April 1, 2015 | Morning Headlines.

Main Story

President Gaas: “We Are Planning To Retrieve Sool And Sanaag Regions”

31 March – Source: Goobjoog News – 146 Words

The president of the semi-autonomous regional state of Puntland, Abdiweli Mohamed Ali Gaas, said that they will not negotiate over their territories which are claimed by the breakaway state of Somaliland. Gaas said that Sool and Sanaag regions are part of Puntland State, and that they will never accept those regions be under the breakaway administration. “We are planning to retrieve these two regions by any means, and Puntland State is ready to defend its territories” he said. He highlighted that Puntland administrates parts of these regions, and vowed that they will recapture the remaining areas. Speaking about the upcoming Central State formation conference, the president said that they welcome initiatives to form a state government for the Somali central regions, but that they will not negotiate with anybody about their territories, if they are being interfered with.

Key Headlines

President Gaas: “We Are Planning To Retrieve Sool And Sanaag Regions” (Goobjoog News)
Central State Formation Convention To Kick Off On Wednesday (Garowe Online)
COMESA Members Urged To Support Somalia (Somali Current)
Scores Of People Detained Over Kismayo Attacks (Mareeg Media)
Puntland President Abdiweli Gaas Attends Q&A Gathering In Garowe (RBC Radio)
Kagezi Murder: Terror Trial Suspended (New Vision)
Boatload Of Yemeni Refugees Land In Somalia (The East African)
E. Africa Braces For Security Fallout From Yemen Conflict (VOA)
Ambassador ‘Bari Bari’ – “We Have Lost A Great Human Rights Advocate” UN Expert On Somalia Says(OHCHR)
Rise In Illegal Fishing Threatens To Revive Somali Piracy (Reuters)

SOMALI MEDIA

Central State Formation Convention To Kick Off On Wednesday

31 March – Source: Garowe Online – 166 Words

A local official in central Somalia on Tuesday disclosed that delegates are arriving in Adado town, in Galgadud region, for the Central State formation convention, Garowe Online reports. Mohamed Haji Hassan, a spokesman for Himan and Heeb local administration said the conference will kick off in Adado on Wednesdayin the presence of delegates representing local communities in South Mudug and Galgadud. Efforts to ease the dispute between clan elders over the avenue of the convention hit a brick wall last week. President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud met with traditional leaders and politicians, discussing the fate of the convention aimed at the formation of a federal state consisting of South Mudug and Galgadud a week ago. Somali Ambassador to Ethiopia Ahmed Abdisalan who has already wrapped up his campaign with meetings in Dhusamareb and former National Intelligence Agency Chief Fiqi are among the Central State presidency frontrunners. President Mohamud previously backed a proposal by Himan and Heeb to host the convention in Adado.

COMESA Members Urged To Support Somalia

31 March – Source: Somali Current – 156 Words

State Members of Common Market East and Southern Africa (COMESA) have been urged to support the peace efforts in Somalia and the fight against Al Shabaab. Addressing the 14th meeting of the COMESA council of Ministries of Foreign Affairs in Addis Ababa, Ethiopian Foreign Minister Gabre –Christos pointed out the threat Al Shabaab pose in the region and called on COMESA countries to unite in the fight against the group. “[The] terrorism threat posed by Al Shabaab is not only a problem of few countries but each one of us”, the minister said. The minister also called on COMESA countries to prioritize development programs on post-conflict reconstruction through trading-for-peace programs. Somalia is expected to benefit in the free trade agreement between COMESA members as the country rises from the dust. Al Shabaab has been carrying out deadly attacks in East Africa targeting African countries who are part of the AU troops in Somalia.

Scores Of People Detained Over Kismayo Attacks

31 March – Source: Mareeg Media – 170 Words

Huge search operations were carried out in the coastal town of Kismayo on Monday, arresting dozens on suspicion of being Al Shabaab agents after armed gunmen, thought to be the militants, attacked the Juba Intelligence headquarters. Somalia’s Interim Juba aAministrative forces detained scores of people, mainly youths, in connection with Al Shabaab militants who carried out attacks on Juba Intelligence office in the townSunday night, residents said. A resident told Shabelle Media in Mogadishu that all detainees were taken into police station for further interrogations related to the deadly attack on the headquarters, adding that the searches were made via Afmadow and other villages in Kismayo. No official from the Juba administration commented on the operation, and the exact numbers of people detained during the operation launched by the Jubaland army. The crackdown comes after unknown gunmen, believed to be Al Shabaab militants, launched an assault on a center of operation manned by Interim Juba Administrative forces.

