November 23, 2018 | Daily Monitoring Report
Somalia Backs ITU Resolution On Special Assistance
23 November – Source: Xinhua – 297 Words
The Somali government on Thursday welcomed the adoption of resolutions at the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) that have direct impact and are of special interest to the Horn of Africa nation. Abdi Ashur Hassan, minister of Post, Telecom and Technology said the aim of Resolution 34 is to provide special consideration to Somalia due to the prolonged conflict in the country and provide assistance and support to rebuild and modernize its telecommunication infrastructure.
According to Hassan, the resolution also aims to re-establish well-equipped ministry of telecommunications and establish institutions, develop ICT policy, legislation and regulation, including a numbering plan, spectrum management, and human resource capacity building including other necessary forms of assistance. “I welcome the adoption of these resolutions by the ITU Plenipotentiary Conference. They will help us in re-building our ICT infrastructure and make the necessary reforms in the sector that remained unregulated for decades,” he said in a statement issued in Mogadishu.
The ITU’s 20th Plenipotentiary Conference ended in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) on Nov. 16 with Member States reaffirming their commitment to the common vision of a connected world. According to Hassan, Resolution 34 calls upon member states to take special actions to provide appropriate assistance and support to countries in special need with Somalia being included in these countries.
“In particular, recognizing the Somali situation as special, the Plenipotentiary Conference approved a special resolution for Somalia – Resolution 160 – Assistance to Somalia,” said Hassan. The minister said Somalia proposed the Resolution 160 and successfully lobbied Arab and African countries in preparatory meetings for the Conference. “Both Arab and African Regions of the ITU included the resolution to assist Somalia in their common proposals to the Conference,” he said, adding that Mogadishu presented and defended the Resolution gaining unanimous support of all members states.
Key Headlines
- Somalia Backs ITU Resolution On Special Assistance (Xinhua)
- Suspected Pro-ISIS Militias Kill A Businessman In Bosaso (Kismaayo.com)
- New Mobile App Links Somaliland Farmers To Produce Buyers And Expert Advice (Radio Ergo)
- Kenyan Police Arrest 46 Members Of Outlawed Separatist Group (Xinhua)
- Border Residents Adopt System To End Conflicts (The Star)
- Improving Access To Justice In Somaliland (Somaliland Standard)
NATIONAL MEDIA
Suspected Pro-ISIS Militias Kill A Businessman In Bosaso
23 November – Source: Kismaayo.com – 193 Words
Suspected Pro-ISIS group assassins murdered a businessman in the seaport town of Bosaso in Bari region on Thursday. Two other people were injured in the attack, which claimed the life of Ahmed Ali Nur, a senior accountant officer at Sabir local trading company.
The attack was carried out by gangs armed with pistols, who escaped from the scene after killing the businessman. The ISIS-affiliated group has in the recent past stepped up its murder campaign against targeted business owners and managers, who decline to pay them extortion money.
In August, the group killed the Deputy Managing Director of Golis Telecommunication company, Abdullahi Ali Omar in Bosaso. The group’s hit squad has recently extended its activities to business people to Mogadishu killing over 10 Hormuud Telecommunication Company workers, after the telecom company reportedly refusal to part with a huge sum of money to finance the group’s terror activities in the country.
The development has sparked a lot of fear among members of the business community in the country. Some individuals have accordingly called on the government to stop the killings and protect the business people and their businesses from the threat of terror groups.
New Mobile App Links Somaliland Farmers To Produce Buyers And Expert Advice
22 November – Source: Radio Ergo – 366 Words
Technical entrepreneurs in Somaliland have launched a new mobile application to enable farmers to access market information and advice on their phones. The agri-tech startup SAMS (Somaliland Agriculture Market Solutions) – a non-profit organization – developed the app called M-Dalag (mobile harvest) with funding from international NGO Oxfam Novib. The service, which enables farmers to call in and access voice-based information for free, is supported by Somaliland’s telecommunications provider Telesom.
M-Dalag aims to connect farmers directly with buyers, leading to wide market reach for farmers and reduction of losses of perishable farm products. According to SAMS’ founder and chief executive officer, Faisal Mohamed, the system provides farmers with customised local crop advice and market prices, while also connecting farmers directly with buyers to ensuring the get the best prices for their products.
