|
Pirates Hijack China
Freighter In Gulf Of Oman |
|
Beijing, China, April 7, 2012 — A Chinese cargo ship
was hijacked by pirates on Friday in the Gulf of
Oman, not far off the south of Iran, state media
said, citing China's embassy in Tehran.
Read full text.
|
|
|
|
Mogadishu, Somalia, April 7, 2012 — A few dozen
Mogadishu residents gathered near the national
theater, not to discuss the deadly bombing there the
day before, but to talk about how Somalia's seaside
capital is moving on.
Read full text.
|
|
|
|
New York, April 7, 2012 – Somali authorities must
immediately investigate the murder of a radio
journalist who worked for the country's leading
independent broadcaster and ensure the perpetrators
are brought to justice. Mahad Salad Adan was the
fourth journalist killed in Somalia since the
beginning of the year.
Read full text...
|
|
|
|
Young women's workforce participation remains
low despite education gains
By Steve Crabtree
Washington, D.C. -- About one in three young
Arab women between the ages of 23 and 29 participate
in their country's labor force versus about eight in
10 young Arab men. This gender gap is generally
consistent across the 22 Arab countries and
territories Gallup surveyed in 2011, but young
women's labor force participation is slightly higher
in low-income countries than in higher income
countries.
Read full text...
|
|
|
|
In the last year al Shabaab has lost most of the
territory it controlled. Currently, they are largely
confined to the coast south of Mogadishu to the
Kenyan border. The anchor of this control is the
port of Kismayo.
Read full text...
|
|
|
|
Nairobi, Kenya,
April 7, 2012 – Ten ships were hijacked by Somali
pirates in March of the year alone, making this the
most attacks in one month since December 2010.
According to Bloomberg, pirate gangs may also be
moving to attack larger merchant vessels this month.
Read full text...
|
|
|
|
New York, April 7, 2012 – Recent terror attacks by
Al-Shabaab in Mombasa and Nairobi have raised
concerns about a potential “backlash” against Somali
civilians living in Kenya, a Somali diplomat told
reporters at the United Nations on Tuesday.
Read full text...
|
|
|
|
Nairobi, Kenya, April 7, 2012 – Somali terror group
Al-Shabaab has banned livestock exports to Kenya.
The militants ordered livestock traders in Afgoye
town, a major trading centre 30km south of
Mogadishu, to stop selling their animals to Kenya.
Read full text...
|
|
|
|
Nairobi, Kenya, April 7, 2012 – Rain may be
“significantly” below average in the Horn of
Africa’s main growing season, potentially
threatening a region still recovering from famine in
2011, the Famine Early Warning Systems network
reported.
Rain from March through May in the region, which
includes Somalia, Ethiopia and Kenya, is expected to
begin late and amount to only 60 percent to 85
percent of average, the U.S.- funded provider of
food-security warnings wrote in a statement on its
website dated April 3. Poor rains are likely to
reduce local food security, it said.
Read full text...
|
|
|
|
|
Foreign Minister
Elaborates On Somaliland Foreign Policy |
Hargeysa,
Somaliland,
April 7,
2012 (SL
Times) –
Somaliland
Foreign
Minister Dr
Muhammad
Abdillahi
Omar spoke
with Haatuf
newspaper
about
Somaliland’s
foreign
policy this
week. He
said his
government’s
foreign
policy
differs from
that of the
previous
government
in that it
is forward
leaning and
has a more
robust
engagement
with the
international
community.
Read full text...
|
|
ILO
Inaugurates AIDS Training |
|
Hargeysa, Somaliland, April 7, 2012 (SL Times) – A
program to raise awareness about HIV/AIDS was
inaugurated in Mansoor Hotel this week. Around 150
employees of local and government organizations took
part in the program. The participants included the
chairman of the AIDS Commission (SOLNAC), the
director general of the ministry of labor, and
officials from the International Labor Organization
(ILO).
Read full text...
|
|
Conference On Islam And Women’s Rights |
Hargeysa, Somaliland, April 7, 2012 (SL Times) – A
conference on the rights that Islam guarantees to
women and women’s role in society was held at
Hargeysa’s Mansoor Hotel.
