June 4, 2018 | Morning Headlines
Somali President Reaches Baidoa For The National Security Forum
03 June – Source: SONNA – 127 Words
President of the Federal Republic of Somalia, H.E.Mohamed Abdullahi Farmaajo, on Sunday went to Baidoa town, the Interim Administrative capital of Southwest State in Somalia, where he is due to open the National Security Forum.
Somali Prime Minister Hassan Ali Kheyre, Southwest State President Sharif Hassan Aden and other officials welcomed the president and his delegation at Shati-gudud International Airport and led them to the regional state palace, according to reports.
President Farmaajo will open the forum, which will focus on security issues, building the army and setting up policy agendas with leaders from the federal members states, federal government officials and Mogadishu Mayor on Monday. The Somali Ministers of Defense, Internal Security, Planning and the Mayor of Mogadishu accompanied the president to Baidoa town today.
Key Headlines
- Somali President Reaches Baidoa For The National Security Forum (SONNA)
- Somali Forces Repulsed Al-Shabaab Attack In Kulbiyow Town (Halbeeg News)
- Newly Appointed Chief Of the Supreme Court Takes Office (Goobjoog News)
- AU Delegation Visits Somalia To Evaluate The Impact Of Quick Impact Projects On Households (AMISOM)
- Middle East Power Struggle Plays Out On New Stage (Wall Street Journal)
NATIONAL MEDIA
Somali Forces Repulsed Al-Shabaab Attack In Kulbiyow Town
03 June – Source: Halbeeg News – 204 Words
Somali forces repulsed an Al-Shabaab attack in Lower Jubba region, a military official confirmed. The incident happened early Sunday morning, after heavily armed Al-Shabaab fighters, stormed the SNA base in the outskirts of Kulbiyow town.
Kulmiye Mohamed Abdi, a military officer who confirmed the attack, said over a hundred Al-Shabaab fighters attacked the SNA base from different directions. “Al-Shabaab fighters attacked our base. The attack occurred at 4:00 am. They fired motor shells on the base,” said Mr. Abdi.
He confirmed casualties on both sides but declined to give details. “There are casualties on both sides, but we are recording the incident so we cannot confirm the casualties right now,” he noted. He stated that the forces managed to successfully repulse the attackers. “Our forces are still in full control of the base. Al-Shabaab fighters were defeated,” Mr. Abdi said. Al-Shabaab did not comment on the fight. Since early this week, Al-Shabaab, has carried out three attacks in Bari, Middle Shabelle and Lower Jubba region.
On Friday evening, the group’s fighters launched simultaneous attacks on military bases manned by Puntland and Galmudug states. Over 20 combatants from Somali forces and Al-Shabaab were killed in the attacks, which took place in Moqokori and Bali-Khadar towns.
The Newly Appointed Chief Of the Supreme Court Takes Office
03 June – Source: Goobjoog News – 177 Words
The new Chairman of the Supreme Court of Somalia Bashir Yusuf Ahmed today officially taken over the control of the supreme court. This event was attended by the Federal Justice Minister, the Prosecutor General, the former High Court judges and other officials.
Ibrahim Idle Suleiman, the former Chairman of the Supreme Court said that “he has done his best during his tenure in the office; he also criticized the government’s failure to enforce the court decisions and other issues. “I faced many challenges including the absence of decisions, judgments, judicial proceedings, and demands of convicted citizen.” said Ibrahim Idle.
Bashir Yusuf Ahmed, the new Chairman of the High Court, who first spoke on the matter, thanked the former chairman. Mr. Idle told Bashir that President Farmaajo and him agreed on judicial reform. “We have promised to make bigger reforms, the most important thing is to establish the Judicial Services Committee,” he said. On May 27, 2018, President Farmaajo appointed Bashir Yusuf Ahmed as the Chief of the High Court and dismissed the former Chief Ibrahim Iidle Suleiman.
INTERNATIONAL MEDIA
AU Delegation Visits Somalia To Evaluate The Impact Of Quick Impact Projects On Households
03 June – Source: AMISOM – 438 Words
A delegation from the African Union is in Somalia to evaluate Quick Impact Projects (QIPs), implemented by the AU Mission in the country. The projects, funded by the Crisis Management, Post Conflict Reconstruction and Development Division of the African Union Commission, are implemented in recovered areas by the African Union Mission in Somalia, (AMISOM).
