06 Sept 2011 – Daily Monitoring Report
Key Headlines:
- Security and new law our priorities says Somalia at key UN-backed talks
- Somali politicians begin talks on elections plans for new constitution
- Puntland and Galmudug settle their most recent wrangle
- Malnutrition rates worsen at newest Somali refugee camp
- Al Shabaab recruits in Somalia’s Diaspora
SOMALI MEDIA
Militant group faulted for looting food aid in Qoqani, Lower Jubba
06 Sept – Source: Radio Bar-Kulan – 126 words
TFG officials in Dhobley town have accused al Shabaab of looting humanitarian food rations meant for drought and famine displaced people in Qoqani district, Lower Jubba. The spokesman for the Somali troops in the area Mohamed Farah Dahir blamed the rebel group for forcefully diverting the desperately needed humanitarian aid for the needy people in the area to their militia men. He said the militia took away the food rations including flour, sugar and cooking oil for the drought and famine-stricken Somali people in Qoqani district. He added that the militia descended on donkey carts ferrying humanitarian food to the needy people, saying that they are trying to worsen the drought situation in the region as they have already banned aid agencies from operating in the area.
Puntland and Galmudug settle their most recent wrangle
06 Sept – Source: Shabelle, Mareeg Online and Horseed Media – 277 words
At today’s Consultative Meeting for Ending the Transition in Mogadishu, Mohamed Ahmed Alin, President of the Galmudug State of Somalia and Abdirahman Mohamed Mohamud (“Farole”), president of the Puntland State of Somalia, committed to a peaceful settlement of their recent dispute and in particular, adopted a four point plan to ensure that hostilities do not re-occur. This important agreement was enacted in the presence of Sharif Hassan Sheikh Adan, speaker of the Transitional Federal Parliament, TFG Prime Minister Abdiweli Mohamed Ali, and a number of ministers and high ranking Somali officials.
“I am most gratified that the United Nations was able to bring the parties together in the margins of the Consultative Meeting and that they decided, in a spirit of brotherly reconciliation, to put aside their differences which had threatened to undermine this important moment in the peace process,” Dr. Mahiga said.
Specifically, President Mohamud and President Alin agreed to (1) implement and maintain an immediate cease fire, (2) establish and maintain direct communication at the highest level, (3) address future issues in a non-violent and cooperative manner and (4) recognize that they face a common threat from insurgent groups.
http://www.shabelle.net/
UNHCR receives 50 Somali refugees from Libyan fighters
05 Sept – Source: Radio Shabelle, Bar-Kulan and Kulmiye – 127 words
The UN refugee agency has received over fifty Somali refugees from Libyan rebel fighters who found them in a building in Tajuda, where they were waiting to be smuggled into Europe. The fighters found the 53 Somalis, including five women and one child, on Wednesday in a building in the eastern suburb of Tajura, one of the departure ports for illegal migration to Europe. Omar Abdelkarim, a 19-year-old among dozens of refugees transferred to the care of the UN refugee agency on Sunday said that he knew Libya was a war zone but never thought of it being worse than Somalia. He said he fled Somalia after receiving numerous threats from al Shabaab militia group. He added that the militia threatened to kill him for refusing to fight in its ranks.
Puntland leader condemns business community for ‘rejecting taxes’
05 Sept – Source: Garowe Online – 310 words
The leader of Somalia’s Puntland government has condemned the country’s business community for rejecting to pay taxes, Garowe reports. Speaking at the UN-backed Somali National Consultative Conference, which opened in Mogadishu on 4th of September 2011, President Farole of Puntland addressed the business communities of Somalia. “There are some who profit from war and do not recognize the destruction of war. Some among the business community in Somalia are among those who profit from war,” said President Farole. He condemned the attitude of Somalia’s business class, saying: “They do not pay taxes. We all know that taxes pay for security and development.”
Officials meet to mend souring business rivalry between Somalis and South Africans
06 Sept – Source: Radio Bar-Kulan – 180 words
A forum for the integration of Somalis in South African and local communities has been held in Cape Town, South Africa. The forum attended by officials from the South African government, local civil societies and Somali community representatives was aimed at deliberating on ways in which the Somali people in the country can interact with local South African communities to better understand each other.
