May 29, 2015 | Morning Headlines
At least 20 Killed In Fighting Near Somalia-Ethiopia Border
28 May – Source: Horseed Media – 203 Words
At least 20 people have been killed and more than 40 injured in small villages close to the Somalia and Ethiopian border, where forces from the Somali Regional State of Ethiopia and pastoralists have been fighting, an official has said. The governor of Galgadud region of Somalia, Hussein Ali Wehelie, has told local media outlets that the fighting has been going on since Tuesday in an area near to the border that separates both countries. According to credible source, the fighting erupted when the Somali region state of Ethiopia invaded two villages close to the border.
It is not clear why they invaded and also hard to find independent sources in the area due to poor communication system. Mr Wehelie has urged both sides to stop the conflict.“We are doing our best to find solution to this conflict which is unnecessary,’’ he said in an interview. In recent years, several conflicts have occurred in the Somalia-Ethiopia border mostly related to tribal and pasture disputes.More than 4000 Ethiopian troops are currently in Southern part of Somalia which are part of the African Union peacekeeping mission.
Key Headlines
- At least 20 Killed In Fighting Near Somalia-Ethiopia Border (Horseed Media)
- Somaliland Opposition Ruling Party Agree To 2016 Elections (Garowe Online)
- Ethiopian Troops ‘Massacre’ Civilians Near Somalia Border (Radio Danaan)
- Somali President To Attend Buhari Inauguration (Radio Dalsan)
- Leading Al-Shabaab Figure Dies In Somalia (Capital FM)
- NGOs Lose Licences Over Terrorism Claim (Daily Nation)
- Progress And Retrogression in Somalia (Brooking Institution)
- One Woman’s Resolve to Improve Somalia Healthcare (Somali Current)
NATIONAL MEDIA
Somaliland Opposition, Ruling Party Agree To 2016 Elections
28 May – Source: Garowe Online- 189
Ruling Kulmiye party and opposition bloc have agreed on early elections after weeks-long damaging political deadlock over a year and ten months term extension for Somaliland President’s term in office, Garowe Online reports. In a poll deal jointly signed by ruling Kulmiye party Chairman Musse Bihi Abdi, Vice President Abdirahman Saylici and two opposition leaders Faisal Ali Warabe and Abdirahman Mohamed Abdullahi (Irro), the sides agreed that parliamentary and presidential elections be held in December 2016, four months ahead of the date slated by House of elders on May 11. “[Parties] yielded assent that presidential and parliamentary elections be held in December 2016,” read a copy of tripartite agreement.
The deal brings a feud sparked by a decision to extend President Ahmed Mohamud Mohamud (Siilaanyo)’s term of office by 22 months to an end. A 30-member committee drawn from Somaliland’s Forum for traditional affairs announced the presidential term extension, leading to mass protests in the second largest city, Burao. Somaliland, located in northwestern Somalia declared its independence from the rest of the country as de facto sovereign state in 1991 but it has not been recognized internationally yet.
Ethiopian Troops ‘Massacre’ Civilians Near Somalia Border
28 May – Source: Radio Danaan – 162 Words
The commissioner of the Galgadud region has accused Ethiopian troops of massacring civilians near the common border with Somalia.The fighting in Gaar village is reported to be pitting rival clans, however, the commissioner says Ethiopian troops backing one certain clan have massacred more than 100 civilians from a rival clan. Speaking to DBN Hussein Irfo called for the Somali government to intervene the situation, warning more massacre should calls for intervention is not taken seriously.
No comment could be reached from the Ethiopian government on the development. The Ethiopian government frequently denied committing abuses in their fight against rebels. However, Human Rights Watch accused Ethiopian forces of subjecting civilians to executions, torture, and rape. Ethiopia sent troops to Somalia to join the African Union forces known as AMISOM. AMISOM is an African Union force of Ugandan and Burundian troops that has been largely responsible for keeping Al-Shabab from ousting the internationally backed government.
Somali President To Attend Buhari Inauguration
28 May – Source: Radio Dalsan- 88 Words
The President of the federal government of Somalia, Hassan Sheikh Mohamud is among more than 50 head of states to attend the inauguration ceremony of Nigeria President General Mohammadu Buhrari. The inauguration event is expected to take place in Nigerian capital, Abuja on Friday. Former military man who ruled Nigeria through coup from 1983 to 1985 defeated incumbent President Goodluck Johnathan in last month President Election. Issues to do with security,combating Boko Haram, corruption and economy are the immediate issues that is awaiting Buhari to tackle.
INTERNATIONAL MEDIA
Leading Al-Shabaab Figure Dies In Somalia
28 May – Source: Capital FM- 308 Words
A leading figure in the Somali-based Al-Qaeda-affiliated Al-Shabaab movement has died in Somalia, the Islamic militant group said Thursday.In a death announcement and obituary carried by jihadist media, the Shabaab said Sheikh Hassan Abdulahi Turki, known as Hassan Turki, died on Wednesday evening in the Middle Juba region south of the capital Mogadishu. Turki was in his 70s and suffered from poor health.“Sheikh Hassan Abdulahi Turki died last night in Hargeysa Yarey township. We pray to God to give him his mercy and accept his long-term good deeds,” Al-Shabaab spokesman Ali Mohamud Rage said in an audio message.
Rage said Turki “was one of Somalia’s greatest scholars” who had met “Al-Qaeda leaders, led by Osama bin Laden, twice in Afghanistan and another time in Sudan” and had fought against US soldiers in Mogadishu in 1993, the year 18 US soldiers were killed in the so-called Black Hawk Down incident during an ill-fated intervention.
