The Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) advise against all travel to Somalia, including Somaliland except for the cities of Hargeisa and Berbera to which the FCO advise against all but essential travel. Any British nationals in areas of Somalia to which the FCO advise against all travel should leave. Any British nationals in Hargeisa or Berbera who are not on essential travel should leave.
There is a high threat from terrorism, including kidnapping, throughout Somalia, including Somaliland. Terrorist groups have made threats against westerners and those working for western organisations. The FCO believes that there is a constant threat of terrorist attack in Mogadishu. The FCO also believes that terrorists continue to plan attacks against westerners in Somaliland.
Terrorist attacks could be indiscriminate, including in crowded places, high-profile events, events involving government officials and in places frequented by foreigners. See Terrorism.
Piracy is a significant threat in the Gulf of Aden and Indian Ocean. There is also a high threat of maritime terrorism in the territorial and international waters off Somalia. See Sea travel.
All areas across Somalia are suffering food shortages resulting in the displacement of thousands of Somali people. See Local Travel.
The FCO is unable to provide consular assistance in Somalia.
The Liberal Democrat group have submitted a motion to be moved by Councillor Christian Martin (Clifton East) on the right of Somaliland to be recognised as a sovereign state, the motion is outlined below:
“This council believes that Somaliland – where more than 10,000 people now in Bristol originated – should be recognised as a sovereign state.
Somali-landers make a significant contribution to our city and the council notes that members of this community in Bristol would strongly urge us to support growing pressure to recognise their country as independent, allowing it a seat at the United Nations.
Somaliland declared independence from the Somali Republic in 1991 following a long war. However, it has never been recognised by the UN or the Africa Union, despite a campaign by its politicians, diplomats and prominent citizens.
This council recognises the strength of Somaliland’s cause and the fact that it is a stable democracy, where there have been four elections over the last two decades and where opposition parties are free to represent the interests of their supporters.
The Somaliland government, which does not receive international aid and keeps its waters free of piracy, believes recognition would help to entrench democracy in the Horn of Africa.
Recognition would also, it believes, help to strengthen international co-operation in the fight against terrorism and other major criminal activity, including the dumping of toxic waste. It would allow Somaliland to market itself as a safe destination for tourists and attract jobs and international banks.
This council, therefore, calls upon the British government to recognise Somaliland as an independent state and to encourage other governments around the world to do the same.”
ASLM2014 will be held in Cape Town, South Africa, on 30 November – 4 December 2014
ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia, April 17, 2014/African Press Organization (APO)/ – The importance of laboratory research and quality diagnostics cannot be overstated, especially at a time when Africa is challenged by disease outbreaks. Opportunities to publicise research findings among a global audience are uniquely available to African scientists, researchers and policymakers at the second international conference of the African Society for Laboratory Medicine (ASLM), http://www.ASLM2014.org.
The ASLM conference, ASLM2014, is a platform for the global laboratory community to share best practices, acquire knowledge and debate innovative approaches for tackling major health challenges. The conference theme is “Innovation and Integration of Laboratory and Clinical Systems: Reshaping the Future of HIV, Tuberculosis (TB), Malaria, Influenza, Neglected Tropical Diseases and Emerging Pathogens in Africa.”
Abstract submission remains open until 30 April 2014.
ASLM2014 will be held in Cape Town, South Africa, on 30 November – 4 December 2014, and it will serve to highlight ASLM’s pan-African efforts to improve quality patient care and disease control through improved laboratory systems and networks in Africa.
“Laboratories play a strategic role in global health security,” said Dr. Tsehaynesh Messele, ASLM Chief Executive Officer. “Sharing best practices allows the African health community to capitalise on the historical movement to improve laboratory efficiency, lower costs and develop sustainable local capacity. Through events such as ASLM2014, we can expand our knowledge and charter new territory to advocate for the critical role and advancement of laboratory medicine in Africa.”
To learn more about the second international conference of the African Society for Laboratory Medicine, visit http://www.ASLM2014.org.
Distributed by APO (African Press Organization) on behalf of the African Society for Laboratory Medicine (ASLM).
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Media contact: Corey White, cwhite@aslm.org, (+251) 11-557-1021
Jens Mjaugedal, Special Envoy of Norway to Somalia, is frustrated… which is hardly surprising given his mission to try to turn Somalia, which has officially been the world’s most failed state for many years, into a success. The biggest problem in Somalia is how to keep the deadly al-Qaeda-affiliated, Islamist militant group al-Shabaab at bay.
