October 7 - Source: AMISOM - 613 Words

The Chairperson of the Commission of the African Union (AU), Dr. Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, today, appointed Ambassador Francisco Caetano Jose Madeira, of Mozambique, as her Special Representative for Somalia and Head of the AU Mission in Somalia (AMISOM), in replacement of Ambassador Maman Sambo Sidikou of Niger. Since 2010, Ambassador Madeira has been serving as the AU Special Representative for Counter-Terrorism Cooperation and Director of the Algiers-based African Centre on the Study and Research on Terrorism (ACSRT), a post he held concurrently with that of Special Envoy for the issue of the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA), from November 2011 to July 2014.

Francisco Madeira served as Ambassador of Mozambique to several African countries, from 1984 to 1989, and diplomatic advisor at the presidency. He was a member of the Government delegation to the peace negotiations with RENAMO, which resulted in the signing of the August 1992 Rome General Peace Agreement for Mozambique. He held ministerial portfolios, having been, from 1995 to 1999, Minister in the President’s Office for Parliamentary Affairs and, from 2000 to 2010, Minister in the President’s Office for Diplomatic Affairs. He has contributed to several peace processes on the continent. In particular, he was the Special Representative of the Mozambican Government to the Great Lakes Region; member of former Presidents Julius Nyerere and Nelson Mandela facilitation teams in the Arusha Peace Negotiations on Burundi (1997 – 2000); Special Envoy of the AU Chairperson (former President Joachim Chissano of Mozambique) to Sao Tome and Principe, following the July 2003 coup d’Etat; member of the Southern Sudan facilitation team in the negotiations with the LRA; and OAU/AU Special Envoy for the Comoros (1999 to 2010). He has been member of the National Parliament of Mozambique from January 2005 to January 2010.

The appointment of the new Head of AMISOM comes at a time when the AU is attempting to expedite the stabilisation of Somalia, so as to pave the way for the successful holding of general elections in 2016. Given his experience in counter-terrorism, Ambassador Madeira is expected to give a new impetus to the campaign to neutralize al-Shabaab and other terrorist groups, building on the tremendous achievements made by AMISOM over the past few years, in particular with the recovery of many of the major cities and other strategic locations of south-central Somalia. He will also assist in the implementation of Vision 2016 developed by the Somali stakeholders.

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NATIONAL MEDIA

Al-Shabaab Says It Burnt Two Battle Wagons After Attack On Ethiopian Convoy

08 October - Source: Shabelle News - 114 Words

Al-Shabaab has claimed the burning of two battle-wagons belonging to Ethiopian troops after an ambush attack near Bardere city in Gedo region, south-west of Somalia on Wednesday afternoon. The attack occurred at El Iaan village, when fighters from Al-Shabaab waylaid the Ethiopian army convoy with rock propelled grenades (RPGs), resulting into hours-long firefight between the two sides, according to the residents. Unconfirmed reports indicate that several Ethiopian soldiers have been killed in the Al-Shabaab attack, but Radio Shabelle could not independently verify the report. Last July, African Union forces captured the strategic town of Bardere from Al-Shabaab following days of ground and air raids on the town, which left dozens of civilians and militants dead.

Federal Government Of Somalia Welcomes The Release Of Universal TV Journalists

08 October - Source: Jowhar News - 124 Words

The Minister of Information, Mohamed Abdi Hayir welcomed the release of the two Universal TV Journalists, Awil Dahir Salad and Abdullahi Hirsi Kulmiye, who were let free on Wednesday after six days in detention. The Minister said in a press statement that the Federal Government welcomes the release of the two journalist, which he termed as a positive step. "The two journalists are currently out on bail, and they are out there enjoying their freedom,” said Mr Hayir. The minister also added that the case is still under investigation by the National Intelligence and Security Agency (NISA). The detention of the two journalists is linked to a program, which was aired last month. The development comes in the wake of major criticism of NISA’s action by Somalis around the world, human rights groups and the international community.

Deputy Prime Minister Hopes Federal Government-Somaliland Talks To Resume

08 October - Source: Garowe Online - 154 Words

Federal Government of Somalia’s Deputy Prime Minister Mohamed Omar Arte has said he is hopeful of the resumption of bilateral talks between UN-backed national government and Somaliland’s separatist administration. He made the remarks while speaking on state-run station, Radio Mogadishu, a few months after talks collapsed over a dispute on the composition of delegates. The Turkish Government has been brokering dialogue with the hope that both sides would arrive at a consensus, mainly on Somaliland’s bid for independence.

"Actually, the talks will kick off soon. In 1960, when [the protectorates] merged, it was a good beginning and we wish that the dialogue would unite Somalis again,” Arte said. Somaliland, located in northwestern Somalia declared its independence from the rest of the country as de facto sovereign state in 1991 but it has not been recognized internationally yet.

INTERNATIONAL MEDIA

Somalia Looks Safer For Yemenis Fleeing State Breakdown

08 October - Source: Bloomberg - 396 Words

Things are so bad in Yemen, some people are fleeing to Somalia. Yet the nation's plight is often obscured by the carnage of Syria and spreading violence elsewhere in the Middle East. The 2011 overthrow of President Ali Abdullah Saleh was meant to be the start of a new chapter after decades of instability and poor governance. Instead, al-Qaeda gained ground while Shiite Houthi rebels took up arms protesting decades of marginalization and seized Sana'a. At least 5,428 people have died since March amid a Saudi-led air campaign to reinstate Abdurabuh Mansur Hadi's government. Nearly 1.5 million others have been displaced and 114,000 have fled.

