Attorneys representing the women had requested much shorter sentences and say they are disappointed by the decisions of U.S. District Judge Michael Davis. Some members of the Somali community say they are upset by the length of the sentences and were offended by how the women were treated in court.

Federal marshals had to turn away spectators who wanted to observe the sentencing of the two women. The long wooden benches in the gallery of the courtroom were packed mostly with women clad in traditional Muslim dress which covered everything but their faces.

Amina Farah Ali and Hawo Mohamed Hassan had been convicted of helping send money to al-Shabab, which the U.S. government considers a terrorist group. Ali was convicted in 2011 for being the founder of a network of donors across North America who funneled money to al-Shabab.

Prosectors said Ali, who was sentenced to 20 years, did not tell donors that the funds were going to help the terror group wage war in Somalia. Defense attorney Dan Scott said Ali, 36, was trying to help the poor and needy. He said she started the fundraising network after finding out that much of the aid sent to her homeland by international groups often got intercepted by corrupt government officials. Scott said she used members of al-Shabab to ensure the aid got to the right people.

“(Ali) was worried the clothes she sent would go to the wrong people,” said Scott said. “Al-Shabab was the wrong horse, but not illegal at the time. At the time they were not recognized as a terrorist group.”

Hassan was sentenced to 10 years. Defense attorney, Randy Daar, said his client was also motivated by her concern for the poor and needy. He feared that a long sentence would be a death sentence for the 66-year-old Hassan.

“It’s very unlikely she’ll live past 80,” Daar said.

Before issuing the punishments, Davis took time to ask each woman if they supported jihad, suicide bombings and Sharia law. “Does she understand there are some Muslim women who wear dresses or short skirts?” Davis asked Hassan’s interpreter. Davis said the questions were to determine the likelihood of the women to continue to support terrorist causes when they are released from prison. The questions often caused ripples of reaction in the courtroom gallery.

“Those religious questions were inappropriate,” said Hassan Mohamud, a St. Paul imam. “Because every American — every American in America, whether you are Somali or not — has First Amendment rights.”

Mohamud also attended the other sentencing hearings this week for nine people convicted of terror-related charges. The nine were snagged in a sweeping federal investigation into the recruitment of nearly two dozen young men from Minnesota to fight for al-Shabab in Somalia. Some of those men received shorter sentences than either Ali or Hassan. One man, who trained with al-Shabab fighters and was involved in a skirmish with Ethiopian soldiers, was also given 10 years.

Abdiwali Warsame, who lives in St. Paul and runs a Somali news website, said the punishment given to the women was unfair.

“They didn’t go back home. They didn’t kill anyone. They just helped with the poor people,” Warsame said. “They are the first people who build the home care in Somalia. It was helping the elders’ people. This is what’s happening here — it’s unjustice.”

Despite the reactions in the courtroom, federal prosecutors have said the al-Shabab investigation is a testament to the trust Somali people have placed in the federal government. They say the investigation began in 2007 after being approached by Somali elders seeking help in finding the young men who disappeared.

Realtaleex News Desk.

Source: MPR

Her appointment is a turning point for Lewiston, “when our city representatives begin to reflect our shifting demographics,” said Elizabeth Eames, an associate professor of anthropology at Bates. Of Lewiston’s student-age population of 5,139, 23 percent are English Language Learners, the majority from Somali families.

“Zam Zam bridges all sides of the community with her charismatic personality, high-voltage energy supply, linguistic facility and multiple cultural competencies,” Eames said.

Mohamud, 38, was nominated by Mayor Robert Macdonald and approved by the City Council. She fills a spot on the committee vacated by former school Superintendent Robert Connors, who resigned for health reasons. Mohamud said she intends to serve Connors’ term until it expires in January and might seek another term after that.

A CNA at Central Maine Medical Center, Mohamud lives in Tall Pines. She isn’t rich or powerful, Eames said. Her family “lost everything in the war, they came here having to start all over again.”

Yet she’s known by many in the community. She was an engaged parent active in her children’s schools: Longley and Montello elementary schools, Lewiston Middle School and Lewiston High School. She’s often been seen volunteering, wearing a head scarf and a warm smile.

Mohamud moved to Lewiston from Atlanta, Ga., in 2001, among the first Somali refugees to arrive. She fled Somalia because of the war and lived in Kenya for 10 years, she said.

