Wednesday October 11, 2023

Somali youth have launched a campaign against the littering of plastic waste on the beaches of the capital, Mogadishu, infusing vitality into marine ecosystems that support livelihoods.

This initiative for environmental protection began at Mogadishu’s Liido beach in the Abdiaziz district two years ago. It started with only six volunteers, but the campaign has now grown, attracting thousands of volunteers from universities and community-based organizations.

Abdiwahab Sudi Nihaye, the assistant team leader, said: “We started cleaning the waste, especially the plastic, at the beachfront with only six volunteers. We are committed to realizing our dream of seeing clean and safe beaches as part of environmental protection. The timing was also challenging because we carry out such activities early every Friday morning.”

Nihaye explained that the objective is to reduce threats related to plastic pollution, which harms not only visitors, youths, swimmers, and businesswomen at the beaches but also sea creatures.

“Liido beach is visited by thousands of local people and foreign tourists as one of the most beautiful tourist destinations. They tour by boats, swim, play football, and come for fun. Therefore, we are working on securing their safety by cleaning plastic and anything that poses a threat to human life. Our communication is open, and we welcome volunteers to join our community,” Nihaye said.

Suweydo Mohamed Abdi, 25, is a female environmental activist who collaborates with the youth in awareness campaigns and practical beach-cleaning activities. She explains the importance of such campaigns to communities and marine life, saying “We must all stand up to protect our environment, fight plastic pollution, and clean up all harmful waste and garbage near our beautiful beaches. If we do not work hard on this, we will not be able to extract resources like fish from the sea, as plastic pollution can quickly kill them.”

Reham Ibrahim Anshur, 24, a female volunteer working with people with special needs, learned about the beach clean-up campaign through social media and felt inspired to offer support. She said: “Being people with special needs does not mean that we cannot contribute to our country. This is a must. I am very happy to participate in this meaningful activity. We need peace, a green, and safe environment for our country.”

Jeylani Ali Hussein, a 56-year-old disabled individual, shared that he was motivated to clean the beaches as part of his contribution to improving the health of marine ecosystems that provide livelihoods to millions of Mogadishu residents.

These environmental campaigns hold great significance for Somalia, which faces significant challenges related to climate change, droughts and violent extremism. Given concerns about possible El Nino rains and storms that can cause extensive damage to marine life, campaigns like these are crucial, as highlighted by the Somali government and the United Nations agencies.

The Mirror
ByChiara Fiorillo
Tuesday October 10, 2023

A senior NHS scientist has been awarded almost £60,000 in compensation after her colleagues replaced her username with an offensive nickname on a work spreadsheet.

An employment tribunal heard Ubah Jama was considered a “troublemaker” after complaining about a fellow biochemist throwing a test tube in her direction. Her alleged ill-treatment culminated in the “offensive” insertion of the phrase “paininarse” on a shared Microsoft Excel document which could be seen by colleagues across two hospitals, the tribunal heard.

The panel concluded that when the NHS worker complained about the offensive nickname, her boss failed to have it removed. Ms Jama, who is of Somalian origin, claimed that over a two-year period, she was a victim of numerous acts of racial discrimination while working for Barking Havering & Redbridge University Hospital NHS Trust in East London.

After the tribunal ruled she was “marginalised and excluded because of her race”, Ms Jama was awarded £58,632 in compensation for the “public humiliation”. The tribunal, held in East London, heard Ms Jama had been one of four senior biochemists within the Clinical Biochemistry department at Queen’s Hospital, Romford, London since February 2019.

In February the following year, Ms Jama was left “upset” when colleague Tatyana Zadorozny lost her temper and threw a plastic tube containing a fluid sample at the bench she and two black colleagues were sitting on. Ms Zadorozny, who is white Canadian, had become exasperated at a lack of help she received from a black junior locum and “tossed” it towards them, the tribunal heard, prompting Ms Jama to make a health and safety complaint.

She also complained that her scientist colleague Claire Beck had been put forward for a three-day admin training course and she was not and that – unlike her white counterparts – she had been told to work while off sick with suspected Covid. The tribunal heard that in January 2021, Ms Jama checked a work file to find “paininarse” written in place of her name – something visible to colleagues at both Queen’s Hospital and King George Hospital.

