UNITED NATIONS — China’s arms exports have surged over the past decade, flooding sub-Saharan Africa with a new source of cheap assault rifles and ammunition and exposing Beijing to international scrutiny as its lethal wares wind up in conflict zones in violation of U.N. sanctions.

Weapons from China have surfaced in a string of U.N. investigations in war zones stretching from the Democratic Republic of the Congo to Ivory Coast, Somalia and Sudan. China is by no means alone in supplying the arms that help fuel African conflicts, and there is no proof that China or its arms exporters have intentionally violated U.N. embargoes in any of those countries.

But China has stood apart from other major arms exporters, including Russia, for its assertive challenge to U.N. authority, routinely refusing to cooperate with U.N. arms experts and flexing its diplomatic muscle to protect its allies and curtail investigations that may shed light on its own secretive arms industry.

The stance highlights the tensions between China’s responsibilities as a global power and its interests in exploiting new markets. It has also raised questions about whether Chinese diplomats have a grip on the reach of the country’s influence in the arms industry beyond its borders.

Beijing has responded to the disclosures not by enforcing regulations at home but by using its clout within the Security Council to claw back the powers of independent U.N. arms investigators. Those efforts have helped undercut the independence of U.N. panels that track arms trading with Iran and North Korea.

“This is really a case of unbridled capitalism, and I think the Chinese government is not even always aware of what these companies are doing,” said David Albright, president of the Institute for Science and International Security, which has been tracking Iran’s and North Korea’s procurement of nuclear technology from Chinese companies. When the Chinese are “confronted with evidence,” Albright said, “they respond very defensively and legalistically.”

China has blocked the release of embarrassing U.N. revelations of illicit arms transfers, stopped the reappointment of an arms expert who uncovered Chinese weapons and sought to restrict the budget to fund investigations. It has also consistently refused to allow U.N. investigators to trace the origin of Chinese weapons discovered in war zones.

[Sources: SIPRI Arms Transfers, Embargoes databases. The Washington Post. Published on August 25, 2012, 10:05 p.m.]

46 words/expressions re: camel :)

Go see the list (scroll down a bit) 

Since they began to capture large swathes of southern Somalia, radical Islamists have been undertaking a programme of destroying mosques and the graves of revered religious leaders from the Sufi branch of Islam.

The destruction of non-approved religious sites started last year when they began to knock down an old colonial era church in the town of Kismayo.

Most Somalis are Sufi Muslims, who do not share the strict Saudi Arabian-inspired Wahhabi interpretation of Islam with the hardline al-Shabab group.

They embrace music, dancing and meditation and are appalled at the desecration of the graves.

But al-Shabab sees things differently.

The group’s spokesman in the town of Kismayo, Sheikh Hassan Yaquub, told the BBC Somali Service that his movement considered that the memorials were being worshipped and that this was idolatry - banned by Islam.

“The destruction of graves is not something new: we target graves that are overdecorated and ones used for misleading people.

“We are not aiming at the sheikhs [religious leaders] and their standing in the society, but it is forbidden to make graves into shrines,” Mr Yaquub said.

Grave are being desecrated wherever al-Shabab is in control.

The town of Brave is home to a number of minority groups.

Among them are the Sufi Bravenese, a Bantu group who speak a language unique to their town called Chimbalazi, similar to Swahili.

Many of the graves of their religious leaders have been attacked.

Graveyard caretakers have been arrested and told not to go back to work.

The disappointment and sadness of this community has reached beyond Somalia.

“The people of Brave feel the desecrations of graves are actions against humanity,” said Mohamed Sheikh, a Bravenese community leader in Manchester in the north-west of England.

“The Islamists closed the mosques and said no-one could pray at the ones near graveyards - arguing that the prayers performed there could not be proper prayers and would amount to worshiping the graves themselves.

“These people [he avoids mentioning al-Shabab by name] cannot teach us about Islam. Islam reached Brave and all the coastal areas when the religion arrived in East Africa 1,250 to 1,300 years ago.

