April 10, 2014 | Daily Monitoring Report.
Somali PM declares Mogadishu is safe from mine threats
10 Apr – Source: RBC/Radio Mogadishu – 205 words
Somalia Prime Minister Abdiweli Sheikh Ahmed attended a meeting with the European Union and UNMAS to discuss on-going accomplishments in regards to safety and security within Mogadishu.
The Prime Minister and members of EU and UNMAS unfolded the news of the elimination of all explosive objects within Mogadishu. The government led by the Prime Minister has aided in this accomplishment and thirteen districts have been cleared.
“We do not want our people continuing a life of fear and instability. Children must have a future that is no longer filled with strife and given an opportunity to experience a joyous childhood. Most importantly we must have the ability to give our youth a better life towards greater accomplishments.”
“We also have a responsibility to clean up and eliminate destructive items. I would like to thank those who have aided us and who are a vital part of this team” Prime Minister said.
The Prime Minister expressed his delight and emphasized the importance of a secure and stabilized nation in regards to the protection and growth of Somali citizens. He stated that the importance of safety is not only a Mogadishu affair but a nationwide issue. The unrelenting and uncompromising goal towards indefinite peace must be continued.
Key Headlines
- Somali PM declares Mogadishu is safe from mine threats (RBC/Radio Mogadishu)
- Somali parliament to send protest letter to its Kenyan counterpart (Bar-kulan)
- Somalia Seeks to Rebuild Economy Promote Peace at UAE Summit (VOA)
- Kenya deports scores of Somalis in crackdown on rampant insecurity (East African/AFP)
- Somalia: ID cards prove fishermen are not pirates (BBC)
- SOLJA Condemns Closure of HAATUF Media Group (Somaliland Informer)
- UN staff shot in Somalia were experts in cash transfers piracy (AFP)
- Puntland President attends symposium on security in Galkayo (Garowe Online)
- Traders count losses over Eastleigh crackdown (Daily Nation)
- DP World works to battle maritime piracy at its source (Al Bawaba)
SOMALI MEDIA
Somali PM declares Mogadishu is safe from mine threats
10 Apr – Source: RBC/Radio Mogadishu – 205 words
Somalia Prime Minister Abdiweli Sheikh Ahmed attended a meeting with the European Union and UNMAS to discuss on-going accomplishments in regards to safety and security within Mogadishu.
The Prime Minister and members of EU and UNMAS unfolded the news of the elimination of all explosive objects within Mogadishu. The government led by the Prime Minister has aided in this accomplishment and thirteen districts have been cleared.
“We do not want our people continuing a life of fear and instability. Children must have a future that is no longer filled with strife and given an opportunity to experience a joyous childhood. Most importantly we must have the ability to give our youth a better life towards greater accomplishments.”
“We also have a responsibility to clean up and eliminate destructive items. I would like to thank those who have aided us and who are a vital part of this team” Prime Minister said.
The Prime Minister expressed his delight and emphasized the importance of a secure and stabilized nation in regards to the protection and growth of Somali citizens. He stated that the importance of safety is not only a Mogadishu affair but a nationwide issue. The unrelenting and uncompromising goal towards indefinite peace must be continued.
Somali parliament to send protest letter to its Kenyan counterpart
10 Apr – Source: Bar-kulan – 108 words
Somali National Assembly members have condemned in what they described as systematic security operation targeting Somali citizens in Kenya.
Second deputy speaker Mahad Abdullahi who was chairing a session with the parliamentarians on the issue in Mogadishu has said that the members have agreed to write a protest letter to the Kenyan national assembly on the ongoing security operation targeting Somali citizens in Kenya.
Mr. Mahad added that they will also consider in the letter previous agreements between the two national assemblies. 84 undocumented Somali refugees have been deported back to Somalia on Wednesday after they were arrested in a security operation in predominate Somali estate of Eastleigh.
