MAGAALADA BOORAMA OO ISU BEDESHAY CADAABTII IFKA EE GABOOYAHA SOMALILAND

S/land /0250/13                                                                                                 Issued on Sunday, December 30, 2013

Ku:         Gudoomiyaha Maxkamada Sare

                Xarunta Maxkamada Sare JSL - Hargeysa

Ku:         Wasiirka Arimaha Gudaha

                Xarunta Wasaarada Arimaha Gudaha Somaliland - Hargeysa

Og:         Gudoomiyaha Gobolka Awdal

               

Og:         Warbaahinta Dibad iyo Gudaha

Attn:      Amnesty International, International Secretariat UK; Amnesty Intern. US, Canada; East Africa Desk        Office Uganda, East & Horn of Africa Human Rights Defenders Network, Uganda; International             Minority Rights London

URGENT ALERT: SERIOUS MINORITY RIGHTS VIOLATIONS IN SOMALILAND

MAGAALADA BOORAMA OO ISU BEDESHAY CADAABTII IFKA EE GABOOYAHA SOMALILAND

Magaalada Boorama

Ka dib markay ogaadeen Difaacayaasha Xuquuqda Aadamiga Geeska Afrika ee HORNWATCH Duruufo muuqda oo dhinaca amaanka ah oo haddii la soo bandhigo Xadgudyo iyo Tacadiyo dhinacayada Garsoorka iyo Dhaqanka ah oo haysta Bulshada la takooro, lagana tirada badan yahay ee ku nool gobolka Awdal ayay Difaacayaasha Xuquuqda Aadamiga HORNWATCH go'aansadeen in ay mudo dheer kolba dib u dhigaan soo saarista iyo baahinta tacadiyada ay warinayso warbixintani. 

Balse markii aanu hubinay in aan xaalku ka soo raynaynin ayay go'aansadeen Difaacayaasha Xuquuqda Aadamiga HORNWATCH in ay cod dheer ku sheegaan Warbixintan.

Sanadka 2013 ayaa dhamaanaya iyadoo Somaliland ay ka socdaan xadgudubyada dhinaca Garsoorka iyo Dhaqanka ah ee lidka ku ah Bulshada la takoor.

Bari oo ah maalintii ugu dambaysay sanadka 2013 waxa Maxkamada Racfaanka ee Gobolka Awdal la horkeenayaa 2 dhibane oo ka tirsan beelaha la takooro Somaliland oo magacyadoodu kala yihiin Mustafe Haybe Jaamac 21sano jir  iyo Bedel Cabdi Aaden 22 sano jir .

Difaacayaasha Xuquuqda Aadamiga HORNWATCH ayaa ogaaday in maanta Garyaqaan Amiin Sheikh Said Sheikh Hassan oo ah Qareenkii 2aad ee Xuquuqda Aadamiga oo difaacayay labadan dhibane ayaa maanta  Maxkamada Racfaanka Gobolka Awdal u sheegay in uu iska casilay adeegii dhinaca xuquuqda aadamiga ah ee uu siinayay labadan dhibane kadib markii uu u baqay naftisa, waxana hore kiiskan isaga casilay Garyaqaan Xasan Cali Xasan kadib markii sidan oo kale bilowgii dacwadan uu isku dayay in uu siiyo labadan dhibane iyo qoysaskooda laga tirada badan yahay caawimo qaanuun u baqay amaanka naftiisa.

TALO SOO JEEDIMO DEGDEG AH:

1.    Difaacayaasha Xuquuqda Aadamiga Geeska Afrika ee HORNWATCH waxay sida ugu dhaqsaha badan oo aan dib u dhac lahayn uga codsanayaa Wasiirka Arimaha Gudaha JSL iyo Gudoomiyaha Gobolka Awdal in bulshada la takooro ee ku nool magaalo madaxda gobolka Awdal ay damaano qaadaan amaankooda iyo amaanka meherahooda iyo guryahooda, si ay ugu suurtogasho in ay dib ugu soo noqdaan dadka ka soo jeeda bulshada la haybsooco ee hore arimo dhinaca amaankooda ah awgood uga qaxay magaalada Boorama.

2.    Sidoo kale waxay Difaacayaasha Xuquuqda Aadamiga HORNWATCH ka codsanayaan in fadhiyada Maxkamada Racfaanka ee Kiiskan laga soo bedelo magaalada Boorama maadaama oo tan iyo marki sanad iyo badh ka hor ee ay bilaabmeen dhagaysiga dacwadan ay si joogto ah u soo weerarayeen mid ka mid ah qabiilada ugu tirada badan ee dega Magaalad Boorama oo uu ka soo jeedo Marxuunka isgubay. Sidaasi darteed, iyadoo laga duulayo amaanka dhibanayaasha Qareenkooda iyo guud ahaan ehelka iyo qoysaska dhibanayaasha oo ah kuwa sida gaarka ah loo bartilmaameedsanayo waxay Difaacayaasha Xuquuqda Aadamiga HORNWATCH ka codsanayaan Gudoomiyaha Maxkamada Sare in dacwadan dhagaysigeeda loo bedelo goob aan ahayn Boorama oo sharcigu ogol yahay. 

3.   Difaacayaasha Xuquuqda Aadamiga Caalamka iyo muwaadiniinta xoriyada iyo xuquuqda aadamiga jecel ee reer Somaliland in ay qaadaan talaabo kasta oo ay ugu hiilinayaan dhibanayaasha takoorka dhaqanka bulshada la hayb sooco ee Somaliland.

4.    Gudoomiyaha Maxkamada Sare iyo Wasiirka Arimaha Gudaha Somaliland, waxa aanu ugu baaqayanaa in uu u fidiyo muwaadiniinta la haybsooco ee Gobolka Awdal oo dhibanayaal u ah bulshada aqlabiyada ah ee magaalada madaxda gobolka Awdal, gaar ahaan labada wiil oo magacyadoodu kala yihiin Mustafe Haybe Jaamac 21sano jir  iyo Bedel Cabdi Aaden 22 sano jir kuwaasi oo Maxkamada Gobolka Awdal ku riday Xukun dil ah oo  cadaalada darada ah:

a)    in ay si buuxda u siiyaan labadan dhibane xuquuqaha iyo xoriyadaha aasaasiga ah ee uu jideeyay Dastuurka dalka Somaliland gaar ahaan:

ü  Qodobka 24: Xaqa Nolosha, Nabadgelyeynta Jidhka, Dhawrsananta Karaamada Muwaadinka, Dambiyada lidka ku ah Aadaminimada sida jidhdilka, qudhgooyada sharciga ka baxsan - Farqada 1aad Nafta Aadanuhu waa deeq Ilaahay, waana qaali; qof kastaana waxa uu xaq u leeyahay noloshiisa, waxaanu ku waayi karaa oo keliya marka Maxkamad horteed uu ku caddaado dembi uu sharcigu jideeyey in dil lagu mutaysan karo, Farqada 2aad Qofku waxa uu xaq u leeyahay in la nabad geliyo jidhkiisa; ciqaabta jidhka iyo waxyeelo kasta oo loo geeysto damiirka qofkuna waa reeban yahay;

ü  Qodobka 8aad: Sinnaanta Muwaadiniinta: Farqada 1aad - Muwaadiniinta Somaliland iyadoon lagu kala saarayn, midabka, qabiilka, dhalashada, luqada, lab;

ü  iyo dhedig, hantida, mudnaanta, afkaarta iwm, waxay sharciga hortiisa ku leeyihiin xuquuq iyo waajibaad siman.  Farqada 2aad - Kala sarreynta iyo takoorka ku salaysan isirka, abtirsiga, dhalashada iyo deegaanku waa reebban yihiin; iyo

ü  Qodobada 22: Xuquuqda Dhaqaal, Bulsho iyo Siyaasadeed;

1.     

2.     

3.     

4.     

5.    Difaacayaasha Xuquuqda Aadamiga Somaliland ka digayaan in la marin habaabiyo baadhitaanada dadka loo hayo iyo kuwa aan wali loo soo qaban dilalka loo gaystay haweenka Gabooyaha si sharciga loogala baxsado, taasi oo dhacda aalaaba marka hay'adaha sharci fulinta oo 99% ka soo jeeda beelaha tiradabadan.

