Guardian's editorial

[Miskiin-Macruuf-Aqiyaar]

My favourite paper had this scathing editorial about the Xabashi stooges today. Even non-Soomaalis ayaa dhiigooda kacay, boiling, which few Soomaali ku sheegiina ku farxaayo walaalahooda la xasuuqaayo. A freakin' world.

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Death and denial

 

The Guardian

November 21, 2007

 

The UN estimates that 173,000 people have fled Mogadishu, the war-torn capital of Somalia, in the last three weeks alone. Add that to the 330,000 people who have already fled the capital this year and it amounts to a humanitarian disaster that rivals or exceeds Darfur. Somalia's transitional president, Abdullahi Yusuf, a British- and US-backed warlord, wants the city to empty. He said in Nairobi that Mogadishu's civilians can either choose to fight the Islamist insurgents or consider themselves targets in his war on terror. Eleven months after inviting the Ethiopian army into Somalia, the Transitional Federal Government (

which is neither transitional nor federal, nor a government

) is wreaking savage revenge on a population whether or not it shelters insurgents.

 

The sad truth is that, as long as the international community averts its gaze from the plight of hundreds of thousands of refugees living under trees within 30 kilometres of the Somali capital, the war can last indefinitely. Up to two divisions of Ethiopian troops are camped around the city, and a further 10,000 TFG militiamen hold key points and junctions. But when the Ethiopian convoys move through the city they are often ambushed. They reply with indiscriminate shelling, house-to-house raids and hostage-taking.

 

Human Rights Watch reported on the consequences of an ambush near the livestock market in Huriwa in the north of the city on November 8, when the body of an Ethiopian soldier was dragged through the streets. The Ethiopians replied with an offensive which left bodies scattered over a wide area -16 in Huriwa, two in another neighbourhood, seven in another. Did they die in the crossfire or were they the victims of summary executions? We may never know, because the TFG accompanies its military onslaught with a similar one against the media and aid agencies. Four radio stations, the only source of news in Somalia, have been closed down and journalists are regularly killed by both sides.

 

Lack of information helps, of course. It allows Britain, which backs Yusuf, and shelters members of his "government", to claim a convenient degree of ignorance. But the insurgency, meanwhile, is gathering pace, fuelled by popular anger. It is a combination of hardline Islamists in the Shabaab youth movement, and the Resistance, who regard their primary enemy as Ethiopia. At some point they will split, but for now graphic pictures of Somali suffering fill jihadi websites in the same way that Palestine and Chechnya once did. It is becoming a fighting cause.

Britain should reassess its support for a warlord who has brought mayhem and havoc back to the streets of Mogadishu

.

[Paragon]

This is Channel4's Report on Mogadishu tonight

[Paragon]

I like the questions of the newsreader. Telling the UN official to admit that Ethiopian presence and American involvement has been disasterious in Somalia.

[Blessed]

'the Transitional Federal Government (which is neither transitional nor federal, nor a government)'

 

Indeed, thank you!

 

 

As long as Ethiopia and her boys in the TFG (not, not, not) are preventing the rule of 'Militant Islamists', America, England and the UN don't give a hoot about the human suffering, no matter how large. Kudos to Guardian and C4 for highlighting it, though.

[Ducaysane]

For me, Those who are advocating Somaliland to separe the rest of Somalia are equally guilty as TFG puppets. Why can't we just get along

[Cara.]

^There must be a universe where that sentiment makes sense, but it ain't here.

[Che -Guevara]

Where is the fun in life if all get along?

[Jacaylbaro]

Originally posted by Ducaysane:

For me, Those who are advocating Somaliland to separe the rest of Somalia are equally guilty as TFG puppets. Why can't we just get along

Sorry, we can't get along with chaos ... Alxamdulillah for what we have today

[NASSIR]

is wreaking savage revenge on a population whether or not it shelters insurgents.

This statement is highly opinionated, without substance, and too insipid to be under the political influence of the false accusations the proponents of the Insurgents write and make up.

