That Freedom Shall not Perish

League City (BNO) Because of the plague of piracy in Somalia, should we look to recognize the one working government within this failed state?

Somaliland is a small country near the horn of Africa, not to be confused with Somalia. The international community does not recognize Somaliland, but it declared independence in 1991. It was previously a British territory and briefly a separate country until the 1960s when it joined Somalia. Somaliland is today a fledgling democracy. It is vastly more stable and peaceful than Somalia.

A BBC film crew created a short documentary that reveals the differences between Somalia and Somaliland. The three sequential youtube videos can be viewed here, here, and here. In the videos it is clear that traveling anywhere in Somalia requires a small brigade of armed guards, as the journalists routinely run into people pulling out guns. The streets of Mogadishu (Somalia) are filled with armed men. In Hargeisa (the capitol of Somaliland) however, guns on the streets are rare. Even the stop lights are operating and abided by.

The BBC journalist is welcomed into a seemingly clean, modestly modern and operating maternity hospital. They are guided by a woman who runs the hospital and sits in the government. She takes them right into a large room where the government is conducting business. The President of Somaliland, who speaks English, is affable and humble about the role of government there.

Lest you think that this government is conning the journalist, he has made a series of videos on break away regions, including one of Trans-Dneistre, which he clearly makes out to be a scary police state. There are a few other lower grade videos available as well and found this view to be the consensus of journalists who have traveled there. It appears to be a remarkable place that deserves some consideration for international recognition.

Brian holds a Master's Degree in Economics (2002) from Texas A&M University. He is an Associate of the Society of Actuaries and a Member of the American Academy of Actuaries. He models annuity risk for one of the world's largest insurance companies.

Hargeisa (JMG) – President Dahir Rayale Kahin on his return from a 7-day visit to Djibouti and Ethiopia described his visist and discussions as fruitful and beneficial.

Djibouti, I met President Ismail Omer Guelleh and Senator Donald Feingold. I had long discussions with both of them and we reached an understanding that they support Somaliland.”

“I met with the Prime Minister of Ethiopia, Melez Zenawi in Addis Ababa. We had a long range of discussions on the horn situation, Somalia and bilateral relations and I am sure that our visit necessary. Our discussion with the Senator and the leaders of the two countries have manifested that they are aware of the current conditions existing in Somaliland and that the situation in Somalia which gets more entangled by the day helps our cause.”

In answer to whether the president’s delegation had any talks with the Prime Minister of TFG, Mr. Nuur Adde and Sheikh Sharif, he said; “We saluted each other but we had no talks with them. We are aware that there is no one in Somalia at present to whom to talk to.”

Answering about UDUB’s Conference, he said; “UDUB has its leaders and we haven’t failed in the previous elections. It has its leaders but we will be holding the party’s conference.”

The president added that the countries his delegation met will support Somaliland in its fight against terrorism and sea piracy.

In answer to why Ethiopian Airlines has stopped its flights to Hargeisa, he said; “This is due to maintenance of our airport and they will reconvene their flights once the maintenance is over. Djibouti will provide us with equipments that will support our security and I hope this will reach us soon.”

The presidential delegation had met the US Senator Donald Faingold, US Ambassadors in Kenya and Djibouti and French Ambassador in Djibouti.

Hargeisa (JMG) – Somaliland Vice President Ahmed Yusuf Yasin, speaking at a special ceremony held at the Presidency in which Hawiye Community in the Diaspora awarded an honorary certificate to Somaliland for giving safe haven to refugees from Somalia, especially Mogadishu.

Speaking about unity, he said; “Somaliland made every effort to realize greater Somalia before 1969, we remember that the first President, Mr. Adam Abdulle Osman (Adam Adde) to have advised Somaliland leaders in 1958 to wait for a period before the merger of the two countries. Somaliland refused that and as such the Somalia Republic was formed.” “Situation in the Republic was getting worse by the day and reached a peak during the reign of the tyrant. We don’t hate the people of Somalia and other Somalis. If Somaliland is recognized we will strive hard for solving the problems of Somalia for we are more suited to do that than the international community.” He said.

The Vice President Added that the recognition of Hawiye Community to Somaliland will help realize many things. “I congratulate the youth of Hawiye in the diaspora to have the courage to think about Somaliland in this new light. I assure you that you will get the benefits of that.”

Mr. Ali Ahmed Wardheere, a member of the Hawiye Community in the diaspora who spoke at the ceremony said; “The Hawiye Community recognizes the safe haven it gave to our community who fled from the wars in Mogadishu and Somalia. We are aware that the government and the people of Somaliland have received them with open hands and for this we are awarding them this honorary certificate which we call ‘Gobonimo-Soor’.”

Chairman of the Community in Hargeisa, Mr. Farah Bindhe Hussein, spoke in detail on how the people from Somalia who fled the wars have been received by the government and the people in Somaliland.

Berbera (JMG) 5 Somali sea pirates sentenced to 20 years prison each. The Regional Court of Berbera sentenced 5 Somali sea pirates arrested last week to 20 years prison each. Their fast boat and their weapons were confiscated.

Chairman of Berbera Regional Court Judge Osman Ibrahim Dahir speaking to the media said, “The 5 sea pirates confessed that they exchanged gunfire with Somaliland Coast Guards before they were captured. The boat and the weapons confiscated will be given to the Coast guards.” He added, "The court has also listened to 4 witnesses brought by the prosecution."

The 5 convicted Sea pirates from the Regional Administration of Puntland were captured by Somaliland Coast Guards in Shalaw- 28 Km west of the Far East port of Hees –in Sanag region -last week.

This is not the first time that sea pirates from Puntland were sentenced by a Somaliland court. In September this year 5 sea pirates were sentenced to 15 year prison each.

Erigavo (JMG) – Somaliland Vice President, Mr. Ahmed Yusuf Yasin and his delegation arrived Erigavo, Regional Capital of Sanaag Friday Morning at a time when voter registration in Eastern Sanaag began. Voter Registration in fifth region, Sanaag began on Wednesday in 150 of the 210 stations allocated for Sanaag region.

Registration has been so far moving smoothly and peacefully in these stations.

There was a misunderstanding of beginning voter registration in 60 remaining stations allocated for East Sanaag. According to our Eastern Regions correspondent, Mr. Keyse Ahmed Digale, registration began at 37 new stations in the far Eastern Part of the Region.

“There was no voter registration in the towns of Badhan and Dhahar but registration began in almost all the villages surrounding these towns. Registration in the remaining 23 stations is expected to begin either on Saturday or Sunday morning.” Said Keyse Digale.

Hargeisa (JMG) – Second Deputy Chairman of the opposition KULMIYE party, Mr. Mahamed Abdirahman Abdikader in a press conference held here this week criticized the government for the high fuel prices in Somaliland at a time when fuel prices are its lowest for many years in the International Market.

He said; “A barrel of fuel costs $200 today in Somaliland while the International price is just a little above $40. The current price was set at a time when the International Price was $147.”

Mr. Mahamed Abdirahman Abdikader added asking himself a hypothetical questions said; “Where does this extra money go which is a burden on the people and the economy? It goes to the hands of the Authorities and those connected with the trade. It is really surprising and unexpected that the government is taking such measures which affect the lives of the people. This is a crime committed on the nation by the government and should be immediately corrected. This can be done by decreasing the price to the level of the International Market – for we produce none and depend on the International Market. If immediate action is not taken, the people should protest against this injustice.”

Hassan Ahmed Kosar, operations officer for the Halo Trust, the only international mine clearance organisation currently operating in Somaliland, said 15 accidents - down from 45 in 2007 - were recorded in Somaliland in 2008.

"Most of the accidents were caused by unexploded ordnance [UXO] and anti-tank mines planted in roads during the confrontation between the SNM [Somali National Movement - the liberation organisation in Somaliland between 1981 and 1991] and [former Somali President] Siyad Barre's regime in the late 1980s, as well as during the Ogaden war between Somalia and Ethiopia in the late 1970s," Kosar told IRIN on 22 December in Somaliland's capital, Hargeisa.

Kosar said Somaliland was one of five unrecognised nations to have signed the international landmine ban treaty, adding that the government had destroyed 3,014 anti-personnel mines in its stores in 2003.

He said the Halo Trust had destroyed more than 3,614 landmines or UXO, 90,694 small arms, and 37,760 anti-tank mines since 1999.

According to the Somaliland Mine Action Centre (SMAC), a government body, over two million mines were planted in Somaliland between 1964 and 1990.

Abdirahman Yusuf, a SMAC operations officer, said: "According to the last survey - conducted in collaboration with international mine clearance organisations, particularly the Halo Trust - over 600 roads were mined during the war; there are also 300 minefields scattered throughout the country."

Demining operations have been going on in Somaliland since 1991.

Rimfire, a UK-based mine clearance organisation, began its first demining project in Somaliland in 1992-1993, clearing over 64,000 landmines and UXO.

“We are much bigger than Rimfire in terms of manpower and we also use modern demining equipment," the Halo Trust’s Kosar said.

In 2003 the Danish Demining Group (DDG) cleared landmines from 300 roads. Santa Barbara, an international mine clearance organisation, was also active in Somaliland 2000-2002.

The Halo Trust is carrying out a new landmine survey due for completion in late 2009. Kosar made a plea for more international funding to speed up mine clearance operations.

The chairman of Sahil Region court Dr Usman Ibrahim Dahir has announced that his court has sentenced five pirates who hail from Puntland regional state to 20 years in prison.

The pirates were arrested by Somaliland coastguards who were assisted by civilians on 13 December in Shalcow area, Xiise District, Sanaag Region [northeastern Somaliland region, northwestern Somalia].

Dr Usman said it had been proven in court and that the five men had admitted to be pirates from Puntland and were planning to seize ships off the coast of Sanaag Region.

"The court had sentenced the five men to 20 years in prison as per articles 230, 234, 118 and 73 of the penal code. The court also ruled that four guns and a speedboat used by the pirates be transferred to Somaliland coastguards," said Dr Usman.

The five convicted pirates are: 1. Muhammad Mahmud Abdi 2. Abdi Umar Yasin 3. Abdi Ali Ilmi 4. Shu'aib Usman Yasin 5. Abdirashid Abdiqadir Ilmi.

This is not the first that the Sahil Regional court has convicted sea pirates. The court sentenced five pirates from Puntland who were operating on the Somali coast to 15 years, in September this year.

Child Health Days launched to deliver high-impact interventions for children at community level.

Nairobi, Kenya, Wednesday, 24 December 2008 – Over 1.5 million children under the age of five and women of child-bearing age across the entire country of Somalia will benefit from a package of preventive care that will be delivered in local communities starting today.

The campaign of ‘Child Health Days’ was launched in Hargeisa, the capital of northwest Somalia (the self-declared republic of ‘Somaliland’) by Vice President, Ahmed Yusuf Yasin who urged every family to participate in the campaign, “I recommending to everyone to take their children to be vaccinated. This campaign is important because it will lead to the social improvement and development of Somaliland. The government is committed to its success.”

In a country with limited social services, weak health infrastructure and a volatile security situation, where one child in every ten dies before its first birthday, UNICEF and WHO are partnering with local authorities and NGOs to protect children under five against preventable childhood diseases and water-borne illnesses, to reduce malnutrition and to safeguard women against neonatal tetanus in child delivery.

The interventions comprise child immunization against measles, diphtheria, whooping cough, tetanus and polio; Vitamin A supplementation; nutritional assessments; de-worming; the distribution of oral rehydration salts and water purification tablets; breastfeeding promotion; and tetanus toxoid vaccination of girls and women aged 15 – 49.

Speaking at the launch event, UNICEF Representative for Somalia, Christian Balslev-Olesen said “This campaign is historic because it marks the launch of multi-million dollar strategy to improve the survival rates of all Somali children. It is our largest ever campaign and it relies on partnerships for its outreach and its success. By working in partnership, we are aiming to reach every single child under the age of five with this high-impact life-saving package of interventions. Working together, we can protect children and their mothers against preventable diseases. Working together, we are making it possible to improve the lives of every Somali child.”

