August 22, 2013 | Morning Headlines.

Main Story

Somali Parliament Speaker admits mistakes in Somalia’s federal constitution

21 Aug – Source: Garowe Online/Universal TV – 94 words

The Somali Federal Government’s Parliament Speaker Mohamed Sheikh Osman Jawari has admitted that some people have tampered with the legitimate Provisional Federal Constitution (PFC) of Somalia, Garowe Online reports. “There are some mistakes [in the federal constitution] and those mistakes need to be revised through inclusive discussions,” Mr. Jawari said in an interview with Universal TV, a UK based Somali channel. Mr. Jawari’s words are first-ever official declaration which supports nearly 30 articles and clauses in the constitution that have been tampered with and presented to the Somali media by Somalia’s northern Puntland government.

Key Headlines

Somalia gunmen kill two wound Swedish woman in likely kidnap attempt (Reuters/BBC/Washington Post/AFP)
Bring AMISOM troops who committed rape crimes to court says Somali elder (Shabelle)
Swedish woman shot and wounded in Mogadishu ( Bar-kulan/Shabelle)
Belgium to assist in Somali refugees’ repatriation (The Star News)
President Farole tours Puntland ministry of health and commandos base (Garowe Online)
Somalia vows action over alleged rape by African Union troops (Daily Star)
Somalia-Kenya: Conflict over port and buffer state (The Africa Report)

SOMALI MEDIA

Somali Parliament Speaker admits mistakes in Somalia’s federal constitution

21 Aug – Source: Garowe Online/Universal TV – 94 words

Swedish woman shot and wounded in Mogadishu

21 Aug – Source: Bar-kulan/Shabelle/Garowe Online – 92 words

A foreign woman who is said to be a Swedish national has been shot and wounded in KM4 junction in the Somali capital, Mogadishu on Wednesday after armed men attacked her vehicle. A driver and a local translator have been reportedly killed in the attack. Sources say the vehicle was attacked while the Swedish national was returning from Somali university office in KM4 where she visited. She was later rushed to Halane hospital for treatment. The motive of the attack is not known yet as the Somali government has not commented on the incident.

President Farole tours Puntland ministry of health and commandos base

21 Aug – Source: Garowe Online – 80 words

The President of Somalia’s Puntland Government Abdirahman Mohamed Farole has toured several landmarks including Puntland Health Ministry headquarters and commandos base in Puntland capital of Garowe on Tuesday, Garowe Online reports. President Farole was accompanied by presidential officials and in his tour, he initially visited the building of Puntland Ministry of Health, where he held discussions covering important health topics including MSF pullout and an immunization campaign against polio with ministry officials led by Health Minister Dr. Ali Abdullahi Warsame.

Gunmen kill young man in Jowhar town

21 Aug – Source: Bar-kulan – 112 words

Unknown gunmen shot and killed last night a local resident young man in Jowhar town, capital of Middle Shabelle in southern Somalia. The young man was shot dead by three youths armed with pistols in Hanti-wadag neighborhood, while the assailants immediately fled the scene of the crime. Government troops arrived at the scene of the crime shortly after the incident and immediately launched investigations into the killing. But no arrest was so far made. Area officials who spoke to the media promised to bring the perpetrators of the killing into book. The reason behind the killing of this young man has not yet been established and no one also claimed the responsibility.

Bring AMISOM troops who committed rape crimes to court, says Somali elder

21 Aug – Source: Shabelle – 77 words

Ahmed Diriye, a respected Somali traditional elder has called on the government and the peacekeeping troops to bring the accused soldiers who committed rape crimes to justice. The story of a lady who was kidnapped by government soldiers and later on gang raped by AMISOM peacekeepers has spread in Mogadishu. “AMISOM are here because of the people of Somalia and if they turn and rape the civilian population we will jointly oppose their presence,” said Mr. Diriye.

REGIONAL MEDIA

Belgium to assist in Somali refugees’ repatriation

21 Aug – Source: The Star News – 158 Words
Belgium has agreed to assist Kenya in its efforts to repatriate Somali refugees. Speaking while on a courtesy call to Deputy President William Ruto at his Karen residence, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for foreign affairs Didier Reyders offered to assist Kenya in ensuring that Somali refugees return to their country in an orderly manner. He said his country will hold a meeting on Somalia in Brussels to chart a way forward after a Tripartite Conference for August 28 to 29 to discuss voluntary repatriation of Somali refugees. Deputy President Ruto said that Kenya was committed to the peace process in Somalia.

