Friday, Feb 21, 2025 {HMC} President Donald Trump this week falsely blamed Ukraine for starting the war that has cost tens of thousands of Ukrainian lives, causing outrage and alarm in a country that has spent nearly three years fighting back a much larger Russian military.

Trump called Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy “ a dictator without elections” and claimed his support among voters was near rock-bottom.

Zelenskyy said Wednesday that the disinformation is coming from Russia, and some of what Trump has said does echo Russia’s own narrative of the conflict.

Here’s a look at some of Trump’s statements:

Ukraine ‘should have never started it’

WHAT TRUMP SAID: “You’ve been there for three years. You should have ended it … You should have never started it. You could have made a deal.”

THE FACTS: Russia’s army crossed the border on Feb. 24, 2022, in an all-out invasion that Putin sought to justify by falsely saying it was needed to protect Russian-speaking civilians in eastern Ukraine and prevent the country from joining NATO.

But Russia’s aggression against Ukraine didn’t start then. In 2014, Russian President Vladimir Putin saw signs that Ukraine was pulling away from Russia’s sphere of influence, seeking alliances with western European nations.

Putin illegally annexed the Crimean Peninsula and started an armed aggression in the eastern Ukrainian region of Donbas that grew into a long-running conflict that left thousands dead.

That conflict simmered until 2022, when Putin ordered what he called military exercises along Ukraine’s borders. He told the world that the roughly 150,000 soldiers that he had amassed would not be used to invade Ukraine. But in the early hours of Feb. 24, Russia launched widespread airstrikes and soldiers began pouring over the border.

Ukraine should hold elections

WHAT TRUMP SAID: “We have a situation where we haven’t had elections in Ukraine, where we have martial law,” Trump said in Mar-a-Lago, adding on Wednesday in a post on social media: “A Dictator without Elections, Zelenskyy better move fast or he is not going to have a Country left.”

THE FACTS: Zelenskyy was elected to a five-year term in 2019, and the next presidential elections had been scheduled for spring 2024. But Ukrainian law prohibits parliamentary or presidential elections during a state of martial law, so Zelenskyy has remained in office. He has said he believes elections will be held in Ukraine after martial law is lifted. The country would need to amend the law if it decided to hold a vote.

There are numerous factors that, according to Ukraine’s government, “would render it literally impossible to ensure a fair electoral process in the circumstances of a total war.”

According to the United Nations’ refugee agency, some 6.9 million Ukrainian refugees have been registered worldwide since February 2022. Of those, millions remain outside the country due to the war. It would be nearly impossible for all of those who have been displaced to participate in an election, potentially robbing millions of their right to vote.

Furthermore, around 800,000 soldiers are currently serving in the Ukrainian Armed Forces as they struggle to contain Russian advances. An election would necessitate pulling soldiers off the front lines to vote, weakening Ukraine’s military position. Additionally, those fighting would be unable to run for office, a right that is guaranteed to them by Ukrainian law.

Many Ukrainians are living in areas under Russian occupation, essentially precluding their participation in any electoral process. And since Russia continues to regularly strike both military and civilian targets across the country, packing millions of citizens into crowded polling places could create additional danger.

Zelenskyy’s support at rock bottom?

WHAT TRUMP SAID: “The leader in Ukraine, I mean, I hate to say it, but he’s down at 4% approval rating.”

THE FACTS: Zelenskyy “retains a fairly high level of public trust” — about 57 percent – according to a report released Wednesday by the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology.

Speaking in Kyiv on Wednesday, Zelenskyy said the number given by Trump, for which the president cited no sources, was “disinformation” that originated in Russia, and that the president “unfortunately lives in this disinformation space.”

Zelenskyy said he will ask pollsters in the coming weeks to conduct surveys on the public’s trust in him and share the results with the Trump administration.

Millions of deaths

WHAT TRUMP SAID: “When you see what’s taken place in Ukraine with millions of people killed, including the soldiers, millions of people killed, a big percentage of their cities knocked down to the ground, I don’t know how anybody even lives there.”

THE FACTS: No estimates by any reputable analysis place deaths near the millions.

While exact figures of the number of deaths are unknown, Zelenskyy said earlier this month that over 46,000 Ukrainian soldiers had been killed since the start of the full-scale war in February 2022. He has also said that “tens of thousands of civilians” had been killed in occupied areas of Ukraine, but that no exact figures would be available until the war was over. The most recent data from the Russian Defense Ministry, published in January 2023, pointed to just over 6,000 military deaths, although reports from U.S. and U.K. officials put that number significantly higher.

SOURCE

By  JUSTIN SPIKE

Friday, February 21, 2025 {HMC} Officials in Somalia say 130 militants were killed Thursday as Somali National Army troops “repulsed” attacks on four government military bases in the center of the country.