“The living person can at least defend himself, but the dead cannot. The spirits of the dead deserve respect. Even when we walk near graves we walk slowly, because while the bodies are dead, the spirit is not. Destroying graves is despicable.”

There is evidence that the anger is stirring the usually peaceful Sufis to take up arms and fight back against al-Shabab.

The umbrella group Ahlu Sunnah Wal Jama (Sufi Sects in Somalia) has condemned the actions of what they call the ideology of modern Wahhabism and the desecrations of graves.

They see Wahhabism as foreign and ultimately un-Islamic.

Wahhabism is a branch of Sunni Islam dominant in Saudi Arabia.

It preaches a more literal interpretation of Islam and condemns innovations in Islam and rituals.

It is at the opposite end of the spectrum of Islam to Sufism.

“These radical groups shed Muslim blood every day and they dig out and desecrate our graves. They are funded from outside and their Wahhabi ideology is foreign and must be dealt with,” says the group’s spokesman Abdirasak Mohamed Al Ash’ari.

The group has now joined forces with the embattled government of President Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed, a moderate Islamist, against al-Shabab.

Ahlu Sunnah Wal Jama now controls much of the Galgadud Region in Central Somalia after they defeated al-Shabab in a number of battles.

In one of their battles they managed to kill a senior al-Shabab leader.

By antagonising the Sufi groups, al-Shabab may have gone too far.

From 2009. Shouldn’t feel like something so old but - 

I wish I could have like 3 weeks entirely set aside for reading everything about pre-war Somalia. 

Mogadishu: Somali people inside the country and communities in the diaspora are greatly prepared to mark 1st July event that coincides the 52nd anniversary when southern regions took freedom from the colonial state of Italy and when the southern and northern regions joined having the Somali republic in 1960.

1st July is one of two great independent days that we are proud of and mark happily, very colorful occasions and celebrations are expected to take place in the Somali capital Mogadishu as well as south and central regions

The biggest celebration of this event is supposed to be held the Somali capital Mogadishu today now that the security forces are have tightened all spots assigned to this great event of 1st July, the independent day.

Colorful lights, the national blue flag with five stars and other beautiful slogans and boards are seen in the Mogadishu’s main roads as it is safe and in peace right now since Al-Qaeda linked group of Al-Shabab was removed from the capital last year.

1st July event comes as there are security progress, repairing and rebuilding in the capital Mogadishu while Somali diaspora are heavily returning to the country, in particular, Mogadishu city as well as well foreigners of different races come to Mogadishu.

Leaders of Somalia and Somaliland is meeting in London:

The issue of independence will likely cause an interesting debate over whether or not the TFG (Transitional Federal Government) is willing to recognize Somaliland as sovereign nation.

The TFG have kept an open mind approach to the conference but political analysts say the lack of a solid position on Somaliland’s independence, could result in a failed conference.

Somaliland pulled out of the talks last month when TFG President, Sharif Sheikh Ahmed appointed two ministers from Puntland state to attend the conference. After protest from the Somaliland government the Puntland ministers did not attend the conference in London.

Somaliland and Puntland have hotly contested regions in northern Somalia which both lay claim to.

Title aside - towards the end of article isn’t bad. I think. 

Somali tale of two cities as Mogadishu’s vulnerable miss out on progressSomalia’s capital is enjoying something of a boom after more than two decades of conflict and chaos, but many displaced Somalis are still living in camps and on the streets.

At Mogadishu’s port, battered trucks without headlights and windscreens are piled with sacks and tyres, and parked beside a ship from the Comoros islands. Workers clamber on to crooked cabs to strap orange tarpaulins over the loads.

The port is busy, says its deputy manager Ahmed Abdi Karie. Food, vehicles and construction materials are coming in, and leather and lemons are going out. “In the last five months, construction materials account for most [imports] after food,” he said.

Mogadishu is enjoying something of a boom after more than two decades of chaos following the fall of the dictator Mohamed Siad Barre in 1991. Feuding warlords made the city their playground before the rise of the Islamist insurgents of al-Shabaab around 2006.

