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SOMALIA: Tensions high in Bossaso as president shakes up intelligence agency

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BOSSASO (Somalilandpress) — Tensions are said to be high in Bossaso, the commercial hub of Puntland, after a sudden shake up at the top echelon of Somalia’s semi-autonomous region’s security establishment.

Puntland President Abdirahman Mohamed “Farole” issued a presidential decree, dated March 12th, ordering the replacement of the former chairman of Puntland Intelligence Service (PIS), Osman Diana, and appointing Qardho based, Col. Ali Mohamed Yusuf “Binge”.

The president also added that the agency has been renamed Puntland Intelligence Agency and Puntland Security Force ( PIA/PSF).

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According to local reports, Mr Osman refused to step-down and has since seized full control of PIS’s second office in Lanta Hawada neighborhood in the port city of Bossaso.

The reports added that forces loyal to Osman Diana have imposed a curfew in parts of the city over night while shutting off electricity.

The reports added that Mr Farole is concerned about PIS’s independent role and wants the agency directly under the government. Mr Farole also accuses the agency of abusing it’s powers because of foreign influences, including illegal arrests.

It is not clear how the issue will be resolved or if Mr Osman Diana will step down.

The PIS, which functions independently was established almost a decade ago and is considered the most powerful institution in Puntland. The PIS is said to receive at least 50 per cent of Puntland’s annual income as well as funds from Western intelligence services.

Mr Osman Diana was appointed as the head of the agency by the former Puntland leader, Gen. Muse Adde and was the chairman since 2004.

Somalilandpress, 14th March 2010

Somaliland: Telcom Job Vacancy "SOFTWARE ENGINEER / PROGRAMMER"

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SOFTWARE ENGINEER / PROGRAMMER

Job Title Software Programmer / Analyst Division/Department Information Technology
Salary Grade/Band   Reports to Head of IT Department
Location / Based in Hargeisa (Somaliland) Position IT Executive
Opening Date   Closing Date  

SUMMARY

U-Tell FZC is looking for young, talented, analytical software engineer / programmer for their Information Technology division. Short listed candidate will have to perform variety of software development and programming assignments.

Required knowledge and skills must have good practical understanding of object oriented concepts, Web Services, Socket Programming, Interface Programming, and Database Programming with experience of implementation in Java.

.NET (ASP.NET/VB.NET/C#) and, Visual Basic 6. Candidate must have good practical skills in web applications development.

Experience of Telecom IT Applications (Billing, Rating, Mediation, CRM) etc. is plus

PRIMARY RESPONSIBILITIES

1.      Code, test and troubleshoot programs utilizing the appropriate hardware, database, and programming technology.

2.      Refine data and format into final product.

3.      Maintain and modify programs; make approved changes by amending flow charts and design documents, develop detailed programming logic, and coding changes.

4.      Test and develop programming modifications.

5.      Write new program code using prescribed specifications.

6.      Evaluate simple interrelationships between programs such as whether a contemplated change in one part of a program would cause unwanted results in a related part.

7.      Analyze performance of programs and take action to correct deficiencies based on consultation with users and approval of supervisor.

8.      Confer with users to gain understanding of business requirements. Resolve questions of program intent, data input, output requirements, and inclusion of internal checks and controls.

9.      Write and maintain programming documentation.

10.  Assist personnel of other departments as a computer resource.

11.  Evaluate business requirement with respect to the defined business processes

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REQUIREMENTS

The programmer must have 3+ years’ experience with:

·        Visual Basic .NET / C# / ASP.NET and Visual Basic 6, including the use of program “classes” and creation of DLL’s

·        SQL Server databases, SQL 2000/05/08, ADO.NET, Data Access Classes.

·        Web Services, Windows Services

·        Windows 2003 Server and Windows XP / Vista / Windows 7

·        SourceSafe, Crystal Reports, SQL Server Reporting Services

·        Microsoft Project or Rational Rose.

Knowledge of following protocols and data formats is desired:

·        ASN. 1, Binary Data, ASCII, XML based markup formats

·        SS7 Signaling, SMPP 3.4, SNMP, HTTP, FTP, SOAP, CORBA,

Experience with the following is desirable but not required:

·        MS Word, MS Excel, MS Exchange

·        Networking/LANs, TCP/IP protocol

·        Software for home infusion/pharmacy/medical operations or billing/claims.

