July 19, 2016 | Daily Monitoring Report.
Boost For AMISOM As AU Adopts Peace Fund To Finance Peace Operations
19 July – Source: Goobjoog News – 338 Words
The African Union will raise $325 million annually to support 25 percent of its peace operations in a move that could help cover the 20 percent shortfall occasioned by the European Union cut on annual funding to the African Union’s Mission in Somalia (AMISOM).
The development follows an adoption of the AU Peace Fund by heads of states and governments during the 27th ordinary summit in Rwanda on Monday. The funds, which will be raised equally from all the five regions of the continent, will be drawn from a 0.2% levy on eligible imports.
Each region, the Summit agreed, will contribute $65 million with an 80 percent target in 2020. The Fund will likely support one of the continent’s most expensive peace operations, AMISOM, which has lately suffered funds shortage following the decision by the EU to slash its budget on stipend to the AMISOM soldiers by 20 percent starting February this year.
AMISOM operates on a $900 million annual budget with 22,000 troops drawn from Kenya, Uganda, Burundi, Djibouti and Ethiopia. The African Union, and particularly troops contributing countries to AMISOM, have in the past warned against contributing any money to fund to the mission noting the funding of peace operations is the responsibility of the United Nations.
The African Union Commission chairperson, Dlamini Zuma, said the AU will also adopt mechanisms to develop a more robust and effective system to seek funding from the UN to fund the remaining 75 percent of the cost of peace support operations. In a similar development, the African Union will build the capacity of Somali security forces to ensure it effectively takes charge once AMISOM troops leave the Horn of Africa country in 2018.
Key Headlines
- Boost For AMISOM As AU Adopts Peace Fund To Finance Peace Operations (Goobjoog News)
- AMISOM’s New Force Commander Formally Assumes Office (AMISOM)
- AU To Train Somali Troops Before AMISOM Pull Out In 2018 (Goobjoog News)
- Galmudug Leader Undergoes Successful Heart Surgery In India (Radio Dalsan)
- Somali Police Says Sorry To Journalists For “Sniffer Dog Mistake” (Radio Dalsan)
- Joint Forces Recapture Village In Southern Somalia (Xinhua)
- Stranded In Somaliland – Part 1 (News Deeply)
- Stunt Or Stand For Democracy? Villa Somalia’s Response To The Failed Coup In Turkey (Somalia Newsroom)
PRESS STATEMENT
AMISOM’s New Force Commander Formally Assumes Office
19 July – Source: AMISOM – 255 Words
The new Force Commander of the African Union Mission in Somalia Lt. General Osman Noor Soubagleh has formally assumed office. Lt. General Soubagleh, who replaces Lt. General Jonathan Rono, arrived in Mogadishu yesterday to take up his duties. The Force Commander met with the Special Representative of the African Union Commission Chairperson (SRCC) for Somalia and Head of AMISOM Ambassador Francisco Caetano Madeira, who noted that his arrival comes at a critical time for the Mission.
“The General is coming at a moment when we have just revised the AMISOM Concept of Operations for 2016 and I am glad that he did fully participate in the deliberations that led to the adoption of the same. Now that the Concept of Operations has entered into force, he is the Commander-In-Chief when it comes to its implementation,” Ambassador Madeira said.
He highlighted the forthcoming electoral process in Somalia as one of the key priority areas, to which the new Force Commander will have to pay particular attention and provide the required leadership to ensure that all stages of the electoral process take place in a conducive and secure environment. Lt. General Soubagleh has previous experience working with the African Union Mission in Somalia, having served as AMISOM Chief of Defence Staff between 2012 and 2013.
Before his appointment as Force Commander, he regularly participated in meetings of the Joint Military Operations Coordination Committee (MOCC) of AMISOM, on behalf of Djibouti. Ambassador Madeira wished Lt. General Soubagleh success in his new mission at the service of our continent.
NATIONAL MEDIA
AU To Train Somali Troops Before AMISOM Pull Out In 2018
19 July – Source: Goobjoog News – 232 Words
African Union said on Monday it plans to train Somali troops in order to allow Somalis to take charge of their country before AU withdraws its troops from Somalia by 2018.
“We are planning to train and equip the Somali forces before pulling out from the country,” Smail Chergui, AU Commissioner for Peace and Security, said at a press conference during the closing of the 27th AU summit in Kigali, Rwanda. Chergui said that AU is set to start withdrawing its standby force from Somalia in 2018. He said that the AU is also helping Somalia with its presidential and parliamentary elections that are due to take place later in the year.
