Somali pirates hijack oil tanker going to US

NAIROBI, Kenya -- Somali pirates seized a tanker carrying more than $20 million of crude oil from Saudi Arabia to the United States in the increasingly dangerous waters off East Africa, an official said Monday, an attack that could pose a huge environmental or security threat.

The Greece-flagged Maran Centaurus was hijacked Sunday about 800 miles (1,300 kilometers) off the coast of Somalia, said Cmdr. John Harbour, a spokesman for the EU Naval Force. Harbour said it originated from Jeddah, Saudi Arabia and was destined for the United States. The ship has 28 crew members on board, he said.

The shipping intelligence company Lloyd's List said the Maran Centaurus is a "very large crude carrier, with a capacity of over 300,000 tons."

Stavros Hadzigrigoris from the ship's owners, Maran Tankers Management, said the tanker was carrying around 275,000 metric tons of crude. At an average price of around $75 a barrel, the cargo is worth more than $20 million. Hadzigrigoris declined to say who owned the oil.

Pirates have increased attacks on vessels off East Africa for the millions in ransom that can be had. Though pirates have successfully hijacked dozens of vessels the last several years, Sunday's attack appears to be only the second ever on an oil tanker.

The hijacking of a tanker increases worries that the vessel could crash, be run aground or be involved in a firefight, said Roger Middleton, a piracy expert at London-based think tank Chatham House.

Pirates typically use guns and rocket-propelled grenades in their attacks, and some vessels now carry private security guards, but Middleton said oil tankers do not.

"You're sitting on a huge ship filled with flammable liquid. You don't want somebody with a gun on top of that," Middleton said. "Financially it's a very costly exercise because the value of oil is so volatile। If it is held for a long time and the price of oil drops, they could lost millions of dollars."

n November 2008, pirates hijacked the Saudi supertanker Sirius Star, which held 2 million barrels of oil valued at about $100 million। The tanker was released last January for a reported $3 million ransom after a two-month drama that helped galvanize international efforts to fight piracy off Africa's coast. Somali pirates are a separate group of criminals from the al-Qaida-affiliated Islamic militants who control large areas of southern Somalia, but anytime pirates hold such valuable and explosive cargo it raises international

In late 2007, pirates hijacked a chemical tanker carrying up to 10,000 tons of highly explosive benzene. Initially, American intelligence agents worried terrorists from Somalia's Islamic extremist insurgency could be involved, and might try to crash the boat into an offshore oil platform or use it as a gigantic bomb.

When the Japanese vessel was towed back into Somali waters and ransom demanded, the coalition was relieved to realize it was just another pirate attack.

Somalia's lawless 1,880-mile (3,000-kilometer) coastline provides a perfect haven for pirates to prey on ships heading for the Gulf of Aden, one of the world's busiest shipping routes. The impoverished Horn of Africa nation has not had a functioning government for a generation and the weak U.N.-backed administration is too busy fighting the Islamist insurgency to arrest pirates.

Pirates now hold about a dozen vessels hostage and more than 200 crew members. The Maran Centaurus had 28 crew aboard - 16 Filipinos, nine Greeks, two Ukrainians and one Romanian, Harbour said.

Middleton said pirate demands and negotiations are becoming more complex.

"They still want the money but they have also asked for the release of imprisoned comrades," he said. "That demand is an extra bargaining tool they can use to add extra layers to their negotiating position."

Piracy has increased despite an increased presence by international navies patrolling the Indian Ocean and Gulf of Aden. The U.S. this fall began flying sophisticated drones over East African waters as part of the fight against piracy.

---

Associated Press Writers Katharine Houreld and Derek Gatopoulos in Athens, Greece contributed to this report.

gypt's Mufti condemns banning minarets in Switzerland

Egypt's Mufti condemns banning minarets in Switzerland

www.chinaview.cn 2009-11-30 18:45:22

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CAIRO, Nov. 30 (Xinhua) -- Egypt's Grand Mufti Sheikh Ali Gomaa condemned Switzerland's decision to ban construction of minarets, Al Akhbar daily reported on Monday.

"We received this initiative in sorrow and it is considered as a humiliation for the Muslim community in and out of Switzerland," Gomaa said.

The Mufti expressed his concerns about the decision which he said would deepen Muslims' feeling of discrimination.

On Sunday, the Swiss television said that projections based on ballot results and exit polls showed Switzerland's voters approved the move to ban the construction of minarets, which were labeled by right-wing parties as symbols of Islamic militancy.

According to the final results of a referendum, 57.5 percent of voters and a majority of cantons backed the initiative, which was championed by right-wing and ultra-conservative groups, but strongly opposed by the government as well as churches and the business community.

Around 400,000 Muslims live in Switzerland, mainly from former Yugoslavia and Turkey.

Schweizer wollen keine Minarette ZDF

Swiss vote to ban new minarets

Initiative labeled mosque towers as symbols of militant Islam

By ALEXANDER G. HIGGINS, Associated Press

AP

FILE - A man passes by a poster of the right-wing Swiss People's Party which shows a woman wearing a burqa against a background of a Swiss flag upon which several minarets resemble missiles at the central station in Geneva, Switzerland.

Swiss voters approved a move to ban the construction of minarets in a Sunday vote on a right-wing initiative that labeled the mosque towers as symbols of militant Islam, projections by a widely respected polling institute showed.

The projections based on partial returns say Swiss swung from only 37 percent supporting the proposal a week ago to 59 percent in the actual voting.

Claude Longchamp, leader of the widely respected gfs.bern polling institute, said the projection contracted by state-owned DRS television forecasts approval of the initiative by more than half the country's 26 cantons, meaning it will become a constitutional amendment.

The nationalist Swiss People's Party describes minarets, the distinctive spires used in most countries for calls to prayer, as symbols of rising Muslim political and religious power that could eventually turn Switzerland into an Islamic nation.

Muslims make up about 6 percent of Switzerland's 7.5 million people. Many Swiss Muslims are refugees from the Yugoslav wars of the 1990s. Fewer than 13 percent practice their religion, the government says, and Swiss mosques do not broadcast the call to prayer outside their buildings.

"Forced marriages and other things like cemeteries separating the pure and impure -- we don't have that in Switzerland, and we do not want to introduce it" said Ulrich Schlueer, co-president of the Initiative Committee to ban minarets.

The move by the People's Party, the country's largest party in terms of popular support and membership in parliament, is part of a broader European backlash against a growing Muslim population. It has stirred fears of violent reactions in Muslim countries and an economically disastrous boycott by wealthy Muslims who bank, shop and vacation in Switzerland.

