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Nowadays, it looks the luck of Somali people and state is changing for good and finally the light at end of the tunnel is getting brighter and nearer and many both in Diaspora and in the country feel uneasy because the end of TFG may not bring continuity the newly achieved gains of the past year. Many Somali intellectuals are happy to see transitional period is over but yet worried things may turn back without the right leadership.

On 31st of July, members of Constituency Assembly approved the new provisional constitution of Somalia. This was a process that started  seven years ago and for all practical purposes were not going anywhere until a year ago, when a new Prime Minister came on board with a cabinet of mainly professional s who he called them back from their comfort lives over the world.

The Prime Minister, Dr. Abdiwali M. Ali, himself, a professor of economics from Buffalo, NY took over a shambled government, at a time where al-Shabab were occupying two-third of Mogadishu,  hundreds of Somalis were dying daily because of worst draught for long time. Regional administration weren’t talking to TFG and overall morale was descending fast.

Many doubt that a professor from New York can change the course and saw him another PM for long list of trial and error exercise. Today, to the credit of TFG forces and AMISOM but equally to his leadership, Mogadishu is free and al-Shabab is on the run. He established an independent Disaster Management Agency to deal with the draught emergency relief work.  His understanding in problem solving and the art of diplomacy led international community to pour help for Somali people to counter the draught. Within 90 days things turned to get better. 

However, what separates him from other leaders in the past 20 years or so is not only the handling the draught problem or kicking al-Shabab out of Mogadishu but coming up with a Roadmap with a time line to tackle four major tasks:
1-Security: with a National Stabilization and Security Plan that deals from securing the country, strengthening the Somali forces and preparing administration for newly liberated towns.

2-Good Governance: re-establishing and strengthening national institution, he also established an independent anti-corruption commission. As an academic he put emphases on education with a result of 3000 students taking abroad for higher education.

3- Reconciliation: First time in 20 years that regional administrations are cooperating with and working side by side with central government, these were not the case 18 months ago. 135 Somali Traditional Clan elders from all over the country are working together in Mogadishu and have chosen 825 Constituency Assembly that just approve d the provisional constitution and  will in few days select members of parliament. This exercise is a historic one because after two decades, the new Somali Government will lose the Transitional status in its name. 

4- The constitution was a major component of the Roadmap and recent approval of the constitution is the most important achievement so far for this government.

Three soldiers killed in Ivory Coast attack

Gunmen stormed a police station in Ivory Coast's commercial capital, Abidjan, early on Sunday, killing three soldiers, police said. The attack occurred at around 3.30 in the morning in the Yopougon neighbourhood, scene of some of the fiercest fighting during a brief post-election civil war last year.

"According to the accounts of local residents who saw the attack, there were about 10 assailants armed with AK-47 rifles, and they had one heavy weapon with them," said police superintendent Kouame Lazou.

"We don't yet know the motive of this attack, but this is a very serious act," he said, adding that the attackers had fled with the weapons of the murdered soldiers.

The West African nation, the world's biggest cocoa producer, is recovering from a decade of political deadlock and civil unrest.

Last year's conflict erupted after then President Laurent Gbagbo refused to acknowledge his defeat to rival Alassane Ouattara in an election in late 2010.

Yopougon was one of the final pro-Gbagbo strongholds to fall to Ouattara's French and United Nations-backed forces as they seized the city. Gbagbo, who was captured during the fighting, is currently awaiting trial before the International Criminal Court in The Hague on war crimes charges.

While Ouattara, now president, has managed to improve security in most of the country, Ivory Coast is still awash with weapons left over from the conflict and sporadic violence continues, particularly in the volatile western cocoa heartland.

The army has taken over many policing functions since last year's conflict, as many policemen fought on behalf of Gbagbo.

Seven United Nations peacekeepers were killed on June 8 in an ambush near the town of Tai, close to the border with Liberia, in what Ivorian authorities said was a cross-border raid by pro-Gbagbo militia and Liberian mercenaries.

