October 29, 2014 | Morning Headlines.

Main Story

Somalia police clash with protesting residents in Baydhabo

28 Oct – Source: Radio Danan/Radio Goobjoog/Mareeg Media – 130 Words

Somali security forces and hundreds of Baydhabo residents clashed after the Somali president Hassan Shekh Mohamed reached the town on Tuesday. The clash led the death of two civilians witness said.

The president visited Baydhabo to open the long-awaited conference on the formation of new regional state, which will control Bay, Bakool and lower shabelle regions. Our reporter on the ground stated that three others were wounded.

Political tensions in Baydhabo town has been raising in the last two months and Somali government called on rival parts to take part the peace process in the region.

Key Headlines

Somali president officially opens state formation conference in Baidoa (Radio Goobjoog/Radio Danan)
Somalia police clash with protesting residents in Baydhabo (Radio Danan/Radio Goobjoog/Mareeg Media)
Jubbaland Forces and Alshabaab Fight on the outskirts of Kismayo (Radio Dalsan/Mareeg Media)
Benadir administration donates $ US 250000 to Kaxda district to improve social services (Radio Bar-kulan)
War planes strike parts of Lower Jubba (Radio Dalsan)
Business paralysed in Lamu town as residents protest curfew extension (Daily Nation)
Sharif Ba-Alawi who helped set up Waltham Forest Somali Bravanese Action Group has died aged 70(Thisislocallondon.co.uk)
Colorado father was anguished when daughter fled to join Islamic State (The Denver Post)

SOMALI MEDIA

Somalia police clash with protesting residents in Baydhabo

28 Oct – Source:/Radio Danan/Radio Goobjoog/Mareeg Media – 130 Words

Somali security forces and hundreds of Baydhabo residents clashed after the Somali president Hassan Shekh Mohamed reached the town on Tuesday. The clash led the death of two civilians witness said.

Madobe Nunow Mohamed who was elected president of a new regional administration called South-western State in March has organized the demonstration, government officials in the area say. No one has commented yet on the killing. Political tensions in Baydhabo town has been raising in the last two months and Somali government called rival parts to take the peace process in the region.

Somali president officially opens state formation conference in Baidoa

28 Oct – Source: Radio GoobJoog/Radio Danan – 182 Words

The President of Federal Republic of Somalia Hassan Sheikh Mohamud has officially opened state formation conference of South West Somalia-three regional state, Bay, Bakol and Lower Shabelle region in Baidoa today.

380 delegates from the different regions of the proposed regional state Bay, Bakool and Lower Shabelle are attending the conference together with UN envoy to Somalia Nicholas Kay, Denmark ambassador to Somalia, IGAD envoy to Somalia Mohamed Abdi Affey and other invited guests.

Denmark’s Ambassador to Somalia, addressing the meeting, said the conference is a major milestone adding that in November, Copenhagen will hold conference for Somalia on economic recovery and rebuilding. The Special Representative of United Nations secretary general for Somalia Nicholas Kay, said that the United Nations will cover the cost of the state formation conference in Baidoa.

President Hassan addressing the participants during the official opening of the conference urged the public to think about the future of the people living in the three regions and take an active role to promote preaching peace, He thanked the international community for their roles in strengthening and rebuilding the region.

Jubbaland forces and al Shabaab fight on the outskirts of Kismayo

28 Oct – Source: Radio Dalsan/Mareeg Media – 70 Words

Reports from Kismayo said forces loyal to Jubbaland administration and Alshabaab once again clashed on the outskirts of town.

The clashes affected Birta dheer, Janaay Abdalla and Abdalla Biyoole which are all bases of Al shabab. The clashes erupted after Jubbaland forces attacked those areas. Officials within the leadership of Jubbaland told the media that at least four combatants from both warring sides lost their lives in those clashes.

Benadir administration donates $ US 250,000 to Kaxda district to improve social services

28 Oct – Source: Radio Bar-kulan – 98 Words

The Benadir administration has donated $ US 250,000 to Kaxda district in Mogadishu city to improve the basic social services. The contribution is part of program to empower the city suburbs who are recuperating from the civil war that has devastated the country.

According to Benadir local government official Ismail Maalim the funds will be used to establish a police station, district headquarters and other social amenities for the residents. He said the Benadir administration is committed to improving the social services of the city. Mogadishu is recovering from decades of civil war and basic services are improving.

War planes strike parts of Lower Jubba

28 Oct – Source: Radio Dalsan – 115 Words

Reports from Lower Jubba say war planes strike parts of Lower Jubba Region last night. Reportedly, the planes belong to KDF who are part of the AMISOM contingents.

KDF targeted those areas in Lower Jubba with strikes because they claimed that al-Shabaab militants are based there. The places KDF bombarded last night included Birta Dheer, Janaay Abdalla and part of Kuda Island. Nobody knows the exact casualty figures. The bombardment took place in midnight. However, sources say Al-Shabaab militias in the bombarded areas are preparing for war today.

Also, soldiers loyal to the Interim Jubbaland State Government were reported to have abandoned a military camp they were based which was inside the airport of Kismayo.

REGIONAL MEDIA

Business paralysed in Lamu town as residents protest curfew extension

28 Oct – Source: Daily Nation – 177 Words

Business was paralysed in Lamu Town on Tuesday after residents demonstrated against the extension of the dusk-to-dawn curfew. Shops remained closed and transport to and from Lamu Island was paralysed as residents protested the move by Inspector-General of Police David Kimaiyo to extend the curfew by another month.

