November 1, 2018 | Daily Monitoring Report
President Farmaajo Once Again Lashes Out At The Regional State Leaders
01 November – Source: Goobjoog News – 266 Words
President Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed ‘Farmaajo’, who is on a visit to South Sudan capital, Juba, has once again reprimanded the regional state leaders accusing them of failing to fulfil their responsibilities of serving the people of their respective states. Addressing the Somali diaspora community in Juba, who are largely business people, President Farmaajo said the job of the state leaders is to provide basic services to residents of their respective states, such as improving health and education, digging water-wells and tax collection.
He observed that the leaders were ironically engaged in issues that are not of their concern such as the country’s political and foreign affairs: “It is not acceptable for regional states leaders to involve themselves in foreign affairs and public policies, or partake in numerous foreign travels to meet regional leaders. Meeting regional leaders of neighbouring countries will send a wrong signal that our country is still fragmented and in chaos,” said the tough-talking President.
Meanwhile, he also attacked Somali politicians for being selfish and lacking patriotism. He claimed many people simply joined politics to make money without considering the general interest of the public: “They will tell you that politics is not equal to worship, meaning it is okay to loot public property. When such selfish politicians don’t get what they want, they incite members of their clans into violence and undermine governance”. Coming barely days after inviting regional leaders for another round of talks, observers have noted the President’s remarks only deepen the tensions. The President is among East African leaders who have attended the Peace Day Celebrations in Juba, South Sudan.
Key Headlines
- President Farmaajo Once Again Lashes Out At The Regional State Leaders (Goobjoog News)
- New UN Boss Meets With SW Presidential Hopefuls (Jowhar.com)
- Somalia Signs 80M Grant Agreement With World Bank (Halbeeg News)
- Somalia Seeks To Boost Fledgling Tech Sector (Voice of America)
- In Baidoa UN Envoy Renews Call For Collaboration And Flags Need for Credible State Presidential Poll (UNSOM)
- How The Journalist Captured For Two Years By Somali Pirates Survived His Ordeal (New Statesman)
NATIONAL MEDIA
New UN Boss Meets With SW Presidential Hopefuls
01 November – Source: Jowhar.com – 157 Words
United Nations Representative to Somalia, Ambassador Nicholas Haysom together with AMISOM boss, Ambassador Francisco Madeira held hours-long meeting with Southwest Presidential hopefuls.
Seven presidential aspirants, including former Al-Shabaab deputy leader Mukhtar Robow, and a female politician, attended the meeting with the UN and AMISOM bosses. Ambassador Haysom advised the presidential aspirations to ensure the upcoming poll takes place in a peaceful and transparent manner, stressing that Southwest remains an integral part of the stabilization process in the country.
On his side, AMISOM head, Ambassador Madeira assured the aspirants that AMISOM forces alongside the Somali forces, will ensure and guarantee the security of the election and its venues. Their trip was part of ongoing efforts to seek resolution for the political standoff between the federal government and the regional states. During their stay in Baidoa, they had held a meeting with Southwest President, Sharif Hassan Sheikh Adan. Elections for the state are scheduled for 17 November in Baidoa.
Somalia Signs 80M Grant Agreement With World Bank
31 October – Source: Halbeeg News – 343 Words
The Federal Government of Somalia (FGS) and the World Bank on Wednesday signed an 80 million grant agreement in Mogadishu. Finance Minister, Abdirahman Duale Beyleh, welcomed the World Bank regional director, Bella Bird and other officials, to Somalia. The director had discussions with Finance Minister on the ongoing successes of the fiscal reforms by the government.
The minister said his ministry will soon start implementing the agreed deal: “We are really proud to sign the first half of the World Bank’s project of US$ 140 million and I can confirm this is some kind of endorsement for our debt relief. Today, we have signed the first 80 million and we will start the implementation of the eighty million grant” said the minister.
Speaking after the signing of the agreement, World Bank regional director, Bella Bird said the World Bank was ready to support the government in it is efforts to increase revenue collection across the country to ensure that systems are place to utilize and monitor government expenditures.
