January 30, 2012 | Morning Headlines.
Somali PM meets community members in Italy
30 Jan – Source: Radio Bar-kulan- 120 words
Somalia’s PM Abdiweli Mohamed Ali on Sunday met Somali community members in Italy.
The PM, who is in Rome for an official trip, held talks with community members at the Somali embassy in Rome, briefing them on the current political situation in the country, the government’s achievement in terms of security and the reconciliation process.
Key Headlines
- Somalia: British minister on ‘first visit ever’ to Puntland State (Source: Garowe Online)
- Ethiopia opens new front against Somalia’s al Shabaab (Source: VOA News)
- Iran says its ready to host meeting to solve Somalia crisis (Source: Bar-kulan)
- Ethiopian troops enter Gedo region (Source: Garowe Online)
- 15 Kenyan killed in 100 days in Somalia (Source: The Star)
- Al Shabaab rebels ban Red Cross in Somalia (Source: Reuters)
- Fear in Somali journalist community after killing (Source: ABC News)
SOMALI MEDIA
Somali PM meets community members in Italy
30 Jan – Source: Radio Bar-kulan- 120 words
Somalia’s PM Abdiweli Mohamed Ali on Sunday met Somali community members in Italy.
The PM, who is in Rome for an official trip, held talks with community members at the Somali embassy in Rome, briefing them on the current political situation in the country, the government’s achievement in terms of security and the reconciliation process.
British minister on ‘first visit ever’ to Puntland State
30 Jan – Source: Garowe Online, Bar-kulan – 305 words
A senior official in the UK Government visited Puntland State, marking the first time a British minister has visited the state in northern Somalia, Garowe reports. UK Development Minister Andrew Mitchell and his delegation arrived Monday morning at the airport in Garowe, capital of Puntland.
Galmudug’s High Court Judge resigns
30 Jan – Source; Radio Bar-kulan – 274 words
Galmudug’s High Court Judge has resigned from his post, citing unspecified hitches, reports say.
Sheikh Ahmed Sheikh Yussuf Ilka-Dahab announced his official resignation last night after he allegedly faced unspecified hitches in executing his duties. In a statement sent to all media outlets in the region, Ilka-Dahab said he has already submitted his resignation to regional president Mohamed Ahmed Alin.
Ethiopian troops enter Gedo region
30 Jan – Source: Garowe Online – 171 words
Ethiopian troops have crossed over the border and have entered Gedo region and are en route to Bay region to combat al Shabaab, Garowe reports. Ethiopian troops who have been fighting al Shabaab in south central Somalia entered through the border town of Dolow and have been spotted in Luq, located in Gedo region.
Iran says its ready to host meeting to solve Somalia crisis
30 Jan – Source: Bar-kulan – 217 words
Iran has announced that its readiness to host the second meeting to bring together all sides party to Somalia conflict in efforts to permanently end the two decade years old conflict in the Horn of African country. Iran’s Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi made the announcement after meeting IGAD’s Executive Secretary Eng. Mahboub Maalim on the sidelines of the 18th African Union Summit in the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa.
REGIONAL MEDIA
Kibaki holds talks with UN chief over Somalia
30 Jan- Source: Daily Nation- 196 words
President Kibaki on Sunday discussed developments in Somalia with United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon on the sidelines of the African Union summit meeting in Ethiopia.
The talks come on the heels of UNs approval for Kenyan troops, currently battling with the Islamist al Shabaab militia in Somali, to transform into a peace keeping mission.
15 Kenyan killed in 100 days In Somalia
30 Jan – Source: the Star- 949 words
Two majors and four lieutenants are among 15 Kenya Defence Forces officers who have been killed in the last 100 days since Kenya sent its troops to Somalia. In their quest to take over Dhobley, Ras Kamboni, Beles Qooqani, Tabda, Amuma, Buale, Dheere, Oddo, Fafadun, Afmadhow, Afgoye, Jilib, Dinsoor and Bardheere, Kenyan troops have paid the ultimate price.
INTERNATIONAL MEDIA
Al Shabaab rebels ban Red Cross in Somalia
30 Jan- Source: Reuters/VOA/AP / News 24 – 252 words
Al Shabaab rebels in Somalia have expelled the International Committee of the Red Cross from areas they control in country’s south and centre, the rebels said on Monday.
ICRC has run programmes in the Horn of Africa nation for the last 30 years, mainly providing medical aid. It suspended food distribution to 1.1 million people in central and southern Somalia on Jan.12, saying that militants had blocked deliveries in parts of the famine-hit country.
Somali journalist shot, killed by unknown gunmen
30 Jan – Source: CPJ – 352 words
The Committee to Protect Journalists is saddened by Saturday’s murder of a Somali journalist and calls on authorities to investigate the killing immediately and bring those responsible to justice.
