NATIONAL MEDIA
30 July – Source: Halbeeg – 107 Words
Details are coming out of fresh airstrikes in Lower and Middle Juba regions. Reports say that an airstrike overnight in Lower Juba’s Jamame town targeted senior Al-Shabaab commander, Abdi Rauf Yusuf ‘Ayman”, who heads the East African dominated Al-Shabaab force that is named after him. The strike hit during a graduation ceremony of Jaysh Ayman recruits. It is not yet clear whether the said commander was hurt in the attack or not.
Meanwhile, another strike hit an Al-Shabaab base in Bu’ale with the target said to be a senior Al-Shabaab figure. The US military command is yet to claim responsibility for these latest strikes in the Al-Shabaab’s strongholds.
30 July – Source: Halbeeg – 139 Words
Jubaland authorities deployed more security forces into the streets and checkpoints of the regional administrative capital ahead of the forthcoming polls. A 100-strong security force led by Ismail Sahardid, a former commander of SNA’s 43rd Division and current commander of the Jubbaland election security forces, has been stationed in the city in a bid to bolster the security of the town.
The new force will work with the police who have been engaged in patrols and monitoring all vehicles accessing the main roads of the town.
Meanwhile, sources confirmed to Goobjoog News that the federal government-backed candidates left the town to Mogadishu for consultations and meetings to strategise for the coming elections. Candidates for the regional presidency, tribal elders, journalists and several others were killed just 18 days ago at Asassey Hotel at the centre of Kismayo town.
30 July – Source: Hiiraan Online – 358 Words
The police in Somaliland on Tuesday arrested four journalists in Hargeisa town. The four from the Eryal TV station include the TV Director, Badri Kosar Mohamud, Head of the news, Abdirahman Abdullahi Muhumad, journalist Aydrus Mohamed Ahmed and cameraman Kamal Khalif Abdi. According to a member of Eryal TV management, the detained journalists are now held at Koodbuur police station saying they are yet to know the exact motive behind their arrest detention. It is, however, believed that the Somaliland government did not like some of the reports and programs broadcasted by the TV.
Federation of Somali Journalist Union (FESOJ) condemns in the strongest terms possible the arbitrary arrest of the journalists by security forces as a ploy to intimidate the local journalists. “Police officers stormed into the TV station as journalist staff continued their routine. We were so scared but they later took away with journalists despite not showing a court warrant ordering the detention of TV journalists, one of Eryal TV journalists told on the phone to FESOJ.
“The arrest of four Eryal TV journalists is an additional attack on media freedom to be added to the series of violations against journalists, media outlets and a crackdown on freedom of the press by Somaliland,” said FESOJ General Secretary Mohamed Ibrahim Moalimuu. “Journalists in Somaliland are facing the difficult choice of continuing their journalism and putting themselves at risk. We call upon Somaliland authorities to cease their campaign of aggression against defenceless journalists who are exercising their right to report freely.”
It is not the first time that Somaliland authority arrests or suspends Eryal TV station and staff, It was on 18 June, 2019 when Somaliland shut down Eryal and Horyaal TVs for allegedly propagating propaganda against security and fueling conflict within the community but both TV stations were allowed to resume operations on 30 June ,2019 despite the authorities imposed new conditions meant to restrict the critical reporting of the media.
The Federation of Somali Journalists (FESOJ), formerly known as NUSOJ, is calling on the Somaliland government to release journalists immediately and unconditionally, and their continued detention means another violation of freedom of expression and media in Somaliland.
INTERNATIONAL MEDIA
30 July – Source: Daily Monitor- 553 Words
President Museveni last night shared snippets of a private conversation with his Somali counterpart, disclosing that he told President Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed the problem with his country is collapsed systems. “I told the Somali President that you can’t have a functional government if the system is not organised,” Mr Museveni said, referring to details of his one-on-one talk with Mr Mohamed’s during his last visit.
Recollecting his discussion, President Museveni said of his counsel to the visiting head of state: “First pacify the country so that the state can be stable and the people will start paying taxes, then you can begin to pay your officers.” Mr Museveni last night revealed details of his conversation with the Somali leader as he hosted 19 retiring UPDF generals at State House Entebbe, the most senior of them being Gen Joram Mugume, chairman of the National Enterprises Corporation, the army’s business arm.
The President raised the guidance to Mogadishu in the context of sacrifices he said the National Resistance Army (NRA) rebels, the forerunner to UPDF, made during their five-year bush war that catapulted him to power. He said the fighters lacked necessities of life, but persevered to liberate Uganda. Mr Museveni said Somalia should emulate similar sacrifices and its leaders should worry less about salary payment to troops but focus on building a strong security force.
Uganda was the first country, in March 2007, to deploy soldiers in Mogadishu under the United Nations-authorised African Union Peace-keeping Mission (Amisom) and the UPDF remains the largest troop contributor to-date. There is push by the international community and some Somali leaders to exit immediately, but concerns over fragile security and fears about possible rapid erosion of gains, has piled pressure to accelerate capacity building for Somali National Forces. Twenty of its officer cadets trained with and graduated alongside UPDF counterparts at Kabamba military school last Saturday.
