September 06, 2018 | Daily Monitoring Report

Economic cooperation and security top the agenda in Asmara meeting where Somalia, Eritrea and Ethiopia will seek to work jointly in bolstering economic growth and security in the Horn of Africa region. In a statement ahead of Thursday’s tripartite meeting, Somalia’s  Foreign Affairs Ministry said  the region boasted huge economic potential, which can also be effectively harnessed through joint efforts.

“The conference in Asmara between Somalia, Ethiopia and Eritrea aims at integrating security and economic growth in the region,” the statement read in part. “As the world sees the potential of investing in the Horn of Africa, it is important that we take active role in the transformation and economic development in the region.” President Mohamed Farmaajo, Prime Minister Ahmed Abiy of Ethiopia and their host Isaias Afwerki are expected to hold the tripartite meeting tomorrow.

The meeting comes after the China-Africa forum in which Somalia signed up to the Belt and Road Initiative. Somalia, the statement added, is ready to play its role to work and benefit from the new opportunities as a result of regional cooperation. The visit will be a second for President Farmaajo following the historic July 28 meeting following a resumption of diplomatic ties between the two countries.

Key Headlines

• Economic cooperation and security tops agenda in Asmara meeting (Goobjoog News)
• TV: Puntland Officials Explain Confrontation At Garowe Police Headquarters (Universal TV)
• RADIO: Galmudug State Vows To Free Abducted Elders in Galgadud (Radio Kulmiye)
• RADIO: Fighter Jets Pound Al-Shabab Bases In Southern Somalia (Dalsan Radio)
• Hamarweyne District Commissioner Faces Serious Allegations (Hiiraan Online)
• Somalia Army Arrests 32 Al-Shabaab Militants (Xinhua)
• Horn of Africa trio signs cooperation agreement (Anadolu Agency)
• The short life of an inspiring entrepreneur will keep giving hope to the troubled city he loved (Quartz Africa)

NATIONAL NEWS

TV: Puntland Officials Explain Confrontation At Garowe Police Headquarters

06 September 00:07:27 – Source : Universal TV – 135 Words

Puntland state Provisional Police Commander, Farah Abdirahman Warsame, and Governor of Nugal region, Omar Abdullahi Faraweyne,have briefed the media on the recent confrontation involving ex-police officers, who stormed the Garowe Police headquarters to protest against what they termed “unfair dismissal”. Warsame accused the dismissed officers of illegally seizing the police headquarters leading to a gun battle between the dismissed officers and the serving officers at the headquarters.

He faulted the dismissed officers of resorting to violence instead of diplomatically seeking an amicable solution. The Nugal provincial governor vowed, the sacked officers will not go unpunished. The dismissed officers, however, maintain they did not initiate the gun battle, but rather acted on self-defense upon being fired at. They also argue they were not notified of their termination before hand.

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RADIO: Galmudug State Vows To Free Abducted Elders in Galgadud

06 September 08:04:32 – Source : Radio Kulmiye – 99 Words

The Galmudug administration officials say they have kicked off an aggressive campaign to free elders abducted elders by the Al-Shabaab militia group. Speaking to a local FM radio station,the Galmudug state deputy Internal Security minister, Mahad Hassan Mohamed, said the administration was willing to help free the hostages and had started a campaign to secure their release.

The Al-Shabaab militants on Wednesday abducted over 60 elders in central Somalia for “unpaid blood money”. The elders are believed to be currently under the custody of the group at their headquarters in Elbur, eastern Galgaduud.

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RADIO: Fighter Jets Pound Al-Shabab Bases In Southern Somalia

05 September 08:06:37 – Source : Dalsan Radio – 53 Words

Fighter jets are reported to have pounded an Al-Shabaab base in Bualle, middle Juba, southern Somalia. Residents say the airstrikes conducted by a suspected Kenyan fighter jet targeted the Al-Shabaab administrative centers, including the militant’s court, police station and the district office. However, reports on the casualty figures could not be established

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Hamarweyne District Commissioner Faces Serious Allegations

06 September – Source : Hiiraan Online – 186 Words

Hamarweyne District Commissioner Omar Sharif Maye may be prosecuted over serious allegations he has levelled against the Police and the government led by Prime Minister  Hassan Ali Kheyre. In a letter signed by the acting governor of Banadir region, Hussein Mohamed has suspended Mr Sharif from the work over the allegations. The administration officer has also been summoned by the Criminal Investigations Department (CID) for questioning.