SOLJA Condemns Closure of HAATUF Media Group
10 Apr – Source: Somaliland Informer – 282 words
Somaliland Journalists Association (SOLJA) is strongly condemned the storming, take over and closure of Haatuf Media Group head office in Hargeisa on the afternoon of Monday. SOLJA is against the armed police officers with complete anti-riot who ordered reporters, editors & other staff out of the premises and shut down the main doors to the media giant that owns and prints Haatuf a Daily Newspaper in native Somali language and Somaliland times a weekly English language paper that is favorite of most foreigners in the country.
As despotic, tyrannical and retrospective of the gains made in the freedom of press together with the regulations governing the media industry in the last few years in reconstructing the country.
It is obviously clear that the current regime negates the fundamental rights and freedoms spelt out in the Bill of Rights in a very unique way that never experienced before. Recurring suppression of freedom of press that is regularly unleashed against our members must come to an end. Without healing of the wounds inflicted as a result of the closure of previous media outlets namely HCTV and HUBAAL we are again being subjected to intimidation and coercion that grossly prejudices our obligations notwithstanding due process of the legal systems established in the country. Also we asserted that the manifest in the Government’s action of forcefully taking over private property is disrespect to Laws & morality generally.
SOLJA advises the state to explore meaningful alternatives instead of resorting to intimidate & use force to invert the gains achieved so far during the post reconstruction of the nation and further counseled authorities to quash its orders of shutting down Haatuf altogether before masses turn against the rulers.
Four wounded in Baidoa market inferno
10 Apr – Source: Radio Bar-kulan – 81 words
Four people have been injured in late night fire in Baido main market on Wednesday night. Security forces and members of the public have contained the fire however Mustaf Ibrahim Ali government official in the area has told Bar-Kulan that properties of unknown value have been destroyed in the blaze.
Health officials in Baidoa hospital have confirmed that those injured are in a stable condition.The cause of the fire is yet to be established as the authorities started to investigate.
Puntland President attends symposium on security in Galkayo
09 Apr – Source: Garowe Online – 140 words
The President of Somalia’s Northeastern State of Puntland Dr. Abdiweli Mohamed Ali Gaas has held a symposium on security with traditional leaders, intellectuals, university students and women and youth groups in Mudug regional capital of Galkayo on Wednesday, Garowe Online reports.
President Gaas discussed the urgently pressing issue of security in the presence of over hundred participants. Also in attendance were Interior Minister Ahmed Elmi Osman (Ahmed Karash), Security Minister Hassan Osman Alore, Education Minister Ali Haji Warsame , Puntland Defense Forces Commander-in-Chief Gen. Saed Mohamed Hirsi (Saed Dheere), the Governor of Mudug region Mohamed Yusuf Jama Tigey and Galkayo Mayor Ahmed Ali Salad.
Speaking at the public symposium which was organized by Puntland Development Research Center (PDRC), Puntland President said that the killing of United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) officials dealt blow to his visit to Galkayo.
Somaliland: Landmine Claims Qorilugud Family Lives
09 Apr – Source: Somaliland Sun – 155 words
Three people have died and two others nursing grievous injuries after they stepped on an Anti-personnel mine in Qorilugud of Buhodle district in the eastern Somaliland Toghdeer region.
According to the mayor of Qorilugud local council Mohamed Omar Farah the deceased and injured who are all from the same family encountered the misfortune when a buried landmine exploded within their vicinity.
The mayor named the dead as Brother and sister Mahmud and Zainab Muse Abdilahi and their uncle Awil Osman Mire while the injured currently receiving medical attention at the Burao Hospital are brothers of the late Zainab.
Mayor Farah who informed that the deadly mine is part of the many planted in Qorilugud and other parts of Somaliland by Somali forces loyal to Dictator Siad Barre in the 1980’s, added that the explosion resulting in the unfortunate deaths and injuries was preceded by loud bang that was heard several miles away from the scene.
