January 21, 2015 | Morning Headlines.
Ten killed in tribal clashes in Hiran
20 Jan – Source: Radio Bar-Kulan /Radio Goobjoog – 71 Words
Ten people have been killed after armed tribal militias clashed in Hodo-Ogle and Burdinle in Hiran province.The majority of those killed were amongst fighters on the warring sides. Witnesses confirmed to Bar-Kulan that the deadly clash was spurred by disputed pasture land, and added that the clashes have spread to several surrounding areas. Somali security agencies are yet to comment on the skirmishes.
Key Headlines
- Media Association of Puntland condemns Telecom Company’s blocking of 5 Websites (Garowe Online)
- Somali elders caution parliament not to block new cabinet (Radio Bar-Kulan)
- MP Sandhere urges the PM not to re-appoint the previous ministers into his cabinet (Radio Goobjoog)
- SNA troops occupy school in Marka (Radio Danan)
- Ten killed in tribal clashes in Hiran (Radio Bar-Kulan /Radio Goobjoog)
- Measles outbreak in parts of Gedo region being handled effectively (Radio Goobjoog)
- Senators tour Mandera crime hotspots (Daily Nation)
- Millions in UN Somalia aid diverted; hints that some went to terrorists (Fox News)
- US sending MRAPS to Somalia for African Union mission (Stars & Stripes)
PRESS STATEMENT
UN Envoy Kay welcomes Somalia’s adoption of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child
20 Jan – Source: AMISOM – 178 Words
The Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General (SRSG), Nicholas Kay, welcomed Somalia becoming party to the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) at a ceremony led by the President of Somalia, Hassan Sheikh Mohamud, at a local School in Mogadishu. Hundreds of schoolchildren witnessed the ceremony. The Convention sets out the measures states need to take to protect and promote the civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights of all children.
“I welcome the ratification of the Convention on the Rights of the Child by Somalia. This is an important step forward in the protection and promotion of the rights of all children in Somalia,” said SRSG Kay. “As the nation recovers from decades of conflict, the Federal Government and its international partners have a duty to protect and serve Somalia’s most vulnerable communities,” said SRSG Kay. “I hope Somalia will now also begin the process of becoming party to the Optional Protocols to the Convention on the Rights of the Child. The United Nations stands ready to support the Somali authorities in that regard.”
Joint statement by the UN, IGAD, EU, AMISOM, and UK Envoys to Somalia
International partners welcome the launch of the regional assembly process for Interim Juba Administration
20 Jan – Source: UNSOM – 179 Words
The United Nations, Inter-Governmental Authority on Development (IGAD), the European Union (EU), African Union Mission in Somalia and the United Kingdom welcomed the launch of the selection process for the new Regional Assembly for the Interim Juba Administration (IJA), calling on the authorities to ensure that all communities represented.
“We welcome the launch of the selection process for the Interim Juba Administration’s Regional Assembly. This is an important step towards peace and state-building for the people of the Juba regions, as well as all Somalis. We urge the IJA leadership to include women, youth and minority groups in the regional decision-making process by ensuring their participation in the new Assembly. Ensuring a fair and inclusive process will help build a just, peaceful society that can serve as a model for the rest of the country. We stand ready to support the authorities and we urge all parties to engage in constructive consultation and reconciliation with all stakeholders, ensuring that the interests of all communities are protected. Somalia’s international partners remain committed to supporting the nation’s peace and state-building process.
SOMALI MEDIA
Media Association of Puntland condemns Telecom Company’s blocking of 5 Websites
20 Jan – Source: Garowe Online -189 Words
Media Association of Puntland (MAP) has expressed serious concerns over Golis Telecommunication Company’s move to block at least five websites from Puntland regions since late October 2014. The websites, including Puntlandtoday.com, Galgalanews.com, Puntlandnow.com, Jidbaale.com and Xaysimo.com had been banned by the company following an order from Puntland presidential palace’s communication office without any court ruling. “We call upon Golis Telecommunication Company to lift the ban on the websites unconditionally, the block of these sites is another black mark on freedom of press in Puntland, and it’s an attempt to silence freedom of press,” said Fatima Mohamed, MAP secretary. “It’s unfortunate that this move had not been informed by Puntland Ministry of Information, Media Association of Puntland, the regional court and who ever this matter concerns, which is another violation,” Mohamed said. MAP believes the move taken by Golis Telecommunication Company to ban websites completely goes against the constitution of Puntland, freedom of press and human rights. This is one of the latest of a wave of violations against press freedom in the war-torn country.
