August 20, 2018 | Morning Headlines
SNA Dislodges Al-Shabaab From Marka City
19 August – Source: Halbeeg News – 218 Words
Somali forces have dislodged Al-Shabaab fighters from parts of Marka city, in Lower Shabelle region, a military official confirmed on Sunday. Forces of Somali government, backed by AMISOM have intensified the fight against Al-Shabaab in Southern Somalia. Abdullahi Ali Anod, the force commander of Somali National Army (SNA), who spoke to BBC Somali Service said, SNA forces launched operations to annihilate Al-Shabaab from the region.
Commander Anod boasted that SNA recaptured several suburbs of Marka city from Al-Shabaab fighters, after fierce fighting between the two sides. “The better part of the day, we engaged Al-Shabaab fighters. The SNA forces seized full control of Marka, Lower Shabelle,” he said. The villages that the SNA forces recaptured include Lusiya, Obasibi, and El-Haji, which are part of Marka city.
In 2016, Al-Shabaab fighters seized the city, which is situated 100 kilometers (60 miles) southwest of Mogadishu, after forces from the Ugandan contingent of (AMISOM) left. Since then Al-Shabaab, was controlling parts of the city which is one of the strategic ports in Southern Somalia
Marka is Somalia’s third-largest port city after Mogadishu, 90 kilometers to the north, and Kismayo, which is about 300 kilometers to the south. In between Marka and Kismayo lies Barawe, the last major port which was controlled by Al-Shabaab before they were dislodged back in October 2014.
Key Headlines
- SNA Dislodges Al-Shabaab From Marka City (Halbeeg News)
- South West Tightens Security Ahead Of The State Presidential Election (Goobjoog News)
- MP Quits NIEC Declares By-elections For Vacant Seats (Garowe Online)
- Meet Somalia’s Youngest And First Ever Female Deputy Police Chief (Face2Face)
- War And Literature In Mogadishu (Aljazeera)
NATIONAL MEDIA
South West Tightens Security Ahead Of The State Presidential Election
19 August – Source: Goobjoog News – 152 Words
South West administration, has tightened security ahead of the state presidential election, in November in Baidoa city. Baidoa has seen the presence of heavy security from Somalia police, Somali National Army (SNA) and Ethiopian forces which are part of AMISOM. The spokesperson of the administration, Mr. Nuradin Gacma speaking to reporters said “the main reason for the heavy security presence in the city, is for the preparation of the state presidential elections in November.”
The spokesman also denied that the security of Baidoa town is tightened and controlled by the Ethiopian forces. “The Ethiopian troops are on their usual bases in the town, and the security of the town is controlled by the Somali police and the Somalia National Army,” the spokesman said. Baidoa, is the capital of Bay region and the current headquarters of the Southwest administration, which is expected to host its regional presidential elections in November 2018.
MP Quits, NIEC Declares By-elections For Vacant Seats
19 August – Source: Garowe Online – 314 Words
A member of the Lower House of Somalia’s Federal Parliament, Mr. Abdulqadir Gafow Mohamud, on Sunday stepped down from his post. There was no immediate reason provided for the departure of Mr. Mohamud whose previous election has been marred with irregularities and fraud. The move comes as 275 members of the House of the People are on recess.
Following his surprise resignation, the country’s National Independent Electoral Commission (NIEC), announced by-elections for three vacant legislative seats, without setting any date for the voting. The two other seats vacant are both from Southwest state, after the death of Mr. Khalif Sheikh Abdullahi and, the disqualification of Hussein Osman Hussein, who was appointed as NISA chief last February.
According to NIEC, the elections of the unoccupied seats will be held in their respective regional states [Southwest and Galmudug]. Mr. Mohamud’s brother, Abdullahi Gafow declared his candidacy for the seat. Each lawmaker will be elected by fifty-one electoral clan delegates, who will cast votes during the ballot vote, the same way as the current legislators were picked last parliamentary elections 2016-2017.
Since the collapse of the former military regime in 1991, Somalia held five successive polls. But citizens are yet to cast any ballots. The current federal government pledged to hold a one person, one vote election by 2020. In the past two decades, the country has relied on a clan-based formula, known as (4.5), in which the lawmakers are selected by the clan elders, and then the legislators elect the president.
