November 13, 2014 | Daily Monitoring Report.

Main Story

Parliament Speaker Jawari warns MPs against causing commotion during sessions

13 Nov – Source: Radio Dalsan – 102 words

After Tuesday’s commotion in the parliament, the speaker of the parliament Mohamed Sheikh Isman Jawari said those MPs who caused it will be dealt with in accordance with the rules and the regulations of the parliament.

The speaker of the parliament called for the Somali people to be calm and to take it easy as the same happens in other parliaments around the world.

Key Headlines

Government forces carry out search operations in Mogadishu (Radio Risaala/Radio Goobjoog)
Parliament Speaker Jawari warns MPs against causing commotion during sessions (Radio Dalsan)
Himan & Heb forces conducts operations to beef up security (Radio Goobjoog)
Finland seeks to repeal death penalty for Somali man (Radio Mustaqbal)
Flood victims receive humanitarian aid in Beletweyne (Radio Mustaqbal)
Somali National Security and Intelligence Agency receive human rights training (Radio Bar-kulan)
Since the fall of Barawe al-shabaab became weakened says former UPDF head of unit (Radio Dalsan)
Mogadishu security officials discuss latest killings (Radio Danan)
The late Deputy head of dept. of immigration Abdi Dhabareey buried in Mogadishu (Radio Dalsan)
Uganda : RCC warns Somalis on security (New Vision)
Somali President reviews ties with Qatari envoy (thepeninsulaqatar)
Somaliland journalists human rights groups oppose new media rules (Sabahi Online)
Pirates attempt to hijack Israeli cargo ship at sea (Israel National News)
McDonald’s manager arrested after launching foul-mouthed racist tirade at Somali customers (Daily Mail UK)
Somalia’s charcoal inspections uncover weapons (IHS Maratime 360)

SOMALI MEDIA

Government forces carry out search operations in Mogadishu

13 Nov- Source: Radio Risaala/Radio Goobjoog- 122 words

The security forces of federal government of Somalia are conducting massive security crackdown in Mogadishu. The forces are searching all private and public transport at Daljirka Dahsoon and theatres in Mogadishu. The forces are also seen patrolling important government institutions along Maka Al-Mukarama road.

The security operations have interfered with public transport as the vehicles used smaller roads. These operations com at a time when over five people including senior government officials were killed in Mogadishu the recent few days.

The public describe the situation in Mogadishu as paradoxical, government forces are said to be vigilant conducting security operations but planned attacks and assassinations in the capital are becoming the order of the day.

Parliament Speaker Jawari warns MPs against causing commotion during sessions

13 Nov – Source: Radio Dalsan – 102 words

He added that the sessions of the parliament will resume soon and that what happened will be solved. “The parliament has rules and regulations. Any person who violates them will be dealt with accordingly,” said Prof. Jawari. The speaker of the parliament called for the Somali people to be calm and to take it easy as the same happens in other parliaments around the world.

Himan & Heb forces conducts operations to beef up security

13 Nov – Source: Radio Goobjoog – 162 words

The administration of Himan and Heb in Central Somalia stated that the security forces are conducting operations aimed at maintaining the overall security of the region particularly Adado, the seat of the administration.

Himan and Heb spokesperson Areys Mohamed Haji speaking to Goobjoog FM said the administration is making efforts to hold Central state formation conference peacefully. The spokesman stated the security operations is meant for a number of important issues including ways to ensure the safety and security of delegates arriving for the conference and attempts to bring about reconciliation in the Mudug and Galgadud regions.

He noted that large number of delegates from federal government and international community are expected to reach Adado earlier today ahead of the official opening of the conference. The technical committee facilitating the conference have been paid visit to all parts of the two regions and took meeting with traditional elders and civil society representatives.

Finland seeks to repeal death penalty for Somali man

13 Nov – Source: Radio Mustaqbal/Radio Goobjoog – 169 words

Finnish authorities are seeking to overturn a death penalty pronounced in Somalia upon a Somali man who has lived as a permanent resident of Finland. Finland’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs only heard about the case last Friday from a Finnish NGO active in Somalia.

