Somali journalists at a meeting to discuss the country’s controversial draft media legislation with government officials at the presidential palace in Mogadishu. Credit: Abdurrahman Warsameh/IPS

By Abdurrahman Warsameh
MOGADISHU, Aug 20 2013 (IPS)

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.

Their concerns have been raised as another journalist, Ahmed Shariif Hussein, who worked for state radio and TV as an engineer, was shot dead by unknown gunmen outside his home on Saturday, Aug. 17 in north Mogadishu.

Somalia is one of the most dangerous places for media workers to operate. Six journalists have been killed this year alone and more than 15 were murdered in 2012.

None of the killings have been thoroughly investigated or the culprits punished.“We are not saying let’s not have no law in this country, but we are demanding that our rights to press freedom and independent journalism be protected by the authorities.” -- Muse Jisow, editor-in chief of Somali news portal somalisan.com

But journalists now say that the country’s new media bill will make it almost unbearable for them to remain in this Horn of Africa nation. A number are already considering leaving if “the tough law” is endorsed by parliament.

“We stayed around thinking at least the law would finally protect us. But now that it is being used against us, I don’t think we can stay here any longer,” one Somali journalist told IPS on the condition of anonymity.

The proposed law requires journalists to reveal their sources and forbids them from disseminating information deemed as being against Islamic or Somali tradition, or which affects national security.

“As it stands the new law will oppress the media, curb press freedom, curtail freedom of expression, and impose restrictions on journalists’ ability to report freely,” Abdelrashid Abikar, press freedom coordinator for the National Union of Somali Journalists told IPS.

If accused of breaching the  law, journalists can be suspended from work until a court rules on the matter.

“What amazes everyone in the Somali media community is that the government has failed to recognise the situation of journalists who have to inform the public – even in the face of daily death threats. Why [is there] this government insistence on imposing such draconian laws on us?” one journalist based in Mogadishu told IPS.

In an attempt to address journalists’ concerns over the proposed law, Somali Prime Minister Abdi Farah Shirdon met media representatives at his office in Mogadishu on Jul. 18. And on Jul. 29, Somali President Hassan Sheikh Mohamoud met the media at the presidential palace.

Since then there have been subsequent meetings with various government officials, including the information minister, the most recent one being Thursday, Aug. 14.

Officials had promised to review the draft law in consultation with local media and bring it in line with international best practices.

But journalists have told IPS that they have withdrawn from the meetings with the information ministry, which is now in discussions with “bogus” media representatives, mostly from government-run media.

“I don’t think the government is serious about reviewing the new media law. They want to have the journalists’ stamp of approval for the cosmetic changes they are proposing and we refused that,” one Somali journalist, who took part in the meetings, told IPS on condition of anonymity.

Both local and international media watchdogs have voiced fears over the proposed law, calling the new legislation “vague” and “ambiguous”. Many say that it could expose journalists to a range of restrictions for ill-defined offenses.

“I don’t think Somalia will be any different from dictatorial regimes where press freedoms are non-existent, if the current law is implemented,” Muse Jisow, editor-in chief of Somali news portal somalisan.com, told IPS.

Jisow said that the Somali government should review the bill and bring it in line with international standards in order to safeguard freedom of the press here. Somali ministers approved the draft media law on Jul. 11 and it is expected to be debated by parliament in September.

Jisow called on Somali lawmakers not to pass the draft legislation until the “draconian articles” were weeded out and replaced with a more media-friendly ones.

“We are not saying let’s not have no law in this country, but we are demanding that our rights to press freedom and independent journalism be protected by the authorities,” Jisow said.

“I call upon Somali legislators not to approve the new media law because it is not in line with the national constitution, which guarantees press freedom and independent journalism in Somalia,” Jisow said.

But analysts believe that a watered down version of the current bill will be brought to parliament to be signed into law.

“I don’t think the Somali government will submit the new media law as it is now. [They] will have to amend it to accommodate concerns expressed not only by local journalists but international media watchdogs, including the United Nations,” Hassan Harun, a media analyst, told IPS.

Harun said that the government should take into account the views of the Somali media who will be subjected to the legislation, which will “add to the suffering of an already vulnerable sector of society”.

Local activists say they want to see the eradication of FGM in Somalia but note that a “cultural shift” to practice a less severe form could be seen as a positive step towards total elimination of FGM in Somalia. Credit: Abdurrahman Warsameh/IPS

By Abdurrahman Warsameh
MOGADISHU, Jun 20 2013 (IPS)

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.

“I am in pain. I cannot move. They cut me,” a teary-eyed Mumin, who was visibly weak from the procedure, tells IPS.

Elsewhere in the house her mother, Muhibo Daahir, is in a celebratory mood as their family entertains guests who are here to celebrate Mumin’s circumcision.

The age-old practice of Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) is banned by the current Somali constitution. But it is still widely carried out, particularly in Somalia’s formerly war-torn areas, on girls as young as five — in the hope of keeping them pure and making them ready for marriage. Most families see the occasion as a time of happiness and festivity.

According to a United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) advocacy paper titled “Eradication of Female Genital Mutilation in Somalia”, “FGM can have severely adverse effects on the physical, mental and psychosocial well being of those who undergo the practice.

“The health consequences of FGM are both immediate and life-long. Despite the many internationally recognised laws against FGM, lack of validation in Islam and global advocacy to eradicate the practice, it remains embedded in Somali culture.”

The paper also states “long-term complications include loss of libido, genital malformation, delayed menarche, chronic pelvic complications and recurrent urinary retention and infection. FGM victims are also prone to a number of obstetric complications because the foetus is exposed to a range of infectious diseases and faces the risk of having its head crushed in the damaged birth canal.”

The practice is regarded by Somalia’s new constitution as “torture.” Article 15 (4) of the Provisional Constitution stipulates: “Circumcision of girls is a cruel and degrading customary practice, and is tantamount to torture. The circumcision of girls is prohibited.”

However, there is no specific law against female circumcision, and the practice remains widespread in both rural and urban areas in this Horn of Africa nation.

Daahir is defensive when asked why she allowed her daughter to undergo circumcision.

“Our religion allows us to purify our daughters so that they can get married when they are mature. The government cannot stop us from practicing our religion,” Daahir tells IPS.

She says that her daughter, just like “other girls of this time,” was circumcised in the Sunnah form of circumcision prescribed by the Islamic religion.

This method involves the partial cutting of the clitoris. Another form of FGM practiced in Somalia is the Pharaonic form, which involves the complete removal of the clitoris and the labia minora and majora. The outer vaginal opening is also stitched closed, apart from a small opening that is left for urination.

Daahir says, however, that unlike in the past, a qualified nurse and not an untrained traditional circumciser carried out her daughter’s circumcision. Her point of view is widespread in the country’s capital.

But in regions of Somalia that have not been caught up in the country’s two-decade war, the practice has declined.“Everyone now knows that in Somalia, the extreme form of FGM is frowned upon and Sunnah-circumcised women are keenly sought after by men for marriage.” -- Raho Qalif, Somali school teacher

In April, UNICEF released a survey based on interviews conducted in Somalia’s northern region of Puntland and the breakaway state of Somaliland, which showed that the practice of FGM has decreased. The survey, conducted in collaboration with local governments, found that 75 percent of girls aged between one and 14 have not been cut, in comparison with 99 percent of young girls who have undergone the procedure in other regions in Somalia.

According to UNICEF, the United Nations Population Fund–UNICEF Joint Programme, has engaged over 300,000 community members and stakeholders in discussions on abandoning FGM in Puntland and Somaliland.

Perhaps the reason the practice has decreased in the north is that the area has enjoyed relative stability over the past two decades, while the rest of the country was caught up in a clan-based civil war that began in 1991. Awareness campaigns and public education about the dangers of FGM could not be conducted in these volatile areas as they were in Somaliland and Puntland.

Attitudes towards FGM are changing. However, activists here tell IPS that Somali society is not abandoning the ritual but is instead adopting a less severe form of FGM known as Sunnah.

“Somalis are not leaving their girls uncircumcised, although they are not using the crude Pharaonic form of the practice but using Sunnah, which in comparison to the traditional one is non-invasive,” Halimo Ali, a social activist in Mogadishu, tells IPS.

Ali says she finds that people are now taking to the Sunnah form of FGM, in which less than five percent of the cut is done, compared to the Pharaonic form which “completely wipes out everything.

“I am aware of the study done in Puntland and Somaliland and it is encouraging. But I doubt that Somalis now will stop their daughters from being circumcised in one form or another,” she says.

Maryan Aalim is a mother of seven daughters.

“All of my daughters are circumcised in Sunnah, but the eldest was circumcised in the traditional way. I chose the Sunnah circumcision because that is the one allowed by Islam,” she tells IPS.

