February 8, 2012 | Morning Headlines.

Main Story

Clashes between TFG-Kenyan forces against al Shabaab caused displacement of civilians in Lower Juba region

07 Feb- Source: Radio Shabelle, Somalia Report- 58 words

Mass displacement began in some districts of Lower Juba region after frequent battles and shelling erupted between TFG and al Shabaab fighters. Residents in Qoqani, Tabta and Hawina villages on the outer edge of Afmadow district said locals have begun fleeing from their houses due to the repeated overnight fighting and shelling, which killed many and destroyed homes.

Key Headlines

Somalia PM returns home after attending ICG summit (Radio Shabelle)
A civilian killed in Baladweyne (Radio Kulmiye)
AMREF shuts its Wajir office North Eastern Kenya (The Star)
Turkish envoy refutes Somali Islamists’ expired food aid allegation (Xinhua)
Defense Minister promises to continue battle against al Shabaab (Radio Garowe)
Somalia government orders IDPs to go back home (Mareeg)

PRESS RELEASE

Ministry of Information distributes hand-held radios

07 Feb – Source: TFG – 221 words

The Somali Ministry of Information, Posts and Telecommunications started the process of distributing 6,000 hand-held radios to Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) in Mogadishu. In the first batch, the Ministry handed out 1,000 radios at Badbado camp, Somalia’s largest IDP camp. The radios were received by to those most in need: namely, female-headed households, elderly and youth groups.

The beneficiaries will receive news and important information concerning relief efforts and public safety messages daily. The small emergency radios are both solar-powered and hand-cranked and can also operate with batteries. The radios can be tuned in to multiple frequencies.

The Deputy Minister of Information, Posts and Telecommunications, H.E. Abdullahi Bile Nur, who witnessed the distribution process at Badbado camp, said: “In any emergency, the first priority is the delivery of critical aid, but communities need more than that. They also need information. It is important for them to know where they can get water, where they can get certain facilities, how to access those facilities.”

“We believe the radios will make a difference in terms of morale and education;” he added. Radio Mogadishu broadcasts a daily show named ‘Recovery’ (previously ‘Help’) that is packaged along with the latest announcements and information from humanitarian agencies. The program offers guidance on hygiene and sanitation, nutrition, child education, good neighborhood, becoming productive members of the society, among other key topics.

SOMALI MEDIA

Somalia PM returns home after attending ICG summit

07 Feb – Source: Shabelle, Bar-kulan – 135 words

Somali PM Abdiweli Mohamed Ali and his delegates have arrived in Mogadishu after visiting Djibouti where they attended the ICG summit, officials said. Some TFG cabinet ministers warmly welcomed Premier Abdiweli Mohamed Ali and his delegation at Aden Adde international airport at noon on Tuesday under AMISOMprotection.

Defense Minister promises to continue battle against al Shabaab

07 Feb- Source: Radio Garowe- 137 words

The Minister of Defense Hussein Arab Isse promised to continue the TFG’s fight against al Shabaab in southern Somalia, Radio Garowe reports. The Minister told reporters on Tuesday that the coalition forces working in southern Somalia have made much progress in fighting the terrorist organization.
Minister Isse explained the TFG’s objective is to eradicate al Shabaab from southern Somalia in order to build peace in the region.

Clashes between TFG-Kenyan forces against al Shabaab caused displacement of civilians in Lower Juba region

07 Feb- Source: Radio Shabelle, Somalia Report- 58 words

A civilian killed in Baladweyne

07 Feb- Source: Radio Kulmiye – 119 words

Reports from the Hiraan’s capital Baladweyne says that the soldiers in the city had shot today a civilian; witnesses says the reason behind the killing of the civilian man is not yet clear.
The officials of the Somali government in the city have yet to comment on the murder of this civilian man in Baladweyne, which was recently liberated by the troops of the Somali government along with Ethiopian troops.

Somalia government orders IDPs to go back home

07 Feb – Source: Mareeg Online – 151 words

The administration of Mogadishu’s Shangani district for the Somali government ordered hundreds of locally displaced people (IDPs ) in the capital to go back home- a move that TFG evicts Mogadishu squatters‎. Ibrahim Mohamed Muqtar, the commissioner of Shangani district for TFG said that his administration has given deadline to the drought and famine stricken families to leave from the district and go back to their original regions in the country.

