April 10, 2015 | Daily Monitoring Report.
AMISOM Troops Reaches Adado Town To Safeguard Central State Formation Conference
10 April – Source: Goobjoog News – 111 Words
Ethiopian troops under the African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM) have reached Adado town to safeguard the Central State Formation conference which will kick off on Saturday. The troops have set up temporary bases on the Adado airstrip, where the conference will be held and where accommodation has been organized for the delegates. The administration of Himan and Heb has not yet commented on the arrival of the Ethiopian troops. On April 1, 2015, Ahlu Sunnah Wal Jamah blocked the Djiboutian contingent of AMISOM convoy en route to Adado, where they were initially tasked to secure the Central State Formation Conference.
Key Headlines
- AMISOM Troops Reaches Adado Town To Safeguard Central State Formation Conference(Goobjoog News)
- Premier Sharmarke Expected In Garowe Today (Wacaal Media)
- IJA Comments On Kenyan Planes Targeting Al Shabaab Bases (Goobjoog News)
- Effects Of Hawala Closure Felt In Kenya (Wacaal Media)
- Global Somali Diaspora Decries Kenya’s Decision To Close Hawalas (Somali Current)
- Somalia Reward For Information On Terrorists Updated (The Star Kenya)
- Fire Security Staff Over Lapse Clerics Urge (Mediamax Network)
- Kenya Plans Great Wall To Block Terror (Mail & Guardian)
- Aid Agencies Urge Kenya To let Somali Remittances Resume (Reuters)
- Think Again – Somaliland and the Trouble With a Free Press (Institute for Security Studies)
- Clan Federalism Continues to Thwart Reconciliation and Democratic Governance in Somalia (Somali Current)
- Can Radio Drama Improve Child Health And Nutrition In Somalia? (BBC Media Action)
SOMALI MEDIA
Premier Sharmarke Expected In Garowe Today
10 April – Source: Wacaal Media – 111 Words
Somali Mr. Omar Abdirashid Ali Sharmarke is scheduled to visit Garowe, the administrative headquarters of Puntland, today. Sources told Wacaal Media that the premier is expected to attend meetings regarding the formation of regional administrations for several regions in the country. Preparations for his visit are in top gear in Garowe according o Wacaal’s local correspondent. This will be Mr. Sharmarke’s first visit to Puntland since he was re-appointed to the position of prime minister.
IJA Comments On Kenyan Planes Targeting Al Shabaab Bases
10 April – Source: Goobjoog News – 152 Words
The Interim Jubba Administration has for the first time commented on the airstrikes conducted by Kenyan warplanes against Al-Shabaab bases in parts of Gedo region. Major General Mohamud Abdi Sheikh Hujale speaking to reporters said that IJA knows all about the air operations carried out by Kenyan air force. “We are aware of the bombings, and it is part of the AMISOM mission which is intended to annihilate Al-Shabab fighters and their bases in the region,” he said. Hujale added that IJA forces have carried out massive operations in Kismayo town and its surrounding areas to track down Al-Shabab fighters. He said that their soldiers have the capability to confront Al-Shabab fighters, and will soon recapture towns still under Al-Shabab hands.“Fighting needs tactics and tricks but Al shabab cannot confront our soldiers, and they are very weak therefore their work [has become]ambushing the troops and using hit and run tactics,” he said.
Effects Of Hawala Closure Felt In Kenya
10 April – Source: Wacaal Media – 134 Words
News making headlines in Kenya includes the closure of Somali-owned money transfer companies and how it has affected the Somali community living in the country. The Kenyan government this week released a list of 86 entities whose accounts were frozen for suspected involvement in terror activities. They include 13 hawalas. Apart from Somalis, several non–Somali Kenyans have also come out complaining about the closure and its effect on them. Paul, a taxi driver and a Kenyan national, was asked how it affected him and this is what he had to say: “Yes, it has really affected me. I used to serve up to seven clients in a day but for today I only got one customer. It has really affected our economy,” he said. The closure entered its third day on Friday.
