November 9, 2018 | Daily Monitoring Report.
President Farmaajo Travels To Ethiopia For Tripartite Meeting
09 November – Source: Halbeeg News – 128 Words
Somali President Mohamed Abdullahi Farmajo has today flown out to Ethiopia for a meeting with leaders of Ethiopia and Eritrea. Confirming the trip, the spokesman in the Office of the President, Abdinoor Mohamed Ahmed, stated the President would attend a tripartite meeting in the Ethiopian city of Gonder, Bahr Dar region.
The meeting with Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed and Eritrean President Isaias Afwerki, according to the spokesman, will cement the outcome of the Horn of Africa economic integration agreement signed in the Eritrean capital of Asmara, two months ago. During the meeting in Asmara, the three leaders of Somalia, Ethiopia and Eritrea, committed to respecting each others’ sovereignty and working together, with a view to advance interaction among the people in the wider Horn of Africa region.
Key Headlines
- President Farmaajo Travels To Ethiopia For Tripartite Meeting (Halbeeg News)
- Ethiopian Airlines Lands In Mogadishu For First Time In 40 years (Halbeeg News)
- Cash Assistance Programmes‘ Create Dependency’ Somaliland Authorities Claim (Radio Ergo)
- Somalia’s Cheetah Smuggling Ring (Mail & Guardian)
- Kenya To Retain KDF In Somalia As Treasury Cuts Soldiers’ Budget (Business Daily)
- Somali Pirates A Kidnapping Then A Facebook Message (New York Times)
NATIONAL MEDIA
Ethiopian Airlines Lands In Mogadishu For First Time In 40 years
09 November – Source: Halbeeg News – 151 Words
Ethiopian Airlines today made its first flight to Somalia’s capital, Mogadishu, in over 40 years. Officials of the airlines have reported that flight traffic will increase significantly, with the expectation of several daily flights between Addis Ababa and Mogadishu. The entry of the Ethiopian national carrier on the Mogadishu destination makes it the second major international carrier after Turkish Airlines to operate in Somalia.
The move comes three weeks after a plane from the private airline, Ethiopia National Airways, landed at Mogadishu’s Aden Adde airport. This was the first commercial flight between Addis Ababa and Mogadishu in 41 years, in yet another sign of improved ties between the neighboring Horn of Africa nations. In June, Ethiopian Prime Minister, Abiy Ahmed, paid a visit to Mogadishu, where he and Somali President Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed agreed to strengthen relations. Somalia and Ethiopia have gone to war several times over a disputed territory.
Cash Assistance Programmes‘ Create Dependency’, Somaliland Authorities Claim
09 November – Source: Radio Ergo – 482 Words
Faced by growing insecurity for staff and the need to cut out delays in food distribution to affected communities, aid agencies have increasingly been opting for direct cash transfers. But this relatively new model of humanitarian assistance is being questioned by authorities and local economists in Somaliland. Since 2013, cash assistance programmes for people affected by war and drought-induced crisis have become a preferred option, with thousands of recipients now receiving monthly cash through their mobile phones. The agencies argue that mobile money transfers enhance accountability, sidestep security challenges and enable recipients to get help quickly and easily.
Abdiaziz Ali Adani, head of communication in Somaliland for the international NGO Oxfam, told Radio Ergo that aid agencies adopted cash assistance programmes for affected people to enhance accountability and to give hope to the beneficiaries. He said Oxfam’s cash assistance was supporting thousands of people in 95 villages in Togdher, Sool and Sanag regions. “The programme focuses on the most vulnerable individuals including aged people, orphans and sick people, through committees in the camps,” Abdiaziz said, adding: “Each beneficiary gets $85 per month.”
However, the extensive use of cash is facing opposition from local authorities and professionals, who claim the programmes make people more dependent and deny them the chance to rebuild their lives. Abdikarim Ahmed Hinif, the chairperson of Somaliland Refugees and IDP Committee, estimated the amount spent annually on cash transfers to $6,507, 840. This could have been invested in projects supporting durable and sustainable solutions for the displaced: “In three months, over $1 million is reportedly spent on the [cash assistance] programme targeting 6,779 families in Somaliland. With over $6,000,000 annually, such money could have been used to buy about 216,900 head of goats. On average, every family would get about 46 goats and that would be a life-changing progress,”Hinif argued.
