December 5, 2014 | Morning Headlines.

Main Story

Somali Parliament to debate on no confidence motion

04 Dec – Source: Somali Diplomat /Radio Mogadishu – 144 words

Most of the MPs are now in parliament waiting until the opening of the session. One hundred and ninety one (191) MPs attended today’s session as the leaders confirmed, copies of papers signed by 138 pro motion was distributed to the members of parliament as our reporters in the parliament confirm. The office of the speaker announced that PM Abdiweli will not appear before the parliament as expected after they received written statement from his office that he excused himself from attending the session.

Key Headlines

IJA officials together with UN delegates supervise areas set aside for returning Somali refugees (Radio Goobjoog/ Radio Bar-kulan)
Goobjoog Radio awarded on World Disability Day (Radio Goobjoog)
Somali Parliament to debate on no confidence motion (Somali Diplomat/Radio Mogadishu)
Hamar Weyne Commissioner speaks about the deadly attack on Somali MP ( Radio Goobjoog)
Afgoye district restarts tax (Radio Dalsan)
A Kenya Defence Forces jet has crashed in Kismayu Somalia (Daily Nation)
Court tells France to pay damages to Somali pirates (BBC.com)
Back-to-back mass killings in Kenya raise pressure to protect citizens from Somali militants (AP/Business weekly)
3rd Regional Maritime Crime Conference (Marinelink.com)

SOMALI MEDIA

IJA officials together with UN delegates supervise areas set aside for returning Somali refugees

04 Dec – Source: Radio Goobjoog/ Radio Bar-kulan- 170 words

UN officials together with Interim Juba administration supervised areas in Lower Juba region where the administration plans to resettle the returning Somali refugees from Kenya. Luglow, Goobweyn, localities near the University of Kismayo North of the port city of Kismayo and Sa’a Mooja localityare among areas where the refugees will be relocated as Goobjoog correspondent in the region reports.

The Interim administration of Juba stated that security forces will be deployed to the areas so as to maintain security and clearing of buses started. Other areas in Gedo region including Bula Hawo and Luq districts were also prepared to give room for proper relocation of the refugees coming back to the country. This comes days after UNHCR announced that the first batch of over 3000 Somali refugees will be repatriated on 8th of December after they voluntarily registered to return to their respective localities. UNHCR pledged that the refugees will be given little cash, three months food ration and other basic needs including free medical services as they return home.

Goobjoog Radio Awarded on World Disability Day

04 Dec – Source: Radio Goobjoog – 120 words

During the commemoration of World Disability Day yesterday in Mogadishu, Goobjoog Radio has been awarded by the ministry of Labor and Hadaf Organisation, the umbrella organization in Somali for the disabled people. Goobjoog Radio Director Hassan Mohamud received a certificate of appreciation on the Goobjoog’s role of championing the rights of disabled people in Somalia and promoting their issues in their coverage.

The ministry and Hadaf praised the Radio as one of the only two media houses that has slots dedicated for the disabled and gives platform to them to express themselves. Also awarded was the Public Broadcaster Radio Mogadishu and SNTV for their role of promoting the rights of the disabled. Abdirahman Yussuf of the public broadcaster received on its behalf.

Somali Parliament to debate on no confidence motion

04 Dec – Source: Somali Diplomat /Radio Mogadishu – 144 words

Somali Federal parliament is scheduled to meet today to debate the no confidence motion against Prime minister of Federal Government of Somalia Abdiweli Sheikh Ahmed Mohamed. The speaker of Somali federal parliament Mohamed Sheikh Osman Jawari said the parliament will work two shifts so as complete the task in hand, he urged the lawmakers to be punctual. Most of the MPs are now in parliament waiting until the opening of the session. One hundred and ninety one (191) MPs attended today’s session as the leaders confirmed, copies of papers signed by 138 pro motion was distributed to the members of parliament as our reporters in the parliament confirm. The office of the speaker announced that PM Abdiweli will not appear before the parliament as expected after they received written statement from his office that he excused himself from attending the session.