The World Bank has also launched another project on recurrent cost financing, which supports the development of payrolls in central government and building the capacities across government. “The World Bank is working with the Somali government as well as other governments across the world, to support the development of their capacities to deliver services to their citizens” said the director. The Word Bank has approved $80m in loans to Somalia to assist with public finance reforms, marking the first funding for the government in more than 30 years.
The Washington-based lender suspended its ties with Somalia when war broke out in 1991 and resumed support in 2013 – with a focus on HIV and livestock programmes – but has not approved any direct lending to the government until now. Its board approved financing of $60m for the Recurrent Cost and Reform Financing Project and $20m for the Domestic Revenue and public financial management Capacity Strengthening Project. These will support the government in mobilizing and redistributing the resources needed to rebuild the country after three decades of conflict.
INTERNATIONAL MEDIA
Somalia Seeks To Boost Fledgling Tech Sector
01 November – Source: Voice of America – Video: 2:06 Minutes
Somalia hosted its first technology and innovation conference this month, with much talk about the industry’s potential. Somalia’s security threats and poor governance make attracting investment a huge challenge. But as Mohamed Sheikh Nor reports from Mogadishu, a company has set up the capital city’s first co-working space to help foster Somalia’s digital economy.
In Baidoa, UN Envoy Renews Call For Collaboration And Flags Need for Credible State Presidential Poll
31 October – Source: UNSOM – 757 Words
The new United Nations envoy to Somalia today continued his round of introductory meetings with state leaders with a visit to South West State, where he flagged the need for it hold “credible and acceptable” presidential elections next month and renewed his call for collaboration to solve ongoing tensions between the country’s federal and state authorities. In his visit to South West State’s capital, Baidoa, the Secretary-General’s Special Representative for Somalia, Nicholas Haysom, was with his counterpart from the African Union (AU), the Special Representative of the Chairperson of the AU Commission, Ambassador Francisco Madeira.
Soon after arriving, they two envoys met with South West State’s President Sharif Hassan Sheikh Aden. The ongoing tensions between the Federal Government of Somalia (FGS) and the country’s Federal Member States was a major topic in their meeting. “We’re exploring ways of bringing them together in the hope that Somalis can face down their problems together rather than going separately,” Mr. Haysom of their discussions. “Basically, we’ve been telling them is what we’re facing is a quite serious political issue – the stand-off between the Federal Member States and the Federal Government may well paralyze our efforts to help Somalia get back on its feet,” he added. “And we’re asking all of the relevant role-players to get together to find a solution and to make the necessary compromises so that they can work collaboratively rather than against each other.”
President Sharif Hassan Sheikh Aden was recently selected as the chairperson of the Council of Inter-state Cooperation (CIC), which brings together the heads of Somalia’s Federal Member States. In a recently-issued communique, the CIC – with the exception of Hirshabelle – announced it would hold off cooperation with the FGS. “He has been very open and thorough in his approach, in his analysis of what is happening, and this is important for us to help us understand what is happening and help us find the best way to help the people of Somalia,” Amb. Madeira said following their meeting.
OPINION, ANALYSIS AND CULTURE
“I stopped living in the future; I learned to live without hope. And that continues. I think it’s very American to be optimistic, and I stopped doing that. Now it’s not as if I’m pessimistic, it’s just a way of not living in the future at all… It sounds bleak but it’s not so bad,”
How The Journalist Captured For Two Years By Somali Pirates Survived His Ordeal
31 October – Source: New Statesman – 859 Words
Michael Scott Moore is reading quietly in the corner of a bar at the Frontline Club, an old hangout for war reporters and foreign correspondents near Paddington Station in central London. The walls are lined with books, photos, flak jackets and other paraphernalia. In a black jumper and jeans, Moore is clean-shaven with grey-flecked dark hair – but the 49-year-old American-German journalist is better known to the world dressed in a pink tank top, with a flowery blanket on his head, surrounded by scarved men pointing Kalashnikovs at him.
