December 13, 2016 | Morning Headlines

Main Story

Somali Youths Challenged To Help Fight Discrimination And Gender-based Violence

12 December – Source: AMISOM – 382 Words

Somali youths have been challenged to play an active role in fighting discrimination against women and minorities.The plea was made at a workshop attended by youths, members of the civil society and representatives from regional administrations among others. Speaking at the meeting, Galmudug Minister for Public Works, Mohamed Mohamud Gure, said discrimination and violence was not only confined to women and children but also targeted minorities and other members of society.“It’s very true that they (women and children) are the most vulnerable group subjected to violence. But violence is not confined to them (women). Sometimes you face abuse and discrimination because you’re a minority,” said Mr. Gure. He cautioned the youth not to be misled by individuals out to cause disunity among Somalis by discriminating others because of their age, gender, colour or status.

His sentiments were supported by the deputy Mayor of Mogadishu, Iman Ikar, and the Secretary General of the Banaadir Regional Administration, Amin Sheikh Elmi, who asked the youth to use their numbers to advocate for peace. In his address, the Deputy Mayor acknowledged that sexual and gender-based violence was still a problem in the country but noted that it involved a minority in society.Mr Elmi said the youth had the potential to move Somalia to the next level of development but cautioned that young people need to direct their energies in the right direction.“It’s the youth who will develop the country. They are the future of the country today and tomorrow. We have a lot of expectations in you. You need to develop the country. You need to bring to an end sexual and gender-based violence. You’re the key players in this,” he noted.

Key Headlines

Somali Youths Challenged To Help Fight Discrimination And Gender-based Violence (AMISOM)
Somali President Welcomes The Conclusion Of Lower House Elections In Hirshabelle And Galmudug (Goobjoog News)
Somali PM Puntland President Presidential Candidate Farole Meet In Garowe (Garowe Online)
Shabaab Militants Destroy Safaricom Telecommunication Mast In Elwak Mandera County (Daily Nation)
Somalia Marks International Human Rights Day (UNSOM)
Edna Adan: ‘With My Army Of Midwives Fewer Girls Will Go Through FGM’ (The Guardian)

NATIONAL MEDIA

Somali President Welcomes The Conclusion Of Lower House Elections In Hirshabelle And Galmudug

12 December – Source: Goobjoog News – 149 Words

Somali president Hassan Sheikh Mohamud has commended governments of Hirshabelle and Galmudug regional states in Somalia’s central region for their commitment to conclude the month long Lower House polls. The elections of Lower house in Jowhar and Adado were completed earlier this week and yesterday respectively. In a statement, president Mohamud said that elections in Galmudug state have taken place without any major security incident thanks to the work of the security agencies of regional government of Galmudug and the voting has been orderly. The president also welcomed the efforts of Hirshabelle government to timely conclude the elections. All the 73 seats allocated for clans from the states have now been filled making the last two states to conclude the exercise after Jubbaland and Southwest states. Jubbaland state which was the first regional state to finish its election concluded the final phase of Lower House elections late last month.

Somali PM, Puntland President, Presidential Candidate Farole Meet In Garowe

12 December – Source: Garowe Online – 173 Words

Federal government of Somalia’s Prime Minister Omar Abdirashid Ali Sharmarke, Puntland President Abdiweli Mohamed Ali and former Puntland President and Somali presidential candidate Abdirahman Mohamed Farole along with Senator Abdirazak Osman Jurile, have met in the state capital of Garowe on Monday.
The closed-door meeting was held at Farole’s residence in Garowe city, and was reported it has focused on the forthcoming presidential election of Somalia scheduled on December 28, according to close sources. The meeting comes amid the conclusion of parliamentary elections in Puntland state on Monday, as the state has wrapped up the election of 37 lawmakers that will represent Puntland in the upcoming Lower House chamber of Federal Parliament. The state has also concluded the Upper House election last October, which witnessed the election of 11 Senators among them Sharmarke, Farole and Jurile for the Upper House chamber of Federal Parliament. The meeting brought together caretaker Prime Minister Sharmarke and Senator Farole who are presidential contenders and seeking to secure the top office of the country in the upcoming election.

