February 5, 2018 | Morning Headlines
Tukaraq Tension: More Military Deployment By Puntland And Somaliland Administrations
04 February – Source: Goobjoog News – 198 Words
More military hardware and personnel are heading to Tukaraq location, Sool region deployed by Puntland and Somaliland administrations. Eyewitnesses informed for Goobjoog News that the self breakaway region of Somaliland has deployed more troops in the location and dug holes on the ground for defense purposes. On other hand, more troops from Puntland state arrived in some locations in Sool region especially Holhol location.
It is reported that the locals in the area are apprehensive on the impending danger of war erupting between the two Somali forces since there is no ceasefire agreement between the two regional authorities. Earlier the local traditional elders in Sool region have failed to arbitrate between the two who volunteered to stem out the confrontation since the war zone area under fall their province.
Early January, Somaliland forces attacked Tukaraq location overrunning Puntland forces which compelled the latter to retreat entirely from the area leading to heated exchange of words between top leaders of the two regions in the local media. The military incursion by Somaliland coincided with the first day of the official visit of Somali federal president Mohamed Abdullahi Farmaajo in Puntland State on 8th January and still occupies the location.
Key Headlines
- Tukaraq Tension: More Military Deployment By Puntland And Somaliland Administrations (Goobjoog News)
- Somali Leaders To Hold Crucial Forum In Mogadishu (Radio Shabelle)
- Lower Shabelle Accuse Al-Shabaab Of Harassing Farmers In The Region (Radio Dalsan)
- Mogadishu College Graduate Proves His ‘Disability Is Not an Inability’ (Voice of American)
- Qatar Charity Rehabilitates Flood And Cyclone Victims In Somalia (The Peninsula)
- Turkey’s Foray Into Somalia Is A Huge Success But There Are Risks (The Conversation)
NATIONAL MEDIA
Somali Leaders To Hold Crucial Forum In Mogadishu
04 February – Source: Radio Shabelle – 101 Words
The leaders of Somalia’s Federal member states and central government are expected to hold a key meeting in Mogadishu in the coming days. Mogadishu is preparing to host the upcoming conference and the security has been beefed as regional presidents are due to arrive this week.
The forum aims to focus on key issues, including integration of security forces, one person, one vote election in 2020 and the sharing system of the national resources. In a previous meeting on September 2017, the country’s leaders held such meeting in Mogadishu and agreed on several issues related to the security and the review of the provisional constitution.
Lower Shabelle Accuse Al-Shabaab Of Harassing Farmers In The Region
04 February – Source: Radio Dalsan – 185 Words
The Lower Shabelle administration has on Saturday night accused Al-Shabaab of harassing farmers in the region, according reports. Qoryoley district Police Commander Mr. Ali Mohamed Adan told reporters, that the Al-Shabaab fighters hiding in the remote areas of the region extort money from the locals. “They harass poor farmers and farm workers in the area by extorting money from them,” said Mr Adan.
Commander Adan mentioned that the militants’ harassment to farmers is not limited to extortion of money only, but they also extort them farm harvests. “They take money and parts of farm harvests from the farmers. They even take money from farmers who dig wells in their own farms using their hands,” he added.
The commander said that the local administration will not tolerate with the militants and in collaboration with the Somali National Army (SNA), they will clean them from the region. “God willing we will pursue and get them a life,” said the Police Commander. Al-Shabaab’s activities in the area have been on the rise and on Saturday, the militant group has attacked SNA camp in the outskirt of Qoryoley district.
INTERNATIONAL MEDIA
Mogadishu College Graduate Proves His ‘Disability Is Not an Inability’
03 February – Source: Voice of America – 430 Words
Mogadishu has suffered more than two decades of war, and many of its young people were born and raised alongside violence and bloodshed. Children with disabilities, however, face added risks of abandonment, neglect and lack of equal access to basic human necessities. But Ismail Rage, 22, did not let his disability keep him from his goal of graduating from Simad University in Mogadishu. He received a bachelor’s degree in banking and financing on Wednesday.
As a child, Rage developed polio, which paralyzed his legs. “Being a person with disability who was born and raised in a war zone, my dream was to attain such an achievement over the years,” Rage told VOA’s Somali service, adding that amid “financial and security challenges in Somalia, I have finally and fortunately” realized his dream. Living in Somalia has many challenges for a disabled person, including being excluded from mainstream society. Many see only the limits of disabled people, not their opportunities.
Rage’s parents were among a few who dared to face the social stigma by sending their disabled children to the only available private schools. “When I was just 3 years old, I was diagnosed with polio. My parents had been perplexed about what to do with both my legs paralyzed. At the age of 6, they sent me to Quranic school and then to private school within a few years,” Rage said.