Africa tour: Clinton urges Sudan compromise

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has called on the two Sudans to settle the disputes that have brought them close to war, as she briefly visited the South Sudanese capital, Juba. Mrs Clinton is the highest-ranking US official to visit South Sudan since it gained independence last July. A UN deadline for the nations to resolve disputes over their border and oil transit fees passed on Thursday. South Sudan is the second stop of Mrs Clinton's seven-country African tour.

The row over oil has led to huge economic problems in both countries - South Sudan has suspended all oil production, accusing Khartoum of stealing its exports, while austerity measures have sparked weeks of protests in Khartoum.
"We need to get those [oil] resources flowing again," Mrs Clinton told reporters after talks lasting more than an hour with South Sudanese President Salva Kiir.

"A percentage of something is better than a percentage of nothing," she said, according to the Reuters news agency.
At independence, the South took three-quarters of Sudan's oil with it but all the pipelines still flow north.

"While South Sudan and Sudan have become separate states, their fortunes and their futures remain inextricably linked," Mrs Clinton said.

"Both countries will need to compromise to close the remaining gaps between them."

Ms Clinton's visit to South Sudan came nearly a month after the new state celebrated its first anniversary of independence, which was brought about by a 2005 peace deal between Sudan and the then southern rebels.

The two countries came close to all-out war in April, when South Sudanese troops briefly occupied the disputed oil-rich border area of Heglig.

Negotiations between the two countries in the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa, aimed at resolving all outstanding issues, are currently stalled.

Arriving from Senegal via the Ugandan capital Kampala, Mrs Clinton only spent a few hours in Juba before returning to Uganda.

Remarks by Mrs Clinton in Senegal which seemed to criticise China's involvement in Africa were met with a stinging rebuke by the Chinese state media on Friday.

In a speech in Dakar on Wednesday, Mrs Clinton said the United States was committed to "a model of sustainable partnership that adds value, rather than extracts it".

The official Chinese news agency Xinhua said in a commentary: "Whether Clinton was ignorant of the facts on the ground or chose to disregard them, her implication that China has been extracting Africa's wealth for itself is utterly wide of the truth."

Chinese investment in Africa has surged in recent years.

Beijing says it does not interfere in other countries' domestic politics, leading to accusations that it turns a blind eye to human rights abuses and democratic shortcomings.

In Kampala later on Friday, Mrs Clinton is expected to press Ugandan officials to step up the hunt for the leader of the rebel Lord's Resistance Army, Joseph Kony.

She is also likely to urge Uganda's President Yoweri Museveni to engage in democratic reform and improve his country's human rights record, especially in relation to its often persecuted gay and lesbian communities.

Her 11-day African tour takes her on to Kenya, Malawi, South Africa and Ghana, where she will attend the funeral of the President John Atta Mills on 10 August.

