The Kiswahili cyberworld is growing!
Now even bongo flava stars have their own blogs. Keep up with Lady Jaydee aka Binti Machozi via her blog.
Lady Jaydee, in case you are wondering is a really dope singer from Tanzania who sings in Kiswahili, Lingala, Zulu, Kinyarwanda, French and English. Don't believe me? Check out the video below!
You can find her bios at Museke and at Bab Kubwa
If you are dying to whet your appetite with mchuzi wa samaki, pilau, biriani, or mchuzi then you need to check out this list of Swahili recipes.
All the recipes are in Kiswahili. Bahati njema kupika!
Also if anyone has the recipe for mandazi, please leave a comment.
Although its now a bit out of date (it was written on the eve of America's invasion of Iraq), Malise Ruthven's A Fury for God: The Islamist Attack on America is well worth picking up for those interested in the rapproachment (or lack thereof) between the now commonly reified entities of "Islam" and the "West." This is a good reading companion to more famous books like Samuel Huntington's The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order, and Benjamin Barber's Jihad vs. McWorld.
Despite its ominous sounding title, A Fury For God is far from a scurrilous screed against Islam. Ruthven demonstrates how similar ideologically are the Islamism of al-Qaeda and the neo-conservative foreign policy outlook which characterized the Bush years. Ruthven uncovers their common ideological roots and shows how both al-Qaeda and the US response to its actions as an organization are characterized by their millenarian and Manichean content. His insights into the US-Saudi relationship are particularly incisive. Ruthven argues that despite its virulently anti-Western ideology, al-Qaeda has in fact been profoundly shaped by a Western understanding of millenarian revivalism.
Al-Qaeda is both organization and ideology. Bin Laden’s participation, along with other Arabs in the Afghan resistance to Soviet invasion laid the foundation for the modern al-Qaeda, a point Ruthven makes, along with emphasizing how crucial American funding was to their victory over the Soviets. As the Soviet threat diminished, the American-funded fighters—the so-called “Afghan Arabs” who made up the mujahhidin, dispersed, but many followed bin Laden to Sudan, where they participated in his various construction projects, such as building a road from Port Sudan to Khartoum. Here bin Laden was able to help finance the bombing of US embassies in Nairobi and Dar-es-Salaam. It was through these actions that he first came to the attention of US leadership.
Post-9/11, al-Qaeda’s popularity led to a rapid export of its message and tactics; local versions of the organization sprang up in Iraq, for example. Although the core of al-Qaeda was damaged by the 9/11 attacks, its message proved resonant for a variety of these “copycat” organizations. Thus al-Qaeda as an ideology was much more exportable than al-Qaeda as an organization; this feature is what gives al-Qaeda a truly trans-national character. The primary architect of this ideology was Professor Abdullah Azzam, one of bin Laden’s primary influences, who used Salafi interpretations to argue for an activist form of “global jihad” against the enemies of Islam. Much like other millenarian revival movements, al-Qaeda promised eternal riches and glory in paradise, and asked its fighters to give up everything in the world for an eternal reward. This radical vision of a break with temporal and worldly reality was shared by other millenarian resistance movements like Maji Maji or Kimbanguism, as well as movements based more on purely spiritual revival. Ironically this idea of revitalization and millenarian redemption also share a great deal of ideological linkage with secularist projects like communism. They all believed in some ideal vision of the future, if only certain sacrifices could be endured in the present.
John Gray has an excellent passage on this idea in Al-Qaeda and What It Means to Be Modern:
“In contemporary western societies, repressed religion returned in secular cults. When Saint-Simon and Comte founded the Religion of Humanity they devised the prototype of every subsequent political religion. The eschatological hopes that animated these intermittently sane nineteenth-century savants shaped Marxian ‘scientific socialism’ and neo-liberal ‘free-market economics’. In dilute and timorous form, they sustain liberal humanists today.”
“Self-evidently, the belief that terror can remake the world is not a result of any kind of scientific inquiry. It is faith, pure and simple. No less incontrovertibly, the faith is uniquely western,”The planners of 9/11 were strategists first and foremost. They recognized both the power of symbolism and the roots of Western dominance. They struck in such a way that their blow would impact financially and symbolically. The Twin Towers, as one of the major “nerve-centers” of capitalism, represented the hegemony of international capital. Furthermore, their height, their physical dominance of the surrounding landscape, their iconic status in the New York skyline, ensured that their destruction would guarantee maximum media coverage. For al-Qaeda, whose earlier efforts did not attract near the amount of coverage, the attack on the World Trade Center was a media blitz, designed to thrust them into a direct confrontation with their enemy, a confrontation that would exacerbate the Manichean dimensions of the conflict. It was the “propaganda of the deed” that was important to them, not the loss of life itself.
