January 23, 2018 | Morning Headlines.
Somali PM Flies To Switzerland For World Economic Forum
22 January – Source: Radio Shabelle – 102 Words
Prime Minister of Somalia’s Federal government, Hassan Ali Khaire has on Monday left Mogadishu for Switzerland for a World Economic Forum. The PM accompanied by a delegation made of Ministers, MPs and other government officials will attend a 3- days conference for the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. “I am leading a team to attend a 3- days conference for the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland,” said Somali PM in a Twitter post. Somali Prime Minister Hassan Ali Khaire added that the invitation of Somalia to WEF is an indication that the country is now heading in the right direction.
Key Headlines
- Somali PM Flies To Switzerland For World Economic Forum (Radio Shabelle)
- Ex PM Gedi Says Mogadishu Status A Constitutional Right Asks New Governor To Take Up Matter (Radio Dalsan)
- We Are Committed To Sustainable Solutions To Drought In Somalia – UK Minister (Goobjoog News)
- US Sees Link Between Kenyan Male Identity And Shabaab Recruitment (Daily Nation)
- UN Calls For $1.6bn To Help People Of Somalia (Public Finance International)
- ‘Everywhere Someone Was Screaming’: Meet The People Running Somalia’s Only Public Ambulance Service (The Telegraph UK)
NATIONAL MEDIA
Ex PM Gedi Says Mogadishu Status A Constitutional Right, Asks New Governor To Take Up Matt
22 January – Source: Radio Dalsan – 173 Words
Former Somali Prime Minister, Ali Mohamed Gedi has revived the Banaadir status debate asserting the residents of Banadir region had a constitutional right to seek for self-determination. Speaking at a ceremony to welcome the newly appointed Governor of Banaadir and Mayor of Mogadishu Mr. Abdirahman Omar Osman “Yarisow” Mr Gedi said, the lobby for the rightful status of the city started a long time ago and no one can doubt about. He asked the new Governor to complete the process that his predecessor had pushed for.
We Are Committed To Sustainable Solutions To Drought In Somalia – UK Minister
22 January – Source: Goobjoog News – 442 Words
United Kingdom International Development State Office is aiming to boost humanitarian assistance and economic empowerment of the Somali people through an aid fund of millions of dollars in this year alone. Speaking exclusively to Goobjoog News, UK Secretary for International Development Penelope Mary Mordaunt who is currently in Somalia said her government was committed to alleviating effects of drought and developing long term solutions against hunger and drought in Somalia.
“Our main concern is a humanitarian relief. We are pledging some additional money to the humanitarian efforts of ₤21 million straight away and a further ₤40 million to follow in the ensuing months,” Mordaunt said.
Mordaunt was speaking after attending a meeting yesterday in Mogadishu where she met with other humanitarian organizations and the civil society highlighting the special attention UK Aid will give to women, children and the disabled persons. “We are very pleased to meet with representatives from across the civil society: women, youth movements including Somalia national youth and the disabled community which is a particular priority of ours,” said Mordaunt. “I am interested in what services and analysis of needs for disabled people because they are part of the solution to developing an economy.” The secretary highlighted the importance of sharing experiences between stakeholders in Somalia and the UK to come up with sustainable solutions to drought.“Prior to coming out here, I launched a new policy in the UK which is putting women and children at the heart of humanitarian efforts. It is important they are represented in the way we from those plans” she added.
She also expressed confidence in the work of humanitarian agencies in Thebes country emphasizing the need for transparency and accountability in the use of donor funds especially with the increasing humanitarian challenges in the world.“I am really pleased to learn how all the agencies are working in a more coherent way and in trying to preempt problems before they arise. That has been every effective and that’s really important because it’s a challenge to make sure that the international community is still raising money to help Somalia but we have big challenges around the world so being able to demonstrate their money is spent really well. It’s getting to the people the support is really very important for people to keep investing in such efforts” Mordaunt added. Mordaunt also noted her delight on the “great triumph in preventing famine in 2017 under enormous challenges and basing future humanitarian endeavors on these successful evaluated outcomes in conjunction with other partners on the ground.” She mentioned that a global summit will take place in the summer hoping to have representatives from Somalia.
INTERNATIONAL MEDIA
US Sees Link Between Kenyan Male Identity And Shabaab Recruitment
22 January – Source: Daily Nation- 324 Words
The US State Department is offering to fund a nearly USD 600,000 (Sh61,600,000) programme which seeks to address a perceived link between Kenyan male identity and vulnerability to recruitment by Al-Shabaab. “Kenyan society, while diverse in its ethnic and cultural composition, is uniformly patriarchal and highly prescriptive of gender expressions and identities,” states a funding opportunity notice posted on Saturday by the State Department’s Bureau of Counterterrorism. “Socially, males are expected to be tough, heterosexual, aggressive, unemotional and achieving.”
Pressures to conform to these “ideals of masculinity” can be immense, the notice adds.Shabaab exploits consequent vulnerabilities and offers opportunities to fulfil the roles of Kenyan male identity, the programme prospectus states. A separate research study being commissioned by the State Department and cited in the notice will “explore gender identities of boys and men in Kenya and how ideals of masculinity relate to attitudes about violent extremism in Kenya”.
