TRIPOLI, Libya Sep 2 (Garowe Online) - A Somali government minister has said that the African Union has made major changes to the mandate of its peacekeeping force in Mogadishu, Radio Garowe reports.
Mr. Abdirahman Abdishakur, the Somali Planning and International Cooperation Minister, told reporters Wednesday that AU peacekeepers serving in Mogadishu, known as AMISOM, have been “authorized” to fight alongside Somali government forces.
AMISOM peacekeepers in Mogadishu
Leaders of African countries met in Tripoli, Libya, for an extraordinary summit earlier this week with Somalia and other African conflicts in Sudan and the Democratic Republic of Congo ranking high during the discussions.
Minister Abdishakur, who is part of Somali Prime Minister Omar Abdirashid Ali Sharmake’s delegation in Tripoli, said the AMISOM mandate has been changed from peacekeeping to “peace-enforcement.”
“African leaders have agreed to assist the Somali government in every sector, especially on security, in order to rescue Somalia from 20 years of war,” Mr. Abdishakur said.
Further, he noted that the new changes to AMISOM include a provision giving the African peacekeepers the greenlight to conduct military operations outside of Mogadishu “if there are threats emerging from other regions.”
The AU originally approved an 8,000-strong AMISOM peacekeeping force for Somalia, but there are around 5,000 soldiers from Uganda and Burundi guarding essential government infrastructure in Mogadishu, including the presidential palace.
AMISOM commanders in Mogadishu, who have not publicly endorsed Minister Abdishakur's statements, were unavailable for comment.
Somali insurgents have routinely attacked AMISOM bases, using guerrilla tactics and suicide bombs. In recent weeks, AMISOM peacekeepers have left their bases on military operations for the first time since the African peacekeepers arrived in Mogadishu in March 2007.
Source: Garowe Online
Wednesday, 2 September 2009
UN says half of Somalia's population in need of aid assistance
By Daniel Ooko
NAIROBI, Aug. 26 (Xinhua) -- Somalia faces its worse humanitarian crisis in 18 years amid an escalating civil war that threatens to push the country into chaos and lead to further deteriorations in the food security and nutrition status of the people, a UN report warned on Wednesday.
Results of a country-wide comprehensive inter-agency assessment, led by the Food Security and Nutrition Analysis Unit for Somalia (FAO/FSNAU), confirm that the humanitarian crisis in Somalia is widespread and severe, with half of the population or an estimated3.76 million people in need of humanitarian assistance.
"This signals a serious deterioration in the emergency food security and nutrition situation from earlier this year," says Cindy Holleman, the Chief Technical Advisor of the Somalia FSNAU.
"More worrying is that the escalating fighting and conflict is occurring in the same areas where we are now recording the greatest problems of food access and malnutrition. This will not only place additional burdens on the people already in crisis, but will also make it difficult for humanitarian relief to reach the vulnerable populations most in need of humanitarian and life saving interventions."
Most of the people in crisis or 75 percent of the 3.76 million people in need of assistance are concentrated in south and central Somalia -- the areas where the fighting is greatest and which are most inaccessible to humanitarian operations.
Given the context of an escalating civil war, FSNAU also issues an early warning for an even further deterioration in the humanitarian situation depending on the extent of the fighting in the coming weeks and months.
The report says about 300,000 children under the age of five are acutely malnourished all over Somalia, of whom 70,000 are severely malnourished and are at an increased risk of death without appropriate specialist care.
The number of internally displaced persons (IDPs) has skyrocketed since the start of the year, surging 40 percent to 1.42 million people, and the conflict's epicentre in central and southern Somalia has also faced droughts due to several consecutive seasons without adequate rainfall.
Holleman says that perhaps more worrying is that the increased fighting is occurring in the same areas that are now recording the greatest problems of food access and malnutrition and which are largely inaccessible to aid workers.
The report says emergency nutrition levels in several parts of the country have deteriorated further since January, with one in five children, up from one in six earlier this year, now acutely malnourished and one in 20 severely malnourished, among the highest rates in the world.
With livestock having been decimated, the new report notes that in these areas, up to 75 percent of the population can be characterized as living in a humanitarian emergency.
There is also an alarming deterioration in the food security and nutrition situation of the pastoral and agro-pastoral communities in the north, caused by an emerging drought after two to three consecutive seasons of below normal rainfall.
These areas are suffering from consecutive seasons of severe water shortages, stressed livestock migration, high livestock off-take and high debt levels.
The situation is now deteriorating further, as indicated by increased malnutrition rates reaching the emergency level threshold of 15 percent in some areas.
An estimated 255,000 people are identified in Acute Food and Livelihood Crisis, while another 25,000 are in Humanitarian Emergency.
Unlike south and central Somalia, humanitarian access to these regions is good, therefore it is critical that these areas receive appropriate levels of emergency livelihood support and nutrition response, to prevent a further deterioration into humanitarian emergency.
NAIROBI, Aug. 26 (Xinhua) -- Somalia faces its worse humanitarian crisis in 18 years amid an escalating civil war that threatens to push the country into chaos and lead to further deteriorations in the food security and nutrition status of the people, a UN report warned on Wednesday.
Results of a country-wide comprehensive inter-agency assessment, led by the Food Security and Nutrition Analysis Unit for Somalia (FAO/FSNAU), confirm that the humanitarian crisis in Somalia is widespread and severe, with half of the population or an estimated3.76 million people in need of humanitarian assistance.
"This signals a serious deterioration in the emergency food security and nutrition situation from earlier this year," says Cindy Holleman, the Chief Technical Advisor of the Somalia FSNAU.
"More worrying is that the escalating fighting and conflict is occurring in the same areas where we are now recording the greatest problems of food access and malnutrition. This will not only place additional burdens on the people already in crisis, but will also make it difficult for humanitarian relief to reach the vulnerable populations most in need of humanitarian and life saving interventions."
Most of the people in crisis or 75 percent of the 3.76 million people in need of assistance are concentrated in south and central Somalia -- the areas where the fighting is greatest and which are most inaccessible to humanitarian operations.
Given the context of an escalating civil war, FSNAU also issues an early warning for an even further deterioration in the humanitarian situation depending on the extent of the fighting in the coming weeks and months.
The report says about 300,000 children under the age of five are acutely malnourished all over Somalia, of whom 70,000 are severely malnourished and are at an increased risk of death without appropriate specialist care.
The number of internally displaced persons (IDPs) has skyrocketed since the start of the year, surging 40 percent to 1.42 million people, and the conflict's epicentre in central and southern Somalia has also faced droughts due to several consecutive seasons without adequate rainfall.
Holleman says that perhaps more worrying is that the increased fighting is occurring in the same areas that are now recording the greatest problems of food access and malnutrition and which are largely inaccessible to aid workers.
The report says emergency nutrition levels in several parts of the country have deteriorated further since January, with one in five children, up from one in six earlier this year, now acutely malnourished and one in 20 severely malnourished, among the highest rates in the world.
With livestock having been decimated, the new report notes that in these areas, up to 75 percent of the population can be characterized as living in a humanitarian emergency.
There is also an alarming deterioration in the food security and nutrition situation of the pastoral and agro-pastoral communities in the north, caused by an emerging drought after two to three consecutive seasons of below normal rainfall.
These areas are suffering from consecutive seasons of severe water shortages, stressed livestock migration, high livestock off-take and high debt levels.
The situation is now deteriorating further, as indicated by increased malnutrition rates reaching the emergency level threshold of 15 percent in some areas.
An estimated 255,000 people are identified in Acute Food and Livelihood Crisis, while another 25,000 are in Humanitarian Emergency.
