17 Oct 2011 – Daily Monitoring Report
Key Headlines:
- Kenyan troops ‘move into Somalia to pursue kidnappers’
- Somali gov’t calls for al Shabaab fighters to lay down arms
- Al Shabaab close schools in lower Shabelle
- Somali government denies Kenyans’ entrance
- World Food Day marked in Somalia
- Al Shabaab withdraw from southern cities in Somalia
- Stop wasting lives money in Somalia US report urges
- UK backs war on piracy with Sh368m to build courts jails
- Al Qaeda tries a new tactic in Somalia: philanthropy
SOMALI MEDIA
Somali gov’t calls for al Shabaab fighters to lay down arms
17 Oct- Source: Radio Shabelle- 156 words
The commander of the Somali army on Sunday called for the young fighters of Al shabaab To lay down their weapons and join the TFG.
After trips to some of Somalia regions, Abdulkadir Sheikh Ali Dini, Somali army chief said in a press conference held in Mogadishu that the Somali youngsters fighting alongside al Shabaab must stop violence and embrace peace by taking part in the rebuilding of their country.
The Somali army chief said the TFG is having cooperation at side of the security with regional administrations of Somalia such as Puntland, Galmudug, Ahlu Sunna, And Himan and Heb to strengthen and assure the overall tranquilty and peace in this war-decimated country.
Al Shabaab foreign fighters weakened in Lower Jubba
16 Oct- Source: Radio Mogadishu, SONNA- 158 words
Administration of the Lower Shabelle region of Somalia has said that al Shabaab’s local and foreign fighters have resulted into fleeing most of their key bases after witnessing the rapid government offensive ongoing in the regions of Somalia.
Lower Shabelle District Commissioner Abdikadir Mohamed Noor told radio Mogadishu that foreign fighters were weakened in the latest offensive in Lower Jubba that saw more than sixty al Shabaab fighters killed.
“The foreign fighters for the first time came out in the Lower Juba regions, a sign that they were feeling the effects of the TFG forces’ advancement” said the DC.
The area’s DC appealed to the locals not to house the al Shabaab extremists and also called on the residents to assist the Somali forces with intelligence in relation with the key al Shabaab bases in the region.
Abdikadir also said that the AU peace keepers will soon advance to the regions of Somalia in pursuit of the extremists fighters.
Tension prevails in El-wak, Gedo region
17 Oct- Source: Radio Bar-kulan- 134 words
Tension is reportedly high in El-wak town of Gedo as a violent clash between government forces and al Shabaab rebel group is imminent in the area. Government troops are said to be trooping up in efforts to launch a full offensive against the rebel bases in Busar settlement, 45 KM south of El-wak.
Government officials who sought to remain anonymous confirmed to Bar-kulan that they are willing to attack rebel bases in the area in order to wipe them out of the region.
There has been heightened tension along the Kenyan Somali common borders recently following Kenyan military deployment in parts of Lower Jubba and Gedo region in pursuing rebel fighters who were accused of kidnapping aid workers and foreign tourists in Kenya.
Kenya said its troops were pursuing al Shabaab militants across the border into Somalia.
Al Shabaab close schools in lower Shabelle
16 Oct- Source: Mareeg Online- 101 words
The administration of al Shabaab in the capital of lower Shabelle region, Marke, has on Sunday closed two of the biggest schools in thecity after the school teachers refused to recruit students for the administration, reports said.
Two of the biggest schools in the coast town of Marka, lower Shabelle region were closed today by the rebel group of al Shabaab that controls the city after the schools’ headmasters rejected to register students to be trained as al Shabaab fighters, reports said.
Al Shabaab usually recruits their soldiers from the holy Kuran schools as well as primary and secondary schools in the areas they control.
http://www.mareeg.com/fidsan.
War on al Shabaab
17 Oct- Source: Star FM – 132 words
Tension is high along the boarder as Kenyan military crossed into Somalia to pursue suspected fighters of l Shabaab who have allegedly been linked with a series of kidnapping from Kenya.
Military planes were seen hovering over the Kenya border with Somalia as ground troops reportedly crossed the board to Somalia. Witnesses in Qoqani said they were military bombardments on the positions of al Shabaab.
