April 19, 2016 | Daily Monitoring Report
A Twitter Hashtag, #DontBuyDeath Trending In Somalia After Immigrants Death In The Mediterranean Sea
19 April – Source: Radio Dalsan – 122 Words
Twitter users in Somalia and elsewhere took to the social media platform to sensitize youth about the dangers of the perilous journey .to Europe following the deaths of more than 200 Somali youths. Some of the users faulted the government for failing to create awareness or creating employment opportunities while others blamed countries used by migrants as transit. A twitter hashtag, #DontBuyDeath is now trending among Somalia Twitter users following the deaths of more than 230 young Somalis in the Mediterranean sea on Monday.Boats carrying over 400 migrants capsized along the Egyptian shores on its way to Europe.
Key Headlines
- A Twitter Hashtag #DontBuyDeath Trending In Somalia After Immigrants Death In The Mediterranean Sea (Radio Dalsan)
- Former Somali Cabinet Minister Declares Interest In The Presidential Election (Radio Dalsan)
- MP Calls On Galmudug State To Reach Lasting Deal With Ahlu Sunna (Shabelle News)
- Free Meals Keeping Girls In School In Hiiraan (Radio Ergo)
- Key Somali Economic Conference Opens Its Doors In Mogadishu (SONNA)
- Can Parliamentary Elections Go Ahead In Somalia? (BBC)
- Child Malnutrition Soars In Northern Somalia Due To Severe drought (Times Of India)
- Al-Shabaab Going Under: Militants Face Worst Year Ever (Zipo.co.ke)
NATIONAL MEDIA
Former Somali Cabinet Minister Declares Interest In The Presidential Election
19 April – Source: Radio Dalsan – 122 Words
Former Planning Minister Said Abdullahi Deni has announced his interest in the upcoming Somali presidential election later this year. Speaking in a Nairobi hotel during the launch of his campaign last week, Mr. Deni who is credited for his educational reforms while in the government, has challenged other candidates to prove their performance to the public.The entrepreneur, who is also a member of parliament, has vowed to improve security, social services and create employment for the young Somalis to evade the dangerous trips via the sea. Members of Somali women and youth diaspora community in Kenya have showed their support for Mr. Deni to the Villa Somalia.Somalia is set to hold general elections on August this year though the one man one vote principle has been ruled out. Regional state leaders, central government and the international community have agreed to go on with the mode of election agreed in the Istanbul meeting in February, which empowers clan and traditional elders to nominate MPs.
MP Calls On Galmudug State To Reach Lasting Deal With Ahlu Sunna
19 April – Source: Shabelle News – 122 Words
A lawmaker in Adado city has called on Galmudug state leaders to reach a comprehensive power-sharing agreement with Somalia’s moderate Sufi group of Ahlu Sunna Waljama based in Dhusamareb town.“It’s up to Galmudug state leaders to reach a political agreement with Ahlu Sunna and they must not fail to take up their responsibility to end hostility in the region,” said MP Muhaydin Sunn.Galmudug state has in the past unveiled peace talks with its main rival Ahlu Sunna administration, in an attempt to bring an end to the escalating tensions in central Somalia.Ahlu Sunna fighters continue to hold large swathes of territories in Galgadud region, including Dhusamareb and Guri’el towns. .
Free Meals Keeping Girls In School In Hiiraan
18 April – Source: Radio Ergo – 302 Words
Free school meals and a monthly contribution towards household food needs are encouraging more families to send their girls to school in Beletweyne, southern Somalia. Bundo-weyne and Hawa Tako primary schools, two of nine school in Hiran that have started feeding programmes supported by the World Food programme (WFP), have seen a big increase in girls’ enrolment.
According to Abdi Farah Areys, deputy head of Bundo-weyne primary, the enrollment of the school has almost doubled since the feeding programmes began in August 2015. Today there are 720 children, up from 419, and 406 of them are girls.Areys said WFP gave every girl in the school 3.5 litres of vegetable oil once a month as an incentive to families to keep them attending classes. Both boys and girls receive food twice a day, consisting of porridge in the morning and beans at lunch time.“The breakfast and lunch provided by WFP means a lot to the children. Most of the children are from low income families and it is hard for a hungry child to concentrate in class,” Aweys said.
Farhiya Noor Lidow has enrolled two of her children in Bundo-weyne school since the feeding programme began. Her daughter, 13, and son, 11, are in grades three and four respectively. She said it was their first time to go to school and they were learning well, although she wished they could be given more food for the family as getting food was hard.At Hawa Tako primary, another school running the WFP programme, 379 of the 690 pupils are girls.Hassan Ahmed Shirwa, the head, told Radio Ergo the girls were performing well in their studies and generally were attaining higher grades than the boys. Shirwa said UNICEF and Save the Children also supported the school through payment of teachers’ salaries.
Key Somali Economic Conference Opens Its Doors In Mogadishu
18 April – Source: Somali National News Agency (SONNA) – 160 Words
Somalia has made strides in both its development agenda and security, senior federal government officials have said.
Speaking at the monthly development and reconstruction forum (SDRF) held in Mogadishu, the Deputy Prime Minister Mohamed Omar Arte, who co-chaired the meeting with EU officials, gave updates on the activities of the federal government saying tangible results were achieved in both security and development matters across the country.