Unlike south and central Somalia, humanitarian access to these regions is good, therefore it is critical that these areas receive appropriate levels of emergency livelihood support and nutrition response, to prevent a further deterioration into humanitarian emergency.
UN envoy calls for end of violence in Somalia www.chinaview.cn 26 Aug 09
NAIROBI, Aug. 26 (Xinhua) -- The UN top envoy for Somalia has called on the Horn of Africa nation's warring parties to resolve their differences during the holy month of Ramadan and forge ahead with reconciliation efforts in a bid to pacify the country.
In a letter to the Somalis Diaspora made available on Wednesday, Ahmedou Ould-Abdallah, the UN secretary general's special representative, also called for an end to armed violence in the country which has been without an effective central government for over two decades.
Ould-Abdallah said Ramadan was the time to renew spirits, faith and relationship with creator, and also with one another as Moslem brothers and sisters.
"This time of spiritual reflection is also a time for considering those less fortunate than ourselves," he said, adding that fighting continues to rage even though there are no more Ethiopian troops in the Somali capital of Mogadishu.
"What reason is there now to continue fighting unless it is to capitalize on the insecurity for personal gains?" he asked. "What moral justification is there for instilling fear and terror in the population?"
The time has come, the envoy said, to "end this long conflict at home, that of Somalis fighting Somalis", stressing the need to seize the opportunity to bolster the country's fledgling government.
"We are all aware of the overcrowding and harsh conditions that these refugees must endure in exchange for security away from home," he said.
The UN envoy commended the efforts and generosity of host countries helping the Somalis in need, but added that the burden of responsibility should lie with the Somali elite communities who are in a position to help by bringing peace home.
"I particularly appeal to the Somali elite, inside and outside the country, who are fortunate enough to live with their families in comfortable, secure homes and with access to good schools to remember that only stability will end the long suffering of refugees and internally displaced persons," he said.
"It will also help you have, once again, a place to call proudly homeland. To that end, dialogue is better than the killing of Somalis by Somalis, "the envoy said.
Ould-Abdallah said the UN political office for Somalia will continue to plan several important developments on the way forward, saying some of those have since then taken place.
"I am saddened every time I read a media report that mentions the Somali conflict as spawning a terror threat that is spreading throughout the world. This affects all Somalis and those of you living in the Diaspora more so," he said.
"Even though you may have national passports from Western countries, you may still be seen as suspicious. To be presumed suspicious or a threat by the rest of world because of one's origin strips one of freedom and dignity. It is time to end this long conflict at home, that of Somalis fighting Somalis, " Ould-Abdallah said.
The UN envoy called on the authorities to address impunity, saying it was toxic and "leaves no soul unscathed", saying a society can not have peace, let alone prosper and develop without justice.
The UN envoy's letter came as insurgents have so far refused to recognize the government and have vowed to overthrow the administration and implement the strictest form of Sharia law.
Somalia has been without an effective government after former long-time ruler Mohammed Siad Barre was overthrown in 1991.
In a letter to the Somalis Diaspora made available on Wednesday, Ahmedou Ould-Abdallah, the UN secretary general's special representative, also called for an end to armed violence in the country which has been without an effective central government for over two decades.
Ould-Abdallah said Ramadan was the time to renew spirits, faith and relationship with creator, and also with one another as Moslem brothers and sisters.
"This time of spiritual reflection is also a time for considering those less fortunate than ourselves," he said, adding that fighting continues to rage even though there are no more Ethiopian troops in the Somali capital of Mogadishu.
"What reason is there now to continue fighting unless it is to capitalize on the insecurity for personal gains?" he asked. "What moral justification is there for instilling fear and terror in the population?"
The time has come, the envoy said, to "end this long conflict at home, that of Somalis fighting Somalis", stressing the need to seize the opportunity to bolster the country's fledgling government.
"We are all aware of the overcrowding and harsh conditions that these refugees must endure in exchange for security away from home," he said.
The UN envoy commended the efforts and generosity of host countries helping the Somalis in need, but added that the burden of responsibility should lie with the Somali elite communities who are in a position to help by bringing peace home.
"I particularly appeal to the Somali elite, inside and outside the country, who are fortunate enough to live with their families in comfortable, secure homes and with access to good schools to remember that only stability will end the long suffering of refugees and internally displaced persons," he said.
"It will also help you have, once again, a place to call proudly homeland. To that end, dialogue is better than the killing of Somalis by Somalis, "the envoy said.
Ould-Abdallah said the UN political office for Somalia will continue to plan several important developments on the way forward, saying some of those have since then taken place.
"I am saddened every time I read a media report that mentions the Somali conflict as spawning a terror threat that is spreading throughout the world. This affects all Somalis and those of you living in the Diaspora more so," he said.
"Even though you may have national passports from Western countries, you may still be seen as suspicious. To be presumed suspicious or a threat by the rest of world because of one's origin strips one of freedom and dignity. It is time to end this long conflict at home, that of Somalis fighting Somalis, " Ould-Abdallah said.
The UN envoy called on the authorities to address impunity, saying it was toxic and "leaves no soul unscathed", saying a society can not have peace, let alone prosper and develop without justice.
The UN envoy's letter came as insurgents have so far refused to recognize the government and have vowed to overthrow the administration and implement the strictest form of Sharia law.
Somalia has been without an effective government after former long-time ruler Mohammed Siad Barre was overthrown in 1991.
ICRC steps up Somalia aid effort
2 September 2009
Somalian refugeesThe International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) has co-ordinated an aid effort that saw 75,000 displaced people in Somalia receive vital resources last week.
According to the charity, thousands of Somalians are fleeing armed conflict in the capital of Mogadishu and finding refuge with relatives or at makeshift refugee camps.
In collaboration with the Somali Red Crescent Society, the organisation has recently distributed tomato, onion and carrot seeds to some 120,000 displaced people in need of a sustainable food source.
Dr Ahmed M Hassan, the president of the Somali Red Crescent, said: "Somalia's children have never known what it is like to live in peace; armed violence has ravaged the country ever since they were born.
"Although they have adapted their short lives to the situation, they deserve all the support they can get."
The ICRC is working to provide food to thousands of children during Ramadan, as well as clothes in time for Eid Al Fitr, which marks the end of the fasting month.
According to the charity, it has been operating in Somalia since 1977, focusing on providing emergency aid and restoring family links for those divided by war.
Somalian refugeesThe International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) has co-ordinated an aid effort that saw 75,000 displaced people in Somalia receive vital resources last week.
According to the charity, thousands of Somalians are fleeing armed conflict in the capital of Mogadishu and finding refuge with relatives or at makeshift refugee camps.
In collaboration with the Somali Red Crescent Society, the organisation has recently distributed tomato, onion and carrot seeds to some 120,000 displaced people in need of a sustainable food source.
Dr Ahmed M Hassan, the president of the Somali Red Crescent, said: "Somalia's children have never known what it is like to live in peace; armed violence has ravaged the country ever since they were born.
"Although they have adapted their short lives to the situation, they deserve all the support they can get."
The ICRC is working to provide food to thousands of children during Ramadan, as well as clothes in time for Eid Al Fitr, which marks the end of the fasting month.
According to the charity, it has been operating in Somalia since 1977, focusing on providing emergency aid and restoring family links for those divided by war.
Somalia:Islamists dig big holes in Mogadishu key road
MOGADISHU (Mareeg) —Somalia’s Islamist rebels fighting against the Somali government and the African Union peace keepers has cut Warhadaha Street in Mogadishu by digging big holes inside the road, witnesses said on Tuesday.
Witnesses said the rebels cut the road near Jalle Siad Academy, a base of Burundian troops of the African Union peace keepers in Mogadishu.