UN Monitoring Group, politics of "Good Governance"Since its inception, the UN Monitoring Group on Somalia (and Eritrea) has been rolling over controversies, mainly in its reporting, sourcing, and unsubstantiated claims. I just got through reading its latest report made of truths, half-truths, and a whole lot of innuendoes that implicate at least four present/past officials and presidential candidates with certain level of skepticism. somalia_map This is not to deny or dismiss any accusations made against anyone in the report for I neither have the facts to prove nor disprove their actions or inactions. It is to simply practice the fundamentals. In politics a moderate dose of skepticism is a healthy requisite that only the gullible can afford to ignore; especially when the entity in question has a record in political myth-making. In its 2007 report, the Monitoring Group made two outlandish claims which were clearly orchestrated to pave the way for Ethiopia’s invasion and occupation of Somalia. They claimed that al-Shabaab (Sunni extremists) has exported 720 of its militant fighters to help Hizbullah (Shi’i nationalists) of Lebanon in its fight against Israel, and that Iranian scientists were mining uranium for their nuclear program in Dhuso Mareeb. This wild claim, which was a page out of the Iraq war playbook, has earned Ethiopia the International Community that it needed to fund and sustain that failed project. You may read more on ‘The Making of Another Iraq.’ Interestingly, this latest report comes out only a few weeks before Somalia was to emerge out of a long transitional period on August 20th, and due to its broad media coverage, it ends up dominating the political discourse. Much of the report is insightful and apolitical while the rest is clearly used for political reasons or simply as a red herring. The central questions dominating the political discourse are no longer: Why are certain elements within the International Community is forcing a controversial new constitution on the Somali people? What specific geographical boundaries of the new constitution? Would the new government be able to fully claim its sovereignty? Would it be able to claim its national assets in various Western banks? And would it have the right to demand the UN agencies and varies NGOs who are members of the Ghost-lords network to open their books and report publicly how they have been handling roughly around $1 billion aid money to Somalia per year? It is about $130 million that the Monitoring Group claims has not been accounted for or may have been misappropriated by officials in various transitional governments since 2000. Make no mistake, these are very serious revelations in this report that if proven accurate ought to be grounds for prosecution. Indeed, “kleptocracy” and institutionalized corruption is still alive though there is snail-pace progress toward improvement. Decades since independence, before any institutions of checks and balances could be built, clans would and continue to compete on who should have the exclusive rights to this ministry or that. The driving assumption almost always being if an individual from one’s clan were to be granted that exclusive right he or she would favor individuals from his or her own clan by way of nepotism. While exploiting that inherently unflattering reputation coupled with the successive status of being rated the most failed state, the Monitoring Group uses two different yard sticks for ascertaining allegations. A case in point, the Monitoring Group exonerates Eritrea against allegations of illegally arming al-Shabaab with shipments of weapons despite multiple testimonies and reports from, according to the report, government officials, “an intelligence report from a military source”, “an international organization with contacts on the ground,” and the Kenyan government. Despite all these, the report concludes “The Monitoring Group received no credible reports or evidence of assistance from Eritrea to armed opposition groups in Somalia during the course of the mandate.” On the other hand, the report directly condemns various members of the current and previous transitional governments based on claims made by two disgruntled employees who were both (for the right or wrong reasons) sacked disgracefully. Should such information not be relevant? And what was their attitude before they got the urge to go public with their seemingly not-so-divinely-inspired claims? I suppose only when they support foregone conclusions. When it comes to incriminating or condemning people based on unsubstantiated individual testimonies or that of an entity, credibility should be the determining factor. Therefore, it is utterly reprehensible for the Monitoring Group to recommend the Security Council to take punitive actions against these accused officials. Weeding out corrupt officials out of the political system is in the best interest of Somalia, but it is a matter that Somalia can investigate and pursue on its own. If the fast approaching end of the transitional period means Somalia would be able to claim its lost sovereignty and be given enough room to handle its own affairs, then the new parliament and government should deal with this matter. Meanwhile, if this is about the promotion of good governance and the protection of revenues and donated funds, the Monitoring Group should consider urging the Security Council to demand the Ghost-lords and all UN agencies that are tasked to provide services to Somalia to open their books and list any and all tangible projects that they have completed in Somalia. Coincidently, the report has nothing to say about the laboratory of international corruption in Nairobi that profoundly hinders any significant progress in Somalia. It says nothing about the almost $1 billion per year squandered in Nairobi that the Transitional Federal Government has no say or knowledge as to how, when, and where it is spent. It is interesting how the allegations in the report are solely based on monies collected or promised the government on bilateral bases. It is even more interesting how these crocodile tears against corruption started immediately after officials within the TFG requested all UN agencies to open their books and to hire an independent firm to conduct general audit and administer forensic accounting to reclaim Somalia’s assets in various Western banks. It is about time the Security Council reconsiders the absolute power it granted to the Monitoring Group. It is about time to “police the police” or monitor the Monitoring Group since they have full immunity from any law suits for lies that they occasionally propagate, not to mention defamation and character assassinations. It is about time that the Security Council protects the integrity of that august institution. Abukar Arman is Somalia Special Envoy to the United States and a widely published political analyst

Since its inception, the UN Monitoring Group on Somalia (and Eritrea) has been rolling over controversies, mainly in its reporting, sourcing, and unsubstantiated claims. I just got through reading its latest report made of truths, half-truths, and a whole lot of innuendoes that implicate at least four present/past officials and presidential candidates with certain level of skepticism.

