Associated Press, June 27, 2002
Fighting in central Somalia leaves at least 23 dead, despite peace deal
By OSMAN HASSAN
Rival militias fought a fierce battle over the deaths of fellow clansmen in central Somalia, leaving 23 people dead and 40 wounded just one day after a peace deal was reached, officials and witnesses said Thursday.
Using heavy weapons mounted on 10 pickup trucks, more than 300 militiamen from the Saad and Dir clans fought Wednesday in the Golol Valley, 700 kilometers (435 miles) northeast of Mogadishu, residents said. Civilians fled villages in the valley.
The fighting followed a peace deal reached between the clans on Tuesday for control of Gellinsor village, 270 kilometers (170 miles) northwest of Mogadishu.
That dispute centered on the slaying of three men over the ownership of a camel and was solved when the families were given camels and guns as restitution and one family was given a girl to marry the brother of one of the deceased.
Hassan Farah Barreh and Abdurahman Ganey, district officials in Galkaio town reached by radio, said the fighting was a continuing feud over a shooting that left four people dead several weeks ago. Clan elders have been holding talks to end the fighting, which had not resumed Thursday morning, though the militias appeared to be regrouping.
Barreh and Ganey hoped the Golol Valley conflict can be solved quickly with a deal similar to the one in Gellinsor.
XINHUA GENERAL NEWS SERVICE, June 27, 2002
Heavy Fighting Erupts in Somalia
Heavy fighting has flared up between rival militiamen from the two clans in and around the Golol Valley, about 270 kilometers Northeast of the central town of Galkaio on Wednesday.
This new round of fighting broke out just a day after an agreement was reached over conflict between the same two subclans in Gellinsor village, about 90 kilometers south of Galkaio town.
According to independent sources, at least 23 people were killed and 40 others were wounded from both sides including innocent civilians. More than ten battle wagons and over 300 heavily armed militiamen from both sides were involved in the fighting which has been the most serious between the two sides so far.
The fighting has seriously affected the villages of Garbad, Bur-Qallo, Awleh, Buqbari and others where almost all of the ordinary civilians have fled the fighting.
It is not yet officially stated as to why this fighting broke out on Wednesday, but Hassan Farah Barreh and Abdurahman Ganey, the district officials in Galkaio town whom this reporter contacted on the VHF radio said that the fighting roots back to the killing of four men several weeks ago.
Traditional leaders including Abdullahi Yussuf Guled and Abdullahi Ayleh representing the two sides have worked hard to stop the fighting which seems to be getting out of hand.
The elders told this reporter that nothing had happened so far this morning, but there is a great concern that the fighting may resume once again soon as each side is working on tightening its weapons and regrouping its militias for more fighting.
The same two clans have concluded an agreement only on Wednesday in Gellinsor village concerning the killing of three men over camel-ownership dispute.
According to the elders who mediated the dispute, it has not been easy, but they have just followed according to the antique traditional laws.
Sheikh Hassan Jama Dhere and Osman Nur Qeyd representing each a committee of 30-members from the two clans told this reporter on the VHF radio that they gave 150 camels and a gun to the family of the first man who was killed on May 13.
Likewise, 200 camels and two guns were given to the family of the man was then killed afterwards for the retaliation because he was killed by two men. Also this family was offered a girl from the opponent's clan who was then married to the brother of the deceased.
This method of girl-giving is often practiced when a lasting solution is needed for the nomadic crises, but the family of the third man who was killed was given 120 camels and a gun.
According to the district officials, Hassan Farah Barre and Abdirahman Ganey, both sides were satisfied about the settlement and how fair the problem was fixed.
However, this new outbreak of yet another between the same two clans in the Golol Valley is another obstacle to a lasting solution even though the elders have again dispatched another delegation on Thursday to see how they would stop the bloodletting between the two sides.
Associated Press, June 26, 2002
Italian appeals court upholds conviction of Somali for 1994 killing of Italian journalists in Somalia
Rome -- An Italian appeals court has upheld the conviction of a Somali man for the 1994 slayings of an Italian reporter and cameraman in Mogadishu, and reduced his sentence from life imprisonment to 26 years, lawyers said Wednesday.
The court convicted Hashi Omar Hassan for the murder of RAI state television journalist Ilaria Alpi and cameraman Miran Hrovatin, but said the killings were not premeditated, Hassan's attorney Douglas Duale said.
Duale said he was "satisfied" with the ruling but said he had hoped the sentence would have been reduced to 16 years. The prosecutor in the case, Salvatore Cantaro, had asked the court to uphold the life sentence. He said he would consider appealing to Italy's highest criminal court, the ANSA news agency reported.
In Italy, prosecutors can appeal verdicts and sentences.
Hassan has been in Italy since 1998, when he came to testify against Italian peacekeeping troops accused of torturing Somalis during the 1992-1995 U.N. operation in the Horn of Africa nation.
A few days later, he was detained for questioning in connection with the slayings of Alpi and Hrovatin and was later indicted.
In 1999, a Rome court acquitted him of the slayings, but the verdict was overturned a year later by an appeals court which sentenced Hassan to life in prison.
Italy's highest appeals court, the Court of Cassation, subsequently annulled that verdict. But it ordered another appeals court to review the case to consider that Hassan had been part of a group involved in the killings and had not acted alone, Duale said.
Alpi and Hrovatin were killed in their pickup truck as bandits tried to hijack their vehicle.
Alpi's parents have contended their daughter was killed because she had stumbled on incriminating information, possibly about arms trafficking.
On Wednesday, Alpi's mother, Luciana Riccardi, said she was "bitter" over the verdict.
"After eight years there is just one culprit," ANSA quoted her as saying.
Africa News, June 27, 2002
Somalia; Baidoa Uneasy As RRA Leaders Wrangle
BYLINE: UN Integrated Regional Information Networks
Tension is rising in the town of Baidoa, 240 km northwest of Mogadishu, due to a deepening split within the senior ranks of the Rahanweyn Resistance Army (RRA), which controls much of the Bay and Bakol regions of southwestern Somalia, according to local sources in Baidoa, capital of Bay Region and headquarters of the RRA.
The tension follows a split brought about by differences between the RRA chairman, Hasan Muhammad Nur Shatigadud, and his two deputies, Shaykh Adan Madobe and Muhammad Ibrahim Habsade, they said.
The problem affecting the RRA arose over demands by the deputies that the RRA chairman, Shatigadud, who had earlier announced the establishment of the self-declared South West State (SWS) of Somalia, "should either dismantle the SWS and remain chairman of the RRA or relinquish the RRA chairmanship", according to a source involved in mediation efforts between the two sides. "The deputies are arguing that inasmuch as the RRA chairman, Shatigadud, is now president of the self-declared South West State of Somalia, Shaykh Aden, the first vice-chairman, should become chairman of the RRA," the source told IRIN on Thursday.
