08 Aug 2011 – Daily Monitoring Report
Key Headlines:
- Government promises to bolster security in Mogadishu
- Government forces expand its power into rebel-held areas in Mogadishu
- Mogadishu’s main market ordered closed
- Mogadishu elders welcome al Shabaab’s withdrawal from the capital
- Somalia fighters quit capital but remain a threat
- UAE clinic treats 750 Somalis
- Rift among al Shabaab commanders
- Somali government forces warily enter former rebel areas
PRESS STATEMENT
Meeting of the Cabinet Ministers on 7th August 2011
07 Aug- Source: Office of the Prime Minister- 272 words
The cabinet ministers of the transitional federal government of Somalia held an extraordinary meeting in Mogadishu where they discussed about the security affairs of the capital, after al Shabaab’s ouster.
The meeting was headed by the Prime Minister Hon. Abdweli Mohamed Ali The ministers sent their heartfelt congratulations to the courageous Somali National Army (SNA) and AMISOM forces that succeeded in forcing the extremist al Shabaab out of Mogadishu. They also congratulated the Somalis for the victory, urging them to work hand in hand with the government and report anything that creates insecurity.
The government is calling upon the al Shabaab youth to join the government where they are pledged to receive warm reception.
The cabinet agreed upon to immediately form Special Forces which will be responsible for maintaining security and order and also combat piracy, at the same time advised on the formation of a court to penalize those breaching security.
The cabinet also concurred to strengthen the security of the humanitarian agencies in order for them to deliver food and aid supplies to the displaced persons. The security affairs of the aid agencies will come under the security department of the government and no any other security force will be allowed to carry out such tasks inside the capital.
The cabinet ministers strongly condemned the brazen incident that happened at Badbado camp on 5th August where three civilians were killed and five others wounded. The ministers said the incident has blatantly tarnished the image and respect of the Somali people and the perpetrators will be brought before court.
The Prime Minister has ordered police commissioners and Mogadishu Mayor to look into the incident.
Change of Guard; Major General Fred Mugisha takes over as AMISOM Force Commander
06 Aug- Source: AMISOM- 480 words
Born in 1963, Major General Fred Mugisha is a conflict manager and a military officer by training. He is one of the freedom fighters who have tirelessly struggled for the re-establishment of justice and democratic structures in Uganda and the sub region.
General Mugisha has served in various capacities in the Uganda People’s Defense Forces (UPDF). He has held several appointments in command and administrative positions. Overall Maj. Gen Mugisha apart from being a conflict manager he has hands on experience in planning, command, control and handling issues of governance. He has attended several military courses as follows; Officer Cadet Course at Former Soviet Union Simferopol Academy from 1988 to 1989.Platoon Commander Course at Sierra vista Academy in Arizona- USA in 2000.Convoy Commander Course at Monduli Academy – Tanzania in 1997.
Senior Command Course at India military Academy Mahadipladesh in 2006,Army High Command Course at Nanjing Military Academy China from 2003 to 2004,Africa Strategic Course at Nasser High Academy, Egypt in 2005 and National Defense College- South Africa in 2008.
The new AMISOM Force Commander has also attended a number of short courses in Conflict Management, Intelligence and Security as well as anti-terrorism. General Fred Mugisha has held several positions in the Uganda People’s Defense Forces(UPDF). These include Communications Officer of a Battalion at the rank of APC from 1987 toMay 1988,Security and Combat Intelligence Officer at the rank of Lt from1990 to 1995,Second in command of Artillery and Air Defense at the rank of Captain from 1995 to 1997,1 Div. Inter. andsecurity officer at the rank of Major from 1997 to 1998,Division Intelligence and Security Officer, at the rank of Major from 1999 to 2000,Director Combat Intelligence and Security at the rank of Major from 2000 to 2001,Deputy Chief of Military Intelligence and Security at the rank of Lt. Colonel from March 2001 to December 2001,Division Operations and Training.
http://www.amisom-au.org/
SOMALI MEDIA
Government promises to bolster security in Mogadishu
08 Aug- Source: Radio Bar-kulan- 137 words
The Somali government has promised to bolster security in Mogadishu following al Shabaab’s pull out of all positions in Mogadishu.
