March 1, 2018 | Morning Headlines
Galmudug Says It Will Launch An Operation Against Al-Shabaab
28 February – Source: Radio Dalsan 106 Words
President of Galmudug Ahmed Duale Gelle Haf has announced that his administration will launch an operation against Al-Shabaab aimed to liberate regions that fall under Galmudug administration. The president said development projects will be implemented in those liberated regions subsequently.
He added that his administration will not rely on external support, therefore, Galmudug society should rely on themselves to free the remaining areas controlled by Al-Shabaab fighters. Speaking during the Galmudug force integration ceremony in Dhuusamareeb he vowed to launch an operation against Al-Shabaab although he didn’t give any timeframe. Somali President Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed Farmajo recently visited Galmudug state and launched several development projects.
Key Headlines
- Galmudug Says It Will Launch An Operation Against Al-Shabaab (Radio Dalsan)
- Dhusamareb Women Succeed In Small Business (Radio Ergo)
- Hirshabelle Calls For Emergency Response As Shabelle River Dries Up (Radio Dalsan)
- Regional Army Chiefs Meet To Discuss Somalia Security Situation (Daily Monitor)
- AMISOM Somali Government Vow To Eliminate Al-Shabaab (New Vision)
- After Somali Piracy Is Sailing The Western Indian Ocean Safe Again? (The Conversation UK )
NATIONAL MEDIA
Dhusamareb Women Succeed In Small Business
28 February – Source: Radio Ergo – 345 Words
Asha Ahmed Abdullahi, a mother of nine, has built up a successful small business running a clothes shop in Dhusamareb using a grant she was given a year ago by a local development organization. Asha was among 11 women in Dhuusamareeb, Galgaduud region, to receive a start-up package of $272 from Tanaad. Asha told Radio Ergo that she makes a comfortable $70 a month from her business. This enables her to pay school fees for two of her children at a monthly fee of $12 in total, as well as to pay her rent and feed the family with two cooked meals a day.
This is a significant improvement on her situation previously, when she was struggling to support the family on the $30 she made a month working for someone else as a tailor. With her husband unemployed, she managed to cook only an evening meal for the children. Jamad Mohamed Mohamud, deputy director of Tanaad, said the grants given to women like Asha were aimed at uplifting the living standards of poor families in the region. Jamad is already pleased with the results she has observed. “When we carried out our assessments, we had a feeling that these people could do something for themselves and that is why we selected them and awarded them the money,” she said.
The small grant scheme has replaced Tanaad’s previous programme in which they were giving cash assistance of $70 a month to 750 poor women in seven areas of Galgaduud. The project was supported by the international NGO Oxfam for three months. All 11 grantees have set up shops selling clothes, foodstuffs or vegetables. The women are in contact and they meet regularly. They have established a support network and provide loans to any member of the group whose business may not be doing well at a particular time. Asha says they see a bright future which they could not imagine a year ago. The women are also glad to have been empowered so as not to depend on food aid or cash handouts any more.
Hirshabelle Calls For Emergency Response As Shabelle River Dries Up
28 February – Source: Radio Dalsan – 182 Words
Somalia’s breadbasket is at risk as the longest river in Somalia, the Shabelle River, dries up. Hirshabelle State President Mohamed Abdi Ware has raised an emergency call to assist the thousands of people affected by the drying of the river. “This is a disaster for our country, especially in food production and livelihoods. I am calling on our government that it should make an emergency response to the people who live in the Shabelle region” Ware told reporters in the administrative capital Jowhar. “We are in a difficult time, a time in which the drought is hitting us hard” Ware said.
Ware said that the most affected region is Lower Shabelle which is Somalia’s main agricultural region. “It’s possible that people who live in the Lower Shabelle may doubt that those in the Middle Shabelle have blocked the river from their side. And those in the Middle Shabelle may say that those in Hiraan have blocked the river from them. That issue needs a special attention from the government.” The 1300 km long river runs through Hiiraan , Lower Shabelle and Middle Shabelle regions.
