19 September – Daily Monitoring Report
Jowhar Meeting On The Verge Of Collapse
19 September – Source: Shabelle News – 264 Words
The inter-regional state formation conference in Jowhar town is on the verge of collapse after the stakeholders and IGAD envoy have failed to reach a consensus on the process. The elders who have previously agreed to attend the conference in Jowhar accused Somali government and IGAD of breaking promises related to their attendance to the talks.
However, elders are calling on IGAD to stop the interference in Jowhar’s conference and siding with some clan elders attending the state formation meeting. The conference which was opened early this year seeks to form a federal state for Hiiraan and middle Shabelle region was overshadowed by dispute over power-sharing modality. Somalia’s government however did not comment on the new challenges emerging among the elders and IGAD as it has not disclosed how long the conference will continue.
Key Headlines
- Jowhar Meeting On The Verge Of Collapse (Shabelle News)
- Price Of Fish In Mogadishu Markets Increases Due To Low Supply (Goobjoog News)
- Former Mogadishu Mayor Dismisses Government Ban On Protests (Goobjoog News)
- International Court To Hear Kenya-Somalia Border Dispute (BBC)
- Al-Shabaab Claims Responsibility For Killing Of Somali General (Bloomberg)
- Minnesota’s Somali Leaders Condemn Stabbing As Report Identifies Suspect (The Guardian)
- Kenya Or Somalia: Who Owns The Sea And What Lies Beneath? (Deutsche Welle)
NATIONAL MEDIA
Price Of Fish In Mogadishu Markets Increases Due To Low Supply
19 September – Source: Goobjoog News – 206 Words
The prices of fish in Mogadishu markets have gone up above normal due to rough and high seas that prevents the fishermen at the coast to fish easily. Ali Mohamed Bandhari a fish seller in Mogadishu’s fish market told Goobjoog News the increase in the prices of fish is attributed to strong winds and worsening level of the sea. “The number of fishing boats going out to catch fish has drastically reduced hence decreases in the number of fish in the market” Bandhari said.
“The prices of the available fish in the market doubled due to the high demand by the consumers” he added. Goobjoog reporter says large numbers of customers are seen in long queues at the fish market to get fish. Some of the customers in the market told Goobjoog FM that they will opt for meat as a substitute for fish. “When supply decreases the demand increases therefore we need to opt another source so that we fill the gap of the demand” said Muno Bakari, a customer. The consumption of fish has been becoming more popular with the locals in Somalia’s capital city, Mogadishu in recent years.
Former Mogadishu Mayor Dismisses Government Ban On Protests
19 September – Source: Goobjoog News – 199 Words
Mogadishu’s former mayor and a presidential candidate for 2016 elections, Mohamed Ahmed Nuur Tarzan has accused the government of imposing ban on peaceful political protest rallies and vowed to defy the move. “The purported ban by the Mogadishu local government is null and void and we will simply ignore that illegal ban and continue with our peaceful demonstrations,” said Tarzan
He said that the constitution provides for peaceful demonstrations and picketing in what is an apparent response to the announcement made by by spokesperson of Banadir region Abdifatah Halane. “The right and freedom of peaceful assembly; the constitution guarantees citizens the right to assemble and demonstrate,” noted the former mayor.
His words come days after authorities in Somalia’s capital city, Mogadishu have prohibited political protest rallies without the legal permission from the mayor’s office. Abdifatah Halane said demonstrations by the members of the opposition political parties will not be allowed take place in Mogadishu.
“Failure to abide by the decision of the administration, Mogadishu local government will take legal action against violators,” said Halane. Coalition Of Political Parties have called on president Hassan Sheikh Mohamud to hand over the power after the end of the four years mandated time.
INTERNATIONAL MEDIA
International Court To Hear Kenya-Somalia Border Dispute
19 September – Source: BBC – 135 Words
A long-running maritime border dispute between Kenya and Somalia is set to be heard today at the International Court of Justice at The Hague. Kenya’s attorney-general Githu Muigai said he would lead a high-powered delegation to the ICJ to present Kenya’s case. In a statement, his department accused Somalia of reneging on a 2009 agreement to resolve the dispute through negotiations.
The disputed ocean territory stretches for more than 100,000 sq km. Tests have shown potential reserves of gas in the area. The dispute has kept investors away because of a lack of legal clarity over who owns potential off-shore oil and gas reserves. Somalia wants the maritime border to continue along the line of the land border to the south-east, while Kenya wants the sea border to go in a straight line east.
Al-Shabaab Claims Responsibility For Killing Of Somali General
19 September – Source: Bloomberg – 141 Words
Al-Shabaab, the Islamist-militant group that’s been fighting the Somali government for the past decade, claimed responsibility for the killing of a senior army general and five of his bodyguards in the capital, Mogadishu.
Mohamed Roble Jimale Gobanle, commander of the Somali Army’s third brigade, died Sunday after a vehicle loaded with explosives detonated next to his convoy, the militia group said in an announcement on Radio Andalus, a broadcaster that backs the insurgents. The third brigade has troops fighting al-Shabaab in southern Somalia.
