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Somali Militias Could Face War Crime Charges
Mogadishu - Members of militias fighting for control of the Somali capital could face war crimes charges for attempting to prevent the wounded and civilians from receiving assistance during the conflict, a UN official said on Monday.
Since the beginning of the year, the battle between fundamentalist Islamic militias and rival secular combatants had forced about 1 500 people to seek treatment at Mogadishu's two main hospitals, said Eric Laroche, the UN Humanitarian Co-ordinator for Somalia.
Over the past few days, hundreds have fled Mogadishu to avoid the fighting that has killed at least 83 people since last Wednesday.
"Due to the intensity of the recent fighting, an increased number of civilian casualties have been unable to reach medical facilities," Laroche said.
He warned the warring factions "that any deliberate attempt to prevent the wounded or civilians from receiving assistance and protection during fighting in the city may constitute elements of future war crimes".
"The fighting does have the potential to spread into other areas of southern Somalia," he said.
It was "ethically unacceptable for fighting to be occurring in Mogadishu at a time when southern Somalia is experiencing a humanitarian emergency", he said.
Somalia has had no effective government since warlords overthrew Mohamed Siad Barre in 1991. They then turned on each other, carving the nation into rival fiefdoms.
Islamic leaders have rejected a transitional government because it is not based on Islam. Islamic fundamentalists portray themselves as an alternative force capable of bringing order to the country.
They accuse a rival secular alliance - known as the Alliance for the Restoration of Peace and Counterterrorism - of working for the CIA.
The alliance accuses the self-appointed Islamic court leaders of having links to al-Qaeda. - Sapa-AP
Posted on Tuesday 30th May at 20:30:28 Somaliland President Sacks Minister Over Police Protests
HARGEISA (Reuters) - Somaliland's president sacked his interior minister and police commissioner after dozens of police attached to the country's anti-terrorism unit held a demonstration to protest non-payment of wages.
President Dahir Rayale Kahin blamed the protests on personal differences between the minister Ismail Aden Osman and the head of the police Mohamed Egeh Elmi.
"I have tried to resolve your misunderstanding a number of times, your personal conflict is the cause of the protests," a statement from Somaliland's presidency said on Tuesday. "I am obliged to remove you from your ministerial post."
A separate statement gave almost a similar reason for the sacking of the police commissioner.
About 50 members of the 300-strong Somaliland's Special Police Unit (SPU), trained to fight terrorists, marched to parliament on Monday complaining that they had not received their full $50 monthly allowance for the last three months.
They said $9 had been deducted each month from their allowance that is given by United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and paid by the interior ministry.
Despite its relative peace unlike the rest of Somalia, the enclave of Somaliland is not recognised internationally, it broke away from the rest of Somalia in 1991 after dictator Mohamed Siad Barre was ousted by clan militia.
President Kahin appointed a committee chaired by Vice President Ahmed Yusuf Yasin to deal with the protests.
"The action taken by members of the SPU is against the culture and discipline of the security forces," he said. "I urge the committee ... urgently investigate in order to bring to justice those who were responsible for the protest."
By Hussein Ali Nur,/I>
Posted on Tuesday 30th May at 20:28:03 Somali Gunmen Seize Key Hospital
Gunmen have seized a key hospital in the north of Somalia's capital, Mogadishu, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) has confirmed.
An ICRC spokesman said dozens of wounded had been forced to flee the clearly marked Red Cross facility in violation of humanitarian law.
The militia are loyal to a group of secular warlords who have been battling rivals from the Islamic courts.
Some 200 people have been killed in recent fighting between the groups.
Somalia has had no effective government since the overthrow of President Siad Barre in 1991 but this year's clashes have been the worst in the capital for more than a decade.
A truce agreement between the two rival militias was broken last week.
'War crimes'
The UN's humanitarian co-ordinator for Somalia warned the militias that their actions may be considered war crimes under international law.
"Any deliberate attempt to prevent wounded or civilians receiving assistance and protection during fighting in the city may constitute elements of future war crimes," Eric Laroche told AFP news agency.
Meanwhile, a senior American diplomat, Michael Zorick, who specialises in Somalia, has been removed from his post in Nairobi after expressing concerns about US support for the Mogadishu warlords, who say the Islamic Courts are sheltering al-Qaeda fighters.
The US merely says it will support those trying to stop "terrorists" setting up in Somalia but stresses its commitment to the country's transitional government, which functions from Baidoa, 250km (155 miles) north-west of the capital.
'Tense'
The ICRC's Pascal Hundt urged the gunmen of the warlords' Anti-Terrorism Alliance to leave so the medical staff could continue looking after the injured.
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He told the BBC there were 120 patients in Keysaney Hospital when armed fighters arrived on Monday afternoon during a lull in fighting.
"We saw armed fighters entering into the hospital and taking some military positions on the roof of the hospital," he said.
He said 60 patients were taken home by their families. The other patients were still at the hospital with some Red Crescent staff.
"The situation remains very very tense," he said.
But an alliance commander told the agency their aim was "to protect [the hospital] from the Islamic courts militia that could prevent people from getting medical aid".
The Islamic Courts grouping has gradually been gaining the upper hand in recent fighting and civilians have been hiding in their homes or fleeing the sporadic but heavy battles.
The fighting began earlier this year when a group of warlords, who had divided Mogadishu into fiefdoms, united to form the Anti-Terrorism Alliance to tackle a growing Islamist force.
The Anti-Terrorism Alliance includes eight warlords, among them four ministers in the current government.
Posted on Tuesday 30th May at 20:27:04 US Role In Somalia Scrutinised As Warlords Battle Militias
Fighting in Mogadishu last week claimed more than 80 lives amid concerns that Islamic fundamentalism could be strengthening its toehold in a Muslim nation perceived by the US as a potential haven for terrorists.
There were reports of wounded civilians being wheel-barrowed along streets and mortar rounds exploding in hospital grounds. It was another ugly chapter in Somalia's violent history.
For more than a decade, this nation in the Horn of Africa has come to symbolise the worst traits of a failed state - violence, rule by the power of the gun, and extortion and exploitation by warlords who have carved the country into fiefdoms.
The battles have raged on and off for months, pitting militias loyal to Islamic courts in the capital against an alliance of warlords who claim to be fighting under the banner of "anti-terrorism".
Along with the fighting have come allegations that the US has backed the warlords, using them as proxies in its war on terrorism.
Last week, William Bellamy, the US ambassador in neighbouring Kenya, felt the need to react. He said America was being wrongly blamed for the fighting. But in a letter to a Kenyan newspaper, he said that the "US has encouraged a variety of groups in Somalia, in all corners of the country, and among all clans, to oppose the al-Qaeda presence and reject the Somali militants who shelter and protect these terrorists".
The US embassy in Nairobi declined to comment. The US State Department will not reveal which parties it is backing in Mogadishu but says it is working with "responsible members of the Somali political spectrum" to prevent al-Qaeda establishing a beachhead in Somalia.
US officials have made no secret of their concerns about the country. The Bush administration's interest in Somalia materialised after the attacks on the US on September 11 2001, when several Somali individuals and entities, including the country's biggest remittance banking company, were listed as groups suspected of having al-Qaeda links.
In 2002, the US established a taskforce in neighbouring Djibouti as part of its counter-terrorism strategy. However, Captain David Westover, a spokesman, said the 1,500-strong force had had no operations inside Somalia.
The fears are generated by Somalia's lawlessness - it has not had an effective government since 1991 - and its location. The country has a coastline that stretches from the Indian Ocean to the Gulf of Aden.
Although it is a Muslim nation, most Somalis follow a moderate form of Islam. But the concern is that fundamentalists could exploit the chaos that 15 years of statelessness have created. More than a dozen attempts to bring stability to the country have failed and the current transitional government sits in Baidoa, a central town, impotent and divided.
Islamic courts have been in place for years, offering schools, a justice system and other services the state would normally provide. Analysts say the recent fighting indicates there is greater co-ordination between some courts, which have become dominated by extremists, and jihadists. They add that the reports of US backing for the warlords have enabled militants to increase their public support.
Still, the extremists are viewed as a small, if well-organised, minority. The fighting is driven as much by power struggles, clan issues and "everybody wanting to have the privileged position of being the US's partner", one analyst says.
The result is that ordinary Somalis are caught between warlords who have brought violence, fear and extremist elements.
Rumours that the US has paid faction leaders to hunt down suspected al-Qaeda members hiding out in Somalia are not new.
In 2003, Kenyan authorities said they had handed an al-Qaeda suspect - alleged to have participated in the 1998 US embassy bombings in Nairobi and Dar es Salaam - over to the US after Somali gunmen detained him in Mogadishu.
Suspected al-Qaeda members who carried out an attack in November 2002 on an Israeli-owned hotel in Mombasa are also believed to use Somalia.
A police statement given by one of four Kenyans tried and acquitted for murder in connection with the attack describes how he was recruited and trained there. The statement by Omar Said Omar, a copy of which was obtained by the Financial Times, also details how the cell's escape to Somalia after the attack was planned. Mr Omar was convicted in April for illegal possession of arms.
But other suspects - including Fazul Abdullah Mohammed, a Comoran who is on the FBI's most wanted terrorists list - are still at large and the US believes that some of those fighting with the courts helped shelter alleged terrorists, an analyst says.
And as long as the chaos continues, concerns will remain that Somalia provides a hide-out and transit centre for those plotting fresh attacks, amid growing criticism of US policy.
"There's intelligence that the jihadists in Mogadishu have been training Somali diaspora, some of whom return to their host countries.
"The risk is that despite the small numbers, it could be beginning to represent a transnational terrorism threat," says an analyst who has covered Somalia for many years.
"Not only is the US contributing to the clashes, it's on the losing side at the moment. It's about time Washington figured out that a change of tack is desperately needed.
By Andrew England in Nairobi
Published: May 30 2006 03:00 | Last updated: May 30 2006 03:00
Posted on Tuesday 30th May at 20:25:24 Idps Living In Substandard Conditions - UN Official
NAIROBI, 30 May (IRIN) - Internally displaced people in war-torn Somalia live in some of the worst conditions in Africa, a United Nations official said on Tuesday, calling upon the international humanitarian community to step up their presence in the Horn of Africa country.
"Their conditions in the so-called settlements are substandard in every respect. They don't have the basic amenities that they should have; they don't have water, sanitation, health, education or proper protection," Dennis McNamara, UN special adviser on displacement, told a news conference in Nairobi following a weeklong visit to Somalia.
"That's a shameful situation that we all need to address. The UN agencies need to do more. We need to have more people on the ground in Somalia; we need more experts on the ground; we need our international NGO friends to have more presence in Somalia. We don't have an international NGO, for example, doing health programmes for the IDPs [internally displaced people]," he said.
Displaced people in Somalia, whose number is estimated at 370,000 to 400,000, live in lawless environments where they have no protection from local authorities and are frequently subjected to gender-based violence. "Rape and abuse of women and girls displaced in Somalia is widespread and generally unaddressed," said McNamara. UN agencies and NGOs were currently trying to set up a protection-monitoring system throughout Somalia in bid to stop the abuse, he added.
McNamara deplored what he said was neglect of Somalia by the international media and by governments around the world. "If Mogadishu was Sarajevo, the world's press would be desperately trying to get in, and we would probably even have helicopters hovering about to do so," he said. "Media coverage is an essential part of mobilising government support, and we need it desperately on neglected long-term emergencies such as Somalia."
Only 40 percent of the US $330 million consolidated appeal for Somalia this year had been received, most of it in food aid. Other components of the appeal had received 20 percent funding, with agriculture and shelter, for example, receiving no support at all so far this year. "Donors have the responsibility to increase their support for these programmes if we are going to address these problems adequately," said McNamara.
The UN adviser also urged governments around the world to give the humanitarian community working in Somalia the political support needed to address insecurity in that country.
Authorities, where they existed in Somalia, were not doing enough to help those displaced by conflict during the past one-and-half decades. "Authorities in Somalia … are not meeting those responsibilities adequately, and therefore we are obliged to assist them in trying to protect those people. But we are not a substitute," said McNamara, who added that local authorities in some areas had impeded the work of humanitarian agencies.
McNamara visited IDP settlements in Hargeysa, the capital of the self-declared republic of Somaliland; Bossaso, in the self-declared autonomous region of Puntland; and Baidoa, the south-central Somali town where the Transitional Federal Government is currently based.
In Bossaso, McNamara urged local authorities to vigorously prosecute traffickers of illegal immigrants from Somalia and Ethiopia to Yemen. The crowded boats often capsized, killing numerous people, and traffickers frequently tossed people overboard when fleeing the Yemeni coastguard. "The authorities should also control local boats that ferry the migrants, who are often lured to their deaths," he said.
Posted on Tuesday 30th May at 20:23:42 Concerned At Somalia Clashes
30 May 2006 – Reacting to reports of indiscriminate shelling of civilian populations and medical facilities in Somalia’s capital, Mogadishu, where dozens have died in the last few days, a senior United Nations official today called on the warring factions to spare the lives of those not involved in the hostilities.
The Humanitarian Coordinator for Somalia, Eric Laroche, voiced deep concern at the reports of violence against residents and said he was “shocked” at the targeting of hospitals, calling this a blatant violation of the basic rules of international humanitarian law in a statement released in Nairobi.
He urged the warring parties to “spare the lives of those not involved in the hostilities and to take all the necessary measures to prevent unnecessary human suffering.”
Since the beginning of the year some 1,500 conflict-related war-wounded have been admitted to Mogadishu’s two main hospitals, according to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA). Due to the intensity of the recent fighting, an increased number of civilian casualties have been unable to reach medical facilities.
Mr. Laroche reminded the warring factions that “any deliberate attempt to prevent wounded or civilians receiving assistance and protection during fighting in the city may constitute elements of future war crimes.”
He further warned that the fighting has the “potential to spread into other areas of southern Somalia leading to further aggravation of the humanitarian crisis at a time when stability is needed for the success of the humanitarian drought response in the region.”
The Humanitarian Coordinator said it is “ethically unacceptable for fighting to be occurring in Mogadishu at a time when southern Somalia is experiencing a humanitarian emergency.”
Echoing Mr. Laroche’s concern, the UN Special Adviser on Internal Displacement today said the recent conflict in Somalia could accelerate into a major humanitarian and political disaster unless the international community ceased ignoring developments unfolding in the country.
Speaking in Nairobi after a week-long mission to Somalia, Dennis McNamara described the situation of internally displaced persons (IDPs) as among the worst he had seen in Africa. “Their condition was sub-standard in every respect,” he said.
The UN estimates that the country has between 370,000 and 400,000 IDPs.
Mogadishu is the only capital in the world where the UN does not have access for international humanitarian staff due to insecurity – this despite an estimated 250,000 internally displaced living in the city. The current fighting in and around the area has displaced thousands of people, many of whom have fled to more stable regions of the country or crossed the border into Kenya.