After moving to Lewiston, she and her husband divorced, leaving her to raise her son, Jama, and daughter, Hanan. Both have graduated from Lewiston High School. In 2009, her daughter served as co-class president and was the first Somali student to serve on the School Committee. Hanan is now a student at Rochester Institute of Technology in New York; Jama attends Husson University in Bangor.

When she first moved to Maine, adapting to a new culture was difficult, Mohamud said, calling the English language tough to learn. She still learns new words every day. Culture shock.

“You’ve been raised in such a way,” she said. Her children were in school all day with American students learning new ways. When her children came home from school, “you want to keep the culture, the religion. It is a challenge.”

Children will push a parent’s limits, she said. “They will try. You need to be on top of everything. It’s reinforcing, you being there as a parent with your rules and regulations to be followed, and asking God to help.”

She said she raised her children with the expectation they’d work hard and do well in school. “There’s no way out,” she said. Education was a constant topic. “I talked to the teachers, to my kids, make sure they did their homework,” Mohamud said. She hired extra tutors for her children at home. She talked about the difference college would make in their lives and took them on college visits during their sophomore years.

She went to school herself, graduating from the Central Maine Medical Center College of Nursing and Health Professions. In 2006, she became a U.S. citizen.

Mohamud has been a frequent volunteer, serving on the Lewiston Police Department’s Civil Rights Team, the library board of trustees, Mayor Larry Gilbert’s Downtown Neighborhood Task Force, the school department’s search for a new superintendent, the school-based health centers and Welcoming Maine, among other groups.

In 2011 there wasn’t enough candidates running for the school board. She was among three who stepped up and became write-in candidates for an at-large school committee seat. Mohamud came in second to Connors, 552-418.

When the mayor recently asked her to fill Connors’ spot, she agreed. “My kids went to school here,” Mohamud said. “They got the best education. This is my way to give back to this community and to support the community.”

Lewiston High School Principal W. Gus LeBlanc said he’s known Mohamud for 12 years. Her children went to Montello when he was principal there, and later attended the high school when he was principal. LeBlanc described her as a parent committed to her children and their education, a tireless volunteer on committees to help education.

“Over the years she has been an active presence at the schools, following up on the progress of her children, encouraging her children to do their very best,” LeBlanc said. “Zam Zam can be held up as a good example of a person who has become an active and productive member of the community through her dedication to others and her strong work ethic.”

Mohamud said she’s looking forward to more minorities stepping up. “We will see more city officials from the Somali community,” she said. “This is the beginning.”

Realtaleex News Desk.

Maadaxwayne  oo isagu hada talada maamulka khatumo state hada gacanta ku haya ayaa isagu wada sidii maamulkaas la iskugu dubaridi lahaa. waxaana socoda wadatashi xoogan oo dhinac kasta ah.

Dhinac kale raga la magaacay ayaa waxaa ka mid ah Gen: Faarax Nadiif Aadan Howd Waxaa loo magacaabay Taliyada Ciidanka Qaranka Xoogaga Khaatumo State.Gen: Farxaan Maxmuud Xirsi (Maxashwan) Waxaa Isagana Loo Magacaabay Abaan Duulaha Ciidanka Qaranka Khaatumo State. Gaashaanle Sare Ibraahim Maxamed Faarax Filiq (Shiine) Waxaa loo magacaabay Isagana Abaan Duulaha Ciidanka Qaraanka Khaatumo State.

Isku soo wada duubow waxaa muuqta in la qaaday talaabo horumar ah oo lagu xoojinayo amaanka guud ee deegaanada maamulka khatumo state iyo in dib loogu soo celiyo Caasimadii maamulka khatumo.

Halkan ka eeg Digreetada

Realtaleex News Desk.

Golaha ayaa maanta ansixiyay Hindise Sharciyeedyo gaaraya 8 una gudbiyay Baarlamaanka, waxayna kala yihiin Hindise sharciyeeda:

• 1. Guddiga Dib-u-eegida iyo Hirgelinta Dastuurka.
• 2. Xafiiska Gardoonka iyo Illaaliyaha Dadweynaha.
• 3. Dhismaha Maxkamadda Dastuurka.
• 4. Golaha Adeegga Garsoorka.
• 5. Guddiga Xaquuqda Aadanaha.
• 6. Guddiga Xuduudaha iyo Federaalka Dalka.
• 7. Sharciga Arrimaha Dibadda (Foreign Service Law). Iyo
• 8. Sharciga La-dagaalanka Argagixisada.

