Somalia seeks a dose of Obama's Afghan vision

NAIROBI (Reuters) - Somalia's government called on Saturday for an international peace plan like President Barack Obama's new Afghan strategy, saying it would be more effective and far cheaper than current efforts to combat Somali piracy.

"We accept that ... the situation in Somalia will appear beyond repair but the reality is very different," Prime Minister Omar Abdirashid Ali Sharmarke said in a letter to The Times newspaper in Britain.

Somalia has lacked a functioning central government since 1991 and is home to insurgents and pirates, who prey on shipping in the Indian Ocean despite international naval patrols. Sharmarke's U.N.-backed administration controls only part of the capital, Mogadishu.

Obama's plan for Afghanistan marked a "sea change in international support to troubled countries", wrote Sharmarke. "What is so startling is that all the conclusions are as true about Somalia as they are about Afghanistan."

Obama announced this week that the United States would send 30,000 more troops to Afghanistan to combat Taliban insurgency, as well as measures aimed at ending corruption and promoting local accountability before a U.S. withdrawal. [ID:nN30459822]

"Piracy and the growth of Islamic extremism are not the natural state of being. They are but symptoms of an underlying malaise -- the absence of government and hope," Sharmarke said.

"The irony is that it would cost only a quarter of what is being spent right now on the warships trying to combat piracy, to fund our plan and actually solve the problems rather than simply chasing them round the Indian Ocean," he said.

The Horn of Africa state hit the headlines again this week when a suicide bomber struck a medical graduation ceremony and killed at least 22 people, including three government ministers, several doctors, students and their relatives.

Source:reuters.com/

Somalia: Explosion in Mogadishu injures two doctors of SOS Hospital

HARGEISA, 6 December 2009 (Somalilandpress) – An explosion at a graduation ceremony being held at a hotel in Mogadishu/Somalia has injured many people including two doctors who work at the SOS Hospital in the city.

Dr Abdullahi Hussein, the senior medical officer at the SOS Hospital and his colleague Dr Tahlil Abdi were attending a graduation ceremony for medical students of Banadir University. They were among the invited guests at the ceremony, who also included government ministers and other dignitaries. According to the BBC the huge explosion occurred in a meeting hall of the hotel which held several hundred people. It is reported that at least two government ministers died in the blast including the minister of health.

An arrangement between Banadir University and SOS Children’s Villages allows medical students from the university to get practical experience at the SOS Hospital. For that reason several SOS medical staff were in attendance at the graduation ceremony.

Dr Abdullahi is a paediatrician who was trained in Mogadishu and first worked at the SOS Hospital in 1991. In 1995 he went to Italy for further training before taking up a post in the UK. He returned to Mogadishu to work for SOS Children’s Villages in 2005 and has been instrumental in keeping the hospital running while setting up a satellite facility in Afgoye, 30 km from the capital. Both Dr Abdullahi and Dr Tahlil are being treated in hospital. A third doctor from Hargeisa in Somaliland, who was an intern at the SOS Hospital, is still missing.

Source:somalilandpress.com/

Profiting from Piracy: Somalia’s New Stock Exchange

The lawless town of Haradheere, Somalia, used to be a small fishing village, but now it’s in the pirate business—and business is booming.

Despite heightened attempts to keep the pirates at bay, they still have been able to successfully plunder the shipping lanes around the Horn of Africa and the Indian Ocean.

So how have the pirates been able skirt the law? They’ve actually had some help from “investors.”

Pirates of lore were notorious for burying their treasure. But in the 21st century, they’ve adopted a new business model.

Reuters reports that the pirates have established a “stock exchange” with Somali civilians which allows the landlubbers to get a cut of the booty if they invest money or weapons to help the pirates pull off their hijackings.

A former pirate took Reuters around the bustling pirate haven and explained how the locals have come to depend on piracy, which is the town’s most stable and profitable economic output.

Learn how the pirates operate on the high seas with Pirates of the Indian Ocean: A Military Analysis from NBC Correspondent Colonel Jack Jacobs

The Western-backed government of Somalia has no presence in Haradheere. The pirates’ extravagant luxury automobiles contrast garishly with the town’s dusty and pothole filled streets. With few other opportunities available, it’s easy to see why civilians would want to get in on the action.