A 36-member mediation committee, comprising traditional elders, members of the RRA executive committee, and religious and business leaders, had so far failed to resolve the political impasse in Baidoa, he said.
The committee is reported to have sought the assurance of Shatigadud and his deputies that they would abide by any decision reached by the committee.
"All involved had, as of Wednesday, given an undertaking to accept the ruling of the mediation committee," the source told IRIN on Thursday.
Contacted by IRIN, Shaykh Adan admitted the existence of the problem but downplayed its seriousness. "Differences exist, and in any given organisation there are bound to be differences of opinion and minor disagreements, but we are working on them, and I am hopeful that we will resolve them soon," he said.
However, a business source in Baidoa told IRIN that the mediation committee "was no closer to a resolution of the problem" than it was when it first convened a week ago. He said Shaykh Adan and Habsade were resolutely adhering to their demand that Shatigadud renounce the SWS, and that the RRA remain the sole authority in Bay and Bakol, while Shatigadud was rejecting this with equal resolve.
At the heart of the matter lay a feeling on the part of Shaykh Adan and Habsade that they had been sidelined by the formation of the SWS, this sourced stated.
"As RRA deputies they were political heavyweights in this area but, with the SWS, the best they can hope for is a cabinet post. This is the real problem and until the committee and Shatigadud address it, I am afraid there will be no solution," he said.
The establishment of the South West State, with Shatigadud as president - the third regional administration to be set up in Somalia, following the establishment of Somaliland (northwestern Somalia) and Puntland (in the northeast) - was announced in April by the RRA leadership. [see
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=27043]
The decision was reached at a meeting of the RRA central committee and over 70 elders from the Digil and Mirifle clans in Baidoa in late March, with Shatigadud inaugurated as president of the new regional administration for an initial four-year term on 31 March.
Meanwhile, IRIN's businessman source in Baidoa said on Thursday that the city seemed calm, with "no apparent tension."
"We are working and carrying on with our activities as usual, hoping and praying that the committee will succeed in its efforts," he added.
BBC Monitoring International Reports, June 27, 2002
SOMALI PREMIER URGES SOMALILAND TO RENOUNCE SECESSION
The prime minister of the Transitional Government of Somalia, Hasan Abshir Farah, yesterday said 26 June was a day that would be remembered by all the Somali people, because it was the day the Somali flag was raised high over Somalia.
Addressing a function to mark the 108th anniversary of the International Olympic Committee, the 41st anniversary of the Somali Olympic Movement and also the celebrations to mark the 26 June when Somaliland gained independence from Britain , the prime minister said when the northern regions Somaliland gained their independence, they immediately raised the Somali flag high and made a call for unification with the southern regions. "The men who gained respect by uniting Somalia are today saying they will secede, but we are telling them that we will give them back the flag and we will welcome them back.
"What was destroyed during the civil war in Somalia was destroyed by people, and there are men now ready to put things in order. Therefore, the unity of Somalia should be protected," the prime minister said. He said the time has come to bring Somalis together.
"We will not agree at any time to start something presumably the proposed reconciliation talks in Nairobi from square one," he said.
The prime minister further said the outcome of the Nairobi peace talks was not predictable, and consequently, the transitional government would not throw away its title...
Source: Ayaamaha web site, Mogadishu, in Somali 27 Jun 02 /) BBC Monitoring
BBC Monitoring International Reports, June 27, 2002
SOMALIA: SOUTHERN FACTION DEPLOYS FORCES TO BAR OFFICIALS FROM ATTENDING FUNERAL
Militiamen loyal to the first deputy chairman of the RRA anti-government Rahanwein Resistance Army , Shaykh Adan Madobe, and armed with several technicals battle wagons have been deployed at Buur Hakaba.
The militiamen have been deployed to prevent some politicians presumably loyal to the interim government from attending the burial of the late Abdiqadir Zoppe prominent southern politician belonging to the Rahanwein clan who died in Rome recently which is expected to take place at a village eight km outside Baydhabo Baidoa, southcentral Somalia . "We will not allow politicians opposed to the RRA administration to attend the burial ceremony of the late Abdiqadir Zoppe," RRA Deputy Chairman Shaykh Adan Madobe said.
Reports say that the Baydhabo-Mogadishu road may be closed completely. The road was recently reopened after officials at the Mogadishu-Baydhabo border point resolved to allow public transport vehicles to operate between Mogadishu and Baydhabo.
Source: Ayaamaha web site, Mogadishu, in Somali 27 Jun 02/ BBC Monitoring
Agence France Presse, June 26, 2002
Somalia minister kidnapped in Mogadishu
Gunmen in the Somali capital on Wednesday kidnapped Minister of State for Tourism Ahmed Mohamed Nur "Alliyow" and demanded a 10,000-dollar ransom, his relatives said.
Alliyow, a minister in the disputed Transitional National Government (TNG), is a member of the Rahanwein clan, a minority group in Mogadishu. He was captured in south Mogadishu and relatives accused some of his bodyguards of having conspired with the kidnappers.
"He has now been brought to north Mogadishu after gunmen who abducted him (in south Mogadishu) made a deal with freelance gunmen" in north Mogadishu, one of the relatives, who asked not to be named for safety reasons, said.
The relatives said the TNG did not have the ability to rescue Alliyow and that they were too poor to raise the ransom.
Kidnapping for ransom is common in Somalia, which has had no effective national government and has been riven by fational feuding since the collapse of the administration of former dictator Mohamed Siad Barre in 1991.
Expatriate aid workers are frequently targeted for abduction, but members of less influential Somalia communities often become victims.
The TNG, which came into being August 2000, has failed to end a decade of anarchy in Somalia and only enjoys control of parts of Mogadishu and support from some factions in other parts of the country.
The government faces armed opposition from a group of warlords whose alliance, the Somali Reconciliation and Restoration Council (SRRC), has its headquarters in neighbouring Ethiopia.
The SRRC is not thought to be involved in Alliyow's abduction.
On April 7, the president of TNG military court, Ali Mumin, was kidnapped for three weeks and released after his relatives reportedly paid a 4,000 dollar ransom.
BBC Monitoring International Reports, June 26, 2002
BRITISH OFFICIALS IN SOMALILAND FOR INDEPENDENCE ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATIONS
The British ambassador to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, Mr Myles Wickstead and two other officials arrived today in Hargeysa.
The British delegation, headed by the ambassador, is coming to join the Somaliland people on the occasion of 26 June celebrations marking Somaliland's independence from Britain on 26 June 1960 , to be held tomorrow. The delegation was received at the airport by the deputy foreign minister, Hon Mahmud Abdi Isma'il and other officials.
The delegation, which will remain in the country for two days, will tonight attend a banquet hosted in their honour by the mayor of Hargeysa, Mr Awil Ilmi Abdallah, at Hotel Mansur in Hargeysa, where cabinet members and other government officials will join them.
