By Ahmed Abdi
Hargeisa—President offered his condolences to the families and two chambers of the parliament after MP Ibrahim Ahmed Haybe (Ibrahim Ka’aan) died in Hargeisa on Monday.
“Late MP Ibrahim was a national figure that worked for the interest of Somaliland and we mourn his loss,” said President Muse Bihi Abdi in a statement received Somaliland Informer.
“He participated many good things and solved tribal infighting in Somaliland,” he said.
President Muse Bihi was sworn in as president on December 2017. He took over a politically divided country with a shattered economy. This article looks at the key challenges facing President Bihi and his government and offers recommendation as to how to overcome those challenges.
The Challenges
1) A Divided Nation
After a polarized election campaign at the end of 2017, the people of Somaliland are divided more than ever; divisions that one could accuse Bihi of further entrenching. During the election campaign, Bihi disingenuously accused his rival, Abdirahman Irro, the then Wadani Party presidential candidate, of receiving support from Mogadishu. By questioning Irro and his supporters’ loyalty and aspirations for an independent Somaliland, Bihi, the then presidential candidate of the ruling Kulmiye party, offended Wadani supporters, many of whom have since started to question whether their future lies within Somaliland.
Since elected to office, President Bihi has done nothing to make amends. He came to power through the continuation of clan alliance system established in 2008 along with his predecessor, Ahmed Silanyo. Popularly known as Jeegaan (Rainbow), the alliance is composed of two major Somaliland clans and has been forged to rotate the office of the presidency amongst themselves. Since 2010, the Jeegaan alliance has consolidated political authority and almost half (45%) of President Bihi’s recent cabinet and other political appointees are members of these clans. To push the envelope dangerously further, it is widely believed that the alliance is now pursuing for consolidation of economic power. Arbitrary government regulations have been routinely used to hinder major corporations, such as Telesom, a company that is not wholly owned by the alliance. By restricting Telesom’s business operations, many observers believe that the government is creating an entry point for Jeegaan owned companies to not only penetrate the market but also to increase their market share. This has created two opposing camps in Somaliland, the haves and have-nots in terms of power, wealth and influence.
Furthermore, Bihi is also yet to work on the ratification and the successful implementation of the agreement signed by the previous government of Silanyo and Khatumo.
2) A Battered Economy
According to the findings of the Somaliland’s House of Representative, powerful members of Silanyo’s government printed Somaliland Shillings notes for the years 2014, 2015 and 2016 without the authorization and the consent of the Central Bank, an agency constitutionally mandated to control the money supply in the market. The exchange of this money with Dollars was facilitated by and laundered through a certain money transfer company in Hargeisa. Sadly, the ill-gotten money eventually ended up in overseas bank accounts. The flooding of the market with new Somaliland Shillings resulted the depreciation of the Somaliland Shilling from 6,500 to 10,300 against the Dollar between 2010 and 2018, respectively. As a result, the current inflation rate is extremely high and the worst affected people are the fixed income earners such as government employees including armed forces and police as well as other private sector workers. Moreover, the overall cost of living skyrocketed and people lost faith in the local currency. Furthermore, unemployment is extremely high, especially, among the job seekers under the age of 40.
3) Erosion of the Administrative State
Mohamed Haji Ibrahim Egal, the second president of Somaliland, is widely credited for laying the foundation for a modern administrative state. His successor, Dahir Rayale Kahin, consolidated state institutions and the bureaucracy. These gains are, however, believed to have eroded under Silanyo whose government ran the country by fiat. Somaliland’s public sector today is devoid of qualified civil servants and, therefore, ineffective in addressing the country’s development challenges. In addition, there is a very high level of public’s perception of corruption and those who occupy government offices, whether civil servants or political appointees, are seen to be advancing their self-interests rather than public interests.
4) Weak cabinet
Most observers believe that President Bihi appointed a cabinet whose members will tell him what he wants to hear rather than what he needs to. There is hardly anyone in his cabinet that can bravely give him unsolicited advice. For this reason, the President routinely consults with heads of opposition parties and chairmen of Guurti (the upper house) and the House of Representatives. The President should respect the separation of powers among the executive, the legislative and the judiciary branches that is enshrined in the constitution. Instead, he should search for and select of well qualified and experienced people within the executive branch that he may consult with for major decisions and issues.
The Way forward
It is not too late for President Bihi to take responsibility for his actions and apologize for his past mistakes, including the election campaign gaffe because this is, perhaps the best way to unite the nation. Otherwise he will continue to be mistrusted by a large proportion of the population that he had alienated for different reasons. To be seen as a credible leader, he needs to switch gears and move away from the practice of “winner takes all.” The Jeegaan alliance has been useful for getting him into office but continuing to strengthen it economically and politically at the expense of other Somaliland clans will ultimately backfire and endanger the existence of the country in the long-run. Moreover, Bihi should work towards the successful implementation of the agreement with Khatumo.
Regarding the economy, the President must appoint economists as heads of relevant institutions such as the Central Bank and Ministry of Finance. He should help set up advisory bodies, such as a national economic council, composed of experienced economists to recommend sound economic policy proposals and options to tackle, among other things, the growing inflation and unemployment. In the short-run, the government must conduct Monetary Policy’s Open Market Operations that ensures infusion of sufficient cash Dollars in the market and the withdrawal of equivalent amount in Somaliland Shillings. In the long-run, however, the country needs major structural economic reforms.
Lastly, the president must surround himself with highly experienced cabinet and seasoned advisors who can give him both candid and diverse views on the pressing issues facing the nation. Moreover, the Somaliland Government needs to seek, in good faith, an external technical assistance to build the capacity of its weak public sector institutions.
Abdillahi Hussein
Attachments area
As we are aware, Recognition combines international law and international politics. Recognition of
sovereignty of a new state is of two stages: Country Recognition stage -– a recognition by a UN member
country or countries; and United Nations Recognition stage — which is the admission to have a seat in the
UN; the latter is a form of approval that become the golden standard of international legitimacy.
Country Recognition depends upon the international politics because it is recognition at the discretion of
the existing countries whether they recognize that state or not to recognize. There is no official policy upon
countries of what is required for recognition of a new state; in other words, there is no cookie-cutter
approach indicating a country to recognize a new state. Instead, the decision to recognize a state or
establish diplomatic relations with unrecognized state is based on the national interests of the existing
countries. United Nations Recognition depends on international laws; because it goes through a process based on
international laws. It is like a stamp that says, you are now a full member of the international community.
United Nations recognition is the harder part of recognition searching efforts of such states. But this can
become easy if that new state first achieve the country recognition, especially countries that have influence
in the world politics or Regional politics.
The 1st thing Somaliland’s new government should do is not lose any more time roaming around talks with
Somalia. Seven years without any positive outcome for Somaliland is enough. It is clear to every person
that any Government in Somalia will never accept Somaliland to be a free state. Instead it is still claiming
that we are part of Somalia; and working hard with much effort to isolate Somaliland and impose sanctions
on us. It is sure Somalia will succeed its policy of sanctioning us sooner or later; if the government should
not revise its slow and stagnant foreign policy; and prepare Somaliland a defensive strategy against that
threat.
The 2nd step President Bihi’s government should work hard is to claim to get Somaliland’s rights to be under
the protection of the rules established during the Cold War to protect new states that were not yet
recognized by one country or another. It is called “The prohibition under the U.N. Charter of the use of force
to the unrecognized states”. It should secure that unrecognized states protection international law. This
means the International Community will not allow Somalia or any other country to do harm to Somaliland.
