28 Sept 2011 – Morning headlines
Key Headlines:
- Somali delegation departs for Copenhagen
- Somali president warns gov’t soldiers not to harm civilians
- African Union to get extra troops for Somalia mission
- Somalia backs Islam radical hearings: US lawmaker
SOMALI MEDIA
Somali delegation departs for Copenhagen
27 Sept – Source: Radio Mogadishu, Risala – 209 words
A high-level Somali governmental delegation yesterday departed for Copenhagen, Denmark where it is set to attend the International Contact Group meeting on the 29th of September. The center piece of the meeting will be the Road Map outlining priority tasks, including security, the constitution, reconciliation and good governance to be accomplished over the coming 11 months.
Somali president warns gov’t soldiers not to harm civilians
27 Sept – Source: Shabelle – 134 words
The president of the TFG has warned his soldiers against harming civilians, IDP’s in particular. Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed said that the military commanders are obliged to fight against the armed soldiers who are used to bothering the people.
http://www.shabelle.net/
Al Shabaab set to display crashed U.S drone
27 Sept- Source: Radio Bar-kulan- 190 words
Al Shabaab in the Port city of Kismayo have announced that it will display at Freedom Park on Friday a U.S. spy drone that has crashed in the city after it was allegedly hit by the militia. Abdirahman Mudey, one of the al Shabaab leaders in the city claimed the drone was shot down as it was taking photographs of parts of the city. However locals say some herders spotted the drone crash some 13 km from the city centre, after which they immediately informed the militia leaders.
Italy partners with Somali government to free hostages
27 Sept – Source: Radio Bar-Kulan – 160 words
Italy has announced its plans to free two vessels and eleven Italian crews who have been taken hostage by Somali pirates along the Somali coast. Italian Foreign Affairs minister Franco Frattini revealed that his government will partner with the TFG in securing the release of their nationals from the pirates. Frattini said he and Somali PM Abdiweli Mohamed Ali have had long discussions and agreed on a joint action.
New famine-hit people arriving in Mogadishu
27 Sept – Source: Shabelle – 118 words
More than more 100 families displaced by the famine have reached Mogadishu in search of food and water. Most of those families, who dwell right in Mogadishu’s Hodan district, fled from the regions of Bay and Lower Shabelle regions. Four toddlers were so far confirmed to have died from diseases including measles and diarrhea.
http://www.shabelle.net/
REGIONAL MEDIA
Denmark to host international meeting on Somalia
27 Sept- Middle East Online- Source: 286 words
Denmark will host this week the United Nations-appointed International Contact Group on Somalia to discuss developments in the anarchic nation stricken with drought and famine. “A solution to the human suffering and a stabilisation of the security situation in Somalia can only be found in the long term through a political solution,” the Danish foreign ministry said in a statement announcing the meeting.
INTERNATIONAL MEDIA
African Union to get extra troops for Somalia mission
27 Sept- Source: BBC- 158 words
The AU says it expects to receive 3,000 extra troops over the next six months to reinforce its operations in Somalia. Lt Colonel Paddy Ankunda, spokesman for the AU mission in Somalia, said the troops would come from Djibouti and Sierra Leone. At present the AU has around 9,000 soldiers in Mogadishu. AU commanders have long complained they have do not have sufficient numbers.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/
Somalia backs Islam radical hearings: US lawmaker
28 Sept – Source: AP – 214 words
Somalia supports controversial US Congress hearings into radicalization within the Muslim- American community, the lawmaker who has made the investigation into a signature issue said Tuesday. House Homeland Security Committee Chairman Peter King, a Republican, said Somali Foreign Minister Mohamed Ibrahim had telephoned him “to express his government’s full support” for the hearings.
Exacerbated by conflict, Somalia famine persists
27 Sept – Source: NPR News – 2,112 words
In The New York Times, East Africa bureau chief Jeffrey Gettleman wrote: A drought-induced famine is steadily creeping across Somalia, and tens of thousands of people have already died. And in the next few months, three quarters of a million people could run out of food. And Jeffrey Gettleman asked a question: Is the world about to watch 750,000 Somalis starve to death?
http://www.npr.org/2011/09/27/
From relief to recovery: a longer-term vision for Somalia
27 Sept- Source: Alertnet- 467 words
The Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) and The Humanitarian Forum brought together 120 participants from 70 organisations, representing the UN, Red Cross/Crescent movement, Islamic and western international NGOs and Somali NGOs.
http://www.trust.org/alertnet/
Famine warning signs must never again be ignored, as they were in Somalia – UN
27 Sept – Source: UN News Centre – 621 words
Stressing that the warning signs of impending disaster were evident, but ignored, long before drought and famine began killing tens of thousands of people in the Horn of Africa, the United Nations today swung its support behind a ‘Never Again’ campaign to end extreme hunger.
http://www.un.org/apps/news/
Finland says terror suspects linked to al Shabaab
27 Sept – Source: AP – 104 words
Finnish police say that a man and a woman arrested on suspicion of financing terrorism and terror recruitment are linked to the Somali insurgent group al Shabaab. Intelligence officials detained the suspects on Sept. 7 in the Helsinki region, in the Nordic country’s first terror-linked arrests. Officials have until Dec. 15 to charge the suspects.
http://www.mail.com/int/news/