On Saturday evening, two unidentified gunmen shot Hassan Osman Abdi, director of the Shabelle Media Network, outside his home in the capital, Mogadishu, local journalists told CPJ. Abdi, who was known by his nickname “Fantastic,” died on his way to a local hospital, according to news reports.
US woman freed in Somalia coming home
31 Jan – Source: AP / Heralds – 291 words
The father of a female US aid worker who was held hostage in Somalia for three months and then rescued in a bold commando raid says she’s on her way home. “We’re doing well as a family, and Jessica, we have not seen her yet – so today’s the big day,” John Buchanan told ABC News.
Ethiopia opens new front against Somalia’s al Shabaab
30 Jan – Source: VOA News – 328 words
Witnesses in Somalia say columns of Ethiopian troops have crossed into the country and are marching toward key al Shabaab strongholds, apparently opening a new military front against the Islamist militant group. A government official, who wished to remain anonymous, confirmed the reports to VOA on Monday, saying the soldiers had reached the town of Luq in the southwest Gedo region.
Fear in Somali journalist community after killing
30 Jan – Source: ABC News – 247 words
Journalist Mohamed Bashir Hashi’s voice broke with emotion as he read a death threat sent to his mobile phone: “If God wills it, you will be the next apostate to be killed.” After gunmen killed Somali journalist Hassan Osman Abdi on Saturday, colleagues and friends said they were too scared to attend his funeral that day, since militants in Somalia have targeted such gatherings in the past. Abdi, a 29-year-old director of a radio station, was a father of three.
SOCIAL MEDIA
CULTURE / OPINION / EDITORIAL / BLOGS/ DISCUSSION BOARDS
“The big question, however, is: when does the UPDF intend to get out of Somalia, now that learned Somali elders like Prof Samatar are preparing young Somalis to get back home and rethink the future of their country? Surely AMISOM can’t have an eternal mandate, something like ‘be there, till there’s peace.’”
Where’s exit strategy of our ‘Horn Heroes’?
30 Jan – Source: The Observer – 658 Words
On January 20, Abdi Samatar, a Somalia born professor of Geography at the University of Minnesota met the association of Somali students in Uganda.
Addressing over 100 Somali students, his message did not include any suggestion of joining either the Transitional Federal Government (TFG) or the Al Shabaab — what the world has been made to believe are key variables in Somalia’s future. Added to encouraging them to refrain from paying allegiance to small ‘isms’ such as ‘clanism’ or ‘regionism,’ he asked the students to take their education seriously, and reminded them that Somalia, as a whole, belonged to them.
A foreign force, AMISOM, is believed to be stabilising Somalia. And although there is much media coverage on Somalia, especially in the Kenyan newspapers, it could be a little difficult to define and understand what the Uganda/Burundi/Djibouti forces are doing in that country. The narrative often wanders between peacekeeping, peace enforcement (defeating the Al Shabaab) and giving humanitarian aid. All these roles would be considered different callings for different mandates under international law.
“Most Somalis are sufficiently sick of Al-Shabab to support—or at least not oppose—anyone who can stop the militants. “Putting additional pressure on Al-Shabab at this moment, when it has already been pushed back in Mogadishu, I think is going to be helpful,” says James Swan, the U.S. special representative for Somalia, speaking to Newsweek in Nairobi.”
Is Al-Shabaab on the way out in Somalia?
30 Jan – Source: News week Magazine – 1991 Words
Somalia is one of the last places you’d find most U.S. investors. The war-ravaged country hasn’t had a functioning central government in 21 years, since the fall of Mohamed Siad Barre’s dictatorship. Nearly every block in the capital, Mogadishu, stands in ruins, many of them so old that trees and thick vines have grown up through the wreckage, and the few houses that haven’t been entirely gutted by mortar fire are riddled with the bullet scars of past street battles. But that devastation is precisely what has brought Liban Egal back to the city of his birth. The Somali-American businessman wants to get in early.
Egal emigrated from Somalia in 1988 amid armed insurrections that would burst into full-blown civil war in 1991. He spent the next 20 years in America, building a string of businesses—convenience stores, pizza parlors, fried-chicken shops, check-cashing services—before he paid a visit to his hometown last August and found a new world of opportunity. Residents say Mogadishu’s downtown feels more secure these days than it has since the fighting began. “That gave me the hope that this is the beginning of something,” says the 42-year-old Egal. “In business, you have to pick up on trends early enough to take advantage of them.” Like the shopkeepers who have finally begun repainting their battered storefronts, like the local businessman who’s building a hotel, Egal is gambling that the city’s newfound security will last.