VOA Somali was not able to immediately confirm the death toll from the fighting, which took place in an area where government forces have clashed repeatedly with al-Shabab in recent days.

In a statement, Somalia’s Ministry of Information said that militants used explosives to attack the bases in the Middle Shabelle region.

“Al-Shabab suffered a heavy defeat and our brave heroes are actively pursuing the remaining militants. Somalia will never falter in its fight against terrorism,” the ministry said.

The statement said government forces also recovered weapons from the defeated militant fighters.

For the last couple of weeks, Somali government forces, supported by local clan militias, have carried out operations aimed at securing rural villages along the Shabelle River that were recently liberated from al-Shabab.

General Ibrahim Mumin, the commander of the 3rd division of the Somali National Army, told VOA Somali that Thursday’s al-Shabab attacks “failed” as government troops fought off the militants.

Mumin said defensive barriers erected by the soldiers in anticipation of al-Shabab attacks prevented the explosives from penetrating the military bases.

Neither the information ministry nor the commander provided casualty totals for government forces, but a local resident told VOA at least five soldiers were killed and more than 10 others injured.

In separate clashes on Thursday, at least 20 Islamic State militants were killed, and dozens were injured in Somalia’s northeastern Puntland region, according to officials.

Puntland police commissioner Brigadier General Mumin Abdi Shire told VOA that Islamic state militants suffered heavy casualties.

“Our brave men carried out military operations around the villages of Dhasaq and Dandamale near the Togga Jacel area of the Cal Miskaad mountains, killing at least 20 militants. All of them foreigners,” Shire said.

Al-Shabab has been fighting Somali governments since 2007 to impose its strict brand of Islamic law on the country.

In the northeast, Puntland began a major offensive against Islamic State in December and claims to have since killed nearly 200 Islamic State fighters, dozens of them foreign fighters, and captured villages and bases in the mountainous area controlled by IS.

This month, U.S. warplanes twice targeted the Islamic State affiliate in the area, hitting what officials described as high-ranking operatives in the terror group’s mountainous stronghold.

Among those killed was Ahmed Maeleninine, an Omani-born leader of Islamic State, officials of the Puntland region said last week.

SOURCE VOA

By Mohamed Olad Hassan

Friday, February 21, 2025 {HMC} Sudan recalled its ambassador from Kenya on Thursday in protest against Nairobi’s hosting of a meeting to discuss the formation of a parallel government.

A Foreign Ministry statement said Kamal Jabara was summoned “for consultations in response to Kenya’s hosting of meetings involving the Rapid Support Forces ((RSF) militia and its allies, in a hostile move against Sudan.”

The ministry urged Nairobi to abandon what it called a “dangerous course” that threatens regional peace and security and promotes terrorism and genocide.

Sudan earlier accused Kenya’s presidency of “embracing and encouraging a conspiracy” to establish an RSF-led government.

Adel Abdelrheem, Mohammad Sio

Friday, February 21, 2025 {HMC}  The stakeholders involved in bringing a luxury hotel to Mogadishu, Somalia, hope the development can begin to rehabilitate the image of the Eastern African nation.

In December, developers broke ground on the Mogadishu Rotana, a 261-room hotel with an additional 60 apartments near Aden Adde International Airport, the main airport in Somalia’s capital.

The Mogadishu Rotana is part of a mixed-use zone containing a conference center, shopping mall, hospital and residences, according to Jibril Hassan Mohamed, chairman of Riverside Holding, which is the hotel’s ownership firm. Riverside is a division of Somali bank Premier Bank.

Dubai, United Arab Emirates-based Aleph Hospitality will manage the Mogadishu Rotana, which is scheduled to open in 2026.

Suleiman Abdullahi, project lead at Riverside Holding, said the partners are on a mission to “create enabling infrastructure, so that it is possible to do business, to visit.”

The second phase would prioritize building the components necessary to operate as a city within a city, Abdullahi said.

“Everything you need, a 300-bed hospital, which is lacking in Mogadishu, an international school, a shopping mall and 200 long-term residences,” he said.

It is an audacious plan, but Somalia needs one to start its renaissance, Abdullahi said.

Somalia has not had an easy history since colonialization began, when huge chunks of Africa were divided up between the European powers with little or no consultation.

The United Kingdom and France both ruled parts of the wider area, the Horn of Africa, during the mid-20th century. Italy invaded Ethiopia in 1935 and Somalia in 1936.

Somalia was founded as a republic in 1960 and was subject to a military coup in 1969.

In the mid-1980s began the rise of resistance movements that largely have ruled or been an unsettling influence on politics and general life ever since.

But now, Somalia is poised for a rebound, Mohamed said. For one, it’s becoming a bit easier to find development partners and the country’s economy seems to be on the upswing.

