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School enrollment up in Somaliland

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HARGEISA (SomalilandPress) — School enrollment has risen sharply in Somalia’s self-declared independent region of Somaliland since 1991, raising the literacy rate from 20 percent to 45 percent, education officials have said.

“School enrollment [in primary and secondary schools] has increased dramatically. In 1991, we had only 1,019 students enrolled in schools but by the year 2009 some 45,223 students were in school,” Abdi Abdillahi Mohamed, the director of planning in Somaliland’s ministry of education, told IRIN.

Somaliland declared unilateral independence from the rest of Somalia in 1991.

Ali Abdi Odowa, director-general in the education ministry, attributed the increase to rising awareness and the construction of many primary schools.

“Hundreds of schools have been built both in urban and rural areas and adult education has also started,” he said.

Somaliland, he said, plans to ensure that at least 75 percent of the population is able to read and write by 2015.

According to Mohamed, 225,853 students attended primary school and 21,331 attended secondary school in 2008/2009, while 26,156 were in adult education.
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Some 6,820 students are currently enrolled in technical colleges and vocational schools.

“We have also added two social science subjects in high school – business and agriculture – which we hope will encourage high school leavers to be self-employed,” Mohammed said.
Pastoralists complain

However, the ministry had received complaints from displaced persons and pastoralists about school fees and the lack of access by their children to schools.

“Somaliland’s constitution stipulates that all elementary and secondary education is free; there are no fees paid by students but of course there is what we call contributions paid by parents to support voluntary teachers and teachers’ salaries,” he said.

In remote areas, the ministry has established a pilot project where teachers follow pastoralists and teach in mobile schools.

“This project is in Togdheer region… Teachers and the school follow the pastoralists wherever they go, and we pay such teachers more than the others,” Mohamed said.

“We have also started school feeding centres: Pastoralists’ children are fed in boarding schools in villages when their families are on the move in search of pasture.”

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Source: IRIN, December 31, 2009

Somali Tried To Board Plane With Chemicals, Syringe

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HARGEISA, 31 December 2009 (Somalilandpress) – A man tried to board a commercial airliner in the Somali capital of Mogadishu last month with chemicals that authorities believe could have been used as an explosive device, an African Union official said Wednesday.

The suspect, Abdi Hassan Abdi, tried to board a Daallo Airlines flight with a plastic bag containing 600 grams of ammonium nitrate and half a liter of concentrated sulfuric acid in a plastic bottle, according to Wafula Waminyinyi, the deputy special representative for the African Union Mission for Somalia.

Waminyinyi said that Abdi also had approximately 5 milliliters of an unidentified liquid in a syringe that he tried to carry on board the flight, which was bound first for the northern Somali city of Hargeisa, then Djibouti, and then Dubai, in the United Arab Emirates. He said that the African Union believes the chemicals could have caused an explosion.

The details bear resemblance to those from the Christmas Day attempt to blow up a Northwest flight from Amsterdam, Netherlands, to Detroit, Michigan.

A preliminary FBI analysis found that the device suspect Umar Farouk AbdulMutallab allegedly carried aboard contained pentaerythritol tetranitrate, an explosive also known as PETN. The amount of explosive was sufficient to blow a hole in the aircraft, a source with knowledge of the investigation told CNN Sunday.

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Part of the explosive device was sewn into the suspect’s underwear. And FBI agents recovered what appear to be the remnants of a syringe near the seat.

Because the syringe was destroyed, investigators are having trouble determining the accelerant the suspect tried to use to light the explosive.

AbdulMutallab, of Nigeria, is in custody in the United States and charged with attempting to destroy an aircraft.

In the November 11 incident in Somalia, African Union peacekeeping forces arrested Abdi after they searched him and discovered the chemicals, Waminyinyi said.

He had drawn suspicion because he was the last one to board the flight, Waminyinyi said.

No further details were immediately available.

Abdi was handed over to the Somali National Security Agency, and Waminyinyi believes he remains in custody.

Source: CNN

AU Approves Training For Maritime, Air Defence Fighters

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Addis Ababa, 30 December 2009 (Somalilandpress) – The African Union’s Peace and Security Department approved plans to train more peacekeepers serving in its mission in Somalia on maritime security and air defence capabilities to better protect war-ravaged Somalia.