Even before the conflict, Yemen imported 90 percent of its food. Now a naval blockade has choked supplies and sent the prices of foodstuff soaring six-fold. About 13 million Yemenis have little access to food in a country that already had one of the highest levels of malnutrition in the world; half of them are on the brink of famine and half are eating just one meal a day, if that, according to the UN's World Food Programme. Widespread hunger risks undermining Yemen's progress in reducing its mortality rate to near the global average.

From Somalia to Maine, Radio Star Settles Into New American Life

08 October - Source: Bangor Daily News - 1,279 Words

Abdi Nor Iftin’s journey to Maine started in a tiny shack in Mogadishu, Somalia, watching Arnold Schwarzenegger in "The Terminator.” It was there, packed in a room with about 30 other people, that he learned his first three English words: "I’ll be back.” At an event at SPACE gallery in Portland Oct. 1, Abdi – whose name has achieved "pop star” fame, according to one close friend – said that when he would go to the "theater,” he would always sit near the speaker, rather than the screen, and repeat the words and phrases to commit them to memory. As he learned more English, Abdi said, his friends began to call him "the American.”

But as he grew older and the Islamist terrorist group Al-Shabaab secured power over his home city, his boyhood nickname became an increasingly dangerous one to have. Several times he was threatened for his association with American culture, and eventually he made his friends drop the name. In April of 2011, Abdi returned home to find a bomb had gone off in his room, destroying his bed, the walls and the door. It was nighttime, and it was too dangerous to go back outside, so he curled up in the rubble of what had been his room and went to sleep.

Three years later, Abdi would be lying in a bed in North Yarmouth, wide awake with jet lag, waiting for the sun to come up so he could catch his first glance of America. Abdi came to the United States after winning a visa through the State Department’s U.S. Diversity Visa Program, better known as the green card lottery. Every year about 8 million people around the world enter the contest for about 50,000 winning tickets. Abdi’s story of winning the "golden ticket,” hiding from Kenyan police, bribing officials for necessary documentation, and being initially rejected was recently featured on the public radio show "This American Life.”

Man Charged In Rape Of Girl, 10, Has History Of Mental Illness, Violence

07 October - Source: Star Tribune - 594 Words

A mentally ill man who has been in and out of psychiatric confinement over the past decade was charged Tuesday with raping a 10-year-old girl he followed into a Minneapolis apartment building. Ahmed H. Abdi, of Minneapolis, was charged in Hennepin County District Court with two counts of first-degree criminal sexual conduct and remains jailed in lieu of $500,000 bail. He has a court hearing scheduled for early next month. Abdi has a long and sometimes violent history in connection with mental illness, according to court records.

On Aug. 6, the court ordered Abdi back to the University of Minnesota Medical Center for treatment. A week later, a letter from U Medical Center clinical treatment coordinator Anna Burke to the county attorney’s office endorsed Abdi being provisionally discharged again, writing that he "has endorsed readiness for discharge, no longer meets the criteria for inpatient hospitalization and is in agreement with the discharge plan.”

Burke declined Wednesday to address Abdi’s case and was seeking to have someone with the U Medical Center comment. Abdi’s attorneys were not available for comment. Abdi was committed last fall, and in May, the Hennepin County attorney had his commitment extended to Nov. 13. But according to the county attorney’s office, any provisional discharge would be between the patient, the facility and his case manager.

OPINION, ANALYSIS, AND CULTURE

"Now, the classrooms are empty and closed. Five weeks later, our teachers have laid down their aggressive strike tools and decided to hold their chalks and continue teaching. They have been shouting, "No cheques, no chalks,” demanding a pay hike, which I support fully. The Kenyan government has lost its sense of priority by ignoring important issues. During U.S. President Barack Obama’s visit to the country in July, he emphasized the importance of weeding out corruption as a strategy to boost development. I thought things would change but the script is still the same, and all this comes with a price.”

Lend An Ear To My Plea

07 October - Source: Sahan Journal - 1,131 Words

Enough is enough. The past five weeks have been the hardest time of my life. Imagine walking 10 kilometers a day to go to school only to find locked classrooms without notice. Imagine the pain of an examination candidate in a region that has been constantly overlooked by successive governments. The worst part is that you have no clue when students will step back into class – if they ever will. I am counting days before I sit my final exams for the Kenya Certificate of Primary Education (KCPE) but, folks, I feel like detachment from school is too wide for me to pen those exams. I feel like I have seen it all; everything that an 18-year-old like me does not deserve to go through. Allow me to digress a bit so that you can have a sense of what I am going through. Perhaps you can feel it and create an image out of it.

My name is Adan Mahad. I was born and bred in Madogashe in Garissa County, Kenya. I can bet many of you have no idea of the existence of such a place. Well, it exists and I am proud to be among the villagers who have their origin in this part of my semi-arid county. I come from a nomadic family where looking after livestock is the order of the day. Here, one is judged by the number of livestock he owns – mainly camels. If you own a good number of them, you automatically become a village elder or settle for the title "rich man” in the village. Sadly, we are not close to those incumbent village titles. I come from a very poor family. We are so poor that you cannot define us as "a dollar a day” type of family because that would be a lie – a lie that I would never forgive you for. We live by the grace of Allah.

I am raised by a single parent. My mother passed away many moons ago and my father had to remarry to extend his "empire” and fill the world. I have 13 siblings in total. My younger sister and I are the only ones who have been blessed with the privilege of stepping into a classroom. The rest of my siblings have been assigned domestic chores. Well, that is much better than idly staring at each other. The majority of them are assigned to staring at their domestic riches. My father is largely absent, herding our little skinny goats that survived a severe and protracted famine that nearly impoverished them. He looks after them with all zeal because they are the only hope in the family. This means that he is seen once in a coon’s age.