December 14, 2015 | Daily Monitoring Report
National And Regional Leaders Meet In Mogadishu To Decide On Options For 2016 Electoral Process
13 December – Source: UNSOM – 379 Words
The second plenary of the National Consultative Forum on the 2016 electoral process opened in the Somali capital with national and regional leaders reviewing the outcome of public consultations across Somalia and within the diaspora and deliberating on the most appropriate and inclusive electoral process for 2016.Representatives from the federal government and federal parliament, emerging and existing federal member states, civil society, women and youth met to discuss how to elect members of the legislature and the executive branch when their mandates expire next year. In November and early this month, public consultations took place across Somalia’s regions and among Somalis in the diaspora, during which delegates systematically discussed four different options for the electoral process. The forum opened with remarks by the President of Somalia, Hassan Sheikh Mohamud, the Speaker of the Federal Parliament, Mohammad Sheikh Osman (Jawari), the Prime Minister Omar Abdirashid Ali Sharmarke, and presidents and representatives of existing and emerging states. The Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General (SRSG) for Somalia, Nicholas Kay, and several members of the diplomatic corps also attended the forum.
President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud said the gathering was a critical step in the country’s political history and called for fruitful deliberations in line with the aspirations of the Somali people: “The people of Somalia have spoken and expressed their views. [P]eople want their views to be taken into consideration, and that is what should be done,” the Federal President declared.Parliament Speaker Mohamed Sheikh Osman urged the delegates to put aside their individual interests and work for the common good of Somalia and the Somali people. Addressing the forum, Prime Minister Omar Abdirashid Ali Sharmarke explained that the consultations were carried out widely to give Somalis, including those in the diaspora, the opportunity to air their views. Nicholas Kay described the forum as historic and appealed for compromise and consensus among the leaders to move the process forward: “The process will not be perfect. It will not achieve everything for everyone. Indeed it will not achieve everything for anyone. But everyone will get something. Reaching a compromise on an electoral model that meets the most essential requirements and can be implemented next year is a critical step on the road towards your ultimate goal: universal elections,” stressed the SRSG .
Key Headlines
- National And Regional Leaders Meet In Mogadishu To Decide On Options For 2016 Electoral Process(UNSOM)
- Somaliland Shuns Turkey As Venue For Talks With Somalia (Hiiraan Online)
- Turkish Airline Suspends Flights To Mogadishu After Botched Airport Attack (Radio Dalsan)
- KDF Soldier Killed In Ambush In Mandera (Daily Nation)
- Volunteer Doctors In Mogadishu Provide Eye Tests In Schools (CCTV)
- Nuruddin Farah: Nostalgia And The Daily Search For A Lost Home (Daily Nation)
NATIONAL MEDIA
Somaliland Shuns Turkey As Venue For Talks With Somalia
14 December – Source: Hiiraan Online – 260 Words
The breakaway northern Somalia region of Somaliland is seeking a ‘neutral’ venue for talks with the Federal Republic of Somalia rather than Turkey, which has previously sponsored talks between the two governmental entities. The talks destined for March next year appear to have collapsed already after the two sides accused each other of holding a firm stand on the venue and other issues. This development has complicated the mediation process with the Turkish government encouraging the two sides to make concessions.Somaliland’s Foreign Affairs Saad Ali Shire said his state welcomed holding more talks with Somalia but ruled out the likelihood of attending the talks in Turkey: “Turkey hosted the previous talks and now we want to see the venue changed to somewhere else other than Turkey,” the Minister said in an interview with the BBC, Somali Service.
However, the Minister did not disclose reasons of his objection. Hiiraan Online was similarly unable to get comment from officials of the Somali government. In the meantime it remains unclear whether there is another country willing to host the talks between Somaliland and Somalia. Turkey is a major ally of the Federal Republic of Somalia and it became the first foreign administration to resume formal diplomatic relations with Somalia after the two-decade long civil war. The Turkish government also continues to undertake major projects in Somalia in a bid to jumpstart the Somali economy shattered by the decades old conflict. Somaliland, which declared unilateral independence from the rest of Somalia in 1991, has been seeking international recognition all this while. However, their efforts have so far not been successful..
Turkish Airline Suspends Flights To Mogadishu After Botched Airport Attack
14 December – Source: Radio Dalsan – 124 Words
Turkish Airlines has suspended its flights to Mogadishu after a botched attack by Al Shabab fighters attack on Sunday night near the Mogadishu’s Aden International Airport. African Union Peacekeeping Troops thwarted the attack at the main gateway to the country, at the airport.
