Nairobi, October 5, 2007 – Tensions between Somalia's self-declared republic of Somaliland and the autonomous region of Puntland have risen, prompting some aid workers to temporarily leave the area, an NGO said.
The German Agro Action organization has temporarily withdrawn its staff from Burao, Erigavo and Borama, where clashes between militias and troops from the two territories have claimed 10 lives over the past few days.
Reporters Without Borders Press Release
1 October 2007
Reporters Without Borders calls for the release of reporter Ahmed Aadan Dhere, who was arrested four days ago in the city of Berbera, in the east of the northern breakaway state of Somaliland, and has been held ever since at Berbera police headquarters. Dhere is the correspondent of Haatuf, a privately-owned daily based in the Somaliland capital of Hargeisa.
NAIROBI, October 6, 2007 (SL Times) – UN Special Representative for Somalia, Mr. Ahmedou Ould-Abdallah, is pleased with the decision taken by the Transitional Federal Government (TFG) in its meeting on 4 October.
This came in press release issued by the UN Political Office in Somalia (UNPOS) a copy of it was sent to Somaliland Times.
The decision to endorse the recommendations of the recently concluded National Reconciliation Congress (NRC) “should pave the way for greater inclusion of Somalis from a larger political spectrum”, said Mr. Ould-Abdallah.
Addis Ababa, October 5, 2007 – Burundian battalions that will be deployed to Somalia at the behest of the African Union completed their six-week training course yesterday, according to allAfrica.com.
More than a hundred trainers from the US army supervised this training on combat tactics and ceremonies marking the end of this training took place in Camp Gakumbu, it was indicated.
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BOSASSO, Somalia, October 05, 2007 - Gunmen in northern Somalia released a plane carrying khat on Friday, a day after seizing the aircraft and its lucrative narcotic leaf in a business dispute, an official said.
"The hijacked plane was freed this morning. It took off from Las Qorey safely after efforts from Puntland and traditional elders," Muse Gelle Farole, a regional governor, told Reuters.
Nairobi, October 01, 2007 – After his five-day mission to Somalia and Nairobi, Kenya, the Independent Expert on the situation of human rights in Somalia, Mr. Ghanim Alnajjar, remains deeply concerned about extreme violence in Somalia, attacks and threats against the media, lack of humanitarian access, and the apparent lack of the separation of powers in the Transitional Federal Institutions (TFIs) of Somalia.
Between 17 and 21 September 2007, Mr. Alnajjar met with various staff of the United Nations, representatives of the international community, Somali civil society, clan and tribal leaders, as well as senior officials of the Transitional Federal Institutions. He was also able to hold meetings with the newly-appointed Special Representative of the United Nations Secretary-General for Somalia, Mr. Ahmedou Ould Abdallah.
New York, October 3, 2007—The Committee to Protect Journalists examines the adversity facing journalists in the volatile Horn of Africa through the stories of two newsmen who tried to flee the region. In a two-part special report released today, CPJ recounts editor Befekadu Moreda’s remarkable journey out of Ethiopia and sportscaster Paulos Kidane’s fateful effort to flee Eritrean government oppression.
Jailed for his work nine separate times in his native country, Moreda is among 34 Ethiopian journalists who have been forced into exile. He tells CPJ’s Karen Phillips that he decided to flee after a 2005 government crackdown shuttered most of the independent press. Moreda and his family have resettled in Houston, Texas—but like many other exiled journalists, he is struggling to adjust professionally in the United States.
10/03/2007 BBC MONITORING INTERNATIONAL REPORTS
Excerpt from report by pro-Islamist Somali website Halgan.net on 3 October
Somaliland Defence Minister Abdullahi Ali Ibrahim has denied remarks made by Puntland officials.
MOGADISHU, Sept 27, 2007 - Ugandan peacekeepers from the African Union on Thursday said plans to train the Somali army were still on despite the insurgency.
Uganda has sent 1,600 soldiers to the Somali capital as part of a planned 8,000-strong AU force, but no other countries have yet arrived to back them up as they try to keep the peace amid an Islamist insurgency against the Somali interim government.
