December 26, 2016 | Daily Monitoring Report
Puntland President Distributes The Newly Added 3 Senatorial Seats Among Clans In Northern Puntland
26 December – Source: Goobjoog News – 174 Words
The president of Puntland, Abdiweli Mohamed Ali has distributed the three senatorial seats that were allocated following the recent National Leadership Forum. The president allocated the seats to the Dhulbahante and Warsangeli clans hailing from Sool, Sanaag and Ayn while the third seat was given to one of the minority clans following discussions with elders. In a press statement on Sunday, Puntland said the senators from the three clans will be nominated soon. Despite over ten day of deadlock, Somali leaders increased the number of seats in the Upper House to seventy two.
A communiqué which was released on Sunday following the conclusion of the National Leadership Forum in the Somali capital of Mogadishu, the leaders agreed to increase the number of the Upper House seats with 18 more seats. Somaliland and Puntland which disputed over the distribution of Upper House seats for Sool, Sanag and Ayn regions got 14 seats each. After the nomination of the eighteen senators by the regional states across Somalia, the list will be submitted to the office of the president for approval.
Key Headlines
- Puntland President Distributes The Newly Added 3 Senatorial Seats Among Clans In Northern Puntland (Goobjoog News)
- Drones Bomb Al-Shabaab Bases In Southern Of Somalia (Radio Dalsan)
- Gunmen Kill 5 Pastoralists Outside Kismayo City (Shabelle News)
- Six Soldiers Killed As Rival Somali Forces Clash In Hawadley (Goobjoog News)
- UN Gives Sh300m To Help Refugees Survive In Somalia (Daily Nation)
- Al-Shabaab Militants Shoot Prosecutor Dead In Somalia’s Puntland (Xinhua)
- Somalia: Our Sense Of Place In The World And Beyond (Hiiraan Online)
NATIONAL MEDIA
Drones Bomb Al-Shabaab Bases In Southern Of Somalia
26 December – Source: Radio Dalsan – 183 Words
Unidentified drone strike has been reported to have hit a camp belonging to the Al-Qaeda affiliated militant group Al-Shabaab in Lower Shabelle region. The airstrike took place at Waayo-arag area, about 7Km south of Janaale town. After the airstrike, heavily armed militants reached the area, and conducted an operation in which they rounded up several people suspected to have connections with the aerial bombing, according to the sources. Reports said top Al-Shabaab leaders were at the militant camp during the airstrike, howecer there were no immediate reports of casualties on the militants.
“We heard loud explosions, we were not able to go out and access the damage after the attack, two planes were flying above our village after the attacks” Hawa Mohamed told Radio Dalsan on phone. On 5 March, alleged US warplanes and drones attacked a training camp for Al-Shabaab, killing more than 100 fighters. While the exact death toll is disputed, according to an eyewitness and other local sources, the strike was probably the single most lethal one conducted by the US for a counter-terrorism operation.
Gunmen Kill 5 Pastoralists Outside Kismayo City
26 December – Source: Shabelle News – 117 Words
Unidentified assailants have murdered at least five pastoralist during an attack on a rural village located about 70Km away from the southern coastal city of Kismayo on Sunday, according to residents. The five livestock herders were killed in a deadly ambush attack which took place at Feer-sagaro area, where thousands of nomads are keeping domestic animals and cultivating their agricultural lands. Several residents who spoke to Radio Shabelle said they could not tell exactly the reason behind the attacks on the livestock herders and the identity of the attackers. In the past few weeks, there have been clashes between Jubbaland forces backed by local nomads and Al-Shabaab in the villages near Kismayo town which killed dozens of people.
Six Soldiers Killed As Rival Somali Forces Clash In Hawadley
26 December – Source: Goobjoog News – 178 Words
At least six soldiers have been killed and several others wounded on Sunday night when rival Somali government forces clashed in the outskirts of Jowhar, witnesses reported. Fighting erupted when soldiers clashed with another unit from a rival subclan over the controlling of the area. “The clashes broke out last night when two units of the government soldiers fought over control. At least six soldiers have died and several others are injured,” said a local resident in Hawaadley. Military leaders and Jowhar district commissioner declined to give comment on the incident.
According to reports, Commanders from the military forces succeeded to calm down the situation and the fighting has now subsided. The infighting between the militias within the armed forces has been a reoccurring event in the past few months claiming the lives of many of civilian as well as solders. Somalia has been struggling to reconstitute its army, which collapsed back in 1991, plunging the country into over two decades of chaos after warlords overthrew the country’s former dictator Mohamed Siad Barre.
INTERNATIONAL MEDIA
UN Gives Sh300m To Help Refugees Survive In Somalia
26 December- Source: Daily Nation – 386 Words
The United Nations is launching a $3 million (Sh300 million) “peacebuilding” initiative in Kenya and Somalia to facilitate the voluntary departure of 3,000 refugees from the Dadaab complex.UN officials describe the 18-month-long pilot project as “unique” in its cross-border scope.On the Somalia side, it will be focused on the Baidoa area, which lies about 250 kilometres west of Mogadishu.Security is said to have improved in Baidoa following an Al-Shabaab attack 10 months ago that killed 30 civilians. The new UN project, announced on Wednesday, could be extended and expanded to assist additional numbers of Somali refugees in returning to their homeland, UN officials added.By providing skills training in Dadaab and investment in job creation in Baidoa, the effort seeks to overcome a major impediment to the mass return of refugees from Dadaab: lack of economic opportunities in Somalia.
