July 18, 2013 | Daily Monitoring Report.
AMISOM condemns IED Attack in Kismayo
17 Jul – Source: AMISOM – 130 words
AMISOM strongly condemns today’s IED attacks in the southern Somali port city of Kismayo which injured AMISOM troops and Somali civilians.
The explosions happened between Kismayo town and Via Afmadhow junction as an AMISOM convoy was passing on its routine duties. Two Somali civilians as well as three AMISOM troops suffered injuries and are receiving treatment at AMISOM medical facility.
“We strongly condemn the cowardly attacks which have endangered the lives of the people of Kismayo. These attacks will not deter us in our efforts to protect and support the people of Somalia as they rebuild their country” said AMISOM force Commander Lt Gen Andrew Gutti.
AMISOM Force Commander reiterated the mission’s support to the Somali National Security Forces saying the two were working closely to improve security in Kismayo.
Key Headlines
- AMISOM condemns IED Attack in Kismayo (AMISOM)
- Somali Defense Minister meets with his Ethiopian counterpart (Somalia Today Online/ Radio Mogadishu)
- Banadir regional official killed in Mogadishu (Radio Mustaqbal/ Risaala/al Shahid)
- Turkey gives $1bn in humanitarian aid but global funding gap grows (Guardia)
- Elders condemn Puntland government for targeting civilians in Qardo (Horseed Media)
- Gunmen wound two Somali journalists: Union (Gulf News/AFP)
- Second phase of polio vaccination gets underway in Kismayo (Radio Ergo)
- Somalia is the first country to receive a three-year UN aid appeal (SOS)
- One killed four others wounded in Kismayo explosion (Bar-kulan)
- Barclays to close about 100 UK cash transfer business accounts (BBC)
PRESS RELEASE
AMISOM condemns IED Attack in Kismayo
17 Jul – Source: AMISOM – 130 words
AMISOM strongly condemns today’s IED attacks in the southern Somali port city of Kismayo which injured AMISOM troops and Somali civilians.
The explosions happened between Kismayo town and Via Afmadhow junction as an AMISOM convoy was passing on its routine duties. Two Somali civilians as well as three AMISOM troops suffered injuries and are receiving treatment at AMISOM medical facility.
“We strongly condemn the cowardly attacks which have endangered the lives of the people of Kismayo. These attacks will not deter us in our efforts to protect and support the people of Somalia as they rebuild their country” said AMISOM force Commander Lt Gen Andrew Gutti.
AMISOM Force Commander reiterated the mission’s support to the Somali National Security Forces saying the two were working closely to improve security in Kismayo.
SOMALI MEDIA
Somali Defense Minister meets with his Ethiopian counterpart
18 Jul – Source: Somalia Today Online/ Radio Mogadishu – 171 words
Somali Defense Minister Abdihakim Haji Mohamud Fiqi, who is in official visit to Ethiopia met Wednesday with his Ethiopian counterpart, who is also commander of the Ethiopian forces and discussed with the issue of the withdrawal of Ethiopian troops from many areas in southern Somalia.
According to some sources, the Ethiopian government is planning to remove its troops from the provinces of Bay, Gedo, Hiiraan and Galgudud. Somali Defense Minister said that he had talked with Ethiopian Defense Minister on the security cooperation and the relationship between the two countries, stressing that it had been agreed on issues that they discussed with the Ethiopian officials.
The minister also said that he will meet with Ethiopian Prime Minister Haile Mariam, to deliver a message from Somali President Hassan Sheikh Mahmoud. The Somali Minister’s visit to Ethiopia comes a day after the withdrawal of Ethiopian troops from the town of Baidoa in Bay region south-western Somalia.
Banadir regional official killed in Mogadishu
18 Jul – Source: Radio Mustaqbal/ Risaala/al Shahid – 69 words
Unidentified gunmen killed Khadra Dahir Siad, an official of Yaqshid district, in the Somali capital Mogadishu. Witnesses said that men armed with pistols shot her in late Wednesday evening near her home in Mogadishu. The armed men fled immediately, while the Somali security authorities reached the place, and carried out extensive operations in the area.
