Closing Dadaab Or Moving the Misery?

  Dadaab refugee camp, November 2008. LUCAS OLENIUK / TORONTO STAR

 

Dadaab, a Kenyan camp near Somalia's border, is known as the world's largest refugee camp, but it is really operates as a city more than a temporary shelter, and if it were counted as such, it would be Kenya's third largest.

I remember being told on my first visit there in 2006 that the camp had reached its limit - Kenya could no longer accept the flood of refugees streaming in from neighbouring Somalia. Officials threatened to shut the border.

Then a brutal two-year war in Somalia broke out with Ethiopia, and Dadaab grew.

In 2008, camp organizers again told me this was it. The resources and land were just not available to expand. The border was "closed" officials said -  but refugees still made it through.

And as Al Shabab began a reign of terror Somalia, and a 2011 famine devastated the south, thousands more found their way to the camps.

Nearly half a million Somali refugees now find shelter in Dadaab, Kakuma camp and in Kenya's capital of Nairobi. Two decades of conflict in Somalia means many Somali teenagers have known no other life - never stepping foot in their parent's homeland.

But on Sunday, for the first time in 20 years, an agreement was signed between Kenya, Somalia and the UNHCR, which operates the camp, to begin the repatriation of refugees. It's a voluntary program, officials insist ("voluntary" is underlined in the UNHCR press release), and it is good news if the move is indicative of Somalia's recovery.

The impetus for the deal, however, is not Somalia's (relative) stability, but the September terrorist attack on Nairobi's Westgate Mall. Fingers started pointed at Somali refugees before the four-day siege had ended. Many feared Kenya would use the attack as a way to finally close the camps.

On Monday, a Kenyan security official told The Associated Press that one of the Westgate attackers lived at Kakuma. A second security official investigating the attack told The AP that more than one attacker passed through Kakuma camp. The article also noted that the head of the UNHCR in Kenya, Raouf Mazou, said his organization has been co-operating with the Kenyan government on the Westgate investigation but said he was “not aware of any specific case and not the name that you mentioned.”

If one or more of the attackers spent time in Dadaab or Kakuma, it will not be surprising. Al Shabab has recruited in the camps for years, just as they have in Somalia and elsewhere, luring young men from seemingly hopeless lives with the romanticism of the jihad.

Dadaab should be closed - it's a dismal existence - but will the situation in Somalia be any better? While areas of Mogadishu are experiencing an unprecedented construction boom, towns in Somalia's south remain under Shabab influence. This summer, Médecins Sans Frontières pulled out of Somalia after 22 years due to security concerns calling it a "painful," "heavy" and "unprecedented decision." (MSF is usually the first in, and the last out).

The Somali government is also struggling to resettle of Somalia's "internally displaced people" who have set up camps in the capital, where they fled due to the famine or fighting.

Kenya's parliament has used the Westgate attack to put Dadaab's closure back on the agenda. One official stressed closing Dadaab is a matter of security, describing the camps as a "nursery for terrorists."

But unless the repatriation is indeed voluntary as promised, and the support in Somalia ample enough to accept an influx of returning residents, moving refugees may just be shifting the misery.

And if so, Al Shabab would have greater ease recruiting their next generation.

 

Michelle Shephard is the Star's National Security correspondent and author of "Decade of Fear: Reporting from Terrorism's Grey Zone." She is a three-time recipient of Canada's National Newspaper Award. Follow her on Twitter @shephardm

Somalia's Black Hawk Down Twenty Years On

                                                                                   PAUL WATSON / TORONTO STAR

 

Before my first trip to Mogadishu, my image of Somalia was the dusty, broken torso of U.S. Staff Sergeant William Cleveland.

That image hangs with other famous photographs taken by Toronto Star photographers in the corridor our newsroom.

Paul Watson risked his life to take that photo of the American soldier's corpse as it was dragged through the streets of Mogadishu by a frenzied mob Oct. 3, 1993. That photo changed the course of U.S. foreign policy in Africa and has haunted Paul, and Somalia, since.

