“We know this material is on the land and is now being blown around and possibly carried to villages. What we do not know is the full extent of the problem.”

Here the toxic content is all ready in the surrounding areas

The Red Jolly, omonima of the ship been involved in the transport of the toxic refusals

In the Northeastern Somali towns of Hobyo and Xafuun island and many Coastal towns have this radiation poisoning degree

Many of the of the inhabitans of Hobyo said that they suffer from bleedings and problems to breath properly and some form of headaches. below here is the measurement of radiation.

2–3 Sv (200–300 REM)    REM=radiation poisoning

Moderate radiation poisoning, 35% fatality after 30 days (LD 35/30). Nausea is common (100% at 3 Sv), with 50% risk of vomiting at 2.8 Sv. Symptoms onset at 1 to 6 hours after irradiation and last for 1 to 2 days. After that, there is a 7 to 14 day latent phase, after which the following symptoms appear: loss of hair all over the body (50% probability at 3 Sv), fatigue and general illness. There is a massive loss of leukocytes (white blood cells), greatly increasing the risk of infection. Permanent female sterility is possible. Convalescence takes one to several months.

 3–4 Sv (300–400 REM)

Severe radiation poisoning, 50% fatality after 30 days (LD 50/30). Other symptoms are similar to the 2–3 Sv dose, with uncontrollable bleeding in the mouth, under the skin and in the kidneys (50% probability at 4 Sv) after the latent phase

“The current situation along the Somali coastline poses a very serious environmental hazard not only in Somalia but also in the eastern Africa sub-region,” the report says. Toxic waste was first dumped in Somalia in the late 1980s, but accelerated sharply during the civil war which followed the 1991 overthrow of the late dictator Mohamed Siad Barre.

Somali sources close to the trade say that the dumped materials included radioactive uranium, lead, cadmium, mercury and industrial, hospital, chemical and various other toxic wastes. In 1992, Unep said that European firms were involved in the trade, but because of the high level of insecurity in the country there were never any accurate assessments of the extent of the problem.

In 1997 and 1998, the Italian newspaper Famiglia Cristiana, which jointly investigated the allegations with the Italian branch of Greenpeace, published a series of articles detailing the extent of illegal dumping by a Swiss firm, Achair Partners, and an Italian waste broker, Progresso.

The European Green Party followed up the revelations by presenting to the press and the European Parliament in Strasbourg copies of contracts signed by the two companies and representatives of the then “President” — Ali Mahdi Mohamed — to accept 10 million tonnes of toxic waste in exchange for $80 million (then about £60 million).

Abdullahi Elmi Mohamed, a Somali academic studying in Sweden, told The Times that this worked out at “approximately $8 per tonne, while in Europe the cost for disposal and treatment of toxic waste material could go up to $1,000 per tonne”.

Mr Ali Mahdi, who then controlled north Mogadishu and who worked closely with the UN during its disastrous 1992-95 humanitarian mission to the country, has always refused to discuss the issue even though an Italian parliamentary report subsequently confirmed many of the allegations

DECEMBER 5, 1991 DEAL allowing the Swiss company Achair to annually export 500,000 tons of hospital and industrial waste to Somalia was scuttled in September when one of the contract’s signers was discredited by the self-declared Somalian presdient Ali Madhi Mohamed. The agreement, signed in Rome between Achair and a man claiming to be Somalia’s health minister, would have authorized the export of waste from Italy to a 10-million ton disposal site in Somalia over the next twenty years.

 Somalia, currently the focus of international attention due to widespread starvation resulting from famine and civil war, has been the victim of illegal toxic waste trafficking prior to the attempted Achair deal. According to the environmental organization Greenpeace Italy, the Italian waste broker Progresso, which served as an intermediary between Oman and Achair, had already dumped 22,000 gallons of pesticides and agrochemicals in northern Somalia, near the country’s border and the Red Sea state of Djibouti.

It was reports in 1992 of a contract established between a Swiss firm, Achair Partners, and an Italian firm, Progresso, with Nur Elmy Osman, who claimed to be the Somali Minister of Health under an interim government headed by Ali Mahdi Muhammad. Osman had been a health official in the Barre government, but allegedly was no longer recognized as a government official by Ali Mahdi. Osman had supposedly entered into an $80 million contract in December of 1991, whereby the two firms would be allowed to build a 10 million ton storage facility for hazardous waste. The waste would first be burned in an incinerator to be built on the same site and then stored in the facility at the rate of 500,000 tons a year.