13 Sept 2011 – Daily Monitoring Report
Key Headlines:
- Somali MPs: Internatioanal community should investigate human abuse of Puntland state
- Turkish delegates reach aid food to Shabaab control area in lower shabelle region
- Kuwait GCC were ”extremely generous” to famine relief efforts in Somalia
- Naval chiefs warn of rise in Somali piracy
- Abducted Briton feared in Somalia as Kenya expands search
SOMALI MEDIA
Somali MPs: Internatioanal community should investigate human abuse of Puntland state
13 Sept – Source: Mareeg Online – 168 words
Some Somali MPs from Bay and Bakol region who had a meeting in Mogadishu on Monday have called the international community to investigate human abuse by the Puntland state, reports said. The MPs called IGAD, AU, UN and the USA to search for human abuse in which they said Puntland state do harm to people from southern parts of the country, reports said. Mohamed Sh. Ali, one of the MPs who attended the meeting in Mogadishus said that the (Digil and Mirifle) clans would not attend the second phase of the UN-sponsored consultative talks which will happen in Garowe of Puntland Administration, due to what he called ‘Puntland harming their people there’.
http://www.mareeg.com/fidsan.
Calm returns to southern Somalia town
13 Sept – Source: Radio Shabelle – 101 words
After TFG forces clashed among themselves, calm returned to the town of Elwak of Gedo region in southern Somalia.The armed confrontation between Somali government forces in the region came after some government soldiers fled Elwak town following an al Shabaab attack. The number of casualties is still unclear as a result of the confrontation, but government officers in the region confirmed the armed clash. Meanwhile, tension is high as Somali soldiers and al Shabaab fighters are reportedly preparing to clash in the town of Elwak.
Turkish delegates sends aid food to al Shabaab-controlled area in lower Shabelle region
13 Sept – Source: Mareeg online – 147 words
Turkish delegates who arrived in Mogadishu yesterday have managed to bring aid food to one of the largest IDPs camps administered by al Shabaab in K50, lower Shabelle region, reports said. Part of Turkish delegates who arrived in Mogadishu yesterday morning have reached an al Shabaab-controlled area, brining aid food to Ala-yasir camp in K50 in lower Shabelle region, reports said.
Head of Ala-yasir IDP camp for al Shabaab militias, Sheikh Ayman welcomed Turkish officials there and thanked them for their brotherhood support. Murad Kafakdan, head of Turkish officials who brought aid to the Somali people over there said they managed to transport aid there through a local agency called Zamzam Foundation and visited themselves al Shabaab-controlled areas, adding that they would reach aid to Baidoa and Kismayo which al Shabaab controls, reports said. This is the first time Turkish officials visit an area controlled by al Shabaab.
http://www.mareeg.com/fidsan.
REGIONAL MEDIA
Kuwait, GCC were ”extremely generous” to famine relief efforts in Somalia
13 Sept – Source: Kuna News – 688 words
Kuwait and GCC countries have been extremely generous when it came to offering financial support to the famine relief efforts in Somalia, the UN’s Undersecretary General and Emergency Relief Coordinator (USG/ERC) Valerie Amos said here Tuesday. “His Highness the Amir of Kuwait had really led the call of providing financial support with his personal USD one million,” she said, adding that the rest of Kuwait followed suit, making itself of the leading donors. “Part of the purpose of the visit is to thank peoples and governments for the support they’ve giving us and shed more light on the situation in the drought-stricken Horn of Africa,” Amos told Kuwait News Agency (KUNA).
“Some 13 million people are hit by famine in the Horn of Africa, four million of which are in Somalia, scattered over seven regions,” she noted. Amos’s remarks came on the sideline of the Second Annual Workshop on Information Sharing for Better Humanitarian Action. The two-day event, which kicked off earlier yesterday under the auspice of Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Sheikh Dr. Mohammad Sabah Al-Salem Al-Sabah, is organized by United Nation’s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) and in cooperation with the International Islamic Charitable Organization (IICO) and Direct Aid. “Within Somalia, the security situation in the capital Mogadishu remains extremely fragile. I was there about three or four weeks ago and saw large numbers of people moving in Mogadishu for food and aid.
“I was shocked to see the level of malnutrition in children. We’re facing enormous challenges, as the problem was not only the lack of food, but also lack of other services, like healthcare and shelter. “With al-Shabaab movement controlling a number of major areas, they banned some aid agencies, like the UN’s World Food Programme, from practicing their activities,” Amos, who for the last 30 years was active on the promotion of human rights, social justice and equality on the African continent, pointed out.
http://www.kuna.net.kw/
INTERNATIONAL MEDIA
Naval chiefs warn of rise in Somali piracy
13 Sept – Source: Financial Times – 554 words
Military commanders are expecting a sharp rise in attacks by Somali pirates amid shipping industry warnings that the problem is worsening in the Indian Ocean. The expected increase in raids coincides with the end of the monsoon. The rains and rough seas between June and September make it harder for the pirates to mount attacks from their small skiffs. Attacks on shipping in the Indian Ocean were running at record levels in the early part of the year, before the rainy season set in, as the pirates shifted their attention from the Gulf of Aden to the vastness of the Arabian Sea and Indian Ocean. Somali pirates are responsible for 23 hijackings so far this year – just under half the record total of 49 in 2010 – and have taken 399 seafarers hostage, according to data from the International Maritime Bureau.
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/
Abducted Briton feared in Somalia as Kenya expands search
13 Sept – Source: AP – 508 words
An air, land and sea search for a British woman abducted from a luxury Kenyan beach lodge has yielded no leads, raising fears she has been taken to neighbouring Somalia, police said Tuesday. “We are still going on with the search. We do not yet know where she is. We have put out appeals to the public but nothing has been forthcoming. We have not succeeded,” Aggrey Adoli, the police chief for Coast Province, said. “Our teams are still out there, we are gathering all the intelligence on the ground. I can only say we have not found her at all.” The woman, believed to be in her mid-fifties, was abducted after unknown assailants killed her husband in the early hours of Sunday, soon after arriving at the Kiunga marine reserve on the Lamu archipelago off Kenya’s northern coast. Adoli declined to say whether the woman was thought to be in neighbouring Somalia but a senior police officer who asked not to be named told AFP: “We are speaking with the Somali government … We strongly believe she was abducted by foreign forces.” The same officer said: “Elders on the other side in Somalia will be involved; they will try to talk to the suspected abductors so that they can confirm if they are holding her.” Kenyan police named the couple as David and Judith Tebbutt, believed to be in their mid-fifties, from the town of Bishop’s Stortford in southeast England. Kiwayu Safari Village, where the couple were the only guests, is just 40 kilometres (25 miles) from the Somali border.
US forces have in recent years carried out air raids on the Kenya-Somalia border area targeting regional Al-Qaeda figures. On Tuesday search helicopters flew regular flights from Lamu airport as search efforts continued. The attack has caused fear on the main Lamu island that it will badly damage tourism on which it so heavily depends.
http://uk.news.yahoo.com/
BLOGS, CULTURE AND EDITORIALS
Shocking images aren’t enough
13 Sept – Source: The Globe and Mail, by Marilyn McHarg (executive director of Médecins sans frontières/Doctors Without Borders Canada) – 100 words
Since the media renewed their interest in the decades-old crisis in and around Somalia, we’ve seen a surge of advertisements from aid groups, featuring starving children with visible ribs and staring eyes. The subtext to these ads is that, if you don’t donate, you’re abandoning these children and they’ll die. It’s that simple.
http://www.theglobeandmail.