DJIBOUTI, Djibouti, February 6, 2012/African Press Organization (APO)/ — The 21st meeting of the International Contact Group (ICG) on Somalia was held under the chairmanship of the United Nations Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Somalia, Dr Augustine Mahiga, from 5-6 February 2012 in Djibouti. Foreign Minister Mahamoud Ali Youssouf of the Republic of Djibouti, Speaker Shariif Hassan Sheikh Aden of the Transitional Federal Parliament of the Republic of Somalia, Prime Minister Abdiweli Mohamed Ali of the Transitional Federal Government of the Republic of Somalia, President Abdirahman Mohamed Mohamud (Farole) of the Puntland State of Somalia, President Mohamed Ahmed Alin of the Galmudug State of Somalia, Abdilkader Moallim Noor of Ahlu Sunna Wal Jama’a and the African Union High Representative for Somalia President Jerry Rawlings addressed the meeting.

Political Process

The ICG agreed that the Transition must end on 20 August 2012 in accordance with the Transitional Federal Charter, Djibouti Agreement, Kampala Accord, Roadmap and Garowe Principles. The minimum essential conditions include the finalisation of the draft constitution by 20 April as prescribed in the Roadmap and Garowe Principles leading to provisional adoption of a new Constitution (subject to a national referendum in due course), the establishment of a new, smaller and more representative Parliament and elections for (more…)

Everyone claims to have a plan for Somalia except Somalia

As a forgotten country left to eat it self out, Somalia the most dangerous place on earth, a place subjected to a frequent bomb attacks and rampant insecurity and where famine is ongoing thing. Its capital Mogadishu, a city which was a no-go zone for high-ranking officials has recently seen increase of high ranking officials.

The Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan was the first leader to visit Somalia when the famine was sweeping across the Horn of Africa. Mr Erdogan said he wanted to demolish the idea that Somalia specially the capital Mogadishu was a no-go area. Mr Erdogan’s visit was last August, since then, Turkey had set up an embassy in Somalia and funds major infrastructure developments.

The same month Mr Erdogan was in Somalia, the Iranian foreign minister Ali Akbar Salehi was also in Somalia to visit the famine-hit areas and oversee the process of delivering aid to the country.

Iran and Turkey are the countries with the highest non-military investment and aid delivery to Somalia surpassing (more…)

  The United Nations has moved the Somali famine crisis from the top famine scale to a humanitarian emergency. Even though, 31 percent of the country’s population about 2.3 million people from Southern Somalia remain in a food crisis situation and are in dare need of assistance, the world body decided to announce that the Somali famine is over.

The international body declared Somalia a famine zone last July after months without rainfall across the region. Exhausted, rail-thin women were stumbling into refugee camps in Kenya and Ethiopia with dead babies and bleeding feet. The journeys sometimes took weeks, and weaker family members specially the children and the elderly were left behind on the way to die alone.

A massive increase in humanitarian assistance has helped lift Somalia out of famine conditions, but the international community still needs to keep helping so that what gains that have been made can be sustained.

The militant group al-Shabab this week banned the international Red Cross from operating in southern Somalia, this ban of critical food aid will severe a critical lifeline in Southern Somali where famine (more…)

Foreign Secretary William Hague is driven through the streets of Mogadishu in an armoured vehicle

It was the first visit to Mogadishu by a British foreign minister since 1992 and comes ahead of a conference in London this month to discuss measures to tackle instability in Somalia and piracy off its shores.

Britain’s new envoy to Somalia, Matt Baugh, will remain based in Kenya’s capital Nairobi until security conditions permit the opening of an embassy in Mogadishu.

Somalia descended into chaos after dictator Mohamed Siad Barre was ousted in 1991 and a Western-backed transition government has been battling local al Qaeda-linked insurgents al-Shabaab for the past five years.

At the moment, there are six diplomatic missions in Mogadishu, representing Djibouti, Ethiopia, Libya, Sudan, Turkey and Yemen. The UN’s special envoy to Somalia also moved to Mogadishu last month. (more…)

 Militias from Bay and Bakool regions who have allegiance with the TFG government backed by Ethiopian troops are set to advance on the Bay and Bakool regions a strong hold regions for Al-Shabab.

One of the Somali parliament members has told VOA that the militia forces are ready to secure the regions of Bay and Bakool and neighboring regions.

The parliament member told VOA that “There is an ongoing operation to back up Transitional Federal Government plans to take control of other regions,” he said.  “We would like to capture other towns in Gedo and other regions with the help of Kenya, Ethiopia and AMISOM forces who are based in Mogadishu.”

Al-Shabab banned the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) from areas under their control. This ban of critical food aid will severe a critical lifeline in Southern Somali where famine still threatens over 250,000 people. The group had already suspended (more…)

The 18th African Union Summit opened in the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa on January 29. The summit, with a theme of “Boosting Trade between African Countries,” is being attended by the leaders of the 54 African nations. The new leaders from Tunisia, Libya and South Sudan are among the delegates at the first annual summit of the continental after the Arab Spring.

Equatorial Guinea President Obiang Nguema Mbasogo opened the 26th Summit of the New Partnership for Africa’s Economic Development, Africa’s blue print plan to fast track economic development. African leaders will discuss measures of boosting intra-African trade amidst growing global economic uncertainty. The leaders are also expected to discuss the crisis in Somalia, Nigeria, Libya and Egypt among others. (more…)

MOGADISHU (AlertNet) – Nurto Isak’s food rations are feeding her, her three children, and — she suspects — the militiamen guarding the camp in Mogadishu where she and other uprooted Somalis have taken refuge.

The city is host to more than 180,000 internally displaced people (IDPs) who, like Isak, have fled a killer combination of conflict, drought and hunger back home.

Many risk long, difficult journeys to reach the capital, their sights set on the numerous aid agencies that have set up relief operations to hand out food and treat malnutrition there.

Yet many people at various IDP settlements in the war-torn city complain that food aid is not reaching them and accuse local aid workers working for international and Somali NGOs of taking it to line their own pockets. (more…)

 US Special Operations forces, including members of the famed Navy Seal Team 6, rescued two hostages who had been kidnapped by Somali pirates since October, 2011. The hostages, Jessica Buchanan, 32, and Poul Hagen Thisted, 60, were working for the Danish Demining Group, which clears land mines and unexploded munitions in conflict zones.