Mr. McNamara expressed disappointment in the neglect of Somalia and its IDPs by both the international community and the press. Describing the media as an essential tool in getting governments to act, he said, “If Mogadishu was Sarajevo, the world press would be clamoring to get there.”
Earlier in the month, Somalia made the 2006 list of the “Ten Stories the World Should Hear More About” released by the UN Department of Public Information (DPI).
Mr. McNamara also noted that only 40 per cent of the $330 million international appeal for Somalia had been met by donor countries. With the bulk of that going to food aid and the remainder to be targeted for protection of IDPs, agriculture and education, Mr. McNamara said the sum was “insufficient to address these problems effectively.”
He also took Somali local authorities to task for not meeting their responsibilities with regard to the internally displaced in their regions. While acknowledging the need for the UN to be more actively involved with the internally displaced, he stressed that the Somali authorities had primary responsibility. “In some areas, the authorities were resisting agencies providing even sanitation in camps,” he said.
The Special Adviser had visited settlements for the internally displaced in Bossaso, Hargeisa, Baidoa and Merka – only 90 kilometres from war-torn Mogadishu. It was the first time in seven years a UN plane had landed on the Merka airstrip.
On Friday, Secretary-General Kofi Annan deplored the loss of life and suffering caused by the renewed violence and called on both sides to enter into an immediate and unconditional ceasefire.
Posted on Tuesday 30th May at 20:21:38 ICRC Calls On Somali Militias To Leave Hospital
MOGADISHU, May 30 (Reuters) - The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) called on Somalian militiamen to withdraw from a hospital in Mogadishu that they have commandeered to use as a base of operations against rival Islamist militias.
Funded by the ICRC, Keysaney hospital is the only one in northern Mogadishu treating civilians and fighters wounded in the worst militia violence in the capital in more than a decade.
Pedram Yazdi, spokesman of ICRC Somalia, confirmed the hospital seizure by militia aligned to warlords who say they have joined forces to fight terrorism.
He called on the fighters to withdraw from the facility, saying their presence was hampering life-saving activities at the hospital.
"The hospital director ... said the hospital was no longer in his control," Yazdi told Reuters in Nairobi. "The militia are still there. Some staff have not reported for duty."
Militia linked to Islamic courts and fighters backed by the "anti-terrorism" coalition of warlords have been locked in a fierce battle in Mogadishu since February, killing at least 320 people, mostly civilians.
Yazdi said some wounded patients were forced to flee the hospital for fear of their lives. "The ICRC calls for the withdrawal of the fighters from the hospital as soon as possible," he said.
By Mohamed Ali Bile
Posted on Tuesday 30th May at 20:15:41 East Africa: The Famine is a Silent Tsunami
Philip Ngunjiri
Nairobi
ALTHOUGH THE RAINS HAVE been pounding many areas of East Africa in recent weeks, they came too late to end the hunger crisis that threatens some eight million people in Kenya's Northeastern province. Here, the situation still remains critical.
"The recent rains are too little, too late to avoid the crisis, but with proper funding, it is still possible to avoid a catastrophe," said Kjell Magne Bondevik, the UN special humanitarian envoy for the Horn of Africa. The diplomat, who was on a tour of the Horn of Africa, was speaking to journalists in Nairobi last week.
Pre-famine conditions are evident in Mandera, Wajir and Garissa districts in the Northeastern Province, among other affected districts in the country.
Following two years of drought, thousands of people have lost most of their livestock. Without this main source of income, it will be difficult to recover from the effects of the drought. Malnourished children are increasingly prone to water-borne diseases and entire families who have lost their primary sources of livelihood are struggling to make ends meet.
In Mandera District, the rains have been a welcome relief to the local population as empty dams and wells begin to fill up. However, in the neighbouring district of Wajir, torrential rains have caused flash floods and more than 3,000 people have lost their homes. It is difficult to get clean water, thus heightening the risk of diarrhoea and other diseases breaking out among the malnourished population. The danger is especially high for children under five years old.
The food situation continues to deteriorate, with available food and non-food resources falling short of growing demands.
In some areas, there are fears that dead animals that lie abandoned in the fields surrounding the wells and other water sources could contaminate the water.
SPEAKING IN MANDERA, Kelly Delaney from Action Against Hunger said that although the rains have come, the problems of the local population are far from solved, because most of their animals died. "There is still no food security in the area, people are dependant on the general food distribution and the nutrition programmes on the ground."
Aid workers are assisting local communities in repairing and building wells and water pans to collect and safely store water for people and their livestock.
"There is no quick fix to this emergency after five consecutive poor seasons, says Tesema Negash, Kenya country director for the UN World Food Programme of the crisis that has also affected people in Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia and Somalia.
"Ironically, these rains bring little respite. Flooding in some areas has even made it harder to get food aid out, and there is increased risk of people falling sick from drinking contaminated water, and weak livestock dying when temperatures drop at night," he adds.
According to him, the people who lost everything will need food and other assistance well into 2007 and beyond. The herders have lost all their livestock and subsistence farmers have no money left for seeds or fertiliser.
In Somalia, the representative of the UN Children's Fund, Christian Balslev-Olesen, said that the current heavy rains were just "a drop in the bucket" compared with the amount that has been needed for a long time.
"We are afraid of what is going to happen in the coming months," said Balsleve-Olesen. "There will be no food, no way of leading a normal life in Somalia."
That means children are totally dependent on the kind of assistance that we can provide; food, water, health and nutrition, he added, noting that children were among the worst-affected by drought as they weaken quickly from dehydration and malnutrition.
Only 20 per cent of an emergency $426 million appeal to prevent a catastrophe for millions of people in the drought-hit Horn of Africa region has been raised, says Bondevik. Eight million people in the Horn need immediate aid and seven million more are at risk if donors do not come up with the funding.
"It is a silent tsunami. That is why the public awareness is not so high - the drought has had a gradual, terrible impact where the tsunami was sudden and dramatic," said Bondevik in Nairobi. He was wrapping up a five-country tour of the region to assess humanitarian needs in Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya and Somalia.
All the countries in the region had their peculiar problems, Bondevik said. Somalia was worse because of the total lack of security, and Djibouti was so small that it could easily be ignored.
Kenya could have done more because it is the most developed country in the region, but was hampered because "they have also this problem with corruption," said Bondevik.
Eritrea, which has expelled foreign aid workers and has kept 100,000 tonnes of food aid locked up under a policy of self-reliance, is spending too much in the wrong place, he said. "It is a tragedy that they use so much on military resources," he said, referring to the 300,000 people in service out of a population of 3.6 million.
Posted on Tuesday 23rd May at 19:35:31 Bomb Explosion Rocks Somalia Port Town Of Merca
Merca 23 May. 06 ( Sh.M.Network) At least four persons including a woman has been wounded after an explosion rocket at the central Somalia port town of Merca last night.
A hand grenade thrown at a N3 model truck in downtown on (7:00 pm Local time) has shocked local residents in Port town of merca, our correspondent reported.
Health sources confirmed that four civilians among them a woman have been wounded and they have been rushed to nearby medical centres.
Sources in the hospital told shabelle that Safia Abdulkadir Molain who is among the victims suffers critical wounds.
The explosion also caused damages of property particularly the truck that has been targeted and a house near by.
A tea sales woman at the scene on condition of anonymity told shabelle correspondent that a hand grenade has been thrown while no one considered the assailants.
Meanwhile, deputy chairman of lower Shabelle region has declined about the incident.
Its’ the 6th of such attack in the city for the last months showing a sign of growing uprising in the region which could last grave results of war in lower shabelle regional city of Merca where Yusuf Indho Ade, a militia leader from Habargidir rules.
Posted on Tuesday 23rd May at 19:33:14 U.S. Efforts on Somalia Brings Questions
NAIROBI, Kenya — A surge in the power of Islamic fundamentalist warlords in Somalia is raising fears that the Horn of Africa nation could follow the path of Taliban Afghanistan into the hands of al-Qaida, despite Western efforts to stop it.
Similarities with pre-9/11 Afghanistan abound: strict Islamic courts, public executions, strong anti-Western sentiment and a failed central government. As in Afghanistan, fundamentalists are winning public support by promising a chaos-weary public that they'll impose order.
Wary of the threat from so-called "failed states," the United States has boosted its presence in the Horn of Africa. The Pentagon placed a military task force in Djibouti, just north of Somalia.
The Bush administration has avoided direct action in Somalia _ perhaps because of the failures of the last intervention in the early 1990s, including the deaths of 18 servicemen in a 1993 battle made famous by the book and film "Black Hawk Down."
But U.S. efforts to influence Somalia indirectly through proxies are now stirring debate and angst even among secular-minded Somalis.
"I believe in the idea of fighting the terrorists, because terrorism has no room in Islam, the religion of peace," said Osmail Mo'alin Ahmed, a teacher in Mogadishu, where frequent battles are erupting between secular militias and those allied with Islamic extremism. "But the U.S. should not place such a responsibility with ruthless warlords."
Musse Sudi Yalahow, a secular warlord and commerce minister in Somalia's near-powerless central government, said Somalia is critical ground in the war on terror and that's why he has joined an anti-terror alliance.
"Somalia must not be another Afghanistan or a transit point for terrorist attacks in neighboring countries," he said. Fighting between his Alliance for the Restoration of Peace and Counterterrorism and the Islamic fundamentalists, known as the Islamic Court Union, has left more than 220 people dead since March in two major battles for control of Mogadishu.
Yalahow declined to answer when asked if he had received U.S. financial support, but broadly asked for it.
"I call upon the U.S. government and the international community to support our alliance's bid to hand over the foreign terrorists linked to the al-Qaida terror network who are being sheltered in Mogadishu," Yalahow told The Associated Press. "One of our main aims is to seize one of Osama bin Laden's aides," a man Yalahow said was in Mogadishu.
U.S. officials refuse to confirm or deny financing the alliance, instead only broadly confirming contacts with many groups.
"We certainly have active efforts working with the international community and working across a spectrum of Somalis to make sure that Somalia isn't a safe haven for terrorism," State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said. "We have a real interest in counterterrorism efforts in Somalia."
U.S. officials, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the matter, said recently that three al-Qaida leaders indicted in the 1998 U.S. Embassy bombings in Kenya and Tanzania are being sheltered by Islamic leaders in Mogadishu. The same al-Qaida cell is believed responsible for the 2002 suicide bombing of an Israeli-owned hotel in Kenya that killed 15 people and a simultaneous attempt to shoot down an Israeli airliner.
Somalia has been without an effective central government since 1991, when clan warlords overthrew the government and divided the country into fiefdoms. The ensuing humanitarian crisis led President George H.W. Bush to order troops there in 1992.
The U.N., which left Somalia in 1995, recently helped Somali leaders meet in neighboring Kenya and form a government. Divided and weak, it has begged for political, financial and military support but its influence in Somalia covers just a few towns.
The transitional government includes members of the secular alliance. But other members of the government, which is based in Baidoa, 140 miles northwest of Mogadishu, have close ties to extremists.
Mohamed Omar Habeb, a secular commander better known as Mohamed Dhere, has accused 70 members of Somalia's new 275-seat parliament of being Islamic extremists. He said that was why the alliance was in contact with U.S. officials and was acting against Islamic militants without waiting for the new government's permission.
The Islamic leaders, including Hassan Dahir Aweys, who the U.S. government says has connections to al-Qaida, accuse the secular warlords of taking money from the CIA and creating anarchy.
Ironically, creation of the interim government has fueled the surge in violence. Somalia's clans and warlords are competing for influence as the government slowly gains international recognition.
Omar Jamal, director of the Somali Justice Advocacy Center based in St. Paul, Minn., said the U.S. government needs to fully support the interim government, instead of individual warlords, or risk losing the goodwill most Somalis still have toward the United States.
"The current U.S. policy toward Somalia is creating more instability, more confusion and more backlash," he said. "It creates a sympathy and turns the Somali people into sympathizers for al-Qaida."
Although brutal, the Islamic courts, with their own militias, have been the only judicial authority in the country, he said.
They have meted out traditional justice, including public executions and amputations, much like the Taliban.
In a case last month, the 17-year-old son of a murder victim was ordered to stab the convicted perpetrator to death with a knife in front of hundreds of spectators in Mogadishu.
While similarities to Afghanistan exist, there also are important differences, Jamal said.
For example, public support for Islamic justice is fragile. The government has the chance to supplant the extremists before they become too powerful because most Somalis remain suspicious of strident forms of Islam, which clash with their traditional Sufi Muslim practices, he said.
Leaders of the secular alliance, though, are blamed for keeping the country in anarchy. Among them is Mohamed Hassan Awale, the former spokesman for the militia that shot down the Black Hawk helicopter in 1993.
Continued U.S. backing of the alliance could turn "the whole country into a terrorist base," Jamal warned.
William Rosenau, a terrorism and intelligence expert at the RAND Corp. research firm, said he too saw little chance that the U.S. could successfully influence Somali politics.
Rosenau warned that the United States is playing "a very dangerous game."
"If you get it wrong, and your fingerprints are on it, it can really have bad consequences for U.S. foreign policy," he said.
But while policy makers are concerned about "a new Afghanistan," he said the motive for contact with the warlords would probably be the chance to capture the three al-Qaida suspects in the 1998 bombings.
"A lot of our approach to counterterrorism is very, very tactical. It's about getting specific individuals," he said. "In some ways, that is a less troubling approach than going in and trying to shape Somali politics because there seems to be a very remote chance of success there for outsiders."
By CHRIS TOMLINSON Associated Press Writer
Associated Press writers in Mogadishu and Baidoa, Somalia contributed to this report.
Posted on Tuesday 23rd May at 19:31:39 Puntland Severs Links With Somali Government
Mogadishu - A semi-autonomous region in central Somalia on Sunday cut ties with the country's United Nations-backed transitional government, saying it was trying to thwart an oil exploration deal in this Horn of Africa nation.
The regional administration in Puntland, which has its own justice system, said Prime Minister Ali Mohamed Gedi was irresponsible and "constantly violated agreements".
"Puntland is an independent regional state, which has a right to benefit from its resources, and it will continue to explore its territory," a statement from the administration said.
Last week, Gedi told Puntland officials that only the transitional government has the power to sell mineral and oil rights. Puntland officials had been negotiating with an Australian mining firm that wanted to buy half those rights in Puntland.
Somalia is believed to have oil reserves, but the country's anarchy has hindered exploration. Somalia has had no effective central government since 1991, when warlords ousted longtime dictator Mohamed Siad Barre and then turned on each other.
The interim government has tried to maintain control from Baidoa, 250km west of Mogadishu, because the capital is unsafe. But despite the United Nations backing, it has failed to assert itself.