"Atangaye na jua hujuwa."
Translation: He who wanders around by day, learns a lot.
International Developer, Hip Hop Activist, and Social Entrepeneur Michael Henderson Reflects on Hip Hop in Oman
Dear Readers, a dispatch is a report We are very pleased and honored to have as a guest blogger Mr. Michael Henderson, a dynamic young social entrepreneur and a recent graduate of Howard University. Among other things, Mr. Henderson was the brains behind a series of conferences at Howard exploring China’s relationship with Africa. Recently he returned from a research trip to Oman and the United Arab Emirates. He has agreed to share with us his thoughts on the Omani hip hop movement, a subject that is near and dear to me. Please welcome him to the Azanian Sea.
My days in the Sultanate of Oman are triangular. In the morning I wake at 7:00am and an associate and driver take me to (OCIPED) the Omani Center for Investment Promotion and Export Development. My driver who lives a few doors down works in the export division. After work my day shifts from suits and loafers to jeans, shades, and t-shirts. As of spring 2006 I help to manage and consult the growing Omani hip-hop movement. I meet aspiring artist and dancers who wait patiently to hear my advice. Currently, I have a theme track under the auspices of music for Omanis’ made by Omanis’ (which is weird considering, I am American); my role is like the invisible hand.
So the song is about a young guy liking a girl and vice-versa, but the culture makes it rather difficult for the relationship to blossom outside of the internet. Thus, the relationship comes alive through technology i.e., face book, chat rooms, email, and text message. Side note: life does imitate art because we can’t seem to finish the song being that the Omani rapper and singer cannot leave her house to record without her brother. (who is on vacation) On the other hand, the other song is a collaboration of all the best rappers in Oman! We are the world: Arab style! I imagine this is a creative way for 1) to increase the fan base of all involved 2) Encourage the rappers to foster a working relationship and perhaps a structure like an independent record label will flow from this initial introduction.
The third piece of my day is spent relaxing, laughing, making noise, and chimpanzing around with my younger brother Fahad, cousins, and his friends he is about 20 years old or so. Most of his friends are mixed Arab and African, so they, like many Omani Swahilis, tend to be a bit more ‘cosmopolitan’ in their outlook. Sometimes they dance “Zaire” and speak Swahili, break-dance, listen to rap, talk about ladies, watch videos, smoke cigarettes, and play music till 4 or 5 in the morning! I would not trade this experience of all these Omani young people in the same hotel room for the world. It is my base, my ear to the streets, and my way to stay close to the heart beat of pop-culture in Oman. This is my diary of the Omani hip hop movement, from the inside.
Of the many b-boy crews in Oman, Serve and Knock (SNK) was the first, and is currently the most respected and well known. I produced a documentary on them a few years back and helped them to perform in the United States for the Arab Cultural Festival, at the Kennedy Center in 2008. Last night I attended the launching of a new cell phone company called Hala Foni which is one of three main mobile companies in the Oman. Hala Foni’s marketing strategy is toward a youth audience, thus the hip hop movement is a key marketing tool for them. The entertainment industry and marketing in Muscat, Oman is big business; more Omanis work in marketing or entertainment than in the U.S. per capita, although Hala Foni is itself a Lebanese company. SNK performed at Halal Foni’s launch and received a standing ovation.
The day before the show what is called a tech rehearsal. SNK was late because many of the dancers were young and did not have transportation so we carpooled. The assistant stage manager yelled, “Get on stage!” when SNK arrived. While they were warming up and stretching she tells them to perform, so, I told her diplomatically “hey these are professional dancers, they will need 5 minutes to warm-up as to not hurt themselves” she responded: “They are late!”
