November 23, 2015 | Daily Monitoring Report
Fighting Ceases In Galkayo But Tension High As Leaders Intervene
23 November – Source: Goobjoog News/Villa Puntland – 261 Words
The clash between forces of Puntland and Galmudug, which erupted on Sunday morning in Galkayo town, has reportedly stopped although the warring sides are still in the battlefield. According to the Goobjoog News team on the ground, tension has eased temporarily with traditional elders, politicians and intellectuals calling for an end to the fight that has so far claimed more than ten lives in Galkayo.
The Galmudug administration has reiterated that it was ready to live in peace with its neighbours by embracing reconciliation. Speaking to the media, Galmudug security minister, Osman Isse Noor, stressed that Galmudug never planned to create disturbances in the region. “We are not ready to engage in fighting with anybody apart from members of Al-Shabaab. We want peace and stability,” he said.
He accused Puntland State of encroaching on Galmudug land by purporting to build a road. “Soldiers from Puntland attacked an area under Galmudug control. These were just attempts to undermine the ongoing operation against Al-Shabaab,” claimed Noor. At least 11 people have been confirmed dead with fifty others, including children, sustaining injuries in the clash between forces loyal to Puntland and Galmudug administrations.
Speaking separately to Villa Puntland, Puntland’s Minister for Information Mohamud Hassan Soo’ade said they were ready for peaceful reconciliation and dialogue to end any standoff between his State and any aggrieved party “so long as the latter was ready for the same too”. “We will not ward off any party that is seeking to resolve any difference with us through dialogue. We however will not tolerate provocation or chest – thumping.”
Key Headlines
- Fighting Ceases In Galkayo But Tension High As Leaders Intervene (Goobjoog News/Villa Puntland)
- Long-serving Somali Diplomat Dies Aged 72 (Hiiraan Online)
- Fact-finding Committee To Deliver The Findings Of The Wall Construction By Kenya To The Parliament(Goobjoog News)
- UN Envoy For Somalia Nicholas Kay Praises ISWA Government Efforts To Establish Strong And Representative Institutions (UNSOM)
- Implications Of Kenyan Al-Shabaab Recruits Defecting From The Militia To Return Home (The Star)
- Somali-American Student From Columbus Youngstown State Senior Earn Rhodes Scholarships (Daily Journal/AP)
- Can Ethiopia’s Railway Bring Peace To Somalia? (BBC)
NATIONAL MEDIA
Long-serving Somali Diplomat Dies, Aged 72
23 November – Source: Hiiraan Online – 268 Words
One of the longest serving Somali diplomats, the Somali Ambassador to Egypt Abdullahi Hussein Mohamud, has died in Cairo aged 72 after an extended illness on Saturday night, his family announced. Having joined the diplomatic service in 1987, Mr. Hussein, a former university professor has served as the Somalia’s ambassador to Algeria from 1987-1990 before he was appointed as the ambassador to Egypt as well as the permanent representative to the Arab league in 1990s, two positions he held for 25 years before his death.
The holder of the Licentiate in Arabic from Al-Ulum university in Cairo, Mr. Hussein has chaired the Arab league foreign ministers summit in Cairo in 2000. During his diplomatic services, Ambassador Mohamud has also attended several Somalia reconciliation conferences in Djibouti, Addis Ababa and Cairo. He was also appointed as a parliamentarian before he resigned in 2000. Born in 1943 in Iimey, a district in the Somali-ethnic region in Ethiopia, the late ambassador is survived by two wives and eight children.
Somalia’s president Hassan Sheikh Mohamud sent condolences to the families of the diplomat and Somalis around the world as a whole on the death Mr. Hussein, describing him as “a visionary and a patriotic diplomat’ who worked hard for the welfare of his nation. The diplomat’s death has also triggered an outpouring sympathy and condolences from Somalis who took to the social media to express their grief towards the death of the ambassador. “My heart cries for the loss of that hero. May he rest in peace,” said Ahmad Nur, in one hundreds Twitter threads mourning the death of the ambassador.
Fact-finding Committee To Deliver The Findings Of The Wall Construction By Kenya To The Parliament
23 November – Source: Goobjoog News – 121 Words
The fact-finding committee which visited areas along Somali-Kenya borderline is expected to appear before the Parliament to deliver the findings of the wall construction by Kenya on Monday. MP Mohamed Omar said that the parliament expected to gate full report of what happened at border between Kenya and Somalia.
“The house will reach concrete decision immediately it gets reliable information about the borderline by fact-finding committee” he said. On 16th this month, Somali parliamentarians have sent fact-finding committee following the wall construction by Kenya which it said had encroached on Somali territory. The team led by Defense Minister Abdulkadir Ali Dini has just concluded the two day visit to the border areas saying that there was evidence showing encroaching on Somali territory.
INTERNATIONAL MEDIA
UN Envoy For Somalia, Nicholas Kay, Praises ISWA Government Efforts To Establish Strong And Representative Institutions
23 November – Source: UNSOM – 359 Words
The Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General (SRSG) for Somalia Nicholas Kay met with senior officials of the Federal Government and the Interim South West Administration (ISWA) in Baidoa on Saturday, 21 November and encouraged them to expedite formation of the ISWA regional assembly. SRSG Kay met with the Federal Prime Minister of Somalia, Omar Abdirashid Ali Sharmarke, Interim South West Administration President Sharif Hassan Sheikh Adan, the Governor of Bay Region Abdirashid Abdullahi, and ISWA cabinet ministers.
