December 7, 2016 | Morning Headlines
Outgoing Deputy PM Elected MP In The Ongoing Parliamentary Election
06 December – Source: Garowe Online – 201 Words
The Lower House elections resumed today in the Somali capital of Mogadishu and in Adado town, the interim capital of Galmudug state.The Lower House election for clans representing Somaliland commenced at the Police Transport headquarters in Mogadishu following series of delays due to disputes and alleged harassment to Somaliland delegates.
Yesterday, Somaliland elders sent a letter to the Federal electoral body (FIEIT) demanding the relocation of election venue to AMISOM base in Mogadishu following spike of intimidation and threats to their delegates.However, today’s election witnessed the election of caretaker deputy Prime Minister, Mohamed Omar Arte as a Lawmaker in the upcoming Lower House chamber, after defeating his rival candidate with majority 49 votes.
Whereas in Adado, 3 MPs were elected among them Abdihakin Moalin Ahmed, Galmudug Transport Minister who received 40 votes in the parliamentary election.Candidates Ali Ahmed Sharif and Nadifo Farah Jamah also secured parliamentary seats, beating their opponents after obtaining 49 and 44 votes respectively, according to the voting results.Leaders of the Somali government, whose term ended in September 10, and regional states are set to hold meetings in the capital Mogadishu, on Wednesday to discuss obstacles that surrounded the electoral process and led to postpone of the presidential election.
Key Headlines
- Outgoing Deputy PM Elected MP In The Ongoing Parliamentary Election (Garowe Online)
- Security Operation In Qoryooley Nets Five Al-Shabaab Suspects ( Goobjoog News)
- Independent Media To Be Blocked From Covering Election (Shabelle News)
- One Person Injured As Property Of Unknown Value Goes Up In Flames In Kismayo (Goobjoog News)
- WFP Cuts Dadaab Food Rations Number Of Kids With Acute Malnutrition Higher (The StarKenya)
- Three Somali Journalists On Lesbos Hope For The Best — Asylum In Europe (Public Radio International)
NATIONAL MEDIA
Security Operation In Qoryooley Nets Five Al-Shabaab Suspects
06 December -Source: Goobjoog News – 186 Words
A joint security operation by Somali security forces and the African Union peacekeepers in Qoryooley has led to the arrest of five Al-Shabaab suspects on Tuesday.The security officers conducted house to house search in different suburbs of the town following public tip off according to the police
Qoryooley police commissioner, Ali Mohamed Ada told Goobjoog News that he has noted that the operation was meant to inspect and hunt down Al-Shabaab suspects and to enhance safety of the town.“All the individuals arrested will be questioned and whoever found guilty will be taken to face justice,’’ said the officer.
He added that the operations will continue until the security of the district is assured following recent attacks.Security officials believe armed groups have used residential areas as bases to prepare attacks and then mingled with residents in urban areas to carry them out.Qoryooley, an agricultural town, is 120km (72 miles) north-west of Mogadishu and was a major stronghold of the Al-Shabaab fighters until 2014 when government and African Union forces took over.It lies on a strategic crossroads for routes to the northwest towns of Somalia.
Independent Media To Be Blocked From Covering Election
06 December – Source: Shabelle News – 120 Words
Somali Federal government and the country’s electoral body are mulling to block the independent media outlets from the coverage of the forthcoming presidential election, Radio Shabelle has learnt.During a closed door meeting held at the presidential palace in Mogadishu, leaders of the government and the electoral commission members agreed on the decision.Only the state media will be given access to cover the presidential election and all the independent local and international media will be out of the polling station in Mogadishu, sources revealed.The move is seen as an abuse and intimidation against the press freedom and free speech in Somalia, a country that has been marred by violence, power abuse and corruption in the past two decades.
One Person Injured As Property Of Unknown Value Goes Up In Flames In Kismayo
06 December- Source: Goobjoog News – 184 Words
One person suffered severe burns and property worth thousands of US dollars was reduced to ashes after fire razed down shop on Tuesday morning.The inferno is said to have started from a store and spread to adjacent shops.The shop was made of wooden and iron sheets making the fire to spread faster.Mohamed Ali Farah, one of the traders who had his stall full of furniture said an explosion was heard moments before the fire broke out, and it is suspected to have been an electrical fault.
The fire fighters in collaboration with the traders helped to extinguish the fire despite the wind which caused the fire to spread.He said the fire then fast spread in the area and could not be contained by the traders who were present.“The rate at which the fire spread was quite shocking. By the time the fire brigade arrived almost whole shop had been razed,” said Farah. The local government has dispatched fire engine to help contain the fire.This is the first time the market has experienced fire incidences since it was built.