The move comes after the African Union troops made reconnaissance missions in the rebel stronghold areas in the capital last month.
Residents said the rebels made trenches in the area and have also cut off the road that connects K4 area, abase of Ugandan soldiers and rebel held neighborhoods in Mogadishu.
Warshadaha is a key road that connects north and south of the capital. Most residents fled from the districts controlled by the rebels in fear of mortar shelling from the government and AU soldiers who fire back mortars to bases of the rebels when the rebels attack mortars to the presidential palace and other key areas held by the government.
Mareeg Online
Witnesses said the rebels cut the road near Jalle Siad Academy, a base of Burundian troops of the African Union peace keepers in Mogadishu.
The move comes after the African Union troops made reconnaissance missions in the rebel stronghold areas in the capital last month.
Residents said the rebels made trenches in the area and have also cut off the road that connects K4 area, abase of Ugandan soldiers and rebel held neighborhoods in Mogadishu.
Warshadaha is a key road that connects north and south of the capital. Most residents fled from the districts controlled by the rebels in fear of mortar shelling from the government and AU soldiers who fire back mortars to bases of the rebels when the rebels attack mortars to the presidential palace and other key areas held by the government.
Mareeg Online
FEATURE-Somali militants seek fighters in northeast Kenya
By Noor Ali
GARISSA, Kenya, Sept 2 (Reuters) - Chaos in Somalia is spilling over its borders, fuelling a climate of suspicion in Kenya's remote northeast where recruiters have been seeking new jihadists to send into battle.
Western security agencies say Somalia has become a haven for foreign jihadists and local Islamist militants linked to al Qaeda who are plotting attacks across the region and beyond.
Somalis fleeing the civil war are crossing the frontier into Kenya at a rate of 7,000 a month.
That has piled pressure on the government and aid agencies to shelter them, and has also seen the emergence of groups that local security officials say are linked to Somalia's rebels.
Police said 10 young Kenyan men were arrested last month after being recruited by two bogus charities to go to Somalia and fight for al Shabaab militants. Washington describes al Shabaab as al Qaeda's proxy in the failed Horn of Africa state.
Somalia's U.N.-backed administration is battling several insurgent groups including al Shabaab. It controls just pockets of the central region and a few parts of the capital Mogadishu.
Sheikh Abdullahi Dahir Shurie, a respected Muslim cleric in northeastern Kenya's Ijara district, said it was upsetting that so many Kenyan youths had been "misled" into believing fighting for the rebels in Somalia was a religiously sanctioned jihad.
"Some have been recruited, others were killed there," he said. "We must protect those who remain and stop these lies."
RINGLEADERS FLED
A Kenyan intelligence officer who declined to be named said last month's arrests in Eastleigh, a mainly Somali suburb of the capital Nairobi, were made after months of investigation.
He said the officials in charge of both "charities", which purported to provide humanitarian relief in Somalia, had fled.
"We took our time, gathered information in Kenya and Somalia and interviewed communities who are supposed to be assisted (by the charities)," the officer told Reuters. "But they all said that the two organisations were owned and operated by al Shabaab and were used to raise funds and coordinate their activities."
On the Somali border, where the Kenyan authorities have boosted their security forces, Sheikh Shurie said he and other moderate clerics were embracing a government programme to try to stop al Shabaab's ideology from gaining a local foothold.
The plan was launched in August by Kenyan Defence Minister Mohamed Yussuf Haji, a local member of parliament, and involves the sheikhs making sermons condemning the Somali rebels at the province's mosques and religious schools.
The clerics have also called on the authorities to monitor closely the work of all non-governmental groups in their area.
"The officials who allowed the agencies to operate that were later found recruiting youths must be arrested. They received bribes, no doubt," said Shurie's colleague Sheikh Mukhtar.
"EVIL DESIGNED AS HOLY WAR"
Haji, the defence minister, told Reuters the government would help educate young Kenyans.
"We will tell them the truth ... the conflict in Somalia is not a holy war, it is evil work and evil designed as a holy war," Haji told an audience in the northeast last weekend.
But in the dusty border town of Mandera, where unemployment is high and successive droughts have made life even grimmer than before, the cash offered by militant recruiters can be hard to resist.
One local teacher, Ibrahim Mohamed, said al Shabaab had growing influence in the region, and that his father and other elders had chosen not to denounce them.
"Teachers in Mandera are worried. Al Shabaab stormed a school last month and lectured the pupils," he said. "They told them to quit formal education and join the jihad in Somalia."
Not everyone who takes the money has gone on to fight.
One young man who now drives a taxi in Garissa town said he was approached in 2007 by a heavily bearded recruiter.
"He gave me 50,000 shillings ($650) just a day after we met. The elder who introduced him to me was very sincere. He told me I was to fight in Somalia," the taxi driver said.
"I gave the elder half the money, threw away my phone, enjoyed myself, chewed khat and paid fees for driving school." (Writing by Daniel Wallis; Editing by Giles Elgood) ($1=76.30 Kenyan Shilling)
GARISSA, Kenya, Sept 2 (Reuters) - Chaos in Somalia is spilling over its borders, fuelling a climate of suspicion in Kenya's remote northeast where recruiters have been seeking new jihadists to send into battle.
Western security agencies say Somalia has become a haven for foreign jihadists and local Islamist militants linked to al Qaeda who are plotting attacks across the region and beyond.
Somalis fleeing the civil war are crossing the frontier into Kenya at a rate of 7,000 a month.
That has piled pressure on the government and aid agencies to shelter them, and has also seen the emergence of groups that local security officials say are linked to Somalia's rebels.
Police said 10 young Kenyan men were arrested last month after being recruited by two bogus charities to go to Somalia and fight for al Shabaab militants. Washington describes al Shabaab as al Qaeda's proxy in the failed Horn of Africa state.
Somalia's U.N.-backed administration is battling several insurgent groups including al Shabaab. It controls just pockets of the central region and a few parts of the capital Mogadishu.
Sheikh Abdullahi Dahir Shurie, a respected Muslim cleric in northeastern Kenya's Ijara district, said it was upsetting that so many Kenyan youths had been "misled" into believing fighting for the rebels in Somalia was a religiously sanctioned jihad.
"Some have been recruited, others were killed there," he said. "We must protect those who remain and stop these lies."
RINGLEADERS FLED
A Kenyan intelligence officer who declined to be named said last month's arrests in Eastleigh, a mainly Somali suburb of the capital Nairobi, were made after months of investigation.
He said the officials in charge of both "charities", which purported to provide humanitarian relief in Somalia, had fled.
"We took our time, gathered information in Kenya and Somalia and interviewed communities who are supposed to be assisted (by the charities)," the officer told Reuters. "But they all said that the two organisations were owned and operated by al Shabaab and were used to raise funds and coordinate their activities."
On the Somali border, where the Kenyan authorities have boosted their security forces, Sheikh Shurie said he and other moderate clerics were embracing a government programme to try to stop al Shabaab's ideology from gaining a local foothold.
The plan was launched in August by Kenyan Defence Minister Mohamed Yussuf Haji, a local member of parliament, and involves the sheikhs making sermons condemning the Somali rebels at the province's mosques and religious schools.
The clerics have also called on the authorities to monitor closely the work of all non-governmental groups in their area.
"The officials who allowed the agencies to operate that were later found recruiting youths must be arrested. They received bribes, no doubt," said Shurie's colleague Sheikh Mukhtar.
"EVIL DESIGNED AS HOLY WAR"
Haji, the defence minister, told Reuters the government would help educate young Kenyans.
"We will tell them the truth ... the conflict in Somalia is not a holy war, it is evil work and evil designed as a holy war," Haji told an audience in the northeast last weekend.