Credibility is something that critics say Somalia’s last two polls have lacked. The 2017 elections were marred by allegations of vote buying and irregularities, and some of the races had to be repeated. Security may be another obstacle to the one person, one vote elections in 2020, as Al-Shabaab extremists continues to control large swathes of territories in the south and central Somalia.
INTERNATIONAL MEDIA
Meet Somalia’s Youngest And First Ever Female Deputy Police Chief
19 August – Source: Face2Face – 166 Words
Somali President Abdullahi ‘Farmajo’ Mohamed, has appointed Zakia Hussein to the position of general and deputy chief of the Somali Police Force. Zakia becomes the first woman to hold such a top position in Somalia. With over 14 years of experience, Zakia has had many firsts. She was appointed the new Director of Community Policing at the Somali Police Force in 2014, making her the first woman in many years to hold such a senior position.
Before that, she had been the chief commander of community policing and public relations at the Mogadishu-based national agency. Zakia is a proponent of gender equity and has been an advocate for the youth, serving as the secretary general of the Hanoolaato Party, a Somali youth advocacy group.
With a Master’s degree in International Relations and a postgraduate certificate in Diplomacy in Islam, Zakia has also worked as the programme manager and researcher for the Heritage Institute for Policy Studies and a part-time university lecturer at the University of Somalia.
OPINION, ANALYSIS AND CULTURE
“War is real, present and toxic, but hope and determination are a start to pushing back. The book fair and the cluster of efforts by young Somali people to reclaim the story of their country are an unexpected and welcome knot of green in the desert of conflict.”
War And Literature In Mogadishu
19 August – Source: Aljazeera – 1060 Words
There are more trees in Mogadishu than you might expect, at least in August. From above, the city is knots of green punctured by blue, red and beige roofs rolling into a strip of bright white sand before falling into the sea. In August, the air in the city is cool and a crisp ocean breeze clears the humidity so that it is actually quite pleasant to sit outside in the afternoon, sipping coffee while thinking about the latest cabinet reshuffle. These are things I know because I spent a week in Mogadishu at the fourth edition of the Mogadishu Book Fair, a pioneering event that uses literature to inspire and motivate particularly young people in Somalia’s capital city.
War is a complicated thing, and the war in Somalia is perhaps one of the most complicated. Since the overthrow of the Said Barre administration in 1991, the country has collapsed into ever more complicated cycles of violence and reprisals. The fighting has been attributed to a broad range of political motivations and actors: money, power, ethnicity, clan, respect, territory, history, religion, age, migration – all of which have some explanatory power but clearly not enough to capture everything. Meanwhile, the killing continues.
In the week before the book fair, a car bomb in Mogadishu killed a number of people, while a popular young entrepreneur named Mo Sheikh Ali was assassinated in broad daylight. What does it mean to hold a book fair in the middle of so much uncertainty? For one, it is a reminder that behind each number or statistic that we see flashing on our screens every evening when we see news from Afghanistan, Iraq, the Central African Republic or Somalia is a person who had a family, hopes, and dreams – a life. War is devastating, not because it destroys economies or fractures political alliances but because it steals people from their communities and makes it impossible for those who are left behind to live full lives. Events like the book fair allow us to focus on Somali people outside the context of war and to see the people behind the numbers.
The mythology of Somalia has in some ways overgrown the reality of the place, and for outsiders, the narrative of violence sprints around the world and punches you in the face long before the kindness and hospitality of Somali people has had a chance to put on its shoes. Yet in several important ways, Mogadishu is the same as any other place: filled with people who just want to get on with the business of being alive.
The young people at the book fair are so excited to be surrounded by literature – especially in their own language. They are grateful for the handful of outsiders who confront fear to come and speak to them as people rather than subjects of study. And while it is impossible to escape the reality of conflict and insecurity, the large hall packed to the rafters with over a thousand pairs of eager eyes and happy smiles, is a testament to how welcome this event is.
A large part the audience is young and part of a generation that has never known anything but war, and the book fair is one of the many initiatives launched by this generation to define themselves beyond war. Much of this work is being done online as young Somalis take stunning photographs and videos of what is unquestionably a beautiful corner of the world filled with hard working survivors, showcasing a different side of Somalia. You can almost feel them willing a renaissance with little more than their drones and DSLRs, fuelled by hope and determination.