Galkayo: A peaceful island in Somalia

[Thankful]

Galkayo: A peaceful island in Somalia

 

Posted Sunday, April 3 2011 at 12:14

 

The runway was in the middle of nowhere. Considering the rickety plane that flew us here, it was with a tinge of happiness that we alighted. As far as the eye could see, there was no life; just bush stretching after bush till the end. The sun was at a scorching degree, and the humidity in the air was unbearable.

 

Welcome to Galkayo International Airport, the lifeline for a region that is barely connected to the rest of the world. This airport alone says a great deal about this city, and how it has been able to survive throughout Somalia’s 20-year civil war. It has been the centre of controversy between the city’s north-south divide, and has grown with time to become an emblem of civility and progress.

 

Galkayo is divided into two zones. The northern part is ruled by the autonomous government of Puntland, while the southern part is governed as an entity of the Galmudug state. Each state claims territorial sovereignty over the city and the Galmudug state has even gone as far as declaring the city as its capital. But one factor has remained crucial in the two governments’ relationship, and has created a truce that has held for many years: the Galkayo airport.

 

Surreal world

 

The airport here acts as a buffer zone and is seen by the residents as the common denominator that unites them all and makes both sides hold their respective fire. The taxes collected by the airport authority are divided equally between the two sides, establishing a fragile, yet impeccable system that has brought tranquillity to this city amidst Somalia’s chaos.

 

This is ultimate ‘nomad democracy’, where an airport consisting of a brick hall and a barely existing airstrip stand at the cross-section of what might otherwise have been a theatre of an all-out war.

 

Pass the airport security, collect your luggage, get a taxi and the world you meet barely has any connection to the Somalia we read about. The image you get when one talks of Galkayo is surreal. But what used to be a small dot in Somalia’s map is now growing into a major city that joins Somalia’s south to its north.

 

Hotels, guest houses, supermarkets, restaurants, and new office blocks for NGOs and the government compete in height with the newly-erected, tall minarets of the mosques. The city also boasts of social services like hospitals, schools, police stations and petrol stations. Even the former Somali army barracks in the city has been renovated and is kept in good condition.

 

Arabic and English calligraphic writings highlight the city’s walls, making it a training ground for artists and mural painters who decorate shops and office walls with colourful words and drawings.

[Thankful]

The airport here acts as a buffer zone and is seen by the residents as the common denominator that unites them all and makes both sides hold their respective fire.

The taxes collected by the airport authority are divided equally between the two sides, establishing a fragile, yet impeccable system that has brought tranquillity to this city amidst Somalia’s chaos.

Amazing, a city like no other in Somalia.....Mogadish, Hargeysa and Bosasso has nothing on Gaalkaayo's ability to keep peace.

[Saalax]

lol@peaceful island. Oh yh a peaceful island where officials, elders get assassinated daily. "A peaceful island indeed"

[Xaaji Xunjuf]

Laamaha Amaanka Gobolka Mudug Oo Kawaray Maleeshiyaad Weerar ku Soo Qaaday Ciidamada

Bilayska.

Posted by Ali on April 3rd, 2011

 

Galkacyo(Puntlandi.com);- Laamaha amaanka Gobolka Mudug ayaa xaqiijiyay in maleeshiyaadkii weerarka ku soo qaaday ciidamo katirsan Dawlada Puntland laga soo abaabulay koonfurta magaalada Galkacyo.

 

 

 

Warka ayaa intaa ku daraya in maleeshiyaadkan isku dhawyihiin shaqsiyaad ciidamada Policka ka soo qabteen degmada Bayre ee Gobolka Mudug kuwaa oo dadka jidgooyo u dhigtay shacabkana ku soo wargaliyeen ciidamada amaanka deetana gacanta lagu soo dhigay dhamaantood.

 

Weerarka xalay waxaa ku geeriyooday askari katirsan ciidamada Policka waxaana gacanta looga dhigay gaarigii ay weerarka ku soo qaadeen halka wararka qaarsheegayaan in qaarkood xabsiga ladhigay.

 

Laamaha amaanka Gobolka Mudug ayaa sheegay in baaritaano dheeriya samaynayaan kuna dadaalayaan sidii ay gacanta ugu soo dhigilahaayeen maleeshiyaadka duulamada ka soo qaada koonfurta Galkacyo.

