May 31, 2016 | Morning Headlines

Main Story

Somalia Sentences Two To Life In Prison For February Airline Blast

30 May – Source: Reuters – 287 Words

A Somali military court sentenced 10 people it said were behind a bomb blast that blew a hole in the fuselage of a plane bound for Djibouti in February, a senior government official said on Monday.In the incident, a suspected suicide bomber was sucked out of the Daallo Airlines plane through a one-meter (one-yard) wide hole when a blast ripped open the pressurized cabin in flight, officials said.

The plane made an emergency landing in the Somali capital Mogadishu. Somalia’s al Shabaab insurgents said they were behind the blast.Mumin Abdullahi, the deputy prosecutor for Somalia’s national security forces, said among those sentenced were a security officer and an Al-Shabaab member who bankrolled the attack.”Abdiweli Mohamed, the security head of the civil aviation, and Areys Hashi, who was the funder but absent, were sentenced to life imprisonment by the court,” Abdullahi told Reuters by phone.”Areys Hashi is a member of al Shabaab who funded the operation,” he added.

Key Headlines

Somalia Sentences Two To Life In Prison For February Airline Blast (Reuters)
Government Vows To Push Al-Shabaab Out Of Galgadud (Shabelle News)
60 Year Old Becomes Social Media Icon For Attending Final Secondary School Exams (Radio Dalsan)
Puntland Police Boss Take Office Promises Reforms (Shabelle News)
UN To Provide 2 Million USD To Respond To Cholera Outbreak In Somalia (Xinhua)
Suspected Al-Shabaab Fighters Kill 3 Village Elders In Kenya – Police (Reuters)
Ifrah Ahmed: Helping Somalia’s Government End FGM (The Guardian )

NATIONAL MEDIA

Government Vows To Push Al-Shabaab Out Of Galgadud

30 May – Source: Shabelle News – 128 Words

The commissioner of Elbur district, Abdi Hassan Mohamed said they readied hundreds of SNA troops for an attack against Al-Shabaab militants in Galgaduud region.“The government of Somalia has mobilized combat troops for fresh offensives against Al-Shabaab militants based in the towns and villages in eastern Galgaduud province,” said Elbur administrator.Mr Mohamed said local residents are helping SNA forces in offensive, which may begin in weeks in a bid to liberate areas remaining under the control of militants.The federal government forces, along with African Union troops have been carrying out and making gains against Al shabaab after seizing several urban areas near Elbur town.The government has previously announced similar military operations to take back whole towns still remained under the control of the Al shabaab fighters.

60 Year Old Becomes Social Media Icon For Attending Final Secondary School Exams

30 May – Source: Radio Dalsan – 76 Words

60 years old, Ahmadey Saney, has become talk of the day in the social media in Somalia and across the globe for attending final Somalia secondary school exams.His photos with other students in exam room in Balcad exam centre went viral on twitter and facebook with congratulatory messages encouraging him.Saney is among more than 45000 students sitting for Somali secondary schools examination organized by the ministry of education for the second year in arrow.

Puntland Police Boss Take Office, Promises Reforms

30 May- Source:Shabelle News – 141 Words

The newly appointed police chief of Somalia’s northeastern semi-autonomous region of Puntland Abdulkadir Farah Shire has taken the oath of office following a ceremony in Garowe city.Speaking at the swearing ceremony, the new police boss has urged the police to take new steps to improve security in Puntland which has been hit by Al-Shabaab attacks.

Shire has called on Puntland security and internal affairs ministries to work with the police forces in the maintaining of the law and order. He also asked the public for collaboration.The new police commander called upon the police to come up with new security measures to deal with what he described as changing faces of terror in Puntland state of Somalia.Al-Shabaab has a presence in Puntland’s Galgala mountains and it carried out several major attacks, including assassinations and car bombs in the past.

INTERNATIONAL MEDIA

UN To Provide 2 Million USD To Respond To Cholera Outbreak In Somalia

30 May – Source: Xinhua – 394 Words

The UN humanitarian agency said Monday it will provide an additional 2 million U.S. dollars to take steps against cholera outbreak in southern and central Somalia.The UN Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said the funds from the Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF) will be provided to help contain a major spike in cases of acute watery diarrhoea (AWD) and cholera in southern and central Somalia, terming it a serious concern.”At present, health and water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) supplies to cover an estimated caseload of 500 severe and 12,000 moderate cases are being distributed,” OCHA said in its Humanitarian Bulletin released on Monday.