Somali elders caution parliament not to block new cabinet
20 Jan – Source: Radio Bar-Kulan – 96 Words
Somali elders have called upon the national assembly not to interfere with the prime minister’s upcoming cabinet. The traditional elders, who met in Mogadishu and who once selected these members of parliament, have urged the parliamentarians to avoid meddling with the Omar Abdirashid Sharmarke’s cabinet list. They said they are intervening because they have a responsibility to address the issues affecting the Somali people. The Somali prime minister dissolved his cabinet last week, and has been granted two weeks by the parliament to form a new one.
MP Sandhere urges the PM not to re-appoint the previous ministers into his cabinet
20 Jan – Source: Radio Goobjoog -155 Words
Abdikadir Mohamed alias Sandheere, a member of the federal parliament, accused some of the ministers who were in the now-dissolved cabinet to admit that they put their ideology and personal interests over the cabinet. Mr. Sandheere, giving an exclusive interview to Goobjoog FM, stated that if certain members (whom he did not name directly) would not stop what he termed as ‘political dirty games,’ and if the previous cabinet members are reappointed, then parliamentarians would stick to their decision of passing a no-confidence vote against any cabinet brought in front of the parliament. Lastly, the MP recommended the prime minister appoint new ministers who can form a competent government which can steer the nation towards the development. There are growing calls for the prime minister to appoint a ‘clean government,’ as he prepares to name a new cabinet.
SNA troops occupy school in Marka
20 Jan – Source: Radio Danan – 264 Words
Reports say the Somali National Army (SNA) occupied the Agricultural High School in Marka town as students were sitting for exams.The district commissioner of Marka, Mohamed Osman Yariisow, told Danan that uniformed men occupied the school and dispersed all the students while they were sitting for exams. He added that they are men who disrupt the smooth-running of life all over the Lower Shabelle Region.“They dispersed the students while they were sitting for their exams together with their teachers. It is sickening thing for a man claiming to be a government officer to have his clan militia. They are not government forces but forces with special interests.” Hon. Yariisow said.
He added that these people want to displace the people of Lower Shabelle. He pointed out that their aim is to close health and educational facilities. “The commander of these men is called Xiin. He took part in the clashes in the region, they looted the medicines that were in the hospital, and now, they have started targeting the learning institutions. There are people who want young people in the region not to learn,” he said. “The health centers were paralysed as [were] the learning institutions, but we shall hold them accountable soon. Lower Shabelle is prosperous region hence the military here who are scrambling for it.” He said there are no other people who will assist the citizens of Lower Shabelle, and that there is need for the people of Lower Shabelle to come up with their own solutions.
Ten killed in tribal clashes in Hiran
20 Jan – Source: Radio Bar-Kulan /Radio Goobjoog – 71 Words
Ten people have been killed after armed tribal militias clashed in Hodo-Ogle and Burdinle in Hiran province. The majority of those killed were amongst fighters on the warring sides. Witnesses confirmed to Bar-Kulan that the deadly clash was spurred by disputed pasture land, and added that the clashes have spread to several surrounding areas. Somali security agencies are yet to comment on the skirmishes.
Measles outbreak in parts of Gedo region being handled effectively
20 Jan – Source: Radio Goobjoog – 171 Words
Reports from Gedo region describe a severe outbreak of measles in some districts and villages. Most of the patients who contracted measels were children under the age of five living in Buurdhuubo and Bardheere towns, and the surrounding areas. Residents expressed concern that numerous children suffering from measles on the outskirts of the main towns did not have access to the health centers. The Gedo administration however, said patients were recovering well, and that regional health officials handled outbreak effectively. A government official in the region told Goobjoog FM the situation had calmed, and those affected were slowly recovering. He added that health officials from Buurdhuubo and Bardheere districts managed to treat patients in 42 villages who did not have access to health care centers.
REGIONAL MEDIA
Senators tour Mandera crime hotspots
19 Jan – Source: Daily Nation – 436 Words
The security challenges facing counties along the Kenya-Somalia border became evident on Monday when a group of senators visited crime spots in Mandera County.Led by Security Committee chairman Yusuf Haji (Garissa, TNA), the senators had to be accompanied by heavily armed security personnel from the military, regular and administration police as they traversed the county.
Vehicles have to drive faster than 80 kilometres per hour in what drivers say is a deliberate move to avoid being attacked by Al-Shabaab and other bandits.Residents revealed that the county had been infiltrated by Al-Shabaab fighters from neighbouring Somalia and appealed to the government to refocus its attention on protecting its borders instead of concentrating its efforts inside Somalia.
INTERNATIONAL MEDIA
Millions in UN Somalia aid diverted; hints that some went to terrorists
20 Jan – Source: Fox News -1,176 Words
Three organizations claiming to do vital relief work on behalf of the United Nations in ravaged Somalia diverted millions of dollars intended for food, water, medicine, and other relief services for thousands of the most desperately suffering people in the world, according to confidential U.N. reports obtained by Fox News. Some of the money may have gone to terrorists. Most of the aid supplies and services the organizations claimed to deliver never existed, according to U.N. investigators who began looking into the issue in late 2012, and issued their “strictly confidential” investigation results in November 2013 and May 2014.
