July 16, 2014 | Morning Headlines.

Main Story

Security forces foil suicide car bomb in Mogadishu

15 Jul – Source: Radio Mogadishu/SNTV/RBC – 115 words

Somali security forces on Tuesday have foiled a suicide car bomb attempted to target Mogadishu’s Aden Abdulle Airport, according to a spokesman for the security forces Colonel Qasim Ahmed. Heavily planned operation mounted by the joint security forces of Somali government and the AMISOM forces led to the interception of a Toyota CARIB vehicle laden with explosives and was ready to be drove into the airport. “The security forces confiscated the vehicle and diffuses all the Explosive Devices loaded on it safely,” security spokesman said. The operation lasted just about an hour. The security forces apprehended the driver of the vehicle and is being interrogated by the security agents, according to the spokesman. “The target of this suicide car was to hit the airport in the busiest hours,” Colonel Ahmed.

Key Headlines

Security forces foil suicide car bomb in Mogadishu (Radio Mogadishu/SNVT/RBC)
ASWJ group vows to continue its fight against al Shabaab (Radio Bar-kulan)
Hundreds arrested in Somalia security sweep (AP)
Alleged al Shabaab members executed in Somali capital (Daily Nation)
MPs welcome new Minister of National Security (Radio Shabelle)
One dead after first polio case in Mudug (Garowe Online)
Armed Clashes in Hiiraan region leave nearly a dozen dead (Hiiraan Online)
Somaliland Police arrest French national (Somaliland Informer)
A deadly Ramadan in Somalia (IRIN News)
Bakool farmers fleeing to Hudur for food aid (Radio Ergo)

SOMALI MEDIA

Security forces foil suicide car bomb in Mogadishu

15 Jul – Source: Radio Mogadishu/SNTV/RBC – 115 words

ASWJ group vows to continue its fight against al Shabaab

15 Jul – Source: Radio Bar-kulan – 129 words

Moderate Ahlu Sunna Wal Jama’a group on Tuesday vowed to continue its armed struggle against al Shabaab militants in Somalia’s central regions. The chairman of Ahlu Sunna Wal Jama’a Executive Committee Sheikh Abdirizak Mohamed Mire Al-Ashari vows his forces will continue the fight to drive al Shabaab militants out of the region. Al-Ashari made the statement at a special event held in Guri-el town to commemorate Ahlu Sunna Wal Jama’a fighters who died in battles against al Shabaab militant group in the past few years. At least one thousand soldiers from the moderate group were dispatched to Guri-el town to maintain law and order during the commemoration event.

MPs welcome new Minister of National Security

15 Jul – Source: Radio Shabelle – 102 words

After a reshuffle of the Somali National Security Forces and Khalif Ahmed Erag was appointed as the new Minister of National Security, legislators of the Somali Federal Parliament welcomed the move. Samira Hassan Abdulle an MP, said that she greatly welcomes Mr. Erag and believes that he can fulfill the tasks and responsibilities given to him as Minister of National Security. Furthermore, MP Dahir Amin Jesow claimed that a reshuffle in National Security Forces always take place but that people up to task need to be appointed in order to effectively lead relevant security agencies.

Armed Clashes in Hiiraan region leave nearly a dozen dead

15 Jul – Source: Hiiraan Online/Garowe Online – 164 words

More than 11 people have been killed in a renewed fierce fighting between rival clan militias in the village of Deefow about 35 kilometres north of Beledweyne, the provincial capital of the central Somali region of Hiiraan. According to residents in Deefow, the fighting erupted early on Tuesday morning when the village came under attack from one of the clan militias. Sources indicate that dozens were also wounded in the fighting. About 18 people who sustained different injuries have been admitted to the general hospital in the city of Beledweyne.

Bakool farmers fleeing to Hudur for food aid

15 Jul – Source: Radio Ergo – 271 words

Farming families in Bakool region have started to leave villages that have been struck by successive seasons of poor rains and low food production and are heading towards Hudur hoping for food aid. More than 400 farmers from at least 11 villages have moved into Hudur district looking for food, despite the fact that the surrounding roads have been ringed off by al Shabaab forces since they lost control of the area to AMISOM and Somalia forces in March. The villages that residents have been displaced from include Mooro gabay, Qeysar qabow, Aboore, Lugaywin, Gubad galoole, Korkor and Gubad aseyr, according to Radio Ergo’s local reporter. All of them are traditional farming areas.