Messages raising awareness of the campaign have been sent via mosques, cell-phones, radio, TV and loudspeakers, and every Somali family is being urged to take advantage of this health care package. More than 3,600 field teams are taking the campaign to urban and rural areas of Somalia utilizing schools, health centres, mosques, and remote areas, mobile clinics.

Kaltun, a 28 year old mother of two, brought her 9 month old son Saad to the launch event be vaccinated. “I want to prevent my child getting measles and other diseases” she said, “My first child is healthier than this baby because he was vaccinated” Kaltun welcomed the campaign’s community outreach. “The [Maternal and Child Health Clinic] is too far; I have to take two buses to get there. I prefer the service to come to me.”

After kicking off in Somaliland, the Child Health Days campaign will continue in January in northeast Somalia (the semi-autonomous region of ‘Puntland’) and central southern Somalia. The second round of the campaign will be conducted in six months time.

The campaign has been made possible with the support of Denmark, Japan, the US Centres for Disease Control (CDC), the Canadian Committee for UNICEF, USAID and the UN Foundation.

For further information, please contact: Denise Shepherd-Johnson, Chief, Communication, UNICEF Somalia, Mob: +252 2 4426119 Email: dshepherdjohnson@unicef.org

During the last seven years, Somaliland conducted successful democratic elections to elect municipal councils, members of parliament and a president. There were no voter registrations during those elections. An indelible ink on the index finger was used as deterrence against voter fraud. Still, independent election monitors certified that those elections were, by and large, free and fair.

But the standard to hold democratic elections is to have all voters registered so that each person can cast only one vote. As Somaliland faced a new cycle of elections, the government aspired, and made it known to the international community, to enhance the country’s democratic process to the universal standard whereby all voters are registered. The international community responded with a very generous grant of $14 million to register all voting age people.

The donors selected a contractor to deliver voter registration equipment to the country and trained local staff on the equipment and how to conduct the process.

During the last two months voter registration has been taking place in the country. The number of people registered in Sahel and Awdal- the first two regions where the registration took place- was close to the number of people who had voted in the preceding elections. For the next regions in the process, Hargeisa saw the number of people who registered to be twice the number of people who went to the polls in prior election and for Burao the number tripled, to about 330,000 according to press accounts.

The donors have provided a large amount of money for the project, indicating the high level of interest and support the international community has for democracy in Somaliland. The software that is being used to register people is designed to match each genuine finger print with a unique name. A report can be generated for all deviations from this such as the existence of multiple names for a single finger print or names without corresponding, distinct finger prints.

It seems that there will be a tolerable deviation rate. If for example there is 0.05% deviation, I think that will be tolerated because it is not possible to expect that 100% of all names will have distinct finger prints. But if we have high deviation rate, than it will be a mess to remedy the situation. Shall we throw away all those deviations? Will it be better to redo in regions where large deviation were found to have occurred?

The fact is after voters in the remaining two regions are registered then the experts, and the donors, will query the system to learn about the process in each and every region.

The purpose of the voter registration effort is to have one person one vote. If, however, it happens that there are large irregularities in the registration process, it will adversely affect Somaliland in two ways: (1) the international community will think twice before granting any more aid to Somaliland (2) it will cause instability internally because regions that conducted themselves responsibly will not accept the outcome of a rigged registration process.

The Election Commission, the three political parties and the government must ensure that the voter registration is done right. We simply can not afford a registration effort that is not nearly 100% accurate. We should not rush to a presidential election unless every thing is certified to be transparent and accurate.

Mr Wardheere gave vice president Yasin a certificate of appreciation on behalf of the Hawiye people of Somalia who now seek shelter in Somaliland. More than 200, 000 people from Somalia are now believed to be living in Somaliland and the authorities in Somaliland has welcomed the displaced refugees from southern Somalia.

Mr Wardheere also thanked the people of Somaliland for their kindness and humility for welcoming people from the south to Somaliland.

Mr Wardheere spoke with the media outlets that were present after he met with the vice president where he told the media that Somaliland has done all requirements to become an independent country.

Lord Avebury: My Lords, a few hours ago [4 December 2008] the Minister said that we invaded Afghanistan to prevent it becoming a haven for international terrorism. She did not remind your Lordships that that was also one of the excuses given for the invasion of Iraq, which, as President Mubarak said at the time, was likely to create 100 bin Ladens. He was probably out by a factor of 10, but that has happened. It has also involved us, as the noble Baroness said, in a 700 million contribution so far towards reconstruction, has placed huge burdens on our Armed Forces, and is an ingredient in the motivation of terrorists across the world.

It is a losing battle to deal with individual acts of terrorism while ignoring the hatred and violence that is, as the noble Lord, Lord Howell, said, spewed out by thousands of madrassahs, which, I may add, are funded by oil money, and which churn out graduates indoctrinated with loathing for Governments and people who do not conform with their ideas of Sunni orthodoxy.

At the same time we need to address, as has been said by several noble Lords, the genuine grievances of Islamic populations throughout the world, and particularly the failure to arrive at a proper solution for the sufferings of the Palestinian people and to implement the declared intention of the international community to assist in creating a two-state solution.

In Somalia, we seem to have no idea what to do about the security vacuum that will be heightened by the departure of the Ethiopian forces at the end of the year [2008]. It spells the end for President Abdullahi Yusuf, and, as I suggested several years ago to the noble Lord, Lord Triesman, when he was a Minister, we put too many eggs in the basket of the TFG without having a plan B.

The Secretary-General s last-minute development of the concept of an international stabilisation force was not pursued by the Security Council s November [2008] resolution, so that 3,000 AMISOM troops who had been hanging on in the hope of being reinforced are also certain to be withdrawn. They had been helping the Ethiopians to protect the two major cities of Mogadishu and Baidoa, leaving the rest of the country to the extreme faction of the Alliance for the Re-liberation of Somalia, under Sheikh Hassan Dahir Aweys, who is in fact on the UN list of terrorist associates. It is only a matter of time before these terrorists take control of the capital, making it impossible for the international community to continue its recognition of the TFG. The moderate Islamist leader of an ARS faction, Sharif Ahmed, who signed a new deal with a faction of the TFG last week, appears to control no territory at all. What does the Minister think that the international community should do at the end of this month [December 2008], when all these things arise?

Eritrea s involvement in Somalia, which includes hosting Mr Aweys s base in Asmara and probably giving him logistical help, may have been one way of its retaliating against Ethiopia for Meles s prevarication over the boundary commission determination of April 2002. I remind your Lordships that, under the distinguished chairmanship of the British jurist Sir Elihu Lauterpacht, the commission tried to get agreement on physical delimitation but finally had to admit defeat in September 2006, contenting itself with expressing the border in terms of its co-ordinates. If the UN had been much firmer since then with Addis Ababa in calling for unconditional acceptance of the commission s determination, for removal of their troops from Eritrean territory and for demilitarisation of the legal boundary, it would have allowed both countries to divert enormous amounts of money and manpower lavished on their armed forces over the last six and half years into peaceful development. It would have meant that both countries might have been co-operating in the development of a peaceful political settlement for Somalia.

If the AU cannot persuade member states to reinforce AMISOM and the Security Council ignores the problem, the AU should consider how at least to protect Somaliland, which has been de facto independent for the past 18 years, now under a democratically elected Government. The Minister told me in a Written Answer that we were reassessing the situation in Somaliland to see how we can implement our programmes of assistance and opportunities of enhancing our support. One way would be to encourage the AU to recognise Somaliland, so that it would have the backing of international law against any attempt by Mr Aweys to occupy it, and to stabilise it against further acts of terrorism. Somalia is already a haven for terrorists and pirates, and we should at least seek international agreement to prevent them extending their control over a law-abiding neighbour.

The UN is already overstretched, and member states are having difficulty meeting requests for contributions to peacekeeping forces elsewhere in Africa. The Security Council decided on a Chapter VII mandate for Darfur as long ago as August 2006, but the hybrid UN/AU force deployment timetable has slipped yet again, as has already been mentioned, to reach 80 per cent of its final strength in March 2009. That has dire consequences for the region as a whole, as the noble Lord, Lord Ashcroft, has said. There has been deterioration in the security situation, including deadly attacks on peacekeepers. Their freedom of movement is undermined repeatedly by government-imposed restrictions. UN helicopters have come under fire several times and, although the Government say that they are committed to a ceasefire, they bombed villages in November [2008], and, in the previous month, their militias attacked dozens of villages, killing 40 innocent civilians.

The long history of broken promises has not yet come to an end. The Security Council should insist that all aggressive operations by the armed forces of the country should cease and that the persistent obstruction of humanitarian agencies should also come to an end. One of the items on the to do list of Mr Djibril Bassol , the UN chief mediator, should be to get agreement on independent international monitoring of ceasefire violations to resolve the arguments about responsibility that arise whenever civilians are killed or injured. It would be useful to know whether that has been discussed with Khartoum.

The situation in the Horn of Africa is rapidly reaching crisis proportions and specifically United States policy towards the one time Somali Democratic Republic needs to be reformulated on the basis of something other than the series of unrealistic assumptions on which it has hitherto been predicated.

Recent events have underscored the deteriorating security conditions faced by the international community as a whole as well as by the Somali and their neighbours, it is time to concentrate on Somaliland, the one part of that geopolitically sensitive space where there is still a peace to be preserved.

As a headline of Jeffrey Gettleman’s news analysis in last Sunday [14 December 2008]’s New York Times proclaimed: “The situation in Somalia seems, improbably, about to get worse.”

While there are reports that the Ethiopian National Defence Force, one of Africa’s largest and most seasoned conventional armies, were establishing new bases in central Somalia, those positions near the border town of Balanbal appear more to represent a strengthening of Addis Ababa’s ability to intervene as needed in the future than a reneging of the commitment to substantially pull out by the end of the year.

The Ethiopians, with good reason, expect trouble from the steady advance of Islamist insurgents spearheaded by al-Shabaab (“the youth”), a radical group which was formally designated a “Foreign Terrorist Organisation” earlier this year by the US State Department which argued that it is “a violent and brutal extremist group with a number of individuals affiliated with al-Qaeda.”

Three weeks ago, the US Treasury Department slapped travel and financial sanctions on three leaders of the group. But even as it is progressively being encircled, the TFG [Transitional Federal Government], which barely controls a few city blocks in Mogadishu – and that only because the Ethiopians have not withdrawn entirely – is continuing to tear itself apart in literal squabbles over scraps. Tensions remain high between TFG “President” Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed and “Prime Minister” Nur “Adde” Hassan Hussein.

Thus the collapse of the TFG is not that far off; then the real problems begin. While al-Shabaab forces have been united in their desire to drive out the Ethiopians and the TFG, the group itself is internally divided into half a dozen or so factions that, despite the rhetoric of transcending regional or clan affinities, are divided along those very lines.

The faction led by Mukhtar Robow is probably the largest, with several thousand fighters, but its composition is almost exclusively Habr Gidr clansmen from the Hawiye.

If in their last coming the Islamists were an annoyance to the lives of ordinary Somalis with the bans against watching World Cup football and chewing of khat, this time they have rendered themselves downright odious through their narrow-minded intolerance. Against this bleary landscape, the one relatively bright spot has been the Republic of Somaliland.

As I have told many Somaliland officials, one of the two most important claims that make on the attention of the international community is their country’s democratic constitutional politics.

Thus the significance of the upcoming poll for Somaliland’s future cannot be underestimated: take away the popular participation in and legitimacy of its institutions of governance, and the case for an independent Somaliland becomes that much less compelling.

The other important claim which Somaliland puts forward is its role as a bulwark for the international community’s security interest in preventing the spread of the chaos emanating from the rest of the former Somalia. The creation, equipping, training, and deployment of a modernised Somaliland coast guard constitute a key component of any viable strategy for maritime security in the Gulf of Aden and adjacent waters.

Furthermore, Somaliland is critical to humanitarian efforts throughout the region. However, because the international community does not recognise Somaliland’s claim to independent statehood, the Office of the UN Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) has no mechanism in place to register these displaced Somalis while, for its part, Somaliland receives none of the bilateral assistance for relief and development which would ordinarily be forthcoming to a country which was trying to cope with a similar influx of refugees.

