August 21, 2015 | Daily Monitoring Report
Somalia Set To Inspect Shipments Over Quality Concerns
21 August – Source: Hiiraan Online – 250 Words
For the first time in over decades, Somalia’s government has announced shipments arriving and leaving the country would be subject to physical inspections in a bid to prevent mediocre products from entering the country and verify goods to the applicable standard. In a statement issued on Thursday, the Ministry of Commerce and Industry has notified the business community that the implementation of Consignment Based Conformity Assessment would be started to ‘substantially’ reduce hazardous and substandard imported products.The exercise would start on September 15, the statement said. The ministry has also hinted that within the new enterprise, products intended to be exported to Somalia would be inspected prior shipments in the country of export, and upon verifications certificated would be issued for the consignment.
The government has appointed PGM, a Turkish Inspection company at the port of Somalia for Verification of Conformity (VoC) of products before entering the country or exported to other countries.The development is seen as the first sign in enforcing rule and regulations in the horn of Africa nation where the absence of a relevant legal and regulatory framework to common standards and quality were missing since the collapse of the central government in 1991 after warlords overthrew the government led by Mohamed Siad Barre.The business community has long enjoyed free business with no taxations and quality control, leading to wild flow of merchandise imports including mediocre commodities that health experts said have led to the deaths of many consumers in the past two decades.
Key Headlines
- Somalia Set To Inspect Shipments Over Quality Concerns (Hiiraan Online)
- Bardhere Airport To Start Its Operation (Goobjoog News)
- Ahlu Sunna Wal Jama’a Galmudug Vice President Detained In Adaado (Wacaal Media)
- Somalia PM Appoints Special Envoy For Child Rights (Horseed Media)
- Extension of Government’s Deadline On Vacating State Owned Properties (Villa Puntland )
- On The Frontline Of Somalia’s Fight Against Al-Shabaab (Al Jazeera)
- Football ‘Sweetens’ Life For Somali Orphans At Turkish School (Soko25East)
- Somali Members of Parliament Set To Impeach President For Corruption (Azeri Press Agency)
- Why People Jump Lives And Confuse Politicians (Business Day)
- Somalia Is Back (Mareeg Media)
NATIONAL MEDIA
Bardhere Airport To Start Its Operation
21 August – Source: Goobjoog News – 277 Words
After a decade of being dormant, the administration of Bardhere town and officials from Interim Juba Administration, have officially opened the town’s airport. Bardhere airport which was backbone for humanitarian aid agencies and local flights has stopped operating after Al-Shabaab fighters banned UN and other NGOs backed western countries from the areas under their control. In an interview with Goobjoog News, Interim Juba Administration (IJA), Vice President, Abdullahi Sheikh Ismail Fartaag said that the airport has been officially opened and it will operate fully.“Bardhere airport is the second largest airport in Jubaland State, UN aid agencies and other NGOs will soon resume their operations in Gedo region” he added ; “I am hereby telling the public that starting from this moment they can travel to many parts of the country using Bardhere airport and I urge all local travel agencies to open offices in the town and commerce their operations” Abdullahi said.
The Vice President underscored that UN delegations came to the town in an assessment mission and they will soon ship in aid comprising of food and non-food items as well as medicine. The Somali minister of defence and officials from the African peacekeeping mission have attended a well organized opening ceremony of the airport that was held in Bardhere town. This comes days after a high level delegation from the WFP, FAO, UNICEF, UNDP and WHO among others led by UN Head of Humanitarian activities in Somalia Peter de Clercq reached the town. Bardhere town used to be the largest stronghold for Al-Shabaab’s top officials and its foreign jihadist fighters before they fled after heavy military assault by the Somali government forces and AMISOM.
Ahlu Sunna Wal Jama’a Galmudug Vice President Detained In Adaado
21 August – Source: Wacaal Media – 119 Words
Security officials in Adaado yesterday detained Ahlu Sunna Wal Jama’a group’s vice president in Adaado it has emerged. Confirming the arrest, area District Commissioner Abdullahi Tootoole told the media that Abdullahi Diirshe Daa’ad was arrested by government forces after word went round of his secret presence in the area. He was accused of making inflammatory remarks as well as spreading baseless accusations against Galmudug State and the Federal Government. On the other hand, senior Ahlu Sunna Wal Jama’a officials told Wacaal media they were holed up in meetings to discuss the matter in Dhusamareb. The incident is set to worsen the already ailing relations between the group and the Federal Government of Somalia which previously indicated bringing them to the negotiations table.
