January 12, 2016 | Daily Monitoring Report
Somaliland Executes Four Soldiers Convicted Of Murders
12 January – Source: Hiiraan Online – 215 Words
The breakaway northern Somalia region of Somaliland has executed four soldiers through a firing squad, including one who was convicted of killing his chief officer in a remote village in the region. According to Hassan Aden, the prosecutor general of the court case, Abdirizak Mohamed Kheyre was found guilty of killing his commanding officer Aden Guled. In a separate incident, Abdiaziz Saeed Warsame, was convicted of killing of another senior military commander.
Also executed publicly was Abdullahi Abdul Elmi, who was convicted of killing a civilian in the capital of Hargeisa, while the fourth soldier Osman Hirad was also found guilty of killing a senior military general in Somaliland. this is not the first time for Somaliland to
execute convicted criminals and suspected members of militia groups.
Last one year alone, six prisoners were executed in Somaliland in a move that drew mass condemnations from the international community including the European Union, which warned that the summary executions in the region served as a setback in the progress so far made
in exercising the rule of law in Somaliland.
Somaliland is a peaceful enclave in northern Somalia, which declared independence from the rest of Somalia in 1991. Despite the fact that it lacks recognition from the international community, Somaliland considers itself an independent state with an own independent
government, currency and army.
Key Headlines
- Somaliland Executes Four Soldiers Convicted Of Murders (Hiiraan Online)
- Hiiraan Elders Boycott Jowhar Conference Over ‘Broken’ Promises (Hiiraan Online)
- Somali Legendary Poet Passes Away Aged 80 (Goobjoog News)
- Media Development Strategy Meeting Opened In Mogadishu (Shabelle News)
- Maryland Man Indicted For Support Of Al Shabaab (The Washington Times)
- David Bowie Death: Supermodel Wife Iman Reveals Her Favourite Records Were Suffragette City and Heroes (International Business Times)
- Students Stay Away As Classes Resume At Kenya’s Garissa University (The Christian Science Monitor)
- Once A Refugee In Kenya And Now A Policewoman In The US: The Story Of Zahra (Somali Current)
Hiiraan Elders Boycott Jowhar Conference Over ‘Broken’ Promises
12 January – Source: Hiiraan Online – 240 Words
Elders in the central Somali region of Hiiraan have boycotted the upcoming Hiran and Middle Shabelle regions’ inter-regional formation conference, raising prospects of a fresh conflict over the initiative being pushed by the Somali President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud. The elders, who have previously agreed to attend the conference which is to be held in the regional capital of Lower Shabelle region, Jowar, accused President Mohamud of repeatedly breaking his promises.
“We have decided to stay away because the President broke his promises, and considering our people’s concerns we will not attend the conference.” said Shuriye Hussein, a spokesman for the region’s traditional council of elders on Monday. The elders refusal to attend the conference has dealt a potential blow to the President’s efforts, seen as the best chance to form an inter-regional state for the neighbouring regions.No comment could be reached from Somali government on the development, which underscores challenges facing its efforts aimed at spreading the new federalism system initiative across the country. Political analysts have pointed out complexities surrounding the state’s formation process, given lack of consensus, mistrust and rivalry among clans in the two regions.
Somali Legendary Poet Passes Away, Aged 80
12 January – Source: Goobjoog News – 182 Words
The legendary Ali Sugule Egal described as among the greatest and finest living Somali poets, has died in the United Arab Emirates at the age of 80, the family announced on Monday. The late Ega, who was popularly known by the Somali people, has been ailing at a hospital in Dubai for the past several weeks. His death was announced by the family early on Monday, although it was not mentioned whether his body will be laid to rest in Dubai or will be flown to Somalia.
The late Egal was born in Odweyne in 1937. He started his primary education at berbera Primary School before moving to Sheikh School in Berbera. He was a legendary songwriter with a career spanning over five decades. Egal’s poetry campaigned for Somalia’s unity and promoted peace, which made him an icon among Somali poets. As news of Mr Egal’s death spread, people took to social media to pay tribute to the departed poet. Somalia’s Federal Government, through Prime Minister Omar Abdirashid Sharmake, said it was shocked by the death of the country’s most renowned singer and poet.
Media Development Strategy Meeting Opened In Mogadishu
11 January – Source: Shabelle News – 88 Words
The minister of information Mohamed Abdi Hayir Mareye officially opened a meeting on Somali media development strategy in the capital, Mogadishu on Monday. Somali Deputy Prime Minister Mohamed Omar Arte, ministers, deputy ministers, lawmakers, Radio and TV owners, directors attended the conference aimed at creating a five year national media development strategy. The information minister observed that the Somali media was more sophisticated than media in several countries in the world. He said, however, that the new media bill signed by the President would address most of the challenges in the industry..
INTERNATIONAL MEDIA
Maryland Man Indicted For Support Of Al Shabaab
12 January – Source: The Washington Times – 330 Words
A former Baltimore resident who left the U.S. for Somalia in 2011 to become a member of a specialized fighting unit within Al-Shabaab was indicted Monday on charges related to aiding the terrorist group. Maalik Alim Jones received training from the group, that included learning to fire an AK-47 and rocket propelled grenade, and participated in attacks Kenyan soldiers, according to information included in a criminal complaint filed in federal court.
Mr. Jones was apprehended by Somali forces in Baraawe, Somalia on December 7 while trying to procure a boat to take him to Yemen, according to the complaint. The 31-year-old was indicted on five criminal counts, including the providing, of material support to Al-Shabaab and the receipt of military-type training from the terrorist group. He faces life in prison if convicted of the charges filed against him.
