February 16, 2016 | Morning Headlines
Former Defence Minister Killed In Car Bomb In Mogadishu
15 February – Source: Goobjoog News – 167 Words
Former Somali Defence Minister Muhidin Mohamed Haji was killed in a car blast in Somali capital Mogadishu, police said on Monday. A police officer at the scene said the bomb had been planted underneath the car of the former minister. The blast occurred in Mogadishu’s KM4 neighborhood. Confirming the incident, Al-Shabaab militants told Reuters they planted the car bomb that eliminated Somalia’s former top diplomat.
“We are behind his killing,” Sheikh Abdiasis Abu Musab, the Al-Shabaab’s military operations spokesman said. Mohamed was born in 1954 in Mogadishu and attained his primary and secondary education in Mogadishu. He equally made significant contributions in ministry for information during the reign of Siad Bare. Mohamad Haji served under the Transitional Federal Government led by the late President Abdullahi Yussuf in 2008. During this period, he briefly served as Defence minister. Until his death, the former minister worked as an adviser to the Somali Federal Parliament.
Key Headlines
- Former Defence Minister Killed In Car Bomb In Mogadishu (Goobjoog News)
- Britain Announces Further $ 4.3 Million For Somali Army (Goobjoog News)
- EU Launches 7 Million Euros Education Programme For Puntland (Radio Dalsan)
- Fire Razes Market In Wadajir District Mogadishu (Goobjoog News)
- Us Denies Reports That One Of Its Drones Crashed In Somalia (Associated Press)
- Starvation: Somali Kids On Death Row (National Mirror)
- Interim South West Administration Endorses 2016 Electoral Model (UNSOM)
- Book Review: ‘Making Refuge’ A Compelling Analysis Of Somali Bantu Refugees In Maine (Portland Press Herald)
NATIONAL MEDIA
Britain Announces Further $ 4.3 Million For Somali Army
15 February – Source: Goobjoog News – 218 Words
Britain has announced an additional contribution of over $ 4.3 million to the UN Somali National Army Trust Fund, which will help to pay for essential resources, including rations, fuel and medical supplies. Making the announcement in Mogadishu following a meeting with Somali Prime Minister Omar Sharmake, UK Minister of State for the Armed Forces, Penny Mordaunt, said the contribution demonstrates her country’s commitment to the SNA in building the foundations for security in Somalia.
“I am delighted to announce UK’s further donation of over $ 4.3 million to the Trust Fund, which will support the SNA in its fight to defeat Al Shabaab,’’ said Mordaunt. Mordaunt said continued progress on the security front is vital to the future peace and prosperity of Somalia, especially at this critical time as the country prepares for elections towards the end of the year. The minister called on the Somali government to take urgent states to revamp the SNA and quickly move forward on making reforms in the security sector. The United Nations Support Office for Somalia (UNSOS) provides logistical support – such as food, water, fuel, tents, transportation and medical support – to SNA units in joint operations with AMISOM
EU Launches 7 Million Euros Education Programme For Puntland
15 February – Source: Radio Dalsan – 179 Words
The European Union, jointly with the Government of Puntland, launched the second phase of the Puntland Education Sector Support Programme. TheWaxbarashadu Waa Iftiin (Education is Light) phase II programme is implemented by a consortium of NGOs comprising CARE, Save the Children, ADRA and VU Amsterdam University, and in close coordination with the Ministry of Education, Puntland.
The new programme will consolidate and expand the gains made under Waxbarashadu Waa Iftiin I, which ended in November 2015. This particular project was successful, having directly benefited 21,000 primary school children, 6,700 secondary school children and 830 youth. The latter were equipped with vocational skills. In its bid to improve the learning environment, the programme constructed 10 new schools and 145 new classrooms.
Fire Razes Market In Wadajir District, Mogadishu
15 February – Source: Goobjoog News – 73 Words
Fire has gutted down one of the main markets in Mogadishu’s Wadajir district with property of unknown value getting destroyed. According to a Goobjoog News correspondent at the scene, the fire was still raging on by last night and fire fighting engines had not been able to access the market because of narrow roads and congested pathways. The strong evening winds further complicated the situation, according to our reporter.
INTERNATIONAL MEDIA
Us Denies Reports That One Of Its Drones Crashed In Somalia
15 February – Source: Associated Press – 184 Words
The U.S. military denies reports from residents and rebels in southwestern Somalia that a suspected U.S. drone with six missiles crashed Monday in a rebel-held village in the Gedo region. Spokesman for the U.S. Africa Command, Chuck Prichard, said all their “assets in this area are accounted for and we have no indication that any were involved in this reported incident.”
Al-Shabab, Somalia’s Islamic extremists, claimed on their radio station that their fighters have seized the crashed drone with the missiles. This has not been independently verified. U.S. drones have killed several al-Shabab leaders in airstrikes in Somalia over the past year. In a separate development U, a Somali police officer says a bomb killed a former Somali defense minister in Mogadishu Monday.
Capt. Mohamed Hussein says that a bomb hidden in a vehicle carrying Muhyadin Mohamed Haji was detonated in the heart of the capital, killing him and wounding another person. Haji was the defense minister in Somalia’s transitional government in 2008. There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the blast, however al-Shabab often carries out such attacks.