The African Union’s robust peacekeeping mission in Somalia (AMISOM) expelled al-Shabaab from Mogadishu two years ago, and is now engaged in a major offensive to try to rid the country of the scourge altogether. AMISOM claims to have liberated 10 strategic towns so far, though the war is very far from won.
Norway has had a long engagement in the country (partly because of the 30 000 Somalis living in Norway), and Mjaugedal warns that war alone cannot save Somalia. It will not be very helpful to clear al-Shabaab from the territories it holds, unless the Somali government replaces al-Shabaab’s administration in those areas with its own administration – rather than just military barracks.
And that raises Somalia’s second-biggest problem. The state has virtually no capacity, nor money, to run anything. It cannot even issue birth and death certificates because all records have been destroyed by over two decades of war. There are five public schools and virtually no other services. And the skill levels of the public service are pathetically low.
“The biggest problem in Somalia is keeping deadly militant group, al-Shabaab, at bay”
‘This is one of the most privatised countries in the world,’ Mjaugedal says, in a wry reference to the state’s incapacity. He was visiting South Africa this week to compare notes and discuss possible cooperation with the government in tackling the Somali crisis.
Last October, the international community pledged US$2,3 billion to help Somalia. ‘This was fantastic,’ says Mjaugedal, ‘but until today, not a single dollar has come in.’
This is partly because the Somali government lacks the capacity to receive and to properly spend the money. So, Norway created a financial pipeline into the government last year and has pumped US$30 million of its own money through to the government in Mogadishu.
‘When the World Bank does something like that, it takes years. We did it in six months,’ he says. Oslo’s US$30 million was supposed to prime the pump, but still the dollars did not flow in from the international community. Evidently, other countries are still too concerned that corruption in President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud’s government would siphon off their aid.
Some money is still coming in – to fund the work of agencies like the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). But Mjaugedal says this is doing nothing to help perform the vital function of establishing the capacity and credibility of the government.
For that to happen, the government, not the UN, must be seen by ordinary Somalis to be governing; to be delivering services. And so even if some aid is lost to corruption, it is still worth paying it to the government, he says, as the necessary price of getting it up and running. ‘Even if people then complain to the government about poor service, it is better than them saying nothing because now there are no government services at all, even to complain about.’
“Is the international community simply not grasping the reality of Somalia?”
If the government does not attain some credibility, it will be thrown out in the next elections in 2016 – if it is not thrown out by al-Shabaab before then, he fears. Mjaugedal complains that by refusing to channel money to the Somali government through Norway’s financial pipeline, the international community is reneging on the 2011 New Deal for Engagement in Fragile States, to which it had re-committed last year. The New Deal acknowledged that ‘current ways of working in fragile states need serious improvement… Transitioning out of fragility is long, political work that requires country leadership and ownership.’
Mjaugedal fears the international community is simply not grasping the reality of Somalia. Because Hassan Sheikh was credibly elected and is not a clan leader like his predecessor, Somalia is now being portrayed in the UN and the international community at large as a completely different country. Yet, very little has changed on the ground for ordinary Somalis.
Mjaugedal, who clearly sees things pretty much as they are, is bemused to observe how many others see the world through the prism of the orthodox view instead. Three days after senior government officials were killed in an al-Shabaab suicide bomb and guerrilla attack on the presidential villa, he participated in a conference on how to address the country’s problems.
‘Everyone was talking as if nothing had happened. They were discussing the importance of the role of women and of civil society,’ this while sitting in the middle of a warzone, he marvels. Before the international community can embark on state-building, it has to do something in between, something which he agrees could be called triage.
From mid-year, the World Bank is going to take over Norway’s financial pipeline and perhaps then at least some of the US$2,3 billion pledged will start to flow in. ‘But we have lost a year,’ he adds. The idea will be to create ‘a kind of temporary government’ to receive and spend the funds. One of the main priorities will be to pay the salaries of the core six to eight thousand civil servants so they can start working on delivering state services.
‘They are all we have,’ he says. ‘The key thing is to find ways to support the national government so it can become credible and relevant. What everyone is looking for is political stabilisation. If things continue as they are, we run the risk of this government being replaced by an extreme form of Islamism,’ he warns.
Clearly, orthodox aid policy, which dictates that direct budget support should only be provided to governments who can demonstrate the ability to spend it efficiently, transparently and honestly, must give way to battlefield reality in this case.
