August 4, 2015 | Morning Headlines

Main Story

Somalia To Introduce Anti – FGM Laws

03 August – Source: Somali Current – 184 Words

Somalia government is planning to introduce anti–Female Genital Mutilation laws in the country, Somalia Minister of Women Human rights , Sahro Samatar told reporters. Speaking at conference aimed at creating awareness of the heinous act, the minister said the time has come to end Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) in the country. Time has come for us to eradicate this bad practice and protect the rights of girls and women in our country,” she said. According to health experts, FGM violates the basic rights of women and girls and seriously compromises their health, posing risks during childbirth, and leaving lasting physical and psychological scars. According to report released by UNICEF, about 98% of Somali women aged 15-49 have experienced FGM. Female Genital Mutilation is deeply entrenched among Somalis, most of whom believe it is religious obligation for Muslims, but there is no evidence in the Koran and Hadith (sayings of the prophets). The semi autonomous state of Puntland banned the practice of FGM from its territory. According to UN data, more than 130 million girls and women have undergone FGM in 29 countries in Africa and Middle East.

Key Headlines

Somalia To Introduce Anti –FGM Laws (Somali Current)
Puntland Leader Vows To Fight And Eliminate Corruption (Horseed Media)
Parliament Debates Information And Communication Bill (Goobjoog News)
Detained Journalist In Somalia Released (Radio Dalsan)
Drug traffickers And Other Criminal Elements Arrested In Overnight Swoops In Dharkenley (Wacaal Media)
Somalia Offers U.K. ‘Full Cooperation’ In Soma Corruption Probe (Bloomberg Business)
Ex-Tory Leader Lord Howard Agrees To Speak To Fraud Investigators Over Corruption Probe At Oil Firm He Chairs (The Mirror)
Emirati Aid Ship Arrives In Somalia Delivers Food Supplies (Sputnik News)
Why Are Migrants So Desperate To Get To Leave Their Homelands? (Metro UK)
Sub-Saharan Africa’s Two Deadliest Military Groups (Daily Maverick)
Hargeysa Is The Hub Of Somali Culture (RBC Radio)

PRESS STATEMENT

International Partners Look Forward to further political progress following the High-Level Partnership Forum

03 August – Source: UNSOM – 406 Words

Mogadishu, 3 August 2015 – The United Nations, Inter-Governmental Authority on Development (IGAD), the European Union (EU), African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM), the United States of America and the United Kingdom welcome the commitments made at the High-Level Partnership Forum (HLPF) in Mogadishu. Thirty-two delegations attended this landmark event, making it the largest international conference to take place in Somalia in decades.

“We congratulate the Federal Government of Somalia for this successful event. We commend the commitments made at the High-Level Partnership Forum to deliver a transparent and inclusive electoral process in 2016, strengthen security, and to accelerate the delivery of concrete results to the people of Somalia. We also note the important provisions of United Nations Security Council Resolution 2232 (2015) on the importance of no extension of the constitutionally mandated terms for the executive or legislative branches.

We recognise that universal ‘one person, one vote’ elections for 2016 are not possible, but must be achieved in the next cycle. The commitment to start immediately a national consultation to agree to an electoral process for a timely transfer of public office in 2016 is a positive step. We also agree that the 2016 electoral process, based on inclusive consultations in the coming months, must represent an improvement on the 2012 process and be a steppingstone toward universal ‘one person, one vote’ elections. We reaffirm the importance of the ten Guiding Principles for an electoral process in 2016, which were agreed to at the HLPF.

We note that many commitments have been made and deadlines agreed for the coming year. Somalia’s international partners will follow progress closely and will make decisive efforts to help Somalis meet these deadlines. Most immediately, we welcome the commitment to finalise by 15 August a detailed Action Plan for the national consultations on the 2016 electoral process. The Action Plan should reflect the views of all stakeholders, in particular the Federal Parliament and the authorities in all the regional administrations. We urge all parties to engage seriously and urgently in finalising this work and then to play a full role in the national consultative process.

Somalia’s international partners stated their resolve to the timely implementation of the commitments taken and agreements reached and to continue to support the goal of a united, federal and democratic Somalia, at peace with itself and the rest of the world.