The Ministry’s Unit for Consular Assistance is charged with helping Finns and foreign-born permanent residents of Finland who find themselves in distress abroad. Turunen says the Unit has been in contact with the Somali administration with regards to the case. He describes the conversation as a step forward.

“Finland takes a very strong stand against the death penalty. We do not accept it under any circumstance. We will do all we can to overturn the sentence,” Turunen says. Turunen says his first concern was being able to intervene in time before the man’s death sentence was implemented. He has since learned that the case is now in its appeal period. “Fortunately, we can still have an influence within the framework of the appeal,” he says.

Flood victims receive humanitarian aid in Beletweyne

12 Nov – Source: Radio Mustaqbal/AMISOM – 340 words

AMISOM has facilitated the distribution of the much needed humanitarian aid supplies to flood affected Internally Displaced Persons in Belet Weyne. The non-food items were provided by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, UNHCR and the Danish Refugee Council (DRC) which also distributed the supplies. AMISOM sector 4 troops, the Somali National Police and the military secured the distribution centre in readiness for the distribution to over one thousand families.

“We are here as I brought security officers to secure the area for distribution of humanitarian supplies. Today as you witness, there are over a thousand people receiving some materials such as kitchen materials, blankets and plastic roof covers supplied by two Organisations: the Danish Refugee council and UNHCR. Actually we made an appeal two weeks ago for the international community to come and assist these IDPs. As you can see there are seven thousands IDPs living in this camp and in dire situation. This is the first supplies coming from the two organisations mentioned earlier and on behalf of AMISOM, we are here to secure and oversee safe distribution of this aid. Around one company of my troops and Ethiopian forces are here as well as Somali National Police and military to participate in this activity”, said Major Ibrahim Ali Farah, Deputy Battalion Commander, AMISOM Djiboutian Contingent.

Flooding as a result of heavy rains started on October 22nd, rendering thousands homeless. A regional and district level emergency meeting attended by all humanitarian aid agencies set up a committee of 11 persons to oversee the humanitarian response.“

I was representing the administration both on regional and district level. My team and 10 NGO’s have embarked on fact-finding and assessment of the number of districts that have been affected…”, added Major Ibrahim Ali Farah. Areas that were badly affected in Belet Wayne and which saw massive displacements were three districts namely Kooshin, Haawa taako and Hoowl Wadaag. Kooshin and Haawa taako residents fled to Eel Jaale near the AMISOM base camp, according to the Mayor of Belet Weyne, Omar Adan Ibrahim.

Somali National Security and Intelligence Agency receive human rights training

12 Nov – Source: Radio Bar-kulan – 96 words

More than 18 Somali National Intelligence and Security agency (NISA) personnel have concluded a human right workshop in Somali capital Mogadishu.

The one week training workshop was facilitated by United Nations support office for Somalia (UNSOM), African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM) and the European Union (EU) according to statement published in UNSOM news web page.

Some of the trained officers who benefited from the workshop have thanked the organizers and promised to implement the training. There is ongoing efforts by International community to train and equip Somali security forces to stabilize the war torn nation.

Since the fall of Barawe Al-shabaab became weakened, says former UPDF head of unit

12 Nov – Source: Radio Dalsan – 83 words

Dick Olim, the former commander of the UPDF Contingent in AMISOM said since the fall of Barawe, Alshabaab militants became weak. Dick Olim said so at Entebbe on the outskirts of Kampala. He added that the militia group was weakened.

However, he admitted that over running Barawe and other districts was not an easy task for his soldiers. He added that it took bravery for his men to occupy the newly liberated places. He said during the operations out of his total soldiers 2930, only 17 UPDF soldiers lost their lives in the confrontations, 2 died in an accident while 13 others were wounded.