WORKING CONDITIONS

Working conditions are normal for an office environment. Duty requires extensive work using a computer. Responsibilities may require evening and weekend work in response to needs of the systems being supported.

Location Office is the Jigjiga-yar Filage near SUNSHINE SCHOOL Over that Contacta US:- These Phone’s and E-mail’s

65200021 telcom

4428087 telesom or

E-mail: abdinasir@telcomsomaliland.com

 

Send your C.V Following Addresses
jobs@utellfzc.com
+252 65200360
+252 65200021
+ 252 65200011

Abdinasir D. Guled
NSS, IN, |& SMSC  Manager
Telcom Hargeisa
Mob:    +252-65200021
Office: + 252-2-300071
E-mail: Guled_cabdi@ Hotmail.com
abdasir2009@gmail.com
abdinasir@telcomsomaliland.com
Location: Now in Hargeisa.

SOMALIA: Twenty killed in Mogadishu fighting

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At least 20 civilians were killed and scores wounded after fighting between Islamist insurgents and the Somali government forces erupted in the Somali capital, Mogadishu. Rebels have stepped up attacks in various parts of the city in recent weeks and government forces have responded with shelling.

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SOMALILAND: Somaliland's Healer of Women

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Edna Adan Ismail had wanted to build a hospital since she was 11 years old. Today, her facility in Hargeisa saves women’s lives every day—and has reduced the maternal mortality rate by one-fourth.

As an 11-year-old growing up in Somaliland, then a British protectorate, Edna Adan Ismail had a powerful dream. “I wanted to build a hospital,” she recalls. “One that my father would like.” Edna’s dad was a widely beloved but overworked doctor in a poorly equipped government hospital with little medicine, and she lent a hand when she could. “My playground was the hospital,” she says, “and my father was my hero. I’d cut up sheets for bandages, wash the forceps. I wished I knew more to be able to help him out.”

“I sold everything I had, recycled my whole life. I am just a crazy old lady!”

It took more than half a century, but her dream has come gloriously true. The Edna Adan University Hospital in Hargeisa has just celebrated its eighth birthday–a 50-bed facility that is the largest privately built hospital in Somaliland. And it wasn’t just Ismail’s money that made it happen. “Every brick that was laid, every nail that was pounded, I was there,” she says proudly. “I sold everything I had, recycled my whole life. I am just a crazy old lady!”

Hardly. Despite her own privileged circumstances, young Edna faced the same discrimination that kept the entire region’s women down: no schools for girls. “It wasn’t right to teach a girl,” she said, explaining the tradition. “They thought nothing good would come of it. Who would ever want to marry a girl who read and wrote?” So the child who was so taken with medicine—“I saw my first birth and my first death before I was a teen. I felt I’d been given a small peephole into what the world looked like”—was sent away to school, and ultimately became the first female in her country to win a scholarship to England. There she studied nursing and midwifery, and came back home in 1961 as the first qualified Somali nurse-midwife. That’s the first ever.
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Once again she had to confront centuries of bias against girls. “I would ask them to come help me register the patients, and I’d have to get permission from their fathers. They’d say, ‘I don’t want my girl to work in a hospital and catch diseases.’ Or, ‘Will she be working with men?’” Slowly, Ismail prevailed.

Even as her life expanded into the public realm—her husband became Somaliland’s prime minister–she continued to work in another hospital, proudly donning her uniform to teach and to deliver babies. “I was teaching the young women how to talk to patients, to pregnant women, to respect human rights and dignity.”

Revolution interrupted her work, and she spent several decades with the United Nations. By the time she returned to Somaliland in 1997 and started building the hospital, she was so well respected, she joined the new government, ultimately becoming Foreign Minister. Today, she says with confidence, “I am my own minister.” But she continues to work for her people, training, in addition to nurse-midwives, lab technicians and the first pharmacists in her country. “The government isn’t doing it,” she tells me. “The biggest gift I want to leave behind is not a building, but the skills I leave with the women. I want to train 1,000 midwives.”

Her progress so far is astounding. Since the hospital opened, they have delivered more than 9,500 women and lost only 39. “That’s 39 too many,” she laments, nonetheless delighted that they have reduced the maternal mortality rate by one-fourth. In 1988, the last time a study was done, there were 160 deaths per 10,000 births in Somaliland, making it the third worst in the world. “Women are dying of complications nobody is picking up,” she explains. “Because nobody is there to support them, care for them, or deliver them. They are getting infected, torn apart. No woman should die of childbirth, because modern obstetrics has ways to save them.” The challenge: “ignorance, poverty, and harmful traditions.”

