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ICRC - Bulletin No. 3 - Horn of Africa
Drought News DROUGHT NEWSLETTER February 2006 
UN Somalia Humanitarian Monthly Analysis Somalia Fact Sheets Mogadishu Fact Sheet Puntland Fact Sheet South Central Fact Sheet Somaliland Fact Sheet AMIIN AMIR ARTS News in Audio 
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Shir
jaraa'id: Shariif Xasan iyo
Shiikh Xasan Dahir Aweys November 25, 2006  Somalia Latest News
Somali speaker says Ethiopian troops must leave
NAIROBI, Dec 3 (Reuters) - Ethiopia has a massive military force of 15,000 men in Somalia and will be to blame for any war in the chaotic Horn of Africa state, the speaker of parliament in Somalia's interim government said on Sunday ---------------------------------------------------------- Somali war fears spark exodus from southern town as battle looms
MOGADISHU, Somalia: Somalia's government has sent hundreds of troops backed by Ethiopian soldiers to recapture a strategic town seized by the country's powerful Islamic movement, witnesses and military officials said Sunday as dozens of families began fleeing the area. ---------------------------------------------------------- Somalia: Foreign Intervention Will Only Destabilize Country
The Security Council is mulling over a draft resolution that purports to sanction military intervention by foreign forces to prop up one political entity in Somalia. ---------------------------------------------------------- Ethiopians Said to Patrol Somali Road MOGADISHU, Somalia, Nov. 22 -- Hundreds of Ethiopian troops were patrolling a strategic road that leads to the southern town of Baidoa, where Somalia's interim government is based, after a brief but intense firefight in the area this week, witnesses said Wednesday. ---------------------------------------------------------- Somali warring parties seek unity to help flood victims The United Nations on Friday expressed concerns over a looming humanitarian crisis in Somalia but noted that rival groups have expressed willingness to work together to assist flood victims. ---------------------------------------------------------- Somali Islamists mass troops, brace for war Somali Islamists say they have poured thousands of fighters and heavy equipment into front line positions as they brace for clashes with the Somalian Government and its Ethiopian allies. ---------------------------------------------------------- Ethiopia threatens major offensive against Somali Islamists Ethiopia has confirmed that it is prepared to launch a major military offensive against Islamists in neighbouring Somalia. ---------------------------------------------------------- Ethiopia warning draws Somali ire MUGADISHU (BBC)-- The Islamic body that controls much of Somalia has reacted angrily to comments by Ethiopia that it is prepared for an attack by its eastern neighbor. ---------------------------------------------------------- Ethiopia 'ready for Islamist war' Ethiopia has made preparations for a conflict with the Islamists who control much of southern Somalia, Prime Minister Meles Zenawi has told MPs. ---------------------------------------------------------- Witnesses: 6 Ethiopian soldiers killed in ambush by Somalia's Islamic fighters MOGADISHU, Somalia: Islamic fighters ambushed an Ethiopian military convoy on Sunday, killing six Ethiopian soldiers and wounding 20 others, eyewitnesses said, in the first known skirmish between the rival forces maneuvering for control in Somalia. ---------------------------------------------------------- African flood rescue gathers pace International aid agencies have launched a massive relief operation to help 1.8 million people affected by heavy flooding in the Horn of Africa. ---------------------------------------------------------- Crocodiles kill five in flood-hit Somalia MOGADISHU, Nov 19 (Reuters) - Crocodiles have killed five people forced to wade through floodwaters devastating Somalia, officials said on Sunday, as the interim government appealed for international help. ---------------------------------------------------------- Somali regions in Kenya and Ethiopia should be part of Somalia, says Somali Islamic leader MOGADISHU, Somalia: Somalia's Islamic leader wants the Somali regions of Kenya and Ethiopia to be part of Somalia, he said in a radio interview, reviving the idea of a "Greater Somalia," which caused tensions in the 1970s and was a cause of the war with Ethiopia. ---------------------------------------------------------- Somali gov't criticises Islamic movement khat ban MOGADISHU, Nov 18 (Reuters) - Somalia's interim government criticised the rival Islamic movement on Saturday for formally outlawing the popular stimulant leaf khat in Mogadishu and other parts of the country that are under its control. ---------------------------------------------------------- Islamists 'take key Somali town' An Islamist militia that controls much of Somalia has clashed with fighters loyal to a warlord who backs the transitional government. ---------------------------------------------------------- Somali Islamists, government-allied troops clash MOGADISHU, Nov 12 (Reuters) - Eight people were killed when troops from a powerful Somali Islamist movement clashed on Sunday with fighters allied to the interim government a day after it rejected a peace initiative. ---------------------------------------------------------- Somali Islamists back peace talks Somali's powerful Islamist leaders say they have agreed to hold new peace talks with the fragile transitional government to avert an all-out war. ---------------------------------------------------------- Somali lawmakers hold separate talks MOGADISHU, Somalia - A delegation of Somali lawmakers broke ranks with the government and traveled to the capital Sunday to hold peace talks with the country's Islamic militia, the latest sign of cracks in the fragile administration. ---------------------------------------------------------- Somali speaker to visit Islamists for talks MOGADISHU, Nov 4 (Reuters) - The speaker of Somalia's interim government will meet the country's Islamists at their Mogadishu stronghold to try to rescue peace talks that collapsed last week in Sudan, both sides said on Saturday. ---------------------------------------------------------- Somali Canadians fear war at home As the debate about the rights of dual citizens living abroad continues within the federal government, members of Canada's Somali community say they're worried Canadian relatives will be stranded if war breaks out in their East African homeland. ---------------------------------------------------------- Somali Islamic courts rebuff U.S. terror warnings NAIROBI, Nov. 3 (Xinhua) -- Somalia's Islamic courts on Friday criticized warnings issued by the United States that they may be planning suicide attacks in neighboring Kenya and Ethiopia. ---------------------------------------------------------- Somali pirates hijack ship off the country's lawless coast MOGADISHU, Somalia: Six Somali gunmen hijacked a commercial ship off the country's lawless coast and were demanding a ransom of US$1 million (€780,000), an official said Saturday. ---------------------------------------------------------- Islamic leaders ban Somali elopements MOGADISHU, Somalia (AP) — Islamic leaders have banned Somalis from marrying without the consent or knowledge of their parents, saying such unions violate Islam. ---------------------------------------------------------- Islamic courts refuse peace talks The Islamic Courts Union, which controls much of southern Somalia, has refused to meet the interim government for peace talks unless Ethiopian troops leave the country. ---------------------------------------------------------- Ethiopia, Eritrea back rival Somali factions NAIROBI -- Thousands of Ethiopian and Eritrean troops are in Somalia, backing opposing sides in the struggle for control of the strategic country, according to a confidential UN briefing paper. The involvement of the two Horn of Africa rivals could set the stage for a regional war. ---------------------------------------------------------- Somali govt says going to peace talks with Islamists MOGADISHU, Oct 28 (Reuters) - Somalia's government said on Saturday it had decided to attend a third round of peace talks in Sudan with rival Islamists. ---------------------------------------------------------- Kenya: Somali Refugee Influx Decreases, UN Refugee Agency Reports The arrival rate of Somalis pouring into neighbouring Kenya to escape factional fighting has dropped to about 300 people a day from a high of over 1,000 three weeks ago, the United Nations refugee agency said today, citing border officials. ---------------------------------------------------------- Kenya: US to join IGAD Somali suicide bomb probe Nairobi, 10/27 - The United States would be allowed to join investigation into the suicide bomb attack which targeted Somali interim leader Abdullahi Yusuf, a Kenyan official affirmed here Thursday. The Somali government has put forth a formal request for detailed investigation into the attempted assassination last month which, Kenya, the Chair of the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD), said was on track to undertake the assignment. ---------------------------------------------------------- Kenya convicts Somalis of piracy Ten Somalis have been found guilty of piracy and hijacking by a court in the Kenyan port of Mombasa. The convicted men, who will be sentenced next week, were arrested earlier this year off the Somali coast. ---------------------------------------------------------- Somali Islamists cut fuel supply to government base MOGADISHU (Reuters) - Increasingly assertive Somali Islamists are stopping fuel shipments reaching Baidoa, dealers and officials said on Wednesday, cutting off supplies to the weakened government's base in the city. ---------------------------------------------------------- Somali rivals gird for war outside government seat BAIDOA, Somalia, Oct 25, 2006 (AFP) - Rival fighters loyal to Somalia's weak government and powerful Islamist movement girded for battle Wednesday outside the government's temporary seat here as tensions between the rivals soared. ---------------------------------------------------------- War is close, Ethiopia tells Somali rebels Ethiopia upped the ante with the Islamist rulers of Somalia's capital yesterday, saying it is on the edge of war following their repeated declarations of jihad against Addis Ababa. ---------------------------------------------------------- Somali Islamists Threaten Attack on Government Base Islamist forces in Somalia are threatening to attack Baidoa, base of the country's weak interim government. ---------------------------------------------------------- Somali Islamists claim capture of Ethiopian officer KISMAYO, Somalia -- Somalia's powerful Islamist movement claimed Tuesday to have captured an Ethiopian military officer in fierce weekend battles with a militia allied to the country's weak government. ---------------------------------------------------------- Troops massing around Somali town Somali government troops and Islamist rebels are massing around the central town of Burhakaba a day after it was taken by government forces. ---------------------------------------------------------- Somali Islamists ready to retake town Heavily armed Islamist fighters have gathered near Bur Hakaba, a strategic southern Somali town, a day after their allies were chased out by government troops. ---------------------------------------------------------- Somali Islamists: Ethiopia's Army Aids the Interim Government The Supreme Council of Islamic Courts (SCIC) accused the Ethiopian army on Saturday of aiding the Transitional Federal Government (TFG) forces in the occupation of Bur-Hakaba, the Somali Net news agency reports. ---------------------------------------------------------- Somali, Ethiopian Forces Retake Town MOGADISHU, Somalia -- Somali government forces backed by Ethiopian soldiers have retaken a main town between the capital and the government's base from Islamic fighters, residents said Saturday. ---------------------------------------------------------- Islamists clash with southern Somali militia KISMAYU, Somalia, Oct 16 (Reuters) - Troops loyal to powerful Somali Islamists clashed with rival militia fighters in a southern town, killing four and stoking fears of mounting violence in the Horn of Africa nation, residents said on Monday. ---------------------------------------------------------- Somalia: Islamic Courts Confirm Their Attendance in Khartoum Talks The Arab League has refuted a report that Somalia's president Abdulahi Yusuf and Premier Ali Mohammed Gedi had dispatched a message to the League justifying over a meeting with Arab League representatives that would come to Baidoa, southern Somalia. ---------------------------------------------------------- Somalia: Police Chief Given 24 Hours to Leave Baidoa The Somali government police Chief Gen. Ali Madowe has been given a deadline of 24hrs to desert Baidoa, the temporary base for the tenuous government. ---------------------------------------------------------- Somali Islamists shut down former warlord’s radio station MOGADISHU - Somalia’s powerful Islamist movement shut down a private radio station in the capital at the weekend, saying it backed the agenda of a vanquished US-backed warlord alliance, officials said on Monday. ---------------------------------------------------------- Somalia: New Somali Passport Approved For the first time, the Somali cabinet ministers have approved the establishment of new Somali passport ---------------------------------------------------------- Djibouti to Hold Summit to End Somali Violence Somalia's neighbor to the north, Djibouti, will host a regional summit in November in an attempt to prevent further escalation in the region, the London-based daily A-Sharq Al-Awsat reports. ---------------------------------------------------------- Ethiopia Reacts to Threat of Jihad by Somali Islamists Ethiopia has again said it has no troops in Somalia and that it will not unilaterally attack Somalia unless attacked by the Islamists. Yesterday, Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed, leader of the Supreme Islamic Council of Somalia declared jihad or holy war against Ethiopia for invading Somalia. ---------------------------------------------------------- Tolerance a test for Masiphumelele dwellers Baraka, give me two onions. The order, in a confident voice, was from the diminutive figure standing on the step. From the hole in the window not much bigger than a child's head, a dark, lean hand produced the desired merchandise in exchange for the R1 offered. ---------------------------------------------------------- Somalia's woes grow in Kenyan refugee camps Mohammed Abdi Guhad sits idly in the shade of a makeshift wooden kiosk, explaining his plan to return to Somalia and fight for the country's powerful Islamist movement. ---------------------------------------------------------- Somali government denies Ethiopian military help BAIDOA, Somalia, Oct 10 (Reuters) - Somalia's interim government said on Tuesday its brief takeover of an outpost of its Islamist rivals was to check security and denied reports its fighters had Ethiopian troops with them. ---------------------------------------------------------- Somalis vow holy war on Ethiopia Somalia's Islamists have accused Ethiopian troops of attacking a town and have vowed a "holy war" in revenge. ---------------------------------------------------------- Somali force leaves town after brief takeover MOGADISHU, Oct 9, 2006 (AFP) - Somali government soldiers, allegedly backed by Ethiopian forces, pulled out of a town near the government base in south central Somalia on Monday, after briefly seizing control from a pro-Islamist militia. ---------------------------------------------------------- Ethiopia 'helps seize Somali town' Ethiopian forces have reportedly helped Somali soldiers to seize control of a town in southern central Somalia, prompting leaders of the Islamic militia to declare a holy war against Ethiopia. ---------------------------------------------------------- Somalia: Hopes for the Somali Passport to Function in Emirates After Long Period of Ban The Somali passport that has internationally been invalid for more than a decade is now hoped to function again after this announcement was made by Islamic Courts executive leader Sheik Sharif who returned to his homeland on Sunday from the Emirates. ---------------------------------------------------------- Somali government troops take pro-Islamist town: source MOGADISHU (Reuters) - Somali interim government forces backed by Ethiopian troops captured a town held by pro-Islamist fighters on Monday in the first military setback to months of Islamist expansion, an Islamist source said. ---------------------------------------------------------- Somali Militiamen Arrest 100 Protestors BAIDOA, Somalia -- Dozens of people protested Saturday against an Islamic militia that has seized much of southern Somalia, a day after the group appointed a new administration in the country's third largest city. ---------------------------------------------------------- Somali Outcasts Return to Ramadan Fold MOGADISHU — Ramadan came up this year for Somalis carrying the breeze of charity and hope of repentance for many of the social outcasts, with mosques opening the doors for beggars and thieves to put them on the right direction. ---------------------------------------------------------- KY Father Tells Police He Killed Children UPDATE, FRI, 12:00 PM: Police found four children dead Friday morning, in a Louisville housing complex, after a man went to police headquarters saying he killed his family. ---------------------------------------------------------- Somalis protest against new leaders in Kismayo KISMAYO, Somalia, Oct 7 (Reuters) - Somali Islamists arrested 35 people and shot in the air to disperse a protest in Kismayo against the new administration at the key port it seized last month, witnesses said on Saturday. ---------------------------------------------------------- One Thousand Somali Refugees a Day Crossing into Kenya The UN refugee agency reports a dramatic increase this week in the number of Somali refugees entering Kenya. Since Wednesday, about a thousand refugees a day have been crossing the border – as the Islamic Courts Union militias continue their advance in the Juba Valley. ---------------------------------------------------------- Somali Islamists vow holy war against enemies Somalia's radical Islamic leaders held a rally on Wednesday that drew thousands of mostly women and students in the port city of Kismayo, and vowed to wage holy war against any group that tries to stop their military advances. ---------------------------------------------------------- Kenya: UN envoy begins 7-nation Somali peace mission Nairobi, 10/04 - United Nations Secretary-General`s Special Representative for Somalia, Francois Lonseny Fall, Tuesday begun a seven- nation mission to promote peace and reconciliation in Somalia, with a visit to Ethiopia where he held talk s with Prime Minister Meles Zenawi, UN officials said here. ---------------------------------------------------------- Ethiopia donates ammunitions to Somali government – report Oct 3, 2006 (MOGADISHU) — Officials of the presidency of the Transitional Federal Government of Somalia (TFG) are said to be transporting ammunition from Dolo in Ethiopia-Somali border. Reports say the ammunition has been donated to the TFG by Ethiopia. ---------------------------------------------------------- Somalia: Ramas Political Party Spokesperson Blames Puntland President for Financial Mismanagement The semiautonomous region of Puntland, northeast Somalia, has been blamed for mishandling the salaries supposed to be given to Puntland armed forces. ---------------------------------------------------------- Specialists urge US to focus on Somali strife WASHINGTON -- Africa specialists criticized the Bush administration yesterday for not paying more attention to the increasingly volatile situation in Somalia, saying that senior officials were consumed by their efforts to stop the fighting in the Darfur region of Sudan. ---------------------------------------------------------- 3 Arrested in Somali Assassination Try BAIDOA, Somalia -- Somali police investigating a car bomb assassination attempt on the president arrested three suspected members of a fundamentalist Islamic group Thursday and recovered explosives, an official said. ---------------------------------------------------------- Somali Islamists quell third port city protest KISMAYO, Somalia (Reuters) - Somali Islamists shot in the air to disperse a protest in Kismayo on Thursday against a ban on the popular leafy stimulant khat, in the third demonstration since the group seized the port city this week. ---------------------------------------------------------- Defections boost Somali Islamists Kismayo - A southern Somali warlord and hundreds of fighters in his wing of a local militia defected to the country's powerful Islamist movement on Wednesday in a new blow to the weak government. ---------------------------------------------------------- Writethru: Somali Islamists disarm warlord militia in Kismayo A southern Somali warlord and his fighters were disarmed Wednesday in the southern port city of Kismayo, just days after Islamist forces took over the town. ---------------------------------------------------------- Somali port 'falls' to Islamists The last port in southern Somalia outside the control of the Islamic Courts (UIC) movement has reportedly fallen to the militant ---------------------------------------------------------- Somalia's Islamists seize seaport KISMAYO, Somalia — Hundreds of Islamic militiamen in heavily armed trucks took over the southern town of Kismayo, one of the last seaports that had been outside their control in Somalia, witnesses said Sunday. ---------------------------------------------------------- Islamists advance on Somali port: officials KISMAYO, Somalia (Reuters) - Somali Islamist militia were advancing on the strategic port of Kismayo on Friday with the aim of seizing it to expand their control of the Horn of Africa nation's south, officials said. ---------------------------------------------------------- Resocializing Somali fighters MOGADISHU, Somalia // Beginning as a teenager, militiaman Abduallahi Mohammed Nur rarely ventured into the Mogadishu streets without an AK-47, which he often used to harass civilians and extort money at checkpoints. ---------------------------------------------------------- Somali Islamists stage execution Somalia's Islamist group have carried out their first execution since seizing the capital, Mogadishu, in June. Hundreds turned out to witness a 25-year-old man convicted of killing a businessman shot dead by firing squad. ---------------------------------------------------------- Somali Islamists move toward strategic port NEW YORK (Reuters) - The United States held a direct meeting in recent weeks with a key Islamist leader from Somalia and demanded the handover of "terrorists" believed to be in Mogadishu, a senior U.S. official said on Friday. ---------------------------------------------------------- U.S. has direct contacts with Somali Islamists NEW YORK, Sept 22 (Reuters) - The United States held a direct meeting in recent weeks with a key Islamist leader from Somalia and demanded the handover of "terrorists" believed to be in Mogadishu, a senior U.S. official said on Friday. ---------------------------------------------------------- Somali terror plot suspect's statements admissible in U.S. court CINCINNATI Statements made to investigators by a Somali man accused of plotting to blow up a shopping mall can be used as evidence in his trial, a federal appeals court ruled on Friday. ---------------------------------------------------------- Trocaire expresses its concern at the deteriorating situation in Somalia Recent weeks have witnessed a marked deterioration in the political and security situation in Somalia. Escalating tensions between the country's Transitional Federal Government (TFG) and the increasingly powerful Islamic Courts Union (ICU), have thrown a pall of uncertainty and renewed violence over this long troubled country. ---------------------------------------------------------- Somalia: American CIA Explosive Experts Are Due to Arrive in Somalia in 24 Hours The United States government was quick to respond the Somali transitional government's appeal to find international help over probing the double car bombings that engulfed the lives of at least 11 and injured dozens. The blasts took place in Baidoa town that, temporarily houses government buildings. ---------------------------------------------------------- SOMALIA: Hear our Voices -"I do not want to live in Mogadishu" DADAAB, 20 September (IRIN) - My name is Ibrahim Sherif Nur. I am a 30 year-old Somali newcomer to Ifo refugee camp, which is located in Kenya's Northeastern Province. ---------------------------------------------------------- CIA to Participate in Somali Bombing Investigation Mogadishu, Asharq Al-Awsat- Somali President Abdullah Yusuf Ahmed has stated that