September 4, 2018 | Daily Monitoring Report
Weapons To Be Handed Over To The Police Force
04 September – Source: Horseed Media – 189 Words
During the weekly meeting of the Cabinet Security Committee, chaired by Prime Minister Ali Hassan Khaire, the Federal Government ministers have discussed major security related issues, including re-organizing the security forces and promoting the registration process for the forces. It was announced during the meeting that the implementation plan by the Internal Security Ministry was successful. The Ministry confirmed the complete hand over of NISA personnel and their weapons under the command and control of the Somali police Commissioner.
In accordance with the decision arrived at by the cabinet to the effect that police forces take over the security, NISA was also to be entirely integrated with the police, and with the weapons to be handed over to them. Yesterday’s meeting, which hosted senior SNA leadership, also discussed the need to accelerate the biometric registration of the forces that will hold important data and help facilitate their rights and dues. Similarly, the meeting touched on securing and rebuilding of Mogadishu stadium. The Somali Police commander presented a detailed plan to enable the security of the stadium.
Key Headlines
- Weapons To Be Handed Over To The Police Force (Horseed Media)
- Farming Families Flee Conflict In Middle Shabelle For Mogadishu IDP Camps (Radio Ergo)
- Gen Abdullahi Gafow Wins Galmudug By-election (Goobjoog News)
- ‘People Should Swallow Their Pride And Allow The Somalis To operate’ – Ratanda Community Member (News24)
- With Stability In Somalia Everybody Wins – UN Envoys (UNSOM)
NATIONAL MEDIA
Farming Families Flee Conflict In Middle Shabelle For Mogadishu IDP Camps
03 September – Source: Radio Ergo – 420 Words
Hundreds of farmers that were forced to flee their homes and land due to escalating conflict around Balad, in the Middle Shabelle region of southern Somalia, have arrived in the Somali capital, Mogadishu. Clashes between Somali federal government forces and Al-Shabab forces in Basra, 15 km north of Balad, have led to the recent displacement of around 600 farming families during August.
In the past 10 days, these families have arrived at Nasteho camp in Kahda district on the outskirts of Mogadishu, according to the district commissioner, Mohamed Ismail. The district commissioner said the only thing the arriving families have been given is shelter, with the help of other internally displaced persons (IDPs) already in the camp. The fresh wave of displacement comes at a critical harvest time in Middle Shabelle. “These families were displaced just as they were preparing to harvest their farm produce that they planted previously,” Mohamed Ismail told Radio Ergo. “They were not displaced by drought, they were displaced by conflict. They are all totally impoverished. Besides the shelters, they are not getting anything.”
Habibo Ali Adan and her children arrived in Nasteho camp on 19 August. Her husband and two sons ran off in different directions when the conflict broke out near their farm and they are still missing. Some people told her they were in Sabiid village, 10 km south of Afgooye, but she has had no confirmation. Habibo and her family owned land and a small grocery stall. She said they have not received any food aid since their arrival, apart from offerings by other IDPs in the camp. The existing IDP community has given each arriving family a small makeshift house.
She is trying to get laundry jobs in the city and walks there every morning to get work, hoping to earn $5 if she is lucky. Asho Abdi Isaq, a mother of nine children, lost her husband to the conflict in Basra earlier. She arrived in the camp on 24 August, after walking for three days with her children for a distance of 55 km. She had no time to collect her belongings or to grab the money she had at home, she told Radio Ergo.
Asho owned a small stall and a six hectare farm. She and her children are eating just one meal a day now in the IDP camp. Meanwhile, the district commissioner of Balad, Kasim Abdinur Furdug, told Radio Ergo there were other families arriving now in Balad from villages nearby, where they are fleeing in fear of an upsurge in conflict.
Gen Abdullahi Gafow Wins Galmudug By-election
04 September – Source: Goobjoog News – 142 Words
General Abdullahi Gafow Mohamed has today won the by-election for the parliamentary seat of Dhusamareeb, the capital city of Galmudug State. Mr. Mohamed and Mr. Hirey Muhidin were the two contestants for the parliamentary seat after the former Member of Parliament, Abdikadir Gafow, resigned for unknown reasons last month.
The head of the Somali Independent Electoral Commission, Halima Ibrahim Ismail ( Halimo Yarey), was present today at Dhuusamareeb town to supervise the electoral process. Gen Gafow won the seat with the support of 43 delegates, while only 7 delegates voted for Mr Hirey. The campaign and entire electoral process was generally peaceful and broadly conducive for the voting exercise.
INTERNATIONAL MEDIA
‘People Should Swallow Their Pride And Allow The Somalis To operate’ – Ratanda Community Member
04 September – Source: News24 – 494 Words
“The problem is that whenever protests happen, some community members always take out their frustrations on foreign shop owners. They never take time to think of how the rest of the people will suffer,” said David Sibanyoni, a community committee representative in Ratanda, south of Heidelberg, Gauteng.