The 3rd most important thing for Somaliland is to secure country recognition urgently from at least one or
two or more UN member countries. Though Somaliland marches the qualifications and conditions of
statehood and has its own country; that doesn’t mean it is going to be taken seriously by the international
community and the UN. According to the minimum standards for statehood specified by the customary
international law; even a small area located on a 10,000-square-foot platform in the North Sea has tried to
claim sovereignty under these qualifications. Now, after nearly twenty seven year from the day we declared
Somaliland as a state; it is shameful still not gaining even a single friend country acknowledged our
existence as a state. Somaliland’s declaration as an existing state will not work sooner or later, within this
diplomatic stagnation; unless one or more countries acknowledge and recognize its statehood.
If Somaliland achieves recognition from even one country; will be a purely successful political act for
Somaliland. That such recognition will give Somaliland the opportunity to stop Somalia‘s naked claiming of
Somaliland as part of its country. Such country or countries will also take the responsibility of lopping our
rights for recognition within the International organizations like the UN, AU, etc. Bihi’s government should
approach friendly nations who sympathize our Self-determination Rights; with an effective diplomacy and
political tactics. It requires a lot of effort and courageous decisions. The most important action to take is to
choose the right friends that have sympathy for our statehood and recognition.
There are around or over thirty states including Somaliland which are unrecognized states by the United
Nations; but all these states except Somaliland acquired country recognitions from some UN member
countries. All of them can have the opportunity of gaining a seat at the table of the general assembly
anytime soon; because their recognizers are lopping for their statehood and recognition in the International
organizations. It is probably not even worth trying to apply for U.N. AU, EU recognition; unless the
unrecognized states completed the 1st stage recognition or country recognition from some countries.
But this government should have in mind that the most important asset that Somaliland has, to bargain for
an exchange of its recognition is Berbera with its port, airport and fuel tanks. And this opportunity is now
ripe if our government makes the right choice.
Adam Ali Younis
Email: aayonis@hotmail.com
Security consumes almost half of Somaliland’s state budget | Mohamed Abdiwahab/AFP via Getty Images
In the breakaway republic, a strict clan system keeps al-Shabab in check.
HARGEISA, Somaliland — How do you root out a ruthless terror group? How do you anticipate its every move, counter its indoctrination campaigns, occupy its territory and deprive it of the air it breathes?
I was contemplating these questions while standing in the inner courtyard of the Presidential Palace in Hargeisa, the capital of Somaliland, when the man who knew the answers walked up to me and introduced himself.
“I am Ali Waran Ade, the lionkeeper of Somaliland,” he said. Waran Ade received that name because of the lions he owns. He keeps them in his farm by the dry river bed in the east of the city. A few years ago, one escaped and killed a woman at the livestock market in the capital.
Gray-haired and gray-bearded, Waren Ade is a security adviser to Muse Bihi Abdi — the recently elected president of the self-declared independent republic that broke away from Somalia in the early 1990s. But Waren Ade has also served as interior minister under three of Muse’s predecessors.
No one knows better than him the underworld in which the terror group al-Shabab likes to operate. The group has wreaked terrible violence in neighboring Somalia, where it basks in an aura of invincibility that has eluded al-Qaeda and ISIS. The United States-led international contingent in Somalia seems impotent against them. After years of conflict, al-Shabab continues to operate with impunity in Mogadishu, where the government and foreign aid workers work keep to a small cordoned-off area.
Soldiers stand guard in Hargeisa during a Somaliland Independence Day parade | Mohamed Abdiwahab/AFP via Getty Images
And yet, in Somaliland, al-Shabab has no presence — even though part of its leadership originally came from Hargeisa. So how has this small, impoverished, internationally unrecognized state on the Gulf of Aden succeeded where everyone else has failed? What does it know that everyone else is unable to understand?
The old lionkeeper knows the answer — but it’s not what you’d think. Yes, his efforts and those of the interior ministry are important. Security consumes almost half the state budget, the borders with Somalia are carefully guarded, and more than a few dangerous characters have disappeared into state prisons.
But credit for Somaliland’s success doesn’t belong to the security services, Waren Ade told me. It belongs to the people. No security service can know everything its enemies are up to, but the people are everywhere. They know everything, hear everything, spy on everything. Only the people can become one with the people.
I am told numerous stories to illustrate the point. Once, two old ladies near the Ethiopian border spotted a group of young men carrying weapons; they immediately reported them to the police. Even mothers are not above reporting their sons if they see a call from Mogadishu registered on their cell phones.
The downtown area of Hargeisa | Mohamed Abdiwahab/AFP via Getty Images
Thirty years ago, in a drawn out civil war with Somalia, Hargeisa was razed to the ground. Everyone in the region is willing to pay any price to preserve what has since been built: an open democracy and a thriving new landscape of small businesses filling every street in the capital.
Life feels so safe now that local merchants in the bazaar leave their piles of shilling — inflation is a problem — unattended when they go to pray in the nearby grand mosque.
Democracy in Somaliland is a living organism, not a system built after foreign invasions, erected according to the prescriptions of think tanks and political consultants. It is old — much older than its European cousins, lost in a distant past of nomadic freedom and independence. And it is built on the foundations of a clan system which, far from subjugating the individual to archaic traditions, actually gives him or her the power to stand up to the state and preserve its limits.
Somaliland is the only place in the Horn of Africa where the clans have survived intact. The British colonial presence was very light, and for the past few decades the country has lived in isolation. In Somalia, the clans were uprooted by the Italian occupiers and now resemble political cliques.
A young man in Somalia is easy prey for al-Shabab. His social status is given an enormous boost if he joins the group. He will be given a cell phone, a monthly salary and a pick of beautiful women, who are coerced into marriage. If he says no, he will have to pay a tax or offer his services for free. And if he says no again, he is killed.
People in Somaliland feel sorry for Europeans, who are alone in the world and have to drag themselves through life without present or past.
In Somaliland, a young man who is found out to have any connection to al-Shabab will have to run away and remain a fugitive all his life. His clan will make sure of that, because the association will be a stain on the honor of the whole clan. To be a clan member is to be able to recite one’s ancestors 20 or 30 generations back.
The system links everyone to the past. As someone told me, people in Somaliland feel sorry for Europeans, who are alone in the world and have to drag themselves through life without present or past.
So picture this: two formidable political creatures. One is a terrorist group more than 10 years old, renowned for cruelty, indiscriminate executions and the power to hold an entire country in its grip. The other is a small state, unrecognized by the international community and so impoverished that its capital is still unable to afford traffic lights.
A Somaliland prison warden sitting guard in Hargeisa | Simon Maina/AFP via Getty Images
Remarkably, the latter has won the war. Or put it more prudently: It is winning the war.
Before I walked in to meet the president, Waren Ade told me that his successor in the ministry had gone to the north to try to put an end to a bloody clan dispute. Regrettably, these things sometimes get out of control. One death is avenged with another and the cycle can go on forever.
So the government and the House of Elders — a house of parliament representing the clans — have sent delegations to mediate the conflict. A written document will be signed and peace may perhaps return.
And that, Waren Ade told me, is the last part of the secret: Clans are not social clubs, they are not tame and gentle. They can be violent and bloody and fierce. But this is a land of blood and violence. You don’t defeat the devil if you are not fierce yourself, if your blood is not of the same land.
Bruno Maçães, a former Europe minister for Portugal, is a senior adviser at Flint Global in London and a nonresident senior fellow at the Hudson Institute in Washington. His book “The Dawn of Eurasia” was published by Penguin in January.
