Nin cadaana oo sheegay in Hargeisa lagu cunsuradeeyo

[oba hiloowlow]

 

Nimcaan

[Al-Miskiin]

"Nin cad"= singular!

 

Markay sheekadu isku badasho

 

"Niman cadcad= Plural

 

 

Than people will take it serious.

 

Hal nin oo si xun loo fiiriyey war maaha, marka intii la qabto la garaaco, ilkaha loo saaro sibidhka and than kick him in the face(Remember American history X), than it's racism, inta ka horaysa waa iska calaacal iyo "ala fiiriya soomaaliyaan daganahay"! Get over yourself man.

[Wiil Cusub]

Hal nin oo si xun loo fiiriyey war maaha, marka intii la qabto la garaaco, ilkaha loo saaro sibidhka and than kick him in the face(Remember American history X), than it's racism, inta ka horaysa waa iska calaacal iyo "ala fiiriya soomaaliyaan daganahay"! Get over yourself man.

when their is no big news, journals mast publish Calaacal to cover pages and some cases Calaalcal become hit. they call "Silly season"

[Wiil Cusub]

Dartmouth man’s son in plea for help from British Government

 

THE son of a South Hams water engineer murdered in Africa is pleading for help from the British Government.

Nim’an Bowden, who lives in Somaliland, claims he is one of five children whose father Brian Bowden was from Dartmouth.

Brian Bowden, who was born in Dartmouth in 1928, left Britain in 1958 to work for the Hargeisa Water Agency, in northern Somalia, what is now the self-declared independent state of Somaliland. He later married a Somali woman.

At the start of 1991, as rival tribal militias fought to gain control of the country and overthrow President Mohamed Siad Barre, Mr Bowden was working at the British embassy in Somalia’s capital city Mogadishu.

Ian McCluney, the ambassador at the time, was evacuated by the Americans, along with other embassy staff on January 6, 1991.

Mr Bowden stayed behind to protect his Somali wife and family, as the bloody civil war was being fought around them.

The British Government at the time said Mr Bowden, described by journalist and author Aidan Hartley in his book The Zanzibar Chest as ‘the last Englishman in the whole of Somalia’, had been offered the chance to leave but chose not to, preferring instead to stay behind, look after his wife and children, the embassy and its local staff.

Not long afterwards, Mr Bowden was bludgeoned to death in front of his family.

The Foreign Office said then that he had been ‘killed by an armed gang’ and that Mr Bowden ‘had been given the opportunity to leave’ and the decision to stay was his.

According an African newspaper report at the time, the state-run Mogadishu radio station said: ‘Mr Bowden was murdered at his home by an eight-man gang who made off with gold, money and food.’ The report added that Somali police were hunting the killers.

The BBC reported that, in an interview shortly before his death, Mr Bowden said he had stayed behind because his wife was a Somali and he did not have enough money for a flight to the UK.

The report added: ‘He said when he’d originally considered leaving... the British authorities sent him forms to fill out as the bullets were flying around.’

In an email to this newspaper, Nim’an Bowden, who is now in his mid-20s and living in a refugee camp in Hargeisa, said: ‘My father was the last British citizen working in the British embassy of Somalia in Mogadishu in early 1991 when Somalia entered into chaos and anarchy and the central government collapsed.’

He added that after the British Government had stopped paying staff at the embassy, his father, who was ‘very much a humanitarian’, had borrowed money from a local lender to pay wages. Armed thugs followed him and he was robbed and killed.

Nim’an said that after his father’s murder, the family went back to Hargeisa but ‘we lost my elder brother in the Mogadishu chaos’. He added: ‘My mother, Run Aw Dahir Mohamed, also died in 1994 and then I had to face a difficult time and every hardship in life.

‘I was among the vulnerable street children in the valley of Hargeisa and in the open and who lived on a hook and by a crook – I was doing shoe polishing and every heavy child labour for the business places in Hargeisa.’

He added: ‘I have long suffered from loneliness and have been the victim of severe discrimination as I am regarded an outcast.’

Nim’an wants the British Government to allow him and his wife to have his passports to come to Britain.

Mark Jones, the London-based chief executive of the Horn of Africa Business Association, who is backing Nim’an’s cause, said: ‘[brian] Bowden’s Somali wife is now dead and his children are in a desperate situation made all the worse by the fact that they are of mixed race. Bowden’s youngest son, Nim’an, has been an orphan since he was six and has to live on the streets since strangers occupied his family home and he has no means of affording legal redress.

‘Nim’an has suffered constant harassment because of his mixed heritage and has felt suicidal because of his desperate situation.

‘Now “living” in Hargeisa, his situation is a dire one, as he is deemed of no tribe, a non-person, an outcast.

‘A child of love, a child of two nations united by history: he has been abandoned and forgotten by his father’s homeland and shunned and derided by the land of his mother.’

He added: ‘Nim’an lives in the capital of a land Britain is yet to officially acknowledge [somaliland declared its independence from the rest of Somalia in May 1991].

‘The excuses for inaction from British officials and those in Whitehall are and will be legion.

‘In this case sophistry and semantics should not be allowed to triumph. Britain has a moral duty to act and to do the decent thing.

‘Britain owes a debt to Brian Bowden, a debt of honour, one it must pay in full by standing by his children. Nim’an deserves to be allowed to have a future.’

South Hams MP Sarah Wollaston said: ‘I have made enquiries and helped them with the guidance for applications.’

 

****************************************************

[Wiil Cusub]

British ambassador looks into ‘son of Dartmouth man’ claim

Friday, 05 July 2013

 

Nim’an about to get into a taxi in Hargeisa

THE newly-appointed British ambassador to Somalia says he will look into claims a Dartmouth man’s son is living in Hargeisa.

