August 20, 2014 | Morning Headlines.

Main Story

Somali Government and partners renew commitment to end preventable deaths of mothers and children

19 Aug – Source: Radio Goobjoog – 151 words

The Somali Federal Government, with support of three United Nations agencies and the Inter-Governmental Authority on Development (IGAD), launched two important initiatives and a report to ensure the health and wellbeing of mothers and children. Prime Minister Abdiweli Sheikh Ahmed said that the launch of Somalia’s national Mother and Child Health (MCH) Acceleration Plan to improve maternal and child health, alongside the Campaign on Accelerated Reduction of Maternal Mortality in Africa (CARMMA) and the State of the World’s Midwifery Report 2014 represented a milestone for the women and children of the country. ‘For too long we have failed to provide mothers and children with their basic rights to good health and good quality health care,” he said. “This Government is committed to ensuring that this will change. The children are the future of our nation and we must give them every possible assistance to have a good start in life.’

Key Headlines

Somali Government and partners renew commitment to end preventable deaths of mothers and children (Radio Goobjoog)
UN delegation arrives in Kismayo for talks with top IJA leaders (Bar-kulan)
Weapons seized from Bakara Market 30 arrested in a daytime operation in Mogadishu (Radio Mogadishu/RBC)
Somalia TV sales grow as many avoid public places (AP News)
British terror suspect trailed before arrest court told (Daily Nation)
Somaliland President Silanyo confers with UN Envoy in Somalia (Somaliland Informer)
Suspected al Shabaab carry out three attacks within 12 hours in northern Kenya (Standard Media)

SOMALI MEDIA

Somali Government and partners renew commitment to end preventable deaths of mothers and children

19 Aug – Source: Radio Goobjoog – 151 words

UN delegation arrives in Kismayo for talks with top IJA leaders

19 Aug – Source: Bar-kulan – 110 words

A United Nations delegation led by UN Special Representative for Children and Armed Conflict, Leila Zerrougui arrived in Kismayo, the provincial capital of Lower Jubba region. Zerrougui is accompanied by United Nations Deputy Special Envoy for Somalia, Fatiha Serour. They held talks with Interim Jubba Administration officials in Kismayo. The UN envoys are believed to have talks with Interim Jubba Administration over the prevention of child soldiers and setting up a new rehabilitation center for children who defect from Al Shabaab militant group. Fatiha Serour, who addressed the media after their talks with Interim Jubba Administration officials, said both sides agreed on several points including the protection of children.

Weapons seized from Bakara Market, 30 arrested in a daytime operation in Mogadishu

19 Aug – Source: Radio Mogadishu/RBC – 149 words

At least 30 suspected of al Shabaab members were nabbed after security forces conducted a daytime operation in the biggest marketplace in Mogadishu’s Bakara Market on Tuesday. The operation which was conducted with an intelligence information by the security forces led to the seizure of illegal weapons among them pistols which the security officials believed to be used for assassinations committed in the capital city. HawlWadag District Commissioner Ahmed Nur Siyad who spoke to the reporters inside Bakara Market after the search operation said the operation was part of the government’s efforts to disarm the armed militias and restore the security to this war-torn capital city. “We have found an information about the suspected al Shabaab members were hiding in a house in the market that is why we went there, and after search operation luckily the security people seized pistols and other weapons.” Ahmed Nur Siyad said.

Somaliland President Silanyo confers with UN Envoy in Somalia

19 Aug – Source: Somaliland Informer – 105 words

President Ahmed Silanyo on Tuesday received UN Envoy in Somalia Mr. Nicholas Kay who arrived in Hargeisaon Monday. Foreign Affairs & International Cooperation Mr. Mohamed Bihi Yonis who spoke to the press said that they spoke with Mr. Kay about issues ranging from peace in the country, talks in Turkey, violence in Khaatumo, and Puntland. Mr. Bihi has told that they spelled out to Mr. Kay that Somaliland is a peace loving country and is committed to resolve conflicts by peaceful means. Mr. Bihi further disclosed that they appealed to Mr. Kay to assist on media, law and women’s progress.

REGIONAL MEDIA

British terror suspect trailed before arrest, court told

19 Aug – Source: Daily Nation – 109 words

British terror suspect Jermaine Grant and a Kenyan accomplice were under surveillance by the Anti-Terrorist Police Unit (ATPU) before they were arrested, a court heard on Tuesday. Corporal Kennedy Opasi, who was an ATPU detective at the time of the surveillance, told the court that the unit had a positive identification and description of Mr Grant and Mr Fuad Abubakar prior to their arrest in December 2011. “According to the information we had been given, we were told the suspects were dangerous,” Mr Opasi told senior principal magistrate Joyce Gandani.He was testifying in a case in which Mr Grant is charged with being in possession of explosive materials.

Suspected al Shabaab carry out three attacks within 12 hours in northern Kenya

19 Aug – Source: Standard Media – 114 words

In less 12 hours suspected al Shabaab militia carried out three attacks killing one person, injuring three and carjacking a vehicle in three separate incidents in North Eastern Kenya. In the first two incidents in Garissa, the al Qaeda inspired militia waylaid two teachers in Garissa town, killing one and seriously wounding the other on Monday night. The injured teacher is admitted at Garissa general referral hospital for medical attention. An hour later on the same night, another group of gunmen believed to be about 100 descended on a police border post adjacent to Lamu County injuring a police officer and a woman before they were chased away after a spirited gunfight with security officers.

INTERNATIONAL MEDIA

Somalia TV sales grow as many avoid public places

19 Aug – Source: AP News – 151 words

Inside the small office, the line of sweating clients waiting to renew their satellite TV subscriptions keeps growing. Technicians crimp wires and test signal strength of boxes while others go to homes across the Somali capital to install new systems or fix faulty ones. The TV business is booming in Somalia, in part because of fears by people of gathering in public places like restaurants that are targeted for deadly attacks by the al Qaeda-linked militant group al Shabaab. Movie theaters, long a source of entertainment for Mogadishu residents, have been shuttered following a wave of terrorist attacks. Many Somalis consider restaurants and hotels too dangerous to visit. And the Somali National Theater, which had started to pick up a large following after al Shabaab was ousted from Mogadishu in 2011 by African Union military forces, suffered a major blow after it was bombed in 2012 in an attack that killed dozens of people.

SOCIAL MEDIA

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

“None of the experts and locals interviewed by World Politics Review for this article thinks that a defeat of al-Shabab in the short term is realistic. They all agree that to achieve this goal, a military approach won’t suffice.”

Al Shabaab: A Close Look at East Africa’s Deadliest Radicals

19 Aug – Source: World Politics Review – 3398 words

More than any other organization, Harakat al Shabaab al Mujahideen, widely known as al Shabaab, has left its mark on the recent history of Somalia. Political and radical Islam have a long history in the country, but no group has survived longer than al Shabaab, and no group has emerged stronger from challenges and setbacks. More than any other actor involved in the two-decade-old Somali conflict, al Shabaab has demonstrated its ability to adapt. Today, the group has emerged from an existential crisis and looks stronger than it has in years. Though al Shabaab is often referred to as simply a “terrorist group,” the term does not accurately describe the range of the group’s activities. As perhaps the most important spoiler on Somalia’s way toward peace, al Shabaab’s current situation warrants an assessment.