October 2, 2015 | Daily Monitoring Report
Somali Prime Minister Meets UN Secretary General
02 October – Source: Goobjoog News – 302 Words
The Prime Minister of the Federal Republic of Somalia, Omar Abdirashid Sharmarke who is attending the United Nations General Assembly in New York today visited the UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon in his office. The Prime Minister and the Secretary General discussed issues relating to the progress Somalia has made. Prime Minister Sharmarke detailed his government’s advance on the establishment of Interim Regional Administrations, and the progress so far on establishing the remaining regional administration of Hiran and Middle Shabelle. He also informed on the outcome of the recent successful Consultative Meeting held in Mogadishu on 19-21 September.
The Prime Minister stressed his government is resolute in respecting the constitutional mandate of the government branches, the legislature and the executive. Hence the launch of the National Consultative Forum (NCF) which is geared in producing an electoral process opposed to the anticipated ‘one man one vote’ which is circumstantially is inconceivable during the end of the tenure. Prime Minister Sharmarke assured the Secretary General that the NCF will be transparent and all inclusive process. It will consult with the civil society and include the stakeholders in the decision making.
On the other hand the Prime Minister also informed the Secretary General the progress his government has made in establishing the Constitutional Commission Bodies and that they are also working on establishing the remaining in due course. Both leaders also jointly agreed on the need to enhance the support for the UN mandated AMISOM troops and the Somali National Army who are making substantial gain. The Prime Minister of the Federal Republic of Somalia H.E. Omar Sharmarke and the UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon have both endorsed the outcome of High Level UN Security Council meeting which was co chaired by the President of Federal Republic Somalia, H.E. Hassan Sheikh Mohamud.
Key Headlines
- Somali Prime Minister Meets UN Secretary General (Goobjoog News)
- After Militants Blockade First Civilian Plane Lands In Buloburte Town (Hiiraan Online)
- Al-Shabaab Detains 5 Of Its Foreign Members For Alleged Links With ISIS (Wacaal Media)
- Puntland President Names Former Lawmaker As New Governor (Garowe Online)
- Somali Ratification Leaves Only US Outside Child-Rights Treaty (News24)
- At UN Somalia Proposes ‘Grand Development Plan’ To Rebuild Country’s Social Physical Infrastructure(UN News Centre)
- AU Special Representative Challenges Somali Youth In Minnesota To Play A Role In Rebuilding Somalia (AMISOM)
- Long-Neglected Somalia Comes In From the Cold (Washington Diplomat)
- Safari Brings Somali Cuisine To Harlem (The New York Times)
NATIONAL MEDIA
After Militants Blockade, First Civilian Plane Lands In Buloburte Town
02 October – Source: Hiiraan Online – 297 Words
The first civilian airliner carrying dozens of passengers has landed in the Somali town of Buloburte on Thursday two days after African Union officials declared that allied troops have taken out militants’ blockade on the town by pushing their fighters from areas around the town, ending months of besiege that denied the settlement of humanitarian aid and access.The small passenger plane has landed at the town’s dusty airstrip as hundreds of residents queued to witness the first flight they have seen in years, a sign that life is returning to normalcy in the town.
The airport officially named as Hiil Walal Internationa Airport to honor Djibouti troops serving under AMISOM which are based in Hiiraan. As the cabin crew swung the door open, smiling passengers who fled the town during militants’ reign have gotten out of the plane, embracing awaiting relatives and friends.The flight from Mogadishu is paving the way for more flights to Buloburte which has been under militants control for years before the allied AU and Somali troops ousted them last year. Al-Shabaab fighters have since launched attacks against troops in the town which is recovering from the restrictive blockade by extremist fighters. Despite losing several villages and towns in the region, Al-Shabaab fighters maintain a tight grip on the rural areas from where the group orchestrates attacks in the region.
Al-Shabaab Detains 5 Of Its Foreign Members For Alleged Links With ISIS
02 October – Source: Wacaal Media – 78 Words
Al-Shabaab’s amniyaat wing has reportedly kidnapped five foreign members of the terror group after raiding their homes in Jilib. It was not clear why the five were arrested by the militants in their stronghold town of Middle Jubba. Sources however say the five are facing allegations of encouraging their colleagues to join ISIS, a move recently declined by Al-Shabaab. This comes after the militants warned its members against any such moves while distancing itself against the ISIS group.
Puntland President Names Former Lawmaker As New Governor
02 October – Source: Garowe Online – 74 Words
The President of Somalia’s Puntland Government, Abdiweli Mohamed Ali has named former Puntland Member of Parliament as new Karkaar Governor on Thursday, Garowe Online reports. Ali nominated Abdulkadir Saed Arshe (Dhaqaje), replacing Abdiqafar Mohamed Adan in the latest of a series of administrative shakeups across Puntland. Presidential spokesman, Abdullahi Mohamed Jama has confirmed the decree to Garowe Online. The appointment marks the sixth by Puntland President in just over a year and a half.
