October 13, 2016 | Daily Monitoring Report

National Leadership Forum Meeting Fails To Take Place

12 October – Source: Jowhar.com- 168 Words

A meeting of the National Leadership Forum(NLF), which was convened by the presidency that was due to take place on Tuesday was abandoned after the invited leaders failed to show up.According to new sources , the purpose ofthe meeting was to discuss how to complete the electoral process and discuss the country’s security situation. The idea to have meeting came from the presidency. The only regional leader who turned for the meeting was the President of the Interim South West Administration(ISWA), while the other members of the National Leadership Forum did not turn up at the conference venue which was Villa Somalia. According to the reports, those who failed to attend did not even send their apologies.Reports add that there is fall out between Sharrif Hassan and Ahmed Madoobe. This fall out came as result after the two leaders failed to agree on their respective list for the upper house. The duo had earlier agreed to consult each other on their various lists.

Key Headlines

National Leadership Forum Meeting Fails To Take Place (jowhar.com)
Puntland Leader Re-nominate Upper House Candidates (Garowe Online)
Puntland President Appoints New Minister (Garowe Online)
Rape Militia And Health Fears Mean Somali Refugees Want To Stay In Kenya – Charity (Thomson Reuters Foundation)
Kenya: “Dagahaley Is The Place I Know As Home” (Medecin Sans Frontieres)
The Known Unknowns About The Somalis (Hiiraan Online)

NATIONAL MEDIA

Puntland Leader Re-nominate Upper House Candidates

13 October- Source: Garowe Online – 285 Words

President of Somalia’s semi-autonomous region of Puntland is expected to re-nominate Upper House candidates in the coming days following rejection of Federal electoral body to the original list. On October 8, Puntland President, Abdiweli Mohamed Ali Gaas, nominated candidates for the Upper House chamber of Federal Parliament but the process drew heavy criticism by women’s group for not upholding to previous agreement on women representation in the electoral process.
Women’s group argued that despite National Leadership forum (NLF) has granted women 30-percent quota in the process, Puntland government has failed to give 3 seats quota for women in the Upper House chamber. The previous list had women candidates competing for 2 seats with men candidates. However, women’s group received support from the UN and Federal electoral body and called regional states to reserve women quota in the process. Following mounting pressure to meet deadlines, Puntland government is set to nominate women candidates for 3 seats in the new list.

Close sources tell Garowe Online that Puntland President who previously picked women candidates for 2 seats, is going to axe former Federal MP Yasin Abdi Saed to meet conditional seats for women amid fears of political disputes with other clan leaders over the interference in the process. Continuing, voting on candidates representing Puntland state in the Upper House chamber is set to take place in Puntland Parliament next week, where over 22 candidates will compete for 11 seats quota for Puntland. Somalia announced it will hold inclusive electoral elections for the first time in 47 years. Lower House election is expected to take place between 23 October and 10 November and will conclude in a vote by new lawmakers for a new president on 30 November.

Puntland President Appoints New Minister

13 October – Source: Garowe Online – 180 Words

President of Somalia’s semi-autonomous region of Puntland, Abdiweli Mohamed Ali Gaas, has appointed new Minister of Ports and Marine Ministry in a presidential decree after dismissing former Minister Abdullahi Jama Saleh, on Wednesday. The new official Saed Mohamed Rage, held the same position as Ports and Marine Minister during the previous government term of President Abdirahman Mohamed Farole. The dismissal comes amid failure of Puntland government to implement the expansion project of Bossaso port after signing bilateral agreement with Palestinian businessman whose residing in UAE. It’s noteworthy that Minister Saleh was one of the main campaigners to sign the bilateral agreement between Puntland and the Palestinian businessman. However, Puntland government is expected to do major cabinet reshuffle in the coming period, after reports emerged that majority of the Ministries halted to perform its functions. Recently, some Puntland ministers have resigned from their posts following failure of Puntland government to financially support activities and operations of their ministries. Puntland, located in northeastern region of Somalia, has declared to be autonomous state in 1998 but remains under the Somali federal member states.

INTERNATIONAL MEDIA

Rape, Militia And Health Fears Mean Somali Refugees Want To Stay In Kenya – Charity

13 October – Source: Thomson Reuters Foundation – 451 Words

More than eight out of 10 Somalis living in the world’s largest refugee camp, which Kenya plans to close by November, are unwilling to return home, fearing rape, forced recruitment into militias and lack of medical care, a charity said on Wednesday. Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) said the return to Somalia of some 300,000 refugees living in Dadaab camp would be disastrous for their health, putting them at risk of malnutrition and infectious diseases like polio.”Hundreds of thousands of lives will be put at risk,” MSF said in a report sent to the Thomson Reuters Foundation.”Extreme levels of insecurity and a dangerous absence of medical care mean that the conditions necessary for a safe and dignified return are simply not present in many parts of Somalia today.” Kenya hosts the largest population of Somali refugees who have fled a 25-year-old civil war in the Horn of Africa country, according to the United Nations.Kenya and the UN have said returns are being conducted on a voluntarily basis, with refugees being taken to designated safe areas.They have appealed to donors for funding to provide better health and education services in Somalia.Kenya says it has to close Dadaab for its own security as the camp has been infiltrated by “terrorist cells” which have carried out deadly attacks on Kenyan soil.

