November 4, 2014 | Morning Headlines.

Main Story

Amid int’l concern president insists leadership will settle dispute amicably

03 Nov – Source – Garower Online/Mareeg Media – 287 Words

Amid growing international concerns, Federal Government of Somalia’s President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud has appealed to the world to respect sovereignty and national rights on Monday, Garowe Online reports. Reacting to statements by the special representative of the UN Secretary-General for Somalia Nicholas Kay, EU envoy Ambassador Michele Cervone d’Urso and EU Special Representative for the Horn of Africa Aleander Rondos, Mohamud noted the world must let Somalia political leadership settle their differences through constitutional means.

“Taking a serious note on the concern of the international community, by now the best way in which Somalia political leaders and national institutions can be supported is respect and to let them resolve their disputes via legal means,” Mohamud said in a press statement from his office. Somalia President who has locked horns with the second prime minister, once again reiterated that his administration remained committed to vision 2016, and urges that Somalia sovereignty be respected in line with the Provisional Federal Constitution.

UN envoy, Kay overnight on Sunday expressed concern over the often fickle 275-seat-chamber of Federal parliament, warning of parliamentary no confidence vote: “I am concerned about allegations of some MPs being asked to exchange votes for cash in the context of a potential ‘No Confidence’ motion, which is a disservice to Somalia’s progress towards accountability and transparency”.

Meanwhile, EU’s d’Urso and Rondos while pledging support, called on President Mohamud and Prime Minister Mohamed to desist from all actions that would derail the fragile state and peace building efforts.

Key Headlines

Amid int’l concern president insists leadership will settle dispute amicably (Garower Online/Mareeg Media )
Puntland president receives UNDSS officials in his office (Radio Goobjoog)
SNA and AMISOM carry out inspection in Barawe following an explosion (Dalsan Radio)
Inter school competition Kadis due to open in Mogadishu (Goobjoog)
Foreign Affairs Ministry worker assassinated in Mogadishu (Radio RBC)
Police spokesman in Dharkenley district said there was an ongoing investigation to hunt down the killers(Radio Goobjoog)
MP Ali Nuur Bodaaye reacts to allegation by UN Special Envoy to Somalia (Radio Dalsan)
AMISOM truck hits again civilians and injures 5 people (Radio Goodjoog)
Sectarianism causing turmoil in Somalia says Museveni (Daily Monitor)
UN tells Somalia to quit paying for votes (Associated Press)
Somalia to UN: hands off our politics (Voice of America – English)
Where are all the Somali pirates? (Mashable.com)

SOMALI MEDIA

Amid Int’l concern president insists leadership will settle dispute amicably

03 Nov – Source – Garower Online/Mareeg Media – 287 Words

Puntland president receives UNDSS officials in his office

03 Nov – Source: Radio Goobjoog – 150 Words

The president of semi autonomous regional state of Puntland Abdiweli Mohamed Ali Gaas has received delegates led by the head of United Nations department of safety and security Marcus cully in his office.

President Gaas has taken special meeting with Mr. Cully and his delegation, the meeting focused on speeding up the co-operations between Puntland and UNDSS. They also discussed strengthening the security of international agencies that operate in Puntland, Mr. Cully praised Puntland for its commitment to maintain security.

Finally president Gaas and UNDSS officials agreed improve the skills of Puntland police force by giving trainings especially those that guard international agencies. The Department of Safety and Security is responsible for providing leadership, operational support and oversight of the security management system to enable the safest and most efficient conduct of the programmes and activities of the United Nations System.

SNA and AMISOM carry out inspection in Barawe following an explosion

03 Nov – Source: Dalsan Radio – 95 Words

Reports from Barawe town say SNA and AMISOM started inspections in that town following an explosion. SNA and AMISOM troops were seen entering houses hunting for weapons and suspected Alshabaab members.

No one knows whether they have recovered anything and/or whether they picked any persons from the areas in which they carried out the inspection. However, the Deputy Commissioner of Barawe told Dalsan that the inspection is still on. Alshabaab pulled out from Baraawe six weeks ago after having controlled it for many years.

