12 Aug 2011 – Daily Monitoring Report
Key Headlines:
- Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator to visit Horn of Africa
- Karan district authorities urge people to come back to their homes
- One soldier killed in southern Somalia clash
- Famine aid must prevent future crises – Clinton
- Rape danger as women flee Somali famine
- Al Shabaab say their fighters are still in Mogadishu
SOMALI MEDIA
Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator to visit Horn of Africa
12 Aug – Source: Somaliweyn – 95 words
Valerie Amos, the United Nations Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator, is setting out on a three-day trip to Kenya today, to draw international attention to the world’s most serious food crisis. During her mission, USG Amos will meet humanitarian organizations covering Kenya and Somalia, to understand the challenges in responding to this crisis, and is also scheduled to visit Dadaab camp to see for her the impact of the famine and meet Somalis who have survived the long journey to Kenya. USG Amos is scheduled to give press conferences during her mission.
http://www.somaliweyn.info/
Calm returns to Hawina area in Lower Juba after Wednesday’s clash
11 Aug – Source: Radio Bar-Kulan – 94 words
Reports from Hawina area, seven kilometers from Tabta village in Lower Juba region say calm has returned to the area following Wednesday’s deadly clash between government troops and al Shabaab insurgents in the region. The clashes were the worst to happen in Hawina since government troops took control of some pockets of the region. Mohamed Hassan Bulle who spoke for the government troops in the area said they killed an al Shabaab militant and captured another one during the incident. Report say normalcy has returned to the area following yesterday’s fierce fighting between government troops and al Shabaab rebels.
Somali military charges Banadir admin with bothering IDPs
12 Aug – Source: Shabelle – 120 words
The TFG’s military commander on Thursday charged the soldiers of Banadir administration of bothering the drought displaced people in the capital. In an interview with BBC Somali Service, Gen. Abdikarim Yusuf Adam, the military commander of Somali government said the Banadir and some districts administrations were behind the deadly event at Mogadishu’s Badbado camp, where several drought-hit people died and dozens more were injured after some soldiers plundered and robbed food aid opening fire on the IDPs. He said that every administration has its own soldiers who cannot be described as the Somali national army soldiers. However, the officer strongly denied that the army had looted some properties in the markets in Mogadishu after al Shabaab’s withdrawal.
http://www.shabelle.net/
WAANO distributed food and non-food items to drought-attested IDP’s in Mogadishu
11 Aug – Source: Hiiraan Online – 159 words
Thousands of people have been displaced from several locations by the on-going drought. Women in Action against Malnutrition a local women’s NGO says that children and women are mainly affected by the drought. Drought-affected people from Middle and Lower Shabelle, Bay and Bakol regions have moved to areas in Mogadishu and its outskirts in search of food and water. Such movement by drought IDP’s into urban centers portrays the severity of the drought situation in the country says Nurto Shiekh Mahamud of WAANO. The goodwill residents, businesses and the local NGO’s in Mogadishu are the first to help those displaced by the drought with whatever they could get; WAANO a local NGO has provided cereal, dates and hygienic soups to seventy families in Hamarweyne which hosts one of the largest drought-affected IDP’s in Mogadishu. An urgent humanitarian intervention is essential to prevent a further deterioration of the on-going humanitarian crisis says Udbi Omar a director of WAANO.
http://www.hiiraan.com/news2/
A South African aid group says Africa’s response to Somalia famine too slow
11 Aug – Source: Radio Bar-Kulan – 125 words
A South African aid group has on Wednesday warned that Africa’s slow response to the famine in drought-hit Somalia risked sending a message of apathy to the rest of the world. Gift of the Givers Foundation chairman, Imtiaz Sooliman who returned Tuesday from Mogadishu, said the African government’s response to famine situation in Somalia is very slow. Sooliman criticised the absence of international aid groups on the ground in Mogadishu and urged South Africa to make a substantial contribution. Gift of the Givers Foundation chairman says the AU has postponed a pledging conference while children were dying daily. The South African government has raised an eight million rand for Somalia and has pledged half to Sooliman’s group whose recent aid delivery cost 12 million rand ($1.7 million, including transport).
