October 9, 2013 | Daily Monitoring Report.

Main Story

Al Shabaab remains dangerous presence in Horn of Africa – officials

09 Oct- Source: Kuwait News Agency- 391 words

The Somalia-based al Qaeda affiliate al Shabaab remains dangerous, as the recent attack on the shopping mall in Nairobi showed that violent extremism in the Horn of Africa may be evolving, top US officials said here.

Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs Linda Thomas Greenfield told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee Tuesday night that al Shabaab remains a “dangerous presence,” as the mall “terrorist” attack in Nairobi, “for which al Shabaab has taken credit, is a chilling example of the challenges for Somalia and the region.” “This attack suggests that violent extremism in the Horn of Africa may be evolving. It also makes clear that al Shabaab presents a threat to US partner nations in East Africa, to American citizens, and to US interests,” Greenfield stressed.

Key Headlines

Grenade attack wounds government soldier in Marka town (Radio Dalsan/Shabelle/Hiiraan Online)
Six arrested in Beled-Hawa following security sweep (Radio Bar-kulan)
Al Shabaab arrests man who frequented internet cafe in Barawe for “spying” (Raxanreeb)
Al Shabaab remains dangerous presence in Horn of Africa – officials (Kuwait News Agency)
Kenya’s role in Somalia questioned in US Senate (Daily Nation)
Somali refugees decry calls to close refugee camps in Kenya (Sabahi Online)
Ethiopia Has No Room for Terrorism (Walta Information Centre)
Al Qaeda stands weakened split across Yemen Somalia N.Africa: Marie Harf (The News International)
Somali Defense Minister: We will liberate Barawe from al Shabaab (VOA)
Sierra Leone steps up security measures against terrorist attacks (dw.de)

SOMALI MEDIA

Grenade attack wounds government soldier in Marka town

09 Oct – Source: Radio Dalsan/Shabelle/Hiiraan Online – 121 words

At least one government soldier is reportedly wounded after six hand grenade attacks targeted at different places in the town of Marka on Tuesday night, locals said.

The attacks which were believed to have been carried by al Shabaab militant group targeted government bases including the central police station. The security forces have started operation on Wednesday morning following Tuesday nigt’s attacks. No report of arrest has been made by the officials.

One resident who spoke with Radio Dalsan said the forces opened gunfire after the hand grenade explosions occurred in the town. The security situation in the town has been improving since the government forces with the backing of AMISOM removed illegal roadblocks and banned the use of illegal weapons in the coastal town.

Meanwhile, al Shabaab militias attacked a military base belonging to Somali and AMISOM forces in Janaale and Shalaanbood districts, igniting heavy confrontation. No report of casualties from the gunbattle that unsued better part of Tuesday night.

Six arrested in Beled-Hawa following security sweep

09 Oct- Source: Radio Bar-kulan- 114 words

At least six people have been arrested in Beled-Hawa district of Gedo region in connections with an explosion that has occurred in the town on Monday. Following a major security sweep in the area, deputy district commissioner Addow Nur Hassan confirmed the arrested of the suspects, adding that they will be interrogated.

Addow further added that security forces are stepping up operations to prevent such attacks and we will leave no stone unturned to keep the people safe. A hand grenade was hurled at a teashop targeted to the Somali Federal government forces in the town on Monday. At least one government soldier was killed in the attack.

Al Shabaab arrests man who frequented internet cafe in Barawe for “spying”

09 Oct – Source: Raxanreeb – 92 words

According to local sources, the militant group al Shabaab arrested a young man in the town of Barawe alleging to be spying for the U.S intelligence following Saturday’s covert attack, RBC Radio reports.

The young man who is not yet named has been frequently using the internet cafe in Barawe chatting friends on social network pages, a family member said. He was taken into unknown custody by al Shabaab fighters a day after the U.S Special Forces stormed a house on the seaside of Barawe killing at least one militant.

