LONDON (Reuters) – Ships using the Indian Ocean will not receive the same level of naval protection from pirates as those in the Gulf of Aden because military resources are tight, British Foreign Secretary David Miliband said.
Somali pirates have made tens of millions of dollars in ransoms by hijacking ships in the Indian Ocean and the Gulf of Aden, which links Europe to Asia.
In a letter th...
The Somali President opened the 10th Session of the Somali Parliament Held in Mogadishu Today. He Informed MPs that the Government Recruited Enough Troops to Take on the Extremists
(Mogadishu – Somalia, Monday December 21, 2009) The President of Somalia, Sharif Sheikh Ahmed, speaking on the occasion of the opening of the 10th Session of the Somali Parliament informed Somali Parliamentarian...
Ciidamada booliska Kenya ayaa olole ay ku xir xirayaan Somaliada ku nool xaafada Islii ee magaalada Nayrobi ku guda jira halkaasi oo ay ku nool yihiin Somali badan oo ka soo qaxay mowjadaha dagaal ee Muqdisho.
Wararku waxa ay sheegayaan in ciidamda booliska ee jiiray xaafada Islii ay xir xireen ilaa 600-oo qof oo ay ku jiraan ragg ganacsato oo in badan kenya ku noolaa , iyadoo ay sii dheertahay d...
Attending the graduation of doctors, engineers and professors in Mogadishu last Thursday, I was relieved to cover a positive Somalia story for a change.
War is all we can usually report from here, where fighting has killed at least 19,000 civilians since the start of 2007 and driven another 1.5 million from their homes.
Desperate to show the outside world another side to my country, I spent hou...
ADEN, 7 December 2009 (IRIN) – Public access to water in Basateen, a slum on the outskirts of Yemen’s southern port city of Aden and home to some 16,000 Somali refugees, has become extremely limited, according to the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR).
The slum’s Somali inhabitants, most of whom if employed do menial jobs, say they have to purchase water from private companies to meet their da...
GENEVA – THE United Nations called on richer governments on Monday to provide a total of US$7.1 billion (S$9.83 billion) in 2010 to fund urgent humanitarian assistance for 48 million people in 25 countries.
It was the largest sum sought for such aid, in what is known as the annual Humanitarian Appeal, since the world body started making consolidated calls for funding to tackle crises in diff...
The African Union’s Somalia envoy said donors have released only 30 percent of funds they pledged months ago toward bolstering Somalia’s security, frustrating efforts to turnaround the lawless country.The AU envoy’s statement echoes similar comments made by aid workers this week about how donors have been slow to release money for health programs aimed at helping Somalis.
AU peac...
Today, November 27th, marks the beginning of 2009’s Eid al-Adha, the Muslim “Festival of Sacrifice”, commemorating the willingness of Ibrahim (Abraham) to sacrifice his son to God, meanwhile, Hundreds of muslims gather for the celebration of eid on Friday at Masjid Abubakar alsadiqque on the westside of Columbus, Ohio. Muslims around the world will celebrate by slaughtering anim...
A Minnesota man hosted a gathering for several young Somalis days before they left Minneapolis to fight with a terrorist group in their war-torn homeland, according to court documents unsealed Tuesday in a sweeping federal investigation.Mohamud Said Omar, 43, who is in custody in the Netherlands, is accused of being involved with many of the roughly 20 young men who left Minneapolis in waves from ...
The government of the semi-autonomous Somali region of Puntland has been sharply criticized by a U.S. lawmaker, who says Puntland authorities are routinely arresting, handing over men from neighboring Ogaden region to Ethiopian security
The government of the semi-autonomous Somali region of Puntland has been sharply criticized by a U.S. lawmaker, who says Puntland authorities are routinely arresti...
MOGADISHU (Reuters) – Somalia’s al Shabaab Islamists said on Sunday they had seized control of a southern town from the rival Hizbul Islam insurgents after clashes that killed at least 12 fighters.
Al Shabaab controls much of southern Somalia and parts of the capital Mogadishu. The group is fighting government troops and African Union peacekeepers to impose its own version of sharia, o...
MOMBASA, Kenya—Film star Nicolas Cage has visited a Kenyan prison holding suspected Somali pirates awaiting trial to highlight the problem of piracy in the Indian Ocean.
Inmates danced for the movie star and shook his hand as he toured the Shimo La Tewa prison in the Kenyan coastal town of Mombasa. The prison has become a model for other jails in the country because of the reform work of its chi...
Despite reaffirming the importance of deeper US-China co-operation to world peace and stability, the two sides were unable to disguise the deep differences that separate them on trade, security, climate change and human rights.
Speaking after the talks which formed the centrepiece of Mr Obama’s five day tour of Asia, the two presidents laid out their separate positions on key issues during a...
Waxaa saxaafada usoo shaac baxay muuqaalo sawiro ah oo muujinaya gacmo iyo lugo laga jaray dhawaan dhalinyaro ey xukuno ku rideen Al-Shabaab kuwaasi oo uu xukunkoodu ka dhacay xerada Maslaxa ee magaalada Muqdisho.