Somalia PM Appoints Special Envoy For Child Rights
21 August – Horseed Media – 199 Words
The Prime Minister of Somalia, Omar Abdirashid Sharmarke has appointed a special envoy who will work on promoting children rights and fight against illegal migration. The announcement of Maryan Yasin Haji Yusuf was made following the weekly cabinet meeting held in Mogadishu on Thursday chaired by the Prime Minister. Earlier this year, Somalia ratified the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), becoming the 195th state party to the Convention. The move was hailed by the United Nations and leading Human Rights organisations.
Somalia is arguably one of the least protective environments for children. Much of the country has been entrenched in civil conflict for over two decades with children as young as nine forced to fight. The administration and local institutions are unable to provide children with an adequate protective environment that safeguards their rights. Children and women in Somalia have long faced neglect and discrimination. They have become increasingly vulnerable to all forms of violence, abuse and exploitation, much of it is practiced in a climate of total impunity. The chaos in Somalia has also caused many young men and women to risk their lives by going through dangerous journeys, in order to seek for a better life.
Extension of Government’s Deadline On Vacating State Owned Properties
20 August – Source: Villa Puntland – 117 Words
The Committee for restructuring and developing Galkayo city plan toured different parts of the town including government buildings occupied by ordinary people. In a directive from the government, occupants were told to vacate all government properties. During their tour the committee received the the keys of the oil reserve center in Galkayo town. The center was vacated as soon as the government directive was issued. In the mean time Abdirashid mohamed Hirsi, the head of the committee announced an extension of the deadline given to those using public properties. The committee finally oversaw the demolition of structures to make way for road construction within the city. Hotel Taar and other private properties were demolished in the operation.
INTERNATIONAL MEDIA
On The Frontline Of Somalia’s Fight Against Al-Shabaab
21 August – Source: Al Jazeera – Video: 2:33 Minutes
The Somali army is training new recruits in the port city of Kismayo, one of the last remaining strongholds of al-Shabab. Until they finish their training, fighters from the regional administration have the task of defending the territory under government control.
Football ‘Sweetens’ Life For Somali Orphans At Turkish School
21 August – Source: Soko25east- 509 Words
Hundreds of Somali orphans at Turkey’s Anatolia Boarding school have high hopes and expectations of becoming future national team members, as they marked the end of the first six months of formal football training sessions.The children aged between 9-15 years, had the opportunity to talk about their future expectations in football, when they met with Somali FA President, Abdiqani Said Arab, his Deputy Ali Abdi Mohamed and other Somali FA senior officials during a working visit to the Anatolia Education Centre on Wednesday.
The Turkish school is holding hundreds of Somali orphans. Football ‘sweetens’ life for Somali orphans at Turkish schoolboys whose fathers were either killed in conflicts or died normally. Somali Football Federation contributed coaches and football equipment to the school where the orphans undergo formal training sessions outside their school periods and holidays. The chancellor of Anatolia School, Mr. Abdulkader Mohamed Hirabe, who welcomed the Somali FA officials to the school, said that their visit to the school was an enormous encouragement for the boys adding that this will increase the boys’ football ambitions and expectations of national team representation.
Somali Members of Parliament Set To Impeach President For Corruption
21 August – Source: Azeri Press Agency – 324 Words
Somali legislators say they are poised to stage a no-confidence vote to unseat the president, rejecting international warnings that the planned impeachment could hamper peace efforts in the war-torn country, APA reports quoting Press TV. In a motion filed earlier this week, opposition lawmakers accused President Hassan Sheikh Mohamoud of corruption, saying that the Somali leader must be impeached at the parliament. “This motion is not aimed at destruction, but rather correction,” said parliament member Abdi Barre Yusuf, a supporter of the motion, on Thursday.
Abdirahman Hosh Jibril, another MP, also said the motion is merely aimed at “bringing about change.” Jibril further added that the supporters of the motion have accused the president of having “intervened with the independent constitutional institutions of the country like the courts.” It is not yet clear how many legislators will vote in favor of the motion to oust the troubled president, but opposition lawmakers claim they have the support of the majority of the parliament.
However, at least 90 members are needed for a motion to be put to parliamentary debate. Two-thirds of the 275-member House would also have to support the motion in order to force out the president. This is while the United Nations, regional countries and the 22,000-strong African Union force (AMISOM), which is battling Somalia’s al-Qaeda-linked al-Shabab militant group, have voiced opposition to the motion.In a joint statement, they expressed “deep concern that the parliamentary motion… will impede progress on Somalia’s peace and state building goals.”
OPINION, ANALYSIS, AND CULTURE
“Among the Somali, the notion that one might jump out of one’s life stems from the civil war in the early 1990s, when countless people fled their homes and scattered across the planet. Jumping thus became a fact, something that people had been forced to do, and from being a fact, it became a tradition, something people kept doing, even when they were not fleeing.”
