22 Jul 2011 – Daily Monitoring Report
Key Headlines:
- Somali insurgents free detained Somali Woman Minister
- Prime Minister Completes formation of the cabinet of ministers
- Ban on Aid Agencies remains effective says Al Shabaab
- Al-Shabaab accuses UN for exaggerating drought situation in Somalia
- AU Somalia pullout a long way off says French General
- Five Al-Shabaab militia members taken prison
SOMALI MEDIA
Somali insurgents free detained Somali Woman Minister
21 Jul – Source: Radio Shabelle – 80 words
The hard-line Somali Islamist group, Al-Shabab, has released the new minister of women and family affairs, Asha Usman Aqil, whom they arrested in Balcad District, Southern Somalia yesterday. In an interview with Radio Shabelle the minister, who was held for several hours confirmed to the Radio that she has been freed. Meanwhile the minister said she was not pleased with the post given to her and added that she was never consulted, but has not yet announced whether she has resigned.
PM completes formation of the cabinet of ministers
22 Jul – Source: Radio RBC, Shabelle, Kulmiye – 134 words
Somalia Prime minister has appointed the Deputy Ministers and the State Ministers of his new cabinet a day after the nomination of 18 ministers. The nomination of the assistant ministers makes the completion of the cabinet formation. State ministers of Cabinet are;
1 – Abdi-Aziz Mo’alim Nur, State Minister of Presidential Office. 2 – Hamid Sheikh Ali Masheye, State Minister of Foreign Affairs. 3 – Mohamud Mo’alim Nur, State Minister of Defense. 4 – Mohamed Mohamud Adan Indha-Gelle, State minister of Interior and National Security. 5 – Sheikh Adam Mohamed Deer, State Minister of Finance. 6 – Mohamed Ahmed Kamil, State Minister of Information, Posts and Telecommunications. 7 – Mohamed Ahmed Kaynan, State Minister of Trade and Industries. 8 – Sa’id Jama Korshel, State Minister of Land, Air, and Sea Transport. 9 – Abdikafi Mo’alim Hassan, State Minister of Public Works and Reconstruction.
http://www.raxanreeb.com/?p=
Ban on Aid Agencies remains effective, Al Shabaab
22 Jul – Source: Radio Shabelle, Radio Kulmiye, and Radio Risala – 107 words
Al-Shabaab Spokesperson Sheikh Ali Mahmud Rage aka Ali Dheere said Al-Shabaab would not allow some aid agencies into the areas under its control saying these organizations have political agendas. The spokesman also denied statement made by the UN Relief coordinator, Mark Bowden, that there is starvation and severe droughts in southern regions of Somalia. The Al- Shabaab spokesman admitted that prevalence of drought in the country but not to the extent claimed by the UN official, adding that Bowden’s statement had political agenda. Al-Shabaab made appeals to aid agencies to help those affected by drought after many people from southern regions started pouring to Mogadishu to seek humanitarian assistance.
Two civilians are killed in land mine in Mogadishu
21 Jul – Source: Diirad Online – 104 words
Two civilians died and five others have been injured after huge blast hit popular place close to Banadir hospital in Mogadishu medical officials and residents confirmed jointly. One of the inhabitants in the resident told the media that the blast was land mine which was already planted roadside. Security forces conducted the villages of the resident after the blast but no one has been arrested for the attack. No group claimed the responsibility of the attack. All the wounded, some of them seriously have been hospitalized to Mogadishu main hospitals. Such attacks are blamed to Al-Shabaab militant who struggles to overpower Somali transitional federal government.
http://www.diirad.com/news-in-
Somalia’s Al-Shabaab orders drought victims to return to south western regions
21 Jul – Source: Radio Risala, Radio Al Furqan – 99 words
The Al-Shabaab has ordered families displaced by the severe drought in parts of the country under their control and those in Mogadishu to return to these areas. Al-Shabaab official, Sheikh Suldan said they have now established camps for families affected by the drought in Bay and Middle Shabelle region and that it since it has also been raining in these areas, these families need to come back and plant their own farms. The statement by the Al- Shabaab official comes at a time when thousands of families displaced by the severe drought in the country are now seeking refuge in Mogadishu.