A Ugandan contingent arrived in Mogadishu on Thursday along with an AU assessment team to check the progress of the peacekeeping unit.
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Mogadishu, 5 Oct. 2007 - Government forces are poised to take positions at more than 50 areas around Somalia's capital, in the area of Banadir in an effort to restore peace and order, Somalia's English-daily Radio Shabelle reported.
The National Security Committee, along with Banadir and Ethiopian officials have agreed to set up more than 50 bases in Mogadishu to be run by the Transitional Federal Government Forces (TFG) to maintain security and stability.
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Mark Townshend and the All Blacks supporters lounge at Wajid, Somalia |
Wajid, Somalia, October 07, 2007 - When Somalia's only All Blacks supporter put up a sign declaring his loyalty, it almost sparked another outbreak of violence in the fractious country.
The declaration "All Blacks supporters' waiting lounge", nailed to the rough shelter, had the local militia believing it involved racial segregation.
South Africa's Archbishop Desmond Tutu |
October 5, 2007
AR: Your grace, welcome to Talk Asia. It's a real honor to have you with us on our program.
DT: Thank you very much.
AR: Now, as one of the world's leading spiritual figures, you've made your mission to unite people across the board. But do you get the feeling now that the world is actually more divided then it was when you were campaigning against the apartheid?
DUBAI, UAE Oct 7 - Somali businesspeople in the United Arab Emirates have refused to transport containers filled with papers designed to be used to print false currency, confidential sources told Garowe Online.
Six containers are docked at UAE ports and the owners have offered $US27,000 to transport the containers to Bossaso, a port town in Somalia's semiautonomous Puntland region.
Mogadishu, 6 October 2007 - Somali government expressed that there is great misunderstanding between the international community particularly the UN and the Somali transitional government.
Somali Premier Ali Mohamed Gedi told Al-Anba journal that there is vast difference between the government and the UN.
Mr. Gedi said that they don't need any assistant from the international community if they achieve the control of the country.
Kampala, Uganda, 7 October 2007 - UNCERTAINTY surrounds the 1990 agreement between Uganda and DR Congo on joint oil exploration, with Congolese authorities questioning the document's legitimacy.
Speaking on condition of anonymity because of the highly sensitive nature of the subject, authorities in Kinshasa told Sunday Monitor last week that the agreement is not "implementable because it was not ratified" by both countries.
Mogadishu, 5 October 2007 - A Deputy attorney general of the transitional federal government, Abdul-kadir sheik Mohamed Ayatollah, has been killed in a bomb explosion in Bakara market in Mogadishu on Friday.
Ayatollah and along with his companion have died on the spot after armed men believed to be insurgents hurled a hand grenade on his car while driving through Bakara market, one the most recent violent places in Mogadishu.
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Chief commander of Somaliland’s armed forces, General Noah Ismail Tani |
Las Anod, Somaliland, October 6, 2007 (SL Times) – Speaking to the Hargeysa based ‘Jamhuuriya’ daily newspaper on Thursday night, the chief commander of Somaliland’s armed forces, General Noah Ismail Tani who is currently touring the front lines and military garrisons in and around Las Anod, Sool region, reiterated that “Somaliland’s forces and the pro-S/land local militia have not vacated their positions in or out of Las Anod”.
General Tani added that Somaliland’s high command is determined to see through this campaign as has been planned.
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Somaliland Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mr Abdillahi M Duale |
Hargeysa, October 6, 2007 (SL Times) – On Thursday, the Somaliland minister of foreign affairs named new ambassadors for its foreign missions in Europe. Two additional European capitals ( Paris and Dublin) have been added to the ministry’s foreign mission portfolios.
The minister’s statement, signed by the vice-minister of Foreign Affairs, Mr Saeed M Noor, said that the ministry has established two new consulates in France and Ireland, and has created new posts inside the ministry’s department of foreign missions, an ‘ambassador at large’ and a special ‘advisor to the minister’ of foreign Affairs.
