NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — Eritrea’s ambassador to Kenya says his country isn’t able to fly three planeloads of weapons to al-Qaida-linked militants in Somalia.

Kenya last week said that three planeloads of weapons had been flown into southern Somalia to arm al-Shabab militants being pursued by Kenyan troops. Kenya’s foreign minister summoned Eritrea’s ambassador and “raised concern” over the possibility Eritrea was behind it.

Eritrean Ambassador Beyene Russom told The Associated Press on Friday that there is no evidence to support the accusations.

Russom says the accusations fit into a pattern of misinformation against his country, which he blamed on Ethiopia, Eritrea’s longtime enemy.

(AP)  The Associated Press.

AP- MOGADISHU, Somalia – At least 20 people were killed Friday after an intense battle between government forces and Islamic insurgents in the Somali capital, medical officials said.

Friday’s fighting follows a lull of about two weeks, since scores of civilians were killed in two days of violence in the capital.

Military spokesman Col. Ibrahim Kalmoy said the fighting started when insurgents attacked government soldiers in southern Mogadishu in the Taleh area. He said three soldiers were wounded during the fighting.

“The enemy was forced to disappear,” said Kalmoy. African Union troops, deployed in Mogadishu to guard key government installations, backed the government troops during the fighting.

Ali Muse, of Mogadishu’s ambulance service, said staff counted at least 15 civilians killed. Dr. Mohamed Yusuf of Medina Hospital said five of the wounded brought to Medina died from their wounds.

Islamic insurgents control much of Mogadishu and have been trying to topple the fragile government for three years.

So far they have not been able to take and hold enough ground for a decisive victory. The government side, on the other hand, only controls a few blocks in Mogadishu and is dependent on the 5,100-strong African Union peacekeeping force.

The Somali capital has been the epicenter of almost never-ending violence in the Horn of Africa nation since the last effective government collapsed in 1991. That year saw warlords overthrow longtime dictator Mohamed Siad Barre and then turn on each other, plunging Somalia into anarchy and chaos.

Video

Extract from State Department Special Briefing:

AMBASSADOR COUSIN: Thank you very much, Ambassador Carson. I’d also like to thank the members of the press for your presence and interest in covering these important issues related to Somalia. As Johnnie Carson stated, the Somali people have suffered tremendously during the more than 20 years of conflict in their country.

The Somalia Monitoring Group, more commonly known as the SMG, submitted their report to the UN Security Council Sanctions Committee this past week. This SMG report – the SMG reports directly to the Security Council on implementation of the Somalia and Eritrea sanctions regimes. We take the work of the Somalia Monitoring Group very seriously and we are studying its recommendations.

Next week, the Security Council will meet and receive the regular 120-day report from the Chair of the Somalia Sanctions Committee that will include a briefing on the committee’s discussion of the SMG’s final report. The Somalia Monitoring Group report contains a number of recommendations, including those regarding the work of the World Food Program in Somalia. We at the U.S. Mission to the UN agencies in Rome are active members of the executive board of the World Food Program. This board regularly examines the work of the World Food Program and the perils its dedicated staff face around the world, particularly in places like Somalia.

In December of 2009, the World Food Program presented a briefing on the – its Somalia program to the World Food Program executive board. After the December board meeting, WFP did take internal measures to address the concerns raised in this internal report. Some of the same types of allegations were raised in the Somalia Monitoring Group’s report. So this morning, the executive board recognized that regardless of the process mandated by the SMG, the board has a responsibility for oversight and governance of the WFP operations. Consensus was reached by the board to ensure that all practices of the WFP in – WFP team in Somalia are in line with the organization’s policies and procedures.

We will continue to work to ensure that the generous contributions of the American people to support the work of the World Food Program are managed in an accountable and transparent manner. We express our gratitude to the WFP staff for their commitment to meet humanitarian needs in the most difficult of circumstances. The United States remains strongly committed to meeting the humanitarian needs of the people of Somalia. We continue to seek ways to ensure that the Somalian people receive the assistance they require.

I’ll end here, Assistant Secretary, and look forward to any questions from the media. Thank you.

MR. DUGUID: Before we get to the questions, I would like to make a correction for the record. I described Ambassador Cousin’s – one of her official duties rather than her official title, which is – Ambassador to U.S. Mission to the UN Agencies in Rome is her official working title.

