November 7, 2016 | Morning Headlines

Main Story

Ceasefire Between Somalia’s Puntland And Galmudug Collapses, 20 Killed

06 November – Source: Reuters – 375 Words

A week-old ceasefire between the forces of two semi-autonomous regions of Somalia broke down on Sunday as fighting over a disputed border area erupted again, killing at least 20 people, army officials on both sides said. Galmudug and Puntland are clashing in the town of Galkayo, which straddles their common border and is divided under the control of rival clan militias. As violence between these groups began to escalate a month ago, schools in Galkayo were forced to close and some people fled the town.

Under terms of a ceasefire deal mediated by Dubai and which was welcomed by the two sides and Somalia’s federal president, forces of both regions were supposed to be withdrawn from the disputed area this past week. The deal also called for those who had fled Galkayo due to previous fighting to be allowed to return.

“We were shocked to see Puntland forces inside Galkayo south and pounding us with shells and bullets,” Hirsi Yusuf Barre, mayor of Galkayo south, which is controlled by militias loyal to Galmudug, told Reuters. “We lost seven soldiers and 20 others were wounded. We also lost a car. We repulsed them and now Galkayo is calm”, he added. Each region blames the other for starting the fighting.

Key Headlines

Ceasefire Between Somalia’s Puntland And Galmudug Collapses 20 Killed (Reuters)
Lower House Elections In Puntland Enter Second Day (AMISOM)
South West State President Sharif Hassan Joins List Of Somali Federal Presidential Candidates (Goobjoog News)
Somali Journalist Killed In Galkayo (Goobjoog News)
Somalia Opens First Graduate Health Science School (Anadolu Agency)
Al-Shabaab Fires Mortars Outside Somalia’s AU Camp (Xinhua)
Somalia’s Al-Shabaab Still Potent Threat UN Report Warns (AFP)
Al-Shabaab Claims Fatal Car Bomb Attack Near Somali Parliament (Reuters)
Lack of Ideology Is Somalia’s Problem – Museveni (New Vision)
We Should Formalise Cross Border Trade With Somalia (The Star)

NATIONAL MEDIA

Lower House Elections In Puntland Enter Second Day

06 November – Source: AMISOM – 562 Words

Voting for the Lower House in Puntland State entered the second day today. Twelve members of parliament had been elected by close of polling time, out of a possible 37 members, whom Puntland delegates are required to elect to the Lower House. “I am happy to have been be the first MP elect voted in when the process began. I hope this encourages the people of Somalia to have faith in the process. This is a good election and we can now see democracy taking root,” MP elect Omar Ismail Waaberi said.

The State-level Indirect Electoral Implementation Team (SIEIT) described the electoral process as a credible method, in lieu of the one-person-one-vote election.

“We were used to a process where a few elders made decisions on behalf of everyone. Today, the decision is being made on the ballot. The journey towards one-person-one-vote election has started, so my message to the MPs who have been elected, is they should realise that they will be accountable to the people who elect them to parliament and they must ask themselves; what it is they have done to their people?,” a member of SIEIT, Siyat Hussein Mursal stated.

Salaado Abtidoon, a member of the Electoral College, who cast her ballot today, expressed satisfaction with the results so far. “I am satisfied with how the process is going; it is free and fair. We didn’t have any problems, everyone of us voted freely and independently,” she said. The oversight national electoral body, the Federal Indirect Electoral Implementation Team (FIEIT) commended Puntland State for leading in the Lower House electoral process.

South West State President Sharif Hassan Joins List Of Somali Federal Presidential Candidates

06 November – Source: Goobjoog News – 170 Words

In a highly-waited event in the Southwest State of Somalia’s capital-Baidoa, Sharif Hassan Sheikh Adan declared his candidacy for Somalia’s presidential elections in this year. Federal Ministers, MPs, Youth and elders were among the attendees of the declarations event In Baidoa on Sunday. In a brief speech at the event, the candidate who also remains the state president said he listened and accepted the voices of South west state residents who asked him to run for presidency in the elections this year.

“Answering the advice of the state residents, I am hereby to declare my intentions to run for the presidency in this year’s elections,” said Sharif Hassan Adan. Sharif Hassan Sheikh Adan, a former Federal Parliament speaker, is one of the heavy weight politicians in the country. Many political analysts regard him a master in Somali politics and formidable force in this year’s elections in Somalia.

The country has as many as 16 presidential candidates so far, including incumbent President Hassan Sheikh Mahamoud and the Prime Minister Omar Abdirashid.

