January 7, 2013 | Morning Headlines.

Main Story

AMISOM captures key al Shabaab base

06 Jan- Source: New Vision/ Daily Monitor- 266 words

The AMISOM forces in Somalia have captured another key al Shabaab base, located about 120km North-West of Mogadishu, further fending off threats from the al Qaeda linked group.
The assault took place in the thickets of the general areas of Balidoogle on Thursday. Four submachine guns and 13 fully loaded magazines, containing 390 live bullets, were recovered.
Maj. Henry Obbo, the Uganda Contingent Public Information Officer, said the Ugandan contingent of the peacekeeping force, had trailed the al Shabaab group since Sunday, after it staged a road ambush between Balidoogle and Leego.
Obbo disclosed that the peacekeeping forces neutralised the insurgents, who had closed in 20km north east of the Ugandan contingent base of Ballidoogle.

Key Headlines

Over 20 al Shabaab militants killed in Gedo province (Radio Mogadishu)
Tension in Somalia’s Puntland as president’s term ends on 7 January (Shabeelle Media)
Rape flourishes in Mogadishu’s IDP camps (Aljazeera)
Somali refugees in Kenya begin to return home (BBC)
AU plots final assault on militants ( Standard)
Al Shabaab keen on shifting base to Puntland (African Review)
Mogadishu and government controlled areas are reliably safe says AMISOM spokesman (Source: Shabelle)
Stakeholders meet to boost services at Mogadishu airport (Radio Bar-kulan)
Bay authorities appeal for humanitarian aid (Radio Bar-kulan)
Nine dead after Somali forces Islamists clash: elder (AFP)
Glencore chief Simon Murray launches private navy to combat Somali pirate threat (The Australian)
Russian warships to regularly be on mission off Somalia (Voice of Rusia)
Qeybdid calls for support in uniting Galmudug ASWJ (Radio Bar-kulan)
Somalia ambassador to Kenya denies any forceful deportations (Radio Risaala)
Seminar in Garowe for Puntland political associations (Garowe Online)
Somali Military fire at passenger vehicle in southern Somalia (Radio Bar-kulan)

SOMALI MEDIA

Over 20 al Shabaab militants killed in Gedo province

06 Jan- Source: Radio Mogadishu/SONNA- 174 words
Heavy fighting between Somali national army backed by Ethiopian troops and the al Qaeda linked group of al Shabab erupted in between Luq and Garbaharey districts in Gedo province southwest Somalia, claiming the lives of over 20 and wounding number of others, SONNA reported.

The battle erupted after militant fighters ambushed the allied troops’ convoy traveling along the road that links the two districts, according to Somali National News Agency ‘SONNA’

Speaking to Radio Mogadishu, the governor of Gedo region, Mohamed Abdi Kalil said that 24 al Shabaab were killed in the battle and their bodies left in the scene.

“There are two government soldiers who lost their lives in the war with enemy, some others got injured,” he added.

Tension in Somalia’s Puntland as president’s term ends on 7 January

6 Jan – Source: Shabeelle Media – 117 words

Politicians and academics meeting in Gaalkacyo, the capital of Mudug Region , said the term of the regional Puntland expires in three days.
Ismail Adan Diriye, a politician in the region, said the regional administration was planning to extend its stay in office after its term comes to an end on 7 January.
Politicians in the region are furiously resisting the planned postponement of elections as suggested by the administration of President Abdirahman Shaykh Muhammad Farole.
Puntland has in recent days witnessed a political dispute over the administration’s reluctance to hold elections as its term comes to an end.

Mogadishu and government controlled areas are reliably safe, says AMISOM spokesman

06 Jan- Source: Shabelle- 144 words
AMISOM and Somali security have fully secured Mogadishu and there is a reliable security primarily in the capital and the rest of the regions under AMISOM and government control, according to the spokesman of AU mission in Somalia Colonel Ali Hamud, who gave exclusive interview to Shabelle media network.
Colonel Hamud said that they did a lot in preventing number of attacks by al Shabaab elements in Mogadishu. AMISOM spokesman told that it is not only the capital that is safe but also the other regions that have been liberated from the oppressive reigns of al Shabaab.