Al-Shabaab accuses UN for exaggerating drought situation in Somalia
22 Jul – Source: Radio Bar-Kulan – 131 words
Somalia’s Al-Shabaab militia on Thursday downplayed drought situation in Somalia accusing the United Nations of exaggerating the severity of the drought gripping the south of the country and of politicizing the humanitarian crisis. Al-Shabaab’s spokesman Ali Mohamud Rage told a media briefing in Mogadishu that the United Nations’ declaration wrong and baseless propaganda. He however acknowledged the existence of drought in the country but the conditions are not as bad as the UN purports.
The UN estimated that about 2.8 million people in two regions in southern Somalia; southern Bakol and Lower Shabelle are facing famine due to consecutive droughts that have affected the country in the last few years, while the ongoing conflict has made it difficult for agencies to operate and access communities in the south of the country.
Seven displaced people reported dead from hunger in the outskirts of Mogadishu
22 Jul – Source: Radio Shabelle – 76 words
A number of women and children have in the last few hours died of starvation in the displaced camps in the outskirts of Mogadishu. Some of these families comprising of Mogadishu residents that fled from the capital due to the fighting and others displaced from various parts of the country due to the severe drought were said to be living in very harsh conditions in a camp in Lafole in the outskirts of the Somali capital.
IDPs in Badbado refugee camp get free services
21 Jul – Source: Radio Bar-Kulan – 122 words
Somalia’s Ministry of Health in conjunction with Banadir provincial administration and local aid agency, Saacid, have established a facility aimed at providing free medical service and feeding programme in Badbado refugee camp in Mogadishu. An official with the Ministry of Health, Idil Mohamed Ahmed, said that renowned medical doctors including Prof. Osman Hajji Mahamud Dufle are working in the facility to provide free medical services to thousands of drought displaced people in the camp, saying that the facility will be operating day and night.
Roadside bomb wounds three in the Somali capital
22 Jul – Source: Shabelle, Mareeg Online – 83 words
At least three people have been wounded in a roadside bomb blast at the entry of a police station in Dharkeylay district southwest of the capital. It reported that the target that a Somali government official, Yusuf Ahmed Ibrahim, the Deputy District Commissioner of Dharkenley in Benadir region though he narrowly escaped. In a brief interview with Shabelle after the attack, the official confirmed three were injured in blast. One government soldier was among those hurt in the incident.
http://www.shabelle.net/
REGIONAL MEDIA
AU Somalia pullout a long way off, says French General
22 Jul – Daily Monitor – 134 words
The Commander of the French forces in Djibouti, Maj. Gen. Thierry Caspar-Fille-Lambie, has said the African Union will have to stay in Somalia for a long time to achieve stability in the country. Gen. Lambie told journalists that. The task of soldiers is to secure areas but currently the force is too small to secure vast territories,” said Gen. Lambie. Training soldiers French forces, working with their UK and US counterparts, have provided training to UPDF forces deployed in Somalia.
Eleven thousand forces have now been trained, more than half under Gen. Lambie’s supervision. Meanwhile, the AU Commission signed a protocol in Addis Ababa with the Chinese government yesterday in support of the African Union Mission for Somalia. The Chinese government has pledged to provide equipment and material worth $ 4.5 million to the mission.
http://www.monitor.co.ug/News/
Five Al-Shabaab militia members taken prison
22 Jul – Source: The Standard – 135 words
Police in Moyale, northern Kenya have arrested five suspected Al-Shabaab militia members and an equal number of their Kenyan accomplices. Upper Eastern Regional Administration Police Commander, John Ole Matetek, yesterday said that the Kenyans, who included a child, were in company of the foreigners when they were apprehended.
One of the Kenyans arrested was found in possession of 400 bullets that the police believe was either to be sold or delivered to the remnants of Oromo Liberation Front rebels who are resisting attempts by a Kenyan security team to flush them out. The Somali nationals, who included an Al- Shabaab lieutenant colonel, are being held at a military camp for questioning by the military intelligence. Matetek said the five Somali nationals would be arraigned in court today to face charges of being in the country illegally.
Two Kuwaiti planes carrying 20 tons of aid head to Somalia
21 Jul – Source: Kuwait News Agency – 131 words
In a swift response to the UN appeal for urgent humanitarian aid to the drought-stricken Somalia, two Kuwaiti planes loaded with humanitarian aid took off Abdullah Al-Mubarak Military Airbase Thursday heading to the impoverished Horn of African nation. The aid planes, sent by the Kuwait Red Crescent Society (KRCS), are carrying 20 tons of food, medicine and tents.