Sheikh Omar Ali, a senior cleric in Mogadishu, is one of the religious leaders people rely on when they want to justify the practice of FGM.

“There is only one form of circumcision that is prescribed by Islam and it is the Sunnah form. The Pharoanic form predates Islam and is un-Islamic,” he tells IPS.

Local activists say the total eradication of the practice is their ultimate goal but they add that the “cultural shift” in Somali society needs to be recognised, and that the evolution of the practice could be seen as a positive step towards total elimination of FGM in Somalia.

“People now recognise the negative effects of the extreme form of FGM on women and girls and have adopted the Sunnah form. It is not what we want, yet it is a step in the right direction,” Raho Qalif, a school teacher in Mogadishu, tells IPS.

She says the practice will eventually fade out of Somali culture and notes a “trend,” saying that to circumcise girls in the Sunnah form has now become “fashionable.”

“Everyone now knows that in Somalia, the extreme form of FGM is frowned upon and Sunnah-circumcised women are keenly sought after by men for marriage,” says Qalif.

Senior militia commander Ahmed Mohamed Islam, better known as Sheikh Madobe, declared himself president of a self-declared autonomous state known as Jubaland. Credit: Abdurrahman Warsameh /IPS

By Abdurrahman Warsameh
MOGADISHU, May 31 2013 (IPS)

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.

“Jubaland has all the dangerous elements necessary to kick the stabilisation plan of the liberated territories down like a sand castle,” Abukar Arman, a former diplomat and widely-published political analyst, told IPS. He was speaking of towns and regions in this Horn of African nation that were recently liberated from Al-Shabaab control by regional troops.

On May 15, the senior militia commander Ahmed Mohamed Islam, better known as Sheikh Madobe, declared himself president of a self-declared autonomous state known as Jubaland, which comprises the Lower and Middle Juba provinces as well as the Gedo region. The latter borders Kenya.

Islam is said to have close ties with Kenyan forces stationed in the key port city of Kismayo, which is the commercial capital of Jubaland.

Two more local warlords – Barre Hiiraale and Omar Burale Ahmed – were also named as presidents of Jubaland by their respective clan-based supporters.

The Somali government refused to recognise any of the “presidents”.

Somalia is still recovering from almost two decades of war, and large parts of the country were once under siege by the Islamist rebel group Al-Shabaab. However, with the help of regional forces, the Somali government was able to recapture some key points in the country in 2012.

On May 24, in an effort to defuse the brewing tension between the Somali federal government and authorities in Jubaland, the regional Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) urged the Somali government to convene a reconciliation conference in Mogadishu. IGAD recommended that the Somali government form an interim administration for the region.

The move comes after a mission sent by IGAD – which comprises eight Horn of Africa countries – reported its findings to a meeting of the bloc’s heads of states and governments in Addis Ababa. The regional grouping has been overseeing the situation in southern Somalia since Kenyan troops, who are part of the African Union Mission in Somalia, ousted Al-Shabaab from the region in 2012.

Since then, efforts by militia leaders allied with Kenya have been underway to form the autonomous administration of Jubaland.

Arman said that Somalia was faced with “armed militias, clan lords and foreign (intruders with) competing interests,” as well as an ambiguous constitution that did not clearly specify how federal states would be formed and that deferred some of the key issues.

The Somali government has voiced its discontent about the formation of any administration in the area from the outset, and described the process as “unconstitutional”, stating that it would create tribal divisions.

Abdirashid Hashi, deputy director of the Mogadishu-based Heritage Institute for Policy Studies, an independent think-tank, disagrees with Arman about the position of the constitution. He said that the constitution is “very clear” on the formation of federal Somali states.

“It’s the politicking, obfuscation and doubletalk of politicians that creates and fuels the ongoing drama,” Hashi told IPS in Mogadishu.

With regard to how federal states will be formed, Article 49 of the Provisional National Constitution (PNC) stipulates that “the number and boundaries of the regional states shall be determined by parliament.”

However, before determining the number and boundaries of the federal member states, parliament is required to nominate a national commission tasked with studying the issue. According to the PNC, the commission has to submit a report of its findings and recommendations.

But since the constitution was endorsed almost a year ago, no such national commission has been formed.

Article 49 (6) of the PNC seems to further complicate matters, as it states that “based on a voluntary decision, two or more regions may merge to form a federal member state.”  This is where the bone of contention lies.

It appears that, on one hand, the constitution gives the authority to form autonomous states to the 18 regions. But on the other hand, it calls on parliament to determine the number and boundaries of autonomous states the country will have.

Mohamod Hubey, a constitutional lawyer in Mogadishu, said the constitution is ambiguous regarding the sensitive issue of federalism in Somalia, but adds that the differences can be overcome if parties are willing to cooperate.

“The issue of federalism is a sensitive one as it is not clear-cut in the constitution which region will form a state with which, and clan balance in each region is not uniform, but all these can be resolved if there is will on the part of those concerned,” Hubey told IPS.

The perception that foreign involvement is complicating the Jubaland issue is widespread.

“Kenya for a while wanted to establish in southern Somalia a buffer zone administrated by friendly locals. Hence its support for the creation of Jubaland,” Hubey said.

Kenya has repeatedly dismissed these claims as “baseless and unfounded” and says that its troops are in Somalia to enhance stability in the region.

Nonetheless, many Somalis see Kenyan involvement in their country as being beyond security concerns.

The southern part of Somalia is strategic, rich in resources – particularly marine resources – and agriculture. It is also where the port city of Kismayo, the third-largest city in Somalia, and a potential commercial hub, is located, said Hashi

He added that many interpret “Kenya’s bellicose posturing on the Jubaland issue” as having to do with the oil deposits around the Somali coast. In 2012 there was controversy and some tension between the two nations when Kenya allegedly awarded exploration contracts in contested waters.

“Some even go as far as to claiming that there are concerted international schemes aimed at swindling Somalia out of its territorial waters and the oil under it,” Hashi told IPS.

Mohamed Ibrahim Rageh, a journalist who worked for state media, was killed in Mogadishu on Apr. 22, 2013. Analysts say that Somalia cannot protect its officials, let alone journalists. Credit: Abdurrahman Warsameh/IPS

By Abdurrahman Warsameh
MOGADISHU, Apr 29 2013 (IPS)

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.

Last year, 18 members of the media were killed across the country, according to figures from the National Union of Somali Journalists (NUSOJ) – the country’s largest.

But despite efforts by the Somali government, which earlier this year offered a reward of 50,000 dollars for information leading to the arrest and conviction of persons involved in the murder of reporters, analysts say that Somalia cannot protect its officials, let alone journalists.

Abdirashid Hashi, the deputy director of the Mogadishu-based Heritage Institute for Policy Studies, a non-profit policy research and analysis institute, says there is not much that the Somali government can do for the media.

“Frankly, I do not think that the government is going to do, or is able to do, anything special for any professional group, like journalists. It cannot do anything for its members of parliament, government employees, or National Security Service operatives who are killed day in and day out in Mogadishu. The government can only improve the general security,” Hashi tells IPS.

On Apr. 14, 30 people were killed in bombings near Mogadishu’s courthouse. And in March, a suicide car bomb meant for Mogadishu’s security chief Khalif Ahmed Ereg exploded near the presidential palace, killing 10 people, including a journalist. Ereg was not injured. The Al-Qaeda-linked Al-Shabaab claimed responsibility for both attacks.

While the Islamist extremist group has not claimed responsibility for the death of reporters here, it does maintain that those working for government media are “legitimate targets.”

Rageh, who worked for state broadcasters Radio Mogadishu and Somalia National Television, was shot several times as he stood at the gate of his home in Dharkenley district, western Mogadishu.

He died immediately, in front of his family. There have been no arrests.

His friend and colleague, Mohamed Nur Amiin, tells IPS: “We don’t know who will be next and who is targeting us. I leave my house everyday not knowing if I will return safely. And neither does my family know (if I will return).”

According to Reporters Without Borders, an NGO that protects the rights of media workers, Somalia is “one of the world’s most dangerous places for journalists.”

A reporter based in Galkayo town in central Somalia, who sought anonymity because he fears for his life, tells IPS by phone: “We place our trust in Allah because we don’t know who is killing us and why we are being targeted. And that is the worst part of it.”

But Hashi says that a lack of adequate resources, scarcely competent government personnel and an absence of effective security institutions are hampering the government’s efforts to improve security in the country.

He says that the insecurity is “part and parcel” of the situation in Somalia and that the media “need to try their best to stay safe as they are on their own, like most of us.”

But Rageh’s murder has resulted in renewed calls for an investigation into the assassinations of reporters here. According to NUSOJ and other international media watchdogs, including the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), more than 50 reporters have been killed in Somalia since 1992.

