February 10, 2015 | Daily Monitoring Report.
Fighting erupts in Gurieel
10 Feb – Source: Radio Danan/Radio Mustaqbal/Horseed Media – 101 Words
Fighting erupted at Gurieel in central Somalia this morning. Militias loyal to Ahlu Sunnah Wal Jama’ah (ASWJ) and Somali National Forces (SNA) are reported to have started fighting. Sources say, communication was cut off in the areas affected by the clashes. At least 3 people were killed as result of fighting and other were injured according to Ismail Mohamed Haji who is resident of area. Out of the 3 people killed l person was civilian and the other two were fighters. The situation remains calm for now as ASW forces were pushed back from the town of Guriceel.
Key Headlines
- Delegates gather in Garbahareey for “Unity Conference” (Radio Goobjoog)|
- Fighting erupts in Gurieel (Radio Danan/Radio Mustaqbal/Horseed Media)
- Elders cry for safety of civilians in Kismayo (Radio Mustaqbal/Baidoa news/Warqaad.org)
- United States welcomes the confirmation of the new council of ministers (Radio Goobjoog/Radio Dalsan)
- Puntland looks into helping Somali Ethiopian refugees to go back home (Radio Ergo)
- President Hassan to visit Galgaduud (Radio Danan)
- HelloCash Mobile Money Service launches in Ethiopia (VenturesAfrica.com)
- Gen Gutti summoned in Ondoga trial (Daily Monitor)
- Thanks to tweets suspected ISIS backer stays in jail (MPR News)
SOMALI MEDIA
Delegates gather in Garbahareey for “Unity Conference”
10 Feb – Source: Radio Goobjoog – 148 Words
Delegates from all sectors of the society are gathering in Garbaherey, Gedo region where a conference will soon open. Among the subjects to be discussed at the conference tagged as “Unity Conference” will be the political future of the clan whose elders are predominantly from the Gedo region which is part of Jubbaland administration. Elder Burale Jama told Goobjoog that the city is a washed with people from different parts of Gedo and elsewhere. He added that members of the parliament are also expected to attend the conference. “Preparations are in full gear, too many delegates have arrived, we are now busy organizing accommodation. [the event] shows that Garbaharey is a peaceful city that can host such a big conference” said the elder. Governor of Gedo Mohamed Abdi Kalil had earlier announced the commencement of the conference and that government officials are also invited to attend.
Fighting erupts in Gurieel
10 Feb – Source: Radio Danan/Radio Mustaqbal/Horseed Media – 101 Words
Fighting erupted at Gurieel in central Somalia this morning. Militias loyal to Ahlu Sunnah Wal Jama’ah (ASWJ) and Somali National Forces (SNA) are reported to have started fighting. Sources say, communication was cut off in the areas affected by the clashes. At least 3 people were killed as result of fighting and other were injured according to Ismail Mohamed Haji who is resident of area. Out of the 3 people killed l person was civilian and the other two were fighters. The situation remains calm for now as ASW forces were pushed back from the town of Guriceel.
Elders cry for safety of civilians in Kismayo
10 Feb – Source: Radio Mustaqbal/Baidoa news/Warqaad.org – 90 Words
Kismayo local elders have requested the Interim juba administration to act on insecurity which is rampant in the area. particular the killing of civilians. The increase in civilian casualty is attributed to security operations carried out by the military of Juba Administration in Kismayo town have are accused of killing two civilians who were suspected of being member of Al-Shabaab militia. Mohamed Abdi Farah who is among the local leaders speaking to Radio Mustaqbal said that the administration has to immediately put an end the killing of civilians. Interim Juba Administration has denied the killing of civilians.
President Hassan to visit Galgaduud
10 Feb – Source: Radio Danan – 103 Words
The Somali president, Hassan Sheikh is due to visit parts of Galgaduud Region today including Duusamreeb town. State House officials told the state radio station that the president will visit Duusamareeb where he will be meeting key figures within the administration of Duusamareeb District. Preparations to welcome the president to the region are under way. Distinguished delegates from the state government are converging there. There are also the director of NISA and other senior government officials in Duusamareeb to welcome the president.
