September 24, 2015 | Morning Headlines
Somalia: Leaders Send Eid Greetings
23 September – Source: Radio Muqdisho – 147 Words
The President of the Federal Government of Somalia , Hassan Sheikh Mohamud has congratulated the people of Somalia on the eve of Eid day calling upon them to forgive one another. At the same time the president said in respect of the holy days people should support the needy for them to share their happiness with the rest of those celebrating Eid. The President wished the people a happy Eid and for them to reach peacefully the next Eid. The president at the same time sent his condolences to all those who perished during the recent blast and prayed for the deceased and the injured. Meanwhile, the prime minister and speaker of parliament also sent their respective greetings to the people of Somalia on the Eid occasion. The speaker of parliament called on the people of Somalia to aid one another. He said the period of mistrust is currently coming to an end.
Key Headlines
- Somalia: Leaders Send Eid Greetings (Radio Muqdisho)
- Deadly Clan-related Violence Leaves At Least 15 Dead In Northern Somalia (Horseed Media)
- Qardho Gets New Mayor (Garowe Online)
- Somalia Denounces Israeli Attacks On Al-Aqsa mosque (Horseed Media)
- Never A Muslim President? Minnesota Boy 12 Tells Ben Carson He’s Wrong (MPR News)
- Somalia’s Puntland Begins Search For Oil In Offshore Blocks (Bloomberg)
- It Is Proving Impossible To Hold A Fully Democratic Election In Somalia (The Economist)
NATIONAL MEDIA
Deadly Clan-related Violence Leaves At Least 15 Dead In Northern Somalia
23 September – Source: Horseed Media – 155 Words
At least 15 people have been killed in a deadly clan-related violence in Northern Somalia on Wednesday, residents confirm. The battle between local clan militias broke out in Qoriley village of the Northern Sool region in the early morning hours of Wednesday. Reasons that led to the fighting is still unclear but reports say that it is related to land disputes and pasture. Residents and other sources have told Horseed Media that at least 15 people died during the fighting, including militias from both clans and dozens injured.
The clash between the two rival clans has been going on for so long following a land dispute, while the local elders been able to mediate between the groups, a lasting ceasefire has never been achieved, reliable sources added. Since the collapse of the Central government in 1991, Water, pasture and politics have been at the center of sporadic clashes between Somali tribes across the country.
Qardho Gets New Mayor
23 September – Source: Garowe Online – 83 Words
A 29-member city council on Wednesday voted to elect a new mayor and his deputy in northeastern Qardho town, Garowe Online reports. Abdi Saed Osman has gained 20 votes of the 29 cast by councilors against his running-mate, Farah Abdullahi. During the second vote in which Abdirizak Omar Farah and Mohamud Ismael Salad vied for the deputy mayoral post, Farah has been picked. Osman has long served with Puntland State Agency for Water, Energy and Natural Resources, and succeeds Mohamed Saed Isse.
Somalia Denounces Israeli Attacks On Al-Aqsa Mosque
23 September – Source: Horseed Media – 198 Words
Somalia’s Federal government has for the first time strongly denounced Israel’s continued assaults against al-Aqsa mosque and worshipers. In an official statement, Somalia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs condemned the recent conduct of the Israeli forces who trampled the sanctity of the Al-Aqsa mosque in order to allow the access of extremist settlers into Haram Al-Sharif. The ministry further said that the “continued violation of religious sanctities, fuels the feelings of anger and undermines negotiations” and called on Israel to respect religious sanctities.“This kind of acts would only ignite feelings of hatred and an obstacle to resume the peace talks between Israelis and Palestinians,’’ read the statement which was written in Arabic.
Israel seized east Jerusalem, the area where Al-Aqsa is located, in the Six Day War of 1967, and later annexed the territory, a move that has not been recognised internationally.The Al-Aqsa Mosque compound, located in the Israeli-occupied Old City of al-Quds, is a flashpoint holy Islamic site. The location of the compound, known to Jews as the Temple Mount, is the holiest site in Judaism. The mosque is Islam’s third holiest site after Masjid al-Haram in Mecca and Masjid al-Nabawi in Medina, Saudi Arabia.
INTERNATIONAL MEDIA
Never A Muslim President? Minnesota Boy, 12, Tells Ben Carson He’s Wrong
23 September – Source: MPR News – 920 Words
When GOP presidential candidate Ben Carson said a Muslim shouldn’t become a president of the United States, Yusuf Dayur couldn’t remain silent. Listening to Carson’s comments on YouTube troubled Yusuf and asked his mother to grab her smartphone and record him. “This is my response to presidential candidate Ben Carson,” Yusuf began in a calm, soft voice. The 12-year-old Eden Prairie middle-schooler paused. What followed next sounded like a politician responding to the president’s State of the Union address. In two minutes and 20 seconds, Yusuf spoke about race, religion and slavery. He also announced his future candidacy for president of the United States.
