April 14, 2015 | Daily Monitoring Report.
Malawi, Somalia To Save Terrified Citizens
14 April – Source: Times Live – 933 Words
Malawi and Somalia are preparing to repatriate their countrymen after weeks of xenophobic violence in KwaZulu-Natal. Last night, the Somali embassy said it was trying to trace its citizens and help them escape the violence. It has demanded urgent assistance from the Department of International Relations and Co-operation. The Malawian government said it would be helping citizens living in South Africa to return to their homeland following the violence. Malawian Information Minister Kondwani Nankhumwa said: “The situation is really tense as about 360 Malawians are stranded in South Africa following the xenophobic attacks there.” Nankhumwa said the Malawian embassy in Pretoria had started processing temporary travel documents for its nationals. “Malawians targeted have lost everything, including their passports.” It is unclear whether the Mozambican, Zimbabwean and Congolese government have similar plans.
Fresh attacks took place in KwaMashu, north of Durban, on Sunday and yesterday. Thousands of foreigners are in transit camps after three weeks of violence, in which five people are believed to have died. Looting of foreign-owned shops continued last night. Earlier, police fired stun grenades to disperse a crowd of about 300 people in the Durban city centre apparently in search for foreigners. International Relations and Co-operation spokesman Clayson Monyela declined to comment on the move by Malawi and Somalia. Fears that the xenophobic violence will spread have been stoked by the statements of ANC leaders. Human rights lawyers and political analysts yesterday criticised ANC secretary-general Gwede Mantashe for calling for the establishment of refugee camps for immigrants. They said his was a knee-jerk reaction. Mantashe’s call is the latest labelled as inciting. Two weeks ago, Zulu King Goodwill Zwelithini reportedly told a moral regeneration gathering that foreigners should leave the country. He has denied the statements and denounced the violence.
Key Headlines
- Terror Suspects With The Frozen Accounts Appear Before Kenyan CID Headquarters In Nairobi (Radio RBC)
- Entities In Central Regions Accuse Federal Government Of Sabotage (Goobjoog News)
- Dadaab Returnees In Squalid Conditions In Baidoa (Radio Ergo)
- You Cannot Forcefully Relocate Refugees Somalia Tells Kenya (Somali Current)
- UN Can Help Refugees In Somalia Says Mathira MP (The Star Kenya)
- Banks Eye More Diaspora Cash After Hawalas Closure (Business Daily Africa)
- Qatar Somalia Discuss Bilateral Relations (Ministry Of Foreign Affairs Qatar)
- Somali Refugees Decry Kenya’s Demand That The UN Relocate Their Camp (Al Jazeera)
- Malawi Somalia To Save Terrified Citizens (Times Live)
- Could Somalia Be The Best Real Estate Investment In The World? (AFK Insider)
- Escape Or Die: When Pirates Captured A Cargo Ship Its Crew Faced One Desperate Choice After Another. (The New Yorker)
- The Blurred Line Between Politics Of Subjectivity And Women Rights (RBC Radio)
SOMALI MEDIA
Terror Suspects With The Frozen Accounts Appear Before Kenyan CID Headquarters In Nairobi
14 April – Source: Radio RBC – 282 Words
Alleged terror suspects whose accounts were frozen by Kenyan Government appeared before Kenyan Criminal Investigation Department’s headquarters in Nairobi on Monday, Raxanreeb Online Reports. The Kenyan government froze the accounts of dozens of businessmen, mostly of Somali origin, last week after suspecting them of financing Al-shabab, the militant group who recently staged a bloody attack on a university in Garissa, killing at least 148 students and wounding hundreds of others. Suspects, all with frozen accounts, were called to appear before the Criminal Investigation Department in Nairobi’s South C neighborhood on Monday morning for questioning. Among those who appeared before the CID headquarters is Professor Mohamed Shiekh Osman, Kenyan University RAF Chairman, who said he was surprised to see his name on the terror suspects list.