“The government has made a firm pledge to root out the perpetrators who target journalists, and now is the time to honour that commitment by ensuring those responsible for Mohamed’s (Rageh) death are brought to book,” said CPJ East Africa consultant Tom Rhodes in a recent press release.

Few cases involving the murder of Somali reporters are brought to court and, to date, no one has been convicted.

Last February the government launched the Independent Task Force on Human Rights to tackle the “culture of impunity” over rights abuses, and “investigate the broadest range of human rights abuses, including the organised killing of journalists and sexual violence against women.”

The new body has a three-month mandate and will produce a report at the end of its term.

But the country’s NUSOJ says they were never consulted on the setting up of the task force and that it is “a mere PR exercise on the part of the government.”

Numerous calls by IPS to Somali government officials remained unanswered and those who did respond refused to explain the status of the body or its investigation.

Hassan Muunye, a political commentator in Mogadishu, says an independent investigation into the murder of reporters is required.

“We hear these calls (for an investigation) from every corner of the world every time a journalist is murdered in Somalia, but nothing seems to be done by the Somali government. Weak as it may be in its capacity to investigate, we have never heard it asking for help to protect journalists,” Muunye tells IPS.

Muunye says despite “the bravery of Somali journalists and their determination to tell the truth,” the ongoing murders of media members here could slowly lead to the silencing of reporters from this part of the world. He says that the killings are “the death of nascent democracy” in Somalia.

NUSOJ secretary general, Mohamed Ibrahim, says Rageh’s murder is another episode in “the nightmare” that Somali reporters live through.

“We have called upon the government to launch an independent investigation into the murders of our colleagues but so far we don’t see any concrete actions by the government,” Ibrahim tells IPS.

Despite the persistent danger to their lives, many journalists say they continue to work in the hope that they will make a positive contribution to their communities.

One journalist from Mogadishu tells IPS: “I have dreamed of doing stories that touch people’s lives and that is what I am doing for the people. I know the price and I am prepared to pay it because it is worth it.”

Nasro Elmi at her material store in the main Bakara Market in the Somali capital Mogadishu. She is one of a growing number of women in this traditionally conservative Muslim country who are going into business. Credit: Abdurrahman Warsameh/IPS

By Abdurrahman Warsameh
MOGADISHU, Apr 22 2013 (IPS)

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.

“As more and more young women in Somalia grow increasingly aware of their looks and like to take care of themselves, the cosmetics business has naturally grown and I took the plunge to meet that demand,” Yunis told IPS in Mogadishu.

Yunis is one of a growing number of women in this traditionally conservative Muslim country who are going into business because of the opportunity to attain financial independence and upward mobility.

Even educated women in this Horn of Africa nation are expected to focus on raising families, but attitudes are shifting alongside women’s role in society, says Hawa Dahir, a social activist in Mogadishu.

“Times are changing in Somalia and people are now more aware of the entrepreneurial potential of women and are more accepting of the role women can play in the economy of the family and the country as a whole,” Dahir told IPS in Mogadishu.

Yunis herself is a university graduate. She studied nursing but opted to pursue her dream of becoming an entrepreneur instead.

“With my mother’s help, I managed to convince my father to allow me to follow my dream and start the store. With the money I am earning, I am becoming more independent by the day and I’ve become an inspiration for many young women,” Yunis said.

But for many women, entering the world of business is not a choice but a necessity forced on them by the death or unemployment of their husbands, according to Dahir, who studies women in business.

Faduma Maow has a shop in the Bakara market in Mogadishu, where she has been working as a clothes trader since the death of her husband three years ago.

The mother of four told IPS that she takes her children, aged between seven and 15 years, to school before heading to the market.

“It is tough being a working parent, but it can also be rewarding. I am financially independent and pleased to say I am making progress towards my goal of raising a family and building a stable future for myself and my children,” Maow said.

Dahir said that while there are no reliable statistics on Somali women entrepreneurs, their presence in the country’s small business scene is “palpable”.

“Many women have started businesses here in Sinai and other markets in Mogadishu,” Rahmo Yarey, owner of a teashop in this busy market, told IPS. “I also hear that the same thing is happening in markets in the regions. Women are becoming breadwinners for many families in our country.”

Women are involved in a range of small businesses, selling clothes, cosmetics, fruit and vegetables, or khat – the leaves of the Catha edulis shrub, chewed as a stimulant in Somalia.

Women can also be found selling fuel in open-air markets and on street corners in Mogadishu.

And they are doing it all with very little assistance.

Somali businesswomen say working as an entrepreneur has its challenges. Firstly, it is nearly impossible to raise capital to start a business.

Local and international financial institutions closed down following the collapse of the central government in 1991 that marked the beginning of two decades of civil war.

A couple of local banks have now been established but one handles only savings and remittances from Somalis in the diaspora. The other does offer loans, but only to those who can put up collateral, which few women have.

“It is not possible to get money to start up a business – even more so if you are a woman,” Aisha Guled, a khat trader in Mogadishu, told IPS.

Guled herself got her start only thanks to support from a relative. She said that she has been struggling to make ends meet since she started selling khat.

“Most of us have started with the little we could get and struggled up the ladder. Some don’t make it, others remain stuck in the beginning, but some are lucky enough to break even and make a profit soon and expand,” she said.

Though the Somali government says it is trying to do all it can to help businesswomen working to support their families, one official told IPS that the government cannot at this stage offer financial support to businesswomen. “The provision of a secure environment for women to operate in is a key priority in supporting women in business,” the official said on the condition of anonymity.

“Despite all the challenges that women entrepreneurs face in Somalia, the country’s womenfolk are showing that they are up to the challenge of being shrewd business operators, while maintaining their roles as mothers and wives,” Dahir said.

She called on academics to study the rise of Somali women in the business sphere as well as in politics and other fields in society.

Yunis said that as Somali society’s views and attitudes towards women’s role change, she expects more and more women to take up roles not only as entrepreneurs, but in academia and politics as they prove themselves to be equal to men in every aspect of life in Somalia.

“It is just a matter of time before we see many women join men in equal measure in rebuilding our country because our society is changing thanks, in part, to the changing times; women will be more equitable to men in every area,” said Yunis.

Somali Journalists protest on Jan. 27, 2013 against the arrest of their colleague Abdiaziz Abdinur Ibrahim who was arrested for the story of a woman who alleged that she was gang-raped by Somali government forces. Credit: Abdurrahman Warsameh/IPS

By Abdurrahman Warsameh
MOGADISHU, Feb 25 2013 (IPS)

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.

Journalist Abdiaziz Abdinur Ibrahim was arrested on Jan. 10 for publishing the story of a 27-year-old woman who alleged that she was gang-raped by five Somali security forces in August 2012.

Ibrahim was detained for one month without charges, but was later charged along with the victim for “insulting state security forces”. Earlier this month a regional court in Mogadishu found both accused guilty and sentenced them to a year in prison. They case went into appeal, with a new verdict now being expected on Wednesday Feb. 27 by the Mogadishu Appeals Court.

“This will make journalists avoid venturing into areas that will lead them to risky stories such as this one,” Abdulahi Elmi, a media advocate in Mogadishu, told IPS. “And that has huge implications for the already-dismal press freedom situation in the country. It will definitely negatively affect and worsen the situation for local media workers.”

The case sparked an international outcry, with international rights organisation Human Rights Watch (HRW) calling for the government to drop its case against both, which HRW deemed “groundless”.

The National Union of Somali Journalists called the conviction “a serious setback” for press freedom.

But Somali government officials have repeatedly distanced themselves from the case, saying it was a judicial matter and insisting on the independence of the country’s judiciary.

Following Ibrahim’s arrest, however, President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud said that his administration would not tolerate negative coverage from the local press.

Local journalists who support Ibrahim told IPS that they would now think twice before interviewing people critical of the government or reporting on stories involving abuse by security forces.

“It was a clear warning for us,” a local journalist told IPS. He asked for anonymity because he feared reprisals.

“Our friend was treated badly just because he dared to listen to a woman who said she suffered injustice at the hands of those who were supposed to protect her.”

Abdiaziz Abdinur Ibrahim was arrested for publishing the story of a 27-year-old woman who alleged she was gang raped by five Somali security forces in August 2012. Credit: Abdurrahman Warsameh/IPS

Ibrahim is not the only journalist who has been arrested in connection with the case. Daud Abdi Daud was held by government police for nearly a week without charge for protesting in court on Feb. 5 against Ibrahim’s sentence. He was eventually released on bail on Feb. 12.

Daud told IPS that he was not allowed to see a lawyer and was not officially charged for any crime, although officials had told him that he was being held for “discipline”.

“The police took me to custody after I said journalists should be able to interview any woman, including the first lady, if she allowed it,” Daud said in Mogadishu after he was released on bail.

