15 Jul 2011 – Daily Monitoring Report
Key Headlines:
- Somali National Television (SNTV) expands its reach to Europe The Middle East & North America
- Oxfam urges Kenya to receive Somali refugees
- Aid in Somalia crisis Kenya pleads
- Kenya agrees to open idle refugee camp
- Somalis displaced by drought hit by Mogadishu rains
- Puntland says commercial boat hijacked by Somali pirates
SOMALI MEDIA
Somali National Television (SNTV) expands its reach to Europe, The Middle East & North America
15 Jul – Source: Radio Mogadishu – 130 words
The Minister of Information, Posts & Telecommunications, Abdulkareem Hassan Jama revealed that the Ministry has completed the necessary arrangements with Satellite Broadcasting Companies to make it possible for the Somali National Television (SNTV) to reach its audiences in the Middle East, Europe and North America.
The Somali National Television, which The Ministry of Information Posts and Telecommunications successfully re launched in April 2011 after an absence of 20 years, is now widely received across Somalia as well as many parts of Africa and Asia. This expansion phase comes after repeated requests from the Somali Communities in the diaspora. The testing phase is to be completed around the end of July, 2011.
Oxfam urges Kenya to receive Somali refugees
14 Jul – Source: Radio Bar-Kulan – 170 words
International aid agency, Oxfam, has called on the Kenyan government to receive Somali refugees arriving Dadaab refugee camps in north-eastern Kenya. Oxfam’s Chief in Kenya, Joosta Van de Lest, said Kenya has refused to open a new camp in Dadaab refugee camps to allow in over ten thousand Somali refugees fleeing their country due to the devastating droughts and political instability in the country.
Van de lest says at least 1, 400 new asylum seekers arrive daily in Dadaab camps while 70,000 others flock to Dolo Ado in Ethiopia seeking humanitarian aid. Oxfam says it has completed in laying water pipes, and other necessity need in the nearly complete Ifo 2 camp, curved from an over-crowded Ifo camp despite Kenya’s initial go-head in decongestant refugee camps in the area but later refused the opening of the new camp citing security reasons. The agency is worried of possible outbreak of diseases in the already congested Dadaab refugee camps with daily influx of more than sixty thousand new arrivals reaching the three camps in Dabaab.
Al Shabaab orders tenants to vacate buildings in Afgoi
15 Jul – Source: Mareeg Online – 74 words
Al Shabaab has ordered tenants occupying former government buildings in Afgoi district, Lower Shabelle to vacate the buildings within a week. The residents who have been occupying the buildings for over 20 years are concerned about the order since they have nowhere to go.
http://www.mareeg.com/fidsan.
Puntland says commercial boat hijacked by Somali pirates
15 Jul – Source: Shabelle, Reuters – 132 words
The semi-autonomous state of Puntland has disclosed that pirates have hijacked a commercial boat with livestock shortly after it left Bosaso port, 1500 kilometers north of Mogadishu. The minister of trade of Puntland state, Hasan Farah Kafi informed the media that the boat was ferrying livestock to the United Arab Emirates when it was hijacked on Thursday.
http://www.shabelle.net/
Security beefed up in Abud-wak
14 Jul – Source: Radio Bar- Kulan – 85 words
The Ahlu-Sunna Wal-Jama’ administration in Abud-Wak district of Galgadud region has beefed up security in the district ahead of the scheduled Ahlu-Sunna conference to be held next Saturday. In an interview with Bar-kulan, Abud-wak District Commissioner, Hassan Abud-Wak, said his administration has already deployed extra security personnel in and around the Abud- Wak town to counter any security threat in the area. Hassan expressed confidence that the conference will kick off as scheduled, saying that most of the ASWJ delegates attending the conference have already arrived.
MP welcomes UNICEF’s move to airlift aid to al Shabaab held town
15 Jul – Source: Radi Shabelle – 95 words
Mohamed Sheikh Nur, an MP, has described UNICEF’s decision to airlift humanitarian aid to Baidoa, an al Shabaab controlled town as a step forward. However, people in the region are in dire need of humanitarian assistance therefore much more help is needed, he added. Mr. Nur urged al Shabaab officials to ensure the security of personnel working in the region and also urged the group to honor the commitment that they would welcome all agencies intending to assist those affected by the drought.
REGIONAL MEDIA
Aid in Somalia crisis, Kenya pleads
15 Jul – Source: Capital FM – 385 words
Acting Foreign Affairs Minister and Internal Security Minister Professor George Saitoti on Thursday urged the international community to offer help in dealing with the growing number of Somali refugees in the country.
Speaking during a meeting with the African Diplomatic Corps in Nairobi he said Kenya’s security was threatened owing it to the huge influx of refugees fleeing Somalia frequently.
“Somalia remains an enormous challenge to peace and security in this region. We therefore call for urgent international humanitarian assistance to save victims of drought and famine,” he said. He said Kenya was receiving thousands of refugees daily due to drought and violence in Somalia and it was already incapacitated to cope with the rising numbers. According to the minister, a lot of work has to be done by introducing interventions strategies that will weaken the al Shabaab which he singled out as the gravest threat in the war torn region.
http://www.capitalfm.co.ke/
UNICEF Director to assess refugees crisis in Kenya
14 Jul – Source: Daily Nation – 168 words
UNICEF Executive Director, Anthony Lake arrives in Kenya Thursday to assess the refugee’s humanitarian crisis, which is threatening to engulf thousands of people. The crisis in the region is being fuelled by drought, soaring food prices and conflict in Somalia. UNICEF estimates that close to 10 million people are in need of humanitarian aid. Over 500,000 children in Somalia, Ethiopia and Kenya are suffering from imminent, lifethreatening malnutrition.
