16 Aug 2011 – Daily Monitoring Report
Key Headlines:
- AMISOM measures to minimize civilian casualties are working says Human Rights Watch
- Djibouti President visits Mogadishu
- Somalia president visits Burundi to request more peace keepers
- Islamic Bank allocates $2.5 million for Somalia aid
- UN to meet over Somalia ‘road map’
- Parliamentary relief committee says relief goods not reaching needy people
- U.S intercepts ship suspected of carrying weapons for al Shabaab
- AMISOM overwhelm al Shabaab
PRESS RELEASE
AMISOM measures to minimize civilian casualties are working, says Human Rights Watch
16 Aug – Source: AMISOM – 357 words
Efforts by African Union troops to minimize harm to Somali civilians in Mogadishu are having a positive effect, an international human rights agency has acknowledged today. The report looks at the conflict in Somalia over a twelve month period from August 2010 and recognizes a change in procedures by African Union forces to reduce the impact on the civilian population.
Entitled “You Don’t Know Who To Blame,” Human Rights Watch noted that “in 2011, such cases appear to have diminished,” as a result of “efforts on the part of AMISOM [the AU Mission in Somalia] to improve its targeting and reduce indiscriminate fire, notably through the identification of no-fire zones.”
The report also notes AMISOM has taken action against soldiers who were found guilty of harming civilians. In response to the report, AMISOM Force Spokesman, Lt. Col. Paddy Ankunda termed it “a recognition of the measures we have undertaken to ensure we abide by our international obligations.”
“It underscores our commitment to safeguarding the lives of ordinary civilians in Mogadishu in the conduct of our operations against extremist insurgents who use them as human shields,” he added.
The HRW report also highlighted the extremists’ “practice of firing artillery from densely populated neighborhoods” in an effort to get AMISOM to respond in kind. “However, AMISOM has a policy – and has had it in place for the period this report covers – of not engaging in counter-battery fire when provoked by the extremists,” said Col. Ankunda. He however pointed out a few factual inaccuracies that may have led the authors to wrong conclusions.
“The report says that AMISOM only declared Bakara Market a “no-fire zone” in May 2011. Whereas, in fact, it was November last year that Bakara was designated by AMISOM as one of a number of heavily-populated areas where artillery, mortars and rockets are banned from use,” he said.
“The report also accuses AMISOM of shelling a camp for internally displaced persons, which left dozens dead, and attributes the allegation to a report by the International Crisis Group. In fact, ICG’s Crisis Watch No. 91 of 1st March makes no such specific allegation against AMISOM for that incident,” he added.
SOMALI MEDIA
Djibouti President visits Mogadishu
16 Aug – Source: Radio Mogadishu, Bar-Kulan – 64 words
A large delegation headed by Djibouti President Ismail Omar Gelle visited Mogadishu. President Gelle has arrived in Mogadishu this morning and welcomed by the president of Somalia Sheik Sharif Ahmed at Aden Adde international airport. President Gelle came to assess the humanitarian situation in Mogadishu and the role his country could take in helping internally displaced people of Somalia.
Al Shabaab detain aid workers in Hiiraan region
15 Aug – Source: Radio Bar- Kulan – 212 words
The al Shabaab led administration in Hiiraan region on Monday detained three Danish Refugee Council staffs – including the organization’s head officer in the region Elmi Ahmed Nur – for employing new staffs without their knowledge. The aid workers were arrested while they were trying to assess the plight of drought and faminestruck people in the region. Al Shabaab has accused the organization of recruiting over seven new staffs in the area without their go head.
The DRC’s recruits were said to deliver humanitarian relief food bound to needy people in other al Shabaab-held areas in the region. The al Shabaab leader in Beledweyne town told elders who came to plea with them in trying to secure the release of the trio that it was a mistake for the organization to make any recruitment without their knowledge.