On Saturday, Defense Minister Yusuf Hajji and his counterpart of internal security Prof. George Saitoti announced an assault on al Shabaab.
The Deployment of Kenyan forces along its border with Somalia had affected the movement of people along the border.
The deployment of the Kenyan forces along its border with Somalia follows the kidnappings of two Spanish citizens working with MSF in Dadaab.
Somali government denies Kenyans’ entrance
17 Oct-Source: Radio BBC Somali Service, Mareeg online- 74 words
The TFG has on Monday denied that Kenyan troops entered into Somali country.
Spokesman of the TFG, Eng.Abdirahman Omar Yarisow, who gave a speech to the BBC, refused that the Kenyan army moves into Somalia.
“Kenya is our neighbor, it gives us support, trains our soldiers but in does not enter our territory”, Eng. Yarisow said to the BBC this morning.
Former military bases operational, gov’t says
16 Oct- Source: Radio Shabelle- 124 words
The military chief Somalia on Sunday disclosed they will repair and make former military bases operational.
Gen. Abdulakadir Sheikh Ali Dini, a Somali army commander, made the comments while speaking at a press conference held in Mogadishu on Sunday.
During his visit to some regions of Somalia, the commander visited and observed former military bases in Galgudud, Mudug and Nugal regions.
He acknowledged the regional administrations of their commitments to keep and take care of those bases for twenty years of civil war.
The government of Somalia will fight anyone seen as a hazard to the nation, the chief army said.
“We are committed to taking care of Somali young people whose lives are endangered by al Shabaab militant group” Dini was quoted as saying.
Djibouti sends aid to Somalia
16 Oct- Source: Radio Mogadishu, SONNA, Risaala- – 141 words
Djibouti government has today donated more than 100 tons of food aid, medicine, tents as well an ambulance to assist the Somali people who are suffering the worst drought in sixty years.
Confirming the arrival of the ship, the Somali Deputy Premier who is also Somali Trade and Industry Minister Abdiwahab Ugas Kahalif and the Djibouti envoy to Somalia Dayib Dubat Roble addressed journalists at the Mogadishu seaport where the handing-in ceremony took place.
The aid was immediately handed over to the Somali National Disaster Management Agency deputy chairman Abdihakim Guled who alongside the deputy Premier and Djibouti envoy thanked the Djibouti government for the assistance they have accorded to Somalia.
The Somali Disaster Management Agency has so far distributed aid to more than 60,000 families in the capital and 140,000 others in drought-stricken South Central Somalia.
World Food Day marked in Somalia
17 Oct- Source: Somali National News Agency- 198 words
Somali Prime Minister Abdiweli Mohamed Ali has yesterday participated in a mass celebration to mark World Food Day. The ceremony took place in Mogadishu and was organized by the Ministries of Fisheries, Livestock and Agriculture.
Addressing participants who attended the ceremony, Somali Prime Minister Abdiweli Mohamed Ali said that it is indeed sad to mark the World Food Day at such a juncture as Somalia is facing the worst drought in sixty years.
Abdiweli Mohamed Ali said that Somalia is suffering from a deadly disaster, adding that lack of rains for the past three years is to blame for the current drought disaster that has claimed the lives of thousands of innocent Somali people.
Al Shabaab withdraw from southern cities in Somalia
16 Oct- Source: Mareeg Online, Radio Mogadishu- 110 words
Reports from Afmadow district of lower Jubba region say that al Shabaab has completely withdrawn from Qoqani and Afmadow itself and that al Shabaab and TFG forces exchanged fire in Qoqani last night.
Afamadow becomes the second city that al Shabaab have vacated without any fighting against the TFG forces backed by Ras Kamboni movement, reports said.
No one knows the exact number of casualties as a result of the shelling in Qoqani last night. This comes as the Kenyan government stated that its forces entered the Somali territory in order to attack al Shabaab, as two female aid workers were recently kidnapped from the world’s largest refugee camp, Dadaab, officials said.
http://www.mareeg.com/fidsan.
