In what appears to be a effort to reward stablilty in a highly unstable part of the World ,The US is going to increase the amount of aid it sends to the “Breakaway Region” of Somaliland. On the surface that can be seen as the US growing increasingly frustrated with the Pace of “Nation Building” within Somalia.
In Recent Weeks there have been several Incidents of Piracy on the High Seas. In at least one instance there has been Western Intervention to Free some of those that were taken hostage. Several Nations will be deploying Warships to this volatile region in the near future to address this rapidly unfolding and deteriorating situation. The Situation on the Ground isn’t much better either with Islamist Militias targeting Peacekeepers.
Earlier this year US Undersecretary of State for African Affairs Jendayi Frazier paid a visit to Hargeysa. Security Issues were forefront Naturally in her visit. The Combined Joint Task Force-Horn of Africa (CJTF-HOA) already has some contacts with Somaliland Authorities as well as several US Funded Aid Agencies. Somaliland has been registering Political Parties for its Presidential Elections in 2009.
The Visit by Jessica Davis Ba who is the US Diplomat Responsible for Somali Political and Economic Interests in the US Embassy in Nairobi and a representative from the USAID (United States Agency for International Development) was a follow-up to the trip of Underseceretary Frazier. The US Feels that Somaliland has made great Economic and Political gains since it declared its unilateral Independence back in 1991.
There are concerns in Washington that the rise in both Global Food and Petroleum Prices could be a hinderance to the Emergance of an Independent Somaliland. Several Countries have sent Delegations to Hargeysa in recent weeks to determine if any Economic Investments are indeed feasable. There are concerns about the youth of the country leaving school early to take on other endeavors currently.
With the rest of Somalia continuing to suffer Famine and the effects of a very effective Insurgency it is not a bad idea to reach out to People and areas that are having a modicum of success. Although the US has no immediate plans to open up a direct contact with Hargeysa the current Administration will use the contacts it already has to further improve ties. In the past the United States has stated that it will wait until the African Union Recgonizes Somaliland as an Independent State before it does.
In Recent Weeks there have been reports that Ethiopia is considering pulling out of Somalia. If this occurs than once again the efforts of the United Nations to restore a functioning Government to Somalia will have failed once again. Efforts to have African Peacekeepers on the ground have been lacking. Famine is a growing concern as is the rise of Piracy in the region known as Puntland. So it appears that the US is once again hedging its bets in a volatile region.
(The Author publishes Confused Eagle on the Internet. It can be found at morganrights.tripod.com)
BBC – Uganda’s ethics and integrity minister says miniskirts should be banned – because women wearing them distract drivers and cause traffic accidents.
Nsaba Buturo told journalists in Kampala that wearing a miniskirt was like walking naked in the streets.
“What’s wrong with a miniskirt? You can cause an accident because some of our people are weak mentally,” he said.
The BBC’s Joshua Mmali in Kampala, the capital, said journalists found the minister’s comments extremely funny.
Wearing a miniskirt should be regarded as “indecent”, which would be punishable under Ugandan law, Mr Buturo said.
And he railed against the dangers facing those inadvertently distracted by short skirts.
“If you find a naked person you begin to concentrate on the make-up of that person and yet you are driving,” he said.
“These days you hardly know who is a mother from a daughter, they are all naked.”
Vice list
According to the minister, indecent dressing is just one of many vices facing Ugandan society.
“Theft and embezzlement of public funds, sub-standard service delivery, greed, infidelity, prostitution, homosexuality [and] sectarianism…” he said.
Earlier this year, Kampala’s Makerere University decided to impose a dress code for women at the institution, our reporter says.
The miniskirt and tight trousers ban has yet to be implemented, but our correspondent sought the opinions of women on campus about the minister’s opinions.
“If one wants to wear a miniskirt, it’s ok. If another wants to put on a long skirt, then that’s ok,” one woman said.
But others had more sympathy with Mr Buturo.
“I think skimpy things are not good. We are keeping the dignity of Africa as ladies and we have to cover ourselves up,” one woman, called Sharon, told the BBC.
NEW YORK: Gete Wami and Dire Tune of Ethiopia committed on Monday to run in the New York City Marathon on Nov. 2.
Also set to run are Lyubov Morgunova of Russia, first-time marathoner Kim Smith of New Zealand, and 36-year-old Briton Hayley Haining, who set a personal record of 2 hours, 29 minutes, 18 seconds in the London Marathon this year.
Wami, 37, was the reigning World Marathon Majors series champion and runner-up to Paula Radcliffe at last year’s NYC Marathon.
Tune, 23, was the 2008 Boston Marathon champion and two-time winner and course record-holder of the Houston Marathon.
Morgunova, 37, won this year’s Rotterdam Marathon in a personal-best time of 2:25:12.
A two-time Olympian, Smith is one of New Zealand’s top distance runners, holding seven national records. Only two New Zealnders have won the NYC Marathon — Allison Roe in 1981 and Rod Dixon in 1983.
“We Kiwis have a great distance running tradition and I would love to enhance this tradition in New York City on Nov. 2,” Smith said. “I have always wanted to run the marathon distance and now is the right time for me.”
ADDIS ABABA, ETHIOPIA – The United Nations World Food Program (WFP) today appealed for US$460 million to feed 9.6 million hungry people affected by drought and high food prices in Ethiopia through to March next year.