But in the dusty border town of Mandera, where unemployment is high and successive droughts have made life even grimmer than before, the cash offered by militant recruiters can be hard to resist.
One local teacher, Ibrahim Mohamed, said al Shabaab had growing influence in the region, and that his father and other elders had chosen not to denounce them.
"Teachers in Mandera are worried. Al Shabaab stormed a school last month and lectured the pupils," he said. "They told them to quit formal education and join the jihad in Somalia."
Not everyone who takes the money has gone on to fight.
One young man who now drives a taxi in Garissa town said he was approached in 2007 by a heavily bearded recruiter.
"He gave me 50,000 shillings ($650) just a day after we met. The elder who introduced him to me was very sincere. He told me I was to fight in Somalia," the taxi driver said.
"I gave the elder half the money, threw away my phone, enjoyed myself, chewed khat and paid fees for driving school." (Writing by Daniel Wallis; Editing by Giles Elgood) ($1=76.30 Kenyan Shilling)
Tuesday, 1 September 2009
Somalia: 'Fearful' Somaliland minister addresses crowd, police fire bullets
HARGEISA, Somalia Aug 31 (Garowe Online) - A government minister in Somalia's separatist republic of Somaliland addressed a crowd gathered in front of the parliament building Monday, followed moments later by police gunfire, Radio Garowe reports.
Hargeisa protest Aug. 31, 2009
Mr. Ali Mohamed "Waran'adde," Somaliland's aviation minister, was trying to reach the presidential compound in Hargeisa when he could not drive his vehicle through hundreds of people gathered around the parliament building.
Mr. Waran'adde, who is considered one of Somaliland's more popular ministers, got out of the vehicle and walked through protestors chanting "Down with Riyale's government!"
The protestors called on Mr. Waran'adde to resign from his post, witnesses said.
Hargeisa protest Aug. 31, 2009
Some reports said Mr. Waran'adde loudly proclaimed "I quit" in front of the protestors. Other reports said Somaliland's aviation minister chanted along with crowd, saying: "Down with Riyale's government!"
Our correspondent in Hargeisa described Mr. Waran'adde as being "fearful" of the crowd. The protestors were unarmed and peaceful, he added.
Eventually, the minister made his way through the crowd and passed on towards the parliament building and presidential compound area, which was sealed off by hundreds of police and soldiers.
Witnesses said the security forces opened gunfire moments after Mr. Waran'adde disappeared behind the troops, with local media speculating that the aviation minister issued the order.
There were no reports of injuries, however, but protestors were forced to flee in the face of a barrage of bullets.
The election crisis in Somaliland worsened last week when President Dahir Riyale deployed soldiers to block off entryway into the parliament building, as protestors gathered for the third consecutive day
Hargeisa protest Aug. 31, 2009
Mr. Ali Mohamed "Waran'adde," Somaliland's aviation minister, was trying to reach the presidential compound in Hargeisa when he could not drive his vehicle through hundreds of people gathered around the parliament building.
Mr. Waran'adde, who is considered one of Somaliland's more popular ministers, got out of the vehicle and walked through protestors chanting "Down with Riyale's government!"
The protestors called on Mr. Waran'adde to resign from his post, witnesses said.
Hargeisa protest Aug. 31, 2009
Some reports said Mr. Waran'adde loudly proclaimed "I quit" in front of the protestors. Other reports said Somaliland's aviation minister chanted along with crowd, saying: "Down with Riyale's government!"
Our correspondent in Hargeisa described Mr. Waran'adde as being "fearful" of the crowd. The protestors were unarmed and peaceful, he added.
Eventually, the minister made his way through the crowd and passed on towards the parliament building and presidential compound area, which was sealed off by hundreds of police and soldiers.
Witnesses said the security forces opened gunfire moments after Mr. Waran'adde disappeared behind the troops, with local media speculating that the aviation minister issued the order.
There were no reports of injuries, however, but protestors were forced to flee in the face of a barrage of bullets.
The election crisis in Somaliland worsened last week when President Dahir Riyale deployed soldiers to block off entryway into the parliament building, as protestors gathered for the third consecutive day
At least 50 killed in Mogadishu fighting: UN
Tuesday, September 01, 2009
GENEVA (AFP) - At least 50 people were killed and dozens more injured over the week in intense fighting between government troops and rebels in Somalia's capital Mogadishu, the United Nations said Tuesday.
Elisabeth Byrs, spokeswoman for the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, warned that the fighting could worsen Somalia's humanitarian situation, adding that half of the country's population already needs aid.
"Some 75 percent of the people in need are concentrated in south and central Somalia, where most of the fighting is taking place, causing loss of life and livelihoods and impeding humanitarian access," she said.
North Somalia, meanwhile, is beset by an "alarming deterioration" in the food and nutrition situation due to a drought.
The International Committee of the Red Cross underlined the suffering of children in the country.
"Somalia's children have never known what it is like to live in peace; armed violence has ravaged the country ever since they were born," said Ahmed Hassan, who heads the Somali Red Crescent.
"Although they have adapted their short lives to the situation, they deserve all the support they can get."
The Horn of Africa country has been wracked by almost uninterrupted civil unrest since the 1991 ouster of president Mohamed Siad Barre.
Hardline Islamist rebels launched an offensive in early May to oust the internationally-backed government of President Sharif Sheikh Ahmed.
Source: AFP, Sept 01, 2009
GENEVA (AFP) - At least 50 people were killed and dozens more injured over the week in intense fighting between government troops and rebels in Somalia's capital Mogadishu, the United Nations said Tuesday.
Elisabeth Byrs, spokeswoman for the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, warned that the fighting could worsen Somalia's humanitarian situation, adding that half of the country's population already needs aid.
"Some 75 percent of the people in need are concentrated in south and central Somalia, where most of the fighting is taking place, causing loss of life and livelihoods and impeding humanitarian access," she said.
North Somalia, meanwhile, is beset by an "alarming deterioration" in the food and nutrition situation due to a drought.
The International Committee of the Red Cross underlined the suffering of children in the country.
"Somalia's children have never known what it is like to live in peace; armed violence has ravaged the country ever since they were born," said Ahmed Hassan, who heads the Somali Red Crescent.
"Although they have adapted their short lives to the situation, they deserve all the support they can get."
The Horn of Africa country has been wracked by almost uninterrupted civil unrest since the 1991 ouster of president Mohamed Siad Barre.
Hardline Islamist rebels launched an offensive in early May to oust the internationally-backed government of President Sharif Sheikh Ahmed.
Source: AFP, Sept 01, 2009
Hiiraan Elders: The Governor Did not Speak on our Behalf
Hiiraan Online
Tuesday, September 01, 2009
Beledwene, Somalia (HOL) - In a meeting today in Beledweyne, clan elders of the region disassociated themselves from the claim the region’s governor Sheik Abdirahman Ibrahim Ma’ow made yesterday that the region is no longer taking directions from Somalia’s Transitional Federal Government (TFG).
In a press conference yesterday the Governor said that the region will be independent from TFG because “Mogadishu usurped too much power and is making decision on behalf of the region that that have not been approved by the regional administration”. The Governor added that his decision was supported by the region’s traditional elders.
In response, clan elders in the region said that they disagree with the Governor and that they support the TFG.
Mr. Mohamud Ahmed Hoshow who spoke on behalf of clan elders of the region said that elders of the region support the TFG and that there are no reasons at the moment to oppose the TFG which is facing armed resistance from groups opposed to it.
Similarly, the TFG’s Minister of National Security Mr. Abdullahi Sanbalooshe said that the Governor’s comments do not represent the views of the region’s people.
