June 12, 2014 | Morning Headlines.

Main Story

Mediation team led by Interior Minister reach Merka town

11 Jun – Source: Radio Mogadishu/Radio RBC/SNTV/BBC Somali Service/Shabelle – 204 words

A mediation team led by the Minister of Interior and Federal Affairs Abdullahi Godax Barre has reached the town of Merka, the regional capital of Lower Shabelle of Southern Somalia on Wednesday to start a reconciliation efforts between rival clan-based militias. The mediation team comprised the Ministers of Interior, Defence, Members of the Parliament and peace-loving elders who were called to contribute in ending the clan hostilities in the region. According to Minister Barre, the team will meet the representatives of the two rival clans and will immediately call the armed militias to disarm and vacate their positions in the conflict zones.

Key Headlines

Mediation team led by Interior Minister reach Merka town (Radio Mogadishu)
Roadside bomb injures several government soldiers in Bulk Burte (Radio Goobjoog)
Self styled Rwandese ‘al Shabaab’ leader surrenders in Mandera (Coastweek/Xinhua)
Somalia: UNSOM corrections sector visits Mogadishu central prison (Horseed Media/UNSOM/RBC)
Somali women struggle to make it in politics (Al Jazeera)
In Somalia a wives’ tale delays measles treatment (AP)
Galgadud officials seek peaceful solution to inter-clan clashes (Radio Bar-kulan)

SOMALI MEDIA

MEDIATION TEAM LED BY INTERIOR MINISTER REACH MERKA TOWN

11 Jun – Source: Radio Mogadishu/Radio RBC/SNTV/BBC Somali Service/Shabelle – 204 words

Roadside bomb injures several government soldiers in Bulk Burte

11 Jun – Source: Radio Goobjoog/BBC Somali Service/Shabelle – 145 words

Six government soldiers left injured after an explosion in Bulo-burte town in Hiran region which is under the control of government troops backed by AMISOM soldiers, according to local administration officials. The Commissioner of Bulo-burte district Ahmed Addow Wehliye, stated that the explosion which occurred on the road between the town and the airport on Wednesday morning was caused by a roadside bomb. He added that several government forces have been injured in the explosion and added that investigations into the incident have been launched by the security institutions in the town.

Somalia: UNSOM corrections sector visits Mogadishu central prison

11 Jun – Source: Horseed Media/UNSOM/RBC – 326 words

Officials from the corrections department of the United Nations Assistance Mission in Somalia (UNSOM) visited the Mogadishu central prison today to monitor ongoing renovation projects and to discuss with the custodial management ways to support their needs and priorities. The prison is being renovated at the moment with the support of the United Nations office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) including fencing and building of septic tanks. UNSOM corrections officer Francis Benon highlighted the need for an in-depth assessment on the prisons infrastructure and its human resources’ capacity. “We would like to conduct a participatory needs assessment and develop a strategic plan together.

Galgadud officials seek peaceful solution to inter-clan clashes

11 Jun – Source: Radio Bar-kulan – 149 words

Local administration officials, religious clerics and the community elders in Balanballe, Abdud-wak and Guri-el towns have successfully managed to ease tensions between two clan militias in Galgadud region. In an interview with Bar-kulan, Hareri Hassan Barre, the commissioner of Balanballe said the officials in the area managed to remove the two armed militias from Hardis location which lies between Balanballe and Guri-e after numerous attempts. He said that the situation is calm after yesterday’s clashes. He added that they are taking measures to bring the two clan representatives to the table in order to settle their differences in a peaceful way.

Somaliland forces enter Hingalol town of Sanag region causing tension

11 Jun – Source: Radio RBC – 178 words

Forces loyal to the separatist administration of Somaliland have entered Hingalol town of eastern Sanag region where Puntland and Somaliland have disputed for its ownership. MP Abdihakim Abdullahi, a Member of Puntland Parliament who is currently in the town confirmed that the forces came the dawn of Wednesday and that they were stationed outside the town. “Heavily armed Somaliland forces entered Hingalol ton this morning, they came with 13 battle wagons and more soldiers. The elders of this town told them to leave the area,” MP Abdullahi said. He said the people of the town will use resistance if the Somaliland troops do not leave their town.

