Somalia: 55 Killed in Heavy Fighting Nov 30, 2008
During the past week, NATO and Dutch naval frigates successfully escorted three vessels through pirate-infested waters with 18,730 metric tons of UN World Food Programme (WFP) shipments to Mogadishu and the coastal town of Marka. WFP distributed food to nearly 360,000 people in various parts of the Horn of Africa country. (allAfrica.com)
UN Calls for Military Action Against Somali Pirates Oct 8, 2008
com: Somalia: Security Council And Ban, Call for Naval And Air Action Against Pirates (Page 1 of 1). Use our pull-down menus to find more stories. (allAfrica.com)
Act against Somali pirates, urges UN Oct 8, 2008
In a sign of the continuing violence, the UN is temporarily relocating some of its staff from Marka in south-eastern Somalia after an explosion hit a UN rented vehicle, killing the driver and slightly wounding two UN personnel, an Italian and a Somali. The exact nature of the blast has yet to be determined. (India Times, India)
65 Malaysians among 100 hostages in Somalia Sep 2, 2008
Web search enhanced by. Tuesday September 2, 2008. (The Star Online, Malaysia)
Somalia: Dire Situation for Internally Displaced Jun 18, 2008
For those who have fled further -- to Afgooye and Marka, in the lower Shabelle region, and many parts of the southern Juba region -- almost no assistance is getting through from outside. "Since we left our homes in the capital, we have not been given any assistance from either the international aid agencies or local ones," said Diriye Barre in Afgooye. (allAfrica.com)
Somalia: UN Helps 40,000 Refugees May 18, 2008
A second round of aid distribution will soon begin for another 40,000 IDPs in Afgooye and on the immediate outskirts of Mogadishu, while a separate but similar programme aims to provide relief to an estimated 12,000 people who fled recently to the seaside town of Marka. Somalia, which has not had a functioning national government since 1991, has been beset by increasingly brutal fighting this year between Ethiopian-backed Transitional Federal Institution (TFI) forces and Islamist insurgents,... (allAfrica.com)
Somalia: Ethiopian Troops Expand Into Barawe Mar 30, 2008
The soldiers were reported to have left the provincial capital Marka and the town of Koryoley, also in Lower Shabelle, where they have been stationed for the past week ... Earlier Friday, an unmanned U.S. military aircraft crashed near Marka, underscoring America's continued involvement in operations against terror-linked elements in Somalia. (allAfrica.com)
Somalia's poorest welcome families displaced by fighting Dec 16, 2007
MARKA, Somalia - After she escaped the urban battleground of Mogadishu, walked 20 days in the blasting heat, slept in the sand, dreamed of explosions, and watched her four children get sicker and skinnier, Asiya Ali arrived one recent evening at this unfamiliar seaside town ... "I'm Bimal," she told anyone she found wandering the soft sand streets of Marka, a process that led her to Fatima Mohamed, a distant relative she had never met. (Boston Globe)
In Somalia, aid arrives via armed delivery Dec 14, 2007
By Edmund Sanders, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer December 14, 2007 MARKA, SOMALIA -- Armed with missiles and heavy machine guns, a menacing French naval frigate appeared recently off Somalia's coast, providing cover as two heavily loaded ships piloted toward this sun-bleached village ... After the agency appealed to the U.N. secretary-general, the French government volunteered to escort the two ships that anchored off Marka last week ... Eager to deliver 3,500 tons of food, enough to feed... (Los Angeles Times)
Somalia's leader 'has bronchitis' Dec 6, 2007
The government had blocked two World Food Programme ships in the port of Marka. The ships had been escorted by the French navy to deter pirates but had been barred from unloading their food aid. (BBC News -- Africa)
Somali president flown to Kenya hospital amid walkout Dec 5, 2007