Recent fighting in the capital between Islamic militias and an alliance of secular warlords has been some of the worst violence in a decade. More than 140 people were killed in eight days before a fragile cease fire was struck last week. Most of the casualties were non-combatants caught in crossfire or killed by stray missiles. - Sapa-AP
Posted on Monday 22nd May at 19:55:22 Roadblocks In The Somali Capital To Be Removed
(SomaliNet) Local elders' committee selected for negotiating between rival groups in Mogadishu today for the first time announced bars will be removed from the streets blocked by militias of both sides who have been battling in the capital for the past weeks killing more than 100 people most of civilians, injuring hundreds others and thousands more people displaced their homes.
“We are trying to clear all the blockades by both side under the terms reached in the meetings, I hope that all parts will accept the deal,” elder of the board told Somalinet.
Both sides welcomed the initiative to clear the checkpoints but it is early to say that.
The deadline to remove all bars from both sides is 12:00 pm local time and everybody is waiting anxiously that, with local elders widely respected leave for the areas of the checkpoints by both rival sides of Islamic courts and anti terror alliance. As somalinet’s Mogadishu correspondent Mohamed Abdi reports.
Amid efforts to resolve the conflict, both rival groups are seen to have reinforcements for fresh battle.
Some sources say this time if clashes resume Bakara market, one of the densest places in Somalia will be the targets for more rocket and mortar shells and that will cause more bloodshed among the civilians.
Posted on Monday 22nd May at 19:54:31 Somalia Agrees On Deployment Of E. African Troops
NAIROBI, May 22 (Reuters) - Somalia's cabinet has approved a plan to allow to peacekeepers into the country, a contentious issue at the heart of a paralysing rift in the government.
The decision, made on Sunday in the temporary government headquarters in Baidoa, was approved by all 34 cabinet members who were present. The remaining eight ministers, including four Mogadishu warlords who oppose the plan, did not attend.
Those four warlords are busy in a growing battle with Islamist militias -- who also oppose foreign peacekeepers -- for control of the capital Mogadishu, which has killed at least 250 people in three bouts of fighting since February.
"The National Security Plan, which in part includes the deployment of peacekeepers to Somalia, was endorsed by the cabinet yesterday," government spokesman Abdirahman Dinari told Reuters by phone from Baidoa.
The peacekeepers would come from Sudan and Uganda.
The deployment requires U.N. Security Council approval, because it would involve an exemption from an arms embargo in place since 1992. It also requires parliamentary approval.
Parliament has been given the plan and is expected to debate it before it will be taken to the Security Council for discussion on July 17, Dinari said.
The interim government, the 14th try at establishing effective central authority in the Horn of Africa country since 1991, has asked the Security Council for permission for the foreign peacekeepers.
A widely disregarded arms embargo in place since 1992 prevents troops from moving there with their weapons and the United States has promised to veto any embargo waiver for foreign peacekeepers.
"What the Somali government is doing now is what will give us the basis to lobby for the exemption of the arms embargo," said one senior African official whose country is expected to deploy troops to Somalia.
The envoy, who did not want to be named, said creating a national security plan was among several requirements the council has laid out before the embargo will be lifted.
The last time the interim government's parliament voted on the peacekeeper proposal, lawmakers brawled and threw chairs at a posh Nairobi hotel in a fracas captured on video and broadcast around the world.
Observers say most Somali lawmakers have decided to work together after President Abdullahi Yusuf and Parliamentary Speaker Sharif Hassan Sheikh Adan mended fences this year.
Somalia has been without a central government since the 1991 ouster of dictator Mohamed Siad Barre by warlords, who have since maintained a state of anarchy with perpetual turf battles across the nation of 10 million.
By Guled Mohamed
Posted on Monday 22nd May at 19:53:35 Plea To Somalis In Pc Murder Hunt
A cabinet minister says the Somali President will do all he can to trace a suspect in the murder of a policewoman, killed six months ago.
International Development Secretary Hilary Benn spoke to President Yusuf while on a trip to Somalia.
Police believe Mustaf Jamma, a Somali national, fled Britain after being named as a suspect in the murder of constable Sharon Beshenivsky.
The 38-year-old officer was shot dead responding to a robbery in Bradford.
Mr. Benn, who is also a Leeds MP, told the BBC President Yusuf had promised to do his best to locate Jamma and had asked for photographs and details.
He said: "I very much welcome the interest he took in this case.
"There is very strong feeling about this crime in Yorkshire."
President Yusuf's power in Somalia is limited because his government has been wracked by infighting and unable to assert control over much of Somalia that has been in the throes of anarchy for 15 years.
It has emerged that Jamma was considered for deportation after serving a jail term last year but allowed to stay in the UK because Somalia was thought too dangerous.
Now it is believed he has returned there.
Posted on Friday 19th May at 20:51:18 Killer Believed To Be A 16 Year Old Somali
THE boy believed to be the killer of schoolboy Kiyan Prince was a "good guy who turned bad," according to former school pals.
The Somalian boy being hunted by detectives is said to have been a fellow pupil at the London Academy in Edgware, north London who was excluded from the school last month.
Kiyan was stabbed twice, once in the arm and once in the stomach, in a fight outside Stamford Court, a block of flats near the school, shortly before 3.30pm.
Eyewitnesses say it appeared the Kiyan, a promising footballer on the books of QPR and who hoped to play for England, was playfighting with the other teenager before he was stabbed.
Today sixth former Mehdi Hasshim, 18, said the alleged killer had been expelled from the school a couple of weeks ago.
He said: "I have known him most of my life. He was a good guy who turned bad. He was expelled earlier this month, I do not know what for."
He added: "But I never thought he would do something like this. I have seen him change throughout the years.
"It is the people he hangs out with. Gangs and stuff. He might be into drugs as well, but I am not sure. He lives in a block of flats just near the school."
Mehdi went on: "He was the type who would go looking for trouble. But no one in the school would ever be scared of anyone, it is not that kind of place. I would never think anyone at the school would have the sort of mentality to go and stab someone."
Mehdi said that Kiyan was also well known throughout the London Academy.
He added: "Everyone knew him because he was an athlete. He was the kind of guy who would stand up for himself. He is not the sort of person who would go looking for a fight. He is just a normal, school guy."
"Kiyan was very talented for his age. He could play anywhere on the football pitch."
Another sixth former Ardeshir Sarfi said the alleged attacker was known by most people at the school.
He said: "Everyone here is good with everyone. This is a real surprise. This school has improved so much since I started here. I would never have thought this would happen."
Deputy head of the school Stephan Hastings, who led this morning's special assembly, said the school was trying to get back to normal.
Speaking outside the school gates, he said: "Today is a normal school day. It is the way it has to be."
As more than a hundred bouquets of flowers were placed at the school gates, senior students began to move them inside.
One bouquet of five roses had a letter attached which read: "Kiyan, we all gonna miss you bare. I can't believe someone could take your lyfe (sic) like that. But we all gonna try and remember the good times.
"You are one fallen soldier, but you are one more angel in heaven. I love you loads, and I will never forget you. God rest your soul Kiyan. A prince to many."
A small England flag was buried under several bouquets of flowers with messages which read "KC I'll miss you, XX, and "RIP Kiyan."
More notes read "RIP, we all will miss you from Brean N (sic)" and "RIP Kiyan you are in a beta (sic) place now. You will always be missed, Nasser."
Then there was "dearest Kiyan, you were a great boy, you were smart and you could have gone far, rest in peace sweetie, signed Chanelle, love you"
Posted on Friday 19th May at 20:48:24 Curfew On Towns In South Somalia To Be Lifted Soon
(SomaliNet) The self styled authority of lower Shabelle region in south Somalia said they will lift the curfew imposed on partly the region after more pressure from the local elders, people and civil society on Friday. Sources told Somalinet.
The commander of region's militia Ali Ganei told the local media the curfew would be lifted as soon as the ruler of the lower shabelle region Yusuf Indha-ade returns to the coastal town of Marka 90km south of Mogadishu in the next week.
Yusuf Indha-adde, who controls part of Lower Shabelle region and also supports Islamic courts, is now in Mogadishu. Some reports say he is trapped in the capital after militia of anti terror alliance set up series of check points between Mogadishu and Marka.
The curfew, which was imposed on Marka and surrounding areas a month ago, has impact on trade activities, transportation and other aspects of daily lives of Lower Shabelle communities.
Posted on Friday 19th May at 20:45:45 Somali Mps Want Warlords Charged With War Crimes
NAIROBI (Reuters) - Warlords involved in Somalia's worst fighting in a decade should be sacked as government ministers and charged with war crimes, members of the country's fledgling parliament said on Friday.
Around 150 people, many of them civilians, died last week in Mogadishu during pitched battles between Islamic fighters and warlord militias, which many analysts and Somalis believe are funded by the United States.
The fighting has recently died down but the lawless capital remains tense. Hundreds of Mogadishu residents chanting anti-U.S. slogans demonstrated against the violence this week.
Members of parliament meeting in a warehouse in the southern city of Baidoa asked Prime Minister Mohamed Ali Gedi to dismiss warlords from the cabinet, saying they broke ceasefire accords signed in Kenya during the formation of the government.
The warlords include Security Minister Mohamed Qanyare Afrah, Commerce Minister Muse Sudi Yalahow, Religious Affairs Minister Omar Mohamed Mohamud and Militia Disarmament Minister Bootan Isse Alim.
"The warlords have committed genocide," lawmaker Asha Abdallah told Reuters from Baidoa, a provincial town where Yusuf's interim government is based.
"Their treacherous acts have caused so many civilian deaths, they should be charged with war crimes against humanity."
Mohamed Hassan, another Somali lawmaker, said: "The ministers should be sacked, stripped off their immunity and then charged with crimes against humanity."
U.S. CONCERN
But a warlord spokesman dismissed the threats and said the militias were protecting Mogadishu from a fundamentalist Muslim takeover.
"The warlords are still in the government and are engaged in the crucial job of preventing extremists from taking over the city," Hussein Gutale Rage told Reuters from Mogadishu.
The interim Somali parliament met inside the country for the first time on February 26.
But the warlords had formed an "Alliance for the Restoration of Peace and Counter-Terrorism" a few days before in what many Somalis saw as an attempt to undermine the new government.
The interim administration of President Abdullahi Yusuf, the 14th attempt at restoring central rule since the overthrow of dictator Mohamed Siad Barre in 1991, is powerless to control fighting in Mogadishu or even move to the capital.
Another MP, Ali Bashi, cautioned against confronting the warlords, saying the government was still too weak.
"They have formed a political party and are heavily armed now," Bashi said. "We need to tread carefully."
Washington has never responded directly to accusations it is backing the warlords but said earlier this week it was concerned foreign fighters, including members of al Qaeda, were operating in the failed Horn of Africa state.
"We want to make sure that al Qaeda does not in fact establish a beachhead in Somalia," White House spokesman Tony Snow said.
The warlords are fighting militants linked to powerful Sharia courts which have imposed order on parts of the lawless city and so become popular with many residents.
By Guled Mohamed
Posted on Friday 19th May at 20:40:25 Killings, Beheadings In New Somali Violence
Islamist gunmen overran a compound held by a United States-backed warlord alliance outside the lawless Somali capital on Wednesday, killing seven fighters and decapitating several, witnesses said.
Islamic militia targeted the base north of the city in the latest flare-up in fighting since the two sides began observing an informal truce on Sunday after eight days of pitched street battles in Mogadishu, they said.
In addition to those killed, at least nine fighters were wounded and a "battlewagon" -- a pick-up mounted with a heavy machine gun -- was seized from the compound about 20km north of the capital, they said.
"Seven people were killed and a battlewagon was taken by the Islamic court militia," said one of the fighters loyal to warlord Mohamed Omar Habeb Dheere, who were forced to abandon the compound after the attack.
"A few were killed by gunfire and the others were beheaded after they were captured," said a fighter from a non-allied militia, who was near the base when the attack took place.
Dheere -- a member of the Alliance for the Restoration of Peace and Counter-Terrorism -- was not at the compound at the time of the attack, they said.
The new fatalities bring the death toll from the most recent surge in violence between the alliance and the courts in and around Mogadishu to nearly 140 and came as thousands rallied for peace in the city.
More than 2 000 people attended the Islamist-sponsored demonstration in southern Mogadishu, denouncing the alliance and its foreign backers.
"The people of Mogadishu and the courts were equally attacked by the so-called alliance in the recent fighting," said Sheikh Sharif Ahmed, chairperson of an umbrella group that represents the city's 11 Sharia law courts.
"The alliance is not a national institution but the creation of a foreign country," he said to cheers from the crowd that gathered under tight security provided by Islamic militia in southern Mogadishu's Howlwadag neighbourhood.
Ahmed did not name the country in question, but his comments were a clear reference to the US, which has been accused of funding the alliance as part of its broader war on terrorism.
The US has declined to comment on its backing of the alliance but US officials have told Agence France-Presse the alliance has received US money and is one of several groups they are working with to contain a rise of radical Islam in Somalia.
US and alliance officials say the Islamic courts and their militia are harbouring foreign fighters and Muslim extremists, including members of Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda network, a charge denied by clerics. -- AFP
Posted on Wednesday 17th May at 20:05:33 Somalis Rally For Peace, But New Attack Kills 5
MOGADISHU, May 17 (Reuters) - Hundreds of Somalis took to the streets of lawless Mogadishu on Wednesday to appeal for peace after militia battles that have killed 150 people -- but a fresh attack left another five fighters dead.
The mainly civilian demonstrators, including women and children, marched to express their disgust at the recent flare-up between militia linked to Mogadishu's Islamic courts and a self-styled anti-terror alliance of local warlords.
Some foreign and Somali analysts view the fighting as a proxy battle between Islamist militants and Washington, widely believed to be funding the warlords.
The protesters chanted slogans and held banners, witnesses said.
But at the same time -- in an extension of the fighting into the rural area around Mogadishu -- Islamic militia attacked a village controlled by warlord Mohamed Dheere, killing five of his fighters, a militia leader said.
It was the second major breach of a relative ceasefire since the weekend after a ferocious eight-day battle for control of Mogadishu that sent hundreds of terrified civilians fleeing from rockets, mortars and heavy machine guns.
"It was a very quick operation. Five of Dheere's militia were killed and two of his 'technicals' captured," Islamic militia leader Siyad Mohamed told Reuters by telephone, using the local term for pickups mounted with heavy machine-guns.
STRONGHOLD
Ali Nur, a member of the alliance militia, said he was aware of the attack during the morning. "Some 'technicals' belonging to the Islamic court left Mogadishu for the Middle Shabelle region controlled by Mohamed Dheere to attack," he told Reuters.
Dheere and his militia had arrived from his stronghold in Jowhar at the weekend to join the Mogadishu battle, the third and by far the fiercest the two sides have waged since February.
The Islamic courts say dollars are being poured into Mogadishu to strengthen their enemies, while the warlords accuse their rivals of having links to al Qaeda.
Somalia's interim government, the 14th attempt at restoring central rule since dictator Mohamed Siad Barre was ousted in 1991, is not strong enough to move to Mogadishu from its base in the southern city of Baidoa.
Interim President Abdullahi Yusuf and Islamic leaders accuse Washington of backing the warlords, who call themselves the "Alliance for the Restoration of Peace and Counter-Terrorism" in what their foes say is a cynical ploy to get U.S. cash.