Inter school competition, Kadis due to open in Mogadishu

03 Nov – Source: Goobjoog – 139 Words

Preparations to open inter school competition known as Kadis is actively going on in Mogadishu. The competition is expected to open on Thursday 6th of November in the headquarters of Somali media academy in the capital of Somalia. At least fifty secondary schools in Banadir region are expected to take part in the competition, Goobjoog FM and Maandeq radio are expected to air the program.

The inter school competition is meant to upgrade student’s level of education by freely mixing so as to exchange views and ideas that will lead to development of education sector that has been low since the collapse of central government. Its also meant to strengthen the relations and co-operations between schools particularly students and teachers, a key to creation of security and harmony in the country.

Foreign affairs ministry worker assassinated in Mogadishu

02 Nov – Source: Radio RBC – 147 Words

Unidentified gunmen have shot and killed an official working for the Foreign Affairs Ministry in Mogadishu in a drive by shooting attack on Sunday, eyewitnesses said.

Mohamed Abdi Juusto was shot and killed by gunmen driving in a black tinted window car at Bulo Hubey neighborhood of Mogadishu as they escaped on their way after the shooting. The assassins fired on the car in which the official was driving and managed to escape without being arrested them.

According to the ministry sources, Late Mohamed Abdi Juusto has been working with the ministry as an official. The killing became the second one today in Mogadishu. Early morning on Sunday armed men shot and killed two young female students as they were leaving their home in Dharkenley neighborhood to their university.

Police spokesman in Dharkenley district said there was an ongoing investigation to hunt down the killers

03 Nov – Source Radio Goobjoog – 108 Words

Dharkenley administration in hot pursuit of armed who killed 2 girls. The administration of Dharkenley disatrict in Banadir region stated that they are pursuing armed men who killed two girls in the district, both girls graduated from Simad University.

Dharkenley district commissioner Adan Mohamed Omar said he has good hope that the security forces will bring to justice the perpetrators. The commissioner described the murderers as individuals who want to threaten the security of the district adding that the security forces are vigilant to fortify the security of the district and thwart other insecurity cases. No one was arrested in connection with the brutal murder of the girls.

MP Ali Nuur Bodaaye reacts to allegation by UN Special Envoy to Somalia

03 Nov – Source: Radio Dalsan – 124 Words

A member of parliament reacted strongly to the allegation by UN Secretary General Special Envoy to Somalia Nicholas Kay that some Somali MPs exchange their vote of no confidence with cash.

MP Ali Nuur Bodaaye told Dalsan that MPs were very sorry about the remarks of Nicholas Kay and that it is an insult to the entire parliament. MP Ali Nuur Bodaaye called for Ambassador Nick Kay to apologize to the parliament regarding his remarks as he is a senior person in charge.

REGIONAL MEDIA

Sectarianism causing turmoil in Somalia, says Museveni

01 Nov – Source: Daily Monitor – 237 Words

President Museveni has said the main cause of turmoil in war-torn Somalia today is clan-related. The President made the remarks while meeting the United States of America Commander of Africa Forces, Gen David Rodriguez, at State House in Entebbe on Thursday.

“Discrimination over clans is wrong. In modern prospects, prosperity comes through cooperation. There is need to have trade as a prerequisite to prosperity,” Mr Musevei was quoted in a statement from State House.

He said there is need to inculcate patriotism and Pan-Africanism among the Somali youth. He added that the Somali youth in Uganda and in the US also need to be sensitised over the dangers of sectarianism premised on clan identity. Gen Rodrigues said building a national army in Somalia is a challenge but paid special tribute to the African countries that have sent troops to restore sanity in Somalia.

INTERNATIONAL MEDIA

UN tells Somalia to quit paying for votes

03 Nov – Source: Associated Press – 357 Words

Quit taking cash bribes for votes, the U.N.’s representative to Somalia told the country’s lawmakers. The country’s president responded quickly on Monday with a reply that can be summed up in two words: Butt out.

