Hiiraan Online
3/28/2024
Today from Hiiraan Online:
Home
Somali Map
Sports
Opinion
RSS
Somali Music
Contact Us
Facebook
Twitter
Google Plus
advertisements
Federal official urges local Somalis to aid their broken country
Thursday, May 17, 2012
By Mark Ferenchik
advertisements
A U.S. State Department official told local Somali leaders that it’s up to them and other Somalis, not the U.S. government, to forge a new course for the broken country.
The United States has been trying to stabilize the country through institution-building – health care, schools, training Somali troops – said Donald Yamamoto, the principal deputy assistant secretary of state for the Bureau of African Affairs, who spoke to local Somali leaders in Columbus today.
“We can only do so much. It’s their country,” Yamamoto said.
“They have to do the work.”
Abdikarim Omar agreed.
“Somalis have to call the shots,” said Omar, a local Somali leader who was the Somali ambassador to the United States from 1988 to 1991, when the regime of dictator Mohamed Siad Barre collapsed and the country disintegrated into civil war.
Yamamoto was in town as part of a three-city swing that also included Minneapolis and Seattle, home to two other large Somali communities. He talked to not only Somali leaders but also federal, state and law-enforcement members at the Ohio Department of Developmental Disabilities in Franklinton.
The transitional government, backed by the United Nations and U.S. government, is to cede power to a newly elected government by Aug. 20.
Abukar Sanei, the director and treasurer of the Muslim American Society in Columbus, said the Somali military and police have to be in place before a new government is formed.
Somalia remains a dangerous place.
In April, the bombing of a theater in the Somali capital of Mogadishu killed 10, including two top Somali sports officials. The extremist Islamic group al-Shabab claimed responsibility.
Al-Shabab “is still a power to be reckoned with,” Omar said.
Though older Somali leaders are concerned about what happens in their homeland, Yamamoto said he has found that younger members of the community just want jobs, want youth to stay away from gangs, and don’t want to be harassed.
“They want the American dream,” Yamamoto said.
UPDATE 2-Horn Petroleum suspends drilling at Somalia well
- Reuters
American jihadi craves fast food, misses family
- AFP
Influx of displaced families creates new crisis in Horn of Africa border town
- Alert Net
Somaliland military court sentences 17 civilians to death
- GlobalPost
TEDxMogadishu Speaker Lineup
- TEDxMogadishu
Relief as $2.85m 'miracle' ransom raised to free father, crew
- Gulf News
7 1/2 years for 'unprovoked' fatal assault
- Ottawa Sun
Local medical community mourns psychiatrist
- The Sun Times
Cultures & immigration beat: Somalis decry new rule on visas
- Star Tribune
In Somalia, TEDxMogadishu conference aims to shift the focus to capital’s rebirth
- Toronto Star
Woman with 'two identities' told she can't wed
- Irish Independent
Somalia’s Puntland spurs India oil hope
- Deccan Chronicle
The New American Academy in Edina offers tutoring for Somali schoolchildren as well as classes for their parents.
- Star Tribune
Home
Email