Somaliland: Government will begin aiding Somali drought
11 Aug – Source: Somaliland Press – 234 words
Somaliland marked a milestone in foreign policy today when the Government in Hargeisa announced that it will set into motion an extensive plan to aid their fellow brothers in Somalia that are suffering the effects of the drought and famine affecting numerous parts of the Horn of Africa.
The government held a ministerial meeting at the presidential palace that was headed by the Vice- President, Abdirahman Abdilahi Ismail (Saylici) while the President, Ahmad Mohamed Mohamoud (Silanyo) is abroad on a governmental trip to China.
Since the meeting was held behind closed doors, the presidential spokesman, Abdilahi Mohamed Dahir (Cukuse), held a press conference once the meeting was adjourned to detail the specifics of the meeting. He released a three point announcement stating that Somaliland wishes to implement actions to help aid their fellow Somalis in Somalia. The points are as follows:
- Somaliland is ready to join the international efforts in aiding the peoples forced from their homes due to the drought in the Horn of Africa with emphasis on Somalia.
- There will also be a National Commission that will create decisive plans on how Somaliland will direct aid efforts on its part.
- The government also stated that Port of Berbera will be open to any and all aid that is destined for Somalia and that Somaliland will put great emphasis on the successful delivery of said aid to the region’s most affected.
http://somalilandpress.com/
Karan district authorities urge people to come back to their homes
11 Aug – Source: Radio Bar-Kulan – 118 words
Karan district authorities have on Thursday urged members of the public who fled their homes to come back to their homes, assuring their safety. Area District commissioner Abdullahi Mohamed Roble appealed to those who fled the area to immediately come back. The DC said government troops and AU peacekeeping forces are in full control of the district and assured members of the public that security will be tightened to guarantee their security. Karan district has been under al Shabaab for the last two years before pulling out of the entire capital late last week. Meanwhile, government troops and AMISOM on Wednesday delivered aid to the local residents in the district as part of their effort to support locals in the area.
Al Shabaab say their fighters are still in Mogadishu
12 Aug – Source: Shabelle – 132 words
Al Shabaab spokesman, Sheikh Ali Mohamoud Rage on Thursday disclosed that their fighters are still in the seaside Mogadishu to keep on battling against the TFG and AU forces. Rage made the comments while speaking to the local radio stations based in Mogadishu. The al Shabaab official accused Somali government forces which recently took control of Bakara, Mogadishu’s largest and busiest market of looting the properties of the people. He said the government soldiers are accustomed to stopping the civilians at checkpoints to rob their mobile and pocket money. The statement of al Shabaab comes as TFG forces allied with AMISOM peacekeepers have started to gradually expand in Mogadishu.
http://www.shabelle.net/
Malaysian investors arrives in Bur’o, Togder region
11 Aug – Source: Radio Bar-Kulan – 91 words
A delegation of Malaysian Investors has on Thursday arrived in Bur’o town, Togder regional to assess possibility of investing in Somaliland in the near future. Somaliland’s Religious Affairs Minister Sheikh Khalid who received the Malaysian investors emphasised the purpose of visiting delegation, saying that they came to invest in Somaliland. After their arrival, the Malaysian delegation donated animals to the needy people in Bur’o town. Earlier, Malaysian businessmen in conjunction with Somaliland businessmen have funded the construction of animals slaughtering factory to enable livestock traders to get access to such a needed facility in the area.
One soldier killed in southern Somalia clash
12 Aug – Source: Radio Shabelle, Kulmiye – 107 words
At least one soldier died as Somali government forces clashed with their allies from Raskamboni militias in a southern Somalia town, witnesses said Friday. The clash erupted after Somali government forces tried to free jailed individuals by force from a detention center in Dhobley border town. During the confrontation, the two sides used both light and heavy weapons including artillery guns. Witnesses who talked to the media confirmed at least two others from the opposing sides were also hurt in the clash. Officials from the government and Raskamboni militias have declined to give further details. However, they said more investigations about how and what caused the incident are underway.