REGIONAL MEDIA
DP World works to battle maritime piracy at its source
10 Apr – Source: Al Bawaba – 338 words
VIP panel of public and private Somali experts gather to share ideas and action to rebuild Somalia.
How to support Somalia to build its economy, attract international investment and create jobs and a future for its young people as an alternative to taking to sea as pirates was the focus of a high level meeting of public and private sector experts on Somalia brought together by DP World in Dubai yesterday.
The panel discussion, themed “The Business Environment, Regulatory Reform and Key Economic Sectors for Investment in Somalia”, is the first of three DP World is convening with knowledge partner, the Institute for Near East and Gulf Military Analysis (INEGMA), this year focused on supporting the development of Somalia as part of the port operator’s on-going counter-piracy efforts.
Kenya deports scores of Somalis in crackdown on rampant insecurity
10 Apr – Source: East African/AFP – 318 words
Dozens of Somalis were expelled from Kenya on Wednesday, officials said, as security forces maintained a major crackdown on suspected Islamists that has seen thousands rounded up in the capital.
Kenya’s Interior Minister Joseph Ole Lenku said 3,000 people have so far been detained in the operation, and 82 of them flown back to Somalia’s Mogadishu. He said hundreds more were still undergoing identity checks.
The operation, reportedly involving more than 6,000 police and elite officers, started on Friday and has focused on Eastleigh, an ethnic Somali-dominated district of the Kenyan capital known as “Little Mogadishu”.
Traders count losses over Eastleigh crackdown
10 Apr – Source: Daily Nation – 165 words
Traders in Nairobi’s Eastleigh shopping centre say they have been forced to make do with slow business and fewer working hours because of the police crackdown on illegal immigrants and suspected criminals.
Mr Hassan Gulled, the chairman of the Eastleigh Business Community told the Nation Wednesday that many of the traders in the area close earlier than usual to avoid police harassment.
“The business at the moment is very bad. We are estimating a reduction of about 70 per cent in sales. Our members are closing early because no one knows what happens in darkness,” Mr Gulled said in an interview.
“We normally receive customers from as far as Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi and South Sudan. We are not getting them anymore. Some have called in to say they will come after the operation is over.”
Mr Gulled complained that businesspeople especially roadside sellers in Eastleigh have been harassed since Saturday especially from 8 in the evening; the time these people make most sales, he said.
INTERNATIONAL MEDIA
Somalia Seeks to Rebuild Economy, Promote Peace at UAE Summit
10 Apr – Source: VOA – 117 words
Somali officials say a stronger economy is vital to prolonged peace. This week, they traveled to the United Arab Emirates with the hope of attracting foreign investment to the war-torn nation.
Participants at the Somalia Investment Summit in Dubai painted a different picture of the East African country than the one the world has become familiar with.
“If in past years the image was hunger, piracy, terrorism, today you will see a different scenario,” noted Ali Mohamed Gedi, the former prime minister of Somalia’s Transitional Federal Government. “You will see a light at the end of the tunnel. You will see hope, and that life is coming back. This is the image we now want to show.”
Somalia: ID cards prove fishermen are not pirates
10 Apr – Source: BBC – 334 words
Somali fishermen have been issued with official ID cards to help distinguish them from pirates, it’s been reported.
At least 2,000 such cards have been handed out to fishermen in the Puntland region of Somalia in the last two months, the Ministry for Fisheries and Marine Resources tells Radio Ergo. One fisherman in Bossaso says he feels less afraid of being mistaken for a pirate when he is out at sea.
“We used to suffer a lot because we have been mistaken often for pirates,” says Muse Abdalla Isse. “We have been mistakenly shot at or arrested by the forces [European Union naval forces in Somali waters].” He says that just days ago he was stopped by an EU naval patrol – but they let him go when he showed them his card.