"In less time than it took to breathe, I had to decide whether to steal a dead man's last shred of dignity," Watson wrote in his memoir, Where War Lives. "The moment of choice, in the swirl of dust and sweat, hatred and fear, is still trapped in my mind, denying me peace: just as I was about to press the shutter on my camera, the world went quiet, everything around me melted into a slow-motion blur and I heard the voice: 'If you do this, I will own you forever.' "

He said he "winced with each blow," while watching the crowd whip Cleveland's body: "I had no idea who the corpse was, and after weeks of looking at dead and maimed Somali women and children, I despised men like him who killed from the sky. Until now. Here we were on the same ground, in blowing dirt and sour stench of fetid trash, on this nameless Somali side street where neither of us belonged, and for the first time, it felt like it was us against them. And there was nothing I could do to help him."

It is hard to believe that photo was taken 20 years ago - two decades since the horror that has become known in the West simply as "Black Hawk Down" thanks to the popularity of Mark Bowden's book and movie of the same name. Hundreds of Somalis were killed along with 18 elite U.S. Rangers.

Paul won the Pulitzer for that photo and the Star marked the event by creating a commemorative pewter coin, about the diameter of a hockey puck, which depicted Paul with a disproportionately enormous forehead. I remember when I joined the paper as a summer student in 1995, the coins were pretty much thrown in desk drawers.

During the 1990s and early 2000's, as the fighting continued and thousands died of starvation and disease, Somalia largely fell off the radar. The little humanitarian help Somalia did receive came from Arab states, Saudi Arabia in particular, which helped fund schools and mosques. The West was reluctant to get involved in Africa again, turning a blind eye to the 1994 genocide in Rwanda until it was too late.

Canada withdrew from Somalia as well in 1993 - in disgrace - following revelations that members of the Canadian Airborne Regiment beat to death Somali teenager Shidane Arone. Canada held an inquiry into the affair and disbanded the unit after accounts emerged not just of Arone's death but of a culture of violence and racism within the regiment.

In many ways it has taken those two decades for these images to fade. To Westerners, the sight of savage Somali mobs. To Somalis, the site of savage Western troops. 

Somalia's president issued a statement Thursday to mark the anniversary. "Unfortunately, far too many lives were lost during Operation Restore Hope in Mogadishu," President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud wrote, referring to the U.S. mission.

“On the other hand, 20 years later, the United States was the first government to recognize our new government after the end of the transition and today our two great countries stand together as friends and allies. As we celebrate our recovery we also mark with sadness and respect the lives lost on both sides in the madness of that conflict and we say firmly, never again.”

Today there is a shaky sense of stability in Somalia and while enormous challenges remain ahead, there is also a chance that the country could vacate the number one spot on Foreign Policy Magazine's annual Failed State Index.

Over the years of traveling to Somalia, it has become one of my favourite places to cover. Somalis are survivors and among the most gracious hosts and best storytellers I've met. There are also Somalis all over the world, in countries where they fled following the government's collapse in 1991. The Somali diaspora have been critical in rebuilding diplomatic and humanitarian ties between their adopted countries and their country of birth.

Despite hosting one of the world's largest Somali communities outside of Africa, Canada has been reluctant to build ties. But on Tuesday, Canada's Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird met with his Somali counterpart, Fawzia Yusuf Adam, pledging cooperation. Somalia is reportedly preparing to open an embassy in Ottawa.

"This is a new Somalia," Adam said after meeting Baird.

"A Somalia with hope. A lot of challenges. But these challenges are opportunities."

Michelle Shephard is the Star's National Security correspondent and author of "Decade of Fear: Reporting from Terrorism's Grey Zone." She is a three-time recipient of Canada's National Newspaper Award. Follow her on Twitter @shephardm

Kenya's Westgate: Terrorism, crackdowns & the deadly cycle

 

A protest outside Nairobi's Jamia Mosque in January 2010 turns violent during clashes with Kenyan forces. MICHELLE SHEPHARD / TORONTO STAR

There is a predictable pattern to how terrorism groups grow and morph and how authorities respond in the wake of an attack. Al Qaeda is skilled at recruiting the disenfranchised, filling power vacuums and taking advantage of civil rights abuses perpetrated by governments. This fits the group's narrative that there is a global war against Muslims.

