Somali rights activist, Mariam Hussain Mohamed has been selected as one of four Muslim women to be honored with this year’s Democracy Award by the Washington-based National Endowment for Democracy (NED). Other winners of the award are Nadjet Bouda of Algeria, Mehrangiz Kar of Iran and Muborak Tashpulatova of Uzbekistan.
Ms. Mariam is founder and co-chairperson of Somalia’s leading human rights group, the Dr. Ismail Jumale Human Rights Organization (DIJHRO). She is the widow of Dr. Ismail, a prominent human rights activist who died in 1990. She named the group in honor of her husband. DIJHRO impartially monitors human rights conditions, documents violations committed by all groups in Somalia. It has also conducted numerous human rights campaigns. Living with her daughter in the most devastated area of Mogadishu, she continues her work under constant threats in the midst of a dangerous armed conflict.
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The United Nations and European Union’s Food Security Assessment Unit (FSAU), and USAID’s Famine Early Warning Systems Network (FEWS) warned last week that up to 200,000 Somalis are vulnerable to food shortages. In a joint report, FSAU and FEWS said the worst affected areas were in Gedo in the south of the country. Prior to the outbreak of recent fighting in Gedo in March, the people in the area were experiencing food shortages due to drought. The situation worsened mid-last year when herders from the region were forced to move most of their livestock to neighboring regions and into Ethiopia due to water and pasture shortage. The report noted urgent action was required to alleviate the situation. “In the short term, all options should be considered to get much-need food aid to the affected areas.”
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A former Somali ambassador to Britain and China, Sharif Salah, said on Monday a cease-fire had been arranged in the southwestern town of Baidoa after days of heavy fighting. The fighting was a result of a deep division within the senior ranks of Rahanweyn Resistance Army (RRA), which controls Bay and Bakol regions of southwestern Somalia. Salah, who is a prominent personality in Bay and Bakol region, headed a mediation committee to broker the cease-fire. According to Mogadishu’s Banadir Radio, the mediators are still trying to persuade the two sides to talk face to face.
The fighting broke out early this month when militiamen loyal to RRA chairmen, Sheikh Aden Madobe and Muhammad Habsade, tried to besiege the police station in Baidoa held by RRA chairman Hassan Shatigudud’s loyalists. The police station is the compound where taxes are collected. The press reports said that 40 people were killed and 80 others wounded in the hostilities.
