March 23, 2017 | Daily Monitoring Report
New Somalia President Mohamed Abdullahi Begins Kenya Visit
23 March – Source: The Star – 215 Words
New Somalia President Mohamed Abdullahi was accorded full honours at the start of his visit to Kenya on Thursday. Abdullahi was received by President Uhuru Kenyatta and honoured with the 21-gun salute before inspecting his first guard of honour. The guard of honour was mounted by a detachment of the Kenya Army while the national anthems of Kenya and Somalia were played by the military band. The two leaders held one-on-one talks before leading their delegations in bilateral talks aimed at bolstering cooperation between Kenya and Somalia.
Uhuru is expected to address the need to reinvigorate efforts to scale up collaboration in mutual areas of interest. These areas were identified during the inaugural session of the Joint Commission for Cooperation that was held in Nairobi in July 2015. Uhuru is also expected to speak on the urgency of a meeting of technical teams to review the implementation status of the Joint Commission for Cooperation.
Uhuru attended Abdullahi’s inauguration in Mogadishu last month and pledged Kenya’s continued support for the Horn of Africa country. He assured the new leader that Kenya would remain steadfast in supporting efforts for peace and stability in the country that is fighting an insurgency by terror group al Shabaab.
Key Headlines
- New Somalia President Mohamed Abdullahi Begins Kenya Visit (The Star)
- Al-Shabaab Explosives Expert Arrested In Kismayo (Hiiraan Online)
- 10 Killed In Clashes Between Somali Army And Al-Shabaab (Anadolu Agency)
- UN Reports Worsening Humanitarian Situation In Somalia (Xinhua)
- Somaliland Drought “A Kind Of Nightmare” – And A Security Threat: Minister (Reuters)
- Homegrown Technology Is Being Used To Help Millions At Risk From A Devastating Famine In Africa (Quartz)
NATIONAL MEDIA
Al-Shabaab Explosives Expert Arrested In Kismayo
23 March – Source: Hiiraan Online – 101 Words
Jubbaland security forces arrested an explosives expert in Kismayo, the interim capital of Jubbaland State. Deputy head of Jubbaland Intelligence and Security Agency Ahmed Abdullahi Issa (Gaas) said security forces confiscated various types of explosives from the house of the detained militant.
According to Gaas, the detained suspect has been identified as Abdi Hassan Nuur who has been hiding at a house in Farjanno neighborhood. He sustained injuries to his arm after trying to escape and security forces had to shoot him. His arrest comes barely days after a militant suicide bomber prematurely detonated his explosives before reaching his intended target.
INTERNATIONAL MEDIA
10 Killed In Clashes Between Somali Army And Al-Shabaab
23 March – Source: Anadolu Agency – 223 Words
At least 10 people were killed and several others injured in fierce fighting between Somali government forces and al-Shabaab militants early Thursday morning, police and military officials said. Mohamed Ali, a police captain in the town of Barawa in Somalia’s southern Lower Shabelle region, told Anadolu agency over the phone that the fighting began after al-Shabaab fighters attacked a Somali national army base in Barawa, killing at least 10 people, including government forces, al-Shabaab fighters, and civilians.
“Fighters belonging to al-Shabaab have attacked the Somali army base near the coastal town of Barawa …. The fighting began around 4.30 am local time [0130GMT],” Ali said. Col. Abdirahman Roble, the military commander in Barawa, also told Anadolu Agency on the phone that the Somali army killed over five al-Shabaab fighters during the fighting, and three civilians were also killed.
Barawa or Barawe is a strategic ancient port city, located some 179 kilometers (111.4 miles) southwest of the Somali capital Mogadishu. Barawa was under al-Shabaab control for six years, but Somali government forces backed by the African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM) forces took control from al-Shabaab in 2014. The Somali government has been battling the al-Qaeda-linked militant group since 2004. On Tuesday seven people were killed in a suicide attack in Mogadishu hours after Prime Minister Hassan Ali Khaire announced his Cabinet.
UN Reports Worsening Humanitarian Situation In Somalia
23 March – Source: Xinhua – 315 Words
The United Nations on Wednesday reported that the humanitarian situation continues to deteriorate in Somalia at a time when the threat of famine is looming in the Horn of Africa country. Nearly 257,000 people were internally displaced from November 2016 through February, and some 4,300 Somalis have crossed the border into Ethiopia, Farhan Haq, deputy UN spokesman, said at a daily news briefing. More than 13,000 cases of acute watery diarrhea/cholera are suspected, with more than 300 deaths from those illnesses reported since the beginning of the year, he said.
The overall 2017 humanitarian appeal of 864 million U.S. dollars for Somalia is only 31 percent funded so far, Haq said. “That appeal is expected to be revised soon to take into account the increasing needs outlined in the famine prevention operational plan.” The UN agricultural agency will be further scaling up its activities in drought-hit regions of Somalia, thanks to a 22-million-U.S.-dollar loan approved this week by the UN emergency response fund.
“More than 2.9 million people are at risk of famine and many will predictably die from hunger if we do not act now,” Stephen O’Brien, UN under-secretary-general for humanitarian affairs and UN emergency relief coordinator, said Tuesday. Across Somalia, 6.2 million people will face acute food insecurity through June 2017. Of these, nearly 3 million people are in Phases 3 (crisis) and 4 (emergency) of the five-phase International Phase Classification for Food Security, representing more than a two-fold increase from six months ago. Phase 5 is famine.
