Relations between al Shabaab and Hizbul Islam degenerated last week after al Shabaab named its own council to run Kismayu, excluding all Hizbul members. Until then, the two groups had run the port in an uneasy coalition...... Hassan Hundubey, a London-based independent Somali analyst, said that would depend on how close the ties were between Hizbul Islam fighters in Kismayu and their counterparts in the capital. He said the clashes were mostly over money, not ideology. "It is mostly economic. They are fighting for control of the resources from the port and airport ... they are using religion as cover for several interests: tribal, economic and politics." Reuters.

"Relations between al Shabaab and Hizbul Islam degenerated last week after al Shabaab named its own council to run Kismayu, excluding all Hizbul members. Until then, the two groups had run the port in an uneasy coalition...... Hassan Hundubey, a London-based independent Somali analyst, said that would depend on how close the ties were between Hizbul Islam fighters in Kismayu and their counterparts in the capital. He said the clashes were mostly over money, not ideology. "It is mostly economic. They are fighting for control of the resources from the port and airport ... they are using religion as cover for several interests: tribal, economic and politics." Reuters.

May Allah grant him Jannah. He was a patriot and a great teacher. He had lingering belief in the pursuit of a comprehensive solution for Somalia, his beloved country. My heart grieves for his departure. He will be missed. I was introduced to him by a friend and after reading his article, a critique on I.M Lewis "Somaliland": The Nostalgia of a Former British Colonial Officer, I became a loyal reader of his research and opinion articles. His blessed widow, Dr. Fatun, had been the UN charge de affairs for Somalia for ten years.

Wiilwaal, saxib, Mineapolis adee kuu kala xiran tahey baa la yiri. Raggeedi, & keep up the good work. IA, I'll keep in touch.

Extremely intelligent guy. I like the lyrics and the setting. Thanks Aaliyah.

Isn't this the request made by PL's interior Ministry on the legal transfer of the pirates to be tried and convicted in Puntland as its Constitution writes with regards to the political rights of its citizens? If that's case, well job done for General Abdullahi in strengthening the diplomatic ties and commercial interest Puntland has with the Government of Egypt.

Isn't this the request made by PL's interior Ministry on the legal transfer of the pirates to be tried and convicted in Puntland as its Constitution writes with regards to the political rights of its citizens? If that's case, well job done for General Abdullahi in strengthening the diplomatic ties and commercial interest Puntland has with the Government of Egypt.

Isn't this the request made by PL's interior Ministry on the legal transfer of the pirates to be tried and convicted in Puntland as its Constitution writes with regards to the political rights of its citizens? If that's case, well job done for General Abdullahi in strengthening the diplomatic ties and commercial interest Puntland has with the Government of Egypt.

Two thumbs up for Jengeli. I think he had a nice conversation with Obama on the future of Somalia and his insight gleaned from his esteemed contact with President Obama is a boost for the competitiveness of his Office. He has done much better than his predecessor, which is quite a testimony of Jengeli's long experience and credentials.

The news is quite contradictory and makes little sense as to who is in charge of the strategic port city but the halcyon days of Kismayo is spinning out of hand. We knew all along that the two radical groups and their unholy alliance had run the city administration and maintained bases inside the city and its environs. The news seems to accentuate that the Islamic Party militia came back with vengeance and drove al-Shabaabs out not by force but its use should it become necessary. I do think a prior conflict of interest over the creation of the new admin won't suffice its esclation into an irreversible cleavage. If their split becomes reality, it's a boon for the TFG as the Islamic Party is believed to have a clannish leaning and power ambitions beyond this new aspect of Somalia's internationalized conflict. And it might simply vanish from the scene just like the former Islamic groups of Khalid bin Walid and Juba Islamic Brotherhood Movement. .

GREAT NEWS.

Mansa, you signature is an eye opener.

Garoodi, you oftentimes sound silly with your assertions and claims. El-Afwayn is the only district the "Somalilanders" settle in an exclusive territory. The rest of Four official districts such as Badhan, Erigavo Laasqoray and Dhahar are pro-union majority that have nothing to do with the idea of seceding from Somalia. Btw, the field study posted by Cawke are realistic metrics based on the demographics of the region so that humanitarian work and responses are carried out in an equitable methodology. Pay attention to the term other clans

As usual the western interferance in the internal affairs of Somalia has no moral or political boundaries, and yet they hypocritically make allegations on why the international conventions or peace is threatened when they are the ones that consistenly violate and create problems. If the news is true, Britain's meddling will render Somalia more violent and unstable.