Rebels fire on relief trucks in Baidoa, Bay region
16 Oct- Source: Radio Bar-kulan- 143 words
Al Shabaab rebel group in Baidoa has on Saturday night set free twelve people who were detained earlier last week for refusing to return to their famine-hit villages outside the city.
Since their detention, elders and religious leaders in the city have been lobbying for their release and later succeeded after having been in custody for almost a week.
In September, the group forcefully returned drought and famine displaced people back to faminehit villages outside Baidoa, a move condemned by local elders and aid agencies in the area.
Al Shabaab said it is moving people out of camps in the central town of Baidoa ahead of the rainy season so they can prepare to farm.
The rebel group kept behind bars those who allegedly refused to return to their villages.
Meeting on security held in central Somalia
16 Oct-Source: Radio Shabelle, RBC -131 words
A key meeting focusing on Somali security and attended by officials from the TFG, Galmudug and Ahlu Sunna has been held in Galka’yo town, the regional capital of Mudug region in central Somalia.
Officials from Somalia’s semi-autonomous state of Puntland and the United Nations’ Political Offices for Somalia UNPOS have also attended the meeting.
All parts dissected how best the security and tranquility of the war-torn country could be assured by working collectively.
Government and UN officials have imparted documents to the parliament speaker of Galmudug. In the documents, the Galmudug state is to assure peace and start implementing a Roadmap deal which was the outcome of Mogadishu’s consultative meeting.
Galmudug’s parliament speaker Hassan Mohamoud briefed the media saying the meeting shed a light on how the security of Somalia could be improved.
First round of ‘support the peace’ soccer tourney ends in Somalia
16 Oct- Source: Somaliweyn- 454 words
The first phase of a 10-day long futsal for peace tournament which is meant to encourage the stabilization of Somalia’s lawless capital and create friendship among the war-weary Somali youths has successfully concluded in Mogadishu on Saturday afternoon.
The competition, which gathered young boys from 6 districts in the war-devastated capital Mogadishu, is being financed by the Somali Youth League the 2nd which has in the past been using sport as a tool to unite Somali youths and protect them from being monopolized by terrorists in the country.
“We are very cheerful that the first round of the tournament has now come to an end—the youths who are taking part in the tournament are representing their districts but they are all members of the SYL 2 students who have been taught different sport and job skills for the past three months” senior SYL 2 official Farah Hajji Ali told the media.
He said that the peace tournament, which is due to conclude Friday next week, will be a monthly event in a bid to evaluate how the youths are developing in sport. “Next month we hope that our students will also compete in athletics and table tennis” the senior official within the SYL 2nd noted during a press conference on Saturday afternoon.
For his part the president of Somali Football Federation Said Mahmoud Nur said that the SYL was in collaboration with SFF in terms of football promotion in the country and praised the youth group for preferring to use football as a tool to create friendship among Somali youths.
http://www.somaliweyn.info/
Somali forces search a district in Mogadishu’s northern part
6 Oct- Source: Radio Shabelle, Kulmiye and Rissaala- 120 words
The TFG forces on Sunday conducted search operations in Yaqashid, a district in northern part of the seaside Mogadishu city.
In an interview with radio Shabelle, Muhyadin Hassan Jurus, Yaqashid’s district commissioner said government soldiers with the help of African Union peacekeepers searched the district’s neighborhoods.
Mr. Jurus noted that the house of Abukar Omar Adan, a prominent cleric who used to work with former Union of Islamic Courts, was among those fully searched.
He spelled out the aim of the operations was to assure the security and tranquility in the area.
Somali PM warns of desertification of the country
16 Oct- Source: Shabelle- 156 words
The TFG’s PM on Sunday warned of the desertification of nation’s grazing and plantation territories.
Addressing at 66th anniversary of World Food Day, 16 October 1945, Abdiweli Mohamed Ali, the premier of the war-torn country prolonged the environmental problems of desertification.
Ali underlined the repeated droughts are what Somali people have earned in their hands and worked on.
Huge parts of the Horn of Africa nation could turn into a desert land and have no plants if desertification and cutting plants continue, according to Somali prime minister.
