December 30, 2016 | Morning Headlines
4 Al-Shabaab Killed In Clash With Government Forces
29 December – Source: Anadolu Agency – 163 Words
At least seven people including three Somali National Intelligence and Security Agency (NISA) forces and four Al-Shabaab militants were killed after heavy fighting between the Somali army and Al-Shabaab in Afgoye town, officials said Thursday. Abdirahman Ahmed Hassan, a NISA officer told Anadolu Agency over the phone that the fighting began after Al-Shabaab militants attacked an army base in Afgoye, Lower Shabelle region of Somalia. “Three of our forces were killed and three others wounded during the clash. We killed four Al-Shabaab militants. We captured three alive,” Hassan said.
Idris Hassan, an eyewitness in Afgoye, told Anadolu Agency that the gunfight was still going on. “I heard huge gunfire with blasts.. We don’t know the actual casualties caused by this fighting,” Idris Hassan said.Afgoye is an agricultural and strategic town located only 30 kilometers southwest of the Somali capital Mogadishu, which once was under Al-Shabaab control. Late October this year Al-Shabaab attacked Afgoye and caused the death of at least 12 people.
Key Headlines
- 4 Al-Shabaab Killed In Clash With Government Forces (Anadolu Agency)
- President Hassan Cuts The Ribbon Of Martini Hospital (SONNA)
- Top SNA Officer Among Five Killed In Afgoye Attack(Shabelle News)
- International Community Warns Somalia’s New Parliament Against Corruption Practices(International Business Times)
- Kenya: Government Completes Border Fence With Somalia (Africa World News)
- Book Review: Africa’s First Democrats (Hiiraan Online)
NATIONAL MEDIA
President Hassan Cuts The Ribbon Of Martini Hospital
29 December – Source: SONNA – 90 Words
President of the Federal Republic of Somalia,Hassan Sheikh Mohamud has on Thursday evening officially opened Martini hospital which was reconstructed recently. The hospital was which used to serve members of the somali military forces was damaged following the fall of the Siad Barre regime. Women’s Development Organization supported by Italian government rebuilt the hospital and as well as fully equipped it with all the necessary hospital equipment. The hospital was first founded in 1910 and it is expected to serve the Somali Army and the general public.
Top SNA Officer Among Five Killed In Afgoye Attack
29 December – Source: Shabelle News – 137 Words
At least five Somali government soldiers, including a senior officer were killed in a massive Al-Shabaab attack on Afgoye district, about 30Km west of Mogadishu on Thursday night.According to residents and officials, dozens of heavily armed Al-Shabaab fighters have briefly seized Afgoye town, after overrunning Somali military bases overnight.A senior Somali military commander named,Ahmed Dokoti was among the soldiers killed in the daring Al-Shabaab raid on Afgoye, which marks the second deadly attack since October.Somali army officers said they repulsed the attack, and inflicted on Al-Shabaab heavy losses during the confrontation, a claim that Al-Shabaab contradicts.Last October, at least eight people were killed in similar attack in Afgoye, which was hit by frequent assaults by the Al Qaeda-linked Al-Shabaab militants who were driven out of Mogadishu in 2011.
INTERNATIONAL MEDIA
International Community Warns Somalia’s New Parliament Against Corruption Practices
29 December – Source: International Business Times – 451 Words
The international community has warned Somalia’s new parliament against corruption practices, emphasising the need for the embattled nation to “move forward” as new MPs are set to select the next President. With direct elections beset by a number of issues including infrastructure constraints and security, the Somali government announced in 2015 it was abandoning the idea of holding a popular ‘one-person one-vote’ system. Instead, 135 traditional clan elders have selected 14,000 delegates, effectively forming 275 clan-based electoral colleges, who have voted for MPs to sit in the lower house of parliament of the troubled Horn of Africa country.
These new MPs, who took their oath of office on 27 December in a democratic yet complex election, are poised to select the next President by secret ballot, this electoral process has come under criticism.In a statement, United Nations (UN) Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon “warmly congratulate(d) the people of Somalia on this historic achievement in their quest for universal suffrage by 2020”, but urged parliament to “maintain the momentum by moving swiftly to complete the electoral process” in the “larger interest of the people of Somalia”.