As we call on you, please identify yourself and which ambassador you would like to speak to.

Matt.

QUESTION: Matt Lee with AP. Ambassador Carson, you mentioned at the very top – you were talking about a number of recent press reports. Can you be specific about what these reports said? I’m not asking you to identify whatever organization they were responsible. But what did they say? And what is wrong – what was wrong with them?

Secondly, you said that the Djibouti process was supported by IGAD, the AU, and all the countries of the region. But that’s not entirely true, is it? I mean, there is one country that doesn’t support it. Or has Eritrea changed their position? And then –those two very briefly – but then on the military aid that you talked about the several tons of weapons that have been provided to the TFG. Are there any concerns that those weapons may be leaking out in the same way that the food aid was described as leaking out to insurgents?

AMBASSADOR CARSON: Let me say, the most prominent article was one that appeared approximately a week ago in The New York Times, written by Jeff Gettleman, and I think co-authored by one of his colleagues, which asserted or carried the assertion that the U.S. Government had military advisors assisting and aiding the TFG, that the U.S. Government was, in fact, helping to coordinate the strategic offensive that is apparently underway now, or may be underway now, in Mogadishu, and that we were, in effect, guiding the hand and the operations of the TFG military. All of those are incorrect. All of those do not reflect the accuracy of our policy, and all of those need to be refuted very strongly. I think my statement clearly outlined what we are doing and why we are doing it.

You indicated that one state in the region has not joined in, and that is absolutely true; that is Eritrea. But Eritrea, in fact, stands alone. What my statement said was that all key states in the region, all the important states in the region – and I would include among them Kenya, Ethiopia, Uganda, and other members of IGAD –

QUESTION: You’re not planning to meet up with President Isaias anytime soon, are you?

AMBASSADOR CARSON: Whenever an opportunity presents itself to engage President Isaias in a conversation that will lead to peace and a cessation of Eritrean support for spoilers in the region, I will do so.

With respect to military weapons, we try as best we possibly can to ensure through a number of mechanisms that any assistance, any assistance that we give to the TFG, directly or indirectly, is accounted for and audited through mechanisms that we believe are very good.

IGAD: A communiqué devoid of any legality

The IGAD Council of Ministers has issued a communiqué on Somalia and Eritrea following a meeting convened in Ethiopia this weekend. Apart from its ill-advised content which can only exacerbate the crisis in Somalia and hamper the objectives of peace and security in the Horn of Africa, the IGAD Communique is devoid of any legality for the following procedural and substantive reasons:

i) Four members of IGAD, namely Ethiopia, Kenya, Djibouti and Uganda are direct protagonists in the conflict in Somalia in one form or another. Ethiopia is culpable for a flagrant invasion of Somalia in December 2006 under the instigation of the United States and the intermittent incursions thereafter. The other countries have not only endorsed Ethiopia’s invasion of an IGAD Member State but have also sent troops to Mogadishu in contravention of UN Security Council resolution 1725(2006) that barred neighboring countries from involvement in any eventual peacekeeping force in Somalia.

ii) Somalia’s seat in IGAD had remained vacant for most of the 19 years since the country was sadly embroiled in the crisis that continues without let up. It appears that the TFG has now been accorded a seat in IGAD. But in view of the political realities in Somalia(the entities in Puntland, Somaliland etc and the situation in Mogadishu), this short-sighted decision does not only provoke issues of legality but does not augur well for a healthy process of nation reconciliation in Somalia.

iii) As communicated to the government of Eritrea by Dr. Mustafa Osman Ismail, the Special Advisor to the President, the government of Sudan does not support UN Security Council Resolution 1907 imposing sanction on Eritrea.

iv) Eritrea suspended its membership in IGAD in early 2007 in the wake of Ethiopia’s invasion of Somalia and the moral failure of IGAD to condemn the acts of aggression against a fellow Member State.

v) As is well known, Ethiopia continues to occupy sovereign Eritrean territories in violation of international law and its treaty obligations.

vi) In light of these facts, any decision of those States in respect of Somalia does not have validity, as they cannot cast their votes as impartial or neutral parties. In the same breadth, these countries cannot indict Eritrea on account of events in Somalia. These countries, which shoulder primary responsibility for the cause and exacerbation of the crisis in Somalia do not indeed have moral, political or legal authority to indict or punish Eritrea.

