EDITOR’S NOTE: Peace is returning to Somalia after two years of terror by the U.S. Woyanne regime. Meles and gang who are ruling Ethiopia are the worst terrorists in the world. They have caused the death of over 10,000 civilians and in Somalia alone in the past 2 years.
By Lisa Schlein | VOA
The U.N. refugee agency reports for the first time in two years, displaced Somalis are beginning to return to their devastated neighborhoods in the capital Mogadishu. The UNHCR says the returns in the last two weeks follow the withdrawal of Ethiopian {www:Woyanne} troops from Mogadishu.
In the past few years, Somalia’s capital, Mogadishu has been the scene of some of the worst fighting in the country. Tens of thousands of terrified civilians have fled their homes. They prefer to live in squalid makeshift camps than to chance the violence and insecurity of a capital at war.
But, now, the U.N. refugee agency says there are signs that the situation may be changing. It says more than 16,000 internally displaced people who had fled to various parts of Somalia have returned to three districts in the capital.
UNHCR spokesman, Ron Redmond, tells VOA the three western districts were scenes of some of the worst violence and human rights abuses witnessed in Mogadishu some months ago.
“The returnees are families who say they intend to stay for good in the city,” he said. “What we have seen in the past is maybe the heads of households, men going back and checking out their houses and their property, but not bringing their families back. Now the whole family is going back.”
“So, that is a good sign. The bad news is that despite these returns, the security situation in Mogadishu remains extremely volatile. And, only this week, some 10,000 civilians fled from two districts in northeast Mogadishu to escape advancing Islamic militia who wanted to seize control of the neighborhood,” he continued.
Redmond says most of these 10,000 displaced people have moved to other neighborhoods within Mogadishu or to the outskirts of the city. So, he says, a lot of instability remains, with some people returning to Mogadishu and others fleeing the city.
For now, he says most of the city’s residents who fled Mogadishu are still reluctant or fearful to return to their homes. The UNHCR reports an estimated 300,000 internally displaced people live in makeshift shelters in the Afgooye area, some 30 kilometers west of Mogadishu.
Redmond says conditions there are very hard. Nevertheless, he says the IDPs are afraid conditions in Mogadishu will be even worse. He says they are deterred from returning by lack of water, sanitation and health services and the threat of renewed fighting in the capital.
About one million Somalis have fled Mogadishu since February 2007, when fighting erupted between the Ethiopian Woyanne-backed Transitional Federal Government soldiers and rebels. The UNHCR says 1.3 million Somalis are displaced within their own country.
The White House had no comment Saturday on the arrest in Kenya of President Barack Obama’s half-brother George for possession of marijuana and resisting arrest.
President Obama barely knows George, 26, who lives in a home somewhat more modest than the White House in Huruma, a suburb of Nairobi, Kenya.
George is thought to be the youngest of at least eight half-siblings the President has.
Some of President Obama’s paternal relatives — though not George — came to Washington, D.C., for the inaugural, most notably “Grandma Sarah” Obama, the stepmother of Obama’s Kenyan-born father Barack Obama Sr., who on the Sunday before the inauguration feasted with the soon-to-be first family, their friends, several top Obama aides and Oprah Winfrey.
Kenyan Police Chief Joshua Omokulongolo told the Associated Press that George had one joint on him.
“He is not a drug peddler,” Omokulongolo said. “But it’s illegal, it’s a banned substance.”
George Obama, 26, is scheduled to appear in court Monday.
CNN quoted George saying, from his jail cell, “They took me from my home. I don’t know why they are charging me.”
Influential Ethiopian composer and musician Mulatu Astatke will be backed by a 15-piece orchestra during a special performance on Sunday, February 1 at the Harriet and Charles Luckman Fine Arts Complex in Los Angeles. Known for combining Ethiopian music with Latin and jazz, Astatke will kick off the first of four events in VTech’s “Timeless” concert series, which aims to showcase artists whose styles have had a profound impact on hip-hop.
“It is my job to share the music of Ethiopia with the world, to bring ethio-jazz to places like Los Angeles,” said Astatke in a recent interview with FILTER. “I am excited to perform with these great musicians and DJs.”
Sunday night’s bill will also include DJ sets from L.A. mainstay Cut Chemist (formerly of Jurassic 5 and Ozomatli), as well as Quantic and Egon.
Purchase tickets here. To learn more about the “Timeless” series, check out its official site.
Addis Ababa, Ethiopia (AFP) – The European Union has given Ethiopia’s dictatorship €251m (US$329 million) in aid to boost development projects across the Horn of Africa nation, the government said on Friday.
