September 18, 2013 | Daily Monitoring Report.
Somalia sets up board to manage pledged EU billions
18 Sept- Source: African Review-298 Words
Somalia has set up a financial board to manage the funds pledged during the New Deal for Somalia conference in Brussels on Monday. The team will include Somalia officials and representatives from the donor community, President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud said. “The joint financial board will manage the nation’s economy in the most transparent manner,” President Mohamud said.
The Somali leader’s remarks comes after $870 million (650 million euros) was pledged by the more than 70 countries and organisations that took part in the high-profile conference.
The total now pledged or disbursed to the cash-strapped country is $2.4 billion (1.8 billion euros). President Mohamud said that the funds pledged would be equitably distributed to all regions of Somalia to support the rebuilding and development effort.
Mr Mohamoud highlighted four priorities among many — security, legal reform, public finances and economic recovery.
Key Headlines
- Parliamentary delegation led by Somali speaker visits Baidoa town (Somali Today/ al Shahid/Radio Mogadishu/Radio Mustaqbal)
- IDPs in Mogadishu dig in and demand to be housed (Radio Ergo)
- Somali legislator oppose working procedure of Somali government (Radio Mustaqbal)
- Gunmen kill young man in Las’Anod town (Radio Bar-kulan)
- Somalia’s Interior and national security minister visits Yemen (Raxanreeb/SABA)
- Somalia gets first ever CAF referee assessor (Horseed Media)
- Somalia sets up board to manage pledged EU billions (African Review)
- Netherlands Norway expel Somali men back to home (Raxanreeb)
- Kingdom donating $300000 to help end piracy in Somalia (Arabnews)
- Mideast task force needed to fight Somali piracy says expert (Al Arabiya English)
- Somalia welcomes outcome of int’l aid conference (Xinhua)
- Increasing aid to Somalia insults British taxpayers (Express News)
- Breakaway Somaliland hopes to become gateway for Horn of Africa (Financial Times)
SOMALI MEDIA
Parliamentary delegation led by Somali speaker visits Baidoa town
18 Sept- Source: Somali Today/ al Shahid/Radio Mogadishu/Radio Mustaqbal/Radio Dalsan- 123 words
A delegation led by Somali parliament speaker Mohamed Sheikh Osman Jawari arrived on Tuesday to Baidoa, Bay region. The speaker and his delegates received cordial welcome from traditional elders of Digil anad Mirifle clans.
The Speaker and his delegation met with traditional elders to discuss the situation and developments in the region. The speaker stressed that the final decision for the future of the region is owned by the elders of the region, who praised their prominent role in the region, but he stressed the need to respect the Somali interim constitution at any step taken on the fate of the southwest region of Somalia.
IDPs in Mogadishu dig in and demand to be housed
18 Sept- Source: Radio Ergo- 299 words
Hundreds of displaced families, who have been evicted forcibly from their makeshift homes in Mogadishu, are sleeping rough in the street demanding to be housed or resettled. Hundreds of displaced families have been forcibly evicted by the Federal Government from their the homes in former military camp of 77, Warshada Caanaha (former Milk Factory) and Mogadishu’s former Orphanage camp in Hodan district in recent weeks.
Halima Abdulle, a widow, said they were not given time to find another place to settle. “I have been living here for more than 20 years and I have nowhere else to go,” she told Radio Ergo’s local reporter. “We have been sleeping here all these nights,” said Leyla Mohamed Yusuf, whose husband is a disabled veteran of Somalia’s army. “All my children were born here and they know nowhere else.”
The spiralling rents in the city are making it impossible for most IDPs to find affordable rented accommodation. “The cheapest room in Mogadishu costs $25. How can we find that money?” said Yusuf, when asked why she didn’t find a rental house. She said they were waiting for the government to resettle them.
The London-based Amnesty International condemned the forced evictions of IDPs from makeshift camps in Mogadishu, saying it has resulted in large scale human rights abuses.
However, the spokesman of Mogadishu’s local administration, Mohamed Yusuf, told Radio Ergo that the eviction of IDPs is meant to reduce the overcrowding and congestion of the city and to improve the city’s security and lost glory. But Mohamud Dahir Farah, the government’s former coordinator for humanitarian affairs, said the government must provide alternative accommodation for the IDPs before evicting them.
Farah said that some of the buildings where IDPs had been living are unusable and the government does not need them as offices anyway.
Somali legislator oppose working procedure of Somali government
18 Sept- Source: Radio Mustaqbal- 214 words
One of Somali MPs has opposed the procedure that Somali executive branch is working in this time and indicated that some of MPs planned motion against the cabinet ministers of Somali federal government.
