Thursday  31-Oct-2024 {HMC} Political leaders in Somalia agreed Wednesday on a framework for the country’s first national one-person, one-vote elections, a government statement said.

The decision followed marathon monthlong talks led by Somali President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud that saw the withdrawal of Jubaland President Ahmed Mohamed Islam, also known as Madobe, from the National Consultative Council meeting in Mogadishu.

Somalia’s government and federal member states said Wednesday that direct universal suffrage would be introduced with local elections set for June 2025.

The agreement signed by Prime Minister Hamza Abdi Barre, the leaders of three regional states and Mogadishu’s governor laid out a path to nationwide one-person, one-vote elections.

“The leaders agreed to introduce national elections, where citizens will vote for their leaders, starting with the local, regional and municipal elections set for June 2025,” read a communique released at the end of the meeting in Mogadishu.

“The election of parliamentary and presidential leaders of the Federal Member states will be held on September 2025,” the statement said.

The members of NCC also have ordered the completion of Somalia’s National Independent Electoral Commission to facilitate the electoral process.

Opposition stand

In March, Somalia’s parliament unanimously approved a bill overhauling the country’s electoral system to reintroduce universal suffrage, a plan that has been criticized by some leading politicians.

The leaders of two federal member states, the Puntland President Said Abdullahi Deni and Jubaland President Islam, opposed Wednesday’s decision.

Unlike Islam, who stepped out of the NCC meetings two weeks ago, Deni repeatedly said that Puntland no longer would recognize federal institutions, accusing President Mohamud of violating the constitution and losing his legitimacy.

Additionally, prominent Somali opposition leaders, including former President Sharif Sheikh Ahmed, former Prime Minister Hassan Ali Khaire, and MP Abdirahman Abdishakur Warsame, have vehemently condemned Wednesday’s decision, calling it illegal.

“The decision illegally extends the terms of the regional presidents, threatens the national stability, the efforts of building good governance,” according to a statement from the opposition. “We will never accept it.”

The country has not had nationwide one-person, one-vote elections since 1969, when dictator Siad Barre seized power.

Mohamud was elected by lawmakers in May 2022 and previously said the next national elections would be by universal suffrage.

Currently, voting follows a complex, indirect model where state legislatures and clan delegates pick lawmakers for the national parliament, who in turn choose the president.

UN Security Council

Wednesday’s agreement comes on the heels of another significant development for Somalia.

The United Nations Security Council adopted a resolution on Wednesday facilitating the transition of the U.N. Assistance Mission in Somalia, or UNSOM, to the U.N. Country Team, or UNCT.

This shift, prompted by a formal request from the Somali government, presented by the United Kingdom, received unanimous support from all 15 member states of the council. It establishes that during this transition phase, the U.N.’s support activities in Somalia will be rebranded as the U.N. Transitional Mission in Somalia, or UNTMIS.

According to the resolution, the transfer of responsibilities from UNSOM to UNTMIS, alongside national authorities, will commence on November 1, and is anticipated to conclude by October 31, 2026.

U.K. Ambassador to the U.N. Barbara Woodward characterized the passage of the resolution as the “beginning of a crucial period for Somalia.”

“UNSOM has played an important role since its inception in 2013, supporting peace building and state building in Somalia through implementing its good offices, policy guidance, coordination, technical assistance and capacity building functions,” she said.

SOURCE 

By Mohamed Olad Hassan

Thursday  31-Oct-2024 {HMC} Somalia has announced the expulsion of an Ethiopian diplomat, marking a further souring of relations between the neighbouring countries related to a port deal Addis Ababa has been negotiating with the breakaway region of Somaliland.

Somalia’s foreign affairs ministry said on Tuesday that Ali Mohamed Adan, a counselor at the Ethiopian embassy in Mogadishu, had intervened in Somali state affairs and was being given 72 hours to leave the country.

Here are details about the mounting standoff between the two Horn of Africa nations:

WHY IS SOMALIA UPSET WITH ETHIOPIA?