Source: Radio Hargeysa in Somali 1700 gmt 25 Jun 02 /) BBC Monitoring
BBC Monitoring International Reports June 26, 2002
BRITISH ENVOY SAYS UK IMPRESSED BY SMOOTH TRANSITION OF POWER IN SOMALILAND
The delegation which was led by the British ambassador to Ethiopia based in Addis Ababa, Myles Wickstead, today met the Somaliland foreign minister, Muhammad Sa'id Ges, and the minister of resettlement, Abdullahi Husayn Iman and EU officials.
The meeting dealt with the functions of various organizations. Soon after the talks, the British ambassador, Mr Wickstead toured Gabiley District for three hours. The delegation had travelled to Gabiley to acquaint itself with the situation in the district and the country at large. They held talks at the Gabiley local council HQ with officials from the district, including Gabiley's mayor, Hasan Haji Yusuf Roble. The mayor said during the meeting that the people of Somaliland welcomed the British delegation and wanted the British government to give this country special attention, considering that this country used to be a British protectorate.
The meeting was also addressed by Ms Marian Haji who is the chairperson of the National Women's Association, Nawa, who spoke at length about the stages which the country had gone through since this country attained its independence from Britain 42 years ago. She said the country had a constitutional order and appealed for recognition from Britain.
Speaking at the meeting, the British ambassador said he was impressed with the order and security in the country and said this was his first visit to the country since he assumed office in Addis Ababa.
He said the implementation of the constitution which manifested itself following the death of the former president was historical and had attracted the attention of the international community, particularly the British government which was keenly watching the country.
This report which we received from our reporter in Gabiley, Mr Usman Abdi Bedem phonetic added that the delegation rested briefly at the house of John Draystal phonetic who is a British citizen resident in Gabiley.
The delegation soon afterwards returned to Hargeysa where they will take part in celebrations marking the 26 June anniversary.
Source: Radio Hargeysa in Somali 1700 gmt 26 Jun 02 / BBC Monitoring
BBC Monitoring International Reports, June 26, 2002
SOMALILAND MARKS 42ND INDEPENDENCE ANNIVERSARY
The president of the Republic of Somaliland attended a function marking Somaliland's 42nd 26 June independence anniversary at Hotel Ambassador which was opened today.
The president of Somaliland, Hon Riyale Kahin, who made an address at the opening of the hotel, spoke about the various stages the country went through and how the independence we now enjoy was realized. President Riyale expressed hope for the people of Somaliland and wished them progress and prosperity.
The ceremony, which marked the 26 June anniversary and the opening of Hotel Ambassador in Hargeysa, was also attended by the vice-president, Ahmad Yusuf Yasin, the minister of internal affairs, foreign affairs, defence, information, resettlement, public works, sports, education and national guidance, livestock and industries.
The ceremony was also attended by the British ambassador to Ethiopia and a delegation he was leading who are taking part in the 26 June anniversary.
The ceremony was also attended by some members of the Council of Elders, MPs and very many people.
Source: Radio Hargeysa in Somali 1700 gmt 26 Jun 02 / BBC Monitoring
BBC Monitoring International Reports, June 26, 2002
SOMALIA: ABDUCTED MINISTER SAID DETAINED OVER PAY DISPUTE
Muse Sudi Yalahow's militiamen are holding one of the state ministers of prime minister Hasan Abshir's government who was kidnapped by his guards, in Balcad District about 30km north of Mogadishu . Mr Ahmad Muhammad Nur Aliyow, who was the minister of state in charge of tourism and wildlife was transferred the day before yesterday to Balcad District, which is under Yalahow's control.
According to reliable sources, the minister was detained by his bodyguards following a disagreement over salaries.
The saga and the money claimed by the guards is seen as a boon to Mr Yalahow who is holding a minister of the interim Somali government.
Source: Qaran, Mogadishu, in Somali 26 Jun 02 / BBC Monitoring
BBC Monitoring International Reports, June 26, 2002
ETHIOPIA REPORTEDLY SUPPORTS ARAB LEAGUE INITIATIVE ON SOMALI PEACE PROCESS
The government of Ethiopia has supported the Arab League initiative on the Somali reconciliation process. Abdinur Muhammad Katheye has more details on this:
Katheye The Ethiopian minister of foreign affairs, Seyoum Mesfin, has expressed his support for the initiative of the Arab League on ways of participating in the Somali reconciliation process. This follows a visit by the secretary-general of the Arab league, Amr Musa, to Ethiopia on an official visit. The secretary-general urged the Somali faction leaders to surrender their weapons and search for peace.
Peace and stability in Africa, the rest of the world and especially the Arab world, said Amr Musa in a press conference held in Addis Ababa sentence as heard .
Mr Musa said the Arab League recognized the interim Somali government and that they are not on bad terms with Ethiopia.
Mr Musa said his visit was aimed at fostering good relations in the Horn of Africa and solving existing problems so as to rebuild Somalia. He further said cooperation with Ethiopia in regard to this matter is important.
Source: Radio HornAfrik, Mogadishu, in Somali 0500 gmt 26 Jun 02/ BBC Monitoring
BBC Monitoring International Reports, June 25, 2002
SOMALIA: TENSION SAID RISING IN MOGADISHU MARKET FOLLOWING KILLING OF TRADER
Businessmen at Mogadishu's Bakaraaha market have reportedly refused to pay taxes for the second day in row. The step has been taken following the killing of one of the businessmen in Bakaraaha market by forces of the interim government. The businessman was killed when he refused to pay taxes.
Tension is reportedly rising in Bakaraaha market. Reports add that the killing of the businessman has turned into a tribal issue.
The interim government solider who committed the killing is said to be under arrest at the CID Criminal Investigations Department HQ.
Source: Radio Mogadishu, Voice of the Republic of Somalia, in Somali 1700 gmt 24 Jun 02 / BBC Monitoring
http://www.thestar.com
TORONTO STAR, Jun. 26, 2002
Troubled nation's many challenges
Mohamud Hussein Khalif
Somalia, as a nation-state, is in the throes of withering away painfully and quietly from the international map. Like an endangered species, it is at the brink of annihilation; and the world, ostensibly, could not care less.
Since the botched United Nations intervention in the early 1990s, Somalia has been forgotten.
Regional and global groupings of which Somalia had been a member ? such as the Organization of African Unity, the Organization of Islamic Conference and the Arab League ? have deferred to the Inter-Governmental Authority on Development, or IGAD, in Somali reconciliation issues.
Unfortunately, however, IGAD has not only failed to resolve the Somali conflict, it has, in fact, aggravated it further. Its chief blunder was to put Somalia's reconciliation efforts under the supervision of Ethiopia, given the two countries' antagonistic history.
In the latest episode, the ninth IGAD summit in Khartoum on Jan. 11 decided to hold a conference on Somalia in Nairobi to build on the progress made in Arta, Djibouti, in 2000, where a transitional government was forged.