Taner Hatipoglu, president of the Federation of Islamic Organizations in Zurich, said, "The initiators have achieved something everyone wanted to prevent, and that is to influence and change the relations to Muslims and their social integration in a negative way."

Hatipoglu said if in the long term the anti-Islam atmosphere continues, "Muslims indeed will not feel safe anymore."

The seven-member Cabinet that heads the Swiss government has spoken out strongly against the initiative, and local officials and rights defenders objected to campaign posters showing minarets rising like missiles from the Swiss flag next to a fully veiled woman.

The People's Party has campaigned mainly unsuccessfully in previous years against immigrants with campaign posters showing white sheep kicking a black sheep off the Swiss flag and another with brown hands grabbing eagerly for Swiss passports.

The four minarets already attached to mosques in the country are not affected by the initiative.

Geneva's main mosque was vandalized Thursday when someone threw a pot of pink paint at the entrance. Earlier this month, a vehicle with a loudspeaker drove through the area imitating a muezzin's call to prayer, and vandals damaged a mosaic when they threw cobblestones at the building.

Switzerland to hold referendum to ban minarets

Egypt's Grand Mufti responds to Fort Hood shootings

Egypt's Grand Mufti responds to Fort Hood shootings

By Dr. Ali Gomaa
Grand Mufti of Egypt

I was shocked as any sensible human being was when I learned about the senseless, appalling and cowardly act of violence in Fort Hood. This horrific attack is a complete violation of Islamic law and norms and the perpetrator is no way representative of the Muslim people or the religion of Islam. God upholds the sanctity of life as a universal principle. "and do not kill one another, for God is indeed merciful unto you" says the Quran in (4:29). Islam views murder as both a crime punishable by law in this world and as major sin punishable in the Afterlife as well. Prophet Mohammad said, "The first cases to be decided among the people on the Day of Judgment will be those of blood-shed"

The Islam that we were taught in our youth is a religion that calls for peace and mercy. The first prophetic saying that is taught to a student of Islam is "Those who show mercy are shown mercy by the All-Merciful. Show mercy to those who are on earth and the One in the heavens will show mercy to you." What we have learned about Islam has been taken from the clear, pristine, and scholarly understanding of the Qur'an, "O people we have created you from a single male and female and divided you into nations and tribes so that you may know one another." When God said "to know one another" He did not mean in order to kill one another. All religions have forbidden the killing of innocents. To kill an innocent human being is tantamount to killing the entire humanity.

Let me be clear by reiterating that Islam is utterly against extremism and terrorism but unless we understand the factors that provide a rationalization for terrorism and extremism we will never be able to eradicate this scourge. This must be understood in order to build a better future that can bring an end to this grave situation that is destroying the world.

My heart, my thoughts, and my prayers go out to the families who lost their loved ones. We offer our deepest and sincerest condolences to the families of the victims and pray for a speedy recovery of the wounded. We demand the perpetrator to be brought to justice and stand the trial.

However, it was unfortunate to see hasty responses and reactions which immediately jumped on Islam within minutes of the first news reports of the incident. Blaming an entire religion because of the acts of this not-well man is patently unfair and serves no purpose.

It is important for us at this time of great sadness to stand together and process this horrific incident in a way that is fair and reasonable. It is important that we do not demonize Muslims without cause not because it is good for Muslims, but because our future ability to coexist in peace depends on it.

Dr. Ali Gomaa is Grand Mufti of Egyp

Global Warming Could Lead to Increased Civil War in Africa
Saturday, November 28, 2009

Fighting in Kenya (AP Photo)

Described as the first quantitative evidence linking climate change and the risk of civil war, university researchers have concluded rising temperatures on the continent of Africa are likely to result in more warfare in the coming decades. A group from Stanford University, the University of California, Berkeley, New York University and Harvard University studied historical patterns of conflict, drought and temperature fluctuations and noted that there is a correlation between warmer weather and civil wars.

Their explanation is that when temperatures go up, crops tend to die off, producing unrest in agriculturally dependent economies. “The large majority of the poor in most African countries depend on agriculture for their livelihoods, and their crops are quite sensitive to small changes in temperature,” said Edward Miguel, professor of economics at UC-Berkeley and faculty director of UC-Berkeley’s Center for Evaluation for Global Action. “So when temperatures rise, the livelihoods of many in Africa suffer greatly, and the disadvantaged become more likely to take up arms.”

The authors of the study predict that if overall temperatures rise one degree Celsius by 2030, the likelihood of civil war in sub-Saharan Africa could increase by more than 50%, resulting in nearly 400,000 battle deaths.

-Noel Brinkerhoff

Global Warming Increases Risk of Civil War in Africa, Stanford Researchers Say (Stanford University News)

Warming Increases the Risk of Civil War in Africa (by Marshall B. Burke, Edward Miguel, Shanker Satyanath, John A. Dykema, and David B. Lobell, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences) (PDF)

VIDEO: Dick Smith confirms Brennan family help

VIDEO: Dick Smith confirms Brennan family help

VIDEO: Dick Smith confirms Brennan family help

VIDEO: Dick Smith confirms Brennan family help

EID MUBARAK

EID MUBARAK

CIID MUBARIK

Waakan sheekh siiro oo Ummadda Soomaliyeed ee koonfurta ee
dagaalka sokeeye ku habsadey leh,
waxa la siiyaa intaas oo Lacag ah,
Sidaasi waanaag sheeg maaha, sheekhu halkaas wuu baalmarey
Ma iloobey xaddiskii ahaa sidan.

"No one of you is a believer until he desires for his brother
that which he desires for himself. "


We need more common sense not more Tribalism
We say stop

CIID WANAAGSAN KU CIIDA

The millions attending the Hajj pilgrimage

Kidnapped Canadian journalist Amanda Lindhout reaches freedom in Kenya

Kidnapped Canadian journalist Amanda Lindhout reaches freedom in Kenya

Jorge Barrera, Canwest News Service Published: Thursday, November 26, 2009

Read more: http://www.nationalpost.com/news/canada/story.html?id=2268523#ixzz0XxzNiMOI
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Somalian Presidential Office/AFP/Getty Images Amanda Lindhout sits next to Australian journalist Nigel Brennan a few hours before their departure from Mogadishu airport। The journalists flew out of Somalia today at the end of a 15-month hostage .

