December 3, 2012 | Daily Monitoring Report.
3rd anniversary of deadly attack at Shamo-hotel in Mogadishu
03 Dec – Source: Radio Mogadishu/SNTV/ SONNA – 282 words
Today is 3rd December, 2012 three year after the deadliest suicide bomb attack that occurred at SHAMO HOTEL in Mogadishu, the capital of Somalia which killed over 30 people and injured 30 others.
It was shocking and tragic event that shook the whole building of the hotel where highly well beautified graduation ceremony was taking place and the delightful and cheerful appearances of concerned out-going graduates and participants changed into miserable mood after heavy explosion occurred at the site that changed previous image of the scene and turned into a place where streaming blood, clots, dead and injuries covered.
The dead ones were the most important people of the society such doctors, students, journalists and T.F.G Ministers for Health, Education, Higher Education and Sports.
The reaction of the Somali people to this catastrophe was that they have been very worried about deadliest suicide attack against social gathering and innocent civilians and politicians who were only thinking of the future of Somali in the war torn city and whole the country. The government ministers who lost their lives in the disaster were: Prof.Ibrahim Hassan Addow, Minister of Higher Education and Culture, Drs. Qamar Adam Ali, Minister of Health, Ahmed Abdullahi Wayel, Minister of Education, Saleban Olad Roble, Minister of Sports.
Journalists of Al-Arabiya Television, Hassan Subeyr Haji and Mohamed Amin of Radio Shabelle were among the dead and Dr. Shahid, lecturer of Benadir University and other honorable guests invited at graduation ceremony. No one will remain being life for ever and everyone will once leave from this fake world into the grave and hereafter, as we were told in our holy Kuran, but people don’t like their lovers to be dead or victim.
Key Headlines
- 3rd anniversary of deadly attack at Shamo-hotel in Mogadishu (Radio Mogadishu/SNTV/ SONNA)
- Somali forces capture Bulo Hawo area Bay region (Bar-kulan)
- Al Shabaab militias warn Dutch Parliament over blasphemy (Daily Monitor/Africa Review/Daily Nation)
- Somali Interior Minister meets with Lower Shabelle Authority (Shabelle)
- Police injured in petrol bomb attack on station (Daily Nation)
- Prisoners Escape Baidoa Prison (Bar-kulan/Shabelle/Hiiraan Online)
- New anti-piracy system to change battle against pirates (East African)
- Somalia: illegal migration on the rise in Somaliland (IRIN News)
SOMALI MEDIA
3rd anniversary of deadly attack at Shamo-hotel in Mogadishu
03 Dec – Source: Radio Mogadishu/SNTV/ SONNA – 282 words
Today is 3rd December, 2012 three year after the deadliest suicide bomb attack that occurred at SHAMO HOTEL in Mogadishu, the capital of Somalia which killed over 30 people and injured 30 others.
It was shocking and tragic event that shook the whole building of the hotel where highly well beautified graduation ceremony was taking place and the delightful and cheerful appearances of concerned out-going graduates and participants changed into miserable mood after heavy explosion occurred at the site that changed previous image of the scene and turned into a place where streaming blood, clots, dead and injuries covered.
The dead ones were the most important people of the society such doctors, students, journalists and T.F.G Ministers for Health, Education, Higher Education and Sports. The reaction of the Somali people to this catastrophe was that they have been very worried about deadliest suicide attack against social gathering and innocent civilians and politicians who were only thinking of the future of Somali in the war torn city and whole the country.
The government ministers who lost their lives in the disaster were: Prof.Ibrahim Hassan Addow, Minister of Higher Education and Culture, Drs. Qamar Adam Ali, Minister of Health, Ahmed Abdullahi Wayel, Minister of Education, Saleban Olad Roble, Minister of Sports.
Journalists of Al-Arabiya Television, Hassan Subeyr Haji and Mohamed Amin of Radio Shabelle were among the dead and Dr. Shahid, lecturer of Benadir University and other honorable guests invited at graduation ceremony. No one will remain being life for ever and everyone will once leave from this fake world into the grave and hereafter, as we were told in our holy Kuran, but people don’t like their lovers to be dead or victim.
Somali forces capture Bulo Hawo area, Bay region
03 Dec – Source: Bar-kulan – 123 words
Somali government soldiers have wrested control of Bulo Hawo area, some 15 kilometres from Bardale town, Bay region. Four people including a militant leader have reportedly been killed after a fierce gunfight erupted between government troops and al Shabaab militants defending their base in Bulo Hawo.
Three others including a government soldier were also said to have been injured during the fight. Adan Ali Ibrahim, a resident of the area told Bar-kulan that the killed militant leader Mohamed Hajji Fugow used to be Bardale police boss during the time of late TFG president Abdullahi Yussuf Ahmed.
Military officials said the aim of their operation was to dislodge militants from area where they used to organise and co-ordinate attacks against government installations in the region.