Immigrant-owned shops, belonging to people from Somalia, Bangladesh, China and Pakistan, have been closed since last week Monday after they were looted by residents protesting over poor services from the Lesedi Municipality, GroundUp reports. “We are trying to come up with a solution… The majority of community members say they will starve if the Somali shops remain closed,” said Sibanyoni. Many in the Ratanda community rely on foreign-owned shops. Now they have to travel further afield.
“Travelling all the way to town to buy bread or a cold drink is absurd. People should swallow their pride and allow the Somalis to operate,” said Mojabang Radebe, a salon owner. Mokile Nkosi, who has been letting a shop to a Somali man for five years, said her tenant had run away. Community members had also threatened to burn down her house with her and her three children inside if she continued to rent to the Somali man. They looted everything in the shop.
“l was terrified and was left with no choice but to hand over the keys. The R1 500 which l used to get from the Somali every month helped me a lot because l am a widow,” said Nkosi: “I am a woman. Being terrorised in such a way is the last thing I need.” Mahommed Shamim, a shop owner, said all he wanted to do was to operate his business and help the community. He said he often sold goods on credit and people would pay him at the end of the month. Some never paid, but he did not pursue them for their debt.
OPINION, ANALYSIS & CULTURE
“Success depends upon trust between and collective action by the federal government and Federal Member States.”
With Stability In Somalia Everybody Wins – UN Envoys
03 September – Source: UNSOM – 330 Words
“Somalia’s enormous potential will not be realised unless there is stability.” That was the key message of the United Nations envoy to Somalia at a gathering of leaders from the country’s Federal Member States. Held in the southern port city of Kismayo, the meeting of the Council of Inter-state Cooperation (CIC) brought together the presidents of Puntland, HirShabelle, Galmudug and South West states, as well as Jubaland, of which Kismayo is the capital.
Addressing the gathering, the UN Secretary-General’s Special Representative for Somalia encouraged the state leaders to strengthen cooperation between their governments and the federal authorities, noting how doing so can create stable conditions beneficial to all Somalis.
Mr. Keating listed the areas in which action was needed to achieve this goal. They included tangible progress in building security forces that are both capable and trusted, adopting a justice model, clarifying constitutional arrangements and power-sharing arrangements, passing an electoral law, and increasing revenues on the basis of resource- and revenue-sharing agreements. “Without these, all Somalis stand to lose – with them, everybody wins, including the millions of people who deserve a better quality of life,” the UN envoy said. “Success depends upon trust between and collective action by the federal government and Federal Member States.”
The Special Representative emphasized that the meeting in Kismayo provided an opportunity to move things forward in the right direction. Asides from addressing the CIC, Mr. Keating was also due to hold one-on-one meetings with each of the state leaders – Presidents Abdiweli Mohamed AliGaas of Puntland, Ahmed Duale Gelle of Galmadug, Mohamed Abdi Ware of Hirshabelle, Sharif Hassan Sheikh Aden of South West State and, the gathering’s host, Sheikh Ahmed Madobe of Jubaland – to discuss issues pertinent to each state.
Later, the UN official visited the port of Kismayo, where he spoke with Jubaland’s minister of finance and learned about the economic and trade activity enabled by the city’s location on the Indian Ocean, and the plans to improve the port’s infrastructure.
TOP TWEETS
@TheVillaSomalia: H.E @M_Farmaajo “In its unwavering desire to sustain stability and nurture economic growth, Somalia is committed to welcoming all forms of investment to develop our vast wealth of untapped resources and reap meaningful results through Win-Win cooperation.” #FOCAC2018
@HarunMaruf: Somalia: U.N. says 4.6 million people are still in need of assistance in Somalia after last year’s drought, 2.6 million of them are internally displaced people (IDPs). The number of those in need of urgent humanitarian assistance is now at 1.5 million, according to @FAOSomalia
@SomalilandYPEER: There is a need for community dialogue and knowledge-sharing on the physical implications of FGM; such as severe pain, excessive bleeding, infection, genital scaring, menstrual difficulties, infertility, difficult prolonged labour and diseases such as HB, HIV or worst case death
@MofaSomalia: State Minister for Foreign Affairs of the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, Mrs. Hirut Zemene bade farewell to the outgoing Ambassador of the Federal Republic of#Somalia to #Ethiopia, Ambassador Dr. Mohamed Ali-Nur Hagi.
https://www.facebook.com/
@SRSGKeating: Returnees from Dadaab face many problems upon arrival including shelter & finding work – but all of them very happy to be back in their own country, free to travel.@UNHCRSom and @mercycorps doing great work to support them
@shf_somalia: More than 204,000 people were evicted in#Somalia until July 2018. It’s more than all evictions recorded in the whole of 2017, when 200,000 people were forced from their homes. The SHF allocated more than $5.1 million for Protection and Shelter/Non-food items this year.
IMAGE OF THE DAY
The Council for Inter-state Cooperation conference has officially commenced in Kismayo, the capital of Jubaland regional state.
Photo: Radio Dalsan