March 15, 2012 | Daily Monitoring Report.
Somalia govt names man behind suicide bomb attack
15 Mar – Source: Jowhar Online/Shabelle – 163 words
Government officials have spoken about yesterday’s suicide attack on a restaurant near the presidential palace. The commander of the Somali forces guarding the presidential palace, Col Abdullahi Ali Anod, said prior to the attack, the guards denied a man and a young boy entry into the palace. “An employee in the presidential palace accampanied by a young boy was denied entry to the palace . The soldiers asked for his identification card, but he showed an expired one,” he said.
The colonel said the man joined the government after deserting al Shabaab. He identified the man as Sheikh Umar Weyne. He ordered soldiers to inspect workers at presidential palace thoroughly and ask for their identification cards before allowing them entry, saying unknown people should not be given access. “The man used to sulk when he sees a foreigner or an AMISOM official. He died in the suicide attack carried out by the young boy,” he added.
Meanwhile, the Deputy Minister of Somalia’s Interior and National Security Abdihakim Ige Guled offered his heartfelt condolences to the friends and families who lost their loved ones in the suicide attack.
“It is difficult to thwart a suicide from detonating his explosive devises against government or civilian location, but I call on Somalia people to work with the security forces closely to minimize the threat of al Shabaab and al Qaeda,” Mr. Guled stated.
Key Headlines
- Somalia govt names man behind suicide bomb attack (Jowhar Online/Shabelle)
- Kenya seeks Somalia backing in regional peace initiative (Coast Week Xinhua)
- Al Shabaab reveals identity of Suicide attacker in Mogadishu (Hiiraan Online Shabelle)
- Al Qaeda al Shabaab planning to seize city of Aden says Yemen (Radio Bar-kulan)
- Somali president returns to Mogadishu after official visit to Ethiopia (Radio Mogadishu)
- Kenyan hostages spotted in Kismayo Lower Juba region (Somalia Report )
- Nigeria Kenya Somalia see more bombings; al-Qaeda blamed for deadly increase (Washington Post/AP )
- Al Shabaab calls on Kenyan youths to revolt (VOA)
- Islamists threaten Somalia’s new oil zone (UPI News)
SOMALI MEDIA
Somalia govt names man behind suicide bomb attack
15 Mar – Source: Jowhar Online/Shabelle – 163 words
Government officials have spoken about yesterday’s suicide attack on a restaurant near the presidential palace. The commander of the Somali forces guarding the presidential palace, Col Abdullahi Ali Anod, said prior to the attack, the guards denied a man and a young boy entry into the palace. “An employee in the presidential palace accampanied by a young boy was denied entry to the palace . The soldiers asked for his identification card, but he showed an expired one,” he said.
The colonel said the man joined the government after deserting al Shabaab. He identified the man as Sheikh Umar Weyne. He ordered soldiers to inspect workers at presidential palace thoroughly and ask for their identification cards before allowing them entry, saying unknown people should not be given access. “The man used to sulk when he sees a foreigner or an AMISOM official. He died in the suicide attack carried out by the young boy,” he added.
Meanwhile, the Deputy Minister of Somalia’s Interior and National Security Abdihakim Ige Guled offered his heartfelt condolences to the friends and families who lost their loved ones in the suicide attack. “It is difficult to thwart a suicide from detonating his explosive devises against government or civilian location, but I call on Somalia people to work with the security forces closely to minimize the threat of al Shabaab and al Qaeda,” Mr. Guled stated.
Al Shabaab reveals identity of Suicide attacker in Mogadishu
15 Mar – Source: Hiiraan Online, Shabelle – 183 words
Al Shabaab militants in Somalia have on Thursday revealed the identity of a suicide attacker who blew himself up at the gate of the parliament speaker’s residence, which is located inside the Villa Somalia compound. The Spokesman of al Shabaab Sheikh Ali Mohamud Rageh known as Ali Dhere told a rebel-held radio station in Elasha-Biyaha area, about 18 KM away south of Mogadishu that Hassan Abdikadir, one of their volunteers had carried out the attack and claimed that 16 people had been killed.
