June 17, 2013 | Daily Monitoring Report.
Somali defense ministry calls government troops to end al-Shabaab fighters
17 Jun- Source: Universal TV/Radio Mogadishu/Radio Mustaqbal/SNTV- 150 words
The defense ministry of Somali Federal Government has called on government troops to restart offensives against al Shabaab, the anti-government element in Somalia.
Speaking to hundreds of troops who finished training in Mogadishu on Sunday, defense minister Abdihakin Mohamud Fiqi said that the government troops should take tough measures against al Shabaab fighters. Mr. Fiqi encouraged the trained troops to help Somalia in eliminating the insurgent group so that peace prevails.
The minister added that the aim of the trained troops is to rebuild and prosper the nation. Somali government is committed at this time to re-enforce its troops as to handle the security.
Key Headlines
- Somali defense ministry calls government troops to end Al-Shabaab fighters (Universal TV/Radio Mogadishu)
- Two Somali MPs attacked in Nairobi (VOA Somali Service)
- Somali president meeting foreign officials in UK (Radio Mogadishu)
- Somali Politician blames Kenyan forces on political dispute in Lower Jubba region ( Radio Mustaqbal)
- Djibouti trains 500 troops in Beledweyne (Sabahi online)
- Mortar attack on presidential palace in Mogadishu (Somalia Today Online)
- Clashes kill 10 in Jowhar (SNTV)
- Humanitarian operations resume in Kismayo (Sabahi online)
- Government of the Federal Republic of Somalia appoints GFCL as exclusive financial adviser to Somalia’s National Infrastructure and Development Fund (AME info)
- Prof Gandi: the only solution for Jubaland is to form an all-inclusive administration (Radio Mustaqbal)
- Repatriation looms for Somali refugees in Kenya (Sabahi Online)
- Terror suspect gunned down in Mombasa (Daily Nation/Standard)
- Local taxes overseas remittances to the rescue (East African)
- A weekend in Mogadishu (Daily Nation)
- Judge direction unclear in Vic terror case (Brisbane times)
SOMALI MEDIA
Somali defense ministry calls government troops to end Al-Shabaab fighters
17 Jun- Source: Universal TV/Radio Mogadishu/Radio Mustaqbal/SNTV- 150 words
The defense ministry of Somali Federal Government has called on government troops to restart offensives against al Shabaab, the anti-government element in Somalia.
Speaking to hundreds of troops who finished training in Mogadishu on Sunday, defense minister Abdihakin Mohamud Fiqi said that the government troops should take tough measures against al Shabaab fighters.
Mr. Fiqi encouraged the trained troops to help Somalia in eliminating the insurgent group so that peace prevails.
The minister added that the aim of the trained troops is to rebuild and prosper the nation. Somali government is committed at this time to re-enforce its troops as to handle the security.
Two Somali MPs attacked in Nairobi
17 Jun- Source: VOA Somali Service/ al Shahid/Hiiraan Online/ Radio Mogadishu/Radio Bar-kulan-154 words
Two Somali Parliamentarians, Abdirahman Hosh Jibril and Abdullahi Godah Barre were attacked Sundaynight in the Kenyan capital Nairobi. The Somali MP Abdullahi Godah said in a statement to Somali media that he and Abdirahman Hosh Jibril were attacked by three armed men in Nairobi last night. Godah added that attackers took their computers and money during the attack.
The Somali MP said that he believed that the gunmen were planned to kidnap them, but they survived the attempt, and the gunmen fled from the area , after large number of people crowded the area.
He pointed out that they are healthy and safe and the Kenyan authorities had confirmed to them the protection of their security and the investigation into the circumstances of the incident and those who stand behind it.
Not yet known the circumstances of the incident, and no details about the incident issued by the Kenyan authorities so far.
Somali president meeting foreign officials in UK
17 Jun- Source: Radio Mustaqbal/Radio Mogadishu- 126 words
The president of Somali Federal Government Hassan Mohamud is in London to participate in the G8 summit which will discuss Tax and Business or investments.
