Year: 2013

Mogadishu, Jun 24, 2013 (SDN) – Somali money transfer businesses asked the British government to stop Barclays bank from closing their accounts in Britain, a move Somali officials and bankers said threatens remittances. Diaspora remittances are Somalia’s biggest foreign currency earner and many of its 10 million people rely on the $1.2 billion (777 million…

For most of these young Somalis, the common means of getting abroad is a deadly voyage across the Aden Gulf on tiny, unreliable boats prone to capsizing. Up to now, hundreds of Somali migrants have been killed in the rough, turbulent high seas with only a handful of them luck enough to survive to tell…

London, Jun 24, 2013 (SDN) –The UK government is being urged to stop Barclays closing the last account in Somalia which allows its citizens overseas to send money back home. A group of aid practitioners said the service was a “lifeline” for an estimated 40% of the Somali population which rely on the transfers. There…

The Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) advise against all travel to Somalia, including Somaliland. Any British nationals in Somalia 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…

Former NSA contractor Edward Snowden, who has been officially indicted by the United States under the Espionage Act, is en route to Ecuador, one of at least two countries in which he is seeking asylum, WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange said today on a call with reporters. Assange would not provide further details on Snowden’s current…

Addis Ababa, Jun 24, 2013 (SDN) –Diplomats from Sudan and South Sudan have expressed their support for Ethiopia’s controversial Grand Renaissance Dam on the Blue Nile river just 30km from the Sudanese border. The diplomats made the remarks after a group of Ambassadors from member states of the Nile Basin Initiative over the weekend paid…

Pretoria, Jun 24, 2013 (SDN) –Former South African President Nelson Mandela remains in a critical condition in hospital, President Jacob Zuma says. Mr Zuma said the doctors were doing everything they could to make the former leader comfortable, but he could not give any more medical details. South Africa’s first black president, 94, was taken…

Even as a political scientist, sovereignty is not something that captures a lot of my attention in the course of a normal day. But when I spend time in Somaliland, it’s inescapable, and what it means to be seen – or not seen – as a state by the rest of the world is heatedly…

Hargeisa, Jun 24, 2013 (SDN) –Somaliland President Ahmed Mohamed Mahmoud (Silanyo) has appointed anti-migration and job creation committee to counter the rising trend of illegal immigration among Somaliland youth and to finds ways and means to create employment opportunities. In statement issued by president Silanyo last night said that the committee has full mandate of…