With longstanding economic disparity and ongoing racial tension, the nation of South Africa has six of the ten most dangerous cities on the continent.

Most Dangerous Cities In Africa

Police in Cape Town, South Africa block the road to deal with a public disturbance on the city's streets.

As the African continent offers ever more economic opportunities and unique places to visit, many of its burgeoning major cities are concurrently becoming more susceptible to crime. Furthermore, in countries such as South Africa, where apartheid (the legal segregation of ethnic groups and races there from 1948 to 1994) was a once deeply ingrained practice, racial tension remains high, and xenophobia-related violence (that out of fear of those different than one's own self) often still occurs. Using the sets of crime indices Numbeo.com has created to compare global cities based on relative levels of crime, safety, law, and order, we have ranked some of the most dangerous cities in Africa. Numbeo's multi-factorial analyses take into account such considerations as people feelings on the level of crime therein, recent changes in crime levels, safety walking alone, fears of muggings or robberies, vehicular security, perceived threat of assault and/or battery, being annoyed, harassed, insulted, or solicited by locals, racial, ethnic, and religious intolerance, and the threat of property theft. In many cases, these cities' relatively high danger levels are validated by their listing by the US Overseas Security Advisory Council (OSAC) as "critical" in terms of crime. Using those Numbeo composite crime indices, here are some of the most dangerous cities to live in, visit, and conduct business in Africa today.

10. Nairobi, Kenya

As Kenya’s capital city, Nairobi is the hub of the country’s economy, thereby making it attractive to both foreign and investments, and vulnerable to criminal activity. The US Overseas Security Advisory Council (OSAC) rates Nairobi’s crime levels as being "critical". Also, Numbeo,com, as of March 2016, ranked the crime levels at of city as high, and ended up giving it a rating of 78.49 out of 100. Serious crimes common in Nairobi, according to OSAC, are armed carjackings, home and business burglaries, kidnappings, pick-pocketing, muggings, and snatch- and grab-thefts. Other criminal threats include grenade attacks and terrorism, which in recent years Kenya has bore the brunt of. However, those victims of robbery who cooperate without resisting are likely to be unharmed in the city, according to OSAC. Cyber-crime and credit card skimming are other forms of criminal activities on the rise in Nairobi that its foreign visitors need to be aware of.

9. Luanda, Angola

Luanda, Angola’s capital city, has a high crime rate, and one which the OSAC reports as being "critical". Out of a possible crime score of 100, Numbeo rates it at 76.39 as of February 2016. According to the UK Government service Gov.UK, common crimes in the city are inclusive of carjackings, assaults, homicides, muggings for valuables such as mobile phones, armed robberies at either night or day (especially in areas popular with foreigners), and rape incidences both in nightlife areas and even private homes. Lone night travel or walks within the city are not recommended, as crimes mostly happen at night in Luanda, according to the OSAC. There also are crime hot-spots in Luanda that the OSAC particularly warns against venturing into, like the Rua Nehru, the Rua Houari Boumedienne, and the traffic circle in the last part of Rua Gamal Abdel Nasser. Thefts from stationary or slow-moving vehicles stuck in traffic also happen. It’s thereby wise to close the windows when stuck in such traffic situations there. Furthermore, visitors are also advised to avoid changing or withdrawing money in public places, or handling money in very crowded places.

8. Port Elizabeth, South Africa

Port Elizabeth is a coastal city in Eastern Cape Province, South Africa. As a port city, it’s vibrant with tourism and is dubbed the "Windy City" for its windy coastal clime. Port Elizabeth has a rich cultural heritage, and is among the cities early explorers like Vasco Da Gama passed through. However, crime is very high there, and Numbeo, as of February 2016, rates the crime levels there at 80.56 out of a possible crime score of 100. Muggings and street crimes are common at Port Elizabeth like in the rest of South Africa. Xenophobic attacks against foreigners also flare up in Port Elizabeth when there is unrest in South Africa. In 2014, Port Elizabeth was ranked number 35 by the Mexican Citizens' Council for Public Security and Criminal Justice among the world’s 50 most dangerous cities, and, in 2013, it was number 41. Murders per 100,000 people in 2014 were 34.8, slightly down from 36 in 2013.

7. Cape Town, South Africa

Crime levels in Cape Town, a port city in South Africa and the capital of Western Cape Province, are very high, even though it’s the country’s legislative capital. In recent years, several news wires have labeled it as being among the most violent cities in the world. Numbeo gives the city a crime rating of 82.45 out of a possible crime score of 100, as of March 2016, having increased over the course of the previous 3 years. From April 2011 to March 2012, Cape Town recorded more murders than both Johannesburg and Pretoria combined, according to Africa Check. Criminal activities like drug dealing, mugging, vandalism, theft, assault, armed robbery, and bribery are especially common there, according to Numbeo. Taking nighttime walks is also risky in and of itself. Much of the violence in Cape Town is fueled by drug-related gang activity and the economic inequality still prevalent in non-white territories. According to a 2014 report by the Institute for Security Studies, annual income in a white household was just over 6 times more than a black household in Cape Town.

6. Lagos, Nigeria

With an estimated population of 21 million, Lagos is Nigeria’s largest city. Crime levels are also very high, with Numbeo giving the city a rating of 80.88 out of a possible crime score of 100. The OSAC gives Lagos a crime rating of "critical". Locals and expatriates living in Lagos are prone to muggings, armed robberies, home or business burglaries, carjackings, assaults, rapes, kidnappings, and extortion. Armed robbers in the city are known to even climb up perimeter fences and subdue guards, and others have invaded waterfront compounds by way of boats. Criminals also target vehicle occupants in traffic, and break into stationary cars. Some of Lagos' crime hot-spots are airport roads in the days or evenings, as well as banks and grocery stores. Street gangs dubbed "area boys" cause terror in the mainland of the city when they clash. Lagos is also an e-mail scam hotbed, from where dubious cyber criminal prey on people under the pretension that they can receive huge compensation in return some time later after parting with some money by way of electronic transactions.