Allegations of vote-buying in Somalia’s federal government have been circulating for years. It is less common for the U.N. to publicly call out the vote buyers and buyees. “I am concerned about allegations of some MPs being asked to exchange votes for cash in the context of a potential `No Confidence’ motion, which is a disservice to Somalia’s progress towards accountability and transparency,” said Nicholas Kay, the U.N.’s representative to Somalia. “Somalia and Somalis deserve better.”

The vote-buying accusation comes in the context of a potential no confidence vote against Prime Minister Abdiweli Sheikh Ahmed, a rival of the president. The two have been openly feuding after President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud last month rejected a Cabinet reshuffle by the prime minister.

Kay’s statement said he was concerned about the political tensions between the two leaders. Early Monday, the president released a long statement saying that while he appreciates the international community’s concerns, the U.N. should mind its own business.

Somalia to UN: hands off our politics

03 Nov – Source: Voice of America (English) – 225 Words

The president of Somalia is telling the United Nations to keep out of the country’s internal politics. Monday’sstatement from President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud came after the U.N. envoy to Somalia, Nicholas Kay, expressed concern that lawmakers are being bribed to vote against the prime minister in a possible no-confidence motion.

Mohamud said he appreciates the concern of the international community, but said the world must respect Somalia’s “sovereign right… to determine its own future.” He said the “best way” to support Somalia’s leadership is to allow them to resolve differences through what he called “legitimate means and within the existing and maturing institutions.”

Where are all the Somali pirates?

03 Nov – Source: Mashable – 456 Words

In a year that’s seen the rise of the Islamic State in Syria and Iraq, coupled with a crippling Ebola outbreak in West Africa, an international coalition of countries has made quiet progress eliminating a threat that once terrorized mariners along one of the world’s busiest shipping corridors and costing the global economy an estimated $7 billion dollars a year — Somali pirates.

“Thanks in part to the work of the Contact Group,” a coalition of 80 countries, international organizations and companies that was established in January 2009, “pirates have not successfully attacked a commercial vessel in this region in over two years,” a State Department spokesperson announced this week. The figures, officials at the U.S. Department of State tell Mashable, speak for themselves.

There have been no piracy hijackings of commercial vessels off the coast of Somalia in more than two years, with the last one occurring on May 10, 2012. This marks the lowest rate of attempted pirate hijackings in the region in half a decade.

SOCIAL MEDIA

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

“Recovering from a war is a longtime process…We have to put culture and literature on the agenda…That’s how you create narratives within a society. We want to talk about our challenges and create links with the region and to the West.”

The other Somalia

3 Nov – Source: The City Journal – 027 Words

Hargeisa, the capital of the unrecognized state of Somaliland, is built into a depression in the middle of a desert; from nearly every point in town, a visitor looks up at a lip of baked orange hills and a blank sky. If he has arrived directly from the Somali capital of Mogadishu—as I did, during a recent reporting trip—the lack of armored vehicles and the sudden scarcity of guns are striking and welcome.

When traffic halts, as it often does along Hargeisa’s cattle-clogged and barely policed streets, you don’t feel sudden panic that plainclothes militiamen or terrorists are about to surround you. In fact, Hargeisa hasn’t seen a major terror attack since 2008; one aid worker characterized his weekly security updates as “nothing you wouldn’t expect to see in a fairly large town.” Mogadishu is a city of checkpoints and high walls, bombed-out buildings, and occasional signs of recovery dispersed through the ruined landscape.

Hargeisa, which sits inside Somalia’s internationally recognized borders—though you wouldn’t necessarily realize this while waiting to get your passport stamped at the airport—is the polar opposite, beginning with the fact that it’s a safe enough place for people to want to visit.

I arrived the day before the opening of the city’s sixth annual international book fair, which attracted Italian journalists, Kenyan editors, British poets, and Somali-speaking scholars and writers from Britain, New York, and across the Horn of Africa. The book fair exemplifies Somaliland’s progression, from the site of a devastating civil war in the late 1980s and early 1990s, to an emerging democracy eager for international acceptance.