Washington believes Somalia is a potential haven for extremists due to its lack of functioning government. (Additional reporting by Guled Mohamed)
By Mohamed Ali Bile
Posted on Wednesday 17th May at 19:52:13 Intensive Meeting By Warlords Is Now Underway In Mogadishu
Intensive and close doors meeting by members of anti terror alliance is now underway in Sahafi Hotel in south Mogadishu.
It is yet known what is being discussed over the meeting, which is united for all counter terrorism alliance, but reports say journalists will receive full information when it finishes within today.
Security is tightened around the scene of the meeting. Heavily armed militia of warlords could be seen in the area.
But sources close the meeting say the leaders would discuss over issues including the checkpoints recently erected by the warlords on the road in Mogadishu southern outskirt in a bid to sluggish the activities of Islamic militiamen as clashes caused life casualty happened in northern suburb of the capital between militia loyal to Mohamed Dhere who controls Jowhar town in middle Shabele region and those of Islamic courts.
Posted on Wednesday 17th May at 19:49:35 Foreigners Join Somalian Islamist Militias - Rivals
May 17, 2006 (MOGADISH) — Foreign fighters battled alongside Islamist militias for control of the Somali capital during a surge of recent violence that killed more than 140 people, the militias’ secular rivals said Wednesday.
The latest violence between Islamic militias and secular fighters has been some of the worst fighting in more than a decade in Somalia, which has had no effective central government since 1991. A cease-fire was signed over the weekend but the mood remained tense.
"Some foreigners were fighting alongside the local terrorists and were killed, but nobody was caught alive and delivered to anybody," said Hussein Gutale Ragheh, a spokesman for the secular alliance. He said some of those killed were Arabs and others looked like Pakistanis, Sudanese and Oromo fighters from neighboring Ethiopia.
The Islamic militants have portrayed themselves as capable of bringing order to Somalia, whose descent into chaos began with the 1991 overthrow of longtime dictator Mohamed Siad Barre. Since then, warlords who divided the country into clan-based fiefdoms have fought one another, though some recently joined a U.N.-backed interim government trying to assert control.
The secular alliance, which includes some members of the interim government but acts independently of it, accuses the Islamic militiamen of having ties to al-Qaida. The Islamists accuse the secularists of being puppets of the U.S.
The U.S. State Department has repeatedly expressed concern that Somalia could become a haven for militants. The U.N. and the International Crisis Group, a private think tank which tracks worldwide conflicts, have said al-Qaida has used Somalia as a hide-out and a transit zone.
Transitional President Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed told The Associated Press in an interview earlier this month that he believes Washington is supporting the secular militia as a way of fighting several senior al-Qaida operatives that are being protected by radical clerics. Ahmed called on Washington to instead work only with his government.
The U.S. has said only that it had met with a wide variety of Somali leaders in an effort to fight "international terrorists" here.
Posted on Wednesday 17th May at 19:47:42 IGAD Urges International Community Not to Support Rebels
The international community was urged not to support factions outside of the Somali government by a top official in the seven-nation regional grouping Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) and Kenya's foreign affairs minister Wednesday. The officials also appealed for humanitarian assistance for war-torn Mogadishu.
The comment by IGAD executive secretary Attalla Hamad Bashir and Minister of Foreign Affairs Raphael Tuju is a veiled reference to the Alliance for the Restoration of Peace and Counter-Terrorism, a militia that has been battling in recent days with the Islamic Court Union in the Somali capital.
It is widely believed that the United States is backing the counter-terrorism alliance, a charge the U.S. government does not address directly.
Following a courtesy call by Bashir to the Kenyan minister Wednesday, the two urged foreign countries to work with Somalia's transitional government and not with factions or militias operating outside the government.
A joint statement said countries should not resort to what it called "unilateral actions" that contradict positions held by the United Nations, the African Union, and others.
"An uncoordinated intervention in Somalia will result in the warlords running rings around all of us and is an approach that is bound to fail besides compounding the problem and increasing conflict that has resulted in the death of so many," Foreign Minister Tuju explained. "It was also agreed that, as an international community, we should resolve the problem in Somalia using one voice and not send discordant messages to various factions on the ground."
Fighting broke out last week between the anti-terrorism alliance and the Islamic Court Union reportedly after an assassination attempt was made on one of the counter-terrorism alliance's leaders.
Some 150 were killed and hundreds injured in the conflict, prompting hundreds of Somalis to take to the streets Wednesday to call for peace. Bashir and Tuju appealed for humanitarian aid to help those affected by the fighting.
Media reports describe the anti-terrorist alliance, formed three months ago, as being a coalition of warlords who aim to stem what they feel is growing Islamic extremism in Somalia. The Islamic courts are said to want to maintain law and order in the volatile capital.
The United States has not directly said whether or not it is supporting the Alliance for the Restoration of Peace and Counter-Terrorism.
State Department spokesman Sean McCormack recently told reporters that the United States is "working with individual members of the transitional government to try to create a better situation in Somalia."
The United States has long been concerned that chaotic Somalia could become a haven for international terrorists.
There have been more than a dozen attempts to form a central government in Somalia ever since civil war broke out in 1991. Since then, warlords and their militias have battled with each other and civilians to control different parts of the country.
A transitional Somali parliament was formed in Kenya more than a year ago following a two-year peace process, and recently met for the first time in Somalia.
Posted on Wednesday 17th May at 19:46:16 Somali-Born Dutch Lawmaker Quits After Asylum Row
THE HAGUE (Reuters) - Ayaan Hirsi Ali, a Somali-born Dutch politician and outspoken critic of Islam, said on Tuesday she was leaving parliament and the Netherlands after hearing she may be stripped of citizenship for lying to win asylum.
Hirsi Ali, whose life under guard after death threats from Muslim militants brought her to international attention, has admitted she lied 14 years ago about her identity but said leaders of her VVD liberal party and the public knew in 2002.
"I am ending my membership of parliament. I will leave the Netherlands. Sad and relieved, I will pack my bags again. I will go on," she told a news conference, her voice breaking.
Hirsi Ali, 36, said she regretted leaving the country that had given her refuge and many opportunities, but said that life was becoming increasingly unbearable under guard.
She sought asylum in 1992 saying she was on the run from her family who had arranged for her to marry a cousin in Canada.
"I am not proud that I lied when I sought asylum in the Netherlands. It was wrong to do so. I did it because I felt I had no choice," she said.
"I was frightened that if I simply said I was fleeing a forced marriage, I would be sent back to my family. And I was frightened that if I gave my real name, my clan would hunt me down and find me."
She said she would take up an international position where she could continue her fight for the rights of Muslim women.
Dutch media said she would move to the United States to work for conservative think tank the American Enterprise Institute.
"I am going away, but the questions remain. The questions about the future of Islam in our country, the suppression of women in Islamic culture and the integration of the many Muslims in the West," she said.
SECURITY THREAT
Hirsi Ali, who took odd jobs after arriving in the Netherlands before working as a translator for asylum seekers while she studied political science, won Dutch citizenship in 1997 and was elected to parliament for the VVD in 2003.
She went into hiding in 2004 when an Islamic militant killed Theo van Gogh after he directed a film she wrote accusing Islam of suppressing women. The film, featuring veiled women with texts from the Koran written on their bare skin, angered many of the 1 million Muslims who live in the Netherlands.
She returned to parliament a few months later, but has continued to live under heavy guard. A court ruled recently she must leave her home by August because her presence put her neighbors' security at risk.
Immigration Minister Rita Verdonk, a hard-liner who is vying to be the lead candidate of the VVD in the 2007 election, told her passport would be annulled, Hirsi Ali said, adding the decision was "disproportionate" and she would appeal.
Verdonk has championed a plan to expel 26,000 failed asylum seekers and taken other controversial decisions, recently rejecting fast-track Dutch citizenship for Ivorian striker Salomon Kalou to allow him to play in the soccer World Cup.
Immigration has been a hot topic since 2002 when populist Pim Fortuyn said the country could not absorb more foreigners. He was killed by an animal rights activist later that year but mainstream politicians have since taken up his tough ideas.
The furor over Hirsi Ali has split the VVD, part of the centre-right coalition government. Finance Minister Gerrit Zalm, a leading figure in the VVD, said he was surprised at the speed in which Verdonk had wrapped up her probe into Hirsi Ali.
The row over Hirsi Ali's asylum application broke out after a Dutch television documentary aired last week interviewed family members about her past and Hirsi Ali admitted she lied.
Hirsi Ali, whose real name is Hirsi Magan, pretended she had come to the Netherlands from Somalia, rather than via Kenya and Germany. Refugees are usually required to apply for asylum in the first safe country they reach after fleeing.
By Alexandra Hudson
Posted on Tuesday 16th May at 17:09:51 Minister Blames US For Latest Violence
Somali officials on Tuesday blamed the latest violence in their lawless capital, Mogadishu, on the United States, which they accused of meddling in domestic affairs by funding an alliance of warlords.
"The US is behind [the latest violence] through its financial and military support of warlords and its interference in the country's internal affairs," said Somali Health Minister Abdel Aziz Sheikh Yussef at the Arab League headquarters in Cairo.
Mogadishu was this week the scene of deadly battles between Islamic militia and gunmen loyal to a US-backed warlord Alliance for the Restoration of Peace and Counter-Terrorism, the worst violence the capital has seen for 15 years.
The warlords claim the country's Islamists are harbouring foreign fighters and Muslim extremists, including al-Qaeda members.
While the US has not explicitly confirmed its support for the alliance, US officials have told Agence France-Presse that the alliance has received US money and is one of several groups it is working with to contain the threat of Islamic radicalism in the country.
But Yussef denied Washington's claims of "creeping Talibanisation" in Somalia.
"The people of Somalia deal with officials of the Islamic courts because they are appointed by tribal chiefs and have a good reputation compared with the warlords, contrary to what the US claims," he said.
During his visit to Cairo, the health minister asked the Arab League to fulfil their promise of $500 000 in aid money to help with the deteriorating health situation caused by years of violence, adding that the number of functioning hospitals in Somalia was now down to three.
"It is the innocent people who die every day that are the victims, and they are dying in larger numbers than the fighting parties," said the minister.
Somalia, a nation of 10-million people in the Horn of Africa, has been without a functioning central authority since the fall of dictator Mohamed Siad Barre in 1991 plunged it into anarchy. Since then, warlords have been battling for control of a patchwork of fiefdoms.
More than a dozen attempts to restore stability have failed. The latest, a transitional government set up in 2004 in Kenya and now based in the town of Baidoa, west of Mogadishu, has been undermined by infighting and proved unable to assert control. -- AFP
Posted on Tuesday 16th May at 17:07:57 Controversy Over Extension Of Elders' Term Of Office
HARGEYSA, 16 May (IRIN) - A row is simmering between the government and opposition parties in the self-declared republic of Somaliland after the term of office of the council of elders - which functions as the upper house of parliament - was extended.
Somaliland's president, Dahir Riyale Kahin, proposed last week that the term of the current "house of elders", should run until October 2010, a proposal that the constitutional court endorsed. The term of the current house of elders, whose function is mainly advisory, was due to end in October 2006.
Kahin said Somaliland, the northeastern region of Somalia that declared itself a separate state following the collapse of the Somali government in 1991, could not afford another election, having held presidential, municipal and parliamentary polls during the past three years. He also argued that proposed legislation changing the electoral procedure of the house of elders was not yet ready.
The elders, who approved the decision to extend their term, review laws passed by the lower house before they receive Kahin's approval. They also have special responsibility for passing laws on security, religion and culture.
Opposition parties have expressed strong disapproval of the decision to extend the council of elders' mandate, saying it was unconstitutional.
"We were utterly shocked to learn of the extension. Neither us [the two opposition parties] nor the electoral commission was consulted. Our hands are now tied because the constitutional court has already reached a decision hence hampering our efforts to counter the move," said Yusuf Mohammed Guled, acting chairman of the Justice and Welfare party.
Kulmiye (Unity) party chairman, Ahmed Mohammed "Silanyo" said the house of representatives should instead have been allowed to decide the fate of their counterparts at the house of elders.
"The move by the government is something similar to a coup and it will negatively affect the function of the House of Representatives," he said.
The electoral commission said the matter should be dealt with by the legislature, the executive and political parties. "At the moment the house of elders electoral law is not in place. Therefore, the commission has no definite role to play with regard to this matter," Ahmed Ali Godir, the commission's acting chairman, said in a statement.
Eight organisers of an "anti-extension" demonstration were arrested as they led people in a protest on Sunday in Allaybadhe district, 75 km from Hargeysa, Somaliland's capital.
Local analysts here said the government bypassed the House of Representatives because it did not want to get embroiled in a controversial deba
Posted on Tuesday 16th May at 17:04:52 Eleven Die In Interclan Clashes In Somaliland
HARGEYSA, 15 May (IRIN) - At least 11 people were killed and 10 wounded in fighting that broke out on Saturday between rival subclans in a village in western Somaliland, a self-declared republic in northwestern Somalia.
Police said clashes between two factions of the Dulbahante clan in Angloo village, Buhoodhle District, continued on Sunday.
Militiamen of the Reer Haagay subclan took up arms against their Reer Hagar rivals because of a controversy over the death of a man eight days earlier. The Reer Haagay maintained that members of the Reer Hagar had caused the man's death through witchcraft.
Abdikarim Ismail Dorre, the district police chief, said a woman and her year-old baby were among those killed in the crossfire. Some of the wounded were treated at a medical clinic in Buhoodhle, and others were taken to hospitals in the towns of Burao and Galkayo in the neighbouring self-declared, semiautonomous region of Puntland.
There was no fighting on Monday, but tension between the rivals remained high. Elders were speaking with clan members in a bid to resolve matters. Mohammed Adan Qaybe, the former speaker of the Somaliland parliament who hails from Buhoodhle, appealed to the two groups to sort out their differences through dialogue.
The fighting in Buhoodhle is not related to the ongoing interclan violence in the Somali capital of Mogadishu.
Posted on Monday 15th May at 19:53:31 Dutch MP Lashed By Asylum Storm
The controversial Somali-born Dutch MP Ayaan Hirsi Ali is under pressure to quit parliament amid revelations that she falsified her asylum application.
A TV documentary about her, shown last week, triggered calls for her to be stripped of her Dutch passport.
Ms Hirsi Ali, a fierce critic of Islamic fundamentalism, has had continuous police protection since the murder of film-maker Theo van Gogh.
She wrote the script for his TV film Submission, which angered many Muslims.
A radical Islamist, Mohammed Bouyeri, 27, is serving life for the November 2004 murder of Van Gogh.
Ms Hirsi Ali did not deny that she had lied in her 1992 asylum application, her spokeswoman Ingrid Pouw told the BBC News website.
False data
"Everybody knew she lied about her asylum," she said, explaining that Ms Hirsi Ali had changed her name and birth date in her application.
