June 21, 2012 | Morning Headlines.

Main Story

Beledweyne Airport ready to accommodate military and civilian aircraft

20 Jun – Source: Radio Bar-kulan – 98 words

Beledweynes’s Ugas Khalif airport is now ready to accommodate both civil and military airlines operations, regional authorities say. Speaking at a ceremony in Beledweyne where the airport was officially reopened, the area’s deputy regional security boss Ahmed Osman Abdulle said commercial, private as well as military aircraft can use the airport. He said the move is aimed at improving the region’s development and boosting the public services in the district.

Key Headlines

Somalia’s Roadmap signatories meeting kicks off in Nairobi Kenya (Bar-Kulan)
After 22 days Somaliland’s main airport still closed (Hadhwanaag Times)
Senior Al Shabaab leaders flee to Yemen as KDF eyes Kismayu (The Star)
Al Shabaab militias flee to Daadab Lamu (The Star)
Survey shows Somalis have mostly shared vision for future (VOA News)
South Somalia harvest seen below average by USAID on late rain (Bloomberg)

SOMALI MEDIA

Somalia’s Roadmap signatories meeting kicks off in Nairobi, Kenya

20 Jun – Source: Radio Bar-kulan/Shabelle – 150 words

Signatories of Somalia’s political process dubbed “the Roadmap” yesterday met in Nairobi, where they are expected to discuss a range of issue regarding the process. Leaders attending the two-day meeting include President Sharif Sheikh Ahmed, Prime Minister Abdiweli Mohamed Ali, speaker of the transitional federal parliament and officials from regional governments of Puntland and Galmudug as well as the Ahlu Sunna group. Sources close to the meeting say the leaders will also discuss on how to work on another plan to end the current transition period.

Beledweyne Airport ready to accommodate military and civilian aircraft

20 Jun – Source: Radio Bar-kulan – 98 words

A journalist wounded in landmine blast in Mogadishu, Bar-Kulan Radio journalist flown toNairobi for further treatment

20 Jun – Source: Somaliweyn – 130 words

The National Union of Somali Journalists is concerned about the increasing journalists’ casualties in Somalia after a broadcast journalist was wounded in a landmine blast in Mogadishu on Sunday 17 June, 2012 around 7:00pm, while the union hopes a quick recovery for another wounded journalist who was flown to Nairobi for further medical treatment. The journalist, Abdifatah Ibrahim Hassan, a newscaster of SIMBA radio, a privately owned radio station, was wounded by a shrapnel from a landmine blast on Sunday evening, June 17, 2012 around 7:00pm local time, as he left the radio station at Bakaro market and heading his home at Hamar-Bile neighborhood.

After 22 days, Somaliland’s main airport still closed

20 Jun – Source: Hadhwanaag Times/Haatuf – 183 words

The Somaliland’s main airport Egal International Airport is still closed for 22 days as Somaliland people are suffering because of closure, according to Haatuf newspaper. The airport was closed because the government of Somaliland has signed a deal with China Hona Group to refurbish and modernize the airport, Haatuf local newspaper reported. And so far, the airport has not received any repairing service as the government already declared the Hargeisa airport will be modernized.

REGIONAL MEDIA

Senior Al Shabaab leaders flee to Yemen as KDF eyes Kismayu

20 Jun – Source: Star (Kenya) – 1532 words

April 4th will forever remain etched into the memory of Kenyan troops in Central sector, Somalia, as the most fierce and toughest battle to have been fought between them and al Shabaab insurgents in the strategic town of Hosingow. Eager to recapture Hosingow which had been taken by KDF, al Shabaab insurgents launched what they believed was a well co-ordinated attack. They believed that Hosingow had been left with a weaker force after a long convoy of KDF vehicles left the small town for the Afmadhow onslaught.