6.    Haddii Madaxda Sare ee Hay'adaha SharciFulinta Somaliland iyo Wasiirka Arimaha Gudaha Somaliland ka baaqsadaan sharci horkeenida dadkii dilay haweenka Gabooyaha Somaliland taasi waxay sababi doontaa in dacwado iyaga lidku ah aanu u gudbino beesha caalamka iyo garsoorka adduunka.

7.    Xafiisyada Hay'adda Qaxootiga Qaramada Midoobay ay ku leedahay wadamada Somaliland, Itoobiya iyo Jabuuti waxanu ku wargalinaynaa tacadiyada ay warbixintani warinayso oo saameeyay in ka badan 100 ruux oo ka soo jeeda bulshada la takooro ee Somaliland ee degta magaalada Boorama kuwaasi oo qaarkood gaadheen xeryaha Qaxtootiga ee UNHCR ay maamusho oo ku yaal bariga dalka Itoobiya, Sidaasi darteed, waxanu ugu baaqaynaa UNHCR in ay siiso gargaarka aadaminimo ee lagamamaarmaanka ah iyagoo buuxiyay shuruudaha u dagsan Qaramada Mibooday ee lagu noqdo Qaxooti.

Suleiman Ismail Bolalah

Gudoomiyaha

Gudida Ilaalada Xuquuqda Aadamiga Geeska Afrika (HORNWATCH)

xuquuq@gmail.com, hornwatch@yahoo.com; 0025224429552, 002522514777

FAAHFAAHIN DHEERAAD AH

Magaalo Madaxda Gobolka Awdal ee Boorama oo ka mid ahaan jirtay magaalooyinka dhifta ah ee beelaha la takooro ee reer Somaliland ay ku noolaan jireen takoor heerkiisu ka hooseeyo kan magaalooyinka kale ee dalka ayaa iyaduna isku rogtay cadaabtii ifka ee Gabooyaha Somaliland kadib markii 2 sano ka hor wiil beelaha tirada badan ka soo jeedaa oo ALLE haw naxariistee lagu magacaabo Aydiid Cabdiqaadir Cali oo uu dhalay Sarkaal Sare oo ka tirsan dambi Baadhayaasha Booliska Gobolka Awdal oo lagu magacaabo Cabdiqaadir Cali uu jeclaaday gabadh yar oo ka soo jeeda beelaha la takooro ee loo yaqaan Madhibaanka oo lagu magacaabo Malyuun Haybe Jamaac. Markii wiilka qoyskiisu u diideen in uu gabadha Midgaanta ah guursado ayuu isaga laftiisu qudha iska jaray kadib markii uu is qabadsiiyay gaas iyo dab, nasiib daro wiilka aabihii oo ah sarkaal boolis ah waxa uu xabsiga ku guray dad tiro badan oo ka soo jeeda Gabooyaha dega Boorama kuwaasi oo ay ka mid yihin gabartii uu jeclaaday wiilkiisu Malyuun Haybe Jaamac, aabaheed Haybe Jaamac, wiilkiisa Mustafe Haybe Jaamac 21sano jir  iyo Bedel Cabdi Aaden 22 sano jir oo isagu ka soo jeeda qabiil ka mid ah Gabooyaha oo la yiraa Yibir iyo xubno kale oo Gabooye ah.

Xadhigaasi waxa barbar socday weeraro haweenka iyo dhalinyarada qabiilka wiilku ka dhintay ku qaadayeen goobaha ay ka degan yihiin Gabooyuhu magaalada Boorame, gaar ahaan meheradaha ay ku ganacsadaan iyagoo burburinayay miisaska ay hilibka ku iibiyaan, rayiislayaasha, kabotolayaasha iyo meelaha birta ay ku tumaan, taasi oo sababtay in wiigag isxigxiga dadka laga tirada badan yahay ee Gabooyaha Boorama in ay ka soo bixi waayaan guryahooda.

Gudida Ilaalada Xuquuqda Aadamiga Geeska Afrika ayaa xiligaasi diiwaangaliyay in ka badan 100 ruux oo u badan rag iyo dhalinyaro markii ay nafahoodii u baqeen ka cararay magaalada Boorama iyagoo tagay magaalooyinka Hargeysa ilaa Burco qaarkoodna waxay ka talaabeen xadka u dhexeeya Somaliland iyo Itoobiya iyagoo gaadhay xeryahay qaxootiga Somalida ee ku yaal bariga dalka Itoobiya oo ay maamusho Hay'ada UNHCR.

Bilowgiiba dacwada waxa dambi baadhe ka noqday Aabihii dhalay wiilka dhintay Dambi Baadhe Boolis Mr. Cabdiqaadir Cali Gudida Ilaalada Xuquuqda Aadamiga Geeska Afrika ee HornWatch oo si taxadir leh ula socotay geedi socodka dacwada ciqaabta ah ee lidka ku ah 2 wiil ee Gabooyaha ah, ayaa ka marag kacaya in 2-da wiil ee Gabooyaha ahi aanay helin gabi ahaan garsoor dhex ah oo cadaaladeed iyo nidaam baadhiseed oo xaq ku dhisan, Maxkamadayntooda ayaa la xaqiijiyay in ay u dhacday si ka fog nidaamka cadaalada dalka, Xuquuqda Aadamiga, Diinta Islaamka iyo xataa dhaqanka toosan.

Baadhayaasha Xuquuqda Aadamiga HORNWATCH waxay xogogaal u noqdeen in Qareen ka tirsan Ururka Qareenada Somaliland oo caawimi qaanuun oo lacag la'aan ah ku difaacayay Labada eedaysane markii dad cadhaysani soo weerareen fadhiyadii Maxkamada Gobolka Awdal dacwada oo socota isla markaasina ay dhaawaceen xubno ka mid ah eedaysanayaasha iyo eheladooda oo Maxkamada u yimi dhegaysiga dacwada, ayuu Qareenkii naftiisa u baqay waxanu markiiba joojiyay caawimadii qaanuun ee uu siinayay 2 wiil ee dhibanayaasha ah iyo qoysaskooda.

Sidoo kale Gudida Ilaalada Xuquuqda Aadamiga Geeska Afrika waxay baadhitaanka kiiskan ku ogaadeen in Qareenkii 2aad ee difaacayay eedaysanayaasha Gabooyaha ah oo lagu magacaabo Amiin Sheikh Said Sheikh Hassan uu ku waayay Gunadii uu ka heli jiray adeega caawimada qaanuun ee uu lacag la'aanta uu ku siiyo qoysaska Gabooyaha ah ee eedaysanayaasha kiiskan, Gunadan oo ay siin jireen Ururka Qareenada Somaliland ee Somaliland oo fuliya Mashruuc ay maalgaliso hay'ada Qaramada Midoobay ee UNDP. Gudoomiyihii hore ee ururka Qareenada Somaliland Mr. Maxamed Siciid oo fulinaya codsi aan toos ahayn oo uga yimi Gudoomiyaha Maxkamada Racfaanka Gobolka Awdal oo ay qaraabo dhaw yihiin Abdiqadir Ali oo ah Aabaha dhalay wiilka isdilay, isla markaasina ah Garsooraha haatan gacanta ku haya kiiskan oo maraya maxkamada darajada 2aad ee Racfaanka. 

Maxkamada Gobolka Awdal ee dacwada qaadayay, ciidanka Booliska ee baadhayay kiiskan, dhamaantood waxay la safteen Dambi Baadhaha Booliksa ah ee Wiilkiisu isdilay Mr. Cabdiqaadir Cali maadaama oo ay isku beel ka soo wada jeedaan.

Baadhayaasha xadgudubyada ee HornWatch waxa kale oo ay baadhitaan qoto dheer ku ogaadeen in maragyadii ogaa in wiilka dhintay isagu is dilay oo ay ka mid yihiin dukaankii gaasta uu ka iibsaday, meheradii uu Mobilkiisa u dhiibtay iyo dad arkayay markii uu gaasta iyo dabka is qabadsiiyay dhamaantood waxay u safreen dhinaca Itoobiya oo ay ku maqnaayeen mudadii dacwada socotay difaaca eedaysanayaasha iyadoo horena loo sii siiyay lacagta aya ku noolaan karayeen.