30 July – Source: IOM – 214 Words
IOM Hargeisa completed a six-day ‘Training of Trainers’ as well as a three-day follow-up training on ‘Start and Improve Your Business Idea’. The training programme is developed by the International Labour Organization (ILO). Thanks to the training, 12 migrant returnees, IOM Staff, government stakeholders and implementing partners in Somaliland are now better equipped to generate and implement business ideas to start small business in emerging economies.
Khalif, one of the participants, said: “The training allowed me to acquire practical skills such as create a business plan, understand financial planning and how to link beneficiaries with financial institutions.” During the follow-up training completed on 24 July, participants qualified to become trainers for a group of 33 migrants newly-returned from Libya.
The training was done as part of the EU-IOM Joint Initiative for Migrant Protection and Reintegration in the Horn of Africa. Since its inception, 288 migrants to Hargeisa and surrounding areas in Somaliland have received individually-tailored packages granted in kind as well as effective counselling and provision of accurate information.
Self-sufficiency is the priority by supporting the set-up of small business and the re-entry of the migrant returnees into the local labour market. The EU-IOM Joint Initiative facilitates orderly, safe, regular and responsible migration management. The project, funded by the EU, covers 26 African countries.
OPINION, ANALYSIS AND CULTURE
“The 4.5 power-sharing system has deepened political and economic inequalities in Somalia. In fact, it is a power-depriving mechanism given how the rights of Somali minorities are violated.”
30 July – Source: Wardheer News – 854 Words
”The politics [is] the activity by which differing interests within a given unit of rule are conciliated by giving them a share in power in proportion to their importance to the welfare and the survival of the whole community” In Defence of Politics by Bernard Crick.
One of the most instructive lessons Somalis have learned since 1991 when the state collapsed after the ouster of the military dictatorship, is that politicians at different levels have an impact on their lives. State collapse meant emergence of political classes, who retreated into their strongholds. What can Somalis do to move politics from the stage of identity to a level based on citizenship and political programmes of parties or political associations?
This is by no means a simple task given the absence of a history of a strong civil society in post-colonial Somalia. The first nine years of parliamentary democracy in Somalia was not enough to nurture a civil society able to withstand twenty-plus years of military dictatorship. Our founding fathers of all political persuasions promoted free speech to enable the efflorescence of free press such as Dalka (edited by Yusuf J. Duhul), La Tribuna (edited by Ismail Jimale) and other publications. Somalia was a country known for parliamentary democracy and free press — a rare accomplishment in a country that gained independence in 1960. Our first generation of post-colonial leaders created nascent democratic institutions in the absence of citizenry steeped in democratic practice. It was a democracy by the elite and for the elite.
Somalia cannot afford to repeat the pre-1969 democratic experiment in an era where we have more educated people in a country redefined by state collapse. Somali citizens debate which form of governance best suits the nation-state. The progress made in getting Somali political leaders to work with each other since the year 2000, cannot be brushed aside. However, Somali political classes remain in their comfort zones: they are keen to be identified with regions or clan constituencies instead of ideas. Their political outlooks have ramifications for efforts to reintroduce multi-party politics fifty years after a military junta had overthrown a civilian government.
More than five political parties have registered with the National Independent Electoral Commission (NIEC) in Mogadishu. This is a welcome move, but an incomplete milestone. Since 2000 the power-sharing system Somalia’s major clans adopted relegates almost half of Somalis to minority status. Known as ‘Others’ Somali social groups placed under 0.5 category exercise less political and economic rights in any part of Somalia. Economic and political inequalities exacerbate mistrust if our political institutions remain wedded to a system that does not put emphasis on political accountability. We cannot move forward if citizenship rights are ranked below one’s clan identity despite Heritage Institute for Policy Studies hailing “the country’s weak but steady march towards a new democratic culture…”
Somalis classed as minorities disproportionately constitute the largest number of IDPs. Their territories of origin, the most arable in Somalia, remain occupied by armed militias from non-minority clans. Identification of a Somali territory with clan ownership is more pronounced than it was before 1991. This trend affects a Somali person’s life chances if he/she can not belong to a federal member state or if he/she belongs to a minatory clan. The 4.5 power-sharing system has deepened political and economic inequalities in Somalia. In fact, it is a power-depriving mechanism given how the rights of Somali minorities are violated. Coalition politics for parties with political programmes could be the way out of this deadlock. If political parties are organised along clan or religious and economic interest lines, politicians’ goal will be to capture the state. That is why the rush to form political parties before testing their mettle as political associations pose formidable challenges to efforts to conduct one person, one vote poll in Somalia in 2021.
The incumbent Federal Government has run out of steam after celebrating its second anniversary. There is no inclusive national army. The slow progress towards professionalising the Somali National Army is another barrier to one person, one vote poll in addition to the infiltration of Somali security forces in the capital by Al-Shabaab operatives whom the Federal Government categorises as “low risk”. |
