April 24, 2018 | Daily Monitoring Report
Defense Minister Mursal Quits Barely 6 Months In Office To Contest For Speaker Seat
24 April – Source: Goobjoog News – 162 Words
Defense Minister Mohamed Mursal Abdirahman has resigned from his post barely six months into the job to vie for the speaker of Lower House slated for April 30 adding to four the number of ministers who have since exited the cabinet. Abdirahman who served as Somalia’s ambassador to Turkey was picked by Prime Minister Hassan Khaire last November following the resignation of then minister Abdirashid Abdullahi Mohamed early October.
According to the electoral rules released by the Lower House elections committee, ministers were given until today to vacate their posts before they could be registered as candidates in the election. Water and Energy minister Salim Ibrow, Trade and Industry State minister Abdi Aziz Hassan Mohamed and Deputy Minister for Interior Ibraahim Isaaq Yarow quit yesterday. The race to replace immediate former speaker Mohamed Jawari who stepped down early this month has since attracted five candidates. Besides the ministers, the rest of the candidates are former speaker Aadan Madoobe and Sheikh Ali Mohamed.
Key Headlines
- Defense Minister Mursal Quits Barely 6 Months In Office To Contest For Speaker Seat (Goobjoog News)
- Turkey Distributes Wheelchairs to People with Disabilities (Halbeeg News)
- Somalia Will Start Printing Currency Soon Says PM Khaire (Hiiraan Online)
- Somaliland Senator Suspended For Attending Ceremony In Puntland (Goobjoog News)
- Somalia’s Electoral Stakeholders Meet On Boundary Delimitation (AMISOM)
- Former Somali Herders Commute From City Casual Jobs To Support Families Left In Rural Areas (Radio Ergo)
NATIONAL MEDIA
Turkey Distributes Wheelchairs to People with Disabilities
23 April – Source: Halbeeg News – 255 Words
Turkish Cooperation and Coordination Agency (Tika) on Monday distributed wheelchairs to dozens of people with disabilities in Mogadishu. In coordination with the mayor of Mogadishu, Abdirahman Omar Osman, the officials from the agency supported 80 individuals with wheelchairs, walking sticks and other equipment. Speaking during the distribution which took place at Turkish embassy in Mogadishu, Abdulkadir Atbek, TIKA representative said the agency has distributed wheelchairs to people with physical disabilities in Mogadishu. “Today, we have given wheelchairs to 80 people with disabilities, I believe that helping one person is like helping all the people,” said Atbek.
The official noted that the agency will launch eye operations in Mogadishu next week. Turkish ambassador to Somalia, Olgan Beker said his government will support the internally displaced persons in Mogadishu “We are going to consider the situation of the IDPs in Mogadishu particularly during the holy month of Ramadan. We will rump up our humanitarian efforts during the Ramadan and after,” he pledged.
Meanwhile, Mogadishu Mayor who also spoke at the distribution centre lauded the commitment of Turkish government to support the people of Somalia. “I would like to thank the Red Crescent of Turkey (Tika) which today distributed special chairs for the People with physical disabilities,” Osman applauded. Turkish government which cements its ties with Somalia has implemented development projects including road constructions, schools and hospitals in Mogadishu. It has also provided scholarships to Somalis studying in Turkey. Turkey opened its biggest overseas military base in Mogadishu where over 10,000 soldiers are scheduled to be trained.
Somalia Will Start Printing Currency Soon, Says PM Khaire
24 April – Source: Hiiraan Online – 166 Words
Prime Minister, Hassan Ali Khaire said that a recent high-level roundtable in Washington attended by Somalia’s Finance Minister, Abdirahman Beileh agreed that Somalia had made visible changes in public finance management, good governance and economic recovery. PM Khaire mentioned that officials from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank finally agreed to support Somalia resume printing its currency.
“One year ago, we promised to improve the country’s economic situation, a few days ago our finance minister has attended a meeting in Washington, where it was acknowledged that the Somali government had made a big achievement in the financial and economic reform agenda. Thus, participants agreed to help Somalia resume its banknotes for the first time since the government collapsed in 1991,” he said.
He added that some European nations have also pledged to begin providing direct financial support to the federal government channelling the financial aid via the Central Bank. He noted that the debt clearance path is now open for the federal government.
Somaliland Senator Suspended For Attending Ceremony In Puntland
24 April – Source: Goobjoog News – 186 Words
A senator in Somaliland has been suspended from the House after attending the coronation of a Sultan in Puntland region. The Upper House (Guurti) said it was suspending Senator Sultan Ismael Sultan for ‘violation of the House Standing Orders. “He (Sultan Ismael Sultan Abdirahman) has been suspended from work for violating the Standing Orders of the Guurti,” deputy speaker Sa’id Ali Jama told reporters.
The suspension of the senators comes days after another elder, Boqor Buurmadow was arrested and released for attending the same ceremony. The leaders who included Puntland President Abdiweli Gaas attended the coronation of Beeldaaaje Mohamed Beeldaaje Ismael, the 19th Sultan of the Ali Salehman sub clan in Armo, Bari region in Puntland.
Somaliland authorities have in the recent past launched a crack-down on activists including the sentencing of poet and activist Naema Qorane to three years imprisonment for ‘bringing the state in contempt’ through social media posts. Mohamed Kayse Mohamoud, an author was last week handed an 18 month jail time for social media posts which according to the charge sheet indicated the author referred to Somaliland President Muse Bihi as ‘local’.