That sad cycle may be continuing following Nairobi's Westgate Mall, which killed more than 65 children, women and men. Al Shabab, the East African Al Qaeda affiliate, has claimed responsibility.

Washington Post journalist Sudarsan Raghavan writes Wednesday of the indiscriminate arrest of Ubah Abubakar, an interior designer from Fairfax, Va., who lives in Nairobi and is of Somali origin. "They are rounding up anybody just for the sake they are Somali, or who looks Somali," he told Raghavan.

I've heard almost that exact quote before. In January 2010, Nairobi was rocked by a demonstration that started at the Jamia Mosque and quickly spread through the downtown. The protest concerned the arrest of a radical Jamaican-born cleric in Kenya. 

Within minutes of arriving, I could see the black flag of Al Qaeda flying and Kenyan forces released wave upon wave of tear gas and fired live rounds into the crowd. At least one protester was killed. Kenyans feared that Somalia's war was finally coming next door - but they also condemned authorities for reacting with such force.

But it was a few days later when Kenyan police really struck back, descending on the Somali Eastleigh neighbourhood. Kenyan Mohammed Ibrahim told me he had been near one of Eastleigh's mosques when police arrived and he stood his ground while others fled. He could tell from one of the constable's accented English that his native tongue was Luo, a dialect from western Kenya.

As he moved into arrest Ibrahim, he replied in Luo: "You are targeting my community. What's your problem?" The officer responded, "No problem," and walked away.

They were only arresting those of Somali origin, or as I was told repeatedly, those who looked Somali. Resentment was building.

In 2012, I was in Majengo, near Eastleigh, to investigate the rise of a group calling itself the Muslim Youth Center, and its charismatic leader Ahmed Imam Ali. The MYC ostensibly started as a social outreach group, appealing to the downtrodden who were weary of police harassment and the poverty.

That group is now called Al-Hijra and Ali has become Kenya's Al Shabab leader. A report issued by the Canadian Security Intelligence Service warned last year: "Al-Hijra is likely to become more active: its principal leader, Ahmed Iman Ali, remains at large, gaining experience, confidence and credentials as a jihadist leader. Hundreds of Al-Hijra members have undergone training and experienced combat in Somalia between 2008-2012; following the loss of their bases, as Al Shabab withdraws further and further from the Kenyan border, many members of this jihadist cohort are likely to return to Kenya or travel to other East African countries."

The identities of the Westgate attackers is not yet known - although it will be surprising if there is not some involvement of Al Hijra. A report by journalist Jamal Osman, states that the leader of the attack was a Kenyan national, a Christian convert who was once part of the country's special forces.

The New York Times reported Wednesday that, "American officials said they were close to discovering the identities of the assailants from tests performed on their remains, and that they appeared to come from several different countries."

With still so much uncertain a week after the attack ended, all that is clear is the need for answers. A shoddy post-attack investigation, coupled with random, widespread arrests, would only fuel Al Qaeda's next generation, thus letting the predictable cycle continue.

Michelle Shephard is the Star's National Security correspondent and author of "Decade of Fear: Reporting from Terrorism's Grey Zone." She is a three-time recipient of Canada's National Newspaper Award. Follow her on Twitter @shephardm

 

Medical neutrality: a dying principle?

Doctors and staff of the Salmaniya Hospital in Manama joined demonstators on the hospital grounds to protest against Bahraini security forces who were halting the dispatch of ambulances to scenes of demonstration. Lucas Oleniuk/Toronto Star

The doctor's mission is straightforward: to save lives. Even in times of war and conflict, the health worker's modus operandi is to treat the patient on the table, regardless of his or her uniform, nationality, race or creed.

