- Hargeysa, Somaliland (20 April’2010) − The other night on 15 April’10, I had the opportunity to attend Abaarso Tech School’s first ever annual arts students presentation night. The evening included acting, singing and poetry in English and Somali too. Abaarso Tech is a secondary boarding school situated 20km west of Hargeysa. The school is the brainchild of Dr Ahmed Hussien Isse, the distinguished intellectual – politician – human rights/democracy advocate and former foreign secretary of Kulmiye party. Having known Ahmed Hussien through the media, and being an admirer of his political talks, and vision for a brighter S/land, I wanted to see his…

- At least 22 people died and over 30 wounded after a series of deadly suicide car bombings rocked Somaliland’s capital, Hargeysa on Wednesday morning in a typical terrorist ‘al Qaeda’ style attack. Three consecutive large explosions could be heard going off within minutes of each other over the whole city at 10:00 AM local Hargeysa time. The first suicide car bomb targeted, the U.N. Development Program (UNDP) Hargeysa head office killing its head of security and one security guard along with eight other people seriously wounded. Minutes later, the second attack took place at the Ethiopian consulate killing four of its Ethiopian staff and eleven Somali civilians wa…

The National Election Commission (NEC) of Somaliland has begun its voter registration exercise in Sahil region for about two weeks now. Over 100 NEC registration out-posts and registration-teams, numbering 1,400 were deployed throughout Sahil's districts. - The registration teams are provided with an array of equipment and high-tech gear for registering the adult ‘voting’ population in Sahil who will cast their votes in the next general election and for all coming future elections. Sahil is the first of Somaliland’s six regions to complete this six-day exercise. Each NEC registration post is manned by a committee, comprising of the ministry of interior, national p…

- Paris, France. 29 Oct 2008 - Diplomats from Somaliland’s foreign missions in Europe were among leading French companies attending an economic ‘forum on Djibouti’ last Monday (20th Oct) organised by the French inter-parliamentary group for ‘France & Horn of Africa Countries’ at the Palais de Luxembourg in Paris. Somaliland’s European Ambassador-at-large Dr Maxamed Aar and officials from Somaliland’s consulate in Paris, first consular Mr Yusuf Kariye and secretary consular, Mr Ali Ismail had the opportunity to participate in this high profile Paris forum, showcasing the economic potentials of Djibouti, on the invitation of Mr Louis Duvernois (…

- By Rashid Nur 24 August 2008, Hargeysa, Somaliland - A company of Norwegian oil executives from Asante Oil in Norway began an official 5 day Somaliland visit last Wednesday (20 Aug) after they flew into Hargeysa’s Egal international airport and were met by the Director General of the ministry of Water and Minerals (MW & M), Mr Ahmed Ibrahim Sultan and other ministry officials. Speaking to reporters in airport VIP lounge, Mr Sultan briefly explained that the Norwegian delegation have come to finalise a work program with the ministry and complete outstanding details in the oil exploration agreement which the Norwegians signed last May’08 with the ministry. Asant…