the bombing attempt on his life the day before yesterday bared the hallmarks of al-Qaeda. ---------------------------------------------------------- Boy killed as Islamists raid cinema A 13-YEAR-OLD boy was killed and three others wounded overnight when Somali Islamic militia raided a cinema hall in southern Mogadishu to break up a crowd watching an English premier league match, witnesses said. ---------------------------------------------------------- Nun's death may be linked to Pope - Somali Islamist MOGADISHU, Sept 17 (Reuters) - The killing of an Italian Catholic nun in Mogadishu on Sunday may well be linked to anger among Muslims about Pope Benedict's recent remarks on Islam, a senior source among Somalia's Islamists said. ---------------------------------------------------------- Gunmen slay Italian nun in Somali capital Gunmen shot and killed an elderly Italian nun at a children's hospital in the Islamist-controlled Somali capital amid outrage over Pope Benedict XVI's comments about Islam, witnesses said. ---------------------------------------------------------- Three Somali Men Arrested For Possession Of African Drug Three men are facing charges after prosecutors say they were caught with an illegal African drug in Queens Wednesday. The three Somali men were arrested for allegedly having 13 pounds of the drug called khat. It’s a leaf common to Africa but considered a narcotic here. ---------------------------------------------------------- Somali envoy says Islamists march on major port MOGADISHU (Reuters) - A Somali government envoy accused Islamist militia on Wednesday of marching towards the strategic southern port of Kismayo in a bid to expand their control of the Horn of Africa nation's south. ---------------------------------------------------------- Somalia: A Man of the People SHEIKH SHARIF AHMED presents an easy demeanour despite the daunting challenges facing him as the head of the newly formed Somalia Union of Islamic Courts. ---------------------------------------------------------- Somali radio station returns to air minus music MOGADISHU, Somalia (AP) -- A Somali radio station closed by Islamists for playing local love songs deemed to encourage immorality returned to the airwaves Monday after pledging to stop broadcasting music. ---------------------------------------------------------- Libya launches mediation between Ethiopia, Somali courts Sept 9, 2006 (CAIRO) — Libya has launched a mediation between the Ethiopia and the Somali Islamic militia; according to a report by a ban-Arab daily the Ethiopian Prime Minister and the Chief of the Islamic Courts attended a meeting last week organised by the Libyan leader. ---------------------------------------------------------- US Firms Plan Somali Operations CAIRO — US security firms have designed plans to run covert military operations in support of Somali President Abdullahi Yusuf's interim government against the influential Islamic Courts with CIA and United Nations officials being kept posted on the schemes, a British newspaper revealed on Sunday, September 10. ---------------------------------------------------------- Somalis left to a life in limbo as peace talks are put on hold At the height of its popularity, the Hotel Dal Hiis, in the Marere district of southern Somalia, teemed with British and Italian tourists spending their days lazing by the pool or going out on safari in search of lions. ---------------------------------------------------------- Another Somalian murdered in Cape Town Yet another Somalian citizen has been murdered in Cape Town. Two armed robbers entered a shop in Du Noon in Milnerton. Shots were fired and a 27-year old man sustained a fatal bullet wound to his chest. ---------------------------------------------------------- Somali Government Ready To Negotiate With Islamic Militia Controlling Its South NAIROBI, Kenya — Somalia's government has bowed to the inevitable and attempted to make a deal with the powerful Islamic militia controlling much of the country's south. ---------------------------------------------------------- Somalis face persecution in Maine On a hot July night, a few dozen Somali men were kneeling shoulder-to-shoulder in prayer at a storefront mosque here when the door opened and the frozen head of a pig, an animal considered unclean in Islam, rolled across the floor. ---------------------------------------------------------- Somali Islamists say Ethiopian presence blocks talks KHARTOUM, Sept 5 (Reuters) - Peace talks between Somalia's interim government and a rival Islamist movement cannot advance until Ethiopian troops who support the government are removed from Somali soil, a senior Islamist said on Tuesday. ---------------------------------------------------------- Rival Somali factions agree on national army Somalia’s interim government and a rival Islamist militia announced on Monday that they had agreed – in principle - to form a national army. ---------------------------------------------------------- Leaders push Somali peace plan Nairobi - East African leaders pushed ahead on Tuesday with a contested plan to send peacekeepers to Somalia, despite a separate military deal between the country's rival powers that appeared to block foreign intervention. ---------------------------------------------------------- Somali rivals optimistic on talks Delegation leaders from Somalia's interim government and its main rival, the Union of Islamic Courts, say they are optimistic about peace talks. ---------------------------------------------------------- Somali parties to talks to ease tension in Somalia reaffirm commitment to peace KHARTOUM, Sudan Negotiators in talks aimed at easing tensions in Somalia reaffirmed Saturday that they are committed to peace, but one side, the Islamists who control most of southern Somalia, warned that foreign interference in the country is "a recipe for the renewal of civil war." ---------------------------------------------------------- Somalia: No Shift in My Stance On the Somali Government, Says Islamist Leader Leader of the consultative council of Somalia's Islamic courts, Sheekh Hassan Dahir Aweys has brushed aside reports by local and international media that he pledged his allegiance to the transitional federal government of Somalia which is based in Baidoa. ---------------------------------------------------------- Somali attacks continue The killing of another Somali in Cape Town has brought the total of Somalis killed in the Western Cape this year to 28. ---------------------------------------------------------- Somali Taliban-Style Rebels Settle In (AP) An Islamic court has been governing this central Somalia town for less than a week, operating out of a crumbling stone building furnished with green plastic chairs, but already its leader is envisioning greater things. ---------------------------------------------------------- Coleman, Kennedy seek hearing on money transfer regulations WASHINGTON - Sen. Norm Coleman and Rep. Mark Kennedy are seeking a congressional hearing in Minnesota to help preserve neighborhood money-transfer businesses that some Somalis in this country rely on to send money back home. ---------------------------------------------------------- Islamic Militia Expands in Somalia BELET WEYNE, Somalia -- An Islamic militia that controls most of southern Somalia is now expanding into the center of this Horn of Africa country, imposing order after years of anarchy but also sparking worries of an emerging Taliban-style regime. ---------------------------------------------------------- Somali Islamists tell Ethiopia: Leave or face full-scale war Islamists controlling much of southern Somalia warned Ethiopia on Thursday of "full-scale war" unless it withdraws troops allegedly sent to defend the country's weak transitional government. ---------------------------------------------------------- Somali woman is flogged for drugs A Somali woman has been flogged in public for selling cannabis by Islamist militias who now control the capital. ---------------------------------------------------------- Mogadishu port reopened The Islamic Courts Union, a Somali militia, has reopened the seaport in Mogadishu, Somalia's capital, for the first time in 11 years as the group continues to expand its control over the country. ---------------------------------------------------------- Somali Islamists, foreign trainers open militia camp MOGADISHU (Reuters) - Somalia's powerful Islamist movement opened a militia training camp on Wednesday with trainers from Eritrea, Afghanistan and Pakistan, witnesses said. ---------------------------------------------------------- Embattled Somali PM Forms New Cabinet BAIDOA, Somalia -- Embattled Prime Minister Ali Mohamed Gedi named a new Cabinet Monday, two weeks after the old one was dissolved amid a rift within the U.N.-backed transitional government over how to respond to the growing influence of Islamic militants. ---------------------------------------------------------- Somali PM Gedi names new cabinet BAIDOA, Somalia (Reuters) - Somali Prime Minister Ali Mohamed Gedi named a slimmed down 31-member cabinet on Monday in an effort to rejuvenate a government crippled by infighting and threatened by powerful Islamists. ---------------------------------------------------------- Plans announced for Somali peacekeeping force NAIROBI -- East African defense chiefs expect to have the vanguard of a peacekeeping force for Somalia ready by the end of next month, officials said Friday, despite fierce objections from powerful Islamists in the chaotic Horn of Africa nation. ---------------------------------------------------------- More Ethiopian troops enter Somalia Hundreds more Ethiopian troops have arrived in the town of Baidoa, the seat of Somalia's largely powerless transitional government, officials and witnesses say. ---------------------------------------------------------- Somali Islamists call national forum SOMALIA'S newly dominant Islamist movement says it will organise a national forum to chart the lawless country's future, further bypassing the weak government it threatens. ---------------------------------------------------------- Getting back to business in Somalia Thousands of Somalis are streaming across the border into refugee camps in Kenya. They are fleeing the insecurity in their homeland since Islamist militants seized power earlier this year. At the same time, Somali businessmen living abroad are spotting new opportunities under the new regime and are flying home with potential deals in mind. ---------------------------------------------------------- Somali transitional government to work with Eritrean rebel group NAIROBI, Kenya -- Somalia's weak, U.N.-backed transitional government will work with an Eritrean rebel group because it claims the Eritrean government is supporting Islamic groups who control most of southern Somalia, officials said. ---------------------------------------------------------- Kenya: Uneasy Calm Returns to Mogadishu An uneasy calm has returned to anarchy prone Mogadishu and Sheikh Shariff Ahmed Hassan, the leader of the Islamic Courts Union, has been instrumental in the town's long walk to normalcy. ---------------------------------------------------------- African Military Experts Discuss Peacekeeping Mission for Somalia NAIROBI, Kenya — Top African military officials are studying a proposal to send a 3,500-strong peace force by October to Somalia, where an internationally recognized government appears increasingly weak in comparison to and its fundamentalist Islamic rivals. ---------------------------------------------------------- Somali Islamists break up meeting of moderate clerics MOGADISHU -- Hardline Islamists controlling much of southern Somalia forcibly broke up a meeting of moderate clerics in the capital Thursday, further asserting their authority in the lawless nation. ---------------------------------------------------------- UN envoy urges Security Council to press for dialogue in Somalia The senior UN envoy to Somalia on Wednesday urged the UN Security Council to press the disputing parties in the country to resume a dialogue which he said has been postponed for a second time. ---------------------------------------------------------- Somali Islamists seize key port Islamists in control of much of southern Somalia have seized a key port without any fighting, in a new blow to the country's weak interim government. ---------------------------------------------------------- Somali Peace Talks Delayed Again Talks between officials in the Somali interim government and Islamists have been postponed again Islamists are protesting against the alleged deployment of Ethiopian forces in the country. ---------------------------------------------------------- Islamist militia take key Somali port: residents MOGADISHU (Reuters) - Islamist militia took over a key port in central Somalia on Wednesday, expanding a territorial push from their base in Mogadishu that is denting the interim government's aspirations to national authority. ---------------------------------------------------------- 'Pull out Ethiopian troops' Mogadishu - The Islamic militia controlling key parts of Somalia have asked for Kenya's help in ousting Ethiopian troops deployed to protect Somalia's transitional government, said Kenya's deputy foreign minister Moses Wetangula on Monday. ---------------------------------------------------------- Kenya sends delegation to Mogadishu for meeting with militants MOGADISHU, Somalia -- The Islamic militants who control Somalia's capital and much of the country's south are "moderate and peace-loving people," a member of Kenya's parliament said Saturday after meeting with the group in Mogadishu. --------------------------------------------------------- Somali troops: we'll fight militants Troops in Somalia's semiautonomous Puntland region said on Thursday they were ready to fight Islamic militants who are trying to spread their influence to the central part of the country after taking control of much of the south. --------------------------------------------------------- Ethiopia warns of Somali dangers Ethiopia has warned that Somalia's transitional government is in danger of being sidelined by the growth in power of the country's Islamic Courts. --------------------------------------------------------- Northern Somali region braces for Islamist advance MOGADISHU (Reuters) - Forces allied to Somalia's interim government in the northern Puntland region are ready to repel any attack by Islamists, a regional police chief said on Friday. --------------------------------------------------------- Ethiopian troops clash with Somali-based rebels Ethiopia says its troops have engaged separatist rebels in the east of the country, killing 13 and capturing several senior commanders, after they crossed the border from Somalia. Ethiopia accuses both Eritrea and Islamic leaders in Somalia of fomenting civil unrest in Ethiopia. --------------------------------------------------------- Tuju challenges countries on Somalia FOREIGN Affairs minister Raphael Tuju yesterday challenged the international community to intervene in restoring peace and stability in Somalia. --------------------------------------------------------- Can the Somali Crisis Be Contained? Nairobi/Brussels, 10 August 2006: Somalia is on the verge of a new war which can only be contained if both sides and the international community take urgent steps to pull together a government of national unity. --------------------------------------------------------- SOMALIA: Premier consults over cabinet composition NAIROBI, 10 August (IRIN) - The prime minister of Somalia's Transitional Federal Government (TFG), Ali Muhammad Gedi, is consulting widely as he tries to form a new cabinet that would reflect the diversity of Somali society, a government official said on Thursday. --------------------------------------------------------- Somalia militia may spark fresh bloodshed Mogadishu - Somali Islamic militia on Thursday announced plans to seize control of the central regional capital of Galkayo, sparking a massive deployment by their rivals and raising the spectre of renewed bloodshed in the shattered east African nation. --------------------------------------------------------- Islamist fighters seize Somali town MOGADISHU (Reuters) - Somalia's powerful Islamist movement seized a town on the Ethiopian border on Wednesday and said its fighters were advancing on a government stronghold, stoking fears of more clashes with the interim administration. --------------------------------------------------------- Somali MPs defy Ghedi over talks Members of Somalia's interim parliament say they intend to travel to Sudan for more peace talks with Islamic courts that control the capital, Mogadishu. --------------------------------------------------------- More Somali officials quit in protest at PM BAIDOA (Reuters) - Somalia's interim government unravelled further on Wednesday with the resignation of another four top officials who cited as their reason the prime minister's reluctance to reach out to a rival Islamist movement. --------------------------------------------------------- Islamists reach out to Somali ministers amid mass exodus The supreme leader of Somalia's Islamists has invited ministers who have resigned from the transitional government to join his movement and lashed out at embattled Prime Minister Ali Mohamed Gedi for failing to govern the shattered African nation. --------------------------------------------------------- Eritrea: Reinstating a Strong Somali State Recent developments in Somalia have made it distinctively clear that the conflicts in the country had really been between the entire Somali people on the one hand and the TPLF regime on the other. --------------------------------------------------------- Somali PM survives ousting vote He faced the vote after 19 ministers resigned, apparently dissatisfied at his government's reluctance to forge an agreement with Islamist courts. --------------------------------------------------------- Somali PM Accuses Middle East Trio of Backing Terrorists Somalia's prime minister is accusing three Middle East nations of trying to destroy the transitional government. --------------------------------------------------------- INTERVIEW-Don't exaggerate Somali crisis, African Union urges NAIROBI, July 29 (Reuters) - Despite the murder of a minister, Somalia's crisis should not be exaggerated and negotiations are still key to finding a political solution, the African Union envoy to Somalia said on Saturday. --------------------------------------------------------- Murdered Somali minister buried Hundreds of mourners in the Somali town of Baidoa have attended the burial of a minister in the transitional government a day after he was shot dead. --------------------------------------------------------- Somali parliament postpones PM no confidence vote BAIDOA, Somalia, July 29 (Reuters) - Somalia's interim parliament postponed on Saturday debate on a motion of no confidence in Prime Minister Ali Mohamed Gedi, whom some lawmakers want to remove as a prelude to a peace deal with Islamists. --------------------------------------------------------- Somali cabinet resignation crisis At least 19 ministers and deputy ministers in Somalia's transitional government have resigned, a cabinet minister has told the BBC. --------------------------------------------------------- Somali lawmakers seek to remove PM Gedi from power MOGADISHU, July 27 (Reuters) - Somali legislators are trying to remove Prime Minister Ali Mohamed Gedi from power, in a move government sources said on Thursday was aimed at persuading rival powerful Islamists to enter peace talks. --------------------------------------------------------- Eritrea suspected of sending arms in cargo plane According to an anonymous source of the Islamic Courts cited by Reuters the aircraft was loaded with sewing machines, gifts from a friendly government --------------------------------------------------------- Somali Islamists mull peace talks with government MOGADISHU (Reuters) - Islamist leaders met in Mogadishu on Wednesday to decide whether to return to talks with the fragile interim government that many see as the only hope for averting war in the Horn of Africa country. --------------------------------------------------------- Somalia's Islamists decline talks Islamic courts controlling the Somali capital will not take part in talks with the government unless Ethiopian troops leave Somalia, an official says. --------------------------------------------------------- Somali Islamists and government clash The fighting on Saturday was the first between the two sides and many Somalis fear it may signal a slide to war in the Horn of Africa country. --------------------------------------------------------- Ethiopia 'seizes new Somali town' Ethiopian troops have reportedly moved into another town in south-western Somalia, two days after entering the country to protect the weak government. --------------------------------------------------------- Somali Islamist orders 'holy war' A Somali Islamist leader has ordered a "holy war" to drive out Ethiopian troops, after they entered the country to protect the weak interim government. --------------------------------------------------------- Somali militia threaten Ethiopia Islamic militia leaders in Somalia have threatened to wage what they called a holy war against Ethiopia unless it withdraws its troops from Somalia. --------------------------------------------------------- Ethiopian troops enter Somalia Hundreds of Ethiopian troops in armoured vehicles have entered the central Somali town of Baidoa, home of the country's transitional government. --------------------------------------------------------- Somalia Gov't Agrees to Talks With Militia MOGADISHU, Somalia -- Somalia's weak transitional government has agreed to attend peace talks with the Islamic militia controlling most of the country's south, a government spokesman said Tuesday. --------------------------------------------------------- Somali embargo 'should stay' Mogadishu - The supreme leader of Somalia's increasingly powerful Islamist movement said on Tuesday that easing a 14-year-old United Nations arms embargo on the lawless nation would be a "fatal mistake". --------------------------------------------------------- SOMALIA: TFG welcomes calls for dialogue NAIROBI, 18 Jul 2006 (IRIN) - Somalia's Transitional Federal Government (TFG) has welcomed efforts by the International Contact Group (ICG) to create an inclusive dialogue to end the decade-old conflict in the Horn of Africa country. --------------------------------------------------------- Somali Islamist warns against peacekeepers MOGADISHU: The supreme leader of Somalia’s increasingly powerful Islamist movement yesterday warned world powers against backing peacekeepers for the lawless nation where his forces are now dominant. --------------------------------------------------------- Somali govt says will form team to meet Islamists MOGADISHU, July 16 (Reuters) - Somalia's government agreed on Sunday to form a committee to attend future peace talks with the country's newly powerful Islamists, after rejecting a round of planned negotiations over the weekend. --------------------------------------------------------- Islamists 'respect Somali govt' Khartoum - Somalia's Islamic courts have agreed to respect the legitimacy of the fragile government and continue talks despite a rebuff by the president, said an Arab League envoy on Saturday. --------------------------------------------------------- Islamists, Somali govt can never agree, says warlord MOGADISHU (Reuters) - Somalia's interim government and the Islamists who now control Mogadishu can never share power because they have conflicting ideologies, a recently defeated top warlord said on Saturday. --------------------------------------------------------- Somali Islamists respect govt legitimacy: Arab League KHARTOUM (Reuters) - Somalia's newly powerful Islamists have agreed to respect the legitimacy of the fragile government and continue talks despite a rebuff by the president, an Arab League envoy said on Saturday. --------------------------------------------------------- Somali cabinet snubs peace talks Somalia's weak, UN-backed government has called for a delay in peace talks with Islamists who control the capital, which had been scheduled for Saturday. --------------------------------------------------------- Islamists close in on Somalian government The ruined town of Baidoa, where ragged gunmen roam bullet-scarred streets, is Somalia's alternative capital. --------------------------------------------------------- Somali government boycotts talks MOGADISHU (Reuters) - Somalia's interim government decided on Friday to boycott peace talks due to take place in Sudan at the weekend in protest at alleged ceasefire violations by the Islamist movement running Mogadishu. --------------------------------------------------------- Maine community denounces mosque attack LEWISTON, Maine - Earlier this month, Muslim men participating in a serene evening prayer ritual at Lewiston Auburn Islamic Center were sharply interrupted: A severed, frozen pig‘s head, slightly larger than a basketball, was thrown into the mosque. --------------------------------------------------------- Islamists battle Somali warlord militia MOGADISHU (Reuters) - Somalia's Islamist militia attacked fighters loyal to defeated warlords in Mogadishu on Sunday in heavy street battles that killed at least 20 people and wounded scores including refugees, witnesses said. --------------------------------------------------------- Five killed as rival Somali factions clash over contract Five people were killed at the weekend and several others seriously injured after rival militia clashed along the Kenya/Somalia border. --------------------------------------------------------- FACTBOX - Key facts on Somali Islamists July 9 (Reuters) - Islamist militia attacked enclaves in Mogadishu held by fighters loyal to defeated Somali warlords on Sunday in a heavy battle that killed at least 15 people. --------------------------------------------------------- Land dispute blamed for Somali uprising MOGADISHU, SOMALIA - The land was little more than a patch of scrub outside the city. But this being Somalia — lawless, fractured and armed to the teeth — it was a patch of scrub that two of the country's most powerful families were prepared to fight over. --------------------------------------------------------- Peace returning to Somalia: Official Doha • Peace and stability is returning to Somalia with the warlords having been defeated and pushed into the oblivion by the Joint Islamic Courts, says a senior visiting Somali official. --------------------------------------------------------- Somalia's U.N.