November 24, 2015 | Morning Headlines
Election 2016: Somaliland Delegates Invoke 1960 Pact, Call For 50/50 Split Of Parliamentary Seats
23 November – Source: Goobjoog News – 331 Words
The ongoing consultative forum on the 2016 electoral option yesterday took a different turn when delegates from Somaliland brushed aside the four proposed ways and instead opted for a 50-50 split of parliamentary seats with the South. The 750 delegates, including members of the Federal Parliament, civil society leaders and other participants argued that Somaliland enjoyed equal status with the rest of Somalia in line with the 1960 Act of the Union agreement.
Following the granting of independence to the British Somaliland and the Italian controlled south in 1960, the two territories joined together to form the Republic of Somalia in July 1stof that year. However as a result of collapse of the central government in 1991, Somaliland charted its own cause to pursue self independence. Currently, Somaliland has 61 members at the Federal Parliament. A 50-50 percent share of the seats would mean the self declared independent region would be allocated an average 137 MPs leaving the other five regions to share the remaining 137, out of a total of 275.
This new development is bound to generate political heat and accordingly impact on the progress of the 2016 electoral consultative process. The National Consultative Forum, which is the body tasked with identifying the best possible option for election of Members of Parliament, had proposed four options among them, the political party system, district electoral college system based on the 1991 districts (92 in total) or the regional administrations electoral college option. NFC also proposed the so-called 4.5 system, a system drawn from the clan distribution in Somalia. It was applied in 2012.
But the introduction of a new model by Somaliland delegates will be the NFC’s next major headache as the Forum tries to reconcile this avenue with the other options arrived at by other regional states. The delegates maintained an equal share of seats between Somaliland and the rest of Somalia states was the only viable option, which could resolve the current political impasse: “We came here to share our views with you and the option we are proposing is based on an agreement signed many years ago,” said one of the delegates.
Key Headlines
- Election 2016: Somaliland Delegates Invoke 1960 Pact Call For 50/50 Split Of Parliamentary Seats(Goobjoog News)
- Ceasefire In Galkayo After Elders’ Intervention (Shabelle News)
- Somali Parliament Approves Foreign Investment Law (Hiiraan Online)
- Five KDF Officers Injured After Landmine Hits Vehicle Near Kenya/Somalia Border (The Standard)
- Somali Pirates Hijack Iranian Fishing Vessel With 15 Crew Says Official (Reuters)
- In Somaliland Climate Change Is Now A Life-Or-Death Challenge (The Guardian)
- Ethiopia: Becoming a Magnet of Peace Economic Integration (The Ethiopian Herald)
PRESS STATEMENT
UN Secretary-General Appoints Michael Keating As Special Representative for Somalia
23 November – Source: UNSOM – 237 Words
United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon today announced the appointment of Michael Keating of the United Kingdom as his new Special Representative for Somalia and Head of the United Nations Assistance Mission in Somalia (UNSOM).
Mr. Keating will succeed Nicholas Kay of the United Kingdom who will complete his assignment at the end of the year. The Secretary-General is grateful for Mr. Kay’s dedication, courage and excellent leadership of UNSOM over the past two and a half years, a critical period for Somalia’s political transformation.
Mr. Keating brings to this position extensive experience in supporting political and peacebuilding transitions, as well as leading complex humanitarian and recovery programmes in Afghanistan, the Middle East, and Africa. While Associate Director of Chatham House since 2012, he concurrently served as Senior Advisor to the Secretary-General’s Special Envoy to Syria. He was Deputy Special Representative of the Secretary-General and United Nations Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator in Afghanistan from 2010 until 2012.
Having served as Executive Director of the Africa Progress Panel, a policy group chaired by former Secretary-General Kofi Annan, his earlier career was divided between assignments with the United Nations, serving in Malawi, Gaza/Jerusalem, New York, Afghanistan and Pakistan, and the private sector, working with companies and public sector bodies engaged in environmental, human rights, and development issues. Mr. Keating holds an MA in History from the University of Cambridge. Born in 1959, he is married and has four children.
NATIONAL MEDIA
Ceasefire In Galkayo After Elders’ Intervention
23 November – Source: Shabelle News – 135 Words
Traditional elders from Galmudug and Puntland states have successfully brokered a ceasefire deal to end the bloody battle in Galkayo, which left over ten people dead on Sunday. After a meeting in Galkayo, the elders inked a joint peace deal aimed at ending the renewed conflict in southern Galkayo town between Galmudug and Puntland administrations.