5. Durban, South Africa

Durban is the largest city in Kwa-Zulu-Natal Province in South Africa. It’s a coastal city that is popular with local and international tourists who visit it annually by the hundreds of thousands. Economically, the city hosts the biggest container and commodity port in Sub-Saharan Africa, according to the OSAC. But crime and criminal-related deaths have been on the rise. According to a 2014 report by the Mexican Citizens' Council for Public Security and Criminal Justice, Durban City was 38th among the 50 most violent cities in the world. Homicides per 100,000 people stood at 34.5 in 2014, up from in 2013 when they were at 32 per 100,000. As of March 2016, Numbeo rated the crime in Durban at 87.89 out of a possible crime score of 100, indicating it as being very high. Beyond Durban's city limits, Kwa-Zulu-Natal province in 2015 was reported as the most dangerous province in South Africa. Taking personal precautions, like avoiding nighttime travel or walking alone, is recommended to avoid falling victim.

4. Johannesburg, South Africa

Johannesburg is South Africa’s largest city, with an estimated population of over 4 million people, and it’s also the capital of Gauteng province. In recent years it has achieved notoriety for the high numbers of crime and rape cases seen there as well. Numbeo ranks crime levels in Johannesburg as being very high, achieving a 91.61 out of a possible crime score of 100 as of March 2016. Due to the many incidences of rape reported there, it has also been dubbed as the "World’s Rape Capital". Recently, Johannesburg has had xenophobic attacks springing up in the low income townships with frequency. In 2014-2015, according to Africa Check, the murder rate in Johannesburg per 100,000 was 28.2 people. Yet, according to a report by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, the average global homicide rate per 100,000 people was 6.2, less than a fourth of that seen in Johannesburg.

3. Benghazi, Libya

Since Muammar Gaddafi’s oust from power as the leader of Libya in 2011, the whole country, including the second largest city of Benghazi, has been engulfed in a civil war. The city is ever at risk of radical Islamic terrorist attacks. In September of 2012, the US Embassy in Libya was attacked by violent extremists, and 4 US government employees, the US Ambassador to Libya included, died in the chaos. According to the OSAC, crime levels across the whole country are still rising. Incidences of carjackings, robberies, burglaries, and gun attacks are now more prevalent, largely due to the looting of government artillery that ensued in a mad scramble for economic and military gains after Gaddafi’s removal. Sexual harassment of women is also rising, as well as petty and hardcore street crimes alike. Even stricter laws on people's dress make expatriate women who don’t dress conservatively susceptible to attacks from Islamic extremist militias.

2. Pietermaritzburg, South Africa

Pietermaritzburg is both the province's second largest city (after Durban) and the capital of Kwa-Zulu-Natal Province in the nation of South Africa. It has very high crime levels, with a crime rating of 87.5 out of a possible crime score of 100, according to Numbeo as of January 2016. Armed robbery, sexual assault, arson, drug dealing, house break-ins, carjackings, and car theft are some crimes that are rife in Pietermaritzburg. In the 3 years leading up to 2015, crimes levels in the city rose significantly According to Crime Statistics South Africa, in 2015 there were 15,720 criminal incidences in the city. This was an increase on the previous years, as in 2014 there were 14,794 reported incidents of criminal activities, and in 2013 there were 13,596. When xenophobic attacks flare up elsewhere in South Africa, they also tend to quickly spread to Pietermaritzburg as well.

1. Rustenburg, South Africa

Rustenburg City is in the North West Province of South Africa. It has very high crime levels, and is rated at 85.71 out of a possible crime score of 100, according to a 2015 Numbeo report. Of all of the cities in the North West Province in 2015, Rustenburg had the highest total cases of criminal activities with 11,117 cases in 2015, according to Crime Statistics South Africa. Household burglary, kidnapping, hijacking, and political violence are but some of the crimes that frequently occur in this city. According to South Africa Dialogue, street crimes and muggings are also high in Rustenburg, and caution is necessary each and everyday. At night, car break-ins are common, and it’s not advisable to leave one's valuables inside a vehicle. When driving on the freeways at night, stops in undesignated areas make one an easy target for robbers, and hence it’s wise to avoid making them.

Halkaan Ka DaaWo MuuQaalKa

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The Arab League on Friday formally branded Lebanon’s militant Hezbollah group a terrorist organization, a move that raises concerns of deepening divisions among Arab countries and ramps up the pressure on the Shiite group, which is fighting on the side of President Bashar Assad in Syria.

The decision came during a foreign ministers’ meeting of the Arab League at the organization’s seat in Cairo, the Egyptian state MENA news agency reported. It came just a day after the league elected veteran Egyptian diplomat Ahmed Aboul-Gheit as its new chief.

The move aligns the 22-member league firmly behind Saudi Arabia and the Saudi-led bloc of six Gulf Arab nations, which made the same formal branding against Hezbollah on March 2. It also brings the league in line with the United States, which is closely allied with the Gulf states and has long considered Hezbollah to be a terrorist organization.

The European Union only lists the military wing of Hezbollah on its terrorist blacklist.

In Cairo, Saudi Ambassador Ahmed Qattan, told the satellite TV station Al Arabiya that the vote was not unanimous as Lebanon and Iraq abstained.

Earlier in the day, the Saudi delegation walked out of a league meeting in protest over a speech by Iraqi Foreign Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari hailing Hezbollah and Shiite militias as “resistant movements.”

“I only described Hezbollah as a resistant movement and rejected accusations against the Popular Mobilization Forces (a Shiite Iraqi group) and other resistant movements,” al-Jaafari told the state daily Al-Ahram.

The decision by the Arab League is a significant blow to Hezbollah and it is also likely to further aggravate tensions in Lebanon, undermining the country’s delicate political balance amid fierce political infighting between groups loyal to Hezbollah and Saudi-backed factions.