Now, 10 months after the rebels were pushed out of the city by African Union Mission in Somalia (Amisom) forces, Mogadishu’s residents are rebuilding lives shattered by years of war and last year’s famine.

“Mogadishu is open for business,” said Kilian Kleinschmidt, the UN’s deputy humanitarian co-ordinator. Somalis are returning from abroad to invest, shops are opening and the property market is booming. New buildings painted in cheerful pastels are rising out of the rubble, car washes service SUVs, and people are staying out late to shop, work or sit in cafes.

But this is a tale of two cities. During last year’s drought and famine, hundreds of thousands of people poured into Mogadishu. Around 200,000 still live in flimsy shelters on rubbish-strewn wastelands.

More arrived last month when Amisom troops pushed out of Mogadishu and drove al-Shabaab from Afgoye, a riverside town around 20 miles away in a fertile region of banana plantations and orchards. Some of the estimated 400,000 people living rough by the side of the main road to Afgoye – many having fled earlier fighting in Mogadishu – came back to the camps in the city.

Kleinschmidt says malnutrition and mortality rates in Mogadishu have fallen since last year’s peaks, but are still unacceptably high. Rape and sexual violence are all too common in the camps. Mogadishu’s most vulnerable are easy prey for freelance militias, whom Kleinschmidt describes as “gatekeepers and mafias”.

The city’s mayor, Mohamed Ahmed Nur, is also concerned. “I have seen signs that militias want to carve the city into fiefdoms … these groups need an iron fist,” Nur said. A strong, professional police force is key.

Nur draws a distinction between these armed groups and the warlords, whom he describes as “irrelevant” now. “These people are freelance militias because they are not paid well … They are not strong.”

As attention turns to rebuilding Mogadishu, Kleinschmidt worries that the thousands of displaced may be left behind. “We are still at a critical emergency level in the centre of Mogadishu,” he said. “We are trying to give people access to basic security standards and make sure they don’t get left behind by the boom.”

As Amisom drives beyond Mogadishu, aid agencies are struggling to extend operations in a region where al-Shabaab still carries out suicide bombings and other deadly attacks. Security is a major problem.

At the Zona K camp in Mogadishu, a crowd of women berated a visiting aid official. “You come and do nothing,” the official muttered, quoting the women as he climbed back into the armoured carrier he had arrived in. Western aid organisations are also struggling to build relationships with new players from Muslim countries. Turkey is taking a lead in Somalia, building roads, clearing rubbish and operating hospitals, and winning international plaudits as it does so.

At the Egyptian-run Zamzam hospital, doctor Ahmed Hassan from Cairo is eager to show visitors how staff treat complex fractures and deformities with the Ilizarov apparatus, a complex mesh of steel rings and wire. The hospital, which is funded by the Arab Medical Union, has a dozen doctors and sees around 1,020 patients a week.

Nur wants to see more long-term foreign investment, not just aid, to deal with what he calls symptoms, like water-borne diseases. “It’s a market. The NGOs are doing business and no one wants to phase out their business,” he said, admitting that some sectors would need outside help. “I’m expecting the international community, particularly the UK and US, to invest in electricity, water and roads.”

Others say the most vulnerable are not yet able to survive without aid. The long rains have been below average, and although the UN says famine is unlikely, there is still the risk of food shortages.

“The knock-on effect of poor rains or locust infestations, which we are seeing more of this year, will have an impact on displacement,” said Justin Brady, head of the Somalia office for the UN’s Office for the Co-ordination of Humanitarian Affairs. As Amisom and its allies continue to pursue al-Shabaab into the south, there will also be more people on the move.

It may be too early to talk about building resilience. “Resilience is an endurance test, and everyone’s endurance is lower this year,” said Brady. Across Somalia, around 2.5 million people still need aid, with 1.4 million displaced from their farms and homes.