Qatar Charity Rehabilitates Flood And Cyclone Victims In Somalia
04 February – Source: The Peninsula – 300 Words
Qatar Charity Office in Somalia rehabilitated many thousands of the floods and cyclones victims through its early recovery programs, contributing to the restoration of basic services and environment and social life, providing livelihoods and shelter, and reintegrating displaced populations. The QC’s Somali Office supported victims of floods that hit the Middle Shabelle region and those affected by cyclones that swept across the Puntland region.
QC managed to rehabilitate three schools, equipped with study tools and materials and reconstructed four health centres, supported with the required health equipment, which benefited 92,776 persons affected by floods in Middle Shabelle region in 2013 and 2014. QC provided 10 irrigation generators to small-scale farmers in the region, rehabilitated 10km of irrigation canals and supported 250 agricultural families, giving them agricultural seeds and manual tillage tools, which helped them reclaim 250 hectares of the farmland.
QC also distributed 150 dairy cattle to 150 families and 750 goats to 150 families and it helped 58 families by providing them with income-generating projects, which include 20 shops, 20 vehicles to transport goods and water and 18 sesame mills. QC rehabilitated seven artesian wells, increased the depth of wells and repaired the associated facilities in addition to the construction and rehabilitation of reservoirs and ponds for watering animals.
QC also implemented its Early Recovery Project in the Puntland region to benefit 86,275 persons affected by the hurricane in the beginning of 2014. QC provided 6,000 livestock to 300 families and gave 25 fishing boats to 100 families. QC also supported 4 mobile health clinics operating for five months to help affected families in addition to rehabilitation of two clinics damaged by the cyclone in Puntland. Ten artesian wells have been rehabilitated to benefit pastoral and Bedouin families and two schools have been reconstruction by QC.
OPINION, ANALYSIS & CULTURE
“Somalia has been the scene of thousands of capacity building and self-help experiments funded by a plethora of international organisations and states. Yet it is precisely where these efforts have failed that Turkey has found its niche.This required a big appetite for risk. Naturally, as the risks rise the potential for significant rewards does too.”
Turkey’s Foray Into Somalia Is A Huge Success, But There Are Risks
04 February – Source: The Conversation – 820 Words
Turkey’s engagement with Somalia is striking for its brevity and ostensible success. Turkey has been involved in Somalia since just 2011, yet Ankara can point to a string of reported accomplishments and an arguably outsized presence in an often violent country regularly described as a failed state. Turkey’s presence in Somalia certainly embodies one of the most interesting regional geopolitical developments in the past decade. It also represents one of the most misunderstood and confusing. Why did Turkey choose Somalia? And, after its initial humanitarian intervention in 2011, what internal and external forces have shaped and expanded that involvement?
Furthermore, what explains Turkey’s reported triumphs? Some have pointed to a shared history and a common Sunni Muslim heritage. This is questionable, at best, and alone cannot explain Turkey’s engagement with Somalia – let alone the rest of sub-Saharan Africa. Others have noted Turkey’s economic clout and its status as a mid-sized country interested in trade rather than extracting resources. Genuine humanitarian concerns have also, at least initially, driven Turkey’s engagement as well as the prospect of economic gain. Scholar Federico Donelli notes its approach to Somalia
Ankara has an understandable and deep seated desire for international recognition as an emerging power and G20 member state. Its status in Somalia is part humanitarian and part financial, but is at its heart about influence and prestige. Turkish money and aid – delivered directly to key stakeholders in the Somali Federal Government – in gratiated Turkey with local power brokers and provided Ankara with access and power in Mogadishu. What soon followed is Turkish control and management of Somalia’s most lucrative assets, the airport and seaport.
Parallel to these were unilateral rebuilding efforts, offers of scholarships, renovations of hospitals, and the hosting of international conferences about Somalia. These have largely contributed positively to Somalia’s development and yielded the international acclaim and diplomatic clout craved by President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and his coterie. For some parties inside and outside Somalia, Turkey is now viewed as indispensable to Somalia. The keys to Turkey’s reported success in Somalia – where so many other established powers have failed before – may revolve around four critical factors.
The first is approach. Most interventions in Somalia have been multilateral affairs by international and regional actors, such as the UN. Turkey’s approach, in contrast, has been largely unilateral and highly coordinated by the Turkish Cooperation and Coordination Agency. In this way, the efforts of business, government and humanitarian staff either do not overlap or do so effectively.
Second is novelty. Turkey’s Ottoman past and Muslim identity have been raised as major variables driving Turkey’s engagement with Somalia. But these assertions ignore or minimise one of its key strengths as a rising power: its distinct lack of a colonial past that devastated so much of the continent. This approach is not only novel; it also represents Turkey’s first meaningful engagement with the continent. This contrasts sharply with that of the US, France, Russia and China, among others, which have a colonial or Cold War baggage.