In an exclusive interview with Bar-kulan, Defence Minister Hussein Arab Isse, said they will not accept the ousted militia to harm locals in Mogadishu, saying that it is the responsibility of the Somali government to beef up security in the capital.
The minister hinted government readiness to negotiate with al Shabaab militia to end the two decades old political instability in Somalia.
The minister however cautioned government troops against harming civilian population in all government held areas, threatening to take measures against any soldier found assaulting civilians.
The Somali government has on July 6, seized the entire area of Mogadishu after al Shabaab militia pulled out of their positions in the capital.
Government forces expand its power into rebel-held areas in Mogadishu
08 Aug- Source: Radio Kulmiye, Radio Mogadishu- 96 words
The Somali government troops along with some African Union peacekeepers are still waging moderate battles in areas vacated by the al Shabaab insurgents.
Residents says pro-government forces and some of African Union peacekeepers are patrolling in the streets retreated by the al Shabaab fighters since Saturday morning; the Somali government promised to control the property of private businesses and other belongings to the Somali nationals.
Mogadishu’s main market ordered closed
07 Aug- Source: Radio Mogadishu, Somali report- 70 words
Somalia’s Transitional Federal Government (TFG) has suspended business operations in Mogadishu’s main market for security reasons, authorities said on Sunday.
Mohamed Ahmed Nuur Tarsan the governor of Banadir told reporters in Mogadishu that the market would remained closed for three days starting Monday to pave way for the local authorities to carry out clean up operations and tighten security in the area. “Normal business will resume on Thursday” he said.
Battle between al Shabaab, government in Luuq district kills 4, injures others
08 Aug- Source: Mareeg Online- 68 words
Heavy fighting between al Shabaab fighters and forces of the Somali transitional federal government occurred last night in Luuq district in Gedo region killing 4, injuring a number of others, residents said.
Reports from Luuq district of Gedo region, southwest Somalia, say the battle came as al Shabaab fighters attacked government military bases in Luq and both sides exchanged heavy fires, killing 4 people and wounding a number of others including civilians.
http://www.mareeg.com/fidsan.
Prominent traditional elder killed in central town
08 Aug- Source: Radio RBC, Radio Gaalkacyo- 151 words
Unidentified gunmen have on Sunday night assassinated a well-known traditional elder in Galkaio town, the regional capital of Somalia’s central region of Mudug.
Eye witnesses told RBC Radio that unknown masked men with pistols shot dead Hassan Hussein Aw-Mohamed (aka Hassan Walore) shortly after he left from the mosque where he prayed for the evening prayer. The killers fled from the area after the shooting, residents confirmed.
It is not clear what is the exact purpose of the killing, which comes nearly a day after Puntland security officer was assassinated in Bossaso town, the biggest commercial centre of Puntland.
The regional security officials said they were conducting urgent investigation to verify the assassinators but no person has been arrested yet.
Mogadishu elders welcome al Shabaab’s withdrawal from the capital
07 Aug- Source: Radio Shabelle, Radio Kulmiye- 111 words
The Hawiye traditional elders on Sunday warmly welcomed al Shabaab’s withdrawal from Mogadishu after years of deadly battles against Somali government and AMISOM forces.
In an interview with radio Shabelle, Ahmed Diriye Ali, the spokesman of Hawiye traditional elders said al Shabaab took their advice and consultations towards stopping fighting and bloodshed in the capital.
He warned the group from conducting bomb explosions and assassinations against the civilians and officials of the country.
The spokesman noted that the al Shabaab officials hailing form Benadir region are needed to negotiate and join the government instead of continuing conflict.
People hopeful as al Shabaab reportedly leaving Mogadishu
07 Aug- Source: Kulmiyenews- 277 words
Hundreds of Mogadishuners could be seen in the streets of the capital after hearing the news that al Shabaab had finally vacated from the capital.
Fighting erupted on Sunday in Mogadishu between government troops and al Shabaab insurgents, a day after the rebels said they were leaving the Somali capital and the government declared it controlled most of the city, residents and officials said.
