I knew a khatlander would bring the silly comparisons. I'm glad he put down the green stuff and didn't continue. Anyway, as others have said, Grozny's last battle was in 2000 and it has already been rebuilt. Xamar is only scarred, its not close to destroyed, it just needs regeneration not rebuilding.

I'm talking about the places those refugees come from. That place is not "Mugdi Mudug." Good try with scoring the cheap point.

They say if you're bad at one thing, try something else. Berbera fails as a port so it has to turn itself into a livestock mall.

Looks like a typical middle class neighborhood back in Somalia, this "slum" is an upgrade if anything.

Mujahid Morgan is in Xamar, and he's right about this one. The TFG failed the moment it isolated itself from Puntland, this process began after A/Y's departure. Morgan is no different than the TFG in this case, he failed the moment his relationship with soured in '98.

I wonder how many reer Waqoyi he's adopted

Changing your begging schemes from the British to the Dutch won't bring results. Unless you have an army of Sudanese Islamist militants in Burco and you can prove you have oil, no one is interested in wasting their time recognizing a piece of rock that's full of drug addicts.

Its strange that the northwesterners are happier about the collapse of the old government than Puntlanders despite the fact that Puntland's towns and cities gained more as the northwestern cities turned into dust. Berbera turned into a de facto Ethiopian colony and rusted away into oblivion, today its a ghost town - and it was once one of the most legendary port towns of East Africa. The only place that saw progress was Hargeisa and to a limited extent Burco. The rest of northwestern region has utterly turned to crap. Sheikh, once a great school town is now empty except for the school, Borama would've met the same fate if not for its resilient community, and forget about Ceerigaabo, it went from one of the most famed towns of northwestern Somalia into a forgotten frontier town. People who lost so much can't pretend to have gained anything. Keep smiling because the truth is ugly. I haven't even gotten started on drug abuse and HIV (which, by the way, is by far the highest in Somalia) which has exploded since Siad Barre left.

Only khat can make someone think that.

You repeat the same article every 2 days, do you think this is how the Eritreans and the Kosovars achieved independence?

Faroole should've done this years ago and put away Riyaale for oppressing the khat nation.

Its a small town on the road between Burco and Hargeisa, far more towards the Burco side. I don't know why the khatlanders on this website are so antsy about telling you where this obscure little town is located.

bosaso is smaller then burco in real size Comparing Somalia's commercial capital to a tribal village. This guy is spending too much time with the green leaf of Meru.

Interesting development.

To defend Berbera from the big bad pirates.

That's the Jubba river crossing some settlements near Jamaame. The Jubba river itself stops hundreds of miles north of Ras Kambooni, in fact there's really no large source of water near Ras Kambooni, that's why there are no farmers in that area. By the way, some of your pictures are probably from the Bajuun islands although in fairness they look exactly like the shores of Ras Kambooni so it could be either one. Lastly, aside from incredible natural beauty, Ras Kambooni is just a massive bush land, its really just useless land, that's why it has a low population in comparison to Jamaame which is prime farm land. The area just outside of Ras Kamboon is quite arid, you don't even reach the bushes until a few miles out.

Hargaisa - 1.5 million Burco - 700,000 Boroma - 400,000 Erigavo - 200,000 Las canod - 150,000 gabiley - 200,000-300,000 Do I begin laughing now or later?

Originally posted by Som@li: ^Define Xalaal money? Taxation, customs, diaspora contributions, NGO projects, grants from foreign states, investments from companies. OPPOSITE (Xamar) - Isbaaro, drug trafficking, charging people to use their own water wells, etc. Not all of Xamar's new-rich is built on xaraan, just a disproportionately large chunk of it.

Originally posted by Mad_Mullah: No need bro, the video explains itself. Mogadishu = ****, but you have to say it still looks better than Bosaso, Hargeisa etc. Ya think? It was the commercial center of the Somali peninsula for hundreds of years, it will take a little longer than 20 years for brain dead warlords to tear it all down. But you didn't have to take cheap shots at Bosaso and Hargeisa - Bosaso for one did not have the luxury of being looked after by rich imperial Arab sultans, Italian colonial presence, or government development or even the fact that many northeastern-based businesses are invested in Xamar but no vice versa yet it is catching up quickly. All of that infrastructure in Mogadishu and the new residential and commercial real estate serves no one if the city is constantly under siege. All of Bosaso was built on xalaal money, I can't say the same about all of Xamar.

the Somaliland embassy WTF?

