Front Page
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Somaliland News
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News Headlines
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Somaliland Security Nabs ONLF Members
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New IRI Study Will Help Coordinate Democracy-Support Programs In Somaliland – Document
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Forty Foreign Companies Compete For Water Contract In Somaliland
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Dila-Boorama Road Completed
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Upper House Chairman Returns To Country
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Waddani Vice Chairman Lobbies For Support In Borama
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First Street Solar Lights Launched In Hargeysa City
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Let’s Give Somalia’s Government The Non-Recognition It Deserves
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Local and Regional Affairs
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President Sillanyo Launches Youth Development Fund
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Basketball Tournament Kicks Off In Tima-Ade Stadium
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Operation To Rebuild Gunshot Victim's Face Has Gone Well, Say Brisbane Surgeons
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Somaliland Government Signs Coal Mining Weal With Chinese Firm
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Somalia: Resurgent Al-Shabaab Targets President 'Dead Or Alive'
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Pastoralist Aspirations Versus Policy In The Horn Of Africa
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Ladan Osman Wins 2014 Sillerman First Book Prize For African Poets
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U.N. May Extend Eased Somalia Arms Embargo Despite Concerns: Diplomats
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Somaliland: Mass Atrocity
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Are Corruption And Tribalism Dooming Somalia’s War On Al-Shabaab Extremists?
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Editorial
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The Federal Government’s Main Problem Is Not The Endemic Graft Or Insecurity But Its Illegitimacy
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Features & Commentary
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Somaliland V Somalia: Great New Paper On An Extraordinary ‘Natural Experiment’ In Aid And Governance
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The Reinvention Of Al-Shabaab: A Strategy of Choice or Necessity?
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Somali Mohamed Osman Enjoying Second Year As Jockey In Maryland
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International News
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Russia’s Senate Approves Use Of Military Force In Ukraine
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Somalia's Al-Shabaab: Striking Like Mosquitoes
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Opinion
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Hargeysa Mayor: Up To His Task
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Why Can’t We Deal With Israel, Russia Or With Venezuela?
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Africa’s Next Oil Frontier – Ethiopia?
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The Crisis In Crisis Management In Somalia
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Abdurahman Abdullah “Irro”: Not Ready To Be President
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President Sillanyo Launches Youth Development Fund
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Hargeysa, Somaliland, February 22, 2014 – President Sillanyo laid the foundation stone for a new Somaliland National Youth umbrella (SONYO) Headquarters on Thursday morning whereas the ministry of Youth, Sports and Tourism and the Youth Umbrella has at the same time launched Somaliland’s youth development fund project.
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Basketball Tournament Kicks Off In Tima-Ade Stadium
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Hargeysa, Somaliland, February 22, 2014 – UFFO Basketball tournament was held for 6 basketball teams from the first division players in Tima-ade Basketball Stadium on Thursday.
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Operation To Rebuild Gunshot Victim's Face Has Gone Well, Say Brisbane Surgeons
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Brisbane, Australia, February 24, 2014 – Surgery to reconstruct a Somali war victim's face has gone well and doctors expect her to remain in a Queensland hospital for another week. Read full text.
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Somaliland Government Signs Coal Mining Weal With Chinese Firm
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The Government of Somaliland has ratified an agreement with a mining company from China. The minister of mineral resources Hon. Mr Hussein Abdi Duale has appended his signature to the contractual undertakings okaying the Chinese mining company of Guangzhou Dongsong Energy Group Company Limited to extract coal from the country.
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Somalia: Resurgent Al-Shabaab Targets President 'Dead Or Alive'
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Mogadishu, Somalia, Feb. 25, 2014 – Al-Shabaab Islamic militants linked to al-Qaida say their suicide attack on the presidential compound in Mogadishu was aimed at killing or kidnapping Somalia's Western-backed president, Hassan Sheik Mohamud, heightening concerns the group is on the offensive again after heavy military setbacks.
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Pastoralist Aspirations Versus Policy In The Horn Of Africa
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Somalis have been unable to use the internet on their mobile phones after Islamist group Al-Shabaab banned the biggest telecom company from providing the service to its customers.
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Nairobi, 24 February 2014 - Since the Horn of Africa drought of 2011 aid agencies have been working to understand the changes taking place in the drylands, hoping to better anticipate people’s needs. Read full text....
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Ladan Osman Wins 2014 Sillerman First Book Prize For African Poets
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Somalian writer Ladan Osman has won the 2014 Sillerman First Book Prize for African Poets for her collection The Kitchen Dweller’s Testimony.
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U.N. May Extend Eased Somalia Arms Embargo Despite Concerns: Diplomats
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By Michelle Nichols And Louis Charbonneau
United Nation – The U.N. Security Council is unlikely to fully restore a decades-old arms embargo on Somalia, despite concerns about the possible diversion of weapons to al Qaeda-linked militants, but may extend eased restrictions on government purchases, diplomats said.