"We have had no official communication from the government and we have been trying to reach them. We are told there is a written order but have yet to receive a copy," WFP spokesman Peter Smerdon said from the southern Somali port of Marka. The latest blow to aid distribution in Somalia comes just a day after the U.N.'s top aid official, John Holmes, extracted a promise of greater cooperation from the government in delivering aid to hundreds of thousands of needy Somalis. (AlertNet)
Alarm as Somalia halts food aid Dec 5, 2007
5 tonnes of food aid which arrived at Marka port under French navy escort to ward off pirates must remain on board. The WFP also says it has stopped a convoy of trucks bringing food from Mogadishu to Joha after the toll charged at roadblocks rose from $75 to $500 a truck. (BBC News -- Africa)
Country profile: Somalia Jun 2, 2007
- private FM station in Mogadishu, Marka. - private, Mogadishu-based FM station. (BBC News -- Africa)
Where pirates roam free May 21, 2007
This creates the possibility of gunmen sneaking through among the porters with their guns hidden - as happened with the World Food Programme-chartered ship hijacked from the port of Marka ... Anwar Sadiqi, the chief engineer of a vessel chartered by aid agency Care-International to deliver food aid to Marka says he cannot do much to stop the ship being hijacked. (BBC News -- Africa)
Somalis trickle back to relative calm of capital May 1, 2007
"We fled to Marka and went through a lot of hardship. The place was too hot, too crowded and a lot of mosquitoes. When we heard the war has stopped, we decided to come back to Mogadishu, but I'm still worried," said Nimo Mohyadin, carrying three children. HELP THE COLONISERS. (AlertNet)
Somalia: UN Envoy Concerned At Rising Tensions Between Puntland And Somaliland Apr 14, 2007
UNHCR has additional stocks for up to 5,000 families in Mogadishu and smaller quantities in the town of Marka. But Mr. Redmond warned that obstacles remain. (allAfrica.com)
Somalia: Preparing for a Major Offensive Apr 11, 2007
Widespread diarrhea caused by unsafe drinking water has hit both children and adults in camps for the internally displaced in the towns of Afgoye and Marka, south of the Somali capital. Food and essential medical supplies are running out and local and international NGOs warn of an impending humanitarian catastrophe if no aid is made available to the displaced soon. (Ocnus.net)
Fleeing Somali refugees stranded Apr 4, 2007
50,000: Lower Shabelle 17,000: Middle Shabelle 17,000: Afgooye, 30km west of Mogadishu 10,000: Marka, 60km south-west of Mogadishu 2,700: Galkayo, 700km north-west of Mogadishu 2,000 (unconfirmed): Doble, on Kenyan border Source: UNHCR; estimated figures. Aid agencies are unable to reach the stranded families as security personnel manning the Kenyan border with Somalia have denied them access, our reporter says. (BBC News)
Somalia refugee crisis grows, some 'charged for shade' Apr 4, 2007
In Marka town, some landlords want four months' rent in advance. Refugees without relatives or clan links are living under trees, on the roadside or in the open. (AlertNet)
UN: Over 47,000 flee Mogadishu over last 10 days Apr 3, 2007
It said most of those escaping the deadly violence which aid agencies say is the worst in 15 years, have headed to the neighboring region of Lower Shabelle, where nearly 29,000civilians have arrived in March, with over 17,000 settling around Afgooye and over 10,000 in the district of Marka, two cities in the west and southwest of Mogadishu. There has been a steady exodus from the city since the beginning of February, when armed groups clashed with forces of the transitional government which... (Xinhuanet, China)
Suspected cholera deaths in Somalia Mar 14, 2007
"The children are dying from the disease because of a lack of access to proper medical centers," said Ahmed Nour Afey, a doctor who works at a provincial hospital in Marka town in Somalia's southern Lower Shabelle region. "Most of them die on their way to hospitals at the main towns in the region," he said. (Aljazeera.Net)
Somali police arrest four ship hijackers -UN Feb 28, 2007
The WFP said the Rozen was attacked last year off Marka, a port south of Mogadishu, but dodged the pirates that time. Pirates, who had made Somalia's coastline one of the most dangerous in the world, vanished from Somali waters while a battle for control of the nation raged on land. (Reuters AlertNet)
