Ethiopia: Horn of Dilemma By ALEX PERRY/ADDIS ABABA As you might expect from a place that exports some of the world's finest coffee, Addis Ababa is a city of cafés. It's also a town of spooks. Whether huddled over tiny glasses of Arabica in luxury hotel foyers or the anonymous place with battered tables and a concrete floor on the north end of Meskel Square, quiet men in dusty suits swap intelligence. There you'll overhear mobile-phone conversations that begin like this: "Ambassador! Of course I'll give the document back ... " Or you might meet close-cropped, burly Americans carrying khaki rucksacks labeled "U.S." who mumble about going "someplace in country." As Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi observes, "The Horn of Africa is a very volatile area. There are many, many intelligence organizations here." On Sept. 11, the spies just might get a night off when Ethiopia, which runs by a modified version of the Julian calendar, will celebrate the new millennium's arrival more than seven years after the rest of the world. But given the speed of recent events, the spies will no doubt be back to their furtive work the very next day. Most people's idea of Ethiopia is dated circa 1984, when a famine killed around a million of its people. But things have changed. Although its GDP is still a meager $13.3 billion in a country of nearly 77 million, it has been growing by more than 9% a year since 2003. Chinese engineers have found oil in its eastern deserts. Exports of coffee and roses are rising by more than 20% each year. Today the Horn of Africa also arouses keen strategic interest among world powers. Not far from the Red Sea and thus close to Arabia, Ethiopia is a possible conduit for turmoil from the northeast. As Christianity and Islam flowed south to Ethiopia centuries ago, Meles tells TIME, so today "with all sorts of terrorist activities [in the Middle East], we are susceptible to that influence too." Ethiopia's eastern neighbor Somalia is already home to the oldest jihadi bases in Africa and has been a sanctuary, the U.S. believes, for three senior al-Qaeda planners who blew up the American embassies in Kenya and Tanzania in 1998, killing more than 200 people. "There's more than one U.S. general who refers to the Horn as the third front in the war on terror," says a Western diplomat based in the region. There is also Ethiopia's mutual enmity with its immediate northern neighbor Eritrea. After a 30-year struggle for independence, Eritrea seceded from Ethiopia in 1993, and the pair fought a border war in 1998-2000 in which tens of thousands died. Wounds from that fight are still fresh, and the border dispute remains unresolved. On occasion, Somalia has served both countries as a battleground for proxy wars. With such a confluence of conflict, the nightmare scenario has long been a regional war that engulfs the Horn, perhaps impeding Suez Canal shipping traffic. According to a Western official in Addis, Ethiopia is "the center of gravity" in this game of African Risk. Lately, however, the intrigues and conflicts have intensified. First, in December 2006, Ethiopia invaded Somalia and overthrew the fundamentalist Islamic Courts Union (ICU), which had ruled Somalia for six months. Although the ICU brought the first semblance of law and order to the capital Mogadishu in 15 years, its Islamist ideology caused alarm in Ethiopia. With its troops occupying the country, as they still do, Ethiopia organized its own rendition operation with the cooperation of Kenya and the new government in Somalia it had installed, transferring hundreds of suspected jihadis and their families to jails in Addis and interrogating them for months. A July report by the Nairobi-based U.N. Monitoring Group on Somalia stated that Eritrea was supplying a gathering Somali insurgency with surface-to-air missiles and suicide vests to fight the Ethiopians. Ethiopia alleges Eritrea is doing the same for the Oromo National Liberation Front (ONLF), an Ethiopian separatist rebel group in the country's eastern ****** region, which killed 74 civilians at an oil exploration site there in May. These increasing tensions are igniting fears that the regional-war fears could become reality. As Ethiopia's rulers see it, their country's army and finances are being stretched ever thinner by two Eritrean-backed insurgencies, so collapsing both by hitting their common backer may make sense. In June, Meles told the Ethiopian parliament he was strengthening the army with a view to countering the threat from Eritrea. Some of this does not sit well with Washington. The U.S. considers Ethiopia its "biggest partner" in Africa, according to the Addis-based official. That relationship allowed U.S. Special Forces to piggyback on Ethiopia's operations in Somalia to launch two air strikes in January against one or more of the three fugitive al-Qaeda leaders believed to be on the Kenya-Somalia border. But, as U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Jendayi Frazer has said, Washington opposed the invasion of Somalia. "We urged the Ethiopian military not to go into Somalia," said Frazer last month. "They did so because of their own national-security interests." This version of events, contrary to a common perception that the invasion was backed or even initiated by the U.S., is supported by accounts of a November 2006 meeting in Addis between Meles and the then head of U.S. Central Command, General John Abizaid. Sources from both sides relate that Abizaid told Meles he was "not allowed" to invade Somalia, adding Somalia would become "Ethiopia's Iraq." (An official in Washington disputes the precise language, but confirms the essence of the discussion.) Whatever Washington's misgivings, there is little doubt that once Ethiopia committed to an invasion, the U.S. provided intelligence, military targeting and logistical support to Ethiopian forces in Somalia — support which continues to this day. Despite this cooperation, further differences between the U.S. and Ethiopia surfaced earlier this year when Ethiopian soldiers detained for 24 hours four unidentified U.S. personnel close to a U.S. Special Forces base at Gode in the ******, an incident confirmed both by a U.S. diplomat in the region and Meles. The men were held on suspicion of trying to open contacts with the ONLF. U.S. officials say the mission was unauthorized, with one adding: "Those guys don't work around here anymore." Acknowledging the incident, Meles says: "The U.S. is focused on international terrorism. The ONLF does not have an international dimension. So there is a slight divergence of perspective." International criticism of Ethiopia often centers on human rights. Meles, 52, is a former rebel leader who helped overthrow dictator Mengistu Haile Mariam in 1991 and whose Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front has held power since. While the European Union deemed the 2005 general election not credible, the African Union and the Carter Institute declared it free and fair. But when the opposition objected to Meles' victory with mass protests, Ethiopia's security forces cracked down, killing dozens of people and jailing thousands. This month, the U.N. Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs is probing allegations that the security forces are waging a scorched-earth war against the ONLF in the ******, burning villages and displacing residents. Meles denies this, saying, "No credible international or intelligence organization has come up with a shred of evidence" to support the allegations. The Bush Administration, which condemned the 2005 crackdown, has been largely silent on the accusations of human-rights violations in ******. The Western diplomat believes Ethiopia "bought itself a free pass on human rights" by cooperating in the hunt for the three al-Qaeda operatives. True or not, Frazer has made it clear where U.S. support lies. Last month, after Eritrea closed the American consulate in Asmara, she announced Washington was doing the same to the Eritrean consulate in Oakland, Calif., and considering adding the Eritrean government to its list of state sponsors of terrorism. "Eritrea has played a key role in financing, funding and arming the terror and insurgency activities ... in Somalia," said Frazer in an August briefing. "If they continue their behavior and we put together the file that's necessary, I think it would be fairly convincing." U.S. diplomats in the region, meanwhile, push the view that Meles is a reformed rebel turned aspirant democrat, whereas Eritrean President Isaias Afewerki is an unreconstructed guerrilla leader. War is not certain, of course. Despite Meles' saber-rattling speech to parliament in June, in an interview with Time he described times in the past when his party forced him to adopt a more aggressive line with Eritrea than he would have preferred. "There were a number of times when I found myself in a minority and implementing decisions I was uncomfortable with." Asked what is his prime motivation, he answers: "It has always been fear." During the years of famine, it was "fear that this nation, which was great 1,000 years ago ... may be on the verge of total collapse." Today it's "fear that the light which is beginning to flicker, this Ethiopian renaissance, might be dimmed by some bloody mistake by someone, somewhere." Considering the region's history, fearing a bloody mistake seems a wise policy. With reporting by Adam Zagorin/Washington