United States welcomes the confirmation of the new council of ministers
09 Feb – Source: Radio Goobjoog/Radio Dalsan – 163 Words
U.S. Special Representative for Somalia (SRS) James P. McAnulty welcomes the February 9 confirmation of the new Somali Council of Ministers by the Federal Parliament of Somalia. “The United States of America applauds the efforts of all stakeholders to find compromise to end the political impasse and form a new government. I urge all parties to intensify collaborative efforts to realize the political and security goals and objectives of Vision 2016,” said SRS McAnulty. The United States Government remains steadfast in its support for Somalia, and looks forward to working closely with the new Cabinet, along with the President, Prime Minister, Parliament, and leaders in existing and emerging states, as they continue to promote good governance, security, peace, and economic prosperity in Somalia.
Puntland looks into helping Somali Ethiopian refugees to go back home
09 Feb – Source: Radio Ergo – 328 Words
The Puntland administration is planning a headcount of Somali Ethiopian refugees who have been living in Puntland for 20 years after fleeing conflict in the Shabelle region of southern Ethiopia. Director of the interior ministry’s refugee department, Burhan Huruus, told Radio Ergo that some refugees had filed a request in 2013 for voluntary repatriation to Ethiopia. He said the headcount would ascertain how many wished to go home. Mohamed Abdikani, camp leader of the Shabelle refugee camp in Garowe, said there were 480 Somali Ethiopian families in the camp, mostly farmers and pastoralists, most of whom now wished to go home. “Due to combined conflict and drought, these people fled from their original places between 1990 and 1993 and were forced to seek a better life in Puntland,” said Abdikani, who himself left Qallaafe in Ethiopia in 1991. Salah Sanay Guure, a father of 11, arrived in Garowe from the Shabelle region at a young age in 1997. Speaking to Radio Ergo, he said he had learnt various skills to survive during his stay in Garowe. “I have been a driver, builder, mechanic and farmer…. And I believe that I will contribute positively to my country when I return,” he said. “I knew nothing prior to my arrival in Puntland.
I would like to be assisted in going back home.” Ruqiya Sharif Abdi, a mother of seven, came to Garowe as a child in 1999, with her parents who were farmers. “We fled to Puntland to escape drought and insecurity in our area, which forced us to move to Somalia,” she said. Burhan Huruus said there were no official figures documenting the numbers of Somali Ethiopian refugees in the area, nor accurate evidence of where they came from. He noted that most had entered Puntland before the establishment of the current administration in 1998, and had been living among displaced communities and sharing whatever assistance they received.
REGIONAL MEDIA
HelloCash Mobile Money Service launches in Ethiopia
09 Feb – Source: VenturesAfrica.com – 309 Words
Ethiopia’s Lion International Bank and Somali Microfinance have partnered with BelCash Technology Solution PLC, to launch the official pilot of the HelloCash mobile money services in the country. The Ethiopian based technology service provider for financial industry, uses its mobile money platform to provide financial services to all Ethiopians. It enables existing and potential customers of Lion International Bank and Somali Micro Finance to carry out transactions in four key areas of financial transactions: Deposit, Withdraw, Transfer and make payments.
The pilot of HelloCash mobile money service is underway in three parts of the country, with locations consisting a mix of agent outlets and branches. HelloCash Mobile Money would make financial services available to more Ethiopian, especially at the grassroots, in order to drive financial inclusion in the country. Ethiopia has a very low rural banking density and consequently one of the lowest financial inclusion ratios of Sub-Saharan Africa, with only 14 percent of adults having access to credit and only 1 percent of the rural population owning bank accounts. The system designed for multi banks and Micro Finance Institutions (MFIs) to be interconnected and offer the mobile money service to their respective customers in partnership with financial institutions, is therefore expected to extend financial services throughout the East African country.
