October 9, 2015 | Morning Headlines

Main Story

Somalia Now Tops List Of Countries Where Journalists Are Murdered With Impunity

8 October – Source: Poynter @40 – 327 Words

For the first time since 2008, Iraq isn’t at the top of Committee to Protect Journalists’ annual Impunity Index. The annual report details countries where journalists are killed with no resulting convictions. This year, the top spot went to Somalia. The report, which was released Thursday, includes 14 countries where at least five journalists were murdered and no one was convicted of those murders. According to the index, “around 96 percent of victims are local reporters. The majority covered politics and corruption in their home countries.”

Not one year has passed over the last decade without a journalist being murdered in civil war-wracked Somalia, which first appeared on the index in 2008. At least 30 journalists have been murdered without any consequence for the perpetrators in this index period, the majority targeted by Al-Shabaab militants who for years have threatened and assaulted journalists in relation to their coverage of the group’s activities.
While the government has pinned its impunity problem on the political instability and shortage of resources inflicted by 20 years of civil war, journalists say authorities fail to conduct even minimal investigations when journalists are killed. In April, unidentified armed men broke into the home of Daud Ali Omar at night and killed him and his wife while they were sleeping. Daud was a producer for a privately owned, pro-government radio station, and local journalists and police said they suspected Al-Shabaab was responsible. Somalia continues to be Africa’s deadliest country for journalists.

Key Headlines

Somali PM Appoints 12 Member Taskforce To Support National Consultative Forum (Goobjoog News)
Kenya Seeks Friendly Settlement In Boundary Dispute With Somalia (Hiiraan Online)
Businessman Shot Dead In Jalalaqsi Town By Gunmen (Shabelle News)
Somali Police Force And AMISOM Join Residents In Community Policing Drive (AMISOM)
Outgoing AMISOM Boss To Head UN In DRC (News24)
Somalia Now Tops List Of Countries Where Journalists Are Murdered With Impunity (Poynter @40)
Aid Agencies Warn Of Severe Effects Of El Nino In Somalia (Xinhua)
Practicing In A Car Park: World Cup Qualifying For Somalia’s Team (Associated Press)
Failure To Pay Soldiers Threatens Somalia’s War On Islamists (Reuters)

NATIONAL MEDIA

Kenya Seeks Friendly Settlement In Boundary Dispute With Somalia

08 October – Source: Hiiraan Online – 256 Words

As the two neighbouring countries are locked in a maritime boundary dispute at the International court, the Kenyan government said it seeks to end the long-running dispute with Somalia in a friendly manner. Kenya’s Attorney General Githu Muigai says the two countries can settle their dispute without the need of lawsuit, a suggestion earlier dismissed by Somali government. Mr. Muigai has noted that the referral of the dispute to ICJ by Somalia disregards the two countries’ long time warm relations and the ‘generosity’ the Kenyan government has furnished to the Somali refugees in the past 25 years.

Last year, Somalia’s government has taken Kenya to the ICC to end the border dispute, saying the dispute risks deterring multinational oil companies from exploring for oil and gas offshore East Africa. However, the Kenyan Attorney General has reiterate his country’s willingness to bring the stalemate to an end, saying that Kenya has submitted its Preliminary objection against Somalia. Somalia hasn’t so far commented on the Kenyan government’s request.

Earlier this year, Kenya identified eight new offshore exploration blocks available for licensing, and all but one of them are located in the contested area, but Somalia insisted that Kenya’s target area is within their maritime boundary: “Kenya’s contention is that Somalia’s case falls outside the jurisdiction of the Court and is inadmissible because it is contrary to Somalia’s international obligations”. Mr. Muigai said in a statement sent to the Kenyan newspapers. “The least Kenya can expect from Somalia is that it will honour its bilateral agreements,” he said.

PM Appoints 12 Member Taskforce To Support National Consultative Forum

08 October – Source: Goobjoog News – 213 Words

The Prime Minister’s office has appointed a 12 member taskforce to provide support role to the National Consultative Forum, NCF, on the implementation of the consultative process towards the 2016 elections. In a notice seen by Goobjoog News, the taskforce will consist of five Federal Ministers, a minister each from the regional states and representatives from the offices of the Prime Minister, the President and the Speaker.

The ministries involved are Interior and Federal Affairs, Women and Human Rights, Justice, Constitutional Affairs and Information. The Taskforce will among other mandates recommend for the approval to the NCF a facilitation guide and organise series of structured consultations as set out in the Action Plan for the 2016 process. The team will also help in ensuring political coordination and communication among the NCF members and mobilise resources for the implementation of the Action Plan.

The PM’s office has also appointed a nine member Technical Support Team drawn from the offices of the President, Prime Minister, Speaker, all the four regional states and two technical advisors from the United Nations. The Prime Minister’s office notes that the appointments are in line with the agreements reached during the National Leadership Forum held last month, which brought together regional states leaders, representatives from the national government and the international community.