Four Presidents from African Continent were invited to the meeting, including Somali president Hassan Sheikh Mohamud.
The President with other dignitaries of Somali State were meeting with different foreign officials in UK.
It was reported that the president had met with UK Prime Minister Mr. David Cameron, and discussed both sides the latest situation of recovering Somalia.
Mr. David said in the meeting with Somali president that his government will support the federal government and its management of State. British has renewed its efforts to help Somalia.
Mortar attack on presidential palace in Mogadishu
17 Jun- Source: Radio Shabelle/ Radio Kulmiye/Somalia Today Online/Radio Risaala- 110 words
A civilian was killed in Sunday’s shelling on the presidential palace, Villa Somalia in the capital Mogadishu. According to witnesses, a mother and her two children were also wounded after mortar landed on their house in the neighborhood of Wardhiigley district, while two others were injured by another shell.
Witnesess said that a number mortars landed near the house of Prime Minister Abdi Farah near the presidential palace, not yet know the source of those mortar that aroused great concern among civilians in the capital.
After the shellings, it was reported that the government troops have seized over 100 people during the operation in Hodan district. These people were suspects of al Shabab fighters.
The Somali government has announced a crackdown in the capital to fight the armed groups, which it described as seeking to destabilize security and stability of the capital.
Clashes kill 10 in Jowhar
17 Jun- Source: Radio Garowe/SNTV- 179 words
Clashes erupted in Jowhar, middle Shebelle region between clan militia and government forces on Saturday. According to local sources, at least 10 people were killed in the battle on the outskirts of Johwar.
Johwar district government officials said that government forces clashed with alleged al Shabaab fighters after the forces reportedly headed to an area where a murder occurred.
However, traditional elders in the region disputed Mr. Irro’s allegations, saying that their militia was responsible for the clashes after government forces attempted to force them out of their homes.
Elder Ali said that his clan had fought hard against al Shabaab and denied the allegations that al Shabaab fighters took part in Saturday’s clashes.
Clan elders held a press conference earlier this week insisting that the SFG intervene in the region. Also traditional elders in the region of Hiraan held a event earlier this week accusing Hiraan regional officials of “subjugating and marginalizing” minority clans in the region.
Somali Politician blames Kenyan forces on political dispute in Lower Jubba region
16 Jun- Source: Radio Mustaqbal-159 words
Mohamed Amin Abdullahi Osman who is one of Somali politicians in Lower Jubba region has blamed Kenyan forces in Kismayo on the political discord and the fighting in the region.
Mohamed said that they are saddened by the fighting which took place in Kismayo, and added the responsibility of that battle is on the Kenyan forces in the town, those he said, they are interfering the policy of lower Jubba region.
The politician called on Somali government and international community to take legal action against Kenya forces in Kismayo where they operate under AMISOM mandate. He also alleged Kenyan troops dropped bombs on government troops in parts of Lower Jubba region.
Melbourne Diaspora hold welcoming event for President Farole
16 Jun- Source: Garowe Online- 330 words
The Melbourne Somali community held a welcoming ceremony for Puntland President Abdirahman Mohamed Farole on Saturday, Garowe Online reports. The publicized event was organized by the Puntland Diaspora Forum (PDF) and attended by many Somalis from Australia. President Farole said that, “here in Melbourne, I feel that I am at home and I will speak to you from my heart.”
The Puntland President spoke discussed Federalism and the emerging states.
“Federalism is the only viable model for reconciliation in Somalia. In 1998, the people of Puntland organize themselves to build Puntland State awaiting membership in a future Federal Republic of Somalia. Puntland wants to see the formation of other Federated States and for Puntland’s security interests; we preferred the formation of an effective state to our south, in the Galmudug area. However, history had a different plan and Jubaland was born first and we welcome Jubaland as a member state of the new Federal Republic of Somalia,” President Farole said.
