December 11, 2014 | Morning Headlines.

Main Story

Federal government and AMISOM to resume Anti Al-shabaab Indian Ocean operation

10 Dec – Source: Somali Current/Wararka Somalia.com – 145 Words

Senior security officer, Mohamud Mohamed Qafow said that Somali government forces and AMISOM troops are preparing to resume recently halted military offensives against the Al-shabaab militants. The group has claimed latest killings in Mogadishu. “we are equipped to thwart any attack from them.” Qafow said. Just last week, Al-shabaab has killed former Somali lawmaker named Liban Abdulahi in a drive by shooting in Hamarweyn’s district in Mogadishu. The Al-Qaeda affiliated group still controls tracts of land in southern regions. Indian Ocean Operation has been halted due to political instability within the Somali government institutions.

Key Headlines

Suspected Al-shabaab militias kill women in Tiyeglow (Dalsan Radio)
Interim Juba Administration arrests over 10 Suspects in Kismayo (Radio Goobjoog)
Federal government and AMISOM to resume Indian Ocean operation (Somali Current/Wararka Somalia.com)
Human rights day marked in Mogadishu (Radio Bar-kulan)
Sharif Hassan visits victims of Friday’s blast (Radio Mustaqbal)
Kenya-Ethiopia pact targets communities at the border (Standard Media)
Police aren’t the most suited to fight al-Shabaab (Star Kenya)
Kenya eyes tougher security laws after Shabaab killings ( AFP/Daily Mail)
UN urges states to save boat people as record numbers take to seas – TRFN (Reuter)
Somalia crisis: al-Shabab and army ‘kill women’ (BBC)

PRESS STATEMENT

Statement for 2014 of the High Commissioner for Human Rights

10 Dec – Source: United Nations – 363 Words

“All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights”: in perhaps the most resonant and beautiful words of any international agreement, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights promises, to all, the economic, social, political, cultural and civil rights that underpin a life free from want and fear. These human rights are not country-specific. They are not a reward for good behaviour, or particular to a certain era or social group. They are the inalienable entitlements of all people, at all times and everywhere, 365 days a year. They are the rights of people of every colour, from every race and ethnic group; whether or not they have disabilities; citizens or migrants; no matter their sex, their class, their caste, their creed, their age or sexual orientation. The commitments made to the people of the world through the Universal Declaration are in themselves a mighty achievement – discrediting the tyranny, discrimination and contempt for human beings that have so painfully marked human history. And since the Declaration was adopted, countless people have gained greater freedom.

Violations have been prevented. Independence and autonomy have been attained.Many people – though not all – have been able to secure freedom from torture, unjustified imprisonment, summary execution, enforced disappearance, persecution and unjust discrimination, as well as fair access to education, economic opportunities, rich cultural traditions and adequate resources and health-care. They have obtained justice for wrongs, and national and international protection for their rights, through the strong architecture of the international human rights legal system. The power of the Universal Declaration is the power of ideas to change the world. It tells us that human rights are essential and indivisible – 365 days a year. Every day is Human Rights day: a day on which we work to ensure that all people can gain equality, dignity and freedom. The UN Human Rights Office stands with the millions of people around the world whose voices are denied. And I look forward to you joining us, whether you do so via social media or in person. Together, we must demand what should be guaranteed: our human rights, universal, indivisible, inalienable, for everyone, 365 days a year.

SOMALI MEDIA

Suspected Al-shabaab militias kill women in Tiyeglow

10 Dec – Source: Dalsan Radio – 82 Words

The commissioner of Tiyeglow District Mohamed Abdalla Hassan told Dalsan that at least 7 women were killed in Tiyeglow today. Two of the women were beheaded by suspected Al-shabaab militias. Consequently the husband of one of the two women who were beheaded shot dead five other women in the district claiming that they were the wives of the militants who killed his wife. The commissioner of Tiyeglow District Mohamed Abdalla Hassan said the situation is very tense in the district following the killings.

Interim Juba Administration arrests over 10 Suspects in Kismayo

10 Dec – Source: Radio Goobjoog – 111 Words

Interim Juba Administration forces have conducted heavy operation in Kismayo to maintain the overall Security of the area. Col. Mohamed Dirie, a senior security official told Goobjoog that this Operation was intended to secure the town. Dirie confirmed that the security forces arrested at least 13 men who are suspected of involvement in the recent explosions in Kismayo. He underlined that security operations will continue until the hideouts of al-shabab is destroyed and the areas under their control is seized. The interim Juba administration forces, in southern Somalia have been conducting security operations in Kismayo and the surrounding areas under the control of the administration despite the explosions claimed by Al-shabab in the region

Federal government and AMISOM to resume Anti Al-shabaab Indian Ocean Operation

10 Dec – Source: Somali Current/Wararka Somalia.com – 145 Words

Human rights day marked in Mogadishu

10 Dec – Source: Radio Bar-kulan – 160 Words

The residents of Mogadishu have joined the world to mark World Human Rights day. This year’s theme of the world human rights day is “365 Human rights,” The day marks the United Nations General Assembly’s adoption and proclamation of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948, the first global enunciation of human rights and one of the first major achievements of the new United Nations. The day was first formed in 1950, when the General Assembly invited all member states and other organizations to celebrate. The theme for 2014, “Human Rights 365″, is a reminder that everyone is entitled to basic rights with the same ideals and values – all year round. “I call on states to honor their obligation to protect human rights every day of the year. I call on people to hold their governments to account,” UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said in a statement. Somalia is considered to be the home of worst human rights violations.

