Monday, November 19, 2012

Somalia’s new government : It mustn’t be business as usual (It is vital that the new government controls the country’s ports and trade)

                                            the true map of somalia


SOOTY new shadow has been cast over Somalia’s port city of Kismayo since the militias of the violent Islamist movement, the Shabab, were chased out two months ago. Piled up all over the quay and at the entrances to the city, which is the economic hub of southern Somalia, are dark towers of sacks that locals are calling “skyscrapers of charcoal”.

For the past seven months the UN has banned the export of the black stuff. Its trade was an economic mainstay of the Shabab when it controlled Kismayo, earning as much as $50m a year in the taxes levied by the militia, according to the UN. The charcoal business has in any case devastated Somalia’s mangrove forests. During the embargo, the kilns kept burning and a vast stockpile was amassed. Since the end of September, when Kenyan forces under the banner of the African Union Mission in Somalia (Amisom) took control of the city, local pressure to lift the ban has grown.

The question of what to do with the charcoal, perhaps worth $40m, could affect the fate of Somalia’s new government. Somali businessmen, who want to load the sacks onto waiting ships and sell them in the Gulf states, argue that “you can’t turn charcoal back into trees”. Others say the traders will turn back to Shabab if they cannot sell their wares. Indeed, quite a few of them still support the Islamists anyway.

Somalia’s new president, Hassan Sheikh Mohamud, a civil-rights man whose election has prompted hopeful talk of a “Somali spring”, is trying to stop the export. He wants time to put in place and bolster new port authorities to channel revenues back to the central bank that was emptied by the outgone corrupt regime. If the new man cannot extend his writ to Somalia’s second city and his opponents get fresh funds, his government will lose authority almost before its reign has begun.

With a coastline of 2,500km (1,553 miles) enwrapping the Horn of Africa, any effective Somali government needs to control its ports, which served as entry points for the weapons and contraband that sustained both the warlords and the Shabab. Under their rule, Kismayo traders bought sugar, which was smuggled into northern Kenya, and sold charcoal. But this lucrative contraband trade was shut down by an international blockade of the port during the battle with the Shabab.

Influential Kenyans now want to reopen it. Kenya’s intervention in Somalia has been fostered by two prominent ethnic-Somali Kenyans, Farah Maalim Mohamed, now deputy speaker of Kenya’s parliament, and Mohamed Yusuf Haji, Kenya’s defence minister. Their allies in Somalia’s Ogadeni clan ran the Ras Kamboni militia that played a big part in pushing out the Shabab. The militia’s leader, Ahmed Mohamed Islaam (known as “Madobe”), now expects his pay-off with charcoal, cash and control of a new semi-autonomous state to be called Jubaland. “Promises have been made,” says a diplomat in Kenya’s capital, Nairobi. A dozen ships laden with charcoal have already sailed, according to sources in Kismayo’s port.

At present the port is run by a chaotic security committee on which Kenyans, Ethiopians and several competing Somali clan factions all joust. A presidential delegation from Mogadishu, Somalia’s capital, up the coast from Kismayo, was turned away when it tried to visit. At a recent meeting of the UN Security Council, Kenya, along with other governments from the region, argued in vain for the arms and charcoal embargoes to be lifted.

The two main taps that have fed corruption in Somalia have been smuggling and foreign aid. For the first time in many years an administration in Mogadishu seems willing to let foreign donors have a measure of joint control over spending. The new government also wants America and Britain, which have paid for much of Amisom’s war on the Shabab, to use their influence to restrain the charcoal-trading Kenyans. “If they’re going to allow it all to go back to business as usual,” says a member of Somalia’s fragile new government, “what have they done all this for?” via economist

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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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