Peter Fabricius, Foreign Editor, Independent Newspapers, South Africa
If any country ever recognizes Somaliland for being democratic or colonial ties or interest or all combined, it would be the UK government. There is sizable Somali community in the UK who are mainly from Somaliland, earlier generations fought for Britain during Second World War died alongside with Royal Army.Last weeks, Sheffield City Council convened to vote not their city’s upgrade infrastructure, but somebody’s else business beyond their legtimacy : recognize Somaliland purportedly as an answer to the global blockade upon Somaliland people or give panacea to accumulated social ills over two decades especially in this time of despair as international isolation mounts upon Somaliland current government amids allegations of massive scale embezzlements and sheltering terrorists? Apparently that wasn’t the case there.
Mohamed Ma’ruf made mockery of Somaliland and put forward the matter to the municipality just to retain his Somalilander British citizens’ votes. That is all and nothing else, irrelevant of who did so, did this create media storms to force the world to pay attention to Somaliland?
The fiasco just reflects not just UK abandonment of Somaliland support but also the failure of Somaliland diplomacy when Somaliland foreign Chief Bihi Yonis sat in the council playing domestic political game to boost Somaliland ethnic voter turnout. Somaliland’s foreign policy went awry, it’s all time low since Adna Adan’s time.
Sheffield City disgraced an entire cause and derailed UK concerted effort toward Somaliland recognition worldwide reducing to mere local district council trivial matter rather than an overriding issue under consideration of the UK Foreign Office, interestingly, this “stunt” triggered cause célèbre locally and Somaliland’s ageless president peer of Sir Winston Churchill begun to feed the poor masses on psychodrama and litter public opinion with extra hypnotizing toxicto pave the way for his hangover. “Recognition materialized! Finally, recognition has arrived!” yelled disoriented crowd in front of Sheffield City Council. Is this wacky step worthy of celebration? Ahmed Silanyo President sent prize awards to Mohamoud Ma’rouf and his co-actors for their key role for the matter idolizing the greatest breakthrough since Somaliland foundation a quarter century ago.
But this child’s play suggested Somaliland current leadership considered Somaliland’s recognition somewhat “fata morgana or mirage and often nonstarter”, therefore; they allowed the Council to make fun of it in order to mislead their subjects since the Reunification Talks met much of the expectations of the Somali unionists in Mogadishu and the secession remain not mere a taboo but ruled out in the context, only irrelevant issues like joint airport (and land) running are permitted, in other words comprehensive unitywith unitary government is under discussion in Turkey to threat neighbors as usual as before.
Few rational Somalilanders in the diaspora never believed one second that a municipality, be it London or New York never mind Sheffield would recognize. Following standard practice, not riding roughshod, they vote for MPs to raise their major concerns in parliament—not in local governments— including citizenship of the hosting country and recognition of their original home. It is a tragic delusion when someone claiming to be foreign minister and broker minister of “murky” exploitive oil firms is led to believe municipalities can recognize. It tellingly indicates they don’t know the proper channels of diplomacy. Both ministers sat in local government council congress watching soap opera with great enthusiasm which an author rightly described “symbolic… and has no legal weight”
If Sheffield City is serious about their recognition – which I think they are not—they can donate their dilapidated heavy equipments of 19 century to Hargeisa City Council to repair melting roads in terrible state that murder thousands of innocent people annually.Sincere people try to construct long distance roads with bare hands and shovels.
Many claim that Sheffield municipal confab ended in “recognition” to breakaway Somaliland which portrayed to help Somaliland break its international isolation was, in fact not just a cheap shot but an utter humbug.
Sheffield’s “lullaby” to Somaliland, a formerly part and parcel of Commonwealth was an exercise in futility because most of Somalilanders in and out of the country don’t see it will bring any good anytime soon, but rather complicate any endeavor for that matter: the UK overseas diplomatic missions will continue to disdain to attach UK visas on passport from Democracy lest Arabia oil family enterprises curse them while they unconditionally give their visas to Warlord-turned-Pirate-turned Jihadist presidents of Somalia! It’s a pity to lip service all time.
I am not believer in recognition is ultimate conclusion but the beginning of reconstruction and radical reform. There many other outstanding problems including massive corruption and abuse of foreign aid in the upper hierarchy of the government. But I wonder why the Western hurriedly recognized South Sudan not Somaliland, better candidate.
On the other hand, few Somalilanders said the announcement was watershed in Somaliland history. furthermore, the game show televised in the national TV“ we’ll never forget Sheffield for extending helpful hand to us when other liberal democracies denied us the right of self-determination enshrined in the UN, UK or the US constitutions” they stated sentimentally.
