June 3, 2015 | Daily Monitoring Report
Somalia Appoints Ambassadors To The US And Turkey
03 June – Source: Somali Current – 332 Words
Somali President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud nominated Ahmed Isse Awad and Abdullahi Mohamed Ali “Sanbalolshe” as the new ambassadors to the United States and Turkey respectively, sources close to Villa Somalia told Somali Current. The move seeks to consolidate the diplomatic ties Somalia has with the two countries, which provide military and other development supports. President Hassan Sheikh, nominated Ahmed Isse Awad to serve as Somalia Ambassador to United States. He will fill the position left by the current Prime Minister Omar Abdirashid Sharmake. The new ambassador who was born in Garowe left the country shortly after the civil war broke. Ahmed, close ally of the current Prime Minister studied Canada and has worked with United Nations in South Sudan. His nomination comes month after US ambassador to Somalia, Catherine Dhanani withdraw her nomination, citing personal reasons. The United States has donated more than $512 million to provide support to the AU Mission in Somalia (AMISOM) to build capacity to counter Al-Shabaab in Somalia and provide space for political progress.
On the other hand, Abdullahi Mohamed Ali more commonly known as “Sanbalolshe” was nominated as the ambassador to Turkey. Abdullahi “Sanbalolshe” has served as the Chief of the National Intelligence and Security Agency from July to September 2014 following a security reform. Sanbalolshe who is newcomer to the political arena also briefly served as Somali ambassador to the UK. “Turkey has already done a lot in the country. It is diplomatically important to have a mission in Turkey,” said William Musyimi, a specialist in the horn of African affairs. He added that Turkey leaders, including the president, have in the last three months visited the country as a show of “solidarity”, saying it was an opportunity the Somali government cannot afford to miss. The Turkish government has a lot of influence in Somalia. It refurbished Aden Ade International airport and other important instillation in the country.
Key Headlines
- Somalia Appoints Ambassadors To The US And Turkey (Somali Current)
- Food And Fuel Prices Rise In Burdubo (Radio Ergo)
- Somaliland Arrests Elders Over Mining Controversy (Hiiraan Online)
- Security Operations Kick Off In Baidoa Following Killing Of Deputy Police Commander (Wacaal Media)
- Fake Currency Floods Buhodle (Radio Ergo)
- Ex-Somali FIFA Official Was First Whistleblower To Expose FIFA Scandal (Sahan Journal)
- MasterCard Crosses Final African Frontier As It Enters Somalia (Bloomberg)
- Somali MPs Protest Against Border Wall (The Star Kenya)
- Kenyan Leader Proposes New Tactics In fight Against Militant Islam (Reuters)
- Thousands of Yemenis Seeking Refuge In Troubled Somalia (CCTV)
- Geopolitical Showdown in the Horn (Hiiraan Online)
NATIONAL MEDIA
Food And Fuel Prices Rise In Burdubo
03 June – Source: Radio Ergo – 212 Words
Escalating prices of rice, flour, sugar and other basic food items are causing hardship to local people, as the effects of an ongoing blockade on the town continue to bite. Mohamed Hussein, a resident, told Radio Ergo’s local reporter that a sack of rice had risen from 900,000 shillings three months ago to 1,300,000 shillings. Sainab Ahmed, a mother of five, said poor people could not afford the current prices. “The limited food supplies coming in to the remaining people in the town are smuggled on donkeys from Luuq, 120 km away,” she said. Surrounding roads have been cut off for some time by Al-Shabaab forces. Most livestock herders moved to other places in search of water and food during the dry season. Those remaining are mainly farmers. One of them, Ahmed Musse, told Radio Ergo he and many others had been forced to stop planting as they had no diesel to power their generators. A barrel of fuel, when available, is selling at $300. Locals report that 1 kg of flour has risen from 25,000 from 16,000 shillings; sugar from 20,000 to 30,000 shillings and a three litre can of cooking oil costs 130,000 shillings.
Somaliland Arrests Elders Over Mining Controversy
03 June – Source: Hiiraan Online – 290 Words
Security forces in Somaliland, a breakaway region in northern Somalia, have arrested several well-known elders from a town where a Chinese mineral firm started mining for minerals following controversies over resources sharing procedure, elders said on Tuesday. The elders in the mountainous Baki town in Awdal region have expressed concerns over an alleged misappropriation by the government which awarded a mineral mining contract to a Chinese firm which would explore the region’s mineral potentials. The exploration has already started on the Simodi Mountain in Baki town; however, authorities haven’t so far released any details about the new operation.
