December 18, 2017 | Daily Monitoring Report
Outspoken Critic Of Farmajo’s Government Arrested
18 December – Source: Garowe Online – 226 Words
Abdirahman Abdishakur, a fierce critic of the current Federal Government was arrested during a raid on his residence in Mogadishu by Intelligence forces on Sunday night. Somali Lawmaker, Abdifitah Gesey confirmed that 6 security guards were killed, several have been wounded during the NISA operation which saw the capture of Abdishakur, a former planning Minister, and 2017 presidential candidate. Gesey said the outspoken politician has sustained slight wounds on his hand and was taken to a secret detention facility run by NISA – National Intelligence and Security Agency in the capital.
The raid, which began late on Sunday night at around 11:00 p.m. local time led to deadly gunfire between NISA and his personal bodyguards, raged on for 40 minutes, according to the security sources. Sources said Mogadishu seaport officials and MPs were present at the residence of the detained politician near Jazeera Palace hotel at the Airport vicinity, a heavily fortified area at the time of the attack.
It’s yet unclear reason behind the arrest of the politician, but the move seems that the government has fed up the Abdishakur’s continues statements shedding light on its failures and major shortcoming. The arrest of Abdishakur came hours after the country’s Attorney General Ahmed Ali Dahir accused two Federal MPs of treason and asked for the Somali Parliament to strip them of immunity for prosecution.
Key Headlines
- Outspoken Critic Of Farmajo’s Government Arrested (Garowe Online)
- Government Leaders Meet With UN High Commissioner For Refugees (Hiiraan Online)
- We Shall Remain An Opposition Party To The Somali Government Says Wadajir Chairperson (Goobjoog News)
- MP Shuriye Refutes Attorney General’s Accusations (Hiiraan Online)
- Mogadishu Main Roads Closed Today (Allafrica)
- Foreign Fleets Plundered Somalia’s Fish (Hakai Magazine)
NATIONAL MEDIA
Government Leaders Meet With UN High Commissioner For Refugees
17 December – Source: Hiiraan Online – 192 Words
Top government leaders and some members of the cabinet met with United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi who is visiting the country. Prime Minister Hassan Ali Khaire thanked UNHCR for its support for the Somali people displaced by years of conflict. Khaire, however, said the country was now on the recovery path and assured his administration’s readiness to support any credible process that can help facilitate the return of Somali refugees to their country.
“Somalia is ready to work with the United Nations and other international agencies in the implementation of programmes aimed at returning and reintegrating Somali refugees into the society. We also thank the countries that hosted our people during the difficult times,” stated Prime Minister Khaire.
Grandi on his side assured the Somali leaders that UNHCR will continue to help Somali refugees, returnees, and displaced people as it has been doing for decades. The delegation led by Filippo Grandi will today (Monday) visit Kismayo, one of the towns designated to host refugees returning back to their country. UNHCR Special Envoy on the Somali Refugee Situation Mohamed Abdi Affey is part of the UNHCR delegation touring the country.
We Shall Remain An Opposition Party To The Somali Government Says Wadajir Chairperson
18 December – Source: Goobjoog News – 256 Words
Wadajir political party chairperson Kamal Gutale stressed that his party will remain an opposition one that will disclose the mistakes carried out by the incumbent administration. Speaking to Goobjoog News, Gutale emphasized on their determination to oppose the government. “We are an opposition party and remain to be one by putting into the light the blunders of the government” said Gutale.
He was responding to the attack on Abdirahman Abdishakur who stood for the presidential election on the party ticket during the February elections held in Mogadishu. Gutale condemned the manner in which the arrest occurred terming it to be an illegal move orchestrated on the orders of the highest offices in the country. “He was arrested in an illegal manner on the [alleged] orders from the presidential and PM offices. We really condemn the attack. We see as a government which does not permit diverse ideologies yet they portray to be yearning for democracy. We passed the reign of dictatorship and settling matters through the barrel of a gun by attacking our party office and leaders” he said
Describing how the event culminated with the arrest of Abdishakur, who received an injury to a hand according to Gutale. “We received casualties where our party security staff were killed. Abdishakur was injured on the hand. He was handcuffed and blindfolded and they ransacked his house without a warrant.” “They never produced a document to show his arrest order” concluded Gutale. Federal security department nor the government has yet to produce official statement on the matter.
MP Shuriye Refutes Attorney General’s Accusations
17 December – Source: Hiiraan Online – 182 Words
One of the two MPs accused by the Attorney General, Dr. Ahmed Dahir of treason has dismissed the accusation leveled against him. Speaking to VOA Somali from the United Arab Emirates, MP Abdisabir Nuur Shuuriye has instead accused the DG of failing to carry out his duties after sections of the constitution he was supposed to safeguard, were abused by the top government officials.
MP Shuuriye termed the accusations against ‘MPs expressing their views and safeguarding the interest of their country’ as unfortunate. He said the DG himself failed to carry out his responsibilities well after the offices of the president and prime minister violated the constitution by ordering the extradition of a Somali national to a foreign country.
He denied being involved in activities aimed at bringing down the government and receiving funds from foreign countries to undermine the current administration led by President Farmaajo. Meanwhile, MP Hassan Maalim is yet to speak about the allegations he has been accused of. He is, however, expected to hold a press conference about the same. Both accused MPs hail from the Galmudug region.