Dhanka kale gollaha ayaa warbixino ka dhegeystay Wasiirka Warfaafinta, Boostada, Isgaarsiinta iyo Gaadiidka mudane Cabdullaahi Ciilmooge Xirsi oo u soo bandhigay golaha heshiiskii ay dawladda Soomaaliyeed kula soo wareegtay maamulka hawada “Air Space”, iyo sidoo kale dib-u-howlgelinta wakaalada Boostadii dalka.

“Waxaan guul noo ah inaan 22 sano kadib aan gacanta ku dhigno maamulkii hawadeena ee ay in mudaa gacanta ku heysay laan kamid ah hay’adaha Qaramada Midoobay,” ayuu yiri Wasiirka oo tilmaamay in heshiiskaasi oo ka kooban 7 qodob dhawaana hirgali doona uu yahay guul weyn oo u soo hoyatay dawladda iyo shacabka Soomaaliyeed.

Wasiirka ayaa sheegay in golahu dood dheer kadib isla ogolaadeen in dib-loo-howlgeliyo Wakaaladdii Hawlaha Maraakibta iyo Wakaaladdii Dekeddaha dalka, kuwaasoo uu sheegay in loo aqoonsaday inay laf dhabar u yihiin taabogelinta howlaha dekeddaha Soomaaliyeed.

Ugu dambeyntiina, wasiirka ayaa tilmaamay in heshiiska labaad uu ahaa dib-u-howlgelinta Boostadii dalka oo iyaduna burburkii dalka kadib aan shaqeyn, wuxuuna tilmaamay in heshiisyadan ay yihiin kuwo taariikhi ah ayna soo dhoweeyeen golaha Wasiiradu.

FG:- Lifaaqa hoose kala baxa Sawirada shirka Golaha

https://picasaweb.google.com/106077317678195477988/ShirkaGolahaWasiirada?authuser=0&feat=directlink

DHAMAAD

Garad Salad Hersi
Press officer, PM office
Mob. +252615536608
Mogadishu, Somalia

Kulankii maanta ayaa waxaa shir guddoonimanayay gudoomiye ku xigeenka Labaad ee Golaha Baarlamaanka Mahad Cabdalla Cawad waxaana looga hadlay  ajandeyaasha kala ah, ka mid noqoshada Baarlamaannada Caalamka oo xildhibaanada ay ansixiyeen, Miisaaniyad ay soo gudbisay Wasaaradda Maalliyadda iyo mooshinka laga keenay xukuumadda oo loo qeybiyay Xildhibaanada.

Guddoomiye kuxigeenka Labaad ee Baarlamaanka ayaa ka codsaday Xildhibaanada in mooshinka laga keenay xukuumadda maalmaha shaqada kusoo aqristaan si looga doodo.

Mahad Cabdalla Cawad wuxuu sheegay in tiradii loo baahnaa ay soo gudbiyeen mooshinka ka dhanka ah xukuumadda sidaasi darteedna baarlamaanka uu guda geli doono ka doodistiisa.

Todobaadka danbe ayaa suuragal ah in Xildhibaanada codka kalsoonida ah u qaadaan xukuumadda, haddii la helo tirada saxda ah ee shariyan u ogolaaneyso iney cod kalsooni ah qaadaan.

Arintan ayaa dhabar jab ku ah dadaalada siyaasadeed ee dowladda ku tallaabsatay iyo caqabado hor leh oo soo wajahi doonta Dowladda.

Ugu danbayntii caqabada Labaad ayaa ah arrinta Kismaayo oo oo shlay lagu doortay madaxweyne Axmed Madoobe kaasi oo xukuumaddu ganafka ku dhufatay inay ogolaadaan iyagoo ku aadinaya inaysan wafaqsanayn sharciga Federalka balse aanay weligood sheehin qodobka diidaya dadka maamulka samaystay oo isku raacay doorashada madaxweynohooda qodobka ka hor imaanaya.

realtaleex.com

Realtaleex News Desk.