INTERNATIONAL MEDIA
Somali Ratification Leaves Only US Outside Child-Rights Treaty
02 October – Source: News24 – 193 Words
Somalia ratified a UN convention ensuring the rights of children, on Thursday becoming the 196th party to the world’s most widely ratified treaty – leaving the United States as the only member of the United Nations yet to join. Adopted by the UN General Assembly on November 20, 1989, the Convention on the Rights of the Child is the most comprehensive human rights treaty on the promotion and protection of children’s rights. The document – the most widely ratified treaty in history – has led to legislative changes to protect children’s rights around the globe. Somalia, which signed the treaty in May 2002, had been one of two outstanding countries to accede to the convention before the country deposited its instrument of ratification on Thursday on the sidelines of the General Assembly.
The US is now the only UN member state that has not joined the treaty despite having signed the convention in February 1995.The treaty aims to protect anyone under age 18 from violence and ensure adequate education, health care and nutrition. It grants youngsters freedoms on issues including religion, thought and speech while guaranteeing safe spaces to play and engage in cultural activities.
At UN, Somalia Proposes ‘Grand Development Plan’ To Rebuild Country’s Social, Physical Infrastructure
01 October – Source: United Nations New Centre – 420 Words
Applauding the international community’s role in helping Somalia emerge from a difficult past, Prime Minister Omar Abdirashid Ali Sharmarke told the United Nations General Assembly today that a new Somalia is taking shape and proposed the “grand development plan” that would help Somali’s keep building a better future.“I want to tell you about Somalia,” he said. “But a different Somalia from the one you might have heard of. I am not here to challenge you on our notoriety as a result of a conflict that has spanned two and half decades. However, please allow me to introduce another reality. My people are ambitious,” he continued. “We are survivors and, given the chance, we can drive forward the socioeconomic landscape of East Africa,” he said, noting the country’s untapped oil and gas reserves.
Mr. Sharmarke said that his government wanted to “ensure a free and fair election,” despite the presence of “an active insurgency, which we are risking our lives to dismantle.” He also raised the issue of Somali refugees and undocumented migrants living in temporary camps, and urged the General Assembly to help his Government find a solution. Mr. Sharmarke then turned his attention to the lack of adequate infrastructure in Somalia, saying “the public services that many people around the world take for granted, Somalia lacks completely, or has in very short supply.”
He announced a new “Grand Development Plan” for the country to rebuild roads, schools, hospitals, community centres, ports, airports and markets, a plan that he said was aligned with the new UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The Plan, which would be shared with the wider international community in due course, would, among others, ensure accountability and transparency for every investment made. “Each UN Member State will have the opportunity to [help transform] Somalia into an economic powerhouse and future trading partner,” he declared.
AU Special Representative Challenges Somali Youth In Minnesota To Play A Role In Rebuilding Somalia
02 October – Source: AMISOM – 255 Words
The Special Representative of the Chairperson of the African Union Commission (SRCC) for Somalia Ambassador Maman Sidikou has asked Somali youth to share innovative ideas that will help rebuild their country. Ambassador Sidikou was addressing a delegation of youth leaders and students in Minneapolis, U.S.A, at a meeting he had with them on Wednesday, September 30, 2015. “I am a strong believer in the participation of youth. Every aspect of our society, more so in Somalia needs new innovative ideas, to get out of the road travelled so far, of division, of lack of inclusivity, that is hurting the country so much,” he told a gathering of 33 youths, led by Abdirahman Mukhtar, of the Hennepin Country Public Libraries.
He encouraged the youth to take interest in the affairs of Somalia, particularly in the welfare of other youth who are experiencing challenges back home. “Your participation will certainly help us to reach out to the youth in Somalia to fight radical ideologies,” he added. Ambassador Sidikou who is in Minnesota to meet with different groups of Somalis living in the diaspora, reaffirmed AMISOM’s commitment to ensuring a peaceful, stable and secure Somalia. He briefed the youth on the military operation by Somali National Army and AMISOM, currently ongoing in the Gedo region. “We have embarked on an operation we can’t stop anymore. For that we need resources. When we stopped before, Al Shabaab emboldened. We are getting air assets, special mobile forces and enhanced intelligence to help us in this war,” he said.
