December 18, 2014 | Morning Headlines.

Main Story

Somali president appoints new prime minister

17 Dec- Source: Hiiraan Online/Radio Goobjoog/Dalsan Radio – 235 Words

Somali President Hassan Sheikh Mohamoud appointed Omar Abdirashid Ali Sharmarke as his new prime minister in a press conference held at Villa Somalia. Omar Abdirashid Ali Sharmarke, the former holder of the premiership and Somalia’s ambassador to the United States, held the post from 2009 to 2010, when he resigned due to an ongoing feud between himself and former President Sharif Ahmed. The appointment comes after the previous Prime Minister, Abdiweli Sheikh Ahmed, lost a vote of no-confidence in the Somali parliament on December 6 following a disagreement with President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud over cabinet appointments.

If his appointment is confirmed by Somalia’s parliament, Sharmarke, a Somali-born Canadian citizen, would become the country’s third prime minister in 26 months. Sharmarke, 54, has worked with the United Nations in Sudan and Sierra Leone, and earned a B.A. in political science and an M.A. in political economics from Carleton University in Ottawa. On July 14, 2014, Omar Abdirashid Ali Sharmarke became Somalia’s first ambassador to the United States in more than 20 years. Sharmarke’s father, Abdirashid Ali Sharmarke, was Somalia’s prime minister and second president since independence. On October 15, 1969, President Abdirashid Ali Sharmarke was assassinated by his bodyguards, and a few days later on October 21, General Siad Barre seized power in a bloodless military coup.Sharmarke has 30 days to appoint a new cabinet, which will have to be approved by parliament.

Key Headlines

Somali president appoints new prime minister (Hiraan Online/Radio Goobjoog/Dalsan Radio)
Somalia regains control of its airspace but lacks personnel management (Horseed Media)
The South West Six-regions and Southwest Three-Region join to form a new administration (Radio Goobjoog)
Kenya arrests several al-shabaab suspects (Dalsan Radio)
Puntland Parliament approves $60 million budget for 2015 (Horseed Media)
Tiyeglow officials vow to avenge women’s murders with the law (Sabahi Online)
Somaliland seizes Yemeni and Egyptian vessels (BBC News)
Divided Kenyans disagree over strategy to end ‘terror’ attacks (Virginia Gazette)
Staying safe while covering a terrorism-related story (Deutsche Welle)

SOMALI MEDIA

Somali president appoints new prime minister

17 Dec- Source: Hiraan Online/Radio Goobjoog/Dalsan Radio – 235 Words

Somalia regains control of its airspace, but lacks personnel management

17 Dec- Source: Horseed Media – 386 Words

Somalia has announced that it has regained the control of its airspace which has not been under the control of the government for more than two decades, an official has confirmed. Ministry of Air and Land Transport of Somalia Mr. Said Jama Qorshel said that they have agreed with the International Civil Aviation Organisation to handle over the control of the airspace to the Somali government. “Our airspace will be controlled from Mogadishu and all the necessary equipments will be transferred very soon,” he told reporters after arriving from Canada where he went to meet the ICAO officials.

Mogadishu airport is currently upgraded to an international standard through a project funded by the Turkish government and expected to be completed in the beginning of 2015. After the collapse of Somalia’s central government in the 1991 civil war, the United Nations Development Program and the International Civil Aviation Organization founded a civil aviation caretaker authority for Somalia in Kenya’s capital, Nairobi. Beyond providing air traffic services to flights within and through the airspace of Somalia, these successive United Nations bodies failed in the fulfilment of the rest of their mandate: i) provision of technical and operational assistance at designated airports and to local administrations in Somalia; ii) establishment and operation of a nucleus civil aviation administration for the functioning of CACAS; iii) formulation and implementation of training program for national personnel; and iv) formulation of procedures and draft regulations required for the operation and maintenance of civil aviation activities.

But Mr Qorshel voiced concerns on lack of professional workers which he said that it will take time to train them. “At the mean time we don’t have professional Somali workers to handle this job, but the government will train them,” he said. Between 80 and 100 regular flights enter Somalia’s airspace daily. Each of these flights is liable to paying an estimated navigation fee of $275 per entry. Everything remaining constant between 1993 and 2011, a conservative estimate of total revenue (collected or not) thus exceeds $150 million. The self-supporting project currently generates an average of $9 to $10 Million a year. There has not been a full, transparent accounting of how that money has been and is being managed nor where it may be.

