23 Jun 2011 – Daily Monitoring Report
Key Headlines:
- Somalia president names Somali-American economist as new prime minister
- Government soldiers shoot kill a suspected man in Dherkenley
- UN deputy special envoy on working visit to Puntland
- Somali MPs demand urgent holding of parliament sessions
- Fazul was planning attack on Uganda
Titres Principaux:
- Le président Somalien nomme un économiste Somalien-Americain comme premier ministre
- Des soldats gouvernementaux tuent un suspect à Dherkenley
- Le vice-envoyé special de l’ONU en visite officielle au Puntland
- Des membres du parlement Somalien demandent urgemment le déroulement de sessions parlementaires
- Fazul planifiait une attaque en Ouganda
SOMALI MEDIA
Government soldiers shoot, kill a suspected man in Dherkenley
23 June – Source: Mareeg Online – 191 words
Government soldiers in Dherkenley district in Mogadishu have shot and killed a man suspected of creating insecurity situation in the district, witnesses said today. Several residents said that they had seen the body of a man murdered by the government troops in Dherkenley around 1:00 AM overnight while another one was injured during night security tightening operations continued in the district.
“We could hear the sound of the bullets overnight. It was midnight. We also saw a body of a man. We also heard that another was injured there” said one witnesses. Mo’allin ABdulle Ali Hilowle, the TFG commissioner for Dharkenley district said that the troops got information that three young men were planning to bury a landmine mine near mini market (Suq Liif) in the same district.
He said that their forces captured two of the wounded men as another escaped, adding that one of them died from sustained wounds. As of now, there are no other independent sources confirming that the killed young man was indeed burying a landmine.
Fazul was planning attack on Uganda
New information emerging out of Somalia indicates that documents found in the car of the East African Al-Qaeda leader, killed in Mogadishu two weeks ago reveal that he was planning to attack Kampala and Bujumbura. The commander of the Ugandan peacekeeping contingent in Somalia, Col. Paul Lokech told journalists from Uganda, Burundi and Kenya currently on a visit in Mogadisgu that they had recovered papers from the vehicle Abdullah Fazul was driving, including details of his planned attacks.According to the recovered documents, he had other plans of attacking Kampala and Bujumbura. Col. Lokech said Fazul was travelling to Abdi Aziz district in Mogadishu where foreign fighters have established a new base after they were dislodged from their old camp at the Interior ministry headquarters now occupied by Ugandan forces. “He had come to brief them about the change of command after the death of Osama Bin Laden,” he said. A Ugandan army officer, Lt. Col. Patrick Sihibwa, was killed by al Shabaab near this old base as the militants were trying to recapture the strategic place taken from them by the Ugandan forces on June 4. The African Union peacekeepers have encircled Bakara Market, the largest market in Mogadishu, which is under the control of al Shabaab militants. “We don’t want to shell the market because we know its value to the people of Somalia. But we will squeeze these terrorists to know that they have no option but to get out,” Lt. Col. Anthony Mbusi Lukwago, who is commanding the Hawal wadag sector, said.
http://www.jowhar.com/news.php?readmore=1719
UN deputy special envoy on working visit to Puntland
22 Jun – Source: Shabelle – 240 words
A U.N. delegation led by the Deputy Special Representative of the Secretary-General (DSRSG) to Somalia arrived Wednesday on a working visit to Puntland. The delegation led by DSRSG Mr. Christian Manahl included officers from the UN Political Office for Somalia (UNPOS). The delegation was received at Garowe Airport by Minister of Interior Hon. Abdullahi Jama Ahmed (Ilkajir), Minister of Finance Hon. Farah Ali Jama and Mr. Abdiaziz Mohamed, the UNPOS officer in Puntland.
H.E. Abdirahman Mohamed Mohamud (Farole), the President of Puntland, received the delegation at State House in Garowe. Discussions were fruitful and covered a range of issues, including continuation of the transitional process, the “Kampala Accord”, as well as discussions over the upcoming Somali conference being facilitated by the UN. Mr. Manahl underlined that the first step of the “Kampala Accord” is the resignation of the TFG’s Prime Minister, H.E. Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed. He expressed his hope that the TFG President would soon appoint a new Prime Minister, in consultation with the Transitional Federal Institutions and key stakeholders.
http://www.shabelle.net/article.php?id=7911
Al Shabaab forces radio station off air in central Somalia
22 Jun – Source: Jowhar News – 258 words
Beletweyne, Somalia Militants loyal to the militant extremist group al Shabaab on Wednesday stormed the Voice of Hiiraan radio station in the town of Beletweyne, forcing them to stop their operation, witnesses said. An eyewitness who spoke on condition of anonymity said that early Wednesday morning a large number of militants armed with heavy and light weapons and flanked by military vehicles encircled the station and by force removed all station staff. “Al Shabaab accused the administration of Odka Hiiraan (Voice Of Hiiraan Radio) of airing a religion-based address read by a Somali cleric the group does not like,” the witness told All Headline News by phone.