Loool. That's so funny. Keep it coming saxib. ..The Somali Cat Affair play is another hillarious stuff. Is it your work as well?

I am a big fan of Cismaan Fooldhuub and many of his great songs. Anyone who has Youtubed or has access links to these songs, please forward. From--> Weysha Gowrac dibiga haku quustee (1975) Inagoo walaala ah Oo naas qudha wadaagney Adigeyga weebdoo Wadadii ka beydhey Webi isku tuuroo Waadigaa ku qaadey Wabaayo nin qooshtey Isagaa ku waashee Weysha gowrac, dibiga haku quustee Garxumo iyo nin diidan Dagaal baa u dhaxeeya (1966) Aqal tiir la'aantii, weligii ma taagnee Hadeynaan is taakulin talo yeelan meynee Ka tashada cadaawaha isku tiirsanaadaa Ma dhabbaa jacayl waa loo dhintaa (1970) Heesta koowaad: Beydka wiilka: Ogow geedigan rarey abaayo Guryankii iyo hayaankii abaayo Ma gayoon halkaan rabey abaayo Beydka Gabadha: Kalgaceylku guumowyee aboowe Igu noqey ma guuraanee aboowe Galgashoo hurdada nacaayee aboowe Heesta Labaad: Wadnaheyga inankii Kalgacayl ku waabee I waraabshey caashaqa Waqtigaan is baranee Nala kala wareejee, Waayuhu dhib badanaa Haddii aan waraaqaha Kugu dhiibo weriyaha Kuna qoro wargeysyada Warka meyga gaarsiin Heesta sedexad: Cudur loo dhamaadiyo Dheeldheel inuu yahey Dheg ka maqalka mooyee Weli maanan dhaadine Caashaqu ma dhuxul baa Ma wax dhiiga raaciyo Xididadu dhex qaadaa Ma dhulkuu ku noolyahey Ma cirkuu ku qadhan yahey Ma dhirtuu u hoydaa Hay dhega wareerine Haddii dhaawac kugu yaal Cabashadu dhab kaa tahey Dhaqtarkow uga sheekee

"Puntland needs good institutions, not intentions" I like this statement. Btw, Eng. Hamud's sister, Yasmiin, is about to release a great book this fall. Nomad's Diary

Xudeedi, what is this winning streak by the Sanaag and Haylaan regions. In India, a big football tournament of Puntlanders that was held recently, Sanaag won it all.

Cawke, The whole thing was funded by the dictator Qaddafi so that he could call himself the King of Kings in Africa at the coronation ceremony. There were several powerful sultanates in Somalia.

Thanks Xudeedi for posting this great event. It highlights the promotion of admirable qualities in our society.

It will be interesting to hear the key speakers.