-backed government struggles BAIDOA, Somalia -- In an old grain warehouse spruced up with posters and vinyl flooring, Somalia's president and prime minister watched the swearing in of a regional governor this week, an event that looked like a small step toward government control of this anarchic country. --------------------------------------------------------- Islamist courts flog teens Jowhar - Somali Islamic courts punished 11 teenagers with 40 lashes in public each on Saturday, after they confessed to "un-Islamic behaviour", including smoking marijuana, pretending to be Islamic militia, violence and looting. --------------------------------------------------------- International Delegation Meets Somali Islamists in Mogadishu In Somalia, an international delegation has met with the Islamic group that seized control of the capital Mogadishu on June 5. Officials from Islamic Courts in Mogadishu The team is comprised of 30 diplomats and experts from the European Union, African Union, Arab League and the East African Governmental Authority on Development. --------------------------------------------------------- SOMALIA: The challenges of change NAIROBI, 6 July (IRIN) - The takeover of Mogadishu on 4 June by the Union of Islamic Courts (UIC) was the most important political event in Somalia in the last 16 years. It removed a political class of clan-based extortionists and dealers in everything from drugs to people, known as 'warlords', which has divided and ruled the country since the collapse of the central state in 1991. --------------------------------------------------------- Forget foreign troops, Somali Islamists tell world MOGADISHU, July 6 (Reuters) - Somalia's newly powerful Islamists told a visiting mission of African, Arab and European officials on Thursday they would not accept a planned deployment of foreign peacekeepers in the turbulent Horn of Africa nation. --------------------------------------------------------- Somali Islamists arrest killers of World Cup fans Somali Islamists said on Thursday they had arrested two Muslim militiamen accused of shooting dead two people this week during a protest in central Somalia against a ban on watching the World Cup. --------------------------------------------------------- Somalia soccer shooting arrests The Somali gunmen who shot dead two people watching a World Cup match have been arrested and will face Islamic justice, an Islamist leader has said. --------------------------------------------------------- Somalia: Ethiopian Soldiers Empty Somali Town Reports from Somalia Southern Beled Hawo Township some distances away from the border with Ethiopia and Kenya indicate that Ethiopian forces left the town this morning after staying there for the past days. --------------------------------------------------------- Somalia PM Denies Reports of Ethiopian Troops in Somalia Somalia's interim prime minister has categorically denied reports that Ethiopian troops have entered Somalia, or the town of Baidoa, where the country's fledgling government is based. VOA Correspondent Alisha Ryu is in Baidoa and reports that this is the second time in the past two weeks tensions in the Horn of Africa have escalated over unconfirmed reports that Ethiopian troops have crossed over into Somalia. --------------------------------------------------------- U.N. Officials Meet Militia in Somalia MOGADISHU, Somalia -- U.N. security officials met Monday with the Islamic militia that runs Somalia's capital, the first formal contact since the militants' seizure of Mogadishu and much of the south. --------------------------------------------------------- UN delegation meets Somali Islamists in Mogadishu A United Nations security team on Monday held closed-door talks with leaders of the Islamist Courts Union in Mogadishu on the security situation in the Somali capital, where the UN body hopes to resume aid activities. --------------------------------------------------------- SOMALIA: Islamic courts issue Mogadishu travel guidelines NAIROBI, 3 July (IRIN) - The Union of Islamic Courts (UIC), which currently controls the Somali capital of Mogadishu, has announced new guidelines on travel to the city, saying it wants to boost traveler safety. --------------------------------------------------------- Somali Islamists distance themselves from bin Laden MOGADISHU (Reuters) - Somalia's powerful Islamist movement on Sunday distanced itself from Osama bin Laden's view that deployment of troops to the Horn of Africa country was part of a crusade to crush budding Islamic rule. --------------------------------------------------------- U.S. fed Somali clan feud that backfired MOGADISHU, Somalia -- The land was little more than a patch of scrub outside the city. But this being Somalia -- lawless, fractured and armed to the teeth -- it was a patch of scrub that two of the country's most powerful families were prepared to fight over. --------------------------------------------------------- Ethiopia denies new Somalia incursion claims ADDIS ABABA, July 1 (Reuters) - Ethiopia denied that its troops crossed into Somalia on Saturday to protect the interim government seat of Baidoa from an attack by the powerful Islamists movement. --------------------------------------------------------- Somalia: Ethiopian Forces Take Control of Somali Town, Source Says Reports from Somalia southwest region of Gedo indicate Ethiopian armed forces interred parts of the region creating tensions. --------------------------------------------------------- Islamic Militia Claims Somalia Authority MOGADISHU, Somalia -- The hard-line Muslim leaders who have seized control of much of southern Somalia claimed authority throughout the country Thursday in yet another blow to the largely powerless but internationally recognized interim government. --------------------------------------------------------- FACTBOX-Facts about hardline Somali cleric Dahir Aweys June 29 (Reuters) - Hardline Muslim cleric, Sheikh Hassan Dahir Aweys, was named on Thursday as leader of a 91-member Council of Islamic Courts of Somalia, a body designed to extend the authority of sharia courts across the Horn of Africa country. --------------------------------------------------------- AU rules out direct talks with Somali Islamists BANJUL (Reuters) - The African Union will not mediate directly with Islamists controlling a large swathe of Somalia despite its determination to restore peace and central authority to the country, a senior official said on Thursday. --------------------------------------------------------- Somali Islamists seek expansion, ratify radical MOGADISHU, June 29 (Reuters) - Mogadishu's Islamist rulers sought to expand their authority across Somalia on Thursday and ratified a hardline Muslim cleric suspected of al Qaeda ties as their overall leader in moves sure to spread alarm in the West. --------------------------------------------------------- U.S. won't deal with Somalia Islamist WASHINGTON (CNN) -- A State Department spokesman said Monday the U.S. would not deal with the new leader of the Islamic militia in Somalia because of his alleged ties to al Qaeda. --------------------------------------------------------- Somali Islamists name US-wanted cleric to top post MOGADISHU (Reuters) - Somalia's newly powerful sharia courts have appointed a leading Islamist on Washington's list of most wanted terrorists as the head of their new parliament, officials said on Sunday. --------------------------------------------------------- Somali refugees laud new home The war in Somalia and the years he spent in Kenya's refugee camps represent another life, another world for Musa Matan. --------------------------------------------------------- Egypt hails Somali leaders' agreement CAIRO: Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Abul Gheit has hailed the Arab League-sponsored agreement reached by rival Somali leaders in Khartoum, a ministry statement said. --------------------------------------------------------- 'Radical' heads Somalia militia A prominent Somali cleric who is on the US list of terror suspects has been named as head of an Islamist militia that controls the capital, Mogadishu. --------------------------------------------------------- Somali Militia to Probe Reporter's Death The Islamic militia controlling Somalia's capital said Saturday it was investigating the slaying of an award-winning Swedish journalist, who was fatally shot while covering a demonstration in Mogadishu. --------------------------------------------------------- Somali expats dread thought of leaving Qatar DOHA • With peace eluding their strife-stricken homeland now for more than a decade, not many among an estimated 800 Somalis living in Qatar know what they would do if they have to suddenly leave this country. --------------------------------------------------------- Negotiations yield Somali truce, mutual recognition KHARTOUM, Sudan -- The interim government of Somalia and the Islamic Courts movement, which controls the capital, Mogadishu, agreed yesterday to stop military campaigns, recognize each other, and meet again on July 15. --------------------------------------------------------- Recent Calm in Mogadishu Allows Polio Immunization Campaign UNICEF, the UN children’s fund, says the recent calm in the Somali capital, Mogadishu, has allowed hundreds of thousands of children to be immunized against polio. --------------------------------------------------------- Cameraman killed at demonstration in Somalia A Swedish cameraman has been shot dead in the Somali capital Mogadishu while attending a demonstration. --------------------------------------------------------- Mobile phone helps one Somali refugee send long-distance SOS GENEVA, June 23 (UNHCR) – The mobile phone bleeped twice in the London offices of the UN World Food Programme and shuddered briefly. A cancelled meeting? A free mobile upgrade? No. This time, an appeal, direct from a disaster zone in the Horn of Africa. --------------------------------------------------------- Somali rivals agree to recognize each other KHARTOUM (Reuters) - The interim government of Somalia and the Islamic Courts movement which took control of the capital Mogadishu this month recognized each other on Thursday after their first direct high-level talks in Sudan. --------------------------------------------------------- Rivals agree Somalia peace deal Somalia's government and the Islamic group that controls the capital have agreed to end military campaigns at peace talks in Sudan --------------------------------------------------------- Somalia: Arab-Somali Committee Meeting to Show Support for Somali Gov't - Amr Moussa The Arab League Secretary Amr Moussa said Wednesday that the Arab-Somali committee meeting in Sudan is to support the Somali government and to exhibit the Arab League's stepping up to the plate to take part in resolving regional crises. --------------------------------------------------------- Sudan, Arab League greet Somali delegates for peace talks June 22, 2006 (KHARTOUM) — The head of the Arab League greeted the Somalian president and representatives of Islamic militias that control most of the warn-torn country for talks in Khartoum on Wednesday. --------------------------------------------------------- Somali factions in Sudan for talks The head of the Arab League on Wednesday greeted the Somalian president and representatives of Islamic militias that control most of the warn-torn country for talks in Khartoum on Wednesday. --------------------------------------------------------- Somali rivals head to Khartoum for peace talks Delegations from Somalia's transitional government and the rival Islamic alliance were due to travel to Sudan on Wednesday to participate in Arab League-led mediation efforts, officials said. --------------------------------------------------------- Global Islamists behind Somali takeover: president ADDIS ABABA (Reuters) - Somalia's interim president said on Tuesday the Islamist militia which has captured Mogadishu from secular warlords could not have succeeded without support from Muslim fundamentalists across the world. --------------------------------------------------------- Somali govt 'deserves support' Cape Town - Somalia's embattled transitional government deserves the support of South Africa and others, says Defence Minister Mosiuoa Lekota. --------------------------------------------------------- Somalia 'a haven for al-Qaeda' Mogadishu - An old cleric, a young warrior and a desecrated Italian cemetery are at the centre of the debate on whether Somalia has become a haven for al-Qaeda terrorists. --------------------------------------------------------- Somali Accuses Ethiopian Troops of Intervening JOWHAR, Somalia, June 17 -- The leader of the Islamic militias that seized Somalia's capital this month said Saturday that 300 Ethiopian soldiers had entered the country to help his rivals. --------------------------------------------------------- Border war feared as Somali Islamists vow holy war against Ethiopia Mogadishu/Nairobi - The leader of Islamic courts Union Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed accused Ethiopia of trying to destroy Islamist rule in Somalia, threatening a new war should Ethiopia meddle in Somalia's internal politics. --------------------------------------------------------- Somali warlords flee Two Somali warlords, who lost control of the capital Mogadishu to Islamist militia earlier this month, have fled the country. --------------------------------------------------------- Islamic takeover seen good for Somalia business EL MAAN, Somalia (Reuters) - The stabilization of Mogadishu after Islamist leaders ousted U.S.-backed warlords has dealt a blow to pirates and given a boost to business in the Horn of Africa nation, a prominent Somali businessman said. --------------------------------------------------------- Ethiopia Puts Troops On Somali Border (AP) An Ethiopian official said Saturday that Ethiopian troops were on the border with Somalia. --------------------------------------------------------- Ethiopia rejects Somalia claims Somalia's Islamist leader says 300 Ethiopian soldiers have crossed the troubled state's border - a claim denied by Ethiopian officials. --------------------------------------------------------- Yemen to host Somali talks, state Web site says SANAA, June 16 (Reuters) - The leaders of Somalia's Islamic Courts, whose militia controls the capital Mogadishu, have agreed to hold talks with Somali President Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed in Yemen, a Yemeni state-run Web site said on Friday --------------------------------------------------------- Somali Islamists say no plans for own government MOGADISHU, June 16 (Reuters) - Islamists who have taken control of Mogadishu and a wide swathe of Somalia said on Friday they had no plans to start their own government and promised to crack down on extremists in their midst. --------------------------------------------------------- U.S. has an unhappy history of involvement in Somalia Somalia, with an estimated population of 8.8 million, was formed in 1960 from two European colonies, British Somaliland and Italian Somaliland. Americans best remember it, however, for the Oct. 3, 1993, battle between American soldiers and Somali militias that ended with the deaths of 18 Americans. That fighting was depicted in the 2001 film "Black Hawk Down," which was based on a book by the same name. --------------------------------------------------------- Somalia's Islamic Courts Pledge to Keep Out Terrorists The leader of Somalia's newly powerful Islamic courts has written the U.S. government, pledging to help prevent his country from becoming a terrorist haven. --------------------------------------------------------- Int'l Somali Group Meets, Arabs Excluded UNITED NATIONS — With the Arab League excluded from the meeting, a US-inspired international group on Somalia met in the United Nations on Thursday, June 15, to discuss a unified strategy on the country following the victory of the Islamic Courts over US-backed warlords. --------------------------------------------------------- US-called meeting pushes relief, talks for Somalia UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - A U.S.-organized meeting called on Somalia's warring factions on Thursday to stop fighting and give relief agencies full access to the country's suffering population. --------------------------------------------------------- Somali Islamists capture key town Somali Islamic fighters have captured the town of Jowhar from warlords a week after driving them from the capital, Mogadishu, 90km to the south. --------------------------------------------------------- Islamist militias capture Somali town Somali Islamist militias have seized the town of Jowhar from regional commanders, whom they unseated from the capital last week. --------------------------------------------------------- Somali leader says he only wants order MOGADISHU, Somalia, June 13 (UPI) -- Sheikh Sharif Ahmed, the leader who now controls the capital of Somalia, says that he does not want to establish an Islamic state. --------------------------------------------------------- Fighting erupts in Somali town of Jowhar - residents MOGADISHU (Reuters) - Islamic militia armed with heavy artillery have launched an attack on the Somali town of Jowhar, where warlords had taken refuge after their defeat in Mogadishu, residents said on Wednesday. --------------------------------------------------------- Somali warlords 'forced to flee refuge' Islamist fighters who seized control of the Somali capital, Mogadishu, from secular warlords have forced them from the nearby town to which they had fled, witnesses said today. --------------------------------------------------------- Somali warlords flee as Islamists close in Jowhar - Three United States-backed Somali warlords on Tuesday fled their last remaining stronghold of Jowhar, to where they had escaped after being routed in Mogadishu by Islamic fighters, an AFP correspondent witnessed. --------------------------------------------------------- Top UN envoy meets with Somali leaders on political, humanitarian situation 13 June 2006 – Continuing his series of high-level talks on the political situation in Somalia and the humanitarian assistance needed after recent, intense battles there, the Special Representative of United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan, Francois Lonsény Fall, has met with local Somali leaders in Nairobi, Kenya. --------------------------------------------------------- Sanctions put on Somali warlords East African countries have agreed to impose sanctions including a travel ban on a group of Somali warlords recently defeated in a battle for Mogadishu. --------------------------------------------------------- Toothless Somali government looks to gain some bite Somali leaders met with regional government ministers on Tuesday to try to find a way to empower Somalia's United Nations-backed government, which watched from the sidelines as a fundamentalist Islamic militia battled warlords and seized its capital. --------------------------------------------------------- Somali Islamists celebrate victory over warlords They wave their Kalashnikovs and grenade launchers, proclaiming they are the new Mujahedin. Their leaders talk international power politics while imposing strict sharia laws. Yet some of the fighters we speak to do not want to be photographed, in case they want to emigrate to the West should events in Mogadishu take a turn for the worst. --------------------------------------------------------- Islam's gunmen rout Somali warlords A HARDLINE Islamic sheikh linked to Al-Qaeda was tightening his grip on the devastated capital of Somalia this weekend after the defeat of secular warlords who have terrorised the city for 15 years. --------------------------------------------------------- Somali anger over World Cup TV ban MOGADISHU, Somalia — Islamic militiamen in control of Somalia's capital fired guns in the air and cut electricity to makeshift cinemas to prevent people from watching the World Cup, witnesses said. --------------------------------------------------------- Soldiers deployed in Somali town Somalia's transitional government has deployed soldiers in its temporary seat, northwest of the capital Mogadishu, a day after clashes between rival forces killed at least seven people and wounded eight. --------------------------------------------------------- Somali govt urges Islamists to hand over arms MOGADISHU, June 10 (Reuters) - Somalia's interim government has called on Islamist gunmen, who seized Mogadishu from an alliance of warlords, to hand over their weapons in the hope a disarmament would allow lawmakers to return to the capital. --------------------------------------------------------- Somali Militia Leader Denies al-Qaida Ties MOGADISHU, Somalia — The leader of the Islamic militia tightening its grip on this lawless nation wears cheap sandals and rides in an old truck with two bodyguards in a town where a dozen is standard. --------------------------------------------------------- Somali president's compound hit Gunmen have attacked the compound of Somalia's interim President Abdullahi Yusuf in the central town of Baidoa. --------------------------------------------------------- Somali officials, Islamists talk MOGADISHU—The Islamic militia that defeated U.S.