Somali Interior Minister meets with Lower Shabelle Authority
03 Dec – Source: Shabelle – 83 words
Somali Interior Minister Abdikarim Hussein Guled is having a meeting with the officials of Lower Shabelle administration under the government, reports said on Monday.
The meeting is taking place in the southern port city of Marka, where the officials are discussing ways to restore law and order in the region which is one of the richest states in Somalia.
The officials have agreed on police deployment, judiciary services as the allied forces waging war al Shabaab militants in the entire south and central the country.
Somali forces conduct operations in Ex-control
02 Dec – Source: Radio Mustaqbal/ Shabelle – 124 words
The Somali military forces on Sunday conducted security operations in the Ex-control of Mogadishu-Afgoye road. These security operations were targeted on the illegal road blocks and to curb the insecurity in the area. Somali government forces said that these operations will be on going till the last illegal road blocks are cleared in Mogadishu city and its outskirts.
Ahmed Abdullahi known as Ahmed Yare who is the commander of the Somali forces in the Ex-control told Mustaqbal radio that during the security operation there were a number of youth that have been arrested. These is part of series of security operations that the Somali government is conducting in Mogadishu to remove all the illegal road blocks within the city and its outskirts.
Meanwhile, a police officer in Mogadishu says they have secured all roadblocks in the capital complying with the recent order from President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud. While giving an interview to Shabelle Media, Ali Mohamed Elmi, the Deputy Police Boss of Banadir province announced that police embarked on major security operations to rid the Mogadishu roads off illegal road blocks which unlawful charges used to be collected from public service vehicles working in major Mogadishu roads.
Prisoners Escape Baidoa Prison
03 Dec – Source: Bar-kulan/Shabelle/Hiiraan Online – 110 words
At least 20 inmates on Sunday night escaped from a facility in southwest Somali city of Baidoa, Bay region. The detainees, mainly suspected al Shabaab militants, have reportedly broke the door to their jail and escaped. Some of the suspects have been serving long jail terms ranging from seven to twelve years.
Officials from the prison department in Baidoa told Bar-kulan that seven of the escapees were later recaptured through the help of the local population, adding that they are now hunting for the rest of the escapees. It is the first time for prisoners to escape Baidoa’s Central Prison since allied forces took control of the city earlier this year.
Numbers of Illegal Aliens Entering country has increased says Immigration Official
02 Dec – Source: Somaliland Press – 91 words
Major cities in Somaliland are experiencing an influx of illegal aliens entering its borders from neighboring countries such as Ethiopia and Somalia, this was revealed by the deputy director of the immigration department.
The Deputy Director said an increase in illegal aliens entering has prompted the surge of judicial problems which arise in case an illegal immigrant commits a crime and escapes the country borders.
There is overcrowding and increased burden in public places such as begging which is rampant in public places to name a few, added the immigration don.
Heavy rains hit Mogadishu
01 Dec – Source: Radio Mogadishu/SONNA – 168 words
Somalia’s capital Mogadishu is experiencing heavy downpour that rendered impassable all main roads and streets in the city. Neighboring regions such Middle Shabelle and Lower Shabelle provinces in the south and north are also experience the rains.
There are no reports of casualties but there might be houses in the capital that were submerged. This is Dayr or autumn season, the second rainy season in the year. The rainfall comes at a very important time; people in the capital and the rest on the country were expecting this rainfall as they were in a hot weather recently.
REGIONAL MEDIA
Al Shabaab militias warn Dutch Parliament over blasphemy
0 3 Dec – Source: Daily Monitor/Africa Review/Daily Nation – 198 words
Al Shabaab plans to strike the Dutch Parliament, after the country’s legislators abolished blasphemy. Announcing the decision last Friday, Sheikh Fuád Mohamed Khalaf Shongole, the Chief propagandist of the radical Islamist group in Somalia, warned that the consequences of the legislator’s decision will be major.
He was reacting to a recent decision by the Dutch Parliament that insulting God will no longer be a crime in the Netherlands, revoking a decades-old blasphemy law from the statute books.
“Nobody can portray the figure of Allah (God),” said Sheikh Shongole through the media supporting his movement. “We are going to respond to such decision.”
Police injured in petrol bomb attack on station
03 Dec – Source: Daily Nation – 153 words
A police officer was injured when unknown people threw a petrol bomb into Kiembeni Police Station in Kisauni, Mombasa early Monday morning. Officers on duty who responded to the attack managed to shoot the assailants, injuring two of them according to Kisauni OCPD Mr Julius Wanjohi.
However all the raiders managed to escape. The incident occurred at around 2.15 am. Mr. Wanjohi told journalists that the gang visited the station posing as aggrieved residents who wanted to report an incident.
Islamic Development Bank Enhances Assistance to Somalia
02 Dec – Source: Saudi Press Agency – 66 words
A mission of the Islamic Development Bank (IDB) recently handed over equipment and medical equipment provided by the bank to contribute to the modernization and development of four hospitals in different areas of Somalia. The total cost of the aid was US$300,000. The mission also delivered medical equipment provided by a philanthropist for two other Somali hospitals, at a cost of US$75,000 US for each hospital.