Somalia vows action over alleged rape by African Union troops

21 Aug – Source Daily Star – 144 words

Somalia’s government vowed Wednesday to deliver justice in the case of a local woman who alleged she was gang raped by African Union troops and Somali soldiers. “My team and I are committed to getting to the bottom of this case, and all other allegations of sexual violence,” Somalia’s minster for human development, Maryan Qasim, said in a statement Wednesday. “We want perpetrators of crimes to be brought to justice and to build a society where the rights of every citizen are protected.” Qasim, the head of a government team probing the case, distanced herself from an audio recording in Somali media in which she appeared to angrily criticise rape victims for publicising their cases in the press. Instead, she said she had been “misquoted and misrepresented”, and that she had instead been stressing the need to “protect each and every rape victim’s identity”.

INTERNATIONAL MEDIA

Somalia gunmen kill two, wound Swedish woman in likely kidnap attempt

21 Aug – Source: Reuters/BBC/Washington Post/AFP – 129 words

Gunmen killed two men and wounded two women, including a Swede, in Somalia’s capital Mogadishu on Wednesday when they ambushed a car in what police believe may have been an attempted kidnap. There was no immediate claim of responsibility. However, al Qaeda-linked al Shabaab militants have kept up guerrilla-style attacks and kidnappings in the city despite being largely pushed out by Somali and African forces two years ago. Witnesses said the Swede going back to her hotel after giving a speech at the University of Somalia when the gunmen struck near the Turkish embassy. Student Ahmed Dek said the Swedish woman flung open the rear door of the car and ran under a hail of bullets towards the university. She was bleeding badly from her left side, he said.

Somalia-Kenya: Conflict over port and buffer state

21 Aug – Source: The Africa Report – 287 Words
Beaming with confidence after a string of international conferences pledged to back his government, President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud has to grapple with a new set of security and diplomatic problems. The most serious is the growing tension between his government and Kenya’s. Simmering for many months, disagreements between Mogadishu and Nairobi over the control of Kismayo broke into the open when rival clans started a war for the spoils of the port city in June. For now, Kenya’s proxy and leader of the Ras Kamboni militia, Ahmed Mohamed Islam ‘Madobe,’ has defeated his rivals militarily and politically. A seasoned operator, Madobe emerged as ‘elected’ president of Jubaland after a specially convened conference at Kismayo in May. Madobe and his backers in the Kenya defence forces want to see Jubaland as a semi-autonomous province of Somalia, along the same lines as Puntland.

SOCIAL MEDIA

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

“Prominent among the sponsors of the Hargeisa event were a number of “frontier” private-equity funds interested in oil and mineral rights. One of its unstated aims was to persuade Westerners that Somaliland is safe and stable. Compared with Somalia, whose capital, Mogadishu, is still periodically clobbered by suicide-bombers, dusty, bustling Hargeisa seems a haven of jollity and calm.”

Somaliland’s book fair: A haven of jollity and calm

21 Aug – Source: The Economist Blog – 253 Words

THE still unrecognised republic of Somaliland has been parading its de facto independence from its battered bigger brother, Somalia, with an international book fair in its self-styled capital, Hargeisa. Along with the reopening of a revamped international airport, the fair was intended to show the world that Somaliland is open for business, especially with the West. At the jamboree, the literary talents of Somaliland were on display. Though Nadifa Mohamed, a novelist listed among Granta’s “Best of Young British Novelists for 2013”, was not there this year, her latest work, “The Orchard of Lost Souls”, recently published in London, was much mentioned. A largely British foreign line-up included Michela Wrong, author of books on Congo, Eritrea and Kenya; Mary Harper, author of “Getting Somalia Wrong”; a Scots poet and translator, W.N. Herbert; a Nigerian, Chuma Nwokolo; and a Kenyan poet, Phyllis Muthoni. Cheers and ululations in a packed auditorium greeted Hadraawi, Somaliland’s national poet.