Last Tuesday, Mr Kimaiyo extended the curfew to November 23. Boni and adjoining forests are also prohibited areas and public transport on the Lamu-Garsen road must be under armed police escort. All roads leading to Somalia but not designated as official routes are out of bounds to the public.

INTERNATIONAL MEDIA

Uganda sends fresh troops to Somalia

28 Oct – Source: Wall Street Journal – 413 Words

Uganda has started sending 2,700 new troops to war-torn Somalia, a military spokesman said on Tuesday, as African Union peacekeeping troops continue efforts to stabilize the nation.

The fresh troops will reinforce the security of Somalia’s presidency, the parliament, all ministries and the airport, as well as the country’s sea port, Ugandan army chief, General Katumba Wamala, said. The soldiers have had several weeks of specialized training from U.S. and French instructors to help them deal with attacks by insurgents, a spokesman for the Ugandan military said.

The deployment comes three weeks after Ugandan troops helped Somalia’s army to recapture the strategic port of Barawe, long-held by the al Qaeda-affiliated al-Shabaab militants who have used it to import arms and foreign fighters.

“Be vigilant and despite being a people’s force, please guard against the terrorists taking advantage of that relationship to cause harm on you,” Gen. Katumba told the troops as they prepared to depart from a Ugandan base for Somalia.

Until it was driven out of Barawe, the militant group was governing the port town under a strict interpretation of Islamic law, ordering floggings, amputations and executions for various crimes.

Sharif Ba-Alawi, who helped set up Waltham Forest Somali Bravanese Action Group,has died aged 70

28 Oct – Source: Thisislocallondon.co.uk – 254 Words

A man who escaped persecution in Somalia before setting up a group to help fellow refugees has died.

In 2001, Sharif Ba-Alawi helped set up the Waltham Forest Somali Bravanese Action Group (WFSBAG), in High Road, Leyton. The Bravanese, an ethnic minority in Somalia, are descendants of Arabian and Persian traders who founded Brava in the tenth century AD.

Mr Ba-Alawi was once a senior pilot for Somali Airlines, but left the country when the civil war broke out in 1990 to avoid persecution. He escaped with his wife and six children on a fishing boat and lived in Kenya for eight years, before coming to Britain to seek asylum.

He established the WFSBAG to support around 400 Bravanese families in the UK. The group provides help with language, medical treatment, schooling and integration into British society.

Colorado father was anguished when daughter fled to join Islamic State

Oct 28 – Source: The Denver Post – 1, 019 Words

As soon as the father of a 16-year-old Arapahoe County girl realized his daughter’s passport was nowhere to be found, he knew something was seriously wrong. “At that time, my heart fell down,” the father said. “I just felt something really bad is going to happen.”

His daughter was already on her way to Syria with two other classmates as they apparently tried to join Islamic State militants. The three were stopped by German authorities acting on a tip from the FBI.

In an interview with The Denver Post, the father broke his family’s silence on Monday and recounted a harrowing, two-day ordeal that left him scared, confused and eventually elated. The father spoke to The Post on condition of anonymity. “My daughter did unbelievable, unthinkable things,” he said. “I don’t want any other person to go through this. If I didn’t get her back, I don’t know what would have happened to me.”

The man’s daughter, a 16-year-old girl of Sudanese descent, and two 15- and 17-year-old sisters of Somali descent were reported missing Oct. 17 by their parents. The father said the Somali girls saved $2,000 before stealing another $2,000 from their parents to pay in cash for tickets to Turkey at Denver International Airport’s Lufthansa counter. Most airlinesdo not place travel restrictions on passengers over 12. The missing money was documented in one of the reports filed by the families.

SOCIAL MEDIA

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

“Violent extremism in Kenya has since the 1990s lost its exclusively foreign character, and national and regional extremism has expanded. While Al Shabaab’s roots are in Somalia, growing acceptance of al-Qaeda and Al Shabaab’s philosophy in traditional African communities has allowed it to spread through the broader region, including Kenya.”

Consider real roots of radicalism to fight terror

28 Oct – Source: The East African – 1, 262 Words

There has been very little research into why young Kenyan and Somali men join Al Shabaab and the Mombasa Republican Council (MRC). This has led to limited understanding among government and Kenyan society of the roots of radicalisation and terrorism.

But to deal with terrorism you have to understand where it comes from. Three recent research projects come in handy: Two different studies in Kenya and Uganda, followed by a third study in Somalia. In the Kenyan study, with the assistance of the Kenyan Muslim Youth Alliance, 95 people associated with Al Shabaab were interviewed and 45 associated with the MRC, besides relatives of people associated with the organisations.

It was found that many Muslim youth joined extremist groups as a reaction to the Kenyan government’s collective punishment or killing of their religious leaders. It is clear, therefore, that government anti-terror strategies based on mass arrests and racial profiling are counterproductive and may drive individuals to extremism.

The MRC is often mistakenly associated with al Shabaab, but research shows otherwise. The MRC is driven by ethnic and economic factors, while Al Shabaab’s core is radical Islam. The two have a common enemy in the Kenyan government, but it would be a mistake to place extremists from both groups under one banner.

Violent extremism in Kenya has since the 1990s lost its exclusively foreign character, and national and regional extremism has expanded. While Al Shabaab’s roots are in Somalia, growing acceptance of al-Qaeda and Al Shabaab’s philosophy in traditional African communities has allowed it to spread through the broader region, including Kenya.