Here is the biggest spin ever the US trying to distance itself from the invassion of Somalia with the help of an interview in TIME TIME: The U.S. warned against Ethiopia's invasion of Somalia but you went ahead. Was the invasion a success? Meles: It's been a tremendous success. Before we intervened, about a year ago now, the Transitional Federal Government (TFG) were on the verge of collapse and the Islamic Courts Union were on the verge of taking complete and full control of Somalia. That is no longer on the cards. That is a tremendous change. And here is his absurd reason for the invassion. An invassion which we know was not ever discouraged by the US but rather received its blessing and financial support. TIME: Why could you not accept the Islamic Courts Union taking charge in Somalia? Meles: Because these groups had declared jihad on us. And the TFG also gave us the legal ground for intervening by inviting us to come in. Now is Somalia stable yet? No, it is not, and it is not going to be absolutely tranquil any time soon. But the level of violence has dramatically gone down. TIME: What do you make of the assessment that the invasion radicalized Somali nationalism into a much more dangerous, religion-inspired insurgency, and with Eritrea funding and supporting and there being links to those have already have a track record in international terror, that there is a monster being created here? Meles: If there is any monster now, it's been there for quite some time. What we tried to do was put it back in its cage. These groups had ties with al-Qaeda long before we intervened. The terrorist outrages in Kenya and Tanzania [the U.S. embassy bombings in 1998] were launched from Somalia. Somalia was a very well known key hideout for key leaders of al-Qaeda in the Horn. When the Islamic Courts took over, they immediately put in a place a quasi-Taliban like regime. Now that was also not started by our intervention. What we have done is isolate the hardcore of the Taliban we did not create it and by doing that we believe we have radically weakened it. That does not mean there is no threat of terrorism now. There are too many forces around who are interested in terrorism for that to be the case including Eritrea. But the sort of mass upsurge in Talibanization that was occurring in Somalia has been curtailed. Full Interview

^^

What the World should do in Somalia Thursday, September 06, 2007 It sounds like just another week in Baghdad. Two journalists are killed, a local peacemaker is assassinated in cold blood, a dignitary escapes a roadside attack by land mine, mortars hit a hospital as leaders discuss the advantages of establishing a Green Zone in the capital. Armed groups attack each other as well as foreign troops who entered the country to eliminate the Islamists accused of harboring Al Qaeda. But this isn’t Baghdad—it’s Mogadishu. In Somalia clashes between Islamist-led insurgents and Ethiopian-backed government forces are constant—and underreported. They started in December 2006 when the Union of Islamic Courts (in power in south and central Somalia for just six months) was ousted by the current Transitional Federal Government, with support from the Ethiopian military, and with more than a tacit blessing from the United States. The U.N. Security Council recently extended the African Union peacekeeping mission in Somalia and requested the secretary-general “to continue to develop the existing contingency planning for the possible deployment of a United Nations Peacekeeping Operation.” Very tentative language, but the current peacekeeping effort is tentative, too. Last February the United Nations authorized the deployment of an 8,000-strong AU force to Somalia. Six months later only 1,800 peacekeeping troops from Uganda are on the ground. But is there a peace for them to keep? A National Reconciliation Conference, the 13th such effort in a decade, ended Aug. 30 after a month and a half of deliberations in Mogadishu, with no peace and no reconciliation in sight. On the contrary, mayhem is growing and the Iraq-style violence is resulting in an Iraq-style internal displacement; the United Nations puts the number of displaced people at 400,000 (from a total population of 7 million). This is almost as high a proportion as in Iraq, where 2 million are internally displaced and the population is 27 million. Because Somalis have nowhere to flee—Ethiopia, the intervening side, is not an option; Kenya closed its border and the flight across the Red Sea to Yemen is perilous—it is easier to ignore this quagmire internationally, since it has not produced refugees abroad. One of the favored destinations for the fleeing inhabitants of the Somali capital of Mogadishu is Galkayo, a town I visited recently for an assessment of humanitarian (water and sanitation) needs. It is 300 miles northeast of Mogadishu, and it sits exactly on the border of two clans traditionally at odds: the town’s southern half is USC and the northern half is SSDF. No barbed wire, wall or river separates the two sides. Strangely, it is a range of displaced persons’ settlements that constitutes the buffer zone, because as outsiders—mostly ex-Mogadishu residents—its occupants are pushed toward the outer limit of each part of Galkayo. There are now 42,000 internally displaced persons in the Galkayo region, and July saw more than 1,000 new arrivals. In the southern part of the town, the camp of Bulo Jawanley is not a typical row of tents but a series of miniscule nests that the newcomers make for themselves in every empty space they can find. The day I visited, five more busloads of people arrived from Mogadishu. Fitting the new arrivals into the already overcrowded space seemed like trying to squeeze extra bees onto a honeycomb. What I witnessed in Galkayo is happening all across the country. The U.N. refugee agency expects half a million Somalis to be displaced by the end of 2008. Dealing with such a large displaced population is beyond the capabilities of a weak transitional government, especially since Somalia has not functioned as a state for 16 years. From a humanitarian point of view the Somali tragedy may have even more dramatic consequences than the Iraqi tragedy, for two reasons. First, owing to the geopolitical situation of Somalia, its people have nowhere to flee and the country is like a pressure cooker. The second reason is that Somalia does not have even the basic infrastructure to fall back on, unlike what Iraq had before the U.S. intervention. This is why the international community must step in. But who can do it? International humanitarian organizations can try to help those who suffer from the combined effect of violence and drought—the EU has just allocated 10 million euros “for victims of continuing insecurity and climatic hazards”—but this will merely treat the symptoms of the crisis whereas ultimately the solution must be political. At the United Nations, another major crisis requires the attention of the Security Council: in Africa, Darfur overshadows Somalia, and there, in Sudan, the U.N. will join forces with the AU to field a new hybrid mission. On Somalia there seems to be full agreement among all sides: the meeting where the continuation of the AU peacekeeping mission was decided lasted just five minutes, from 11:05 a.m. to 11:10 a.m. President Bush (the elder) did send a humanitarian intervention to Somalia in late 1992, but it was ill-defined and ill-prepared. Heralded as Operation Restore Hope, it ended up months later in a tragedy known as “Black Hawk Down,” and the U.S. meekly withdrew. In post-9/11 American foreign policy, the Global War on Terror in Somalia was at first outsourced to local warlords, some of whom were supported financially because they were thought to oppose Al Qaeda. Last December’s proxy Ethiopian intervention was aimed at ousting the Islamic Courts but has not as yet achieved its goal. The stakes for the United States are understandably higher in Iraq and Afghanistan, where American troops are on the ground, than in the Horn of Africa.