The rebel leader’s assertion staggered the elders whose efforts to have the aid workers released ended in vain. He later told the elders that the three DRC workers will be released once investigations were over. Locals condemned the militia for arresting aid workers trying to help drought and famine-stricken people in the region. Al Shabaab have earlier banned aid agencies from operating inside their areas of control, a move that has prevented humanitarian aid from reaching the needy people in the rebel held regions in southern Somalia.
Parliamentary relief committee says relief goods not reaching needy people
15 Aug – Source: Radio Risala – 59 words
Speaking to the Media in Mogadishu, the Chairman of the Parliamentary Relief Committee Mohamud Abdi Aliyow said that the relief goods donated by the foreign nations are not reaching the needy people but are stashed away. Mr. Aliyow added that it is unfortunate incident and described it as a bad management, urging the TFG leaders to remedy the situation.
U.S intercepts ship suspected of carrying weapons for al Shabaab
15 Aug – Source: Radio Bar- Kulan – 178 words
The U.S Navy has intercepted a Somalia-bound Yemeni cargo ship carrying weapons suspected to be for Somalia’s al Shabaab militia. The Somali consulate in Yemen said the cargo ship en route from Yemen to Somalia coastline ended up in the hands of U.S Navy at the Gulf of Aden. The Somali consul Hussein Hajji Ahmed said U.S navy opened fire on the ship after the captain defied Navy orders to stop the vessel but later surrender to the United States navy.
He added that the ship is suspected of carrying military supplies for the al Shabaab militia in Somalia, a clear indication that Yemeni Al-Qaeda supports the militia in terms of weaponry. Ahmed said investigations into the issue are currently underway. He urged the Somali government to boost security along the country’s coastlines and seek support from the neighboring countries in making sure that no arms are illegally smuggled into the country through the coastal areas. The U.S has recently received critical information suggesting that the Yemeni based Al-Qaeda network provides weapons and other military necessities to Somalia’s al Shabaab insurgents fighting the Somali government.
Civilian killed as pirates fight in Hobyo town
16 Aug – Source: Radio Galkacyo, Bar-Kulan and Shabelle – 109 words
At least one person has died and two other injured following a heavy fight within a group of Somali pirates in Hobyo district, Mudug region. Reports say a bystander, Ali Ahmed Ali, who was caught up in the cross fire as he left a mosque in the area died on the spot while a pirate and another bystander sustained injuries during the incident. Locals in the in pirates-infested Somali coastline have been raising concern over the subsequent clashes between sea pirates in their area. The incident comes days after a similar incident claimed the lives of three while two other bystanders caught up in the cross fire sustained injured.
Islamic Bank allocates $2.5 million for Somalia aid
15 Aug – Source: Radio Bar-Kulan – 178 words
The Islamic Development Bank (IDB) has announced that it has allocated $2.5 million for drought and famine in Somalia, where millions of people are on the brink of starvation. In a statement, the bank said the money will be used to distribute food, medicines and other relief supplies among famine-hit Somalis.
IDB has increased Somalia aid from the previous $1.2 million to the current $2.5 million in support of the famine-stricken Somali population in the Horn of African country. The bank says the aid will be channeled through aid agencies working inside Somalia.
The statement said more than 17,800 families in various cities of Somalia would benefit from IDB’s relief kits, which include flour and powdered milk. The United Nations has said previously that tens of thousands of people have died in the drought, the worst to hit Somalia in 60 years. The UN has declared three new regions in Somalia’s famine zones, bringing the total number to five. Out of a population of roughly 7.5 million, the UN says 3.2 million Somalis are in need of immediate lifesaving assistance.