 

I thought the Guardian editorial board was much better informed than to fall for such slogans.

 

Are these innocent people paying the price of “savage revenge” or were they caught between the roaring guns of two determined, power-hungry, entities? Is the editorial piece to absolve the Guardian press from earlier statements it made in support of her country's policies and which justified America's air strikes on the fleeing Islamists? I don't understand what purpose was the board trying to attain in writing such pointless accusation.

 

I am quite worn-out of the finger pointing accusations on one group(s), making up lies, and promoting conspiracy theories as if they would reverse the dire situation in Somalia in favor of another. Lots of Turmoil being exchanged and shared.

[Castro]

^^^^ It's an editorial, atheer. Don't get twisted in a knot. The point MMA is trying to make with this editorial is how even non-Somalis can easily see the non-federal, non-transitional, and non-government entity is rapidly losing the support of the West.

 

Britain should reassess its support for a warlord who has brought mayhem and havoc back to the streets of Mogadishu.

Guess who is being referred to as a warlord? And no, it's not a trick question.

[Juje]

It is a combination of hardline Islamists in the Shabaab youth movement, and the Resistance, who regard their primary enemy as Ethiopia. At some point they will split

I think we are already into the 'split' stage.

[Naxar Nugaaleed]

"Guess who is being referred to as a warlord? And no, it's not a trick question."

Aren't these people the same gaalo you want to kick out or are ethios the only galo?

[Miskiin-Macruuf-Aqiyaar]

Robert Fisk's paper, another respected British newspaper, reports from Afgooye.

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Somalia war-refugee crisis surpasses Darfur in its horror

 

Afgoye, Somalia, 22 November 2007 (

The Independent

) - They arrive in trucks and cars, by donkey and on foot. Some children have even been carried in wheelbarrows. There is little in the way of food, just a handful of latrines and hardly any shelter – but still they come.

 

In three short weeks this 10-mile stretch of road – a pot-holed, cactus-lined, dirt track that leads west out of Mogadishu – has become home to the world's largest concentration of displaced people. Almost 200,000 people who have fled the violence in Mogadishu now live in 70 makeshift camps that have sprung up along the side of the road, many of them little more than shelters fashioned from twigs, rusting corrugated iron and plastic.

 

There are one million displaced people in the country, according to the UNHCR; 60 per cent of Mogadishu's population, 600,000 people, are believed to have fled.

 

United Nations officials now consider Somalia to be the worst humanitarian crisis in Africa, surpassing even Darfur in its horror and hopelessness. The rate of severely malnourished children is higher, the daily fighting is fiercer, and the amount of interest from the rest of the world is incomparably lower. Eric Laroche, the UN's aid co-ordinator for Somalia, said: "Since it is in Somalia no one cares. Many of these kids are going to die."

 

A country of 10 million, perched on Africa's easternmost tip, Somalia has in the past 12 months been battered by drought, floods, even a plague of locusts. But its role in the United States' "war on terror" has caused it the most pain.

 

Ethiopia invaded its neighbour on Christmas Day last year, aiming to drive out the Union of Islamic Courts, a coalition of Islamist groups which had taken control of large swaths of the south and centre.

 

The Courts' fighters were easily defeated by one of Africa's strongest armies. But within weeks, its hardline military wing, known as Al Shabaab, had re-emerged, launching a deadly Iraq-style insurgency. But the Ethiopians and Somali government troops have also attacked residential districts where they believe the insurgents are – 200,000 people have left in just three weeks.

 

The civil war has lasted 17 years. But this time, say those in Afgoye's wretched camps, is different.

 

Halima Ibrahim watched her husband die four days ago after their home was hit by a shell. In the chaos she gathered four of her eight children. "I could not find the others... They are killing old women, they are killing children," she spat. "Those Ethiopians deserve to die." Hatred towards the Ethiopians is matched only by a longing for the return of the Islamic Courts, who ruled Mogadishu from June to December. "We had peace then," said Ifrah Umaar, 30. "For six months we were happy."

