by Jama Abdillahi | Aug 14, 2019 | Okategoriserade
Somalia – Somaliland ‘meeting’ in Saudi gets Twitter buzzing Source: Wednesday August 14, 2019 Somalia – Somaliland relations have gained traction on social media with the current buzz centering around a photo. Top cabinet ministers of Somalia including the Foreign Affairs and Finance Ministers met and took a photo with a Somaliland delegation – led by its president Muse Bihi – in Saudi Arabia’s city of Mina. The respective delegations were in Saudi in connection with the 2019 edition of the annual Hajj pilgrimage.For some people, the meeting was a good sign given ever rising tensions between Mogadishu and Hargeisa. Others slammed the Somaliland leaders who have in the past arrested citizens for taking photos with Somalia officials. Others even posited that the photo was just that, a photo, and that noting will change in the rift between the two. Somaliland is a semi-autonomous part of Somalia. The latest rift between the two came up when Mogadishu severed diplomatic relations with Guinea for according the Somaliland leader courtesies of a Head of State during an “official”...
by Jama Abdillahi | Aug 10, 2019 | Okategoriserade
Saudi Arabia To Issue Visas To Somalilanders East African Business Week Source: East African Business Week, Friday August 9, 2019 By Odindo Ayieko Saudi Arabia will soon start issuing visas on Somaliland passports. This is a departure from the Kingdom’s previously long held position of issuing visas on Somali passports holders and not Somaliland passports. The issuance of the visas to Somalilanders starts with those who will be heading for pilgrimage in Mecca this month. Already, the president of Somaliland Muse Bihi is in Saudi Arabia on an official invitation from King Salman Bin Abdul Aziz. The two leaders are expected to hold talks on how the two countries can cement their trade relations.Saudi Arabia will also recognize Somaliland diplomatic passports. There are reports that the Saudi King sent the Somaliland delegation a private, royal jet to collect them from Hargeisa’s Egal International Airport direct to the Kingdom. This is the first time a Somaliland president is receiving official invitation from Saudi leadership. This comes just two months after the Somaliland president met Saudi envoy Amb Mohamed Khayat in Hargeisa where the two discussed how Saudi Arabia would assist Somaliland in the areas of the economy, investment, lifting the ban on Somaliland livestock export to KSA and ways to enhance the bilateral ties between two countries. President Bihi has been courting Saudi for some time and expressing his country’s close ties with the kingdom. “Firstly we are neighbors of Saudi Arabia. Second, our exports go to Saudi Arabia, third in Saudi Arabia there are two holy mosques that we have to visit, so consider all these reasons for us...
by Jama Abdillahi | Aug 10, 2019 | Okategoriserade
Sudan: Role of Foreign Powers Source: World Politics Review published on 6 August 2019 World Politics Review published on 6 August 2019 an analysis titled “From the Gulf to Egypt, Foreign Powers Are Playing with Fire in Sudan” by Richard Downie, Center for Strategic and International Studies. The author concludes that foreign powers should recognize that their attempts to promote a stable future in Sudan could instead help tip the country into civil war. 0 comments Labels: Egypt, Ethiopia, Forces for Freedom and Change, Iran, Libya, Mohamed Hamdan Dagolo, Muslim Brotherhood, Qatar, Rapid Support Forces, Saudi...
by Jama Abdillahi | Aug 10, 2019 | Okategoriserade
Sudan Needs Women at the Negotiating Table Source: The Institute for Security Studies published on 6 August 2019 The Institute for Security Studies published on 6 August 2019 a commentary titled “Sudan Needs Women at Its Negotiating Table” by Liezelle Kumalo and Cassie Roddy-Mullineaux. Sudanese women played a major role in the pro-democracy movement that set Sudan on a possible path to a democratic transition. The authors argue that women should now be included in the negotiating process. 0 comments Labels: Forces for Freedom and Change, negotiations, peace...
by Jama Abdillahi | Aug 10, 2019 | Okategoriserade
Al Shabaab suicide bomber who killed Somali politician was a BLIND WOMAN who worked for her target Source: Daily Mail, Saturday August 10, 2019 By DANYAL HUSSAIN Mogadishu Mayor Abdirahman Omar Osman, at an event in Mogadishu, Somalia, was killed a week after the suicide bombing on July 24 The al Qaeda-linked Islamist militant group Al Shabaab, which aims to topple Somalia’s UN-backed government, claimed responsibility for the July 24 attack in Somali capital Mogadishu. Mayor Abdirahman Omar Osman, who had also previously served as a Labour Party councillor in London, died of his wounds a week after the attack. He died in a hospital in Qatar.Somalia’s Security Minister said in a statement: ‘Preliminary findings show a female who worked in the local government blew herself up herself with the help of another female, who also worked at the local government.’ It was al Shabaab’s first known use of a disabled person as a suicide bomber and the statement suggested the bomber had used her blindness to get past security and reach the mayor’s offices. The whereabouts of the blind woman’s co-worker is not known. A month before the bombing, the two women took leaves of absence from work, the ministry statement said, and visited an area of Somalia controlled by al Shabaab. ‘The female bomber was disabled (blind). She misused the opportunity and acted with enmity against the bosses and the people she worked with,’ the ministry statement said. Mayor Osman fled as a refugee to Britain after civil war erupted in Somalia in 1991, earned a master’s degree, became a naturalised citizen and worked in the housing department in the...