With tensions already high, the move raised the risk of clashes between rival factions in the southern port city of Kismayo, a former stronghold of the Al-Qaeda-linked Shebab, where Kenyan troops in an African Union force are now based.

The city was quiet Thursday, but residents have reported clan militia reinforcing their positions across Kismayo.

On Wednesday, former Islamist warlord Ahmed Madobe was elected Jubaland’s “president” by a conference of some 500 elders and local leaders.

Neither the title nor the region itself is recognised by the weak central government in Mogadishu.

His supporters — including the powerful Ras Kamboni militia — fired heavy machine guns into the sky to celebrate his appointment, residents said.

“They were firing guns late into the night…the situation is calm now but the city is tense, there are fears of clashes between militia,” Kismayo resident Hassan Mohamud told AFP.

Madobe is a key ally of Kenya, and his appointment risks opening a rift between Nairobi and Mogadishu.

But shortly afterwards, former Somali defence minister and warlord Barre Hirale, who comes from a rival clan, declared himself also president after a separate conference.

“I was nominated president of Jubaland by the elders…I call on the people to support my presidency to assist me in bringing peace,” Hirale told reporters.

“The conference where I was nominated was organised and belonged to the people… while the other conference was organised and pushed by Kenya,” he added, calling on people “to lay down their arms and help rebuild the region.”

Hirale, a veteran militia commander from the Marehan clan, has in recent years been backed by Ethiopia to battle Shebab insurgents.

Both elections are understood to be opposed by the central government in the capital Mogadishu, which is keen to stamp its authority on the lawless and war-ravaged nation, not to see further regional splits.

There was no immediate reaction to developments from Mogadishu.

“If fighting breaks out in Kismayo, it will be the Somali government that will take responsibility for the bloodshed, because they are creating instability between brotherly clans,” Madobe told reporters.

Residents in Kismayo said they now had two leaders.

“Today we have two presidents, and one of them is aided by Kenya’s army…the city is quiet but people are not moving in the streets as they are worried,” Kismayo resident Ahmed Ali said Thursday.

“Clan militia supporting either side are reinforcing their positions across the town,” he told AFP by telephone.

Jubaland lies in the far south of Somalia and borders both Kenya and Ethiopia, and control is split between multiple forces including clan militia, the Shebab, Kenyan and Ethiopian soldiers.

Jubaland joins other semi-autonomous regions of the fractured Horn of Africa nation, including Puntland in the northeast — which wants autonomy within a federation of states — and Somaliland in the northwest, which fiercely defends its self-declared independence.

Invading Kenyan troops — now part of the AU force mandated to support the government in Mogadishu — captured Kismayo alongside Madobe’s troops in October 2012.

Madobe, from Somalia’s Ogadeni clan, was once governor of Kismayo and a key member of the Islamic Courts Union — whose armed wing was the Shebab — that was toppled by Ethiopia’s 2006 US-backed invasion of Somalia.

During the invasion he was wounded in a bombing raid in southern Somalia, and was captured and taken to Ethiopia, spending at least two years in jail.

After his release, in late 2011 he switched allegiance to battle his former Islamist comrades by fighting alongside Kenyan troops.

Source: AFP

Realtaleex News Desk.

Warsaxafadeedkan ka soo baxay xukuumadda Somaaliya ayaa qornaa sidatan:

Ayadoo Ia llaalinayo dastuurka dalka ee qeexaya qaab-dhismeedka dawlad-goboleedyada dalka ee nidaamka federaaliga ah. Lana dhawrayo geedi socodka dawladaynta ee uu qeexayo Dastuurka Fedaraalaynta Qodobkiisa 49 aad.

Ayadoo lagu guda jiro dhamaystirka go’aankii dawladdaha urur goboleedka IGAD ee shirkii Addis Ababa Maajo 3, ee lagu go’aansaday in guddi dhiirigalin oo ka socda wadamada IGAD loo diro magaalada Kismaayo.

Ayadoo la tixgalinayo rabitaanka rasmiga ah ee shacbiga Soomaaliyeed, gaar ahaan kuwa gobolada Gedo, Jubbada Hoose iyo Jubbada Dhexe. Isla markaana laga taxadarayo xasiloonida iyo dib-u-xoreynta deegaanadada weli gacanta ugu jira kooxaha nabad-diidka ah.