NATIONAL MEDIA

Puntland Leader Vows To Fight And Eliminate Corruption

03 August – Source: Horseed Media – 138 Words

Puntland President Abdiweli Mohammed Ali Gaas has insisted that his administration will fight and eliminate corruption from the region within this year. The regional leader made the remarks while addressing crowds on Saturday night in the state’s capital of Garowe while marking the 17th anniversary of its establishment. Mr Gaas stressed that his government has a zero tolerance on corruption and launched an office to tackle it. “What kills the government is corruption and we will not tolerate on it…I can assure you that starting from today we will do our best to fight against it and eradicate it,’’ said President Gaas. He called on for the people to cooperate on the mission to eradicate corruption in the autonomous region. Last year, a UN report stated that governance in Somalia remains riddled with corruption.

Parliament Debates Information And Communication Bill

03 August – Source; Goobjoog News – 102 Words

Somali Federal Parliament concluded the second session with lengthy discussion on sensitive press bill introduced years ago by cabinet. Information and communication committee within Somali Federal parliament presented the overall content of the new law to Somali Parliament. Somali media houses and journalist associations requested amendments in some articles within the bill that the journalists say are repressive to the media. The bill sparked controversy when it was introduced to parliament last January by cabinet. Some journalists say that some article in the bill lacks clarity and could give a pretext for government crackdown on journalists and media houses. Somalia has active media houses that have worked without license and rules.

Detained Journalist In Somalia Released

03 August – Source: Radio Dalsan – 166 Words

Six journalists have been set free late on Sunday night after been behind bars for couple days. The journalists were called back on Monday morning for hearing of their cases. The releas of the journalist comes after the local elders in the area have reached a compromise with the officials of Ahlu Sunnah Waljama. Initially the journalist were detained after they opposed a proposal from Ahlu Sunna that they should not air anything related to the group in news or views. On the other hand, journalists working in Guri El location have rejected to sign document from Ahlu Sunna Waljama group to limit their work and work on the interest of the group. There are reports that claim one of the detained journalist became seriously ill in jail and has been hospitalized.

Drug traffickers And Other Criminal Elements Arrested In Overnight Swoops In Dharkenley

03 August – Source; Wacaal Media – 147 Words

Several people were arrested last night following a security operation in Banaadir region’s Dharkenley district, officials confirmed. Speaking to the local press, deputy commissioner of the area Jama Adow said that the operation was aimed at arresting criminal elements hiding in the area. The deputy commissioner added that the operation also targeted drug traffickers in the area, most of whom were now in custody after they were arrested in the swoops. “In a bid to perform our duties of ensuring the safety of our people, we carried out swoops that netted drug traffickers, muggers and other criminal elements that made life difficult for people.” said deputy commissioner Adow. He added that people could not even go for night prayers at the local mosques for fear of machete and knife wielding criminals. He said those found guilty will be arraigned in court as soon as investigations were complete.

INTERNATIONAL MEDIA

Somalia Offers U.K. ‘Full Cooperation’ In Soma Corruption Probe

03 August – Source: Bloomberg Business – 313 Words

Somalia’s government offered to cooperate in an investigation by the U.K.’s Serious Fraud Office into Soma Oil & Gas Exploration Ltd., the Horn of Africa nation’s Petroleum Ministry said. The SFO said on Friday it’s probing the London-based company, along with Soma Oil & Gas Holdings Ltd., Soma Management Ltd. and other in “relation to allegations of corruption in Somalia.” Soma denied the allegations and is cooperating with the investigation. “Somalia’s oil and gas reserves are a national asset to be used and exploited in the national interest and we are committed to achieving this with complete integrity and transparency,” the ministry said in a statement e-mailed Sunday.

Soma, chaired by former U.K. Conservative Party leader Michael Howard, has spent $40 million on seismic surveys of at least 60,000 square kilometers (23,166 square miles) off the Somali coast. The company has proposed a deal with the Somali government that may grant it as much as 90 percent of the country’s prospective oil revenue. Somalia’s Petroleum Ministry said it “acknowledges the capacity building support agreement with Soma” signed on April 24, 2014. It didn’t elaborate. According to an April 24, 2014, letter posted on the ministry’s website, Soma Oil and Gas agreed to pay six ministry officials $5,000 a month for a year and supply office equipment in a program costing a total of $400,000.

Paying salaries to officials as part of a capacity-building program may create a “concerning conflict of interests,” Barnaby Pace, a campaigner at Global Witness, the London-based advocacy group, said by e-mail. Soma has nothing further to add to its statement on Saturday saying it’s cooperating with the authorities, the company said by e-mail. Transparency International, the Berlin-based anti-graft watchdog, last year ranked Somalia as the world’s most corrupt country alongside North Korea.