Freed Canadian journalist Amanda Lindhout left Somalia Thursday morning, ending her 15-month hostage ordeal in which she was tortured, beaten and often given barely enough food to survive.

After meeting with the prime minister of Somalia's transitional federal government who offered an official apology, Ms. Lindhout and Australian photographer Nigel Brennan, who was kidnapped along with her, left Mogadishu and flew to freedom in Nairobi, where they were taken to a hotel by Canadian and Australian officials and were reportedly met by Ms. Lindhout's mother. The pair made no comment on their arrival.

Somali politician Abdul M. Aden said Ms. Lindhout and Mr. Brennan met with Somali Prime Minister Omar Abdirashid Ali Sharmarke before they left Mogadishu. Sharmarke once lived in Canada.

The prime minister offered Ms. Lindhout and Mr. Brennan and apology for their captivity which began on Aug. 23, 2008, said Daud Abdi Daud Dhimbil, of the Somali Journalist Rights Agency, who has been tracking the case.

"They met earlier today with the Somalian prime minister and he apologized to them for what happened," said Dhimbil, in an interview from Nairobi.

Ms. Lindhout was emotional following her release.

"Everything has changed. I'm not the same person I was 16 months ago," Ms. Lindhout told Global National from the Somali capital on Wednesday after her release. "It's kind of hard for me to say what's going to happen. I'm still in shock."

Mr. Aden lives at the Mogadishu hotel where Ms. Lindhout and Mr. Brennan spent much of Wednesday.

He said he sat with Ms. Lindhout in her hotel room, number 218, for about 20 minutes, trying to calm her down and stayed in touch with her throughout the day and into the evening.

He said he spoke to her about his visits to Toronto and how much he loved Canada and gave her a pen and three pieces of paper, along with a clean shirt.

"It was just something. I came inside my room and I thought what can I give her," Mr. Aden said, in a telephone interview with Canwest News Service Thursday morning. "I said, oh, she is a reporter, maybe she would want to write telephone numbers."

Ms. Lindhout, a freelance journalist with extensive foreign reporting experience, and Mr. Brennan, an Australian photographer, were kidnapped at gunpoint last August about 25 kilometres west of the war-torn Somali capital as they travelled to visit a refugee camp.

Ms. Lindhout and Mr. Brennan were kept in rough conditions, given little food, faced beatings and torture while holed up in dark, windowless rooms.

"There were times when I was beaten. I was tortured in extremely difficult situations," Ms. Lindhout, 28, told CTVNews. "Yeah, because the money wasn't [coming] quickly enough for these men, and they seemed to think that if they beat me enough, when I was able to speak to my mother... I would be able to say the right things."

Ms. Lindhout said the kidnappers did not seem to understand that a $1-million ransom was a large sum of money and apparently thought that everyone in Canada was rich.

"There were some really dark moments, but I think as human beings we have an ability to adapt in trying times," she told the TV network. "It kept me going in that darkness."

Asked if at any point she had felt sympathy for her kidnappers, Ms. Lindhout didn't hesitate.

"No. None. None whatsoever."

Ms. Lindhout said she believed a ransom was paid by her family for her release.

Reports have pegged the ransom at between $700,000 to $1-million.

Reuters news agency reported Thursday morning that the kidnappers said it was not until members of the Somali government became involved in the negotiations that the hostage takers felt they could trust the talks.

The kidnappers had originally demanded $1-million for each hostage, Reuters reported.

Somalia has become one of the most dangers places on Earth for foreigners who risk kidnap and torture on an almost daily basis.

Mr. Aden said he felt "shame" for what had happened to Ms. Lindhout, especially because Canada has given refuge to so many Somalis over the years.

Ms. Lindhout arrived early Wednesday morning at the hotel with an armed convoy and two Somali MPs who belonged to the same tribe as the kidnappers, said Mr. Aden. He said hotel security initially fired warning shots as the convoy approached.

Mr. Aden said the two MPs met with the kidnappers about 15 kilometres away from the hotel and Ms. Lindhout and Mr. Brennan were transferred from one convoy to another.

Mr. Aden said he doesn't know how the government convoy made its way to the hotel through treacherous terrain controlled by various militants who operated several checkpoints along the way.

"Everyone was talking about how you can pass all these road blocks in the night time, amazing, they were very lucky. I am not surprised (Lindhout and Brennan) were shaking," he said. "Some of these things you don't want to wish on your enemy."

The central Somali government has little control over Mogadishu and the rest of the country, which has plunged into near anarchy amid fighting between militant Islamic forces and pro-government troops.

Mr. Aden said Ms. Lindhout arrived wearing dark garments, with her head covered.

He said Ms. Lindhout rarely smiled, but added, "she is a tough girl."

Freed Canadian journalist Amanda Lindhout left Somalia

Africa population tops a billion

AFRICA'S POPULATION: 1BN

Central Africa: 125.7m

East Africa: 318.8m

North Africa: 209.4m

West Africa 298.6m

Source: UNPF, State of the World Report २००९

The number of people in Africa has passed the one billion mark, the UN Population Fund says in a report.

UNPF's Executive Director Thoraya Obeid told the BBC that the annual figures showed the continent's population had doubled in the last 27 years.

"Africa countries are all growing fast... because there is large number of women who have no access to planning their families," she said.

The populations of Nigeria and Uganda were growing the fastest, she said.

"It's an African phenomenon of a large growing population and a large percentage of young people in the population," she told the BBC's Network Africa programme.

In its State of the World Report, the UNPF says the world's population currently stands at about 6.8 billion.

Africa's population is estimated to reach 1.9 billion by 2050, it says.

U.S. Charges 8 With Aiding Fighters Who Traveled to Somalia

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) -- Promising both ''true brotherhood'' and ''fun,'' several Somali men convinced fellow immigrants in Minneapolis to return to their East African homeland and take up arms with a terrorist group, according to federal charges unsealed Monday against eight individuals.

The charges are part of an unfolding federal investigation into the disappearance of as many as 20 young Somali men from Minneapolis over the last two years -- most of them U.S. citizens who federal authorities say are guilty of terrorism. Federal prosecutors say most of the men traveled to Somalia to join the terror group al-Shabab, which the U.S. State Department says has links to al-Qaeda.

Ralph S. Boelter, the special agent in charge of the FBI's Minneapolis field office, called the latest round of indictments a ''tipping point'' in the more than yearlong investigation. ''We have reached momentum, and reached a point where we will have full resolution of this case,'' Boelter said at a news conference with Minnesota's U.S. Attorney, B. Todd Jones.