INTERNATIONAL MEDIA
Regional Army Chiefs Meet To Discuss Somalia Security Situation
28 February – Source: Daily Monitor – 249 Words
Army chiefs from African Union troop contributing countries to Somalia have today met to discuss security situation in Somalia. The meeting took place at the Commonwealth Speke Resort Hotel Munyonyo, in Kampala. According to the Uganda’s Chief of Defence Forces, Gen David Muhoozi, the army chiefs were going to discuss among other things, the report of experts on AU military operations and come up with a “robust strategy” in the face of increasing challenges of thin troops presence and lack of enough resources. Army chiefs from Uganda, Burundi, Kenya, Somalia, Burundi and Djibouti, plus the African Union officials were all in attendance. The meeting comes on the heels of the deadly shoot-out that happened last week between the Somalia army and the UPDF soldiers in Mogadishu.
AMISOM, Somali Government Vow To Eliminate Al-Shabaab
28 February – Source: New Vision – 461 Words
The African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM) and the Somali government have pledged to complement each other in the fight against the terrorist group Al-Shabaab. The announcement comes four days after a twin bomb attack in the capital, Mogadishu, killed at least 50 people and a subsequent shootout, between AMISOM soldiers and the National Intelligence Service Agency (NISA) officers, left one officer dead.
The pledge was made by the Special Representative of the Chairperson of the African Union Commission (SRCC) for Somalia, Ambassador Francisco Madeira, and the Minister of Interior, Federal Affairs and Reconciliation, Abdi Mohamed Sabriye, at a joint press briefing in Mogadishu on Tuesday. “I wanted, as I’m surrounded by my Force Commander, my Police Commissioner and my colleagues who deal with issues of security and policy, to reaffirm that AMISOM and the Somali national security forces represented by NISA, Somali National Army (SNA) and all other forces by the ministry of defense, ministry of interior and AMISOM are one. All are united in a common purpose (which is) defeating Al-Shabaab,” Madeira said.
OPINION, ANALYSIS AND CULTURE
“There is no end to piracy in sight, and in some ways maritime threats have increased.Nevertheless the report suggests that effective capacity building that incorporates tools such as maritime security strategies, or coordination bodies presents the key to making the Western Indian Ocean safe,”
After Somali Piracy, Is Sailing The Western Indian Ocean Safe Again?
28 February – Source: The Conversation, UK – 758 Words
This year marks the 10th anniversary of the international campaign against Somali piracy. Launched in 2008 following a severe escalation of piracy incidents in the Western Indian Ocean, international navies have operated in the region with a counter-piracy mandate for 10 years. Significant investments have also been made in building the capacity of regional states to deal with maritime insecurity.
International organisations under the umbrella of the United Nations, as well as donors such as the European Union, have helped build the capacity of coastguards and other law enforcement agencies. This has included giving them the capability to do their work, improving the legal justice sector and boosting operations at sea. Has the international campaign against Somali piracy been successful? Is the threat gone? Is sailing the Western Indian Ocean safe again? The number of attacks has certainly declined. But the risk of being attacked at sea remains.
Hopes were raised that the piracy threat had been successfully managed after no new incidents were reported after 2012. But these hopes came to an abrupt end in 2017 when there was a spike in the number of attacks. Seven events close to Somalia’s shores were reported during the year.
On top of this, other factors are contributing to making waters that are home to one of the major shipping lanes of the world’s economy insecure. For example, the Western Indian Ocean is now the major smuggling route for Afghan heroin.
And fish stocks on the East African coast are threatened with extinction because of illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing. In addition, the conflict in Yemen is contributing to making the maritime domain a higher risk area for international shipping. The international community is aware of these broader maritime insecurity issues. So it has invested heavily in building the capacity of regional countries. The European Union, states like the US, Norway, Denmark and Turkey, and the United Nations agencies have launched ambitious initiatives to help countries manage the challenges at sea.
These include helping draft new policies and laws, training in boat handling or intelligence gathering, as well as looking at how agencies can work more closely together, and beyond borders. Initially these investments focused exclusively on piracy. But the scope has widened to include a broader range of maritime security threats, such as smuggling and fishery crimes. But have these programmes helped countries make progress? A new report by the Safe Seas project launched at a symposium in Nairobi argues that there has been significant progress. But, the report adds, the delivery of capacity building needs to become more effective.