Tuberculosis patients in Baidoa town get aid from Saudi based Somali community
15 Aug – Source: Radio Bar-Kulan – 105 words
A local humanitarian aid committee group in Baidoa locally known as ‘Kalmeye’ has distributed humanitarian food rations to tuberculosis patients in Shanta Jide refugee camp in Baidoa town, Bay region. Committee chairman Mayow Tesiyow said the aid – including meat, wheat flour, rice, sugar and cooking oil from the Somali community in Saudi Arabia – has been distributed to sixty tuberculosis patients in the camp. Bashir Ahmed Elmi, one of the patients who received the food rations said this is the first humanitarian aid specifically aimed at supporting tuberculosis patients in the region since the withdrawal of an international NGO, World Vision, which used to support them in the region.
REGIONAL MEDIA
Somalia president visits Burundi to request more peace keepers
16 Aug – Source: Coast week, Xinhua – 204 words
Somali President Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed on Monday paid a three-hour visit to Burundi to request more troops of the African Union Peacekeeping Mission in Somalia to occupy gained fields.
The Somali president told journalists after he paid a courtesy visit to his Burundian counterpart Pierre Nkurunziza that the main objective of his visit was to discuss the security improvement in Somalia, the humanitarian situation and the strengthening of bilateral relations between Burundi and Somalia.
“We hail the achievements of Burundian troops serving in the AMISOM in the Somali capital Mogadishu and we came here (to Burundi) to request more troops to occupy fields recently gained from al Shabaab insurgents by AMISOM troops together with soldiers backing the Transitional Federal Government,” the Somali president said. For his part, the Burundian president promised that Burundi is ready to send more troops to Somalia.
“We’re ready to send more troops to Somalia, but the country (Somalia) should think of training its own security forces because the AU peace keepers will not stay there forever. “One day, they will have to withdraw from Somalia,” Nkurunziza said. Burundi and Uganda are the main contributors of troops in the AMISOM peacekeeping mission. Burundi alone has sent five battalions to Somalia since 2007.
http://www.coastweek.com/3432_
Rights report accuses Kenyan police of raping Somalis seeking refuge
15 Aug – Source: Daily Nation – 465 words
Police were on Monday accused of human rights violations including gang raping and extorting money from refugees. The report also accused the Kenyan government of providing military assistance to militias supporting the TFG without acting to ensure accountability for abuses by their troops or by the militias they support.
The Human Rights Watch report, “You don’t know who to blame: War Crimes in Somalia”, reports extensively on human rights violations by the Kenya Police on the Somali asylum seekers and refugees face as they try to enter into the country. The report gives accounts of two women who were raped by police near Dadaab. However, despite the promise by police to conduct investigations into the allegations of rape and other abuses, nothing has happened so far.
In another allegation, the reports say that in January, three policemen from Dadaab station ganger aped a newly arrived asylum seeker. “Police told us they were aware of the rape case but claim their investigation did not enable them identify the perpetrators. No one was prosecuted for the crime. Instead the police response was to transfer the implicated police office from Dadaab to other stations,” said one of the UNHCR staff in an interview with Human Rights Watch.
The report details that the Somali refugees and asylum seekers prefer to pass though panya (illegal) routes where they risk and are indeed attacked by bandits who beat them and rob them, then face the incarceration.
AMISOM overwhelm al Shabaab
15 Aug – Source: New Vision – 469 words
The al Shabaab fighters fled Mogadishu due to the strong weaponry possessed by Ugandan led AMISOM forces. According to a top leader of the group who is quoted in a rebel-leaning media, the rebels could not cope with the tanks the UPDF-dominated African Union peace keeping mission uses. “We don’t have tanks and it’s wrong to have face to face fighting with troops armed with tanks,” Dahir stated. Besides dozens of tanks, the UPDF squad in Somalia is equipped with hundreds of mambas among other artilleries.
A week ago, the extremists were forced to retreat from Mogadishu overnight, following operations launched by the African Union peace keeping troops. They tried a counter-offensive which unluckily precipitated their retreat and are now reported to be as far as 100km away from the city.