This was echoed by the UN’s Assistance Mission in Somalia (UNSOM) which tweeted, “Somalia is moving forward”. Moon called on the authorities to swiftly fill all remaining vacant seats in the Parliament, while fulfilling their obligation to ensure that the seats reserved for women are filled by women. The Secretary General warned that “any irregularity, abuse, or malpractice reported by the federal and state electoral bodies should be fully addressed to preserve the credibility of the process”.The United States diplomatic mission to Somalia said the US is committed to a credible electoral process in Somalia, but warned “grave instances of corruption by US citizens overseas are punishable under US law”, in reference to Somali Americans.
Kenya: Government Completes Border Fence With Somalia
29 December – Source: Africa World News – 339 Words
The fencing of three kilometers of the Kenya-Somalia border is complete after the Kenya Defense Forces (KDF) took over its construction over two months ago. The project, initiated by the Ministry of Interior in 2015, has since been switched to wire fencing along the porous border. Concrete poles joined with barbed wire, mesh and razor wire have been erected on a three-kilometre stretch. Kenya decided to put up a wall after the April terror attack on Garissa University College, in the northeastern of the country, that left over 140 dead last year.
But the project stalled after the National Youth Service (NYS) personnel working on it downed their tools for what they said was lack of pay. Speaking while inspecting the ongoing works on Thursday, Maj-Gen K.T. Chepkuto from the KDF engineering department said they intend to complete the 30 kilometre-stretch in the next four months. “We will do the first 30 kilometers within the stipulated time since people are energized,” he said. He noted that the Kenyan military officials are working closely with the Somalia National Army (SNA) to ensure the work is done peacefully.“The only possible challenge could be from Bula Hawa, but SNA are working with us to ensure the project progresses swiftly,” he said.Mandera County Governor Ali Roba lauded the progress made in two months. Earlier, he had questioned the national government’s commitment in securing the county.Mandera borders Bula Hawa, making it vulnerable to attacks by the Somalia-based Al Shabaab terrorist group.
OPINION , CULTURE & ANALYSIS
“The crowning moment of Somalia’s democracy came on June 10, 1967 when Osman who was defeated in presidential elections by Abdirashid with a small margin, conceded defeat and gave up power, marking it “the first time in modern African political history in which a democratically elected president was defeated in an election, gave up power with dignity, and walked away freely as an adored citizen.”
Book Review: Africa’s First Democrats
30 December – Source: Hiiraan Online -3138 Words
As a firm believer in democratic principles and an adamant observer of African development, I read this book with great anticipation after attending it’s launch by the author in Washington D.C. in early December 2016. I read it diligently and carefully including the 39-pages of notes at the end of the book which add deep insight into some of the issues not developed by the author in the body of the book. I found the book captivating on three fronts.
First, its a fresh departure from the existing literature about Somalia that dwells on segmenting the Somalis on tribal lineage systems, hence characterizing Somali people as individualistic and almost anarchic. This is a euphemistic way of saying that Somalis are primitive people that lack the capacity for state building.
Already aware of the Samatar brothers’, Abdi I., Professor and Chair of the Department of Geography, Environment and Society, University of Minnesota, and his older brother Ahmed I., Professor and former dean of the Institute for Global Citizenship at Macalester College, challenging of the tired, too often repeated clanism postulate which according to Ahmed Samatar, has “become axiomatic.”; they continued to shift the debate paradigm by redirecting the focus of African scholarship from looking at Africans through the tainted prism of tribalism to studying them through the context of the people’s complex history that includes the socio-cultural erosion and politico-economic degeneration caused by foreign domination on Africa through the centuries.
The reader can see this shift clearly in Africa’s First Democrats, as the author focuses his analysis on leadership and domestic socio-cultural dynamics and how the Somali political leaders adhered to the standards of responsible leadership in the first decade of the country’s post-independence period and how they were shaped by the conditions in which they grew up and the clash of cultures they experienced during the early years of their life.