March 27, 2017 | Morning Headlines
Puntland Leader Says The State Will Hold One Man One Vote Elections
26 March – Source : Goobjoog News – 123 Words
The president of the semi-autonomous regional state of Puntland, Abdiweli Ali Gaas has announced that the state will hold one man, one vote election. Gas said that Puntland state is capable of holding and managing a general election, which will take place as one-man-one-vote elections. “The elections will take place; we will start with district level elections. We are going are to establish multiparty system,” Gaas said. The leader said people of Puntland will elect their leaders through voting. “My government will make sure the public to elect their leaders through one man one vote elections, There will be no selection and clan based elections,” pledged Puntland leader. Puntland which declared itself as semi-autonomous in 1998 holds indirect election after every four years.
Key Headlines
- Puntland Leader Says The State Will Hold One Man One Vote Elections (Goobjoog News)
- Galmudug Assembly Speaker Summons Lawmakers To Adado Ahead Of By-election (Goobjoog News)
- No Casualties Reported As Bomb Blasts Rock Capital (Shabelle News)
- IGAD Leaders To Help Send Refugees Back Home (VOA)
- Help Somalia Stabilise Uhuru Appeals To International Community (The Standard)
- Somalia Urges Relief Agencies To Return (Xinhua)
- Promoting Institutional Memory In Somali Bureaucracy (Hiiraan Online)
NATIONAL MEDIA
Galmudug Assembly Speaker Summons Lawmakers To Adado Ahead Of By-election
26 March – Source : Goobjoog News – 133 Words
The speaker of Galmudug Assembly Ali Ga’aal Aseyr has called on the regional lawmakers to make their way to Adado in time for the April 10 by-election. Aseyr said Galmudug is in preparation for the election of new president who will fill the gap left by the former Galmudug president Abdikarim Guled who resigned over health related issues. “We are approaching the election which is expected to take place soon, therefore we call on all the MPs to return and participate in the forthcoming election,” said the speaker. Late last month, Former Galmudug leader, Abdikarim Hussein Guled announced his resignation; citing health reasons prompted his sudden decision. Prime Minister Khaire had last week asked the regional assembly to postpone the by-election for 45 days to enable him complete the formation of cabinet.
No Casualties Reported As Bomb Blasts Rock Capital
26 March – Source : Shabelle News – 99 Words
Two separate car bomb explosions were heard in Somali Capital Mogadishu on Sunday, targeting a civil servant and and electoral delegate. According to Police and witnesses, first blast happened near Dabka Junction after a bomb concealed in car belonging to Abdishakur Isse, a civil servant was remotely detonated. Isse was reported to have escaped from the car bomb unhurt. Second bomb went off in Mogadishu’s Dharkenley district, targeting an elder said to be among the electoral college who elected the MPs of the current Somali Parliament. No group has yet claimed responsibility for the two car bombings in Mogadishu.
INTERNATIONAL MEDIA
IGAD Leaders To Help Send Refugees Back Home
26 March – Source : VOA – 341 Words
The leaders of the Intergovernmental Authority on Development regional grouping, meeting in Nairobi Saturday, agreed to facilitate the voluntary return of refugees and address the political and security situation in Somalia. Eight leaders from eastern Africa met in Nairobi to discuss the situation of Somali refugees in the region. The meeting was held two months before the planned Dadaab refugee camp closure by the Kenyan government.
Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta insists the refugee camp in the northeast part of his country is no longer just a sanctuary for refugees but is the scene of criminal and terror activities too. “Instead Dadaab has become a protracted situation characterized by hopelessness that easily feeds environmental destructions, a conflict between refugees and host communities, insecurity, radicalization, criminality and also allows terrorist operatives to exploit for its operational efforts,” he said.
More than 200,000 refugees live in the Dadaab refugee camp. Close to a million Somalis are refugees in neighboring countries. Kenya hosts a third of those, and Ethiopia is home to a quarter of a million of Somalis. The region is also facing a humanitarian crisis. More than 17 million are affected by drought and are in need of aid assistance. The leaders said there was a need to respond to the humanitarian crisis to prevent new displacement of people. Observers fear the current crisis may threaten the lives of refugees returning to Somalia where 6 million-half of the population is hungry. The heads of the nations in the summit said that voluntary repatriation is not the only option and has urged other countries to come forward and share responsibility through settling some of the refugees in third countries.
