March 24, 2016 | Daily Monitoring Report
UN Provides 11 Million USD For Drought Response In Somalia
24 March – Source: Xinhua – 280 Words
The UN Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF) will release 11 million U.S. dollars to provide urgent humanitarian assistance for 224,000 drought affected people in the northern parts of Somalia. The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said on Wednesday the fund will help partners to ramp up the provision of critical life-saving humanitarian assistance in the drought-affected areas of Puntland and Somaliland.
“This will include food and nutrition assistance, livestock vaccination, health care services, water and sanitation,” OCHA said. The latest assessment by UN and relief organizations confirms persistently high and alarming levels of food insecurity and malnutrition in Somalia, with an estimated 4.7 million people, nearly 40 percent of the Somali population in need of humanitarian assistance.
Nearly 950,000 of these people are acutely food insecure and struggle every day to meet their food needs. Internally displaced persons make up more than two thirds, or 68 percent of acutely food insecure people and are in dire need of assistance. According to OCHA, the Commom Humanitarian Fund (CHF)for Somalia has allocated 6.5 million dollars to scale up response in the drought-affected regions to compliment the CERF allocation.
Key Headlines
- UN Provides 11 Million USD For Drought Response In Somalia (Xinhua)
- Somali Federalization And Boundaries Commission Meet With Galmudug State Parliament (Goobjoog News)
- Puntland Diaspora Donates Foodstuff To Armed Forces (Wacaal Media)
- New Case Of Measles Reported From Northern Somalia (Goobjoog News)
- Kenyan Somali Leaders Condemn Brussels Attacks (Business Standard)
- US To Supply Kenya With Five Helicopters For War On Al-Shabaab (The Star)
- Djibouti Is Hot (Bloomberg)
NATIONAL MEDIA
Somali Federalization And Boundaries Commission Meets With Galmudug State Parliament
24 March – Source: Goobjoog News – 113 Words
Somali Boundaries and Federalization commission held talks with Galmudug parliament, civil society and ministries of the state in Adado. The commission along with UNDP went to the state to conduct research and consultations with the state leadership, parliament and civil society about the boundaries of the state. Galmudug State’s assembly and civil society presented complaints against Ethiopian troops which they said make constant border crosses and harassment against civilians on border areas to the federalization and boundaries commission. Galmudug and puntland also have a border dispute which the commission is responsible to look at and propose best ways to end. The commission will extend the research and consultation meeting with other federal states said Goobjoog correspondent Dahir Farah.
Puntland Diaspora Donates Foodstuff To Armed Forces
24 March – Source: Wacaal Media – 117 Words
The Puntland diaspora has donated assorted foodstuff as part of efforts to stand with the local forces that ran over invading Al-Shabaab militants. The donations by the diaspora in Denmark include 500 bags of dates and 165 boxes of canned fish and was handed over to the Bari regional commander. Mayor of Bosaso Yasin Mire Mohamud and the Deputy Governor of Bari Ahmed Ali Irro said the donations will go a long way in boosting morale of the heroes who defended their country. They thanked the diaspora for the kind gesture. Minister for Seaports Abdullahi Jama Salah asked the rest of the Puntland diaspora to follow suit and participate in the defence of their country.
New Case Of Measles Reported From Northern Somalia
24 March – Source: Somali Update – 222 Words
A measles outbreak has been reported in Buhodle in Togdheer region by the Ministry of Health of the regional state. Some 29 cases of measles were confirmed in rural villages around Buhodle, according to the local authorities. These include 18 cases among children under age 5, the United Nations Office for Humanitarian Coordinations confirms. Local officials also reported that the cases are spreading in the area.
Unconfirmed reports indicate that most of the affected people had not been vaccinated. A number of nomadic pastoralist families affected by the drought in parts of Puntland and Somaliland have recently moved into these villages, according to authorities. In 2015, some 7,500 suspected cases of measles were detected mostly among children under age 5 in southern and central Somalia. Emergency vaccination against measles remains a priority for 2016.
In November 2015, humanitarian partners in collaboration with the Federal Government launched a measles campaign targeting nearly 4 million children under age 10 in Somalia. Over 3.5 million children were vaccinated against measles since November 2015. This represents an administrative coverage of 90 per cent in accessible districts of Somalia. According to the local health officials and the partner organizations working on health cluster, there are plans underway to begin an immunization campaign in Bakool region following the recent suspected cases of measles in the area.
INTERNATIONAL MEDIA
Kenyan, Somali Leaders Condemn Brussels Attacks
24 March – Source: Business Standard – 165 Words
Presidents of Kenya and Somalia have condemned the attacks in Brussels, Belgium on Tuesday that killed 34 people and injured over 200 others. In his statement on Wednesday, Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta said “Kenya mourns with the people and government of Belgium following the heinous terrorist attacks on Tuesday“.
He called on the international community to fight against “extremist enemies”, Xinhua reported. Somali President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud termed the attacks as “barbaric” and “an affront to humanity”. “We join the world in condemning the brutal attacks of civilians in Brussels. We grieve with those who have lost loved ones. We pray for the families affected,” Hassan Mohamud said in a statement.
