September 13, 2016 | Daily Monitoring Report
IGAD Leaders Arrive In Mogadishu For Regional Bloc Summit
13 September – Source: Goobjoog News – 132 Words
Ethiopia’s Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn and Kenya’s Uhuru Kenyatta have arrived in Mogadishu for the IGAD extraordinary heads of states and governments Summit. Kenya’s Foreign Affairs Minister Amina Mohamed among other dignitaries have also arrived for the historic event.
Other leaders expected to arrive include Uganda’s Yoweri Museveni and Eritrean president Isaiahs Aferweki. Sources have told Goobjoog News South Sudan’s president Salva Kiir will not be attending the event while the coming of his Sudan’s counterpart Omar El Bashir is not clear following reports he might skip the event to avoid arrest over the International Criminal Court arrest warrant on his head. President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud is currently receiving the head leaders
Key Headlines
- IGAD Leaders Arrive In Mogadishu For Regional Bloc Summit (Goobjoog News)
- Somali President Extends Amnesty To Al-Shabaab Fighters (Goobjoog News)
- Jubbaland Parades Captured Al-Shabaab Commander (Shabelle News)
- Passenger Flights Suspended Ahead Of Mogadishu IGAD Summit (Jowhar.com)
- Open Schools Lamu Parents Tell Officials (Daily Nation)
- Middle East’s Leaders Cross The Red Sea To Woo East Africa (The Guardian)
NATIONAL MEDIA
Somali President Extends Amnesty To Al-Shabaab Fighters
13 September – Source: Goobjoog News – 198 Words
Somali President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud has extended amnesty to anyone renouncing Al-Shabaab and violence amid Al-Shabaab trying to disrupt Somalia’s upcoming polls. President Mohamud who took part in mass prayers held in Isbahaysiga Mosque of the capital Mogadishu, has called on youth to defect the group’s ideology and make use of the pardon offered by the government
“Once again, my pledge to the youth fighting for Al-Shabaab is to come back to their societies and join the rebuilding processes of Somalia,” said the president. President Mohamud has on several occasions offered pardon to anyone renouncing the Islamic militant groups. The number of Al-Shabaab members defecting to the government including senior officials have continued to increase while the group has lost major strategic controls it once controlled.
Earlier this month, Ibrahim Adan Ibrahim, a leading figure in the militant group’s Education department surrendered to the National Intelligence and Security Agency in Mogadishu before he was presented to the media by the officials. In 2014 former Al-Shabaab intelligence commander Zakariye Hersi surrendered to government forces claiming he had left the group a year before. He had a $3 million bounty on his head placed by the US government.
Jubbaland Parades Captured Al-Shabaab Commander
13 September – Source: Shabelle News – 165 Words
The interim Jubbaland administration in southern Somalia paraded a top Al-Shabaab leader it said had been captured in a battle near Kismayo city, 500Km south of Mogadishu. A Jubaland official who insisted on remaining anonymous, told the media that the detained Al-Shabaab figure is believed to be an Ethiopian national. He added the Al-Shabaab commander was arrested during a military operation in Abdalla Birole vicinity, outside the southern port city of Kismayo, the regional capital of Lower Juba.
Jubbaland state said it is questioning the alleged Al-Shabaab commander apprehended by its security forces in the operation of Abdalla Birolo village. According to reports, no independant party has verified the report about the capture of the Al-Shabaab foreign militant. Jubbaland state forces along with AMISOM troops launched an anti-Al-Shabaab offensive dubbed “Juba River”, this week, that is aimed to push the militants out of the remaining areas in Lower Juba region.
Passenger Flights Suspended Ahead Of Mogadishu IGAD Summit
13 September – Source: Jowhar.com – 160 Words
Local and international passenger flights to and from Mogadishu’s Aden Adde International airport were this morning suspended to pave way for the IGAD summit scheduled for today. Airport officials confirmed the embargo with all non-essential staff given the day off Tuesday as per a notice issued on Sunday.
The airport is however open to planes carrying IGAD heads of Governments and States expected to attend the meeting. President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud and other federal leaders will pitch tent at the airport to welcome arriving dignitaries. Preparations for the arrival of the dignitaries have been completed with the government implementing raft of security measures including closure of major city roads the past few days.