Al Shabaab reinforces militias in Barawe after US raid

08 Oct – Source: Garowe Online/Hiiraan Online – 126 words

Following a sea-borne attack that targeted a seaside building in Barawe, a coastal town in Lower Shabelle region of southern Somalia last Saturday, al Qaeda linked al Shabaab group has reportedly beefed up its militias presence.

Truckloads of heavily armed militias advanced towards the coastal town of Barawe in response to the raid by US navy seal team, a rare and high risk operation which missed the target after militants who are believed to be al Shabaab Chief, Ahmed Godane’s bodyguards engaged in “ an hour long firefight” with the US Special Forces.

According to some residents who asked to remain anonymous, al Shabaab militias have been seen in the vicinities along Barawe beach and several important structures which house al Shabaab senior officials in the town.

Public threatened by unregulated medical profession

08 Oct- Source: Radio Ergo- 359 words

Nadifo Mohamed Guled walked in to a local clinic in Adado, Galgadud, to have a small growth removed. After being operated on by untrained people claiming to be doctors, she can no longer walk. “Before that surgery, I was able to get up and walk as any other person,” Guled told Radio Ergo’s local reporter in Adado. She said following the procedure she underwent, she fell sick. None of the drugs prescribed have been able to help her.

That was three years ago. But since then, Guled’s family have exhausted their money trying to make good the damage that the local so called doctors did to her. Her son, Abdirisaq Abdalla Hirsi, said that he has taken his mother to several clinics in various locations across the country, but she has not improved or regained her mobility.

“What my mother was suffering before that ill-fated surgery and what she is suffering today are totally different. If we had known that this is going to happen, we wouldn’t have let her go through the operation,” he said. There are many other complaints from local citizens in the region of untrained people posing as medical staff who cause serious harm to patients. The local authorities do not appear to regulate those operating as medical practitioners.

There are also no regulations on the sale of expired medicines, which is another common problem reported in the region. Ten year old Nuro Ali became paralyzed after being given an injection in her right leg at a clinic in Adado. Her mother, Fadumo Abdullahi Ibrahim, said the girl was suffering from a minor illness. She blames the way the untrained medical staff injected her daughter for causing her paralysis. “Since then, I didn’t take her to another hospital because I can’t afford the money,” she said.

Somaliland’s Higher Education Commission warns advertisement of unregistered Universities

08 Oct – Source: Somaliland Sun – 124 words

Somaliland higher Education Commission released warning against making advertisement for the unregistered or unidentified universities in the country. A press release to the media by Executive Secretary of Higher Education Commission Mr. Husein Hassan Guuleed stressed that there are unregistered universities who work in a undercover manner and that such universities always advertise courses they never provided to the community.

He added that advertising baseless information by unregistered and unknown universities in the different sectors of the mass media in the country have been increasing recently.

He told that Somaliland National Higher Commission believes that such advertisements are skillful deception and conscious manipulation. “They are deceiving and misleading parents. Advertisements made by unregistered universities are full of dishonesties and are full of false information.

REGIONAL MEDIA

Al Shabaab remains dangerous presence in Horn of Africa – officials

09 Oct- Source: Kuwait News Agency- 391 words

Kenya’s role in Somalia questioned in US Senate

09 Oct- Source: Daily Nation- 401 words

A US government official and two think-tank analysts raised questions on Tuesday about Kenya’s role in Somalia in comments to the US Senate.

“Increasing security efforts by the Kenya Defence Forces may have [aid] access implications in Kismayo and re-ignite tensions in the community,” said Nancy Lindborg, assistant administrator of the US Agency for International Development.

Somalis express “great scepticism” in regard to Kenya’s claim that it wants to remove its troops from Kismayo, added EJ Hogendoorn, an analyst with the International Crisis Group.

Somali refugees decry calls to close refugee camps in Kenya

08 Oct- Source: Sabahi Online- 699 words

Saadia Ahmed Hussein, 42, said Somali refugees living in Kenyan camps should be left to return home voluntarily and “on a good note”.

