June 21, 2013 | Daily Monitoring Report.
Security operations underway in Mogadishu
21 Jun- Source: Radio Shabelle- 142 words
Security operations conducted by federal government troops is currently under way in Mogadishu. This follows Wednesday’s attacks on UNDP offices in Mogadishu. Vehicles using major roads in the city are stopped by government troops and a thorough search follows, pedestrians are not either spared as they are ordered to stop and a security check up follows.
A local who contacted Shabelle media station in Mogadishu expressed his anger towards the government and urged the Somali leaders to sack top security officials’. ‘’ they only wait for explosions to occur or when al Shabaab attacks. That’s when they (government) starts conducting security operations and arrest innocent school children’’ said the local.
Many youths have been arrested but the exact number has not yet been released by the government as for now. House to house operations are frequently done by government troops every night.
Key Headlines
- Security operations underway in Mogadishu (Radio Shabelle)
- AMISOM begins 4-day capacity building workshop for Somali legislators (AMISOM)
- Somaliland commemorates world refugee day (Somaliland Informer/Horn Cable TV)
- Adado displaced ‘forgotten’ (Radio Ergo)
- Threat level was high before UN attack in Somalia (Washington post/AP)
- Puntland ministers hold anti-illegal migration event in Bossaso (Garowe Online)
- Polio vaccinations for 120000 children in Gedo (Radio Ergo)
- Kenya Police impound truck loaded with bomb-making explosives (KBC/Star)
- Kenya plans to fast-track repatriation of Somali refugees (China Daily/Xinhua)
- Concerns rise about suicides in Kenyan refugee camps (Sabahi Online)
- Somalia’s al Shabaab still a powerful force (Independent Online/ Sapa-AFP)
- Somalia introduces free mobile banking services (CCTV Africa)
PRESS STATEMENT
AMISOM begins 4-day capacity building workshop for Somali legislators
20 Jun- Source: AMISOM- 246 words
A workshop on local administration, security and governance for Somali legislators today kicked off in Mogadishu, Somalia.
The 4-day workshop organized by AMISOM’s Political Unit was officially opened by the AU Special Representative for Somalia, Ambassador Mahamat Saleh Annadif.
Amb. Annadif called for a moment of silence to be observed at the onset of the ceremony in honour of the victims of yesterday’s terror attack on the United Nations Common Compound.
The workshop will be attended by members of parliament from the Committee on National Security, Interior and Governance, their administrative staff and other members of the House. It is intended to give the committee members an overview of the key concepts to enhance their oversight role.
As part of AMISOM’s mandate to assist the Federal Government of Somalia in establishing effective and legitimate governance, this workshop will provide technical knowhow to the legislators as they will be taken through the concepts of national security, local administration and federalism drawing from lessons learnt and global best practices.
Ambassador Mahamat Saleh Annadif reiterated AMISOM’s commitment to the legislators as they deal with the daunting task of establishing parliament as an effective arm of the government.
“Parliament also known as the House of the People and its members have a critical role to play in Somalia to consolidate the political and security gains made so far through legislation and oversight of government policies, in Somalia’s quest for peace and stability,” said Ambassador Annadif. The workshop will be facilitated by local and regional experts.
SOMALI MEDIA
Security operations underway in Mogadishu
21 Jun- Source: Radio Shabelle- 142 words
Security operations conducted by federal government troops is currently under way in Mogadishu. This follows Wednesday’s attacks on UNDP offices in Mogadishu. Vehicles using major roads in the city are stopped by government troops and a thorough search follows, pedestrians are not either spared as they are ordered to stop and a security check up follows.
A local who contacted Shabelle media station in Mogadishu expressed his anger towards the government and urged the Somali leaders to sack top security officials’. ‘’ they only wait for explosions to occur or when al Shabaab attacks. That’s when they (government) starts conducting security operations and arrest innocent school children’’ said the local.
Many youths have been arrested but the exact number has not yet been released by the government as for now. House to house operations are frequently done by government troops every night.
Somaliland commemorates world refugee day
21 Jun- Source: Somaliland Informer/Horn Cable TV- 153 words
Somaliland has commemorated World Refugee Day that took place in Hargeisa on Thursday. The event is celebrated every year on the 20th June after the UNHCR designated it as the commemoration of World Refugee Day across the World.