The incoming Obama administration would be better advised to deploy its resources in a rough triage that privileges saving what can be saved, rather than vain attempts to preserve that which is already lost.

To this end, a way must be found to engage Somaliland, supplying its under-resourced government and civil society with relief and development aid and security assistance needed to survive the wave of extremism and violence which will come to the region’s frontiers.

BUSINESS DAILY, 17 Dec. 2008-- The situation in the Horn of Africa is rapidly reaching crisis proportions and specifically United States policy towards the one time Somali Democratic Republic needs to be reformulated on the basis of something other than the series of unrealistic assumptions on which it has hitherto been predicated.

Recent events have underscored the deteriorating security conditions faced by the international community as a whole as well as by the Somali and their neighbours, it is time to concentrate on Somaliland, the one part of that geopolitically sensitive space where there is still a peace to be preserved.

As a headline of Jeffrey Gettleman’s news analysis in last Sunday’s New York Times proclaimed: “The situation in Somalia seems, improbably, about to get worse.”

While there are reports that the Ethiopian National Defence Force, one of Africa’s largest and most seasoned conventional armies, were establishing new bases in central Somalia, those positions near the border town of Balanbal appear more to represent a strengthening of Addis Ababa’s ability to intervene as needed in the future than a reneging of the commitment to substantially pull out by the end of the year.

The Ethiopians, with good reason, expect trouble from the steady advance of Islamist insurgents spearheaded by al-Shabaab (“the youth”), a radical group which was formally designated a “Foreign Terrorist Organisation” earlier this year by the US State Department which argued that it is “a violent and brutal extremist group with a number of individuals affiliated with al-Qaeda.”

Three weeks ago, the US Treasury Department slapped travel and financial sanctions on three leaders of the group. But even as it is progressively being encircled, the TFG, which barely controls a few city blocks in Mogadishu – and that only because the Ethiopians have not withdrawn entirely – is continuing to tear itself apart in literal squabbles over scraps. Tensions remain high between TFG “President” Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed and “Prime Minister” Nur “Adde” Hassan Hussein.

Thus the collapse of the TFG is not that far off; then the real problems begin. While al-Shabaab forces have been united in their desire to drive out the Ethiopians and the TFG, the group itself is internally divided into half a dozen or so factions that, despite the rhetoric of transcending regional or clan affinities, are divided along those very lines.

The faction led by Mukhtar Robow is probably the largest, with several thousand fighters, but its composition is almost exclusively Habr Gidr clansmen from the Hawiye.

If in their last coming the Islamists were an annoyance to the lives of ordinary Somalis with the bans against watching World Cup football and chewing of khat, this time they have rendered themselves downright odious through their narrow-minded intolerance. Against this bleary landscape, the one relatively bright spot has been the Republic of Somaliland.

As I have told many Somaliland officials, one of the two most important claims that make on the attention of the international community is their country’s democratic constitutional politics.

Thus the significance of the upcoming poll for Somaliland’s future cannot be underestimated: take away the popular participation in and legitimacy of its institutions of governance, and the case for an independent Somaliland becomes that much less compelling.

The other important claim which Somaliland puts forward is its role as a bulwark for the international community’s security interest in preventing the spread of the chaos emanating from the rest of the former Somalia. The creation, equipping, training, and deployment of a modernised Somaliland coast guard constitute a key component of any viable strategy for maritime security in the Gulf of Aden and adjacent waters.

Furthermore, Somaliland is critical to humanitarian efforts throughout the region. However, because the international community does not recognise Somaliland’s claim to independent statehood, the Office of the UN Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) has no mechanism in place to register these displaced Somalis while, for its part, Somaliland receives none of the bilateral assistance for relief and development which would ordinarily be forthcoming to a country which was trying to cope with a similar influx of refugees.

The incoming Obama administration would be better advised to deploy its resources in a rough triage that privileges saving what can be saved, rather than vain attempts to preserve that which is already lost.

To this end, a way must be found to engage Somaliland, supplying its under-resourced government and civil society with relief and development aid and security assistance needed to survive the wave of extremism and violence which will come to the region’s frontiers.

Pham is director at James Madison University in Harrisonburg, Virginia.

JOHANNESBURG -- A breakaway region of Somalia with a name that is bound to confuse outsiders - Somaliland - plans to offer its harbor on the Gulf of Aden as a base for U.S., British and Indian warships to battle pirates.

In the process, Somaliland hopes to raise its international profile and ultimately advance its campaign to become an independent nation that is recognized worldwide.

"This crisis is not going to go away by itself, but we can solve it," Somaliland President Dahir Rayale Kahin told The Washington Times by telephone.

"We will place the deep-water port of Berbera at the disposal of the U.S., British, Indian and other navies, but our [proposal] goes well beyond that," Mr. Kahin said.

Somaliland consists of the northern leg of Somalia, which was cobbled together from former British and Italian colonies.

Somaliland declared independence from a dysfunctional Somali government in 1991. Since then, it has stayed out of the international spotlight.

It avoided the famine and violence that first made Somalia a household name with the 1992-93 U.S. invasion. It also remained unaffected by the near-takeover by the rest of the country by Islamic militants, which prompted an invasion by Ethiopian troops in 2006.

Mr Kahin said now is not the time to discuss sovereignty for Somaliland.

"The piracy problem is far greater in the short term than any talk of flags and embassies," he said.

He said he has no doubt that recognition will eventually come to Somaliland, as it did for Kosovo, the Balkan enclave that gained independence earlier this year.

"But unless we are bold in our approach to this undeclared war at sea, sooner or later we will have a tragedy," Mr. Kahin said.

The proposal being developed by the government of Somaliland will recommend cooperation among key stakeholders, including the United States, and will center on the port of Berbera on the Gulf of Aden's coast at the entrance to the Red Sea.

Mr. Kahin said his government had yet to finalize the strategy and make a formal submission to other countries, but that preliminary plans include five main points:

Berbera would be the hub of operations, given that it is close to the affected area and large enough to host the vessels being used to fight the pirates.

The port would be available as a "safe house" to any vessel - merchant, military or private - whose captain believed his ship was vulnerable to attack. Naval vessels would be welcome to escort these craft in and out of the harbor.

Somaliland would help set up a pool of shared intelligence with other nations whose ships were at risk.

Somaliland would receive and hold captured pirates pending their prosecution or extradition. International prosecutors, human rights groups and lawyers to defend the pirates would have access to the prisoners.

Somaliland would seek help in setting up a 24-hour early warning system that would alert all shipping in the area when pirates were active.

A U.S. State Department official declined to comment on the proposal. The official, who was not authorized to speak for attribution, said the United States continues to search for the most effective way to end pirate attacks.

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is set to urge the U.N. Security Council this week to approve a U.S.-backed resolution that would authorize attacks on pirate bases on land and air, as well as by sea.

Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates told a regional security forum in Bahrain on Saturday that the commercial shipping industry could do more to protect itself.

"Companies and ships must be more vigilant about staying within approved traffic corridors," he said.

Commercial ships also should "speed up" and try to outrun pirates and "pull up the ladders," so pirates cannot board. "This is not rocket science," Mr. Gates said.

At the same time, Mr. Gates said, the United States does not have enough intelligence to pinpoint and attack the "two or three families or clans in Somalia that account for most of this activity."

Pirates have attacked about 100 ships this year and captured about half, including a Saudi supertanker loaded with $100 million worth of oil. The pirates, estimated to number about 1,500, are thought to have made more than $30 million in ransom payments, according to an estimate by the Associated Press.

On Saturday, the Indian navy said it captured 23 pirates who threatened one freighter, and a German military helicopter chased away pirate speedboats threatening to attack another freighter.

Mr. Kahin stressed that the plan would be in addition to operations already in place across the region.

"We are not taking anything away from the huge effort already made by our friends in Kenya, India, the European Union and the U.S., along with some of our neighbors," he said. "But we have unique advantages in Somaliland, notably that of language and location. We speak the same Somali language as the pirates and they operate in our back yard."

Most of the pirates are based in another Somali enclave known as Puntland, which lies between Somaliland and the war-ravaged south - where Ethiopian troops prop up a pro-Western government in Baidoa, and Islamic militants control just about everything else, including the nominal capital of Mogadishu.

In colonial times, Berbera was a vital link in a chain of ports that allowed the British Royal Navy to dominate the sea route to India. Somaliland has 450 miles of coast facing the Gulf of Aden.

In the 1970s, the Soviet Union developed close ties with the region and used Berbera as a naval and missile base. The runway - one of the longest in the world - was built by the United States as an emergency landing strip for the space shuttle.

After independence in 1960, the former British Somaliland joined voluntarily the Italian-ruled Somali territory to the south, creating the republic of Somalia. In 1991, after years of civil war, an interim administration revoked the union and declared itself the Republic of Somaliland.

No country has formally recognized the new nation, but most nations in Africa, along with the U.S. and much of Europe, offer standard diplomatic courtesy to visiting members of the government based in its capital, Hargeisa.

“If the AU cannot persuade member states to reinforce AMISOM and the Security Council ignores the problem, the AU should consider how at least to protect Somaliland, which has been de facto independent for the past 18 years, now under a democratically elected Government. The Minister told me in a Written Answer that we were reassessing the situation in Somaliland to see how we can implement our programmes of assistance and opportunities of enhancing our support. One way would be to encourage the AU to recognise Somaliland, so that it would have the backing of international law against any attempt by Mr Aweys to occupy it, and to stabilise it against further acts of terrorism. Somalia is already a haven for terrorists and pirates, and we should at least seek international agreement to prevent them extending their control over a law-abiding neighbour. ” Lord Eric Avebury

Lord Avebury: My Lords, a few hours ago the Minister said that we invaded Afghanistan to prevent it becoming a haven for international terrorism. She did not remind your Lordships that that was also one of the excuses given for the invasion of Iraq, which, as President Mubarak said at the time, was likely to create 100 bin Ladens. He was probably out by a factor of 10, but that has happened. It has also involved us, as the noble Baroness said, in a £700 million contribution so far towards reconstruction, has placed huge burdens on our Armed Forces, and is an ingredient in the motivation of terrorists across the world.

Although there might be questions about the precise identity of the persons who committed the atrocities in Mumbai, they share the mindset of those who attacked the US embassies in Nairobi and Dar es Salaam in the 1990s, and the perpetrators of 9/11, Madrid and the bombing of hotels in Jakarta and Islamabad, right up to the latest strikes on Indian hotels. All these acts are motivated by a particular aberrant Islamic worldview inspired by the fundamentalist ideologues of Qutb and Maudoodi. Apart from a need to bring the perpetrators of the offences to justice, we should address the problem of the hate ideology that damns the whole world of what they call Dar al Harb as wholly evil and corrupt.

It is a losing battle to deal with individual acts of terrorism while ignoring the hatred and violence that is, as the noble Lord, Lord Howell, said, spewed out

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by thousands of madrassahs, which, I may add, are funded by oil money, and which churn out graduates indoctrinated with loathing for Governments and people who do not conform with their ideas of Sunni orthodoxy.

Therefore, the Foreign Secretary says that we must prevent Afghanistan again becoming an incubator for international terrorism. However, neither in the blog of his visit nor his interview with the “Today” programme, nor in the Prime Minister’s recent meeting with President Karzai, nor, indeed, in the noble Baroness’s speech this morning is there any recognition of the fact that military solutions alone, which ignore the underlying ideology, are doomed to failure. My noble friend Lord Ashdown rightly said that winning in Afghanistan is not a military operation. With a huge effort, the Taliban may be contained, but unless we confront its underlying philosophy of loathing which not only spurs the Taliban but also al-Qaeda and other organisations like Lashkar-e-Toiba, it will simply be reincarnated in another form or another part of the world.

At the same time we need to address, as has been said by several noble Lords, the genuine grievances of Islamic populations throughout the world, and particularly the failure to arrive at a proper solution for the sufferings of the Palestinian people and to implement the declared intention of the international community to assist in creating a two-state solution.

