Hiiraan Online
By Shafi’i Mohyaddin
Wednesday, February 05, 2014
Somali expatriates in some Western countries are planning to help the reconstruction of the country’s embassy building in Belgium which wasn’t renovated since Somalia fell into anarchy more than two decades ago.
The issue was raised during a meeting at the embassy compound between Somali ambassador to Belgium Ali Said Fiqi and members from the Somali communities in the UK and Holland who visited the embassy in a bid to foster how to get the old compound rebuild for the first time in decades.
Ambassador Ali Said Fiqi who first addressed at the meeting outlined the Somali community members about the embassy compound, how much reconstruction it needed and the amount of money wanted for the rebuilding of the embassy compound.
“It really cheers me to meet such Somali nationals who are interested in helping the reconstruction of the embassy compound which wasn’t renovated for a long time” Somalia’s ambassador to Belgium told the meeting with the Somali community members this week.
He thanked the community members for paying such precious visit to the embassy and their intentions to help the rebuilding of Somalia’s embassy in Brussels.
Meanwhile, the chairman of the UK Somali sport community Mr. Dahir Ali Kulmie who was leading the Somali expatriate members who spoke for HOL said that their trip to the embassy in Brussels was part of a long term campaign that was intended to encourage Somalis across Europe and north America to play a key role in the rebuilding of Somalia’s diplomatic compounds in some key countries including that in Belgium.
“During our first tour, we visited the Somali embassy in Belgium which we expect to be the first to get reconstructed, but our intention is to launch a prolonged campaign to try to encourage Somali expatriates in the West to stand for the reconstruction of the compounds of Somali embassies in different countries” chairman of the Somali Sports community in the UK Mr. Dahir Ali Kulmie told HOL overnight on Wednesday.
The sports community chairman was accompanied by Key Somali sporting individuals including former Somali National women’s basketball team member Miski Omar, former Somali school teacher and basketball coach Hassan Farah Joon and some Europe-based Somali journalists.
This is the first time that Somali expatriates in the Western countries show their readiness for the reconstruction of the compounds of the country’s diplomatic missions in Europe. The Somali embassy in Belgium is expected to be the first to get such reconstruction.
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