October 7, 2015 | Daily Monitoring Report
Lawyer and Nephew of Somali President Killed In Mogadishu Drive-By-Shooting
07 October – Source: Shabelle News – 106 Words
Al-Shabaab said its assassins brigade shot and killed Abdulkadir Geelow who was a lawyer by profession and Dr. Liban Jirow, the nephew of President Hassan Sheikh in the capital, Mogadishu, witnesses said on Wednesday. The victims were killed in a drive-by-shooting at Suqa-weyn area in Wadajir district after gunmen travelling in a car blocked their way and fired bullets on their vehicle. Security officials said investigations were underway as the government security forces moved to pursue the attackers who sped off in a car after carrying out the assassination, reports said. No further comments could be reached from Somali authorities on the latest attack.
Key Headlines
- Lawyer and Nephew of Somali President Killed In Mogadishu Drive-By-Shooting (Shabelle News)
- Khatumo State Expresses Hope Over Diffusing The Ongoing Clan Clashes In Qoriley (Goobjoog News)
- First Direct International Commercial Flight To Land In Garowe After Government Wins Deal With National Airways (Villa Puntland)
- Ahlu Sunna Declares New Offensive Against Al-Shabaab In Central Somalia (Shabelle News)
- Bill Shorten Says Refugee Raped On Nauru Should Be Allowed To Come To Australia For An Abortion(Sydney Morning Herald)
- Somali Candidates Challenge Rep. Kahn for DFL Nod (MPR News)
- AU Special Representative Addresses The Atlantic Council On The State of Somalia (AMISOM)
- Illegal Overfishing And The Return Of Somalia’s Pirates (Al Jazeera)
NATIONAL MEDIA
Khatumo State Expresses Hope Over Diffusing The Ongoing Clan Clashes In Qoriley
07 October – Source: Goobjoog News – 140 Words
Khatumo State expresses hope over ironing out of the ongoing clashes and noted that the conflict in Qoriley locality would be resolved soon. Mohamed Ali an official of Buhoodle administration speaking to Goobjoog News said that traditional elders reached Qoriley village to mediate recurrent clan clashes which emerged as a result of land and grazing disputes between two warring clans and succeeded to stop the fighting. He pointed out that the two sides have agreed to negotiate and sort out their differences. “The elders are working on a face to face negotiation meeting which will be attended by both sides” he said. Talks between the two warring clans are expected to follow the ceasefire in the presence of the traditional elders and the government in quest to end these tensions which recurred in the past decade.
First Direct International Commercial Flight To Land In Garowe After Government Wins Deal With National Airways
07 October – Source: Villa Puntland – 202 Words
The First direct commercial flight from overseas is expected to commence its operations in Garowe, the capital of Puntland. National Airways, Ethiopian based airline announced to commence direct flights between Addis Ababa and Garowe according to Captain Abera Lemi, founder and CEO of National Airways. Lemi said that he is very hopeful that the airways will give premium flight services to the people living in Puntland and elsewhere.
“We hope to give a premium flight service to Puntland. We want to serve the Puntland people living at home, here in Ethiopia and those who live in the diaspora,” Abera said. Puntland’s Ministry of Trade and Industry signed a deal with National Airways, making it the first international commercial flight to land in Garowe on 12th October connecting Puntland’s capital city with Ethiopia’s Addis Ababa. These flights will address the gap and services needed for the people living abroad and home. In addition, the first modern international airport with with 3.4 asphalt runway and is expected to open in the region’s commercial hub, Bossaso as international aviation companies vie to break deals with the government of Puntland.
Ahlu Sunna Declares New Offensive Against Al-Shabaab In Central Somalia
07 October – Source: Shabelle News – 95 Words
Ahlu Sunna in central Somalia says it will soon launch a new offensive aimed at rooting out Al-Shabaab militants from their strongholds in the Mudug region. Giving an interview to Radio Shabelle by phone, Mursal Sheikh Mohamed the spokesman of Ahlu Sunna Wal Jama’a said that their fighters are in final preparations to move towards the villages recaptured by Al-Shabaab in the region. Meanwhile, Mr Mohamed has also noted that Al-Shabaab’s has been continuously committing violence against the local residents living in the areas under their control. The militants have recently retook Amara village in Mudug region.
