The US and Ethiopia appear to be grooming the northern autonomous regions of Somalia—Puntland and Somaliland—as proxies to fight the Islamic Courts Union that controls the traditional capital, Mogadishu. So: should we be supporting this as a defense of freedom… Read moreSomalia: Ethiopia grooming Puntland to fight Islamists?
From Radio HornAfrik, Mogadishu, in Somali, Dec. 8 (awkward translation as provided by BBC Monitoring): Somalia: Demonstration against deployment of foreign troops held in Mogadishu [Presenter] A demonstration condemning the UN Security Council’s decision to deploy foreign troops in Somalia… Read moreSomalia: 3,000 demonstrate against Ethiopia, US and UN
Thousands of Somalis chanted anti-US slogans at an Islamist protest against a Washington-backed plan to send foreign peacekeepers to prop up the country’s weak interim government Dec. 4. In a decrepit Mogadishu football stadium, Somalis shouted “Down with the USA!”… Read moreUS backing Ethiopia’s Somalia intervention?
Gus Selassie for Global Insight Daily Analysis via BBC Monitoring, Dec. 5: Ethiopia and Somali Islamists in Last-Ditch Talks to Avert All-Out War Despite the recent war of words and the deep-rooted animosity that appears to exist between the two… Read moreLast ditch talks to avert Ethiopian-Somali war
Via the Sudan Tribune, Nov. 28: Ogaden National Liberation Front Statement on Events Unfolding in Somalia There has been much written about the events unfolding in Somalia with frequent mention of the Ogaden National Liberation Front (ONLF) and speculations on… Read moreOgaden rebels blast Ethiopia’s Somalia intervention
Via BBC Monitoring: Ethiopian rebel group terms parliament’s decision on Somalia “reckless” Text of statement issued by Ethiopian armed opposition Oromo Liberation Front, OLF, on 30 December The Ethiopian parliament, on its session of 30 November 2006, ratified a declaration… Read moreOromo rebels blast Ethiopia’s Somalia intervention
It is vindicating that French complicity in the 1994 Rwanda genocide is finally coming to light. But it was actually Paris’ tit-for-tat of a judicial order for the arrest of Rwandan military officers following Rwandan charges of French support for… Read moreHistorical truth at issue in France-Rwanda breach
Since seizing power in Mogadishu, Somalia’s capital, in June, the Islamic Courts Union has banned khat leaf, the mild stimulant which has been traditionally chewed by Somalis for centuries. Imports of khat from Kenya, a main supplier, are being intercepted… Read moreNext for Somalia: khat wars?
General Addeh Museh, president of Puntland, the autonomous region in northeastern Somalia, has vowed to resist any attack by fighters from the Islamic Courts Union, saying his administration would not accept “radicalism and extremism.” Gen. Museh said, “We will continue… Read moreSomalia: Puntland pledges to resist Islamists
No surer sign of creeping (or galloping) totalitarianism. From AP, Nov. 5: ASMARA, Eritrea — Gospel singer Helen Berhane, who belonged to a banned evangelical church in Eritrea, has been released after more than two years in detention, a human… Read moreFear of music in Eritrea
The election results from the Democratic Republic of Congo are in—and predictably contested. The incumbent Joseph Kabila (and son of the late Laurent Kabila, leader of the 1996 revolution) has been declared victor, while supporters of contender Jean-Pierre Bemba, a… Read moreAussie mining company implicated in Congo massacre
From the BBC, Nov. 2: A new Sultan of Sokoto, the spiritual leader of Nigeria’s 70m Muslims, has been announced. Colonel Muhammadu Sada Abubakar, 53, is the younger brother of Sultan Mohammadu Maccido, who was killed in a plane crash… Read moreNigeria’s Sokoto Caliphate gets new sultan