If recognition is available for sale, I think Somaliland would be the first buyer at the any price.
Mohamed Bihi Harun, an analyst from Somaliland based in the UK angrily stated that Somaliland is in state of leadership crisis incapable of setting about the absence of recognition. He described the talks of recognition by Sheffield is just “hot air and castle in the air as well”.
Though Sheffield’s feisty step for granting “recognition” to Somaliland without UK foreign ministry’s knowledge is admired by few people and ridiculed by many others, Somaliland surely needs UK government diplomatic support in international arena prior to recognition and afterwardsas well as an ultimate exit for the state of limbo that it has been enduring since its inception.
An Europe-based water institute official blamed Egypt for keeping an international report on Ethiopia’s mega dam classified. Dr. Ana Cascao of the Stockholm International Water Institute (SIWI) said Cairo might have kept the final report of the Tripartite International Panel of Experts on Ethiopia’s $4 billion dam a secret in order to “divert attention from political revolutions” in Egypt and to portray a national security crisis.
The Tripartite International Panel of Experts included four Egyptian and Sudanese experts as well as four international experts. The committee addressed various concerns from all sides, and organized meetings and visits to the dam site before it submitted one final report with full consensus, signed by all members of the Panel.
The final report concluded that the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) satisfied all international design criteria and safety standards. The report also said the dam has no impact on water flow downstream toward Egypt.
According to Dr. Cascao, various studies show that the GERD has benefits particularly for Sudan, as well as Egypt. She added that the Ethiopian dam “makes more water available for farm & irrigation in sudan, it reduces the problem of evaporation in Egyptian dams and it solves sediment and flood issues” that have reportedly cost millions for Sudan and Egypt.
Dr. Cascao is an author and the top independent expert on Nile Hydropolitics and Transboundary water resource management, on which subjects she did her PhD and researched on for half a decade.
Dr. Cascao claimed she was not surprised that Sudan is supporting Ethiopia, but “Egypt has to start reviewing its historical position.” The London-based Guardian newspaper also said “the greatest long-term concern for Egypt” might be Sudan’s intentions of increasing irrigation projects after the Ethiopian dam becomes operational. Dr. Cascao added that considering the dam’s numerous benefits for Sudan and Egypt, the two countries should actually “pay Ethiopia for the construction and maintenance of the dam.”
However, Egyptian government and its state media are propagating the message “we are under threat” and keeping positive facts about the Dam “a secret from the people of Egypt.” According to her, both Ethiopian and Egyptian governments are using the mega Dam as a diversion tool from domestic political issues and as a tactic to unify their divided people against perceived external threat.
Mutilation has been a part of culture in Somaliland for centuries. But girls there tell Martin Bentham it is time for attitudes to change
The poster over the main street in Boroma, Somaliland, has a simple warning emblazoned on it in bold print.
“FGM increases risk of complications during childbirth,” it tells passers-by, reinforcing the message with “Hands off!” and “Stop Female Genital Mutilation!”
Similar billboards, written in Somali, are outside the university and elsewhere in the centre of the busy town, close to the Ethiopian border. Their prominent location reflects the increasing intensity of a campaign to stop mutilation, after centuries in which the practice has been a central feature of cultural and religious beliefs.
Such beliefs mean FGM remains almost universal in Somaliland, with official estimates indicating that 98 per cent of women have had their genitals cut and sometimes sewn up as well.
Campaigner: village leader Said Farah Abdullah Mutilation remains legal, and openly advocated by some as a protection for girls against promiscuity, social shame, and rejection by prospective husbands. Support for the practice was illustrated this month in another Somaliland town, when an anti-FGM poster identical to the one in Boroma was torn down by protesters after Friday prayers. They claimed its message was un-Islamic.
But attitudes are beginning to change. The government of Somaliland — an autonomous region of Somalia — is preparing a law to stop the worst forms of FGM. Its badge is on the poster. Religious leaders are starting to offer a new interpretation of Islamic law that prohibits sewing and reduces cutting.
Educational campaigns have been launched, teaching girls about their rights and the damaging health consequences of FGM. These are generating increasing opposition to mutilation among the younger generation.
In the remote rural settlement of Xoorey, at a meeting with the charity World Vision, which is providing FGM awareness tuition, one schoolgirl after another spoke out against the practice and told of the trauma they suffered.
Hoda Saleban, 15, said she had undergone “sunna” FGM, involving removal of part of the clitoris — but now believed it was neither culturally nor religiously justified. “I was at home and my mother called a traditional birth attendant who did the sunna one,” she said. “But I will not do it. I remember the pain that I had that day and I don’t want my daughter to be circumcised that way.”