REGIONAL MEDIA
Famine aid must prevent future crises – Clinton
12 Aug – Source: Capital FM – 441 words
The United States has pledged an additional $17 million to nations in the Horn of Africa coping with severe drought. That includes $12 million for Somalia, where tens of thousands of people have died of starvation and disease.
In a speech in Washington on Thursday, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said the response to the famine must look beyond the current crisis and that now is the time to focus on ensuring it does not happen again. More than two million people have fled their homes in Somalia in the wake of the worst drought in decades. At a camp near Mogadishu, this woman is one of the lucky ones whose family survived the long and difficult walk.
“None of us died. We are farmers and herders. We lost all our livestock and the children survived. Thanks to Allah,” she said. Dead livestock, withered crops and hunger are the story across a broad swath of the Horn of Africa. This is not the first time this story has played out in the region, said Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.
“Every few decades the cycle repeats. And it would be easy to throw up our hands and blame it all on forces beyond our control. But this cycle is not inevitable,” Clinton said. Clinton said the world has the knowledge, tools and resources to make hunger a memory, if there is the will to do so. “Right now when the effects of food security are the most extreme, we must rededicate ourselves to breaking this cycle,” she said.
Speaking at the International Food Policy Research Institute, Clinton said Somalia’s neighbors Kenya and Ethiopia are better off today than in previous droughts because they invested in their small-scale farmers and herders. Ethiopia’s social safety net program puts people to work on projects that improve food security.
“More than 7.6 million farmers and herders have been helped by this program, people who are not in need of emergency aid today,” she said. But critics say this program has made many people dependent on food aid. And Ethiopian political analyst Jawar Mohammed says it has become a political tool as well. “The government used this network of food aid delivery to force people to become members and supporters of the ruling party,” Mohammed said.
But for countries that commit to helping their own farmers and herders improve food security, the United States has pledged $3.5 billion in aid. Kenya and Ethiopia already are receiving help from this program. Clinton called on other donor nations to follow through on pledges they made to help boost developing world food security. Otherwise, she added, the world might soon face another crisis in the Horn of Africa.
http://www.capitalfm.co.ke/
INTERNATIONAL MEDIA
More financial logistical support to stabilize Somalia
12 Aug – Source: Afrique Jet – 708 words
The UN Secretary-General’s Special Representative for Somalia, Augustine Mahiga, on Wednesday urged the international community to provide more financial logistical support to consolidate the recent political and military improvements in war-torn country. He said ‘the recent developments offer an extraordinary moment of opportunity for progress and great challenges. ‘Now is the time for the international community to demonstrate its commitment and step forward and support the process robustly and immediately on all fronts,” Mahiga told the UN Security Council by video link.
He expressed his pleasure for being able to address the council ‘at this historical juncture’ from Mogadishu, the capital, for the first time, noting that, ‘the Somali people simply cannot wait any longer to stabilize the country and ensure peace and unity.’
He cited the ‘breath-taking speed’ of last week’s withdrawal of al Shabaab insurgents from 95 per cent of Mogadishu under pressure from the 6,200-strong UN-backed African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM) and July’s ratification by the transitional parliament of an accord reducing its controversial three-year extension of its mandate that was scheduled to end this month to just one year.
The envoy, however, called for greater funding and logistical assistance, including aviation and mine disposal equipment for AMISOM, which the African Union has proposed increasing to 20,000-strong, to ensure the TFG’s control of Mogadishu. PANA learnt that the AU also planned to expand the mission to the south and to the borders of Kenya and Ethiopia and to the town of Kismayo, areas still controlled by al Shabaab and other militant groups.
Mahiga also said: ‘The TFG and AMISOM both have limited resources to exploit the opportunity presented by the withdrawal of al Shabaab.’ He, however, added that, ‘the security situation remains precarious and the insurgents are likely to resort to terrorist attacks and guerrilla tactics targeting the TFG and AMISOM forces and unfortunately, even IDPs and other civilians.’ At a later video news conference from Mogadishu, AMISOM Force Commander Major-General Nathan Mugisha said 12,000 to 15,000 troops were needed to secure Mogadishu ‘both efficiently and effectively.
