October 16, 2017 | Morning Headlines
Somalia Blast Toll At 237 As Residents Protest Al-Shabaab
15 October – Source: VOA – 675 Words
The death toll from Saturday’s massive truck bombing in the Somali capital Mogadishu has risen to nearly 240 with more than 300 wounded, making it the deadliest attack in the country’s history. Deputy Speaker of Somalia’s Upper House of Parliament Abshir Mohamed Ahmed tells VOA Somali that the death toll stands at 237.
Mohamed Yusuf, a doctor at Medina hospital, described what happened when the explosion occurred at around 3:20 pm local time on Saturday. “We were preparing to leave work for the day but then huge blast occurred, we were shocked, within five minutes ambulances brought in the wounded,” he said. “We have received many dead people, unlike we have ever seen. The hospital is working, we are lacking intensive care equipment, we get support from ICRC but we are still lacking full capacity.”
Angry protesters took to the streets condemning al-Shabab. The militant group which often claims attacks in Mogadishu has so far stayed silent but the experts and the Somali government strongly believe the group did carry out the attack. “Whether they claim or not claim makes no difference, we know the act that has happened, it’s Al-Shabaab,” former intelligence officer Abdi Hassan Hussein told VOA. “The information we are getting so far shows this is the work of Al-Shabaab, it has their hallmarks.” Hundreds of residents on Sunday marched to the scene of the attack, condemning the militant group. “Where is my child, fight against the wicked, to hell with them, may god condemn the evil” said one elderly angry women. Other protesters shouted anti Al-Shabaab statements like, “We don’t want blood thirsty elements”.
Key Headlines
- Somalia Blast Toll At 237 As Residents Protest Al-Shabaab (VOA)
- President Announces National 3-Days Mourning After Deadly Blast (Shabelle News)
- Families Throng Scene Of Attack And City Hospitals In Search Of Loved Ones Following Terror Attack In Mogadishu (Goobjoog News)
- Wounded Somalis To Be Treated In Turkey: Erdogan Aide (Anadolu Agency)
- Secretary-General Condemns Saturday’s Attacks In Mogadishu; Commends Responders (UN News Centre)
- World Leaders Condemn ‘Revolting’ Mogadishu Attack (Aljazeera)
- World Bank And IMF Put Your Money Where Your Mouth Is On Somalia (The Guardian)
NATIONAL MEDIA
President Announces National 3-Days Mourning After Deadly Blast
15 October – Source: Shabelle News – 105 Words
Somali President Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed has declared three days of mourning, following a deadly explosion in Mogadishu on Saturday. President Mohamed ordered the national flag to be flown at half-mast in honor of those killed after a truck bomb exploded at a busy junction. The kilometer five junction is in Hodan District, one of the busiest commercial parts of the city.
The number of casualties has not yet been established. President Mohamed visited the scene at Zoobe then went to various medical facilities to check on the injured. There was no immediate claim of responsibility, but Al-Shabaab terrorists carry out frequent bombings in the country.
Families Throng Scene Of Attack And City Hospitals In Search Of Loved Ones Following Terror Attack In Mogadishu
15 October – Source: Goobjoog News – 207 Words
Hundreds of families are gathering at the scene of Saturday’s deadly terror attack in Mogadishu to identify bodies of loved ones who perished as rescue teams move the rubble to recover bodies. Several people are reporting missing members of their families and friends as others move from one hospital to another in search of their kin. Goobjoog News reporter who met with some of these families said they believe their loved ones were present at Zobe area when the deadly explosion took place.
Some of the dead people are said to be beyond recognition and very difficult to be recognized by their families and there is no proper data for DNA test/confirmation in the country. Several unclaimed bodies lie city mortuaries across the city while some are still lying on the location of the attack waiting to be transported by ambulance services.
Among the dead include three brothers who were traders caught in the explosion while inside their shop. Maryam, a medical student who had just completed her medicine degree perished. Emergency teams, police and residents say a bombing of such magnitude had never been experienced in the city. President Mohamed Farmaajo led the country last night in donating blood as he declared three days of mourning.
INTERNATIONAL MEDIA
Wounded Somalis To Be Treated In Turkey: Erdogan Aide
15 October – Source: Anadolu Agency – 106 Words
The injured from Saturday’s truck bombing in Somalia will be brought to Turkey for medical treatment, the Turkish presidential spokesman said Sunday. In a message on his Twitter account, Ibrahim Kalin said: “A military air ambulance is departing today to provide medical aid and bring wounded people [from Somalia] to Turkey upon the orders of our President [Recep Tayyip Erdogan].”
More than 80 people have been killed and 100 injured in a truck bombing in Somali capital Mogadishu on Saturday. Turkey condemned the attack late on Saturday. No group has yet claimed responsibly for the attack, but insurgent group al-Shabaab had claimed recent attacks in Somalia.
Secretary-General Condemns Saturday’s Attacks In Mogadishu; Commends Responders
15 October – Source: UN News Centre – 272 Words
United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres today commended the first responders and residents of the Somali capital, Mogadishu, for mobilizing to aid in what is being called Somalia’s worst-ever bomb attack. In a statement from his spokesperson, the Secretary-General urged all Somalis “to unite in the fight against terrorism and violent extremism and work together in building a functional and inclusive federal state.” Strongly condemning the attacks, he conveyed his condolences to the bereaved families, as well as his wishes for a speedy recovery to those injured.