The only way Somalia can be out of famine and drought is to develop its agricultural productions and stop desertification, Ali said.
He pointed out that Somalia will not always get aid from the international community if drought is repeated and so the people are needed to look into their interests.
http://shabelle.net/article.
REGIONAL MEDIA
Kenya is giving support in battle with Islamists: Somali government
16 Oct- Source: Coastweek, Xinhua -361 words
Somali government officials on Sunday said Kenyan troops are providing logistical and moral backing to its forces battling with fighters from the militant al Shabaab group which controls southern provinces at the common frontier.
Somali government spokesman, Abdurrahman Omar Osman, said the Kenyan government troops were providing what he termed as “logistical and moral”surpports to the Somali government troops who he said have made considerable gains against al Shabaab fighters.
“The aim of the offensive is to drive the anti-peace elements from the southern regions and our forces have made considerable advances into the provinces previously controlled by the group.
“Kenyan troops are providing logistical, moral and political support to our forces,” the government spokesman told Xinhua.
Osman said the Kenyan troops remained along the common border between the two countries to stop “fleeing militants” from entering.
He called on Kenyan government to tightened security along its border as the government offensive continues against al Shabaab militants.
http://www.coastweek.com/3441_
Stop wasting lives, money in Somalia, US report urges
16 Oct- Source: the Eastern African- 439 words
The chaos in Somalia in the past 20 years has taken as many as 1.5 million lives and cost about $55 billion, according to a new report co-authored by a leading critic of US policy.
The estimated losses include 750 fatalities suffered by the Ugandan and Burundian troops that make up the African Union Mission in Somalia (Amisom), authors Bronwyn Bruton and John Norris calculate.
They also calculate that about $800 million has been spent on the Amisom deployment since its start in 2007, while the military involvement of Uganda, Burundi, Ethiopia and Djibouti has amounted to another $444 million.
The report published by the Center for American Progress, a Washington-based think tank, further reckons that drone strikes, surveillance and counterterrorism have consumed $495 million. “Cash payments to warlords” in Somalia is meanwhile figured to be $105 million.
The international bill for piracy is put at $22 billion. Humanitarian and development aid is said to have totalled $13 billion, and the Somali diaspora is believed to have sent home $11.2 billion in remittances since the collapse of the Siad Barre regime in 1991.
The overall outlay for Somalia may seem “modest” in comparison with the costs to the United States of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, “but what’s remarkable is how little we have to show for it,” Bruton and Norris write.
They cite “a recent confidential audit of the Somali government” suggesting that 96 percent of direct bilateral aid to the government in 2009 and 2010 “had simply disappeared, presumably into the pockets of corrupt officials.”
“The repeated failure of international efforts to produce positive change in Somalia has generated fatigue among donors at a time when Somalia’s needs have never been greater,” Bruton and Norris add.
Piracy costs economy $22b
16 Oct- Source: the Eastern African- 359 words
The cost of piracy to the global economy is estimated at $22 billion, and $804 million of dirty money is estimated to have left Somalia since the beginning of the civil war in 1991.
A report by Centre for American Progress reveals that more than 154 ships were attacked in the first half of 2011 — 21 of those were successfully hijacked, with a total 362 hostages on board.
Countries are increasingly being forced to spend millions of dollars on ransoms, excess insurance premiums for ships travelling through the Gulf of Aden, re-routing ships to avoid high-risk regions, security costs, naval forces and the prosecution of Somali pirates in foreign courts.
These costs are likely to get even higher because the entire Indian Ocean was classified as a war risk zone in January, meaning that ships transiting through the region are subject to excess premiums.
Piracy is not the only illicit source of money in Somalia.
Since the beginning of Somalia’s civil war to the present, $804.4 million has left the country in illicit capital outflow according to watchdog group Global Financial Integrity.
These illicit financial flows include proceeds from bribery and theft by government officials, as well as resources generated through drug trafficking, racketeering, counterfeiting and commercial tax evasion.
About $12.4 million is estimated to have left the country in illicit flows at the beginning of the civil war in 1991.
By 2000, this had risen to $32.9 million, and in 2008 it had surged to $128 million, as pirate attacks intensified in the region.
