November 23, 2018 | Morning Headlines
South West Electoral Body Postpones Presidential Poll To Next Month
22 November – Source: Halbeeg News – 241 Words
The regional electoral coordination committee of South West state has — yet again — postponed presidential elections until next month. In a statement released on Thursday, the committee rescheduled the polls to December 5th.
According to the statement, members of the electoral coordinating committee, who will oversee the polls, will undergo a training between 27th and 29th of this month This is the second time the South West presidential elections, initially slated for November 17, has been postponed.Last week, the committee postponed the election from 17th to 28th November after 13 members of the electoral coordinating committee resigned over what they termed as a blatant interference by the Federal Government of Somalia (FGS).
The United Nations had last week pledged to conduct a workshop for the electoral officials with a view to strengthen their capacity and ability to carry out the elections efficiently. In a meeting with South West acting President, who is also the Speaker of the regional assembly, Abdikadir Sharif Shekhuna, Deputy head of United Nations Assistance Mission in Somalia (UNSOM), Rai Zenenga also promised a team of UN election observers to monitor the polls.
Mr. Sharif Hassan resigned as President of South West state on November 7th and pulled out of the presidential elections citing widespread interference in the poll. Major contenders for the top seat include former Finance Minister Mohamed Aden Fargeti and Sheikh Mukhtar Robow, a co-founder of the Al-Shabaab. Robow has since abandoned the terror group.
Key Headlines
- South West Electoral Body Postpones Presidential Poll To Next Month (Halbeeg News)
- Somali Military Clashes With Al-Shabaab In Lower Shabelle Region (Radio Shabelle)
- Life Unbearable For 7000 Families Cut Off By Floods In Villages In Bal’ad (Radio Ergo)
- 50 Dead So Far On Third Day Of US Airstrikes In Somalia (Capital News)
- Somali Bomb Blast Shatters Expectant Mother’s Life (VOA)
NATIONAL MEDIA
Somali Military Clashes With Al-Shabaab In Lower Shabelle Region
22 November – Source: Radio Shabelle – 131 Words
A heavy battle broke out between Somali National Army (SNA) forces and Al-Shabaab militants in the country’s southern Lower Shabelle region on Thursday. The fighting flared up at Gandershe, a coastal area located along the Mogadishu-Marka road, after armed fighters from Al-Shabab staged an ambush attack on an army base.
SNA officers at the scene of the attack, who requested for anonymity because they are not authorized to speak to the media, said they repulsed the attackers and inflicted “considerable injuries” on them during the gunfight between the two sides. Local residents reported that the combat resulted in casualties, although the number of those fatally injured could not be confirmed. Tranquility has returned to the area and the government forces are back in control after fighting off the Al Shabaab attackers.
Life Unbearable For 7,000 Families Cut Off By Floods In Villages In Bal’ad
22 November – Source: Radi Ergo – 363 Words
Over 7,000 families in Bal’ad district have been left stranded after flooding of the River Shabelle cut off access to their villages. According to the local administration, seven villages were affected by the floods. These are Fay-Dhuhul, Jameo, Saydir, Damaley, Bula-Asey, Mukay-Dhere and Farra-Barakey. “Apart from cutting off these villages, the floods have also forced another 3,000 families to leave their homes. We do not have the capacity to build an embankment to the river; the floods continue to damage the villages,” Ahmed Sheikh Hussein, in charge of social affairs in Bal’ad district authority, told Radio Ergo.
Traders in the villages are counting growing losses roads have become impassable, forcing people to wade through water to carry goods. Salad Abdullahi Mohamed, a trader in Fay-Dhuhul, told Radio Ergo that he had expected to receive his goods from Mogadishu six months ago. “We have not managed to get any goods direct from Mogadishu. We have opted for different methods which are expensive. The vehicle offloads goods in Bala’d town, and then we use boats to transport goods from Bal’ad to our village. We then use donkey carts to move the goods from the river banks. So now the transportation of one bag of food costs us 100,000 Somali shillings ($5.1),” Salad said.
The traders have increased their prices as a result of the transport problems. A kilogram of rice has gone up to 25,000 ($1) from 10,000 shillings ($0.4); sugarto 18,000 ($0.72) from 14,000 shillings ($0.56); and flour to 10,000 ($0.72) from 10,000 shillings ($0.4). Muhibo Da’ud, from Farra-Barakey, 41 kilometer east of Bal’ad town, told Radio Ergo it was hard to access health services because of the impassable roads.
