November 27, 2014 | Daily Monitoring Report.

Main Story

Funding gap largest in six years while humanitarian needs are growing

27 Nov – Source: Radio RBC – 272 Words

Somalia has received US$554 million in humanitarian funding according to the online Financial Tracking System; about $365 million of this amount goes to the humanitarian response plan, covering 39 per cent of the plan’s $933 million request for humanitarian activities.
Although overall funding in absolute terms has not reduced in the last three years, the percentage of funding against the request (appeal for funding) has decreased. From 2008 to 2010, the annual appeals received an average of 68 per cent of the request, while from 2012 to 2014; only 47 per cent on average was funded.

The funding level compared to needs in 2014 is the lowest since 2008. According to the Office of the UN Humanitarian Coordination (OCHA), funding for humanitarian needs in Somalia has seen a worrying downward trend this year. Despite continued efforts by donors, funding is not commensurate to growing humanitarian needs and the shortfall is jeopardizing activities across the country.

The World Food Programme warns that 700,000 people may no longer receive food and nutrition assistance as early as by January next year due to lack of resources. The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) has already scaled down cash-for-work activities, voucher schemes for agriculture inputs and vaccination and treatment of livestock.

The UN’s Children Fund (UNICEF) has been forced to gradually discontinue primary health care services for 2.5 million people in southern and central Somalia. While the health needs of about 1 million of the affected people can be covered through humanitarian and developmental funding, 1.5 million people remain uncovered, including some 300,000 children under 5 years of age.

Key Headlines

Two children die due to diarrhea in Jowhar (Radio Goobjoog)
Food prices rise in Bardere due to heavy rains (Radio Ergo)
Baidoa: pro-six regions traditional elders open talks with 3 regions state (Radio Mustaqbal)
Lower Shabelle administration finalizes operations to remove roadblocks (Radio Goobjoog)
Eastleigh residents discuss how to strengthen security (Radio bar-kulan)
Funding gap largest in six years while humanitarian needs are growing (Radio RBC)
UN to discuss Somalia maritime water (Dalsan Radio)
IDP evictions: Saido’s story (Radio Ergo)
Kenyans must avoid al-Shabaab plot (Standard Media)
Government will not evacuate civil servants from Mandera County (Coastweek/ Xinhua)
Sleepy village jolted by Mandera killings (Standard Media)
Westpac keeps Somali money transfers open until Federal Court hearing (Herald Sun)
Kenya says Somali militants killed; al-Shabaab issues denial (Bloomberg News)
Mogadishu rising (TEDxMogadishu)

SOMALI MEDIA

Two children die due to diarrhea in Jowhar

27 Nov – Source: Radio Goobjoog – 128 words

Reports from Jowhar, the headquarters of Middle Shabelle region states that at least two children died due to diarrhea outbreak in the region. The children that died were among over 10 people in a hospital managed by Intersos according to locals.
Ibrahim Muse Mahad, one of the nurses in intersos center told Goobjoog FM that most of the hospitalized people came from Hanti Wadag neighbourhood in Jowhar district and surrounding localities. He stated that they are conducting thorough investigations on the causes of the outbreak.
The outbreak is directly linked to the poor sanitation and hygiene conditions in villages following the floods of river Shabelle and subsequent rainfall that displaced hundreds of families and destroyed hectares of farmland.

Food prices rise in Bardere due to heavy rains

27 Nov – Source: Radio Ergo – 215 words

Prices of essential food items including rice, sugar and flour have risen sharply in Gedo’s Bardere district after heavy rains cut off supply routes.The district relies on food transported from Mogadishu and Kismayo.
“No vehicles or commercial trucks transporting food and goods has entered our district during the past 40 days,” businessman Abdullahi Hussein told Radio Ergo’s local reporter.
Hussein said that a 50 kg sack of sugar, which previously sold at 660,000 Somali shillings, had risen to 830,000 Somali shillings; a 50 kg sack of flour was up from 700,000 to 900,000 Somali shillings; while 50 kg of rice previously 580,000 was now 900,000 Somali shillings.
He showed little hope in the re-opening of roads soon. “Heavy rains fell and worsened the condition of the roads…I don’t think roads will be ready for use soon.”
Hundreds of families displaced by the torrential rains that battered the town are still in urgent need of assistance. The food shortages and inflation of prices have aggravated their already miserable situation.
Said Hassan, father of four, is among the displaced and is staying at a relative’s house. He told Radio Ergo’s local reporter he wanted to go back to his house and resume work as soon as the floods recede.

