February 7, 2013 | Daily Monitoring Report.
Egyptian president calls on Arab countries to support reconstruction in Somalia
07 Feb- Source: Bedweyn News/RBC/Alsahid- 95 words
Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi called on Arab countries to contribute to the reconstruction of Somalia, which has formed the official government last year.
President Morsi said on his Twitter “with the end of the transitional period in Somalia and the election of president Hassan Sheikh Mohamud, we must support the efforts of reconstruction of this brotherly country.”
The Egyptian president’s call on Arab countries to support the reconstruction efforts in Somalia came at the time of being in Islamic Cairo summit.
Somali President Hassan Sheikh Mahmud participates at Islamic summit in Cairo.
Key Headlines
- Egyptian president calls on Arab countries to support reconstruction in Somalia (Bedweyn News/RBC/Alsahid)
- EU concerns for women’ rights and press freedom in Somalia (Neweurope)
- Turkey extends anti-piracy operation off Somalia (Radio Risaala)
- Forex dealers arrested in Jowhar for “fake notes” (Radio Bar-kulan)
- Mogadishu offers cash for info on al Shabaab (Africa Review)
- Kenya: Security beefed up as Muslim faithful celebrate birth of Prophet Mohammed (Daily Nation)
- UN official condemns Somalia rape verdict (Aljazeera)
- Firms should count the cost of piracy (scoop)
SOMALI MEDIA
Egyptian president calls on Arab countries to support reconstruction in Somalia
07 Feb- Source: Bedweyn News/RBC/Alsahid- 95 words
Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi called on Arab countries to contribute to the reconstruction of Somalia, which has formed the official government last year.
President Morsi said on his Twitter “with the end of the transitional period in Somalia and the election of president Hassan Sheikh Mohamud, we must support the efforts of reconstruction of this brotherly country.”
The Egyptian president’s call on Arab countries to support the reconstruction efforts in Somalia came at the time of being in Islamic Cairo summit.
Somali President Hassan Sheikh Mahmud participates at Islamic summit in Cairo.
Turkey extends anti-piracy operation off Somalia
07 Feb- Source: Radio Risaala- 94 words
Turkish Parliament has approved a resolution that extends the period of operation for the Turkish Naval Forces fighting piracy off the Somalia coast. With this new resolution the government will now have the opportunity to extend operations until Feb. 10, 2014.
Naval Forces operate as part of the counter-piracy international task force CTF 151 established in January 2009 to combat piracy in the Gulf of Aden and the Indian Ocean after a wave of hijackings occurred in the region. It was launched by the United States as an international effort specifically for counter-piracy operations.
Forex dealers arrested in Jowhar for “fake notes”
07 Feb- Source: Radio Bar-kulan- 129 words
Security forces in Jowhar town on Wednesday arrested three money changers for allegedly smuggling and circulating fake banknotes into the market.
The trio were picked from their workplace in Howl-wadaag market and are being held in the area central police station, according a local official Mohamed Mohamoud.
Mohamoud said the forex dealers were found handling fake notes which he did not specify after security officers conducted an operation in the market.
He warned all dealers in the town and local business operators against smuggling counterfeit money into the market, adding that anybody found handling fake money risks spending five months behind bars.
He said the money will cause inflation in the area if allowed to enter the market, hence raising the price of foodstuffs and other commodities.
Ambassador James Swan: Let Us Work Together to End Tolerance of Female Genital Mutilation
06 Feb- Source: Mareeg Online/Shabelle- 834 words
Today, on the tenth anniversary of the International Day of Zero Tolerance for Female Genital Mutilation (FGM), the U.S. government stands in solidarity with the four African first ladies who first declared this Day on February 6, 2003, with people around the world, and with those in Somalia who are working together to help end female genital mutilation/cutting (FGM/C).
FGM/C is a procedure that involves partial or total removal of the external female genitalia. The practice is often performed by untrained practitioners, without anesthesia, and uses instruments such as broken glass, tin lids, scissors, or unsterilized razors. In addition to causing intense pain and psychological trauma, the procedure poses severe short- and long-term health risks, including hemorrhage, infection, and increased risk of HIV transmission, birth complications, and even death. In the places where FGM/C is most prevalent, it is usually accepted as a rite of passage rather than as the harmful traditional practice and human rights abuse that it is.
As then U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton noted, “We cannot excuse this as a cultural tradition… We cannot excuse it as a private matter because it has very broad public implications… And as we think about the rights of young girls to be free from both physical and mental violence, we can understand why this is such an important issue that deserves attention from the United States Congress and from leaders across the globe.”
