May 2, 2017 | Morning Headlines
Germany Pledges 70 Million Euros To Aid Somalia Fight Hunger
01 May – Source : Associated Press – 163 Words
Germany says it will double the 70 million euros ($76 million) it has already pledged to help Somalia cope with the severe drought and hunger that is threatening millions of people across this Horn of Africa nation. The promise was made during a surprise visit by Germany’s Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel to the Somali capital, Mogadishu, Monday. Somali prime minister Hassan Ali Khaire met with Gabriel and thanked Germany for its support.Germany has already pledged aid worth 70 million euros, Gabriel said after arriving in Mogadishu under tight security.”We are ready to at least double that,” he said.
The U.N. estimates that 5 million people in Somalia need aid, amid warnings of a full-blown famine. Somalia is one of countries highlighted by the U.N. secretary-general last month in a $4.4 billion aid appeal to avert catastrophic famine. Other countries named were northeast Nigeria, South Sudan and Yemen. All are affected by violent conflict, the U.N. chief said.
Key Headlines
- Germany Pledges 70 Million Euros To Aid Somalia Fight Hunger(Associated Press)
- Minister Osman Calls For Journalists To Undergo Security Training As SIMHA Launches Safety Workshop(Radio Dalsan)
- Four People Die Seven Injured In Grisly Road Accident In Garowe (Goobjoog News)
- Somaliland On The Brink Of Famine Warn NGOs(Euro News)
- Somali Militants Kill Two Men Accused Of Rape Al-Shabaab Says(Reuters)
- Somalia: Transforming Hope into Stability (International Crisis Group)
NATIONAL MEDIA
Minister Osman Calls For Journalists To Undergo Security Training As SIMHA Launches Safety Workshop
01 May – Source : Radio Dalsan – 102 Words
Information Minister,Abdirahman Osman has called on Somali journalists to take on security training to enable safer coverage of news.The minister was speaking at the opening of a safety and security workshop organised by Somalia Independent Media Houses Association in Mogadishu.SIMHA chairman Hassan Geesey noted that Somalia is one of the most dangerous countries for a practising journalism.“Somali journalists continue to face risks in their job” Geesey told participants at the workshop.The three day training is sponsored by FOJO media Institute and IMS.Journalists will be given basic training on first aid and assessing security situation at work.
Four People Die, Seven Injured In Grisly Road Accident In Garowe
01 May – Source : Goobjoog News – 140 Words
Four people died on Monday morning and seven others were seriously injured in a grisly road accident in Garowe town in the semi-autonomous regional state of Puntland. The accident involved a water boozer and a saloon car. Witnesses claimed that the driver of the water boozer was trying to overtake when he collided with the car, which swerved off the road to avoid hitting it. Details of the victims of the accident are not clear as far as the accident is concerned.
Traffic police have reached the scene and started conducting investigation. The dead and the injured have been transported to Garowe General Hospital. In Somalia, car accident often causes deaths and injuries in which are attributed to the drivers who do not have enough experiences in driving as well as the unrepaired roads in some regions in Somalia regions.
INTERNATIONAL MEDIA
Somaliland On The Brink Of Famine, Warn NGOs
01 May – Source : Euro News – 313 Words
Over 80 percent of livestock has disappeared from several areas of Somaliland: killed by a drought which has hit the autonomous region in northern Somalia.Euronews met a group of internally displaced people (IDPs) in the west of Somaliland close to the Ethiopian border. Most had travelled hundreds of miles in their search for food and water.“I came here because of the seriousness of the drought but the conditions here are the same. I came with 70 goats and sheep and now only six remain,” explained Layla Abdi.“Rural populations make up two thirds of the people acutely food insecure and needing life-saving assistance,” explained Euronews correspondent Monica Pinna in Hargeisa. “This is why most of the newly displaced move towards urban areas.
In Hargeisa 9,500 came between November and April. Some of them stopped here, in the camp of Digaale.”The camp opened in 2013 to assist the first drought refugees. Today it is home to more than a thousand families. About one hundred arrived over the past month.“We give them some food, medical care, and we see how we can help them more, but we don’t have any NGO support at the moment,” Hassan Omar, Digaale community leader, told Euronews.