Gen Gutti summoned in Ondoga trial
07 Feb – Source: Daily Monitor – 259 Words
The General Court Martial has summoned Lt Gen Andrew Gutti to give evidence in the ongoing trial of former commander of the Ugandan peace keeping force in Mogadishu, Brig Michael Ondoga. Lt Gen Gutti, the current commandant of the UPDF Senior Staff and Command College Kimaka in Jinja District, was summoned on Thursday jointly with Lt Col Moses Mwesigwa to testify in the military court in Makindye, Kampala.
The two officers will appear in the court on February 12. The summons followed an application by the State prosecutor to call the duo to boost the evidence against the suspects. Brig Ondoga is charged with failing to brief his superiors while in the African Union offensive operations against the al-Shabaab Islamic militants in Somalia. He has been on remand since October 21, 2013, when he was first arraigned in the military court. His defence lawyer, Mr Frank Kanduho, complained that the State was delaying his client’s trial.
INTERNATIONAL MEDIA
Thanks to tweets, suspected ISIS backer stays in jail
09 Feb – Source: MPR News – 953 Words
A 19-year-old Minneapolis man accused of lying to federal agents during a terrorism investigation will remain behind bars for now. Earlier, Feds charge Minneapolis man with lying during terror probe At a detention hearing Monday, U.S. Magistrate Judge Steven Rau said he was concerned about tweets that Hamza Ahmed posted on Twitter before he tried to leave for the Middle East in November. Federal authorities suspect he was trying to travel to Syria, possibly to join the terror group ISIS.
Prosecutors argued that Ahmed’s tweets suggested he was willing to be a martyr and was therefore a danger to the community. Called to Fight Ahmed’s attorney, JaneAnne Murray, said his social media updates were driven by hubris and didn’t reflect her client’s true intent. But Rau wasn’t convinced. “The tweets you issued were beyond hubris. They were beyond youth,” the judge told Ahmed. “They were threats.” On his Twitter account, Ahmed tweeted his sense of feeling conflicted about living in Minnesota while the violence continued in Syria. “Ya Allah give me the chance to Help and fight for the Muslims in Syria,” he wrote in November 2013. About a month later, he mused, “Staying here just seems to kill part of me everyday.”
SOCIAL MEDIA
CULTURE / OPINION / EDITORIAL / ANALYSIS / BLOGS/ DISCUSSION BOARDS
“Arguably the most intractable issue is the question of federalism. Despite five years of work, the committee drafting Somalia’s new constitution was unable to reconcile different positions on the devolution of power and left many provisions on federalism vague or unaddressed in the provisional constitution that forms the basic law of the SFG.”
Tough challenges ahead for new Somali government
09 Feb – Source: Horseed Media – 1, 076 Words
The new Somali cabinet has been sworn in. Right at the top of the list of tasks facing the new cabinet is the implementation of 2016 vision which one of its objectives states a national election should be held across the country. But prospects of success are overshadowed due to the period of time left. Following weeks of political bickering, the Federal parliament on Monday overwhelmingly approved the new cabinet composed of 66-ministers with most of them new comers who lived abroad for decades and lacking political experience.
Despite Prime Minister Omar Abdirashid Sharmarke’s experience – he has served as Somalia’s Prime Minister from 2009 – 2010 and been his country’s ambassador to U.S – most analysts and commentators agree that Sharmarke’s position is fraught with difficulties with the tasks needed to be accomplished and with less than 18 months left for the government term…Despite all its goodwill, the government is still a provisional government, with de facto control only over Mogadishu and parts of the South, and dependent on foreign troops to keep its enemies at bay. Al-Shabaab is down but not out. It controls, or at least is able to operate at will in, huge swaths of south and central Somalia, and still able to hit high-profile targets in Mogadishu’s heavily fortified areas, including the national courts, the UN compound, the Turkish embassy, and popular gathering places.
