Penniless, starving and at the mercy of marauding armed gangs: Appalling fate of Yemen and Somalia's khat addicts revealed

 

• Khat is a narcotic leaf that induces mild euphoria popular in Somalia, Yemen and Ethiopia among others
• Drug was reclassified as Class C in the UK and banned in a ruling that came into effect last June
• There are an estimated 20 million khat addicts across the Horn of Africa and the Arabian Peninsula
• Mental illnesses, mouth and heart disease and gang violence are all problems linked to khat use

By RUTH STYLES FOR MAILONLINE

Fresh, green and innocent-looking, the neatly tied bunches of khat found in markets across the Horn of Africa look far from dangerous. But, as these photographs reveal, that is exactly what they are.

Banned in the UK earlier this year, khat, a narcotic green leaf which produces a sense of euphoria in users, is a common sight on the streets of Yemeni capital Sana'a as well as other cities in the region.

But with side-effects that include mouth disease, tooth loss and, in some cases, mental illness, the drug takes a terrible toll on addicts, which in some cases, include children as young as six years old. 

+21

Destroyed life: A man who went mad thanks to the effects of khat addiction chained inside his home in the Ethiopian city of Harar

+21

+21

Dangerous: Those who don't go mad are at risk of losing their teeth like this man (right) who now takes a powder form of the drug

+21

Euphoria: According to khat users, the amphetamine-like drug produces a euphoric high followed by a mild depression

'In the mountainous regions of Yemen, it’s not uncommon to see children of six or seven chewing khat that was given to them by their fathers,' explains Eric Lafforgue, the photographer behind these images.

'The children follow their parents’ lead and end up addicted at an early age.' And the consequences of that addiction can be severe, whether being left penniless and unable to work or falling victim to drug-related mania.

For those who do succumb to madness induced by khat, a life chained inside their homes awaits - psychologists and mental health institutions being in short supply in Yemen, Ethiopia and Somalia.

More still fall victim to gang violence - usually as a result of being unable to pay for their khat, which costs between $0.5 and $20 for a bunch, depending on the quality and freshness of the leaves.

Other khat addicts turn out to be a danger to others. 'The stimulant properties of khat are commonly believed to improve efficiency, so it’s common to see laborers chewing while working,' explains Lafforgue.

+21

'Like alcohol': Yemeni users such as this man say that using the drug is their equivalent of drinking alcohol

+21

High: People high on the drug can be spotted courtesy of their enlarged pupils and erratic behaviour

+21

Can't stop: For many, chewing khat takes over their lives - with some starting to chew the drug in childhood

+21

Big business: Khat farming is worth £160m a year in Ethiopia alone, which counts the drug as its fourth largest export

+21

Popular: As well as Somalia, Somaliland, Yemen and Ethiopia, khat is also popular in Kenya and Uganda, where it is known as miraa

'The same goes goes for taxi and bus drivers but they often cause accidents when they fall asleep at the wheel after the euphoria fades.'

But with an estimated 20 million users in the Horn of Africa alone, khat has become a big business - and one that shows no signs of slowing, thanks to the 500,000 farmers across the Horn of Africa and Arabian peninsula turning their land over to the drug.

Unlike coffee, khat can be harvested twice a year and requires 30 per cent less water to grow - a key consideration in Yemen, which, according to hydrologists, is in danger of becoming the first country in the world to run out of fresh water.

But with so much of the local economy dependent on khat, any change to demand can prove disastrous. 

Already, says Lafforgue, the effects of the UK ban are beginning to be felt in Ethiopia. 

'For thousands of little farmers and traders in Ethiopia, the ban has already had a severe impact,' says Lafforgue. 'Khat was Ethiopia's fourth largest export, bringing in more than £160m in 2013 alone.'

+21

Painful: One of the nastiest side effects is tooth decay and mouth cancer, both of which this Somali addict has

+21

+21

Market leader: The 571 gang, which is thought to be led by a woman, is the market leader for khat sales

+21

Attractive: Many Ethiopian women believe that chewing khat makes you more attractive to the opposite sex

+21

Making money: More than 25,000kg of khat is sold each day in Ethiopia's Adaway Market alone

+21

Tradition: In the tiny country of Djibouti, khat is still sold wrapped in traditional banana leaves rather than plastic bags

+21

Busy: A khat market near the town of Harar in Ethiopia. From Harar, the drug is exported to destinations across the Arabian Peninsula

But not everyone is suffering. For the 571 franchise based in Somaliland's capital, Hargeisa, business continues much as it always has. The largest supplier in the region, it sells 80 tonnes of khat every single day. 

