NATIONAL MEDIA
31 July – Source: Halbeeg – 183 Words
Somali President Mohamed Abdullahi Farmajo held a meeting with officials from the Ministry of the Constitution, Parliamentary Constitutional Committee as well as the Constitutional Review Committee on Wednesday. The Minister of Constitution, Salah Ahmed Jama briefed the Head of State on the progress made on the review process on the vital document in the past two years.
The officials led by the Minister underlined the significance of the constitution-making process for the country while confirming that they have finalised the technically related sections but need more time and dialogue on contentious topics that affect political aspects in the federal nation. On his side, President Mohamed Abdullahi Farmajo, who chaired the special meeting, reiterated his government’s commitment to the completion of the provisional constitution which is still under review.
The Deputy Prime Mahdi Mohamed Guled, the chair of the Parliamentary Committee on Constitution, Abdi Hassan Awale and the Chair of the Independent Constitutional Review Committee, Mohamed Dahir Afrah were present at the event. Completion of the constitutional review process was one of the pledges made by President Farmajo after his election on February 2017.
INTERNATIONAL MEDIA
31 July – Source: Associated Press – 280 Words
Officials on Wednesday reopened the Kenyan luxury hotel complex that Al-Shabaab attacked in January in the deadliest extremist assault inside the country in several years. Twenty-one people were killed in the hours-long attack on the dusitD2 complex in Nairobi. Several Al-Shabaab gunmen stormed the area, detonating explosives and sending panicked people fleeing. Kenyan security forces ended the siege of the complex the following day, with all attackers killed. More than 700 people were evacuated.
”We cannot be intimidated by terrorists,” Kenya’s tourism and wildlife minister, Najib Balala, told the gathering on Wednesday. “I want to assure the facility of the government’s support as they reopen for business that such an incident will never happen again.” The January attack demonstrated Al-Shabaab’s continued ability to carry out spectacular acts of bloodshed despite a dramatic increase in U.S. airstrikes against it in Somalia under President Donald Trump.
The Al-Qaeda-linked Al-Shabaab, based in neighboring Somalia, has vowed retribution after Kenya sent troops to fight the extremists in 2011. Another large-scale Al-Shabaab attack on a nearby Nairobi mall, Westgate, in 2013 killed 67 people. Kenyan security forces have been praised for their quick response to the January attack, in contrast to their fumbling response to the 2013 one. Al-Shabaab has killed hundreds of people in Kenya. In the deadliest attack, the extremist group claimed responsibility for an assault on Kenya’s Garissa University in 2015 that killed 147 people, mostly students.
Tourism — an important source of revenue in Kenya, East Africa’s largest economy — has suffered because of the years of violence. ”We have received immense support and love from Kenyans during this period,” the dusitD2 management tweeted on Wednesday after months of renovations.
31 July – Source: The East African – 492 Words
Insurgent and government forces in Somalia together account for some of the highest numbers of children abused in conflicts worldwide, the United Nations secretary-general said on Tuesday. Somalia is ranked as the world’s leading violator of prohibitions against recruitment and use of children for military purposes, with 2,300 such cases documented last year.
Sexual violence against children also occurred more frequently in Somalia than in any of 20 conflict situations globally, UN leader Antonio Guterres said. In an annual report on children and armed conflict, Mr Guterres cited 331 cases in Somalia of rape and other sexual abuses of children. Somalia likewise led the world in the number of children abducted in 2018. More than 1,600 such incidents were reported for Somalia — more than four times the number recorded for the Democratic Republic of Congo, which ranked as second-worst in the world in child abductions.
Most of the abuses of children in Somalia were carried out by Al-Shabaab, Mr Guterres noted. For example, the militant group killed or maimed 437 boys and girls last year. But Somali government forces were also deemed responsible for a large number of child casualties — 113 attributed to the national army and 26 to the police. Somalia’s army and police also recruited a total of 248 children. Al-Shabaab, which far surpassed that total, is increasing its use of child soldiers, the UN noted. The militants recruited 1,865 children last year, “including by forcing clan elders and parents to provide children or face reprisal,” the secretary-general said….