The Guurti (the Upper House of the Parliament) approved the Rape Bill with changes. According to article 78 of the Constitution, the Bill will go back to the House of Representatives to debate the amendments proposed by the Guurti. The proposed amendment of the Bill affects 15 articles (1, 3, 4, 5, 9,10, 14, 17, 25, 29, 35, 38, 39, 40, 45). The House of Representatives has the power to either agree with the amendments proposed by the Guurti or to approved the Bill in its original form.
The main amendments made to the Bill are the following:
Article 1
In the original draft of the Bill as approved by the House of Representatives, the definition of a child was any person under 18. The Guurti changed the age to any person aged under 15.
Consent is removed from the definition of rape.
Article 4
The punishment is considerably reduced. The jail sentence that could be given to a person found guilty of a rape is made 5 to 20 years. If the victim is a child, the minimum is 10 years and the maximum 20. If it is a gang rape, it is 15 to 20 years jail term. According to the Guurti amendments, in any case, the maximum cannot be more than 20 years.
Article 9 forced marriage
The Guurti exempted fathers and grandfathers from a punishment if they are involved in forced marriage.
Article 17
The proposed amendments made by the Guurti in article 17 is vague. In the form approved by the House of Representatives, the articles stated that there is no expiration time for reporting a rape case. The Guurti version says:
“The period of initiation of a case should be within 48 hours if there are no grounds delaying:
Rape cases are already one of the least reported crimes in Somaliland.
Guleid Ahmed Jama
The director of Human Rights Centre, Hargeisa Somaliland
A Somali-Swedish female politician is hoping to become the first elected Somali-Swedish legislator in the upcoming 2018 Swedish general election, slated to be held on September 9, 2018.
The Somali-Swedish female politician, Laila Ali Elmi, has presented her herself as a legislative candidate on Sweden’s fourth largest political party, the Green Party “Miljöpartiet” ticket for Angered district in Gothenburg city representative.
Elmi was born in Somalia and her family fled to Sweden in early 1990s when civil war tore the country apart.
Elmi has been a member of Gothenburg’s Angered district local council since 2014 and she hopes to be elected as a member of Sweden’s national law-making assembly, the Riksdag (Riksdagen), after winning Green Party’s nomination for the general election.
If elected, she would be the first East African, Muslim woman elected to Riksdag.
Elmi who is tussling it out with rival candidates -all jostling for the Riksdag seat enjoys the backing of Angered district’s majority voters since Angered district is home to the largest East African immigrants in Sweden.
Gothenburg’s Angered district is home to a 14,000 Somali community members and the largest East African community in Sweden, thus making Elmi the presumptive Angered district’s Riksdag representative.
Speaking to journalist in Gothenburg, a Somali-Swedish senior political analyst Ahmed Mohamoudd Ali Gooni better known as Saajid Afrika, has stated that hard work, passion and large base of supporters will propel Laila Ali Elmi to the legislative seat.
The 2018 Swedish general election, scheduled for Sunday 9 September 2018, will elect the members of the Riksdag which in turn will elect the Prime Minister of Sweden. The Swedish Riksdag is made up of 349 MPs,
Currently, Elmi’s party the Green Party is the fourth-largest party in the Riksdag with 25 seats.
The author, Abdirisak Itaqile
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
The devastating drought in the Horn of Africa is threatening progress made towards stamping out some of the worst forms of abuse against women and girls, Save the Children is warning.
After an unprecedented four consecutive failed rains in Somaliland, and despite a global decline in child marriage[1], the aid organisation is deeply concerned by encountering repeated cases of forced child marriage as a result of the drought.
New research by Save the Children found that 51 teenage girls (out of 1,104 households) had been married off because of the way in which the drought was impacting their families.[2] Moderate to severe hunger was also evident in most of the eleven districts included in the assessment, while 10% of families interviewed reported that one of their girls has been sexually assaulted.
This comes as Somaliland’s first ever so-called ‘Anti-Rape’ law was given a further seal of approval in the parliament’s Upper House, which voted for the bill with a majority on Saturday (7 April 2018). Save the Children and partners such as the Women’s Rights network, NAGAAD have campaigned to bring the Sexual Offences Bill to parliament, where it received an initial endorsement in December 2017.[3]
Timothy Bishop, Save the Children’s Somaliland / Somalia Country Director, said: “A third of women globally experience some form of physical or sexual violence in their lifetime.[4] As if that wasn’t shocking enough, many of these crimes are being perpetrated against girls that should be in primary school – yet are married off to men old enough to be their fathers or even grandfathers.
“Save the Children fully supports the Sexual Offences Bill and the progress being made by the Ministry of Employment, Family and Social Affairs of Somaliland to protect women and girls from all forms of sexual violence, whether perpetrated by a stranger or a relative. The more funding made available for medical and psychological support for survivors, the more likely they will be to report crimes and seek justice.
“With the worst drought in living memory and the ongoing conflict driving cracks through the economy and the fabric of society, never has this legislation been more important.”
Save the Children calls on all decision-makers to urgently prioritise the protection of women and girls from rape and other sexual offences, not just in Somaliland but also in southern regions of Somalia. Drought has displaced one million people in the whole of Somalia in 2017 alone[5], leaving women and young mothers especially vulnerable to assault.
This includes girls like, Caaisho*, 15, who was married off to an older man in the midst of the devastating drought. She said: “I was 14 years old when I got married. My father wanted it. I could not say no to him. He had nothing, his livestock died. My husband then came up to my father and said I want your daughter.
Although the prevalence of child marriage is decreasing globally, by 15% over the last decade, the rates of decline are lower in Africa than elsewhere in the world. The total number of girls married before they turn 18 is estimated to be 12 million a year.[6]
Save the Children is campaigning for the governments of Somaliland and Somalia to set the minimum age of marriage at 18 years.
Somaliland’s Sexual Offences Bill is the first piece of legislation to address gender-based violence. Under the draft bill, all forms of sexual offence would be criminalised, including rape, gang rape, sexual assault, trafficking and forced early marriage. The bill has now been agreed in the lower and upper house of parliament, but still needs approval from the President.
A major player in this campaign for the Sexual Offences Bill is Nafisa Yusuf, Executive Director of the Women’s Rights network, NAGAAD, in Somaliland. She said:“I believe the President wishes to send a clear message that rape, or any form of sexual abuse, will not be tolerated in Somaliland, either morally, culturally, nor legally. By signing off this new law, that message will be loud and clear.
“One of the biggest misconceptions about this Anti-Rape law is that it opposed religious teachings, which is simply not true. The root cause of sexual violence against women is unequal power relations between men and women. Conflict, displacement, and the cultural changes that follow, are factors which exacerbate these unequal power relations. In short, the problems faced by women and girls in Somaliland are not due to religion, but culture, which changes when societies are precarious following seismic changes.”
ENDS
For interview requests, please contact:
Gemma Parkin
g.parkin@savethechildren.org.uk
+254 743145305
Notes to Editors:
* (name changed)
About Save the Children’s Multi-Sectoral Needs Assessment Report February 2018
This needs assessment was carried out between January 25th and 6th of February 2018 in eleven districts, seven from South and Central Somalia and four from Somaliland. 1104 households across 41 communities were covered in the assessment. Somaliland zone contributed 36% of the households. According to the office of UNOCHA, some 5.4 Million people are in need of humanitarian assistance in Somalia and some 1.2 million people could be malnourished this year.
