August 20, 2013 | Daily Monitoring Report.

Main Story

Somali president to meet Ethiopian PM

20 Aug – Source: Radio Mogadishu/Bar-kulan/SNTV/Mustaqbal – 111 words

Somali president Hassan Sheikh Mohamud is set to meet Ethiopian Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn after arriving in Addis Ababa on Monday ahead of the talks between Somali Federal government and Jubbaland administration.

The two leaders are expected to discuss wide range of issues including the relations between the two countries. President Mohamud is also scheduled to attend the first anniversary of the death of late Ethiopian Prime Minister, Meles Zenawi in Addis Ababa which will start on the 20th of August.

Mr. Mohamud previously affirmed that his administration is determined and willing to strengthen its diplomatic ties with the neighboring countries.

Key Headlines

Somali president to meet Ethiopian PM (Radio Mogadishu/Bar-kulan/SNTV/Mustaqbal)
Somali FM visits China to seek cooperation (Xinhua/Chinaa Daily)
Somalia parliament marks anniversary with challenges (A Jazeera News)
Former Puntland president calls on president Farole to adhere traditional elders (Raxanreeb/Horseed Media)
Women taking lead roles in re-constructing Somalia (Sabahi Online)
SYAO chair denounces killing of youth members in Mogadishu (Radio Dalsan)
Future still bleak for the displaced in Mogadishu (Deutsche Welle)

SOMALI MEDIA

Somali president to meet Ethiopian PM

20 Aug – Source: Radio Mogadishu/Bar-kulan/SNTV/Mustaqbal – 111 words

Mr Mohamud previously affirmed that his administration is determined and willing to strengthen its diplomatic ties with the neighboring countries.

Foreign minister Fawzia Yusuf flies to China

20 Aug – Source: Radio Mogadishu/Dalsan – 113 words

Somali Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Affairs Minister Fawzia Yusuf Haji Aden is on her first official visit to China. The country’s Foreign Minister was accompanied by the State Minister for the Foreign Affairs and the Deputy Minister for the Ministry of Public Works and Sea Transportation, according to ministry’s media department.

The visit which becomes the first of its kind is aimed to build strong bilateral relation between the horn of Africa nation and China. Somali foreign minister will hold official meetings with Chinese government officials including the Foreign Minister as Somalia will also ask the People’s Republic of China official support to rebuild Somalia.

Former Puntland president calls on president Farole to adhere traditional elders

20 Aug – Source: Raxanreeb/Horseed Media – 104 words

The former president in Somalia’s semi-autonomous state of Puntland Gen Adde Muse has said only due adhering the suggestions from the traditional elders will be the best alternative to resolve political crisis in the region. Gen Adde said that he would fully work for the stability and tranquility of the region, urging residents to do the same.

“It is appropriate that both of us should serve for the interest of the people in Puntland [northeast Somalia] I as an a respected elder and you as Puntland president.” Gen Adde Muse said in his letter.

SYAO chair denounces killing of youth members in Mogadishu

20 Aug – Source: Radio Dalsan – 157 words

The Chairperson of Somali Youth Advocacy Organization Mohamed Ibrahim Ali [known as Mohamed Cajiib] has strongly denounced armed assassinations against youth members in Mogadishu following the killing of Wadajir youth leader in Mogadishu last night. “We strongly condemn the killing of the youth member in Mogadishu and that only serves for the brain drainage that led the country unrest in the past two decades.” Mohamed Cajiib told radio Dalsan.

Mr. Cajiib has reminded Somali government security forces to maintain investigations towards assassinations against active youth members and the other respected members in the society. “Only close collaboration between the security forces and the citizens will help to arrest the perpetrators.” he added.

Armed assassinations and targeted attacks against respected community members including youth, elders, journalists and government officials have been common in Somalia in the pat two decades with the country was plunging into massive civil wars that followed the ousting of former military regime in 1991.

Somaliland: Landmine inflicts boy with life threatening injuries

19 Aug – Source: Somaliland Sun – 96 words

A boy is receiving medical attention at Burao General Hospital following serious injurious to various parts of his body. Master Sharmarke Farah Abi sustained the life threatening injuries after he stepped on a landmine at October estate in Burao town.

Reports indicate that the boy who was soccer practicing with colleagues stepped on the unexploded ordnance as he pursued the ball that had gone out of the field.

While hoping Master Abi regains his health expeditiously the big question remaining is how a landmine could still exist in a crowded estate in the country’s second capital.

Mogadishu bus drivers complain over blockade on main roads

20 Aug – Source: Radio Dalsan – 137 words

Mogadishu bus owners and drivers have expressed frustrations over blockade on the main roads in the capital. Security forces have on the fourth day blocked the main roads that link between several strategic roads in the capital amid heavy security measures mounted by the security agents.

