July 17, 2013 | Morning Headlines.

Main Story

Somali government issues ultimatum for media stations

16 Jul – Source: Bar-kulan/Radio Mogadishu/Shabelle – 94 words

Somali Federal government has issued an ultimatum for all the media station based in the country to register. In a news conference held in Mogadishu, the Somali information minister Abdillahi Elmoge Hirsi has asked the media station in the country to register under the information ministry within 45 days. The minister underlined that the bill on Somali media was successfully passed, and will soon be taken to the national assembly. He added that his law will enable journalists know the rights of media in the country, as well as the government and citizens rights.

Key Headlines

Somali MPs using tampered constitution return draft bill to govt (Garowe Online)
Demining operation launched in Balanbale outskirts ( Bar-kulan)
Hundreds demonstrate in front of Kenyan embassy in Washington DC (Shabelle/ Radio Dalsan)
UN to be briefed on Somalia charcoal (Star News)
Somalia: From emergency assistance to livelihood support (ICRC )
West Africa gulf replacing Somalia as piracy hot spot (AP)
Police step up crackdown against illegal immigrants (Daily Nation)
Somali pirates a threat to SA: expert (IOL News )

SOMALI MEDIA

Somali government issues ultimatum for media stations

16 Jul – Source: Bar-kulan/Radio Mogadishu/Shabelle – 94 words

Somali MPs using tampered constitution, return draft bill to govt

16 Jul – Source: Garowe Online – 119 words

Somalia’s Federal Parliament sent a draft bill on Ombudsman back to Somali Ministry of Justice and Religious Affairs on Monday, Garowe Online reports. Before voting on the proposed plan, the chairman of Somalia’s Parliamentary Committee on Judiciary and Religious Affairs MP Adan Sidik read the points of the legislative plan to MPs and 106 MPs voted against it, out of 165 MPs present. Somali Parliament Deputy Speaker Jaylani Nur Ikar, who chaired Monday’s session in Mogadishu, told the media that the Somali Ministry of Justice and Religious Affairs’ the Ombudsman draft bill failed to be passed by the Somali MPs. “The Somali Federal Parliament sends this draft bill back to the Ministry for review and amendments,” said Mr. Nur.

Demining operation launched in Balanbale outskirts

16 Jul – Source: Bar-kulan – 112 words

Government administration in Balanbale district of Galgadud region, southern Somalia revealed that a demining operation has been conducted in the area for the first time in two decades. Balanbale civil affairs boss Rijal Ahmed Mohamed told Bar-kulan that district administration together with locals and an organization on demining activities launched the operation which is intended to eliminate remains of explosive materials in the war between Somalia and Ethiopia in 1980s. Rijal added that remnants of unexploded materials often damage civilians, causing death and disability of many. Locals of Balanbale and surrounding areas have cordially welcomed the demining excise, hoping the large-scale of problems caused by unexploded devices in the area will decrease.

Hundreds demonstrate in front of Kenyan embassy in Washington DC

16 Jul – Source: Shabelle/ Radio Dalsan – 92 words

The Somali Diaspora living in the United States of America protested in front of the Kenyan Embassy in Washington DC. The protests were against the recent atrocities committed by the Kenyan troops based in the lower Juba regions of Somalia including Kismayo. Anab Abdi Warsame who took part in the protests said that they were against the Kenyan oppression against the people of the lower Juba regions. She added that the human right groups stayed silent over the matter and the Kenyan troops were terrorizing the Somali civilians in Kismayo.

REGIONAL MEDIA

UN to be briefed on Somalia charcoal

16 Jul – Source: Star News – 186 words

THE UN Security Council will on Wednesday be briefed of the Somali monitoring report which blames Kenya Defence Forces of facilitating a banned multibillion charcoal export business in Kismayu port city. The report whose contents have been reported by Reuters will be tabled by Korean chair Kim Sook in New York. The report was due for presentation last Friday according to the UNSC programme. Resolution 2036 of 2012 imposed a ban on the direct or indirect import of charcoal from Somalia as one of the ways of financially crippling the al Shabaab militants who were running the port. “All member states shall take the necessary measures to prevent the direct or indirect import of charcoal from Somalia, whether or not such charcoal originated in Somalia. Somali authorities shall take the necessary measures to prevent the export of charcoal from Somalia,” it said. But the report which Sook will be presenting KDF of not only abetting the export business but also expanding it. It says KDF resorted to abetting the export business after the UNSC failed to lift the ban following a request by the African Union.