REGIONAL MEDIA

AMREF shuts its Wajir office, North Eastern Kenya

07 Feb- Source: the Star- 69 words

AMREF has suspended its drought relief operations in Wajir county due to insecurity. The Amref projects officer in the county Raphael Munene said they have temporally stopped its programme in several divisions in the county because of insecurity and are only operating within central division in Wajir East district. “We were forced to withdraw our officers from those insecure areas especially areas near our border with Somalia,” he said.

GCC agrees anti-piracy centre to protect tankers

07 Feb – Source: Arabian Oil & Gas – 129 words

GCC countries need to continue building cooperation across the Gulf countries in the areas of maritime surveillance and security operations, said senior military figures at the culmination of the Maritime Security and Surveillance Conference in Abu Dhabi.

INTERNATIONAL MEDIA

Somalia: London conference “an opportunity” for Somaliland

07 Feb – Source: IRIN News – 243 words

More than two decades after it unilaterally asserted its independence from the rest of Somalia, Somaliland plans to lobby hard at a major conference in London in February for something it has sorely lacked since its inception: international recognition of its sovereignty.

Somalia is training ground for British would-be terrorists, report warns

07 Feb – Source: Guardian – 400 words

Fifty Britons in Somalia are among an increasing number of overseas fighters who could herald a new wave of international terrorism, a leading British security thinktank has warned.
They reflect the growing appeal to potential jihadists of ungoverned spaces where they can train and gain experience in attacks before returning home to Britain and elsewhere, the Royal United Services Institute (Rusi) says.

Turkish envoy refutes Somali Islamists’ expired food aid allegation

07 Feb – Source: Xinhua – 209 words

The Turkish ambassador to Somalia on Tuesday strongly dismissed the Islamist group Al-Shabaab’s claim that Turkish provides spoiled aid to displaced people in the southern part of the war-ravaged African country.
Speaking to reporters, the new Turkish ambassador to Somalia, Cemalettin Kani Torun, described the Islamist group’s allegation as “totally false.”

SOCIAL MEDIA

CULTURE / OPINION / EDITORIAL / BLOGS/ DISCUSSION BOARDS

“The London conference must radically break with that pattern. To do so could begin with the establishment of a small and unified council, led by Norway, Turkey and South Africa, that is empowered materially and politically to orchestrate international support for Somalia. This effort must be free from self-serving regional or international agendas.”

Will the London conference change Somalia’s future?

07 Feb- Source: Aljazeera English- 2136 Words

The upcoming London Conference on Somalia is, potentially, a promising occasion to finally put the country on the road to peace, stability and democracy. Whether this opportunity is realised will be largely contingent upon the willingness and ability of the participants to chart a new course that takes full stock of the genuine and long term needs of the Somali people. Only through a just course and able order can terrorism and piracy in Somalia be defeated, and regional security restored.

“So perhaps the first thing this great conference should do is apologise to the people of Somalia for ignoring their plight for so long. The second is to usher Somalia’s professional politicians into the garden or off to smart hotels and bring in some Somalis who really represent the interests of the country and its long-suffering people.”

Saving Somalia? – Reflections on the last 20 years, and the upcoming ‘London Conference’

07 Feb – Source: African Arguments – 766 Words

If I were a Somali I would thank Allah for the pirates. For more than 20 years the world has stood by while successive civil wars destroyed the country, killing hundreds of thousands of people by bullets, disease and starvation and reducing what was once a prosperous land to a war zone. But the seizure of more than 200 ships by kids with guns in small craft has changed all that. Britain, for whom shipping and trade around the Red Sea and the Gulf are vital national interests, has decided to take action. Pirates, the government has realised, cannot be stopped as long as their land bases are not ruled by a government. But on land the government is under attack from Islamic fundamentalists who are recruiting and training terrorists. So a political solution must now be found for Somalia. So declared William Hague, the Foreign Secretary, clad in flack jacket and helmet, in Mogadishu last Thursday. The search will begin at a conference in London on February 23rd. At last.