INTERNATIONAL MEDIA

Shabaab Militants Destroy Safaricom Telecommunication Mast In Elwak, Mandera County

12 December – Source: Daily Nation – 236 Words

Suspected Al-Shabaab militants have attacked Dabacity in Elwak, Mandera County and destroyed a Safaricom telecommunication mast. County Commissioner Fredrick Shisia said the attack occurred at about 1.45amMonday.He said the attackers overpowered the five Kenya Police Reservists (KPR) deployed to guard the mast.“The five KPRs guarding the installation tried to resist but the weapons of the attackers were superior forcing them to run for safety,” he said. He said the KPR’s intervention limited the damage caused by the attackers.Mr Shisia denied that the attack was a spill over from Somalia’s Elwak where militants were reported to have seized the town on Sunday evening.“There is no relationship with what happened at Elwak, Somalia. This is a normal terrorist attack according to our assessment,” he said. Mr Shisia said more security agents were on the ground to ensure “things get back to normal.”“We have enough security agents in the area and road users can go on with their business without fear of being attacked,” he said.Dabacity has become a terror hotspot recording about four incidents in less than one month.

Somalia Marks International Human Rights Day

12 December – Source: UNSOM – 490 Words

Civil society groups, Members of Parliament and youth in Somalia today joined the rest of the world in observing the International Human Rights Day through art, speeches and a panel discussion at the Jazeera hotel in Mogadishu. Citing this year’s theme “Stand up for someone’s rights today” the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) Country Director for Somalia, George Conway, acknowledged the tremendous progress the country has made in addressing human rights situation. Though acknowledging the efforts made on human rights, The United Nations Assistance Mission in Somalia (UNSOM) senior human rights officer Damian Klauss cautioned the situation remains tenuous, adding that more needs to be done. “More needs to be done and we can’t wait for government institutions, we can’t wait for commissions to do that. We need individual people, we need civil society to stand up for each other to ensure that we don’t step back further in what is already a very grave human rights situation”, added Klauss.

A Member of Parliament who was involved in drafting the human rights law in the current constitution, Ms Maryam Arif Qasim, blamed the misuse of cultural norms to violate the rights of women. She said the second chapter of the constitution talks about human rights and “this is highly valued, especially for women because Somali women rights are always ignored”. The Secretary-General of the National Union of Somalia Journalists (NUSOJ), Mohamed Ibrahim Moalimu, gave shocking figures of journalists who had been arrested or killed to demonstrate the grave human rights situation in the country. “In the last five months, more than 30 journalists have been arrested in different parts of Somalia and as far as we know three journalists were killed in Somalia. There’s intimidation, harassment that we experience all the time as journalists”, the NUSOJ boss said adding that the union stands to defend the rights of journalists.

OPINION , CULTURE & ANALYSIS

“We must understand that they believe they are doing right by their daughters. They do this out of love not cruelty. And to speak about it we can’t just go straight into that one subject, we have to talk about their homes, their families, health issues, nutrition. Then we can get on to FGM.”

Edna Adan: ‘With My Army Of Midwives, Fewer Girls Will Go Through FGM’

12 December – Source: The Guardian – 660 Words

A former first lady of Somalia has warned international aid agencies they need to speak directly to communities who practice Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) or risk ‘winning battles but losing the war’ on the practice. Edna Adan says that despite a reduction in the numbers of young girls being cut in her homeland of Somaliland and in the wider Somali nation, things are ‘slipping back’. “Unless we get people sitting on the mat in the villages, taking time to speak to the grandparents and the parents and the religious leaders, we lose what ground we have made,” said the midwife and former foreign minister of Somaliland. “It’s not about the money, it’s about what we do with the money. And in some cases, sending people instead of money is better.” Adan, who underwent FGM as a child, is head of her own maternity hospital, set up using funds from the sale of her house and designer clothes amassed as an international diplomat working for the World Health Organisation. The Edna Adan Maternity Hospital in Hargeisa has delivered more than 20,000 babies. More than 1,000 midwives have graduated as medical professionals, trained to the exacting standards she says she learned in the UK in the 1970s.

“If you come to me to train at my hospital and you don’t want to talk FGM, you can go waste someone else’s time,” said Adan, in the UK this week to set up a new Foundation aimed at cementing her legacy of training and education in her homeland. “My hope is that through my army of midwives fewer girls will go through FGM but we need to build the message of health effects and make sure it reaches the practising communities, as well as change the minds of politicians to build on that work, otherwise we will start to go backwards.” Type III FGM is most common in Somaliland, which involves the total removal of the female genitalia with only a small hole left for menstruation and urination. Edna was not yet a teenager when, in her father’s absence, she was taken by relatives to be ‘purified’. She remembers the searing pain and the bleeding as the procedure, performed on a stool, was finished off with stitches made of thorns. Her father returned hours later to find his daughter lying on the floor in shock. The look on his face and his subsequent rage at her mother remains burned into her memory.