-backed warlords and seized nearly all of southern Somalia held talks yesterday with Somalia's largely powerless interim government on the future of the lawless nation. --------------------------------------------------------- Somali workers ease labor crunch FREEPORT — With Maine's peak tourist season looming, Victoria Kurtz needed more housekeepers at the 77-room Hampton Inn here. So she bought ads in local newspapers and job-listing Web sites. She posted notices at area high schools. No one responded. --------------------------------------------------------- Somali warlords gird for new fighting with Islamists Fighters loyal to a United States-backed warlord alliance reinforced their last remaining stronghold on Friday as Islamist militia in control of the capital gathered for a feared attack, witnesses said. --------------------------------------------------------- U.S. leaves open dealing with Somali Islamists WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States may be open to dealing with Islamic militia who took over Somalia's capital this week, possibly signalling a new approach to the lawless Horn of Africa country that Washington worries could become a base for terrorists. --------------------------------------------------------- US cool on Somali terror denial The United States has said it will "reserve judgement" after the Islamist militia in charge of the Somali capital strongly denied supporting terrorism. --------------------------------------------------------- Arab League calls for end to Somali fighting The Arab League expressed anxiety on Thursday over the ongoing violence in Somalia and urged the warring sides to immediately end hostilities, saying it was prepared to help restore calm in the country. --------------------------------------------------------- Warlords advance towards Somali capital-residents MOGADISHU (Reuters) - Warlords driven out of Mogadishu by an Islamist militia are advancing back towards the Somali capital from their last stronghold of Jowhar, residents said on Thursday. --------------------------------------------------------- Mogadishu masters want Islamic state The Islamic militia that captured Mogadishu has vowed to turn Somalia into a religious state after winning a three-month battle for the capital. --------------------------------------------------------- Kenya bans Somali warlords Kenya has banned Somali warlords from coming into the country. The Government announced that it had imposed a total ban on the warlords and their associates from Kenya. --------------------------------------------------------- Islamic militia claims capture of Somali capital Mogadishu — An Islamic militia said Monday that it has seized Somalia's capital after weeks of bloody fighting and 15 years of anarchy in this Horn of Africa nation, raising fears that the nation could fall under the sway of al-Qaeda. --------------------------------------------------------- Islamists claim control of Mogadishu An Islamist militia that wants to establish a religious state in Somalia has said it has taken the capital after weeks of fighting warlords said to have US backing. --------------------------------------------------------- SOMALIA: Drought emergency to last until December NAIROBI, 5 June (IRIN) - The prevailing rainy season will offer little solace to communities in southern Somalia who have lost everything to the prolonged regional drought, according to a food-security agency. --------------------------------------------------------- Islamists seize key Somali town Somalia's Islamic Courts militia has seized a key town outside the capital, Mogadishu, from a member of the warlord alliance it is fighting --------------------------------------------------------- Somali militia deploy for new battle Rival Somali militia have repositioned and rearmed fighters in Mogadishu in readiness for a new attack, according to witnesses. --------------------------------------------------------- Leader receives President of Somali The Leader of the Revolution received the President of the Republic of Somali, Abdullah Youif, a member of the Conference of Leaders and Head of States of ( Cen-Sad) Community who informed the Leader of the latest developments of the current situation in Somalia. --------------------------------------------------------- Knives rule the playgrounds as inter-racial violence soars Pupils across the country are scared - scared of children from other ethnic backgrounds and of the blades that are now being used with terrifying regularity. Anushka Asthana and Mark Townsend report on the tensions that threaten to turn playgrounds into battlegrounds --------------------------------------------------------- Role of warlords in anti-terror war reconsidered WASHINGTON -- Warlords may be getting a bad rap. Amid a furor over suspected U.S. payments to local militia leaders battling Islamists in Somalia, some policy analysts are arguing that not all warlords are created equal, and some may even be vital in advancing U.S. foreign policy goals. --------------------------------------------------------- Bloody Somali clashes kill 5 Mogadishu - At least five people were killed and nine wounded in new fighting between Islamist militia and a United States-backed warlord alliance outside the Somali capital on Saturday. --------------------------------------------------------- Somalia hospital capture a "gross violation" UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - The U.N. chief of humanitarian affairs denounced on Friday the seizure of a Somali hospital by anti-Islamic militiamen as a gross violation of international humanitarian law. --------------------------------------------------------- Somali Elders Call on Militias to Stop Fighting Somali elders Friday are quoted as calling on warring militias in the Somali capital Mogadishu to stop their fighting that has killed hundreds of people in recent weeks. --------------------------------------------------------- Somali Muslims vow death to US, warlord alliance Thousands of angry Somali Muslims on Friday denounced the United States and a US-backed warlord alliance fighting Islamic militia in the lawless capital, Mogadishu, vowing to destroy their opponents. --------------------------------------------------------- ETHIOPIA-SOMALIA: Scores killed in inter-clan fighting in northeast HARGEYSA, 2 June (IRIN) - At least 39 people have been killed in four days of inter-clan fighting in Daroor, a remote township in the Somali Zone Five region of Ethiopia, local sources said. The region is near the border with Somalia's self-declared northeastern republic of Somaliland. --------------------------------------------------------- Fighting, drought deepen Somalia's crisis MOGADISHU, Somalia (Reuters) -- The humanitarian emergency in drought-hit Somalia will continue through December and could be exacerbated by fighting in Mogadishu that has claimed hundreds of lives, a food analysis organization said on Friday. --------------------------------------------------------- Operation Dung Beetle: the U.S. partnership with Somali warlords Somalia is on the verge of sinking deeper into the abyss of anarchy and perpetual bloodshed and the Bush administration might have a role. Somalia hospital capture a 'gross violation' -UN UNITED NATIONS, June 2 (Reuters) - The U.N. chief of humanitarian affairs denounced on Friday the seizure of a Somali hospital by anti-Islamic militiamen as a gross violation of international humanitarian law. --------------------------------------------------------- ICRC calls on Somali militias to leave hospital MOGADISHU, May 30 (Reuters) - The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) called on Somalian militiamen to withdraw from a hospital in Mogadishu that they have commandeered to use as a base of operations against rival Islamist militias. --------------------------------------------------------- Somalis' struggle in the UK Highly visible on the street, but paradoxically a largely unknown people, uncomfortable questions are being asked about Britain's Somali immigrants - and the answers are by no means easy to find. --------------------------------------------------------- SOMALIA: Armed fighters take over Mogadishu hospital NAIROBI, 30 May (IRIN) - Armed Somali fighters have occupied a major hospital that offers surgical services to civilians who have been wounded in recent clashes in northern Mogadishu, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and the Somali Red Crescent Society (SRCS), reported on Tuesday. --------------------------------------------------------- U.S. moves diplomat critical of Somali warlord aid NAIROBI (Reuters) - A top U.S. official handling Somalia has been transferred from his job after criticising payments to warlords that are said to be fuelling some of Mogadishu's worst-ever fighting, diplomats said on Tuesday. --------------------------------------------------------- Somali militiamen capture key hospital in Mogadishu Somali militiamen have captured a key hospital in the bullet-riddled capital Mogadishu, according to aid agencies on Tuesday. --------------------------------------------------------- Relative calm returns to Somali capital Mogadishu - Relative calm returned to the war-torn Somali capital on Sunday after a day of fierce battles between rival fighters allied to Islamic courts and a US-backed warlord alliance claimed dozens of lives and wounded scores, witnesses said. --------------------------------------------------------- Fighting rages in Somali capital as death toll rises MOGADISHU, May 28 (AFP): Heavy fighting between Islamic and secular militia flared Saturday in the Somali capital Mogadishu, rocking the city with a surge in the worst violence it has seen in years, with no sign of a pause, witnesses said. --------------------------------------------------------- 20 die in battle for Mogadishu AT LEAST 20 people have been killed in a fourth day of fighting between rival militias in the Somali capital of Mogadishu. --------------------------------------------------------- Fighting kills 20 in Mogadishu MOGADISHU (Reuters) - Bullets and artillery shells pounded Mogadishu for a fourth day on Saturday, killing at least 20 people, as rival militias intensified their battle for control of the Somali capital. --------------------------------------------------------- Somalia: ICRC alarmed by number of civilian casualties - ICRC Press release Geneva (ICRC) - The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and the Somali Red Crescent Society (SRCS), alarmed by the heavy loss of life and the suffering of civilians in the upsurge of violent and indiscriminate armed clashes in Mogadishu, call again for restraint in the fighting. --------------------------------------------------------- Somali capital reported calm MOGADISHU, Somalia -- After two days of deadly violence in Somalia's capital Mogadishu, there was tense calm Friday among the opposing war lords and Islamic militia. --------------------------------------------------------- Clashes resume in Somali capital At least 12 people were killed and about 30 others were wounded on Thursday in fighting between fighters loyal to the Islamist courts and militias linked to the secular regional commanders' alliance based in Sisi district, the correspondent said. --------------------------------------------------------- Hundreds of Residents Flee Somali Capital MOGADISHU, Somalia — Hundreds of Somalis packed mattresses and food into minivans and trucks Friday to flee the capital, a day after it suffered some of the fiercest battles in 14 years. --------------------------------------------------------- Violence intensifies in Somali capital Mogadishu -- Heavily armed gunmen battled in the streets of the lawless Somali capital yesterday, rocking the city with a fresh surge of the deadliest violence it has seen in years. --------------------------------------------------------- Somalia: Wounded Civilians Lack Care At Hospitals Innocent Somali wounded civilians in Mogadishu are facing difficulties at Hospitals in the capital officials said. --------------------------------------------------------- Fighting intensifies in Somalia Witnesses said mortars and bullets were flying in various parts of south Mogadishu on Thursday, as militia linked to Islamic courts resumed fighting an anti-terrorism coalition of regional commanders. --------------------------------------------------------- Somalia: Ethiopia Supports Military Supply to Somali Warlord Trucks loaded with military supplies contributed to the Somalia Anti Terror Alliance have reached at Jowhar, the tiny middle Shabelle regional city some 90kms north of Mogadishu. --------------------------------------------------------- Battle intensifies for Mogadishu Militiamen loyal to the Islamic Courts have isolated the warlords in the north and south of the city in fighting that claimed at least 30 lives on Thursday. --------------------------------------------------------- Fifty dead in Mogadishu clashes At least 50 people have been killed in fierce fighting between rival militias in Mogadishu. The violence is the worst to hit the Somali capital for ten years. --------------------------------------------------------- Fighting Rocks Somali Capital Vicious fighting has broken out again in the Somali capital, Mogadishu, killing and wounding dozens of civilians. The violence was the latest in a series of battles between militias loyal to the Islamic courts and militias belonging to an anti-terror coalition of secular factional leaders and businessmen. VOA Correspondent Alisha Ryu is the only Western journalist in Mogadishu and reports that as much as 95 percent of the city may be under the control of the Islamic courts. --------------------------------------------------------- USA exacerbates Somali civil war and casts shadow over “fight against terrorism” US foreign policy, one of the main aims of which has been declared as the fight against international terrorism, is taking on ever more bizarre forms. --------------------------------------------------------- Reluctant Africa must tackle Somaliland issue-ICG NAIROBI, May 24 (Reuters) - Somaliland's 15-year quest for independence may turn violent if the African Union fails to address the breakaway Somali enclave's case, including granting it observer status, a think-tank said on Wednesday. --------------------------------------------------------- Heavy fighting erupts in Somali capital MOGADISHU - Heavy fighting between radical Islamic forces and a US-backed warlord alliance erupted Wednesday in the lawless Somali capital after a week-long lull, witnesses said. --------------------------------------------------------- Fight over lawmaker divides the Dutch THE HAGUE Ayaan Hirsi Ali is among the most famous and successful immigrants in the Netherlands. A Muslim atheist, as she calls herself, the Somali-born woman rose to win a seat in the Dutch Parliament and gained a reputation for probing the uneasy coexistence of Islam and the West. She reviled her former religion, bringing down death threats. --------------------------------------------------------- American Efforts in Somalia Stir a Debate NAIROBI, Kenya — A surge in the power of Islamic fundamentalist warlords in Somalia is raising fears that the Horn of Africa nation could follow the path of Taliban Afghanistan into the hands of al-Qaida, despite Western efforts to stop it. --------------------------------------------------------- Puntland severs links with Somali government Mogadishu - A semi-autonomous region in central Somalia on Sunday cut ties with the country's United Nations-backed transitional government, saying it was trying to thwart an oil exploration deal in this Horn of Africa nation. --------------------------------------------------------- Somali Cabinet votes for peacekeepers BAIDOA, Somalia (AP) -- Somalia's Cabinet has suggested only Ugandan and Sudanese peacekeepers come to the lawless Horn of African country to try to improve security, hoping to overcome lawmakers' objections to allowing in armed outsiders. --------------------------------------------------------- Hirsi? Hearsay? Or just Double-Dutch? It seems that what goes around…comes around. For all her defamation, false accusations and blatant lies against Islam – it seems the shoe has firmly been planted on the other foot for Ayaan Hirsi Ali. The controversial Somali-born member of the Dutch parliament, whose real name is Hirsi Magan, announced her intent to resign and move to the US after it was exposed that she lied in her asylum application. --------------------------------------------------------- Somali farmers appeal for humanitarian aid Kamsuma 21 May. 06 ( Sh.M.Network) Farming communities in Somalia's Lower and middle Jubba regions called on international relief agencies to extend them humanitarian aid after floods swept away their farming lands. --------------------------------------------------------- For Somali student, 'English is fun' now BROCKTON -- Her first day of kindergarten last fall, Hamdi Abdi hardly spoke a word. No one spoke Somali, her native language. --------------------------------------------------------- Head of Somali antiterror alliance says government infiltrated by extremists MOGADISHU, Somalia -- The leader of a self-proclaimed counterterrorism alliance said 70 members of the transitional, U.N.-backed parliament in Somalia were al-Qaida sympathizers, and denied that he had reached a cease-fire agreement with Islamic extremists. --------------------------------------------------------- EU to aid Somalia's transitional authority The European Commission (EC) has decided to provide 70 million euros (89 million U.S. dollars) for Somalia's transitional authority, said the commission on Friday. --------------------------------------------------------- Rampaging hyenas kill 4 people in Somaliland HARGESIA, May 19 (Reuters) - Marauding hyenas have mauled to death four people and wounded three in the latest attack by the scavengers roaming the Somali enclave of Somaliland, officials said on Friday. --------------------------------------------------------- SOMALIA: EC aids political transition and fight against poverty NAIROBI, 19 May (IRIN) - The European Commission will support Somalia's political transition and fight against poverty through a €70 million (US $89 million) aid package for the Somalia Recovery Programme. --------------------------------------------------------- Somali leader tells allies to quit capital Somalia's transitional premier has ordered members of a US-backed rebel alliance who are in his government to leave Mogadishu, where they have been battling Islamic militia. --------------------------------------------------------- News - Somalia still suffering There are still massive humanitarian needs in Somalia despite the end of the drought, according to the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC). --------------------------------------------------------- Somali MPs want warlords charged with war crimes NAIROBI (Reuters) - Warlords involved in Somalia's worst fighting in a decade should be sacked as government ministers and charged with war crimes, members of the country's fledgling parliament said on Friday. --------------------------------------------------------- SOMALIA: Transitional government hails visit by UK minister NAIROBI, 18 May (IRIN) - The Somali government has described a surprise visit on Wednesday by British international development minister Hilary Benn to the town of Baidoa as a sign of the UK's support to the fledging government. --------------------------------------------------------- US Secretly Supports Resisters in Somali Having left Somali in 1993 in a panic, the US reportedly returned the country after 13 years by supporting some groups struggling to take over the administration. --------------------------------------------------------- Somali-born Dutch lawmaker welcome in US: Zoellick May 18, 2006 — THE HAGUE (Reuters) - A Somali-born lawmaker who may lose her Dutch citizenship because she lied on her asylum application is welcome to move to the United States, U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Robert Zoellick said on Thursday. --------------------------------------------------------- US accused of backing Somali warlords MORE than a decade after US troops withdrew from Somalia following a disastrous military intervention, there are claims that America is secretly supporting secular warlords who have been waging fierce battles against Islamic groups for control of the capital, Mogadishu. --------------------------------------------------------- Somali MPs face sacking over US Baidoa - Somalia's transitional government is preparing to sack two cabinet ministers over their ties to a United States-backed warlord alliance that has been battling Islamic militia. --------------------------------------------------------- Is U.S. backing warlords against Somali Islamists? More than a decade after U.S. troops withdrew from Somalia following a disastrous military intervention, officials of Somalia's interim government and some U.S. analysts of Africa policy say the United States has returned to the African country, secretly supporting secular warlords who have been waging fierce battles against Islamic groups for control of the capital, Mogadishu. --------------------------------------------------------- Somali peace holds as clan elders deploy fighters MOGADISHU (Reuters) - Somali militias picked through Mogadishu's rubble-strewn streets to retrieve corpses on Monday as angry clan elders deployed their own fighters to secure a truce after an eight-day battle that killed 150 people. --------------------------------------------------------- Somali PM to Sack Two Cabinet Members Over Recent Violence Cairo, Asharq Al-Awsat - Somali Prime Minister Mohammed Ali Ghedi said on Sunday he would expel two members of his cabinet for their role in the recent fighting in the capital. --------------------------------------------------------- Somali-born Dutch MP lied to win asylum Amsterdam: Ayaan Hirsi Ali, a Somali-born Dutch politician known for her outspoken criticism of Islam, should consider leaving parliament after admitting to lying to win asylum, a senior member of her party said yesterday. --------------------------------------------------------- Uneasy calm returns to the Somali capital Mogadishu — A cease-fire Monday allowed residents to venture into the streets of a northern Mogadishu neighbourhood that has been a battle ground for more than a week, and they recovered seven bodies that had been lying for days in a no man's land separating Islamic militiamen from their secular rivals. --------------------------------------------------------- Somalia: Security vacuum compounding effects of drought Against the backdrop of a fragile peace process and encouraging prospects for reconciliation, the persistent insecurity in many parts of the country presents mounting challenges on the humanitarian front as Somalia struggles with the effects of its worst drought in a decade. --------------------------------------------------------- Somali militias in truce on eighth day of fighting MOGADISHU (Reuters) - Rival militias observed a truce on Sunday demanded by clan elders alarmed that eight days of fighting, which has already killed 148 people, seemed ready to engulf Somalia's main city Mogadishu. --------------------------------------------------------- Somali-born Dutch MP under fire for asylum lies Ayaan Hirsi Ali, a Somali-born Dutch politician known for her outspoken criticism of Islam, should consider leaving parliament after admitting to lying to win asylum, a senior member of her party said on Sunday. --------------------------------------------------------- Somalia: Puntland and Ethiopian officials hold talks A delegation led by the president of the semi-autonomous Somali State of Puntland arrived in Addis Ababa on Friday after receiving an official invitation from the Ethiopian government. --------------------------------------------------------- Critics Want Dutch Lawmaker Deported AMSTERDAM, Netherlands -- Ayaan Hirsi Ali, a Somali-born Dutch legislator who has championed the rights of Muslim women, is returning from a book tour to a firestorm for lying on her asylum application when she fled to the Netherlands in 1992 to escape an arranged marriage. --------------------------------------------------------- Somalia fighting enters sixth day Heavy fighting has erupted between Islamist militias and fighters loyal to an alliance of regional commanders for a sixth consecutive day in the Somalian capital, Mogadishu. --------------------------------------------------------- Alliance of Somali Warlords Battles Islamists in Capital NAIROBI, Kenya, May 12 — A new front in the fight against terrorism has broken out on the streets of Mogadishu, the capital of Somalia, as a group of Islamists battle Somali warlords allied with Washington's aim of rooting out Muslim extremism from the region. --------------------------------------------------------- NETHERLANDS: DOCUMENTARY PROBES CONTROVERSIAL SOMALI-BORN MP Amsterdam, 12 May (AKI) - A newly aired TV documentary has investigated the past of Somali-born Dutch MP and author, Ayaan Hirsi Ali - an outspoken critic of Islam who received death threats for her screenplay for the film 'Submission' which criticised Muslims' treatment of women. --------------------------------------------------------- At least 130 killed in Somali capital since Sunday MOGADISHU, Somalia -- A radical Islamic force battled for a strategic road Thursday in a continuing struggle with secular warlords for control of the northern half of Somalia's capital, which has left at least 130 people dead. --------------------------------------------------------- Annan calls for immediate ceasefire in Somali capital Mogadishu United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan today called on the warring factions in the Somali capital Mogadishu to declare an immediate ceasefire, after days of fighting claimed the lives of more than a hundred people and displaced thousands of non-combatants in the worst violence to grip the city in almost a decade. --------------------------------------------------------- Warlords battle for control of Somalia Mogadishu — A radical Islamic force battled for a strategic road Thursday in a continuing struggle with secular warlords for control of the northern half of Somalia's capital, which has left at least 130 people dead. --------------------------------------------------------- Somali death toll reaches 120 as street battles continue The death toll in Somalia's worst fighting for a decade rose to more than 120 on Thursday (local time), as rival militias battled for control of the capital with mortars, rocket-propelled grenades and anti-aircraft guns. --------------------------------------------------------- Somali civilians flee Mogadishu fighting People living in Mogadishu were fleeing the city on Thursday as fighting between rival militias that has already killed more than 100 people threatened to intensify. --------------------------------------------------------- Somalia: Security Council Extends Somalia Monitoring Group Mission As Violence Rages The Security Council today re-established for a six-month period the mandate of the Monitoring Group on Somalia, set up to investigate the 1992 arms embargo, as the top United Nations envoy to the war-torn country appealed for all sides to end the bloody violence in the capital Mogadishu and "step back from the brink." --------------------------------------------------------- At