March 18, 2016 | Daily Monitoring Report
Puntland Sufficient To Deal With Al-Shabaab, Says Officer
18 March – Source: Shabelle News – 98 Words
Colonel Mohamud Fadhi, who served as the Deputy Army Commander of Puntland state said the region’s forces are now sufficient to deal with Al-Shabaab militants in the ongoing battle in Nugal region. Speaking to Radio Shabelle, Mr Fadhi said Puntland forces are stronger than Al-Shabaab and will be able to finalize the combat, without any help from the central government of Somalia based in Mogadishu. The commander’s remarks comes as Somalia’s Federal Government was expected to send two aircraft with weapons to Puntland administration as clash with Al-Shabaab fighters intensified in some parts of Nugal and Mudug regions.
Key Headlines
- Puntland Sufficient To Deal With Al-Shabaab Says Officer (Shabelle News)
- ISWA To Recruit And Train More Police Officers (Wacaal Media)
- Galmudug Administration Says Al-Shabaab Fighters Who Clashed With Puntland Did Not Come From Galmudug Areas (Goobjoog News)
- Villagers Near Near Erigavo Forced To Buy Water On Credit (Radio Ergo)
- African Force In Somalia Urges More Support for Al-Qaeda Battle (Bloomberg)
- Turning The Tide For Africa’s Largest Coastline (The Goldman Environmental Prize)
- Finding Somali Life in Minnesota (The New York Times)
NATIONAL MEDIA
ISWA To Recruit And Train More Police Officers
18 March – Source: Wacaal Media – 66 Words
The Interim South West State of Somalia (ISWA) is in the process of recruiting and training more police officers to beef up security in its territories. Speaking to the media in Baidoa, Bay regional police Commandant Col. Mahad Abdirahman said plans were under way to kick start the process. He said the force will be recruited from all major towns that fall under the ISWA administration.
Galmudug Administration Says Al-Shabaab Fighters Who Clashed With Puntland Did Not Come From Galmudug Areas
18 March – Source: Goobjoog News- 198 Words
Galmudug administration on Thurday dismissed reports saying that Al-Shabaab fighters who captured Gara’ad town came from Galmudug areas. The President of Galmudug State, Abdikarim Hussein spoke to the reporters in Adado town and termed the claims baseless. “It is unfortunate that Puntland puts the blame on everyone but i am sure that theses militants were not from Galmudug areas. We should rather work closely on security matters and jointly deal with these elements,’’ said Guled.
Puntland Security Minister Abdi Hirsi Ali Tuesday said that they have learned the militants who briefly seized Gara’ad , coastal town in Mudug region were from southern Somalia. He stated that the militants have skipped Hobyo and Xarardhere peacefully before reaching Gara’ad. He said the federal government was intent at forcing Puntland to accept the 4.5 clan based electoral model adopted in January by sponsoring Al-Shabaab to attack some parts of the state.
“We shall defend Puntland by ourselves and I urge people of Puntland to be ready,” said Ali. Fierce clashes have continued for third day in the northeastern State of Puntland, with Puntland troops trying to defeat militants. Boatloads of armed militants disembarked into several remote coastal villages in Puntland on Monday evening
Villages Near Near Erigavo Forced To Buy Water On Credit
17 March – Source: Radio Ergo – 467 Words
Severe water shortage affecting around 14,000 livestock herders in Erigavo district of Sanag region is forcing many into debt as they are forced to purchase water on credit from water trucking businesses. Yusuf Mohamed Jirde, commissioner of Fiqi-fuliye village, said the water crisis was severe in 18 villages including Fiqi-fuliye, Boda-ade, Ardaa, Damala-hagare, Dib-Qarah, Dalsan, Daru-Salam, and Hingalol, with a population of around 14,000 people.