The forum was also aimed at mending business rivalry between the two communities, as well as persuading the Somali people to adhere to rules governing the country. Mahad Omar Abdi, an official with the Somali community told Bar-kulan that participants mainly focused on reducing business-related tensions between the locals and the Somalis conducting business in the country.
He said South African officials attending the forum appealed to the Somali community members to abide the law governing the country and desist from engaging in criminal activities. This was the first meeting of its type as locals were up in arms with Somali refugees conducting business in the country, accusing them of frustrating markets by selling cheap goods.
REGIONAL MEDIA
Al Shabaab recruits in Somalia’s diaspora
06 Sept – Source: Daily Star – 986 words
Heart-wrenching images of emaciated and dying children in Somalia have brought the country back to the world’s attention. The difficulty in delivering food to the needy because of the opposition of the Islamist Somali insurgents has also put a spotlight on Harakat al Shabaab al Mujahideen, or Movement of the Warrior Youth. Famine or not, al Shabaab’s “jihad” continues.
Even before the United Nations declared famine in parts of Somalia, suicide attacks by al Shabaab on an African Union post in Mogadishu, the Somali capital, drew world attention to the role of the Somali diaspora in the insurgency.
Of the two suicide bombers dispatched by al Shabaab, one was 27-year-old Somali-American Farah Mohamed Beledi, killed before he could set off his device. In July, Omer Abdi Mohamed of Minnesota pleaded guilty to charges that he had facilitated the travel of young Somali- American men to Somalia to join the insurgent movement.
Now the famine may have given al Shabaab new opportunities. The insurgent movement has its own emergency drought-relief committee, currently headed by Hussein Ali Fiidow, formerly an official in al Shabaab’s governing administration in the district of Banadir, where Mogadishu is located. This committee organized modest relief programs that included collection of food, water and medical supplies as well as refugee camps. Senior al Shabaab leaders, including Hasan Dahir Aweys, recently visited one of these camps in the Lower Shabelle district.
Security and new law our priorities, says Somalia at key UN-backed talks
05 Sept – Source: Africa Review – 274 words
Somalia Prime Minister Abdiweli Mohamed Ali has identified providing security and writing a new constitution as the key challenges facing his country’s transitional government in the next 12 months.
“Improvement of security, the practice of good governance, attainment of reconciliation and the drafting of a national constitution are going to be the tasks that need special attention from the participants of this meeting,” said Mr Ali on Monday at a UN-backed reconciliation summit taking place in the capital.
The three-day national reconciliation conference that begun Sunday has drawn Somali leaders including from the autonomous regions including Puntland who are looking for ways of finally solving the problems of the country that has been in conflict for the last 20 years after the central government collapsed.
The international community, mainly Somalia’s neighbours, is also attending the summit that will also focus on winding up the transitional government that has been criticized for not meeting its objectives in its seven years of existence. In that span, the transitional government has had two presidents and five prime ministers. Its mandate was to end last month but was extended by a year after talks in Kampala in June.
The meeting is being held at the African Union’s Mission in Somalia’s tightly-guarded Halane Compound base. However the breakaway region of Somaliland and the fundamentalist militia group al-Shabaab are not represented.
The premier also said that his government was sparing no effort to address the plight of the people affected by the famine ravaging the Horn of Africa region, especially Somalia. “We have instituted a national disaster management body, called for international support and set up mechanisms to help the needy,” he said.
Ugandan soldiers kill Malaysian journalist in Somalia
06 Sept – Source: Daily Monitor – 208 words
The African Union is investigating Ugandan peacekeepers in Somalia for allegedly shooting and killing a Malaysian journalist who was in Mogadishu covering the famine crisis. Moramfaizul Bin Mohamed was killed on Friday after a UPDF convoy opened fire at a vehicle carrying a group of journalists at the Kilometre Four (K4) junction in Mogadishu City where many Ugandan soldiers have been killed by snipers. His colleague, Mr Aji Saregar Mazlan, was seriously injured in the incident.
