29 Jul 2011 – Daily Monitoring Report
Key Headlines:
- 20 killed 35 hurt in fierce Mogadishu battle
- New Somali Cabinet takes oath in Mogadishu
- EU extends Somalia military mission by one year
- IDP’s continue to flock into Mogadishu
- Peacekeepers fight off Somali militants
- Third Kuwaiti aid plane heads to drought-plagued Somalia
- Why can’t we end famine in Somalia?
SOMALI MEDIA
20 killed, 35 hurt in fierce Mogadishu battle
29 Jul – Source: Radio Shabelle, Kulmiye and Risala – 197 words
At least 20 people have killed and 35 others injured in fighting between Somali government forces backed by AMISOM and al Shabaab fighters that broke out in al Shabaab controlled parts of Mogadishu.
Somali government soldiers and AMISOM forces managed captured new territories from al Shabaab including Florence junction, Hamar Bille neighbourhood and parts of Bakara market.
Somali military officials told the media that government forces allied with AU troops and Ahlu Sunna forces made huge gains. The officials said they inflicted incalculable and irretrievable losses on Al Shabaab, killing dozens of them.
Somali president, Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed, said his forces made more advances in Mogadishu, urging them to keep on their combat battles against Al Shabaab.
Bomb explosion targets al Shabaab members
29 Jul – Source: Raxanreeb – 163 words
At least two al Shabaab fighters were reportedly wounded on Friday night in Elasha, located in the outskirts of Mogadishu in a targeted grenade attack by an unknown attacker.
Eyewitnesses told RBC Radio that explosion the occurred near a chemist shop at Elasha where some al Shabaab members were sitting. Following the attack, al Shabaab ordered all the businesses in the area and began searching operation.
http://www.raxanreeb.com/?p=
IDP’s continue to flock into Mogadishu
29 Jul- Source: Somali National News Agency, Radio Mogadishu- 168 words
IDP’s affected by the droughts in south and central Somalia continue to arrive in camps in several districts of the capital Mogadishu. The government has pledged to assist the IDPs and a committee to oversee the resettlement and issuance of food aid has been set up.
Many of these IDPs have trecked for close to a month to reach Mogadishu where they are assured of full government support and assistance from the well wishers.
Most of the IDPs have been accomodated in Badbado camp in Dharkenley district which currently houses close to 6000 people.
Nightfall shells kill 4, injures 13 in Mogadishu
29 Jul – Source: Radio Bar-Kulan, Shabelle, Kulmiye and Risala – 129 words
Four people were killed 13 others wounded after al Shabaab and government forces backed by AMISOM exchanged shells in the capital last night, reports said.
4 of the dead and 5 of those injured occurred in Karan district, north Mogadishu while the others were wounded in Kahshika village in Dharkenlay district south the capital, reports said.
Finance Minister seeks support from international community for conference on drought crisis
29 Jul – Source: Radio Mogadishu, Shabelle and Kulmiye – 151 words
The TFG Minister of Finance told journalists in Mogadishu that the region is in the grips of a drought that is considered to be the most severe in the last half century.
The Minister of Finance, Abdinasir Mohamed Abdulle, is seeking the support of the international community for conference on the drought. He said, “the aim of the meeting is to seek a substantial increase in commitments to fund the humanitarian crisis and agree on a more permanent solution to the problems in the Horn of Africa because over 20 million people are under the threat”. He added that the number of Somalia’s refugee population has increased from 3.4 million to 5 million.
Somaliland and Djibouti discuss border security
29 Jul – Source: Radio Bar-Kulan – 109 words
Authorities from Somaliland’s Sayla’ district and officials from the neighbouring Djibouti have resolved to beef up security along their common border and ease cross border movement of people between the two countries.
Sayla’ deputy district commissioner, Osman Mumin Are, told Bar-kulan that the two officials met at Lowya’ade border point and discussed ways in which their people can cross to each other freely while at the same time crossing it through legal immigration channels.
The major issue that dominated their meeting is said to be security issues along the porous border between the two neighbouring countries, with both sides agreeing to bolster security on its side of the border.
New Somali Cabinet takes oath in Mogadishu
28 Jul- Source: Radio Mogadishu- 123 words
The new cabinet has been officially sworn in to serve a year mandate. The president, prime minister and the speaker of parliament attended the ceremony that took place yesterday at presidential Villa.
The President congratulated the new ministers and called on them to deliver as per Somalis expectations.
The Premier on his part welcomed the new team and urged them to lay more emphasis on the task as per the TFG charter.
