December 24, 2015 | Morning Headlines.

Main Story

Al-Shabaab Militants Lose Grounds In Southern Somalia

23 December – Source: Garowe Online – 115 Words

Somali government forces backed by African Union peacekeepers have made fresh gains against militants, wresting the control of new areas in Lower Jubba region, Garowe Online reports. Allied forces liberated Berhani vicinity, 80km west of the southern port city of Kismayo in a span of day after the recapture of Lower Shabelle region village of Aw Dheegleon Tuesday. Residents have seen heavily armed soldiers thrusting deeper into Berhani. Meanwhile, the allied battalions raided Al Shabaab hideouts in Qudus, another far-flung terrorist hotbed in Lower Jubba. No casualties have been disclosed to the media yet. Beleaguered militant group previously lost large chunk of territories in joint pushes by Somali National Army and African Union forces.

Key Headlines

Somaliland Leader Names Advisers In New Reshuffle (Garowe Online)
ISWA Opposed To Formation Of A Regional Administration In Bakool Region (Wacaal Media)
Italian Chief of Defence Makes First Trip To Somalia (Horseed Media)
Al-Shabaab Militants Lose Grounds In Southern Somalia (Garowe Online)
Drought Puts 18 Million At Risk In Eastern Africa (Voice of America)
Egypt’s Interior Minister Talks Counter Terror Cooperation With Somali Counterpart (Ahram Online)
A Refugee Stalemate: When An Asylum Claim Is Rejected (Al Jazeera)

NATIONAL MEDIA

Somaliland Leader Names Advisers In New Reshuffle

23 December – Source: Garowe Online – 110 Words

Somaliland President Ahmed Mohamed Mohamud (Siilaanyo) has made a surprise re-shuffle, naming a roster of new faces to posts. In a presidential decree seen by Garowe Online , President Siilaanyo sacked six officials including governors and deputy director of state broadcaster. At least three advisers have appeared in the far reaching lineup. Three governors and three deputies will also be taking over in Togdher, Sahil, Sellel, Dadmadhed, Haysimo, Sanag and Buuhoodle regions. Moreover, Somaliland President announced members of commission for good governance. Somaliland, located in northwestern Somalia declared its independence from the rest of the country as de facto sovereign state but it has not been recognized internationally yet.

ISWA Opposed To Formation Of A Regional Administration In Bakool Region

23 December – Source: Wacaal Media – 100 Words

The Interim administration of South West Somalia has raised its voice against plans by elders, professionals and politicians from Bakool region to come up with their own administration for several districts in the area. Information minister Abdi Mohamed told a section of the local media that his administration will not welcome any such initiative as they will not work with any administration other than the one they know about. A section of ISWA officials have said there were MPs from Bakool region currently in Ato, El-barde and Yeed with plans to form an administration that is independent from ISWA in the area. His sentiments come in the wake of allegations by MPs from Bakool region that local residents have no confidence in the ISWA.

Italian Chief of Defence Makes First Trip To Somalia

23 December – Source: Horseed Media – 116 Words
Italy Chief of Staff of Defense Lieutenant General Claudio Graziano arrived in the Somali capital Mogadishu for an unannounced visit on Wednesday, meeting top government and military leaders. During his one day visit, General Graziano met Somalia’s Prime Minister, Omar Abdirashid Ali Sharmarke, Defense Minister General Abdulkadir Ali Diini and the Somali army chief. Talks mainly concerned the military support that the Italian government has been giving the Somali national army as well as military alliance. Recently, Italy donated various military equipment to the Federal government and has been training its army.“Italy has continuously supported us in rebuilding our national army and we hope that this kind of assistance will continue,’’ said the Somali Premier.

INTERNATIONAL MEDIA

Drought Puts 18 Million At Risk In Eastern Africa

23 December – Source: Voice of America – 387 Words

The United Nations says more than 18 million people across eastern Africa are at risk of food insecurity due to El Niño weather patterns and conflicts in the region. The East African bloc IGAD warned Wednesday the persistent drought affecting eastern and central Africa would continue for at least three more months.

IGAD Climate Prediction and Applications Center Director Guleid Artan said east African nations would receive more rainfall, but not until March. “The drought in the northern sector will continue till the next rainy season while the rains will subside in half of Kenya but will have above average rain in Southern and Western Kenya and Uganda, Tanzania especially around the Great Lakes area,” said Artan.

El Niño, a climate phenomena, occurs when temperatures in the central and eastern Pacific Ocean become warmer than average, causing a shift in atmospheric circulation. El Niño’s impact was felt in eastern Africa as far back as early May when drought conditions affected parts of Ethiopia, Sudan and Somalia. According to Pete Manfield from the U.N. Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), an estimated 18.5 million people are at risk of starvation due to drought and conflicts in the region.

Egypt’s Interior Minister Talks Counter Terror Cooperation With Somali Counterpart

23 December – Source: Ahram Online – 168 Words

Egypt’s Minister of Interior Magdy Abdel Ghaafar received his Somali counterpart in Cairo Wednesday to discuss bilateral cooperation in fighting terrorism, Al-Ahram Arabic news website reported.Abdel El-Razaq Mohamed, the Somali interior minster, showed interest in expanding the benefit gained by the Somali police from Egyptian interior ministry expertise.Both the Egyptian and Somali governments are fighting domestic terrorist and extremists groups.The Somali government has been fighting Al-Shabab movement, an extremist Islamist movement, for more than two decades.
Al-Shabab won control of almost all of Somalia’s capital, Mogadishu, in 2006, and held large swathes of central and southern Somalia until a UN-backed force from the African Union — including soldiers from neighbouring Kenya and Uganda — pushed the militants out of the capital in 2011.The movement still controls many rural areas in Somalia where it imposes strict Sharia law.In 2012, Al-Shabab and Al-Qaeda announced their alliance.Egypt has been combating a decade-long militant insurgency in North Sinai that has intensified in the past two years.

OPINION, ANALYSIS, AND CULTURE

“However, Ahmed could not have anticipated what would happen next. The government of Germany would not give me refugee status because I was fingerprinted in Italy. They told me to go back there. I am a ‘Dublin’ case.”

A Refugee Stalemate: When An Asylum Claim Is Rejected

23 December – Source: Al Jazeera – 681 Words

Abdishakur Ahmed spends most days disconnected from German society, hanging out in a small room he shares with two other Somali refugees. But, in his state-provided dormitory in a rural German town, Ahmed dreams of building a better life. Ahmed, whose parents and eight siblings remained in Somalia, has been living in Rathenow since February 2014. He is one of hundreds of thousands of people who have fled their homeland and applied for asylum in Germany, a country that has registered more asylum applicants than any other Western country for four consecutive years.

In the first eight months of 2015, Germany registered 256,938 asylum applications and Germany’s Federal Office of Migration and Refugees expects to register a total of 800,000 applications by the end of the year. However, Germany has refused Ahmed’s asylum application, granting him instead a temporary residence certificate that could be revoked at any time. Now he is stuck in a stalemate. He is living in Germany in a safe environment, but he is away from his family with an unclear future and a limited present.

Ahmed comes from Somaliland, an autonomous region in northern Somalia. He was a student studying agriculture at a university in Hargeisa, but was forced to “leave Somalia because of the political situation and the violence”. He travelled to Addis Ababa, the capital of Ethiopia, where he paid $300 to cross the border illegally into Sudan. “For 15 days we were in the Sahara Desert,” he says. “The smugglers told me, ‘If you don’t pay more money, you die’.” Ahmed’s family had no choice but to send him money to save him from death.