In Somalia, we seem to have no idea what to do about the security vacuum that will be heightened by the departure of the Ethiopian forces at the end of the year. It spells the end for President Abdullahi Yusuf, and, as I suggested several years ago to the noble Lord, Lord Triesman, when he was a Minister, we put too many eggs in the basket of the TFG without having a plan B.

The Secretary-General’s last-minute development of the concept of an international stabilisation force was not pursued by the Security Council’s November resolution, so that 3,000 AMISOM troops who had been hanging on in the hope of being reinforced are also certain to be withdrawn. They had been helping the Ethiopians to protect the two major cities of Mogadishu and Baidoa, leaving the rest of the country to the extreme faction of the Alliance for the Re-liberation of Somalia, under Sheikh Hassan Dahir Aweys, who is in fact on the UN list of terrorist associates. It is only a matter of time before these terrorists take control of the capital, making it impossible for the international community to continue its recognition of the TFG. The moderate Islamist leader of an ARS faction, Sharif Ahmed, who signed a new deal with a faction of the TFG last week, appears to control no territory at all. What does the Minister think that the international community should do at the end of this month, when all these things arise?

Eritrea’s involvement in Somalia, which includes hosting Mr Aweys’s base in Asmara and probably giving him logistical help, may have been one way of its retaliating against Ethiopia for Meles’s prevarication over the boundary commission determination of April 2002. I remind your Lordships that, under the distinguished chairmanship of the British jurist Sir Elihu Lauterpacht, the commission tried to get agreement on physical delimitation but finally had to admit defeat

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in September 2006, contenting itself with expressing the border in terms of its co-ordinates. If the UN had been much firmer since then with Addis Ababa in calling for unconditional acceptance of the commission’s determination, for removal of their troops from Eritrean territory and for demilitarisation of the legal boundary, it would have allowed both countries to divert enormous amounts of money and manpower lavished on their armed forces over the last six and half years into peaceful development. It would have meant that both countries might have been co-operating in the development of a peaceful political settlement for Somalia.

If the AU cannot persuade member states to reinforce AMISOM and the Security Council ignores the problem, the AU should consider how at least to protect Somaliland, which has been de facto independent for the past 18 years, now under a democratically elected Government. The Minister told me in a Written Answer that we were reassessing the situation in Somaliland to see how we can implement our programmes of assistance and opportunities of enhancing our support. One way would be to encourage the AU to recognise Somaliland, so that it would have the backing of international law against any attempt by Mr Aweys to occupy it, and to stabilise it against further acts of terrorism. Somalia is already a haven for terrorists and pirates, and we should at least seek international agreement to prevent them extending their control over a law-abiding neighbour.

The UN is already overstretched, and member states are having difficulty meeting requests for contributions to peacekeeping forces elsewhere in Africa. The Security Council decided on a Chapter VII mandate for Darfur as long ago as August 2006, but the hybrid UN/AU force deployment timetable has slipped yet again, as has already been mentioned, to reach 80 per cent of its final strength in March 2009. That has dire consequences for the region as a whole, as the noble Lord, Lord Ashcroft, has said. There has been deterioration in the security situation, including deadly attacks on peacekeepers. Their freedom of movement is undermined repeatedly by government-imposed restrictions. UN helicopters have come under fire several times and, although the Government say that they are committed to a ceasefire, they bombed villages in November, and, in the previous month, their militias attacked dozens of villages, killing 40 innocent civilians.

The long history of broken promises has not yet come to an end. The Security Council should insist that all aggressive operations by the armed forces of the country should cease and that the persistent obstruction of humanitarian agencies should also come to an end. One of the items on the “to do” list of Mr Djibril Bassolé, the UN chief mediator, should be to get agreement on independent international monitoring of ceasefire violations to resolve the arguments about responsibility that arise whenever civilians are killed or injured. It would be useful to know whether that has been discussed with Khartoum.

A new development in the Eastern part of Somaliland, the Minister of Interior said the Somaliland security forces clashed with pirates and arrested five.

In a press conference, the police commissionaire said the Somaliland coastal guards attacked a boat carrying a number of pirates in the border between Somaliland and Somalia region of Puntland. The commissionaire said they arrested five of the pirates with weapons and a boat. He said they were planning to carry out piracy activities in Somaliland.

The Minister of Interior said the mission was successful and thanked both the Somaliland security forces and the local residents who helped them during the operation.

This is the first time that Somaliland directly clashes with pirates from Somalia in its sea. Somaliland participated in an international conference about piracy in Nairobi last week.

• Overview 1
• Special Focus on Somaliland 2
• Guban and West Golis Livelihood Zones: Nutrition Situation Deteriorates to Very Critical Phase 3
• Sool - Sanaag Plateau Livelihood Zone: Nutrition Situation Improves from Critical to Alert Phase 4
• NIPHORN Training 5
• Knowledge Attitude and Practices (Kap) Dissemination Workshops Summary 6

The Nutrition Surveillance Project is managed by FAO, funded by USAID/OFDA, SIDA and receives support from the EC and UNICEF Food Security Analysis Unit - Somalia September - October 2008 FSAU

Nutrition Situation:

In October 2008 FSAU, in collaboration with partners, commenced the second cycle of seasonal nutrition surveys for the Deyr ’08/09 season. The first of these surveys were conducted in Somaliland in October, followed by Shabelle regions, Central regions and Bossasso IDPS surveys in early November.

Findings from the two nutrition assessments using the standard survey methodology1, conducted in Somaliland in October, indicate a varied picture; with Very Critical rates of acute malnutrition2, reported in the Guban and West Golis Pastoral Livelihood zones of Galbeed and Awdal regions, and Alert rates reported in the Sool Plateau of Sool and Sanaag regions.

Guban and West Golis Livelihood Zone: Preliminary results indicate a Very Critical nutrition situation, with a global acute malnutrition rate (GAM) (WHZ<-2 or oedema) of 20.7% (15.3-26.2) and a severe acute malnutrition (WHZ<-3 or oedema) rate of 2.4% (1.4-3.5) with one oedema case, 0.19% (0.0-0.6). This indicates deterioration from the Critical phase identified through the Post Gu ’08 integrated analysis using data from rapid Mid Upper Arm Circumference (MUAC) assessments, health facility data and key informants. The retrospective crude and under five mortality rates3 for a 90 day recall period were estimated at 1.05 (0.65 – 1.68) and 1.06 (0.52-2.14), respectively, the elevated CMR levels are of concern given they are above the alert threshold of 1/10,000/day, however the under 5 yrs mortality rate was below the alert threshold of 2/10,000/day. The key driving forces to this Very Critical situation are likely to be a combination of shocks affecting household food security and health: such as high food prices, out-migration of livestock during the Gu ’08 due to lack of water and pasture and livestock disease; coupled with high rates of morbidity (37% of children reported to be ill in the two weeks preceding the survey, with 29% reportedly having suffered from diarrhoea and 17% from acute respiratory tract infections).

Sool Plateau Livelihood Zone: Preliminary results indicate an Alert nutrition situation, with a global acute malnutrition (WHZ<-2 or oedema) rate of 9.9% (6.9-13.0) and a severe acute malnutrition (WHZ<-3 or oedema) rate of 0.5% (0-1.1) with one case, 0.2% (0.0- 0.5), of oedema reported. This is an improvement from the Post Gu’08 Critical nutrition situation, likely associated with increased access to milk, following recent good Deyr rains in September and October, that have increased access to water, pasture and contributed to the return of livestock that had migrated as well as humanitarian assistance (including cash for work and water trucking). The retrospective crude and the under five mortality rates for 90 days recall period were 0.64 (0.35-1.18) and 1.64 (0.88-3.04) respectively, both below the alert thresholds. Morbidity levels were high, with 23% of the assessed children reportedly having suffered from a communicable illness in the preceding two weeks to the survey, 16% from diarrhoea and 8% from acute respiratory tract infection.

SPECIAL FOCUS ON SOMALILAND

Background Information

Somaliland is a former British protectorate and borders Ethiopia to the south and west, Djibouti to the northwest, the Gulf of Aden to the north and Puntland to the east. Somaliland comprises of three predominant livelihoods: urban, agro-pastoral and pastoral systems. The urban livelihood groups reside in the major urban towns of Hargeisa (the capital), Burao, Berbera (the sea port), Lasanod and Erigavo. The agro-pastoral livelihood zones are found in Toghdeer and Woq Galbeed Regions; while pastoralism is predominant in the Hawd, Nugal Valley, Sool Plateau and Golis/Guban pastoral livelihood zones.

Following the collapse of the Somalia central government, Somaliland declared its independence on May 18th 1991. The relative peace in Somaliland since then has led to continued settlement of many Somali returnees from the diaspora or refugee camps in Ethiopia, into Hargeisa and the major towns of Burao and Berbera, to take advantage of investment, income and employment opportunities. The growth of these urban centers has had a ripple effect on the rural pastoral and agro-pastoral livelihoods as they offer a ready market for their products, thereby contributing to the economic, food security and nutrition situation in Somaliland.

The overall food security situation in Somaliland has largely been affected by climatic conditions, especially rainfall performance, which affects pasture and water availability, livestock body condition, conception, kidding/calving and milk production. In recent times, the major setbacks for rural livelihoods have been natural calamities, mainly drought (such as the 2001-2004 drought) and freezing rains in the Togdheer region, which has affected the largely pastoral community resulting in massive loss of livestock. Nonetheless the effects on human life have been mitigated by a strong social support structure within Somaliland, from the diaspora community, and from humanitarian assistance.

According to the FSAU historical seasonal assessments reports, the number of people in Humanitarian Emergency (HE) or Acute Food and Livelihood Crisis (AFLC) in Somaliland reached a peak total of 57,700 in HE and 159,100 in AFLC in Sanaag, Sool and Las Qoray regions in the Post Gu ’04. However, during the post Gu ’06 analysis the number of people in AFLC had reduced to about 100,000 mainly from the Nugal Valley, Sool and Hawd pastoral livelihoods, while the consecutive Post Deyr ’06/07 and Post Gu’07 analysis indicated that all pastoral and agro-pastoral areas in the northern regions had improved from the more severe phases (HE, AFLC) to a relatively better Borderline Food Insecure (BFI) Phase. However, the continued positive improvement was reversed in the most recent post Gu ’08 analysis, which indicated that an estimated 125,000 pastoralists in the Hawd, Sool Plateau, Kakaar-Dharor, and Nugal Valley livelihood zones were faced with AFLC conditions. The deterioration in the food security situation was attributed to below normal rainfall, diminished access to water and pasture which negatively impacted livestock boby condition, as well as the soaring food and non food prices.

Based on findings of global acute malnutrition (GAM) rates from nine assessments conducted from 2002 to 2007 (Figure 3) and the integrated nutrition situation analysis by FSAU and partners during this period, the nutrition situation in the rural livelihoods of Somaliland has consistently remained below the emergency threshold of 15% (See Figure 3), and at the Alert phase, which is the best case scenario observed in Somalia in recent times. As with the food security situation, the post Gu’08 analysis indicated deterioration in the nutrition situation to Serious or Critical phases with the exception of the northwest agro-pastoralists, who retain the previous alert phase. The situation in the IDP populations, however, has been different (see FSAU Nutrition Update for September 2007) as acute malnutrition rates have consistently exceeded emergency thresholds, mainly due to their high vulnerability to malnutrition.

Two nutrition surveys were conducted jointly by FSAU, UNICEF, MOHL and partners in October 2008 in Guban/West Golis and Sool Plateau pastoral livelihood zones. The purpose was to review the situation and advocate recommendations on the way forward for response agencies. The preliminary findings highlighted in Figure 3 are discussed in this report.

