Turkey ‘concerned’ by UAE's military build-up on Yemen’s Socotra Fri May 11, 2018 03:39PM A view shows Hadibu city on the capital island of Socotra, Yemen, November 21, 2013. (Photo by Reuters) Turkey has voiced concern over the recent developments in Yemen’s Socotra after the United Arab Emirates (UAE) deployed forces to the island, saying they pose a threat to the country’s sovereignty. Earlier this month, the UAE deployed some 300 soldiers, along with tanks and artillery, to Socotra amid widening divisions with the Riyadh-sponsored forces loyal to the former Yemeni president, Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi. "We are closely following the recent developments in Yemen's Socotra Island," the Turkish Foreign Ministry said in a statement on Friday, without explicitly referring to the UAE. "We are concerned about these developments that pose a new threat to the territorial integrity and sovereignty of Yemen," the ministry added. Saudi Arabia and the UAE are key members of a coalition that has been waging a deadly war on Yemen since March 2015 in support of Hadi and against the Houthi Ansarullah movement. The war has killed and injured over 600,000 civilians, according to the Yemeni Ministry of Human Rights. The Saudi-led aggression triggered what the United Nations has called the world's worst humanitarian crisis. "We think that Yemen... cannot afford new problems and disputes," said the Turkish ministry. It also urged "all relevant actors" to "avoid steps that would further complicate the solution" of the crisis. The UAE deployment came amid widening divisions between forces loyal to the UAE and those supporting the former Yemeni president. Both camps are based in southern Yemen and mostly in Aden as the capital Sana’a still remains under the control of the Houthi Ansarullah movement. Hadi's loyalists have accused the UAE of abandoning an initial cause of fighting the Houthis, saying Emirati forces are instead providing support to those seeking a separation of Yemen's southern territories from the north of the country. Reports have suggested that the UAE has been actively cementing its presence in Socotra since the very beginning of the Saudi-led campaign against Yemen in March 2015. Socotra, located near Somalia in the Gulf of Aden, is protected by the United Nations cultural agency UNESCO as a world heritage site, meaning that even the Yemeni government is not allowed to interfere in the natural habitats and places of natural beauty in the area. Some say the UAE is seeking to illegally exploit the natural resources of the island and turn the place into a tourism hub. The last week deployment sparked angry reactions among residents of Socotra as reports suggested that people had taken to the streets to protest the increasing presence of the UAE forces.

Militarily WSLF1 was very significant. The way EPRDF captured the country and final days of Mengistu Regime are very telling. For one EPRDF came to Addis Ababa not mainly from the North, but from East. Harer and areas were captured before Addis Ababa. Somalis the Derg had in prison A. Yusuf one of the prominent ones were freed. Somali Democratic League one of the parties that went on to form ESPDP contributed significantly in organizing administrations where Derg regime had collapsed, doing underground work where Derg regime was still present, being link to fighter forces in the area and the people. WSLF1 also prevented anrchy from those Somalis who wanted the region to split and each clan or side join what was happening in Somalia. This may have saved the kililka people from having a civil war reflection of what was happening in Somalia. Remember kililka is a small reflection of the Somali people. One clan maybe big in kililka and fairly small in Somalia or vice versa, but all Somalis are represented and physically present in kililka.

What split WSLF? What split SALF (Somali Abo liberation Front)? Why UWSLF (United Western Somali liberation Front:WSLF1) was significant? It is not an exaggeration to say that All Somalis have the wish will and ambition to have a country a joined territory. The question comes how to do it. Bottom up or Top Down that is the essence of the split among Somalis everywhere. TOP DOWN people: They believe Mogadishu is centre and from there we can weaken Ethiopia, Kenya, Djibouti and now Somaliland and gather the flock under one flag, one country, one language, and one faith (politicians do not say this loudly). There are many groups, but ONLF is most visible of this people. BOTTOM UP people: They believe there should be many centers for now, they each succeed in their centers and influence countries like Ethiopia, Kenya, Djibouti where the Somali people play the important role and unite these countries through economy where the Somali would be the most important link. To this end even the Somali refugees in the west or east need to be successful so can lobby for the people in the Horn on the ground. Here the advantage is the TOP DOWN people can support the BOTTOM UP people by virtue of life has to go on. Otherwise the TOP DOWN people are sometimes very destructive, and since have failed in one attempt, due to the Somali culture are hard to convince, will not admit that their method is not adding to the success of the Somali people.