The U.S. rescue force, including about two dozen troops, was drawn primarily from the Navy special operations unit that is commonly known as SEAL Team Six, the service’s elite counter-terrorism force. The SEALs parachuted down in the early morning darkness Wednesday, (more…)

 The U.N.’s special representative to Somalia moved his office to Mogadishu for the first time since 1995. Augustine Mahiga said that he hopes the move marks the start of renewed hope for the future of Somalia, which hasn’t had a fully functioning government in more than two decades.

“I declare that UNPOS relocated to Mogadishu today which marks the start of renewed hope for the future of Somalia”, Mahiga said during a joint press conference in Mogadishu.

 “It is now United Nations political office in Somalia not for Somalia” Mahiga added

The U.N.’ top representative hasn’t been based in Somalia for so long because of security concerns, he was previously based in Nairobi, the capital of neighboring Kenya. Several other U.N. agencies have already had a permanent presence in the Somali capital for over a year. (more…)

Shalay ayay ahayd wax lala yaabo markii madawayne kumeelgaar  shariif idaacadaha af labadii yeeray markii uu ku andacooday in shacabka soomaaliyeed raali ka ahayn in ciidanka kenya ay soo galaan  xuduudka soomaliya si ay u caawiyaan ciidanka soomaaliyeed sidoo kale waxa uu yiri waxa aan ku heshiiney inay ciidamada noo tababaraan oo kaliya

hadaba waxaa is waydiin mudan muxay kenya sameeysay oo intaas ahayn  / ciidan ayay tababartay 2 sano soomaali ah  siinaysay mishaar cuno, hub iyo saanad kale

Waxa ay kaxoreeyeen ciidamadaas oo ah cidamo qaran oo deegaanka jubooyinka laga soo aruuriyay  gobolo badan alshabaab.  Maamul ayay dhisteen ay hogaaminayaan dad aqoon leh (more…)

MOGADISHU, Somalia October 24, 2011, 12:13 am ET

MOGADISHU, Somalia (AP) — Kenya on Sunday said that France’s navy bombed a town in Somalia near a stronghold of al-Shabab, the first confirmation that a Western military force is involved in the latest push against the Islamist militia.

Thousands of people, meanwhile, fled a camp for the displaced near Somalia’s capital on Sunday, fearing an imminent clash between African Union peacekeepers and the al-Qaida-linked militants who are trying to demonstrate their strength amid an assault on two fronts. (more…)

Mogadishu — The prime minister of Somali interim federal government on Sunday proclaimed they are committed to keeping on their battles against the Al shabaab group, which the US alleges to be Al Qaeda’s proxy in the horn of Africa nation.

Abdiweli Mohamed Ali, Somalia’s premier made the comments while speaking a meeting organized by Somalia’s national reconciliation committee held in Mogadishu.

Mr. Ali said his government will also fight anyone seen is destabilizing the security in this war torn horn of African nation. (more…)

DHOBLEY, Somalia — Adan Dahir Hassan sits in a bald office, wires dangling from the ceiling, handing out death sentences. Recently installed by an Islamist warlord, Mr. Hassan recalled how he had ordered a soldier who had killed a civilian, possibly by accident, to be delivered to the victim’s family, which promptly shot him in the head.

“It’s Islamic law,” said Mr. Hassan, the professed district commissioner of this bullet-riddled town. “That’s what makes the community feel happy.”

For the first time in years, the Shabab Islamist group that has long tormented Somalis is receding from several areas at once, including this one, handing the Transitional Federal Government an enormous opportunity to finally step outside the capital and begin uniting this fractious country after two decades of war. (more…)

A French court is prosecuting six Somali men accused of holding a French couple hostage on their boat. The trial begins in Paris today.

 Experienced sailors Jean-Yves and Bernadette Delanne were en route from Australia to France when the suspected pirates boarded their vessel in September 2008 demanding a ransom of one million US dollars.

The lawyer representing one of the accused, Aurélie Cerceau, claimed some people are forced into hijacking boats. (more…)

Shimon Peres, the Israeli president, said his country is ready to “make everything available” to Kenya to secure its borders and boost its internal security as it continues its incursion into its anarchic neighbour.

 Details of the deal were not immediately released.

But Raila Odinga, Kenya’s prime minister, said that increasing internal security threats “called for more advanced and improved security measures”.

Kenyan forces swept across the border into Somalia six weeks ago, with the aim of routing al-Shabaab, Somalia’s al-Qaeda-linked Islamist insurgents.

“Israel can help Kenya police to build the capacity to be able to detect militants, know what kinds of arms they have and pre-empt and destroy the networks that recruit youths and kill inside the country,” Mr Odinga said in a statement. (more…)

Kenya’s hopes of creating a border buffer zone in southern Somalia called Azania have been raised by its military incursion there last month, but analysts warn of high risks of such a political gamble.

 While the Kenyan government has said it sent its troops and tanks across the border to target Islamist Shebab rebels, analysts say the move appears to be aimed at setting up a proxy administration and region of control.

“It is understandable why the Kenyan government would want a buffer between themselves and the chaos in Somalia in general and any spillover of Al-Shebab?s militancy in particular,” said J. Peter Pham of the Atlantic Council think-tank. (more…)

The United Nations special envoy for Somalia says a Security Council-appointed monitoring group will recommend sanctions against the al-Qaida linked militant group al-Shabab.  Six East African countries involved in the fight against al-Shabab are appealing for more international support as they seek to defeat the rebels.

With al-Shabab said to be in disarray, the defense chiefs of Kenya, Uganda, Ethiopia, Djibouti, Somalia and Burundi met at African Union headquarters Monday to discuss how to defeat them.  But sources close to the talks say the day ended with no agreement on a command structure that would coordinate activities of the various forces involved in the fight. (more…)

WASHINGTON — Kenya’s UN envoy on Tuesday courted support from Washington for his country’s campaign against Islamist Shebab rebels in southern Somalia.

“We would love to see the international community, with the US right up there, engaging in Somalia in ways in which they have not for quite a long time,” Ambassador Macharia Kamau told AFP in an interview.

