October 16, 2015 | Morning Headlines
Somalia, N. Korea Top World’s Most Corrupt Nations Index
15 October – Source: Hiiraan Online – 219 Words
Despite the new security and development progress, Somalia continues to stay on top of the world’s most corrupt countries’ list every year with widespread backroom deals occurring all the time. Although great strides have been made since the African Union and Somali troops ousted militants from the capital of Mogadishu and surrounding regions, financial exploitation executed by unscrupulous officials continue to overshadow this good progress.
A new survey by Transparency International has put Somalia and North Korea on a red colour in the new map of the world’s most corrupt nations, denoting high-level of corruption in the President Hassan Sheikh Muhamud’s administration. Meanwhile Afghanistan is among the nations hailed for making great improvements, rising by five points since 2013: “Fast-growing economies whose governments refuse to be transparent and tolerate corruption, create a culture of impunity in which corruption thrives.” Said Jose Ugaz, the chair of Transparency International in the new release of Thursday.
Despite the new release, there have been alarming corruption cases by Somali officials that have been leaked by the United Nations Monitoring Group on Somalia and Eritrea over the past few years. Lack of effective financial system, and corruption tolerance by leaders are often attributed to the increasing culture of corruption. No high profile official has so far been charged over corruption allegations, a factor international financial experts say encourages the rampant corruption in the country. Among other African countries that feature among the 20 most corrupt countries, include Sudan, South Sudan, Libya, Eritrea, Guinea-Bissau, Angola, Burundi, and Zimbabwe.
Key Headlines
- Somalia N. Korea Top World’s Most Corrupt Nations Index (Hiiraan Online)
- Fissures Emerge Within Al-Shabaab Over Merger With ISIL (Garowe Online)
- AMISOM And Somali National Army Withdraw From Gandarshe (Wacaal Media)
- Cabinet Approves National Health And Drugs Policy (Goobjoog News)
- Pupils: Teacher Recruited Us Into Al-Shabaab (Daily Nation)
- Somali Woman Could Face Charges For Making False Rape Claim Nauru’s Government Says (Radio Australia)
- Nowhere To Go In Somalia (CNN)
- Going It Alone (The Economist)
NATIONAL MEDIA
Fissures Emerge Within Al-Shabaab Over Merger With ISIL
15 October – Source: Garowe Online – 301 Words
In July, credible sources told Garowe Online that Al-Shabaab group’s brass was pondering whether to join the most dangerous Global Jihadist Movement, the so-called ‘Islamic State’. Today, militants are as fragmented as ever, and bitter dissension is gaining momentum in influential ranks and supporters. On Wednesday, VOA Somali Service reported that leaders ideologically aligned with crumbing Al-Qaeda network ordered the arrest of 30 people suspected to be leaning towards the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL). In the town of Jilib, 97km north of the southern port city of Kismayo, the situation has been tense since July, with Deputy Chief, Mahad Karate pressuring Al Shabaab leader, Abu Ubaidah to agree to allegiance to Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.
Since Tuesday, there has been heated bickering over the matter, with Al-Shabaab allied clerics worried of the growing support for ISIL. Just two weeks ago, Al-Shabaab detained five foreigners in nearby Jamame in Lower Jubba region of southern Somalia on suspicion of being ISIL sympathizers. Secret seems little after ISIL leader invited Abu Ubaidah to the group in March this year. Abu Ubaidah became serious about cutting off ties with Ayman al-Zawahiri in July; however the now-potential merger was at the time faced with mysterious hurdles. Leaflets carrying: “We support the Islamic State’ and ‘we are the sons of the caliphate,’ were sighted in Jamame earlier this week, prompting pro-Al Qaeda factions to make surprise roundups. Boko Haram is spearheading calls for beleaguered Somali militants to swear loyalty to al-Baghdadi in its latest message. Nigerian terror group has advised Al-Shabaab to consider the benefit of uniting under a single caliph. Somali government forces aided by African Union peacekeepers have made advances on the frontline, hemming militants deeper into remote areas in central and southern Somalia.
AMISOM And Somali National Army Withdraw From Gandarshe
15 October – Source: Wacaal Media – 99 Words
Reports reaching us from Lower Shabelle region indicate that the joint forces of AMISOM and Somali National Army have withdrawn from Gandarshe town two days after taking it over from Al-Shabaab. A local resident confirmed to Wacaal Media on condition of anonymity that the withdrawal of the forces had left residents at the mercy of the militants. “The forces left for Lambar Lihdan location and it was not clear why they withdrew,” he lamented. The withdrawal comes after an AMISOM soldier allegedly shot dead a well-known local tradition elder and injured another two people in the area after shooting indiscriminately at a group of people.
Cabinet Approves National Health And Drugs Policy
October 15 – Source: Goobjoog News – 135 Words
Cabinet today approved a national health and drugs policy, which will be instrumental in regulating sale and dispensing of drugs in the country. The policy also provides a regulatory framework on the operation of pharmacies in the country to ensure those dispensing medicines are qualified and certified to carry out such work. The Minister of Health, Hawo Hassan Mohamed, briefed the Cabinet on the need and importance of having a national health and drugs policy to promote best practices in public health in the country.