Ministry of Foreign Affairs

Asmara

3 February 2010

The African Union is urging the United Nations to boost its support for Somalia’s fragile government in view of the rise of terrorist activity in the Horn of Africa and the Arabian peninsula. AU Commission Chairman Jean Ping calls the overall security situation in the Horn of Africa nation “unstable, volatile and challenging’.

In a report to the AU Peace and Security Council Friday, Ping notes several tragic security breakdowns in the past few months. The most recent was a suicide attack December 3 on a medical school graduation in Mogadishu that killed 25, including three government ministers. Another suicide attack in September on the headquarters of the AU peacekeeping mission, AMISOM, killed 20 people, mostly peacekeepers, including the deputy force commander.

Acting on Ping’s recommendation, the Council extended AMISOM’s mandate for another 12 months. The U.N. Security Council approved $210 million to fund the 5,200 AMISOM peacekeepers for the past seven months. But as the Council meets next week to review AMISOM funding levels, AU Peace and Security Commissioner Ramtane Lamamra is calling for Somalia to be seen not just as a breeding ground for terrorists, but as part of a region dotted with troubled states such as Eritrea and Yemen.

“We look forward to more bold decisions within the UN Security Council so that engagement of the international community would be commensurate with the challenges. These are not limited to local challenges, they go beyond, to include piracy, international terrorism, and these are of a global nature,” said Lamamra.

U.N. Special Representative to Somalia Ahmedou Ould-Abdallah says several recent events have highlighted the Horn of Africa ‘s growing significance as a hub in the global terror network.

“It is today becoming…a global crisis, and the latest developments in Mogadishu with killing of students by a Somali coming from Denmark, or an attempt against a journalist in Denmark, and before that in Kenya is showing that Somalia is a global crisis,” said Ould-Abdallah. “Note the importance British Prime Minister Gordon Brown has attached to Somalia, linking it clearly to developments coming from Afghanistan or Yemen,” he added.

The latest AU report notes security in Somalia is complicated by a fight between two rival insurgent groups for control of a lucrative port city. Both groups, al-Shabab and Hizbul Islam are said to have links with al-Qaida.

Earlier this week, it was reported that the Nigerian man accused of trying to detonate a bomb on a Detroit-bound airliner Christmas Day had met a radical U.S. Muslim cleric in Yemen after being recruited by al-Qaida in London.

Yemen, the ancestral home of Osama bin Laden, is 250 kilometers from the northern coast of Somalia across the Gulf of Aden, the busy waterway that has been the scene of hijackings by Somali pirates. Source: (Voice of America)

U.S. AFRICOM Public Affairs

PARIS, France, — AIDAN O’DONNELL (RADIO FRANCE INTERNATIONALE): Thank you once again for speaking to us.

GEN. WILLIAM E. WARD: Sure.

MR O’DONNELL: Can I just ask you, first of all, you talked about increased professionalization of the various countries you’re working with – presumably better armies, better security. And the suggestion is that this leads to greater stability. Why do you feel that a better army will necessarily lead to greater stability and not to greater instability?

GEN. WARD: Because I think what you have is a – it’s not just a better army; it’s an army that functions in accordance with those things that we see as good principles, how they contribute to good governance, that responds to the legitimate government in ways that are not extrajudicial but are professional in accordance with what goes on.

If you take an example of Kenya, you know, 2 years ago, this time, Kenya was going through a very substantial governance issue associated with their elections. Their professional military stayed out of that because of that very fact — that it’s professional, and they knew how to operate in a democratic society where the army, the military, is not a part of those activities. And so we see a more professional military, not one that’s solely skilled in military tactics, but how it conducts itself – its behavior, its discipline – as a stabilizing factor.

MR O’DONNELL: You mentioned, once or twice, earlier, the question of border patrols. There are numerous clashes between various states on the very question of borders. If you’re helping a country to run a more efficient army along its border, presumably, this is giving an advantage to one country over another, in terms of a potential border dispute.

GEN. WARD: Well, the issue – and that’s why the regional business is so important. That’s why, as these nations work together regionally, that becomes increasingly, increasingly important to preclude the potential for that very thing happening. Recently, we were in East Africa – had an exercise that involved five East African nations – Tanzania, Burundi, Kenya -

MODERATOR: Uganda.