Well and highly organized ceremony marking the event was held at Mansoor hotel and was attended by government officials as well as officials from the international organizations based in Somaliland. Mr. Marcos has spoken on behalf of UNHCR talked about the history of World refugee day. He stressed that children refugees must be provided the necessary needs for their future lie be it education and healthcare.
Director General of Justice Ministry Mr. Galaydh and the director in charge of refugees in the rehabilitation ministry Mr. Abdi Ahmed made speeches and told that Somaliland provided the respect refugees in her country deserve. They appealed that they should abide by the laws in the country in return.
Adado displaced ‘forgotten’
21 Jun- Source: Radio Ergo- 183 words
About 150 IDP families living in a camp called Iftiin, on the eastern side of Adado town in Galgadud region, say their temporary shelters have been destroyed by recent rains and they have received no help.
Halima Yusuf Wehliye, one of the residents of the camp, told Radio Ergo that she has experienced ongoing problem in the last few months, with no waterproof sheeting to stop the rain leaking in to her hut. She has been forced to share a hut made of cardboard boxes, plastic bags, grass and sticks.
Rains have also destroyed the latrines in the camp, resulting in highly unsanitary conditions, according to another IDP Salado Ahmed Mahmud.
The families have been in this camp for the past two years, brought together by different circumstances. Noor Osman, an IDP, appealed to humanitarian agencies and the Somali public to assist them with food and to solve the pitiful shelter conditions they are facing.
Among these IDP families are pastoralists impoverished by the 2011 droughts and others displaced by conflict. They have received no humanitarian assistance since that time.
Puntland ministers hold anti-illegal migration event in Bossaso
20 Jun- Source: Garowe Online- 272 words
The Ministry of Sports, Labour and Youth held an anti-illegal migration event in Bossaso on Thursday discussing the tribulations of illegal migration, Garowe Online reports. The event held in Bossaso capital of Bari region, had hundreds of youth in attendance and guest speakers which included Governor of Bari region Abdisamad Mohamed Galan, Bossaso Mayor Hassan Abdullah Hassan and Deputy Youth Minister Saeed Dahir Qodah. Religious elders and traditional elders were also in attendance at Thursday’s publicized event. Bari region Director of Youth and Sports, Mustafe Majacase who spoke at the event warned youth about the risks of illegal migration.
Polio vaccinations for 120,000 children in Gedo
21 Jun- Source: Radio Ergo- 223 words
World Health Organization (WHO) and local health workers in Gedo have reported vaccinating 120,000 children aged 10 and over in the past week. The exercise has been carried out in all divisions in the districts of: Garbaharey, Elwaq, Dolo, Beletweyne, Beledhawo, and Geedweyn.
WHO’s Gedo office coordinator, Mohamed Sheikh Ali, told Radio Ergo that the exercise in Gedo was part of the larger national polio eradication campaign, triggered by the discovery of 19 polio cases in regions in southern Somalia.
Mohamed Sheikh Ali said they were simultaneously carrying out an awareness campaign targeting mothers on hygiene and measles, as well as sensitizing people about polio to involve them in surveillance to ensure effective eradication of polio from the country.
Asha Mohamed, a mother of three living in Luq district, brought her children for polio vaccination. She urged other mothers to bring their children for vaccination, to prevent them from infection. Asha said conflict and the displacement that plagued the region for so long had caused many families to miss out on the routine child vaccinations.
The polio vaccination campaign in Gedo region, jointly supported by WHO and UNICEF, is being executed by about 500 volunteers. It is the fourth time in six months that polio vaccinations are being carried out in most districts of Gedo region.
REGIONAL MEDIA
Kenya Police impound truck loaded with bomb-making explosives
21 Jun- Source: KBC/Star/ Bernama – 277 words
Administration policemen manning a checkpoint along the Dadajabula-Dif Road in Wajir County have impounded a lorry loaded with over 27 tonnes of assorted bomb making chemicals believed to be destined for the Al-Shabaab terror group in Somalia.