Some people are travelling 100 km to buy water from Erigavo. Those who cannot afford to travel are faced with little option but to purchase water from truckers coming in from Erigavo, who sell a barrel of water currently for Sosh 330,000 (around $15). Samiro Mohamed Hassan, a nomadic pastoralist in Galol-dhere valley, 105 km from Erigavo, has lost 200 goats already and is worried that her surviving 300 goats may also die. The surviving animals are in poor condition and nobody wants to buy them in the market, so she has no cash to buy water.
“I beg for some water for my nine children from the families who can afford to buy it,” she told Radio Ergo. “At other times, I have to borrow water from the drivers of the vehicles that bring in the water to the villages,” she said. The use of credit to get vital water supplies has become common in the area. Yusuf Hassan Tiriye, in Hingalol village, told Radio Ergo that everyone was running out of cash, due to the poor demand for livestock in the markets. He said many families were therefore resorting to asking the water truckers for credit.
“Many of our families combine together and send someone well off or influential within the society to approach the drivers of the tankers on our behalf, asking them to lend us water because they can trust such a person,” Tiriye explained. Two days ago, they bought 40 barrels of water on credit at a cost of $500. But that water was rapidly depleting already. Tiriye added that they planned to pay off the credit loans once the drought ended and demand for their livestock had picked up again.
The villages affected have no wells and normally rely on surface water pans and reservoirs that have dried up. The last small amount of rainfall in this area came in the middle of last year. Since the start of this year, many herder families left the area with their livestock to trek in search of water. But an estimated 1,500 families have returned as they could not find any better supply of water and pasture anywhere else. “People including those who have come back and those who remained have quickly consumed all the water in the reservoirs as the water in them was already very little,” said Jirde, commissioner of Fiqi-fuliye village.
INTERNATIONAL MEDIA
African Force In Somalia Urges More Support for Al-Qaeda Battle
18 March – Source: Bloomberg – 312 Words
The African mission battling al-Qaeda-linked militants in Somalia needs more support during a critical stage, making it the wrong time to cut international funding, a spokesman said. A European Union plan to trim financial support by a fifth this year that could cut troops’ wages “has been discussed but has not yet been implemented,” Gaffel Nkolokosa, a spokesman for the African Union Mission in Somalia, known as Amisom, said in an e-mailed response to questions.
“The troops are at this stage engaged in critical operations and need even more support,” Nkolokosa said. “This is not the time to cut the resources at their disposal.” Al-Shabaab, which began its insurgency in Somalia in 2006, has carried out attacks in countries including Kenya, Uganda and Djibouti, killing hundreds of people. Amisom, which comprises eight nations’ forces, deployed in the Horn of Africa country in 2007 to support the Somali army, dislodging the militants from the capital, Mogadishu, about four years later.
Amisom wants the United Nations to “fully support Amisom at all levels commensurate with similar peace enforcement missions,” Nkolokosa said. The mission against al-Shabaab is being curtailed by a “lack of force multipliers such as air assets and enablers,” Nkolokosa said. The U.S., which has targeted individual al-Shabaab leaders in the past, has recently broadened its activities, carrying out an air strike north of Mogadishu on March 5 that it said killed 150 militants. It also backed a Somali army raid on camps later that week.
OPINION, ANALYSIS, AND CULTURE
“When I founded Adeso 25 years ago, I knew that the only way to tackle my country’s problems was to get people to understand the connection between environmental and socio-economic issues. This was not an easy journey, but I believe my determination has paid off.”
Turning The Tide For Africa’s Largest Coastline
18 March – Source: The Goldman Environmental – 376 Words
Although Somalia has the longest coastline in Africa, the country is better known for its decades of conflict than for the quality and variety of its marine resources. After years of civil war and lawlessness, it should come as no surprise that the country’s coastal resources have fallen prey to illegal fishing, hazardous waste dumping, and dynamite and cyanide fishing. Unfortunately, Somalia is now better known for its piracy than its fishing exports, as portrayed by Adeso’s Goodwill Ambassador Barkhad Abdi in the 2014 blockbuster Captain Phillips.
