ConflictVoice

Arms dealer explains how steady supply of weapons means there is no victor and vanquished in civil war - and may never be

Dear Western newswires covering Somalia and other war-affected countries,

After working in Somalia three times, interviewing hundreds, and traveling to all three regions, I’ve come to the…

Today’s deadly metro bombings in Moscow, Russia, along with the street protests in Somalia, re-confirm ideas I have on the nature of chronic war. Largely, the radical terror wielders are…

Clear patterns of human rights abuse have emerged during the latest cycle of violence in Somalia, which began when armed opposition groups launched a major offensive against the government in Mogadishu in May 2009, Amnesty International said on Thursday.

In the document, No end in sight: The ongoing suffering of Somalia’s civilians, Amnesty International reviews violations of international human rights and humanitarian law committed over the past six months, primarily by armed groups opposed to the Somali government and African Union (AU) forces. 

17 March 2010 (IRIN) - An acute water shortage after a prolonged drought in central Galgadud region of Somalia has forced thousands of people to abandon their villages, say officials. 

“A prolonged drought, coupled with a drying-up of wells and barkads [water pans], is forcing many people to leave their homes,” said Abdirahman Mohamed Adawe, the district commissioner of Adado, one of the areas hardest hit. 

However, some parts of the region are receiving the Gu (long) rains. 

More than a dozen villages around Adado town, housing an estimated 35,000 people, are affected. Those with livestock are moving in search of pasture and water, while those who lost their livestock, the economic mainstay of the area, are moving to towns

Despite the killing of more than two dozen journalists, death threats, intimidation and the influx of journalists out of the country, Somali media keeps on going. But is the Somali media…

NAIROBI, 15 March 2010 (IRIN) - Five days of fighting in the Somali capital, Mogadishu, have left residents without food, cut off from their homes and unable to bury their dead, civil society leaders in the city said. 

“We cannot go to some of the worst-affected areas and for all we know people may be buried under the rubble of what used to be their homes,” Asha Sha’ur, a civil society activist, told IRIN. The fighting had displaced hundreds of families, she added. 

The Raging Battle for Mogadishu (part #253?), and the U.S. role in supporting an ever-changing government-in-progress in Somalia reminds us yet again how incredibly dynamic war can be….

For years, many Somalis have seen the Al Shabab “Youth” insurgent force, like the Islamic Courts Union it once fought for, as the least bad option for opposing warlordism and bringing back an…

HARGEISA , 3 March 2010 (IRIN) - Around 1,000 families have been displaced by flooding after heavy rains in an area straddling the border between Ethiopia and the self-declared independent republic of Somaliland, according to officials. 

“The floods occurred in the last 24 hours. About 1,000 families were displaced, and they are with their relatives in other parts of Allaybaday and Tog-wajale districts in Gabiley region,” regional governor Said Mohamed Ahmed Aw Abdi, known as Habib, told IRIN on 3 March.

Le 21 janvier 2010 est sorti le nouveau rapport d’Amnesty International, intitulé « Somalie : Reexaminer les conditions de l’aide internationale à destination de l’armée et de la…

Bosasso is a dusty port town in the Puntland State of Somalia. Farming is virtually impossible across this part of the African Horn, so the economy is focused on camel and goat herding,…

Right now fighting in south and central Somalia is displacing tens of thousands of people, the insurgency has split again, and the country is long from securing peace and rebuilding. However,…

Somalia has enough troubles: very little farmable soil, an increase in the length and strength of seasonal droughts, tsunami aftermath, sea theft, low resources for health and education,…