Maxkamadda Gobolka Awdal ayaa iyadoo iska indho tiraysa sharciga iyo qanuunka waxay dil toogasho ah ku xukuntay labo wiil oo arday ah oo ka soojeedaha midgaha reer boorama gaar ahaan MADHIBAAN iyo Yibraha.

Kiiskan ayaa waxa uu si ba'an u saameeyay dhinacyada amaanka iyo nolosha guud ahaan Gabooyaha dega magaalada Boorama iyadoo in ka badan 100 oo badankoodi yihiin rag ka baqay in beesha uu ka soo jeedo Wiilka isgubay ay gaadhsiiyaan dil iyo dhaawacyo jidheed ay ka qaxeen guryahoodii iyo meheradahii ay ku lahaayeen magaalada Boorama oo isugu jira timojarayaal, hiliblayaal, kabotolayaal iyo tumaalista birta, waxana ay amaan u raadsadeeb Magaalooyinka kale ee Somaliland gaar ahaan Hargeysa iyo Burco, halka qaar kalena ay ka talaabeen xadka u dhexeeya Somaliland iyo Itoobiya iyagoo magangalyo waydiistay Hay'ada Qaxootiga Adduunka ee gacanta ku haysta xeryaha qaxootiga Soomaalida ee ku yaal bariga dalka Itoobiya.

Gabood falada iyo tacadiyada ay la nool yihiin bulshada lagu takooro gudaha dalka Somaliland codkooda cidina ma maqasho iyaguna malaha awoodii ay ku soo bandhigi lahaayeen, faqriga iyo saboolnimada qotada dheer ee haysta awgeed iyo iyagoo aan talo iyo tusaale midna ka odhan karin arimaha saameeya noloshooda iyo mustaqbalkooda toona.

Gudida Ilaalada Xuquuqda Aadamiga Geeska Afrika oo isku dayay in ay ogaadaan sababta ay cid uuni uga hadli wayday tacadiyada baahsan ee ay la nool yihiin qaybaha bulshada Somaliland ee latakooro ayaa waxay ogaadeen xogahan hoos ku qoran:

•  Xukuumada Somaliland ayaa magacawday saraakiil sarsare oo ka soo jeeda beelaha la hayb sooco waxa ka mid ah

•  Hal xubin oo ku jirta golaha Wasiirada (Wasiir ku xigeenka Wasaarada Hawlaha Guud), inkastoo magac ahaan mooyee aanu ahayn nin ka war haya waayaha iyo duruufaha adag ee dhaqan dhaqaale oo ay la nool yihiin beelaha uu ka soo jeedo ee la hayb soocaa,

•  Barkhad Jama Hirsi Batuun, La taliyaha Gaarka ah ee Madaxwaynaha dhinaca arimaha beelaha laga la hayb sooco yahay, 

• Liibaan Ismaaciil Maxamuud, Xubin ka mid ah Gudida Komishanka Xuquuqda Aadamiga Somaliland, iyo 

•  Mr. Abdilahi Hassan Digaale Gudoomiyaha Deg. Axmed Macalin Haruun isla markaasina ah Gudoomiyaha ururka samofalka bulshada la hayb sooco ee USWO oo dhawaan Duqa Caasimada Somaliland u magacaabay xilka Gudoomiyaha Degmada Axmed Macalin Haruun ee caasimada Hargeysa.

Saraakiisha ugu jirta bulshada Somaliland ee la takooro dawlada ayaa iyagu sameeya talaabo kasta oo ay ku cabudhinayaan dadkooda dulman waxana ay aaminsan yihiin haddii tacadiyadaasi banaanka u soo baxaan amase iyaguba ka hadlaan in ay waayayaan xilalka sarsare ee ay ku qaataan mushahaarooyin fiican.

Dhinaca kale, habdhaqan fool xun ayaa dishooday badi hogaamiye dhaqameedka beelaha la hayb-sooco, kaasi oo midkastaaba kan kale ka soo horjeedo oo buranayo.

Haweenka Beelaha La takooro haddii aad u dhabo gasho nolosha iyo waayahooda waxad ogaanaysaa in ay boqoljeer ka tacadi iyo xadgubub badan yihin tacadiyada haleela haweenka beelaha aqlabiyada ah oo ah kuwa inta ugu badan laga maqlo warbaahinta .

Daladaha Ururada Bulshada Rayidka ah ee haweenka ugu waawayn dalka dhamaantood waxa iska leh Haweenka ka soo jeeda qaybaha bulshada ee aqlabiyada ah, waxayna ku guuldaraysteen in ay dalahooda samafal ku soo daraan ururada haweenka qaybaha bulshada tusaale ahaan dalada haween ee ugu wayn Somaliland oo lagu magacaabo NAGAAD WOMEN UMBRELLA oo ururada xubnaha ka ahi tirobadan yihiin hadana hal urur oo ka soo jeeda ururada haweenka la takooro ee Somaliland kuma jiro, halka Gabooyaha Somaliland ay leeyihiin kaliya labo (2) urur samafal bulsho oo aad u yaryar (Ubah Social Welfare Organization (USWO) iyo Voice of Somaliland Minority Women (VOSOMWO) isla markaasina aan ka helin wax gacan qabasho ah oo la taaban karo Hay'adaha Samafalka Caalamiga ah, Qaramada Midoobay iyo guud ahaan beesha caalamka. Maadaama Daladaha waawayn ee haweenka Somaliland aanay u war haynin tacadiyada iyo gaboodfalada argagaxa leh ee ay la nool yihiin haweenka ka soo jeeda qaybaha bulshada Somaliland ee la takooraa, had iyo goor kuma soo hadal qaadaan marka ay xusayaan maalmaha caalamiga ah ee Tacadiyada Lidka ku ah Xuquuqda Haweenka.

END

Misreading the War Against Al-Shabaab

Kenyan soldiers move in formation, clearing the top floor balcony and interior of Westgate Mall in Nairobi before finally bringing an end to the siege by Islamist gunmen. Picture: AFP

 By Abdihakim Ainte 

The news from Nairobi over the last few days has been appalling. But, given the frequency of Al Shabaab’s grenade-throwing in Nairobi, the attack shouldn’t have come as much of a surprise to watchers of the region. Yet, despite the magnitude of the death toll, the Kenyan government has shown a remarkable sangfroid, both in managing the crisis and taming the potential for ethnic flare-ups.

While investigations are still in progress, analysts and experts have choreographed the attack into different interpretations, but it seems to me the focus has been misplaced.

Attack at Westgate has several – and mortal — misreading’s, primarily, on the Kenyan part and, to large extent, its allies in the wider war against Al-Shabaab.

In the beginning,  Kenyan invasion of the southern Somali city of Kismayo only broke the back of the Al-Shabaab and, more importantly, created an opportunity for the group to reorganize and rebrand its operational tactics.  Just a few days before the attack, I wrote a piece (http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2013/08/al-shabab-more-lethal-in-somalia.html ) in which I argued that Al-Shabaab is now far more lethal than it has ever been before.

To showcase its strength, over the last six months, al-Shabab has carried out multiple attacks, half of them targeted at heavily guarded government institutions, the UN complex, airports and, most recently, Turkish embassy

http://english.alarabiya.net/en/News/world/2013/07/28/Suicide-attack-on-Mogadishu-Turkish-compound-kills-two.html in Mogadishu.  Every measure of these attacks — from roadside bombs to suicide attacks — has also significantly increased.

As the blame game starts, it should be understood that the biggest failure of the Kenyan government wasn’t whether its security fraternity or Intel agencies were prepared for the attack. They were. But what the overwhelming majority of terrorist experts agreed before the siege began was : At some point a terrorist attack was more or less inescapable.