The event was under the guise of an Omani version of American idol, so the audience was filled with maybe 2000 screaming young Omani fans. My overall goal for attending was to foster a relationship with the cell phone company and to gain sponsorship for the Hip-Hop movement. As a direct result of Arab communications patterns and family like social structure, I was able to meet with the CEO of Hala Foni and several of her colleagues. It was a cool set-up, nice couches, sweets, drinks, a waiter, and tucked back stage. We sat and I informed them that 60% of the population in Oman is under the age of 25 and in a country of 2.8 million people with many years of purchasing power ahead of the any marketing strategy must involve youth, and that’s my network! Sponsorship can come in many forms: money, access to logos, introduction, and in this case access to specific resources that are mobile phone based.
Currently, my good friend and the leader of the SNK reportedly have a list/database of 2000+ names, emails, and cell phone numbers of past show attendees. We plan to send mass text messages to inform them of events and ultimately fill any venue with people at a moment’s notice. The underlying factor is the rapid ability to mobilize large groups of Omanis. This can all happen through instant text messages, being that most every person in country has a mobile phone. This is the next stage of the game of course. We will see.
At the moment there is not a leader, structure, or any real focus to the Hip-Hop music craze in Oman. The idea of an independent record label is a revolutionary idea here. It may be my calling at the moment—like Alain Locke blowing in the wind until he found or bumped into the Harlem Renaissance. Oman is in a renaissance! A renaissance of politics, art, culture, in every way since the ruler Sultan Qaboos took power in coup from his father in Salalah, Oman on 1970 at the age of 35.
The unique aspect in reference to the Hip-Hop movement is that it seems to evolve organically from one person’s passion, to small groups, then the underground and finally widespread/mainstream acceptance. The movement started with a vacation trip to Malaysia where an Omani martial artist was amazed at this thing called b-boying, and brought footage from b-boy performances back to Oman. In four years, b-boying has spread like wild fire along with other elements of hip hop culture. I personally met 20 rappers who produce and share their own beats, write songs daily about subjects like reaching one’s goals, their mothers, and tributes to Michael Jackson.
This movement is impressive because it is currently mostly organic and not corporate driven. The growing music scene here mirrors that of both Bongo Flava from Tanzania and Chopped & Screwed from the great state of Texas. In reference to Bongo Flava music, while doing research on Tanzania, I met a television personality who worked in the Embassy in Washington D.C. She explained the history of the movement and how many street kids would sit on wooden logs all day and smoke marijuana, just wasting their lives. So she convinced the television and radio stations to host talent contests. At the talent showcases, Mr. Nice and other musicians where discovered and became internationally acclaimed artists. Ironically, the artists only sing and or rap in Swahili, but sell out concert halls in the United Kingdom!
When I grew up, the most popular rappers either hailed from New York, (Wu-Tang Clan, Busta Rhymes, Notorious BIG, and NAS) or California (Snoop Dog, Tupac, Dr. Dre, Ice Cube) and being from Texas we did not have any Hip-Hop artist other than the Ghetto Boyz go nationwide. Many of our local artists worked in grocery stores and car washes, were high school or college students, or sold drugs. Many did not work. They would ride around the neighborhoods day and night playing their music loud, shaking hands, showing love, and free styling. These artists sold music out of their car trunks. They came with their own slang, car modifications, Styrofoam cups, and bald-fade haircuts. When out-of towners came we played our music. Now many famous rappers are nation/world wide (Chamillionare, Pow-Wow, Lil Flip, Slim Thug, and of course Pimp-C and Bun-B).
Oman has the same potential to develop its own unique regional cultural scene, rooted in the diverse cultures and languages of Oman’s past and present. Lastly, some artist to watch out for are “AKD” Alwayz Keep It Deep, “NBS” Natural Born Singer—Joey Jo, SG, and Dan Zak.
Governmental shuffling of the Kenyan police force, but will it amount to anything more than a cosmetic reshuffling to placate prevailing political winds? And what exactly makes the new guy less complicit than the previous chief?
By TOM ODULA, Associated Press Writer Tom Odula, Associated Press Writer – Tue Sep 8, 9:24 am ET
NAIROBI, Kenya – Kenya replaced its police chief on Tuesday months after human rights groups complained that some his officers killed and raped during the violent aftermath of the disputed December 2007 elections, but activists said more reforms are needed to restore confidence in a notoriously predatory police force.
A statement released by the government said Mohammed Hussein Ali was replaced with immediate effect by Mathew Kirai Iteere, who used to head the police paramilitary General Service Unit, which was also blamed for some abuses.
