November 20, 2015 | Daily Monitoring Report
Somali Police Conduct Security Sweep Outside Mogadishu, Detain Al-Shabaab Suspects
20 November – Source: Shabelle News – 99 Words
Somali Police and AMISOM have launched, on Friday, a joint security sweep at the Agriculture University area and Arbiska village in the outskirts of Mogadishu. The security forces began their operation on Friday at dawn targeting suspected militants’ hideouts, with reports indicating that scores of youths had been detained during the house-to-house search. The suspects arrested in the operation were taken into custody in Mogadishu for investigations before being tried for unspecified charges. The security officers, who led the operation, were unavailable for comment. Al-Shabaab has been carrying out deadly attacks in the villages located in the suburbs of Mogadishu.
Key Headlines
- Somali Police Conduct Security Sweep Outside Mogadishu Detain Al-Shabaab Suspects (Shabelle News)
- Over Five Hundred Families Displaced By Floods In Fanweyn (Goobjoog News)
- Somali Journalists Based In Nairobi Condemn Arrest Of Television Journalist In Garowe (Goobjoog News)
- Somalia Reopens Its US Embassy After 24 Years (CCTV)
- Minneapolis Community Struggles With ISIS Recruiting Tactics (CBS News)
- Korea China Conduct Joint Anti-piracy Drills (The Korea Herald)
- Somalia Blames Deforestation On Saudi Arabia Smoking Too Much Shisha In UN Submission(Metro.co.uk)
- Africans Too Patient With Politicians – Somali Activist (The Observer)
PRESS STATEMENT
AMISOM Commends Partners For Continued Support, Highlights Achievements Made In The Implementation Of Its Mandate
20 November – Source: AMISOM – 299 Words
The African Union Mission in Somalia has expressed appreciation for the continued support from the European Union towards the implementation of its mandate. AMISOM made the remarks during a special breakfast meeting, held in Mogadishu for editors from Somali media organizations on Tuesday, 17 November 2015.
During the meeting, AMISOM briefed the Somali editors on support by the European Union (EU). So far EU support to AMISOM through the African Peace Facility (APF) has reached close to one billion Euros covering allowances for all AMISOM troops, salaries/allowances for the police component, international and local civilian staff, as well as operational costs of the mission’s civilian office in Nairobi.
The APF is the key EU financial instrument, supporting cooperation with Africa in the area of Peace and Security (Africa – EU Partnership).The EU decided to establish the Africa Peace Facility (APF) in December 2003 in order to respond to an African request to support it’s peace and security agenda, based on the recognition that peace is a necessary precondition for sustainable development.
NATIONAL MEDIA
Over Five Hundred Families Displaced By Floods In Fanweyn
20 November – Source: Goobjoog News – 233 Words
Villages in Gedo region were flooded by heavy rains on Monday night, dislocating hundreds of villagers, residents said. The floods swept away dozens of huts in Fanweyn village located 55km outside Garbaharey town. The main roads linking the area to other towns became inaccessible as well, according to the locals. Over five hundred residents in the affected village were forced to evacuate to higher ground and seek shelter at village centers.
Adan Dakane speaking to Goobjoog News said that the area witnessed a continued heavy downpour since Monday. He said the district administration has been having a hard time attending to the needs of displaced families. He added the number of affected families was being validated. “The displaced families have yet to recover from floods that hit their village” he said.
Sahro Ahmed, a mother of seven children said “The heavy rains have been pounding since Monday. Two of my children are now hospitalized with Diarrhea and there is no medicine in the dispensary and my house was destroyed by the floods. She also said that the rains were accompanied by severe winds which lasted for more than four hours. For decades, torrential rains and floods have devastated Somali regions and weakened a population already suffering from the ravages of civil war and recurring drought.
Somali Journalists Based In Nairobi Condemn Arrest Of Television Journalist In Garowe
20 November – Source: Goobjoog News – 127 Words
Somali journalists based in Nairobi have condemned the arrest of television journalist by the Puntland police in Garowe on Thursday. In a meeting held in the Kenyan capital, the journalists condemned the brutal act of suppressing the media in their homeland and in particular the arrest of Jama Deperani, who works with Somali Channel: “We are unhappy with the arrest of Jama Deperani, as no one should be arrested without a court order. We call on Puntland authorities to stop suppression of media. They must respect the freedom of speech,” said the journalists. On 19th this month, Puntland police detained Jama, a week after the semi-autonomous regional state of Puntland suspended the Deperani Show in a decree issued by the Information Ministry of Puntland.
INTERNATIONAL MEDIA
Somalia Reopens Its US Embassy After 24 Years
20 November – Source: CCTV – Video: 1:59 Minutes
Somalia has reopened its embassy in America after a 24-year shutdown. Somali-Americans say it’s not just a diplomatic formality, but represents new hope for the country’s transformation after years of turmoil
Minneapolis Community Struggles With ISIS Recruiting Tactics
20 November – Source: CBS News – 379
A new report by Congress says more than 250 Americans have attempted to join ISIS, and one in four of them is from Minnesota, many of them former refugees. Minneapolis might seem a long way from the wars in the Middle East and North Africa. But extremist groups have found the city to be fertile ground for recruits. Dahir Ali is exactly who terrorist groups like ISIS are looking to recruit — the 18-year-old is young, Muslim and often feels like an outsider. “People come up to me and say, you know, you’re this, you’re that. You’re a terrorist,” said Ali.
He grew up in the Cedar Riverside community in Minneapolis, which has the largest Somali population in the country. Many came as refugees in the 1990s. The unemployment rate here is 21 percent, three times the state average. And an alarming number of young Somali men from this neighborhood have left to join extremist groups. Since 2007, two dozen have joined AL-Shabab in Somalia. “It’s time for Muslims to really stand up and really fight these groups and defeat them through faith and military too,” said Imam Adbisalam Adam, who is part of a community task force created this summer to stop the radicalization.