She had also concealed the fact that she had arrived from Kenya via Germany, Ms Pouw said.
"She told them she came from Somalia - that's why she got A status asylum in just five weeks," Ms Pouw said.
Radio Netherlands reports that Ms Hirsi Ali had revealed the truth about her background in interviews and again in 2003 when the liberal-conservative VVD party asked her to stand as a parliamentary candidate.
Ms Hirsi Ali will give a news conference at 1330 (1130 GMT) in The Hague on Tuesday, her spokeswoman said.
She did not confirm a report in the Dutch newspaper De Volkskrant on Monday that Ms Hirsi Ali plans move to the US to take up a job at the American Enterprise Institute think-tank.
Posted on Monday 15th May at 19:47:07 Nairobi Embassy 'Unaware' Of Ex-CIA Chief's Visit To Somalia
The United States embassy in Kenya has denied knowledge of the alleged visit by the former Central Intelligence Agency director Porter Goss to Somalia in February over terrorism links in the country.
Two weeks ago, Somali President Abdullahi Yusuf publicly criticised the US over claims that it was funding warlords in the country.
However, sources well versed in Somalia affairs told The EastAfrican that the former CIA chief was indeed in the country, during which time strategies for fighting al-Qaeda in Somalia were formulated.
The sources, one in the Kenyan armed forces and the other in the transitional federal government of Somalia, said the director’s visit was followed by a trip by CIA and Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) agents to Mogadishu, where selected warlords were given money to help identify and arrest suspected al-Qaeda operatives in the country.
Leadership in Somalia is divided between clan warlords, the increasingly popular Islamic courts and the transitional federal government.
US support for the warlords is making it difficult for a democratic government to be put in place, sources close to the transitional government say.
"It is not clear to us why the US is funding the warlords. If they want to fight terrorists, they should first help us have a functional government, then use it to get them, said a senior advisor to Prime Minister Abdul Ghedi.
It is now feared that Islamic extremists are gaining ground. The support for the once popular warlords has now shifted to their rivals, the extremist Islamic groups, and by extension to al-Qaeda," said a government advisor.
Ms Barnes, however, said the US policy towards Somalia is designed to support the re-establishment of a functioning central government capable of bringing the Somali people out of civil conflict. "An effective, functioning central government in Somalia is the most effective long-term means of addressing the threat of domestic terrorism against Somalis, and international terrorism from Somalia," she said in a statement.
She said the United States strongly supports the establishment of transitional federal institutions in Somalia and shares the concerns of a majority of the Somali people regarding the presence of foreign terrorists, specifically al-Qaeda.
"The United States remains gravely concerned that a small number of Somalis are harbouring foreign terrorists inside Somalia, which undermines the efforts of those seeking to establish peace in Somalia and threatens the stability of the Horn of Africa, she added.
By ABDULSAMAD ALI
Special Correspondent
Posted on Monday 15th May at 19:43:18 Somali Peace Holds, But Militias Deny Truce
By Mohamed Ali Bile
MOGADISHU (Reuters) - Peace held in the Somali capital on Monday after the worst fighting in a decade killed around 150 people, but residents feared violence could erupt again as rival militias denied they had agreed a truce.
Eight days of heavy fighting, which sent hundreds of civilians fleeing from mortars, rockets and heavy machine guns, came to a halt on Sunday after clan elders demanded a truce, saying if either side broke it, they would support the other.
Most of the dead and wounded were civilians caught in artillery duels between gunmen for a self-styled anti-terror coalition backed by powerful local warlords, and militia allied to Mogadishu's Islamic courts.
"We have not agreed anything with them (Islamic courts), they stopped shooting at us and that's why there is calm now," Hussein Gutale Rage, spokesman for the warlords' alliance, told Reuters by telephone on Monday.
Siyad Mohamed, a militia leader linked to the Islamic courts, said his side had accepted the elders' call to halt fighting but had not signed a truce.
"There is no deal that was signed between the Islamic courts and the alliance," he said.
"Our officials asked us to stop fighting and said any Islamic courts' militiaman who fails to heed the call will be held accountable for his actions."
Analysts view the fighting in the failed Horn of Africa state as a proxy battle between Islamist militants and Washington, widely believed to be funding the warlords.
The Islamic courts say U.S. money is pouring into Mogadishu to fuel a drive against them, while the alliance says their opponents have links to al Qaeda.
The past week's battles were the third and by far the fiercest the two sides have waged since February.
GOVERNMENT MEETS IN OLD WAREHOUSE
Mohamed said clan elders had put into place a neutral force in the rundown Siisii area, where the fighting had started.
"None of the combatants can start fighting now," he said. "Dead bodies are being retrieved from the rubble."
Both sides had massed fighters along major roads in and out of the capital and sent in reinforcements during the week.
Despite the lack of fighting on Monday, residents said they feared more violence.
"It's calm now, but we can't trust these people, they say one thing and do the opposite, many people fear fighting will erupt again," resident Yassin Osman said.
Somalia's interim government, the 14th attempt at restoring central rule since the 1991 ousting of dictator Mohamed Siad Barre, cannot move to Mogadishu because of insecurity there.
It is based in the southern city of Baidoa, meeting in a former grain warehouse.
President Abdullahi Yusuf and his administration on Saturday called for foreign intervention to stop the fighting, echoing a request he made for foreign peacekeepers to pacify the country shortly after taking office in late 2004.
Yusuf and Islamic leaders have accused Washington of backing the warlords, who have called themselves the "Alliance for the Restoration of Peace and Counter-Terrorism" in what some say is a cynical ploy to get U.S. cash.
The United States -- which considers Somalia a likely terrorist hideout -- has never directly answered the allegations, but has made clear it will work with anyone it considers an ally in fighting terrorism.
Both the warlords and the businessmen backing the Islamists want control of lucrative ports, airfields and road checkpoints where militiamen collect tolls at gunpoint.
Residents say the Islamic courts, which have imposed order on parts of the anarchic city through traditional Islamic law, oppose any threat to their authority.
Posted on Monday 15th May at 19:40:12 PM To Remove Two Cabinet Members
(SomaliNet) The prime minister of the transitional federal government Ali Mohamed Gedi says he would take unusual steps to dismiss two of his cabinet ministers.
London based paper Asharqal Awsat reports on Monday that premier Gedi is planning to dismiss ministers of home security and commercial Mohamed Qanyare and Muse Sudi those he said had played a key role in the recent violence of clashes in the capital, which engulfed the lives of more innocent people.
The latest clash in the Somali capital Mogadishu left the death of 167 people most of civilians and injures more than 300 others and thousands more fled the fighting.
Mr Gedi who is now in Baidoa where the transitional government based in told the paper on the telephone line that he met with his cabinet over the decision to fire the opposition ministers and later he will put it forward in the parliament to adopt the resolution.
The members of the parliament deeply concerned over the involvements of the two ministers into the conflict in Somali capital.
Gedi made clear that the cabinet and the president agreed on the move to sack the ministers of warlords.
"My message is to Sudi and Qanyare and if they don't join the government in Baidoa and restraint from the bloodshed they would lose the posts and will became criminals," Ged said in interview with Asharqal awsat paper.
He stressed that he was sorry about the positions of Qanyare and Sudi who he said they usually used to oppose his government and opponent to the peace initiatives since it formed in Kenya in 2004, saying stead of that they preferred to undermine the reconciliation activities by his government.
"They are fuelling the violence and the unrest in the city and people think that they represent to my government but I would not accept now and then they continue killing the civilians and the innocents" he added Mr Gedi.
Sources say the move to dismiss the warlord ministers in Mogadishu needs the majority vote of the parliament.
The political analysts say the plan to fire two of the cabinet minister would lead trouble to the national reconciliation process and the government's activities.
Posted on Monday 15th May at 19:39:04 Eleven Die In Interclan Clashes In The Northwest
HARGEYSA, 15 May 2006 (IRIN) - At least 11 people were killed and 10 wounded in fighting that broke out on Saturday between rival subclans in a village in western Somaliland, a self-declared republic in northwestern Somalia.
Police said clashes between two factions of the Dulbahante clan in Angloo village, Buhoodhle District, continued on Sunday.
Militiamen of the Reer Haagay subclan took up arms against their Reer Hagar rivals because of a controversy over the death of a man eight days earlier. The Reer Haagay maintained that members of the Reer Hagar had caused the man’s death through witchcraft.
Abdikarim Ismail Dorre, the district police chief, said a woman and her year-old baby were among those killed in the crossfire. Some of the wounded were treated at a medical clinic in Buhoodhle, and others were taken to hospitals in the towns of Burao and Galkayo in the neighbouring self-declared, semiautonomous region of Puntland.
There was no fighting on Monday, but tension between the rivals remained high. Elders were speaking with clan members in a bid to resolve matters. Mohammed Adan Qaybe, the former speaker of the Somaliland parliament who hails from Buhoodhle, appealed to the two groups to sort out their differences through dialogue.
The fighting in Buhoodhle is not related to the ongoing interclan violence in the Somali capital of Mogadishu.
Posted on Sunday 14th May at 19:48:55 40 In The Dock Over Attacks On Foreigners
40 in the dock over attacks on foreigners
40 in the dock over attacks on foreigners
Police say rioting locals ransacked the property of Somalians and assaulted them
May 15, 2006, 05:45
At least 40 people will appear in the Plettenberg Bay Magistrate's Court today on robbery, assault and housebreaking charges after last week's attacks on foreigners in the Southern Cape town. One man has since been arrested on a murder charge while another three will have to answer to a charge of malicious damage to property.
Police say rioting locals ransacked the property of Somalians and assaulted them. They were complaining that foreigners were taking away their jobs.
Police said they were investigating one murder after the body of an unidentified man was found, although there have been claims of as many as 13 foreigners killed. A special team has been appointed to investigate the riots.
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Posted on Sunday 14th May at 19:45:52 Traders In Somalia Set Up Force To Guard UAE Ships
DUBAI — The Somalian Business Association in Dubai has decided to deploy its own armed security to protect the crew of cargo vessels sent from the UAE to different ports in Somalia, your favourite No. 1 newspaper Khaleej Times has learnt.
The decision came in the light of the recent hijacking of two cargo vessels Lin 1 and MV Al Taj flying UAE flags by Somalian pirates within a month.
According to Abdul Kareem, a member of Somalian Business Association, the security launch will escort the cargo vessels when it arrives in Somalian sea until it returns from there.
“We held a meeting to discuss how to tackle the problems of pirates. Because of the pirates we lost a lot of money. We are concerned about the life of the crew members also,” he said.
He disclosed that they will spend half a million dollars to facilitate security in the Somalian waters. The menace of the pirates is growing.
“Somalia does not have a government at the moment. So we do not have any other alternative than use our own security system,” he added.
“We are shocked to learn of the brutal murder of Jumma Osman, a crew member of MV Al Taj, the cargo vessel hijacked in Somalian waters on April 27. More than money the life of crewmembers of cargo vessels are important for us. We will do our level best to tackle the problems created by the pirates,” he said.
Meanwhile, Narandra Shial, owner of MV Al Taj, said "I will not send my vessel again to Somalia . Now the season is over and it will start again in October. First I will check the security arrangements promised by the business association in Somalian waters and only when I am convinced about the security aspect, I will reconsider sending my vessel to Somalia."
He said that due to the recent incidents of piracy, the ship owners are forced re-think about sending their vessels to Somalia. " The security of the vessel and crew members are important for us. Incidents like this shake our confidence
in sending our vessels and crew to Somalia. The Somalian authorities should deal with the problems soon and make sure they provide security," he said.
Posted on Sunday 14th May at 19:44:28 Somalis Strive to Cope With Worst Drought in 15 Years
Hawa Hassan, 19, cuddles her two-year-old malnourished child as she attempts to shield him from being photographed by journalists visiting Somalia.
Some fortified milk is passed on to her in an orange plastic cup at a feeding centre for malnourished children in Wajid.
Besides her, in an expansive room, are other equally emaciated women with their children waiting for the same ration, measured in syringes.
The milk, though nutritious, will not be enough for little Isaac Ibrahim, who can be mistaken for a five-month-old baby because of his stunted growth. But it will sustain him until he gets his next meal.
Smiling shyly after receiving her ration, the teenage mother from Ghelyo village in Wajid District of the war-torn Somalia says that it is only by luck that they have survived the devastating drought that has hit the country.
Her luck came calling when officials of Action Contre la Faim (ACF), an international NGO operating in Somalia, found her and her children starving at their home 35 kilometres from Wajid.
Many more like her were left in her neighbourhood without food and water and may have died of hunger.
Hassan cannot recall the number of days she had slept without a meal, but she was only sure that her child would have died anytime.
Speaking haltingly, Hassan recalls that she left her other child with her aunt, and without anything to eat.
"I left her with her aunt when we were brought here. They did not have anything to eat," she says staring pensively in the distance.
The memories of her first-born child, whose whereabouts she doesn't know, dampens the mood of the previously jovial mother and all she can say, through an interpreter, is, "I am happy with the help we got".
Lying next to Hassan is 45-year-old Fatuma Abdullahi, who is with her three children at the ACF feeding centre. She was brought with her two children 20 days ago, but delivered the third one while at the centre. The two youngest children are almost the same size and one can mistake them for twins.
Hawa Hassan, 19, holds her emaciated two-year-old child, Isaac Ibrahim, as she waits for fortified milk at the Action Centre La Faim feeding centre for malnourished children in Wajid, Somalia.
Abdullahi, however, explains that the eldest child is 17-moths-old. They were brought to the centre from Budonan village, 45 kilometres north of Wajid town.
"My child was sick and some people came to visit her and that is when they brought us here," she says, also through an interpreter.
"I used to look after our camels, but they all died,' she adds.
ACF head of base in Somalia, Admain Lassuilciarias, says the hunger situation in the country was still bad, but was likely to improve due to the rains.
Such images of desperation flood the Somalia countryside as the inhabitants try to cope with one of the most severe drought situation in 15 years, which has affected close to 2.1 million people.
Due to inter and intra-clan hostilities in the country, rescuing such people from the effects of drought involves the use of several hundreds of dollars for security purposes besides the money required to feed them.
Not even the heavy rains that have pounded the country in the last two weeks can bring hope to the citizens.
A few kilometres from the ACF feeding centre, hundreds, perhaps thousands, of Somalia citizens live as refugees in their own country in shanties covered with torn sacks and clothing.
These are the people whose lives have been disintegrated by the war and have been displaced from their homes due to insecurity.
As the United Nations Special humanitarian envoy for the Horn of Africa, Kjell Magne Bondevik, arrives in the camp in a convoy of vehicles guarded by heavily armed soldiers and militias, women start lighting fire in their ramshackle, perhaps in the hope that he has brought them food.
But he has only gone there to assess the situation and look for ways of assisting them. "This is the worst living conditions I have ever seen," said Bondevik at the end of the tour.
As the convoy drives South of Wajid to Kurta village, women with plastic jerricans are seen fetching muddy water from the flooded roads.
