April 30, 2018 | Morning Headlines
Peacekeepers To The Rescue As Floods Overwhelm Somalia
29 April – Source: Daily Nation – 236 Words
The peacekeepers serving with the African Union Missions in Somalia (Amisom) have joined the efforts to assist victims of massive flooding in the country. The Djibouti and Ethiopian peacekeepers and the Somali National Army (SNA) were helping in delivering food and relocating hundreds of people to safer grounds. The Shabelle, one of the two rivers passing through Somalia’s central and southern regions has burst its banks at several points, affecting thousands of people.
Beledweyne town, the capital of Hiran region, 335 km north of Mogadishu, is the most affected. Over 100,000 people are estimated to have moved to higher grounds on the outskirts of the town. Many more remained stranded in parts of the town. The President of Hirshabelle State, an authority in Central Somalia, Mr Mohamed Abdi Ware, commended the Amisom troops for their efforts. “Over 100,000 people, roughly 26,000 families, have moved to the outskirts of Beledweyne town,” said President Ware, addressing a press conference, with almost half of his body under the flood waters.
“We thank the Amisom troops and the SNA forces for assisting the floods-affected people,” he said. “We urgently request the federal government of Somalia and the international community to come to the rescue of the people in Hirshabelle State, especially in Beledweyne town,” the regional leader pleaded. The Shabelle River in Beledwene town have risen eight metres above normal following the onset of the long rains season.
Key Headlines
- Peacekeepers To The Rescue As Floods Overwhelm Somalia (Daily Nation)
- Somalia To Host Conference On Illegal Charcoal Trade (Shabelle News)
- Somali PM Mourns Death Of Parliamentarian (Hiiraan Online)
- UN Condemns Suicide Bombing In Central Somalia (Xinhua)
- Somalia Calls For International Support As Floods Displace Thousands (Xinhua)
- IGAD Centre A Guiding Light In Fighting Violent Extremism (Sunday Nation)
NATIONAL MEDIA
Somalia To Host Conference On Illegal Charcoal Trade
29 April – Source: Shabelle Media Network – 236 Words
Somalia will next month host a two-day international conference aimed at stopping the illegal charcoal trade in the Horn of Africa nation, organizers have said. The May 7-8 conference, which will bring together Somali environment experts and international donor partners, will discuss ways of stopping the illegal trade, unsustainable production and use of charcoal in the country, said the UN Mission in Somalia. “The Somali government-led event, therefore, aims to urgently build alliances amongst consumer countries and international and local experts and donors,” the UN mission said.
The two-day conference is supported by the UN Development Program (UNDP), UN Environment and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO). Export of charcoal from Somalia has been banned by a 2012 United Nations Security Council resolution and the Somali government due to its destructive effect on the environment, and its exacerbation of conflict and humanitarian crises.
According to the UN, 8.2 million trees were cut down for charcoal in Somalia between 2011 and 2017, increasing land degradation and food insecurity, and illegal trade in charcoal acts as major source of funding for militias and terrorist groups such as Al-Shabaab. A UN monitors’ report released late 2017 said Somali insurgents earn approximately 10 million U.S. dollar annually from charcoal smuggled to Asia through Somali ports. The UN report said this enables Al-Shabaab to finance its operations and undermines counter-terrorism operations in the Horn of African nation.
Somali PM Mourns Death Of Parliamentarian
29 April – Source: Hiiraan Online – 163 Words
Somali Prime minister, Hassan Ali Kheire on Sunday offered his condolences to the Somali people following the death of a member of Lower House Parliament on Saturday night in Mogadishu. Khalif Sheikh Abdullahi breathed his last at Madina Hospital following short illness. The legislator, who was a Member of Parliament from the Southwest state, has been ailing from undisclosed illness in the recent past. In a Twitter post, PM Kheire mourned Sheikh Abdullahi who was elected to Parliament in 2016. “I condole with the family and relatives of Khalif Sheikh Abdullahi over his death, May Allah rest his soul in eternal peace. We pray that God comforts and strengthens his family and relatives,” Mr. Kheire mourned.
The death of the MP comes just a day before the Lower House Parliament elects a new Speaker after Mohamed Osman Jawari resigned from the post following a month-long political stand-off.
Eleven candidates are expected to take part in the Speaker’s election slated for Monday. 30th April.
INTERNATIONAL MEDIA
UN Condemns Suicide Bombing In Central Somalia
29 April – Source: Xinhua- 172 Words
The UN Mission in Somalia (UNSOM) has condemned Saturday’s suicide bombing in the city of Galkayo, which killed seven people including government security officers and civilians. Michael Keating, the UN Secretary-General’s Special Representative for Somalia and head of UNSOM, said increased terror attacks by al-Shabab are clear attempts to derail reconciliation process. “This attack occurred because extremists feel threatened by the progress that is being made with reconciliation efforts in Galkayo,” Keating said in a statement issued on Saturday night.