'They even own a plane to carry the khat to Ethiopia or to the refugees camps [in Yemen, Lebanon and Turkey],' explains Lafforgue. 'According to local legend, it is run by a woman who earns many millions of dollars a year from the drug.'

But while the mystery woman behind the 571 franchise is benefiting from khat, for the millions of addicts living in the region, the future is considerably less secure.

'Many people are addicted to khat for life,' says Lafforgue. 'It has also had a huge effect on the environment because it is sold in plastic bags which litter the ground everywhere you go in Yemen and Somaliland.

'Outside of Sana'a, there are millions of plastic bags littered about. The government tried to stop people doing it but nothing ever seems to work. In Yemen, you know you're approaching a town when you start seeing plastic bags everywhere.'

+21

Lucrative: There are an estimated 500,000 khat farmers across the Horn of Africa and the Arabian Peninsula

+21

Different methods: In Yemen, where the desert heat wilts the fresh khat leaves, the majority of markets take place at night

+21

Cash crop: Colourful plastic sheeting is used to protect a khat field close to the Yemeni town of Ibb

+21

Popular: This variant of khat, known locally as chami, is grown on the Yemen-Saudi border and is widely considered to be the best

• SHARE PICTURE
• 
  
• 
  
• 
  
• 
  
• 
  

+21

Environmental problems: Because khat is sold in plastic bags, suburbs are blighted with piles of discarded carriers

When the West wanted Islam to curb Christian extremism

Russian and Ottoman forces battle in 1788 over a port on the Black Sea. (Wikimedia Commons)

The tiresome debate over whether Islam is somehow more violent than other religions unfortunately won't go away. Recent spats between outspoken commentator Reza Aslan, TV host Bill Maher and neuroscientist Sam Harris -- who said on Maher's show that Islam was "the mother lode of bad ideas" -- have launched a thousand blog posts and vitriolic tweets.

Writing last week in The Washington Post's opinion pages, Fareed Zakaria acknowledged the existence of an unpleasant level of intolerance in some Muslim-majority countries, but stressed such societal ills can't be laid at the feet of a whole religion. "So, the strategy to reform Islam," Zakaria asks Maher, Harris and their supporters, "is to tell 1.6 billion Muslims, most of whom are pious and devout, that their religion is evil and they should stop taking it seriously?"

The backdrop to this conversation is the U.S.-led war effort against the extremist militants of the Islamic State, as well as the continued threat of terrorist groups elsewhere that subscribe to certain puritanical forms of Islam. Their streak of fundamentalism is, for the West, the bogeyman of the moment. But many argue it has little to do with Islam, writ large.

In any case, Islam and those who practice it were not always perceived to be such a cultural threat. Just a few decades ago, the U.S. and its allies in the West had no qualms about abetting Islamist militants in their battles with the Soviets in Afghanistan. Look even further, and there was a time when a vocal constituency in the West saw the community of Islam as a direct, ideological counter to a mutual enemy.

Turn back to the 1830s. An influential group of officials in Britain -- then the most powerful empire in the West, with a professed belief in liberal values and free trade -- was growing increasingly concerned about the expanding might of Russia. From Central Asia to the Black Sea, Russia's newly won domains were casting a shadow over British colonial interests in India and the Middle East. The potential Russian capture of Istanbul, capital of the weakening Ottoman Empire, would mean Russia's navy would have free access to the Mediterranean Sea--an almost unthinkable prospect for Britain and other European powers.

And so, among diplomats and in the press, a Russophobic narrative began to emerge. It was ideological, a clash of civilizations. After all, beginning with the Catherine the Great in the late 18th century, the Russians had framed their own conquests in religious terms: to reclaim Istanbul, once the center of Orthodox Christianity, and, as one of her favorite court poets put it, "advance through a Crusade" to the Holy Lands and "purify the river Jordan."

That sort of Christian zeal won little sympathy among other non-Orthodox Christians. Jerusalem in the 19th century was still the site of acrimonious street battles between Christian sects, policed by the exasperated Ottomans. Russian Orthodox proselytizing of Catholics in Poland infuriated European Catholic nations further west, such as France.

Baron Ponsonby, the British ambassador to Istanbul for much of the 1830s, decided the job of thwarting Russian expansionism was a "Holy Cause." An article in the "British and Foreign Review" pamphlet, circulated in Britain in 1836, saw the Ottomans as "the only bulwark of Europe against Muscovy, of civilization against barbarism." Russia represented, in some accounts, a backward, superstitious society where peasants still labored in semi-slavery and monarchs ruled as tyrants, unchallenged by parliaments and liberal sentiment. The Ottomans, who were embarking on their own process of reform, looked favorable in comparison.