OPINION, ANALYSIS, AND CULTURE
“Awad’s priorities as ambassador, he said, are “to cement our relationship with the United States, to raise the profile of Somalia and to improve the image of our country.”That’s a tall order, especially when all most Americans know about Somalia is the unflattering way it was depicted in two highly popular movies based on true events,”
Long-Neglected Somalia Comes In From the Cold
30 September – Source: Washington Diplomat – 2522 Words
Somalia doesn’t have much of an embassy here. But after 24 years in the dark, it does have an ambassador at last: Ahmed Isse Awad. A soft-spoken yet passionate man, Awad nearly became prime minister of his war-ravaged East African nation. But as fate would have it, he instead ended up as Somalia’s envoy to the United States, a post that had largely remained vacant since 1991 — the year its fragile government collapsed amid tribal chaos and the very word Somalia became a watchword for “failed state.”
The Washington Diplomat caught up with Awad on Sept. 10, one week before he presented his credentials in a White House ceremony that made his presence here official. (The country’s current prime minister, Omar Abdirashid Ali Sharmarke, briefly served as ambassador to the U.S. this past summer before returning to Somalia. Somalia’s modest little mission — a third-floor suite in an office building along DeSales Street, NW, around the corner from the Mayflower Hotel — was still awaiting furniture, so we interviewed Awad sitting on packing crates.
“Safari’s owner, hostess and sometime waitress, Maymuuna Birjeeb, who goes by Mona, was born in the southern port city Kismayo and grew up in Sweden. She left a career in banking to open Safari, and recruited a cousin, Jamal Hashi, a chef in Minneapolis and native of Mogadishu, to draft the menu. She can’t explain their precise genealogical connection. All Somalis are related somehow, she said.”
Safari Brings Somali Cuisine To Harlem
01 October – Source: The New York Times – 695 Words
On the menu, it is called the Federation Combo: to one side, basmati rice in sunrise shades of orange and gold, with dark tears of stewed raisins on top; to the other, linguine as creamy as Alfredo. In Somalia, the noodles and grains would be more than neighbors, mixed happily together. But at Safari, which opened in Harlem in May, they are kept distinct, as a gentle introduction for diners unaccustomed to Somali cuisine. Safari (which may be the only Somali restaurant in New York City) stands on a stretch of 116th Street known as Le Petit Sénégal. The surrounding neighborhood, with its undertow of French, is home to Manhattan’s greatest concentration of immigrants from West Africa. But Somalia is on the opposite coast, and the food here bears little resemblance to the viscous West African stews found elsewhere on the strip.
There are influences from across the Arabian Sea, as with sambusas, triangles of dough sealed around cumin-laced ground beef or chicken, distant kin to Indian samosas. The accompanying bisbaas sauce has a soothing base of yogurt and cilantro with a faint trigger of lime and a groundswell of jalapeños. On one visit, it was merely lively; on another, it felt as if it had torn the roof of my mouth off. (I liked that better.) Bisbaas is a faithful escort for almost every dish, primarily intended to anoint rice, said Shakib Farah, the chef. The meats themselves don’t need further enhancement: a fine rubble of beef fragrant with rosemary and heavily underscored by mitmita, a spice blend in which African bird’s-eye chiles outmuscle cardamom and cloves; flank steak cut thin, fried hard and wholly possessed by ginger and garlic; goat roasted for six hours, arriving in a heap, still armed with bones, along with a refusal to capitulate immediately under the teeth.
TOP TWEETS
@horseed : At UN, #Somalia proposes ‘grand development plan’ to rebuild country’s social, physical…http://horseedmedia.net/2015/
@vdignan : Pirates? What pirates? The soft and beautiful side of #Somalia – http://africafreak.com/blog/
@SharmakeF : I found terribly hard 2 get sense in PM’s rhetoric @UNGA70. Is #Somalia a conducive environment 4 invest other than 1 based on Mercantilism
@deeqtaako: Musician Umu-Shariif died in Banadir hospital in#Mogadishu, #Somalia’s capital after illness,co-worker confirms #RIP
@katcophony: Fantastic news for #Somalia‘s children- ratification of the Convention on Rights of Child complete!http://www.news24.com/Africa/
@Eye_on_Somalia: #goobjoog AU Special Representative For Somalia Meets With Members of The Somali-American Police Asso… http://bit.ly/1MMHTFw #somalia
@huseyneyy: Just read from somewhere that #Kenya is unsafe than #Somalia
IMAGE OF THE DAY
SRCC Ambassador Maman Sidikou met with imams from 10 mosques in Minnesota, U.S.A. The SRCC is in Minnesota to meet with Somalis living in the diaspora. Among the mosques represented were Abu-Bakar Islamic Center and Minnesota Da’wa Institute, which are the largest mosques in Minnesota.
Photo: AMISOM