Fourteen people have been charged in the investigation. The eight charged Monday are accused of a mix of recruiting and raising funds for the trips, and of engaging in terrorist acts in civil war-torn Somalia. Indictments say some attended terrorist training camps where they received instruction in firing small arms and machine guns, military style tactics and indoctrination in ''anti-Ethiopian, anti-American, anti-Israel, and anti-Western beliefs,'' according to a federal affidavit.

Two of those charged Monday helped raise money for the trips by approaching unknowing members of Minnesota's Somali community and soliciting funds by telling them it was to pay for trips for young Somali men to travel to Saudi Arabia and study the Koran, according to the affidavit.

Boelter and Jones said one reason they disclosed new details about the case was to reassure members of Minnesota's Somali community that the investigation is focused on a relatively small group of individuals. The larger community ''has consistently expressed deep concern about this pattern of recruitment activity,'' Jones said.

Still, the federal officials declined to say whether any of the new indictments targeted alleged leaders or masterminds of the recruitment scheme. The investigation is ongoing, they said, and there could be more indictments and arrests. Federal officials declined to name a local mosque which court documents allege was a site for some recruiting and planning.

Of the 14 people indicted, four have pleaded guilty and are awaiting sentencing. Seven are not in custody and are believed to be outside the United States.

Boelter said he did not think that Minnesota Somalis are still being recruited, but he could not say for sure. ''I'm confident it's not happening, but you're never 100 percent sure there's no activity,'' he said.

FBI Director Robert Mueller has said the case is worrisome because it shows young men raised in the United States can be recruited by terrorists overseas, trained to conduct attacks and in some cases killed in the fighting there.

One of the men who left Minneapolis, Shirwa Ahmed, allegedly carried out a suicide bombing in Somalia's Puntland region in October 2008. New charges unsealed Monday said Ahmed was also among a group of al-Shabab fighters who launched an armed ambush against Ethiopian troops.

Boelter said he had ''no indication'' that any of the Somali men ever intended to engage in a terrorist attack in the United States. ''But the national security implications are evident -- Americans with U.S. passports attending foreign terror camps,'' he said.

One of the eight named Monday was Mohamud Said Omar, who was arrested earlier this month in the Netherlands. Prosecutors accused Omar, a Somali citizen and U.S. permanent resident, of helping with travel plans for some men between Minneapolis and Somalia, and providing hundreds of dollars to fund the purchase of AK-47 rifles for the men.

Two of Omar's brothers who live in Minnesota have said they believe their sibling is innocent, was not an extremist and was so poor that he couldn't afford to bring his new wife from Somalia to the U.S.

The newly unsealed court documents reveal a series of meetings beginning in 2007 ''in a variety of locations around the Twin Cities,'' as well as in phone calls in which several individuals, both in Somalia and in Minnesota, tried to convince Minnesota Somalis of the worthiness of the cause.

Somalia has not had a functioning government since 1991, when warlords overthrew a socialist dictator and then turned on each other, causing chaos in the African nation of 7 million. Minnesota has the largest population of Somali immigrants of any U.S. state.

The investigation, which Boelter described as ''global'' in scope, has spread beyond Minnesota to California, Ohio, Massachusetts and multiple foreign countries.

------

Associated Press writer Devlin Barrett in Washington contributed to this report.

US Congressman Criticizes Puntland For Abusive Behavior

East Africa

US Congressman Criticizes Puntland For Abusive Behavior

The government of the semi-autonomous Somali region of Puntland has been sharply criticized by a U.S. lawmaker, who says Puntland authorities are routinely arresting, handing over men from neighboring Ogaden region to Ethiopian security

Alisha Ryu | Nairobi 23 November 2009

Photo: AP

US Congressman Donald Payne (D-New Jersey)

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The government of the semi-autonomous Somali region of Puntland has been sharply criticized by a U.S. lawmaker, who says Puntland authorities are routinely arresting, harassing, torturing, and handing over men from the neighboring Ogaden region to Ethiopian security.

Congressman Donald Payne, who chairs the U.S. House Subcommittee on Africa and Global Health, issued a statement in which he denounces what he calls "abusive and dictatorial behavior" by authorities in Puntland.

The lawmaker says late last month, the Puntland government arrested five men, who had traveled to Puntland using Somali travel documents provided by Somali authorities in Yemen. Payne says the men were interrogated by both Puntland and Ethiopian security personnel on the assumption that they were members of the Ogaden National Liberation Front. The ONLF is a separatist rebel group that has been fighting the Ethiopian government for decades.

The congressman says he called Puntland President Abdirahman Mohamed Farole to urge him to release the prisoners without delay. But he said one of the men had been handed over to Ethiopian security and that another had died in custody. In a meeting with President Farole and Puntland's interior minister a week ago in the Kenyan capital Nairobi, Payne says he was assured that the semi-autonomous Somali region would pardon the remaining prisoners. But the lawmaker says the men are still being detained.

In the statement, Congressman Payne called for their immediate release of the three men. He urged President Farole to hold accountable those responsible for the death of the prisoner and senior officials who authorized the detention and rendition of ONLF suspects. He warned that failure to act quickly would have unspecified consequences.

The Puntland government has not issued an official comment. But in early October, Puntland's Security Minister Abdullahi Said Samatar complained to BBC's Somali Service that Ethiopia was carrying out covert raids inside Puntland. He said Ethiopian forces had killed one man and abducted another in the Puntland-administered part of Galkayo in central Somalia. The security minister's claim could not been independently verified.

A Horn of Africa analyst for the International Crisis Group, Rashid Abdi, says if Congressman Payne's charges against the Puntland government are true, it can only be benefit al-Shabab, a militant home-grown Islamic group with ties to al-Qaida. In recent months, a string of assassinations and bombings in Puntland, blamed on al-Shabab, has cast doubts on the government's ability to provide security in the region.

"This conduct is a propaganda coup for the Islamist opposition, which may actually be behind the current wave of violence in the region," Abdi said. "A state of emergency has been declared in Garowe, Galkayo, and Bosasso is increasingly heading in the same direction. The Islamists would love for this conduct to continue because this undermines the credibility of the government and [it] plays right into their hands."

The charges against Puntland come amid recent government efforts to secure financial aid packages from Washington and Europe to fight piracy and terrorism. The Ethiopian government has long been an important counterterrorism ally for the West in the Horn of Africa and is a major recipient of American military and food aid. But it, too, has come under increasing criticism and scrutiny for allegedly committing gross human rights abuses in the Ogaden and cracking down on political opponents.

