February 3, 2017 | Daily Monitoring Report
Over 170 MPs Meet In Mogadishu, Call For Leadership Change
03 February – Source: Hiiraan Online – 101 Words
Over 170 parliamentarians gathered in Mogadishu on Thursday night to discuss crucial national issues facing the country including the upcoming presidential election. The MPs exchanged opinion during the consultative meeting at Jazeera hotel and most of them echoed the need for political leadership change in the country. the meeting was not only attended by current MPs but also by former lawmakers. The meeting comes days after a similar event attended by a section of the newly elected MPs was held in support of President Hassan Sheikh’s bid to get re-elected. The highly anticipated presidential elections will take place on February 8.
Key Headlines
- Over 170 MPs Meet In Mogadishu Call For Leadership Change (Hiiraan Online)
- Speaker Jawari Hands Over $360000 To Deputy PM Arte To Aid Drought Victims (Hiiraan Online)
- Demonstration In Support Of ICJ Decision To Consider Somali-Kenyan Border Dispute Underway In Mogadishu (Dalsan Radio )
- Three Somali Nationals Shot And Killed In Khayelitsha (ENCA South Africa)
- Kenya Loses Round One In Sea Row Case With Somalia (Daily Nation)
- Somalia Offshore Basins Show Encouraging Results (Hiiraan Online)
NATIONAL MEDIA
Speaker Jawari Hands Over $360,000 To Deputy PM Arte To Aid Drought Victims
03 February – Source: Hiiraan Online – 149 Words
Deputy Prime Minister Mohamed Omar Arteh, who heads the National Drought Response Committee received $360,000 from parliament speaker Mohamed Osman Jawari. The fund is 50 per cent of the registration fees paid by the 24 presidential candidates vying for the country’s top seat. Both the Lower and Upper Houses had agreed to allocate 50 percent of the money to the drought response efforts. Mr Arteh thanked all the candidates and the members of the two chambers of the parliament, promising that the donation will go to the concerned people. “I thank MPs from both houses for the role in extending support to the drought-affected victims, I promise that this money will be managed properly,” he said. Mr Arteh, himself an MP, asked the various sections of the Somali people to take part in the effort to rescue the lives of five million Somalis at risk of starvation.
Demonstration In Support Of ICJ Decision To Consider Somali-Kenyan Border Dispute Underway In Mogadishu
03 February – Source: Dalsan Radio – 118 Words
A demonstration in support of Thursday’s International Court of Justice (ICJ) decision to consider Somali-Kenyan maritime border dispute, has started in Mogadishu this morning. Hundreds of demonstrators waving the Somali flag gathered at the Daljir Dahsoon ground chanting anti-Kenya slogans. Some of Mogadishu’s singers and artists are entertaining the crowds as more protesters reach the venue. Somali President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud and senior officials from the Banadir regional administration are expected to arrive at the scene and speak to the demonstrators.The court, based in the Hague, dismissed Kenya’s argument yesterday. The two countries have been in dispute for years over a section of the Indian Ocean which is thought to be rich in oil and gas reserve.
INTERNATIONAL MEDIA
Three Somali Nationals Shot And Killed In Khayelitsha
03 February – Source: ENCA, South Africa – 156 Words
Three Somali nationals have been shot and killed in Khayelitsha, Cape Town in separate incidents on Thursdaynight.The three separate incidents happened minutes apart in Site C Police said. They say they cannot rule out the possibility of the three events being linked.“The first one [incident] occurred at 9:45pm – a 27-year-old man was shot and killed outside his business while he was locking his shop,” said Western Cape Police Spokesperson Lieutenant Colonel Andre Trout.
“Shortly after that, five minutes later at a separate location, a 22-year-old man was shot and killed inside his shop and around the same time, a 28-year-old national was killed in Solomon Tshuku Street, also in Site C,” Trout said. Police said nothing was taken from the men’s shops and the motive for the killings is unknown.“The circumstances surrounding these cases are currently under investigation and we make an appeal to anyone with information to contact Crime Stop.
Kenya Loses Round One In Sea Row Case With Somalia
03 February – Source: Daily Nation – 508 Words
Kenya has lost its bid to stop a case filed by Somalia over a maritime dispute from going to a full hearing.Judges at the International Court of Justice on Thursday dismissed the two reasons fronted by Kenya’s lawyers that there exists an alternative method of resolving the matter and that the case is invalid because the alternative method had not been exhausted.