What the World should do in Somalia Thursday, September 06, 2007 It sounds like just another week in Baghdad. Two journalists are killed, a local peacemaker is assassinated in cold blood, a dignitary escapes a roadside attack by land mine, mortars hit a hospital as leaders discuss the advantages of establishing a Green Zone in the capital. Armed groups attack each other as well as foreign troops who entered the country to eliminate the Islamists accused of harboring Al Qaeda. But this isn’t Baghdad—it’s Mogadishu. In Somalia clashes between Islamist-led insurgents and Ethiopian-backed government forces are constant—and underreported. They started in December 2006 when the Union of Islamic Courts (in power in south and central Somalia for just six months) was ousted by the current Transitional Federal Government, with support from the Ethiopian military, and with more than a tacit blessing from the United States. The U.N. Security Council recently extended the African Union peacekeeping mission in Somalia and requested the secretary-general “to continue to develop the existing contingency planning for the possible deployment of a United Nations Peacekeeping Operation.” Very tentative language, but the current peacekeeping effort is tentative, too. Last February the United Nations authorized the deployment of an 8,000-strong AU force to Somalia. Six months later only 1,800 peacekeeping troops from Uganda are on the ground. But is there a peace for them to keep? A National Reconciliation Conference, the 13th such effort in a decade, ended Aug. 30 after a month and a half of deliberations in Mogadishu, with no peace and no reconciliation in sight. On the contrary, mayhem is growing and the Iraq-style violence is resulting in an Iraq-style internal displacement; the United Nations puts the number of displaced people at 400,000 (from a total population of 7 million). This is almost as high a proportion as in Iraq, where 2 million are internally displaced and the population is 27 million. Because Somalis have nowhere to flee—Ethiopia, the intervening side, is not an option; Kenya closed its border and the flight across the Red Sea to Yemen is perilous—it is easier to ignore this quagmire internationally, since it has not produced refugees abroad. One of the favored destinations for the fleeing inhabitants of the Somali capital of Mogadishu is Galkayo, a town I visited recently for an assessment of humanitarian (water and sanitation) needs. It is 300 miles northeast of Mogadishu, and it sits exactly on the border of two clans traditionally at odds: the town’s southern half is USC and the northern half is SSDF. No barbed wire, wall or river separates the two sides. Strangely, it is a range of displaced persons’ settlements that constitutes the buffer zone, because as outsiders—mostly ex-Mogadishu residents—its occupants are pushed toward the outer limit of each part of Galkayo. There are now 42,000 internally displaced persons in the Galkayo region, and July saw more than 1,000 new arrivals. In the southern part of the town, the camp of Bulo Jawanley is not a typical row of tents but a series of miniscule nests that the newcomers make for themselves in every empty space they can find. The day I visited, five more busloads of people arrived from Mogadishu. Fitting the new arrivals into the already overcrowded space seemed like trying to squeeze extra bees onto a honeycomb. What I witnessed in Galkayo is happening all across the country. The U.N. refugee agency expects half a million Somalis to be displaced by the end of 2008. Dealing with such a large displaced population is beyond the capabilities of a weak transitional government, especially since Somalia has not functioned as a state for 16 years. From a humanitarian point of view the Somali tragedy may have even more dramatic consequences than the Iraqi tragedy, for two reasons. First, owing to the geopolitical situation of Somalia, its people have nowhere to flee and the country is like a pressure cooker. The second reason is that Somalia does not have even the basic infrastructure to fall back on, unlike what Iraq had before the U.S. intervention. This is why the international community must step in. But who can do it? International humanitarian organizations can try to help those who suffer from the combined effect of violence and drought—the EU has just allocated 10 million euros “for victims of continuing insecurity and climatic hazards”—but this will merely treat the symptoms of the crisis whereas ultimately the solution must be political. At the United Nations, another major crisis requires the attention of the Security Council: in Africa, Darfur overshadows Somalia, and there, in Sudan, the U.N. will join forces with the AU to field a new hybrid mission. On Somalia there seems to be full agreement among all sides: the meeting where the continuation of the AU peacekeeping mission was decided lasted just five minutes, from 11:05 a.m. to 11:10 a.m. President Bush (the elder) did send a humanitarian intervention to Somalia in late 1992, but it was ill-defined and ill-prepared. Heralded as Operation Restore Hope, it ended up months later in a tragedy known as “Black Hawk Down,” and the U.S. meekly withdrew. In post-9/11 American foreign policy, the Global War on Terror in Somalia was at first outsourced to local warlords, some of whom were supported financially because they were thought to oppose Al Qaeda. Last December’s proxy Ethiopian intervention was aimed at ousting the Islamic Courts but has not as yet achieved its goal. The stakes for the United States are understandably higher in Iraq and Afghanistan, where American troops are on the ground, than in the Horn of Africa.

