February 8, 2016 | Morning Headlines
Somalia President Appears In Parliament
07 February – Source: Garowe Online – 330 Words
Federal Government of Somalia’s President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud has appeared before lawmakers in the country’s 275-seat-chamber on Sunday, Garowe Online reports.
In his lengthy speech to MPs, Mohamud discussed confidence building measures, role of international community, Mogadishu plane blast, economy and recent National Consultative Forum.
In apparent reference to international donors, he said those days are over, meaning political process is now Somali-led and Somali-owned.“Please, defy reports alleging that your influence is outdated. I want to assure you of your importance and you (MPs) should be confident of this,” he said in his initial remarks.He noted that Somalis will be bulldozed if they fail to put their political legitimacy in order.“Our politics cannot be guided but you can help us capacitate security sector, and install key facilities. By the way, we can’t make politicking out of difficult days in the past,” said Mohamud.
On security, Somali President touched on deadly attack on beachfront restaurants and mid-air Daallo airlines blast.“The latest incident that left mothers, children and other unarmed figures dead was carried out by terrorists. They are hoodlums who dare kill people and they must be contained,” he went on about the Somali militant group.He warned security forces of extrajudicial tortures moments after suspects are apprehended in operations. Mohamud requested for interrogations, threatening those caught red-handedly with action.Speaking on airliner explosion, he stated that investigations have been launched into the suspected masterminds–who when convicted—will be brought to justice soon.
In a reaction to Puntland’s objection to new electoral proposal, Mohamud boasted that participants in National Consultative Forum (NCF) refused to heed a decision by two persons.Somalia’s new proposal for 2016 will be put forward to parliament for deliberations, Somalia President unveiled.Moreover, Mohamud highlighted the need to prevent militant group from luring unemployed youths into handsome pays.Mogadishu proposal was greeted with both enthusiasm and objection, with Puntland giving the cold shoulder to any model ushering in traditional 4.5 power sharing formula.
Key Headlines
- Somalia President Appears In Parliament (Garowe Online)
- Somalia Votes To Join OIC (Horseed Media)
- Federal Parliament Set To Review The Constitution (Goobjoog News)
- Pilot After Somalia Emergency:Airplane Security Is Zero (Associated Press)
- Kenya Somalia Deal Paves Way For Local Banks To Set Up In Somalia (Daily Nation)
- FBI In Somalia To Help Probe Inflight Blast Described As ‘Deliberate Act Of Terror’ (CNN)
- Somalia Beach Attack: Survivor Tells Of Ordeal At Hands Of Al-Shabaab (BBC)
NATIONAL MEDIA
Somalia Votes To Join OIC
07 February – Source: Horseed Media – 186 Words
Somalia unanimously voted to join the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) after agreeing membership terms with the organization.The country’s Federal Parliament unanimously passed the move after it was submitted by the government. Somalia’s Minister of Finance Mohamed Aden Ibrahim said that the move will be a source of more economic opportunities.“Our economy is recovering very fast currently and this will intensify collaboration with Islamic financial and economic institutions and facilitate attraction of investments to Somalia,’’
OIC is the second largest international organisation, after the UN family, which groups 57 Muslim-majority countries spread over four continents.The Organization of Islamic Cooperation was founded on September 25, 1969 at a Conference of Heads of Muslim Countries in Rabat, capital of Morocco. The main principles of the OIC are full equality, respect for the right to self-determination, non-interference in internal affairs of states, respect for the sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity of states, peaceful settlement of disputes between OIC member states through negotiation, mediation or arbitration, non-use of force or threat of force against the territorial integrity of member states, as well as against their political independence.
Federal Parliament Set To Review The Constitution
07 February – Source: Goobjoog News – 133 Words
Somali Federal Parliament speaker, Mohamed Osman Jawari has briefed today the Federal MPs about the developments of the constitutional review process and declared the 15 of this February for debating day on constitutional review. Federal Justice Ministry and the independent Constitutional Review and Implementation Commission are planning to present before the parliament the review road map of the constitution. Speaker of the parliament said Federal states and the Somali public will both asked to participate the constitutional review efforts. “ in accordance with article 133, clause 8 which calls the participation of federal states in any constitutional review , I hereby invited all the Federal states parliaments to take the part in this review” Constitutional review is one of three goals that federal government set to achieve before 2016 elections.
INTERNATIONAL MEDIA
Pilot After Somalia Emergency:Airplane Security Is Zero
07 February – Source: Associated Press – 460 Words
The Serb pilot who landed a jetliner in Somalia with a three-foot hole on its fuselage said Sunday he never doubted that it was caused by a bomb and describes the security surround the airplane at Mogadishu Airport as “zero.”
A suicide bomber is suspected to have set off the explosive inside the plane, Somali officials said Saturday. The blast sucked a male passenger out of the plane and forced the aircraft to make an emergency landing Tuesdayin Somalia’s capital, they said.The explosion happened about 15 minutes after the plane, with 74 passengers on board, took off from the airport and was at 11,000 feet ascending toward 30,000 feet.”If we were higher, the whole plane could have disintegrated after the explosion,” said pilot Vlatko Vodopivec.
At a higher altitude, the hole in the fuselage might have caused more severe structural damage, he said. Because the plane was at a lower altitude, he was able to land it safely, Vodopivec said. “The plane acted normally and we virtually returned normally. Engines and hydraulics worked normally.”If it happened somewhere higher, the damage would have been bigger,” he said. “If we were higher, the whole plane could have disintegrated.”