The league’s decision also reflects deep regional divisions between Sunni-ruled Saudi Arabia and Shiite powerhouse Iran, Hezbollah’s patron. Saudi Arabia cut diplomatic relations with Iran earlier this year after protesters angry over the kingdom’s execution of influential Shiite cleric Nimr al-Nimr set fire to the Saudi Embassy in Tehran and another diplomatic mission in Iran.

In addition to diplomatic pressures, Saudi Arabia has just finished a three-week long counter-terrorism drill dubbed “Northern Thunder” that included 20 participating countries, in what observers say was a show of force by the kingdom against its foes.

It also sent a strategic message to Iran, and extremist Sunni groups like al-Qaeda and ISIS.

The kingdom has taken other punitive measures against Lebanon, including cutting $4 billion in aid to Lebanese security forces and urging its citizens to leave Lebanon - a blow to the tiny nation’s tourism industry - in retaliation for Lebanon’s siding with Iran amid the Sunni kingdom’s spat with the Shiite power.

The GCC’s and Arab League’s decisions underline the steep price that Hezbollah’s very public and bloody foray into Syria's civil war has had. Once lauded in the Arab world as a heroic resistance movement that stood up to Israel, Hezbollah has seen its popularity plummet among Sunni Muslims because of its staunch support for Assad.

In Lebanon, the main political divide pits a Sunni-led coalition against another led by the Shiite Hezbollah movement, which includes both political and military wings. The Mediterranean country has weathered a string of militant attacks in recent years linked to the war in neighboring Syria.

Lebanon’s Foreign Ministry Gibran Bassil, speaking to reporters after the meeting in Cairo, said labeling Hezbollah as a terrorist organization goes against the Arab treaty for combating terrorism, which distinguishes between terrorism and resistance. He said Lebanon asked that the word “terrorist” be struck from the records of the meeting as if did not happen.

“Hezbollah is a Lebanese party that enjoys broad representation in the parliament and Cabinet ... Naturally we cannot accept that Hezbollah be described as a terrorist organization,” he said.

There was no immediate comment from Hezbollah. On its main evening newscast, the group’s Al-Manar TV reported on al-Jaafari’s speech at the Arab League meeting without commenting on the league designation against Hezbollah.

Hours before the GCC decision, Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah delivered a televised speech in which he harshly criticized Saudi Arabia for its punitive measures against Lebanon.

He repeated his accusations that the kingdom was directly responsible for some car bombings in Lebanon, Syria and Iraq, and denounced Saudi “massacres” in Yemen, where the kingdom is leading a US-backed coalition of Arab states targeting Iran-supported Shiite rebels.

“Who gives Saudi Arabia the right to punish Lebanon and its army and Lebanese people living in Saudi Arabia and the Gulf just because Hezbollah is speaking out? We urge Riyadh to settle accounts with Hezbollah and not all the Lebanese,” he said.

He also accused Saudi Arabia of seeking to cause strife between Sunnis and Shiites everywhere in the world and said its execution of al-Nimr in January came in that context.

Halkaan Ka DaaWo MuuQaalKa

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Eritrean men are being threatened with jail unless they marry more than one wife, reports say.

A statement allegedly  issued by the government of Eritrea is reportedly ordering men to marry at least two wives due to acute shortage of men caused by enormous casualties suffered during the civil war with Ethiopia. In the statement written in Arabic the  government gave the assurance that it will give financial support to the polygamous marriages.

A translation of the statement states: 

“Based on the law of God in polygamy, and given the circumstances in which the country is experiencing in terms of men shortage, the Eritrean department of Religious Affairs has decided on the following .”

First that every man shall marry at least two women and the man who refuses to do so shall be subjected to life imprisonment with hard labour.

“The woman who tries to prevent her husband from marrying another wife shall be punished to life imprisonment,” alleges the activists in their translation.

May 1998 to June 2000 Eritrean-Ethiopian war saw 150,000 soldiers killed from either sides but having a bigger impact on male population in the tiny Eritrea nation who were then just 4million people in total. 

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Slovakia says it has no mosques for Muslims and they won't 'like it here'

Slovakia says it will only accept Christians when it takes in Syrian refugees under an EU relocation scheme.

The country is due to receive 200 people from camps in Turkey, Italy and Greece under the EU plan to resettle 40,000 new arrivals.

Interior ministry spokesman Ivan Metik said Muslims would not be accepted because they would not feel at home.

The number of migrants at the EU's borders has surged in recent months, reaching a record high of 107,500 in July. Most are Syrians, Afghans, and sub-Saharan Africans, fleeing instability or poverty.

Last month, EU member states agreed to take in 32,000 asylum seekers arriving in Italy and Greece over the next two years - fewer than the 40,000 target.

The scheme was made voluntary after some nations - including Slovakia - refused to accept set quotas.

Metik told the BBC: "We could take 800 Muslims but we don't have any mosques in Slovakia so how can Muslims be integrated if they are not going to like it here?"

More than 240,000 migrants have crossed the Mediterranean already this year, arriving on the shores of Greece and Italy before travelling on to other destinations.

Germany, the biggest recipient of asylum-seekers in the EU, has said it could receive as many as 800,000 applicants this year.

Both the EU and the UN have called on other countries to share the burden.

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Yahya Samatar of Somalia is claiming refugee status in Canada. City refugee advocates have been helping him since he got here by crossing the U.S. border. He walked into Emerson Wednesday.

Two Somalian refugee claimants crossed the border into Canada the hard way this week -- in the Red River.

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On Wednesday, Yahya Samatar, who was shivering and soaking wet, climbed out of the Red River in Emerson, and into the pickup truck of a Good Samaritan who cranked up the heat, gave him a sweater and called 911.

"I didn't know where to go," said Samatar, a 32-year-old English-speaking aid worker from Somalia. In an interview with the Free Press Thursday, he said he and a companion were dropped off just south of the Canadian border crossing after midnight Tuesday. "I saw the lights of the port" at Emerson, he said. They were both afraid U.S. border patrols would pick them up and send them back to Somalia, so they headed for the bush.

