(Africa) Somalis may soon be receiving letters from abroad
for the first time in more than 20 years after a deal was struck
with the United Nations' postal agency, the latest step towards
ending Somalia's isolation following two decades of civil
conflict.
But the challenges to bringing the Horn of Africa country back into
the global postal community are manifold - there are no functioning
post offices, only the main roads are named and most houses do not
have a number.
Add to that the ongoing struggle with al Qaeda-linked insurgents,
who still control much of the countryside, and parts of the
coastline infested with pirates, and it is clear the U.N.'s
Universal Postal Union (UPU) and its partners have their work cut
out.
The Swiss-based UPU said in a statement on Friday that
international postal services could start operating again in
Somalia within the next few months.
Somalia's Minister of Information and Communication Abdullahi Hirsi
signed a memorandum of understanding with Emirates Post Group this
week for Dubai to act as a hub for handling mail destined for
Somalia, it said.
The UPU, which brokered the deal, said its 192 member countries
could resume sending mail to Somalia once the arrangements were
finalized.
About 2 million Somalis live abroad and 9.9 million in Somalia,
served by a postal network that is "basically inexistant", the UPU
said, having dwindled from 100 post offices in 1991.
UPU spokesman Rheal LeBlanc said Somalia had created an office at
the airport to handle mail moving in and out of the country,
initially to service the government, embassies and universities,
"but they seem to have plans to phase in postal services across the
country over the next few months and years".
Hirsi said his country would need help getting the post going
again.
"We ask for all means of assistance as we have to start from ground
zero," the UPU statement quoted him as saying.
In the latest sign of optimism that Somalia was emerging from its
violent recent past, Britain opened an embassy at Mogadishu airport
on Thursday after its previous mission closed in 1991 as civil war
broke out.