Welcome

Egal enjoying non-recognition EPA A COMMEMORATIVE plaque marks Somaliland's first set of traffic-lights, planted in its sandy capital Hargeisa six months ago. When you are nation-building on a shoestring, a little means a lot. As it happens, Somaliland, a decade after breaking away from Somalia, has achieved quite a lot. For a start, it has peace. Through its upper house of clan elders, it has a broadly representative government. In Muhammad Haji Ibrahim Egal, it has a wily and popular president, whose promise of democratic elections is generally believed. Somalia, despite its multi-sponsored transitional government, has none of these things.  But Somaliland is not recognised as independent by anybody (nor, for that matter, is Puntland, another breakaway state with less clear ambitions). This disadvantage leaves Somaliland's 2m people—about half as many as Somalia has—dangerously reliant on the goodwill of neighbours, and of aid donors who slip...

by Robleh Mohamud Lafcanbe February 20, 2014 Recently, Universal TV aired a comedy sketch of President Silanyo in a show titled “Faaliyaha Qaranka”. Subsequently, the Minister of Information of Somaliland held a press conference condemning Universal’s actions and revoked their operating license in Somaliland. Universal TV and journalism organizations have claimed that the clip was merely a joke and should not be taken seriously and have criticized the government’s stance. On the other hand, the people of Somaliland feel that this was a direct insult towards the President and the country as a whole. Which argument seems reasonable and was it just a harmless comedy sketch as they claim? Clearly, the sketch of President Silanyo was below the belt and more than just a harmless comedy sketch. The clip tried to portray the President as an ineffective aging leader who cannot run his government. Universal TV disrespected President Sil...

by Nour  Omar February 21, 2014 I wanted to share with you my observation of  my recent stay in Mogadishu, in regard with  main problems facing the Somalia's government.   There are many problems facing the Somali government but I think the most striking  and observable one , I found, is lack of low and middle ranking qualified human resources. When I say low/middle ranking, I'm referring to any government employee below ministerial  level. Let me explain this. Any institution in the world, including governmental institutions, relies  heavily  on the low/middle rank officers to carry out its day-to-day duties properly.  In the government's case, it is the policemen/women, army soldiers, tax officers, immigration officers and civil servants that carry out the actual government duties. The top government officials are mainly to manage, direct  and set  the vision and strategies.  Top level officials al...

Alisha Ryu and David Snelson in Somalia (Courtesy: Alisha Ryu ) By Curtis S Chin Tuesday, February 11, 2014 Across South and Southeast Asia, nations are doing what they can to better prepare their businesses and their citizens to compete in an increasingly interconnected world. The challenges are vast and varied. From top-ranked Singapore to lowly-ranked Laos, the ease of doing business is all across the board. While Singapore held on to the No 1 ranking for ease of doing business, Pakistan was ranked 110th. That was at least better than 130th ranked Bangladesh, and 134th ranked India.   Rounding out the ‘Top 5’ for worst in Asia in The World Bank 2014 Doing Business report — the latest annual assessment of the ease of doing business in economies around the world — are Timor-Leste (179th), Afghanistan (164th), Laos (159th) and the Marshall Islands (156th). None of these nations though — including Pakistan — should take heart in the retort, “Well, at least we’re...

A U.S. Air Force MQ-1 Predator unmanned aerial vehicle assigned to the California Air National Guard's 163rd Reconnaissance Wing flies near the Southern California Logistics Airport in Victorville, California in this January 7, 2012 USAF handout photo obtained by Reuters, February 6, 2013. (U.S. Air Force Tech. Sgt. Effrain Lopez/Courtesy Reuters) By John Campbell Wednesday, February 12, 2014 This is a guest post by Allen Grane, intern for the Council on Foreign Relations Africa Studies program. Allen is currently an officer in the Army National Guard. His interests are in Africa, conflict, and conflict resolution. In the last week of January news outlets reported that an American drone had conducted an unsuccessful strike against a high level al-Shabaab leader in the Lower Shabelle region of Somalia. Later reports stated that the target of the strike was Ahmed Abdi Godane, the presumed current head of al-Shabaab. While the strike failed in its main mission ...

