"How are you going to make money in a country that doesn't even exist?" That was probably the question that many people had at the back of their minds when Mohammed Yusef told them he would invest in Somaliland. Others perhaps did not even know Somaliland had declared independence from Somalia in 1991 and that, in spite of not having been recognised internationally, it does have - unlike Somalia - a working political system and a strong business sector.   Mr Yusef of course knew. Although he now manages a very successful investment firm in the United Kingdom, Invicta Capital…

Ismail is a former foreign minister of Somaliland, an autonomous region of Somalia. swissinfo.ch talked to the 74-year-old director and founder of Somaliland’s first teaching hospital following her talk on Sunday at the TEDxRC² event in Geneva. The TEDx talks were held ahead of the four-day International Conference of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, which opened in the western Swiss city on Monday. The meeting takes place every four years aimed at strengthening international humanitarian law and humanitarian action.   TED is a global non-profit organisation devoted to “Ideas Worth Spreading”. Leading thinkers and personalities are filmed giving a…

It is the middle of the night in Eastleigh, a district of Nairobi mainly occupied by the Somali community. Jamal Sharif has not slept for 48 hours, steadily chewing miraa stems, which contain a mild amphetamine that dispels fatigue and makes people talkative. Sharif is terrified the rest of Kenya might "attack and kill" Somali residents, and even those of Somali extraction. Operation Linda Nchi (Protect the Nation), which Kenya launched in mid-October, is already yielding poisonous fruit. The army sent about 2,000 men across the border into Somalia to combat Islamist al-Shabaab insurgents who control much of the south.…