May 24, 2016 | Morning Headlines
Security Is Mother Of All Solutions, Somali President Tells World Humanitarian Summit
23 May – Source: Radio Dalsan – 141 Words
Somali President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud has said that resolving humanitarian situation in his country will be difficult to achieve without first addressing security challenges in the horn of Africa country.
Addressing the plenary session of the World Humanitarian Summit in Istanbul on Monday, the President stressed that security was his country’s priority Number One and the “mother of all solutions”, including human rights issues.
“We will not fix our humanitarian situation without tackling security first,” President Mohamud stressed. In his speech the President focused on efforts of peace building, conflict resolution and economic gains made so far.
Somalia is among countries that have the worst human rights record in the world — precipitated by two decades of civil war. Representatives of 175 countries, including 57 heads of states or governments, are attending the international event, including the UN Secretary General, Ban Ki-moon, who is attempting to restructure the way the world responds to humanitarian crises.
Key Headlines
- Security Is Mother Of All Solutions Somali President Tells World Humanitarian Summit (Radio Dalsan)
- Two NISA Soldiers Among 4 Injured In Mogadishu Blast (Shabelle News)
- Galmudug State Terms The Peace With Puntland As Fragile (Goobjoog News)
- Ex Justice Minister Accused Of Fuelling Beledweyne Clan Fighting (Shabelle News)
- Decision To Close Dadaab Refugee Camp Final Kenya Tells UN Summit (The Star)
- AFRICOM Must Adapt To New Challenges Outgoing Commander Says (Stars & Stripes)
- Somalia On Recovery Path After Decades Of Ruin (Daily Nation)
- Somali National University Back On Feet From Civil War (Xinhua News)
NATIONAL MEDIA
Two NISA Soldiers Among 4 Injured In Mogadishu Blast
23 May – Source: Shabelle News – 121 Words
At least four people, including to soldiers serving with Somalia’s National Intelligence agency (NISA), were wounded in a landmine blast in the capital city of Mogadishu on Monday.
Mogadishu city spokesman Abdifitah Halane told the media the landmine which had been planted at KPP junction targeted government forces in the area: “We have confirmed two soldiers were injured and two civilians were at the junction at the moment of the blast,” said Halane. The Al-Shabaab militant group claimed responsibility for the attack, which has caused tension in the restive city.
NISA troops immediately cordoned off the scene of the attack and have launched a manhunt for the perpetrators of the criminal act, who reportedly escaped from the scene after the blast.
Galmudug State Terms The Peace With Puntland As Fragile
23 May – Source: Goobjoog News – 146 Words
Galmudug state of Somalia has accused neighboring Puntland state of not being serious on implement the Galkio Peace deal.
The state’s interior minister Omar Mohmamd Diriye warned that the situation is still fragile and that the two states had not resolved all the pending issues. Diriye cited the recent failure by Puntland state to attend federal states local governments’ conference in Adado as sign of distrust between the two states.
The Galmudug state minister maintained that relations between the two states were fragile: “As you all know, the two states fought last December and later reached an agreement. However the distrust and the tension remains.” International community and Somali Federal government brokered a peace agreement between the two states last December after fierce a fight that left many people dead.
Ex Justice Minister Accused Of Fuelling Beledweyne Clan Fighting
23 May – Source: Shabelle News – 149 Words
Former Justice Minister of Somalia and current Member of Parliament, Farah Sheikh Abdulkadir, has been accused of fuelling the ongoing deadly inter-clan fighting in Beledweyne city, the regional capital of Hiiraan.
Speaking to Radio Shabelle, Mohamed Abdi Lihle, a well-respected traditional elder in Beledweyne claimed Farah Sheikh Abdulkadir was funding one of the warring sides: “We have evidence that the former Justice Minister has sent large sum of money to one of the feuding clans.”
The renewed clan clashes in western Beledweyne have claimed lives of dozens of innocent civilians and forced hundreds to flee their houses, according to the elder. Farah Abdulkadir, who is a close ally to Somali President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud, has been blamed for making the situation worse by allegedly supporting one of the battling clans in Beledweyn, 350Km north of Mogadishu.
INTERNATIONAL MEDIA
Decision To Close Dadaab Refugee Camp Final, Kenya Tells UN Summit
23 May – Source: The Star – 626 Words
Kenya has told the International Community to support its move to close the Dadaab refugee camp and channel finances in resettling the refugees back to Somalia. Deputy President William Ruto told the World Humanitarian Summit attended by UN Secretary General Ban ki-Moon and other world leaders that the camp had become a burden to Kenya.
“The camp was a security threat, a haven for terrorism and conduit of contraband goods as well as a danger to the environment” he said. German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Turkey President Recep Tayyip Erdogan also addressed the conference. Ruto said: “Kenya has been faithful to her international obligations of humanitarian assistance but no country can shoulder humanitarian responsibilities at the expense of the security of her people and the refugees themselves.”
The DP who was accompanied by Interior CS Joseph Nkaissery and Foreign Affairs Principal Secretary Monica Juma said the country’s contribution and commitment to humanitarianism is beyond question.
Also present were chairmen of National Assembly Security Committee Asman Kamama and Defence and Foreign Relations’ Ndungu Gethenji. Kenya’s ambassador to Turkey Kiema Kilonzo, MPs Yusuf Haji, Barre Shill and Kimani Ichungwah also attended the conference.
Ruto conveyed the same message to Mr Ki-Moon and Somali President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud, who he met at the sidelines of the meeting. The Deputy President observed: “We have been steadfast and unparalleled despite the huge cost to the country in monetary, security, environmental and ecological spheres. We are looking forward to discussions on how best to fast-track the repatriation of refugees process so that they can go back and contribute to rebuilding of their country.”