Mark T Jones  February 16, 2014 Across the Somali territories we have witnessed a raft of construction projects of late. Whilst such activity testifies to a gradual return to normality, the speed and nature of the development raises some fundamental questions. In all post-conflict economies there is an initial. During this period, it is imperative that there is focus on winning the peace, just as there has been in winning the war. Those familiar with the region are well aware that the elements intent on using violence to achieve their ends have not been totally defeated, but have been dispersed and are very much on the back foot. Psychologically this has given a tremendous fillip to the business community and has helped create an environment where investors feel sufficiently confident to engage in commercial activity again. The international community has also sought to bolster this situation and as a result locals and returning members of the...

Somaliland, the self-declared republic, is desperate for someone to find vast mineral reserves under its soil. But without international recognition – and the probability of legal battles in the future – it’s a big risk for any company to take. Somaliland too should be careful. Having dodged the aid curse, will it fall victim to the resource curse instead? By SIMON ALLISON. At the recently concluded Mining Indaba in Cape Town, Somaliland’s energy minister Hussein Abdi Dualeh had possibly the hardest sell of all. It was his job to convince the assembled mining bigwigs that his country was a viable, risk-free environment in which to invest millions and millions of dollars – all on the hope that there might be base and precious metals hidden somewhere under its drab scrubland. He tried hard. “We have also a unique geographical location,” the minister said in his speech at the conference. “If you have a mineral deposit and if you exploit it, it will be very cheap...

By Ed Stoddard CAPE TOWN, Feb 4 (Reuters) - The breakaway territory of Somaliland cannot access foreign aid because it has not yet been recognised internationally as a state, and that suits it just fine. "That is a blessing in disguise. Aid never developed anything," Hussein Abdi Dualeh, Somaliland's minister of energy and minerals, told Reuters on the sidelines of an African mining conference. "Aid is not a panacea, we'd rather not have it ... How many African countries do you know that developed because of a lot of aid? It's a curse. The ones that get the most aid are the ones with the problems," he said. Dualeh is in Cape Town trying to woo junior mining companies to come and explore for minerals in Somaliland, which Dualeh described as Africa's "land mining frontier. Almost completely unexplored". That might be a hard sell as even raising capital can be difficult for projects in a state that is not recognised int...

February 2, 2014 By Omar Mohamoud Mohamed Abdirisak Haji Hussein Hassan Atosh was born in the Ethiopian-Occupied Haud area of Somalia c. 1924. He came to Mogadishu, then the capital of Fascist colony of Italian Somaliland, in 1939. He attended a night elementary school and worked for a living during the day. He joined the British army in 1942 following the British Military occupation in Italian Somaliland after the war. In 1947 he left the British Army at the rank of corporal and joined the Somali Youth League – a political organization fighting for the Freedom, Independence and Unity of all the Somali lands. On the assumption of the Italian Trusteeship in 1950, he was detained as a political prisoner because he was opposed to the return of Italy in Somaliland. After his release from prison he was elected to the President of the Somali Youth League. In 1957 Abdirisak H. Hussein become the first president of the newly established Somali University Institute in Mo...

By Prof Said S. Samatar DISCLOSURE:  The above was imparted to me by the late and much-lamented Abdullahi Haji Abdurahman, better known by his nickname of Abdullahi Suuryaan, the ROVER.  In Abdullahi’s telling, this is the title of a play penned by a Somali dramatist who had done a surprisingly un-Somali thing: he spent months of patient labor studying cat habits before embarking on his dramatic work.  If a play of this name and a playwright exist, would he, please, make contact so that his amazing effort can be translated into English and placed ON-LINE.  His patience in cat work, especially, stands out in marked contrast to the notoriously impatient and unstable Somali personality. Somali cat

By John Mesler    January 31 2014 - As I've watched the events unfold in the mid-east over the past 24 years it has become alarmingly clear to me that we didn't invade Iraq in 2003 because we thought they had weapons of mass destruction. We lied. We knew they did NOT have them. Well, at least 6 or 7 "decision and policy makers" knew they didn't. I will explain this the best I can but we now know that mostly every other nation in the world (including the United Nations weapons investigative team which included Scott Ritter) knew it back then. But Still we invaded.    The US, the UK, Saudi Arabia and Israel were in on the plan. The plan I'm speaking of is called the Plan for the New American Century ( PNAC ) and to understand exactly what it is I would suggest that you google General Wesley Clark's 9...