Hawlgalo baaritan oo uu hogaminaayo Tali-xigeenka ciidanka Police-ka Somaliland ayaa maanta 24.10.2010 ka dhacey magaalada Burco. Col. Cabdiraxmaan Fooxle oo ka hadley howlgalkaan ayaa sheegey in maanta laga fuliyay gudaha magaalada Burco, isagoo xusey in lagu soo qabqabtay dad badan oo lagu tuhmay arrimo dhinaca nabadgelyada ah. Waxa kale oo hawlgalkan dadka lagu qabqabtey weheliyey in ciidamada xireen wadooyinka waaweyn ee soo gala magaalada Burco halkaas oo gawaadhiga mid mid loo baadhayay. Taliye-xigeenka ciidanka Col. Fooxle ayaa saxaafada u sheegay dhinaca kale in howlgal kani yahay mid lagu sugayo amaanka magaalada Burco oo ay maalmahan ka dhaceen dilal qorshaysan kuwaas oo aan ilaa hada cid loo qaban, waxana uu sheegay in ay hada ku daba jiraan kuwii iyagu sameeyay falalkaasi Col. Fooxle oo la weydiiyay su`aal ahayd inuu magaalada Burco soo galay hogaamiyihii kooxdii ka dagaalamaysay Buuraha Gal-Gala ee Attam ee iyagu halkaasi lagaga awooda roonaaday ayaa sheegay in aanu ninkaasi soo galin, soona gali karin dhul ay Somaliland leedahay hadii uu soo galana gacanta lagu dhigi doono oo sharciga la soo taagi doono. Fooxle ayaa carabka ku dhuftay in cid iyadu dhibaato ka soo gaysatay wadamada jaarku aanay soo gali karin dhulka Somaliland waa sida uu hadalka u yiri. Waxana uu bulshada reer Burco ugu baaqay in ay soo sheegaan wixii ay ka shakiyaan, isla markaasna ciidanka si weyn ula shaqeeyaan si loo sugo amaanka magaaladooda. Culimada waaweyn ee magaalada Burco ayaa iyagu si weyn uga qayliyay howlgalkan oo ay ku tilmaameen in uu yahay mid ka badbadis ah oo aan loo baahnayn, magaalada Burcona aanay ka jirin ayay yiraahdeen wax dhibaato ah kama jirto magaaladai. Culimadaan ayaa ka hadley salaadii Duhur masaajidyo ku yaala gudaha magaalada Burco. Howlgalkaan ayaa yimid maalin kadib markii warsidaha GO shaaciyey in magaalada Burco saldhig u tahay kooxaha Al-Shabaab kuwaasoo duulaan ku ah Puntland. Warbixintaan ayaa xustey in hogaamiyaha kooxaha shabaabka "Atam" ee ku dhuumaaleysta buuraleyda Galgala uu ku sugan yahay magaalada Burco oo ka tirsan maamulka Somaliland.

^ But he's right. I haven't seen a single anti-AMISOM demonstration in my city despite the fact that Ugandan peacekeepers have a track record of abusing Somali civilians as well as those in the Congo, they are equally as punishing as the Ethiopians - NOT to mention Ethiopia has shelled Belet Xaawo and continues to prop up government troops in Hiiraan and other regions on the border. I used to see near-daily demonstrations against occupying troops by the "Mogadishu clan" yet nothing is being done to protest AMISOM's deliberate shelling and Ethiopia's recurring role with Shariif's TFG. Its hypocrisy, they think just because Shariif is at the helm, its xalaal to kill a few civilians every now and then. Everyone is just pissed that we fell for those protests back in 2006/07 and believed the protesters were being genuine.

Another massive skirmish is what it is. They will fight here, fight there, and then get back to positions. No one is going to take a city that has 8,000 extremely heavily armed AMISOM troops, there's no avoiding the elephant in the room.

This is about Al-Shabaab, you can't bribe them like you bribed the warlord in Las Canood. You can't bribe your way out of this, and in the future you might not be able to call Ethiopia to defend your borders in Awdal or Buuhoodle.

Only Puntland has defeated al-Shabaab, twice now. The northwestern state relies on Ethiopia to safeguard its regional security.