Newly elected Somali parliamentarians have concluded the election of the Speakers and Deputy Speakers of the Upper and Lower Houses of the federal Parliament.
The three-day exercise to elect the speakers took place in Mogadishu, secured by the Somali security forces supported by the African Union Transition Mission in Somalia (ATMIS).
On Tuesday, the legislators re-elected veteran lawmaker Abdi Hashi Abdullahi as Speaker of the Senate, the Upper House of the bi-cameral Parliament.
In his victory speech, Abdi hailed the senators for participating in the election. He also reminded them of the duty to effectively draft laws to address national challenges.
“There are challenges our country faces, such as the prevailing drought situation. I am certain we will address these challenges since we have established the House leadership,” Abdi noted.
The senators also elected Ali Shaban Ibrahim and Abdullahi Ali Tima’adde as first and second deputy Speakers, respectively.
On Thursday, lawmakers chose Sheikh Adan Mohamed Nur, alias Madobe, as Speaker of the House of the People, which is the Lower House of the federal Parliament.
The House of the People also elected Sadiya Yasin Samatar as the First Deputy Speaker. She became the first-ever woman to hold the position. Abdullahi Omar Abshirow was also elected Second Deputy Speaker of the House of the People.
In a speech after his election, the Speaker of the House of the People, Sheikh Adan, noted the security and political challenges facing Somalia and pledged to promote inclusive politics.
“We are committed to leading the country towards reforms, restoring order and ending the suffering of the Somali people,” he said.
The election of the country’s parliamentary leadership paves the way for presidential elections and the conclusion of the electoral process.
Somalia’s federal Parliament elects speakers, deputy speakers
Vaccine-preventable disease outbreaks on the rise in Africa
Africa is witnessing a surge in outbreaks of vaccine-preventable diseases over the past year.
Almost 17 500 cases of measles were recorded in the African region between January and March 2022, marking a 400% increase compared with the same period in 2021. Twenty African countries reported measles outbreaks in the first quarter of this year, eight more than that in the first three months of 2021.
Outbreaks of other vaccine-preventable diseases have also become more common. Twenty-four countries confirmed outbreaks of a variant of polio in 2021, which is four more than in 2020. In 2021, 13 countries reported new yellow fever outbreaks in the African region, compared to nine in 2020 and three in 2019.
Inequalities in accessing vaccines, disruptions by the COVID-19 pandemic including a huge strain on health system capacities impaired routine immunization services in many African countries and forced the suspension of vaccination drives.
“The rise in outbreaks of other vaccine-preventable diseases is a warning sign. As Africa works hard to defeat COVID-19, we must not forget other health threats. Health systems could be severely strained not only by COVID-19 but by other diseases,” said Dr Matshidiso Moeti, the WHO Regional Director for Africa. “Vaccines are at the heart of a successful public health response, and as countries restore services, routine immunization must be at the core of revived and resilient health systems.”
Two doses of the measles vaccine provided on schedule results in long lasting protection against the potentially deadly disease. Countries are expected to attain and maintain measles vaccination coverage of 95% with two doses to reach measles elimination. In 2019, six countries in the African region attained 95% coverage with first dose measles vaccination, while only three met this target in 2020, according to estimates by WHO and UNICEF.
To urgently scale up coverage and protect children, WHO and partners are supporting African countries to carry out catch-up routine vaccination campaigns, with more than 90% of the 38 African countries responding to a global survey reporting that they implemented at least one routine catch-up immunization campaign in the second half of 2021.
Some countries have successfully integrated other critical immunization campaigns with COVID-19 vaccination. For example, Ghana integrated COVID-19 vaccination with yellow fever campaigns in December 2021 to curb an outbreak that erupted a month earlier. Nigeria recently launched a vaccine scale-up strategy which guides the integration of routine immunization with COVID-19 vaccination for mothers and their babies.