President Daniel arap Moi of Kenya was charged with implementing the plan and a technical committee made up of countries neighbouring Somalia was created.
Unfortunately, the committee has so far proved to be a fiasco. Two proposed fact-finding tours of Somalia by the members of the technical committee have failed to materialize, owing to disagreements on where they should visit, and when. These disagreements led to the referral of the issue to the Common Market for East and Southern Africa summit at the end of May in Addis Ababa ? which
merely commended IGAD for its efforts and urged it to carry on.
Meanwhile, there emerged two camps within IGAD, making prospects for the plan for Somalia dimmer. One camp, comprising of Djibouti and Eritrea, stands by IGAD's original suggestion to work out a framework to incorporate the Somali Reconciliation and Restoration Council and other groups outside the Arta process into the transitional government. In the other camp, there is Ethiopia, which wants IGAD to renege on its recognition of the transitional government as the legitimate government for Somalia and to force it to come to the negotiating table as just another faction.
Ethiopia is also keen on including in the agenda of the proposed conference disarmament and the type of government Somalia should have in the future. Besides these items being inappropriate for discussion at this stage of the process, they are outside the mandate of the technical committee. As a result, the respective positions of the Somali groups have further widened.
IGAD is a sub-regional organization that brings together seven eastern African nations; Ethiopia, Kenya, Uganda, Eritrea, Somalia, Sudan and Uganda. It was formed in 1986 to tackle drought and development issues. Having failed to address cyclical bouts of drought in the region, it dropped the drought part of its name in the early 1990s to confine itself to development matters.
The broader IGAD region, and the Horn sub-region in particular, has been plagued for a long time by conflict, the most intractable of which is the 12-year Somali civil war. But a prerequisite for development is peace and political stability. To this end, in its 1996 revitalization initiative, IGAD introduced conflict prevention, management and resolution into its mandate. Nevertheless, its dabbling with peacemaking in Somalia has, up to this point, done more harm than good.
The exacerbation of the situation by IGAD is not surprising given its abysmal record in the Sudanese peace process. Primarily due to arap Moi's personal commitment, IGAD initially enjoyed some promising successes. But progress later got bogged down in the intricacies of IGAD and internal Sudanese politics. Based on its past performance, then, it is difficult to be optimistic about an
IGAD-engineered solution for Somalia.
It is indeed already evident that the Somali initiative is dead before it is even born, with the member states of the technical committee bickering with one another over basic modalities and the desired outcome of the proposed Nairobi conference.
IGAD's utter failure in the Sudanese process and the predictable fizzling out of the current Somali reconciliation efforts can be explained by a number of factors.
First and foremost, the role of IGAD as a peacemaker came into being as an afterthought to its original raison d'etre (development and sub-regional economic integration). As a result, the organization, with a secretariat based in Djibouti, is ill equipped for conflict management as it lacks the institutional capacity to deal with complex civil conflicts such as that in Somalia.
Second, diplomatic posturing between some member states (Ethiopia and Eritrea), regional rivalries, diverging interests (Ethiopia, Djibouti and Kenya) and the hegemonic ambitions of certain states (notably Ethiopia) in the region have so far blunted IGAD's efforts at ending the Somali conflict. For instance, Ethiopia, Eritrea and Uganda were once firmly united in their quest to topple the Islamic regime in Sudan. Ethiopia and Eritrea also slugged it out from 1998 to 2000 in a deadly war over territorial claims.
Moreover, the frontline countries have a history of taking turns hosting interminable peace conferences for the feuding Somali groups in their respective capitals. Each of them seems determined to outdo the others in the number of gatherings it sponsors. Some also overtly work to ensure that friendly factions are installed as the next government of Somalia, failing which they are prepared to serve as perfect spoilers.
No wonder then that the Nairobi conference has taken the shape of just another statistic in the number game of Somali reconciliation conferences.
Mohamud Hussein Khalif is a member of The Star's community editorial board.
Copyright 2002. Toronto Star Newspapers Limited. All rights reserved.
The Evening Post (Wellington), June 26, 2002
Searching for a normal life Lawlessness and poverty pushed Shamso Ali and her family to seek a new life away from Somalia. By Chloe Groser
Shamso Ali's long voyage to New Zealand began one night in 1992. At home with her family in the city of Kismayo, a group of Somali men from an enemy clan ambushed her house.
Her father went to the door and was shot dead by the men. Mrs Ali, nine months pregnant, was shot in the stomach. She lost her baby but kept her life. She spent the next month in a Kenyan hospital, paying $ US100 ($ NZ149) a night for medication and shelter. When she was out, she and her family walked for five days to a Kenyan refugee camp.
They arrived late in 1992, not knowing they'd stay there until 1997.
Mrs Ali says life at the camp was good because there was peace. But it was not an easy existence.
Plastic houses provided little relief against the soaring daytime temperatures - sometimes up to 42 degrees - and they gave no warmth against the freezing nights. She was forced to queue, sometimes all day, for her quota of rice and flour and for medical treatment. She had to walk hours for water.
"Sometimes the people all got malaria and some died," she says.
"I just hoped I was coming to New Zealand. I was waiting a long time."
Her uncle, who was already living here with other members of her family, was pushing to bring her and her mother to Wellington.
In May 1997 they arrived.
"My brother had said it was a good country, a normal country and a safe country. We don't see guns, my brother told me."
Over the years, New Zealand has welcomed hundreds of Somali refugees and offered them a peaceful existence. Many settled around Wellington and the Hutt Valley.
Mrs Ali says New Zealand is a beautiful country and she has a good life here. But the violent memories of her past have not been forgotten.
"When I see that some people died in New Zealand with guns, I'm afraid. But it's a good country."
She works at a hotel, where she is allowed to wear the traditional hijab covering her head and part of her body. She says many of her friends are not so lucky - they're forced to turn down jobs because employers require them to wear Western uniforms.
Adjusting to the cold climate was a challenge, but earthquakes gave her the biggest shock.
"My first time I had an earthquake, I thought maybe I would be dead. My brother told me to go under the table and I said 'it's not enough'!"
She survived the shake and now lives in Newtown, only doors away from her mother and the two children adopted from an uncle killed in Somalia.
Hassan Adam, chairman of the Hutt Valley Somali Community Association, left Somalia in 1987 for Sudan, when he saw the country's political unrest was spiralling out of control.
In 1999 he came to New Zealand from Malaysia with his wife and children. Their first six weeks were spent at the Mangere Refugee Centre in Auckland.
He says he learned the basics of life in New Zealand while he was there.
"It was really wonderful because when we came to New Zealand for the first time we didn't have any information about New Zealand. We were introduced to New Zealand culture, the people and everything."
When he moved to Wellington he found there were still many things to learn. In his role in the Somali community he's now helping other Somalis work things out.
Many Somali families are made up of solo mothers and their children, says Mr Adam. Their men were either killed in the fighting, or separated from their families.