Least 96 Killed in Somali Fighting MOGADISHU, Somalia (AP) - Businessmen, clan elders and moderate religious leaders shuttled between secular warlords and Islamic extremists in Somalia's capital Wednesday, trying to broker a cease-fire as the death toll from four days of fighting reached 96. --------------------------------------------------------- Somali leader wants Kadhafi's role in peace process TRIPOLI, May 10 -- Visiting Somali President Abdallah Yussef has urged Libyan leader Moammar Kadhafi to intervene personally for the setting up of a commission to follow up the peace process in Somalia. --------------------------------------------------------- Truce collapses in Somali capital Heavy fighting resumed in Somalia's capital despite a brief lull following a ceasefire, with almost 100 dead and hundreds more wounded in the clashes. --------------------------------------------------------- Somalia: More Deaths in Third Day of Mogadishu Fighting The death toll continued to rise in the Somali capital, Mogadishu, as fighting between rival militias entered its third day, local sources said. --------------------------------------------------------- Heavy fighting for Somali capital An alliance of warlords and an Islamist militia are battling with mortars, rocket-propelled grenades and heavy machine guns in northern districts. --------------------------------------------------------- Somali President arrives in Libya President, Abdullah Yousif of the Republic of Somalia, member of the Conference of Leaders and Head of States of ( Cen-Sad) Community, his wife and accompanying delegation, arrived in Great Jamahiriya Monday evening. --------------------------------------------------------- Fighting rages in Somali capital Clashes between rival Somali militias have continued for a second day in the capital, Mogadishu, leaving at least 25 people dead and 61 others wounded. --------------------------------------------------------- Pirates off Somali coast hijack cargo ship MOGADISHU, Somalia (AP) - Pirates who hijacked a cargo ship off the coast of Somalia and killed one of its crew members have released the vessel after holding it for a week, officials said Sunday. --------------------------------------------------------- Fighting continues in Somali capital MOGADISHU, Somalia - Radical Islamic militiamen battled secular rivals for control of part of the Somali capital Monday, killing at least 10 people and wounding 44 in a second straight day of clashes. --------------------------------------------------------- Ethio-Somali ties gain momentum: Ethiopia’s FM May 8, 2006 (ADDIS ABABA) — Ethiopian Foreign Minister Seyoum Mesfin said Monday the relations between Ethiopia and Somalia have been gaining momentum from time to time. --------------------------------------------------------- Somali criticises US terror moves The US is funding a coalition of Somali warlords who earlier this year battled Islamic groups in Mogadishu, Somali President Abdullahi Yusuf has said. Mr Yusuf's spokesman said the funding was fuelling Somalia's civil war. --------------------------------------------------------- 'Kids pay the price of war' Mogadishu - A measles outbreak has killed nearly 100 children in the past two weeks in several southern Somali villages, said the country's health officials on Thursday. --------------------------------------------------------- Somali lawmakers train on constitutional affairs NAIROBI, May 3 Xinhua)-- Some 250 Somali lawmakers began a six-day training seminar on Wednesday in southwestern town of Baidoa to prepare the ground for a new Federal Constitution, according to a United Nations statement available here. --------------------------------------------------------- Somali leader: U.S. supports warlords STOCKHOLM, Sweden (AP) -- Somalia's president said Wednesday he believes the United States is financing an alliance of warlords fighting radical Islamic militias in his country and said the U.S. should be working directly with his government instead. --------------------------------------------------------- An eye for an eye, as Somali boy executes father's killer A Somali teenager publicly hacked his father's killer to death in a punishment sanctioned under Islamic law today. --------------------------------------------------------- Somali parliamentarians to be trained by UN on constitutional issues 3 May 2006 – Around 250 Somali Members of Parliament will start a six-day United Nations training seminar today to prepare the ground for a new federal constitution in the East African Country, which has lacked a working government ever since the collapse of President Muhammad Siad Barre’s regime 15 years ago. --------------------------------------------------------- U.N. envoy: Somali camps 'worst conditions I have ever seen' NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) -- A senior U.N. humanitarian official said Tuesday he saw Somali refugees living in "the worst conditions I have ever seen" during a tour of the Horn of Africa. --------------------------------------------------------- Militia clash at Somali government base Baidoa NAIROBI (Reuters) - Up to seven people were injured on Tuesday in a clash that erupted when militiamen tried to seize an official car at the temporary base of Somalia's interim government in Baidoa, diplomatic and government sources said. --------------------------------------------------------- Somalia cautious on reports US funds fighting
BAIDOA, Somalia (Reuters) - Somali leaders expressed concern but could not confirm growing reports that Washington is financing a group of powerful Mogadishu warlords who have styled themselves as an anti-terrorism coalition. --------------------------------------------------------- US repatriates 10 of 12 Somali pirates involved in attack on ships MANAMA - The US government is to repatriate 10 of 12 Somalis who fired at two US Navy vessels in March, the US Navy 5th Fleet command said on Saturday in Bahrain. --------------------------------------------------------- Pirates hijack another ship in south Somalia NAIROBI, April 28 (Reuters) - Somali pirates have hijacked a ship in southern Somalia in the latest attack off the country's lawless coast, a maritime official said late on Friday. --------------------------------------------------------- Kenyan camps struggle to contain new Somali drought refugees Nearly 2,000 new refugees, mostly women and children driven across the border from Somalia due to conflict and drought, are placing added strain on the Dadaab refugee camps in north-east Kenya, leading humanitarian agency CARE International warned today. --------------------------------------------------------- At least 2 killed in fighting in Somalia MOGADISHU, Somalia - Rival militiamen battled for control of a school near the base of a powerful warlord in the lawless Somali capital Wednesday, killing at least two people, residents said. --------------------------------------------------------- Arms prices soar as Mogadishu braces for fresh violence Mogadishu - Bananas, grapefruit and watermelon are piled high alongside gleaming Kalashnikov assault rifles, hand grenades and sub-machine guns in the Cirtogte arms market, located in the Somali capital Mogadishu. --------------------------------------------------------- War wounds thwart Somali recruits Kenya has deported 19 Somali recruits who were too unfit to complete their police training at a Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS) camp. They were among 200 former militia fighters selected to pioneer a new police force for the war-torn country. --------------------------------------------------------- Somali clashes claim seven Mogadishu - Rival militiamen battled for control of a district in the lawless Somali capital on Sunday and at least seven people were killed, medical workers said. --------------------------------------------------------- Somali Lawmakers Make Baidoa Temporary Capital Somalia's parliament has voted to move the country's temporary capital to the southern town of Baidoa. --------------------------------------------------------- Khat rules as the drug of choice for Somalis WAJID, SOMALIA - Before Somalia's government collapsed in 1991, Maryann Ali was an elementary schoolteacher who spent her days giving fifth-graders geography and math lessons. Now she earns a living dealing khat, a narcotic plant that when chewed yields a jittery high and feelings of invincibility that later melt into a lethargic stupor. --------------------------------------------------------- Somali MPs vote to make Baidoa temporary govt seat NAIROBI, April 22 (Reuters) - Somali lawmakers voted on Saturday to make the city of Baidoa the government's temporary base, officials said, reaching an agreement on a divisive issue that has all but paralysed the fragile administration. --------------------------------------------------------- Somali Islamists declare jihad on warlords Tension soared in the capital of lawless Somalia on Friday as Mogadishu's powerful Islamic courts declared jihad, or holy war, on a militia alliance widely believed to be backed by the United States. --------------------------------------------------------- First home-trained Somali police officers graduate NAIROBI, April 22 (Xinhua) -- The first police officers from northeast and south Somalia trained in decades has graduated from the recently established Armo Police Academy in Puntland, northern part of the Horn of African nation, UNDP said Saturday. --------------------------------------------------------- Somalia's drought: 'Children are dying. Everything is dying' The day we arrived in Wajid, in southern Somalia, they executed a man on the edge of town. We heard the gunshots. --------------------------------------------------------- Mogadishu faction fighters regroup, attle looms NAIROBI, April 19 (Reuters) - Two factions which recently clashed in Mogadishu are moving militias to strategic positions for a fresh round of fighting for control of the Somali capital, residents said on Wednesday. --------------------------------------------------------- Somali clans fear all-out war in Mogadishu Mogadishu - Rival militiamen are gearing up for new clashes to win control of the Somali capital, sending thousands of terrified people fleeing from their homes, Mogadishu residents said on Wednesday. --------------------------------------------------------- US Denies Reports of Agreement to Patrol Somali Waters U.S. officials are denying reports that the U.S. Navy has agreed to patrol the waters off Somalia's coast to prevent piracy. --------------------------------------------------------- Groups donate cash for Somali drought tudents across the Twin Cities raised about $28,000 to help people in drought-ridden areas of Somalia, and today they will hand over the check to the International Committee of the Red Cross. --------------------------------------------------------- No one killed in Puntland operations, Range insists THE news out of Puntland, a semi-autonomous state of Somalia, has not been good since Range Resources began exploring for minerals and petroleum in late February. --------------------------------------------------------- US sails into Somali waters Nairobi - The United States has agreed to patrol the pirate-infested waters off the coast of Somalia, said transitional Somali Prime Minister Ali Mohamed Gedi on Tuesday. --------------------------------------------------------- Somali students celebrate culture Traveling abroad isn’t always necessary to gain cultural experience. The Somali Student Association is trying to help students realize there are many cultures to celebrate on campus. --------------------------------------------------------- US to help tackle Somali pirates US Navy vessels have been granted permission to patrol Somali waters to fight piracy in what are seen as the world's most dangerous waters. --------------------------------------------------------- Nine Indonesian hostages moved to safer area in Somalia The nine Indonesian citizens taken hostage by armed groups in Somalia were already moved to a safer area in Mudug province of the country, foreign ministry spokesman said. --------------------------------------------------------- Dying for water in Somalia’s drought RABDORE, Somalia - Villagers call it the "War of the Well," a battle that erupted between two clans over control of a watering hole in this dusty, drought-stricken trading town. --------------------------------------------------------- Somali militia say negotiating over hijacked S. Korean ship NAIROBI (Reuters) - Somali militia holding a South Korean trawler and a 25-man crew they accuse of fishing illegally said on Thursday the boat's release was being negotiated with Seoul. --------------------------------------------------------- Man working for German aid group killed in Somalia BERLIN, April 12 (Reuters) - A Somali man working with a German-based aid group was shot dead in a gun battle involving bandits in the south of the lawless east African country earlier this week, the organisation said on Wednesday. --------------------------------------------------------- US asks Somali militias to join counterterrorism war April 11, 2006 (CAIRO) — A team working for the US Central Intelligence Agency, CIA, has asked Somali faction and militia leaders to join the American security campaign aimed at extending influence and hunting down the five Al-Qa’idah members who are believed to have fled to the centre of the Somali capital, Mogadishu. --------------------------------------------------------- Somali food aid clashes claim 3 Mogadishu - At least three people were killed and nine wounded in a gun battle over the United Nations food aid in drought-stricken central Somalia early on Monday, said police and relief workers. --------------------------------------------------------- THIS GUN FOR HIRE Jowhar, Somalia -- Spanish aid worker Josep Prior Tio climbs into the backseat of a Toyota Land Cruiser. Mohammed the gunman gets in next to him, clasping his Kalashnikov assault rifle between his knees. Ahmed and another Mohammed -- who, like many Somalis, go by only one name -- squeeze in next to the driver, clutching their own AK-47s. Two more gunmen, also brandishing Kalashnikovs, climb into another Toyota. --------------------------------------------------------- Official: U.S. Backing Somali Militants NAIROBI, Kenya — The United States is backing a new coalition of Somali militants fighting Islamic extremists for control of the lawless nation's capital, a U.S. official said, as both sides prepared for a battle that could explode in widespread violence. --------------------------------------------------------- Somali gunmen ambush U.N. food convoy BAIDOA, Somalia (AP) -- Somali gunmen ambushed a U.N. food delivery at a roadblock in central Somalia, sparking off a firefight that left two people dead and nine injured, an official said Monday. --------------------------------------------------------- SOMALIA :War-clouds gather over Mogadishu The U.S. believes some of the world’s most wanted al-Qaida leaders are being protected by Islamic extremists in Somalia, and may be backing local militants in their fight for control of the lawless nation’s capital, a battle that could soon explode in widespread violence. --------------------------------------------------------- Somali Pirates Hijack Ship, Claim USD 400,000 Somali pirates have hijacked a South Korean fishing trawler with 25 people on board and have demanded a ransom of USD 400,000 for her release, media reported. --------------------------------------------------------- For Somali refugees, struggle persists Madina Adan sits in the corner of her living room, a slight smile on her face. A Somali who has been in the United States just over a year, she is studying English - but she is speaking with her eyes and hand gestures rather than words. --------------------------------------------------------- The United States government says it is trying to form an alliance with Somali militias who would fight against what they called terrorist groups in some parts of Somalia Western experts warned that the Somali situation might turn into something like the current state of Iraq, which is in a circle of violence. --------------------------------------------------------- Forecast up for Somali gun trade after new fighting MOGADISHU, April 7 (Reuters) - Militiamen fire machine guns into the sky while a few metres away shoppers hardly bat an eyelid as young children jostle for the falling cartridges. --------------------------------------------------------- Somalia: Somalia Re-Opens Embassy in Ethiopia Somalia has decided to re-open its Ethiopian embassy after rising political tension resulted in its closure in 1991. In response to the move, Seyoum Mesfin, Ethiopia's foreign minister, said Ethiopia would soon open an embassy in Somalia in an effort to support the war-torn country. --------------------------------------------------------- ANALYSIS-Somalia may be proxy US-Islam battleground NAIROBI, April 4 (Reuters) - Somalia's worst fighting in years suggests the failed Horn of Africa state may become a new proxy battleground for Islamist militants and the United States. --------------------------------------------------------- SOMALIA : PM rules out deployment of foreign forces Somali prime minister Ali Mohamed Gedi said his government would give its first priority to forming national Somali forces to work out peace and security in his war-torn country, dismissing any deployment of outside troops to Somalia. --------------------------------------------------------- Somaliland President first-ever visit to Yemen President Dahir Riyale Kahin of unrecognised Somaliland on Saturday travelled to Yemen at the invitation of Yemeni authorities. 'Awdalnews Network' learned from informed sources that the President was to hold talks with Yemeni officials during a three-day visit. He is expected to return on Tuesday. --------------------------------------------------------- Aid convoys brave gunmen to reach hungry Somalis WAJID, Somalia (Reuters) - Just before he begins his perilous drive, Cheikh Ibrahim Khalil says a prayer. --------------------------------------------------------- Mogadishu residents stock food, fear more fighting MOGADISHU (Reuters) - Mogadishu residents stocked up on food, fortified their houses and blocked roads on Monday, fearing another flare-up of factional fighting that has killed scores of people in the Somali capital in recent weeks. --------------------------------------------------------- Somaliland releases 15 Yemeni fishing boats and crew SANA'A, April 2 — An official Yemeni agency reported that Somaliland released 15 Yemeni fishing boats and their crew. According to Yemen's Saba News Agency, the boats were seized in the Barbara seaport on the pretext that they were fishing in Somaliland waters. --------------------------------------------------------- KENYA-SOMALIA: Drought, insecurity drive more Somalis into Kenya NAIROBI, 3 April (IRIN) - Insecurity and drought have driven some 1,780 Somali refugees into Kenya since the beginning of January, a spokesman from the United Nations refugee agency (UNHCR) said on Monday. --------------------------------------------------------- Two killed in attack on Mogadishu Islamic court MOGADISHU, April 1 (Reuters) - Somali fighters backed by powerful warlords attacked an Islamic court on Saturday, killing two civilians and fuelling fears of worse to come, witnesses said. --------------------------------------------------------- Kenya to begin training Somali police force A first batch of 200 Somali senior police officers will be flown to Kenya next month for a training program aimed at rebuilding the Horn of Africa nation's security force, Somali leader disclosed Friday. --------------------------------------------------------- Somalia signs MOU with EU The European Union yesterday strengthened relations with Somalia and has pledged to step up aid for the country. Abdullahi Yusuf, the Somali President and the European Commission President Jose Manuel Barosso signed a memorandum of understanding that will see increased co-operation between Somalia and the European Union. --------------------------------------------------------- Somali pirates hijack fuel tanker: official NAIROBI, March 31 (Xinhua) -- Somali gunmen have hijacked a giant fuel tanker in north of capital Mogadishu, Kenyan maritime official confirmed here on Friday. --------------------------------------------------------- Somalia in further turmoil, say analysts Nairobi - The emergence of Islamic courts in Mogadishu fighting for control of the lawless Somali capital with traditional warlords has been blamed for a fresh wave of violence that claimed 52 lives and wounded hundreds last week. --------------------------------------------------------- Clashes between rival Somali regions kill six HARGESIA, Somalia, March 29 (Reuters) - New fighting between Puntland security forces and villagers near the disputed border in rival enclave Somaliland has killed at least six people, a Somaliland minister said on Wednesday. --------------------------------------------------------- Islamic Forces Gain Strength March 29, 2006: A week of fighting in and around Mogadishu caused over 300 casualties (about a third of them dead). This is three times the losses suffered from militia fighting last month. The Islamic Courts attempt to take Mogadishu failed. A ceasefire has been agreed upon, with the help of UN negotiators. --------------------------------------------------------- IGAD vows to take on Somali warlords Despite having successfully guided the peace process in Somalia, the Inter-Governmental Authority on Development (IGAD) member states have been under pressure to prove that they have the capacity to see through the peace process to its conclusion. --------------------------------------------------------- Somali warlords refuse to end militia battle Mogadishu - A group of Somali businessmen calling themselves the Alliance for Restoration of Peace and Counter-Terrorism vowed on Tuesday to continue battling militias allied to the Islamic courts in Mogadishu, rejecting mediation efforts to broker a peace deal. --------------------------------------------------------- SOMALIA: ICRC supplies medical kits to Mogadishu hospitals NAIROBI, 28 March (IRIN) - The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) has supplied medical kits to help overstretched hospitals in the Somali capital, Mogadishu, following last week's heavy fighting. --------------------------------------------------------- Ceasefire in Somalia as fierce fighting ends MOGADISHU (Reuters) - Relative calm returned on Monday to Mogadishu after four days of the fiercest fighting in years, with militia linked to Islamic courts in firm control of a key port and airstrip. --------------------------------------------------------- Somali clashes toll rises Heavy fighting between rival Somali militia linked to Islamic courts and a new "anti-terrorism" alliance has killed about 90 people in the past three days in the capital, Mogadishu. --------------------------------------------------------- SOMALILAND:Exiles return home as investors Ali Abdibihi is a bright, outgoing boy of 16 who is eager to practise his English with any visitor to the shantytown he calls home. --------------------------------------------------------- Hundreds flee Mogadishu fighting Hundreds of people have been fleeing the northern suburbs of Mogadishu after two days of heavy fighting in the Somali capital. Doctors say at least 60 people have been killed and that the hospitals are full of injured civilians. --------------------------------------------------------- POWER project powers young somali woman's potential Somalia: If you ask Ifrah Shikh Ali about misery, squalor, and shattered dreams, this 18-year-old internally displaced (IDP) girl will have a lot to say about her experiences in Somalia, a land that has been devastated by natural disasters and political turmoil. --------------------------------------------------------- UN urges Somali militia to protect relief agencies NAIROBI, March 23 (Xinhua) -- The United Nations World Food Program (WFP) on Thursday appealed to Somali leaders and militia to provide access and protection for aid agencies to enable them to respond to a worsening drought crisis in the Horn of Africa nation. --------------------------------------------------------- Islamic militia and rivals battle in Somali capital Some of the heaviest recent fighting in the Somalia capital broke out Wednesday, pitting an Islamic militia against forces that have challenged clerics' growing power. --------------------------------------------------------- Fighting flares in Somali capital Eyewitnesses say at least 23 people have been killed, and more than 50 wounded have been taken to hospitals. --------------------------------------------------------- Proud Muslim Girls Don Australian Hijab CAIRO, March 21, 2006 (IslamOnline.net) – Proud to be Muslims and Australians, five young girls donning the Australian flag as hijab on Tuesday, March 21, to mark the national Harmony Day. --------------------------------------------------------- Fighting flares in Somali capital Heavy fighting has