November 19, 2013 | Morning Headlines.

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Ambassador Annadif visits Baidoa town

18 Nov- Source: Radio Dalsan/Radio Bar-kulan- 141 words

A delegation led by African Special Representative to Somalia, Ambassador Mahamat Saleh Annadif has on Monday visited Baidoa town, the capital of Bay region. Ambassador Annadif told the media moments after his arrival that the main objective of his visit was to assess the progress made by African forces and the current situation in the town. He met with the community elders in the town to discuss the security situation of the region and the ongoing efforts of the African Union Mission in Somalia to stabilize the nation. The Ambassador also paid a visit to the conference site where politicians and community elders have been meeting for the past few weeks to discuss the formation of semi-autonomous region in south-western regions of the country. High profile delegations from the federal government, African Union and United Nations have in the past few months toured the town.

Key Headlines

Prime Minister Shirdon calls on warring sides in KM-50 to cease hostilities(Radio Mogadishu)
Puntland opens camps for victims of storm and flood disaster(Radio Ergo)
Al-Islah to contribute relief efforts in Puntland and Middle Shabelle(Radio Bar-Kulan)
Head of Somali delegation to 3rd Africa-Arab Summit arrives in Kuwait(Kuwait News Agency)
Beefed-up Somalia peacekeepers may renew offensive on al Shabaab (Reuters )
Briton and Frenchman arrested in Somalia’s Puntland region (Reuters )
Western officials unveil how terrorists planned Nairobi mall siege (AP/Financial Times)

SOMALI MEDIA

Prime Minister Shirdon calls on warring sides in KM-50 to cease hostilities

18 Nov- Source: Radio Mogadishu/Bar-kulan/Mustaqbal/Somali Channel- 106 words

Somalia’s Prime Minister Abdi Farah Shirdon has called on warring sides in KM-50 in Lower Shabelle region to immediately cease the hostilities. The Prime Minister said in a statement from his office in Mogadishu that the continuation of the fighting is “unfortunate” which claimed the lives of more than ten people. He called on all sides to solve their differences through negotiations as he sent his condolences to the families that lost their loved ones to the fighting. The government warned of the negative impacts that the skirmishes might have on the government’s efforts to drive out al Shabaab fighters from the rest of the region.

Puntland opens camps for victims of storm and flood disaster

18 Nov- Source: Radio Ergo- 283 words
Puntland administration on Saturday opened centres and camps serving as shelter for hundreds of people displaced by the tropical cyclone and floods that followed. “The camps have been opened on safe ground between the Dangurayo and Eyl districts,” the Director of Puntland’s Ministry of Health, Abdirisaq Hirsi Abshir, told Radio Ergo’s local reporter. The 11 camps serving as a humanitarian aid hub will provide the victims with shelter, food and medical treatment. Hundreds of people have already arrived at the camps from some of the worst affected rural areas. “I am yet to receive the exact number of people who have already arrived here, but I can now see about 600 people,” Abshir said, speaking by phone from the camps. The people are from the pastoralist community, and have lost their livestock in the disaster. The number of people coming to the camps for help is expected to increase as the news spreads across the rural areas. Those already in the camps have received distributions of food, blankets and cooking utensils contributed by the Red Cross, religious groups and the Ministry of Health.
There are several medical teams operating in the camps, Abshir said. He warned of the potential for outbreaks of water-borne and vector-borne diseases, especially in places where thousands of dead animals washed up along the coast. “There are dozens of people, mainly women and children who are suffering from illnesses such as acute respiratory infection, and acute diarrhoea,” he said. He added that all the sources of clean water had been destroyed by the storm. “They are drinking unclean water which the floods have left behind. If they don’tt get clean water urgently, their condition could get worse,” he warned.

Ambassador Annadif visits Baidoa town

18 Nov- Source: Radio Dalsan/Radio Bar-kulan- 141 words

Al-Islah to contribute relief efforts in Puntland and Middle Shabelle

18 Nov- Source: Radio Bar-kulan- 126 words

Leaders of Al-Islah Religious Group have said that the group is planning to immediately engage with the relief efforts to deliver aid supplies to the victims in Puntland and Middle Shabelle respectively. The leader of the group, Dr. Ali Bashi Omar Roraye in Mogadishu told Bar-kulan the group’s humanitarian and education wings are actively engaging in the relief efforts. Roraye called on the Somali people in the country to contribute everything in their capacity to the course saying that local involvement carries more weight than waiting outside help since the victims are in need of urgent support. He sent his personal condolences to the victims and wished quick recovery for those injured in the flash floods that hit semi-autonomous region of Puntland in the last week.