REGIONAL MEDIA
Kenya: Security beefed up as Muslim faithful celebrate birth of Prophet Mohammed
07 Feb- Source: Daily Nation – 311 words
Security has been beefed up in Lamu during the Maulidi annual festival marked in commemoration of the birth of Prophet Mohammed.
The island’s county commissioner, Mr Steve Ikua, said about 30,000 local and foreign Muslims were expected on the archipelago for the celebrations and security had to be beefed up to prevent cases of insecurity.
“Even though Lamu has had its share of insecurity issues, we are over that now. The island is more secure and I invite revellers to come,” he said.
More General Service Unit, Rapid Response Force, Kenya Navy, administration and regular police officers had been dispatched to the area given that the Kenya Defence Forces’ on al Shabaab militants in neighbouring Somalia was ongoing, he said.
Mogadishu offers cash for info on al Shabaab
06 Feb- Source: Africa Review- 158 words
The Somali Government will reward $5,000 to anybody volunteering information on the operations of al Shabaab, a minister has announced.
Interior and National Security minister Abdikarim Hussein Guled promised to protect every source of information on the radical Islamist group.
Said Mr Guled: “We want collaboration from the public.”
“We shall keep the identity of the informants strictly secret for security reasons,” he stated.
“Information about bomb making sites or hiding places of those who engage in assassinations are important to us,” he added.
In the past, the Somali Government sought information relating to the hiding places of al Shabaab militants or where they kept their weapons.
UN official condemns Somalia rape verdict
06 Feb- Source: Aljazeera- 414 words
The UN’s top human rights official has condemned the trial and sentencing of a Somali journalist, and the alleged rape victim he interviewed, as “deeply disturbing” and a blow to “the fight against impunity” in rape cases.
The journalist, Abdiaziz Abdinur Ibrahim, and the victim, an unidentified 27-year-old woman, were both sentenced on Tuesday to one year in prison. They were charged with making false accusations and “insulting a government body.”
“This is a terrible blow to freedom of expression in a country where independent journalists have also been regularly targeted and killed,” Navi Pillay, the UN high commissioner for human rights, said in a statement on Wednesday.
“I am very concerned about the impact the penalization of the woman alleging rape could have in the fight against impunity in sexual violence cases, especially given the reports of increasing sexual violence in Somalia.”
Human rights groups have described the trial as politically motivated, accusing the court of covering up rampant sexual abuse of women by the Somali security forces.
INTERNATIONAL MEDIA
EU concerns for women’ rights and press freedom in Somalia
07 Feb- Source: Neweurope- 288 words
Somali court finds guilty a woman who said that she had been raped by soldiers and a journalist who interviewed her. According to Reuters, Judge Ahmed Aden said in court that “they fabricated a story to hurt the government”. The High Representative during her meeting with President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud of Somalia, in Brussels, expressed her concerns on the conviction of Somali journalist and the alleged rape victim. Women’s rights and press freedom are essential elements for democracy, said Ashton.
A Somali judge sent to prison for one year Luul Ali Osman, 27, and freelance journalist Abdiaziz Abdinur. Osman, her husband and Abdinur were accused for insulting a government body, making false accusations, and seeking to profit from the allegations. Reuters reports that during the trial, the Judge refused to hear the three witnesses who were there to testify in defense of the woman and the journalist. The National Union of Somali Journalists condemned Court’s sentence and said that the trial was an attack on press freedom.
Firms should count the cost of piracy
07 Feb- Source: scoop- 815 words
The cost of maritime piracy is substantial and can cause significant damage to a company’s bottom line. According to comments recently made by Russian Navy Rear Admiral Vasily Lyashok, Somali pirates have become more flexible, adaptable and better organized and have more modern weapons and communications. And with costs including ransoms, insurance premiums, re-routing ships away from piracy risk zones, fuel costs associated with increasing speeds at which vessels transit, and the cost of naval forces, piracy is a concern that companies should pay close attention to, according to maritime security firm Typhon.
There is also the human cost of piracy, and while it is not quantifiable in economic terms, it is nonetheless a high cost, with crew being taken hostage, some killed, some being held for up to eighteen months, and the associated trauma.
Typhon is due to launch its marine convoy protection service this year. The company’s offering involves accompanying ship operators in transit through piracy hotspots such as the Gulf of Aden, the Gulf of Guinea, the Arabian Sea and the Indian Ocean.
According to studies quantifying the cost of piracy conducted by One Earth Future (OEF) Foundation, piracy is costing the global economy between $7-12 billion per year, and the global cost of Somali piracy is between $6.6 and $6.9 billion per year.
SOCIAL MEDIA
CULTURE / OPINION / EDITORIAL / ANALYSIS / BLOGS/ DISCUSSION BOARDS
“Good news for all you folk who like your social networks a little less vanilla: after an enforced absence, al Shabaab has returned to Twitter, and is already back to its usual, combative form. It may be losing the war on the ground, but the propaganda battle is far from over.”
