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9,000 displaced in Somalia violence

At least 9,200 people have been displaced in a fierce battle raging between the coalition forces and the insurgents near the Somali capital, the UN refugee agency said here Saturday.

The fighting erupted in Afgooye, a stronghold of the Al-Shabaab insurgent group, some 30 km from Mogadishu. People have fled to Mogadishu, Lower Shabelle and Lower Juba regions to avoid the fighting, the UNHCR said.

Africa Union peacekeeping mission in Somalia said that its forces and the Somali Army have secured all major roads leading in and out of Afgooye town, Xinhua reported.

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“There is a high probability of drought returning to the Greater Horn of Africa…Poor rains are a definite in all of Somalia, Djibouti, northern Kenya, southern, eastern and northeastern Ethiopia.”

Drought is likely to return to Somalia and other parts of the Horn of Africa over the next three months, say regional climate scientists meeting in the Rwandan capital, Kigali. The forecast comes just weeks after the UN declared the Somali “famine” over. (source)

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Breaking: Somalia al-Shabab militant base of Baidoa captured

Ethiopian and Somali troops have taken a strategic stronghold of Islamist militants in south-west Somalia.

Eyewitnesses told the BBC that about 50 vehicles, including some 20 tanks, had entered Baidoa city.

The BBC’s Mohamed Dhore in the capital, Mogadishu, says Baidoa was the most important al-Shabab base after the southern city of Kismayo.

Al-Shabab, which has recently joined al-Qaeda, confirmed that it had withdrawn its forces.

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“Sheikh Abu Mus’ab, HSM Military Spokesman, has declared a planned withdrawal from the city and Mujahideen are now surrounding the city”- @HSMPress  Somali opposition force Al-Shabab, tweet their withdrawal from the strategic border town of Beledweyne. Ethiopian forces have captured the central Somali town after fierce fighting broke out overnight killing more than 20 people.  Meanwhile Somalia’s prime minister, Abdiweli Mohamed Ali, called for more support from neighbouring countries, including Ethiopia, considered a traditional enemy by most. “We are officially requesting for momentous support from neighbouring countries such as Ethiopia and the international community at large to assist the Somali people and its government with this historic operation”, he sad.   Looks like the new year has more fighting installed for this already troubled country. 

“Sheikh Abu Mus’ab, HSM Military Spokesman, has declared a planned withdrawal from the city and Mujahideen are now surrounding the city”- @HSMPress 

Somali opposition force Al-Shabab, tweet their withdrawal from the strategic border town of Beledweyne. Ethiopian forces have captured the central Somali town after fierce fighting broke out overnight killing more than 20 people. 

Meanwhile Somalia’s prime minister, Abdiweli Mohamed Ali, called for more support from neighbouring countries, including Ethiopia, considered a traditional enemy by most.

“We are officially requesting for momentous support from neighbouring countries such as Ethiopia and the international community at large to assist the Somali people and its government with this historic operation”, he sad.  

Looks like the new year has more fighting installed for this already troubled country. 

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MSF Shocked And Deeply Saddened By The Killing Of Two Staff Members In Mogadishu, Somalia

doctorswithoutborders:

It is with great sadness that the international medical humanitarian organization Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) confirms that two of its staff members were killed Thursday morning as a result of a shooting at the MSF compound in Mogadishu, Somalia.

While one of the aid workers died during the shooting, the other was transferred to a hospital and died following surgery Thursday evening. The victims are Belgian and Indonesian nationals.

The exact circumstances of the shooting are not yet clear. MSF’s immediate priority is to take care of those most affected by this tragedy, in particular the families and colleagues of the victims.

MSF will be relocating some staff from Somalia for security reasons but remains committed to continuing its humanitarian work in Mogadishu and elsewhere in Somalia.

I was on the phone with colleagues in Mogadishu, Somalia yesterday and they were on high alert upon hearing news of fellow humanitarians being shot at. Such a sad incident. MSF is surely one of the most bold international NGOs operating in Somalia.

