December 21, 2016 | Morning Headlines

Main Story

Presidential Election Postponed Again, Leaders Agree On Issues Hindering The Process

20 December – Source: Garowe Online – 277 Words

A communiqué is expected to be released today following the conclusion of the National Leadership Forum conference in the Somali capital of Mogadishu. The meeting attended by leaders of the Somali Federal Government and regional states, discussed key outstanding issues that delayed the Somali election. Close sources tell Garowe Online, that Somali leaders have agreed to the new schedules for the elections of new Parliament Speakers of Upper and Lower Houses and Somali President to take place in January 2017. The new dates will see the elections of Parliament Speakers occur in January 5, whereas the presidential election is set for January 22. The Somali leaders have also imposed new conditions for the presidential candidates who are willing to compete for the top office in the country, added the source. Candidates will have to pay fees amounting $ 30,000 and must have the support of at least 20 Federal MPs to be eligible to compete in the election.

Nullified seats: The leaders also agreed to dismiss recent decision made by Somalia’s Independent Electoral Dispute Resolution Mechanism (IEDRM), which nullified voting results for seats in the parliamentary elections in the regional states. The Somali leaders decided to accept the results of the seats despite compelling evidences of electoral malpractices and vote rigging for those outstanding cases considered by IEDRM. Following much deliberation on the outstanding dispute over the distribution of Upper House seats allocated to Somaliland community, particularly for seats from Sool, Sanag and Ayn regions, Somali leaders have agreed to allocate one seat for Sanag region to Puntland, thus receiving a total of 12 Senators representing the state in the upcoming Upper House chamber of Federal Parliament.

Key Headlines

Presidential Election Postponed Again Leaders Agree On Issues Hindering The Process (Garowe Online)
Mutinous Soldiers Seize Government Manning Checkpoints In Middle Shabelle (Goobjoog News)
PM Sharmake Meets Somaliland Opposition To Boost Campaign (Radio Dalsan)
CBE In Somaliland For Business Meetings (SomTribune)
Al-Shabaab Militants Kill Senior Official In Somalia’s Puntland (Reuters)
UAE Presence Expands In Africa: The United Arab Emirates Has Signed An Agreement To Establish A Second Foreign Military Base In The Horn of Africa (Shepard Media)
Yemeni Refugees In Somalia Struggling To Survive (Al Jazeera)
With Continued Drought Horn Of Africa Braces For Another Hunger Season (Relief Web))

NATIONAL MEDIA

Mutinous Soldiers Seize Government Manning Checkpoints In Middle Shabelle

20 December – Source: Goobjoog News – Words

Dozens of irate Somali soldiers have taken control of several security checkpoints between Bala’ad and Jowhar town, residents said. Mohamed Ali Farah, a local resident in Galoolay village said the army protested and seized Qalimow, Garsaale and Elka Gellow in protest at delay in salary payment. “The soldiers complained of delayed pays and that led the army take control of the checkpoints,” said Farah. A military officer who sought anonymity said SNA soldiers in the region have not been paid for months. He pointed out that the wives and children of the soldiers are spending most of the nights with empty stomachs while the husbands and father die defending their country. ” No one can stay without payment because we have wives and children who want us to give them money at the end of the month” said the officer.

PM Sharmake Meets Somaliland Opposition To Boost Campaign

20 December – Source: Radio Dalsan – 170 Words

Somalia Prime Minister Omar Sharmake held a closed door meeting with Somaliland MPs in Nairobi Kenya to woo them into backing his presidential ambitions, Radio Dalsan has learnt. A source who was present in the meeting held at Serena Hotel in the Kenyan capital told Radio Dalsan that top Wadani leader Abdirahman Abdullahi Irro led the opposition delegation. The agenda according to the source was seeking support from Somaliland in the coming Presidential elections.

The meeting also discussed on possible funding of Somaliland opposition from Sharmake’s foreign contacts and bringing the breakaway region into fold. The Premier had lost hopes of influencing the Somaliland MPs after his push to have the elections held at Halane hit a snag. President Hassan Sheikh has also been wooing Somaliland MPs. Somalilanders on social media have stormed the opposition accusing them of “selling their country.” The breakaway region has been seeking recognition since 1991 when civil war broke out after the fall of Siad Barre.

CBE In Somaliland For Business Meetings

20 December – Source – SomTribune – 71 Words

A Senior Level team from the National Bank of Ethiopia, Commercial Bank of Ethiopia (CBE) and Ethiopian Insurance Corporation have arrived in Somaliland. The delegation will have meetings with the Central Bank of Somaliland, several government Ministries and agencies as well as Somaliland financial institutions Dahabshiil, Dara Salaama and Takaful Insurance. The team will also travel to Berbera and Togwajale to meet with officials at Berbera Port and Customs Authorities, respectively.

INTERNATIONAL MEDIA

Al-Shabaab Militants Kill Senior Official In Somalia’s Puntland

20 December – Source: Reuters – 200 Words

Al Qaeda-affiliated Al-Shabaab militants shot dead an aide to a regional official in Somalia’s semi-autonomous Puntland region on Tuesday, the second such attack in a week, police said. Aden Huruse, a director in Puntland’s presidential palace, was attacked at a restaurant in its main city Bosaso, police told Reuters. “Two men armed with pistols fired several bullets into his head. He died on the spot,” said Major Mohamed Hassan, a Bosaso police officer. Al-Shabaab regularly targets officials throughout Somalia. Its insurgency aims to drive out African Union peacekeepers, topple Somalia’s Western-backed government and impose its strict version of Islam on the Horn of Africa state.

