Somalia’s already difficult security situation is under more pressure after a suicide bomber killed the country’s security chief, Omar Hashi Aden, and 10 other people including Somali diplomats, at a hotel in Beledweyne, 400 km north of Mogadishu, near the border with Ethiopia. Al Shabab, presumed to have links to Al Qaeda, claimed the attack. They are one of several militant groups fighting the fragile government, which has United Nations support. Aid agencies say one-third of the population is unable to feed itself and needs outside help, reports the BBC. All Africa
At least eight people died 17 June when a mortar landed on a building in Somalia’s capital Mogadishu and up to a dozen more deaths were reported elsewhere in the city in the latest wave of fighting. Government forces are battling some 500 fighters from the hard-line Islamist Shabaab group in the city. Mogadishu’s police chief was also killed in an offensive on rebel positions. Various rebel factions control most of the south of the country along the border with Kenya. Aid agencies have said that Somalia’s internally displaced population is the largest in the world and that the dire security situation makes it very difficult to provide help. BBC, Reuters, Oxfam
Background: UNHCR
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – The total number of internally displaced persons (IDPs) in Pakistan now surpasses two million people since August 2008, according to Geneva-based UNHCR (UN High Commissioner for Refugees). The figures correspond to those being issued by Pakistan’s government.
The total number of IDPs fleeing the conflict in in northwest Pakistan in the Swat, Buner and Lower Dir districts, and registered by UNHCR since the beginning of the month is close to 1.5 million.
A spike in fighting on Tuesday, 12 May forced thousands of people from their homes in north Mogadishu, Somalia, Reuters reports. The wire service cites a local human rights agency reports 113 dead in the latest fighting between pro-government forces and the Shabaab (“Youth”) Islamist militants, which has forced 27,000 people to flee the city since last week.
Armed Somalian men released two aid workers, from Doctors without Borders, Tuesday 5 May. The pair had been kidnapped and held for a ransom, but according to local sources a ransom was not paid. Incidents like this have hindered the ability of relief workers to respond to the long-standing Humanitarian crisis in the country, according to an Al Jazeera report.
Geneva, Switzerland and Brussels, Belgium (GenevaLunch) - A Belgian doctor and Dutch medical worker who were abducted in Somalia 19 April were released 28 April, announced Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), for whom the two work.
An Italian cruise ship heading from South Africa to Italy has headed for Jordan as scheduled after fighting off a group of pirates off the coast of Somalia. The pirates, who arrived in a speedboat and fired at the ship were fought off by the ship’s security team, which fired bullets in the air and sprayed the pirates with water. BBC
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - The UNHCR (UN High Commissioner for Refugees) reports that 35 people drowned Wednesday off the coast of Yemen’s Abyan region in the Gulf of Aden, after one of two smugglers’ boats capsized. Some 220 people were making the passage from near Bossasso in Somalia, with 117 people on the boat that overturned.
Updated 23:35 with Kenyan man biting snake It’s the silly season for news again. Here are some of the latest shenanigans we human beings are up to, some worthy, some less so, some just plain intriguing. Switzerland looks relatively calm compared to the rest of the world.
- A woman driving a convertible in Olten, Switzerland, was attacked by four women in a car behind her, when she braked abruptly because of a cat in the road. The driver of the second car whistled and shouted abuse at the 22-year-old convertible driver before the others jumped out and attacked the first driver, pulling her hair, then bashing her head against the car. Le Matin, Fre
- Scotland’s Susan Boyle took a dream and ran with it: the 47-year-old unemployed charity worker fulfilled a promise to her mother and stood up on Britain’s Got Talent show, met derisive smiles head on and belted out a song that now has more than six million people watching her on YouTube (Ed. note: this is some voice!) (note just in from Evelyn Ralph and other fans from Scotland in Geneva: here is an even better YouTube version, this one viewed by 8 million – we do love a true winner)
- In Norway, a man was arrested for driving while having sex – 133 kph in a 100 zone, with his companion’s back blocked his view of the road. Sydney Morning Herald, Australia
Richard Phillips, the captain of the hijacked Maersk Alabama ship who has been held hostage for several days, jumped to freedom and was picked up the US Navy, which shot and killed three of his four captors. The fourth pirate was negotiating at the time, and was taken captive. Phillips in safe and uninjured, the US Navy says. CNN
Chart: UNHCR, "Asylum Levels and Trends in Industrialized Countries, 2008"
Geneva, Switzerland (Genevalunch) – Political turmoil in Afghanistan and Somalia increased the number of asylum seekers in 2008 for the second year running, according to the UNHCR (United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees). Iraq provided the largest number of applicants for asylum, 40,500, a 10 percent decrease from 2007.
Somali refugee: many children growing up in camps in Ethiopia, such as this girl in 2005, had never seen their homeland
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Mogadishu is the scene of both some of the heaviest recent fighting in Somalia, and the place where an estimated 40,000 internally displaced refugees are returning home, reports the UNHCR (United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees), resulting in heavy civilian casualties and renewed displacement.
Somalia’s President Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed has resigned, leaving the speaker of the parliament as acting president, with 30 days to elect a new president. All Africa reports that “fresh turmoil and uncertainty loom” with the president’s resignation coming just days after his prime minister resigned.