Hussein left Somalia in 1993 and now lives in the Hagadera camp in Dadaab refugee complex in north-eastern Kenya. Dadaab is home to about 390,000 people, many of them Somalis who have lived there for upwards of twenty years.

“I am grateful for the welcome we as Somalis received, [but] I am more than willing to go back home,” she told Sabahi. “I arrived in Kenya on a very sore note after losing four of my family members including both parents to the war, but I want to go back there on a good note.”

Ethiopia Has No Room for Terrorism

08 Oct- Source: Walta Information Centre – 2434 words

International chroniclers disseminated heartbreaking news of bomb explosion that had blown up Westgate shopping mall frequented by foreigners in neighboring Kenya.The gratuitous attack had cost the lives of many Kenyans and other foreigners from Britain, France, Canada, Netherlands, Australia, India and China, among others. According to AFP and Reuters, the blast had killed at least 62 people and wounded 200. Nearly 40 were also reported missed.

Speaking to his people in the wake of the attack, Kenyan President, Uhuru Kenyatta said that the attackers “shall not get away with their despicable, beastly acts. We will punish the masterminds swiftly and indeed very painfully.” He said his country had defeated terrorists earlier and it will defeat them again. He also confirmed that his country will not relent in a war on terror and dismissed the allegation Kenya may order pull out of its forces from Somalia.

Somali ex-pirate kingpin now leads anti-piracy fight

08 Oct- Source: Sabahi Online- 778 words

Former Somali pirate Mohamed Abdi Hassan, who goes by the nickname “Afweyne”, was once one of the most feared pirate leaders operating from the country’s central coast.

According to the United Nations Monitoring Group on Somalia’s 2012 report, Afweyne and his son Abdiqaadir were implicated in the hijackings of seven vessels between April 2009 and October 2012.

But after announcing in January that he was quitting his life of “gang activity” on the high seas, Afweyne has been engaged in efforts in the Mudug and Galgadud regions to reform more than 1,000 youths who have followed his lead and renounced piracy.

INTERNATIONAL MEDIA

Al Qaeda stands weakened, split across Yemen, Somalia, N.Africa: Marie Harf

09 Oct- Source: The News International-150 words

US said that the two dozens of al Qaeda leaders, the perpetrators of 9/11 in Pakistan and Afghanistan were no longer threat to America, adding that al Qaeda existing leadership was weak and different from the earlier one, Geo News reported.

State Department deputy spokeswoman Marie Harf in her routine press briefing said that the two dozens of al Qaeda militants involved in the September 11, 2001 attack on US were no longer threat for us although Ayman Al Zawahiri was still left.

She said that al Qaeda’s central leadership has weakened and almost melted away, it was no more the al Qaeda of 9/11 instead constituted of newcomers not that dangerous and different from the previous one. Al Qaeda militants were now scattered into Yemen, Somalia and North Africa and the US was keeping the pressure on them.

Sierra Leone steps up security measures against terrorist attacks

09 Oct- Source: .dw.de- 551 words

The recent attack at Nairobi’s Westgate shopping mall has put much of the world on high alert, including the West African state of Sierra Leone. It sent a contingent of troops to Somalia earlier this year.

Responsibility for the September attack in Nairobi that left more than 70 people dead was claimed by al-Shabab which is believed to have links with the al Qaeda terrorist network.

Earlier this year, al Shabaab issued a threat to any country sending troops to Somalia. Sierra Leone is one of those countries, having contributed 850 soldiers in April 2013. Following the Westgate mall incident, Sierra Leone has stepped up security across the country.

Government spokesperson, Abdulai Bayraytay, said all necessary precautions were being taken on land borders, in the air and sea as well as in the capital of Freetown.

