enrichment

Somalia is one of the world’s poorest and most fragile countries. During the civil war, the state was unable to deliver basic services, such as health care, or maintain the country’s infrastructure.

On December 12, 1992, the U.S. 28,000 soldiers into Somalia under the cover of the United Nations Operation in Somalia (UNOSOM) in what they said was a “humanitarian mission” to bring food to starving people.

The Somali are grouped as a Cushitic tribe who live in North Eastern Province of Kenya. They are believed to have their origin in the Ogaden region in Southern Ethiopia. Their population is about 500,000 people leaving in northeastern of Kenya. The Ajuran and the Ogaden subgroups live in Kenya as well as Somalia and Ethiopia.

Today the main story where i live is about refugees from our neighbouring country Somali, the number of displaced persons is over one million and according to the Government Spokesman Mr. Alfred Mutua the trek is due to hunger. Some of the affected people having walked over 100s of Kiliometres yet they are Women and Children. He also says the Border is closed though no refugees have been returned but the situation is grave and camps should be built in Somalia. What do we do, please consider sending one unit of your national currency or more to the nearest Red cross or Red Cresent association near you. Jambo it is now 5/8/2011 about two weeks since the first post, what a response to the request for support, this is really encouraging. By 5th August 2011, the Kenyan public have through an initiative of Kenyans for Kenyans raised Kshs 100million through an M pesa initiative.

The news of the attack was revealed first on Twitter. On Aug. 2, Mohamed Mohamoud Sheik, 31, an entrepreneur and youth activist, was assaulted by unknown gunmen near the Benadir junction in the Somali capital, Mogadishu. He was later pronounced dead after undergoing surgery at a local hospital. Mohamed’s death dealt the country and its people a big blow. He was a pioneer, a believer in a better Somalia, a passionate advocate for Mogadishu, and a rebel determined to create a better future out of the rubble of a devastating civil war. His story, his work, and his ultimate killing represent the tragic fate of a city struggling between a brutal past, an uncertain present, and the urgent need to redefine its future. In 2012, aged 25, Mohamed came into the limelight when he opened Somalia’s first dry cleaner in decades.

Before the civil war in Somalia, the capital, Mogadishu, was known for its wide beaches, fresh sea air and pure blue ocean water. Today, however, large amounts of trash are spreading everywhere. Mogadishu is home to two million people. It produces about 2,500 tons of useless waste every day. But, until recently, it did not have an official place to put waste material or a trash recycling center. Instead, people have been leaving trash on the streets, placing it along the coast or into the Indian Ocean. VOA’s Somali Service recently reported on the problem. It found pictures of workers throwing trash into the water. Other pictures show huge amounts of cans, bottles, boxes, metal and other waste along the coastline. Sometimes the trash burns, causing smoke and a bad smell to float into the city.

After my publishers (Frances Lincoln) read the first draft of ‘From Somalia, with love’, they called me in for a meeting to discuss it. It was then that it emerged that one of the editors actually thought I was half Somali. And that ignorance about Somali culture is found everywhere, amongst Muslims and non-Muslims. So, the question remains: how did Somali culture end up being the inspiration and focal point for a book by an ajnabi? Working in East London first introduced me to Somalis (this is a story I tell in my book ‘From My Sisters’ Lips’) but living in South London brought me into closer contact with them. I fell in love with the Somali women I knew: their strength of character, their beauty, their love for the Qur’an, their seeming fearlessness: so many of them reminded my of my mother. But these were women who were my age and older. In order to write FSWL and make it believable, I needed an authentic voice: the voice of a fairly typical Somali teenager. And I knew just where to find that: the Somali forums online. Nothing could have prepared me for that!

My favourite television shows are documentaries about Greenpeace and other anti-whaling activists as they invent ways to halt indiscriminate maiming of sharks, whales, and the environment. Believe it or not, many current perpetrators of piracy were once environmental activists also. In fact just five years ago Somali-based fishermen were ramming fishing boats in protest—those that fished illegally off the horn of Africa. When the perpetrators retaliated with lethal force, the fishermen fought back. That initial ramming of ships and retaliation of fishing vessels has now grown into full scale Indian Ocean pirating. REVENGE FOR THE FIRST HOT WATER ATTACK. In early 2004, confrontations in the Gulf of Eden between local Somali fishermen and commercial fishermen (mostly the illegal ones) were frequent. That remote no-man’s seaway is now a lawless frontier for the bad, brave and brazen.