March 2, 2017 | Morning Headlines

President Farmaajo Calls On Parliament To Complete Constitutional Review Process

01 March – Source : Goobjoog News – 172 Words

President Mohamed Abdullahi Farmaajo has urged Parliament to ensure the completion of the constitutional review process within its term. In his first address to a joint session of the Federal Parliament, Farmaajo said the tenth parliament had the onus of taking the mantle from the ninth parliament and completing the process. The ninth parliament, the president observed was faced with political challenges stalling the review process. “The ninth parliament started something which you now have to finish. The many political challenges they had to deal with made it difficult for them to finish in time.Now you as the tenth parliament have these four years to complete the responsibilities including the review process ahead,” the president said.

The President who was also seeking parliamentary approval for his Prime Minister pick Hassan Ali Khaire called on parliament to pass necessary laws critical to preparing the country for the 2020 one person one vote elections. He singled out laws on federalization, elections and citizenship laws noting these will precede the nationwide voter registration exercise.

Key Headlines

• President Farmaajo Calls On Parliament To Complete Constitutional Review Process (Goobjoog News)
• Bomb Under Car Seat Kills Somali Intelligence Officer (Shabelle News)
• 49376 Somali Refugees Repatriated (Radio Mustaqbal)
• 44 Aid Agencies Appeal For UN Action To Avert Famine In Somalia (China.org)
• Circling The Square In Somalia (Huffington Post)

NATIONAL MEDIA

Bomb Under Car Seat Kills Somali Intelligence Officer

01 March – Source:Shabelle News- 111 Words

A senior Somali intelligence officer was killed after explosive device fitted into his luxury car exploded in Mogadishu’s Dharkenley district on Wednesday morning.The victim who was identified as Aden Abdullahi Isack died on the spot, while two other people were slightly wounded in the bomb attached to the car, according to police officials.
Isack was reported to be an intelligence officer working with Somali National Intelligence and Security Agency (NISA) based in Mogadishu, Somali Capital.No group has yet claimed responsibility for the attack, which was the latest in a string of car bombs and gun attacks in the capital, since the election of the new President on February 8.

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49,376 Somali Refugees Repatriated

01March – Source: Radio Mustaqbal – 281 Words

The UN refugee agency said Tuesday that it has repatriated some 49,376 Somali refugees in Kenya since the return exercise begun in December 2014.The UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said in its bi-weekly update that out of the figure, some 10,062 were supported in 2017 alone.UNHCR said that the number of flights has been significantly increased as it remains the only mean of transportation to Somalia. Returns movements by air are organized to Mogadishu, Kismayu and Baidoa.

According to the UNHCR, road convoys were also organised from Dadaab in northeast Kenyan camp to Dhobley in Somalia respectively on Mondays, Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays.“For the time being, flights from Dadaab to Somalia remain suspended owing to the security alerts in Mogadishu since Dec. 23, 2016,” it said.
The UNHCR said a total number of persons relocated to Kakuma/Kalobeyei camp in northwest Kenya was 2,431 as of Feb. 13.The UN agency said that out of this number, 2,220 were relocated since the resumption of the relocation process on Jan. 16.

The report came after two UN agencies last week warned that critical shortages in food assistance are affecting some two million refugees in ten African countries.The UNHCR and WFP warned that the shortages could worsen in coming months without new resources to meet food needs.According to the UN agencies, ten refugee operations in Africa have experienced cuts affecting the quantity and quality of food assistance for approximately two million refugees.The agencies said food rations have been dramatically cut, in some cases by up to 50 per cent, in large operations including in Cameroon, Chad, Kenya, Mauritania, South Sudan and Uganda.

INTERNATIONAL MEDIA

44 Aid Agencies Appeal For UN Action To Avert Famine In Somalia

01 March -Source: China.org – 409 Words

Some 44 local and international aid agencies working in Somalia on Tuesday appealed to UN to take urgent action to avert possible famine in the Horn of Africa nation where at least 6.2 million people face acute food shortage.In a joint letter to the UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres, the agencies urged the UN chief to encourage international community to step up its efforts to ensure that the mistakes made in 2011 are not repeated and push for immediate drought relief transitioning to longer restoration of livelihoods.”We, the national and international humanitarian agencies working in Somalia, are writing to express our alarm about the possibility of famine in Somalia in early 2017,” reads the letter.”We are running out of time. It is time to effectively come together and act in a joined up manner across the international system to keep the promise of ‘never again’,” said the agencies under an umbrella organization, Somalia NGO Consortium.

While appreciating the initiatives undertaken by the UN so far, the agencies however said the situation requires stronger partnerships and more commitment to coordination across the international system to effectively prevent a famine.The organizations expressed concern about Somalia’s possible famine is not being seen with the urgency it demands globally and urged Guterres to encourage the Member States to expedite pledged allocations of additional resources to support a rapid scale-up of the humanitarian response in Somalia to prevent the loss of thousands of lives and avert a possible famine.

OPINION, CULTURE & ANALYSIS

“It is no secret that President Farmaajo is faced with multiple problems that demand his attention. Realistically speaking, he will not be able to solve all of them within his four year mandate.This is not to set off the alarm for political or paranoiac moral urgency. This simply is an attempt to amplify the fact that unless Somalia ends its ever-present culture of impunity, reconstituting a viable Somali state would remain a figment of imagination,”

Circling The Square In Somalia

01 March – Source: Huffington Post – 1371 Words

Somalia is headed to the right direction. But ‘right direction’ doesn’t mean a path free of pitfalls and clear of landmines. A new President who inspired renewed sense of optimism within the Somali people has been elected by the parliament.In his inauguration speech, the new President—Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed (Farmaajo)—has highlighted the direction that he wants to take his country. He underscored how the supremacy of the law is the central pillar of any viable State. ‘Sareynta sharcigu waa udub dhexaadka dowladnimada.’ He also asserted that his government will be committed to strengthening the supremacy of the law as stipulated in the Somali constitution ‘(In xukuumadeydu ay) si dastuuri ah u xoojindoonto awoodda sharciga.’These words don’t just highlight what the Somali people should expect from their new leader, they underscore the litmus test by which the new President should be assessed. There is no ‘supremacy of law’ without respect for the constitution, regardless of its shortcomings.‘Somalia is open for business’ was the last government’s motto or rather corrupted officials dog-whistle to usher in predatory capitalists and make certain corrupt officials and their international brokers very rich. The previous government has ignored the serious warnings that: such haphazard invitation without having institutions of checks and balances would prove economic suicide. Now Somalia’s natural resources is wholly entrusted with a shadowy firm to explore, market and be granted exclusive rights to a number of lots.

Never mind the fact that the constitution does not specify the demarcation of the federal-states or the distribution of natural resources. Somalia owes over $5 billion mostly to IMF and World Bank. And Kenya is claiming a legal right to part of Somalia waters.These three deals have one thing in common: They were all secured away from the lampposts of transparency.In business, as in politics ‘perception is reality’. That is why businesses spend significant amount of their revenues on building their public perception, therefore image. However, when the negativity associated with the business is so deeply rooted, it is almost impossible to change that perception. In that context let me say this: Since its genesis, Soma Oil and Gas has been wreaking the foul smell of corruption. Conducting shady dealings in a dark room might deceive the eyes, but not the nose.Anyone who is, or has been, directly associated with said tainted firm has a lot to answer for. Was he or she the Somali John Doe who made the theft of the century possible? Did he or she play a role in facilitating or brokering former President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud’s approval?