Ex-Tory Leader Lord Howard Agrees To Speak To Fraud Investigators Over Corruption Probe At Oil Firm He Chairs

03 August – Source: The Mirror – 444 Words

SOMA Oil and Gas insists there is ‘no suspicion whatsoever’ attached to its chairman, who led the Tories to defeat in the 2005 election. Fraud investigators are set to speak to Tory peer Michael Howard as they mount a corruption probe at an oil firm he leads. The former Tory leader is the chairman of the board of SOMA Oil and Gas, which is the subject of a criminal investigation by the Serious Fraud Office. SOMA insists there is ‘no suspicion whatsoever’ attached to Lord Howard, who led the Conservative party to defeat as Michael Howard in the 2005 election. A spokesman added it is ‘confident that there is no basis to the allegation’, which relates to claims of corruption in Somalia. The firm was founded in 2013 to find new oil wells after a turbulent period in the African nation’s history. Somalia’s first formal parliament for two decades was sworn in a year earlier after battles with Al-Shabab Islamists and a two-year famine that killed nearly 260,000 people.

Based off London’s Piccadilly, a stone’s throw from the plush Mayfair district, SOMA exists specifically to work with Somalia and has a partnership with the country’s government. In the first few months of the project the firm spent £24m exploring an area off the Somali coast which could reach 30 million acres by the end of the project, 2013 accounts show. A Serious Fraud Office statement said: “The SFO confirmed that it has opened a criminal investigation into SOMA Oil & Gas Holdings Ltd, SOMA Oil & Gas Exploration Limited, SOMA Management Limited and others in relation to allegations of corruption in Somalia. “Whistleblowers are valuable sources of information to the SFO in its cases. “We welcome approaches from anyone with inside information on all our cases including this one. “We can be contacted through our secure reporting channel, which can be accessed via the SFO website.”

Emirati Aid Ship Arrives In Somalia, Delivers Food Supplies

03 August – Source: Sputnik News – 153 Words

A ship from UAE reportedly delivered almost 500 tons of humanitarian aid to Bosaso, the northeastern Somali city. The ship from the United Arab Emirates (UAE) delivered almost 500 tons of humanitarian aid to Bosaso, the northeastern Somali city, local media reported. According to The National newspaper, the aid included 11 varieties of food supplies. Somali authorities expressed their thanks to the UAE. The UAE spends significant sums of money on humanitarian aid for African states via such institutions as Abu Dhabi Fund for Development (ADFD) and Emirates Red Crescent (ERC). In July, Humaid Al Shamsi, ERC’s deputy secretary general for international aid said that the country’s funds, designed to expand the international aid to the poorest states of East Africa, particularly Somalia, would be increased. According to UN estimates, 11.3 million people in Eastern Africa are in strong need of humanitarian aid.

Why Are Migrants So Desperate To Get To Leave Their Homelands?

03 August – Source: Metro, UK – 723 Words

We have all seen the heart-stopping images of illegal immigrants hanging on to the top of trains and squeezing themselves in to lorry wheelarches in a desperate bid to reach the UK. Lets face it, many people see them as a menace, camped on the shore at Calais ready to exploit any opportunity to come to the UK where they will flood our education and health systems. And yes, there are economic migrants who just want a better standard of living. But there are many who have fled horrific wars, genocides and dictatorships in their own lands and see Britain as an Oasis of safety and tolerance. Here’s a few of the nightmares they are trying desperately to escape:

Somalia

Violence has continued to ravage the country after it spent more than two decades without a government after the fall of military dictator President Siad Barre in 1991. It is home to the notorious Al-Shabaab jihadist terror group, who committed the 2013 Westgate shopping mall massacre in Nairobi, Kenya. In addition to man-made catastrophes, natural disasters such as drought killed an estimated half a million people in the famines of 1992 and 2010-12.

OPINION, ANALYSIS, AND CULTURE

“Key differences in the strategies employed by Boko Haram in north-eastern Nigeria and Al-Shabaab in Somalia lead us to believe that while both groups are likely to remain active, Al-Shabaab is likely to be the larger international threat due to its relations with the local population, international recruitment, geopolitical strategic importance, and forward planning.”

