Arabian city
towards which all Muslims prostrate themselves
during prayer.
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An elderly Somali sits in a camp for
Internally Displaced People in Galkacyo,
Somaliland, during a visit by UN refugee
agency chief Antonio Guterres on Dec. 3,
2010. (Tony Karumba/AFP/Getty Images) |
Recognition of Somaliland will have positive
consequences for the Horn of Africa.
Ali Mohamed
Lewis Center, Ohio — Last month Al Shabaab, the
Somali fundamentalist Islamist group with ties to Al
Qaeda, claimed responsibility for a deadly truck
bombing in Mogadishu in which more than 85 Somali
students died as they waited in line to see if they
had won scholarships to study in Turkey.
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By Ken Menkhaus
A truck bombing by the Somali jihadist group
al-Shabaab that killed more than 100 people in
Mogadishu last month – an attack that targeted
students lined up for news about scholarships to
Turkey – drew condemnation from the United Nations,
Western states, the Somali Transitional Federal
Government and Somali civic groups. But that made no
difference at all.
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By Kilemi Mwiria
This is the perfect opening to once and for all
liberate millions of innocent Somalis who have been
at the mercy of warlords for decades.
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Commodore Michiel B. Hijmans –
Analysis
In the past, the activity of Somali pirates mainly
occurred during the two inter-monsoon periods each
year.
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By David H. Shinn
Washington, DC — Following
are the prepared remarks by David H. Shinn, Adjunct
Professor, Elliott School of International Affairs,
George Washington University, before the Senate
Committee on Foreign Relations Subcommittee on
African Affairs:
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Pretending To Be A Government |
The Kenyan
invasion of Somalia has exposed the pitiful nature of the
Transitional Federal Government of Somalia (TFG). A normal
government would have announced a position on the invasion
and then taken concrete steps to implement that position or
policy. As expected, the TFG did not do that. They took
contradictory positions, with the prime minister first
defending the Kenyan invasion, then going against it, then
agreeing with it, while Sheikh Sharif made statements
opposing it then kept his mouth shut. After sowing so much
confusion, the heads of the TFG simply left the country.
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The Teashop Scandal
That Shook Somaliland |
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By Adam Madar
Somaliland’s prima donna minister of civil aviation and air
transport, Mohamoud Hashi, has finally shown his
true colors when on Monday 24th; he illegally
ordered the arrest of a Somaliland citizen named
Abdi Ibrahim- the proprietor of a teashop situated
in the arrivals lounge at Hargeysa International
Airport.
The minister falsely accused Abdi (known by his first name)
that he was “plotting to murder a government
minister [Hashi]”. As a result, Abdi was immediately
arrested and thrown behind bars. It has now become
clearly evident however that the plot to kill the
minister was completely a red herring and a
fabrication. In fact, Hashi was trying to find ways
and means by which to evict Abdi from his teashop at
the airport, which falls under the jurisdiction of
the ministry of civil aviation and air transport.
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Somaliland: $927 Draft
Of Somaliland National Development Plan (NDP) |
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By Abdulrizak Yunis Xaad
Previously similar package had announce in 1
December 2007 a ceremony held at Mansoor Hotel, in
Hargeysa, marked on Thursday, the last day of the
government’s discussions with the regional heads of
UN, EU and the World Bank preparations for long term
Reconstruction and Development Programme earmarked
for Somaliland for the next five years at a cost of
$550 million. As
part of the ‘Joint Needs Assessment’ (JNA) program,
which was initially designed for the “Reconstruction
and Development Programme for the whole of Somalia”
by the UN and the World Bank in 2005, at first,
Somaliland government refused to be part of the JNA
enterprise under the TFG and insisted on being
treated as an independent entity.
Unfortunately this package never seen a light any
more ever since and died with last government!!
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Clan And Conflict In
Somalia: Al-Shabaab And The Myth Of “Transcending
Clan Politics” |
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By: Ahren Schaefer, Andrew Black
Clan identity and Islam are central pillars of
Somali society, with clan dynamics and inter-clan
rivalries magnified by decades of state collapse.
Al-Shabaab - the dominant Islamist militia
controlling much of southern and central Somalia -
claims to “transcend clan politics,” yet reality on
the ground belies this claim, revealing that
al-Shabaab seeks to manipulate local clan alliances
and remains deeply influenced by clan politics. This
analysis shows that despite al-Shabaab’s hard-line
Islamist identity and pro-al-Qaeda rhetoric, many
aspects of the group’s past and current behavior
remain deeply rooted in Somalia’s local dynamics.
Moreover, clan rules apply even to Somalia’s most
feared Islamists.
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Somalia’s Uneasy Peace |
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By Glen Johnson
Abdullahi walked slowly past makeshift stalls in a crowded
Mogadishu market, dragging his right leg. He’s in
his fifties and unemployed, and relies on overseas
remittances sent by his daughter to survive. In 2007
he was shot by Somalia’s increasingly powerful
Islamist militia, al-Shabaab (Youth). The bullet
blew a hole through his right leg, just below his
groin.
Like many Somalis, Abdullahi is a casualty of the conflict
between Somalia’s Transitional Federal Government (TFG)
and al-Shabaab. He says he supports the TFG but
doesn’t know whether it can succeed. “But it has
to,” he said. “Look at the roads, look at the
rubbish: this is what 20 years of no government
does. We cannot have another 20 years of war.”
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Somalia's Horrors |
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Isaac Chotiner
No one seems to know what can or should be done about the
absolutely awful situation in Somalia, but some of
the remarkable journalism that western publications
have produced from the country deserves to be
recognized. At the very least, it can serve to make
people more aware of the humanitarian nightmare that
is unfolding, and the aid groups who are still
active in the country.
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