Medical neutrality is a time-honoured concept, one first enshrined in international law by the Geneva Convention of 1864. But these days, it seems to be increasingly coming under fire.

Matthew Watson with the UPMC Center for Health Security has written a piece today about the growing problem of violent attacks against health workers around the world. His article coincides with a new UN report on Syria, finding that "the denial of medical care as a weapon of war is a distinct and chilling reality of the war in Syria."

As Watson writes, it has "long been held that medical care providers and their patients and places of practice should be held safe."

"However, recent reports of violence targeting healthcare workers provide evidence that the prohibition of violence against healthcare workers has degraded and requires strengthening and enforcement."

He lists several examples of health workers recently coming under attack:

* Syria, where healthcare workers have been intimidated, repressed, targeted and even arrested and detained. According to today's UN report, the authors have come to the "overwhelming conclusion" that "government forces deny medical care to those from opposition-controlled and affiliated areas as a matter of policy." There is also evidence of anti-government forces attacking hospitals, according to the report.

The group Physicians for Human Rights has subsequently issued a press release, calling for the international community to address war crimes in their Syrian negotiations. "Government forces have shelled maternity wards, tortured patients instead of treating them, and arrested doctors for doing their courageous work," said senior medical advisor Dr. Vincent Iacopino in the release. "In a conflict where more than 100,000 lives have already been lost, attacking the health care system cannot be tolerated from either side.”

In a conflict where more than 100,000 lives have already been lost, attacking the health care system cannot be tolerated from either side.” - See more at: http://physiciansforhumanrights.org/press/press-releases/phr-urges-us-and-international-community-to-address-war-crimes-in-syria-negotiations.html#sthash.2AvWpTC8.dpuf

Dr. Vincent Iacopino, PHR’s senior medical advisor. - See more at: http://physiciansforhumanrights.org/press/press-releases/phr-urges-us-and-international-community-to-address-war-crimes-in-syria-negotiations.html#sthash.2AvWpTC8.dpuf

Dr. Vincent Iacopino, PHR’s senior medical advisor. - See more at: http://physiciansforhumanrights.org/press/press-releases/phr-urges-us-and-international-community-to-address-war-crimes-in-syria-negotiations.html#sthash.2AvWpTC8.dpuf

* Pakistan, where several vaccination teams have been recently violently attacked. (Not included on Watson's list is Nigeria, where polio workers have also been targeted in the past year)

*Somalia, which Médecins Sans Frontières recently pulled out of after spending 22 years in the country providing medical services. The humanitarian aid agency said conditions in Somalia have become unacceptably dangerous for health workers, with 16 of its own staffers killed since 1997.

In 2008, the Red Cross began recording violent incidents against health workers in countries where it has operations, issuing its first report in 2011. Their initial report documented 655 violent incidents between July 2008 and December 2010; a follow-up report this year documented 921 in 2012.

Watson concludes his piece by calling for global action to combat the erosion of medical neutrality, a long-held -- and necessary -- international principle.

"As healthcare delivery in conflict zones become more dangerous, decisive action is needed to protect healthcare workers and facilities," he writes.

Jennifer Yang is the Star’s global health reporter. Follow her on Twitter: @jyangstar

Life and death (?) of American rapping jihadist

 Omar Shafik Hammami was killed in an ambush in Somalia's southern Bay region, according to reports. Uncredited / AP FILE PHOTO

 

Reports state that Omar Hammami, better known as "Al Amriki" (the American), a one-time militant with Somalia's Al Shabab, was killed in a shoot out Thursday. Hammami's death has erroneously been reported before, but multiple news outlets were confirming the news, which first broke on Twitter by Voice of America journalist Harun Maruf.

Maruf interviewed the Alabama-born Hammami last week, where he reportedly told Maruf that coming back to the U.S. was not an option "unless it's in a body bag." As for his life now? Maruf tweeted that Hammami told him: "Wake up in the morning, drink tea, eat beans, read Qur'an, drink more tea, more beans, pray, and sleep."