Hinif said Somaliland authorities will be meeting with aid agencies operating in the region next month to address these issues and find sustainable solutions to internal displacement. Abdikadir Mohamud Yonis, an economist based in Hargeisa town, shared a similar view: “The agencies should be kept accountable. They should focus on where the problems lie. This programme is just like distributing food and should be stopped. We need a plan to support these people to return to their previous livelihood.”
Despite such criticism, however, the delivery of cash seems to be a popular approach among the recipients. Shamis Elmi Mohamed, a mother of nine, fled a rural area on the outskirts of Erigavo after she lost 500 goats in 2016 to the drought. After resettling in Gar-Adag village, 187km from Erigavo town, the aid agencies registered her as one of the beneficiaries of the cash assistance programme. Although she still faces some challenges including lack of access to education for her children, Shamis receives $85 per month that she uses to support her family.
INTERNATIONAL MEDIA
Somalia’s Cheetah Smuggling Ring
09 November – Source: Mail & Guardian – 1453 Words
Campaigners are calling for urgent cross- border action to halt the illegal trafficking of cheetah cubs from the Horn of Africa into wealthy Gulf states, where the animals are kept as pets and traded and paraded on social media sites. In the past two months, 11 cheetah cubs have been rescued in three raids by the authorities in Somaliland, an autonomous region inside Somalia, which has become a main trafficking route for cheetahs out of East Africa into the Middle East.
Technology firms have made public commitments to crack down on their sites being used by illegal wildlife traders, but the online platforms remain awash with adverts for endangered animals, including cheetahs. “The rising trade in cheetahs and other animals for luxury pets in the Middle East is helping to drive critical populations of wildlife to extinction in Somaliland and North and East Africa,” said Shukri Ismail, Somaliland’s environment minister.
The rescued cheetahs are being cared for by Somaliland vets and the Cheetah Conservation Fund (CCF), a Namibian research and lobby institution, which has 14 cubs in a temporary “safe house” in the capital, Hargeisa. Since the CCF began working with the Somaliland government in 2011, it has intercepted more than 50 attempts to traffic cheetahs. But, said the CCF’s assistant director of Illegal Wildlife Trade, Patricia Tricorache: “We believe as many as 300 cheetahs are smuggled from Africa into the Middle East every year.”
Kenya To Retain KDF In Somalia As Treasury Cuts Soldiers’ Budget
08 November – Source: Business Daily – 241 Words
President Uhuru Kenyatta on Thursday said Kenya Defence Forces (KDF) will stay in Somalia until security is restored despite budget cuts signalling the start of the soldiers’ withdrawal slated for next July. Kenya gets a refund for its soldiers in Somalia and expects Sh8.5 billion in the financial year starting next July.
However, the compensation from the UN is expected to drop to Ksh5 billion and Ksh3.5 billion in the next two years to June 2015, indicating gradual reduction of troops. “To secure Kenya and our region, our forces will continue joint operations with the African Union Mission in Somalia (Amisom),” Mr Kenyatta said.
Kenya sent 4,660 soldiers to Somalia in October 2011 after incessant attacks and kidnapping of civilians by the militants within its territory. The African Union is keen on all the troops withdrawing by December 2020, but Kenya wants a delayed exit. Al Shabaab conducts frequent assaults in Kenya, mostly in the region bordering Somalia, to put pressure on the Kenyan government to withdraw its peacekeeping troops from Somalia.
The African Union wants the Somali army to take over responsibility for the country’s security. The international community pays $1,028 (Sh103,828) for each soldier per month, their respective governments then deducts about $200 (Sh20,200) for administrative costs, leaving them with a take-home of about $800 (Sh83,628).
