June 22, 2016 | Daily Monitoring Report
Somali President Reaches Baidoa To Open National Consultative Forum
22 June – Source: Goobjoog News – 102 Words
A high-level delegation led by the President of the Federal Republic of Somalia Hassan Sheikh Mohamud has reached Baidoa town. The president was welcomed by a large delegation including President Shariif Adan of Southwest State, high-ranking officials, and members of parliament. President Hassan is expected to officially open the National Consultative Forum for this year’s election process.
Delegates from the Federal Government and regional administrations will be attending the conference. Security forces have been deployed on major roads in the town to ensure security is maintained. Top Somali political leaders will be disucssing the way forward for the looming elections.
Key Headlines
- Somali President Reaches Baidoa To Open National Consultative Forum (Goobjoog News)
- Southwest State Praises Puntland Education System (Garowe Online)
- Kenya Jets Bomb Al-Shabaab Camp (Goobjoog News)
- Somalia’s Limited Polls Overshadowed By Clan Rivalries And Al-Shabaab (The Guardian)
- Somalia Security Chief Killed By Own Guard Al-Shabaab Claims Responsibility (The Daily Star Lebanon)
- Closure Of Kenyan Refugee Camp Worries Religious Leaders (Religious News Service)
- Somalia In A Snapchat More Than Just Violence (Al Jazeera)
NATIONAL MEDIA
Southwest State Praises Puntland Education System
22 June – Source: Garowe Online – 132 Words
Minister of Educaiton in Southwest State Sadad Mohamed Nur Aliyow has praised Puntland for the progress it has made in the education system. In an interview with Puntland-based independent station, Radio Garowe, Aliyow who is on a three-day working visit to the northeastern state said, his chief aim has been to draw lessons from Puntland in the education policy.
“We are in Puntland for experience sharing. It can help us immensely due to its maturity for 19 years,” noted Aliyow. The Southwest State official added that Puntland Minsitry of Education has expressed its readiness for sharing experience with his ministry in training schemes for teachers and curriculum preparations. Jubaland delegation has previously made a similar experience-sharing visit and received trainings from Puntland Finance Ministry. Puntland achieved harmonization of secondary schools syllabi between public and private schools in 2009.
Kenya Jets Bomb Al-Shabaab Camp
22 June – Source: Goobjoog News – 259 Words
Kenyan fighter jets bombed Al-Shabaab targets in the outskirt of the southern Somali town of Elwak on Tuesday. Residents in Elwak town said that the Kenyan jets targeted a village which serves as a base for Al-Shabaab.
“We heard planes flying over followed by explosions in the village. I don’t know if anyone was hurt in the explosions,” a resident in Elwak town said. “One plane bombed a checkpoint and Al-Shabaab fighters there were firing guns at it,” added the resident. However, the Kenyan military spokesman was unavailable for comment on Tuesday’s raids.
A Pro-Al-Shabaab radio confirmed the strikes saying the planes hit the village but did not cause any casualties, a claim that has not been independently verified. The Al-Shabaab fighters were quoted saying they have “repulsed the Kenya airstrikes.” Kenyan troops, part of the AU peacekeeping Mission in Somalia (AMISOM), have been deployed in the southern Somali regions along the two countries’ common border.
AMISOM troops and Somali government forces launched a major offensive against the group this year and forced Al-Shabaab fighters from a number of key areas in the south and center of Somalia. The offensive was reportedly suspended by AMISOM and requested UN for more personnel and equipment to help them cope with the expanding areas under Somali government control.
INTERNATIONAL MEDIA
Somalia’s Limited Polls Overshadowed By Clan Rivalries And Al-Shabaab
22 June – Source: The Guardian – 779 Words
As Somalia prepares to choose a new government in August, there are concerns that the powerful clans who have long dominated political life in the country may try to manipulate the ballot while al-Shabaab militants also pose a threat, a senior UN official has said. Michael Keating, the head of the UN mission in Somalia, said there are significant security challenges around the electoral process.
After years of conflict and a 2011 famine, and with al-Shabaab launching frequent attacks against peacekeeping forces and civilians, there is no possibility of holding a popular vote in Somalia. Instead, clan elders, as well as representatives from community groups and civil society, will choose members of parliament, who then choose the head of state.
“These are very limited elections. Probably only about 14,000 people [from a population of more than 10 million] will put something in a ballot box … That may sound like a very modest number, and it is, but the last electoral process … involved just 135 people – men, elders choosing up to 275 members of parliament,” Keating said.
In that 2012 election, there were concerns that some clans, whose rivalries have poisoned politics and sparked conflict for decades, with many controlling their own militia, had influenced the ballot through bribes. Tribal elders need to see the “added value of a state”, said Keating, who took over as special representative to the UN secretary general in January.