Hammami has been a marked man for a couple years now - tracked both by Shabab's  hardline leadership, with whom he had a very public falling out, and also by Somali and Western forces since the U.S. put a $5 million bounty on his head in March.

A Shabab member, who gave his name as Sheik Abu Mohammed, told The Associated Press Thursday that Hammami was killed in an ambush in Somalia's southern Bay region. Hammami told Maruf last week that Shabab leader Ahmed Abdi Godane (also known as Mukhtar Abu Zubair) wanted him dead.

"I know enough about his organization to know that he doesn't abide by the principles of Islam," Hammami said, later calling Godane a "control freak."

Hammami said he is no longer a member of the Shabab and told Maruf he believed the U.S. and Shabab were working together. "I'm definitely a terrorist, but I don't think that the United States are in the business right now of trying to shoot rockets at me," he said. "I think it's easier for them to just give the Shabab $5 million and tell them to hunt me down."

If his death is confirmed, it is significant in terms of further streamlining the Shabab's leadership, which has joined forces with Al Qaeda and waged an internal war against dissenters. Although Hammami's importance within the organization has likely been overstated - largely due to his Western connection, including a time he spent in Toronto, and his accessibility to English-speaking journalists and analysts - Hammami did serve as a recruiting agent for Westerners, and in recent years, helped provide an inside look at a diminished, yet still powerful Al Qaeda group. (While he was on Twitter, we conversed in private "Direct Messages" regarding a Canadian who had joined the Shabab and reportedly led an April suicide bombing mission at Mogadishu's courthouse.)

His death would follow the July defection of Sheikh Hassan Dahir Aweys, a longtime Somali militant now reportedly in custody. (Here's an analysis of his departure and his shifting loyalties since we met in Mogadishu in 2006: bit.ly/18fd4rq )

ABC News reached Hammami's father, Shafik, who said he had been told of reports. "Of course I hope not, I hope it's not true," he told ABC News in a telephone interview from his Alabama home Thursday. "Our lives have been on a roller coaster for a long time, and we've been there before... we just hope that it's not true this time."

Shafik said if his son was indeed killed, he died "fighting for his principles, whatever they are."

Michelle Shephard is the Star's National Security correspondent and author of "Decade of Fear: Reporting from Terrorism's Grey Zone." She is a three-time recipient of Canada's National Newspaper Award. Follow her on Twitter @shephardm

Mogadishu's airport moving on up and online

The carcass of a Russian aircraft shot down in 2007 was finally moved from Mogadishu's runway to a side street, where its parts are being sold. MICHELLE SHEPHARD/ TORONTO STAR

Mogadishu's airport now has a slick website, with an artist's rendition of a new terminal and tourist links for hotels and attractions under a heading titled "Discover Mogadishu."

It's a bit premature, but encouraging.

Before you pack your bags for a beachside holiday, just know, Somalia's capital is not ready for foreign tourists and the website is a little misleading (I'm not sure where The Bazooka Bar is but I'm pretty sure it's not in Mogadishu).

Visitors must still travel carefully in the capital and many foreign diplomats meeting their Somali counterparts never make it out of the well-guarded airport, which sits inside a sprawling compound guarded by local forces and peacekeepers with the African Union mission, known as AMISOM.

On Friday, an Ethiopian Air Force cargo plane crashed in circumstances that are still unclear, killing four crew members. The government immediately appointed a high-level security committee to investigate the crash. It does not appear to be terror-related as Al Shabab, East Africa's Al Qaeda group, did not claim credit (but nonetheless hailed it as "a victory from Allah.")

That's the bad news and a little reality check, but the airport's website is a promising sign of progress.

There were many instances during the last two decades of conflict when the airport was completely shut to commercial traffic, further alienating the war-torn capital from the world. When a Russian aircraft was shot down in 2007, its carcass remained on the tarmac greeting visitors, an unnerving sight for those who dared to fly to the capital.

But the twisted wreckage was finally moved to a side street last year where its parts are being sold. Also gone now is the immigration form that asks passengers to list the "make and calibre" of their weapons. And after Friday's crash, the airport quickly resumed business.