Meanwhile the Prime Minister has called on ministers to quickly implement the proposals raised during the meeting on impeachment of the President. The meeting, which was attended by a section of MPs who support the impeachment process, agreed that ministers will appear before respective parliamentary committees to respond to charges raised in the impeachment motion.
INTERNATIONAL MEDIA
Pupils: Teacher Recruited Us Into Al-Shabaab
15 October – Source: Daily Nation – 300 Words
Four children have told a Kenyan court how their madrassa teacher recruited them into Al-Shabaab and taught them martial arts. The children, aged six to 16, said Mr Samwel Wanjala Wambwile alias Salim Muhamud Wambwile also taught them radicalism. The court was moved to their Gandini Primary in Kaloleni, Kilifi County,on Tuesday for the session.
Principal Magistrate Diana Mochache also heard evidence from the children’s parents, teachers, a police officer as well as a children’s officer. Mr Wambwile is accused of recruiting seven children in the school to become Al-Shabaab members on June 19, 2015. The magistrate, however, declined to let one of them, a four-year-old nursery school pupil to testify, saying she was too young.
A standard five girl told Ms Mochache that the teacher taught them martial arts and advised them to fight non-Muslims in school.The children said the teacher, a suspended Maseno University student, carried out the training inside the Jilad mosque. A boy, also in class five, told the court that the teacher inscribed the words “Radical Boys” on their shirts and told them all non-Muslims should be persecuted to death. He told us not to mingle with non-Muslims in school and at home,” a standard seven pupil said.
Somali Woman Could Face Charges For Making False Rape Claim, Nauru’s Government Says
16 October – Source: Radio Australia – 398 Words
A 26-year-old Somali woman who says she was raped in August may be charged with making a false complaint to police, the Nauruan government says. The refugee’s case was raised last month on “7.30”, after the program obtained a video recording of the emergency call she made after the alleged incident on August 21. The woman, known as Najma, reported to police that two Nauruan men had dragged her into the bushes and raped her.
Earlier this week, the island nation’s government released a statement rejecting the woman’s claims. “There was no lacerations or bruising around the vaginal region and a spermatozoa test on the victim after a vaginal swab proved negative,” the statement said. It also distributed a police file of the incident, including the alleged rape victim’s real name.
Now Nauru’s justice minister, David Adeang, says Namja could have committed a crime. Mr Adeang, who said the women concerned may face charges of making a false complaint, stood by the country’s police force “one hundred per cent”: “The police investigation has shown there was no rape. Therefore, as far as we are concerned, the person in question is not a rape victim or a victim of any crime,” he explained in a Nauru government statement.
“The person did not cooperate with police and refused to accompany police to what she alleged was the crime scene.” The minister said media outlets should stop referring to the person as a rape victim and should accept the findings of the investigation. Mr Adeang said media outlets — including the ABC — were not interested “in the truth” and reports were “insulting to genuine victims of assault”. “These media outlets have such an agenda they only accept the truth that suits them. Truth is the real victim here,” the minister claimed.
Nowhere To Go In Somalia
15 October – Source: CNN – Video: 1:44 Minutes
OPINION, ANALYSIS, AND CULTURE
“But not all members of the Diaspora are welcome. Newcomers are buying up land, pushing up property prices—which, in a country with a creaking legal system, can lead to bloody disputes. And tension simmers between two different Diaspora groups: Westerners, and those from Saudi Arabia, Yemen and the other Gulf states.”
Going It Alone
15 October – Source: The Economist – 943 Words
Sahra Halgan, a musician, fled Hargeisa in northern Somalia in 1991. The city she left was a smoking ruin; most of the population was scattered. But in 2013, after 22 years living in France and working as a cleaner, she felt the urge to return. “I love France, but my country is called Somaliland,” she says. And so she set up a restaurant. At weekends, it fills up with Coca-Cola-sipping young men in smart shirts and women in bright silk head-dresses. Musicians strum the lute-like oud and sing folk songs, as plates of camel meat and spiced rice circulate and the audience hold up their iPhones to take selfies.
Stories such as Ms Halgan’s abound in Hargeisa, the capital of Somaliland, a breakaway region which declared independence from the rest of Somalia in 1991. Unlike Mogadishu, the capital of Somalia proper, Hargeisa is broadly safe, and undergoing a remarkable economic boom. On its dusty streets, goats compete for space with Land Cruisers; new businesses such as “the English Beauty Salon” and “the Scandinavian hotel” are everywhere. In cafés Somalis with accents from London, Minnesota and Amsterdam sip frappuccinos. The boom is an indicator of how successful other parts of Somalia could be if the fighting could be stopped. But it also comes with tensions that could undermine the fragile peace.
Almost every building in Hargeisa has been constructed in the past two decades. In the city centre a Russian-built MiG is mounted on a crudely painted plinth: a relic from the Somali civil war, which ran from the late 1980s until 1991, when the city was comprehensively destroyed by Siad Barre, Somalia’s last military dictator. The war convinced many that they wanted nothing to do with any government in Mogadishu. On the plinth is the date “26th June”, the day on which, in 1960, Somaliland gained its independence from Britain, five days before it formally joined Somalia, newly independent from Italy. Most Somalilanders think the union was a mistake.