I dream of a far away land Where my heart is held captive

Tacsi. Innaa lillaa wa innaa ilaahi raajicuun.
Annaga oo ah jahliyadda reer Awdal ee deggan Dalka Switzerland, waxan tacsi u diraynaa eheladii, dadka reer Soomaaliland iyo guud ahaanba intataqaannay ee uu ka baxay allaha u naxariistee Marxuum Qaasim Sh. Yuusuf Ibraahim

Tensions been high since a fight broke out on Monday between white and Somali students

Tensions been high since a fight broke out on Monday between white and Somali students


It all started after a white student wrote an offensive blog about Somalis. He was suspended -- but that didn't end the controversy.

"There are cops everywhere. I'm not even kidding, at every entrance, every little hallway," said Nasteho Adan. "They won't even let us sit where we sit because they think we're going to fight or something."

Four police cars were outside the school Friday. The superintendent said security is being beefed up until things quite down.

With all the added security, you'd think students would feel safe. But one student said she fears retaliation.

"I'm very afraid. There's been kids talking about how the Somalians are saying that things are just beginning and it's not over yet," said one student. "The teachers are saying that we're safe, but there's policeman everywhere and bag checks are everyday now. And if we're safe why is that all still happening?"

"People are saying 'we don't feel safe' and stuff like that, and it's kind of ridiculous. We're not those kinds of people that would just come and start stuff out of nowhere," said Leyla Mohamud.

There were actually two blogs over the past couple of weeks that made bad remarks about Somalis. One of them said Somalis got special treatment because of their religion.

"The whole prayer thing is mandatory. We do it all the time, said Adan.

From day one we've been wearing our scarves. When did it all of the sudden become and issue?" asked Mohamud.

The racial tension can also be seen in the reader comments on a local newspaper website.

"Those comments are ridiculous. There are adults on there attacking us, like teenagers. Why are they doing that? I don't understand," said Mohamud.

"The kids are reflecting what the parents are talking about and they learn from their parents," said Richard Leidall, who has two kids who attend the high school.

The school's superintendent said he hopes to hold some community talks soon.

Sonya Goins, Producer

British kidnap couple make video plea

Updated on 20 November 2009

By Channel 4 News

Hostages Paul and Rachel Chandler have made a direct plea in a video obtained by Channel 4 News, warning UK authorities they fear the Somali pirates who kidnapped them may kill them. Jonathan Rugman reports.

The couple, from Tunbridge Wells, Kent, were taken captive by pirates on 22 October as they sailed their yacht, the Lynn Rival, in the Indian Ocean.

In the two minute video, filmed on land, the couple look thin, tired and stressed. Behind them the kidnappers brandish guns, at one point aiming their weapons directly at the Chandlers.

Mr Chandler, 59, speaks first and says:"This is our 27th day in captivity. So far we have been provided with adequate food and water and facilities, and so we are unharmed and in reasonable physical health.

"Mentally we under great stress and threatened. Our kidnappers are losing patience. They are concerned that their has been no response at all to their demands for money.

"We ask the government and the people of Britain, and our families, to do whatever you can to at least open negotiations with these people about money, so perhaps our lives can be brought back.

"We have been threatened that there is a terrorist gang at large in the country looking for us. We are also concerned that these people will lose patience and will not feed us.

"And I have no doubt that they will not hesitiate to kill us in a week or so from now if there is no response. So, please somebody get in touch otherwise we are just sleep-walking to a tragic ending."

Rachel Chandler, 55, also spoke directly to the camera. Looking frightened she says: "We are under threat and we are told that we will not be fed and given water so we are very concerned about the future.

"Our captors are very impatient now that nobody has been in touch to enter into negotiations. So we ask the government and the people of Britain and our family to do whatever they can to enter into negotiations with these people to buy back our lives.

"As Paul has said we are told that there is a terrorist cell or a fanatic cell searching for us and we are also feeling very much under threat now that these people themselves won't hesitate to take our lives."

The Channel 4 News camera crew asked the Chandlers if they were happy to be filmed and the couple said yes.

The Foreign Office released a statement on the video saying: "We are aware of the video. Any such video will be distressing for the family.

"The UK Government's policy is clear: We do not make substantive concessions to hostage takers, including the payment of ransoms.

"These are innocent tourists. We seek the immediate release of Paul and Rachel."

The pirates have previously demanded a $7m (£4.2m) ransom.

Foreign affairs correspondent Jonathan Rugman says: "Britain's stated position is still that Britain does not pay ransoms and there is a feeling that this situation off the Somali coast has got completely out of hand.

"Ship owners and their insurance companies have paid pirate ransoms which has led to the situation where the pirates holding the Chandlers think they are worth something.

"This is a dangerous hostage situation but reading between the lines I think the plan is to put pressure on local Somali clans, to put pressure on the Somali pirates, to have the Chandlers released.

"The problem is persuading the pirates that the Chandlers are not worth as much as the big ships that sitting offshore for which millions have already been paid to have them released.

"The British government is trying to keep in the background, it would rather not be party to the scene. Even if the pirates do decide they are not worth anything and they want to release the Chandlers, how are they going to escape, which route are they going to take?"

Paul and Rachel Chandler set off from the Seychelles in their 38ft yacht towards Tanzania on Thursday 22 October, entering their last blog update a few hours later.

The post read "Please ring Sarah", Mrs Chandler's sister. Shortly afterwards an Emergency Position Indicating Radio Beacon was activated from the Indian Ocean and a search and rescue operation began.

News of their disappearance did not break in the UK for a further four days when a dedicated naval response unit was joined by Nato and European Union counter piracy teams in the hunt for the couple from Kent.

Prime Minister Gordon Brown has previously urged the pirates to release the couple, describing hostage-taking as "unacceptable".

Paul Chandler has previously made contact via the news media, telling ITV News about the ordeal on a mobile phone on 29 October.

Mr Chandler, a quantity surveyor, and his economist wife, took early retirement about three years ago. They have spent several six-month spells at sea.

The video was shot on Wednesday and ITN, which makes Channel 4 News, informed their relatives in the UK later that day that Mr and Mrs Chandler had spoken to camera. The relatives viewed the pictures today (Friday) and agreed they should be broadcast.