Why People Jump Lives, And Confuse Politicians
21 August – Source: Business Day – 715 Words
Earlier this month, during a visit to Hargeisa, the capital of Somaliland, I met a journalist who anchored a TV news programme. She was young, in her early 20s, I think, and I asked her how she saw her career progressing. “I’ve no idea,” she replied. “I’m about to get married to a man who lives in a small town in Ohio. What opportunities there will be for me there I do not yet know.” As we spoke further, it emerged that she had not met her future husband — she had come across him on Facebook and they had talked a great deal on Skype, but she would meet him in the flesh only two months from now, at an airport in Cleveland, Ohio, from where he would drive her more than 160km to her new home.
Her coming union was not entirely blind. She had met her in-laws, who lived in Hargeisa, and the two families had approved the marriage. She had verified that her prospective husband was in a modestly paying but stable job. And she knew the name of the town in which she would live and had examined its streets on Google Earth. But beyond these fragmentary details, she had no tools with which to imagine the rest of her life. “Why are you doing this?” I asked. “Because,” she replied, “sometimes you need to jump.” This seemed to me the best possible answer to my question. Deep down in many of us there resides a fantasy that we might abandon the lives we know and jump into another world.
But in certain times and places, this jumping breaks the bounds of fantasy and becomes real; indeed, it becomes a cultural habit, something that many people simply do. Usually, the circumstances that give rise to this syndrome are very painful. Among the Somali, the notion that one might jump out of one’s life stems from the civil war in the early 1990s, when countless people fled their homes and scattered across the planet. Jumping thus became a fact, something that people had been forced to do, and from being a fact, it became a tradition, something people kept doing, even when they were not fleeing.
“The availability of the country’s economic information is also helping investors and the flow of remittances from the Somali diaspora. Somalia’s vibrant private sector has been leading economic growth and creating a well-connected trade network within the region, a factor that could lead to increased investment by diaspora returnees.”
Somalia Is Back
20 August – Source: Mareeg Media – 886 Words
The completion of the recent Article IV at the IMF Board on July 27, 2015—the first since 1989—marks an important step towards restoring the country’s ties with the IMF and rest of the international community. It is also an important milestone for the consolidation of the Federal Government of Somalia (FGS), following its collapse in 1991 and two subsequent decades of civil war. The road to rebuilding the Somali economy, as well as achieving sustainable and equitable growth and opportunities for the Somali people, will not be easy. But with the completion of the IMF’s first report on the country in more than a quarter-century, the path towards that recovery—and the challenges that still remain—are now much more clear.
In the past two years, Somalia has begun to recover from the civil war, which ravaged the country’s economy and decimated key state and economic institutions such as the Ministry of Finance, the Central Bank, and the National Statistics Office. Despite this progress, these and many other public institutions remain severely hampered by very limited capacity and resources, especially the lack of trained staff to design and conduct economic policy. Therefore, Somalia’s first task has been to rebuild governance and institutions, an area in which the international community has been helpful. Various donors and international organizations, such as the World Bank, the African Development Bank, and countries have also been providing support and technical assistance. In February of this year, the IMF launched a three-year Multi-Donor Trust Fund for Capacity Building; three months earlier it established a resident representative office in Nairobi, Kenya to facilitate interactions with the authorities.
TOP TWEETS
@amisomsomalia: The Kenya Defence Committee of Parliament concludes two-day visit to #Somaliahttp://bit.ly/1E6UouU
@Aynte : “The rebuilding of #Somalia‘s higher education sector” http://www.hiiraan.
@horseed: #Somalia PM appoints special envoy for child rightshttp://horseedmedia.net/2015/
@Goobjoognews: #Somalia Abdi Baruud says less than 5% of Somali Diaspora returned home of which majority are men@SDY2009
@Vatescorp;#Somalia: After 10 years, Gedo region’s Bardhere airport is officially reopened http://ow.ly/RblM6
@Eye_on_Somalia: #allAfrica Somalia Defense Minister Arrives in Newly Seized Town From Al Shabaab: [Shabelle] High lev… http://bit.ly/1E9pVNi #somalia
@SalahOsman0: These School kids have high hopes n expectations of becoming future Somali national team members #Somalia #Mogadishu
IMAGE OF THE DAY
Members of the Somali Defence Committee of Parliament and their Kenyan counterparts led by their deputy chairman IIyas Barre Shill, pose a group photo, at the end of their meeting in Villa Hargeisa, in Mogadishu, Somalia.
Photo; AMISOM