“The Mujahideen carried out a spectacular martyrdom operation inside a café, where used frequently by top TFG officials at the presidential palace of the apostate Somali regime,” the spokesman added. Ali Dhere noted that the militants will step up attacks, including car bombs and landmine blasts against Somali government and AMISOM bases in Mogadishu.
Five people, besides the bomber, were killed in the attack at Villa Somalia on Wednesday, the country’s presidential compound. The site of the attack was splattered with blood, human remains and destroyed plastic chairs. Residents looked on in shock as security officials inspected the scene.
Al Qaeda, al Shabaab planning to seize city of Aden, says Yemen
15 Mar – Source: Radio Bar-kulan – 253 words
Yemeni government has said that al Qaeda militants are planning to seize Aden, a city located south of the country, after managing to extend its control over large parts of Abyan province, and Hadourmot. Major General Wahid Sadiq was quoted as saying that hundreds of Somalia-based al Shabaab militants arrived at the shores of Yemen to take part in the capture of Aden and other cities, in efforts coordinate between Islamist militants in the region and the Horn of Africa.
The General said security officers earlier intercepted two trucks loaded with weapons and called on the Defence Ministry to speed up investigation into the incident to reveal where these weapons came from and to whom it was destined to. The government tightened security in Aden last Saturday after reports emerged that armed militants were flocking into the city in bid to seize it from the government. Earlier this week, Yemeni police have said four Somali nationals suspected of being al Shabaab fighters were arrested in Lahaj and Ebyan provinces.
Security officials said there are substantial grounds to believe that the four were members of the outlawed al Shabaab militant group from Somalia. They said police arrested the suspects at an area frequented by al Qaeda militants. The suspects who have reportedly arrived in Yemen 10 days ago are undergoing intensive interrogation to determine their motive in Yemen and who they were. Yemeni Interior ministry officials have accused the Somalia-based al Shabaab group for sending over 300 militants to Yemen in efforts to fight alongside with al Qaeda.
Kenyan hostages spotted in Kismayo, Lower Juba region
14 Mar – Source: Somalia Report – 211 words
Two Kenyan officials kidnapped by al Shabaab insurgents battling for control of Somalia were spotted in the port city of Kismayo, in Somalia’s Lower Juba region, on Monday after being held hostage for two months.
Kenyan government employees, Edward Mule, a 30 year old district officer, and Fredrick Irungu, a 56 year old clerk with the Registrar of Persons, were seen looking weak and chained, but alive near K2 Building (an ex-governor’s house), according to residents who spoke to Somalia Report on Wednesday.
Residents near K2 building said al-Shabaab brought the two Kenyans to Kismayo on Monday morning from Bardhere district after Kenyan Defense Forces and Somali troops approached the area. “Two armed Toyotas full of al Shabaab militias and one Toyota Surf carrying the two hostages entered the building’s compound. During that time, al Shabaab tightened the security of the area,” said a resident who asked to remain anonymous for fear of his safety.
Another source close to al Shabaab told Somalia Report that the group is planning to transfer the hostages to Lower Shabelle region for better security.
Al Shabaab kidnapped the two administration police officers from Gerila in Wajir district, 60km from the Somali border, in northeastern Kenya on January 12 of this year and paraded them before the media the following day.
Somali president returns to Mogadishu after official visit to Ethiopia
14 Mar – Source: Radio Mogadishu – 47 words
Somali President Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed on late Wednesday jetted back to Somalia after a day-long visit to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. During his visit, the president met with the Ethiopian prime minister and discussed how to tighten relations between the two countries and operations against al Shabaab.
Somali power staff under attack one dead another wounded
15 Mar – Source: Radio Kulmiye – 113 words
One person was killed and another one wounded after unknown gunmen attacked Somali power company staff in Mogadishu. The company confirmed that their staff came under attack while driving in a prominent road known as Black Sea in Mogadishu. According to the head of the company, the staff were heading to the villages near the Bakara Market but they came under fire by unknown armed assailants. Somali power which supplies electricity power throughout capital Mogadishu is one of the major electric supplies.