The first misreading lay in the thinking that toppling Al-Shabaab from Kismayo and subsequently declaring victory would wipe it from the terrorist map. On the contrary, it opened a new Pandora’s Box in which Al-Shabaab retreated back into society and re-established itself as a guerrilla force able to strike back.

The attack at Westgate is, if anything, an indication of their new asymmetric tactics – the hallmark of Al-Shabaab 2.0. Booting Al-Shabaab out of Kismayo was a just and rational act, but the idea that it is now on the back foot is misplaced. Equally misplaced is the notion that insurgency can be defeated by militaristic approach and it misses the enemy’s strength.

The second misreading, perhaps more fatally, is Kenya’s preoccupation with Kismayo. When Ethiopian troops crashed Islamist courts in 2007 from Mogadishu, they cautiously avoided any preoccupation with any location as hub for terrorist, and they sweepingly expanded their operation from region to region. Sadly, Kenyan troops seem to have underestimated the adaptability and vitality of the organization’s threat. Al-Shabaab, like Al-Qaeda, is now a diffuse organization that has clandestine cells and sympathizers across the region. It still controls large swathes of provinces in much of the south and central part of the country. Despite its recent structural crisis, and loss of some key strongholds (http://www.afp.com/en/news/topstories/kenyan-troops-capture-last-somali-rebel-stronghold ) it is now morphed into a more monolithic organization that has a coherent ideology and determination to apply itself to a global jihadist ideology.

That is why I argued the coming of Al-Shabaab 2.0 is global Jihadist hardcore than a few ragtag militias waging war against foreign troops in Somalia. Therefore, they need to be contained with international effort.

Although Kismayo was Shabaab’s largest revenue-making source, it was not, however, the greatest income generating means available to them. Conversely, the largesse of its budget comes from its core donor sympathizers and a few charitable individuals who believe in their cause.

Short on specifics, operation Linda Nchi has fed the perception that Kenya is pursuing a buffer zone through proxies, allowing Al-Shabaab a rallying cause by painting the KDF as intruders from afar. In addition, relations between Nairobi and Mogadishu over the KDF’s role in Kismayo have been hostile, preventing a joint and genuine cooperation against al-Shabaab. While Nairobi and Mogadishu have generally showed a common interest in the war against Al-Shabaab, they have not come to a clear term and framework on how to combat terrorism.

Worse yet, Somali legislators tabled a motion demanding Kenyan troops pull out from Kismayo, fueling an already rancorous relation. Moreover, the operation of Kenyan maritime assets is a source of great concern for the Somali government, which has publicly called for international stakeholders to support its own navy.

As of now, relations between Kenya and Somalia can best be summarized as that of ‘frenemies’.

Al-Shabaab uses the stalemate as an organizing factor for its audiences, arguing that the two governments are squabbling amongst themselves at the expense of you – the people. Needless to say, Al-Shabaab is widely despised in Somalia but, after all, it was born out of foreign troops stumbling into the country, which helped them to reinforce their narrative of ‘foreign imperialism’.

Keeping that in mind, there is a clear connection between Kenya’s post-Kismayo interventions, the Westgate attack, and the political standoff between Kenya and Somalia.

Nonetheless, both countries endured a good relationship. Kenya is home to one of the largest Somali refugees in the world. It has hosted and facilited a number of reconciliation conferences on Somalia. Going forward, both country need to return to their working relationship to contain terrorist.

To avert future attacks, both need — Kenya and Somalia — to understand Al-Shabaab’s threat can’t be managed without their mutual cooperation. And the international community at large needs to encourage and support a collaborative course between Nairobi and Mogadishu — the prime victims of the horror of Al-Shabaab.

Professor Axmed Ismaaciil Samatar oo Maanta Qudbad Muhiim ah ka Jeediyay Jaamacdda Admas

Proff:-Axmed Ismaaciil Samatar Oo Soo Bandhigay Su,aal Culayskeeda Leh Oo Uu Waydiiyey Madaxweyne Siilaanyo+Jawaabta Uu Ka Bixiyey, Kana Hadlay Qodobo La Xidhiidha Siyaasada Iyo Dhaqaalaha Dalka.

Hargeysa - Proffesor Axmed Ismaaciil Samatar ayaa shalay jaamacadda Admas ee magaaladda Hargeysa ka jeediyey Qudbad dheer oo uu kaga waramay sida Dal Horumar ku gaadho, waxaanu Ardayda iyo Macalimiinta Jaamacadaas hoga tusaaleyey Dalna inaanu Horumar samayn Karin illaa uu Dadkiisa horumariyo.

Axmed Ismaaciil Samatar Qudbada uu ka jeediyey Jaamacadda waxa uu ku yidhi “horumarka dalka hadii aad  maqashaan dalkaasi wuu horumaray waxa horumarsan dadkiisa oo leh aqoon iyo isku duubni ay daacadnimo ku dheehan tahay ”.

Isagoo sii wata sharaxaada uu ka bixinayeye Horumarka waxa uu Professor Samatar ku tilmaamay waxaan dhamaan balse ay tahay uun inuu socdo inta uu dalkaa dadkiisu jiro “hormarku waxa uu leeyahay meel uu ka bilawdo ee malaha meel uu ku dhamaado” ayuu yidhi.

Waxaanu tusaale ahaan u soo qaatay dalka Maraykanka oo ah ka dunida ugu dhaqaalaha badai inuu wali ku mashquulsan yahay sidii uu wali sare  ugu qaadi lahaa horumarka baaxadda leh ee ka jira dalkiisa, “Maantadaa aan idinla hadlayo ee aan ka hadlayno horumarka dalka Maraykanka waxaa laga doodayaa sidii sare loogu qaadi lahaa horumarka dalka” ayuu yidhi Professor Samatar.

Mr Samatar waxa uu xusay lagama maar maanimada ay leedahay inay umaddu marka hore ee la doonayo in dalka la horumariyo tahay mid isku duuban oo aaminsan wax wada lahaanshaha iyo inay dalka iyo dadkuba ka dhexeeyaan “dalka marka ladoonayo in la horumariyo waa inay dadkiisu midaysan yihiin isla markaana ay aaminsan yihiin inay wax ka wada dhexeeyaan oo dalka iyo dadka ay wada leeyihiin”ayuu yidhi.

Mr Samatar waxa uu hoosta ka xariiqay inaanu dal-na horumari Karin hadii aanay dadkiisu aqoon lahayn  oo aanay wax baranin “dalna horumar ma gaadhi karo hadii aanay dadkiisu aqoon lahayn oo caalamka la tartami Karin”

“Horta intiinaa isoo horfadhidaa [ardayda Jaamacadda Admas] waan idin caashaq-sanahay waxaan idiku caashaq sanahayna waa aqoonta,edabta iyo anshaxa suuban ee iiga kiin muuqda” ayuu yidhi isaga oo Professor-ku Jaamacadda Admas iyo ardaydeedaba ku sifeeyey kuwa kaliya ee maanta rajada laga qabo inay dalka dadka Somaliland-ba wax ka badali doonaan mustaqbalka dhaw ee soo socda “ardaydiinaa reer Admas waxaa Iiga kiin muuqda mustaqbalkii dalka iyo dadka inaad tihiin kuwii soo celin lahaa ee badali lahaa siyaasiyiinta maanta ee meelahaa qaadka la fadhiya” ayuu yidhi.

Boqolaal arday oo Iskugu jira Hablo iyo wiilal oo ku soo lebistay dharkooda kiisa ugu bilicda samaa isla markaana hamad badan u hayey dhagaysiga khudbadda Professorka ee uu maamulka hufan ee Jaamacadu soo qaban qaabiyey ayaa sacabka u tamayey marka uu Professor-ku carabka la helo erayba erayga uu ka xiisaha badnaa ee khudbadii la yaabka lahayd ee uu halkaa ka jeediyey shalay.