Abdi Aynte, director of the Heritage Institute for Policy Studies, an independent think-tank in Mogadishu, said the case showed that there was a need to improve media freedom here.

“In comparison to some of Somalia’s neighbouring countries, like Ethiopia or Eritrea, I think Somalia enjoys a considerable amount of freedom in terms of what people can say and in terms of what groups can say. But there is no doubt that the government could do more to improve that condition,” said Anyte.

According to the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), Eritrea leads the world in imposing censorship on media. In 2012 the CPJ ranked Somalia as the second-worst country where journalists are murdered regularly and the killers go free.

A total of 49 journalists were killed since 1992 in Somalia, CPJ figures show, with 12 being killed in the last year alone. No one has been arrested in connection of the killings, according to the watchdog organisation.

But Anyte said that the government’s handling of the case had cost it a considerable amount of credibility.

“Both the government and the journalists have capacity issues. One can question the investigatory capacity and prosecutorial capacity of the government. One can also question the capacity of local journalists in reporting and verifying information,” said Aynte.

In what is widely perceived as a diversion amidst increasing public scrutiny, the Somali government on Feb 3. announced the formation of an independent Human Rights Taskforce. The goal of the taskforce is to “investigate the broadest range of human rights abuses, including the organised killing of journalists and sexual violence against women.

Somalia's first female Foreign Minister Fauzia Yusuf Haji Adan has a tough road ahead. Credit: Abdurrahman Warsameh/IPS

By Abdurrahman Warsameh
MOGADISHU, Nov 20 2012 (IPS)

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”.

This is according to Adan´s political ally Mohamed Daahir Omar, who used to work closely with her in local Somaliland politics, in which he is currently active.

“We know Fauzia as a person with strong determination and as an approachable individual who likes to form consensus. But when she has to make a decision, she just goes for it and works to convince others of her way. She was mostly successful, and for that she can be considered Somalia’s Iron Lady,” Omar told IPS from Hargeisa, the capital of Somaliland, referring to Adan’s strong will.

Adan, who returned from her first state visit to neighbouring Djibouti on Nov. 18 and missed the official swearing-in ceremony of the cabinet on Nov. 15, takes on the mantle of leadership in a country with a number of tough foreign policy challenges.

While details of Adan and her background are sketchy, and she has been reluctant to grant interviews to the press, Omar said that because of her skill as a consensus-builder, the new foreign minister could play a role in bridging the divide between this Horn of Africa nation and Somaliland.

One of her first tasks will be to advance tentative and delicate talks between the Somali government and politicians in the northern state. Somaliland unilaterally declared independence from the rest of Somalia following the collapse of the country’s government in 1991.

“The talks between Somalia and Somaliland will be an acid test for Adan because as a northerner she will have to show her people that she does not want to force them into a union (with Somalia) that they don’t want.

“But at the same time as a key minister in the federal government she has to represent the views of the government – the sanctity of national unity and sovereignty,” Garaad Jama, an analyst from the Centre for Policy Development, a think tank in Somalia, told IPS.

Adan, who is only one of two women in the 10-member cabinet appointed by Prime Minister Abdi Farah Shirdon, will also have to deal with the growing friction between Kenya and Somalia over the formation of local administration areas in southern Somalia.

The Kenyan military captured the Al-Shabaab-controlled southern Somali port city of Kismayo in late September. The port was one of the key strongholds of the Al-Qaeda-linked Islamist radical group.

But Kenya has reportedly been pushing for the region in southern Somalia known as Azania or Jubaland – where Kismayo is the main city – to be given the status of an autonomous state, to serve as a buffer zone between Kenya and the chaos in Somalia.

The Somali government has repeatedly voiced its opposition to the creation of such a state, which it fears would become a Kenyan satellite rather than a local administration that would fall under its control.

Although Kenya vehemently denied the charges, its soldiers in control of Kismayo’s airport prevented a Somali government delegation from entering the city on Nov. 7, after a local militia leader objected to their arrival.

“The signs are already not good, with deteriorating relations between Kenya and the new Somali government and other tough and pressing challenges,” Maryan Muumin, a women’s rights activist from the Somalia National Women’s Organisation (SNWO) in Mogadishu, told IPS.

“It seems that the daunting task for the new foreign minister is clear cut and it’s for Adan to deal with the challenges facing her, not only as Somalia’s foreign minister, but as the first woman to hold that post,” she said.

Adan will also have to deal with Al-Shabaab, which still poses a threat to the government in many parts of southern and central Somalia.

Al-Shabaab, which is opposed to women taking up roles outside the home and has imposed strict Sharia law in parts of the country that it controls, has threatened to target Somalia’s United Nations-backed government leaders. The militant group led a failed attempt to assassinate the country’s new President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud on Sep. 12, his second day in office.

“Although Al-Shabaab is now on the back foot, the group is the greatest threat to any government in Somalia,” Jama said “How this new government deals with the militant group, which has assassinated several ministers and other top government officials, will be a major test for the ministers, including the first female foreign minister.”

Adan described her appointment as a precedent that will open doors for Somali women.

“This is a historic day not only for Somali women but for all Somalia,” Adan said after the announcement of her appointment on Nov. 4.

Haliam Elmi from SNWO told IPS that Adan’s appointment was “a gift not only for Somali women but also for Africa and the world at large because women’s situations are similar in many parts of the world.”

She said she hoped that it would result in the acceptance of women’s participation in politics in this conservative Muslim country.

“This is a step in the right direction and we hope that society will finally accept women’s ascent on the political ladder,” she told IPS.

But Adan will have a tough road ahead of her. Not everyone has welcomed her appointment. Somalia’s Islamic clergy, for example, said that Adan’s appointment was against the teachings of Islam.

“In Muslim society women are given the highest role a human being can take, which is rearing children and being head of a Muslim home. What we hear from the government is in contradiction to our way of life as a Muslim society, and nothing but calamity will come from giving such political leadership roles to Fauzia, not only for her, but for her family and society in general,” said Sheikh Ali Mohamoud, a Muslim cleric in Mogadishu.

Somali government soldiers patrol a street in the newly-seized southern town of Wanla Weyne on Oct. 12, 2012. Credit: Abdurrahman Warsameh/IPS

By Abdurrahman Warsameh
MOGADISHU, Oct 19 2012 (IPS)

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

The capture of the Islamist-controlled southern Somali port city of Kismayo by Kenyan troops and allied forces in late September had been in the making for almost a year since the launch of operation Linda Nchi (Protect the Country) by Kenya.

Hundreds of Kenyan army regulars supported by a local clan militia known as the Ras Kamboni Brigade from southern Somalia and northeastern Kenya joined forces to overrun the front defences of the Al Shabaab militants, following months of slow progress after the Kenyan forces crossed the border between the two countries in October 2011.

Kenya’s Linda Nchi intervention in Somalia has been riddled with controversy since it was launched on Oct. 16, 2011. The stated aim of Kenya’s entry into this war-ravaged Horn of Africa country was the pursuit of Al-Shabaab militants accused of creating insecurity across the border in Kenya.

The radical Islamist group is alleged to be behind the kidnapping of foreign aid workers and tourists and a number of bomb attacks in border areas.

Kenya has reportedly been pushing for the region in southern Somalia known as Azania or Jubaland – where Kismayo is the main city – to be given the status of an autonomous state, to serve as a buffer zone between Kenya and the chaos in Somalia.

The plan is to install an administration in cooperation with a local clan that inhabits both the northeastern Kenyan border regions and Somalia’s southern provinces, with the exclusion or minor participation of other clans who form the majority of the provinces’ residents.

Hassan Mudei, deputy head of the Al Shahid Centre for Research and Media Studies in Mogadishu, says he believes the Kenyan project could fail if local sensitivities are not taken into consideration.

“It will all depend on how local sensitivities and clan differences among the region’s inhabitants are acknowledged and respected. But if the Kenyan troops are seen as occupying forces, I believe they will never win the confidence of the local people, and the project would be doomed,” Mudei told IPS in Mogadishu.

He said that Kenya and the other powers-that-be in the area should give local residents a free hand to work out a formula for sharing power, instead of letting one clan allied with them to try to dominate Jubaland – a move the Somali analyst contended would backfire.

The Somali government, which has small numbers of troops trained by Kenyan forces in the southern regions along the border, has repeatedly voiced its opposition to the Jubaland project, saying it has a sovereign right to decide on the governance of the resource-rich provinces of the south.

Kenya is currently sponsoring talks in Nairobi with leaders of a pro-Kenyan militia and Jubaland. Kenya says the negotiations are aimed at forming an administration for the region, but the Somali government has been sidelined because of its disapproval of the Kenyan initiative.