Those are also the culprits in her other lifelong cause: ending the practice now called Female Genital Mutilation. When she started speaking out–to the embarrassment of her husband–it was simply Female Circumcision. “No one would talk about it then. I was the first Somali woman to pick up a microphone.” And despite all the publicity in recent years she says, “We have not cracked the surface of it. I am giving out a document at the conference showing a new survey of 4.000 women. Of them, 97 percent, shamefully, had been cut. After 34 years of campaigning. We’re nowhere near winning that battle.”

But Edna Adan Ismail takes comfort that now, “we have the whole world talking about it, it’s out of the closet.” And she’s working on a new project, a picture book in the Somali language to illustrate the pros and cons (with emphasis on the cons) of the practice.

“It will be one more gun that we haven’t used before,” she announces with confidence.

Crazy old lady, indeed.

by Lynn Sherr

Lynn Sherr is a former ABC News correspondent, author of Failure Is Impossible: Susan B. Anthony in Her Own Words and Tall Blondes, a book about giraffes. She is also co-editor of Peter Jennings: A Reporter’s Life. Her most recent book, a memoir—Outside the Box: My Unscripted Life of Love, Loss and Television News—is out in paperback.

Source: The Daily Beast, 13th March 2010

US Has No Plan To "Americanize" Somalia Conflict

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Washington, 12 March 2010 (Somalilandpress) – The United States on Friday denied coordinating plans by Somalia’s embattled government to launch an offensive against Islamist fighters, saying it had no plans to “Americanize” the conflict.

Assistant Secretary of State Johnnie Carson described as inaccurate reports suggesting that U.S. officials were ready to get more militarily involved as Somalia’s government fights the Islamist al Shabaab, which has been linked to al Qaeda.

“The United States does not plan, does not direct, and does not coordinate the military operations of the TFG (transitional federal government) and we have not and will not be providing direct support for any potential military offensives,” Carson said.

Carson told a news briefing the United States had provided limited military support to the transitional government, but that almost all of this was channeled through an African Union peacekeeping effort.

Al Shabaab Islamist fighters attacked government positions this week seeking to seize the advantage before a long-awaited government offensive to drive them out of Mogadishu, the capital.

Somalia has lacked an effective central government for 19 years. Western and neighboring countries say it has become a sanctuary for militants.

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Carson said the United States had provided about $185 million over the last 19 months to support African Union peacekeepers and about $12 million in direct support to the Somali transitional government.

“The amounts of money that we’re talking about are really relatively small,” he said. Funds were spent on communications equipment, uniforms, and to support training of government soldiers by other African countries.

The United States also provides about $150 million in food aid to Somalia. This has been complicated by a U.N. World Food Program’s decision to suspend work in much of southern Somalia due to threats against staff and al Shabaab demands for payments for security.

Carson said the United States continued to seek an “inclusive” political resolution to Somalia’s crisis and believed that the transitional government, which only controls a portion of Mogadishu, was best placed to promote one.

“The TFG has demonstrated an enormous capacity to survive,” he said.

Source: Reuters

More Than 50 Killed in Somalia Fighting

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Mogadishu, 12 March 2010 (Somalilandpress) – Heavy fighting continued to rock Somalia capital of Mogadishu for the third day running, the fighting is between the Somalia insurgent group of Al- Shabab and the transitional federal government troops allied to Sheikh Sheriff Sheikh Ahmed administration.

The total number of deaths reported as at now stand at 50 and the casualties has reached 100 and more are still being reported. Witnesses sat that heavy shelling and gunfire between Al-Shabab and government forces in the north of the capital.

The war started in Wardigley district near the Somalia capital Mogadishu, sources say.

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Other towns that have witnessed the heavy fighting include Hawl-wadag, Wardigley, Hodan and most of the areas were the mortars targeted were the different sections of Bakara market.

The UN estimates that 3.7 million Somalis, approximately half of the country’s population are in dire need of humanitarian assistance.

Somalia has been without a functional government since former President Siad Bare was toppled by Mogadishu warlords.