A spokesperson for the bus drives in Mogadishu said that blocking roads will not serve for the city’s security but strong intelligence needed to prevent terrorist explosions and other criminal activities, urging the government to allow the free movement of its citizens.

The traffic police unit issued a ban against the local buses not to use the road that links between the busy KM4 junction and the airport. “We are losing our job,” said one bus driver.

REGIONAL MEDIA

Somalia parliament marks anniversary with challenges

20 Aug – Source: Al Jazeera News – 02:22mins

Somalia is marking its first anniversary with a functioning parliament. Last year, it elected leaders for the first time in 20 years, ending a UN backed transitional period.But one year on, Somalia face many challenges, including reducing widespread violence allegedly by al Shabaab fighters, who are on a mission to assassinate officials after the government recently seized much territory from the armed group. Al Jazeera’s Mohammed Adow reports from Mogadishu.

Women taking lead roles in re-constructing Somalia

19 Aug – Source: Sabahi Online – 1063 Words

While al Shabaab loses ground and progress and development spread throughout Somalia, women are seeking a larger role in re-constructing the country. They are helping rebuild Somalia in many fields, such as education, health, politics and even security. Out of the many Somali women leaders across the country, Sabahi profiled three women — Asli Ismail Duale, Sadiya Abdisamad Abdullahi and Dunia Mohamed Ali — who are using their knowledge to educate and heal the public, and promote gender equality.

Duale, 54, founded Women’s Education and Voicing Entrepreneurship (WEAVE) and has worked as a volunteer helping the Somali public for 10 years. A former American embassy worker, she fled Somalia when its central government collapsed in 1991.While living in Nairobi in 1996, she persuaded officials at a German medical organisation specialising in eye diseases to start a cataract surgery clinic at Beledweyne General Hospital in Mogadishu in collaboration with Kenya’s Kikuyu Hospital.

Patients from across the country and Ethiopia were treated at the eye clinic, which was moved to Mogadishu’s Arafat Hospital in 2003. Duale served as a volunteer co-ordinator for the project until 2006.

INTERNATIONAL MEDIA

Somali FM visits China to seek cooperation

20 Aug – Source: Xinhua/China Daily – 252 Words

Somali Foreign Minister Fawzia Yusuf on Monday headed a government delegation to China for an official visit, the first to the East Asian country by a senior official of the current administration of the Horn of Africa nation.

Yusuf, who is also Deputy Prime Minister, was accompanied in the trip to the Chinese capital Beijing by State Minister for the Interior and National Security Mahdi Mohamoud Ali, Deputy Minister for Reconstruction Nadiifa Mohamed Osman and other high-ranking officials, a statement from the Foreign Ministry said.

“The delegation will meet various Chinese government officials on ways of further strengthening the bilateral relations and cooperation between the two countries,” the statement said. While taking tentative steps to recover from two decades of conflict, Somalia has been working to improve relations with the outside world.

Diplomatic relations between Somalia and China have a long history. In 2006, Somalia’s then president Abdulahi Yusuf Ahmed visited China and revived the bilateral ties after years of hiatus due to the raging conflict in the country.

Future still bleak for the displaced in Mogadishu

19 Aug – Source: Deutsche Welle – 718 Words

Somalia has had a legitimate government for the last 12 months and its economy is picking up. But this change for the better is having little impact on the lives of more than 300,000 displaced persons in Mogadishu.

A densely populated emergency settlement of makeshift huts made of tree branches, plastic bags, sheeting, old clothes and rags, the Darwish displacement camp is little different from other Somali refugee camps in Mogadishu. Four hundred people share a latrine – even though 50 is the upper limit under international standards for disaster relief. But this not just a temporary disaster, it is everyday life for about 300,000 people.

Abay Nur Ibrahim stands in front of one of the makeshift huts. “There are about ten of us in my family,” explained the 48-year old, who holds one of her five grandchildren in her arms. One of the ten is her mother, who is elderly and blind. The family share two cramped huts. There is nowhere else for them to go.

There are an estimated 370,000 displaced persons in Mogadishu. The mayor of Mogadishu, Mohamoud Ahmed, wants them relocated as soon as possible. “The conditions in these camps are inhumane. There are hardly any sanitation facilities, water wells or medical care centers,” he explained.

SOCIAL MEDIA

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

“For UNSOM it is early days. For Somalis we hope it is the end of two decades of suffering. We are not there yet. On 19 June the UN lost several colleagues in a savage attack. It was a dark day. But we have emerged stronger. There is no better way to honour our colleagues than to stay and redouble our efforts to build peace. That is something I both know and feel.”

