February 1, 2016 | Daily Monitoring Report
Casualties Feared After Explosions Rock Near Presidential Palace In Somalia
01 February – Source: Xinhua – 81 Words
Several people are feared dead in multiple explosions near the presidential palace in Mogadishu on Monday, government officials and witnesses said.District Commissioner of Wardhigley District Yassin Nor Isse confirmed the incident which he said took place at “15 May School” in Wardhigley district, near the presidential palace.”I can confirm there were mortar shells which were fired near the presidential palace in Mogadishu. Initial reports say it caused civilian casualties, but I cannot confirm that for now,” Yassin told Xinhua.
Key Headlines
- Casualties Feared After Explosions Rock Near Presidential Palace In Somalia (Xinhua)
- IGAD Urges Somali Govt To Complete Hiiraan Middle Shabelle State Formation (Hiiraan Online)
- Somalia UK Sign Bilateral Agreements In Mogadishu (Wacaal Media)
- Diarrhoea Affects Children And Elderly In Mudug (Radio Ergo)
- Council Re-elects Eyl DC (Garowe Online)
- Somalia Probes Impact Of Kenyan Airstrikes Across Gedo Region (Xinhua)
- Saudi Arabia Turns To Somalia For Domestic Workers Amid Abuse Cases (CCTV)
- The New Electoral Model Hits A Deadlock (RBC Radio)
- Young Somali Activist Sentenced To Death For Being A Lesbian (The Independant)
NATIONAL MEDIA
IGAD Urges Somali Govt To Complete Hiiraan, Middle Shabelle State Formation
01 February – Source: Hiiraan Online – 265 Words
Foreign ministers of the East African bloc IGAD have called for the Somali government to rapidly conclude the remaining Hiiraan and Middle Shabelle state formation process despite boycott by Hiiraan elders.
Hiiraan elders opposed the conference in Jowhar, the regional capital of Lower Shabelle region accussing Somali President, Hassan Sheikh Mohamud of breaking promises related to their attendance to the talks.In a statement issued Saturday evening, IGAD Council of Ministers who held their 55th Extra-Ordinary Session in Addis Ababa also called Somali government to conclude the on-going dialogue and reconciliation between the Galmudug Federal State and Ahlu SunnaWal Jamaa (ASWJ).
In addition, the ministers commended Somali government’s recent decision to fast-track public financial management reform within the security sector and urged the swift implementation and international support to the initiative.“AMISOM’s exit and the IGAD region’s security is directly linked to the ability of the Federal Government of Somalia to predictably finance and manage its security forces and institutions.” The statement said.
The ministers also recommended the establishment of a regional security co-operation framework between Somalia and its neighbors and the establishment of a platform for regular security dialogue and coordination to address common security threats and challenges.The Al-Qaeda linked Al-Shabab group which is fighting Somali government and the African Union forces in Somalia continues to carry out attacks across Somalia and beyond.
The group has concentrated in Kenya for most of its attacks in retaliation for Kenyan troops’ deployment in Somalia in 2011, as the allied forces ousted militants from dozens of towns including the once major rebel-held port city of Kismayo.
Somalia, UK, Sign Bilateral Agreements In Mogadishu
01 February – Source: Wacaal Media – 112 Words
The Federal Government of Somalia has signed a bilateral agreement with the UK touching on security matters. Defence minister Abdikadir Sheikh Ali Dini and UK’s Somalia envoy Harriet Mathews penned the deal in Mogadishu on Sunday. “This agreement will enable Somalia to enhance its security machineries. It will also help the two countries to help each other in fighting terrorism in Somalia and the rest of the world” said the minister. He further thanked the UK for its assistance to Somalia not only in matters security but also in all sectors of the economy. UK’s envoy to Somalia Harriet Mathews on her part assured Somalia of her country’s continued support and collaboration.
Diarrhoea Affects Children And Elderly In Mudug
01 February – Source: Radio Ergo – 239 Words
Thirty people, mainly children and elderly persons, are currently being treated for acute watery diarrhea in Ba’aadweyne town, 198 kms from Galkayo, according to local medical officers. The diarrhoea cases have increased during January. Most patients come from villages in remote rural areas that do not have healthcare centres, including Shabeelow, Ga’amey and Qad’ad. Yonis Abshir, a medical officer at the hospital in Ba’aadweyne, told Radio Ergo the outbreak was probably caused by poor drinking water hygiene.