Somaliland Drought “A Kind Of Nightmare” – And A Security Threat: Minister
22 March – Source: Reuters – 760 Words
Prolonged drought in Somaliland has killed between 65 and 80 percent of the semi-autonomous region’s livestock, creating conditions that are “the worst time in our lives” and could threaten regional security, says the region’s environment minister. With 70 percent of Somaliland’s economy built around livestock, “you can imagine the desperation of the people, the desperation of the government,” said Shukri Ismail Bandare, the minister of rural development and environment. “Pastoralists say this is the worst we have seen, a kind of nightmare,” she said. “They have 400 or 500 goats and then just 20 left. They have lost practically everything. I don’t know how they are still sane.”
Previous droughts have hit one area of Somaliland, but “now it’s five regions of the country. We’ve never seen it before”, she said in a telephone interview from Hargeisa, the capital, with the Thomson Reuters Foundation. Across the Horn of Africa, millions have been hit by severe El Nino-related drought. In Somalia, 5.5 million people need assistance to survive over the next six months, U.N. Secretary General António Guterres said earlier this month. Somaliland, a northern region of Somalia that operates autonomously after declaring independence, says it faces a particularly difficult time as its political status – it is not recognised as an independent nation – makes accessing aid more difficult.
“We are not getting bilateral or multilateral funds because we are not recognised,” Bandare said. “We are just working with the resources we have. It’s a drop in the ocean.” Some “low” levels of international assistance are arriving, she said, but worsening drought has led to widespread migration in Somaliland, with herders flocking to the few remaining places with water. Those villages and cities in turn are now overwhelmed by “thousands and thousands” of migrants, the minister said. “What they have is practically exhausted because of the pressure,” she said.
OPINION, ANALYSIS AND CULTURE
“Twitter has especially been a critical tool to raise funds and build these virtual communities. After the hashtag Caawi Walaal (meaning “help a brother or a sister” in Somali) started circulating online, a group of volunteers got together to brand it and use it to sponsor 500 families living in drought-affected areas.”
Homegrown Technology Is Being Used To Help Millions At Risk From A Devastating Famine In Africa
23 March – Source: Quartz – 1,184 Words
Two weeks ago, in Stockholm, Mohammed Omer and four of his friends gathered to talk about the biting drought ravaging their home country, Somalia. Beyond donating funds, the tech developers and social activists came together to discuss ideas to assist those in need of immediate relief. Eventually, they decided to use Ushahidi the Kenyan open source software to develop a platform that would allow responders to connect with drought victims. The result was Abaaraha (“drought” in Somali), a crowdsourcing platform that collects and verifies data through text, phone calls, email, and social media alerts. The web portal, which went live on Mar. 16, maps cases of malnutrition, disease outbreaks, and death. “There are no platforms that provide full information” with regards to the drought, says Omer. They’re “trying to fill that gap and to [help] coordinate the relief efforts that are taking place.”
An unprecedented crisis is currently gripping Somalia, South Sudan, Nigeria, and Yemen, threatening the lives of 20 million people, according to the United Nations (UN). More than 5 million people face acute food shortages in northeast Nigeria, and famine in parts of South Sudan threatens more than 7.5 million people. In Somalia, where cholera outbreaks have killed hundreds of people, the looming famine threatens 6.2 million—more than half the population. It threatens to bring back the grim reality of 2011, when 260,000 Somalis starved to death.
The UN has given its Food and Agriculture Organization a $22 million loan to help tackle the crisis. Yet, that’s a far cry from the $4.4 billion they need by July to stall Yemenis, Somalis, Nigerians and South Sudanese from dying. But, not waiting on donors, young African professionals both at home and in the diaspora are taking the initiative to connect, collaborate, and raise funds and relief materials to assuage those in need. Equipped with smartphones and access to the internet, they are especially using social media outlets to spread the news about the drought and create positive change. While raising awareness and funds is a vital part of managing the famine crisis, tech platforms like Abaaraha and others also help authorities identify, track and efficiently respond to specific areas in need, and in turn, helping avert deaths or a humanitarian catastrophe.
TOP TWEETS
@UNSomalia: #UNSOM Police Commissioner visits #Gaalkacyo to assess the implementation of ceasefire agreement. Read here: http://bit.ly/2n7zupP @UNPOL
@HarunMaruf: A govt officials says they have killed number of Al-Shabab fighters including a Tanzanian fighter in Barawe raid.
@AbdulBillowAli: Somali president @M_Farmaajo on a three day official visit to #Kenya.He is set to discuss drought & Somali refugees with @UKenyatta #Somalia
@UNSomalia: 10 things you need to know about the looming #famine in #Somalia. Poor rainfall have led country 2 massive #drought.
https://unocha.exposure.co/
@fqdayib: My interview with @bbcworldservice on the cabinet. BBC World Service – Focus on Africa, Somalia gets new government: http://www.bbc.co.uk/
@KenRoth: Red Cross sends urgent message: only 3-4 months left to save millions of people from starvation in Yemen and Somalia http://bit.ly/2mSzJTD
@sahro: #Caawiwalaal Puntland chapter started today at Buurawadal village in Sool region of Somalia. 7 more locations to go to. #Somaliadrought:
IMAGE OF THE DAY
President Uhuru Kenyatta receives Somalia President Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed at State House.
PHOTO: @UKenyatta