The women know that when the waters dry up, they will be forced to walk for dozens of kilometres in search of the scarce commodity.
Drought is not the only humanitarian calamity affecting the country, as there have been reports of outbreak of measles and polio.
Mr James King'ori, Unicef's Emergency Nutrition Coordinator in the five most affected regions in the country, says this grave situation is replicated in almost all parts of the country.
King'ori says a nutrition assessment done in the five regions of Bay, Bakool, Gedo, Middle and Lower Juba in Somalia indicated that there was a global acute malnutrition of 15 per cent and above.
Malnutrition levels of this nature, he says, call for a declaration of an emergency.
In some areas, says King'ori, the situation is much worse with Gedo region recording a malnutrition level of 23.8 per cent in March this year. He adds that the children mortality rate is equally high. "Recovery is expected to take about three to four months even with the coming of the long rains," says King'ori, adding that the rains may not last for long.
The drought situation in the war-torn country sharing a common border with Kenya, Ethiopia and Djibouti is complicated further by the outbreak of measles and Polio.
The outbreak of these diseases is a risk to the neighbouring countries considering that Somalia citizens are always on the move trying to escape from their country.
Somalia is the only country in the world with a geographically expanding outbreak of polio and it poses a threat to the goal of eradicating the disease in the Horn of Africa.
A UN reports says a total of 199 wild polio virus cases have so far been confirmed since July 2005. Since the start of 2006, the report says, 14 cases have been identified.
The disease had been eradicated in 2002, but it re-emerged in 2005.
Dr Ayana Yeneabat of WHO Somalia says by mid 2005 more than 200 cases of polio were identified, most of them in Mogadishu, Banadir and Lower Shabelle regions.
Unicef Somalia Representative Christian Balsev Olesen on Tuesday warned that polio had been detected in Ethiopia and could rapidly spread into Kenya.
He said WHO needs US$11 million to enable it maintain and implement sensitive quality active surveillance to detect any ongoing virus circulation.
"With all these problems in the country, the presence of UN agencies and international NGOs has helped to significantly reduce the suffering of the people.
By Cyrus Kinyungu
Nairobi
Posted on Wednesday 10th May at 18:44:44 Fire Leaves Thousands Homeless In Bossaso
HARGEYSA, 10 May (IRIN) - More than 5,000 internally displaced persons and returnees were left homeless when a fire gutted their camp in Somalia's northeastern port town of Bossaso late on Tuesday.
Witnesses said the fire broke out at around 7.30 p.m. at the Boqolka Buush camp and spread quickly because of strong winds.
"There were more than 5,300 people living in the camp, and virtually all the huts were destroyed by the fire. Firefighters, the security forces and residents were still trying to put out the fire three hours after its started," said Muuse Gelle, the governor of Bari region. He said at least 10 people were taken to hospital and treated for superficial burns. Dozens of people, mostly children, were missing.
"All camp residents scampered for safety when the fire started. They left their belongings and food rations behind, all of which were destroyed. Only a few have been accommodated by locals, but many others had no place to sleep," said local journalist Mohammed Deq.
No deaths have been reported as a result of the inferno. Bossaso district leaders and representatives from aid agencies including the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP), the UN refugee agency (UNHCR) and the UN Children's Fund (Unicef) were meeting in a bid to help those displaced by the blaze, said Moulid Haji Abdi of the Somali Broadcasting Corporation.
Boqolka Buush is the largest camp for internally displaced persons in Puntland, a self-declared autonomous region in northeastern Somalia. It was home to thousands of people who fled their homes during the civil strife that engulfed Somalia following the overthrow in 1991 of dictator Muhammad Siyad Barre. Former refugees who had returned to Somalia from neighbouring countries also lived at the camp.
A similar fire in June 2005 destroyed Buulo Eelaay camp in Bossaso, leaving more than 2,000 people homeless. In November 2005, at least three children were burnt to death when fire swept through another camp for the displaced on the outskirts of the Somali capital, Mogadishu.
Posted on Wednesday 10th May at 18:41:32 UN Calls For End to Somalia Fighting
The United Nations has condemned the latest round of fighting in Somalia's capital between militias loyal to the Islamic courts and a secular anti-terrorism alliance. At least 80 people have been killed in the clashes and more than 200 injured.
Fighting between members of the Islamic Court Union and the Alliance for the Restoration of Peace and Counterterrorism continued for the fourth day in the streets of Mogadishu.
The conflict reportedly broke out after an assassination attempt on one of the counterterrorism alliance's leaders.
Media reports quoted Islamic Court Union Chairman Sheik Sharif Sheik Ahmed as saying that his group would observe a cease-fire from late Tuesday. But clashes continue.
The U.N. Secretary-General's Special Representative for Somalia, Francois Fall, appealed for the heavily armed militias to stop their warfare.
Fall tells VOA the fighting is threatening to undermine the peace process and the ability of the recently inaugurated transitional government to function well.
"We took almost two years to put the Somali leaders together and to force the dialogue among the leaders of Somalia to try to rebuild a functional state in this country," he said. "The peace process was going very well with the ongoing Somali parliament session in Baidoa.
Fall calls for both militias to work within the government system and the Somali parliament, which is currently based in the town of Baidoa.
"All the actors in Somalia should join the group of Baidoa, together, inside the framework of the TFI, the transitional federal institutions. Then we can work together and try to rebuild something consistent in Somalia," he added.
Fierce fighting between the two groups first erupted in Mogadishu in March, leaving at least 60 people dead and hundreds wounded and displaced.
Media reports describe the anti-terrorist alliance, formed three months ago, as being a coalition of warlords who aim to stem what they feel is growing Islamic extremism in Somalia. The Islamic courts are said to want to maintain law and order in the volatile capital.
It is widely believed that the United States is backing the Alliance for the Restoration of Peace and Counterterrorism.
State Department spokesman Sean McCormack recently told reporters that the United States is, "working with individual members of the transitional government to try to create a better situation in Somalia."
The United States has long been concerned that chaotic Somalia could become a haven for international terrorists.
There have been more than a dozen attempts to form a central government in Somalia since civil war broke out in 1991. Since then, warlords and their militias have battled with each other and civilians to control different parts of the country.
A transitional Somali parliament was formed in Kenya more than a year ago following a two-year peace process, and recently met for the first time in Somalia.
By Cathy Majtenyi
Posted on Wednesday 10th May at 18:40:34 Parliament Speaker Meets Somali Counterpart
The Speaker of the National Assembly (Angolan Parliament) Roberto de Almeida, met on Monday in Nairobi, Kenya, with his Somalia´s counterpart Sharif Aden, on the sidelines of the 114th Conference of Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU).
During the 20-minute audience, the two interlocutors reviewed the two African countries` political situation with emphasis on the preparation of the electoral process on course in Angola.
In his intervention on Monday, during the generic debate consecrated to the political, social and economic situation in the world, the East African State`s Parliament leader Sharif Hassan Aden Sheik, underlined the solidarity expressed by his country, during the liberation struggle of some African countries, with highlight to Angola.
On the sidelines of the conference, scheduled to end on May 12, Roberto de Almeida is due to hold meetings with his counterparts of Portugal, Cape Verde, Mali, Kenya, Hungary and Cuba.
The National Assembly speaker will address the conference on Tuesday and Wednesday, whose communication will be focused on the reinforcement of democratic process, started in 1992 with the holding of the first general elections in the Southern African country, devastated by a 30-year civil war .
Source : Angola Press
Posted on Tuesday 9th May at 19:47:40 Somalia Accuses African States of Neglect
Lucas Barasa
Nairobi
Somalia Federal Transitional Parliament has accused African governments of failing to support its recovery efforts after years of civil war.
Speaker Sharrif Hassan Aden told the 114th Inter-Parliamentary Union Assembly in Nairobi yesterday that despite his country assisting many African countries gain independence, it was neglected immediately the war broke out.
Mr Aden was invited to speak by IPU vice-president Margareth Mensah-Williams to represent countries going through transition period.
The Horn of Africa country is trying to rebuild its parliament after 15 years of conflict.
Mr Aden named South Africa, Mozambique, Angola and Namibia as some of those that had been assisted by Somalia to come out of the colonial yoke but these countries had done little to help end war in Somalia or support its recovery efforts.
"We need timely support to meet the challenges we are facing today," Mr Aden said.
The Speaker however hailed the European Union, the Arab League and the UN commitment to rebuild Somalia and ensure lasting peace.
Speaking through an aide who read his speech as he was unable, following the death of his wife, Mr Aden said the 275 member transitional parliament was undergoing many difficulties and that it was operating from a rehabilitated granary store.
"We are meeting outside the capital (Mogadishu) in Baidoa at a granary warehouse," the Speaker said.
The Parliament, which he said enjoyed huge support from locals, had started enacting legislation to promote national reconciliation and entrench democratic institutions. He said Parliament has also sent a delegation to warring factions in Mogadishu to urge them to stop fighting.
"We want to channel our resources to social development," the Speaker said.
Mr Aden said Somalia's parliament was also discharging its oversight duties and was vigilant about corruption.
Posted on Tuesday 9th May at 19:45:17 U.S. Funding of Warlords Undermining Govt - Yusuf
The United States is financing an alliance of warlords in Somalia, and thereby contradicting the Bush administration's own stated policy of promoting stability in the country, Somalia's interim president charged last week.
The US is aiding the warlords, some of whom now hold posts in Somalia's interim government, in order to prevent Al Qaeda militants from using the country as a safe haven, President Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed told the Associated Press during a visit to Sweden.
US backing for warlords is undermining his government's efforts to exert its authority, Yusuf added. "These groups, they really do not want Somalia to become a stabilised country," he said. "They do not want the government to function."
The Americans should co-operate with his government rather than with warlord factions in fighting terrorism, Yusuf added.
Yusuf's May 3 charges were echoed the following day by a Somali government spokesman. "The US government funded the warlords in the recent battle in Mogadishu, there is no doubt about that," spokesman Abdirahman Dinari told journalists by telephone from Baidoa, where the interim Somali government is based. "This co-operation ... only fuels further civil war."
The warlord alliance has quickly become one of the most heavily armed militias in the capital, according to local residents quoted by the media.
US involvement on the side of warlord factions would represent a significant shift in American policy toward Somalia.
The US has generally steered clear of such partisanship in the 12 years since American military forces were withdrawn from Somalia following unsuccessful efforts to capture or kill a top warlord based in Mogadishu.
A US-based Somalia advocacy group added last week that US military officials based in Djibouti hold regular meetings with the warlords inside Somalia.
The American embassy in Nairobi also serves as a venue for these strategy talks, according to the Somali Justice Advocacy Centre.
Asked about Yusuf's allegations, a State Department spokesman did not deny that the US is funding warlord factions in Somalia.
The US is working with "individual members of the transitional government to try to create a better situation in Somalia," spokesman Sean McCormack said last week.
A key US aim, he added, is to assist "responsible individuals and certainly members of the transitional government in fighting terror.
"It's a real concern of ours - terror taking root in the Horn of Africa. We don't want to see another safe haven for terrorists created."
McCormack also said he did not understand Yusuf's intentions in alleging American alignment with warlords in a campaign against Al Qaeda operatives inside Somalia.
The tone of the spokesman's comments differed markedly from his explicit denial last month that the US had made a deal with Yusuf's government to combat pirates operating off Somalia's coast.
"The State Department has not negotiated any such contracts or agreements," McCormack declared.
Somali officials said earlier that the US had agreed to facilitate anti-piracy operations.
Yusuf's charge of US funding for warlords comes amidst renewed fighting in Mogadishu that has taken about 100 lives.
At one time, the US linked Somalia's Al Itihaad Al Islamiya (AIAI) to terrorist activities. But in its most recent report on terrorism trends, the State Department acknowledged "in recent years the existence of a coherent entity operation as AIAI has become difficult to prove." Some elements associated with the former group are sympathetic to Al Qaeda, the report added.
It also exonerated many of the Islamist groups active in Somalia from involvement in terrorism.
"Other shadowy groups that have appeared in Somalia are suspected of having committed terrorist acts against Western interests in the region, or considered capable of doing so," the State Department added in its terrorism report last month. "Very little is known about movements such as al-Takfir wal-Hijra (al-Takfir), but the extremist ideology and violent character of takfiri groups elsewhere suggest that the movement merits close monitoring."
Kevin J. Kelley
Washington, DC
Posted on Tuesday 9th May at 19:43:48 More Deaths in Third Day of Mogadishu Fighting
The death toll continued to rise in the Somali capital, Mogadishu, as fighting between rival militias entered its third day, local sources said.
"As of last night [Monday], the death toll stood at 41. It will get higher, since the fighting is still going on," said a doctor at Keysaney Hospital in the north of the city, where most of the injured were being treated.
So far 113 people were receiving care in various hospitals in the capital. Among those were a two-year-old boy, his one-year-old sister, who were wounded when a mortar bomb hit their home on Monday evening in Yaqshid District. "The boy lost both legs, and the little girl has a serious stomach wound," said Awes Fodey, a local resident.
"If the fighting continues, the hospitals will not be able to cope," the doctor said. "Some of the hospitals have already run out of medicines," warned the doctor.
The clashes started on Sunday in the Si Si area of north Mogadishu, when armed groups loyal to Mogadishu militia leader Nur Daqle attacked militia led by the chairman of the Islamic courts, Shaykh Sharif Shaykh Ahmed. Daqle and Ahmed belong to the Agoon Yar subclan of the Abgal community. What started as an internal feud soon became a battle between the Islamic courts and the newly created Alliance for Peace and the Fight Against International Terrorism, which comprises several Mogadishu-based faction leaders.
Hundreds of families fled their homes in the city's northern outskirts as the fighting entered its third day. "This is the biggest exodus we have seen since February [when the factional fighting began]," said a local observer.
Another source, who requested anonymity, said the displacement was due to the indiscriminate use of mortar bombs. "They [the Alliance group] are using mortars and even shelling areas where there is no fighting. It is almost a deliberate attempt on their part to spread the fighting to all of Mogadishu," he said. "People living in Sanaa, Arjentiina, Obasiibo Yaqshid [all in north Mogadishu and close to the fighting] are leaving because they are terrified by this new tactic."
As the violence continued, many families that had endured two days of clashes "had given up hope that the fighting would stop," said a local journalist. "Some have gone south, while many others are heading north to the town of Balad."
Elders and civil-society groups that had tried to intervene had so far been unsuccessful, the journalist said.
Any mediation efforts to resolve the conflict have been complicated by the public perception that "there is foreign involvement," said Abdullahi Shirwa, a member of Civil Society in Action, a local group. The impression that the fighting is being driven by outside influences is "making intervention by clan elders very difficult."
Posted on Tuesday 9th May at 19:42:50 Police Arrested After Somali Man Robbed
Western Cape police have arrested two of their own and issued a warrant of arrest for a former detective allegedly involved in an armed robbery at a Somali man's shop in Bellville on Thursday.