Second phase of polio vaccination gets underway in Kismayo
18 Jul – Source: Radio Ergo – 163 words
The second phase of polio vaccinations has begun in Kismayo city, Lower Juba region. The campaign, implemented by the World Health Organization (WHO), is targeting 30,000 children under 10 years.
Abdurrahman Farah, WHO coordinator in Kismayo, said that children in the numerous and scattered IDP camps and settlement around the city and environs were also being targeted, He described the congestion in the IDP camps as creating favourable conditions for the fast spread of the virus and said it was vital that every child be vaccinated.
WHO said Lower Juba region was one of the places where the many cases of poliovirus had been detected. During six assessments carried out in Kismayo and Jamame, three positive cases of poliovirus had been found. Asha, a mother of eight living in one ofthe IDP camps, said her children were vaccinated and validated the exercise as extremely important. She said her children were all in good health.
Elders condemn Puntland government for targeting civilians in Qardo
18 Jul – Source: Horseed Media – 177 words
The elders from Qardo town of Puntland, release a statement strongly condemning the actions of the government forces that led to the deaths of more than 5 people this past weekend. On Sunday, at least 5 people have been killed and more than 10 wounded in ongoing fighting between residents and government forces in the Puntland city of Qardo.
The fighting began when heavily armed military convoy transporting the ballot boxes reached the town. Hundreds of local residents demonstrated near the police station were the ballot boxes were brought. The Puntland forces opened fire on the crowd, killing one person and wounding three more. The civilians armed themselves and they retaliated by attacking the police headquarter.
“…the heavily armed military sent from Garowe intentional opened fire on the unarmed civilians, this is orchestrated by the government to deliberately target the civilians during the holy month of the Ramadan, in order to forcefully implement a fake elections that is not accepted by the people of Puntland….” Says the statement released by the elders and the intellectuals in Qardo.
First FIFA level course due in Somalia
18 Jul – Source: Radio Risaala/Dalsan – 235 words
Somali Football Federation Secretary General Abdi Qani Said Arab said Thursday that the SFF was fully grateful to FIFA and its development department for giving his federation a chance to hold its FIFA level courses in the country for the first time in nearly three decades.
This comes as the war-ridden country is currently under preparations for hosting the first FIFA course to be organized in the country since 1986. The Grassroots FIFA MA coaching course which is the first of its kind held for Somalia will kick off in the capital Mogadishu on August 15 after the world’s football governing body FIFA has accepted Somali Football Federation demands to hold its FIFA level courses at home, SFF press statement announced here on Thursday.
Somali Football Federation Secretary General Abdiqani Said Arab said in his statement that the organization of such course will be a good beginning for the SFF to host future FIFA events at home. The FIFA MA course for Somalia is slated in Mogadishu for 15-19 August 2013. FIFA instructor Mr. Ulric Mathiot (Seychelles) will conduct the course. This will be the 3rd course that Mr. Ulric conducts for Somalia since 2009. The other courses were organized in Djibouti in 2009 and 2011. “Somalia loves Mr. Ulric Mathiot and we hope he will teach at more other courses for us in the future” the press statement carried.
The equipment for the course including the teaching materials and Adidas materials had already arrived in Mogadishu. Secretary General Abdi Qani Said Arab praised the government, football federation officials and the people of Djibouti for allowing Somali FA host its courses and home games in Djibouti without preconditions. “Not only for the past two decades but Djibouti was always the 2nd Mogadishu and it will always remain so” Somali Football Federation Secretary General Mr. Abdi Qani Said Arab noted in his press statement Thursday.