Guban and West Golis Livelihood Zones: Nutrition

Situation Deteriorates to Very Critical Phase

The Guban and West Golis Pastoral Livelihood Zones mainly cover the coastal plains and highlands of Somaliland cutting across Awdal, Galbeed, Togdheer/Sahil and parts of Sanaag regions (See Map 1). These regions are inhabited by a population of about 1.41 million1, of which 23% (317, 000 persons) are found in the Guban and West Golis pastoral livelihood zones and have diversified livestock holdings, mountainous water supply and strong links with the Middle East and the diaspora, from where they receive remittances. According to the FSAU baseline (2004), Guban and West Golis livelihoods zones are predominantly pastoral, and rear livestock of which about 70% constitutes sheep, 25% goats, 4% camel and 1% cattle.

Between 13th and 19th October 2008, FSAU in collaboration with UNICEF and MOHL, conducted a nutrition assessment to determine the nutritional status and establish the influencing factors in Guban/West Golis livelihood zones of Somaliland. Using a two-stage Probability Proportionate to Size (PPS) sampling methodology, a total of 331 and 611 households (mean household size = 5.8 ± 2.5) were assessed for anthropometry and mortality, respectively. About 30% of the assessed households were female-headed and 3.3% of the assessed households hosted returnees and IDPs, mainly from southern Somalia. A total of 535 (less 5 flags) children, 53.6% boys and 46.4% girls (sex ratio = 1.16) aged 6-59 months were surveyed. Preliminary results reported a global acute malnutrition (WHZ<-2 or oedema) rate of 20.7% (15.3-26.2) and a severe acute malnutrition (WHZ<- 3 or oedema) rate of 2.4% (1.4-3.5), one of (0.2%) whom had oedema. The GAM and SAM rates increased to 22.3% (17.2 – 28.4) and 6.6% (4.4 – 9.7) respectively when analysed using WHO Anthro, 2006 Reference Standards (Table 1).

These results indicate a Very Critical nutrition situation according to WHO classification. The retrospective crude mortality rate for 90 days recall was 1.05 (0.65 – 1.68) deaths/10,000 persons, and the under five mortality rate, 1.06 (0.52-2.14) both of which indicate an alert situation though below the WHO emergency threshold of 2 and 4 deaths/10,000 persons respectively.

The proportion of assessed children who had suffered from one or more communicable childhood diseases in the two weeks prior to the assessment was 37.4%. As shown in Table 1, the proportion of children that had reportedly suffered from diarrhoea, ARI and febrile illness two weeks prior to the study was 28.6%, 17.2% and 2.2% respectively, while 5.2% of the assessed children were reportedly suspected to have suffered from measles. Sick children, especially those suffering from diarrhoea are often more likely to be acutely malnourished than their healthy counterparts (p<0.05). As shown in Table 1, immunization status by recall against measles (43%), vitamin A (46.9%) and polio (70.1%) were very low and fall far below the Sphere (2004) standards of 95%. Integrated analysis of findings from a rapid assessment conducted in July 2008 indicated a Critical nutrition situation at the time (See August 2008 Nutrition Update). A diarrhoea outbreak was also reported in some parts of Awdal region (Boroma and Harir areas) during that period. The outbreak was however, controlled.

The food security situation in Guban and West Golis Livelihood Zones has been precarious over the last one year. The areas depend on the Hays rainfall which come once annually in January, immediately after the Deyr season. In January 2008, the Hays rains failed totally, causing a prolonged Jilaal (dry spell) which resulted in abnormal out-migration of livestock southwards towards the Hawd plains. As a result, meat and milk consumption declined. Household dietary diversity based on the 24 hour recall period was found to be Critical2 with almost one quarter (23.6%) of the assessed households consuming a poorly diversified diet (<4 food groups a day). Together, with unfavourable terms of trade and increased food prices, deterioration in the nutrition situation was eminent. FAO undertook livestock vaccination against PPR, and treatment of pneumonia, gastro intestinal and ecto-parasites on August 5th-18th, 2008; however, no humanitarian interventions focusing on nutrition have been implemented in these areas to date.

Although this is the first comprehensive nutrition assessment conducted in these livelihoods, the Very Critical nutrition levels provide an opportunity for the administration, local and international organizations to activate an emergency preparedness and response system. This is essential to address the nutritional needs of this highly vulnerable population. Further these results also highlight the need for improved emergency preparedness that can act on early warning for livelihood crisis on time to mitigate the effects. The need to improve water quality and sanitation, control communicable diseases and resuscitate the livestock industry among other interventions can help reduce the poor food security and nutrition situation.

Sool - Sanaag Plateau Livelihood Zone: Nutrition Situation

Improves from Critical to Alert Phase

Sool Plateau Livelihood Zone is a pasture-rich plain with bush and vegetation cover. It extends from Dararweyne in Erigavo to Bixin in Banderbeyla, spanning across Sanaag, Sool and Bari regions and covering an area of about 46,644km2. Pastoralism is the main livelihood system with special focus on goat and sheep rearing; goats comprise between 60-70% of the total livestock reared. Income is mainly accessed through the sale of livestock and livestock products, casual labour and trade and spent on food and non food items while food (typically, meat, milk and cereals) is accessed through purchase and own production. The Sool-Sanaag Plateau section of the livelihood zone in Somaliland (See Map 1) has an estimated population size of 55, 230 people out of the 82, 376 in the whole livelihood zone (Ref: FSAU Baseline Profiles, September 2005).

The Post Gu ’08 integrated nutrition analysis classified the livelihood zone to be in a Critical phase which was a deterioration from the Alert phase in the Post Deyr ’07/08. The drought conditions during the Gu ’08 resulted in the out-migration of livestock to Puntland for pasture and water and thereby contributed to poor access of the remaining population to food and income. Other aggravating factors to the Critical situation at the time included, high prices of food and non food items, poor access to safe water and sanitation, high morbidity rates, low immunization status and limited health facility services3. Diarrhoeal outbreaks were also reported in Hingalool at the time. Between the 20th and 28th October 2008, FSAU, UNICEF, MOHL and partners conducted a nutrition assessment in Sool Plateau (Sool and Sanaag region) to establish the nutritional situation of the population and ascertain the influencing factors. Using a two-stage Probability Proportionate to Size (PPS) sampling methodology, a total of 372 households (mean household size = 6.2 ± 0.4) were assessed for anthropometry, and a total of 618 assessed for mortality. Twenty seven percent of the assessed households were female-headed, with the majority of the households being resident, and less than 1% were IDPs in the area, originating mainly from southern Somalia. A total of 593 (less 2 flags) children, 48.7% boys and 51.3% girls aged 6-59 months were assessed.

Preliminary findings indicate a global acute malnutrition (WHZ<-2 or oedema) rate of 9.9% (6.9-13.0) and a severe acute malnutrition (WHZ<-3 or oedema) rate of 0.5% (0-1.1) with one (0.2%) case of oedema. This indicates an Alert situation based on the WHO classification. Using the WHO Anthro reference standards, the GAM rate (9.9% CI: 7.2-13.7) remained the same, while the SAM rate increased to 0.8% (0.4-2.0). The retrospective Crude and Under five mortality rates based on 90 days recall period were 0.64 (0.35-1.18) and 1.64 (0.88-3.04) respectively, both of which are below the Alert4 thresholds.

The contributing factors to the improved nutrition situation from the Critical phase in August 2008 to Alert phase in October 2008 include: control of diarrhoeal outbreaks in the Hingalool area; increased access to food, water and income following good rains in September and October5 which has led to the return of livestock that had migrated to Puntland (Bari region) during the Gu’ 08. Increased humanitarian activities in the region are also likely to have surported the recovery. Milk consumption and income from sales have, therefore, improved and contributed to increased household food access and nutrition. Findings from the October 2008 nutrition assessment indicate a considerable proportion of households reportedly consuming milk (65.9%), and meat, (30.6%). Dietary diversity nevertheless remains critical, with 23.7% of the households reportedly consuming a poorly diversified diet (<4 food groups a day), child care practices remain sub-optimal including low persistence of breastfeeding (39.1%) and access to health care services (such as measles vaccination at 36.6%) and aggravate the unacceptable nutrition situation.

Even though an improvement in the nutritional situation in the area has been observed, the vulnerability of the region, and its fragility to natural shocks e.g. drought, necessitate continued close monitoring of the situation, control of communicable diseases, ensuring access to safe water, sanitation, health services and health and nutrition education.

NIPHORN Training

The Nutrition Information Project for the Horn of Africa (NIPHORN) is a process led by Tulane University in collaboration with UNICEF ESARO, and involves a review of existing nutrition survey datasets from the Horn of Africa region (Somalia, Kenya, Uganda, Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia and South Sudan). NIPHORN has consolidated and analyzed existing nutrition information from the last 10-15 years and has identified the need to agree on standard methodologies for sampling, training, data collection, analysis and reporting, with the ultimate goal of improving the nutrition data quality in nutrition information systems. However, harmonization of these issues will only have an impact if Governments, UN and NGO staff are part of the process and well trained in the implementation of the agreed standards. It is upon this background that the FSAU in collaboration with UNICEF is implementing a pilot project in Somaliland, with the overall aim of building the capacity of the government to provide timely and accurate nutrition information for policy development and early warning to pre-empt and mitigate nutrition emergencies.

Somaliland

As part of the NIPHORN implementation strategies, an in-depth training for the key Ministry of Health and Labour (MoHL) staff involved with nutrition information systems was held in Hargeisa from 8th to 12th October 2008 with FSAU providing technical facilitation, and funds provided by UNICEF. A total of 33 participants, including 2 overall coordinators, one supervisor and four enumerators from each of the six administrative regions (Awdal, W. Galbeed, Togdheer, Sahil, Sanaag and Sool) of Somaliland took part in the training.

The proportion of assessed children reported to have suffered from one or more communicable childhood diseases in the two weeks prior to the assessment was 23.3%. This included 15.7% who had reportedly suffered from diarrhoea, 7.9% from ARI and 1.7% from febrile illness. Only one (0.2%) suspected case of measles was reported. The immunization status was far below the recommended Sphere standard of 95%, with the proportion of children who received measles, polio vaccination and vitamin A supplementation being 36.3%, 75.7% and 47.7% respectively. Morbidity and acute malnutrition have shown a significant statistical relationship in past surveys conducted in the country with children reportedly to have been ill, especially with diarrhoea, being more likely to be acutely malnourished compared to their healthy counterparts.

The training covered different methods of nutrition surveillance including nutrition assessments, rapid assessments, sentinel sites surveillance and health facility data collection. Other aspects emphasized in the training included survey planning, sampling techniques, anthropometric measurements and age determination. Different methodologies were used during the training comprising of: power point presentations, demonstrations, group discussions, questions and answers sessions and practical field activities. Practical activities involved visiting Sahardid and Sheikh Nur MCHs in Hargeisa town, where participants reviewed the nutrition and health related data collected in the preceding six months and described the trends evidenced from the data. Participants also provided adhoc training to the health staff on how to conduct anthropometric measurements. The other practical session involved visiting Hargeisa IDPs in Daami and Sheik Nur section of Hargeisa town, where they were involved with the second stage sampling of a total of sixty children whose anthropometric, household, morbidity and mortality data were taken and recorded in the standard household questionnaire.

Using the data collected during the field work, participants were involved practically, in data entry, analysis, quality checks and interpretation of the results. Thereafter the participants were involved in nutrition assessments of the Guban/West Golis and Sool Plateau pastoral livelihoods (result shared in this update) with the overall data quality score for each of the assessments using ENA software being 8%, and indicating that the data collected by the participants was of acceptable quality. As an additional action point, the participants are scheduled to participate in a subsequent nutrition survey.

Knowledge Attitude and Practices (KAP) Dissemination Workshops Summary

In an effort to link nutrition information to action, the FSAU Nutrition Project is currently working to build the capacity of partners to enhance the understanding of the contributions of poor child care practices to malnutrition and subsequently provide recommendations. Following on from the national KAP study conducted from September to December 2007, FSAU has conducted seven 2-day training workshops in Hargeisa, Lasanod, Erigavo and Burao in the northwest, Bossaso, Garowe and Galkayo in northeast and Merka in Lower Shabelle from June to September 2008 on the findings.

