23 Sept 2011 – Morning headlines
Key Headlines:
- Defense Minister: anti al Shabaab offensive to continue
- Italy to release € 15 million for Somalia development
- Health crisis adds to Somalia’s woes
- US using controversial money-transfer system to deliver aid in Somalia
- Aid agencies want ‘lives put before politics’ in Somalia
- US sets up drone base in Ethiopia
SOMALI MEDIA
Defence Minister: anti al Shabaab offensive to continue
22 Sept- Source: Radio Moagadishu, SONNA- 133 words
Deputy Somali Prime Minister who is also the country’s Defense Minister Hussein Arab Isse has said that al Shabaab will soon be wiped out of the country. Addressing hundreds of peaceful demonstrators in the streets of Mogadishu to mark the World Peace Day, Hussein Arab Isse said that the Somali military will widen the offensives against al Shabaab.
Italy to release € 15 million for Somalia development
22 Sept – Source: Radio Mogadishu, Bar-Kulan – 147 words
Italy and Somalia have signed a deal that will see Somalia receive €15 million development aid which was earlier aimed at the former Somali central government to meet its development goals. Somalia’s Prime Minister Abdiweli Mohamed Ali signed the deal with Italy’s Foreign Affairs minister Franco Frattini on the sideline with the UN annual meeting in New York.
Porters complain about Mogadishu harbor authorities
22 Sept – Source: Shabelle – 151 words
Porters in Mogadishu international seaport are complaining about the administration in charge of the harbor. The porters accused the authorities of Mogadishu harbor of not paying their rights (wages) after the end of every work-shift.
http://www.shabelle.net/
Aid groups warn of more death in Somalia
22 Sept – Source: Radio Bar-Kulan – 218 words
Aid groups have warned of a possible spread of diseases among drought and famine displaced people in Somalia due to the seasonal rains expected in the country by next month. Twenty aid groups raised the red flag over Somalia’s famine crisis, saying that hundreds of thousands of people could die from it since the aid response to Somalia’s famine has not been large enough.
Diarrhea outbreak reported in Kismayo, Lower Jubba
22 Sept- Source: Radio Bar-kulan- 86 words
Health workers in the Port city of Kismayo say over thirty people are ailing with diarrhea-related complication. Majority of those succumbed to the complications are said to be drought and famine displaced people camping in the city.
Gunmen injure journalist in Bossaso town
22 Sept- Source: Radio Mogadishu- 102 words
Unknown gunmen in the eastern coastal city state of Bossaso are reported to have shot and injured a journalist working with a local radio based in that town.
REGIONAL MEDIA
US sets up drone base in Ethiopia
22 Sept- Source: Daily Nation- 308 words
The United States is building a base in Ethiopia from which drones will be flown over Somalia, the Washington Post reported on Tuesday. The Pentagon has also begun flying armed drones from a base in the Seychelles, the the newspaper added.
http://www.nation.co.ke/News/
UN must walk the talk
22 Sept- Source: Daily Nation- 185 words
President Kibaki is expected to address the 66th Session of the UN General Assembly on the resolutions arrived at during the summit on the Horn of Africa crises held in Nairobi two weeks ago. Presumably, he will be telling fellow Heads of State what strategies were devised to ensure that drought need not lead to mass starvation.
http://www.nation.co.ke/oped/
INTERNATIONAL MEDIA
Health crisis adds to Somalia’s woes
22 Sept – Source: CNN – 283 words
In addition to a disastrous drought and political violence, Somalia is facing a potentially devastating health crisis. The World Health Organization’s regional office for the Eastern Mediterranean said that at one hospital alone, more than 6,000 cases of cholera and diarrhea have been reported since January of this year.
http://edition.cnn.com/2011/
US using controversial money-transfer system to deliver aid in Somalia
22 Sept – Source: The Washington Post / AP – 315 words
The United States is using a controversial money-transfer system to deliver aid directly to Somali famine victims and keep it out of the hands of militants. The director of USAID, Raj Shah, told AP Thursday that aid agencies have had to resort to creative ways to prevent the militant group al-Shabab from seizing aid.
Aid agencies want ‘lives put before politics’ in Somalia
22 Sept – Source: The Guardian – 723 words
Twenty aid agencies published an open letter on Wednesday urging the international community to “put people’s lives before politics if [we are] to stand any chance of aiding people suffering from the famine in Somalia”. The agencies said that while aid was getting through in many areas, “it is not at the scale needed to address the enormity of the crisis and hundreds of thousands of lives hang in the balance”.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/
Somali rebels force thousands back into famine zone
22 Sept- Source: AFP- 622 words
Somalia’s a Qaeda-linked rebels said on Thursday they were moving over 12,000 starving families back into famine zones they had fled, where the UN has warned they will die without help. Draconian aid restrictions imposed by al Shabaab are blamed for turning harsh drought across the Horn of Africa into famine in the areas they control.
Somali pirates ready for renewed raiding season
22 Sept- Source: AFP- 803 words
Somali pirates are preparing for a new raiding season, taking advantage of the calmer seas after the monsoon period, as their ties with Islamist rebels come under closer scrutiny. Pirate gangs already hold a grim trophy haul of at least 49 vessels and over 500 hostages, according to the monitoring group Ecoterra, captured mainly through the use of small skiffs, grappling hooks and rocket-propelled grenades.