Businessman Shot Dead In Jalalaqsi Town By Gunmen

08 October – Source: Shabelle News – 123 Words

Unknown gunmen have on Thursday shot and killed a well-known businessman in the central town of Jalalaqsi on Thursday morning, relatives confirmed. Suleyman Ali Mohamed, the businessman was picked out of his house and shot dead in the outskirts of the town by armed assailants, according to his brother Andinasir Ali Mohamed who spoke to Radio Shabelle.

“The assassination of my brother was tragic and heartbreaking. He was one of the local businessmen who are not associated with politics in Jalalaqsi town,” said Abdinasir Ali. Jalalaqsi, which is a strategically important city located in Hiiraan region, central Somalia, has witnessed several attacks and killings since it fell to Somali military and African Union troops who pushed Al shabaab out of there in 2014.

Somali Police Force And AMISOM Join Residents In Community Policing Drive

08 October – Source: AMISOM – 463 Words

Residents of Abdul Asiis district, in Banaadir region have been asked to embrace community policing as a means of fighting crime. In a town hall meeting attended by women, youth, elders and members of the business community the residents were told to partner with the Somali Police Force (SPF) and AMISOM Formed Police Unit of the African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM), to make this initiative a success.

The meeting was presided over by the District commissioner Osman Ali Ariif, along with SPF and AMISOM police officers on Thursday to discuss ways of sharing intelligence and crime reporting in the district. In his remarks, the District Commissioner noted that civilians have a huge role to play in keeping their neighbourhoods safe and secure.
He reassured the community that information given to the police will be treated with utmost confidence in order to protect those who come forward to report incidents. “Thank you once again to AMISOM police and Somali police for visiting us in Abdul Asiis district. They today unveiled community policing program in our district which is meant to sensitize the community on working and forming partnership with the police. Today, our guests have introduced us to a police hotline number 888 and the purpose is for citizens to report crimes to the police discretely and anonymously” said the DC

The SPF community liaison officer, Lieutenant colonel Fatuma Hassan Mohamed, on her part welcomed the community policing and pledged her support to the community and the local administration. “I am the commander of the community relations and neighborhood watch of the Somali Police; I congratulate and thank the district commissioner who invited me today to Abdul Asiis district. We are willing and ready to work with the administration on any issues relating to the Somali Police” said Col. Fatima
On behalf of AMISOM, Police PIO Inspector Edwin Mugera, appreciated the close working relations between the district administration, the Somali police force and AMISOM police. He stressed that the programme was part of an on-going campaign by the SPF and AMISOM Police, to build partnerships with communities, aimed at crime prevention, fast tracking reporting of crimes and enhancing security.

Mugera reminded the community that their best weapon to fight crime is their eyes and reporting what they see. “Today we reported to Abdul Asiis district within Mogadishu Banaadir region for a community sensitization program one in a series of many which has taken place within Banaadir region. The Somali police jointly with AMISOM and the local district administration engaged the locals on a program that sought to forge closer ties between the communities and the police. The aim of the engagement was to educate the members of the public on crime reporting mechanisms as well as forming the neighborhood watch programs” said Mugera

INTERNATIONAL MEDIA

Outgoing AMISOM Boss To Head UN In DRC

08 October – Source: News24 – 209 Words

Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has appointed the current chief of the AU mission in Somalia to head the UN peacekeeping mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo, a UN official said Thursday. Maman Sambo Sidikou, a former foreign minister of Niger, replaces German diplomat Martin Kobler, who headed the UN’s largest peace mission in the DR Congo since July 2013.

Sidikou, who led the Amisom mission in Somalia since July last year, takes over as UN envoy to the DR Congo and head of the 22 000-strong Monusco force, amid growing tensions in the country. In his final report to the Security Council, Kobler urged Kinshasa to hold credible elections next year and to give President Joseph Kabila’s opponents political space. In power since 2001, Kabila is barred under the constitution from seeking a third term in elections expected in November next year.
Sidikou served as his country’s ambassador to the United States from 2011 to 2014 and was also the Niger president’s chief of staff in 1999 after serving as foreign minister from 1997 to 1999. The diplomat, who holds a doctorate in education, also worked at the World Bank in Washington, the UN children’s agency Unicef and for the British charity Save the Children from 1999 to 2011.

Somalia Now Tops List Of Countries Where Journalists Are Murdered With Impunity

8 October – Source: Poynter @40 – 327 Words

While the government has pinned its impunity problem on the political instability and shortage of resources inflicted by 20 years of civil war, journalists say authorities fail to conduct even minimal investigations when journalists are killed. In April, unidentified armed men broke into the home of Daud Ali Omar at night and killed him and his wife while they were sleeping. Daud was a producer for a privately owned, pro-government radio station, and local journalists and police said they suspected Al-Shabaab was responsible. Somalia continues to be Africa’s deadliest country for journalists.

