June 13, 2016 | Daily Monitoring Report
Mogadishu Police To Install Surveillance Cameras In Key City Places
13 June 2016 – Source: Hiiraan Online – 202 Words
Waaberi District police have hinted on plans to install CCTV cameras along the popular Makka Al-Mukarrama road, in a bid to enhance the overall security situation in the capital city.According to Waaberi District Police Commissioner, Col. Hussein Mohamed Abdi, a pilot project to fit high resolution CCTV cameras in key places along the major transport artery in the capital is under way.
He explained that the first batch of the surveillance system is already installed around the district police station area along Makka Al-Mukarrama road. Col. Abdi disclosed these safety measures during a concerted security operation to beef up the district security, indicating that such surveillance solutions would significantly improve the security of key metropolitan places. The Waaberi District Police Chief further emphasized the importance of the surveillance cameras, which “would enable the law enforcement agencies to verify identities of those involved in latent criminal activities, while closely monitoring the city”.
He urged the general public to help the police protect them by reporting any suspicious elements in their respective neighbourhoods.The latest developments come at a time when the SPF and AMISOM police components have reinforced vigilance measures to improve the security of the city during the Ramadan period.
Key Headlines
- Mogadishu Police To Install Surveillance Cameras In Key City Places (Hiiraan Online)
- Al-Shabaab Arrests Over Ten Elders For Failure To Pay Zakat (Goobjoog News)
- Jubaland President Emphasizes Effective Governance As Top Priority (Garowe Online)
- 20 Children Die Of Diarrhoea And 10 Others Recuperating In Barao Town (Goobjoog News)
- In Kenya UNHCR Chief Assured Refugee Return Will Not Contravene International Obligations (UNHCR)
- AMISOM Officers Urged To Protect Vulnerable Groups During Military Operations (AMISOM)
- St. Anthony: No Signs Of Settlement In Dispute Over Afro Deli (Star Tribune)
NATIONAL MEDIA
Al-Shabaab Arrests Over Ten Elders For Failure To Pay Zakat
13 June – Source: Goobjoog News – 198 Words
Al-Shabaab has arrested over ten of elders for failure to pay a religious tax to the fanatical group that has occupied Gamboole which is located some 50km south of Jowhar town in the Middle Shabelle region an official said Wednesday. “Al-Shabaab arrested over 10 elders after they refused to pay Zakaat to the group,” said Ali Osman Eided, who is the advisor to the Middle Shabelle governor. He added that Al-Shabaab had previously warned it would punish violators.
“Anyone who violates the Al-Shabaab decree is imprisoned by the group,” Eideed said, explaining that detainees have been taken to unknown locations and their fate is unknown. According to a local resident who declined be named, local fighters defied Al-Shabaab order to round up their livestock. “Al-Shabaab tried to demand zakaat from local herders and that led the detention of the elders,” he said.
Al-Shabaab adopted monthly Zakat that obliges every nomadic family with 10 heads of livestock to give away at least one, while those rearing as many as 20 are needed to contribute three in alms, according to locals. The group is carrying out hit and run attacks in major towns under government and deadly explosions in the capital Mogadishu.
Jubaland President Emphasizes Effective Governance As Top Priority
13 June – Source: Garowe Online – 159 Words
The President of Somalia’s Jubaland Administration Sheikh Ahmed Mohamed Islam (Madobe) has emphasized effective governance as a top priority in his government’s program, Garowe Online reports. Madobe was speaking in the southern port city of Kismayo, shortly after lawmakers endorsed Jubaland’s second governmentin three years. Jubaland officially gained its recognition from Mogadishu-based federal government following intense IGAD-brokered talks in Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa in August, 2013.
He said, his government aims to adopt decentralization policy to consolidate authority in each and every district in a step to devolve service delivery and implementation. “I want for government and parliament to reach out to communities, reinstall institutions and lay emphasis on rebuilding grassroots trust in the government,” said Madobe. Jubaland leader asked ministers to begin tours of all districts, ordering Interior Ministry to work on formation of district councils. Madobe outlined the top policy priority amid plans to drive Al-Shabaab militants out of fewer bastions remaining under their control.
20 Children Die Of Diarrhoea And 10 Others Recuperating In Barao Town
13 June – Source: Goobjoog News – 281 Words
An outbreak of acute diarrhoea in and around the town of Barao, Lower Shabelle in southern Somalia, has killed at least 20 people in the past week, medics and local officials said on Sunday. Health workers in the town told Goobjoog News the outbreak could be a result of contaminated water from wells in the area. “We suspect the outbreak could have been caused by contaminated water from wells in the area since some people have been using the water for drinking and other domestic purposes,” said Doctor Abdi Ali Muse.
He said two of the twenty died in the last 24 hours. Barao Hospital, which has not functioned properly for years, is being used as a treatment centre for Barao town and surrounding villages, Musa said. At least 10 other people are reported to have fallen sick after drinking from a contaminated borehole in the area. Abdi Ali Omar, a resident told Goobjoog News the victims came from pastoralist families who had fled from remote rural villages after they lost all their livestock to the ravaging drought in the region.
He added that pastoralists in the area were forced to drink from abandoned water wells as they could not afford to buy clean water. “The impact of the water shortage is very serious. It is forcing people and livestock to drink dirty water,” he noted. He urged both local and international aid agencies, the Somali people and the federal government to immediately respond to the looming crisis in the region by providing water, food and medicine. Rampant insecurity and attacks on aid workers have hampered the relief effort for the millions of Somalis affected by war, hunger and disease.