Somali is the hotbed of hijacking of marine vessels and a long-time target of external Islamist jihadists, have recently suffered a spate of bombings, with the latest of such attack leading to the killing of three ministers at a graduation ceremony in Mogadishu.

African countries contributing troops to the African Union Peacekeeping Mission in Somalia (AMISOM) held a strategy meeting in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia where they agreed that the Mission still lacked basic elements such as air defence.

“The meeting observed that there exist operational limitations to the performance of AMISOM in the areas of maritime and air defence capabilities, and called for assistance in building the Mission’s capabilities in this respect,” an AU statement said Tuesday.

Djibouti, Somalia’s neighbour, is among the few countries in the Horn of Africa region to pledge peacekeepers to the overstretched AMISOM, which has been a target of attacks, planned by Islamic groups seeking to takeover full control of Somalia.

The Islamist elements have been staging their fights for the control of the Southern Port of Kismayu and recently edged closer to the Kenyan border, where the Islamist controlled fighters took control of a key border crossing point Southwards.

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The AU meeting, chaired by the Commissioner for Peace and Security, Ramtane Lamamra, explained that the continued inability of AMISOM to reach its authorised strength continues to be a serious challenge.

Lamamra added that the recruitment and training programme of Somali Security Forces should be given more impetus in order to be able to cope effectively with the security situation there.

The ministers and representatives of the troop contributing countries at the meeting, including Burundi, Uganda and Djibouti, also emphasized the need to adequately train, equip, sustain and retain Somali Security Forces in the current circumstances.

They proposed that a study of new requirements necessary for AMISOM to fulfil its objectives, including the added aspect of training of Somali Security Forces, be carried out.

Meanwhile, the African countries that have contributed troops and equipment to the AMISOM have been compensated for the equipment they contributed.

Source: Nigerian Compass

Somalia: The Worst Country On Earth

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Fed up with awards for the best? The World in 2010 asked the analysts at the Economist Intelligence Unit, a sister company of The Economist, to identify the world’s worst country in the year ahead. Previous winners of this dubious honour have included (pre-2001) Afghanistan and Turkmenistan. This time, the champion is in Africa. Plagued by civil war, grinding poverty and rampant piracy, Somalia will be the world’s worst in 2010.

Calling Somalia a country is a stretch. It has a president, prime minister and parliament, but with little influence outside a few strongholds in the capital, Mogadishu. What passes for a government is protected by an African Union peacekeeping force guarding the presidential palace. Most of the country is controlled by two armed, radical Islamist factions, al-Shabab (the Youth) and Hizbul Islam (Party of Islam), which regularly battle forces loyal to the government. Both demand the imposition of strict Islamic law, in what would amount to the Talibanisation of Somalia. Al-Shabab took responsibility for suicide-bombings in Mogadishu in September that killed 17 peacekeepers; America considers the group an al-Qaeda ally.
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Poor countries are often defined by their weak health, education and income measures, but conditions in Somalia are mostly too wretched to record. What little data can be gleaned are truly awful: according to the UN’s World Food Programme, more than 40% of the population need food aid to survive, and one in every five children is acutely malnourished. The constant fighting has internally displaced more than 1.5m people, with a third living in dire, makeshift camps. Aid workers have been able to supply them with less than half the daily water needed.

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Somalia would be little noticed were it not for its fastest-growing industry: piracy. Somalia drapes over the tip of east Africa and into the Gulf of Aden, one of the world’s busiest shipping lanes. More than 20,000 merchant vessels pass through the Gulf each year, an inviting target for Somali pirates, who have developed a lucrative business seizing and holding ships for ransom. The International Maritime Bureau counted around 40 successful hijackings in 2008 and another 31 in the first half of 2009. Warships from the European Union, the United States and other powers now patrol the waters, but pirates have shifted their attacks farther offshore.

Somalia’s future is bleak. What little income it can muster comes from its diaspora, but remittances have slowed with the global slump. International agencies have promised more aid, but lack of security stands in the way. Peacekeepers are too few in number to make a difference. Most disturbing, many young Somalis are becoming increasingly radicalised, leaving little hope that the political situation will stabilise. The world’s most failed state, regrettably, threatens to become a bigger problem for the rest of the world.

Source: The Economist

AUSTRALIA: Body of missing Somali boy found

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BRISBANE (Somalilandpress) — Police have found the body of a boy who was swept away in a rain-swollen creek on Brisbane’s southside.