Puntland President Abdiweli Gaas Attends Q&A Gathering In Garowe

31 March – Source: RBC Radio – 150 Words

The president of the Puntland government, Dr. Abdiweli Mohamed Ali Gaas, for the first time attended a public question and answer session held at the East Africa University in Garowe, RBC Reports. This question and answer session, that was arranged by the government of Puntland, was attended by ministers, members of parliament, students, and civil society members. The gathering was intended to allow the public to ask the president of Puntland questions and to hear his answers. President Abdiweli Gaas addressed the crowd in a brief speech about Puntland and the developments his government is making in the region. Following President Abdiweli’s short speech, open questions from the public commenced. This event is the first of its kind that Somali leader has arranged.

REGIONAL MEDIA

Kagezi Murder: Terror Trial Suspended

31 March – Source: New Vision – 209 Words

The judiciary has suspended trial of the 13 terrors suspects of the July 2010 Kampala twin bombings following the murder of the lead prosecutor, assistant Director of Public Prosecutions, Joan Kagezi. The trial had been set to proceed on Tuesday at the Main High Court building in Kampala presided over by Justice Alfonse Owiny-Dollo. But the judiciary chief spokesperson Erias Kisawuzi, explained that the gruesome event of the previous day, meant that court could not proceed. The defence lawyers were meant to proceed with cross-examination of the key witness. The accused are Hussein Hassan Agad, Idris Magondu, Isa Ahamed Luyima, Hassan Haruna Luyima, Abubakari Batematyo, and Yahya Suleiman Mbuthia

Also included are Habib Suleiman Njoroge, Omar Awadh Omar, Mohammad Hamid Sulaiman, Seleman Hijar Nyamandondo, Mohammad Ali Mohammad, Dr Ismael Kalule, and Muzafar Luyima. The suspects were not taken to court. Earlier, there was heavy security deployment by Counter-Terrorism Police but it was later scaled down at 11:00am But there was a somber mood as the defence lawyers and Kagezi’s co-prosecutor case senior principal state attorney Lino Anguzu, looked downcast as they chatted and praised her personality. The defence lawyers are Caleb Alaka, Yunus Kasirivu, Julius Galisonga, Francis Onyango, Evans Ochieng, and Annette Badda.

Boatload Of Yemeni Refugees Land In Somalia

31 March – Source: The East African – 222 Words

A boat loaded with refugees fleeing the fighting in Yemen landed Monday in the Somali coastal town of Berbera, which is about 1,600 km northwest of the capital Mogadishu. According to reports confirmed by the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), the boat had 32 Yemenis. Yemen is currently embroiled in heavy fighting with Saudi Arabia conducting airstrikes against Shiite militias from the Houthi community. Reports also indicated that the Yemeni refugees were from Taiz city and that they took 12 hours to cross the Gulf of Aden. Taizz city which lies between the Yemeni capital Sanaa and the port city of Aden was last week taken over by the Houthi rebels who have driven the beleaguered Yemeni President Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi into exile. Berbera town is governed by the self-declared Republic of Somaliland; it has not issued a statement concerning the arrival of the refugees. Meanwhile, Somali Minister for Foreign Affairs Abdisalam Hadliye Omar said on Monday that his government had requested UNHCR to assist in evacuating Somalis caught up in the fighting in Yemen. Hundreds of thousands of Somalis fleeing civil war in Somalia crossed to Yemen over the past two decades. However, the 32 Yemenis who reached Berbera mark the first lot of refugees to cross from the other side.

INTERNATIONAL MEDIA

E. Africa Braces For Security Fallout From Yemen Conflict

31 March – Source: VOA – 733 Words

Saudi-led coalition airstrikes against Houthi Shi’ite rebels in Yemen began last week, but already, security experts are warning that the conflict in Yemen might cause a new security challenge to East Africa. Saudi Arabia is leading an Arab coalition with aerial bombardments to stop the advance of Shi’ite Houthi rebels on the port city of Aden and assure the internationally recognized government led by President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi returns to power. Currently 10 primarily Sunni-Arab states – including several Gulf states, Sudan, Egypt and Morocco – are taking part in the Saudi-led coalition in Yemen.

The move has prompted a growing list of nations to evacuate their citizens and is expected to spark an exodus of refugees – with many of them likely to land in the Horn of Africa nations of Eritrea, Djibouti and Somalia’s autonomous regions. Security analyst Andrew Franklin said the power vacuum in Yemen also posed a huge risk that terrorist groups would expand operations. “The fact that this is the same way so many illegal immigrants flow across into Yemen from Somalia, Somaliland, and Eritrea. There is a tremendous amount of trade between Yemen anyway, a lot of ports, smaller fishing ports, smaller trans-shipping points that were always fully policed. They were in fact policed by the central government in Sana’a; that government is gone. In this environment, much like in Libya, the strong or focus groups such as al-Qaida are able to expand their influence,” he said.

