November 9, 2012 | Daily Monitoring Report.
Militants surrender to government troops in Luq
09 Nov- Source: Radio Bar-kulan- 126 words
Two alleged al Shabaab fighters have surrendered to government forces in southwest town of Luq near the border with Kenya and Ethiopia.
Speaking to Bar-kulan, area security boss Diyad Ali Kalil said the two defected with the guns and have been in contact with the area administration in preparation of their defection.
He said they welcome defectors from the militants group who denounced violence and vowed to protect them as they pursue their normal life within the society.
He said they have been contacted by other militant fighters who are willing to leave the militant group and further promised to receive them diligently. Kalil however stated his administration’s readiness to rehabilitate defected militants and help them acquire the necessary skills to eke a living.
Key Headlines
- Militants surrender to government troops in Luq (Bar-kulan)
- People of Jubbaland have right to form own administration: Kenyan Deputy Speaker (Puntlandi Online/ Ogaal Radio)
- Somali prime minister takes part in rally to show support for his cabinet (Jowhar Online/Radio Risaala/Radio Mustaqbal)
- Puntland police chief rejects media reports on arrest of politicians (Garowe Online)
- 3000 ex-peacekeepers not paid (Daily Monitor)
- New transmitter allows Radio Hargeisa to be heard worldwide (Sabahi Online)
- AfDB mulls funding inter-state highway linking Kenya and Somalia (china.org/ Xinhua)
SOMALI MEDIA
Militants surrender to government troops in Luq
09 Nov- Source: Radio Bar-kulan- 126 words
Two alleged al Shabaab fighters have surrendered to government forces in southwest town of Luq near the border with Kenya and Ethiopia.
Speaking to Bar-kulan, area security boss Diyad Ali Kalil said the two defected with the guns and have been in contact with the area administration in preparation of their defection.
He said they welcome defectors from the militants group who denounced violence and vowed to protect them as they pursue their normal life within the society.
He said they have been contacted by other militant fighters who are willing to leave the militant group and further promised to receive them diligently. Kalil however stated his administration’s readiness to rehabilitate defected militants and help them acquire the necessary skills to eke a living.
People of Jubaland have right to form own administration: Kenyan Deputy Speaker
09 Nov- Source: Puntlandi Online/ Ogaal Radio- 194 words
Deputy speaker of national assembly and member of parliament of the republic of Kenya, Farah Maalim has stated that the sole responsibility of forming administration for Jubbaland, particularly Kismayo lies with the people from the region.
In an interview with Canadian-Based Radio Ogaal, Maalim noted that, if Puntland, Galmudug, and Hiiraan made their own administration why not for Jubbaland.
He said “Somali government and the president Hassan Sheikh Mohamud should respect and read the constitution of Somalia instead of interfering with the local initiative to form the administration.
“Constitution reads that government of Somalia is based on Federalism, and every region must get its own administration made by its own people,” he said.
He said Constitution is cardinal principle, it must be obeyed, and Somali People have equal rights when it comes to making their own decisions.
Puntland police chief rejects media reports on arrest of politicians
08 Nov- Source: Garowe Online- 158 words
The police chief in Somalia’s Puntland state has denied media reports of Puntland security forces searching for politicians to arrest, Garowe Online reports.
Puntland Police Commissioner Gen. Mohamed Said Jaqanaf stated that Somali media reports on allegations of police searching for politicians to arrest in Puntland are false.
Some Somali media have broadcasted reports that Puntland security forces are searching for politicians.
Somali prime minister takes part in rally to show support for his cabinet
08 Nov- Source: Jowhar Online/Radio Risaala/Radio Mustaqbal/Shabelle- words
Somalia’s Prime Minister Abdi Farah Shirdon took part in a rally in Mogadishu as hundreds of the capital’s residents carried placards to show support for the country’s newly-nominated 10-member cabinet.
Residents from the capital’s 16 administrative districts gathered at the Conis Stadium. “It is the first rally of its kind to hit” Mogadishu lately, the website said.
The prime minister told supporters “he was encouraged by the feeling of the people”. He said his government “would lift Somalia from where it is now and promised to deal with the challenges ahead”.
The mayor of Mogadishu, Mahmud Ahmad Nur “Tarsan”, also took part in rally, which was called for by the Speaker of parliament. He described the new cabinet as “lean and effective”.
Prime Minister Shirdon named Fowsiyo Yusuf Haji Adan, who hails from the break-away region of Somaliland, as the country’s first female foreign affairs minister.
REGIONAL MEDIA
3,000 ex-peacekeepers not paid
09 Nov- Source: Daily Monitor- 304 words
More than 3,000 soldiers who completed their tour of duty with the African Union’s peace support mission in Somalia in late August, are yet to be paid their salaries amounting to Shs 12.4 billion.
