HITS SOMALIA HARD

“In Somalia, the telecommunications sector has thrived, even during some of the worst years of conflict,” said Ahmed Soliman, Somali researcher at the Cha-tham House think tank in London, Britain.

“Urban Somalis have become increasingly connected online since fibre optic was rolled out in 2014.”

The World Bank estimates that at US$1.4 billion annually, international remittances make up a quarter of national gross domestic product.

Habiba Mohamud, a customer relations officer at International Bank of Somalia here, said the international transfers department had been cut off since last month’s anchor incident.

Mohamud has been personally affected, too. Unable to check her email in recent weeks, she struggles to communicate with her family, most of whom live in Ne- A teenager and a girl looking at the ‘I Am Not Alone’ app (inset) released by Ciudad Juarez’s municipality to help women in risk send alert text messages in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, on Monday.

murder capital, and attention has shifted to new hotspots in the country’s deadly war on powerful drug cartels.

But the city of 1.4 million people remains a dangerous one for women: 54 were reported missing last year, and 17 have disappeared so far this year.

And, city officials have noticed a worrying trend: the victims still tend to be poor young women.

“We are concerned about the braska in the United States. With international phone calls expensive, she commonly gets in touch via WhatsApp and Viber messaging services.

The Internet plays a more existential role for residents of the seaside capital, where al-Qaedalinked Shabaab insurgents carry out regular attacks and where potentially life-saving information is shared fastest on social media and messaging networks.

Hassan Istiila, chief editor of the local Radio Dalsan, which claims to have four million listeners, said Twitter was a key tool for gathering and broadcasting information on terror attacks and other events.

Ships dragging anchors through undersea Internet cables are not uncommon occurrences along Africa’s east coast and elsewhere. In 2012, six African countries were cut off in one go, but they rarely take

disappearance of young women with very similar profiles to those who disappeared years ago,” said Veronica Corchado Espinoza, head of the city government’s Women’s Institute.

Residents give the app strong reviews: it has four out of five stars in Google Play store.

“For my daughters who are away from home, at school or where something could happen, it’s faster for them to commu- weeks to fully repair.

More than a fortnight since the blackout, Geneva-headquartered Mediterranean Shipping Company, owner of MSC Alice, said it was looking into the incident.

“Following reports that an underwater cable was damaged, MSC is investigating the incident with relevant parties and these investigations are at an early stage,” the company said in a statement.

The Somali government and Dalkom hope engineers will have the cable fixed and Internet services restored perhaps later this week.

It will not come a moment too soon for Somalis whose lives are in limbo, such as the sick child’s mother, for whom a downloadable visa form and online submission are all that stands between her child and medical care in Turkey. AFP nicate, not just with me but anyone else,” Juarez resident Patricia Palma said.

Women’s rights activists have also praised the app.

“There is a great need for women to be able to count on these types of tools... to strengthen our networks and send an alert when we are in a potentially dangerous situation,” said Itzel Gonzalez of the Women’s Network of Juarez. AFP