A spokesman for the African Union (AU) peace keeping force, AMISOM, said al Shabaab fighters had attacked them in one district late on Saturday, but that they and the government now controlled most of Mogadishu.
After al Shabaab started its withdrawal, President Sheikh Sharif Ahmed said his troops had defeated the rebels, intent on overthrowing his Western-backed government. Al Shabaab, which has its stronghold in the south of the anarchic country, denied this and said it would re-group and keep on fighting.
Somalia has been without an effective central government since the fall of dictator Mohamed Siad Barre 20 years ago, and is now suffering mass hunger from the worst drought in decades. Peace remains a distant prospect.
http://www.kulmiyenews.com/?
Authorities call for unity among officials in Sool region, Northern Somalia
07 Aug- Source: Radio Bar-kulan- 192 words
Authorities in Somaliland have blamed poor co-working between regional authorities Sool region for the recurring insecurity in the area.
While addressing participants of a security meeting held in Las Anod town, Somaliland’s Information Minister, Ahmed Abdi Habsade, said poor working relationship between Sool regional authorities and that of Las Anod district is to be blamed for the recent killings in Las Anod town.
The minister threatened to completely overrun on what they called it as ‘peace obstacle group’ in the disputed Sool region. Habsade claimed that they seized control of defence-sites from unspecified armed group, threatening to wipe them out of the area.
The minister asserted that a defeat against the armed group is possible since their security personnel are making military advancement towards rebel-held positions in the area.
Algeria denies reports on death of its 17 abducted sailors in Somalia
08 Aug- Source: Radio Bar-kulan- 168 words
Algeria denied on Sunday reports over the death of its seventeen sailors abducted in Somalia, saying the 17 Algerian sailors were safe and sound.
Algerian Foreign Ministry spokesman, Amar Belani, was quoted by the Algerian official news agency (APS) as saying that they have made the required contacts, and it appeared that all their compatriots abducted by Somali pirates are safe and sound.
Belani rubbished the reports about the sailors’ death saying that there is hope that all the sailors would be able to confirm sooner to their relatives that they are alive, emphasizing that authorities will keep working to free them as soon as possible.
The Algerian Foreign Ministry had promised family members of the abducted sailors to free them in July, noting that the government stood firmly against paying any ransom to the pirates.
The MV Blida, an Algerian-flagged bulk carrier with a crew of 27, including 17 from Algeria, was captured in January 2011 by Somali pirates around 150 miles southeast of Salalah in southern Oman.
UN special envoy meets Puntland president in Garowe
06 Aug- Source: Radio Bar-kulan- 39 words
The head of the United Nations Political Office for Somalia, Augutine Mahiga, visited the Puntland capital of Garowe and met with Puntland president Abdirahman Farole to discuss various issues, including the venue for the Somali Consultative Conference.
UN Special Representative to Somalia Meets with Somaliland Vice President
08 Aug- Source: Somalilandpress- 470 words
Somaliland Vice President Abdirahman Abdilahi Ismael (Saylici), today welcomed United Nations Special Representative and Head of the United Nations Political Office for Somalia, Augutine Mahiga who arrived in the city on Saturday for talks with the Government.
Part of the talks between VP Saylici and Mr. Mahiga involved ways that Somaliland could avoid the problems that are facing the Somalia in the South. These included but were not limited to actions that can be taken to react against the drought that is ravaging the south and the ensuing famine. They also discussed security matters with emphasis on deterrence of terrorist acts and piracy as well as the spread of armed extremists that might see the current situation in the South as an invitation to move their diabolical plans further North.
REGIONAL MEDIA
Somalia fighters quit capital but remain a threat
08 Aug- Source: New Vision- 670 words
African peacekeepers have forced Somalia’s al Shabaab Islamists to abandon their campaign to hold the capital Mogadishu, but the fighters’ retreat hardly ends the country’s bloodshed and could herald a wave of al Qaeda-style suicide attacks.
As convoys of al Shabaab pickup trucks with mounted machine guns sped from Mogadishu, President Sheikh Sharif Ahmed — whose rule is limited to the capital and propped up by 9,000 Ugandan and Burundian troops — held a news conference to declare victory.