Their discussions touched on a wide range of issues, including the progress made by ISWA in the one year since its inauguration and the creation of a regional assembly. President Sharif Hassan briefed the SRSG on the political and security developments that have taken place in ISWA and appreciated the United Nations support to the transformation and development of the region. The SRSG later met with local elders who have led reconciliation efforts in the state and a group of cabinet ministers. They exchanged views on the recently concluded regional consultations for the 2016 electoral process.
SRSG Kay thanked the leadership of ISWA and elders for their hard work, patience and self-sacrifice in building institutions. “The purpose of my visit is to engage with the leadership and with elders about the formation of the state assembly and to encourage them to complete the tasks as quickly as possible, and to complete with a representation of at least 20 per cent women in the assembly,” he said.
Implications Of Kenyan Al-Shabaab Recruits Defecting From The Militia To Return Home
23 November – Source: The Star – 159 Words
Hundreds of Kenyan youth lured into Somalia to train as Al-Shabaab militia, continue to defect from the group and return home, Interior Cabinet Secretary Joseph Nkaissery said. The CS has attributed the influx of returnees to the amnesty announced by the government in April. Nkaissery was not specific on the actual number of returnees, but a recent report quoted a figure of at least 700 youth who have defected from the militants and returned home.
The report was produced by the International Organisation of Migration, the Supreme Council of Kenya Muslims and the Interior ministry. “The amnesty call is doing very well. We continue to receive and integrate them into the society,” Nkaissery said. The Star Newspaper’s Investigative and Crimes writer Dominic Wabala dissects the issues surrounding the return of Kenyans possibly exposed to violent extremism and what the implications are the the country’s security.
Somali-American Student From Columbus, Youngstown State Senior Earn Rhodes Scholarships
22 November – Source: Daily Journal/AP – 130 Words
The daughter of Somali immigrants in Columbus and a Youngstown State University senior are among the 32 American men and women chosen as Rhodes Scholars to pursue post-graduate studies at Oxford University. The Rhodes Trust announced recipients Sunday. They include Ohio State University graduate Ilhan Dahir, who is on a Fulbright Fellowship teaching English in Turkey. She did her senior thesis on the role of western foreign fighters in the Islamic State group, and represented the United States at an international discussion in Brussels on countering violent extremism. Also selected is Ashley Orr of Columbiana, Ohio. She is president of the Youngstown State student government association, co-founded a poverty awareness program, and has studied at the London School of Economics. The Trust says she is “extraordinarily active” in volunteer service.
OPINION, ANALYSIS, AND CULTURE
“A railway could also bring wealth to Somalis, suggests Mr Getachew. Somalia has the longest coastline in Africa, and has rich fish stocks. But Somalis are not keen on eating fish. Ethiopians have two fasting days a week when we only eat fish. As a landlocked country, we only have Nile perch and tilapia. As our economy grows, at about 10% a year, demand increases for more variety. This could be a win-win situation.”
Can Ethiopia’s Railway Bring Peace To Somalia?
23 November – Source: BBC – 1,227 Words
“We decided to open the railway early because of the drought, the worst in decades,” says Getachew Betru, chief executive of the Ethiopian Railways Corporation (ERC). It is a Saturday, but this thoughtful, intelligent man is busy working. Except for the guards at the gate, nobody else is at the office. Across the road, a white and green train whisks up to a station platform. It is part of Addis Ababa’s newly opened light rail (or tram) system, the first in sub-Saharan Africa.
Mr Getachew shows me diagrams of a vast planned railway network, snaking its way across landlocked Ethiopia, linking Africa’s second most populous country to Djibouti, Sudan, South Sudan and Kenya. The railway is his baby. Like many Ethiopians, he left the country during the harsh years of dictatorship, but returned with a doctorate in engineering and a vision. It all started when he took a trip with his family.
“We were driving through the countryside when we came across a railway track. Like so many boys, my sons loved trains and insisted we wait for one. It never came. I asked somebody when it might arrive. He told me it had been 10 years since the last train. I decided to try to do something about it. Now they call me Ethiopia’s Brunel, after the famous British civil engineer.”
The dream is that one day, the railway will extend from the Red Sea in Djibouti all the way across Africa to the Atlantic Ocean. A few wars will have to end first. Due to the urgent need to feed the 8.2 million people Ethiopia says are suffering from the drought, the Addis Ababa-Djibouti line opened ahead of schedule on 20 November. The first train to travel along the nearly 800 km track delivered more than 3,000 tonnes of grain from Djibouti port to drought-affected areas.
TOP TWEETS
@HAliGesey: #Somalia Innocent citizen identified in a UN Report as a suicide bomber demands compensationhttp://www.hornobserver.com/
@Vatescorp: #Somalia: Tensions high in Galkayo, Puntland says attack unprovoked, Galmudug says road encroaches on its land http://ow.ly/UXhqG
@vikesverkko: Yesterday was a historic day in #Somalia as we opened the country’s 1st multi-camera TV studio! #media#development
@abdulrazak_31: UK Deputy Ambassador meets #SomaliaPrime Minister Sharmarke on elections #Soomaaliya2016, migration and security
@RT3Somalia: Puntland authorities arrest Somali Channel TV presenter – CPJ Press Freedom Online http://ift.tt/1QD97CA #الصومال #Somalia
@DalsanFM_SOM: #Somalia 1st ever Mogadishu #JobFairlobbies for equal employment opportunities for Somali men and women.
IMAGE OF THE DAY
The Interim South West Administration (ISWA) President Sharif Hassan Sheikh Adan hands over gifts to the Special Representative of the United Nations Secretary-General (SRSG) for Somalia, Mr. Nicholas for his support and dedication during the formation of the regional administration.
Photo: UNSOM