Ali will become head of the post office, according to a government statement which provided no explanation why he was being replaced as police chief. A number of other police appointments were also announced.
The police were fiercely criticized for raping, looting and killing civilians during weeks of riots following the elections . They were also accused in the execution-style killings of hundreds of young men in a crackdown on a banned gang called the Mungiki.
"Killings by the police in Kenya are systematic, widespread and carefully planned. They are committed at will and with utter impunity," a U.N. panel headed by U.N. Special Rapporteur Philip Alston reported in February. Alston had called for Ali's resignation and that of the country's attorney general.
International watchdog Human Rights Watch and the country's state-funded Kenya National Commission on Human Rights have made similar allegations of police killings and brutality, backed up by photos and the medical records of the alleged victims.
Two activists who tracked the gang-related killings were shot dead a few minute's walk from the house of the president earlier this year. A police whistleblower who provided information to the national rights body was also shot dead. The killings have yet to be solved.
The police have always denied committing rights abuses or extrajudicial killings.
Harun Ndubi, a director of civil rights group Haki Focus, said Ali's removal is an empty gesture unless the police finally act on recommendations for reform.
"It is like somebody changing the furniture in a condemned house whose walls are meant to be knocked down," he said.
Kenya's police consistently top the list of the most corrupt institutions in the country. They regularly demand bribes at roadblocks and the country's newspapers are full of reports of suspects gunned down in the streets.
Corporate globalization gone haywire
UGANDA/IRAQ: Why 10,000 Ugandans are eagerly serving in Iraq
by Max Delany, Christian Science Monitor
March 6th, 2009
Under a relentless equatorial sun and the gaze of her Zimbabwean instructor, Juliet Kituye quickly reassembles her AK-47. Next to her, a young man in a ripped red T-shirt discharges imaginary rounds at an invisible target.
On a disused soccer pitch in the suburbs of the Ugandan capital, Kampala, 300 hopefuls are being put through rudimentary firearms training. Many of the recruits are raw and their drills occasionally lurch towards slapstick. One trainee lets the magazine slip out of his automatic rifle and onto the red earth, someone else about turns right instead of left. All of them share the same dream, however: going to Iraq.
As President Barack Obama announces plans to withdraw US troops from Iraq, thousands of young Ugandans are increasingly desperate to be sent to the war-torn country. Already, the Ugandan government says there are more than 10,000 men and women from this poverty-stricken East African nation working as private security guards in Iraq. Hired out to multibillion-dollar companies for hundreds of dollars a month, they risk their lives seeking fortunes protecting US Army bases, airports, and oil firms.
The war in Iraq is the most privatized conflict in history. Since the invasion in 2003, the US Department of Defense has doled out contracts worth an estimated $100 billion to private firms. Covering a vast range of services from catering to dry cleaning to security, one in every five dollars the US spends in Iraq ends up in the pockets of the contractors, according to a report by the Congressional Budget Office. Increasingly these jobs have been outsourced to developing countries.
It is clear why the US contractors came to Uganda. As an impoverished former British colony, the country is awash with unemployed and English-speaking potential recruits. Its pliant government was an early member of President Bush's "coalition of the willing," and with a lingering 20-year insurgency, it also has a glut of experienced army veterans, who made up the initial contingent of Ugandans in Iraq.
More important, hiring Ugandans is cheap. Since the first Ugandans were sent to Iraq in late 2005, competition from other developing countries in Africa and the Indian subcontinent has seen the government cut the minimum wage from $1,300 to $600 a month. That compares with the $15,000 that one industry insider estimated an American guard could make each month. Nevertheless, competition is fierce, and for those Ugandans who land a job, Iraq can prove a bonanza.
Paul Mugabe is back in Uganda for a month. For the past year, the sinewy, nervous young man has been guarding the American Camp Diamondback at the airport in the northern Iraqi town of Mosul, and soon he will be heading to Baghdad.
"It's not like Uganda. You sweat and sweat and sweat," says Mr. Mugabe, a former soldier in the Ugandan Army. "It is the most dangerous place in the world. It's even worse than Congo."
With the money he's earned during those 12 months, back in his village Mugabe has built himself two houses, bought a bar, and increased the herd of cows his father left him to 30.
"You should see the size of my banana plantation," he smiles. When he returns from another year in Iraq, he should have saved enough money to cover a wedding and the traditional bride price needed to find a pretty wife, he says.