“We have repeatedly expressed our displeasure at the Kenyan-led political process for the southern regions of Somalia that is now going on in Nairobi,” Ahmed Jama, a member of Somalia’s parliament, told IPS in Mogadishu.

“Definitely we welcome Kenya’s role in helping the Somali National Army (SNA) liberate the country from militant forces, but for the political issues regarding Kismayo, that is only for the Somali government to deal with – and that is not what we are seeing now,” he said.

But Kenyan Defence Forces (KDF) spokesman Major Emanuel Chirchir dismissed claims that the military are helping to prop up an autonomous statelet in Jubaland as “baseless and unfounded.”

Chirchir told IPS that the KDF’s aim under the African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM) is simply to enhance stability in the region, and that it does not have a political or occupation agenda.

“The allegations are just rumours,” said Chirchir. “Our mandate under AMISOM is clear, and this is bringing about peace and normalcy in Somalia and not to divide the Somali people along clan lines.”

Chirchir added that after the KDF’s mandate is concluded, it will be up to Somalis themselves, with the help of regional bodies, including the African Union and the Inter Governmental Authority on Development (IGAD), to chart the way forward on how to govern themselves.

He added, however, that the KDF would strive to bring stability to the Horn of Africa nation, “whatever means it would take.”

The coastal city of Kismayo has been under the control of various groups since the fall of the late Somali ruler Mohamed Siyad Barre in 1991, as alliances between different clans have changed.

Kismayo, which has been under al Shabaab control for the past five years, has the biggest port and airport of all the southern Somalia provinces. It also has the most livestock and the largest amount of arable land in this country.

“This is in essence a struggle for the resources of the region, and after a single clan failed to establish its authority over others, some have gotten the idea of using foreign countries in alliances to impose themselves over others,” Yasin Elmi, a Somali political scientist, told IPS.

“That is what is happening now with the Kenyan intervention, whether Kenya knows this or not. But that arrangement between a foreign country and a local clan is likely to worsen the situation and prolong the local people’s suffering,” he added.

Mudei agreed, saying any administration formed to run the province – and the city of Kismayo in particular – that does not come out of a local initiative is likely to be rejected by the residents.

“I believe foreign forces cannot rule the city, nor can any administration formed in Kenya, because there are a multitude of Somali clans living alongside each other in the region,” said Mudei. “Therefore it is necessary for the local people to be given a fair say in running the city, and the whole province in general – otherwise it will be seen as foreign-imposed.”

Mudei told IPS that the African Union peacekeeping forces, which Kenya belatedly joined in July, should be confined to establishing security in the region as stipulated in their mandate, and should leave political issues to the new Somali government, which knows the intricacies of local clan politics much better than foreigners.

*Additional reporting by Brian Ngugi in Nairobi.

Almost 400,000 famine victims who fled to the Mogadishu for aid at the height of famine, are still living in one of the many refugee camps outside Mogadishu. Credit: Abdurrahman Warsameh/IPS

By Abdurrahman Warsameh
MOGADISHU, Jul 20 2012 (IPS)

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.

Weak and visibly malnourished, Miriam, like the rest of her family, hardly have enough food to eat.

And like the almost 400,000 famine victims who fled to the city for aid at the height of the crisis, Miriam, her parents and four siblings are still living in one of the many refugee camps outside Mogadishu.

Here they live in squalor in a tiny shelter of only two square metres, in a camp that is run by self-appointed administrators who are often accused by the community of stealing aid.

“We get barely enough to keep alive. Famine may have ended, but for us hunger has not,” Hawa Jama, Miriam’s mother, tells IPS.

Jama says that her family receives only 25 kilogrammes of grain, 25 kgs of flour, and 10 litres of cooking oil for a month. It is hardly sufficient to feed this family of seven. But they are not the only ones hungry here.

As the WFP marks one year after famine was declared in Somalia on Friday, Jul. 20, hundreds of thousands of famine refugees living in camps outside of the capital say they still face hunger and desperation. The famine has claimed tens of thousands of Somalis, was declared in the war-torn nation as a result of a severe drought. The drought had been prevalent in entire Horn of Africa and was described as the worst in 60 years. It was compounded by high food prices and instability in the region.

The WFP said on Jul. 18 that although there is currently no famine in Somalia and malnutrition rates have improved considerably over the last year, the situation remains fragile and progress could be reversed if aid is not sustained.

The U.N. Refugee Agency reported on Jul. 18 that the Somali refugee population has exceeded one million. Kenya’s Dadaab refugee complex alone houses 570,000 people. And 3.8 million people in Somalia remain in crises and are in urgent need of assistance, while an estimated 325,000 children are acutely malnourished.

Dense shelters spanning as far as the eye can see have remained on the outskirts of Mogadishu a year after the crisis began.

But life in the camps is a difficult existence as refugees complain that camp administrators and local officials steal food aid and practice nepotism and favoritism in aid distribution.

“I don’t like to complain, but this is a matter of life and death for us. Those responsible for running our camp are not giving us all the aid and favour others. We tell every foreign official who comes to visit, but nothing is done about our predicament,” Mumino Ali, a mother of seven, tells IPS at Sayidka camp in Mogadishu.

Water and sanitation are also poor at the camps as the number of toilets remains inadequate, and the water trucked in does not meet the international requirement both in quality and quantity, says Mohamed Ali, a local human rights activist.

“I think what we have achieved since the famine was declared back in July last year is that people are not now dying because of hunger. But hunger is still there and there are no systematic programmes to help refugees stand on their feet by creating income schemes and repatriating them back to their communities,” Ali says.

The food situation has worsened as international aid agencies scaled down their humanitarian operations after the U.N. declared the end of the famine in February. In addition, the Somali government’s national Disaster Management Agency, which was formed to deal with the famine, has been called ineffective and corrupt.

“The agency has not been effective in its work and is one of the agencies that failed the people in need. Corruption is widespread among the organs of government and this agency has its share,” a local aid worker, who asked for anonymity, tells IPS.

The official says “layers of corruption” from international agencies, their local partners, government officials, as well as those running the camps continues the cycle of hunger for the displaced refugees.

In order to survive, many of the famine refugees seek out odd jobs. But unemployment is already rife among the general population of Mogadishu where 20 years of war has left the economic infrastructure in tatters. Even children can be seen at the city’s local markets offering their services as shoe shiners, housemaids and even car washers, as they attempt to earn a living to support their families.

Jama’s husband is one of the many who spend their days trying to find odd jobs in the capital city where he knows no-one and where work is hard to come by.

She says that she and her husband, former subsistence farmers from Somalia’s Middle Shabelle region, just north of Mogadishu, would rather that aid agencies helped them find a sustainable way of earning an income than merely giving them aid.

“I don’t want to be dependent on handouts from aid agencies, which are never enough here. But I would be happy if I got help in working to support my family and go back to my village,” Jama says as she carries Miriam on her hip.

The little girl was born a month before her family fled their hometown in August 2011, and Jama is anxious for her to know another, less-harsh way of life.

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.

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

With much of the Somali capital now under the control of government forces backed by African Union troops, most of the city’s residents have returned to their ruined homes after the surprise withdrawal of the extremists in August. Despite security incidents in the city, a semblance of normalcy has returned here.

Residents have now begun the slow process of rebuilding their homes and their lives. While most have been weary of returning to former Al-Shabaab controlled areas, a brave few have dared to return to their ruined neighborhoods intent on a new beginning. There are, however, no official figures of how many people have returned to date.

Many have had to endure years of hardship in squalid conditions in makeshift shelters on the outskirts of the city.

Maryan Guled, a mother of five, has lived with her husband and children in the Elasha camp on the outskirts of Mogadishu since 2008.

The family has now returned to their neighbourhood in Hodan district where they used to live in a villa in the midst of a close-knit community. However, their home was completely gutted during the three- year conflict for control of the city.

Her family had been forced to flee their home after Guled’s sister was killed when a stray bullet entered their home.

“Things began to fall apart when all of a sudden our neighbourhood became the target of blanket bombing and shooting back in 2008. My sister and many of my neighbours, who we were very close to, died in front of my eyes. We had to flee with our lives with nothing else,” said Guled as she swept the yard of her ruined villa.

Guled says the family does not know how they will pay for the repairs.

The Somali Transitional Federal Government, which is bankrolled by the United Nations and donor countries, has been unable to financially assist people rebuild their homes. And aid agencies remain busy helping those displaced by the famine to return to their homes in southern Somalia.

But security challenges persist for the returnees. Hundreds of unexploded bombs, planted by Al- Shabaab to prevent Somali government forces and African Union peacekeepers from taking control of these areas, remain scattered throughout the areas vacated by the Islamist rebels.

Somali government officials have warned returning residents of the presence of the explosives, which have so far claimed the lives of a number of people and injured dozens more.

