September 25, 2014 | Morning Headlines.

Main Story

Somali PM shares details on his recent trip to Europe

24 Sept – Source: Radio Mogadishu/Bar-kulan – 148 words

Somali Prime Minister Abdiweli Sheikh Ahmed on Wednesday returned to the Somali capital, Mogadishu and gave details about his recent trip to Britain and Norway. Speaking on his trip to Britain, the prime minister said that he and his delegation including defense minister attended a meeting with the international partners in London to discuss ways to enhance Somalia’s security sector and the national army. The prime minister said Somalia needs a strong army to defend the country and take over the internal security of the country from the African Union troops when their mandate comes to an end. He added they have designed new measures to regulate the rebuilding process of the national army.

Key Headlines

Somali PM shares details on his recent trip to Europe (Radio Mogadishu/Bar-kulan)
Somalia Attorney General: Somalia will not make any compromise on its maritime borders (Radio Mogadishu/Goobjoog)
Somali pirate says $1.6 million ransom paid for German-American journalist (AP)
Somali Canadian may be killed in the first offensive against ISIS (Somali Current)
Somalia cracks down on illegal fishing (Al Jazeera)
Puntland: Galkayo airport is open to everyone in the region (Radio Goobjoog)
Al Shabaab amputates hand of convicted ‘thief’ (Africa Review)
Somaliland President meets with Danish Ambassador to Kenya (Somaliland Informer)

SOMALI MEDIA

Somali PM shares details on his recent trip to Europe

24 Sept – Source: Radio Mogadishu/Bar-kulan – 148 words

Somalia Attorney General: Somalia will not make any compromise on its maritime borders

24 Sept – Source: Radio Mogadishu/Goobjoog – 100 words

The Attorney General of Somalia holding press conference in Mogadishu on Wednesday explained the maritime dispute between Somalia and Kenya. Ahmed Ali Dahir, the Attorney General said Somalia will not make any compromise on its maritime borders adding that the lawsuit against Kenya is correct and came the right time. He praised the Minister for Foreign Affairs’ efforts of sending letters to Kenya and other companies that Kenya made concession to carry out research in our territorial waters. He called the federal parliament of Somalia and the public to back president Hassan’s decision of suing Kenya over the maritime dispute.

Somali Canadian may be killed in the first offensive against ISIS

24 Sept – Source: Somali Current – 87 words

Federal officials are trying to confirm whether a 20-year-old man from Hamilton was killed last week during clashes between Kurdish forces and Islamic State of Iraq and Levant fighters in northern Syria. “We are aware of reports that a Canadian was killed while allegedly fighting with ISIS,” John Babcock, a Foreign Affairs spokesman, If confirmed , he would be the first Canadian killed fighting for ISIS in Syria. His father, who lives in Minneapolis, told Voice of America last week that his son had recently become extremely devout.

Puntland: Galkayo airport is open to everyone in the region

24 Sept – Source: Radio Goobjoog – 110 words

The Semi-autonomous Regional State of Puntland in North-Eastern Somalia has denied that they have prevented Galmudug president Abdi Awale Qeybdiid land in Galkayo airport. Vice-Chairman of the Mudug region of Puntland administration Ahmed Muse Nur speaking to Radio Goobjoog ruled out the claims that the administration refused president Qeybdiid to use Galkayo airport and described the reports as propaganda and far from reality. “Galkayo airport is open to everyone in the region,” the vice chairman said. “ Qeybdiid uses and can use the airport whenever he wants,” he added. He also stated that the other airport in Galkayo is dispensable adding that its foundation is against the general airport standards.

Somaliland President meets with Danish Ambassador to Kenya

24 Sept – Source: Somaliland Informer – 86 words

Somaliland President Ahmed Mohamed Mohamoud Silanyo has on Wednesday received at the presidency Danish ambassador to Nairobi Mr Geert Aagaard Andersen who arrived in Somaliland on an official working visit. They exchanged views on numbers of issues that are of common mutual interest for both sides. Somaliland Foreign Minister Mr. Mohamed Bihi Yonis took the opportunity to brief the local press about the focus of the discussion. He stressed that both countries enjoy good relationship and went on to say that the ambassador is welcome to Somaliland.