WSLF is the core of ESPDP the governing party of kililka. It united with 4 other Somali parties in ililka and formed ESPDP. WSLF split first in two. One side who set program of fighting for the self determination of Somali people in Ethiopia, the core and base of the Somali people in Ethiopia is not in Mogadishu, but in Jigjiga. The other side wanted to continue the old plan from Mogadishu with guerrila fighters from the region and other regions of Somalia. Basically minus regular army of Somalia. lets call them WSLF1 and WSLF2. WSLF1 had contacts and fighters from all clans and parts of the region and even in leadership positions was more representative of the people in general. It also had contacts with organizations no matter how small in the region. WSLF2 was too tied to Mogadishu and since there was already problems in Mogadishu it became part of the problems and alignment of forces in Mogadishu. WSLF1 had a conference in 1984 in which Ethiopian rebel organizatins were invited: TPLF - Weyannie of Tigray province- still same name same general region ATPLF- Weyannie of Afar-Tigray - joined with Sultan Ali Mirah led organization and is now APDO governing party Afar regional state EPDM- which later became ANDM governing party of Amhara regional state (EPDM just like WSLF1 was split from EPRP) WSLF1 at conclusion passed one very important resolution that shaped today's Ethiopia. 1. The Somali people can only be part of an Ethiopia that is federal 2. The Somali people can only be part of an Ethiopia that allows and respects full and complete autonomy of the Somali people 3. The Somali people can only be part of an Ethiopia that guarantees right of self determination up to and including the right of secession This created immediate response from all corners in Ethiopia and Somalia: In Somalia the government arrested activists and suspected leaders thought to be WSLF1 In the Somali region the effect was: Unity of those: who wanted independent region to be a country of its own, who thought have more advantage in joining Djibouti after secession, who wanted to stay in Ethiopia and with self administration autonomy. Even some who later went to form ONLF had accepted this as steping stone better than directly working from Mogadishu. Every rebel organization accepted and incorporated the proposal and the rest is history for Ethiopia. Even the Derg regime in Ehiopia attempted regional and autonomous administrations, but was too little too late and not the way people wanted. As military threat was probably 4th or 5th to the Derg regime after TPLF, ATPLF, EPDM and OLF. What weakened WSLF1 military was Mogadishu is aginst it, Derg of course is agianst it and Djibouti can only support hidden absolutely secretly. On its side were to be all rebellions and coup plots in Somalia except later USC that had closest contacts with Derg Regime, therefore can only be secretive. There still is part of the region folks who single mindedly think the region should join Somalia, but is now very small and getting smaller and weaker, some even joining the autonomous government.

Qatar Saudi split, killing of lebanese soldiers by ISIS at border with syria, Turkey not so against HizbAllah, Christians mostly pro HizbAllah, less money from Saudi Arabia, all contributed to weakening of Sunni. Will never recover. Christians and Shia are only going to be closer and as Israel threatens even closer. From here on Sunni will always be divided to ally with them other. Only Turkey can make a difference, but at the moment Turkey prefers the Christians and Shiia who have strength that Turkey is in need.