“The system is free. To register, the farmer just dials 315 to record a voicemail. They record their details including their names and products, locations to get contact with other users of the system. It does not need smartphones,” said Faisal. SAMS gathers daily market prices, compared to the weekly reports of Somaliland’s planning ministry, which are available on the app.
Abdullah Jam’aQor-Ges, a vegetable farmer in Biyo-Ma’an, recently registered with M-Dalag. “I only record a voicemail detailing the kind of produce, I have to sell and my contacts. Then customers get in touch with me to buy the product. Now I save on transportation cost. Initially, I used to spend $20 to transport my produce to sell in the nearest market,” he said.
Abdullahi also receives daily market prices and advice on farming techniques. “Previously, we had no information about handling farming problems. This system teaches us how to apply modern farming techniques,” he said. Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed, one of three agricultural experts working with M-Dalag, responds to questions from farmers. “The farmers can record their concerns on the system by recording a voice mail,” said Mohamed. “If they dial 315 to talk to the expert, this number is connected to my personal mobile phone so that I talk to them and give them the suitable advice.”
INTERNATIONAL MEDIA
Kenyan Police Arrest 46 Members Of Outlawed Separatist Group
23 November – Source: Xinhua – 327 Words
Kenyan police on Thursday arrested 46 suspected members of the separatist group, the Mombasa Republican Council (MRC), in the coastal city of Mombasa. Likoni divisional police commander Benjamin Rotich said security officers ambushed the group, suspected to be behind insecurity in the coastal region, when it was holding an illegal meeting at a popular beach.
Rotich said suspects who include elderly and youth were having an illegal meeting. “They did not have a permit to hold the meeting. We have kicked off investigations,” said Rotich. The police have been accusing the MRC, an increasingly violent Islamic group of working in cahoots with Al-Shabaab terrorist group, to carry out the gruesome attacks in the coastal region.
MRC whose key agenda remains largely unclear beyond the call for the separation of Mombasa and the coastal region from the rest of Kenya is also charging that the coastal people’s rights to land and property ownership has been violated. Rotich said they have launched search for more accomplices in the crime-prone Likoni area, noting that those arrested will be taken to court on Friday.
Documents show the suspects are from Kwale, Kilifi and Lamu counties and the motive behind the meeting in the coastal region remains unknown. A security source who was part of the operation said dozens of MRC membership cards were seized from the suspects. Eric Wawlevu, Likoni deputy county commissioner, said that by the time of the arrest, the group members were taking illegal oaths at the beach.
The group’s grievances are mostly about marginalization and land rights which are shared by many on the coast. On 2010, the government declared the MRC, together with 32 other organizations, illegal on grounds that they were not properly registered and were bent on engaging in criminal activities. Security agencies suspect the MRC could be receiving funding from Somali insurgent group Al-Shabaab to carry out terror attacks in the region including the killing of more than 60 people in Lamu in 2014.
Border Residents Adopt System To End Conflicts
23 November – Source: The Star – 253 Words
Communities living along the common border with Ethiopia and Somalia have come together to build a cross-border conflict management initiative. The Regional Approach for Sustainable Conflict Management and Integration (Rasmi) programme is funded by the European Union and Trust Fund for Africa.
The project uses a conflict system-based approach to promote peace-building, conflict management and conflict resolution. Rasmi means reliable in Somali. Team leader Yussuf Abdullahi on Wednesday said the project targets stakeholders in the Mandera Triangle who are most vulnerable to conflict, irregular migration and recruitment into militias and terror groups.
The stakeholders include youth, internally displaced persons, pastoralist dropouts and marginalised ethnic groups. Rasmi also engages local government agencies, women, religious leaders, security forces and the private sector – those who have the greatest capacity for managing conflicts and promoting peace, Abdullahi said.
Kenya, Ethiopia and Somalia share a common border at the famous Border Point One (BP1 ) near Mandera town. Somalia, in particular, has experienced armed conflict, violent crime, terror attacks, political instability and state failure for years.
Insecurity stems from a complex mix of resource competition, clan power struggles and, more recently, the presence of armed terror groups. The existence of tri-country boundaries creates further complexities related to border management and security between administrations with varying capacities and agenda. In the past one week, Rasmi has engaged at least 150 representatives from communities in the three countries during a baseline survey. The aim was to establish the level of social cohesion in their local socioeconomic and political settings.