In recent months Somali immigrants have frequently fallen victim to robberies and xenophobic attacks.
The Cape Times has learned that two dog handlers, one from the police's Maitland dog unit and another from Faure dog unit in the Eastern Metropole, were arrested late on Wednesday night, but have not yet been charged.
An apprentice dog handler from Maitland is under investigation, but has not been arrested.
No shots were fired and the 42-year-old Somali shopkeeper was unharmed, but the robbers took a large number of goods and an undisclosed amount of cash.
Police are still searching for the former police detective, also allegedly involved in the robbery in Durban Road.
According to a senior police officer, who asked not to be named, four civilians are also under investigation.
The commanders of the two units were among those investigating the scene of the robbery on Monday night and were asked to submit a report to Provincial Police Commissioner Mzwandile Petros.
In a statement, Petros said he had given instructions for the immediate arrest of the former detective.
"The investigation into the involvement of the Dog Unit members continues to ascertain whether they are indeed implicated," said Petros. "This forms part of the ongoing drive to eradicate corruption and criminal behaviour among police officials in the Western Cape.
We are serious about exposing members of the police who are found to be involved in crime..."
Captain Elna de Beer said that although suspects would normally have to appear in court within 48 hours of arrest, the two dog handlers were scheduled to appear in the Bellville Magistrate's Court on Monday.
De Beer said the two officers had been suspended with immediate effect, pending the outcome of the court case.
"Our decisive action in these matters intends to send out a strong message that criminal behaviour is not tolerated, and that there is no place for such members in the service," Petros stated.
The murder of a 45-year-old Somali shopkeeper in Kayamandi outside Stellenbosch last month was the fifth targeted robbery of a Somali in the area this year.
The police have requested members of the public with related information to contact CrimeStop on 08600 10111.
Posted on Monday 8th May at 19:02:47 Diarrhoea outbreak kills 12 in Afmadow District
HARGEYSA, 8 May (IRIN) - An outbreak of diarrhoea in Afmadow District in southwestern Somalia has claimed the lives of at least 12 people during the past week, medical sources said on Monday.
Some 80 people were arriving at the district's main hospital to seek treatment for diarrhoea every day, said Hassan Mursal, a clinical officer at the hospital. "So far, I can confirm 12 people have succumbed to the disease within seven days; eight were children. There is little we can do, because the drugs donated to the hospital by an aid agency in Nairobi [Kenya] last year are finished."
The worst-hit villages were around Waamo and Saa'nole. The arrival of the seasonal long rains has been a mixed blessing in Afmadow, which had suffered significant livestock losses during the prevailing regional drought. The area is littered with rotting carcasses, and health officials blamed the outbreak on contaminated wells following heavy rainfall. The district has no water-purification facilities, but a local youth group, the Juba Youth Development Association (JYDA), had initiated efforts to chlorinate water sources.
The rains have also rendered roads impassable, making it difficult to transport medical supplies to remote villages. Medical workers appealed for medicines and water-purification kits, saying aid could be flown in to the local airstrip
Posted on Monday 8th May at 19:00:32 ADRA Launches Drought Response Project in Somalia
Nairobi, Kenya The Adventist Development and Relief Agency (ADRA) has launched a two-month project to improve water availability and accessibility for thousands of drought-affected people in the Tieglow district and Hudur town of Bakol Region, South Somalia.
The ADRA Bakol Water Drought Response (BWDR) project impacts areas severely hit by drought and where ADRA has previously implemented water projects. Due to changes in population, water use in overcrowded villages has increased dramatically. As a result, wells and boreholes have either dried up, or have reduced water levels, sometimes by up to 50 percent.
The BWDR project will address the emergency water and sanitation needs of drought-affected communities in six villages for 7,000 people, including 900 Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs). Wells will be deepened to improve access to water, and livestock troughs and sewage drainage canals will be rehabilitated to improve sanitation and to reduce the risk of disease.
Funded by UNICEF Somalia, the BWDR project will also improve the communities� environmental sanitation and personal hygiene through health and hygiene education classes. It also aims to strengthen the maintenance and management capacities of the water points, ensuring that mechanisms are in place to reduce the effects of future droughts.
Members of the eight local Water, Environment and Sanitation (WES) committees and the Tieglow and Hudur District Water Boards will also receive training in health and sanitation management, as well as conflict mitigation.
Participatory monitoring of works and progress will be carried out on a weekly basis between ADRA staff and partners, such as the village council, WES committees, district council members, and District Water Boards.
The ADRA office in Somalia has operated since 1992. Over time, ADRA has managed over 50 projects in water; health care; education; food security; infrastructure; institutional capacity building; micro-enterprise development; and emergency response interventions.
ADRA is present in 125 countries, providing community development and emergency management without regard to political or religious affiliation, age, or ethnicity.
Additional information about ADRA can be found at www.adra.org.
Author: Jason Nyantino Media Contact: Nadia McGill ADRA International 12501 Old Columbia Pike Silver Spring, MD 20904 Phone: 301.680.5145 E-mail: Media.Inquries@adra.org
Posted on Monday 8th May at 18:58:58 Somali Pirates Release Hijacked Vessel, Kill Crew
NAIROBI, May 8 (Xinhua) -- Somali pirates have released a commercial ship they hijacked last month off the coast of the Horn of Africa country, killing a crew member and wounding two others, Kenya's maritime official confirmed on Monday.
Andrew Mwangura, the coordinator of the Kenyan Chapter of the Seafarers Assistance Program, said the pirates released the MV Al-Taj, its ten Indian crew late Saturday from where the ship had been held near the port of Haradhere, about 400 km north of Mogadishu.
"The Al-Taj ship was released on Saturday night. We have also information that a crew member was killed while two others were wounded during the hijacking," he said.
Mwangura, who is tracking Somali maritime activities from the neighboring Kenya, said the ship has returned to its home port in the United Arab Emirates after the businessman who contracted it paid 25,000 U.S. dollars for the vessel's release.
Somalia waters have become the most dangerous in the world since warlords ousted military dictator Mohamed Siad Barre in 1991 ushering in an era of anarchy in the Horn of Africa country.
Piracy has become an epidemic in the unpatrolled waters off the coast of Somalia where at least 40 hijackings and attempted seizures have been recorded since mid March last year.
The Horn of Africa nation has no coast guard to protect vessels. But in the past two months, U.S. Navy ships have confronted two groups of pirates, killing one person and injuring five others. One group of pirates the U.S. navy confronted is now facing trial in Kenya.
Last week, Kenya launched a maritime rescue center to provide a rapid response to acts of piracy and accidents at sea, particularly in the pirates-infested waters of the Somali coast.
The Regional Maritime Rescue Coordination Center opened in Kenya's coastal city of Mombasa last Friday would combat the increasing attacks on shipping in the Indian Ocean off the coast of neighboring Somalia. Enditem
Posted on Monday 8th May at 18:57:18 More Than 15 Killed In Renewed Fighting In Mogadishu
NAIROBI, 8 May (IRIN) - At least 15 people have been killed and hundreds of families displaced in fighting that began on Sunday between rival militias in the Somali capital, Mogadishu.
According to witnesses on the ground, violence erupted in the Si Si area of north Mogadishu when armed groups loyal to Mogadishu militia leader Nur Daqle attacked militia led by the chairman of the Islamic courts, Shaykh Sharif Shaykh Ahmed. Each side blamed the other for starting the fighting, said Hassan Ade, a local journalist.
Daqle and Ahmed both belong to the Agoon Yar subclan of the Abgal. The fighting is said to be a struggle to gain supremacy in an area dominated by their subclan. However, what originated as an internal feud immediately became a battle between the Islamic courts and the newly created Alliance for Peace and the Fight Against International Terrorism, which comprises several Mogadishu-based faction leaders.
Since February, fighting between the two sides has claimed more than 100 lives. Hundreds more have been injured and thousands displaced. Hospital sources said between 15 and 20 people were killed in the latest fighting. "Our estimate is the death toll as of yesterday [Sunday] is between 15 and 20," a doctor said. "We also have more than 40 injured people in different hospitals in the city."
The doctor said the number could be higher, "given the fact that many people were unable to reach hospitals." Figures for those injured or killed in the fighting on Monday were unavailable. "We can only collect the data once the fighting stops," he said.
The clashes, which subsided on Sunday night, "restarted with great intensity at 11:00 a.m. this morning [on Monday]," after heavily armed militia of the Islamic court joined Ahmed's side. Militia of the Alliance took up arms in support of Daqle, Ade said. It had become "normal in Mogadishu that whenever fighting breaks out, it quickly draws these two sides [the courts and the factions], no matter how it started or who started it," he said. By Monday afternoon, the fighting had become less intense, but sporadic assaults with heavy weapons continued.
Many families displaced by the current clashes were reportedly fleeing to safer neighbourhoods. "Some have even left the city altogether and are now setting up camp in the town of Afgoi [30km south of Mogadishu]," said Ade.
Posted on Monday 8th May at 18:55:31 Somali Lawmakers Train On Constitutional Affairs
NAIROBI, May 3 Xinhua)-- Some 250 Somali lawmakers began a six-day training seminar on Wednesday in southwestern town of Baidoa to prepare the ground for a new Federal Constitution, according to a United Nations statement available here.
The May 3-8 seminar on Federalism and Constitutional Affairs has been organized by the UN Political Office for Somalia (UNPOS) to stimulate a dialogue on the Transitional Federal Charter, to help members understand how federal government works and to enhance their legislative and policymaking capacity, the UN said in a statement.
"UNPOS has commissioned experts to make a comparative analysis of federal systems and explain to the Somali parliamentarians how legitimate power is shared in constituent political units," the statement said.
According to the UNPOS, this week's seminar is one of six Trust Fund projects recently approved by the UN Department of Political Affairs to back peace-building and reconciliation efforts in Somalia by supporting civil and political leadership, demobilizing militias and notably child soldiers, preventing the re-emergence of large scale conflict among militia groups, and resuming commercial and income generating opportunities.
"The peace building projects involve UN agencies, Somali authorities and civil society organizations and fall under the broad headings of: security, reconciliation, economic recovery, the judiciary as well as state-building," it said.
Somalia has been without a central government and supporting public institutions for 15 years. During this time, civil war and humanitarian crises have taken a heavy toll on the population.
A National Reconciliation Conference resulted in the establishment of Somali Transitional Federal Institutions and a Transitional Federal Charter with a five year mandate ending in (2009).
The Charter indicates that a new Constitution is to be drafted within two and half years and to be adopted by popular referendum during the last year of the transitional period (2009).
The new Federal Constitution is to be based on the Charter. Enditem
Posted on Thursday 4th May at 19:48:55 Somali Leader Slams US On Terror
The US is funding a coalition of Somali warlords who earlier this year battled Islamic groups in Mogadishu, Somali President Abdullahi Yusuf has said.
Mr Yusuf's spokesman said the funding was fuelling Somalia's civil war.
At least 70 people were killed in the worst violence seen in the Somali capital for several years, when the two groups clashed in March.
US officials refused to comment directly but one said they did not want terror to take root in the region.
Somalia has not had an effective national authority for 15 years.
Reports that the US was operating in Somalia have been circulating for some time, but this is the first time someone so senior has commented on them.
'Legitimate'
Mr Yusuf was elected in 2004 by MPs sitting in Kenya, but his rule has been opposed by several of the warlords who earlier this year formed the Alliance for the Restoration of Peace and Counter-Terrorism, to take on the Islamic Courts militia.
The US was using the warlords, most of whom are also MPs, to try to capture al-Qaeda members who are being protected by Islamic clerics in Mogadishu, President Yusuf told the AP news agency.
"But the Americans should tell the warlords they should support the government, and co-operate with the government.
"We are the legitimate government, and we will help you fight terrorism," he said.
The US had seen President Yusuf as an ally in Washington's self-declared war on terror.
The president had fought Islamic groups when he led Somalia's region of Puntland.
The US has set up a military base in neighbouring Djibouti to tackle the Islamic militants who have struck in East Africa - many of whom allegedly have links to Somalia.
The US has previously refused to comment on reports that it has had Islamic leaders kidnapped in Mogadishu and flown abroad for questioning.
Innocent deaths
US State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said he was not sure why President Yusuf made the latest comments.
"It's a real concern of ours, terror taking root in the Horn of Africa," he said.
"We don't want to see another safe haven for terrorists created."
Somali government spokesman Abdirahman Dinari told Reuters news agency that the US was indirectly fuelling the civil war.
"The warlords, through US support, have caused so many deaths of innocent civilians in the recent fighting in Mogadishu," he said.
The warlords - Mohammed Deere, Mohammed Qanyare and Bashir Rageh - and their business allies control large parts of Mogadishu and, crucially, the airstrips around the capital.
Posted on Thursday 4th May at 19:47:35 Somali Mediator Says House Targeted With Bomb
By Guled Mohamed
NAIROBI, May 3 (Reuters) - A Somali clan elder said on Wednesday a bomb had exploded in his residential compound because of his efforts to mediate in recent factional fighting in Mogadishu that has killed scores of people.
Ugas Abdi Dahir Ugas said a bomb thrown by unknown assailants hit a car in his compound, but that no one was injured in the blast.
Up to 90 people died in March in Mogadishu's worst battles in years, between militias linked to the Islamic courts and those tied to the Mogadishu Anti-Terrorism Coalition, comprising most of the capital's powerful warlords.
"Last night at 12:30 a.m. a bomb was thrown into my house. A boy sleeping near the burnt car was not hurt," Dahir told Reuters by telephone from Mogadishu.
"I knew straight away it was a bomb."
Dahir said he had tried to broker a cease-fire between the militias fighting in Mogadishu.
LED DELEGATION
He also said he had led a delegation from his Ayr sub-clan to meet with U.S. embassy officials in Nairobi last month for security talks.
"I believe I was being targeted by people who are against the mediation role I am playing," he said. "I will not be cowed and will continue with efforts to broker for peace in the city."
A U.S. embassy spokeswoman said last month officials had met with Somali community leaders but a spokesman on Wednesday could not immediately confirm whether Dahir was present.
Fresh clashes erupted last month in Mogadishu, killing at least three people.
Somalia has been with a central government since 1991 when warlords ousted former dictator Mohamed Siad Barre.
The recent fighting in the capital has demonstrated how little control Somali's fledgling interim administration formed in neighbouring Kenya in late 2004 has over the nation of 10 million.
Posted on Wednesday 3rd May at 19:54:09 One Dead In Somalia Gun Battle
MOGADISHU - At least one person have been killed and five wounded when fighting erupted on Tuesday in the south central Somali town of Baidoa, where the country's transitional parliament is meeting, witnesses said.
They said the brief clash, which had no clear political motivation, erupted after a vehicle carrying one gang of gunmen drove through a puddle, splashing members of another armed gang who then opened fire.
"It was ignited by misunderstanding between gunmen, who exchanged words before they started to exchange fire," said Mohamed Aden Ibrahim, a Baidoa businessman who witnessed the incident.
