June 22, 2017 | Morning Headlines
President Farmajo To Leave For Uganda On A State Visit
21 June- Source:Garowe Online – 185 Words
A high-level delegation led by Somali President Mohamed Abdullahi Farmajo was expected to leave for Uganda on Wednesday on a state visit, Garowe Online reports.State House Media officer has confirmed President Farmajo’s state visit to the East African country, after receiving an official invitation from his Ugandan counterpart Yoweri Museveni.During his visit to Kampala, Somali President is scheduled to meet with Museveni. Both leaders will discuss matter pertaining to bilateral relations and mutual interests with a special emphasis on the region’s security and fight against Al-Shabaab.”Uganda and Somalia enjoy warm and cordial relations founded on trust, cooperation and mutual interests,” said the officer at Villa Somalia, who spoke to Garowe Online on condition of anonymity.This will be the third visit to the neighboring countries since taking office last February.
Uganda provides the biggest contingent of soldiers to the 22,000 strong AU forces (AMISOM) who are protecting the UN-backed Somalia’s government based in Mogadishu.AMISOM has helped push Al-Shabaab out of most of Somalia’s major towns, however, the militants continue to mount deadly suicide bombings and guerrilla attacks in the country.
Key Headlines
- President Farmajo To Leave For Uganda On A State Visit (Garowe Online)
- Military Court Sentences Three Al-Shabaab Militants (Hiiraan Online)
- Youth Volunteers Serve City Dwellers With Iftar Food (Goobjoog News)
- Firm Calls For More Aid For Starving Somalis (Daily Nation)
- How Refugee Abdi Turned Tragedy Into Sporting Glory (BBC)
- Cooking Somali Beef Stew With BasBaas Founder Hawa Hassan (Epicurious)
NATIONAL MEDIA
Military Court Sentences Three Al-Shabaab Militants
21 June – Source : Hiiraan Online – 156 Words
A Somali military court has sentenced one suspected Al-Shabaab militant to death and two others to life imprisonment for killing a prominent religious scholar in Baidoa late last week.The Chairperson of the Military Court, Col. Hassan Ali Nur (Shute) rendered the court decision and sentenced Mohamed Aden Ali Barrow, an Al-Shabaab to death for shooting Sheikh Mohamed Madeer dead inside a Mosque.Nur added that two other accomplices in the murder were given life sentences for their role in the murder.Sheikh Madeer was an electorate delegate in the last Federal election.
The trio was arrested by Southwest Regional State forces shortly after the murder of Sheikh Madeer in Baidoa, the administrative capital of Southwest state in Somalia.The Military Court in Somalia has condemned several Al-Shabaab militants to death or lengthy prison sentences in the past few years despite the militant insurgency group increasing their attacks on government and civilian targets in the country.
Youth Volunteers Serve City Dwellers With Iftar Food
21 June – Source : Goobjoog News – 244 Words
Somali youth made of girls and boys volunteered to serve city residents in the streets with food especially during the evenings in this holy of Ramadan. They normally target those travelling in public transport, shopkeepers, pedestrians who can’t make home in time.The youth volunteers initiated this humanitarian drive by themselves and they collect funds among themselves.Mustaf is one of the youth who volunteered to serve in this rare noble cause and explains that they normally start this activity on the month of Ramadan and are currently in their second year since its inception.“We target people standing at the crossroads, those on board in vehicles who can’t make it to their homes in time, the needy in the streets. This is a new program in Somalia and we mimicked from the Middle East” said Mustaf
According to the volunteers, the reason behind this action of helping the people is to portray a positive image to the world to change their view on Somalia as a country of emaciated faces solely relying on international aid to one that its people are helping one another.Some of the volunteered youths mentioned their readiness to feed their fellow citizens can be a morale booster and play as a role model for other youths to feel how local people can support one another. The volunteered youth feed people between 600-1000 in the evenings comprising of motorists, pedestrian and the beggars in the streets of the city.