Each workshop targeted an average of 30 participants from different backgrounds that include health workers, school teachers, representatives from local and international NGOs, staff from UN agencies and the local media. The aim of the workshops was to disseminate the outcome of the KAP study conducted in Somalia last year and discuss the relevant action points and map the way forward on the implementation of recommendations outlined in the KAP report.

The KAP report emphasizes that, for accurate execution of the recommendations outlined, a multi-sectoral approach is necessary, FSAU therefore saw it prudent to ensure that the report was disseminated at regional level with the various relevant stakeholders. The workshops in Somaliland (4) and Puntland (3) were officially opened by the Ministry of Health officials; who encouraged active participation that would contribute to strategies aimed at improving knowledge, attitudes and practices on infant and child care at household and community level. In each of the workshops, the KAP study findings were presented on the first day, which included findings on the following topics: breastfeeding (early initiation of breast feeding after birth, importance of colostrum, breastfeeding and child spacing etc), complementary feeding (problems associated with early and poor quality complementary feeding), morbidity, poor health seeking behaviours and overall issues contributing to poor child care practices. Each participant was provided with a hard copy of the final report.

The overall observations were that inappropriate or lack of knowledge on breastfeeding, complementary feeding, use of safe water and proper health and sanitation practices and more importantly health seeking behaviour, remained a great challenge. The explicit discussions and conclusions are contained in individual workshop reports for every region; however in general all the participants concluded that the KAP study, dissemination of the results and the discussions of the findings at regional level provided crucial information for relevant, timely and appropriate planning of response and interventions. A summary of the recommendations made by the participants during the workshops include: creating awareness of appropriate child feeding and care practices through appropriate, respected and influential stakeholders e.g. the media and use of religious leaders, local partners etc, creation of policies and legislation on appropriate care, feeding and health seeking behaviours, with relevant health ministries to take the lead on sensitization and campaigns on the importance of appropriate health and nutrition behaviours and practices for good growth and development.

Physical address: Kalson Towers, Parklands, Nairobi. Postal address: PO Box 1230, Village Market, Nairobi, Kenya, Telephone: +254-20-3741299, 3745734, 3748297. Fax: +254 20 3740598, General email: fsauinfo@fsau.or.ke, FSAU Comments and information related to nutrition: grainne.moloney@fsau.or.ke, Website: http://www.fsausomali.org FSAU Food Security and Nutrition Quarterly Brief, November 2008

The communities include the Gaboye, Midgan, Tumal and Yibro - most of whom lead reclusive lives and do not interact or inter-marry with other communities. They are mostly cobblers, blacksmiths and barbers. Abdillahi Hassan Digale, chairman of the Ubah Social Welfare Organization (USWO), said the NGO had interviewed 31 families, with 118 children aged seven to 14, and only five were in school.

"The main obstacles against children going to school are the economic status and social exclusion of these minority groups," Digale said. However, various initiatives are being undertaken to uplift the communities' status.

"In collaboration with UNICEF [the UN Children's Fund] and the University of Hargeisa, we have built one education centre for minority children in Daami and enrolled almost 300 pupils," Abdillahi said. "The university has also started a programme that gives higher education scholarships to five minority children every year."

During a study in August, USWO found eight families in Koosaar camp for internally displaced persons, where only two children were enrolled in school, in Burao, the second-largest city in Somaliland.

"I have three children who can go to school but they don't because we like our children to study the skills of their parents such as shoe-making and running barber shops," Bedra Ibrahim Dalbac, a resident of Burao, told IRIN.

Moreover, he said, discrimination by other communities made it hard for them to send their children to school.

"Also, our income is not enough to provide for the schooling, so we just think about taking care of them and forget about schooling," he added.

Another parent, Bedel Biihi Mohamud, said he had enrolled three of his five children in school.

"Five of my children reached school-going age but only three attend school, while the other two work with me in shoe-making because we don't have enough money to send all of them to school," he said. However, according to USWO, lack of education opportunities for minorities is the main reason for the communities' failure to send their children to school.

"In addition, most parents are hesitant to send children to public schools due to discrimination," he added. "Somaliland authorities say schools are open for minority children but they don't have a policy that specifically targets them."

Minority groups had a representative in the lower house of Somaliland's parliament, but he lost the seat in the last election.

Two officials from minority communities - the deputy minister of health and labour, Mahdi Osman Buri, and Jirde Sa'id Mohamoud, a member of the standing committee of the Upper House of Parliament - remain in government.

"It is unlikely that Somaliland will come back to Somalia under the old conditions. It looks like the Somalis [in Somaliland], have tasted how sweet independence and self-determination are. Time and time again the leaders of Somaliland proudly declare their achievements: peace, tranquility, and economic progress. Hargeisa and the port city of Berbera are booming. Berbera has become an additional outlet for the export and import of landlocked Ethiopia and are expanding the port facilities. In addition to the roads that link Jijiga, Ethiopia with Hargeisa and onwards to Berbera, there is a regular air link between the two.

"We live in the 21st century where self-determination and independence of peoples is respected. My expectation is Somaliland will be accepted—recognized by African, the USA and by the European countries in the immediate future."

The above remarks were made by Hailu Beshah, a former Ethiopian Ambassador and a leading expert on security affairs in Africa, in an interview with EthiopiaBlog. Beshah is currently a professor of Security Policy Studies at George Washington University, where he teaches conflict and security in Africa and focuses on the Horn of Africa. He recently appeared on BBC Television to discuss the consequences of runoff elections in Zimbabwe this summer, and has published articles in The Wall Street Journal.

by J. Peter Pham, Ph.D.,World Defense Review columnist...

In last week's column, I argued that the situation in the Horn of Africa was rapidly reaching crisis proportions and that specifically United States policy towards the onetime Somali Democratic Republic needed to be reformulated on the basis of something other than the series of unrealistic assumptions on which it has hitherto been predicated. As events since then have underscored the deteriorating security conditions faced by the international community as a whole as well as by the Somali and their neighbors, it is time to concentrate on Somaliland, the one part of that geopolitically sensitive space where there is still a peace to be preserved.

As the headline of Jeffrey Gettleman's news analysis in last Sunday's New York Times proclaimed: "The situation in Somalia seems, improbably, about to get worse." As the Grey Lady's East Africa bureau chief noted, the country's Transitional Federal Government (TFG) "looks as if it is about to flatline" as "the Ethiopians who have been keeping it alive for two years say they are leaving the country, essentially pulling the plug." While there are reports that the Ethiopian National Defense Force, one of Africa's largest and most seasoned conventional armies, were establishing new bases in central Somalia, those positions near the border town of Balanbal appear more to represent a strengthening of Addis Ababa's ability to intervene as needed in the future than a reneging of the commitment to substantially pull out by the end of the year.

The Ethiopians, with good reason, expect trouble from the steady advance of Islamist insurgents spearheaded by al-Shabaab ("the youth"), a radical group which was formally designated a "Foreign Terrorist Organization" earlier this year by the U.S. State Department which argued that it is "a violent and brutal extremist group with a number of individuals affiliated with al-Qaeda." Three weeks ago, the U.S. Treasury Department slapped travel and financial sanctions on three leaders of the group: the group's founder, Ahmad Abdi Godane, a.k.a. Abu Zubeyr, an alumnus of al-Qaeda's Afghan training camps who is wanted for his role in the murders of Western aid workers in the Republic of Somaliland; Issa Osman Issa, a.k.a. Abdala Sudani, a military commander who, before al-Shabaab's creation, was involved in the 2002 bombing of the Israeli-owned Paradise Hotel in Mombasa, Kenya, and the simultaneous attempt to shoot down a Boeing 757 operated by Israel's Arkia Airlines; and Mukhtar Robow, a.k.a. Abu Mansur, who is a military commander and perhaps the most prominent spokesman for the group. Last Saturday, in the key port city of Marka, Mukhtar Robow presided over the installation of one Sheikh Abdirahman "Siro" Ahmed at the head of a new administration for the Lower Shabelle region which lies just to the south of Mogadishu. The region which the newly-ensconced governor will preside over encompasses sea docks and airport facilities which play a critical role in the flow of humanitarian aide to a Somali populace which, according to a statement last week by Hilde F. Johnson, deputy executive director of UNICEF, "has the highest levels of malnutrition in the world." On Sunday, al-Shabaab fighters continued their sweep across central Somalia, encountering no resistance as they took control of the provincial capital of the Galgadud region, Dhusamareb. On Tuesday, another group of al-Shabaab fighters entered the town of Balad Hawo, near the border with Kenya, chasing off TFG "parliamentarian" and ex-"defense minister" Colonel Barre Hirale who had been trying to raise forces there (this Barre Hirale is the same hapless warlord who lost the port of Kismayo, the third-largest city in Somalia, to the Islamists in August).

Even as it is progressively being encircled, the TFG, which barely controls a few city blocks in Mogadishu – and that only because the Ethiopians have not withdrawn entirely – is continuing to tear itself apart in literal squabbles over scraps. Tensions remain high between TFG "President" Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed and "Prime Minister" Nur "Adde" Hassan Hussein. In July, the latter managed to oust the former's close ally, Mohamed Dheere, from his position as "mayor" of the sometime capital, replacing him with a pliable militia leader, Mohamed Osman, a.k.a. "Dhagatur." Last week, TFG soldiers battled each other in the city itself after a unit guarding the "presidential compound" at Villa Somalia stoned a passing convoy of other TFG soldiers answerable to "Mayor" Dhagatur. Not surprising, neither Abdullahi Yusuf nor Nur Adde were present, both being out of the country as were more than one hundred TFG "parliamentarians" who had gone to Kenya on the pretense of attending a peace conference and have refused Nairobi's demand that they to go home.

Thus the collapse of the TFG is not that far off; then the real problems begin. While al-Shabaab forces have been united in their desire to drive out the Ethiopians and the TFG, the group itself is internally divided into half a dozen or so factions that, despite the rhetoric of transcending regional or clan affinities, are divided along those very lines. The faction led by Mukhtar Robow is probably the largest, with several thousand fighters, but its composition is almost exclusively Habr Gidr clansmen from the Hawiye. Operating near where the borders of Somaliland, Puntland, and Ethiopia meet is another major group, primarily ‘Isaq in membership, led by Ahmad Abdi Godane and Ibrahim Haji Jama, a.k.a. "al-Afghani," who trained also with al-Qaeda in Afghanistan and is a veteran of terrorist campaigns there as well as in Kashmir and in Somaliland. The various factions may well fall on each other, once they have dispatched their common foe.

And, despite the often-repeated shibboleth in ill-informed the Western circles that the Islamists will be welcomed by war-weary Somali as a "law and order" movement (see, for example, John Burnett's New York Times op-ed last week where he misinterprets the motives behind one specific 2006 incident), the truth is that the radicals among them overplayed their hand during the brief rule of the Islamic Courts Union in 2006. Moreover, as Jeffrey Gettleman correctly observes, today's Islamists are a much different batch than the earlier group: "The old guard included many moderates, but those who tried to work with the transitional government mostly failed, leaving them weak and marginalized, and removing a mitigating influence on the die-hard insurgents." In addition to the indiscriminate attacks, use of civilians as human shields, and other war crimes for which a report released this week by Human Rights Watch indicts them (among other parties censured), al-Shabaab has recently committed grotesque violations of human rights, including the stoning to death before a stadium audience in Kismayo of a 13-year-old female victim of a gang rape for "adultery" and the sawing off of the head of a man who failed to properly submit with a dull knife. The barbarism of the former echoes the "justice" of Taliban rule of Afghanistan, while the latter incident, which was even videotaped and posted to the internet, recalls al-Qaeda's murders of local leaders, journalists, and other potential civil society opponents.

If in their last coming the Islamists were an annoyance to the lives of ordinary Somalis with the bans against watching World Cup football and chewing of qat, the ubiquitous evergreen leaf with amphetamine-like stimulant properties which Somalis chew with gusto, this time they have rendered themselves downright odious through their narrow-minded intolerance. In honor of ‘Id ul-Adha, the pilgrimage festival of sacrifice whose celebration throughout the Islamic world began on Monday, for example, al-Shabaab militants in Kismayo destroyed graves in the town's cemeteries, accusing grieving relatives of the deceased of the "un-Islamic" practice of praying there and thus violating the strict monotheism enjoined by the Islamists' Wahhabi-inspired (and financed) credo. Previously, the radicals had contented themselves with just targeting the graves of Sufi saints whose mystical faith and devotees' prayers they found offensive.