AMISOM later discovered over 100 155-millimeter artillery shells which al Shabaab abandoned in a disused house in the city’s Bakara market. A senior UPDF officer in Mogadishu attributed their success in the operation to the July 11 bomb attacks on Kampala, which he said turned out to be a strategic mistake for al Shabaab. “This is no longer a case for bringing peace. It’s also our war now,” the officer stated.
http://www.newvision.co.ug/D/
Two deny having links with al Shabaab
16 Aug – Source: the Standard – 294 words
Two people named in a UN report on al Shabaab operations claim their names were included in the report after they refused to part with Sh10 million bribes. Mr. Abdillahi Abdi Nur and Mr. Abdi Warsame Dirie have filed a suit at the Milimani Law Courts in Nairobi.
This said Mr. Babatunde Taiwo, whom they have named as the first respondent in the suit, demanded to be paid Sh10 million “to avoid implicating the plaintiffs in acts of terrorism.” In the papers filed in court, they say Taiwo had claimed to be associated with the UN. Also sued is Mr. Khalif Hassan Abdulrahman.
On August 2, their advocate, Mr. Peter Kaluma wrote to Foreign Affairs PS saying Taiwo had alleged he was working with the UN.
Dubai residents are getting involved in relief efforts for Somalia
16 Aug – Source: The National – 311 words
Employees from a Dubai company have been collecting supplies that will be shipped to Somalia with the help of the Red Crescent. More than 50 workers from Dubai Aluminum Company Limited (Dubal) helped collect and pack food donated by colleagues and the community in a 10- day effort.
“I took part in the Somalia donation drive because it was the right thing to do,” said Salem Al Nahdi, 24, an Emirati financial analyst. “We take for granted all the essentials that we have packed and are about to ship. Inshallah, they will go to people that need it the most. I hope what little we did can go a long way for them.” The volunteers collected dried beans, rice, sugar, flour and milk powder from 26 donation points and packed the produce over two days.
Some of the employees are also part of the ThinkUpGCC initiative, a platform for Gulf talents and philanthropic initiatives. “I am proud that a few members got to do well and help out those in need,” said Saleh Al Braik, 23, the founder of ThinkUpGCC and a financial analyst. “It takes an event like this to really get the community together and connect with one and other.”The ThinkUpGCC volunteers raised awareness about the fundraising drive on social networks such as Twitter.
The company has initiated a second campaign to raise money, which will be given to the RCA. A number of UAE humanitarian organizations are helping those affected by the drought. The Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum Humanitarian and Charity Establishment has established food centers to provide meals to displaced families arriving at its newly built camp in the Dulu province on the Somalia border. The agency has provided shelter to more than 10,000 children in its food centers. Officials also said a number of children required eye surgeries to prevent blindness, caused by exhaustion and long journeys on foot.
http://www.thenational.ae/
INTERNATIONAL MEDIA
UN to meet over Somalia ‘road map’
16 Aug – Source: Pretoria news, Sapa-dpa – 151 words
The United Nations Security Council announced late on Monday that a meeting would be held on September 4-6 in Somalia to design a plan for building the war-torn country’s government during the next year. Augustine Mahiga, the UN’s special representative on Somalia, is organizing the meeting, according to a Security Council statement.
The goal of the meeting is to “agree on a road map of key tasks and priorities to be delivered in Somalia over the next 12 months, with clear timelines and benchmarks to be implemented” by Somalia’s UN-backed transitional government, it said.
“The members of the Security Council stressed the need for wide participation by Somali groups in this meeting, including the Transitional Federal Institutions, local and regional administrations and other Somali stakeholders,” the UN said.
The Security Council noted that future support for the transitional government would be contingent upon completion of the tasks in the road map.
http://www.pretorianews.co.za/
Ex-Minn. man in court on terror charge
16 Aug – Source: UPI – 166 words
A former Minneapolis man accused of conspiring to help the Somali terrorist group al Shabaab is back in Minnesota after being extradited from the Netherlands. Mahamud Said Omar, 45, who was indicted two years ago, made his initial appearance in U.S.