David Urquhart, an enterprising agent who served a spell with Ponsonby in Istanbul, became one of the most energetic champions of the Ottoman cause and Islamic culture in British policy circles. His writings on the threat of Russia shaped the opinions of many in Britain at the time, including a certain Karl Marx. And Urquhart's time spent among the tribes of the northern Caucasus set the stage for decades of romantic European idealizing of the rugged Muslim fighters in Russia's shadow.

Urquhart returned from his travels in Turkey and elsewhere convinced that the Ottoman lifestyle was better for one's health. "If London were [Muslim]," he wrote, "the population would bathe regularly, have a better-dressed dinner for [its] money, and prefer water to wine or brandy, gin or beer." He would later launch a largely unsuccessful movement to bring the culture of Turkish baths to the cold damp of Victorian Britain.

Casting his eye to the territories the Ottomans controlled, Urquhart praised the empire's rule over a host of Christian communities and other sects -- for example, the warring Druze and Maronites in the Levant, or feuding Greek Orthodox and Armenians. In a passage cited by the historian Orlando Figes in his excellent history of the Crimean War, Urquhart credits Islam under the Ottomans as a specifically "tolerant, moderating force":

What traveler has not observed the fanaticism, the antipathy of all these [Christian] sects – their hostility to each other? Who has traced their actual repose to the toleration of Islamism? Islamism, calm, absorbed, without spirit of dogma, or views of proselytism, imposes at present on the other creeds the reserve and silence which characterize itself. But let this moderator be removed, and the humble professions now confined to the sanctuary would be proclaimed in the court and the military camp; political power and political enmity would combine with religious domination and religious animosity; the empire would be deluged in blood, until a nervous arm – the arm of Russia – appears to restore harmony, by despotism.

Flash forward to 2014, and the conversation has curiously flipped: Pundits bluster about the centuries-old war between Sunnis and Shiites. Christians are a persecuted, beleaguered people in the Middle East. Without ruthless strongmen aligned with the West, we're told, the Muslim world would descend into a chaotic bloodbath where terrorist organizations would gain sway.

The history lesson above is not meant to denigrate the Russians and praise the Ottomans, an empire that was guilty of many of its own misdeeds and slaughters. Urquhart himself had plenty of detractors and opponents back home, particularly those who wanted Britain to be less openly antagonistic toward Russia. (Russia, the Ottoman Empire, Britain and France eventually engaged in the largely pointless and very bloody Crimean Warin the 1850s.)

But it goes to show how much the politics of an era shape its conversation about cultures and peoples. That's no less true now than it was almost two centuries ago.

Ishaan Tharoor writes about foreign affairs for The Washington Post. He previously was a senior editor at TIME, based first in Hong Kong and later in New York.

133 ARAB PILGRIMS DIED DURING HAJ

A total of 133 Arab foreign pilgrims have died so far, while 213 others have been admitted to hospitals during this Haj season, according to a statistical report issued by the Tawafa Organization for Pilgrims from Arab Countries.

“We have advised seven pilgrims to return to their countries due to signs of psychiatric illness, preventing them from completing the Haj pilgrimage,” the report said, adding that four of the pilgrims came from Egypt, two from Jordan and one from Lebanon.

The highest number of deaths was reported among Egyptian pilgrims, with 14 cases of death and 81 hospitalization cases. Five Iraqis, four Algerians, and four Sudanese have also died, in addition to three Moroccans, three Somalis, two Yemenis, two Jordanians and one Mauritanian.

The Health Ministry, meanwhile, said 56 percent of deaths during the Haj season were caused by heart and lung diseases.

Hospitalized Arab pilgrims included 25 Iraqis, 20 Sudanese, 19 Somalis, 15 Moroccans, 10 Algerians, nine Yemenis, seven Syrians, seven Palestinians, seven Jordanians, six Libyans, five Tunisians and one Lebanese patient.

Faisal Nouh, chairman of the organization, said that some of the hospitalized pilgrims have been released, while pilgrims who were unable to move to Arafat have been transported by ambulance to perform Haj rites.