Killings and attacks are often targeted to civilians, company staff or Journalists in Somalia since the violence started in Somalia 1991 when former Mohamed Siyad Bare’s regime was collapsed.
4 injured in mortar attacks at IDPs in Somalia capital
15 Mar – Source: Shabelle – 171 words
Mortar attacks at an IDP camp in Somalia capital, Mogadishu overnight wounded at least four people, mostly innocent children and women, witnesses said, a day after al Qaeda-linked al Shabaab carried out suicide blast that killed five at presidential palace, Villa Somalia. A witness told Shabelle Media that several mortar shells hit an IDP camp in Afgoye corridor near Ex-control checkpoint, south of Mogadishu, where hundreds of displaced people from Elasha-Biyaha area are now locating.
“We heard last night about 6:00 a.m. local time series of loud explosions followed by gunfire and we thought it was a landmine blast. Four displaced people, including a 6-month old child whose situation is critical,” a witness told Shabelle Media. The injured civilian people were rushed to the local hospitals for treatment. Residents indicated that the mortars were fired from rebel-held area on the outskirts of Mogadishu. Al Shabaab militants didn’t say any word about the accusations from the targeted IDPs so far.
REGIONAL MEDIA
Kenya seeks Somalia backing in regional peace initiative
15 Mar – Source: Coast Week, Xinhua – 446 words
Kenyan President Mwai Kibaki on Wednesday sent a special message to Somali President Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed to secure the Horn of Africa nation’s support in regional peace initiative.
In the message delivered today in Mogadishu by Foreign Affairs Minister Moses Wetangula, President Kibaki underscored the need for a regional initiative to resolve the re-emergence of dispute between Sudan and South Sudan that is threatening to develop into a fully fledged conflict.
“Today’s special message was received on behalf of the Somali President by the acting Somali President, who is also the Speaker of the Transitional Federal Parliament of Somalia, Sharif Hassan Sheikh Aden and the Somali Prime Minister Abdiwel Mohamed Ali,” Kibaki said in a statement issued by his office in Nairobi.
Somalia suicide bombing misses Kenyan Foreign Minister
14 Mar – Source: NTV – 1:26 min
In Somalia, a suicide bomb has killed three people in Mogadishu, just as Kenya’s Foreign Affairs Minister Moses Wetangula was visiting the Somali capital. The suicide bomber had targeted the presidential palace where several guards were also injured. Wetangula is said to have been far away from the blast scene and he has since left Somalia.
Keeping peace, making war
14 Mar – Soource: Daily Monitor – 834 words
Five years into the African Union mission in Somalia (AMISOM), peacekeepers are expanding out of the capital in controlled surges. Shabaab are fleeing but they’re not finished, reports Taimour Lay in Mogadishu. A group of Ugandan soldiers is aiming an anti-aircraft gun at distant targets across desert scrub. Figures are spotted scrambling between buildings 2km away. Along the offensive line men shout over the periodic rattle and boom of machine guns and mortar fire.
As the huge gun volleys its explosive into the air, the backfiring cannister strikes one of the Ugandans in the face. He reels back in shock, and then falls unconscious as blood splatters the sand. The calls go out for an ambulance. Twenty four hours after capturing the small town of Maslah on the outskirts of Mogadishu, this accident has led to the third injury of the advance.
Past the main road, other members of the battalion gather in the shaded courtyard of a house al Shabaab deserted the day before (2 March). At the back is a white mosque with a red and green patterned minaret. Al Shabaab have left cooking pots and charcoal by the door. They left in a hurry. At dusk, a UPDF soldier positions his transistor radio on a wall to hear the English Premier League football results. Another reads the Monitor on his mobile phone.
This is the new frontline. Five years into the mission, peacekeepers are expanding out of the capital in controlled surges. Al Shabaab are fleeing but they’re not finished.
