August 22, 2012 | Daily Monitoring Report.
US warns against political interference in Somalia
22 Aug – Source: Gulf Today – 187 words
Washington:The White House has warned that it would not tolerate any obstruction of war-torn Somalia’s political process, hailing the swearing-in of a new parliament as an “important milestone” for the nation. “The United States welcomes convening of Somalia’s new federal parliament,” White House spokesman Jay Carney said. Local media said 211 of 275 lawmakers had so far been named.
Carney said Washington urged “those remaining Somali communities that have not yet nominated their members of parliament to do so with urgency.” “We look forward to parliament expeditiously completing all remaining tasks,” the White House press secretary said. The body has yet to choose a speaker, and then must elect a new president.
The US warned it would not accept any interference in the creation of a new government in Somalia, which has not had a stable central government since the 1991 ouster of dictator Mohamed Siad Barre, which sparked two decades of chaos. The swearing-in, held on the tarmac of the airport in the capital Mogadishu, was the culmination of a UN-backed process in which lawmakers were chosen by a group of 135 traditional elders.
Key Headlines
- US warns against political interference in Somalia (Gulf Today)
- Ahlu Sunna rejects new Somali parliament (Bar-kulan)
- Grief as families army lay crash dead to rest (Daily Monitor)
- Refugee woman killed in Dadaab’s Ifo camp (Bar-kulan)
- Ethiopia’s late leader Meles returns home (Daily Nation)
- Somali PM Plans to Focus on Economy to Rebuild Nation (Bloomberg/Business Week)
SOMALI MEDIA
Ahlu Sunna rejects new Somali parliament
22 Aug – Source: Bar-kulan – 134 words
Ahlu Sunna administration in central Somalia regions has expressed its opposition to the newly inaugurated Somali parliament, saying that the group was not considered during the selection process. In an exclusive interview with Bar-kulan, the group’s Advisory Committee Chairman Omar Sheikh Abdikadir lamented that his group was not included in selection of this new parliament.
Abdikadir also lambasted on Somalia’s presidential aspirants vying for the country’s top seat in the upcoming presidential election, accusing them of being selfish and that they will not bring change for Somalis.
His sentiment comes at a time when Somalis and the international community are praising the steps taken forward in ending the transition including the inauguration of the new parliament, adoption of the new provisional constitution and the upcoming presidential elections.
Refugee woman killed in Dadaab’s Ifo camp
22 Aug – Source: Bar-kulan – 112 words
A Somali refugee woman was Tuesday evening shot dead in Ifo, one of the camps forming the larger Dadaab refugee complex, in northern Kenya near the border with Somalia. The woman identified as Quresho Hussein Rage who was a member of the area security committee was killed by gunmen armed with pistols.
The gunmen immediately fled the scene of the crime. Police confirmed the incident and said they launched investigations into the killing. It is not known yet the reason behind her killing-but locals suspect that she was killed due to her role in Kenyan efforts to restore law and order in the volatile refugee camp.
Somaliland police arrests suspected pro-Somalia supporters in Las Anod
21 Aug – Source: Somaliland Press – 141 words
Reports say Somaliland security forces have rounded up a few dozen people in the last two days accused of organizing a demonstration in support of the newly sworn Somali parliament. Reports indicates that the majority of those arrested consisted of old and young men and whom are currently held at the Las Anod central police station. They are accused of planning to celebrate the swearing in of several MPS from sool and buhoodle regions in the new Somali parliament.
The detained persons are all being held for engaging in seditious activities which are deemed to be a threat to national security, said one government official who didn’t want to be named. Speaking to the media, relatives of the detained persons said the suspects had no connections to any separatist groups neither were they involved in politics in any way whatsoever.
Galmudug appeals for financial support from local traders
21 Aug -Source: Bar-kulan – 123 words
Galmudug’s newly elected administration has appealed to local business people in the region for financial support to run its activities until the regional administration will embark on tax collection. The appeal was made during a meeting between cabinet ministers and local traders in central Somali city of Galkayo.
The meeting was later joined by the newly elected regional president Abdi Hassan Awale Qeybdid. Traders promised to support the administration and asked for four days to organise themselves and set up a committee that will facilitate the process.
Galmudug’s Finance Minister Abdiwali Sheikh Ali told the traders that his administration needs their financial support in the next hundred days before starting tax collection to help them strengthen security and other development projects.
Puntland intercepts illegal immigrants heading to Yemen
21 Aug – Source: Bar-kulan – 141 words
Puntland police on Tuesday intercepted nearly hundred Somali and Ethiopian immigrants at Shimbirale, Bur and Ba’ad areas of Bari region, probably on their way to Yemen to seek better life. Confirming the incident, area police boss Osman Hussein Awke was quoted as saying that police managed to arrest 90 immigrants after receiving information from the local residents.
Some of the immigrants told Bar-kulan that they were heading to visit their relatives in Yemen. Police are now holding them inside Bosaso seaport where they are said to be undergoing further investigations.
