January 13, 2015 | Morning Headlines.

Main Story

AU envoy to Somalia: Rwanda’s past challenges can be experience for Somalia

12 Jan – Source: Radio Goobjoog/Radio Bar-Kulan – 273 Words

More than one hundred Somali diaspora are attending a conference that kicked off in Kigali, Rwanda on Monday.The meeting is expected to focus on how the Somali diaspora community would take on the lion’s share of reconstruction in Somalia. This ongoing meeting was organized by the Department of Diaspora Affairs in the Somali Foreign in collaboration with the African Union, and South African agency, ACCORD. The Special Representative of the AU to Somalia, Ambassador Maman Sidikou; Director General of Foreign Affairs of Rwanda, Parfait Gahamanyi; head of ACCORD agency, Welile Nhlapo; and the Somali Presidential Chief of Staff, Hassan Abdullahi, gave keynote speeches relating to the agendas of the meeting after the session was opened.

“The reason as to why this meeting was held in Rwanda is that Rwanda has seen many challenges which they managed to cross over, and it is now among the best developing countries in Africa. At the same time, it is a country where the Somali government and its people can get experience,” Ambassador Maman Sidikou said. The Rwandan Director General of Foreign Affairs, Parfait Gahamanyi, said the Rwandan government appreciated hosting the important conference, and said it will strengthen the relationship between the two nations. The gathering is scheduled to go for three days where delegates are expected to discuss wide range of issues including policy within the Somali diaspora community, and how they can take part in the rebuilding the nation.

Key Headlines

AU envoy to Somalia: Rwanda’s past challenges can be experience for Somalia (Radio Goobjoog)
Two dead bodies found in Kismayo (Radio Bar-Kulan)
Burundi’s Defence Forces Chief Visited in Mogadishu (Radio Mustaqbal)
Measles claims 10 in besieged Burdubo (Radio Ergo)
Hiran region administration welcomes new government (Radio Bar-Kulan)
New Somalia PM retains majority of his predecessor’s cabinet ministers (Daily Nation/AFP)
Fighting piracy off the coast of Somalia: Lessons learned from the contact group (EU Bulletin)
Somalia prime minister keeps finance minister in cabinet change (Bloomberg News)

SOMALI MEDIA

AU envoy to Somalia: Rwanda’s past challenges can be experience for Somalia

12 Jan – Source: Radio Goobjoog/Radio Bar-Kulan – 273 Words

Two dead bodies found in Kismayo

12 Jan – Source: Radio Bar-Kulan – 75 Words

Two dead bodies were found in Kismayo on Monday. One of the dead was identified as a local Qur’an teacher– relatives said he vanished two days ago, and said that they had been looking for him. The identity of the other victim has not yet been established.The two, who appear to have been severely tortured, were found by the sea. There is no indication of who responsible for the murder.

Burundi’s Defence Forces Chief Visited in Mogadishu

12 Jan – Source: Radio Mustqabal – 71 Words

Burundi’s Chief of Defence Forces, Major Gen. Prime Niyongabo, visited Somalia today to meet with AMISOM commanders and Burundian forces as a gesture of solidarity following the recent attack at the peacekeepers main base in Mogadishu.The General will also meet with his Somali counterpart General Dahir Adan Elmi (Indho-Qarsho) and Somali government officials during his visit.

Measles claims 10 in besieged Burdubo

12 Jan – Source: Radio Ergo – 180 Words

Health officials and residents have reported 10 deaths from measles in villages in Burdubo district in Gedo region. Dirham Sheikh Ali, a resident in Burdubo, said eight children and two elderly persons had died in Sabley village, 15km south of Burdubo since December. At least 40 other people were said to be infected with measles. Most were from pastoralist families and had been admitted to Sabley village health centre. Burdubo hospital dispatched medical supplies to the health centre on donkey carts to help curb the outbreak. However, local said the supplies were inadequate to cover the health needs in the area. Burdubo’s health committee chairman, Haji Ladane Ismail, attributed the spread of measles to the lack of healthcare services and access to vaccinations in the district and surrounding villages. He said the district had been under blockade since March last year and no vehicles had arrived in the town since that time. Diarrhoea, malaria and respiratory diseases were also rife in the area, he said, and health conditions among the community were deteriorating.

Hiran region administration welcomes new government

12 Jan – Source: Radio Bar-Kulan – 78 Words

Hiran administration officials welcomed the new cabinet announcement by the Somali PM Omar Abdirashid Ali Sharmarke on Monday. Hassan Mohamed, the spokesman of the regional administration told Bar-Kulan that administration officials are excited with the PM’s new cabinet list. Hassan has wished the new cabinet members success in their national endeavors.There are ongoing preparation to welcome the new cabinet, and other regional states in the country have also welcomed the new government.

REGIONAL MEDIA

New Somalia PM retains majority of his predecessor’s cabinet ministers

12 Jan – Source: Daily Nation/AFP – 217 Words

Somalia’s newly appointed Prime Minister Omar Abdirashid Ali Sharmarke on Sunday named a giant Cabinet of 60 people, as he warned of the “huge task” ahead to bring peace to the war-torn nation. Mr Sharmarke, endorsed by Parliament last month after the president fell out with the previous premier amid bitter infighting, released his choice of names for lawmakers to approve. The 60 members include 26 ministers, 25 deputies and nine state ministers, an increase of five posts from the previous Cabinet. Many of those named were in the previous Cabinet.