Up to $592,500 will be available for the proposed programme that will encourage “male-to-male dialogue and training on issues of gender and encourage stronger social and familial support structures,” the notice says. The programme should involve “creative approaches to developing healthy gender identities for men and boys as a resilience against VE [violent extremism] threats,” the prospectus states. To reflect an understanding of the hierarchical nature of Kenyan communities, the notice adds, the programme should take an inter-generational approach. “Fathers and male community leaders will be equipped to better recognise the signs of radicalisation and intervene more effectively,” the announcement says.
UN Calls For $1.6bn To Help People Of Somalia
22 January – Source: Public Finance International – 166 Words
The United Nations is seeking $1.6bn to protect millions of people in Somalia from drought, conflict and displacement. Last year, the East African country averted famine with the help of international donors but long-term solutions for drought, conflict and displacement are still needed, the UN office in Somalia said launching the 2018 humanitarian response plan.
Humanitarian coordinator for Somalia Peter de Clercq said lasting solutions to eliminate famine completely was still necessary. He said: “If we do not continue to save lives and in parallel build resilience, then we have only delayed a famine, not prevented one.” The response plan prioritises immediate relief operations in places with people living in “crisis and emergency situations”, the UN said. In August 2017, the UK government pledged to improve the effectiveness of its aid in Somalia. Somalia has been under internal conflict since the fall of dictator Siad Barre in 1991, with Puntland in the north and Somaliland in the north-west having broken away into unrecognised self-declared states.
OPINION, ANALYSIS AND CULTURE
“Aamin ambulance, the tiny bunch of volunteers who rode into the smoke and attempted to triage the October 14catastrophe, are currently the only first responders available to ordinary Mogadishu residents.The group began in 2006, when Dr Adan returned from six years abroad to find the district where he chose to open a dental practice was a battlefield, and any semblance of a functioning state had vanished -including the emergency services,”
‘Everywhere, Someone Was Screaming’: Meet The People Running Somalia’s Only Public Ambulance Service
20 January – Source: The Telegraph, UK- 1457 Words
For the first hour after the blast, the smoke was so thick it was almost impossible to breathe.
But even as volunteer medics struggled to make out survivors to rescue, Abdulkadir Abdirahman Adan knew it would be the worst day of his 12 years running ambulances in one of the world’s most violent cities. “I got there in about 15 minutes. The first thing I saw was a truck burning. Cars, trucks, motorcycles – all of them burning,” the 44 year old dentist said. “Wherever you looked, there was a part of a body. I remember someone screaming. Everywhere, someone screaming: ‘can you help me, can you help me, can you help me?’.” “I saw a man in a burning car, and we couldn’t do anything for him – there were no fire fighters,” he added. “We did what we could. We transported almost 250 people.”
At least 512 people were killed in the suicide truck bombing that ripped through Mogadishu’s busiest street on the afternoon of October 14. Dozens remain unaccounted for. The blast was Africa’s worst ever terrorist attack, and it dealt a shattering blow to a fragile but tangible sense of optimism that Somalia was leaving nearly three decades of war and insurgency behind it.It also cast a critical light on the International community’s claims to have Al Shabaab, the al-Qaeda-aligned group believed to be behind the blast, on the run. Stretched along a perfect sandy beach and blessed with a historic old town and port, Mogadishu once liked to call itself the Pearl of the Indian Ocean. From the top of one of the watchtowers overlooking the newly established British Army base here, it only takes a little imagination to see why.
Built on low rises descending to the coastal plain, a dusty cream coloured cityscape rolls down a lazy slope to where the still luxuriant (if plastic polluted) white dunes meet the breakers of the brilliant blue (if shark infested) ocean. But Mogadishu today is anything but a normal city. Since Al Shabaab were evicted in 2011, it has been the capital of a fragile but internationally recognised government propped up by 22,000 troops from the African Union. Members of the diaspora have begun to return in search of business opportunities, and international assistance has flooded in as governments including the UK, US, Turkey, and United Arab Emirates rush to secure their own interests in the Horn of Africa. But today it is so thoroughly infiltrated by Al Shabaab, that it is impossible to describe as anything other than a city at war. Roadside bombs, grenade attacks, and shootings shake the city with monotonous regularity.
The city cen
tre remains a chaotic and heavily militarised maze of Hesco barriers, concrete blast walls, and checkpoints, and the historic seaside Old Town has more in common with Stalingrad than Dubrovnik. Most tellingly of all, the vast army of foreign diplomats, aid workers, and soldiers (the British contingent are advising rather than fighting), dispatched to help rebuild Somalia are confined to the heavily fortified airport, which they cannot leave without armoured vehicles and a small platoon of gunmen to protect them. The lorry that devastated central Mogadishu on October 14 is widely believed to have been intended for a foreign compound but detonated prematurely. The mistake – and the popular outrage at the resulting carnage – may explain why the group has not claimed responsibility, officials here say.