Kenya deployed tanks and troops to the Shebab-controlled southern Somalia on October 14 to fight the Al-Qaeda-linked rebels Nairobi blames for kidnapping foreigners and making cross-border raids. (more…)

Nairobi — The Sunday night missile attack near Mogadishu targeted a meeting of top Al-Shabaab commanders.

Among those at the meeting at the militants’ bases were spiritual leader Sheikh Hassan Dahir Aweys, Ahmad Godane Abu Zubayr and a Mr ‘Amerika’.

The whereabouts of the three remained unknown on Tuesday night amid reports that they had been killed.

“We are informed that they hit their targets,” said African Union Mission for Somalia deputy special representative Wafula Wamunyinyi. (more…)

NAIROBI, Kenya — The African Union is considering an ambitious plan to stabilize Somalia that could involve using thousands of Ethiopian troops to open a new front against the Shabab militant group, officials of the union said Thursday.

The African Union’s peacekeepers are already battling the Shabab in Mogadishu, the capital, and Kenyan forces have recently begun fighting the Shabab in southern Somalia near Kismaayo. But the prospect of the Ethiopian Army returning to the country under the African Union’s banner is highly charged because of Ethiopia’s bitter history in Somalia.

(more…)

Ethiopia’s football team has reached the group stage of the 2014 World Cup qualifiers with a comfortable victory over neighboring Somalia. But, for the thousands of Somalis packed into a corner of Addis Ababa stadium, a 5-0 drubbing felt like a victory.

As Somalia’s fans trooped out of the stands following Wednesday’s game, you might have thought they had won. Twenty-five-year-old Mohamed Hussein, a Somali refugee from Mogadishu, was ecstatic.

“I’m so happy, I want to thank the players, and I want to thank the people of Somalia today who stay in Addis Ababa who support our team,” said Hussein.

A valiant Somali side held Ethiopia to a scoreless draw in the first leg of this home and away match, held Saturday in Djibouti.

In this return leg in Addis Ababa, the Ocean Stars trailed by only 1-0 at the one hour mark, before the superior Ethiopian side unleashed a torrent of goals. (more…)

Saif al-Islam Gaddafi, the fugitive son of Libya’s deceased former dictator, has been arrested in southern Libya, according to officials from the country’s new government.

He was captured by revolutionary fighters in the western town of Obari, near the Algerian border, said the interim justice minister and other officials.

Saif was said to be in good health, and was captured with two aides trying to smuggle him out to neighboring Niger. He was taken to the western mountain town of Zintan, the home of one of the largest revolutionary brigades in Libya. (more…)

A Kenyan military spokesman says that 23 Kenyan serviceman have been killed in Somalia. Three were killed by Somali gunmen and five died in a helicopter crash, and 15 Kenyan troops have been killed by Somali government soldiers working with the Kenyan troops, as a conflict between the two sides intensified. Reports indicate that three Somali soldiers gunned down 15 Kenyan troops near the southern town of Tabataa, escaping with Kenyan military trucks.
(more…)

United Nations has said famine no longer exists in three of the worst-affected areas of Somalia following the intervention of aid agencies and rainfall.

The new UN report is the first sign of a slow reversal in the tide of tragic news from Somalia. Three regions of southern Somalia — Bay, Bakool and Lower Shabelle — which were famine zones a few months ago are now classified as one step less severe than a famine. Three other areas, including the squalid camps in the capital, Mogadishu and Afgoye, remain in a state of famine.

The report includes that the Somalia diaspora and Islamic Aid agencies, like Turkish groups and other Muslim organizations have been ramping up operations and scrambling to find ways to obviate the Shabab restrictions, relying on technologies like sending money electronically by cellphone so people in famine zones can buy food from local markets. According to the report released Friday, the efforts seem to be working, more food is flowing through markets and prices are falling. Seasonal rains have also replenished pastures. (more…)

Ethiopian troops which were in convoys of armored vehicles crossed from Balanbale district on the border to Somalia. This will be the largest Ethiopian troops incursion since 2009 when they withdrew after a controversial three-year presence.

Some of the residents said “They were in about 28 trucks and armed battle wagons – the armed vehicles are very big. Ethiopians had set up a base in Guriel and moved troops to other towns nearby.”

A spokesman for the Ethiopian government, Shimeles Kemal, would neither confirm nor deny the reports. Another Ethiopian official told Reuters that an Ethiopian move to support the Kenyan assault on the al Shabaab group was likely. (more…)

A 25-year-old woman who was due to be married on Friday was found brutally murdered on Thursday night. The victim, a young Kuwaiti woman who has not been named, was discovered by her brother at her home in the Jaber Al-Ali district of Kuwait.  She was allegedly murdered by 28-year-old Ethiopian housemaid, identified as Aisha Al-Failakawi who stabbed the victim in her bed before severing her head with an axe. (more…)

US assassination drones launched aerial attacks in southern Somalia in a town called Bilis Qooqaani, which is located 448 kilometers (278 miles) southwest of the Somali capital Mogadishu. Somali tribal elders said at least 79 people were killed and dozens of people were also injured in the attacks.

Eyewitness have from the town of Tabataa also said, at least 38 people were killed and over 66 others were wounded after US remote-controlled terror drones launched attacks on Tabataa town, which is located in the southern Lower Juba region of Somalia. (more…)

A senior UN aid worker in Somalia who did not wish to be named says humanitarian situations in Somalia might get worse because of corruption within the UN aid agencies. He said the UN would not admit this because it has to show the aid money was being well spent and having an impact.

Oxfam’s country director for Somalia a British aid agency said concerned conflicts were jeopardizing the aid effort. The famine is likely to linger in several areas of Somalia for the rest of the year if these conflicts are not resolved. (more…)

Few days ago, the largest Ethiopian troops were ordered into Somalia since 2009 when they withdrew after a controversial three-year presence. The Ethiopian troops, which were in convoys of armored vehicles crossed into Somalia. This was the largest Ethiopian troops incursion since 2009.

