April 21, 2016 | Morning Headlines
Up To 500 Migrants May Have Drowned In Mediterranean Tragedy: UNHCR
20 April – Source: Reuters – 400 Words
Up to 500 migrants might have drowned in the Mediterranean last week when human traffickers crammed people onto an already overcrowded ship, causing it to sink, the U.N. refugee agency said on Wednesday. If confirmed, it would be the worst such tragedy in 12 months and bring the total number of migrant drownings in the southern Mediterranean to nearly 800 so far this year.
The UNHCR agency said 37 men, three women and a three-year-old child had survived the disaster after being rescued by a merchant ship. The group, which was brought to Greece on April 16, included Somalis, Ethiopians, Egyptians and one Sudanese. The survivors recounted that they had been among 100 to 200 people who had set sail from Libya last week headed for Italy. After several hours at sea, the traffickers tried to move them onto a bigger ship that was already packed with migrants.
This ship sank before the survivors could board it. An Ethiopian man named Mohamed told the International Organization for Migration (IOM) that his wife, two-month-old child and brother-in-law had died in the sinking: “The boat was going down, down. All the people died in a matter of minutes. After the shipwreck we were drifted at sea for a few days, without food, without anything,” the IOM quoted him as saying.
UNHCR spokesperson William Spindler said the eyewitnesses estimated that up to 500 people might have perished: “We don’t know exactly how many were there on that boat and they have now disappeared from the face of the earth,” he told Reuters television said. “This is another example of what is happening almost in a daily basis in the Mediterranean.” The Somali government said on Monday that it believed that some 200 of the dead were from Somalia.
Key Headlines
- Up To 500 Migrants May Have Drowned In Mediterranean Tragedy: UNHCR (Reuters)
- Gunmen In Somali Army Uniform Kill 3 Children In Mogadishu (Shabelle News)
- Person Killed And Another One Injured In Landmine Blast In Marka (Goobjoog News)
- Somali Electoral College Will Pick House Members (The Gulf Today)
- Russia Ready To Sell Arms To Somalia After Sanctions Lifted (Sputnik News)
- Report Shows Many Mombasa Street Children Radicalised (Daily Nation)
- One Year Later Daughter Pays Tribute To Mum Killed In Terror Attack (The Star)
NATIONAL MEDIA
Gunmen In Somali Army Uniform Kill 3 Children In Mogadishu
20 April – Source: Shabelle News – 132 Words
At least three children, including a six-year-old girl, were shot and killed, and dozens more wounded in Mogadishu by unknown gunmen dressed in Somali military uniform, witnesses said. The shooting incident happened at Al Bakaro village in Hodon district on Tuesday evening when the gunmen in the army uniform opened fire at a crowd in the area, killing 3 children on the spot.
According to a witness, who asked not to be identified, the unknown assailants carried out the shooting on innocent civilians after a car driving by flashed full lights on them as they robbed local villagers. Somali security forces immediately cordoned off the scene of the crime, and carried out a manhunt that nonetheless failed to arrest the culprits.
Person Killed And Another One Injured In Landmine Blast In Marka
20 April – Source: Goobjoog News – 109 Words
At least one person was killed and another sustained injuries when their car rammed into landmines suspected to have been planted near a garage in Marko. The incident, according to our source, took place in the town centre at about 2:30am: “The vehicle ran over a landmine that we suspect had been planted there. It killed one person and injured another,” said a witness who sought anonymity. Medical sources in Marka said the person who was injured in the blast was in serious condition. There has been no claim of responsibility for the attack. The Somali government has not issued an official comment either.
INTERNATIONAL MEDIA
Somali Electoral College Will Pick House Members
21 April – Source: The Gulf Today – 244 Words
Somalia’s President has said the Horn of Africa nation, which is grappling with violent extremists, has agreed that an electoral college with almost 14,000 people will elect members of parliament later this year — a hundred times more than the 135 elders who selected current members in 2012.
Hassan Sheikh Mohamud told the UN Security Council that this year’s electoral process will take the country “one step closer to universal suffrage,” and planning is already under way for one-person, one-vote elections by 2020. He said this year’s electoral process will see a choice of candidates, voting not just in the capital Mogadishu but across Somalia, a dispute resolution process, and 30 per cent of seats reserved for women.
Somalia has been trying to rebuild after establishing its first functioning central government since 1991, when warlords overthrew a longtime dictator and turned on each other, plunging the impoverished nation into chaos. Al Shabaab rebels were ousted from Mogadishu in 2011 and have been pushed out of other key cities but they are not yet defeated, and the government remains weak.
While almost 80 per cent of the country has been liberated from Al Shabab, the president said “terrorism and violent extremism” still pose a threat: “We cannot and will not quit before it is successfully completed,” Mohamud said. “Further resources and commitment are needed now more than ever to chop off the head of the venomous snake of terror once and for all.”