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Somaliland: Mass Atrocity
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By Kate Cronin-Furman
In Somaliland’s capital city of Hargeysa this month, forensic experts are opening 38 boxes of human remains. The men inside died in the late 1980s, victims of a brutal counterinsurgency campaign launched against the separatist Somali National Movement by Somalia’s Siyad Barre.
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Are Corruption And Tribalism Dooming Somalia’s War On Al-Shabaab Extremists?
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By: Andrew McGregor
After decades of conflict that have nearly destroyed the nation, Somalia now stands poised to make a final drive with international assistance to shatter the strength of radical al-Qaeda-associated Islamists in central and southern Somalia, but there are indications that Somalia’s leaders may be posing an even greater obstacle to Somalia’s successful reconstruction. Read full text.....
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Somaliland Security Nabs ONLF Members
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Ethiopia's ONLF fighters [Photofile]
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Hargeysa, Somaliland, March 1, 2014 (SL Times) – Somaliland security forces apprehended some members of the Ogaden National Liberation Front (ONLF). They were caught in Bali Abane and Sayla-bari and had crossed the border from Ethiopia.
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New IRI Study Will Help Coordinate Democracy-Support Programs In Somaliland – Document
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Washington, DC, March 1, 2014 – A new study, Somaliland International Democratization Support Strategy, written by IRI, will help the international donor community to coordinate and plan future democracy-support programs to Somaliland.
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Forty Foreign Companies Compete For Water Contract In Somaliland
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Hargeysa, Somaliland, March 1, 2014 (SL Times) – Representatives of forty foreign companies descended on Hargeysa to take part in a competition to win the contract for Hargeysa’s water expansion project. The companies came from Europe, America, Latin America, Asia and Africa, and from countries such as Kenya, Uganda, France, Germany, Rwanda, Sudan, South Sudan, Somalia, Djibouti, Ethiopia, India, China, Argentina, USA, UAE, South Korea, Italy, Turkey, Switzerland, South Africa, Netherland and Spain.
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Dila-Boorama Road Completed
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Borama, Somaliland, March 1, 2014 (SL Times) – The last few kilometers of the road linking Borama and Hargeysa were paved this week. According to Somaliland.org, this is the first time in 54 years or since Somaliland’s independence that Borama is connected by road to the rest of Somaliland.
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Upper House Chairman Returns To Country
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Hargeysa, Somaliland, March 1, 2014 (SL Times) – The Chairman of the Upper House, Suleiman Mohamoud Adan, has returned to the country after visiting the UK for health reasons.
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Waddani Vice Chairman Lobbies For Support In Borama
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Borama, Somaliland, March 1, 2014 (SL Times) – The vice chairman of Waddani party, Mumin Seed, met with 50 members of Borama’s communities in order to persuade them to join his party. Among those present were community elders, politicians and intellectuals.
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First Street Solar Lights Launched In Hargeysa City
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Hargeysa, Somaliland, March 1, 2014 – The Mayor of Hargeysa Abdirahman Mohamed aided (Soltelco) has launched the first solar project in Hargeysa city.
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Let’s Give Somalia’s Government The Non-Recognition It Deserves
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A government soldier watches over a town at sunset. (Photo: UNHCR Somalia/Flickr/CC License)
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By J. Peter Pham
One year ago the Obama administration broke with the Somalia policy of its three predecessors by according diplomatic recognition to the government of the Federal Republic of Somalia. Last month, in his annual Worldwide Threat Assessment report to Congress, Director of National Intelligence James Clapper bemoaned that the Somali regime’s “persistent political infighting, weak leadership from President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud, ill-equipped government institutions, and pervasive technical, political, and administrative shortfalls” provided an opening for al-Qaeda-linked al-Shabaab militants to continue targeting Western interests.
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Russia’s Senate Approves Use Of Military Force In Ukraine
Kremlin Prepares for Military Intervention
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Simferopol, Ukraine — As Russian-backed armed forces effectively seized control of Ukraine’s Crimean peninsula on Saturday, President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia requested —and received — authorization from the Russian Senate to use military force in Ukraine.
The actions signaled publicly for the first time the Kremlin’s readiness to intervene militarily in Ukraine, and it served as a blunt response to President Obama, who just hours earlier pointedly warned Russia to respect Ukraine’s sovereignty. Read full text....
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Somalia's Al-Shabaab: Striking Like Mosquitoes
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As Somalia's government plans a new offensive against al-Shabaab, the BBC's Mary Harper considers why the Islamist militants remain so brazen.
The storming by al-Shabaab fighters of Villa Somalia, the seat of government in the capital, Mogadishu, last Friday did not take me altogether by surprise.