Hon. MP Yasin Abdi Seed, speaking to Mustaqbal radio on the telephone said the motion was brought by over 40 MPs and added the aim of the motion was about how these MPs were not satisfied with the procedure which the cabinet ministers were working in the recent times.
Mr. Yasin lamented that ministers are busy traveling to overseas which is not beneficial for Somali people and national interest. The motion was submitted to the Somali parliament chair against the executive branch of Somali federal government.
Gunmen kill young man in Las’Anod town
18 Sept- Source: Radio Bar-kulan- 99 words
Unidentified gunmen have reportedly shot and killed a middle-aged man in the north-eastern Somali town of Las’Anod, capital of Sool region on Tuesday evening. Eyewitness told Bar-kulan that they heard gunfire first and immediately saw the body of the young man near Muse Yusuf second nary school. The motive behind the killing remains vague.
Somaliland police who immediately arrived and cordoned off the scene of the incident stated that they are the criminals and will soon detain them. This is not the first time such an assassination has taken place the town.
Somalia’s Interior and national security minister visits Yemen
17 Sept – Source: Raxanreeb/SABA – 103 words
The Interior and National Security Minister of the Federal Government of Somalia Abdikarim Hussein Guled has reached the Yemeni capital, Sana’a on official visit, RBC Radio reports.
The Somalia minister was received by his Yemeni counterpart Abdukadir Qahdan at the Sana’a airport where the two ministers briefed the journalists.
Guled said his visit was related to the visit by the country’s prime minister Abdi Farah Shirdon last week in Yemen. “We have come here to follow up the recent agreements between the two countries,” Minister Gules told reporters.
Somalia gets first ever CAF referee assessor
18 Sept- Source: Horseed Media-369 Words
Somali Football federation Education Officer Ali Mohamed Ahmed has been appointed by the Confederation of African football to be CAF referee assessor. With this appointment Mr Ahmed became the first Somali National to be appointed as CAF referee Assessor, according to a press statement from Somali Football federation media Department.
“According to the CAF appointment letter the former international football referee Ali Mohamed Ahmed will be assessing the Burkino Faso referees who will be officiating the CAF Confederation CUP Group Stage matchon Sunday next week” Somali Football Federation Media officer Shafi’i Mohyaddin Abokar said in a press statement here in Mogadishu on Wednesday.
The match will be between St. Georges (Ethiopia) Vs E.S.S. (Tunisia), two of the strongest clubs in Africa—the match will take place on Sunday 22nd of September. Mr Ali Mohamed Ahmed was one of the panel shortlisted from referee experts who took part in the 2012 FIFA Futuro III courses as those who got the highest marks at the examinations were taken as referees assessors.
Netherlands, Norway expel Somali men back to home
17 Sept – Source: Raxanreeb – 125 words
Four young Somali men who were returned back from Netherlands and Norway arrived in Mogadishu airport after the governments of Netherlands and Norway rejected their asylum seeking application, RBC Radio reports. Mahadi Gedi, who was expelled from Amsterdam said he was detained by ten police officers and put him on board on a fight to Somalia.
“We pass Turkey as transit to Somalia,. and 10 police officers from Amsterdam were onboard the airplane.” Gedi told local media in Mogadishu on Tuesday.
He said three the young men from Norway were also returned back to Somalia. “They handed me to Gen. Gafow who is the head of the directorate of the immigration of the federal government of Somalia,” Gedi added.
REGIONAL MEDIA
Somalia sets up board to manage pledged EU billions
18 Sept- Source: African Review-298 Words
Somalia has set up a financial board to manage the funds pledged during the New Deal for Somalia conference in Brussels on Monday. The team will include Somalia officials and representatives from the donor community, President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud said. “The joint financial board will manage the nation’s economy in the most transparent manner,” President Mohamud said.
The Somali leader’s remarks comes after $870 million (650 million euros) was pledged by the more than 70 countries and organisations that took part in the high-profile conference.
The total now pledged or disbursed to the cash-strapped country is $2.4 billion (1.8 billion euros). President Mohamud said that the funds pledged would be equitably distributed to all regions of Somalia to support the rebuilding and development effort.
Mr Mohamoud highlighted four priorities among many — security, legal reform, public finances and economic recovery.
Kingdom donating $300,000 to help end piracy in Somalia
18 Sept- Source: Arabnews- 208 words
The Saudi government announced yesterday that it would donate $300,000 to a trust fund that aims to abolish maritime piracy off the coast of Somalia and to support the prosecutorial legal process.
Prince Turki bin Mohammed bin Saud Al-Kabeer, under secretary for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs for Multilateral Relations in the UAE, made the announcement in his speech in Dubai during the 3rd conference against maritime piracy. The theme of the conference was “Anti-Piracy: A Continuing Task to Build Regional Capacity.”