Reuters spoke with a 22-year-old woman who has parlayed her assets into $75,000 in just 38 days since joining their enterprise. She’s now anxiously awaiting the returns of her most recent investment—a rocket-propelled grenade.

In addition to paying back investors, pirates have curried favor with the locals by setting aside a percentage of their ransom funds for projects that benefit the community, like hospitals and public schools.

But these pirates are far from lovable rascals or modern day Robin Hoods—they’re brutal terrorists. The growing acceptance of their seductive pirate lifestyle has forced the U.S. and other countries to up the ante and use naval warships and aerial drones to protect their vessels.

With higher stakes and investors to protect, the pirates have had to become more ruthless and demand higher ransoms. Without an effective Somali Navy, Coast Guard or government to stand up to them, that’s the way it will likely continue.

Source:petergreenberg.com/

Somalia: Somaliland TV Director denounces Press Now and NUSOJ

The Director General of Somaliland National TV in the breakaway state of Somaliland in the north of the Somali Map honorable Mohammed Musse Diriye, who is also a vivid member of a certain Union of Journalists in Somaliland has strappingly called null and void to the outcome a recent seminar for Somali Journalists which was held in the Kenyan capital Nairobi.

The seminar was jointly conducted by Press Now and NUSOJ and it was attended by several Somali journalists from all edges in the country.


“It is not something which a healthy common sense can absorb that Press Now and National Union of Somali Journalists (NUSOJ) to come up with their own concept, and select Journalists from Somaliland and lure them to Nairobi to something of their own interest, and fill up their brains with something of their own whishes, Somaliland is an independent nation with law and order it would have been much better for the two bodies to contact the authority of Somaliland particularly with the Ministry of Information, but very unfortunately this has not happened, and so thus we are not supporting the whatever the outcome of the seminar was, and as well as whatever Mustaf Shiino the option man of the two bodies has brought back to Somaliland” said Mohammed Musse Diriye the Director General of Somaliland National TV giving an interview to Somaliland National TV on Friday night.

On the 25th of November 2009 NUSOJ has merely invited Somali Journalists particularly radio directors from a cross the country, but due to some irregularities done by some irresponsible members in NUSOJ in Mogadishu there were some radio stations who have sent two members from their stations.

The General Secretary of NUSOJ Omar Faruk has nothing to do with the act of biases done by some individuals whom he has trusted in Mogadishu as his representatives on the ground. Somaliweyn English News Desk.

Mohammed Omar Hussein+2521-5519235 shiinetown@hotmail.com

Source:somaliweyn.org/

Funds still needed for Lindhout after Somalia ordeal

Freed Canadian kidnap victim Amanda Lindhout and her family still require the financial generosity of Canadians, says one of a pair of Calgary businessmen who spearheaded a campaign to raise ransom money.

Lindhout and Australian photographer Nigel Brennan were abducted in Somalia in August 2008. The two were freed late last month. Fundraising efforts for the ransom payment were kept quiet so as not to disrupt negotiations.

"She has a lot of recuperation to go through," said Michael Going, president and co-founder of the Good Earth Café chain, and co-trustee of the Amanda Lindhout trust along with Calgary businessman Steve Allan.

'Needs for rehabilitation'
"There will be need for additional fundraising," said Going. "Having Amanda and Nigel released was absolutely crucial as a first step. But there are ongoing needs for rehabilitation and to get the family back on their feet.”

Going said he was approached in early October to attend a fundraiser for Lindhout. And he soon became a co-trustee of the Amanda Lindhout trust because the tragic story of the young Canadian journalist held captive in Somalia resonated deeply with him.

"There was some media coverage at first in August of 2008 and it struck a chord with me," Going told CBC News.

"It was a pretty tragic story. In my case, I couldn’t hear the facts and meet the people and … not be compelled to get involved."

Hundreds gave support
Going would not divulge how much money was raised and turned over to the Somalian kidnappers, which has been reported as between $600,000 and $1 million.

Going’s brother and nephew were briefly held on trumped-up charges in Serbia 10 years ago, before eventually being released.

"I had some idea of the trauma a family goes through," he said. "It just ripples through so many family and friends."

Going is reluctant to take credit alone for spearheading the drive to raise funds to meet the ransom demand.