On Monday, Somali government spokesman Abdirahman Omar Osman denied that Ethiopian troops have entered Somalia to help fight insurgents despite several witnesses reporting the movement of troops. He said Ethiopian troops would only be welcome if they had an international mandate or a bilateral agreement with the Somali government, but there is currently no such agreement. “We believe that they are not in the country,” he said “We deny it.” (more…)

Over 12,000 refugees and migrants arrived in Yemen by boat in October, the highest monthly total since the United Nations refugee agency began tracking the flow of between the Horn of Africa and Yemen nearly six years ago.

The 12,545 arrivals last month brings the total so far this year to 84,656, according to the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). This exceeds the previous annual record of 77,000 in 2009.

“With the autumn sailing season still in full swing, we expect the numbers for 2011 to grow further,” Melissa Fleming, UNHCR’s spokesperson in Geneva, told reporters.

Of this year’s arrivals 23,079 are from Somalia, while nearly all the remaining 61,577 are Ethiopians. (more…)

Heavy rains and an outbreak of cholera in Kenya’s Dadaab complex is exacerbating the situation in the overcrowded refugee camp, where aid efforts were already hampered by insecurity, the United Nations reported today.

There are now 60 cases of cholera in the camps, including 10 laboratory-confirmed cases and one refugee death, according to Andrej Mahecic, a spokesperson for the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).

The cholera is believed to have started among new arrivals who had most likely acquired it in Somalia or en route to Dadaab, he told reporters in Geneva. (more…)

Famine has been declared in parts of Somalia where the most severe drought in 60 years has exacerbated the world’s worst humanitarian crisis. Some 12 million people in the entire Horn of Africa have been affected by the drought and a quarter of Somalia’s population has been displaced by ongoing conflict and the food crisis.

Representative Donald Payne (D-NJ) is sponsoring a resolution to call attention to the severe humanitarian crisis. The resolution welcomes the U.S. Administration’s current efforts to respond to the crisis and calls on the U.S. government to continue to provide humanitarian assistance to those in need. It also highlights the importance of sustainable agricultural assistance that will prevent this type of tragedy in the future. (more…)

The Horn of Africa has been experiencing its worst drought in 60 years. 13.3 million people mostly nomadic pastoralists and farmers in the areas of south-central Somalia are severely lacking access to food and water. The crisis currently affects 4 million people in Somalia.

The violent conflict and extremely high food prices in Somalia compound the emergency there, causing extremely severe rates of malnutrition, mass migration to refugee camps in Kenya and Ethiopia, and widespread death. In mid-July, the United Nations declared famine in several areas of south-central Somalia, including Bakool, Lower Shabelle, some districts of Middle Shabelle, Bay region, and in camps hosting displaced people arriving in Mogadishu and Afgoye. On November 18, FEWS-Net downgraded the famine in the Bay, Bakool, and Lower Shabelle regions of southern Somalia. However, these populations risk slipping back into a state of famine unless humanitarian actors maintain assistance and improve coordination. Famine will persist at least through December 2011 in the agro-pastoral areas of Middle Shabelle and among Afgoye and Mogadishu IDP populations. (more…)

A month ago, Kenya warned aircrafts 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 were supplying weapons to the al-Shabab militants. Kenya’s government said at least three aircraft have landed in southern Somalia carrying weapons suspected of being for the militia, which is being targeted by Kenyan and Ethiopian military forces that began an incursion into Somalia and added that two of the aircrafts landed in Baidoa. (more…)

Somali MPs have held a meeting in Mogadishu opposing a joint committee nominated by the Somali prime minster a day ago and approved by less than 10 MPs. The joint committee will be tasked for processing the transitional federal government road map for one year period. The number of MPs who were 185 declared their opposition to the joint committee and have stated that the joint committee unlawful. The MPs have recommended that the joint committee should pass through to the parliament floor for recognition. The nomination of any committee must be brought to the Parliament and be approved by the Parliament as the constitution states. (more…)

In many ways, the American role in the long-running conflict in Somalia is shaping up as the opposite of its previous wars: relatively inexpensive, with limited or hidden U.S. footprints.

Recently, US assassination drones launched aerial attacks in a number of towns in southern Somalia. The Obama administration has embraced a new strategy as a model for dealing with failed states or places inherently hostile to American interests. In this new strategy, the Obama administration is intensifying its campaign against the Somali opposition groups in Somalia by boosting the number of proxy forces in the war-torn country, expanding drone operations and strengthening military partnerships with Kenya and Ethiopia. (more…)

Somali Prime Minister Dr. Abdiweli Mohamed Ali playing soccer at Mogadishu beach with members of his Cabinet and Staff

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THE ROADMAP TO END THE TRANSITION IN SOMALIA: PROGRESS REPORT, 24 NOVEMBER 2011

1. SECURITY:

1.1. The Joint Security Committee (JSC) has been meeting regularly for the past few months. The August JSC meeting was the first JSC meeting that took place within Mogadishu. The October JSC meeting was conducted in the new 2-day format called for by the Roadmap and, for the first time, included representatives from regional stakeholders, Puntland, Galmudug and ASWJ.

1.2. The National Security and Stabilization Plan 2011-2014 (NSSP) has been drafted and finalized with input from regional stakeholders, Puntland, Galmudug and ASWJ. The NSSP was debated and approved by the Council of Ministers at an emergency meeting on 26 October 2011. On 29 October, the NSSP was submitted to Parliament, for discussion and adoption when Parliament resumed after the Islamic Holiday (Eid) break. (more…)

Turkish Deputy Prime Minister Bekir Bozdag and a top delegation on Saturday arrived in the Somali capital Mogadishu for talks with senior TFG officials. Turkey has been in the forefront in the international effort to assist Somalia following the drought and the resultant famine that struck the south of the war-ravaged country early this year.

The Turkish delegation held talk with senior Somali officials including Prime Minister Abdiweli Mohamed Ali and members of his cabinet. Security in the Somali capital was tightened ahead of the Turkish delegation’s arrival. Thousands of police and military personnel were stationed along key roads in the city. (more…)

New details have emerged that show that despite the display of diplomatic niceties and pledges of co-operation between Kenya and the Transitional Federal Government in Somalia, deep misgivings remain in Mogadishu that Kenya’s engagement is likely to shift the power balance in Somalia in favour of the populous Ogaden clan.

