October 23, 2018 | Daily Monitoring Report.
Almost 40 People Killed In Clan Clashes In Sool Region
23 October – Source: Goobjoog News – 109 Words
Almost forty people were killed and several others injured in clan clashes on Monday in Dumar district, Sool region of northern Somalia. Heavy fighting between clan militias in the Sool region lasted for the last 24 hours in Dumar district.
Tensions in the area remain high, with fears that clashes will resume any time. This is not the first time members of rival clans in Sool region have engaged in deadly clashes. Several efforts have been made by the elders of the Sool region to mediate between the communities living in the region. Puntland and Somaliland have in the past fought for control over these regions.
Key Headlines
- Almost 40 People Killed In Clan Clashes In Sool Region (Goobjoog News)
- Hospital In Hargeisa Gives A Lifeline To Mental Health Patients (Radio Ergo)
- Mogadishu Tech Summit Kicks Off In Mogadishu (Halbeeg News)
- Give Amnesty To Al-Shabaab Youth — Leaders (The Star)
- Is The US Fighting Extremism In Somalia Or Fuelling It? (Press TV)
- Reporter’s Diary: Heal Somalia’s Former Child Soldiers Heal A Nation (IRIN News)
NATIONAL MEDIA
Hospital In Hargeisa Gives A Lifeline To Mental Health Patients
23 October – Source: Radio Ergo – 421 Words
Life for people with mental health conditions can be difficult even after undergoing treatment but Anwar Adan Farah, 54, learnt technical skills in hospital that have improved his life. Farah was admitted in 2012 at Sahan Mental Hospital, a private hospital in Hargeisa, capital of Somaliland. For two years, Farah underwent training as a mason and electrician while receiving treatment.
The hospital operates a training department that equips patients with vocational skills to enable them to engage in gainful employment and earn a living after completing their treatment. Since 2014, Mr. Farah, a father of four, has been working as an electrician in Hargeisa. He earns $20 dollars a day which he uses for the family food and other needs. He also pays $300 university fees per semester for two of his daughters as well as the house rent.
“Having no skills is even a problem for one’s mental health. Since I learnt these skills, I am relieved and I work which gives me confidence. Initially, I thought these skills were of no value,” Farah told Radio Ergo. The last batch of trainees graduated from Sahan Hospital in September and another 100 are undergoing training. At the moment, the medical facility is treating 483 men and 100 women with mental health issues.
Psychiatrist Dr. Mustafa said the institution, which has been operating since 2008, offers the patients courses including electrical and mechanical engineering, driving, tailoring and masonry. The hospital charges $80 for treatment although several patients unable to pay have been treated free of charge. The hospital has treated and trained 400 people in the last 10 years. “Our aim was to give the patients life changing technical training so that when they go out of here they can support themselves with these skills,” Dr. Mustafa said.
Female patients are treated on an outpatient basis. Mohamed Sultan, 32, was admitted at Sahal Mental Hospital in 2014. He used to trade in khat. Four years down the line,he is working as a tailor in Hargeisa after being trained. “At least it is a good job, I work just the same as others and rest when they do,” said Sultan. I usually get $3-4 a day which I use to manage my life. I am no longer a patient, I live with the society with no discrimination.” Despite the initial perception that tailoring was a low profile job, Mr. Sultan has seen that the skill supports his life better than trading in khat and enables him to live a more healthy lifestyle.
Mogadishu Tech Summit Kicks Off In Mogadishu
23 October – Source: Halbeeg News – 151 Words
The Mogadishu Tech Summit (MTS 2018), which will run for three days, today opened its doors in Mogadishu. The summit brings together Somali innovators, techies, hackers, developers, experts, academics, students, entrepreneurs, startups, investors and journalists across Somalia. It is scheduled to explore business and investment opportunities, shape the ecosystem of the country and, more importantly, learn, share ideas and meet new innovators.