About Child marriage rates in Somaliland / Somalia
Somaliland and Somalia are among the highest gender unequal countries in the world but have the highest data gaps to reflect recent changes. The ongoing humanitarian crisis has exacerbated poverty, insecurity, and lack of access to education, factors which drive child marriage. Recent figures however show decline in prevalence of child marriage in the country from 24.6% in 2006 to around 10% in 2016.[7]
Save the Children research from 2017[8] found child marriage is more prevalent in south and central parts of the Somalia. These parts of the country have consistently witnessed prolonged humanitarian crisis compared to other parts of the country thus increasing vulnerability to early marriage.
Save the Children’s campaigning on the Sexual Offences Bill
Save the Children has supported the Sexual Offences Bill in Somaliland, with financial and technical support to bring the draft bill to the attention of decision makers.
Save the Children as part of the INGO consortium in Somalia is also supporting the efforts of the Federal Government of Somalia to adopt the draft Sexual Offences Bill. Once enacted, it will be the first piece of legislation to comprehensively address gender-based violence in southern Somalia.
The current draft Sexual Offences Bill is the result of two years of consultation with a wide variety of stakeholders, including elders and religious experts, as well as civil society, women’s groups, lawyers and various government agencies.
It is crucial that the Bill is passed in its present form to ensure that all sexual offences are comprehensively criminalized, that all people who have experienced or are at risk of sexual violence in Somalia are afforded adequate protection and access to justice, and that the duties of justice actors to investigate and prosecute such crimes are clearly defined and enforceable.
Somalia’s federal government can do little to stop the project
THE ancient port town of Berbera in Somaliland, a breakaway state in northern Somalia, is generally a sleepy place. The heat, which can reach 50 degrees Celsius in the summer, stifles even the dogs. Yet visitors will find it buzzing at the moment. Near the edge of town, sand and rubble fill the space where, until recently, there were 19th-century Ottoman traders’ houses. New buildings are springing up. A little out to sea, as half a dozen ships idle in the sun, a barge from Dubai hauls a colossal crane towards the shore.
All of this activity relates to a new port being built by DP World, a company mostly owned by the government of Dubai, part of the United Arab Emirates (UAE). At the moment, Berbera’s port is small—used mostly for the export of livestock to the Persian Gulf, and the import of goods to Hargeisa, the capital of Somaliland. However, over the next decade or so, thanks to DP World, it could turn into one of east Africa’s biggest. The port and another Emirati project, to build a military base in Berbera, are powerful reminders of how money from the Gulf is changing the Horn of Africa. It also risks exacerbating the struggle between Somalia’s weak, but internationally recognised federal government in Mogadishu and its restive, secessionist regions.
The Berbera port, which will cost some $450m, is by far the biggest investment in Somaliland since the province declared independence from Somalia in 1991 (in practical, but not legal, terms it is a separate country). It has taken on a new significance since February, when DP World was thrown out of neighbouring Djibouti, where it had operated the main port since 2009. Djibouti currently handles over 90% of Ethiopia’s sea trade, and also hosts French, American and Chinese naval bases. Somaliland officials probably hope to steal some of that traffic. In March Ethiopia announced it had bought a 19% stake in the Berbera port.
The project annoys politicians in Mogadishu, who fear losing more of their already meagre authority. So they have kicked back at the UAE. Last month parliament passed a law banning DP World from all of Somalia (something it cannot enforce). On April 8th the authorities in Mogadishu temporarily seized an Emirati plane carrying some $9.6m in cash, apparently intended for soldiers in Puntland, another autonomous state, being trained by the UAE. On April 11th the defence minister announced that Somalia would end a similar programme in which the UAE paid and trained soldiers in the national army, who will henceforth be paid by the (penniless) federal government.
Officials in Somaliland are unruffled. The federal government “cannot control even ten square kilometres of Mogadishu”, says Liban Yusuf Osman, Somaliland’s deputy foreign minister, dismissing its objection to the port deal. But the dispute drives a big wedge between the two governments, says Rashid Abdi of International Crisis Group, a Brussels-based NGO. It does not help that many politicians in Mogadishu are thought to have taken money from Qatar, the UAE’s rival, or that Turkey, another rival, is one of Somalia’s biggest foreign investors.
Indeed, the government in Mogadishu is a mess, thanks in part to constant manoeuvring by foreign-funded politicians. On April 9th the speaker of parliament, Mohamed Osman Jawari, stood down, having apparently lost a power struggle with the prime minister, Hassan Ali Khayre, and the president, Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed, known by his nickname “Farmaajo”.
A few days before, African Union soldiers had to step in after Mr Jawari’s bodyguards stormed the parliament and ran up against troops loyal to the prime minister. Both sides ostensibly oppose the port in Berbera, but Mr Jawari saw an opportunity to seize more power for parliament by holding a (symbolic) vote on the deal, without consulting Mr Mohamed.
The bickering does not help the cause of a unified Somalia. The government in Mogadishu has little to offer the country’s regions. That allows countries like the UAE to swoop in and fill the gaps. Al-Shabab, a terrorist group linked to al-Qaeda, continues to mount successful attacks. On April 1st dozens of Ugandan soldiers were killed by the jihadists in the most deadly raid in over a year. The greater the chaos in the areas ostensibly controlled by federal government, the smaller the incentive for regions such as Somaliland to care what its politicians think.
Applications are now open for the third cycle of the tech accelerator Innovate Ventures Accelerator, based in Hargeisa, Somaliland. This year’s programme will accept 12 startups and will invest up to $30,000 in the teams with the highest potential.
The programme aims to support young entrepreneurs in Somaliland and Somalia and grow the nascent startup ecosystem in the country. Innovate Ventures works with VC4A Telesom and Oxfam under the Work In Progress! project to make this programme possible.
To date, the programme has graduated 25 startups and has invested almost $50,000 in its graduates.
Applications will be accepted online from startups based in Somaliland or Somalia for entrepreneurs under the age of 35. Up to 20 of these startups will be selected for a one-week bootcamp, during which the commercial viability of the product or service will be espoused and the traction attained to-date will be evaluated.
Successful startups will proceed to a 12-week accelerator programme, which will be based in Hargeisa, Somaliland. This group will receive mentoring and training on how to build a commercially viable and scalable technology-enabled business.
“Running the accelerator programme for three years has been a learning experience for our team at Innovate Ventures”, says Warda Dirir, co-founder of Innovate Ventures. “We’re constantly tuning the programme to the needs of the entrepreneurs in this part of the world and overcoming challenges particular to the environment here.”
You can apply [[https://goo.gl/7Ucdzj here or you can email Info@Innovate.so for more information.
Defence Minister Mohamed Mursal made the announcement to reporters shortly after the UAE condemned what it called an “illegal” move by Somalia to seize $9.6 million from an aircraft at the Mogadishu airport on Sunday.
The UAE’s state news agency, WAM, said Emirati Armed Forces aboard the plane were held at gunpoint and assaulted. Abu Dhabi says the cash was earmarked for training and supporting the Somali army.
“The UAE deplores this violation of international law and norms at a time when the UAE has provided all kinds of political, economic, military and humanitarian support in the darkest conditions to establish security and stability” in Somalia, the foreign ministry said.
Somalia’s government has dismissed the reports and said the cash was seized after the UAE ambassador refused to let the unmarked bags be scanned.
A security ministry statement said Mogadishu is launching an investigation as to why the funds had been smuggled into the country.
The $9.6 million will be stored in Somalia’s central bank pending the results of the official investigation, according to VOA News.