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Somaliland armed forces military parade in Hargeysa (Photo: courtesy SL Times) |
Hargeysa/Garowe, Oct 6, 2007 – The defense minister of the republic of Somaliland repeated on Friday that Somaliland troops were in control of Las Anod, a disputed town in Sool region.
Abdillahi Ali Ibrahim, the Somaliland defense minister, told a VOA Somali Service interview yesterday that a group of pro-Puntland militias were routed out of Las Anod by Somaliland forces.
President Abdullahi Yusuf |
3 October 2007
As PINR forecast on September 19, the failures of the two national conferences aimed at devising a political formula for Somalia -- the National Reconciliation Conference (N.R.C.) sponsored by the country's internationally-recognized Transitional Federal Government (T.F.G.), and the Somali Congress for Liberation and Reconstitution (S.C.L.R.) organized by the political opposition based in Eritrea -- have led to a continuation of Somalia's spiral into political fragmentation and conflict.
Somali soldiers patrol the streets of Mogadishu |
MOGADISHU, October 05, 2007 - A Ugandan presidential envoy to Somalia on Friday said Kampala was brokering peace between the country's embattled government and its opponents in yet another bid to restore stability.
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Even the parts of Somalia that were steady are looking shaky again
Oct 4th 2007
- A PECULIARITY of Somalia is that while the south of the country, including its broken capital, Mogadishu, has burned, the north has been stable. Now, to the horror of those trying to put Mogadishu back together again, the north is beginning to crack too. Fighting broke out this week between Somaliland, the northern strip that has been virtually independent of the rest of the country for some 16 years, and Puntland, a semi-autonomous territory in the north-east (see map). Somaliland says it has driven Puntland forces out of Los Anod, a town in the disputed Sool region, killing six Puntlanders and injuring or capturing another 40-plus. Puntland says its soldiers have retaken the town. Yet another war seems to be breaking out.
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The world statesman and founder of Yugoslavia, President Marshal Josip Broz Tito in Karadjordjevo - 1970, former Yugoslavia. (Photo: Moric) |
By Ivan Simic
2 Oct 2007
The European Union (EU) is a multinational union, established in 1993. The EU is made up of twenty-seven Member States. First, the EU was established as the European Economic Community in 1957 by the Treaty of Rome and has since undergone many changes. The EU has a single market between member states with common trade policy. Important EU institutions and bodies include the European Commission, the European Parliament, and the Council of the European Union, the European Court of Justice and the European Central Bank, among others.
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Harassed, beaten, arrested, closed down: Journalists in Somalia brave some of the most exceptional situations as they are targeted by all sides of the conflict.
Shabele Media Network headquarters in Mogadishu |
Mogadishu, 2 October 2007 - The violent closure of popular radio station Shabelle in Mogadishu in September was the latest in a series of brutal attacks on Somali media in the past few months, in a development that signals a growing pattern of suppression of freedom of expression in the Horn of Africa country.
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MOGADISHU, 1 October 2007 - At least 10 people were killed Monday in heavy fighting between forces from the breakaway states of Somaliland and Puntland over a disputed town on their border, military sources said.
The fighting, which lasted for more than hour and involved exchanges of heavy artillery fire, took place in and around Las Ano, a town near the Ethiopian border claimed by both Puntland and Somaliland.
Washington, D.C, October 04, 2007 – The US House of Representatives showed their support for a bill that would impose travel sanctions on Ethiopian officials and block military assistance to the country. The bill, which was passed on Tuesday, is a measure to force Ethiopian government to improve its track on democracy and human rights.
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Somalia-born critic of Islam and former Dutch politician Ayaan Hirsi Ali has returned to the Netherlands to make security arrangements for herself after the Dutch government decided to no longer pay for her US security detail. |
JOWHAR, Somalia, September 26, 2007 - The instant the sack of grain fell off the truck and thumped down on the ground, it was consumed in a whirl of dust, fists and knees.