“Katra Arale is among those in the Somali Diaspora who send money to family members in Somalia who are struggling to survive there. For 15 years, since arriving in the US at age 22, Arale has worked in janitorial services, cleaning a government building in Minneapolis. A mother of three children all born in the US, Arale says she’s glad to share her salary with her extended family in Somalia. Katra Arale sends at least $300 home every month…The money helps her father, who is disabled, his wife, and their children.”
Remittances lifeline to Somalia shrinks 80 percent
09 Feb – Source: Oxfam America – 370 Words
A stop gap is now urgently needed to ensure Somali families can access family funds upon which they rely.Lauren Hartnettt is a humanitarian press officer at Oxfam America. Friday marked the deadline set by Merchants Bank as the last day they will operate remittance accounts with Somali money transfer operators (MTOs). According to MTO leaders, as of Saturday morning, 80% of Somali remittances will be halted.Oxfam and others are calling for the US government, led by the Treasury Department, to intervene and save this vital remittance lifeline.
All of the Somali companies ended services at most of their branches on Saturday; some shut down altogether. Merchants Bank, located in California, was the only bank capable of accepting cash from branches across the US and wiring it abroad. Most MTOs do have at least one local or state bank that they can work with for the time being, but these banks are only able to handle 20% of the cash Somali-Americans send each year . In addition, these banks can only wire money collected in specific regions. Service in Ohio and Virginia, for example, will close down altogether; most service in Washington will be halted, with remaining offices closing in a matter of weeks. Minnesota, home to Somalia’s largest diaspora population in the United States, will experience a drastic reduction in service.
“He does not grasp that the Somali civil war was not about clans fighting among themselves but about the power, prestige and profit pursued by politicians and politico-war entrepreneurs exploiting the archaic Siad Barre clan system as a political resource to secure such over-ambitious objectives.”
Writer set own agenda on Somali history
09 Feb – Source: Daily Nation – 536 Words
Last week, a Somali commentator who edits an obscure online newsletter cited me in an opinion piece in the Nation (February 5). I want to draw attention to the fact that the other two names the commentator mentioned are not scholars; one is a war veteran-cum-politician, the other a journalist-cum-politician. And I am not a writer, but a scholar presently pursuing a PhD at the University of Oxford. My research focuses on the Somali society, culture, politics and history throughout the past two centuries, during which massive transformations shook the Somali world.
Commentator Liban Ahmad appears to refer to “intellectuals” and “scholars” interchangeably. He targets Somali scholars with seemingly spiteful lines and makes accusations and allegations Liban says that while reviewing a book about Somaliland, I argued that the former Somaliland President Mohamed Haji Ibrahim Egaal had bribed his opponents. Indeed, it was the author of the book that I reviewed who made the contention, offering a myriad of primary sources to augment the argument. Strangely, the commentator, attributed it to me.
Top tweets
@HodanTV Did you know #SomaliDiaspora sends Somalia $1.3 Billion per year in remittances, which is more than any foreign aid? #IFundFoodNotTerror
@Aynte Being a minister in #Somalia isn’t a cause for celebration. people expect us to work very hard to alleviate their suffering. I’ll do my best
@Daudoo Judge Abdulqawi Ahmed Yusuf from #Somaliaelected Vice-President of the International Court of Justice. #ICJ
@Abdihakim_Som “JOINT STATEMENT: #UN #AU #EU #IGAD#UK #US Welcome approval of new Cabinet by #Somalia#Parliament. http://bit.ly/1xY2yfx @UN_DPA“
@OxfamInSOM Somali Americans say barring remittances cld provoke crisis http://alj.am/1DZgydB @mhayoun #Somalia#SomaliLifeline
@SofiaSamatar in US: desperate to send $. in Somalia: desperate to receive it. & when people starve we’ll hear calls 4 foreign aid. #IFundFoodNotTerror
Image of the day
The top United Nations Police Advisor, Stefan Feller has concluded an official visit to Somalia during which he met with officials from the Federal Government, Interim Jubba Administration (IJA), the Somali Police Force (SPF), the United Nations Assistance Mission in Somalia (UNSOM) and the African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM).
Photo: UNSOM