“They are saying ‘why is it wrong to appear on this list,’ and we don’t know what to say. We are asking the government to tell us what we did wrong and the government is saying ‘no, tell us why you believe it is wrong that your name appeared in this list,” the professor said, speaking to Somali Media. He urged the government of Kenya to investigate them but set them free if they are not found guilty of any crime.Others who were listed as possible financiers of Al-shabab include local kenyan business men of Somali origin, who claimed to have never been to Somalia. The Kenyan government is instituting stiff security measures after the Garissa university attack, including the closure of Somali remittance services. International humanitarian organizations have warned that the step to close money transfer services could further escalate the humanitarian crisis Somalia.
Entities In Central Regions Accuse Federal Government Of Sabotage
14 April – Source: Goobjoog News – 126 Words
Three local administration in the central regions; Galmudug State, Ahlu Sunna Waljamah, Himan and Heb have issued a joint statement accusing the government of dragging its feet e formation of a Central State and of interference in the process. In a press conference attended by Abdi Awale Qeybdid of Galmudug, Sheik Ahmed Hassan Hureye of Ahlu Sunna and Abdullahi Ali Mohamed aka Barleh of Himan and Heb, they jointly requested for free and fair process of state formation. “People’s will should prevail and there should not be any kind of interference” said the regional leaders. In a six point statement, they hold the government responsible of the delays in the conference, they also demanded international observers take note, and warned the technical committee of engaging matters that they are not mandated to engage in.
Dadaab Returnees In Squalid Conditions In Baidoa
13 April – Source: Radio Ergo – 208 Words
Some 50 families who returned over the past eight months from the Dadaab refugee camps in Kenya say they are struggling to rebuild their lives in Baidoa. Radio Ergo’s Baidoa reporter interviewed several members of the affected families in ADC camp for the displaced. Fardowsa Jelle Ibrahim returned from Ifo refugee camp seven months ago. She and her family live in a hovel made of branches and old cartons which cannot shelter them from the rain. Nuney Ibrahim Hassan, 32 with eight children, also returned from Ifo. She appealed for plastic sheets to waterproof her hut. Nuney said she left the refugee camps hoping for better security and a better life, but has been disappointed.
Amino Mohamed shared similar sentiments. “We dearly need plastic sheets to cover our huts in this heavy rainfall. I have five children and my only income is from fetching firewood to sell in the market,” she said. ADC camp leader Ibrahim Abdi Ali said the families had returned home voluntarily from Dadaab without any support to ease their resettlement. Some were prevented from going back to their farms in Bay region due to insecurity, while all lacked money anyway to invest in starting up farming again.
You Cannot Forcefully Relocate Refugees, Somalia Tells Kenya
13 April – Source: Somali Current – 267 Words
The Somali government has distanced itself from plans announced by the Kenyan government to relocate Somali refugees back to Somalia, saying it was not consulted on the matter. Abdisalan Hadliye Omar, the Minister for Foreign Affairs, registered his displeasure over the Kenyan government and how it seeks to roll out the relocation plan. Speaking to the VOA Somali service, Abdisalan Hadliye said Kenya “cannot forcefully relocate the refugees without them voluntarily leaving the camps.” “We are in talks with the Kenyan government on the matter,” he said in aphone interview. He added: “Kenya did not involve us in their latest relocation plan. We have a three-sided agreement reached into by the Kenyan government, the federal Somali Government and the UNHCR,” he said. Kenya is bound by the international treaty it signed regarding the refugees, he added.
He said the Somali government was working on how to consolidate the treaty adding that the refugees would be convinced to voluntarily return to their homeland.The Kenyan deputy president Sunday gave the Somali refugees three months to vacate the camps, saying the camps were used by terrorist groups to launch attacks against the Kenyan citizenry.“The United States took drastic measure to combat terrorism after 9/11 and Kenya will never be same following the Garissa University attack,” he stated. Dadaab refugee camp, the biggest in the world, is formally inhabited by more than half a million people, whose occupants are mainly Somalis that fled the civil war that rocked the country in the early nineties after the fall of the Siad Barre regime.