REGIONAL MEDIA

Self styled Rwandese ‘al Shabaab’ leader surrenders in Mandera

11 Jun – Source: Coastweek/ Xinhua – 781 words

A self proclaimed ‘al Shabaab’ group leader has surrendered to Kenya’s authorities in the northern border town of Mandera. The Rwandese national who identified himself as Pascal Bizimungu alias Big man Abdirizak surrendered over the weekend. The 33-year-old Bizimungu last week stormed the Mandera law courts compound causing panic to members of the public after identifying himself as an ‘al Shabaab’ militant on the run from neighboring Somalia and seeking refuge and protection from the government. Bizimungu, who confessed that he is an orphan, arrived in Kenya in 1996 with the help of a truck driver he can only recall as Juma who worked for ZUURA transporters operating between Mombasa and Kigali in Rwanda. He was accompanied by a man identified only as Musa.

Somali women struggle to make it in politics

11 Jun – Source: Aljazeera – 2003 words

“I get threats, day in, day out,” says Fawzia Yusuf Adam. “Yes, it happens, but I am not afraid about what might happen tomorrow. I am busy with today.” Adam is one of Somalia’s most senior female politicians. A former diplomat and long-time women’s rights activist, she became the country’s first ever female foreign minister and deputy prime minister in 2012. No longer in that post, she is now one of a small number of female members of parliament. The threats she laughs off come from al-Shabab, the hardline rebel group. It has a two-fold vendetta against female politicians: It is waging war against all members of the Somali government, and its extreme reading of Islam prohibits any female participation in the public sphere.

INTERNATIONAL MEDIA

In Somalia, a wives’ tale delays measles treatment

11 Jun – Source: AP – 638 words

Hawa Nor carried her visibly weakened son into the hospital’s isolation ward. Like many sick children here, the 7-year-old boy is likely a victim of an old Somali wives’ tale: A child with measles should be kept inside, and away from the doctor, for a week. Abdullahi Hassan labored to breathe, and his eyesight is deteriorating. “Even though we kept him at home for a week, he’s getting weaker,” Nor tells the pediatrician. Somalia is suffering from an outbreak of measles that the World Health Organization and the U.N. children’s agency labels “extremely alarming.” UNICEF reported 1,350 suspected cases of measles in March and April, a figure four times higher than the same period last year. Another 1,000 cases were reported in May.

SOCIAL MEDIA

CULTURE / OPINION / EDITORIAL / ANALYSIS / BLOGS/ DISCUSSION BOARDS

“Clannish nationalism contrasts with Somali nationalism; the latter was a collective response to end a colonial rule. By contrast, clannish nationalism is exclusionary, victimhood-based response to challenges to revive the Somali nation-state. It enables us to understand why Somali clans are divided on the form of government suitable for Somalia, and alerts us to the perils of combining clans’ exclusionary political goals and the nation-building imperatives for a war-torn society. 54 years ago, Somalia’s founding fathers relied less on clannish sentiments but more on civic solidarity to create institutions that would buckle under the weight of clannish nationalism nearly a quarter century ago.”

Somaliland: Clannish Nationalism in Somali Politics

11 Jun – Source: Somaliland Sun – 585 words

In 1 July every year, Somalis jubilantly celebrate the union of Ex-British Somaliland and ex-Italian Somaliland to form the Republic of Somalia in 1960. Five days before the union, Somalis in ex-British Somaliland celebrate 26 June: the day the British subjects in the former Protectorate gained independence and opted for a union with their southern brethren. The Somali political map has not changed but the way Somalis make sense of and celebrate those two days differs widely. In Northern Somalia where a large number of people favour secession over union, 18 May is celebrated as an epoch-making day— the day Somaliland “reasserted” or “reclaimed” its independence, and ended the union between the southern and northern regions. In some parts of the north, roughly 1/3 of the Ex-British Somaliland territory, and the in the southern regions, 1 July symbolises both a day of independence and union. What those approaches to celebrating independence days indicate is that ” the destruction of the national state” does not represent ” technically a triumph for the segmentary lineage system and the political power of kinship,” as the late I.M. Lewis argued, but it is an evidence that former, clan-based armed opposition groups wanted a change of the regime they fought but a continuity in the nation-state. The armed opposition leaders were not alive to the exclusionary politics inherent to political action based on mobilising clansmen and clanswomen.