“There is a huge task ahead….we will put our efforts into bringing peace among Somalis,” Mr Sharmarke told reporters. Somalia is due to vote on a new Constitution next year ahead of elections in 2016, but Al-Qaeda affiliated Al-Shabaab fighters remain a major threat and stage regular attacks. The Somali government, which took power in August 2012, was the first to be given global recognition since the collapse of Siad Barre’s hardline regime in 1991. Billions in foreign aid has been poured in, with the government initially hailed as offering the best chance for peace in a generation. But, like its predecessors, it has since become mired in political in-fighting and corruption.

INTERNATIONAL MEDIA

Fighting piracy off the coast of Somalia: Lessons learned from the contact group

12 Jan – Source: EU Bulletin – 449 Words
One of the priorities of the 2014 EU Chairmanship of the Contact Group on Piracy off the Coast of Somalia (CGPCS) has been to adequately document the lessons learned from the Contact Group. This includes both the accounts of people affected by piracy or involved in the fight against piracy and also the more academic, analytical work whose aim is to generate conclusions, observations and recommendations.

To achieve this objective, a CGPCS Lessons Learned Consortium was established in 2013 consisting of the EU Institute for Security Studies, Cardiff University and Oceans Beyond Piracy.The Contact Group grew from a limited diplomatic initiative launched in 2009 as an elastic instrument in the fight against Somali piracy and, by 2014, had stimulated effective and coordinated action by stakeholders from virtually every sector of global society affected by the problem of piracy. As a result, no commercial ship has been captured since 10 May 2012; pirates are holding no merchant ship for ransom; and fewer than 50 hostages remain in captivity, all of whom were taken by pirates on or before 26 March 2012.

Somalia prime minister keeps finance minister in cabinet change

12 Jan – Source: Bloomberg News – 232 Words

Somalia’s prime minister nominated a new cabinet, retaining Hussein Abdi Halane as finance minister, while replacing the head of security as the Horn of African nation battles al-Qaeda-linked militants.Omar Abdirashid Sharmarke, previously ambassador to the U.S., became premier in December, about two weeks after his predecessor was removed by parliament for clashing with the president over the composition of the cabinet. Sharmarke presides over the country’s 17th attempt to establish a central administration since 1991 when civil war broke out.

The cabinet “represents all Somali clans, made up of people with the right talents in order to realize our dreams,” Sharmarke said, according to remarks broadcast on state radio today in the capital, Mogadishu.The overthrow of dictator Mohamed Siad Barre in 1991 plunged the country into clan warfare, followed by an insurgency from 2006 by al-Shabaab, which is trying to establish Shariah, or Islamic law. Somali soldiers, backed by an African Union peacekeeping mission, over the past three years have pushed al-Shabaab from some of its strongholds, retaking Mogadishu and about 70 percent of territory it held in south and central Somalia, according to the presidency.

SOCIAL MEDIA

CULTURE / OPINION / EDITORIAL / ANALYSIS / BLOGS/ DISCUSSION BOARDS

“There are fault lines in our community…until we overcome that, we cannot blame the general community for our failures.”

Success stories are possible, but Somali-Canadians are faced with overcoming trauma

12 Jan – Source: Calgary Herald/Hiiraan Online – 1,207 Words

When he arrived in Montreal three decades ago, the only job Hussein Warsame could get was as a bookkeeper, despite his newly minted MBA from an esteemed U.S. university. “They fired me after four days,” he says with a laugh. “They told me I was too slow.” That early setback only fuelled the ambitions of the Somali-born man determined to start a new life in Canada. Since receiving his PhD at the University of Calgary in the early 1990s, Warsame has gone on to win numerous teaching awards and establish himself as a respected member of the international academic community.

“I guess you can call me a success story,” says Warsame, who is chair of the accounting area at the U of C’s Haskayne School of Business and a member of the school’s senate. “But there are quite a few success stories of Somali-Canadians, from doctors and lawyers to engineers and other professionals.” Still, there is one area where lately Warsame has been feeling less than successful — that of his longtime role as an unofficial but much respected leader in the local Somali-Canadian community. “We thought that as elders, we could step back and let the new generation of adults take over,” he says of the more than 5,000 Calgarians who either hail from the failed state in East Africa or were born into those families after their arrival in Canada. “We forgot to give scaffolding to these youth, to hold them in place until they were ready to be let go.”

“Such threat is dynamic; therefore, the government needs to do much to improve the overall security of the country.”

IGAD: Their Hidden Interest in Somali Politics

12 Jan – Source: Somali Current – 1097 Words

On January 10, Somalia hosted the 53rd Extraordinary Session of IGAD Council of Ministers from Djibouti, Ethiopia, Kenya and Uganda for the first time in 25 years. Ministers of Foreign Affairs in IGAD discussed issues pertinent to security, reconciliation and Vision in Somalia in 2016. Even though this meeting is the first of its kind ever held in Mogadishu since the country descended into the vortex of protracted conflict over two decades ago, for many people, this summit will usher a new optimism of peace and progress in Somalia. Although some progress has been made in the past two years, Al-Shabaab still poses a considerable threat to the country. Such threat is dynamic; therefore, the government needs to do much to improve the overall security of the country. More importantly, the latest news from Mogadishu raises question about whether IGAD member states can bring long-term peace.

Many Somalis perceive the IGAD organization as representing the interests of Kenya and Ethiopia rather than the interests of Somalia. In order for IGAD to brush aside such allegation, they reiterated that security in Somalia is its first priority. The question is whether the IGAD member states whose troops contributing to AMISOM wage war to keep peace. In order to answer that question, we need to explore how effective and credible IGAD is to keep up lasting peace.