October 21, 2015 | Morning Headlines
Consultative Forum Concludes As Nationwide Consultations On Poll Options Set To Start
20 October – Source: Goobjoog News – 223 Words
The National Consultative Forum concluded in Mogadishu with a call for enhanced participation and consultation on the most appropriate and acceptable electoral formula ahead of the 2016 polls.In a communiqué this evening, the participants agreed that the Task Force and the Technical Support team, both of which provide support to the Forum, will facilitate nationwide consultations involving a cross section of the Somali society locally and in the Diaspora.
This follows a proposal that the National Consultative Forum will seek views on four possible options of electing Members of Parliament before agreeing on one formula aimed at ‘enhanced legitimacy’.The participants, drawn from the Federal government, regional states, civil society and the international community, called on all Somalis and stakeholders to seize the opportunity and actively engage in the consultations.
The Forum will convene again in December to review the conclusion of the public consultations and agree on one decision that is appropriate for the 2016 polls. Even as the four options seem to have gained traction as the most likely options, some Members of Parliament unsuccessfully negotiated for the inclusion of the fifth option which calls for the extension of the term of the current administration.But the President reiterated that his government did not have any intentions of extending its term beyond the stimulated one of four years, which lapses in August 2016. The UN Security Council has severally warned against any proposals for extension.
Key Headlines
- Consultative Forum Concludes As Nationwide Consultations On Poll Options Set To Start (Goobjoog News )
- East African Nations Prepare Standby Force (Hiiraan)
- Somali Government Forces Recapture Wabho Locality (Goobjoog News)
- Ethiopian Female Soldiers Invite Baidoa Women Groups For Information Sharing Meeting (Goobjoog News)
- Tribal Fighting Leaves Two Dead In Afgoye Town ( Shabelle News)
- White Widow Samantha Lewthwaite ‘Was With Brit jihadist When He Beheaded 50 Villagers’ (Daily Mirror)
- Toronto’s Ahmed Hussen 1st Somali-Canadian Elected To Parliament (CBC News)
- The Rise Of Famine In Somalia (OpEDdNews)
NATIONAL MEDIA
East African Nations Prepare Standby Force
20 October – Source: Hiiraan Online – 252 Words
The defence chiefs from ten East African nations gathered in Djibouti this week to work on a plan aimed at building their countries’ own peacekeeping forces, with the aim of responding to emergency situations in East African countries. The plot comes in the wake of growing insurgency mainly by the Somalia-based Al-Qaeda linked Al-Shabaab group, which has carried out numerous deadly attacks targeting the East African countries.
Somalia’s defence minister Abdiqadir Ali Dini, who attended the conference in Djibouti, told reporters that the Standby Force would be able to intervene in a Member State in respect to grave circumstances or at the request of a Member State in order to restore peace and security: “If the building of this force succeeds, I hope they can deal with the emergency security needs for East African countries.” Among the proposed mandates of the force, which would make up a military, police and civilian component, is peace-building, including post-conflict disarmament, demobilization and observation and monitoring missions.
Last year, Somalia’s former Prime Minister Abdiweli Sheikh Ahmed recommitted Somalia to the force (EASF) during an African Union summit in Equatorial Guinea. The horn of Africa nation which is facing a deadly insurgency by Al-Qaeda already hosts a 21000 strong force from the African Union, who are struggling to contain a guerrilla warfare by militants. EASF deployed fourteen officers in a one-year mission from 2012 to 2013, as part of a technical team that supported the African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM) during the establishment
Somali Government Forces Recapture Wabho Locality
20 October – Source: Goobjoog News – 118 Words
Somali government forces have recaptured Wabho locality from Al-Shabaab fighters on Tuesday, according to military officials. SNA soldiers have taken control of the village without resistance after Al-Shabaab fighters left.Col. Ahmed Mohamed told the local media that the area was seized successfully and Al-Shabaab left before the army reached Wabho.
“Our soldiers took control of Wabho locality and areas around it without fighting. Our plan is to annihilate Al-Shabaab from these areas” he said.He added “ we will keep on moving until our soldiers seize control of Adan-Yabaal and Harar-dhere localities” This comes 7 days after Gal-mudug forces captured a town in central Somalia from Al-Shabaab fighters following days of fighting between Al-Shabaab fighters and the forces.