Protection: Nimco Eid, anti FGM campaigner Mariam Abdi, also 15, said she was cut at six, but now knew about the health problems. These include a heightened risk of infections, difficulty during labour and potential for stillbirth, and fistula, a condition linked to FGM which causes incontinence. She added: “It was a bad culture and a bad practice before. It was like a kind of punishment. They did a bad thing to me and I don’t want to do that to my daughters. They were cutting part of the genitals. It is not good for health.”
Sainab Abdi, 11, suffered FGM aged five and said she did not agree that “cutting a part of a woman” was right.
But, in a sign of how dfficult it is to change attitudes, 12-year-old Nimco Ahmed said she still believed in mutilation, despite giving a vivid account of the trauma she faced: “I was eight years old. It was not only me: there were another three girls. My mother called a traditional birth attendant. Then my mother and some other women were holding my shoulders and legs.
“I was feeling afraid and it was very painful. She was using the blades and it took about 30 minutes. They tied my legs together after they did it. I was in bed for three days. I was in pain.
“But I will do it with my daughters. I have heard it is a bad thing to do, but in our community I believe that every girl should have it done.” Most views in Xoorey do appear to have changed, however. Said Farah Abdullah, 54, a village leader with six daughters, said he had circumcised the elder two, but left the younger four unharmed after being told by a preacher that mutilation was contrary to Islamic teaching.
“I believe that FGM is a bad, bad thing which has affected our grandmothers, mothers and daughters,” he said. “It was against sharia. Now in this community we are strongly against FGM. Democracy is springing. People are realising that everyone has the right to choose what to do with their bodies.”
Asha Omer, an elderly woman, said girls in Xoorey had been cut at the age of 10, but that had changed. Her stepdaughter Sahra Jeh, 13, had not had FGM as a result. “In this community they have told us we should not circumcise our daughters so we don’t anymore,” said Asha.
Sahra added: “I’m very happy not to have been circumcised. I have had a lot of information about FGM and feel bad when I hear that other girls have been circumcised.” What happens in Somaliland is highly significant for the British fight to stop mutilation: the prevalence of FGM among Somali females in Britain is thought to be similarly high.
Hands off: posters warning of the dangers of FGM have been erected in Boroma The Department for International Development is supporting anti-FGM efforts in Somaliland, and provides funding for projects to improve girls’ rights and opportunities.
Nimco Eid, 27, a World Vision child protection officer who has been leading the charity’s work on FGM there, said success would take years to achieve, but they were gaining results: “It has not been easy to come out and talk about it because it is a cultural belief. But now we have the support of religious leaders, community leaders and parents.
“They understand these problems will continue when their girls are married, when they are pregnant, and afterwards. You can even show up on Somali TV and talk about this.”
She said the typical age at which FGM is inflicted was between six and 11. She had been cut at seven. “If I knew my parents were going to do it now I would say no. I remember the traditional birth attendants coming, carrying a big bag with all the things. Then my aunt forced me to lie down and they did it to me.
“Afterwards I couldn’t go to the toilet because it was very painful. My mother beat me with a stick saying that I must. I want FGM to go from this country. I can’t tolerate girls undergoing what I did.”
Anyone wishing to help improve children’s lives in Somaliland and other overseas countries can find out more by contacting World Vision UK on 01908 84 10 10 or at www.worldvision.org.uk .
The Deputy Managing Director of Egal International Airport, Hargeisa Mr. Mohamed Hussein Jama has given an in depth assessment of the damage caused by fire three days ago in a press statement released by the Ministry of Civil Aviation.
The Airport MD said the fire broke out in unoccupied area where construction work was ongoing at the time and security officials are investigating out caused the fire in the first place.
The press statement read as follows –
The Egal International Airport authority would like to inform members of the public and the media of a recent fire that broke out on the 14th of April 17, 2014, in a currently unused space reserved the construction of a new departure terminal and located between the departure and arrivals terminals.
The unused area where the fire broke out was formerly occupied by a kitchen used to serve a restaurant in the airport.
The official said , “The fire didn’t cause any damage and that the fire broke out after all flights had finished for the day and airport firefighters immediately extinguished the fire which burned mostly discard wood and cardboard cartoons which were dumped at the site after the kitchen which used to occupy the space was demolished a week ago.
The exact cause of the fire is still unknown airport security officials were treating the fire as suspicious and were waiting to interview a person of interest after obtained information with assistance of footage obtained from CCTV cameras installed in all location in the airport have managed to detain and are holding in custody one restaurant employee suspected of the arson.
