November 17, 2016 | Daily Monitoring Report
Another 17 MPs Elected To The Lower House During Voting In Galmudug, HirShabelle And South West States
17 November – Source: UNSOM – 352 Words/Video: 06:05 Minutes
Eight members of parliament (MPs) were elected to seats in the House of the People allocated to the recently formed HirShabelle state as voting for the lower chamber kicked off in the state capital of Jowhar today. The MPs-elect include two women candidates, the former Minister of Women and Human Rights Khadija Mohamed Diriye and Hif Hassan Aden. Sixteen women candidates have been elected to the House of the People since voting began on 5 November.
The former Justice and Constitutional Affairs Minister Farah Shiekh Abdulqadir was also elected in today’s balloting in Jowhar and expressed optimism that Somalia would be ready to conduct a universal suffrage election in 2020. “I wish for peace and prosperity for our country, and I promise to serve my country and my people fairly,” said Mr. Abdulqadir. “I hope that come 2020, we will have one-person, one-vote elections (in order to) seek a full mandate from the entire country.”
The victorious candidates in the HirShabelle voting included Abdirizaq Omar Mohamed, the current National Security Minister in the federal government. Today’s balloting leaves HirShabelle state with 29 seats still to be decided out of a total of 37. In Baidoa, the administrative capital of South West state, the federal Minister of Labour and Social Affairs Abdiweli Sheikh Mudey won the only seat that was voted on today.
Key Headlines
- Another 17 MPs Elected To The Lower House During Voting In Galmudug HirShabelle And South West States (UNSOM)
- Police Officer’s Residence Comes Under Grenade Attack (VOA Somali Services)
- Plans To Evacuate Fighting Forces From Galkayo At Standstill (Jowhar.com)
- African Union Mission In Somalia Requests For 9000 More Soldiers Ahead Of 2018 Exit Plans (The Standard)
- United Nations Support Office In Somalia Constructs Fully Equipped Hospital For AMISOM (UNSOS)
- Can Local Muscle Defeat Somalia’s Al-Shabaab? (BBC)
- This Teen Is The First Somali-American To Compete For Miss Minnesota USA (The Huffington Post)
NATIONAL MEDIA
Police Officer’s Residence Comes Under Grenade Attack
17 November – Source: VOA Somali – 113 Words
Unknown assailants last night attacked the residence of a Somali police officer in Mogadishu’s Hamar Jajab neighborhood killing him and injuring five others. Banadir regional administration spokesperson Abdifatah Halane confirmed the incident. The incident came hours after two men wearing Somali police uniform were also shot dead by police in Mogadishu after they were allegedly involved in an armed robbery at beerta jaadka.
Halane condemned the grenade attack as a cowardly incident. Although investigations are still ongoing, the spokesperson blamed Al-Shabaab for being being behind the attack as the militant group is known to carry out similar activities. He said the injured were all civilians and some of them are in a bad shape. The perpetrators managed to escape from the scene, reports said.
Plans To Evacuate Fighting Forces From Galkayo At Standstill
17 November – Source: Jowhar.com – 138 Words
A brief confrontation between Puntland and Galmudug forces in Galkayo has been reported. Prime Minister Abdirashid Ali Sharmake, Puntland President Abdiweli Ali Gaas and his counterpart President Abdikarim Guled and a delegation from the United Nations are said to have been in town when the confrontation happened late yesterday.
Conflicting reports have emerged on the evacuation of both forces from Galkayo and fear of another collapse of the recently brokered peace deal between the two warring sides are intensifying. Puntland elders insisted that forces will be staying in their base and Galmudug elders are demanding to halt the ongoing construction of the livestock quarantine center in Galkayo until an amicable solution is reached. The prime minister has been reported to have had separate consultations with elders from the two sides.
INTERNATIONAL MEDIA
African Union Mission In Somalia Requests For 9,000 More Soldiers Ahead Of 2018 Exit Plans
17 November – Source: The Standard – 393 Words
African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM) has requested for close to 9,000 more soldiers to facilitate its operations. This request has come with a stern warning to the political elite against using their contribution to Somalia as a bargaining power to table their demands. “States should not use AMISOM troops as a bargaining power to seek compliance on their demands,” said the Special Representative of the Chairperson of the African Union Commission for Somalia (SRCC) Ambassador Fransisco Madeira.
He added, “These soldiers give so much including their lives. It is better to find other avenues to pile pressure on but not AMISOM soldiers.” It is barely a week since Kenya started withdrawing her slightly over 1,000 soldiers out of rage from South Sudan after the United Nations fired Lt Johnson Ondieki as the peacekeeping army commander for allegedly not protecting civilians as indicated in a report that criticised his leadership. Ahead of the October 2018 exit plan, Madeira said despite their ongoing peacekeeping efforts, they face a serious lack of logistics support.
