December 12, 2018 | Morning Headlines

Motion To Impeach Somali President Farmaajo Declared Invalid

11 December – Source: Daily Nation – 299 Words

The Somali Lower House of Parliament has declared as invalid a motion seeking the impeachment of President Mohamed Abdullahi Farmajo. The House Administrative Director, Mr Abdikarim Haji Abdi Buuh, on Tuesday issued the letter that could offer the besieged president a lifeline. The letter, published by the mainstream and social media, is addressed to the Speaker of the Lower House, Mr Mohamed Mursal, and copied to his deputes, Mr Abdiweli Sheikh Ibrahim Mudey and Mahad Abdalla Awad.

It states that the motion submitted to the Speaker on December 9, by 92 legislators, did not meet the signatories threshold. The document adds that some 14 MPs said to back it sent letters to Parliament’s Administration Office, stating that their names were wrongly put in the list as they did not append their signatures. “I have seen letters sent to the office by 14 MPs, stating they did not endorse the motion,” reads the letter to the Speaker. “They insist that their names and signatures were forged.”

Mr Buh stated that if the 14 were deducted from the original 92 parliamentarians said to have endorsed the motion, 78 would remain, falling short of the minimum requirement. “Therefore, they are short of the 92 signatories to keep the motion valid as the provisional constitution requires 1/3 of the total MPs of 275 to unequivocally endorse a motion,” concluded the letter sent by Mr Buh.

In March, a motion was submitted against former Speaker Prof Mohamed Osman Jawari.  It was first said that it was rendered invalid by a number of MPs who changed their positions. Others contested that once submitted, the lawmakers could not revoke their earlier endorsement. However, after a bitter argument over the validity of the motion, Prof Jawari resigned, paving the way for the election of Mr Mursal.

Key Headlines

• Motion To Impeach Somali President Farmaajo Declared Invalid (Daily Nation)
• Somali Military Chief Visits Special Force Base Outside Mogadishu (Halbeeg News)
• Hiiraan Governor Says 200 Police Officers Receive Salaries  (Goobjoog News)
• KQ’s Plan To Prop Up Jambojet Flops As Aircraft’s Rejected (The East African)
• War Hunger And A Housing Boom: Welcome To Africa’s Most Crowded City (Reuters)

NATIONAL MEDIA

Somali Military Chief Visits Special Force Base Outside Mogadishu

11 December – Source: Halbeeg News – 159 Words

Somali Army Chief, Dahir Elmi Indho-Qarshe,  visited a military training base on the outskirt of Mogadishu on Monday. General Dahir who was accompanied by senior military officials toured  the base of elite Somali forces dubbed Danab, in Balli-doogle area  in lower Shabelle region.

US military officials manage the military base located at the former airbase under the support of US Africom. General Indho Qarshe met with some of the new recruited of the elite forces, who completed military training conducted by US trainers. He also held talks with military officials at the base on range issues including plans to conduct operations against Al-Shabaab

With the support of American forces, Danab special forces has intensified its covert operations against Al-Shabaab fighters, in the lower Shabelle and Jubba regions, where the group has a strong presence. Six fighters were killed, and their ringleader arrested last week during an operation conducted by Danab special force near Balcad, south of the capital Mogadishu.

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Hiiraan Governor Says 200 Police Officers Receive Salaries

11 December – Source: Goobjoog News – 105 Words

Two hundred police officers from Hiiraan region received their salaries for the second month from the local administration, since funding from the federal government ceased, said the region’s governor. Mr. Yusuf Ahmed Dabageed told the media on Tuesday that the officers had all received their salaries drawn from the local administration’s own resources.

The governor called on the officers to closely work with the people and play their role in maintaining security and stability in the region. The governor added that his administration would continue to pay the police officers of Hiiraan region, since the federal government of Somalia had failed to pay its security forces.

INTERNATIONAL MEDIA

KQ’s Plan To Prop Up Jambojet Flops As Aircraft’s Rejected

10 December – Source: The East African – 847 Words

Kenya’s national carrier Kenya Airways has postponed indefinitely the launch of its direct flight from Nairobi’s Jomo Kenyatta International Airport (JKIA) to the Somali capital Mogadishu, as it faces opposition from several neighbouring countries over its intended change of aircraft on regional routes. “We have postponed our maiden flight to Mogadishu until further notice. We are still facing delays in getting the additional operational requirement,” Kenya Airways chief executive officer Sebastian Mikosz said on Tuesday.

Already, Burundi, Djibouti and South Sudan have declined to grant KQ permission to change the aircraft it flies to their respective capitals from the Embraer 190 to Bombardier Q400.  KQ termed the decisions taken by the neighbouring governments ”politically motivated.” The airline explained that it settled for the cheaper aircraft on its regional routes as part of its cost optimisation measures.

The carrier, which had initially planned to fly to Mogadishu beginning November 15, was to launch its direct flights to Aden Adde International Airport, Mogadishu, on December 5 in a move that was expected to boost trade with the Horn of Africa country.

OPINION, ANALYSIS AND CULTURE

“Some 4.2 million Somalis – a third of the population – will need humanitarian aid and protection in 2019, one-third less than in 2018, largely due to good rainfall this year, the United Nations says.”

War, Hunger And A Housing Boom: Welcome To Africa’s Most Crowded City

11 December – Source: Reuters – 406 Words

Conflict, drought and floods have pushed a record number of Somalis into Mogadishu, making it Africa’s most crowded city, the Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre said on Tuesday.  With more than 340,000 people forced to flee their homes in the first half of 2018, the year is likely to produce Somalia’s highest number of displacements in a decade, said the Geneva-based center, part of the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC).

“Somali families are fleeing to Mogadishu seeking shelter, protection and aid,” Evelyn Aero, the NRC aid agency’s regional adviser, told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.  “With nowhere else to go, crowding into these camps means that they will be living in unhealthy environment that is unsafe.”  Somalia has been trying to recover from conflict that engulfed the country in 1991, when clan warlords overthrew a dictator and then turned on each other. Over the past decade it has faced an insurgency waged by al Qaeda-linked al Shabaab.

While parts of Somalia are plagued by militant violence, a degree of stability in the capital, Mogadishu, and the prospect of humanitarian assistance, attract the rural poor.  Some 2.6 million people live in Mogadishu, with more than 28,000 people per square kilometer, making the Indian Ocean city the second most densely populated in the world after Dhaka in Bangladesh, NRC said, citing the website Demographia.

Erratic rainfall, prolonged drought, floods and difficulties accessing markets continue to drive rural Somalis into urban areas, following a 2011 famine which killed 260,000 people.  “We are continuing to observe new internally displaced families arriving in Mogadishu,” said Melaki Yirga, deputy regional director for the charity Mercy Corps.

“These women, men and children have very little access to humanitarian support such as basic food.”  About 600,000 displaced people live across Mogadishu, with many families evicted multiple times as developers, buoyed by a construction boom, seek to build on land where informal settlements have sprung up, NRC said.