REGIONAL MEDIA
Somali PM accuses UN of holding back aid
28 Jul- Source: Al Jazeera- 658 words
‘The UN is preventing aid from reaching victims of Somalia’s drought, the country’s prime minister has said.
Abdiweli Mohamed Ali said on Thursday the world body was hoarding supplies and failing to distribute them to those in need.
The comments came as the UN World Food Programme airlifted tonnes of emergency supplies to Mogadishu, the capital, to feed malnourished children in the drought-stricken Horn of Africa nation.
Amir Mahmoud Abdulla, the chief operating officer of the World Food Programme, said the food in the warehouse “looks like a lot but actually it’s not a lot of food”.
“The food in the warehouse would actually feed a million people for one day,” he told Al Jazeera from Rome, Italy.
“To somebody who is just sort of maybe not as familiar with food distribution, it may look like stockpiling … There have been some unfortunate media portrayals of this as if it was stockpiling. “I can assure you there would be no purpose for stockpiling in a situation like this.
“The World Food Programme takes this function very, very seriously. We are basically the life line and food that we have in our supplies we’ll get to people wherever we can.”
Challiss McDonough, a WFP spokeswoman, said:”We are distributing food in Mogadishu, we are doing it everyday, we are feeding over 300,000 people in Mogadishu including feeding centres around the city.”
http://english.aljazeera.net/
Third Kuwaiti aid plane heads to drought-plagued Somalia
28 Jul – Source: Kuwait News Agency – 229 words
A third Kuwaiti plane loaded with humanitarian aid headed Thursday to drought-stricken Somalia.
Media Officer of Kuwait Red Crescent Society (KRCS), which organizes the trips, Khalid Al- Zaid told KUNA that the plane took off from Abdullah Al-Mubarak Air Base early Thursday carrying food, medicine, baby-milk formulas and tents.
“The new move comes in implementation of the directives of His Highness the Amir Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah to show Kuwaiti people’s solidarity with their brothers and sisters in Somalia and to contribute to efforts aiming at alleviating their sufferings,” he said.
He stressed that KRCS was one of the first organizations to move to help victims of drought in Somalia.
“The KRCS has launched an urgent airlift to offer humanitarian aid to Somalia and has purchased ship’s load of 2,500 tons of rice and distributed them there,” Al-Zaid noted.
“The KRCS is keen to participate in the efforts aiming to save millions of Somali people, who are facing one of the worst droughts due to lack of seasonal rains, depletion of water and rivers and the lack of developmental mechanisms.” He added that the KRCS will enhance its presence in Somalia to oversee the distribution of aid and to meet different needs of those affected.
The KRCS praised the efforts of Acting Prime Minister and Defense Minister Sheikh Jaber Al- Mubarak Al-Sabah to launch and monitor relief airlift to Somalia.
http://www.kuna.net.kw/
Muslim aid groups meet to help Somalia
29 Jul – Source: Al Shahid – 290 words
Member states of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) gathered in Istanbul on Thursday to coordinate an emergency response to the devastating drought in Somalia.
Secretary General of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu called on member states to coordinate stances on helping Somalia under the famine which has recently hit the country.
“This meeting is being held in response to an alarming humanitarian crisis prevailing in the Horn of Africa and in particular in Somalia, where severe famine is threatening the life of over 3 million people,” Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu told participants of the meeting.
Ihsanoglu also called on warring Somali factions “to immediately stop all hostilities during the holy month of Ramadan and to allow access to all humanitarian actors without distinction whatsoever so as to enable them to freely reach out to all the needy populations.”
Representatives from 15 countries, as well as the Turkish Red Crescent (Kızılay) and other humanitarian institutions, participated in the aid conference.
Ihsanoglu praised the activities of the OIC, which he said has been fully engaged with its partners as a leading organization. He said the OIC will soon start distributing food to more than 100,000 affected people with its partners.
http://english.alshahid.net/
Arab League team to Somalia to extend relief aid
29 Jul – Source: Kuwait News Agency – 156 words
A delegation from the Arab League will travel to Somalia in the next few days to extend relief supplies to those affected by the drought in Somalia.
The delegation, headed by director of the Arab African Cooperation Department, Ambassador Sameer Hosni, will be offering humanitarian supplies for Somalis valued at three million Egyptian Pounds.
In a statement, Hosni said it was important to provide every kind of assistance to the Somali people.
Hosni noted that Kuwait allocated USD 10 million in direct aid, as well as other countries like Saudi Arabia, Sudan and the UAE.
INTERNATIONAL MEDIA
CNN live from Somalia
29 Jul – Source: CNN – 78 words
“Tens of thousands of people fled the Somali capital of Mogadishu because of the violence and insecurity here. They’re now having to come back seeking refuge from the famine that hit them in those areas they fled to, and it seems that that violence is following them,” Elbagir says.
http://cnnpressroom.blogs.cnn.
