Perfect and concise description.

The posting makes it look like a big delegation. Isn't he one pwrson that is representing Somaliland to AU and Ethiopia? The representative of Somaliland has rights and status of Consul as Ethioipian, Kenya, Djibouti have representatives in Somaliland with rights and status of Consul. I do not remember where and when, but this is not first time Somaliland reps sit in opening sessions. There is literally a hundred organizations, countries, institutions that have observer status.

The suspicion and rumour that the Saudis are Jewish is getting traction now, since Saud was selected by the British from 5 other and mainly 3 competing clans and tribes. Amazingly the Soviets (during Stalin) had selected and worked with Saud before the British. The British selected him only to take him away from Soviets, but got stuck with him until their empire collapsed and the next empire America continued. There is one thing in common to all these empires. Heavy Jewish influence.

Absolutely. Turkey has not only right, but obligation to protect the country from future Israel and American plans. The Turks took wrong turn with Erdogan. He was so much in favour of making peace, some turks even suspected might have Kurdish roots. If you disappoint a friend, you get worst enemy, worst than the one who was your enemy from beginning. Now the Kurds also disappointed Vladmir Putin by refusing to hand to Assad territory they control.

galbeedi, If you are saying this for simply "blame Russia" style, maybe, but as things stand now if it doesn't involve Somali state will not involve Ethiopia. If you think president Formaajo will have problem from Ethiopia or he is fighting Ethopia think again. He has no benefit or interest in that policy, unless sometimes for public consumption for the gullible. You will see after he puts few things in order will be again Sudan, Ethiopia and Somalia straight line. If he drives Illey mad then yes Ethiopia will be there. This is not like Melles times where there were 4 cabinet ministers and few generals that spoke Somali. The last thing in the world president Formaajo needs is unhappy Illey or Ghele. Somaliland and Puntland issues are a no go for Ethiopia. Ethiopia has every clan and sub clan of Somali more than Somalia itself.

More than the precious metals and some rare earth, the Afar region has Potash. Djibouti has built a separate full port only for Potash export from Ethiopia. Tigray has gold as well which has started production. Oil as well in the north and in Gambella in west, but Meles had a principle: "Oil business is most dangerous, you give contract to French, American companies fund a tribe to start war, you give contract to American, British company starts some problem, give it to chinese all western countries will start trouble. Until and unless we can do the extraction and delivery our selves or more than 80% of it, let that all oil stay on the ground. We will buy and use like everyone else".

Holac, On the positive side: 1. For sure he had some money before becoming minister. There is no poor average that becomes minister anywhere in the world. You need to have fairly good job or money to even attend meetings let alone to be connected and famiiliar enough to be minister. 2. He could have saved since most expenses of ministers are paid/reimbursed 3. Someone who has been minister can easily get loans Negative side: Sorry I do not know enough to answer the question, but guess which is never good against character of individual.

The Kurds thought the stars are aligned in their favour. Israel needs them terribly and since Israel influences US, America will need them too. The Kurds IMHO missed two countries. Turkey and Iran have been great empires in the past and are still powerful countries. Russia asked the Kurds openly to join Assad, then Russia can protect them as it protects Assad, they refused trusting that America/Israel will overthrow Assad. Opportunities for nations are same like opportunities for individuals. One wrong step one wrong word and nations have perished just like individuals. IRAQ is gone to Shiia world, even the Americans have given up. The Kurds in IRAQ are now begging the government for negotiations. What a sad story of these people, and never seem to learn that far away empires come and go, but your neighbor is gift of nature, will always stay. Turkey made mistake going with Saudi to overthrow Assad, but this time they are forced to fight Kurds. Hopefully the operation will be short and less civilians suffer. Its a lesson to all of us on how we deal with brother, neighbour who is gift of nature and never give priority to far foreign against your brother or neighbour. It would be sad if any Somali has to fight against each other for example for the Qatar UAE shenanigan that can end in 30 minutes, but leave you with decades of problems for us poor.

https://www.almasdarnews.com/article/gulf-crisis-turns-qatar-regions-israel/ Mr. Dershowitz argued that Qatar like Israel was “surrounded by enemies, subject to boycotts and unrealistic demands, and struggling for its survival.”

Hopefully this Saudi thing is resolved or the Saudis go down in Yemen and release Shiek Mohamed Al Amoudi. He would invest in these mines and see them through to production.

What a surprise. First good thing they are staying put at home and secondly getting busy and productive. Not something politicians do even in America. Once a politician they get stuck in it and circle around it.

Is the system going to be mix of public and prive, or private only. When American companies told Meles to privatize the mobile phone business, here is what he said: "This is money printing business only second to the national bank, and we are too poor to do that" Ethiopia had less than Somalia at that time, where as now there is more than 50 million in the country. The problem with private is they do not deal with far away small villages. But if the SFG gathers enough competitors (who operate same region especially, close them in a room and tell them to come up with regulations, they might come up with best regulations. Most FCC articles developed this way. All in all its a great sign and development for the country, when ministers are talking of normal government business and public protection. Excellent news.

Egypt gets what is deserved, feel sad for the poor Egyptian people caught in this scandal. Palestinians should fight Arabs, otherwise die a slow death. Take over Sinai and establish base. Israel took Gaza from Egypt and palestinians in Gaza are supposed to be citizens of Egypt.