REGIONAL MEDIA
UN Can Help Refugees In Somalia, Says Mathira MP
14 April – Source: The Star Kenya – 95 Words
Mathira MP Peter Weru has said he supports the government directive to close the Dadaab refugee camp.Weru said the government must take “unfavourable” measures to secure its people. He said civil society and the international community do not have to support the government directive. “It is time government makes hard decisions, which must not please all parties,” Weru said. He addressed the public at Kabiruini Catholic church, Nyeri, on Sunday. “The UN should support the refugees from Somalia while in their country,” Weru said. “Dadaab camp is becoming a haven for criminals and a unit of strategising crime. They better go back.” Weru asked Northeastern leaders to furnish the state with names of al Shabaab members, financiers and sympathisers.
Banks Eye More Diaspora Cash After Hawalas Closure
13 April – Source: Business Daily Africa – 634 Words
Banks are set to reap a sizable chunk of remittance business following Wednesday’s suspension of licences for 13 hawala money transfer firms suspected of having links with Al-Shabaab terror group. Half of diaspora remittances into Kenya come in through unofficial channels with the hawala system suspected to handle the bulk of this money. It is now expected that senders will have to revert to conventional means as the government tightens the noose around transfers that are not easily traceable. Kenya Bankers Association (KBA) chief executive Habil Olaka said the government’s move, which was in conformity to the Anti-Money Laundering Act was long overdue. “Banks play within the rules and the alternative left (for the senders) is to use the formal channels which is the banks that are well regulated,” he said.
The Treasury estimates that Kenyans in the diaspora sent Sh108 billion ($1.2 billion) through unofficial channels last year equal to the sum sent officially. Mahmoud Issa who operates a clothing shop in Eastleigh told the Business Daily that he has no option but to revert to either Western Union or Moneygram transfer services. “I usually receive money from my cousin in Dubai for the business but now we have to use these alternative means until the hawala system comes back,” he said. The hawala system is preferred for its flexibility, speed and low cost compared to other money transfer services. Dahabshiil, the most popular of the suspended firms for example charges £6 to send £100 to Kenya (six per cent) with the firm saying that the money is ready for collection within 15 minutes. The availability of multiple firms has seen customers pay even lower rates. The cost of sending cash into the country through formal means is estimated at 9.2 per cent of the value of the transfer, above the global average of 7.72 per cent. For those transferring the money, the difference of over three per cent is significant as they look to send the largest amount possible back home. Mr Olaka said that the banking sector is currently looking at ways of further reducing the amount to entice more members of the diaspora to use the formal means.
Qatar, Somalia Discuss Bilateral Relations
13 April – Source: Qatar Ministry Of Foreign Affairs – 49 Words
Information office / Somalia’s Minister of Labor and Social Affairs Abdiweli Ibrahim Sheikh Mudeey met Charge d’affaires of Qatar’s Embassy in Somalia Hassan bin Hamza Assad Mohammed. During the meeting, they discussed bilateral relations between the two countries and ways of enhancing them, in addition to issues of common concern.
INTERNATIONAL MEDIA
Somali Refugees Decry Kenya’s Demand That The UN Relocate Their Camp
14 April – Source: Al Jazeera – 599 Words
Somali refugees living in Kenya’s Dadaab refugee camp pleaded on Monday for Nairobi to reconsider its demand that the United Nations relocate the camp to Somalia — a move, some say, that would breach international law, overwhelm Somalia’s government and provide the feared armed group Al-Shabab with recruits. Kenya’s deputy president, William Ruto, insisted Saturday that the U.N. move the camp in northeastern Kenya across the border following the April 2 attack at a Kenyan university where Al Shabab fighters gunned down nearly 150 people. “We have asked the UNHCR to relocate the refugees in three months, failure to which we shall relocate them ourselves,” Ruto said in a statement.Dadaab, home to an estimated 500,000 Somalis who fled their country’s decades-long civil war, is the world’s largest refugee camp. Kenya, which is leading a military intervention against Al-Shabab in Somalia, has accused the group of hiding some of its leaders in Dadaab. The camp’s residents, however, fear that a return to Somalia would prove dangerous given the ongoing fighting in the country.