‘Enter Jihadnalism!’: Al Shabaab returns from social media exile
07 Feb- Source: Daily Marverick-833 Words
It was only a matter of time, really, before al Shabaab took its Twitter vitriol a few steps too far, and that time was last month. France had just botched an attempt to rescue French national Dennis Allex, a security consultant (some say spy) who had been an al Shabaab hostage for three years. Two commandos were killed during the raid, and al Shabaab took great joy in publicising their deaths in 140 characters or less – Twitpic attached, of course.
“Francois Hollande… was it worth it?” asked @HSMpress, with a photo of one of the dead commandos, wounds visible, surrounded by weapons and ammunition. The handle comes from the group’s formal name – Harakat al Shabaab al Mujahideen (HSM), or Movement of the Holy Warrior Youth – and had attracted over 21,000 followers, many of whom were journalists and researchers eager for any clue about the inner working of the impenetrable organisation.
Shortly after this, @HSMpress threatened to kill Kenyan hostages unless Kenya and Uganda released all Muslim prisoners held on terrorism charges. “Kenyan government has 3 weeks, starting midnight 24/01/2013 to respond to the demands of HSM if the prisoners are to remain alive.”
This was all too much for Twitter, which wasted no time in suspending the account, saying it violated the Twitter usage policy. It did: the Twitter Rules state quite clearly that “You may not publish or post direct, specific threats of violence against others.” Not that you can blame al Shabaab for violating these – they claim the only rules they follow come from Islamic Sharia law, which covers many things but unfortunately not Twitter guidelines.
But al Shabaab’s social media exile came to an end this week with the group taking the expedient route of setting up a different account, under a not so different name. @HSMpress1 began life with an Arabic blessing, just like its predecessor, before embarking on a spirited attack against the “propaganda” and “throttling of the truth” that precipitated the closure of the previous account.
“Regardless of the facts of this particular case, by criminalizing women who allege they have been raped, the nascent Somali government has reinforced the culture of silence and stigma surrounding sexual violence, and emboldened perpetrators and would-be perpetrators who commit this crime with impunity and the knowledge that they will be protected by the inaction of the State and the shame of their victims.”
Go After the Rapists in Somalia, Not Their Victims
06 Feb- Source: Huffington Post-639 Words
On Jan. 10, 2013, Somali police detained a journalist after he interviewed a woman who reported she was raped by members of the Somali security forces some months earlier. The alleged rape victim was also detained. Thousands of women are raped every day in the context of conflict, but very few find the courage to come forward as this woman did. Instead of investigating those who allegedly assaulted her, it is the woman and the journalist who tried to tell her story who have been prosecuted and sentenced to prison terms in Somalia. This is completely unacceptable.
Numerous stories have been written about this rape case that allegedly began in a camp for internally displaced persons outside Mogadishu. The reporter had yet to publish the interview in any media outlet before his arrest, but the Government of Somalia contends that the woman fabricated her story and that she was offered money in an effort to tarnish its reputation. They base this partially on the fact that the woman, under interrogation when initially in custody, recanted her story. She was released, but it is telling that despite the hostile and conservative environment in which she found herself, she immediately resurfaced her case with the Attorney General upon her release, stating that she recanted only because she was threatened while in custody.
A judge in Mogadishu has now sentenced the woman to one year in prison for insulting a government body, inducing false evidence, simulating a criminal offense and making a false accusation. The journalist has also been given a one-year prison sentence for insulting a government body and inducing the woman to give false evidence. The woman’s husband and two intermediaries were released.
Top tweets
@LailaInNairobi PHOTO: #Somali cartoonist mocks the court case & hearing that sentenced journalist and alleged rape victim to prison pic.twitter.com/DN8l5Cj2
@Hamza_Africa “It is better to have no news than to have news you not sure of” Mural on the wall of Dalsan Radio. #Mogadishu #Somalia pic.twitter.com/Nx4IVrLj
@AmbassadorRice #Somalia’s future progress toward peace and stabilization begins with respect for human rights, justice & freedom of the press.
@amisomsomalia #AMISOM‘s #UPDF provides free clinics during #TareheSita celebrations in #Mogadishu http://on.fb.me/XV1oPI #Somalia
@tobinbjones An SNA soldier reassures a patient just before she has a rotten tooth removed in Mogadishu. #Mogadishu pic.twitter.com/zECMWEhd
Image of the day
Somalia’s President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud attends the opening ceremony of the Organisation of Islamic Co-Operation (OIC) in Cairo, Egypt on February 6, 2013.Photo: Somali PPS