FIFA helps Somalia revive its oldest and largest sporting facility in the capital after years of unrest (Photo/Midnimo).
The Somali Football Federation (SFF) this week unveiled the first phase of the renovation of Somalia’s oldest and largest football facility.
The renovation work is part of a large initiatives by FIFA under its Win In Africa With Africa program and hopes to revive sport in the war ravaged nation. The first phase, which took a month to complete, included the installation of artificial surface for the first time.
The federation and its sub-contractor the East African Modern Engineering Company (EMECO) brought in an expert from the Dutch-based construction company Greenfield to supervise the works.
The new surface will get reviews very soon when the country hosts the next edition of regional football tournament for peace and development early 2013. Banadir Stadium in 2011
With a capacity of 15,000, the stadium was inaugurated in 1956 by the Italians and was later expanded by the Chinese in the 1980s. At one stage, it was the largest and the most modern facility in Africa and the Arab world. It hosted many international competitions including All Arab games, All African games, the CECAFA tournament and many others. It has multi-uses and plans to add additional facilities are underway. These upgrades include VIP facilities and accommodations.
After going through so many different era, stages and events including colonial rule, socialism, civil war, Islamists and Ethiopian control, the stadium is slowly returning into the right hands in the Somali Football Federation organization.
The British, who already control Somaliland, oust the Italians and occupy Italian Somalia. British and Italian parts of Somalia become independent, merge and form the United Republic of Somalia in 1960.
Somalia becomes a socialist state and nationalises most of the economy. In 1974 a severe drought causes widespread starvation. Fighting breaks out between Somalia and Ethiopia. Fighting continues until 1988.
Break up of Somalia 1991-2007
Somaliland declares unilateral independence and a power struggle begins between clan warlords.
In 1992 US Marines land near Mogadishu ahead of UN peacekeeping forces sent to restore order and safeguard relief supplies.
US Army Rangers are killed when Somali militias shoot down two US helicopters in Mogadishu in the battle depicted in the film Black Hawk Down. By 1995 both the US and UN have left.
Fighting breaks out between Islamic and other Somalian groupings. Ethiopian troops enter the country.
Al Shabaab come into existence as a fighting force in 2006 after defeating the clan warlords in a battle for Mogadishu. Extremism and war 2007-12
In 2007 UN-mandated African Union peacekeepers arrive and pitched battles break out between them and Islamist militia Al Shabaab.
A transitional government is formed and steps are taken to set up a regular Somalian army.
In 2011 Al Shabaab is pushed out of Mogadishu after heavy fighting with African Union and Somali government forces.
The first Somali parliament is sworn in at Mogadishu in August 2012.
African Union Mission in Somalia Force Commander Lieutenant General Andrew Gutti (centre) walks with Djiboutian commanders during a tour of Beledweyne in the Hiran region. Somali and allied forces plan to take more towns in the region from al-Shabaab in the coming weeks. [Stuart Price/AU-UN IST/AFP]
Al-Shabaab’s leaders and foot soldiers are on the run after losing significant ground to the Somali National Army and allied forces in a series of recent battles, security officials say.
“We know that there is no place left in Somalia for the so-called radical al-Shabaab movement, whose leaders, members and followers must be expelled or even killed so security and stability prevails once again throughout the country,” Hiran Governor Abdifatah Hassan Afrah told Sabahi. “We have to extinguish the flame of violence that they spread in East African countries.”
Afrah called for operations targeting al-Shabaab’s leaders, whom he called “a cancerous growth in the body of the Somali people”. He said such operations would spread panic and frustration among al-Shabaab operatives who have been trying to find a foothold in the Golis mountains and in southern Yemen, where they are trying to join forces with al-Qaeda-affiliated Ansar al-Sharia.
Commander of the First Battalion General Abdullahi Ali Anood said the Somali National Army, with backing from the African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM), would take over the town of Bulo Burde in the Hiran region soon in an attempt to cut off access to the road that links Bulo Burde with the towns of El Bur in Galgudud, and Tayeglow in Bakol. This will hinder the flow of the group’s military supplies and trap al-Shabaab fighters in the central regions, disrupting their logistical support, he said.