“Aqoonyahan-ka marka aan leeyahay waxaan u jeedaa inaan is-fahano aniga iyo Gabadhaa quruxda badan ee isoo hor fadhida” ayuu yidhi waxaanu intaa sii raaciyey “hadii aydaan isfahmi Karin adiga iyo dadka aad la hadlaysaa dee aqoontaadu meela ma gaadhsiisna horumarkoodana kama shaqayn kartid”

Professor Samatar waxa uu sheegay inay Somaliland ka  jirto rajo fiican taas oo qayb ka ah waxyaabaha dalka dib ugu soo celiyey “waxaan leenahay dal iyo dad fiican waana tan igu soo kiin celinaysa ee hadii aydaan fiicnayn idin kumaan soo noqdeen waayo dee maraykan baan iska joogay oo waan dharagsanaa e  maxaan isaga joogi waayey Maraykan-kaygii” ayuu dhi Professor Axmed Ismaaciil Samatar.

Professor-ka oo aad u gu dheeraaday sharaxaada horumarka isla markaana waxbadan ardayda u higa tusaaleeyey siyaabaha lagu gaadhi karo hormarkaasi waxay ardaydu gabagabadii khudbaddiisa ka waydiiyeen dhawr su’aalood oo la xidhiidhay mawduuca uu ka hadlay waxaana kamid ahaa “sideebaanu ku gaadhi karraa hormarka dalka bal wax  nooga tilmaan?

Waxaanu ku jawaabay “marka hore waa in idinka wax laydingaliyaa oo dee laydinku tabcaa kadibna aad idinkuna markaa ka dib dalka iyo dadkaba wax gashataan oo aad soo gudaan abaalkii laydiin galay”

Waxaa kale oo la waydiiyey ” makula tahay aqoonsi raadiskan ay Somalilandk u wareersan tahay intaynu iskagaba hadhno inaynu u leexano xagga hormarka iyo wax soo saarka? waxaanu ku jawaabay “haa oo  maya” waayo markii ay aan dalka imanayey waxay lahaayeen Samatarbaa aqoonsigii keenaya sideen ku keeni karaa anigu maanigaa keeni kara”

“Waa muhiin oo sidaa aad tidhi baan kugu raacsanahay inaynu u leexano xaga wax soo saarka iyo hormarka balse waa lagamma maarmaan inaynu dee caalamkaa kalana la xidhano oo ayu calaaqaad la yeelanaa” ayuu yidhi Professor Samatar.

Waxaa kale oo kamid ahaa su’aalihii la waydiiyey “waxaa jira caqabado farabadan oo hor yaalla dadka doonaya inay dalka maal-gashadaan ee ganacsatada ah tusaale ahaan hadday damcaan inay meel warshad ka dhisaan waxaa  markiiba ka hor imanaya oday dhaqameed iyo qabiilkoodii oo wada socda oo leh meeshan reer hebal baa iska leh ee ka leexda markaa cabaqadaha noocan oo kale ah sideebaan kaga gudbi karaa?


Waxaanu ku jawaabay ” hadii aad doonayso inay dadku qabyaaladda daayaan adigu marka hore waa inaad naftaada ka bilawdaa oo aad bahashaa fooshaxun [qabyaaladda] ee ay la roorayaan iga leexiya ku tidhaadaa kuwa aad isku reerka tihiin” ayuu yidhi Professor Axmed Ismaaciil Samatar.

Source: waaheen

London : Somalilander UK citizen Mr. Hassan Isman Omer shot dead inside West End Nightclub

London - A man shot dead inside a nightclub in London's West End on Boxing Day has been named by police as Hassan Isman Omer.

The 31-year-old, from Poplar in east London, died in hospital after suffering multiple gunshot wounds at around 3am on Thursday during a private function in the Avalon club on Shaftesbury Avenue.

Next of kin have been informed and a post-mortem examination is expected to take place this afternoon at Westminster Mortuary.

Two men - a 31-year-old and a 34-year-old - arrested on suspicion of murder have been bailed to a date in mid-February, Scotland Yard said.

The Avalon Soho describes itself as a cocktail lounge with live DJs every night.

Its website says it is "a revitalised venue that oozes creativity and class" which brings "a unique and stylish vibe to the heart of the West End's party scene".

A DJ who was at the event tweeted: "RIP to the person who lost his life last nite in front of me. I don't know who you are but I wish god has taken you into his hands.

"A stray bullet could have hit anyone and taken them also! I can't imagine his family right now."

A Metropolitan spokesman said: "Police and London Ambulance Service attended to find a man suffering from multiple gunshot wounds.

"He was taken by London Ambulance Service to hospital, where he died from his injuries.

"Detectives are continuing to appeal to anyone who was inside the Avalon nightclub at the event, or who witnessed events inside the club, to contact them."

Anyone with information is asked to contact the incident room on 020 87858244 or anonymously call Crimestoppers on 0800 555111.

Source: Evening Standard 

South Sudan: IGAD is a joke, Somalis playing peace makers but home is on fire

The Inter Governmental Authority on Development (IGAD) recently sent a delegation led by Ethiopian Minister of Foreign Affairs and current Chairman of the organization, Dr Tedros Adhanom to South Sudan.

The delegation included Somalia's foreign minister, Djibouti's and Kenya's, whom are all Somalis. The funny thing is, how can they ask a minister from Somalia to go play mediation effort in another country when she and her so called government can't neutralize their own state house?

This made IGAD a joke. Somalia and Djibouti should focus on stabilizing Mogadishu and playing the cowboys there before shamelessly showing up in Juba.

Maybe Somalia's foreign minister went there to impress her real boss, the President of Uganda, Yoweri Museveni, who has more than 17,000 troops occupying Mogadishu.

Likewise Kenya's foreign minister went there to impress her Kikuyu boss even though the Somali region in Kenya is no better than Somalia when it comes to security and peace.

As for Djibouti, they have small force in central Somalia's Hiiraan region and there is an ongoing genocide there between two tribes. Their priority should be normalizing that region and ending the ongoing massacre by Hawadle tribe.

They all seem to ignored these realities and would rather ride ponies to another land and play the peace makers. It is shame.

Its clear to me that they are serving the interests of Uganda and Ethiopia. Dr. Adhanos even took them on an Ethiopian carrier.

3 out off 5 Foreign ministers who went to Juba might be Somalis but they are shameless subjects of other regional powers. Their own homes are on fire. Mogadishu remains Ugandan colony as much as Wahabi Saudis.

Somalia's weak government today called on Ethiopia to send forces into Hiiraan to neutralize the Hawadle militia men since Djiboutians are too small, too broke and too coward.

At least a dozen conflict are active in Somalia right now from tribal wars in Shabelle, Hiiraan to al Shabab conflicts. What can they offer South Sudan?

Ismail, maimed in Somalia, is thriving in Arctic Circle

Teenager spirited out of Mogadishu after his limbs were hacked off by Al Shabab is adapting well to life in Norway, doing well in school and dreaming big.

MICHELLE SHEPHARD / TORONTO STAR Order this photo - Ismail Khalif Abdulle fled Somalia for Norway after Al Shabab amputated his hand and foot as punishment for not joining the terrorist group. He is thriving in Harstad, a small town 200 kilometres north of the Arctic Circle.

By: Michelle Shephard National Security Reporter,

HARSTAD, NORWAY—A warm glow starts to spread over the white-capped mountains framing this snowy island town, 200 kilometres north of the Arctic Circle. The polar nights are beginning, three months of winter when the sun will stay below the horizon, offering only a couple hours of twilight each day.

It is so quiet, the blue light hauntingly beautiful, like looking at the sky through thick ice.

“Want to see me run?” Ismail asks, handing me his coffee cup. He sprints through the snow without waiting for an answer, his arms swinging awkwardly in a bulky ski jacket, snowflakes swirling about as he jogs toward the darkness at the end of the dock.

He turns, comes back laughing, no noticeable limp.

Cagmadhige. That’s what his Somali friends called him as a kid, which literally translates to “one who runs so fast his feet do not touch the ground.” It also means “restless.”

It has been almost three years since I’ve seen him, after dropping him off in this remote town where he had been offered refuge. I left thankful he was out of Somalia but wondering just how a teenager from Mogadishu missing a hand and a foot was going to survive. He went from swimming in the warm waters of Mogadishu’s Lido Beach, to Harstad’s frigid fjords, from the red earth to icefields, Somalia’s punishing sun to these days of darkness.