"I’m just one of literally hundreds of people who have come to the support of the families throughout Calgary, Canmore, Rocky Mountain House, Red Deer not to mention the Australian side as well."

He said everyone took a pragmatic approach, setting aside ethical questions about whether kidnappers should ever be rewarded.

"The precedent of rewarding some bad guys who take people hostage — that precedent has been set," he noted. "You’d be surprised throughout the world how many thousands of hostage-taking incidents there are. The way I looked at it was there were two people in grave danger and that outweighed everything else."

Going said he looks forward to meeting Lindhout soon, but in the meantime her family has completely exhausted their financial resources and she will need funding for psychological rehabilitation. Donations can be made at any Bank of Montreal location to the Amanda Lindhout trust.

Source:abc.ca/

Somalia: Sh. Shirif and Sharmaarke Should Resign

Sh. Shirif would do himself and the people of Mogadishu (he controls Villa Somalia and its surroundings) a great service in resigning after the 12/03 attacks on Shaamow Hotel, which claimed the death of scores of civilians and members of the government alike.


The solemn duty of Shirif/Sharmaarke administration should be the protection of the Somali people. In that case, both leaders failed to live up to that level. They demonstrated their inability to curb the violence in Mogadishu let alone in other parts of the country.

Seventy people were killed including the late minister Omar Hashi in a suicide attack in Beledwayne Hotel in June 18, 2009. In September of this year, just three months after, the headquarters of AMISOM was targeted by a suicide bomber, where the dead was included a high level military official in the Somali side and the second in command of the AMISON, who also was the head of the Burundian peacekeepers, among other were killed by truck filled with explosive devices.

Today, peace is what the residents of Mogadishu need the most. Unfortunately the two most incompetents leaders Somalia ever saw can’t deliver ten percent of the peace the people are in need of. Therefore, they should come to their best of sense and resign, if there is anything to resign from.

Furthermore, Obama administration recently announced the deployment of more troops in Afghanistan. Why I mention that? Because more troops means more pressure on terrorists hiding in Afghanistan. Given Pakistan’s crackdown of terrorists in its soil, Somalia will be the ideal target for any escaping member of Al Qaeda or Taliban to consider. Every factor that made Afghanistan a terrorist hotspot is also available in Somalia today; lack of strong central government, alias like Al-itihad, Al-islaah, Al- takfiir, Al-shabaab...Etc, are running a great size of the southern part of the nation, where the escaping terrorist can find a safe haven.

Some believe, the attacks like the latest on Shaamow Hotel, are the likes that take place in Pakistan, as an injured reporter told the VOA. Therefore, it is safe to assume that the engineers of the attacks in Pakistan’s universities, mosques, government building and on other public infrastructure are now operating in Mogadishu freely.
Finally, due to the growing insecurity in Mogadishu, the suicide attacks and its casualties mentioned above and the incompetence of Shirif and Sharmaarke, the Somali people should be given yet another chance to rescue their nation with the leadership of competent, experienced and perhaps well respected individual. The country is crying out loud for change, and this time change for the better is the theme.

Source:somaliweyn.org

Canadian Somalia hostage freed when taxi lights flicked

Amanda Lindhout's 15 months of captivity ended with the flick of car lights on a road south of Mogadishu and the transfer of more than half a million dollars.

Somalia's prime minister and senior government officials revealed details to the Star of the dramatic release after Canadian Lindhout and Australian photographer Nigel Brennan arrived safely Thursday in Nairobi, Kenya, aboard a chartered plane.

The 28-year-old freelance journalist from Alberta, who said she was beaten by her kidnappers and kept alone in a windowless room for months, spent the night in a Nairobi hospital. Canadian officials would not comment on her condition.

Before their sudden release, the situation had looked dire for the pair, trapped in a land where the Canadian and Australian governments have no sway.

But according to several government officials, the hostage taking was always about ransom. Somalia's government is battling a group with reported Al Qaeda links known as Al-Shabaab and there was fear the pair would be traded to a hard-line faction of the group that would seek publicity over cash.

Somali Prime Minister Omar Abdirashid Ali Sharmarke, a Canadian citizen, said the release followed intense negotiations with clan elders, businessmen and the kidnappers' relatives.

"Some people really risked their lives to get them from where they were," Sharmarke said in a telephone interview from Mogadishu.