Another good indicator of progress is the numerous cranes now rising over Mogadishu.

“We have a target clientele, and we believe the timing is right. Somalia has made some great milestones,” Mohamed said. “The government wants Somalia to be known more than for just aid. We have achieved debt relief, we have international financing, our economy is more attractive. A lot has happened in terms of the regulatory environment.”

Somalia’s momentum has been building for some time, he added.

“Even in the civil war, the private sector had a huge role. … Somalia is far less insecure. Yes, there are setbacks, but nothing that is not manageable,” Mohamed said.

In December 2024, the International Monetary Fund reported “Somalia’s program performance has been strong, demonstrating the authorities’ steadfast commitment to macroeconomic stability and strengthening institutional capacity and frameworks.

Real gross domestic product growth projections for Somalia have been upgraded to 4% for 2024 and 2025 based on strong exports and remittances.”

An increase in airlift — the number of flights in and out of Somalia — could also improve the country’s economic growth prospects. Abdullahi said more airlines are adding flights to Aden Adde in Mogadishu.

“These are signals. If you look at the connectivity 15 years ago, it was only Mogadishu to Nairobi. Now we have the majority of the regional airlines — Ethiopian, Turkish, Qatar, Uganda. There is sufficient load factor for them to retain the schedules they have,” Abdullahi said. “The expansion of the airport is an imperative, but we are hoping the epicenter of new development is not just a short distance away from the airport. We do not want to be an enclave.”

First-mover advantage

Aleph Hospitality’s portfolio has 28 hotels — with 23 in Africa and five in the Middle East — in Cameroon, Democratic Republic of Congo, Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Liberia, Morocco, Rwanda, Somalia and Tanzania.

Its brand partners include Accor, BWH Hotels, Hilton, Marriott International and Radisson Hotel Group, among others.

Bani Haddad, managing director of hospitality at Aleph, said his firm has enjoyed expanding across Africa but never saw Somalia in its strategic growth plans. Fortunately, the partners involved with the Mogadishu Rotana formed the perfect team for Aleph to buy in.

“[In Somalia] we came across a very passionate developer who reached out. [Mohamed] sold his project very well, but the challenge we had was finding the right brand,” Haddad said. “The reputation of Somalia, the risk it represents for the big internationals, … but with Rotana, we’re hitting it on the nail. It understands the culture.

It has good awareness in Africa. Rotana is very keen, understands the market and has good connections with the EU and Somali governments.”

It will be Rotana’s 118th hotel in the Europe, Middle East and Africa region and 81st for its division that comprises Africa, Middle East, Eastern Europe and Turkey.

The Mogadishu Rotana project has a lot of good opportunities going for it, but Aleph executives still did their due diligence, Haddad said.

“Africa is never 100% stable, but the continent is very hungry for quality accommodations, non-existent in many markets. [The Mogadishu] offer is beautiful, modern, efficient and there is the feeling of security being next to the airport.

Also, it will have significant convention space. There are a lot of other investments going on in Somalia,” he said.

As a hotel operator, Aleph is drawn to such places, Haddad said.

“We want to be first movers. We feel there is opportunity, a country that is taking a leap in a new direction, and we can benefit from that,” he said.

The Mogadishu Rotana also will be Aleph’s first partnership with Rotana, which Haddad said is keen on growing its franchised portfolio.

“We are discussing with them another property outside of our normal parameter.

There are similarities between Rotana and Aleph. We’re both very hands-on, human-sized organizations close to their owners,” he added.

Youth and vision

The development of the Mogadishu Rotana and future projects is an investment in Somalia’s future. Fortunately, Somalia is a young country, Abdullahi said.

“Seventy-five percent of Somalia is under the age of 35. They know the brands, they want to be active consumers,” he said.

What will be missing in the short term is international travel demand to Mogadishu, Haddad said.

“There is enough demand from corporate, non-government organizations, the Somalia diaspora to visit friends and family and a good amount of business travel, and we will be the only luxury branded city in the market,” he added.

Haddad agreed that Somalia has the tools to make a new impression with the rest of the world.

“Not wanting to jinx anything, but the situation in Mogadishu is very encouraging.

Now we must change the perception,” he said. “An international brand presence will help the international traveler. We will have the right security consultants and setup and translate that security feeling to our future guests. All the signs of the economy and implementations from the government are positive.”

Aleph is not new to moving into such fragile markets, Haddad said. Aleph moved into markets such as Ethiopia and Liberia when few international hotel brands and operators were active there, he added.

“When you move into these destinations, it is always interesting in that you attract the crème de la crème and command high room rates, but also you become very interesting to locals and integrated into the social framework for weddings, birthdays, et cetera.

For owners and developers, the returns are faster,” he added.

By Terence Baker