January 8, 2013 | Morning Headlines.
Somalia welcomes back its Women and Children
07 Jan – Source: SOS Childrens Village – 167 words
During the long years of fighting and instability, many families fled across the border to neighbouring Kenya. Around half a million Somalis currently live in and around Dadaab in eastern Kenya, home to the world’s largest refugee camp. Last month, the Kenyan government asked Somalis who’d moved to urban areas to return to Dadaab and other camps, following a spate of grenade attacks. Feeling suddenly unwelcome in Kenya, some Somalis are deciding it’s time to return home, many of them women and children. The situation in Somalia continues to improve. For example, food production in 2013 is expected to rise. The short rains which fell during October to December have brought favourable growing conditions across many regions and cereal harvests should bring average or above average yields in many places.
Key Headlines
- Mogadishu gets new University (Shabelle/Jowhar Online)
- Cabinet meets to discuss security in Mogadishu (Radio Mogadishu/SNTV)
- Police officers civilian hurt in Garissa attack (Standard Media)
- Puntland parliament endorses $49 million budget for 2013 (Bar-kulan/Garowe Online)
- Exiled Somali journalists appeal to Kenya UN (Bar-kulan)
- Moving urban refugees to Daadab unwise (Daily Nation)
- Ugandan troops in Somalia control 75000 sq kms (Africa Report)
SOMALI MEDIA
Cabinet meets to discuss security in Mogadishu
07 Jan – Source: Bar-kulan/Shabelle/Radio Mogadishu/SNTV/Somaliweyn/
Somalia’s cabinet on Monday held a meeting to discuss security in the city. The high-powered security meeting chaired by Prime Minister Abdi Farah Shirdon discussed the way forward in strengthening security and scaling up measures aimed at boosting security in Mogadishu. Addressing journalists in Mogadishu shortly after the meeting, Information Minister Abdullahi Elmoge Hirsi said cabinet also discussed an IGAD funded road construction project to link Somalia with its neighbouring countries.
Mogadishu gets new University
07 Jan – Source: Shabelle/Jowhar Online – 70 words
A new University called Somali international university was opened in Mogadishu on Monday. In the opening ceremony, which was attended by teachers, students and officials from Somali federal government was held at the grounds of the university. Founders of Somali international university said it would play crucial role in expanding the role of education in Somalia. New modern tools such as teaching equipments were shown during the opening ceremony.
Puntland parliament endorses $49 million budget for 2013
07 Jan – Source: Bar-kulan/Garowe Online – 68 words
Puntland Parliament on Monday unanimously endorsed the area regional government’s budget for the year 2013. In a session attended by 47 MPs, the parliament voted in favour of the proposed budget worth $49 million, with only one abstention. Announcing the approval of the budget, Speaker of the regional parliament Abdirashid Mohamed Hirsi said the budget tabled by the finance ministry has been legalized as Puntland’s 2013 official budget.
Exiled Somali journalists appeal to Kenya, UN
07 Jan – Source: Bar-kulan – 90 words
Exiled Somali journalists in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi, have asked the Kenyan government to consider their plight as professionals who fled their home country due to what they called targeted attacks meted on media workers. In a meeting in Nairobi, the journalists urged the host government to tackle problems meted on journalists during the ongoing security crackdown in the country to flush out illegal immigrants following the recent government’s encampment directives. They also urged the United Nations and other interested organisations to intervene the situation facing Somali journalists in Kenya.
REGIONAL MEDIA
Police officers, civilian hurt in Garissa attack
07 Jan – Source: Standard Media – 126 words
At least four people including three police officers were Monday evening seriously wounded in a grenade attack on a police car in Garissa town. The incident happened as the officers drove in a police car to their places of work. Witnesses and police said unknown people threw a grenade into the police vehicle as it sped past a crowd along Ngamia road near the local DO’s office. One of the officers sustained injuries in the head while the second one had chest injuries and a third one had leg injuries, police said. The fourth person was a civilian who was walking past the scene of the incident. The attack was followed by gunshots that were fired by the attackers who escaped into a crowd, police said.
Moving urban refugees to Daadab unwise
07 Jan – Source: Daily Nation – 122 words
A recent government statement saying all urban refugees will be returned to the already overstretched Dadaab refugee camp is worrying. Although it was originally designed to host 90,000 refugees, it currently accommodates nearly 500,000. Lately, climate change has become a serious push factor worsening the situation. The UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, in its First Assessment Report 1990, predicted large-scale, global migrations might represent the “greatest single impact” on world security resulting from climate change. That reality has already manifested itself. In 2011, famine in Somalia forced hundreds of thousands to migrate to Kenya and Ethiopia. During the peak of the worst drought in 60 years, Dadaab camp witnessed an influx of 160,000 refugees, causing a humanitarian crisis.
INTERNATIONAL MEDIA
Ugandan troops in Somalia control 75,000 sq kms
07 Jan – Source: Africa Report – 121 words
Ugandan troops in Somalia now control 75 000 square kilometers of the troubled country, their commander Brigadier Michael Ondoga has said.
He said the Ugandans had made great strides in the last seven months, after successfully flushing al Shabab militants from their bases.
Ondoga said al Shabaab’s loss of most of the territory has reduced the militants’ ability to wage war. “We are in control of Marka which is 104 kms from Mogadishu, Lego which is 135 kms in central region and Jowhar, which is 100 kms in the north,” he said.
Ondoga said after being defeated by Ugandan troops the militants had resorted to launching guerrilla attacks and using improvised explosive devices.
But he said the tactics had not been successful.
Somalia welcomes back its Women and Children
07 Jan – Source: SOS Childrens Village – 167 words
During the long years of fighting and instability, many families fled across the border to neighbouring Kenya. Around half a million Somalis currently live in and around Dadaab in eastern Kenya, home to the world’s largest refugee camp. Last month, the Kenyan government asked Somalis who’d moved to urban areas to return to Dadaab and other camps, following a spate of grenade attacks. Feeling suddenly unwelcome in Kenya, some Somalis are deciding it’s time to return home, many of them women and children. The situation in Somalia continues to improve. For example, food production in 2013 is expected to rise. The short rains which fell during October to December have brought favourable growing conditions across many regions and cereal harvests should bring average or above average yields in many places.
CULTURE / OPINION / EDITORIAL / ANALYSIS / BLOGS/ DISCUSSION BOARDS
“While we cannot condone police excesses, it is clear that the spate of grenade attacks must be halted. It is all very well for the ministers to threaten to quit, but that won’t stop terror attacks or tame renegade police. They should come up with better ideas on how to restore security countrywide.”
Fight terror, not traders
07 Jan- Source: Daily Nation-198 Words
The conduct of the crackdown in Nairobi’s Eastleigh estate is raising hackles among members of the Somali community, and has even elicited a curious protest from the man in charge of Defense, Yusuf Haji, who seems to have little idea who authorized the operation in the first place.