Turkish Airlines, part of the Star Alliance airline group, which includes Air Canada, now flies regularly to the capital. According to a New York Times magazine article by Joshua Hammer, the managing director of Jubba Airways, Somalia-born Canadian Abdullahi Warsame, is "starting inquiries" about purchasing the first plane for the airline, perhaps a Boeing 737-800, or a newer version 737. The airline now only leases its Boeings (manufactured before 1988). 

Progress, indeed.

But the airport website may need a few more pointers under the heading, "Planning Your Trip."

Read more here: http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2013/08/06/198681/broad-us-terror-alert-mystifies.html#.UgJDMJFE3Fr#storylink=cpy

Michelle Shephard is the Star's National Security correspondent and author of "Decade of Fear: Reporting from Terrorism's Grey Zone." She is a three-time recipient of Canada's National Newspaper Award. Follow her on Twitter @shephardm

How one woman survived the hell of Somali pirates

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Judith Tebbutt, was held hostage in Adabo, Somalia for six months. AP Photo

 

Listen to this incredible tale of how one woman’s mental strength helped her survive being kidnapped and held hostage by Somali pirates who murdered her husband. 

Judith Tebbutt, 58, an Englishwoman went on a safari holiday to Kenya with her husband David in September 2011. After a week in a game reserve the couple headed for the Kiwayu Beach Resort, which is on a small island only 40 kilometres from Somalia’s lawless coastline.

The night they arrived, six Somali gunmen broke into their room. She was dragged down the beach, into a boat and out to sea. David was shot in the head and died.  

It was her skills as a mental health social worker that held her in good stead for six months as she was kept captive in a dark room and fed potatoes and rice.

Speaking to the BBC World Service she said: “Even though I despised these people, I knew that if I was going to be in their company for any length of time, I needed to try and build a rapport with them, build a connection.”

So she smiled at her captors and learned a few Somali phrases. She kept in shape by doing Pilates. Her efforts made a difference – Tebbutt was given a radio. 

Sadly, she found out about her husband's death from her son when her captors allowed her a short phone call home. 

“All the pirates were in the room. I looked at every one of them and said 'You killed my husband!' and 'You killed my husband,' she told the BBC. "One by one, they just filtered out. I was left with the leader man, and I said 'It was you. You killed my husband!' and it was like this face off. I thought 'I'm just going to look at you until you turn your face away.' I just felt such hatred."

She soldiered on, determined to survive. Part of that was keeping her identity and that meant refusing to wear the full length veil worn by most Somali women when the pirates ordered her to do so. 

“That's really important, not to lose your own identity. However cruel they are to you, however they degrade you, you must remind yourself of who you are, all the time. I was still Jude, and I wanted to come out as Jude. I wanted to find a life for Jude again."

She even had the presence of mind to collect evidence about her kidnappers by writing in a notebook their descriptions.

Tebbutt was released in March 2012 and has written a book entitled Six Months in Captivity, which she says, was done to help other hostage victims.

“I just really want to tell people 'Do not give up hope, you haven't been forgotten', she told the British broadcaster. “You may think that you're languishing but there'll be someone somewhere trying to work towards your release." 

Hamida Ghafour is a foreign affairs reporter at The Star. She has lived and worked in the Middle East and Asia for more than 10 years and is the author of a book on Afghanistan. Follow her on Twitter @HamidaGhafour

Khat Ban in Britain

A Yemeni man chews khat in Old Sanaa in October 2009.    MICHELLE SHEPHARD/TORONTO STAR

 

The Kenyan town of Maua is likely panicking today. Not that it would easy for an outsider to see, as Maua always seems to be in a state of panic, albeit in a strange, business-like way.

Maua, in Meru County in Central Kenya, is one of the world's producers of khat (or qat), a herbal stimulant known by other names including "miraa" in Somalia and Kenya, or "chad" in Ethiopia. The town thrives on the khat trade - a 24/7 business where everyone plays a role. Along with photograph Lucas Oleniuk, we tracked this trade last year, from the khat trees in Maua where the leaves were picked at 4 a.m., to a parking lot north of Toronto where khat was illegally delivered near midnight two days later.