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10/03/2007 All Africa Global Media
Washington, D.C., Oct 03, 2007 (United States Congress/All Africa Global Media via COMTEX) -- The following is the testimony of Dr. J. Peter Pham Director of the The Nelson Institute for International and Public Affairs James Madison Universityat the United States Congress House Committee on Foreign Affairs Africa and Global Health Subcommittee Hearing "Ethiopia and the State of Democracy: Effects on Human Rights and Humanitarian Conditions in the Ogaden and Somalia" on October 2, 2007.
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by Prof. Michel Chossudovsky
October 6, 2007
US Northern Command (USNORTHCOM) has announced the conduct of major war games under Vigilant Shield 2008 (VS-08).
Vigilant Shield 2008 (15 to 20 October, 2007) is designed to deal with a "terrorist" or "natural disaster" scenario in the United States. The operation will be coordinated in a joint endeavor by the Pentagon and the Department of Homeland Security.
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Athens,October 4, 2007 - Greece is struggling to curb an influx of illegal immigrants, particularly from Iraq and Afghanistan, many believed to be heading to Western Europe.
The Aegean island of Samos has seen illegal arrivals increase at least threefold this year, exceeding 3,600 and prompting the United Nations Human Rights Commissioner this week to demand the closure of the "horribly overcrowded" migrant reception center.
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With the U.S. military announcing this week that it is opening up what it is calling The Africa Command
7 October 2007
With the U.S. military announcing this week that it is opening up what it is calling The Africa Command the military industrial complex in the U.S. and Europe is revealing its new front in it's latest round of the resources wars it is conducting under the guise of the War On Terror. This new front is no different than the invasion of Iraq's oil fields other than fact that the energy the U.S. is after is contained in several nations and makes up a complex energy (oil and natural gas) corridor that travels through a series of traditional ethnic territories in each of the following named nations.
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by Mahdi Darius Nazemroaya
September 23, 2007
Sir Isaac Newton’s Third Law of Motion states that “for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction.” These precepts of physics can also be used in the social sciences, specifically with reference to social relations and geo-politics.
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Toronto, Oct 03, 2007 - The mysterious disappearance of a 23-year-old Toronto woman in Somalia has Canadian officials looking for her, and her boyfriend worried she's being punished for their relationship.
Najah Jama has not been heard from since August when she called her boyfriend at the Toronto apartment they share, telling him she was jailed for refusing to marry a local Somali. Jama had left Toronto with her mother in March for a six-month vacation in northern Somalia. It was the first time she had ever visited her mother's homeland.
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Nura Aabe, from the Bristol Somali Women's Group |
Bristol, October 05, 2007 – A dozen Somali families are being moved out of a troubled estate in Bristol because of racist attacks.
The city council said a handful of residents on the Hillfields estate, in the east of the city, have caused abuse, violence and harassment.
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President Rayale’s approach toward securing Somaliland’s eastern borders has been uneven. There were times when Somaliland was following a steady but cautious policy. There were other times when Somaliland’s armed forces were sent on some rash and inexplicable adventures that ended up in disaster, chief among which were the Las Anod and Dahar fiascos. After a long period of confusion when it was not clear what Somaliland’s policy was, it seems that President Rayale has finally put together a formula for success in the east. Actually, this new policy is the old abandoned policy of caution and steady engagement which was resurrected and applied, this time, with considerable skill. Its main ingredients are military preparedness and the cultivation of links with the local population, a combination that was decisive in Somaliland’s routing of Majeerteenya’s (Puntland) militias in Las Anod.
The preparedness of Somaliland’s armed forces showed not only in their performance in the battlefield, but also in their coherent and regular media updates. In this regard, both the Minister of defense Mr. Abdillahi Ali Ibrahim, and commander Ibrahim Aidid have impressed many Somalilanders with their professionalism and competence.
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In November 2005, the Centre for Human Rights began investigating the possibility of a third destination for the LLM field trip. The reasons for increasing the number of field trip destinations to include Somaliland include the following:
Somaliland is a state in the making; it would be ideal for students on the programme to have a first hand experience of this.