Hundreds of Somali soldiers stationed in Hiran and Lower Shabelle will take part in this joint operation, Anood said. “We are preparing for a bloody battle against al-Shabaab to prevent it from rebuilding its infrastructure and regrouping, and [its fighters] will be unable to find a safe haven in which to hide,” he told Sabahi.
Al-Shabaab losing ground
Al-Shabaab still controls some areas in the Hiran region, but it has been losing strategic towns such as Beledweyne, the regional capital, which Somali and Ethiopian forces took over in December 2011 after forcing the militants out of Matabaan and surrounding villages.
Al-Shabaab’s leader Ahmed Abdi Godane, also known as Mukhtar Abu al-Zubair, has admitted publicly that his group’s fighters have been defeated in a series of recent battles in Somalia.
“This year comes as the crusade against Islamic rule in Somalia has been mounting and the crusader enemy has intensified its military, security, political and media capabilities to dim the light of sharia and defeat Islamic rule,” he said in an audio message released December 11th.
Godane said al-Shabaab would resort to guerrilla tactics after allied forces intensified their operations against the militants.
Nur Ahmed Dahir, an al-Shabaab defector, said some of his former colleagues told him that Godane has been concealing his identity by covering his face with a black scarf to blend in among his soldiers.
Godane reportedly carries a Kalashnikov rifle and dozens of hand grenades in a small bag, Dahir told Sabahi, and has been moving between mountains close to Dinsoor to other areas in the Hiran and Bakol regions.
“The group bans any questions relating to a jihadi’s nationality, name, family background or tribal affiliation to guard against spying, a charge that may lead to execution by firing squad or decapitation,” Dahir said. “That is why few soldiers in the group can identify their emir.”
Hiran Deputy Governor Mohamed Maalim Yusuf called for assassination operations against al-Shabaab’s leaders to thwart their terrorist plans. This would allow government forces to take control of several areas in the central and southern regions such as Hiran, Galgudud, Middle Shabelle, Lower Shabelle, Middle Jubba, Lower Jubba and Gedo, he said.
“It is not unlikely for terrorist leaders who have been moving between the towns of El Bur, Bulo Burde, Tayeglow and Dinsoor to be targeted,” he told Sabahi. “We will soon cut off the land road connecting these towns with the support of the Djiboutian forces and the Ugandan troops that are marching from Jowhar, capital of the Middle Shabelle region, and heading towards Bulo Burde.”
The Indian government will actively support Somalia’s capacity to rebuild its defense forces in order to enhance the overall security in the region. It was announced by the Indian High Commissioner in neighboring Kenya, Sibabrata Tripathi, during an official visit to the Somali ministry of defense in Mogadishu on Monday.
The High Commissioner was warmly received and briefed by the Somali Defense Minister Abdihakim Haji Mohamud Fiqi in his office. He discussed with Mr. Tripathi a wide range of ongoing issues of mutual interest including security. Mr. Fiqi said that they were also facing terrorism and that it was the biggest threat to Somalia. He noted positive gains against al Shabab in recent times with the help of African Union troops including Kenya’s.
He further highlighted ongoing security commitments against terrorism, piracy and other security challenges in an effort to stabilise the war-ravaged country.
The visiting High Commissioner praised Somalia for the recent positive developments in the country and assured India’s support. He said his government shared the Somali government’s stance on several issues and was eager to cooperate on these problems. He promised military aid from his country to help bolster Somalia’s long neglected security forces.
Since last year security has been improving in southern Somalia, particularly the capital, and a number of countries have reinstated their diplomatic presences in Mogadishu. Although the number of major attacks on Mogadishu have declined, insurgent networks have been able to reinforce their gains in provinces and districts close to the city, launching smaller attacks on soft targets. Security remains a major headache for the Somali government.
This is the first visit by an Indian official since the collapse of the Somali central government in 1991. They are also the second country after Turkey to promise direct military assistance. Turkey has already began training Somali police units and is in the process of delivering a number of coastguard boats and other military hardware.
Somali President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud left the Somali capital on Sunday for Djibouti to attend a convention marking the 40th anniversary of Somali language reforms. This is the second visit by Mr. Mohamud to the tiny Red Sea nation since his election last September by Somali MPs in Mogadishu.
