Stories written by Abdurrahman Warsameh

Media Law Hits Somali Journalists

Somalia’s journalists say that the government is not serious about reviewing the country’s new, controversial media bill that requires them to reveal their sources, despite a series of recent consultations.

Somalia’s ‘Cultural Shift’ Means Less-Severe Form of FGM

Seven-year-old Istar Mumin lies on a bed, motionless, in one of the rooms of her family home in Mogadishu’s Hamarweyne district. She has just gone through the horrifying ritual of “the cut,” which was carried out by a local Somali nurse.

Warlords and Vague Constitution to Blame for Renegade Somali State

Attempts by clan elders and militia commanders in southern Somalia to form an autonomous state, without the consent of the central government but with the apparent backing of foreign countries, remains a dangerous, destabilising element in the region, say analysts.

Reporting Dangerously From Somalia

When journalist Mohamed Ibrahim Rageh was shot by unknown assailants outside his home in the Somali capital Mogadishu on Apr. 22, his name was added to a list of four journalists who have been killed in this Horn of Africa nation since January.

Somali Women Cashing in on Business

In the Hamarweyne market, Mogadishu's largest, 24-year-old Maryama Yunis is finding success with her tiny cosmetic store. The young Somali entrepreneur has been in business for two years, selling everything from soaps and shampoos to lipsticks and eyeliners, and now she's turning a decent profit.

Media Discover the Limits of Freedom in Somalia

Media advocates in Somalia worry that a recent case against a journalists who exposed the story of a gang rape involving members of the national security forces will serve as a deterrent to journalists countrywide.

Tough Foreign Policy Challenges for Somalia’s “Iron Lady”

As little-known politician Fauzia Yusuf Haji Adan was sworn in as Somalia's first female foreign minister and deputy prime minister on Monday Nov. 19, the stateswoman who hails from the unrecognised, self-proclaimed republic of Somaliland is tipped to become the country’s “Iron Lady”.


Kenya Pushes Dubiously Against Islamists

A Kenyan military advance into Somali territory to push back Islamic militants has had some measured military success - but is not without controversy.

“Famine May Have Ended, But For Us Hunger Has Not”

One-year-old Miriam Jama is a symbol of life in Somalia after the famine. Born just as the United Nations World Food Programme declared famine in this Horn of Africa nation a year ago on Jul. 20, Miriam has known no other life than the one in the Badbaado refugee camp, situated 10 kilometres outside the country’s capital, Mogadishu.

A Somali youngster walks past a ruined building in Hodon district in Mogadishu.  Credit: Abdurrahman Warsameh/IPS.

SOMALIA: Rebuilding Among the Rubble

With vehicles and donkey carts packed with their belongings, Somalis are returning, four years after they fled, to their partially standing, bullet-scarred and mortar-shelled neighbourhoods in former Al-Shabaab controlled areas of Mogadishu.

Armed gunmen running camps for famine victims steal their food and prevent them from leaving to search for aid elsewhere.  Credit: Abdurrahman Warsameh/IPS

SOMALIA: Armed Militia Grab the Famine Business

Armed groups are withholding aid and preventing Somali famine refugees from leaving camps to ensure the continued supply of food by aid agencies that they are presently selling on the open market.

Somali government soldiers and African Union peacekeeping troops on duty in a street in Mogadishu formerly controlled by Al Shabaab. Credit: Abdurrahman Warsameh

SOMALIA: City in Need of More Aid

The shelling and gunshots, once a common sound in Mogadishu, no longer ring out in the city's streets. The surprise withdrawal on Aug. 6 of the Islamist extremist group Al Shabaab from their stronghold in Mogadishu has meant that people now move about the city, for the first time in two years, without fear of constant attack.

A mother and daughter who survived the dangerous journey from south Somalia to an aid camp in Mogadishu.  Credit: Abdurrahman Warsameh/IPS

SOMALIA: “I Carried Him a Whole Day While He Was Dead, Thinking He Was Alive”

As the first of food aid from the United Nations World Food Programme was airlifted into Mogadishu on Wednesday, it came too late for Qadija Ali's two- year-old son Farah.

One of the millions of children in Somalia in need of food aid.  Credit: Abdurrahman Warsameh/IPS

SOMALIA: “Children on the Verge of Death Left Behind to Save Those Who Had a Chance”

Tens of thousands of starving Somalis have made their way to the government- held part of Mogadishu in search of food, but many parents have made the anguished decision to leave a child too weak to make the journey behind in hope of saving the others.

Somali refugees in Kenya - as many as 1 million people were displaced by fighting between Islamists and Ethiopian soldiers. Credit:  Manoocher Deghati/IPS

SOMALIA: Counting the Cost After Ethiopia Withdraws

The suicide car bomb that struck Mogadishu Jan. 24, killing at least twenty people and injuring nearly fifty others is an explosive comment on the failure of the Ethiopian military deployment to Somalia two years ago to oust Islamist forces it believed represented "a clear and present danger" to Ethiopia.



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