SOMALIA: Internet Outage Affects Hotels, Travel Agencies, Banks Affected

Somalia's government says an ongoing internet outage is costing the country $10m (£7.7m) each day.

The outage affects southern Somalia, and was caused by damage to an undersea fibre-optic cable more than two weeks ago.

Somali Post and Telecommunications Minister Abdi Anshur Hassan has called the incident a "major disaster", costing Somalia "more than $130m".

He said the cable was being fixed and service will be restored "this week".

After more than 20 years of conflict, internet usage is low in Somalia, with just 1.6% of the population online in 2014, according to estimates by the International Telecommunication Union.

That same year, 3G mobile phone services in southern Somalia were cut off because of a threat from al-Shabab Islamist militants and the ban has stayed in place ever since.

Satellite internet is available, but users complain that it is costly and slow.

Internet cafes have therefore proved popular in towns and cities, as they provide more reliable connectivity.

According to sources the cause of the outage was because undersea cables had been cut by a large ship. Among the worse affected are the media, businesses and government offices.

A Somali news portal quoted a senior director of the Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications Ahmed Haji Ali, as confirming the outage which he said started shortly on Monday after suspected commercial ship hit the fibre optic internet cable in the Indian Ocean.

Reports indicate that many Internet Service Providers (ISPs) in the country rely on the affected cable line resulting in internet and fixed voice service providers to go down.

The journalist reported that engineers had been dispatched from Oman to repair the cables but did not state when connection will be restored. It is also said to have affected money transfer transactions especially coming during the end of Ramadan period.

The most recent African country to suffer a similar challenge was Congo-Brazzaville, who hade their internet disrupted for over two weeks owing to a fibre optic cable cut.

Connection was restored on Saturday June 24 after 15 days of nationwide disruptions and slowdowns that started since June 9, 2017, after a damage to the country’s main submarine cables.

The restoration was ahead of the five-week projected period given by the technical team working on the cut cable.

Network providers confirmed days after the outage that the problem was caused by a submarine cable cut off in the Atlantic Ocean near the economic capital Pointe-Noire.


Tourism Observer
www.tourismobserver.com

SOMALIA: Master-plan To Revive Tourism Industry Inspite Of Poor Security

Despite security challenges in the country with frequent terror attacks on restaurants and hotels, Somalia says it is in the mid of process of a master plan to revive the country's tourism industry, according to the Minister of Information, Culture & Tourism Abdirahman Omar Osman (alias Yarisow).

Duringa visit to Madrid, Spain, last week the Somali minister met with the Secretary General of United Nations World Tourism Organization (UN WTO), Taleb D. Refai, along with his deputy and the UN WTO Director of Africa.

The Minister of Information, together with his Advisor on Tourism, Mr Yasir Baffo, provided an update on the history and current potential for the tourism industry in Somalia.

"Even though Somalia is still improving security in order to bring peace and stability back to the country, nevertheless, as Federal Government of Somalia we need to lay down the foundations, strategies and plans that are necessary to revive the tourism industry.” Said the hopeful Somali Minister.

"… in the next few years, when the country becomes peaceful, we won’t waste any time attracting tourists and foreign investment back into the country.” He added.

Somalia’s capital, Mogadishu, the centre of the once most beautiful hotels and beach views is currently unable to host foreign tourists due to continued attacks and bombings in the city by the Al-Qaeda-linked militant group Al-Shabab.

In the past two weeks, Al-Shabab carried two deadly attacks, including one on a popular restaurant in Mogadishu which left more than 20 people dead.

But the country’s Federal Government says it is now in the process of introducing a Master-plan to revive the tourism industry and, at the same time, allow the country’s re-admission into membership of United Nations World Tourism Organization.

On his part, Taleb D. Refai assured that his organization will do all it can to help Somalia plan ahead so that the country will be able to attract tourists, especially since it is so strategically located on the Horn of Africa.

The world tourism body agreed to facilitate Somalia becoming a member so that it can benefit from the experience, the technical expertise, and the existing networks of other member states.

Somalis are natural entrepreneurs and in Mogadishu alone there are over 100 travel agencies as well as a number of locally owned private airlines.

Fly Dubai and Ethiopian Airlines fly to Hargeisa while Turkish Airlines fly daily to and from Mogadishu.

The tourism industry is fast growing, which helps job creation, cultural exchanges and economic growth that Somalia is so desperately in need of right now.

In order for Somalia to reduce poverty, illiteracy and unemployment, we need to think outside of the box and to come up with ways the country can attract investment to boost its economy. Minister Yarisow said.

Somalis are nomadic people and an oral society who love travel, as we have seen Somali Diaspora travelling all over the world. The minister added.

In the meantime efforts by Somali business community’s to introduce new initiatives and also how busy Somali airports are already with hundreds of local and international flight weekly.

The country now says it is the right time to introduce a master-plan for tourism in preparation for the inevitable stability and peace.

It is the right time to become a member of the World Tourism Organization in order to benefit from them rather than re-inventing the wheel.