Ethiopian Female Soldiers Invite Baidoa Women Groups For Information Sharing Meeting
20 October: Source: Goobjoog News – 324 Words
The Ethiopian National Defense forces (ENDF) female soldiers, who are part of the African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM), played host to their a group of women from Baidoa for an information and experience sharing session. The meeting aimed at bringing to the fore the role of women in promoting peace, was attended by AMISOM Sector 3 Commander Yemane Gabre Mikael, local administration officials, traditional elders, religious leaders, women groups and a cross section of AMISOM officials.
Making his remarks, AMISOM Sector 3 commander urged Somali women to play their part in promoting peace and cohesion in the community: “Women play an active role in the furtherance of peace. Women are the backbone of Somalia’s life today. We want you to extend that role in order to promote peace and cohesion in the community. That is the only way we can together defeat the threat of Al-Shabaab”, said Commander Mikael.The AMISOM ENDF female soldiers narrated their experiences and struggles to be part of the social and political development in their country.
“Just like other women in the world, Ethiopian women are involved in all aspects of their society, they are active participants in the social, political and cultural activities of their communities. We know women are the breadwinners of their families in Somalia today,”Commander Mikael said. He explained how progressive movements in Ethiopia changed the conditions of women and subsequently brought about their emancipation leading to their empowerment politically and socially, the commander added.
The Baidoa Women Group welcomed the information and experience sharing sessions. “This kind of meeting boosts our morale and reminds us of how we can be agents of change in our community, just like Ethiopian women, who struggled to attain the status they have today,” said Halima Abdi Mohamed, a member of the group. Meetings such as this one, are used to make women feel confident and initiate their own ideas and practical activities to promote peace in the community.
Tribal Fighting Leaves Two Dead In Afgoye Town
20 October – Source: Shabelle News – 126 Words
At least two people have been killed and several others wounded in a clan warfare in Afgoye district, 30 kms north-west of Mogadishu, reports said on Tuesday.A local resident has told Radio Shabelle that the skirmishes broke out when a dispute arose between militiamen of the two clans over possession of a pastoral field in the outskirts of the town. This resulted in a deadly gunfight.
The rival clan militias reportedly got reinforcements as the fighting progressed to engulf to nearby areas close to Afgoye town. No intervention to put off the gun battle has been made by the local elders, reports said.ByMonday, at least 10 people had been killed and 20 injured in similar clan battle at the west of Beledweyne city, the regional capital of Hiiraan, central Somalia.
INTERNATIONAL MEDIA
White Widow Samantha Lewthwaite ‘Was With Brit jihadist When He Beheaded 50 Villagers’
19 October – Source: Daily Mirror – 1,299 Words
White Widow Samantha Lewthwaite was alongside fellow British jihadist Thomas Evans when he beheaded innocent victims in a village, it has been claimed. Witness statements uncovered by a team investigating Al-Shabaab terrorist Evans refer to a mystery woman who was involved in the atrocity that claimed the lives of more than 50 people in the Kenyan countryside in June last year.
A man who identified Evans as one of the killers also saw “a white woman with a skirt, holding a big gun and with a chain of bullets around her chest”.A security source said: “There was another credible sighting of Lewthwaite in Lamu County on the Kenya-Somalia border, very close to this massacre, earlier in 2014: “We know she has been closely involved with Al-Shabaab in this region. Another relevant factor is this woman tried to cross into Somalia very close to where Evans and his cohorts were gathering. “She disappeared after being challenged by immigration officials.”
Mum-of-four Lewthwaite, 31 – who has been dubbed the world’s most wanted woman – is not named in the dossier. But the previous apparent sighting in the same border region suggests she is the female terrorist that was spotted during Al-Shabaab’s mass killing in the village of Mpeketoni. Lewthwaite and Evans are from towns 15 miles apart in Buckinghamshire.
In the African border villages where Evans slaughtered innocent civilians he became known as the White Beast. The former electrician, from High Wycombe, who changed his name to Abdul Hakim, was killed aged 25 when his 50-strong unit crossed back from Somalia into Kenya in June this year. They were shot down by Kenyan troops waiting in ambush on the anniversary of the Mpeketoni massacre. An image of Evans’s bloodied corpse was posted on Twitter. His devastated mum Sally Evans had not seen her son in four years.