The Mogadishu Tech Summit will be the biggest festival ever in Somalia, and is expected to host more than 600 delegates, 25 investors, 50 startups, 40 exhibitions and boot camps, pitching events, hackathons, workshops, and countless networking events all along on the sidelines. The aim of Mogadishu Tech Summit is to showcase the local tech talents and recognize the Somali innovators and entrepreneurs. Participants will discuss and highlight creative solutions that will address – and solve – Somalia’s protracted challenges through innovation, technology, and entrepreneurship in real time.
INTERNATIONAL MEDIA
Give Amnesty To Al-Shabaab Youth — Leaders
23 October – Source: The Star – 642 Words
Leaders from northeastern Kenya unanimously agreed on Monday that terrorism can’t be ended with guns and called for amnesty for youth in al Shabaab. At the opening of a conference in Mandera on countering terrorism and violent extremism, the leaders said terrorism cannot be combated and ended with guns. They called on the central government to extend amnesty to youth who have joined al Shabaab to enable them to come home. Many have said they won’t return because they fear the security forces will murder them.
“You cannot fight a problem if you are part of it. Our first commitment should be to engage the government and see to it that our youths in the ranks of al Shabaab are given amnesty after returning from Somalia. That’s because they are the genesis of all the problems we are facing today,” said Korane.
Since 2012, Mandera, Wajir and Garissa counties have born the brunt of terror attacks targeting non-locals and government officials, including security officers. the KDF entered Somalia in 2012 to pursue Al-Shabaab. The militants say attacks in Kenya are intended to force the state to leave Somalia. “I appeal to security officers that we form a joint committee and request Interior CS Fred Matiang’i to give an amnesty. [He should] encourage them to come back, integrate them in society and give them a livelihood,” Korane said.
Mandera governor Ali Roba blamed Al-Shabaab sympathisers for abetting terror activities, saying they aim to bring the area economy to its knees. Roba, who chairs the Frontier Counties Development Council, said the aim of shabaab is to cripple business in the region and completely disrupt the way of life of residents.
Is The US Fighting Extremism In Somalia Or Fuelling It?
23 October – Source: Press TV – Video: 25:33 Minutes
Is the US fighting extremism in Somalia or fuelling it? The terrorist group al-Shabab has struck Somalia again, this time with twin suicide attacks that targeted restaurants and coffee shops in the southern city of Baidoa. The death toll is estimated at 40 with 50 more injured. But these attacks were hot on the heels of US airstrikes that occurred a day before.
Africa Today asks whether US military engagement in Somalia is worsening the country’s situation and giving al-Shabab more justification for its deadly activities? As Somalia remembered the one-year anniversary of the most deadliest terrorist attack in Africa, it had to deal with yet another terror attack from al-Shabab.
There is a surge in air strikes that is part of the Trump administration’s broader foreign policy strategy in Africa and the Middle East. The number has grown to nearly 40 in 2018 with at least 5 of them hitting the country in the last month. Experts fear that the escalation in US military engagement sends an aggressive message to the people of Somalia, which could provide fodder to al-Shabab’s recruiters and lead to more radicalisation.
OPINION, ANALYSIS & CULTURE
“As for Hussein, he said his centre had relocated almost 300 young men back to their towns and villages in the past year. There are, however, countless other former child soldiers who have not gone through any formal or informal rehabilitation centres; untold numbers who have witnessed gruesome deaths, violence, and trauma.”
Reporter’s Diary: Heal Somalia’s Former Child Soldiers, Heal A Nation
23 October – Source: IRIN – 1765 Words
Amino Hussein Hassan, a female law student, was shot dead on her university campus. Yahye Amir, a prominent economics professor and political analyst, escaped an assassination attempt when a bomb strapped to his car exploded, killing his brother. And Ahmed Mukhtar Salah from the minority Bantu ethnic group was beaten and burnt to death by a mob after his nephew married a woman from an “inferior” clan.
Violence has been a way of life in Somalia since the outbreak of the civil war in 1991, seeping deep into the nation’s marrow as clan conflict gradually morphed into an all-out war against the al-Qaeda affiliated Islamist group al-Shabab. “The layers of violence that people have had to digest is one of the key problems for building a peaceful and healthier society,” Laetitia Bader, a senior researcher at Human Rights Watch (HRW), told me recently.
