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Somalia’s chaos spreading far beyond its frontier, coastline

Abuu — Wed, 23 Dec 2009 09:54:00 +0000

On the first Thursday in December a young Danish-Somali man in women’s clothes blew himself up in a suicide attack in Mogadishu. Four days earlier, Somali pirates had hijacked a 300,000-tonne supertanker 800 miles out to sea. Somalia’s abject failure does not end at its own borders: the chaos is spreading far across its frontiers and beyond its coastline.

Al-Shabaab Islamist insurgents denied responsibility for that suicide bombing. No one believed them. Civilians braved the streets of Mogadishu to protest against the attack that killed dozens of medical students and marked a new low in the country’s violent history.

“It was unprecedented even by Somalia’s bloody standards,” said Rashid Abdi, a Somalia analyst at the International Crisis Group. “They knew the civilian casualties would be massive and they didn’t care.”

Kidnapped Britons in Somalia: Get us out of here or the pirates will kill us

Abuu — Sat, 21 Nov 2009 12:53:20 +0000

A retired British couple snatched from their yacht by Somali pirates said in an interview broadcast Friday they fear they could be killed within a week or handed to a terrorist group if a ransom demand is not paid.

Paul and Rachel Chandler were kidnapped last month by pirates who seized their 38-foot yacht — the Lynn Rival — as they sailed toward Tanzania.

In an interview with Britain’s Channel 4 news program, the Chandlers are seen surrounded by armed men, some of whom have their guns pointed directly at the couple.

“I have no doubt that they will not hesitate to kill us in a week or so from now,” Paul Chandler, 59, said in the interview, filmed by a Channel 4 crew on Wednesday.

Britain’s ITN — which produces Channel 4 News — said the Chandlers and their relatives had agreed that the footage, the first of the couple since their capture, could be aired.

Pirates have demanded $7 million to release the Chandlers, but Britain’s government insists it won’t pay ransom to kidnappers.

Guns given to Somali quiz winners

Abuu — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 08:50:45 +0000

The winners of a quiz organised by Somali Islamists have been given weapons and ammunition as prizes.

Prizes included AK-47 assault rifles, hand grenades and an anti-tank mine.

The quiz ran during the holy Muslim month of Ramadan in the port city of Kismayo, and included questions about the Koran and Somali geography.

A representative for the al-Shabab militant group said the quiz aimed to stop young men from wasting their time and focus on defending their territory.

“The reason the young men were rewarded with weapons is to encourage them to participate in the ongoing holy war against the enemies of Allah in Somalia,” AFP news agency quoted al-Shabab’s Sheikh Abdullahi Alhaq as saying at Friday’s prize-giving ceremony.

Proud Sudan islanders wary of first bridge

Abuu — Mon, 31 Mar 2008 06:41:19 +0000

The stalwart people of this tiny, crescent-shaped island have fought off invasions from mainland Khartoum for more than 700 years.

Early settlers of Tuti, nestled at the confluence of the White Nile and Blue Nile, relied on the rushing river to fend off hostile tribes. As Khartoum grew into Sudan’s bustling capital, residents here clung to their cultural isolation, striving to maintain the feel of a sleepy farming village, even though their island is just a stone’s throw from downtown.