Elders in the region told Hiiraan Online, the government has evicted many residents from the area in accordance with the Chinese firm demands, sparking outrage among the residents who were reported to have tried to disrupt the discovery process. “The Chinese have even denied us of any employment prospect, we can’t agree to that,” said Suldan Ibrahim, a traditional elder in the town. He blamed the Chinese firm officials of being behind the arrest of the elders by the government, warning a possible environmental impact from the chemicals the mining firm would use for its mining operation.
Critics accuse the Somaliland government of vagueness in swaying the apparent public discontent towards its new resources attempt, cautioning its wealth may wind up being more of a curse than a blessing. According to Mindat.org, an outreach project for the Hudson Institute of Mineralogy, Somaliland has several mineral localities including Mohlileh Hill, Darkainle complex, Borama District and Awdal. Somaliland, a breakaway region in northern Somalia has declared a unilateral independence from the rest of Somalia in 1991; however, no country has so far recognized it as an independent state.
Security Operations Kick Off In Baidoa Following Killing Of Deputy Police Commander
03 June – Source: Wacaal Media – 89 Words
Following the killing of a security officer in the area, officials launched massive security operations to apprehend criminal elements. Col. Aliyow Salaan who was the deputy commander of police in Baidoa was shot dead by armed suspected members of Al-Shabaab. One of the assailants was gunned down immediately after the attack. A minister of the South West state told local media that they will not rest unless they have cleared the area of criminals. It is not the first time such an attack has occurred in the area.
Ex-Somali FIFA Official Was First Whistleblower To Expose FIFA Scandal
03 June – Source: Sahan Journal – 311 Words
A former senior Somali FIFA official, who died in 2008, was one of the first whistleblowers to go public in 2002 about the alleged corruption in FIFA after he accused Sepp Blatter of bribery in his first election bid in 1998. Blatter, who was re-elected last week for a fifth term as president of FIFA, resigned his position on Tuesdayamid corruption scandal. The New York Times reported that Blatter is the focus of a U.S. federal corruption investigation as part of corruption probe targeting FIFA officials. Farah Weheliye Addo, former president of the Somali Football Association and former vice president of the Confederation of African Football, alleged in 2002 that he was offered $100,000 to back Blatter’s first bid to become FIFA president in 1998.
Farah said he had been offered the money by Blatter’s supporters to switch votes in the FIFA presidential elections. Farah turned down the offer and alleged: “eighteen African voters accepted bribes to vote for Blatter,” according to reports. After the allegations, Blatter tried to silence Farah. Blatter allegedly paid FIFA referee Lucien Bouchardeau of Niger $25,000 and promised him $25,000 more in return for information on Farah. Blatter didn’t deny the payments to Bouchardeau. He said at the time that he paid the money out of goodness to help Bouchardeau. “Because of Addo, Bouchardeau has been left out in the cold in Africa. He said to me with tears in his eyes that he was a poor devil and had nothing left. So I gave him $25,000 of my own money,” Blatter said. “I’m too good a person.” Farah was a renowned international referee who handled some of the World Cup qualifiers in 1973. He died in Egypt in 2008 at the age of 73 and was buried in Mogadishu.
Fake Currency Floods Buhoodle
02 June – Source: Radio Ergo – 439 Words
Residents of Buhoodle town have been grappling with rising prices for the last two months following circulation of fake bank notes in the area. The notes, which reportedly originate from the central regions of the country, have created huge inflation in Buhoodle. Residents have incurred losses after being paid in fake bank notes. Food prices have been rising by the day. “I brought two goats for sale, and sold them for 600,000 Somali shillings each. But when I went to shop for my family, I was turned away by traders as half the amount I was carrying turned out to be fake,” said Mohamed Abdullahi Haji Nuh, a herder at the local livestock market. He said he could not tell the difference between the fake and genuine notes, as he could not read or write. He would have to sell more of his animals to meet his family needs. Abdikadir Abdi Mohamed, the Manager of Al-Hayat trading, said circulation of fake money in the market had caused prices to rise.
A 50 kg sack of rice had gone up three dollars to $34. Local trader Mohamed Abdi Hassan confirmed receiving fake money on more than one occasion. The money was concealed in bundles of genuine notes. “It results in heated exchanges when you tell someone that the money he is carrying is fake, it also takes us time to separate the fake notes from the genuine ones. I am thinking of selling in US dollars only,” Hassan said. Saynab Mohamud Abdi runs butchery in the town. “I normally make just a small profit margin in this business and am member of a merry-go-round [small community loan scheme]. When it was my turn to receive member contributions recently, I was shocked to find that most of it was fake currency,” she said.
