July 31, 2018 | Daily Monitoring Report
UN Delays Drawdown Of Somalia Peacekeeping Force
31 July – Source: Daily Nation – 256 Words
The UN Security Council on Monday delayed a plan to draw down the peacekeeping mission in Somalia after finding that Somali security forces were not sufficiently trained to take over from the exiting forces. Some 1,000 troops in the 20,000-strong African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM) were scheduled to leave by the end of October, but the council unanimously adopted a resolution postponing their departure to the end of February.
Deployed in 2007 to shore up the Somali government in its battle with Islamist militias, AMISOM operates under a Security Council mandate and receives funding from the United Nations and the European Union. In a letter to the council, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said plans to cut AMISOM troops “were not realistic”, noting that Somalia suffered the worst terror attack of its history in October last year.
More than 500 people were killed in central Mogadishu in a truck bombing attributed to Al-Shabaab. The council extended its authorisation of the AMISOM mission until May 31, 2019and declared that there would be no further delays in the drawdown beyond February of next year. The British-drafted resolution said Somali security forces should be built up “with the aim of Somali security institutions taking the lead by December 2021.”Somalia is scheduled to hold elections in 2021 during which its national forces will be tasked with ensuring security.
Key Headlines
- UN Delays Drawdown Of Somalia Peacekeeping Force (Daily Nation)
- President Farmajo Due To Visit Afgoye Lower Shabelle (Halbeeg News)
- National Chamber Of Commerce Secretary Arrested At Mogadishu Airport (Dhacdo.com)
- Committee Of Experts On The Rights And Welfare Of The Child (ACERWC) Visits Somalia (AMISOM)
- Somalia’s Deaf Footballers Create Their Own League (BBC News)
- Former Refugee Returns To War-torn Somalia To Serve As MP (The Star)
NATIONAL MEDIA
President Farmajo Due To Visit Afgoye, Lower Shabelle
31 July – Source: Halbeeg News – 107 Words
Somali President Mohamed Abdullahi Farmajo is expected to tour Afgoye district in Lower Shabelle region. Sources close to the presidency confirmed to the media that President Farmajo and his delegation would visit the agricultural town “in the coming few hours”.
Hundreds of security personnel, backed by AMISOM and presidential guards, were deployed to the town ahead of the President’s visit. The purpose of the President’s visit was not disclosed, but he will hold meetings with the leaders of the Southwest state, elders and intellectuals in the area. This will be the second visit of President Farmajo to Afgoye since assuming office on 8th February 2017.
National Chamber Of Commerce Secretary Arrested At Mogadishu Airport
31 July – Source: Dhacdo.com – 96 Words
Somalia’s National Chamber of Commerce General Secretary Shaafi Raabbi Kahin, was reportedly detained by security officers at Mogadishu’s Aden Adde International Airport upon returning from Brussels, where he attended the recently concluded Brussels-Somalia conference.
The reason for the arrest of Kahin, who is also the chairman of Jubbaland Chamber of Commerce, is yet to be uncovered. His diplomatic passport was also confiscated and he is currently being held at a detention at the airport, according to Jubbaland Chamber of Commerce members in Kismayo. The Airport authorities have not yet commented on the arrest of the official.
INTERNATIONAL MEDIA
Committee Of Experts On The Rights And Welfare Of The Child (ACERWC) Visits Somalia
30 July – Source: AMISOM – 317 Words
A delegation of officials of the African Committee of Experts on the Rights and Welfare of the Child (ACERWC), is on a two-day working visit to Somalia to solicit the support of Somali authorities in the ratification of the African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child.
The visiting delegation is led by the ACERWC Vice-president Ms. Marie Christine Bocoum, who is also the AU Special Rapporteur on Ending Child Marriage. The delegation will hold meetings with senior Federal Government officials, among them the Federal Minister of Women and Human Rights Development, senior leadership of the AU Mission in Somalia (AMISOM), officials from UN Agencies and Somali Civil Society Organizations (CSOs), dealing with children’s rights issues.
“We are carrying out this advocacy mission to bring the countries to ratify it. Ratifying the charter will help the country also in implementing the rights of the children in the country. They will also be part of our programme of assistance, training, monitoring. However, if they have not ratified we cannot do all that with them,” said the ACERWC Vice-president.
The delegation paid a courtesy call on the Deputy AU Special Representative for Somalia Mr. Simon Mulongo, who said AMISOM was doing everything in its powers, to stabilize the country, to ensure children grow up in a safe and secure environment. “This is the time of the beginning of transition. And the ratification therefore will come in handy to ensure that the Government is holistic about the matters of the child,” remarked Mulongo.
ACERWC is the African continental body charged with monitoring the implementation of the African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child (ACRWC). Forty-eight African Union Member States have ratified the charter to date. Somalia is among 7 countries that are yet to ratify the Charter, alongside Democratic Republic of Congo, Morocco, Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic, Sao Tomé & Principe, South Sudan, and Tunisia.