Hamar Weyne Commissioner speaks about the deadly attack on Somali MP

04 Dec – Source: Radio Goobjoog – 145 words

Hamar Weyne district commissioner Abdikadir Mohamed Abdikadir gave details of deadly attacks targeting Somali lawmakers in the district today. Speaking to Goobjoog FM the commissioner stated that armed men on board a luxurious car opened fire on Somali lawmaker’s car and a former MP. He reiterated that the former lawmaker of transitional federal parliament Liban Abdullahi Noor and two other people died during the attack while a serving MP Mayow Mustaf sustained serious injuries.

The commissioner added that the security forces in the district chased the assailants but no one was arrested so far. Other resources confirm that fire exchange between the forces and the armed assailants during the chase inflicted casualties. Finally the commissioner said that the security forces are alert to put to a stop the planned attacks against government officials in the district. No one claimed the responsibility of the attack.

Afgoye district restarts tax

04 Dec – Source: Radio Dalsan – 86 words

District of Afgoye administration of the federal government of Somalia restarted collecting taxes. Head of the Afgoye finance Mustafa Sheikh Abdiwahaid said in press conference that they have started the tax collection tax in the district. Dalsan radio reporter in Afgoye Mohamed Hussein Osman reported that still people do not understand the tax due to the fact that no taxes have been collected in Somalia for many years. The Federal government of Somalia is trying to convince the people of Somalia to pay the tax.

REGIONAL MEDIA

A Kenya Defence Forces jet has crashed in Kismayu, Somalia

04 Dec – Source Daily Nation/Reuters – 187 Words

The aircraft went down on Thursday at 3.15pm while returning from conducting raids in Jamaame in Southern Somalia. “(A) KDF aircraft while returning from a combat mission in Jamaame, (Southern Somalia), developed technical problems and crashed in the general area of Kismayu,” a statement by KDF spokesman Colonel David Obonyo said. Colonel Obonyo did not state whether there were any casualties. The aircraft, which had been on a combat mission, came down in the area of the southern port city of Kismayu, where Kenyan troops are deployed as part of an African Union peacekeeping force battling the Islamist rebel group al Shabaab.

A spokesman for the Kenya Defence Force (KDF) said the pilot reported a technical problem on returning from a combat mission at about 3 p.m. (1200 GMT) before he was forced to eject. Al Shabaab said they had shot the plane down, however. “We hit the Kenyan jet and downed it. It was bombing Bulaguduud town today,” the rebels’ spokesman for military operations, Sheikh Abdiasis Abu Musab, told Reuters. He said the group used a missile and that the pilot was “burnt inside.”

INTERNATIONAL MEDIA

Court tells France to pay damages to Somali pirates

04 Dec – Source: BBC.com – 299 words

The European Court of Human Rights says France violated the rights of Somali pirates who had attacked French ships and has ordered compensation for them over judicial delays. The nine Somali pirates should get thousands of euros because they were not immediately brought before a French judge, the court ruled. One is to get 9,000 euros (£7,000) and the others sums of up to 7,000 euros. The judges faulted France for keeping them in custody for an extra 48 hours.The pirates had held French citizens hostage after seizing a French-flagged cruise ship and a French yacht in 2008. The French military captured the pirates on the Somali coast in two operations, after the hostages had been released for ransoms of $2.1m (£1.3m) and $2m.

Back-to-back mass killings in Kenya raise pressure to protect citizens from Somali militants

03 Dec – Source: AP/Business weekly – 741 words

When Kenya sent troops to Somalia in 2011 to fight Islamic extremists, the al-Qaida-linked group al-Shabab threatened to retaliate by bringing down Nairobi’s skyscrapers. The buildings still stand, but a series of mass killings in which non-Muslims were singled out for slaughter has increased pressure on Kenya to improve security along a porous border and explain why its army should remain in Somalia. Al-Shabab quickly claimed responsibility for the latest chilling assault: Gunmen invaded a quarry in northern Kenya, lined up 36 non-Muslim laborers, and killed them early Tuesday. That followed a similar massacre on Nov. 22, when al-Shabab killed 28 Kenyans on a bus, again sparing the Muslims among the passengers.