Apparently, the inner circle in Mogadishu is uncomfortable with the visibility and prominence in the Kenyan military operation of Kenyan ethnic Somalis — a good number of whom are members of the Ogaden clan.

A top Kenya government official involved in the negotiations told The EastAfrican last week that the elite of the TFG were also still not agreed on the appropriate level and extent of Kenya’s engagement in the crisis. (more…)

While the US State Department’s top Africa policymaker warned Ethiopia not to invade Somalia. Ethiopian troops have entered deep into the central Somalia into Beledweyne town of Hiraan region. Witnesses have said that al-Shabab had treated Somalis like “slaves in our own country” and that they welcomed the Ethiopians, they also acknowledged that convoys of heavily-armed Ethiopian troops have already passed Beledweyne and are heading for South of the Town into Bakool region. (more…)

Al Shabaab rebels banned international aid agencies from working in Somalia on Monday and began seizing and looting some of their offices in southern and central areas of the country, the Islamist group and aid sources said. The move comes as aid groups battle to stem a famine that has left a quarter of a million Somalis in danger of starvation and Kenyan, Somali and Ethiopian forces fight the al-Qaeda-inspired rebels in the south and center of the country. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, voiced a grave concern over the seizure by members of Somalia’s Al-Shabaab insurgent group of property belonging to United Nations agencies and several non-governmental organizations (NGOS) striving to alleviate the humanitarian crisis in the country’s south. (more…)

Somalia, the African country where 13 year old Aisha Ibrahim Duhulow was stoned to death by Al-Shabab, is the world’s worst humanitarian crisis, according to the UN.

• The population of Somalia is 8.4 million.
• More than 3.2 million need humanitarian aid
• More than 1.1 million are displaced.
• Refugees from Somalia last year: 457,000
• Doctors per 100,000 people: 4
• Population with access to clean water: 29%
• Children under-five under height for age: 38%
• Under-five mortality rate: 145 per 1000 live births
• Children attending primary school: Boys -24%; Girls – 20%

Humanitarian aid often fails to reach those who need it because of conflict, high inflation, and corruption, pirate attacks on sea deliveries, roadblocks and armed attacks on aid convoys. (more…)

A three day consultative meeting of civil society representatives has concluded in Mogadishu with the plenary expressing full support for the Roadmap on ending the transition which charts the major tasks which need to take place over the next nine months in Somalia. The Civil Society Consultative Meeting on Ending the Transition, which met from 26 – 28 November, involved 60 representatives of religious leaders, clan elders, the business community, the Diaspora, youth and women’s groups. The meeting, facilitated by the UN Political Office for Somalia, brought these groups together with representatives of the Transitional Federal Institutions, Puntland and Galmudug administrations and Ahlu Sunnah Wal Jama’a (ASWJ). (more…)

Resettlement of tens of thousands of drought-displaced Somalis, most of whom had sought refuge in the capital, Mogadishu, is under way, with aid agencies organizing voluntary returns to several areas in southern Somalia, officials told IRIN.

“We started a project to resettle some 4,000 families [24,000 people] back to their homes in time for them to take advantage of what is left of the rainy season,” said Mohamed Abdullahi Hussein, the director of the United Arab Emirates-Red Crescent Society (UAE-RCS)in Somalia. (more…)

Insecurity and conflict due to insurgency is now one of the main causes for displacement in Somalia’s capital, Mogadishu, the United Nations refugee agency said today, warning that constant fighting is also hampering aid efforts in the country.

“In Mogadishu, we noted a profound change in the root causes driving forced displacement,” said Andrej Mahecic, spokesperson for the Office of the High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). “While drought accounted for the vast majority of displacement in the Somali capital during the first three quarters of the year, as of October we have seen 8,300 people displaced by conflict and just 500 displaced as a result of drought.” (more…)

New commitments by Somalia’s transitional Government and the Central African Republic (CAR) to end the use of child soldiers are encouraging, a United Nations envoy stressed today, but warned that despite these advancements, the situation in both countries remains volatile.

During her recent visit to Somalia, the Secretary-General’s Special Representative for Children and Armed Conflict Radhika Coomaraswamy secured a commitment from the President and Prime Minister Abdiweli Mohamed Ali to enter a process to end the recruitment and use of children by the Transitional Federal Government (TFG). (more…)

The Al-Qaida linked terrorist group of Al-shabaab, have carried out a wave of suicide boming in Mogadishu, Somalia. The first blast happened as a suicide bomber dressed in a military uniform triggered his explosives at the headquarters of the Somali army, killing four soldiers, 12 others were wounded, four seriously. One soldier at the scene of the attack who gave his name only as Ali said the bomber feigned a stomach ache outside the military headquarters in order to attract soldiers to him. (more…)

While every 6 minutes a child dies in Somali for a famine, according to the USAid website, three locally owned banks Franklin Bank, Park Midway Bank, and University Bank headquartered in Minneapolis and Saint Paul decided to stop serving all the Somali owned Hawala Banks in Minnesota by December 15, 2011.

Hawala as it is known is an alternative remittance system that is based on the performance and honor of a huge network of money brokers who would ensure that funds were delivered to family members inside Somalia or in refugee camps in the Horn of Africa. For Somalis Hawala Banks started as a way for them to send cash back to their extended families in Somalia while fleeing poverty, repression, anarchy and, more recently famine.To the Somali community here in Minnesota which this issue would affect them and their loved once in Somalia, use it in a way to support their relatives back home in Somalia a country ravaged by 2 decades of civil war and famine. (more…)

 Omar Jamal, media’s most abundant talking head on Somali issues and former executive director of the Somali Justice Advocacy Center and current Somali Transitional Federal Government representative to the United Nations, has called and filed a report with the St. Paul police on October, 31 2011 claiming he was receiving threatening messages from alleged members of the terrorist group Al-Shabaab.

