Somaliland eyes key Red Sea trade role with Berbera port

- The soporific seaside town of Berbera is slowly changing as it takes on a major role on the Red Sea shipping route, allowing breakaway Somaliland to dream of prosperity and even recognition.

At the Berbera port, dozens of containers are stacked on a sun-scorched platform and a few cranes creakily transfer sacks of sorghum and other goods from a rusting cargo ship. The facilities are far from modern, but Somaliland hopes its position on one of the world’s busiest shipping routes will turn the state into a job-creating dynamo — and encourage international recognition 27-years after it split from Somalia.

BREAKING NEWS: "Goobjoogayaashii Doorashada Somaliland oo si rasmi ah uga hadlay Natiijadii doorashada ee sanadkii hore 2017kii...

Somaliland-UAE(Dubai): Trade Office (Xafiis Ganacsi)

- Xafiis Ganacsi ma yahay ama ma qaban karaa shaqo  diplomaasiyadeed?

 

Safaaradaha iyo xafiisyada diplomaasiyadeed ee joogtada ah, ee dalalka dunidan danwadaaga ku ahi is waydaarsadaan waxa ay ka koobanyihiin unugyo ama qaybo ay ugu muhiimsanyihiin;

1.     Qaybta ganacsiga.

2.     Qaybta militaryga.

3.     Qaybta dhaqanka

Xafiisyadan waxa ka hawlgala diplomaasiyiin loogu yeedho ku-qaybsanayaal, iyaga oo ka tirsan sifaaradda, haddana waa diplomaasiyiin u madax banaan hawlahooda shaqo si toos ahna u hoos taga madaxda ay shaqooyinkooda ku qaybsanyihiin sida, Wasiirka Ganacsiga, Gaashaandhiga, ama hiddaha iyo dhaqanka

Book fair turns the page for literature in Somaliland

- Aged just 16, Abdishakur Mohamed confidently presented his latest work to the Hargeisa book fair, an event that has transformed Somaliland's literary scene over the past decade. Abdishakur spent four years writing "Ab-ka haleel" ("In the footsteps of our ancestors"), intended as a rebuttal of friends who he says were not "embracing their culture".

"Instead they see it as unimportant, and their Somali identity is in danger," he told AFP.

At the first annual event in 2008, organisers only exhibited a handful of books borrowed from friends and attracted just 200 visitors.

Read more;
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/wires/afp/article-5984963/Book-fair-turns-page-literature-Somaliland.html 

When is a nation not a nation? Somaliland’s dream of independence

- When you are in Somaliland, there is never any question that you are in a real country. After all, the place has all the trappings of countryhood. When I arrived at the airport, a customs officer in a Somaliland uniform checked my Somaliland visa, issued by the Somaliland consulate in Washington DC. At the airport, there was a Somaliland flag. During my visit, I paid Somaliland shillings to drivers of cabs with Somaliland plates who took me to the offices of ministers of the Somaliland government.

But, according to the US Department of State, the United Nations, the African Union and every other government on Earth, I was not in Somaliland, a poor but stable and mostly functional country on the Horn of Africa. I was in Somalia.

Read More;

https://www.theguardian.com/news/2018/jul/20/when-is-a-nation-not-a-nation-somalilands-dream-of-independence 

The Africa Watch report, “A Government at War with Its Own People”

- The Africa Watch report, “A Government at War with Its Own People” estimated that roughly 50,000 to 60,000 people were killed between May of 1988 and the beginning of 1990.^[xv] While it is unlikely that all of these deaths are civilian, with SNM membership estimated at only 10,000^[xvi], it is clear that many civilians were killed, the large majority of which were Isaak. Deaths were inflicted through indiscriminate government bombing of the towns of Hargeisa and Burao. Civilians fleeing from fighting were strafed by government planes. 

Although the largest spike in killings is in May and August of 1988, the government’s Somali National Army (SNA) continued to target the Isaak community over many months through round-ups and mass executions of Isaak civilians at the town level.

