While supporting the New Deal process and welcoming of the donors’ engagement, Somaliland has  chosen not to participate in the Conference as the country’s national needs and priorities are very different to Somalia’s, writes Mohamed Behi Yonis. Mohamed Behi Yonis is Minister of Foreign Affairs & International Cooperation, Republic of Somaliland. Despite facing many pressing problems, both in Europe and...

KAMPALA (AFP) –  Uganda said Monday it had suspended 24 of its army officers, who were part of a UN-mandated force battling Al-Qaeda linked rebels in Somalia, over corruption allegations. A defence ministry spokesman said among those recalled for “getting involved in conduct injurious” to the African Union AMISOM force was the head of the 6,000-strong Ugandan contingent, Brigadier Michael...

I would like to personally welcome all of you today to this Conference. We are here to deliver a New Deal for Somalia. And I am delighted to see so many representatives from Somalia, from the region and from around the world. This is fundamentally what this New Deal is about: the people of Somalia and the international community coming...

NAIROBI: Somalia’s hardline Islamist Shebab rebels on Monday dismissed a key donor conference due to open in Brussels as “Belgian waffle” and a waste of time. Shebab said in a statement on Twitter that “the billions promised will most likely be unpaid, the paltry sum given to the apostates,” its term for the Somali government, “will be lost in corruption”. “It’s a bit like...

Several shops belonging to Somali nationals in KwaZakhele and New Brighton, PE, have been looted and burnt at the weekend. Government repeatedly insisted that it does not identify the incidents as strictly xenophobic in nature. Somali nationals shops in Port Elizabeth, were looted and burnt at the weekend, Eastern Cape police said on Monday. Brigadier Marinda Mills said at least ten shops...

By Faustine Kapama THE trial of seven suspected Somali pirates opens on Monday at the High Court in Dar es Salaam, being the first such case in the country’s judiciary history. It will be a litmus test for the prosecution to prove such case since the National Assembly endorsed the Attorney General’s motion for Written Laws (Miscellaneous Amendments) on the...

Somalia’s New Deal is the first of its kind in the world and is a more ambitious initiative than a classic development tool, write Villy Søvndal and Christian Friis Bach. Villy Søvndal is Minister of Foreign Affairs of Denmark. Christian Friis Bach is Danish Minister for Development Cooperation and Co-Chair for the International Dialogue on Peace-building and State-building. The international...

By Nicolas Bege On Monday 16 September,  EU and Somali leaders meet in Brussels for the New Deal for Somalia Conference. The conference will negotiate a new Compact for Somalia, which will frame future relations between Somalia and the international community. Last week the EU announced a further €124 million for the African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM). As they gather...