The following articles were agreed upon during the meeting. First, that fighting should stop immediately and unconditionally and that each side (Galmudug and Puntland) should withdraw its forces from the battle zone. It was also agreed that the root cause of the conflict be addressed through peaceful dialogue. On Sunday, forces from Galmudug and Puntland clashed in southern Galkayo town, resulting to loss of lives of soldiers and civilians on both sides.
Somali Parliament Approves Foreign Investment Law
23 November – Source: Hiiraan Online – 254 Words
Somalia’s Parliament has finally approved the foreign investment law even as the country’s economy, which has survived years of political and military anarchy, continues to face several hurdles owing to lack of regulations and competition. The development, on Monday, is a breakthrough for many foreign companies that have expressed interest in investing in the Horn of Africa nation. Somalia has not adopted any foreign investment law over the last two decades.
During the debate, 143 Members of Parliament out of 147, voted to endorse the law. One rejected the proposal while three others abstained, according to the Parliament Speaker Mohamed Sheikh Osman Jawari.The government has been trying to encourage foreign business partnerships after the ouster of Islamist militants from the capital as foreign entities seemed poised to exploit the market’s growth at backdrop of security concerns.
According to the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), Somalia, as of 2012, had some of the lowest development indicators in the world, and a “strikingly low” Human Development Index (HDI) value of 0.285.This would rank the impoverished horn of Africa amongst the lowest in the world as result of “inequalities across different social groups, a major driver of conflict, have been widening”.
Foreign companies have pulled out from Somalia following state institutions collapses and warlords overthrew the central government in 1991 and “most of the economic and social infrastructure and assets were destroyed”. Local private companies have since filled the void, creating thousands of jobs and helped the country to survive despite serious challenges including civil war and chaos.
INTERNATIONAL MEDIA
Five KDF Officers Injured After Landmine Hits Vehicle Near Kenya/Somalia Border
23 November – Source: The Standard – 333 Words
At least five KDF personnel were Monday morning injured after their vehicle was hit by a landmine in Hulugho area, near Kenya/Somalia border. Security officials in the area say the landmine was planted by Al-Shabaab militants. North Eastern regional coordinator Saleh Mohamud said those injured had been rushed to hospital.
“Their vehicle ran over a landmine that we suspect had been planted there slightly injuring Kenya Defence Forces personnel who were patrolling the area,” he said. He added that the officers were on patrol along the main border when the explosion happened. Military spokesman Col David Obonyo confirmed there was an incident that targeted their personnel in the area.
He said their APC stepped on the landmine planted on the road injuring the five. “The vehicle had driven about five kilometers from their camp when the incident happened. Those injured are in hospital,” he said. The incident occurred two days ahead of the arrival of the head of the Catholic Church in the world, Pope Francis. The pope is expected in Kenya for three days starting on Wednesday.
Somali Pirates Hijack Iranian Fishing Vessel With 15 Crew, Says Official
23 November – Source: Reuters – 339 Words
Somali pirates have hijacked an Iranian fishing vessel with 15 crew members, a Somali official and a maritime expert said on Monday amid warnings that piracy might be making a comeback in the Indian Ocean. Although there are still occasional cases of sea attacks, piracy near Somalia’s coast had largely subsided in the past three years, mainly due to shipping firms hiring private security details and the presence of international warships.
The Iranian ship was taken on Sunday evening in waters off northern Somali city of Eyl, said Abdirizak Mohamed Dirir, director of the anti-piracy and seaport ministry in Puntland, a semi-autonomous region in Somalia: “Pirates hijacked an Iranian-flagged fishing vessel with its 15 crew from near Eyl,” Dirir told Reuters.
John Steed, East Africa region manager for the Oceans Beyond Piracy group, confirmed the hijacking and said the vessel was called Muhammidi. Two other Iranian fishing ships were captured by suspected pirates in March. The 16 crew from one boat managed to raise anchor and escape in August, but the other ship and 26 crew remain in captivity. Steed said there were three other unsuccessful sea attacks by Somali pirates in the past week, including one last night.
“This indicates that the level of illegal fishing is bringing the threat of return of Somali piracy ever closer,” added Kenya-based Steed. Somali officials say the decline in piracy in recent years has emboldened foreign-flagged illegal fishing vessels to plunder Somalia’s fish stocks closer to shore, bringing them within reach of pirate gangs.
In a report published in October, the U.N. Somalia and Eritrea Monitoring Group, said it was “concerned that illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing by foreign vessels may re-establish the conflict dynamic with local fishing communities that contributed to the rise of piracy a decade ago”.