The South West Six-regions and Southwest Three-Region join to form a new administration

17 Dec – Source: Radio Goobjoog – 143 Words

The administration of South West Somalia-six regions led by Madobe Nunow Mohamed joined the newly established regional state comprising of three regions, Bay, Bakol and Lower Shabelle region. The decision came after leaders from sides signed power sharing agreement in a series of talks in Baidoa, the headquarters of Bay region. A senior official among Nunow administration Abdikadir Mohamed Ibrahim told Goobjoog FM that the administration of South West Somalia-six regions were allowed to take the posts of vice president and speaker of the parliament. Madobe Nunow and Sharif Hassan Sheikh Adan, the newly elected president of South West Somalia were not present at the meeting but delegates representing them participated in the talks. Presiding over the talks were members of federal parliament and other dignitaries. Mr. Abdikadir stated that the agreement will lead to the development and the rebuilding of the region.

Puntland Parliament approves $60 million Budget for 2015

17 Dec – Source: Horseed Media – 104 Words

Puntland Parliament on Wednesday unanimously approved 2015 budget which was submitted by the Ministry of Finance weeks ago. Members of the Parliament passed the budget which is $60,182,159 and was voted in favour by 51 MPs, according to the Speaker of the Parliament Mr Said Hassan Shire. The sum, which is twice more than 2014 budget ($ 29 million) is expected to enable the government improve security, health care delivery, infrastructure and economic development. Puntland Ministry of Finance’s officials said that the budget will mainly be based on the funds received from the International donors and also from local sources like collection of tax.

Kenya arrests several al-shabaab suspects

17 Dec – Source: Dalsan Radio – 108 Words

The Kenyan security forces have arrested several al-Shabaab suspects inside Kenya. The trio were arrested at Athi River and were said to have entered Kenya through Kenya-Ethiopia border. Deputy Kenyan Police boss, Joseph Keitany said the anti terrorist police unit contributed to the arrest of those suspects. He added that the three are currently being interrogated by police. The three were traveling to Mombasa when they were arrested. Joseph Keitany also said the three were in Mandera for quite some time. The names of the three are Abdulla Yussuf, Mohamed Rashid and Mohamed. Police say, three arrived in Mandera in November. Recently, Mandera saw a spate of attacks.

REGIONAL MEDIA

Tiyeglow officials vow to avenge women’s murders with the law

17 Dec – Source: Sabahi Online – 821 Words

Residents of Somalia’s Bakol region are shocked and saddened by the brutal murder of seven women in Tiyeglow district last week, but local officials have warned citizens not to take the law into their own hands and perpetuate the cycle of violence and revenge. After al-Shabaab militants beheaded a Somali National Army soldier’s wife and her friend on December 10th, a group of soldiers led by the slain woman’s husband rounded up women believed to be close to al-Shabaab and killed five of them in retaliation.
Tiyeglow District Commissioner Mohamed Abdulle Hassan said neither of the two women al-Shabaab beheaded cooked for the Somali government forces as was previously reported. He said the women were close friends and were kidnapped from the soldier’s house. “Al-Shabaab broke into a house on the outskirts of Tiyeglow town at night and kidnapped two women who had done nothing,” he told Sabahi. “After a few hours, they discarded [the bodies of] the beheaded women in the town’s garbage dump.” Hassan said investigations into the five women killed in retaliation revealed that four of them were married to al-Shabaab fighters. Two of the four government soldiers who took part in the murders are in custody, he said, and efforts are under way to capture the remaining killers, including the al-Shabaab members. “By God, I was very, very saddened and I condemn the killing of the seven women,” Hassan said.

INTERNATIONAL MEDIA

Somaliland seizes Yemeni and Egyptian vessels

17 Dec- Source: BBC – 149 Words

Somaliland has seized more than 51 Yemeni boats and an Egyptian ship for fishing illegally in its waters, an official has told the BBC. Admiral Ahmed Osman said coastguards had also arrested more than 250 fishermen who were on board.This is the biggest arrest ever by Somaliland’s coastguards, trained by Western states to curb piracy and illegal fishing off its coast.Illegal fishing has depleted fishing stocks along the Somali coast. Correspondents say years of illegal fishing by foreign trawlers devastated the livelihoods of many people, some of whom then became pirates who attacked vessels for ransom.Piracy in the region has declined in recent years following the deployment of a multinational naval force.Last month, the EU Naval Force provided training and equipment to the Somaliland coast guard. Somaliland unilaterally declared independence from Somalia in 1991, but is not recognised by the United Nations or any government.

