December 9, 2016 | Morning Headlines
Lower House Elections To Resume In Puntland, Says SIEIT Chairman
08 December – Source: Garowe Online – 223 Words
In a press conference held in the capital Garowe, the state-level Indirect Electoral Implementation team (SIEIT) announced that the Lower House elections will resume next week for the remaining seats. The announcement comes following recent suspension imposed on the parliamentary elections from Puntland Vice President and Parliament Speaker over dispute for seats for clans hailing from Sool, east Sanag and Buuhodle regions in the Upper House elections for Somaliland community. However, Puntland President has lifted the suspension after talks with Prime Minister Omar Abdirashid Ali Sharmarke and representatives from the international community. Puntland’s SIEIT called candidates competing for the remaining 15 seats along with the delegates who will cast votes among candidates to swiftly register to expedite the process. 4 seats will be reserved for women candidates, said SIEIT chairman, Khaliif Aw Ali.
Puntland received 37 seats in the upcoming Lower House chamber of Federal Parliament, and so far 22 MPs were elected since the beginning of the ballots in Puntland region. SIEIT also called for the re-election of the seat, for the MP who passed away in Garowe city, last month. Candidates from Warsangali clans are set to compete for the seat again. Puntland was the first state to kick start the Parliamentary elections but Jubaland and Southwest states that received the most quota representation in the Federal Parliament have concluded the process.
Key Headlines
- Lower House Elections To Resume In Puntland Says SIEIT Chairman (Garowe Online)
- Sports Minister Disqualified Elders Asked To Select New candidates (Goobjoog News)
- Election For Somaliland’s Lower House Seats Delayed (Shabelle News)
- Fighting Near North Somalia Port Town Displaces 25700: UN (Xinhua)
- Somali Pirates To Prison Riots: The Series On Real-life Kidnaps Holding Audiences Captive (The Guardian)
- AMISOM Withdrawal From Somalia Delayed (The East African)
- The Baby In A Plastic Bag: Surviving In Somalia (Relief Web)
NATIONAL MEDIA
Sports Minister Disqualified, Elders Asked To Select New candidates
08 December- Source: Goobjoog News – 115 Words
Federal Indirect Electoral Implementation Team (FIEIT) has disqualified minister of youth and sports for Somali federal government Mohamed Abdullah Hussein Nuh and his opponent Ahmed Cirro from the Lower House election after dispute involving gun drama in Jowhar. Forces loyal to the minister of youth and Ahmed Cirro clashed at the gate of polling centre and at least three people were wounded at the scene of the Lower House voting in Jowhar on November 18th. Delegates and soldiers loyal to both candidates disrupted the electoral process and switched off the lights of the polling center. As a result, FIEIT has asked the clan elders to select new delegates and candidates for the seat in dispute.
Election For Somaliland’s Lower House Seats Delayed
08 December – Source: Shabelle News – 168 Words
The election for 11 new federal lawmakers for the Lower House chamber seats allocated to the clans hailing from Somaliland has been postponed to Saturday (10th December, 2016). Koshin Abdi Hashi, the chairman of the electoral commission of northern regions election has confirmed the postponement of the parliamentary election to Radio Shabelle over the phone. Hashi gave no reason for the delay, but he said the elders are busy with resolving internal disputes among the candidates and the electoral delegates. The elders have recently lodged a complaint letter to the country’s electoral commission, and demanded the current election venue to be moved to Halane, AMISOM headquarters in the airport.On Tuesday, the Lower House election for 46 seats that will represent Somaliland in the forthcoming federal parliament has kicked off at the Police Transport HQ in Mogadishu. So far , 6 MPs from Somaliland were elected in the first election held in Mogadishu on Tuesday, and the remaining 40 seats are expected to be elected in the coming days.
INTERNATIONAL MEDIA
Fighting Near North Somalia Port Town Displaces 25,700: UN
08 December – Source: Xinhua – 225 Words
Heavy fighting between pro-Islamic State (IS) militants and Somalia’s Puntland state forces for the control of the port town of Qandala has displaced 25, 700 people since late October, a UN body said Wednesday. The UN Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said a majority of the displaced were women, children and the elderly, adding that most of the displaced had moved to surrounding villages, while others have sought refuge in Bossaso, 75 kilometers from Qandala. Meanwhile, a Puntland state official said their forces took control of the northern Somali town from the militants earlier on Wednesday. “Humanitarian partners and local authorities are concerned that the situation will deteriorate further if the displacement becomes protracted,” the OCHA said in its report.
Puntland forces on December 3 launched the operation to retake the northern Somali town, which was taken by the pro-IS group on October 26. Local residents reported fighting between the two sides near the town in the past days. The OCHA said some 3,000 people have been newly displaced since December 3. It also said all humanitarian activities in the area have been suspended. However, Puntland authorities have called on residents displaced from the town to return to their homes. The pro-IS group split from Somalia’s Islamist group Al-Shabaab in October 2015. Al-Shabaab has been battling the Somali government for a decade.