Skirmishes like this happen under any kind of government, in any province or country all over the world. Be it latin America, Euro asia, Asia, Africa and even in Europe. Villages going at each other. The initial thing can be over water well, river, forest..then becomes revenge killings then off proportion. Salaax, You seem to be bragging of the colonel, but if he did what you posted, he did wrong. All he could have said and done was "I have too many local boys in my unit who can get involved, I am staying in camp/baracks, bring other units" These people have to live in that land tomorrow, not by choice but by neighbor and brother which is gift of nature not your making. Stocking fire, bragging, may be easy on keyboard, but consequences are always bad. Do you know this colonel no matter how good in other ways, cannot be commander of boys from other communities, cannot be defence minister, cannot be a front commander..career closed is done. I am not exagerating. If an officer in kililka did what you described, he would rot in jail. You wear the uniform to serve and protect the people and constitution of kililka, and that includes even against your own village if need be and there is no other way to handle the situation. Any other attitude is anarchy and anarchy has never built society or nations anywhere.

He got it from our very own SOLer galbeedi. Trump will squeeze every penny these arabs have, he will not fight with Iran before the money is finished. That was the what galbeedi posted here. The Egyptians are already committing themselves to send their army to do what America is doing in Syria. So humiliating of a job. No shame with these Egyptians. I like one of their security chiefs in contradicting Mr. Sissi and Shoukry. The security official said a mission that does not make sense. Arabs..get your slippers, sandals ready and those who have money get your wallets out.

Do you know that Kenya does not have Shipping lines. With all that Indian ocean and many countries relying on its access to sea. Ethiopia has one of the largest shipping lines in Africa, yet no ports. Djibouti incorporated one last year and bought some shares in Ethiopian shipping lines that has more than three dozen ships.

Ghelleh has an excellent spy network. Keya has acquired land in Lamu and is gifting it to Ethiopia. The SNNP in Ethiopia is looking for highways from port that are not passing through Oromo, since the rebellion of last few years. China is reducing its exposure to RedSea. Therefore Ghelleh wants to have a hand in everything that looks to have future.

How sure are you that Gedo can form fair and equitable government to all its inhabitants? People are I think looking at this from Kismayo Gedo comparison and competition. As soon as you have Gedo as maamul then it becomes a body with its own next level conflict and then soon the talk of having autonomous maamul there. In my opinion the Federal constitution need to be ratified ASAP. what ever is agreed at this time. Then at least you have uniform relation well defined between SFG and States. Big state or small state. As for Federalism it was expected to work in Somalia much easier than in India, Canada or Ethiopia. The Federal system in Somalia is not ratified. In practicality its still draft and even the draft there are fundamental structural issues that have not been turned to constitution. Unitary system, I think now is too late. The best thing is hurry up and ratify the constitution. A lot of groups and regions want to get stronger before Federal system is ratified and implemented, so they can influence some articles to their advantage. Federalism is messy and duplication and expensive, but the alternative is even more expensive and deadly.

Ghelleh is on fire. He wants to be king of livestock business. He has one specialized and customized port for livestock and meat export, he wants to fill it to capacity. He wants geothermal power development. He can even sell power to Yemen, while he uses Ethiopian electricity for himself.

maakhiri, That is everybody's concern especially the character of not being easily victimized, not being easily enslaved, the free and brave culture and character, but what is the solution. The amount of conflict among nomads is terrible and complete waste of life and then time and resource to reconcile and make some solutions. No land that can recover some years, to be protected and then next years protect another area. Simple example, in the old days even when nomads were less you needed to strictly single file camels when traveling. Now a lot of nomads don't care and are travelling and driving camels in 3-4 columns. Rest assured grass will not grow it will become road. Some nomads do not move animals until the treee leaves are just wiped clean and left dead wood treses hard to recover even with good rain..etc. There is no alternative now to settling a big portion of nomads, in some areas even forcing them, but you need to make lakes close by to new villages.

Quite the contrary it strengtheened the country and leadership. Most people around the world do not believe the explanations of Dutch in Europe and US/Australia in Asia. Malaysia also refused to close both cases. Maumar Gaddafi had learned and copied a lot of structures and methods of finance from this man. Gaddafi is gone, but this man comes back to life. Needs triple security. An old man is easy to do away with.