NGOs Lose Licences Over Terrorism Claim
27 May – Source: Daily Nation – 531 Words
Three NGOs have been banned in the ongoing clampdown on civil society organisations accused of operating outside the law and financing terrorism. Muslim for Human Rights (Muhuri), Haki Africa and the Agency for Peace and Development, have been deregistered and barred from operating in the country after the sector regulator, the NGO Coordination Board, cancelled their licences Thursday. The three were among organisations gazetted by the Inspector General of Police, Mr Joseph Boinnet in April, on suspicion of supporting Al-Shabaab activities. The decision to publish their names was taken after the April 2 terrorist attack on the Garissa University College in which 148 people were killed.
Muhuri was accused of illegally operating 13 different bank accounts while Haki Africa was not duly registered. “None of these bank accounts, 12 in NIC Bank and one in Gulf African Bank, have duly been consented to by the NGO board,” said the letter that announced the NGOs’ deregistration. “The other organisation, Haki Africa, where some members of this NGO (Muhuri) are members, also hold bank accounts in the same bank.” Under the NGO Act, all non-profit organisation are required to furnish the NGO Board with bank statements of all the accounts they operate as well as the names of all the signatories.
OPINION, ANALYSIS & CULTURE
“However, how these commitments will be executed is even more important than whether the Somali government is capable of living up to the 2016 timeline, maintained Felbab-Brown. She argued that donors need to pay much more attention to the sub-national level governance processes, particularly as clan-based exclusionary politics continue to deeply divide Somalis and are beginning to produce new conflicts. Thus, state formation needs to take place in a transparent manner and with accountability to local Somalis, and not be simply usurped by local power brokers. A strong emphasis on inclusiveness and accountability—over clan loyalty— needs to be demanded of elites. Civil society actors as well as local businessmen should be included in the process of forming states and local governance as much as possible. ”
Progress And Retrogression in Somalia
27 May – Source: Brookings Institution – 856 Words
In May 2015, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry became the first person of his office ever to visit Somalia. Although it was an unannounced and very brief stop—he spent just over three hours in the country—the trip indicated that there have been real improvements in Somalia’s security situation. Nevertheless, many of the country’s security and political challenges remain. In a May 21, 2015 event “Counterterrorism and state-building in Somalia: Progress or More of the Same?,” Brookings Senior Fellow Vanda Felbab-Brown discussed these challenges and briefed her spring 2015 research trip to Somalia. The conversation was moderated by Michael O’Hanlon, Brookings senior Fellow and co-director of Center for 21st Century Security and Intelligence (21CSI). The event launched a new Brookings 21CSI project—The Africa Security Initiative, which complements Brookings’s Africa Growth Initiative and will add a new institutional focus and locus of activity and research related to African security matters.
Felbab-Brown stressed that compared to 2009, much has improved in Somalia. Compared to her last trip in 2013, however, both security and political dynamics have worsened in the country. Although the jihadi terrorist group Al-Shabaab no longer controls large swathes of territory, its presence in Mogadishu and other cities is still palpable. The group continues to control roads in much of the country’s center and south, for instance, allowing it to extort tolls.
Despite international efforts to disrupt its leadership, Al-Shabaab has stepped up attacks both in Somalia and abroad, as recently demonstrated by the horrific April attack on Garissa University College in eastern Kenya. This increase in attacks is not a sign of a weak, cornered terrorist group, said Felbab-Brown, but rather of one that is still dangerous, capable, and entrenched. Although Al-Shabaab’s attacks in Kenya are designed to demonstrate international operational prowess and exact revenge for the participation of Kenyan forces in the African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM)—an African Union effort to defeat al-Shabab—the group maintains a strong internal focus.
“Dahran, through her organization and the tireless effort of friends and family members, set out on a mission to raise funds for the acquisition of mainly maternity equipment. She is expecting a container full of medical kits from the US late to early next month. The $16,000 medical aid is destined for Central regions of Somalia.“It was an uphill task but the fruits of our effort will soon put smile on the faces of mothers and children in Somalia,” she confidently said as she heaved with a sigh of relief, perhaps as a sign of victory and a sense of accomplishment.She said the urge to help others, particularly the vulnerable, has always flowed in her veins owing to her family, which she says, was charitable ”
One Woman’s Resolve To Improve Somalia Healthcare
26 May – Source: Somali Current – 647 Words
“I am kind of shy and emotional person, please no cameras,” pleads Dahran Muse Hashi, 27, as we settle for a chat at the upscale Sarova Stanley hotel in downtown Nairobi. It was if she had anticipated for the sort of question we were to ask her. But behind the shy and emotional Dahran is a woman of strong-will who wants to change something about the lives of women and children in Somalia through her organization —Dahran Women and Children.
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But her will to help was put to test in 2013 when she visited Somalia in decades to see her family that lives in the country.“I saw a young boy, smart kid I should say, begging for help in the front door of Makah Al Mukarama hotel in Mogadishu. I asked him about how many meals he takes a day and why he wore a torn trouser,” she narrates. “He told me he only wears new clothes during Eid days, and takes his meals as when it’s available.
“That meeting with the poor kid struck a raw nerve in my being,” the mother of three young boys said as tears welled her eyes. That encounter with the boy is what keeps me going in the face of despair, she adds.Dahran was born in Mogadishu, and just like many Somalis that fled the civil war in the early nineties, left the country when she was five. She attended Abraham Lincoln in the United States at her high school level. She then proceeded to Normandale Community College in Minnesota, but left midway to attend to her children who, she says were too young to have been left on their own.