GEN. WARD: Uganda and Burundi?

COL CHILDRESS: Tanzania.

GEN. WARD: Tanzania. And they all worked together. In fact, as they were moving to conduct the exercise – the nations moving across each others’ borders – they were being greeted at the border by the next country and they were traveling together, so they all wound up in the exercise area to conduct a humanitarian assistance exercise — all together — so they get to know each other in a more effective way and their cooperating increases. It is that type of condition that we are supporting the creation of, as the nations have determined that they do, in fact, want to work together as better partners.

MR O’DONNELL: Okay. AFRICOM has asked to set it itself up in Tamanrasset and Gao. Have the respective governments approved this and will there be an installation at some point?

GEN. WARD: No, no, AFRICOM has not asked to set up in Gao or Tamanrasset. We have conducted training activities in those locations, as we have in other parts of the continent, as well. But in no way does it reflect any permanent presence.

MR O’DONNELL: Okay, we have the impression that al-Qaida in the Maghreb has abandoned the North African front to concentrate on the Sahel-Sahara strip. Is this the case and is this, for you, a new strategy on their part?

GEN. WARD: Well, I think al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb would seek to operate wherever it could find space to do so, and the vast regions of the Sahel there are areas that they would certainly look to move in. That’s why the nations of the Sahel increasing their capacity to have better control, better visibility over their vast territories, is an objective that we have, in working with those nations of the region, as well as working with other international partners.

MR O’DONNELL: Can you tell us something about the use of private military contractors by AFRICOM, or PMCs? They’re being used by African states, they’re being used by American companies and also by AFRICOM. To what extent are they being used, and are you satisfied that the necessary accountability is there?

GEN. WARD: AFRICOM does not use private military contractors.

MR O’DONNELL: Do you feel that this is something that might be used in the future, given that U.S. military resources are strained outside of AFRICOM?

GEN. WARD: I’m not envisioning that.

MR O’DONNELL: Okay. In August 2009, the U.S. assassinated a Shabaab leader using helicopters out of Mogadishu. What kind of information-gathering led to this, and is this something that we can expect to see in the future?

GEN. WARD: Well, I don’t know if I would characterize it as such. There are terrorists that are operating around the world, and our president has said, as well as the current administration, that we will pursue those terrorists, where they may be. And that is something that is an option that remains on the table.

MR O’DONNELL: In Northern Chad in 2008, we’ve seen Navy SEAL units – very small, very mobile – about 15 people – on intelligence-gathering missions. Can you tell us how widespread this kind of operation is around the continent?

GEN. WARD: I would not characterize any particular – I’m not sure what you’re talking about there. So I don’t know if there were Navy SEALS on some intelligence gathering mission at all. We do conduct security assistance and training missions with a range of our forces that operate, again, in these countries to provide training, support and assistance, as is coordinated by those partner nations. And that occurs as a part of our security assistance program in many parts of the continent.

SONIA ROLLEY (RADIO FRANCE INTERNATIONALE): Do you believe that the threat of the Shabaab to go to Yemen and to help al-Qaida there is a real threat, or it’s just talk or for publicity?

GEN. WARD: As I mentioned, I think whenever these groups say that they’re going to do something, we would take them at their word that they would do that. And we would – that would be of a concern. So I take them at their word.

MS. ROLLEY: And you believe that they have the capacity to do it? You believe that they are still an important threat in Somalia, as before?

GEN. WARD: I think so. It doesn’t take a lot to be a threat. And so I think they say that they are going to do that and I take them at their word.

MS. ROLLEY: And what about the role of Eritrea? Do you believe that Eritrea is a key country in the region, with Somalia, for example, but also with Yemen? Do you have evidence that Eritrea is a key player in these terrorist activities in the region?

GEN. WARD: Well, I think it’s a function of how these countries work to help to prevent crisis – help to create stability, as opposed to not. And that is what we would like to see all the countries be active contributors in helping to create stability – don’t see a lot of that evidence from Eritrea.

COL CHILDRESS: We have time for one more question.

MR O’DONNELL: Just to come back, finally, to the question of military contractors, if you are operating in Africa, if the U.S. government is awarding contracts to American security companies who are operating in, say, Liberia, Sudan, Somalia, does this mean that you’re then working around these companies – these entities?