Dawladda Faderaalka ah ee Soomaaliya waxay aad uga xuntahay sida loo jaah-wareershay masiirka hogaan ee shacabka Jubooyinka iyo in Kismaayo looga dhawaaqo labo madaxweyne 15 Maajo 2013. Sidaas daraadeed dawladdu waxay caddeynaysaa inaysan suurto gal u ahayn inay labo madaxweyne u aqoonsato maamulka Jubbaland.

Dawladdu waxay mar kale caddeynaysaa inay soo dhawaynayso dhismaha maamul goboleedyada ku yimaada qaabka sharciga waafaqsan kuna dhisan rabitaanka iyo midnimada shacabka deegaanka.

Dawladda Federaalka ah ee Soomaaliya waxay xoojinaysaa hawsha Guddiga Labada Golle ee loo xilsaray wada-xaajoodka iyo dib-u heshiisiinta gobolada Jubbooyinka. Waxayna maamulada degmooyinka, hogaamiyeyaasha dhaqanka iyo wax-garadka deegaanka ugu baaqaysaa inay si buuxda la shaqeeyaan gudigaas dawliga ah.

Dawladda Federaalka ah ee Soomaaliya waxay ku baaqaysaa in la illaaliyo xasiloonida, lagana dheeraado wax kasta oo caqabad ku noqon kara amniga iyo dib-u xoreynta dalka, iyo in loo hogaansamo sharciga dalka.

DHAMAAD

Ahmed Adan

Prime Minister’s Media Office

Mogadishu, Somalia

1 XAMDI MAXAMED CAARSHE  ODAYGEEDA IYO CARUURTEEDA

2 CAYNAB IIDLE MAX/ED XAASKII IYO CARUURTIISA

3 SHARMAAKE MAX/UD XAASHXASH XAASKIISA IYO  CARUURTIISA

Waxa ay tacsi tiiraanyo leh u dirayaan Eheldii iyo qaraabadii uu ka geeriyooday maantaAleha u naxaristee C/LAAHI X.SUGULE CABDI oo maaanta ku geeriyoday dalka ingiriiska. waxana ay marxuunka Ale uga baryayaan in uu janadii ka waraabiyo Samir iyo iimaana uu ka siiyo ubadkii  eheladii iyo dhamaan qaraabadiisiba

aamin aamin aamin

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• Oil tanker trade growth is fastest in a decade
• Somalia begins an imperfect transition
• SouthWest eyes east Africa oil boom
• Somalia’s security gains under threat
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• Bomb attacks kill 19 in Mogadishu
• African jihadists driven across borders
• Kenyans assault Somali militants’ base
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• An unhealthy state
• Finance In search of the big idea

“The president and I have discussions every day about oil,” says Mr Mohamed in his office that looks out at the Indian Ocean across the tumbledown city of Mogadishu. Late last year, Somalia caught the attention of foreign oil companies by announcing it intended to auction some of 308 newly delineated oil blocks this year.

The world’s leading oil companies are increasingly accepting that their quest for new reserves will take them into challenging new territory. In regions such as the Arctic, the problems are technical. Around the Horn of Africa, companies must calculate whether political and security risks will put too heavy a burden on their production costs. This is hazardous territory in which to operate. A chunk of Somalia is still under the control of al-Shabaab, jihadi militants allied with al-Qaeda. Its waters are the hunting ground of pirates, who since 2005 have earned close to $400m by ransoming 149 vessels.

The politics is also messy, internecine and riven by militias.

Oil companies in the race for contracts find themselves unsure whether the power lies in Mogadishu or in semi-autonomous regions such as Puntland or self-declared states such as Galmudug. Somaliland to the north, bordering Djibouti, has declared itself a fully independent republic. Attempts to carve up oil blocks before the Mogadishu government even controls the whole national territory are undermining efforts to bring peace and stability to a state that has been shattered by 22 years of war and that exports terrorism. The race to lay claim to resources risks triggering wider conflicts: regional authorities have been hostile to central government since the 22-year military dictatorship of Siad Barre.

When he was deposed in 1991, warlords carved up the country – and several clan-based militias still hold sway, sometimes cutting deals with al-Shabaab. The danger is that the race for oil will feed a destabilising rivalry between Mogadishu and other regions – some still influenced by former warlords – just as the international community is celebrating progress.