Mogadishu security officials discuss latest killings

12 Nov- Source: Radio Danan- 146 words

A closed door meeting chaired by the minister of national security Khalif Ahmed Ereg has been held in Mogadishu following wave of killings that occurred in Mogadishu in the last two days. Mogadishu police heads and other top security officials have attended the meeting. Addressing media shortly after the meeting, the ministry’s spokesman Mohamed Yusuf stated that security authorities have been ordered to carry out anti Al-shabaab onslaughts to maintain the security.

“Security authorities have zero tolerance for any further attack from the extremists now the killers will face dire consequence and we will brought in front of justice” Mohamed told reporters. He said that Mogadishu police are on high alert to avert Al-shabaab threats. Anonymous gunmen raided Howl-wadaag’s deputy head for social affairs Yusuf Mohamed in a drive by shooting on Wednesday. Somali lawmaker prof Dalha also survived an assassination attempt yesterday near his house in Mogadishu.

The late Deputy Head of Dept. of Immigration Abdi Dhabareey buried in Mogadishu

12 Nov – Source: Radio Dalsan – 150 words

The body of the Deputy Head of Dept. of Immigration and Nationalities Abdi Mohamud Adow Dhabareey was on Wednesday buried in cemetery in Mogadishu’s Medina Hospital. On Tuesday when unidentified gunmen who were in another vehicle sprayed bullets on the car of the Deputy Head of Dept. which was passing near Km4 in Mogadishu killing him on the spot.

The burial of the late Deputy Head of Dept. was attended by current and former government officials including former PM Prof. Ali Mohamed Gedi, defence minister Mohamed Sheikh Hassan Haamud, the Head of Dept. of Immigration and Nationalities Abdullahi Gaafow Mohamud among other leaders.

Prof. Ali Mohamed Gedi said at the burial it so sad that an important person is killed frequently while perpetrators go scot-free. He called for the security forces to arrest the perpetrators of the killing of the Deputy Head of Dept. as soon as possible.

REGIONAL MEDIA

Uganda: RCC warns Somalis on security

13 Nov – Source: New Vision – 325 words

Deputy Resident City Commissioner Allan Kajik has urged the Somalis residing in Kampala to unite so as to avoid insecurity associated with terrorism. Kajik said government is not ready to allow anybody to antagonize the peace currently prevailing in the country.

Addressing Somalis during a security meeting in Kisenyi, a Kampala suburb with strong Somali presence, Kajik asked the Somalis to cooperate with security agencies and report any suspicious persons.

“If you don’t report suspected terrorists, when he or she blows up a mall, you will die along with them,” he said at the stormy meeting held on Wednesday. Reacting to reports that the outgoing Somali ambassador Sayid Ahmed Sheikh Dahir was creating divisions among the Somali community, Kajik said he (Sayid) would be handled.

Somali President reviews ties with Qatari envoy

13 Nov – Source: thepeninsulaqatar – 345 words

Somali President Hassan Sheikh Mohamoud met Qatar’s Acting Charge d’Affaires Hassan bin Hamza Assad Mohamed reviewed means of enhancing relations in all fields. GCC council recommends joint naval force

The GCC Defence Council has submitted a recommendation to the Supreme Council to establish a joint naval force. The Minister of State for Defence Affairs H E Major General Hamad bin Ali Al Attiyah led Qatar’s delegation to the 13th session of the defence council which ended in Kuwait yesterday.

In its final communique, the defence council agreed to provide therapeutic services for GCC states’ armed forces personnel suffering from incurable diseases, at military hospitals and specialised centres and submitted a recommendation in this regard to the Supreme Council. The statement said the session also accepted an invitation by Al Attiyah to the GCC Defence Council to hold its 14th session in Qatar next year.

Somaliland journalists, human rights groups oppose new media rules

12 Nov- Source: Sabahi Online – 980 words

Independent media and human rights organisations are speaking out against new rules the Somaliland regional administration has imposed on the media, calling them too restrictive of freedom of the press.

Under new rules announced last week by Somaliland Minister of Information, Culture and National Guidance Abdullahi Mohamed Dahir, media agencies will have to register with the ministry’s office of the director general to lawfully operate. In addition, individual journalists will also have to register and obtain an identification card in order to work and receive access to press conferences.

