January 11, 2017 | Morning Headlines
Last Minute Canvassing By Politicians Ahead Of Speaker’s Election
10 January – Source: Radio Dalsan – 187 Words
There has been a rush by politicians to secure support for their preferred candidates ahead of the Speaker of the Parliament election set for Wednesday. South West President and Somali presidential candidate, Sharif Hassan Sheikh Adan, on Wednesday night held a closed-door meeting with Somaliland MPs at Jazeera Hotel persuading them to vote for his preferred candidate for the speaker’s position.
At the same hotel, President Hassan sheikh Mohamud team were campaigning for the candidacy of former parliament speaker Mohamed Osman Jawari, who is contesting for re-election. The Speaker’s election is crucial in Somalia politics as it is the deciding factor on which clan is to run for the presidential and Premiership seats according to the 4.5 clan system.
Presidential candidate Sharif Hassan and most of the Digil Mirifle parliamentarians would want to see Abdirashid Hiddig, a Darood win the speaker’s post, while Hawiye and Darood candidates and most of MPs hailing from these two clans would want the incumbent, a Digil Mirifle to win. Analysts say if Sharif Hassan manages to put the Somaliland vote into one basket the country should brace for the unexpected.
Key Headlines
- Last Minute Canvassing By Politicians Ahead Of Speaker’s Election (Radio Dalsan)
- President Guled Declares State of Emergency In Galmudug (Shabelle News)
- Presidential Hopeful Farole Jets Off To Kenya (Garowe Online)
- Kenya Arrests 2 Suspects Accused of Plotting Nairobi Attack (The Associated Press)
- King Salman Center for Relief OIC Sign Executive Program In Somalia (Saudi Press Agency)
- Somalia’s Diaspora Are Slowly Returning To Mogadishu (Hurst Publishers)
NATIONAL MEDIA
President Guled Declares State of Emergency In Galmudug
10 January – Source: Shabelle News – 69 Words
Galmudug President Abdikarin Hussein Guled has declared a state emergency in Galmudug on Tuesday. According to a statement from the office of the president, the state of the emergency will take effect from Tomorrow, Wednesday 11. The move comes after the state’s parliament passed a vote of no-confidence against the president. Guled termed the parliament’s decision to sack him as ‘illegitimate’ and warned of political unrest in the region.
Presidential Hopeful Farole Jets Off To Kenya
10 January – Source: Garowe Online – 212 Words
Former Puntland President and Upper House Senator, Abdirahman Mohamoud Farole, has traveled to neighboring Kenya on Tuesday, before heading to the Somali capital of Mogadishu, to take part in the ongoing elections of Parliament leadership and Somali President, Garowe Online reports. Speaking to the local media at Garowe Airport before departure, Senator Farole expressed hope that the upcoming election could usher in a new period of stability and federalism in the country.
Farole said he will accept the results of the forthcoming election, calling on the Somali government leaders to do the same and peacefully hand over power if defeated. Meanwhile, he appealed for immediate relief response to the drought victims in remote areas and urged that Somalis inside and outside the country should jointly cooperate to provide aid for those in need.
He also urged businessmen to provide financial assistance, whereas he called religious leaders to support delivering humanitarian aid to families who couldn’t migrate from drought areas. The federal government should also take part in the emergency response programs to help the nomadic families in drought-stricken areas, added Farole. He is expected to hold several meetings in Nairobi in the coming days before heading to Mogadishu ahead of the elections of Upper House Speaker and Somali President scheduled in late January 2017.
INTERNATIONAL MEDIA
Kenya Arrests 2 Suspects Accused of Plotting Nairobi Attack
10 January – Source: The Associated Press – 98 Words
Kenyan police say they have arrested two suspects accused of planning an attack in the capital, Nairobi. Police spokesman George Kinoti gave to details of the alleged plot.
He said in a statement Tuesday that Abdulafatah Nur Ali was arrested in Nairobi with a fraudulent national identity card and refugee certificate, and that Farah Shaleh Aden was arrested in Garissa.