Reported by:
Abdulaziz Billow Ali
Nairobi, Kenya

Prof Iqbal Jhazbay Launches Book on Somaliland at UNISA, Pretoria

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Pretoria, South African ministers, Ambassadors, Academics including Professor Louise Molamu, Registrar of the University of South Africa, Professor Rosemary Moeketsi, Executive Dean of Human Sciences, Professor Iqbal Jhazbhay, Author of the Book , and his wife Naseema Docrat , Distinguished ambassadors and high commissioners in South Africa, Professor Chris Landsberg of the University of Johannesburg, Dr Nomfundo Ngwenya of the South African Institute of International Relations, members from the South African civil society, journalists, members from the Somaliland community in S.Africa, Somalilanders from UK & Canada, and lots of students and other invited guests, have gathered to witness prof Iqbal’s book launch which was held in a well organised event at UNISA, Pretoria on the 11th March 2010.

Co-published with the Institute for Global Dialogue, the book titled as ‘Somaliland: An African Struggle for Nationhood and International Recognition’ purports an inspiring story of resilience and reconstruction and a truly African Renaissance, that has many lessons to teach the rest of Africa and the international community. This study seeks to identify some of those lessons, particularly those pertaining to Somaliland’s sustained efforts to create internal unity and gain regional and international recognition.

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South African minister in the presidency Mr. Collin Chabane, couldn’t attend the launch. Ambassador Welile Nhlapo, Presidential National Security Advisor have read the inspiring speech on behalf of the minister. The full speech can be viewed at http://www.info.gov.za/speeches/2010/10031210551001.htm

The book is based on extensive research in Somaliland’s reconciliation, reconstruction, religion and recognition, as well as a wealth of experience in the wider region.

More analysis, feedback and follow ups on this book, stay with Saeed furaa’s insights from this corner of Africa.

Written by:
Saeed Furaa
Freelance Journalist
Pretoria
South Africa
E-mail: somalilandjournalist@gmail.com

Saudi Arabia signs Djibouti anti-piracy Code

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Djibouti, 12 March 2010 (Somalilandpress) – Dr. Jubarah Bin Eid Alsuraisry, Minister of Transport of Saudi Arabia (pictured left), today signed the Code of Conduct on the Suppression of Piracy and Armed Robbery against Ships in the Western Indian Ocean and the Gulf of Aden (Djibouti Code of Conduct). The agreement, signed during an official visit to IMO Headquarters in London, makes the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia the 13th country to do

“The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, following the instructions of King Abdullah, exerts every effort to build bridges of co-operation with countries all over the world, especially by taking initiatives and participating in an effective way in order to achieve stability and world security, whether through the United Nations and its specialised agencies, or through continuous co-operation with all countries in this field,” Alsuraisry said.

IMO Secretary-General Efthimios E. Mitropoulos (pictured right) welcomed the signing by Saudi Arabia as a boost to the effective implementation of the Djibouti Code of Conduct in the region. He said, “The unabated acts of piracy, not only in waters off the coast of Somalia and in the Gulf of Aden but also in the wider expanse of the western Indian Ocean, continue to be in the public spotlight.”

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“Our concern should, above all, be for the safety of life at sea and the well-being of the seafarers and other victims involved and their respective families. We should, therefore, not rest unless and until all the necessary measures to suppress and eradicate piracy have been taken,” Mitropoulos added. “The support of Saudi Arabia for the effective implementation of the Djibouti Code of Conduct and for the efforts to protect international shipping by the naval forces deployed in the region are, therefore, important contributions.”

Source: Seatradeasia.com

SOMALIA: Offering Migrants An Alternative To Death by Water

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Bosaso, 12 March 2010 (Somalilandpress) – In an attempt to deal with a growing influx of migrants, authorities in Somalia’s autonomous region of Puntland are adopting new measures to stop people from undertaking the hazardous journey to Yemen, officials said.

“The problem of migrants is not going away and the Puntland authorities, particularly in the Bari region [Bosasso area], had to come up with a new strategy to deal with this problem,” said Mohamud Jama Muse, director of the Migration Response Centre (MRC) in the regional capital, Bosasso.

MRC was created in April 2009, under the office of the Bari governor, to “register and provide counselling and assist” the migrants. Between April and December 2009, it registered 7,223 persons.

“This number is smaller than the actual number,” Muse told IRIN on 1 March. “You have to understand, a lot of these people are not very trusting of authorities, so they never bother registering.”

According to the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR), 78,487 Ethiopians and Somalis crossed into Yemen from Somalia and Djibouti in 2009, of whom 685 died.