 

SIERRA LEONE WANTS TO SEND TROOPS TO SOMALIA

Addis Ababa ( Agencies + DIPLOMAT.SO) – Sierra Leone’s Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia Osman Keh Kamara, on Wednesday 8th October 2014 met with the African Union Commission for Peace and Security and expressed the urgent need for the rotation of the Sierra Leonean peacekeepers serving with the African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM).

The Ambassador stated that His Excellency Dr. Ernest Bai Koroma, President of the Republic of Sierra Leone is following the issue with keen interest. He pointed out that the battalion that is supposed to replace those in Somalia has been screened and cleared from Ebola Virus Disease (EVD) by the Ministry of Health in collaboration with the African Union medical team. He stressed that the troops are currently isolated at their pre-deployment camp for the past four months.

According to Ambassador Kamara, Sierra Leone’s peace mission in Somalia was designed principally in support of African solidarity and above all to bring about normalcy to Somalia after decades of internal armed conflict and political instability. He called on the African Union and the Government of Somalia to expedite modalities for the rotation of the troops.

Earlier, Mr. Sivuyile Bam, Head Peace Support Operations Division of the African Union Commission accepted Ambassador Kamara’s observations and informed that the United Nations Support Office for Somalia is ready to deploy the battalion from Sierra Leone. He disclosed among other things that the Commission has written to the World Health Organization requesting them to screen the contingent in Sierra Leone.

The delegation from the African Union Commission for Peace and Security promised to work round the clock to ensure that this issue is resolved amicably.

For more news and stories, join us on Facebook,Twitter and Subcripe our Youtube Channel,Or contact us through our Emails : info@diplomat.so,adv@diplomat.so,diplomatnewsdesk@gmail.com

PERHAPS THE GREATEST THREAT TO ETHIOPIA COMES FROM WITHIN

Some of Addis Ababa’s national-development initiatives are bringing the government into conflict with its own people

Visionary: the state funeral of Prime Minister Meles Zenawi, in 2012; his death took Ethiopia into unknown territory. Photograph: Mulugeta Ayene/AFP/Getty

Ahmed Soliman

Since 2000 Ethiopia has registered some of the greatest gains in human development seen anywhere on the planet. It is one of Africa’s fastest-growing economies, with near double-digit GDP growth over the past decade and large-scale infrastructural development.

Ethiopia’s geostrategic significance is built on a base of relative stability in a volatile region, enabling it to foster international partnerships on development and regional security. But its largely rural population remains poor, and images of drought, famine, poverty and war from the 1970s and 1980s have endured in the popular imagination around the world.

The population has grown by more than a quarter since 2001; the UN says Ethiopia will be one of the world’s 10 most populous countries by 2050. This population pressure drives Addis Ababa’s “pro-poor” vision for national development.

The famine that hit the Horn of Africa in 2011 was a stark reminder that Ethiopia is still vulnerable to food insecurity. The ruling Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front, in power since 1991, is acutely aware of the need to prevent mass starvation; it has institutionalised an early- warning system to reduce future risks.

In a country that likes to be known as a “democratic developmental state”, significant obstacles remain as central government keeps a grip on political and social freedoms. The death of Meles Zenawi, a visionary leader, in 2012 took Ethiopia into unknown territory. With no clear replacement, succession was a key issue in this federated country, where citizenship, politics and identity are based on ethnic representation. The new prime minister, Hailemariam Desalegn, is from a minority group; he is an acceptable compromise for the historically dominant and larger Tigray, Amhara and Oromo communities.

The next elections, due in 2015, will likely see another win for the ruling party, but Ethiopia’s western partners will be hoping for some opening up of a political space that has constricted since 2005. Restrictions on the media and NGOs come under the guise of protecting national security. A splintered opposition provides no alternative vision.

The government keeps a strong hand on the economy, with banking, telecommunications, power and shipping all tightly regulated. Ethiopia stands alone in Africa in terms of tapping into its vast green-energy potential. The focus is the country’s hydroelectric potential, but wind, solar and geothermal energy is also being harnessed.

In 2010 Ethiopia provided electricity to fewer than a quarter of its citizens, and blackouts and intermittent power were the norm. More than tripling energy capacity by 2017 should provide electricity across 75 per cent of the country. This is a huge leap: more supply will boost social development and increase job creation and trade, especially in rural areas. Equally impressive are plans for Ethiopia to become the top electricity supplier in Africa. It already exports power to Djibouti, Kenya and Sudan; linking to other grids will boost regional infrastructure and transport.

But Ethiopia will also have to be aware of the negative impact of its plans. The construction of the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam, on the Blue Nile, is potentially combustible politically, as Egypt sees any reduction to its current flow of water as a threat to its national security.