War deg deg ah Inalilaah wa Inaa Ilay Rajicuun,waxa geeryooday Qaasim Sheekh Yusuf wasiirkii Macdanta iyo Biyaha S/land

Friday, November 20, 2009

Mecca 20 Nov 09-Waxa Maanta geeryooday Allah u naxariistee Wasiirkii Wasaradda Macdanta iyo Biyaha ee Somaliland,Qaasim Sheekh Ibraahim Yuusuf, waxana uu ku geeryooday Magaalada barakaysan ee Makka dalka Saudi Arabia isagoo gudanaya waajibaadkiisii Xajka ,waxana uu udhintay mutul qafle (natural death,Alla u naxariisto marxuunka ,eleheldiisina samir iyo iiman Allaha ka siiyo

Amiin

WAVIN FLAG BY K'NAAN : 2010 WORLD CUP ANTHEM + LYRICS

They have attempted to reverse the independence of Somaliland

They have attempted to reverse the independence of Somaliland

War by Saudi Arabia, Yemen against Iran has global implications

By Gregory R. Copley, Editor, Global Information System

The Republic of Yemen’s Shi’a President, ‘Ali ‘Abdullah Saleh, 67, faces perhaps his most pressing challenges to his continued rule of Yemen since presiding over the unification in 1990 of Yemen Arab Republic (YAR: North Yemen) with the People’s Democratic Republic of Yemen (PDRY: South Yemen). ShareThis

Even the subsequent 1994 civil war did not appear to pose the kind of pressures now facing President Saleh in late 2009, with the significant involvement of Iran

, Russia, and Saudi Arabia

competing to ensure their respective influence or dominance in the Red Sea.

The present conflict has global ramifications, given Yemen’s significant ability to control the mouth of the Red Sea at the Strait of Bab el-Mandeb and the Suez Canal/Red Sea/Indian Ocean sea lanes, and the concern in the Yemeni capital, Sana’a, is over the degree of discreet Iranian and Russian involvement, or interest, in the conflict। There is also a considerable engagement of trans-national Islamic movements. What is perhaps most surprising is the lack of real engagement by the U.S., or other Western powers which are so dependent on the neutrality of the Red Sea sea lanes.

Much of the problem for Yemen, apart from the ongoing anti-government insurgency by radical Islamist groups, centers around the open warfare now being undertaken against the Yemen and Saudi governments by Houthi militia, which had been fighting the Government since 2004.

President Saleh said on Nov. 7, that the escalating war with the Houthi had, in fact, “only just begun” in the previous few days, because at that time the Saudi Armed Forces became actively engaged. Meanwhile, Yemen has been working hard in recent weeks and months to acquire as much new military equipment as possible and had, as had the Saudi Government, struck large defense deals with the Government of Ukraine, particularly to provide armor and ordnance.

Fighting continued to escalate through mid-November, with Yemeni troops fighting Houthi militia in the Malahidh area near Yemen’s border with Saudi Arabia. Saudi troops were reportedly using armor and artillery — including rocket artillery — against Houthi positions inside the Kingdom’s borders, as well as across the border.

By September 2009, at least 100,000 villagers were reported to have been forced to flee their homes because of fighting, and many were trapped in Sa’ada province, the main base of the Houthi Shabab al-Mu’mineen fighters. Yemen Government sources even at the end of August 2009 indicated that more than 5,000 people had already died in the ongoing war in Sa’ada Province, that 45,000 had been injured and more than 200,000 displaced and living in tents, eating charity food. That was before the major upsurge in the fighting in early November 2009.

This is the first major, independent war which Saudi forces have undertaken, essentially, since the fighting against South Yemeni forces in the mid-1960s, and even then the Saudi forces had strong British participation. That does not deny that Saudi forces have been entirely without operational experience in the subsequent four decades, and early Yemeni predictions that the August-November 2009 fighting would result in substantial Saudi losses to the Houthi have not been borne out.

Indeed, this is a war which Saudi Arabia cannot ignore, and is even more important than its campaign in recent decades against Iranian-backed Hizbullah forces in the Levant. Iran has made it clear that it is moving to support Shi’a groups on the Arabian Peninsula

, and it was clear, too, that Tehran was instrumental in the declaration of the “Islamic Republic of Eastern Arabia” by Shi’a imams on May 15. That Shi’a belt inside Saudi Arabia runs along the Omani and Yemeni borders.

The war with the Houthi is part of the indirect war for survival which Saudi Arabia is playing with the Iranian leadership. Within this framework, although Russia has no wish to alienate the Saudi or Yemeni leaderships, Moscow

cannot ignore its vital links with Iran, which has become a core component of its domination of both the Caucasus and the southward reach of Russian strategy. In many respects, Iran’s longstanding actions to dominate the Red Sea and Horn of Africa provide a “carrier wave” for Russian revival in the region and in the Indian Ocean.

Saudi Arabia and Yemen, too, have understood the significance of dominance of the vital Red Sea/Suez sea lane and its littorals. As a result, President Saleh has attempted to shape outcomes in Somalia, even to the point where, with Saudi Arabia and Egypt

, they have attempted to reverse the independence of Somaliland, and force it back into its hapless 30 year union with Italian Somaliland.

The clarity of the geopolitical linkages from the Caucasus, through Iran, to “Eastern Arabia”, and across the narrow waters to the Horn of Africa mark this conflict as global in scope. It is not just about the dominance of oil and gas fields, but global sea lanes.

Somalia tops list of most corrupt countries

November 17, 2009 -- Updated 1204 GMT (2004 HKT)

(CNN) -- War-plagued Somalia, with its crumbling government infrastructure, is the world's most corrupt country, according to a global survey by the international watchdog Transparency International.

The group's annual Corruption Perception Index measures perceived levels of public sector corruption.

As was the case last year, the 2009 survey found that countries that scored lowest all have something in common: they are fragile, unstable and scarred by war or long-standing conflicts.

The group scored 180 countries on a scale of 0 (perceived to be highly corrupt) to 10 (perceived to have low levels of corruption).

Somalia scored 1.1.

Next came Afghanistan at 1.3, Myanmar at 1.4, and Sudan and Iraq -- both at 1.5

On the other end of the scale, New Zealand ranked highest at 9.4, followed by Denmark (9.3), Singapore and Sweden (9.2) and Switzerland (9.0).

The United States came it at 19 (7.5) and the United Kingdom was at 17 (7.7).

"When essential institutions are weak or non-existent, corruption spirals out of control and the plundering of public resources feeds insecurity and impunity," the group said.

On the other hand, countries that fared well in the survey have oversight to stem corruption. These include a well-performing judiciary, an independent media, and vigorous law enforcement, it said.