Somalia was infuriated when Ethiopia signed a memorandum of understanding earlier this year to lease a port from the breakaway region of Somaliland in exchange for possible recognition of its independence.

Somalia considers the deal, which has yet to be finalised, an assault on its sovereignty. Since breaking away in 1991, Somaliland has not been recognised as independent by a single nation.

Turkey has mediated two rounds of talks since July between Somalia and Ethiopia over the deal, but no resolution has been reached and a third round that was planned for September was cancelled.

WHO ARE SOMALIA’S ALLIES IN THE DISPUTE?

Somalia has worked hard to mobilise international support for its sovereignty over Somaliland. The row has drawn it closer to Egypt, which has bitterly opposed Ethiopia’s construction of a large hydro dam on a tributary of the Nile River for years.

In August, Egypt delivered its first military aid to Somalia in more than four decades after the MOU was signed.

Somalia has also deepened ties with Ethiopia’s historic enemy Eritrea, which seceded from Ethiopia in 1993 and fought a bloody border war with its former ruler from 1998-2000.

Earlier this month, Somalia signed a security cooperation deal with Egypt and Eritrea that was seen as aimed at presenting a common front against Ethiopia.

WHAT IS ETHIOPIA’S POSITION?

Ethiopia, a landlocked nation, wants access to the Red Sea to set up a naval base and commercial port. The country currently relies on neighboring Djibouti for most of its maritime trade, which Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed has said is too costly.

While Somalia may hope tactics like aligning with Ethiopia’s rivals will persuade Ethiopia to withdraw from the MOU, they could instead spur
Addis Ababa to double down on its position, said Matt Bryden, a strategic adviser to the Sahan think tank.

WHY IS THE STANDOFF WORRYING?

The region sits in a strategic maritime location adjacent to some of the world’s busiest shipping lanes. Ships plying those routes have faced months of attacks by Yemen’s Houthi militia, and any conflict in the Horn of Africa could further cripple commercial shipping in the area.

The Horn of Africa is also grappling with the threat from al Qaeda affiliate al Shabaab.

Somalia has said that if Ethiopia does not renounce the port deal it will expel the up to 10,000 Ethiopian soldiers stationed in Somalia by the end of the year. The Ethiopian troops are there both as part of a peacekeeping mission and, on a bilateral basis, in order to counter al Shabaab.

Doing so could result in a security vacuum that would likely be exploited by Shabaab fighters, said Omar Mahmood, a senior analyst with the International Crisis Group.

SOURCE 

By Sonia Rao

Thursday  31-Oct-2024 {HMC}  Flash floods in Spain turned village streets into rivers, ruined homes, disrupted transportation and killed at least 95 people in the worst natural disaster to hit the European nation in recent memory.

Rainstorms that started Tuesday and continued Wednesday caused flooding across southern and eastern Spain, stretching from Malaga to Valencia. Muddy torrents tumbled vehicles down streets at high speeds while debris and household items swirled in the water. Police and rescue services used helicopters to lift people from their homes and rubber boats to reach drivers stranded atop cars.

Emergency services in the eastern region of Valencia confirmed a death toll of 92 people on Wednesday. Another two casualties were reported in the neighboring Castilla La Mancha region, while southern Andalusia reported one death.

“Yesterday was the worst day of my life,” Ricardo Gabaldón, the mayor of Utiel, a town in Valencia, told national broadcaster RTVE on Wednesday. He said six residents perished and more are missing.

“We were trapped like rats. Cars and trash containers were flowing down the streets. The water was rising to 3 meters (9.8 feet),” he said.

Spain’s government declared three days of mourning starting Thursday.

“For those who are looking for their loved ones, all of Spain feels your pain,” Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez said in a televised address.

Rescue personnel and more than 1,100 soldiers from Spain’s emergency response units were deployed to affected areas. Spain’s central government set up a crisis committee to coordinate rescue efforts.

Javier Berenguer, 63, escaped his bakery in Utiel when crushing water threatened to overwhelm him. He said it rose to 2.5 meters (8.2 feet) inside his business, and he fears his livelihood has been destroyed.