INTERNATIONAL MEDIA
WFP Cuts Dadaab Food Rations, Number Of Kids With Acute Malnutrition Higher
06 December – Source:The Star,Kenya – 669 Words
The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) has cut food rations for refugees in Kenya amid a severe funding shortage.In a statement on Tuesday, WFP said the change was as a result of lack of resources to feed the 434,000 refugees living in Kenya’s Dadaab and Kakuma camps.
They also said the available rations may not be sufficient to support refugees camping at the Kalobeyei settlement in Turkana county.”We are appealing to donors to quickly come to the aid of the refugees who rely on WFP food assistance for survival,” Annalisa Conte, Kenya’s WFP representative and country director, said.”WFP immediately requires $13.7 million (Sh1.39 billion) to cover the food and cash needs for the refugees between December and April,” the agency said.WFP provides food assistance to refugees in Kenya as a combination of cash transfers and food distributions.”Starting this month, to stretch food supplies further, WFP was forced to cut the food ration size to half of the refugees’ monthly entitlement,” Conte said.
Conte said the food currently available will only last until the end of February unless the agency receives new funding.”Cash transfers have not yet been reduced, but the funding for cash-based assistance will be exhausted by the end of January if new resources are not available,” she said.”A generous and critically important $22 million (Sh2.2 billion) shipment of food from the United States is en route to Dadaab and Kakuma, and should be available for distribution by May, but we have a dangerous gap in funding until then,” Conte warned.Refugees in Dadaab and Kakuma camps receive food items including flour and vegetable oil, and cash for buying fresh food. Children, pregnant women and nursing mothers are also given specialised fortified foods to prevent malnutrition, while school-goers are given porridge for concentration.The alarm has been sounded at a time the government has stated that the camps need to be closed, citing security and maintenance burden.
OPINION , CULTURE & ANALYSIS
“Somalia is one of the most dangerous places in the world to be a journalist. A failed state where extremists and criminal gangs operate with impunity, the country is ranked near the very bottom of the Reporters Without Borders’ World Press Freedom Index,”
Three Somali Journalists On Lesbos Hope For The Best — Asylum In Europe
06 December – Source: Public Radio International –
In September, refugees protesting the deplorable conditions in the camp set much of it ablaze. The 4,000 people living inside were forced to evacuate to the road outside the gates. I was in the midst of the chaotic crowd with some other reporters when someone tapped me on the shoulder. A young man with friendly dark eyes introduced himself as Kamal Hassan. He told me he was a journalist from Somalia. He and two other Somali journalists had come to Greece to seek asylum, he said, because they have each been targeted by the extremist group, al-Shabab, in Mogadishu.But now they were stuck in Moria. And he urgently wanted to tell me their story.Several days later, I returned to the camp, where Hassan introduced me to Yassin Abuukar and Kowthar Adraman.The three journalists eagerly showed me their press IDs from Somali media outlets — Kalsan TV, Horn Cable TV and Radio, TV Mantaa and others. They were all under 30 and had been working as journalists in the Somali capital since their late teens. They had all been attacked by al-Shabab multiple times, they said. Their lives were in danger, so they had fled Somalia and come to Greece in hopes of getting asylum in Europe.
Syrians, Afghans and Iraqis make up the majority of the refugee population of 16,000 currently stuck on Lesbos and other Greek islands; African refugees are often overlooked. But in addition to the Somalis, Moria contains migrants from Sudan, Eritrea, Ghana, Congo, Sierra Leone, Cameroon, Morocco, Egypt, Algeria, Mali, The Gambia and Uganda. Their desire is to gain permanent status as refugees or economic migrants in some European country — but their chances are slim.
Adraman is only 21. She’s also the only female Somali journalist to have built and run her own news website — Kowtharmedia.com, complete with her own theme song.Working as a journalist in Somalia since she was 16 has made Adraman tough. Al-Shabab is known for targeting journalists in their homes, so to protect herself and her family, she lived in a safe house with other female journalists for the last five years. She would only see her mother once or twice a year.“Now [I’m fleeing] Somalia but before I left I had already had to flee from my family to keep them safe,” she said.But these precautions haven’t shielded her from frequent death threats from al-Shabab by phone and text. She narrowly escaped injury in two bombing incidents, one at a cafe and one at a hotel in Mogadishu.She left Somalia because she feared her time was running out.