The group’s most notorious attack was on the Westgate shopping mall in Nairobi last year, when it also targeted non-Muslims, although the four gunmen killed people of all faiths. At least 67 died in that siege in the capital of the East African nation. Kenya sent its military forces into Somalia in hopes of creating a secure buffer zone between Somalia’s internal chaos and Kenyan territory. But the series of attacks by al-Shabab has left Kenyans demanding change, and President Uhuru Kenyatta responded Tuesday by shaking up the leadership of his security team.

3rd Regional Maritime Crime Conference

03 Dec – Source: Marinelink.com – 461 words

The 4th prosecutors from around the Horn of Africa and Western Indian Ocean region have gathered in Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania, for the Third Regional Conference of Prosecutors dealing with Piracy and other Maritime Crime. They were joined by key international players working on capacity building. The event ends on 4th December 2014. The event was co-hosted by the Tanzanian Director of Public Prosecution Office and the EU’s Regional Maritime Security Capacity Building Mission in the Horn of Africa and Western Indian Ocean, EUCAP Nestor.

Although piracy has diminished at sea in the Horn of Africa as a result of the EU’s as well as International and local engagement, “Pirates are still out there. They remain ashore ready to act given the opportunity. EUCAP Nestor’s objective is to strengthen infrastructure on the ground in order to help Somali and Regional Authorities identify them and dismantle their networks”, said Head of EUCAP Nestor Mission, Etienne de Poncins, when briefing the press ahead of the Conference.

SOCIAL MEDIA

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

“President Uhuru Kenyatta has called for good working relations between the police and members of the public in the search for lasting peace in such areas. Such good working relations should be embraced in all parts of the country.”

Leaders’ war of words over insecurity not a solution

04 Dec – Source: Marinelink.com – 1131 words

The ongoing onslaught against the government by a section of leaders on matters of insecurity is disturbing and misleading. When terrorists believed to be al Shabaab from neighbouring Somalia killed 28 people in Mandera county a week ago and 36 people this week, leaders directed their anger at the government without giving alternative solutions to the problem. And when President Uhuru Kenyatta asked Kenyans to stop blaming the government alone for rising cases of insecurity, his remarks were taken out of context, with some interpreting the move to mean that the President endorses vigilantism. The President’s statement was clear that the government cannot police every individual, every household, every metre of road and every inch of Kenyan space and that we should adopt conduct that promotes and not undermines our collective safety.

“Let’s safeguard Uganda from terrorists. Ugandans must not take lightly recent series of attacks in Kenya by Somalia terrorist group al-Shabaab.”

Step up Uganda’s security now

04 Dec – Source: Marinelink.com – 826 words

Ugandans must not take lightly recent series of attacks in Kenya by Somalia’s terrorist group al-Shabaab. In quick succession, the al-Shabaab have attacked workers’ camp at a quarry near Mandera Town, northern Kenya and killed 36 people. Some of the victims were shot in the head, and others beheaded. That was after masked attackers on Monday bombed and shot at revellers at a bar, about 800 metres from the Wajir Police Station. And only one week ago, gunmen grabbed travellers from a bus and executed 28 near Mandera.

Just as Kenya, Uganda is a high-risk target as one of several countries contributing troops (Amisom) to Somalia to enforce peace. So the attacks in Kenya should alert us all to the dangers still posed by the al-Shabaab. The killings in Kenya should also warn us all to raise our guard as we approach the festive season. The fact that Uganda has not as yet suffered similar attacks in the recent past should not falsely assure us that our security is impenetrable.