December 8, 2015 | Daily Monitoring Report
High Level Partnership Forum Kicks Off In Mogadishu
08 December – Source: Goobjoog News – 98 Words
A High Level Partnership Forum (HPLF), co- chaired by the Somali President, Hassan Sheikh Mohamud and the UN SRSG, Nicholas Kay has opened in Mogadishu today. The forum brings together representative from the international community and more than 120 participants from the Somali government and regional administrations. The forum will review the outcome of the recently concluded national consultations regarding the way forward in the elections slated for next year. The National Consultative Forum concluded its regional consultations last month. The move was aimed at seeking public opinion on the best possible option of electing elect Members of Parliament in the upcoming 2016 elections.
Key Headlines
- High Level Partnership Forum Kicks Off In Mogadishu (Goobjoog News)
- Somalia Is One Of The Corrupt Nations On The Globe Regrets President (Shabelle News)
- Federal Government Leases Somali Central Fuel Storage Facility To Private Investors (Goobjoog News)
- Eighty Nine Members Of Parliament Sworn In Baidoa (Radio Dalsan )
- Garissa Attack ‘Mastermind Surrenders’ (IOL)
- The Long Game For The Long War (Antiwar)
NATIONAL MEDIA
Somalia Is One Of The Corrupt Nations On The Globe, Regrets President
08 December – Source: Shabelle News – 133 Words
President of the Federal Republic of Somalia Hassan Sheikh Mohamud has regretted that his country is listed among the the most corrupt nations in the world. Speaking at an investment forum in Mogadishu on Monday, Mohamud observed: ““The current corruption being reported in Somalia is not only embezzlement and stealing of money, it is also about disobeying the national law.”
The President, however, denied a recent report listing Somalia as a place where the human rights “are terribly violated”: The report says 1,700 rape cases are reported in Somalia: “This report is false and baseless. I don’t deny rape is taking place in the country, but the numbers have been exaggerated,” protested the President. Somalia tops the list of the most corrupt countries in the world, according to the Monitoring Group report.
Federal Government Leases Somali Central Storage Facility To Private Investors
07 December – Source: Goobjoog News – 249 Words
Somali President and members of the Federal Cabinet on Monday attended the launch of a multi-million investment project by Somali fuel company. The ceremony was held at the central fuel storage facility inside Mogadishu seaport. The project, valued at 20 million US dollars, is owned by a group of Somali businessmen who previously controlled the Somali fuel industry.
President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud praised the establishment of the project and pointed out that many had doubted the feasibility of such a project in the country: “This is quality project that needs to be protected by the government . Somali investors are always looking at the interests of the country,” he said. The 20- million investment project consists of seven large storage tanks, which can store 73, 000,000, million litres (7300 metric cubic), and a number of pipes, which extend 700 metres designed to unload fuel from ships even away from seaport. And in the event of an emergency, the facility can reload fuel back to the ships.
However, there are concerns of leasing public facilities to private agents. Several leases and awards by the Federal Government to private individuals and companies have raised dissatisfaction and opposition among the public. Somali Federal Parliament is yet to conclude legislation meant regulate these and other related issues. A senior government official, who requested to talk to Goobjoog News on condition of anonymity, claimed the Somali President was responsible for the leases of important public assets, “either to pacify his opponents or to obtain financial gains”.
Eighty Nine Members Of Parliament Sworn In Baidoa
08 December – Source: Radio Dalsan – 156 Words
Reports from Baidoa town the headquarters of Baay regions in Somalia, and the current base for of the South West State of Somalia, say that 89 members of Parliament have been sworn in as the new members of South West State Parliament. The President of the South West state of Somalia, Shariff Hassan, and a delegate from the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Somali Federal Government, are among the high profile leaders who attended the ceremony.
President,Sharrif urged the new parliamentarians to serve the people equally, and urged the traditional elders in the region to speed up the process of selecting the remaining number of parliamentarians: “This is a historic moment for our State, and in the coming few weeks we would like to have complete state institutions for our government.” On their part the new legislators declared they would serve the people equally and without favouritism.
INTERNATIONAL MEDIA
Garissa Attack ‘Mastermind Surrenders’
08 December – Source: IOL – 165 Words
A US born Islamic insurgent, who is believed to be one of the masterminds behind a terror attack on a Kenyan university earlier this year, surrendered to the Somali military at the weekend, a senior official said on Monday. Abdimalik Jones had recently defected from Al-Shabaab to fighters backing Islamic State when he surrendered near the southern port town of Barawe in the Lower Shabelle region, the town’s mayor, Hussein Mohamed Barre, told dpa by phone.
“We found him as he was hiding himself somewhere near Barawe after defected from Al-Shabaab,” Barre said: “Our troops ordered him to surrender and he did so.” About 148 people, most of them students, were killed when al-Shabaab militants stormed the Garissa University campus in north-eastern Kenya in April. Jones is due to be sent to Mogadishu for further investigation. A group of former Al-Shabaab members recently announced an allegiance to Islamic State. The group are now under a crackdown from Al-Shabaab’s top commanders who remain loyal to al-Qaeda.
OPINION, ANALYSIS, AND CULTURE
“In Somalia, US drones and a US-backed Ethiopian invasion has led to the radicalization and rise of the Islamist group Al-Shabaab amid failed state chaos and full famine,”
The Long Game For The Long War
07 December – Source: Antiwar – 1517 Words
Fourteen years in, and the Terror War is raging on, mass-producing exactly what it was supposed to eliminate: terrorism and chaos. Western intervention has racked up at least six jihadi-overrun failed states throughout the Greater Middle East:
Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, Syria, Somalia, and Yemen. The scope and scale of the imposed civilizational meltdown have become so great that the West itself has been increasingly inundated by its wreckage (in the form of refugees) and stung by its shrapnel (in the form of terrorist attacks).To paraphrase Yeats, is the empire merely staggering toward Har Megiddo (Armageddon)? Or is there a Machiavellian method to the mass-murderous madness? If so, how could such a perpetually widening and intensifying catastrophe possibly serve anybody’s interest? What could possibly be the end game?
We know what the jihadis’ end game is. They plainly tell us in their official publication. ISIS, in the tradition of its forefathers Osama bin Laden and Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, wants to use terrorist provocation to polarize the entire world into two irreconcilable enemy camps. By eliminating any “gray zone” between “the crusader camp” and “the camp of [Salafist] Islam,” the terrorists seek to precipitate an apocalyptic “clash of civilizations,” out of which they will arise victorious.
TOP TWEETS
@ReutersAfrica :U.S. citizen who fought for Islamist group surrenders in #Somalia: official http://af.reuters.com/
@UN_News_Centre :#Somalia: #UNFAO deploys artificial fish habitats along coast to boost sustainable fishinghttp://bit.ly/1loZ5sd
@USAfricaCommand:.@
@AU_PSD :E.African Intelligence Chiefs conclude 3rd meeting w/ strong resolve to support #Somalia in fight against#AlShabaab
@NJtweeting:16 Days of Activism against Gender Based Violence: Supporting Somalia to Empower Womenhttps://shar.es/1cNaQc via @sharethis #Somalia
IMAGE OF THE DAY
A band plays music during a ceremony to welcome the Somali National Army (SNA) Chief, Major General Mohamed Adan Ahmed to Kismayo.
Photo: AMISOM