The area is route for many of Horn of African immigrants fleeing poverty and conflict in their countries who seek better lives in the Arab peninsular- but the route has been deadly for such immigrants since most of them fall victims to human-trafficking cartels.
REGIONAL MEDIA
Grief as families, army lay crash dead to rest
22 Aug – Source: Daily Monitor – 200 words
All seven UPDF soldiers who died in the three choppers that crashed on Mt. Kenya last week were yesterday laid to rest in different parts of the country even as controversy continued to shroud the calamity. The mood was sombre and tears of agony flowed even as words in praise of the fallen servicemen were said at different burial sites as the mourners paid last tributes to the victims.
In Arua, the air force commander, Lt. Gen. Jim Owoyesigire, again eulogised Capt. William Spear Letti as one of the most experienced and hardworking pilots in air force. But the burial was overshadowed by controversies over where exactly to lay the officer to rest. Two graves were dug, one at the home of his father and the other on his mother’s land.
The army finally relied on his will in which Capt. Letti had indicated that he would be buried at his mother’s place in Bunyu Village in Oluko Sub-county, Arua District. Gen. Elly Tumwine told mourners at the burial of Lt. Patrick Nahamya in Akakoma Village in Rushere Parish, Kensunga Nyabushozi, that incidents like plane crash should not scare parents from sending their sons and daughters to join the army.
US warns against political interference in Somalia
22 Aug – Source: Gulf Today – 187 words
Washington:The White House has warned that it would not tolerate any obstruction of war-torn Somalia’s political process, hailing the swearing-in of a new parliament as an “important milestone” for the nation. “The United States welcomes convening of Somalia’s new federal parliament,” White House spokesman Jay Carney said. Local media said 211 of 275 lawmakers had so far been named.
Carney said Washington urged “those remaining Somali communities that have not yet nominated their members of parliament to do so with urgency.” “We look forward to parliament expeditiously completing all remaining tasks,” the White House press secretary said. The body has yet to choose a speaker, and then must elect a new president.
The US warned it would not accept any interference in the creation of a new government in Somalia, which has not had a stable central government since the 1991 ouster of dictator Mohamed Siad Barre, which sparked two decades of chaos. The swearing-in, held on the tarmac of the airport in the capital Mogadishu, was the culmination of a UN-backed process in which lawmakers were chosen by a group of 135 traditional elders.
Ethiopia’s late leader Meles returns home
22 Aug – Source: Daily Nation – 945 Words
Thousands of mourning Ethiopians turned out Wednesday as Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi’s body arrived at Addis Ababa airport following his death in a Brussels hospital at the aged of 57.
A military band played as the coffin, draped in an Ethiopian flag, was taken from the Ethiopian Airlines flight, a ceremony also attended by political, military and religious leaders as well as diplomats.
Deputy Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn, 47, who has also been foreign minister since 2010, will take over interim power, government spokesman Bereket Simon said. Meles died overnight Monday to Tuesday following a long illness. His wife Azeb Mesfin, dressed in black, was seen leaving the plane.
INTERNATIONAL MEDIA
Death of Ethiopia’s Meles Zenawi likely to affect conflicts in Somalia, Sudan
21 Aug – Source: Mc Clatchy – 632 Words
Ethiopian leader Meles Zenawi, who during 21 years of repressive rule transformed his nation into a regional powerhouse, has died of an unspecified illness, depriving the United States of a key ally in the battle against al Qaeda-affiliated rebels in Somalia.
News of Meles’ death in Brussels late Monday broke here early Tuesday after weeks of rumors surrounding the 57-year-old prime minister’s prolonged absence, including persistent conspiracy theories that he had already died.
His ruling party moved quickly to quash speculation of an internal power struggle over who would succeed him, and the capital remained calm, if subdued. Government spokesman Bereket Simon said Meles’ deputy prime minister, Hailemariam Desalegn, would serve as the country’s leader until 2015 elections.
Meles’ Tigray rebel movement took power in 1991 from what had been a Soviet-backed regime. Over the next two decades, Meles aligned his country with the United States and became a major influence in the volatile Horn of Africa and the wider African continent as well. The African Union is headquartered in Addis Ababa, and the capital under Meles became a hub for conferences and events made possible by a Chinese-fueled, state-led construction boom.
His death is likely to have an immediate impact on conflicts in Somalia and between Sudan and South Sudan, both ongoing crises that are near the top of U.S. policy priorities in Africa.
Somali PM Plans to Focus on Economy to Rebuild Nation
21 Aug – Source: Bloomberg/Business Week – 831 Words
Somalia’s new government will focus on the economy as it seeks to rebuild a nation shattered by two decades of war, Prime Minister Abdiweli Mohamed Ali said. The country is in the final stages of selecting a two-tier parliament, Ali, who is a candidate to become president, said in an interview in Mogadishu, the capital, on Aug. 16. Lawmakers are scheduled to vote in a new president, though the process may be delayed because the vetting of parliamentarians has taken longer than expected, he said.
