May 3, 2013 | Daily Monitoring Report.

Main Story

Bashir Gobe appointed as Somalia’s new Intelligence Boss

03 May – Source: Radio Mogadishu/Bar-kulan/Hiiraan Online – 121 words

The Somali government appointed a new director for the National Intelligence and Security Agency (NISA) following the resignation of Ahmed Moalim Fiqi a month ago.

Assistant Minister for Human Development & Public Services, Bashir Mohamed Jama (Gobe) has been appointed the new Chief of Intelligence, according to assistant information minister, Abdishakur Ali Mire who spoke to the press after a cabinet meeting in Mogadishu.

Deputy Somalia Police Chief General Abdihakin Dahir Saaid has also been promoted to chief of police. Former police chief, General Sharif Shekhuna Maye resigned a month ago.

A heavy security operation is underway in Mogadishu for the third consecutive day in order to beef up security amid fears that al Shabaab insurgency is planning to carry out attacks in the capital.

Key Headlines

Somali Government adopts new public finance management policy (Prime Minister’s Media Office)
Bashir Gobe appointed as Somalia’s new Intelligence Boss (Radio Mogadishu/Bar-kulan/Hiiraan Online)
Women IDPs in Garowe benefit from skills training (Radio Ergo)
Somalia famine ‘killed 260000 people’ (Africa Review/BBC)
London conference awaits ‘vision to take Somalia forward’ (The Guardian)
Special police force readies to deploy in Mogadishu (Sabahi Online)
British millions for new Somali security forces (The Telegraph)
No Hijacking by Somali Pirates in Nearly a Year (AP/Yahoo News/New York Times/Washington Post)
Quarter of Somalis still rely on aid despite weakening of al Shabaab (Reuters)

PRESS STATEMENT

Somali Government adopts new public finance management policy

02 May – Source: Prime Minister’s Media Office – 234 words

Somalia’s Council of Ministers today adopted new a Public Finance Management Policy (PFMP) to improve the government’s financial sector delivery capability and provide timely, transparent and accurate financial information across the public sector.

Chairing the weekly Cabinet meeting, His Excellency Prime Minister Abdi Farah Shirdon endorsed the reform plan as the guiding principle of public financial management and re-establishing Somali institutions.

“The plan envisages an impressive reform agenda in public finance management. We are committed to ensuring the full implementation of the plan over the next four years”, said the Prime Minister, while addressing the Council on the urgency of undertaking new financial reforms.

In support of service delivery the plan improves transparency and openness of the national budget process. It enhances fiscal discipline through internal and external control. It also, enhances efficiency and effectiveness of public expenditure and puts the focus of public expenditure on government priority areas. Overall it strengthens the financial management and accountability system, which is a priority reform area for the government.

“The new plan ends the long absence of an effective financial management in our country; it is also the beginning of a well planned and transparent financial system. It is an expensive system that will cost $26 million to implement over four years, but it is important that we adopt this plan as the guiding principles of our financial management system,” said Finance Minister Mohamud Hassan Suleiman.

SOMALI MEDIA

Bashir Gobe appointed as Somalia’s new Intelligence Boss

03 May – Source: Radio Mogadishu/Bar-kulan/Hiiraan Online – 121 words

The Somali government appointed a new director for the National Intelligence and Security Agency (NISA) following the resignation of Ahmed Moalim Fiqi a month ago.

Deputy Somalia Police Chief General Abdihakin Dahir Saaid has also been promoted to chief of police. Former police chief, General Sharif Shekhuna Maye resigned a month ago.

A heavy security operation is underway in Mogadishu for the third consecutive day in order to beef up security amid fears that al Shabaab insurgency is planning to carry out attacks in the capital.

Puntland Ministry of Planning meets to develop 5 year strategy

02 May – Source: Garowe Online – 99 words

Puntland Ministry of Planning met with international and local stakeholders in Garowe to begin designing and planning the new Five Year Development Plan for Puntland, Garowe Online reports.

Minister Dr. Sayid Mohamed Abdullah and other ministry officials hosted the meeting in Garowe on Thursday to discuss what the development strategy would involve. “Of course a plan or strategy is mandatory for us [Puntland} and this program is how we would formulate a plan for development,” said Minister Sayid.

Officials at the development strategy meeting discussed district and city development, implementing development projects formulated by Puntland residents and emergency aid.

Women IDPs in Garowe benefit from skills training

03 May – Source: Radio Ergo – 209 Words

More than 250 displaced women are learning job skills such as handicraft making, tailoring, cooking and beautician work at the SAACOM training school in Garowe. Asha Abdi Hussein, the school’s manager, told Radio Ergo the courses are offered free of charge to the women. “We want the women to learn things, at least learning how to read and write in Somali, and skills they can use for earning their livelihood,” she said.

