Nairobi — Thousands of Somalis and Ethiopians have gathered in Bosasso, commercial capital of the self-declared autonomous region of Puntland, with the aim of attempting the perilous journey across the Gulf of Aden to Yemen, officials told IRIN.
Mohamed Ahmed Ugas, a local government regional coordinator, said Puntland authorities had been sending many migrants back to their homes "but they keep coming back; for now we are not sending them back.
"Our estimate is that there are between 2,000 and 4,000 migrants currently in and around Bosasso," said Ugas, adding that up to four boats, carrying about 100 people each, were leaving Bosasso every week for Yemen.
He said the new Puntland administration - which came into power following elections in January 2009, wanted to stem the flow of migrants "but without the help of the international community it won't be able to do it".
Puntland alone does not have the capacity to control the smuggling, Ugas said. "We have a very long coast and we don't have the means to patrol it."
Mohamed Mahamud Welcome, editor of Bosasso-based Daljir Radio, told IRIN more women were leaving. "In the past, fewer than 10-20 percent of the migrants were women; now they form almost half, especially the Ethiopians," he said.
Smugglers were reportedly charging each migrant US$100 for the trip to Yemen, said Welcome, who visited one of the beach ports used by the smugglers.
Sometimes the smugglers did not even take them anywhere near Yemen. "They [smugglers] take these poor people on the boat, wander around the Somali coast for a night and dump them near a Somali town telling them it is Yemen," said Welcome, adding, "They are incredibly cruel."
He said: "When you talk to the migrants they seem aware of the dangers but are still willing to risk it all. These are desperate people who won't listen to any advice not to undertake the journey. Unfortunately they will keep on doing it."
The UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) said the number of those who crossed to Yemen in 2008 was 50,000, of whom "more than 1,000 people died during the journey".
Roberta Russo, an associate public information officer for UNHCR Somalia, told IRIN on 29 April: "In the first quarter of 2009 [alone], almost 18,000 people crossed into Yemen, a notable increase compared with 2008 when, at a similar date, some 12,800 engaged in the journey."
Russo said the agency, with the International Organization for Migration (IOM), was leading a taskforce of humanitarian agencies that is developing policies and coordinating responses to protect migrants and asylum seekers who could potentially be smuggled.
She said: "All the activities implemented try either to prevent smuggling or to respond to urgent needs of its victims."
[ This report does not necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations ]
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Apr 29, 2009(GMN) Col. Barre Aden Shire, Member of Parliament and the former Defense Minister for Somalia has rebuffed calls by Al-Shabab to have a reconciliation conference in Gedo region. Barre described Al-Shabab as aggressors and called them to remove their militiamen from Jubbaland regions of Somalia including Gedo, Lower Jubba, and Middle Jubba or face dire consequences.
Quoting former US President, John F Kennedy, Barre said: Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable. If Al-Shabab refuse to leave the regions and continue to undermine the democratically elected leadership, the public will defend themselves and defeat the terrorists. He continued to remind them that this is not the first attempt by terrorists to take over the regions and turn them into unstable grounds for breeding terrorism.
In mid 1990s, Al-Itahad Al-Islam took over most towns of Gedo and established training grounds for terrorists from around the world. The public had resolved to defeat them and they were defeated. We are determined to defeat them once again said Barre who was the leader of the Jubba Valley Alliance that controlled the port town of Kismayo for 9 years.
Before the take over of Al-Shabab, Gedo region had grassroots administration consisting of district councils and regional administration led by the Governor, Hussein Farey who is now in Kenya for security reasons.
Barre promised to bring to justice the perpetrators of violence who are responsible for killing and abducting innocent people including aid workers. He warned young Al-Shabab recruits that they are responsible for their individual acts saying that Al-Shabab will not last long. The Al-Shabab trends of killing innocent people, looting private property, and digging graves out are un-Islamic, Un-Somali and inhumane he said.
Intellectuals and leaders of Marehan Sade around the world have condemned the actions of the Al-Shabab terrorist organization and discounted their claims to hold a peace conference in Gedo region. Leaders stated that Al-Shabab do not have any authority to call a clan conference when their leadership and intentions remain unknown.
How can Al-Shabab call for peace when they uprooted a regional administration recognized by the United Nations to make the region ungovernable? wondered Mohamud Sayid Aden, another MP who is in Dollow district of Gedo. We cannot accept our region to be turned into another Lower Shabelle where armed groups continued to manipulate the leadership of the region and its resources for the past two decades. The MP was referring to the Lower Shabelle region of Somalia, populated by minority groups, but occupied since 1991 by General Aideeds USC, Yusuf Indha-Addes militiamen and Al-Shabab terrorists respectively.
Barre Hiiraale commands a tribal army based in the border town of Dollow that shortly took control of Gedo region in January 2009. With him are notable Marehan Military and political leaders who oppose the occupation of Sade regions by Islamist groups that have links with the global terror group Al-Qaeda. The Al-Shabab movement has made open threats to neighboring countries, Kenya and Ethiopia.
Barre concluded : We want peaceful coexistence with our neighboring countries and self-rule for our people. We cannot accept terrorists to occupy our regions. We will defeat them and humiliate them said the former US West Pointe graduate who designed the strategy for defeating the Union of Islamic Courts in 2006.
Al-Shabab risks loosing grip of Southern Somalia as it faces imminent war from Somalias government and neighboring countries.