Global Somali Diaspora Decries Kenya’s Decision To Close Hawalas
09 April – Source: Somali Current- 242 Words
Global Somali Diaspora has decried Kenya’s decision to close 13 Somali hawalas, terming the move a ‘tragedy’, and called on the Kenyan government to reconsider its decision. The group emphasized the importance of hawalas to Kenyan Somali community as well as Somali refugees living in the country and has warned of dire consequence if the Kenyan government sticks on its decision. The Deputy Director of Global Somali Diaspora, Sadik Warfa, urged the Kenyan government to differentiate between those who are terrorists or terrorist sympathizers and those who are innocent people, and called on the Kenyan government to stop collective punishment against Somalis in Kenya.
“We further call upon the government of Kenya to help make [a] clear distinction between those who are terrorists, those who sympathize, fund, and shelter terrorists –all of whom must be discovered and punished, and those innocents who are caught in the crossfire of trying to live their lives in peace as refugee or longstanding Kenyan Somali residents and business people,’’ Sadik Warfa said. The group has called on East African countries to join together with others affected in one voice about how essential remittances are to Somalis. The Kenyan government has frozen 86 individuals, companies and organizations’ accounts including 13 Somali hawalas whom the government accused of financing and supporting Al Shabaab. Global Somali Diaspora is an international organization whose mission is to safeguards the rights, dignity and cultural values of Somalis around the world. The group headquarters is located in London, UK, and Minneapolis, USA.
REGIONAL MEDIA
Somalia Reward For Information On Terrorists Updated
10 April – Source: The Star Kenya – 210 Words
Somalia yesterday announced a bounty of between $100,000 (Sh9.2 million) and $250,000 (Sh23.3 million) on the heads of 13 most wanted terror suspects. In the list is Kenya’s Mohamed Mohamud, alias Gamadere, on whose head the Kenyan government put Sh20 million bounty last week. Somalia announced a reward of $100,000 to anyone with a report leading to his arrest or death.He is said to be the mastermind of the Garissa University College attack in which 147 students were killed. The list is topped by Ahmad Ubaidah, the al Shabaab leader, for whom there is the maximum $250,000 reward.
Others are Mahad Warsameh, alias Karaatay ($150,000), Ali Mohamud, alias Rage Dheere ($100,000), Abdullahi Jimale, alias Zubeib ($100,000), Mohamed Noor, alias Suldaan ($100,000), Ali Hussein, alias Jeesto ($100,000) and Ali Mohamed, alias Jabaal.Also in the list are other most wanted terrorists Hassan Ahmed, alias Afgooye, Abdulhi Ismail, Abdulhi Osman, Mohamed Muse, alias Haabil and Yassin, alias Osman Kilwa. This bounty on Gamadere is expected to boost efforts to arrest or kill him. He is said to be hiding in the Gedo region of Somalia after the Garissa attack. Intelligence reports indicate he is in charge of operations against Kenya.
Fire Security Staff Over Lapse, Clerics Urge
10 April – Source: Mediamax Network- 254 Words
Mainstream churches now want top security chiefs sent packing for sleeping on intelligence reports that would have foiled last week’s terror attack on Garissa University College. Church leaders under the umbrella, Mainstream Christian Churches Forum, yesterday claimed the attack would have been thwarted had the security apparatus acted on the available information about the impending attack.
The church leaders want action taken against the heads of the security organs for “failed the country and causing the death of 148 people. “We are shocked to know the government, through its intelligence services, knew of the impending attack, yet did nothing. We shall not tire in reminding the government to take its responsibility of protecting Kenyans more seriously,” said a joint statement read on behalf of the clerics by ACK Archbishop Eliud Wabukala.
