September 5, 2013 | Daily Monitoring Report.
Explosions heard in Mogadishu during night time
05 Sept – Source: Radio Dalsan/Garowe Online/Shabelle/Bar-kulan – 142 words
At least ten bomb explosions were heard in numerous districts of Mogadishu on Wednesday night as the police of the federal government of Somalia launched a massive security operation.bThe explosions which seemed to be related were heard during evening hours on Wednesday night.
Two bomb explosions hit near the main Mogadishu airport and the busy KM4 junction where the Somali police commissioner and security forces were. No casualties were reported. Several other hand grenades targeted Hodan, Yaaqshiid and Hamarweyne neighborhoods.
Meanwhile police spokesman Gen. Mohamed Yusuf Madaale said one suicide bomber was killed by the security forces before he has approached at a police checkpoint at KPP junction of Hodan neighborhood. The police spokesman also confirmed the arrest of dozens of al Shabaab suspects during a night hunt operation in the main Bakara market.
Key Headlines
- Explosions heard in Mogadishu during night time (Radio Dalsan/Garowe Online/Shabelle/Bar-kulan)
- Puntland sets condition on talks with the federal government (Raxanreeb)
- Speaker Jawari condemns killing of traditional elder in Baidoa (Radio Dalsan)
- President Hassan returns back to Mogadishu (Raxanreeb/SNTV)
- Emirates Post links Somali Post with world (Gulf News)
- Al-Amriki alive severs ties with al-Shabaab and al-Qaeda (Sabahi Online)
- Curfew imposed in Towfiq neighborhood (Bar-kulan)
- Judge says she will order alleged Somali pirate released pending trial (Star Tribune)
- Somaliland to boost up educational services to end human trafficking (Raxanreeb)
SOMALI MEDIA
Explosions heard in Mogadishu during night time
05 Sept – Source: Radio Dalsan/Garowe Online/Shabelle/Bar-kulan – 142 words
At least ten bomb explosions were heard in numerous districts of Mogadishu on Wednesday night as the police of the federal government of Somalia launched a massive security operation.bThe explosions which seemed to be related were heard during evening hours on Wednesday night.
Two bomb explosions hit near the main Mogadishu airport and the busy KM4 junction where the Somali police commissioner and security forces were. No casualties were reported. Several other hand grenades targeted Hodan, Yaaqshiid and Hamarweyne neighborhoods.
Meanwhile police spokesman Gen. Mohamed Yusuf Madaale said one suicide bomber was killed by the security forces before he has approached at a police checkpoint at KPP junction of Hodan neighborhood. The police spokesman also confirmed the arrest of dozens of al Shabaab suspects during a night hunt operation in the main Bakara market.
Puntland sets condition on talks with the federal government
05 Sept – Source: Raxanreeb – 132 words
The authorities of Somalia’s semi-autonomous region of Puntland have set a condition on possible negotiations with the federal government of Somalia, RBC reports. The president of Puntland Abdurahman Mohamed Farole said his region will only sit and talk with the Mogadishu-based federal government if the government agrees to return back 31 articles already amended from the country’s federal constitution.
“Before opening any negotiations with the government, they have to agree that they did the amendment, and then they have to be convinced to return back all the 31 articles” President Farole said during an interview with Somali Channel satellite TV.
Farole alleged that the federal government top’s leadership was pushing unnecessary amendments towards the federal constitution which he has attributed to his region’s decision to cut ties with the government early last month.
Speaker Jawari condemns killing of traditional elder in Baidoa
05 Sept – Source: Radio Dalsan – 155 words
Somalia parliament speaker Mohamed Osman Jawari has sent his condolences to family and relatives of elder Malaq Yusuf Ali Sheikh who was assassinated in Baidoa town, Bay region on Tuesday.
“On behalf of the federal parliament and my title as parliament, I want to send my heartfelt condolences to the family and relatives of Malaq Yusuf Ali Sheikh” said Speaker Jawari in a press statement.
Late Malaq Yusuf Ali Sheikh was one of the most prominent elders in Baay and Bakool regions on the southern regions of Somalia. The killing against the elder was also condemned by the regional administration of Baay as the security forces said they were investigating the killing.
Somaliland to boost up educational services to end human trafficking
05 Sept – Source: Raxanreeb – 99 words
The president of the breakaway region on the northwest Somalia said his region will heighten educational services provided by the government as a means to end human trafficking, RBC reports.