Although almost unheard of in most of the Western world, khat is wildly popular throughout East Africa and Yemen. In Canada and the U.S., khat is illegal but it is still easily found and the law is often overlooked. That's in part because the courts rarely enforce strict sentences. “It’s very difficult to understand why this stuff’s against the law,” Ontario Court Justice Elliott Allen said in a 2011 ruling. “I read everything I can get my hands on about it and find it difficult to be persuaded of anything other than what I was told by a federal Crown attorney when I had my first case, which was: ‘We think this is almost as dangerous as coffee.’ ”

Others, including Britain's home secretary Theresa May, disagree.

May announced this week that khat would become a Class C drug and penalties would be imposed for personal possession. As the Guardian notes, May's decisions "clashes with the expert opinion of her own Advisory Council on the the Misuse of Drugs (ACMD), which has said there is insufficient evidence to indicate that chewing qat causes health problems, or wider problems in society, to justify imposing a ban in Britain."

Britain was essentially the last Western holdout and the majority of khat trade went through Heathrow. Expect a strong reaction now from Kenya and Ethiopia, the two main khat-exporting countries (and to a smaller extent Yemen, where most of khat is consumed domestically), which stand to lose millions in trade.

Seems there may be some push back in Britain too. David Nutt, a professor of neuropsychopharmacology at Imperial College London, writes of what he calls the "moral agenda" of the ban of cats. Oh, not cats? He corrects himself. "Advocates for a ban are sometimes prone to demonise cats qat and, cynically or credulously, to fuel unfounded fears against owners users. Historically, cat owners were persecuted as witches." Read on: http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2013/jul/03/ban-qat-theresa-may-ban-cats.

Michelle Shephard is the Star's National Security correspondent and author of "Decade of Fear: Reporting from Terrorism's Grey Zone." She is a three-time recipient of Canada's National Newspaper Award. And yes, she has chewed khat. Follow her on Twitter @shephardm

Driving mad: The world's most dangerous roads

Afraid of flying? Terrorist attacks? The thief lurking under your bed? Well, you should actually be afraid of driving. Especially if you live in, say, the Dominican Republic.

The World Health Organization has a released report on the world's most dangerous roads, taking into account the number of motor vehicle-related deaths per 100,000 people. Top of the list is Dominican Republic, followed by Thailand, Venezuela and Iran. Safest? Iceland.

Max Fisher, a Foreign Affairs blogger at the Washington Post, notes that there is no single thread that joining the most dangerous countries, but medical care "both in terms of its quality and the physical nearness of hospitals seems to play a major role." 

Ask any foreign correspondent to share their scariest moments and a driving story is bound to be among the top five. Kenya's roads frighten me. Photographer Lucas Oleniuk says he has never felt closer to death (keep in mind he has been shot at in Bahrain and Haiti, among other locales) than when we tracked a shipment of khat, a popular leafy stimulant, from the trees in Maua, Kenya, to a parking lot north of Toronto last year.

 

You'll see the insanity of khat "drivers" at the end of his video here:

 

My colleague Hamida Ghafour, who was a recent resident in the United Arab Emirates, was dismayed the UAE didn't make the WHO's top 10 list. She writes:

Could the United Arab Emirates’ infamous Sheikh Zayed, which links Dubai and Abu Dhabi, really not be the worst highway in the world? I spent nearly two years commuting on that six-lane highway, trying to share the road with the Maseratis, Rolls Royces, and Lamborghinis favoured by Emiratis. (For the record I was in a modest Volvo.) 

Swapping horror stories about surviving the Sheikh Zayed was a dinner party perennial, kind of like moaning about property prices in Toronto. My favourite was a near miss with a South Asian driver who was driving erratically in the lane next to me one late Thursday afternoon as I headed home to Dubai.  I thought he was drunk until I looked closer – he was holding the Qur'an in one hand and reading it, while holding the steering wheel with the other.