The panel heard that she complained, attaching screenshots which showed that if a cursor was run over certain cells in the spreadsheet the rude username popped up. In a meeting the following day, Ms Beck admitted she had been responsible but explained the tag had automatically transferred into the document from her home computer.

She claimed it was a “personal in-joke about the performance of the computer”. Giving evidence, Ms Beck accepted her conduct had been “unprofessional”, hence why she removed the phrase from her own documents. However, she failed to remove it from Ms Jama’s. Her explanation she had “forgotten” in an “oversight” was ruled “implausible” by the tribunal.

Concluding that Ms Beck had victimised her colleague, Employment Judge David Massarella said: “We are satisfied that the original insertion of the term ‘paininarse’ into the documents was innocent. However, we considered that the position was different in relation to the failure to remove it from Ms Jama’s documents.

“We have concluded that this crossed the threshold into harassment: it had the effect of creating an offensive, indeed humiliating, environment for Ms Jama, given these documents were visible to colleagues. There was differential treatment: (Ms Beck) removed the tag from all her own documents but not from Ms Jama’s. Her apology was half-hearted.”

Regarding her justification, the judge continued: “Ms Beck must have realised it would cause offence, given the history of tensions within the department. We disbelieve her explanation and conclude that she left it in deliberately.”

Ms Jama’s boss, Iris Valera-Larios, was also found to have racially harassed her by failing to take steps to remove the “paininarse” tag. Many of Ms Jama’s other claims of discrimination were dismissed by the tribunal.

However, she won her claims of discrimination, harassment, victimisation and unfair treatment of whistleblowing regarding the “sample tossing” incident, the denial of training and the Covid working complaint. She had received “less favourable treatment” than her white counterparts, the tribunal found.

The panel suggested Ms Jama’s treatment was because she was considered a “troublemaker” by bosses, given her previous health and safety disclosures. On several occasions, the tribunal said, her boss’s behaviour towards had been “materially influenced by race”.

Judge Massarella said: “The Trust, through the conduct of [Ms Jama’s bosses] created an environment in which Ms Jama was increasingly marginalised and excluded because of her race and then penalised for complaining about that treatment.” Of the “paininarse” incident, the panel deciding compensation said: “We accept (Ms Jama’s) evidence that, when she discovered it, she was deeply upset because it was on a system which was generally accessible, she experienced it as a kind of public humiliation.”

As part of her overall compensation, Ms Jama was awarded £29,000 for injury to feelings. The panel said: “The length of time over which these incidents occurred, and their cumulative effect on Ms Jama brings this within the category of the most serious cases. This was, or more accurately, evolved into a campaign of criticising, sidelining and diminishing Ms Jama over a period of some fourteen months.

“When she turned to senior management for support, she met with further adverse treatment. This insidious campaign was deeply upsetting to Ms Jama: it seriously affected her confidence within the workplace; it undermined her authority within the team; and it deeply affected her ability to trust the organisation in which she was working.”

The Mail & Guardian
By Liban Mahamed
Tuesday October 10, 2023

On the day Somaliland forces were defeated in Las Anod, shop owner Abdinasir Farah said: “Today, we are free people.”

It’s a sentiment shared by others who live in or are from the city and its surroundings. Somaliland had been in control of the city – legally part of Somalia – for 16 years, which many experienced as an occupation.

That ended when the Sool, Sanaag and Cayn (SSC) militia seized control of the largest army base in the city on 25 August.

Open hostilities first erupted between Somaliland’s forces and SSC militia in February, following weeks of angry protests that were triggered by the assassination of local politician Abdifatah Hadrawi in December. He was in the Somaliland opposition, and locals held the government in Hargeisa responsible for his death.

Somaliland forces violently repressed the protests, killing a cultural figure in the city, Sheikh Bide Farah Caalin. Local elders representing the Sool, Sanag and Cayn regions declared their intent to secede from Somaliland and reunite with the Federal Republic of Somalia. Somaliland viewed that as treason.