“I don’t want others to incur losses the way I did so I am thinking of burning the fake notes.” The money has made its way into all sectors of the economy. Construction worker Abdirashid Ali Mohamed said half of his wages were paid in fake notes. Money changer Mohamed Adan said the fake notes were easily distinguishable because they were smaller and lighter than real notes, and the quality of paper was poor. He said the shilling has depreciated against the dollar locally due to the influx of the fake currency. Local administrator Abdifatah Ali Awil said they were looking for those responsible for distributing the fake currency. “We suspect the fake money originates from Adado and other towns in the central regions and hope to nail those behind the racket,” he said.
INTERNATIONAL MEDIA
MasterCard Crosses Final African Frontier As It Enters Somalia
03 June – Source: Bloomberg – 372 Words
MasterCard Inc. has formed an alliance with a Somali bank to issue debit cards in the last African market aside from nations under sanctions where it wasn’t present. “These are the first domestically issued debit cards” in Somalia, Daniel Monehin, MasterCard’s division president for sub-Saharan Africa, said Tuesday in a phone interview before the World Economic Forum on Africa in Cape Town. MasterCard’s Somali partner, Premier Bank Ltd., “is professionally run and we have been in negotiations with them for some time,” he said. The East African lender meets all of the standards set on anti-money laundering and “know your customer” rules, he said.
Somalia has been mired in decades of conflict since civil war in 1991, and the government continues to battle al-Qaeda-linked Al-Shabaab insurgents intent on establishing a strict form of Islamic law and a pirate scourge. The turmoil has restricted development of its banking system, and the country installed the first ATM machines in the capital, Mogadishu, only last year. “Africa is one of the fastest growing regions for MasterCard and we see that continuing for the medium to long term,” Monehin said. “We’re beginning to have deep levels of engagement with governments, banks and telcos. Africa is ready for development and for moving to electronic payments because it’s safe, smart and can be used to collect government payments.”
Somali MPs Protest Against Border Wall
03 June – Source: The Star, Kenya – 407 Words
A NUMBER of Members of Parliament in Mogadishu on Monday protested Kenya’s move to build a security wall along its border with Somalia. The legislators argued the construction of the security wall is an “infringement on our territorial integrity” and insisted Kenya had encroached on their land. Kenya is planning to build a 440-mile wall along its border with Somalia in a bid to keep out Al-Shabaab and boost security after a wave of attacks that have claimed scores of lives and provoked severe criticism of the government’s response. The wall, a series of concrete barriers, fences, ditches and observation posts overlooked by CCTV stations, is expected to stretch from the Indian Ocean to Mandera, where both countries converge with Ethiopia. Efforts to contact officials of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs were unsuccessful as phones went unanswered.
Foreign Affairs Secretary Amina Mohammed is in Juba for peace talks and Principal Secretary Karanja Kibicho accompanied President Uhuru Kenyatta to Khartoum for the swearing-in ceremony of President Omar al Bashir. The MPs’ protest came as locals in Beled Hawo near Mandera held demonstrations against what they called “colonial tendencies” by Kenya. The protesters held placards calling on President Hassan Shiekh Mohamud to “exert authority” and “protect Somali land”. “As member of IGAD and an eastern Africa country, we ask Kenya to move their construction equipment and guarding military hardware with immediate effect,” said MP Mohamed Talha in Mogadishu.
Kenyan Leader Proposes New Tactics In fight Against Militant Islam
03 June – Source: Reuters – 420 Words
Kenya’s President Uhuru Kenyatta has promised a new campaign to stop people joining violent radical groups and to fight the influence of Somali Islamists whose attacks have killed hundreds and threatened growing prosperity. Suggesting a change in strategy with more use of discussion and persuasion, Kenyatta said conventional policing methods would not be enough to tackle the threat from radicalised men and women. “To deal with this enemy, we must keep improving our methods and tactics … We must stop them from being radicalised,” Kenyatta said on Monday during a speech marking Madaraka Day national holiday. Dealing with the rising threat of home-grown radicals has become a priority for Kenyatta. Some of the gunmen involved in the biggest attacks on Kenyan soil in recent years, including the slaughter of 148 people at Garissa university in April, were Kenyan citizens who had joined Somalia’s Al-Shabaab.
The attacks have also threatened Kenya’s rapid growth in prosperity, ravaging the east African nation’s tourism sector and denting its image abroad. Diplomats have long criticised Nairobi for its heavy-handed approach to tackling radicalisation among Kenya’s 4.3 million Muslims, urging the government to use softer tactics that would win over the community and help with intelligence gathering. Al-Shabaab has vowed to punish Kenya for sending troops to Somalia to fight the group as part of an African Union peacekeeping force. Kenyatta did not reveal how the anti-radicalisation drive will work in practice, but said the government would soon start working with civil-society groups and faith based leaders to implement it.