“Going back to Somalia is not an option for us, even the leaders of the Somali government are not safe and have to travel in tanks belonging to peacekeepers,” Khalif Ali Sokor, a camp resident, told Al Jazeera.Saturday’s call is not the first time the Kenyan government has tried to repatriate Somali refugees. In 2013, it signed an agreement with the U.N. refugee agency and Somalia for the repatriation of hundreds of Somalis, who returned voluntarily.Any further repatriation must abide by this agreement to avoid violating international law, but some analysts say national security concerns could drive Nairobi to renege on the deal. “They may say that their national security interests trump the need to abide by the international convention they signed,” said Joshua Meservey, assistant director at the Atlantic Council’s Africa Center.
Could Somalia Be The Best Real Estate Investment In The World?
13 April – Source: AFK Insider – 402 Words
War-torn horn of African nation, Somalia, could be the best long-term real estate investment destination in the world today due to a high population growth expected in the region by the close of the century, according to a study by a Swedish professor Hans Rosling. Africa is expected to account for over two-thirds of the world’s additional 3 billion people by the end of the 21st century, while a third of them will be in Asia. Rosling predicts that demand for Somalia’s surf-beaten golden sands beaches, which are the longest in Africa will increase as a growing middle class in Asia and Africa seek for new holiday destinations along the Indian Ocean. “The Indian Ocean will be the Atlantic of the next generations,” the Financial Times quoted Rosling saying in the study.
While Somalia might not look like much of a destination right now, due to the two decade-long civil war between government forces helped by African Union units and Islamic militant Al Shabab that seek to install sharia laws in the country, its prospect could rise in the long term once the conflict is diffused. With 3 billion people in the middle-class in Asia by 2030, according to forecasts by the Brookings Institution, investment on new luxury destinations away from the traditional one will be rewarded with more spending be these new consumers. “The wealth created in Asia has hit the cities but it hasn’t yet hit the leisure property industry, with the possible exception of Japanese ski resorts,” Yolande Barnes, director of world research at Savills, told the Financial Times.
Property companies, such as Knight Frank, are already acting on this trend. In its 2015 report, Knight Frank said that Africa’s rapid population increase coupled by a strong economic growth across several countries on the continent was building a formidable middle class that could prove too attractive for global real estate investors to ignore over the coming decade. According to the report, Africa’s population is estimated to reach four billion people by the start of the next century, “with nearly one billion of these people in Nigeria alone.” “Demographic growth produces economic growth in a much shorter period of time — both from people moving to the place and people being born there,” said Laurent Morel, chairman of Klépierre, Europe’s second-biggest listed property company, which specializes in shopping malls.
SOCIAL MEDIA
CULTURE / OPINION / EDITORIAL / ANALYSIS / BLOGS/ DISCUSSION BOARDS
“After the Albedo anchored near Somalia, most of the hijackers left the ship. They were replaced by about a dozen armed guards, two cooks, and a large man with a hoarse voice, who introduced himself as the new boss. Jabin, who had stayed on board, would be his head guard. The crewmen were assured that they would be home within weeks. “You are our guests,” the boss said. “We are only interested in money.”
Escape Or Die: When Pirates Captured A Cargo Ship, Its Crew Faced One Desperate Choice After Another.
April Edition – Source: The New Yorker – 7,987 Words
Aman Kumar, a seaman on the M.V. Albedo, was asleep when an announcement came over the loudspeaker: “Pirates are approaching.” The Albedo was in the Indian Ocean, a thousand miles from the eastern coast of Africa. Kumar rushed up a narrow stairwell to the bridge, where most of the ship’s twenty-three-man crew had already gathered. His bunkmate, Rajoo Rajbhar, pointed to port. They could make out a distant silhouette on top of the waves: an open-bow skiff. The Albedo’s captain, Jawaid Khan, had stored prewritten distress messages in his e-mail drafts folder. He entered the ship’s coördinates and sent messages to the European Union Naval Force, a regional maritime-security office, and a piracy-reporting center. Then he directed the steersman to maneuver the ship in a zigzag pattern. He called the engine room and ordered full steam, but the Albedo, a cargo ship on its way from the United Arab Emirates to Kenya, was old and sluggish.