Somalia’s defence minister said all UAE-trained Somali troops would be integrated into army units by Thursday. “It’s our duty as the government to ensure the salaries for our army,” he said.
Military officials have long claimed the UAE-trained troops were taking orders from Emirati advisers rather than Somalia’s government, conducting unilateral raids aimed at politicians and other figures. In recent months the UAE-trained forces repeatedly clashed with other Somali forces, leaving dozens dead.
Relations between Somalia and the UAE have deteriorated since the oil-rich Gulf country began operating a major port in Somalia’s breakaway territory of Somaliland last year. The UAE also has invited Somaliland officials for state visits and is building a military base there, suggesting that the country is moving toward recognising Somaliland’s independence.
Somaliland is located in the strategic Bab al-Mandeb area, and a military base there would allow the UAE to protect its shipping interests in the Gulf of Aden.
Somaliland is also located across Yemen, making a military base useful for the UAE, which is part of the Saudi-led coalition fighting the Iran-backed Houthi rebels in the country.
Displaced pastoralists in Somaliland’s drought-hit Togdher region are being paid to clear thickets of an invasive tree that is taking over farm and grazing land.
Around 600 families living in IDP camps in and around Burao have been hired for a two-month project by environmental group, Pastoral Environmental Network in the Horn of Africa (PENHA). They are paid $82 a month to cut down and burn the Algobra trees, known locally as parasite trees.
Rowdo Adan Jama, 42, told Radio Ergo she was happy with the work scheme as she no longer had to worry about her nine children’s food. They have been surviving on irregular aid in an IDP camp from humanitarian organizations. She used their first $82 salary to buy sugar, rice, flour, oil and milk.
Hassan Awil Dirir of PENHA said the parasite trees have been rapidly invading farmland in Burao and villages including Beer and Yirowe. PENHA started the initiative, with support from the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), to give livelihood support to destitute families whilst ridding the area of the plant menace.
Work is being offered to people aged 25-50, who have no source of income. They are required work six days a week. The men cut down the trees then the women burn them.
Rowdo said her husband had no means of supporting the family after they lost their 180 goats and seven camels in the drought over the last two years. The have just 10 goats left.
Abshir Abdi Yusuf, 45, had spent more than a year in Siliga camp with his wife and six children in eastern Burao without any income. He told Radio Ergo they had depended on occasional aid distributions, after losing 180 goats and 26 camels in Habura village, roughly 80 km south west of Burao. He was also very glad to get the work with PENHA, so as to be independent at least for a while.
The Algobra tree, or Prosopis Juliflora, is a very hardy plant that withstands drought because of its deep root system. Introduced in the 1980s as part of reforestation experiments, the invasive tree has been taking over agricultural and grazing land and spreading fast in urban areas all over Somalia.
However, there are differing views among local people and experts as to how to deal with it.
According to Mohamed Farah, a lecturer in botany at the University of Burao, Algobra is not beneficial to people or livestock because of its exhaustion of water in the catchment areas, preventing other indigenous plants from growing.
Dr Hussein Haji, executive director of local agro-technology group SATG, said Algobra could be turned to people’s advantage:
“People don’t know what to do with it. Some are proposing to cut the tree and use it as charcoal.
The pods can be used as animal feed, but unfortunately the plant has sharp spines and it is not easy to harvest the pods. Cutting the tree and using it as charcoal is a way to slow down the spread of the tree and perhaps help reduce the cutting of acacia trees, which is generally used for charcoal.”
Ergo
Emperor Menelik II statue and Ethiopian Flag are seen during the celebration of the 121st Anniversary of Ethiopia’s Battle of Adwa at King II Menelik Square in Addis Ababa on March 2, 2017. FILE PHOTO | AFP
For centuries, foreign powers have alternately come, conquered, and colonised the peoples of the Somali Peninsula, turning the entire region into scenes of big-power showdowns, each eager to control portions of the coastlines: Italy; France; Britain.
During Siad Barre’s reign, the Soviets and the Americans leased Kismayu and Berbera as bases.
In fact, long before the European colonialists shared the coastline amongst themselves, the Abyssinian and Tigray kings were keen on it and you would meet them in the corridors of diplomacy, communicating with the kings and emperors of Europe.
They were interested in gaining access to the coastline so they would import firearms.
Have Somalis reason to suspect that Ethiopia might stretch its long arms solely to do just that: occupy Somalia’s seaports?
We know that Ethiopia, through Menelik, did make a claim of owning the Somali seas in his correspondence with European kings; we know, too, that Ethiopia in a more recent past, during Haile Selassie’s reign connived with European powers to hand over parts of the Somali coastline.
Frequent wars
Shewa isolated for centuries and sandwiched between the highland mountains like saxifrage and had rival kingdoms like Gondar, Gojam and Tigre was an inland kingdom, as small in size as her king was in stature, its king, Menelik, had grand ambitions, large and uncontainable like the waters of the sea.
And because there were frequent wars between these kingdoms, history taught them that whoever had European backing, access to the sea and therefore firearms, would have the upper hand in the event of conflict.
Yohannis, the King of Tigre, had been for a time the strongest because he had received the benevolence of the British government’s gift of arms in return for his services. What was more, he had been promised free access of a port.
But the coastline had always remained in the hands of other peoples – the Somalis and other local peoples.
Territorial claims
In years gone by and recently too, Abyssinian kings would appeal to the Christian solidarity of Europe when the power ruling the coast happened to be Muslim. Nor were they beyond making unfounded territorial claims later when a European power did not allow them free use of the ports.
Kings Yohannis and Menelik would play one European power against the other in their attempt to secure outlets to the sea.
Menelik addressed the heads of the governments of Italy, France, Germany, and England in a letter in 1878: “My country is far distant from your country.
“My road to the coast, to Zeila, Tajura and Aden is at present closed by the Muslims. They prevent my receiving into my country provisions, arms, agricultural implements, artisans or even messengers of the Gospel.
“Will you kindly raise your powerful voice in order that I may have this way opened to me, for I desire to inaugurate in my country European civilisation, intelligence and arts?”
During this period, however, he does not make any territorial claim of any city-state on any coast — like Mogadiscio, Merka or Brava, three city states on the Somali coast, which had known the splendour of world fame as grand centres of commerce.
Maybe he had not by then heard of them in the way he had heard of Zeila and Tajura, the ports through which his kingdom imported “provisions, arms, agricultural implements, artisans or even messengers of the Gospel” and which he used for his country’s exports.
And before Menelik, a prominent political figure of Tigre Dajazmach Sebagadis Weldu wrote a letter in 1827 to King George III that his country “needed firearms, which could only be obtained with European assistance through Massawa.
“We want you to take Massawa from the Turks and either hold it (yourself) or hand it over to us as our country is lost by it … and the Muslim on the Red Sea coast.”
‘Barbarous nation’
Another Tigrean king Yohannis, corresponding with a British envoy (General) Gordon, says that “in the event the taking of any of the ports is rendered impossible, the King of Tigre would be satisfied if he is at least granted “territorial, and not only functional, access to the sea.”
Desperate as ever and needing firearms, Menelik said to the French that he was prepared to give up Harar city, which had just conquered, in exchange for a port. The French were not ready to accept the exchange. He laments:
“I am about to die from anger because I have remained without bringing one (new) skill, imprisoned (as I am) … I am a man who has been sentenced to imprisonment for life and prevented from bringing into this country rifles, cannon and workers.