Tuesday, September 01, 2009
Beledwene, Somalia (HOL) - In a meeting today in Beledweyne, clan elders of the region disassociated themselves from the claim the region’s governor Sheik Abdirahman Ibrahim Ma’ow made yesterday that the region is no longer taking directions from Somalia’s Transitional Federal Government (TFG).
In a press conference yesterday the Governor said that the region will be independent from TFG because “Mogadishu usurped too much power and is making decision on behalf of the region that that have not been approved by the regional administration”. The Governor added that his decision was supported by the region’s traditional elders.
In response, clan elders in the region said that they disagree with the Governor and that they support the TFG.
Mr. Mohamud Ahmed Hoshow who spoke on behalf of clan elders of the region said that elders of the region support the TFG and that there are no reasons at the moment to oppose the TFG which is facing armed resistance from groups opposed to it.
Similarly, the TFG’s Minister of National Security Mr. Abdullahi Sanbalooshe said that the Governor’s comments do not represent the views of the region’s people.
A Journey to Hell on Earth, Denan Part II
By Ali H. Abdulla
September 01 , 2009
DenanBy now many of you may have watched the video “Denan Then and Now”. The video spurred many people into action. Most of them are neither Somalis nor Muslims. They have established a project to help the people of Denan who were displaced by drought and an ugly war waged by the ruthless regime of Meles Zenawi on the helpless nomadic people of Western Somalia.
In part II of the video, the courageous and generous people who filmed the first part that I talked about in my previous article “A Journey to Hell on Earth, Denan” managed to raise funds, build a clinic with modern equipment and staff it with doctors and nurses. They have translated their concern into meaningful action. The man behind the project is Dick Young from Woodbury, Connecticut in the United States. The Denan Project depends on donations from people from all over the world. It has saved many lives and provides medical care for thousands of nomads who sometimes trek hundreds of miles to reach Denan.
From preliminary assessments, it seems that the project is not associated with any church or religious organization. It seems to be an honest effort by concerned human beings who have been moved by the suffering of innocent women and children. Any one moved by the suffering of these people can either donate to this project or seek an alternative solution. If you are not comfortable with the Denan Project for any reason, there are many Muslim charities in the World that can be approached and mobilized to complement the Denan Project or start similar projects in other parts of Western Somalia which is a huge area. The Red Crescent in the United Arab Emirates is one of these charities. It is a Muslim charity that helps thousands of Muslims all over the world.
The Deanan Project does not the end the suffering of the Somali people in Western Somalia. The struggle against Ethiopian oppression and illegal occupation in Western Somalia continues and results in the creation of many camps similar to the Denan that we witnessed in Part I of the documentary where children died of malnutrition and preventable diseases. Women and children still trek hundreds of miles to reach the clinic in Denan since it is the only one available for hundreds of miles.
The Ethiopian regime has denied the area any form of development. The area lacks schools, hospitals, water projects and all forms of infrastructure to sustain human lives. The nomadic population relies on seasonal rains to eke a living from the harsh environment. When the rains fail, the livestock they depend on perishes and their nightmares and sufferings begin. This is a recurring phenomenon in Western Somalia where thousands of nomads live.
If Drought and lack of rain were the only suffering, it could be written off as a natural disaster but that is not the case. The Ethiopian regime compounds the suffering of the nomadic people in the area by practicing a calculated campaign of terror, intimidation and deliberate displacement of thousands by forcing them into camps like Denan in an effort to prevent them from sheltering the men and women of the resistance movements who have opted to legitimately resist the Ethiopian occupation and oppression. For more information about the Ethiopian atrocities read a recent article by a concerned US citizen who describes the horrors committed by the Ethiopian regime.
The suffering of the Somali people seems to be endless these days. They die on the high seas in their attempts to escape from the civil war in their country; they die in Mogadishu by bullets and mortar shells fired indiscriminately by all sides in an endless and senseless conflict; they die in South Africa as a result xenophobia; they die in Western Somalia as a result of drought and military campaigns waged by a ruthless enemy; they die in all parts of Somalia as a result of a devastating prolonged drought that has the potential of wiping out a significant portion of the livestock most Somalis depend on for survival.
The Deanan Project is admirable but also raises serious questions for us Somalis in all parts of this world. Have we become so insensitive to the point of becoming oblivious to the suffering of our own people? Why should a guy from a remote town in Connecticut be more sensitive to our sufferings? Why do thousands of Somalis in the Diaspora engage in fruitless debates about Somalia for many hours in Tim Horton and Starbucks cafes sipping cups of lattes the price of which could probably safe the lives of dying Somali infants?
Let us use the holy Ramadan to complement our fasting with a serious effort to cleanse ourselves of primitive clan affiliations and heed the advice of the Prophet of Islam Peace be upon him. He said “Shun tribalism as it stinks”. And indeed it stinks since its only product is destruction, bullet riddled bodies and dying infants.
Let us also use this holy month to remember the thousands of Somalis who are in a perpetual state of suffering and direct our Zakat to helping the neediest.
Ali H. Abdulla
E-Mail: aliegeh@gmail.com
* Read Part I from here:A journey to Hell on Earth, Denan
________________________________________________________
September 01 , 2009
DenanBy now many of you may have watched the video “Denan Then and Now”. The video spurred many people into action. Most of them are neither Somalis nor Muslims. They have established a project to help the people of Denan who were displaced by drought and an ugly war waged by the ruthless regime of Meles Zenawi on the helpless nomadic people of Western Somalia.
In part II of the video, the courageous and generous people who filmed the first part that I talked about in my previous article “A Journey to Hell on Earth, Denan” managed to raise funds, build a clinic with modern equipment and staff it with doctors and nurses. They have translated their concern into meaningful action. The man behind the project is Dick Young from Woodbury, Connecticut in the United States. The Denan Project depends on donations from people from all over the world. It has saved many lives and provides medical care for thousands of nomads who sometimes trek hundreds of miles to reach Denan.
From preliminary assessments, it seems that the project is not associated with any church or religious organization. It seems to be an honest effort by concerned human beings who have been moved by the suffering of innocent women and children. Any one moved by the suffering of these people can either donate to this project or seek an alternative solution. If you are not comfortable with the Denan Project for any reason, there are many Muslim charities in the World that can be approached and mobilized to complement the Denan Project or start similar projects in other parts of Western Somalia which is a huge area. The Red Crescent in the United Arab Emirates is one of these charities. It is a Muslim charity that helps thousands of Muslims all over the world.
The Deanan Project does not the end the suffering of the Somali people in Western Somalia. The struggle against Ethiopian oppression and illegal occupation in Western Somalia continues and results in the creation of many camps similar to the Denan that we witnessed in Part I of the documentary where children died of malnutrition and preventable diseases. Women and children still trek hundreds of miles to reach the clinic in Denan since it is the only one available for hundreds of miles.
The Ethiopian regime has denied the area any form of development. The area lacks schools, hospitals, water projects and all forms of infrastructure to sustain human lives. The nomadic population relies on seasonal rains to eke a living from the harsh environment. When the rains fail, the livestock they depend on perishes and their nightmares and sufferings begin. This is a recurring phenomenon in Western Somalia where thousands of nomads live.
If Drought and lack of rain were the only suffering, it could be written off as a natural disaster but that is not the case. The Ethiopian regime compounds the suffering of the nomadic people in the area by practicing a calculated campaign of terror, intimidation and deliberate displacement of thousands by forcing them into camps like Denan in an effort to prevent them from sheltering the men and women of the resistance movements who have opted to legitimately resist the Ethiopian occupation and oppression. For more information about the Ethiopian atrocities read a recent article by a concerned US citizen who describes the horrors committed by the Ethiopian regime.
