Jamhuuriyadda Soomaaliya Xafiiska Madaxweynaha

جـمـهـوريـة الصــومــال مكتب الرئيس

Republic of Somalia

Office of the Pressident

Media Release

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

President of Somalia Denounces the Alleged Smuggling of Somali-Canadian Youth to Fight in Somalia and calls it as Gross Child Abuse

(Mogadishu – Somalia, Friday November 20, 2009)  Speaking on the occasion of the 20^th Anniversary of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child the President of Somalia Sharif Sheikh Ahmed, condemned today in a Media Conference held in his office at Villa Somalia, the alleged luring of young Somali-Canadians to join fighting in Somalia.

The President remarked, “We have heard that some young Somalis went missing in Canada and are presumed to be on their way to Somalia or are already here.  …It is exploitation against these youngsters, against their parents and against the Somali people to smuggle the youngsters whose understanding of their religion and the country is limited and whose parents escaped with them from Somalia in the first place to give them a better life.”

President Sharif Sheikh Ahmed continued in his statement, “When we were in the United States we met the parents of the youngsters who died here, it was very difficult to bear the sadness in their faces and we once again call on all Somalis to work for peace.”

The President further announced that Somalia will soon be party to the Convention on the Rights of the Child.
Contact: Hassan M. Khalif
Head of External Relations,

Office of the Somali President,

Mogadishu, Somalia

Tel: +2525 78 27 04; +2521 62 33 6310;

Email: hkhalif@sompresidency.org