NATIONAL MEDIA
7 July – Source: Halbeeg – 151 Words
Somali Government has said the Interior Ministry will supervise the upcoming elections in Southern regional state. In a statement, the government said the Interior Ministries of the Federal and regional states will approve the list of the traditional elders who will nominate Jubbaland regional lawmakers. “The names of the elders will jointly be approved by the interior ministries of Federal government and Jubbaland state. The elders will be assigned to select a name for every one seat,” the statement in part.
The government announced that the elections of the state’s members of the assembly will be held at the Police Academy or UN headquarters in Kismayo. The selection process of the lawmakers is kicking off a month ahead of the election of the new president in August. The state assembly will cast votes for the state President who will become the second one since the Jubbaland Administration was formed in 2013.
7 July – Source: Halbeeg – 127 Words
The leader of the Southwest state of Somalia, Abdiaziz Hassan Mohamed, chaired security meeting to strengthen security at Bakool region. The meeting, which was held at Hudur, the administrative of Bakool, was attended by the Deputy Regional State Security Minister, regional security chiefs and officials from AMISOM peacekeepers in the region.
The gathering discussed recent gains made in the security operations and future plans against armed group al-Shabaab and ways to strengthen the advances. Somalia National Army 60th division vowed to continue their operation to take the remaining areas under control of the armed group with support from Africa Union peacekeeping forces. President Abdiaziz Lafta-Gareen called upon the residents of the Bakool region to closely cooperate with security agencies in their quest to maintain law and order.
6 July – Source: SONNA – 167 Words
The Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, H.E. Amb. Ahmed Isse Awad, held a briefing session today with the accredited ambassadors residing in the capital to explain more about the political, security and social developments in the country, declaring that the decision of the Federal Government of Somalia to sever its diplomatic relations with the Republic of Guinea was correct and firm to preserve the sovereignty, unity and territorial integrity of Somalia .
He called on countries to respect the country’s sovereignty and non-interference in its internal affairs. He stressed that Guinea had accorded the protocol of the head of state in Conakry, Guinea, to the leader of a separatist movement in «Somaliland» in north-west Somalia and was a flagrant and unacceptable act. He demanded on sisterly and friendly countries to stand by Somalia and fully support its sovereignty, noting that Somalis alone through dialogue are the ones who solve their internal problems and decide their national, political, economic and social options without any external interference.
6 July – Source: Radio Shabelle – 107 Words
The lawmakers of Somalia’s Federal parliament are debating on Saturday the Labour and Manpower Development Bill. Radio Shabelle’s correspondent at the Lower House says the MPs will discuss the first reading of the Bill and possible amendments on the significant act before its approval.
If it endorsed the bill will help reshape labor and manpower rights in the Horn of the African nation, which is challenged by a high rate of unemployment. On the other hand, the Speaker of the Lower House, Mohamed Mursal, has strongly warned members against absentia during the business days. This came after previous parliamentary sessions were canceled due to lack of quorum.
6 July – Source: Goobjoog – 146 Words
Somali Police Force Chief, General Bashir Abdi Mohamed Ameriko, who is in Galgaduud region, for visit has today toured Abudwak, Balanballe and Herale Police Force bases in the region. General America had talks with the police officials of the sites visited and examined about their situations and how they will be supported. Bashir has urged the Somali police force he met in their separate stations to step up with all of their efforts to perform their part of protecting the people of Somalia.
Chief of Police Force Bashir Mohamed Abdi Ameriko and his counterparts of the Somalia national army and the contingent forces are in Galmudug region for the days after they were summoned to operate in the region by the PM Hassan Ali Khaiire following the Galmudug administration and Ahlu Sunna Wal-Jama’a for accepting the operation of all federal security agencies to start in Dhusamareb.
6 July – Source: Mareeg News – 116 Words
Somali armed group Al-Shabaab has executed for more other people, days after 10 men were killed by firing squad. Additionally, the group claims it has executed three soldiers in Kuntur warey town in Lower Shabelle region as the soldiers were captured alive during fighting against Somali military forces in the southern region. The fourth one was killed by the militants in Bu’alle town in Middle Juba region where the group killed ten people for the last couple days.
Al-Shabab, an al-Qaeda-linked group, often carries out punishments including executions, amputations and flogging on people it accuses mostly of espionage, theft, and rape. The militant group is fighting to overthrow the UN-backed government Somalia based in Mogadishu.
INTERNATIONAL MEDIA
06 July – Source: Oncubanews- 478 Words
The Cuban doctors kidnapped in Kenya last April are still alive, according to the island’s Minister of Public Health, José Ángel Portal. Portal said this Friday that the Kenyan authorities have assured that doctors Landy Rodríguez and Assel Herrera are still alive and that “all possible actions” are being carried out for their safe return. He also affirmed that the Cuban government “has not ceased for a moment in the efforts and procedures” to achieve this purpose, according to the Cuban website Cubadebate.