The suspended commissioner has been accused of defaming the national police by saying they cannot be trusted to take charge of the country’s security. The commissioner has also claimed the police are partly responsible for the explosions that have been witnessed across the country..

Remarks that the Banadir regional administration is corrupt and that the Prime Minister is the most corrupt government official in the country, are also attributed to the commissioner. Sharif’s remarks have since gone viral on the social media. His assault on the national police force, which he describes as “not worth being trusted” has particularly attracted a lot of reaction.

 

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INTERNATIONAL NEWS

Somalia Army Arrests 32 Al-Shabaab Militants

05 September – Source : Xinhua – 216 Words

Somalia army arrests 32 Al-Shabaab militants The Somali National Army (SNA) have arrested 32 Al-Shabaab militants after conducting military operations in Marka town in Lower Shabelle region southern Somalia. SNA commander Odowa Yusuf Rage told the state-owned radio on Wednesday that the operations took around the port town of Marka on Monday and Tuesday. “Somali National Army arrested 32 Al-Shabaab militants during military operations in Marka in the past two days.

Some of them were caught while fighting, the rest are amniyat (secret spy units), bomb experts and tax collectors,” Rage said. He said the suspects will be taken to military court to face changes of belonging to terror group The Somali National Army, backed by the African Union Mission troops, re-captured the town from Al-Shabaab fighters on Aug. 19. Meanwhile, Al-Shabaab militants on Tuesday abducted 62 elders from locations between Guri’el and Mataban towns in Galgudud and Hiiraan regions respectively.

Ahmed Duale Gele, president of Galmudug State, confirmed that the militants took the elders to Elbur town in Galgadud region, a stronghold for the group, telling the group’s intention is to force them to pay annual taxes (Zakawat) and bring boys to them for fight. The al-Qaida-allied militants group has not commented yet on the latest abduction.

 

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Horn of Africa trio signs cooperation agreement

06 September – Source : Anadolu Agency – 220 Words

Horn of Africa trio signs cooperation agreement The leaders of Ethiopia, Eritrea and Somalia signed a Joint Cooperation Agreement upon conclusion of a late night meeting on Wednesday. The cooperation agreement was signed by Eritrean President Isaias Afeworki, Somali President Mohamed Abdullahi (Farmajo) and Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed.

Faramjo and Ahmed reached the Eritrean capital Asmara on Wednesday, after a visit to Beijing where they attended the Forum on China – Africa Cooperation (FOCAC). The agreement, according to state media, would enhance economic, political, social, cultural and security cooperation among the three countries. Relations between Eritrea and Ethiopia thawed in July after leaders of the two countries visited each other.

The move was initiated by Ahmed, who took office in April. The July 9 Asmara agreement between Ethiopia and Eritrea commits to bringing the governments and people of the two countries closer. Eritrea seceded from Ethiopia in 1993. From 1998 to 2000, the two countries fought a bloody war in which an estimated 70,000 people perished on both sides. Ethiopia will reopen its embassy in Asmara on Thursday. Eritrea already opened one in Addis Ababa a month ago. On Wednesday, an Ethiopian Cargo ship docked in the Eritrean port of Massawa for the first time in 20 years. It would set sail to China carrying 11,000 tons of Eritrean Zinc.

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OPINION, ANALYSIS AND CULTURE

“”When I last met Mohamed in June in Nairobi, he spoke about some of these endeavors, the audacity and unity among the young, about his work with female techies at Bilan Codes enterprise, and laughing through his tooth-gaped smile, about the city’s new pastry shops and cheesecake variety.””

The short life of an inspiring entrepreneur will keep giving hope to the troubled city he loved

05 September – Source : Quartz Africa – 463 Words

The news of the attack was revealed first on Twitter. On Aug. 2, Mohamed Mohamoud Sheik, 31, an entrepreneur and youth activist, was assaulted by unknown gunmen near the Benadir junction in the Somali capital, Mogadishu. He was later pronounced dead after undergoing surgery at a local hospital. Mohamed’s death dealt the country and its people a big blow.