Wajir County Commissioner Naftali Mung’athia said the truck which was ferrying the chemicals from Mombasa was loaded with 7000kgs of sodium sulphate, 7000kgs of basic chromium sulphate, 3000kgs of sodium formate, 3000kgs of sodium bicarbonate, 2500kgs of soda ash and 5000kgs of microzyme-P.
“If these materials managed to cross over into Somalia, it would have dealt a serious blow to our efforts to curb the rising al Shabaab attacks within our borders as the explosives made from these, would have been used against our KDF forces in Somalia and others would have been brought into our country by these terrorists to wreck havoc,” Mung’athia said.
Dedicated centres needed to rehabilitate al Shabaab defectors effectively
20 June- Source: Sabahi Online-516 Words
The Djiboutian contingent of the African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM) has reported difficulties in training and rehabilitating the numerous al Shabaab fighters who have defected to the Somali government in the past few years.
“About 100 al Shabaab members have surrendered [in Hiran] and about 60% of them have joined the new Somali army by going through the Eel Jaale AMISOM technical and tactical training centre in Beledweyne, where they become soldiers of the new Somali army,” said Colonel Osman Doubad, commander of Djiboutian troops in Beledweyne.
Djiboutian troops in Beledweyne are tasked with training these former militants for the Somali army after conducting a thorough investigation to determine whether they are loyal and fit for service.
Concerns rise about suicides in Kenyan refugee camps
20 Jun- Source: Sabahi Online- 713 words
Ali Hassan Ali, a Somali living at the Dadaab refugee complex in north-eastern Kenya, says he is grieving the fresh suicide of an Ethiopian friend and long-time campmate. Every day for the past five years, Ali, 35, said he and his friend Abdi Aden Hussein would go together to inspect a notice board listing the names of refugees approved for resettlement. Both men were certain that one day their applications for resettlement would go through, Ali said, but Hussein’s application ultimately got rejected.
INTERNATIONAL MEDIA
Threat level was high before UN attack in Somalia
21 Jun- Source: Washington post/AP- 445 words
During the years when Mogadishu resembled one big battlefield, UN and other aid workers trying to improve Somalia often lived in the comfortable, modern and largely safe capital of neighboring Kenya.
As security improved in Mogadishu in the past two years and the lives of Somalis returned to a semblance of normal, those jobs began shifting from Nairobi back to Mogadishu.
On Wednesday, a truck bomb and gunfire attack by al Shabaab, a militant group, on the main United Nations compound in Mogadishu left eight U.N. employees and five Somali civilians dead, showing just how dangerous that shift has been.
A U.N. official said Thursday that in the weeks preceding the attack, the threat level had been elevated around Mogadishu’s airport, the heart of military and diplomatic efforts in the city. The militant attack took place across the street.
Kenya plans to fast-track repatriation of Somali refugees
20 Jun- Source: China Daily / Xinhua- 404 words
The Kenyan government said Thursday it’s finalizing the establishment of legal and administrative structures to facilitate smooth and dignified repatriation of Somali refugees.
Commissioner for Refugees, Badu Katelo said the repatriation of Somali refugees has been prioritized by the government with the resumption of peace and stability in the Horn of Africa State after two decades of turmoil.
“We are looking for durable solution to the refugee crises in the country including their safe return to their homeland. Kenya at this juncture is working with the Somali government and UN refugee agency to establish modalities of repatriating refugees,” Katelo told Xinhua on the sidelines of World Refugee Day celebration in Nairobi.
Somalia’s al Shabaab still a powerful force
20 Jun- Source: Independent Online/ Sapa-AFP – 454 words
Somalia’s al Qaeda linked al Shabaab insurgents have been forced from almost all key towns by African Union forces, fighting alongside Somali government troops and other militia opposed to the extremists.
But the fighters remain a powerful force in Somalia, demonstrating their ability to strike at the heart of the most secure areas in the country by their brazen daylight attack on a key United Nations compound on Wednesday.
The seven-man suicide commando, first using car bombs and suicide attacks to blast their way into the compound before starting a gun battle to the death, followed similar bloody tactics used in April, when they attacked a Mogadishu court house. The coordinated attack on the UN killed 11, while 34 died in the raid on the courthouse.
No stability in sight for Somalia
20 June- Source: Deutsche Welle-705 Words
The international community had hoped that Somalia would soon stabilize. But the recent attack on a UN compound shows that the security situation is still precarious and the terrorist militia al Shabaab is still active.