UN staff shot in Somalia were experts in cash transfers, piracy
10 Apr – Source: AFP – 312 words
The two UN workers shot dead in central Somalia were working on the links between money transfer systems and piracy, the UN anti-drugs and crime agency said Wednesday. Former British police officer Simon Davis, 57, and his French colleague, 28-year-old researcher Clement Gorrissen, were fatally shot by a man in uniform just after their arrival at the airport in Galkayo on Monday.
“The two men, who often worked together, were on mission in Somalia to offer technical advice and to help build local capacities in the specialised field of illicit money flows,” the UN Office on Drugs and Crime said. UNODC gave no details of the circumstances of the attack, nor on its motive, which remains unknown.
It said the two experts had been working to ensure that the remittance networks, which replace banks in Somalia, could be used by ordinary citizens but not by criminals. Many Somalis rely on remittance companies to receive money from relatives in the diaspora. Davis served with the Metropolitan police force, specialising in tracking financial movements, before joining UNODC in 2012. He also worked closely with the British government in the area of fighting piracy.
In addition, Davis provided training to law enforcement officials in the Horn of Africa, UNODC said. Gorrissen first worked for UNODC in 2010 as part of the Global Programme against Money Laundering, Proceeds of Crime and the Financing of Terrorism.
In May 2011 he researched illicit money flows for the Contact Group on Piracy. He was a key contributor to the highly regarded report “Pirate Trails: Tracking the Illicit Financial Flows from Pirate Activities off the Horn of Africa”. No one has claimed the attack in Galkayo, a town that straddles the self-proclaimed autonomous regions of Galmudug and Puntland. Al Shabaab Islamists, who have been influential in the area around Galkayo, expressed their satisfaction at the killings but denied being behind them.
Africa presents challenges, opportunities to U.S. military command
09 Apr – Source: Defenceweb – 412 words
The African continent presents significant opportunities and challenges, according to US Army General David M Rodriguez, the commander of U.S. Africa Command. The general and Amanda J. Dory, deputy assistant secretary of defence for African affairs, made the comments during a Pentagon news conference today.
“Much of the continent is doing well, with six of the world’s 10 fastest-growing economies and many countries strengthening their democratic institutions [and] a growing and youthful population which can be an engine for positive change or a negative force if not effectively governed,” the general said.
But sometimes right next to these successful nations are those with perennial and lasting problems. Weak governance, corruption, uneven development, disease, food insecurity, crime and violent extremism have contributed to instability and conflict, he said.
“The network of al Qaeda and its affiliates’ participation in illicit trafficking networks that link Africa with North and South America, Europe, the Middle East and South Asia have taken advantage of regional instability to continue to expand their activities,” Rodriguez said.
Somalia is a good example of how the command works with African and international partners, Rodriguez said. “In Somalia, six African countries participate in the African Union mission in Somalia,” he added, conducting offensive operations with the Somali national army against Al-Shabaab.
Security downturn in Mogadishu
09 Apr – Source: IRIN News – 132 words
Three years after al Shabaab insurgents withdrew from the city, security in Mogadishu remains a serious problem for residents and aid workers, with threats from Al-Shabab incursions, criminals and militia.Often-deadly attacks attributed to al Shabaab or its sympathizers involving mortar rounds, rocket propelled grenades and improvised explosive devices occur with great frequency in the capital.
Some 624 weapons-related casualties were treated in four hospitals in Mogadishu in January and February, according to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) February Humanitarian Bulletin, a20 percent increase on the previous two months.
Recent months have also seen a flurry of terror attacks against key government and international organizations in the city. On 21 February the presidential palace was attacked and senior government officials killed. A week earlier a UN convoy was targeted, leaving six dead.