INTERNATIONAL MEDIA
Nigeria, Kenya, Somalia see more bombings; al-Qaeda blamed for deadly increase
15 Mar – Source: Washington Post/AP – 141 words
The Pentagon’s anti-IED unit says that bomb attacks in Nigeria, Kenya and Somalia became more frequent and deadly in 2011 as al-Qaeda-affiliated terror groups used more sophisticated devices to kill more people with each explosion.
John Myrick, a U.S. military bomb expert, said militants introduced a deadlier type of bomb known as a shaped charge in both Somalia and Nigeria. Such deadly explosives were used by militants repeatedly in Iraq, and to a lesser extent in Afghanistan. The migration of the deadlier bombs to Africa is evidence that more sophisticated al-Qaeda-linked groups are advising and training African militants.
Al Shabaab calls on Kenyan youths to revolt
14 Mar – Source: VOA – 557 words
With al Shabaab on the retreat in the face of gains by African Union (AU) forces in Somalia, the militant group is looking for new avenues to exert control both in and outside of Somalia. The group is focused on recruiting Kenyan Muslims to revolt against, what they term, state-sponsored oppression directed against them.
Somalia’s Islamist movement al Shabaab has distanced itself from a series of grenade and bomb attacks inside Kenya, including last Saturday’s deadly explosions. However the group has not stopped recruiting Kenyan youths and calling on them to carry out attacks in Kenya.
A United Nations report released last year put the number of Kenyan youths recruited by al Shabaab at as many as 500. Some security observers say al Shabaab has taken advantage of the Kenyan youths, who many times come from a background of poverty and limited opportunities. Sheikh Juma Ngao, the chairman of Kenya’s Muslim National Advisory Council, says Muslim youths should participate in nation building instead of fighting against their own government.
Somalia: Suicide bomber targets presidential palace
14 Mar – Source: BBC News – 239 words
At least five people have been killed in a suicide bombing in the heart of the Somalia’s capital, Mogadishu, officials have said. A bomber blew himself up at the gates of the presidential palace, which correspondents say is one of the city’s most closely guarded areas. The Islamist militants al Shabaab said they carried out the bombing.
Since being pushed out of Mogadishu in August, the group has staged a number of deadly attacks in the city. The bomber was wearing a jacket packed with explosives, Paddy Ankunda, the spokesperson for the African Union force in Somalia (AMISOM), told the BBC.
At least seven other people were injured by the blast – although al Shabaab, which recently joined al Qaeda, says it killed 17 people, and wounded 30 others, AFP news agency reports. Mogadishu is mostly under the control of Amisom, working alongside Somali government soldiers. The presidential palace is a heavily fortified compound where the most senior government officials, including the president, have their offices.
Correspondents say this latest attack could be a setback to attempts to fully secure the city. Al Shabaab is under attack on several fronts, with troops from Kenya and Ethiopia also gaining ground recently. But the group still controls much of southern and central Somalia. Kenyan soldiers fighting al Shabaab in southern Somalia are being integrated into the AU force – boosting Amisom numbers to 17,731 from its current level of 12,000.
Islamists threaten Somalia’s new oil zone
14 Mar – Source: UPI News – 707 words
Mogadishu Somalia, Islamist fighters linked to al Qaeda are reported to be moving into the semi-autonomous region of Puntland in northeastern Somalia where Western companies recently struck oil in fields believed to hold more than 1 billion barrels of crude. As a new oil conflict brews in the desert wastes of a little-known statelet in the forbidding Horn of Africa, Vancouver wildcatter Africa Oil, which made the strike in the Dharoor block, is stepping up security and preparing for trouble.
Al Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri declared Feb. 9 that al Shabaab, the main Islamist group in Somalia currently locked in a multi-front battle against U.S.-backed African Union forces supporting the shaky Western-backed Transitional Federal Government, has joined forces with the jihadist movement.
Soon after, al Shabaab began sending Internet and Twitter warnings that “Somali oil carries death.” In what’s seen as the first move in an armed campaign against Western oil and companies operating in impoverished Puntland, a self-declared autonomous state since 1998, al Shabaab has said it refuses to recognize exploration licenses issued by the regional authority.