It was the morning of November 26, 2010. The Albedo was west of the Maldives, closer to India than to Somalia, but Somali pirates were known to range broadly. So far that year, they had attacked more than two hundred ships, many of them in the central Indian Ocean. Before sailing, the crew had ringed the deck with barbed wire and affixed an electric wire to the gunwale, hoping to prevent anyone from boarding the ship uninvited. Kumar and Rajbhar plugged in the electric wire. By then, the skiff was just a few hundred yards away. On board were four men wearing T-shirts and sarongs and carrying Kalashnikov-style rifles. Some commercial crews had deterred hijackings by spraying assailants with fire hoses, among other tactics, but Captain Khan had never received antipiracy training. The sailors watched helplessly as the skiff pulled alongside the ship. The Albedo was weighed down with cargo, leaving its main deck close to the water. The pirates retrieved a long ladder with hooks on one end, hung it over the deck wall, and climbed it easily, without any shocks from the electric wire. (It may have malfunctioned, or the assailants may have been lucky and missed it.) The first pirate to reach the barbed wire pulled back for a moment, then charged through it, the metal cutting into his flesh. “I did not imagine people like these living in this world,” Kumar said.
“We need to recognize that the status of women’s rights in Somalia speaks to the broader challenge: the cultural impairment of women’s rights, which will require considerable improvement. The fact of the matter is that the action of the Somali government, to support another nation that is known for its violation of women’s rights, is a huge blow to the progress and improvement of women’s rights in Somalia.”
The Blurred Line Between Politics Of Subjectivity And Women Rights
13 April – Source: RBC Radio – 1,277 Words
Since the collapse of the central government in 1991, Somalia has suffered from civil-war, widespread famine, broken infrastructure, rampant human, women, and civil rights abuses, poverty, human trafficking, rape, murder and corruption on every level of the society. Given this backdrop and all the internal and external crises facing Somali society, I was dumbfounded to read a recent (March 24, 2015) Somali government press release, in which the government embroiled itself in a diplomatic dust-up between Sweden and Saudi Arabia.
The press release reads: “The Government of the Federal Republic of Somalia condemns the remarks made by the Swedish Foreign Minister regarding issues pertaining to the internal affairs of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. This behavior is clearly prohibited by the diplomatic norms and practices but also international law that governs the relationship between sovereign states”. The foremost important aspect is the respect for sovereign nations to choose their mode of governance and systems without the interference by external parties. This is a treasured principle that has served the world immensely and of which Somalia expects the adherence of all members of the international community”.
What is concerning about the message in this press release is not only that the government of Somalia take sides with Saudi Arabia, a country which is well-known for its human rights abuses and women’s subjugation, but it seems to acknowledge that it morally condones such abuse. This should be alarming to all Somalis, particularly Somali women who are not only the flag-bearers of the country, but essential participants in the foundation of our nation. Somali women are credited again and again for rebuilding the nation and for holding families together within the shattered communities during and after the civil war. Women are generally the primary victims of de-centralized war-torn nations: this holds true for Somali society. Without a strong centralized government to protect the rights of women and prevent human rights abuses, women repeatedly fall victim to discrimination, rape, murder, poverty and other abuses.
Top tweets
@deeqtaako: Breaking news: Ministry of High Education is under attack #Mogadishu #Somalia
@NewHorizonNH: We’re feeling inspired and hopeful for our plans for the #Mogadishu International Book Fair. #NewHorizon#Somalia
@Farhiyaa4: I know it will be a challenge for anyone to turn around #Somalia but we need to try and change starts with us.#AmbAmerico2016
@ibnuminjir: #Somalia Needs the Review of the petroleum and extractive industry’s legal and regulatory framework
@Cidilibaax: SFG & #Puntland first should lay down a foundation how the two integrating militarily before sending 3000 ARMY #Somalia @UNSomalia
@DEMASomalia: .#Somalia, #humanitarian partners readying for #floods.Replenishing stocks-hygiene activitieshttp://bit.ly/1I5RkwB
@Adesoafrica: 5 reasons #Kenya needs to reconsider money transfer ban to #Somalia #SomaliLifeline http://bit.ly/1CDtqop interesting read.
Image of the day
With a slightly lopsided picture of Mickey Mouse smiling behind them, children play at a hotel in Mogadishu – a city trying to heal from more than two decades of civil war and anarchy in Somalia. Series: Life In Mogadishu. Photo: Reuters.