Kooxda Al-Shabaab oo xukunkani fulisay ayaa waxaa ey adimada iyo gacmihii ey jareen usoo qaadeen dhankaas iyo Suuqa Bakaaraha, iyagoona suray bartanaha suuqa si ey ugu cabsi geliyaan dad...
Cuduro aan la aqoon ayaa saf mar ku haya dadka barakacayaasha ee ku dhaqan deeganaada isku raranka ah ee loo qaxay, iyadoo cuduradaasi oo taqaatiirta weli aysan garan uu ka mid yahay cudurada maqaarka ku dhaca .
Drs.Xaawa Cabdi oo ah maamulaha cisbitalka Xawa Cabdi ee duleedka Muqdisho ayaa u sheegtay idaacada Horn Afrik in cuduradaasi la yaabka leh aan la garan wali, iyadoo la tibaaxay in cudurad...
Pictures inside the home of the gunman who shot dead 13 US soldiers at Fort Hood show an austere and empty apartment with his few possessions left in disarray.
The paraphernalia of Major Nidal Hasan’s Muslim faith are scattered among other jumble on the kitchen table in the Casa Del Norte apartment complex in Killeen, Texas.
A black and white, crocheted skull cap lies beside the sink; another is...
A judge who jailed pirates and members of Somalia’s anti-government group, al-Shabab, has been shot dead in Bossaso, a port in Somalia’s semi-autonomous Puntland region, police say.Mohamed Abdi Aware was shot several times in the head and chest by two masked men as he left a mosque, the police said on Thursday.
Puntland is a base for pirates operating in the strategic shippin...
The lifeboat that made international headlines in a high-profile pirate attack arrived at Nauticus today to be on display alongside a National Geographic exhibit about piracy.
The high-seas drama unfolded April 8 when the Maersk Alabama, a cargo ship owned by a Norfolk-based shipping company, was attacked by Somali pirates off the coast of Africa this spring.
Capt. Richard Phillips was captured an...
Waxaa xalay ka dhacay albaabka hore ee Hotel uu koonfurta magaalada Galkacyo ka daganaa taliyaha ciidamada booliska Somaliya Gen. Cabdi Qeybdiid qarax loo adeegsaday bomb-gacmeed, kaasoo aan dhalinin wax qasaare ah oo la taaban karo marka laga reebo laba ruux oo uu dhaawac fudud kasoo gaaray.
Taliyaha booliska ayaa la sheegay in uu hotelka ku jiray xilligii uu qaraxani dhacayay, mana jiraan tafaas...
Mahad Abdullahi Hassan had never heard of Nepal before the day he landed there. When the 28-year-old Somali boarded a flight from Dubai to Kathmandu on May 23, 2007, he was hoping he would finally reach his dream destination: Sweden. He had, after all, shelled out $4,000 to a human trafficker who promised to smuggle him to the Scandinavian country.
Instead, when Hassan got off the plane, he foun...
GENEVA, (UNHCR) – The UN refugee agency on Friday called on donor countries for an extra US$2.8 million to help more than 300,000 refugees in two locations in northern Kenya threatened by flooding.
“We have already begun to make engineering improvements in the two camps – Kakuma in north-western Kenya and Dadaab in the east on the Somalia border,” UNHCR spokesman, Andrej Mahecic, t...
As part of maritime safety cooperation, the Philippine Coast Guard is set to a possible joint training with their counterparts in Somalia.
According to Coast Guard spokesperson Lt. Cmdr. Armand Balilo, the said activity was initiated by no less than President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo during the sidelines of the African Union Special summit last August in Tripoli, Libya. The President actually offer...
Despite Islamists banning Somali women from being involved in sport, at least 22 young Somali women footballers have successfully ended a week-long coaching course at a ceremony held at the Somali police academy on Sunday. National football course director Mohamed Abdulle Farayare and his assistant Abdi Abdulle Ahmed (Baasaale) where teaching at the course which was the first of its kind ever held...
Haweenkaan Soomaliyeed ayaa haatan lagu daaweynayaa gudaha isbitalkaan oo ku yaal xeradii xalane ama dugsigii tababarka macalimiinta ee xalane waxaana haweenkaan laga kala keenay dagmooyinka iyo gobolada dalka qaarkood.
Qaar ka mid ah haweenkaan oo wareysi aanu ka qaadnay ayaa durbadiiba sheegay in ay ka bogsdooday cudurkii haayey iyo kuwa dhawacyada intaba, iyaga oo u mahdciliyay marka...
Spain says it will not negotiate over two Somalis held on piracy charges, despite pleas from the relatives of Spaniards held hostage in Somalia.
“The situation is not negotiable,” Spain’s Deputy Defence Minister Constantino Mendez said.
Somali pirates have threatened to kill three crew members from the Spanish trawler Alakrana unless Spain frees the two captive Somalis, reports s...
Somali President Sharif Sheikh Ahmed and a delegation of ministers and lawmakers have traveled from Mogadishu to Nairobi.
The Somali president and his delegation are scheduled to meet officials from a number of friendly countries in the Kenyan capital for talks on the Somalia crisis.