INTERNATIONAL MEDIA
Bill Shorten Says Refugee Raped On Nauru Should Be Allowed To Come To Australia For An Abortion
07 October – Source: Sydney Morning Herald – 372 Words
Opposition Leader Bill Shorten says he is “deeply shocked” by reports of a 23-year old Somali refugee who says she was raped on Nauru cannot come to Australia for an abortion and has described her case as a “travesty of justice”. Lawyers acting for the woman, “Abyan” (not her real name) say she is 11 or more weeks pregnant and wants a termination. Last week the ABC broadcasted distressing footage of Namja calling police for help after the alleged sexual assault. Namja told ABC it took police stationed on the tiny island more than four hours to respond.
Abyan’s Sydney based lawyer George Newhouse has written to Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull and Immigration Minister Peter Dutton pleading for Abyan to be allowed to come to Australia for a termination and post sexual assault care. It is illegal to have an abortion on Nauru. Mr Shorten on Tuesday said that after speaking to Abyan’s lawyers there was no question as to whether she should be allowed to come to Australia for medical care.
“Frankly I’m deeply shocked at reports that a 23-year old person, indirectly in Australia’s care in Nauru, cannot get medical treatment they require urgently,” he said. “For me this is a black-and-white matter, it’s not a matter of governments acting like robots with no hearts. “If this woman requires medical treatment – I’ve spoken to her lawyers today, she does – if she’s gone without medical treatment for four weeks she should get the medical treatment in Australia and anything else is a travesty of justice,” he said.
Somali Candidates Challenge Rep. Kahn for DFL Nod
07 October – Source: MPR News – 576 Words
State Rep. Phyllis Kahn, DFL-Minneapolis, is no stranger to challenges from her own party. Over the past few election cycles, Kahn has faced either a primary and endorsement challenge in the heavily Democratic district. This year is no different. About a month ago, Mohamud Noor announced that he was going to challenge Kahn again for the DFL endorsement. Today, Ilhan Omar announced that she’ll also challenge Kahn for the endorsement.
“It’s not a surprise,” Kahn said when asked about her opponents. “The district has a lot of people interested in political activism who think they could do a pretty good job as a state legislator.” Kahn said she’s seeking another term because she thinks Democrats can regain the majority in the Minnesota House and she wants to be there for Gov. Mark Dayton’s final two years in office. Her challengers, however, say it’s time for the longest serving member of the Legislature to be replaced. Both candidates say Kahn is ignoring the needs of the district, particularly people of Somali descent who are a growing segment of the district’s population.
“We need someone who has fluency in all of the communities of our diverse district,” Omar said. “This is not about the last 44 years. This is about the future of the district and what the next few years will look like.” Omar is currently serving as the Director of Policy and Initiatives for the Women Organizing Women Network. She also served as a policy aide to Minneapolis City Council member Andrew Johnson.
AU Special Representative Addresses The Atlantic Council On The State of Somalia
07 October – Source: AMISOM – 613 Words
The Special Representative of the Chairperson of the African Union Commission (SRCC) for Somalia and Head of AMISOM Ambassador Maman Sidikou has expressed optimism at the pace of peace and state building initiatives in Somalia. Ambassador Sidikou cited the formation of regional states, terming them as useful steps that will transform the interim regional administration into the constituent states of a Federal Somalia. Addressing the Atlantic Council in Washington DC, United States on 5 October 2015, the SRCC said the constitutional review process was in top gear with three institutions driving the process namely, the ministry of constitutional affairs, the oversight committee of parliament and the Independent Constitutional Implementation Review Commission.
“All of these are expected to lead Somalia into another political transition through elections by September 2016”, he said. Ambassador Sidikou briefed the Atlantic Council about the Federal government’s decision to have a consultative process that will determine the modalities of the electoral process. “We hope that the outcomes of this process will be presented at the next High-Level Partnership Forum, which would be held in Turkey in the last ten days of February 2016”, the SRCC told the Washington gathering. He however noted that alongside the positive political developments in Somalia, there were also challenges, among them the ongoing squabbles between various political actors, especially in the federal parliament.
