January 5, 2016 | Morning Headlines

Main Story

Former Top US Official Proposes Africa Agenda For Obama In 2016

04 January – Source: The EastAfrican – 538 Words

Inviting Tanzania’s new president to the White House, opening a US embassy in Somalia and resetting relations with Sudan are among the African initiatives President Barack Obama should take in his final year in office, a retired State Department official suggested on January 3, 2014. Johnnie Carson, former assistant secretary of state for Africa, also advised the American president to dispatch John Kerry, the top US diplomat, on “an extended visit” to Burundi, Rwanda, Uganda, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Congo-Brazzaville.

Writing on the allafrica.com website, Mr Carson pointed to “daily political and ethnic violence in Burundi” as one reason for Secretary of State Kerry to travel to the Great Lakes. That region is following “a negative political and security trajectory,” Mr Carson warned.
President Obama’s highest-ranking emissary could also seek to prevent “further democratic backsliding” in direct talks with the leaders of Rwanda, the DRC and Congo-Brazzaville, the former official added. These heads of state are “threatening to extend themselves in office in violation of their constitutions,” Mr Carson observed.

A White House meeting with Tanzanian President John Magufuli should be considered particularly important because the recently elected leader “does not have any major ties to the United States.” Tanzania, the most populous state in East Africa and a close US ally, can also play a critical peacemaking role in Burundi and eastern DRC, Mr Carson wrote.

Somalia, once the epitome of a failed state, has made significant progress during President Obama’s seven years in office, said the man who held the State Department’s top Africa post during the president’s first term. Washington re-established formal relations with Mogadishu in 2013. And President Obama should now take further steps, Mr Carson advised, “by appointing a Senate-approved ambassador and opening a small, secure diplomatic embassy compound in downtown Mogadishu.”

Key Headlines

Former Top US Official Proposes Africa Agenda For Obama In 2016 (The EastAfrican)
Somaliland Jails Ten Over Gang Rape (Hiiraan Online)
Calm Returns To Barawe After Deadly Clash (Shabelle News)
Operations Launched In Bossaso To Enforce Government Directives (Wacaal Media)
Somalia Ex-Premiers On Visit To Puntland (Garowe Online)
Police Intercepts Bomb At Gulu Bus Park (The Independent)
Al-Qaeda Affiliate Releases Video Featuring Trump’s Comments On Muslims (Democracy Now)
Somalia FA Boss Appointed CECAFA Vice President (Soka25East)
Somalia: How To Build Hope Amid The Horror Of Al-Shabaab’s Insurgency (The Guardian)

NATIONAL MEDIA

Somaliland Jails Ten Over Gang Rape

04 January – Source: Hiiraan Online – 204 Words

A court in the breakaway northern Somalia region of Somaliland has sentenced ten men to 15 years in jail for gang raping two women near Djibouti’s border last year. According the court’s documents, the men stripped the women naked before raping them in turns in Lawyadde, a town near Djibouti’s border. The victims were also forced to leave naked from the scene, according to the court papers.

Sexual assault cases are uncommon in Somaliland, however, the region has lately witnessed an upsurge of gang rape cases from 2013. Now shocked local residents blame the vice on young men. The women, who had traveled from Hargeisa, reportedly sought the men’s help and guidance on how to cross the border into Djibouti. The magistrate court in Hargeisa, Somaliland’s capital, also slapped cash fines on the assailants and warned that failure to pay up the fines would attract stiffer jail term penalty. During the court’s hearing on Monday, the judge also accused the defendants of initiating ‘terrible’ offenses within the community, an action he said ‘deserves’ bigger punishment.

Calm Returns To Barawe After Deadly Clash

04 January – Source: Shabelle News – 111 Words

Calm has finally returned to the seaport of Barawe city, a day after Somali military soldiers in the town engaged in a battle on Sunday, leading to the death of at least five people. Confirming the incident, Lower Shabelle Governor Ibrahim Aden Ali said they intervened in the infighting between the troops within the national army and managed to de-escalate the tension. He said they are probing into the reasons behind the clash. Barawe, a coastal city located just 180 kilometers northwest of the Somali capital of Mogadishu, has served as an Al shabaab stronghold for close to seven years.

Operations Launched In Bossaso To Enforce Government Directives

04 January – Source: Wacaal Media – 116 Words

The regional administration of Bari in conjunction with the district administration of Bossaso as well as the Bari regional police commissioner, launched operations in the city of Bossaso on Monday to enforce several directives by the Ministry of Internal Security. Key among the issues to be addressed is the restriction imposed on the use of window tinting on cars. Bari regional police commander Major Yussuf Hussein said it was important for security forces to be accorded support by local leaders and the general public while enforcing such directives aimed at ensuring the people’s security. The Governor of Bari region, Yussuf Mohamed Wa’ays, on his part sent a stern warning to those currently violating the directives stating that “their days were numbered”.