Read more:

http://www.sahistory.org.za/sites/default/files/file%20uploads%20/africa_watch_somalia_a_government_at_war_with_ibook4you.pdf 

Somaliland Uses Phones to Help Improve Schools

- Every month, the Somaliland Ministry of Education, based in Hargeisa, Somaliland’s capital, surveys tens of thousands of children and their parents on their mobile phones to monitor conditions in schools around the region. The parents’ and pupils’ feedback is collected in monthly reports called “community scorecards” that are shared with local officials and discussed at regular meetings with parents, administrators and others.

“Mobile phones are vital here. They are everything to us,” said Fatma Farah, 32, a mother of four who lives in Borama, a city on the Ethiopian border about 70 miles west of Hargeisa where around 200 families regularly use the service. Three of Fatma’s children are in primary school.

Read more; 

https://www.al-fanarmedia.org/2018/07/somaliland-uses-phones-to-help-improve-schools/

Somaliland Trade Office-UAE: "War-Saxaafadeed"

Madaxtooyada J.Somaliland; "WAR-SAXAAFADEED

               War-saxaafadeed:

Dabbaal-degga munaasibaddii 26-kii June 2018, madaxweynaha Jamhuuriyadda Somaliland iyo shir-guddoonka guurtida iyo wakiilladu waxay ku caddeeyeen in, Somaliland diyaar u tahay xabbad joojin. Xukuumadda Somaliland waxay hore u aqbashay soo jeedinta Qaramada Midoobay iyo Beesha Caalamka ee xabbad joojinta Tuka-raq, Iyadoo dhulkeeda 70Km gudaha loogu jiro welibana lagula dagaallamayo xadkeeda gudahiisa.

Ergadii Garoowe;

Ergadii Garoowe tagtay waxay ahaayeen ergo iskood isugu xilqaamay xabbad-joojin, marti-qaadna ka helay dhiggooda Garoowe oo hore u yimi halkan.

The Global Partnership for Education Approves a US$7.68 Million Grant to Strengthen Education in Somaliland

– The Global Partnership for Education’s Board of Directors approved a grant of US$7.68 million to support Somaliland’s efforts to extend quality education to more of its children.

The three-year grant will support Somaliland’s Education Sector Strategic Plan 2018-2021 which aims to increase the enrollment of girls and boys from diverse and under-educated communities in primary and secondary schools, improve the quality of schooling through teacher skill training and better learning materials, and establish an effective system to gather and analyze education data to measure progress.

Somaliland, Horn of Africa – Exhaustive Travel Guide

- Somaliland: Although it’s not internationally recognized by the UN, it has protected and delimited land borders, its own military, its own president, its own currency, its own police. And it also proudly holds democratic elections since 1991. Basically, this country “that doesn’t exist” runs better than 2/3 of other African countries. This is a national pride and an example to the World. But even so, the United Nations (UN) doesn’t recognize it as a sovereign state. Somaliland borders Ethiopia, Djibouti and another region of Somalia called Land of Punt, or Puntland, famous for having over 400 people kidnapped and held captive by pirates in the Gulf of Aden. 

Having read this, you should now really want to travel to Somaliland, right? But don’t worry, I spent a week there. Everything was very quiet, no problems. I really loved it and wish to go back.

 Read more:

http://www.joaoleitao.com/adventure/travel-guide-somaliland/ 

Siyaasi Reer Badhan (Sanaag-bari) ah oo Somaliland difaacay

Markets An Isolated Country (Somaliland) Runs on Mobile Money

HARGEISA, Somaliland—Hyperinflation and economic isolation have pushed this poor, breakaway republic closer to a virtual milestone than most other countries in the world: a cashless economy.