One killed, four others wounded in Kismayo explosion
17 Jul – Source: Radio Bar-kulan – 160 words
A civilian woman is reportedly killed, four others wounded in an explosion that has been targeted to the AU peacekeeping forces in the key Somali town of Kismayo on Wednesday. The blast appeared to target an African Union peacekeepers convoy belonging to Sierra Leone forces in Dalkacada neighborhood aroundnoon time. The exact causality of AU peacekeepers caused by the remote-controlled roadside mine is not yet known.
Confirming the incident, eyewitnesses told Bar-kulan that a civilian woman who was passing by the road was hit by the assault, adding that four others were also wounded after bullets fired by Sierra Leone forces caught them. The wounds were immediately rushed to Kismayo general hospital for treatment. No official has yet comment on the attack.
Jubbaland troops together with AMISOM forces earlier defused two unexploded devices from the same areas. Security in Kismayo has improved greatly since al Shabaab Islamist rebels allied to al Qaeda fled the southern Somali town under military pressure.
Fake banknotes cause chaos in Adado
17 Jul – Source: Radio Ergo – 354 words
Businessmen and residents of Adado town, Galgadud region, say counterfeit banknotes circulating in the town have caused inflation and food price rises. Abdisalan Hussein Shuriye, a businessman, told Radio Ergo that the new currency had caused havoc in the market, confusing equally the business people and the lower income earners.
“House owners are now demanding rent to be paid in US dollars because of the suspicion and uncertainty brought about by these new Somali Shilling notes. But as most people have local money and don’t have access to dollars, and no-one will change your shillings now, this is impossible,” he said. The currency, counterfeited somewhere in the central regions, has flooded the local markets and devalued the legitimate Somali shilling. It is not being accepted in some other regions, bringing a halt to a lot of business and trade.
Abdi Siid, a foreign exchange dealer in Adado, said the fake currency is only operating in Galgadud region. “It has been rejected in other regions, so the counterfeiters have dumped it in this region and flooded the market. For us in the foreign exchange business, we can only buy US dollars and give people this new currency.
Abdi Nur Siyad denies UN allegations
17 Jul – Source: Shabelle – 118 words
Abdi Nur Siyad is one of the two Somalis named in the latest annual report by the U.N monitoring group. The report accuses Abdi Nur and Mohamed Weli as individual spoilers who acted as political agents for Eritrean government.
However Mr. Abdi Nur denied the accusations and termed the report as a false report with no clues or clear evidence. Mr. Abdi added that he has never had a relationship with the Eritrean government and has never even set foot in the soil of that country.
“Those who wrote the report have other things in their mind, and are there to spoil my name in public’’ said Abdi Nur who contacted Shabelle media in Mogadishu.
REGIONAL MEDIA
Gunmen wound two Somali journalists: Union
18 Jul – Source: Gulf News/ AFP – 305 words
Gunmen have shot and injured two Somali reporters in the war-torn south, their colleagues said on Thursday, in the latest attack on journalists in the country.
Mascud Abdulahi Adan, a reporter for Dalsan radio, was seriously wounded by a bullet in the back, while Mohamed Farah Sahal, working for Goobjoog radio, was hit in the shoulder, according the National Union of Somali Journalists (NUSOJ).
The attack took place on Wednesday in the volatile southern port of Kismayo, where rival warlords have clashed in recent weeks for control of the city. “We condemn the attack on the journalists in the strongest terms possible and call for an urgent investigation to bring the attacker to book,” said Mohamed Ibrahim, NUSOJ secretary-general.
Somaliland lifts ban on UN flights to Hargeisa
18 Jul – Source: Walta Information Centre – 133 words
UN aircraft can now resume flights to Somaliland. This has been announced by the Somaliland Minister of Civil Aviation and Air Transport, Mahamud Abdi Hashi, according to MoFA. As of July 15 all UN flights are again able to land and take off in Somaliland airports.
The Minister said the ban had been lifted after considering the Aviation agreement reached by Somaliland and Somalia during the round of talks held in Turkey earlier this month. The ban was imposed after the UNDP had handed over Somaliland’s airspace control to the Somalia federal government in Mogadishu on May 14.
