March 23, 2017 | Morning Headlines
At Least 25 Starve to Death in Somaliland
22 March – Source: VOA – 319 Words
At least 25 people have died of starvation in the self-declared republic of Somaliland as the Horn of Africa grapples with an increasingly severe drought. “The drought situation is at its most dangerous level. Eighty percent of the livestock have gone and we are struggling with saving people, who have started dying. So far, we have recorded 25 deaths, most of them children who starved to death,” said Ahmed Abdi Salay, the governor of Somaliland’s northwest Sanag region.
According to the United Nations, more than 50,000 children across Somaliland and Somalia are facing possible death because of the ongoing regional drought. Somaliland declared independence from Somalia in 1991 but is not recognized by any other country. The news about the deaths in Sanag emerged a day after government-owned Radio Mogadishu website reported that at least 26 people died of starvation in Somalia’s southern region of Jubaland.
The governor of the Togdheer region in Somaliland, Mohamud Ali Saleban, said the drought is affecting every part of Somali society. “The pain of the drought has touched us in all levels, every office and every household there is the impact,” he said. “Relatives who lost their livestock have resorted to come to the cities in search of lifesaving assistance from their acquaintances and relatives,” Saleban said.
Key Headlines
- At Least 25 Starve to Death in Somaliland (VOA)
- From A Refugee In Dadaab To Youngest Minister Siraji’s Star Continues To Rise (Radio Dalsan)
- Somali President Makes First State Visit To Kenya (Shabelle News)
- Somalia’s Puntland In Port Talks With DP World President Says (Bloomberg)
- World Has Just Months To Stop Starvation In Yemen Somalia: Red Cross (The Globe and Mail)
- The Interview: Navigating The Foreign Policy Maze For Farmaajo’s Administration (Goobjoog News)
NATIONAL MEDIA
From A Refugee In Dadaab To Youngest Minister Siraji’s Star Continues To Rise
22 March – Source: Radio Dalsan – 300 Words
The story of Abdullahi Sheikh Abdi Siraji seems scripted right out of a Charles Dickens novel; from a poor struggling refugee in the remote and arid Dadaab camp in North Eastern Kenya into a ministerial position in Somalia. At 31 Siraji becomes the youngest person to be appointed a Minister in Somalia. He is now the man in charge of most Somalia’s infrastructure development as the Public Works and Reconstruction Minister.
Like Goliath and David Siraji’s name came to limelight when he defeated state Information Minister Mohamed Abdi Hassan in the 2016 legislative elections to become a federal MP. He had just resettled in Kismayu from Dadaab the world’s largest refugee camp where he grew up and was educated.Many Somalis remain optimistic that the fresh and young blood like Siraji may bring about the much need fast growth in a country that still struggles to develop itself after 2 decades of civil war but it remains to be seen if he will live to the people’s high expectations.
Somali President Makes First State Visit To Kenya
22 March – Source: Shabelle News – 183 Words
Somali President Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed flew to Kenya Thursday, for his first State visit to the neighboring country ahead of a special summit on the Inter-Governmental Authority on Development (IGAD). The President accompanying top Government officials jetted off to Nairobi to attend IGAD heads of State summit on Somali refugees which is expected to kick start next Saturday.
Sources said, Somali President Mohamed Abdullahi Farmajo will hold talks with his Kenyan counterpart Uhuru Kenyatta, to discuss the bilateral relations between the two nations. The summit will be preceded by a special session of the IGAD ministerial committee on durable solutions for Somali refugees on Friday, 24th Marchbringing together ministers responsible for interior, security and refugee affairs from the Horn of Africa region.
More than two million Somalis have been displaced in one of the world’s most protracted humanitarian crises that have now entered its third decade. An estimated 1.1 million people are internally displaced (IDPs) within Somalia and nearly 900,000 are refugees in Dadaab, the world’s largest refugee camp in northeastern Kenya.
