October 31, 2013 | Daily Monitoring Report.

Main Story

Somali president to visit Kismayo

31 Oct – Source: Radio Dalsan/Mustaqbal/Hiiraan Online – 86 words

Spokesman of the Somali president ENG Abdirahman Osman confirmed that the president is expected on Thursday to pay visit to Somali port city of Kismayo. According to the spokesman, the president will hold talks with Jubaland leader Sheik Ahmed (Madobe), officials, traditional elders and civil society organizations in Kismayo . AMISOM troops and Somali special forces will take part in ensuring the security in Kismaayo during the president visit. This visit will be the first for president Hassan Sheikh to Kismayo.

Key Headlines

Somali president to visit Kismayo (Radio Dalsan/Mustaqbal/Hiiraan Online)
Former Prisons chief arrested in Mogadishu (Somali Current/Garowe Online)
Somali writer wishes to make ‘Pather Panchali’ like film (Somaliland Press)
President Silanyo Meets with Head of OCHA Somalia Airspace Discussed (Somaliland Press/Somaliland Sun)
Ivory dealers fund al Shabaab according to United Nations report (Standard Media)
Envoys: UN to approve 4000 more troops for Somalia (Africa Review)
Security Council urged to support ‘temporary boost’ to African forces in Somalia (UN News Centre)
Kenya crackdown on militants troubles Muslims (Reuters)
Kenya Expects to End Somalia Border Dispute Push Exploration (Bloomberg)

SOMALI MEDIA

Somali president to visit Kismayo

31 Oct – Source: Radio Dalsan/Mustaqbal/Hiiraan Online – 86 words

Former Prisons chief arrested in Mogadishu

31 Oct – Source: Somali Current/Garowe Online- 471 words

Somalia’s Former prisons chief was arrested on Wednesday in Mogadishu, after nearly one year on hiding. General Abdi Mohamed Ismael was sentenced in absence to life in prison by a military court in December last year, after he was found guilty of releasing some al Shabaab members from the central prison in Mogadishu.

The court ordered his arrest, but he fled from the country according to Somalia’s police officials. Head of CID Department, General Said Ahmed Kadiye said that they were informed of his return to the country earlier this week.

Somali writer wishes to make ‘Pather Panchali’ like film

30 Oct – Source: Somaliland Press – 293 Words

Nadifa Mohamed, a Granta best young British novelist, likes images formed in the mind to take a physical shape and says she would love to make something as honest and beautiful as “Pather Panchali” but set in her birthplace Somalia.

“I have always loved films and used to watch Bollywood movies in Hargeisa as a child, I would love to make something as honest and beautiful as ‘Pather Panchali’ but set in Somalia,” the London-based writer of “Black Mamba Boy” and the recent “The Orchard of Lost Souls” says.

“I think it would be amazing to see images that you formed in your own mind take a physical shape, and for many other people to collaborate on that vision. There are things of such beauty in Somalia/Somaliland that outsiders never see and a film would illuminate them,” Nadifa, who aspires to be a filmmaker, told PTI in an interview. She has already started the process of adapting “The Orchard of Lost Souls” into a feature film.

SOFHA Concludes Conference on Family Planning in Hargeisa

30 Oct – Source: Somaliland Sun – 104 words

SOFHA, a local organization based in Hargeisa closely working with Ministry of Religion and PSI, an international organization for marketing and research, held 3 days conference on children’s birth spacing and mother’s health at Mansoor Hotel.

The conference attended by Somaliland high profile religious leaders from all regions including Hargeisa, Togdher, Sahil, Awdal and Sanaag. Religious leaders discussed mother’s’ health during antenatal and postnatal period and the Islamic Perspectives on maternity issues.

Abdifatah Mohamed Qasim, SOFHA project Manager in his opening remarks thanked high profile participants of the conference and briefed the Islamic scholars the aim and objective goal of the 3 days meeting.

President Silanyo Meets with Head of OCHA Somalia, Airspace Discussed

30 Oct – Source: Somaliland Press/Somaliland Sun – 126 words

Somaliland President Ahmed Mohamed Mahmoud has today in his office met with Mr. Philippe Lazzarini the representative of United Nations office coordination for humanitarian affairs and development for Somalia who arrived in the country yesterday.

President Silanyo and UN Representative to Somalia is in the country currently to initiate of a revitalized partnership between government of Somaliland and its development partners such as the EU, World Bank and to enhance future cooperation’s, stated the Dr. Mohamed Abdillahi Omer.

The Minister of Commerce and International Cooperation also said, “We have during our meeting discussed the important issue of Somaliland Airspace and the Aviation Agreement which now seems to be null and void because the federal government of Somalia has failed to honor the principles of the agreement.