Its very interesting in deed. Even the Eritreans once sent a team (Battalion) I guess they had relationship with some Amercan/european company. Ruanda, Uganda are always finding some new name organizations to control piece of that country.

When the owners cannot match the risk its a curse. A lot of wars done just for Lica for cell phones, some of the groups that were fighting did not even know. Some times its better not to allow survey companies, even for oil unless you know how you are going to handle it if the find is positive. The Belgian king accumulated all that wealth he knew was there, and now he does not want to risk against other wealthy men of europe. It is a curse in this or similar cases. You can see Swiss have no port and sea related problem but the Somali, Yemeni, Egyptians..have been paying a high price for centuries.

What is the policy for NGOs and charities in Somaliland? In Ethiopia was open and free for all, but immediately it was observed that almost all the charities became political. Even Soros foundation had a few that were almost 90% of their activities political. The solution was to regulate them. Their income cannot be over a certain percentage from foreign sources. The Wahabi of course are famous on this. They will build mosques and madrassas, but did not contribute a penny during the 1984 world famous famine. That is a lesson never forgotten and that is why the Wahabi had no success in a country with 40 million Moslems and poor. Its very easy to shame a Wahabi hipocrite in Ethiopia. As for street children everywhere you go its as you described Hargeisa. Not sure what the solution can be, except what is being tried in Ethiopia. Gather these kids, give them land, organize them in teams, give them farm tools including tractors, seed, food for certain time and agricultural experts, a clinic, school. In some places has worked and some have even become wealthy (by ethiopian standards) farmers and traders, but most of these projects are new yet. As far as faith issues go, the most improved place in Ethiopia, more than 90% residents Moslems was successfully transformed with agricultural technologies from Israel. Go figure.

That is best explanation i have seen. Then these peole better change their life style before they get us all killed.

This place is also known where AIDS was traced to whether through New York lab or some forest. Ebola is showing up second time now. There is constant wars in that country, but is that the reason?

Well everybody worries of the Somali culture, the Somali charcter disappearing with the nomad economic base of it, but this attitusde is most dangerous. Only Russia and Canada plus some Euro Asean countries can afford to have nomads in this century. draught is main threat, but the population explosion is even a bigger threat for tomorrow. Two things will make you to be solidly and unflenchingly a supporter of settling 90% of the nomads in the next decade or so. 1. I do not have a link to it, but there is a clip interview with a Xalimo that in 5 years went from multi millionaire of camels and goats to someone living in camp and under USAID program. 2. Two individual nomads fought over a water well, each came with close families and then extended families. It became so big of a fight only the Liyu can manage. It took so many hours and hours of meetings and resolutions, by elders, government officials, prominent persons including from the university to resolve this incident completely. Imagine how many incidents happen every year and some of them are cross borders with other territories and countries. These two issues will convince Oodweyne right away to call the Somali next generation to be digital nomads, not just farmers or textile workers.

I remember there was a thread here about kililka building dams and Ethiopia plan of building hydro dams. Most posting was negative as usual whenever Ethiopia is mentioned. One reason Sudan staunchly supports GERD is because of floods and destruction to people, property and development projects. Somalia can benefit greatly by dams in kililka from electricity but most importantly regulated year round flow of rivers. I had no idea that about 700,000 over all and about 250,000 from severe to dangerously have been affected by these floods.

Why not have constitution for all of you in that part of the world. Make Kismayu join the international frenzy for ports, make Gedo join the international frenzy for roads connections between regins, countries etc. The two of you seem to be locked in a never ending, one uping each other, only changing alliances in Somalia or outside. Even sometimes one of you going to extreme and not focusing or worst yet using Shebab power indirectly to influence the other. Set rules, formulae, limitations and measurable programs and there will be less need for the Madoobe or Hs. Actually copy what in Ethiopia is called the Hareri solution, where the Somali and Oromo primarily but also Amhara and others all gave the area to the smallest in number the Hareri. It prevented war, it prevented conflict, and brought peace and development. What at the time of mistrust and suspicion was thought as conspiracy of Tigray preference to the Hareri and Somali is now seen as great solution. The Hareri has been justicious, fair, balanced in their conduct to the Somali, Oromo and Amhara.