On March 3, at least nine people were killed when militants attacked a Puntland security checkpoint near the commercial center of Bosasso. This was apparently carried out by Puntland Islamists known as the Mujahedin of the Golis Mountains, a region in the enclave’s north. Their leader, Yassin Khalid Uthman, declared the group has joined al Shabaab and pledged loyalty to its leader, Sheikh Ahmad Abdi Godane, aka Abu Zubair.
Africa Oil, and its partners Red Emperor Resources and Range Resources, started drilling in January and are to complete the first oil well in Somalia in more than 20 years in the next few weeks. The Canadian and Australian operators say the Dharoor field could hold up to 1.2 billion barrels of oil. Other surveys indicate the Puntland region has a potential 10 billion barrels.
If that’s correct, it would place Somalia, a former Italian colony that has been torn by clan warfare since dictator Mohammed Said Barre was overthrown in 1991, among the top 20 oil states in the world. But it’s the potential for oil and natural gas off Somalia in the Indian Ocean that’s seen as big prize, not just for Puntland but for the rest of Somalia as well.
The entire East African coastline further south, all the way to the former Portuguese colony of Mozambique, is seething with exploration by international oil companies, on land and offshore, and is expected to rival the massive fields found in West Africa. Somali officials say the potential yield is comparable to Kuwait, which has proven oil reserves of 102 billion barrels. That could make Somalia one of the richest oil states in the world.
There are likely to major natural gas fields as well. Fields containing reserves estimated at 110 trillion cubic feet of gas have been found off Mozambique and Tanzania in recent months. U.S. and Chinese companies have expressed interest in the Somali region but so far have shown no sign of moving into the war zone. Puntland, whose ramshackle economy appears to rest on Somali pirates who prey on shipping in the Indian Ocean, has largely kept out of the violence wracking the country to the south.
But that may be changing if al-Shabaab seeks to muscle in on the anticipated oil boom in a region that’s languished well off the beaten the beaten track for years but may not be remote for much longer. On Feb. 23, British Prime Minister David Cameron pledged at an international conference on Somalia that his government was offering humanitarian aid and security assistance in return for a stake in the country’s future energy industry.
Somali doctor: ‘They are taking my land so I can’t welcome the poor’
14 Mar – Source: Guardian – 727 words
A delicate woman wearing a white scarf over her head, Dr. Hawa Abdi speaks in halting English, occasionally leaning forward from an overstuffed armchair in a quiet apartment in Nairobi and tapping a brown notebook to make a point. In 2010, Glamour magazine voted her one of their Women of the Year, describing her as “equal parts Mother Teresa and Rambo”.
For Abdi is one of Somalia’s most famous figures – a 65-year-old gynaecologist known at home as Mama Hawa. In Somalia, she founded the Dr Hawa Abdi Foundation, which runs a camp and hospital that provides food, education and medical care to the landless. The camp, 12 miles from the capital, Mogadishu, in the Afgooye corridor, is home to up to 90,000 people on land that has been in Abdi’s family for generations. But militiamen recently confiscated part of the land surrounding the camp.
“Bit by bit, they are taking my land so I no longer have space to welcome the poor people,” said Abdi. This happened shortly after world leaders met in London to promise support for Somalia, and is a reminder of how difficult it is to work in areas controlled by the Islamist rebels of al Shabaab. Abdi said an al Shabaab court ruled at the end of last month that the confiscated land, which was home to 400 people, now belonged to one of the group’s associates. Since that ruling, many people have fled the camp, heading to Mogadishu. These are joining thousands fleeing an expected assault on al Shabaab by African Union troops, who now control most of Mogadishu.
SOCIAL MEDIA
CULTURE / OPINION / EDITORIAL / BLOGS/ DISCUSSION BOARDS
“For an individual soldier, the financial incentive to fight in Somalia is clear. The lowest paid Ugandan soldiers earn around $120 (£76) per month; if they opt to fight in Somalia they earn more than $1,000.For Col Kulayigye, Ugandan troops are on Somali soil because of regional politics: “If Somalia is unstable, Kenya is unstable. And if Kenya’s unstable, then we are unstable, first and foremost.””