The report also states the CIA made payments to Somali warlords totalling “hundreds of thousands of dollars” in an effort to capture suspected terrorists believed to be hiding in Somalia.
The cash involved is difficult to ascertain, but the report states that “even a modest $5 million a year in payments over the course of the conflict would suggest that $105 million has been expended in cash payments.
http://www.theeastafrican.co.
Qatar/Somalia: Qatar Charity joins Somalia water project
16 Oct- Source: International Islamic News Agency- 212 words
Qatar Charity has announced that it will provide five vehicles for drilling wells in Somalia.
The project has been organised in conjunction with the Organisation of Islamic Co-operation to help alleviate problems associated with drought in the Horn of Africa which has led to thousands of deaths.
The plan came about following Qatar Charity’s participation in the OIC’s ‘Water for Life in Somalia’ conference, which was held in Cairo earlier this month.
The Qatar Charity delegation was led by the executive director of local development, Mohamed Ali al-Ghamdi, and the director of Asia Programmes, Jamal Blackie.
The organisations which attended the conference pledged to drill 600 artesian wells and provide 12 rigs in Somalia. Each well, ranging in depth from 200 to 400m will provide water for 24,000 people.
The participants also discussed water projects for 11 regions in Somalia, aimed at helping around 9mn people by developing long-term sustainable projects as opposed to emergency intervention.
http://iina.me/wp_en/?p=
Somalia recovery plan on course, says prime minister
16 Oct- Source: Africa Review- 193 words
Somali Prime Minister Abdiweli Mohamed Ali has said that implementation of a roadmap to transform the transitional government into a permanent one was on course.
Prof Ali admitted that the Transitional Federal Government (TFG) faced big hurdles but urged the country to get behind the National Security Stabilisation Plan (NSSP) crafted in early September.
Somalia is struggling to recover from a decades-long civil war after the collapse of Siad Barre’s dictatorial regime in 1991.
“The [Plan] is a precursor to the attainment of good governance and unity,” said the prime minster.
Prof Ali said that he had during a recent trip to the United Nations, US and Europe urged the international community to double aid to Somalia to ensure the transitional government meets the tasks outlined in the roadmap.
The roadmap signed after UN-backed talks provides for the holding of elections in a year and the drafting of a national constitution.
It also earmarks priority areas as the improvement of security, instilling good governance values and reconciliation measures.
The transition government that has been in existence for seven years now has until August 2012 to implement the plan.
UK backs war on piracy with Sh368m to build courts, jails
16 Oct- Source: Business Daily Africa -431 words
The UK government will finance the construction of special courts and prisons in Kenya and four other countries in the region to handle piracy suspects and convicts.
The move is expected to ease pressure on the judicial and corrective system in the country.
The British government said it has committed about Sh368million (£2.25million) to help put up the facilities and train workers under a United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) project targeted at stemming the piracy menace.
“This will fund UNODC work in the prosecution and imprisonment of pirates in Kenya, Mauritius, the Seychelles, Tanzania as well as in Somalia, primarily through the building of prisons and courts and training the people who will work in them,” Britain’s Foreign and Commonwealth Office(FCO) said in a statement on Sunday.
This could be a major lift for Kenya and other countries in the region that have since last year agitated for support from the international community to try piracy suspects citing strain on the existing court system and prisons.
Foreign Affairs minister Moses Wetang’ula said last year the fight against piracy was a global issue and that Kenya may rethink trying pirates on her soil unless the international community accorded the country support.
Piracy off the coast of Somali has cost the shipping industry billions of shillings in ransom payout to secure captured vessels, cargo and crew.
We don’t admit terror agents, says UN
16 Oct- Source: Daily Nation- 408 words
A UN agency in charge of refugees on Sunday absolved itself from blame that it could be allowing into the country members of al Shabaab guised as refugees.
The United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) said the authenticity of refugees entering Dadaab camp is solely the responsibility of the Kenyan government.
Mr Fafa Attidzah, the UNHCR Head of Sub-Office in Dadaad, said the agency only registers refugees recognised by the government.