Speaking on condition of anonymity for fear of victimisation, some of the soldiers now camped at Singo army training facility, told the Daily Monitor that each of them had not received an outstanding $1,656 (about Shs4.1m). The pay is for the work done in July and August.
“Our money has not been given to us. Our colleagues have refused to come back from leave because their money is not in their accounts. We did some good work in Mogadishu for a full year but these people do not want to pay us,” a soldier, at the rank of corporal, told this newspaper.
Acting UPDF Spokesperson Ronald Kakurungu yesterday said the situation was beyond the government’s control.
DPP links suspects to terrorist group
08 Nov- Source: Daily Nation- 304 words
Three men on trial over terrorism have strong links to al Shabaab militants who are fighting the Kenya Defence Forces (KDF) in Somalia, a magistrate was told on Thursday.
The State therefore urged senior principal magistrate Lucy Mbugua to turn down a plea to reduce the bond for Mr Abdallah Kioko Ahmed, Mr Tuwa Djibril Ibrahim and Mr Lenox David Swaleh from the Sh2 million granted last month.
“I urge this court to take judicial notice of the war between KDF soldiers and al Shabaab insurgents who have a strong base in Somalia and beyond,” Chief Inspector Nzau Musangi, the prosecutor, submitted.
“These suspects are linked to the wide network of the terror group,” he added.
New transmitter allows Radio Hargeisa to be heard worldwide
08 Nov- Source: Sabahi Online- 482 words
Radio Hargeisa can now be heard across Somalia and beyond after the station acquired a shortwave radio transmitter with a 100-kilowatt capacity.
The government-owned radio station, which was established in 1944, was the first radio station in Somalia. It was badly damaged in the late 1980s but was rebuilt in 1992 after the collapse of the Somali central government.
For the past 20 years, the radio station has operated on an FM frequency with a broadcasting capacity limited to Hargeisa. But now that has changed.
“The new radio transmitter, which has a capacity of 100 kilowatts, was officially opened on October 18th, and that has for the first time enabled Radio Hargeisa to be heard all over the world,” station director Said Aden Egeh told Sabahi.
The older transmitter had a radius of only 40 kilometres, whereas the new antenna can reach audiences worldwide if the right frequency is used, he said.
INTERNATIONAL MEDIA
AfDB mulls funding inter-state highway linking Kenya and Somalia
08 Nov- Source: china.org/ Xinhua- 431 words
The African Development Bank (AfDB) is looking at the possibility of funding an inter-sate highway that would link Kenya and its northeastern neighbor Somalia.
A statement issued after a meeting between Kenyan President Mwai Kibaki and visiting AfDB Group Dr. Donald Kaberuka in Nairobi said the duo discussed the possibility of the Bank funding an inter-state highway connecting Kenya to Somalia to accelerate post war reconstruction.
“President Kibaki thanked AfDB for its role in regional integration and continued financial support to the country’s development Agenda,” said the statement, noting that Kibaki also lauded the regional bank for supporting the country’s development agenda.
During the talks, President Kibaki and Kaberuka reviewed the progress of the ongoing national and regional infrastructural projects funded by the Bank.
Somalia’s long road of institution building
08 Nov- Source: Africa Report- 1362 words
A new transitional government is replacing the Transitional Federal Government, but opponents claim that the same actors have monopolised the process and continue to prevent the establishment of effective institutions.
Against the bold predictions of a new dawn in Somalia, the masked men on the Maka al Mukarama Road in downtown Mogadishu offer a sharp reminder of the daily uncertainties.
Dressed in combat fatigues and wielding AK-47s, their faces are hidden beneath the sand-coloured balaclavas worn by al Shabaab fighters. They move unchallenged from car to car, waving some through and detaining others. They are in full control of the mid-morning traffic.
A year ago, the masked men could have been al Shabaab ‘tax collectors.’ In fact, they are National Security Agency recruits. Part of the security system meant to protect the capital from suicide bombers and assassins, they are really traffic marshals, and the balaclavas are for their own protection. Not being identified helps to protect them and their families from the attacks against anyone volunteering for the government.
SOCIAL MEDIA
CULTURE / OPINION / EDITORIAL / ANALYSIS / BLOGS/ DISCUSSION BOARDS
“Nobody in the anti-piracy effort believes that a return to the epidemic levels of the past is likely, but some worry that complacency could allow the pirates to make a limited comeback. The shipping industry is in recession and under huge cost pressure. Defence budgets are under strain, too: the political will to support constant naval patrolling in the Indian Ocean may weaken. As Admiral Rix notes: “The pirates’ business model is still attractive. It would be naive to think that the current low level of activity suggests that they have found something else to do.”