He says the women often struggle to fill the role of the traditional Somali husband and father, who supports the family. Many of the women left school early to marry and now find it difficult to get jobs. For the men, the biggest stumbling blocks are language and the poor recognition of their qualifications.
"I think people don't employ someone who cannot understand them," he says.
An education programme for Somali women is being established at the moment, and the Hutt Valley Somali Community Association is intent on promoting the well-being of new settlers.
In his job as a teacher's aide at Naenae College, he has contact with teenage Somalis, many of whom are traumatised by the troubles of their homeland. But there is strength in the community.
Wellington Somalis have a soccer team, and a tournament was recently held with Somali teams from all over the country. The community sticks together, Mr Adam says, with religious celebrations twice a year and everybody knows everybody by name.
For Mrs Ali, New Zealand is where she wants to be. She can't imagine returning to Somalia until she can trust peace is permanently restored.
"I miss my country, but this is better than the refugee camp. Life in New Zealand is good."
CAPTION: GOOD LIFE - Shamso Ali lives in Newtown not far from her mother. Violent memories of her past have not been forgotten.
Star Tribune (Minneapolis, MN) June 26, 2002
With play, Somali housing's the thing; Tonight's premiere will help kick off the celebration of Somali National Week.
BYLINE: Lucy Y. Her; Staff Writer
A Minneapolis production that is considered the first Somali-English play in the nation takes a look at the bureaucracy that Somali renters have to wade through to find a place to live.
The half-hour improv "Badbaado!", which is performed in a combination of the two languages, will help open Somali National Week when it premieres at 7 p.m. today at the Pillsbury House Theater, 3501 Chicago Av. S.
"Our aim is to create a piece of theater that shows where things break down, and then we
together with an audience talk about what could be different," said the play's director, Heidi Hunter Batz, a member of the Pillsbury House Theater's Breaking Ice Theater Company.
Somali National Week, which marks the 1960 independence of Somalia from British rule, has been celebrated locally since 1994. It runs through Monday. Gregory Luce, co-executive director of the south Minneapolis neighborhood group Project 504, said the improv was initiated in January because many Somali renters did not understand their rights and responsibilities as tenants. For instance, many did not know the proper procedures for getting landlords to make repairs or didn't understand that only so many people can live in one apartment.
Project 504, which collaborated with Pillsbury and the Somali Youth Association in Minneapolis to do the production, was formed in 1999 to hold negligent landlords accountable.
Farah H. Nur, a community advocate with Project 504, helped bring the three groups together. He said it is important to educate the Somali residents through the improv production because many Somali elders do not read or write; theirs is an oral culture.
Back in Somalia, he said, people owned their homes. And if they wanted one but didn't have one, they built it themselves. Here, affordable housing is hard to come by, and you have to have a good rental record to qualify for an apartment.
During a dress rehearsal Tuesday afternoon, Nur stood in for the part of a Somali looking for a place to live.
"Give me some rental history. I need rental history," said actress Ellen Fenster of Breaking Ice.
"I used to have a house in Africa," Nur said.
"Then give me paperwork showing you owned a house in Africa," Fenster said.
According to the 2000 census, 34,500 Somalis live in Minnesota. However, community leaders estimate that there could be as many as 60,000 Somalis living here.
Nur, a poet who also helped direct the play, came up with the production's name, which means "survival" in Somali. "Home is the most important piece of life, and without a secure home a family's stability is in doubt," he said.
Nimco Ahmed of Minneapolis, who plays several characters, said she has become more empathetic toward her Somali elders since being a part of the production. The 20-year-old said she now takes the time to help translate or read a piece of mail for those who need help.
"It's really hard when people can't read and write English," she said. At her house, she is responsible for making sure all the bills are paid. "We come from a society where kids depend on their parents, but now I see myself having the power."
Batz said that during the month of rehearsals, many Somalis came to watch and give input. "Its been extremely rewarding to me," she said. She added that communication is not about words, but rather "the heart behind the words."
"Badbaado!" also will play at 6 p.m. Sunday at the Brian Coyle Community Center, 420 15th Av. S. in Minneapolis. An August performance will be given at the Mixed Blood Theater, and the production will return to Coyle for a September showing.
Meanwhile, a tenant-landlord workshop for those who want more information will be held at noon Thursday at Coyle.
Lucy Y. Her is at lher@startribune.com.
AT A GLANCE
Other events during Somali National Week:
Sunday: The Confederation of Somali Community in Minnesota will put on a dinner and celebration from 4 to 8 p.m. at the Brian Coyle Community Center, 420 15th Av. S. Highlights include speeches by Somali dignitaries and performances from local Somali singers. The main speaker will be Ali Khalif Galaydh, former prime minister of the Transitional National Government of Somalia.
Monday: The Somali Women in Minnesota will hold a celebration from 5 to 9 p.m. at Luxton Park, 112 Williams Av. SE., Minneapolis. It will feature music, dinner and speeches by Somali dignitaries.
Africa News, June 25, 2002
Somalia; Alcohol And Drug Abuse On the Rise in Mogadishu
BYLINE: UN Integrated Regional Information Networks
Alcohol and drug abuse are rapidly increasing and claiming lives in the Somali capital, Mogadishu, according to humanitarian and official sources.
The increase was related to the large number of unemployed youths and freelance gunmen in the city, "who have nothing better to do", one aid worker told IRIN on Tuesday.
Echoing that view, Mogadishu police chief Abdi Hasan Awale Qeybdid told IRIN he believed that "nearly 50 percent of all the crimes committed in Mogadishu are either drug- or alcohol-related". "Recently we have noticed an increase in the number of establishments selling alcohol," he added.
Qeybdid said two kinds of alcohol were being sold in the city - a locally concocted brew, popularly known as alaq, and imported beers and spirits.
He noted that alaq, which contained dangerous chemicals, and was mostly consumed by the poor and uneducated youths, constituted a major problem. "We have had people die from it, and people who were made blind by it," he said.
Qeybdid admitted that the police were incapable of containing the problem. "We lack the necessary training and equipment to deal with this phenomenon," he said.
The main problem in dealing with alcohol traders was their ability to move their establishments around, he added. "We close one and immediately they open somewhere else."
However, the police chief went on to say said that his force was having more success in fighting the war against drugs. Over the past three months, he said, it had arrested at least 20 people and confiscated 2,000 kg of cannabis in the city.
Areas around the Bakara market (Mogadishu's main market) and the districts of Hamar Jajab, Hodan, Hamar Weyn and Shangani in south Mogadishu, accounted for most of the alcohol- and drug-related problems, the humanitarian source told IRIN. He also singled out Jaqshid and parts of Karan in the north as areas with such problems.
Qeybdid said the police needed assistance if they were to succeed in their fight against the menace, and appealed to the international donor community to help with training, drugs and alcohol awareness education, and equipment.