REGIONAL MEDIA

Ivory dealers fund al Shabaab, according to United Nations report

30 Oct – Source: Standard Media – 365 Words

Illegal poaching in Kenya is orchestrated, directed and coordinated by Somalis in the diaspora, with the proceeds being used to arm militia groups such as al Shabaab, a United Nations report has revealed.

The report has also linked a Tanzanian Islamist group to heroin trafficking, indicating that the terror groups are resorting to new methods to raise money. The report says heavily armed Somali poachers cross deep into Kenya to hunt elephants in ranges such as the Tsavo East National Park and Amboseli.

The report titled Transnational Organised Crime in Eastern Africa: A Threat Assessment, released in September, this year by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime suggests that the involvement of poaching gangs from Somalia could in some cases mean the proceeds of ivory are being used to fund militant groups.

The document highlights the need to identify violent, dangerous organised crime groups involved in poaching. It argues that the large shipments of ivory that have been seized in the recent past suggest a well-developed and well-resourced distribution network.

Envoys: UN to approve 4,000 more troops for Somalia

30 Oct – Source: Africa Review – 403 Words

The UN Security Council will soon agree to authorise 4,000 more troops to boost the African force battling resurgent al Shabaab rebels in Somalia, diplomats said Wednesday.

The council is likely to allow a new upper limit of about 22,000 troops for the African Union force amid mounting warnings over the al Shabaab militant threat after the Nairobi shopping mall attack last month.
UN Deputy Secretary-General Jan Eliasson told the council that advances made by the African force with the Somali army had “ground to a halt” because it lacked a sufficient number of troops.

The AU force, officially known as AMISOM, and the Somali army have pushed the fighters out of the capital Mogadishu and other major cities over the past 18 months.

But the al Shabaab have regrouped and staged spectacular attacks, such as the Westgate Mall strike in Nairobi on September 17 in which 67 people died. Suicide bombers have also inflicted major casualties in Mogadishu.

INTERNATIONAL MEDIA

Security Council urged to support ‘temporary boost’ to African forces in Somalia

30 Oct- Source: UN News Centre-742 Words

Without adequate security, the efforts of the Somali Government and people, and those of their partners, could be in vain, the Deputy Secretary-General of the United Nations said on Wednesday, calling on the Security Council to support a temporary boost to national and international forces aiming to maintain basic security in the Horn of Africa nation.

“Without a sufficient level of security, what we have worked so hard for could be sacrificed,” Jan Eliasson, who just returned from a visit to the capital city of Mogadishu, said in a briefing to the Council.
He said the attack in June on the UN in Mogadishu and the terror attack on a mall in Nairobi in September underline the intent of the insurgent group al Shabaab to force an international retreat from Somalia and to inflict suffering on Somalis in order to erode their confidence in the peace process.

“This is why we must support AMISOM and at the same time invest in Somali national forces as well as in protecting our staff,” Mr. Eliasson stated, referring to the African Union Mission in Somalia by its acronym.

Kenya crackdown on militants troubles Muslims

30 Oct – Source: Reuters – 974 Words

A Kenyan police crackdown on Islamists is fuelling Muslim resentment and moderate preachers say it undermines their efforts to counter recruiting by al Qaeda militants with links across the border in Somalia. Smashing Islamist recruitment networks among its Muslim minority has become a priority for Kenya, however, as it tries to end attacks by Somali militants bent on punishing it for sending troops over the frontier to fight al Shabaab rebels.

The cost of failure was laid bare in September when al Shabaab gunmen, one of whom police say is a Kenyan from the port of Mombasa, raided the Westgate shopping mall in the Kenyan capital Nairobi. At least 67 people were killed.

Police say their tough approach, taken before Westgate but stepped up since, has limited the flow of would-be jihadists in and out of Somalia, citing a drop in the number of suspected militants they have tracked and arrested in the past year.

Kenya Expects to End Somalia Border Dispute, Push Exploration

30 Oct – Source: Bloomberg – 314 Words

Kenya, East Africa’s largest economy, expects to resolve a maritime border dispute with Somalia to expand oil and gas exploration in the area. Kenya lodged a claim with the United Nations for the boundary to run parallel with lines of latitude in the Indian Ocean, said the energy ministry’s senior geologist Felix Mutunguti. Somalia is ready to negotiate, said the country’s National Resources Minister Abdirizak Omar Mohamed.

It should be a similar border as “with Tanzania to the south coast,” Mutunguti said today in an interview in Nairobi. “Our friends in Somalia may have contrary thoughts, but that is in the process of being resolved.”
Kenya, which has attracted explorers including France’s Total SA (FP) and Anadarko Petroleum Corp.