Read full text...
|
|
SOMTEL
Donates 50 Barrels Of Asphalt To Dami Neighborhood |
Hargeysa, Somaliland,
April 7, 2012 (SL Times)
– SOMTEL
Telecommunications
Company donated 50
barrels of asphalt to a
road that is being built
in Hargeysa’s Dami
neighborhood.
The ceremony for the
transfer of the asphalt
was attended by Dami’s
neighborhood Committee,
community elders, and
SOMTEL officials.
Read full text...
|
|
TELESOM Announces
Reduction In Phone Call Costs |
|
Hargeysa, Somaliland, April 7, 2012 (SL Times) –
Telesom announced the biggest reduction in the cost
of both local and international telephone calls.
Read full text...
|
|
|
|
Hargeysa,
Somaliland, April 7, 2012 – Djibouti said on
Thursday it would deport four French nationals
detained as they tried to cross into Somaliland
illegally.
Read full text....
|
|
|
|
Issouf Sanogo/Agence France-Presse — Getty
Images
People arrived at the bus station in Bamako,
Mali, from the northern city of Gao on
Friday, as Taureg rebels declared their
independence in the north. |
By Lydia Polgreen
Johannesburg, SA, April 7, 2012 — Lines etched in
sand are playthings of the wind. So it is no wonder
that the nomadic Tuareg people of West Africa, who
have for centuries plied caravan routes that
crisscross the Sahara with little regard for
national borders, have long believed in their right
to their own state.
Read full text...
|
|
|
|
New York, April 7, 2012 – Authorities in Somaliland
must immediately release two journalists who have
been detained without charge for days in apparent
violation of regional law, the Committee to Protect
Journalists said today.
Read full text....
|
|
|
|
Kismayo, Somalia, April 7, 2012 – At the weekend,
Sheikh Hassan Dahir 'Aweys', now Al-Shabaab's
military commander in southern Somalia publicly
disagreed with comments by Al-Shabaab's leader,
Ahmed Abdi Godane 'Abu Zubayr' that that only
Al-Shabaab could wage a jihad inside Somalia.
Read full text...
|
|
Condolences
Mohamood Ahmed Shunuf and
Abdirahman Muhummad Abdi passed away recently. Both
of them had studied in the United States and spent
many years in the Pacific Northwest before moving
back to Hargeysa, Somaliland. Mohamood Ahmed Shunuf
died in Hargeysa, whereas Abdirahman Muhummad Abdi
passed away in Portland Oregon and was buried in the
Islamic cemetery in Corvallis, Oregon. The
Somaliland Times conveys its deepest condolences to
the families and relatives of Mohamood Ahmed Shunuf
and Abdirahman Muhummad Abdi. |
|
|
|
Al-Qaida Seeks To
Regroup In Africa, Think Tank Says |
|
London, UK, April 7, 2012 – A weakened Al-Qaida is
seeking to regroup and re-energize by linking up
with established Islamist movements in Africa, a new
report from Britain's Royal United Services
Institute (RUSI) said Wednesday.
Read full text...
|
|
EAC Leaders Caught In
Global Diplomatic Dance Over Top World Bank Job |
|
Kigali, Rwanda, April 7, 2012 – Rwanda President
Paul Kagame is in a dilemma over who should replace
Robert Zoellick at the World Bank, when he steps
down in June.
Read full text...
|
|
|
By Pir Zubair Shah
"We don't even sit together to chat anymore,"
the Taliban fighter told me, his voice hoarse as he
combed his beard with his fingers.
Read full text...
|
|
|
|
|
|
By Joshua Keating
The New York Times reports on the ceasefire in
Northern Mali:
France on Thursday ruled out a “military solution”
in its former colony of Mali to counter rebels in
the north, who announced that they had achieved
their territorial objectives and sought outside
backing for a secessionist state they call Azawad.
Read full text...
|
|
|
|
Laura Hughes
It may seem like the media jumped the shark in
reporting that the Somali capital of Mogadishu was
back from the brink before a female suicide bomber
struck at the re-opening of the National Theater on
Tuesday.