Russia Ready To Sell Arms To Somalia After Sanctions Lifted
20 April – Source: Sputnik News – 162 Words
Russia is ready to fulfill weapons sales requests from any country including Somalia, once the sanctions imposed on it are lifted, a senior spokesman of the Federal Service for Military-Technical Cooperation said Wednesday.
“Russia is ready to satisfy requests for arms deliveries from all countries, including Somalia, should they not be subjected to sanctions,” the official told RIA Novosti.On Tuesday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said that Mogadishu would like Moscow’s support in developing the Somali economy and strengthening its armed forces. Russia is ready to consider cooperating with Somalia in the military-technical field, according to Lavrov.
The UN Security Council introduced an arms embargo on Somalia in January 1992. The move followed the outbreak of the ongoing Somali Civil War. Today, parts of southern Somalia are controlled by the al-Qaeda affiliated Al-Shabaab group, while piracy off the coast of Somalia has been a threat to international shipping since around 2005, with most pirate attacks concentrated in the Gulf of Aden.
Report Shows Many Mombasa Street Children Radicalised
20 April – Source: Daily Nation – 610 Words
About 60 per cent of street children in Kenya’s coastal city of Mombasa are radicalised, 90 per cent of them being members of criminal gangs, a study has revealed. Findings just released from the survey conducted by Human Rights Agenda (Huria), a Mombasa-based civil society group, indicate that most of them use drugs such as bhang, cocaine and alcohol. They also chew miraa.
This may explain why several street children have in the past been recruited by Al-Shabaab agents to go to Somalia, according to intelligence information. The report sent to the Nation by Huria CEO Yusuf Lule on Tuesday shows poverty is one of the leading reasons for the street children leaving home for towns: “Poverty contributes 36.1 per cent of the reasons for resorting to stay in the streets. Other major reasons are family conflicts (19.9 per cent), parental neglect, physical abuse, peer pressure, step mother/father hatred and wanting to be free,” it adds.
The survey focussed on eight zones of Mombasa – Kibarani dumping site, Mwembe Tayari, Maboksini slums, Makadara, Tononoka, Ganjoni, Railways and Marikiti. Majority of the street children, some over 20 years old, stay within Tononoka and Maboksini (36.5 and 36 per cent respectively), the survey indicates. The bigger number of the street children (83 per cent) are male and sleep on the streets, bus stations, road pavements and structures within dumping sites.
“Only eight out of the 190 interviewed said they were born in the streets,” said the report adding that most of them survive on vending stolen goods, begging, prostitution and anti-social acts such as mugging: “Although more than 80 per cent went to primary school, less than 35 per cent completed standard eight. About 10 per cent have secondary school or tertiary education,” it added.
OPINION, ANALYSIS, AND CULTURE
“She was enthusiastic about education and worked for Unicef Somalia as an education specialist. She traveled to Somalia time and time again, knowing all too well the risks and danger. But she did it without any hesitation. She worked hard on project after project; wanting to make a difference in childrens’ lives, especially girls.”
One Year Later, Daughter Pays Tribute To Mum Killed In Terror Attack
20 April – Source: The Star – 653 Words
On April 20 2015, a suicide bomber blew himself up next a bus carrying staff from UNICEF Somalia in Garowe, Puntland. Four people were killed, including Woki Munyui who had been a champion of girls’ education in Somalia since 2007. Her eldest daughter Ivy Mokua shares memories of her late mother, and how she has been dealing with the tragic loss.
“It’s been one year since mum was taken away from us, and I am still unable to put my thought about that day in order. That Monday started like any other normal day. I went through my daily routine as usual-wake up, work out, text mum and so on. But then my father called, telling me to quickly rush to his place as we needed to talk urgently. So my sister Lucy and I dashed over.
The moment I saw his face, I knew something terrible had happened. My world, our family’s world, shattered at that moment. The very person who was so true and dear to me was taken away from me – so crudely and senselessly. I have never felt such pain. It was also at that moment my life changed from being just a 20-year-old enjoying her youth to one with 45-year-old responsibilities. Being the first born, I knew I had to step up. But how could I ever fill the shoes of a woman who seemed to do it all so easily without breaking a sweat?
A year has gone by and it still seems like a dream. I have been hoping that one day I will wake up and see her doing her morning exercises before jetting off to work, hear her ordering us around to do our chores or boasting in front of Lucy and I when she’s all dressed up on the weekends. No matter how much I have hoped for it to happen, it never does.
The void left inside of me when she was taken away from us is so deep. Nothing has been able to replace her, and nothing will. I miss her. But I know the best way to preserve my memory of her, is to be as much her daughter as possible – diligent, hardworking, joyous, kind, honest and always be generous and loving to others.
We will not let her legacy die. She was enthusiastic about education and worked for Unicef Somalia as an education specialist. She traveled to Somalia time and time again, knowing all too well the risks and danger. But she did it without any hesitation. She worked hard on project after project; wanting to make a difference in childrens’ lives, especially girls. She knew the value of books and pens, as she herself was a shining example of overcoming great obstacles through education. And with her skills and experience as an English teacher, she was so good at it.