Ahmed Mohamed Silanyo, the president of Somaliland, on Wednesday announced a large plan to assist local schools and families to scale up the school enrollment which he said will help the local people turn into education.
Somaliland is one the largest regions affected by human trafficking, which led to an unprecedented number of youth moving from their homeland region in order to gain a better life overseas.
Curfew imposed in Towfiq neighborhood
05 Sept – Source: Bar-kulan – 96 words
Somali Federal government forces have imposed a curfew in Towfiq neighborhood of Mogadishu’s Yaqshid district on Wednesday night. The curfew was imposed after a soldier of the government forces was shot and killed by unknown assistants who immediately managed to escape.
The curfew was followed by a door-to-door search in the district in pursue of the killers. Government officials say investigations are also intended to ensure the security of the district.
President Hassan returns back to Mogadishu
05 Sept – Source: Raxanreeb/SNTV – 101 words
Somali president Hassan Sheikh Mohamud has returned back to Mogadishu on Wednesday after concluding a one day visit to Marka town, the capital of the Lower Shabelle region, RBC reports. The president used a military helicopter to reach Mogadishu.
President Silanyo attends ADMAS University Graduation Ceremony
04 Sept – Source: Somaliland Press/Horn Cable TV – 168 words
HE President Ahmed Mohamed Mahmoud (Silanyo) was the guest of honor at a graduation ceremony held for more than 415 students, the fifth batch to graduate from the various faculties of ADMAS University which was held at Mansoor hotel, Hargeisa.
President Silanyo, speaking during the graduation ceremony, lauded the graduating students for their hard work and diligence and said that they are expected to become leaders in their communities and public services, capable of becoming fully competitive in all sectors and that they are the future of this country hence the need for them to be ingenious when it comes to employment.
He also urged local enterprises to invest in local talents. The Chancellor of ADMAS university Mr. Ixsaan Omar Ismael, speaking during the occasion, also congratulated the graduates.
REGIONAL MEDIA
Emirates Post links Somali Post with world
05 Sept – Source: Gulf News – 164 words
The Somali President, Hassan Sheikh Mohammed, recently received the first international postcards to reach Somalia after a 23-year disruption in postal services, routed via Dubai.
This follows the implementation of an MoU signed in May 2013 between Somali Post and Emirates Post Group, under which Dubai serves as the mail transit hub for Somalia.
Bashar Hussein, Director-General of the Universal Postal Union (UPU), Somali Minister Abdullah Moggi Harsi and Fahad Al Hosani, Acting CEO of Emirates Post Group, wrote messages on the postcards to the President of Somalia. The postcards, posted in Berne were routed via Dubai and then delivered into Somalia.
Ethiopian PM Hailemariam meets Puntland’s President
05 Sept – Source: Walta Information Centre – 138 words
The President of the Puntland State of Somalia, Abdirahman Mohamed Mohamud “Farole” commended Ethiopia’s role in facilitating last week’s agreement between the Federal Government of Somalia and the Juba Interim Administration.
He met with Prime Minister Hailemariam in Addis Ababa on Tuesday to discuss ways to advance security and governance in Somalia. The talks also covered issues relating to the Somali Federal Constitution as well as the economic and security cooperation between Ethiopia and Puntland.
President Farole stressed the need to strengthen security and economic cooperation to develop the sub-region. Prime Minister Hailemariam underlined the need to abide by the Federal Constitution.
Ethiopia and IGAD Member States agreed that this was the basis for reconstruction and reconciliation in Somalia, and for the creation of other federated states, he noted. (Ministry of Foreign Affairs).
Al-Amriki alive, severs ties with al-Shabaab and al-Qaeda
04 Sept – Source: Sabahi Online – 705 words
American-born jihadist Omar Hammami, better known as Abu Mansour al-Amriki, resurfaced Tuesday(September 3rd) and announced his severance from al-Shabaab and al-Qaeda.
News outlets reported that he was killed by fighters loyal to top al-Shabaab commander Ahmed Abdi Godane in May, but al-Amriki contacted Voice of America (VOA) Somali Service on Tuesday after two of his wives were arrested in Dinsor by members from al-Shabaab’s Amniyat unit.
In an interview with VOA, he announced that he was finished with al-Shabaab and al-Qaeda, and said Godane had turned into a dictator.