(APC:US) of the U.S., is headed to become the first oil exporter in East Africa. The dispute with its unstable neighbor has delayed exploration, and could sour relations and even lead to war, according to Kim Moss, a Perth, Australia-based analyst at Future Directions International. “It’s actually not a disputed area from our perspective,” Mohamed said. “Somalia is ready to start dialogue with Kenya” and “resolve it in a peaceful way.”

UN Secretary General appoints Fatiha Serour as Deputy Special Envoy to Somalia

30 Oct- Source: UN-223 Words

United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon today announced the appointment of Fatiha Serour ( Algeria) as his Deputy Special Representative for Somalia. The Secretary-General extends his sincere thanks to Peter de Clercq of the Netherlands, who served as Deputy Special Representative since the establishment of the United Nations Assistance Mission in Somalia (UNSOM), and was recently appointed Deputy Special Representative for the United Nations Stabilization Mission in Haiti (MINUSTAH).

Ms. Serour is currently Director of Serour Associates for Inclusion and Equity, an association focused on supporting inclusive approaches to economic development. She previously served in senior advisory positions with the Department of Social and Economic Affairs (2000-2001 and 2003-2006) and the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) from 2001-2002 and as Director for Youth at the Commonwealth Secretariat (2006-2010).

In her most recent position as Regional Director for Europe, North Africa and the Middle East at the United Nations Office for Project Services from 2010-2012, she led national and international teams to implement projects for the United Nations system, international financial institutions, Governments and other partners in world aid.

SOCIAL MEDIA

CULTURE / OPINION / EDITORIAL / ANALYSIS / BLOGS/ DISCUSSION BOARDS

“There are a number of resources available to Somalia, and the country is just beginning to explore them thanks to a stronger political system, a fresh-faced, innovative workforce and collaboration and discussion between some of the country’s best and brightest.”

With talks and innovation, Somalia on the road to recovery

30 Oct- Source: The Atlantic Post-886 Words

When Augustine Mahiga, a United Nations special representative to Somalia first visited Mogadishu in 2010, it was a ghost town, he told Nairobi-based reporters.

“There wasn’t a single building that didn’t have bullet holes, and most had been destroyed.” His hours-long meeting with a Somali leader was punctuated by “sounds of guns, guns of different calibers, small guns, big guns and big booms,” reads a January 2013 article in Africa Renewal Magazine.

Offering a rare chance for optimism in war-torn Somalia, Turkish Airlines touched down at Aden Adde International Airport near Mogadishu in March 2012. The media was awash with headlines that announced it was the first passenger plane from Europe to land in Somalia in over two decades, near a city once referred to as “the most dangerous city in the world.”

After more than 20 years of anarchy and war, Mogadishu is experiencing relative calm. It currently has an able-bodied political system with a president, prime minister, a provisional constitution and a parliament.

“In her latest book, Nadifa Mohamed talks about lives of women in a war-torn country.”

Of lost souls and ruined orchards…

30 Oct- Source: dna India-629 Words

One is forced to think on the futility of war and insignificance of egos, as much as pained by the loss of humane passions and emotions while reading her books. After her father’s story in Somalia, Black Mamba Boy, Nadifa Mohamed is come back with another heart-wrenching story The Orchard Of Lost Souls. One may wonder if war-torn countries are her favourite backdrop, but Nadifa explains ‘that’s how I have seen things’. Here she talks about her new book, her connection with Somalia and her bond with her readers…

Your book has been termed as a mother-daughter story…

In some ways it is, I began the novel by interviewing my mother about her life in Somalia, she was a real goldmine of knowledge but simple accounts, like hers, of Somalia’s rise and fall as a country are rarely given any space or importance. I wanted to tell her story, but also that of my grandmothers’ and the women of our little neighbourhood in Hargeisa.

Top tweets

@UNSomalia Read more about Fatiha Serour, the #UNSecretary-General’s new Deputy Special Representative for#Somalia: http://bit.ly/HvMUFf

@Jay23481 Judge Abdulqawi Ahmed Yusuf: The1st & only Somali native Judge at the International Court of Justice (ICJ);#Somalia pic.twitter.com/oemXVElFQl

@Hamza_Africa #Somalia-born double Olympic champion@Mo_Farah the 3rd most powerful Arab in the world. Didn’t know our Mo was Arab! http://bit.ly/17tdpI0

@EdPomfret Gd backgrounder frm @AwooweHamza on#Somalia remittance issue->The Briefing Room-Remittance & PR: http://youtu.be/oOdvgZaC44s

‏@FCONeilWigan Launch of @stability_fund which supports projects and stability across #Somalia. Wide ranging, flexible and local. http://www.stabilityfund.so

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Image of the day

Image of the day Burundian troops serving with the African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM) distribute fresh, potable drinking water in the village of Modmoday approx. 40km east of the central Somali town of Baidoa. Photo: AMISOM