“Before we admit any refugees, they must first all get recognition from the Department of Refugee Affairs (Kenya).
“I think the question of whether those who come here are genuine or not should be directed to the government,” he said.
Mr Attidzah said that it was the government that first allows refugees in through the border and that “we are always in liaison with the government for this information.”
Mr Attidzah’s comments came as the government approved military pursuit of the al Shabaab terror group which last week kidnapped two Spanish medics from the Dadaab Refugee Camp.
Internal Security Minister George Saitoti on Saturday said that Somalia refugees at the camp would be subjected to screening on suspicion that some of them could be Al Shabaab sympathisers.
http://www.nation.co.ke/News/
INTERNATIONAL MEDIA
Al Qaeda tries a new tactic in Somalia: philanthropy
16 Oct- Source: New York Times- 649 words
Al Qaeda is not known for its philanthropic activities, but this weekend in Somalia the terrorist group appears to have branched into a new business: distributing humanitarian aid.
In a surreal scene, a man with a scarf twisted over his face stood in the middle of a camp full of starving people and announced that he had come to Somalia on behalf of Ayman al-Zawahri, Al Qaeda’s leader, and that Al Qaeda was eager to help famine victims.
“Our beloved brothers and sisters in Somalia, we are following your situation on a daily basis,” said the man, identified as Abu Abdulla Almuhajir.
According to witnesses and photographs from the event, he was surrounded by masked gunmen wearing clean, white vests like aid workers. Mr. Almuhajir presided over mounds of donated grain, in sacks marked “Al Qaeda campaign on behalf of Martyr Bin Laden. Charity relief for those affected by the drought.”
Stranger still, Mr. Almuhajir’s skin was white (his plaid scarf popped open in a few places) and he spoke perfect English, with an American accent. He said that “brothers in Al Qaeda” had brought grain, powdered milk and dates for the famine victims and that Mr. Zawahri had sent him to Somalia with a message of greetings and sympathy.
“Though we are separated by thousands of kilometers, you are consistently in our thoughts and prayers,” he told the Somalis gathered around him on Friday, and witnesses said a similar scene unfolded on Saturday.
Kenya, Somali troops target al Shabaab bases in Somalia
16 Oct- Source: Reuters- 140 words
Kenyan troops have crossed into Somalia and have driven out al Shabaab militants from two bases near the Kenyan border in a joint operation with Somali soldiers, a Somali military commander said on Sunday.
Kenya has said it would hunt the al Qaeda-linked insurgents following last week’s kidnapping of two Spanish aid workers.
Abdi Yusuf, a senior Somali military commander, told Reuters warplanes struck two al Shabaab bases in southern Somalia but could not confirm if the jets belonged to Kenya.
“There have been airstrikes in … al Shabaab bases near Afmadow late yesterday and today. We are heading towards Afmadow now. Al Shabaab have already vacated the town,” he said.
“I can’t identify the military aircraft, but our neighbour Kenya is fully supporting us militarily and our mission is to drive al Shabaab out of the region,” Abdi said.
http://af.reuters.com/article/
Kenyan troops ‘move into Somalia to pursue kidnappers’
17 Oct- Source: BBC- 656 words
Kenya says it has sent troops into Somalia to pursue militants it suspects of carrying out a spate of kidnappings.
Government spokesman Alfred Mutua said troops were targeting Somali al-Shabab militants across the border.
But a Somali diplomat at the United Nations told the BBC that if the reports were true it would be a violation of Somalia’s sovereignty.
Several Westerners have been seized in Kenya by suspected Somali militants and taken into Somalia.
Two Spanish aid workers were abducted from Kenya’s sprawling Dadaab refugee camp on Thursday.
A British woman and a French woman have been kidnapped from remote beach resorts over the past month, dealing a major blow to Kenya’s tourism industry.
The first secretary of Somalia’s mission to the United Nations, Omar Jamal, said if confirmed, a military incursion by Kenya would be “a very serious territorial intrusion by a foreign country”. “We understand the Kenyan concerns very well,” he said.
“However if any action is to be taken… the Somali government has to be on the same page, the Somali government has to be informed, the Somali government has to know exactly in many details what is going on, otherwise it will be a different story.”
