Ainashe.net

Following is a Press Release from the Office of the Humanitarian Coordinator for Somalia; Mr Maxwell Gaylard.

The Humanitarian Coordinator for Somalia, Mr Maxwell Gaylard, is appealing to local communities, political and business leaders for a general mobilization to fight the unprecedented humanitarian crisis aggravated by the worst drought in a decade. Community leaders are urged to ensure unhindered access for the delivery of humanitarian assistance to populations in need, as well as to ensure the protection of all humanitarian workers in Somalia.  “It is imperative that community elders, religious and political leaders, businessmen and militia create an environment conducive to impartial and independent humanitarian operations. We want to work closely with the Transitional Federal Government, regional authorities and community leaders to quickly reach people in need of assistance and protection, and save the lives that we can,” says Mr Maxwell Gaylard. “We are already seriously challenged by the logistics in central and southern Somalia, and with predicted poor next rains, the situation could quickly deteriorate further. We need across the board support and commitment of everyone to ensure access and protection so that we can alleviate the suffering of Somalis. We cannot do so if the food convoys, medical supplies and other critically-needed assistance are targeted by opportunists and so called uncontrolled militiamen.”

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According to the BBC News: 

A small community in wintry Norway wants to help a group of East African refugees back to work by importing a flock of camels. 

As someone who takes a great pride for being Norwegian “camel man” who happens to be originally from Somalia, I am quite excited to hear that camels are being brought to Norway. However, the camels we are talking here are NOT real camels; they are from Mongolia! 

Click here for the full story on the BBC News. 

A new report by the Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre says:

The suffering of hundreds of thousands of people displaced in Somalia during almost 15 years of conflict has long been ignored by the international community. Over the past couple of years, however, and in particular during 2005, a certain dynamic has unfolded within Somalia and among the involved UN organisations, which could eventually lead to a more effective response to the enormous protection, assistance and reconstruction needs of the country’s internally displaced people (IDPs) and other vulnerable populations.

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The Danish Institute for International Studies published recently a paper titled “Opportunities and Pitfalls in the Migration-Development Nexus: Somaliland and Beyond.”

The paper outlines current discussions around the links between migration, development and conflict. It also considers the complex nature of ‘mixed flows’, the difficulties in distinguishing between forced/political and voluntary/economic migration, and the links to development from these various – and often overlapping – types of flows. The paper uses migration from Somalia/Somaliland as the main example. This case – like the cases of most other sending countries - is of course specific. Still lessons can be drawn that are useful in other contexts, and may provide a basis for constructive discussion of potential opportunities in the current migration and international cooperation regimes.

The paper is bit old (2004) but it will certainty be useful to those who want to get greater understanding of the “push” and “pull” factors of Somali migration to Denmark.

Click here to view or download the paper in its entirety.

A communiqué issued by IGAD foreigner Ministers after meeting with the Somali Transitional Federal Government in Jowhar states among other things:

Somalia has a legitimate government, and in line with the Transitional Federal Charter, has a solemn right to establish, train and equip its law enforcement.

Hurrah! What else can I say?

It seems to me that IGAD’s Foreigner Ministers are coming to their senses by realizing now what I have been saying for months, namely; Somalia has, for the first time in many years, a legitimate government with a wider popular representation than any other previous government in Somalia’s political history. Hence, the notion of telling the elected Somali government to be like a sitting duck under the mercy of destructive Mogadishu warlords was, to put it politely, an idiotic and ill thought political proposition.

The Somali transitional federal government must, just like any other, assemble its security forces so that law and order can be brought back to the country. Period!

Click here to view the full dispatch by Reuters’ AlertNet.

The BBC News reports:

A 55-year-old man has been jailed for life for the murder of a prostitute whose body he cut up and left in his brother’s flat before taking it on a bus and dumping it in a canal. What lay behind the lurid headlines? Nasra Ismail, who was killed in March 2004, was unrecognisable from the loving mother and wife mourned by her family. The 27-year-old, a refugee from war-torn Somalia, was lost to them after she got sucked into a squalid life of prostitution to fund her addiction to crack cocaine.

As the saying goes; Allayow dhib badnaa, ninka tagay dhulkiisii!

Click here to view the full dispatch on the BBC News. You may also click here for more on the tragic death of Nasra Ismail on Google.