December 19, 2016 | Daily Monitoring Report
FIEIT Nullifies Friday Voting Results, Elections To Resume Today In Mogadishu
19 December – Source: Goobjoog News – 175 Words
The Federal Indirect Electoral Implementation Team (FIEIT) has dismissed the voting results of two seats from Somaliland’s Lower House elections which was conducted on Friday in Mogadishu. According to the twitter handle of the electoral body, election results were nullified due to irregularities. Elections of six parliamentary seats allocated for Somaliland are expected to take place today in Mogadishu. 20 MPs out of the 46 parliamentary seats allocated to the Somaliland community have been so far elected in Mogadishu. Leaders from the Federal Government and regional states who have been at loggerheads for the past 3 days during National Leadership Forum being held in Mogadishu are also expected to reach a consensus on the 11 seats nullified by the Independent Electoral Disputes Resolution Mechanism (IEDRM). The 11 seats were nullified from Jubaland, Galmudug, Puntland, Hirshabelle and Southwest for failing to adhere to the rules of the electoral process.
Key Headlines
- FIEIT Nullifies Friday Voting Results Elections To Resume Today In Mogadishu (Goobjoog News)
- Property Destroyed As Huge Fire Engulfs Baardheere Market (Shabelle News)
- Mayor Of Mogadishu Meets Newly Elected Members of Parliament (Hiiraan Online)
- State To Review Refugees Register To Weed Out Fraudsters (Daily Nation )
- Somalia Saves Uganda And Tanzania From Going To War (Daily Monitor)
- Defending Somalia: Then And Now (Wardheer News)
NATIONAL MEDIA
Property Destroyed As Huge Fire Engulfs Baardheere Market
19 December – Source: Shabelle News – Words
A mysterious fire swept through some sections of the biggest market in the southern town of Baardheere which is located in Somalia’s Gedo region officials said. Dozens of people lost properties and other valuables in the inferno at the market in Baardheere district. The blaze spread quickly through the market and firemen extinguished it several hours after it began. The city’s authorities said the huge fire has destroyed nearly 10 buildings. There were chaotic scenes as people tried to salvage their belongings, according to a witness who spoke to Radio Shabelle. No casualties have been reported so far. The cause of the fire is still unclear but it is suspected to have been started by an electricity fault, reports say.
Mayor Of Mogadishu Meets Newly Elected Members of Parliament
19 December- Source: Hiiraan Online -83 Words
The Mayor of Mogadishu, Yusuf Hussein Jimale had a meeting with the newly elected MPs from Banadir region. The mayor has called on the MPs elect to the rights of the Banadir region. He said they are waiting for the new MPs to enact legislations that will enable the people of Banadir to get their rights of representation back. On the their side, the MPs elect promised that they will work on modalities that will see Mogadishu get its fair share of representation.
INTERNATIONAL MEDIA
State To Review Refugees Register To Weed Out Fraudsters
19 December – Source: Daily Nation – 225 Words
Interior Cabinet Secretary Joseph Nkaissery has ordered a review of the list of refugees in Dadaab camp to weed out fraud. “The double registered cases comprise refugees who have irregularly registered as Kenyans on one hand, and refugees on the other, There are Kenyans who have registered as refugees,” Maj Gen (Rtd) Nkaissery said in a statement. The process will start on Monday December 19 and end on December 31, 2016. The CS said that by clearing such individuals from the register, the Dadaab Refugee Camp “will be left with bona fide refugees thus deserving the refugee status”. He said that the process will also smoothen the ongoing repatriation of refugees to Somalia in a bid by the Kenyan government to close the world’s largest refugee camp.
In November 2016, the government extended the process by six months to allow a series of activities that Nairobi said included clearing the double registered persons from the refugee list. Those living outside the camp, Mr Nkaissery said, should avail themselves at the nearest Deputy Commissioner’s office while those at the camp should report to the office of the Deputy County Commissioner at the camp. “Affected persons who will not have presented themselves to the designated offices at the expiry of the deadline on December 31 will be arrested and prosecuted as provided for by the law,” he added.