In early May this year, the United Nations passed a resolution to support Somalia by sending in up to 200 experts to advise the government and local authorities. The aim was to stabilize the security situation in the country. At the time, security expert Ahmed Abdi Hassan, a former senior official with the national security forces, expressed the hope that “the resolution would help the Somali government to improve its security situation.”
But the United Nations’ additional forces could not prevent Wednesday’s (19.06.2013) suicide bombing at the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) building in the Somali capital, Mogadishu that killed 15 people, including four foreign nationals.
South African arms manufacturer Denel confirmed that two of its employees were killed in the attack. Via Twitter, al Shabaab claimed responsibility for the attack. In an interview with the German Press Agency (dpa), the newly appointed UN Special Envoy to Somalia, Nicholas Kay, condemned the attack as a “desperate attempt to derail Somalia from its course towards reconstruction and peace.”
Somalia introduces free mobile banking services
20 June- Source: CCTV Africa- 1:53mins
Mobile banking is becoming very popular in Somalia, as the country works to expand its banking network. And mobile phone service providers in the Horn of Africa country have now introduced a free mobile banking service, to improve access and transaction security for users, as CCTV’s Mohammed Hirmoge, now reports.
SOCIAL MEDIA
CULTURE / OPINION / EDITORIAL / ANALYSIS / BLOGS/ DISCUSSION BOARDS
“The bitter experience of the Somalis from dysfunctional and often predatory ‘central governments’ instilled them with profound suspicion of the state’s ‘monopoly on the means of violence’. History has it that the state has long being used as a tool to dominate and maltreat political opponents in Somalia.”
SOMALIA: Why President Hassan’s unspoken strategies to revive a ‘centralised government’ in Somalia is an act of futile.
20 June- Source: Raxanreeb-1406 Words
For a variety of reasons, it is an uphill task to revive the collapsed state of Somalia. Yet, the current Federal Government of Somalia (SFG) stood the best prospect for restoring the failed political institutions of Somalia. President Hassan got a golden opportunity to pull this war-torn nation out of the black hole into which it has fallen in 1991. He was given a chance to turn the page on the past and start writing history in a new chapter.
I am afraid President Hassan squandered an opportunity to become a national icon. Remember how Nelson Mandela became a hero. Unlike the painful struggle of the South African’s great statesman, President Hassan – through luck and little efforts – met his ‘stroke of luck’ at the doorstep. But I think it takes more than mere luck to become a hero. It requires intrinsic heroic trait.
If you objectively appraise the opportunity given to President Hassan against his achievements, you will sadly conclude that the man is an underachiever. Let me refresh your memories. The successful closure of the protracted and painful transitional period to permanent Federal institutions has set off a spat of renewed hope, international attention and interest.
In memory of our colleagues who lost their lives in Somalia
20 June- UNDP Storify-45 Words
We are shocked and deeply saddened by the loss of colleagues during the attack on the United Nations compound in Somalia on June 19th. Our thoughts are with friends and families of the victims. We have brought together a selection of the heartfelt condolences here.
Top tweets@MattBryden Website describes @Abuamerican as leader of#Shabaab faction. No longer dependent on Roobow? Questionable #Somalia http://t.co/5KWZylzVsB @SomaliPM All our enemies know is killing – they even kill each other. Not much of an agenda for rebuilding #Somalia -‘http://bbc.in/19kUOuf @cctvnewsafrica Video: Mobile phone service providers in#Somalia introduce a free mobile banking service #BizAfricahttp://ow.ly/mehz8 @mhd_sheikh #Somali People were on the street at the#Mogadishu for Support Turkish PM #Erdogan And his gov.http://t.co/Q7hUMjtEU6 @Ahmt_Krs #Somalia @Faisalderi #Somalia Poverty and lack of education are obstacles for good citizenship. Is the key problem of Somalia a bad citizens or poor leaders? |
Image of the day
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Pall-bearers carry a coffin to a waiting ambulance during a repatriation ceremony on June 20, for one UN staff member and two UN contractors who lost their lives in Wednesday’s terrorist attack in Mogadishu, Somalia. Photo: AMISOM Facebook