October 2, 2015 | Morning Headlines
Somalia Planning To Stop Relying On Foreign Aid
01 October – Source: Horseed Media – 261 Words
Somalia’s Federal government has said it is planning to move away from over-reliance on foreign aid as the country continues to recover from the over two decades of civil war.After attending a meeting with officials from the International development Bank on ways to rebuild the country’s economy structure held in neighbouring Kenya, Minister of Finance Mohamed Aden Fargeti stressed that the government will work on ways to stop relying on the assistance received from international donors. “We asked them to help us on rebuilding on our economy so that we can stop relying on foreign aid… for now we want to rebuild our economy infrastructure so that we can stop being dependent on foreign assistance,’’ he told journalists in Mogadishu.
Since the collapse of the central government in 1991, Somalia has been one of the largest recipients of foreign aid.Foreign aid is supposed to transfer resources and know-how from richer countries in order to accelerate social and economic development in poorer countries like Somalia. Unfortunately, foreign aid to Somalia has not produced the expected results.Much of Africa countries rely on foreign aid, despite economic growth in parts of the continent significantly outpacing the global average.Over the past 60 years at least $1 trillion of development-related aid has been transferred from rich countries to Africa. Yet real per-capita income today is lower than it was in the 1970s, and more than 50% of the population — over 350 million people — live on less than a dollar a day, a figure that has nearly doubled in two decades.
Key Headlines
- Somalia Planning To Stop Relying On Foreign Aid (Horseed Media)
- Biting Water Shortages Hits A Section Of Gedo Region As Local Administrator Appeals For Help(Wacaal Media)
- Somalia Ratifies Cluster Munitions Convention (Goobjoog News)
- Al-Shabaab Raids Home Of Jalalaqsi District Commissioner (Wacaal Media)
- Somaliland’s British-Educated President Urged To Save Mentally-Ill Man From Death Row (The Telegraph)
- Mental Health Workers Hope To Overcome Stigma In Somali Community (MPR News)
- Al-Qaida or Islamic State? Issue Simmers Within Al-Shabab (VoA)
NATIONAL MEDIA
Biting Water Shortages Hits A Section Of Gedo Region As Local Administrator Appeals For help
01 October – Source: Wacaal Media – 138 Words
Residents of several settlements in Gedo region of Southern Somalia are facing death in the eyes after shortage of water hit the areas where they live. People trek for kilometers in search for the all-important commodity Most affected areas include Garileey town where a section of businessmen do water tracking charging residents exorbitant amounts. Assistant district commissioner of Garileey
Hilowle Mohamed says a barrel of water goes for 100,000 Somali shillings which he said was beyond the reach of many. “There is no water in this town. A barrel goes for 100,000 as sold by people who fetch from far flung areas. If urgent measures are not put in place local people at risk of dying of thirst” said the administrator. He appealed to government and non-governmental agencies to come to the rescue of local people .
Somalia Ratifies Cluster Munitions Convention
01 October – Source: Goobjoog News – 300 Words
Somalia has deposited its instruments of ratification to the Convention on Cluster Munitions with Secretary-General of the United Nations at the UN headquarters in New York joining other 96 states.The Convention calls on states to provide assistance, including medical care, rehabilitation and psychological support, and to provide for the economic and social inclusion of survivors, their families, and communities.“After almost six years of hard work and encouragements, I am very happy to see that my government has ultimately ratified the Convention. This will pave the way to fully implement the Convention’s provisions and to clear all cluster bomb remnants in my country, mainly in border areas between Somalia and Ethiopia,” said Dahir Abdirahman of the Somalia Coalition to Ban Landmines. In a 2014 statement, Somalia recognized that the needs of cluster munition survivors in the country are mostly unmet. Other States Parties in a position to do so have a legal obligation to provide resources and to support victim assistance in affected states.
Somalia is not known to have used, produced, transferred, or stockpiled cluster munitions. Cluster munition contamination believed to date from the 1977–1978 Ogaden War between Somalia and Ethiopia was discovered in 2013, but it is unclear who was responsible for the use. Cluster munition remnants pose a daily threat to nomadic people and their herds.“We also urge other African countries still outside the Convention to come on board. We want to see the whole continent without cluster bombs,” added Abdirahman. The vast majority of sub-Saharan African states have joined the Convention, but 13 still need to ratify it to become full States Parties. A small number are still outside the Convention: Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Gabon, Mauritius, South Sudan, Sudan and Zimbabwe.The Convention will enter into force for Somalia on 1 March 2016.