“I had to get out of a window as best I could because the water was already coming up to my shoulders. I took refuge on the first floor with the neighbors and I stayed there all night,” Berenguer told The Associated Press. “It has taken everything. I have to throw everything out of the bakery, the freezers, ovens, everything.”

María Carmen Martínez, another Utiel resident, witnessed a harrowing rescue.

“It was horrible, horrible. There was a man there clinging to a fence who was falling and calling people for help,” she said. “They couldn’t help him until the helicopters came and took him away.”

One Valencia town, Paiporta, suffered exceptional loss. Mayor Maribel Albalat told RTVE that over 30 people died in the town of some 25,000 people. Those included six residents of a senior residence. News media broadcast footage of seniors in chairs and wheelchairs at a Paiporta nursing home, some crying out in apparent terror as the water rose over their knees.

“We don’t know what happened, but in 10 minutes the village was overflowing with water,” Albalat said.

Spain’s national weather service said it rained more in eight hours in Valencia than it had in the preceding 20 months, calling the deluge “extraordinary.”

Located south of Barcelona on the Mediterranean coast, Valencia is a tourist destination known for its beaches, citrus orchards, and as the origin of the rice dish, paella. The region has gorges and small riverbeds that spend much of the year completely dry but quickly fill with water when it rains. Many of them pass through populated areas.

As the floods receded, thick layers of mud mixed with refuse made some streets unrecognizable.

“The neighborhood is destroyed, all the cars are on top of each other, it’s literally smashed up,” Christian Viena, a bar owner in the Valencian village of Barrio de la Torre, said by phone. “Everything is a total wreck, everything is ready to be thrown away. The mud is almost 30 centimeters (11 inches) deep.”

Outside Viena’s bar, people were venturing out to see what they could salvage. Cars were piled up and the streets were filled with clumps of water-logged branches.

Spain has experienced similar autumn storms in recent years. Nothing, however, compared to the devastation over the last two days, which recalls floods in Germany and Belgium in 2021 in which 230 people were killed.

The death toll will likely rise with other regions yet to report victims and search efforts continuing in hard-to-reach places.

“We are facing a very difficult situation,” minister of territory policies Ángel Víctor Torres said. “The fact that we can’t give a number of the missing persons indicates the magnitude of the tragedy.”

Spain is still recovering from a severe drought and has registered record high temperatures in recent years. Scientists say increased episodes of extreme weather are likely linked to climate change. The prolonged drought makes it more difficult for the land to absorb high volumes of water.

The storms also unleashed a rare tornado and a freak hailstorm that punched holes in car windows and greenhouses.

Transport was also affected. A high-speed train with nearly 300 people on board derailed near Malaga, although rail authorities said no one was hurt. High-speed train service between Valencia city and Madrid was interrupted, and the transport ministry said it could take up to four days to restore highspeed service to the capital due to the damage done to the line. Bus and commuter rail lines were likewise interrupted. Many flights were cancelled Tuesday night, stranding some 1,500 people overnight at Valencia’s airport. Flights resumed Wednesday.

Soccer games involving Valencia and Levante were canceled and players from Barcelona and Madrid held a moment of silence for victims of the flood before training Wednesday.

Valencian regional President Carlos Mazón urged people to stay at home, saying travel by road was difficult due to fallen trees and wrecked vehicles. Rescue efforts were hampered by downed power lines and power outages, and the regional emergency service responded to some 30,000 calls, Mazón said.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen told reporters in Brussels that the EU will “help coordinate the rescue teams” using its Copernicus geo-monitoring satellite system.

Some residents appealed for news of their missing loved ones via social media, television and radio broadcasts.

Leonardo Enrique told RTVE that his family searched for hours for his 40-year-old son, Leonardo Enrique Rivera, who was driving a delivery van when the rain began. His son sent a message saying his van was flooding and that he had been hit by another vehicle near Ribarroja, an industrial town that is among the worst affected, Enrique said.
___

Wilson reported from Barcelona and Medrano from Madrid. AP journalist Lorne Cook in Brussels contributed to this report.