District Court Monday on charges he conspired to provide material support to terrorists and foreign terrorist organizations, and conspiracy to kill, kidnap, maim and harm people aboard. Omar, a Somali citizen with permanent U.S. resident status, was indicted Aug. 20, 2009, and was arrested in the Netherlands in November of that year. He was returned to the United States in the past few days, the U.S. Justice Department said in a release.
Prosecutors allege the ‘Operation Rhino’ investigation determined that Omar gave money to young men from 2007 to 2009 so they could travel from Minneapolis to Somalia to train with and fight for al Shabaab. Omar also allegedly visited an al Shabaab safe house in Marka, where he provided the recruits with money to buy AK-47 assault rifles.
http://www.upi.com/Top_News/
BLOGS/EDITORIAL/CULTURE
Hunger, death in Somalia
16 Aug – Source: Register Guard – 510 words
The Horn of Africa is having its worst famine in more than half a century — and that’s saying something in a region where hunger and starvation are familiar callers. Dire food shortages are affecting as many as 12 million people throughout the region, and nearly one third is at risk of starvation. In drought-stricken Somalia, more than 29,000 children younger than 5 have died in the last three months.
Somalia, the nation most affected by the famine, has become a study in agony and frustration. A perfect storm of geopolitical factors is frustrating the efforts of Western nations and aid groups to deliver desperately needed assistance to refugees. The al Shabaab Islamist insurgent group, which controls much of the southern part of the country, is blocking starving Somalis from fleeing the country to refugee camps in neighboring Kenya or Ethiopia, where more assistance is available.
Al Shabaab, which is battling for control of the country against a weak Western-backed government in the capital of Mogadishu, has forced out most Western aid groups. It refuses to allow food and other supplies to be delivered to the starving populace inside Somalia.
The United Nations has begun airlifting food to the region. But the southern third of Somalia, the epicenter of the famine, is one of the most inaccessible regions in the world, even without the impediment of al-Shabaab. So far, foreign nations have been unwilling even to broach the idea of a humanitarian military intervention in a country that was the site of the notorious “Black Hawk Down” battle during a short-lived 1993 U.S. military incursion.
The situation in Somalia is complicated further by al Shabaab’s purported ties to al-Qaeda and its designation by the United States as a terrorist organization. Until just days ago, that designation discouraged U.S. aid groups from trying to operate in al Shabaab-controlled areas for fear of facing U.S. prosecution if militants diverted aid or extorted bribes from aid workers.
http://www.registerguard.com/
A Minnesota plea for relief in Somalia
15 Aug – Source: Star Tribune – 484 words
Humanitarian crises usually come in one of two forms, according to Daniel Wordsworth, president and CEO of the Minneapolis-based American Refugee Committee: “Rapid-onset” and “slow-onset.”
Earthquakes and tsunamis are rapid-onset events, as seen in Haiti and Japan. The horrors in the Horn of Africa — a drought and famine that the United Nations says threatens more than 11 million people — is a slow-onset event. Its deadly impact has been compounded by the nihilistic violence many refugees face from the militant Islamist group al Shabaab. There are also troubling reports of widespread theft of food aid, although the U.N. has said suspending assistance would result in even more misery for the ravaged land.
“It’s like watching a train wreck happen in slow motion, and part of the terrible tragedy is that the passengers in the train are calling their relatives as it’s going on,” said Wordsworth.
Many of those calls are answered here in Minnesota. A generation of immigration has brought Minneapolis, in particular, one of the largest populations of Somalis outside Mogadishu, the country’s capital. Now, hoping to help their homeland, many local Somalis have built bridges with several Minnesota-based organizations to lead relief efforts.
The American Refugee Committee has joined with local Somali residents to create Neighbors for Nations, a program aiming to not only aid the relief efforts but also build a more bonded community here at home.
http://www.startribune.com/