Thousands of Yemenis Seeking Refuge In Troubled Somalia
02 June – Source: CCTV – Video – 1:57 Minutes
Thousands of Yemeni refugees continue to flee the country, with many heading across the Gulf of Aden to places like Somalia and Djibouti. Yemen is in the middle of its most severe crisis on record. And the country’s most vulnerable suffer most. Many have fled to Somalia. From one troubled country to another. “We fled from one crisis, but there’s another one here. One battle in our country – another war here. We hope things ease back home. Then we will go back to our country,” said Fahad Uthman, Yemeni refugee.
It took Fahad’s family more than a week to reach Somali waters. But they had little choice. “We had nowhere else to run to. We couldn’t go to Saudi Arabia because the border is closed. Our only option was Somalia, and honestly, at the moment, Mogadishu has better security than our country,” Fahad Uthman said. Fleeing the war at home, thousands of Yemenis have made it across the gulf to find refuge in Djibouti. Many other arrive in the safe Somali ports of Berbera and Bosao almost every day. While some seek shelter in the unsettled Somali capital.
Somalia is considered one of the most dangerous places on the planet. So, coming here highlights just how dire the situation has become in Yemen. “The situation here is not as bad as we thought, but the biggest problem is how to survive and feed our children. We don’t know this city, we have no food, we can’t even get out of this house,” said Ruweyda Omar, Yemeni refugee. As the conflict rages back home, more refugees are expected in Somalia – a country that already houses tens of thousands of its own Internally Displaced.
OPINION, ANALYSIS AND CULTURE
“As erratic as its foreign policy toward Somalia may have been, the U.S. seems to have realized that it has made an error in its ways. U.S. lawmakers also seem to have realized that the current Somali politicians have indicated that they neither think nor function as leaders of a single nation. Directly or indirectly, each one of them is committed to keeping politics at the clan level, or more bluntly, at the gutter level, where geostrategic negation that could benefit both nations is virtually impossible.”
Geopolitical Showdown in the Horn
02 June – Source: Hiiraan Online – 1, 127 Words
Recently, two major developments in Somalia and Djibouti have attracted international media attention. John Kerry became the first U.S. Secretary of State to visit Mogadishu, while China has negotiated the construction of a military base in the strategic port of Djibouti. These two “symbolic” and substantive developments represent both an opportunity and a challenge for the U.S. geopolitical interests in the Indian Ocean and the Red Sea. The contemporary U.S. foreign policy which is hardwired on counterterrorism posturing has been on a losing streak — Iraq, Afghanistan, Yemen, to name a few. In the Horn of Africa, it is facing some serious challenges: China’s checkbook diplomacy, Ethiopia’s hegemonic adventures, and the indirect effect of the so-called Arab Spring. Kerry’s trip to Mogadishu came at an election year when the Democratic frontrunner is being accused of foreign policy recklessness, and at a time when the State Department is too cautious to even say when the American embassy might open there. As such, it is more than a symbolic gesture; it was a strategic one — the poor timing notwithstanding.
Contrary to some Somali and U.S. media headlines that were quick to claim that Kerry’s historic trip to Somalia was an expression of U.S. confidence and a “show of support” to the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD)/Ethiopia-led federalization process, the impetus driving the trip was geopolitical in nature. At the airport compound, days after concluding the latest of the Balkanization conferences in Garowe, Puntland, Kerry met with four Somali presidents and one prime minster, though not his Somali counterpart. So, what was on the agenda? Were all those actors on the same page? Ironically, it did not matter. The trip was about a place holder — an affirmation that the U.S. is still interested in Somalia and is anxiously waiting for competent partners who know what they want and what they have as leverage. In a five minute pre-recorded video that was intended to bypass the seemingly ragtag leaders that he was scheduled to meet, Kerry spoke to the people.
TOP TWEETS
@UNSomalia #UN SRSG for #Somalia welcomes start of the second phase of state formation process in Adaadohttp://bit.ly/1MhxwJ2v
@AmbAmerico This picture shows hope in #Somalia, our next generation of leaders are taking pen instead of gun.@iBelieveInSoma
@Hamza_Africa : A man who does not know about war is likely to be the one who will rush to it – #Somali proverb. #Somalia
@amisomsomalia A future leader of Somalia shares his big goals and dreams for #Somalia https://youtu.be/NRknPH8RhIY #FutureLeaders252
@HAliGesey #Somalia #election2016 Could Fadumo Dayib be Somalia’s first female president? via @BBCNewsUS @fqdayib http://www.bbc.com/news/
IMAGE OF THE DAY
Traditional dancers representing from Haylaan Region of Puntland entertain audiences with cultural dances and exhibit their handcrafts
Photo: UNSOM