The fighters, who still control most of the south of the country, insisted they would fight another day.
“We aren’t leaving you, but we have changed our tactics,” spokesman Sheikh Ali Mohamud Rage said on local radio.
Many Somalis and outside experts said it was too early for the government to declare a triumph. In a country long without effective central government and now suffering mass hunger from the worst drought in decades, peace remains a distant prospect.
But rifts among al Shabaab’s leaders, exacerbated by their handling of the famine, could also provide an opportunity to loosen the militia’s grip on the areas it controls.
Rift among al Shabaab commanders
08 Aug – Source: New Vision – 482 words
A string of offensives this year — led by the African peacekeeping force with Somalia’s army in tow — gradually tightened the noose around al Shabaab’s forces in Mogadishu.
Last month, the fighters lost control of the capital’s Bakara market, nerve-centre of their Mogadishu operations and a crucial source of revenue. That left them with little more than a few mostly-empty neighbourhoods of little strategic interest.
Those losses exposed rifts in al-Shabaab’s leadership between an international wing influenced by foreign fighters who favour guerrilla tactics like suicide bombings, and others who sought a conventional military strategy of holding territory.
The abandonment of Mogadishu suggests the international faction won the day.
“If that is the case then al Shabaab might leave other cities (under their control) like Baidoa and Afgoye, melt away in the population and turn to guerrilla warfare, explosions, assassinations or suicide attacks,” said Afyare Elmi at Qatar University’s International Affairs department.
Since 2007, Ahmed’s authority has effectively stretched only as far as the territory held by the peacekeepers. Winning Mogadishu might expand the government’s sway, Horn of Africa experts say, but there is little guarantee it will bring peace elsewhere.
Some even question the government’s ability to fill the power vacuum in the neighbourhoods abandoned by al Shabaab, warning that other militia could fill the void.
Ahmed “had to make that statement, he has to appear that he is in control. But Somalis will be laughing,” said London-based Somali analyst Hamza Mohamed. “There is not one single area of Mogadishu controlled solely by government troops.”
The militants still hold sway over much of central and southern Somalia, and have other sources of revenue, including taxes from ports and a cut of some ransoms paid to pirate gangs.
But al Shabaab is also confronted with mending internal rifts, made more stark by the famine gripping the south, where 2.8 million people require lifesaving food aid.
Early last month al Shabaab appeared to lift a ban on food aid, only then to seemingly backtrack. Its legitimacy has been shredded by attempts to halt people fleeing areas to seek food, said J. Peter Pham with U.S. think-tank the Atlantic Council.
“The ongoing hunger has exposed divisions between the hardline core leadership of al Shabaab which denies the crisis and refuses to allow aid in, and clan-based militia forces in various places … who have announced a willingness to allow humanitarian assistance to come in,” he said.
The famine is depriving al Shabaab of revenue and decimating its recruitment pool as hundreds of thousands of hungry people flee to Mogadishu and neighbouring Kenya and Ethiopia.
The erosion of legitimacy may offer Somalia’s government and Western powers an opportunity, said Mark Schroeder of global intelligence company Stratfor.
“(There are) foreign elements trying to figure out how to take advantage of the famine to undermine al Shabaab, not necessarily in a military way but more politically.”
http://www.newvision.co.ug/D/
Somali leaders in Uganda
08 Aug- Source: Daily Monitor- 143 words
A day after the Somali insurgents fled Mogadishu, the Somali President, Sheikh Sharif Ahmed with his ministers of defence and foreign affairs, yesterday arrived in Kampala to meet President Museveni.
The Somali ambassador in Uganda, Sheik Sayid Ahmed Dahir, told Daily Monitor that Mr Ahmed will be here for three days to discuss security issues with Mr Museveni.
When asked whether his visit is connected to the withdrawal of al Shabaab from Mogadishu, Mr Dahir said he did not know the specific items on the agenda but said, “They are likely to talk about it.”
But sources at Villa Somalia, the State House in Mogadishu, say the trip has been prompted by the sudden pullout of al Shabaab militants from Mogadishu.
