Some members of Somalia’s Transitional National Assembly have accused the leader of the breakaway Somaliland of extraditing Somalis to the Ethiopian government. The MPs issued a statement accusing the administration of Muhammad Ibrahim Igal of handing over 25 Somalis to Addis Ababa. They said that Igal’s administration had in the past handed over Somalis to Ethiopia. Those extradited were originally from the Somali inhabited region in south-eastern Ethiopia for trial. The Ethiopian government has repeatedly said that Somalia-based extremists are engaged in destabilizing Ethiopia by helping and abetting separatist elements in the vast Somali-inhabited region. Igal, however, has good relations with Addis Ababa.
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US warships have investigated 14 Somali fishing boats in an area between Qandala and Alula districts in the northeastern region of Puntland. After the Sept. 11 attacks on the United States, warships of a US-led coalition against terror have been stationed off the coast of Somalia to monitor maritime traffic in order to stop the movement of Al-Qaeda fighters.
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The United Nations Development Program (UNDP) denied last week that Somalia’s Dahabshil remittance company has been ordered closed. The closure order was reported by a UN humanitarian publication “IRIN” on April 8. “IRIN had partly attributed the news to a press release issued by the UNDP office in Nairobi. However, the press release related to just one bank account at Wells Fargo bank in Minnesota, USA. It was not similar to the decision on Al-Barakaat in November 2001. Following consultations with all involved parties, the Wells Fargo bank has since delayed its decision to close down the accounts of Dahabshil,” a UNDP statement said.
In November, US President George W. Bush put Somalia’s Al Barakaat company on a list of companies funding terrorism.
Since the outbreak of civil war in 1991, Somalis have relied on remittances from abroad for their livelihood. After the closure of Barakaat, Dahabshil has become the prime company that provides unparalleled money transfer services throughout Somalia.