"I crossed the farms and saw the bushes. I went in the bushes and saw the river."

Disoriented and in the dark, they figured the river ran east to west rather than south to north and, if they waded across it, they'd be safe in Canada, he said.

His companion entered the river with a backpack containing Samatar's wallet and phone. He was quickly swept up by the current and carried downstream, he said.

"I wasn't seeing him," Samatar said. He thought his friend had drowned. "I didn't hear him calling my name."

By that time, Samatar had already taken three steps into the mighty Red. Realizing it wasn't a lazy river they could just wade across, he scrambled back up on the bank.

"I slept in the bush." In the morning, he took a chance. "I thought I could cross if I left my trousers and shoes behind."

He learned to swim as a kid growing up in Kismaayo, a port city south of Mogadishu on the Indian Ocean, but he was not prepared for the cold, fast-moving river.

After two or three terrifying minutes in the water, Samatar said he swam back to shore and pulled himself out of the river. Shivering and shoeless, wearing nothing but shorts and a T-shirt, he walked into Emerson. "I didn't know if I'm in Canadian territory," Samatar said.

"I met a guy parking a truck... He was shocked by me when he saw my condition... He was a very nice guy." He told Samatar he was in Canada, gave him a sweater, put him in the cab of his truck with the heater running full blast and called 911. Paramedics and RCMP arrived.

After determining he wasn't hypothermic, Samatar was arrested, handcuffed, draped in a blanket and taken to the Canada Border Services Agency office nearby.

"They gave me food and trousers and a sweatshirt -- they gave me what they had."

The refugee claimant was interviewed, photographed, fingerprinted and given an October date for an Immigration and Refugee Board hearing. Then he was released.

But with no money, no one to call to pick him up, and nowhere to go, Canada Border Services Agency officials called Welcome Place in Winnipeg to get help for Samatar. Their offices had already closed, so they called Hospitality House Refugee Ministry. It handles private sponsorships of refugees, not refugee claimants, but their settlement manager jumped in her car and drove south to Emerson to get Samatar and put him up at Hospitality House residence in Winnipeg.

On Friday, Samatar learned his friend made it out of the river, hitchhiked to Winnipeg and was on his way to Toronto to make a refugee claim there.

Hospitality House settlement manager Karin Gordin took him to Welcome Place to fill out paper work for his refugee claim and to check in with the Canada Border Services Agency at The Forks.

"They were impressed with his English," Gordon said. "They told him he might have a future as an interpreter working for them."

Samatar hopes he's at the end of what has been a year-long survival odyssey.

He fled Somalia in August of last year when he became a target because he does aid work with a non-governmental organization and had no one to protect him.

"There's no functioning government," Samatar said. "As long as your clan has not a lot of power, you're at risk." Militia groups and Al Shabaab are active and night-time attacks are common, he said.

Samatar said he and his family scraped together US$12,000 to pay smugglers to get him to Ethiopia, then Brazil, and help him make his way by land through Central America to the U.S. border at Matamoros, Mexico. "I took buses and walked in the jungle for one month," he said.

In the U.S., he was apprehended as an illegal alien and spent six months in a detention centre in Texas and another 10 weeks in a centre in Louisiana. After his refugee claim was formally rejected, he was released to await deportation back to Somalia. Desperate to set down roots in some place safe, he headed north. A contact in Minneapolis's huge Somali community rented a car and drove Samatar and his companion close to the border crossing at Pembina, N.D., he said.

In Canada, the kindness of strangers has been a shock to his system, he said. He feels welcome and hopes to make this his home.

"I want to upgrade my education and get a job to support my family," said Samatar, who is married to a journalist who also fled Somalia. She is in Kenya with their baby and their three older children are with Samatar's mother.

"Hopefully, my asylum is accepted, and I can sponsor them."

 REFUGEE CLAIMS MADE IN WINNIPEG

April 2014 to March 2015: 57

April 1, 2015 until now: 56

Welcome Place is the only agency helping refugee claimants in Manitoba complete their paperwork and file the documents necessary to make a claim to stay in Canada. A refugee claimant has 15 days from the time they arrive in Canada to complete and file complicated paperwork. They usually get a hearing within two to three months.

On one day this week, the agency received eight refugee claims -- most by Somalis.

"There's a spike in the number of people coming from Africa making refugee claims," said Ruth Magnuson, chairwoman of the Manitoba Interfaith Immigration Council that runs Welcome Place.

"They're clearly an indication people are making desperate attempts at finding a place to live," Magnuson said Friday. "It's not often we get people coming by crossing a river."

Manitoba ports of entry don't see anywhere near the number of refugee claims that cities such as Vancouver and Toronto do with flights arriving from all over the world, she said.

But the Manitoba agency has handled as many refugee claims in the last three months as it handled in the entire previous year.

The federal government no longer funds the service but Canada Border Services Agency depends on them to provide it, Magnuson said.

"These are the world's most vulnerable people coming to our doorstep," she said. "They have a right to a fair hearing in Canada. In order to do that, you have to have the people who will provide them with assistance."

It's a complicated process and even more so for applicants who struggle with English, she said. Welcome Place is struggling to raise funds to keep providing the service, she said.

"We are underfunded and have been for the last couple of years," said Magnuson. "We feel that this is a vital service and the government depends on us to provide it. We're squeezed to make it happen," she said.

"Even if a person has to be deported, at least they've had a fair, welcoming process in Manitoba."

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Everybody has a choice when it comes he/she’s life, but there is too much to think about when it comes your own choices, you should think hard and long to choose who you want to be, which way you want to live and who you want to share your life with.

As a Somali Woman I myself have experienced a lot! And I can imagine what my other fellow Somali sisters could gone through. I raised my children alone with just my parents and Allah’s help, I admit there are a lot of topics which are important for us (Somali Women) which have not been covered yet, we have many untold stories.