 

Rampant insecurity has made Somalia a difficult place to deliver aid. Militias charge up to $400 per truck at roadblocks and the government has even accused aid workers of "feeding terrorists" by providing support to those who have fled.

 

"Someone who is severely malnourished is not a terrorist," replied Mr Laroche.

 

Those lining the road to Afgoye can only sit and wait.

[Miskiin-Macruuf-Aqiyaar]

The Spiegel, the widely read German magazine, had this interview with a UN official

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'They Are Dying in Our Arms'

 

The refugee crisis in Somalia is quickly spiralling out of control. SPIEGEL spoke with the UN humanitarian coordinator for Somalia Christian Balslev-Olesen about the new wave of refugees, the danger of a famine and the helplessness of aid workers.

 

More dire than the situation in Darfur -- that's how United Nations officials are describing the worsening humanitarian crisis in Somalia. The UN refugee agency said Tuesday that the fighting has forced 1 million people to flee their homes.

 

In the capital Mogadishu, violence has been escalating in recent weeks between Ethiopian soldiers aiding the unpopular transitional government and Islamic resistance fighters.

 

The UN High Commissioner for Refugees said that about 600,000 people are thought to have fled from Mogadishu since February, with nearly 200,000 displaced in the past two weeks alone. United Nations officials are calling attention to the severity of the humanitarian crisis, which they are describing as the worst in Africa.

 

There has been no functioning government in the country since the warlords overthrew a dictator in 1991 and, with the worst harvest in 13 years, over 1 million Somalis are now dependent on humanitarian aid. However, food is reaching only a fraction of the hungry and the problem is compounded by the pirates who rule the waters off the Somali coast and make it difficult for supplies to reach those in need. On Monday UN-chartered food vessels were only able to dock at a Somali port under the protection of a French naval escort.

 

As people continue to flee Mogadishu by the thousands, Christian Balslev-Olesen, UN Humanitarian Coordinator for Somalia, spoke with SPIEGEL about the hardships they face and the prospects of famine in the war-torn country.

 

SPIEGEL

: You recently wrote an open letter to the warring parties in Somalia, warning of new human rights abuses and mass displacement. What is your assessment of the situation?

 

Christian Balslev-Olesen

: It is extremely serious. More than 800,000 people are now refugees, and 150,000 are now vegetating along the 30 kilometers between Mogadishu and city of Afgoye. That is a world record. You won't find that level of refugee misery in any other country in the world.

 

SPIEGEL

: Are you able to provide adequate care for all of these people?

 

Balslev-Olesen

: Not really. The available food doesn't even cover their basic requirements. These people have suffered 17 years of civil war. Their strength is fading.

 

SPIEGEL

: Why is it so difficult to reach the refugees?

 

Balslev-Olesen

: There is shooting everywhere. In Mogadishu entire districts are empty of people. Even our own local UN employees are trying to flee. The aid organizations are saying that people are dying in their arms because the shooting prevents them from getting the people to the hospitals.

 

SPIEGEL

: What is going to happen?

 

Balslev-Olesen

: If the situation doesn't improve soon we are going to start seeing images like those from the beginning of the 1990s, in which children died of starvation in droves. There are already cholera outbreaks and massive malnutrition. At the beginning of this year, 1,300 children died of cholera. The last two harvests were very poor, so a famine is imminent.

 

SPIEGEL

: How much cooperation is there between you and the transitional government in Mogadishu?

 

Balslev-Olesen

: Our relationship is very fraught. There are constant attacks on civilian institutions, which we cannot accept. Even the leader of the World Health Program was held for two weeks by Somali police. The transitional government is recognized internationally, so it should behave like a government. They should respect human rights and concentrate on feeding the people.

[N.O.R.F]

Anyone who continues their support for the occupation and TFG after recent events is a sick individual!

 

Simple!