INTERNATIONAL MEDIA
Judge says she will order alleged Somali pirate released pending trial
05 Sept – Source: Star Tribune – 146 words
A federal judge said Wednesday she will release an alleged Somali pirate ahead of his trial this fall, saying it was “pretty extraordinary” to hold someone presumed innocent in jail for more than two years.
U.S. District Judge Ellen Huvelle said at a hearing that she will issue an opinion Thursday that releases Ali Mohamed Ali. He’ll be subject to 24-hour monitoring while awaiting trial, which is scheduled to begin with jury selection on Oct. 31. Ali is accused of negotiating a ransom payment during a November 2008 pirate takeover of a Danish merchant ship in the Gulf of Aden.
It will be the second time that Huvelle ordered Ali released pending trial. She also did so in July 2012, after the government appealed one of her pretrial rulings in the case. But an appeals court quickly reversed her and ordered Ali back into custody.
Food security gains in Somalia “fragile”
04 Sept – Source: IRIN News – 152 words
Somalia continues to make progress in its recovery from the 2011 famine, but some 870,000 people – most of them internally displaced persons (IDPs) – are predicted to require food assistance up to December 2013, according to new data from the UN Food and Agriculture Organization’s (FAO) Food Security and Nutrition Analysis Unit (FSNAU) for Somalia.
Many parts of the country have experienced average to above average rainfall recently, which, coupled with low food prices and humanitarian intervention, has led to the lowest number of people requiring food aid since famine led to the deaths of more than 250,000 people in southern Somalia in July 2011.
However, experts warn that despite slight improvements, certain populations remain extremely vulnerable to food insecurity; some 206,000 children under the age of five are currently experiencing acute malnutrition – Global Acute Malnutrition rates over 15 percent – down from 215,000 in January.
SOCIAL MEDIA
CULTURE / OPINION / EDITORIAL / ANALYSIS / BLOGS/ DISCUSSION BOARDS
“I would like to reassure Amanda that what she endured is not typical of the Somali people and culture. It was bad luck for her to fall into a den of vultures who continue to prey on helpless Somali women in refugee camps.”
Justice for Amanda Lindhout
04 Sept – Source: Wardheer News – 685 words
“When I describe what happened to me on Aug. 23, 2008, I say that I was taken. On an empty stretch of road outside of Mogadishu, the capital of Somalia, out of the back seat of a four-wheel-drive Mitsubishi by a dozen or so men whose faces were swaddled in checkered scarves. Each one of them carried an AK-47.”
This is how Amanda Lindhout begins to tell her ordeal to the world. An ordeal that she endured with her Australian colleague and three other Somali companions for 460 days: an ordeal perpetrated on them by Somali thugs who lost their humanity in a country that lost its way.
“A Somali businessman breaks pro-nomad.”
Insure a Goat, Save the World
04 Sept – Source: psmag – 293 words
As political insults go, saying a place “could turn into Somalia” has become a particularly nasty bit of shorthand. A few years ago Libya was going to “turn into Somalia,” and now Syria will become this symbolic place of ungovernable chaos, wanton violence, and a civilian population trapped in an economy based on herding goats. In a desert.
Writing from Mogadishu, Somalia, small business advocate Mohamed Ali tries to re-frame that third cliche, of the stone-age nomad, as part of the basis for recovery. Encouraging a “new model nomad” could pay off, he argues.
A billion dollars is the sort of number people will notice. But isn’t Somalia a little dry to actually feed a country off of its production? Nope, argues Ali:
Anyway, this is the economy they’ve got to work with for the moment, he points out. Fifty percent of Somalia’s population make their living from shepherding animals, according to UNESCO statistics.
Top tweets
@MattBryden #Jubba Interim Authority Ahmed Madoobe says he will travel to Mogadishu soon for reconciliation conference#Somalia http://goo.gl/3VlzQn.
@muiska #allafrica Prime Minister Hailemariam Meets Puntland’s President: [Ethiopia Government]The President …http://bit.ly/1cJ1NyO #somalia.
@eu_eeas What is the #Somalia New Deal? http://ow.ly/ovo74 #SomaliaNewDeal #EU.
@Omaar_nor #SOMALIA: Al Shabab’s Omar Hamami quits from Al Shabab, Al Qaeda.
@Cidilibaax Food security in #Somalia remain Vulnerable, 2.3 million the country’s population,remains fragile. #Puntlandhttp://allafrica.com/stories/
Image of the day
Somali President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud swims with government officials at Marka beach, Lower Shabelle region, 04 Sept 2013.