January 31, 2017 | Morning Headlines
At least 32 Die In Somalia After Drinking From Well
30 January – Source: IOL News- 125 Words
At least 32 people have died in Somalia after drinking water from a well that was believed to have been poisoned, officials said on Monday.More than 10 other people were hospitalised after drinking the water in Masuubiye near the south-western city of Baidoa, regional senior official Hassan Hussein Elay said. Elay accused the militant Islamist group Al-Shabaab of poisoning the well.”Al-Shabaab poisoned the waterhole to prevent government soldiers from drinking water there,” he said, without providing details.
Al-Shabaab has reportedly poisoned wells in the past. It was not immediately known if any soldiers had died in the latest incident.There was no comment from Al-Shabaab, which has fought the Somali government for a decade in an attempt to establish an Islamic fundamentalist state.
Key Headlines
- At least 32 Die In Somalia After Drinking From Well (IOL News)
- Nine Eminent Personalities To Oversee Integrity Of Feb 8 Presidential Poll (Goobjoog News)
- Mogadishu’s Traffic Cops Say They Are Targeted By Militia Government Troops (Hiiraan Online)
- Refugees In Kenya Hit By US Travel Ban After Years Of Waiting For Asylum (The Guardian)
- Court To Solve Kenya Somalia Maritime Border Dispute (Daily Nation)
- Somali FM: Somalis ‘Finger-Pointed’ By Immigration Ban (VOA)
NATIONAL MEDIA
Nine Eminent Personalities To Oversee Integrity Of Feb 8 Presidential Poll
30 January – Source : Goobjoog News – Words
Nine eminent personalities have been selected to oversee the integrity and transparency of the presidential elections slated for February 8. In a memo Monday, Lower House Speaker Mohamed Osman Jawaari appointed three women and six men among them former presidential candidate Fadumo Dayib and renowned scholar Professor Abdi Ismail Samatar. Others are environmentalist and founder of relief agency ADESO Fadumo Jama Jibril, former agriculture minister Professor Abdi Ahmed Mohamed and head of Somali civil society in Somalia Abdullahi Mohamed Shirwaa.
Professor Mahad Mohamed Hassan, Adan Hassan Abdi, Roble Ahmed Dahir and Shamsa Ibrahim Boolis will also serve in the committee. Speaker Jawaari said the nine member team is tasked with ensuring the electoral process is transparent and accountable to the people of Somalia. The team will also work closely with the Presidential Election Committee (PEC) to promote an open and transparent process, the speaker said. The team whose mandate ends after the completion of the election will report any cases of irregularities to the PEC and file a final report on the integrity of the process.
The appointment of the team comes amid rampant cases of corruption and other malpractices in the Lower and Upper House elections which the international community raised grave concerns. The outcome of the election will not only impact on the new administration but will also be a scorecard for the international community particularly the UN which has been shepherding the process. The UN warned presidential candidates last month that any involvement in corruption or other malpractices will reflect badly on the new administration and jeorpadize relations with the international community. The Presidential Election Committee Sunday released a list of 24 candidates who will be contesting in the February 8 poll.
Mogadishu’s Traffic Cops Say They Are Targeted By Militia, Government Troops
30 January – Source : Hiiraan Online – 339 Words
The Somali traffic police in Mogadishu are a main fixture on many of Mogadishu’s main thoroughfares. They navigate drivers through Mogadishu’s chaotic streets and many residents say they provide an indispensable service to the Somali public. However, many feel that they are targeted by attacks resulting in many of the compatriots being maimed and killed by militias and government troops. In the past, Al-Shabaab has threatened to kill traffic cops they see on Mogadishu roads and true to their word, the group has launched regular attacks against the traffic police, leading to the government arming police to defend themselves.
However, one traffic cop we spoke with said that both militias and government troops target traffic police with impunity. Ali Mohamud Ali is the commander of the traffic police. He said during his tenure three traffic police officers were murdered while over a dozen was seriously wounded. ‘They are hit with vehicles while in the line of duty. They are turned away with gunshots. They are robbed of their weapons. Three were murdered while I have been serving this role and fifteen others were wounded’ Ali Mohamud Ali said. ‘It is unacceptable and is something that isn’t in line with our nationhood. It is a violation of our rights and governance’. He added.
The government troops are also accused of breaching traffic rules especially by regularly travelling towards oncoming traffic. This violation often leads to confrontation and sometimes escalation of violence between troops and the traffic police whose task it is to maintain order on Mogadishu’s busy streets. Somalia’s traffic police relaunched in 2011 After nearly two decades of violence and political instability. Street lights have been erected and the government has even begun issuing driver’s licenses, despite this, Somalia still lacks a codified set of traffic laws which makes governance that much more difficult. Despite this traffic police issue fines, and tow cars that impede the flow of traffic. The Traffic police resemble a return to normalcy for many of Mogadishu’s residents who by and large welcome their presence
INTERNATIONAL MEDIA
Refugees In Kenya Hit By US Travel Ban After Years Of Waiting For Asylum
30 January – Source: The Guardian – 1026 Words
Hundreds of Somali refugees in Kenya who were days from travelling to the US to start new lives under a longstanding resettlement programme have been told they cannot travel, after Donald Trump’s executive order banned migrants from seven Muslim-majority countries for three months. The refugees, who have all been rigorously screened by US and UN officials, have waited for between seven and 10 years for their resettlement to be approved and organised.