In addition, there are reports that the Greek government and some other governments have called the Somali presiden...
Up to 750,000 people in Kenya, nearly half of them Somali refugees, could be caught up in flooding and landslides from heavy rains expected to peak in November, the United Nations warned on Friday.
UN aid agencies have activated contingency plans, bringing food, water treatment chemicals and mosquito nets to flood-prone areas, according to Elisabeth Byrs of the UN Office for the Coordination of ...
Saudi Arabia has lifted a ban on the import of livestock from Somalia imposed nine years ago to prevent the spread of Rift Valley fever.
Somali pastoralists and traders have welcomed the news.
It means they can profit from increased demand for livestock during the Eid al-Adha festival when Muslims traditionally sacrifice an animal.
The export of sheep, goats and cattle is a mainstay of SomaliaR...
MOGADISHU (Reuters) – Somali courtship was different in Hassan Aden’s day. When he was a teenager, you gave the girl’s parents 11 camels and an AK-47 assault rifle as bride price and then waited respectfully.
Now, the 55-year-old said, a mobile phone service that seems to be the only thing working in the failed Horn of Africa state is helping drive a rise in elopements, pregnanci...
Rival pirates and militia groups have fought for control over a British couple held hostage for more than a week, an Islamic militia commander and a local elder said. The couple were not injured in the fighting.
Meanwhile, an American-flagged cargo vessel came under gunfire from suspected Somali pirates but managed to escape, a US Navy spokesman said.
Elders sent local fighters to thwart an atte...
A week ago, a senior commander of the Somali insurgency al-Shabaab (aka Harakat Shabaab al-Mujahidin) threatened terror attacks in the capital cities of countries supporting the African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM) including Kampala, Bujumbura and Bamako.
“We shall make their people cry. We’ll attack Bujumbura and Kampala,” Sheikh Ali Mohamed Hussein was reported to have said. The warni...
With clear, straight answers, a St. Anthony man admitted to a federal judge Monday that he lied to a grand jury when he denied knowing men who had returned to Somalia to fight Ethiopian troops who were occupying their homeland.
Adarus Abdulle Ali, 25, said he was scared when he was called to testify before the grand jury in Minneapolis, and that’s why he didn’t tell the truth — that ...
More than 60 Somali lawmakers have on Monday called on Somali parliament speaker Sheikh Adan Madobe to reopen the parliament, which has been in recess for more than four months
In a press conference held in the restive capital Mogadishu, the Members of Parliament accused the speaker of taking the unilateral decision to postpone the parliamentary sittings
“We call on Sheikh Adan Madobe (the sp...
Hundreds of people have attended a wedding in central Somalia between a man who says he is 112 years old, and his teenage wife.
Ahmed Muhamed Dore — who already has 13 children by five wives — said he would like to have more with his new wife, Safia Abdulleh, who is 17 years old.
“Today God helped me realise my dream,” Mr Dore said, after the wedding in the region of Galguduud.
The bride...
A top rebel group fighting for control of the West African Muslim nation of Somalia has threatened to start attacking Israel in the near future.
Experts say the al-Shahab rebel group has been transforming from a traditional insurgency into a terrorist organization in recent years, and now maintains strong ties to Osama bin Laden’s Al Qaeda group.
Mukhtar Robow Abu Mansur, a top al-Shahab l...
DELA, Kenya (AP) — When 64-year-old Jimale Irobe was a young man, he guided his herds of cows and camels through knee-high grass.
These days the scrubby blades barely reach his ankles even in the rainy season, and there is never enough grass to go around. The cattle cannot feed, and the nomadic families that depend on them for milk and meat cannot survive.
So Irobe scrapes out a living by sellin...
NAIROBI (Reuters) – Sacdiyo Sheeq used to love listening to Bollywood movie songs on her mobile telephone.
But since hardline al Shabaab insurgents seized the southern Somali port of Kismayu, the 25-year-old’s life has changed.
“Al Shabaab wants our ringtones to be only a Muslim cleric reading the Hadith or Koranic verse,” she told Reuters.
“I used to listen to my fav...
NAIROBI, Nov 2 (Reuters) – Somalia’s hardline al Shabaab insurgents closed three grassroots women’s organisations in the rebel-held town of Balad Hawa on Monday to stop women from going to work, a rebel leader said.
The group wants to impose its own version of Islamic law on areas it controls, and Washington says it is al Qaeda’s proxy in the Horn of African nation.
“...
A dispute between the Somali government and the business community has halted trade at the main port in the war-torn capital, Mogadishu.
Businessmen are said to be angered by new rules that require all incoming items to go through security checks.
They say goods could be destroyed by Islamist insurgents if they have to wait in the port to be checked.
The port, which reopened in 2006 after 15 years...
A roadside bomb blast in Somalia’s semiautonomous northern region has killed four people, including an infantry division commander.
Two remote-controlled bombs were used in the attack that killed senior security officer, Osman Yusuf, in Somaliland, the region’s defense minister, Saleban Warsame Guled, said on Sunday.
After the first blast shook the northern Somali town of Lascanood, Yu...