Read full text...
|
|
|
|
By David L Smith
Getting Somalia Wrong: Faith, War and Hope in a
Shattered State by Mary Harper (Zed Books in
association with the Royal African Society, the
International African Institute and the Social
Science Research Council)
Read full
text...
|
|
|
Dr Niaz Murtaza
Since the collapse of the Soviet Bloc and
African countries like Liberia in the 1990s,
state failure has attracted enormous attention.
However, the concept still lacks clarity and is
frequently misused. It started as a descriptive
field studying already failed states but soon
became a predictive one prematurely.
Read full text...
|
|
|
|
By Paul Salopek
I had been away from Kenya for too long. So when I
returned last August, I sought out two long-lost
friends.
Read full text....
|
|
|
|
The
Perils Of Exaggerating |
Barely a day
after the New York Times reporter, Jeffrey Gettleman, wrote
a long article in which he basically argued that a semblance
of normal life was finally returning to Mogadishu, a
horrendous suicide bombing took place there which killed ten
people and wounded several others. Among the casualties of
the blast were not only the human victims but also the
central point that Mr. Geittelman’s was making in the
article.
Read full text...
|
|
|
|
Somalia: Will The
International Community Ever Stop Believing The TFG? |
|
By Yusuf
Dirir Ali,MD
In the months before the London conference on
Somalia, the Somalia’s transitional Government
repetitively told the international community that
they have completed the liberation of Mogadishu,
Somalia’s capital city and at long last Al-Shabaab
terrorists were on the run and were being hunted
down one by one. This allured many countries to
believe the TFG’s side of the story and consequently
some countries even appointed ambassadors to that
troubled country, but in reality and to the dismay
of the international community that cheering
fairy-tale turned out to be far from the truth.
Read full text...
|
|
Why Turkish Aid Model
Is Proving To Be A Success In Somalia And Elsewhere |
|
By Rasna
Warah
Thanks to China, a new development aid paradigm is
taking root in African countries.
African governments no longer have to grin and bear
the heavy-handed, top-down, paternalistic and
patronizing approach of traditional Western donors.
The new aid model, which is increasingly being
adopted by other emerging economies, emphasizes
mutual trade benefits and infrastructure
development, both of which have been credited with
significantly improving African economies in recent
years.
Read full text......
|
|
The Government Of
Somaliland Throws A Humanitarian Lifeline To Somali
Pirates And Their Families |
|
By Kaysar Cabdilaahi Maxamed
I recently met with the National Prosecutor of
Somaliland, Mr. Hassan Ahmed Adam, who been on a
working visit to London. After exchange of niceties,
I asked him about the reasons behind the recent
decision of the government of Somaliland to allow
the transfer to its prisons of pirates arrested on
the high seas; sentenced in foreign courts; and
serving jail term in foreign countries. I also asked
the Prosecutor about the benefits that will accrue
to Somaliland from such importations into Somaliland
dangerous criminals like pirates.
Read full text......
|
|
We're Winning This
Fight |
|
The prime minister of Somalia, present at Wednesday's
deadly bombing in Mogadishu, on why terrorism won't disrupt his country's turn
for the better.
By Abdiweli Mohamed Ali
I was at the National Theater in Mogadishu yesterday (Wednesday, April 4, 2012),
and witnessed the despicable terrorist attack by a suicide bomber in which more
than six people were killed -- including two of the country's dearest sporting
heroes. Seeing first-hand the appalling loss of life and harm done to my
countrymen was a savage reminder of what is at stake in Somalia. On the one
hand, we have an internationally recognized government, one that is growing in
strength and steering the country through the last four months of transition
towards a new constitution, a new parliament, and presidential elections; on the
other, we still face a nihilistic terrorist group, influenced by foreign
ideologies, that delights in killing Somalis and has nothing positive to offer.
Read full text......
|
|
Calling A Spade A
Spade |
|
By Ahmed I. Hassan – Part 6
The Club of Vandals [Conti…]
The
Second Catastrophe: October 21, 1969—arguably, the
darkest day in the history of the Somalis.
In
the beginning, hardly a Somali expected that day to
attain that unenviable distinction. Instead, it was
a day most Somalis, with relief and hope, thought
was the dawn of a second chance for Somalia;
Read full text......
|
|
|