Divided Kenyans disagree over strategy to end ‘terror’ attacks

17 Dec – Source: Virginia Gazette – 488 Words

Islamist attacks, knee-jerk security responses, corrupt policing and racial profiling are dividing Kenyans increasingly along religious and ethnic lines, experts said. There is fear on all sides – among Christians who pray on Sundays under armed police guard, among Muslims who are vilified on the internet, and among government leaders who have lost face for failing to provide security. The Somalia-based al Shabaab militant group has escalated the number of attacks on Kenyans this year, as part of its campaign to stop Kenyan military operations in Somalia.

“It is primed to explode,” said Clive Wanguthi, a Muslim leader living in Nairobi’s Somali-dominated Eastleigh area. “If they (extremists) continue with these attacks, they will come and hit a sensitive area and everything will go to hell. I mean we will kill each other,” said Wanguthi. The 47-year-old father of six converted from Christianity to Islam 25 years ago, and is trying to ease tensions between Muslims and non-Muslims in Eastleigh, which has been a focus of government crackdowns. Eleven percent of Kenyans are Muslim, some of them ethnically Somali. Security forces’ efforts to tame the Islamist threat have focused on shutting down radical mosques and mass arrests of Muslims, particularly of Somali refugees living in Eastleigh, during an operation in April. In the countdown to Christmas, lorryloads of police have arrived in Eastleigh each night to patrol its streets, video halls and clubs, residents said.

Staying safe while covering a terrorism-related story

17 Dec – Source: Deutsche Welle – 500 Words

For our series on terrorist groups, DW correspondents travelled to some of the most dangerous regions of Africa. Local journalists kept them safe. Our jeep was stuck in the middle of the Sahara desert in Mali for just fifteen minutes but it seemed much longer. We were on our way from Timbuktu to Bamako and had planned our journey so it would not take not longer than one and half days. But 100 kilometers into Timbuktu the car’s engine stopped working. This was the most dangerous part of the journey because of bandits and Islamists who roam the area. They abduct foreigners for large sums or for political leverage. A reputable security company classifies this area as extremely risky. Close cooperation with local journalists…We trust our local colleagues and contacts; their sound judgment and assessment are invaluable. Sometimes we were just lucky.

A week after we had been filming in Mogadishu, a car bomb exploded a few meters in front of our hotel killing six people. Another incident occurred during a return flight from the north-eastern Nigeria, where we produced a report on Boko Haram. The plane almost crashed as we were about to land in the capital Abuja. We only take risks when we go on trips; our local colleagues live with these risks all the time. In Mogadishu, we worked with a journalist who spent some years in Europe because there had been threats to his life there in Somalia. But he has returned to continue reporting on the abuses in his country. The threats haven’t stopped. And so he lives in a low budget hostel so he can constantly move around. He wears different headscarves daily to disguise himself. Otherwise he would be an easy target for the terrorists.

SOCIAL MEDIA

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

“Somali Diaspora Voice was set to be the voice for the voiceless. It is a venue, a representational platform whereby peoples voices are heard, whereby people make their own decisions toward the future and whereby hope and audacity are built.”

What is Somali Diaspora voice?

17 Dec – Source: Radio RBC – 650 Words

On Saturday, Dec. 20th, Somali Diaspora Voice is kicking off its first grand opening at Marriott Hotel, St. Louis Park. This event was planned in such a way to become the first of its kind that ever to pass by the community. Now, people may ask: what is Somali Diaspora Voice, and why now? Is it different from other community organizations? I admit these are highly and fairly legitimate questions. With all due diligence and honest, let me answer these questions. Somali Diaspora Voice is an indigenous, grassroots organization and was born out of necessity. A group of friends from different walks of life came together and brainstormed for ways to save the community. After so many months of rigorous meetings they came up with a vision and mandate to work on. For over two decades, Somalis in the Diaspora–regardless of where they live in the world, were overpromised and underdelivered. We understand the pervasive challenges faced by many around the globe. The single mothers with possibly children with special need and elderly people who suffer in daily basis do not deserve the treatments they encounter. The students who are sent home simply because they do culturally accepted norms back home will be represented. In essence, nobody will expect an empty promise, and hopes will be realized in the fullest way possible.