INTERNATIONAL MEDIA
Mogadishu Main Roads Closed Today
18 December – Source: Allafrica – Words
Residents in Mogadishu woke up on Monday morning to find the main roads in the city closed. Well-armed security forces were seen guarding the city centre especially Zoobe, Kilometer 4, Maka Al-Mukarama and surrounding areas. All public and private vehicles were not allowed to pass through those areas and security officers were seen to stop and ask questions, anyone, they suspect.
Many people were travelling on foot along the roads to reach their places of work and carry on with their daily activities. The reason behind the closure of roads are not known but this comes after government security forces raided the home of a former presidential candidate and leader of an opposition party and later arrested him last night.
OPINION, ANALYSIS & CULTURE
“Somali has had an internationally recognized federal government for five years, and Cashion says the reconstructed catch data should give the country a better understanding of past fishing activities. This could help the government devise suitable policies for domestic fisheries development and determine any access given to foreign fleets.”
Foreign Fleets Plundered Somalia’s Fish
18 December – Source: Hakai Magazine – 639 Words
Somalia was at war with itself. The Siad Barre government, which had taken power in a coup in 1969, fell in 1991, plunging the nation of 10 million into civil war. In the aftermath, warring warlords tore the Horn of Africa apart. And into this 3,330-kilometer-long void—the longest coastline in continental Africa foreign fishing fleets swarmed. According to a new study, from 1950 to 2015 though mostly after 1990 foreign fleets took 2.4 million tonnes of Somalia’s fish, 80 percent more than official statistics suggested.
For years, Somalia’s subsistence and commercial fishers lost out to foreign industrial fleets from Italy, Japan, Greece, Singapore, Egypt, the former USSR, and China. Not all of the fishing was illegal, but the period was essentially a free-for-all as unlicensed foreign fleets devoured Somalia’s fish with rampant disregard for domestic and international law, says Tim Cashion, a fisheries expert with the Sea Around Us project at the University of British Columbia who worked on the new research.
Unsurprisingly, the species and number of fish being caught by Somali and foreign fishers alike was largely undocumented during this period. The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization, which tracks fish catches globally, was left to estimate the scale of the catch in the region, Cashion says. To fill the gap, Cashion and others with the Sea Around Us project worked with Secure Fisheries, a program of One Earth Future, a United States foundation, to reconstruct the actual domestic and foreign fleet catch data in Somali waters from 1950 to 2015.
Digging up the missing data felt like detective work, says Dirk Zeller, the executive director of Sea Around Us. The team scoured the globe for information, going well beyond traditional fisheries science sources. They dug into reports from development agencies, human health projects, and news articles, and reached out to people who worked in Somalia at some point over the past five decades to glean any information they could. “You feel like a literature sleuth, snooping and searching for anything suitable,” Zeller says. “Once you have amassed what you could find, it then becomes like a large puzzle.”
The easy pieces represented by the official data made up the corners and outside frame of the puzzle, Zeller says. That set the scene within which the team gradually evaluated additional information to see where it might fit. Over time, they assembled the whole puzzle. The work resulted in the first accurate time series of total domestic and foreign fisheries catches in Somalia, Cashion says. “Not only does this research give a more accurate picture of how much was caught, but also what was caught by whom,” he says.
Somali has had an internationally recognized federal government for five years, and Cashion says the reconstructed catch data should give the country a better understanding of past fishing activities. This could help the government devise suitable policies for domestic fisheries development and determine any access given to foreign fleets. Foreign licensing would generate income, which could help fund government programs, including fisheries management. However, it’s important to balance the need for long-term domestic food security and opportunities for domestic fishermen with short-term earnings that come from foreign licensing.
Many African nations are faced with making similar decisions about domestic versus foreign fishing access, and incomplete or missing catch data can lead to decisions that tip the scale in a detrimental way, Cashion adds. Fisheries managers need data to guide effective fisheries policy, says Omar Mahadalle, a Somali master’s candidate in marine biology at Silliman University in the Philippines. But Somalia doesn’t have professionals to perform data collection, analyses, and processing, he says. In the absence of effective fisheries policy and enforcement capability, the benefit to be gained from this new data could be limited. “That does not stop the study being considered as a reference for further research,” he adds.
TOP TWEETS
@WorldBankAfrica: Renewable energy provides entrepreneurial opportunities to rural youth in #Somalia. Perfect example with our #Blog4Dev winner: http://wrld.bg/6ai830gBHNy
@HarunMaruf: Somali PM admits discrepancies in the number of troops registered for the govt and those who report for duty; says they agreed with countries providing support to the army to suspend until his govt completes operational readiness assessment: @SomaliPM
@adancabdulle: Per some reports, the prosecutor-general has placed at least 17 politicians on the no-fly list. Politicians including @AAbdishakur who was targeted at a midnight raid by the government. The prosecutor-general’s legal cover was used as basis of the attack last night.
@BashiirMaxmud: Somali National Youth Conference enters 2nd day. attendees tabled progressive agendas which are being discussed day long. speeches of honorable guests incle today’s schedule #SNYC2017. #Dhallinyaro Han Leh
@MohmedAamin: Programmatic way of requesting by the AG to remove immunity from two MPs who accused treason it shows signs of respecting legal procedurality and rule of law.
#Somalia
@Mullasom: Two soldiers were gunned down by unknown gunmen in #Bosaso #Bari region early on Monday, reports said.#Puntland #Somalia #ISIS #Alshabab #Security #Terrorism
IMAGE OF THE DAY
Prime Minister, Hassan Ali Khayre officially opens the Somali National Youth Conference.
Photo: @SomaliPM