Somalia Security Chief Killed By Own Guard, Al-Shabaab Claims Responsibility
22 June – Source: The Daily Star, Lebanon – 189 Words
The Islamist militant group Al-Shabaab claimed responsibility for the killing of a senior Somalia security official, who was was gunned down late Tuesday by one of his own bodyguards. Abdiweli Ibrahim Mohamed, the head of national security in Somalia’s Middle Shebelle region, was shot dead in Jowhar, a town 90 kilometers north of Mogadishu.
“Two other bodyguards were wounded,” Ahmed Mohamud, a police officer in Jowhar, said. “The assassin ran away, we are pursuing him.” Residents said the bodyguard who shot the security chief was a former member of Al-Shabaab who had defected to the government.
A spokesman for Al-Shabaab, an Al-Qaeda linked group which seeks to topple the western backed government in Mogadishu and impose Islamic law, or sharia, claimed responsibility. “We are behind the killing of the head of the national security for Middle Shebelle region,” Sheikh Abdiasis Abu Musab, spokesman for the group’s military operations, told Reuters late Tuesday.
Closure Of Kenyan Refugee Camp Worries Religious Leaders
22 June – Source: Religion News Service – 396 Words
Religious leaders and humanitarian activists are urging the government to treat the mostly Muslim Somali migrants who are facing expulsion from the Dadaab refugee camp with dignity. The camp, one of the world’s largest, will be shut down this year, the government announced last month. It has nearly 350,000 displaced people and is a commercial hub in the region.
Religious and humanitarian groups have urged Kenya to delay the closure of the camp. Clergy, in particular, have warned of a potential humanitarian crisis in the Eastern Africa region if the camp is closed. The closure comes amid a new U.N. report that finds the number of displaced people around the world reached 65 million, the highest since World War II.
Kenya has rebuffed the criticism, though, insisting on the camp closure and the refugees’ repatriation to Somalia. The camp was created 25 years ago and has become a security threat and an economic burden. “Since they have decided to go ahead with it, we are now trying to see that the exercise is carried out with dignity and a humane manner,” said Roman Catholic Bishop Joseph Alessandro of the Garissa Diocese, where the camp is situated.
OPINION, ANALYSIS, AND CULTURE
“We don’t want the media to just show the negative, the suffering. We want them to show our full lives. There is so much happening in Mogadishu and other towns and cities. It seems like they are not interested in anything other than the suffering of our people.”
Somalia In A Snapchat, More Than Just Violence
22 June – Source: Al Jazeera – 802 Words
It’s Friday afternoon on Lido beach in the Somali capital, Mogadishu. It is the start of the weekend and families in their Friday best outfits have flocked to the beach and the eateries that hug the pristine blue waters of the Indian Ocean. “Come together, closer, smile. This one is going up on Snapchat,” Zakariye Abdirahman instructed out loud as he took photos on his smartphone.
Abdirahman and his five other friends have come to the city’s most popular beach to show the “other side of Somalia”, the side they say the media ignores. They are volunteer social media activists and go around the city and nearby towns and villages when they are not at work or at school, taking photographs of the changing faces of their country. Thousands of people follow the activists on their social media accounts to get a glimpse of the everyday life in the horn of the African country.
“I post the photos on my social media accounts to show people the reality in our city. I take photos of the latest developments in Mogadishu. Many people have contacted me saying they never knew Mogadishu is like this. Others have visited the city after seeing some of my pictures.” Abdirahman told Al Jazeera.
The Somali capital, which was reduced to rubble by warring clan militias after more than two decades of civil war, has been undergoing a revival. Al-Shabaab, the al-Qaeda-linked armed group which is fighting to overthrow the country’s western-backed government, was pushed out of the city in 2011. The group has also lost control of most towns and cities in the country but still carries out attacks and targeted assassinations.
TOP TWEETS
@PeacebuildingRC : Transitional justice is a must for #Somaliato recover #TraumaHealing
@WhoseinMoulid: Since Jan this year over 10K Somali refugees returned to #Somalia from #Kenya mainly #Dadaab refugees camps.
@UNFPA_SOMALIA : #Somalia #FGM Taskforce supported by DFID discusses use of data/evidence towards zero tolerance of FGM @UKinSomalia
@anas_maxamud : Somali owned shops in #Pretoria looted & razed down #SouthAfrica police part of the looting operation #Somalia #ShameOnYouSouthAfricans
@Abdi_AlSheikh : Somalia security chief killed by own guard, Al-Shabaab claims responsibility – The Daily Starhttp://dlvr.it/LcxlhV #Somalia
@Yassinjuma : KDF jet fighters hit #Alshabaab camps #ElWakGedo #Somalia. Follows spate of attacks by group in Kenya this wk
@ElysianFleur : There are some really heartbreaking stories of displacement from #Somalia to #Syria & beyond. The#RefugeeCrisis is real, wake up world!
@_hozint : #Somalia Grenade attack at military outpost in Marka leaves 1 dead and 6 injured
IMAGE OF THE DAY
A committee appointed by the Federal Government of Somalia to formulate a strategy for increased women’s participation in upcoming legislative elections, has concluded consultative discussions hoped to guarantee 30 percent women’s representation.
Photo: AMISOM