“Mr. Carson,” he continued, sitting on a couch in his home, “what if someone told you that you can’t become president because of your color? What if someone told you that you can’t become president because of your race? What if someone told you can’t become president because of your faith? And that’s what you did to me.” Yusuf, who was born in St. Louis Park, then talked about his desire since age 2 or 3 to become president. When he was in preschool, he said, “I would brag to my little, tiny friends that I’m going to be a president one day.”
Then he collected his thoughts and became a bit sentimental. “You basically shattered my dream,” he told Carson, “because you said that a Muslim president cannot become president.” Yusuf pointed out that “back in the ’60s, ’70s during slavery, people would say black people cannot become president.” President Obama broke that barrier. Yusuf wants to break a barrier, too. “I will become the first Muslim president,” he said, “and you will see that when I become president I will respect people of all faiths, all colors and all religions.” The video, which was originally posted to the Facebook page of Yusuf’s mother, has garnered more than 100,000 views and has been shared about 4,000 times.
In a Sunday interview on NBC, Carson said he didn’t believe that Islam was consistent with the U.S. Constitution. “I would not advocate that we put a Muslim in charge of this nation. I absolutely would not agree with that.” In a Facebook post Monday, Carson elaborated on his comments, writing, “I could never support a candidate for President of the United States that was Muslim and had not renounced the central tenet of Islam: Sharia Law.” While Carson’s NBC comments led Yusuf to record his response, his views on American presidential politics go far beyond this one issue.
Somalia’s Puntland Begins Search For Oil In Offshore Blocks
23 September – Source: Bloomberg – 332 Words
Puntland, a region of northeastern Somalia, will conduct a survey of its offshore region to search for oil as the country prepares a licensing round for exploration, the head of the Puntland Petroleum and Minerals Agency said. The government awarded a contract this month to ION Geophysical Corp., based in Houston, Texas, to carry out the survey, Director-General Issa Farah said in an e-mailed response to questions. The company is expected to start work in the fourth quarter, he said.“We are looking to a licensing round,” Farah said. “We hope to inform the industry quite soon.”
Puntland has avoided most of the violence carried out by Al-Shabaab, an al-Qaeda-linked group that has waged an insurgency in Somalia since 2006. The United Nations warned last year that the search for oil in Puntland and neighboring Somaliland, another semi-autonomous area, may inflame territorial disputes in the two regions. Somaliland and Puntland dispute a border criss-crossed by oil concessions that have been awarded to companies including DNO International ASA of Norway and RAK Gas LLC of the United Arab Emirates. In June, Vancouver-based Africa Energy Corp. announced its withdrawal from Puntland because of a disagreement between Somalia and Puntland’s governments about the legitimacy of production-sharing agreements and potential territorial claims on the Nugaal Block in Puntland.
OPINION, ANALYSIS, AND CULTURE
“To the surprise of almost no one involved, Mr Hassan announced in July that a one-man, one-vote election next year will not be possible after all. He cited the ongoing fight with the al-Qaeda-linked Al-Shabaab and the need to maintain national unity. That the government has no capacity to actually conduct a vote in most of the country presumably also figured”
It Is Proving Impossible To Hold A Fully Democratic Election In Somalia
23 September – Source: The Economist – 625 Words
How do you hold an election without registering voters? That is the question confronting Somali politicians—as well as hordes of diplomats, NGOs and other international hangers-on—trying to create a functional government in Somalia, a country of 10m people that has been effectively without state since the fall of its military government in 1991. Somalia has been attempting to build a government since 2007, when an African Union peacekeeping force occupied the country (it was invaded by Ethiopia a year earlier). A provisional constitution was drawn up in 2012, and Hassan Sheikh Mohamud (pictured), a former academic and aid worker, elected president of the transitional government. The process is supposed to culminate in an election next year to create a Somali government with support across the whole country.
To the surprise of almost no one involved, Mr Hassan announced in July that a one-man, one-vote election next year will not be possible after all. He cited the ongoing fight with the al-Qaeda-linked Al-Shabaab and the need to maintain national unity. That the government has no capacity to actually conduct a vote in most of the country presumably also figured. Now that a traditional election has been ruled out, the most likely compromise, says Matt Bryden, a Nairobi-based analyst who was the coordinator of the UN’s Somalia and Eritrea Monitoring Group until 2012, will follow the “4.5” formula. Elders from the four main Somali clans plus various minority clans will act as representative electors. That was roughly how Somalia’s parliament was appointed in 2012–a group of 135 clan elders selected 275 MPs, who in turn elected Mr Hassan. A possible tweak, says Mr Bryden, will be to involve representatives of the Somalia’s 10 “federal member states”, which were also created by the 2012 constitution. The idea is to give anybody with any power a stake in the government’s success.