December 6, 2016 | Morning Headlines
UN Appeals For Record $22.2B For Humanitarian Aid
05 December – Source: Anadolu Agency – 163 Words
The UN launched a record appeal for humanitarian aid on Monday, calling for $22.2 billion to help nearly 93 million people caught in conflicts and disasters around the world.The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said $8.1 billion would go to help 12.8 million people in Syria and 4.7 million Syrian refugees in neighboring countries next year.“As we speak, more people have humanitarian needs, not least because of protracted crises lasting longer and longer,” UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs Stephen O’Brien said.
Globally, 128.6 million people need humanitarian assistance, OCHA said in its 2017 Global Humanitarian Overview and the UN will provide aid to 92.8 million in 33 countries.Worsening crises in countries such as Syria, Iraq, South Sudan, Nigeria and Yemen have seen the UN’s aid appeal rise from $7.9 billion in 2011.Humanitarian organizations approach the end of 2016 with a $10.7 billion funding gap – the largest ever.
Key Headlines
- UN Appeals For Record $22.2B For Humanitarian Aid (Anadolu Agency)
- PM Sharmarke Presses For Somaliland Elections In UN Base (Goobjoog News)
- Somali President Pitches For Vote In Kismayo Visit (Goobjoog News)
- Somali Forces Say Killed Three In Attack On Islamic State-Linked Fighters (Reuters)
- ICS: Somalia Piracy Threat Still high (Trade Winds)
- Review: ‘The Mayor of Mogadishu’ by Andrew Harding (Star Tribune)
NATIONAL MEDIA
PM Sharmarke Presses For Somaliland Elections In UN Base
05 December – Source: Goobjooog News – 275 Words
Prime Minister Omar Abdirashid Sharmarke has called on the Federal electoral body FIEIT to relocate Somaliland elections from the police transport headquarters in Mogadishu to the UN base in Halane.In a statement to FIEIT and Somaliland state level electoral body SIEIT, the Prime Minister said the call was in line with the wishes of elders from Somaliland whom he noted had expressed concerns of a compromised poll in the earlier proposed centre.Somaliland is yet to commence elections of both the Lower and Upper Houses following several delays and wrangles over delegate’s lists.The announcement is set to cause ripples with sections allied to President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud whom sources say are in support of Xerada Gadidka (Police Transport Headquarters). The Prime Minister, sources close to the developments say is concerned of a possible infiltration of the election by the President’s operatives compromising the exercise.
The Prime Minister’s statement adds to run-ins with Villa Somalia in the past one week regarding management of elections. Sharmarke wrote to intelligence agency NISA last week calling for its impartiality in relation to the elections following accusations the agency was involved in the arrest of Farah Mohamed Burale, an elder from Somaliland. NISA fired back with a video clip on Twitter of Burale saying he was not under arrest.The intelligence agency said the Prime Minister had been misled. Two days ago, the Premier called for a change of leadership in the country noting there was need for new leaders who could provide better leadership.Wrangles on electoral venue for Somaliland will likely lead to another possible delay of Presidential elections which currently stand delayed with no fixed date.
Somali President Pitches For Vote In Kismayo Visit
05 December- Source: Goobjoog News – 173 Words
Somali President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud has paid an unannounced visit to Kismayo, the administrative capital of Jubbaland State today. President Hassan Sheikh’s visit to Kismayo is related to his re-election campaign and it will just come on the heels of a similar visit to Kismayo by his arch-rival in the upcoming presidential elections, Prime Minister Omar Abdirashid Sharmarke.During his stay in the seaport town, President Hassan Sheikh will hold talks with Jubaland President Ahmed Mohamed Islam in a bid to persuade Ahmed Madobe to urgently sign the list of elected MPs from Jubbaland. President Ahmed Madobe is reportedly reluctant to do the signature of newly elected MPs list from Jubbaland before the ongoing electoral process is over across the country.President Hassan will also meet newly elected MPs from Jubbaland to ask for their votes in the upcoming presidential elections. In his recent visit to Kismayo, Prime Minister Omar Abdirashid Sharmarke told the newly elected MPs from Jubbaland that Somalia was in need to leadership change, urging them to vote for change.
INTERNATIONAL MEDIA
Somali Forces Say Killed Three In Attack On Islamic State-Linked Fighters
05 December – Source: Reuters – 235 Words
Soldiers allied to the Western-backed Somali government killed three fighters loyal to the Islamic State in northern Somalia on Monday as they pressed ahead toward the insurgents’ main stronghold, officials said.The troops, alongside militia fighters, launched an offensive last week to wrest back control of the port town of Qandala in the semi-autonomous region of Puntland.