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By Dalmar Kaahin
In early 2005, as soon as Abdillahi Yusuf was parachuted into the presidential seat in Baidabo, Somalia, defeating the Islamic Court Union ICU and warlords in Mogadishu, the capital of Somalia, seemed to be in his priority. However, the Mogadishu battle was just a smokescreen to hide his real motive. The ultimate fight! From the get go, a showdown between the Transitional “Federal” Government of Somalia TFG and Somaliland seemed inevitable. And no sooner has Mr. Yusuf barely quelled his opponents in Mogadishu, of course while he hid behind the Ethiopian tanks, than he has daringly attempted to expand his authority into Somaliland territory. No time wasted! But who is going to fight for him this time?
Recently, Mr. Yusuf not only opened an immigration office which would soon issue Somali passports and traveling documents to travelers, in Laasannod (the provincial capital of the disputed Sool region, in Somaliland), but he also sent thousands of the TFG troops stationed in central Somalia to Sool in order to test Somaliland’s strength.
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Sharmarke Ali , Virginia - USA
Modification in the KULMIYE’s “Kitchen” of decision-making would confer much-needed adjustment to the extremism and lop-sided policy that is become its proverbial political strategy and is accused of.
Like any other political party in SL, KULMIYE has its own blunders and successes. But what sets KULMIYE party apart from the rest of SL political parties lies in its rank.
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“Sheik” Hassan Jaami’s Plagiarized Article Exposed
By Ibrahim H Jibril
The Somali websites have become our best sources of not only receiving news from our beloved country but also where we exchange our diverse opinions openly and publicly. There are countless people who contribute their political, economical, religious and social thoughts and approaches to these websites and I, for one, enjoy reading them daily even if I disagree with some of them. Somali websites have become the pillar of our news broadcast and the remedy of our enduring agony. Therefore, we—as readers as well as writers—should assist our Webmasters to ensure that articles published these websites are authentic; that is, they are not plagiarized or fabricated.
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JOB OPPORTUNITIES IN SOMALILAND
By Ali Dheeg
A country ruled by kakistocracy persons for 4 ½ years in the horn of Africa. Invites applicants with strong and verifiable record of achievements in the following respective, challenging positions to be based in Hargeysa, on contract basis for a period of 6 months.
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The Laas-Canood And Buhoodle
Situations
By Ahmed Kheyre, London, UK
Somaliland must not become a conduit for anything that will have a negative effect on our stability and development. In this current climate, it is always better to be safe, conservative and investigate every suspicious behavior. However, Somaliland's territorial integrity is sacrosanct. There is no call for Ethiopian forces to come in Buuhoodle without the permission of Somaliland.
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By Ahmed Sulaiman Curi
In the 1960s, many political parties divided along tribal lines held hostage both Somaliland and Somalia. And despite its name which emphasized unity, the United Somali Party USP could not escape from the grip around its neck— the doctrine of tribal loyalty of the ‘60s which still dictates the Somali society. Like any other clan based political party of the ‘60s, the USP was based on a tribal conviction rather than on a national identity; yet it echoed pan-Somalism drums across Somaliland.
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By Noah Arre
Democracy is a government by the people. In the Developed World, it is a form of governance in which the supreme power is vested in the people and exercised directly by them or by their elected agents under a free electoral system. In Somaliland democracy, however, the form of democracy there is blended with the customary law (Xeer) of the nation. And the rights of all must be respected and grievance of any one must be addressed. In that case it means present Somaliland already does not respect the rights of all since many minorities are not represented.
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By Ahmed Arwo
As we are in the last ten days of Ramadan which includes the Night of Power (Laylatul Qadr), we have to reflect on their virtue and spiritual assets. There are many fictions and fabrications in relation to this night specifically and to the last ten days of Ramadan in general. There are stories about surprise encounters of saints and prophets in disguise, mostly as beggars in the most detesting and disgusting shape and clothing. There are others who celebrate the greatness of this night in worldly festive mood with music and dance, similar to the Christmas, and even distribute surprise gifts to children and poor families, in a manner near to that of Father Christmas.
