August 7, 2018 | Morning Headlines
900 Students Graduate From Amoud University In Awdal region
06 August – Source: Hiiraan Online – 144 Words
On Sunday 900 student graduated from University of Amoud in Awdal region. The colourful graduation ceremony was presided over by President Muse Bihi Abdi. There were 745 student who successfully completed their undergraduate degrees in various fields and the remaining 155 were postgraduate students, according to the Board of Trustees Chairman, Haji Ahmed Misan Aarre, who spoke at the ceremony.
Former Somaliland Minister of Health, Dr. Hussein Mohamed Muhumed, who was among the graduating students, spoke on behalf of Master’s Degree graduates, and encouraged his fellows students, to work on improvement of the quality of education in Somaliland. President Bihi congratulated all the graduates, urging them to strive hard in achieving more in the field of education, and use their knowledge to contribute to their communities. He said he was a former student of Amoud back in the days when it was an institute.
Key Headlines
- 900 Students Graduate From Amoud University In Awdal region (Hiiraan Online)
- Nine Inmates In Hargeisa Jail On Hunger Strike Over ‘Injustice’ (Halbeeg News)
- Somali Police Officers Arrested For ‘Bribe’ (Mareeg News)
- Turkish Students Volunteer In Niger Somalia (Anadolu Agency)
- EC Extends EU NAVFOR Somalia Operation Atalanta Against Piracy (Ship Technology)
- Somalis In The First World War (LSE – Center for Africa)
NATIONAL MEDIA
Nine Inmates In Hargeisa Jail On Hunger Strike Over ‘Injustice’
06 August – Source: Halbeeg News – 158 Words
Nine inmates in Hargeisa jail began a hunger strike to protest against a directive issued by Somaliland authorities. The prisoners are complaining about injustice and lack of freedom after they have served their jail sentences.
The lawyer of the inmates, Mohamed Ahmed Abokor said, the prisoners have gone on hunger strike in protest against cruel, inhuman and degrading conditions, that they have been forced to endure inside the prison. The nine prisoners who were initially found guilty of committing terrorism activities have served their sentences.
Mr. Abokor accused the authorities of denying the prisoners freedom after their jail sentences ended. Somaliland Ministry for Justice and the prison supervisor have not yet commented on the strike staged by the inmates. In 2008, Somaliland Authorities had extended the jail terms of these prisoners after deadly terror attacks in Hargeisa city. The attacks which occurred on 29th October 2008 claimed the lives of 24 civilians, while another 31 were wounded.
Somali Police Officers Arrested For ‘Bribe’
06 August – Source: Mareeg News – 209 Words
Somali government has been intensifying the fight against corruptions as police officers were arrested for alleged corruption scandal in Mogadishu. Three police officers were caught red-handed allegedly taking bribes and arrested after a warrant was issued by Somali military court in Mogadishu.
The suspects are due to make their first court appearance to face the charges against them. The arrested officers are; Colonel Abdirisak Somane Hussein, Abdi Omar Isak and Abdifatah Mohamud Abdi. In an online statement, Somali military court said, an investigation relating to their case had started. There were no comments from the detained police officers over the fraud allegations. Another Somali police officer was arrested on Sundayafter he was accused of losing public funds.
The UN envoy to Somalia, Michael Keating, says progress towards stability is being impeded by extreme drought and hunger, by Al-Shabaab’s continued ability to slaughter large numbers of civilians, and other “enormous challenges”. Keating says these included pervasive corruption, most obviously in politics, and power-brokers’ willingness to use violence, or the threat of violence, against opponents while in a review of Somalia’s status”. UN says Somalis deserve better than to watch as the most privileged compete for personal gain at a time when they face so much adversity and insecurity.
INTERNATIONAL MEDIA
Turkish Students Volunteer In Niger, Somalia
06 August – Source: Anadolu Agency – 310 Words
Turkish students are volunteering in Niger and Somalia as part of a Turkish Cooperation and Coordination Agency’s (TIKA) 2018 Experience Sharing Program program. In Niger, they helped youths learn the Turkish language via the Turkish Maarif Foundation (TMV). Recep Sezer, a student of the faculty of Islamic sciences of Canakkale March 18 University, told Anadolu Agency that the training had been successful.
“We practiced speaking and explained their mistakes, they took our numbers to keep practicing with us,” he said. Mustafa Safa Tural, a student of the September 19 University medical faculty, said, TMV was helping locals receive education. “Finding Turkish-speaking students in a land a six-hour-flight away is very pleasing and it makes me proud. The students learned Turkish really fast, they have also used our presence to develop their skills in the Turkish language,” he added.
Turkish students also carried out volunteer work in Somalia under the same TIKA program. The volunteering medical students in Somalia examined patients at the government hospital of Keysaney Hospital and the Recep Tayyip Erdogan Hospital which was built and is administered by the Turkish Health Ministry. The students trained in the emergency, internal medicine, urology and general surgery departments under the supervision of physicians.