GEN. WARD: I’m not quite sure – you know, we have contractors in Africa. The contractors are there providing logistic support. I’m not aware of American security contractors or companies operating in Africa conducting security activities.

MR O’DONNELL: And do you believe that – are you having to have a closer look on Nigeria, for example, because of what happened with the terrorist attempt on the plane?

MS. ROLLEY: No. There are – we have not done anything different insofar as what we are doing. We work with the Nigerians. But we haven’t done anything different. What was going with the plane – our Transportation Security Administration — and those airport and flight safety requirements — is responsible for coordinating and working those with other nations who have flights that originate in their territories that are bound for the United States.

MR O’DONNELL: Thank you very much.

(END)

The European Commission Humanitarian Aid Department (ECHO) has raised a red flag over the worsening food security situation in the Horn of Africa.

Karel De Gucht, European Commissioner in charge of development and humanitarian aid, attributes the disastrous situation to the terrible potential of climate change.

“Large parts of the Horn of Africa have had less than 75 percent of normal rainfall this year, having already endured a series of severe droughts. The population can no longer cope with such extreme and protracted hardship which often comes on top of conflict situation. As a result, more than 16 million people desperately need help,” he said in a statement released by ECHO.

Initial optimism occasioned by forecasts of El Niño rains were thwarted when November proved largely dry. El Niño refers to a periodic warming of temperatures in the Pacific Ocean, far from East Africa’s shores but with impacts on the country’s rainfall and weather patterns.

Samuel Mwangi, acting assistant director of Kenya’s national weather forecasting services explains that El Niño has been linked with greater rainfall during the annual “short rains” in East Africa, between October and December.

ECHO warns that if the December rains are below average, parts of Kenya may suffer irreparable damage.

ECHO regional information officer Daniel Dickinson told IPS, “In the face of the unfolding drought situation, ECHO is providing 50 million euros in humanitarian aid to vulnerable drought-affected people in Somalia, Ethiopia, Kenya and Uganda. The rains have failed and people have exhausted the coping mechanisms which they had and urgently need help.”

Kenya’s minister for special programmes, Naomi Shaban, issued a similar warning in mid- December over the worsening food security situation across the country.

Speaking as she flagged off relief food worth $80,000 donated by Telkom Kenya and World Vision Kenya, Shaban said ten districts across the country are facing an imminent crisis in relation to food insecurity.

“Unfortunately, the country has experienced another season of failed rains which is expected to increase the current levels of food insecurity. Although Kenya’s food security is still on the borderline, many districts are at risk of sliding into an acute food and livelihood crisis. This situation is made worse by high food prices,” Shaban explained.

In Kenya, Dickinson says it is estimated 3.8 million people currently rely on humanitarian aid and the situation is worsening. with acute malnutrition above 20 percent in five districts.

The government of Kenya has increased its monthly spending on relief food to $1.3 million per month to assist those facing starvation. In early 2009, the government declared the unfolding food security situation a national disaster, stating that 10 million Kenyans were unable to access food.

In Ethiopia, ECHO reports indicate with several consecutive crop failures, the nutritional situation in that country has deteriorated badly and is expected to worsen further.

The story unfolding in Somalia is similar, with the situation aggravated by ongoing conflict. In Uganda, ECHO indicates 2.2 million people in northern Acholi and Karamoja regions face food insecurity.

According to Famine Early Warning Systems Network (which issues alerts on food insecurity) poor rains in November have revised prospects for widespread food security improvements that were expected to manifest toward the end of December in Kenya.

Those set to be adversely affected include pastoral households who already face unrelenting prices for food, an outbreak of cholera and heightened conflict over limited pasture and water in drought conditions.

However, Mwangi says sections of the country have experienced increased rainfall as predicted, which means good harvests will be recorded in certain areas.

“It must be pointed out that the poor performance of rainfall is not widespread across the country. There are areas that will still record good harvests from the rainfall received during the season.

In Coast, Northeastern, Eastern and Central Provinces, the rainfall was characterised by heavy storms in the second half of the month. This significantly enhanced the total rainfall amounts recorded in these provinces,” Mwangi says.

It is not clear whether good harvests in these areas will cover the predicted shortfalls in the rest of the country. Source: (IPS)

Hormuud Telecom

By Olad Hassan

Mogadishu is the largest city and the capital of Somalia; it’s the commercial and financial center of the country, situated in the Southward of the country.