Nordland: Somalia's Rent-a-Tree Disaster The situation in the troubled East African nation hardly seemed like it could get any worse. But it has. WEB EXCLUSIVE By Rod Nordland Newsweek Updated: 7:25 p.m. ET May 18, 2007 May 18, 2007 - How bad is it in Somalia? Bad enough that people fleeing the capital have been reduced to renting trees for shelter. It's the sort of thing that happens when drug-addled warlords roam the countryside, imposing taxes of 50 percent on aid recipients. And the sort of thing to be expected of a government whose prime minister, Ali Mohamad Gedi, has publicly accused the United Nations agency feeding the country of spreading cholera along with food deliveries. And that's the internationally recognized government, which enjoys U.S. support, although it is widely unpopular in southern Somalia and the capital, Mogadishu. That's not surprising, since the prime minister is from a clan that's hostile to the clan that dominates the capital, and the president, Abdulahi Yusuf, is from Puntland, in northern Somalia, a breakaway region that is best known as the homeland of Somalia's pirates, who once again are on the prowl, bedeviling aid shipments even further. "Is there actually any hope for the future in Somalia?" said the World Food Program's Somalia country director, Peter Goossens. "I don't know." Sixteen years after the established government fell in Somalia, the East African nation just lurches from one disaster to another, some man-made, some natural, each one deepening the humanitarian crisis. Last year marked more than six years of a record-breaking drought, followed by renewed fighting as the Islamic Courts Union sought to oust feuding clan warlords, which they did, establishing a semblance of order in the unruly capital and most of the country for the first time in a decade and a half. Then the drought ended—only to be replaced by devastating floods, cutting off much of the population from aid deliveries. And by the end of 2006, warfare resumed, with Ethiopia, encouraged by the United States, invading Somalia to oust the Islamic Courts, which were a little too pro-Al Qaeda for U.S. tastes, and prop up the Transitional Federal Government (TFG), an amalgamation of former warlords with little popular support in Somalia, but recognized internationally. Faced with Ethiopian tanks and warplanes, the ICU quickly collapsed and for the first time, the TFG took up office in the capital. This year promises to be no better, and probably still worse. The Courts fought back, particularly in Mogadishu, and the Ethiopians cracked down, killing 2,000 people in the capital (population about 1 million), and sending 365,000 residents fleeing into the countryside; 190,000 of them fled in April alone. It was the biggest exodus from the city in 16 years of conflict, and many thousands more were displaced within, unable to flee or get to their homes. For the first time, residents in Mogadishu had to turn to aid agencies for food aid—something previously only needed in the countryside. There it's even worse, with renewed flooding in this year's rainy season; presently World Food Program food supplies are only reaching 40 to 50 percent of people, and a fifth of those who fled the capital are completely without aid, according to WFP Somalia Country Director Peter Goossens. The TFG and its Ethiopian allies announced the insurgency was quelled two weeks ago, encouraging African Union (AU) countries to send troops to replace the Ethiopians, who are widely unpopular in Somalia even among those who didn't care for Islamist rule. So far only Uganda has sent a vanguard of 1,500 troops, far less than the 30,000 Ethiopians that the AU intends to replace, but other African countries have balked, saying there's no peace for peacekeepers to keep. While it's true that Mogadishu was quieter than it had been in months, the Islamists were still fighting back, this time using Iraq-style methods of roadside bombs, even suicide car bombings—tactics never before seen in Somalia. When John Holmes, the U.N.'s top emergency relief official, came to visit on May 12, three bombs were set along his route—the first went off and missed him by a few hundred yards, killing three Somalis. And when TFG president Yusuf met Uganda's president Yoweri Museveni on May 16 to thank him for his support, another roadside bomb went off in Mogadishu, killing four Ugandan soldiers and wounding five more. "Next it will be a plague of locusts," one aid official said, knocking on wood. Ethiopia has publicly declared that it wants to leave Somalia, but unless a large African Union contingent replaces them, the TFG will simply collapse; they were never any match for the Islamists. "We have a mandate after 16 years of no government to try and return to sanity," said Paddy Ankunda, spokesman for the AU force. "We can’t chicken out. There is a lot of goodwill among the populace, and we have the support of the Somali people.” The solution, everyone agrees, is a national reconciliation conference, in which the government and Somalia's powerful clans work out a political settlement that can quiet Mogadishu. That conference, however, has been postponed twice, with no clear date for its resumption. And diplomats worry that the TFG's stance that its opponents are all terrorists makes reconciliation impossible. Although the Islamic Courts did have extremist elements, there were also many moderate elements among them, particularly from the powerful ****** clan, which is dominant in Mogadishu. "Before you can have a national conference you need to solve this problem in Mogadishu," said Mario Raffaelli, the Italian envoy for Somalia. "To stop blasts like this, you need to have support of the population." TFG officials, however, seem to be in denial. The only problem, said government spokesman Hussein Mohammed, is that "Al Qaeda is hiding in the city," which otherwise is generally safe. He claims that bombs are being smuggled in from Iran with Farsi writing on them. "Most of the clans don't want to fight, they're too tired. The people linked to Al Qaeda want to kill all the time, they want to continue fighting," he says. The government has denied there was any mass flight from Mogadishu, saying there were only 40,000 who fled and many had returned—another point aid workers dispute. As for complaints from the aid community that authorities were blocking relief efforts, Mohammed called that a "totally baseless claim." Officials at the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs say their tallies of refugees from Mogadishu are based on long experience and a widespread network of aid agencies working in Somalia, and no one in the aid community disputes the estimates. What's less clear is what percentage of those who fled is getting aid. Raffaelli said it's as low as 15-20 percent; the WFP puts the figure at 80 percent, although nationwide only 40-50 percent of Somalis are being reached now, particularly because of problems getting access to flooded areas. In any case, hundreds of thousands of Somalis are in a perilous condition, and even those refugees who have received food aid often don't have shelter or medical care. In many areas warlords have reasserted their power, aligned to no particular side, taxing aid shipments and demanding half of the aid that individual recipients receive. To make matters worse, there's fear of another cholera epidemic, with 20,000 suspected cholera cases and 700 deaths so far this year in south and central Somalia. Incredibly, two weeks ago prime minister Gedi gave a radio interview in which he accused the World Food Programme of spreading cholera through its food shipments, on which most of the population of southern Somalia depends. Throughout Middle and Lower Shabele provinces, there are reports of refugees arriving in areas where there's already a severe crisis due to flooding and blocked aid deliveries, and being forced to take refuge under trees—and even being obliged to pay rent for those trees. In the Dibiyada district just outside Mogadishu, NEWSWEEK’s Abukar Albadri found a group of people who fled Mogadishu huddled under a large acacia tree on a farmstead, plastic sheets tied to the trunk. "We are eight families living under this tree," said Hani Hussein, 27, a mother of three. "We're neighbors and we wanted to stay together. At night all the men sleep on one side, the children and women on the other." For that privilege, she said they paid the local farmer $3 a family for a month, in advance, $24 in all. Farmer Hundubow Ali Hared laughingly acknowledged it. "People are destroying the grass in our farms that we need to feed our animals," he said, and "they are using our fields as toilets." Under another tree not far away, a midwife, herself a displaced person, delivered a baby to another refugee, with no hot water or medical supplies. In all, an estimated 20,000 families are taking refuge in the Dibiyada district, local aid workers said. The WFP has had growing difficulty getting food supplies into Somalia, as fewer and fewer shipping companies agree to carry grain shipments after a renewal of Somali piracy along the coast. Piracy had been stamped out during the Courts’ time, as the Islamists shut down their land bases. Now pirates operating from Puntland in the north seem to do so with impunity. And with normal commercial ports in Mogadishu and Kismayo closed by fighting or instability, the WFP has been offloading supplies onto beaches—a laborious process. "Somehow we still manage to do it," said Goossens. Lately even American officials have been critical of the TFG. "I think it is very clear that the key to solving the situation in Somalia and stabilizing it is to have this inclusive dialogue," the U.S. assistant secretary of state for Africa, Jendayi Frazer, told Voice of America recently. "And so trying to get the Transitional Federal Government to reach out to the various clans and sub-clans is a large part of our diplomacy." If they don't, said Raffaelli, the danger is that more and more Somalis will want to see a return of the Islamic Courts, who at least provided peace and stability in Mogadishu when they were in power last year. "People are already saying, for six months we have tasted security. We need desperately to come back to this." In aid-worker jargon, the Somalis seem to have developed "extreme coping mechanisms." Whatever nature and man throw at them, they seem for the most part to survive it—although a large part of the credit goes to a massive relief effort involving hundreds of NGOs and U.N. agencies. Goossens worries however that this latest phase could prove the most dangerous. If the Islamists' campaign of roadside and suicide bombing reaches the widespread, indiscriminate level seen in Iraq, it could make it impossible for those agencies to function. Those who fled Mogadishu went to areas where U.N. surveys already reported previous levels of malnutrition above the emergency threshold of 15 percent, and in some cases above 20 percent of the population. "You can't just send food to an area, you have to send people to make sure something useful happens to that food," he said. "And if bombing stops our people from going, I might as well dump that food into the water." In other words, for all Somalia's travails, it could still get worse. With Abukar Albadri in Mogadishu and Scott Johnson in Nairobi