This was today

So much for a peaceful island

[Thankful]

Gaalkaayo is a city that is shared as this article attests. After so much blood shed and fighting they were able to drop their weapons and pic up the pen. It is a city bordered by internationally reocognized terrorist groups so of course you will have attacks! It's inevitable!

 

However,

 

What's going on in Cayn? Why are the area's that are inhabited by two different groups causing so much conflict with fighters massed on both sides? Everywhere in Somalia where you have two groups, you will see conflict; except Gaalkaayo.

[Saalax]

Calling Galckayo a peaceful island is an insult to "peace". Perhap Garowe can be called "a peaceful island in somalia" but not Galckayo which has a high rate of crime, robbery, killing of officials, elders etc.

[Samafal]

That is the city I recognise while there about a year ago. Galkio is now one of the largest, most prosperous and peaceful city in Somalia.

 

Just a couple of days ago Netco updated its energy infrustructure with $4 million dollars! That's some investment!

[Thankful]

Saalax,

 

You don’t get it….Gaalkaayo is a SHARED city.

 

I have been to Gaalkaayo numerous times, I spent months there at one point. It is a very safe place! Like I said it is a SHARED CITY, where two sides that once were killing each other are now sharing revenue.

 

No matter what you say about Gaalkaayo, Siilaanyo has made Lascaanood and Buhoodle more violent; where roadside bombs and other attacks occur.

 

Gaalkaayo has cowardly assassinations that occur in the middle of the night but there are not armed militia standing by fighting as we speak.......the area's of NW Somalia that are inhabited by two groups have armed conflict right now.

[Saalax]

It doesn't matter if it's shared or not that is not a excuse. Look at Erigavo even though 1 group is the majority 80% and there other groups. However it's peaceful due to the inhabitants being civilised people who respect peace & order and their elders.

[Samafal]

Salax & co your ignorance is perplexing! In every city in the world crimes of any sort happens and Galkio is no different. But overwhlemingly, Galkio is peaceful and developing very fast.

 

few individuals who hide their faces and kill innocent people is a challenge to the authority and the police. But thr people are civilised enough to have one of the best health service in Puntland, and one of the best schools in whole Somalia (Omar Samatar). So fix yoursleves!

[Thankful]

Saalax;708545 wrote:

It doesn't matter if it's shared or not that is not a excuse. Look at Erigavo even though 1 group is the majority 80% and there other groups. However it's peaceful due to the inhabitants being civilised people who respect peace & order and their elders.

How can you compare Erigavo when you even say once group is 80% the majority? That is not shared! Gaalkaayo is truly shared and look at the article.

 

Like I said, why is Cayn and other places have tension....Gaalkaayo has found peace is such a difficult situation, something that has never been done to date?

 

Give credit where it is due!

[Saalax]

I give credit where it is due but i will not be blinded by sugar coating. However let's face the truth Galckayo is very far from being a "Peaceful Island" If you said Garowe, or elsewhere it would make sense. However it doesn't make sense calling a city which daily assassinations of elders, officials, robbery, attacking of police stations, rapes in IDP camps around the city occurs.

 

 

This was just yesterday.

 

 

Gaalkacyo(Puntlandi.com) Maleeshiyaad kasoo jeeda Koonfurta Gaalkacyo ayaa caawa makhribadii soo weerarey Ciidamada Booliska Puntland ee ku sugnaa Aaga Warshad Galey Magaalada Gaalkacyo, Hal Askari oo bileyska ka tirsan ayaa dhintey.

 

Dhinaca MAleeshiyaadka khasaaraha gaarey lama cadeyn balse halgaari ayaa gacanta looga dhigey.

 

Malaashiyaadkaan ayaa si gaadmo ah ku soo weerarey Bileyska Gaalkacyo goob ay kusugnaayeen, Waxeyna Maleeshiyaadkaan kasoo duuleen Koonfurta Gaalkacyo.

[Thankful]

I dont expect you to admit anything positive about Gaalkaayo.

 

The article from Puntlandi.com seems bias from the start....calling the Koonfurta fighters Maleeshiyaad but the Puntland once Ciidamada..

 

Second, all the things you mention in terms of crime, is nothing compared to the roadside bombings, assassinations and deaths of civilians taking place in Sool and Cayn. You talk about IDP's being raped, many of those IDP's are feeling Cayn because of the violence.