broken out in the north of Somalia's capital, Mogadishu, with residents fleeing from the area. Doctors say four have died, although casualty figures are sketchy, the BBC's Mohamed Olad Hassan says from the city. --------------------------------------------------------- INTERVIEW-Somali government rift is over - PM Gedi NAIROBI, March 19 (Reuters) - The successful opening of Somalia's interim parliament on home soil has brought hope to war-weary residents of the Horn of Africa nation and spells the end of a government rift, the prime minister said. --------------------------------------------------------- U.S. warships capture pirates off Somali coast Two U.S. navy warships attacked and captured a group of Somali pirates Saturday, leaving one suspect dead and five wounded. --------------------------------------------------------- A firefight in Somali waters The U.S. Navy says two of its ships returned fire on a suspected pirate vessel off the coast of Somalia yesterday, killing one man and wounding five. --------------------------------------------------------- Somali Militiamen: U.S. Shot First (CBS) MOGADISHU, Somalia Somali militiamen who skirmished with U.S. Navy vessels claimed Sunday they did not fire the first shot and that they had been patrolling Somali waters to stop illegal fishing vessels. --------------------------------------------------------- ICRC boosts south Somalia aid to help avert famine GENEVA, March 17 (Reuters) - The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) on Friday boosted emergency assistance to help prevent famine among 1.2 million people in drought-hit southern Somalia. --------------------------------------------------------- Somalia Expands Efforts to Fight HIV/AIDS Somalia is now prepared to take a countrywide approach to battling HIV/AIDS. Fearing that the pandemic could derail the country’s development, the Somali Transitional Federal Government Tuesday launched the South Central AIDS Commission. --------------------------------------------------------- Analysis: Hunger grips the Horn WASHINGTON -- Famine - on a massive scale - threatens millions if the international community fails to react fast enough to one of the worst droughts ever to grip the Horn of Africa, aid groups say. United Nations officials and aid workers concede that relief work in the region has rarely been more difficult. --------------------------------------------------------- SOMALIA: UN welcomes convening of transitional parliament inside the country NAIROBI, 16 March (IRIN) - The United Nations Security Council on Wednesday welcomed the convening of the first session of the transitional federal parliament inside Somalia and highlighted the importance of reconciliation in the Horn of Africa nation. --------------------------------------------------------- Survey on reconstruction project launched in Somalia A largest survey ever on reconstruction project has been launched in Somalia with scores of experts with 7,200 questionnaires traveling to the remotest corners of the Horn of Africa nation, the UN said on Wednesday. --------------------------------------------------------- RACIAL PROFILING At a recent public meeting, Mayor Tom Potter apologized to a man who complained about being stopped by Portland police officers. Without knowing any details regarding the traffic stops in question, the mayor said he thought they "smacked of racism." With that comment, Potter did to police officers what he says they cannot do on the street -- make prejudgments when taking official action. --------------------------------------------------------- YEMEN: Government concerned over maritime piracy SANA, 12 March (IRIN) - Continued piracy in the Gulf of Aden and in the Arabian Sea is threatening Yemen's fishing industry, said a high ranking official. --------------------------------------------------------- A leaderless nation learns to adapt MERCA, Somalia -- When Abdirahman Farah, who is blind, returned to his native Somalia two years ago, his friends in Britain worried about him because of the country's lawlessness. --------------------------------------------------------- Yemeni fishermen abducted by Somali pirates Sanaa - Somali pirates kidnapped 50 Yemeni fishermen off an island south of the Arab country, Yemen's state news agency Saba reported on Tuesday --------------------------------------------------------- Somali cleric predicts defiance of new gov't MOGADISHU (Reuters) - A hardline Somali cleric with big influence in Mogadishu has said Muslims will oppose the Horn of Africa's fledgling new government because it is based on anti-Islamic principles. --------------------------------------------------------- The raped Somali refugees… the raped country! I have been very much stunned by the story of the three Somali refugees raped by security men. I interviewed two of them. They told me a very tragic story of how they were beaten up brutally and raped by some savage security men. Two were raped when security men broke up the month-long sit-in for hundreds of Somali refugees last December in front of the UN agency UNHCR office in Sana’a. --------------------------------------------------------- INTERVIEW-Top Islamist blames U.S. for Somali mayhem MOGADISHU, March 4 (Reuters) - The United States has funded a new "anti-terror" coalition to fight Islamists in Mogadishu to avenge the killing of American soldiers there in the 1990s and to ensure anarchy persists, a leading Islamist has alleged. --------------------------------------------------------- Racial motive suspected in murder A white man whose mother has Somali roots was murdered in a "savage attack" which may have been racially-motivated, police said. --------------------------------------------------------- Bossaso port in Somalia unlikely El Dorado for the displaced SOUTH OF BOSSASO, Somalia, March 1 (UNHCR) – As dawn breaks over the desert at the start of what will be another merciless, scorching day, an overloaded truck slows to a stop and a small band of five men and two women hop down and head for a small rocky hill not far from the road. --------------------------------------------------------- Somali Kidnappers Release American BAIDOA, Somalia — An American working for UNICEF was released by his kidnappers Thursday, the country's prime minister said while promising to investigate a warlord's claim that another U.N. agency owed him money. --------------------------------------------------------- Agreement Is Reached for Students From Somalia An agreement intended to improve educational opportunities for Somali children enrolled in schools in Springfield, Mass., was reached by the federal Education Department and Springfield Public Schools late last month, representatives of both entities said. --------------------------------------------------------- Training for Somali Team Fails to Start After Row Training for members of the Somali Public Service Commission was called off yesterday after the 10 commissioners boycotted sessions. --------------------------------------------------------- SOMALIA : 63 forced overboard, feared dead in Gulf of Aden Sixty-three people, mainly Somalis, including women and children, are feared dead after being forced overboard from a smuggler's boat carrying them to Yemen, the U.N. refugee agency said yesterday. --------------------------------------------------------- SOMALI WARLORDS HOLD 'SECRET ANTI- TERRORISM' TALKS WITH US AGENTS A group of powerful warlords controlling the Somali capital on Tuesday held secret talks with US agents in a provincial town in a bid to fight terrorism in the Horn of Africa nation. --------------------------------------------------------- SOMALIA: Parliament adjourned for a week NAIROBI, 28 February (IRIN) - Sharif Hassan Shaykh Aden, speaker of the Somali transitional federal parliament, adjourned the session for one week on Monday to give members of parliament time to consult individually. --------------------------------------------------------- Militia attack on Puntland's MPs Gunmen loyal to Planning Minister Abdurrahman Farole entered the building on Sunday, before being forced out by security forces on Monday. --------------------------------------------------------- SOMALI PARLIAMENT RETURNS FROM EXILE Fifteen years after the ousting of Somali President Muhammad Siad Barre, the country's parliament convened on Saturday for the first time in Somalia, reports the Somali Net online news agency. --------------------------------------------------------- Somali pirates strike again Nairobi - Gunmen on Sunday hijacked an Indian dhow with 25 crew in the high seas off Somalia's pirate-infested coastline, a maritime official said. ---------------------------------------------------------- Somali parliament meets at home - a first BAIDOA, Somalia -- Somalia's transitional parliament met in a converted grain silo on Sunday for its first session in its own country in the 19 months since it was formed in neighboring Kenya. ---------------------------------------------------------- Orphans no longer: Somali children find new home, safety in Lansing Mohamed and his sisters learn a little more English every day. They go to school; they eat until they're full. ---------------------------------------------------------- Somali president calls for deal to avert anarchy BAIDOA, Somalia, Feb 25 (Reuters) - Somalia's president urged the interim parliament on Saturday to act to stave off anarchy on the eve of its first session on home soil since one held in Kenya a year ago that was marred by fist-fights. ---------------------------------------------------------- Somali lawmakers to hold first parliamentary session at home Somali lawmakers are set to hold the first parliamentary session on the Horn of Africa country's soil in the provincial town of Baidoa on Sunday. ---------------------------------------------------------- Somali MPs look to legislate, a year after brawling BAIDOA, Somalia, Feb 24 (Reuters) - Nearly a year after they brawled, threw chairs and punches at each other in Kenya, Somalia's interim parliament is to meet inside the anarchic country for the first time. ---------------------------------------------------------- Chronology of Somalia's collapse, peace talks Feb 24 (Reuters) - Somalia's parliament will meet in the country on Feb. 26 for the first time since it was formed in Kenya more than a year ago. ---------------------------------------------------------- Somali Violence Spotlights Fundamentalists NAIROBI, Kenya -- A recent upsurge in violence in Somalia's capital has focused attention anew on the rise of Islamic fundamentalism in the chaotic Horn of Africa state. The violence had killed at least 22 people and wounded more than 140 since Saturday. ---------------------------------------------------------- Agency, Donors Discuss Prevailing Drought Situation The Disaster Prevention and Preparedness Agency as well as various donor organizations met yesterday to discuss measures which should be taken by the government to avert the prevailing drought in some pastoral zones of the Somali and Oromia states. ---------------------------------------------------------- UN Calls to Protect Somali Civilians United Nations, Feb 22 (Prensa Latina) UN officials Wednesday called on Somali leaders to protect the civilian population from the combat in Mogadiscio. ---------------------------------------------------------- Fighting Somali groups reach truce Warring Somali factions have clinched a ceasefire agreement to end days of fighting in Mogadishu that killed at least 33 people, mostly civilians, and left hundreds others wounded, elders said. ---------------------------------------------------------- Austrian Development Agency contributes euro 500,000 for polio eradication in the Somali region of Ethiopia The Austrian Development Agency has contributed Euro 500,000 to the 2006 Polio eradication activities to support vaccination campaigns and surveillance activities in the Somali Region of Ethiopia through the WHO Ethiopia Country Office. ---------------------------------------------------------- Somali warlords start peace talks The Somali capital, Mogadishu, is calm following four days of fighting between rival militias. Local leaders, including traditional elders and the city mayor, met on Tuesday to discuss ceasefire plans. ---------------------------------------------------------- Finland can begin repatriations to Somalia Finland could soon begin repatriating Somali asylum seekers, as well as Somali residents who have committed crimes in Finland. According to the Helsinki Aliens' Police, the situation in Somalia has improved so much that it will be possible to send people to all parts of the country. ---------------------------------------------------------- Somali warlords battle Islamists Supporters of some of Mogadishu's militia leaders have clashed with an armed Islamist group which says it is trying to establish law and order. Their opponents say the Islamic courts are terrorising local people. ---------------------------------------------------------- EU hails plan for Somali parliamentary session Brussels, Belgium, 02/21 - The European Union (EU) Monday welcomed the announcement that the Somali federal parliament would meet 26 February in Baidoa at an extraordinary session. ---------------------------------------------------------- Somali warlords unite to oppose Islamic extremism A group of powerful warlords controlling the Somali capital has formed a new political party whose main goal is to oppose extremism associated with hard-line Islamic courts in the lawless Horn of Africa nation, officials with ties to the party said on Tuesday. ---------------------------------------------------------- Somali public TV show to debut in Owatonna A public access channel here was scheduled Tuesday to debut a new bilingual format that will reach out to the local Somali community. ---------------------------------------------------------- Fighting rocks Somalia's capital A BBC correspondent in the city says at least five people have died after rocket-propelled grenades and anti-aircraft guns were fired. ---------------------------------------------------------- DEATH TOLL IN SOMALI CAPITAL FIGHTING CLIMBS TO 18 At least four people were killed and dozens wounded on Monday as rival factions renewed fierce fighting in the southern part of the Somali capital, bringing the death toll since clashes began at the weekend to 18, witnesses and medical said. ---------------------------------------------------------- Somali man from Twin Cities accepts position as mayor of strife-torn Mogadishu Mahomud Hassan Ali soon will give up the quiet life of being a family man and janitorial service owner in Columbia Heights to fill one of the hardest and most dangerous jobs in the world: mayor of Mogadishu. ---------------------------------------------------------- MCC worker helps Somali militias disarm Rival warlords and militias have fought each other for control of Mogadishu, Somalia's capital, since the collapse of the Somali government in 1991. Machine guns are common weapons in this violence and are often available in local markets for as little as $35 Cdn., or $30 U.S. ---------------------------------------------------------- Minnesota by far leads nation in Somali immigrants MINNEAPOLIS - Minnesota saw its third largest influx of immigrants in a quarter century in 2004, with immigrants from Somalia leading the pack. ---------------------------------------------------------- Ethiopian asylum seekers and migrants stranded in Somali port city BOSSASO, Somalia, Feb. 17 (UNHCR) – Mired in desperate poverty in Ethiopia, Fatouma Omar's parents borrowed money from friends for a high-stakes gamble and sent their teenage girl on a life-threatening journey they hoped would end in the relative wealth of an illegal job in Saudi Arabia. ---------------------------------------------------------- Somalis urged to help police catch killers A TOP policeman who is overseeing the investigation into the murder of a Somali teenager in Camden Town has urged the community to help catch suspects who fled the scene. ---------------------------------------------------------- Hijacked Indian dhow crew recounts harrowing ordeal Mombasa (Kenya): Alleged Somali pirates threatened the crew of a hijacked Indian dhow and threw their handmade "help" sign overboard when a US Navy ship fired at them before seizing the vessel, according to a testimony in a Kenyan court. ---------------------------------------------------------- Somalis die of thirst in drought An Oxfam assessment team has gathered reports of people being forced to drink their own urine to quench the desperate thirst the drought has caused ---------------------------------------------------------- Somali gunmen clash in Ethiopia, 13 die - sources MOGADISHU, Feb 16 (Reuters) - At least 13 people died when rival Somali groups fought gun battles in a remote Ethiopian village, kinsmen in nearby Somalia said on Thursday. ---------------------------------------------------------- Somalis drinking urine in drought AT least seven people have died of dehydration in Somalia over the past month as severe water shortages from a killer regional drought force many to drink their own urine, an aid agency said. ---------------------------------------------------------- Poor weather blamed for Somali boat accident Mogadishu - At least three people drowned and dozens of others were injured when their overcrowded boat capsized off the coast of southern Somalia on its way to unload food aid for drought victims, officials said on Wednesday. ---------------------------------------------------------- Somali pirates run away from U.S. Navy ship Ten Somali pirates who hijacked an Indian-based ship threw their most lethal weapons into the sea when they spotted a U.S. Navy ship, a witness told a Kenyan court Wednesday. Akbar Ali Suleiman, master of the Safina Al Bisaarat, ---------------------------------------------------------- Community Help Needed in Somali Drought Relief Somalia is one of the countries worst hit by the current drought. Nearly two million people are reported in need of urgent assistance and protection. Many livestock have died due to lack of food and water. ---------------------------------------------------------- Somali leaders vow to work together, end rifts NAIROBI, Feb 13 (Reuters) - Somalia's president, prime minister and parliamentary speaker appeared to put aside their differences on Monday and vowed to work together to end anarchy in the Horn of Africa country. ---------------------------------------------------------- Somali pirates beat Indian crew of ship-captain MOMBASA, Feb 14 (Reuters) - The captain of an Indian vessel said on Tuesday his crew was beaten and starved during a six-day hostage ordeal, in the first testimony from a prosecution witness in the trial of 10 suspected Somali pirates. ---------------------------------------------------------- Treading Into Somali's Troubled Waters Somalia, by all standards, still remains a no-go zone. There is no order in the capital, gunmen are still ruling and reigning as was evidenced a while ago by the raiding of a Bollywood films studio and intensified hijacking of ships. ---------------------------------------------------------- Somali 'food aid pirate' seized The man is alleged to be one of three people who hijacked a vessel chartered by the World Food Programme. ---------------------------------------------------------- Somali Leaders call for unity and peace for the divided City of Galka’yo President Abdulahi Yusuf Ahmed has called for Galka’yo residents to unite . He also called for the formation of one police force which can secure the City. ---------------------------------------------------------- DJIBOUTI: Drought forcing people into towns, says President Guelleh DJIBOUTIVILLE, 13 February (IRIN) - Djibouti is facing a humanitarian crisis as a result of consecutive years of drought. In an interview with IRIN on 9 February, President Ismail Omar Guelleh talked about his government's plans to contain the situation. Below are excerpts. ---------------------------------------------------------- Hyaan Hersi Ali's Contemptible Performance Hyaan Hersi Ali, is a typical Western bought – ‘supposed ’ Muslim. She is a Dutch – Somali born Member of Parliament. The Western media, led by the BBC have since yesterday, been acclaiming her as a Muslim voice, supporting the satirizing and caricaturing the Prophet Mohammed peace be upon him (PBUH), by the Jyllands Posten Danish paper, and who is in favor for republishing the 12 shameful cartoons. ---------------------------------------------------------- Top Somali leaders to heal rifts before parliament meets MOGADISHU (Reuters) - Somalia's president, prime minister and parliamentary speaker are expected to meet to mend rifts before parliament convenes for the first time in the country later this month, officials said on Thursday. ---------------------------------------------------------- AU supports Somali split Hopes of recognition for Somali-land’s 15-year independence have been raised by the favourable report of an African Union mission that visited the territory last year. ---------------------------------------------------------- FBI says imam has links to terrorism TACOMA — An FBI agent on Friday revealed in testimony that a Seattle mosque leader facing deportation on immigration charges is also the subject of an ongoing criminal investigation into whether he diverted funds from his mosque to political and terrorist groups. ---------------------------------------------------------- ICRC delivers relief to drought-hit area in Somali Region of Ethiopia Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, 02/09 - The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) has started airlifting emergency assistance materials to the drought-hit Somali Region of southeastern Ethiopia, an official of the humanitarian organisation said here Tuesday. ---------------------------------------------------------- HOOD demands investigation in Somali refugee rape cases SANA’A, Feb. 8 — Following their Feb. 4 release, several Somali refugees complained of horrific treatment they experienced in Yemeni prisons. ---------------------------------------------------------- Somali foreign minister on diplomatic offensive Dakar, Senegal, 02/08 - Foreign minister Abdullahi Sheikh Ismail of the Transitional Federal Government of Somalia on Monday expressed hope that his country, with the assistance of members of the African Union and the international community, would soon emerge from its current state of disorder with a well-entrenched government. ---------------------------------------------------------- Killers of BBC journalist in Somalia "enjoy impunity" NAIROBI, Feb 8 (Reuters) - The investigation into the murder of BBC producer Kate Peyton in Mogadishu a year ago has gone nowhere and her killers live openly in the Somali capital, an international press freedom group said on Wednesday. ---------------------------------------------------------- Somalis protest over death during police raid MORE than 600 people took to the streets of Plumstead last weekend to protest over the death of a 22-year-old Somali man. ---------------------------------------------------------- Somali shops damaged after shooting AT least 30 spaza shops were damaged when clashes broke out between residents of an informal Knysna settlement and Somali storekeepers, after one of the immigrants reportedly shot an 18-year-old suspected robber in a scuffle. ---------------------------------------------------------- SOMALIA: Six killed in clash over land in Somaliland HARGEYSA, 6 February (IRIN) - At least six people were killed and more than 30 injured when rival Somali clans clashed over land on the outskirts of Hargeysa, the capital of the self-declared republic of Somaliland. ---------------------------------------------------------- The crisis of Somali fugitives to Yemen When the Somali civil war broke out in 1991, most of the Somalis fled to neighbouring countries, such as Kenya and Yemen where they remained as refugees. Since then, a great number of Somalis has illegally infiltrated into Yemen without being registered, for there are many outlets along the coastline which the guard coast authorities cannot control. ---------------------------------------------------------- Somali President met Officials from Ethiopia and AU in Galka’yo The aim of this meeting is said about how to find a solution to the rift which has recently developed between President Yusuf and Prime Minister Ali Mohamed Gedi. ---------------------------------------------------------- DBG train Somali volunteers for nuclear waste protection 13 Somali volunteers have attended the training in DBG centre, which provided by foreign experts who came into the country to help Somalis the knowledge of keeping an eye on Nuclear toxic waste dumping into their coast ---------------------------------------------------------- Somali women form group to help other refugees A group of Somali women in Winnipeg have banded together to fight the language and culture barriers they say shut them out of refugee services. ---------------------------------------------------------- U.S.caught Somali pirate suspects plead innocence