Africa News, June 25, 2002
Kenya; First Convoy in Somali Bantu Relocation Set to Leave
BYLINE: UN Integrated Regional Information Networks
The International Organisation for Migration (IOM) is due to begin transporting some 11,000 Somali Bantu refugees living in Dadaab refugee camps in northeastern Kenya to Kakuma refugee camp in the northwest from Wednesday, 26 June, in close collaboration with the office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).
This transfer is the first step towards the resettlement of the Somali Bantu refugees, who have lived in the Dadaab refugee camp for 10 years, to the US after their identification as "an at-risk persecuted minority without the possibility of return to their homeland," IOM spokesperson Niurka Pineiro said in a press briefing on Tuesday.
The 1,500 km journey - through some barren and bandit-prone countryside - es expected to take some 30 hours over two days. IOM said it has worked with UNHCR to identify overnight stops and medical facilities along the route, and taken the necessary security precautions. Bus convoys will depart on a weekly basis for an estimated four months, it added.
The US decided last year that it would resettle over 8,000 Somali Bantus in 2002, probably because UNHCR feared tension in Dadaab if they remained there, arising from the fact that Dadaab has a predominantly non-Bantu Somali population, according to humanitarian sources.
This was the likely reason for the decision to move the Bantus to Kakuma, which has a substantial Somali population but is predominantly Sudanese, they told IRIN.
Screening of the Somali Bantus, a minority group from southern Somalia, was under way in November 2001, a UNHCR spokesman, Newton Kanhema, told IRIN at the time.
It is expected that the majority of approved refugees from within the Somali Bantu group will travel to the US between January 2003 and June 2004. Last year, IOM facilitated medical examinations and resettlement of nearly 9,000 refugees from Kenya to the US.
The nongovernmental organisation World Vision and IOM are together constructing a transit camp of 2,200 mud brick shelters in Kakuma to accommodate the Somali Bantu refugees, and those for the first 4,000 have already been constructed.
IOM has also completed the construction of a resettlement-processing centre, which includes medical facilities, cultural orientation classrooms and interview rooms for the US Immigration and Naturalization Service, Pineiro stated on Tuesday.
The first Bantus arrived in Somalia during the slave trade in 1800s and settled on the southern Somali coast. Somali political sources told IRIN that most of the current Bantu population in the Juba valley were originally from Tanzania, Malawi, and Mozambique. Some of the Bantus in southern Somalia had kept their traditions and spoke the languages of their ancestors, the source said.
Originally accepted by the government of Mozambique - a country with which the Somali Bantus have historical links - the US stepped in after Mozambique, devastated by last year's floods, decided it could not cope with the resettlement programme.
The US resettlement programme has specifically targeted the Somali Bantus (known as Mushunguli and Gosha) resident in Dadaab and Kakuma camps, who arrived in Kenya and registered with UNHCR prior to 1 January 1998, because they were an identifiable group, particularly impoverished and a persecuted minority unlikely ever to return to Somalia, according to humanitarian sources.
Mushunguli describes a social group descended from slaves, while Gosha literally translates as "forest" and refers to this group's villages located in formerly forested regions of the Juba River valley. The term "Somali Bantu" came into use during consideration of this group for resettlement, as a general term to distinguish them from indigenous Somalis.
"Due to the Bantus' history and physical features, which are more Negroid than the indigenous Somali, they are one of the most discriminated-against groups in Somali society," according to the Washington-based Cultural Orientation Network, which provides training for refugees arriving in the US. [
http://www.culturalorientation.net/]
"Discrimination manifests itself in many ways, including extremely little intermarriage between Somali Bantus and other Somali clans; and being relegated to jobs and tasks that other Somalis will not perform," it added.
The minority Somali Bantu were "treated like second class citizens" by Somalis, according to humanitarian sources familiar with Somalia. Insecurity and the civil war in Somalia over the last decade had rendered the group even more vulnerable, they added.
Toronto Star, June 25, 2002
Camel meat idea hits customs hump
by John Deverell, Toronto Star
Help Africa help itself.
That's Prime Minister Jean Chretien's idea, but it's a far easier one to preach than to practise, the Toronto Baptist Intercultural Service has learned.
Ron Ward of the Baptist Service wants to supply an estimated 250,000 Toronto Muslims, including 70,000 Toronto Somalis, with camel milk and camel meat. Ward sees the camel trade as a way to use a plentiful Kenyan resource - camels - to provide cash income directly to village mothers who represent, many say, Africa's best hope for progress.
"The trade could be very profitable at both ends," the church official says.
Several months ago, Ward organized 14 Kenyan Somali women to buy a camel, slaughter and butcher it, and cook and dry the meat in traditional ways. Then they and Ward vacuum-packed the product in strong plastic bags and sent 50 kilograms of camel meat by air cargo to Toronto.
Then reality struck.
A Canadian Food Inspection Agency official at Pearson International Airport laughed and confiscated the camel meat for destruction.
"I thought they would test to see if it was safe," Ward said. "That shows how ignorant I was. They said no meat products are allowed in from Kenya or anywhere in Africa."
The inspector told him the rule is designed to protect the health of Canadians and Canadian livestock.
Dr. Lou Skrinar, a veterinarian with the food inspection agency in Ottawa, said camels are susceptible to the same diseases as cattle and swine, notably foot-and-mouth disease, and there can be absolutely no movement of live animals or fresh meat from contaminated and quarantined zones to disease-free zones.
This leaves open the option to cook or otherwise process the export meat to eliminate sources of disease, as Ward attempted. But camels are not a legally approved food animal in Canada and there are no inspection standards.
And even if that restriction were overcome, the food inspection agency still would want to know who is guaranteeing the inspection of the slaughter, cutting and processing of the meat.
But large areas of the Third World, including most of Africa, have no honest and professional meat inspection service that the Canadian agency is prepared to trust.
SUNDAY TELEGRAPH(LONDON) June 23, 2002
Out of the desert She left her Somalian home at 12, arrived in London at 14 and became a top model. Now Waris Dirie is a UN ambassador and bestselling author. 'I'm from another world,' she admits
By HELENA DE BERTODANO
To say that Waris Dirie has an unusual CV is an understatement. Born a desert nomad in Somalia, she fled an arranged marriage, became a cleaner in McDonald's in London, then a catwalk model and United Nations ambassador. No wonder she feels disorientated. "Sometimes I wonder where I am from. I am either way ahead or I come from another world. I don't recognise this world."
She does not even know how old she is. Returning to Somalia last October, she asked her parents - who are still living as nomads - if they could remember when she was born. "They just laughed at me. My father looked at me as if to say, 'Where's she coming from with this question and where's she going with it?' It's true. Is it going to add anything to me or take anything out of me? No. It's just a number I don't know." Dirie thinks she was "about 14" when she first came to England to work as a domestic servant for her uncle, who had been appointed the Somali ambassador. He needed to get her a passport and put her age down as 18. "That says I was born in 1964. What does that make me? 34, 35?" Thirty-seven or eight, I say. "Bloody hell," she laughs. "I'm nearly 40 years old. Damn." In fact, she is probably about 34. Her face, which is free of make-up, looks ageless: there are no lines, just a strong dimple in her right cheek when she smiles. Slim and graceful, she wears a grey vest and emerald wrapover skirt from Tibet over a pair of multi-coloured trousers with sandals. Her toe-nails are painted silver.