Somali Piracy-Hung, drawn and quartered
09 Nov- Source: Economist-787 Words
IT IS too early to declare victory against Somali piracy, which cost the shipping industry and governments as much as $7 billion last year. But the fall in the number of successful hijackings since the peak of 2009-11 has been dramatic. The International Maritime Bureau, a body that fights shipping crime, counted 219 cases of pirates trying to board a vessel in 2010 and 236 in 2011. This year’s total is just 71, against 199 for the same period last year. Successful seizures are down from 49 in 2010 to 28 in 2011 and only 13 this year.
Pirate activity normally wanes between the end of May and late September, when the south-west monsoon is lashing the Arabian Sea and this year’s storms were particularly severe. The light skiffs (launched from bigger “mother ships”) that the pirates use to close on their prey can only operate in benign sea conditions.
But the pirate lairs along the Somali coast show little sign of preparing for a new hunting season. Associated Press reporters who reached one of them, Hobyo, found that the pirates’ flashy cars, booze and prostitutes had disappeared and the cash for new raids had dried up. Some think the pirate “kingpins” may just be stocktaking before reinvesting. But the “stock” of hijacked vessels and hostages has shrunk from 33 ships and 758 hostages in early 2011 to just nine ships and 154 hostages now.
“The charcoal task force was put on a plane straight back to Mogadishu, well short of the three days they had planned to spend in the town. And the journalists are still stuck. There is no plane to take us out, and Madobe won’t let us go in. We are so close, and yet so far…”
So close, yet so far in Kismayo
08 Nov- Source: Aljazeera Blog-642 Words
Sometimes as a reporter, you can feel out on a limb, isolated both physically and in the way you understand a story. And so it is here in Kismayo – the hot, dry port city in southern Somalia, where the afternoon breezes whip up gritty red dust that gets into your teeth. We’re told that Kismayo is a beautiful city. I’ll have to take their word for it, because it looks as though we are not going to see it. Kismayo has been an elusive story, ever since the Kenyan military successfully pushed al Shabaab out, just over a month ago. The town is the heart of the south – the economic hub that connects southern Somalia with neighbours Kenya and Ethiopia. It has a devilishly complex mix of clans with a history of conflict.
“From Hargeisa to Kismayo, alien and strange sounding names such as Abu Zubayr, Zumaya and Bint Khuwayja have replaced the popular and fashionable Somali names like Robleh, Raageh and Rhoda. The huge surplus of mosques that are being built across the country at the expense of hospitals and schools can’t be questioned either. And if you dared ask such questions (a relative is nowadays the safest option when asking) the answer you will get is simple: ‘We have become better Muslims; we were ignorant about our religion’.”
SOMALIA: NOW AND THEN
08 Nov- Source: Pampazuka News-2933 Words
If you believe that Somalia’s problems can be pinpointed to particular phenomena such as sea pirates or the terrorist group, al Shabaab, you are being mistaken. Even the Somali clan politics, the warlords, the so-called spoilers of peace, the secessionists in the north and even the downright anarchists are neither the source nor the propellers of the Somalia conflict. These groups simply act as power brokers or supervisors for the uncontrollable events in the Horn of Africa country.
When the Somali state collapsed in 1991, the government’s social management institution – for cultural and religious guidance – which controlled what is permissible in the country and what is not – went with it. And with the lack of border controls following immediately the collapse of the Somali state, numerous foreign Islamic ideologies were imported into the country. The biggest and most effective of all, the Saudi Arabia’s Wahabi Islam (recently upgraded to Salafism) – which was not traditionally practiced by the African societies – found a fertile ground in the vacuum that followed the overthrow of Siyad Barre’s military government.
Top tweets
@ICRC We just got these photos from Hudur, #Somalia where our staff have provided 2,000 children with feeding support: http://flic.kr/s/aHsjCL6h4r
@africathinker The sun rises over ships anchored off of #Mogadishu. #Somalia @amisomsomalia pic.twitter.com/eX1TApWy
@UNOCHA As #Somalia seeks to leave conflict behind, #humanitarian challenges remain in different areas. Story from @IRINNews: http://buzz.mw/-eqq_y
@ActForSomalia Today more than ever, the desire to reunify the #Somali people is on the rise and optimism is gaining momentum both in the north and south.
@Agayare The #Somali national football team nicknamed “#TheOceanStars” will tomorrow travel to #Kenya on their way to #Uganda to participate #CECAFA.
Image of the day
Somali Prime Minister Abdi Farah Shirdon (centre) waves to supporters at a rally in Mogadishu, November 8, 2012. Photo: Jowhar