Ismail Khalif Abdulle is 20 or 21 now. His mother didn’t record the birth and he sometimes forgets the date he was assigned on his Somali passport. In June 2009, he was but another victim of Somalia’s wars. He had refused to join Al Shabab, Al Qaeda’s group in East Africa, so they made him their prisoner, then dragged him into a soccer stadium and cut off his right hand and left foot as an example to others. He escaped and I met him in Mogadishu soon after, in January 2010. Later that year, others would help him flee from Somalia.

Ismail didn’t just survive. He has thrived.

Al Shabab maimed him, but stole nothing else. He is almost always smiling, or laughing, and has a wicked sense of humour. He won’t even acknowledge the terrorist group, using only the nickname he gave them: AC Milan. Not that he has anything against the Italian soccer team. He just thought it was funny.

Ismail today speaks Norwegian, fluently, and his English is getting there. He has many friends and even more fans among his teachers. He dreams of visiting Miami, owning a sports car; he’s learning to drive. He loves everything Canada: the maple leaf, the country’s history, the fact that we apologize a lot and produce good musicians and comedians; that Canada Day is July 1, the same day as Somalia’s independence day.

He has state-of-the-art prosthetics for his right hand and left foot. He doesn’t have to pay back the Norwegian government loan as long as he does well in school. He is doing well in school.

And once again, Ismail can run.

But his story is hardly a fairy tale, even if the small town where he lives looks like the set of one; a blur of lights, Christmas trees, the smell of burning wood and bubbling glogg.

His first year here was hard. He was lonely, and often still is. He goes on Facebook all the time talking to friends back in Somalia. Restless. He misses his mom and younger siblings who live in Somaliland. He has an unknown future to contemplate, memories of the terror — that rarely, but sometimes creep back — to live with.

Ismail is a member of the Somali generation that has come of age amid war, many fleeing around the world like their nomadic forefathers. More than one million Somalis live abroad, nearly one-tenth of the country’s population.

He was born in Mogadishu in the “Black Hawk Down” era when the world was shocked by the killing of 18 elite U.S. soldiers and how the hulking beasts they piloted were shot out of the sky. Somalia, already chaotic, collapsed, thousands died and the international community pulled out, unwilling to sacrifice any more.

The international reluctance to intervene in the region had a devastating effect. When Rwanda’s genocide broke out the following year the world watched until it was too late.

Somalia became a symbol for a failed state, a country that served as a comparison, beyond repair. Is (Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, Mali) the next Somalia?

Somalia is on a tentative path of recovery, but only after 20 years of lawlessness. There were greedy warlords, regional proxy battles and politicians that got richer as the country got poorer. Somalia became the place where ill-informed foreign policy went to die and in the last eight years, during this vacuum of power, the Shabab has grown.

The Shabab’s numbers are down from a peak between 2007 and 2009, when they had popular support as they fought an Ethiopian invasion. But the Shabab stayed when Ethiopia withdrew, and the group formally joined Al Qaeda, adopting a hardline interpretation of Sharia law. Their ruthlessness is unfathomable. Fuad Shangole, a Shabab leader who held Ismail captive, decided they had failed to amputate Ismail high enough above the ankle. So he pressed three fingers on Ismail’s calf and told them to cut again. They used a saw.

It wasn’t until the summer of 2011 that the Shabab was ousted from the capital. They may be weakened but are far from gone, and have developed into a disciplined terrorist group intent on striking at home and abroad, including the September attack on Nairobi’s Westgate Mall.

While Ismail’s tale of survival is one of inspiration, it has all the elements of the greater dark narrative: how more than a decade after 9/11, terrorism still impacts so much of our lives in the way we think, and govern. Ismail’s story unfolds in Norway but it could take place in many Western nations that are home to both terrorists and victims of terrorism.

Norway will be forever scarred by the memory of July 22, 2011, when Christian fundamentalist Anders Behring Breivik went on a murderous rampage, killing eight in an Oslo bombing and systematically executing 69 others, many teenagers, over a 90-minute period at a youth political retreat.

Breivik hated people like Ismail, a Muslim refugee, who he saw part of an immigrant invasion ruining Europe.

He would hate immigrant Hassan Abdi Dhuhulow too, even though they share many of the same traits. Dhuhulow is a 23-year-old Norwegian citizen of Somali origin who, according to Kenyan authorities, was one of the four attackers that led the September assault on the Nairobi mall, killing more than 65 men, women and children.

Dhuhulow grew up in a small town about an hour outside of Oslo, not unlike Harstad. His relatives told reporters he never felt at home.

Ismail cannot even contemplate that choice, incredulous at how someone can grow up with the wealth of Norway and leave to join a terrorist group in Somalia.

Their stories are all separate yet connected by the fundamental issues of citizenship, of belonging and the vilification of the “other,” which drives terrorism.

All of this context, these weighty geopolitical issues swirl about us as I stand with Ismail in the snow on this winter morning, in this remote outpost.

But for the moment, that seems far away when all that matters is the sound of Ismail’s feet crunching in the snow, breaking the silence as he runs away and back again.

Cagmadhige.

“Please don’t be a Muslim.”

That’s what Ola Steinvoll and Nina Hellevik were thinking as the bomb ripped through Oslo’s downtown in the summer of 2011. Steinvoll and Hellevik were in charge of Harstad’s refugee program and were among the first to welcome Ismail here. Norway has a generous program but every year it is a fight to sustain the funding for the predominantly Muslim refugees.

In the first frantic hours following the Oslo explosion, Al Qaeda was the natural suspect. As I boarded a plane bound for Norway, the facts were still uncertain. It wasn’t until I touched down in Heathrow and went online that the full horror of the tragedy was taking shape and reports of a well-armed white man began to surface.

A Facebook photo of Breivik, the blond, blue-eyed killer, dressed in a salmon-hued polo shirt and black Lacoste sweater, stared out from newspapers and television screens in the excruciating days of funerals and tributes that followed.

Breivik had struck the heart — the future — of Norway, by gunning down young campers at a Labour Party retreat on the island of Utoya after bombing Oslo. Karoline Bank had hidden in the woods as Breivik roamed the camp, pressing a shredded T-shirt into the wounds of her friend, who Breivik had shot in her palms and clavicle as she raised her hands to shield herself.

Bank told me that she was happy Breivik was Norwegian. “We don’t need more racism. We don’t need more fear of the unknown,” the 20-year-old said just a couple days after the attack. “I have heard racist people say, ‘No, not all Muslims are terrorists but all terrorists are Muslim.’ This has proven this is not right. Terrorists are people who have grown up the wrong way or have the wrong impression of things. It has nothing to do with religion or where you come from or who your mother is.”

Breivik had a Twitter account with only one tweet: “One person with a belief is equal to the force of 100,000 who have only interests,” he wrote, reworking a quotation by philosopher John Stuart Mill. If Breivik hoped he would fuel a right-wing, anti-immigrant movement that was gaining momentum throughout Europe and beginning quietly in Norway, he managed the opposite and elicited nothing but revulsion.

“The July 22 attack calmed down the state quite a bit,” says Thomas Hegghammer, director of terrorism research at the Oslo-based Norwegian Defence Research. “It made it politically much more difficult to come anywhere close to Islamophobic statements. It muted for a while at least the populist anti-Muslim (voices) of the far end of the debate spectrum.”

Norway’s political landscape has changed since then, shifting to the right with September’s election and the rise of the anti-immigration Progress Party. There is great debate what impact this will have — if any. But there is renewed talk about discrimination, sparked most recently with a tweet from a Norwegian medical student of Somali heritage and the hashtag, “#norskrasisme,” which translates to “Norwegian racism.” Her subsequent tweets detailed 140-character instances of racism her family had experienced and soon the topic was trending.

At the same time, Hegghammer says he has also seen a rise in Norway’s “jihadi community,” a militant movement growing both in “size and pitch,” with many citizens leaving the country to fight in Mali, Syria or Somalia. This is not unique to Norway, and Hegghammer says it follows a trend throughout the West with the popularity of conflicts that Al Qaeda can exploit.

“I think in a sense Norway has caught up with the rest of Europe.”