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/
BLOGS/EDITORIAL/CULTURE
Pirates in paradise
17 Oct- Source: the daily beast- 497 words
Somalia’s deadly chaos is spreading across the border into Kenya, where dry land is no longer a refuge from the hostage takers who infest the failed state to the north.
David and Judith Tebbutt planned to wrap up their Kenya vacation in style. After a week in the vast Maasai Mara wildlife reserve, the British couple headed to the powdery white beaches of Kiwayu Safari Village, an exclusive resort on Kenya’s northern coast. Previous guests at its 18 thatched huts have included Mick Jagger and princes William and Harry, but on this particular night the Tebbutts had the place all to themselves. After dinner the 58-year-old publishing executive and his 56-year-old wife, a social worker, walked in the moonlight along the edge of the sea to their secluded $1,720-a-night lodgings.
Shortly after midnight, one of the resort’s watchmen heard a single gunshot. David Tebbutt was found face down across the bed, its mosquito net cradling his head, dead from a bullet through his chest. His wife was gone. Footprints in the sand showed how she had been marched more than a kilometer up the shore to a cove where a skiff had apparently been moored. A search started immediately, but there was little hope of finding her. The resort is only a short distance south of a land that for the past generation has had no law but the gun: Somalia.
The Sept. 11 incident proved to be only the first in a series of unprecedented attacks. Twenty nights later and some 110 kilometers farther down the coast, a gang of Somali gunmen kidnapped Marie Dedieu, 66, a retired French journalist. And last week, even as Kenya’s armed forces strengthened their presence against attacks from the sea, suspected members of Somalia’s militant Islamist group Al-Shabab grabbed two Spanish women who were working for Doctors Without Borders in Kenya’s Dadaab refugee camp, some 240 kilometers inland. The sprawling city of makeshift tents and huts has become home to roughly 450,000 Somalis who have been driven from their own country by war and famine. (A senior Shabab official denied that his group had anything to do with the abduction.)
Somalia’s problems have boiled over and are threatening Kenya, one of the few dependably stable countries in the region. In the past the failed state’s pirates confined their attacks to ships on the open sea, and the Islamists focused their ransom kidnappings on aid workers inside Somalia. Now both groups are making hostage-taking raids on dry land, and the Kenyan nation itself is a victim. Tourism, a mainstay of the economy, was already hit hard by the global recession. But since the attacks began, vacationers have canceled their reservations en masse.
Foreign investors have halted funding for major projects until the government sorts out its security problems. And the people whose livelihoods depend on tourism—not only the hoteliers, restaurateurs, shopkeepers, and employees, but their entire communities—have no idea when or if the affluent visitors will ever come back.
http://www.thedailybeast.com/
Somalia through the eyes of a captured spy
16 Oct- Source: the Eastern African- 439 words
The doctrines of the major religions have it that at the end of life what remains of humankind will ascend heavenward.
But science — at least in Jonathan Ledgard’s book Submergence — has it that the disassembled remains of the human species will be washed into the seas and oceans where we will have to accommodate ourselves to realms to which we are not evolved.
To read Submergence is to delve into the unimaginable and at the same time drift into meditation on formless utopia.
It is a heady trip to the netherworld where acid-feeding bacteria and microbial organisms dwell. And yet it is not science fiction.
It is a love story about James More, an Englishman captured spying on jihadists operating from Somalia and Danielle Flinders, a half-French bio-mathematician preparing to dive 3,000 miles to the bottom of the Greenland Sea to do research on life in the lowest strata.
The story is built around More’s ruminations in the solitude of captivity on the woman he loves.
From wounded angels borne on a litter to the very gates of Hades, the imagery is evocative, haunting even.
No sooner are you embraced in the folds of the masterful narrative bordering on poetry than the page flips to a science lesson 3,000 metres under the sea — doomsday lessons on how oceanography is bound to affect our lives even more than HIV and global warming. The reader is taken through musings on religion and art, djinns, the supernatural and a myriad other subliminal realms; it requires a fairly solid grasp of European literature and culture to keep up.