The Sheikh Zayed also represents the tragic equalities in that society. The camps where the poor South Asian labourers who work mostly on construction sites lived were situated in the desert, cut off from population centres. If they missed the last bus home the only way back was crossing the Sheikh Zayed, which is like trying to dart across the 401. The worst hazard was anxiously watching for day labourers on that highway. On two occasions I saw the bodies of two men lying on the hard shoulder, covered with white sheets.

Somalia didn't participate in the WHO survey and driving conditions are likely pretty low on the country's To Do list. Here's a glimpse of what driving Mogadishu is like. (Videographer Randy Risling just let the GoPro on our car roll in 2011 and cut this oddly mesmerizing video):

 

Here's another fun video in case you wondered what Yemen's "streets" look like in the rainy season? Maybe not dangerous, but a rather damp experience. Star photojournalist (full disclosure: and husband) Jim Rankin cut this from our rather rainy reporting trip last year:

 

With apologies to Max Fisher for ending this blog the same way he ended his, here's the driving video everyone has been talking about since it was uploaded on YouTube May 31. It's reportedly from Makkah Road in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia and features a very interesting Ford Crown Victoria hood ornament:

 

 

Michelle Shephard is the Star's National Security correspondent and author of "Decade of Fear: Reporting from Terrorism's Grey Zone." She is a three-time recipient of Canada's National Newspaper Award. Follow her on Twitter @shephardm

Somalia's Omar Hammami: Life, death, Jodi Arias and Biebs

Tracking the life and death of American rapper-wannabe-turned-jihadist Omar Hammami, aka: Abu Amriki, is to national security types, what the Jodi Arias trial is to a reality-television-obsessed public (thanks to friend and Star colleague Jennifer Quinn you can figure out who Arias is here and here.

Last year Hammami released his memoir where he waxed nostalgic about his love of Tim Hortons and his year living in Toronto. In March, the U.S. issued a $5 million bounty for his capture which made you wonder how Western forces couldn't find a guy who tweets about as much as Justin Bieber (just FYI, on May 9th at 7:30 a.m., Biebs wrote: "Gonna go on a walk." It was retweeted 29,805 times and counting. Hammami, who goes by @abumamerican on Twitter has only 2,900 "followers").

Spencer Ackermann wrote a great profile where Hammami talks about his very public split with some of Somalia's Al Shabab leaders. Hammami has been chatting on Twitter with various national security analysts, both publicly and privately, describing the inner workings of the group and at one point offering details about the death of Fazul Abdullah Mohammed, Osama bin Laden's top leader in East Africa. (His account seemed to confirm what security sources told the Star in 2012.)

He had been privately writing the Star too, describing how he knew Canadian university student Mahad Dhore, who reportedly led a team of suicide bombers in Mogadishu last month. 

On April 25, he live tweeted what he claimed was an assassination attempt and then posted the photo (above) of a bullet wound in his neck.

Now his Twitter feed has gone silent and there are unconfirmed reports that he was killed by other Shabab members. Fuad Shangole reportedly announced his death, although the claim has since been disputed (Star readers will recall Shangole as one of Ismail Khalif Abdulle's captors. Ismail was the teenager whose hand and foot were amputated because he wouldn't join the Shabab. He is now living in Norway thanks to the efforts of concerned readers).

Some analysts with time to kill apparently (sorry Clint) have gone to extraordinary lengths to try to get at the truth by analyzing the veracity of the tweets about his death.

It has seemed for awhile now that Hammami is living on borrowed time - hunted not just by Somali and Western forces but also by those he once considered allies. One thing is certain. If Hammami is indeed still alive, he's sure to tell us soon enough.

Michelle Shephard is the Star's National Security correspondent and author of "Decade of Fear: Reporting from Terrorism's Grey Zone." She is a three-time recipient of Canada's National Newspaper Award. Follow her on Twitter @shephardm