REGIONAL MEDIA

Head of Somali delegation to 3rd Africa-Arab Summit arrives in Kuwait

18 Nov- Source: Kuwait News Agency- 46 words

Head of the Somali delegation to the 3rd Africa-Arab Summit of November 19-20, Parliament Speaker Mohamed Sheikh Osman Jawari, arrived in Kuwait on Monday. Jawari was received at the airport by the Minister of State for Cabinet Affairs and Health Minister Sheikh Mohammad Al-Abdullah Al-Mubarak Al-Sabah.

INTERNATIONAL MEDIA

Beefed-up Somalia peacekeepers may renew offensive on al Shabaab

18 Nov- Source: Reuters -448 Words

U.N.-backed African Union peacekeepers in Somalia, bolstered by more than 4,000 new soldiers, may return to the attack against al Qaeda-linked militants, a senior AU commander said on Monday. The AU force known as AMISOM will have more than 22,000 troops when the reinforcements agreed last week arrive. Brigadier Dick Olum, a Ugandan commander in charge of one of the four AMISOM sectors covering Somalia, said the extra 4,000 soldiers could tilt the military balance against al Shabaab. “I’m very confident that with 4,000 new troops, AMISON will definitely consider a new offensive,” he told Reuters. “We shall not be referred to as sitting ducks any more.” AMISOM has driven al Shabaab rebels from the capital Mogadishu and several coastal towns since 2011, but became overstretched and the offensive stalled earlier this year.

Briton and Frenchman arrested in Somalia’s Puntland region

18 Nov- Source: Reuters-167 Words
Two men, one British, one French, have been arrested in Somalia’s semi-autonomous Puntland region, accused of illegally collecting mineral samples, the local security minister said on Monday. The two men were arrested on Thursday after a three-month investigation into company called Oversight International, Puntland Security Minister Khalif Isse Mudan said in a statement released on Monday. “Oversight International engaged in the illegal activity of collecting mineral samples without permission of Puntland Government,” Mudan said. Two local Somali staff were also arrested. On its website, Oversight International website describes itself as a Puntland-focused consultancy and said it is “allowed and registered as a Private Security Company with the Government of the State of Puntland”.

Western officials unveil how terrorists planned Nairobi mall siege

18 Nov- Source: AP/Financial Times/Washington Post-624 Words
The massacre in Kenya’s Westgate shopping centre was carried out by a four-man terror cell that rented two properties in Nairobi for four months before the attack, western officials close to the investigation have disclosed. The latest findings in the investigation into September’s deadly siege in the Kenyan capital, unveiled in a briefing to journalists on Monday, indicated the attack was well-planned over the course of many months and went on under the radar in a city which is a base for extensive foreign spy networks and which has been braced for a terror attack of this nature for years. Western officials close to the investigation into the atrocity, a four-day siege in which up to 94 people are reported to have died, believe the four were ethnic Somali men who stayed in two properties in Nairobi’s Eastleigh neighbourhood, blending into a Somali community so large it is nicknamed “Little Mogadishu”.

SOCIAL MEDIA

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

“Which of these forces will take leadership in this much-needed humanitarian initiative? And who can fail to see how goodwill thus generated can help in the fight against al Shabaab?”

Where is the West’s cyclone aid for Somalia?

19 Nov- Source: The Independent-142 Words
In the Philippines, the Royal Navy’s HMS Daring has joined US naval forces led by the aircraft carrier George Washington to deliver urgent aid following the recent cyclone. Last week, a fierce cyclone devastated the Puntland region of Somalia. Roads have been washed away, livestock drowned, coastal villages isolated and, with hundreds dead, tens of thousands are at risk. So why is the giant naval armada stationed close by doing nothing to assist them? The European Naval Force, Nato’s Ocean Shield and Combined Task Force 151 have between them ships from more than a dozen nations, all carrying helicopters. They include the RFA Lyme Bay, equipped for “crisis-response operations, natural disasters and evacuations”.