Somalia’s Deaf Footballers Create Their Own League
31 July – Source: BBC – Video 1.6 Minutes
A group of deaf football players in Somalia’s capital, Mogadishu, have set up their own league after being blocked from joining existing teams. The teams have been playing since 2010, and have been steadily gathering support. They hope to eventually be recognised by Somalia’s football federation.
OPINION, ANALYSIS & CULTURE
“Siraji’s older brother Abbas, with whom he grew up in Dadaab, was a rising star and a cabinet minister in President Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed’s government in May 2017, when the 31-year-old was shot dead by soldiers in Mogadishu.”
Former Refugee Returns To War-torn Somalia To Serve As MP
28 July – Source: The Star – 879 Words
From the day a young Mohamud Siraji landed in Dadaab after fleeing war-torn Somalia in 1992, his only goal was to make it out of the massive refugee camp, no matter what it took. A scholarship to come to Canada to study at York University in 2009 finally gave him a ticket out after 17 years of living with no hope and the constant fear of being forced to go back to the conflict zones he fled as a toddler and barely knew.
Almost a decade after arriving in Toronto, Siraji, now a Canadian citizen, has left behind his comfortable life, young family and a successful career as an accounting analyst and returned to Somalia with a new goal — to help rebuild his embattled homeland. “I always knew I would go back to Somalia. That’s where I came from,” said the now 30-year-old Siraji, who became a member of Parliament in Somalia in February.
The MP for the district of Jubbaland, close to the Dadaab refugee complex in Kenya, spoke to the Star during a recent visit to see his wife, Sarah Hassan, and their 11-month-old daughter, Fowzia, in Toronto. “It was a very tough decision. Somalia is not the safest place,” continued Siraji, who has four armed security guards as escorts in Jubbaland. “So many men and women have died, but I feel the responsibility to go back to rebuild the country. Someone has to make the sacrifice.”
Born in the port city of Kismayo, Siraji and his 10 siblings followed their parents to Kenya in 1992 after Somalia’s clan-based civil war broke out and the military regime under Siad Barre was overthrown. He and other children in the camps gathered “under trees” to attend classes run by the United Nations and CARE International, a major humanitarian agency. “There were no classrooms, no chairs, no textbooks. Hundreds of kids all just learned outdoors, but it didn’t matter because we all knew education was the best option out,” recalled Siraji, who was among a minority of students who got to complete his studies at one of the three high schools because of his good grades.
Although he was admitted to an American university program designed for refugee students abroad in 2008, the scholarship was rescinded as a result of the U.S. financial crisis. Canadian expatriates working at the Dadaab camp recommended Siraji apply for the World University Service of Canada’s Student Refugee Program, which offered him a scholarship at York, where he began his bachelor of commerce degree in 2009.
Since the scholarship covered only his first year of tuition and living expenses, he had to work multiple jobs to support himself to complete his education, while sending money to his family and paying for the university education of two brothers in Kenya. After he finished at York in 2014, he got a job as an analyst at an accounting software company and later married Hassan, who studied social work at York.
TOP TWEETS
@Goobjoognews: IGAD-UNSOM upbeat in ending Tukaraq fighting @AbdulBillowAli: UN delays @AMISOMSOMALIAwithdrawal. #Somalia
@Mogadishu_News: BREAKING: The Secretary General of#Jubaland Chamber of Commerce, Sharif Rabbi Kahid arrested at airport in #Mogadishu. The reason of his detention remains unclear – Media reports #Somalia
@Goobjoognews: Chairperson of #Jubbland Chamber of Commerce and #Secretary General #Somali Chamber of Commerce told @Goobjoognews that he was arrested at Mogadishu Airport, Tune for more details.
@SahraCabdi: #Ethiopian PM Abiy Ahmed, and his delegation warmly welcomed to Minneapolis, where the diverse #Ethiopiancommunity, included the #Somalis from #Zone5– of Ethiopia, waited him to see. Among the #Somali community members at the scene was this man with his message!
Ilwad ElmanVerified account @IlwadElman: Follow@ElmanPeaceHRC on Instagram on https://www.instagram.com/
@taakulosom: The families in Tuurka village feeling a sense of relief & joy after @DM_AID program reached out to them during a desperate moment of need & hope.##SAGARCYCLONE
@DanishMFA @akobaek @CISUdk
@MogBF: The Mogadishu Book Fair Team is working round the clock to make You “The Participants” enjoy every minute of the Upcoming 4th Annual Event on 15th,16th and 17th of August. Come and Enjoy Litreature and Expression in Education. #MBF2018
IMAGE OF THE DAY
Prime Minister Hassan Ali Khaire with President Abdiweli Mohamed Ali during his recent visit to Puntland.
Photo: @bashi_eng