The areas have experienced outbreaks of diarrhoea, malaria and other waterborne diseases. However, local health facilities have no drugs, forcing people to go by boat to Bal’ad. Muhibo, 39, who is suffering from malaria, has come to town for medical help: “Since April, we have been cut off from other areas. When we want to go outside, our only means of transport is by water – life is unbearable,” said the mother of six.
INTERNATIONAL MEDIA
50 Dead So Far On Third Day Of US Airstrikes In Somalia
22 November – Source: Capital News – 303 Words
The Somalia based Al Shabaab terror group continues to be weakened following three days of airstrikes by US forces that have left 50 dead so far. In a statement, the US Africa Command says they conducted two more airstrikes in the vicinity of Haradere, Somalia on Wednesday. Preliminary investigations revealed that six more terrorists were killed by the first airstrikes while the second destroyed a weapons cache.
“These precision airstrikes were conducted in coordination with and in support of the Federal Government of Somalia as it continues to degrade Al Shabaab,” the US-Africa Command said. “We currently assessed these airstrikes did not injure or kill any civilians.” They say the airstrikes are meant to reduce the terror group’s ability to plot future attacks, disrupt its leadership networks, and degrade its freedom of manoeuvre within the region.
Various airstrikes conducted on Monday and Tuesday this week left 44 militants dead in different parts of the troubled country. The US forces have committed to continue degrading the Al Shabaab alongside AMISOM forces in a bid to reduce their chances to pose a security threat in Somalia and the region. Reports indicate that Al-Shabaab has been using portions of Southern and Central Somalia to plot and direct terror attacks, steal humanitarian aid, extort the local populace to fund its operations and shelter, radical terrorists.
On October 16, an airstrike left 60 dead in Central Somalia. This was the deadliest attack since November 2017 when 100 terrorists were killed. In the past, the US forces have been accused of killing civilians during the air strikes. Since 2007, Al Shabaab has fought to overthrow successive internationally-backed governments in Mogadishu. It was in 2011 that the Al-Qaeda affiliated group was pushed out of Mogadishu, the Somali capital and subsequently from other key towns including the port city of Kismayu.
OPINION, ANALYSIS AND CULTURE
“After each attack, families are left to pick up the pieces. Sitting beside Saleban’s bed in Erdogan Hospital, in Mogadishu, Jima’le wondered whether his wife would ever again be able to walk.”
Somali Bomb Blast Shatters Expectant Mother’s Life
22 November – Source: VOA – 561 Words
Sadia Saleban was her family’s breadwinner. The 28-year-old Somali woman sold stuffed sambusa pastries to market-goers on the white sand-covered streets of Bakaraha, one of the busiest shopping centers in Mogadishu. She and her husband, Ahmed Jima’le, were expecting a baby, and they lived with their children in Somalia’s conflict-scarred but resilient capital, on the Indian Ocean.
Year after year, suicide bombers and other militants launch brutal attacks on the residents of Mogadishu. Sometimes police stations or international offices become targets. Other times landmarks. Almost always, civilians are injured, killed or maimed. Sometimes lengthy lulls follow the blasts. Other times they come in rapid succession, within weeks or days of one another. The Islamist terror group al-Shabaab has taken responsibility for most of the attacks, even when bystanders die.
For more than a decade, al-Shabaab has wreaked havoc in Somalia. Every day, residents hope for peace while bracing for the next attack. On Nov. 9, Saleban was a passenger in a minibus as it drove past the Sahafi Hotel on KM4 Street, one of the city’s biggest roadways. At that moment, a bomb ripped into the side of the minibus. Glass shattered. Metal warped.
Against odds, Saleban survived. “The bus was full of people, but everyone else died except me,” Saleban told VOA’s Somali service. Elsewhere in the city, Jima’le’s phone rang, and the caller broke the devastating news. “I ran to the hospital when I heard she was injured. She had already lost one leg, which was left in the minibus,” Jima’le said. “Her right leg was badly injured, so the doctors ordered us to sign for an amputation.”
In the end, they removed Saleban’s leg below her knee. Saleban’s mother, Mumino Nur Mohamed, heard about her daughter’s injuries when Amin Ambulance called from the hospital. “The ambulance workers asked me, ‘Do you know Sadia Saleban?’ Knowing that she might be wounded or dead, I felt frightened and replied, ‘Yes, she is my daughter,’ and they said … ‘She is critically wounded,’” Mohamed said.
At least 65 people died and 106 others were wounded in the Nov. 9 attack, based on reports from the five hospitals that admitted victims. The tallies make the attack the deadliest in Mogadishu this year. For Saleban, the consequences extended beyond the double amputation. Her kidneys were badly hurt; her face burned by the flames of the explosion. Yet despite the severity of the injuries, her unborn baby survived the first night after the blast.