The Somali language is spoken by about 15 million people and dates back to ancient times. The convention underway in Djibouti will mark 40 years since the new Somali alphabet was introduced. In October 1972 Somalia’s former President Mohamed Siad Barre introduced the English Latin alphabet replacing the previously used Arabic script. The initiative was the brain child of Somali linguist Shire Jama Ahmed.
Siad, who introduced many policies to Somalia designed to free the nation from century old views and influences saw language as integral part of his long term nationalist program. He felt that Somalis needed a new identities and nationalist views. He saw Arabic as religion identity but felt Somali people lacked strong cultural and language identity. He further argued that Somalis needed language reform that was modern, practical, and precise, and less difficult to learn than Arabic. He introduced the policy of “bar ama baro” or “teach or learn” in an effort to speed up the transition from Arabic to Somali. The bar ama baro program required students to learn the new Somali language in the morning and by afternoon they had to be teaching rural areas. It was one of his most successful policies and in a period of just five years he made history. By 1978, the majority of Somalis were said to be literate and his program became the fastest developments of mass literacy anywhere in the world.
Somali linguists and academia will celebrate the 40th anniversary since the development from Monday 17th to the 22nd of December. The event will be attended by Somali politicians and academia from Mogadishu, Somaliland, Puntland, Northern Frontier District (NFD) region of Kenya, The Somali State of Ethiopia and Djibouti. The event will bring together Somalis from the entire Horn of Africa for the first time in many years.
President Hassan on his part promised to revive the Somali language and help restore it along with the Somali State while preparing for the convention.
The convention was organized by the Djibouti-based Somali Pen organization and they will launch the largest Somali dictionary since 1976 when President Siad unveiled Qaamuus kooban ee af Soomaali ah and Qaamuuska Af-Soomaaliga.
Somali President Hassan arrives in Djibouti to mark 40th anniversary of Somali language reform
Mogadishu (Africareview) A newly appointed Somalia Minister Mr Abukar Hassan Ali has resigned, citing clan expectations.
The resignation came a day after his appointment as Deputy Minister by the country’s Prime Minister Abdi Farah Shirdon. The PM also nominated 5 state ministers on the same day.
According to Mr Ali, his clan Galje’el deserved more than the position of Deputy Minister of Finance and National Planning.
“I consulted with the elders, religious leaders, youth and other prominent persons from my Galje’el clan. I was urged to resign,” stated the resigning deputy minister.
He added that the fact that each of the ten ministries will have two deputy ministers meant that even a deputy ministerial post he was to assume was just half the position.
“Considering the influence of my clan, I cannot accept to assume the position in a ministry with two deputy ministers,” remarked Mr. Ali. “There was an earlier consensus that my clan would get a state minister. Thus, this nomination must be undermining my clan’s status and I would not go down into the history books as the man who accepted an inferior position for my clan,” he added.
When the Transitional Federal Government ceased and a non-permanent government was established in September, President Hassan Sheikh Mohamoud and PM Shirdon agreed to form a lean government of 10 ministers.
However, several clans that missed ministerial posts complained privately. This, however, is the first major protest against appointments in a nation where clan balance and political roles are closely linked.
Earlier on November 5, the Premier appointed a lean cabinet made of 10 ministers that included two women ministers.
On Thursday, the leader of the political association (Midnimo) made a call for dialogue with the government, amid heightened tension between the opposition and the Puntland authorities.
The call to President Farole’s regime by the newly formed political association (Midnimo) comes after a recent spate of demonstrations and increasing opposition on the President’s plan to postpone the Presidential elections in January 2013.
Dr. Sadiq Enow, the leader of Midnimo (Unity Party), said the country urgently needed dialogue amid the resurgence of tensions.
“…Because the current government’s official term in office was four years, President Farole took the oath in 2009, extending his term in office for another one year will have grave consequences, we have seen it before in 2002…we have lost many people because of that conflict…we don’t need such violence to return to our beloved country,” he said.
The opposition leader accused the current government and the previous ones of deliberately refusing to create the constitution court of Puntland, but instead each one of them tired to extend their terms in office. This will lead the country that we all love into uncertain future, says Dr.Enow.