Neil Wigan, who only took up his post at the start of this week, was responding to email sent by this newspaper.

He said that prior to taking up his post he had been briefed about the claims made by Nim’an Bowden, published in this paper last week, that his father was Brian Bowden, who had married a Somali woman and worked at the former British embassy in Mogadishu.

Water engineer Brian Bowden, who left Britain for Somalia in 1958, stayed behind when the British embassy was evacuated during the Somalia civil war in 1991. He was killed shortly afterwards by an armed gang.

Mr Wigan said he would be consulting with local colleagues to assess the latest information before getting back to us.

Meanwhile, a humanitarian aid worker based in Hargeisa, Somaliland – which declared its independence from Somalia, though that has not been officially recognised by the UK – told us that Nim’an’s case had received support from around the world.

Hassan Ahmed Yousuf told us that Nim’an quest for British citizenship had backing from supporters in the USA, Britain, the United Arab Emirates, Somalia and Kenya.

He added that pledges had been made to help fund costs the might be incurred during the process.

Hassan said: ‘Nim’an’s mother, Run Aw Daahir Mohamed, died in 1994, when he was six years old, in Hargeisa and so he had lost both parents.

‘The family of his mother were nomads and farmers in the Gabiley district and his grandmother and grandfather were alive at the time.

‘He was once taken to a rural area to help his mother’s family keep a few head of cattle but soon his grandmother died.’

He said Nim’an’s grandfather then took him to an orphanage centre in Hargeisa.

Hassan added: ‘After the death of his grandfather, the young boy suffered and left the orphanage and became a street child, totally neglected. He became a shoe polisher.’

He added: ‘After 2007, Nim’an joined Hargeisa buses for whom he became car washer and also a conductor.

‘He took the driving licence in 2011 and also married 21-year- old Ma’aruf Ahmed Mohamed, who is a Somali-Ethiopian.’

Nim’an is asking the British Government to grant him and his wife British citizenship. They have no children, said Hassan.

It has come to light this week that Nim’an and his supporters have been pressing his case with the British authorities for a number of years.

Mark Jones, the London-based chief executive of the Horn of Africa Business Association, had written to his local MP, Heidi Alexander, in 2011, raising concerns about Nim’an.

Ms Alexander in turn raised the issue with the Foreign and Commonwealth Office.

Henry Bellingham MP, who was Minister for Africa, the UN, Overseas Terrorities and Conflict Issues at the time, responded.

A copy of the letter sent to Mr Jones via Ms Alexander has been sent to us.

In it, Mr Bellingham said: ‘I am sorry to learn of the difficulties Mr Brian Bowden’s family has faced over the past twenty years. The decision in December 1990 to evacuate British nationals from Somalia was made out of concern for the safety of British people in Somalia and was not taken lightly.

‘Our records indicate that only one British national chose to go against the advice and remain in Somalia. Mr Bowden’s decision not to leave the country was a personal one and went against the advice of the British Government; he would have been aware of the risks of staying.’

Mr Bellingham added that it was ‘difficult to say whether Mr Bowden’s family would qualify as British citizens without assessing all the evidence available’ and suggested they contact the UK Border Agency.

As we reported last week, Aidan Hartley, former Reuters journalist, author and correspondent for Channel 4’s Unreported World, met Mr Bowden shortly after the embassy was evacuated in January 1991.

Mr Hartley recalled a conversation with an official at the British High Commission in neighbouring Kenya in his book The Zanzibar Chest.

In it he wrote: ‘I asked why the British were doing nothing to help him. The diplomat explained that under Government regulations, a citizen must cover the cost of his own repatriation, even from a war zone.

‘Bowden was destitute... and he had a black Somali wife and five children. The Government could not under these circumstances evacuate either Bowden or his large mixed-race family.’

The BBC also reported at the time that, in an interview shortly before his death, Mr Bowden said he had stayed behind because his wife was a Somali and he did not have enough money for a flight to the UK.

Nim’an’s supporters have since 2011 been gathering more evidence to support his claim, including searching publicly available family records.

They obtained a copy of Brian Bowden’s birth certificate earlier this year, showing he was born on June 27, 1928, at Prospect House, Horn Hill, Dartmouth.

His father was William Thomas Bowden, a labourer, and his mother Rita Leah Kate Bowden, nee Lidstone.

The supporters, who have sought advice from a major UK charity, now hope people who knew Brian or are related to him will come forward.

If you knew Brian Bowden, please email stuart.nuttall@ tindlenews.co.uk or telephone 01548 856353.

All content © of South Hams Newspapers Ltd unless stated otherwise.

[Alpha Blondy]

:D

 

Nimcaan is a cool guy.

[wyre]

finally nimcaan is going to get what is his

[Saxansaxo]

Wouldnt have guessed that he¨s mixed, he looks like a full somali. Sad, there are so many similar and tragic stories of mixed somalis. I just hope they dont give him high expectations of recieving help from Britain.

[Tallaabo]

This is the problem when people base their entire identity only on their paternal lineage and completely disregard their maternal side which is half of their identity and physical makeup. Somalis are strange people runtii.

[Faarax-Brawn]

OK, so the kid wants a job>? I couldnt be bothered to read past this line...."Brain Bowden ayaa la xididay Somaliland isago"

[Nin-Yaaban]

He looks pretty cadaan to me. Hope everything works out for him.

[Blessed]

 

 

It's sad how this family were treated by their respective countries. Illahay ha u sahlo Nicaan.