July 22, 2016 | Morning Headlines
3 Al-Shabaab Terrorists Killed In Southern Somalia
21 July – Source: Xinhua News – 241 Words
Somali National Forces (SNA), backed by African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM) troops, killed three Al-Shabaab militants during a security operation in Jubba region in southern Somalia on Thursday.
AMISOM Force spokesperson, Joe Kibet told Xinhua over phone that the operation in Buurkoy location was special one and targeted Al-Shabaab militants’ checkpoints in the area: “Somali National Army and AMISOM troops carried out an operation in Buurkoy location in Lower Jubba region early Thursday. It was a checkpoint for the militants, the joint forces killed three of Al-Shabaab members there.”
The AMISOM spokesman added that there were no casualties on SNA and AMISOM sides during the operation. The latest security operation comes amid reports of airstrikes which were conducted in Bula-guduud area, 30 kilometers north of Kismayo, the administrative of Jubbaland at the same region. The American special jets strategically bombarded Al-Shabaab positions enabling security forces to overrun the militant group’s compounds.
The insurgents later cut off Wirkoy Bridge near Buuloguduud to hinder the advancement of the security forces. The militants reportedly suffered heavy casualties. The locals said the insurgents later detonated explosives on a local bridge in a bid to cut off transport. No details on the number of casualties on both sides have been established.
Key Headlines
- 3 Al-Shabaab Terrorists Killed In Southern Somalia (Xinhua News)
- Clan System Cannot Deliver 30 Percent Quota For Women Stakeholders Warn (Goobjoog News)
- Kenyan Official Visits Hargeisa For Miraa Business (Radio Dalsan)
- 34 Somali Returnees Leave Kakuma Camp For Baidoa In Somalia (Goobjoog News)
- Kenyan Police Kill Two Suspected Members Of Somalia’s Al-Shabaab (Reuters)
- SRSG Zerrougui Calls For Better Protection Of Children Affected By Armed Conflict (UNSOM)
- 12-year Term For Somali Rapist Pretending To Be Police Officer After Kidnap Bid (Daily Express)
- Morocco Somalia Sign Agreement On Religious Cooperation (Xinhua News)
- ‘We Are Demanding Change’: The Somali Woman Taking On International NGOs (The Guardian)
NATIONAL MEDIA
Clan System Cannot Deliver 30 Percent Quota For Women, Stakeholders Warn
21 July – Source: Goobjoog News – 427 Words
The thirty percent quota for women in this year’s polls might not be realized unless the Federal and regional governments commit themselves to implement the policy through legislation, women leaders and stakeholders have said.
Speaking during a meeting on women representation in the upcoming polls in Mogadishu, participants noted there was a risk of not realizing the provision if the choice of leaders was left to clan elders alone. Ifrah Ahmed, a women’s rights advocate and founder of Ifrah Foundation, observed there was no guarantee women would get the 30 percent quota in the Upper and Lower Houses of Parliament.
“The women could have been given 50 percent quota since we are the majority of the population, but that did not happen. Now, even the 30 percent is still not guaranteed. We need women MPs elected in these (2016) elections, without being subjected to hardship, such as being tied to clan elders. The government should facilitate this, since this is a legal requirement,” said Ahmed.
Women MPs also raised similar concerns calling for concerted efforts at federal and state levels to ensure the provision is implemented. Nadifa Osman, MP, said a more practical way to ensuring 30 percent quota is achieved is through legislation.
“The constitution talks about the history of women and their representation, but it is not clear on how the attainment of the quota will be done. We have requested for the addition of another clause that stipulates clearly that women will have a minimum of 30 percent representation, as mandatory and as a right,” said Osman. The MP explained that the 30 percent is not limited to parliamentary representation but cuts across the other two branches of government — the judiciary and executive.
AMISOM Political Affairs Officer Dr. Walters Samah commended the Somali government but called for more commitment at national and state level. Samah said the government had made significant progress in women empowerment citing the recent adoption of the gender policy as indicators of women empowerment in Somalia.
“There is also no gainsaying that the gender quota is an effective tool in addressing women’s exclusion and ensuring their active presence in public affairs. However, ensuring an effective women’s political participation in Somalia will require a strong commitment and the sustained efforts of both the federal and state governments,” Dr. Walters said.
Women constitute 14 percent of the current national Parliament, holding 39 out of the 275 seats. The Federal Government of Somalia has in its provisional constitution, made a commitment to increase women’s representation in the legislative assembly, by preserving 30-percent of the seats to women.
Kenyan Official Visits Hargeisa For Miraa Business
21 July – Source: Radio Dalsan – 211 Words
A senior official from the Kenyan government has expressed interest in doing miraa business with traders in the self declared state of Somaliland.