Children arriving in Kenya from Somalia have never received routine childhood vaccinations, MSF said, and new arrivals often fall sick with measles.Polio, which has almost been eradicated globally through vaccination, broke out in 2014 in Somalia, illustrating the weakness of its health services.”I am afraid to go back because there is no life and no hope there,” one refugee cited in the report told MSF.In Somalia, private clinics are prohibitively expensive and pharmacies often stock out of date and poor quality drugs, some of the 800 refugees living in Dadaab surveyed by MSF in July and August said.

Kenya: “Dagahaley Is The Place I Know As Home”

13 October – Source: Medecin Sans Frontieres – 628 Words

Hassan Sugal Takoy was born in Kismayo in Somalia in 1987. When he was five years old, he and his family fled the war and arrived in Dagahaley refugee camp in Dadaab, Kenya. Hassan began working with MSF in 2011 as a translator. He is now a social worker. Here, he tells his story of fleeing war in Somalia and his reaction to the recent announcement by the Kenyan Government that the Dadaab camps will close by November 2016. We had to flee Somalia in 1992, when I was five. I cannot remember well what was going on but I very vividly remember the fighting due to the civil war. There were rumours that women were being raped. My mother would hide in the bushes because of the threats from the men. Once, some men found her and beat her, leaving her unconscious. My father was killed when we were trying to leave. He was attacked by unknown armed men. Some of our neighbours were also killed, and all the livestock were taken. My mother took us to another village that was calmer. There she heard that people were fleeing to Liboi, a Kenyan border town, so we went.

We stayed there for over 10 days after which we were relocated to Dagahaley camp in Dadaab. I remember receiving a tent and utensils. Our life as refugees had begun. It was a tiring journey, and we were afraid. Everybody was hungry and my mother was sad. It was very hard to see her cry every time she would talk to us about her experience fleeing the war in Somalia. I would have to leave our tent to go and cry. But I knew I had to be strong for her. I would come back and hold her hand to comfort her. Our neighbours would join us and comfort us, but my mother was suspicious of everyone due to the death of her husband. She was afraid, and thought that someone among those fleeing had killed her husband. This made it difficult for me and my family to get support.

OPINION, ANALYSIS, AND CULTURE

“Somali’s turbulent history shows similar patterns recurring time and again without direct connections with one another.”

The Known Unknowns About The Somalis

12 October – Source: Hiiraan Online – 5351 Words

I, as researcher working in the country – Somalia – in the last five years was puzzled to understand my own people – Somalis; I found them witty – inventively thoughtful with keen intelligence to understand one’s intentions. For instance, when you ask a research-question, almost all of them will give you the same answer, regardless of their position in the society – young, poor, rich, educated, uneducated, government official etc implying that they are not speaking from their minds. furthermore, El Adde and Halgan attacks in 15th of January 2016 and in the 9th of June 2016 respectively by Alshabab made me wonder “What kind of people are Somalis” because before these events happen, an overwhelming majority of the Somalis seem to oppose the Alshabab militia, but all of a sudden, I found them showing sympathy, if not supporting them directly or indirectly. The wittiness of the Somali on the one hand and the spontaneous behavioural change of the Somalis made me think and look back the Somali history to see if there is anything we can learn from it, which could help us understand the characteristics of the Somali people.

Somali’s turbulent history shows similar patterns recurring time and again without direct connections with one another. The aim for this essay is therefore to look back at some of the historical struggles that the Somali people had been through and to link the events in the past history of the Somalis back with one another so as to see if there is anything we can learn from it, which could help us relate with what is happening in Somalia currently. There was no conclusive evidence about the origin of the Somalis until recently, when the historical evidence matched with recent scientific findings showing that Somalis are ethnically Cushitic, implying that Somalis originated from the old Cush kingdom. However there are others who still argue that Somalis originated from the Arabian Peninsula-implying Somalis have Arab origin. Before the recent scientific discoveries that exposed the genetic connections between the Somalis and the Cush Kingdom, the former argument was mainly based on language and the physical appearances that connects all the Cushitic communities scattered around Africa together particularly: Somalia, Djibouti, Ethiopia and Sudan among other places, whilst on the other hand, the later argument, which indicates that the Somalis originated from Arabian peninsula is mainly based on the cultural connections between the Somalis and the people living in the Arabian Peninsula or Arabs in short.

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IMAGE OF THE DAY

Graduates supported by USAID Somalia complete their 2 year Pre service teacher studies from Mogadishu University

Photo: USAID Somalia