Officials from the regional administrations of Puntland, Jubbaland, Galmudug, Interim South West Administration of Somalia and Banadir region presented reports on their key achievement areas including recent offensives and operations against Al-Shabaab militants. The forum brought together members of the forum including Federal government ministers, representatives from federal parliament and the Federal member states, EU officials and representative of other Somalia development partners.
Recent international happening touching on Somalis were also discussed including outbreak of Yellow Fever in Angola as well as the reported deaths of close to 400 immigrants that included Somali nationals.
INTERNATIONAL MEDIA
Can Parliamentary Elections Go Ahead In Somalia?
19 April – Source: BBC – Radio: 3:17 Mins
At least four people were killed on Monday in the Somali capital Mogadishu after an attack by gunmen. Such incidents reflect the difficulty of securing peace in the country, particularly ahead of general elections in August. Somalia’s President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud told our Africa Security Correspondent Tomi Oladipo why he thinks the elections will go ahead in spite of continued violence around the country.
Child Malnutrition Soars In Northern Somalia Due To Severe drought
18 April – Source:Times Of India/Reuters – 576 Words
Child malnutrition rates are soaring in northern Somalia, where the harshest drought in decades has ravaged crops and livestock, and aid workers fear hunger will worsen with further poor rains predicted.Parts of the region are reeling from three years of failed rains which have left many families short of food, Save the Children’s area representative, Mukhtar Mohumed Hassan, told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.”People are saying this is the worst drought they have seen in decades,” he said via Skype. “They have not seen a drought on this scale for the last 30 or 40 years.”
Malnutrition-related deaths have been reported in Awdal region, which borders Ethiopia, the United Nations said.Hospital admissions of children with life-threatening severe acute malnutrition almost doubled in two months, with 33 in March up from 18 in January in Borama Hospital, Hassan said.Borama is the capital of Awdal region and the second largest city in Somaliland, a breakaway region of Somalia.”Right now we are fearing starvation,” Save the Children quoted one mother in the hospital as saying. “We have no money to buy food.”
Milk prices have doubled since 2015 to just over $1 per gallon, Hassan said.Millions of people across the Horn of Africa have been hit by El Nino-related drought, with the largest numbers in neighbouring Ethiopia, where 10.2 million need emergency aid.Some 1.7 million people, 40 percent of the population of northern Somalia’s semi-autonomous Puntland and Somaliland regions, need emergency aid, the U.N. says.”Another 1.3 million are on the brink of slipping into a deeper crisis if rains continue to fail and aid is too slow to come,” it said on April 11.
OPINION, ANALYSIS, AND CULTURE
“In total, in a space of six weeks Al-Shabaab has lost 10 high-level human assets in addition to the rank and file soldiers whose death toll exceeded 300 in March alone.The worst carnage happened in Suuj valley in Puntland where 167 militants were neutralised in four days of fighting to recover territory from Al Shabaab. Also the fight in Galmudug state also claimed 115 of operatives and saw 100 others arrested,”
Al-Shabaab Going Under: Militants Face Worst Year Ever
16 April – Source: Zipo.co.ke- 688 Words
Year 2016 will go down on record as annus holibilis for the Somalia-based al-Qaeda affiliated militant group, Al Shabaab. The first quarter of this year, particularly last month, was the bloodiest for Al-Shabaab in a long time.It lost 10 commanders, and hundreds of foot soldiers and middle-level commanders to enemy forces including, American and African Union Mission to Somalia (Amisom) troops as well as the Somali National Army in Somalia.
There are reports that an attack on the militants’ headquarters at Jilib last Thursday could have claimed a few more senior commanders.Initial reports indicated that 20 were killed, but their identity and rank was not clear. The terror group is under intense military pressure from all sides—from the ground, the air and the sea and has very few options left for its survival. And given all these forces allied against it, it’s losing large swathes of territory in Somalia.
It is not surprising that things are getting tougher for Al-Shabaab. An analysis of MEA Risk’s terror heat maps in East Africa between January and March shows a high concentration of terror events in Somalia.The maps also show a high concentration of security and defence operations in the country. There were 138 security and defence operation in the quarter to March 31, last year.
Of these 74 or 54 per cent happened in Somalia, accounting for 94 per cent or 776 of the 823 deaths of insurgents caused by defence and security operations in East Africa during that period.On the other hand, there were 115 terrorist events in East Africa, with 67 or 58.3 per cent of the activities occurring in Somalia. In terms of deaths caused by terror attacks, Somalia came second to the equally unstable Sudan. Sudan accounted for 479 or 64 per cent of the 753 deaths caused by terrorist activities while Somalia accounted for 229 or 30 per cent.
TOP TWEETS
@USIP:As #Somalia works towards national elections this year, we’ll talk with President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud on Weds.
@Daudoo:Sad day for the people of #Somalia, 100s of Somali youth drowned in Middetreanian Sea. May Allah have mercy on them.
@HodanTV:When humanity leaves a country, hearts no longer feel. As Somalis we must never become numb to the suffering our people face daily. #Somalia
@ibrahinqaran:Grandmother and her six children killed in fire blaze by armed militia over clan fights in lower Shabelle.#Somalia
@XHNews:Over 200 #streetchildren in #Somalia capital find new home, and life in rehab center http://xhne.ws/8HnvC
IMAGE OF THE DAY
Somalia’s Defense minister Ali Dini attending the Munich Security Conference in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
Photo: Radio Muqdisho