July 30, 2018 | Morning Headlines
Eritrea Extends Hand Of Friendship To Old Foe Somalia
30 July – Source: Morning Star – 162 Words
Eritrea built on its recent healing of relations with Ethiopia at the weekend by reviving links with Somalia after a break of 15 years: “Somalia is ready to write a new chapter of its relations with Eritrea,” said Abdinur Mohamed, a spokesman for President Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed, after the president took his first ever trip to Eritrea.
Eritrean Information Minister Yemane Meskel said that President Mohamed’s three-day visit had been at the invitation of President Isaias Afwerki, who has been in office since independence in 1993. The visit by Somalia’s leader follows a stunning diplomatic thaw in recent weeks between Eritrea and neighbouring Ethiopia after more than two decades.
Ethiopia’s new Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed has already asked that UN sanctions on Eritrea be dropped. The United Arab Emirates, which set up a military base at Eritrea’s post of Assab in 2015, has played a role in mending relations between Eritrea and Ethiopia.
Key Headlines
- Eritrea Extends Hand Of Friendship To Old Foe Somalia (Morning Star)
- Somali President Regrets Extradition Of Qalbi-Dhagah (Halbeeg News)
- Somali Prime Minister Arrives In Garowe Puntland Capital (Shabelle Media)
- One Person Dies In Mogadishu Bomb Blast (Hiiraan Online)
- Somali Women Seek Enhanced Role In Peace Reconciliation Efforts (Xinhua)
- Somali Songs Reveal Why Musical Crate Digging Is A Form Of Cultural Archaeology (The Conversation)
NATIONAL MEDIA
Somali President Regrets Extradition Of Qalbi-Dhagah
29 July – Source: Halbeeg News – 298 Words
Somali President, Mohamed Abdullahi Farmajo has reportedly spoken out for the first time about the extradition of Abdikarim Muse Qalbi-Dhagah since his release last month. Qalbi Dhagah was handed over to the Ethiopian government on August 28, 2017, following a raid by Somali forces on his hotel in Galkayo, central Somalia.
Mr. Farmajo reportedly held talks with the leader of Ogaden National Liberation Front (ONLF), Mohamed Omar Osman in Asmara of Eritrea. Speaking to VOA Somali, Osman said the President expressed regret over the extradition of Qalbi-Dhagah. According to Osman, President Farmaajo apologised for the action by the government.
The remarks of the ONLF leader notwithstanding, the government of Somalia is yet to comment on the meeting. ONLF commander Qalbi Dhagah was freed by Ethiopian authorities last month following a pardon by Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed. Somalia’s National Intelligence and Security Agency (NISA) in September last year extradited Qalbi Dhagah, a highly decorated former Somali military officer to Ethiopian regime, a move initially denied and dismissed by the Somali government.
The move immediately attracted public uproar, as the government subsequently declared him a terrorist in the same ranks with Al-Shabaab militants. The government of Ethiopia confirmed the handing over, citing a security partnership treaty between Addis Ababa and Mogadishu.
Owing to public outcry, however, the Somali Parliament formed a 15-member committee to probe the circumstances under which Qalbi Dhagax was handed over to Ethiopian authorities. Two months later, the committee tabled a report heaping the blame on the intelligence agency, NISA, over what it said was a “transmission of wrong information to the government”.
The report subsequently declared the extradition as illegal and observed that ONLF was not a terrorist organization as indicated by the Cabinet in September 2017. Qalbi Dhagah, a senior ONLF, was wounded in the 1977 war against Ethiopia.
One Person Dies In Mogadishu Bomb Blast
29 July – Source: Hiiraan Online – 106 Words
One person was killed as another sustained injuries after a bomb fitted in a vehicle went off in Mogadishu city’s Galmudug neighbourhood on Sunday morning. Witnesses at scene told the media that one person, believed to be a soldier, was killed and another one seriously wounded after the improvised explosive device (IED) was detonated.
The attack comes barely a week after another IED claimed one life and left three people seriously injured. All the victims were members of the same family. No group has claimed responsibility for the latest attack. However, the extremist Al-Shabaab group launches regular attacks on government, military and civilian targets in Somalia.
Somali Prime Minister Arrives In Garowe, Puntland Capital
29 July – Source: Shabelle Media – 133 Words
A high-level delegation led by Somali Prime Minister Hassan Ali Khaire arrived in Garowe, the capital of Puntland State on Sunday morning. On arrival, the Premier and his entourage received a warm welcome from Puntland President, Abdiweli Mohamed Ali “Gaas”, members of his Cabinet and a cheering crowd.