Police step up crackdown against illegal immigrants

16 Jul – Source: Daily Nation – 151 words

The government has intensified the crackdown against illegal immigrants in the country to address insecurity. The mop-up targets foreigners who lack proper documents in efforts to rid the country of “terrorists and their sympathisers”. Secretary to the Cabinet Francis Kimemia said the crackdown was among tasks the government had approved to address insecurity in the country. “We have directed mop-up of illegal immigrants immediately. We will find them and send them back to their country,” Mr Kimemia told the Nation. At the same time, Mr Kimemia warned Somali nationals, who hold valid documents, against engaging in the politics of their country since it was hindering the repatriation of refugees. “If they (Somali businessmen) are here legally, then they should desist from engaging in politics of their country. They are interfering with the stabilisation of that country,” he said. He said the government was also on the lookout for local drug barons.

INTERNATIONAL MEDIA

Somali pirates a threat to SA: expert

16 Jul – Source: IOL News – 127 words

It was only a matter of time before Somali-based pirates and al Qaeda made their way to South Africa, delegates at a maritime conference in Durban were told. Herman van Niekerk, operations director of Maritime Risk Solutions, a private maritime security company involved in anti-piracy operations, said this yesterday at a Maritime Counter-Piracy Offensive Masterclass. The conference was attended by anti-piracy experts, including delegates from Angola, Kenya, Ghana, Tanzania and Denmark. “No one knows how long it will take, but it is going to happen.” The masterclass, which aims to come up with anti-piracy solutions to send to the International Maritime Organisation, was told by counter-terrorism specialist, Dr. Denise Bjorkman, that the money generated from piracy was used to fund terrorism and that the terrorism link was evolving.

Somalia: From emergency assistance to livelihood support

16 Jul – Source: ICRC – 149 words

Hundreds of thousands of civilians in Somalia are struggling to overcome the effects of armed conflict and localized climatic shocks. The ICRC and the Somali Red Crescent Society are helping them to fend for themselves again. Over the last six months, many Somalis have been overcoming the effects of the major drought crisis of 2011-2012 and are on their way to earning a living without outside help. The ICRC and the Somali Red Crescent Society have been supporting them in these efforts, while also taking action to ensure that they have better access to water and health care. “Life is not easy; it is very hard to get necessities such as food, shelter and clothing,” said Daud Osman Shiil, from Tuulo Hiiran in the Hiiraan region. “We struggle to earn a living any way we can. Sometimes we sell firewood in the villages to make a few thousand shillings.”

West Africa gulf replacing Somalia as piracy hot spot

16 Jul – Source: AP – 186 words

Well-armed pirates are widening their area of operations and using new strategies in a “worrying surge” of attacks, kidnappings and armed robberies in West Africa’s oil-rich Gulf of Guinea, an international piracy monitoring agency said Monday. The London-based International Maritime Bureau published figures for the first six months of the year indicating that while piracy is down in the rest of the world, the Gulf of Guinea has overtaken Somalia as the world’s new hot spot. Piracy cost the region $2 billion last year, with some shipping companies avoiding ports in the danger zone, said Cameroonian professor Joseph Vincent Ntuda Ebode. Some experts are calling for a coalition of naval forces to patrol the strategic area, similar to the one that gets credit for the decreasing number of attacks off the coast of Somalia. The bureau’s report on Monday said the Gulf of Guinea this year suffered 31 actual and attempted attacks by pirates, including four ships hijacked. Nigeria had 22 reported attacks, up from six in all of 2011, it said. Somalia, in comparison, had four attacks, compared with 125 in 2011.

SOCIAL MEDIA

CULTURE / OPINION / EDITORIAL / ANALYSIS / BLOGS/ DISCUSSION BOARDS

“The Puntland Maritime Police Force (PMPF) is an important organisation in the fight against piracy in Somalia. We look forward to the adoption of the Somali Maritime Resource and Security Strategy, in which the PMPF will play an important role.”

Somali Piracy Interview

16 Jul : Source: Content for Reprint – 1208 Words

The Contact Group on Piracy off the Coast of Somalia (CGPCS) is an international forum composed of nations with an interest in combatting the pirate threat. Given the number of navies currently engaged in patrols in the Gulf of Aden, a means of coordinating policy and operations has become necessary to avoid wasted effort and mutual misunderstandings. The CGPCS consists of five working groups, dealing with naval cooperation, legal issues, self-defensive actions, public diplomacy and the flow of illegal funds. James Hughes, Chair of the Working Group on Naval Cooperation, was kind enough to grant us an interview.