Vitamin D Shows Heart Benefits in Study

November 16, 2009, 11:22 am

Vitamin D Shows Heart Benefits in Study

By RONI CARYN RABIN

Matthew Staver for The New York Times Vitamin D lowered the risk of heart disease in a new study.

Got vitamin D? It may protect you from heart disease.

Vitamin D, of milk fame, is known for helping with calcium absorption and for building strong bones, which is why it’s routinely added to milk. But there is more and more evidence that vitamin D is a critical player in numerous other aspects of metabolism. A new study suggests many Americans aren’t getting anywhere nearly enough of the vitamin, and it may be affecting their heart health.

In the study, researchers looked at tens of thousands of healthy adults 50 and older whose vitamin D levels had been measured during routine checkups. A majority, they found, were deficient in the vitamin. About two-thirds had less vitamin D in their bloodstreams than the authors considered healthy, and many were extremely deficient.

Less than two years later, the researchers found, those who had extremely low levels of the vitamin were almost twice as likely to have died or suffered a stroke than those with adequate amounts. They also had more coronary artery disease and were twice as likely to have developed heart failure.

The findings, which are being presented today at an American Heart Association conference in Orlando, don’t prove that lack of vitamin D causes heart disease; they only suggest a link between the two. But cardiologists are starting to pay increasing attention because of what they’re learning about vitamin D’s roles in regulating blood pressure, inflammation and glucose control — all critical body processes in cardiovascular health.

Earlier experiments in mice that were genetically altered not to respond to vitamin D found that the animals developed high blood pressure and a heart condition called left ventricular hypertrophy. And population studies of humans found higher rates of coronary heart disease and hypertension the further people live from the equator. Vitamin D deficiency is rare in tropical settings because of the strong sunlight, which promotes creation of the vitamin in the skin.

“What we were taught in medical school about vitamin D is that it’s associated with rickets and calcium metabolism,” said Dr. Joseph B. Muhlestein, a researcher with Intermountain Medical Center in Murray, Utah, and one of the authors of the new study. “We cardiologists didn’t worry about it; and we certainly didn’t order vitamin D levels.”

That, however, is changing. “What’s been discovered in the last few years is a significantly greater role for vitamin D,” Dr. Muhlestein said. “There are perhaps 200 different important metabolic processes that use vitamin D as a co-factor.”

The study involved 27,686 patients at the Intermountain Medical Center based in Salt Lake City. Low tobacco and alcohol use rates in that patient population made it easier for researchers to focus on the effects of vitamin D on heart health.

Patients were divided into three groups based on their vitamin D levels: “normal,” for those who had over 30 nanograms per milliliter of blood, “low” for those with levels of 15 to 30, and “very low” for those with levels less than 15.

Those with the lowest vitamin D levels were 77 percent more likely to die during the follow-up, 78 percent more likely to have a stroke and 45 percent more likely to develop coronary artery disease than those with normal levels. They were twice as likely to develop heart failure as those with normal levels. And even those who had moderate deficiencies were at higher risk, the researchers said.

People who were vitamin D deficient were also twice as likely to have diabetes and tended to have more high blood pressure. But being vitamin D deficient was an independent risk factor for poor outcomes, regardless of other risk factors like diabetes, Dr. Muhlestein said.

The next step for researchers is to figure out whether vitamin D deficiency actually causes disease. It’s possible that people who already have an underlying illness spend more time indoors and aren’t exposed to the sun, where they can absorb vitamin D through the skin. It’s also possible that disease processes already under way may affect vitamin D levels.

A clinical trial that randomly assigns participants to take vitamin D supplements or a placebo might be the next step, Dr. Muhlestein said. Researchers at Harvard and Brigham and Women’s Hospital are starting a large trial in January that will test the effects of vitamin D and omega-3 fatty acid supplements on men and women in their 60s.

Dr. Thomas Wang, an associate professor of medicine at Harvard who published an earlier trial on vitamin D deficiency and heart disease, said that whether treating vitamin D deficiency will have a beneficial effect on heart health is still an open question.

“If that does turn out to be the case, it would have pretty profound public health implications,” he said. “Vitamin D deficiency is very common in this country and other developed countries in northern latitudes, where people don’t get much sunlight and spend most of their time indoors.”

Doctors warn that anyone concerned about vitamin D levels should check with a doctor and have blood tests run. Vitamin D supplements are inexpensive and sold over the counter, but excessive amounts of vitamin D can be toxic.

The Institute of Medicine recommends adults under 50 who aren’t getting vitamin D from the sun get 200 international units of vitamin D a day, and that those 50 to 70 get 400 I.U. a day. Elderly people need even more. There is some controversy, however, over optimal amounts. Many doctors are advising their patients to take much higher amounts, such as 1,000 I.U. a day. The American Academy of Pediatrics has already increased its recommendation for supplementing breastfeeding infants to 400 I.U. — vitamin D is one nutrient breast milk doesn’t provide enough of — and the Institute of Medicine will issue updated recommendations in May 2010

Somalis appeal for pair's release

Paul and Rachel Chandler were taken from their yacht on 28 October

Representatives of the Somali community in Britain have appealed to the pirates holding a Kent couple to free them on humanitarian grounds.

Messages were recorded for broadcast on the BBC World Service and Eastern TV Network after a meeting in Birmingham.

Paul and Rachel Chandler, aged 59 and 55, were hijacked on 23 October.

Somali spokesman Said Barre Nur said: "We hope the pirates will listen to our message and release them without conditions and without harming them."

The Chandlers, from Tunbridge Wells, were taken hostage by gunmen as they sailed their yacht between the Seychelles and Tanzania.

'No payment'

BBC Somali sources have since said the couple were taken to the Somali mainland.

The pirates issued a ransom demand of $7m (£4.3m) but the Foreign Office said no payment would be made.

"One of the justifications used so many times by the pirates is that the people are illegally fishing in Somali waters or dumping waste," said the spokesman for 500 Somali representatives.

"We understand that the Chandlers were not involved in anything of this nature and they were travelling innocently in international waters."

It emerged on Friday that the crew of a UK military ship watched as the Chandlers were forced off their yacht five days after the hijack but were ordered not to open fire.

The MoD said the Royal Fleet Auxiliary tanker - the Wave Knight - had not wanted to endanger the couple.

Somalia joining Arab League in 1974

EU 'to greenlight' Somalia security training plan

EU 'to greenlight' Somalia security training plan

(AFP) – 7 hours ago

BRUSSELS — The European Union is to endorse next week a plan to train up to 2,000 security personnel from Somalia, as the EU broadens engagement in the crisis hit Horn of Africa country, officials said on Friday.