The Deputy President said it was an insult for anyone to insinuate that Kenya is using the refugee crisis to solicit for funds: “Kenya has used its own resources for many years to support refugees and help stabilise Somalia. The country spends 100 million US dollars annually to support military intervention in Somali.” Kenya, he added, had paid the price of terrorism and smuggling of weapons and contraband goods into the country because of the camp.
AFRICOM Must Adapt To New Challenges, Outgoing Commander Says
23 May – Source: Stars & Stripes – 1,023 Words
In the early days of U.S. Africa Command (AFRICOM), airstrikes against militants in Somalia were guarded secrets, the kind of operations at odds with an image that AFRICOM was a kinder, gentler version of its sister combatant commands.
Today, the Pentagon issues press releases when enemy targets are taken out in Somalia or Libya. For AFRICOM’s spotlight-averse commander, U.S. Army Gen. David Rodriguez, the emerging image of AFRICOM as a hard-charging hunter-killer force is a source of frustration, and one he says is at odds with reality.
Unilateral strikes are “a very tiny sliver” of what AFRICOM does, which is building up local forces so they can take fight their own battles at home. But the U.S. strikes against insurgents “colors your perception that this is a combatant command that is doing a lot of kinetic activities,” he said during an exit interview at his Stuttgart headquarters.
“We have been taking the precise strikes in Somalia for the whole time AFRICOM’s been here,” he said, playing down their significance. This summer, Rodriguez will hand over leadership to Marine Lt. Gen. Thomas D. Waldhauser, a combat-tested commander who, if confirmed, must confront a tangle of security problems in Africa.
While Rodriguez stopped short of saying the military should be more secretive about certain operations, his ambivalence about the command’s new-found attention underlines one of the challenges AFRICOM’s new commander will face: balancing a need for lethal, attention-grabbing U.S. strikes on enemies with the long-term grind of building indigenous forces to do the bulk of the dirty work.
More than carrying out airstrikes, Rodriguez said, the command devotes most of its energy on its roughly 430 annual “theater security cooperation” activities, which range from large-scale multinational exercises to smaller, unit-level training missions across the continent: “The operations (air strikes) that we do that everybody focuses on is really temporary fixes and buying the time to get them to get their capacities built up so they can do that themselves.
Somalia On Recovery Path After Decades Of Ruin
23 May – Source: Daily Nation – 377 Words
Ten years ago, Somalia was in a state of near-hopelessness as Mogadishu was conquered by a coalition of Muslim clerics who routed 11 notorious warlords and their militias who had ruled the city for one-and-a-half decades.
Union of Islamic Courts (UIC) set up offices in Mogadishu and caused UN-backed Transitional Federal Government (TFG) a lot of trouble. UIC would block the government from moving to the capital from Baidoa. The government had no institutions such as Parliament, Cabinet, Judiciary or Presidency. Sadly, it was confined in the Bay region’s capital Baidoa.
Then the Ethiopians arrived. They teamed up with the forces of President Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed waged a crusade that culminated in the expulsion of the UIC clerics and their militants from Mogadishu and in Central and Southern Somalia. President Ahmed was able to set up base in Mogadishu and in December 2006, he embarked on stabilising the country.
Despite the challenges, especially an armed struggle against Al-Shabaab, TFG’s eight-year reign that ended in 2012, left an impressive legacy. And now, the current government has committed to ensure peaceful transfer of power before the end of the year. A new Parliament composed of the Upper House and the Lower House will be formed by August 2016 after which the two houses will elect a president in September.
On the diplomatic front, major countries have re-established relations with the new Somalia. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan visited Somalia twice between 2002 and January 2015 when he promised more projects in health, education and infrastructure: “We are going to build in Mogadishu the biggest Turkish embassy in Africa,” President Erdogan said while opening a new terminal at Mogadishu’s Aden Abdulle International Airport.
OPINION, ANALYSIS, AND CULTURE
“Chinese ambassador to Somalia Wei Hongtian, himself alumni of the university with a fluency in Somali language, has played a critical role in facilitating scholarships and providing equipment to the university.”
Somali National University Back On Feet From Civil War
23 May – Source: Xinhua News – 568 Words
More than two decades after it closed doors due to break out of civil war and disintegration of the state, the Somali National University is back on its feet and determined to reclaim its position as the premier institution of higher learning in Somalia.
The university, which re-opened in 2014 following the flushing out of Al-Shabaab extremist militants from Mogadishu, now has a student population of 755. It has six faculties and a team of masters and PhD holders who steer the academic and administrative functions. The faculties include Education and Social Science, Health Science, Economics and Management Science, Law, Agriculture and Veterinary and Animal Husbandry.
The university’s rector, Professor Mohamed Ahmed Jimale, told Xinhua in a recent interview that Somali National University (SNU) is fast resuming its position as the source of qualified human resource and research as well as a driver of change in the country: “The aim of this university is to develop skilled professionals who can design and implement development programs for the rebuilding of the nuova Somalia (the new Somalia),” said Jimale.
He said given Somalia is a largely agricultural and livestock driven economy, the university is keen on training professionals in agriculture, animal husbandry and economists. With a strong teaching fraternity, most of whom acquired higher education in China through scholarship programs, the rector says SNU is poised to offer tuition free quality education while at the same time contribute to peace and state building.
“The number of enrolment increased a lot because many young people that cannot afford to pay the tuition fee for private universities find a good chance here at SNU, the only public and tuition free university,” he said. Access to university education still remains a big challenge in Somalia since most of the secondary school graduates cannot afford private university education, a scenario Jimale says pushes the youth to illegal activities out of desperation. But SNU, Jimale said, aims to reverse this trend by scrapping tuition fees.