Returnees to the city have also complained that under-paid Somali government soldiers have been a security threat. They have been accused of murder, rape, looting and robbery.

The government imposed a state of emergency in former Islamist-occupied areas, while the military has court martialed a number of soldiers after they were convicted of rape and looting.

Some were sentenced to death for murdering civilians, while others were given jail sentences for petty crimes. In recent weeks the incidences of crime have decreased.

But schools and markets are slowing reopening in Mogadishu, while the local government is repairing the main street in the heart of the city. Street lighting in some districts has been repaired, streets have been cleaned and garbage collected.

However, most services remain largely non-existent as only private companies supply running water and electricity to residents. Hospitals in Islamist-vacated areas have been destroyed and remain closed.

Dahir Kulmiye and his family of five returned to their partially destroyed home in Hodon soon after the rebels fled the city in August.

He says that water and electricity has been a major problem for the returnees, but local companies are trying their best to kick-start services.

The state utility company was destroyed during the country’s two-decade civil war. So small, local and privately run companies provide services for those who can afford them.

“Lack of a clean water supply is another big problem for us since we returned here a month ago. The power company has restored electricity in many homes and we expect to get it in our home soon,” Kulmiye told IPS.

He added that his children had to attend a school far from their home because the nearby one remained closed, as it required major repairs.

Mohamed Hallane says his family wants to live in their home again. It is situated in Hawlwadag district in the south of Mogadishu, an area that was once an Al-Shabaab stronghold. But Hallane’s home was hit by mortar shells and is in need of major repairs before he can move back.

“I checked on my home. The areas are secure but almost every home in our neighborhood has been hit by shells, and bullets scars are everywhere,” Hallane told IPS.

As returnees work at rebuilding their lives, they have also found time to enjoy life. Residents in the capital have, for the first time, started visiting the city’s beaches to relax as the security in the capital gradually improves. Hundreds of residents flocked to Mogadishu’s Lido Beach over the Christmas weekend.

By Abdurrahman Warsameh
MOGADISHU, Sep 6 2011 (IPS)

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.

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

Since Mohamed Elmi, 69, and his family arrived at a camp for famine refugees in Mogadishu they have barely had enough to eat. Armed gunmen running the camp steal their food and prevent them from leaving to search for aid elsewhere, he says.

Elmi told IPS that this happens because aid agencies deliver food to the people running the camp for distribution and not to the famine victims themselves. And they are prevented from leaving because aid will no longer be delivered to the camps if they do.

“I don’t know who is running this, but we have said time and again that we are never, never given anything by the foremen running (the camp). Let them kill me if they want… We cannot leave here to find a better place,” an emancipated Elmi told IPS. He asked IPS not to publish the name of his camp as he fears for his safety.

Tens of thousands of desperately hungry Somalis displaced from the drought-stricken south are not receiving the food aid meant for them. Gunmen have set up unathourised refugee camps in Mogadishu just to steal the food delivered by humanitarian agencies. It is believed the food is being sold on the local markets.

There are dozens of camps with thousands of families in the bullet-scarred Somali capital of Mogadishu. Not all are official camps. These are often run by men from the local clan militias who divert famine victims entering the city to the ‘camps’ they have set up in deserted buildings in Mogadishu.

This is what happened to Mahad Iyo, 54, who arrived in Mogadishu in search of aid in August.

Iyo said that he and other displaced people walked for days to reach Mogadishu. At the city’s entrances they were greeted by armed gangs and were directed to a disused government building. The building was filled with refugees who had constructed makeshift tents using sticks and old ragged cloth. “They want to use us for their own benefit,” Iyo now says of the men who so eagerly offered him help when he first arrived. “We are not registered for the aid and neither are we given regular help. Food and other essentials are brought to the camp by the agencies but they are quickly taken away by the foremen,” said Iyo.

He said he would prefer to leave the camp and go back to his village in southern Somalia where he would be “better off dead”.

Mohamed Nur, a former clan militia leader, runs one of the many camps in Mogadishu and he agreed to speak to IPS to “set the record straight.”

Nur admitted that he has no experience in relief work and that he was not appointed to run the camp by either government or aid agencies. He said he took on the responsibility himself “after seeing the influx of desperate fellow Somalis.”

“Who will do this work if we don’t stand up to do it? The government is corrupt and the aid agencies don’t know our people better than we do. So we have set up this camp of 20,000 people, but the aid agencies never bring in enough food for the people,” Nur told IPS. He was flanked by Kalashnikov- branding gunmen outside the camp of barely 2,000 people.

Nur said he doesn’t keep a register of camp residents or of the food deliveries as he and his “co- volunteers” have no time for “useless paperwork”. He added that neither government nor the aid agencies require him to fill in any documentation.

Nur denied that he or others steal aid. But many people at Nur’s camp complained to IPS about the lack of assistance and food.

The head of the government’s Disaster Management Agency Abdullahi Mohamed Shirwa, which coordinates aid efforts to assist famine victims in Mogadishu, said the agency was “doing everything to deal with the issue and we are taking it seriously.” He added that there were only isolated incidents of theft of food aid.

“When disasters of this magnitude take place aid efforts are often haphazard and it takes time to deal with such problems, but my agency is working hard to do everything to deal with the issue and we are taking it seriously,” Shirwa told IPS.

IPS has learnt that some famine victims are leaving the government-run Badbaado Camp, which is situated on the outskirts of Mogadishu. Ten people were killed at the camp on Aug. 5 after armed men, allegedly from government’s military forces, tried to loot the aid being distributed to the camp residents. One aid worker told IPS that the population of the camp was now “at half, or less than half” its initial number of 4,000 families.

“People are fleeing because they see that they are never going to get justice, or protection, or help from the government,” the aid worker told IPS.

The government had condemned the killings at Badbaado camp and vowed to charge those involved, however, no one has been arrested as yet.

The United Nations estimates that almost 100,000 people arrived in Mogadishu this year after fleeing the devastating famine currently gripping southern Somalia. About 3.6 million people are in need of assistance in the war-ravaged country. The U.N. announced on Monday that the famine in Somalia has now spread to the Bay region of southern Somalia and 750,000 people face imminent starvation.

Excerpt:

By Abdurrahman Warsameh
MOGADISHU, Aug 16 2011 (IPS)

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.

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

Though many are weary that the peace that prevails loosely over the city may not last for much longer as the group has vowed to return.

The end of fighting in the capital city, half of which was controlled by the Somali government with the aid of African Union peacekeepers, has yet to make a difference to famine relief efforts in the city. The withdrawal came as thousands, driven by drought and famine in southern Somalia, flock to the city in search of food, water, medicines and shelter.

The East African country is in the midst of a drought, which affects almost 11 million people in the Horn of Africa. Somalia is the hardest hit with the United Nations (U.N.) declaring famine in parts of southern Somlia.

However, aid agencies are yet to venture into areas previously under control of the Al-Qaeda linked militant group, and continue to work in the parts of Mogadishu controlled by the Somali government.

Also, government has warned residents to stay away from places that the Islamists fighters vacated as the radical group could have planted bombs there.

But doubts remain if the retreat by the extremist group, which until recently banned international aid agencies from working in areas under its control in south Somalia, will make aid delivery to the needy any easier in the long haul.

“Only time will tell if the group is finished or just badly bruised. But their disappearance could at least help the humanitarian effort to aid the drought and famine victims in the short term,” Mohyadeen Abdi, a political commentator in Mogadishu, told IPS.

“The withdrawal, if genuine, is a welcome move for the efforts to reach the thousands of hungry people who (fled) to Mogadishu. But if fighting and violence continue in another form, that is not going to help the situation,” Ibrahim Yahya, a humanitarian adviser for local non-governmental organisations in Mogadishu, told IPS.

The U.N. estimates that almost 100,000 people who fled the drought and famine in southern Somalia have arrived in Mogadishu over the past two months, with almost 1,000 people arriving daily.

Aid efforts have now picked up in Mogadishu as international humanitarian agencies, and some donors from the Arabian Gulf and Turkey, began airlifting aid into the city. But local aid workers say the supplies are not enough to meet the huge demand in Mogadishu.

“Now that the Islamists are at least out of sight and out of the way, for the most part, why are aid agencies spending a fortune just to bring in a few tonnes of aid by planes when they can (ship in aid)? Only shiploads of aid will meet the huge and ever-growing demand for assistance,” a local aid worker who sought anonymity told IPS.

“Here people are dying and agencies are just trickling aid in by planes when what we need is hundreds of thousands of tonnes to feed the hungry and treat the dying. Believe me, people are still dying in the camps when the aid agencies are just talking and talking,” the local aid worker added. The Islamist group is reportedly preventing people from leaving drought-stricken areas under their control to search for aid in camps in neighbouring Kenya and Ethiopia and even in Mogadishu.