Somalia Saves Uganda And Tanzania From Going To War
19 December – Source: Daily Monitor – 1,570 Words
Somalia could be categorised as a failed state today, but 44 years ago it mediated in a peace deal to prevent Uganda and her southern neighbour Tanzania from going to war. Then Somalia President Siad Barre brokered a regional peace deal that delayed the war from breaking out, by about five years.Then president Idi Amin was responding to the invasion by pro-Milton Obote forces who had bases in Tanzania. The invasion was short lived as the invaders were pushed out of Uganda. The Uganda Argus newspaper of September 17, 1972, reported that at least 1,000 ‘Tanzanian troops’ had invaded the country, reaching 100 miles away from the capital, Kampala. They overran Kyotera, Kakuto and Kalisizo towns.
A strong response from the Amin government followed the attack. It started off by blaming the British government of supporting the invaders, before arresting a number of British nationals in Uganda. According to The Keesing’s Contemporary Archives volume 18 of November 1972, “After arresting a number of British nationals by police, the government appealed to both the Organisation of African Unity (OAU) and to Dr Kurt Waldheim, the UN Secretary General, to intervene against unprovoked aggression.”The same publication goes on to state that on the same day, September 17, 1972, in Tanzania an official statement was issued by government saying, “forces of a people’s army inside Uganda had taken over a military camp at Kisenyi and seized a large quantity of arms.”
OPINION, ANALYSIS AND CULTURE
“With the destruction of Somalia’s central government due to one of the most destructive civil wars, the country is in all intents and purposes under a form of an international mandate. Its politics, economy and governance both globally and locally are managed, or manipulated, by a Faustian group of nations most of whom do not have the country’s interest at heart.”
Defending Somalia: Then And Now
19 December – Source: Wardheer News – 1088 Words
Yesteryears’ Defense Plan; The defense of Somali territories from imperial foreign aggression had been in progression for centuries mainly by courageous Somali men and women who were committed to safeguarding the dignity of their people, their faith and their pride regardless of the mighty firepower of the invading forces. In oral and recorded history, Somalis have always been in the forefront of deterring all sorts of foreign instigated belligerence on their lands. A case in point is the revered and Herculean Somali Imam Ahmad Ibn Ibrahim al-Ghazi, better known to Somalis as Ahmed Gurey (Ahmed the left-handed) who, in the 16th century, ferociously fought against the powerful Abyssinian antagonistic forces and subjugated the only African Kingdom that had never been colonized by European imperial powers before and after the Scramble for Africa. Abyssinia, as Ethiopia was called at that time, was ruled by a powerful king whose name was called Galawdewos (Claudius).
The meritorious Imam Ahmad who was a ruler over the State of Adal, conquered the central and southern regions and even further up to the highlands of Abyssinia, thereafter, leaving behind a trail of destruction in his onslaught against the Solomonic dynasty that had been a thorn in the eye of the volatile and combative Somalis. To add insult to injury, Imam Ahmad succeeded in his efforts of converting many of Galawdewos’ subjects to the Islamic faith. Another legendary Somali figure who stood up for Somali national integrity was Sayid Muhammad Abdullah Hassan—a man who was pejoratively named ‘Mad Mullah’ by the British colonial government in northern Somalia. Arriving in Berbera after performing the Islamic pilgrimage in Mecca in 1895, the Sayid, feeling displeasure at the sight of foreign occupation forces in his motherland, took to preaching fellow Somalis on the significance of a unified Muslim brotherhood devoid of clan affiliation. In 1899, the Sayid created a formidable force that he named the Dervishes.
TOP TWEETS
@RadioErgo: #Somalia:Jubaland farmers back from refugee camps seek higher yields from the land http://bit.ly/2hKKcQi @Jubaland @UNHCR_Kenya @UNHCRSom Appreciated the enormous contribution of King
@AMB_Affey: #Salman Centre 2 respond to the widening#humanitarian needs in Somalia
@UNSomalia: Voting for #Somaliland seats in House of the People continuing to surpass 30 per cent quota for women’s representation in parliament
@HassanIstiila: #UPDATE At least 15 fighters were killed in clashes between #AlShabaab and Jubbaland forces near Kismayo, located 500km south of #Mogadishu
@SagalAshour :A year ago I made frienships for life! We came together across tribes & regions! we realised together we are stronger than divided!#Somalia
@TheVillaSomalia :Must watch video, exploring the journey of economic development in #Somalia, since the civil war.
IMAGE OF THE DAY
Somali President, Hassan Sheikh Mohamud receives the credentials of the newly appointed Yemen’s Ambassador to Somalia Fadil Ali Al-Hinkh.
Photo: Radio Muqdisho