INTERNATIONAL MEDIA
Firm Calls For More Aid For Starving Somalis
21 June – Source : Daily Nation – 395 Words
A leading money transfer firm has rallied corporates, individuals and governments to join hands and support thousands of Somalis hit by prolonged drought.While it joined other corporates at a Charity Iftar held at the Radison Blu, Dubai Creek on Monday evening, Dahabshiil, represented by CEO Abdirashid Duale, said it was time for concerted efforts in combating the effects of the prolonged drought in the African state.The event tagged ‘every dirham counts’ raised money towards the ‘For your sake Somalia’ project spearheaded by among others Emirates Red Crescent that seeks to alleviate the effects of famine in Somalia and fund other projects.
Somalia’s Finance Minister Abdirahman Beileh, Somali Ambassador to the UAE, Representatives of several charity organisations, UAE Citizens and the Somalis living in the diaspora attended the event. Many regions of Somaliland have for the past three months suffered from the effects of epidemic diseases such as diarrhoea, measles and malnutrition caused by the prolonged drought.Most of the deaths were caused by the diarrhoea which affected around 11,000 people in different regions of the country.Worst hit was Ethiopia’s Somali region which borders Somaliland where about 350 cases were reported in and around the district of Buhodle.
How Refugee Abdi Turned Tragedy Into Sporting Glory
21 June – Source : BBC – Video : 1:22 Minutes
Meet Abdi Jama – a refugee from Somalia who overcame tragedy to became one of Great Britain’s leading wheelchair basketball players. Jama is part of the Great Britain squad that begins its European Championship campaign against Sweden on Thursday.
OPINION, ANALYSIS AND CULTURE
“Hassan only spent a few years living in Mogadishu, the capital of Somalia her mother and siblings fled the country when she was four when civil war broke out in 1991 but she still feels a deep connection to the country,”
Cooking Somali Beef Stew With BasBaas Founder Hawa Hassan
21 June – Source : Epicurious – 1575 Words
Hawa Hassan shares her Somalian roots with her Somali chili sauces and recipes like this delicious, crowd-pleasing beef stew.I’m in the middle of what is basically a bodega, eating a plump fresh date I’ve just been given by the store’s proprietor, when I realize that I’m having one of the best shopping experiences of my life. How is it possible that this high point is happening in a bodega New York City’s version of the corner store? Probably because I’m standing next to Hawa Hassan, whose smile and laughter is practically contagious, and I’m on the hunt for halal beef, something I’ve never shopped for, that’s how.
This shop, on a block in Murray Hill, a neighborhood just south of Midtown in New York, is the third one that Hassan has taken me to in order to find ingredients for the Somali lunch she’s cooking for us. The Somali community in New York is small, she tells me. “Like many immigrant communities, they stayed close to each other—and in our case, that meant places like Minnesota, where many early immigrants happened to reach,” she says. And because there’s not a Somali-specific store in town, we start the day out in the city’s well-stocked Middle Eastern and specialty foods store, Kalustyan’s, to pick up a variety of spices whole cardamom, cinnamon sticks, cumin seeds as well as the vegetables and rice that Hassan will turn into the Somali beef stew, Bariis Maraq, that she’ll cook later on.
But Kalustyan’s doesn’t sell meat, so we wander next door, into a small shop that sells everything from Middle Eastern and African spices and honeyed pastries to candles and incense that reminds Hassan of her mother. “My mom always burns this,” Hassan said as we wander through the store. “It’s called unsi,” she explains when I ask about it later. “It’s incense that’s burnt after meals are made or when we’re expecting a guest.”There’s no fresh meat, but the friendly attendant suggests another store, just down the block. Walking into the third shop, Hassan greets the owner with a few kind words in Arabic, and in turn he offers us the dates, and then pieces of sweet Middle Eastern treats, a coconut candy that we save for the train ride back to Brooklyn. I’m in heaven, and I never want to go shopping without Hassan again.