Meanwhile, the spokesperson of African Union forces, Lt. Col. Paddy Ankunda, said the withdrawal of insurgents was due to internal fighting and financial constrains.
http://www.monitor.co.ug/News/
The bad boy of the Horn of Africa: How Eritrea’s strongman uses Kenya as a terror finance hub
07 Aug- Source: the East African- 860 words
In early July, as Kenya’s President Mwai Kibaki headed to Addis Ababa to chair a meeting of the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (Igad), a six-country partnership formed to address issues of drought, security and development in the Horn of Africa, he sounded a stern warning to Eritrea.
For Kibaki, a president who is not known for his love of dramatic public gesture, to adopt a hostile posture against another country, there must have been more to the issue than the government was revealing to the public.
In March, Ethiopia’s Prime Minister Meles Zenawi — whose country has a strong security partnership with Kenya — had also warned that his government would use “all possible means” to depose Eritrea’s 67-year old strongman Isaias Afewerki, with whom he had fought a bloody secessionist war that killed 70,000 people between 1998 and 2000.
However, with the release of the UN Monitoring Group report on Somalia and Eritrea last week, it is now becoming clearer why Afewerki has gained the reputation of the bad boy of the Horn of Africa, a pariah state under international sanctions for sponsoring terrorism in the region.
While Eritrea has in the past been repeatedly accused of supporting Somalia’s Islamist militia Al Shabaab, a charge it strenuously denies, the current report catalogues Afewerki’s growing notoriety in the world of terrorism finance, and in particular the global web through which these funds are routed, with Kenya serving as a global transaction distribution hub.
The UN Monitoring Group indicates that cash transfers to Al Shabaab are facilitated by a vast and complex informal economy through which senior officials of the Eritrean government and ruling People’s Front for Democracy and Justice (PFDJ) collect and control hundreds of millions of dollars each year in unofficial revenues, largely from taxation of Eritreans in the diaspora, and private business arrangements involving PFDJ-run companies or business partnerships abroad.
UAE clinic treats 750 Somalis
08 Aug- Source: the National- 247 words
About 750 patients in Somalia have been treated by a UAE mobile clinic. The mobile clinic is part of efforts to help 20,000 families facing starvation during the worst drought in 60 years. The services were provided at the Hamar Jam Jam camp for displaced Somalis in its second day in the country’s capital, Mogadishu, according to a statement by Wam, the state news agency.
Patients were facing health problems resulting from malnutrition and the spread of diseases, Wam said.
The clinic tends to physical and mental conditions, as well as gynaecology and internal medicine. Dr Fatima Hassan, a gynaecologist and a member of the medical team, said most of the female patients at the clinic were suffering from severe anaemia, bladder diseases, urinary tract infections and respiratory diseases. Most of the children suffered from malnutrition, fever and diarrhoea.
Estimates suggest the drought in Somalia has killed more than 29,000 young children in the past 90 days, while the United Nations has said 640,000 Somali children are acutely malnourished, which suggests the death toll of small children will rise.
http://www.thenational.ae/
The unholy alliance in Somalia: Media, donors and aid agencies
07 Aug- Source: The East African- 682 words
The season of giving has started — and it not even Christmas yet. Leading international aid agencies, including the United Nations, Oxfam, Save the Children and Islamic Relief UK, have launched massive campaigns to save the thousands of Somalis who are facing hunger in their own country and in refugee camps in neighbouring Kenya and Ethiopia.
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has asked donors for $1.6 billion in aid for Somalia and the World Bank has already pledged more than $500 million towards the relief efforts.
The appeals for food aid have been accompanied by heart-wrenching images: children with swollen, malnourished bellies, emaciated mothers with shrivelled breasts that no longer lactate, campsites bursting at the seams with hordes of skeletal refugees. Almost all the large humanitarian aid agencies are rushing to the Dadaab refugee camp in Kenya to witness, photograph and film the crisis. We have seen these images before — in the mid-1980s when Mohamed Amin filmed the famine in Ethiopia that triggered the trend of rock stars becoming dogooders.
Since then, famine has become the biggest story coming out of Africa — and one of the biggest industries.
