With the help of its affiliated athletics and taekwondo federations, the Somali National Olympic committee has organized a very colourful occasion to commemorate the International Olympic day, a global event which is observed by all IOC-member nations annually in a bid to show the value and greatness of Olympics around the world.

In Somalia, a full day commemorations with events of different sport, folklore dancing and other traditional dances was observed on Sunday 23^rd of June, a day that hundreds of Somali youths advantage from annually, because it is a joyous day that youths are given such great chance of making integration and travelling from long distances to the Daljirka Dahsoon Monument in the Boondheere district in the city centre of the capital Mogadishu were the event is concluded every year.

It was the second year that Somalis are doing the Olympic day event with no fears from the notorious Al-shabab terrorists who banned sports in Somalia, but were driven out of the capital and most of the country, although they are still carrying out targeted assassinations and suicide explosions.

This is the 2^nd year in history that the Olympic day event was overwhelmed by sadness and grievance over the missing of former Somali Olympic committee President Aden Haji Yerebow and former Somali Football Federation President Said Mahmoud Nur who were killed by a female suicide bomber on the 4^th of April 2012.

The event observed a minute of silence in remembrance of the lost volunteers. They were two great men who devoted themselves to Somali sport and lent a forceful commitment in the development of Somali sport in an era that life was even more difficult.

“We are really very cheerful to observe such great day, but we are still in a big sadness and that is because of the missing of our great colleagues---I had always seen them on either side of my shoulders when doing such occasion, with their death I feel that something great is missing me, nothing else we can do, but we remember them and pray for them” Somali NOC secretary General Duran Ahmed Farah told the media during the commemoration on Sunday.

The secretary General explained that Somali National Olympic committee and its member federations are committed to progressing the country’s sport which he said was recovering from years of conflicts and Islamist bans.

For his part the Mayor of Mogadishu himself a former basketball player Mr Mahmoud Ahmed Nur praised the Somali NOC and its affiliated federations for the great tasks they are doing for the country.

“Our sporting organizations are really very praiseworthy because they have been serving in the most difficult eras the country had undergone and we know some of them died while serving for the interest of the country during that hard time---now there is internationally-recognised government in the country and we will try our best to play the governmental role in the promotion of sport in Somalia” the mayor told the media at the end of the 2013 Olympic day service on Sunday 23^rd of June.

By Shafi’i Mohyaddin Abokar

Email:shaficiislow@yahoo.com