This was the first, and most notorious, video broadcast to the world in May 2012 by the Somali pirates who held Moore hostage for more than two and a half years. He was wearing an odd selection of the only clothes available, having been captured in January of that year. “I was grimly aware that in the video I would look not just wretched but ridiculous,” he writes in his book about the experience, The Desert and the Sea: 977 Days Captive on the Somali Pirate Coast.
When he speaks about the part-thriller, part-memoir today, Moore notes that he is on his second latte of the morning. “I’m a junkie,” he says, with a small smile that creeps into a world-weary expression. The absence of adequate coffee was one of the first things he fixated on when he was kidnapped, while visiting the Horn of Africa to investigate piracy. His guards would only provide instant coffee granules mixed through a Thermos full of tea.
Filled with fear for his life, guilt about burdening his mother, and pain from a broken hand pounded by Kalashnikovs, Moore was nevertheless occupied by his lamentable breakfasts. To compound this, one pirate stole his oatmeal. “At home I drank good coffee. I missed it in Somalia, not from my first day in the country, but from my first day as a hostage,” he writes. After four years of freedom, Moore still cherishes these small joys: “My entire life afterwards is sort of a gift. If I forget to be grateful, I have this entire experience to fall back on to remind myself.”
His attitude to life has irrevocably changed since he was released. “I stopped living in the future; I learned to live without hope. And that continues. I think it’s very American to be optimistic, and I stopped doing that. Now it’s not as if I’m pessimistic, it’s just a way of not living in the future at all… It sounds bleak but it’s not so bad,” he says.
While driving back to his hotel following an afternoon’s reporting, his car was held up by a dozen armed men. He was dragged into the pirates’ jeep and driven off to an outdoor camp in the bush. Moore did not know then that he would be held captive for nearly 1,000 days – with no outside contact for over half of his ordeal, and no idea of the day or date (his estimate was 17 days out when he eventually obtained a radio). Moore’s book recounts the horror of hostage life. His immune system broke down. He contracted malaria. On one occasion, while being held for five months on an anchored tuna fishing ship, he dived into the sea in a confused bid either to escape or drown himself.
TOP TWEETS
@Free_Somaliweyn:An explosion just went off moments ago in Muqdisho #Somalia according to local residents. More info coming soon.
@HarunMaruf: BREAKING: Spike in violence in Somalia in October forces 21,000 people to flee their homes; the largest number of people displaced by fighting and insecurity were from Lower Shabelle region, followed by Hiran, Bay and other regions, according to NGOs.
@BBCAfrica: Mukhtar Robow – a former Al-Shabaab leader – is running for office in Somalia https://bbc.in/2Dfvezn
@UNSomalia: “What we’re facing is a quite serious political issue – the stand-off between the Federal Member States and the Federal Government may well paralyze our efforts to help#Somalia get back on its feet” – @UN envoy Nicholas Haysom in#Baidoa today. For more: http://bit.ly/2yIF4pv
@AbdulkadirEA: At the launch of the TVET programme,Minister Abdullahi Godah reaffirms “The government is committed in revitalising the TVET sector through strategic policy reforms”-TVET education is as of equal value &in some cases more valuable than traditional university degree @EU_in_Somalia
@naosomalia: The #TVET project is co-funded by #EU and#GermanGovt and to be implemented by #GIZ. Both Ministries of Education and Ministry of Labor would play a key role to implement this project in Somalia at large. While@MoPIED_Somalia coordinates.
@Puntlandmirror: #Somalia‘s President Farmajo criticized the leaders of the federal member states in Somalia, saying their mandate is to provide basic services of the community rather than involving in the foreign policy of the country, which mandates the central government.
@GEEL_Somali: In collaboration with #farmers and #Sesamecompanies, we are scaling out locally adapted and improved Sesame production technologies across #Somalia. An initiative that will help boost farmers’ #income ,double #yields and create#jobs for the locals. #SomaliRising
IMAGE OF THE DAY
Somali Finance Minister, Abdirahman Dualeh Beileh and World Bank (WB) Country Director Bella Bird during the officially signing of the $80 Million grant between the government and the WB
Photo: @mpfsomalia