It came down to money, reportedly raised by relatives of Lindhout and Brennan.

Australia's ABC News reported Thursday night that Brennan's family had gone into debt to hire a private hostage negotiator for $3,000 a day. In a separate interview, Australian millionaire electronics retailer Dick Smith confirmed he had personally contributed funds and said a British security firm was the lead negotiator.

While Lindhout's relatives could not be reached for comment, there were reports her family had remortgaged their Edmonton-area home as well.

Somali National Security Minister Mohamed Abdullahi told the Star the ransom was "not less than $500,000" and was sent to the kidnappers through a series of brokers.

Initially the kidnappers had demanded millions and it took months to convince them to lower their ransom, Abdullahi said. Lindhout confirmed in a CTV interview Wednesday night from Mogadishu that her captors beat her because the money wasn't "coming quickly enough."

Prime Minister Stephen Harper issued a statement Thursday saying Canada has a policy against paying ransom and Abdullahi confirmed that the government was not involved in recent negotiations.

"It was not easy," Abdullahi said of the deal making.

He said once the kidnappers were guaranteed a payment, they agreed to send a taxi with the captives to the Afgooye corridor, a region populated by refugees about 30 kilometres south of Mogadishu.

"They said they'll turn the lights on and then off and that would be the indication."

Somali government security officers had surrounded the area earlier in the evening. When they saw the lights of the taxi, they moved in.

"It was a very exciting and emotional moment," said Abdullahi. "(Lindhout and Brennan) didn't know what was going on. They thought people were coming to kill them, or maybe they were being sold to other groups."

The freelance journalists were flown out of Somalia Thursday morning on a chartered flight, arriving at Nairobi's Wilson Airport at around 2 p.m. A convoy of vehicles drove away from the airport reportedly carrying the pair to the Aga Khan University hospital.

Although medical exams are customary following kidnappings, widespread rumours had circulated that Lindhout had been raped and had given birth during her captivity. In describing her ordeal Wednesday, Lindhout spoke of beatings and isolation, but she did not talk about sexual abuse and neither she, nor Brennan spoke with journalists in Nairobi.

"Amanda's parents are overjoyed and request continued privacy for the family while they focus on Amanda and her transition back to normal life," Sarah Geddes, spokeswoman for the Lindhout family, said in a statement. "They will return to Canada as soon as Amanda is fit to fly home."

Lindhout's translator and travel companion, Abdifatah Mohammed Elmi, came to the hotel in Gigiri – a suburb north of Nairobi – where her relatives were believed to be staying, hoping that he could see her. Elmi – who was kidnapped along with Lindhout and Brennan, but freed in January – said he hadn't spoken to Lindhout's family since her return.

Lindhout had worked as a freelance reporter in Africa, Iraq and Afghanistan before joining Iranian news network Press TV in 2008. Her Facebook site is filled with glamorous photos of her reporting from around the world.

Local journalists had reportedly warned her against going into Somalia, considered one of the world's most dangerous locales for the media and human rights workers. She was kidnapped with Brennan and Elmi, and two security guards, on Aug. 23, 2008 while the group headed to a refugee camp.

While there had been criticism in Canada that Lindhout had gone into Somalia ill-prepared for the security risks and without the financial and security backing of a media outlet, there had also been pressure for the Canadian government to do more. Lindhout's father John, and mother Lorinda Stewart rarely spoke publicly, reportedly on the advice of foreign affairs officials.

Canadian government sources say that while Canadian officials in Nairobi worked toward her release, there was a chill in Ottawa following the rescue of Canadian diplomats Robert Fowler and Louis Guay. The diplomats, who had been kidnapped in Mali, were freed in April after four local Al Qaeda affiliates were released, according to high ranking officials from Mali who spoke with the Globe and Mail.

Ottawa maintains it played no role in the prisoner trade and while there may have been no direct involvement, Canada had been putting pressure on the Mali government to negotiate a release. The government source told the Star debates concerning Canada's involvement in recent Lindhout negotiations reached the Prime Minister's Office. The message handed down was to not get involved.

Source:thestar.com/

UN to seek $689 mln in humanitarian aid for Somalia

NAIROBI, Nov. 30 (Xinhua) -- The United Nations said Monday it would seek 689 million U.S. dollars for 174 humanitarian projects for Somalia in 2010.