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Somalia: A Look Back Ibn Battuta is one of history’s great explorers. He set out from his native Tangier in 1325, when he was just 21. By the time he returned home for good almost 30 years later, he had covered some 120,000 km and nearly every part of the Islamic world. What makes me so astonished is to read about this great scholars account of his visit to the Somali coastal capital Mogadishu in 1331. He paints a picture of an exotic, vibrant and rich nation which played a vital role in world trade.  Mogadishu is a very large town. The people are merchants and very rich. They own large herds of camels…and also sheep. Here they manufacture the textiles called after the name of the town; these are of superior quality and are exported to Egypt and other places. Just makes me wonder what happened to this Somalia? (Graphics|Text)

Somalia: A Look Back

Ibn Battuta is one of history’s great explorers. He set out from his native Tangier in 1325, when he was just 21. By the time he returned home for good almost 30 years later, he had covered some 120,000 km and nearly every part of the Islamic world.

What makes me so astonished is to read about this great scholars account of his visit to the Somali coastal capital Mogadishu in 1331. He paints a picture of an exotic, vibrant and rich nation which played a vital role in world trade. 

Mogadishu is a very large town. The people are merchants and very rich. They own large herds of camels…and also sheep. Here they manufacture the textiles called after the name of the town; these are of superior quality and are exported to Egypt and other places.

Just makes me wonder what happened to this Somalia? (Graphics|Text)

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ajfaultlines: new-aesthetic: “An aid worker using an iPad captures an image of a dead cow’s decomposing carcass in Wajir near the Kenya-Somalia border on July 23.” The 45 Most Powerful Images Of 2011 Our new Fault Lines episode on drought in Kenya airs this Monday, 5 December at 2230 GMT. Last week’s episode on famine in Somalia is up on the Al Jazeera YouTube channel here. (Photos from that episode here.) 

ajfaultlines:

new-aesthetic:

“An aid worker using an iPad captures an image of a dead cow’s decomposing carcass in Wajir near the Kenya-Somalia border on July 23.”

The 45 Most Powerful Images Of 2011

Our new Fault Lines episode on drought in Kenya airs this Monday, 5 December at 2230 GMT. Last week’s episode on famine in Somalia is up on the Al Jazeera YouTube channel here. (Photos from that episode here.) 

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“I can confirm five dead and 45 wounded. In our hospital in Marare, we received 31 children, nine women and five men. All of them of with shrapnel injuries.”

A Kenyan air strike in Somalia has killed five people and wounded 45, mostly women and children, in a camp for people displaced by drought and violence, says Gautam Chatterjee of Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) . (source)

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“We can confirm that more than 150 Burundian soldiers were killed in the battle. We can confirm to you that 76 of the bodies are currently in our custody and the battle lasted for about six hours.”

Somalia’s al-Shabab fighters have put on display the dead bodies of more than 70 African Union peacekeepers they say they killed in the country’s capital, Mogadishu.

The troops, reportedly Burundian soldiers, were killed on Thursday following a battle with al-Shabab, according to Abu Omar, a commander of the anti-government Islamist group. (Read|Photo)

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27 Somalis killed in US drone strike

A US drone attack has claimed the lives of 27 civilians, including children, in the famine-stricken Somalia, Press TV reports.

Dozens of civilians were also injured after an American strike on the port town of Kismayo, about 500 kilometers south of the Somali capital Mogadishu on Monday, witnesses told Press TV. 

A similar airstrike killed over a dozen people in another southern region on Saturday. 

The US military uses remotely controlled drones in Somalia to conduct reconnaissance missions and carry out bombing runs. 

The air raids come at a time that the African country is grappling with drought and famine. 

Starvation and disease have killed tens of thousands of Somali children over the past few months. 

The US military has also used drones in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Libya, Iraq and Yemen. 

Somalia has not had a functioning government since 1991, when warlords overthrew former dictator Mohamed Siad Barre. 

Strategically located in the Horn of Africa, Somalia remains one of the countries generating the highest number of refugees and internally displaced persons in the world. 

At this rate, the US seams to be competing with the famine to see who can kill more. It’s a shame to see such activity in the midst of the worst drought in 60years. The cost of these drone attacks could easily save lives if used for humanitarian purposes. Killing innocent people has become acceptable; sadly.

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