^ And you suppose General Gabre and his subordinates Yeey and Geedi et al are handing out dates to the Somali people. War iski xishow.

Somali opposition figures to unite in Eritrea By Jack Kimball Tuesday, September 04, 2007 ASMARA (Reuters) - Somali opposition leaders, including several senior Islamists, are to meet in Eritrea from Thursday to try to unite against the Ethiopian-backed government at talks intended to a rival a Mogadishu peace conference. Many Somali dissidents have already made their home in Eritrea, which has been accused by the United States and United Nations of sending arms to insurgents battling Ethiopian and Somali government troops in Mogadishu. Other opposition figures were trickling in from abroad to fill up hotels in the capital Asmara. Organisers expect up to 450 delegates for the talks, expected to last between a week and ten days. "The idea is to make an alliance that will help make Somalia free again. We want Ethiopia to leave Somalia without the bloodshed and violence it has brought," said Ibrahim Adow, Somalia Islamic Courts Council (SICC) foreign affairs spokesman. Thousands of Ethiopian troops helped the interim Somali government drive the SICC out of Mogadishu and end its six-month rule of most of the south at the end of 2006. The Asmara talks aim to unite a wide range of anti-government players from dissident lawmakers, Islamists, civil society groups, and members of the Somali diaspora. "It will put a face on the opposition ... it's not going to unify all the opposition," a Nairobi-based analyst said. "It will create a focus for political and financial support." The meeting is set to start a week after a National Reconciliation Conference, backed by the government and the international community, closed in Somalia with a raft of resolutions but little impact on the Islamist-led insurgency raging in Mogadishu. Various opposition figures had boycotted those talks. LEADERSHIP QUESTIONS Former deputy prime minister, Hussein Aideed, said he hoped the Asmara conference would be more inclusive. "We need a common agenda, platform and vision. This conference will not solve all the problems of Somalia. We should create a consensus approach including those who disapprove of this conference," he told Reuters by telephone. "The failure of the last conference (in Mogadishu) was that it ignored key political leaders and positions and the venue was not correct," he added. Tussles over leadership posts in a new opposition umbrella group may surface in Asmara, analysts say. Organisers insist the new grouping will not be dominated by Islamists, whom Ethiopia and the United States have accused of having ties to al Qaeda. "The policy and strategy of the new organisation will be decided by the new leadership and not by the Islamic Courts," Abdirahman Warsame, representative of Somalia's diaspora community, told reporters in Asmara. The location of the talks is a controversial one since Washington has said it is considering placing Eritrea on its list of state sponsors of terrorism, accusing the country of aiding the Somali insurgents. Eritrea denies accusations of shipping arms to Somalia. "Hosting of the conference certainly sours relations with Washington further...It is as important a sore point for Washington as is the weapons pipeline," said a U.S. expert on Somalia, Michael Weinstein, of Power and Interest News Report. "The United States is unlikely to engage the (Somali) opposition and is likely to be more hostile than necessary because it is supported by Eritrea," the Nairobi-based analyst added. Source: Reuters, Sept 04, 2007

Originally posted by Miskiin-Macruuf-Aqiyaar: Terrier? Maxaa jiro uu Dalxaa ku noqday the Xabashi stooge's dog? All are Xabashi's dogs and stooges. Dalxaa is just airing what is apparent, and I don't think anybody sent him to do that. Sxb I would like to agree with you sxb, but let me ask you this, what is more apparent; his grievances or the presence of Ethiopian troops in the country, which has not been approved by his parliament nor any other International organisation, thus qualifying it as an occupation. Has Dalxa at any time stood up to expresses grivance against this at any time NO. Has he mentioned that the parliament should discuss the killing of innocent civilians on daily basis by ocuupyong troops, No. When Dalxa raises such issues sxb, then I will agree with you. As for now he is out to bite the back of Geedi, need I tell you more.