Prof Gandi: the only solution for Jubaland is to form an all-inclusive administration
16 Jun- Source: Radio Shabelle- 76 words
Somalia’s prominent Politician Prof Mohamed Abdi Gandi who hails from the lower Juba region of Somalia has called for the establishment of a new administration in the Juba regions of Somalia which represents descendants of the region. The Prof said that an all-inclusive administration representing all the communities living in the region is the only solution to calm the situation in Kismayu.
Court in Somaliland sentenced a man to death
16 Jun- Source: Radio Bar-kulan- 135 words
Somaliland high court has today sentenced Mohamed Ahmed Hirse, 24 years of age, to death penalty after he was convinced guilty of killing his wife Farhio in the north eastern town of Burco last week.
Declaring the decision by the court, Somaliland high court magistrate Yusuf Ismail said that Mohamed was sentenced death penalty after the accused was found guilty of stabbing his wife Farhio to death in Burco last Monday. The accused also admitted that he hacked his wife to death.
The magistrate added that the court has used the verse of the Quran that sentenced murderers since Somaliland constitution bases on the Islamic rule of law. Mohmed Ahmed Hirsi who was today sentenced to death by a court in Hargeisa was reportedly stabbed his wife.
REGIONAL MEDIA
Terror suspect gunned down in Mombasa
17 Jun- Source: Star (Kenya)/Daily Nation/Standard- 120 words
Wanted terror suspect Kassim Omolo was this morning gunned down by officers from the Anti-Terror Police Unit . The shootout took place at about 3am this morning in Mlaleo area Kisauni where Omolo was killed in his house to which police had trailed him.
The officers recovered two hand grenades, a pistol and an AK 47 rifle loaded with 212 rounds of ammunition. Kisauni Deputy OCPD Joseph Sanguti confirmed the incident adding that the ATPU officers trailed Omolo to his home before engaging him in a shootout after he failed to surrender. Omolo was among other suspects wanted for terrorist activities in the country. He is believed to have been in Somalia for training.
Djibouti trains 500 troops in Beledweyne
16 Jun – Source: Sabahi online – 124 words
Djiboutian soldiers are training a second group of 500 Somali soldiers in Beledweyne, Djibouti’s Ambassador to Somalia Dayib Doubad Robleh told Somali Prime Minister Abdi Farah Shirdon during a meeting Saturday(June 15th).
Shirdon recognised Djibouti’s contributions to the African Union Mission in Somalia, the Djiboutian News Agency reported. The two officials also discussed challenges in the formation of a Jubbaland federal state.
Shirdon said his government would “apply an effective federal system of government that respects the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Somalia, but also relies on constructive and sincere partnership between the central power and local administrations”.
Humanitarian operations resume in Kismayo
16 Jun – Source: Sabahi online – 177 words
Humanitarian services have resumed in Kismayo after a temporary halt during clashes in the city last week, the United Nations Office for the Co-ordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) reported Friday (June 14th).
Nonetheless, aid workers’ movement is restricted due to security concerns.
Clashes between supporters of political rivals Sheikh Ahmed Mohamed Islam Madobe of the Ras Kamboni Brigade and tribal leader Iftin Hassan Basto killed 31 people and injured 38 between June 7th and 10th, according to the World Health Organisation. Some city residents were displaced during the fighting, but moved to other locations within the city rather than leaving Kismayo.
Most schools and humanitarian offices in Kismayo were closed during the clashes but have since re-opened, OCHA said. Kismayo Hospital and the Army Hospital have continued receiving patients throughout, though Kismayo Hospital is operating at reduced capacity.
Three nutritional feeding centres run by local organisations are open, but are reportedly low on supplies.
Local taxes, overseas remittances to the rescue
15 Jun- Source: East African- 360 words
Without international recognition, Somaliland is deprived of foreign aid and foreign direct investments and cannot borrow from the World Bank and International Monetary Fund. The country has to depend on taxes, inland revenues, Customs and remittances from its nationals in the diaspora to raise revenue for running the government.
The current government of Ahmed Mahamoud Silanyo is looking at a $130 million budget to be read in September. In the past financial year, the government met 76 per cent of its tax collection target.