One of the agreements signed between Djibouti and Kenya is invetment guarantee in each territory by the other. This is important. Kenya will invest in Djibouti and Djibouti will invest in Kenya. Both countries also will depend for electricity from Ethiopia. Might as well be friends since will be customers of the same trader. This is like consumers association. Since Kenya needs support of Ethiopia and Djibouti in Somalia, Kenyatta has been repeatedly talking about security. I don't like Ghelleh as a politician using the word sincere, when talking about Djibouti and Kenya interest in Somalia, but many times he speaks as ordinary person (a skill he puts to good use). He may be considering to those from Somalia who accuse him of taking sides.

Mr Guelleh said Djibouti desires to strengthen its partnership with Kenya in developing the region and making it peaceful. Somalia peace He said Djibouti and Kenya are working together to make Somalia peaceful to ensure that the security risk that its continued instability poses to the region is eliminated. “We are in a troubled region where we are confronted by extremism and violence. That is why our militaries are in Somalia to help it regain stability because what happens in Somalia has an immediate impact on all of us,” said President Guelleh. He said Djibouti, like Kenya, is sincere in its desire to make Somalia peaceful. After the talks, President Kenyatta and President Guelleh, who arrived in the country on Tuesday, witnessed the signing of the agreements. The trade agreement will open the door for more business between Kenya and Djibouti as it will act as a facilitation mechanism. “The parties, for enhancing and facilitating trade between the two countries, shall grant each other the Most Favoured Nation Treatment in all matters relating to trade,” says part of the agreement signed on Kenya’s behalf by Industry, Trade and Cooperatives Cabinet Secretary Adan Mohamed. Livestock sector In the bilateral cooperation in the livestock sector, Kenya will work together with Djibouti in expanding the livestock business sector. Kenya will tap the experience of Djibouti in unlocking the potential in business in the livestock sector especially in exports to the Middle East. The two nations will increase trade in livestock and livestock products. The agreement was signed on Kenya’s behalf by Cabinet Secretary for Agriculture Mwangi Kiunjuri In their desire to promote greater economic cooperation, the two leaders also oversaw the signing of an agreement which binds both nations to protect private or public investment in each country originating from the other. Cabinet Secretaries Monica Juma (Foreign Affairs) and Fred Matiangi (Interior and Coordination of National Government) signed the other two agreements. Deputy President William Ruto and Cabinet Secretaries attended the bilateral meeting with President Guelleh and his delegation. President Guelleh's visit comes hot on the heels of the two day State Visit by Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed Ali.

I understand your point that Puntland needs to devolve power to her own regions, have one man/woman one vote, written constitution of her own..etc. But you also are missing one very fundamental one. Federalism is either formed from ground up like USA or top down like Ethiopia or mixed one like Canada and India. In Somalia it is mixed. Its top down for most of the country, but bottom up for Puntland. Since its top down for most of the country, then the constitution of Somalia is critical that it defines the relatonship between FG and FS. And also define FS and Zone, provinces or districts with in Federal states. Some states may have 2-3 clans there fore they may need some autonomy with in the state to elect their district government, to regulatae some activities. Basically the Federal constirution is the key, nothing can be done and even the best attempt to do something will always bring conflicts. India and Ethiopian experience of constitution making may be useful as examples. In the current circumstances its hard to say whether Mogadishu is abusing its power or puntland is asking too much. Whats too much, by what measure, by what scale. As Federal states get stronger will follow Puntland and then there is even bigger problem. Many thought the whole issue between speaker and PM was the constitution, but does not look like it all now.