After a couple of eccentric telephone conversations, in which she tells me my voice sounds like "flowing water", we meet at her terraced house in a Welsh town, where she moved two weeks ago from New York with her five-year-old son, Aleeke. She apologises for her "humble place" and says she has not had time to sort things out. "When I knew you were coming, I thought 'Oh my God, I've got to Hoover, I've got to clean the house, I've got to do the laundry, get all my papers out of the way. But I couldn't, my friend. I tried doing my best, but it was just too much, too quickly."
So she leads me rapidly through the house and we go out into the back garden where we prop two chairs on the gravel under the washing-line. It is very hot and there is no shade. "I wish we were in Africa; then we could run under a big tree in the bush."
I ask her why she is living in Wales and she smiles enigmatically. "Because I decided to live here." Later she explains that she wanted to return to England but did not want to live in London. "I like England very much. You've got some bizarre ways, but we can work on that. So I thought London - but when I got to the middle of London, I stood there with tears in my eyes and I thought, 'Get me out of here' - the pollution, the smell, the noise, madness. I thought, 'I'm not leaving New York for this'. A friend of mine called me and said, 'Wales'. And I love it. It's like a breath. It's good for my spirit, good for my soul, good for my eyes, good for everything."
Dirie still models occasionally, but devotes most of her time to her UN work and to writing - her second book, Desert Dawn, to be published on July 4, describes her return to Somalia last autumn. In 1997 she was appointed by the United Nations as special ambassador for the elimination of female genital mutilation. "My passion and power and energy and strength is to bring it to an end. The saddest thing is everybody knows it is wrong: from the mother who is holding the child, to the father who makes the decision, to the one who is slicing the child."
She talks rather stiltedly, but with great energy and passion, in a resonant voice that is strongly African with a slight American accent. From reading her book and meeting her, one gets the sense that Dirie is the sort of woman who will fight fiercely for what she believes in and will stand her ground, come what may. But there is also an air of vulnerability about her - she feels things intensely. "I feel I carry a pain in my heart, a lot of suffering."
Before she was circumcised at about the age of five, she remembers a harsh but idyllic life, helping her parents with the animals, moving camp in search of food and water. Dirie, whose first name, Waris, means Desert Flower, was one of 12 children. Several of them died in infancy. One of her sisters died after she was circumcised; Dirie nearly died herself. "Truly it is a miracle that I am sitting here talking about it."
T he day before she was circumcised she remembers the sense of excitement. She knew something special was going to happen to her and she was given extra food at dinner. Before dawn, her mother took her away from the camp to meet a gypsy woman. "She had a blank, dead face and horrible eyes." She took a broken razor blade from a bag, spat on it to remove the dried blood and wiped it against her dress. Dirie was blindfolded. "The next thing I felt was my flesh, my genitals, being cut away," she writes in her first book, Desert Flower. "I heard the sound of the dull blade sawing back and forth through my skin."
Dirie passed out and when she came round, she saw a stack of thorns. "She used these to puncture holes in my skin, then poked a strong white thread through the holes to sew me up . . . The only opening left for urine and menstrual blood was a minuscule hole the diameter of a matchstick. This brilliant strategy ensured that I could never have sex until I was married, and my husband would be guaranteed a virgin." Inevitably, the wound became infected and Dirie spent two weeks fading in and out of consciousness, unable to pass urine for several days and running a high fever. Eventually, against the odds, she recovered.
For years she never talked about it, but eventually decided to speak out against the practice, to try to change the fate of millions of women. "It wasn't easy to stand there, telling the most horrific graphic details of your life. It was so very personal and painful." In the past few years, since she became ambassador, several African countries have made the practice illegal, although in Somalia it is still the norm.
She had the circumcision partially reversed in London, and went on to have her child Aleeke with Dana, an African-American jazz musician, from whom she has since parted.
She returned briefly to Somalia a few years ago when the BBC was filming a documentary of her life, and was reunited with her mother, whom she adores and had not seen since she was 12. The visit was strained. "The cameras were always in my Mama's face and I just couldn't be the way I wanted to be with her."
But when she returned last year, it was much better. She saw her father, now blind, for the first time since she had left and spent several days with her family. She tried to speak to her mother about the hardship endured by women in the desert, particularly the female circumcision. "I said, 'Mama, I know you've tried to hold everything together, but you have to feel sometimes that the things that happened in our lives weren't so great.' She had her head down. She knew the truth of what I was saying. I said: 'Mama, you can do something about it.' "
They sat and watched the children playing outside the huts. "I said: 'Look at all those children running around. I would hate to come back one day and hear that they went through that.' And I told my sister-in-law. I said, 'Are you going to put your daughter through this?' and she said, 'No, no, no.' You have to start somewhere and that was a good beginning - from home."
When she was about 12, she ran away from home after her father presented her to the old man he wanted her to marry, who had offered him five camels for her. As she escaped to Mogadishu, where she knew some of her family lived, she survived an encounter with a lion in the desert, as well as a rape attempt. She smashed her attacker over the head with a stone - and does not know to this day whether he survived. "I look back on my life and sometimes I wonder how I made it through."
While living with her aunt in Mogadishu, she worked as a bricklayer and childminder. When she overheard that her uncle was preparing to go to London as ambassador, she begged him to take her as his servant. He agreed and she worked for four years for the family, refusing to return with them to Somalia. She got a job at McDonald's as a cleaner and was working there when she was discovered at 19 by a photographer.
An agency sent her to Terence Donovan's studio to audition for the Pirelli calendar, but when he asked her to take her top off, she ran away. Coaxed back the following day, she was chosen as one of the models, and found herself in a hotel with Naomi Campbell, then an unknown. In Desert Flower Dirie describes meeting her: "Naomi came to my room and asked if she could sleep with me. She was very young and sweet, about 16 or 17, and frightened to stay by herself. I said sure, because I enjoyed the company."
Dirie's picture was selected for the cover and her modelling career took off - she even found herself with a role as a Bond girl in The Living Daylights, and became the first black model to be featured in advertisements for Oil of Ulay. Dirie is reluctant to talk about the frothy fashion world. "There was a lot of stupid s--t going on. It was what it was and it's dead." She says she enjoys modelling, but never feels truly comfortable with it. "Fashion is fun, ridiculously fun. But it's base and it's wrong. You're not doing anything good for the world. You're just saying, 'Buy it, buy it, buy it.' "
Woe betide anyone who calls her a supermodel. "I don't know what a supermodel is. If they call me that, I might have to punch them. It's just so vain and so unreal."