He said the cleric’s message aired by the station charged that al Shabaab’s actions have no basis in the Islamic religion, which made the militants very angry. He said that the militants also searched the station’s room of religion-related tapes and took all the tapes. “Still, the station is under al Shabaab control as all employees and administration were ordered to leave the town as soon as possible…We don’t know what is next!” he stated. Al Shabaab officials in the Hiiraan region have not released any comments about the action so far.
The extremist group has in the past looted the transmitters of the BBC in Mogadishu, Marka and Kismayo. Al Shabaab also has confiscated more than five local FM stations in the capital and elsewhere in the country.
http://www.jowhar.com/news.php?readmore=1718
Somali MPs demand urgent holding of parliament sessions
22 Jun – Source: Shabelle – 101 words
Some Somali lawmakers have demanded the urgent holding of parliament sessions. After a lengthy meeting held in Mogadishu, the lawmakers said there are a number of agendas which need to be discussed by the parliament. The Somali legislators also said that the so-called Kampala Accord needs to go before the parliament for approval. Ibrahim Habeb Nur, a Somali MP, told reporters in Mogadishu that the leader of the Somali parliament is needed to open ordinary assemblies of the parliament within five days. Mr. Nur threatened that they will meet before the parliament if their leadership doesn’t meet their demands.
One killed, another wounded in the seaside Somali capital
23 June – Source: Shabelle – 119 words
Somali government soldiers on Wednesday night killed at least one person and wounded another in Mogadishu’s Dharkenley district. The government soldiers alleged the killed man was involved in insecurity-related activities. Witnesses confirmed that the TFG forces opened fire on a crowd of people in a small market in Dharkenley, adding that they saw one person lying on the ground dead and another hurt in the shootout. Moallim Abdulle Hilowle, the district commissioner of Dharkenley told Shabelle Radio that Somali soldiers in the district learnt that a group of men consisting of three persons were involved in a planned roadside bomb attacks. He added that what the soldiers did was to prevent those people from committing such a harmful action.
http://www.shabelle.net/article.php?id=7910
REGIONAL MEDIA
Prosecution gets time
23 June – Source: Daily Nation – 52 words
Two of 24 Somalis suspected to be pirates were led from a police cell to an interrogation room at the Port Police Station yesterday. A Mombasa court had earlier granted the state a two-day order to finalize the interrogation and investigation of the suspects. The suspects were remanded in police custody.
INTERNATIONAL MEDIA
Somalia president names Somali-American economist as new prime minister
23 Jun – Source: AP / Reuters / Washington Post – 116 words
Somalia’s president has named a Somali-American economist as the country’s new prime minister. Abdiweli Mohamed Ali, who taught economics at Niagara University in Lewiston, New York, was elevated Thursday from his position as minister of planning and international cooperation. Ali’s appointment puts a highly educated technocrat high within the Mogadishu administration. Ali has graduate degrees in public administration from Harvard and another in economics from Vanderbilt University.
Ali’s predecessor, Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed, was ousted in a deal denounced by many in Somalia. That deal was aimed at ending infighting between President Sheik Sharif Sheik Ahmed and Parliamentary Speaker Sharif Hassan Sheik Aden. Copyright 2011 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Professor tapped for key Somali post
23 Jun – Source: Buffalo News – 525 words
A state worker from Grand Island is out as prime minister of Somalia, and you never would guess whom they got to take over for him. A professor from Amherst. Abdiweli M. Ali, an associate economics professor at Niagara University, will serve as acting prime minister of the troubled country in northeast Africa until a successor can be found for Mohamed A. Mohamed, the local man who resigned the post under pressure earlier this week.