So far in 2010, 5,032 have crossed and four have died, said Roberta Russo, spokeswoman for UNHCR Somalia.

Learning to fish

Muse said the government had adopted a two-track approach. Apart from the MRC, security forces had cracked down on smugglers and closed the ports from which they operate.

“With the help of IOM [International Organization for Migration] we started a pilot project with a local NGO, Red Sea Fishing Organization [RESFO], in skills training and income generation, for 100 migrants and locals to teach them skills to make a living,” he explained.

The group is taught how to fish, process the catch, repair nets and keep books.

“We are even teaching some of them to swim,” said Mohamed Said of RESFO. “The aim is to provide an alternative to boarding those boats [to Yemen].”

The project aims to integrate the migrants into the community, said Ahmed Muse Mohamed, IOM officer-in-charge in Bosasso. “We want to create opportunities here for them so they don’t have to go on these dangerous journeys,” he added.

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Too weak to walk

“By the time they reach us they have walked over 1,000km and are dehydrated and almost starving,” said Muse, and reports indicated some died on the way to Bosasso.

Abdi, not his real name, came from Ethiopia four months ago. He walked 760km to reach Bosasso, with the aim of going to Yemen.

He and six others had to avoid being stopped by security forces or attacked by bandits. “It is not a trip I would want to make again,” he said. “It was too difficult and dangerous. By the time I arrived I was so weak I could barely walk.”

He has registered with MRC but has not started the training yet.

Addis Tolosa, 30, an Ethiopian migrant who has been in Bosasso for a couple of years, went to Yemen but was intercepted by the Yemeni coastguard and returned to Bosasso.

He is now being trained by RESFO. “I don’t have the means to go back [to Yemen] so I am now in this training to learn how to earn a living,” said. “As soon we finish the training I will get fishing gear and go to work.”

Some locals, however, insisted they would still like to go to Yemen.

Mohamed Hassan Shire, 23, from the coastal town of Kismayo, 2,000km south, arrived in Bosasso six months ago. He said he left out of fear he would be forcibly recruited into a militia.

“I came here because I was not safe in Kismayo,” he said. “People I knew died trying to get there [Yemen]. I know also that what I am doing is like flipping a coin, but I will try it. I have no other option.”


More help needed

The former Puntland Bari Governor Muse Ghelle (replaced on 6 March) told IRIN he was determined to help the potential migrants. “With the very little resources we have we are trying but we need help,” he added.

He called on the international community to increase its support to Puntland to help it deal with the growing influx of migrants.

Puntland would not be able to cope on its own. “We need more meaningful help from the donor community,” he said.

Muse of MRC said the migrants needed emergency food upon arrival, temporary shelter, a health centre and a reception centre to receive them.

“Most of these people are economic migrants and when they come here they have exhausted what little they had, so it is important to at least have somewhere where they can get some help immediately.”

Source: IRIN

Speech by Minister Collins Chabane on the occasion of the book launch on Somaliland by Professor Iqbal Jhazbhay

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Pritoria, 12 March 2010 (Somalilandpress) – Speech by Minister Collins Chabane on the occasion of the book launch on Somaliland by Professor Iqbal Jhazbhay; UNISA: “There are now three states out of Somalia, namely Somalia of Mogadishu, Somalia of Djibouti and Somaliland of Hargeisa.”

Professor Louise Molamu, Registrar of the University of South Africa
Professor Rosemary Moeketsi, Executive Dean of Human Sciences
Professor Iqbal Jhazbhay, Author of the Book we are launching today, and his wife Naseema Docrat
Distinguished Ambassadors and High Commissioners
Professor Chris Landsberg of the University of Johannesburg
Dr. Nomfundo Ngwenya of the South African Institute of International Relations
Invited Guests
Unisa Community
Ladies and Gentlemen

We are today at the University of South Africa (UNISA), a leading long distance learning institution with footprints across the continent, to launch an academic study of one of the countries in the Horn of Africa, Somalia with particular emphasis on Somaliland. This study by one of the sons of Africa, Professor Iqbal Jhazbhay has been titled “Somaliland: An African Struggle for Nationhood and International Recognition”.

UNISA as it is known, has been at the forefront and a pioneer of African studies for many years and is the only African university with a learning centre in Addis Ababa and many learning centers across South Africa.