Somali Pirates To Prison Riots: The Series On Real-life Kidnaps Holding Audiences Captive
08 December – Source: The Guardian – 691 Words
Never pay the ransom. It’s the the official line of governments across the world and yet, every year, millions of pounds change hands to secure the release of those taken in kidnappings.The murky world of hostage negotiations is shrouded in mystery, done behind closed doors and often drags the most unsuspecting people into a web of organised crime or poverty-driven desperation. But a new documentary series that lands on Netflix on 8 December will dive straight into these nefarious dealings, exposing how some of the most infamous kidnapping situations unfolded. Captive is the creation of Simon Chinn, the double Oscar-winning producer behind the documentary films Searching for Sugar Man and Man on Wire, whose interest in hostage situations was piqued a decade ago by the kidnapping of Channel 4 film-maker Sean Langan in Pakistan by the Taliban. Langan was released after three months, but “the suggestion was that a transaction was made and a ransom was paid, even though the government’s policy was clearly that they didn’t negotiate with hostage takers”, says Chinn. “But somehow or other, it all got figured out.”
AMISOM Withdrawal From Somalia Delayed
07 December – Source: The East African – 978 Words
African leaders are facing a dilemma over plans to start withdrawing peacekeepers from Somalia by October 2018, because there is no guarantee that the country will have been pacified by then. The drawdown, to be completed in 2020, is high on the agenda, as the African Union Mission in Somalia (Amisom) plans a new offensive in early 2017 to capture all the remaining regions in the hands of Al Shabaab. But Amisom, which entered Somalia in 2007, first needs an additional 28,000 troops to capture regions still under Al Shabaab such as Jubba Valley, Hiiraan and the northeastern coastline of Somalia. However, discussions on where the troops are going to come from and how they are going to be funded are yet to be concluded. Second, Amisom — with the support of the United Nations and international donors — must train and equip at least 20,000 Somali National Army officers before the beginning of the Amisom withdrawal. Third, the funding and equipping of the current 21,129 Amisom troops on the ground from Uganda, Kenya, Ethiopia, Burundi and Djibouti remains a challenge as the main donor, the European Union, has reduced its annual budget and Burundi is threatening to withdraw over delays in payment of its troops.
The AU Special Representative to Somalia, Francisco Madeira, who is also the head of Amisom, recognises the challenges ahead but maintained in a recent interview with The EastAfrican in Mogadishu that Amisom will be out of Somalia by 2020. Mr Madeira said that the troop-contributing countries feel that it is realistic to withdraw in two years’ time and that Amisom will fast-track the training and equipping of Somalia troops to make them capable of taking over earlier than planned. “We must be able to start reducing our troops gradually by October 2018 until the takeover in two years,” he said. Currently, there are 10,900 specially trained Somali National Army troops who are supposed to work closely with the over 21,000 Amisom troops to liberate the remaining areas. The Somali National Army has been seen as the biggest impediment to the progress of Amisom because it lacks the capacity to maintain security and provide basic services in liberated areas. But Somali National Army Commander Gen Alibaashi Mohamed told The EastAfrican that the effectiveness of his army in the wake of an Amisom withdrawal will depend on the ability of the international community to provide the necessary resources and training.
OPINION , CULTURE & ANALYSIS
“Despite the basic conditions here, the clinic, staffed by 14 midwives and nurses, is doing wonders for the local population of 15,000 people living in the various displacement camps. It is one of the many clinics supported by UNICEF under the Joint Health and Nutrition Programme, an ambitious five-year plan to save mothers and children from dying unnecessarily in Somalia.”
The Baby In A Plastic Bag: Surviving In Somalia
07 December – Source: Relief Web – 856 Words
Fifteen-day-old Faadumo lies quietly with her big, dark eyes wide open. Her tiny head and dainty fists rest on a nest of blankets, starting with a black shawl. A second one adorned with white dots is layered on top. She is then tucked in a bigger, thicker blanket in a maroon and cream color. In between these wrappings is one more layer that is smooth, reflective and uncharacteristically thin for a blanket. It is a black plastic shopping bag. Faadumo was born prematurely at seven months. Her mother, who was only 15, died during childbirth. The plastic bag is to keep Faadumo warm, as is the single-bed room with no window that she is staying in.
A premature baby like her should, of course, be kept in an incubator. But here in Bosaso General.Hospital in the state of Puntland, Somalia, a plastic bag and many blankets are the best doctors can do to keep her warm – and alive. “We need incubators and our staff also need training on how to use them,” says Dr. Mohamed Said, the pediatrician at the hospital. Besides being premature, Faadumo is also malnourished. She weighed 1 kg at birth, and weighs not much more than – 1.1 kg – now. “Too many” challenges When asked about the challenges his Ministry faces, Abdirizak Hersi Hassan, Director General of the Ministry of Health in Puntland, sums them up in two words: “Too many.”