The blast occurred after a man with suicide vest detonated explosives strapped in his waist as he approached the soldiers at a busy restaurant in northern Galkayo on Saturday. The Al-Shabab has reportedly claimed responsibility for the latest attack in the Horn of African nation. Keating said Somalia has suffered enough violence and bloodshed, noting that it is time for reconciliation: “The people and authorities in Galkayo are courageously finding a way forward; they should not be derailed by this assault on their chances of a peaceful future,” said the UN envoy.
Somalia Calls For International Support As Floods Displace Thousands
29 April – Source: Xinhua – 312 Words
Somali Prime Minister Hassan Ali Khaire has appealed to the international community for humanitarian support to help avert a humanitarian crisis as floods uproot hundreds of thousands. Khaire said the situation was fast escalating as aid agencies warned that close to half a million people had been affected in south-central regions of the country. “We have all agreed to put our efforts together to help those who have been affected the floods,” the prime minister said on Saturday evening after commissioning a 22-member team to spearhead the response.
He also called on envoys who also attended the meeting to step in while urging Somalis to contribute resources to stem the crisis after more than 400,000 Somalis have been affected by the flooding including 175,000 others who have been displaced. “We urgently call on the various sectors of the community such as clerics, women, parliamentarians and aid agencies to consult on emergency response to our people affected by floods,” Khaire said.
Thousands were still moving Saturday from their homes in central regions as the River Shabelle burst its banks inundating Baladweyne town in central Somalia. African Union troops joined in on Saturday to transport families to safe grounds. The Norwegian Refugees Council said on Friday that upwards of 400,00 people had been displaced along the Shabelle and Juba rivers which emanate from Ethiopia draining into the Indian Ocean.
OPINION, ANALYSIS AND CULTURE
“As a variant of IGAD’s mandate to enhance regional peace and security, the Centre signifies efforts by member states and partners to coordinate response to the threat of terrorism. This started with Igad’s Peace Support Mission in Somalia (Igasom) in 2005, replaced in 2007 by the African Union Mission in Somalia (Amisom)”
IGAD Centre A Guiding Light In Fighting Violent Extremism
29 April – Source – Sunday Nation – 1019 Words
Violent extremism is the greatest security threat of our time, and an existential threat to emerging democracies. In 2016, the world experienced a total of 11,072 terrorist attacks, resulting in 25,621 deaths and 33,814 injuries. During the period, Somalia and Nigeria alone experienced 359 and 466 attacks respectively. It is this threat that forced state members of the Inter-Governmental Authority on Development (Igad) to begin setting up a regional architecture and strategy to prevent and counter violent extremism.
On April 25, 2018, I travelled to Djibouti to witness the historic launch of a new Centre of Excellence for Preventing and Countering Violent Extremism (ICEPCVE), the “soft power” equivalent of the African Mission in Somalia (Amisom). This launch brought back to mind nostalgic memories of the pomp and colour that marked the unveiling of the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (Nepad) as the continent’s framework for development nearly two decades ago in South Africa.
Like Nepad, the Igad Centre is an intricate web of regional and global partnerships, albeit on a lesser scale. Foreign ministers from Kenya and Djibouti, Somalia’s Minister for Planning and African Ambassadors graced the launch ceremony, which also drew almost all EU ambassadors, relevant UN agencies, donors, Turkey and Egypt. President Donald Trump dispatched his acting assistant Secretary of State, Bureau of African Affairs, US Department of State, Donald Yamamoto.
But there was a sense of déjà vu around the launch. If the Igad Centre fails to hone its key priority to being a regional thought leader on violent extremism, it risks becoming one of the many “new partnerships” whose skeletons now litter the African landscape. As a thought leader, it has to develop expertise, knowledge and coordination capacities to move national, regional and global efforts to prevent and counter violent extremism to a whole new level.
Laudably, Igad took an audacious step to set up the Centre as a thought leader by becoming the first regional organisation in the entire international system to develop a comprehensive regional strategy to prevent and counter violent extremism, also unveiled simultaneously with the Centre. But implementing the strategy will be more than a walk in the park. The changing context and meaning of violent extremism needs to be made crystal clear. Extremists, the strategy notes, reject the principles and values that underpin a peaceful civilised society. Instead, they extol violence and terror as a pathway to change and to enforcing specific ideologies and vision of society (mainly the establishment of a “global caliphate”).