“The Horn of Africa region is facing the worst humanitarian crisis since 1984, and Ethiopia is caught in the middle,” said WFP Executive Director, Josette Sheeran. “We know what needs to be done – we just need the funds to go out and do our job, protecting the hungry.”
Around a quarter of those in need – some 2 million people – live in the arid Somali Region of Ethiopia where it has not rained for three years.
Pastoralist communities in the region have already lost half of their cattle herds. People are skipping meals and parents are pulling children out of school so that they can help to beg in towns or scour the countryside for food.
“Millions of people are in extreme distress and urgently need food and nutrition,” said Sheeran.
WFP is facing a similar humanitarian challenge in neighbouring Somalia, where 3.25 million people – almost half the population – have been affected by drought, high food prices and conflict.
Ninety percent of WFP’s food deliveries to Somalia arrive by sea, but attacks by pirates are disrupting supply lines and discouraging ship owners from making the journey.
A Canadian naval vessel that has been escorting ships carrying humanitarian aid will withdraw its support on 27 September, and no nation has yet volunteered to take over this protective role.
KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia (AP) — Pirates in speedboats hijacked a Greek bulk carrier with 19 crew members off eastern Somalia, a piracy watchdog official said Monday.
Sunday’s hijacking pushes the number of attacks this year in Somali waters close to 60, with pirates raiding ships off eastern Somalia and in the Gulf of Aden flanking the country’s northern coast despite U.S.-led patrols.
Four pirates in three speedboats hijacked the Greek ship, which was flying a Bahamas flag and traveling to Europe, said Noel Choong, who heads the International Maritime Bureau’s piracy reporting center in Kuala Lumpur.
He could not say whether the crew members were harmed and declined to say where they were from or what the ship was carrying.
Hours earlier, three pirates in a speed boat fired machine guns at an Iranian crude oil carrier in the same area, Choong said. The tanker escaped after a 30-minute chase, and no casualties were reported, he said.
Last week, another Greek bulk carrier with 25 crew members was hijacked off Somalia’s east coast. A Hong Kong vessel carrying 25 crew was hijacked the same day in the Gulf of Aden, one of the world’s busiest waterways.
“The pirates have now started to attack ships off the eastern coast again … It’s not good,” Choong said. “The eastern coast of Somalia is an open sea. It’s so wide. It may be more difficult to control, to patrol.”
There have been 59 attacks in Somali waters since January, and 13 ships with more than 300 crew remain in pirates’ hands, Choong said.
The surge in attacks has prompted the U.S. Naval Central Command to establish a security corridor patrolled by an international coalition of warships.
Some 20,000 ships pass annually through the Gulf of Aden, which connects the Red Sea and the Indian Ocean.
Somalia has not had a functioning government since 1991. Pirates there are often trained fighters, many of them dressed in military fatigues and typically armed with automatic weapons, anti-tank rocket launchers and grenades.
Somali pirates, who have been relentlessly attacking ships this year off the coast of Somalia, say they will kill any European they capture if France fails to release six pirates seized by French commandos earlier this month. VOA Correspondent Alisha Ryu has this exclusive report from our East Africa Bureau in Nairobi.
In a telephone interview with VOA, a man identified as the spokesman of the pirate group based in the northern Puntland town of Eyl says the group wants the European Union to pressure France to release the six pirates immediately.
The spokesman, who calls himself Bileh, says if other European Union nations refuse to negotiate the release of his compatriots, his group will begin targeting all Europeans. He says every European hostage would be beheaded.
It is not clear whether the pirate group is in contact with European Union officials about the matter. The captured Somali pirates were transferred to Paris after French commandos mounted a raid last week to free a French couple kidnapped by pirates off the coast of Somalia on September 2.
The French military also seized another group of pirates during an operation in April. But Bileh, the pirate spokesman in Eyl, made no mention of them, suggesting that the pirates taken to Paris in April may have belonged to another group.
Last week, EU foreign ministers decided to set up a special unit to coordinate warship patrols off the coast of Somalia to protect ships from piracy.
In support of that mission, Spain deployed military aircraft to the Horn on Saturday to collect information on the movements of pirates. EU foreign ministers have not decided whether to create a special naval mission to pursue the pirates and capture them.
This year, well-armed pirates, using powerful speedboats, have attacked more than 55 ships and private vessels sailing through the Gulf of Aden and along Somalia’s east coast. Piracy is threatening to disrupt global commerce and driving up costs because of soaring insurance premiums.
The group in Eyl, Puntland is believed to be the largest of the various pirate groups operating in Somalia. Pirates in Eyl and the factional leaders and businessmen who control them are said to have earned about $30 million this year in ransom payments. The group is currently holding about a dozen ships and their crew hostage.
Bileh insists the money ship owners are paying to free to their vessels and crew is not ransom, but fines and taxes being collected on behalf of the Somali people.
Bileh says the ships are being fined and taxed because they are trespassing on Somali territorial waters. He says in the absence of a functioning central government in Somalia, his group is working hard to collect enough money to form a navy strong enough to protect the Somali coast from foreign exploitation.
Eyewitness reports from Eyl suggest that pirates are using their share of the money to build palatial homes and to buy expensive cars. They are also believed to be purchasing increasingly sophisticated weapons and boats.
Somalia descended into factional chaos after the government of dictator Mohamed Siad Barre fell in 1991. The country is one of the poorest in the world, with more than 40 percent of its population in critical need of food aid.