“We want our people to first try to fund the government operations before they look for funding from other countries,” said the Director-General (Permanent Secretary) in the Ministry of Finance, Suleiman Jama Diriye.
A weekend in Mogadishu
15 Jun- Source: Daily Nation- 604 words
“Would passengers departing for Mogadishu on East African Safari Air, flight number B5 1825, please proceed to Gate Number 3.’ ‘Safari Air’ – that sounded good, sounded like a tourist trip.
There were many other calls for flights that Friday morning while we were enjoying a very early fried breakfast at the Java at JKIA – calls for destinations such as Entebbe, Juba, Dar es Salaam and Zanzibar.
‘Now Zanzibar, that would be nice,’ one of my colleagues joked. ‘Sandy beaches, the Indian Ocean, the Freddy Mercury Bar – I don’t think we are going see much of beaches or bars in Mogadishu!’
Perhaps being condemned to the seemingly underground Gate Number 3 was something of an indication that this wasn’t intended to be anything of a holiday weekend trip.
Repatriation looms for Somali refugees in Kenya
14 Jun- Source: Sabahi Online- 787 words
Moulid Ali Hassan, a 35-year-old Somali refugee in Kenya’s Dadaab refugee camp, does not want to return home, but prefers to be re-settled in Australia. He says he worries he will be forced to return to Somalia since Kenya and Somalia have established a joint task force to repatriate more than 450,000 Somali refugees from Dadaab.
While some Somalis refugees have already returned home or are preparing to do so, those who have qualified for re-settlement in third countries hesitate to go back, he said. Hassan has lived in Dadaab for more than 15 years and is waiting to finalise his papers for re-settlement to Australia.
Books and faith helped me get over terror attack, says Hassan
14 Jun- Source: Daily Nation- 718 words
Kamukunji MP Yusuf Hassan was injured last year in a grenade attack in Nairobi’s Eastleigh, ending up confined to hospital beds in Kenya and South Africa for several months.
The former exile, who was once at the forefront agitation for political prisoners’ release, had his passport revoked at one point and his father arrested. He speaks of how books kept him going in some of the longest days in his life and why he hopes to return to Kisii High School.
Q: December 6, 2012, is certainly one of the darkest days in your life.
A: It was a great tragedy, very shocking. I mean I have worked in many places rocked by conflicts only to come and be attacked at home. But, it was also only after the accident that I came to know the true spirit of Kenyans, their incredible love and kindness. Kenyans prayed for me in churches and mosques and to-date, people I don’t know stop me in the street to express their sympathies.
INTERNATIONAL MEDIA
Judge direction unclear in Vic terror case
17 Jun- Source: Brisbane times – 363 words
A judge failed to properly instruct a jury about a phone call between a terror suspect and a sheikh in Somalia before the man was convicted of plotting to attack a Sydney army base, a court has been told.
Saney Edow Aweys’ barrister, David Neal SC, said Victorian Supreme Court Justice Betty King did not make “crystal clear” to the jury what they had to do in order to find his client guilty of conspiring to prepare for, or plan a terrorist act, in a 2010 trial.
Dr Neal also told the Victorian Court of Appeal the evidence used to jail Aweys did not support a conviction.
He told the court Justice King did not properly inform the jury that it had to be satisfied that Aweys had phoned a sheikh in Somalia in 2009 and did so with the intention of getting the go ahead on the attack.
Government of the Federal Republic of Somalia appoints GFCL as exclusive financial adviser to Somalia’s National Infrastructure and Development Fund
15 Jun- Source: AME info 391 words
Mr. Arun Panchariya, the Principal of Global Finance & Capital Limited (GFCL), announced that the UK FCA registered corporate finance adviser has been appointed to provide exclusive advisory services to the Government of the Federal Republic of Somalia. Somalia’s first ‘National Infrastructure & Development Fund’ (NIDF) will be administered by a newly created ‘Development Bank’.
The closed-ended fund has already sourced its seed-funding and when established will be managed in partnership with one bi-lateral partner. Discussions are on-going with a number of potential partners. The NIDF is expected to top out at $500m with an eight year time frame for its completion.