According to FBI agent Mary Boese, who wrote the 15-page criminal complaint, Mr. Jones was seen in two separate video recordings that were recovered from the body of an al Shabaab member who was killed during a June attack on the Kenyan Defense Force in which two Kenyan soldiers were killed. Agent Boese writes that the videos, which depict a sermon and a “reunion” celebration, were depicting Al-Shabaab fighters engaged in activities to prepare for the June attack.
David Bowie Death: Supermodel Wife Iman Reveals Her Favourite Records Were Suffragette City and Heroes
12 January – Source: International Business Times – 116 Words
The wife of David Bowie, Iman Abdulmajid paid her own tribute on social media, sharing a message on Twitter: “The struggle is real, but so is God”. The Somali-born model who was married to the iconic rock star for nearly 24 years, posted several tweets at the weekend. One heartfelt message said “Sometimes you will never know the true value of a moment until it becomes a memory.” The model’s Instagram page is populated with pictures of her late husband, with several posted over the last few days, showing photographs of Bowie and Iman. The 60-year-old supermodel said she and their daughter, 15-year-old Alexandria Zahra, known as Lexi, would dance along to Heroes and Suffragette City.
Students Stay Away As Classes Resume At Kenya’s Garissa University
11 January – Source: The Christian Science Monitor – 817 Words
When classes resumed on Monday at Garissa University, where the Somalia-based militant group Al Shabab killed 148 people last April, many here saw it as a second chance for the region. The dormitory where more than 100 students died has been repaired and renamed. A grove of trees was planted on the front lawn in memory of the dead. But bullet holes remain in the building walls and some windows are still shattered. The bulk of the school’s remaining 800 students have transferred to another university; none have re-enrolled so far.
The university will never be the same, but that could be a good thing — some say that since its opening, the university has failed to serve the region as much as it should. When it opened in 2011 after nearly a decade of local campaigning, it was hailed as a sign that Kenya’s long marginalized north – where Al Shabab militants posed a growing threat – was finally being connected to the rest of the country.Decades of government neglect, coupled with a pastoralist lifestyle that makes school attendance erratic, meant northern students lagged their peers. Most students in Kenya’s public universities are sponsored by the government and assigned to a university from a pool of potential schools if their grades suffice. But few northerners make the cut: since Garissa opened, it has enrolled only a handful of students from the region.
As such, it missed the point, locals say. Instead of serving the north, it became a temporary stop for non-local students before returning to more prosperous, stable regions: “It was supposed to promote and educate more students from the area. It’s supposed to help the region grow,” says Ahmed Osman Warfa, the principal and a native of Wajir, one of the predominantly Somali counties of the northeast. As former and potential students stay away, Mr. Warfa and his staff see a chance to provide to northerners the educational opportunities the university was supposed to deliver. The university’s “act two” needs to be different, says Hassan Sheikh Ali, a retired education official who helped bring Garissa University into existence. “The university today is a landmark because of the massacre. Let the university be reopened, rebranded, rebalanced to help the locals.”
OPINION, ANALYSIS, AND CULTURE
“After she completes her 18-month training, she is set to become the second Somali woman in the US to serve in the police force.”
Once A Refugee In Kenya And Now A Policewoman In The US: The Story Of Zahra
10 January – Source: Somali Current – 473 Words
Zahra Abu, a Somali from Maine, the northeastern state in the U.S has been appointed to serve in the police force and the local Somali community is happy about the new development. Zahra, a former refugee in the expansive Dadaab refugee camp in the North Eastern region of Kenya has worked hard hard to secure the appointment. “I always wanted to bust the wrong guys,” she said during an interview with the Portland Press Herald. “I always imagined myself the sheriff, arresting bad guys.”
With a degree in hand and a passion to serve in the police force, her story is likely to prove the Republican presidential hopeful, Donald Trump wrong. Trump has stoked antipathy against Muslims by calling for a total ban on Muslim immigration into the United States. Since making the statement at a rally, anti-Muslim sentiments in the US has been on the increase. Fatuma Hussein, executive director of United Somali Women of Maine said Zahra has made the community and the women folk proud. “This is history for us,” she said.
“Abu is young, energetic. She stands for a lot of youth, who really deserve the opportunities such as that and I think she’s going to pave the way for many girls, women, boys and men in our community.” Portland Police Chief Michael Sauschuck said Zahra was not offered any favour as she had to go through what every other candidate seeking to join the police force had to. He added that the Police force in Portland is on the road to diversify the force.
TOP TWEETS
@DalsanFM_SOM: #Somaliland President blames federal government for destabilization #Somalia http://www.radiodalsan.com/
@GovernorKalil: New developments in #Somalia aim at further promoting peace& stability offensive against #AlShabaab http://www.mfa.gov.et/
@KingYusufYusuff : Lone children fleeing war in Yemen, seek safety in “Somaliland”, #Somalia http://www.unhcr.org/
@AliHoshow: My #vote is my #power Political self-determination for #Somalia should be in the hands of the #people,not from the hands of four men
@MilsentGina : #Somalia needs collective prayers to end the invasion of the monster chairs that overshadow ‘breaking news’! goog
@SafeguardingHC : Health workers held captive in #Somalia released
@TheSomaliPolice: #Somalia Police Commissioner on official visit to #Turkey, pic here with Deputy DG of Turkey police Ali Basturk
IMAGE OF THE DAY
A motorcyclist stops at a petrol station in K4 to fill up his bike in Mogadishu, Somalia.
Picture by AMISOM