He explained that, as part of the negotiations, Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel has spoken twice on the phone with his counterparts in Kenya, Uhuru Kenyatta, and Somalia, Abdullahi Mohammed, something that the president himself reported on his Twitter account. He also explained that other Cuban officials, such as First Vice President Salvador Valdés Mesa, Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez and himself, have maintained a “permanent dialogue” with authorities of both African countries as part of the case’s follow-up. The Minister informed that the doctors’ release is “a complex process” and that “it takes time and as much discretion as possible, so that the steps and actions taken can be successful and the doctors can return without problems.”
Similarly, he said that so far no one has requested any kind of condition or ransom in exchange for the release of Rodriguez and Herrera, “despite some press reports that appeared and then were denied.” Thus he denied reports of publications such as the Kenyan daily Citizen Digital, which claimed that the Somali Al-Shabaab jihadist group, which allegedly is keeping the doctors hostage, demanded a ransom of 1.5 million dollars for the doctors’ release.
The Kenyan government has said it will not pay any ransom, since it is not part of “that country’s government policy.” The collaborators were captured on April 12 by alleged members of Al-Shabaab when they were going to the Mandera Hospital escorted in a local government car. One of the policemen who accompanied them died in the assault. After the kidnapping, which occurred in the Kenyan region of Mandera, other doctors from the island who were working in areas bordering Somalia were relocated to safe places. Rodríguez, a surgeon from the Cuban province of Villa Clara, and Herrera, a specialist in Integral General Medicine of Las Tunas, are part of a contingent of 100 Cuban doctors who arrived last year in Kenya under an agreement signed between the two countries to improve access to specialized medical services in the African nation.
Once the kidnapping was known, the Cuban government established contacts with its peers in Kenya and Somalia and created a working group to follow up on the case. In addition, Kenyan and Somali elders have interceded on behalf of the doctors, but still without results. According to a previous report from them, the kidnapped doctors were treating the community “in a restricted environment.”
OPINION, ANALYSIS AND CULTURE
“For Ahmed, who has devoted her life to campaigning against FGM and was instrumental in bringing about the 2012 legislation banning the practice in Ireland, the movie was an opportunity to challenge how survivors of FGM are perceived. “I don’t want people to see me as a victim. I want people to see me empowering other women. I want to show people that whatever Somali women have been through, we can be strong and overcome it.”
7 July – Source: The Guardian – 1050 Words
Ifrah Ahmed refuses to let the horrific female genital mutilation she suffered at the age of eight define her. “I don’t want to be a victim. I want to be a voice,” says the 32-year-old campaigner. She is one of the first women to publicly speak out about female genital mutilation (FGM) in Somalia – a country where it is estimated that 98% of women have undergone the ritual – and now her journey from powerless victim to powerful role model has been dramatised in a film. A Girl from Mogadishu has just had its UK premiere at the Edinburgh Film festival and will be released across the UK in cinemas later this year.
In the first 10 minutes it shows Aja Naomi King, who plays Ahmed as a 15-year-old girl, being violently gang-raped by Somali militants. After that, she makes the dangerous journey from Somalia to Ireland to seek asylum, too scared to question anything her male smugglers want her to do. Upon her arrival, a male gynaecologist examines her and tries to find out what has happened to her, but she has no words to explain it to the male translator, just tears. But then, about halfway through, with the help of other women, she starts to find her voice. By the end of the film, she is shouting about FGM in front of Barack Obama, making speeches at the United Nations and being praised by the president of Somalia.
For Ahmed, who has devoted her life to campaigning against FGM and was instrumental in bringing about the 2012 legislation banning the practice in Ireland, the movie was an opportunity to challenge how survivors of FGM are perceived. “I don’t want people to see me as a victim. I want people to see me empowering other women. I want to show people that whatever Somali women have been through, we can be strong and overcome it.”
She hopes that others who have suffered FGM will watch the film and feel less alone. “It’s hard for women to speak out about FGM. So when two young Somali women came up to me after watching the movie in Edinburgh and hugged me, and said: ‘Ifra, you are speaking for all of us,’ I felt so happy. I felt so proud.” It took courage for her to open up to the film’s director and scriptwriter, Mary McGuckian. “It’s not easy, sharing your story with the world. But if it helps women to realise that this cutting is something we should talk about it.” What happened when her grandmother held her down to be cut by her uncle in a small hut is told only in hints: a dirty razor covered in blood, the screams of a young child in intense pain. “It may be my story, but it is a story of many young women. Those are the people I am fighting for.”
She is now an Irish citizen but spoke to the Observer this weekend from Somalia, where she runs her own foundation lobbying the government to make FGM illegal. Last year she made a short documentary about a 10-year-old girl who bled to death after having her genitals mutilated. It went viral, and suddenly parents started taking daughters they had cut to hospitals, where Ahmed facilitated their medical care. “In the last year we saved 20 girls from bleeding. And we lost seven.” She is determined to break the silence around FGM in Somalia, and runs community programmes to educate families. “When only women are in the room, they all agree FGM is a problem. But if there is even one man there they won’t speak out.” She hopes that by the end of the year, the Somali government will legislate to make it a criminal offence, so that families who practise FGM will face prosecution….. |