United Nations Support Office In Somalia Constructs Fully Equipped Hospital For AMISOM
17 November – Source: UNSOS – 213 Words
The United Nations Support Office in Somalia (UNSOS) on Tuesday attended a ceremony to acknowledge the completion of a new 20-bed hospital purpose-built for regional peacekeepers and the local community in Baidoa, the administrative capital of Southwest state. UNSOS Director Amadu Kamara represented UNSOS at the ceremony, hosted by AMISOM Sector Commander Brigadier-General Gabremeskel Gebrezigabe, and attended by AMISOM Chief of Integrated Support services Brian Boucher as well as other members of the UN, AMISOM and Somalia National Army communities.
The hospital, operated by AMISOM, will also serve Somali security forces personnel and UN staff, and has outpatient and in-patient services, as well as x-ray, dental and laboratory facilities. Gen. Gabremeskel said the first group of nurses for the hospital had been trained and were ready to take up their duties. “I would like to thank UNSOS departments of logistics and engineering for their support, for their determination and years of hard work,” he said.
OPINION, ANALYSIS AND CULTURE
“The reasons thing are going better in the relatively new state of Jubaland is because the regional administration has taken security into its own hands.”
Can Local Muscle Defeat Somalia’s Al-Shabaab?
17 November – Source: BBC – 799 Words
The newly trained, freshly equipped Somali police officers kick up clouds of dust as they goose-step around the parade ground in time to the marching band drums. Six hundred members of Jubaland state’s police force have recently graduated, hundreds more will soon go through training and, for the time being, their efforts have brought security to the streets of Kismayo. The port city in Somalia’s southern-most state has managed to avoid the high-profile suicide car bombings and armed assaults on hotels that the capital, Mogadishu, regularly suffers. The head of the regional security force is confident they are keeping Al-Shabaab out of town. “Jubaland is one of the most peaceful places in Somalia,” says Brig Gen Aden Koojaar, commander of Jubaland Forces (JLF).
“The area controlled by the Jubaland administration is a place where people sleep peacefully day and night, and there’s no problem at all.” That is something of an exaggeration – high-profile figures and visiting Westerners still need an escort of at least one pick-up truck full of armed men. And you do not have to go far out of town before Al-Shabaab clearly has the upper hand. It is just 40km (25 miles) inland from Kismayo but takes more than two hours crushed in the back of a stifling armoured personnel carrier to reach the village of Abdale Birole.
Bumping along the sandy dirt road, the top gunner scans the low, thorn-scrub forest for movement, and watches the track ahead for any sign of roadside bombs. Driving recklessly alongside is the JLF – heavily armed and packed into pickup trucks or “technicals” as they’re known here – far more mobile and streetwise outriders. Al-Shabaab once controlled the whole region, including Kismayo, but this Kenyan army patrol is heading to a village recaptured from the Islamist militants just six weeks before. The Kenyans are part of the African Union peacekeeping mission in Somalia known as Amisom.
“I’m going in as me, my authentic self. I’m not going to dress down or change myself.”
This Teen Is The First Somali-American To Compete For Miss Minnesota USA
17 November – Source: The Huffington Post – 295 Words/ Video: 02:45 Minutes
Halima Aden is the first Somali-American to compete for the title of Miss Minnesota USA and she’s hoping to diversify the archetypal image of beauty pageant contestants. Born in a Kenyan refugee camp, Aden moved to Minnesota ― home to one of the largest Somali communities in America ― when she was just six years old. Growing up, she said she saw very few positive representations of Muslim women.
“As long as I could remember, the media portrays Muslim women as oppressed and in a very negative light,” she said. “But you never see the beauty and the good things that come from Muslim women.” Thirteen years later, the 19-year-old is hoping her participation in the pageant, which runs from Nov. 26 to Nov. 27, will serve as an inspiration for both Somali and Muslim girls like herself. “I could have sat there and I could have waited for a long time to see somebody who was dressed like me or looks like me, but I noticed that’s just not happening,” Aden said.
TOP TWEETS
@alijira : Corruption,Corruption & Corruption #Somalia elections 2016 everywhere
“Our democracy & hope is disapiring” @UN @EU_Commission@oslocenter
@engyarisow : #Somalia: Seventeen more MPs voted to the Lower House in elections held in Somalia’s Galmudug, HirShabelle and…
@lasoco : United Nations Support Office in Somalia constructs fully equipped hospital for AMISOM – ReliefWebhttp://j.mp/2gkidd1 #Somalia
@felix_asoha : Majority of Kenyans 70% feel that #KDF should be withdrawn from #Somalia; 53% wants the troops be deployed at boarders. #Twaweza poll
@Vatescorp : #Somalia: Puntland accused of tender malpractices in EU funded road project http://ow.ly/2DZt306fRDc
@DrumChronicles : #Somalia #Mogadishu Soccer star killed 3 others seriously wounded in grenade attack last night
@BarudGSD : Raining in #Mogadishu this morning. I hope same is the case for drought affected areas of the country. #Somalia
IMAGE OF THE DAY
United Nations Support Office in Somalia constructs fully equipped hospital for AMISOM.
Photo: UNSOS