Perhaps the greatest threat to Ethiopia comes from within, as the government seeks to implement national-development initiatives in peripheral areas that bring it into conflict with its own people. An increasingly educated and diverse population will also make greater demands for political representation and the equitable distribution of goods and services.

The government must translate growth into higher living standards for its citizens.

Ahmed Soliman is a researcher with the Africa Programme at the Chatham House think tank, in London

Source: Irish Times

Exclusive: Somalia army weapons sold on open market - U.N. monitors

Somalia's army soldiers and peacekeepers from the African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM) enter the town of Barawe during the second phase of Operation Indian Ocean October 6, 2014.

CREDIT: REUTERS/FEISAL OMAR

BY LOUIS CHARBONNEAU

(Reuters) - Somali army weapons and ammunition continue to be diverted to open markets despite the government's pledges to prevent its arms from leaking and ending up in the hands of Islamist militants, U.N. investigators said in a new report.

The Somalia-Eritrea Monitoring Group, an 8-member panel of investigators that monitors compliance with U.N. sanctions on the two countries, said there had been improvements in government reports on the contents of its armories but suggested the situation remained unsatisfactory.

"The Federal Government has not imported weapons into Somalia in full compliance with its obligations pursuant to the modification of the arms embargo by the Security Council," the group said in its confidential 482-page annual report, obtained by Reuters on Friday.

The report was submitted to the council's Somalia-Eritrea sanctions committee.

The 15-nation Security Council's decision to ease Somalia's decades-old arms embargo in March 2013 was a controversial one, although Washington supported the Somali government's appeals for restrictions to be relaxed to enable it to better arm its security forces to fight al Shabaab.

Earlier this year, the council extended a partial suspension of the decades-old arms embargo on Somalia for eight months while highlighting concerns about the possible diversion of weapons to al Qaeda-linked al Shabaab militants. The government has pledged to crack down on arms diversion.

In their new report, the monitors said a number of assault rifles provided by Ethiopia and stored at the Halane armory had ended up for sale on the streets of the Somali capital.

The group said it "obtained photographic evidence of several brand new Type 56-2 rifles observed in two Mogadishu markets between February and April 2014, which match the factory markings and sequence of serial numbers of Type 56-2 rifles observed in the Halane weapons store."

It added that the weapons were "undeniably sourced from SNA (Somali army) stockpiles" and noted that arms dealers selling them had confirmed that they came from government stockpiles.

"Arms dealers also stated that al Shabaab agents were procuring weapons in at least one of the markets," said the report, noting that the monitors had viewed an al Shabaab propaganda video in which a militant was cleaning a brand new Type 56-2 assault rifle.

"The Monitoring Group can only conclude that the weapons were sold illegally by SNA officers taking advantage of poor accountability at the unit level, or that these weapons have been leaked at a higher level and the SNA's supporting documentation has been doctored or manufactured as cover for missing weapons," the report said.

It added that the group has consistently received testimony from individuals about high-level Somali involvement in direct transfers of the arms to markets and to al Shabaab.

Other weapons have wound up on the markets of Mogadishu, including different assault rifles with filed-off serial numbers. Arms dealers in the markets said the weapons came from the Somali army and had originally come from Yemen.

The group said that since the partial suspension of the arms embargo, the various weapons Somalia has imported exceed 13,000 along with 5.5 million rounds of ammunition.

"Given the size of the Security Forces ... these numbers of weapons exceed the needs of the current offensive against al Shabaab," the report said. "They are also additional to weapons sourced locally from stocks already in the country and weapons that have entered Somalia in violation of the arms embargo."

A diplomat at Somalia's U.N. mission did not respond immediately to a request for comment.

Somalia's government last year had asked for the arms embargo to be fully removed, and the United States supported that. But other Security Council members were wary of doing that in a country already awash with weapons.

The Security Council imposed the embargo on Somalia in 1992 to cut the flow of weapons to feuding warlords, who a year earlier had ousted dictator Mohamed Siad Barre and plunged the country into civil war. In 2012, Somalia held its first vote since 1991 to elect a president and prime minister.

The Security Council requires Somalia's government to report regularly on the structure of the security forces and the infrastructure and procedures in place to ensure safe storage, maintenance and distribution of military equipment.

There is a 17,600-strong African Union peacekeeping force and a U.N. political mission in the Horn of Africa country. The African Union force continues to fight al Shabaab.

(Reporting by Louis Charbonneau; editing by Gunna Dickson)