“Wells with very small amounts of water are not being covered even though they are dug in low-lying places, so dirt and animal excrement gets inside. That is the only water people can find to drink,” Abshir said. Secretary of the administration of Ba’aadweyne, Mohamed Said Ahmed, said seven children had died of diarrhea in January. He said his wife and four of his children in Ga’amey village had also fallen sick and were treated.
Ugaaso Isman Kaahiye was interviewed by Radio Ergo’s local reporter in the hospital, where she was happy to see her two children responding well to treatment after being sick with diarrhea for 10 days. The hospital is small and not well equipped. Yonis said they struggled to cover the medical needs in the large area with the resources available. The secretary of the local administration said aid agencies needed to give more support to the area especially in the villages not served by any health care facilities.
Council Re-elects Eyl DC
31 January – Source: Garowe Online – 131 Words
Councilors in Eyl have re-elected Musse Osman Yusuf and Faisal Khalif Waeys as District Commissioner and Deputy respectively in a vote on Sunday, Garowe Online reports. Both Yusuf and Waeys, who have been in posts for five years stood unopposed in the former pirate hub. Puntland Government officials including State Minister for Interior Ali Yusuf Jama and Nugal Governor Omar Abdullahi Farole attended the council election.
In media briefing shortly after the elections, the Puntland state minister for interior Ali Yusuf Jama pointed out that huge tasks lay ahead of the re-elected officials, while also thanking Eyl residents for the smooth endeavor. Nugal Governor Farole on his side praised the election process devoid of differences, and called for close cooperation between commissioners and locals. The re-elected officials addressed hundreds of people on the ongoing development work, urging people to rally around them.
INTERNATIONAL MEDIA
Somalia Probes Impact Of Kenyan Airstrikes Across Gedo Region
01 February – Source: Xinhua – 229 Words
The Somali government on Sunday named a committee who will investigate or assess the impact of airstrikes mounted by Kenyan warplanes fighting Islamist militants in Gedo region. Somali Prime Minister Omar Abdirashid Ali Sharmarke said his government had talked with Kenyan officials over the airstrike to be stopped in El-Adde region in southern Somalia where Al-Shabaab fighters killed several Kenyan soldiers on Jan. 15.
“I named a fact-finding committee headed by the Minister of Defense to assess the situation in Gedo region, in particular the El-Adde neighborhood, the casualties of civilians, what happened there and the withdrawal of AMISOM troops from southern Somalia,” Sharmake told journalists in Mogadishu.
“We had communication with Kenyan officials including the Chief of Army Staff over stopping of the airstrikes. “The defence minister and his team will travel to the area and find out the extent of civilian casualties there,” the PM added. His remarks came two weeks after Kenyan warplanes carried out airstrikes in southern Somali region of Gedo after Al-Shabaab attack in which more than ten Kenya Defgence Forces (KDF) soldiers were captured and several others injured.
Saudi Arabia Turns To Somalia For Domestic Workers Amid Abuse Cases
01 February – Source: CCTV – 107 Words
Saudi Arabia is now seeking to recruit more Somali domestic workers. Pushing for a new mass recruitment drive, Saudi Arabia’s Ministry of Labour on Tuesday announced the opening of recruiting operations of domestic workers from Somalia while setting terms and conditions. Saudi Arabia has time and again been put on the spotlight for abuse of foreign domestic workers lured by false promises of well-paying jobs. Former workers have described the experience as an exploitation of desperate Africans facing grim choices.
Cases of the employees being beaten, denied food, denied their payment, being subjected to inhumane living conditions have been reported in the past. Kenya, Ethiopia and Uganda have recently discouraged their citizens from seeking jobs I Saudi Arabia in a bid to end the exploitation. According to the Saudi newspaper Arab News, Somali maids would have fulfil conditions set by the ministry as that applicants are acquire to have a certificate from the Somali Ministry of Security stating they have no previous criminal records, besides vaccination certificates against contagious diseases.