Analyst Yan St. Pierre runs the Berlin-based security firm MOSECON. He agreed that well-established trade routes across the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden would become highways for illegal activities and strengthen terrorism in the region. “The flow of trade from West Africa to East Africa, from North Africa to East Africa and into the Arabian Peninsula has increased because there is a lot of money to be made as well. So definitely there will be an increase in weapons access. And there is no doubt this will affect the dynamic of the conflict in Yemen and in turn the spillover or the effect will affect the relationship of groups like al-Shabab for example and their effectiveness in Somalia, Kenya and neighboring states,” he said. The Somali militant group has lost ground in the last couple years in the face of a concerted military effort by African Union troops and Somali forces. But al-Shabab has continued carrying out suicide and hit-and-run attacks both in and out of Somalia.

Ambassador ‘Bari Bari’ – “We Have Lost A Great Human Rights Advocate,” UN Expert On Somalia Says

31 March – Source: OHCHR – 477 Words

The United Nations Independent Expert on the situation of human rights in Somalia, Bahame Tom Mukirya Nyanduga, condemns the terrorist attack in Mogadishu city on 27 March that took the life of Ambassador Yusuf Mohamed Ismail ‘Bari Bari’, the Permanent Representative of the Federal Republic of Somalia to the UN in Geneva, and resulted in the death and injury of many innocent Somalis. “I condemn in the strongest terms the terrorist attack which resulted in the death and injury of many innocent Somalis, including the death of Ambassador Yusuf Mohamed Ismail ‘Bari Bari’. Somalia and the whole world have lost a great human rights advocate.

Ambassador Bari Bari was personally interested in seeing that the human rights of the ordinary citizens in Somalia are protected. His personal involvement in ensuring that Somalia participated in the universal periodic review of the human rights situation in his country by other States and that the recommendations from this process were translated into a Human Rights Roadmap for Somalia is testament to his commitment to the promotion and protection of human rights in Somalia. During the last nine months, as the UN Independent Expert on the situation of human rights in Somalia, I got to know the late Ambassador Bari Bari, a humble, dedicated and hardworking diplomat, very much committed to the cause of peace, reconciliation and human rights in Somalia. Ambassador Bari Bari had worked very hard with my predecessor, Shamsul Bari, towards the development and the adoption of the Human Rights Road Map, which is now under implementation in Somalia.

SOCIAL MEDIA

CULTURE / OPINION / EDITORIAL / ANALYSIS / BLOGS/ DISCUSSION BOARDS

“There is no official data on illegal fishing, but Yaasin Ali Yuusuf, director general of the Ministry of Fisheries in Puntland, a semi-autonomous region, said many South Korean, Chinese and Iranian vessels have been fishing without license in Somali waters, or with forged license…Yuusuf said locals are looking at ways to chase away foreign trawlers — a move reminiscent of how Somali piracy started in the early 1990s, when successful attacks on fishing boats eventually led to lucrative assaults on oil tankers.”

Rise In Illegal Fishing Threatens To Revive Somali Piracy

31 March – Source: Reuters – 658 Words

A rise in illegal fishing off Somalia could spark a resurgence in piracy, United Nations and Somali fishing officials have warned, nearly three years after the pirates’ last successful hijacking in the Indian Ocean. The last outbreak of Somali piracy cost the world’s shipping industry billions of dollars as pirates paralyzed shipping lanes, kidnapped hundreds of seafarers and seized vessels more than 1,000 miles from Somalia’s coastline. Since then, growing use of private security details and the presence of international warships have effectively neutered the pirates. Yet one side effect of this decline has been a rise in illegal fishing, with trawler captains increasingly confident they can operate with impunity, Somali officials say. Alan Cole, an official at the United Nations Office for Drugs and Crime (ODC), said piracy could return as criminal gangs and pirates use the rise in illegal fishing as a pretext to hijack other vessels.

“The international community has spent millions of dollars trying to counter piracy, help Somalia and make sure that (sea) trade is not interrupted, but because of the activity of a relatively small number of illegal fishing vessels, all that is put at risk,” Cole said. The last successful hijacking took place in May 2012 and some 26 sailors are still being held captive by Somali pirates seeking ransom, down from about 750 at the peak of piracy crisis at the beginning of the decade, U.N. officials said. Security measures taken by shipping companies and the presence of the 30-country Coalition Maritime Forces (CMF) naval group means any fresh piracy outburst is likely to be contained. However, the merest hint of a return to the bad old days will once again push up insurance premiums, meaning the cost to the global shipping industry could be significant. A 2014 report by the Oceans Beyond Piracy group put the total economic cost of Somali piracy — by far the largest single threat to international shipping in recent years — at $3.2 billion in 2013, down from $6 billion in 2012.