Tuesday, July 21, 2009

Situation in Somalia Briefing at the United Nations Office at Geneva

Elena Ponomareva-Piquier, Officer-in-charge of the United Nations Information Service in Geneva, chaired today's press briefing.

Ron Redmond of the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR) said that as the number of Somali civilians driven out of their homes by the conflict in Mogadishu raised, growing insecurity was making it increasingly difficult for aid workers to gain access and provide assistance to the latest victims of the Somali civil war.UNHCR now estimated that some 223,000 people had fled Mogadishu since the7 May, when Al-Shabaab and Hisb-ul-Islam militia groups had jointly launched attacks against government forces in several districts of Mogadishu. Mr. Redmond said that about 20,000 had fled in the last two weeks alone.UNHCR was greatly concerned about the plight of the large number of internally displaced people who had found refuge in the makeshift sites in the Afgooye Corridor, southwest of the capital. That place had more than 400,000 internally displace people from previous conflicts. They were congested in a small strip of land with little or no basic facilities, said Mr. Redmond.
UNHCR local partners in Somalia reported that domestic humanitarian organizations were overstretched and struggling to meet the basic needs of the newly arrived. There was a lack of adequate shelter, sanitation facilities and clean drinking water. The situation had grown worse following recent torrential rains. Mr. Redmond said that the lack of sufficient latrines posed a major health risk.
The continued fighting and worsening of the security situation in Somalia was hampering the timely delivery of humanitarian assistance from the port of Mogadishu to Afgooye and other parts of Somalia, said Mr. Redmond, exacerbating one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises.
This week’s scheduled distribution of 4,000 UNHCR aid kits in Mogadishu and outlying areas, for example, had had to be postponed due to security concerns, said Mr. Redmond. In addition, due to the latest incidents in Baidoa and Wajid, where militants had occupied and looted two UN compounds yesterday, UNHCR assistance efforts in the adjacent region had virtually grounded to a halt.
UNHCR had again appealed to the warring parties in Somalia to respect basic international humanitarian and human rights principles and to guarantee the safety and security of the civilian population as well as the humanitarian workers who were trying to help the victims, said Mr. Redmond.
In north-eastern Kenya, meanwhile, UNHCR continued to experience a major influx of new arrivals from Somalia in the UNHCR-run Dadaab camp complex, said Mr. Redmond. Since January, they had received 39,000 refugees from Somalia despite the fact that the Kenya-Somalia border officially remained closed. The majority of the refugees were from the Lower and Middle Juba regions and Mogadishu. Some 7,000 new arrivals had been registered at the camps in June; that was up from 5,000 in May.
UNHCR was deeply concerned about the massive congestion in the three adjacent Kenyan sites that made up the Dadaab complex, and about the major health risks that this overcrowding might pose to refugees. Initially thos camps had been designed to accommodate 90,000 people, said Mr. Redmond, they had now swelled to more than 286,000.
A journalist wondered what the status of the process of land allocation was in order to expand the overcrowded camp of Dadaab and Mr. Redmond said that they had gotten assurances from the Kenyan Government for a plot of land not too far from Dadaab but that work had not yet started on that camp site. This was frustrating for UNHCR as there were health and other risks growing worse by the month in the Dadaab camp. It remained urgent that work started on that new site.Emilia Casella of the World Food Program (WFP), answering to a journalist which said that news reports were saying that WFP had been one of three agencies that had been forced to shutdown by the Shabaab group, said that WFP was not located in the Baidoa compound that was entered by the rebel group and that it had not been asked to cease operations. WFP was continuing its operations and was currently feeding 3.5 million people in Somalia. WFP was present in the Wajid compound, which has also been entered, but not WFP equipment had been taken and no WFP staff had been asked to leave. Despite the violence, WFP was committed to maintaining its presence in Somalia and delivering food to those who needed it.
Ms. Ponomareva-Piquier said that the operations in Baidoa were suspended. The UN Office in Somalia had said that it deeply regretted having to relocate staff and to temporarily suspend its operations in Baidoa. At the same time, the UN continued its operations in Wajid.

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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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