The Summit is expected to be held at a hotel near the airport whose security arrangement is now under AMISOM control. Security in and around the airport has also been beefed up ahead of the Summit with heavy deployment of Special government forces and AMISOM personnel.
INTERNATIONAL MEDIA
Open Schools, Lamu Parents Tell Officials
13 September – Source: Daily Nation – 424 Words
Parents and pupils in Basuba Ward, Lamu East Sub-County, are in the dark concerning four schools closed two years ago due to insecurity. Learning is yet to resume at Mangai, Basuba, Milimani and Mararani primary schools. The schools were shut down in 2014 and 2015 following constant raids on villagers by Al-Shabaab terrorists.
There is no sign of the institutions reopening despite constant assurances of security from the police and military. At the peak of the terror attacks, teachers in various schools in Basuba fled for their lives and have never returned. Residents say many pupils dropped out of school. The few who did not usually walk for many kilometres to schools in the Kiunga border town.
Parents interviewed on Monday said they were worried because their children were missing out on education. They called on the county and national governments to solve the problem quickly. Basuba village resident Tore Ware urged the government to devise strategies that would rescue education in the region.
OPINION, ANALYSIS, AND CULTURE
“There is competition. The United Arab Emirates (UAE), spurred by its own security concerns, is also moving fast to establish influence in east Africa. If Turkey is backing the ruling alliance in forthcoming Somali elections, the UAE appears to favour opposition candidates.”
Middle East’s Leaders Cross The Red Sea To Woo East Africa
12 September – Source: The Guardian – 1,273 Words
For Nairobi’s commuters, summer has brought more woes than usual. Along with the demonstrations, road accidents and downpours that frequently cause gridlock in Kenya’s capital, there has been an almost weekly shutdown as foreign VIPs fly in. “Of course people are annoyed … but some rather like it. We are getting the feeling that we are finally returning to centre stage,” said Charles Onyango-Obbo, a publisher and journalist.
Many of the visitors have been from the US, China and other nations long seen as players in the region, but an increasing number are from the Middle East, their visits underlining a dramatic twist in the centuries-old battle between foreign powers for influence, trade, resources and military assets in a strategically sensitive part of the world. In five weeks over June and July, Kenya received Iranian ministers, delegations from Gulf monarchies and the leaders of both Turkey and Israel.
Other states in east Africa have seen a similar flow of high-level officials. Analysts are struggling to understand the potential impact of the new wave of interest from the Middle East, but it is already clear it will disrupt local diplomacy and politics as much as it has disrupted traffic, resetting alliances in new formulations determined as much by conflicts, rivalries and geopolitical interests thousands of miles away as the interests of local communities. It has the potential, too, to undermine western influence and agendas.
“There is a significant new layer of engagements,” said Ahmed Soliman, a Horn of Africa expert at London’s Chatham House thinktank. The shift is a result of many factors. The chilly aftermath of the Arab spring, the Syrian civil war, and particularly the conflict in Yemen have all combined to push Middle Eastern states to seek advantage through alliance, trade and cultural outreach beyond their immediate neighbourhood. So, too, has intensifying rivalry between Sunni Muslim Saudi Arabia and Shia Iran, economic pressures on individual states and the arrival of new leaders keen to make their mark.
TOP TWEETS
@DalsanFM_SOM : #IGADMOG2016 Kenyan Foreign Minister@AMB_A_MOHAMMED confirms President Uhuru will join her in Mogadishu soon.
@Fatumaabdulahi: In parts of #Buuloxuubey, residents are told they can’t even leave their houses! This is unprecedented and extreme. #IGADMog2016 #Mogadishu
@SRSGKeating : A significant & positive moment today for#Somalia: hosting a meeting of IGAD leaders in Mogadishu –#IGADMog2016
@MofaSomalia : Heads of state and government arrived in#Mogadishu to attend the #IGAD summit. Somalia is moving forward . #IGADMog2016 #Somalia #Somali
@hisilow : What is the use of #Somalia being a member of#Igad when it’s citzens can’t freely travel in the region.#IGADMog2016 free visas required.
@golfyare: Three Foreign Ministers from Kenya, Uganda, and Djibouti arrived, head of states are yet to touch down#Mogadishu #Somalia #IGADMog2016
IMAGE OF THE DAY
Somali National Army getting ready for guard of honor to IGAD head of states Summit at the Mogadishu International Airport
Photo: @Mkahiye