Originally posted by Jacaylbaro: Better or worse ??? Bal adba?

Originally posted by Jacaylbaro: It happens not only in Kismayo but we again often see girls being raped in Muqdishu too by Xabashis and other warlord militias ..... This is tragic indeed ......... Very Tragic indeed.

Prof Dalxa” waxaan Daremeynaa Cadaalad Darro xoog leh oo la xiriirta hanaanka awood qeybsiga, gaar ahaan ciidamada, Dhaqaalaha Dowladda, Safaaradaha iyo Agaasimayaasha dowladda… Mogadishu, Sabti , September 01 2007 SMC Gudoomiye ku xigeenka 1-aad ee Baarlamaanka Federaalka ah ee Soomaaliya Prof Maxamed Cumar Dalxa oo maanta u waramayey Idaacada Somaliweyn ee Muqdisho ayaa waxa uu sheegay in Baarlamaanka Federaalka uu si deg deg ah ugu yeerayo Taliyayaasha ciidamada Dowladda si wax looga weydiiyo habka qorashada Cidamada oo ay ka muuqato Cadaalad daro xoog leh, gaar ahaan in maleeshiyooyinkii oo kale ay wax walba xaq u yeesheen iyada oo umadii kalana ay iska daawanayaan. Prof Dalxa waxa uu sheegay in dhamaan Taliyayaasha Xooga Dalka, Booliska, Asluubta iyo Nabadsugiga looga fadhiyo in ay ka jawaabaan su’aalaha ay xildhibaanada Baarlamaanka weydiinayaan, kuwaas oo la xiriira Cadaalad darada laga cawday ee la xiriirta habka qorashada Ciidamada. Gudoomiyuhu waxa uu dhinaca kale ka hadlay in sidoo kale loo yeeray hanti dhowrka guud ee Qaran iyo Xisaabiyaha si ay iyna u soo bandhigaan qarashaadka dowladda soo galay iyo sidii loo maareeyey, isaga oo carabka ku adkeeyey in Mudanayaasha Baarlamaanka ay xaq u leeyihiin in ay la socdaan dhaqaalaha dalka soo gala iyo sida loo maamulo. Prof Dalxa waxa uu dhinaca kale hadlay Safaaraha Dowladda Federaalka ah ay u safiirada u magacaabatay ee dunida kuwaas oo uu ku tilmaamay in ay ka jirto cadaalad daro aad u baahsan , waxaana muuqaneysa buu yiri in lagu tuntay awood qeybsigii lagu hishiiyey, isaga oo hoosta ka xariiqay in ay lagama maarmaan tahay in lagu xisaabtami doono dhamaan safaaraha la magacaabay. Baarlamaanka Federaalka ah ee Soomaaliya ayaa ayaa todobaadyadan waxa ay ku howlanaayeen su’aalo weydiinta Xukuumada R/wasaare Geedi iyada oo maalin walba uu baarlamaanka hortiisa imaanayey Wasiir, isla markaana ka jawaabayey su’aalaha la weydiiyo. Somaliweyn Media Center (SMC) Mogadishu Somalia Clearly Dalxa is out to pinch and question the authority of Geedi. This is a clear sign that once again the top stooges are not in the same wave lenght. Geedi might have a better support in the influencing support of Xabashi, but lacks the common support among the Xabashi subordinates the TFG. Dalxa solely demonastrates that he is on instruction, but I doubt whether force commanders and ambassadors will line to answer his questions - lets see as the latest epic unfolds.

Ergooyinkii ka qeybgalay Shirweynihii ka socday Muqdisho oo qaarkood Deymo farqaha loo heysto, ka dib markii uu soo afjarmay Shirkii ay ka qeybgalayeen Mogadishu, Sabti , September 01 2007 SMC Ka dib markii uu soo afjarmay shirweynihii Muqdisho ka soconayey ayaa waxaa durba soo if baxday in ergooyinka ay bilaabaan qabanqaabada scodaalkoodii goobaha aya ka kala yimaadeen, iyaga oo dhinaca illaa maanta quud dareynayey sidii ay u heli lahaayeen lacagihii loo qorsheeyey mudadii uu socday shirweynaha. Ergooyinkan oo mudadii shirika ku sugnaa Hoteelo iyo goobo gaar ahaaneed ayaa waxaa Muuqaneysa in lagu wargaliyey in waqtigoodii uu idlaaday isla markaana laga doonayo qarashaadkii ay ku deganaayeen Hoteelada, inkastoo inta badan Hoteelada iyo Xarumaha kale ay si toos ah ula hishiiyeen shirgudoonka hadana waxa ay dhibaato ka taagned dad iyagu sii deyn gashaday Ergooyinka. Deymaha gaar ahaaneed ee lagu yeeshay Ergooyinka ayaa waxaa ka mid ah , Qarashaad ku baxay Adeegyada Muhiimka ah sida Isgaarsiinta, hagaajinta martida iyo arimo kale , waxaana illaa shalay iyo maanta la arkayey dad aad u fara badan oo isugu jira rag iyo dumar kuwaas oo farqaha heysta Ergooyinkii ay deyn gashadeen. Mid ka mid ah Ergooyinka oo aan wax ka weydiinay arintan ayaa waxa uu inoo sheegay in dadkan ay ku balamiyeen in ay noo yimaadaan marka aan wax qaadano, waxa uuna carabka ku adkeeyey in aysan weli jirin wax qarashaad ah oo ay weli qaateen. Ergooyinka Shirweynaha dib u hishiisiinta ee Mudada 45-ta Cesho ka socday Magaalada Muqdisho ayaa weli waxa ay ku noqnoqnayaan Xarunta Maamulka Shirka ee Hotel Amaana, inkastoo Shir gudoonka uu sheegay in qof waliba uu qarashaadkiisa u doonan karo shirkada Dahab shiil hadana weli waxaa Muuqaneysa in ergooyinku aysan weli soo gaarin wax Qarashaad ah. Somaliweyn Media Center (SMC) Mogadishu Somalia

Originally posted by HornAfrique: Col. C/risaaq Afgaduud uu wado abaabul aruurin ciidan bacdamaa horay looga soo saaray deegaanka J/Hoose oo ay gacanta ku hayaan maliishiyo beeleed. Dont they ever get tired? Lool@maliishiyo beeled, malaha kuwa Afgaduud ma aha beel Soomaaliyeed ee wa Vietnamese..