TIKA, Turkish Airlines, Anadolu Agency and Turkish Radio and Television Corporation (TRT) have jointly organized the “2018 Experience Sharing Program”. TIKA is to send some 500 Turkish students from 117 universities to 30 countries between July 29 and Sept. 8, within the framework of its 2018 Experience Sharing Program. The students will take part in nearly 100 projects and activities in their host countries.
EC Extends EU NAVFOR Somalia Operation Atalanta Against Piracy
06 August – Source: Ship Technology – 258 Words
The European Council (EC) has decided to extend the mandate of EU NAVFOR Somalia Operation Atalanta to curb piracy until 31 December 2020. EU NAVFOR Operation Atalanta aims to deter, prevent and suppress acts of piracy and armed robbery off the Somali coast.
Launched in 2008, EU NAVFOR Operation Atalanta also intends to safeguard the World Food Program (WFP) vessels, as well as vulnerable shipping, fishing activities, and other EU missions and programmes in the region. As per reports, the number of attacks off the coast of Somalia in the Indian Ocean has reduced from 176 in 2011 to 9 in 2017, while no incident was reported throughout the second quarter of this year.
Welcoming the EC’s decision to extend the EU NAVFOR Operation Atalanta, European Community Shipowners’ Associations (ECSA) secretary general Martin Dorsman said: “The naval presence of the EU NAVFOR Operation Atalanta and the cooperation with other international forces, has strongly contributed to the dramatic decrease in piracy attacks in this region.”
EC has also decided to transfer Operation Atalanta’s operational headquarters from Northwood in the UK to Rota, Spain, and the Maritime Security Center Horn of Africa (MSCHOA) to Brest, France, as of 29 March next year. This decision is triggered by the UK’s withdrawal from the EU. Dorsman further added: “It needs to be guaranteed that the Operation Atalanta will continue to run as effectively and efficiently as today.” EC has also allocated a budget of €11.777m for the common costs of the operation of EU NAVFOR Operation Atalanta for an extended period.
OPINION, ANALYSIS AND CULTURE
“The Somali experience of the conflict is, as this exhibition makes clear, multifaceted and complex. It is estimated that about 60 Somalis fought in Europe. Many more served in the Somali Camel Corps and provided back-up to the military effort.”
Somalis In The First World War
06 August – Source: LSE – Center for Africa – 1026 Words
This year marks the centenary of the end of the First World War (1914-18). In London, one of the most famous WW1 memorials can be found in Hyde Park. The Royal Artillery Memorial features a giant sculpture of an artillery gun. Beneath are four bronze figures of British artillerymen positioned around the stone centre. It is a memorial that was initially criticised for depicting a more real, brutalistic image of war. The faceless men are exhausted; powerful but ordinary rank and file masculinity is stretched to breaking; one soldier actually lays dead before us.
Capturing that spirit of realism, SAAFI (the Somali Advice and Forum of Information, based in north-west London) have curated an exhibition to highlight the overlooked Somali experience of the conflict. Formally launched on 16 June 2018, at Brent Civic Centre, this impressive and fascinating exhibition sensitively documents how Somalis were caught up in the conflict in different ways, and also its impact. Working with Brent Museums and Archives, the Somaliland Scouts Association (the British colonial regiment in the region famous for its camel corps) and with the aid of a Heritage Lottery fund, months of hard work have resulted in a Somalis in The First World War exhibition.
One of the highlights is a portrait photo of Yusuf Dualeh Amarreh, who fought in the war, and the display of his medals, thanks to his grand-daughter, the famous health care pioneer, Dr Edna Adan. The exhibition has been inspired, sustained and co-ordinated by the founder of SAAFI, its dynamic Director, Mrs Rhoda Ibrahim, a pillar in the London-Somali community, ably assisted by Mrs Nimo Hussein.
In her opening address Rhoda Ibrahim thanked all the stakeholders, contributors and volunteers for making such an initiative possible. It was an event which, she said, underscored the historical connections between the Somali and British people, and was a celebration of the deep emotional roots that sustained a multi-cultural twenty-first century. Her own father had fought in the conflict. In fact, he became the iconic image of the Somali askari (soldier) since he famously appears on a Somali-British stamp commemorating the end of the conflict, standing tall and proud, and facing danger head on.
This exhibition is part of a broader historical zeitgeist. There is a new recognition of the global and multi-national dynamics within national histories, such as the rise and fall of the British Empire (the most powerful empire the world has ever endured, covering a quarter of the earth’s surface at its height). So not surprisingly scholarship on the First World War now in the final year of its centenary anniversary, has re-rooted and re-routed itself in the global contribution and fall-out of the conflict.
Of course, it is important not to forget the carnage and loss of a generation on the Western Front – the horror of the trenches. However, the contributions of people from all over the empire on the battlefield and in secondary roles supplying materials, foodstuffs and so on, is becoming a much more established feature of how we understand the First World War – de-centering it from the fields of Flanders.