The story has been peculiar from the beginning and gets even more so as it goes on. One Western New Yorker’s improbable rise to prime minister is hard enough to believe, but now two? “I am disturbed by the fact that [Mohamed] is leaving office,” Ali was quoted by news outlets as saying, “but I hope that he will be working with us. I have thus accepted this position until such other time that the government announces a new prime minister.” Mohamed named Ali, 45, to the prime minister’s 18-member Cabinet in November, and Ali has served as minister of planning and international cooperation, as well as Somalia’s deputy prime minister.
Mohamed agreed to step down Sunday, on the condition that Sheik Sharif Sheik Ahmed, Somalia’s president, would appoint his friend from Amherst to succeed him in running the government’s day-to-day operations, said a person familiar with the situation. The president is expected to name a permanent replacement soon, and reports from Somalia indicate that Ali could be selected.
A Somali native, Ali was a research and forecast manager for the Commonwealth of Virginia before joining Niagara’s faculty in 2003. Ali has a master’s degree in economics from Vanderbilt University, a master’s degree in public administration from Harvard and a doctorate in economics from George Mason University. He was a fellow in the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard in 1998 and 1999. Ali has been on sabbatical from Niagara this spring. His wife, Hodan Isse, is a University at Buffalo finance professor. Ali’s interim appointment follows a tumultuous week for Mohamed, the Grand Island father and state Department of Transportation employee who has served as Somali prime minister for nine months.
While Mohamed seemed to be enjoying popular support among the Somali people and soldiers, he was fired in a deal cut by the president and speaker of parliament. Hundreds, maybe thousands of supporters, hit the streets of the Somali capital in protest. Boosted by the public show of support, Mohamed dug in his heels and refused to resign. But that quickly changed. “The political pressure was too great for him to withstand, and he did not want to risk a military conflict from within,” said former Erie County Executive Joel A. Giambra, a Mohamed friend whose lobbying firm has been trying to get the U. S. State Department to take a stronger role in Somalia.
But this may not be the end for Mohamed. He told reporters Sunday that he still is looking to play some type of role in rebuilding his homeland. Some already have speculated that Mohamed’s apparent popularity in Somalia could position him to run for president, when elections are held next year.
http://www.buffalonews.com/city/communities/amherst/article465120.ece
Arm ship crew to tame piracy, UK demands
23 June – Source: The Standard – 479 words
Britain will formally allow merchant ships carry arms for the first time since the Second World War. The development is aimed tackling the escalating threat of piracy. Details of the plan, already considered by various government departments are to be submitted to a parliamentary committee, which started inquiry into piracy off the coast of Somalia, yesterday. According to an announcement by UK Parliament Foreign Affairs Committee, the committee will take oral evidence from interested groups. The move is designed to protect British ships and curtail the growing unregulated market of private contractors offering armed protection.
Also to be looked at are Consular assistance, including the UK’s policy on the payment of ransoms, Foreign & Commonwealth Office’s support for anti-piracy projects on land in Somalia and UK naval involvement in EU, Nato and other anti-piracy operations. UK Shipping Minister, Mike Penning, said Department for Transport is considering amending current policy to recognise that engaging armed personnel is an option for UK-flagged ship owners to combat piracy. MPs have ordered an investigation into efforts to tackle pirates amid growing concerns over the failure of naval forces to act as a deterrent and a lack of action in bringing the guilty to justice when they are caught. Though there have been a few cases in Europe, the judicial burden has been largely carried by Kenya and Seychelles, plus a high-profile case in Yemen where six Somali pirates were sentenced to death.
CULTURE, BLOGS AND EDITORIALS
Somalia, Maxamed Afrax and political decadence
23 June – Source: The Star – 600 words
The Star features a of review Dr Maxamed Daahir Afrax’s latest book and description of the celebrated Somali novelist, scholar and polyglot’s life who was forced into exile in Yemen and his works banned for criticizing a myopia post-independence political elite in Mogadishu in the 1970s. Afrax founded the bilingual literary journal Halabuur and is founding president of Diaspora Speaking PEN which has centres in Europe, America and Africa. ‘Somali literature’, says Afrax, ‘chronicles all significant historical events. It is the factual mirror in which the Somali finds an intimate representation of himself or herself’. The writings of Nurrudin Farah and Maxamed Afrax are a revelation that the Somalia problem is both homegrown and external. In limiting our knowledge to war lordship and buccaneering we are involuntarily abetting selfish interests to defeat the peace process and reconstruction of a country endowed with bounteous aquatic wealth.