Focus On Africa

Another Corruption Check & Good Governance by Minister, Zamzam Abdi Adan

The Somaliland Minister for Finance, Zamzam Abdi Adan, in a press conference in her office along with senior officials of the ministry, publicized today a new system of collecting the Vehicular Road Utilization tax, or what is known in the western countries as tag registration fee, levied on all cars and trucks on semiannual basis in Somaliland. In the old way, a paper certificate that can be easily tampered and copied was used which made the system unfair to all as hundreds of thousands were evading the tax payment. But rather, the new system taps into modern chip technologies and would be harder to be eluded. Chip-implanted cards would be issued once taxes are paid and the traffic police would be equipped with the chip detectors.

Adami's Harsh Words for House of Elders & Siilaanyo Gov. in an Interview with Star TV

Adami, a prominent Somaliland politician, frequent critic of Siilaanyo Adminstration, and former mayor of Hargeisa, Seat of Somaliland Republic, hails from defunct Udub Political Party and still holds on its emblem in all his suits. In an interview with the Star TV, he levels harsh criticism against the House of Elders and Somaliland Government in meddling the planning and preparations for the upcoming presidential and parliamentary elections by the Somaliland Electoral Commission, the sole constitutional authority entrusted in the management of such national interest.

Saving Somalia (Again)

In early May 2015, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry made a historic but little noticed visit to Somalia, a country no other U.S. secretary of state had ever visited. His trip symbolized both how far Somalia has come—from the blackest days of civil war, clan infighting, and famine in the 1990s; to the brutal rule of the jihadi group al Shabab in the late 2000s; to something getting closer to normal now—and how very far it still has to go.

The fact that a high U.S. official could enter the country at all speaks of real security improvements. During his visit, moreover, Kerry announced the reopening of a U.S. embassy in Somalia, which had been closed since 1991 when the government of long-term dictator Siad Barre collapsed. But the fact that Kerry’s visit was a brief few hours—during which he did not even leave the heavily-guarded Mogadishu airport—also points to deep and persistent security challenges. Read More

Nadifa Mohamed: Somaliland Born Rising Author

Born in Hargeisa, a city in the north of what was then Somalia, she was four years old when her family relocated to London, where they remained when civil war broke out in their homeland shortly thereafter. It was an experience she described as “a rupture of everything I’d known… going to school for the first time in a completely different environment knowing that the world I did know was lost in quite a big way was very traumatic.”

In 2013 she released her second novel, The Orchard of Lost Souls. The book is set in 1987 Somalia, in the northern city of Hargeisa on the eve of the civil war which would devastate and fragment the country. The events leading up to the outbreak of civil war are experienced from the perspective of three female protagonists – Kawsar, Deqo, and Filsan – but the events and characters that populate the novel are based on dozens of interviews, in addition to considerable archival research, that Mohamed conducted as she developed the book. Having studied history at Oxford, this part of the work came naturally to her. Read Full Article

flydubai touches down in Hargeisa, Somaliland

HARGEISA, Somaliland, June 9, 2015/African Press Organization (APO)/ — Dubai-based flydubai’s inaugural flight to Hargeisa landed today at Hargeisa Egal International Airport marking the launch of a direct four times weekly service to Hargeisa.

flydubai’s delegation was headed by Ghaith Al Ghaith, Chief Executive Officer of flydubai, and Sudhir Sreedharan, Senior Vice President Commercial (GCC, Subcontinent and Africa) of flydubai. Upon landing in Hargeisa Egal International Airport, the delegation was greeted by H.E Abdirahman Abdillahi Ismail, the Vice-President of Somaliland and H.E Mohamud Hashi Abdi, the Minister of Civil Aviation and Air Transport of Somaliland. Read Full Article