Qeybdid calls for support in uniting Galmudug, ASWJ

06 Jan- Source: Radio Bar-kulan- 118 words
Galmudug president Abdi Hassan Awale Qeybdid has appealed to locals in the region to support his administration’s effort to unite the regional administration and that of Ahlu Sunna group in central Somalia.
President Qeybdid made the remarks in a meeting in Galkayo on Sunday where he urged locals to support him in uniting the two administrations for the betterment of the region
He said the proposed unity deal between his administration and that of the ASWJ group will be made public and promised to consult locals in the region for approval.
His sentiment comes a time Alhu Sunna officials are in Galkayo for a preliminary meeting with Qeybdid lead Galmudug administration for possible unification of the two administrations.

Somalia ambassador to Kenya denies any forceful deportations

04 Jan- Source: Radio Risaala- 127 words
Somalia’s Ambassador to Kenya, Mohamed Ali Nur has denied that some Somali nationals have being forcefully deported back to Somalia.
The ambassador noted that his office had already cautioned the Kenyan government against the use of force and that he was reassured that such move will not take place.
He said that the people flocking back to Somalia are doing so willingly and that his office is not aware of any forceful deportations so far.
This is coming at a time when Kenya has already called on Somali refugees and undocumented people to return to the camps.
The Kenya government also wants the refugee camps to be relocated to safer areas inside Somalia.
However, this move is strongly opposed by the UNHCR, humanitarian agencies and the UN.

Seminar in Garowe for Puntland political associations

05 Jan- Source: Garowe Online- 185 words
The Transitional Puntland Electoral Commission (TPEC) hosted a one-day seminar for six registered political associations in the Puntland capital on Saturday, Garowe Online reports.
TPEC members including Chairman Mohamed Hassan Barre attended the seminar along with representatives from all six registered political associations.
“The six registered political associations are expected to fulfill the remaining requirements prior to February 10, 2013, in completing the second phase of the registration process,” said Chairman Barre.

Bay authorities appeal for humanitarian aid

06 Jan- Source: Radio Bar-kulan- 105 words
Authorities in Southern Somali region of Bay have called on aid agencies to provide an immediate humanitarian aid to locals in the region.
Regional governor Abdifatah Ibrahim said hundreds of locals are facing harsh living condition in parts of the region, urging charity groups to respond immediately to the growing humanitarian need of these people.
Ibrahim there are evidences that the region has not yet fully recovered from the recently ended human tragedy in the country, referring to the 2011 famine and drought condition in Somalia.
He said he has recently toured parts of the region and witnessed the magnitude of the crisis facing locals in the region.

New Hargeisa Mayor officially takes office

06 Jan- Source: Somaliland Press/Somaliland Sun-299 words
The newly elected Mayor of Hargeisa Eng. Yusuf Warsame Said has on Sunday officially assumed office after his predecessor Eng. Hussein Mohamed Jicir handed him the key to the city of Hargeisa in a ceremony which was presided by the Interior Minister Mohamed Nur Arrale (Duur)and was held at the civil services commission headquarters.
The outgoing Mayor of Hargeisa Eng Jicir during the handing over ceremony touched on the many accomplishments he and his team had managed to achieve in the past ten years in office.

Stakeholders meet to boost services at Mogadishu airport

06 Jan- Source: Radio Bar-kulan- 94 words
A meeting aimed at chatting the way forward in boosting services at Adan Adde International Airport was Sunday held at Mogadishu.
The meeting was attended by Public Works minister Mohyadin Mohamed Kalmoy and several other stakeholders.
Speaking at the meeting, Kalmoy said his ministry will embark on ambitious plans to strengthen services in the facility to meet the international standards required for such facilities.
The director of Aviation and meteorological department Ali Mohamoud Ibrahim, who also spoke at the meeting, promised to improve all services in the airport as part of their strategy to fully revive the facility.