She has been married twice, both times to men she did not really know or love, in an attempt to get the right documentation to travel to and from Britain. The first, an elderly Irishman, whom she met at the altar, died a few months later. She is still married to the second, the brother of a fellow model. "We're getting divorced, we're in the middle of it right now. The funny thing is he's become a great friend."
Dirie lives alone now; she says that she has always been independent and does not need to share her life with anyone except her son. But she also sounds lonely. "I miss my family very much. This yo-yo solo life is not working for me."
Although she likes living in Cardiff, she does not plan to stay there long-term. Her destiny, she says, is to roam. "I've never been one to stay still. I was born a nomad, and I still am a nomad and always will be."
Desert Dawn, by Waris Dirie (Virago) is available for pounds 10.99 plus pounds 1.99 p&p. To order, please call Telegraph Books Direct on 0870 155 7222.
BBC Monitoring International Reports, June 23, 2002
SOMALI PARTY LEADER URGES INTERNATIONAL COMMUNITY TO INTERVENE IN COUNTRY
Djibouti: Pana news agency has said that the leader of the Somali "Communities Party", Mohamed Haji Barako, has invited the UN, the EU and the international community to intervene in Somalia with a view to putting an end to the clan wars, which have led to the loss of thousands of human lives.
In a news statement released on Tuesday 18 June , Mr Barako accused the Somali warlords of abetting disorder in the country for their own selfish gains. He urged the international community to prevent the warlords from travelling and to impose sanctions on any form of assistance to them, the agency reported. "It is sad to see that the UN arms embargo on Somalia had not been respected since they were imposed in 1992", he lamented. He called upon the international organization to send military experts to enforce the embargo.
The Pana report said the Barako said that no central government could survive in Somalia as long as the warlords controlled the country in sheer impunity. Despite the UN sanctions, several Somali factions continued to receive arms from outside the country. Somalia's neighbour Ethiopia has been accused of backing the warlords opposed to the interim government based in Mogadishu.
Source: ADI news agency web site, Djibouti, in French 22 Jun 02 /) BBC Monitoring
The Columbus Dispatch, June 19, 2002
A TASTE OF HOME ; Somali immigrants find familiar flavors at local merchants
by Jennifer Halperin
To most Americans, grocery shopping is ho-hum; to immigrants, the experience can be anything but.
But with an estimated 17,000 Somalis living in Columbus, markets and restaurants are springing up to meet their culinary needs.
"The numbers coming here . . . they are growing overnight," said Hassan Omar, chairman of the Somali Community Association. "(The market) will respond to that." Along Morse Road between I-71 and Cleveland Avenue, stores cater to the second-largest population of Somalis in the United States (Minneapolis-St. Paul has the largest).
"It's like Somaliland," said Abucar Yusuf, an architect who knew of only two Somali families in Columbus when he arrived almost two decades ago. "Things have really changed here."
Many came to the United States after fleeing their war-torn African country. Columbus offered a promising job market.
"When I came here and I would go shopping, I felt isolated in some ways because I didn't understand where some of the food in stores would come from," said Deka Siad, a Somali native who has lived in the United States since 1985 and in Columbus since 1996.
Today, though, the markets offer a variety of products, from basmati rice and spices such as cardamom, cumin and ginger to meats such as goat and camel.
Until recently, immigrants in Columbus had to find goat farms in central Ohio, where they would select and slaughter their own animals.
Now, halal meat is available at markets and butcher shops. Halal describes the meat of animals slaughtered with a knife that has not come into contact with pork products; pork is forbidden by Islamic religious doctrine.
"Most of us are Muslim, so we don't eat pork," said Deet Farah, who grew up in Somalia and came to Columbus in 1993.
Farah is one of the owners of African Paradise restaurant, 2263 Morse Rd., where spaghetti and tomato-sauce dishes are popular, he said.
Pasta entered Somali's culinary heritage when it was an Italian colony from the late 1800s until the late 1940s.
Other offerings include seafood dishes, such as crabmeat stew, reflecting the influence the coastline along the Indian Ocean and the Gulf of Aden. Somalis also favor spicy entrees with chicken, beef, lamb, fish and goat meat cooked with garlic, curry powder, cumin and other spices, Farah said.
Kebabs and other meat-on-a-stick items also are staples. A favorite, kofta -- a mixture of minced meat and seasonings -- can be molded onto skewers and grilled or formed into patties or meatballs.
Goat remains a favorite meat. As Columbus' Somali population grows, demand is increasing, says Hassan Omar, chairman of the Somali Community Association.
"There's not enough goat available (to local markets) and what is available sometimes isn't fresh enough," Omar said. "Some comes all the way from Australia, frozen."
The recipes are from Deet Farah, an owner of African Paradise restaurant.
CRABMEAT STEW
1 cup onions, finely chopped
1 tablespoon curry powder
1 tablespoon ginger
1 tablespoon salt
1 tablespoon crushed red pepper
1/4 cup peanut oil or butter
1 pound tomatoes, cut into small wedges
2 pounds crabmeat
Saute the onions with the curry powder, ginger, salt, red pepper and the peanut oil or butter until the onions are soft but not brown. Add the tomatoes. Simmer until the tomatoes begin to cook. Add the crabmeat. Saute lightly for about 10 minutes. Serve over rice or beans.
SOMALIAN-STYLE FISH
Yield: 2-4 servings
3 whole fish, such as haddock, halibut or ocean perch
1/2 teaspoon salt
Seasoning mixture (such as Accent) to taste
Black pepper to taste
Seasoned oil, if needed
Place the fish in a pan of heated, salted water; let simmer for about 15 minutes.
Place the fish in a 350-degree oven or on a grill for about 10 minutes. Remove from the oven or grill, and sprinkle with the salt, Accent and pepper. Return the fish to the oven or grill. Remove the fish as soon as it begins to flake. If it appears dry, carefully brush with seasoned oil or butter.
TEA, SOMALIAN STYLE
Yield: 8 servings
1/2 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
2 crushed cardamom pods (husks discarded)
5 cloves, crushed
1-inch cinnamon stick, crushed
Sugar
Milk
Mix the nutmeg, cardamom, cloves and cinnamon. Place the mixture in the bottom of a teapot and add boiling water. Let steep for several minutes and add a generous amount of sugar. Pour milk into each teacup. Add the tea to the milk and serve.
GRAPHIC: Photo, (1) Foods served at the African Paradise restaurant in Columbus, include (clockwise from top) Chicken Kalankal, goat, pasta and Spinach With, Tomato.,, Chris Russell / Dispatch photos,, (2) African Paradise restaurant chef Abdi Hashi serves a variety of Somalian, dishes.,, (3) Chris Russell / Dispatch,, Spinach With Tomato, served at African Paradise restaurant, captures flavors, of Somalian cuisine.