On Friday, two MPs from Mudug and Bari regions have released a joint a press statement calling on the traditional leaders to intervene and to hold a national unity conference. The Puntland Parliament’s term ended on 31st October this year.
President Abdirahman Mohamed Farole took office in January 2009 and his term of 4 years in office will end on 7th of January 2013. But the president says he will delay the elections scheduled in January, Farole wants to stay in power until 2014. He promises to hold the multiparty elections within a year.
During his election campaign in 2008 and first 100 days in office, President Farole promised that within his first year in office, he will impalement the democratization process by allowing multi party system, registering the citizens and holding a referendum on the new constitution. Now less than a month is remaining of his term in office. None of the these goals has been achieved.
Earlier this month, two major Presidential candidates have arrived in Puntland, Gen.Abdullahi Said Samatar who hails from Bari region and Abdirahman Gablah from Mudug region both are warning President Farole not to delay the elections.
In recent months, major clans in Puntland and Diaspora groups in the west have being calling on President Farole not to go ahead with his plans to cancel the elections. Last month former Prime minister of Somalia Prof.Abdiweli Ali Gaas released a statement calling the Farole regime in Puntland ‘oppressive’.
Puntland government has been accused of systematically harassing the independent media and journalists in the region. In October, government shutdown Horseed FM an independent radio station in Bosaso. The radio station has been banned from broadcasting since 6 October and access to its website is blocked in some of the region’s cities. The ban, which the police notified to the station, was a politically motivated and was not issued by any court.
The opposition groups accuses the Puntland government of using force to silence the people and prevent them for raising their demands. Last month, four people were wounded when Presidential guards opened fire on unarmed demonstrators during protests against the President in Gardo city.
Puntland State of Somalia an autonomous region, has been relatively peaceful but in the recent past, residents have expressed fear of escalating insecurity.
A car bomb in the Somali capital killed three people and wounded several others in the latest attack in war-ravaged Mogadishu, police said Friday.
“The car exploded while the driver was moving in it… three people were killed,” said police officer Aden Mohammed, adding it was not clear if the driver had been targeted. “We are still investigating the blast.”
No group immediately claimed responsibility for the explosion, but the Al-Qaeda linked Shebab insurgents have conducted a series of guerrilla style attacks in the capital since pulling out of fixed positions there last year.
The insurgents have vowed to topple President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud, who took office in September after being chosen by the country’s new parliament, bringing an end to eight years of transitional rule.
An offensive led by the 17,00-strong African Union force alongside Somali forces has stripped the Shebab of most of the towns they held.
But the Shebab remain a potent threat, still controlling rural areas as well as carrying out guerrilla attacks — including suicide bombings — in areas apparently under government control.
Some of the fighters have reportedly relocated to the Galgala region of the northern Golis mountains in Somalia’s semi-autonomous Puntland region.
The Golis mountains, straddling the porous border between the autonomous state of Puntland and self-declared independent Somaliland, are honeycombed with caves and difficult to access.
War-torn Somalia moved a step closer to stability this September after picking its first president elected on home soil in decades.
Political newcomer Hassan Sheikh Mohamud, an academic and activist who has also worked for the United Nations and other organizations, was sworn in the capital Mogadishu after defeating incumbent president Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed. The milestone vote was hailed by the international community as a sign of improving security in a nation plunged into chaos after years of vicious civil hostilities.
Despite the move toward a more permanent government, the new president faces an uphill battle to rebuild the country and restore its shattered economy and crumbling infrastructure. Even though insurgents have fled Mogadishu and guns have fallen silent, portions of Somalia still remain lawless as large parts of the country are under the control of militants, such as the al Qaeda-linked group Al Shabaab.
Distinguished Somali professor Ahmed Ismail Samatar, who also ran for president in the recent elections and is now a member of the new parliament, says the country’s new leader is facing “heavy challenges that need to be lifted.”
“He [Mohamud] cares about the country,” says Samatar, leader of the HiilQaran political party. “And [there is] the possibility that his leadership will then bring a shift in gear and therefore moving towards that future that needs to be born.”
Somalia may have been brought to its knees by decades of war but in the 1960s, after it threw off the chains of colonialism to gain its independence, it was a model of democracy, says Samatar.