Daesh efforts to gain a foothold in the Gaza Strip raise the prospect of small Daesh cells targeting the Hamas-ruled enclave with bombings and assassinations, according to a report by the private intelligence firm Soufan Group on Wednesday. “[Daesh] proximity to Gaza all but ensures the terrorist group will continue its struggle to gain power among the Palestinians; building small cells, conducting attacks and assassinations, gaining control of small areas and consolidating when possible,” the report added. Daesh effectively declared war on Hamas with the January 3 release of a video showing the execution of a man accused of being a Hamas collaborator, the report said. Daesh is attempting to feed off of the suffering and anger among many Palestinians by portraying the movement as a puppet of the United States and Israel, with Hamas talking just enough peace to mollify its critics in the West, and just enough violence to mollify internal supporters, according to the report. Sinai’s indigenous militants pledged their allegiance to Daesh back in 2014. The Wilayat Sinai, the Daesh branch in Sinai, has claimed responsibility for a number of deadly attacks in the area. Source: Sputnik

Isayas has waged war against every bordering country even across the sea, except Saudi Arabia. All under Egyptian and Arab pressure even if it looks contradicting. There definitely is something wrong. The last country on earth the Eritreans should be enemy is Sudan. Yet the Arab pressure is so strong and Isayas seems very weak to resist it. Any people who are capable of treachery against those who sacrificed so much to help them or save them, are most untrustworthy.

I don't think this is real. They for sure have exchanged views through Ghele, but not direct me thinks.

Regardless of who I am, my belief as person is: Time and the world is not waiting for anyone of us, to settle some village and redistricting problems. In my understanding the best opportunity to reestablish Somali was the TFG led by late Abdullahi Yusuf. He cared of the Somali wherever he is and felt embarrassed that that even Djibouti, Ethiopia and Kenya survived the 90s, but Somalia didn't. The problems were the same for all these countries, life threatening. Once he sat and discussed with his fellow Somalis in Ethiopia, he was willing to go 180 degree and accept their wish to give it a try in Ethiopia. It takes a lot to accept something you personally fought against. Just from a human stand point, one should be able to say, great to any Somali succeeding anywhere, wether its a district, a region or an individual being an American congress a Canadian minister, president of Djibouti..etc. I know you think that regional power is dangerous for the Republic as one can see in Ethiopia, but how about further fracturing and worst of all wars to centralize that region or district? The Scottish referendum, the Catalan and Belgium not abale to form government for couple of years are all lessons to show local local power over local issues will always be key for peace.

Is there something from past history here? There were independent sultanates all over this part of Somalia, some were the same as the kingdoms in Europe with professional state institutions of tax, administration and defense. Then the Europeans came and one by one either enticed them or defeated them in an all out war. And now due to weakness of central government people are reverting to regional, district etc they lost.

I blame the regional government, because its the responsibility of regional governments to keep peace law and order in their region. A lot of issues are local. actually most issues are always local. What is asked in Weldya may have nothing to do with people in south west east or north of them.

Here we go another town which will have same fate as Gonder. Except this is south east in Amhara and Gonder was North. Weldiya is birth place of Shiek Mohamed Al Amoudi and he has built a sports complex and a factory for the town. Anyone who tries to use a religious gathering for political objective, especially when the town is multi ethnic and multi faith is recipe for failure. That is what happened in Gonder and this town will not be any different. The thing some of these desperate Amhara politicians forget is that, even if they win lets say by some freak accident of history, they cannot govern these places. The Moslem population is big, the Agew, Oromo, Tigray population is big. The Agew and Oromo were so oppressed had even almost lost their language. I guess Amhara polticians think is do or die and are jumping to any place that has local issues trying to make them national. RIP the dead and Quick recovery for the wounded. The Amhara regional government needs to resolve quickly local issues, before the thing will explode and then becomes federal.

https://www.politico.eu/blogs/the-coming-wars/2018/01/the-most-valuable-military-real-estate-in-the-world/

If its the removal of the IDPs that did it, looks good on the SFG. A federal minister had stated that it is under investigation. Looks like was simple removal/kicking out. No alternate place provided, no consideration given to sanitaion facilities, school etc.

Me thinks America is in cahoots with Turkey. That part Afrin was with Russia. America wants Afrin to come to it, and Turkey wants to empower the FSA which is Turkish supported and with Turkmen can have bigger role. Syria prefers the Kurds to the Turkmen and Arabs. The Kurds are in a bad spot always used and thrown by empires.

Tillamook, Thank you for considering me so highly. I have one principle. I don't like people, group, party that attack others for no benefit to themselves. I do not like when the Oromo authorities and the opposition in cynch attack Illey or poor Somalis for no benefit to the Oromo, nothing, political, economic or military no benefit what so ever to themselves. I don't like when Eritrea is in the service of Egypt for no benefit to themselves at all. I am not accusing them for morality or character if you notice. They have proven too lowly for that. I am only blaming them for serving Iran/Houthi against late Abdalla Saleh simply because he stood with Ethiopia and late Abdullahi Yusuf. If I was to accuse them of morality and character I would accuse them the pain and suffering they brought at the Sudanese people after hosting them up to half a million of them, during their fight against Ethiopia. The Ethiopians who were hosted by Sudan during their fight against Mengistu refused to join IC to stand with Sudan. That is really high moral and character. I also don't blame the Eritreans for selling themselves to Saudi UAE against the people of Yemen, but atleast in this case they get paid/bought, and sending soldiers to the "Alliance" is an extension of that. I am convinced this is valid criterion. It is also humaine and practical. I blame Eritrea of what they did against Djibouti, where they could have competed peacefully business wise. Assab is not far from Bab El Mendeb and could have been useful commercially. Qatar was their best friend and saved them from an Ethiopian attack on behalf and through Djibouti by deploying peace keepers, not UN but paying herself. Now look what Eritrea has done. As far as America is concerned Eritrea is safest, since they have someone's base. Its the new turkish future base near this base that angered everyone. I do not have membership in any organization than a party where I live in the west.

Whatever Farmaajo tries to do in north, will never be a panacea for Mogadishu or south. There is a saying that goes like, Dropping what you have under your arm pit, attempting to bring down the one on top of the cupboard.