“Top security chiefs must take responsibility for negligence and abdication of duty that led to the horrific massacre,” he added. The leaders spoke when they visited families of victims of the attack at Chiromo mortuary. They said there were serious lapses in the chain of command of the security system. The call comes on a day State House spokesperson Manoah Esipisu admitted gaps in the response to the attack. “Did we do something wrong in Garissa? Yes, of course. It is always a learning curve. The only person with all cards is a terrorist. He knows where and when, what time to strike. You react and in reacting, there are always lapses,” said Esipisu during Kenya Editors’ Guild breakfast meeting in Nairobi yesterday.
INTERNATIONAL MEDIA
Kenya Plans Great Wall To Block Terror
10 April – Source: Mail & Guardian – 897 Words
Kenya may start building a wall on its border with Somalia, a week after al-Shabab attacked Garissa University College, killing 147 students. The plan is to build a wall along various sections of the porous eastern border that is a gateway for militants and thousands of undocumented refugees. Joseph Nkaissery, Kenya’s interior Cabinet secretary, told journalists that in a bid to reduce illegal border entries the wall would start in the town of Mandera in the North near the borders of Somalia and Ethiopia, and end in Wajir in the Northeast about 100km from Somalia. “Mandera [in Kenya] and Bula Hawa [in Somalia] are almost merged and you cannot tell which is which,” said Nkaissery. The wall will be made of concrete and fencing. The governor of Lamu county, Issa Timamy, told journalists that he had been briefed about the initiative and said the wall was expected to be completed before the end of this year. Kenya is divided into 47 devolved governments, each headed by an elected governor, but security remains the function of the national government.
“This is where immigrants have been arrested trying to cross into the country or having already entered through the border in Lamu. This [wall] is a good idea and we support it because we believe it will go a long way to secure the region and, indeed, the country as a whole,” Timamy told Kenya’s Daily Nation. Another section identified to be protected is along the coast. The area to be secured is also in Lamu county, with the wall running near the towns of Kiunga and Ishakani in Lamu East to control traffic from Ras Kamboni in Somalia. It is not yet clear whether the wall will be continuous along the border. A source indicated that the sections near the main border posts would be concrete and the other sections fencing. Kenya’s border with Somalia stretches for about 680km and policing it is almost impossible because of the numerous entry points along it. Though specific details of the wall such as the costs, the thickness, the length, and other specifications are still scanty, the Kenyan government has suggested that construction will start this week. It could not be established where the funding is coming from and whether the work has gone to tender. Kenya struggles with corruption, particularly in government procurement systems. But the country’s security system does not usually stick to government’s prescribed procurement standards, citing security reasons.
Aid Agencies Urge Kenya To let Somali Remittances Resume
09 April – Source: Reuters – 488 Words
Aid agencies urge Kenya to allow Somali money transfer firms to resume operations, expressing concern that halting remittances will hurt struggling families and relief operations in Somalia. On Wednesday, Kenya suspended the licenses of 13 Somali money transfer agencies in Nairobi in an effort to curb the financing of insurgents. This followed the recent massacre of 148 students at Kenya’s Garissa University College by al Shabaab militants. “Somali families are losing their only formal, transparent and regulated channel through which to send and receive money,” said a statement issued by a group of relief agencies including Oxfam, CARE, Mercy Corps, Adeso and World Vision Somalia. “Aid agencies working in Somalia also risk losing their only means of transferring money to sustain their daily humanitarian and development operations,” it said.
Each year Somalis abroad use money transfer operators to send home an estimated $1.3 billion, more than all humanitarian and development aid to the country combined, according to a 2013 report by aid groups Oxfam, Adeso and the Inter-American Dialogue. The money provides a lifeline to millions of people in a country rebuilding itself despite an insurgency by Islamist militants as well as widespread hunger and recurring drought. It is not only Somalis in Somalia who are at risk of losing a vital lifeline, but also Kenya’s Somali community, which numbers just over one million. “It’s going to hurt Somalis in Kenya more than Somalis in Somalia. The amount of money sent from abroad to Kenya is huge,” Somalia’s central bank governor Bashir Issa Ali said on Wednesday. Aid groups said that many of the remittance companies whose licenses were suspended in Kenya were delivering legitimate funds, and urged Kenyan authorities to vet them on an individual basis.