Most often, those who bear the life-long consequences are the poor, the politically marginalised, and young people. In particular, the thousands of children who must deal with the trauma of years on the front lines. In May, I travelled to the capital, Mogadishu – as I have done regularly since 2012 – to report on a crisis that, save for some international NGOs and human rights organisations, few seem to talk about: child soldiers.
There, I met Abdi, 16, a former child soldier. Intelligent and eloquent, he had been a star pupil at the Koranic school in his home town, about 55 miles from the capital. In 2009, at the age of seven, his teacher took him and seven other boys to join Al-Shabaab. For two years, Abdi lived in a camp with about three dozen other young recruits. By the time he was eight, he had learned how to drive a car and shoot a gun. By nine, he took part in his first raid in the village of Darussalam Mubarak, where he witnessed an assassination: a man killed by three bullets to the back.
As horrific as that experience was, the image that has most haunted Abdi for years is that of the severed head of a young man his al-Shabab camp commander brandished before the recruits as a warning: this is what happens to informants. “Even now after all these years, I have nightmares,” Abdi told me. “Sometimes I wake up screaming in the middle of the night.” While al-Shabab’s use of children as soldiers is nothing new, in the last several years the number of child soldiers has increased markedly.
In Al-Shabaab’s heyday around 2010, when it controlled vast swaths of the country, including a sizable chunk of the capital, persuasion and indoctrination were enough to ensure a steady supply of young fighters. Since 2016, increased attacks by the Somali national army and US and African Union troops have resulted in a loss of territory for the group. Most recently, on October 16, the US military announced that it had carried out one of the deadliest airstrikes against al-Shabab, killing 60 militants in the Mudug region.
So, desperate for more foot soldiers, Al-Shabaab has turned to the abduction and forced recruitment of minors. Accurate numbers are difficult to come by. Child Soldiers International calculates that there has been a 269 percent increase in the number of children within the ranks of armed groups in Somalia between 2015, when there were 903 documented cases, to 2017, with 3,335 cases. Meanwhile, according to a May report on children and armed conflict presented by the UN secretary-general to the General Assembly, 1,770 children were recruited as soldiers in 2017 alone, with al-Shabab doing the vast majority of the recruitment. The overall number is likely even higher: UNICEF Somalia estimates that as many as 6,000 children and youths are part of armed groups in the country.
TOP TWEETS
@Halbeeg_News: Mogadishu Tech Summit kicks off in Mogadishu https://en.halbeeg.com/2018/
@MoPIED_Somalia: The first steering committee of the rehabilitation of technical & vocational education & training in Somalia project is taking place at #EU compound in Mogadishu.@EU_in_Somalia & @GermanyinSOM co-funded this project &#GIZ implements. #FGS is well represented.
@Halbeeg_News: Northeastern leaders call on Uhuru to extend amnesty to Al-Shabaab youth https://en.halbeeg.com/2018/
@RAbdiCG: At least 50 killed, 85 wounded in inter-clan fighting in Dhumay, Sool Region – Radio Dalsan. This is one of the heaviest fighting in the restive region in recent years. While not directly linked to Somaliland-Puntland standoff, the hostility almost certainly contributory factor.
@AbdinurMA: I would like to congratulate Ambassador Abdirisak Sh. Mohamud (Shoole) who presented his Letters of Credence to the H.E Field Marshal Omer Al Bashir, President of the Republic Sudan at the Republican Palace, Khartoum.I Wish you success for your new assignment.
@GEEL_Somali: GEEL in partnership with Sahan Seafood is in final stages of #Hobyo Fish Cold Storage & Processing. Installation & testing of equipment; mentoring and on job training of technicians ongoing. This will kick start #economyand #livelihoods of Hobyo residents.
@MogTechSummit: Minister For Telecommunications and Technology Engineer Abdi Anshur graces the event at Mogadishu Tech Summit. #MTS2018
IMAGE OF THE DAY
Minister For Telecommunications and Technology Engineer Abdi Anshur officially opens the Mogadishu Tech Summit.
Photo: @MogTechSummit