The reasons we do not talk about the many fascinating things we encounter is longer than your arm, but the biggest of those many reasons is because we are afraid of the backlashes.

The question is WHOM FROM? Who are we afraid of, our men? AND WHY IS THAT? Because they are our biggest critics at same time our biggest lovers. They have this mixed feeling for us, LOVE/HATE feelings and they cannot help, but they make sure put us our Place.

Oh, I am sure, you are confused now reader, aren’t you?

Let me take you out your misery and Please try to understand me , I am not seeking trouble here, I am just making a point,  a point that we lot avoid the most, a point that we are scared to mention, a point we are terrified just to remember it.

First and foremost we are a backbone of our country, our people and our community. It doesn’t matter where we are, aboard or home, we work hard. We bless our Men/Husbands (if we have one), we take care our families, we bring up our children (Mostly as orphans with living dad) and we are  mothers of peace, even our men know this, they always mentioned their speeches, their chats at tea shops (FADHI-KU-DIRIR) and everywhere they met.

We are an obedient human too, because we always agree with our men with any issue they come up with, and we are the best event planners when it comes to welcome our male politicians.

We are good wives inside the house and warriors outside the house, we fight with life issues about everything under the sky, and we are lovers and sex objects in our houses too, sometimes we are victims of different kinds of abuses on our beloved men too. We do allow all of those things happening around us we could not blame on somebody else, could we?

But then we are everywhere you go, inside our mother country (DAL-JOOG) and diaspora (DIBAD- JOOG) and refugees (IN CAMPS WITH NOTHING).

Let me get my point and please don’t hate me for saying this, you will know little about how our men behave, unless you are a woman and divorcee (GAROOB/CARMAL).

The mayhem starts when we are divorced by our husband, and left with a lot of his and of course our kids, alone, penniless, with no rights, no posh lawyer to seek your revenge, poor and weak single mother.

You should face the world with no money, no help, no country (If you live aboard) with small kids, who don’t know anything about what is going on, and if you are a good mother(Depends whether you are strong enough to rise them with-out getting mad and go into mental institutes) then you are on your own.

Those of us who are enough clever, full stops there a big part of their life, and put their sexual needs on hold, while their children are very young and do not have a clue what is happening between their parent (The reason of this, is very hard to explain, but mostly it is because you should protect your kids, or you could not face another man while you are in that little mess of yours).

You wake up every morning to do your endless tasks and chores as a single mother, routines of life are not ending anytime soon, so every night you gone to bed tired like a donkey, knackered like a farmer’s dog and even you would not feel that bed is very big for you only to sleep.

Your famine feelings are gone and you did not feel any attraction toward men,  all the lives around you is demanding, there are too much to do then,  you should send your children to schools, universities or training courses, in order to get them skills to live by, you should protect them from anything,  it doesn’t stop there,  you also needs to do something on your life, and make it better, so you should go to schools, colleges or universities, as there is no other breadwinner at your household, you should go to work too and earn their living,  this is you filling yours and their father’s shoes, does not matter how many times you wonder what he (Their father) is doing by now, while you are straggling the life of your children but you will always remember what everybody else says (YOUR SOMALI RELATIVES) from both sides the best advice they could give you is: BE PATIENT! (ISKA SABAR) but whatever you do, you are still alone with no one in your life rather then you little companions (YOUR CHILDREN), so you are trapped with them and they stick with you, after all you are their mother and a father both, they will grow day to day and realizing more and more true about their life, they would like to make your life better if they can, but then they are very little to be able to make a change any time soon.

If your children are girls it is easier rather than to be boys, girls listened you well then boys, so boys needs their fathers more than anything and you do not have a father for them, it is not your fault but he choose for you that, but with the help of Allah, you are very lucky if your boys listened you better, as they have not a choice.

You are very lucky and lucky enough if you do not fall from the cart and hang in there till that god (ALLAH) make it pass all that hardships, you are lucky enough too if you don’t commit suicide or your doctors not to give you antidepressant tablets, if you do not become ill then your mother blessed you high (HABARTAA AA KUU SOO DUCEYSAY.)

It is hard and everybody knows what a single mothers could get through just to bring up her children, but then the funny part is coming and starting when you are ready to date again.

First of all, you should be very careful because you were out of the game for long time, or somehow you are not updated well the modern dating system, because so many things changed while you are running after the kids, and obligate your duty of been single-mother, you are scared as shit! To date or trust a man again, you could get a lot of flash back of your bad time with your former and gone for good husband, you could remember all of his bad falls with you, the shouting’s, the badmouthing, the personal insults or sometimes the hitting’s, your black eyes, your broken nose, your bloody cheeks, your river of tears all your visible wounds after he battered you, like you are in a ring with Mike Tyson.

You could also question yourself over and over again (can I go through that heart attack all over again?) because you are not sure what kind of man will be, the coming one (NEW ONE).

Believe me, a divorcee women has more fear than virgin young ladies when it comes to involve with men because of their previous life experiences.

But then you realized that you need someone in your life, someone to love you and you love him back, someone to be close and hold you and you do the same, someone to give you a warm hugs and you give one too, someone to care about you and you care about him, someone to cherish you and make you happy and you do the same, someone that you can share your future achievements and sorrows both, someone you know that he will be there for you.

Most of us (Somali single mothers) we don’t care about non-Somali men, even if they are our fellow Africans, our Arab descents or all those Muslim men from the Islam world, because we are traditional women, we listened well and fellow the steps of our parents who brought us up with traditional certain way, or whatever, our ears echoing that famous sayings: MARRY WHOM YOU KNOW TO GET WHAT YOU KNOW! (WAXAAD TAQAAN GUURI, WAXAD TAQAAN BAAD DHASHAAYE!) so our suitors are only Somali men,  because we love them dearly even if they broke our heart so many times or shattered our inside mirrors into many tiny pieces.