SOCIAL MEDIA
CULTURE / OPINION / EDITORIAL / ANALYSIS / BLOGS/ DISCUSSION BOARDS
“But not all journalism is created equal, and to fulfil its role as watchdog the media must play its part with skill and professionalism. This is, for the most part, not happening either. President Silanyo was right. Somaliland is not a dictatorship, and enjoys a level of press freedom better than elsewhere in the region. There’s no doubt, however, that there is room for improvement – not just in how the government treats journalists, but also in how journalists do their jobs.”
Think Again – Somaliland and the Trouble With a Free Press
08 April – Source: Institute for Security Studies – 1,032 Words
In mid-March, at a press conference at Hargeisa’s shiny new airport, a cocky young journalist gathered up his courage and asked Somaliland’s President Ahmed Mohamed Silanyo a difficult question. Is it true, he asked, that the president was a dictator? Silanyo responded perfectly: ‘If this were a dictatorship, you wouldn’t have asked those questions.’ The self-declared (although internationally unrecognised) Republic of Somaliland, otherwise a veritable beacon of democracy and good governance in the Horn of Africa, is often criticised for its attitude to the media. Illegal arrests and detentions of journalists and editors are common, and some media houses have been shut down by the government. It’s not a good look for the territory that is trying so desperately to press its case for international recognition. But maybe things aren’t as bad as they seem. Truth is, it’s complicated – more complicated than a simple human rights narrative can capture.
At first glimpse, the press in Somaliland is varied and vibrant. Newspaper sellers stroll from coffee shop to coffee shop in the capital Hargeisa carrying bundles of tabloid-size titles, in both English and Somali. There are several private television broadcasters, and too many online publishers to count. The standard newspaper mix is a few pages of unique local content with international and sport news culled from the wires (without attribution or royalties). These papers don’t pull their punches. Take this front-page column from the 23 March edition of The Horn, coincidentally on the subject of press freedom. It is typical. ‘It defies credulity that [President] Ahmed Silanyo would charge journalists with treason when he was engaged in exactly the same behaviour when he was in opposition … the use of these words is a marker for a descent into fascism,’ writes Adan Iman, who goes on to attack the president personally: ‘His age, which is not less than 80 years, and his bullying and autocratic streak, will be a factor in the election.’ These are not, on the face of it, the words of a media that has been cowed into submission. But how can we reconcile this frank and borderline libellous criticism with the government’s hardline stance?
“Strangely, one of the modus operandi of the federal government is to sign foreign and domestic agreements without commitment to honor them, submit them to public knowledge and scrutiny, and legal process for legitimization. This harms the respect and trust of federal government…Either incompetence or Machiavellian leadership has fomented antagonism among close and peaceful communities, and delegitimizes the process of federation.”
Clan Federalism Continues to Thwart Reconciliation and Democratic Governance in Somalia
08 April – Source: Somali Current – 1,325 Words
As the communities of Jubbaland and Southwest are experiencing [relative peace], close and peaceful communities in Mudug and Galgudud regions are suffering from the tragic consequences of political acrimony fomented by the denounced clan federalism under implementation without constitutional, political, and administrative foundations. Although there is an urgent need for effective self-governance, Mudug and Galgudud communities and their leaders did not receive adequate information about the rules and policies of ownership and leadership of the federation process at local and national levels. So far, each federation process has different dominant actors, backers, and arbitrary rules made up ad hoc. Formally, the federation process of Mudug and Galgudud regions started with an agreement signed after “secret deals” by two different groups: 1. three local entities- Galmudug State, Ximan and Xeb State, and Ahlu Sunna Wal Jama (ASWJ); and 2. Four Ministries of the Federal Government of Somalia (FGS). There was no formal or informal relation between these two groups. Then, a technical committee composed of members belonging to the clans inhabiting in the two regions, was formed. The agreement left unclear the role of its signatories and other stakeholders during the implementation. Immediately, disputes raised by stakeholders stalled the federation process, which lacked proper mechanisms for solution.
