May 31, 2017 | Daily Monitoring Report
Militia Leader Arrested In A Disarmament Operation In Mogadishu
31 May – Source – Garowe Online – 196 words
Government security forces have arrested a leading militia leader in a security operation in Mogadishu’s Hodan district. Mahad Ilmi Mohamed (Mahad Dollar) was arrested last night during security operations that was carried out by the Somali Federal Forces in Mogadishu. Sources indicate that there was an intense fighting between security forces and the militia of Mahad Dollar in Beerta Jaadka in Hodan district.
The federal security forces met with fierce resistance from the militia who were heavily armed. The security forces were searching for the assailants behind the killing of an electoral delegate. The slain delegate was called Madahey and it is not yet known who is behind his killing. The arrest of Mahad Dollar is part of the security operations that have been carried out in Mogadishu lately and have led to the seizing of weapons and explosive materials.
This morning in Hawo Taako neighborhood in Wadajir, another operation was carried out in order to disarm a gang leader who manned a roadblock to extort money from drivers. Since the beginning of Ramadan, the Somali Government has tightened security in Mogadishu, and special forces have been deployed to the city to search vehicles and passengers.
Key Headlines
- Militia Leader Arrested In A Disarmament Operation In Mogadishu (Garowe Online)
- IDPs in Beledweyne Town Clamours For Help (Goobjoog News)
- Cadaado Trip Reverberate Nationalism Sentiments Said Ahmed Madobe (Goobjoog News)
- Head Of The UN Environment Visits Somalia To Assess Impact Of Drought On The Environment (UNSOM)
- World Bank Approves US$50 Million In Support Of Emergency Drought Response And Recovery (World Bank)
- This Country Has Been Amazing For Us’: From Refugee Camp To Cornell To A Rhodes Scholarship (Washington Post)
NATIONAL MEDIA
IDPs In Beledweyne Town Clamours For Help
31 May – Source: Goobjoog News – 182 words
People in IDP camps in Beledweyne in Hiiraan region are calling out for humanitarian help and eagerly waiting for any sort of assistance to cater for their needs in the holy month of Ramadan. Nasib IDP camp situated in Beledweyne town accommodates diverse families with no enough rations to sustain them. These people were displaced from their settlements due to the recent devastating famine. Some of the people who spoke to reporters said to be facing a recipe of hunger and wetness from rain water because of lacking proper shelter over their heads. “We don’t have food to break our fast nor shelter.
We are really suffering and need quick emergency response. We never had previous assistance. We go begging in the main town to secure a morsel of food to break our fast with”, a woman in Nasib IDP camp said. “Ultimately on behalf of this distressed people, I appeal to the Federal Government of Somalia, Committee on Drought and humanitarian organizations to come to our rescue with food provision and plastic tents for shelter against the rain.’’ She added.
Cadaado Trip Reverberate Nationalism Sentiments, Said Ahmed Madobe
31 May – Source – Goobjoog News – 196 words
The President of Jubbaland Ahmed Mohamed Islam Madobe returned back to Kismayo and spoke of his trip saying that it has brought Somalis together. “It was very important attending the inauguration in Adado and equally crucial was the meeting between Puntland and Galmudug administrations. It was a great opportunity attending the inauguration of the Galmudug President in Adado and our trip has ignited nationalism sentiments,” said Ahmed Madobe.
“It was very important that the talks between the Puntland and Galmudug Presidents transpired so that they can work together,” he added.. In his remarks, Ahmed Madoobe thanked the people of Adado for the warm welcome they extended to the delegates. The two presidents of Puntland and Galmudug signed an agreement in Adado to strengthen and work together on security and restoring peace between the people in Mudug.
INTERNATIONAL MEDIA
Head Of The UN Environment Visits Somalia To Assess Impact Of Drought On The Environment
30 May – Source : UNSOM – 377 Words
The Executive Director of the United Nations Environment Programme, Mr. Erik Solheim, visited Somalia to assess the extent and impact of the prevailing drought on the environment and to discuss support for the new Somali Government on other environmental issues, including the charcoal trade. Mr. Solheim met with senior Somali federal government officials, including Prime Minister H.E. Hassan Khayre and Deputy Prime Minister Mahdi Mohamed Guled.
Their discussions focused on a broad range of issues, including supporting initiatives by the Federal Government of Somalia in environmental conservation and use of renewable energy, to mitigate the effects of climate change. “Environment is a very central issue to any Government and in particular it is central to Somalia because drought, as witnessed here over the last few months, is linked to climate change,” Mr. Solheim told local journalists during a media briefing.
He also noted that a reverse in widespread deforestation will be beneficial to the economy and the Somali people. “Equally critical,” Mr. Solheim emphasized, “is the need to tap into Somalia’s vast solar and wind energy resources, for the production of renewable energy.”
World Bank Approves US$50 Million In Support Of Emergency Drought Response And Recovery
30 May – Source : The World Bank – 756 Words
The Board of Executive Directors of the World Bank today approved a US$50 million emergency project – Somalia Emergency Drought Response and Recovery Project (SEDRP, the Project) – to scale up the drought response and recovery effort in Somalia. Somalia is facing its worst drought in decades, with over half the population – an estimated 6.7 million people – in need of humanitarian assistance and recovery support. To deliver the Project, the Bank is supporting the activities of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), a United Nations agency.