OPINION, ANALYSIS, AND CULTURE
“Objections to the 4.5 electoral model indicate that the Somali Federal Government is as unpopular as the Transitional National Government of Somalia ( 2000-2004). If popular support is the main catalyst for a political change in Somalia, more than half of the Somali people oppose the 4.5 electoral model,”
The New Electoral Model Hits A Deadlock
01 February – Source: RBC Radio – 685 Words
The decision of the Somali Federal Government to use 4.5 power-sharing to elect a president in 2016 was made in the last week of January, twenty-five years after the collapse of the state. It is a symbolic rather than practical response to problems of statelessness with which Somalia has been grappling since 1991.
United Nations Assistance Mission in Somalia and Somalia’s international partners described the government decision as progress and inclusive. According to the Somali-American analyst, Faisal Roble, United Nations Secretary-General’s Special Representative for Somalia, Michael Keating, is a diplomat who respects the sovereignty of Somalia by supporting the decision of the federal government. The task of making that decision into reality lies with President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud and Prime Minister Omar Abdirashid Ali Sharmarke, whose government endorsed the 4.5 electoral model at a cabinet meeting last week.
The electoral model suggested by the Somali Federal Government has hit the first hurdle after Puntland President, Dr Abdiweli Mohamed Gaas, declined to accept the government suggestion and decided “to go back to Puntland for consultations with the people”. People in Bosaso, Qardho, Garowe and North Galka’ayo took to streets to voice their anger on the government decision. They commended Puntland President for not accepting a top-down electoral model that has been used four times since 2000 but was found to be divisive and ineffectual at promoting political reconciliation and transitional justice. Puntland threw its weight behind the process to end the Transitional Federal Government to pave the way for the Somali Federal Government in 2012.
“Being gay in Somalia is “just not acceptable”, says Leyla Hussein, the London-based Somali founder of women’s rights group Daughters of Eve. There are a lot of gay Somali women, but they will never come out. They don’t even come out to their own families.”
Young Somali Activist Sentenced To Death For Being A Lesbian
31 January – Source: The Independant – 1,020 Words
When the boy came into the room, his eyes brimmed with tears. The news he brought was devastating. “They are talking about killing you,” he told his older cousin. Using a phone smuggled into her room, Sahra (whose name has been changed here over concerns for her safety) sent a despairing plea for help to friends on the outside. Although she didn’t know it then, her killing was thought to have been scheduled to take place afterFriday prayers two days later, and time was running out.
Sahra, a 22-year-old Somali woman, remembers swaying with shock as she received the news. “I felt like I couldn’t breathe. One day they were looking for a guy for me to marry, the next they were looking to take my life,” she recalls. “It was horrible.” In the eyes of her extended family, Sahra had brought shame on them all. From her family’s self-imposed exile in Uganda, she had long courted controversy as an outspoken advocate for women’s rights. But her personal safety took a turn for the worse when she was outed as a lesbian, setting in motion events that caused her to move to Mogadishu in Somalia, leaving her open to the wrath of her relatives.
Thousands of homosexual men and women in Somalia keep their sexual orientation a closely guarded secret in the knowledge that bringing it out into the open would attract potential retribution from al-Shabaab, the Islamist terror group, or armed gangs. At the age of 12, Sahra was already campaigning for Somali women’s rights through poetry, attacking the practice of female genital mutilation. She quickly became a target, and one day was abducted close to her home and taken to a house where she was beaten. She still bears the scars.
TOP TWEETS
@HarunMaruf: New mortar attack in Mogadishu. #Somalia
@mbashiir16 : Huge explosions can be heard around#Somalia‘s Presidential palace in #Mogadishu.
@AnankeGroup: #Somalia – President #Kenyatta of #Kenyaseeks air & sea power for #AMISOM http://bit.ly/1RSn80j
@DaljireAli : IGAD and International stakeholders to confront spoilers of Somalia’s political and security process in this vital year of 2016 #Somalia
@JournalNEO : That Amon Abdullah, a radio journalist told Swedish television that his native #Somalia are more safe than Stockholmhttp://journal-neo.
@IOM_news: Last week,IOM helped 64 survivors of boat tragedy in #Somalia last 8 Jan return to #Ethiopiahttp://ow.ly/XMqSL
@SaidMose : #Somalia, UK sign security agreement to bolster security sector and cooperate on issues of #CVE @HarunMaruf
IMAGE OF THE DAY
A new centre to be built in Kismaayo for disengaged Al-Shabaab combatants to be built.
Photo: AMISOM