Using NewsHour Extra Feature Stories

Overview: NewsHour Extra features stories can help students identify and interpret key issues in current events. This activity anticipates one class period, but the follow-up essay might be assigned as homework, or in another period.

Warm Up: Use initiating questions to introduce the topic and find out how much your students know.

Main Activity: Have students read NewsHour Extra's feature story and answer the questions on the reading comprehension handout.

Discussion: Use discussion questions to encourage students to think about how the issues outlined in the story affect their lives and express and debate different opinions.

Follow-up: Students can write an 500-word editorial on the topic expressing their views and send it to NewsHour Extra [extra@newshour.org] for possible publication.

Evaluation: Students are graded on their answers to reading comprehension questions and/or their editorial.

Story: U.S. Goes After al-Qaida Suspects in Somalia, 1/10/07
http://www.pbs.org/newshour/extra/features/jan-june07/somalia_1-10.html

Initiating Questions:

1. Can you find Somalia on a map?

2. What do you know about Somalia?

3. In which countries is the U.S. military currently involved?

Reading Comprehension Questions: (click here for printout)

1. Why is Somalia in the news right now?

The United States has sent war planes into the East African country of Somalia to kill al-Qaida terrorists suspected of planning the 1998 bombings of United States embassies in Kenya and Tanzania that killed more than 225 people.

2. What group was recently ousted by forces from the U.S.-backed transitional government and troops from the neighboring country of Ethiopia? And who was that group reportedly protecting?

Al-Qaida was reportedly being protected by an Islamic militia group that ruled most of the country. But in recent weeks, that militia was ousted by forces from the U.S.-backed transitional government and troops from the neighboring country of Ethiopia.

3. Name the president of the Somali transitional government.

Somalia's transitional president, Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed, said he gave permission for the U.S. air attacks.

4. When was the last time the United States military was involved with Somalia?

The last U.S. military involvement in Somalia was in the early '90s when troops were sent to help deliver much-needed food and medicine and stabilize the country after the government was overthrown.

5. Over which city does the Somali government have control?

Until December 2006, Somalia's government had no power outside of the town of Baidoa, 150 miles from the capital.

6. How many governments have run Somalia since 1991?

Since 1991, warlords have battled for control of Somalia and there have been 14 different governments

7. Who helped Somalia form its current transitional government?

The country's most recent attempt at a government, known as the transitional government, was formed in 2004 with the help of the United Nations.

8. Why did Ethiopia recently send troops to Somalia?

One movement that was able to find support from the Somali people was the Islamic Courts, a group that sought to impose Islamic law on the country.
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The group seized control of southern Somalia, including the country's capital Mogadishu, in June of 2006, prompting Ethiopia to send in troops to try to protect the transitional government.

9. Who is Sheikh Sharif Ahmed and what did he encourage?

In December, the Islamic Courts warned Ethiopia they would declare war if Ethiopia did not remove all troops from Somalia. Sheikh Sharif Ahmed, leader of the Islamic Courts called for a jihad, or holy war, against Ethiopia and encouraged foreign Islamic fighters to come to Somalia.

10. What happened on Dec. 24, 2006?

War broke out on Dec. 24, and the Islamic Courts were overpowered and quickly defeated by Ethiopia's military.

After the Islamists were driven out, Somalia's President Abdullahi Yusuf was able to enter the country's capital for the first time.

Discussion Activity (more research might be needed):

1. What do you think are the biggest obstacles to forming a stable government in Somalia?

2. What role do you think the United States should have played in Somalia over the past 15 years? And what role do you think the United States should play now? When should a foreign government send military forces to another country? Explain the reasoning of your answers.

3. Research literacy rates, prevalence of disease, life expectancy, average income and other indicators of the quality of life in Somalia and the United States. Using your researched data, compare the life of an average American 16-year-old to the life of an average Somali 16-year-old.

Write a 300-500 word essay on any of these topics providing clear examples. Send your completed editorial to NewsHour Extra (extra@newshour.org). Exceptional essays might be published on our Web site.