Category: Africa

Somali gangs in Minneapolis? Open warfare?

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Clan warfare maybe, but gangs too?   

This is the second ‘Somali watch’ post I promised this morning, thanks to our unofficial Somali researcher, blulitespecial.

This story from the Minneapolis Star Tribune is from the end of June and we missed it, as did most of you,  because these stories do not make it to the national media—it goes against most reporters’ notion of the beauty of cultural diversity.

Police and a Somali leader [where do we know him from?] met with members of the Somali community Friday to seek their help to find suspects in four unsolved slayings of Somali men since December in Minneapolis and Brooklyn Center.

Open warfare!

Brooklyn Center police Cmdr. Stu Robinson and Minneapolis Lt. Amelia Huffman, head of the homicide unit, told the group that police can’t solve the killings without community help.

“I was begging them to have their people come forward,” Robinson said. “Unless they step up, the cycle will continue and there will be more people dying in their community. It’s no different than other communities.”

Some Somalis at the meeting said they fear talking to police because of immigration status. [Ed:  What the heck, I thought they were all here legally!]   “I said we don’t ask and don’t care,” Robinson said. “We want to help stop the violence in your community and the greater community, that includes Brooklyn Center.”

Jamal [Omar Jamal, executive director of the Somali Justice Advocacy Center] said word in the Somali community is that friends of Jama [one of the guys who was murdered] think they know the shooter and may try to kill him. He said he encouraged people to give tips on the suspect to police instead because “it is almost like open warfare right now among the Somali minors and youth. We are deeply troubled.”

As I read this story I wondered if some of these gang members went over to Postville, Iowa in the recent migration for meatpacking jobs.

Then there is this:

Jamal said some of his people are afraid Somali gangs are involved and may retaliate if members of the community name suspects. Some hide suspects who are in their clans, as they did in Somalia, and sometimes try to smuggle them out of the country, Jamal said.

So, in addition to gangs we now have clans!   And, then I wondered, if they can smuggle them out of the country are they also smuggling them in?  Hum!

Endnote:  I thought I recognized the name Omar Jamal.  You can read all about him here.  He was defending the Somali Hallway Rapist last summer whose violent act was caught on camera.   Busy guy, Jamal, wonder if he got the rapist freed.   Does anyone know?

South African churches have had it with refugees

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

I’m quickly posting this as I head out of town for a few days.  So, I’ll leave it to you to go to this blog from South Africa and get a feel for what is happening there in the wake of the “xenophobic” riots in the “rainbow nation.”

Here is a portion of one news article linked on the blog:

A second Durban church has washed its hands of a group of refugees left homeless after xenophobic attacks in the city last month, saying it has had enough of their “filthy and dishonest ways”.

A representative of the Greyville Methodist Church, which had housed about 40 Congolese refugees since the violence broke out nearly five weeks ago, Cecil van den Bergh, said enough was enough.

“They have refused to clean up after themselves. The place has become a filthy mess. My staff have been intimidated and threatened. And now we have caught them stealing food and blankets meant for our own pavement people. We were left with no option but to tell them to leave.”

And further down in the article:

“We took these people in gladly. We pooled our limited resources to assist, only to be treated in this way. To be honest, we feel abused,” he said.

Amazing that we never hear this information from the mainstream media.

To follow our South Africa coverage, go to the Africa category at left.

South African refugees take guards hostage

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Here is an update on the South African troubles from earlier in the week from Johannesburg, the largest city in  the “rainbow nation.”   If you are a regular reader of this blog you may recall the recent riots in South Africa where South African blacks attacked and killed black multi-national African immigrants.  Those refugees are now in camps and being urged to register with the government.  But they refuse.

Police stormed a refugee camp today [July 17] in southern Johannesburg to release four security guards held hostage by foreign nationals displaced by the recent xenophobic violence in South Africa.

The tented “safety camp” in Johannesburg’s Glenanda suburb houses about 2,000 people from 16 African countries and was established in the wake of widespread xenophobic attacks that killed more than 60 people, injured hundreds more and displaced tens of thousands in May this year.

The residents have voluntarily divided the camp into sections according to nationality; people from the Democratic Republic of Congo, numbering about 700 people, are the dominant group.

I had to laugh!  Notice how the Reuters reporter can’t resist using the word “xenophobic”— twice within two paragraphs—they love that word.  Xenophobia is fear of foreigners, but if you look back at the cause of the original riots the black South Africans actually fear losing their jobs to these illegals who have flowed into South Africa drawn, no doubt, by the international reputation of South Africa as the “rainbow nation.”

Reread the last line of the quote above.  Residents of the camp have voluntarily divided themselves by nationality.  Multiculturalists take note!  This desire to live among your own kind is natural.

So why are the refugees refusing to register with the government.  Apparently the plan is for them to either be reintegrated into South African society or repatriated to their home countries and they want neither.   Instead they are aiming for the brass ring:

….. most people in the camp were hoping to be resettled in either Canada or Australia, so they were rejecting both reintegration in South Africa and repatriation to their country of origin.

[Sigh of relief!]  I guess that means the US is off the hook (at least for now)!

HIV-positive Sudanese refugee convicted in Canada

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

A Sudanese refugee with HIV/AIDS has been convicted in Winnipeg, Canada of having unprotected sex with underage girls.  He was found guilty in six cases of aggravated sexual assault.  Hat tip: Josh.

A Winnipeg man who hid the fact he was HIV-positive from his young sex partners has been convicted of six counts of aggravated sexual assault.

Justice Joan McKelvey convicted Clato Mabior, 31, yesterday of two additional counts of sexual touching and sexual interference. McKelvey acquitted Mabior of three additional counts of aggravated sexual assault involving three different victims.

At trial, the victims — one as young as 12 years of age — testified Mabior plied them with booze and drugs and engaged in repeated acts of unprotected sex without ever disclosing he was HIV-positive.

“He knowingly withheld that information from his sexual partners on the basis that in all likelihood they would not have engaged in sexual contact with him,” said McKelvey in a written decision released yesterday.

McKelvey called Mabior a sexual predator who preyed upon young, vulnerable victims.

Meanwhile, I have just returned to news that the US Senate has opened the doors (closed since the late 1980’s) to HIV-positive immigrants.  As soon as I get the full story, I will report it.

Update July 18th:  Full story on the Senate vote here at Blue Ridge Forum.

Humanitarian aid workers murdered in Somalia

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

NGO’s (Non-governmental organizations) are considering moving out of parts of Somalia where radical Islamic fighters recently killed several aid workers.  Hat tip: Blulitespecial.   I don’t know what to say except go back and re-read Kevin Myers much criticized article:  “Africa is giving nothing to anyone—apart from AIDs.”  Then read this story which begins:

MOGADISHU, July 13 (Reuters) – Local aid workers in Somalia held crisis meetings on Sunday as anxiety rose over growing insecurity and the unexplained killings of humanitarian staff.

Unidentified gunmen have killed at least three aid workers in the anarchic Horn of Africa country this year and are holding four of their foreign colleagues hostage.

Fears were raised further in the past week by leaflets threatening local NGO workers with death if they did not quit their jobs.

Aid sources said most agencies working in Somalia were discussing suspending operations in Mogadishu and the south.

“It really is the end of the world if we now have to face death just because we are helping poor people,” said a local doctor who asked not to be identified.