According to a search warrant filed by St. Paul police department on November 30, 2011 to get access to Jamal’s Facebook account including subscriber information and subscriber content and private messages. In the warrant it said that, Jamal told officers that he received a text message, a phone call and Facebook messages. The Facebook messages included the statements, “I’ll take care of you” and “I’ll be your worse (sic) nightmare,” Jamal told police.  (more…)

Earlier the year, the UN said tens of thousands of people have died after what is said to be East Africa’s worst drought for 60 years. 12 million people across the region needed food aid. The UN’s Food Security and Nutrition Analysis Unit (FSNAU) have said that 4 million people were in crisis in Somalia, with 750,000 deaths because of the absence of adequate response. The UN now claims only 10,000 people have died from hunger and its related conditions this year, not only Somalia but the region (that is including Kenya and Ethiopia). The UN continued to say “the situation will continue to worsen into 2012″. Rain will mean a better harvest, but it will also mean an increase in malaria and cholera.

Don’t you think there are some difficult questions to be answered here about the handling of the famine? Predictions of 750,000 deaths in Somalia alone to just 10,000 deaths in the whole region that is a difference of 740,000 lives? (more…)

A huge explosion was heard on Tuesday in the battered city Mogadishu the capital of Somalia, witnesses reported a car exploded while it was being searched, killing at least five people, including two policemen, witness said.

Fighters from the Islamist militant group al-Shabaab have staged several suicide attacks in Mogadishu in recent weeks after the main insurgent group Al-Shabaab was largely driven out of the city in August. The internationally recognized government claimed 95 percent for the first time in August with the backing of the African Union peacekeeping mission. (more…)

In the industrialized western countries, we instinctively believe that food aid is a very worthy cause and many do their utmost to genuinely help in this field but in reality while we genuinely try at least some of us offer support to victims of famine and conflicts, our countries’ policies and agendas take food, security and other resources away from these counties.

Many believe this myth in helping to end world hunger, the western countries’ primary responsibility is to increase and improve their foreign aid. But what many don’t know is that the west’s foreign assistance programs are vital to the achievement of their foreign policy goals; that means whether the aid benefits the hungry is determined by the motives and goals of that policy — by how a government defines the national interest. (more…)

After creating humanitarian crisis in southern Somalia by blocking much needed outside emergency food aid Al-Shabab has new arsenal to strike in the hearts and minds of Somalis, so that the Somalis can forget the devastating famine partially caused by Al-Shabab.

Twitter is the latest arsenal tool for Al Shabab, under the name @HSMPress (Harakat Al-Shabaab Al Mujahideen Press Office) created Sept. 16 but issued the first tweets this Wednesday, and it did attract more than 800 followers so far since this past Wednesday. (more…)

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon today discussed the situations in Somalia and Sudan with Kenyan President Mwai Kibaki, taking note of progress since the adoption by Somalia’s leadership of a political roadmap on the restoration of peace and stability in the Horn of Africa. Mr. Ban reaffirmed UN support for the implementation of the roadmap by the Transitional Federal Government with the support of the international community. The Secretary-General also welcomed the endorsement by the Kenyan Parliament yesterday of the Government’s decision to have the country’s troops join the African Union peacekeeping mission in Somalia (AMISOM), which he said needed to be brought to its full capacity.

United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon has commended and welcomed Kenya’s leadership role in efforts to stabilize Somalia. He especially pointed out at the great sacrifice Kenya had taken in efforts that have given the people of Somalia the best opportunity for stability and prosperity after 20 years of civil war. (more…)

 As the highest-ranking foreign official to visit the war-torn capital city of Somalia for many years, the UN secretary general calmly lands in Mogadishu wearing a bulletproof vest as he was welcomed at the airport by Somalia’s President Sheikh Sharif Ahmed and Prime Minister Abdiweli Mohamed Ali. Ban was accompanied by Mahiga and the U.N General Assembly President Nassir Abdulaziz al-Nasser. His visit comes a day after the fiercest clashes in the city have been occurring in the last couple of days.

The reason why the UN secretary general and U.N General Assembly President Nassir Abdulaziz al-Nasser took this risky trip to Somalia is supposed to be a powerful message from the UN to Somalia’s corrupt and divided leadership- a visit from the UN secretary general and the head of the UN general assembly urging the TFG and TFP to stick to the political roadmap which should see a new constitution and a reformed parliament by August. Ban also urged all Somalis to support the political roadmap agreed earlier this year that is meant to lead to parliamentary and presidential elections next year and end a string of fragile transition governments. (more…)

President Sheik Sharif Sheik Ahmed huddled out of Mogadishu, Somali after Ban Ki-moon’s surprise Mogadishu trip which he met Somali government officials namely the President Sheik Sharif Sheik Ahmed and Prime Minister Abdiweli Mohamed.

President Sheik Ahmed with high delegations he led reached Qatar’s capital city of Doha.

The official trip of the Somali President to Doha was accompanied by high level government officials. The Somali President Sheik Sharif’s spokesman told reporters in the airport that the President got an invitation from the government of Qatar, adding that in this trip the president will discuss about the worsening humanitarian situation in the drought-ravaged state of Somalia and how the roadmap will affect the various Somali factions. (more…)

 A report from the U.N. revealed that al-Shabaab’s revenues are between $70 and $100 million per year, propelling it into the top tier of global jihadist funding trailing behind the Taliban, Hezbollah, FARC and Hamas.

The once ragtag Somalia-based al Qaeda affiliate has grown into an economic powerhouse, raising tens of millions of dollars in cash every year from a variety of schemes involving duties and fees levied at airports and seaports, taxes on goods and services, taxes in kind on domestic produce, jihad contributions, checkpoints and various other forms justified in terms of religious obligation, according to the July 18 report from the U.N. Monitoring Group on Somalia and Eritrea. (more…)

 A warplane bombed a rebel-held town in southern Somalia Saturday, hitting an empty feeding center run by the Somali Red Crescent Society (SRCS) and killing one civilian, residents said.

They could not identify who carried out the attack in the town of Baardheere. Kenya, which is eight weeks into a ground and air offensive to crush the al Shabaab rebel group, said on Saturday it had launched an air strike earlier this week on a compound nearby.

“The bomb hit a feeding center run by the Red Crescent Society and a school building,” Hawa Abdillah Mo’alim told Reuters by telephone. “Fortunately it was not a food distribution day,” said the woman, a recipient of food aid herself. (more…)

 Al-Shabab have been striking at Kenya’s security personnel bases at the border of North Eastern Province with explosives, with the latest attack coming on Monday in Wajir during a Jamhuri Day rally. On the other side Kenya Air  Force have been bombing non-military areas in large towns in southern Somalia latest been the Kenyan air strike the hit  Somali Red Crescent Society feeding center in the city of Bardheere.