And here is the other side of the story--the valuable Qaddafi. ---------- Former Pariah Qaddafi’s U.S. Trip Seals Courtship of Libyan Oil By Steve Scherer Sept. 22 (Bloomberg) -- The families of Americans killed in the bombing of a jetliner over Lockerbie, Scotland, in 1988 will protest Libyan leader Muammar Qaddafi’s visit to New York this week. His United Nations counterparts may be more welcoming. Qaddafi, who speaks at the UN tomorrow, has cemented ties with countries that shunned him for three decades and are now lured by Africa’s biggest oil reserves and a 150 billion-dinar ($123 billion), five-year government infrastructure-inves tment plan. “With fewer and fewer sizable oil patches left, oil companies have incentives to acquire acreage wherever they can,” said Geoff Porter, the chief Africa and Middle East analyst for the Eurasia Group, a New York-based firm that analyzes political risks. For oil companies, doing business with a former pariah state “is worth it,” he said. More than 40 foreign oil companies are working in Libya, including London-based BP Plc, Eni SpA of Rome, Irving, Texas- based Exxon Mobil Corp. and Occidental Petroleum Corp., which has headquarters in Los Angeles. Qaddafi’s spending program is attracting companies such as Alcatel SA, which is based outside Paris, Munich-based Siemens AG, Milan’s Impregilo SpA and London-based Rentokil Initial Plc. Businesses from China, South Korea, Brazil and Turkey also are working in Libya, said Salah el-Houni, head of international exhibitions for Libyan media company Dar Alarab, sponsor of fairs in Tripoli for foreign firms. “Because of the sheer size of the investment in infrastructure, it’s one of the most attractive business opportunities in the world,” said Antonio De Capoa, the chairman of the Italy-Libya Chamber of Commerce. Qaddafi Follows Obama Libya, which took responsibility for the Lockerbie attack in 2003, holds the presidency of the 64th UN General Assembly. Qaddafi, 67, is scheduled to address the assembly immediately after President Barack Obama, who is the third speaker at the opening session. Outside the UN, family members of the victims of Pan Am Flight 103 will be holding signs with “murderer” written above a picture of Qaddafi, according to Bob Monetti, whose 20-year- old son, Rick, was one of the 270 killed in the terrorist bombing. “As long as Qaddafi sits on all this oil, he can do whatever he pleases and get away with it,” said Monetti, 66, a retired medical engineer in Cherry Hill, New Jersey. “There’s no morality in politics. Politics are about business, and in Libya, business is about oil.” Qaddafi will be speaking a month after the only man convicted of the bombing was released from a Scottish prison on compassionate grounds, sparking outrage in the U.S. and political questions over U.K. business ties with Libya. 'Highly Objectionable' Abdel Basset Ali al-Megrahi, who is dying of prostate cancer, received a nationally televised hero’s welcome to Tripoli on his return from Scotland on Aug. 20. Obama called the scenes of his arrival “highly objectionable.” Al-Megrahi has since been hospitalized as he prepares an appeal, the BBC reported Sept. 12, citing his brother. U.K. Prime Minister Gordon Brown, who said he was “repulsed” by the greeting, was forced to deny intervening in Scotland’s decision to release him after political opponents accused him of seeking to curry favor with Qaddafi. The world’s relations with Qaddafi, who took power in 1969 and came under U.S. and UN sanctions in the 1980s and 1990s, have improved since he abandoned a nuclear-arms program and renounced terrorism between 2002 and 2005. Leaders Meet During that period, in 2004, Siemens, Germany’s largest engineering company, won an order worth 180 million euros ($264 million) to upgrade Libya’s power-supply grid after a visit by then-Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder. Former U.K. premier Tony Blair visited Libya in May 2007 when BP, Europe’s second-biggest oil producer, signed an accord to conduct a $900 million exploration program with Libya’s National Oil Corp. By December of that year, Qaddafi was pitching the Bedouin- style tent he uses while traveling in Paris as a guest of French President Nicolas Sarkozy, who said the Libyan would sign $15 billion worth of contracts. Toulouse, France-based Airbus SAS at the same time confirmed an order for 15 aircraft from Libyan Airlines. Last year, Qaddafi paid a final installment in a compensation package to Lockerbie families, clearing the way for normalizing relations with the U.S., and settled a dispute over Italy’s colonization of Libya from 1911 to 1943. Italian Road Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi agreed to build a $5 billion coastal highway as part of the agreement. Berlusconi visited Qaddafi last month to mark its anniversary. Obama became the first U.S. president to meet and shake hands with Qaddafi during a summit of global leaders in Italy in June. The handshake took place 23 years after Ronald Reagan, who called Qaddafi the “mad dog of the Middle East,” ordered the bombing of the colonel’s compound, among other targets. “Qaddafi has been very successful at engaging the West,” said Dana Moss, an analyst at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. “He’s been able to remain in power, and at the same time develop the country’s oil and gas industry.” Libya, a country of 6.3 million, counts on oil exports for a quarter of its gross domestic product, which was about $100 billion last year, according to the CIA Factbook. Proved oil reserves amount to 45 billion barrels, it said. That equates to $3.13 trillion at the current price of about $69.50 per barrel. Oil Reserves The country has 5 billion barrels of untapped oil, or about 12 percent of its total reserves, and is seeking to boost output to 3 million barrels a day from 1.8 million now, the government said this month. Italy has more than tripled its oil imports from Libya since sanctions were lifted in 2003 and the African country now provides about 30 percent of Italy’s daily oil needs. Oil is also financing Libya’s sovereign wealth fund, the Libyan Investment Authority, which has $80 billion to spend, the fund’s chairman, Abdulhafid Zlitni, told Italy’s Corriere della Sera newspaper in February. Libya’s central bank last year bought a 4.6 percent stake in UniCredit SpA, Italy’s biggest bank. Libya may increase its stake in Italian oil company Eni to 10 percent from less than 2 percent now, Shokri Ghanem, the former head of the National Oil Corp., said in May. As politicians greet Qaddafi and companies jockey for Libya’s riches, Monetti grows more disgusted. “This man has left a trail of death all over the world” he said. “And they treat him like he’s a normal person.”

