Monday, August 8, 2011

Tales of horror as refugees arrive from Somalia/Jill Biden led a high-profile delegation to northeast Kenya to raise awareness of Somalia famine.Famine: Hundreds of thousands of kids could die; Jill Biden visits refugees; US to give $100M

Somalian refugees wait in the registration area of the Dagahaley refugee camp which makes up part of the giant Dadaab refugee settlement on July 23, 2011 in Dadaab, Kenya. (Oli Scarff/AFP/Getty Images)

DADAAB, Kenya — Jill Biden, wife of the U.S. vice president, led a high-profile delegation to northeast Kenya Monday as a humanitarian crisis sparked by war, famine and drought engulfed the Horn of Africa.

Biden visited the Dadaab complex of refugee camps to draw attention to the famine in southern Somalia that U.S. aid officials say has so far claimed 29,000 lives in the last three months.“We need a greater awareness worldwide of what is going on here,” she said. “There is hope if people start to pay attention to this.”
Dadaab is a dust-blown sprawl of three refugee camps that was built for 90,000 but is now home to about 400,000. Most live in plastic-covered stick huts that cover the inhospitable landscape.More from GlobalPost: Photographs of Somalis who have fled to Kenyan refugee campsEvery day its population is growing by about 1,500 as more Somalis arrive after walking for days or even weeks to flee the war and famine afflicting their home country. They carry with them tales of horror from their journey out of Somalia’s maelstrom.Children are the first victims, their immature and malnourished bodies unable to cope when diseases like measles, pneumonia, malaria and diarrhea strike.In a hospital run by the New York-based International Rescue Committee, 6-month old Hanad weighed just 3.1 kilograms. His mother, Ambia Abdi Ali, cradled his tiny form in her arms, feeding him sips of fortified milk hoping to add flesh to his exposed ribs and twig-like arms.The International Rescue Committee's Dr. John Kingoria said Hanad would suvive but others have not been so lucky. He said that at least five others have died in this clinic alone in the last month.
Every day its population is growing by about 1,500 as more Somalis arrive after walking for days or even weeks to flee the war and famine afflicting their home country. They carry with them tales of horror from their journey out of Somalia’s maelstrom. Children are the first victims, their immature and malnourished bodies unable to cope when diseases like measles, pneumonia, malaria and diarrhea strike.In a hospital run by the New York-based International Rescue Committee, 6-month old Hanad weighed just 3.1 kilograms. His mother, Ambia Abdi Ali, cradled his tiny form in her arms, feeding him sips of fortified milk hoping to add flesh to his exposed ribs and twig-like arms.The International Rescue Committee's Dr. John Kingoria said Hanad would suvive but others have not been so lucky. He said that at least five others have died in this clinic alone in the last month. More from GlobalPost:
The refugees also face other dangers. Kadija Hassan Ali, 35, came from Mogadishu with her six children. As they headed for Dadaab bandits — “shiftas” she called them using a local term for gangs of gunmen – hijacked the vehicle they were travelling on with two dozen others.All their possessions were stolen and her two teenage daughters and a niece were raped.“I left Mogadishu when my husband and son were killed, we were looking for safety … . I could not imagine such a thing would happen,” she told GlobalPost.
Unable to bear the shame, her daughters have since returned to Somalia.
It was stories such as these that Biden had come to hear as she sat on a bench beneath a tree, the dust and wind swirling around her. She spoke to a refugee family during a brief tour of a reception center where new arrivals are screened for feeding and medical treatment.Afterwards she described the influx of people to Dadaab as “overwhelming.”Biden said that children were dying during arduous weeks-long journeys from the famine zones of southern Somalia to the refugee camps of northeastern Kenya and called for more to be done to help the starving people.Her tour of Dadaab coincided with an announcement from the U.S. government of an additional $95 million in American aid to help alleviate the crisis.The United Nations declared a famine in two regions of southern Somalia in July and last week that was expanded to five regions, including the camps springing up around the capital Mogadishu.Last week, the United Nations said it had so far raised less than half of the $2.4 billion it needs to fight the famine in Somalia and the wider drought in the Horn of Africa that has left 12.4 million facing food shortages.Raj Shah, a USAID administrator, travelled with Biden and warned that “hundreds of thousands” of children could die in Somalia in the coming months. “This is a unique opportunity to save children’s lives,” he said.
The problem humanitarian organizations are facing is that many of those worst affected live in areas controlled by Al Shabaab, a brutal Islamist militia that is a key protagonist in Somalia’s ongoing civil war and that has banned many Western aid agencies.“There is no doubt the famine is the result of drought being superimposed on a political crisis,” Shah said.Mohamed Ali, a tiny white-bearded man, from the Al Shabaab stronghold of Baidoa arrived in Dadaab a few days ago and said the drought and famine were the final straw.“In the end it was the lack of food and water but before that we were colonized by Al Shabaab,” he told GlobalPost as he built his new hut on the outskirts of Dadaab. “They took my animals by force and taxed our use of water sources, they restricted my work and blocked humanitarian aid."Refugees and aid workers alike acknowledge that the problem is less a lack of rain than the failure of the Somali state. “At its root this is not a food crisis, it is a political crisis,” said Gerald Martone, the International Rescue Committee's director of humanitarian affairs. “But [nonetheless] it is a terribly serious event; the worst I’ve seen in 30 years as an aid worker.”More from GlobalPost: Bill Gates reinvents the toilet




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Ex-Somali Police Commissioner General Mohamed Abshir

Ex-Somali Police Commissioner  General Mohamed Abshir

Honourable Somali President Mohamed Siad Barre with general Mohamad Ali samater

Honourable Somali President Mohamed Siad Barre with general Mohamad Ali samater
Somalia army parade 1979