The Al-Shabaab fighters, who were using two boats, according to AU officials tried to attack the airport from the Indian ocean shores, which is in the vicinity of the Aden International Airport facility. For decades, since the collapse of the government of late President Mohamed Siad Barre in 1991.the airport has never been operational at night. At the moment, Aden Ade Airport is situated near the compounds of most Foreign embassies and the AU and UN offices in Somalia.
INTERNATIONAL MEDIA
KDF Soldier Killed In Ambush In Mandera
14 December – Source: Daily Nation – 190 Words
One Kenya Defence Forces soldier has been killed and two others injured in an ambush in Mandera. Confirming the incident, Mandera County Commissioner Fredrik Shisia said the soldiers were travelling to Mandera Town from Nairobi when they were ambushed by Al-Shabaab between Elwak and Lafey towns.
“We have lost an officer and two others injured in 1pm ambush by Al-Shabaab militants. The injured and the dead have since been flown to Nairobi for treatment and burial respectively,” said Mr Shisia. He said the area of attack was close to the Somali border, making it easy for the attackers to escape back into Somalia.
“This is not by locals, but by Al-Shabaab militants from Somalia, because the area is close to the border and the rescue team found none of them at the scene. However they are still pursuing them (attackers),” said Mr Shisia. He said the rescue team has managed to pull the vehicle to Elwak KDF camp as the situation normalises. Speaking during Jamhuri Day celebrations on Saturday, Mr Shisia said the latest attack occurred in an area under Isis Al-Shabaab group that is hunting for recruits from Kenya.
Volunteer Doctors In Mogadishu Provide Eye Tests In Schools
14 December – Source: CCTV – Video: 2:40 Minutes
OPINION, ANALYSIS, AND CULTURE
“Farah may be away from Somalia but the country looms large in his writing. He carries Somalia the way an inconsolable woman may carry a dead child, refusing to accept the fact.”
Nuruddin Farah: Nostalgia And The Daily Search For A Lost Home
14 December – Source: Daily Nation – 837 Words
“I had a piano teacher who used to talk about the most familiar musical cadence — in which a piece returns, after wandering and variation, to its original key, the tonic — as “going home”. These satisfying resolutions are sometimes called ‘perfect cadences’; there is a lovely subspecies called the ‘English cadence’, used often by composers like Tallis and Byrd, in which, just before the expected resolution, a dissonance sharpens its blade and seems about to wreck things — and is then persuaded home …” That’s how the English critic, James Wood, describes the concept of home. A sweet place. A perfect cadence. Like the beautiful rainbow after drenching rain.
However, for Nuruddin Farah, one of the featured writers in the December 1-6 Kwani Litfest 2015, his home country of Somalia is a broken place. Somalia is a place of great conflict and rivalry, where human life sometimes means little; people seemingly live by the wisdom that “a dead man’s shoes are more useful than he is”. In his writings, Farah takes his place among the painters of the homesick, the haunted, the melancholy and the diminished.
Salman Rushdie, in his memoirs, Joseph Anton, writes a moving account of how he went to Farah for advice on how to depict his home country of India, a country lost to him as he has spent years in exile. “I keep it here,” Farah said, pointing to his heart. He carries Somalia the way an inconsolable woman may carry a dead child, refusing to accept the fact. Farah may be away from Somalia but the country looms large in his writing. It haunts him; the way the laughter of passersby intrudes and follows one even when he locks himself up in the privacy of a room, trying to catch some sleep. Farah is always remembering what has been lost.
He reminds us of the words of Theodor Adorno in Mimima Moralia: “For a man who no longer has a homeland, writing becomes a place to live”.And for Farah, writing is a “moveable home”. Home, as a physical place, is vulnerable to decay. It is like a dying man’s fading light; houses collapse, parents die, siblings grow up and leave, voices trail off over the years and hugs grow cold. However, memories are like a longing gaze into the past; tenderness that is difficult to describe.
TOP TWEETS
@HarunMaruf:Sources from #Mogadishu indicate that AU troops foiled an apparent seaborne overnight attack by suspected militants using 1-2 boats.#Somalia
@MogadishuNews:#BREAKING #Turkish Airlines suspends flights to #Mogadishu after an #Alshabab attack at the airport.#Somalia
@AmbAmerico:I am deeply saddened and condemn the fighting in Beledweyne, Hiiraan. I call for immediate ceasefire. #Somalia
@NUSOJ_Somalia:@Hassan_shire speaking now at Claiming spaces: Tactical tools for HRDS in #Somalia at Jazeera Hotel#Mogadishu
@mofasomalia:#Somalia is proud to celebrate 55 years of fruitful bilateral relations & partnership with #China @XHNews
IMAGE OF THE DAY
AMISOM Force Commander Lt. Gen. Jonathan Rono during a recent visit to Kismayu.
Photo:AMISOM