March 8, 2017 | Daily Monitoring Report
Somalia Celebrates Women’s Day
08 March – Source: Goobjoog News – 170 Words
Somalia will joined the rest of the world on Wednesday to mark International Women’s Day which it recognizes in its national calendar. The day will celebrates the social, economic, cultural and political achievements of women. This year, Somalia has made significant progress in enhancing the status of women in the recently concluded elections.
Although, Somalia did not achieve the 30 per cent quota for women in parliament however they managed to secure 24%, a huge increase from the previous Parliament. Currently there are 80 women Parliamentarians out of the 329. The Somali Women’s Organization in collaboration with the Mogadishu administration is to hold a ceremony which women leaders and government officials are to deliver speeches acknowledging the role of the women in the society.
Key Headlines
- Somalia Celebrates Women’s Day (Goobjoog News)
- Somali President Meets With Army Chiefs To Address Insecurity (Garowe Online)
- We Need To Know If Direct Elections Will Happen Before 2019: Speaker Jawaari (Jowhar.com)
- US Travel Ban A Blanket Condemnation Of Somalis: President Farmaajo (Goobjoog News)
- Aid Agencies Working To Stave Off Catastrophic Famine In Somalia (VOA)
- Encouraged By Colleagues A Woman Heads Mogadishu Rehab Centre (ICRC)
NATIONAL MEDIA
Somali President Meets With Army Chiefs To Address Insecurity
08 March – Source: Garowe Online – 220 Words
Somali President Mohamed Abdullahi Farmajo held an emergency meeting with the Army and Police chiefs and the outgoing Security Minister in Mogadishu. During the meeting, Somali President has ordered the army commanders and the outgoing security minister to swiftly arrest a soldier who shot dead a civilian at KM5 area in Mogadishu on Monday.
“It is intolerable the army soldiers to shoot dead or harass the civilians instead of protecting them from enemy and deal with the insecurity,” said the President on Tuesday. Briefing the media following the meeting, General Mohamed Aden Ahmed, the Chief of Defense Forces, said the security forces have managed to capture the soldier who shot dead the civilian.
“We captured the soldier whom the President ordered to be arrested. He is now in police custody and will be put on trial to face the justice for the murder he committed,” said Ahmed. Ahmed said they agreed that Police and National Intelligence and Security Agency (NISA) forces to take full responsibility of Mogadishu’s security and pull out all military personnel from the city. Lastly, the outgoing Internal Security Minister Abdirizaq Omar Mohamed has urged the public to closely work with the security agencies to strengthen the security and prevent Al-Shabaab attacks.
We Need To Know If Direct Elections Will Happen Before 2019: Speaker Jawaari
08 March – Source: Jowhar.com – 140 Words
Prof. Mohamed Osman Jawaari, the Speaker of the Federal Parliament called on the National Independent Electoral Commission to advise on whether the country will be ready for one-man-one-vote in 2020. The Speaker who harshly scolded the the commission said an answer on a way forward for 2020 will need to be submitted within 2017.
“The two Houses of Parliament will not wait until 2019 to see whether one-man-one-vote will possible in 2020. We need to start the process this year. We need to let the Somali people know sooner than later,” Jawaari said. The Speaker requested the NIEC to deliver a timeline to move the process forward. “We need you to provide us a timeline on how long it will take to conduct the one-man-one-vote elections or else we will continue to use the indirect electoral process,” the Speaker concluded.
US Travel Ban A Blanket Condemnation Of Somalis: President Farmaajo
08 March – Source: Goobjoog News – 316 Words
Somali President Mohamed Farmaajo has urged the US to lift the travel ban against his country noting the ban was a summary condemnation of Somalis who have contributed significantly to the US economy and society. Farmaajo said he would be initiating communication with his US counterpart Donald Trump to lift the ban and confine it only to individuals who have been identified as ‘the cause of the problem’.
“We would prefer to see the travel ban lifted. Of course we have to communicate with the US government because as everybody knows we have a large community of Somalis in the US who I am sure have contributed to the US economy and the US society in different ways,” said Farmaajo during a press conference alongside UN Chief António Guteress in Mogadishu Tuesday.
His remarks follows a revised travel ban by President Trump which retained Somalia alongside five other Muslim majority countries. Iraq was dropped in the new order. Somalis have played an important role in building the US economy, Farmaajo said noting, “We have to talk about what the Somali community have contributed rather than only few people who may probably have caused a problem.”
The Trump administration has fought to impose the travel ban through a revised executive order after the courts halted the implementation of the earlier ban. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson told reporters Monday, “As threats to our security continue to evolve and change, common sense dictates that we continually reevaluate and reassess the systems we rely upon to protect our country.”