While the Islamists will either fight among themselves or unite in oppressing the southern Somali – or, more likely, do both – it might be the remnants of TFG itself which will spread instability to the semi-autonomous region of Puntland in the northeast. The septuagenarian Abdullahi Yusuf was a warlord in the region before and will likely retreat back to it once he is driven from Mogadishu. Puntland already has enough difficulties with legislative elections due at the end of the month and a presidential poll scheduled for January in which about a dozen candidates are competing against the incumbent, Adde Muse. The injection of a frustrated Abdullahi Yusuf into this highly-charged and ever-shifting political climate – one of the region's more creditable politicians, Minister for International Cooperation Ali Abdi Awaare, unexpectedly resigned Sunday – will hardly serve to calm the waters.

Moreover, Puntland is, as I reported here two weeks ago, the epicenter of the piracy phenomenon that has so far this year involved attacks on more than one hundred merchant vessels, some fourteen of whom are still being held captive along with their nearly three hundred crew members. In fact, both of the two most spectacular prizes, the Ukrainian-owned, Belizean-registered freighter, the MV Faina, which was carrying thirty-three refurbished Russian-made T-72 tanks and other armaments, and the MV Sirius Star, a Liberian-flagged very large crude carrier (VLCC) owned by a United Arab Emirates-based subsidiary of the state-owned national oil company of Saudi Arabia, Saudi Aramco, which was carrying two million barrels of crude, are still at anchor in the waters of Puntland. Here again, Abdullahi Yusuf's presence would be less than helpful to resolving a vexing challenge. It should be recalled that, as my colleague Dr. Martin Murphy, senior fellow at the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments and associate fellow at the Corbett Centre for Maritime Policy Studies of King's College London, pointed out during a panel discussion we participated in recently on piracy in the Gulf of Aden, the TFG capo's militia was responsible for winning the first big pirate ransom in the region when it seized a Taiwanese fishing trawler, the MV Shen Kno II, in 1997, and demanded $800,000 for the boat, $40,000 for its captain, and $10,000 for each member of the crew.

Against this bleary landscape, the one relatively bright spot has been the Republic of Somaliland. As I have repeatedly argued since the very beginning this column series nearly three years ago:

Since the [1991] disintegration of the Siyad Barre's oppressive Somali regime into Hobbesian anarchy and warlordism, the international community has staunchly defended the phantasmal existence of the fictitious entity known as "Somalia." Now, however, is the time for the United States to break ranks and let realism triumph over wishful thinking, not only recognizing, but actively supporting Somaliland, a brave little land whose people's quest for freedom and security mirrors America's values as well as her strategic interests.

This time last year, I reported here on the push, led by the U.S. Defense Department, to increase American engagement of Somaliland. After the visit to the Washington of an official delegation led by Somaliland President Dahir Rayale Kahin and Foreign Minister Abdillahi Mohamed Duale as well as a brief visit to Hargeisa by U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs Jendayi E. Frazer, I outlined a "road map" for moving relations forward. Unfortunately, little progress has been made in the months afterward and a certain momentum was lost when – contrary to the advice I offered in the Somaliland press to "consider the long-term strategic implications of their decisions as well as the [short-term] economic benefits" – the as-yet unrecognized state's minister of water and mineral resources, Qasim Yussuf Ibrahim, made some ill-advised (and not especially transparent) deals regarding licenses that certainly did nothing to advance the country's case for great power engagement, including a particularly odd undertaking with a former Scandinavian footballer. That misstep compounded already-present concerns about a certain amount of backsliding on due process and other procedural elements of the democratic process as the country moves towards elections in the first part of 2009 to make a the aspiring sovereign look like a joke. As I have told many Somaliland officials, one of the two most important claims that make on the attention of the international community is their country's democratic constitutional politics. Thus the significance of the upcoming poll for Somaliland's future cannot be underestimated: take away the popular participation in and legitimacy of its institutions of governance, and the case for an independent Somaliland becomes that much less compelling.

The other important claim which Somaliland puts forward is its role as a bulwark for the international community's security interest in preventing the spread of the chaos emanating from the rest of the former Somalia. As I reported in September, according to information first disclosed by my friend Professor Iqbal Jhazbhay of the University of South Africa in an interview with Nairobi, Kenya-based Voice of America (VOA) correspondent Alisha Ryu, Somaliland authorities allowed French commandos to use the abandoned U.S. base at Berbera in the northwestern region of the republic as the staging area for the successful rescue of a French couple who had been seized by pirates as they sailed through the Gulf of Aden in the luxury yacht Carré d'As IV. Last week, Foreign Minister Abdillahi Duale used an interview with Reuters to offer the international community the use of ports along Somaliland's 900 kilometers of coastline along the Gulf of Aden for anti-piracy patrols such as the first-ever European Union joint naval mission, Operation Atalanta, which took up station earlier this week. Somaliland should be viewed as a critical partner in anti-piracy efforts beyond the mere provision of facilities for members of the international community's "coalition of the willing." As historical anti-piracy efforts have shown, the development of an effective maritime regime requires not only military prowess by the great "blue water" navies of the world, but effective constabulary forces operating locally in the "brown water" of the littorals where marauders are wont to shelter. The creation, equipping, training, and deployment of a modernized Somaliland coast guard constitute a key component of any viable strategy for maritime security in the Gulf of Aden and adjacent waters.

Furthermore, Somaliland is critical to humanitarian efforts throughout the region. As a report by the independent nongovernmental advocacy group Refugees International noted last month, "Somaliland offers a more stable operating environment than the rest of the country, and international NGOs and UN agencies have been able to run programs with fewer security constraints. Moreover, aid agencies have a functioning government to interact with, including ministries and an elected Parliament." In fact, nearly 100,000 Somalis from the south have sought shelter in Somaliland. However, because the international community does not recognize Somaliland's claim to independent statehood, the Office of the UN Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) has no mechanism in place to register these displaced Somalis while, for its part, Somaliland receives none of the bilateral assistance for relief and development which would ordinarily be forthcoming to a country which was trying to cope with a similar influx of refugees.

Its secular and largely democratic politics as well as its attempts to forge ties with the West have earned it the ire of al-Shabaab and other Islamists – to say nothing of the hostility of the TFG which, despite its inability to control even one city, still views itself as the sole sovereign of was once the Somali Democratic Republic. On October 29, suicide car bombers struck the presidential palace, the Ethiopian consular and trade mission, and regional offices of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in the Somaliland capital of Hargeisa, killing at least twenty-five people and injuring scores of others. The attackers, whom analysts believe to have been sent by the al-Shabaab faction led by Mukhtar Robow and Ahmad Abdi Godane, were apparently acting on the basis of a fatwa issued two years ago by Hassan Dahir ‘Aweys, the nominal leader of hardliners among the Islamist insurgents and chairman of the erstwhile Islamic Courts Union's shura, which authorized the "killing of the Jewish and American collaborators in the northern regions." Regrettably, the attack forced the evacuation of international technical experts and the shut-down of the voter registration process for a month before the efforts resumed last week. As al-Shabaab and its allies advance, more attacks are expected as well as greater tensions between Somaliland and Puntland, especially if Abdullahi Yusuf decamps back to his old fiefdom in the former region, which has claimed a part of Somaliland territory that was within the borders of the British Protectorate and bequeathed to Somaliland upon its original independence in 1960.

The situation in southern Somalia is dire, perhaps irremediably so, U.S. State Department spokesman Sean McCormack's incredible assertion on Tuesday that the TFG is an "institution work[ing] a better future in Somalia" notwithstanding. With all due respect to Assistant Secretary McCormack's stubborn "faith-based" confidence that the international system will somehow produce "a responsible international force in Somalia to help provide some security and therefore some stability, and allow some of these weaker institutions to start to take hold in a positive way," the incoming Obama administration would be better advised to deploy its resources in a rough triage that privileges saving what can be saved, rather than vain attempts to preserve that which is already lost. To this end, a way must be found to engage Somaliland, supplying its under-resourced government and civil society with relief and development aid and security assistance needed to survive the wave of extremism and violence which will come to the region's frontiers. And if it appears premature to move to de jure recognition of Somaliland's de facto sovereignty, perhaps some sort of "interim special status" might be concocted to throw the Somalilanders a lifeline of access to international political and economic institutions. Certainly if the United States and its allies lack the foresight and imagination to support the one stable and politically legitimate authority in the Somali lands, they will only have themselves to blame for the strategic repercussions – throughout the Horn and beyond – when the last piece standing is toppled over by the other falling dominoes.

In a conference he has participated “ The Future of Democracy in Zimbabwe- European Assistance under African Leadership” held at the EU Parliament on December 4th, under the auspices of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe ( ALDE ), Mohamoud Abdi Daar, made the following points on the situation in Somaliland.

After congratulating the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe (ALDE) in organising this conference in which highly distinguished delegates are participating, I would like to join other speakers in expressing support and solidarity with the people of Zimbabwe in their struggle for human rights and justice.

Respect of fundamental human rights and freedoms are indispensable for the political, economic and social development of any society.And efforts to promote and support such democratic rights are commendable and praiseworthy.

Participatory democracy plays an important role in nation-building in Somaliland and especially since 1991, after she seperated from Somalia. This enabled her to make remarkable achievements and to re- establish peace and stability in this region, in the Horn of Africa. Somaliland has successfully established democratic institutions, based on the rule of law. Hundreds of thousands of refugees and displaced persons were repartiated. Towns, roads, schools and hospitals, destroyed by the former dictatorial regime, were re-builf by the hardworking people of Somaliland, on self-reliant basis.To date, primary school enrollment is more than 90 % . Health service has tremendously improved following return of Somaliland medical doctors from abroad. Safe and piped water is also available to almost 50 % of the urban population, ( Mark Bradbury, On Becoming Somaliland, 1997 ).

In Somaliland, economic growth is mainly based on the private sector which contributes by and large to employment and to the raising of the standard of living in the country. More efforts are also being put in place to strengthen this important sector, as well as to encourage foreign investment and accelerate livestock and fishery exports. With regard to its transition to full- fledged democracy, Somaliland is making a great deal of progress. Voter-registration is now under way, with the cooperation of the European Union. The second direct presidential election is scheduled to take place at the end of March 2009.

Such success and achievements put Somaliland in an envious position. These are main reasons why she was subjected to a massive and brutal suicidal attacks on October 29, 2008 in which more than 25 people were killed and more than 31 were injured. In their futile and wicked efforts, the terrorists targeted the Presidential Palace, the Ethiopian trade center and the UNDP office. The resolute people of Somaliland expressed anger and condemned those unprovoked and cowardly acts of evil aggression and hatred.. The government and people expressed thier strong determination to defend their freedom and hard-won indepedence against criminal terrorist organizations, failed states and enemies of freedom and human progress.

Somalilanders and their government express their appreciation to all governments, inter-governmental and non-governmental organizations for their solidarity and support in this difficult hour. Furthermore, they request urgent, concrete moral and material assistance from the international community to meet the development and security needs of the counrty.

Somaliland’s strong faith in international cooperation and solidarity impel her to meet its international obligations, as a mature and responsible state. For these reasons Somaliland and its hardworking people have great confidence that the international community would reconsider the status of the country and accord her diplomatic recogntion at this juncture, more than ever before, since she fulfils all indispensable requirements and conditions for statehood as stipulated in international law.

NAIROBI, Dec 4 08(Reuters) - The breakaway enclave of Somaliland offered on Thursday the use of ports along its long coastline for foreign naval patrols against Somali pirates.

The Somali sea-gangs have attacked dozens of ships in the Gulf of Aden this year, but generally prefer to strike in waters near Yemen instead of going close to Somaliland's shore.