INTERNATIONAL MEDIA
Somalia’s Puntland In Port Talks With DP World, President Says
22 March – Source: Bloomberg – 177 Words
The government of Somalia’s semi-autonomous region of Puntland may award a concession to DP World Ltd. to develop the port of Bosaso, President Abdiweli Mohamed Ali said. Ali traveled to Dubai last week to discuss the concession, he said in an interview March 21 in the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa, where he was on an unofficial visit. Michael Vertigans, a spokesman for DP World, declined to comment beyond saying the company continues to seek opportunities in Africa.
“The discussion is ongoing,” Ali said. “It hasn’t yet been finalized.” He declined to provide further details. Puntland, situated on the tip of the Horn of Africa, declared autonomy in 1998 and severed ties with the Somali government in August 2013 after accusing the government of failing to distribute power and share resources including foreign aid with the region. While it’s been relatively stable compared to southern Somalia, which has been fighting an Islamist insurgency for the past decade, it has faced attacks by al-Qaeda-linked Al-Shabaab and Islamic State militants.
World Has Just Months To Stop Starvation In Yemen, Somalia: Red Cross
22 March – Source: The Globe and Mail – 478 Words
The world has got three to four months to save millions of people in Yemen and Somalia from starvation, as war and drought wreck crops and block deliveries of food and medical care, the International Committee of the Red Cross said on Wednesday. The aid agency still needs $300 million to bring emergency assistance to a total of 5 million people in Yemen, Somalia and northeast Nigeria as well as areas of South Sudan, where famine has already been declared.
“We have probably a window of three to four months to avoid a worst case scenario,” Dominik Stillhart, the ICRC’s director of operations worldwide, told a Geneva news briefing. “We have kind of a perfect storm now where protracted conflict is overlapped or exacerbated by natural hazard, drought in particular, in the Horn of Africa which is leading to the situation we are facing now,” he said.
More than 20 million people are facing famine in Yemen, Somalia, South Sudan and northeast Nigeria, say aid agencies. Cholera, which can be deadly for children, is on the rise in Somalia, where drought is killing livestock and driving people to flee in search of water, said Bruce Orina, ICRC deputy regional director for Africa.
OPINION, ANALYSIS, AND CULTURE
The Interview: Navigating The Foreign Policy Maze For Farmaajo’s Administration
22 March – Source: Goobjoog News – 877 Words
As President Mohamed Farmaajo charts the course of his next four years as the country’s chief executive, a host of challenges already confront him ranging from the deadly drought ravaging various parts of the country to insecurity, economic recovery among others.
Drafting his administration’s foreign policy is equally an issue at hand calling for the president’s attention as Somalia establishes its place in the community of nations. Goobjoog News editor talked to former Somali special envoy to the US and foreign policy expert Abukar Arman on critical foreign policy areas of interest for the new administration.
Goobjoog News (GN): From the regional front, what foreign policy direction do you think the new administration should or will seek to pursue particularly in its relations with immediate neighbours-Ethiopia and Kenya?
Abukar: The new administration is mindful that it is in Somalia’s existential best interest to pursue an ‘assertive but not hostile’ policy vis a vis our neighbors.
GN: Ethiopia has for a long time being seen as having a hand in influencing Somalia’s foreign policy and by extension national agenda. Do you think the new administration could seek to reset the button and chart its own course?
I don’t think it has any other choice; Sustainability of our nationhood depends on it. The alternative is to be lured as others into the same political minefield. So, the message has to be unequivocally clear: There is a new Sheriff in town. Interference and micromanagement of Somalia’s political affairs is a thing of the past. And if our neighbor is not willing to respect these wishes, the new administration would have no choice but to put moratorium on its IGAD membership.
GN: Of what foreign policy import do you think the maritime dispute between Kenya and Somalia portends now that the ICJ has Okayed a full hearing?
Let me first say this: In terms of its exploitative nature and the corrupt process that facilitated the deal, that bone of contention is on a par with the Soma Oil and Gas deal. I am confident a lot will come to the surface at the ICJ hearing. And so long as Kenya insists on its current position and establish ‘facts on the ground’ this issue could poison the relationship between the two countries.