May 4, 2016 | Daily Monitoring Report
Erigavo Councilors Table Motion Against The Town’s Mayor
04 May – Source: Goobjoog News – 155 Words
Erigavo town councilors in the Sanaag region have submitted a motion to the house against the town’s Mayor Osman Suleiman following political row with the mayor. A councilor who asked not to be named said at least 11 members have signed the motion to censure the mayor from grabbing more land and embezzlement as charged by the councilors. “We have tried to meet the mayor three times to discuss the matter, but he declined to meet us, this forced us to move to ahead and table a motion against him” said the councilor.
According to the councilor, the mayor has also been neglecting other duties. In 1991, after the overthrow of Somalia’s military leader Siad Barre, the northern territory of Somaliland declared independence, but has not been recognized by the international community. Somaliland unilaterally declared independence in 1991.
Key Headlines
- Erigavo Councilors Table Motion Against The Town’s Mayor (Goobjoog News)
- Somaliland Police Arrest Cleric For Inciting Violence (Hiiraan Online)
- Somali Journalists Converge In Conference Ahead Of NUSOJ Elections (Radio Dalsan)
- Somali Soldiers Arrested Over Teacher’s Killing In Baladweyne Town (Goobjoog News)
- Police Foil Interns Plan To Use Anthrax In terror Attack (Daily Nation)
- Somali Student Faces Death Sentence For Trafficking ‘Khat’ Leaves (NST)
- Kenya Says Arrests Key Member Of Militant Group Plotting Attacks (Reuters)
- Somalia: “Pirates” Or Struggling Fishermen? (Mareeg Media)
NATIONAL MEDIA
Somaliland Police Arrest Cleric For Inciting Violence
04 May – Source: Hiiraan Online – 171 Words
Police in Somaliland arrested a local religious leader in the capital Hargeisa on suspicion of inciting violence in the peaceful enclave which had enjoyed stability during Somalia’s decades-old conflict, official said on Tuesday. Feysal His, Somaliland’s police spokesman told reporters that Sheikh Aden Sunna, a well-known religious leader was arrested in a case in which he used his religious sermons to incite violence
“He was was engaged in acts that aimed to promote violence and threaten the peace in Somaliland,” he said. The fiery cleric was subsequently arrested and released by police in recent years. However, critics often accuse northern Somalia government of employing tactics including arrests and censorship to silence political dissidents and journalists in the region. Somaliland which employs its own government and army has declared a unilateral independence from the rest of Somalia in 1991; however, no country has so far recognized it as an independent state.
Somali Journalists Converge In Conference Ahead Of NUSOJ Elections
04 May – Source: Radio Dalsan – 123 Words
Somali Journalists across the country gathered in Mogadishu for a three days national conference. The conference which kicked off on Tuesday and was used to mark World Press Freedom Day and challenges facing Journalists in the recuperating state was discussed. The forum is also used to pave way for National Union of Somali Journalists elections scheduled for 5th May.
105 delegates across regions of the country who are already in the capital Mogadishu are expected to vote to decide the next secretary general and the chairman of National Union of Somali Journalists (NUSOJ). Former senior BBC Mogadishu correspondent Mohamed Ibrahim Moalimu is among key candidates to fill the position vacated by Mohamed Ibrahim Pakistan who is currently the chair of national labour union.
Somali Soldiers Arrested Over Teacher’s Killing In Baladweyne Town
04 May – Source: Goobjoog News – 123 Words
At least two Somali soldiers have been arrested in connection with allegations of civilian murder after an incident where gunmen killed a teacher in Somalia’s town Beladweyne of Hiraan region officials said on Wednesday. The arrests of the two soldiers were made after the security forces launched an operation to pursue assailants who killed Mohamed Abdullahi Hashi on Monday night.
The arrest of two soldiers who are facing murder charges has been announced by Hiiraan Police Commissioner, Ali Mohamed Abdi. “Our forces arrested two prime suspects who are government soldiers and they are still under investigations,” said Ali. The victim was traveling in a vehicle in Beladweyn town when two armed Somali soldiers fired on the vehicle without identified reason.
INTERNATIONAL MEDIA
Police Foil Interns Plan To Use Anthrax In terror Attack
04 May – Source: Daily Nation – 366 Words
Security agencies last week foiled a planned biological attack using anthrax and arrested three suspects, police said Tuesday. The Inspector-General of Police Joseph Boinnet said a medical intern at Wote Hospital, Mohammed Abdi Ali, was one of the suspects arrested after police foiled the planned attack on April 29. Two other suspects, said to be Mr Ali’s accomplices who have gone into hiding since he was arrested, have been identified as Mr Ahmed Hish and Mr Farah Dagane, both medical interns in Kitale, and police have put a Sh2 million bounty on them.
“The suspects were planning a large scale attack akin to that of Westgate Mall with the intention of killing innocent Kenyans. His network also included medical experts with whom they planned to unleash a biological attack in Kenya using anthrax,” Mr Boinett said. The police boss’s statement comes just two weeks after both Interior Cabinet Secretary Joseph Nkaissery and his Health counterpart Cleopa Mailu visited the Kenya Medical Research Institute to survey the security measures put in place.