Salman Arte, 13, was last seen clinging to a branch in Bulimba Creek at Wishart yesterday.

It is believed his body was found earlier this afternoon, but no other details are known.
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Salman Arte’s Somali family came to Australia as refugees a year ago.

He was playing in the creek with his brothers when he disappeared.

Police will prepare a report for the coroner.

Source: ABC (Australia), 30 December 2009

LIBERIA: Company Eyeing Freeport May Sign Big Contract

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MONROVIA (Somalilandpress) — Bollore Africa Logistics, one of the companies that expressed interest in the bid for the Freeport of Monrovia may sign an agreement to manage the port of Berbera and oversee $ 700 million of upgrades to the facility in Somalia’s breakaway northern Somaliland region According to information, the Foreign Minister of that country, Abdillahi Duale said discussions are already in an advanced stage. Duale said last week in an interview in the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa that they have already made a basic agreement.” Representatives of Bollore, an investment company controlled by French billionaire Vincent Bollore, have met with Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi and Somaliland President Dahir Riyale to discuss the agreement which will probably be signed next year, he said. Berbera port handles food aid and other cargo bound for landlocked Ethiopia.
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According to the information, port revenue provides approximately 75 percent of the Somaliland government’s $ 50 million in annual revenue. Somaliland, a former British protectorate that merged with Italy’s Somali colony in 1960 to form Somalia, has remained largely free of violence during the 18-year civil was in central and southern Somalia. Recently, it was reported by this paper that Bollore Group, a leading investor and port operator on the African continent has expressed its interest “to invest, operate and maintain” the Freeport of Monrovia for certain number of years. The group is involved in all areas of port operations, infrastructures, including construction of roads and railways relating to port concession they had secured over the years. It now has new branches in Namibia, Djibouti, Mauritania, Maputo and Ethiopia.

Besides, it is the most extensive integrated logistics network in Africa and has its presence over 50 years in most African countries. It is also involved in services from vessel operations up to inland distribution and is now involved in ongoing densification and extension of its network. The group has its presence in 41 countries, with more than 200 agencies and 16,650 permanent staff. Financially, sources said it has 1.600 euros annual income and more than 200 million euros investment; five million square mile of warehouse space. Further inquiry by this paper discovered that the company’s main activities are terminal operator, stevedoring, shipping agencies, freight forwarding, and trucking. Others are inland container (for landlocked countries), barging, dredging, railways, airfreight, warehousing commodities, logistics project as well as oil, gas, mining logistics operations.

One of its major achievements in port concession over the years has been 150 million Euros investment in ports such as in Abidjan, Tema, Tincan, Doula and Libreville and that target reached increased in productivity, traffic and revenue for port authorities. Besides it has provided concession with “state of the art” operations system and standards.

Source: The Inquirer Online (Liberia), 30 December 2009

[Picture/ Monrovia – MercyWatch]

SOMALIA: Hawa Siyaad, "They killed my hope"

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MOGADISHU, 28 December 2009 (Somalilandpress) — Twenty-three people were killed in Mogadishu on 3 December 2009 when a blast ripped through a graduation ceremony. Among the dead was a 24-year-old final year medical student whose mother, Hawa Siyaad, spoke to IRIN about that fateful day.

“My son asked me not to be late so I was one of the first to arrive. I closed my business [selling fuel] to be there. I was happy because I knew that my boy, Mohamed, would be going through the same ceremony next year. As the ceremony was in progress a huge explosion ripped through the hotel.
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“All of a sudden, everything was in darkness. For what seemed like a long time I could not see or hear anything. I was dazed but everyone around me was scrambling to get away. I followed the crowd and then realized that my son was at the front. I started looking for him. There were dead and injured people everywhere. I finally found my son underneath an injured person. At first I thought he was also injured but quickly realized that he was dead.

“I tried to pick him up but could not. I just sat there next to him until someone helped me carry his body. You cannot imagine the pain of holding your oldest child, dead. That day they broke my heart and took away my hope and dreams.

“I worked so hard to put him through university. Every day, no matter how difficult – even with bullets flying around – I sat and sold fuel to make sure he got an education. He was our future and our hope. That day they killed my hope and the future of our family… He and his friends did not deserve to die like that before they had even begun their lives.

“I know of no religion – not mine or anyone else’s – that condones what they [the perpetrators] did. I will never forget or forgive what they have done to us.”