He was a pioneer, a believer in a better Somalia, a passionate advocate for Mogadishu, and a rebel determined to create a better future out of the rubble of a devastating civil war. His story, his work, and his ultimate killing represent the tragic fate of a city struggling between a brutal past, an uncertain present, and the urgent need to redefine its future.

In 2012, aged 25, Mohamed came into the limelight when he opened Somalia’s first dry cleaner in decades. Forever curious, he got the idea after noticing businessmen and government officials taking their suits abroad to get them cleaned. A year later, he opened the city’s first flower shop—a much-needed, hopeful, and romantic injection into a nation taking baby steps out of over two decades of war.

To boost local businesses, he founded Startup Grind Mogadishu, an affiliate of the Google-powered global startup community aimed at encouraging entrepreneurs. He was also a judge on the Inspire Somalia television show, which gave budding entrepreneurs the chance to pitch and bring their dreams to fruition. Through his actions and ambitious business plans, Mohamed was an exemplar of a buoyant city, showing those in and out what could be done to revive war-torn Somalia.

As he said during his TEDx Mogadishu talk in 2013, for him it wasn’t “only about opening up a business, it’s about bringing something that people need.”

Mogadishu is a dense city: 91 square kilometers (35 square miles) with a population of over 2.5 million people, according to urban city index Demographia. Shaped like the head of an ax, it hugs the waters of the Indian Ocean even as it arcs back into dozens of tiny, sand-filled alleys, several tarmacked roads, 17 districts, numerous open-air markets, before offering itself up to the rest of mainland Somalia and the Horn of Africa.

With its white and gray architecture hemmed in by the blue horizon of the ocean, it was once described by the renowned Somali author Nuruddin Farah as “one of the prettiest” cities in the world. But the capital and its cosmopolitan culture became unmoored after 1991: after 20 years under the grip of a tyrant, looting militias, marauding tribespeople, and most recently terrorists, left it dispossessed for another three decades.

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TOP TWEETS

@hawelti: “Joint Declaration on Comprehensive Cooperation Between Ethiopia, Somalia & Eritrea”;
Signed by the Heads of State and Government of the three countries in Asmara yesterday, Aug. 5, 2018; ( Full text attached)
http://www.shabait.com/news/local-news/27003-joint-declaration-on-comprehensive-cooperation-between-ethiopia-somalia-and-eritrea- …

@Radiobanadir: Ethiopia, Somalia leaders urge dialogue to resolve Eritrea and Djibouti border dispute http://radiobanadir.com/?p=4187

@Showqi2013: #BREAKINGNEWS The Foreign Ministers of #Eritrea, #Somalia & #Ethiopia are heading to Djibouti today to resolve boarder dispute b/n #Eritrea and #Djibouti, Also leaders of three Nations have meeting in Asmara.
@HarunMaruf @addisstandard @mfaethiopia @MofaSomalia @EritreaNewsRoom

@OCHASom: The risk of eviction continues to rise for IDPs. Over 204,000 people have been evicted in 2018, which equates to the number of people evicted in all of 2017. Read the full story in the bulletin; https://bit.ly/2PIqjZQ

@idil_ibrahim: Somalia’s Foreign Policy has to be careful abt which steps they’re taking. Somalia shouldn’t lose old supportive allies like Djibouti, @TheVillaSomalia needs to gain interest/respect in the Horn politics but not at the cost of ur allies who were there for you during the civil war

@DSeanPaterson: Today in #Mogadishu the Youth Employment Somalia programme & @UNDPSomalia met with the #Jubaland Minister of Youth and Sport H.E. Osman Hussein Haji to work on the design of governance & coordination mechanisms that will anchor #YES Phase II government led area-based programming

IMAGE OF THE DAY

President Mohamed Abdullahi Farmaajo, Eritrean President Isaias Afwerki and Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed sign a Joint Cooperation Agreement among the three nations.

Photo : M_Farmaajo