If the office is moving to another location then the temporary closure is understandable. The office must be re-opened as soon as possible, and citizens must be allowed to get their passports.

Is that actually true? Or are you just trying to "ku-shid" Koonfurians.

This was really good. Thank you for sharing Maakhiri.

Forget Somaliland, Turkey hasn't done much outside of Mogadishu. I think the issue is mostly because Mogadishu is a sinkhole when it comes to "needs" and the corrupt politicians would never share aid unless it is directly distributed by the donor. Turkey, for some reason, has strong confidence in the central government and it lets Somali politicians in Mogadishu manage all contributions from Turkey. Turkey means well. The problem is Somali politicians. Few years ago, it was reported that the Turkish government was paying the salaries of civil servants in Mogadishu without a bank by unloading suitcases of cash at Villa Somalia. You can easily imagine where the majority of that money ended up.

The "prince" most likely went there to undermine and complain about Djibouti and Somalia.

Djibouti is always encouraging Somali music, arts and literature. It is amazing.

There are no better builders than the Turks. Their construction companies are ranked #2 in the world if I am not mistaken. This is a great news. Let us hope Jawaari and his team remove all red-tape and get this project started ASAP!

^^ The Americans are worse than Dhurwaa. Djibouti should watch its back.

Tallaabo, it is hard to dismiss the impact and the devastation colonialism had on the psyche of the tribes that existed in the country before the Europeans. I disagree with the notion that the Europeans "united" or "civilized" as some like to say, our people. We wouldn't be sitting here today arguing about borders close to Garowe if it wasn't for colonialism. Colonialism is the very reason Mr. Bihi is in Tukaraq strongly arguing the area belongs to "his country". It is the reason the people in the North felt they didn't get "their share" of the political pie in the 60s since they were already "a different country" before the union. Of course the Somalis had the misfortune of being subjected to one of the worst dictatorship Africa has ever seen, and with good leadership the fate of our people could have been a whole lot different, but at the end of the day, it is not easy to dismiss the hurt, the loss and the strong sense of barrier between the North and South as a result that legacy and subsequent events.

It is so cheezy but real saxib. The UAE adopted the Russian bot method and I am afraid it is in full force, flooding social media with 1990s pictures of starving kids.

The colonialist that invaded our lands and separated our peoples into colonial fiefdoms was the real disaster.

It is a dangerous game. But Djibouti is not Yemen unless it is turned into Yemen.

Very impressive. Beletweyne is a bustling, peaceful city today with its historical sites still in tact, thanks in part to the generosity of the great nation of Djibouti. Ninkaan Hereri is a true Somali. I would love to see a video of Reer Beltweyne welcoming Hadraawi.

Looks good.

Waxay u dhaqmayaan sidii niman broke ah. Fleece construction workers and steal their shovels and gaadhi-gacans? What a joke indeed!!!!!!

Oodweyne, I like your "xamari" story. Saxib, as weak as it may be, you can't dismiss Somalia's potential to mount a credible case on sovereignty as understood by other nation states. Border recognition represents a fundamental operating principle in modern-day African nation states. The fact that UAE infringed on Somalia’s sovereignty will most likely get sympathetic ears in AU diplomatic hallways . I do agree with your point that “sympathetic ear” has no meaning without action, however at this juncture, diplomatic protest is the better alternative to silence. Let us wait and see.

Reality about the Construction of Sheikh Zayed Hospital in Mogadisho Mareeg.com - We are LIGHT LINE INVESTMENT LTD, a local registered company based in Mogadishu, Somalia. We carry out different business activities mainly construction work. In mid-2015, we got a construction contract from UAE Embassy. The Embassy called and told us they are planning to build a big hospital named, Sheikh Zayed Hospital in Mogadishu donated by UAE Government for the people of Somalia and the Contract was awarded to a company based in UAE called AISHI AE LTD. The company wanted a local Somali company they can subcontract with and they (the embassy of UAE in Somalia) recommended LIGHT LINE INVESTMENT LTD because of construction workthecompany previously didat the Embassy. On August 1st 2015, we sat with AISHI AE ltd Management and on August 3rd 2015 we signed a contract with them about structural civil work for the Hospital and we agreed upon tha tpayment to being stages according to the volume of work to be completed. We started work as per agreement and we finished the first stage.The main contractor assessed the completed work of the first stage as per the agreement on 17 February 2016. Unfortunately, 18 February 2016, the Embassy informed us that they had cancelled the contract of AISHI AE LTDand tookback their management team to UAE. For this,LIGHT LINE INVESTMENT LTD Company should also withdraw its workers from the Hospital site. We went to the Project Management office of the Embassy and told them that we wanted to be paid for the work done and also to collect all our construction materials and equipment that we were using for theconstruction of the hospital.The project director, Eng. Ali Al mazrouri told us that everything on the construction hospital site belonged to UAE government including our own materials and equipment. The project Director claimed that they were holding our materials because they gave AISHI AE LTD some advanced payment for the construction of the hospital. He further informed us that if we had any issues, we pass our claims and the necessary documents through the ministry of foreign affairs of Somalia, then the UAE Embassy would forward them to the ministry of foreign affairs of United Arab Emirates which was responsible for the coming of AISHI AE ltd to Somalia. We did all legal requirements starting from Benadir Regional court, ministries of Justice and foreign affairs of federal Government of Somalia. Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Somali sent those documents to the UAE embassy twice however, the UAE Embassy of Somalia never responded to our demands to settle our grievances. The Embassy totally ignored our genuine complaints and disrespected other relevant institutions of federal government of Somalia. Unfortunately, we find ourselves forced to make our case public, so that every Somali citizen, Members of Somali parliament, chamber of commerce and industry of Somalia, local and international media, human rights groups and United Nations Monitoring Group should be made aware of the money that is building Sheikh Zayed Hospital in Mogadishu is not money donated by UAE government but rather money coned from local Somali companies including LIGHT LINE INVESTMENT LTD through the UAE embassy of Somalia by bringing fake companies from outside Somalia who are not genuine,their main agenda being extortion of resources from local Somali companies like LIGHT LINE INVESTEMENT LTD. We, the victim of UAE embassy based in Mogadishu, are ready to share all the evidence with support documents to the public through local and international media. Finally, we urgently appeal to UAE government, particularly the UAE Embassy in Mogadishu, to respect the laws of the land concerning our commercial dispute and find a just solution. Likewise, we call our Somali Government to fully enforce its Court rulings and be more assertive in defending the rights of its citizens. Mogadishu, Somalia. February 27, 2018.

I believe this is a formality step to show that before Somalia take belligerent diplomatic steps, the Arab League is "given a chance", if that means anything. The design of this is probably to prevent the souring of Somalia's relations with other AL member states if and when full diplomatic confrontation with the UAE starts. I don't think we have seen the end of this.

^^ Are you serious? I can understand if there are delays due to weather, mechanical, etc but to schedule people in to fly and then disappear to make more money and come back at 4:00 PM? That is ridiculous.

Thanks for posting this. This looks like an amazingly different world. I think that piece on their neck is xirsi (religious notes) which was a popular gadget at the time.

I agree with Suldaanka. That press release from the FGS is weak and poorly written. The heavy watermark also makes the entire content unreadable.