After the collapse of the central government in 1991, Mogadishu has been the stage for nearly 20 years of fighting which left many of its residents dead, others fled from the city to neighbouring countries.

Despite civil chaos, and daily Fighting, Mogadishu is a business growing city in the east Africa.

Both, its seaport and airport- controlled by African Union Peacekeeping forces, backing the weak Somali government- are functioning properly, supporting the business to improve.

In The City, Bakara Market is the biggest trading center in the country and a strong hold of anti-government Islamists, and a target of the government and the Peace keeping forces. Residents say, Islamists lob mortars from the market to the government controlled areas causing instant mortar reply from the peacekeepers that prevents the business to continue some hours or a day.

Telecommunication network companies play an important role in the city’s business. More than three private Mobile and land-line operators’ headquarters are located in the city. Hormuud Telecom is a private enterprise established in 2002 in southern and central Somalia, and located in Bakara Market business center. It’s the most used mobile operator in the country.

“Nearly 700 Somalis own shares, and more than 1000 people work in it’s headquartering in restive Mogadishu”, Says Ahmed Saudi, the president of Hormuud.

Telecom Somalia is the first major privately owned company providing telecommunications in Somali territory. It’s headquarter is also in the city center. There are other telecom companies like Nationlink Telecom and Somafone, giving the people sufficient services of landline and Mobile in Mogadishu.

Fund transfer services is an other business factor in the city, more than 15 private money transfer companies run in the City. With an estimated nearly $1 million USD monthly remitted to the capital by the Somali Diaspora via Money transfer companies, known as HAWALA in the country.

Moreover, Industries are becoming in the city, nearly 10 private productive industries are also in Mogadishu.

Coca cola is the world’s largest beverage company, largest manufacturer, distributor and marketer of non-alcoholic beverage concentrates. It’s one of the important industries in the city. It distributes its product different directions of the city.

Other industries include; Afi Water Purification Company, Banadir Sweats Company, many detergent companies and other use full and productive industries for the residents in the city.

In the middle of Anarchy and daily fighting between the Somali federal Government and the Islamic militants in the capital, Mogadishu, business seems booming.

Mohamed Olad

By Olad Hassan

Mogadishu is one of the dangerous areas for journalists to work and it’s said they risk their lives every day to get the news of the daily fighting in the city.

Nine journalists were killed in Somalia, this year, 2009, some where assassinated by masked gunmen dressed as the Islamists and others killed in an accident shoots.

Two foreign correspondents, a local journalist, three Somali ministers and more than 19 civilians including graduated medical students were killed in the deadliest Suicide Attack, at such public and officials gathered place in Shamo Hotel, Mogadishu, Where a university graduation ceremony was taking place, on 3^rd December this year.

Mohamed Olad, a BBC Correspondent and Associated Press Writer, and the chairman of the Somali Foreign Correspondents Association, was among the witnesses in the deadly ceremony in Shamo Hotel. Olad escaped death and close journalists were killed at the scene.

Mohamed told me his story, to explain what he experienced at the death graduation ceremony……

“It was a Thursday morning, December 3. As usual, I got ready for my work as a journalist. I had an invitation that was given to me by Mohamed Zobe, one of the organizers of what was supposed to be a joyful graduation ceremony.

I and my colleague Ayaanle Husein Abdi, a reporter for the BBC Somali service, drove from my office toward the hotel, which is about 550 yards (500 meters) from my office. We were welcomed by jubilant students, whom we knew by face at the main gate of Hotel Shamo, where their Benadir University graduation ceremony was due to start”.

There were dozens of armed body guards outside the hotel; they were apparently accompanying government ministers invited to the ceremony. Nobody checked us. There were only two men sitting in front of the hotel’s meeting hall. They looked at our invitation and allowed us to pass. Everyone assumed this would be a peaceful ceremony.

We sat in two empty seats in the second row of seats where ministers, doctors, and other dignitaries were sitting. There were hundreds of people in the meeting hall. The students were all dressed in colorful uniforms for their graduation. The hall had been brightly decorated, and there was a feeling of excitement—such ceremonies rarely happen in Mogadishu. With the conflict raging throughout the capital, the chance to attain academic credentials are limited. This ceremony, perhaps, symbolized a trace of hope: People’s lives could continue despite the shelling.