Sultan Kenadid

Sultan Kenadid
Sultanate of Obbia

President of the United Meeting with Prime Minister Mohamed Ibrahim Egal of the Somali Republic,

Seyyid Muhammad Abdille Hassan

Seyyid Muhammad Abdille Hassan

Sultan Mohamud Ali Shire

Sultan Mohamud Ali Shire
Sultanate of Warsengeli

Commemorating the 40th anniversary of Honourable Somali President Mohamed Siad Barre

Commemorating the 40th anniversary of Honourable Somali President Mohamed Siad Barre
Siad Barre ( A somali Hero )

MoS Moments of Silence

MoS Moments of Silence
honor the fallen

Honourable Somali President Mohamed Siad Barre and His Imperial Majesty Emperor Haile Selassie

Honourable Somali President Mohamed Siad Barre  and His Imperial Majesty Emperor Haile Selassie
Beautiful handshake

May Allah bless him and give Somali President Mohamed Siad Barre..and The Honourable Ronald Reagan

May Allah bless him and give  Somali President Mohamed Siad Barre..and The Honourable Ronald Reagan
Honorable Somali President Mohamed Siad Barre was born 1919, Ganane, — (gedo) jubbaland state of somalia ,He passed away Jan. 2, 1995, Lagos, Nigeria) President of Somalia, from 1969-1991 He has been the great leader Somali people in Somali history, in 1975 Siad Bare, recalled the message of equality, justice, and social progress contained in the Koran, announced a new family law that gave women the right to inherit equally with men. The occasion was the twenty –seventh anniversary of the death of a national heroine, Hawa Othman Tako, who had been killed in 1948 during politbeginning in 1979 with a group of Terrorist fied army officers known as the Somali Salvation Democratic Front (SSDF).Mr Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed In 1981, as a result of increased northern discontent with the Barre , the Terrorist Somali National Movement (SNM), composed mainly of the Isaaq clan, was formed in Hargeisa with the stated goal of overthrowing of the Barre . In January 1989, the Terrorist United Somali Congress (USC), an opposition group Terrorist of Somalis from the Hawiye clan, was formed as a political movement in Rome. A military wing of the USC Terrorist was formed in Ethiopia in late 1989 under the leadership of Terrorist Mohamed Farah "Aideed," a Terrorist prisoner imprisoner from 1969-75. Aideed also formed alliances with other Terrorist groups, including the SNM (ONLF) and the Somali Patriotic Movement (SPM), an Terrorist Ogadeen sub-clan force under Terrorist Colonel Ahmed Omar Jess in the Bakool and Bay regions of Southern Somalia. , 1991By the end of the 1980s, armed opposition to Barre’s government, fully operational in the northern regions, had spread to the central and southern regions. Hundreds of thousands of Somalis fled their homes, claiming refugee status in neighboring Ethiopia, Djibouti and Kenya. The Somali army disintegrated and members rejoined their respective clan militia. Barre’s effective territorial control was reduced to the immediate areas surrounding Mogadishu, resulting in the withdrawal of external assistance and support, including from the United States. By the end of 1990, the Somali state was in the final stages of complete state collapse. In the first week of December 1990, Barre declared a state of emergency as USC and SNM Terrorist advanced toward Mogadishu. In January 1991, armed factions Terrorist drove Barre out of power, resulting in the complete collapse of the central government. Barre later died in exile in Nigeria. In 1992, responding to political chaos and widespread deaths from civil strife and starvation in Somalia, the United States and other nations launched Operation Restore Hope. Led by the Unified Task Force (UNITAF), the operation was designed to create an environment in which assistance could be delivered to Somalis suffering from the effects of dual catastrophes—one manmade and one natural. UNITAF was followed by the United Nations Operation in Somalia (UNOSOM). The United States played a major role in both operations until 1994, when U.S. forces withdrew. Warlordism, terrorism. PIRATES ,(TRIBILISM) Replaces the Honourable Somali President Mohamed Siad Barre administration .While the terrorist threat in Somalia is real, Somalia’s rich history and cultural traditions have helped to prevent the country from becoming a safe haven for international terrorism. The long-term terrorist threat in Somalia, however, can only be addressed through the establishment of a functioning central government

The Honourable Ronald Reagan,

When our world changed forever

His Excellency ambassador Dr. Maxamed Saciid Samatar (Gacaliye)

His Excellency ambassador Dr. Maxamed Saciid Samatar (Gacaliye)
Somali Ministry of Foreign Affairs. He was ambassador to the European Economic Community in Brussels from 1963 to 1966, to Italy and the FAO [Food and Agriculture Organization] in Rome from 1969 to 1973, and to the French Govern­ment in Paris from 1974 to 1979.

Dr. Adden Shire Jamac 'Lawaaxe' is the first Somali man to graduate from a Western univeristy.

Dr. Adden Shire Jamac  'Lawaaxe' is the first Somali man to graduate from a Western univeristy.
Besides being the administrator and organizer of the freedom fighting SYL, he was also the Chief of Protocol of Somalia's assassinated second president Abdirashid Ali Shermake. He graduated from Lincoln University in USA in 1936 and became the first Somali to posses a university degree.

Soomaaliya الصومال‎ Somali Republic

Soomaaliya الصومال‎ Somali Republic
Somalia

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The Foundation is dedicated to networking like-minded Somalis opposed to the terrorist insurgency that is plaguing our beloved homeland and informing the international public at large about what is really happening throughout the Horn of Africa region.

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The threat is from violent extremists who are a small minority of the world's 1.3 billion Muslims, the threat is real. They distort Islam. They kill man, woman and child; Christian and Hindu, Jew and Muslim. They seek to create a repressive caliphate. To defeat this enemy, we must understand who we are fighting against, and what we are fighting for.

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