Local officials said the security situation stabilised in the provincial outpost, about 250 kilometres northwest of Mogadishu, shortly after the violence.
Baidoa is temporarily hosting the Somali parliament as well as the lawless nation's largely powerless transitional government until the capital is deemed safe enough to house the institutions.
Somalia has been without an effective central government since it was plunged into anarchy with the 1991 ouster of strongman Mohamed Siad Barre that split the country into a patchwork of fiefdoms controlled by rival warlords.
Sapa-AFP
Posted on Wednesday 3rd May at 18:18:01 Hundreds Protest Water Price Rise In Somaliland
HARGEISA, May 2 (Reuters) - About 200 people protested a rise in the price of water in northern Somaliland, witnesses and local officials said, breaking government equipment in a rare show of unrest in the breakaway Somali enclave.
The crowd destroyed computers and archive files in the local government's main offices in the town of Erigabo on Monday, after it had doubled the price of water to 2,000 Somaliland shillings ($0.33) per litre citing high fuel prices.
"The demonstrators blocked the roads with stones and tyres," deputy mayor of Erigabo Mohamed Awad Du'ale told reporters by telephone, adding the protestors had also broken office doors.
The army was called in to restore calm. Several people were said to be injured, one seriously, during Monday's unrest.
Officials on Tuesday temporarily suspended the price increase, saying the issue needed to be reviewed.
Somaliland, an enclave on the Gulf of Aden, declared independence from Somalia in 1991 and has since enjoyed relative peace. But its independence is not recognised by the international community.
Posted on Wednesday 3rd May at 17:14:37 The Dangers Of Taking Food Aid To Somalia
As Somalia is hit by its worst drought in a decade, the BBC's Mike Thomson reports on the difficulties of delivering food aid to a country overrun with gunmen and with no effective authority.
As our small chartered plane lands on a remote dusty air strip near the town of Bu'aale in south-west Somalia, the men with guns are waiting.
Sitting languidly in the back of an old pick-up truck bristling with protruding gun barrels, they roar towards our craft.
Happily for me and two members of the charity Tearfund, they have come to protect rather than rob us.
One of the men, clutching his AK-47 machine gun, jumps into the rear of the car that we have hired to take us into Bu'aale.
Just when I am just wondering whether all this is a severe case of "over-kill", given that this is supposed to be on the safest areas in Somalia, I spot two young boys shepherding a couple of bony cows along the roadside.
Lawless nation
They look little more than 10 years old. Each has a machine gun slung casually over his shoulder.
In a country with no national police, army or effective government (the current transitional one only controls a small part of the country) this is a very worrying sign.
Nearly everyone in this virtually lawless nation owns a gun - except for those left destitute by years of fighting.
This poses particular problems for the various international aid agencies that have pledged to deliver food aid to a country suffering its worst drought in a decade.
It is estimated than 70% of the country's livestock has died, two million people are in need of food aid and a further 500,000 are wandering the country searching for help.
Their quest, and that of the agencies aiming to feed them, is not being helped by the gangs of heavily armed milita gangs that roam at will hijacking aid convoys and killing, robbing and raping desperate villagers.
Unanswered question
The UN World Food Programme has launched an appeal for more than $500m to help countries in the Horn of Africa, ($326m of which is earmarked for Somalia) but there is one question that it has not yet answered.
If that sum is raised (and only a third has come in so far) how can the UN and other aid agencies get the food to Somalis who need it when much of the country is too dangerous to travel in?
Nobody yet seems to know.
It is widely acknowledged that many clan leaders see aid as valuable booty to be stolen at will and woe betide officials who try touring problem areas to check that they have not stolen it.
There is another problem, too.
The longed for seasonal Gu rains have finally come in some places but not yet in the quantity that farmers need.
The little that has fallen has caused flash floods and turned many of the country's rough dirt roads into quagmires.
Many are already impassable to the few aid convoys that dare or are able to travel on them.
Afraid
My four-wheel-drive car, with armed guards on the roof as well as in the car behind, finally slips and slides its way into the village of Jabikore, around an hour's drive from Bu'aale.
There I meet mother of nine, Gulay Hassan Dagane.
The 35-year-old woman, shoves a bowl of leaves under my face.
"This," she says, "is all my family have to eat. We have not had any food aid for two months now and I fear for the lives of my children."
It is a similar story in the village of Halgan, just outside Bu'aale.
All the people here have fled from the fighting in surrounding regions.
They too claim to have little but leaves to live on and fear that some of their children could die.
Yet none will even contemplate returning to their former homes where brutal and often random killings and rapes were everyday events.
Mohammad Boray, a tense looking man in his late 30s, shows me his left arm which was crippled by a militia man's bullet.
"The only hope for my country," he tells me, "the only way to stop the violence, is for us to have a proper national government again. Without it the killings will just go on and on and so will the hunger too."
Sadly, with the present transitional government controlling only a tiny portion of the country and even afraid to set foot in the capital, Mogadishu, the omens do not look good.
Posted on Wednesday 3rd May at 17:12:41 Appeal Launched To Stop Spread Of Polio
NAIROBI, 3 May (IRIN) - Health officials have warned that ongoing vaccination campaigns in Somalia, which has seen 202 children infected with polio since July 2005, must be sustained to prevent the disease spreading to neighbouring countries.
"It must be kept in mind that despite all these other emergencies, we still have a funding gap in the polio campaign," said Marjatta Tolvanen-Ojutangas, the head of the health and nutrition unit at the Somalia office of the United Nations Children's Fund (Unicef) on Wednesday. Some US$11 million is required for polio immunisation programmes in Somalia, according to Unicef and the UN World Health Organisation (WHO), which are coordinating immunisation efforts.
"Somalia is potentially one of the worst places from which polio could spread" to other countries in the Horn of Africa, said Tolvanen-Ojutangas. Twenty of the 202 cases of polio in Somalia were reported during the first four months of 2006.
WHO and Unicef launched a polio immunisation campaign targeting 1.4 million children in Somalia in March. Preliminary results have shown that coverage now exceeds 95 percent, according to the agencies. Another three-day immunisation exercise was launched on 2 May.
The first cases of polio to reemerge in Somalia in 2005 ended the country's three year status as polio-free state.
Posted on Wednesday 3rd May at 17:10:06 US Frees Alleged Somali Pirates
Nairobi - A group of alleged Somali pirates, captured by the American navy in March, has been freed and returned to Somalia after the United States declined to prosecute them, said a US official on Tuesday.
The official said 10 of the 12 suspected pirates detained on March 18 were handed over to the International Committee for the Red Cross (ICRC) and repatriated at the weekend.
They were arrested after firing on US warships off the Somali coast in the Indian Ocean.
An official with the US embassy in Nairobi, which was involved in the release of the suspects, said: "The US decided not to prosecute these 10 individuals in the US, they were returned instead to Somalia.
"We thank both the government of Kenya and the ICRC for their assistance in repatriating them to their home country."
The 10 had been held on a US naval vessel off the coast of Kenya.
They were sent to the Kenyan port city of Mombasa on Saturday, where they were turned over to the ICRC and sent back to Somalia.
Two wounded will be repatriated later
The remaining two were wounded in the incident, when two US warships returned fire on their vessel.
The embassy official said the two would remain on the ship for treatment, and would be repatriated "when it is medically safe to do so".
He said the body of one alleged pirate, killed in the incident, would be returned to Somalia on completion of an autopsy.
The US navy said the alleged pirates fired rocket-propelled grenades at the ships pursuing them. This prompted American sailors to shoot back. The US navy seized the alleged pirates and their vessel.
The Nairobi embassy official gave no reason for the US decision to release the suspects, who were not in control of any hijacked vessels when the incident took place.
Another group of alleged Somali pirates, captured by the US navy on a hijacked Indian dhow in January, are on trial in Mombasa.
Posted on Wednesday 3rd May at 17:08:47 IDPS Start Returning Home
Thousands of displaced people by the drought in Bay and Bakol regions of southwest Somalia have started returning to their former settlements.
The majority of people on the move said they were returning home in time to benefit from the rainy season.
Shabelle News heard that more displaced people in Mogadishu are going back to their villages in southwest Somalia where severe droughts claimed has more lives. The move follows the beginning of the rainy sesason.
Fadumo Abdi Hassan, who is among the returning people, has a farm in the suburb of Baidoa town, capital of the Bay region. She said she was pleased to be going back to her village, where she hopes to start farming.
Severe drought, which hit the southern provinces of Somalia, has affected more people and decimated livestock in the last eight months.
Source: Shabelle News
Posted on Tuesday 2nd May at 20:16:24 Somali Teen Executes Father's Killer Under Sharia
MOGADISHU (Reuters) - A 16-year-old Somali boy stabbed his father's killer to death on Tuesday in a public execution ordered by an Islamic Court, witnesses said.
Omar Hussein, 45, was convicted under sharia law of killing teacher Sheik Osman Moallim two months ago in the capital Mogadishu after a dispute over his son's education.
An Islamic court in the Bermuda district of Mogadishu ordered that Moallim's son Mohamed should execute his father's killer in the same manner that his father was murdered.
Hundreds of people watched the teenager stab Hussein several times in the chest and throat at the Koranic school where his father had worked, witnesses including a Reuters reporter said.
"I am happy now because I killed the man who killed my father," Mohamed Moallim said.
Hussein, who was tied with a rope and flanked by Islamic court militia, shouted "There is no God but Allah!" in Arabic as he was killed.
Mogadishu's Islamic courts have created a semblance of order in the lawless capital by providing justice under sharia law, which states that if someone murders, they should also die.
Somalia plunged into chaos in 1991, when warlords ousted military dictator Mohamed Siad Barre.
A fledging interim government, formed in neighboring Kenya in 2004, is weakened by internal power struggles and has little control over the nation of 10 million people. Most are Muslim.
The execution was believed to be Somalia's first in public in recent years.
By Mohamed Ali Bile
Reuters
Tuesday, May 2, 2006; 12:53 PM
Posted on Tuesday 2nd May at 20:14:56 Another Clash In Baidoa, Southwest Somalia
Baidoa 02 May. 06 ( Sh.M.Network) At least seven people has been wounded in clashes between militias loyal to Somali president Abdulahi Yusuf Ahmed and local militias in Baidoa, capital town of Baidoa on Tuesday. Officials said.
The cause of the clashes was over pervious discrepancy between the two parts in Baidoa suburb last month.
Yusuf’s militia with Toyota pick up vehicle exchanged gunfire with local militias in central Baidoa town injuring seven people.
Two of the wounded were said to belong militias of president Abdulahi Yusuf, while one was of local militias and the rest
“It was short term battle but it has an impact on the city activities, the people remained indoors fearing the stray bullets from the warring sides” an eyewitness said.
“The president himself is creating insecurity atmosphere because he deployed thousands of Puntland militias in the region” one of Baidoa residents who asked not to be identified told the press.
One of Yusuf’s injured militia was in serious condition after his bladder hit by a bullet.
Baido town, which is now temporary capital for transitional federal government, has been relatively quite for the past few days, but now it is emerging that the security is getting out of control according to the latest attack in the town, that might threaten the government members.
Shabelle Media Network, Somalia
Posted on Tuesday 2nd May at 20:12:44 Concern About Alleged US Backing Of Warlords
Baidoa, Somalia - Somali leaders on Monday voiced concern about alleged US backing for a coalition of Mogadishu warlords set up to curb the growing influence of Islamic courts in the lawless nation's capital.
While unable to confirm that Washington was indeed supporting the group, they said they were troubled by recent fierce fighting between the alliance and militia loyal to the courts and signs that the two sides are set for more clashes.
"We do not expect the American government to just pump dollars to Somali people to create problems," said Sharif Hassan Sheikh Adan, the speaker of Somalia's parliament.
"They are our friends and we expect friendship from them," he told reporters in this south-central town where the parliament has set up a temporary base after the resolution of a internal dispute within the transitional government.
Prime minister Mohamed Ali Gedi expressed similar sentiments but said his administration could not say whether the United States was actually backing the Alliance for the Restoration of Peace and Counter-Terrorism (ARPCT).
"We have no official communication but these rumours are everywhere," he said.
The alliance was created in February with the stated goal of combatting the Islamic courts that it accuses of harbouring Al-Qaeda operatives and other foreign fighters and supporting terrorism.
Since then ARPCT fighters and gunmen loyal to the courts have engaged in several fierce battles, two of which - in February and March - killed at least 85 people in the bloodiest clashes Mogadishu has seen since the country collapsed into anarchy 15 years ago.
Tension has increased sharply in recent weeks as both camps have re-armed and regrouped, girding for new fighting as they take positions around the bullet-scarred city.
In April, the courts declared a holy war against the alliance, which they said consisted of "a few warlords financed by the enemy of Islam."
The United States has declined to comment on whether it is backing the alliance, fuelling the widespread perception that the group is in fact part of the US-led global war on terrorism.
Somalia has had no effective central authority since the 1991 ouster of strongman Mohamed Siad Barre plunged the country into anarchy with militia loyal to various warlords vying for control of a patchwork of regions.
Gedi's government set up two years ago has been beset by infighting and has thus far failed to assert itself nationwide, leading to concerns that Somalia has little hope of emerging from its current "failed state" status. - Sapa-AFP
Posted on Tuesday 2nd May at 20:11:23 Heavy Rains Kill Five, Displace Hundreds
HARGEYSA, 1 May (IRIN) - Flash floods, triggered by torrential rains, have killed five people in the Hiraan region of southcentral Somalia, community leaders said.
"We found three of the dead carried by floods and we managed to retrieve the dead bodies," Saleban Jim'aale, a village elder from the town of Jalalaqsi, about 180 km north of the capital, Mogadishu, said. "The majority of people are homeless and they are spending the night in hilly areas."
Three of the dead were children, Jim'aale said.
The flash floods have devastated several villages in the region. The elders from Jalalaqsi, the hardest hit area, said the region witnessed a continued heavy downpour since Friday.
The floods swept away dozens of huts, submerged five villages and killed hundreds of head of livestock. Large tracts of farmland were inundated following the rains, and the main roads linking the area to other towns became inaccessible, according to the locals, raising fears that the number of casualties could be higher.
Meanwhile, in the Middle Shabelle Region, heavy rains were also reported on Saturday in Jowhar town, 90 km north of Mogadishu. Sources in the town said several families were displaced after the torrential rains damaged their mud houses. The Horseed and Hantiwadag sections of Jowhar town experienced the most damage.
In the Toghdeer region of the self-declared republic of Somaliland, northwestern Somalia, similar downpours have caused havoc. According to Mahamud Ahmed, mayor of Burao - the region's headquarters - heavy rains accompanied by strong winds swept the roofs off more than 30 buildings, including a primary school and a tannery.
For decades, torrential rains and floods have devastated Somali regions and weakened a population already suffering from the ravages of civil war and recurring drought.
Posted on Monday 1st May at 20:17:20 Back
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