Somali Military fire at passenger vehicle in southern Somalia

05 Jan- Source: Radio Dalsan- 109 words
Somali National military have reportedly fired at a vehicle carrying passengers, causing casualties to the travelers in Lower shabelle region.
The car came from Mogadishu and was heading to Bur-hakaba district of Bay region when the soldiers deliberately fired at it, locals say At least 2 passengers were reportedly killed and two others sustained injuries.

REGIONAL MEDIA

Al Shabaab keen on shifting base to Puntland

06 Jan- Source: African Review-423 Words
A top al Shabaab leader has revealed that the group plans to shift base to Puntland, the semi-autonomous state in North-eastern Somalia.
In a video conference late Saturday, Sheikh Ali Mohamud Raghe alias Sheikh Ali Dhere, the top spokesman of al Shabaab, reiterated that his group was waging attacks in some regions of Somalia.
Praising success achieved through the hit-and-run attacks, the hardliner clergyman said, “The militants have been causing heavy damages on the gaalo (non-believers – a reference to the members of the Somali government and the African forces supporting it).
“The enemy of Allah is in desperate state,” added the cleric, encouraging his loyalists to continue fighting.
Sheikh Ali Dhere praised the fanatical Islamists for waging attacks against Puntland forces in Bossaso, the region’s main port town, 1500 km northeast of Mogadishu.

AMISOM captures key al Shabaab base

06 Jan- Source: New Vision/ Daily Monitor- 266 words
The AMISOM forces in Somalia have captured another key al Shabaab base, located about 120km North-West of Mogadishu, further fending off threats from the al Qaeda linked group.
The assault took place in the thickets of the general areas of Balidoogle on Thursday. Four submachine guns and 13 fully loaded magazines, containing 390 live bullets, were recovered.
Maj. Henry Obbo, the Uganda Contingent Public Information Officer, said the Ugandan contingent of the peacekeeping force, had trailed the al Shabaab group since Sunday, after it staged a road ambush between Balidoogle and Leego.
Obbo disclosed that the peacekeeping forces neutralised the insurgents, who had closed in 20km north east of the Ugandan contingent base of Ballidoogle.

AU plots final assault on militants

06 Jan- Source: Standard- 404 words
The African Union has embarked on a serious ideological offensive as a final assault on the al Shabaab militants, who still pose a major security threat in Somalia despite the successes of the African intervention force to eject them from their strongholds.
The ideological reorientation in Somalia starts at a time when the continental body is toying with the proposal to form a standing army to intervene in politically and resource-instigated conflicts on the continent.
The second phase of Somali pacification that started immediately the key port of Kismayo was wrested from al Shabaab by Kenyan soldiers serving under the African Mission in Somalia contingent (AMISOM) faces the challenges of establishing a standing national army to take over from Africa forces.

INTERNATIONAL MEDIA

Nine dead after Somali forces, Islamists clash: elder

06 Jan- Source: AFP-308 Words
At least nine people have died in clashes between al Qaeda-linked Islamist rebels and Somali government forces and their Ethiopian allies, a village elder said Sunday amid conflicting claims from both sides.
Al Shabaab fighters late Saturday ambushed a convoy of several hundred Somali and Ethiopian troops that was advancing on two towns in the southern Gedo region still controlled by the al Shabaab — Bardhere and Burhdubo.
The ambush took place between Luq and Garbaharey, two towns lying within a radius of 100 kilometres (60 miles) from both the Kenyan and Ethiopian borders.
Both sides claimed to have had the upper hand, but a village elder said both sides suffered losses.

Rape flourishes in Mogadishu’s IDP camps

06 Jan- Source: Aljazeera English-1171 Words
After a protracted conflict that has lasted more than two decades, there’s now a sense of relative calm and security in Somalia. The unidentifiable gunmen that patrolled the streets have been replaced by men in smart uniforms.
Road blocks that once divided the city between government and al Shabaab controlled areas have been removed; traffic flows freely. Somalis are flocking to the beach, old houses are being renovated and are glistening with fresh coats of paint.
But not everybody enjoys the newly found sense of security.
Camps filled with Internally Displaced Persons – people forced to flee the violence and insecurity of their home regions – are still a common sight. But for the women who live in them, violence and insecurity are still pertinent issues.