The agreement reached in Istanbul allows for a strategy to manage the two countries’ airspaces through a joint body to be established in Hargeisa. This body will also be responsible for equitable sharing of revenues.
INTERNATIONAL MEDIA
Somalia is the first country to receive a three-year UN aid appeal
17 Jul – Source: SOS – 392 words
A new report on humanitarian assistance worldwide shows that Somalia remains one of the largest recipients of international aid.
The 2013 Global Humanitarian Assistance study reports that in 2011, the international humanitarian response reached 17.9 billion dollars, 12.9 billion of which came from governments and 5 billion from private voluntary contributions.
Pakistan, Somalia and the Palestinian territories were the top three recipients of international humanitarian aid, receiving 1.4 billion, 1.1 billion and 849 million dollars respectively. And in 2012, Somalia once again accounted for the largest aid appeal, alongside South Sudan, with funding requirements of more than 1 billion dollars.
U.N. Says Corruption Rampant in Somalia
17 Jul – Source: The Wall Street Journal – 531 words
A United Nations report published Wednesday paints a dark picture of rampant corruption within Somalia’s fledgling government, a portrait that could turn off donor countries that bankroll the country’s budget. The almost one-year-old Somali government still controls only sections of the country around the capital of Mogadishu and the southern border with Kenya. But even this has been seen as tremendous progress in a country that hasn’t had a functioning state in decades.
And Western countries have been quick with funds to back the administration of President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud, elected by parliament in September. Britain, the European Union and the U.S. committed more than $350 million in May to finance the bulk of Somalia’s federal budget this year. The report by the U.N. Monitoring Group on Somalia and Eritrea is a harsh reminder that the installation of a formal government did little to change a system of patronage and off-the-book deals that has long characterized the country’s economy.
“Despite the change in leadership in Mogadishu, the misappropriation of public resources continues in line with past practices,” the report said. Somalia’s central bank has essentially become a “slush fund” for patronage networks with 80% of withdrawals made for private purposes rather than running government programs and much of the funds transferred into the bank not traceable at all, the report said.
Barclays to close about 100 UK cash transfer business accounts
17 Jul – Source: BBC News – 2:55mins
High street money transfer shops are under scrutiny after Barclays bank announced it was closing about 100 UK accounts held by cash transfer businesses, over fears they are being used for money laundering.
The businesses are vital especially for Somali expatriates sending money back home, where banking facilities have collapsed.
Charities suggest that Somali migrants in the UK may be sending as much as £100m ($152m) a year back to Somalia. The BBC’s international development correspondent Mark Doyle reports.
Turkey gives $1bn in humanitarian aid but global funding gap grows
17 Jul – Source: Guardian – 599 words
Turkey contributed more than $1bn (£66m) in humanitarian aid last year, making it the fourth-largest government donor, highlighting the role of new countries in the aid landscape.Turkey, which also received official development assistance, ranked behind only the US ($3.8bn), the EU ($1.9bn), and the UK ($1.2bn), according to the global humanitarian assistance report 2013, released by Development Initiatives (DI), a research group.
It is likely that a significant proportion of Turkey’s contribution was spent on housing Syrian refugees within Turkey. The UN has appealed for $5.2bn to deal with the Syria crisis, where 6.8 million people are in need, including 1.6 million refugees and 4.25 million internally displaced people.
Last year governments gave $12.9bn for humanitarian assistance, defined as aid to save lives and ease suffering in the aftermath of emergencies such as drought or floods. The scale of humanitarian needs fell marginally, but the funding gap in the UN’s consolidated appeal process (Cap), led by the Office for the Co-ordination of Humanitarian Affairs, was at its widest in more than a decade. Only $5.6bn of the $8.9bn funding requirement was met.