“Mr Njoroge claims there is another reason. “Uganda has never had a peaceful transition of power. Guns and soldiers have always been involved in a change of regime.”
Why is Uganda fighting in ‘hellish’ Somalia?
15 Mar- Source: BBC-1168 Words
Ugandan troops make up the bulk of the African Union force helping Somalia’s UN-backed government. With much of the country under the control of al Shabaab Islamist militants, it is probably one of the most dangerous missions that a soldier could embark on. So why are Ugandans choosing to take part? Maj Duncan Kashoma still carries the cost of his service in Mogadishu. The scars on his body are easily visible. The fragments of shrapnel inside him, less so.
“I’m waiting for another operation on my left leg to remove more metal pieces. They will remove my kneecap. They already took off the right kneecap. In cold weather, it hurts a lot.” Maj Kashoma was one of the first Ugandan officers to enter Somalia when the African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM) began in 2007.
“Many people in Somalia are aware of what’s going on, and they talk about it on Twitter and other social media. Still, analysts face the same problems social media encounters elsewhere. “Actually getting verified information from within Somalia is very difficult, because anybody can tweet, anybody can post anything,” Lincoln said.”
#Pirate? Tracking modern buccaneers through Twitter
15 Mar – Source: CNN – 852 Words
Shipping companies may have found a new tool to fight piracy: It turns out, pirates like to tweet. Not only that, Somali-based pirates blog and are on Facebook, security experts say. And it is through social media that shipping companies are increasing their understanding of how they operate. “Somalia is a very sophisticated economy, it has one of the best mobile phone communication systems in the world,” said Jessica Lincoln, director of intelligence at Rubicon Resolution, a risk consultancy.
Lincoln follows pirates’ activities using what she describes as “normal” web tools. She gathers whatever individuals and organizations like al Qaeda’s Somali affiliate al Shabaab post online about attacks. The insurgent organization runs a Twitter account where it publicizes its activities. The al Shabaab Twitter account has been a part of the debate over whether terrorist organizations should be allowed to use Twitter.
“Nonetheless, Somali pirate operations have become flush from the money made from ransom payments and are more sophisticated, Shapiro said. As a result, Somali pirates now operate in a total sea space of approximately 2.5 million square nautical miles. Because Americans as well as people in countries around the world depend on secure and reliable shipping lanes for their medicine, food, energy and consumer goods, the Obama administration has taken measures to control maritime piracy, Shapiro said.”
East Africa: Some Gains Against Somali Piracy – Fight Continues
14 Mar – Source: AllAfrica/ US State Department – 532 Words
Although some progress has been made in suppressing Somali maritime piracy, the fight continues — mostly because this lucrative crime gives the pirates the financial ability to adopt more sophisticated technology to terrorize maritime vessels.
When Somali pirates successfully hijack a commercial vessel, the average ransom is now at $4 million and has reached as much as $12 million, according to Andrew Shapiro, assistant secretary at the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Political-Military Affairs.
Ransoms paid in 2011 totaled $135 million, Shapiro said at a March 13 event sponsored by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. Moreover, criminal investors interested in the ransom payoffs have added to the financial strength of the Somali piracy enterprise.
Top tweets
@edham_arief anybody wants to visit #Somalia? http://bit.ly/
@Fionaakumu @QARIS I agree! All this ‘diplomatic’ saving #Somalia business is for selfish reasons.
@SomaliaReport #TFG
@HSMPress By attempting to silence HSMPress, know that there are some facts in #Somalia that the #US government does not want you to find out.
@ColoniaADY Africa: Don’t Force Statehood on #Somalia?
@leyal_am Tracking pirates through #Twitter http://bit.
@JosephWinter Wounded #
Image of the day
Famous Somali musician Zeinab Mohamed Haji aka ‘Zeinab Laba Dhagax’ recently visits Mogadishu to contribute in humanitarian drive to assist IDPs in the bullet-riddled city.