The plan would see up to 200 EU soldiers train Somali military and police in neighbouring Uganda, probably for a year, following a request from the interim government in Mogadishu to help build a 6,000-strong security force.

The decision, expected on Tuesday in Brussels at a meeting of EU foreign, defence and development ministers, would launch official planning for the mission, said the spokeswoman for EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana.

"Once this is approved, which we expect is going to happen during the (EU) council then we will be launching the real planning," the spokeswoman, Cristina Gallach, told reporters.

"We will be exploring how we can support, in addition to what we do with piracy on the high seas, the transitional government," she said.

"We think that this is a very good contribution to the global approach that the European Union has in order to tackle the Somali problems and all of its impact," she said.

The training, which may need to be carried out in two or three phases over a year, will involve Somalis numbering "in the low thousands. Initially we might be talking about 1,000 and 2,000," Gallach said.

"Less than 200 trainers" from Europe will be needed, she said.

The EU is still struggling to build a police mission of around 400 staff in Afghanistan, but given this work will take place in Uganda away from security problems officials said the trainers could be found by year's end.

Off the coast of Somalia, the EU is currently running an anti-piracy mission in the waters of the Gulf of Aden, but senior officials have long conceded that the only real way to combat the problem is on the ground.

Somalia has been gripped by civil wars and insurgencies and bereft of stable government since the overthrow of president Mohamed Siad Barre in 1991.

The capital Mogadishu has been ravaged by violence that worsened in May when the insurgents stepped up an offensive against the internationally-backed government of President Sharif Sheikh Ahmed.

Somalis’ Money Is Lifeline for Homeland

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  • PermaBy MATTHEW SALTMARSHPublished: November 11, 2009

PARIS — As Somalis struggle to survive the chaos that has overtaken their country, a network of companies that distribute money from the nation’s large diaspora has quietly expanded, providing a crucial safety net.

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Dahabshiil

Dahabshiil, a remittance company, distributed food outside Mogadishu, Somalia.

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Times Topics: Somalia

As in other poor countries, the main purpose of these companies is to ensure that money from those working abroad reaches family members left behind.

But in war-torn Somalia, where the government has little control of the country and is itself struggling to survive, the companies are now also helping international organizations shift money into and within Somalia, according to the World Bank, academics and aid workers.

And in Somaliland, a breakaway region where the government is more stable than in other parts of the country, the Somali diaspora has contributed money for education, health and other social programs.

“The remittance system has become the lifeline for the Somali people and the lifeblood of the economy during the last two decades of civil strife,” said Samuel Munzele Maimbo, a World Bank specialist based in Mozambique, who added that many Somalis survived only because of the money from abroad. For others, the money has been crucial to establishing or propping up businesses.

A study sponsored by the British Department for International Development from May 2008 found that 80 percent of the start-up capital for small and medium-size enterprises in Somalia benefit from money sent by the diaspora.

Dilip Ratha, a World Bank economist, said that Somalia, like Haiti, was among the countries that are the most dependent on money from abroad.

The remittance system — and its importance in Somalia — has grown as decades of political upheaval have driven many Somalis abroad and, in recent years, as Islamists have wrested control over much of the country from a weak transitional government. The government, which has international support, is trapped in a small section of the capital under the protection of African Union peacekeepers.

A recent study by the United Nations Development Program estimated the size of the Somali diaspora at more than one million and the amount of annual remittances to Somalia at up to $1 billion, equivalent to about 18 percent of the nation’s gross domestic product.

The system began to take off during the dictatorial rule of President Mohammed Siad Barre, who ran the country from 1969 to 1991. As the banking system weakened, according to Mohamed Waldo, a consultant who has worked with Somali remittance companies, traders stepped in with a solution: act as middlemen in the resale of consumer goods shipped home by the increasing number of Somalis working abroad, especially in the Persian Gulf region. The traders kept a small cut of the proceeds and turned the rest over to the laborers’ relatives in Somalia. The shipments got around currency restrictions.

Eventually, when the government collapsed, Somali workers abroad began to send money instead.

Mr. Waldo said that these days, there were more than 20 active Somali remittance companies, five of them large. One of the leading companies is Dahabshiil, founded in the early 1970s by Mohamed Said Duale from his general store in Burao in northwest Somalia.

In 1988, fighting between government forces and rebels with the Somali National Movement swept Burao. Mr. Duale subsequently left the country and continued his work from abroad.

In 1991, when the Barre government was overthrown, Mr. Duale returned to Somalia. He opened offices in major towns and later in remote villages that the Western money-transfer giants would struggle to serve.

“Through word of mouth we built this business,” said his son, Abdirashid Duale, now chief executive of the company.

Today, Dahabshiil says it has more than 1,000 branches and agents in 40 countries.

The United Nations Development Program uses Dahabshiil to transfer money for local programs, said Álvaro Rodríguez, the agency’s director for Somalia. Such companies provide “the only safe and efficient option to transfer funds to projects benefiting the most vulnerable people of Somalia,” he said. “Their service is fast and efficient.”

Abdirashid Duale, who gives his age as “35, but with 25 years of experience,” declined to provide profit or revenue figures, saying that would only help his competitors. The company charges commissions that vary from 1 percent to 5 percent depending on the size of the transaction; he said most Somalis he worked with abroad sent home $200 to $300 a month.

Nikos Passas, a professor at Northeastern University in Boston who researches terrorism and white-collar crime, said Dahabshiil was helped by the closing of a larger rival, Al Barakaat, at the behest of the United States authorities in the wake of the attacks on Sept. 11, 2001.

In the end, F.B.I. agents found no evidence linking Al Barakaat to terrorist financing. But for Dahabshiil, gaining market share from Al Barakaat was “like shooting fish in a barrel,” Professor Passas said.

Dahabshiil’s image has been helped by its charitable works. It says it invests 5 percent of annual profit in such ventures; Abdirashid Duale said this represented around $1 million a year.

In Mogadishu — a city of pockmarked Italian architecture and rubble — Dahabshiil operates from Bakara Market, despite continued clashes in the area between the weak government and Islamist insurgents.

Its office, in an unassuming two-story building, is protected by security guards.

Looking ahead, Abdirashid Duale plans more expansion.

“One day the fighting will stop,” he said, “and we will still be here.”

Mohammed Ibrahim contributed reporting from Mogadishu