[Saalax]

Poor Thankful is upset just because i told the truth about Galckayo instead of sugar coating and going with the flow. Do you remember this?

 

 

wrote:

Five Pakistani clerics killed in Galkayo town

 

Mogadishu – Five foreigners from Pakistan, were shot dead by unknown gunmen on Wednesday in Galkayo town in Puntland region, north eastern Somalia, witnesses said.

 

Galkayo residents said the gunmen came at a mosque in the town and opened fire indiscriminately to the clerics including Somalis.

 

Five Pakistani clerics died instantly on the spot and two Somali Sheiks have also been injured in the incident.

 

“The Pakistanis were ten from Pakistan recently but three of them managed to escape death because they were in bathrooms in the Mosque at the time of the attack,” said a clan elder in the town.

 

Witnesses in the town said security forces reached at the area and took the dead bodies. No group has claimed the responsibility of the attack so far and it is not known the reason behind their killing.

 

The killings might have been motivated by suspicions that the Pakistanis had links to al Qaeda. Pakistani missioners from Asia often come to Somalia to preach the people.

 

It is the first attack against religious foreign missioners in the country. Puntland's information minister was killed in the same area last week.

 

Soomaalidamaanta

[Samafal]

^ That is as old as this one below

 

Deadly car bombs hit Hargeisa

 

The attacks were a shock to many in Hargeisa after years of peace

At least 29 people have died in a wave of coordinated car-bombings across northern Somalia.

 

Most of the casualties were in the Somaliland capital, Hargeisa, where the presidential palace, Ethiopian consulate and UN offices were targeted.

 

Two suicide attackers also killed six intelligence agents in their offices in neighbouring Puntland, the region's president says.

 

These are the first suicide attacks in the two relatively stable regions.

Somaliland has declared independence from war-torn southern Somalia but this has not been internationally recognised.

 

The region is a US ally in the fight against Islamist militants in Somalia.

 

Body parts

 

Puntland's President Mohamoud Musa Hirsi Adde said that the attacks in both regions were coordinated, reports the AFP news agency.

 

"The whole plan was organised from the same place and by the same people," he said.

 

Somaliland President Dahir Riyale Kahin says the government is ready to defend the country.

 

 

 

Somalia's problems are not security but political

 

Seyoum Mesfin

Ethiopian Foreign Minister

 

 

Eyewitness: 'Terrible day'

Regions and territories: Somaliland

The BBC's Jamal Abdi in Hargeisa says he saw body parts flying through the air after the attack on the Ethiopian consulate.

One of the buildings in the consulate was levelled to the ground and eight people were killed.

 

Our correspondent says the explosions shook surrounding buildings violently and there was gunfire after the last explosion.

 

He says the attacks came as a real shock to many people after years of peace.

 

Guards outside Somaliland's presidential palace opened fire on the attackers blocking them from entering the compound.

 

One car managed to get into the heavily fortified UNDP office complex before the explosives were detonated.

 

Eyewitnesses at the UNDP office said the attackers parked the car next to one of the buildings, which suffered the worst damage and heaviest casualties.

 

There is a lot of anxiety around the city and cars have been blocked from approaching the three locations.

 

There is no information about who was responsible for the three attacks, which took place within seven minutes of each other.

 

But some suspect Islamist insurgents, given the coordinated nature of the bombings and the targeting of Ethiopia.

 

Rare criticism

 

The al-Shabaab group, which the US describes as a terrorist organisation, refuses to join peace talks until Ethiopian troops agree to leave Somalia.

 

Most of the casualties were in the Somaliland capital, Hargeisa

Ethiopia helped forces of the interim government oust Islamists from the capital, Mogadishu, in 2006 - since when Islamists have staged regular attacks in the city.

 

The bombings come as regional leaders meet in the Kenyan capital Nairobi, to discuss the ongoing crisis in Somalia and the performance of the transitional federal government.

 

On Tuesday, Ethiopian Foreign Minister Seyoum Mesfin made a rare criticism of the Somali government.

 

"Somalia's problems are not security but political," Mr Seyoum said, blaming disputes between the country's leaders for the prolonged crisis.

 

The transitional federal charter, which was adopted in 2004, expires next year when a constitution is supposed to be drafted and elections held.