Investigators on a Channel 4 documentary called My Son the Jihadi, due to be broadcast on Thursday, gathered the gruesome evidence of Evans’s atrocities. Speaking for the first time about the dossier, Sally, 57, said: “I can’t believe that he did that and he thought he was doing the right thing. It sickens me to think he did it. I’m so ashamed of him. “It’s easy for me to remember him as the Thomas I knew, but I know I have to face up to what he’s done. I have to accept what he is capable of. I can’t work out how he could justify it.”
Toronto’s Ahmed Hussen 1st Somali-Canadian Elected To Parliament
October 20 – Source: CBC News – 391 Words
Election night was a night of firsts, not only for the country but also for Toronto’s Somali community. Not only was Justin Trudeau the first son to follow his father’s footsteps into the Prime Minister’s Office in Ottawa, Toronto’s Ahmed Hussen became Canada’s first-ever MP of Somali descent. On Tuesday, Hussen defeated NDP MP Mike Sullivan, winning the York South-Weston riding. He told CBC News that “the feeling hasn’t sunk in, it’s going to take time.”
Born and raised in Somalia, the lawyer and community activist called his victory “a symbolic and real manifestation of the openness of the Liberal Party to new Canadians.” Hussen is one of 20 visible-minority MPs elected in the GTA Monday night, and a record number elected across Canada: “The Canadian-Somali community has challenges with youth jobs, youth violence and I have some experience in those fields to try and make a difference,” he said. “But I’ll be working hard for all the residents of York South-Weston, regardless of their heritage.
“Sure, I’m proud to be the first Somali-Canadian to get into elected office but my history has indicated my ability to work with everybody and I intend to do that (here),” he said. The father of two says it was humbling to be given a vote of confidence Monday night and that the result confirmed his belief that “there’s a hunger out there for real change.” He told CBC he felt the Liberal’s platform represented a change “away from a decade of missed opportunities like immigration. (The Conservatives) have made a mess out of immigration over the last five years, jobs is a huge issue in York South-Weston, transit is a big (issue), (and so is) social housing .”
OPINION, ANALYSIS, AND CULTURE
“Like today, any governance that resists the command of Imperialists (now called ‘Globalists’) are dispensed militarily; the British launched the first modern airstrike in Africa against Dervish military bases in Somalia, effectively crushing the resistance of the rightful indigenous inhabitants for their own private objectives of which have continued to the present day in more sophisticated ways.”
The Rise Of Famine In Somalia
20 October – Source: OpEDdNews – 465 Words
Somalia is currently designated as a nation desolated by imperialism, local instability and economic sabotage from outside forces. The usual image of malnourished Africans that western media sometimes show in their paper usually come from this part of the world. Nevertheless, Somalia was once an independent nation regarding its food production, then what could possibly happen that lead this Eastern African Country in such poverty?
While a portion of individuals all over the world benefit from the so-called advantages of Globalization, and while the worldwide cost of food gets a boost every year (+37% since last year, up to 50 % of the world population individually sustain on their own under two USD each day. The western countries have a duty to help those populations, but using this as a pretext for their own quest for private geopolitical, economic and militarily gain will eventually lead to a total discredit of the western nation’s acts.
Somalia used to be a large hub of commerce and a lucrative worldwide trade; the ancient Somali merchants were chieftains of business who exchanged between Asia, Persia and Africa throughout time from the Ming Empire and were even accountable for affecting Chinese linguistics. Nowadays, the folks of Somalia are regarded as nothing more than cattle for the Intelligence Agencies and the powerful companies that aim to occupy this strategic area. The weapon of choice to control them was called “Famine”.
Somali people belong to a single homogenous ethnic group composed in large part of nomadic tribesmen. Those tribes were famous with their talent on poetry and ancient oral traditions. Throughout history, they are well known for striving ferociously against foreign forces, most notably against the agents of the British Empire, the Christian Ethiopians and the Italian Fascists in the late 19th century. The common strategy of the invaders have always been the same: trying to take the control of Somalia’s trading ports and strategic seaboard.