"Our coast is extremely long but we have kept our waters free of pirates. We have not had one single incident," said Abdillahi Duale, foreign minister for Somaliland which broke away from Somalia to declare itself an independent republic in 1991.

"We will support the fight against pirates any way we can. Our ports are open for the coalition and all those who are fighting piracy to use as they wish," he told Reuters.

The European Union is to begin an air and naval operation off Somalia next week, while a Danish-led multilateral task force has eight ships, and the NATO alliance has a further four patrolling the waters off Somalia.

Duale said the coastguard of Somaliland -- a semi-desert terrain that is home to 3.5 million people and neighbours Djibouti and Ethiopia in the north-west of Somalia -- was doing a good job keeping pirates at bay.

He declined to say how many boats Somaliland had.

Neighbouring Puntland, which also runs its affairs relatively autonomously but has not sought independence from Somalia, is by contrast a major base for pirates.

Seventeen years of civil conflict in southern and central Somalia has fuelled piracy, which has spilled into Indian Ocean waters as well as the Gulf of Aden, shaking global shipping.

U.N. SECURITY ALERT

Since early 2007, Islamist insurgents have been fighting the Mogadishu-based government of Somalia and its Ethiopian military backers. The insurgents are within a few miles of the capital.

Duale said the militant Islamist group al Shabaab was behind an Oct. 29 wave of suicide blasts in Somaliland's capital Hargeisa that killed at least 25 people at a U.N. building, the Ethiopian embassy and a local government building.

"They want to cripple Somaliland's democratisation process," the minister said during a visit to Kenya.

The ex-British protectorate, roughly the size of England and Wales, has won plaudits for multi-party polls and institutions. No country, however, has recognised its independence.

Duale, and other ministers on a Somaliland delegation in Nairobi, said the United Nations' decision to put the region on a Phase Four alert after the bombs -- meaning all non-essential staff are evacuated -- was "outrageous" and unfair.

"That is just what the terrorists want," Duale said

Planning Minister Ali Ibrahim said Somaliland should be supported, rather than abandoned, in its fight against militants, which included foiling numerous bomb plots.

"It is very paradoxical. We all talk about the fight against terror, but when terror hits a poor country like Somaliland, everyone pulls back and retreats in the name of protecting their nationals," he said. "They are giving up to terrorists."

The U.N. security decision would hinder much-needed development projects in Somaliland, deter foreign aid groups and investors, and may even undermine a local presidential election set for March 2009, the ministers said.

"Voter registration is in full swing. If this Phase Four continues, we might have problems, for example in getting in all the foreign observers who were expected," Ibrahim said.

Somalianders abroad remain undeterred, however, the ministers said, still pouring money into construction of homes, hotels and factories.

"We are a de facto state," Foreign Minister Duale said. "We will stay the course. We know that one brave country will ... recognise our independence. History will put the Somaliland state where it belongs."

Hargeisa,-(Qarannews)- The Somaliland voter registration programme for the upcoming 2009 Presidential and local assembly elections resumed in Hargeisa at 6 am, amidst heavy security, on Monday, December 1st 2008 after a brief delay due to recent terrorist attacks in Somaliland.

According the local media sources, the registration programme resumed this morning in the local region of Marodi Jeh made up of 377 local registration locations guarded by members of the Somaliland police force. According to these same sources, participation of local residents appears to have been steady with long lines outside the registration locations from 6:30 am until around noon prayers at 12 pm local time.

Marodi Jeh which the most populated region of Somaliland is expected to provide a strong test of the registration programme which include the use of bio-metric technology for registering voters in 2009 Presidential and local assemblies elections.

Among those who registered this morning at various locations around Hargeisa, included the President of Somaliland, Mr. Dahir Rayale Kahin, the leaders of the two Somaliland opposition parties, KULMIYE and UCID, Mr. Ahmed Mohamed Mohamud and Mr. Faisal Ali Warabe.

Speaking to the local media outside the registration office, the President of Somaliland, Mr. Rayale presented his new voter registration card which included his photograph, name and other personal information. Mr. Rayale encouraged the people of Somaliland to take part in the voter registration programme in order to them to exercise their democratic rights.

Also addressing the Somaliland media at their respective registration locations, the leaders of Somaliland's opposition parties, Mr. Mohamud and Mr. Warabe welcomed the resumption of the voter registration programme after the recent terrorist attacks and also displayed their new voting cards.

According to local media sources, the majority of the registration locations around Marodi Jeh region appear to be conducting their work, although there are reports of at least 10 locations in which the registration officers reported some technical difficulties which led to delays.

The voter registration drive programme is expected to take at least six day in the Marodi Jeh with offices open from 6am till 8pm local time.

Somaliland's voters registration is expected to resume tomorrow after a 30-days of delay due to the suicide bombs in Hargeisa last month. At least two times have been postponed the regisration because the authorities wanted to wait the investigation results that was going on. The registration is beginning in Marodi-jeh region including the capital city of Hargeisa for five days. All the teams have been sent to the locations outside Hargeisa yesterday and other teams operating inside the city are ready to set their equipments latest this evening.

The security is tightened and all the exit and entrances are controlled by police and military forces to avoid any suicide bombs to target the registration stations. last month, the registration completed in two other regions that are Sahil and Awdal with a minor technical problems. In Awdal region, one girl was killed when a group of people destablized a station and then the police fired to disperse the crew.

Somaliland declared its independence from the rest of Somalia in 1991 but did not manage to be internationally regocnized. Since then, Somaliland managed to conduct a number of successful elections including parliament and Presidential elections.

Hadis Mohammed Hadis has already been arrested on several occasions over the last two years. He told Reporters Without Borders that he was "worried" and concerned about how he will be able to do his job in the future. He however stressed that he had been "well-treated" by police while in custody.

He was arrested on 3 November while filming the arrival at Hargeisa airport of Suleiman Mohamed Adam, chairman of the House of Wise men, one of the two legislative chambers. The journalist said he thought his arrest could be linked to his coverage of a bombing in Hargeisa in October. The authorities have not provided any explanation for his detention.

For further information: Katherine Borlongan, Executive Director, Reporters Without Borders Canada, (514) 521-4111, rsfcanada@rsf.org http://samotalis.blogspot.com/

"The terrorist attacks in Hargeysa were masterminded by Shebab radical leaders," Mr. Abdullahi Ismail Ali, Somaliland's interior minister, told reporters as he unveiled the report by the government.

Six bombers were also killed in the three simultaneous car bombings on October 29 in Somaliland's capital Hargeysa.

The Shebab are an armed Islamist organization which was initially the military and youth branch of the Islamic Courts Union that briefly controlled most of Somalia in 2006 before being ousted by Ethiopian troops.

While the ICU's political leadership fled into exile, the Shebab reverted to guerrilla warfare. They have since achieved major military gains and now control much of the country.

"The Shebab planned and funded the attacks and sent agents to carry out the attacks," added Mr. Ali.

"Six of the suicide bombers were killed in the three locations attacked. Five are from neighboring lawless Somalia and one from Somaliland."

The bombs targeted the local office of the U.N. Development Program, Ethiopia's representation in Somaliland and the presidential palace.

Twin suicide car bombings simultaneously targeted the offices of an anti-terrorism agency in two different locations in Bosasso in neighboring breakaway state of Puntland.

The interior minister named some of the Shebab movement's top figures, including top spokesman Mukhtar Robow (also known as Abu Mansur) and overall leader Ahmed Abdi Godane (also known as Abu Zubayr).

"Senior leadership members Ahmed Abdi Godane and Mukhtar Robow were in charge of the operation but the Hargeysa attacks were conducted by Abdulfatah Abdullahi Gutale," Mr. Ali said.

Mr. Ali also added that Gutale, who was not among the bombers, may have a U.S. green card and has lived in the U.S. in the Minneapolis area. The minister named Gutale's lieutenant as Nur Sheikh Mohamud.

The minister also said 13 people suspected of taking part in the attacks are currently being detained in Somaliland.

Officials in the breakaway region of Somaliland are blaming the Islamist militant group al-Shabab for last month's suicide bombings in the regional capital Hargeisa.

Addressing reporters Thursday, Somaliland's interior minister, Abdullahi Ismail Ali, said an investigation found that two al-Shabab leaders masterminded the attacks. He identified them as Ahmed Abdi Godane and Mukhtar Roobow Abu-Mansuur.

The minister said other militants led by a man called Abdulfatah Abdullahi Guutaale carried out the bombings.

The bombers attacked a United Nations office, an Ethiopian consulate, and the presidential palace in Hargeisa October 29. At least 24 people were killed.

Somaliland, located in northern Somalia, has mostly been spared the violence that has wracked southern Somalia as insurgent groups like al-Shabab battle the Somali transitional government.

The U.S. government considers al-Shabab a terrorist organization.

The group is believed to have links to al-Qaida.

Somaliland declared itself separate from the rest of Somalia in 1991 and runs its own affairs, though it is not recognized internationally.

Until the recent suicide bomb attacks in Hargeisa, Somaliland, this semi-autonomous region had been relatively insulated from the violence affecting Somalia and Puntland. By virtue of its stability, Somaliland has become a migratory hub hosting displaced Somalis from the south on their way to Djibouti and Yemen, returnees from Somaliland who fled during the civil war, internally displaced people from Somalia, economic migrants from various places in the Horn and a small group of refugees from Ethiopia. These people live interspersed among settlements around the capital city Hargeisa and the surrounding provinces.

Somaliland aspires to independence, but is not recognized internationally. The Somaliland government considers displaced people from other regions as refugees since they have crossed an “international” border, but UNHCR considers them as internally displaced people. Thus, there is no formal registration process for displaced Somalis in Somaliland, who number approximately 75,000, including 45,000 in Hargeisa. Most of the displaced Somalis have regrouped in settlements, which are essentially large camps with no formal management.

Somaliland offers a more stable operating environment than Somalia, and international NGOs and UN agencies have been able to run programs with fewer security constraints. Moreover, aid agencies have a functioning government to interact with, including ministries and an elected Parliament. Despite the stark difference in levels of development between Somaliland and Somalia, aid projects in Hargeisa are created on an ad hoc basis as agencies frequently redirect funds that could not be spent in Somalia.

Currently, the international community has a schizophrenic approach to Somaliland, treating it as an independent state when it’s politically or operationally useful – for example, funding electoral reforms and citizen registration – but otherwise maintaining the rhetoric of a unified Somalia. As a consequence, Somaliland cannot receive bilateral development aid directly from donors. The U.S. and other key players need to recognize the unique status of Somaliland, and inject needed funds into recovery and development projects.

The recent coordinated suicide bombings in Hargeisa do raise the specter that the crisis in Somalia is spreading, and increase the urgency of international support for Somaliland. If violence begins to trickle there, aid agencies will be forced to increase their security costs, and may have to cut back operations.

Patrick Duplat and Jake Kurtzer recently returned from Djibouti, Somaliland and Kenya where they assessed the humanitarian situation for displaced Somalis.

The co-ordinated suicide bomb attacks in Somaliland's capital Hargeisa two weeks ago shattered more than a decade of stability. Yet the despite the continuing threat hanging over this former British protectorate, the British government will not act to properly protect the fledgling democracy.

Since tearing itself from a bloody union with the violent southern half of Somalia, Somaliland to the north has been an oasis of democratic hope in a turbulent region (about 8,000 people are estimated to have been killed in southern Somalia in the last 18 months). The car bombings, which killed about 30 people (including two UN officials), served as a bitter reminder to the Somalilanders, if one were needed, of their proximity to the pit of spiralling violence and their own vulnerability of sliding back into it. There were also lethal explosions in the semi-autonomous regime of Puntland.

The international community is watching passively as the terror and violence erupt again. There is no shortage of international condemnation for the attacks, including from the minister for Africa, Lord Malloch-Brown, but no real practical help is being offered. As the former colonial power, Britain has a particular responsibility to the 3.5 million Somalilanders. "We need two levels of support," says Abdi Karim, head of Wales Somaliland Communities Link. "First, capacity-building and training of police and security services. Second, humanitarian support for the hospitals, if there are further attacks".

Somaliland does not qualify for specif