October 23, 2015 | Morning Headlines
Somali Govt Troops Kills Al-Shabaab Member And Seizes Weapons In Fighting, Says Military
22 October – Source: Shabelle News – 140 Words
Somali Govt troops have launched an attack on Al-Shabaab base near Halgan area in Hiiraan region on Thursday and killed one militant fighter, according to a top military commander.Mohamed Omar. The senior military chief revealed in an interview with Radio Shabelle that Somali soldiers had killed one Al -Shabaab member and seized four AK-47 riffle assaults during the combat at a village located 20 kms away from Halgan:“The area we attacked was an Al-Shabaab stronghold, where they used to collect Zakah (An Islamic levy on the wealth) from local herders near Halgan town.” By the time of filing this report Al Shabaab had not reacted to the claims by the military. In recent weeks, the Somali Army, along with AU troops have been pushing Al-Shabaab militants out of their bases, including Halgan village in Somalia’s central Hiiraan region.
Key Headlines
- Somali Govt Troops Kills Al-Shabaab Member And Seizes Weapons In Fighting Says Military (Shabelle News)
- Commission To Draft Resource Sharing Formula Federal Government And Regional States Agree(Goobjoog News )
- River Jubba Of Somalia Bursts Its Banks (Mareeg Media)
- Somaliland President Eases Deadlock Over Ruling Party Congress (Garowe Online)
- Somalia Addressing Challenges Ahead Of 2016 Elections (CCTV)
- Mombasa High Court Releases Four Shabaab ‘Brides’ On Bond (Daily Nation)
- UN Declares Somalia Polio Free (The Punch)
- Family Returns From Kenya To Somalia (Deutsche Welle)
- Somali Week Festival To Be Held In The United Kingdom (Hiiraan Online)
NATIONAL MEDIA
Commission To Draft Resource Sharing Formula, Federal Government And Regional States Agree
22 October – Source: Goobjoog News – 336 Words
The Federal government and the regional administrations have agreed on a joint commission, which will oversee the development of natural resource sharing framework between the two levels of government. Petroleum and Mineral Resources minister Mohamed Muktar told Goobjoog News the two parties agreed to establish the commission, which will develop a resources sharing formula and general management of natural resources in the country.“The ministry will sponsor the formation and all activities related to the formation of the commission, and provide technical expertise where needed,” said Muktar.
There has been a tussle between the Federal Government and regional governments on licenses and possible sharing of revenues particularly from oil with each side taking its own unilateral decisions.On 1 September 2015, the Puntland Petroleum Minerals Agency and the Houston-based ION Geophysical Corporation announced they had signed an agreement allowing the company to acquire 8,000 km2 of seismic data covering the entire Somalia Puntland offshore margin.Four days later on September 5th the Federal Government signed seismic data survey encompassing 28,000 km2 of offshore territory in central and southern Somalia with Norwegian company Spectrum ASA. This is besides the controversial Seismic Agreement Option between Somalia and the British oil explorer Soma Oil and Gas in 2013 whose dealings with the government is now under investigations by the Serious Fraud Office in Britain.
The UN Monitoring Group for Somalia and Eritrea (UNMGES) has for the second year running sought an oil moratorium for Somalia with the UN Security Council over concerns that the Federal Government had not agreed with the regional states on oil exploration agreements. The Group also warned in a leaked report this year that Somalia did not have a strong constitutional and legal framework to enable it enter into agreements with oil companies.Muktar said the commission will be formed in the next one week upon which it will commence to develop the resource sharing framework.He said upcoming state of Middle Shabelle and Hiiraan will be fully represented to ensure equal and fair contribution.
River Jubba Of Somalia Bursts Its Banks
22 October – Source: Mareeg Media – 160 Words
Reports coming in from Middle Jubba region of Somalia say that River Jubba has broken its banks and sent floods of water in the surrounding villages.Local residents living in the areas nearby the river informed the English department of Radio Dalsan that the river had swept away the crops in their farms and the water Pumps.The populations in the areas around river Jubba are sending out an alarm to the humanitarian agencies to intervene in the situation: “After the river had burst its banks, it washed away the entire crops which were in the farms and the water pumps, thus we are highly appealing for help from the humanitarian agencies” said Mamow Aden, a farmer in Sakow district.The situation comes at a time of El Nino warning alerts by the government’s meteorological departments.Some four days ago, five children reportedly died following a heavy downpour in Malmalkuus location, Sakow district.
Somaliland President Eases Deadlock Over Ruling Party Congress
22 October – Source: Garowe Online – 186 Words
Somaliland President, Ahmed Mohamed Mohamud (Siilaanyo) has intervened to end a raging crisis within the ruling party, Kulmiye. According to reports by Garowe Online, the ruling party leader Musse Bihi Abdi met with two contenders, Foreign Affairs Minister Mohamed Bihi Yonis and MP Ahmed Abdi Kijandhe, who are strongly opposed to the venue and date of the party’s planned congress at Kulmiye headquarters in the capital, Hargeisa. The leaders finally agreed that the congress be jointly prepared by ruling Kulmiye party leader and Defence Minister Ahmed Haji Ali Adami, who has been tasked with consulting role.