It is not a crime that you need a man in your life after what you have gone through all by yourself, and it is not a bad thing if you want a man on your life again, you deserve it, but what is bad is, to hate all the men because of your former husband’s sake and to get angry all their lot and be afraid to get married again.

After all you are a Muslim woman and it is not an option to have a relationship with a man or sleep with him, outside of marriage lock.

So when every you need a man you should make sure that he marries you whether it is an official married (GUUR QOF KASTA OGYAHAY) or a secret married (GUUR QUDBO SIRO AH), you must make sure you gone HALAAL!

But then what is going to happen after you make up your mind, be ready yourself back to the dating  market and become a darling lady of Somali man again, is beyond the believe.

First of all you will be confused and same time surprised, and you will never guess what is there for you.

From the start you should answer that nagging questions from them (Our Beloved Somali men) which they keep asking you all the time, but this time you should be honest once and for all and whenever they pop that familiar question on you: ARE YOU MARRIED?  DO YOU HAVE A HUSBAND? (MA LAGU QABAA?   NIN MIYAAD LEEDAHAY? (Their accents depends which region in Somalia they come from, and you should make sure your answer is prompt: NO I AM NOT MARRIED, NO, I AM DIVORCEE. (MAYA LA IMA QABO, MAYA GAROOB BAAN AHAY).

As far as you answer that question you are on board! And now, sexy questions hitting you more than anything.

A lot of men are chasing you now and then as you are a virgin again, your nights are more excited than your days,  although sometimes depending your social statues (weather you are educated woman or famous) how many suitors to glance your direction, but then always there are a lot of admires.

If you are on social media such as (Facebook, Tango, Viber, WhatsApp) your admirers become a lot till you would not know who they are anymore or forget about their names, confused but excited.

And frankly younger men are needier then the older men, but surprisingly, the older men are more talking dirty then the younger men, I am not sure where this mentality based but older men always seeking more than they get from their current wife (OR WIVES) or their previous partners.

And if you are an honest mummy you are likely to ask them their age those you suspected thay are  boys rather than men, because you do not want to date your eldest son, do you?

And they are like to say calmly: SWEATY I AM OLD ENOUGH TO MARRY YOU! Then here you are! Hesitated more and you are repeating yourself now, (NO, HOW OLD ARE YOU SERIOUSLY?) Then when he realizes that you are serious about the question, he either tells you the correct age of his, or lying about it and top-up his real age, in order to fool you.

But then they are polite mostly (The young ones) as I mentioned earlier, but then they are nagging about everything about you.

He is just like your child, and ask you mostly un-intentional silly questions or annoying you more, then you better start to think your escape route now sooner, rather than later.

The older one, ooooh my goodness! The older ones, they are more civilized but then mostly are divorcees like you or they are on transit from their wives to other single mother who either live same country that you live or another continent (Mostly east Africa or Arab world).

Sometimes they are ex-taxi Drivers with no education background or want to be MP’s to at somewhere in Somalia (The most attractive job in now days) or they are eager to join the crazy politics in Somalia, or they are small traders.

Then dirty talking emerged suddenly without decent introduction and before you know, your body will be an issues.

They don’t ashamed to pointing your little body of you, and if you have a little meat covering enough on your little tied bones, you will be like a little goat at a livestock market.

It is compulsory to mention in his conversations many times ROMANTIC MA TAHAY? (Are you romantic?) if ALLAH (God) planned for you to have a bad time on that moment,  the conversations and dating talk, turned more interrogating  as you are in Police station giving a statement or reporting with them a crime you have witnessed.

Don’t be shocked if he asks you about from your boobs to your bums and your curves too or more sinister parties of your little body.

If you are a polite women, you will be gobsmacked how far our men can get their dating skills (SHUKAANSI).

And they all want to tell you straight away how he seems you, how he would like to do this and that on you if you are his wife, he won’t ashamed and he will go on and go on and go on, and everything turned a porn movie!

If you are lucky to ask him, how he know your body and how god almighty create you as he did not seen you before face to face let alone naked, he would not mind to tell you that he saw you on Facebook, and looked your pictures, that you will think about and ask yourself, AM I MAD AND PUT MY FACEBOOK MY NAKED PHOTOS! And you are like: OOOOOOOOOOOOOOH, HE ALREADY CHECKED AND WATCHED MY PHOTOS!

Hang on don’t be surprised or wonder why, but you keep asking yourself HOW COULD HE? MAYBE HE LEFT HIS WIFE RECENTLY, A MOTHER OF HIS CHILDREN, HOW COULD HE TALK TO YOU LIKE THIS?

This body talking are not restricted from age, all men whatever their age are, they ask.

They make your body an issues, but then there are Somali tradition, this is not new but the way to referral, is too different and too dangerous now.

All the Somali old or new poems are been mentioned Somali Girls and their bodies, Skin colors, whiteness their teeth and their long black hairs.

But what if my body is not the way they want! I am sure I am not the same how I was or used to be, what about if every single mother does not have the body to bless her new admirers?

What is more interesting is, they are living western countries where every woman want to like slim and slander but our men want you to have enough boobs, small waist and big bums.

Honestly if we work hard we could get that small waist but then what about that most wanted boobs and bums! Shall we steal or here we live in western world so it is possible that boobs and bums are available to rent?

The other laughable matter is, if they think that you are too beautiful and sexy then your age, they keep admiring you, giving complements showering you with love songs  more than that you could handle and make you very shy and little girl again,  until you become out of words.

Surely they are here with us, watching TV’s, how could they expect you to become ugly because just you are single mother! Don’t they hear or see MADONNA? (She is granny and still dancing like a crazy, beautiful girl like she is in her twenties!)

One of other realty is when you built your life back and but on track, your former husband surfaced again, now all the kids grow up and if you are enough wise you took care yourself too, you work hard, you get one or two certificate,  you educate yourself,  you get your snooze back which you lost when your children are very young, you may hit the gym too and eat healthy food as you can concentrate your little lost life now, then you become a more beautiful, so he cannot help and here he is showing up without a warning, want to start where he left it.