The assassination of Gobanle is among a series of high-profile killings in Mogadishu in recent months as the Horn of Africa nation gears up for elections next month. African Union troops are cooperating with Somali forces trying to eradicate al-Shabaab, which has been fighting an insurgency since 2006 to impose Islamic law in the country.
Minnesota’s Somali Leaders Condemn Stabbing As Report Identifies Suspect
19 September – Source: The Guardian – 940 Words
The Somali American community in St Cloud, Minnesota, condemned on Sunday the mass stabbing attack at a mall the night before, as the immigrant population confronted longstanding tensions and unconfirmed reports emerged of the suspect’s identity.
Police have not yet named the suspect, who wounded nine people on Saturday night at the Crossroads Center mall, and whose attack is being investigated as “potential act of terrorism”. But Ahhmed Adan, a Somali immigrant, told the Minneapolis Star Tribune on Sunday that police had told him the night before that his son, Dahir Adan, had died the night before.
None of the nine injured people suffered life-threatening injuries, and the only fatality of the attack was the suspect, who was shot dead by an off-duty police officer. Police did not mention the attack on the mall, Adan said, but they seized photos and other materials from the family’s apartment. Adan said his son came to the US 15 years ago and was a student at St Cloud Technical and Community College. He added that he had “no suspicion” that his son might have considered such an attack.
Within hours of the attack, in which the suspect reportedly spoke of Allah, members of the Somali American community began to see anti-immigrant and Islamophobic messages directed toward them online. The virulence increased when an Islamic State-run news agency claimed credit for the attack; the terror group has previously claimed credit for attackers with whom it had no contact.
OPINION, ANALYSIS, AND CULTURE
“Most African states lack a substantial navy or a coastguard and many conflicts have spilled over land boundaries or land borders. So historically, there has always been a focus on what is happening on land. Now, that’s changing because what we can see more and more is the resources from the sea are more accessible now through better technological processes.”
Kenya Or Somalia: Who Owns The Sea And What Lies Beneath?
19 September – Source: Deutsche Welle – 1,050 Words
A narrow triangle off the coast of Africa, in the Indian Ocean, about 100,000 square kilometers (62,000 square miles), is the bone of contention between neighboring Kenya and Somalia. Both countries want the area because it supposedly has a large deposit of oil and gas, but it’s not clear to which country it belongs.
“The position of the boundary is a gray area,” said Timothy Walter, a maritime border conflict researcher at the Institute for Security Studies (ISS) in South Africa. For Kenya, however, the boundary is quite clear. It lies line parallel to the line of latitude. That gives Kenya the larger share of the maritime area and it has already sold mining licenses to international companies. But Somalia disagrees.
The Somalis want the boundary to extend to the southeast as an extension of the land border. In 2009, both countries agreed that the United Nations commission in charge of mediating border disputes should determine the border line once and for all. They also agreed that they should continue to work together to find a solution so that the matter would not have to go to court.
That does not seem to have worked – at least from the Somali perspective. In 2014, Somalia sued Kenya at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in The Hague. The court represents one way of solving border conflicts in maritime areas if bilateral or regional attempts fail. The Somali government wrote in its lawsuit that that was exactly what had happened. “The parties met numerous times to discuss how the dispute can be settled. But no progress was made in any of the meetings,” the government said.
Somalia has long been considered a failed state without a functioning government. It has only had an elected president again since 2012 and now seems anxious to safeguard what it regards as its sovereign rights in the Indian Ocean. Somalia wants the ICJ to define the boundary as laid down by the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea and other international sea laws.
TOP TWEETS
@joaoscarpelini : Video that led @UNDP 2 build community bridge was shown@ #Garowe #SocialGoodSummit #Somaliahttps://www.youtube.com/watch?
@HassanIstiila : Hearings at #TheHague‘s #ICJ today in#Somalia v. #Kenya case. sea border demarcation. #ICJ #No2DividingSomaliSea #Somalia
@AhmedKosar1 : #Kenya attorney General, Githu Muigai urges ICJ to throw out maritime case by #Somalia; tells Hague court two countries have valid MOU
@Rick97917759 : #Somalia: General killed in Mogadishu car-bomb attack – #AlShabaab
@HassanIstiila : #BREAKING Huge fire destroys house at Sigaal village in #Mogadishu #Somalia More follow
@Moshireh : #Somalia should be focusing on winning the court case first then we can talk about how we got there,
@acribus_initiis : #Minnesota chosen for Somali relocation because of its “robust entitlement offerings”http://m.washingtontimes.com/
@scottfirsing : #AlShabaab has carried out 364 attacks in#Somalia in the last decade @AlJazeera
IMAGE OF THE DAY
The upcoming Parliamentary and Presidential electoral process in Somalia is significant not only as a measure of the country’s political and social progress after decades of conflict, but as a benchmark of the country’s commitment to democracy and representative elections.
Photo: AMISOM