Mass vaccination campaigns are also boosting COVID-19 vaccine uptake. Between January and April, the percentage of Africans fully vaccinated against the virus rose to 17.1% from 11.1%.
While mass vaccination campaigns are the quickest way to administer a large volume of vaccines, WHO is committed to supporting countries to strengthen essential, primary health care services to deliver COVID-19 vaccines. The longer-term solutions will likely see benefits to communities beyond COVID-19.
“Routine immunization, a long-established practice in many African countries, has been severely strained by the impact of COVID-19. In the wake of this pandemic, we are committed to supporting countries devise smart approaches to scale up both COVID-19 vaccination and restore and expand routine immunization services,” said Dr Benido Impouma, Director, Communicable and Noncommunicable Diseases Cluster at WHO Regional Office for Africa.
WHO held a virtual press conference today led by Dr Impouma and facilitated by APO Group. He was joined by Hon Dr Kailash Jagutpal, Minister of Health and Wellness, Government of Mauritius, and Professor Helen Rees, Executive Director, Wits Reproductive Health and HIV Institute, University of Witwatersrand, South Africa.
Also on hand from the WHO Regional Office for Africa to respond to questions were Dr Thierno Balde, Regional COVID-19 Incident Manager, Dr Messeret Shibeshi, Immunization Officer, Dr Richelot Ayangma Mouko, Medical Officer for the Polio Eradication Programme, and Dr Mory Keita, Incident Manager for Ebola outbreak response in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
Chronic Land Degradation: UN offers stark warnings and practical remedies in Global Land Outlook 2
The way land resources soil, water and biodiversity are currently mismanaged and misused threatens the health and continued survival of many species on Earth, including our own, warns a stark new report from the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD).
It also points decision makers to hundreds of practical ways to effect local, national and regional land and ecosystem restoration.
UNCCD’s evidence-based flagship Global Land Outlook 2 (GLO2) report, five years in development with 21 partner organizations, and with over 1,000 references, is the most comprehensive consolidation of information on the topic ever assembled.
It offers an overview of unprecedented breadth and projects the planetary consequences of three scenarios through 2050: business as usual, restoration of 50 million square km of land, and restoration measures augmented by the conservation of natural areas important for specific ecosystem functions.
It also assesses the potential contributions of land restoration investments to climate change mitigation, biodiversity conservation, poverty reduction, human health and other key sustainable development goals.
Warns the report: “At no other point in modern history has humanity faced such an array of familiar and unfamiliar risks and hazards, interacting in a hyper-connected and rapidly changing world. We cannot afford to underestimate the scale and impact of these existential threats.”
“Conserving, restoring, and using our land resources sustainably is a global imperative, one that requires action on a crisis footing…Business as usual is not a viable pathway for our continued survival and prosperity.”
GLO2 offers hundreds of examples from around the world that demonstrate the potential of land restoration. It is being released before the UNCCD’s 15th session of the Conference of Parties to be held in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire (COP15, 9-20 May).
Says Ibrahim Thiaw, Executive Secretary of the UNCCD: “Modern agriculture has altered the face of the planet more than any other human activity. We need to urgently rethink our global food systems, which are responsible for 80% of deforestation, 70% of freshwater use, and the single greatest cause of terrestrial biodiversity loss.”
“Investing in large-scale land restoration is a powerful, cost-effective tool to combat desertification, soil erosion, and loss of agricultural production. As a finite resource and our most valuable natural asset, we cannot afford to continue taking land for granted.”
Sanctions And Corruption
On 5 November 2018, international media reported that Iran vows to sell oil, bust US sanctions. When he was elected in 2013, Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani sharply criticised his predecessor President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad for widespread corruption, which was partly a result of an attempt from Iran to bypass United States and UN-imposed sanctions.
Before signing the Iran nuclear deal that eased these sanctions in 2015, Iran tried to bypass the United States and UN by selling its oil through undercover government and private channels. This strategy laid the groundwork for unprecedented corruption, which included Iran’s Revolutionary Guard, the police and even privates citizens who sold Iranian oil on the black market. This allowed sizeable fortunes to amass, with millions of US dollars never finding their way to Iran’s tax coffers.