The suffering of the Somali people seems to be endless these days. They die on the high seas in their attempts to escape from the civil war in their country; they die in Mogadishu by bullets and mortar shells fired indiscriminately by all sides in an endless and senseless conflict; they die in South Africa as a result xenophobia; they die in Western Somalia as a result of drought and military campaigns waged by a ruthless enemy; they die in all parts of Somalia as a result of a devastating prolonged drought that has the potential of wiping out a significant portion of the livestock most Somalis depend on for survival.
The Deanan Project is admirable but also raises serious questions for us Somalis in all parts of this world. Have we become so insensitive to the point of becoming oblivious to the suffering of our own people? Why should a guy from a remote town in Connecticut be more sensitive to our sufferings? Why do thousands of Somalis in the Diaspora engage in fruitless debates about Somalia for many hours in Tim Horton and Starbucks cafes sipping cups of lattes the price of which could probably safe the lives of dying Somali infants?
Let us use the holy Ramadan to complement our fasting with a serious effort to cleanse ourselves of primitive clan affiliations and heed the advice of the Prophet of Islam Peace be upon him. He said “Shun tribalism as it stinks”. And indeed it stinks since its only product is destruction, bullet riddled bodies and dying infants.
Let us also use this holy month to remember the thousands of Somalis who are in a perpetual state of suffering and direct our Zakat to helping the neediest.
Ali H. Abdulla
E-Mail: aliegeh@gmail.com
* Read Part I from here:A journey to Hell on Earth, Denan
________________________________________________________
At a Minnesota market, tales of a hidden Ethiopian war
Ridwan Hassan Sahid, 17-years-old, shows scars on her neck caused by near death-by-strangulation by Ethiopian soldiers in July, 2007. Photo by Doug McGill.
By Doug McGill, TC Daily Planet
August 31, 2009
The first time I heard Fatima tell her story, I answered in the natural way.
“They killed my husband,” she said.
“I’m sorry for your loss,” I said.
“And they killed my son,” she said.
“Oh, I’m so sorry for your losses,” I said.
“And they killed my brothers and some of my brothers’ children,” she said, staring at me with eyes that seemed quite without hope and yet that also seemed to ask me, with astonishing tenacity, ‘Are you really listening, do you really understand?’”
I didn’t know what to say to Fatima at this point, as my repeated condolences seemed pointless. So instead I stood up a bit straighter, I took a deep breath, and felt my feet on the ground. I looked back at Fatima with eyes that said that I was willing to stand there and to listen for as long as she wanted.
“And they have killed many of my uncles,” Fatima said.
The Ogaden War
At the Village Market in Minneapolis, the major social hub for Somali-speaking Ethiopian refugees living in the Twin Cities, endless stories like Fatima’s are being urgently swapped every day. They are tales of evil that is so profound it would be unkind of me to suddenly start describing those crimes in detail right now.
You might well not believe the stories anyway. And even if you believed them, you might not believe that such unimaginable crimes could be happening in the world right now, in a little-known corner of Africa called the Ogaden of Ethiopia.
Where are the TV news teams parachuting into refugee camps? Where is the definitive account of the Ethiopian government’s mass destruction of the people and culture of the Ogaden?
Bare Feet
Here is more of Fatima’s story (she like the other witnesses in this story offered only their first names, fearing reprisal against their relatives in Ethiopia if they are identified):
“One day the soldiers came and started shooting, they killed my husband in front of me. Then they tortured and beat me in the same place they killed my husband. On that same day the soldiers also confiscated my home and all of my property and all of my money, leaving me homeless and destitute.”
Fatima is a devout Muslim woman who wears a veil and will not shake a man’s hand except through the cloth of her robe. But after telling me this story she stretched out her legs and took off her shoes, to show me her bare feet which are twisted and deformed, from the beatings she said. Today, she limps with a cane.
We in Minnesota have a special role in telling about the Ogaden crisis, because Minnesota is home to the largest diaspora population of Ogaden refugees in the world. Some 5,000 Somali Ethiopians have fled to Minnesota in recent years, fleeing precisely the crimes against humanity that Fatima and others describe.
Matching Details
Last week, I walked through the Village Market and spoke with a dozen Somali-speaking immigrants from the Ogaden region. This is what is happening in the Ogaden today, they said:
• People are thrown alive into bonfires by Ethiopian soldiers;
• Men and women are strangled to death by soldiers who wrap a wire around their necks and pull the wire on either side;
• Innocent goat herders are rounded up by Ethiopian soldiers and lynched from trees;
• Young girls are snatched from their homes by Ethiopian soldiers, put in prisons and gang-raped day after day, their dead bodies finally tossed like garbage on the street.
One Ogadeni Minnesotan said to me: “We could tell you stories like this all day and night for a week, and at the end we still would not have told you all the stories of all the killing and suffering that is happening in the Ogaden today.”
A single crazy person, or a small group of organized zealots, could orchestrate lies and propaganda about such horrors being committed on a genocidal scale. But how could it happen that the first 12 people that you meet at the Village Mall all tell the same types of stories over and over, with the details matching perfectly?
An American Ally
All of these horrific crimes and tortures are, the Minnesota Ogadenis say, committed by uniformed Ethiopian soldiers. Ethiopia is an official ally of the U.S. and receives millions of dollars in U.S. tax-funded military aid every year.
The Ogaden is a Texas-sized patch of land in Ethiopia that is inhabited by some four million Muslim, Somali-speaking citizens, most of them nomadic pastoralists.
The sparse grassland and shrubland of the Ogaden has been a battlefield for years between Ethiopia and Somalia, with each of those two nations often acting as proxies for global superpowers including Britain, the U.S. and the Soviet Union.
In 1956, when Britain left the Horn of Africa, it set up decades of conflict by handing over the Ogaden, which is populated by ethnic Somalis who are Muslims, to Ethiopia which is mainly ethnic Amhara and Christian. A war was fought over control of the Ogaden between Ethiopia and Somalia in 1977-1978.
In 1984, a separatist militia, the Ogaden National Liberation Front (ONLF), was formed to pursue autonomy or independence for the Ogaden by violence if necessary. In 2007, the ONLF attacked a Chinese-run oil facility in the Ogaden, killing Ethiopian soldiers as well as more than 70 Chinese and Ethiopian civilians.
Sealed Off
In response, Meles Zenawi, the Ethiopian Prime Minister, launched a brutal counter-insurgency against the “terrorist” ONLF in the Ogaden. The recent atrocities against ethnic Somalis in the Ogaden have been a part of that campaign, with entire villages being wiped out on the mere suspicion of harboring ONLF fighters. Families and friends of ONLF soldiers are often killed or terrorized and family members tortured to give up information on their relatives.
Here is the testimony of a man named Hassan at the Village Market:
“I was in my home. One night Ethiopian soldiers broke down the door and took me to a military camp in Dhagahbur and beat me. I didn’t commit any crime and none of my family members are in the ONLF. They used the butt of their guns to hit me anywhere on my body where they thought it would hurt the most. I was put in jail just like this on three different occasions and placed in a tiny, dirty cell. I spent ten months in prison without ever being charged, without any explanation. Every day I was beaten and I suffered many cuts, sores and infections, but there was no hospital and I got no care.”
There has been virtually no major media coverage of the Ogaden crisis, and the U.S. and other governments have taken virtually no action. This is partly because the Ogaden has been sealed off to journalists and aid organizations, with the Red Cross and Doctors Without Borders forced to abandon operations there in 2007.