SOCIAL MEDIA
CULTURE / OPINION / EDITORIAL / ANALYSIS / BLOGS/ DISCUSSION BOARDS
“Today, Somaliland is an example of democracy in the Horn of Africa where democracy and the rule of law prevail. It has made also extraordinary achievements in economic and social areas; such as education and healthcare and reduction of poverty.”
Somaliland’s Case for Independence and Sovereignty
16 June- Source: Somalilandpress-762 Words
Somaliland, situated in the Horn of Africa covers an area of almost 138,000 square kilometers and a coastline of 850 kilometers across the Aden Gulf. It is bordered on the east by Somalia, on the south and southwest by Ethiopia, on the northwest by Djibouti and on the north by the Aden Gulf. It has a population of almost 3.5 million people. Its boundaries were demarcated by the former British Somaliland protectorate government in the nineteen century which are defined in the following international agreements:
Somaliland became independent from Great Britain on June 26, 1960 and was recognized as an independent and sovereign state by thirty-five member states of the United Nations including the permanent members of the United Nations Security Council. On July, 1st 1960, Somaliland merged, with popular support, with Somalia which became independent from Italy on July 1st 1960. The two countries therefore formed a Union that became known as the Somali Republic. Somaliland’s decision to immediately merge with Somalia was to establish the basis for the eventual unity of all Somali territories under foreign domination in the Horn of Africa.
However, during her Union with Somalia, Somaliland and its people had bitter experience of brutal dictatorship, massive violations of human right, as documented by International Human Rights Organizations, and exploitation. In the civil war in the 1980s between the two countries, the major cities in Somaliland were destroyed by heavy artillery shelling and aerial bombardment by the Mogadishu regime in which thousands of people were massacred, their property looted and more than half a million took refuge in Ethiopia.
“The people are not happy that the international community is yet to recognise Somaliland, despite having in place all the requirements of a republic. Thus, the opposition will not do anything that would put the country in disrepute as they await international recognition.”
Somaliland: So far from Somalia…
14 June- Source: The East African-745 Words
Somaliland, on the Gulf of Aden in the Red Sea, is a major contrast to troubled Somalia, its southern neighbour. The people are fiercely protective of their sovereignty even though the international community has not recognised the country as an independent state.
Since its breakaway from Somalia following the fall of Siad Barre’s government in 1991, Somaliland with a population of 3.5 million, has created working institutions such as the judiciary, the police, a functioning civil service. The country has maintained peace and has held five successive multiparty elections.
Somaliland’s links with the better-known Somalia are through language and religion, but the culture is different. Somalilanders are trying to balance maintaining their unique identity with borrowing a few things from their southern brothers. For example, while all vehicles are right hand drives, they still drive on the right side of the road like in the south — unusual anywhere in the world. Countries that drive on the left typically have right-hand drive cars, and vice versa.
Top tweets
@amisomsomalia QUOTE OF THE DAY: #Somalia has every possible potential in terms of location and natural resources #PresidentHassan http://on.fb.me/YJ6HUd
@USEmbassyKenya Join the 2nd in a webchat series linking #Somali activists, citizens & diaspora, 6/18 at 1900HRS: http://goo.gl/X9PfD @USDOTSomali
@joshkariuki Can #Kenya interests not be secured if we nudged Jubaland to join #Somalia govt thru have a transitional admin in Kismayu? @AMB_A_Mohammed
@MattBryden #Somalia #Jubaland elders appoint Omar Abdirashid and Gandhi to chair reconciliation committeehttp://goo.gl/m87H6
@Lattif “The Youth are the Leaders of Tomorrow” reads this art on a wall in #Mogadishu‘s Kaaraan District. #Somaliapic.twitter.com/0X7pCl6z6X
Image of the day
Participants attend a two-day AMISOM Troop and Police Contributing Countries (P/TCCs Communications Workshop at the Golf Course Hotel in Kampala-Uganda. Photo: AMISOM