As a result of this confusion, the majority of community leaders of the two regions held a meeting in Dhusa-Mareb, the capital of Galgudud region, for consultation and reconciliation. President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud made extraordinary efforts to abort the meeting for undisclosed but suspected reasons. Subsequently, irritated by the continuation of the meeting, he travelled twice to Dhusa-Mareb to shut down it without success. Both visits have deepened the disagreement between the president and the community leaders and hardened the positions of both sides. This fits the situations described in an article on “the present politics in Somalia” published on April 4th in the Economist. The article points out the failure of the FGS and the reluctance of the international partners of Somalia to admit it. For the sake of emphasis, recent Policy Brief published by the Heritage Institute of Policy Studies in Mogadishu under the title, “Federal Somalia: Not if but How” has confirmed the ills of clan federalism. The Brief has illustrated that the process of federation is unconstitutional, chaotic, unpopular, divisive, and seed for potential conflict. Clan federalism thwarts reconciliation and democratic governance in Somalia. But the international partners of Somalia have made their mind on clan Federalism and cannot be swayed by political reality, Somali dissension and concerns.
“Tiraarka Qoyska’s drama plots modelled recommended behaviours around health relevant to the audience’s daily experiences in an entertaining and emotionally engaging way. Set in a fictional camp for internally displaced people, the drama’s characters reflected all three regions of the country – Somaliland, Puntland and South Central Somalia. Some characters followed traditional health practices while others used modern treatments. Two stories featured the deaths of characters’ babies, which were later shown to be among the programme elements that audiences remembered the most.”
Can Radio Drama Improve Child Health And Nutrition In Somalia?
April 2015 Issue – Source: BBC Media Action – 11 Pages
Research briefing examining how Tiraarka Qoyska (Pillars of the Family), a weekly radio health drama, improved child health and nutrition in Somalia. The child mortality rate in Somalia is among the highest in the world; almost 15 out of every 100 children die before their fifth birthday – a legacy, in part, of decades of civil conflict and natural disaster. To help encourage better nutrition, hygiene and health, BBC Media Action, with support from Unicef, ran a media and communication project in Somalia from 2011 to 2013.
Tiraarka Qoyska, a weekly radio health programme ran for 75 episodes on the BBC Somali service. The programme included a studio-based factual programme and a drama called Dareemo (meaning “hay”). Our research briefing presents key findings on the impact of listening to the programme, concluding that engaging drama can be an effective format for sharing health information and influencing best practice.
Top tweets
@Hamza_Africa: Mukhtar Robow who is on FBI’s Reward 4 Justice list with bounty of $5m not in #Somalia‘s #AlShabaabmost wanted list
@jamesbget: #Yemenis are fleeing to #Eritrea, #Djibouti and#Somalia – reversing the trend of refugees from the Horn of#Africa going to #Yemen.
@Suldaan_ : The Tsunami of 2004 exposed the dumping of radioactive chemical waste in Somali waters. #LeaveOurWaters#Somalia
@citizentvkenya Religious leaders from Nakuru have cautioned Kenyans against being divided along religious lines following the Garissa University attack
@Knight_Assoc: #Somalia corruption facilitates illegal fishing.https://somaliagenda.com/
@citizentvkenya Omar: The war against Al Shabaab must be fought by everybody and not be left to Somalia. #PowerBreakfast
Image of the day
Mine action & explosives management are part of preconditions for human security and development in emerging post-conflict societies. Photo: AMISOM