While Somalia is at risk of famine, the drought has already had significant impacts. More than 680,000 people have been displaced from rural areas in the past six months. Approximately 1.4 million children will need treatment for acute malnutrition. The scarcity of safe drinking water has led to an outbreak of acute watery diarrhea (AWD) and cholera in 13 out of 18 regions, resulting in 618 fatalities since January 2017, according to UNOCHA. Somalia already has over 1 million internally displaced people, roughly ten percent of the population and continues to experience instability in parts of the country.
“In the face of famine, we must react quickly,” said Makhtar Diop, the World Bank Vice President for the Africa Region. “Together with its partners, the World Bank is committed to address immediate needs by providing emergency support to save lives while helping the country recover. To prevent recurrent famines, we must also focus on long-term measures and help Somalia build stronger and more resilient food systems.”
OPINION, ANALYSIS AND CULTURE
“They could live in a country that prided itself on liberty and freedom. “It was this beacon of hope,” he said. “Here you could come and if you worked really hard, you could pursue any idea you had.” They rented a tiny apartment in Riverdale Park, Md., putting mattress pads down on the living-room floor each night to sleep, then putting them away in the morning.”
This Country Has Been Amazing For Us’: From Refugee Camp, To Cornell, To A Rhodes Scholarship
30 May – Source: Washington Post – 1901 words
One morning early in his freshman year at Cornell University, Ahmed Ahmed got a writing assignment back, flipped it over and stared at the letter in shock: C+. He went to his biology class, where the professor displayed a large graph showing the distribution of the grades for the exam, for which, like the writing assignment, Ahmed had studied really hard. The average was 85, with a very small deviation. He got his exam, turned it over: 69. He walked quickly to a lake near campus, wiping away tears. Even with his always-laughing, perennially optimistic personality, Ahmed couldn’t help but realize that despite everything he had done to earn a spot at Cornell, and how much a degree from the Ivy League school could transform his own life and his family’s, hard work might not be enough.
It happens every year to freshmen, not just at Cornell but also all top universities, said the school’s former president, Hunter R. Rawlings III; the students were all-stars in high school, and both the competition from classmates and the expectations from professors are so much more intense that there’s often a midterm punch in the gut. But few have as much at stake as Ahmed. He didn’t talk about his past until sweeping rhetoric from the campaign, and President Trump’s executive orders on immigration, pulled him up short.
Many Americans support Trump’s efforts to tighten border controls, targeting certain countries including Somalia, as a means to keep radical Islamist terrorists out of the country. For Ahmed though, it hit home. “To place this broad, encompassing stereotype or narrative on a whole group” didn’t make sense to him, he said. “I know how unique every individual story is.” Ahmed said he suddenly felt it would be an injustice as a black man, as a refugee, as a Muslim, as an immigrant not to tell his own story.
Ahmed’s family fled Somalia during the country’s bloody civil war. Their home had been targeted repeatedly by robbers, the last time by a group of men who stormed in wearing black ski masks and carrying AK-47s. Ahmed was born in a refugee camp in Kenya, his parents’ eighth child and their “lucky baby,” as they called him: After his birth, they were granted asylum in the United States.It was the greatest gift, his mother later told him. They could live in a country that prided itself on liberty and freedom. “It was this beacon of hope,” he said. “Here you could come and if you worked really hard, you could pursue any idea you had.” They rented a tiny apartment in Riverdale Park, Md., putting mattress pads down on the living-room floor each night to sleep, then putting them away in the morning. His parents each worked two jobs at factories in Baltimore and told the children to come directly home from school and stay inside; they wanted to shelter them from the drugs and crime that were common in the neighborhood at that time.
They told them education and hard work would change their lives. When his parents got divorced, he moved with his mother to Rochester, Minn. He felt like an outsider there, for the first time; many of his classmates’ parents were engineers at IBM or doctors at the Mayo Clinic. He was living with a single mom who was working as a hotel maid. In his first seven years, they moved six times. And he felt that expectations from teachers for minority students were low. But his mother kept telling him, “You can do anything you set your mind to.”
TOP TWEETS
@HarunMaruf: Two suspects arrested and explosives and other materials concealed in a vegetable truck intercepted by Somali security forces in Bosaso.
@DrBeileh: If we don’t take taxation seriously we’ll never adequately fund our public services. We will be accountable to the public dollar by dollar.
@mukhtaryare: The amazing journey of a Somali-American genius from a refugee camp, to Cornell, to a Rhodes Scholarship. https://www.washingtonpost.
@willafrej: This took long enough. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/
@USAfricaCommand: Trainers from @101stAASLTDIV share logistics expertise with Somali National Army, first class graduates – http://go.usa.gov/xN5xX #Somalia
@1st_infantry: #Kenya police Kill al-Shabaab militants in night operation
@DrBeileh:Somalia’s situation is unique & grateful for @WorldBank $50 million support. Looking forward to cooperating with @faoinsomalia & @ICRC
IMAGE OF THE DAY
Newly inaugurated Galmudug regional President Ahmed Dualle Haaf and his counterparts from Puntland and Jubaland regional administrations Abdiweli Mohamed Ali and Ahmed Mohamed Madobe jointly address media in cadaado yesterday as they reaffirm their commitment to peace in Galkayo city and the greater Mudug region.
Photo: Radio Muqdisho