January 4, 2018 | Daily Monitoring Report
Somalia PM Sacks Three Ministers As Country Battles Insurgency
04 January – Source: Reuters – 223 Words
Somali Prime Minister Hassan Ali Khaire has sacked his ministers for foreign affairs, the interior and commerce, replacing them with newcomers, the government said on Thursday, as it battles an Islamist insurgency. Khaire, a former oil and gas executive, was appointed to the post by President Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed last February. His government has been criticized for failing to stem attacks by al Shabaab militants.
Foreign affairs minister Yusuf Garaad Omar, interior minister Abdi Farah Said Juha and the commerce and labour minister Khadra Ahmed Duale had been relieved of their duties, the information ministry said in a statement. They were replaced with Ahmed Ise Awad, Mohamed Abdi Sabriye and Mohamed Abdi Hayir, in the foreign affairs, interior and commerce posts respectively. There had been a “a dire need” to appoint new ministers to those posts, the statement said, adding the new cabinet members would help the government tackle its heavy workload.
Last year, the defence minister and the head of military were sacked and replaced. The head of national security and the police commander were sacked after the country’s deadliest truck bomb attack killed 512 people in October. Both posts have yet to be filled. With the help of African troops, Somalia’s government has been battling the al Shabaab insurgents to try to restore peace in the country following decades of conflict.
Key Headlines
- Somalia PM Sacks Three Ministers As Country Battles Insurgency (Reuters)
- Somali Government Seeks IGAD Executive Secretary Post (Dhacdo.com)
- Yussuf Garad: A Person In America Informed Me About My Sacking (Goobjoog News)
- More US Airstrikes Executions to Start New Year in Somalia (VOA News)
- Social Media Impact On Traditional Social Fabric (Wardheer News)
NATIONAL MEDIA
Somali Government Seeks IGAD Executive Secretary Post
04 January – Source: dhacdo.com 112 Words
The Somali government is bidding to get IGAD Executive Secretary post. International media reports that Somali government is backing former foreign minister, Abdisalan Omar Hadliye who’s eyeing the post. Somalia is a member of IGAD Regional bloc and pays the required contributions, but since the establishment of IGAD, Somalia didn’t take any vital role in the organization. If Hadliye is give the position, he will replace the IGAD Executive Secretary, Mahbub Maalim from Kenya. Countries that did not hold the executive secretary post are Djibouti, Somalia and South Sudan which joined the Organization in 2011.
Yussuf Garad: A Person In America Informed Me About My Sacking
04 January – Source: Goobjoog News – 461 Words
Former Somali foreign minister, Yussuf Garad Omar has explained that someone in the US has informed him that he was relieved from his ministerial duty. Posting on his social media page, he noted that he was not officially informed of the move by the PM Hassan Ali Khaire whom last night sent him together with state foreign minister on official duty to be presented during the weekly meeting by the cabinet ministers. “Last night, the PM [Khaire] has sent me with state foreign minister for an activity to be submitted in the weekly cabinet ministers’ meeting. A person phoned me from US who informed me that I was sacked” read the statement.
Garaad confirmed his sacking after he communicated with the minister of information and culture, Abdirahman Omar Osman who announced the news in SNTV, a government media outlet. “Thereafter, I called the minister of information for confirmation if such news was announced in the national TV station and he confirmed in the affirmative” Garad posted.
In his parting shot, he expressed his gratitude to the president Farmaajo and PM Khaire but cautioned the nascent administration not to be haste in removing the new ministers. “Finally I pass my thankfulness to the president and the prime minister on my replacement to secure our foreign policy to be stable but I advise not to change the new appointed minister and the others and given leverage to execute their duties” said Garad. Federal minister of information and culture, Abdirahman Omar Osman made the official announcement this morning through SNTV, the state owned media .
INTERNATIONAL MEDIA
More US Airstrikes, Executions to Start New Year in Somalia
03 January – Source: Voice of America – 260 Words
Somali government officials say al-Shabab militants have executed five men accused of spying for the Somali government, Kenyan and Ethiopian forces. The five men were publicly executed by a firing squad in the town of Kuntuwarey in Lower Shabelle region. “The men, innocent civilians, were paraded in an open ground in Kuntuwarey town late Tuesday and a firing squad carried out the execution,” said Aden Omar, the district commissioner of nearby Barawe.