‘But we do not have them, we do not have enough armored cars, we do not have other capacities like air capacity and maritime capacity,” he said. Mugisha also appealed to the international community ‘to look into this, so that we efficiently control Mogadishu.’
On his part, Mahiga warned that, ‘without immediate action by the TFG to put in place basic administrative structures in areas under its control, a real danger exists that the warlords and their militia groups will move forward to fill the vacuum created by al Shabaab’s departure.’ He also called on the international community to speed up the reinforcement of the Somali police force.
‘It is thus mission-critical that we secure the logistical support, including a fast-tracked construction of permanent facilities to pave the way for the deployment of additional staff,” the UN envoy told reporters in New York, who monitored the video-link. He further stressed the vital immediate requirement of an additional guard force under AMISOM to protect and facilitate UN movement in Mogadishu.
According to him, significant gaps still remained in the UN’s support package for AMISOM, saying that, ‘there is need for adequate, predictable and sustainable funding. ‘I appeal to the UN Security Council to consider expanding the support package for AMISOM to cover some of the critical categories of self-containment and to look at the issue of funding of contingent-owned equipment,” Mahiga added.
On the humanitarian crisis, he said that, ‘3.7 million people, nearly half of the Somali population, were now directly at risk of famine and that tens of thousands had already perished, with 13 children out of every 10,000 under the age of five dying every day from malnutrition and faminerelated diseases.’
PANA reported that the UN had sought for US$1 billion in its Consolidated Appeal Process (CAP) for Somalia at the beginning of the year but less than 50 per cent has so far been received. Somalia has been raven by fighting for the past 20 years, in which it has not had a functioning central government.
Also, Somalia and its neighbors are now confronting a massive humanitarian crisis with hundreds of thousands internally displaced persons (IDPs) and refugees driven from their homes by the fighting and one of the worst droughts and famines in recent memory.
http://www.afriquejet.com/
Rape danger as women flee Somali famine
12 Aug – Source: SMH – 241 words
Women and girls fleeing the famine in Somalia for refugee camps are being raped, abducted and forced into marriage by gangs of armed bandits. The United Nations said the journey to camps in Kenya was long and perilous and many women and girls had allegedly been attacked by Somalia’s Transitional Federal Government forces and allied militia in the country’s south-central region.
“Once they cross the Somalia-Kenya border or reach Dadaab – the world’s largest refugee settlement – their hopes of finding a safe haven are often overshadowed by new dangers and hardships, including the risk of rape,” UN Sexual Violence secretary general spokeswoman Margot Wallstr�¶m said.
“I call on all parties to the conflict to immediately cease these gross violations of human rights.” Tens of thousands of people, including 29,000 children, have died in the famine. An estimated 3.7 million people, almost half of them from Somalia, are at risk of famine. Ms Wallstr�¶m praised Kenyan authorities for their handling of the crisis so far, but urged more support from donors to relieve the famine and stop the attacks on vulnerable women and girls.
“There is an urgent need for services to be provided to survivors of sexual violence and for effective camp management to minimize the risks facing women and girls,” she said. “We should also improve monitoring and reporting on sexual violence to better inform our actions.” The Australian Government has donated $41 million for drought relief in the Horn of Africa.
http://www.smh.com.au/world/
CULTURE, BLOG AND EDITORIALS
The UPDF didn’t go to Somalia for a tea party
12 Aug – Source: Daily Monitor – 522 words
Mogadishu, the capital of war-torn Somalia, is returning to calm after two decades of destructive wars. The Islamist extremists, the al Shabaab, have been defeated by the Ugandan and Burundian AMISOM troops. I’m keen to read what opposition FDC gurus who opposed the UPDF deployment in Somalia in 2007 will say. Ibrahim Semujju Nganda, MP Kyadondo East (FDC), publicly promised to slaughter a cow each time a body bag returns a UPDF corpse.
Stories indicate that the al-Shabaab have abandoned Mogadishu and are retreating to the southern regions where they hope to regroup for another fight. Misplaced Western media and experts have been quick to claim that al Shabaab will now launch a “more destructive and prolonged guerrilla warfare.” It is a pseudo analysis because all along, the al Shabaab has been engaged in guerrilla warfare.