The explosion killed one passenger, Abdullahi Abdisalam Borle, according to Somali officials who did not give further details. A man’s body was found in the town of Balad, 30 kilometers (about 18 miles) north of Mogadishu, according to police who said he might have been blown from the plane.Borle is suspected to have been the suicide bomber, the AP was told by a senior Somali civil aviation official, who insisted on anonymity because he is not authorized to speak to the press. Six people have been arrested in connection with the blast after examinations of CCTV images in the airport, a senior Somali intelligence official said. The pilot blamed the incident on the lack of security around the plane at Mogadishu Airport, describing the facility as chaotic.
Kenya, Somalia Deal Paves Way For Local Banks To Set Up In Somalia
07 January – Source: Daily Nation – 502 Words
Kenyan banks could soon venture into Somalia following the signing of a bilateral agreement with Mogadishu on cooperation in financial regulation, investments and security. It is an ambitious plan which Kenya also says would eliminate any foreign policy mistakes it may have committed when dealing with Mogadishu. Last week, Somalia’s Foreign Minister Abdusalam Omer and his Kenyan counterpart Amina Mohamed signed a Joint Commission on Cooperation Agreement, a deal that seeks to address gaps in immigration, security, banking, trade and other areas.
“Kenya and Somalia are strong allies and partners. More importantly, the agreement will have the mandate to plan and implement bilateral programs for cooperation between the two brotherly states,” Mr Gamal Hassan, Somalia’s Ambassador to Nairobi, told the Sunday Nation on Friday. It was the first time such an agreement was being entered into since Somalia was embroiled in a civil war, even though a deal agreement on a limited number of issues was signed during the transitional government in 2005.
Ms Mohamed said the deal had taken into account recent developments between the two countries, like the end of the Transitional Federal Government in 2012, increasing threat of Al-Shabaab and the need to expand economic ties. “The JCC agreement will be a platform for enhanced cooperation between the two countries because it covers a wide range of issues,” Ms Mohamed said after meeting with her Somali counterpart. The deal emphasises the need for coordinated policies on security, trade, investment, finance, immigration, health, education, agriculture and infrastructure.
FBI In Somalia To Help Probe Inflight Blast Described As ‘Deliberate Act Of Terror’
07 February – Source: CNN – 243 Words
Somali officials on Friday identified the man sucked out of the airliner — and the lone fatality — as Abdullahi Abdisalam Borleh, an elderly Somali national. Investigators suspect he carried a laptop computer with a bomb concealed onto the plane, according to a source familiar with the investigation. The source said Borleh apparently knew precisely where to sit and how to place the device to maximize damage. The source said, given the placement, the blast likely would have set off a catastrophic secondary explosion in the fuel tank had the aircraft reached cruising altitude.
The bomb contained a military grade of the explosive TNT, according to the source, citing an initial analysis of residue recovered from the aircraft. Investigators believe the attack was orchestrated by the al Qaeda affiliate Al Shabaab, although they are not certain that Borleh was a direct member of the group, according to the source. No group immediately took responsibility for the act.
Al-Shabaab, which has been linked to al Qaeda though it has factions that have declared loyalty to ISIS, has been behind some of the worst violence in recent years in and around Somalia. Some of it targeted tourists, such as last month’s deadly attack on a beachside restaurant-hotel complex in Mogadishu. Young people also have been targets, as shown in the massacre at Kenya’s Garissa University College. The general public also hasn’t escaped the group’s violence, as evidenced in a 2013 assault on an upscale mall in Nairobi.
OPINION, ANALYSIS, AND CULTURE
“My thoughts also turned to my little brother Eyman. I wasn’t sure if he had escaped the restaurant in time. I started shouting: “Eyman, Eyman, Eyman!” I remembered how much my mother loved Eyman, since he was her youngest child. I thought of how she would react to the news of our death. Eyman was not just the youngest, but my mother’s only son, after she had lost her other son two years ago.”
Somalia Beach Attack: Survivor Tells Of Ordeal At Hands Of Al-Shabaab
07 February – Source: BBC – 921 Words
The 21 January attack by al-Shabab on a popular beachside restaurant in the Somali capital Mogadishu has now claimed more than 40 lives. Many of the victims died from their injuries in the days following the attack. Nasro Dahir Abukar was at the Beach View Cafe when the militants struck. Here, she gives her personal survival story. I was with my younger brother Eyman. We were were having tea, looking out at the sea, enjoying the sight and sound of the waves. It was one of those wonderful moments in life.
Suddenly, shooting started on the side of the restaurant which spreads out onto the beach. We all got up and started running away, except those who were hit by the bullets. As the gunfire got louder and louder, most of the people who had been sitting on the beach side of the restaurant fell down on to the sand. I didn’t see Eyman after he ran away, so I started shouting for him and running at the same time.
I fell down, but someone gave me a hand and I couldn’t tell if he knew me or not. He pulled me towards where the kitchen and toilets were. Those of us who had run for our lives went to hide in the toilets and shut ourselves inside, standing by the hand-wash area. Even though praying is forbidden inside toilets, quietly I started reciting verses of the Koran and Hadith [the stories and traditions of Muhammad’s life], praying that Allah would protect us from these evil cowards. I wondered whether I would survive or be killed.