The order took effect Saturday (November 8th) and affects television, newspapers, radio stations, news websites, publishing houses and advertising agencies. However, the ministry did not provide a deadline by which media houses and journalists must register.

INTERNATIONAL MEDIA

Pirates attempt to hijack Israeli cargo ship at sea

13 Nov – Source: Israel National News – 272 Words

Pirates attempted to board freighter sailing off coast of Somalia, but were thwarted by ship’s security guards. One of the ZIM shipping company’s cargo ships was attacked by pirates Wednesday afternoon in the Strait of Bab-el-Mandeb, adjacent to Somalia. Security guards stationed aboard the transport ship repelled the attack by the group of pirates who attempted to abduct the ship while in the middle of open waters.

The incident occurred as the Israeli ship made its way from East Asia back to Israel. The ship sailed into an ambush when two pirate ships snuck up alongside the ZIM vessel, and the pirates attempted to get on board and take control of the ship. Quick defensive action by the ship’s security guards prevented the pirates from overtaking the ship. After while, the pirates gave up and retreated.

McDonald’s manager arrested after launching foul-mouthed racist tirade at Somali customers

13 Nov – Source: Daily Mail UK – 405 Words

A McDonald’s manager was arrested and cautioned over a foul-mouthed racist tirade against Somali customers. The victims of his abuse say he told them to ‘get out of my restaurant,’ adding: ‘All you Somalians are the same.’ Yasin Farah, 27, and friends went to the restaurant in south east London, for breakfast at 5.30am on Sunday November 2 following a night out.

He said the manager of the restaurant, who is understood to be black and had a West African accent, quickly turned on him and four friends. Mr Farah, of Penge, said: ‘When it came to us being served the manager jumped on the till and straight away was aggressive with us. ‘He was saying to my friend: “Can you not read, can you not see? What do you want for your breakfast?”

‘I didn’t understand why he was asking if he could read, so I jumped in and starting saying “just let him order his breakfast”. ‘Then he started telling us to get the f*** out of the restaurant. I thought: “How can you talk to a paying customer like that?” At this point things took an even more unpleasant turn. Mr Farah said: ‘Then all of a sudden he says I am a low-life. ‘He says: “You are a low-life, get out of the restaurant, all you f****** Somalians are all the same”.

All are aware of the severity of this and are following internal HR processes.’ A police spokesman said: ‘Police were called to an allegation of racially aggravated harassment at McDonald’s at 5.50am on Sunday November 2. ‘A 41-year-old man was arrested at the scene on suspicion of a racially aggravated offence under section four of the Public Order Act. He was subsequently issued with a police caution.’

Somalia’s charcoal inspections uncover weapons

13 Nov – Source: IHS Maritime 360 – 267 Words

More details have emerged about the contents of a container inspected at Mogadishu port as part of efforts to counter the illegal charcoal trade. When it was inspected on 28 October, the container was found to contain explosives, military uniforms, knives and magnetic devices used in improvised explosive devices (IEDs), the Somali government’s minister of information, Mustafa Duhulow, told media.

The container was registered to a company called BIL and had arrived in Mogadishu from China on 22 October. Police are questioning two men about the illegal shipment. Somali paper Sabahi reported that the seizure is being seen as a sign that the country is increasing its maritime and port security capabilities. However, vessel traffic monitoring remains inadequate and port security personnel are under-trained and poorly motivated, the paper noted.

SOCIAL MEDIA

CULTURE / OPINION / EDITORIAL / ANALYSIS / BLOGS/ DISCUSSION BOARDS

“New roads are being tarmacked, schools are being renovated, banks are opening new branches, and plush new hotels are sprouting up everywhere. The nightlife is also picking up, demonstrated in the moonlight trysts shared by courting couples in the beachfront restaurants.”