Much of the missing money from the U.N.-administered Common Humanitarian Fund (CHF) for Somalia, the probers concluded, was diverted into the pockets of the officials involved — but in one case, the investigators noted tersely, evidence “suggested possible payment of project funds to a terrorist group.”That evidence, as presented in the reports obtained by Fox News, is intriguing but slender: a 2012 email between officials of one U.N. contractor who asks the head of his non-governmental organization (NGO) for money transfers, while reporting that a third colleague “is pressed by al-Shabab to do the three payments as quickly as possible.”
The size and purpose of the briefly-mentioned payments is not mentioned in the email, and the U.N. investigators said they didn’t have the investigative authority to look further into suspect bank accounts “without the consent of bank owners.” For its part, the Geneva-based United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Assistance, or OCHA, told Fox News flatly that “OCHA has no indication that any CHF cases are linked to the transfer of funds to terrorist organizations”Terrorist group al-Shabab is the radical Islamic organization that at times has controlled much of the hinterland of Somalia, and even much of its capital of Mogadishu, and still constitutes a deadly threat to the fledgling Somali government.
US sending MRAPS to Somalia for African Union mission
20 Jan – Source: Stars & Stripes – 266 Words
The U.S. will transfer 20 mine resistant vehicles, commonly known as MRAPS, to African Union forces taking part in military operations in Somalia, Combined Joint Task Force–Horn of Africa said Tuesday.Uganda and Burundi, two countries that have been deploying forces in to Somalia for years, will be the recipients of the vehicles previously used by U.S. troops in Afghanistan.“The work that has been completed by CJTF-HOA and the other organizations to be able to provide these 20 MRAPs to Uganda and Burundi, has been extremely vital to enabling our East African Partners to fight off violent extremists,” said Maj. Gen. Wayne Grigsby, task force commander, in a news release. “These vehicles will provide better security and movement to the troops-contributing countries to complete their mission more effectively.”
The MRAPS were donated under the Excess Defense Articles program. Military contractors have been working in Mogadishu since September to get all 20 vehicles up and running. The 20 MRAPs will replace the current vehicle in use, the Casspir, and allow for the phasing out of 20 Casspirs when all the MRAPs have been delivered, the task force said.“We didn’t realize the challenges we would face in Mogadishu with getting land and getting fuel for these vehicles,” U.S. Army Maj. Myesha DuBose, the task force’s Somalia planner, said in the news release.The initial set of MRAPs are to be transferred to the Ugandans and Burundis by the end of January.In Somalia, the African Union forces have played a key role in pushing Al-Shabab, an Islamic militant group, out of former strongholds.
SOCIAL MEDIA
CULTURE / OPINION / EDITORIAL / ANALYSIS / BLOGS/ DISCUSSION BOARDS
“At the moment as Somalia is again at critical juncture, President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud needs to rise to more vehement responsibilities and leave polarizing agendas aside for the urgently pressing issues at hand”.
Somalia: What does cabinet dissolution mean to President Hassan?
20 Jan – Source: Radio Garowe – 599 Words
The Somali Prime Minister – a career diplomat and former envoy to the United States – Omar Abdirashid Ali Sharmarke formed controversial cabinet with President Mohamud’s allies at the forefront on January 12. Among the key aides in the cabinet were Justice Minister Farah Sheikh Abdulkadir, Minister for Interior Abdikarin Hussein Guled, National Security Minister Abdullahi Mohamed Ali (Sanbaloshe) and Finance Minister Hussein Abdi Halane.The four are strongly counted amongst the powers behind the throne who co-manage day-to-day activities with Mohamud at the heavily fortified compound of Villa Somalia.Overwhelming majority of MPs voiced opposition to the ministerial portfolios conferred to Abdulkadir, Guled, Sanbaloshe and Halane, exemplifying a move that dealt blow to the strategies devised by the President ahead of 2016 elections.
As a result of stiff resistance from MPs-mainly those who backed predecessor Abdiweli Sheikh Ahmed Mohamed during the latest impasse-Prime Minister Sharkmarke dissolved 59-member cabinet and requested two weeks more for review into the lineup last Saturday.The four remain challenging moot point in Somalia’s political arena but it seems that the president himself is in full force campaign to replace them with other henchmen who could side with him in the face of another infighting.Somalia is on the path to fragile recovery, yet President Mohamud and his allies are posing challenge to the country’s timetable towards first-ever democratic elections in 46 years by 2016.Meanwhile, International community partners whose financial support is key to the plans going into overdrive are extremely dissatisfied with what is going on in Mogadishu where Al Shabaab terror group targets government officials and foreigners in broad daylight attacks.