Somali Journalist Killed In Galkayo

06 November – Source: Goobjoog News – 175 Words

Young Somali Journalist Mahad Ali Mohammed killed on Sunday in Galkayo after he went out to cover the fighting between Galmudug and Puntland states forces in the town. The journalist received a bullet on the head and later succumbed to his injuries in one of the hospitals in the city, Voice of Mudug Radio director Mahad Abdi Farah confirmed to Goobjoog News.

At least 15 people were killed and more than 30 injured on Sunday after fierce fighting that lasted about six hours between the two warring state forces. Heavy artillery and anti-aircraft rockets were used in the fighting. “Our reporter went out to cover the fighting and as result received shot on the head and died from his injuries,” said Farah.

Mahad Ali becomes the second Somali journalist killed in 2016 after Sagal Salad Osman who used to work for a government-run radio station in the capital. She was killed in June this year by two assassins in Mogadishu. Somalia includes one of the most dangerous countries in the world for media practitioners.

INTERNATIONAL MEDIA

Somalia Opens First Graduate Health Science School

07 November – Source: Anadolu Agency – 171 Words

The Recep Tayyip Erdogan School of Health Services was inaugurated here Sunday as the country’s first graduate school of health sciences. The Turkish president’s name was placed on the school as an indication for the support Turkey has for its establishment. It was the first health institute the Turkish Health Ministry founded abroad, according to Turkish Ambassador to Mogadishu Olgan Bekar, who attended the ceremony.

Somali Interior Minister Abdurrahman Muhammed Huseyin, said the institution would train health personnel to serve Somalis and that it and other Turkish projects are the results of Erdogan’s visit to Somalia in August 2011.

For its support for Somalia and projects there, he said Somalia would never forget Turkish contributions to his country. Somalia lacks well-equipped health personnel, a fact acknowledged by school director Ikrim Simbaz, who said students would have theoretical and practical courses. Initially, 300 students will undergo training. The two-year program will include nursing, childbirth and other health sciences courses and they will receive a nine-month Turkish language training prior to the program.

Al-Shabaab Fires Mortars Outside Somalia’s AU Camp

04 November – Source: Xinhua – 478 Words

Al-Shabaab militants fired mortars outside a military camp of the African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM) in El Baraf area of Middle Shabelle region on Sunday, without causing casualty, the AU mission said. The AMISOM said all the three mortar rounds landed outside the camp, which is run by troops from Burundi, in the morning, causing panic among nearby villagers.

“AMISOM troops returned fire and suspects fled. No damage or injury was caused,” it said. Al-Shabaab has claimed responsibility, saying the shelling killed several AU soldiers. AMISOM troops are helping the Somali government battle Al-Shabaab militants, who have carried out frequent attacks in the country.

Somalia’s Al-Shabaab Still Potent Threat, UN Report Warns

04 November – Source: AFP – 478 Words

Somalia’s Al-Qaeda-linked Shabaab group remains capable of launching large-scale attacks despite claims that the insurgency is weakening, a UN report warned Friday. The Islamist group carried out six sophisticated hotel attacks in Mogadishu from November 2015 to June of this year, the report by UN sanctions monitors said.

“Contrary to prevailing narratives of successful counter-insurgency and counter-terrorism efforts, the monitoring group assesses that the security situation has not improved in Somalia,” they said. The Shabaab group “represents the most immediate threat to peace and security in Somalia and continues to be a destabilizing force in the broader East and Horn of Africa region,” they added in the report sent to the Security Council earlier this week.

While the jihadists have not launched a major attack outside Somalia since the 2015 massacre at Kenya’s Garissa University, the group “retains both the capability to carry out another such attack and a self-proclaimed motive with regard to targeting countries contributing troops to AMISOM,” they said.

The African Union’s AMISOM force in Somalia includes mostly troops from Kenya, Ethiopia, Uganda and Burundi. After a bomb concealed in a laptop exploded on a Daallo airlines flight in February, the monitors warned that the Shabaab were resorting to more sophisticated tactics targeting aircraft.

Al-Shabaab Claims Fatal Car Bomb Attack Near Somali Parliament

05 November – Source: Reuters – 298 Words

Two Somali soldiers died and five others were injured when a car bomb claimed by Islamist group al Shabaab exploded on Saturday near the parliament in the capital Mogadishu, police said. Al-Shabaab has stepped up its campaign of bombings and gun assaults in Mogadishu in recent months ahead of parliamentary elections which are expected to take place within weeks.