Images of starving Africans are part and parcel of fund-raising campaigns, as are journalists. As one leading humanitarian official told the BBC’s Andrew Harding, the UN can produce endless reports, but it is only when the images of starving people are televised or placed on the front page of newspapers that politicians take action.
Central Somalia witnessing football resurgence
06 Aug- Source: African Press Agency APA, Afrique Avenir- 355 words
Despite the lack of proper football infrastructure, equipment and financial resources in warravaged Somalia, the game is witnessing “remarkable” development in several regions of the country especially Galgadud.
Mohamed Elmi Damdamle, the head of the International Committee of the Red Cross told APA in an interview on Thursday that recent tournaments organized in several parts of the country have given the game a new lease on life in Somalia and rekindled nostalgia about the state of the game in the past.
Damdamle was speaking at the end of a four-week football tournament held in the moderate- Islamist administered town of Guri-El where eight teams from the town and surrounding villages competed. The tournament was organized by the region’s sub football association with assistance from the Somali Football Federation.
According to the ICRC boss, football was enjoying a remarkable resurgence in Somalia thanks in large measure to the slow and gradual return to normalcy in the country.
A local football fanatic, Damdamle was the captain of the winning team Iftin which defeated its Waberi rivals by 4 goals to 2 in the presence of the regional football association President Abdirashid Aden Roble and officials from the moderate Islamist administration in Galgadud .
http://www.afriqueavenir.org/
INTERNATIONAL MEDIA
Somali government forces warily enter former rebel areas
07 Aug- Source: AFP- 486 words
Somali government forces backed by African Union troops moved cautiously on Sunday into areas of the famine-struck capital abandoned the day before by al Shabaab rebels, a senior military official said.
A small number of gunmen from the Al-Qaeda affiliated al Shabaab militia were still in wartorn Mogadishu after their surprise pullout by the bulk of their forces on Saturday morning, with skirmishes breaking out.
“Government troops and the African Union troops moved into several positions, including Mogadishu stadium,” said Yusuf Dhegobadan, a senior government army officer.
“We are still maintaining cautious advancement into the stronghold of the al Shabaab fighters”, he told reporters, speaking at the city’s stadium, which until Saturday had been a rebel stronghold.
AU-backed government troops have been battling al Shabaab rebels in Mogadishu to secure aid delivery routes for victims of the drought threatening more than 12 million people in Somalia and other east African countries.
Until Saturday morning, government and AU troops controlled just over half of Mogadishu, including the airport and port, while al Shabaab controlled the city’s northeast.
“There are few of the al Shabaab trying to benefit from the advancement of our troops, carrying out desperate attacks,” Dhegobadan added.
Under Siege in Somalia
07 Aug- Source: Newsweek- 468 words
Hawa Abdi is an obstetrician and gynecologist who in 1983 established a one-room clinic near Somalia’s capital, Mogadishu. Over time this small operation evolved into one of the largest camps and medical facilities for internally displaced people in the war-torn country. Today the camp houses 90,000 people, mostly women and children. She works alongside her two daughters, also doctors, under perilous conditions. Here she recounts an episode in 2010 when Islamist militants invaded her camp and held her hostage for several days.
I ignored their call, so they came to my gate unannounced: six members of the Somali insurgent group Hizbul Islam, with a request to speak with me in person. Their militia had controlled our area for the past year—the latest in an endless line of transitional leaders, warlords, and regimes I’d seen since the collapse of Somalia’s government. I was examining a severely malnourished child, who hadn’t eaten for at least four days, when I heard the news; I was not willing to abandon my patient for a conversation with people whose only clear goals were to rob, to take over, or to kill.
As hard as it may be to imagine, Somalia was peaceful when I moved here. But now, after more than 20 years of a civil war caused by interclan fighting, the small clinic I started is a 400-bed hospital. The land behind it, once fertile, now utterly parched, offers refuge to more than 90,000 internally displaced people—a fraction of the nearly half–million who now live along that main road, which stretches northwest from our destroyed capital city. (About 1.5 million Somalis have been displaced by the violence.) The need in our area is unimaginable, but my mission as a doctor is the same. I rise long before dawn with a singular focus: to meet my patients’ needs.
http://www.thedailybeast.com/
Return ‘home’ surreal after Somalia sojourn
07 Aug- Source: Buffalo News – 1396 words
Less than two months ago, he was prime minister of Somalia. He battled terrorists, pirates and warlords. He addressed dignitaries from the United Nations.