What followed was an eight-month conflict that caused mass displacement, and drew fighters from different parts of Somalia and its diaspora to the SSC ranks.

Noor Siyad, who travelled from the United States to join the Las Anod fighting, said: “The SSC is fighting for justice.”

Ghosts haunting the present

The perception that Somaliland’s control of Las Anod is controversial predates the December tensions.

It took control of the city from the Somali state of Puntland in 2007, and “the initial years were marked by a heavy military presence, and people felt like they were under occupation”, said Professor Markus Virgil Hoene, a Dutch scholar who studies the region.

Those latent feelings of living under occupation were not helped by Somaliland’s response to the February unrest.

Its shelling in the city often hit civilian facilities like hospitals and homes, and resulted in many civilian deaths, according to several witnesses.

Hassan Abdi said that he lost his mother and three siblings in a shell attack that hit their home in August. “It was an early morning and suddenly, everything ceased to exist. I woke up in the hospital.” He was then told that his mom, two brothers and a sister were killed.

Jama Kadiye, a popular Somali poet, was killed in an artillery attack, as was Jama Mohamed Mire, former governor of the Sool province, for which Las Anod serves as the provincial capital.

A witness said that Kadiye, who criticised Hargeisa during its presence in Las Anod, died when a shell landed outside his house.

Rights groups and multilateral agencies, including the African Union, United Nations, European Union and Amnesty International, have criticised Somaliland for indiscriminate shelling that resulted in “casualties and widespread displacement”.

Reacting to claims that it was responsible for the attack that killed Kadiye, the Somaliland ministry of defence previously said these were “attempts to distort the truth” and promised “a thorough investigation to bring the perpetrators of this heinous crime to justice”.

Questions sent to the government about the broader allegations in this story but had not received a response by the time of publication.

The wider struggle

In the greater struggle over borders, Las Anod has been torn between sides for a long time. When colonial Britain and Italy partitioned Somalia into north and south, the Dhulbahante clan in the region refused to sign a “protective” treaty with Britain and instead supported the Somali cleric Sayid Mohamed Abdulle Hassan, who sought to establish a united republic.

The British dubbed him the “Mad Mullah” and defeated his movement in the early 1920s. At the end of the colonial era in 1960, north and south united to form the Republic of Somalia. In 1991, when the central government in Mogadishu collapsed and civil war broke out, the north separated from the south again to create the self-declared (but internationally unrecognised) Republic of Somaliland.

Some see the February declaration by elders in Sool, whose population is largely from the Dhulbahante clan, as an attempt to revive the historical struggle against a split Somalia, but others disagree.

Sagal Ashour, who leads a nonprofit in Somaliland, says clan leaders in Las Anod are pushing for “mini-tribal states” which will undercut any national government, whether in Mogadishu or Hargeisa.

In any event, the Las Anod conflict is hurting Somaliland’s bid for international recognition, whose hopes hinge on the perception that it is more stable and more democratic than the Somali state from which it separated in 1991.

This article first appeared in The Continent, the pan-African weeklynewspaper produced in partnership with the Mail & Guardian. It’s designed to be read and shared on WhatsApp. Download your free copy here

Allaha u naxariistee Kooxo hubaysan ayaa maanta magaalada Muqdisho ku dilay sarkaal ka tirsan ciidanka booliiska Dowladda federaalka Soomaaliya ayaa lagu magacaabaa Ahmed Mousa Mohamud.

Sarkaalkan oo ka tirsanaa ciidanka Booliska ayaa waxaa kooxaha hubaysan ku dileen degmada Kaxda ee gobalka Banaadir sida ay Warbaahinta u sheegeen goobjooga yaal ku sugnaa nawaaxiga uu falka ka dhacay.

geerida Marxuunka ayaa sababatay markii Kooxda hubaysan ay xabadda ama rasaasta uga dhuftay qeybta sare jirkiisa sida madaxa iyo feeraha taas oo keentay inuu u geeriyooday sida ay mar kale warbaahinta u sheegeen goobjoogayaasha.

dilalka saraakiisha Ciidanka booliiska ayaa maalmahaan ku soo badanayey magaalada Muqdisho ee Caasimada Soomaaliya.