UN approves Kenya bid to join Somalia peacekeeping forces 

13 Jan – Source: African Review – 335 Words

The United Nations Security Council has given a cautious but favourable response to a joint request by Kenya and the African Union for incorporation of the east African country’s troops into the AU Mission in Somalia (AMISOM).

Foreign Affairs minister Moses Wetang’ula, who also chairs the AU Peace and Security Council, urged the UN top body to authorise the expansion of AMISOM troop levels to include Kenyan forces now fighting in Somalia.

The AMISOM deployment would increase from 12,000 to 17,731 under the proposal, which also entails additional troops from Djibouti, Uganda and Burundi.

Mr Wetang’ula said in his address to the 15-member council that it was imperative to provide “force enablers” and “multipliers” — a reference to heavier weaponry and air support for AMISOM troops on the ground.

The minister also reiterated Kenya’s call for a UN-supported blockade of the port of Kismayu. The US, one of the Security Council’s five permanent members, in turn gave a clear endorsement of Kenya’s military presence in Somalia.

“Kenya and Ethiopia have thrown their weight behind the effort to defeat al Shabaab, and we welcome their contributions as well,” said US delegate Jeffrey DeLaurentis.

Key Headlines

• UNSC urges reliable support for AU troops in Somalia (Radio Mogadishu)
• Somali food aid shipments halted (Al Jazeera)
• Somalia requires continued assistance despite gains against famine – UN official (UN News Centre)
• Somali piracy ‘boosts Puntland economy’ (BBC)
• Somali pirates arrested trying to board Spanish navy ship (Reuters)
• Uganda wants more troops for Somalia mission (New Vision)

SOMALI MEDIA

UNSC urges reliable support for AU troops in Somalia

13 Jan – Source: Radio Mogadishu – 692 words

The Security Council today called for predictable, reliable and timely resources to support the African Union (AU) peacekeeping mission in Somalia to strengthen its capability to help the country’s transitional government implement its commitment to restore peace and stability.

“The members of the Security Council reiterated their full support to AMISOM and expressed their continued appreciation for the commitment of troops by the troop-contributing countries,” the Council said in a press statement after hearing briefings from B. Lynn Pascoe, Under-Secretary-General for Political Affairs, and Ramtane Lamamra, the AU Commissioner for Peace and Security.

The Council reaffirmed its full support for the Djibouti Agreement as the basis for the resolution of the conflict in Somalia, the Kampala Accord and the Roadmap to end the transition in Somalia by August this year. Irrespective of the structure of the State to be defined by the constitution, it is vital that Somalis have a national security sector. Member of the Council commended the unity of purpose demonstrated at the recent Constitutional Conference held in the Somali town of Garowe, and encouraged inclusive and representative dialogue with the Somali people on the draft constitution.

Somaliland: President calls emergency meeting with Upper and Lower House of Parliament 

13 Jan – Source: Somaliland Press – 289 words

Somaliland President Mr. Ahmed Mohamed Silanyo has ordered the speakers of both Houses of Somaliland parliament to come for an emergency session which is due to take place on Saturday January 14th.

A member of the parliament that Somaliland Press has spoken with confirms that the prime intention is to make a final decision over the announcement made at Taleeh’s tribal gathering in forming a state within Somaliland.

The decision of the president to convey the joint session of Somaliland parliament is not clear but it seems that military action is the last resort for the government of Somaliland to save the country from disintegrating into smaller states.

There are reports indicating that the Somaliland National Army has been put in a state of alert. Moreover, Somaliland Minister of Defence Mr. Ahmed Ali Adami has told the media today that his administration made the biggest blunder of giving the go-ahead tribal gathering in Taleh dubbed Katumo 2. The majority of the audience and delegates attending the Taleh conference was said to have travelled through Somaliland’s Hargeisa and Berbera Airports.