SOCIAL MEDIA
CULTURE / OPINION / EDITORIAL / ANALYSIS / BLOGS/ DISCUSSION BOARDS
“Going by his 6 point plan espoused at the onset of his reign, security came prime and rightly so. While there are a lot of improvements in matters perception about Somalia and in particular Mogadishu, security is still very much precarious. I believe much of the resources the government gets, internally or externally if at all there is, should have been used to stem insecurity in Mogadishu first and foremost.”
President Mohamud’s Tenure One Year down the Line
17 Jul – Source: Rays Media – 1114 Words
It is a year since the inauguration of Hassan Sheikh Mohamud as the president of Somalia. His ascendancy to the throne had been hailed in many quarters as an absolute departure from the immediate past and the unfolding since the collapse of Siyad Bare’s regime.
True to those lofty expectations, President Mohamud has so far made some milestones in placing Somalia back on the map of the international community. His government has managed to gain recognition across the mighty and the feeble, states & international organizations notably ICAO, IMF, AfDB, to mention but a few. That recognition comes in handy in his containment declaratory fiefdoms within Somalia.
That said however, Preisdent Hassan’s government has not, as of now, lived up to the expectations of the masses. Understandably, Most of those expectations could be misplaced or hampered by latent mistrust among the many players in Somalia.
Where did President Mohamud go off the rail? The answer to that question can be as different as the number of people you ask but generally, I believe, the following issues have had major contributions to the purported ‘dejection’ of the populace: Response to the political machinations of neighbouring states.
“The lack of clear withdrawal timetable from the outset provided a sort cart blanche, but the danger with an open ended intervention is the ever lurking danger of mission creep, which is clearly evident throughout the intervention. The window when Kenya was regarded as liberators has long closed, and with it the tremendous goodwill from the Somalis.”
Kenya needs to outline a comprehensive exit plan in Somalia
16 Jul – Source: Sakunian’s Blog – 1063 Words
Kenya’s intervention in Somalia October 2011, the first since the country’s independence, came as a surprise to many Horn of Africa observers. The raison d’être for intervening according to Kenya was to pursue al Shabaab members who allegedly abducted aid workers in Northern Kenya and kidnapped tourist along the coast.
While at the beginning of intervention this sounded plausible, and even reasonable given genuine security threats posed to Kenya by the al Shabaab. But the shifting dynamics in the port city of Kismayo raises questions regarding the goal of the intervention. Recent events reveal Kenya is keen in establishing a “sphere of influence” through Jubaland, which put the al Shabaab theory to a stern test.
Since the intervention, the blowback has been evident- there is deteriorating security especially along the areas bordering Somalia, as well as Nairobi where series of grenades attacks calling into question the rationale of sending troops when it cannot maintain domestic security, as well as failure to secure its long porous border before intervening. It is plausible there was no great deal of thinking through the intervention, what is evident is a knee jerk reaction.
Top tweets
@ViSDO_Org Peace-building & Conflict transformation workshop held for Somali civil society orgs by @ViSDO_Orghttp://www.youtube.com/watch?
@HIPSINSTITUTE Allegations against HIPS are “an attempt to discredit #Somalia‘s first think tank” but we’ll continue our workhttp://bit.ly/15OhoLt.
@t_mcconnell 2013 report of the UN Monitoring Group on#Somalia is out http://bit.ly/12xEVw3 (PDF).
@JamalMOsman A 3-year-old #Somali boy was killed outside his home in #London by recovery truck after letting go of father’s hand: http://dailym.ai/13LQq9f.
@OCHASom IDP figs drop in #Somali, from 207,000 between Jan-June ’12 to 37,700 pple in ’13 @UNHCRSomhttp://bit.ly/1bHyMUF http://twitpic.com/d38srd.
Image of the day
Participants attending a three-day Information Sharing Meeting convened for Somalia Federal Government, AMISOM and Troop Contributing Countries in Mombasa, Kenya. Photo: AMISOM.