A statement from the UN humanitarian agency, OCHA, said the Consolidated Appeal to be launched later this week in Nairobi reflects the most urgent needs in Somalia.

OCHA said there has been a 19 percent reduction of the amount requested from 849 million dollars in 2009 to 689 million dollars in 2010.

"This is the result of a reassessment of the food aid requirements and a revised estimate of target populations and the scale of rations required. This reduction is also the result of improved coordination structures and rigorous project vetting," it said.

According to OCHA, some 3.64 million Somalis, more than half the population, will continue to be in need of livelihood and or humanitarian support. This is a 13 percent increase since January 2009.

Malnutrition levels have also increased, with one in five children under five years acutely malnourished and one in 20 are severely malnourished.

The low funding from key donors has also exacerbated the situation and has had a negative impact on operations of key sectors especially food aid, water sanitation and hygiene, health and shelter items.

Source:xinhuanet.com/

Ethiopia lost to Kenya 2-0 ; awaits Eritrea- Somalia result

UPDATE

Ethiopian National Team has been eliminated in the first round after finishing third in Group A with three points. Eritrea today beat Somalia 3-1 and moves on to the quarter final. Ethiopia, Somalia, Djibouti and Burundi have all been eliminated in the first round.
It was yet another disappointing tournament for the Walyas.

Ethiopia lost to Kenya 2-0

By nazret.com Staff

December 4, 2009

Washington DC - Ethiopia's National Team lost today against host nation Kenya in Nairobi's Nyayo Stadium 2-0. Kenya and Zambia will now move to the next stage while Ethiopia waits to see if it can qualify as the two best qualifiers among the bottom finishers. That outcome depends on Eritrea-Somalia match. Somalia needs to trash Eritrea for Ethiopia to qualify to the quarter finals. Djibouti and Burundi are out of the tournament.

Somalia takes on Eritrea on Saturday in Nairobi, the odds are against Somalia which needs to win by more than 5 net goals to have any chance to qualify. Eritrea needs just a win, a draw or a loss by Eritrea will send Ethiopia to the quarter final. Let's hope Somalia beats Eritrea. It is sad that it has to come to this.

Djibouti and Burundi are all eliminated from the tournament. Eritrea with one point has a slim chance and will need a win against Somalia on Saturday. Somalia, Djibouti and Burundi all have 0 points and Eritrea is third from bottom with 1 point.

The top 2 group finishers from Group A, B and C and two overall best qualifiers will move on to the next stage for the quarter finals.



Source:nazret.com/

Somalia: Newly Foreign Jihadists Pour into Border Town of Dhobley (RBC NEWS)

Dhobley, (RBC Radio) Reports from Dhobley, Somalia’s southern border town say that newly foreign jihadists have been pouring into the border towns of Somalia in recent days, joining forces with local fighters to turn the country into an Al-Qaeda heaven.

Some of twenty western and African fighers had gathered into Dhobley, where Al Shabab insurgents have recently taken control from Hisbul Islam militia, an other rival group.

A local resident in the area who spoke to RBC Radio in a condition of anonymity said that nearly twenty new foreign jihadists had came the district as they begin to meet with Al Shabab militia leaders in Dhobley.

The Local residents described seeing foreigners, some with turbans wrapped around their faces, careering around the streets in pickup trucks bristling with weapons.

The reports also says that Al Shabab miliitia who recently seized most of the border towns in the southern part of the country would consider to use the foreign fighters as special forces if Kenya and Ethiopia, two neighbouring countries continue any military acts against Al Shabab, as foreign fighters know better war tactics.

There had been an nightly curfew over Dhobley district following the arrival of the foreing fighters.

Sources close to the Al Shabab’s led administration in Kismayo, the capital of Lower Jubba region has confirmed that the region is now full of foreing jihadists, mostly from United States, Saudi Arabia And Afghanistan.

Somalia now shelters an estimated 450 foreign fighters who are working with Al Shabab, a home-grown hardline Islamist group that has spearheaded a bloody insurgency since 2006.

Foreign fighters who wanted for links to Al-Qaeda have long used Somalia as a backyard, their numbers have swollen dramatically in 2009, experts say.