It is positive that previously skeptical ‘expert’ opinions bolstered by local opposition politicking is beginning to appreciate not only the reasons the UDPF and Burundi contingents are in Somalia, but also saying they can do the job well. These opinions are now supportive and urging the world to come in with more troops, resources and perhaps a better and forceful mandate.
As we wrote then in these pages, the UPDF did not go to Mogadishu for a tea party. Our country deliberately chose to make a contribution knowing full well the stakes, and we should pay the price. In all this, like it was in apartheid South Africa, South Sudan, Rwanda, DR Congo and Burundi, and Uganda’s own wars against Idi Amin and Milton Obote, the lessons are plenty. And, President Museveni is right that Black Africans, when properly led and determined, can solve their own problems.
The cynical world abandoned Somalia to itself just because the United States, often believed to be invincible and mighty, had badly been beaten into retreat in Somalia in 1993, and the UN coiled its tail- if it has any at all. That defeat, code-named The Battle of Mogadishu (Black Hawk Down), was under Operation Gothic Serpent, which was itself under the larger UN mandate – Operation Restore Hope with 37,000 personnel to provide food and other relief items to the population.
Unfortunately, that operation was taken over by the US under the United Nations Operation in Somalia (UNOSOM) and with six rival powerful armed factions fighting in Somalia, UNOSOM operations became impossible and got embroiled in the war and, especially in its attempt to arrest militiamen loyal to faction leader Gen. Mohammed Farah Aideed, accused of killing Pakistani peacekeepers.
UPDF has been able to steer clear of internal factionalism in Somalia, making it build trust where none existed thereby winning peace and territory each passing day. With a much smaller budget and numbers, Amisom is providing similar and better support as UNOSOM was supposed to do 20 years ago.
Another valuable lesson has been UPDF resistance to misplaced calls to change its mandate from peace-keeping and support for the transitional government to peace enforcement even when the resources do not permit. In fact, believing in their might, the US and UNOSOM came to a miserable end because they tried to disarm and arrest Aideed. Amisom has only fought in self defense when attacked. Over three million Somalis died then, almost 21,000 from direct US fire. UPDF has been able to keep casualties to a bare minimum, and that is a plus.
http://www.monitor.co.ug/OpEd/
U.S. in Somalia: Compassion and aggression define Obama’s policy
12 Aug – Source: The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette – 315 words
U.S. policy toward Somalia contains a shameful contradiction between compassion for the famine its population is suffering and an aggressive, militarized approach to its contesting governments. The country, on Africa’s east coast, has an estimated 10 million people. Most of the land and an estimated 3.6 million of its population are victims of a drought, which has led to tens of thousands of deaths by famine and disease and the displacement of hundreds of thousands, many as refugees into neighboring Kenya and Ethiopia, which are suffering from the same deadly conditions.
The world relief organizations and the United Nations are struggling to respond to the victims’ needs. The United States has pledged $105 million to the task. Nonetheless, media have strived with only some success to call attention to what is happening, including with painful images of starving Somali children. While this is happening, the United States is carrying out, through the CIA and Washington-based contractor Bancroft Global Development, a $7 million program to train African troops that fight on behalf of the so-called transitional government of Somalia. It controls Mogadishu, the capital, but not the rest of the country.
U.S. forces also directed drone missile strikes in June against al-Shabaab, the militant group allied with al-Qaeda that controls most of the country. In late 2006 the U.S. supported with air strikes and intelligence an invasion of Somalia by Ethiopian forces designed to oust an Islamist government from Mogadishu, which was installing a successor government to the one displaced by fighting in 1991.
The Obama administration said it will not prosecute aid groups if any of their relief falls into the hands of al Shabaab. But it said nothing about future drone attacks on al Shabaab. The sharp conflict between U.S. humanitarian and military goals in drought-ridden Somalia is too much for a country of that size in that situation to bear. U.S. policy needs more oversight to resolve these contradictions promptly.