Citing security concerns, the Kenyan government has been pushing for the closure of the Dadaab camps, which held 275,529 refugees as of December 1.The UN said last week that so far this year it has assisted the return to Somalia of 32,058 Dadaab residents.The pace of voluntary departures appears to be accelerating, with 1,743 refugees flown from Kenya to Somalia during the first half of this month.Supported returns to Mogadishu, Baidoa and Kismayu are currently taking place exclusively by air, the UN refugee agency noted.Transport by road is expected to resume next month once the rainy season ends.
Al-Shabaab Militants Shoot Prosecutor Dead In Somalia’s Puntland
25 December – Source: Reuters, Africa- 275 Words
Al-Shabaab Islamist militants shot dead a military prosecutor in Somalia’s semi-autonomous Puntland region on Sunday, witnesses and officials said, the type of targeted killing that Al Qaeda-allied gunmen frequently commit throughout Somalia. Al-Shabaab’s insurgency aims to drive out African Union peacekeepers, topple Somalia’s Western-backed government and impose its strict version of Islam on the Horn of Africa state. On Sunday, Abdikarim Hassan Firdiye was shot dead as he got out of his car outside a restaurant in Puntland’s largest city, Bosasso.Just a few days ago, a regional official’s aide was killed in a similar and targeted attack and, days before that, Al-Shabaab gunmen killed the region’s deputy police commander outside a hotel.”Two teenagers armed with pistols shot him in the head after he got off his car,” Hassan Ahmed, a waiter at the restaurant, told Reuters.”His bodyguards fired back but the killers had already disappeared by then,” he said.
Abdifatah Haji Aden, Chairman of Puntland’s military court, said: “We believe it was the same militants who killed the other two officials last week that also killed him. We shall pursue them.”Al-Shabaab claimed responsibility for the killing.”Today, we killed a prosecutor who had sentenced many teenagers – many boys and girls – to their deaths for alleged links to al Shabaab,” said Sheikh Abdiasis Abu Musab, the group’s military operations spokesman.The Al-Shabaab insurgency persists in Somalia as the country struggles to restore order and rebuild infrastructure after more than two decades of conflict and chaos that have left the nation in tatters.Somalis have been voting for weeks for a new parliament and will vote for a new president on Dec. 28.
OPINION, ANALYSIS AND CULTURE
“As the Somali State collapsed and chaos ensued, the image and reputation of Somalia has suffered enormously impacting on the social, economic and political sustainability and sovereignty of Somalia. This has also affected the confidence and the social cohesion of the Somali people and our perception in the world where our historical developments, beautiful people, land, artist and landscape of Somalia has been overshadowed by wars, chaos and instability.”
Somalia: Our Sense Of Place In The World And Beyond
25 December – Source: Hiiraan Online – 1201 Words
It is with great sadness that we write this article about our place in the world, which seems not so rosy. In our quest of making sense of it all, we have engaged in deep conversations with researchers, journalists, poets, politicians, businessmen, musicians and almost every Somali entity that we could think of that could be helpful in allowing us to comprehend and understand more about our sense of place in the world today and beyond. How do we envision our place in the world? Whereby today our country (Somalia) has been labelled as a hub for terrorism, piracy, land of chaos, hunger, violence, destruction and as a “failed state” (although in more recent times, this description has been reformed to reflect recent developments and currently stands as a “fragile state”). We tried to imagine what sort of people Somalis used to be before the collapse of the Somali state.
We remember much admired philosopher and a great poet Abdikadir Hirsi (YamYam)’s poem entitled “I am a Somali” – Soomaali Baan Ahay” in which he talks about what being Somali was during his time and before. Below is extracts from this valuable work: “He asked: The moving times, the successive days, reflect over the seasons, if you a learned person, go back to the accounts of history, who is a Somali? Somalis answer: I am on equal footing with equality. Not allow a single soul to be superior to me. I do not employ deception, and confer them as gifts. I am a Somali. Neither a man’s stroking of my head nor his lace on my legs (duplicity) do i accept. Persuasion I do not approve. As for secrets (about me) I say, a ‘saab’ (vessel) that hold no water, I am a Somali.
Though I am impoverished yet my hardships I endure as I stretch no hand (to beg), I do not equate a friend of mine with my enemy. I am a Somali. My destiny has been determined. My hoard (of food for that journey) is an aloe. My intent is known to all. My sword is (made of) poison. My soul has been suspended from a tree. I am a Somali. A man who endangers me lives not in peace. He, who is swung at me will not sit idle. Gratitude I have not yet abandoned. Nor do I support any transgression. And a wronged man I compare not with others. I am a Somali.
TOP TWEETS
@Daudoo: #Somalia threatens to re-impose ban on Khat from#Kenya after Nairobi failed to resume direct flights with Mogadishu http://bit.ly/2is90Q3
@AbdifatahSultan: Somalia: The NLF undermined the Provisional Constitution. Article 72 states Upper House Members shall be no more than 54. @doorashada2016
@RFI_English: Horn of Africa – UAE – The UAE expands presence in the Horn of Africa
@bios104: #Somalia PM Sharmake held a closed door meeting with MPs from #Jubaland to woo them into backing his presidential ambitions#Doorashada2016
@mustaqbalmedia: Three Business men shot dead after local authority Soldier opened fire in Suuqa weyn,Wadajir District
@HarunMaruf: Mayor of Mogadishu Yusuf Hussein Jimale criticises decision by country’s leaders to not reserve seats in Upper House 4 the people in capital
IMAGE OF THE DAY
Kenya’s Cabinet Secretary for Defence, Hon. Raychelle Omamo and the Chief of Defence Forces, General Samson Mwathethe visited AMISOM troops in Kismayo on Saturday to encourage the forces to redouble their efforts in defeating Al-Shabaab
Photo: AMISOM