Source: IRIN, December 28, 2009

SOMALILAND: Pakistan's Adviser on Consular Affairs sends his condolences

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Hargeisa, 28 December 2009 (Somalilandpress) — Pakistan’s Adviser on Consular Affairs between Foreign  Affairs and  Diplomatic Missions, Mr Shafiq Ahmed Qureshi has sent a letter of condolences to the family, friends, and to the people and government of Somaliland on the death of Somaliland’s State Foreign Minister, Mr Saed Mohamed Nur, who past away on Thursday night in the capital.

Mr Saed died of natural causes at his home in Hargeisa on Thursday.

On Monday, Mr Shafiq expressed profound condolences in a letter that was issued from his office. Mr Shafiqi wrote: “I am very much shocked and sad to hear the demise news of death of the Honorable State Foreign Minister. May Allah bless him with and put him in the heaven (Paradise), Ameen. I was very much attached personally with the Somaliland officials. I wish if I could come and attended his funeral ceremony.”

Mr Shafiq, accompanied by the Deputy Secretary General of Pakistan People’s Party (ruling party), Sheikh Mansoor Ahmed, visited Somaliland in November this year on a six day fact-finding mission to the young republic.

“Please convey my heart felt condolences to his immediate family, the President, The Foreign Minister , The Governor General of the Bank, The Vice President. I remember and cannot forget his hospitality, cooperation and affection during my visit to Somaliland from November 2nd to November 8th, 2009,” he added.

This comes at a time when Mr Shifiq will be marking a key holy-day.  Every year Shia Muslims in the month of Muharram (the first month of Islamic calendar) around the world mourn the death of Imam Hussein, the grandson of the Prophet Mohammad.

“Here in Pakistan today is 10th of Muharram and I will arrange in his honor special Qurani Khawani Isale suwab for departed soul. May God give the strength to his family and the Government of the Somaliland to overcome the unbearable loss (Ameen).”

In this week, along with the death of Mr Saed, Somaliland officials dealt with other two close deaths. On Sunday night, the chairman of UDUB party, Mr Osman Abdullahi Egal’s brother Hassan Abdullahi past away in Denmark, while Somaliland’s representative to France, Mr Mohamoud Salah Nur died in a hospital in Paris.

The president has issued separate statements offering his condolences on the deaths of the officials to their families, relatives and to the people of Somaliland.[ad#Google Adsense (200×90)]

With a population of 3.5 million people, according to government estimates, Somaliland is relatively stable democracy even though it has not been internationally recognised.

Sources: Somalilandpress

Book Review: Black Mamba Boy

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HARGEISA, 28 December 2009 (Somalilandpress) — Aden,1935; a city vibrant, alive, and full of hidden dangers. And home to Jama, a ten year-old boy. But then his mother dies unexpectedly and he finds himself alone in the world.

Jama is forced home to his native Somalia, the land of his nomadic ancestors. War is on the horizon and the fascist Italian forces who control parts of east Africa are preparing for battle. Yet Jama cannot rest until he discovers whether his father, who has been absent from his life since he was a baby, is alive somewhere.

And so begins an epic journey which will take Jama north through Djibouti, war-torn Eritrea and Sudan, to Egypt. And from there, aboard a ship transporting Jewish refugees just released from German concentration camp, across the seas to Britain and freedom.

This story of one boy′s long walk to freedom is also the story of how the Second World War affected Africa and its people; a story of displacement and family.

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The powerful narrative of `Black Mamba Boy’ is based on tales told to author Nadifa Mohamed by her father, with events taking place mainly in north-east Africa in the period 1935-47. At the start, in what was then Aden, Jama is a 10 year-old Somali boy, and in enthralling and engrossing fashion `Black Mamba Boy’ plots both his physical journey searching for his own father, together with his mental journey striving for something better than his own childhood. Jama makes his way to Britain through Eritrea, Sudan etc. where today these are little known apart from a steady drip of disjointed and incomplete media reports on wars and other atrocities underlining the seemingly impotence of the United Nations or anyone else to resolve problems. `Black Mamba Boy’ confirms this has been the case for decades with insights to the Italian campaign in Abyssinia, the Second World War and the build up to a Jewish state in Palestine.