OPINION, ANALYSIS AND CULTURE
“Women must be accepted into more leadership roles within justice institutions, and there should be a roadmap for hiring female judges over the coming years. Finally, once priorities are set around inclusive access to justice, there must be sufficient investment to match these goals and make them a reality.”
Improving Access To Justice In Somaliland
22 November – Source: Somaliland Standard – 1222 Words
In Somaliland, judges and civil society have never had the opportunity to sit down and discuss how to improve justice provision for all citizens. But in September 2018, these two groups sat down together in a participatory workshop funded by the Knowledge Platform Security and Rule of Law, to discuss obstacles – and potential solutions – to fair and accessible justice for all. This is just one of many encouraging signs for justice provision in Somaliland but will need to be built upon to deliver on ambitious plans to improve access to justice for all.
Over the past few years, Chief Justice Adam Haji-Ali Ahmed has made some impressive strides in his efforts to improve access to justice in Somaliland. During his tenure, new courts have opened in 12 districts, which previously had none, a series of new mobile supreme and lower courts have helped bring the judiciary to some of the remotest locations in Somaliland, and efforts have been made to improve hiring practises to promote equality in the judicial sector. Yet, for all the positive steps, there is still a long way to go before all of Somaliland’s citizens have fair and affordable access to justice.
Somaliland is by no means unique in this standing. An oft quoted figure from 2008 – that is in need of updating – indicated that 4 billion out of the world’s 6 billion (and counting) citizens live without fair and readily available access to justice. However, over the past couple of years, there is a growing international movement, spurred on by the inclusion of justice as a priority within the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, to address these serious access to justice shortcomings around the world. The Global Taskforce on Justice – a group of governments, organisations and networks committed to achieving access to justice for all – are leading this charge.
In Somaliland, evidence of this movement is beginning to emerge, with a number of active civil society organisations making the case to the government to recognize the links between access to justice and eradicating extreme poverty. Early efforts by these civil society groups to localise the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) with the government in Somaliland, including the support to help incorporate many SDG16 targets in the new Somaliland National Development Plan, together with the recent identification of access to justice as a short-term priority action for civil society across Somaliland, show that there is interest in taking forward action in this field.
It was against this backdrop that the Somaliland Human Rights Centre, together with Saferworld (two of the 6 founding members of the Somaliland SDG16+ Coalition), co-organised a three-day participatory workshop with the Ministry of Justice and the Office of the Chief Justice, to discuss new approaches for improving access to justice in Somaliland, funded by the Knowledge Platform Security & Rule of Law’s Knowledge Management Fund.
TOP TWEETS
@UKinSomalia: #UKaid makes largest ever investment to#EndFGM worldwide #AidWorks
@M_Farmaajo: Grateful to President Mattarella, PM @guiseppeconte and both Houses for an exceptional hospitality accorded to me and my delegation during this significant State Visit. Somalia and Italy can achieve more together for the mutual benefit of our respective people. Grazie!
@Mogadishu_News: #UPDATE: Somali Special Forces rescued a#German nurse, Sonja Nientiet, who was abducted by gunmen from ICRC’s compound in Somali capital #Mogadishu on May 2nd, 2018. The rescue operation carried out in #Galmudug – Media reports #Somalia
@MowliidAHassan: #Mogadishu is a city that’s fastly growing, economically recovering, attracting local & foriegn investment despite suffering from biased international media coverage. We call it HOME! #Somalia.
Rashid Abdi @RAbdiCG: AS beheads elder (a taboo) in Belet Hawo in most brutal way – in his house, before his family. His crime was to work for peace. Daqane Qasim joins Hibad Ali (another elder killed in Sep) in Pantheon of great patriots who said No to Shabaab. RESPECT!
@HarunMaruf: BREAKING: The United States military has carried out two more airstrikes in the vicinity of Harardhere coastal town on Wednesday. According to @USAfricaCommand one of the strikes killed 6 Al-Shabaab militants while second airstrike destroyed a weapons cache. #Somalia.
IMAGE OF THE DAY
President Mohamed Abdullahi Farmaajo with Italian President Sergio Mattarella at the Quirinale Palace, during the Somali leader’s visit to Rome.
Photo:@VillaSomalia