To be honest, you will give up your dreams to date again on spot or to get a new husband before you started or your first tempted.

But there are so many lovely Somali men out there who would be a good and trustable husbands, but you will see them just if you are lucky enough, but the chance is very limited.

Most Somali Women (And the other women too) living in western countries are depressed for been single mothers, there are a lot of Somali Women who have had their children taken by Social Services, sadly the fathers of their children are in same countries and enjoying life as they wish, the truth is getting bitter if you just look around yourself or researched our life of Somali Families living in the west, especially the UK is the most country that Somali single mothers live, we are very grateful to have at least a second country that takes care of us and our kids,  but then you will be sad enough how our men are behaving and forgetting their responsibilities.

So the big question is: Is it too hard to be a Somali single mother in western world?

Written by:Amina Mussa Wehelie.

A somali/British Senior Journalist/Author

Living in UK.  asahra2012@gmail.com
Source : Jowhar

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Business is booming in Addis Ababa, the Ethiopian capital. There is construction almost everywhere, a symbol of Ethiopia's impressive economic growth over the past decade.

Gone are the days of famine and grinding poverty, the government story goes. This is Ethiopia 2015, which they say, is on course to becoming a middle-income country by 2025. 

Let our people judge us, not somebody from outside. After all, a democratic, credible, fair and free election should be credible in the eyes of our people, who are responsible for electing all of us. Hailemariam Desalegn, prime minister of Ethiopia

To add to this remarkably rosy picture, Ethiopia's 90 million citizens are part of a healthy, multi-party democracy that holds elections every five years, the government says. 

But not everyone agrees with this inspirational story of growth and democracy in what remains one of the poorest countries in Africa. 

They ask why, if everything is so good at home, are thousands of Ethiopians among the tidal wave of desperate people who make the perilous journey across the Mediterranean in search of freedom and jobs.

The government has been deemed one of the most heavily censored countries in the world, and has been accused of mercilessly stifling political opposition and civil liberties, and of imprisoning those who do not toe the line. Its critics say those who do not go to jail are intimidated into voting for the ruling party.

Ahead of Ethiopia's May 24 parliamentary elections,we travelled to Addis Ababa to ask Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn about his party's record, the global criticism of his government, and the reports on human rights abuses. We also talk to him about democracy, Ethiopia's economy and foreign policy.

Source: Al Jazeera

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When I think back to my year in Bucharest I realise that I was learning to be a refugee.

By Abdi Aden

Friday, May 15, 2015

I arrived in the city — the capital of Romania, in Eastern Europe — in 1991. I was 16. With my parents and sister gone, I’d raided the cache of money in our house in ­Mogadishu and bought a ticket to Cairo then Bucharest, where I moved from house to house. You are not a refugee ­simply because you have no home and no country. No, you become a refugee little by little.

It’s not that things become more hopeless with each passing day, it is that you adapt to the hardship and, in a way — this will sound mad — you become an expert in hardship. You learn to sniff out relief, a free meal, a place of shelter that is available only for a day, and from kilometres away you seem almost to pick up the scent of kind people, perhaps of your faith, perhaps not, who are prepared to provide you with a coat and a big furry hat.

You accept the status of a beggar. You search out other beggars from your homeland, and comfort each other, listen to stories of escape. “Did you ever meet Mahdi (or Farxaan, Fowli, Habane, Guhaad)? He made it to Vienna. It cost him 500 Romanian leu [$160]. He went in a truck with a compartment underneath.” And stories of people who went even further, to Anchorage, Alaska, after travelling across Russia to Vladivostok — amazing!

And of people who one day gave up and jumped off a bridge into the Danube. You become ready to do things so dangerous that you wonder if you have gone mad and don’t yet understand that you’re mad. Some Somalis hide underneath trains and hang on for 10 hours as the train speeds towards Germany, and if they happen to fall asleep or lose their strength they are found the next day on the railway lines, so much as is left of them.

I am sorry to say that you learn to tell lies, too, when it is unavoidable, just as I did in Somalia, where my education as a refugee began. Back there, people might ask me if I was from the Rahanweyn clan, intending to kill me if I said yes. So I would say that I was not Rahanweyn, except for one time, when my pride refused to let me lie and I was taken ­prisoner. Do you see the lesson? Your pride can kill you. In your education as a refugee, telling the truth on every occasion is not only unwise, it is suicide. But I ask you to believe that such lies do not make an untrustworthy person of me. The number one rule is this: Stay alive. Things might get better one day.

That day came when I persuaded a man who owed my father a favour to agree to let me fly as his son to Melbourne, promising him money I did not have. After takeoff I confessed and on our arrival he walked away. I rang a contact I had been given in the refugee community. Once again, I moved from house to house. I became a nomad of the city.

After almost three months in Melbourne, I had a lot of experience of the refugee scene. It was really three communities: those who ­desperately wanted to remain in Australia and spent every day worrying themselves half to death; those who expected to be thrown out of Australia and had given up worrying about it; and those who were very confident that they would be given permanent residency in time and didn’t worry at all. Each of these communities was made up of a number of nationalities: Somalis; Kurds from Turkey, Kurds from Iraq, Kurds from Iran, Kurds from nowhere; Iraqis; Iranians; Sudanese; Ethiopians; Eritreans; ­Burmese; Cambodians; Chinese; Vietnamese; Afghanis. And more.

The members of each nationality believed that they had suffered more than the members of every other nationality. The Iraqis would think: This woman from Sudan, some bad guys set fire to her village and shot a few people. So what? In my village they killed everyone except me. Each group of refugees kept count of the visas that had been given out to other groups. Often ­people got jealous if one group was getting more visas than another. They’d say: “The ­Australian government loves the Iranians. You’re from Iran, they give you a visa if you feel a little bit depressed. We Ethiopians, we just about have to hang ourselves before they pay any attention. The Iranians can go to hell.”