Some had already checked in for the flight to their new homes in the US when they were told they would not be allowed to board the plane. Others had travelled to Nairobi with children ready to leave.“These are people who have packed their bags, emptied their bank accounts, sold all their goods and said their goodbyes. Then they hear they are not going to the US after all,” said one aid worker in Nairobi.In all, up to 26,000 people who hoped to travel to the US have been hit by the new measure. The total includes those cleared for imminent travel, as well as those whose applications are under review.Aden Abdi Ganey, a 58-year-old refugee scheduled to fly this week with his seven children to live in Arizona, described the executive order as “a disaster”.There were emotional scenes at a transit camp in Nairobi run by the US government as families who were expecting to travel were told the bad news. .
Representatives from UN agencies in the Kenyan capital are scheduled to meet local government officials on Tuesday in an attempt to resolve the problem, and aid agencies are organising counselling for distraught families.Approximately 3,000 refugees are scheduled to be resettled in the US from camps in northern Kenya this year, the majority from Dadaab, a sprawling tent city where an estimated 300,000 Somalis live.There are now fears that even those cleared for a new life in the US may face a return to Somalia, a war-torn country where Islamist militants have launched attacks on a multinational military force trying to bring stability and international agencies have warned of famine.
Court To Solve Kenya, Somalia Maritime Border Dispute
31 January – Source : Daily Nation – 310 Words
The International Court of Justice (ICJ) will on Thursday rule on a case filed by Kenya in its maritime border dispute with Somalia, the Attorney-General said. In a statement, Prof Githu Muigai said he would lead a delegation to the Hague-based court, in which the court will rule on an application to have the case thrown out, and the Memorandum of Understanding between the two neighbouring countries be used to settle the dispute. Prof Muigai said the Registrar of the ICJ had given notification that the court would deliver the ruling, which if it goes in Kenya’s favour, the two countries will get back to discussions as contained in the MoU signed in 2009, but if it losses, it will file a petition and have the matter handled by the international court.
In its case, Kenyans question the jurisdiction of the ICJ to hear the case in the face of negotiations which had been going on between the two countries, based on an agreement that had been deposited at the UN in 2011. The MoU, which has since been discarded by Somalia, provides for the mechanism of settling the maritime boundary dispute and therefore give effect to Kenya’s reservation of 1963 that requires countries to undertake bilateral negotiations over any dispute instead of resulting to the court. It was this preliminary objection that formed the basis of the oral proceedings that were held in September 2016.
“The ruling at this stage is meant to determine whether the court has jurisdiction to hear the maritime dispute,” said Prof Muigai. Somalia however claims that negotiations to resolve the maritime boundary dispute between the two countries had been exhausted before it moved to the ICJ. Mogadishu wants ICJ to help determine whether the borderline should flow eastwards as demanded by Kenya or diagonally to the south from the land border as it wants.
OPINION, CULTURE & ANALYSIS
“President Trump’s executive orders, however, are creating anxiety and concern in the Somali community, according to Amiin Harun, an immigration attorney in Minneapolis.“First, many Somali families are still apart and they are trying to join their family members and loved ones in the U.S. and they are going through visa processing,” he said, ”
Somali FM: Somalis ‘Finger-Pointed’ By Immigration Ban
30 January – Source: VOA – 517 Words
Somalia’s foreign minister says he is “saddened” by the order barring Somalis from entering the United States and hopes officials will reconsider the policy.In an interview Monday with VOA’s Somali service, Abdusalam Hadliye Omer expressed disappointment in the ban, saying that Somalia is just starting to recover from years of violence and instability.“[They work, they are entrepreneurs and they are also fighting terrorism,” he said. “We are saddened that they are being finger-pointed by this immigration ban.”
The foreign minister said he hopes the United States will carry out an “immediate review” of Trump’s executive order, which temporarily bars entry to people from seven Muslim-majority countries in the Middle East and Africa.“Everyone in America came from somewhere,” Omer said. “We are saddened by this [order] but every country has to make its own immigration decisions.”Asked if the Somali government will take any action to respond to Trump’s order, the minister, who is in Addis Ababa attending African Union meetings, said the Somali Cabinet will discuss the issue and make a decision.
The U.S. government is active in the Somali government’s war against Islamist militant group al-Shabab. U.S. instructors have trained Somali special forces, and U.S. drones have killed many top leaders of the al-Qaida-linked group, including its emir, Ahmed Godane, in September 2014.A number of Somalis who hold visas and green cards were affected by the new immigration ban. Some were detained at airports.One of them, Farhan Sulub Anshur, was delighted to see his wife and two children after a brief detention at Washington Dulles International Airport on Saturday.Anshur told VOA that he was contacted by airport authorities who told him that his family will be deported. He said he felt joy when the deportation was averted after a judge issued an injunction.