Ugaso Yasin, an Ethiopian woman, is among the newly displaced who have settled in the camp. She arrived a few weeks ago with other six other mothers and 12 children. They all live together.“The situation is better here than where we come from, the only challenge we have now is water, as the tank has no water,” Yasin told Euronews. “As long as we are still alive I don’t think we can go back because we have nothing to go back to”.
Somali Militants Kill Two Men Accused Of Rape, Al-Shabaab Says
01 May – Source : Reuters – 290 Words
Somali Islamist militants said they publicly stoned one man to death and shot dead another on Monday after both were accused of raping a girl in central Somalia.A senior militant spokesman said the group had picked up both men in the town of Beledweyne, where the rape occurred. Both had belonged to pro-government forces, he said, but the government denied that, saying they were “bandits”. Ahmed Ibrahim, 29, and Yusuf Ali Bajin, 22, admitted at a trial by al Shabaab that they raped the girl, and the judge ordered that one be stoned and another shot dead, the al Shabaab governor of the Hiran region, Sheikh Guled Abu Nabhan, told Reuters.He said Ibrahim was a clan militia fighter and Bajin a government soldier. That could not be independently verified.
Police Major Abdikadir Farah disputed al Shabaab’s account.”Al Shabaab executed two bandits who killed a man and raped his wife,” he told Reuters from Beledweyne on Monday. “Neither of the two was a soldier. They were armed bandits who robbed travelers in the outskirts of Beledweyne town.” Al Shabaab has carried out executions, floggings and single-limb amputations after summary trials in many of the areas it controls. Charges include theft, espionage, rape and adultery. Women and children have also been executed.
The al Qaeda-linked al Shabaab insurgency has been fighting for years to drive out African Union peacekeepers supporting the government. The group wants to impose its own strict interpretation of Islamic law in the Horn of Africa country.
OPINION, ANALYSIS, AND CULTURE
“The recent elections produced Somalia’s most demographically diverse and youthful parliament ever. Nearly half its 283 members are younger than 50; over 90 hail from the diaspora; and 63 are female. President Mohammed Abdullahi Farmajo campaigned on reform and owes his victory to younger and well-educated diaspora MPs,”
Somalia: Transforming Hope into Stability
30 April – Source : International Crisis Group – 1537 Words
Somalia is at a tipping point. The election of a new president with cross-clan support, the emergence of a youthful and reform-minded parliament, and renewed international interest present a genuine opportunity to promote needed political and security reforms to combat Al-Shabaab and stabilise more areas. The London Conference on Somalia in May coincides with this moment and should be seized upon to mobilise international support. However, because the new federal cabinet was only approved in early March, conference organisers should be realistic about how detailed the government’s plans can or should be.
More broadly, key international actors the European Union (EU), African Union, Arab League, UK, Turkey and the U.S. will need to coordinate and achieve consensus on realistic strategic goals, including creating an environment in which the African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM) can begin to draw down. If the new president fails to deliver on promised key reforms – including to rebuild the national army, revamp the constitution, curb corruption and strengthen federalism both domestic and external support for the Federal Government of Somalia (FGS) will inevitably wane and Al-Shabaab will be in a stronger position to rebuild its forces and support.
Although international aid has picked up, its geographic coverage remains limited, not least because insecurity is rampant and the UN has so far managed to raise only 30 per cent of the $825 million it asked for in early March. As a result, the threat of famine is unlikely to diminish in the next six to twelve months and 5.5 million people (nearly half the population) will require emergency aid. The immediate priority is to mobilise more funds, prevent a repeat of the large-scale graft that marred past relief efforts and assist the hardest hit communities in remote regions which are increasingly turning to Al-Shabaab for assistance. Al-Shabaab is exploiting these needs to improve its image and attract public support, allowing people to move to relief centres run by local and international agencies, even as it gives no indication of its willingness to grant aid agencies access to areas it controls.
Al-Shabaab struggles to demonise diaspora Somalis’ crowd-funding campaign (collecting small amounts of money from a large number of people) and especially the Caawi Walaal campaign organised by youth volunteers to provide water and food to remote villages. International actors should therefore support such initiatives, given their potential to extend the reach of the relief effort to remote areas inaccessible to Western aid agencies.