Despite the challenges, Nur is optimistic. “No country is as resilient as Somalia. It existed for 21 years without a government, courts or military, and it is still functioning,” he said. “We can rise from the ashes. What we need is visionary leadership to take people out of this mess.”

A lot hinges on whether or not the weak, UN-backed transitional federal government, which is due to be replaced by a new administration by 20 August, can deliver credible change.

While some analysts talk cautiously of a “tipping point” in the battle against al-Shabaab, there are fears those involved in the tortuous political process may be less than eager to change the status quo – a war economy that has been lucrative for some in Somalia.

Thursday’s announcement will for the first time set specific prices on the heads of al Shabaab leaders, topped by a reward of up to $7 million for information on the whereabouts of Ahmed Abdi aw-Mohamed, the group’s founder and overall commander.

Rewards of up to $5 million are being offered for Ibrahim Haji Jama, another al Shabaab co-founder, and group financier Fuad Mohamed Khalaf, along with military commander Bashir Mohamed Mahamoud and Mukhtar Robow, who often serves as the group’s spokesman.

The U.S. government will pay rewards of up to $3 million for information on the whereabouts of intelligence chief Zakariya Ismail Ahmed Hersi and Abdullahi Yare, another senior figure, Hartung said.

Kenya has long indicated that its end objective is to push al-Shabab out of Kismayo, the southern port city that is al-Shabab’s most lucrative and important possession. Military strategists say there’s no way to take the city without first capturing Afmadow, a town of 50,000.

“It’s a commercial hub for almost the entire region,” said Abdiwahab Sheikh Abdisamed, a lecturer at the University of Nairobi and a Somali analyst. With it under Kenyan control, al-Shabab’s hold is crumbling, he said.

“Basically, the entire al-Shabab-controlled area is under siege,” Abdisamed said. “If you combine all those forces, the days of al-Shabab are numbered.”

When the end might arrive, however, is unclear. Multiple sources said al-Shabab had abandoned Afmadow without a fight and had set up a new defensive position on the road halfway between Afmadow and Kismayo at a place called Birta Dheer.

What happens if al-Shabab loses Kismayo is also unclear. Analysts foresee competing interests that include Somalia’s many clans and subclans, the politics of the neighboring countries whose troops are now inside Somalia, and the often self-serving interests of the country’s political elite, now operating out of Mogadishu.

Kenya’s further incursion (as AU troops, fighting alongside with Somali troops *and with US backing, probably) - 

and then how other neighboring countries (such as  Ethiopia) and Somalia’s internal dynamics (clan and regional antipathy) might lead into another complication - 

to see that I have to read/check so much stuff and I don’t have time :|

By so far it’s going fairly smooth. It looks. 

Also - there are already conspiratorial news re: Somalia on Tumblr. 

Be careful. 

Kenya’s prime minister, Raila Odinga, said there were reports that militants were fleeing to mountain hideouts in Somalia’s semiautonomous region of Puntland. He also said it was vital for Somalia’s militia groups to be integrated into the country’s fledgling forces so they can “assume control and protection of liberated areas,” and that military action against pirates who prey on international shipping was also key to national security.

As an example, he cited actions this month by European Union naval forces, which used attack helicopters in their first onshore raid on a suspected pirate lair in Somalia. A pirate said that strike destroyed a supply center and set back operations.

The EU is the main donor to the Somali transitional government. It also trains Somali army troops, and is reinforcing the navies of five neighboring countries to enable them to counter piracy themselves. The long coastline of war-ravaged Somalia provides a perfect haven for pirate gangs that target shipping off the East African coast.

Ban also urged Somalia’s leaders to “keep human rights at the center of the political process,” stick to commitments to allot 30 percent of the 225 seats in the new parliament to women, and ensure freedom of expression and the safety of journalists. He cited the shooting death earlier in May of a Somali journalist, the sixth to be slain in the country this year.

Need to make bulletpoint out of this article. Different atmosphere from TEDx and even last London conference. I think. But that maybe just UN being out of touch etc - . But have to check.