MOMBASA, Kenya, Feb 3 (Reuters) - Ten suspected Somali pirates captured by the U.S. Navy last month pleaded their innocence on Friday at the start of a trial intended to deter rampant piracy off the lawless Horn of Africa nation. ---------------------------------------------------------- Somali project is launched A national project to improve the lives of one of Wales' most disadvantaged ethnic communities is to be launched. ---------------------------------------------------------- Leaders of Aden Declaration for Somali reconciliation postpone parliament meeting to 26 Feb While the city of Baidoa was decided as venue for convening a key meeting of he Transitional Federal Parliament of Somalia (TFP), the president of the Somali Republic AbdullahYusuf Ahmed and speaker of the TFP Sherif Hassan Sheikh Aden announced here today postponement of the parliament meeting until 26 February. ---------------------------------------------------------- Somali gives up fight against deportation Omar Abdi Mohamed, a Somali community leader who successfully battled allegations that he was a conduit for terrorist funds but ultimately was convicted of immigration crimes, gave up his fight against deportation yesterday. ---------------------------------------------------------- Somali PM criticizes decision on parliament meeting MOGADISHU, Jan 31 (Reuters) - Prime Minister Mohamed Ali Gedi criticized on Tuesday a decision on where and when to convene parliament for the first time in Somalia since it was formed in 2004, saying he had not been consulted. --------------------------------------------------------- Four Kenyans starve to death at a Somali town At least four Kenyans are said to have starved to death at a Somali border town in the last two days.The Kenyans are believed to be among over 30,000 pastoralists who crossed from Wajir to the war-torn Somalia in pursuit of water and pasture. --------------------------------------------------------- 60 Somali nationals charged Over sixty Somali nationals were Tuesday arraigned in a Mwingi court and charged with being in the country unlawfully. The Somali nationals were arrested over the weekend at a police roadblock near Mwingi town aboard a bus from Garissa heading to Nairobi. --------------------------------------------------------- Somali pirates release hijacked ships Nairobi - Somali pirates have released three Taiwanese fishing vessels they hijacked last year after being paid $450 000 (about R275 000), a shipping official said on Monday. --------------------------------------------------------- UN welcomes Somali leaders' plan to meet at home NAIROBI, Jan. 30 (Xinhuanet) -- Top United Nations envoy to Somalia on Monday welcomed the Somali leaders' decision to convene parliament for the first time on home soil in the southwestern town of Baidoa. --------------------------------------------------------- UN envoy for Somalia calls on all sides to unite ahead of February meeting 30 January 2006 – Welcoming an historic decision by Somali leaders to convene parliament for the first time inside the country on 26 February, the UN’s top envoy for Somalia today called on all sides to put the interests of the nation first and work together to rebuild the devastated country. ---------------------------------------------------------- U.S. navy hands over suspected Somali pirates to Kenya NAIROBI, 01/30 - The United States navy has handed over suspected Somali pirates it captured off the coast of Somalia after firing warning shots at their ship a week ago, in the first sign of a military crackdown on Somalia`s anarchic coastal waters. ---------------------------------------------------------- Five killed in Somalia in clash over export fuel NAIROBI, Jan 29 (Reuters) - Five people were killed in fighting on Sunday between two Somali sub-clans over control of land where trees are burnt for charcoal for export, a militia grouping said. ---------------------------------------------------------- Aid plea for Somalia drought victims A severe drought in and around Somalia has left up to 2.1 million people in urgent need of assistance, a group monitoring food availability in the region has reported. ---------------------------------------------------------- US urges Somali unity Nairobi - The US this week urged lawless Somalia's fractious leaders to unite in rare personal appeals to members of the country's deeply divided transitional government, including Mogadishu warlords, say reports on Friday. ---------------------------------------------------------- Taiwanese shippers to pay ransom for Pinoy crewmen CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY -- The owners of the Taiwanese vessels are now willing to pay the US$500,000 ransom demanded by Somali rebels who are holding 12 Filipino crewmembers hostage, the Department of Foreign Affairs said. ---------------------------------------------------------- Somali pirates free fishing vessel Somali pirates have released one of four fishing boats from Taiwan, China hijacked last year off the Horn of Africa nation's coast, a maritime official confirmed on Friday. ---------------------------------------------------------- SOMALIA: Multisector approach needed to combat southern crisis NAIROBI, 27 January (IRIN) - Humanitarian agencies should employ a "twin-track" approach that addresses both the immediate and medium-term needs of vulnerable Somali populations in order to prevent the creation of relief-dependent communities, the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization's Food Security Analysis Unit (FSAU) Somalia has said. ---------------------------------------------------------- Somali pirate demands release of US-captured comrades MOGADISHU, Jan 27 (Reuters) - A Somali pirate has demanded the release of "comrades" captured by the U.S. Navy last week, threatening to kill hostages in the future if the call was not heeded, according to media reports on Friday. ---------------------------------------------------------- Somali refugees pin hopes on camel-herding - in snowy Norway OSLO Jan. 26 (UNHCR) – Camels are rare in Norway, mostly seen in papier-mâché form during Christmas pageants, but a group of Somali refugees resettled in the Norwegian countryside is now hoping to keep as many as 20 of the humped animals. ---------------------------------------------------------- Somali political apathy - survey The Newport Somali Association carried out a fact-finding mission on the services needed by Somalis in the city. ---------------------------------------------------------- Fishing boat hijacked by Somali rebels released A Taiwan fishing boat hijacked by Somali rebel militias around five months ago has been released, foreign affairs spokesman Michel Lu said yesterday. ---------------------------------------------------------- Pirates hijack UAE ship off Somalia, hold 20 crew LONDON, Jan 25 (Reuters) - Armed pirates have renewed attacks on merchant ships off Somalia, hijacking one and holding 20 of its crew hostage, an ocean crime watchdog said on Wednesday. ---------------------------------------------------------- Somali people die from hunger inside Saudi prison At least five people have been reported dead and hundreds in bad conditions for hunger and maltreatment at temporary detention centres for foreign people in Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. ---------------------------------------------------------- African leaders to seek peacekeepers in Somalia The African Union will call on the United Nations to make an exception in its arms embargo on Somalia to allow foreign peacekeepers into the country to help the interim government, Reuters reported quoting a draft AU resolution yesterday. ---------------------------------------------------------- SOMALIA: Top leaders endorse reconciliation plan NAIROBI, 23 January (IRIN) - A Mogadishu-based group of Somali political leaders has endorsed an agreement that encourages reconciliation between the various groups in the country's transitional government. ---------------------------------------------------------- 'You can't eat peace' Tens of thousands of desperate Somalis have converged on Mogadishu over the past two months, abandoning their homes in the lawless nation's drought-stricken south and centre to beg for food in the capital as famine looms across East Africa. ---------------------------------------------------------- SOMALI GUNMEN SLAY THREE MILITARY Unknown gunmen shot and killed three former Somali military and police officers killed over the weekend in separate incidents in the country's lawless capital Mogadishu, in what is believed to clan-related violence, police said. ---------------------------------------------------------- US Navy captures suspected pirates off Somali coast DUBAI (Reuters) - U.S. Navy vessels pursued a suspected pirate ship in the Indian Ocean off Somalia's coast and fired warning shots to capture its crew on Saturday, U.S. Navy Forces Central Command said. ---------------------------------------------------------- Somalia says needs foreign peacekeepers KHARTOUM, Jan 21 (Reuters) - Somalia urgently needs international peacekeepers to enable its fledgling government to function properly and help train its own security forces, the country's foreign minister said on Saturday. ---------------------------------------------------------- Common Ground: Why Muslims hate the U.S.? SEATTLE, Jan. 20 (UPI) -- I was surprised recently when I was going to downtown Seattle. A friend of mine working there told me, "Here is the place we observe Friday prayers." The fact that he was a pious, white American Muslim was pretty surprising; but what made me more surprised was the place he showed me: it was not a mosque, but a church! ---------------------------------------------------------- Drought, food shortage wracks Somalia NAIROBI, Kenya -- An agency responsible for monitoring food availability in Somalia declared a humanitarian emergency Thursday, reporting that an extreme drought has left 1.75 million people in need of assistance. ---------------------------------------------------------- 1.75 million in need of assistance in Somalia NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — An agency responsible for monitoring the availability of food in Somalia declared a humanitarian emergency in the Horn of Africa country, reporting that an extreme drought has left 1.75 million people in need of assistance. ---------------------------------------------------------- SOMALIA: Experts warn of humanitarian emergency in the south NAIROBI, 19 January (IRIN) - At least 1.7 million people in Somalia are in urgent need of humanitarian assistance following the failure of rains in 2005, the Food Security Analysis Unit (FSAU) of the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization warned on Thursday. ---------------------------------------------------------- The pirate attacks that threaten the lives of Somalia's poor The first bullet cracked the ship's operating console. The second came through the window of the bridge, from where the captain could see the intruders advancing across the green metal covers of the cargo deck, AK-47s in their hands. ---------------------------------------------------------- SOMALIA: Boat missing as more migrants leave for Yemen NAIROBI, 17 Jan 2006 (IRIN) - A boat carrying 110 Somali and Ethiopian migrants destined for Yemen went missing after leaving the northeastern coast of Somalia on Monday, according to sources in the port of Bosasso. ---------------------------------------------------------- Fighting eases in Somali port city after 14 killed MOGADISHU, Jan 17 (Reuters) - Fighting between rival militias for control of Somalia's port city of Kismayo eased on Tuesday, with hospital sources and residents saying 14 people were killed during the three days of clashes. ---------------------------------------------------------- Somali leaders to work together Somali President Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed and the speaker of the Transitional Federal Government of Somalia Sharif Hassan Sheikh have agreed to work together towards sustained peace and unity in Somalia. ---------------------------------------------------------- US Diplomat Praises Yemen for Somali Peace Deal SANA'A – The US ambassador to Yemen has praised Yemen’s efforts in reconciling the varied Somali factions during a meeting with Foreign Minister Abu Baker al-Qerbi. ---------------------------------------------------------- 41 Somali refugees arrested Police in Karonga have arrested twenty eight (28) Somali citizens who entered the country using Tanzanian passports. ---------------------------------------------------------- Famine threat numbers soar in Africa The number of people threatened by famine in drought-hit east Africa has soared by about two million as conditions continue to deteriorate in Ethiopia and Kenya. ---------------------------------------------------------- Nine killed in Somalia militia fighting MOGADISHU, Jan 16 (Reuters) - At least nine people have died in heavy fighting between rival militias over the control of Somalia's port city of Kismayo, residents said on Monday. ---------------------------------------------------------- Somali leaders in Kenya to resolve differences NAIROBI, Jan. 15 (Xinhuanet) -- Rival Somali leaders who early this year signed a pact to end disputes between them over the location of the transitional federal government are in Kenya for a key meeting aimed at furthering reconciliation. ---------------------------------------------------------- Faith fills vacuum in land of clansx Mogadishu: Fear is rational. As long as one is anonymous death can only be an accident. It is superfluous to fear an accident in a minefield: the mine has nothing personal against you. ---------------------------------------------------------- Ethiopian PM holds talks with Somali president ADDIS ABABA, Jan. 14 (Xinhuanet) -- Ethiopian Prime Minister MelesZenawi on Saturday held talks with visiting Somali President Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed on ways of strengthening bilateral relations between the two Horn of Africa countries. ---------------------------------------------------------- New clashes kill dozens in lawless Somalia NAIROBI (Reuters) - Separate clashes between rival militias have killed dozens of people in Somalia, highlighting insecurity in the country which has been without a functioning government since 1991, residents said on Friday. ---------------------------------------------------------- Somali refugees face threats at Kurland SOMALI spaza shop owners in Kurland Village near Plettenberg Bay fear for their lives after community members threatened to kill them if they did not close their businesses and move out of the area. --------------------------------------------------------- MOFA is hopeful over release of fishermen held in Somalia The negotiation process for the release of three Taiwanese fishing vessels hijacked last August by Somali insurgents is "one step away from completion," said an official of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, adding that the crew as well as the fishing boatsremain unharmed. ----------------------------------------------------------- Rival Somali clans fight for land The Saad and Suleman sub-clans have been fighting for months in the arid central Mudug and Galgudud regions. ----------------------------------------------------------- Gov't Takes Measure to Control Somali Drought Measures were being taken to control the drought in the Somali State as over 133,000 quintals of food aid was apportioned among the affected people for the last Ethiopian month, (Tahisas), the Disaster Prevention and Preparedness Agency said. ----------------------------------------------------------- US pats Somali rivals over `unity accord` Nairobi, Kenya, 01/10 - The United States Monday said it was "heartened" by the `Aden Declaration` rival Somali factions reached last week, the first concrete political truce reached by the rival Somali leaders since stepping into the country. ----------------------------------------------------------- US 'heartened' by Somali political agreement NAIROBI (Reuters) - The United States welcomed on Monday an agreement by Somalia's leaders to try and end a rift in the anarchic African nation it failed to pacify in the 1990s. ----------------------------------------------------------- US lauds agreement reached by Somali leaders in Yemen NAIROBI, Jan. 9 (Xinhuanet) -- The United States on Monday welcomed the "Aden Declaration" reached by rival Somali factions last week, the first concrete political cease-fire reached by the leaders of the Horn of Africa nation since relocating nearly a year ago. ----------------------------------------------------------- Somali leaders sign peace pact to end rifts SANAA, Jan. 5 (Xinhuanet) -- Somalia's interim President Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed and Parliament Speaker Sharif Hassan Adan signed a pact in Yemen on Thursday to end their rifts and unify the country's fractured transitional government, according to press reports in Yemen. ----------------------------------------------------------- Somali leaders, Columbus officials discuss police shooting COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — Leaders of the local Somali community and city officials are looking for ways to resolve tension that arose when a sheriff’s deputy shot and killed a Somali man. ----------------------------------------------------------- Starvation looms in African Horn The FAO says Somalia has been worst hit by a drought in the region, where 2m need urgent food aid. The harvest there could be the lowest in a decade. ----------------------------------------------------------- Deal for MPs to meet in Somalia Rival political leaders have signed a deal they hope will reunite Somalia after 15 years of division. Under the agreement, the transitional parliament will assemble in the next 30 days for the first time on Somali soil. ----------------------------------------------------------- Teachers learn as they teach Somalis BEAVERTON -- Teacher Kim Miller opens the picture book showing elephants grazing on a dry savanna. ----------------------------------------------------------- Somali leaders to end rift, no word on govt move ADEN, Yemen (Reuters) - Somalia's president and parliamentary speaker agreed on Thursday to end a rift that has paralysed the anarchic nation, but a final declaration signed by the leaders did not mention where the government would be based. ----------------------------------------------------------- Noted Somali writer charged with molesting girl 10 years ago MINNEAPOLIS - A noted Somali writer will plead not guilty to charges that he molested a 10-year-old girl here ten years ago, his attorney said Wednesday ----------------------------------------------------------- Somalia rivals do government deal The talks, taking place in Yemen, have been led by Somalia's president and the parliamentary speaker, allied to armed militias controlling the capital. ----------------------------------------------------------- Somali Phone Firms Reject US Company Bids A storm is brewing among mobile telephone operators in Somaliland after the Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications entered into a deal with an American firm to install a gateway system. ----------------------------------------------------------- Somali government set to relocate The president and speaker, who have been in dispute over the issue, initialled an agreement which could be finalised in Yemen on Wednesday. ----------------------------------------------------------- Somali phone firms reject US company bids A storm is brewing among mobile telephone operators in Somaliland after the Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications entered into a deal with an American firm to install a gateway system. ----------------------------------------------------------- YEMEN: Rights activists demand release of Somali refugees SANA, 3 January (IRIN) - Human Rights activists on Tuesday demanded the release of 38 Somali refugees, in detention since mid-December for staging a month-long protest in front of UN refugee agency UNCHR's offices in the capital, Sana. ----------------------------------------------------------- Rival Somali leaders have initial deal on govt move ADEN, Yemen (Reuters) - Somalia's president and parliament speaker have agreed in principle to move the government to Mogadishu, which could end a rift that has almost paralysed the administration, Yemeni officials said on Tuesday. ----------------------------------------------------------- WFP delivers relief food to Somalia with new sea routes NAIROBI, Jan. 3 (Xinhuanet) -- The World Food Program (WFP) is now using new sea routes to deliver relief food to more than 2 million Somalis faced with famine, WFP Deputy Country Director Leo van der Velden has said. ----------------------------------------------------------- Somali Bantu parents of New Year's baby plan for future (Columbia) January 2, 2006 - A new year means a new beginning for many people, but for one baby boy, it's his birthday. Barely two days old, it seems Abdul Nur entered the world destined to be first. He's the first baby born in Columbia this year, and the first American-born child to Somali Bantu refugees. ----------------------------------------------------------- Activists in Yemen call for release of Somali refugees from prison Yemeni human rights activists have called today for the release of 38 Somali refugees, who were jailed about two weeks ago for staging protests in front of the United Nations High Commission for Refugees’ office in Sanaa. ----------------------------------------------------------- Somali pirates new threat to UN food aid Acts of piracy are increasing in the seas off Somalia. In the past nine months alone, there have been 26 hijackings of international ships and one attempt to board an American-based cruise liner. ----------------------------------------------------------- Somali community protesting police shooting of mentally ill man COLUMBUS, Ohio - Somali immigrants who say they came to America seeking peace rallied by the hundreds Friday outside City Hall as they demanded answers in the fatal police shooting of a man they said was mentally ill. ----------------------------------------------------------- Drought-hit East Africa faces acute hunger-monitor NAIROBI, Dec 30 (Reuters) - Millions of people in Ethiopia, Kenya, and Somalia who need pasture and water for their livestock face acute food shortages because of poor rains, a U.S.