Why can’t we end famine in Somalia?
28 Jul – Source: Guardian – 686 words
The droughts in Somalia, whose people have been battling a devastating civil war for more than two decades, are the worst in 60 years. There are 3.7 million people in a critical situation, and in some areas there is already full-blown famine, killing thousands every single day. Those most in need are children: the UN has reported that more than 30% are acutely malnourished. In certain regions, such as Bakol and Lower Shabelle, malnutrition is exceeding 50% and Unicef reports that children are dying at a rate of about one every six minutes.
The increasingly unpredictable nature of the security situation makes it difficult for the UN and most NGOs to deliver aid. For many Somalis, the choice to stay or walk across the dangerous and dusty land in search of food and water presents equally risky alternatives. For those who stay, there is no guarantee food will arrive. For those who go, there is no guarantee they will survive the journey.
This is the choice that Halima Omar and thousands of Somali women have to face. Halima, whose family was well off with 100 cattle four years ago, was forced to become one of many thousands of drought-displaced people migrating to urban centres in southern Somalia in search of help after three years of droughts killed all of her cattle. She watched four of her children starve to death and wonders how long the remaining two will survive.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/
EU extends Somalia military mission by one year
28 Jul – Source: Reuters – 102 words
The European Union extended on Thursday by a year its military mission to train Somali’s security forces and said it was considering other measures to help develop the country’s maritime capacity.
The mission, to be led by Colonel Michael Beary, will provide two six-month training periods, mainly in Uganda, the EU Council said in a statement. The council represents the 27 EU member states.
The EU launched the common security and defence policy military mission (CSDP) in February last year. Somalia has had no effective central government for two decades.
The United Nations has declared a famine in two regions in Somalia.
http://af.reuters.com/article/
Iran to send 2nd aid convoy to Somalia
28 Jul- Source: Press TV- 260 words
Iran says it plans to dispatch a second humanitarian aid convoy to Somalia to help the starving people in the crisis-hit East African country.
Head of Iran’s Red Crescent Society (IRCS) Abolhassan Faqih announced the news on Wednesday, saying the aid cargo, including food and sanitation materials, would be sent to Somalia in a week, IRNA reported.
“The first ship of Red Crescent Society of the Islamic Republic of Iran’s humanitarian aid, which included 60 tons of food and medical supplies to help the impoverished people of Somalia, was sent to the country’s capital [of Mogadishu] in Farvardin (21 March-20 April) and has been distributed,” Faqih said.
The Iranian official noted that the IRCS has contacted the International Committee of the Red Cross and other similar relief organizations in other countries, and that the group cooperates and shares expertise with foreign agencies.
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/
Peacekeepers fight off Somali militants
29 Jul- Source: the Independent, AP- 79 words
Heavy fighting erupted yesterday in Mogadishu as African Union (AU) peacekeepers mounted an offensive to protect famine-relief efforts from attacks byal-Qa’ida-linked militants.
Al Shabaab had sent 300 reinforcement fighters to the capital in recent days, Lieutenant-Colonel Paddy Ankunda said. The AU believes the militants were trying to stop aid from reaching famine refugees.
The UN’s World Food Programme says it cannot reach 2.2 million people in need of aid in the militant-controlled areas in southern Somalia because of the insecurity.
http://www.independent.co.uk/
BLOGS/EDITORIAL/CULTURE
Al Shabaab compounds Somalia’s natural disaster
28 Jul- Source: National Post, Reuters- 487 words
Somali refugees fleeing a deadly mixture of drought and conflict at home said draconian conditions imposed by al-Qaeda-affiliated Islamist militants had made survival a fight they could not win.
Al-Shabab insurgents control much of southern Somalia, where famine has hit hardest, and the effects of the natural disaster have been compounded by the rebel fighters’ readiness to seize farm animals and forcibly recruit young men.
Wheeling his crippled five-year old daughter on a wooden cart, Noor Ibrahim Hassan queued at dawn with his family to register with the United Nations’ refugee agency, which is battling to deal with up to thousands of new refugees daily.
“Al-Shabab robbed us of livestock, telling us it was for charity. And they stole our men. Many young men were forcefully recruited into their ranks,” said father-of-three Mr. Hassan.
Mr. Hassan’s determination to ride out the drought that has struck 12 million people in Somalia, Ethiopia, Kenya and Djibouti — the worst drought in 60 years, some aid agencies say — evaporated with the demise of his remaining livestock.
http://news.nationalpost.com/