“I don’t have the exact figures but I am aware that the flow of refugees into camps outside Al Shabaab’s territory has now been falling. We know the group has always been opposed to people leaving to seek help from what they see as the ‘enemy’ (western aid agencies),” Yahya said.

Meanwhile, residents in Mogadishu have largely welcomed the departure of the feared radical group. A number of families who fled the city two years ago when the insurgency began went back to visit their former homes.

“The place was very different. Grass and bushes grew all around homes, including ours. Some are now partly or completely destroyed, explosives are everywhere and that poses a danger to our children if we have to return here. I don’t think I will bring my family back here soon,” Jama Hassan, a father of five, told IPS.

His family now lives on the outskirts of Mogadishu along with 1.5 million of the city’s residents who sought refuge from the violence in the capital.

Experts here agree that in the coming weeks Al Shabaab will launch terrorist attacks on the city.

“I think Al Shabaab … will continue carrying out attacks. I am not sure how strong or how deadly they will be, but the group has hard core fighters who may be willing to make the ultimate sacrifice for their wicked cause,” Mohamed Awal, a political analyst in Mogadishu told IPS.

Spokesman for Al Shabaab, Ali Mohamoud Rageh, said in the early hours of Aug. 7 after the group retreated, that the withdrawal was a tactical move and they would return.

“We have not gone. We will be back,” Raageh, told a pro-Islamist radio station.

Somali President Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed, however, was quick to claim that his forces and AU peacekeepers defeated the group in Mogadishu and said they would pursue them in their own territory.

The U.N. envoy to Somalia, Augustine Mahiga, in a statement on Aug. 6 said the group should not be underestimated.

“It is important that we acknowledge that real security risks, including from terrorist attacks, remain and must not be underestimated,” Mahiga said in the statement.

Excerpt:

By Abdurrahman Warsameh
MOGADISHU, Jul 28 2011 (IPS)

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.

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

He died in his mother’s arms as Ali and her eight other children made the 16-day epic journey from their drought-stricken village in Wanlaweyn district, Lower Shabelle, in southern Somalia to Mogadishu.

“I carried him a whole day while he was dead thinking he was alive and just asleep. We did not have anything to give him. No water or food for three days,” an emotional Ali tells IPS at Badbado Camp on the outskirts of the Somali capital.

Ali’s family had 50 head of cattle, 20 goats and five camels before the onset of the current drought in southern Somalia that has raged for two years. Her family was one of the well-off ones in the region, where ownership of numerous livestock, the mainstay of a rural economy, is a sign of wealth.

“It started with (a) shortage of rains for the first three seasons and then no rains followed. Grass dried up, wells and rivers dried up. Our animals began dying one after another as there was no pasture or water for them,” Ali recalls as she carries one of her remaining three young sons who is weak and malnourished.

Camp Badbado, which in Somali means ‘rescue’, is the city’s largest settlement for the drought displaced people from southern Somalia. The U.N. Refugee Agency (UNHCR) says that it is currently home to an estimated 28,000 people, approximately 5,000 families.

Ali’s entire family is not with her, however. Her husband remained behind in their village to look after the family’s remaining belongings. Ali is not aware of her husband’s fate. But she made the arduous journey along with hundreds of other families to escape the severe drought and famine in search of aid.

But aid has come too late for some.

Many children arrive at the camp too weak and malnourished to be saved by doctors. Some children have gone for days without food and water.

Most of the children are too small for their age with a three-year-old having the frame and stature of a one-year-old.

“They come here very weak from hunger and exhaustion. Two or three children and adults die every week in Mogadishu, but we have no exact statistics as camps are located in diverse places in the town,” Muna Igeh, a nurse at Badbado, tells IPS as she weighs one of the dozens of malnourished children at the camp.

Daahir Gabow, a father of seven, had to watch as two of his children succumbed to severe malnourishment just after they arrived in Mogadishu.

He says doctors and nurses at Banadir Hospital, one of Mogadishu’s main health centres, did everything they could to save the life of his second child, a girl, but “fate had its way”.

He says his family had tried to “weather” the drought but could not this time and had to leave their home in search of aid.

“We tried to weather the drought as we did many other times but our livestock could not survive until the rains arrived. Many of our neighbours began leaving after losing all their livestock, so we decided it was time to go,” says Gabow as he prepared for the burial of his daughter who died of malnutrition complications.

“We walked for 21 days. (We) ate (and) drank what we could find and slept where the sun set on us. This is not what I have seen or (what) my father told me happened in his lifetime. (These are) testing times so we have to be patient and strong,” Gabow says.

Elhadji As Sy, the regional director of UNICEF (the U.N. children’s fund) for eastern and southern Africa, called the famine “a child survival crisis”.

Somalia is the country worst affected by a severe drought that has ravaged the Horn of Africa, leaving an estimated 11 million people in dire need of humanitarian assistance. Kenya, Ethiopia and Djibouti are all also facing a crisis that is being called the worst in 60 years. Last week the U.N. declared a famine in parts of southern Somalia.

The agency estimates that in total 2.23 million children in Somalia, Kenya and Ethiopia are acutely malnourished. The U.N. says it has delivered 1,300 metric tonnes of supplies to southern Somalia, including therapeutic supplies to treat over 66,000 malnourished children.

Meanwhile, people are still fleeing their homes in southern Somalia. The U.N. says almost 100,000 displaced people have arrived in Mogadishu, with nearly 40,000 of those in the past month.

“Over the past month, UNHCR figures show that nearly 40,000 Somalis displaced by drought and famine have converged on Mogadishu in search of food, water, shelter and other assistance,” says Vivian Tan, UNHCR spokesperson in a statement on Tuesday.

The U.N. estimates that the number is growing by the day, with daily arrivals averaging 1,000 in July.

Local non-governmental organisations are providing much-needed humanitarian aid but camp residents say the aid is limited and Somali government officials are echoing calls for more assistance.

The U.N. World Food Programme (WFP) on 27 Jul. began its first airlift of food aid to Mogadishu, the first such shipment since the Islamist extremist group, Al Shabaab, banned international aid agencies from operating in regions it controls.

The WFP flew in 14 tonnes of ready-to-use food supplements for malnourished children at the camps in Mogadishu.

Spokesman for the agency, David Orr, told reporters at Mogadishu airport that more aid will be flown in over the coming days.

Excerpt:

By Abdurrahman Warsameh
MOGADISHU, Jul 20 2011 (IPS)

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.

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

As many from the south abandon their homes and make their way to the city’s capital to seek aid in the government-run part of Mogadishu, stories abound of the weak and the infirm dying on the long journey there. There are even stories of children being left behind because they were too weak to move. These were the “sacrifices” many families had to make in order to save their other children.

“Some have told us that some elderly people succumbed and died, while children unable to move, and on the verge of death, were left (behind) to save those who had a chance,” said Mohamed Diriye, a senior official at a local drought support group in Mogadishu.

Diriye added that most of the displaced have safely made it to Mogadishu and to refugee camps in neighboring Kenya and Ethiopia.

This comes as the United Nations declares famine in two regions of south Somalia, southern Bakool and Lower Shabelle. The U.N. estimates that about 2.8 million people are in the south but adds that nearly half the population of Somalia is facing a humanitarian crisis.

Somalia is the epicentre of a prolonged drought that has, for the past year and half, ravaged the Horn of Africa. The drought, which has also affected parts of Djibouti, Ethiopia and Kenya, was described by humanitarian organisations as the worst in six decades. United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, Antonio Guterres, said during a visit to the Dadaab refugee camp near the Kenyan border with Somalia that the drought was the “world’s worst humanitarian crisis”.

Until now, it has been impossible for foreign aid workers to work in south Somalia as the Islamist rebel group, Al-Shabaab, which controls much of the south, banned aid agencies from operating in regions under its control in 2009.

The terror group only recently announced that they would lift the ban in order to allow aid to the drought-stricken communities. However, many of those in the south have already started fleeing the region to neighbouring countries and government-controlled parts of Somalia in search of aid.

The U.N. welcomed the news but said in a statement “the inability of food agencies to work in the region since early 2010 has prevented the U.N. from reaching the very hungry – especially children – and has contributed to the current crisis.”

Somalia does not have an effective central government and has been reeling from two decades of civil conflict. The current Somali government is propped up by almost ten thousand African Union peacekeeping troops, and controls only a little more than half the seaside Somali capital, Mogadishu. The Al-Qaeda- linked Al-Shabaab controls the remainder of the city.

Refugees continue to pour into the government-run part of Mogadishu after having made the perilous journey on foot from the south.

When they reach the city’s bullet-scarred, deserted buildings, not everyone is able to get help.