According to media reports, at least 200 people were killed and an even greater number of people were injured. The Secretary-General’s Special Representative in Somalia, Michael Keating today said that the UN and the African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM) were working closely to support the response by the Federal Government of Somalia and local government authorities, including the provision of logistical support, medical supplies and expertise in the aftermath of the bombings. “It is a revolting attack both in terms of its intent and impact,” the Special Representative said.
The Special Representative said that the immediate priority is to support efforts led by the authorities to recover from the attack and help all those affected, especially the injured and newly homeless. “The international community will do everything possible to help the people and government of Somalia to overcome this tragedy,” he said. According to media reports, a massive car bomb detonated outside the entrance to a hotel in the city’s K5 junction, which is home to government offices, hotels and restaurants. Later in the day, a second bombing was reported in the city’s Madina district.
World Leaders Condemn ‘Revolting’ Mogadishu Attack
15 October – Source: Aljazeera – 508 Words
Leaders from around the world on Sunday strongly condemned a powerful bomb blast that killed more than 200 people and wounded hundreds of others in Somalia’s capital, Mogadishu. The powerful explosion on Saturdayafternoon struck a busy junction in Hodan, a bustling commercial district in the heart of the city that is home to many many shops, hotels and other businesses. Hundreds of people had been in the area at the time of the blast.
Somali President Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed Farmaajo on Sunday declared three days of national mourning and called for donations of blood and funds to victims, as doctors at Mogadishu hospitals struggled to assist badly-wounded victims, many burned beyond recognition. There has been no immediate claim of responsibility. Al-Shabab, an armed group that has carried out dozens of attacks in Mogadishu and other parts of the country, has yet to comment.
‘Senseless and coward act’ The devastating bombing, described as the deadliest single attack in Somalia’s history, was universally condemned. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s spokesman Ibrahim Kalin said Ankara was sending planes “with medical supplies” to Somalia. “We strongly condemn the Mogadishu terrorist attack,” Kalin said in a message posted on Twitter, adding that the wounded would be flown to Turkey and treated there. He did not specify numbers.
OPINION, ANALYSIS AND CULTURE
“By fast-tracking Somalia through the debt relief process, the two institutions would provide the country’s government with extra resources that would help it improve the resilience of the economy and so make it more likely that the reform process will continue. There are officials in Washington, at the World Bank at least, who understand this. Somalia is on the radar of the bank’s chief executive, Kristalina Georgieva, who wants to step up support for fragile states.”
World Bank And IMF, Put Your Money Where Your Mouth Is On Somalia
15 October – Source: The Guardian – 1137 Words
It is fair to say that Somalia was not top of the agenda at this year’s annual meetings of the International Monetary Fund and World Bank. Finance ministers and central bank governors were too busy chewing the fat over the state of the global economy and the threat posed by cybercrime to pay much attention to a poor country with a population of 14 million people in the Horn of Africa. Or, indeed, pay it any attention at all.
Yet the decisions the IMF and World Bank make – or don’t make – about Somalia matter. They obviously matter to the 400,000 Somali children with acute malnutrition and 3 million people living in crisis or emergency food security conditions. They also matter in a wider sense, because both institutions are keen to demonstrate that they are now truly progressive and dedicated to the elimination of poverty and tackling inequality. Somalia is a good test of whether the grand plans and the lofty rhetoric actually amount to anything, because this is a country that needs help – and it needs it now. Here’s the position.
Somalia narrowly averted a famine earlier this year thanks to an impressive humanitarian effort. The World Bank was part of the effort, because it managed to persuade its board to provide $50m (£37m) from the crisis response window of the International Development Association (IDA), the part of the bank that provides grants and soft loans to the world’s poorest countries.
But the drought and near-famine have left Somalia’s already weak economy in a parlous state. Farmers’ goat herds have been wiped out, hunger is widespread and children are not going to school. The humanitarian effort has created the rudimentary infrastructure for a health system, but this will collapse unless the country is provided with some long-term, reliable funding. The World Bank has pledged to make a priority of helping fragile and conflict states, of which Somalia – the country where the battle between US forces and local militia spawned the film Black Hawk Down – is a classic example. When the bank was rattling the tin for a big increase in donor funding for the IDA, one reason it said it needed $75bn to spend over three years was so it could help countries like Somalia. There is, however, a problem.
Somalia is not eligible for IDA funds because it owes the bank and the IMF just over $300m – part of a $5bn debt mountain owed to multilateral and bilateral creditors. These debts were incurred in the 1980s when most of Somalia’s current population – 70% of which is under 30 – was not even born. Creditors long ago realised they would never get their money back and 90% of the debt has been written off.
So the obvious way forward would be for Somalia to get debt relief under the heavily indebted poor country initiative (HIPC) established by the IMF and World Bank in 1996. HIPC was designed to free poor countries from unpayable debts, but there were a few countries in which conflict, civil war or ungovernability meant they never qualified. Somalia was one of them. At an international conference hosted by Theresa May earlier this year, Somalia’s president, Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed, made a point of saying that debt relief and normal relations with the bank and the fund were a priority for his government.