One dead after first polio case in Mudug

15 Jul – Source: Garowe Online – 142 words

New polio outbreak claimed one person in Mudug region of central Somalia according to Puntland Health Ministry. Speaking on Puntland-based independent station, Radio Garowe during Tuesday interview, the Director of Puntland’s Ministry of Health Dr. Abdirisak Hirsi Hassan said, elderly man succumbed to the virus in Towfiiq village which lies south of the provincial capital of Mudug, Galkayo. Dr. Hassan added ‘two persons in Towfiq also developed paralysis as a result of new polio outbreak in Puntland’s southern border with south-central regions’. Continuing, he noted: “Health workers were immediately dispatched to contain the virus.

Somaliland Police arrest French national

15 Jul – Source: Somaliland Informer – 92 words

Somaliland Intelligence Agency apprehended a man they were on his heels for quite some time. The man resided at Shaybe Hotel in Hargeisa and is a French national but has got mother of Somaliland citizen that hail from Awal region. Police were following him closely and ordered for his immediate arrest. He is in custody at Criminal Investigation Department in Hargeisa and has being put under interrogation. Residents nearby Shaybe Hotel in Jigjiga Yar village told the media that the man was seeking to a rent house. The man is carrying tourist visa.

REGIONAL MEDIA

Alleged al Shabaab members executed in Somali capital

15 Jul – Source: Daily Nation – 312 words

Two alleged members of Somalia’s al Shabaab militia convicted of murdering a female student were executed by firing squad in the capital Mogadishu on Tuesday, an AFP reporter witnessed. “These two defendants were found guilty of murdering student Nafiso Ahmed in April,” supreme military court chief judge Liban Ali Yarow said. “They took an appeal from the ruling late last month, which the court rejected. The court ordered their execution.” Senior Somali military officials and the relatives of the female victim watched as the two convicted killers, Hassan Salman and Shafici Abdi, were tied to posts and shot at the Somali police academy in Mogadishu. Their heads were covered by cloth bags.

INTERNATIONAL MEDIA

Hundreds arrested in Somalia security sweep

15 Jul – Source: AP – 251 words

More than 200 suspects were arrested Tuesday in a security sweep aimed at stemming a wave of militant attacks in the Somali capital of Mogadishu, said a senior police official. Soldiers manned checkpoints in Mogadishu’s northern outskirts, where most of the streets were empty amid the ongoing operation. Security forces raided the homes and shops of suspects and arrested many people, mostly young men, according to Col. Ahmed Ali, a senior police official in Mogadishu who said the sweep was a joint operation by government forces and African Union troops.

A deadly Ramadan in Somalia

15 Jul – Source: IRIN News – 938 words

Militant group al Shabaab has lived up to its promise to step up attacks in Somalia, mainly against government installations and personnel, during the holy month of Ramadan, which began on 29 June. Over 30 people have been killed in Mogadishu alone. On 8 July, the presidential compound was attacked during the iftar evening meal. Assailants entered the gate using a car bomb, and then engaged in a two-hour gun battle with palace guards, killing 14 soldiers. On 5 July, at least four people, including two children, were killed when a suicide car bomb was detonated outside of the parliament building. Just two days earlier a long-time member of parliament (MP), Mohamed Mohamud, was killed with his bodyguard when armed assailants opened fire on his car.

SOCIAL MEDIA

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

“As Abdirashid Duale, CEO of Dahabshiil – the region’s biggest money-transfer company – put it: thousands of Somalis find themselves “in the middle of anti-terrorism legislation, militants and starving to death.” A better international response must be found.”

Somalia Briefing: caught between anti-terrorism legislation, militants and starving to death

15 Jul – Source: African Arguments – 667 words

When I heard, last night, that several regions of Somalia are once again at risk of famine, the prevailing feeling was one of déjà vu. The reason for this was that it was only 3 years ago, in 2011, that Southern Somalia suffered its last devastating food shortages. Despite the existence of effective early warning systems, approximately 260,000 people starved to death. Half of these were children under the age of 5. This number is truly staggering. In 2011 16 warnings of famine were made before it was officially announced and a more intensive humanitarian response could kick in. This time around we are on warning number 8. An estimated 2.9 million people are currently facing humanitarian crisis. UN Special Representative to Somalia, Nicholas Kay, stated that “humanitarian peril” is one of the “sharks near the boat” in what is generally thought of as an improving situation in the country. Edward Paice, Director of the London-based Africa Research Institute (ARI), made the point during the organisation’s ‘Somalia Briefing’ last night that it was important to bring this worsening humanitarian situation to greater attention.