But despite his nascent business empire and hopes of love, the fact that he is putting his life on the line to help US companies make massive profits is not lost on him. "If I am earning $600 a month and these companies are making billions, it is not fair," he says.
For Uganda, however, another country's war on a continent far away has proved to be lucrative. "The Iraq opportunity brings in about $90 million dollars, whereas our chief export, which is coffee, brings in around $60 or $70 million a year," says the former state minister for labor, employment, and industrial relations, Mwesigwa Rukutana, now minister of higher education. That figure is mostly made up of remittances.
But domestic criticism has been fierce, with some equating the system to human trafficking or slavery. Reports of abuse, ranging from poor conditions and changeable contracts to sexual assault, have appeared in the media.
"Unlike in the past when there was the slave trade, no company comes here and recruits anyone against their wishes. It is willing worker, willing employer," Mr. Rukutana says. "If anyone thinks the conditions there are bad or that he is going to be exploited, no one is compelling him to go." Rukutana says that only one Ugandan has been killed in Iraq, while others say more have died.
If anyone understands some of the hardships of working in Iraq and the industry it's spawned, then it is Moses Matsiko. Mr. Matsiko has spent nearly four years working for a US firm in Afghanistan and Iraq. In late 2006, a convoy he was escorting through the town of Fallujah was ambushed. He was shot seven times but survived. Two American colleagues he was with were killed.
But far from shy away from the dangers of Iraq, Matsiko has embraced its opportunities. In 2007, he started his own company to train and send guards to Iraq and now has over 1,200 in the country.
"My experience in Iraq is that despite having been shot seven times, it is very great," he says. President Obama's withdrawal plans have cast a shadow of doubt over his future business plans. But that has just forced Matsiko to start looking opportunities elsewhere.
"If all goes well, then I hope to be sending people to Afghanistan in the near future," he smiles.
At last, the web tool I have been waiting for. Sure to be useful to linguists, scholars and journalists working in East Africa and around the world.
Translate webpages and documents to and from Kiswahili
An OLD but great article that resonates with my Ramadan experience last year in U.A.E. and Oman. Is this not the inevitable by-product of the Emirates wholehearted embrace of global capitalism? What about countries like Iran and Syria? I would imagine this is primarily an urban phenomenon.
The new Ramadan: It's beginning to look a lot like...
By Hassan M. Fattah
Published: Wednesday, October 12, 2005
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — The decorations are hanging, the cash registers are clanging and the air of holiday cheer is everywhere. For a holy month, Ramadan, circa 2005, is nothing like it used to be.
Once an ascetic month of fasting, prayer and reflection on God, Ramadan has gradually taken on the commercial trappings of Christmas and Hannukah, straight from the hanging lights that festoon windows to the Ramadan greeting cards and Ramadan sales and advertising campaigns that have become the backbone of commerce for the holy month.
Marketers and businesses have caught on to the potential of 1.3 billion people at home fasting or breaking their daily fasts and getting back to normal life - a captive audience eager for entertainment and celebration, and more than willing to feast when the sun goes down.
Here in Dubai, the region's uber-mall, commercialism has taken on a life of its own as almost everything has been dressed in the cloak of Ramadan, straight from the sale of consumer goods to the sales of cars.
Dubai malls are open till the early morning, and the nights rock away at dinner parties in desert tents.
"Ramadan is changing from a religious month to a cultural or social event," said Mohammed el-Kuwaiz, a Saudi management consultant based in Dubai.
"You're using faith to commercialize something else," he continued. "It doesn't feel right."
Sheik Ahmed Abdelaziz Haddad, grand mufti of Dubai's Islamic Affairs Department, puts it even more succinctly.
"The problem isn't that people are trading and doing business," he said. "It's that people have taken this month to be a month of shopping."
Ramadan, which occurs during the ninth month of the Muslim lunar calendar, is considered the holiest month of the year, a time of fasting, family and reflection.
It is during this month, Muslims believe, that the Prophet Muhammad received his first revelations of the Koran from the angel Gabriel.Since then,Muslims have been ordered to forgo food, water and other worldly pleasures during daytime for the entire month as a pillar of their faith, a sacrifice to show they have not forgotten God.
The fast begins at dawn and lasts until sundown, with special prayers in the evenings in an air of heightened spirituality and meditation.