In addition, over 2 million children under the age of five are acutely malnourished. In addition to thousands of people seeking refuge in Ethiopia and Kenya from Somalia, millions more are living on the brink of extreme poverty and hunger due to poor rains. Mr Lake will for the next two days hold talks with United Nations agencies, NGOs and governmental partners as well as representatives from donor governments. The children’s agency has appealed for USD$31.8 million for the next three months to cater for urgent needs that include therapeutic feeding, vitamin supplementation, water and sanitation measures and immunization.
INTERNATIONAL MEDIA
Somalis displaced by drought hit by Mogadishu rains
15 Jul – Source: BBC – 259 words
People who have fled the drought in Somalia to camps near the capital Mogadishu have now been hit by days of heavy rain.Aid workers say five people, including three children, had died of exposure. A doctor told the BBC that people could not find shelter from the cold rain. The victims have been displaced by a drought that has devastated large parts of the Horn of Africa.
Some 10 million people are said to be affected across the region. Osman Duflay, a Mogadishu doctor, told the BBC’s World Update programme that camp residents were facing “disaster” “Especially the under-fives and the pregnant women, they’re suffering from malnutrition and communicable disease like the measles, diarrhea and pneumonia,” he said. Earlier this week Mark Bowden, the UN humanitarian affairs coordinator for Somalia, told the BBC that the country was close to famine.
“The next few months are critical,” he said. Last week Somalia’s al-Shabaab Islamist militia – which has been fighting the Mogadishu government – said it was lifting its ban on foreign aid agencies provided they did not show a “hidden agenda”.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/
Kenya agrees to open idle refugee camp
15 Jul – Source: CBC, Al Jazeera – 276 words
Kenya will allow an idle refugee camp in the country’s northeast to be opened to help shelter the streams of refugees pouring across the border from Somalia, reports say. The combination of persistent drought and conflict is driving more than 1,400 people every day from Somalia to the sprawling Dadaab refugee camp complex in Kenya, the United Nations human rights agency estimates.
The Dadaab complex, which includes the Hagadera, Dagahely and Ifo camps, was originally designed to house some 90,000 people. The camps now shelter some 380,000 people and are illequipped to deal with a surge in refugees, aid groups said. Aid agencies and the UNHCR have urged the Kenyan government to authorize the opening of the idle camp, which is already equipped with latrines, water systems and health-care facilities. The BBC reported Thursday that Kenyan Prime Minister Raila Odinga said the idle camp — called Ifo II or the Ifo extension — would be open within 10 days.
“Although we consider our own security, we cannot turn away refugees,” Odinga said Thursday during a visit to the area. He also said UN agencies must take responsibility for the new camp. Some Kenyan government ministers had expressed concern that opening the new camp would encourage more people to cross the border.
http://www.cbc.ca/news/world/
BLOGS/CULTURE/EDITORIAL
Al Shabaab for whom and what do you keep fighting for?
15 Jul – Source: Hiiraan Online (Abdul Aziz Mohammed) – 638 words
It is said “all wars are evil;” even a just one, albeit necessary. “A son dies, and not born of war,” said also our Somali ancestors. Today, in Somalia, people are facing the worst humanitarian drought disaster in 60 years. In the last 100 days, 200,000 Somalis fled to neighboring countries in search of food. This catastrophe is just unfolding. Thousands of Somalis have perished so far, and Millions more are most assuredly at grave-risk of starving to death.
With no effective government to respond, and a raging war, this looming cataclysm could not have happen to our people at a worst time. While it is beyond human capability to prevent natural disasters, it is Man who always must prepare for and alleviate such disasters. Drought and a resulting famine are not new in the Horn of Africa. This has happened to us Somalis before, and not just to us but to the whole region, as it is happening now.
Most of us are old enough to remember about the not so long ago of early 70s drought, where our government then successfully evacuated drought-victims on planes and resettled them. We are not so lucky this time, and it should make us cringe about the potential cost to Somali lives in the offing with this just beginning tragedy. It is this disaster in progress, more than any other reason, which impeaches the persistent war by Harakat al Shabaab Al-Mujahidin. It begs the question, “al Shabaab: For whom and what do you keep fighting?
What benefit of your war, if it only brings death and misery to your own people? To carry on a war in the name of Islam, in a Muslim country, where the primary victims are the most vulnerable innocents is beyond basic human character. It certainly is not Islamic! It is simply not enough, though much welcomed, that you the leaders of al Shabaab have allowed International Aid Agencies into areas under your control. Nor is it acceptable for you to see this human tragedy as a bonanza for public relations.
The stakes for innocent Somalis are much higher than Sheikh Dahir Aways and other al Shabaab leaders visiting drought victims in camps inside Somalia and distributing some aid. The people need, more than ever, a total cessation of the conflict. What use of this war? Al Shabaab, your socalled holy war, of which you so proudly claim to be martyrs of (Al-Mujahidin), is only destroying your country. It is killing, by bullet, famine or shear neglect, Somali babies and mothers.
Why seeking peace-terms with your own follow Somalis, to save the people, so unacceptable to you? Surely, it was more than acceptable for the last messenger of Allah, Muhammad (SAW), who left no stone unturned in search of peace with his pagan persecutors—his own people nevertheless! Because of the pending devastation of famine, the people of Somalia are crying out for an end to their long suffering. And, if you al Shabaab leaders are listening with your hearts (if they are not turned into stone completely), you will immediately confess of a willingness to an urgent and all-enveloping ceasefire followed by peace negotiations. Take your terms for peace and put it on a negotiating table.
http://www.hiiraan.com/op2/