Op-Ed: Sub-Saharan Africa’s Two Deadliest Military Groups

03 August – Source: Daily Maverick – 2, 023 Words

Sub-Saharan Africa is currently the scene of two prominent militant insurgencies, Boko Haram in northeastern Nigeria, and al-Shabaab in Somalia. On the surface the two insurgencies are in similar situations, both being the subject of international media attention and currently combating renewed offensives from multinational military forces. Additionally, both organisations have links to international terrorist organisations and intend to create Sharia states or caliphates in the areas under their control. The following article seeks to highlight the key differences in the two groups’ strategies that lead us to believe that while both groups are likely to remain active, it is al-Shabaab that will likely be the larger international threat, because of its relations with the local population, international recruitment, geopolitical strategic importance, and forward planning.

Ahead of US President Barack Obama’s recent visit to Kenya and Ethiopia, African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM) forces launched a multi-pronged offensive against some of al-Qaeda linked al-Shabaab’s last strongholds in the country, successfully capturing the former militant strongholds of Bardere and Dinsoor, which are agriculturally rich and strategically important, linking Mogadishu to Ethiopia and Kenya. Overall, AMISOM forces marked significant successes in recent months during Operation Indian Ocean, capturing key towns including the port of Kismayo, from which al-Shabaab sold coal and smuggled other goods, which financed its operations.

Additionally, several of the group’s top figures were killed in the last year, including head Ahmed Abdi Godane, on September 1 2014. Despite these successes, AMISOM proved to have limited capabilities in maintaining their positive military momentum, particularly given the weakness of the central government in Mogadishu, as well as the weak Somali National Forces (SNA), which are unable to guarantee that formerly captured towns will remain liberated. Moreover, Operation Indian Ocean has created major negative consequences by pushing al-Shabaab away from the coast and towards the rural areas of the country, and thus closer to Somalia’s neighbors, particularly Kenya. With its financial supply routes cut off and its senior leadership consistently targeted, many suspected that al-Shabaab’s capabilities would decline, but that’s not the case.

Attacks in Mogadishu continue, including bombings such as the high-profile attack on the Jazeera Hotel on July 26 which killed 15 people, as well as offensives against AMISOM military bases, most recently in the town of Lego, which reportedly claimed the lives of at least 50 Burundian soldiers. While this is in part attributed to the weakness of the Somali Army, the central Mogadishu government, and AMISOM’s limited capabilities, it is additionally linked to al-Shabaab’s ability to quickly adjust to the situation on the ground, not only in order to survive, but also to fulfill its long term plan of creating a caliphate. Al-Shabaab’s ability to change strategy has proven successful in the past: For example, its fighters would suddenly no longer engage AMISOM directly, opting to simply withdraw from an area only to regain control of it later. This comes from al-Shabaab’s long experience and its ability to learn from past mistakes, its reach having peaked in 2012 before it lost most of the territory it once held.

“A friend of mine who writes essays and books in Somali tells me he would like to pay for proofreading and copyediting services in Somali language but there are no freelance copy editors and proofreaders due to lack of a recognised organisation that trains Somali proofreaders and copy editors.”

Hargeysa Is The Hub Of Somali Culture

03 August – Source: RBC Radio – 514 Words

The Hargeysa International Book Fair plays a distinctive role in the promotion of Somali culture due to the consistency and dedication of organisers and sponsors. Hargeysa is home to several Somali language daily newspapers, reading clubs, publishing houses and research centres. Demilitarisation and reconciliation efforts of the now late Somaliland President, Mohamed Ibrahim Egal, created an atmosphere in which cultural industry can flourish. Since January 2015 more than five books have been published In Hargeysa. One of the books published and launched in Hargeysa is a biography of the late Somali poet and researcher , Mohamed Hashi Dhama’ ( aka Gaarriye ) who was the first writer to discover the Somali poetry metre through articles published in the now defunct Xiddigta Oktoobar , the former military regime’s daily Somali newspaper, in January 1976. Gaarriye’s work has inspired researchers to write dissertations, research papers and books on Somali poetry.

There was no free press but translated stories such as Alex Haley’s Roots ( Qiso Xididdo qoys Ameerikaan ah), and Somali short stories such as Mohamed Dahir Afrah’s Galtimacruuf and Abdullahi Sheikh Hussein’s Ayaan daran, were serialised in the newspaper . However, cultural industry was not as vibrant in Mogadishu as it is now in Hargeysa. Several factors ranging from the the Internet to diaspora support for local publishing initiatives account for this trend. Those initiatives need institutional backing in the form of training for editors, proofreaders and journalists because book reviews in Somali are posted in websites and online magazine. Such an approach to boosting the publishing industry could unlock a lucrative publishing market, create translation opportunities and above all encourage writers to publish their work locally.