Beginnings and Endings

20 Aug – Source: UNSOM Facebook Blog – 744 Words

The gap between knowing something and feeling it is quite large. When I arrived on 3 June I knew there was hope in the air and a demand for UNSOM to play a leading role. Feeling the strength of that optimism and expectation in my first days was a powerful experience. After twenty two years of conflict and state fragmentation, I could really feel the determination to turn the page and the belief that a stable and prosperous Somalia was possible. I could feel, smell and almost touch that hope – slightly desperate – in the air.

Similarly after twenty two years of chequered UN engagement in Somalia, I was impressed by the strong sense that the moment had come for the UN to play its role in building peace and a new Somalia. In all my many contacts before coming and in my first weeks, I have been struck by member states’ and the Federal Government’s desire to see the UN on the ground and fully engaged.

The moment has come for the UN, as the embodiment of the international community, to show what it can do in terms of helping a state move from failure to fragility to recovery. Nor should we be downhearted or doubtful. The UN has shown that concerted international engagement can achieve great transformations, be it in Sierra Leone, Liberia or East Timor.

This is the third month of the UN Assistance Mission in Somalia (UNSOM). It’s a chance to reflect on whether we are living up to these high expectations. To be frank, the scorecard is mixed. But that should not be a surprise. The UN and other international partners face the same problems as the Federal Government: a difficult security environment in Mogadishu and in many other places; access denied to parts of the country still under the control of al Shabaab; a lack of institutional capacity and functioning state bodies; limited means and resources; and a fragmented, itinerant international presence split between Nairobi and Mogadishu.

“The many commentators on Twitter who have remarked that MSF is known to stay and work under the most difficult circumstances are correct. But MSF, too, has its limits. And we have reached our limit in Somalia with the sequence of murders and abductions over the past five years.”

Why Médecins Sans Frontières left Somalia

19 Aug – Source: The Standard Media – 872 Words

Our announcement on August 14 that we were closing all our medical programmes in Somalia sent shockwaves through political and humanitarian communities. It came at a time when world leaders, for the first time in decades, were beginning to make positive noises about a country on the road to recovery and with a stable government.

For them, the timing of our decision could not have been worse. In media interviews, we were asked to explain the discrepancy between the upbeat tone of governments and our own harsh judgement that led to one of the most painful decisions in MSF history.

Let me try to explain. To begin with, MSF is not an organisation that comments on political or economic progress. We focus first and foremost on the health of people and their ability to find medical care when they need it. From that perspective, and based on our extensive activities across the country, there simply is no good news. Large parts of the Somali population live with undernourishment, disease and injury. They have little chance of finding quality health care when they need it.

“Kismayo’s uneasy peace was shattered in June, when fighting broke out between rival militias laying claim to the presidency of Jubaland. The violence underscored the fragility of Kismayo’s early recovery and the dangers that remain.”

Analysis: In Kismayo, fragile peace or a gathering storm?

19 Aug – Source: IRIN – 1524 Words

When bullets tore through the streets of Kismayo in June, leaving over 70 dead as rival militias twice fought for control of the Somali port city, many international aid agencies halted a cautious scale-up of activities. One of the few to stay was the World Health Organization (WHO).

“For us, conflict means casualties. We are doctors; we have to be there,” Omar Saleh, WHO Somalia’s emergency health coordinator, told IRIN. But for most international organizations – many of which had just returned to Kismayo after militant Islamists al Shabaab were driven out late last year – the June violence proved too dangerous.

As stability returned through July, activities slowly resumed. Still, the political and security crises that fuelled the fighting are at risk of deepening. The recent disputes over Jubaland, a state-within-a-state whose leadership and borders are not recognized by the administration in Mogadishu, constitute a test of federal principles outlined in Somalia’s provisional constitution. The central government also seeks control of and revenue from Kismayo, Jubaland’s de facto capital.

Top tweets

‏@aawadani #Mogadishu opens its first recreation centre. Picture of children enjoying the pool via CCTV Africa #Somalia pic.twitter.com/jKy3R6GZhv.

@UKinSomalia UK has been supporting the development of aviation and border security capacity in #Somaliland since 2010, including at the airports.

@ericotienoN The new “Dual-carriage” Airport Road in#Mogadishu #Somalia (not in line) following the terror attack on#UN compound pic.twitter.com/tJatRcao4q.

@UNSomalia Beginnings and Endings, by #UN Special Representative for #Somalia Nicholas Kayhttps://www.facebook.com/#!/UNSOMALIA/posts/537151136340032?notif_t=like … @Somalia111 @UN_DPA.

@dominicbowen Gender based violence in #Somaliacontinues to be a significant problem. Read how #humanitarianorganisations respond http://bit.ly/13qNkqL.

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Image of the day

Image of the day A soldier guards entrance of venue for the 6th Hargeysa International Book Fair held in Hergeysa, Somaliland. Photo: Somalilandpress/Barkhad Kaariye.