An odious affair: The UN in Somalia. Mogadishu, Somalia - The Somali people have suffered a great deal and are heading towards oblivion unless dramatic action is urgently taken.
Somalia's condition is the product of internal and external actors' attempt to realise their respective political agendas. The cumulative effects of the military dictatorship, cold/terror warriors, faction leaders, warlords, client Somali regimes, Ethiopian and Kenyan invasions, and most recently, Uganda and the United Nations interventions have all contributed to Somalia's devastation.
This brief essay examines the particular roles played by two UN agencies - the Monitoring Group for Somalia and Eritrea (MG) and the United Nations Special Representative (SR) - in the reproduction of the disaster in the country. These two agencies have separate mandates, but collectively they have been engaged in activities that undermine Somali efforts to rebuild the country.
Fraudulent reports Only recently was Barakaat de-listed from the sanction's list.
Maps of the Military Situation in Southern Somalia. Since October, Kenya has been waging war against al Shabab, the Muslim rebels of southern Somalia.
Kenya’s incursion into Somalia has also prompted Ethiopia to send (not for the first time) some of its own soldiers into the southwestern part of Somalia. The capital Mogadishu, since al Shabab withdrew in August, has been controlled by Somalia’s Transitional Federal Government (TFG). The TFG is supported by the forces of the African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM). With conditions changing by the day, determining who holds what is difficult. It is clear that al Shabab is losing territory by the month, and that Kenyan forces are advancing on some of the movement’s key strongholds, particularly the port city of Kismayo.
Here is one list of the towns Kenya controls: Bilis Qooqani, Ras Kamboni, Bibi, Jilib, Tabda, Gherile and Bardere. VOA describes the areas where Ethiopia has a presence: And here are two maps: one, by the BBC, is a political/military map of all of Somalia. Like this: Signs of hope in Somalia’s shattered state – read this book! Mary Harper, Getting Somalia Wrong?
Faith, Hope and War in a Shattered State Zed Books, London, 2011. ISBN 978 1 84813 000 0 hb/ pb, 2011 forthcoming Mary Harper’s informed, perceptive and empathetic book on Somalia could not be coming out at a more apt time, with the country back in the news and now the scene of a major Kenyan military incursion. This is a work that demonstrates the importance of engaged but impartial journalism and clear, uncluttered thought expressed simply but effectively. A journalist with the BBC African Service for more than 20 years and one who had reported from Somalia and regularly visited the country since 1991, Harper demonstrates in her book the qualities that made the World Service the world’s most balanced, fair-minded but courageous news service. Somalia is the ultimate image, for many, of the failed state. This gap in understanding is not just a European or American phenomenon. The CIA's Secret Sites in Somalia. Renditions, an underground prison and a new CIA base are elements of an intensifying US war, according to a Nation investigation in Mogadishu.
Nestled in a back corner of Mogadishu’s Aden Adde International Airport is a sprawling walled compound run by the Central Intelligence Agency. Set on the coast of the Indian Ocean, the facility looks like a small gated community, with more than a dozen buildings behind large protective walls and secured by guard towers at each of its four corners.
Adjacent to the compound are eight large metal hangars, and the CIA has its own aircraft at the airport. The site, which airport officials and Somali intelligence sources say was completed four months ago, is guarded by Somali soldiers, but the Americans control access. About the Author Jeremy Scahill Jeremy Scahill, a Puffin Foundation Writing Fellow at The Nation Institute, is the author of the bestselling Blackwater... Also by the Author.