Journalists arrested in Borame town, Awdal region 

12 Jan – Source: Radio Bar-Kulan – 119 words

Somaliland police have arrested three local journalists in Borame town since Tuesday morning, reports say. Reports say two journalists were arrested on Wednesday while the third one was arrested on Tuesday under unknown circumstances.

The journalists, Ali Ismail Are and Mohamed Omar Sheikh, work for Waaheen and Sahafi newspapers respectively, while Yussuf Indo-quruh is a reporter for a Somali TV channel, Royal TV.

The reasons behind their arrest are yet to be known but reports say that the TV journalist, Yussuf Indo-quruh, was arrested after an aid agency allegedly lodged a case against him. But the nature of the case still remains in the dark. The area administration has not yet issued any statements regarding the arrest of the three journalists in Borame.

REGIONAL MEDIA

UN approves Kenya bid to join Somalia peacekeeping forces

13 Jan – Source: African Review – 335 Words

The United Nations Security Council has given a cautious but favourable response to a joint request by Kenya and the African Union for incorporation of the east African country’s troops into the AU Mission in Somalia (AMISOM).

Foreign Affairs minister Moses Wetang’ula, who also chairs the AU Peace and Security Council, urged the UN top body to authorise the expansion of AMISOM troop levels to include Kenyan forces now fighting in Somalia.

The AMISOM deployment would increase from 12,000 to 17,731 under the proposal, which also entails additional troops from Djibouti, Uganda and Burundi.

Mr Wetang’ula said in his address to the 15-member council that it was imperative to provide “force enablers” and “multipliers” — a reference to heavier weaponry and air support for AMISOM troops on the ground. The minister also reiterated Kenya’s call for a UN-supported blockade of the port of Kismayu. The US, one of the Security Council’s five permanent members, in turn gave a clear endorsement of Kenya’s military presence in Somalia.

“Kenya and Ethiopia have thrown their weight behind the effort to defeat al Shabaab, and we welcome their contributions as well,” said US delegate Jeffrey DeLaurentis.

Somali food aid shipments halted

13 Jan – Source: Al Jazeera – 100 words

The International Red Cross (ICRC) has suspended food distribution to central Somalia’s famine-stricken Middle Shabelle and Gal-gadud regions. The ICRC says al Shabaab fighters have blocked aid trucks from reaching the famine victims, but leaders linked to the group said they wanted to test the food to make sure it was safe.

The Red Cross however says a four-week delay without explanation has led them to halt aid deliveries to both regions, a decision which has left over one million Somalis, still recovering from last year’s famine, hungry.

Uganda wants more troops for Somalia mission

13 Jan – Source: New Vision – 241 words

The Ugandan government has appealed to African countries to contribute troops to the peace-keeping mission in Somalia.

Defence state minister Lt. Gen. Jeje Odongo, said there was need for more AMISOM troops in Somalia to consolidate the gains and rout out the militants fighting the interim government in Mogadishu. “We appeal for more boots on the ground so that more Somalis can live in peace,” Odongo’s call-out for more troops was clear.

He was speaking after the screening of a documentary, Heroes in the Horn compiled by Don Research at Serena Hotel, Kampala mid-week. Uganda, Burundi and Djibouti form the bulk of AMISOM troops, although Kenya recently made an incursion into Somalia to repulse al Shabaab militants who had attacked them.

Earlier, during a panel discussion moderated by Vision Group chief executive officer, Robert Kabushenga, opposition politician Cecilia Ogwal surprised the audience when she hailed the Uganda Peoples’ Defense Forces’ (UPDF) presence in Somalia and described it as sacrificial and humanitarian.

Ogwal criticized the European Union (EU) for not doing enough to enable Somalia recover.

AMISOM force commander Maj. Gen. Nathan Mugisha said the mission is a success story. He said if the troops are bolstered with numbers and equipment, al Shabaab will be no more.