Saudi Arabia is known for its active role in combating piracy around the world, as it greatly affects local and international sales of goods in the entertainment industry.
Last year, the government adopted the Unfair Competition Law (UCL) to further boost the Kingdom’s campaign against piracy.
Mideast task force needed to fight Somali piracy, says expert
17 Sept- Source: Al Arabiya English-651 Words
A naval task force formed mainly of Middle Eastern states is required to fight piracy off the Somali coast, says a prominent UK-based academic.
Peter Lehr, a lecturer in terrorism studies at the University of St Andrews, emphasized the need for an “enduring process and an enduring institution” to deploy naval ships and smaller coastguard vessels in the Gulf of Aden. Lehr, who is currently writing a book on the history of piracy, told Al Arabiya that the countries that should join such a force include Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Oman.
“Saudi Arabia should probably be [the leader of such a taskforce], because they have the biggest navy in this area,” said Lehr. Countries on the East coast of Africa do not have sufficient capabilities to fight piracy, he added. “Nearly all the way down to South Africa, you have almost no state with naval assets. South Africa’s the only one, but they are too far away and not interested in the Middle East,” he said.
Naval patrols by European Union member states, Japan, South Korea and Russia, among others, have helped decrease piracy incidents in recent years, according to the expert. But Middle Eastern countries should now step in, said Lehr.
Lubna leads UAE delegation to New Deal conference on Somalia
17 Sept- Source: Emirates News Agency- 180 words
The UAE Minister of Development and International Co-operation, Sheikha Lubna Bint Khalid Al Qasimi, has affirmed the UAE government’s support to the aims of the international conference dubbed “New Deal for Somalia” which sought to mobilise assistance to the federal Somali government drive the country’s economic and political recovery.
Al Qasimi, who led the UAE delegation to the conference, said the Brussels meeting had clear foundations for the development of the state in Somalia.
Officials and delegations from 50 countries and organisations took part in the New Deal Conference which discussed a roadmap to peace and stability in the Horn of Africa country.
INTERNATIONAL MEDIA
Somalia welcomes outcome of int’l aid conference
18 Sept- Source: Xinhua- 236 words
The Somali government on Tuesday welcomed the results of the international conference on rebuilding the war-torn horn of Africa nation following pledges of nearly 2.4 billion U.S. dollars to help in the country’s recovery.
A Somali government delegation led by President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud attended the meeting, which he co-chaired with Catherine Ashton, the European Union Foreign Policy Chief.
“The now concluded conference on Somalia in Brussels is a step towards rebuilding of the country and is Somali-owned plan. We worked to involve Somalis of various walks of life in this plan,” Somali Prime Minister Abdi Farah Shirdon said.
Increasing aid to Somalia insults British taxpayers
18 Sept – Source: Express News – 221 words
EARLIER this week the Director of Public Prosecutions announced that benefit fraudsters would now be treated like any other thieves and could face prison sentences of up to 10 years. That makes a lot of sense.
Fraud needs to be stamped on – especially when hardworking taxpayers cash is being stolen. But when it comes to endemic fraud there’s another area that makes welfare cheating look like small fry. And yet far from prosecuting the thieves they are now being handed even more loot. It’s foreign aid.
The Government has just announced that it is going to hand over another £50million to Somalia. That makes a total of £130million so far this year. It takes a special kind of genius to find the area of spending most rife with fraud and then increase it. But that’s what the coalition is doing.
As part of David Cameron’s so-called “detoxification” of the Conservative brand when he was in opposition he pledged that aid spending would reach 0.7 per cent of GDP if he became PM. Even in times of plenty it was a ridiculous idea. It’s all very well wanting to help those of our fellow human beings who aren’t as lucky as us – a laudable aim. But the evidence that foreign aid isn’t the way to do that is overwhelming.
Breakaway Somaliland hopes to become gateway for Horn of Africa
17 Sept- Source: Financial Times-713 Words
The wreckage of fighter jets and goats nibbling the grass alongside the newly laid tarmac at Somaliland’s small Hargeisa airport hardly suggest the territory is about to become an infrastructure hub for the region.
But authorities in the breakaway coastal nation in the Horn of Africa say the recently unveiled $10m Kuwaiti-funded makeover of its two airports is just the beginning. They hope the investment will kick-start its efforts to become the new gateway for landlocked Ethiopia’s 92m people, developing connections by road, rail, air and sea in a nation at the meeting point of the African and Arab worlds.
“We believe [developing our export infrastructure] would contribute a lot to the region in terms of our strategic location and help the region’s trade,” says foreign minister Mohamed Bihi Yonis of the territory, which already exports millions of dollars of livestock across the Gulf of Aden to Yemen and Saudi Arabia. In recent months, bottlenecks at ports in Mombasa, Dar es Salaam and Djibouti have highlighted the demand for better infrastructure in a fast-growing region.