“We need a peaceful Somalia and respect for human rights for all citizens,” Chergui said. Chergui noted that the heads of states set up a special fund to help combat terrorism in the continent. The kitty will be funded by AU governments, the international community, and other partners and will take effect once the next government is in place: ”This fund will help African governments respond with speed in taming an upsurge of terrorism activities that is blamed for massive deaths of people,” he added.
AMISOM troops came to Somalia 2007 after the United Nations Security Council authorised the African Union to deploy a peacekeeping mission. AU troops with the help of Somali National Army (SNA) dislodged Al-Shabaab fighters from Somalia’s capital city, Mogadishu, in 2011.
Galmudug Leader Undergoes Successful Heart Surgery In India
18 July – Source: Radio Dalsan – 102 Words
The President of Somali regional state of Galmudug has undergone a successful heart operation in India. Officials from his office have confirmed the surgery taking place.
President Abdikarim Guled travelled to Indian capital, New Delhi, last week after heart-related complications. Officials have confirmed to Radio Dalsan via phone from India that President Guled is doing well and is responding to the treatment. He is expected to return to the country to continue with preparations towards the historic general elections in Somalia later this year. Thousands of Somalis seek medical attention in India every year after being referred by local hospitals.
Somali Police Says Sorry To Journalists For “Sniffer Dog Mistake”
18 July – Source: Radio Dalsan – 166 Words
Somali Police Force has apologized for the detention of two journalists in the capital of Mogadishu three days ago. Rahma Yusuf Jimale and Ahmed Yusuf Suleyman were arrested from Banaadir Stadium on Fridayafternoon while covering the inter-state football tournament that kicked off last week.
They were accused of trying to sneak explosive devices inside Konis stadium where the President was to preside over the official kick off of the inter-regional state annual tournament. They were released on Friday after spending three days in custody.
The police apologized for the arrest saying it was the mistake of sniffer dogs adding that the officers (dogs) were tired at the moment and didn’t submit the correct information. National Union of Somali Journalists has condemned the constant arrest of journalists in Somalia and called for the Somali Police to respect the country’s’ constitution, media freedoms and freedom of expression.
South Africa donated dogs to Somali Police Force last year to strengthen the security situation in the country.
INTERNATIONAL MEDIA
Joint Forces Recapture Village In Southern Somalia
18 July – Source: Xinhua – 116 Words
Somali forces and the African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM) on Monday recaptured a village in Lower Shabellle region in southern Somalia, an official has confirmed.
Ali Hassan, a police chief in Qoryoley, told reporters that the forces raided the village early Monday after a brief capture by Al-Shabaab.
“Somali and AMISOM forces moved in in the morning and retook the village. The militants had captured it for a few hours,” said Hassan. Residents reported heavily armed Al-Shabaab militants in the wee hours of Mondaybefore they attacked and took control. “We heard massive gunfire and before Al-Shabaab took over the village, but later they pulled out following troop’s movement,” Mohamed Suleyman, a resident, told Xinhua.
Stranded In Somaliland – Part 1
18 July – Source: News Deeply – 876 Words
Last May, Sabrina Omar, 21 and mother to four-month-old Abdullah, fled her home in Taiz, a city in the Yemeni Highlands, at dawn. The previous night a bomb or rocket had hit her home. She doesn’t know what exactly it was, or where it came from. All she knows is that one of her neighbors was killed, and that she and her mother, Said Mohammad Ali, 46, and her younger sister, eight-year old Shyak, left at first light. Shyak hadn’t been in school in months. All the schools in Taiz had closed.
Sabrina is just one of many people who have been sandwiched between the horror of Houthi snipers and American-supplied Saudi Arabian fighter jets, two of the daily threats in Yemen’s ongoing conflict. She was six months pregnant when she left home, moving slowly and worried about the health of the baby. She sold her gold jewelry on the trip from Taiz to the port in Aden where they would get the boat. From Aden, they joined about 500 others on the 24-hour journey to Berbera, the central port in Somaliland.
Almost a dozen other family members joined the trio to make the crossing. But Sabrina’s husband wasn’t one of them. He was at work in another part of the city during the attack. She called to tell him they were leaving, but – stuck in the middle of the fighting – he couldn’t reach her in time.