The insurgents launched counterattacks away from their stronghold, in areas along the route to Qandala, and that led to the fighting on Monday in an area west of the port.”Our forces attacked IS fighters in Obolohe valley today, killing three of their fighters and injuring two others,” Mohamed Said, a Puntland military official involved in the operation, told Reuters.The Obolohe valley is on the outskirts of Bashaashin village some 34 kilometers west of Qandala.”Three were injured from our side. The (IS) fighters ran deeper into the hills,” Said added.
The militants are thought to number in the low hundreds and are led by Abdiqadir Mumin, who broke away from the main al Shabaab insurgency last year and swore allegiance to Islamic State.His group has no known operational links to Islamic State in the Middle East and Qandala is the first town that they seized.Al Shabaab is fighting the shaky U.N.-backed government to impose a strict interpretation of Islamic law in Somalia, which has been at war for more than 25 years.
ICS: Somalia Piracy Threat Still High
05 December- Source: Trade Winds – 223 Words
Somali piracy remains a major threat even though the international attention has shifted away from the problem, International Chamber of Shipping (ICS) secretary Peter Hinchliffe said on Monday. His comments come as the global trade group praised the recent extension of European Union Naval Force (EU Navfor)’s Operation Atalanta until the end of 2018.The extension will see European naval forces continue to protect shipping from piracy attacks off the African nation. The mandate was to expire at the end of this year.
Piracy attacks in the Gulf of Aden and Somalia’s Indian Ocean coast have declined significantly since their 2011 peak. The International Maritime Bureau (IMB) reported just three incidents this year in the region, with no hijackings. Hinchliffe (pictured) says the presence of military forces has been essential to suppressing pirate activities, it plays a critical role in preventing a rebound in attacks.”It is a fact that the threat which Somali piracy presents to international trade is still extremely high,” he said.”Alongside a strong military deterrent, it remains essential that ships maintain compliance with the industry’s best management practises to prevent a resurgence of hijacks and kidnappings by these violent criminal gangs.”Overall, piracy and armed robbery of ships is at a 20-year low, with most attacks taking place in West Africa and South East Asia, according to IMB.
OPINION , CULTURE & ANALYSIS
“Nur, who is now running for president of Somalia, insists he is an open book. His trademark phrase echoes the recent U.S. presidential election: “Believe me.” But he remains guarded and slightly aloof, and that’s Harding’s main storytelling challenge throughout,”
Review: ‘The Mayor of Mogadishu,’ by Andrew Harding
05 December – Source: Star Tribune – 468 Words
BBC foreign correspondent Andrew Harding’s book “The Mayor of Mogadishu” opens with an arresting scene: An attack by the militant group Al-Shabab is underway at a mosque in the Somali capital’s government compound. Worshipers are jostling toward the exit. Only one man still kneels in prayer, apparently oblivious to the mayhem unfolding around him.
That man is the book’s complicated subject, Mohamud “Tarzan” Nur, a Somali expat who served as Mogadishu’s mayor in the early 2000s, as the city edged out of Al-Shabab’s control and into a state of fragile near-normalcy. Through the story of a man who took one of the world’s most dangerous political gigs, Harding traces the turbulent modern history of Somalia — a place where the author dodges bullets, discovers remarkable resiliency and glimpses striking beauty amid the ruins of the onetime “Pearl of the Indian Ocean.”
Through elegant writing and dogged reportage, Harding sets out to introduce Nur, a man steeped in contradictions and controversy.In a sense, Harding tackles a mystery: Is Nur a brave and principled patriot or a charismatic opportunist with a carefully crafted public persona?One of the first stories Nur shares with the author — that his mother delivered him in Room 18 of a beachfront hospital — turns out to be a lie. In fact, he was born under a tree in the nomadic Ogaden region and grew up in a gritty Mogadishu orphanage, where he earned his nickname after sneaking out a window and swinging from a tree.
Before his homeland descended into civil war, Nur left for Saudi Arabia in search of opportunity. He eventually settled in London with his young family.In 2000, he returned to Mogadishu to take the mayoral job, tapped for it as the self-described “leader of the diaspora.” There, Nur proved adept at restoring a measure of normalcy and eluding Al-Shabab attacks. He was somewhat less adept at dodging the capital’s relentless mudslinging, clan politics and questions about government corruption.