President Farmaajo, also a US passport holder said his administration would bolster efforts on the fight against Al-Shabaab which he termed is the root cause for such travel bans. “That’s why we have to address the security situation here; this is the root cause,” said Farmaajo.
INTERNATIONAL MEDIA
Aid Agencies Working To Stave Off Catastrophic Famine In Somalia
08 March – Source: VOA – 416 Words
Time is running out for millions of people in Somalia who are on the brink of famine, warns the United Nations. The world body is urging the international community to rapidly respond to its $825-million appeal to stave off a catastrophe in that drought-stricken and conflict-ridden country.
Six-point-two million people in Somalia — half the population — are in need of humanitarian assistance, according to the U.N. To highlight the crisis, U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, who had been visiting Kenya, made an impromptu change of plans and traveled to Somalia. There he met with President Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed, known as Farmajo, and visited a local hospital where malnourished people are receiving treatment.
The U.N. director of information in Geneva, Alessandra Vellucci, says Guterres considers it vital that he, personally, address this life-altering crisis. “He decided to go on an emergency visit to Mogadishu, to Somalia in order to focus on famine and cholera. He [Guterres] said in a tweet this morning, people are dying. The world must act now to stop this,” said Vellucci.
U.N. emergency relief coordinator Stephen O’Brien arrived Monday. The United Nations reports nearly 3 million people are going hungry and need urgent life-saving relief. It warns that almost 1 million children under the age of 5 will be acutely malnourished this year, including 185,000 who are at risk of dying if they do not receive immediate medical treatment.
OPINION, ANALYSIS AND CULTURE
“Since Halima joined the rehabilitation centre in the 1980s, she has seen a wave of change in the types of diseases and injuries that residents have been exposed to.”
Encouraged By Colleagues, A Woman Heads Mogadishu Rehab Centre
08 March – Source: ICRC – 428 Words
As a woman in Somalia, Halima Abdulle is well aware that leadership roles in her country have traditionally been reserved for men. But this reality didn’t stop her from rising to the top of her field. Soft spoken with an easy demeanor, Halima is a registered nurse, a physiotherapist and the director of the Somali Red Crescent Rehabilitation Centre, a facility in Mogadishu that helps patients learn to use new prosthetic arms or legs.
Halima worked at the rehabilitation centre for 27 years before being named director in March 2016. She remembers telling colleagues that maybe a male should be in charge, but she said that her co-workers, mostly men, told her she could do it. “In Somalia we don’t traditionally have females in high positions, but we are trying to push and change things,” Halima said, adding later: “l was both excited and afraid at the beginning, but slowly I have gained confidence, and l am up to the task.”
Since joining the rehabilitation centre in the 1980s, she has seen a wave of change in the types of diseases and injuries that residents have been exposed to. The centre opened in 1982, about a decade before the country’s long civil war began. “Before the civil war, we used to have patients mostly from traffic accidents and diseases like Polio. But today, they have injuries from shelling or bullets,” said Halima, the 51-year-old mother of two. “Patients arrive here in wheelchairs or carried by relatives.”
What has kept Halima, in the same centre for nearly three decades? The determination and effort put in by her disabled patients, she says. Many of them have lost limbs and must begin using prosthetics for the first time. “When they realize that they can use crutches and do things on their own without being dependent, it brings a lot of happiness to them,” she said. “After they are fitted with the prosthetics or orthotics, they realize they can do more in life. They begin to go to the market and some can even drive cars.”
TOP TWEETS
@BlagescuMonica : ‘A nightmare’: UN chief Guterres urges help for #Somalia hunger crisis /via @globeandmail
@UNDPSomalia : The gov’t of #Somalia granted certificate of appreciation 2 @UNDPSomalia 4 support to goodwill ambassadors & achieving 25% Women Quota #IWD
@ZakiaHussen : Salute to the women in uniform who have served #Somalia throughout generations!
@UNSomalia : .@SRSG receives a plaque from #Somalia Min. of Women Affairs Zahra Samatar 4 UN support to struggle for 30% women’s quota. #IWD
@Giulia_Lodi : #Kenya #AlShabaab – 2 separate #IED attacks against #KDF on patrol in #Lamu County near #Somalia border: one soldier killed.
@SomaliAct : Saudi National Campaign for the Relief of Somali People opens an advanced dialysis center in #Somalia
IMAGE OF THE DAY
Joint celebrations by the Government of Somalia, AMISOM and other partners to mark International Women’s Day are underway in Mogadishu and across Somalia’s regions. Happy International Women’s Day!
Photo: AMISOM