This is not to deny or dismiss any accusations made against anyone in the report for I neither have the facts to prove nor disprove their actions or inactions. It is to simply practice the fundamentals. In politics a moderate dose of skepticism is a healthy requisite that only the gullible can afford to ignore; especially when the entity in question has a record in political myth-making.

In its 2007 report, the Monitoring Group made two outlandish claims which were clearly orchestrated to pave the way for Ethiopia’s invasion and occupation of Somalia. They claimed that al-Shabaab (Sunni extremists) has exported 720 of its militant fighters to help Hizbullah (Shi’i nationalists) of Lebanon in its fight against Israel, and that Iranian scientists were mining uranium for their nuclear program in Dhuso Mareeb.

This wild claim, which was a page out of the Iraq war playbook, has earned Ethiopia the International Community that it needed to fund and sustain that failed project. You may read more on ‘The Making of Another Iraq.’ 

Interestingly, this latest report comes out only a few weeks before Somalia was to emerge out of a long transitional period on August 20th, and due to its broad media coverage, it ends up dominating the political discourse. Much of the report is insightful and apolitical while the rest is clearly used for political reasons or simply as a red herring. 

The central questions dominating the political discourse are no longer: Why are certain elements within the International Community is forcing a controversial new constitution on the Somali people? What specific geographical boundaries of the new constitution? Would the new government be able to fully claim its sovereignty? Would it be able to claim its national assets in various Western banks? And would it have the right to demand the UN agencies and varies NGOs who are members of the Ghost-lords network to open their books and report publicly how they have been handling roughly around $1 billion aid money to Somalia per year? It is about $130 million that the Monitoring Group claims has not been accounted for or may have been misappropriated by officials in various transitional governments since 2000. Make no mistake, these are very serious revelations in this report that if proven accurate ought to be grounds for prosecution.

Indeed, “kleptocracy” and institutionalized corruption is still alive though there is snail-pace progress toward improvement. Decades since independence, before any institutions of checks and balances could be built, clans would and continue to compete on who should have the exclusive rights to this ministry or that. The driving assumption almost always being if an individual from one’s clan were to be granted that exclusive right he or she would favor individuals from his or her own clan by way of nepotism.

While exploiting that inherently unflattering reputation coupled with the successive status of being rated the most failed state, the Monitoring Group uses two different yard sticks for ascertaining allegations. 

A case in point, the Monitoring Group exonerates Eritrea against allegations of illegally arming al-Shabaab with shipments of weapons despite multiple testimonies and reports from, according to the report, government officials, “an intelligence report from a military source”, “an international organization with contacts on the ground,” and the Kenyan government. Despite all these, the report concludes “The Monitoring Group received no credible reports or evidence of assistance from Eritrea to armed opposition groups in Somalia during the course of the mandate.”

On the other hand, the report directly condemns various members of the current and previous transitional governments based on claims made by two disgruntled employees who were both (for the right or wrong reasons) sacked disgracefully. Should such information not be relevant? And what was their attitude before they got the urge to go public with their seemingly not-so-divinely-inspired claims? I suppose only when they support foregone conclusions.

When it comes to incriminating or condemning people based on unsubstantiated individual testimonies or that of an entity, credibility should be the determining factor. Therefore, it is utterly reprehensible for the Monitoring Group to recommend the Security Council to take punitive actions against these accused officials.

Weeding out corrupt officials out of the political system is in the best interest of Somalia, but it is a matter that Somalia can investigate and pursue on its own. If the fast approaching end of the transitional period means Somalia would be able to claim its lost sovereignty and be given enough room to handle its own affairs, then the new parliament and government should deal with this matter.

Meanwhile, if this is about the promotion of good governance and the protection of revenues and donated funds, the Monitoring Group should consider urging the Security Council to demand the Ghost-lords and all UN agencies that are tasked to provide services to Somalia to open their books and list any and all tangible projects that they have completed in Somalia.