Lower Shabelle administration finalizes operations to remove roadblocks

27 Nov – Source: Radio Goobjoog – 152 words

The administration of Lower Shabelle region stated that they are finalizing ongoing security operations against illegal roadblocks set by armed men dressed in military uniform.
The vice chairman of Lower Shabelle administration Abdifatah Haji Abdulle said that the government forces have started security crackdown to remove all checkpoints in the region and bring the armed men to justice.
Mr. Abdulle stated that the normal transportation in the road linking the main districts in Lower Shabelle region has been hampered by uncountable roadblocks that demand large amount of money from drivers and car owners adding that sometimes the passengers are looted.
The federal government of Somalia has launched operations to get rid of the illegal checkpoints but nothing much was done.
The owners and the drivers of the public transport have threatened to go on strike if the federal government does not take immediate action to remove the increasing number of roadblocks.

Baidoa: pro-six regions traditional elders open talks with 3 regions state

27 Nov – Source: Radio Mustaqbal – 152 words

One of the community elders that elected Madoobe Nuunow as president of the South-west state of six regions Mohamed Noor Hassan said they are ready to have talks with the three regions state with the mediation of the federal government.
Ugaas Mohamed stated that the most significant issue is stabilizing and to bring peace to the people of Baidoa, as well as finding ways that the two rival administration can work together and cooperate.
The elder also noted that they are ready to amicably resolve the conflict on the administration of South-west Somalia through dialogue.
Earlier this month Sharif Hasan Sheikh Adan was elected as a president of administration South West -three regions. Baidoa hosts two presidents at the moment, Madobe Nunow as a leader of South West state of six regions, Sharif Hasan Sheikh Adan for South West state of three regions.

Eastleigh residents discuss how to strengthen security

27 Nov- Source: Radio bar-kulan- 90 words

The residents of Eastleigh have on Wednesday converged a meeting to discuss how to improve security in the area.
The meeting which was attended by the business community in the area has stressed the need by locals to cooperate with security agencies to strengthen security.
Eastleigh business community security department head Ahmed Mohamed has called upon the government to cooperate with the locals to protect the investment in the business hub. The community has condemned recent Al Shabaab attack in Mandera in which 28 people mostly teachers were killed.

Funding gap largest in six years while humanitarian needs are growing

27 Nov – Source: Radio RBC – 272 Words

UN to discuss Somalia maritime water

27 Nov – Source: Dalsan Radio – 113 Words

The United Nation will hold a meeting to discuss the Maritime water of Somalia to defend the humanitarian aid ships against pirates the guardian news paper reported. The world Food Program (WFP) said it needs a protection for ships carrying aid for Somali people who are dare in need of humanitarian assistance.

The European Union approved this week to expand the Atlantic ocean operation for the next to years to tackle the Somali pirates. The united Nation said that there are nearly one million Somali are in need of urgent humanitarian aid, they also suggested that there is need to increase the tactics to combat the rising pirates threats in Somali ocean.

IDP Evictions: Saido’s story

26 Nov – Source: Radio Ergo – 951 Words

Saido Osman Qasim was heavily pregnant with her sixth child when armed men in trucks descended on the displacement camp of Warshadaha Caanaha (the former Milk Factory) building one morning in October, and forced them at gunpoint to get out. She and her family had been living in the government-owned building for six years with around 2,000 other displaced people, who had fled from their original homes in various parts of the southern regions due to conflict, drought and famine. “Armed men with big trucks caught us by surprise early in the morning. They began destroying our makeshift houses and pushing people out forcibly,” Saido told Radio Ergo in an interview conducted in another IDP camp on the outskirts of Mogadishu.

She said the armed men were government soldiers and they paid no attention to the pleas of the people living in the camp, who were crying and begging for time to look for another place to live before being thrown out.“They were firing bullets to create fear in the camp and were shouting ‘Get out …get out now otherwise we will take you out by force’,” Saido recalled. Saido was close to the expected delivery date of her baby, her back ached and she was unable to get up by herself. Still, one of the soldiers assigned to demolish the houses of the displaced people in the old factory building pushed her to make her stand up. He threatened her, telling her to get out of the building by herself – or he would make her get out. “My children were terrified and kept crying the whole day and we left everything behind including clothes and plastic sheeting. We just escaped with our lives,” she said.