Tuesday’s shooting occurred six days after Al-Shabaab gunmen killed the region’s deputy police commander Jamac Sahardiid outside a hotel in Bosaso. “This evening we killed the director in Bosaso. We were also behind the killing of Puntland’s deputy police commander days ago,” said Sheikh Abdiasis Abu Musab, the militant’s military operation spokesman. The Al-Shabaab insurgency persists in Somalia as it pursues reconstruction after more than two decades of conflict and chaos that have left the nation in tatters. Somalis are now voting across the country for a new parliament, which will choose a new president.

UAE Presence Expands In Africa: The United Arab Emirates Has Signed An Agreement To Establish A Second Foreign Military Base In The Horn of Africa

20 December – Source: Shepard Media – 569 Words

The United Arab Emirates has signed an agreement to establish a second foreign military base in the Horn of Africa. The new base, according to the source present at the negotiations, will be established at the coastal city of Berbera in Somaliland and will be an air and naval base. According to the government source the MoU was signed in the last week of September when a senior Somaliland delegation was in the UAE. The self governing semi-autonomous Somaliland and the UAE enjoyed close political, economic and military ties since 2012. The cooperation between the two countries intensified after UAE’s involvement in the Yemen operations where the region’s strategic location south of the Bab al Mandeb strait proved crucial to their projection capabilities. An area of 40km sq comprising of Berbera airport and sea front have been provided to the UAE for a period of 25 years and is renewable, the source added. The base has been provided in exchange for security training, support and protection to the autonomous region, the source added, providing a much needed security blanket to Somaliland which borders Somalia to the south.

Just five kilometres away from the base, UAE ports giant, Dubai Ports World, has signed earlier this year a $442 million deal to develop Berbera port. The 30 year deal will see the commercial port expanded and doubled in size next to a large free zone and other infrastructure projects to provide a new gateway to Ethiopia, Africa’s fastest growing economy. According to Alexander Mello, security analyst at New York based Horizon Client Access the UAE’s plan to operate their Eritrea Assab base simultaneously with the Berbera base is quite plausible. ‘Assab is still a pretty austere base, the work the UAE is doing there – especially the the expansion of the hangars and apron and building a new docking facility for UAE vessels 10km north of of current Assab port – is consistent with a long-term UAE presence,’ Mello said.

Yemeni Refugees In Somalia Struggling To Survive

20 December – Source: Al Jazeera – Video: 01:53 Minutes

Refugees from war-torn Yemen who fled to Somalia say they are struggling to survive, with little access to food, education and healthcare. The International Organization for Migration says at least 6,000 Yemeni refugees have arrived since March 2015.

OPINION , CULTURE & ANALYSIS

“After two poor rainy seasons this year, Somalia is in a countrywide state of drought emergency, ranging from moderate to extreme. As a result, the Gu cereal harvest – from April to June – was 50 percent below average, and prospects for the October-December Deyr season are very grim. To make matters worse, the country’s driest season – the Jilaal that begins in January- is expected to be even harsher than usual, which means Somali farmers are unlikely to get a break anytime soon.”

With Continued Drought, Horn Of Africa Braces For Another Hunger Season

20 December – Source: Relief Web – 1052 Words

Countries in the Horn of Africa are likely to see a rise in hunger and further decline of local livelihoods in the coming months, as farming families struggle with the knock-on effects of multiple droughts that hit the region this year, FAO warned today. Growing numbers of refugees in East Africa, meanwhile, are expected to place even more burden on already strained food and nutrition security. Currently, close to 12 million people across Ethiopia, Kenya and Somalia are in need of food assistance, as families in the region face limited access to food and income, together with rising debt, low cereal and seed stocks, and low milk and meat production. Terms of trade are particularly bad for livestock farmers, as food prices are increasing at the same time that market prices for livestock are low.
Farmers in the region need urgent support to recover from consecutive lost harvests and to keep their breeding livestock healthy and productive at a time that pastures are the driest in years. Production outputs in the three countries are grim.

Rapid intervention: “We’re dealing with a cyclical phenomenon in the Horn of Africa,” said Dominique Burgeon, Director of FAO’s Emergency and Rehabilitation Division. “But we also know from experience that timely support to farming families can significantly boost their ability to withstand the impacts of these droughts and soften the blow to their livelihoods,” he stressed. For this reason, FAO has already begun disbursing emergency funds for rapid interventions in Kenya and Somalia. The funds will support emergency feed and vaccinations for breeding and weak animals, repairs of water points, and seeds and tools to plant in the spring season. FAO is also working with local officials to bolster countries’ emergency preparedness across the region. “Especially in those areas where we know natural hazards are recurring, working with the Government to further build-up their ability to mitigate future shocks is a smart intervention that can significantly reduce the need for humanitarian and food aid further down the line,” Burgeon said. Kenya is highly likely to see another drought in early 2017, and with it a rise in food insecurity. Current estimates show some 1.3 million people are food insecure.