December 19, 2017 | Daily Monitoring Report
Constitutional Affairs Minister Challenges Security Minister’s Ban On Private Meetings
18 December – Source: Jowhar.com – 152 Words
Constitutional Affairs minister, Abdi Hosh Jibril challenged remarks made by the security minister Mohamed Abukar Islow who banned private meetings in the capital without the permission of the security agencies and the Banadir regional administration. On a Facebook post, Minister Hosh said it is wrong to ban people from holding private meetings without the permission from the government as per the constitution. Jibril said the constitution permits ‘unfettered freedom of association and freedom of assembly’ for citizens, quoting articles 16 and 20 of the constitution.
The minister, a legal expert, has several times in the past challenged some of his colleagues in the Cabinet over issues related to the constitution and the law. Security agencies in the past few days issued a number of directives banning political gatherings against the government. The security minister made the remarks at a press conference in Mogadishu on Monday following the arrest of the Wadajir party leader Abdirahman Abdishakur.
Key Headlines
- Constitutional Affairs Minister Challenges Security Minister’s Ban On Private Meetings (Jowhar.com)
- President Farmajo Tells Army Commanders To Double Their Efforts In Fighting Al-Shabaab (Radio Dalsan)
- Finance Ministers Arrives In Kismayo For 3rd Fiscal Federalism Meeting (Hiiraan Online)
- Kenya Stands Its Ground In Sea Row With Somalia (Daily Nation)
- UNHCR Repatriates 74141 Somali Refugees From Kenya (Xinhua)
- UN Refugee Chief Finds Somalia Suffering From Instability And Drought But Sees Hope (UNHCR)
NATIONAL MEDIA
President Farmajo Tells Army Commanders To Double Their Efforts In Fighting Al-Shabaab
19 December – Source: Radio Dalsan – Words
Somali President, Mohamed Abdullahi Farmajo addressed commanders of the armed forces at the Ministry of Defense headquarters. He praised the army for their braveness and efforts in fighting Al-Shabaab even at difficult times and said that as a result, the country has moved forward in attaining peace. The president told the commanders that they need not relax but instead increase their efforts in fighting all anti-peace agents and that they should communicate and motivate their junior officers in the same.
“We have to increase our efforts up to five times and not be bored even for a single minute because this is the time we need to prove ourselves as the international community who support us are placing hard tests on us. You have the ability but if it lacks the morale and loyalty, it will be like a container with a hole at the bottom and that is something you need to teach your junior officers. With the will of Allah, we will succeed in these activities that we are preparing for and I will channel much of the government resources into the army so that we free this country from any insecurity”, said the President. President Farmajo regularly visits the army to address and motivate them to carry out their work with patriotism and defeat the anti-peace agents who are against the stability of the country.
Finance Ministers Arrives In Kismayo For 3rd Fiscal Federalism Meeting
18 December – Source: Hiiraan Online – 70 Words
A delegation led by the Federal Minister of Finance Abdirahman Du’ale Beileh arrived in Kismayo. The minister’s entourage includes finance ministers from the regional states of Galmudug, Hirshabelle, and Southwest. The officials arrived in Kismayo for the third fiscal federalism meeting to be held in Kismayo which will focus on reforms, unification of taxes, policies, and tariffs. Beileh expressed hope that a fruitful outcome will come out of the meeting.
INTERNATIONAL MEDIA
Kenya Stands Its Ground In Sea Row With Somalia
19 December – Source: Daily Nation – 351 Words
Kenya has filed its response at the International Court of Justice in the Indian Ocean border dispute case filed by Somalia. A statement from the Office of the Attorney-General Githu Muigai has said Kenya’s position is that the maritime border remains as it is and the dispute be solved through negotiations. “This position is entrenched in the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea and several resolutions and decisions of the African Union Heads of State and Government adopted since 1964,” the statement said.
The Hague-based court is expected to give direction on the matter in early 2018. The court’s decisions are normally binding and final. Somalia’s petition was filed on July 13, 2015. It sought to have the maritime border redrawn to extend diagonally to the south at Kiunga into the sea, and not eastwards as it is. Somalia sued Kenya in 2014 asking for proper determination of the sea boundary between the two countries and wanted it adjusted to give Mogadishu a huge chunk of the sea, which has oil deposits.
The area in contest is about 100,000 square kilometres and there are six oil blocks, which Somalia argues Kenya has awarded contracts to foreign prospecting firms for even though they “lie entirely or predominantly on the Somali side”. Somalia is basing its arguments on Articles 15, 74 and 83 of the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, which both countries ratified in 1989. But Kenya submits that the maritime border with Somalia is as was decreed in the Presidential Proclamation of 1979.
UNHCR Repatriates 74,141 Somali Refugees From Kenya
19 December – Source: Xinhua – 353 Words
The UN refugee agency said Monday it has repatriated some 74,141 Somali refugees from Kenya as at Nov. 15since the voluntary return exercise began three years ago. The UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said in its bi-weekly update released in Nairobi that some 32, 478 refugees were supported to return to their home in Somalia in 2017 alone.
The UN refugee agency said a total of 71,792 individuals from Dadaab refugee camp in northeast Kenya had been assisted in the framework of voluntary return to Somalia since the launch of voluntary repatriation on December 8, 2014. “As at Nov. 15, there were 18,140 refugees registered in our database willing to return to Somalia, with 12,874 being registered in 2017 alone,” the UN agency said.