But only two years latter, Rouhani came into office and promised to stop bypassing and establish transparency to fight massive corruption rooted at the heart of the government. Now it seems President Rouhani has forgotten his sharp criticism, which was welcomed by experts and voters. He admits that Iran will bypass sanctions once again “with great pride”. He omits the consequences for the Iranian economy, which is still suffering from the country’s former attempt at bypassing sanctions.
Back in 2007, an international commission of inquiry report revealed that international sanctions are an invitation to all manner of corruption, including money laundering siting Iraq a case in point. More than two decades ago, from 1995 to 2003, the United Nations ran an oil-for-food program for Iraq. The country was then under the iron fist of the then President Saddam Hussein.
What was true back then is just as true today. However, it appears that the United States Treasury has learned from the past. For that reason, it has taken the extraordinary step of publicly detailing a brand new scheme of abuse by naming names.
The Iraq-related UN racket was exposed by a commission headed by former United States Central Bank Chief Paul Volcker. Volcker’s book exposed a scheme that could serve as the plot for a major movie. The central character is a Syrian national Mohammad Amer Alchwiki. He runs a company called Global Vision Group in Moscow. At the core of the scheme, stated the United States Treasury, are the Iranians who are breaking United States sanctions by shipping oil and helping the Syrians to pay for it.
The Global Vision Group has been arranging the shipment of millions of barrels of oil from the National Iranian Oil Company to the Syrian government using vessels insured by European companies. The United States Treasury said: “Since at least 2014, vessels carrying Iranian oil have switched off the Automatic Identification System (AIS) onboard before delivering oil to Syria, as a means of concealing the true destination and recipient of this Iranian oil.”
Then, the Assad government uses the Global Vision Group to assist in moving hundreds of millions of dollars, which originated with the Central Bank of Iran, to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard which serves as paymaster to Hamas and Hizballah. Illustrative of how money laundering schemes operate, the participants in this racket used intermediary companies to hide their operations.
According to the United States Treasury dealings with the Iranians by Alchwiki’s group were managed through a Russian company Promsyrioimport, which is controlled by the Russian Ministry of Energy, and an Iranian pharmaceutical company, with funds coming from the Central Bank of Iran.
The United States Treasury has targeted nine individuals and organizations for sanctions in this scheme, but will this action make any difference? Peter Rudolf, Senior Researcher at German Institute for International and Security Affairs argued that it may well end up forcing the Iranians and Russians to establish new operations to achieve their purposes. But it seems unlikely that the United States action will diminish the determination of the Iranian and Russian governments to support the Syrian regime and to use Iranian oil in the process.
Lain Cameron of Oxford University asserted that sanctions, as we have seen often, and as seen so clearly in this case, push the sanctioned groups and governments into operating schemes through intermediary companies to cover the illicit flows of goods and cash. Bribery becomes a standard part of the process. Cash transfers across borders are hidden as far as is possible, and often successfully.
Frank Vogl, Co-founder of Transparency International and author of a book entitled “Waging War on Corruption: Inside the Movement Fighting the Abuse of Power” underlined that sanctions could be more effective if a far tougher anti-money laundering set of measures were in place by the governments that control all important Western financial centers. According to Frank Vogl, it is ironic that the United States Treasury should be so vigilant and effective in investigating and exposing sanction-busting schemes, and so understaffed and ineffective in exposing illicit financial flows into the United States.
Lain Cameron noted that the United States does not have in place a system that requires the naming of the beneficial owners of shell companies that are controlled by foreign citizens and own investment assets in the United States. The U.K. has this, and it ought to be a model for all countries. Republican and Democrat leaders in both houses of the United States Congress have been giving increasing support to draft legislation that could to a degree resemble the approach that the British have taken.