While Kenyan soldiers and Al-Shabab soldiers have been fighting each other in Somalia since Kenya invaded Somalia. Now, their spokesmen are taking the battle onto Twitter, with taunts, accusations and insults being directly traded in a rare engagement on the Internet. (more…)

 While the Transitional Federal Government (TFG) of Somalia and AMISOM troops are engaged in a serious battle with opposing militias in Somalia, some members of the parliament have decided to hold a session after they had sign a deal about 6 months ago which would not allow any parliament sessions to be held until the end of the Transition. These MPs have decided to bring a motion to remove Speaker Sharif Hassan Sheikh Aden, who is currently on a foreign trip in Italy.

The MPs who held the emergency meeting have stated that their decision comes after Mr. Sharif Hassan decided to ignore their decision to open parliament session due to allegations of overstepping his authority. (more…)

Please click: A Press release from President Shiek Sharif Shiek Ahmed’s Office regarding the brawls of the Somali parliament after the ousting of Sharif Hassan Sheik Adan. 

 The process of dividing the territories of post-independence Somalia into a set of dependencies on regional powers namely Ethiopia and Kenya has entered its second phase. Kenyan and Somali TFG troops say they will push deeper into insurgent-controlled territory in southern Somalia. Kenya’s military objectives in Somalia is no longer unclear since they become part of AMISOM with the idea now floated that Kenya will not be satisfied until it meets up with the other AMISOM and TFG troops who are due to move from Mogadishu to the city of Marka or Brawa as Ban Ki Moo had suggested in his meeting with UN security council.

Problems are raising since Kenya’s invasion to Somalia. The first problem is that the west and UN Security Council who supported the invasion of Somalia, wanted the invasion to deliver a quick knockout blow to Al-Shabaab, but due to rainy season the military operations could not go as intended. (more…)

 The speaker of Somalia’s parliament Sharif Hassan has rejected an effort to oust him from power; after 280 out of 500 MPs voted to get rid of him, as the temporary parliament speaker Mr. Nuunow has claimed.

Mr. Adan who is currently on a trip to Italy, has spoken to VOA a day after his first deputy Speaker Abdiweli Sheikh Ibrahim Mudey was blocked from entering Parliament and fistfights broke out in the Somali parliament between his opponents and supporters. He said “the vote had no legitimacy because he is out of the country”, in Italy. He also said “the number of votes against him was much lower than reported”.

The opposing MPs accuse Mr Adan of making unilateral decisions, failing to recognize separation of powers, failing to develop plan for Parliament’s work and reopening it and lack of transparency and accountability. Mr. Adan’s opponents complained that he has refused to hold debates on the roadmap for Somalia’s political future and a new constitution. (more…)

 The first Djiboutian contingent of 200 soldiers out of the 850 promised peacekeeping soldiers have landed in Mogadishu on Tuesday to join the African Union force in Somalia.

A spokesman for the mission of the tiny country of Djibouti said earlier of the month that the government of Djibouti promises to send about 850 soldiers to an African Union peacekeeping mission in Somalia before the end of the year. Djibouti a Somali-speaking country is the only third country to contribute to the peacekeeping mission in Somalia after a series of unmet promises from a number of African nations. The troops from Djibouti, will join roughly 9,000 Burundian and Ugandan soldiers, who have been deployed since 2007 to protect the Somali government from the Al-Shabab in the war-shattered capital of Mogadishu. AU commanders say they need up to 20,000 troops to hold on to Mogadishu after Al-Shabab group have withdrawn from the capital in September. (more…)

 A rowdy parliament session in war-torn Somalia degenerated into fistfights and kicks after disagreements over the establishment of election committee for the next Speaker of the Parliament.

Dozens of lawmakers loyal to the Speaker of the Parliament rejected discussions to elect a committee that would elect the next Speaker of the Parliament. They started shouting, causing a mess that triggered fighting. Fist fights broke out when a voting session started for a motion to establish an election committee for the next Speaker of the Parliament.

The motion to establish the committee was voted on and passed the floor of the parliament after the Second Deputy Speaker of the Parliament Mr. Axmed Dhimbil Rooble (Casoowe) took the Speaker’s seat. There were 290 Members of the Parliament who were present in the session, 287 voted to elect the election committee. MP Axmed Dhimbil Rooble has promised that he will select a committee to elect the next Speaker of the Parliament soon within the 30 day dateline. (more…)

 No one would mind to hear a stupid things from a President or Parliament Speaker with no real educational background but when Harvard trained economist denies that people are starving in Mogadishu, contradicting the United Nations and the squalid evidence of the growing camps of visibly malnourished people that litter the city; that is new level of foolishness.

Click here to watch interview video: Somali Prime Minister Interview

After years of civil war and seasons of failed rains, he UN declared famine in much of southern Somalia where Al Shabaab controls. Tens of thousands had died and a further 750,000 faced starvation. (more…)

In this video recorded by Al-Shabab soldiers shows Al-Shabab accusing a blind elderly man named Shiekh AbdulRaxim Cusman Haji Maclin for being infidel while he denies it. The elder man who returned from the Hajj the night before, seems frightened while his son is beaten in front of him, if you look closely you can see the blood stain from his son on the elder man’s left shoulder.

The islamic militias Al-Shabab have been condemned by Amnesty international and many other human rights organizations for carrying out amputations and executions on innocent people and abusing the old-aged people in Somalia especially the Sufis of Southern Somalia.

 Human trafficking involves the recruitment, transport and receipt of adults or children for the sole purpose of their exploitation also referred to as modern day slavery. The human trafficking trade out of Somalia is now one of the busiest, most lucrative and the most lethal in the world. The ferocious violence and anarchy in the region has kept the scale of profits and misery the most hidden from outside eyes. Trafficking networks exist that transport children and young girls to South Africa and the Gulf States, mainly the United Arab Emirates for commercial sexual exploitation  and labour exploitation, children and girls are mainly trafficked from south-central Somalia, because of the lack of government.