In November last year, we had gathered again in this very same university, on the occasion of the International Sudan Studies Conference under the theme “The future of Sudan to 2011 and beyond: African dimensions of peace, stability, justice and reconciliation”. The conference was convened to examine what had happened with the Comprehensive Peace Agreement and where it is taking Sudan, which is currently preparing for democratic elections, marking the progress of the African people towards peace and stability.

Both these gatherings about countries of the Horn of Africa, demonstrates the commitment of the South African government, the country and its people in building a better Africa and a better world. The prosperity of Africa will translate into a better Africa and a better world and South Africa remains committed to this objective.

President Jacob Zuma, since he came into office, has consistently emphasised the importance of a government that is responsive and caring to its people and implementation orientated. This was demonstrated with the establishment of the planning and monitoring and evaluation ministries in the Presidency. The aim is to ensure that the state is firmly focused on its mandate and deliver to its citizens, but most importantly that we build a developmental state which responds to people needs.

This government has placed central to its priorities, improvement of healthcare, job creation, rural development, the fight against crime and most importantly education. We need to ensure that our education system produces learners who can fill the skills gap in the country and help us build a prosperous developmental state. The education system should provide technical skills to the economy but equally important academics like Professor Iqbal Jhazbhay, who can also assist the continent in properly documenting and preserving our history including that of the continent.

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As the ministry, we have a responsibility to ensure that we monitor and evaluate the work of government and make sure that government meets its developmental objectives. Our work, we believe, will ensure that government remains firm on its priorities and build a governance system which is driven by people’s needs.

Somaliland as we know it today has emerged from breaking away from the union government following independence from its colonial past. There are now three states out of Somalia, namely Somalia of Mogadishu, Somalia of Djibouti and Somaliland of Hargeisa. Today we celebrate a detailed and highly informative study of the Somaliland since independence, its history and its quest for international recognition.

The study traces the history and successes of state formation and state building and looks at the emerging success story in Africa of state formation. We as South Africans know the challenges pertaining to state building, from need to undo apartheid laws and replacing them with more progressive laws, more recently the challenges of focused and coordinated governance, strategic planning and monitoring and evaluation. The study takes us through a historical journey of the internal struggles in what was viewed as the most successful attempt at re-drawing of colonial demarcation at independence. The study is a classical way of how African people can create and construct its own state, through a people-centered approach to prosperity.

Professor Jhazbhay in putting together this important work, he has conducted interviews with among others, former heads of state, ministers, diplomats, Somali studies experts and other academics such as heads of research institutions that are highly knowledgeable and well respected.

This study should be welcomed and encouraged by all of us, as we preserve the real story of Africa through African eyes, than the historical colonial approach. The progress made by Somaliland to lead its state to prosperity is commendable and, we owe it to African academics like Professor Iqbal Jhazbhay to further enhance the study of our own continent. We should all of us, South Africans included, draw from the lessons and experiences of the Somaliland to build a developmental state that is responsive to people’s needs.

The issue of independence and international recognition of Somaliland is, of course, a matter which the international community is ceased with. The African Union report following the fact finding mission to Somaliland conducted in 2005 is a case in point. It is a demonstration of the complexities and difficulties in addressing the Somali issue. The report makes the observation and recommendation that the issue should be discussed and addressed in an objective manner taking into consideration historical facts. Somaliland’’s destiny must be determined in the broader process of resolving the bigger Somali issue. A piecemeal approach would set us up for later conflicts. The Transitional Federal Government has firmly stated that Somaliland is part of Somalia and its destiny is to be determined by all Somalis.

The South African government is of the view that there should be peace and prosperity in the Horn of Africa as is continually ceased with the situation in Sudan and the Somali issue is of no exception.

Today let us all welcome this study, the work of Professor Jhazbhay and let it be our reference as we address the Somali issue. This book strengthens the case for all of us to educate ourselves and fellow Africans about our history, our experiences and our commitment for a better Africa and a better world. Because of our past, South Africans do not focus much on broader African challenges to the extent that they do, their focus is on Zimbabwe, SADC and the African Union of which tend to dominate our media headlines.

We need to educate our nation that it moves beyond usual suspects which includes Europe, America but start to focus on Africa in particular on areas such as the sub-regions of Southern Africa, Central Africa, West Africa, North Africa and the Horn and East Africa and also include Asia.

We need to take such studies into our classrooms and newsrooms to educate societies of Africa and showcase good success stories and similarly challenges we face in developing a better and prosperous Africa.

I thank you