We hope the ongoing investigation shall produce successful results and the culprits involved in this heinous act shall be brought to justice soon.
Somaliland minister of Commerce and International Investment Dr. Mohamed Abdullah Omer speaking at a press briefing announced plans to establish a permanent Somaliland Trade and Investment promotion office in the UAE in the near future given the increasing interest in the whole region, it is the ideal time for domestic and international investors to examine the vast potential in Somaliland.
“We have finalized plans for the opening of the proposed Somaliland Trade and Investment promotion office in the UAE soon to serve as a place whereby those potential investors and businesses looking to venture into Somaliland can obtain access to crucial information on investment opportunities.
Dr. Mohamed Abdullah Omer went on to say, “My counterpart, the UAE Minister of Economy Hon Sultan Al Mansoor has invited Somaliland government and also promised to support in hosting of the first ever Somaliland investment summit in unspecified location in the UAE soon and whose objective is to promote the positive economic trend that is taking place across Somaliland and to bridge the information gap for local and international investors and stakeholders.
“The proposed Somaliland Investment Summit to be held in the UAE will offer a platform for local and international investors to engage with Somaliland’s economy in order to survey and with the aim of accessing the abundant investment opportunities available throughout the country. The summit is expected to attract leaders from adverse background mostly from the public and private sectors including international executives, academics, policymakers and investors will converge in Dubai to discuss opportunities, share best practice, forge strategic partnership and showcase the investment prospects available within Somaliland”, he said.
The Minister of Commerce added “We have invited a number of UAE business groups to visit and invest in Somaliland abundant oil and gas-exploration opportunities, and our fisheries industry and as you’re all aware of Somaliland has made many impressive gains in creating a favorable investment climate, but more investment support is needed.
Dr. Omar said, “Investment opportunities in the oil, gas and fisheries industries had been presented to the Emirati’s.
The UAE and Somaliland have developed close cooperation in the areas of trade, investment, the fight against piracy and regional affairs.
Iraq again tops list of countries where journalists are murdered regularly and killers go free
New York, April 16, 2014–Targeted murders of journalists in Syria landed the war-torn country for the first time on the Committee to Protect Journalists’ annual Impunity Index released today. Syria joins Iraq, Somalia, the Philippines, and others on the list of countries where journalists are murdered regularly and their killers go free.
But there was some good news. Four countries on the Index-the Philippines, Pakistan, Russia, and Brazil-achieved at least one conviction in a journalist murder case, while the United Nations recognized the need to combat impunity in a resolution in November.
“In too many countries, the climate of impunity engenders further violence and deprives citizens- global as well as local-of their basic right to information,” said CPJ Executive Director Joel Simon. “Growing awareness about the threat posed by failure to solve journalist murders must be translated into concrete action. Governments and the international community need to work together to end this vicious cycle.”
A series of deliberate murders has added a new threat to the mix in Syria, the most dangerous place in the world for journalists to do their jobs, with dozens of abductions, crossfire fatalities, and deaths carrying out dangerous assignments.
Iraq remains the worst offender on the Index. A hundred journalists have been murdered there in the past decade, all with impunity. After a respite in 2012, nine murders took place last year.
Encouraging developments took place in Pakistan, which convicted six suspects for the 2011 murder of Wali Khan Babar, and Russia, where a businessman was sentenced for the 2000 murder of Igor Domnikov. As is usually the case, according to CPJ research, the masterminds of both crimes remain at large. In Mexico, legislation was approved in April 2013 giving federal authorities jurisdiction to prosecute crimes against journalists. All three countries remain on this year’s Index.
The deadly pattern of impunity has at long last prompted an international response. In November of 2013, the U.N. adopted a resolution calling on states to end the cycle of injustice, recognizing November 2 as the International Day to End Impunity and calling on the U.N. secretary general to report at the 2014 General Assembly on the progress made in regard to the 2012 UN Plan of Action on the Safety of Journalists and the Issue of Impunity.
ASLM2014 will be held in Cape Town, South Africa, on 30 November – 4 December 2014
Jens Mjaugedal, Special Envoy of Norway to Somalia, is frustrated… which is hardly surprising given his mission to try to turn Somalia, which has officially been the world’s most failed state for many years, into a success. The biggest problem in Somalia is how to keep the deadly al-Qaeda-affiliated, Islamist militant group al-Shabaab at bay.
By Goth Mohamed Goth