In the past three years IOM was able to collect information providing initial evidence that human trafficking occurs in many parts of Somalia mainly the regions of Somaliland and Puntland with victims from South Central Somalia. (more…)

 On Thursday, when one of the Somali staff members of Medicines Sans Frontiers (MSF) decided to go to a shooting rampage against his former colleagues at the Medicines Sans Frontiers compound in Mogadishu, Al-Shabab was twitting the accident as it was happening way before Somali’s Transitional Federal Government’s Spy Agency known as National Security Agency (NSA) knew of what was happening. The gunman killed a French and Indonesian aid worker, working for the Belgian branch Medicines Sans Frontiers, the suspect had worked for the aid organization but had recently been fired.

According to well-connected Somali source who claims to be within the Somali NSA said we were at the Aden Adde International Airport and some of the NSA agents were on training on how to snatch a suspected Al-Shabab people of the street when the accident was happening, one of the western advisors found out what was going on from his computer when the media started posting. (more…)

 After residents of Beledweyne welcomed the presence of Ethiopia’s military as they forced out Al-Shabab militants out of the town on Monday. The leader of Somalia’s Al Shabaab insurgent group, Ahmed Abdi Godane, has issued a public outcry on Radio Andulus, Al Shabaab mouthpiece in south-central Somalia. After condemning the leaders of the Transitional Federal Government (TFG) of Somalia for “welcoming” foreign troops into the country, Mr. Godane said (more…)

 A rowdy parliament session in war-torn Somalia degenerated into fistfights and kicks for the third time after the renegade MPs have tried to elect the next Speaker of the Parliament.

A parliament session was held by certain renegade parliament members opposing the Kampala Accord and UN peace process roadmap. Candidates for the leadership of the parliament were expected to be heard from, since the renegade MPs announced earlier last month that they ousted Sharif Hassan as the speaker.

 Dozens of lawmakers loyal to the Speaker of the Parliament Sharif Hassan came to the Parliament Hall, when the meeting was going to end and began kicks, fistfights and tore all documents written by reneged MPs led by (more…)

 The United Nations envoy for Somalia today strongly warned anyone trying to undermine an agreed framework outlining political actions required to restore peace and stability in the country that their actions will not be tolerated by the international community.

 The Somalia Prime Minister Abdiweli Mohamed Ali accompanied by the defense minister Hussein Arab Isse, minister of Planning Abdullahi Godah Barre, along with several military commanders landed at a small airstrip in Beletweyn on Friday after Ethiopian and Somali TFG government  military had seized the town from Al-Shabab last week.

The Prime Minister and his delegation guarded by Ethiopian Military Security were welcomed by and had a meeting with elders of the Hiiraan region and many local residents and with the Ethiopian officials. The prime minister had suggested that AMISOM troops will soon replace the Ethiopian forces in the areas liberated with the support of Ethiopian army. At same time the Prime Minister had rejected claims that came from (more…)

 There is a close collaboration among many of Somalia’s neighboring states in fighting against Al-Shabab militia. The war in Somalia has led to close intelligence collaboration between Burundi, Ruwanda, Djibouti, Kenya, Ethiopia and Uganda in monitoring Al Shabaab activities. The first public indication of this increasingly tight-knit intelligence networking from these countries came during the November 2011 Inter-Governmental Authority on Development (IGAD) session, which was held to discuss the Somalia crisis. It has emerged that there was a technical meeting on the sideline to try to hammer out a framework for intelligence and military joint operations.

Even though each state has its separate intelligence gathering network and there is no recognized joint regional intelligence entity, all of the countries have agree to have an inelegancy attaché in each countries’ intelligence departments and have a call sessions with each other on ministerial levels to exchange information on the activities of Al Shabaab. (more…)

 Addis Ababa, Ethiopia – The Inter-Governmental Authority on Development (IGAD) Council of Ministers warned Tuesday they would invoke regional sanctions against some Somali parliamentarians for attempting to destroy the foundations of Somalia’s political stability. The nomination of the new Somali parliamentary speaker will lead to sanctions against the “spoilers” of the country’s peace process. The Speaker’s post is critical under the current political dispensation in Somalia, because the Speaker is mandated to chair a special parliamentary sitting to elect Somalia’s new President, until a direct vote is held.

According to the rules governing the Somali Transitional Federal Parliament, the oldest parliamentarian in the House is tasked with the responsibility of chairing the session to elect the new Speaker, in case of a vacancy.

However, the new political plan in Somalia, known as the Kampala Accord, (more…)

 The United Nations refugee agency said today it is increasingly concerned about insecurity in and around camps hosting hundreds of thousands of Somali refugees in the Horn of Africa.

“The situation is particularly worrying, complex and tenuous in the Dadaab refugee camps in northern Kenya where the threat of improvised explosive devices, kidnappings, vehicle hijackings and banditry remains high,” Andrej Mahecic, spokesperson for the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), told reporters in Geneva.

He added that, along with killings of police officers and kidnappings of aid workers, the agency is also witnessing the targeting of refugees. Two refugee leaders who had volunteered to help maintain peace and safety in the camps were murdered at the turn of the year. (more…)

WASHINGTON — IRS e-file: It’s safe. It’s easy. It’s time. Most taxpayers—nearly 80 percent– file electronically. If you haven’t tried it, now is the time! The IRS has processed more than 1 billion individual tax returns safely and securely since the nationwide debut of electronic filing in 1990. In fact, last year, 112 million people – 78 percent of all individual taxpayers – used IRS e-file to electronically transmit their tax returns to the IRS. The number of people who use a paper tax return or who mail a tax return dwindles each year – and for good reason .

1. Safety and security.  E-file providers must meet strict guidelines and provide the best in encryption technology. You receive an acknowledgement within 48 hours that the IRS received your return. If the IRS rejects the return, the receipt will explain why so you can quickly correct and resubmit. (more…)

 A joint meeting of the EAC sectorial councils on Cooperation in Defence, Inter-state Security and Foreign Policy Coordination has concluded today in Arusha, Tanzania.

The main focus of the EAC Council of Ministers joint meeting was to adopt and finalize:

• EAC Protocol on Peace and Security which was adopted late last year. The adopted protocol has policy guidelines on counter terrorism, piracy and detention of offenders. (more…)