March 20, 2017 | Daily Monitoring Report
Speaker Jawaari To Face Questioning In Parliament
20 March – Source: Goobjoog News – 287 Words
MPs are today holding a closed door informal seating to question House Speaker Mohamed Jawaari over what the legislators term as interference on appointment of cabinet and abuse of powers by the Speaker. Some of the MPs who declined not to be named told Goobjoog News the meeting will be ‘a time to tell the speaker the truth and a moment to cut off a 16 year practice of unhealthy relationship between the executive and the legislature.”
In a letter Saturday addressed to the Speaker and copied to the President, Prime Minister and the Supreme Court, the MPs said they were concerned with Jawaari’s interference on the selection of a new cabinet noting he was acting beyond his constitutional mandate. “For the last 16 years, there has been no clear separation of powers between the legislature and the executive. This is what has led to the perennial problems of governance we have had in this country,” the legislators said.
Prime Minister Hassan Khaire is expected to name his cabinet today. The lawmakers have also accused the Speaker of abuse of powers and failure to execute the functions of the office of the speaker. They noted the Speaker convenes seatings at his own liking contrary to the parliamentary calendar.
“We have very serious issues to deal with in this country including the ongoing drought but the Speaker and his deputies decide to call for seatings at their own pleasure,” another lawmaker said. The MPs, a source said want clarity on the distinction of powers and functions of the executive and legislature. Each institution of the state must operate within constitutional mandates and dictates, the lawmaker added.
Key Headlines
- Speaker Jawaari To Face Questioning In Parliament (Goobjoog News)
- Puntland Urges Federal Government Leaders To Form Quality Cabinet (Hiiraan Online)
- Prime Minister Khaire Asks Galmudug To Delay Presidential Poll By 45 Days (Goobjoog News)
- After Refugee Attack Near Yemen Port Saudi-led Coalition Calls For UN Supervision (DW)
- EU Gives $178 Million More To Combat East Africa Famine Drought (Bloomberg)
- NATO Should Help As Illegal Fishing Led Pirates To Hijack Tanker: Somali Officials (Japan Times)
- Cloaked In Rags And Dust Somalis Flee Looming Famine (Digital Journal)
NATIONAL MEDIA
Puntland Urges Federal Government Leaders To Form Quality Cabinet
20 March – Source: Hiiraan Online – 118 Words
Deputy President of Puntland Abdihakin Haji Amey has called on President Farmaajo’s government to form quality cabinet members to ensure that he will be able to deliver on his promise of real change in the country. Amey said that the country couldn’t waste more time and there was an urgent need to speed up the process of forming the cabinet.
He said the new leaders should respect the people’s desire to see change in their country and therefore form a cabinet that can transform the country and address the many challenging problems the nation is facing. His remarks come as the most discussed topic issue remains to be the upcoming cabinet lineup to be announced during this week.
Prime Minister Khaire Asks Galmudug To Delay Presidential Poll By 45 Days
20 March – Source: Goobjoog News – 213 Words
Prime Minister Hassan Khaire has asked Galmudug leaders to postpone the election of a new president for 45 days to allow him complete the formation of cabinet and enable a more inclusive process. In a statement Monday, the PM who is expected to name his cabinet soon said a 45 day period from now would create room for a negotiated settlement noting there is need to build dialogue and reconciliation among communities in the region.
“We call on the candidates for Galmudug presidency to consider the need for reconciliation and understanding before going to free and fair elections with outcome of satisfactory leadership to all the population of Galmudug state,” said Khaire. The PM also urged the people of Galmudug to ‘take advantage of this historic moment and make proper preparations to elect the state leadership that leads to peace and prosperity’.
Galmudug leaders had set March 28 for the election of a new president following the resignation of former President Abdikarim Guled on health grounds. Prior to his resignation, Guled had had run-ins with the state parliament which led to his impeachment but he declared it unconstitutional. The Speaker of the House had also been targeted for ouster by the legislators.
INTERNATIONAL MEDIA
After Refugee Attack Near Yemen Port, Saudi-led Coalition Calls For UN Supervision
20 March – Source: DW – 504 Words
A Saudi-led coalition fighting in Yemen has called for the UN to place the port of Hodeidah under its supervision. It has denied involvement in the deaths of 42 Somalis killed in an attack on a refugee boat nearby.Some 42 refugees, who were carrying official UN refugee agency (UNHCR) documents, were killed while travelling by boat from Yemen to Sudan late on Thursday in the Bab el-Mandeb strait about 30 miles (48 kilometers) from the Red Sea port of Hodeidah.
A Saudi statement released on Sunday said placing the port under UN control would: “facilitate the flow of humanitarian supplies to the Yemeni people, while at the same time ending the use of the port for weapons smuggling and people trafficking.” “We are also aware of allegations that the attack was carried out by a helicopter and naval vessel belonging to the Saudi-led coalition,” the Saudi-led alliance said in the statement.
“We can confirm the coalition was not responsible for any attack on a refugee boat on Friday and […] there was no firing by any coalition forces on Friday in the area of Hodeida,” the statement continued. It did not address a call by Somalia to investigate the incident. Somalia itself is a member of the coalition fighting against Shiite Houthi rebels in Yemen.