All this jealousy and anger — I didn’t want anything to do with it. Nothing. I hated the tribal and clan rivalries in Somalia, and I hated what went on here. I can truthfully say that I gave every Somali my support in his or her struggle for a new life. I was happy, very happy, when someone succeeded in getting a temporary protection visa or permanency. Many of the Somalis were big-hearted, generous people, and I tried to hang around them more than those who had hours and hours of complaints. I thought: I was spared death, I was saved, I should be dead. Have I come all this way to ­Melbourne, Australia, to argue and complain? Is that why I was spared?

If you were a refugee and you were waiting to learn from the Immigration people if you could stay, you had all sorts of ideas. You’d say to ­yourself: “OK, probably they will kick me out, too bad, I’ll just go back to Somalia.” Or you might say: “OK, if they don’t want me, who cares? I’ll go to New Zealand somehow. Maybe they want me there.” Or you might have this idea: “OK, I’ll hide in the desert and live with the Aboriginal people.” But there was really only one thing you wanted, and one thing you were hoping for,

and that was a letter from the ­Australian government that said: “Sure, you can stay. You can get a job. This country can be your country, so relax.” That was your prayer.

And you hid that hope deep, deep in your heart. Even when refugees were waiting for a visa and they saw things about Australia that drove them crazy, like the stupid game of cricket, or if the refugees came from a very traditional country, very strict, and were always making a tut-tut sound with their tongues when they saw girls and women wearing hardly any clothes out in the street, what those refugees wanted more than anything was that letter from the ­Australian government that said: “Sure, you can stay.”

Once you’ve been a refugee, once you’ve been homeless and hunted, far from the care of anyone who loves you, then you are a refugee for life. You might become a very comfortable refugee — you might have your own house in a lovely suburb, money in your pocket, your mother just down the road — but you will still be a refugee.

Mohammad, a Somali guy I know, said: “Australians are like children. They have never seen anything bad.” It’s not true that Australians are like children exactly, but Mohammad was right in a way. In this country, apart from the people who came here as refugees, the only ­people who have ever known what it is to be hunted, made homeless, murdered in a casual way, are the Australian black people, the ­Aborigines. And I can guarantee you they have never forgotten what it is to be a refugee.

It took me years to understand even a small part of what an Australian who is born here knows in his bones, deep in his heart. It would be the same if a native Australian came to ­Somalia. He might live in Somalia for decades and carefully study everything in Somali culture — he might learn 20 dialects of Somali — and still he would be a stranger. Even today, ­Australians will say to me: “You must have been so happy to get out of that hellhole and find safety in ­Australia.” “Sure!” I say. But let me tell you the truth. I still love Somalia. The bloodshed, the violence, the drug-maddened soldiers with their guns, the poverty — all of that is horrible, but I love Somalia all the same.

I got permanent residency and became a community worker, but these days most of my work is as an inspirational speaker. I talk to audiences of all sorts, including lots of school kids. They ask: “Abdi, does it make you cry to see refugees packed into detention centres?” And “Abdi, what do you feel when refugees are treated like criminals?” I try to explain that refugees have been with us for thousands of years. Even in primitive times, tribes were forced to make journeys when drought and natural disasters drove them from their traditional homes.

Since nation states came into being, wars have ­created great crowds of refugees. They pack their belongings and take to the road, ­hoping for a new life in a new land. Often they’re not welcome. Think of the Jewish ­people, and their long, long struggle for acceptance. The thing is, you can’t expect a person who is hunted in his own land, or starved, or unable to make a living, to simply say: “OK, time for me to die.” We have refugees because human beings want to remain alive. That’s not unreasonable.

War is an industry, and it’s easy to run. Young men will always be attracted to AK-47 rifles. Young men, some of them, many of them, will always feel empowered when they know that they have been given the right to murder. Of course they will. They grow up without jobs, without a future, then suddenly they have more power than they ever imagined. They have a gun. But the industry of war doesn’t produce anything except corpses. Families yearn to escape. They don’t want to live in a country where murder goes on all day every day. Or if not murder then it is poverty that drives people onto the road.

And they think of the countries where ­people live in freedom, where people earn a good wage; countries where children can go to school for 12 years, then maybe to university. They think of Big Europe, of America, of ­Canada, of Australia. The Dream Lands. For most of these people, their journey will end in a camp, in worse poverty than they fled. Some, including me, against all odds, will reach Big Europe, Australia, Canada, America.

I’m still talking. The audience is still listening. I say: “There are millions of refugees in the world today, and millions more people still living in their own ravaged lands who wish to take to the road, and will, one day. Australia cannot take in hundreds of thousands of refugees each year — millions over a decade. I understand that. But nor can we say to the refugees on the road, on the seas: ‘You have no right even to try to reach Australia.’ These people do have a right to try. They have a right to their dreams. And I think we can find more imaginative things to say to them than: ‘Don’t even try. We will punish you if you do. We will keep you in camps that will cripple your brain. We will make you sorry you ever dreamt of Australia.’”

I want to say to the government: “Stopping the boats is no great feat. Think harder. This problem will be with us for decades to come. It will get bigger and bigger. Please, some imagination.” And I would say: “Maybe it’s better to be more generous than you have to be rather than less generous than you could be.”

And I tell the audiences about when I appeared on series two of Go Back to Where You Came From. This TV show on SBS takes a small group of Australian citizens — some very critical of asylum seekers — and flies them to places in the world where refugees come from. They learn first-hand about the conditions that drive people to seek a new life in another country.

People who have seen me on the show ask me: “Abdi, when people tell you to go back home, what do you say?” And this is my answer. I say: “No, thanks. Madmen with AKs will kill me.” And then I say: “Don’t you want me here? Really? With these good looks?”

___________________________________________

Edited extract from Shining: The Story of a Lucky Man by Abdi Aden and Robert Hillman (HarperCollins ­Australia, $29.99), out May 25

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