The handicrafts and garments made by the women are sold in Garowe market. The school was established in 2003 and since then some of its graduates have opened successful small businesses in town such as beauty salons and restaurants.

Halima Hussein Kadiye, an IDP in Jowle camp, said; “I was just at home, for my parents were not able to send me to school. I got a place in this school two months ago and I’m so happy because I can write my name now. I will also be learning skills so I can earn a living for myself.”

SAACOM has similar centres in Jalam, Godob jiiraan and Diganle and is supported by the Women Groups in Nugaal region. The UN’s World Food Programme provides the women students with monthly food rations of rice, beans, and porridge.

Mo Farah: ‘let’s get behind the Somalia Conference’

02 May- Source: Hiiraan Online – 1:22 min

Somali-born British international track and field Olympic gold medalist, Mo Farah, talks about the upcoming Somalia Conference on 7 May. The Governments of the UK and Somalia will co-host an international conference on Somalia on 7 May in the UK. The conference aims to provide international support for the Government of Somalia as they rebuild their country after two decades of conflict.

REGIONAL MEDIA

Somalia famine ‘killed 260,000 people’

03 May – Source: Africa Review/BBC – 192 words

Nearly 260,000 people died during the famine that hit Somalia from 2010 to 2012, a study shows. Half of them were children under the age of five, says the report by the UN and the US-funded Famine Early Warning Systems Network (Fews Net). The UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) said humanitarian aid needed to be provided more quickly.

The crisis was caused by a severe drought, worsened by conflict between rival groups fighting for power. The number of deaths was higher than the estimated 220,000 people who died during the 1992 famine. Western aid group ban. Rudi Van Aaken, the deputy head of the FAO operation for Somalia, said that the response had been too slow.

“I think the main lesson learned is that the humanitarian community should be ready to take early action – respond early on.” “Responding only when the famine is declared is very very ineffective. Actually about half of the casualties were there before the famine was already declared.” The FAO said earlier that the “true enormity of this human tragedy” had emerged for the first time from the study, done jointly with Fews Net.

Special police force readies to deploy in Mogadishu

02 May – Source: Sabahi Online – 740 Words

The Somali government plans to deploy a 1,300-strong police force in late May to hunt down al Shabaab operatives throughout Mogadishu with the aim of preventing attacks and assassinations against peace activists, security forces, journalists and government officials.

“Among the tasks of our new force is to impose curfews, conduct searches, fend off attacks, protect public figures and protect [neighbourhood police outposts],” Somali Minister of Interior and National Security Abdikarim Hussein Guled told Sabahi. “Its members will be different from other forces because of their unique uniforms, equipment, supplies and special vehicles, as well as because they will receive ongoing training inside the country and abroad to maintain their fitness levels.”

The special police unit already received training in Somalia and abroad in preparation for their deployment, Guled said. They will be deployed with 120 vehicles painted in a distinctive colour and equipped with advanced radio and alarm equipment. The new unit is part of the federal government’s campaign to step up security and counter-terrorism operations in Mogadishu.

INTERNATIONAL MEDIA

Jobs wanted: Somali ex-pirates seek employment

03 May – Source: AFP – 974 Words

For a fearsome pirate, even one in self-declared retirement, there is a notable lack of what literature has led one to expect: cutlass, eye-patch, hook or even a parrot. Instead, Mohamed Abdi Hassan, one of Somalia’s — if not the world’s — most notorious pirate chiefs, appears far more businessman than sea bandit, as he explains why he now wants to end the murderous hijacking of ships.

Hassan, better known as “Afweyne” or “Big Mouth”, whose men once terrorised vast stretches of the Indian Ocean — generating millions of dollars in ransoms from seized ships — now claims to have renounced piracy.

“The young men need to be trained, to get skills and get integrated into society,” Afweyne said, pulling out of his briefcase an official letter apparently nominating him as an “anti-piracy officer”.

Afweyne, who says he earned his nickname as a child “because I would cry a lot”, claims to have persuaded almost a thousand young pirates to quit. “We are convincing the youths to give up piracy… I have influence, and have been mobilising the community… to keep the men from the water,” he told AFP over a cup of tea in an upmarket hotel in Somalia’s war-ravaged capital Mogadishu.

No Hijacking by Somali Pirates in Nearly a Year

03 May – Source: AP/Yahoo News/New York Times/Washington Post – 576 Words

The fight against Somali pirates has been so effective that they haven’t been able to mount a successful hijacking in nearly a year, the chair of the global group trying to combat the pirates said Thursday.

