Mohammed Omer Mulla

Somalia will announce plans in December for its first ever oil and gas licensing round, its oil minister said on Tuesday, as the frontier market looks to attract new investment after decades of civil strife.  At least three mortar bombs were fired last month at Mogadishu’s international airport, the latest attack in a wave of violence that has afflicted the Horn of Africa nation since clan warlords overthrew a dictator in 1991.  Today much of the fighting is between rival clans and an Islamist insurgency, with Al Qaeda-aligned Al Shabaab, which is seeking to topple the U.N.-backed government, launching attacks in Mogadishu and across the country.  The Ministry of Petroleum and Mineral Resources said the minister will announce in December when it plans to launch the bid process in 2020. “We are presenting up to 15 blocks,” Minister of Petroleum and Mineral Resources Abdirashid Mohamed Ahmed told Reuters on the sidelines of an African oil and gas confe...

The hearing of a maritime-border dispute between Somalia and Kenya, which is calling for a negotiated settlement, has been postponed again, and is now scheduled for June. Kenya’s reapplication for a postponement was granted on the understanding that there will be no further delay, according to documents from the United Nations International Court of Justice. The session was due Nov. 4. The case is related to the neighbors’ claims of ownership of a 150,000 square-kilometer (58,000 square-miles) area off their Indian Ocean coastline, that’s said to be rich in oil, gas and tuna fish. In 2014, Somalia went to court to challenge a 2009 agreement that set its maritime border along latitudinal lines extending 450 nautical miles into the sea. It’s the second time the ICJ moves dates for court-hearing dates on Kenya’s request and against the wishes of Somalia. Kenya had asked the sessions to be held in September 2020 to allow it time to recruit a new legal team. In the mean...

  Security was tight in Somalia on Monday on the second anniversary of the country’s worst-ever terror attack, which claimed the lives of more than 600 people.   On Oct. 14, 2017, terrorists of the al-Qaeda-affiliated group al-Shabaab carried out two truck bombings in the capital Mogadishu, destroying a hotel and also injuring some 300 people. On the anniversary, busy roads in Mogadishu and business places remained closed as people thronged to the site of the bombing to commemorate and mourn their loved ones.  “I thank everyone who came in to help us. I lost my mother who was a doctor, but I have left everything to God,” Ahmed Abshir Mohammed told Anadolu Agency. Before the attack, the 29-year-old medical student was set to meet with her mother at a hotel near ground zero but was delayed by an errand. Abdulrashid Abdikadir, the brother of bombing victim Dr. Mohamed Abdikadir, who operated a clinic in Mogadishu, praised his brother, saying his d...

  Reports from Jalalaqsi district in Hiraan region indicate that heavy fighting broke out between AMISOM troops and SNA troops in the district. The clashes erupted after the Djiboutian army attempted to close down the Hormuud Telecommunication Company during AMISOM search operation, but blocked by the Jalalaqsi district administration. The resident has said that the two forces exchanged heavy gunfire result one person dead and other injuries though they could not prove the exact number. The Djiboutian contingent wanted to conduct a landmine search operation on the outskirts of Jalalaqsi district in Hiraan region and shut down Hormuud Telecommunication Network during its operations. Source: Goob-Joog News

Somalia’s government is implementing a new curriculum for primary and secondary school students, for the first time since the civil war broke out in 1991. In the past, schools had to make do with whatever materials came to hand. More than 40 curricula were used across Somalia, creating a hodgepodge of competing education systems in a variety of languages, the government said. Schools sourced textbooks from more than 10 countries during the civil war and English and Arabic replaced Somali as the language of instruction This new syllabus is better than the old Kenyan syllabus, which was in English. Up to 2 million textbooks printed in Somali have been issued to pupils in most of Somalia since August and their schools have synchronised academic terms, the ministry of education said. The new books cover English, Arabic, Somali, maths, Islamic studies, science, physical education, technology, and social studies. “Students have coped well with the new curriculum ...