REGIONAL MEDIA

Kenyans must avoid al-Shabaab plot

27 Nov – Source: Standard Media – 510 Words

The devastating attack by the Al Shabaab criminal group in Mandera is no doubt a continuation of its evil and unholy agenda of sparking inter-religious divisions and strife in the country.
But despite facing many provocative and terrible attacks from the terrorist group, (including killings in places of worship and shopping malls) Kenyans have not fallen for the trick set by the criminal group of dividing them along religious lines.
The latest attack mirrors the previous ones at Westgate Mall and Mpeketoni, Lamu where the killers singled out for slaughter, those they identified as non-Muslim to turn the war on terrorism directed against them into a religious war pitying Muslims against non-Muslims.
The criminals expect that by provoking inter-religious conflagration in Kenya, they may trigger a weakening or meltdown of the Kenyan state.

Government will not evacuate civil servants from Mandera County

27 Nov- Source: Coastweek/ Xinhua- 563 words

The Kenyan government has ruled out evacuation of non-Muslims working in the northern border town of Mandera following last Saturday’s attack on a commuter bus, in which 28 people were massacred.
The Presidential Chief of Staff and Head of Public Service Joseph Kinyua and Army Commander Jackson Kassaon who visited workers camping at the military camp over fears of further attack, urging them to go back to their work places as the government enhances security patrols in the town and its environs.
“If we evacuate you, then it shall mean we have succumbed to terror. We don’t want to give our sovereign country to other people, but we have to sit together and remain united despite being of different religious background,” Kinyua told the worried workers late on Tuesday.
Workers in the border town have already spent three nights at the Kenya Defense Forces (KDF) airstrip, demanding to be evacuated.
They claim they fear for their lives following reports that Al- Shabaab informers had “marked” their houses with the intention of attacking them any time.

Sleepy village jolted by Mandera killings

27 Nov – Source: Standard Media – 356 Words

Two sisters from Kieni East, Nyeri County were among the 28 people killed on Saturday during the Mandera massacre. Winfred Karimi, 28, and Fridah Kathambi, 31, were among other travellers who were shot dead by Al-Shabaab terrorists who commandeered the bus they were travelling in. The two were teachers in Mandera.
Their 55-year-old mother, Nancy Makena, learnt of the deaths after a friend who lives in Mandera called her on Saturday at 9am to enquire about their whereabouts. The distraught mother of six prodded why he was asking about the women, to which he explained that some killings were reported near Arabia town and they feared for the worse. “I requested the friend to go and confirm at the mortuary, and at around 12pm the call confirming my worst fears came.

INTERNATIONAL MEDIA

Westpac keeps Somali money transfers open until Federal Court hearing

27 Nov – Source: Herald Sun – 529 Words

The financial institution is the last of the big four Australian banks to offer money transfer services to the remittance operators helping Somalis send cash to their families overseas. The Leader previously reported the bank had advised Somali remittance operators at the Bell Street Mall they would close their accounts on Monday, November 24.

But Westpac spokesman Danny John said the bank consented to temporary orders made in the Federal Court in Sydney on Friday, November 21. “These will be in place until a further hearing of the matter in court … (onFriday, November 28),” Mr Johns said.

About 10,000 Somalis across Australia — many living in Heidelberg West — will no longer be able to transfer money back to their families overseas once the bank shuts down accounts with remittance services. Kensington elder Abdurahman Jama Osman, who sends $100 every month to 85-year-old sister Halima, said he was deeply worried about her future. The tightening of global and Australian financial regulations around anti-money laundering and counter-terrorism has meant many banks are shutting off services to remittance operators because of security concerns.

Kenya says Somali militants killed; al-Shabaab issues denial

27 Nov – Source: Bloomberg News – 387 Words

Kenya’s military said it killed at least 49 al-Shabaab militants in airstrikes on camps in Somalia as the insurgents denied the claim, the second time in a week it’s contradicted the Kenyan army.