Proud parents beamed at their graduating loved ones, who were also sitting in the hall. Journalists, particularly the cameramen, were right in the front for a good view. People were making speeches, and we were taking notes, as usual.

Then all this brightness turned to darkness.

All I remember is being covered in dust. Some debris apparently from the roof of the hall hit me and there was no light anywhere. I looked across and the young guy sitting next to me was dead. The seat he had been sitting on was mine.

We had changed positions for one moment, when I had left momentarily to move my recorder nearer to the speakers. That’s when the explosion occurred. It was my luck not to be sitting in that chair.

I recalled later that the dead man was a journalist, Mohamed Amin, a reporter for Radio Shabelle, a local FM Station in Mogadishu. I had to jump over him to get out. I tried to get over the table where the ministers had been sitting. There were dead bodies right in front of my eyes. I had to step over their bodies too.

People were screaming the same question over and over: “Is it a bomb? Is it a bomb?”  I went through the door that the ministers had come through when they entered the hall and I hid in a small room. It was a very dirty, unused toilet but already three other people, including a Reuters’ reporter, Abdi Guled, were there with me.

The survivors who could move immediately ran out of the hall because people thought a mortar had hit and that there could be another one. We had no idea what had happened. But I didn’t hear any more explosions and I had to go back into the hall to get out.

It was a shocking, terrible scene. There was blood splattered everywhere. I was really in disbelief, in shock. I have never seen so many people killed at the same time. All these bodies were there, right in front of my eyes, including two journalists.

I looked at the roof to see if there had been some kind of rocket attack but the roof was intact. So I knew something had exploded in the hall—either a suicide attack or a bomb or a mine. I went outside and the street was filled with people trying to rescue their friends and family.

No one knew who had been killed and who had survived.

I could see my colleagues—journalists I had been talking to just moments before—lying on the ground covered in blood. Hassan Zubeyr, a cameraman for the Dubai-based Al-Arabia TV and Abdulkkafar Abdulkadir, a freelance photographer who had only arrived five minutes before the explosion, were lying on their stomachs in a pool of blood. Abdulkadir died of his injuries in the afternoon.

One other colleague, Omar Faruq, a Reuters’ photographer, was right in front of me on his stomach. I couldn’t tell whether he was alive or dead, but later noticed he had his cheek bone broken. Another colleague, Abdulkadir Omar, a reporter for Universal TV was being carried out as locals began to arrive and help out. He had his hand on his bleeding forehead.

It was a terrible few minutes. It’s still impossible to understand how everything turned from a colorful celebration to grief within seconds.

During the rescue operation at the hotel, people concentrated on the dignitaries while injured journalists were left bleeding for some time. It helped us realize that we needed to create our own support, so we started the Somali Foreign Correspondents Association. We formed this union to establish a permanent office that will help journalists in times of emergencies. Our dream is to have at least one ambulance at our disposal to transport wounded colleagues to hospitals and to arrange evacuations if needed”.

(Reporting from Mogadishu)

An international meeting on Somalia held in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, chaired by the United Nations, called on the world community to offer practical and, where possible, direct support to the Transitional Federal Government (TFG) as it battles extremists in a country that has had no central government for almost two decades.

Under the chairmanship of Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s Special Representative Ahmedou Ould-Abdallah, the 33-member International Contact Group on Somalia (ICG) noted the TFG’s call for the global community to establish a greater presence in Mogadishu, the war-torn capital, as soon as possible, and welcomed the Organisation of the Islamic Conference (OIC) decision to open an office there.

“The ICG condemns the continuing violence perpetrated against Somali civilians by extremists,” the group said in a communiqué, citing in particular the suicide bomb attack on a graduation ceremony for medical students which killed at least 15 people in Mogadishu earlier this month.

It also deplored the continuing piracy off the Somali coast and its “devastating effect on the lives of those in Somalia and the region as well as international trade” and welcomed the international naval presence while recognizing that the causes of piracy are on land and must be addressed urgently.

The ICG reiterated its support for the 2008 Djibouti process, a peace accord between the TFG and one of the rebel groups, the Alliance for the Re-liberation of Somalia (ARS), which was meant to pave the way for the cessation of all armed conflict across the faction-plagued country.