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Statue af Mohamed Abdullah Hassan in Mogadishu, Somalia |
Although the British annihilation of the Somali leader, Mohamed Abdullah Hassan - in England normally known as " the mad Mullah" - took twenty years and was finally made utilizing an independent air force unit, this war is not well known to the public. And yet this is the story of one of the first examples of the utilization of modern arms against a powerful people's army, who had the nearly total control of an immense area with strong-points which could not be overrun without extremely severe losses, and with utilization of the sanctuary on the other side of international borders. The parallel with Vietnam is obvious.
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REPORT ON MISSION TO SOMALILAND
15/12/94 TO 21/12/94
By Matt Bryden, Consultant to UN-EUE
General
From 13-24 December 1994, a mission from the UN Emergencies Unit for Ethiopia (UN-EUE), on behalf of UNHCR Regional Liaison Office in Addis Ababa, visited Djibouti and north-western Somalia (Somaliland), in order to evaluate the causes and consequences of the current conflict there and its implications for Ethiopia. Specifically, the mission was concerned with the displacement of the civil population, both within Somaliland and across the international boundary with Ethiopia, as well with the progress of humanitarian efforts on their behalf. Consideration was given to various options for relief of the war-affected population, including cross-border assistance from Ethiopia with a view to minimising further influxes into Ethiopia.
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Fort McMurray, October 05, 2007 - Khat, a drug common in ethnic communities in Canada, is likely here in Fort McMurray, though not in the magnitude of eastern cities, say experts.
A local chemist approached the police to complain of the drug's prevalence this summer, and he estimates that 50 per cent of the population of South Arabian and Somali residents use it here. Few others corroborate this view.
Luanda, Oct 1, 2007. - The International Scientific Council for Trypanosomiasis Research and Control (ISCTRC) conducts its biennial conference for the 29th time. The week-long conference in Angola’s capital brings together scientists from Africa and overseas to discuss new research findings and ways to eradicate the tsetse fly and the associated diseases from the continent.
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By Hussein Shobokshi
04/10/2007
With frequent talk, nowadays, of the draft that is being prepared amongst circles in the US Congress to divide Iraq into three zones: Kurdish, Sunni and Shia, it seems that the US administration is at a loss and may support the draft partition as a “solution” following the disgraceful performance of US policy in Iraq as a result of the occupation that it was dragged into by the neoconservatives, despite the fact that this draft was conceived and adopted by the democrat, Senator Joseph Biden.
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By McAvoy Layne
03 Oct. 2007
Gucci - $635 shoes, Bloomingdales - $1,695 coat, Chanel - $2,295 purse, Cartier -$24,650 watch, Tiffany - $37,500 ring.
These are ads, complete with pictures, that surrounded a recent article about Somalia in the New York Times - a strange and sad juxtaposition.
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By Zara Nicholson
October 04, 2007
Members of a Somali family fear for their lives after the man they claim stabbed a relative to death in Belhar on Sunday was released from custody minutes after he was arrested - police apparently told them they had "taken too long to make a case".
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UPON reflection this year has been been a pretty useful one for Mo Farah.
With the World Championships out of the way the British distance runner has his heart set on winning a medal at next year's Olympic Games.
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Frankfurt/Cape Town, October 02, 2007 - Somali novelist Nuruddin Farah tops the list of African authors at the Frankfurt Book Fair, which features an Africa Day this year. Farah, who has been described as the most important author to come out of the continent in the last 25 years and won the Neustadt International Prize for Literature in 1998 for his work Secrets, is seen as a strong contender for the Nobel Literature Prize.
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With growing refugee and famine needs, the UN is having a difficult time raising additional money for food and other aid. The U.S. isn't being criticized, because this year, over 90 percent of the food, and other aid, that did show up, came from the United States. The problem is that few other nations want to commit scarce aid dollars to Somalia. The violence level and rapacious warlords make aid to Somalia seem wasteful, compared to other nations in need.
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