Aid Agencies Warn Of Severe Effects Of El Nino In Somalia

08 October – Source: Xinhua – 549 Words

Aid agencies working in Somalia on Thursday warned that El Nino conditions are expected to severely hit the Horn of Africa nation during this year’s September to December rainy season (Deyr rainfall). The 30 agencies under the banner Somalia NGO Consortium said the effects of El Nino are likely to lead to a wetter than normal season with a very high risk of flooding in parts of the country.

“Thousands of people in Somalia are already feeling the effects of this super El Nino, seeing their crops fail, livestock stressed and the price of staple foods soar because of shortages,” Oxfam’s Somalia Country Director Enzo Vecchio said in a joint statement. “Such extreme weather events are only going to increase as climate change ramps up. We are likely to see floods in the coming weeks which risk devastating communities reliant on food aid for survival and pushing many more into crisis,” he said.
The organizations which included World Vision and Save the Children warned that the effects of the increased rains will further deteriorate an already desperate humanitarian situation in Somalia. Between 500,000-900,000 people living alongside the Shabelle and Juba rivers are at risk of being affected by flooding, the statement said. The UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) has warned that this year’s El Nino could mirror the 1997-98 weather patterns that left large parts of southern Somalia underwater and killed an estimated 2,000 people.

The agencies said the effects of the El Nino phenomenon could further aggravate the humanitarian crisis the country is currently facing by causing major population displacement, loss of lives, increased human rights risks, disruption and reduced access to basic goods and social services, destruction of means of livelihoods and shelter, food insecurity, increased malnutrition, contamination of the natural environment and hindrance to humanitarian access.
“There is a high likelihood of towns and villages being cut off from main supply routes, making it difficult for communities to access basic services and delivery of relief supplies,” the agencies said. According to the consortium, people living in semi-permanent or poorly constructed shelters, children, pregnant and lactating women, the elderly and people living with disabilities are most vulnerable to the effects of heavy flooding.

Practicing In A Car Park: World Cup Qualifying For Somalia’s Team

08 October – Source: Associated Press – 672 Words

While revelations swirl of FIFA executives in expensive suits taking millions in bribes to award money-spinning World Cups, some of the poorest teams face near-impossible challenges to make it to soccer’s biggest tournament, and try their hearts out anyway. This week, Somalia’s players prepared for their opening game in Africa’s first round of qualifying for Russia 2018 with a training session in a hotel car park in a shanty neighborhood on the outskirts of Ethiopia’s capital city.

Running on the rough asphalt in their sneakers, and dodging the parked cars of other hotel guests, the Somali national team players didn’t seem to mind. Before Wednesday’s hotel yard practice, they limbered up with a jog through the Addis Ababa neighborhood’s back alleys, occasionally being startled by barking dogs. Bemused locals watched the group in their black tracksuit tops go past.

Somalia can’t play at home, with the threat of a deadly attack by the al-Qaida-linked militant group Al-Shabab a daily fear in Mogadishu. So the game against Niger on Friday is in Ethiopia. With those serious problems back home in mind, the small matter of the Addis Ababa National Stadium — or any other field — not being available didn’t appear to be a major problem for them: “We have no alternative,” assistant coach James Magala told The Associated Press at the practice session. Magala would rather talk about the match, and Somalia’s aim to at least make it to the second round of qualifying, where Africa’s biggest sides are waiting.

OPINION, ANALYSIS, AND CULTURE

“Experts say one of the reasons Somalia’s army has not buckled under such conditions was help from better-equipped AU peacekeepers, who often share personal rations and fuel with Somali soldiers with whom they fight side-by-side.”

Failure To Pay Soldiers Threatens Somalia’s War On Islamists

08 October – Source: Reuters – 991 Words

Somalia’s inability to pay and even feed its soldiers threatens to undermine years of hard-won military gains against Islamist Al-Shabaab rebels, with corruption sapping morale and weakening the army in the war against the militants. In the past two months the al Qaeda-aligned group has stormed an African Union (AU) peacekeeping base and recaptured several small towns from retreating Somali soldiers in Lower Shabelle region south of the capital, Mogadishu.

While no one expects the rebels to regain swathes of territory they lost since AU and Somali soldiers pushed them out of Mogadishu in 2011, there are fears that years of efforts to reform the army may come undone as unpaid soldiers defect, erect checkpoints to extract bribes, or lose the appetite to fight. The non-payment of salaries, stretching up to six months for some troops, has strained relations between the government and foreign donors, such as the United States and European nations, who have invested billions of dollars to stabilise Somalia and stem the spread of radical Islam from the Horn of Africa.

“Commanding unpaid troops is a problem as your orders fall on deaf ears,” said Colonel Farah, a military commander in southern Somalia who says disgruntled soldiers have set up illegal checkpoints to shake down civilians. “You cannot ask them to go with you to the front line. They say, ‘What are we dying for?’,” Farah told Reuters.