Airstrikes were carried out on logistics and operational bases in Hargeysa Yarey and Minyonta in Jilib in southern Somalia, the Kenyan Ministry of Defence said in an e-mailed statement yesterday. Among the dead were five senior commanders, while 27 insurgents were injured and two technical vehicles were destroyed, it said. Bloomberg was unable to independently verify the claims.

“Kenyan jets fired several missiles on an intermediate school in Hargeysa Yarey,” Abdurahman Abu-Hudeyfah, the self-proclaimed al-Shabaab governor of Somalia’s Juba region, said in statements on Radio Andalus, a pro-al-Shabaab broadcaster. “Luckily, their attacks coincided at a time all the students of the school had gone for a lunch break and no one was hurt.”

Mogadishu Rising – TEDxMogadishu 2014

27 Nov – TEDxMogadishu – 1:32 Seconds

2012 saw the rebirth of Mogadishu amidst a fragile peace for the first time in 23 years. In 2013, we reflected on the past, present and future, and rediscovered Somalia. In 2014 we will highlight the bold innovation, creative ideas and fearless individuals that are bringing Mogadishu back onto the world stage. Somalis are returning home, construction is booming, and new businesses are lining the busy streets.

SOCIAL MEDIA

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

“We believe that if the bottom 5 to 10 percent of society in Somalia had more predictable resources, they could make longer-term decisions that would rebuild their asset base and make them more resilient.”

A Somali Aid Worker Would Rather Give Out Cash Than Free Food

26 Nov – Source: NPR.Org – 955 Words

In 2011, drought hit Somalia hard, triggering a famine that ultimately killed some 260,000 people. Now, after a poor rainy season, the Food and Agriculture Organization is warning that the country could be on the brink of another famine. To find out more about the current situation in East Africa, we spoke with Degan Ali, the Somali-American executive director of Adeso (African Development Solutions), a Nairobi-based humanitarian and development organization focusing on aid, education — particularly among nomadic populations — and community-based economic growth. Formerly known as Horn Relief, the organization was founded in the early 1990s by Ali’s mother, Fatima Jibrell, in response to their homeland’s devastating civil war. Adeso does work in Kenya, Somalia and South Sudan. Ali spoke with Goats and Soda earlier this month.

“The implementation of Vision 2016 has become a matter of international reputation. Western donors are impatient with the slow pace of state building and urging the Somali government to “deliver”. The latter, whose credibility and popularity is falling among the Somalis, is increasingly dependent on shrinking external support.”

Chickens Come Home to Roost. State Building and the Credibility Conundrum in Somalia

26 Nov – Source: African Arguments – 1, 064 Words

Yet another international donor conference on Somalia. “A history of broken promises” might have been a rather more appropriate title for the Ministerial High Level Partnership Forum (HLPF) which was held in Copenhagen on 19 and 20 November. The conference was intended to review progress against Somalia’s New Deal Compact endorsed in Brussels in September 2013 and chart the way ahead to the implementation of Vision 2016.

This “blueprint for action” entails three main threads, the “democratic formation” of regional interim administrations and Federal States, the revision and adoption of the Constitution and the holding of national elections in 2016.

Top tweets

@amisomsomalia We’re happy to see Somali residents given the opportunity to discuss their ideas & the growing optimism in Somalia. Thank you @TEDxMogadishu

‏@TheStarKenya KDF says 49 more al Shabaab militia killed in Somalia >> http://ow.ly/EY9dV

@Zahratal_hayat The rise of Mogadishu is of benefit to all of Somalis and indeed to all of Somalia!http://poemsbyasomaliwoman.wordpress.com/2014/11/26/a-day
@TEDxMogadishu @IlwadElman

@amisomsomalia We’re happy to see Somali residents given the opportunity to discuss their ideas & the growing optimism in Somalia. Thank you @TEDxMogadishu

@HarunMaruf REUTERS: Somalia’s new bourse sees seven firms listing on opening in 2015 http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/11

@UNSomalia Congrats to @IlwadElman on her appointment as Youth Ambassador for #Somalia on Sexual Violence in Conflict:http://bit.ly/1pmSYVU #16Days

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Image of the day

Members of the audience listen to a speakers at the Tedx Mogadishu event on 26 November 2014. Photo: UNSOM