Hassan Mohamud said terrorism is a global threat, requiring collective responsibility, adding Somalia, a country suffering from Islamist militant group Al-Shabaab, continues to work closely with the international community to eradicate extremist groups. Blasts ripped through Zaventeen Airport and a metro station in Brussels on Tuesday morning. The Islamic State (IS) has claimed responsibility.
US To Supply Kenya With Five Helicopters For War On Al-Shabaab
23 March – Source: The Star – 359 Words
The US is set to supply the Kenyan Air Force with five special military helicopters to boost efforts against terrorism. The helicopters militarily known as Huey II Standard are improved versions of the decades-old Bell UH-1H combat operation helicopters. The Bell UH- 1H Huey is a daily workhorse with an expansive cabin providing multi-mission flexibility and a standard seating of 12 people.
The supply to Kenya also includes aircraft spare parts, special tools, operator and maintainer training, read a March 16 notice on the US Federal Business Opportunities website. The notice posted by US Army Non-Standard Rotary-Wing Aircraft Project Office and seen by The Star did not give delivery timelines. The mission of the office is to procure, field and sustain non-standard rotorcraft for the US Department of Defense, allied countries, or as directed by the Office of the Secretary of Defense in support of Overseas Contingency Operations.
It is the Department of Defense’s focal point for non-standard rotary-wing aircraft. Kenya Army has a limited number of helicopters; most of the country’s rotary-winged-lift capabilities are fielded by the Kenya Air Force based in Eastleigh. Top military officials including Kenya Defence Forces spokesman David Obonyo could not be reached for comment. The government does not give details of military operations for national security reasons.
OPINION, ANALYSIS, AND CULTURE
“In the colonial period, everything in Djibouti was viewed negatively. They all said we only had a hot sun, dry winds, and a lot of rocks. … But now the negatives are positives”
Djibouti Is Hot
24 March – Source: Bloomberg – 3,811 Words
The bartender measures a shot of Johnnie Walker Red Label in a steel jigger and dumps it over ice. A waitress sets the glass on a tray and steers it through the dining room, where Abouye Wang, the restaurant owner, commands a booth in the back corner, elbows on the table, surveying the dinner crowd. The buzzcuts perched around the high table in the middle of the room are Americans, he guesses.
The two women lost in conversation behind them are French. He recognizes the men in the adjacent booth as German. He spots an Italian port executive and a Palestinian diplomat from the newly opened embassy. The restaurant, La Chaumière, sits on a corner of the central square in Djibouti, the capital city in the tiny African country of the same name, which until recently was of little consequence to anyone who didn’t live there.
La Chaumière’s menu pushes the outer limits of fusion as Wang caters to his evolving clientele. East African seafood dishes, Asian stir fries, French stews, American sandwiches, they’re all here. “If we don’t have what you want,” Wang tells me, “we’ll make it for you.” It’s my first night in Djibouti, and I’ve come to La Chaumière because I was told it would be full of soldiers, speculators, diplomats, spies, aid workers, contractors—all the outsiders who are turning Djibouti into an unlikely epicenter of 21st century geopolitics.
Thomas Kelly, the American ambassador here, likes to say that Djibouti today feels like what Casablanca must have felt like in 1940. “All the different nationalities elbowing into each other,” he says. “All the intrigue.” Wang stands in the center of the mix, walking from table to table, slipping from language to language, witnessing Djibouti’s transformation at close range. Born to an Ethiopian mother and a Chinese father, he roamed East Africa with his family before settling here in 1977, the year Djibouti declared independence from France. He was 7 years old, an exotic import in a place no one ever visited, where nothing ever happened.
Back then, Djibouti, a country about the size of New Jersey, had one paved road and less than a square mile of arable land. The Associated Press deemed it perfectly devoid of resources, “except for sand, salt, and 20,000 camels.” The New York Timesguessed the new nation might get swallowed up by one of its neighbors—Ethiopia or Somalia, maybe—because it was “so impoverished that it cannot stand on its own.”
TOP TWEETS
@AnankeGroup: #UN provides $ 11m to fight #drought in#Somalia http://somaliafocus.com/un-
@asmali77 : Congratulations to @Dahabshil for winning international business of the year award at #ISA2016.#Somalia #Dahabshil
@LayelleSaad : Somalia Prime Minister Sharmarke backs anti-FGM campaign – http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/
@Somaliupdate : New Case of #Measles Reported from Northern #Somalia http://somaliupdate.
@mustafaxaaji : #Somalia presidents commends Puntland forces on recent victories over fight with #Shebab..
@Aynte : Congratulations to @Isomaliawards 4 starting a wonderful initiative aimed at appreciating & rewarding our best & brightest. #Hope #Somalia
@monaeltahawy: #FGM is currently against constitution but parliament has not yet passed a bill outlawing the practice.#EndFGM #Somalia
@itayron5 : It’s not only how many #AMISOM soldiers will be sent to #Somalia. The doctrine how to engage w/ #AlShabaabmatters. http://www.capitalfm.co.ke/
IMAGE OF THE DAY
Somali PM joined a global campaign to outlaw FGM, boosting hopes that the practice will be banned in Somalia.
Photo: @engyarisow