26 Aug 2011 – Morning headlines
Key Headlines:
- African leaders skip Somalia fundraiser as $351m raised
- Ahlu Sunna group elects new office bearers
- Iran considers opening embassy in Somalia
- Mogadishu’s Second largest market reopened
- Arab Doctors Union collects funds for Somalia
- Horn of Africa will need humanitarian aid ‘until August 2012
- African Union summit struggles to raise funds to combat Horn of Africa crisis
SOMALI MEDIA
Ahlu Sunna group elects new office bearers
25 Aug – Source: Radio Bar-Kulan – 211 words
Ahlu Sunna delegates meeting in Abud-wak town of Galgadud region have elected a new leader and his deputy to head the group’s decision making organ. Sheikh Omar Abdi Qadi was elected to the highest office of the group’s decision making organ ‘Guddiga Talada’, a sort of parliamentary group, while Sheikh Abdullahi Abdi Mohamed was elected as his deputy.
Iran considers opening embassy in Somalia
25 Aug- Source: Radio Mogadishu- 93 words
Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi said on Tuesday that Tehran considers establishing an embassy in Somalia after security is restored in the country. Salehi made the remark while touring special camps set up by Iranian relief aid workers for people in Mogadishu.
Al Shabaab kidnap businessman just outside of Mogadishu
25 Aug – Source: Shabelle – 105 words
Fighters loyal to al Shabaab on Wednesday afternoon kidnapped a businessman at Elasha Biyaha neighborhood while he was on his way to Mogadishu, witnesses said. Reports say that the abducted man was among the businessmen working at Suq Ba’ad, the second largest and busiest market in the capital.
http://www.shabelle.net/
Al Shabaab compel IDPs in Bardera to move to far areas within the district
25 Aug – Source: Radio Bar-Kulan – 163 words
Al Shabaab militia in Bardera town, Gedo region, has ordered drought and famine displaced people pitching tents within the town to move to other settlements on the outskirts of the town. The militia has forcefully relocated some IDPs to other settlements like Shibirole, Musawa’ and Hurena village, seven km from Bardera town.
91 tonnes of humanitarian aid arrive in Mogadishu
25 Aug – Source: Radio Shabelle, Kulmiye – 233 words
At least 91 tonnes of humanitarian aid from Kuwait, Iran, MSF and WFP for the famine-struck people of Somalia on Thursday arrived in Mogadishu. Four cargo flights carrying the 91 tonnes of humanitarian aid have landed at Adan Ade International Airport in Mogadishu. Two of the flights were WFP and MSF chartered cargo flights with each carrying 40 and 11 tonnes respectively.
Mogadishu’s Second largest market reopened
26 Aug- Source: Somaliarepot- 24 words
Mohamed Ahmed Nur (Tarsan), the mayor of Mogadishu, announced yesterday that Sukh Ba’ad, the second largest market in the Somali capital, has been reopened.
Headless body of young Somali discovered in Mogadishu
26 Aug – Source: Shabelle – 260 words
Qadar Omar Siad had been seen laying just outside of Mogadishu’s former pasta factory with his cut head on the chest, an eyewitness who asked for anonymity for security reasons said. The former past factory is a strategic location used by the al Qaeda affiliated al Shabaab to control the capital’s northern districts. Siad’s cousin said that fighters loyal to al Shabaab kidnapped the young boy as he was at Garas Balay neighborhood just outside of Mogadishu.
http://www.shabelle.net/
REGIONAL MEDIA
African leaders skip Somalia fundraiser as $351m raised
25 Aug – Source: Daily Monitor,Daily Nation- 392 words
Almost all invited heads of state were absent from the African Union’s fundraiser here for the drought-ravaged Horn of Africa, despite the bloc having pushed back the event by three weeks in order to get more high level attendance.
Only host Meles Zenawi, AU chairman and Equatorial Guinea President, Obiang Nguema Mbasogo and the President of worst-hit Somalia, Sheikh Sharif Ahmed, attended the Thursday event at the UN’s compound in Addis Ababa that raised $351m in pledges and donations.
The Ugandan embassy here had also indicated that President Yoweri Museveni would attend the event but he was also a no-show. Rwanda sent its prime minister, Bernard Makuza while most other countries were represented by their ambassadors.
http://www.monitor.co.ug/News/
Arab Doctors Union collects funds for Somalia
25 Aug – Source: The Daily Star (Lebanon) – 260 words
The Arab Doctors Union Wednesday launched a campaign to assist the Somali people and collected donations in the southern coastal city of Sidon. Youth volunteers were stationed throughout the city’s streets and around its main roundabouts at checkpoints to collect funds for famine-struck Somalia.
INTERNATIONAL MEDIA
Instructors struggle to rebuild Somalia’s army
25 Aug- Source: AP- 684 words
The instructor’s whistle tweets, and around 50 Somalis drawing paychecks from the U.S. government punch the air in front of them with varying degrees of coordination and enthusiasm. The men, destined to be part of the Somali government’s VIP protection team, are practicing karate at a newly built parade ground in the capital.
African Union summit struggles to raise funds to combat Horn of Africa crisis
25 Aug- Source: The Guardian – 695 words
African governments have pledged $46m for the crisis in the Horn ofAfrica amid warnings that the emergency stretches far beyond hunger to encompass health, security and livelihood. The pledges came at a poorly attended summit meeting in Addis Ababa, the Ethiopian capital, with only four heads of state making an appearance at the event – postponed from earlier this month.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/
Horn of Africa will need humanitarian aid ‘until August 2012
25 Aug- Source: Telegraph – 398 words
According to aid officials, most of the Somali refugee children being admitted to hospitals within Dadaab refugee camp are children suffering from severe malnutrition. The drought and famine have killed more than 29,000 children under the age of 5 in the last three months in southern Somalia alone, according to United States Agency for International Developoment estimates.
CULTURE/EDITORIALS/BLOGS
Aid for Somalia must not become pawn in US game
26 Aug – Source: Irish Times, by David Adams – 883 words
Agencies should not risk public support by exaggerating the extent of their aid activities in the Horn of Africa, writes David Adams.
http://www.irishtimes.com/