INTERNATIONAL MEDIA
In Kenya, UNHCR Chief Assured Refugee Return Will Not Contravene International Obligations
13 June – Source: UNHCR – 750 Words
On his first visit to Kenya and Somalia as UN High Commissioner for Refugees, Filippo Grandi discussed solutions for Somali refugees in Kenya and received assurances that the return of refugees to Somalia would not contravene international obligations. The visit comes as the Kenyan government announced plans to close the Dadaab Refugee Camp, home to nearly 350,000, mostly Somali, refugees. Kenya has been hosting the world’s largest refugee camp for a quarter century, and has consistently welcomed refugees from other conflicts, most recently from South Sudan.
Following his meeting today with Kenya President Uhuru Kenyatta, Grandi welcomed his assurances that the country would uphold its long-standing reputation for respecting the rights of refugees. “I was very happy to hear the President say emphatically that any solution – and repatriation is obviously the best solution – has to be conducted in a manner that is humane, dignified, safe and respects international law and principles,” said Grandi.
He noted that the international donor support to Kenya and especially the local hosting communities has been generous, but insufficient to cover all the needs, and pledged continued engagement by UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency. In 2013, Kenya, Somalia and UNHCR signed a Tripartite Agreement to help Somali refugees from Dadaab begin voluntarily returning home to nine designated areas in South Central regions and in Puntland and Somaliland that are deemed relatively safe. More than 14,000 have returned so far and thousands more have signed up to leave.
AMISOM Officers Urged To Protect Vulnerable Groups During Military Operations
13 June – Source: AMISOM – 421 Words
Military officers of the African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM) have been urged to always take precautionary measures while conducting operations, to protect civilians especially women and children. Col. Shadrack Othieno Mutacho, the Acting AMISOM Chief of Staff was speaking during the closing ceremony of the three-day training workshop for AMISOM focal persons for the human rights cluster, last Saturday.
Col. Othieno said that in the modern contemporary military operations, the protection of human rights should take centre stage. He called on AMISOM officers to ensure transparency, accountability and responsibility of their actions and operate within the scope of the law during the day-to-day execution of their duties in military operations.
Colonel Othieno said, “The military of today has to comply with the law. When it comes to gender issues, women and children are considered to be a vulnerable group and therefore whatever we do, we must ensure that this group is protected. However you may find a few elements that may cross the line. If you happen to come across such elements, it’s good to handle them within the law and be able to at least give them and accord them the necessary respect they deserve, so that whatever we do is transparent.”
OPINION, ANALYSIS, AND CULTURE
“My hope is to stay here and that ADC reconsiders evicting one of its best tenant. I don’t know what happened. Samatar believed in me. It’s not just Kahin’s restaurant. It’s the community’s restaurant, ” Kahin said.
St. Anthony: No Signs Of Settlement In Dispute Over Afro Deli
13 June – Source: Star Tribune – 739 Words
Afro Deli, the signature commercial business in the 7-year-old African Development Center (ADC) on the West Bank, likely will close by June 30 due to a dispute between Afro Deli’s owner and the chief executive of ADC. Abdirahman Kahin, owner of Afro Deli said he has no choice because he refused to concede ownership of the popular, profitable restaurant to financially struggling ADC.
“I was the ‘poster child’ business for ADC for years,” said Kahin, a veteran restaurateur and caterer since he immigrated from Somalia in 1996. “I don’t know what to tell my 14 employees, so I tell them to hang tight. We were doing everything right. I’m going to talk to my lawyers.” One thing is for sure, this divorce is one doozy of a tenant-landlord dispute.
Executive Director Nasibu Sareva of ADC, who succeeded Hussein Samatar after his death in 2013, said Kahin is not the owner of Afro Deli. Rather, he is more of a partner that Samatar set up in business in 2009 as the flagship commercial tenant of the once-abandoned building that ADC refurbished in 2009-10. The building also serves as ADC’s headquarters. ADC assists African immigrants with financial literacy, business development and finance, and homeownership programs.
“We will close [Afro Deli] and start renegotiation with [Kahin],” Sareva said. “My hope is we can still keep him before we go look for someone else from the community. He says he is the sole owner, but everything was done in a very unique, special relationship. I want him to document things right.” Afro Deli is located inside the African Development Center on the West Bank near the University of Minnesota.
Kahin said he signed the incorporation papers as owner years ago with Samatar’s consent. Sareva said ADC invested $100,000-plus to build out the space for the restaurant and that Samatar and Kahin had an understanding that Afro Deli was ADC’s enterprise and that Kahin was more the restaurant’s general manager. Kahin says ADC put in no equity, but made standard leasehold improvements that he has repaid over the years with rent of $2,500 per month plus half of the net profits that totaled $31,877.58 in the first quarter of this year.
TOP TWEETS
@Hornexpert115 : Breaking: #AlShabaab abducts 13#Traditional elders from the village of #Gambool, 50KMs away from #Jowhar district. #MiddleShabelle #Somalia
@MarkTJones500 : With #Somalia‘s population set to increase markedly in the coming decades the strain will be tremendous:http://www.un.org/en/
@neptune_ms: Seychelles court sentences five Somalis to 12 years, concludes last piracy case http://bit.ly/1Xivuk9 #pirates#Somalia #Seychelles
@US2SOMALIA : #ICYMI: United States Condemns June 9 AS Attack Against ENDF—-> http://somalia.usvpp.gov/pr_
@amisomsomalia : AMISOM Officers urged to protect vulnerable groups during Military Operations.http://goo.gl/mBgU5M #Somalia
@Eye_on_Somalia : #goobjoog Gunmen Open Fire On lorry, three People Dead In Somalia: Unidentified gunmen clad in SNA u… http://bit.ly/24KN3bP #somalia
@radiogarowe : #Somalia: Jubaland President emphasizes effective governance as top priority http://bit.ly/1ZJMDkI
IMAGE OF THE DAY
AMISOM Officers urged to protect vulnerable groups during Military Operations.
Photo: AMISOM