Peter Munya, the governor of the Kenyan highland county of Meru jetted back from Hargiesa, the capital of Somaliland administration, where he has been on a visit for the past few days. Mr Munya met Somaliland officials and discussed possible new market for the stimulant plant grown in his Kenyan county.
He said miraa market in Somaliland is worth 400 million US dollars with 99 percent of supplies coming from Ethiopia: “Miraa from Kenya, which is highly preferred in Somaliland is charged 300 percent duty while the one from Ethiopia is charged 100 percent duty making it impossible for our people to compete.”
The Kenyan leader from the Meru community, which largely depends on miraa export, said he managed to convince Hargeisa to appoint a technical committee to review the duty in exchange of recognition of “Republic of Somaliland” by the Kenyan government. In his Facebook post, the governor mentioned that he will be presenting a report on his tour to Kenya’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Miraa market in Kenya experienced big blow after several European states banned the import of the stimulant plant labelling it as dangerous drug.
34 Somali Returnees Leave Kakuma Camp For Baidoa In Somalia
21 July – Source: Goobjoog News – 112 Words
Some 34 Somali returnees on Thursday headed to Baidoa from Kakuma camp in northern Kenya as part of the ongoing repatriation programme between Somalia, Kenya and the refugee agency UNHCR.
The returnees, most of them children and women, join 82 others who have left the camp since April this year. The repatriation was carried out by the UNHCR partner, Norwegian Refugee Council. UNHCR said Thursday the repatriation process is still ongoing.
Kakuma camp is mainly occupied by refugees from South Sudan but a few Somalis have also been living in the camp for many years. The government of Kenya declared April it close down Dadaab camp which hosts more than 300,000 Somali refugees.
INTERNATIONAL MEDIA
Kenyan Police Kill Two Suspected Members Of Somalia’s Al-Shabaab
21 July – Source: Reuters – 170 Words
Police in Kenya’s port city of Mombasa on Thursday shot and killed two men they said were wanted fighters belonging to the Somali Al-Shabaab group, a senior officer said. The two, who had been under surveillance for two months, were killed after police raided their hideout in Mishomoroni area, deputy area police chief Walter Abondo said. Another man escaped.
“We have identified the dead suspects…and the two have been linked to terrorism activities in Malindi and Lamu,” Abondo told reporters, referring to towns north of Mombasa that have witnessed attacks and heightened activity related to Al-Shabaab. Police found grenades, bullets, explosive acid and compact discs that had bomb-assembling instructions in the hideout.
The group has said in the past its attacks in Kenya are in retaliation for Kenya sending troops into Somalia in 2011 where they are battling the militants as part of an African Union peacekeeping force. The al Qaeda-linked group also seeks to overthrow the Western-backed Somali government and impose its own strict interpretation of Islamic law.
SRSG Zerrougui Calls For Better Protection Of Children Affected By Armed Conflict
21 July – Source: UNSOM – 387 Words
The Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General (SRSG) for Children and Armed Conflict Leila Zerrougui has concluded a six-day visit to Somalia, where she made a plea for better protection of children caught up in armed conflict.
Addressing a press conference in Mogadishu today at the end of her visit, SRSG Zerrougui expressed optimism over the efforts of the Federal Government of Somalia and
authorities in Puntland to improve the conditions of children in armed conflict: “We need not only to get them out of death row, we need to give them to child protection actors and to work with them, if some need psycho-social treatment, if they need to be helped to return to the community,” said SRSG Zerrougui. “Whatever we can do, we can work together on that and assure the Government and the authorities that we will do our best to support their initiative.”
The SRSG visited children in detention centres in Garowe and Bossaso, and she urged authorities throughout Somalia to treat captured children as victims and not as criminals: “I would like to emphasise the importance of the reintegration. When something wrong happens we need to make sure that we fix the problem and deal with the children in a way that when they return to the community, they are not stigmatised, they are not abused and they are not left on the streets,” she stressed.
She called on authorities to integrate into the community former child soldiers and address stigmatization and abuse of underage victims of violence. In March, Puntland security forces captured and detained dozens of child soldiers after defeating an attempted incursion by Al-Shabaab militants.
During her visit to Puntland, SRSG Zerrougui met with President Abdiweli Mohamed Ali Gaas, the Vice President, the Minister of Justice, judges, and prosecutors. She said she obtained assurances from Puntland authorities that 12 child soldiers who were captured and later sentenced to death will not be executed.