Mugisha, together with other AMISOM officers Col. Peter Elwelu, Col. Godfrey Goloba, Col. Francis Kyemo, Sgt. Sarah Chebet and Sgt. Pricilla Atim, were each decorated with badges of honour by minister Odongo. The badges were an initiative of Don Research.

INTERNATIONAL MEDIA

Somalia requires continued assistance despite gains against famine – UN official 

12 Jan – Source: UN News Centre – 414 words

The top United Nations relief official in Somalia said today that international humanitarian support last year in the face of drought and famine in the country succeeded in saving numerous lives, but the situation remains fragile, with millions of people in need of continued assistance. Last July famine was declared in three zones of Somalia and the UN and its partners appealed for $1.5 billion to tackle the crisis.

“The call for assistance in July received a tremendous response and we know that over the last year $1.3 billion was actually raised for Somalia… the majority of which has been spent,” said Mark Bowden, the UN Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator for Somalia, at a news conference in New York.

“That enabled us to have a tremendous impact on the both the nutritional status and mortality figures facing children and adults across Somalia,” he said.

The $1.5 billion appeal, the highest ever for humanitarian work in Somalia, was to support ongoing relief work in the country last year and to fund programmes to enable those who lost their livelihoods and were displaced from their land to go back and restart their lives afresh. The “gains are very fragile and require the sustained support and engagement of the international community,” Mr. Bowden said.

He pointed out that last year’s assistance enabled relief organizations to reduce the number of people at risk of outright famine from 750,000 to 150,000 and prevented the spread of diarrhoeal illness and other infectious diseases through large-scale chlorination of water and increased health services.

Somali piracy ‘boosts Puntland economy’ 

12 Jan – Source: CNN News / Financial Times/ BBC / Al Jazeera – 348 words

New research suggests piracy has led to widespread economic development in some parts of Somalia. The study, published by British think-tank Chatham House, looked at detailed satellite imagery. Regional centres have benefited from substantial investment funded by piracy, but coastal communities have missed out, the report indicates.

International naval patrols in the Gulf of Aden are making it more difficult for Somali pirates to launch attacks. However, at least 40 vessels and more than 400 hostages are still being held in or just off Somalia, according to the Ecoterra International group which monitors piracy in the region.

A two-decade civil war in Somalia has allowed pirates to flourish. Some of them are former fishermen who say they were put out of business by trawlers from around the world taking advantage of the power vacuum to fish in Somali waters. The study suggests a land-based solution is needed to tackle the problem.

Report author Anja Shortland used high-resolution daytime satellite images and also looked at night light emissions throughout the decade starting in 2000.The night pictures show a significant increase in light emissions from centres such as Garowe and Bosasso in the semi-autonomous Puntland region where most of the pirates are based.

This suggests an increase in electricity consumption because of economic development, the study says. The increase in the highest intensity light spots in those cities came despite a general decline in intensity across Somalia, which Ms Shortland attributes to global food and energy price rises and renewed conflict. None of the pirate communities on the coast appeared to have enough power, she observed.

Shared benefits

Analysis of daytime satellite image showed that Garowe almost doubled in area between 2002 and 2009, with significant housing, industrial and commercial developments. Many houses were newly built or repaired between those dates and a much larger number have vehicles parked outside.

The key pirate centres of Eyl and Hobyo, by contrast, showed evidence of only limited and relatively small improvements to their infrastructure.

The report concludes that significant amounts of ransom money are spent in the regional centres, with the benefits being shared out between a large number of people due to the clan structures in place. “Puntland’s political elites are therefore unlikely to move decisively against piracy,” it says.

In addition to satellite images, the Chatham House report analysed information collected by non-governmental organisations on commodity prices and wages. Data from the Food Security and Nutrition Analysis Unit suggests nominal daily wages in the pirate provinces of Nugal and Muduq “have caught up with and then overtaken non-pirate regions since the explosion of piracy in 2008,” the study says.