Starvation: Somali Kids On Death Row
15 February – Source: National Mirror – 209 Words
More than 50, 000 children in Somalia face death due to the ongoing drought in the country, according to the United Nations. A stark warning issued by the UN’s humanitarian office yesterday described the malnutrition as alarming. “Nearly one million Somalis, one in 12 of the population, struggle to meet their food needs,” the statement said. Analysts believed the drought in Somalia had been partly caused by the El Nino weather phenomenon which has affected east and southern Africa.
The worst-affected areas of the country are parts of Puntland and the self-declared republic of Somaliland. Many of those in need of help are people who have been displaced by years of conflict in the country. In all, 4.7 million people, nearly 40 per cent of the population, need some sort of humanitarian assistance. “As the drought is intensifying, many more people risk relapsing into crisis,” the UN’s Humanitarian Coordinator in Somalia, Peter de Clercq, said, adding, “58, 300 will die if they are not treated,” even as he appealed for more funds to help the needy. In neighbouring Ethiopia more than 10 million people need food assistance following the failure of the rains and Zimbabwe has declared a state of disaster in some drought-affected areas of the country.
Interim South West Administration Endorses 2016 Electoral Model
14 February – Source: UNSOM – 370 Words
The Interim South West Administration (ISWA) leadership has expressed support for the 2016 electoral model that was recommended by the Federal Government of Somalia last month: “We want Somalia to move forward, to be united and to collectively defeat Al-Shabaab. We support a fair and inclusive election where everyone’s opinion is represented and owned by the people. We support the model forwarded by the Federal Government of Somalia,” stated President Sharif Hassan. He made the remarks at the end of discussions in Baidoa with a visiting delegation from the Federal Government and international community, which met also with the Speaker and members of the ISWA regional assembly as well as representatives of civil society, including women and traditional elders on Sunday.
The delegation was led by the Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General (SRSG) for Somalia, Michael Keating, and included the Permanent Secretary of the Office of the Prime Minister and ambassadors and representatives from the African Union, European Union, Djibouti, Ethiopia, Kenya and Uganda. The visit to Baidoa was part of a countrywide consultation the Federal Government and its international partners are conducting with existing and emerging federal member-states to receive their perspectives on the proposed 2016 electoral model.
During the meeting, Somali leaders expressed support for the introduction of universal suffrage by 2020 as long as key issues are addressed, including security and fair representation. SRSG Keating lauded the ISWA President and his administration for their mature outlook towards the electoral model, which has generated debate and discussion among Somali leaders and the public. He further emphasized that the 2016 electoral model is Somali-owned and will help drive the country’s ongoing transition to fully democratic rule: “We came to talk to representatives from the South West and the Government and the President about their views on the electoral model in 2016,” said SRSG Keating.
OPINION, ANALYSIS, AND CULTURE
“Starvation and disease plagued the refugees as they traveled from Somalia to refugee camps in Kenya. Once at the camps they were subject to “banditry, assault, and rape.” Catherine Besteman, a professor of anthropology, writes about this remarkable journey in “Making Refuge: Somali Bantu Refugees and Lewiston, Maine.” Besteman lived in the Jubba valley in Somalia in 1987-88”.
Book Review: ‘Making Refuge’ A Compelling Analysis Of Somali Bantu Refugees In Maine
14 February – Source: Portland Press Herald – 902 Words
Solve the problem of people displaced by war within three years. That was the wildly optimistic mission given to the United Nations High Commission on Refugees when it was created in 1951. More than 65 years later, its work continues, except that it now serves 13 million refugees, a staggering increase from the 1 million it was designed to serve after World War II.
Refugees have a distinct status under international law, quite different than that of other migrants. They have fled their home countries fearing persecution because of their race, religion, nationality or political views. Somali Bantus, many of whom have settled in Lewiston, Maine, are refugees. An historically oppressed group, some of whose ancestors were exploited in the Indian Ocean slave trade, they migrated to the Jubba River valley in southern Somalia, where they lived as farmers. With the onset of the Somali Civil War in 1991, they were subjected to new waves of abuses, including rape, kidnapping and murder. Human rights groups reported that tens of thousands of farmers were killed in the Jubba Valley, which had become “one big graveyard.”
Some of those who escaped the valley began a long journey – 10 years, in some cases – that ultimately took them to Lewiston, Maine, where they have become part of Lewiston’s journey as well. Starvation and disease plagued the refugees as they traveled from Somalia to refugee camps in Kenya. Once at the camps they were subject to “banditry, assault, and rape.” Catherine Besteman, a professor of anthropology, writes about this remarkable journey in “Making Refuge: Somali Bantu Refugees and Lewiston, Maine.” Besteman, who lived in the Jubba valley in Somalia in 1987-88, published two books about her experience there after joining the faculty at Colby College.
In 2006, at an event at Bates College in Lewiston, Besteman was astonished to see some of her former villagers in a reunion that brought her “back into a relationship with the people from Bantu, 7,000 miles and 20 years away from where we first met.” Given Besteman’s unique perspective on the Somali Bantu community in Lewiston and her impressive scholarship on refugees, Africa and racism, it would be difficult to imagine any scholar having as rich and multi-faceted a frame of reference on the issue of refugees in Maine.