The agreement was hammered out after the four leaders held separate meetings with President Siilaanyo. However, former Finance Minister, Abdiasis Mohamed Samale, a vocal opponent of Abdi was not spotted at a press conference by the ruling party heavyweights. Squabbling within the ruling party has threatened to split the Kulmiye party ahead of parliamentary and presidential elections in early 2017. Somaliland, located in northwestern Somalia declared its independence from the rest of the country as de facto sovereign state in 1991 but it has not been recognized internationally yet.
INTERNATIONAL MEDIA
Somalia Addressing Challenges Ahead Of 2016 Elections
22 October – Source: CCTV – Video: 2:54 Minutes
Mombasa High Court Releases Four Shabaab ‘Brides’ On Bond
22 October – Source: Daily Nation – 243 Words
Four women accused of attempting to sneak into Somalia to join Al-Shabaab have finally been released on bond. This comes after the Mombasa High Court declined to revise their bond release order. Senior Principal Magistrate Richard Odenyo had earlier released Ms Ummulkheir Sadri Abdalla, Ms Khadija Abubakar Abdulkadir, Ms Maryam Said Aboud and Ms Halima Adan on a bond of Sh500,000 each with two sureties of similar amount.
Justice Dorah Chepkwony on Thursday declined to grant the State’s application to revise the magistrate’s order and deny the accused bond. However, she put harsh conditions on their bond due to the gravity of the offense, which is a terrorism-related case that involves national security. She ordered the accused to deposit their passports in court and attend every court mention. The judge also ordered Ms Abdalla to provide a Kenyan surety.
“None of the accused shall leave the court’s jurisdiction without a court order,” said Justice Chepkwony. Ms Abdalla had introduced herself as a Tanzanian national and a third-year university student studying in Sudan who needed medical attention. The four accused were arrested at the El-Wak border point in Mandera County on March 27 while sneaking into Somalia to allegedly join Al-Shabaab.
UN Declares Somalia Polio Free
22 October – Source: The Punch – 247 Words
United Nations agencies on Thursday declared the 2013 to 2014 polio outbreak in Somalia, which affected nearly 200 people, most of them children, over. According to a joint statement by the UNICEF, World Health Organisation and the partners of the Global Polio Eradication Initiative, the announcement came 14 months after the last polio case was identified.
An assessment team conducted a review in Somalia in October and decided the polio outbreak was over.Humanitarian Coordinator for Somalia Peter de Clercq said the achievement was a great credit to the Somalis and volunteers, who “put their lives at risk to save lives of others in need.” He praised the Somali government for their actions fighting the disease.
“The Somali authorities have placed polio outbreak response as one of their national priorities and they exerted tremendous effort to ensure children are vaccinated,” he said. Polio was detected in Somalia in May 2013, for the first time in six years, after parents of a two-year-old girl in Mogadishu found she was unable to walk.The virus, which can cause paralysis or even death, spread quickly affecting 194 people in 2013.
However, number of the affected was contained to five in 2014. Over 2.1 million children underage five were targeted in multiple immunisation campaigns launched by the Somali health authorities, with the support of the UN agencies and GPEI.Two UNICEF staff, who took part in the counter-polio campaign, was killed in a suicide blast in Garowe, Puntland in April.
Family Returns From Kenya To Somalia
22 October – Source: Deutsche Welle – Video: 3:33 Minutes
OPINION, ANALYSIS, AND CULTURE
“The Somali Festival is an opportunity for artists to continue to explore alternative creative outlets for their work while also looking at ways of reviving traditional spaces that are vastly disappearing.”
Somali Week Festival To Be Held In The United Kingdom
22 October – Source: Hiiraan Online – 528 Words
Somali Week Festival, dedicated to art forms and spaces at risk of being lost or pushed to the margins, is set to take place between 23 October and 1 November. Oxford House, Derbyshire Street, London and various other venues will be hosting the festival. Aar Maanta, acclaimed voice of a new generation of Somali musicians in the UK, performs 25 October.
A panel discussion on ‘Art at Margins’ holds before Aar Manta’s evening performance . Writer and scholar Barwaaqo and theatre director Abdidhuh Yusuf will engage in a conversation on the topic of space, reflect on the work and what the future holds for the Somali language, music and theatre.
Lyrically, Aar Maanta’s songs are written in the traditional Somali poetic form using allegory and alliteration to address issues of relevance to Somali immigrants. As a result, Ahmed ‘Hudeydi’ Ismail Hussein, a master oud player and one of Somali music’s greatest composers as well as Hassan Aadan Samatar, an iconic lead singer of Somalia’s now defunct national theatre Waaberi band, have endorsed Aar’s music as the bridge that links the old musical generation to the new one.
SWF is an integral part of Black History Month and offers the best of Somali arts and culture, both old and new. On 23 October, Maxamed BK a Somali vocalist, songwriter and music composer, and the lead singer of Xidigaha Geeskar will stage his first concert during the launch of the weeklong festivities. The son of one of the most popular folklore dancers, Said Erigawaabi, and since early childhood Maxamed followed in the footsteps of his father learning how to play the oud and developing a passion for the arts and culture. It was when he moved to Hargeysa, where he gained widespread popularity. Now a solo artist in his own right, he is a regular feature across Somali televisions and radio stations, and also a firm favourite at concerts.