But walk through many Arab cities this month, and the spirit may also move you to buy, buy and buy some more.
In Egypt, hotels and restaurants advertise Ramadan feasts while an advertising sweepstakes calls on people to read all 30 days of ads to win a prize.
In Beirut, worshipers hang colored lights that say "Ramadan Kareem," or blessed Ramadan. A Mercedes ad in a Dubai newspaper plays on the theme of the crescent, a common Islamic symbol: "Welcome Ramadan with a visit to Gargash Enterprises and you'll soon be feeling over the moon."
In Cairo, companies and political candidates campaigning for parliamentary elections next month gave out traditional Ramadan lanterns emblazoned with their names and company logos.
A shopping mall in Dubai even features a Ramadan display with an uncanny resemblance to a nativity scene, complete with moving camels, a village elder reading stories and a desert scene.
And a huge sign outside another mall touts its "Spend & Win" promotion: "Ramadan Kareem. Win Dhs. 1 million and enjoy shopping until 1 a.m." That's about $275,000 in the local currency, dirhams.
For advertisers, Ramadan is like a 30-day Super Bowl weekend, where television channels broadcast their best programming and competitors jostle for market share.
Some brands spend as much as half their advertising budget in this month alone. With those kinds of resources being brought to bear, it may be no wonder that many people are troubled by the creeping commercialism.
"It is supposed to be about spirituality, but it drives me crazy that it is all about food and banquets," said Naglaa Abdel Fattah, 30, a secretary in Cairo.
"I do not feel the spirit of Ramadan anymore. I call my friend and all she talks about is the 10 dishes her family is preparing for iftar," when the fast is broken. "This is extravagant."
On the second day of Ramadan, Haddad, the Dubai mufti, beseeched Muslims in a written note to take the month more seriously.
"A Muslim who is focused on the worldly trade will miss the benefits he could get in the hereafter," he said. "What we see happening today in the commercialism of Ramadan is caused by Muslim ignorance of what is required of them to benefit their souls.
"God defined this month to save them and to protect their souls."
But even he admitted he is facing an uphill battle.
A special program in Dubai called "Dubai, the city that cares" offers a different twist, donating half the proceeds of a million-dirham raffle to local and international charities. "It's not something bad to have increased shopping in Ramadan," said Mohammed Mahgoub, a commercial adviser for the campaign.
The more people buy, he says, the more they share. "If you buy a lot of food, you try to invite a lot of people, which is one of the aims of Ramadan, of people coming together."
Nada el Sawy contributed reporting from Dubai and Abeer Allam from Cairo.
Ten dead in Yemen smuggling boat tragedy
(AFP) – 5 hours ago
GENEVA — Ten people drowned and six others are missing, feared dead, off the coast of Yemen when two boats trying to smuggle 86 people from Somalia ran into difficulties, the United Nations Refugees Agency said on Tuesday.
A first boat smuggling 44 people from war-wracked Somalia capsized early on Saturday "when the smugglers began to push the passengers overboard into the waters off the coast of Yemen," said Andrej Mahecic, spokesman for the UNHCR.
Thirty-four people made it to shore, while seven bodies were recovered and three other people are still missing.
Of another 42 Somalis who travelled on a second boat, only 30 made it to shore, while three drowned and three others are missing. The remaining six are reported to have stayed onboard with the smugglers.
In the Yemeni capital Sanaa, the interior ministry said on its Internet website that the corpses of seven Somalis, including those of two women, were washed ashore on the Yemeni coast. They were later buried after the UNHCR had been informed.
Conflict, famine and drought have pushed thousands of people to attempt the risky sea voyage.
The UNHCR said some 17 boats carrying 835 people arrived in Yemen in the past five days alone, while between January and August, 36,000 Africans arrived, up 33 percent from a year ago.
In 2008, 50,091 people arrived in Yemen on smugglers? boats, but some 590 people drowned and 359 others are missing at sea and presumed dead.
In August, 2,675 Somali refugees, including 1,000 women and hundreds of children, arrived in Yemen, according to the Yemeni interior ministry website.
Yemeni security authorities said the influx of Somalis fleeing their troubled country continues, with their number exceeding a million, which is "beyond Yemen's capacity", the ministry said.
It called on the international community to "stand by Yemen to face this humanitarian crisis".
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