The elections are Somalia’s latest attempt to establish a functional central administration that collapsed when the former dictator Mohamed Siad Barre was ousted in 1991. The country has been mired in clan-based conflict and an insurgency led by al Qaeda-linked militants ever since. The lack of security has allowed piracy and hostage-taking to flourish, fueled by criminals seeking ransoms.
Attacks by pirates in 2011 cost the shipping industry and governments $6.9 billion, according to the Colorado-based One Earth Future Foundation. “There’s a great deal of unemployment here, that’s why the youth are taking their luck to the high seas,” Ali said. “We need a paradigm shift, a new way of thinking, and a sound, tangible plan for competing in the global market place in the near future.”
SOCIAL MEDIA
CULTURE / OPINION / EDITORIAL / ANALYSIS / BLOGS/ DISCUSSION BOARDS
“A technical committee weeded out about 70 candidates for their links to warlords and for being associated with past violence or crime. Interestingly, under pressure from the international community, the new parliament also includes several women lawmakers. Even the provisional constitution now has a provision guaranteeing political rights for women.”
A new era in Somalia
22 Aug – Source: Khaleej Times – 445 Words
It was indeed a historic day in Mogadishu, the capital of war-torn Somalia, on Monday, when over 200 members of a new parliament were sworn in by the country’s chief justice in a makeshift premise near the heavily-guarded airport zone, facing the quiet waters of the Indian Ocean.
The ceremony was held under the glare of the headlights of SUVs, as thousands of troops of the African Union Force, kept a wary eye on the proceedings and preventing possible attacks.
The event also brought an end to the tumultuous term of the Transitional Federal Government (TFG), which ruled the war-torn country over the last eight years. Hopefully, it should bring much-needed peace and stability to a nation that has been racked by violence for the past two decades, ever since the toppling of former dictator Mohamed Siad Barre.
“At this stage the ball is in the court of the Somalis and their leaders. AMISOM can only do so much. The Somalis must seize this moment and fix their broken country or live to regret another opportunity lost.”
Somalia must seize this great moment
21 Aug – Source: Observer – 343 Words
Monday, August 20, was a historical day in Somalia. It was the day the political life of the Sharif Sheikh Ahmed led Transitional Federal Government (TGF), which has been running the war-torn country over the last couple of years, expired.
It was also the day when a new national assembly of 275 members was inaugurated. This assembly, selected by clan leaders, is supposed to usher in a new phase of the transition to normalcy in Somalia by electing a new president.
Due to logistical challenges that were not entirely unexpected, the election of a new president was postponed but the democratic process remains on course nevertheless.
“The news of Ethiopian Meles Zenawi’s death may have eclipsed the inauguration of Somalia’s new parliament – an event the UN has called a ‘watershed moment’ in Somalia’s history. But with political and security challenges still unaddressed in Somalia, the end of the transition may turn out to be forgettable for other reasons too.”
When History is Not Made: The End of Somalia’s Transition
21 Aug – Source: RUSI Journal – 1288 Words
It is being called a time of change in Somalia. For so long the country has been appended with the words ‘world’s most failed state’. Now, there is optimism – both from within and without the country – that the years of state failure are over.
Only a few weeks ago, Mogadishu residents commemorated a year of relative peace and stability, the first in a long time. Twelve months since al Shabaab’s withdrawal, the wave of reconstruction reshaping the battle-scarred capital has challenged the image of Mogadishu as a place of violence, poverty and despair.
As Susan Schulman’s photo essay in this month’s RUSI Journal shows, Somalia’s business community – a canary for stability – has set its mind on transforming the city. New hotels and restaurants are opening on the shorefront; there is street lighting courtesy of donor-funded solar cells and private generators; Bakara market, formerly the seat of al Shabaab, is abuzz with the sounds of everyday life.
Top tweets
@AC_Rader Great photos of #Somalia parliament inaug but public engagement still missing. Building popular legit critical now http://bit.ly/O3sTXk.
@AbukarArman #Somalia: Meles’ death certainly impacts the political dynamic of the region. Whether positively or negatively depend on number of factors.
@Moha_SB In the harsh ecological climate of Somalia, camels provide #Somali pastoralist with a source of food and transportation http://pic.twitter.com/
@FreelanceJRNLST #US, #EU, #Somali envoys meet president #Sharif in #Aaden Adde Airport, #Mogadishu. meeting aim 2 review #TSC decisions against warlords.
@SomaliaNewsroom Somalia: #Shabaab move Sh. H. Turki from Kismayo 2 Barawe after threat from Madobe’s fellow Ogaden fighters http://bit.ly/NAwKbE.
@UNPOSomalia #UNSG Ban ki-Moon encourages new #Somali parliamentarians to urgently work on electoral preparations. Read more: http://bit.ly/QVj0Yu #UNPOS.
Image of the day
Military officers carry of the coffin of Meles Zenawi at Bole International International Airport in Addis Ababa on August 21, 2012. Photo: AFP.