In Nugal province, the daily wage increased from 40,000 Somali shillings in 2005 to 120,000 in 2011 ($1 = 25,000 Somali shillings). “This is likely to reflect both direct employment opportunities and investments into local businesses.”

The report adds that the positive effect of piracy on incomes in parts of Puntland has been offset by the impact of food price inflation.

International response

In response to the massive increase in piracy off Somalia in 2008 and international naval force was established to patrol the seas off Somalia. The Chatham House report observes that pirate attacks off Somalia have become considerably more violent since mid-2010, because of the increased difficulty of capturing ships.

“Pirates now invest more resources in maximising the return from each captured ship,” it says. The report also warns that if pirates increase their co-operation with Islamist militants from the al-Shabab group, piracy could end up funding regional instability and terror. Ms Shortland argues that a land-based response is necessary to help tackle piracy.

“A negotiated solution to the piracy problem should aim to exploit local disappointment among coastal communities regarding the economic benefits from piracy and offer them an alternative that brings them far greater benefits than hosting pirates does,” she says.

“A military crack-down on the other hand would deprive one of the world’s poorest nations of an important source of income and aggravate poverty.”

Somali pirates arrested trying to board Spanish navy ship

13 Jan – Source: Reuters – 187 words

Somali pirates tried to board a Spanish navy ship off the Horn of Africa nation but it repulsed the attack and arrested six pirates, the European Union Naval Force for Somalia said on Thursday. Somali pirates are an increasing hazard to shipping in the region, posing a challenge to international navies patrolling the Gulf of Aden and the Indian Ocean.

The EU Navfor said that the Patino, EU Navfor’s flagship, had just finished escorting a U.N. World Food Programme ship to Somalia when it was approached by a skiff carrying the pirates.

“The suspected pirates opened fire with light calibre weapons and tried to board the Patino. The ship’s force-protection team returned fire in self-defence and the ship’s helicopter was launched,” a statement said. “The skiff broke off the attack and the men surrendered to the helicopter after throwing their weapons, ladder and fuel barrels overboard.”

EU Navfor said five of the six men on the skiff were injured and received treatment. Checks were underway to establish whether a seventh man was lost overboard.

SOCIAL MEDIA

CULTURE / OPINION / EDITORIAL / BLOGS/ DISCUSSION BOARDS

Somalia: where does piracy revenue end up?

13 Jan- Source: Fresh Business Thinking- 380 Words

High resolution satellite imagery has shown how the Somali economy is benefiting from lucrative ransom payments from piracy in the Gulf of Aden.

The author of the report, carried out by independent international development think tank, Chatham House, Dr Anja Shortland, says that piracy has had a positive impact on local economies and therefore a military strategy to eradicate piracy could seriously undermine local development.

Treasure Mapped: Using Satellite Imagery to Track the Developmental Effects of Somali Piracy demonstrates how pirates appear to be investing money principally in the main cities of Garowe and Bosasso, rather than in the coastal communities where pirate activity takes place. The report also suggests that coastal villages have gained little from hosting pirates and may be open to a negotiated solution which would be to their benefit.

“A consistent story emerges regarding the impact of ransom money on the Somali economy,” says Dr Shortland says. “Piracy appears to lead to widespread economic development and therefore has a large interest group behind its continuation. However, most beneficiaries are located in the provincial capitals. The international community should bear these results in mind when developing land-based strategies to resolve Somalia’s pirate problem.”

Literally Searching for Monsters to Destroy: Why Somalia Ain’t Getting Better 

12 Jan – Source: Anti War Blog – 621 Words

The Economist editorializes about the situation in Somalia and surprisingly implies an optimistic future. Somalia may now have its best chance of peace and security since 1991. If the government can consolidate its hold on Mogadishu, it will be a big step forward. The capital’s port is busy, its markets bustling. More suicide-bombings and assassinations will occur; a respected local journalist was killed last month. But this year most residents will, with luck, seek to remake their livelihoods rather than worry about fending off jihad.