12-year Term For Somali Rapist Pretending To Be Police Officer After Kidnap Bid
21 July – Source: Daily Express – 421 Words
Convicted rapist Abdi Waise should be kicked out of the country after completing his sentence, a judge said. But legal experts believe Waise will launch a legal appeal against any deportation order.
It is the second time he has been recommended for removal from Britain. He thwarted the earlier attempt by claiming it was a breach of his human rights to send him back to Somalia. Waise, 28, had been freed from jail after an eight-year jail sentence for rape before he tried to lure five girls aged 11 to 14 off the streets.
He was armed with a powerful drug, and police fear he planned to knock out his victims so he could “do anything he wanted” to them. CCTV footage showed him walking beside one of his would-be victims as she made her way to school. He told the girl he was a police officer and that he knew her mother, Wood Green Crown Court, north London, heard.
As she tried to get away, Waise pulled her back and repeated his bid to force her to go with him. She seized her chance to escape when Waise was distracted, ran into her school and alerted a teacher. Police discovered he had tried kidnap four other schoolgirls in the same area of north London on the same morning in January this year.
Waise also stopped a group of schoolboys and offered them money to use a drug known as poppers on a schoolgirl. He told them the drug would make her unconscious and defenceless. Disgusted, the boys walked off. Waise, of Tottenham, north London, was last week found guilty of a charge of kidnap and four counts of attempted kidnap.
Today Judge Witold Pawlak jailed him for 12 years and recommended him for deportation. Waise, who came to Britain from Somalia aged 10, was jailed for eight years in 2008 for rape. He was freed after six years and should have been deported, but the order was never carried out because he launched a human rights appeal.
Morocco, Somalia Sign Agreement On Religious Cooperation
21 July – Source: Xinhua News – 140 Words
Morocco and Somalia signed here Thursday an agreement on religious cooperation. The document, signed by Moroccan Minister of Endowments and Islamic Affairs Ahmed Taoufiq and his Somali counterpart, Abdelkader Cheikh Ali Ibrahim, aims to strengthen bilateral exchange of experiences in religious affairs.
This agreement is meant to protect the Muslim Ummah(community) against any deviation or act distorting the religious precepts with the aim to spread discord, the Moroccan minister told the press during the signing ceremony.
Ulemas (Muslim scholars) in all countries are called upon to communicate in order to fulfill their duty in addressing the sources of discord, he added. For his part, the Somali minister said that the agreement will enable his country to get inspiration from the Moroccan experience, which is based on moderation, tolerance and enlightened approach, in the battle against terrorism and its sources.
OPINION, ANALYSIS, AND CULTURE
“Black women who speak up tend to be labelled “angry” and “outspoken” far more frequently than white men – even when they are saying the same thing. I am shocked that more people aren’t “angry,” yet billions and billions raised in the name of people in Bangladesh, in Somalia, in our name, are mismanaged and used inefficiently.”
‘We Are Demanding Change’: The Somali Woman Taking On International NGOs
21 July – Source: The Guardian – 1,119 Words
In a Geneva conference hall last October, at the last global consultation meeting of the current humanitarian reform process, the great and the good of the humanitarian world mingled and chatted over coffee and croissants.
The mood was collegiate and cosy – until a bespectacled Somali woman, in hijab and flowing robes, took to the stage and began to berate the humanitarian system. The establishment, she said, was failing local NGOs. International organisations had lost their moral compass and local groups were not prepared to put up with it any longer.
“We are demanding change,” Degan Ali, executive director of the Kenyan-based NGO African Development Solutions (Adeso), told the audience. “Be prepared to be uncomfortable.”
She wasn’t kidding. Over the last few years, Ali has led the charge of small, local, predominantly southern organisations – the kind who do most of the work, yet receive the smallest share of funding – against the northern humanitarian establishment. She has described the sidelining of local organisations as “grotesque”, highlighted the derisory 2% that local organisations currently receive directly of humanitarian funding, and accused the entire sector of racism.
When it comes to making people uncomfortable, she has succeeded. “Power is never given,” she declares. “Power is taken.” On paper, Ali is an unlikely revolutionary. Born in Somalia to a political family, the family moved to the US with her diplomat father when she was nine.
When war broke out they stayed, and Ali went to high school, and then university in the US. Bilingual, educated, she cut her teeth as a social activist on the notorious south side of Chicago, but never lost sight of her desire to go back to Africa. So, with the offer of a job with the UN, she returned to Somalia where her mother had set up Adeso, then a small organisation.
What she found was a shock. “I saw my mother doing great work, but it was the most humiliating and depressing thing to watch her fundraise, to try and bang on the doors of the donor establishment, because she came from a local NGO,” says Ali.