In Somaliland, Climate Change Is Now A Life-Or-Death Challenge
23 November – Source: The Guardian – 1,547 Words
If you drive north from the Somaliland village of Gargara – where women speak of their heartache at losing goats in this year’s drought – and ford the fractured beds of dry rivers, passing the sun-bleached bones of dead animals, you eventually arrive in Lughaya, where open-mouthed fish lie on the white sands by the Red Sea after a wave “like a mountain” smashed into the coast this month.This is what a changing climate looks like.
Somaliland, which broke away from Somalia in 1991 but is not recognised internationally, could be considered the canary in the mine of a world that is getting hotter, and where extreme weather is becoming more common. Across this relatively peaceful corner of the Horn of Africa, where black-headed sheep scamper among the thorn bushes, dainty gerenuk balance on their hind legs to nibble from hardy shrubs, and skinny camels wearing rough-hewn bells lumber over rocky slopes, people long accustomed to a harsh environment find they cannot cope after years of below-average rainfall.
These pastoralists, who trek across rock and sand with their herds each day, have a vital stake in the UN climate talks taking place in Paris, which begin next week. For them, the changing climate is an immediate life-or-death challenge that has pushed their already tenuous existence to the very edge. Droughts are common in this region of Africa, and famines not unknown – the last major famine to hit was in 2011.
But Mohamed Ali Ismail, a 70-year-old from the village of Bildhaaley, about three hours’ drive on bumpy tracks from the capital, Hargeisa, says things are steadily getting worse: “I have lived here all my life. We were wealthy, and had lots of livestock. There were wild fruits on the trees, thick forests, good livestock and wild animals. We were not worrying about our life. But things got harder because the rain has failed, or is less frequent … In my 70 years, I have never seen an ostrich die without water, never seen a deer die without water, so when I see these wild animals dying, unlike at any time before, I don’t see the climate getting better … It is a critical situation.” Ali Ismail does not know what to tell young villagers who wonder what the future holds.
OPINION, ANALYSIS, AND CULTURE
“Ethiopia supported the struggle made by the Somali government to fight terrorism and extremism. It has been playing a vital role facilitating dialogue and providing support to enable the Jubaland administration and the Federal Government of Somalia to work jointly in building the Federal State of Somalia.”
Ethiopia: Becoming a Magnet of Peace, Economic Integration
23 November – Source: The Ethiopian Herald – 1,128 Words
Majestically perched on the Horn of Africa, Ethiopia shares borders with the eastern African countries Djibouti, Eritrea, Kenya, Somalia, South Sudan and Sudan. A founding member of the UN, the African Union (AU), the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD), and the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA), Ethiopia pursues its regional interests for peace and economic development multilaterally through these organizations.
Although historians have previously claimed that pre 19th century Ethiopia has remained isolated and forgotten by the rest of the world, the country has always been vulnerable to foreign intervention and wars and encroachments by colonialists. Some scholars estimate that out of the entire existence of its statehood, the country enjoyed only 100 years of relative peace and tranquility. The geopolitical position of the country was a source of threat for the very survival of Ethiopia. However, due to the marked shift in the foreign policy of the country, opportunities are at door to make Ethiopia a trusted and responsible nation for the promotion of the socioeconomic progress and political stability on the Horn of Africa.
Despite the devastating years of foreign invasion and internal strife’s between local war lords and in spite of recurrent disasters and internal displacements due to localized wars, Ethiopia has maintained a long diplomatic history and extensive experience in foreign relations. The country has always been looked upon as banner of freedom for Africans and Afro- Americans alike.
Prior to 1994, Ethiopia’s foreign policy and diplomacy was based on the charismatic diplomacy of its leaders and a syndrome of insecurity and phobia of external aggression. Peace was the most used but abused buzz word. The motto focused on enhancing defense capability to defend against historical enemies. With the formation of a transition government followed by constitutionally established federal government, Ethiopia formulated an inward looking foreign policy geared towards promotion of national interest through mutual cooperation, friendship, reconciliation and peaceful co-existence
Following the fall of Somalia’s irredentist Siad Barre’s central government in 1991, Somalia has become a breeding ground for the proliferation of internal and external terrorist groups and warlords. Ethiopia has been affected by the terrorism perpetrated by Somalia-based terrorist groups. One of the groups, Al-Ittihad Al-Islamiya (AIAI), and its indigenous terrorist group affiliate, the Ogaden National Liberation Front (ONLF), attacked Ethiopia several times between 1995 and 1997.