But the Internet is teeming with detailed accounts of specific atrocities much like those described at the Village Market, and many YouTube videos graphically show the results of beatings, torture, killings, looting and rape.
"Still in Prison"
Based on interviews with refugees, thousands of whom have gathered in camps in northern Kenya, and other sources, some human rights groups have also been warning about the Ogaden crisis for several years. In 2008, Human Rights Watch published a 139-page report called “Collective Punishment” that documented “widespread and systematic atrocities” and “war crimes and crimes against humanity” committed by the Ethiopian military against Ogadeni citizens.
The report detailed “routine mass detentions,” “extrajudicial executions,” “rape of women in military custody,” and documented the destruction (sometimes by satellite photographs) of at least a dozen Ogaden villages. Yet the scale of village burnings and other crimes described in the report “is believed to be significantly larger” than those officially documented in the report, its authors warned.
Here is the testimony of a man named Abdulrahman at the Village Market:
“We talk to our friends and family back home, but we never feel safe, because we know that they could be captured, tortured or killed just for talking to us on the telephone. It is a kind of psychological torture we all still suffer in Minnesota. Also there are Ethiopian government collaborators who live here in Minneapolis, who tell the Ethiopian army if we criticize the government, and our family and friends in Ethiopia could be jailed or killed as a result. America is a free country but in this way we are not psychologically free. It is as if we were suffocating and still in prison.”
The atrocities in the Ogaden have even reached the U.S. Congress where Rep. Donald Payne (D-New Jersey), the chairman of the House Subcommitte on Africa, has repeatedly criticized Ethiopia for “deliberating targeting civilians” with “routine raping and hanging” innocent citizens in the Ogaden region. He says the Ogaden crisis is “by far one of the worst” human rights tragedies he has witnessed in his life.
New Intelligence
In October last year, Britain balked at committing foreign aid to Ethiopia after Douglas Alexander, the British international development secretary, discovered on a visit to the Ogaden that the crisis was far more severe than he had thought.
In the U.S., various think tanks and social justice groups have called for the U.S. government to similarly pressure Ethiopia. But the U.S., which regards Ethiopia as an ally in the Horn of Africa which helps to rout Islamist terrorists in neighboring Sudan and Somalia, has so far ignored these warnings and calls to action.
The Minnesota Ogadenis, through their constant cell phone conversations with relatives back home, are unearthing troves of new intelligence about the nature and extent of the Ogaden crisis. For example they report:
• A network of political prisons throughout the Ogaden. An enormous prison in the Ogaden capital city, Jijiga, has been known for years to house thousands of innocent civilians rounded up by the Ethiopian military on suspicion of knowing or harboring ONLF fighters. But the Minnesota Ogadenis say that prison quarters are attached to every military garrison throughout the occupied territory of Ogaden including in the cities of Dhagahbur, Aware, Kabridahar, Fiiq, Wardere, Gode, and Garbo. Many Minnesota Ogadenis have spent months or years in these prisons, or have relatives currently suffering there. They offer details about conditions in the prisons, the crimes routinely committed by the authorities against the prisoners, and the names of those who run the prisons.
• Burning people alive in Garbo, Ethiopia. The torture and killing methods used by the Ethiopian military against the Ogadenis changes over time, with new methods evolving that are ever-more cruel and perverse. For a time, strangling people with rope or wire, with two soldiers pulling on either side, was widely reported. Burying children alive has been reported, as has the sodomization of young boys. Sources in the Ogaden told the Minnesota Ogadenis that this past July, Ethiopian soldiers killed six Ogadenis by throwing them alive into a bonfire.
• Attacking nomads outside of town markets. Most Ogadeni towns have markets where nomads bring their livestock to sell, after which they buy food and clothing before returning to their grazing lands. According to Minnesota Ogadenis, these nomads frequently are attacked by Ethiopian soldiers who lie in wait for them outside of town where they steal their food, clothing and provisions and often kill the nomads while doing so.
Comfort Enough
At one point during my day at the Village Market, a few of us gathered in an office space at the market. Fatima was there along with four other women in veils, and a half-dozen Ogadeni men as well who told me their stories.
We sat on chairs in a circle. As I was listening to another person in the group, I saw Fatima suddenly cover her face with her hands and put her head down towards her lap. Everyone stopped talking.
No one in the group made a move towards Fatima to comfort her. Rather, they allowed her the dignity of her own suffering. Anyway the comfort was simply the supportive presence of the group itself, and everyone knew that was enough.
If was not enough, it was in any case all the comfort there was.
Within a few seconds, Fatima straightened up, daubed her eyes, and everyone continued telling their inconceivable, impossible, true stories of the Ogaden.
Douglas McGill has reported for the New York Times and Bloomberg News--and now the Daily Planet. To reach Doug McGill: doug@mcgillreport.org. And visit The McGill Report at www.mcgillreport.org.
By Doug McGill, TC Daily Planet
August 31, 2009
The first time I heard Fatima tell her story, I answered in the natural way.
“They killed my husband,” she said.
“I’m sorry for your loss,” I said.
“And they killed my son,” she said.
“Oh, I’m so sorry for your losses,” I said.
“And they killed my brothers and some of my brothers’ children,” she said, staring at me with eyes that seemed quite without hope and yet that also seemed to ask me, with astonishing tenacity, ‘Are you really listening, do you really understand?’”
I didn’t know what to say to Fatima at this point, as my repeated condolences seemed pointless. So instead I stood up a bit straighter, I took a deep breath, and felt my feet on the ground. I looked back at Fatima with eyes that said that I was willing to stand there and to listen for as long as she wanted.
“And they have killed many of my uncles,” Fatima said.
The Ogaden War
At the Village Market in Minneapolis, the major social hub for Somali-speaking Ethiopian refugees living in the Twin Cities, endless stories like Fatima’s are being urgently swapped every day. They are tales of evil that is so profound it would be unkind of me to suddenly start describing those crimes in detail right now.
You might well not believe the stories anyway. And even if you believed them, you might not believe that such unimaginable crimes could be happening in the world right now, in a little-known corner of Africa called the Ogaden of Ethiopia.
Where are the TV news teams parachuting into refugee camps? Where is the definitive account of the Ethiopian government’s mass destruction of the people and culture of the Ogaden?
Bare Feet
Here is more of Fatima’s story (she like the other witnesses in this story offered only their first names, fearing reprisal against their relatives in Ethiopia if they are identified):
“One day the soldiers came and started shooting, they killed my husband in front of me. Then they tortured and beat me in the same place they killed my husband. On that same day the soldiers also confiscated my home and all of my property and all of my money, leaving me homeless and destitute.”
Fatima is a devout Muslim woman who wears a veil and will not shake a man’s hand except through the cloth of her robe. But after telling me this story she stretched out her legs and took off her shoes, to show me her bare feet which are twisted and deformed, from the beatings she said. Today, she limps with a cane.
We in Minnesota have a special role in telling about the Ogaden crisis, because Minnesota is home to the largest diaspora population of Ogaden refugees in the world. Some 5,000 Somali Ethiopians have fled to Minnesota in recent years, fleeing precisely the crimes against humanity that Fatima and others describe.
Matching Details
Last week, I walked through the Village Market and spoke with a dozen Somali-speaking immigrants from the Ogaden region. This is what is happening in the Ogaden today, they said:
• People are thrown alive into bonfires by Ethiopian soldiers;
• Men and women are strangled to death by soldiers who wrap a wire around their necks and pull the wire on either side;
• Innocent goat herders are rounded up by Ethiopian soldiers and lynched from trees;
• Young girls are snatched from their homes by Ethiopian soldiers, put in prisons and gang-raped day after day, their dead bodies finally tossed like garbage on the street.