OPINION, ANALYSIS, AND CULTURE
“Piracy put a stop to illegal fishing, but these findings suggest it was merely a hiatus; now that international anti-piracy task forces have halted the hijackings, illegal fishing vessels have returned. In 2014, 86 percent of Somali fishermen spotted foreign fishing vessels close to the shore, according to a report by international charity Adeso, which conducted interviews down the length of the coastline over a six-month period last year. Sightings were more frequent in Puntland and have more than doubled in the last five years, according to the IUU Fishing in the Territorial Waters of Somalia report.”
Illegal Overfishing And The Return Of Somalia’s Pirates
06 October – Source: Al Jazeera – 1,249 Words
A hundred years ago, it was a bustling port that served the vibrant fishing community living along Somalia’s coastline, the longest on mainland Africa. Now, Durduri is a sun-bleached, wind-swept, white-sand graveyard of stone structures. There is no harbour, no jetty. The drying and smoking house is just a tumble of bricks. This is one of many historical coastal trading towns that have risen and fallen with empires. When the busy trade routes moved away, fishing was one of the few lifelines left. Talk to locals now and you will find this too has dried up – they say there are no more fish in the sea. They blame not the pirates who brought the attention of international law enforcement to Somalia’s waters, but the foreign fishing boats that have plundered sea-life stocks. And if things don’t change, they say, a return to piracy will be their only way of survival.
Ahmed Mohamed Ali walks disconsolately along the beach at Durduri, 100 kilometres west of the port city of Bosaso, perched on the northeastern point of Puntland, Somalia’s semi-autonomous northern state. Ali said he was forced to quit fishing, the only job he has ever known, after a foreign fishing ship bore down on him and his colleagues one night at sea. “It was a huge ship. We fled for our lives. Had we not it would have all been over and we’d have been dead,” the 27-year-old told Al Jazeera. Large foreign vessels “come at night and take everything”, he said, gesturing angrily out to sea. “With their modern machinery, there is nothing left.” And the Somali fishermen can’t match them. “We don’t carry guns; we don’t even have any weapons,” he said.
Ali’s accusations are backed up by two new pieces of research, conducted by separate Somali development agencies, which suggest that international fishing vessels – particularly Iranian and Yemeni, but also European ships including Spanish – are illegally exploiting the East African nation’s fish stocks on a massive scale. In a country torn apart by civil war, without a federal government until as recently as 2012 following more than two decades of fighting, the population of 10.5 million largely suffers from a crippling paucity of economic opportunities. Somalis say illegal, unlicensed, and unregulated fishing forced them to turn to piracy 10 years ago in order to recoup their losses. “We got fed up and took guns to the sea,” said one Bosaso fisherman, Mohamed Adan Ahmed.
TOP TWEETS
@Daudoo: #AlShabaab claims resp of assassinating the nephew of #Somalia president, accusing him of being a senior officer in the presidential palace.
@katcophony: New research confirms drop in #remittances to#somalia– as much as 35%. Urgent action needed now.http://politicsofpoverty.
@Eye_on_Somalia: #goobjoog AU Special Representative addresses the Atlantic Council on the State of Somalia: The Speci… http://bit.ly/1jNud3v #somalia
@jacquelineoross: “”The Return of the Pirates?” “Not the ones you are thinking of” #fishing http://allafrica.com/stories/
@MarkTJones500: #Somalia faces multiple challenges on the health front with #misdiagnosis being an additional cause for concern. http://www.
@harar24: #AlShabaab fighters threaten to drag beheaded#British troops through the streets: http://harar24.com/?p=15190 #Somalia
IMAGE OF THE DAY
Sports in Somalia is recovering as a result of the relative peace and progress witnessed in the country. The Somalia national soccer team is preparing for the upcoming World Cup Qualifier against Niger on October 9.
Photo: AMISOM