The French, however, would sell him plenty of arms and Italy complained to Britain about this great influx of arms sold to this “barbarous nation.”
With the help of these weapons, Menelik annexed vast territories and proclaimed himself King, then King of Kings, then Emperor as the Somalis were specifically kept unarmed and defenceless.
The weapons, which he had imported from France through Djibouti, gave him supremacy over all the other minor entities in the region. The small man gave himself grand titles; he had christened the territories he had annexed “Ethiopia,” and crowned himself “Emperor.”
Italian offer
On the other hand, Yohannis, of Tigre, determined to take a coastal city, refuses the Italian offer to open a consulate in Massawa, saying: “I wish Massawa itself,” and wrote to Queen Victoria, saying that he did not “very much mind sharing the pagan districts around the coast with the British, but with no one else.
The Italians would offer 5,000 rifles to Menelik on condition that he attacked Emperor Yohannis. Menelik who gained strength from the weapons, wrote to the European powers, “If I cannot take Tajura by sea, it is not difficult for me to seize the port from this side (overland). However, without coming to blows, I hope that civilised Europe will render me justice and give me satisfaction!”
In the same letter, he went on, “we hope that our crown which honours Jesus Christ will never be trampled to the ground by the children of Mohammed.”
And yet, a little later: “If truly you are the protectors of Christians, it is today that you must give us proof.”
Came the Scramble for Africa — and Menelik would write to the Governments of Britain, Italy, France, Germany and the Czar of Russia.
We note the change of the tone of his voice, because he is a changed man, and he would specify the boundaries of Ethiopia, which has been “for four centuries a Christian island in a sea of pagans. Formerly, the boundary of Ethiopia was the sea … our frontiers on the seacoast fell into the power of the Muslims.
At present, we do not intend to regain our sea frontiers by force but we trust that the Christian powers guided by our Saviour, will restore to us our sea coastline, at any rate, certain parts of it.
“If God gives me strength, I shall re-establish the ancient frontiers (tributaries) of Ethiopia up to Khartoum and as far as Lake Nyanza with all the Gallas included.
Fall of Massawa
Haile Selassie would in 1948 present a Memorandum to the UN, saying, “Prior to the race of European powers to divide up the continent of Africa, Ethiopia included an extensive coastline along the Red Sea and the Indian Ocean.
It was only the last 15 years of the 19th century that Ethiopia had been deprived of access to the sea by the loss of the Somali Peninsula and Eritrea.
The first step in this direction was the Italian conquest of Massawa in 1885, followed by their seizure of the Benaadir and the rest of southern Somalia.
Having failed in dislodging the European colonialists, Emperor Haile Selassie would say in an interview to the UN Mandate Trusteeship territory that “Eritrea, should be given to Ethiopia.” And it was.
More recently, Mengistu Haile Mariam would say at a press conference during his reign in the mid-1970s, that “Ethiopia would defend its access to the Red Sea, even if this would make the sea redder on account of enemy blood, which we will shed.”
And the war for the coast on the Somali-speaking Peninsula goes on.
DoTERRA and Ground partner Frankincense Environmental Impact
We conduct a comprehensive environmental survey of evidences gathering and information sharing to Sanaag frankincense growers and harvesters, we also listen the chief elders complaints. Indeed, DoTERRA on-the-ground partner in Somaliland the Asli Maydi Export LTD, severely compromised both environmental sustainability and donations fraudulent and scams. Exploiting the vulnerable and voiceless frankincense harvesters and grower will have negative implication and consequences at international level. DoTERRA thrown aid funds into corrupted on the ground partner supplier. He has chosen to collaborate with doTERRA, because he was criminal fugitive at large escaped from United Kingdom, and then creates huge environmental impact.”
It is time DoTERRA will hold accountable, null and void sustainable methods outlined remain fabrication and lies. Calmadow Mountain treasures the ancient and powerful frankincense resin. Quality source never protects both the trees and the harvesters’ but DoTERRS demand driver creates over harvesting and kills madar mooge trees as we demonistrate.
Sanaag Frankincense resin has long been considered a most holy and precious resins worldwide. It is carefully extracted from the resin of the Boswellia frereana and Boswellia Carterii tree.
In 2017, the Frankincense Oil sales in Skin care was XX, and it will reach XXX in 2023; while the sales Market Share in Skin care was XX% in 2017 and will be XXX% in 2023. DoTERRA is one of the Global Frankincense Oil Sales and Market Share of Key Players (2013-2018) the top players cover , AMÉO, De Monchy Aromatics, DoTERRA, AOS Products Private Limited and Nature’s Sunshine Products (NASDAQ:NATR) etc., which are playing important roles.
Worldwide Frankincense Oil Sales 2018 Research Report presents a professional and complete analysis of Global Frankincense Oil Sales Market on the current situation. This press release was orginally distributed by SBWire
The recent research, Frankincense Oil Sales market enables stakeholders, field marketing executives and business owners get one step ahead by giving them a better understanding of their immediate competitors for the forecast period, 2018 to 2025. Most importantly, the study empowers product owners to recognize the primary market they are expected to serve. To help companies and individuals operating in the Frankincense Oil Sales market ensure they have access to commensurate resources in a particular location the research, assess the size that they can realistically target and tap.
The market intelligence report offers a clear sense of different consumer groups and their needs to help product owners meet the requirements and generate riches and profitability. Apart from this, the report aims at outlining whom the business owners operating in the Frankincense Oil Sales market should not target and also what are the main alternatives and competitive offerings are. Defining the major challenges and problems remains the key focus of the study. Problem definition covered in the report provides a systematic approach to recent investments and makes product marketing both easier and effective.
Doterra over demand and overharvesting of wild frankincense trees, we were sad to see harm trees, and more international attention should give to this severe environmental concern. by doTERRA and their on ground supplier who is no social and environmental responsible, their previous harvesting sites were dead half of the frankincense trees mainly Ceel-Afweyn site, including Huluul, Laas-doomaare. doTERRA total failure to protects both the trees and the harvesters’ , and ensure the people in those producing communities have fair compensation for the work they doing. As the matter of fact, doTERRA supplier was taken advantage in need frankincense farmers,
However, we urge other essential oil and aromatherapy companies to take environmental sustainable responsible way and recommend to buy directly from the harvesters, middle men or broker have been compromised the environment for decades.
so far, doTERRA has compromised to sourcing each essential oil responsibly—taking even didn`t care marginalized , vulnerable and underrepresented frankincense harvesting communities. Indeed, their on-the-ground partner in Somaliland has been criminal fugitive from UK, not trustworthy similar to those highlighted in the Somaliland media article. He has chosen to collaborate with doTERRA, because doTERRA is not socially and environmental responsible “ $ 3.3 million dollar pre-investment into the communities of Somaliland. dōTERRA plans to open a regional hospital in the Sanaag region of Somaliland in Spring 2018 which will serve 400,000 people, and has already constructed 2 schools which provide much needed education for local youth. We contact Somaliland ministry of Education and higher studies as well as Somaliland ministry of Health and Labor. Both confirmed the project funds were corrupted by DoTERRA partner ASLI MAYDI EXPORT LTD , and Dr. Anjanette Decarlo , DeTERRA environmental representative.
In addition lacked to protecting frankincense trees and the surrounding environment, The doTERRA Co-Impact Sourcing Initiative were never support frankincense harvesters with fair wages by bypassing brokers and working directly with the communities who grow, harvest and sort the frankincense. But only invest their fraudulent supplier ASLI MAYDI EXPORT LTD, and shame to blame social abuse and environmental impact partnership.