I think they may need to worry about fending off more than jihad. As the Economist piece itself points out, the United States is behind these military initiatives in Somalia, has “intelligence agents and special forces on the ground,” and “drones in the sky.” The U.S. is running CIA blacksites as prisons and supporting thuggish militias to fight al Shabaab, all while conducting covert kill/capture raids with Joint Special Operations Command forces. The U.S.-supported regimes of Kenya, Uganda, Burundi, and others are joining the fight against the Somali militants as Predator and Reaper drones unleash airstrikes launched from bases in Ethiopia, Djibouti, and Seychelles.

The new strategy in Africa indicates a shift into the shadows, for this is the war nobody knows about. It is characterized by military aid to and reliance on brutish, undemocratic regimes, proxy militias, and targeted special operations. All of this is done without the consent of Congress and for the most part in secret. This is not cause for optimism. Optimism for the strategy appears irreconcilable with recent history, given that the U.S.-sponsored invasion of Somalia by Ethiopia in 2006 helped give rise to the militant group alShabaab now ironically justifying current interventions.

What Happens in Somalia 

13 Jan – Source: Daily Times Pakistan – 972 Words

Ideas find expansion in the presence of solid intellectual companions. James Oppenheim is a close personal friend who has informally tracked what he has coined the ‘Islamic Small Wars’. For Jim, the Islamic Small Wars (ISWs) are “all civil wars within Islamic-majority states that have some interface with the west, largely determined by location, albeit universally characterised by a nearly global xenophobia. Ultimately, they are about the development of power, largely through intimidation and fear, and not so much concerned with constituent needs, the earth, or insight into the character of humanity within nature and engaged with God.”

Somalia certainly meets the criteria for the definition of an Islamic Small War. It is a region engulfed in population decimation by forces that are numerically small but capable of casting a long shadow via fear and intimidation. Today, this fear can be traced on the faces of the women.

Somali women are suffering greater incidents of rape than at any time in recent history. The UN states that in the last two months reports have emerged of 2,500 acts of gender-based violence in Mogadishu alone. Switch these rape statistics to capitols such as London, Paris or Istanbul and this despicable state of affairs would have already created intense public alarm with an equally intense governmental intervention.

Unfortunately, Mogadishu does not have anything even remotely resembling governance. International aid is a monetary transaction unrelated to the scheme of things on the ground. A tragic disintegration of culture and society are being orchestrated by a mere few thousand men belonging to a militia known as al Shabaab. Somalia has the eyes of an abandoned woman.

IS SOMALIA’S FAMINE HOPELESSLY IRREVERSIBLE?

12 Jan – Source: Blogster

Is the Somalia famine hopelessly irreversible? If the catastrophe can be reversed, can the interventions be sustained without aid from external donors?

Those are pretty tough questions to answer. Admittedly, the famine in the Horn is too large a human & nature predicament, with over 11 millions of hungry people affected at its peak some couples of months ago. Somalia seems to be a classic basketcase of the catastrophe, as the problem there is complicated by peace & order challenges.

Below is a reportage on the subject by the UNDP. Note that the UNDP experts have taken the standpoint that the problem can be reversed but with substantial assistance from benevolent sources.

Somali students in Turkey play snowball for the first time

12 Jan – Source: SomaliNet Forum

Studying in Denizli’s Private Servergazi High School, sixteen students first time in their lives played snowball with each other as first snow of the season falls on Denizli streets after a long time.

Somalian students who are brought to Turkey’s Denizli province on scholarships from famine and drought stricken Somalia to continue their secondary education are nowadays enjoying the snow due to the cold weather conditions.

Studying in Denizli’s Private Servergazi High School, sixteen students first time in their lives played snowball with each other as first snow of the season falls on Denizli streets after a long time. Indicating that it does not snow in Somalia because of the desert climate, students expressed that they were very happy to have such an experience.