Somali Defense Minister: We will liberate Barawe from al Shabaab

08 Oct- Source: VOA- 424 words

Somali defense minister says operations will begin soon to liberate the town of Barawe, which is under the control of Islamist militant group al Shabaab. The town was the site of a U.S. Special Forces raid on Saturdaytargeting a militant commander.

Speaking to VOA in Mogadishu, Somali Defense Minister Abdulhakim Haji Faqi said operations would begin soon to remove al Shabaab from their stronghold in the coastal town of Barawe, south of Mogadishu, as well as other areas under militant control.

“We intend and plan to liberate them very soon. And as you know, really, al Shabaab, wherever we attack them, they do not fight back, they do not defend, they just evacuate and run,” he said.

Barawe became a key base for al Shabaab after Kenyan forces drove the militants from their former stronghold – the port city of Kismayo – last year.

SOCIAL MEDIA

CULTURE / OPINION / EDITORIAL / ANALYSIS / BLOGS/ DISCUSSION BOARDS

“Al Shabaab wants Kenya to turn inward and the world to withdraw its investment and support. We must show those who attacked Westgate that they have achieved the opposite, with Kenya and its allies working more closely than ever. Our common goal should be a more prosperous, united Kenya, and al Shabaab’s defeat.”

The path to defeating al Shabaab terrorists

09 Oct- Source: Capital FM Blog/Wall Street Journal-826 Words

The weekend brought encouraging news in the international fight against Islamic terrorism, news that was particularly welcome in Kenya, the country I lead. American commandos in Libya seized Abu Anas, a suspect in the 1998 bombings of American embassies in Kenya and Tanzania.

In Somalia, US Navy SEALs targeted a senior leader of al Shabaab, the al Qaeda-affiliated group responsible for the horrific recent attack on the Westgate shopping mall in Nairobi. The raid in Somalia was reportedly abandoned, to avoid harming civilians, before the al Shabaab leader could be captured. Some al Shabaab members were killed, but it wasn’t immediately clear whether the targeted senior leader was among the casualties.

All of us who strive to fight Islamic militancy should applaud these efforts. In particular, it is clear after the Westgate attack that the world must unite as never before in the fight against the spread of violence by al Shabaab outside Somalia.

“As the territory controlled by the group shrinks, issues such as strategy, treatment of foreign fighters, tactics and the long-term goal have become even more contentious. Some leaders and factions remain committed to a globalist mission — the unification of all Muslims under a single Islamic state — while others push for a nationalist agenda.”

Al Shabaab, chaos in Somalia and international terrorism

08 Oct- Source: Journalist Resource-887 Words

On October 5, 2013, American commandos raided a base of the Islamic militant group al Shabaab in southern Somalia. According to media reports, the target was Abdulkadir Mohamed Abdulkadir, known as “Ikrimah” (or Ikrima), a commander said to be responsible for planning terrorist actions outside the country’s borders. The raid came two weeks after al Shabaab gunmen took over Nairobi’s Westgate Mall, killing 67 people and causing more than 100 injuries. The attack was only the latest for the group, which has a relatively brief but bloody history.

While al Qaeda’s origins date back to the late 1980s, al Shabaab emerged in the mid-2000s. According to a 2009 paper in Middle East Quarterly by Daveed Gartenstein-Ross “The Strategic Challenge of Somalia’s Al-Shabab,” the militant group “rose from obscurity to international prominence in less than two years.” An outgrowth of the Islamic Union (IU) and Islamic Courts Union (ICU), both militant groups, al Shabaab split away in 2007. Unlike the IU and ICU, whose primary goals were to control Somalia and nearby ethnic Somali areas, al-Shabab had a global jihadist ideology. The group proclaimed its allegiance to al Qaeda early on, with al Qaeda only reciprocating later. The U.S. government declared al-Shabab to be a terrorist organization in 2008.

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Image of the day Installations of solar-powered traffic lights at 54 intersections in Mogadishu. Photo: Radio Mogadishu