Col. Abdiqadir Hussein, a police officer, told Reuters the explosion had occurred near the parliament building, while another police officer, Major Hussein Nur, said the car bomb hit a military vehicle at a junction checkpoint.

“2 soldiers died and 5 others were injured,” Nur said, adding police, military and security forces were on the scene when the attack occurred. Al-Shabaab, which once ruled much of Somalia, wants to topple the Western-backed government in Mogadishu and drive out African AMISOM peacekeepers made up of soldiers from Kenya, Djibouti, Uganda, Ethiopia and other African nations

The group’s radio station Andalus said a suicide car bomb had been driven by “a mujahid” into Sayidka junction “where a convoy of the apostate government security forces were passing.” Sheikh Abdiasis Abu Musab, Al-Shabaab’s military operations spokesman told Reuters the group had killed 17 soldiers and injured more than 30 others in the attack.

Lack Of Ideology Is Somalia’s Problem – Museveni

03 November – Source: New Vision – 1,843 Words

President Yoweri Museveni has said the challenge that is facing Somalia is not the withdrawal of the African Mission for Somalia (AMISOM) troops, but lack of ideology. The President made these observations in a meeting he held with the new French Ambassador to Uganda, Ms. Stephanie Rivoal, who led a visiting French Army delegation that included, among others, Gen. Thierry Duquenoy, Commander of the French Forces in Djibouti. The meeting took place on Thursday at Speke Resort Hotel in Munyonyo during which the French guests expressed concern regarding Ethiopian troops withdrawal from Somalia.
“The problem is lack of ideological ideas that have a followership. The problem of Somalia is the wrong idea of ‘clannism’ and fundamentalism. Nobody has come up to explain and yet an army and other structures come from followership,” he said. President Museveni also called on the European Union to continue funding the AMISOM troops in the Horn of Africa country so that the forces can continue to ensure peace in there.

“If Ethiopia is withdrawing then support the Ugandan troops because we have the leadership and forces,” he said. President Museveni expressed his condolences to the French people over the previous terrorist attacks in France. He, however, cautioned the French against suspecting a whole group of people of wrong doing just because a small group does something wrong.

OPINION, ANALYSIS, AND CULTURE

“The government should lift the ban on imports from Somalia and encourage local traders to formally comply with trade regulations along the Border. Although reliable data is hard to come by, available records show Somalia mainly imports from Djibouti, India, Kenya, Pakistan, China, Egypt, Oman, United Arab Emirates and Yemen. A number of these products find their way into the local markets.”

We Should Formalise Cross Border Trade With Somalia

05 November – Source: The Star – 803 Words

On a hot afternoon, a drive through Wajir town’s CBD is not appealing especially when the cruel tropical sun bakes everything in its way. The newly laid tarmac road has eased movement within the CBD. A number of stalls have sprung up by the roadside. A young man stands next to his movable stall. I rummage through the products on display, an array of assorted items from designer perfumes to beauty products, electrical equipment all neatly laid to attract the attention of passers-by like myself.

Many of the items had labels ‘Made in china’ made in Dubai’ product of Egypt’. I engaged the trader on a raft of issues. Our discussion mainly centered on ease of doing business with Somalia and brought to the fore a number of issues on cross border trade.

Trade between Kenya and Somalia from recent times has been mainly one sided. Kenya shares more than 800km-long border with the war-torn Somalia; this stretches from Kiunga in Lamu to Mandera. The notable formal trade engagement between the two neighbors is the export of the narcotic stimulant leafy plant locally known as ‘Khat or Miraa’. On average an estimated 30 flights ferrying miraa to Somalia depart the Jomo Kenyatta international Airport. The volume of Miraa to Somalia has markedly increased since the UK and other western Markets banned its imports. The surplus has been diverted to Somalia which offers ready markets. There are no reciprocated trade imports from Somalia to Kenya evidenced by the fact that cargo planes that delivered Miraa to Somalia mainly revert back empty.

The Border counties have mainly been considered as a conduit for contraband goods from the Neighboring countries of Somalia and Ethiopia. As noted by the trader I met in Wajir, their products are mainly from China, the Far East and the North African economies of Egypt and Tunisia. The volume of trade along the Border is estimated to be USD 30 million mainly propelled by the absence of government investment in the region since independence. The Border communities have always maintained strong kinship relationship with their relatives across the Border even before independence. Trading between these communities especially in livestock and basic household necessities have always thrived. So how should Cross border trade be formalized?