September 1, 2017 | Morning Headlines
UN Says 6.2 Million Somalis Facing Acute Food Insecurity
31 August – Source – Xinhuanet – 418 Words
An estimated 6.2 million people are facing acute food insecurity in Somalia, a slight decrease from the previously recorded 6.7 million, the UN-backed food security analysis revealed on Thursday. The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO)-managed Food Security and Nutrition Analysis Unit (FSNAU) and the Famine Early Warning Systems Network (FEWSNET) assessments show Somalia is unfortunately not yet out of the woods.
The findings from a seasonal assessment conducted across Somalia in June and July indicate that over 3.1 million people will face crisis or emergency food insecurity through December. “This represents only a slight improvement in food security compared to the figures projected for April-June 2017, primarily as a result of sustained humanitarian assistance and improved rainfall in localized areas,” FSNAU said. “Additionally, nearly 3.1 million people are classified as stressed. In total, 6.2 million people across Somalia face acute food insecurity.”
The report said Gu harvest will provide temporary relief for some communities in terms of food availability, but the harvest is reduced due to poor rains and access to food remains constrained and prices will remain elevated through at least early 2018. The report said malnutrition, one of the leading indicators of the crisis, has reached emergency levels in a number of locations in southern and central Somalia, primarily, though not exclusively among displaced populations.
Key Headlines
- UN Says 6.2 Million Somalis Facing Acute Food Insecurity (Xinhuanet)
- Somali Government To Compensate (Radio Dalsan)
- Puntland Police Re-arrest Freed Inmates (Garowe Online)
- US To Provide AMISOM With Enhanced ISR Capability (Jane’s 360)
- Landmine Kills Three In Coastal Kenya: Official (Reuters)
- ‘Sweet As Broken Dates: Lost Somali Tapes From The Horn Of Africa’ Review: A Cultural Legacy Rescued (Wall Street Journal )
NATIONAL MEDIA
Somali Government To Compensate Families
31 August – Source: Radio Dalsan – 175 Words
Somali government will compensate the families of victims accidently killed by security forces during operation to flush out Al-Shabaab in Barire. The authorities have said all ten victims who were buried on Thursday were civilians contrary to previous press statements that termed them as militants.
The government paid USD 130,000 for funeral arrangements while federal government representatives visited the families in Madina hospital in Mogadishu during burial preparations. Fact finding committee lead by Internal Security Minister Islow Duale visited Barire to establish the truth of the matter after order from President Abdullahi Farmajo last week.
Each family of the deceased will receive USD 70,000 each for compensation as per Islamic law also known as ‘diya’ within the period of the next three months. The Somali National Army commanders who were responsible for the attack will also be investigated. The Barire victims’ incident has led to social media uproar that was directed towards the government for past one week.Twitter and Facebook users have mocked Villa Somalia for contradicting press statement.
Puntland Police Re-arrest Freed Inmates
31 August – Source: Garowe Online – 194 Words
Police of Somalia’s northeastern semi-autonomous region of Puntland has re-arrested a dozen of youths released from Garowe central Prison on August 24th. Speaking to the media at his office on Thursday, Garowe Police Commissioner, Mohamud Muse Bile alias (Fardaful) said they have detained again ex inmates numbering 12, including students studying in the local schools.
Fardaful, who was flanked by parents of the accused and police officers during the press conference said that the men had been arrested 21st August by General Mohiyadin Ahmed Muse, the chief of the state’s counter-terrorism and narcotics after they were accused of robbery cases.
He added Nugal regional Police Commander has ordered the immediate release of the suspects from the detention center after they were found not guilty, and subsequently they had been freed last week, 24th August. The release has sparked a bitter squabble which has led to the suspension of Puntland Police Commissioner, Abdulkadir Farah Shire (Ereg) by Vice President, Abdihakim Abdullahi Omar (Amey), last Sunday. So far, the Anti-terrorism and narcotics commander did not comment on the charges against the re-arrested youths and the allegations that the illegal sale of the alcohol is on increase in the state capital, Garowe.