Hundreds of soldiers were deployed in the town’s streets to beef up security ahead of the visit, which is the first by the PM since his appointment last year. Mr. Khaire, Federal Government Cabinet ministers and other members of his delegation, were scheduled to attend a ceremony marking the 20th anniversary of the inception of Puntland state. Puntland, an arid region of north-east Somalia, declared itself an autonomous state in August 1998, in part to avoid the clan warfare that engulfed southern Somalia.
INTERNATIONAL MEDIA
Somali Women Seek Enhanced Role In Peace, Reconciliation Efforts
29 July – Source: Xinhua – 525 Words
Somali women have resolved to forge a united path on enhanced role in peace and reconciliation efforts in the Horn of Africa nation. The women’s organizations in a joint statement issued on Saturday by the UN mission in Somalia also resolved to strengthen the fight against violent extremism which is impacting ongoing peace efforts.
This, they said, is in line with the national priorities set out in the country’s National Development Plan for 2017-2021, and in the national reconciliation processes launched by the Somali government.
The Somali National Women’s Organization (SNWO) was the main organizer of the two-day nationwide “peace forums” on enhanced women’s roles in peace efforts, held simultaneously in the five administrative capitals of the Federal Member States of South West, Jubbaland, Puntland, HirShabelle and Galmudug states.
One of the facilitators in Baidoa, Udbi Omar Ali, stressed that women were unanimous in wanting to play a more visible role in fighting violent extremism. “We agreed to unite against extremist ideologies; that women should pay attention to all activities happening in their households, to prevent their children from getting sucked into extremism,” she said.
“At the civil society level, at the security sector level, as women, we should have a network, a channel of communication to get to know each other, so that we can work towards peace and reconciliation,” Ali added.
The main aim of the forums was to consult wide-range of women stakeholders – peace advocates, activists and practitioners – to determine ways and strategies to improve women’s role in promoting peace and prevent violent extremism in the country. Participants across the five states discussed women’s empowerment and strategies that would enhance their participation in peace, security and reconciliation efforts.
OPINION, ANALYSIS AND CULTURE
“The most defining feature of the archive was its ability to transport our hearts and minds to Mogadishu of the 1970s and 1980s, when the coastal capital glistened as the ‘Pearl of the Indian Ocean’, when wine and cosmopolitanism flowed freely…”
Somali Songs Reveal Why Musical Crate Digging Is A Form Of Cultural Archaeology
29 July – The Conversation – 914 Words
Crate diggers are cultural archaeologists who dedicate their time, money and energy to collecting musical artefacts that provide alternative histories from the fringes of society. They frequent record stores, flea markets, garage sales, charity shops and other places of “disposal” to find rare vinyl records or cassettes.
But as music producer, journalist and digger Kathy Iandoli explained: “Cratedigging isn’t merely ‘record shopping’ though. It’s a hunt for the DNA of a popular song you’re in love with. An addiction to origins.” A recent compilation album of 1970s/80s music from the Horn of Africa, “Sweet as Broken Dates: Lost Somali Tapes”, is a great example of this. Half of the compilation is sung by women, their voices often compared in Somali poetry to the “sweetness of broken dates”. The album’s 15 songs, coming from cassette tapes and master reels, had to literally be dug up from shelters after being hidden to protect it during Somalia’s two decade civil war.
One of the tracks from “Sweet as broken dates”. This astonishing story goes back to 1988, when Somalia’s military dictator Siad Barre responded with air strikes to the Somaliland region which was agitating for independence. Barre targeted Radio Hargeisa in Somaliland’s capital city to prevent any kind of central communication system that could organise a resistance.
A few brave broadcasters knew that the archives with their more than half a century of Somali music had to be preserved. Thousands of cassettes and reels were quickly removed. They took them to neighbouring Djibouti and Ethiopia and buried them deep under the ground to withstand even the most powerful airstrikes.
These audio artefacts were excavated from their shelters only very recently. Some are now kept in the 10,000-strong cassette tape archive of the Red Sea Foundation in Hargeisa. A team from Ostinato Records, a New York-based label that documents music from the African continent and diaspora, digitised a large portion of the archive. Ostinato Records founder Vik Sohonie recently expressed the importance of reviving and sharing old Somali music to illuminate Somalia’s historical grandeur.
The most defining feature of the archive was its ability to transport our hearts and minds to Mogadishu of the 1970s and 1980s, when the coastal capital glistened as the ‘Pearl of the Indian Ocean’, when wine and cosmopolitanism flowed freely…
He highlighted the importance of the unseen cultural archaeology that crate diggers do and the impact this work might have in broader society. “Sweet as Broken Dates” is a powerful example. I’m talking as a digger myself – we actively archive and curate the stories and the experiences of the people in our own ways.
Crate diggers often build huge collections of rare and forgotten records that contain the stories and experiences of people whose stories have not made it into our society’s official historical memory. These musical tales are often recontextualised through sampling or curated for the dance floor where they find new life.