It is not clear whether the Ugandan peacekeepers mistook the journalists, who were being escorted by Somali government soldiers, to be al-Shabaab militants but the commander of the African Union Mission for Somalia (AMISOM), Maj. Gen. Fred Mugisha, said in a statement yesterday that investigations had started.
“A full AMISOM investigation is underway, in liaison with the Transitional Federal Government Police. Witness reports coming forward so far are not entirely clear but the information leads AMISOM to believe that one of their convoys may have been involved in the incident near K4,” Maj. Gen. Mugisha said.
This is the third time Ugandan peacekeepers are shooting civilians at the same junction. In May, three Ugandan soldiers were each sentenced to two years in jail for shooting and injuring 14 civilians in Mogadishu at the same junction.
http://www.monitor.co.ug/News/
INTERNATIONAL MEDIA
Hundred children a day dying in Somalia famine, says UN
06 Sept – Source: Press and Journal – 103 words
Famine spreading through Somalia is killing more than 100 children each day, the UN said yesterday, and warned that hundreds of thousands more may die without urgent help.
The starvation is mostly taking place out of sight of the world media, in areas of southern Somalia under control of violent Islamist insurgents.
“Hungry people are only waiting for death,” said Nor Anshur, a father of five who lost one of his children in the Bay region, a former agricultural breadbasket that the UN declared Somalia’s sixth famine zone. “We saw our neighbors’ children and elderly people dying every day for lack of food.”
http://www.pressandjournal.co.
Somali politicians begin talks on elections, plans for new constitution
05 Sept – Source: Bloomberg News – 219 words
Somali government representatives, lawmakers and a pro-government militia began talks on drafting a new constitution and holding elections in the war-torn country. The discussions, which started yesterday in the capital, Mogadishu, are the first of a series of meetings aimed at endorsing a road map outlining tasks Somalia’s transitional administration needs to achieve over the next 12 months, the United Nations Political Office for Somalia said in an e-mailed statement.
“Stable government can be achieved through security, good governance, reconciliation and finalization of the draft constitution,” Prime Minister Abdiweli Mohamed Ali said at the start of the conference yesterday.
A Transitional Federal Government was established in Somalia in 2004, the 14th attempt to create a functioning central administration since the fall of Mohamed Siad Barre’s dictatorship in 1991. The mandate of the so-called TFG, which had been scheduled to end last month, was extended for 12 months in June.
The meeting, which ends tomorrow, includes representatives of the TFG, lawmakers, officials from the semi-autonomous northern state of Puntland, and the Ahlu Sunna Wal Jama’a militia. Talks will also focus on the current drought that has caused a famine in some southern regions of the Horn of Africa country, according to the UN.
Malnutrition rates worsen at newest Somali refugee camp
05 Sept – Source: VOA News – 402 words
Humanitarian agencies say the condition of newly-arrived Somali refugees at camps in Ethiopia is deteriorating as famine spreads inside Somalia. At the Hilaweyn camp along the Somalia- Ethiopia border, more than half the newly-arrived children are suffering from malnutrition.
Thirty children cling to life at the emergency ward of the Doctors without Borders clinic at Hilaweyn Camp. Eight died of severe malnutrition last week, and 80 more new cases show up at the door each morning.
Hilaweyn was just opened a month ago to handle the overflow from three other camps at Dollo Ado, a sprawling complex holding more than 120,000 refugees from Somalia’s famine zone. Hilaweyn’s emergency coordinator Voitek Asztabski says these recent arrivals are in worse shape than those who came earlier.
“They are chronically malnourished. The journey itself lasts for days or weeks. It’s a tremendous effort for them to cross and come to this place here. And they are not getting stronger during the walk, they are getting weaker, so that’s why what we observe is over 50 percent of malnourished kids below five years old that cross the border are malnourished,” he said. Asztabski says 1,800 children, or nearly half those under the age of five, are in the camp’s nutritional assistance program.
The United Nations refugee agency says the flow of refugees into Dollo Ado was more than 2,000 a day at its peak. Now the flow has dried to a trickle. But agency spokeswoman Laura Padoan says the latest group of refugees is showing symptoms of a variety of malnutrition-related diseases.