Originally posted by NGONGE: we need 2 see pics 2 know how bad tings R! There it is in what is usually called a nutshell. Indeed..! When we have this kind od pics displayed on daily basis dont you think it is only fair to post different ones that depict the reality going on in the ground, unprecedented genocide.

Originally posted by Emperor: now am I talking sense at all? Indeed. However I differ in strenghtening the TFG. My case I think you outlined already - since you agree that the TFG has no face value in its current form, you should also realise sxb that the strenght it requires is not within it. For that I say the TFG is yes an entity we need, but in a form where it is representative and balanced in authority, power and decission making. An entity which all its organs are independent from each other, yet compliment. In my view sxb the TFG cannot no longer be limited to those who established it in Dofarey. Others should be included, especially those who establisfed an effective authority in its absence. Hence this will eradicate the dominance and abuse of power within it and elimanate the Ethiopian influence. Above all it will mirror those that it wants to governance. See sxb, all I want is acceptable and inclussive governance, I dont care who leads, for all I care it could be the devil himself, Duke I mean.

Originally posted by Naxar Nugaaleed: If I were you, I would not put much value on the concerns and observations of "undisclosed" foreign deplomats and analyst! And I suppose you would want me to agree with you that Zenawi and Gabre are indigenous hence dont qualify as foreign interferers. Saxiib there is an element of substance in your argument, yet on the other hand 'waxaad rabta in aad xalaleysato xaranta' and that cant combine. The time when you accept that there is also critical foreign guidance (specially Xabashi) within the TFG, then would we best debate how can it best be eliminated from both parties. Lakiin adigi oo xaar dhaforka ku marsan yahey in aad tirah xarka iska so dhaq wa qalad.

Originally posted by Emperor: ^LOL at Asmara, Jujow Sxb runti you are funny, what do you expect from Asmara? Honestly go on and contribute. Lool..! Horta sidada oo kale mara ku dheg noqon maayo. In honest opinion I expect nothing from Asmara, and I seriosly dont believe it will produce anything less nor more than the circus in Xamar. However on the other hand I believe there is the presence of individuals in Asmara who could steer this country, Somalia, from the path of apathy is being led to now by TFG. But, a big BUT, they cannot do it alone and some sort of formula needs to be worked out between them in Asmara and them in Xamar to safe this country. None can do without the other. To precedd all this we need the eviction of Ethiopians and TFG should be at the forefront of this step, likewise there should be end to hostility mutually. We cannot get anywhere if we recognise this TFG as it is. Now Emporeer talk sense and reply.

Somalia peace talks fail as UN roots for all-inclusive dialogue MOGADISHU (AFP) - Talks to halt fighting in Somalia end in failure on Thursday, prompting foreign diplomats to press for a new and all-inclusive approach to rescue the African nation from deeper turmoil. At least 1,000 delegates drawn from all Somali clans ended six weeks of negotiations in northern Mogadishu, where the government is facing a deadly insurgency, with a call not to give up. The UN special envoy for Somalia Francois Fall urged the fledgling government "to reach out to all opposition groups, those within and outside Somalia." "In this regard, I once again call on both sides to demonstrate political will and courage to engage in serious negotiations," he told about 2,500 delegates and observers attending the closing ceremony. Other diplomats said a different approach was key to pacifying the country, where numerous UN-backed initiatives have unravelled under a welter of clan feuds and power struggles. "We know this conference has gone nowhere. The problem is blind confidence in the (government)," a foreign diplomat told AFP, but Somali elders argued that at least such talks had been managed. "We all wanted to support it and we all did (that, but) it did not rise to the occasion, so we need a different approach now," said the diplomat, who asked not to be named. President Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed said "reconciliation is open until Somalia becomes a peaceful country," but gave no specific outcomes. "I encourage you delegates to maintain your efforts to bring peace," Yusuf added. Elders said the attendance level at the Somali National Congress was in itself a favourable first step. More than 1,000 delegates -- of the invited 3,000 -- representing the country's five clans met in Mogadishu to discuss power and wealth sharing, among other issues. Security was tight in the seaside capital, with Ethiopian forces patrolling key intersections. "The meeting is closing but the reconciliation remains open, it does not mean we have solved everything but the results we obtained show the congress is a stepping stone for future peace," said Mohamud Haji Mohamed, an elder. The meeting, which opened on July 15, was requested by foreign nations and sponsored by the transitional government of Prime Minister Ali Mohammed Gedi. The government's main Islamist foes, who were defeated earlier this year with the help of neighbouring Ethiopia, boycotted the conference, as did a large part of Mogadishu's dominant USC clan. Western intelligence agencies have accused the Islamists of links with Al Qaeda groups and this year US forces attacked positions in the country believed to be an haven for extremists. This worsened relations between the Somali foes. "To move the reconciliation process forward, there is an urgent need to delink the settlement of the political crisis in Somali from a legitimate concern about terrorism in the region," Fall said "To fight terrorism in this country is to pursue open dialogue and genuine reconciliation among all the parties Somalia." Some elders scoffed at the talks, the latest peace endeavour in a country which has defied a dozen initiatives to end the bloodshed that has continued almost uninterrupted since the 1991 ouster of dictator Mohamed Siad Barre. "It started and elders met to drink coffee in a big hall but nobody seems able to explain what the real outcome is. I believe this congress was just a holiday break for elders from faraway regions," said Haji Adan Mohamed, a USC elder. He and many others present and in the streets of Mogadishu pointed out that violence had escalated in the capital despite the peace talks. "Mogadishu, which is hosting the congress, is in flames and we should find ways of bringing all the stakeholders together including the insurgents," Amino Hasan Warsame, one of the few women who attended the conference, told AFP. Islamist and other key opposition players will be holding their own meeting in the Eritrean capital Asmara on September 1, with a focus on demanding an end to Ethiopian occupation. The government has blamed Islamists for the almost daily guerrilla-style attacks in Mogadishu against government targets, Ethiopian troops and African Union peacekeepers, killing dozens every week. Civilians have borne the brunt of the violence, which has seen government troops often accused of indiscriminate raids in response to insurgent attacks. AFP