Over 7,000 AWD/cholera cases have been reported in the first quarter of 2016, a significant increase from the 5,257 cases reported in all of 2015.”The data collected from 247 routine sentinel surveillance health facilities indicates that more than half were children under the age of five,” OCHA said.
According to UN, projections of 15,000 severe and 60,000 moderate cases over the coming months have led to plans for a significant and rapid scale up of the response.”To help stabilize and contain the outbreak, the CERF rapid response grant of 2 million dollars will strengthen and complement response activities already underway by WASH and Health partners,” it said.

This, OCHA said, is in addition to an earlier reserve allocation of 600,000 dollars from the Somalia Humanitarian Fund (SHF) for the response to AWD/cholera outbreak in Kismayo.Of the 300 deaths reported, 40 percent were among children under five. Banadir, Bay, Hiraan, Lower Juba, Lower Shabelle, Middle Juba and Middle Shabelle are the most affected regions.There have also been cases of AWD/cholera and related deaths in neighbouring Bu’uale, Jilib, and Saakow districts. It is likely that there could be under-reporting since many areas are inaccessible to reporting systems and partners, and many do not have the resources to travel and seek treatment at health facilities.

Suspected Al-Shabaab Fighters Kill 3 Village Elders In Kenya – Police

30 May – Source: Reuters – 362 Words

Suspected al Shabaab militants shot and killed three village elders, including a Muslim cleric, in Kenya’s coastal region on suspicion of helping security agencies fight the insurgents, police said on Monday.Village chairman Juma Mwanyota, religious leader Hassan Mwasanite and a member of local neighbourhood security group, Mohammed Manguze, were shot and killed separately on Sunday in Kwale county, south of Kenya’s port city Mombasa.

Kwale county police chief Joseph Omija said they believed the killers were young recruits who had returned to Kenya from training by al Shabaab in Somalia.“They (the suspects) think these elders have information about them which they are sharing with us and other security agencies, and that is why they are targeting them,” Omija told Reuters by phone.

Al-Shabaab has said in the past its frequent attacks in Kenya are in retaliation for Kenya sending its troops into Somalia in 2011. They are now part of an African Union peacekeeping force. Several raids targeted coastal sites.The al Qaeda-linked group also seeks to overthrow the Western-backed Somali government and impose its own strict interpretation of Islamic law.In early May, a young man who had returned from Somalia and surrendered to government was shot and killed by what Omija said was a group of al Shabaab militants.Coast regional coordinator Nelson Marwa told a news conference in Mombasa they were seeking the suspects inSunday’s killings.

OPINION, ANALYSIS, AND CULTURE

“My country of birth is often quoted statistically as the country with the highest incidence of FGM. How could I tackle the task of eradicating FGM across a country slowly emerging from the ravages of a 30-year war? Understandably, the government is dealing with all sorts of immediate emergencies, the religious leaders are engaging with hardline reactionary issues. The day-to-day life of Somalis, so many of whom have been displaced because of the war, is very hard,” – Ifrah Ahmed, Anti – FGM Campaigner

Ifrah Ahmed: Helping Somalia’s Government End FGM

27 May – Source: The Guardian – 649 Words

I first went back to Somalia in March 2013 after years as a FGM campaigner in Europe, mainly to visit my grandmother. I also visited camps for internally displaced people, where I met so many beautiful young girls. One morning, a girl told me that she and two other girls were to be cut the following Friday.They showed me the hut where they were going to stay and it was shocking. My heart broke for them and so I called a friend and asked what should I do. He said to me: “Follow your heart and do what you think is right.” I was lucky enough to save these girls by giving the family money in return for which they swore on the Qur’an that FGM would not be in their future.
But I couldn’t stay in the camp as I was scared that a lot of people would appear with girls saying they too were at risk of FGM, and I knew I just couldn’t help them all.

On a trip to the EU parliament for a conference, I met with the former Somali minister of women and human rights, who told me that my voice was needed in Somalia. She asked me to come back and work at the Ministry for Women where I would be part of the development of child rights programmes, including the ratification of the convention on the rights of the child in Somalia, particularly FGM.

I was lucky to have the support of the minister of women Khadijah Mohamed Dirrie. With her backing, I started engaging directly with communities to promote the prevention of FGM as well as with religious leaders.‘All mothers want the best for their daughter’s future’The communities are difficult to deal with because mothers still believe that FGM is a generational tradition and some are convinced that girls go through a religious experience with it. After many months of researching and working with the Ifrah Foundation, we developed a very simple, basic belief that all mothers want the best for their daughter’s future. We came up with the Dear Daughter campaign. A letter of commitment and promise, a pledge almost, that each and every mother can write to her daughter to promise her a future free of FGM.