The truth is I chose Ismail. Journalists do this as part of a media natural selection. The weakest survive — the children, the elderly, the strong who are no longer strong, the young who look old. You look for the way to shout above the noise of news: pay attention to this tragedy.

For instance, when covering Somalia’s 2011 famine with videographer Randy Risling, we decided to follow the plight of a 2-year-old boy, Abdisalam. There were many kids near starvation in that hospital where we spent a week. Abdisalam Osman had the longest eyelashes I had ever seen on a little boy, the most sunken ribs and emaciated legs. With the scope of tragedies so overwhelming — 29,000 children died in the famine — sometimes it is easier to grasp the story of one.

I chose Ismail on that January 2010 day in the government compound known as Villa Somalia because he was the first to talk and because he was younger than the two other young men on the couch, who had also been dragged into a stadium and had their hands and feet amputated by the Shabab.

I chose Ismail because I was staying that night at the African Union forces compound – one of the only safe places in Mogadishu at that time — and my military escort was yelling at me. It was near dusk. The convoy of massive IED-proof armoured vehicles was waiting on me. We couldn’t drive in the dark back to the compound because Al Shabab still owned most of the roads. I wore a flak jacket. Ismail wore a dress shirt that was too big, one cuff hanging over the stump where his hand once was. I only had time to get the story and photo of one of the boys.

As the escort paced, we talked quickly with the help of a Somali translator. Ismail took off his prosthetic and crossed his legs for the photo. He looked panicked. He stared at the Canadian pin on my computer bag. I took it off and gave it to him as I ran out. He dropped it. When I looked back he was on the ground trying to find it.

Ismail owes his rescue in the months that followed largely to Sahal Abdulle, a Somalia-born Canadian photojournalist.

Sahal left Somalia for Canada, via the U.S., just before the government collapsed in 1991. He returned as a Reuters journalist and covered the worst of the wars. In August 2007, he survived a car bombing that killed his close friend, another Canadian journalist, Ali Sharmarke. It took him a couple of years to get the courage to travel back to Mogadishu. He went to meet Ismail in early 2010 after reading about him in the Star, and told him he would get him out.

“There is just something about Ismail,” he told me after meeting him. “I can’t describe it.”

Sahal fashioned an escape route, getting Ismail to Nairobi in September 2010, where he unofficially adopted him and helped him register as a UN refugee. Norway was the first to offer, and in January 2011, Sahal, Ismail and I flew here to his new home.

Sahal wants to save Somalia. He can’t. But he did save Ismail. He helped the other boys too, who eventually made it to Kenya but have not fared as well. One spends too much time chewing the leafy stimulant khat, which is popular in East Africa. Sometimes Ismail will send money — and he urges him to spend it on food and education, not khat. They both say they feel a little lost outside of Somalia.

In Harstad, Ismail lives with roommates in an apartment and goes to school five days a week, never missing a day. His attendance wasn’t as good when he first arrived. He couldn’t get up on time. He spent his first stipend quickly, buying shoes, nice clothes. Steinvoll and Hellevik had to sit him down to budget.

During the first few icy weeks he often fell walking to school, once tumbling down an embankment, rolling and rolling in the snow until he stopped at the bottom. He was miserable and complained to Hellevik, the petite, no-nonsense director.

“I think someone told him he could have a taxi,” she said when we met for dinner recently. “And I’d say, ‘No, you have to walk. You cannot define yourself as handicapped or you’ll become handicapped.’ But he’d say, ‘I’m in pain,’ and I’d say, ‘Yes, we have to find a solution.’ ”

So she walked with him, and arranged to have a second set of books for him at school so he could lighten his load. It was only a couple of weeks later when visiting a doctor for a prosthetic that Nina realized how ill-equipped he was and that he had sores on his leg. “Oh, I felt bad,” she says now.

Ismail has become amazingly steady on his feet, expertly negotiating the halke, which is the Norwegian term for snow on top of ice (there are many Norwegian words describing snow conditions), even keeping me up as I slip, slide and then when he lets go, tumble.

Ismail sits in the back row of the English class taught by Jon Bjerkan.

The class discussion on this morning has turned to racism. The dozen students come from all over the world — Burma, Eritrea, the Palestinian territories. They share personal stories of discrimination: it is hard to get a job; sometimes people don’t want to share a seat on the bus.

Ismail shrugs later when I ask him about this, about his own experiences with the “us” versus “them” mentality that he may have encountered. “It’s okay, doesn’t bother me,” he says.

He believes it may be a question of culture, more than discrimination. Norwegians tend to be more reserved at first whereas personal space is not a concern in Somalia. Anyone who has flown to Mogadishu knows it’s a race across the tarmac, where sharp elbows are needed to find a good seat.

“Yeah, sometimes people didn’t want to take a seat or talk to me,” he says, but proudly notes how it doesn’t bother him anymore. “Now I sometimes put my bag on the seat beside me.”

It is hard to gauge where Norway is headed, if indeed there is this divide forming or anti-immigrant sentiments building, as some believe. My own impressions are skewed by the only three visits I’ve made — twice for Ismail and to cover the Breivik massacre. As an outsider looking in, the country seems impressively tolerant.

Mustafa Almi, Ismail’s good friend who was also born in Somalia, sits beside him in class. They wear matching “I Love Haters” hats with the word MOTIVATION written under the large bill. Ismail rarely takes the hat off, but can’t explain what it means, or the roots of the brand, which is popular with skateboarders in the U.S. He just liked the colour — green.

But his teachers say “motivated” is an apt description for Ismail. With only a few years of education in Somalia, Ismail has excelled here and will be going to high school next year. Three years later, if all goes well, he will apply for university. He hopes to study political science although he’s uncertain. As Steinvoll says, “He will be fine. He has a good brain. What 21-year-old Norwegian knows what he wants to do?”

Ismail is also wearing the Maple Leafs scarf and Roots shirt my parents had bought him as a present. Even though it is Norway that has given him a new life, Ismail still dreams of visiting Canada, the place that gave Sahal a home. He chose Canada as the country he will profile for his English class project. I brought him a bag of Canadian pins to hand out — to make up for the one lost in Mogadishu.

Source: thestar.com

Djibouti to Send More Troops to Somalia

FILE - Djibouti's President Ismail Omar Guelleh.

Djibouti's President Ismail Omar Guelleh says his country will send more troops to violence-ridden Somalia within the next three weeks.

Guelleh told VOA's Somali service his country will deploy one more battalion to boost its troop presence in central Somalia. He said operations will soon begin to liberate the town of Bulobarde in central Somalia, where the al-Qaida-linked group al-Shabab has carried out many attacks.

"We want to add one more battalion to our troops in Somalia, and that deployment will happen within the next three weeks"

Djibouti is one of the countries that contributes troops to the African Union-led peacekeeping force in Somalia, which has endured more than two decades of chaos and conflict.

Bulobarde is about 200 kilometers north of the capital, Mogadishu, where al-Shabab militants periodically carry out bombings.

The militant group once controlled most of the Somali capital, but it was driven out of Mogadishu and other major Somali cities by the African Union-led peacekeeping force.

Al-Shabab is still considered a threat. In September, the group claimed responsibility for an assault on a shopping mall in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi, that killed more than 60 people.

VOA News

Losing glasses brings Somalia war zone into focus

By Mark Doyle

A different side to Somalia is discovered - one of mango plantations and bustling markets, as well as a country devastated by two decades of conflict - after losing a pair of spectacles.

This is the story about how I mislaid my spectacles on a battlefield in central Somalia.

But it's also about how I learnt something new to me - that many parts of Somalia are very beautiful.

There are green fertile plains and there are soaring mountains.

I got to see these parts of Somalia - and yes, I can see without my reading glasses - through the bullet-proof windows of an armoured personnel carrier.

My journey there was under the protection of African Union troops who are fighting a full-scale war against highly motivated, radical Islamists of the al-Qaeda-affiliated al-Shabab army.

I call them an army because I think the usual description of them as "insurgents" or "guerrillas" is inadequate.