U.S. diplomat Donna Leigh Hopkins credits the combined efforts of international naval forces and stepped-up security on ships including the use of armed guards. But there are also other factors including the jailing of some 1,140 Somali pirate in 21 countries “which started deglamorizing piracy,” she said.

Somali pirates hijacked 46 ships in 2009, 47 in 2010, but only 25 in 2011, an indication that new on-board defenses were working. In 2012, there were just 75 attacks reported off Somalia and in the Gulf of Aden — down from 237 attacks in 2011 — and only 14 ships were hijacked, according to the International Maritime Bureau.

“Pirate attacks are down by at least 75 percent,” Hopkins said in an interview with The Associated Press. “There are still pirate attacks being attempted but there has not been a successful hijacking since May 2012,” she said. “May 12 will be the one year anniversary of no successful hijacking off the coast of Somalia.”

Quarter of Somalis still rely on aid despite weakening of al Shabaab

02 May – Source: Reuters – 333 Words

About a quarter of Somalia’s population still need aid to keep them from starvation and rebuild their livelihoods, even though much of the country has been stabilized by a campaign to drive back militants, the United Nations said on Thursday.

A U.N. report said around 260,000 people, half of them children, had died between 2010 and 2012 in a famine that had been exacerbated and kept out of view by the al Shabaab group, who at the time controlled large swathes of Somalia.

The militants have since been pushed back, mainly by African peacekeeping troops, although parts of the countryside remain under al Shabaab’s control or influence.

Somalia has been making a slow recovery and a new federal government is now in place in Mogadishu, but diplomats say the gains are fragile. Militants still stage attacks and aid workers say many Somalis still live a hand-to-mouth existence.

London conference awaits ‘vision to take Somalia forward’

03 May – Source: The Guardian – 942 Words

On Tuesday next week, the UK hosts yet another big conference on Somalia, bringing together officials from 50 countries and organisations, including the UN, African Union and International Monetary Fund. The most significant difference from last year’s London event is that instead of a tottering and discredited transitional regime, Somalia now has a fully fledged government, led by Hassan Sheikh Mohamud.

Elected last September, the 57-year-old professor and activist is the first leader chosen inside Somalia since the 1991 overthrow of president Siad Barre, which sowed the seeds for the country’s descent into chaos.

Next week’s gathering can be seen as a concerted attempt to bolster the Somali government’s legitimacy as it seeks to rebuild the country after more than two decades of conflict. The conference will be co-chaired by Mohamud and David Cameron, the UK prime minister, and its main aim is to signal international support for Somalia as the new government sets out its vision.

But in a setback to the UK, Somaliland, which broke away from Somalia in 1991, refused British entreaties to attend on the grounds that it would not have been treated as equal to the Somali government. Somali officials, however, are upbeat.

British millions for new Somali security forces

02 May – Source: The Telegraph – 452 Words

William Hague, the Foreign Secretary, said Somali leaders “need international support to build up” security forces, police and coastguard and will get broad international backing at a conference on Somalia in London next week. Under a plan bankrolled by international donors, Britain could be prepared to increase the £60 million it is currently spending on rebuilding the war-torn north African country.

“We are looking at building the security forces of Somalia from a very low base. That means coming up with a clear plan for effective and affordible security forces,” said one official close to the plans. Security is one of the four key aims of the conference, which has been convened by David Cameron and includes representatives of 55 countries and organisations.

The Somali government payroll currently includes 8,500 soldiers and 6,000 police in Mogadishu, the capital. Most are hastily drafted members of militias whose ultimate loyalty is to clans or warlord leaders.

These forces are woefully under-resourced with typically just one shipping container to store its arms. At a barracks in the capital soldiers last week celebrated the arrival of beds for the first time. A European Union scheme to train army officers in neighbouring Uganda for the Somali military can only enroll a few hundred Somalis at a time.

SOCIAL MEDIA

“Unlike the ones in Somalia, this horrific event was unique as it was globally monitored by the media and digital savvy activists from around the world. The official narrative of the case and the chronological sequence of events have changed a number of times; and some argue that it cannot stand thorough scrutiny.”

Mogadishu, Boston and the ‘Pavlovian Response’

02 May – Source: Foreign Policy Blog – 1135 Words

The recent terrorist attacks that took place in Mogadishu and Boston were not just intended to kill and mutilate many civilians, but to create widespread terror, disarray, and insecurity that would last far beyond the initial shock of these bloody events. It goes without saying — anyone who takes part of such acts of indiscriminate violence should face justice.