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Somaliland V Somalia: Great New Paper On An Extraordinary ‘Natural Experiment’ In Aid And Governance
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By Duncan Green Could someone please clone Sarah Phillips? The University of Sydney political scientist has a great new Developmental Leadership Program (DLP) paper out on Somaliland, following her excellent paper a few years ago on Yemen.
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The Reinvention Of Al-Shabaab: A Strategy of Choice or Necessity?
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By Matt Bryden FEB 21, 2014 Matt Bryden examines the evolution of Al-Shabaab’s leadership, ideological outlook, and military strategy in a new report from the CSIS Africa Program.
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Somali Mohamed Osman Enjoying Second Year As Jockey In Maryland
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By Justin Silberman MOHAMED OSMAN's path to fulfilling his dream of becoming a jockey was anything but conventional. Osman grew up in Somalia, where the idea of becoming a jockey was outrageous, he said. Osman fled his native country and became a refugee in Kenya before coming to the United States, and he said survival had been the only thing on his mind at the time.
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The Federal Government’s Main Problem Is Not The Endemic Graft Or Insecurity But Its Illegitimacy
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For the longest time, the international community did not want to look at the reality in Somalia, instead it went on about spinning the scenario that there is a government in Somalia and that pretty soon the world will see an up and running administration. This was of course wishful thinking but those who were peddling it thought just because they believed in that fiction, Somalis would also automatically buy into it. Obviously, Somalis are not buying into this. In other words, Somalis by and large, do not see Somalia’s federal government as a legitimate government and, therefore, are withholding their support from it. This is the essence of the problem. The reasons for this are many but the uppermost one is that this government including the parliament was not chosen by the constituencies they claim to represent, and in this regard is no different from the many previous failed governments that were formed in various foreign 5 star hotels.
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Hargeysa Mayor: Up To His Task
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By: Aden Deeq
Hargeysa Mayor Abdirahman Mohamoud Aidied "Soltelco" who's is known to be a humble quiet person by not so often been on the front pages of local newspapers and televisions as the Ministers, General Directors and other institutional bodies who are well known to be always on screens and newspapers wanting to earn the public respect and honored by all it is citizens by always acting active is what differentiates Hargeysa Mayor from all.
Since he has been appointed to his post after the sudden death of Honorable Eng. Yussuf Warsame Said, Mayor Abdirahman Mohamoud Aidied has proven that the new elected council mostly been composed of youth have been to their task till now through their work which is tangible, and visibly done with vision reflecting their dedications by putting it to work.
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Why Can’t We Deal With Israel, Russia Or With Venezuela?
Some Arab/Muslim governments do?
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After more than 20 years, who do we blame for the diplomatic stagnation of Somaliland? And, how do we go around this never-ending “mythical Somalia’s Unity” quagmire in order to attain our political goal? We know that, legally speaking, we, Somalilanders have a strong case because we’ve, already, existed as an independent nation (meaning our cause is not in conflict with that “outdated/irrelevant” AU and UN territorial indivisibility act).
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Africa’s Next Oil Frontier – Ethiopia?
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By John Daly
Sitting athwart the headwaters of the Blue Nile, Ethiopia has long seen its energy future in its hydropower potential, being able to export electricity to neighboring countries.
That picture may be about to be somewhat altered however. British oil firm New Age (African Global Energy) Ltd works a concession in Ethiopia’s southeastern Ogaden basin blocs 7-8 and its Adigala lease with its Canadian oil firm partner Africa Oil.
On 12 February New Age (African Global Energy) Ltd found an oil and gas flow at its Elkuran-3a appraisal well depth of 3,900 feet. The company began drilling the appraisal well in October 2013, with a targeted depth of 9,350 feet. Read full text.......
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The Crisis In Crisis Management In Somalia
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By Liban Obsiye & Sakariye Hussein What crisis? The Somali government is in trouble. Again. The Turkish government, which has backed the Somali government with direct cash aid, has made it clear that this assistance stopped at the end of 2013 and that there were no clear plans to resume it in 2014. However, the Turkish government’s Cooperation and Coordination Agency reassured the Somali people that their projects in Somalia would continue unaffected. What does this mean? Nothing by the response of Villa Somalia which has yet to officially accept that it was perhaps their silence on the corruption allegations made by Yusur Abraar, the last Somali Central bank governor, against the administration that has led to the freeze in trust between the European Union, Turkey and Villa Somalia.
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Abdurahman Abdullah “Irro”: Not Ready To Be President
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By Ali Mohamed
Last week, the speaker shut down the Somaliland parliament after a group of legislators loyal to the Sillanyo/Hirsi administration challenged his leadership position. Mr. Irro, a former civil servant, was elected the speaker of the parliament in 2005, not on the merit of his political skills or policy expertise but because he was willing to advance the political agenda of then candidate Sillanyo. The current Parliament shutdown is a crisis that he created because of his poor leadership. Read full text......
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