Now, Mohamed A. Mohamed is back at his old job at the state Department of Transportation downtown, back to his little cubicle with a window overlooking Swan Street.
A few photos of him as premier were tacked to his wall by colleagues, the only visible reminder that these last nine months weren’t a dream.
“It’s a different feeling when you’re heading a whole nation and you come back to your normal life,” Mohamed said. “It’s a little awkward, to tell you the truth.”
Mohamed, 49, a Somali native who resettled in Buffalo more than 20 years ago, was forced out as Somalia’s prime minister in June, ending his remarkable months-long odyssey as abruptly as it began.
He returned to his job at the DOT on Thursday, as he tries to settle into his old life as civil servant, husband and father living on Grand Island.
But his heart is still with Somalia. He still grapples with what he saw, what’s happening and lessons learned.
As prime minister, Mohamed pleaded with international leaders to pay closer attention to his homeland in East Africa, and now we understand why.
http://www.buffalonews.com/
Iran donates USD 25 million to Somalia
07 Aug- Source: Press TV- 210 words
Iran’s Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi says the Islamic Republic plans to donate USD 25 million to the famine-stricken people of Somalia.
“The USD 25 million worth of goods will be sent for the famine-stricken Somalis,” Salehi said on the sidelines of the Cabinet’s meeting on Sunday.
The drought and the famine it has caused in the Horn of Africa nations have affected more than 11.8 million people across Somalia, Kenya and Ethiopia.
Somalia is hardest-hit by what is described as the worst drought in the Horn of Africa in 60 years.
Last week Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei donated roughly USD 20,000 to the people of Somalia.
According to the UN, it is estimated that a quarter of Somalia’s population of 9.9 million are now either internally displaced or living outside the country as refugees.
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/
BLOGS/EDITORIAL/CULTURE
Somali voices remain eerily silent in press reports about raging famine
07 Aug- Source: Daily Nation- 525 words
My column last week on how the aid industry is scrambling to gain a slice of the donor pie that is rapidly growing in response to the famine crisis in Somalia and northern Kenya generated a lot of reader response, particularly from Somalis in the diaspora.
Many thanked me for highlighting the factors that contributed to the crisis, and for showing another side of Somalia that is little talked or written about.
It occurred to me that the narrative about Somalia is being written mainly by non-Somalis (and I include myself in that category). Somalis simply are not telling their side of the story, or just don’t have access to forums where their voices can be heard.
In almost all the stories of the famine in Somalia reported in the press, for instance, I have yet to come across an interview with a Somali government official or professional. The famine victims quoted are only allowed to talk about their hunger and their arduous journey to refugee camps.
Because Somali voices are so silent, I would like to use a part of this column to share with you some of the e-mails sent to me by Somalis in the diaspora.
Mohamed, a Somali who has been living in Finland for the last 21 years, had this to say: “I am disturbed about the images and reports coming from Somalia (my parents are still living in Baidoa).
I visited Nairobi twice and I had the feeling that (members of) the international community believe that they will lose a job if Somalia is saved and gains sovereignty.”
Fatuma wrote to say: “Somalia has definitely become an unfortunate place where vultures feast.” A Somali agricultural economist based in Nairobi suggested that perhaps the food production data on Somalia had been “doctored” by the United Nations monitoring agencies there to portray a dire picture of the situation there.
I know that the article hit a nerve because this is what Mark, a foreign aid worker, wrote in anger in response to my suggestion that those working for the aid industry lived the high life in crisis zones: “I work for an international organisation, am foreign, and have a nice house by Kenyan standards. But so what? I earn every single bit of it. I deal with corrupt local officials everyday to prevent them ripping off my programme, go to dangerous places and deal with the insecurity of living in Kenya and working around the border with Somalia.”
http://www.nation.co.ke/oped/