SOCIAL MEDIA
CULTURE / OPINION / EDITORIAL / ANALYSIS / BLOGS/ DISCUSSION BOARDS
“The Somali people in Somalia and the federal government of Somalia (FGS) can enormously benefit from the American Exceptionalism in terms of humanitarian aid, development, infrastructure and other positive areas. Also, Somalia can benefit from the American Exceptionalism with reference to the human intellectual capital, especially of those Americans with Somali descendant in the form of investment in Somalia in all business, education, technology and innovation sectors.”
Somali-Americans Exceptionalism Benefits
10 Apr – Source: Somali Current – 570 Words
Somalia has been without a strong central government since the downfall of the military regime in 1991. While on the subject, pertinently but non-discursively, there is a realistic estimate that about one million Somalis fled from Somalia to settle in the West. And with this Somali diaspora caliber, its relevance will keep echoing in Somalia’s futuristic thrust, notably in economic and political ways.
As to the positive side, Somalia can benefit from the American Exceptionalism with its best meaning being a uniquely free nation with material wealth and cutting-edge ideas–Somalia can benefit from that without relinquishing its religious and cultural heritage. If I digress a bit, in that respect, there are fewer disputes in the world today that the United States is a powerhouse with economic, military, political, technological and innovative importance.
Moreover, there is a sizeable number of Somali Americans in the United States by the year clock of 2014. Conjointly, these two significant factors can contribute to shaping a rosy future for Somalia. In fact, it is getting silly after almost a three decade civil war in Somalia that the dual citizenship holders, the Somali American people in the US do not express the need of their country, Somalia, to the people and government of the United States—even if they do express, they don’t do it in a clear and convincing way–or for the common interest –but with clan interest contrivances.
“The clear-eyed candour of Mohamed’s vivid and lyrical writing offers insights not only into Somalia’s troubled history but into the conflicted relationships we all have, whether with one another, or with ourselves.”
The Orchard of Lost Souls by Nadifa Mohamed: review
10 Apr – Source: Toronto Star – 660 Words
Much has been written about Somalia, but not enough by Somalis. Nadifa Mohamed was a welcome voice in 2010 with Black Mamba Boy, a novel based on her father’s early life as a street child searching for his father. She set the bar high with that book — it won or was shortlisted for several British prizes — and with this second novel, she’s done it again. Unlike her first book, which centres on fathers and sons, this one focuses on women.
The Orchard of Lost Souls is set in the city of Hargeisa in 1987, with Somalia on the brink of civil war. The ruthless military dictatorship is on a bloody mission to crush rebel uprisings, and history tells us the country is edging toward collapse.
During a rally to honour the regime, three female lives briefly converge by chance. Deqo, a nine-year-old girl from a refugee camp, has been brought to the stadium to perform a dance with other orphans. When stage fright makes her forget the steps, her caregivers beat her. Kawsar, a wealthy widow in her late 50s, witnesses the abuse and intervenes to stop it. She is arrested by Filsan, a young soldier from Mogadishu on her first assignment in Hargeisa.
Anxious to impress her superiors that she’s as tough as any male soldier, Filsan takes Kawsar to the police station and beats her savagely, breaking the older woman’s hip. Meanwhile, young Deqo has slipped away and escaped.
Top tweets
@gooddayatwork One man’s fight to change attitudes to mental health in Somalia > http://bit.ly/1enDAmV #mentalhealth#hr4mh.
@MelindaDeleuze Fascinating.. Extreme weather and civil war: does drought fuel conflict in Somalia? http://bit.ly/1etch53 @mfbellemare.
@bonifacemwangi State of Emergency. The law appears to have been suspended in Eastleighhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?
@amisomsomalia #AMISOM female tank crew based in#Somalia http://bit.ly/1huNwvj pic.twitter.com/9W2NcAZyhL.
@Ashkirsom #Somalia: National Assembly members have condemned in what they described as systematic security operation targeting Somalis in Kenya.
Image of the day
Plane carrying 82 #Somalis returning from #Nairobi lands in #Mogadishu. #Somalia. #EastleighCrackdown #Kenya. Photo: @Hamza_Africa.