Police revealed that Mr Ali’s terror network within Kenya spread as far as the Coast region, North Rift, western as well as other countries that include Somalia, Libya and Syria. “He belongs to an East African terror group network that has links to the ISIL,” Mr Boinnet said.
Somali Student Faces Death Sentence For Trafficking ‘Khat’ Leaves
04 May – Source: News Straits Times – 180 Words
A Somali public university student was charged at the Magistrate’s Court in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia today with trafficking 13.10kg of “khat” leaves, a drug popular among Middle Easterners. Ahmed Sahal Qahia, 30, was calm when he indicated understanding to the charge read to him in English by an interpreter during open-court proceedings. No plea was recorded. Ahmed, whose wife is currently in Australia, was accused of trafficking the drugs contained in a parcel, around 1.30pm on April 20.
He was arrested on that day. He was alleged to have trafficked the “khat” leaves at the parking lot of Platinum Lake Condominium, Jalan Usahawan 2, off Jalan Genting Klang, Setapak. Ahmed may be sentenced to death if convicted under Section 39B of the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952. Magistrate Sharifah Muhaymin Abd Khalib did not grant bail and set June 14 for mention for the prosecution to furnish the chemistry report. Ahmed’s counsel Zaflee Pakwanteh said his client’s case would later be transferred to the High Court. Ahmed is currently remanded at the Sungai Buloh Prison. Deputy public prosecutor Syamimi Farhana Aziz prosecuted.
Kenya Says Arrests Key Member Of Militant Group Plotting Attacks
04 May – Source: Reuters – 377 Words
Kenyan police have arrested a suspected key member of an Islamist militant group that was plotting attacks similar to one in 2013 on the Westgate shopping mall that killed at least 67 people, authorities said on Tuesday. Militant attacks mostly by Al-Shabaab militants from neighboring Somalia have increased in recent years in Kenya, which has a large Muslim population concentrated mostly along its Indian Ocean coast.
President Uhuru Kenyatta sent troops into Somalia in 2011 to join African Union military operations against Al-Shabaab that have driven it out of its major territorial strongholds but not ended its ability to carry out selective, deadly attacks.
Al-Shabaab has vowed to fight Kenya until it withdraws its troops and it claimed responsibility for the assault on the Westgate Mall in the capital Nairobi as well as on a university in eastern Kenya where at least 148 people were killed.
In a statement, Kenyan police said Muhammed Abdi Ali was arrested on Friday as a suspected member of an east African militant group with links to Islamic State, which has seized large areas of Iraq and Syria and inspired offshoot groups elsewhere in the Middle East and Africa.
OPINION, ANALYSIS, AND CULTURE
One of the pirate leaders, Sugule Ali, explains that their motive is “to stop illegal fishing and dumping in our waters. . . . We don’t consider ourselves sea bandits. We consider sea bandits [to be] those who illegally fish, and dump waste, and carry weapons in our seas.”
Somalia: “Pirates” Or Struggling Fishermen?
04 May – Source: Mareeg Media – 1,659 Words
While the media has focused attention on the plight of the hostages, a look at the living conditions of the Somali “pirates” quickly reveals that they are pre-eminently fishermen struggling against the plundering of their coastal waters and the dumping of toxic wastes by Western countries. According to this article listed in the Censured Project ’Top 25 of 2010’, “piracy” is not the only aspect of the impact wrought by the continuing political chaos in Somalia. The UN itself has long neglected its obligations under the treaty on hazardous wastes.
The international community has come out in force to condemn and declare war on the Somali fishermen pirates, while discreetly protecting the illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fleets from around the world that have been poaching and dumping toxic waste in Somali waters since the fall of the Somali government eighteen years ago.
In 1991, when the government of Somalia collapsed, foreign interests seized the opportunity to begin looting the country’s food supply and using the country’s unguarded waters as a dumping ground for nuclear and other toxic waste.
According to the High Seas Task Force (HSTF), there were over 800 IUU fishing vessels in Somali waters at one time in 2005, taking advantage of Somalia’s inability to police and control its own waters and fishing grounds. The IUUs poach an estimated $450 million in seafood from Somali waters annually. In so doing, they steal an invaluable protein source from some of the world’s poorest people and ruin the livelihoods of legitimate fishermen.
Allegations of the dumping of toxic waste, as well as illegal fishing, have circulated since the early 1990s, but hard evidence emerged when the tsunami of 2004 hit the country. [1] The United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) reported that the tsunami washed rusting containers of toxic waste onto the shores of Puntland, northern
TOP TWEETS
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@UNDPSomalia: Somalia’s National Independent Electoral Commission Participate in Regional Forumshttps://www.facebook.com/
@AliNoorSalad : #Somali National Army’s Commandos Division kills 12 #ISIS fighters in an operation in #Janale town southern#Somalia
IMAGE OF THE DAY
Members of Somalia’s National Independent Electoral Commission (NIEC) had the opportunity to share experiences about the country’s transition process and develop their knowledge base during three recent workshops in Jordan supported by the UNDP Regional Bureau for Arab States, UNDP Somalia and the United Nations Assistance Mission in Somalia (UNSOM).