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Somali president visits
Ohio State
Mogadishu Tuesday 8 October 2009 Shaaficiyah Media
The president of Somalia, Sheikh Sharif Sheikh
Ahmed, held a dialogue Wednesday with the media, central Ohio
leaders and members of the local Somali community at Ohio
State’s Longaberger Alumni House. He encouraged the U.S.
to bring peace to Somalia and offered his views on higher
education.
After attending the meeting of the United
Nations General Assembly in New York City and visiting Minneapolis,
Washington, D.C., and Chicago, Columbus was the final stop
on Ahmed’s tour of the U.S.
Ahmed acknowledged many of Somalia’s
problems, including civil war, poverty and drought. The nation
has recently garnered negative publicity for its problems
with piracy, which Ahmed condemned.
Piracy “has given Somalia a bad name,”
he said.
He also mentioned the threat of international
terrorist organizations, accusing them of “taking advantage
of the situation in Somalia.”
He also addressed the importance of higher
education. In his speech, he thanked OSU and called on the
university to “help resuscitate the Somali community.”
He said he wants to recruit educated and experienced Somalis
to return to Somalia, one of the reasons for his visit to
the U.S.
Ahmed praised the U.S. government and called
for increased cooperation between the two nations.
“We believe that if the Somali government,
the United States government and the people of the United
States and Somalia cooperate, we can bring stability to Somalia,”
he said.
He said that the U.S. would play an instrumental
role in bringing peace to the embattled region. He complimented
the Obama administration’s policy and general attitude
toward Somalia and East Africa, saying that his meeting with
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton “was an indication
of a level of interest in East Africa.”
Columbus is a vital stop for Ahmed because
of its high Somali population. The city of Columbus has a
population of between 20,000 to 40,000 Somalis, making it
the second-highest concentration of Somalis in the U.S. behind
Minneapolis. Constant conflict has prompted thousands of Somalis
to migrate to neighboring countries in Africa and to Europe
and America.
U.N. Reports estimate that the conflict in
Somalia has displaced nearly 20,000 people from their homes
in Mogadishu, the Somali capital, and 1 million people from
their homes nationwide. In recent years, drought has plagued
Somalia, causing the Somali people to be increasingly reliant
on food aid.
Somalia, located in the Horn of Africa, is
bordered by Ethiopia to the west, the Indian Ocean to the
east, Kenya to the Southwest and Djibouti to the northwest.
It is bordered by the Gulf of Aden with Yemen to the north.
Source: The Lantern
Shaaficiyah Media
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