Somalia’s epidemic of rape and sexual violence – An interview with the President
15 Sept- Source: ENDFGMamnesty- 11:30 min
Somali President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud speaks with Ifrah Ahmed, Somali activist living in Ireland and a ‘Strong Voice’ of the END FGM European Campaign. They discuss the extreme dangers faced by women on a daily basis – rape, sexual violence, female genital mutilation, the expectations of the diaspora women and the commitments of the Somali government to the international community, ahead of the high level conference in Brussels for a ‘New Deal for Somalia’. Interview recorded on 15 September 2013. A full, unedited version will be available shortly.
SOCIAL MEDIA
CULTURE / OPINION / EDITORIAL / ANALYSIS / BLOGS/ DISCUSSION BOARDS
“After 20 years of perpetual violence in Somalia, the death of one militant (American or not) will not overwhelmingly change the current situation in the Horn of Africa. As long as al Shabaab can continue to operate among ordinary Somalis and seek safe haven in the south, al Shabaab will remain the largest obstacle to peace and stability in Somalia. Despite the international community’s commitment to a “New Deal” for Somalia at a donor conference this week, combating al Shabaab will take more than foreign assistance pledges.”
Security Remains Elusive in Somalia
17 Sept- Source: Heritage Blog-441 Words
Al Shabaab, the al Qaeda-linked group operating out of Somalia, has reportedly lost one of its most visible fighters, Omar Hammani, an American born and raised in Daphne, Alabama. Hammani is believed to have been killed on September 12. He moved to Somalia in 2006 to fight for al-Shabaab and was added to the FBI’s most wanted list last year with a $5 million bounty on his head. Hammani was notorious for “his rap-filled propaganda” videos and foreign recruiting abilities. Reports claim that Hammani had a falling out with the leader of al Shabaab and that a rival faction seeking to focus primarily on internal violence in Somalia may have killed him.
While Somalia and Hammani’s Western targets are better off without him, the bounty on Hammani’s head highlights the formidable security threat al Shabaab poses to our partners in the region. The United Nations Monitoring Group on Somalia and Eritrea issued a report in July calling al Shabaab “the principal threat to peace and security in Somalia.”
“Donors, diplomats and supplicating Somali politicians met in Brussels on Monday to raise money for Somalia, which needs it desperately. The meeting was dismissed by al Shabaab (who weren’t invited) as nothing more than a Belgian waffle. Still, when it comes with $2.4-billion of extra sugar, this is one Belgian waffle we should probably take seriously.”
Saving Somalia, one Belgian waffle at a time
18 Sept- Source: Daily Maverick-844 Words
Whatever you happen to think of Somali Islamist militant group al Shabaab (little of it good, I imagine), they certainly have a way with words. The young, foreign-educated diaspora returnees who man their ever-changing Twitter account (every time it gets suspended they start a new one) rarely miss a chance for a clever insult or turn of phrase, and their reaction to the big donor conference in Brussels was no exception.
“It’s a bit like Belgian Waffles: sweet on the outside but really has not much substance to it,” the group tweeted. Usually, I’d agree. These international talk shops with their headline-grabbing pledges tend to make news rather than any real progress. This time, however, might be different.
The conference, organised by the European Union, was designed to give Somalia’s relatively new and inexperienced government access to money. Big money. The kind of funding necessary to drag Somalia down from its perch as Most Failed State in the Failed States Index. It was also a recognition of the progress that Somalia has (allegedly) made over the past year or so. With a new government in place, al Shabaab on the defensive and the faintest shoots of an economic recovery in place, everyone is starting to plan for the future.
Top tweets
@IOM_news IOM teams up w/ @panasonic to light up the lives of IDPs in #Somalia & help fight gender-based violencehttp://ow.ly/oYqsL @UN_Women
@SimaBahousUNDP #UNDP Brussels: #Somalia New Deal Compact with strong int’l commitment will help stimulate stabilization, development & sustainable security
@xisbigashacabka #Somalia needs to create a board of directors made up of donors, civil society members and mainly government officials to manage EU Funds
@EdPomfret Gd summary of remittances to #Somalia issue by@KatrinaManson feat @Oxfam‘s @ScottTPaulhttp://video.ft.com/
@ferigom69 Albedo master and family recount the real human cost of piracy | @scoopit http://sco.lt/6hjWEL #somalia #piracy
Image of the day
Somali parliament speaker, Prof. Mohamed Sheikh Osman ‘Jawari’ is welcomed by elders after visit to Baidoa, the administrative capital of Bay region, south-central Somalia. Photo: Hiiraan Online