After a disastrous war, Mogadishu regains its lost moxie

13 Nov – Source: Sahan Journal – 1, 875 Words

The road back home begins before dawn. Before the rose pink light of the day breaks the skyline, the long queues of people at Nairobi’s Jomo Kenyatta International Airport form in a procession-like fashion. Here, almost every day of the week, hundreds of Somalis – and a few non-Somalis – shove and shriek at each other in the chilly, slow mornings, all in a bid to reach the check-in counter on time.

The infirmities of old age and the afflictions of displacement are evident here, as wrinkled refugee grandmothers donning long jilbabs struggle to rein on their grandchildren, while keeping an eye on their overstuffed bags. Middle-aged men wearing colorful skullcaps push their full trolleys, as they lament the slow processing of luggage and papers by the custom and immigration officers. The self-styled businessmen and politicians with their Samsonite bags also join the lineup, along with groups of gilded diaspora youths wielding their Western passports and speaking with lilts of British and American accents. All of them combine to form an interesting caravansary, a rout of strangers united by fate, language, ethnicity and a longing for a home that never was.

Daylight in Mogadishu was reflected in the image of torn-down buildings strafed with bullets from all sides. Entire neighborhoods, once representing a lush, extravagant lifestyle, were bombed out of existence, peppered with machine gun pockmarks. If you walked down the city’s streets and neighborhoods, a miasma of sorrow and despair rose from the memory of war, of stories about uncouthmooryaan, young undisciplined gunmen who pillaged and plundered their way through the city. Mogadishu was Exhibit A of the callousness of the civil war that destroyed Somalia and led to its disintegration into regional governments ruled by clan fiefs and military commanders. It was as if Somalia’s warring factions poured their rage against Somalia’s former leader Mohamed Siad Barre first, and against themselves later, into this one city.

“There can be no meaningful development in Africa without peace and security. Investors will only invest in a peaceful and stable environment. They will only put their money where they feel secure and protected in terms of good governance practice, and peace, and where the indigenous people are pragmatic and feel proud of their own country.”

Pathetic, apathetic African leaders to blame for insecurity and instability

12 Nov- Source: Star (Kenya) – 766 words

A recent donation of $8 billion by the United Nations, the World Bank, the Islamic Development Bank and other global leaders to the Horn of Africa will go a long way in enhancing growth and stability.

The region is facing a myriad of threats, such as terrorism, poverty, diseases, ethnic and religious conflicts, political instability and civil wars. Peace and security in Africa has become elusive and is a major concern to the international community even more than to the African leaders themselves.

The Horn of Africa countries are Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Somalia and Sudan. Leaders in the region, which has suffered perennial hunger and famine, should ensure the support from the global organisations reaches the target group.

These people have no access to clean water, nutritious food, good health care, education and job opportunities. However, the political leadership is itself a barrier to peace. As long as African leaders see peace and security as a concern of the international community rather than their own, it will remain a pipe dream. There can be no meaningful development in Africa without peace and security.

Top tweets

@RadioErgo Interview with Fatima Jibrell, award-winning Somali environmentalist #Somalia http://bit.ly/1v5nPsx @UNEP

@Hamza_Africa “When brothers fight to the death, a stranger inherits their father’s estate.” #Somalia #My252

@Abdikarim_Abdi3 “Anti FGM/C Policy” launched in #Puntlandby the President himself. This is a significant step forward for#Somalia.

@UN_News_Centre #Somalia: @UN Security Council urges Member States to strengthen efforts against piracyhttp://bit.ly/1GPQZ23

@SomaliaNewsroom Kenyan police arrest 10 suspected attackers from #Somalia who were allegedly involved in past attacks in #Nairobi https://za.news.yahoo.com/kenyan-police-

‏@Hussein_Abdull @QaliFar Insha’allaah hopefully one day there will be #UnitedSomalia. Somalia,Somaliland,Djibouti,NFD & Ogaden. All form Greater Somalia.

@Goobjoognews #Somalia extremism conference held in Turkey closes today, prominent Somali Religious scholars denounce evil actions

Follow the conversation →

Image of the day

The New Mogadishu Hospital opens its doors to patients on Thursday 13 Nov 2014 built by Turkey Government.Photo:Yassin Juma