31 July – Source: The East African – 347 Words
Somalia-based Islamic insurgency Al-Shabaab has ordered traditional leaders to adopt a new dress code. They did not specify what the new dress code would entail. According to Al-Andalus—a radio station run by the Al-Shabaab jihadists—as of Sunday 159 elders had complied with the order issued a fortnight ago.
The Al-Qaeda affiliated group had ordered all the elders and delegates that choose the members of Somalia’s federal legislative (the lower and the upper chamber – senate) and the state councils to register themselves with militia group within 45 days, according to Al-Andalus. The elders are reportedly from Hirshabelle, Galmudug, Jubaland and Southwest states. So far, no elder from Puntland, the authority in northeastern Somalia, responded to the jihadists’ order. Federal Somali government and state officials have repeatedly warned the hundreds of elders and delegates participating in the election process to disregard the orders.
Under Somali’s electoral system, elders choose the members of the parliament who in turn elect the president. Some reports indicate that Al-Shabaab militants are also compelling the elders and delegates under their custody to learn their version of ‘Islamic studies’. Over the last two years, many elders and delegates have been targets of killings claimed by Al-Shabaab because of their role in the election of the MP and state councils.
“The elders seem to be between the devil and the deep blue sea,” Hassan Mohamoud, a political commentator in Mogadishu, told this paper. “For obvious security reasons, they fear disobeying the Al-Shabaab orders, while on the other they are afraid of backlash from the government and state security institutions,” he added.
In the absence of one-man, one vote system, Somalia has been employing a power sharing arrangement known as 4.5 Formula that considers four major clans and a coalition (0.5) made of smaller clans. The fresh Al-Shabaab orders are a new challenge to the system that has been in use over the last two decades. Though forced out of major cities, Al-Shabaab controls large parts of rural Somalia and continues to carry out attacks in the capital and other parts of the country.
OPINION, ANALYSIS AND CULTURE
“As part of the festival, the organisers have worked on ensuring that they nurture a new generation of Somali readers and writers. To this end, writers’ workshops form a strong part of the festival and the products are published and presented at the next festival. This year, festival guests received a poetry anthology from a workshop held last year.”
31 July – Source: Mail & Guardian – 854 Words
I spent last week at arguably the most well-organised and longest running book festival in East Africa, the Hargeysa International Book Fair. It was my first time to visit Somaliland despite being a resident of East Africa for a few years now. Before arrival, I and all the other guests received an email on some common courtesies. It did not escape me that most of the rules were for women.
We were to ensure that we were dressed modestly and covered our hair. I duly packed, even though I felt in some way that I was betraying my feminist principles and yet too, I was going to Somaliland as a guest and not South Africa, which is my home. I have always thought it pragmatic to follow the rules of one’s hosts or, if one feels strongly enough, turning down the invitation. I took enough modest dresses. The one day I wore a calf-length dress (obviously now immodest in my mind) because everything of mine was being laundered, I was consistently self-conscious.
That said, it was a wonderful festival. Held at the Hargeysa Cultural Centre, which has offices, performance space, a library and a couple of exhibition halls, I couldn’t help but think this is exactly what a festival space should be like. The library, open throughout the year, is small but strong on Somaliland literature but also much literature from the rest of Africa. (Egypt was the guest country this year and South Africa two years ago. There was literature from both countries). I was almost tempted to take photos and send to the head librarian at Sandton library.
As part of the festival, the organisers have worked on ensuring that they nurture a new generation of Somali readers and writers. To this end, writers’ workshops form a strong part of the festival and the products are published and presented at the next festival. This year, festival guests received a poetry anthology from a workshop held last year. Despite being centred on books, as every book festival should be, there were also other forms of art. Perhaps because of being asked to wear a scarf, I did not expect music and dancing. We had plenty of it.
At a dinner hosted by the president, musician Maxamed BK, who seemed to have Somaliland teenage girls and older women eating out of his hand, went on stage to perform his hit, Dhulkeyga Somaliland. Young men and women also performed some traditional Somali dance with Maxamed BK. For some reason, I had not imagined that there would be interaction between the genders. In the next few days, I realised how many misconceptions I had harboured. Beyond singing and dancing together, men and women walked, worked and ate together in restaurants in Hargeisa and even in the village of Las Geel where we went to see the cave paintings…… |