As well as recording a unique view of history Nadifa Mohamed captures the essence of family ties and lifestyles in parallel with personal portrayals of Jama’s innocence, fears and desires. It is illuminating to compare the compassionate support he receives from his Somali kinsmen with the indifferent and ruthless ways of Europeans. Nadifa Mohamed’s writing is emotional and evocative and as well as lyrical landscape descriptions or relationship revelations she does not flinch from the harrowing reality of a cruelly chaotic part of the world.

My only criticisms of the book are about what is not included as it finishes frustratingly with Jama returning optimistically to his country but without indicating future detail. Also it avoids explanations on the wrongful execution of Mahmood Mattan in 1952 as introduced with the preamble. Even so `Black Mamba Boy’ is a deeply moving intimate account, and Nadifa Mohamed has faithfully fulfilled her father’s wish to have people know what he endured and survived. This is a 5-star book deserving similar acclaim and success to `The Kite Runner’.

Trouble on Somalia's Third Front: Galkayo

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GALKAYO (Somalilandpress) — Somalia can achieve peace. Much of the country already has the ingredients for it, but simply lacks a cohesive government with a unified strategy for security and development.

To make matters worse, many internationals who have the power to improve the situation in Somalia alongside local leaders tend to misdiagnose the ills and then prescribe the wrong treatments. This dilemma has become painfully clear again with this week’s renewed violence in the central city of Galkayo, which has forced hundreds of displaced families to flee for their second or third time.

Galkayo is Somalia’s third front, an issue associated with, but distinct from, the Islamic radical insurgency and the Somaliland-Puntland border dispute…

To clarify for those who relish detail, Somalia is in three parts: Somaliland (northwest, trying to be independent), Puntland (northeast), and southern Somalia (hit by insurgency). Galkayo is a city on the dividing line between Puntland and southern Somalia.
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The Darod clans on the north side of town tend to feel bound to the Puntland state government to the north while the Hawiye clans on the south side of town feel connected to the Hawiye government in the self-made “Galmudug” state in southern Somalia.

During the past years’ fighing in Somalia’s deep south, thousands of people flooded north crossing through this divided town. Those who were Darod clan tended to look for aid agency help or family members to stay with on Galkayo’s north side. But other groups like the Rahanweyne also flooded there. Now, locals in north Galkayo apparently have heard rumors that families staying there in refuge, Darod or Rahanweyne or other groups, who have drawn low-wage jobs and aid away from the residents, may have had affiliation with the Islamic radical insurgents of the south.

Arguments over the rumors overwhelmed the capacity of local security. Shots were fired. Then many local residents began kicking out many of the families from displacement shelters. Most fled south to the Bay and Bakool regions where they will likely be an unwanted minority, as well. And another crisis is born.

The most painful foul against the peace process in Somalia is the UN and aid community’s continued habit of working exclusively with the state authorities, often neglecting the currently more powerful traditional leadership and Islamic leader networks because they are so complex.

The UN has done a fantastic job with aid agencies in planning improvements for security, health, and more. But with very little funding available in the Somali government and from donors for a full security force and citizen protection group for displaced families in camps, most families have to rely on their traditional leaders for protection. The best and brightest of the traditional leaders have fled far and wide, leaving the less capable to rule over their blood line.

What this means is that if a displaced “Rahanweyne” family’s boy gets punched by a “Darod” kid from town, then the displaced family, who does not trust the local “Darod” police, will seek help from their local elders. If the credentialed elders have fled abroad, then basically the oldest man in the group will likely be the decision-maker. He may then ask a group of Rahanweyne men to grab their rifles and go into town to talk to the accused Darod boy’s family to demand justice.

The Darod family may call the police to address the dispute, but the police are so thin they take hours or days to get to the scene. A fight breaks out. And there are not enough police available to break it up. This is what most of the conflict in Somalia is about.

As some leaders and aid agencies are figuring out, these feuds can rarely be resolved by the police. Elders from related clans need to come to talk to the elders who originally sanctioned the posses which started the fight. Then those impartial elders will total the damage to each side and have the one who caused the most damage compensate the other side for their losses.

Here’s a story from Abduba Mollu Ido, a Kenyan writer and development consultant and a trusted colleague of mine, about the blood fued issue in the African Horn. For updates on Galkayo, the peace process, and humanitarian aid, follow the Somalia page at ReliefWeb.

[Photo: Galkayo’s airport IDP settlement, Daniel J Gerstle]

Source: ReliefWeb

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