The UNHCR also confirmed the resumption of voluntary return by road was cleared by the Kenyan government, however due to heavy rains, roads are not passable on the Somalia side. According to the UN agency, a total of 4,949 non-Somali refugees were relocated to Kakuma refugee camp in northwest Kenya. “The relocation is currently suspended due to the limited absorption capacity and services in Kalobeyei,” it said.
OPINION, ANALYSIS & CULTURE
“While in Mogadishu, Grandi and the Mayor, Thabit Abdi Mohamed, inaugurated a new school located a few hundred meters away from the deadliest single attack in Somali history, when on 14 October a truck bomb killed over 500 people,”
UN Refugee Chief Finds Somalia Suffering From Instability And Drought, But Sees Hope
18 December – Source: UNHCR -903 Words
On a visit to the recovering southern port city of Kismayo, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, Filippo Grandi, pledged to continue investing in housing, education and livelihoods for returning refugees, IDPs and the local population. In his tour of Somalia’s third largest city, he saw enormous physical damage from 28 years of conflict but also visible signs of restoration and economic activity in the streets, including new small businesses run by returning refugees. Grandi emphasized that UNHCR only assists returning refugees who have made an informed and voluntary decision to return and has programs to reintegrate them.
“We see refugees … as an asset into which we need to invest.” “Refugees should be a force to rebuild the country when they decide to come back,” Grandi said, noting that UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, assisted over 100,000 to return over the past two years, while over one million remain in exile. “We see refugees not as a humanitarian problem, but as an asset into which we need to invest,” he added.
In a meeting with the President of the State of Jubaland, Ahmed Mohamed Islam, the President spoke of the need for refugees who were educated and trained to come to Kismayo to contribute. “When you want to build a state, you need human resources. Those coming back can fill that gap.” Most returning refugees had spent years, even decades in exile, waiting for signs of stability and the promise of education and jobs before giving up the safety and isolation of refugee camp life. While some 19,000 refugees in the Dadaab refugee camp are currently in the pipeline for voluntary return, most Somali refugees cite security concerns as their top reason to remain in Kenya.
Al-Shabaab militants still control large parts of south-central Somalia and clan violence and political tensions contribute to the instability. On the outskirts of Kismayo, Grandi met a family about to move into a UNHCR-constructed house in a self-contained settlement which also a provides a school, a health clinic, a covered market and a mosque. They had spent the last 28 years in the remote Ali Addeh refugee camp in Djibouti, which the refugee head visited last week. Visibly gleeful, the eldest son, Farah Hassan Abdi, 24, declared his happiness to be “back to my country that I love,” and his plans to become a doctor or even a surgeon so he could help his people. “What a great result to see young people go from being refugee to being back in their country.”
As a refugee, he had no such hope. The simple, sturdy houses were built on land provided by the government on the sandy outskirts of the city. The UNHCR and the American Refugee Committee (ARC) project is designed to provide returning refugees, but also a percentage of people who had been internally displaced as well as people from the local community, with a decent living environment so they can focus on educating their children and pursuing work. Surrounded by a group of students at the new school, Grandi said: “The boys and girls around me are people that have grown up in a refugee camp. They are not refugees anymore. What a great result to see young people go from being refugees to being back in their country, contributing to their country.”
But the refugees are returning to a country with massive challenges. A terrible drought has forced over one million Somalis to leave home and move to other parts of the country, mostly to urban areas. Thanks to a large-scale humanitarian response this year, famine has been averted. Given the country’s current struggles, Somalia’s Federal President, Mohamed Farmajo, told Grandi at a meeting on Saturday in Mogadishu, “We want our people back. This is their home.” But he added that it must be a gradual and organized transition. “We need to avoid returning refugees becoming IDPs.”
For those who do, the President urged to move people out of the dependency they knew in the refugee camps. “People know how to be given fish, we need to teach them how to catch fish,” he said. He thanked UNHCR for its partnership with the government in aiding the displaced but also in providing shelter, establishing schools and providing livelihoods training.
TOP TWEETS
@HIPSINSTITUTE: Our three days Annual Forum for Ideas started; #Djibouti minister of culture opened the session and political leaders, business leaders and well educated Somalis from the Horn and across the world are deliberating on the issues facing Somalis everywhere #SomaliForum2017 #Somalia
@MarcoLembo01: UN refugee chief finds Somalia suffering from instability and drought, but sees hope:http://www.unhcr.org/news/
@Lattif: WHAT IS BREWING IN MOGADISHU? Somali security forces arrested former minister for “treason”; say his house was a hub for the opposition and a gathering point for people “who want to collapse the government.” https://af.
@PDWilliamsGWU: The US continues its high-tempo of airstrikes in #Somalia. This one in #AMISOM‘s Sector 2#KDF http://www.africom.mil/
@DrBeileh: Chairing the 3rd Fiscal Federalism meeting in Kismayo Jubbaland today. Somalia is a rich nation which must maximise its economic potential. Only by working together fiscally on reforms & unifying taxes, policies & tariffs can we succeed. #Fiscal Federalism #Somalia
@Eye_on_Somalia: #reliefweb World: Preventing conflict, sustaining peace and promoting human securityhttp://ift.tt/2BcLbWd #Somalia
@AU_PSD: Special Representative of the Chairperson of the@_AfricanUnion Commission #SRCC for #Somalia, Amb. Francisco #Madeira, briefs the #PSC on the Political and Security Situation in #Somalia @amisomsomalia
IMAGE OF THE DAY
Federal government Finance Minister Dr. Abdirahman Beileh Duale officially, Chairs the 3rd Fiscal Federalism meeting in Kismayo Jubaland.
Photo: @Abdirahmandualebeileh