The appeal is “the sense of accomplishment to be something bigger than yourself. It’s that sentiment that extremists tap into,” said Adam. He also noted that “there’s no contradiction to being a Muslim, being an American, and being a Somali — all three are good.” The city has also deployed Somali police officers like Mukhtar Abdulkadir and Abdiwahab Ali to develop trust in a neighborhood suspicious of authorities. They walk the beat, meeting elders, interacting with the young, and handing out contact cards written in Somali.
Korea, China Conduct Joint Anti-piracy Drills
20 November – Source: The Korea Herald – 235 Words
The naval squadrons of South Korea and China conducted joint anti-piracy drills in the Gulf of Aden and waters off the coast of Somalia this week, according to China’s military on Friday, in a rare show of military cooperation between the two nations. The one-day drills, took place on Tuesday, involved a South Korean destroyer Chungmugong Yi Sun-sin and a Chinese guided-missile frigate Liuzhou, the People’s Liberation Army Daily, the official newspaper of the Chinese military, reported late Thursday.
Both South Korea and China have joined international anti-piracy patrols in the Gulf of Aden to combat piracy off the coast of Somalia. Rear Adm. Yu Manjiang, commander of the Chinese naval unit, told the Chinese military newspaper that, “The two sides worked in coordination in all the subjects, fully reflecting the military competence and upbeat character of the officers and soldiers from both sides.” Yu said the drills “deepened their mutual trust and friendship.”
Somalia Blames Deforestation On Saudi Arabia Smoking Too Much Shisha In UN Submission
19 November – Source: metro.co.uk – 256 Words
Somalia has lost a lot of its trees since the civil war began in the 1980s. It’s a serious problem, but it hasn’t necessarily happened for the reasons you think, like getting hold of rare wood like mahogany or clearing space to grow cash crops. Yes, getting more land for agriculture is partly to blame – but for the last 30 years one of the biggest reasons loggers have chopped down forest is to meet Saudi Arabian demand to smoke shisha.
In an official submission to the UN ahead of official climate change talks, the country said at the moment around 10.5 per cent of its land was covered with rainforest – a lot less than in the past. ‘The production of charcoal mostly for export to Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirate (UAE) solely for using ‘shisha’ had a negative deforestation impact’, the government said. The document contains Somalia’s pledges for how to reduce emissions ahead of major climate talks in Paris next month when world leaders will try to agree how to prevent catastrophic global warming.
Somali leaders are worried deforestation could spell disaster in the future if they can’t grow enough crops, and also fear the effects of global warming on weather patterns which have already caused devastation with cyclones recently. ‘The combination of the disasters Somalia is prone to and the disasters occurrence predictions from scientists clearly show that the worst is yet to come’, the government said. ‘At this era, Somalia cannot afford to lose so many lives again.’
OPINION, ANALYSIS, AND CULTURE
“Abdulahi said that with more than 200 million people aged 15-24, Africa has the youngest population in the world with a growing media class, especially women with disposable income and marginalised youth all connected via social media. She said politicians have lagged behind engaging this group, resorting to closing social media when they understand its power..”
Africans Too Patient With Politicians – Somali Activist
20 November – Source: The Observer – 585 Words
Africans should use social media to network and cause change when faced with poor standards of living, delivery of services and marginalisation by politicians, says Fatuma Abdulahi, a Somali intellectual and broadcaster. Speaking at the at the second annual Media and Politics lecture at Golf Course hotel in Kampala, Abdulahi said it is only the poor or non-existent physical infrastructure that slows down the speed with which like-minded Africans can network and share ideas.
“For change to come, people have to network. The youth are marginalised and should use social media. You can’t have meaningful political connection and change in a disconnected society. Social media provides necessary networks,” she said at the lecture, organised by the African Centre for Media Excellence (ACME). Citing Egypt, Libya and Tunisia where ordinary citizens used social media to topple governments, Abdulahi says people, especially youths and women, have to diversely network to realise political change.
Speaking under the theme “Media and Politics in Africa”, Abdulahi faulted Africans for being too patient with politicians and the way services are delivered. “Politicians take us as children; they come to us for votes and they drive away after that. Yet we go back and vote for them [at the next election],” said Abdulahi, who is also the country director of Internews Somalia.
TOP TWEETS
@Mados7Mohamed: @TheSomaliPolice Police numbers of every district should puplicly known to #somalia pple in order to eliminate ghost/Fake police numbers
@Somaliupdate: #Somalia Exports 5,000 Livestock to#UAEhttp://somaliupdate.com/
@TheVillaSomalia: Big week for #Somalia:Successful regional consultations at #Soomaaliya2016 and#SomaliEmbUS_Reopens – big steps for a recovering nation
@CodiTrigger: After 5 years in exile, Ali’s family comes home to#Somalia: http://rfg.ee/TIeRA
@Vatescorp: #Somalia: Government Prepares Bill of land, territorial waters after ‘problems’ with neighbouring countrieshttp://ow.ly/US8FL
@Daudoo: 2 govt soldiers killed in clashes with suspected#AlShabaab gunmen in #Mogadishu‘s Suqa Holaha neighborhood last night – Residents. #Somalia
@morehouse64: Five Men from #Somalia Arrested on Charges of Forgery, Credit Card Fraud, Drugs in Ohiohttp://www.breitbart.com/big-
IMAGE OF THE DAY
A boy reads from his Quran at a mosque in Mogadishu, Somalia.
Photo: AMISOM