Today Sabrina, baby Abdullah, her mother and her sister are in Hargeisa, the capital of Somaliland, a self-declared country, independent of Somalia. More than 10,000 refugees from Yemen left the nightmare of a war only to fall into hellish bureaucracy.
Reeling from the trauma of their forced migration, they wait in mind-numbing lines for basics such as plates and tampons, while navigating United Nations paperwork and the convoluted political system in a language they don’t speak, spending money they cannot afford.
OPINION, ANALYSIS, AND CULTURE
Stunt Or Stand For Democracy? Villa Somalia’s Response To The Failed Coup In Turkey
19 July – Source: Somalia Newsroom – 688 Words
After the attempted coup in Turkey was put down over the weekend, the Somali government ordered the dismissal of Turkish citizens working in schools, health care facilities, and development organizations linked to U.S.-based Turkish cleric Fethullah Gulen — who Ankara alleged was a “mastermind” behind the plot.
VOA has more: “The decision came in an extraordinary session of the Somali cabinet on Saturday. The government ordered Turkish citizens working for Gulen-linked organizations to leave the country within seven days. The government said the services the organizations provided…will continue under new administration. The cabinet said the decision was in response to a request from the Turkish government.”
For some time, the Turkish government sent millions of dollars in cash directly to Somalia’s largely unaccountable central bank and more broadly has provided substantial military, humanitarian, and economic assistance to the country. As a result, Somali President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud had a few choice words for anti-regime Turkish military elements seeking to undermine democracy (via Villa Somalia): “It is unacceptable to reverse the democratic path that the people of Turkey enjoyed in the recent times of their history. This was unfortunate and we are very glad to hear that the evil forces who tried to turn Turkey into a violence ground have been defeated.”
The idea of usurping democracy may soon hit closer to home for Hassan Sheikh because the mandate of the Somali government expires in less than two months and leaders are far from completing preparations to implement its alternative electoral model. Perhaps it is a bad omen that the Somali president most recently was in Kigali, Rwanda, where the election of the next African Union commission chairperson had to be postponed until January 2017 after none of the candidates emerged as a winner after seven rounds of voting. (Could Hassan Sheikh be back in 2017 to vote again — either by a miraculous re-election or less miraculous mandate extension?)
So the question is: How will Somalia look if it tries to controversially extend the mandate of its own government just weeks after condemning anti-democratic moves in Turkey? To be frank, President Hassan Sheikh probably prioritizes appeasing an important donor like Turkey rather than worrying about the country’s own democratic shortfalls. Nevertheless, this administration’s consistent attempts to garner shares of headlines during global crises is not necessarily a bad move if it yields the right results.
After Saudi Arabia’s embassy came under attack in Tehran this past January, Villa Somalia issued a press statement indicating it had cut ties with Iran, which just so happen to coincide with a same-day Saudi pledge of $50 million to Somalia’s government. Assuming that this $50 million would be used responsibly, there could be a net benefit for the Iran stunt because it ostensibly would bring development programs arising out of the Saudi pledge.
TOP TWEETS
@amisomsomalia: #AMISOM Police trains Somali Police Force (SPF) on Biometric Data Management.http://goo.gl/c8LwQ6 #Somalia
@Lattif: Mohamed Daud and Maryan Nuh will represent Somalia at the Rio 2016 Olympics . [Photo / Somali Olympics Committee]: https://pbs.twimg.com/media/
@Vatescorp: #Somalia: Somaliland kidnaps Puntland lawmaker in Dhahar, fighting believed to have killed soldiers from both sides http://ow.ly/eu2F302nvAV
@adancabdulle: An impressive ceremony marking the completion of training for a new Somali commando unit funded by the UAE Gov’t. https://www.youtube.com/watch?
@SomaliaNewsroom: An even more striking video when you consider an ALL-BOYS football tourney is being held in#Mogadishu right now.
@fqdayib: My campaign video. A snapshot of who I am & what I want to achieve. Fadumo Dayib 2016 Somali Presidential Candidate: https://www.youtube.com/watch?
@Daudoo: New #AMISOM Commander Lt. Gen. Osman Soubagle of #Djibouti formally assumes office replacing Lt. Gen. Rono of #Kenya https://pbs.twimg.com/media/
IMAGE OF THE DAY
AMISOM’s Police Component train Somali Police Force on biometric data collection and compilation, for effective management of SFP human resources.
PHOTO: AMISOM