US Congress not ‘so enthusiastic’ on Kismayu assault

19 Jun – Source: the East African – 593 words

Calls by Kenya’s Prime Minister Raila Odinga last week for US financial aid for a planned Kenyan assault on the Somalia port of Kismayu could go unanswered due to growing resistance in the US Congress. A powerful American senator told The EastAfricana few days prior to Mr Odinga’s remarks that he is seeking to cut American military aid to Kenya.

Al Shabaab militias flee to Daadab, Lamu

20 Jun – Source: Star (Kenya) – 383 words

Senior Kenya Defence Force officers are concerned al Shabaab terrorists are escaping into Kenya as the operation to rout the insurgents from Somalia gains momentum. Intelligence reports indicate the al Qaeda-linked insurgents have been seen heading to Dadaab refugee camp and towards Kiunga, Kiwayu and Lamu islands. “They are escaping to Kiwayu and Lamu and they are being accommodated by the locals before those who have passports board flights and escape from the country.

INTERNATIONAL MEDIA

Somaliland talks set to start in secret UK location

20 Jun – Source: BBC – 223 words

Leaders from Somalia and Somaliland are due to start the first ever formal discussions on the future of the self-proclaimed Somaliland republic. It broke away in 1991 and wants to be a separate country – but it has not been internationally recognised. Mogadishu wants the northern territory to be part of a single Somali state. Since declaring independence, Somaliland has enjoyed relative peace in contrast to the rest of Somalia, which has been plagued by conflict.

Survey shows Somalis have mostly shared vision for future

20 Jun – Source: VOA News – 420 words
A new Voice of America Somali Service survey reveals many Somalis share similar opinions on key issues regarding the draft constitution that is scheduled to become a provisional ruling document in July.
The survey was part of a larger program to engage Somalis around the world in a discussion of the kind of government they want after more than two decades of strife have decimated national institutions.

South Somalia harvest seen below average by USAID on late rain

20 Jun – Source: Bloomberg – 166 words

Somalia may harvest a below-average main crop in the country’s south after late rainfall, which may prolong the lean season by a month and cause food security to deteriorate, the U.S. Agency for International Development said. The so-called Gu harvest has been harmed by moisture stress as well as pest infestations, USAID wrote in a report on its website today. Most parts of the rain-fed crop areas in the south received only very light rain in May, it wrote.

SOCIAL MEDIA

CULTURE / OPINION / EDITORIAL / BLOGS/ DISCUSSION BOARDS

“In short, Al Shabaab is on the back-foot, but has not been finished. It still controls huge tracts of Somalia and has a fighting force that is several thousand strong. It can still stage terrorist attacks, like the (unsuccessful) one on May 29 on the life of Somalia’s President Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed. Its ability to launch major attacks to recapture towns like Afmadow, is increasingly in doubt. It may, however, bounce back to life — just as the Taliban and Al Qaeda did in Afghanistan after the post 9/11 US-led military offensive lost its steam following the diversion of Washington’s attention and resources to the war in Iraq — if the African Union and the United States do not sustain their drive.”

Bruised and beaten but still dangerous

21 June- Source: Daily Pioneer-721 Words

US President Barack Obama’s recent letter to the United States’ Congress stating that American troops had been engaged in “a limited number” of operations against Al Shabaab in Somalia and Al Qaeda in Arabian Peninsula in Yemen, once again draws attention to a war whose importance remains to be adequately appreciated. This applies particularly to Somalia where the troop of the countries participating in the African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM), mainly Uganda, Kenya, Burundi and Ethiopia, with Djibouti, Nigeria, Ghana, Sierra Leone, Cameroun, Mali, Senegal and Zambia, marking nominal presence, have been battling the Al Qaeda-linked fundamentalist Islamist organisation, al Shabaab. Though the latter, which first emerged into prominence in December 2006, and which has been proclaiming its allegiance to Al Qaeda since 2007, still controls the bulk of the country’s area, it is beginning to lose ground and support at a rate significant enough to prompt speculation about its impending rout.