• KUALA LUMPUR

    INT10International/Terrorism/CrimeSomali pirates free second Malaysian tankerKuala Lumpur, Sep 30 DPA Somali pirates have released a second Malaysian oil tanker after the government paid a ransom of $2 million, officials and news reports said Tuesday. The MT Bunga Melati 2, which was hijacked by Somali pirates in the Gulf of Aden off Yemen Aug 19, was released early Monday and was now heading towards Djibouti in East Africa, a spokesman from the defence ministry confirmed. Armed pirates had attacked the ship, killing a Filipino national crew member. The 38 other crew members were reported to be in good health, said Fadzlette Othman Merican, the ministry's director of public relations. On Sunday, the pirates released another Malaysian tanker - the MT Bunga Melati 5 - and its 41-member crew. The ship had been attacked 10 days after pirates hijacked the MT Bunga Melati 2. Fadzlette said a ransom of $2 million for each vessel had been paid, adding that both ships would depart to Malaysia from Djibouti Oct 4. "There were a few ships that had paid the ransom but yet to be released...they the pirates gave us priority," she told the official Bernama news agency. Following the hijacks Malaysia sent two warships to escort its ships sailing in pirate-infested Somali waters. Somalia's coast has become extremely dangerous in recent years due to the lack of an effective central authority since 1991. The anti-piracy International Maritime Bureau has urged the United Nations to step up efforts to ensure the safety of ships travelling in the troubled waters.The Gulf of Aden, which connects the Red Sea and the Indian Ocean, is one of the world's busiest waterways with some 20,000 ships passing through each year.--DPAskp/313 Words30090951
    2008-09-30 03:00:00

  • MOGADISHU

    INT79International/Politics/TerrorismSomali prime minister calls on insurgents to join peace talksMogadishu, Sep 25 Xinhua Somali Prime Minister Nur Hassan Hussein Thursday called on the insurgent groups which have not been part of the peace talks to join in the national reconciliation process and help restore peace in the country."It is never late for them to join because our doors are open for every one interested in peace and dialogue," Hussein told reporters at his residence in Mogadishu shortly after returning from Djibouti, where he led a government delegation to the talks with the opposition, the Alliance for the Reliberation of Somalia. A number of insurgent groups have boycotted the peace talks between the transitional government and a major faction of the opposition that has controlled much of southern and central Somalia before their ouster by Somali government troops backed by their Ethiopian allies in December 2006. The prime minister condemned the shelling in the past three day of Mogadishu airport by the Al-Shabaab insurgent fighters, who last week threatened to shoot down any plane that lands at the airport which they claimed is being used for military purposes. He called on local airline companies to restart using the airport which he said was serving the public. No commercial plane has landed at the airport since the threat was issued last week. Nearly a hundred civilians have been killed and more than two hundreds others wounded in three days of shelling in the southern neighbourhoods of the Somali capital. The Somali insurgent group Al-Shabaab has been attacking the bases of African Union peacekeepers including the airport with mortars, rocket propelled grenades and heavy machine gun fire. The Ugandan contingent of the 2,600 African Union peacekeeping troops in Somalia AMISOM, for their part, responded with heavy artillery shells that mostly landed in residential areas where thousands of residents have fled their homes to the outskirts of the city to join the hundreds of thousands of displaced people already living there in squalid conditions in makeshift camps. The Somali prime minister said that progress was made at the peace talks in Djibouti on certain issues while others, including the ceasefire, remained outstanding. "Since implementation of the ceasefire agreement required a lot of technicalities and it was something we should not be hasty about we decided to meet on it in a month," Hussein said.Almost daily battles have blighted the Horn of Africa nation since Ethiopian troops invaded in 2006 to kick out the Islamist regime and put the transitional federal government back in power.Islamist insurgents have since fought back, taking over the key port town of Kismayo and hammering Ethiopian, government and AU peacekeeping troops.--Xinhuaskp/dg470 Words25091915
    2008-09-25 10:01:10

  • Somalia: Divided Over Djibouti Agreement, Islamists Fight

    The Islamic Courts militia that has been in control of Middle Shabelle region in recent months fought among themselves on Sunday, wounding at least two fighters....
    2008-09-05 11:48:16

  • Double Blow for Team

    Malawi's Russel Mwafulirwa and Esau Kanyenda are ruled out of this Friday's 2010 World Cup preliminary qualifier against Djibouti....
    2008-09-05 00:16:09

  • Somalia: President Says Djibouti Agreement 'Violated'

    Somalia's transitional government Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed has announced that there are elements violated the agreement of Djibouti that jointly signed by his Gov and the alliance for the reliberaion...
    2008-09-03 20:24:06

  • 'Djibouti Agreement Does Not Concern Us' - Al Shabaab

    A spokesman for Somalia's al Shabaab insurgent group has rejected a peace agreement signed between the country's interim government and the opposition Alliance for the Re-liberation of Somalia...
    2008-08-25 20:10:40

  • Somalia: United Nations Envoy to the War-Ravaged Horn of Africa Nation.

    The TFG and the Alliance for the Re-liberation of Somalia, meeting in neighbouring Djibouti, also decided to cease making inflammatory statements and to take steps to ensure the agreement goes into ef...
    2008-08-25 14:28:34

  • Virtually visiting Djibouti

    Using Google Earth, embedded photos and streaming video, Onslow County Schools Media and Instructional Technology Coordinator Nicole Gray found a way to integrate technology, geography, history and d...
    2008-08-22 01:44:21

  • Al-Shabab Snubs Djibouti Peace Deal

    In a teleconference he held for the local media on Wednesday night Sheikh Moqtar Robow Abu Mansur has avowed that the Djibouti peace deal jointly signed by Somali government and the major opposition g...
    2008-08-21 08:45:37

  • Pro-Djibouti Peace Deal Demos in Southern Town

    Hundreds of people gathered in Warsheikh town of Middle Shabelle region on Wednesday to be evidence for their support for the peace signed by the Somali government and the major opposition group, Alli...
    2008-08-21 08:47:37
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