New anti-piracy system to change battle against pirates
01 Dec – Source: East African – 362 words
A revolutionary new anti-piracy system that automatically repels attacks on ships could transform the battle against Somali pirates off the East African coast, according to shipping experts. The WatchSTander system, originally designed for the US navy, works by “identifying pirate craft and distinguishing them from other non-threatening vessels.”
The system is then claimed to be capable of launching a series of non-lethal counter-measures to deter the pirates including light cannons, sound cannons, laser canons and pepper dispensing projectiles.
The WatchStander system is currently undergoing tests that according to The Telegraph, “have shown it to be accurate and reliable in identifying pirate craft and distinguishing them from non-threatening vessels.” The advantage of the system is that it is fully automated and can defend the vessels without the need for human intervention.
INTERNATIONAL MEDIA
Somalia: illegal migration on the rise in Somaliland
03 Dec – Source: IRIN News – 555 words
More youths from the self-declared republic of Somaliland are illegally migrating from the region, mainly due to a lack of jobs, traveling through Ethiopia, Sudan and Libya on their way to Europe, say officials.
“There is no exact data, but we estimate that in the last three months of 2011, only 150 youth [illegally migrated], compared to this year’s last three months, [in which the number was] 300 to 350 persons,” Sa’id Omar, youth department director at Somaliland’s Ministry of Youth and Sports, told IRIN.
About 150 Somaliland youths were repatriated back between January and November 2011, after Ethiopian authorities captured them along the Ethiopian-Sudan border; by comparison, 200 youths were repatriated in the first 11 months of 2012, according to Somaliland immigration officials in the border town of Tog-Wajale, along the Ethiopia-Somaliland border.
Somaliland rises from the rubble of Somalia
03 Dec – Source: UPI/IOL News – 142 word
As Somalia starts to emerge from its quagmire of instability and chaos, 20 years of relative peace and stability are starting to pay dividends for its close neighbour Somaliland, as this November it struck its first major oil deal since seceding from Somalia in 1991.
Anglo-Turkish company Genel Energy received its licence from the Somaliland government in early November to explore and develop oil and gas reserves after pledging almost $40 million (R352m) for exploration activities. Genel told Inter Press Service (IPS): “Somaliland provides an exciting geological opportunity, and we look forward to starting work in the region.”
The independent oil and gas exploration and production company had become the first foreign investor to commit a significant amount of capital to the country’s energy sector, after initial investigations demonstrated “numerous oil seeps”, confirming “a working hydrocarbon system”, a statement from Genel said.
SOCIAL MEDIA
CULTURE / OPINION / EDITORIAL / ANALYSIS / BLOGS/ DISCUSSION BOARDS
“Preventing journalists from reporting from Kismayo only adds to the mistrust brewing between the so-called Jubalanders and the new central government, whose delegation was recently turned away from the airport by the forces controlling the city.”
Why are journalists being denied access to the ‘liberated’ Kismayo?
02 Nov – Source: Daily Nation – 649 Words
After nearly a year of regaling the media with success stories about their incursion into southern Somalia, the Kenya Defence Forces seem to have suddenly gone silent now that they have reached their prize target — the port city of Kismayu. There are no media briefings about the situation in Kismayo; even the military’s articulate spokesperson, Cyrus Oguna, appears to have gone on leave.
Not only does the world know little about the goings-on in Kismayo, but it seems that the Kenyan forces, along with their Somali counterparts, the Ras Kamboni militia, which helped eject al Shabaab from the city, are preventing journalists from entering the city.
Last month, Al Jazeera correspondent Peter Greste was holed up at Kismayo’s airport for three days because the so-called interim administration there would not allow him to enter the city. Greste, writing for his blog from the airport noted: “Kismayo has been an elusive story, ever since the Kenyan military successfully pushed al Shabaab out.”
Top tweets
@irinnews Somaliland youths are increasingly illegally migrating to Europe http://www.irinnews.org/
@USSNews In the 2011/12 academic year #USSsponsored 193 students through university in #Somaliland#Somalia and #Puntland.
@MarkC_Anderson #Somalia #Puntland: Video by @UNDPon Puntland Supreme Court mobile court program used to enact justice in rural areas http://bit.ly/Qz2nHv.
@ActForSomalia #Somalia president visit to #Bristol earlier this year Report by ITV http://youtu.be/c9BJgG1sUf4 @LibanObsiye @SomBrist @KerryMP @HMAMattBaugh.
@Asahaaf Federalism in #Somalia means tribalism. Reer Hebel State will never lead us to a better day and most certainly, it is another 4.5 system..
Image of the day
Djiboutian Defense minister Abdikarim Mohamud Kamil arrives at central Somali town of Beledweyne to visit Djiboutian Contingent that is part of African Union Mission in Somalia. Photo: Radio Mogadishu.