Radio Andalus, Al-Shabaab’s official mouthpiece, broadcast the voice of an Al-Shabaab judge announcing the sentence against the men. “The judge who announced the verdict did not show any evidence of the accusations against the victims,” Omar said. Omar told VOA Somali that some 500 residents watched the executions the first carried out by Al-Shabaab in the new year. Last month, the militants executed five people, including a 16-year-old boy, for similar accusations. The group executed 22 people in all last year nine based on spying allegations, with the others accused of crimes ranging from rape to sodomy to financial mismanagement.
Meanwhile, the U.S. military says it carried out an airstrike Tuesday that killed two Al-Shabaab extremists and destroyed a vehicle carrying explosives. “U.S. forces conducted an airstrike against Al-Shabaab militants in the early morning hours of Jan. 2, 2018, approximately 50 kilometers west of the capital, killing two terrorists and destroying one vehicle-borne improvised explosive device, preventing it from being used against the people in Mogadishu,” said the statement, released Wednesday. Last year the U.S. carried out more than 30 drone strikes against Al-Shabaab targets.
OPINION, ANALYSIS & CULTURE
“It is not secret and some of these tech companies even admitted that the true design of their platforms are to keep users as long as they can so that the user consumes most of their time,”
Social Media Impact On Traditional Social Fabric
01 January – Source: Wardheernews – 571 Word
It is not hidden secret that our traditional social fabric and cohesion is changing drastically due to extensive use of diverse social media platforms and mediums. This new form of communication in some instances as many presume decentralizes and increases the flow of information or resource mobilizations. When I was growing up I for example used to walk for a mile to interact with real human being call it family or close friend just to get the beauty of human connection-to fulfil an emotional and psychological desire that only comes with when one interacts with a human beings.
The exponential use of Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and likes are creating disconnected and dissolution virtual groups-groups that sometimes have positive collaboration and engagement elements. Take student groups and crowdsourcing communities that collaborate to work for a common goal or maybe solve common problem. Authorities sometimes use social media platforms to for example spread messages fast than any traditional medium; with this connotation social media is also slowly destroying youth and their way of thinking. Take for example a family of five in a small living room that do not interact each with each other, are using their gadget with no or little talking.
When families are in this state of mind one can truly imagine general trend to the wider society. When i see my teenage son playing FIFA18 on play station and I ask him who he is playing with, he replies I do not know him/her or where they are but the person I am playing with is pretty good and he beats me twice a week on this game.
Surely if my son disagrees with this virtual playmate the only power my son or the other party has is to LOG OFF-if this person was real person at least sitting next to him he could talk to him/her and probably they could come up with some sort of solution to their disagreement. With no conflict resolution and no emotional interaction, the consequence of this will be with anyone you disagree deserves to be logged off, i.e the punishment for your playmate is to vacate the platform he/she is connected with.
Fast forward 30 to 40 years, by then today’s youth have families etc but because they do not have the experience to tolerate or sometimes even beg their partners to resolve some issue they will tend to remember the logging off phenomena, i.e walk away from his/her partner which in turn would lead disintegrated, defragmented families and societies.
TOP TWEETS
@HarunMaruf: BREAKING: Somalia seeks top post in IGAD regional bloc by endorsing former Foreign Minister Abdusalam Hadliye Omer to become the next Executive Secretary of the organisation. Somalia is a founding member but never held the rotational post since IGAD was created in 1986: sources
@USAfricaCommand: U.S. Conducts Airstrike in Support of the Federal Government of Somalia – http://go.usa.gov/xnyK4
@Reuters: PM sacks three ministers as country battles insurgency http://reut.rs/2CoZLqa
@Dhambaalka Yusuf Garad, former journalist @MinisterMOFAfired as foreign minister of the F.R of #Somalia. This was more or less expected as many were questioning his handling of the#UAE financing rebellions against #Somalia and on the wake of its condemnation by the #UN security Council.
@WorldBankAfrica: To reduce poverty in #Somalia, access to key services, like education, must be improved for poor householdshttp://wrld.bg/
@RadioErgo: #Somalia: Herders flee parched Sanag villages and head for mountainous coastal areas http://bit.ly/2BQi4oY
@wazalendoKE: The US Promises More Airstrikes In Somalia In 2018 To Defeat Al-Shabaab… https://fb.me/8ayiq84Bp
@LondonFire: Firefighters in #Somalia will be working in safer conditions thanks to a donation of fire gear. Working with Brigade Crew Manager Mo Ahmed & Firefighter Mustafa Ibraham, @manchesterfire donated 100 tunics as well as some helmets, leggings, gloves & around 40 pairs of boots.
IMAGE OF THE DAY
PM, Hassan Ali Kheyre take parts in passing out parade for new police officer.
Photo: Jowhar.com