Somalia Ex-Premiers On Visit To Puntland

04 January – Source: Garowe Online – 130 Words

Former Somali Prime Ministers Ali Mohamed Geddi and Abdiweli Sheikh Ahmed arrived to a warm welcome in Puntland capital of Garowe on Monday. Puntland President Abdiweli Mohamed Ali received the two at the State House and held conversations with Geddi and Ahmed on a number of issues touching on the latest political developments in the country. The former premiers are scheduled to attend a ribbon cutting ceremony planned for Bossaso international airport on 8th of January. Prominent Somali politicians have also arrived in Bossaso ahead of the ceremony. Ahmed was ousted in controversial circumstances by parliament which passed a vote of no-confidence in him in December 2014 following a long running row over the constitution with President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud. He now heads Forum for Unity and Democracy, a large coalition of political actors and civil society.

INTERNATIONAL MEDIA

Police Intercepts Bomb At Gulu Bus Park

04 January – Source: The Independent – 68 Words

Uganda Police and Uganda People’s Defence Forces (UPDF) have this morning intercepted a bomb that was plated at the Gulu Bus Park. It still remains unknown who could have been behind this bomb setup. Police has asked Ugandans to continue being vigilant and report any suspicious objects. Uganda is one of those countries that’s constantly on the watch out for terrorist attacks. This is mainly due to its peacekeeping operations in Somalia.

Al-Qaeda Affiliate Releases Video Featuring Trump’s Comments On Muslims

04 January – Source: Democracy Now – 61 Words

An al-Qaeda affiliate in Somalia has released a recruitment video featuring Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump. The video from the militant group Al Shabab highlights Islamophobia, including Trump’s call for a “total and complete” ban on Muslims entering the United States. Speaking Saturday in Mississippi, Trump blamed President Obama and Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton for creating the self-proclaimed Islamic State.

Somalia FA Boss Appointed CECAFA Vice President

04 January – Source: Soka25East – 140 Words

The President of Somali Football Federation, Abdiqani Said Arab, has been appointed vice president of the Council of East and Central Africa Football Associations [CECAFA]. During the CECAFA executive committee meeting in the Sudanese capital of Khartoum on Monday, CECAFA president Dr. Mutasim Gafaar proposed that Abdiqani Said Arab of Somalia be appointed vice president of the regional African football body. Mr. Abdiqani was re-elected to CECAFA executive committee for a 5th term in November last year, becoming the sole member from the previous executive board who retained his position. Owing to his experience in sports management, the CECAFA President proposed him as the best candidate to serve as the giant association’s deputy leader. The CECAFA executive committee members unanimously approved the nomination of Somalia’s Abdiqani Said Arab, who will now serve as CECAFA’s vice president from January 4th 2016.

OPINION, ANALYSIS, AND CULTURE

“At the time, the western-backed transitional federal government was seen as weak and ineffective by many Somalis. However, as the militants enforced their extreme interpretation of Islam, they lost that support. At the same time, African Union peacekeepers arrived to back the Somali national army in its battle against the insurgents.”

Somalia: How To Build Hope Amid The Horror Of Al-Shabaab’s Insurgency

04 January – Source: The Guardian – 835

Cities struggling to defeat violent insurgencies must galvanise support from residents by boosting the government’s presence in underserved districts and providing essential services, according to the former mayor of Somalia’s embattled capital, Mogadishu. Mohamed Nur, who served as mayor from July 2010 to February 2014, put up the first street lamps in the city and rolled out its first rubbish collection programme, initiatives which he says boosted popular support for his government, weakening the militants’ support base. Nur stepped down in 2014: he lives in Mogadishu and is still involved in politics, taking up the role of acting chairman for the Social Justice party.

Nur, who was in London recently, says the backing of the seaside city’s residents was critical in the battle against the Islamist militants of Al-Shabaab, which has been fighting Somali troops and African Union peacekeepers in Somalia for the better part of a decade. “The only weapon that is more effective than the bombs and the modern weapons is the people,” Nur says. “You have to use the population, you have to organise the population.”

When Nur took office, Somalia’s government had control of five of Mogadishu’s 16 districts. He set up offices in each area to show people that the government was serious about helping them. “We provided services and advice so people could come in and talk to us,” he says. “People should trust the government. People should differentiate between the terrorist organisations and the government. But if the government is not providing services or if it’s highly corrupt … then what is the difference between Al-Shabaab and the government?”

Some would argue that Al-Shabaab was partly born out of popular discontent with the anarchy and chaos that reigned in Mogadishu in the years after the ousting of dictator Mohamed Siad Barre in 1991. It came to the fore in 2006 when the Islamic Courts Union (ICU), Al-Shabaab – which means “the youth” – emerged as an autonomous insurgent force, although its origins may stretch back further. Initially, the militants won some popular support because of anger over the Ethiopian occupation, and because they brought law and order to areas they controlled.