OPINION, ANALYSIS AND CULTURE
“One photo, Mr. Tahlil wrote, depicted the man who had broken Mr. Moore’s hand when he was taken hostage, according to the complaint. In other photos, Mr. Moore recognized some of his former guards”
Somali Pirates, A Kidnapping, Then A Facebook Message
09 November – Source: New York Times – 920 Words
Somali pirates kidnapped and held Michael Scott Moore, a journalist, hostage for two-and-a-half terrifying years until a ransom payment secured his release in September 2014. Two months later, Mr. Moore received a surprising message on Facebook: “How are you, Michael?” the message said. “I am ur friend Mohammed Tahlil. I wants to speak with u.”
The sender’s Facebook page included his photograph. Mr. Moore recognized him as one of the men who guarded him during his captivity in Somalia. He decided to write back. What followed was an extraordinary exchange of Facebook messages between the journalist and his former captor. How long they communicated and where the conversation ultimately led has not been made public, but in the summer, the Somali was taken into custody by United States authorities and jailed in New York City, court records show.
A federal indictment made public Wednesday charged the man, Mohamed Tahlil Mohamed, 38, with kidnapping, hostage taking, conspiracy and other counts. The authorities have not said where he was arrested or how he came to the United States. The indictment identified his hostage only as “John Doe,” but Mr. Moore confirmed on Thursday that he was the unnamed victim.
When asked about the arrest of Mr. Tahlil, Mr. Moore replied, “I’m not as happy as you might imagine that he’s in jail.” He declined to comment further and would not say whether the Facebook exchanges had in some way led to Mr. Tahlil’s capture or surrender. Heavily armed men abducted Mr. Moore when he was doing research on piracy in January 2012 near the inland town of Galkayo, about 400 miles northeast of the capital Mogadishu. Mr. Moore’s book “The Desert and The Sea: 977 Days Captive on the Somali Pirate Coast,” published in July, recounted his ordeal.
It appears from the Facebook exchanges — some of which are detailed in a criminal complaint and others in Mr. Moore’s book — that the journalist developed a kind of affinity for Mr. Tahlil, who, in turn, provided Mr. Moore with information about his kidnappers. In his book, Mr. Moore, 49, described his captivity as full of terror, pain and close calls. One of his abductors broke his wrist during the kidnapping and it did not heal for weeks. He witnessed the torture of a fellow hostage, who was hanged upside down from a tree branch while a man beat him on the chest and feet with a bamboo cane.
@TheVillaSomalia: H.E President @M_Farmajo and his delegation arrive at Gonder. The President was warmly received by Ethiopian PM H.E Abiy Ahmed.
@ahmedvision1: Federalism is workable governance system 4 Somalia specially at this critical era which is full of mistrust & imbalances, however without legal institutions who rule & define roles, ill-informed politicians can misinterpret or misuse federalism to fit in their personal interest.
@GuledWiliq: INGO cash aid is not sustainable & creates aid dependency. However, they could come up micro-financing programs that will shift the IDPs from vulnerable to self-reliant. It’s mind boggling that the highest cash aid receivers are The bread & basket areas.
@OmarFarukOsman: We’ve just landed Mogadishu aboard#Ethiopia|n ET 376 carrying 48 passengers, the first commercial flight from Addis Ababa to Mogadishu since 1977. Ceremony inside d plane when ET entered #Somalia airspace.
@RAbdiCG: Three Horn states to unveil new economic alliance today. Details sketchy and many ambiguities on what practical changes new pact entails. Hopefully, this will be made clearer today. However, absence of Djibouti from meeting worth noting. Djibouti was initially part of the plan.
@AliHoshow: His Excellency the President of the Federal Republic of Somalia, Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed “Farmaajo”, arrives in #Gondor to attend the trilateral consultative summit between #Somalia,#Ethiopia and #Eritrea, and was welcomed at the airport by #Ethiopian PM H.E. Abiy Ahmed.
@HarunMaruf: Turkey to help Somalia with rebuilding its navy, coastguard. Effort will involve training and equipping the forces according to state media. The announcement came following a two-day visit by Turkish Defense Minister Hulusi Akar to Mogadishu where he met @M_Farmaajo and @SomaliPM
IMAGE OF THE DAY
President, Mohamed Abdullahi Farmaajo is received by Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed in Gonder, Ethiopia for tripartite meeting between the leaders of Somalia, Ethiopia and Eretria.
Photo: @TheVilla Somalia