Source:raxanreeb.com/

Somalia Twtter

Somalia (Somali: Soomaaliya; Arabic: الصومال‎ aṣ-Ṣūmāl), officially the Republic of Somalia (Somali: Jamhuuriyadda Soomaaliya, Arabic: جمهورية الصومال‎ Jumhūriyyat aṣ-Ṣūmāl) and formerly known as the Somali Democratic Republic, is a country located in the Horn of Africa. It is bordered by Djibouti to the northwest, Kenya to the southwest, the Gulf of Aden with Yemen to the north, the Indian Ocean to the east, and Ethiopia to the west.

In antiquity, Somalia was an important center for commerce with the rest of the ancient world. Its sailors and merchants were the main suppliers of frankincense, myrrh and spices, items which were considered valuable luxuries by the Ancient Egyptians, Phoenicians, Mycenaeans and Babylonians with whom the Somali people traded. According to most scholars, Somalia is also where the ancient Kingdom of Punt was situated. The ancient Puntites were a nation of people that had close relations with Pharaonic Egypt during the times of Pharaoh Sahure and Queen Hatshepsut. The pyramidal structures, temples and ancient houses of dressed stone littered around Somalia are said to date from this period. In the classical era, several ancient city-states such as Opone, Mosyllon and Malao that competed with the Sabaeans, Parthians and Axumites for the wealthy Indo-Greco-Roman trade also flourished in Somalia.

The birth of Islam on the opposite side of Somalia's Red Sea coast meant that Somali merchants, sailors and expatriates living in the Arabian Peninsula gradually came under the influence of the new religion through their converted Arab Muslim trading partners. With the migration of fleeing Muslim families from the Islamic world to Somalia in the early centuries of Islam and the peaceful conversion of the Somali population by Somali Muslim scholars in the following centuries, the ancient city-states eventually transformed into Islamic Mogadishu, Berbera, Zeila, Barawa and Merka, which were part of the Berberi civilization. The city of Mogadishu came to be known as the city of Islam, and controlled the East African gold trade for several centuries. In the Middle Ages, several powerful Somali empires dominated the regional trade including the Ajuuraan State, which excelled in hydraulic engineering and fortress building, the Sultanate of Adal, whose general Ahmed Gurey was the first African commander in history to use cannon warfare on the continent during Adal's conquest of the Ethiopian Empire, and the Gobroon Dynasty, whose military dominance forced governors of the Omani empire north of the city of Lamu to pay tribute to the Somali Sultan Ahmed Yusuf. In the late 19th century after the Berlin conference had ended, European empires sailed with their armies to the Horn of Africa. The Imperial clouds wavering over Somalia alarmed the Dervish leader Muhammad Abdullah Hassan, who gathered Somali soldiers from across the Horn of Africa and began one of the longest colonial resistance wars ever.

Somalia was never formally colonized. The Dervish State successfully repulsed the British empire four times and forced it to retreat to the coastal region. As a result of its fame in the Middle East and Europe, the Dervish state was recognized as an ally by the Ottoman Empire and the German empire, and remained throughout World War I the only independent Muslim power on the continent. After a quarter of a century holding the British at bay, the Dervishes were finally defeated in 1920 when Britain for the first time in Africa used aeroplanes when it bombed the Dervish capital of Taleex. As a result of this bombardment, former Dervish territories were turned into a protectorate of Britain. Italy similarly faced the same opposition from Somali Sultans and armies and did not acquire full control of parts of modern Somalia until the Fascist era in late 1927. This occupation lasted till 1941 and was replaced by a British military administration. Northern Somalia would remain a protectorate while southern Somalia became a trusteeship. The Union of the two regions in 1960 formed the Somali Democratic Republic.

Due to its ancient brotherly ties with the Arab world, Somalia was accepted in 1974 as a member of the Arab League. To strengthen its relationship with the rest of the African continent, Somalia joined other African nations when it founded the African Union, and began to support the ANC in South Africa against the apartheid regime and the Eritrean secessionists in Ethiopia during the Eritrean War of Independence. A Muslim country, Somalia is one of the founding members of the Organisation of the Islamic Conference and is also a member of the UN and NAM. Despite suffering from civil strife and instability, Somalia has also managed to sustain a free market economy which, according to the UN, outperforms those of many other countries in Africa