UK ambassador Matt Baugh says the situation remains “very, very fragile”. Rival administrations have issued several companies rights to a clutch of overlapping oil blocks, redrawing the political map of Somalia in line with their own interests. On an international level, disagreement between Kenya and Somalia over their maritime boundary has also created what one diplomat terms a “triangle of confusion” reaching across 120,000 square kilometres. Kenyan troops defend the port of Kismayo, south of Mogadishu, notionally in support of the Mogadishu government, but Somali officials worry Kenya is keener on securing oil rights. “The biggest conflicts right now among Somalis are all about oil rights … oil is the main player in all of this mess,” says Mohamed Nur of Dissident Nation, a lobby group.

“But it’s also a force that allows all sides to have bargaining chips and have an equal role in the future of the nation.” Indeed, seven months into the job, President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud has called for a consensus, saying he has not yet signed any oil deals. He has also called on international oil companies not to cut their own deals with regional authorities because “that will block their future engagement in Somalia”. “Resources should not be used as a pretext for new conflict,” he told the Financial Times. It is a short drive from the president’s office to the well-guarded steps of the resources ministry.

From behind the window of his bulletproof vehicle, Mr Mohamed points out the recent additions to Mogadishu’s scars: a car bomb here; a suicide attack there. “We should wait until we have the right laws in place … we are not ready yet,” he says, before heading home for a lunch of chips, camel steak, spaghetti and cumin-infused rice.

Such a culinary hotch-potch offers a reminder that the former Italian colony has long had to contend with foreign influence and interests. But oil companies are not proving as patient as Mr Mohamud – or as patient as he would like. A quarter of a century ago, BP, Chevron, Conoco, Eni and Shell bought oil blocks and started ambitious exploration programmes. By 1991 they had all put them on ice, declaring force majeure as civil war took hold. Now several companies want them back. The Somali government has already started discussions with two previous concession holders – Eni and Shell – that want to reclaim their pre-1991 blocks and enter into production sharing agreements, says a senior government official.

He adds that Conoco is also ready to reclaim its stake and that BP is considering the idea. While the companies have not presented concrete plans, oil executives say they are interested in Somalia should force majeure be lifted. But hazardous faultlines between competing authorities are beginning to erupt. In February, PetroQuest Africa, an affiliate of US exploration company Liberty Petroleum, signed a deal for a block with the regional government of Galmudug, a self-declared state to the north of Mogadishu. The move shows how quickly tensions can be inflamed because Liberty’s concession overlaps an offshore block also claimed by Shell.

In a letter of April 24, Shell asked the Somali authorities to take action to safeguard its “exclusive rights” to the block. Mr Mohamed is quick to defend Shell and the pre-eminence of his weak, donor-backed Mogadishu government: “Galmudug should not ever offer any block to any company let alone the Shell block; it should not be signing contracts … there’s only one president.” . . . In Galmudug itself, they see things differently. The president there is Abdi Hasan Awale Qeybdiid, a former warlord portrayed in Black Hawk Down, the film of the disastrous 1993 US mission when Somali militants downed US helicopters and dragged US corpses through the streets.

He told the FT that he believed his agreement with Liberty was in line with the new provisional, federal constitution. “We are not feeling any guilt for this kind of thing,” he says. “If there is a problem between the government and Galmudug we need to discuss, including Shell and Liberty and everyone, let them come to court.” Phoenix-based Lane Franks, president of PetroQuest and Liberty, co-founded by his brother and US Congressman Trent Franks, suggests Shell should buy them out if the company wants to avoid stoking violence in Somalia. “Shell could still maintain its operatorship by compensating PQ with a modest royalty and reasonable fee to acquire all the PQ rights,” said Mr Franks in a letter to Shell executives on April 9.

“Shell would also avoid potential rebellion or backlash from the autonomous states [that could reignite] … at worst, another civil war.” Abdillahi Mohamud of the East African Energy Forum, another lobby group, warns that such frictions show the stakes are high: “If we see a scramble for petroleum concessions before a political settlement between the federal states and Mogadishu is reached, we can definitely see a new conflict.” In 2005, when Marcus Edwards-Jones, now non-executive board director of Aim-listed Range Resources, went to Puntland – a semi-autonomous state of northern Somalia – he took a Ukrainian charter plane from Yemen, lured by the promise of data left over from when Conoco conducted surveys there.