INTERNATIONAL MEDIA
Somalia’s Electoral Stakeholders Meet On Boundary Delimitation
24 April – Source: AMISOM – 448 Words
Top officials from key ministries of the Federal Government of Somalia, the National Independent Electoral Commission (NIEC), and the federal member states are meeting in Kenya’s capital Nairobi, to discuss electoral boundary delimitation. The meeting, organized by the Political Affairs Department of the African Union Commission and facilitated by the African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM), is brainstorming on the legal and institutional framework for electoral boundary delimitation, use of technology and impact of government and electoral systems, on the delimitation.
“The African Union has the mandate to provide election support to election management bodies of member states. The electoral commission of Somalia is one of our priority institutions in terms of providing long term electoral assistance on the continent,” Mr. Guy Cyrille Topiko, the acting head of the Democracy and Electoral Unit at the African Union Commission said in his opening remarks to the workshop yesterday.
The AU official who is representing Minata Samate Cessouma, the Commissioner for Political Affairs at the African Union Commission at the meeting, expressed the Commission’s commitment to attain free, fair and transparent elections in countries in Africa. The three-day meet is being attended by 24 participants, who will draw parallels with boundary delimitation in Kenya, Nigeria, the Democratic Republic of Congo, and Tunisia.
OPINION, ANALYSIS & CULTURE
“They work mainly in construction, quarrying, and serve as waiters in restaurants. Hassan and his co-workers sleep in local mosques on the days they are away from their homes, as they do not have relatives in the area to stay with.”
Former Somali Herders Commute From City Casual Jobs To Support Families Left In Rural Areas
24 April – Source: Radio Ergo – 599 Words
Hassan Warsame, 60, has been commuting between Galkayo city in northeastern Somalia’s Puntland region and his rural home more than 50 km away ever since he realized that he could never rebuild his life around livestock again. As soon as he has some weekly wages in his pocket from working on a construction site, he buys food for the family and travels home to the village. He has eight children depending on him.
Hundreds of other pastoralists, whose livestock and livelihoods have been devastated by the drought in different parts of Mudug region, are doing something similar. Hassan mixes cement and sand on the building site, and loads heavy materials onto trucks. He said his job needs physical strength more than any particular skill, so it was easy to pick up. After working for four days, he spends Thursdays and Friday with his family, returning to work on Saturday morning. His average earnings are 550-600,000 shillings ($20) a week. As he received the cash, he always gives it to a friend working in a local shop to keep it safe for him. Once he has taken out the money he needs for his own living and transport, he is able to buy 15 kgs of flour, 20 kgs of rice, and 10 kgs sugar to keep the family going while he is away in the city.
Hassan’s family remains with 15 feeble goats from their original herd of 300. They cannot make a living out of such a few pitiful animals. As he could not afford to transfer his family to the city, Hassan felt it best to separate. “I do this work to get food. There is a great disparity in this life and the previous one – the previous one was much better,” he told Radio Ergo’s local reporter. There are around 340 men doing similar casual labour in Galkayo, who have recently come in from surrounding rural areas, according to the local authorities.
They work mainly in construction, quarrying, and serve as waiters in restaurants. Hassan and his co-workers sleep in local mosques on the days they are away from their homes, as they do not have relatives in the area to stay with. Sharif Abdi, 34, is another father of eight who came to Galkayo looking for employment. He goes early in the morning to a food market in Galkayo to offload and load groceries to trucks. He left his family in Afgaduudle, 170 km away, and he cannot afford to see them during the weekends. He earns 240,000 ($10) and buys them five kg of flour, rice and sugar and asks truck drivers going that way to deliver them to his family.
Five years ago he owned a healthy herd of 150 goats, but only 10 survived the drought. He told Radio Ergo he decided to venture into this work in January, when his family could no longer survive the harsh living conditions they were facing. The social welfare representative at Galkayo municipal council, Muhidin Yusuf, told Radio Ergo they cannot do much to improve the lives of these new workers, but they have met local employers asking them to give employment opportunities to displaced pastoralists.
TOP TWEETS
@HarunMaruf: Lightning kills newlyweds in central Somalia amid heavy rains. Relatives of the victims say the incident happened in Ari Addays village, 30km south of Abudwaq town, Galguduud region Monday night.
@i_dossier: Update: A Spoksman for Somaliland President@musebiihi thanks UAE for “accepting” Somaliland passport amid reports the Gulf country is issuing visas in Somaliland passport. UAE Ministry of Interior appears to be corroborating some of the information. #UAE #Somalia
@mpfsomalia: The @CIPSomalia team has worked hard on the civil service staff audit. Kudos for making the #Somali civil service more efficient! @SomaliPM @Mohamedkeynanhttp://goobjoog.com/english/
@DalsanFM: Kenya Bans Somalia Politician Abdishakur´s Welcome Party https://www.radiodalsan.com/
@RadioErgo: #Somalia:Former Somali herders commute from city casual jobs to support families left in rural areashttp://www.radioergo.org/2018/
@DalsanFM: Minister Mursal Resigns From Defence Docket To Join Speaker Race https://www.radiodalsan.com/
@HassanIstiila: #UPDATE: A man wearing as Somali National Army uniform opened fire young women at Liido beach in Mogadishu, killing one, on Monday night witness said.
IMAGE OF THE DAY
Somalia Defense Minister, Mohamed Mursal Abdirahman present his application papers to House Elections committee to contest for Speakers position.
Photo: Radio Dalsan.