Abdi Aynte on Minnesota Public Radio

Yesterday, Minnesota Monitor Reporter Abdi Aynte was interviewed for MPR’s story, Widening Somali conflict has locals worried. 

Over the weekend, hundreds of Somalis attended a conference to discuss the war and raise money for refugee aid. Long lines formed at tables outside the Minneapolis Convention Center hall as people waited to sign petitions.

Among the crowd was Abdi Aynte, who works as a reporter for the Minnesota Monitor. He also runs Hiiraan.com, a widely read Somali news service.

Aynte came to Minnesota from Egypt where he fled from Somalia in the 1990s with his family. He says the discussion in the comments section of his Web site has a common theme: a feeling that the international community has turned its back on the crisis in Somalia. Anger is especially sharp towards the United States. Aynte says this anger is starting to bridge longstanding political and tribal divisions within Minnesota’s Somalian community.

“I have never seen Somalis more unified in any other time in the past and I think it has a lot to do with the fact that no matter what tribe you come from — Somalis have been killing each other so long — but this time a lot are united because they feel their own people are being slaughtered,” he says. “The tribal grudges are there, no on can deny that, but people are saying, ‘we just need to stop the killing and the violence.’”

Click here for a link to audio.