-based monitoring unit said on Friday. ----------------------------------------------------------- Alleged scheme prompts IRS to audit Somali-born taxpayers ST. PAUL - The Internal Revenue Service is auditing hundreds of Somali-born taxpayers nine months after a Somali tax preparer was indicted on tax fraud charges. ----------------------------------------------------------- Anger over Somali immigrant's shooting An Ohio sheriff's deputy has shot and killed a mentally ill Somali immigrant who lunged at officers with a knife as they tried to take him to a psychiatric centre, authorities say. ----------------------------------------------------------- Special report: The impact of piracy on livelihoods and food security in Somalia Increased piracy off the coast of Somalia is negatively affecting livelihoods, especially in the south where food security conditions are critical. Piracy is hampering both commercial and humanitarian shipping, which accounts for the majority of the countries imports. ----------------------------------------------------------- Somali shot to death by deputy in Ohio COLUMBUS, Ohio -- A deputy shot a mentally ill African immigrant to death when he allegedly lunged with a knife at officers who had come to take him to a psychiatric center, authorities said. ----------------------------------------------------------- Alert as Somali drought deepens A US emergency famine alert has also been issued for some 2m Somali speakers in northeast Kenya and south Ethiopia. ----------------------------------------------------------- China provides six million US dollars' economic aid to Somalia Chinese Ambassador to Kenya Guo Chongli, on behalf of the Chinese government in Jowhar, Somalia on Monday signed several agreements with Somali President Abdulahi Yusuf Ahmed, providing over 6 million US dollars economic aid to Somalia. ----------------------------------------------------------- Somali tsunami victims languish SOMALIS SAID prayers in mosques along their Indian Ocean coastline for more than 30,000 survivors left homeless and without livelihoods by the tsunami that traversed the sea from Asia. ----------------------------------------------------------- Somalia demands Yemen’s release of refugees before Aden summit The Somali government demanded from the Yemeni authorities to release the Somali refugees arrested by the authorities a few days ago as a precondition before it could officially participate in the Aden Summit to be held on Wednesday. ----------------------------------------------------------- Somali capital gets local council There has been increasing tension between politicians based in Mogadishu, and the president and prime minister based in Jowhar, to the north. ----------------------------------------------------------- UNHCRclarifies its stance UNHCR is deeply saddened by the tragic death of a man with unknown identity and injuries sustained by five Somali demonstrators and four Yemeni policemen outside UNHCR's office in Sana's on Saturday 17 December, when Yemen's anti riot forces had to intervene to disperse an increasingly aggressive and violent crowd. The crowd- varying from 50-300 people had been demonstrating- at times violently- since 13 November, despite ongoing efforts to reach a peaceful solution. ----------------------------------------------------------- New administration installed in Somali capital MOGADISHU, Somalia (AP) -- Warlords and civilians installed a council Sunday to govern Somalia's capital, an action that further fragments the nation but that could bring the city under the control of a single group after 14 years of anarchy. ----------------------------------------------------------- Check warms the hearts of Somali Bantu immigrants The $2,000 check came at a good time for Portland's new Somali Bantu immigrant community, which knows desert heat backwards and forwards but is stung by Portland's cold snaps. ----------------------------------------------------------- Somali leaders question teen's arrest for school bomb threat Leaders of Portland's Somali community said Wednesday that a 19-year-old immigrant and Portland High School graduate was wrongly charged with calling a bomb threat into the school. ----------------------------------------------------------- SOMALIA: First police academy opens in the northeast ARMO, 21 December (IRIN) - Hamdi Hershi Mohamed, a 17-year-old female police cadet, was among the 150 recruits marching on Tuesday around the compound of the newly opened police academy at Armo, northeastern Somalia. ----------------------------------------------------------- Concern over protest casualities in Yemen, Egypt Yemen: UNHCR is deeply saddened by the death of a Somali man and injuries suffered by another five Somali demonstrators and four Yemeni policemen following an incident Saturday outside our office in Sana'a, where police dispersed an increasingly aggressive crowd that had been there since 13 November despite ongoing efforts to reach a solution. ----------------------------------------------------------- National security concerns cited A federal judge took the unusual step yesterday of tripling the suggested sentence for a Somali community leader convicted of immigration crimes, saying the harsher sentence was justified because of national security concerns. ----------------------------------------------------------- Somali police recruits hope to end anarchy Armo, Somalia - Leaders of Somalia's largely powerless transitional government gathered here Tuesday to inaugurate a new police academy, the country's first in decades, aimed at training recruits to help restore order in the Horn of Africa nation. ----------------------------------------------------------- Children and animals die in Somali drought Mogadishu, Somalia - Hunger blamed on drought across southern Somalia has claimed the lives of both humans and livestock, aid groups and villagers say. ----------------------------------------------------------- Somali Journalists Union Wins International Award The National Union of Somali Journalists (NUSOJ) has been awarded the Reporters Without Borders - Fondation de France Prize. ----------------------------------------------------------- YEMEN: Somali refugee sit-in gets violent SANA, 18 December (IRIN) - A month-long sit-in staged by Somali refugees in Yemen turned violent on Saturday when security forces clashed with demonstrators demanding resettlement in the United States or Canada. ----------------------------------------------------------- Somali sub-clans fight over trees, seven die MOGADISHU (Reuters) - At least seven people have died in gunfights between two sub-clans during a dispute over whether to burn trees for charcoal in the southwest of lawless Somala, residents and hospital sources said on Sunday. ----------------------------------------------------------- Somali killed as Yemen police end refugee protest SANAA, Dec 17 (Reuters) - One Somali refugee was killed and four injured in a clash on Saturday with Yemeni police who moved in to break up a month-long sit-in outside a U.N. agency office, Yemen's official news agency Saba reported. ----------------------------------------------------------- UN official warns Somali warlords against blocking food aid Nairobi, Kenya, 12/16 - UN Secretary-General`s Special Representative for Somalia, Francois Lonseny Fall, Thursday warned Somali warlords against interfering with the delivery of aid to starving populations in Central and Southern Somalia. ----------------------------------------------------------- Arrest made in car theft that resulted in Somali woman's death MINNEAPOLIS - Minneapolis police have arrested an 18-year-old man in the death of a Somali woman who was hit during a car theft last week. ----------------------------------------------------------- Radio Journalist Comes Out of Hiding Following Somali Government Intervention Reporters Without Borders has welcomed the news that Awale Jama Salad, the editor of privately-owned radio STN FM, has been able to come out of hiding and resume his normal life and work after intervention by the Transitional Federal Government (TFG). ----------------------------------------------------------- Somalis object to autopsy of woman When Lul Ibrahim died Monday evening, more than three dozen family members and friends demanded that authorities turn over her body to them that night. ----------------------------------------------------------- SOMALIA: Primary attendance lowest in the world - UNICEF NAIROBI, 15 December (IRIN) - Only one out of every five children in Somalia is enrolled in primary school, the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) said in its State of the World's Children report for 2006. ----------------------------------------------------------- SOMALIA: UN LAUNCHES 174 MILLION DOLLAR AID APPEAL New York, 15 Dec. (AKI) - The United Nations has launched a 174 million dollar appeal to address the critical humanitarian needs of Somalia, the strife-torn Horn of Africa country where an estimated 1 million people are in need of urgent assistance, including 345,000 in a state of “acute food and livelihood crisis.” ----------------------------------------------------------- For Somali children, every minute in school counts In the run-up to the State of the World's Children 2006 report launch on December 14, 2005, UNICEF's focus is on highlighting the lives of children who are excluded and invisible as a result of armed conflict, poverty, HIV/AIDS, discrimination and inequalities. Read below the story of Murayo Badel Ibrahim, 11, who lives in a displaced persons' camp in Northeast Somalia ('Puntland'). ----------------------------------------------------------- Mombasa wants armed UN patrols to protect ships in Somali waters Insecurity along the East African Coastline topped the agenda at a regional maritime summit held Nairobi barely two weeks after the Somali transitional government contracted a US-based company to fight piracy. ----------------------------------------------------------- SOMALIA: ICG calls for increased efforts to counter terrorism threat NAIROBI, 13 December (IRIN) - The international community should counter the threat of terrorism in Somalia by helping the country to restore peace and establish a broad-based government, the International Crisis Group (ICG) said in a report on Monday. ----------------------------------------------------------- Somalia's Islamists December 2005: Efforts to counter the threat of jihadi Islamism in Somalia will backfire unless international actors embrace Somali priorities – the restoration of peace, a legitimate government and essential services. ----------------------------------------------------------- Somali State to Offer Special Incentives to Investors in Livestock Trade Chief Administrator of the Somali State Abdulahi Hassen said the state government would give special incentives to investors who engage in livestock trade. ----------------------------------------------------------- Muslim kids harrassed by SDPD at library The San Diego Independent Media Center (SDIMC): The following serious incident of racist profiling and anti-Muslim sentiment was observed by Copwatchers Muhammed Abdullah and s t a r r last Wednesday night at the Malcolm X Library: ----------------------------------------------------------- Forum to focus on news coverage of Somali community Forum to focus on news coverage of Somali community The Minnesota News Council will hold a public forum on news coverage of the Somali community at 6:30 p.m. Wednesday at Hamline University in St. Paul. ----------------------------------------------------------- U.S. Welcomes Somali Efforts To Establish Effective Governance The United States says it welcomes recent efforts by members of Somalia's parliament, backed by civil society, to bring reconciliation among Somali leaders. ----------------------------------------------------------- Ship Evades Capture By Somali Pirates A ship has narrowly escaped being hijacked by pirates in northern Somalia. The vessel, mv Sirchai Petroleum II, was said to be on its way to deliver fuel to fishing vessels in southern Somalia on Monday morning. ----------------------------------------------------------- Somalia, U.S. told to work together Former Somali Prime Minister Ali Galaydh, right, answered a question, while Dr. Elmi Ahmed Duale, the permanent representative of Somalia to the United Nations, took notes. Galaydh teaches at the Humphrey Institute for Public Affairs. ----------------------------------------------------------- Somali pirates may have hijacked another ship NAIROBI, Dec. 7 (Xinhuanet) -- An unidentified merchant ship may have been hijacked by Somali gunmen in the pirate-infested waters off the Horn of African nation, a Kenyan maritime official has disclosed. ----------------------------------------------------------- Rival Somali regions swap prisoners of war NAIROBI, Dec 6 (Reuters) - Rival Somali enclaves have swapped 36 prisoners captured during a short short war last year, in a sign that reconciliation efforts are making progress, mediators said on Tuesday. ----------------------------------------------------------- 'War zone' label for Somali coast spells huge losses for Mombasa The Kenyan port of Mombasa is scrambling to counter an international campaign to have the Somali Coast declared a "war zone" by shipping organisations, a move which could cost the facility billions of shillings every year. ----------------------------------------------------------- Somalia Refugees Living In North Texas There are thousands of refugees from Africa living in north Texas. In southeast Fort Worth, refugees from Somalia are living together in one apartment community. ----------------------------------------------------------- Somali pirates force aid detour The World Food Programme has delivered food aid from Kenya to Somalia by road because ship-owners are too worried about pirates to risk their vessels. Fourteen trucks have arrived in the southern Somali town of Wajid after a 1,200km trip from the port of Mombasa. ----------------------------------------------------------- ETHIOPIA: Lack of rain in the eastern Somali region ADDIS ABABA, 5 December (IRIN) - Critical rains have failed in eastern Ethiopia, raising fears for vulnerable pastoral communities already living under precarious circumstances, aid organisations warned on Friday. ----------------------------------------------------------- Paraplegic aids Somali refugees FORT WORTH — The children in their hand-me-down clothes like to stop and high-five Charles Hamilton as he maneuvers his wheelchair around their apartment complex in southeast Fort Worth.“How you doin’?” he’ll ask in typical Texas style. ----------------------------------------------------------- Faction jails Somali journalist for `arms deal` report Dakar, Senegal, 12/03 - The Jubba Valley Alliance, a Somali warring faction, has detained a local journalist since Monday for a story claiming it has been importing arms in violation of the 2004 peace agreement and a UN arms embargo, according to the National Union of Somali Journalists (NUSOJ). ----------------------------------------------------------- Ethiopia tests dead pigeons for bird flu Ethiopian authorities are testing hundreds of pigeons reported to have died recently in the eastern part of the country and some near the capital for a possible outbreak of avian flu, an official has said. ----------------------------------------------------------- UN says AIDS infection in Somalia can be averted Lawless Somalia still has an opportunity to be one of the few countries in Sub-Saharan Africa to avert an HIV/AIDS epidemic of major proportions, the United Nations said Thursday. ----------------------------------------------------------- Somali family with 10 children hopes to find a handicapped-accessible home Manchester — The sun rises outside Ibrahim Mohamed’s apartment to the soft hissing of the kitchen gas stove and six of his children gently unstrapping their 9-year-old sister from her leg braces in the living room. ----------------------------------------------------------- Somalia: Emergency - New school rises from the tsunami The new Learning Centre in Hafun, North East Somalia. ('Puntland'). Hafun was the area worst affected by the Tsunami of 2004. UNICEF supported the construction of a six-room school, an office, storeroom and community centre. ----------------------------------------------------------- The Politics of the Somali Pirate Hunt December 1, 2005: The proposed cure for the Somali pirate problem has some interesting undertones. An American security firm has been hired, for two years, to patrol the Somali coast and eliminate the pirates. They will probably get some help from the U.S. government. ----------------------------------------------------------- Winter means different adjustments for Somali immigrants MINNEAPOLIS - There's good news for Minnesotans: Long-range weather predictions indicate this winter will bring temperatures slightly above average. ----------------------------------------------------------- Somali pirates release Kenyan ship Somali pirates have released a Kenyan ship with 10 crew after being holding it for nearly a month. ----------------------------------------------------------- Dissident Somali MPs urge talks to end govt rift NAIROBI (Reuters) - Dissident Somali lawmakers in Mogadishu have offered their political foes in Jowhar, Somalia's makeshift capital, a round of talks aimed at ending a rift that has all but paralysed the year-old government. ----------------------------------------------------------- SOMALIA: IGAD calls for the lifting of arms embargo NAIROBI, 30 November (IRIN) - The subregional body that brokered Somalia's reconciliation process has called for the lifting of a UN arms embargo on that country to enable its transitional federal government (TFG) to establish security institutions. ------------------------------------------------------------ City lands Somali book collection More than 100 books in the Somali language - which has only had a written form since 1972 - have been collected by Cardiff Library. Librarians have gathered the books in order to serve the 8,000-strong Somali community in Cardiff. ------------------------------------------------------------ Rybak picks Somali man for Library Board As an immigrant from Somalia in 1994, Hussein Samatar quickly learned about public libraries when he went looking for help with learning English. ------------------------------------------------------------ Somali pirates free Kenyan vessel Pirates have released a Kenyan-owned freighter hijacked last month off the Somali coast. The gunmen released the MV Torgelow after tribal leaders intervened to free the ship and its crew of 10. ------------------------------------------------------------ Donors, Somalis discuss efforts to re-build lawless nation NAIROBI, Nov. 28 (Xinhuanet) -- A United Nations-led international meeting to map out reconstruction in Somalia discussed efforts to rebuild the war-torn Horn of Africa nation, officials said Monday in Kenyan capital Nairobi. ------------------------------------------------------------ Ban on khat possible after poll of drug's Somali users The home secretary, Charles Clarke, is to consider banning the chewing of khat leaves in Britain after research showed that half the Somali community want to see the drug outlawed. ------------------------------------------------------------ Somali pirates release Ukrainian ship, crew The Ukrainian-owned freighter Panagia and its 22-member Ukrainian crew were hijacked October 18 while steaming from South Africa to Eastern Europe with a cargo of 14,000 tons of iron ore. ------------------------------------------------------------ Boost for bid to make khat illegal Moves to ban the drug "khat", which is currently legal in Britain, received a boost from a Government survey. Almost half of 600 interviewees from the Somali community - where khat use is most prominent - supported it being made illegal. ------------------------------------------------------------ Refuge welcome program helps Somali students fit in Omar Mohamed knows that "'S'up" is the standard greeting of teens and can eloquently tell you how the movie "Hotel Rwanda" affected him. ------------------------------------------------------------ US firm to fight Somali pirates A US company has been given a two-year contract to help fight piracy off the Somalia coast - seen as among the world's most dangerous waters. The $50m contract has been awarded by Somalia's transitional government. ------------------------------------------------------------ UNHCR, Yemeni government start registering Somali refugees [25/11/2005] (NewsYemen) Nov 25, Sanaa – Following a 12-day sit-in in front of the United Nations High Commission for Refugees office in Sanaa, Somalis refugees are having their names registered in six centers in Sanaa in an effort by UNHCR and the Yemeni government to sort their problems. ------------------------------------------------------------ Refugees reborn in Pittsburgh More than a decade ago, he ran away from his home in Somalia by walking for 15 days to a refugee camp in bordering Kenya. For food and water, he stripped leaves from trees and eagerly lapped from muddy puddles of rainwater. ------------------------------------------------------------ No Skepticism: Somali Refugees are Neglected Refugees are people who have crossed an international border to flee persecution. For this reason, it is hoped the host country and any non-governmental organizations that they deal with will treat them with consideration, due to the hardships the refugees have undergone. However, at the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees office in Sana’a, it would appear that this is not the case. ------------------------------------------------------------ Int'l donors to discuss Somalia's reconstruction NAIROBI, Nov. 23 (Xinhuanet) -- Somalis and international community began a four-day meeting in Nairobi on Wednesday in unique effort to complement peace building with reconstruction and development assistance. ------------------------------------------------------------ Somali gang linked to PC murder POLICE investigating the shooting of a police constable in West Yorkshire believe those responsible belong to a Somali gang based in London ------------------------------------------------------------ SOMALIA: Three children killed in fire at IDP camp HARGEYSA, 23 November (IRIN) - At least three children were burnt to death when flames swept through an internally displaced persons (IDP) camp on the outskirts of the Somali capital, Mogadishu, early this week. ------------------------------------------------------------ Somali migrants shambles LABOUR has failed to deport up to 10,000 asylum rejects from Somalia, new figures show. Just 465 failed asylum seekers from the war-torn African country have left since 1997. ------------------------------------------------------------ Yemen: large-scale refugee registration to start shortly by UN agency 22 November 2005 – To better protect and assist them, the Government of Yemen and the United Nations refugee agency are about to begin a large-scale operation to register thousands of refugees in Yemen, most of whom have crossed the Gulf of Aden to flee the long-term unrest in Somalia, the agency announced today. ------------------------------------------------------------ Attention focuses on Somali community Each new immigrant community entering Britain brings its particular cultural mores and networks. Unfortunately, police have found each attracts and provides a convenient cover for its own criminal fringe. ------------------------------------------------------------ Piracy warnings issued for Somali coast NAIROBI — The United States and international maritime authorities have boosted already dire piracy warnings for vessels off the coast of lawless Somalia following a surge in attempted hijackings. ------------------------------------------------------------ Somali refugees demand justice SANA’A – Nov. 20 - Hundreds of Somali refugees have been protesting for almost a week in front of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) premises with their families and children, they staged a sit-in and expressed their demands for improving their current legal, economic and social living condition as well as their forsaken human rights. ------------------------------------------------------------ Somali refugees in Yemen stage protest to seek help SANAA, Nov 19 (Reuters) - Dozens of Somali refugees were holding a sit-in outside the offices of the U.N. refugee agency in Yemen on Saturday to appeal for help and protection against repatriation. ------------------------------------------------------------ The fight to fit in Omar Mohamed knows that "'S'up" is the standard greeting of teens and can eloquently tell you how the movie "Hotel Rwanda" affected him. Banane Ali has a little trouble with English, but knows enough to say how much he likes his American clothes, all kinds of American music and the chance to go to school daily. No
Peace in Sight
Ethiopia
downplays massacre, uprising reports
Somalia
Pirates Bold and Well-Organized
Ethiopia
investigates reports of deaths in jailbreak
Somali
MPs offer talks to end impasse over capital
Kenya
says Somali piracy raises shipping costs
SOMALIA:
MPs resolve to bridge differences
Rival
lawmakers resolve to end rifts with Somali govt
Somali
youths unite to give community a voice
Somalia: Mogadishu
Camp finally agreed to reconcile with the government
How Illegal
Fishing Feeds Somali Piracy
Somali
Prime Minister due in Brussels
SOMALIA:
Heavy sentences for murder of aid workers in Somaliland
SOMALIA:
Thirteen die of measles in Awdal region
Death
for Somaliland aid killings
UPI
Terrorism Watch
Cinema clashes
end in Mogadishu
Somali
cinema row turns deadly
New
Somali regime overwhelmed by violence, hunger
Fighting
over Somali cinemas kills at least seven
Royal Navy vows to hunt
down Somali pirates
Pirates
attack more ships off Somalia - official
Pirates
using mystery ship
Somalia
calls for help in policing its coast
Somali
pirates change tack
Security
Council condemns assassination attempt against Somali prime minister
Security
Council condemns increasing violations of Somali arms embargo
Somali
family find renewed hope
SOMALIA:
Annan reappoints arms embargo monitors
Somali
envoy urges council to partially lift arms embargo on his country
Warlords
spurn Somali premier meeting
Somali
PM says assassination attempt "sabotage"
Somali
waters "out of control", more ships hit-IMB
UN
condemns attempt to assassinate Somali PM
Attack
Shows Boldness of Somali Pirates
Five
dead as Somali PM escapes blast
Somali
PM 'escapes convoy blast'
Attackers
of Miami-owned cruise liner likely hijacked U.N. vessel
SOMALI
PIRATES ON HIGH SEAS
Somali
immigrants keep music alive
Koech
roots for support of Somalia
SOMALIA:
Somaliland asks for replacement of EU liaison officer
Piracy
hampers food delivery to Somalia
SOMALIA:
Puntland begins reducing security
Hijackings
threaten U.N. Somali food aid
Sudan,
Somali peace represent economic opportunity - Kibaki
Ship
hijackings off Somali coast worry UN body
SOMALIA:
UN envoy commends Somaliland's stability
SOMALIA:
SRSG on first visit to Somaliland
300
Somali and Ethiopian refugees 'disappear in Zimbabwe'
Envoy
says being ambassador to Somalia has had its challenges
Somali
warlords threaten to shoot down planes
East
African Forum Welcomes UN Mediations to Somali Leaders and Condemns Ships
Hijacking
Missionary
sought to avoid deportation
Somali
warlord threatens planes
SOMALIA:
Interview with Maxwell Gaylard, UN Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator
WFP
opts for relief transport by road
Dozens
perish as drought takes hold in Somalia
Resettlement
officials expect more refugees from Somalia
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