In a ruling delivered on Thursday, the court’s President Ronny Abraham poked holes into a Memorandum of Understanding signed between Kenya and Somalia, which Nairobi had said constitutes an agreement to use the UN Commission on Law of the Sea instead of the court.“The question before the court is whether the parties agreed to a method of delimitation (of the area under dispute) other than the court,” the 66-year-old French judge told the court.He declared the MoU was not intended to establish a specific procedure for the settlement of the maritime dispute. The court also rejected Somalia’s argument that the MoU was not binding because Parliament had rejected it.The court found that the MoU signed by Kenya’s then Foreign Minister Moses Wetang’ula and Somalia’s then Minister of Planning, and the current presidential candidate Abdirahman Abdishakur was a valid bilateral agreement.
The judge said the document did not require parliamentary approval as had been argued by Mogadishu because the two ministers were authorised representatives of their respective governments.The Kenyan legal team argued that the court lacked jurisdiction since both Kenya and Mogadishu had agreed on an alternative dispute settlement. When Kenya joined the UN, it indicated in 1965 that it would agree to the court’s general jurisdiction only as long as there were no alternative methods of resolving disagreements.“It does not, however, prescribe a method of settlement. Consequently this case does not, by virtue of the MoU, fall out of this court,” the judge said, reading a judgement in which four of the 13 judges of the court dissented.
OPINION, ANALYSIS AND CULTURE
“If Somalia is to benefit from its rich and untapped resources, it is important to have political stability, continuity of governance, a shared vision towards the petroleum sector development and commitment to achieve it, patience over the years of development and keeping the public expectations managed.”
Somalia Offshore Basins Show Encouraging Results
02 February – Source : Hiiraan Online – 687 Words
Prior to oil exploration, the geology of Somalia fascinated geologists due to the existence of thick sedimentary cover. in the late forties and early fifties, an intense geophysical prospecting was carried out followed by seismic surveys on onshore Somalia. in the mid-fifties, Sinclair Corporation executed drilling exploratory oil wells in onshore southern Somalia. The drilled wells were either dry or manifested gas or oil shows. there were no discoveries with commercial viability. Agip drilled few. In late fifties and sixties, Somalia led in exploration intensity in Africa. Amerada surveyed and drilled few wells in north Somalia.
However, because of Somalia adopting socialism and joining the Soviet block, western companies stopped operating in Somalia in the seventies and came back again to do business in the 1980s and that is when Somalia started opening its market. After the overthrow of President Siad Barre in 1991, Somalia experienced years of anarchy. And it was not until 2012, when a new internationally backed government was established and the country began to enjoy a measure of stability once more.
Offshore drilling is a relatively new phenomenon for the East African countries. Not long ago, the crustal structure along the offshore Somalian margin was one of the least explored areas in Africa. The only offshore geological information that existed prior to 2014 was limited to regional scale correlation of out dated geological and geophysical data. In 2014 and 2015, the Federal Government of Somalia carried out offshore seismic surveys in Southern Somalia. The aim was to define and delineate the geological structure of the southern Somalia offshore, which lies near major discoveries of oil and gas on the East African margin. In 2015, Spectrum ASA undertook the acquisition of 2D seismic data offshore South Somalia. The total number of sail line acquired equates to 20,582.75 Km. The new acquisition has complemented 20,000 km of existing seismic that was acquired in 2014.
TOP TWEETS
@StandardKenya: Kenya loses first round in battle with Somalia on maritime border
https://goo.gl/cQPVR7
@DalsanFM: PM Sharmarke Asks Kenya to Respect ICJ Verdict As Somalia Celebrates – http://radiodalsan.com/en/pm-
@RadioErgo: The water crisis in Burao, Buhodle and Eynaba districts is intense http://bit.ly/2jIZgjZ #Somalia
@HarunMaruf: BREAKING: Read the full judgement by #ICJ on the maritime case between Somalia and Kenya http://www.icj-cij.org/docket/
@adancabdulle: @TheVillaSomalia wages full frontal attack against
@somalipm asking MPs not to vote for a treasonous individualshttps://www.facebook.com/
@NPR: The number of people needing help is rising rapidly. In September, it was 5 million – now, it’s over 6.2 million.
IMAGE OF THE DAY
Somali Deputy Prime Minister Hon Mohamed Omer Arte receives $ 360,000 US, half of the fees collected from the presidential aspirants to help support the humanitarian activities which geared towards the current drought situation in somalia.
Photo: Radio Muqdisho