One Ogadeni Minnesotan said to me: “We could tell you stories like this all day and night for a week, and at the end we still would not have told you all the stories of all the killing and suffering that is happening in the Ogaden today.”
A single crazy person, or a small group of organized zealots, could orchestrate lies and propaganda about such horrors being committed on a genocidal scale. But how could it happen that the first 12 people that you meet at the Village Mall all tell the same types of stories over and over, with the details matching perfectly?
An American Ally
All of these horrific crimes and tortures are, the Minnesota Ogadenis say, committed by uniformed Ethiopian soldiers. Ethiopia is an official ally of the U.S. and receives millions of dollars in U.S. tax-funded military aid every year.
The Ogaden is a Texas-sized patch of land in Ethiopia that is inhabited by some four million Muslim, Somali-speaking citizens, most of them nomadic pastoralists.
The sparse grassland and shrubland of the Ogaden has been a battlefield for years between Ethiopia and Somalia, with each of those two nations often acting as proxies for global superpowers including Britain, the U.S. and the Soviet Union.
In 1956, when Britain left the Horn of Africa, it set up decades of conflict by handing over the Ogaden, which is populated by ethnic Somalis who are Muslims, to Ethiopia which is mainly ethnic Amhara and Christian. A war was fought over control of the Ogaden between Ethiopia and Somalia in 1977-1978.
In 1984, a separatist militia, the Ogaden National Liberation Front (ONLF), was formed to pursue autonomy or independence for the Ogaden by violence if necessary. In 2007, the ONLF attacked a Chinese-run oil facility in the Ogaden, killing Ethiopian soldiers as well as more than 70 Chinese and Ethiopian civilians.
Sealed Off
In response, Meles Zenawi, the Ethiopian Prime Minister, launched a brutal counter-insurgency against the “terrorist” ONLF in the Ogaden. The recent atrocities against ethnic Somalis in the Ogaden have been a part of that campaign, with entire villages being wiped out on the mere suspicion of harboring ONLF fighters. Families and friends of ONLF soldiers are often killed or terrorized and family members tortured to give up information on their relatives.
Here is the testimony of a man named Hassan at the Village Market:
“I was in my home. One night Ethiopian soldiers broke down the door and took me to a military camp in Dhagahbur and beat me. I didn’t commit any crime and none of my family members are in the ONLF. They used the butt of their guns to hit me anywhere on my body where they thought it would hurt the most. I was put in jail just like this on three different occasions and placed in a tiny, dirty cell. I spent ten months in prison without ever being charged, without any explanation. Every day I was beaten and I suffered many cuts, sores and infections, but there was no hospital and I got no care.”
There has been virtually no major media coverage of the Ogaden crisis, and the U.S. and other governments have taken virtually no action. This is partly because the Ogaden has been sealed off to journalists and aid organizations, with the Red Cross and Doctors Without Borders forced to abandon operations there in 2007.
But the Internet is teeming with detailed accounts of specific atrocities much like those described at the Village Market, and many YouTube videos graphically show the results of beatings, torture, killings, looting and rape.
"Still in Prison"
Based on interviews with refugees, thousands of whom have gathered in camps in northern Kenya, and other sources, some human rights groups have also been warning about the Ogaden crisis for several years. In 2008, Human Rights Watch published a 139-page report called “Collective Punishment” that documented “widespread and systematic atrocities” and “war crimes and crimes against humanity” committed by the Ethiopian military against Ogadeni citizens.
The report detailed “routine mass detentions,” “extrajudicial executions,” “rape of women in military custody,” and documented the destruction (sometimes by satellite photographs) of at least a dozen Ogaden villages. Yet the scale of village burnings and other crimes described in the report “is believed to be significantly larger” than those officially documented in the report, its authors warned.
Here is the testimony of a man named Abdulrahman at the Village Market:
“We talk to our friends and family back home, but we never feel safe, because we know that they could be captured, tortured or killed just for talking to us on the telephone. It is a kind of psychological torture we all still suffer in Minnesota. Also there are Ethiopian government collaborators who live here in Minneapolis, who tell the Ethiopian army if we criticize the government, and our family and friends in Ethiopia could be jailed or killed as a result. America is a free country but in this way we are not psychologically free. It is as if we were suffocating and still in prison.”
The atrocities in the Ogaden have even reached the U.S. Congress where Rep. Donald Payne (D-New Jersey), the chairman of the House Subcommitte on Africa, has repeatedly criticized Ethiopia for “deliberating targeting civilians” with “routine raping and hanging” innocent citizens in the Ogaden region. He says the Ogaden crisis is “by far one of the worst” human rights tragedies he has witnessed in his life.
New Intelligence
In October last year, Britain balked at committing foreign aid to Ethiopia after Douglas Alexander, the British international development secretary, discovered on a visit to the Ogaden that the crisis was far more severe than he had thought.
In the U.S., various think tanks and social justice groups have called for the U.S. government to similarly pressure Ethiopia. But the U.S., which regards Ethiopia as an ally in the Horn of Africa which helps to rout Islamist terrorists in neighboring Sudan and Somalia, has so far ignored these warnings and calls to action.
The Minnesota Ogadenis, through their constant cell phone conversations with relatives back home, are unearthing troves of new intelligence about the nature and extent of the Ogaden crisis. For example they report:
• A network of political prisons throughout the Ogaden. An enormous prison in the Ogaden capital city, Jijiga, has been known for years to house thousands of innocent civilians rounded up by the Ethiopian military on suspicion of knowing or harboring ONLF fighters. But the Minnesota Ogadenis say that prison quarters are attached to every military garrison throughout the occupied territory of Ogaden including in the cities of Dhagahbur, Aware, Kabridahar, Fiiq, Wardere, Gode, and Garbo. Many Minnesota Ogadenis have spent months or years in these prisons, or have relatives currently suffering there. They offer details about conditions in the prisons, the crimes routinely committed by the authorities against the prisoners, and the names of those who run the prisons.
• Burning people alive in Garbo, Ethiopia. The torture and killing methods used by the Ethiopian military against the Ogadenis changes over time, with new methods evolving that are ever-more cruel and perverse. For a time, strangling people with rope or wire, with two soldiers pulling on either side, was widely reported. Burying children alive has been reported, as has the sodomization of young boys. Sources in the Ogaden told the Minnesota Ogadenis that this past July, Ethiopian soldiers killed six Ogadenis by throwing them alive into a bonfire.
• Attacking nomads outside of town markets. Most Ogadeni towns have markets where nomads bring their livestock to sell, after which they buy food and clothing before returning to their grazing lands. According to Minnesota Ogadenis, these nomads frequently are attacked by Ethiopian soldiers who lie in wait for them outside of town where they steal their food, clothing and provisions and often kill the nomads while doing so.
Comfort Enough
At one point during my day at the Village Market, a few of us gathered in an office space at the market. Fatima was there along with four other women in veils, and a half-dozen Ogadeni men as well who told me their stories.
We sat on chairs in a circle. As I was listening to another person in the group, I saw Fatima suddenly cover her face with her hands and put her head down towards her lap. Everyone stopped talking.
No one in the group made a move towards Fatima to comfort her. Rather, they allowed her the dignity of her own suffering. Anyway the comfort was simply the supportive presence of the group itself, and everyone knew that was enough.
If was not enough, it was in any case all the comfort there was.
Within a few seconds, Fatima straightened up, daubed her eyes, and everyone continued telling their inconceivable, impossible, true stories of the Ogaden.
Douglas McGill has reported for the New York Times and Bloomberg News--and now the Daily Planet. To reach Doug McGill: doug@mcgillreport.org. And visit The McGill Report at www.mcgillreport.org.
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