Coincidently, the report has nothing to say about the laboratory of international corruption in Nairobi that profoundly hinders any significant progress in Somalia. It says nothing about the almost $1 billion per year squandered in Nairobi that the Transitional Federal Government has no say or knowledge as to how, when, and where it is spent.

It is interesting how the allegations in the report are solely based on monies collected or promised the government on bilateral bases. It is even more interesting how these crocodile tears against corruption started immediately after officials within the TFG requested all UN agencies to open their books and to hire an independent firm to conduct general audit and administer forensic accounting to reclaim Somalia’s assets in various Western banks.    

It is about time the Security Council reconsiders the absolute power it granted to the Monitoring Group. It is about time to “police the police” or monitor the Monitoring Group since they have full immunity from any law suits for lies that they occasionally propagate, not to mention defamation and character assassinations. It is about time that the Security Council protects the integrity of that august institution.

Abukar Arman is Somalia Special Envoy to the United States and a widely published political analyst

W/ African countries cut taxes to fight food prices

West African countries - Mali, Niger and Ivory Coast have slashed or removed taxes on a range of imported basic foods as they try to contain rising food prices, which led to protests in a number of countries when they last spiked five years ago. Grain prices hit record highs on international markets in July as drought scorched crops in the U.S. midwest and Russia, prompting the UN's Food and Agriculture Organization to warn that it was concerned about prices although it did not yet see a repeat of the 2007/08 crisis.

Russia's heatwave has fuelled speculation about export restrictions in the Black Sea producer, while U.S. corn and wheat prices at times rose by 50 percent in the last six weeks and remain close to highs.

High food prices sparked riots in countries such as Egypt, Cameroon and Haiti five years ago, although the UN has pointed out supplies of staple rice are more comfortable this time.

Global food price pressures come as many in West Africa celebrate the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, which traditionally drives up prices, and as a food crisis affecting some 18 million people across the Sahel peaks with the onset of annual rains.

"I know we are in a period of rising prices, especially when it comes to basic foods like sugar. But I call on businesses to respect promises that they made with the ministry of trade," Niger's President Mahamadou Issoufou said in a speech late on Thursday, referring to meetings between the government and traders last month.

Niger has removed all taxes on imported cereals but figures produced by the country's SIMA agricultural information index showed the price of cereals was 45 percent higher in July than during the same month last year.

In markets in the dusty capital, 100 kg of millet now costs 30,000 CFA francs, up from 25,000 CFA the month before and 19,000 at the same time last year.

The same amount of maize cost 25,000 CFA francs in July, up from 19,000 CFA the month before, according to SIMA.
Saley Saidou, the land-locked nation's trade minister, blamed failed rains in Niger and the high cost of transport from ports in nations to the south, as well as world prices for the increases.

Alarm is growing that an expected fall in U.S. grain exports could cause shortages and further jumps in prices worldwide.
Niger, a uranium-producing nation that straddles the south of the Sahara, saw street protests against the cost of living during the 2007-8 food price spike.

Neighbouring Mali, which is gripped by a political crisis in the south and whose northern desert zone is occupied by a range of Islamist forces, has slashed taxes on imported rice and sugar as it too seeks to keep prices under control.

Customs and value added tax on imported rice were reduced in May to a combined 2.5 percent, down from 31.28 percent. Meanwhile, the tax bill for sugar importers has been brought down from 105 percent to 2.5 percent.

The move is a welcome relief for a country seeking stability after a March coup precipitated the fall of the north to a mix of rebel forces.

"This year I was surprised to buy a kilogramme of sugar even cheaper than the price fixed by the authorities," said Moussa Doumbia, a stonemason. "Long may it continue."

Even top cocoa grower Ivory Coast, which with its ports is spared the same costs of transporting goods hundreds of kilometres north towards the Sahara but is still recovering from months of post-election violence last year, has been forced to act.

The government this week temporarily suspended all taxes on rice imports, estimated at some 900,000 tonnes a year, denying the government some 7 billion CFA in revenues.

"This decision was taken as the government wants to maintain the price of rice at a level that corresponds to the purchasing power of the Ivorian population," government spokesman Bruno Kone said after a cabinet meeting on Wednesday.