On Sunday, April 14, Mogadishu’s main courthouse was attacked by nine gunmen who killed 35 people and wounded 50 more. Immediately, officials declared that the perpetrators were “foreign elements within al Shabaab” or al Qaeda.

They said the attacks were carried out by nine men who had bombs strapped around their waists, and that one of the nine was a Somali-Canadian youth who recently moved to Mogadishu. The finding was delivered much faster than any first class counter-terrorism experts and forensic investigators anywhere could.

This is not the first time that the media has implicated a “radicalized youth” from the Somali diaspora. In fact, most, if not all, of the most gruesome terrorist acts carried out in Somalia — including the Hargeisa and Bosaso bombings and the Hotel Shamo bombing – were credited to diaspora youth, all within hours from the tragedy.

“Overall, Federalism is legitimately seen in many corners of Somali society as the best option to suppress dictatorial tendencies endemic in the unitary systems of the past that concentrated power and resources in the capital city and exercised total control over the social, economic, and political interests of the larger society.”

The Impracticality of Somali Style Federalism

02 May – Source: Hiiraan Online – 2735 Words

It has been more than two decades since Somalia failed as a state to effectively preserve strong national cohesion. Consequently, the structure of the state as well as the question of the Somali national identity to this day remains contested, diverged and unresolved. It is no secret that Somalis alone brought down their state and with it the fabric of their national identity without the explicit assistance of hegemonic foreign forces.

The break-up of the nation into clan enclaves continues to seriously undermine its sovereignty and utterly dissolves basic citizenship rights, freedoms of movement and fair political representation.

The purpose of this essay is to examine the suitability as well as the practicality of a constitutional federal structure for Somalia and offers suggestions for improving the hotly contested constitutional process.

With the fall of the unitary state, which was barely in existence for no more than three decades, Somalis began to consciously deflect blame of their social and political quandary squarely on the shoulders of the state, thus denying agency for themselves and absolving their clans from the collective destruction of the state.

“Despite early warnings, the Somalia famine was allowed to happen. Why? Because of politics, al Shabaab and donor fears”

In Somalia, western donors made famine more, not less likely

02 May – Source: The Guardian – 580 Words

The 2011 famine in Somalia, which the famine early warning systems network (Fewsnet) and the food security nutrition and analysis unit (FSNAU) estimate in a report published on Thursday to have killed almost 260,000 people, was avoidable.

Over the previous year, Fewsnet and FSNAU flagged the impending tragedy with increasing urgency, producing more than 70 early warning bulletins and undertaking a similar number of briefings with agencies and donor governments. Had the international community responded, early interventions could have been undertaken to shore up livelihoods and prevent the downward spiral into destitution and starvation.

But these warnings fell on deaf ears. Donor governments failed to increase aid, and humanitarian agencies failed to increase their appeals. Only when famine was declared did the humanitarian system mobilise, by when the opportunity to avert disaster had passed. Despite a year of early warnings, the Somalia famine was allowed to happen. Why? The one word answer is politics.

The faces of famine: Peter Power in Somalia

02 May – Source: Globe and Mail -116 Words

The Somalia famine was vastly more disastrous than the world realized, a new study has found. Nearly 260,000 people died in the famine between 2010 to 2012 – including 133,000 children under the age of five – making it one of the deadliest famines of the past 25 years.

death toll is about three times worse than previous estimates. Even worse, it was a man-made disaster – and a preventable one – triggered by war, extremism, and official neglect. For nearly a year before the famine was officially declared, there were a series of escalating warnings from expert agencies. Yet the world did little until 120,000 people were already dead. Can the world finally learn the lessons of Somalia?

Top tweets

@farhanjimale A head of the intl conference on #Somalia in London next week @BBCSomali will be looking at the state of the country with series of reports.

@HMAMattBaugh #WPFD: we should never take for granted the work that journalists do in #Somalia; it is one of the world’s most dangerous places for media.

@UNPOSomalia Read #UNSC Resolution 2102 establishing the new #UN Assistance Mission in #Somalia,#UNSOM: http://bit.ly/122XFnf @UN_DPA @TheVillaSomalia.

@SavetheChildren 130,000 #children under the age of five lost their lives during the last crisis and we must never let that happen again. #Somalia.

‏@SundjataKKeita #Somalis are one of the most vibrant, and dynamic people of #Afrika and we need them to be free cos when #Somalia is free we are free.

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Image of the day

Image of the day Mohamud Ahmed Nur, Mayor of Mogadishu, presenting his views on being a courageous citizen at 43rd St. Gallen Symposium summit in Switzerland. Photo: @TheStGallenMBA.