The agreement was signed on Thursday by the bloc’s Director of Aid to sub-saharan Africa, Carribean and Pacific regions Gary Quince and Ethiopia’s Finance and Economic Development Minister Sufian Ahmed.
“The grant will be used for development assistance through road sector policy support… forest management and to implement some other development activities,” the finance ministry said in a statement.
The EU is one of the top development contributors to the Woyanne brutal regime in {www:Ethiopia), an impoverished country of 77 million and among the world’s top aid recipients.
The puppet president of the Oromiya Region of Ethiopia, Ato Aba Dula Gemeda, earlier this month donated his huge villa to his party, the Oromo People’s Democratic Organizaton (OPDO). (Read here) The following excerpt from Tesfaye Gebreab‘s just published tell-all book sheds some light on Aba Dula’s decision.
The book will be available in the U.S. next week. It can also be purchased by writing to [email protected] or from ebay.com. Click here Click here.
Addis Ababa, Ethiopia — The Intergovernmental Authority on Development, or IGAD, a regional grouping of six East African nations, has condemned the attempt by Islamist extremists to retake control of Somalia, following the withdrawal of Ethiopian Woyanne troops. The Somali delegate at an IGAD foreign ministers meeting warned that security is at a critical stage in his country.
The IGAD ministers issued a statement on Tuesday condemning the actions of what are described as “anti-peace groups” in Somalia. The Intergovernmental Authority on Development is a regional forum linking Somalia, Ethiopia, Kenya, Uganda, Sudan and Djibouti.
The emergency meeting was called a day after Ethiopian Woyanne troops completed their military withdrawal from Somalia. The Ethiopians Woyannes were immediately replaced in the provisional seat of parliament, Baidoa, by the hardline Islamic group al-Shabab, which already controls a large portion of central and southern Somalia.
An al-Shabab leader was quoted as promising to restore strict Sharia, or Islamic, law, which had been in effect before Ethiopian Woyanne intervened more than two years ago to prop up the country’s fragile transitional government.
Ethiopia’s Woyanne Foreign Minister, Seyoum Mesfin, accused al-Shabab of using Ethiopia’s presence in Somalia as a pretext for a campaign of violence that has left an estimated 16,000 people dead.
“Now that Ethiopian Woyanne troops are completely out of Somalia, so they have a different a different agenda, leading Somalia to the verge of fragmentation. And they are leading Somalia down the drain. They must not be allowed to lead Somalia into that disaster,” he said.
At the same time, the foreign minister emphasized that Ethiopia Woyanne has no intention of returning to Somalia after failing to bring stability to a country that has been without a functioning government since 1991.
“I don’t think Ethiopian Woyanne troops are ready again to step into Somalia. That is ruled out. But we will do everything by strengthening AMISOM [the African Union Mission to Somalia] and the Somali institutions to fight anarchy and these terrorist acts inside their country,” he said.
Earlier in the day, Africa’s top diplomat, African Union Commission chief Jean Ping spoke confidently of adding Ugandan and Nigerian battalions to the AU’s 3,500-strong peacekeeping mission in Somalia. AMISOM is working alongside 10,000 Somali security service personnel. But the combined force controls little more than a section of the capital, Mogadishu.
Ping shrugged off the fall of Baidoa to al-Shabab, saying it had been expected. He described security conditions as “less serious” than expected.
But Mohamed Jaama Ali, the top official in Somalia’s foreign ministry, says he is very worried about the restoration of militant Islamic rule. “Our security assessment, the Somali situation is very critical. As you may see it, it is very critical after the withdrawal of the Ethiopian; it is very volatile and very critical,” he said.
Somalia’s parliament, meanwhile, is meeting in neighboring Djibouti, a day after members voted to expand from 275 to 550 the number of members of parliament to include moderate Islamists under a United Nations-mediated deal.
Lawmakers on Tuesday extended by a few days the time limit for electing a new president to replace Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed, who resigned under pressure last month.
The country’s provisional charter gives parliament 30 days to elect a new president after the position falls vacant. That 30 day period expires on Wednesday. But the leader of a moderate Islamist opposition group that is joining the government, Sheik Sharif Sheik Ahmed, has asked for an extension to organize a campaign for the presidency.
Sheik Sharif quickly became a frontrunner in the presidential race because he has the support of a large faction of the new members in the expanded parliament.
Influential Ethiopian composer and musician Mulatu Astatke will be backed by a 15-piece orchestra during a special performance on Sunday, February 1 at the Harriet and Charles Luckman Fine Arts Complex in Los Angeles. Known for combining Ethiopian music with Latin and jazz, Astatke will kick off the first of four events in VTech’s “Timeless” concert series, which aims to showcase artists whose styles have had a profound impact on hip-hop.