While in the country, the team of experts, will tour projects already implemented in the regions, to assess whether the implementation followed laid down procedures, in line with the African Union Quick Impact and Peace Strengthening Projects (QIPS/PSPs). The team is focusing on six projects implemented in 2017, with funding from the African Union, and will assess their benefit to targeted populations.
“What are the success stories that we can enhance, for future implementation, design or monitoring; and what are the challenges that have been encountered on the ground?”, posed Mr. Mike Bugason, the leader of the delegation, during a meeting with senior AMISOM officials, in Mogadishu today. “We want to take note of the good practices, the lessons learnt, so that we are able to recommend how we can do it better and more quickly in future,” he added.
The delegation toured a clean water project constructed in May 2017, for the out-patient department of the AMISOM Hospital community in Mogadishu. The project which benefits 76-households with 400-people, was prioritized by the community after the completion of two other projects – the provision of electricity in the community and construction of a primary school. Both projects were successfully implemented.
“We want to assist the communities to lead better lives, but also by doing so, we want to improve the relationship between the communities and the leadership of AMISOM and also the operations of the military,” remarked Bugason, while emphasizing that the need to ensure the have the desired impact, on communities who are benefitting from them.
The delegation was received at the AMISOM Force Headquarters by the Deputy Force Commander of Operations and Plans Maj. Gen. Tai Gituai, who underscored the importance of the projects, in providing linkages between troops and local communities. “They are very crucial to us, in winning the hearts and minds of the local people, and therefore they create an enabling environment for our soldiers,” Gen. Gituai said.
Projects under evaluation include a school project in Ceel Jaale, the refurbished police station in Kismayo, in Jubbaland state; a rehabilitated Mother and Child Hospital in Marka, and the support provided by AMISOM to the local administration in Afgoye district, in Lower Shabelle region. AMISOM has implemented 107 Quick Impact Projects to date, including 23, whose implementation is ongoing.
OPINION, ANALYSIS AND CULTURE
“Somali-U.A.E. relations broke down spectacularly in April, when Somali agents boarded a U.A.E. airplane in Mogadishu and confiscated $9.6 million in cash. In a Hollywood-style operation, the Somali agents held U.A.E. security personnel at gunpoint, seized the aircraft and removed the money in large bags.”
Middle East Power Struggle Plays Out On New Stage
01 June – Source: Wall Street Journal -1885 Words
The battle for hegemony in the Middle East is playing out at an ancient African port where traditional dhow fishing boats now share space with giant, container ships loaded around the clock by men in yellow high-visibility vests.
Berbera, in the breakaway republic of Somaliland, is perched on a narrow shipping lane leading to the Suez Canal and is just 260 nautical miles from Yemen’s civil war. Since antiquity, the town’s strategic shore has been coveted by military and maritime powers. Described by colonial-era travelers as the “key to the Red Sea,” the port became an Ottoman stronghold and later a British colonial outpost.
That explains why United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia’s strongest ally, pledged close to $450 million to take over the port here. Elsewhere along the Horn of Africa, allies Saudi Arabia and U.A.E. have snapped up ports and military bases at sites in Somalia, plus farther north in Djibouti and Eritrea. Qatar and Turkey, which support a different model of political Islam and are closer to Saudi Arabia’s arch-rival Iran, are building in Somalia and Sudan.
China is positioned with a military base and a container port, for which it paid $700 million, in Djibouti and is exploring sites in Somalia. The U.S., meanwhile, conducts Africa operations and directs drones in the Persian Gulf from Camp Lemonnier in Djibouti, the largest U.S. base on the continent.
The scramble to lock down critical sites like Berbera is unscrolling all along the Horn and northward into the Red Sea. At stake is the precarious peace in one of the world’s most volatile and strategic corners, and the balance of power in the Middle East. The nearby Suez Canal, meanwhile, is the fastest and most heavily used shipping lane connecting Asia with Europe.
It handles about 10% of the world’s seaborne trade, including roughly 10% of the world’s oil trade, according to the United Nations and the U.S. Energy Information Administration.“We have new kids on the block…competition in the Middle East between the Sunnis and the Shias, and the Americans, the Russians, the Turks, the Qataris,” said Saad Ali Shire, Somaliland’s foreign minister. “It’s a poisonous meeting of interests coming together.”
Berbera and other sites along the northern coast of the Horn are important because of their proximity to Yemen, a stage for the rivalry between Iran and Saudi Arabia that is playing out across the Middle East. Saudi Arabia has been fighting a war there against Iran-backed Houthi rebels since 2015 with the support of allies like the U.A.E. Iran denies arming or training the Houthis.