Al-Shabab - which means, roughly, "The Youth" - controls more territory than any other al-Qaeda-linked group anywhere in the world.

It sometimes acts like an army, using defensive World War One-style trenches, for example.

It has tactics, it has mortars - this is no ragtag movement.

I know because, in the two weeks I spent with them, the African Union soldiers were attacked every single day by al-Shabab - who use roadside bombs, snipers, or co-ordinated military advances.

One morning, for example, I saw the immediate aftermath of an attack on an African Union base.

I touched the flattened grass and carefully spaced out the firing positions the al-Shabab men had crouched down in just hours earlier.

I bent down to the ground to count the empty bullet cartridges that had spewed out of their rifles - they were shiny and brand new.

This is a war that involves over 17,000 African Union troops, including armoured battalions with enormous Soviet-era T55 tanks, marines off the coast and drones in the sky.

The soldiers, from countries like Uganda and Sierra Leone, are dug in behind earthwork ramparts in strings of fortified outposts.

The foreign soldiers are there because the government and army of Somalia are too weak, on their own, to face al-Shabab. That's the war.

But did you know that there are also orange groves in Somalia? That there are mango plantations, rivers, well-watered fields and bustling markets.

I didn't - not really, because I've never seen these things before - with, or without, my glasses.

Journalists are not usually lucky enough, as I was, to spend two whole weeks driving around Somalia.

But on this trip, I travelled for hundreds of miles through south and central Somalia and saw some of the real life in between the fighting. I saw farms, rivers and canals - I saw vast herds of camels and goats. There are forests, fruit trees and quarries.

Map
This war is partly about Islamist ideology, but it is also about winning control of these very real assets and sometimes very beautiful, fertile countryside.

But back to my glasses. I mentioned that I'd lost them to an officer from the Ugandan army who was accompanying me - more to make conversation, really, than out of any hope of finding them.

But the officer started making calls to his colleagues on his mobile, tracing our route back down the road.

I must admit I thought all that was just for show. But a few days later, to my absolute astonishment, this officer said he had located my glasses... on the battlefield where I had leant down to count the al-Shabab bullets.

My glasses then made a circuitous journey home. They travelled first in an armoured personnel carrier heading for the Ugandan military headquarters in the Somali capital Mogadishu.

They were not broken even when this vehicle was hit by another roadside bomb.

Then they were taken in another armoured car from the Ugandan military base to the Somali president's office, where a friend of mine works. He happened to be due to travel to the UK.

Somalia's capital Mogadishu is still hit by suicide bombings

There was then a quick hop from Mogadishu to Nairobi, a rather longer flight to London, and my glasses were finally returned to me. My friend handed them over, here, at BBC Broadcasting House. They were slightly bent, but nothing a little twisting couldn't resolve.

My journey with the African Union forces has put a number of things in to sharper focus.

The first is that this is a terrible, widespread war. But Somalia is not just a war zone parts of it are very, very beautiful.

And finally, if you ever lose your glasses on a battlefield, all I can say is never lose sight of hope.

How to listen to From Our Own Correspondent:

BBC Radio 4: Saturdays at 11:30 and some Thursdays at 11:00

Listen online or download the podcast.

Suldaanka Guud iyo Cuqaasha Beesha Muuse Dhariyo oo caawa ku dhawaaqay in ay galayaan dagaal ka dhan ah Somaliland

Suldaan Naasir Cabdi Suldaan Ismaaciil

Hargeysa - Suldaanka Guud ee Beesha Muuse Dhariyo Suldaan naasir Suldaan Naasir Suldaan Cabbdi Ismaaciil iyo Caaqilka Guud ee Beesha Muusa Dhariyo oo guddoominayey kulan guud oo ay beesha Muuse Dhariyo kaga tashanaysay xubin ay ku lahaayeen Guddida Cadaaladda Somaliland oo ay sheegeen in Golaha Wakiiladdu ku bedelayo xubin kale oo Beesha Isaaq ah.

bnreeaSuldaan Naasir oo Waaheen khadka Telefoonka kula soo xidhiidhay markii ay shirka ka soo baxeen ayaa Waaheen u sheegay haddii Guddoomiye Cirro iyo Golaha Wakiiladdu ka saaraan xubintii ay ku lahaayeen guddida Cadaaladda ay galayaan dagaal af-ka ah oo dalka gudihiisa iyo dibadiisa ah isla markaana ay ku dhawaaqayaan in ay Somaliland uga baxayaan Cadaalad daro.

Suldaan Naasir waxa uu sheegay isagoo ku hadlaya magaca Beesha Muuse Dhariyo Barriga iyo Galbeedka Somaliland in ay ka dhamaatay dul-qaadkii iyo Samirkii ay Somaliland ku joogeen isagoo sheegay Beesha Isaaq in ay in badan u dul-qaadanayeen cadaalad darada ay ku hayso, waxaanu ku tiraabay in ay hore ugu eedayn jireen in ay Siyaad Bare ka raaceene in ay maanta Somaliweyn raacayaan haddii aan xubinta ay ku leeyihiin Guddida Cadaaladda loo dayn.

Suldaan Naasir waxa uu Guddoomiyaha Golaha Wakiilladda iyo Golahaba ugu baaqay in ay talaabadaas ka snoqdaan oo ay joojiyaan in xubintoodii ay cid kale siiyaan isagoo sheegay haddii xubintooda la saluugay inay soo bedelayaan, laakiin waxa uu ka digay oo uu Cirro Farriin uga dhigay sidii beeshiisu u difaacaysay in ay iyana xubintooda u difaacanayaan.

Suldaan Naasir waxa uu sheegay Somaliland in ay leedahay Calan uu Tawxiidku ku xardhan yahay Kafad iyo Miisaana astaan u tahay, hase yeeshee Beel ahaan ay arkaan in Kafadaasi dheeliday, waxaanu ku baaqay in calanka Somaliland la dajiyo maadaama aan cadaalad hoostiisa lagu maamulaynin.

Suldaan Naasir waxa hadaladiisii ka mid ahaa:

Haddii aanu nahay Beesha Muuse Dhariyo dal aan Somaliland ahayn ma lihin, in badan baanu ku samraynay, Golayaashiisa waanu ka maqanahay, markii taas la arkay waxa anaga iyo Beesha Ciise nala siiyey laba xubnood oo uu baarlamaanka Somaliland ku lahaa xubnaha guddida cadaaladda, bari dhaweyd baa la kala diray, waxa nagu maqaalo ah in barri Golaha Wakiiladda Somaliland xubintayadii bedelayaan oo ay qof beesha Isaaq ka soo jeeda geynayaan, maanta waxaanu iskugu nimi madax dhaqameedkii iyo cuqaashii Beesha waxa noo muuqatay inaanu badheedhayaga ka dhiibato talaabadaas Golaha Wakiiladdu Beri samaynayaan, Cirro Beeshiisu shalay bay ka mudaharaadaysay Burco oo ay lahayd haddii la taabto dagaal abaa dhici doona, Beela kasta oo Isaaqna sidaas bay tidhaahdaa anana hoostooda ayaanu ku dulmanahay juuqna ma nidhaahno, maanta Haddii aan ahay Suldaankii Guud isla marakaan cuqaashii I hareero fadhido, waxaanu beesha Isaaq u sheegaynaa in uu samirkii naga dhamaaday, walaalayo hore waxay noogu Eedayn jireen in aanu Af-weyne ka raacnay, laakiin waxaan maanta halkan ka cadaynayaa in aanu Somaliweyn raacayno, dagaal Af-ka ah oo dibed iyo gudabana la galayno beesha Isaaq haddii aanay joojin talaabada Guddoomiyihii beeshiisu shalay lahayd lama taaban karo uu isagii maanta taayadii Isaaq siinayo.

Somaliland waxay leedahay Calan Tawxiidku ku xardhan yahay iyo Astaan Kafad iyo Miisaan ah waxaanu leenahay hala dajiyo, kol haddii cadaalad daro hoostiisa lagaga dhaqmayo, waxaanu leenahay isma qabato in laa illaaha ila laah la sudho iyo in beelaha xaqoodii lagu dulmiyo.

waaheen.com