“It was a no-go area in those days – humanitarian planes didn’t even land, they would just drop aid out the back of a plane,” says Mr Edwards-Jones. Undaunted, he went on to raise $40m from London fund managers to explore throughout Puntland following an agreement with the government. Range and its partners have put more than $100m into the zone. In addition to drilling two wells, they built an airstrip and deployed 250 troops, led by South African security contractors, to counter al-Shabaab. Mr Mohamed insists that any contracts signed with Puntland since 1991 are “null and void”, and ConocoPhillips wrote in 2007 that it had “not relinquished its rights in Somalia”. But Puntland’s government countered in February that the Mogadishu government was interfering “illegitimately on resource exploitation”. Both Range’s wells were dry, hitting the share price and making it harder to raise money for the next well. But Mr Edwards-Jones says the area is so vast he would need to drill 15 wells before he gave up hope.

“We did find traces of hydrocarbons down there; you can miss it by five feet,” he says. His group has not been able to touch a more attractive block, Nugaal, because it lies in a controversial zone. In fact, Puntland draws its border with Somaliland to accommodate the Nugaal block. “Puntland came up with this creative imaginary boundary to entice oil and gas companies,” says Hussein Abdi Dualeh, Somaliland’s energy minister. He himself faces similar claims from Mogadishu, which says Somaliland has no right to make oil contracts of its own. Mr Dualeh says the earlier claims in Somaliland have lapsed. He has kept up the pressure by bringing in new companies. Two weeks ago Somaliland signed over a block to Norway’s DNO International. Ophir Energy has an interest in two blocks that overlap former BP blocks. Genel last year took a stake in two other onshore blocks – one of which overlaps a former Conoco block – and is conducting a seismic survey. “Ninety-five per cent of who has legality is whoever controls the territory,” says Mr Dualeh of Nugaal. “No oil and gas company in their right minds would come in willy-nilly and start doing things.”

But the situation is looking even more complex. The area around Nugaal, Khaatumo, last year declared independence from both Somaliland and Puntland, highlighting the risk that oil could rupture the country. Mr Mohamed admits there are fissures. He wants to change the constitution – crafted at great expense by Somali lawmakers and UN legal experts – to accommodate an amended version of the 2008 petroleum law, which stipulates that the central government will determine oil deals. “We want oil companies to come into the country … but companies are taking huge risks, some of them deliberate.” . . . Development: A tangle of converging foreign interests In recent years, foreign involvement in Somalia has been characterised as part of an effort to combat terrorism. But now Somalis are quick to identify a new set of self-interested motives. “Of course it’s all about oil,” says one senior Somali adviser about Norway’s growing interest in his country.

Norway, whose state oil company Statoil is exploring off east Africa, has made various commitments to Somalia. Oslo has installed solar-powered lamps on the streets of Mogadishu and is setting up a special $30m finance facility. Last month a Somali parliamentary delegation visited Oslo to discuss co-operation, development and the management of natural resources. Most critically, these talks included discussion of a triangle of water disputed between Kenya and Somalia.

The Somali parliamentarians rejected a 2009 agreement by the previous transitional government to sign away the triangle to Kenya. That has raised the political stakes surrounding the status of Jubaland, a proposed Somali region neighbouring Kenya that would hold sway over the disputed offshore zone. Diplomats say that Kenya, whose peacekeeping troops guard Kismayo, the port at the economic heart of Jubaland, is keen to assert influence there, against the wishes of the new Mogadishu government. This tension between Somalia and Kenya matters to western oil interests. Somalia has already warned Statoil, along with Total and Eni, not to accept any oil concessions offered by Kenya in the disputed triangle.

Oslo lobbied hard for a Norwegian to become UN envoy to Somalia. That job instead went this month to a diplomat from the UK, which last week hosted an important conference on Somalia. The attendees at the conference revealed the range of interests converging on Somalia. Qatar, for example, is an investor in Shell. Turkey has led a diplomatic charge for Somalia by setting up an embassy outside the secure airport compound and delivering prominent support, such as a camp for displaced people, a technical college and scholarships. In the cold war, the Soviet Union and the US competed for influence in Somalia. But the competing forces are now eminently more complex.

Realtaleex News Desk.

Source:Financial times

Realtaleex News Desk.