Al-Shabaab Raids Home Of Jalalaqsi District Commissioner
01 October – Source: Wacaal Media – 77 Words
Al-Shabaab militants on Thursday raided the home of Jalalaqsi district commissioner Mohamed Abdulle Fiidow. Sources told Wacaal media soldiers guarding the administrator’s home were able to ward off the attackers although they lost one officer while one militant was also killed. Mr. Fiidow was not in his home at the time of attack. Officials told Wacaal media that the assailants wanted to eliminate the district administrator who is guarded by a contingent from the Somali National Army.
INTERNATIONAL MEDIA
Somaliland’s British-Educated President Urged To Save Mentally-Ill Man From Death Row
01 October – Source : The Telegraph – 523 Words
The sister of a mentally-ill man who faces execution by firing squad in Somaliland has pleaded with the country’s British-educated leader to issue him a presidential pardon.Faisa Ali’s brother Abdullah, who has a history of psychosis, has been sentenced to death by the country’s supreme court for shooting dead of his friends during an argument.With appeals through the legal system now exhausted, his sister, who lives in west London, is now appealing for an intervention by Ahmed Mohamed Mohamoud, the country’s president.
Mr Mohamoud spent part of his early life in Britain and has a degree from Manchester University.She has also appealed help from Grant Shapps, the current Minister of State at Britain’s Department for International Development, who visited Somaliland this summer, and whose department is bankrolling a £20 million national development fund for Somaliland.”The court have made their final decision, so my only chance now is to appeal to the president, who I know has a long history with Britain and a good relationship with the British government,” Ms Ali, 27, told The Telegraph on Thursday. “I am asking him to act to show mercy before it is too late.”
Mental Health Workers Hope To Overcome Stigma In Somali Community
01 October -Source: MPR News – 698 Words
The effects of trauma experienced by Somali refugees and their children in Minnesota can be persistent and debilitating, yet few are getting the help they need.Saida Abdi, who has been working with refugee youth for 20 years, says to understand why some young people may not be seeking appropriate care, you need to go back one generation.”If you talk to any parent, they will tell you, ‘The only reason I migrated, I came as a refugee, left everything I know behind … I left to save my children.’ So when they come here and hear something like, ‘Your child has a mental illness,’ they may see that as a great loss.”
Abdi says the parents despair that their children will never be able to find a job or finish school. Abdi, a social worker and researcher at Boston Children’s Hospital, says that’s because there’s a huge misunderstanding in her Somali-American community about mental illness.”We say in my culture, we have someone who is completely ‘mad’ or ‘crazy,’ or someone who is healthy,” Abdi said. “There’s nothing in between.”
But that “in between” is vast. Part of Abdi’s job has been to explain that someone who has depression or anxiety can be treated with medication and therapy.Her latest work is a research project that ties into the problem of radicalization among some young Somalis in the Twin Cities. She’s interviewed several hundred Somali youth in Minneapolis, Boston, Toronto and two cities in Maine — Portland and Lewiston. The question she’s trying to answer is what makes some of them vulnerable to violence, whether it’s recruitment for a gang or for a terror group.
OPINION, ANALYSIS, AND CULTURE
“That source said al-Shabab leadership told them they will be “pleased” with the successes of IS, but said it will take a “clear line” against anyone seen advocating for a break from al-Qaida.“In many ways the affiliation of al-Shabab with either ISIS or al-Qaida is not terribly significant because the movement does not get that much support from either one,” said Ken Menkhaus, professor of political science at Davidson College in North Carolina.”
Al-Qaida or Islamic State? Issue Simmers Within Al-Shabab
30 September – Source : VoA – 922 Words
Somalia’s Al-Shabab militants have moved to silence members suspected of pushing the group to switch its main alliance from al-Qaida to the Islamic State extremist group.Residents of Jamame and other sources tell VOA’s Somali Service that the group has detained five of its foreign members in the town, about 60 kilometers south of Mogadishu.The identities of the five are not yet known, though residents say heavily-armed al-Shabab security men made the arrests Tuesday night in a raid on a home. Gunfire was heard, but it’s unknown if anyone was hurt.It’s not exactly clear what caused this crackdown, but sources say some foreigners recently have voiced their support for the Islamic State.
Sources close to the militants have confirmed that al-Shabab’s leaders have issued an internal memo aimed at silencing pro-IS elements, who are accused of stirring up dissent.The memo reportedly stated the group’s policy is to continue allegiance with al-Qaida and that any attempt to create discord over this position will be dealt with according to Islamic law. The directive instructs that any speech made in public or in mosques about policies, operations and guidance first must be cleared with the group’s media office. “Some young jihadists were for the pro-IS idea, but they have been warned and most of them have now renounced it,” one source said.