Kenya has seen attacks by Somali extremist group al-Shabab, which has vowed retribution on the country for sending troops in 2011 to Somalia to fight the militants. Al-Shabab has been waging an insurgency against Somalia’s weak government.
King Salman Center for Relief, OIC Sign Executive Program In Somalia
10 January – Source: Saudi Press Agency – 112 Words
Dr. Abdullah bin Abdulaziz Al-Rabeeah, Advisor at the Royal Court and Supervisor General of King Salman Center for Relief and Humanitarian Aid, and Dr. Yousef bin Ahmad Al-Othaimeen, Secretary General of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), signed here today an agreement of executive program to distribute assistance to those affected by the drought in the Republic of Somalia representing 30,000 food baskets for 180,000 beneficiaries in Somalia.
In a statement, the OIC secretary general has thanked the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud for establishment of this center which represents a huge leap and great renaissance at the level of global relief work.
OPINION, CULTURE & ANALYSIS
“Over the course of 15 years visiting and reporting from Somalia, I’ve seen plenty of reasons for pessimism. But the specific event I was attending in Mogadishu fell firmly into the “positive” column. It was something out of the ordinary, something, indeed, rather wonderful. A book fair. A proper event at a big Mogadishu hotel, with its own hashtag, and panel discussions — a cultural milestone for a ruined capital that had not experienced anything like it for a generation; not since the old government collapsed in 1991 and a lovely port city of open-air cinemas, beaches and cafes was ground into the dunes. A beguiling sign, surely, that Somalia’s bad old days might indeed be coming to an end.”
Somalia’s Diaspora Are Slowly Returning To Mogadishu
10 January – Source: Hurst Publishers – 1,546 Words
The Somali diaspora is starting to return to help rebuild Mogadishu after years of violence in and around the capital. Andrew Harding was there for the city’s first book fair for decades, and spoke to the Somalis trying to restore the old Mogadishu – a beautiful port city of open-air cinemas, beaches and cafes. Violence, however, has not yet disappeared. I was boarding my flight to Mogadishu a few months back when a Somali friend sent me a short, ominous text message. “Make sure they don’t announce what time you’re speaking.”
It was a well-meant, practical warning: when in Somalia, keep the lowest possible profile. Try not to get caught up in the bombings, assassinations and sieges that still plague Mogadishu and (twenty five years after the country first plunged into chaos) prevent it from shrugging off its reputation as one of the world’s most dangerous cities. Don’t get carried away, in other words, by the idea that Somalia is on the mend. I settled into my seat with a familiar surge of adrenalin kicking at my ribs, trying to read the expression of the ethnic Somalis – members of a giant, global diaspora – shuffling past me down the plane’s aisle.
What made them think Mogadishu was now a safe bet to visit? When can you tell that a country has properly, unquestionably turned a corner? How do you balance a patriotic desire to help rebuild with an instinct for survival? These are disorientating times for those who fled Somalia in an exodus in the early 1990s. Some wars end with a peace treaty. Some countries, like South Africa in 1994, get an historic election to mark the moment that those in exile are finally welcomed home. But the men and women boarding my flight in Istanbul had no such reliable signposts. Instead they were obliged to sniff the wind and judge, from a succession of fragile moments – militants retreating, governments installed, pirates thwarted – whether their country’s slow, uneven journey away from chaos had reached some sort of critical mass. Or whether the Islamist militants Al Shabaab, or some fresh disaster, would ruin things once again.
Over the course of 15 years visiting and reporting from Somalia, I’ve seen plenty of reasons for pessimism. But the specific event I was attending in Mogadishu fell firmly into the “positive” column. It was something out of the ordinary, something, indeed, rather wonderful. A book fair. A proper event at a big Mogadishu hotel, with its own hashtag, and panel discussions — a cultural milestone for a ruined capital that had not experienced anything like it for a generation; not since the old government collapsed in 1991 and a lovely port city of open-air cinemas, beaches and cafes was ground into the dunes. A beguiling sign, surely, that Somalia’s bad old days might indeed be coming to an end.