“It calls on all groups and factions to join the Djibouti process and work with the Transitional Federal Government which is the legitimate and internationally recognised Government of Somalia,” the communiqué said.

“The ICG welcomes the TFG’s commitment to continue its outreach efforts to all groups willing to cooperate and ready to renounce violence and encourages the TFG to continue and expand its efforts.”

Horn of Africa

London based think tank Chatham House published a briefing paper on economic drivers of conflict and cooperation in the Horn of Africa.

According to the research agency, economic relations between nations in the Horn of Africa could play a vital role in bringing peaceful cooperation to the region. However, disagreement over territorial integrity, cultural nationalism and internal factionalism have economic elements which fuel conflict or are critical to its outcome.

Further, it states the Horn of Africa remains highly violent and conflict driven within and across national borders. The fact that the region is linked together through colonial occurrences, common ecological zones and cultural interdependence, explains why disputes in one country can have political and economic significance beyond its borders.

The termination of trade between Eritrea and Ethiopia after the 1998-2000 war represents an economic driver of conflict, the report states. The border closure between Eritrea and Ethiopia caused all Ethiopian trade to be redirected via Djibouti.

The growth of trade volumes via Djibouti went up from 1.7 million tonnes in 1997 to 3.1 million tonnes in 1998 and 4.2 million tonnes in 2002. Before the conflict the port of Assab was handling 80 – 85% of Ethiopia’s international trade, with only 15 – 20% passing through Djibouti.

According to the think tank a possible return of trade between Ethiopia and Eritrea will depend on a number of factors;

• The degree of development in the economic infrastructure of  Tigray
• The availability of finance to upgrade the ports of Massawa and Assab
• The degree of competitive measures applied from Djibouti
• Low cost operation costs at ports in Somalia (Berbera port fees 40% lower than those in Djibouti)
• The development of relations between Eritrea and Ethiopia
• The alternative of road supply routes with Sudan (cheap import and exports- only 45km from Tessenei)

For  more: plesae visit the Chatham House Web page

Summary points:

• Among the drivers of conflict in the Horn of Africa economic motivations have been ubiquitous and pervasive in prompting and sustaining conflict. At other times economic drivers have exhibited a potential for peaceful cooperation. An understanding of their role and relationship with other forces of change is essential.
• Conflict in the Horn frequently has economic impacts across national borders. This paper identifies four major zones of borderland insecurity in which informal trade as much as formal relationships can both sustain conflict and offer potential for post conflict cooperation.
• Underlying the various sub-regional conflicts are a number of recurrent economic themes, including access to sea ports, livestock as a basis for livelihoods, energy related issues, the wider impact of localized conflict, drought, land rights and remittances.
• The establishment of permanent peace can only be built upon a common set of values reflecting equity, tolerance and an acknowledgment of the potential of traditional institutions in entrenching community cohesion. Only on such a foundation will specific programmes be assured of harnessing those economic drivers necessary for their success.

According to the United Nations Mission in Somalia representatives from more than 30 countries, regional and international organizations are meeting in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia on 17 December. They will discuss concrete measures to support further the Somali Government and the implementation of the Djibouti Agreement.

Welcoming the meeting, the United Nations Special Representative for Somalia, Ahmedou Ould-Abdallah, who chairs the ICG, said this is a time to take stock of the progress made and to lay down clear and tangible steps forward.

“We now have a credible partner in the Somali Government to work with in re-establishing the elements of governance and to put in place a foundation for strengthening stability. The International Community must seize this opportune moment to provide immediate and urgent support to the Somali Government.

“Despite the numerous challenges and the horrendous attacks by those who try to derail the peace process, the current Government has managed to stay its course for nearly a year. They have until August 2011 to pave the way for restoration of peace and for rebuilding of the lives of the people.

“Any assistance provided now is much more valuable than it will be in the future because it will allow this Government to fully engage in establishing stability and to begin rebuilding the nation. In essence, support now will guarantee a future later.

“The International Community was united in its condemnation of the 3 December bombing in Mogadishu. It needs to be equally united and determined in supporting the Government in its efforts to advance the stability.”

Mr. Ould-Abdallah also expressed his thanks to the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC) for organizing the conference and to the Saudis for their offer to host the meeting and to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia for facilitations offered.