ASLI MAYDI EXPORT LTD only provides food as payment once the year in order to exchange frankincense resin, poor harvesters to feed their families. 1 kilo of resin value $5 dollar equivalent for food value prices, as well as the cleaning and sorting of the resins were never build neither doTERRA nor ASLI MAYDI LTD, sorting resin destination are handled other Burco City warehouses. Where ASLi MAYDI EXPORT LTD built their synthetic Frankincense distiller industry, where fair trade certification will never be possible, and environmental insecurity , and frankincense dual use oil for biological and chemical warfare are possible if not probable.
Once a year- access to food and unfair price significantly increases the over-harvesting of trees in harvest every month by increasing desperation, ASLI MAYDI EXPORT LTD and DoTERRA collectively cause severe environmental damages to their previous harvesting sites like the Ceel-Afweyn frankincense farms that most of trees were dead, and harvesting communities complaints sky rocketed, the question is who guards the guardian ???
the community by paying $2 per day women to clean and sort the resins all while doTERRA failure to ensuring fair labor conditions and promoting safe and healthy working environments free from exploitive practices, harassment and kin discrimination presence. Because the cleaning and sorting of resins takes place directly in the other city called Burco areas where they are collected, sorted. Harvesting community women never benefit directly or indirectly from much needed income opportunities. One main factor caused Dr anjanette Decarlo deportation, after she fabricated lies to Doterra and wrong fully stands with her passionate boy friend who is her client supplier.
Most notably, doTERRA lies about building schools and medical facilities in the vastly underserved regions of Somaliland. Not even registered government concerned institutions so far.baseless fake and fabrication building.
Ultimately, we consider our stewardship of frankincense, the trees and DoTERRS partners a compromised responsibility. At moment Madar Moge frankincense forests are in danger and over harvesting ASLI MAYDI EXPORT LTD. We could ask for a greater motivation Doterra and that our on-the-ground partner “keeps doing environmental harm, rather than good work.” Community complaints
doTERRA’s and extensively with their partner Somaliland ASLi MAYDI EXPORT LTD previous harvesting sites earlier in 2016 were overtapping harvesting seasons exceed eight months Ceel-Afweyn frankincense farms half were dies. We assess at-risk trees, it is devastated impact made by these companies, and presents such a professional environmental assessment report to make an informed decision maker and policy experts. Also wake up call for the Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources to take their responsibilities very serious. Compensate the exploited communities and restore their hope, before it is too late. Otherwise the doTERRA and Co-trader will face full fair trade certification review, at an international level.
Ahmed Abdi
Environmental Advocy
Frankincense Harvesting Communities complaints & severing case study
sareecan@gmail.com
+252634108989
Islam elucidate ”Education” precisely in this word”TARBIYAH” which has linguistic meaning: increase, growth, and loftiness. So from the terms, It is the matter of prosperity because one can learn and then initiate, also recognise his creator- the knower of everything (Allah).
Referring to other scholars.
……………………………………………
To begin with, American pragmatist philosopher and education reformer, John Dewey (1963) put it, a social process – ‘a process of living and not a preparation for future living’’. As well being concerned with learning that we set out to encourage – a process of inviting truth and possibility – it is also based in certain values and commitments such as a respect for others and for truth. Education is born, it could be argued, of the hope and desire that all may share in life and ‘be more’.
For many concerned with education, it is also a matter of grace and wholeness, wherein we engage fully with the gifts we have been given. As Pestalozzi constantly affirmed, education is rooted in human nature; it is a matter of head, hand and heart (Brühlmeier 2010). We find identity, meaning, and purpose in life ‘through connections to the community, to the natural world, and to spiritual values such as compassion and peace’ (Miller 2000).
Finally, Somalilanders, should know that education is the fact of all, and matter of everything, as well as, it is essential to life and progressing. At the same time, in our country, education is very crucial, since all basic needs are under the unwell standard. So receiving better education is the only way to ruined the condition which we call “hand to mouth”. Besides too, reducing corruption, and attainment of good governance. To conclude this topic, the writer is saying to a reader, Prosperity is cultivated in good education, always and forever, as those scholars that are mentioned above nurtured us.
Khalil Abdi Mohamoud Ahdar (Khalil Cabqari)
Email: cilmibulsho@gmail.com
By: M. A. Egge
The first four months dubbed 120 days of the President’s tenure was an initiative H.E. Musa Bihi Abdi heavily underscored whereby from the word go he impressed upon his chief executive officials to see to it that his visions, pledges and promises were adhered to the letter and of course, timely for that matter.
So far the Head of State’s hands on method of leadership that bonds with both the grasp and knowledge of the issues at stake vis-à-vis the seriousness he deals with matters is a pointer of what is in store ahead for the future of the people and the country of Somaliland as we briefly glance over the achievements so far in the past 16 weeks or so.
Despite the usual pros and cons with all the expectations, hullabaloos, constraints and unforeseen bottlenecks usually associated with major change of guard, the Kulmiye administration under President Musa Bihi Abdi has done a wonderful work given the timeline in juxtaposition to the programs he projected to implement as per his laid down plans.
Under the duress caused by the serious inflation and famine that afflicted the nation as the President took over, he has managed to see to it that much of what he wanted to do has successfully taken off the ground and going well into the prescribed direction and path.
The successes have been quite palpable on both the home and foreign fronts and equally, in the same breath, as far as both short and long term plans are concerned.
On the foreign fronts, the nation has seen the largest influx of foreign dignitary visits who have all of a sudden decided to take the country more seriously that as has been for quite a while.
Following three quick successive trips to Djibouti, Ethiopia and UAE and also after the sealing of the DP World and SL agreements reports favorable to the country’s investiture suddenly blossomed, the latest being Genel Energy’s announcement a fortnight ago of starting the ultimate real drilling of petroleum in the country, come next year.
Similarly, the friends of Somaliland in the name of the UK All Parties Parliamentary Committee for Somaliland revisited the country after an over a decade hiatus.
The first and foremost amongst priorities to be embarked upon was that of good governance and developmental aspects for factors of production.
In this case, the state started with the streamlining of the civil service just as it did with the revising of the national priority areas hence revamping its policies.
The agricultural sector which has since seen quite in impetus injected in, is part of the almost 35% the national budget earmarked for aspects that pep up development sectors that are potentially productive.
Dozens of hospitals and MCHs hitherto not in operation has been put into gear just as the education sector has seen school equipping scheme ignited by the distributing of school books to pupils country-wide.
Salaries have already seen the teaching and security sectors receive a whopping 29% increment.
The support to electrical power and lighting industry that has seen several major towns like Burao, Borama, Buhodle, Sheikh, Gebiley and Badan is just a point to note.
Similarly, major trends going on and are in process in the water resources, youth and associated social services and infrastructure are quite remarkable.
When all the above is put into consideration, hence given the big war which is also in process being waged against inflation that has gored into the national economy, it is worth noting that the first 120 day of H.E. Musa Bihi Abdi is quite impeccable and commendable and surely lifts our spirits up confidently.
Donations which keep this clinic going will run out next month and urgent funding is needed
Gran Mako Ibraham with malnourished granddaughter Amren Hassan, 4
Tiny Amran Hassan howls in agony from the hunger pains that ravage her emaciated body.
She is four but weighs just 21lb – the same as the average one-year-old in Britain.
Her skeletal frame is the result of a drought devastating Somaliland in East Africa, where rain last fell two years ago.