Sharif Hassan visits victims of Friday blast

10 Dec – Source: Radio Mustaqbal – 65 Words

Days after a huge bomb blast in Baidoa left several people dead and at over dozens injured, interim South-west state of Somalia President Sharif Hassan Sheikh Adan visited Baidoa general hospital to meet some of the victims and express solidarity with them. Shariff Hassan urged the federal government to give medical assistance to Baidoa blasts victims. Some of those wounded in the explosion died in the hospital

REGIONAL MEDIA

Kenya-Ethiopia pact targets communities at the border

10 Dec – Source:Standard Media – 220 Words

Kenya and Ethiopia have signed an agreement that aims at creating opportunities for communities at the border, President Uhuru Kenyatta said on Wednesday. This will create stability and security, he said. Speaking when bidding farewell to the Ethiopian Ambassador to Kenya Ato Shemsedin Ahmed, he assured the envoy that his Government is determined to implement the special status agreement signed between the two countries. “A busy person will have no time thinking of taking a gun to commit crime, rather he would be so committed to their businesses which he/she knows will ensure they get their daily livelihoods,” the President added. On terror, President Kenyatta said Kenya is committed to winning the war and that his Government will continue working with and borrowing best practices from Ethiopia, which also neighbours Somalia.

INTERNATIONAL MEDIA

Kenya eyes tougher security laws after Shabaab killings

10 Dec – Source: AFP/Daily Mail – 286 Words

Kenya’s government wants to beef up its security laws after a string of attacks by Somalia’s Shebab insurgents, but media and opposition warn some ideas are overly severe, reports said Wednesday.The proposals include boosting the time police can hold terrorism suspects from the current 90 days to a year, increasing sentences, and more powers to intercept communications, according to reports in Kenyan media.New ideas also suggest jail terms of up to three years for journalists broadcasting reports deemed to “undermine investigations or security operations relating to terrorism,” while those who use social media to praise or incite acts of terrorism could face up to 20 years in prison.

The changes, due for initial debate in parliament Wednesday, also propose setting up a specialised Counter-Terrorism Centre bringing together all the branches of the security forces. Opposition lawmakers said they would oppose many of the proposals, with Orange Democratic Movement party chairman John Mbadi saying some were “draconian amendments”, according to The Star newspaper.Kenya’s government has been under fire since last year’s Shebab attack on the Westgate shopping mall in Nairobi, in which at least 67 people were killed.

UN urges states to save boat people as record numbers take to seas

10 Dec – Source: Reuters – 655 Words

Governments must focus on saving lives rather than keeping foreigners out at a time when more people than ever are embarking on risky sea crossings in search of asylum or a better life, the United Nations said on Wednesday. The U.N. refugee agency, UNHCR, said at least 384,000 people, including a growing number of asylum seekers, had taken to the seas since the beginning of the year with reports of 4,272 people dying in their attempt to reach safe shores.

The bulk of the arrivals has been in Europe where more than 207,000 people have landed after crossing the Mediterranean since January 1 – about three times the previous high of about 70,000 in 2011 during the Libyan civil war.The surge in numbers coincides with growing anti-immigration sentiment in many countries where populist leaders have preyed on fears of jobs and welfare benefits being lost to migrants.

SOCIAL MEDIA

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

“The police world over are trained on law enforcement…not fighting armed insurgents.”

Police aren’t the most suited to fight Al-Shabaab

10 Dec – Source: Star Kenya – 950 Words

The state of our homeland security is either in Limbo or simply in purgatory. A blind spot that bandits, be they Merille, Toposa, al Shabaab and other vile souls, continue to exploit with reckless abandon thanks to cluelessness and ineptocracy as an art of governance. As government songbirds in their usual flippantly robust and calibrated cliché continue to entertain us with their promises of “we will, we shall, and we are”. Wish they could wait for drama festivals to display these greatly abused poetic skills they are wasting to bedazzle the tired public. High-voltage speeches have failed the test of time in abating the massacres in Mandera, Baragoi, Kapedo.

So when the powerful Union of Kenya Civil Servants (UKCS), the biggest representative of workers in public service sounded the battle cry over the spiraling insecurity in Mandera calling for; 24hours police protection in hospitals and schools, arming of chiefs and their assistants, increase in hardship allowance to 30 percent given to workers in these places, deployment of more security forces and enforcement of the constitution by the president he swore to uphold and protect by jealously defending Kenya, and Kenyans failure to which the union will revert to withdrawing their services since no work is worth dying for.

“Canab has became terrified of people. She gets particularly gets terrified when men move towards her as she has came to associate all men with her tormenter.”

Unspeakable cruelty: will there be justice for precious Canab?

10 Dec – Source:Wardheer News – 531 Words

They say the measure of a society is how it treats its vulnerable members; if one were to measure our society by this standard, we are the lowest of the low. We have lost our humanity or are no longer abide by any moral values. The story of Canab is a testament to our inhumanity and immorality. It seems we have accepted and perhaps endorsed criminality as the norm. On March 7, 2014, Maxamed Ibrahim Macalimuu of BBC-Somali reported the story of Canab, a four old Somali child who was tortured by her stepfather over a long period. Canab’s natural father passed away. Her mother remarried and Canab came under the care of a new man, her new stepfather who is a member of the Somali military.

A father or any man who has authority over a child is supposed to care and nurture the child. It is a responsibility that one signs up for when he adopts or brings a child into this world. Instead of embracing his responsibility as any caring adult would, Canab’s caretaker started torturing her. He used belts and plastic hose to mercilessly beat little Canab. Her only crime is that Canab wouldn’t stop crying during the night. This abuse continued over a long period of time.