REGIONAL MEDIA

Al Shabaab amputates hand of convicted ‘thief’

24 Sept – Source: Africa Review – 124 words

An al Shabaab court in Harardhere in central Somalia ordered the hand amputation of 27-year-old man after he was convicted of stealing Somali shillings 11.8 million (about $565). Sadak Abdi Ahmed’s hand was amputated by a dagger-wielding al Shabaab militant on Tuesday afternoon. A crowd of people was called to witness the carrying out of the sentence at Harardhere town square. “Sadak Abdi Ahmed admitted to have stolen Somali Shillings 11,880,000. As a result, he is to lose his right hand, from just above the wrist,” proclaimed the al Shabaab district court judge prior to the amputation, according to witnesses. Al Shabaab’s judicial system is often criticised for not providing defence lawyers or collecting enough prosecution evidence. Proceedings are often hasty and the sentences harsh.

Somalia cracks down on illegal fishing

24 Sept – Source: Al Jazeera – 105 words

A region in Somalia is cracking down on an upsurge in illegal fishing off its coast as fleets flock to waters where foreign naval forces have been taking on the pirates that make fishing a risky business. Describing illegal fishing as “a national disaster”, President Abdiweli Ali Gas of the autonomous state of Puntland, in the country’s northeast, ordered four South Korean trawlers into port following claims they broke local laws. Environmentalists used satellite technology to document the vessels trawling the seabed for catches that Al Jazeera discovered are mostly ending up in Italy – despite European Union regulations banning imports of illegally caught fish.

INTERNATIONAL MEDIA

Somali pirate says $1.6 million ransom paid for German-American journalist

24 Sept – Source: AP – 147 words

Negotiators paid a $1.6 million ransom for the release of a German-American journalist who was kidnapped in Somalia and held for two years and eight months, a commander of pirates who held him said Wednesday. Michael Scott Moore was “doing well” and receiving medical care, Germany’s Foreign Ministry said.Moore, 45, was flown to Kenya’s capital after being freed in Somalia on Tuesday. A special German Foreign Ministry crisis group and German federal police had worked “very closely” with U.S. authorities to win Moore’s freedom after he was kidnapped on Jan. 21, 2012, while researching a book on piracy, foreign ministry spokeswoman Sawsan Chebli told The Associated Press in Berlin. “Given the circumstances, he’s doing well,” Chebli said. She would not comment on what led to his release or on reports that a ransom had been paid, beyond saying “the German government cannot be blackmailed.”

SOCIAL MEDIA

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

“Beyond the question of al Shabaab’s capacity or weakness, however, a year after the Westgate tragedy, Kenyatta’s government has no real exit strategy from Somalia or sufficient explanations for Kenya’s continued presence there. Far from creating security, the violence against ordinary Somalis has deepened the mistrust and enmity between the Kenyan state and Somalis. Kenya’s engagement with Somalia now seems only through the use of violence. Until that changes, ordinary and extraordinary violence will become the norm and not the exception.”

Kenyan counterterrorism efforts against al Shabaab are counterproductive

24 Sept – Source: Al Jazeera America – 1143 words

On Sept. 6, a day after the White House announced the killing of Ahmed Godane, the leader of Somali Islamist group al Shabaab, in a nighttime airstrike five days earlier, Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta said that Godane’s death was “a small measure of closure to Westgate attack victims.” The al Qaeda-affiliated group was behind the Sept. 21, 2013, mass shooting at the Westgate shopping mall in Nairobi, Kenya, which left 67 people dead and more than 175 wounded. It was billed as a revenge attack for Kenya’s 2011 military incursion into Somalia after strings of cross-border attacks by al Shabaab targeting aid workers and tourists. As Kenya marks the first anniversary of the Westgate attack this week, the cycle of violence that ties Kenya, Somalia and the United States together continues. In the aftermath of the Westgate tragedy, violence from al Shabaab, the Kenyan state and U.S.-supported African forces in Somalia have continued to terrorize ordinary Somalis and cost them their lives. It is time to consider whether regional and international counterterrorism efforts against al Shabaab, which created the conditions for the group’s emergence, are counterproductive and need to be reformed.