Nearly 80 per cent of livestock has died, destroying the livelihoods of families like Amran’s.
And 700,000 people have been forced from their homes.
Many walk for days hoping to find a scrap of land to farm.
They have no idea when they will next eat as the region – which declared independence from Somalia in 1991 – teeters on the brink of famine.
The Garowe river bed after five years of no rain
Amran’s 70-year-old grandmother Mako Ibrahim has walked 30 miles through the night carrying her to the village of Abdi Geedi, where there is a mobile Save the Children clinic.
It is her only hope of survival – but now even that is under threat.
Donations which keep the clinic going will run out next month and urgent funding is needed.
Mako says: “It is only because we have come to this new village that Amran is still alive. It is better here for her because there are aid agencies bringing food, water, and medicine. God knows what will happen to Amran.
“I say all of the prayers I can that she will be well one day.”
Mako says her family once owned 200 sheep and goats, and 30 camels.
Now she has to beg for food.
She adds: “Amran is very hungry. She has been like this for three years. Her energy is very low and she almost always has a severe fever. It never leaves her body.
“She can’t really walk – she only ever manages a few steps.
“When I see other children running around I wish it was her. But I do not know if we will ever see that day.”
Many people have only been able to survive thanks to the generosity of neighbours.
Garoomaale Elmi Ali, 53, runs a small shop selling rice and bread to villagers like Mako. He has given away so much free food he is nearly £3,000 in debt.
He says: “These are my friends, I can’t let them starve.”
People tell similar stories in villages across Somaliland, where animal carcasses line the dusty roads as a bleak reminder that death is close by. In Hul-Xudhunle village Rayaan Mohammed is at the mobile clinic. He is with his 16-month-old daughter Sayido Jama who is 18lbs, the same size as a baby of nine months in the UK.
Rayaan, 35, has nine hungry mouths to feed. She tells me that she prays for rain every day.
She says: “Most of the time we only have a little rice at breakfast. There are times we haven’t eaten for two days. I suppose we will all die if this continues.
“I had to stop breastfeeding four months ago because I don’t have enough milk. Sayido always has a fever and diarrhoea. Most of the time she just lies down. She has no energy to play. I can’t afford to take her to the doctor.”
Back in the capital Hargeisa, tiny Ahmed Dheej is being treated at a specialist malnu-trition clinic run by doctors.
This is where Save The Children refers its most urgent cases. Ahmed is 18 months but weighs 15lb – less than a six month old baby. His mother Leyla, 20, is being treated in a room down the corridor. She lost the baby she had carried to term because she was so malnourished her kidneys were failing.
She cannot speak to me through her tears.
Her mother Suri explains: “We lost all our livestock in 2017. My daughter doesn’t have enough milk to give Ahmed. She had a daughter two months ago but the baby passed away.
“We didn’t even have time to name her. She was dead when she was born. Ahmed has been here for three months. He has malnutrition and a severe fever and diarrhoea. He was sick for 40 nights before we could bring him here. People are suffering. We are in God’s hands.”
Aid provided by charities such as Save the Children is the only hope for families like these.
But it needs donations before its life-saving mobile health clinic runs out of funds in May.
Keyan Salarkia, Save the Children’s Conflict and Humanitarian Advocacy Adviser, says: “We have a genuine opportunity to break this cycle of hunger and despair.”
Save the Children is helping the most vulnerable households with cash grants, food and animal feed.
Its water, sanitation and hygiene teams are reaching families in the hardest hit areas, bringing clean drinking water. They’re building and repairing community water catchment facilities, public boreholes and shallow wells.
And with your help, the charity aims to save lives now and to help people rebuild for the future. So please give now.
£3 Could buy life-saving peanut paste to help return a badly malnourished
Source: The Mirror
I went for a short working visit to the coastal city of Berbera, which I had to go to during school holidays. Again, I obtained opportunity to peregrinate to this city conventionally between the years of 1995-2006 from COOPI international NGO to whom I worked for had a main office in Borama and sub office in Berbera at the time. To begin with the history begin with the chronicles of the town; the city has gone through different times. First, Berbera has a long history of beautiful architectural buildings with diverse ethnic groups, mainly Hindi, Arab and Turks and of course Somalis who composed the bulk of ethnic groups at all times. Among the Somalis, there were different tribes, including to that of Isaq, dhulbahante, Warsangali and Gadabursi.
I met with friends who were born and raised in this city, but had been away for a long time and the only matter that these people were in agreeable were Berbera was not a clannish city. They said: We had heard; Issa Musa and Musa Abdallah rarely; but nothing more than that. It has been common to hear Deerayahan, Xasan jibriil, Cabadala qoyan, Dhogori since 1990.
There has been a sharp drop among the different ethnic groups used to live in Berbera for example Indians, Arab, Turkish and other Somali tribes from different parts of Somaliland. Fewer individuals of the communities live in Berbera to this day. Although, they do not speak in their own languages, they are an important part of the local community.
The 1980’s, Berbera was a small town, but its business activity for example shipping ships that come to the port and the people coming to trade or to board the ships to fulfill the pilgrimage were significantly higher than the size of the population in the city.
Unlike before, many parts of the city are deserted; especially in the famous suburbs of Darole where the famous kiln of Elmi Bodhari was located is dilapidated and horrible. The financial prospects of the city was very appalling before the advent of DP world and nobody in Somaliland would have dared to invest in Berbera.
By the way, the major holders in the country with the arrival of DP world have set great ambitions to prepare themselves for the jobs and business opportunities expected from the DP WORLD. Despite the people in the city of Berbera being busy in bustling trade of among others buying plots of greater sizes and constructing modern hotels, the size of the population remains very little and the worst is for the women and children. The majority of the people I saw were mostly men who either work directly or indirectly at the port of Berbera.
It seems that people are intrigued by prospects of buying land proximate to the seaport, and that is not good because port needs reserve lands for future prospects. Surprisingly enough, the future is not bright for Berbera power utility Company. It is the only city in Somaliland, where the electricity goes off when it rains because the system (electrical grid) is out-of-date and in ruins and requires to be renovated so as to withstand with heavy rain. Unfortunately, the company is unprepared to restore the system as no other company competes with them in the city.
Another issue topic of great concern was that the road route between Hargeisa and Berbera despite restructuring the road with funds obtained from Somali Development Somaliland Development Fund (SDF), Dakarbudhuq and Aw Barkhadle remain, the two most dangerous places places in the ravine for all the village on the roadside. wayside. To reduce the risk of flood-related overflow -related deaths as a result of driving through floodwater. You need to build two bridges over the gully one each at Dakarbudhuq and Aw Barkhadle so that people can travel from Berbera to Hargeisa safely.
It is pleasing to note that many people in Sahil region are becoming farmers and they have invested heavily in agriculture, especially in irrigation farms. I expect from them to produce fruits and vegetables to make money despite challenges. They require to be trained in modern agricultural farming techniques and modern drip irrigation systems that will reduce water cost. Finally, I recommend for farmers in the Sahil region to be constructed greenhouses with drip irrigation systems that can be a good role model.
Thanks
Abdirahman Ibrahim Abdilahi
Contact: Abdirahman270@gmail.com
Ethiopian soldiers walk towards Somali army in the Ogaden desert during fights at the Somalia-Ethiopia border on June 14, 1978, in a war for control over Ogaden.
Ethiopian kings and Western powers haggled and battled for firearms market and control of strategic Somalia coastline.
Somalian troops brandish the Ethiopian flag on February 27, 1964 in the war for control over Ogaden.