Mudane,"Somaliland" should follow the footsteps of Puntland. The latter enjoys greater autonomy and has its eyes on the rich lands of Shabelle and Juba rivers. A united Somalia under a federal framework might turn Somalia into an economic powerhouse. The federal government will deal with the security of the nation from external threats while fulfilling our international obligations, jointly manage and tap our natural resources, regulate the public health, civil aviation, infrastructure, the financial system and the marketplace. The states pass tax laws on tourism, industrial development, energy, agriculture and manage tax revenues and spend on transportation, electricity, water, housing and education. Who is thwarting us from realizing this great potential?

Aljazeera "Africom was a consequence of the so-called war on terror. In Somalia, Rageh explores how this war created the very threat – a violent Jihadi movement – it claimed to be fighting, and what this meant for Somalia's future. Moving north, Rageh looks at US involvement with governments in the Sahel, a region rich in mineral resources. AFRICOM troops are providing arms, military support and training in response to a perceived extremist threat. But critics say, the threat is internal dissent and US policy risks creating, as in Somalia, the real issue. The Delta region of West Africa provides Africom's biggest dilemma. Rich in oil resources, the region is vital to US future energy needs. Africom offers military training to local governments here – including Cameroonian troops involved in the brutal suppression of their own people. Can Obama make a decisive break with the path set in Africa by the Bush administration? Until rhetoric is seen to govern practice, Obama and Africom seem set to repeat past mistakes and become further involved in a messy, self-fulfilling prophecy.

Originally posted by ThankfulSP: Nassir, The article that started this thread seems to be complaining about something that I feel is not present. Like I’ve said several times now, if Puntland is clan enclave and was not being fair to Reer Maakhir would Gen Ilko-Jiir have made the run that he did? You've stated that oil exploration is not a good thing at the present time. I agree that for Reer Maakhir it isn't, but in other area's such as Bari there was no issue with it and people there were excited and supported the deal. How can you possible say something negative about the livestock quarantine? In 2001, an out break of Rift Valley Fever occurred in Saudi Arabia, and was subsequently blamed on African livestock, in return Many Arab nation banned all imports, crippling our economy and hurting thousands of farmers. Like this report from relief web shows The effect of the ban is likely to be "devastating" for countries, such as Somalia, which are heavily dependent on livestock exports to the Gulf states, a regional economic expert told IRIN. Cade Muse administration was the first in Somalia to address the ban, and purposed an alternative to Arab nations where a facility would be built in Puntland that would test animals and ensure that they met there standards, which would then allow our livestock to be accepted. Saudi Arabia and other gulf states agreed and it happened, the same Arab group is now doing the same thing in NW Somalia. You say that small traders are going out of business because incomes of the pastoralists as the price of each live stock will be much lower? Do you realize before the livestock quarantine that is exactly what was happening, before the only alternative for our farmers was to send their livestock to Djibouti for vaccinations, which would result in their income being significantly lowered? The live stock quarantine that Cade had built remedied and satisfied the complaints from Puntland farmers. They are now making more money then they were before when they had to go through Djibouti. Arab nations won’t accept our livestock directly from us without the quarantine, things are better now! No, I recall how established livestock traders protested against the deal because of the relative size of al-Jabir company and the possibility of their highly concentrated market power, which means our people who entirely depend on this major sector will suffer---their socio-economic condition that had been improving under the perfect market will start to deteriorate . According to these traders who initially filed their complaint to the former minister Siciid Qoorsheel reasoned that they had found a diversified market like Oman and other places, which completely phased out their dependence on Saudi Arabia as the principal market. Thus why I said that, "The quarantine deal is sort of monopoly. It drives out many small traders out of business and thus lowers income of the pastoralists (after it secures its market power) as the price of each livestock will be much much smaller than what they used to sell to individual traders. I hope the administration avoids in taking harsh measures which exclusively limits the freedom of established individual, livestock traders for the use of Bosaaso port. Nothing negative about the above comment. Now the gap of our differences is much closer than was seen from your first post.