“It’s the first place in the continent, in sub-Saharan Africa, in which the head of the state will be defeated in parliamentary transparent elections and he will hand the keys … to the victor and tell the nation that democracy is a precious thing. This is in 1967 — the first sub-Saharan African head of state to be defeated in an election and then hand peacefully the order of the state and the institutions to the new president.”
Somalia was formed through the union of newly independent territories British Somaliland and Italian Somaliland in 1960. Aden Abdullah Osman Daar was Somalia’s president until the 1967 election when Abdirashid Ali Shermarke became the country’s second leader. But in 1969 he was assassinated; a military coup immediately followed and that regime ruled for more than 20 years. In January 1991, dictator Maxamed Siyaad Barre was overthrown in a civil war waged by clan-based guerrillas and warfare continues to this day.
“No African country has lost so much since the coming of independence in the continent in the 1960s,” says Samatar.
Samatar is the founding dean of the Institute for Global Citizenship at Macalester College, in Minnesota — the state that’s estimated to have the largest Somali population in the United States. His topics range from globalization and the world’s political economy to African issues, specifically those of his home country.
After running for president, he has now returned to Macalaster College — but as a member of Somalia’s parliament he continues to remain engaged in the rebuilding of the country.
“I am driven because after 30 years of studying I have seen enough of the truth in front of me through scholarship,” he says. “What ails Somali people and how they might overcome those problems.”
Samatar says that 15 years ago, it was hard to envision a bright future for Somalia.
“Today, though, it’s a different story,” he adds. “There are blades of hope growing among these cobblestones of difficult history,” he explains, noting that Somalis are now exhausted by the ongoing war and civil strife.
“They are absolutely tired of a particular kind of religious Islamist militancy that wants to destroy the culture; they are tired of warlords who hijack particular opportunities for their own self interests … and destroy what it’s in place.
“So that exhaustion brings a certain kind of yearning for a new time and that’s hope. They have had enough of this and they want something different.”
NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — A U.K.-led Piracy Ransom Task Force says the shipping industry must adopt additional measures to ensure that payments aren’t made to pirates after a successful attack.
The task force’s final recommendations noted that more than $300 million in ransoms has been paid to Somali pirates since 2008.
The success of piracy attacks off Somalia has dropped markedly over the last year, mainly because of increased coordination from international navies and because ships are increasing their defenses, including the use of armed guards.
British Prime Minister David Cameron said international action is beating back piracy.
“The dramatic reduction in pirate activity in the past year shows how important collective action is, and the recommendations of the Task Force should make it harder for pirates to receive, and to profit from, ransom payments,” Cameron said as the task force’s findings were released late Tuesday.
“But seafarers of all nations remain at risk, and we must continue to work to break the piracy business model, with the ultimate ambition of bringing an end to ransom payments,” he said.
Somali pirates hijacked 46 ships in 2009 and 47 in 2010, the European Union Naval Force said. In 2011, pirates launched a record number of attacks — 176 — but commandeered only 25 ships, an indication that new on-board defenses were working.
Only five ships have been hijacked this year, the EU Naval Force said. The last was taken on May 10. The sudden drop in ransom payments has ended a pirate party culture that popped up on Somalia’s shores, as pirates paid for lavish parties, including drugs and prostitutes, with millions in ransom money.
Close to 140 seafarers are still held by Somali pirates, though that’s way down from the height of the piracy crisis, when more than 600 hostages were held at once.
Early Monday, heavily armed forces from Puntland, a northern region of Somalia, clashed with pirates escorting a speedboat carrying supplies and ammunition for pirates holding a ship — the MV Iceberg 1 — pirates have held for more than two years. The MV Iceberg 1 is a Panama-flagged cargo ship that was hijacked March 29, 2010.
One Puntland official said the aim was to seize the boat and arrest pirates, but he said the mission failed after pirates fought back. The official spoke on condition he wasn’t identified because he’s not authorized to speak to the media.
The U.K. taskforce noted that there are no actions that can simply and immediately bring a halt to ransom payments, but it said that increased coordination among all piracy fighters could reduce the payments of ransoms, the legality of which is being more closely scrutinized by governments.