Somalia: Opinions Mixed As Reconciliation Conference Winds Up Opinions Mixed As Reconciliation Conference Winds Up UN Integrated Regional Information Networks NEWS 30 August 2007 Posted to the web 30 August 2007 Nairobi Organisers of Somalia's national reconciliation conference hailed the meeting as a success even as analysts expressed doubts over the outcome, saying major parties in the current crisis had been left out of the peace-making process. "The conference will come to a close today [30 August]. It has been a success," said Abdulkadir Walayo, media adviser to the National Governance and Reconciliation Commission (NGRC), which organised the conference. Walayo said the conference marked the first time in 16 years that Somali clans "formally sat down to reconcile and forgive one another". His observation was echoed by the government spokesman Abdi Haji Gobdon, who said the Transitional Federal Government (TFG) viewed this phase of the conference as "a total success". He said the government would forge ahead with reconciliation and planned to send delegates to the regions and districts to explain the conference outcome to communities. The conference was postponed three times amid threats of violence and even when it got under way on 15 July, it was marred by boycotts by some key parties. According to analysts, however, the conference did not achieve much and failed in its main task of reconciliation. "Reconciliation is the most urgent priority for Somalia but the TFG defined it in deliberately narrow terms, related to clans only. The conference achieved very little since none of the key issues essential to restoring security, as well as a broader peace, was discussed," said Salim Lone, a newspaper columnist and political commentator based in Nairobi, Kenya. Timothy Othieno, Horn of Africa analyst at the Institute for Global Dialogue in Johannesburg, described the conference as "a total failure" because of the way the participants were chosen and the arbitrary tactics of the TFG. "The TFG determined who was going to attend and who wasn't. You cannot place conditions on participants if you are trying to reconcile a nation." The ****** clan, the dominant group in Mogadishu, and the Union of Islamic Courts (UIC) were left out of the process, he said. "This indeed signalled the end of the 'conference' even before it began," Othieno said. The TFG forgot that it was an interim government created to "to facilitate a process that would legitimise whoever is chosen by the people - via credible elections", he added. A civil society source in Mogadishu, who said they had not been invited to the conference, complained that it was "a missed opportunity". The gathering should have been all-inclusive, and held at a neutral venue, he said. "Unfortunately, neither the armed nor the unarmed opposition was invited," he said. Mogadishu was not a neutral venue for the meeting, he added. Added Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed of the UIC: "From beginning to end [the conference] was not about the interests of the Somali people but to legitimise the occupation." Ethiopia sent its troops to Mogadishu in late 2006 to help the TFG defeat UIC forces and its soldiers, who are widely seen as occupiers, are still in the city. Sheikh Ahmed said those who participated in the conference represented no one but themselves. "If anything, the conference has worsened the plight of the population in Mogadishu", pointing out that thousands of people continue to leave the city due to the insecurity. Way forward All agree that the only hope for peace now is an all-inclusive conference. "The way forward must be to convene a conference under UN [united Nations] or AU [African Union] direction in a neutral venue where all parties and individuals feel safe," said Lone. Such a conference should not have thousands of people, according to Othieno. "All you need is the participation of the major players and stakeholders in Somalia who would sit down at one table and thrash out their differences by focusing on common interests and goals," he said. Indeed, François Fall, the UN Special Representative for Somalia, on behalf of the International Advisory Committee, said: "Whilst the conclusion of this Congress marks yet another milestone in the quest for peace and reconciliation in Somalia, it does not, however, signify the end of the reconciliation process." Fall urged the TFG to pursue efforts to reach out to all opposition groups both within and outside Somalia and to ensure an effective implementation of the Transitional Federal Charter. The best way to fight terrorism in Somalia, he said, "is to pursue open dialogue and genuine reconciliation among all the parties". According to Sheikh Ahmed, the international community should help the Somali people as a facilitator "but should respect the wishes of the people. We can talk about anything so long as there is no occupation and no interference." Analysts argue that both the TFG and international community needed to change tack if any solution is to be achieved. "The TFG needs to adopt a less confrontational approach to dealing with the opposition and humble themselves genuinely if they have the interests of Somalis at heart. Personal agendas and interests need to be put aside for the greater good of Somalia," said Othieno. According to Lone, the international community, particularly "the US, UN, AU and IGAD [intergovernmental Authority on Development] should recognise that they must reach out to and engage with all those who enjoy a level of popular support. Any concerns they might have about such groups should be candidly discussed and negotiated." The TFG for its part said the conference was not the end of the reconciliation process. "The government will continue to pursue national reconciliation with the opposition," said Gobdon. He said that contacts had been established with the political opposition and "once they agree to a meeting, a suitable venue will be found". 30 August 2007 Posted to the web 30 August 2007 All Africa

Somali reconciliation conference ends - with little progress Aug 30, 2007, 16:50 GMT Mogadishu/Nairobi - A European Union-backed reconciliation conference seen as the last best chance to bring peace to anarchic Somalia drew to a close after 45 days Thursday - to little progress. The conference, which several key opposition groups are boycotting, saw some 2,000 representatives of rival clans and sub- clans take part in talks beset by adjournments and postponements. 'The conference saw a large sum of pledges from foreign donors, but it did not reach its intended objective - to reconcile the warring factions and restore stability in Mogadishu' said one delegation member who requested not to be unnamed. The start of the conference on July 15 had been interrupted by mortar shelling, part of a continuing Iraq-style insurgency against the transitional government that has seen more than 1,000 people killed in months of violence. Somalia has been without effective rule since the 1991 ouster of dictator Mohammed Siad Barre, which swept the country into anarchy. Source

Emperor, the TFG and the word peace are not compatible sxb. As for the 'shir', take a deep breathe, shah kulul cab, and come to the factual conclussion that the 'circus' has come to an end with no constructive solution (as expected by many others), and thatit was utter failure and waste of time. Rumours has it that the UNDP told Ali Mahdi that the government did not need any money considering the money the PM spend on his son's wedding in Nairobi. What a joke this TFG is becoming. The conference has dramatically concluded cause of its iminent failure, Asmara one looks all so bright and getting all the attention. What does that tell you sxb?

Originally posted by Reer Banaadir: Duke..Stop lying.... ...let's talk about reality on the ground if security and safety is measured by the killing, raping, pillaging, de-popolating the city, for getting about the rest of the country, the famine, lack of basic medical treatments and human rights..then somalia is the safest place on this planet and the government is strong trusworthy government. Indeed..!

Tribute to the old man - Allah uu Naxaristo

^^ Saxiib ninkan hal dheg ayu wax ka maqla.