The destruction of mangroves for charcoal has further destabilized the coastal environment and destroyed fish habitat, as recently highlighted in a situational analysis commissioned by UNEP. Despite the ban on the export of charcoal in the Puntland region of Somalia which I helped push through in 2002, charcoal production and export has devastated mangroves along coastal towns in the region.
The consequences of this destruction are enormous, and range from harming human livelihoods and food security to intensifying the destruction of the coastal environment and fisheries. Charcoal production and trafficking are also the main drivers of conflict between communities in Somalia, and since it provides cash to insurgents, it has also become a security threat and a major impediment to peace processes at the village, national, and regional level.
“Mr. Nazaryan began photographing in a charter public high school, which was about 75 percent Somali. Most of the students seemed to have adapted to America — listening to hip-hop and using social media while staying true to their traditional culture, he said. One day he was photographing Somalis dancing at a graduation party on a boat and the next day they were praying at a mosque.”
Finding Somali Life in Minnesota
18 March – Source: The New York Times – 374 Words
Arthur Nazaryan wasn’t the first inexperienced photographer to venture into Somalia for a few weeks and barely scratch the surface covering famine and conflict. After working in Mogadishu in 2012, he realized the only way to make meaningful images was to spend much more time there. But it is expensive for an American photographer to work safely in Mogadishu, and he lacked the money for an extended stay. He was, however, determined to document the Somali people, whom he admired, so he charted a different course: He went to Minneapolis, which is home to some 30,000 Somalis, most of whom came as refugees since 1990.
Mr. Nazaryan arrived there a few weeks after six young Somali men were arrested, charged with trying to join the Islamic State terrorist group. From 2007 to 2009 more than a dozen young Somalis left the Minneapolis area to join the Shabab, an Islamist militant group fighting in Somalia. Many people were hesitant to be photographed, he said, assuming immediately that he — like other journalists — was there to depict them with “cartoonish stereotypes” as a community of extremists.
“They are only portrayed as pirates, terrorists or victims of war and famine in Africa and as ISIS recruits or refugees leeching off of the system in the United States,” said Mr. Nazaryan, 31. “In reality they are hardworking, resourceful people who have managed terrible circumstances with incredible resilience and grace. And just a handful of Somalis in Minnesota have any interest in supporting ISIS.”
Mr. Nazaryan began photographing in a charter public high school, which was about 75 percent Somali. Most of the students seemed to have adapted to America — listening to hip-hop and using social media while staying true to their traditional culture, he said. One day he was photographing Somalis dancing at a graduation party on a boat and the next day they were praying at a mosque. While the young people seemed quite American to Mr. Nazaryan, they tended to hang out with each other, often speaking the Somali language.
TOP TWEETS
@IndianOceanU : Research Presentation on Internally Displaced People (IDPs) in #Mogadishu, #Somaliahttp://youtu.be/tB1Jm6jFBIQ?a
@Eye_on_Somalia : #allAfrica Somalis Happiest in East Africa, Burundi is the Least – Report: [Nation] Somalis are happi…http://bit.ly/1Ulhftd #somalia
@PuntlandEmbassy : State Failure #Puntland‘s Gov accuses#Somalia‘s Gov & #AMISOM not detecting movement of 250+#AlShabaab Terrorist
@OximityEmerging : Why One Elephant’s Long Walk Is a Hopeful S… https://www.oximity.com/
@OCHASom : MT: Planting mangroves helps restore #Somaliacoastline’s ecosystem http://bit.ly/22pjJbu via @Adesoafrica
@Tuuryare_Africa: inside look #Puntland Marine Force .. Oliver North visit https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=
@TerrorFreeSomal: UPDATE: Five Puntland soldiers killed & 8 + civilians wounded in the clashes reported NE coastline areas of #Somalia
@lasoco: Italy Offers 200 Million Euro for Somalia Reconstruction – Horseed Media http://j.mp/1R1HqmB #Somalia
IMAGE OF THE DAY
The government of Japan donated a $97,538 grant to Somalia to help improve access to education in the country.
Photo: @UNSomalia