EU Gives $178 Million More To Combat East Africa Famine, Drought
20 March – Source: Bloomberg – 180 Words
The European Union said it’s giving an extra 165 million euros ($178 million) to battle humanitarian crises in East Africa, including a famine in South Sudan and drought in Somalia. From the total, 100 million euros will be allocated to help responses to the crisis in South Sudan and an influx of its refugees to neighboring countries, the EU said Monday in an emailed statement. Humanitarian assistance for droughts in Somalia, Ethiopia and Kenya will be targeted with 65 million euros.
The new funds will “scale up and strengthen” the more than 400 million euros that the EU allocated last year to address the crises and the impact of the El Nino weather phenomenon on the region, the EU said. The world’s first declaration of famine since 2011 was made last month in parts of South Sudan, where a civil war has raged for three years. Somalia, itself roiled by decades of conflict, is facing mass hunger due to drought that was declared a national disaster on Feb. 28.
NATO Should Help As Illegal Fishing Led Pirates To Hijack Tanker: Somali Officials
20 March – Source: Japan Times – 720 Words
The captain of the crew of a Comoros-flagged oil tanker that was hijacked and then released by Somali pirates said he feels like he was “dead and born,” after the ship reached a port in northern Somalia. Nicholas Anthony said Sunday he is grateful for efforts by the Puntland state in northern Somalia to secure their release. He gave no details about their captivity or how their freedom was secured.
The ship, which had a crew of eight Sri Lankans, docked at the port of Bossaso, the region’s commercial hub, under heavy security by local naval forces who boarded the ship after pirates released it as a result of negotiations with local elders and regional authorities. The tanker Aris 13 was hijacked last week in the first such seizure of a large commercial vessel off Somalia since 2012. International anti-piracy patrols on the crucial trade route had calmed such attacks, which once numbered in the hundreds.
The ship was carrying fuel from Djibouti to Somalia’s capital, Mogadishu, on March 13 when it was approached by armed men in two skiffs and the tanker issued a call for help. The pirates told authorities that they did not seize the ship for ransom but to protest of the illegal fishing in the area by international vessels that has threatened the ability of local fishermen to earn livelihoods.
Somalis living on the Indian Ocean coastal, including some former pirates who quit as international patrols increased and became fisherman, have complained of growing harassment by illegal foreign trawlers. Somali officials whose forces freed the hijacked oil tanker and its eight Sri Lankan crew said on Sunday that NATO ships must do more to prevent the illegal fishing that locals say sparked the latest attack.
OPINION, ANALYSIS AND CULTURE
“In the camps of Baidoa, at least, aid agencies provide clean water and medical treatment, there is food in the city’s markets and the possibility of earning money as a labourer or beggar. But with meteorologists pessimistic about the prospect of rain, hope is an increasingly scarce commodity.”
Cloaked In Rags And Dust, Somalis Flee Looming Famine
20 March – Source: Digital Journal – 922 Words
Mariam Ibrahim, her seven children and two neighbouring families were the last to leave their village in southwestern Somalia. They loaded their combined belongings — blankets, cooking pots, sleeping mats, jerry cans, clothes — onto a hired donkey cart and walked beside it for 20 kilometres (12 miles) to Baidoa, the closest city. “There is nobody left now,” said the 28-year-old.
She joined thousands of others who are arriving in Baidoa each day, staggering from the parched countryside into the garrison city, cloaked in rags and dust. Clusters of stick and cloth domes are appearing across the outskirts of Somalia’s regional capital. Somali and Ethiopian soldiers — part of an African Union force — secure the town against the Al-Qaeda-aligned Shabaab militants whose control begins just 15 kilometres away.
Successive seasons of poor rains and failed harvests have left farming families like Ibrahim’s destitute and on the brink of famine. The United Nations is warning of an unprecedented global crisis with famine already gripping parts of South Sudan and looming over Nigeria, Yemen and Somalia, threatening the lives of 20 million people.
For Somalis, the memory of the 2011 famine which left a quarter of a million people dead is still fresh. But Ibrahim said what is happening now feels worse. First the food ran out, then the wells emptied. And the little water that remains is brackish or diseased. So when her village of Aliyow Mumin suffered an outbreak of cholera in late January, Ibrahim decided to leave.
TOP TWEETS
@newstruthliz : #EU gives $178 mln more to combat #famine & #drought in #EastAfrica, inc #SouthSudan & #Somalia.
@EsayasMood : #Malaysia Sending Troops to #Somalia on #Aid Mission http://www.voanews.com/a/
@Daudoo : The new Somali Cabinet is expected to be 26 ministers including 2 to 3 Female ministers – Sources #Somalia
@GrahameLucas : #Somalia Is On The Brink Of Another Catastrophic Famine, But Where Is The Urgent Response?
@ChismaioCity : Encouraging figures on children’s education in #Kismayo but a challenge remains in getting more girls enrolled in school. Hope #Somalia.
@alijira : Opinion: Somalia needs ‘big Constitutional Reform before the 2021 elections’ #PoliticsNation #Somalia
@kamikazijosi : @rwandamigration receiving the delegation of #Somalia Immigration officials coming for study tour in #Rwanda
IMAGE OF THE DAY
Kenya President Uhuru Kenyatta, travels to Dhobley town, in Lower Jubba, to visit #KDF troops stationed there.
Photo: Daily Nation