His Highness the Amir Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahamd Al-Jaber Al-Sabah has pledged USD 10 million in aid for the Somali people, who are suffering from malnutrition and famine as a result of the worst drought to hit the nation in 10 years. The Somali Ambassador also applauded KRCS’s swift response to the Somali appeal for aid and its role in organizing aid missions and distributing aid to beneficiaries in the poor Horn of Africa nation.
http://www.kuna.net.kw/
INTERNATIONAL MEDIA
INTERVIEW-Somalia emergency exacerbated by instability-UN official
22 Jul – Source: Reuters – 131 words
The humanitarian crisis unraveling in southern Somalia, which the United Nations says is the worst famine in the area for 20 years, has been compounded by political instability that is nearly impossible to deal with, a top UN official said.
Years of anarchic conflict in southern Somalia have exacerbated the emergency, preventing aid agencies from helping communities in the area. Nearly 135,000 Somalis have fled since January, mainly to neighboring Kenya and Ethiopia, with many small children dying during the journey.
The United Nations has called an emergency meeting for Monday in Rome to discuss mobilizing aid for drought-stricken east Africa. A wide swathe of east Africa, including Kenya and Ethiopia, has been hit by years of severe drought and the United Nations says 3.7 million people face starvation in southern Somalia.
http://af.reuters.com/article/
Robinson seeks support for Somalia
22 Jul – Source: RTE – 130 words
Former Irish President and UN High Commission for Human Rights Mary Robinson have said new generations of children are dying from famine and drought in Somalia – nearly 20 years after she last visited the third world African nation. Mary Robinson writing in the Irish Sun has described the current plight of sick and under-nourished children as ‘heart-wrenching.. .’
The United States and the United Nations stressed the ‘acute urgency’ of the severe drought spreading through east Africa, after the world body declared a famine in southern Somalia. During a meeting with UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, US National Security Adviser Tom Donilon pointed to the ‘critical role’ of UN agencies such as the World Food Program and UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) in responding to the crisis, and vowed Washington would support these efforts.
http://www.rte.ie/news/2011/
Norway boosts aid to famine victims, seeks talks with Al-Shabaab
22 Jul – Source: News in English – 166 words
Foreign Minister Jonas Gahr St�¸re announced that Norway would be sending more aid to famine victims in Ethiopia, Kenya and Somalia, after also telling an Oslo newspaper that he thinks the latest crisis in Africa’s Horn suggests it’s time to start talking with Somalian militia group Al- Shabaab.
St�¸re called for using the hunger crisis to review the political situation in Somalia. “This is a country that has been one of the world’s foremost examples of a state breakdown,” he said. “We see symptoms of the crisis in the drought and lack of food but the main problem is politics. In some way or another we must find a means of reconciliation.”
Norway will now be sending NOK 263 million (nearly USD 50 million) in aid to the famine areas after boosting the amount by NOK 30 million on Thursday. The money will be funneled through the UN High Commissioner for Refugees. Thousands of refugees from Somalia are arriving at refugee camps in Ethiopia and Kenya every day.
Somali rebels say famine label used for politics
21 Jul – Source: Reuters – 84 words
Somali Islamist rebels accused the United Nations on Thursday of exaggerating the severity of the drought gripping the south of the country and of politicizing the humanitarian crisis.
The United Nations has declared famine in two pockets of southern Somalia, said that 3.7 million people risk starvation and that it is launching its biggest ever relief effort.
The south of the Horn of Africa country is largely controlled by the al Qaeda-linked militants whose four-year insurgency is widely blamed for exacerbating the impact of the drought.
http://af.reuters.com/article/
Scarborough restaurant owner pleads for Canadian government to help Somalia
21 Jul – Source: Inside Toronto – 117 words
There were many pleas for the Canadian government to take action in the Horn of Africa, and when it came time, Khadar Abdi added his own.
On Thursday, Khadar Abdi welcomed federal Liberal Leader Bob Rae, past and present MPs, relief agency managers and leaders of East African communities to his small plaza restaurant, the Sinai Cafe. “It doesn’t matter how tough it is, we need our government to help our people,” said Abdi, who had stood to hold open the door for every guest.
At the same event, Hodan Dirieh, program director of Madbakh Women’s Initiative in Etobicoke said Canada has been focusing on Al-Shabaab and terrorism instead of looking at what’s really going on, the famine.