INTERNATIONAL MEDIA
US To Provide AMISOM With Enhanced ISR Capability
31 August – Source: Jane’s 360 – 134 Words
The US Department of State is to provide an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) surveillance system to the African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM), a spokesperson for the US military’s Djibouti-based Combined Joint Task Force – Horn of Africa (CJTF-HOA) has told Jane’s . The spokesman said that a four-week UK-led intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR) training course for AMISOM personnel in Somalia’s capital, Mogadishu, was conducted to prepare for the arrival of the system.
The course concluded on 25 August, and involved a US Air Force instructor from CJTF-HOA. The Department of State declined to comment on the UAV programme, and AMISOM did not respond to requests for information; however, a source close to the project told Jane’s that the programme involves providing AMISOM with a contractor-owned and -operated system, with no planned equipment donations.
Landmine Kills Three In Coastal Kenya: Official
31 August – Source: Reuters – 127 Words
Three civilians were killed after their vehicle ran over a landmine on a road near Kenya’s border with Somalia, a government official said, in the fifth such incident in the area in three months. There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the blast, but Somalia’s militant al Shabaab claimed responsibility for a similar attack in May. “A Toyota vehicle which had several occupants on board ran over an IED (Improvised Explosive Device) at Nyongoro area,” Gilbert Kitiyo, Lamu county commissioner, told Reuters by phone on Thursday. Al Shabaab, which is fighting to overthrow Somalia’s government and impose its own harsh interpretation of Islamic Sharia law, has said it will continue to attack Kenya unless it withdraws its troops from an African Union peacekeeping mission in Somalia.
OPINION, ANALYSIS AND CULTURE
“With its joys and sorrows, “Sweet as Broken Dreams” is a portrait of a complex yet accessible musical culture whose control and destruction by government and subsequent violent factions denied its gifted proponents much-deserved acknowledgment and the world its stylish inventiveness.”
‘Sweet As Broken Dates: Lost Somali Tapes From The Horn Of Africa’ Review: A Cultural Legacy Rescued
30 August – Source: Wall Street Journal – 805 Words
Largely ignored by audiences outside its borders, the popular music of Somalia in the 1970s and ’80s was informed in part by culture-quaking politics: the establishment in 1969 of the Somali Democratic Republic led by President Mohamed Siad Barre and a socialist system that supported the arts but also promoted nationalism, curtailed freedoms, often violently, and led to a civil war during which the country disintegrated into a failed state.
Somali musicians of that tumultuous era experienced both the ecstasy of liberation and the terror of war, chaos and brutality. Because Barre had nationalized the arts, Somali music was owned by the government and performed on government-owned national radio or in its national theater in Mogadishu. Perhaps he thought it was his to destroy. When Barre’s fighter jets attacked Somaliland, the former British protectorate in the northwest part of the country, in 1988 to thwart an independence movement, they bombed Radio Hargeisa, home to some 50 years of recorded music by Somalis, very little of which had been properly commercialized. In advance of the airstrikes, some tapes were hurried to Djibouti and Ethiopia. Others were buried underground.
Some of those tapes are among the 10,000 cassettes in the Red Sea Foundation’s archives at the Hargeisa Cultural Center, and 15 tracks culled from them constitute “Sweet as Broken Dates: Lost Somali Tapes From the Horn of Africa” (Ostinato), available now. The collection sparkles with superior voices, superb musicians, and sounds that are both familiar and refreshingly new to Western listeners. They provide transportation to, as Vik Sohonie, founder of Ostinato Records, said when we spoke by phone earlier this week, a time and place most music fans have never been to. As best it can in 15 tracks, “Sweet as Broken Dates” captures the diversity of Somali music in its golden era. Prior to the civil war, Mogadishu was home to a sophisticated music scene where the players moved easily among genres. American funk, pop and soul were influences, but not more so than traditional and modern Somali music as well as the sounds of India and Sudan.
The scene was dominated by female singers; women are featured prominently in the collection. Their approaches vary as required. On “The Highest Mountains,” which opens the album, Nimco Jamaac sings in a devotional style, her high voice conveying a tale that has its roots in the nomadic culture of the Horn of Africa. In contrast, Hibo Nuura is defiant atop the whip-snap rock of the robust “If the Artist Lets You Down,” which features electronic sounds and a male choir. (Titles are listed here in their English translations.)