Help Somalia Stabilise, Uhuru Appeals To International Community
26 March – Source : The Standard – 715 Words
President Uhuru Kenyatta has appealed to the international community to offer long term solutions to problems facing Somalia. The President said the new government in Somalia after the recent peaceful elections, offers an opportunity to ensure stability. “The recent election into office of Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed as the President of the Federal Republic of Somalia, offers an opportunity to put things right in the Horn of Africa Country, that has not known peace for over two decades,” he said. He spoke yesterday, when he hosted a special summit of the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) Assembly of Heads of State and Government in Nairobi, whose agenda was to find a lasting solution and return Somali refugees back home. Presidents who attended the summit were Mohamed (Somalia), Yoweri Museveni (Uganda), Salva Kiir (South Sudan) and Ismaïl Omar Guelleh (Djibouti). “What is clear to me, as it is to you leaders, and to all Somali refugees, is that the time for lasting solutions is now,” said President Kenyatta, who asked his counterparts to be in the forefront to ensure stability in Somalia.
Kenya has been Somalia’s key ally, hosting the largest number of Somali refugees for decades and contributing soldiers to the African Union Mission in Somalia (Amisom) to ensure a return to peace. President Kenyatta who is also is also the IGAD rapporteur called for focus on the plight of refugees. “A refugee camp was never meant to be a permanent home, nor is being a refugee a promise of losing your citizenship and your country.
These people should participate in the building of their nation,” he said. He regretted that life has not been easy for refugees at the Dadaab Refugee Camp, which hosted over 400,000 families and has been operating for the last 20 years with a fraction of its budget. Kenyatta noted that the camp has long lost its humanitarian character. “It is not acceptable to us that a space that is supposed to provide safety and assistance is transformed to facilitate agents of terror and destruction,” said President Kenyatta.
Somalia Urges Relief Agencies To Return
25 March – Source : Xinhua – 409 Words
Somali President Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed on Saturday called on humanitarian and development actors working on Somalia to return to help in the reconstruction of the Horn of Africa nation. Speaking at the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) Special Summit of Regional Heads of State on durable solutions for the protracted Somali refugee situation in Nairobi, Mohamed said several parts of Somalia are largely peaceful despite attacks from the militants. “We understand that there are serious security limitations in certain areas, but the vast majority of our country is relatively peaceful. And experience shows us that, when partners operate within Somalia, their impact is qualitatively better than those operating remotely,” Mohamed said.
He pledged to increase security for all relief agencies in the Horn of Africa nation and promised to fix humanitarian challenges to enable agencies to work from inside Somalia. The Horn of Africa nation has been mired in conflict since civil war broke out in 1991 and is one of the most difficult countries for relief agencies to operate in.
The UN says over 100 violent incidents resulted in the death of nine, injury of 11, arrest and detention of 16, abduction of three and physical assault of five humanitarian personnel also took place by September 2016. The Islamist group Al-Shabaab which is fighting to topple the Western-backed government has been targeting humanitarian workers for political gain, sometimes demanding ransom in order to free the hostages.
OPINION, ANALYSIS, AND CULTURE
“Given the importance of institution building across the board in Somalia and the limited funds and time the Government has, institutional memory must be prioritised. Institutions learn, improve and grow but while this process is ongoing the people’s lives do not stop and they need their government to have an impact on their future through public services.”
Promoting Institutional Memory In Somali Bureaucracy
26 March – Source : Hiiraan Online – 1108 Words
Now that the Council of Ministers has been formally named and publicised after weeks of speculation by Prime Minister Hassan Ali Khaire, it’s time to remind all incoming Ministers of the need to preserve institutional memory after they are hopefully approved by Parliament. In the past it would seem that with all political changes, the organisational change or disruption as it can be best described, followed automatically. This meant a mass overhauling of key staff, priorities and even changes in Ministry names which displaced key experts on certain topics within the civil service. Each change of Government in the past almost equated metaphorically to a rebirth of the Somali nation because of the lack of continuity, coherence and flip flopping priorities which most new Minister arrived with as if on a personal career enhancement exercise with a few of their own entourage.
Somalia is not a new state and has been independent since 1960. In this time numerous governments, both official and transition, have created useful and viable policies and laws that have relevance today. These should be examined and modernised where required but most certainly used. Continuation is fundamental to public and investor confidence in any government, especially, one seeking to rebuild after a difficult two decades marred by conflict and poverty because it illustrates coordination, direction and rationality.
Since 2012, when Somalia elected its first internationally recognised government, much time and resources were spent on creating priorities, implementing policies albeit in a disfigured manner at times, and convincing the world that Somalia was moving forward in the right direction. What arguably hampered progress most in the last government’s policy ambitions was the unstable politics which saw three Prime Ministers in 4 years and a similar number of changes in Ministerial portfolios, including Ministry names.