Glencore chief Simon Murray launches private navy to combat Somali pirate threat

06 Jan- Source: The Australian-373 Words
Britain’s first private navy in almost two centuries is being created by a group of businessmen to take on the Somali pirates who are terrorising an expanse of the Indian Ocean.
Its armed vessels – including a 10,000-ton mother ship and high-speed armoured patrol boats – will be led by a former Royal Navy commodore. He is recruiting 240 former marines and other sailors for the force.
It will escort its first convoy of oil tankers, bulk carriers – and possibly an occasional yacht – along the east coast of Africa in late March or April.
Typhon, the company behind the venture, is chaired by Simon Murray, a millionaire businessman who joined the French Foreign Legion as a teenager and walked unsupported to the South Pole aged 63.

Russian warships to regularly be on mission off Somalia

05 Jan- Source: Voice of Rusia- 60 words
Russia will deploy its warships in the Gulf of Aden and near the Horn of Africa on a regular basis to prevent pirate attacks on merchant ships, a Defense Ministry spokesman said on Saturday.
He added that in the past four years, Russian Navy ships have prevented more than 10 pirate attacks and protected lives of over 350 Russian citizens.

Somali refugees in Kenya begin to return home

05 Jan- Source: BBC – 200 words
Somali refugees living in Kenya have begun to return home.
They are attracted by Somalia’s increasing stability but they have also come under increasing pressure from Kenya to go home.

SOCIAL MEDIA

CULTURE / OPINION / EDITORIAL / ANALYSIS / BLOGS/ DISCUSSION BOARDS
“Hammami’s quarrel with Shabaab appears to be related to two key disagreements: his apparent demotion in late 2011, and his open criticism of Shabaab over military strategy.”

Omar Hammami’s personal dispute with al Shabaab

06 Jan- Source: Long War Journal-2085 Words
Over the past week, a jihadist who calls himself “@abuamerican” and “Abu M” on Twitter launched into a tirade against al Shabaab, al Qaeda’s affiliate in Somalia. Abu M, who describes himself as a “Mujaahid in Somaalia,” is purportedly linked to American jihadist Omar Hammami, the Alabaman traitor and al Qaeda operative who calls himself Abu Mansour al Amriki. Hammami has claimed he is being persecuted by al Shabaab for publicizing a purported split between foreign jihadists and local al Shabaab forces. But Hammami’s dispute with al Shabaab is more likely due to personal issues with al Shabaab’s leadership, as there have been no other credible reports of foreign fighters being at odds with the al Qaeda affiliate.

“While little research has been conducted on Somali media by Somalis living in the Horn of Africa, in far away Norway, a land known for fjords and icebergs, dramatic picturesque topography, biting weather and of course the most eye catching natural landmark known as Sognefjord Sogn og Fjordane, the Department of International Environment and Development Studies (UMB/Noragric) has been documenting media metamorphosis sweeping the Horn of Africa. With funding from the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, three prominent researchers, Dr. Mohamed Hussein Gaas (a Somali), Stig Jarle Hansen and David Berry, took the pains of documenting the proliferation of Somali media in an exhaustive study that we present here and hope will inspire our readers.”

Mapping the Somali Media: An Overview

05 Jan- Source: Wardheernews-425 Words
From the late 1980s, hundreds of Somali media outlets (newspapers, radio stations, various TV channels and websites) have been created. These are in large part accessible over the internet. Given that there has been an upsurge of warfare in Somalia, different media establishments continue to have strong interests and stakes in the outcome of the Somali conflict. While some of the media actually try to promote peace building and nation building, they run the risk of being targeted by any of the warring parties. Others, because of their clan ties or ideological orientation, may attempt to stimulate further conflict or present a particular interest in reporting their stories (McChesney 2008). Others again might function as inciters of violence in some situations; often where the interests of the faction or clan they back is at stake, but genuinely attempt to promote conflict reconciliation when other clans or factions wage war.