Mobile-money services have taken off over the past decade in Africa; 1 in 10 adults across the continent—about 100 million people—use them. In Kenya, Vodacom Group Ltd.’s VOD -2.12% groundbreaking service M-Pesa, broadly considered the first major and most successful mobile-money technology platform, counts 26 million users, roughly half the population. More than half of the world’s 282 mobile-money platforms are in sub-Saharan Africa, research by McKinsey & Co. shows.

The last innocent person to be hanged in Wales

- On September 3 1952, dad-of-three Mahmood Hussein Mattan was taken from his cell at Cardiff prison and executed for a murder he did not commit. He was the last person to ever be hanged in Cardiff and the final innocent person to be hanged in Wales.

Born in Somalia in 1923, Mahmood Mattan was a sailor and his job ended up taking him to Wales. That was when he met Laura Williams from the Rhondda Valley. 

The couple married just three months after meeting. The Somali seaman upset many people in the 1950s community of Butetown by marrying a Welsh woman.

Sheffield Mayor Magid Magid 'bans' Donald Trump from city

- Donald Trump has been 'banned' from the city of Sheffield by its new mayor - just ten days ahead of the US president's visit to the UK. Magid Magid labelled Trump a 'wasteman' and said there was no space for him to visit the city. Instead, the day of Trump's arrival on July 13 should be celebrated as Mexico Solidarity Day, Mr Magid said, as he wore a 'Trump is a Wasteman' t-shirt, teamed with green Doctor Martin boots.

Green Party councillor Magid Magid made the announcement on Twitter, citing Mr Trump's 'Muslim ban', the detention of children at the border, and withdrawing the US from the Paris Climate Agreement as reasons.

Read more;

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5918355/Sheffield-Lord-Mayor-bans-Donald-Trump-city-ahead-UK-visit.html

Somaliland ambassador calls for unity as they fight for recognition

 "the ultimate objective for the past 27 years of the sparsely populated nation of four million people has been getting international recognition and Hemsi says it will remain so until they acquire it."

- The Ambassador of Somaliland in Uganda, Hemse Abdul said it’s high time, that the international community recognised Somaliland as an independent state to allow them deal with their problems effectively.

“We need to strongly unite for the welfare of our nation, peaceful coexistence and defence in a united voice as one wherever we are in the world,” Abdul said.

DP World assists 120,000 individuals. "..... Republic of Somaliland"

- Dubai, July 2 (BNA): A range of food donation drives were organised during this year’s Holy Month of Ramadan by global trade enabler, Dubai Ports (DP World) across its network to benefit more than 120,000 people in the UAE, Senegal, Indonesia, Algeria, Djibouti, Egypt, Mozambique and Republic of Somaliland.

These included the distribution of 34 tonnes of dates to schools and businesses in Djibouti and the Republic of Somaliland provided by the Dar Al Ber Society in Dubai; a traditional iftar or Ramadan fast-breaking meal for 200 orphans and the distribution of 700 food packs every day for three weeks in Surabaya, Indonesia; delivery of food to over 6,000 underprivileged children at eight schools in Senegal; the distribution of food parcels to remote areas of Djazair, Algeria; the distribution of 1,000 bags of groceries to the underprivileged in Sokhna, Egypt; and a food donation drive for a home for the elderly in Maputo, Mozambique.

An Open letter to the Ethiopian Prime Minister

"Acknowledge Contributions of Somaliland to Region, World."

 Dear Prime Minister,

- Imagine Agaro or Jimma town bombarded and destroyed by planes belonging to the Ethiopian Army whose whole and sole responsibility was to protect, not to bomb its people. What if MIG17 were to take off from the airport to bomb the town itself? What if you were in your mother’s womb and she could not even walk the distance between Jimma and Sudan-Ethiopia border to look for shelter and safety and to keep you survive inside her womb? Just visualize a situation where your mother could not even think that you would ever survive, because of the   planes’ shelling and soldiers slaughtering their fellow citizens in every corner of the Agaro streets? How would you feel if your mother’s efforts and patience helped you being born in a refugee camp in Sudan and becoming a Sudanese citizen?