“My family lost all of our cattle, 50 of them, because of the lack of pasture and water. It did not rain for a year and half so the grass died. Wells, rivers and ponds dried,” Muse Elmi, a father of 10 told IPS in Mogadishu. His family fled from a village in Bakool province, in south Somalia, and had recently arrived at a newly-formed camp for people displaced by the drought.

The Somali government constructed the camp outside the city for those displaced by the drought, which it says is more congenial as assistance can be easily distributed to those in need by aid agencies, which are expected to run the camps.

But there is not enough place in the camps to house all those in search of aid and many of the arrivals have sought shelter in disused and dilapidated buildings in Mogadishu.

“We then had no other option but to walk for 15 days to Mogadishu. We hoped we will get support from the government and aid agencies, but so far we had little help.”

Elmi said since his family arrived in the capital, he was only given food aid once by a local non- governmental organisation, SAACID.

Exact figures of those arriving in Mogadishu from drought-affected south Somalia are hard to come by as government officials and local non-governmental organisations give different estimations. Some say there are 20,000 refugees from the south in Mogadishu, while others put the figure at around 30,000.

“We really cannot give you exact figures of the drought-displaced people who arrived, but they are almost in the thousands and are still pouring into the city in search of food and shelter,” said Diriye.

In stark contrast to the drought in the south, heavy rains have besieged the capital over the last week. For the displaced living in makeshift shelters, it has made life more difficult as many camps were flooded.

“We are crammed here. Me, my wife and our four children live in this small hut. Water seeps in everywhere in the roof and sides,” said Abdi Daahir, a refugee from the drought.

Five people have reportedly died since Jul. 15 as a result of exposure to the elements, while dozens were injured as the cold rains battered the city for a week.

Doctors at Mogadishu’s main hospitals say that they fear waterborne diseases could spread because of the collapsed sewage systems in the city and the huge pools of rain water that have formed near the hastily-formed camps, which lack toilets.

Senior Somali government officials, including President Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed, have appealed for aid from the international community.

The Organisation of Islamic Cooperation was the first international humanitarian agency to distribute limited aid to drought victims in Mogadishu. Local support groups have also managed to galvanise Mogadishu residents to assist those displaced by the drought with food and blankets.

But the aid has not been enough. Some refugees have started begging in the streets of the capital, while others said they were contemplating moving to refugee camps in neighbouring countries where most aid agencies are operating.

International aid agencies, including the U.N. Children’s Fund, the U.N. World Food Programme and Doctors Without Borders, have pledged support to the drought victims.

Following the lifting of the ban on Jul. 6 on aid operations by Al Shabaab, some shipments of aid have already arrived in Islamist-run areas.

Excerpt:

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.

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

The last Ethiopian troops have now left Mogadishu as part of an agreement between Somalia’s government and one major opposition faction, the Alliance for the Re-liberation of Somalia based in Djibouti (ARS-D) which is dominated by the Islamist movement known as the Union of Islamic Courts (UIC).

The movement controlled the southern and central parts of Somalia during the latter half of 2006, where it was credited with establishing a semblance of law and order. People are today nostalgic about the “Six Months of Peace” during which violence all but ceased and life for ordinary Somalis returned to something but normal after 15 years of conflict.

Responding to pressure to follow the UIC’s lead and impose Islamic law, leaders in the autonomous regions of Puntland and Somaliland announced plans to implement shari’a on the one hand, and arresting suspected Islamists on the other.

The UIC’s success was in marked contrast to the difficulties encountered by the internationally-sanctioned Transitional Federal Government of Somalia. The TFG was formed in 2004 as a result of two years of peace talks held in Nairobi and sponsored by the regional body, the Inter-Governmental Authority on Development.

But for the first two years of its existence – during which the TFG was constantly grappling with political infighting and persistent allegations of corruption – it was unable to impose itself on the war-torn country and was confined to the southern town of Baidoa.

The growing strength of an Islamist government was of concern to at least one of Somalia’s neighbours: Ethiopia accused the Islamists of threatening its national security by collaborating with arch-regional rival, Eritrea, and Ethiopian rebel groups to destabilise it.

“We sent our troops to Somalia two years ago because there was a clear and present danger posed against Ethiopia,” Wahde Belay, spokesperson for the Ethiopian Foreign Ministry in Addis Ababa, told IPS, “The Union of Islamic Courts had waged a jihad against us. That is why we decided to bang the UIC”.

Ethiopian troops and tanks rolled over the border with Somalia in late December, 2006 and easily unseated the Islamists in less than two weeks. But the Ethiopian forces spent the next two years fighting a deadly Islamist-nationalist insurgency and have now withdrawn under fire from the same Islamists they came to crush.

“The fact that Ethiopian troops could easily defeat the Islamists did not guarantee lasting victory as the fighters soon regrouped and started fighting back. Now as the Ethiopians are withdrawing from Somalia, most of the south-central regions are again under the control of the Islamists,” Yusuf Maalin, an independent political analyst told IPS.

Evaluating Ethiopia’s presence

During the past two years, nearly 10,000 civilians have lost their lives while the U.N. High Commission for Refugees estimates more than one million people, mainly from Mogadishu, have fled their homes to escape the nearly daily violence between insurgent fighters and Ethiopian troops backing Somali government forces.

A number of local and international human rights organisations have accused the troops of committing atrocities against local civilians and of indiscriminate bombardment of built up residential areas. They have also accused the Islamist insurgents of using civilians as human shields by firing from populated areas.

Abdelfatah Shaweye, deputy major of Mogadishu, says despite criticism of Ethiopia’s presence in the country, the intervention was instrumental in establishing the internationally-recognised government in the capital and most of the country in the first months after the invasion.

“No matter what the human rights groups say about the troops from the friendly country, they have helped us a lot and sacrificed to bring order to our country,” Shaweye told IPS.

However Sheik Abdirahim Isse Adow, a spokesman for the armed wing of the UIC, said Ethiopia had not achieved its main aim of defeating the Islamists who he says are now “as strong as ever” and control the same territory as when the troops invaded Somalia.

“What the (Ethiopian) troops brought about is just more misery for the people of this country and more bloodshed. They failed to impose themselves on us or hold on to our country.” Adow told IPS.

Ethiopia has now fully withdrawn its troops from Somalia, saying the threat posed to it by the Islamists has cleared.

“If Ethiopia believes there is a clear and present danger, there is no reason why we shouldn’t take an identical measure in the future,” Wahde Belay said.

However Maalin said Ethiopia would have to think hard before re-entering Somalia as “the adventurism and opportunism” of the first invasion cost Ethiopia dear in terms of lives and the standing of its human right record.

“The Islamists have hurt Ethiopia more badly than they have been hurt, since as even the most casual observer can ascertain, Ethiopia is leaving the Islamists in a much stronger position than before the invasion two years ago. And what has transpired during its presence has eroded much more from Ethiopia than it gained,” Maalin said.

What next?

UIC and a splinter group, the hardline faction known as al-Shabaab – listed as a terrorist organisation with links to Al-Qaida by the U.S. State Department – are again running much of the south-central Somalia while the transitional Somali government is in control of small pockets in the capital Mogadishu where nearly 3,400 African Union peacekeepers are protecting government installations including the presidential palace, airport, and seaport.

The peacekeepers are part of an 8000-strong peacekeeping force authorised by the U.N. Security Council early in 2007 to replace Ethiopian forces. But only Uganda and Burundi have sent troops as promised; other African countries which pledged to contribute forces have cited security and logistical reasons for not deploying soldiers.

Elements of the UIC signed a peace and power-sharing deal with the TFG in October 2008. Sheik Sharif Ahmed, leader of the Alliance for the Re-liberation of Somalia’s Djibouti faction (ARS-D) and head of the UIC’s government during 2006, was elected president of the TFG on Jan. 31. He is now more conciliatory towards Ethiopia, but faces strong opposition from rival factions of the ARS and from al-Shabaab, which continues to strongly oppose any foreign presence in Somalia.

Ethiopia has not left its “enemy” to enjoy its newly regained power in Somalia without numerous killjoys. A new and well-armed faction, Ahlu Sunnah, appeared out of nowhere to confront al-Shabaab in the days leading to the announcement by Ethiopia of its decision to pull its troops from Somalia.

Al-Shabaab claims that the new faction has been created, armed and supported Ethiopia to fight a proxy war against the Islamist forces. In a Jan. 26 press conference, Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi said that Ethiopia is not “disappointed” or “unhappy” that al-Shabaab is now facing armed opposition from within Somalia.

“I cannot tell you that we are unhappy that they chose to fight back. I cannot tell you that we would not be supportive of any such endeavours on their part,” Zenawi told reporters.

Despite now heading an internationally-sanctioned government of Somalia, Sharif will likely find running the country much harder than the first time around.

(Michael Chebud in Addis Ababa contributed to this report.)