December 17, 2014 | Morning Headlines.

Main Story

Gun men kill 3 people in south of Laascaanood

16 Dec – Source: Radio Goobjoog – 74 Words

At least 2 People were killed in the outskirts of Lasaanod district in Sool region in a revenge attack. Men armed with pistols and rifles attacked a minibus and killed one person among the passengers, locals say the killing occurred in response to that incident. Many wounded People were rushed to hospitals for treatments. Sources in Laascaanood told Goobjoog FGM that the negotiation is underway as elders are making efforts to contain the situation.

Key Headlines

Gun men kill 3 people in south of Laascaanood (Radio Goobjoog)
Beled hawo families receive donations from Diaspora community (Radio Bar-kulan)
Galgaduud Regional Commissioner visits Gurieel ( Radio Dalsan/Radio Muqdisho)
Landmine attack wound five people in Barawe(Radio Goobjoog)
At least five people including children starve to death in Bula Barte ( Radio RBC)
Hormud foundation donates medical supplies to Benadir hospital (Radio Bar-kulan/Radio Muqdisho)
Somali piracy threat always on the horizon (National Dubai)
Somalia: more soldiers released (The Observer Uganda)
Somalia’s Shabaab claims to collect $9 million in donations (Anadolu Agency)
Seychelles court of appeal acquits 3 suspected Somali pirates convicted of piracy (SNA)
Somali shop attacks worry MEC (South Africa Press Association)

SOMALI MEDIA

Gun men kill 3 people in South Laascaanood

16 Dec – Source: Radio Goobjoog – 74 Words

Beled hawo families receive donations from Diaspora community

16 Dec – Source: Radio Bar-kulan – 146 Words

Somali women diaspora in Australia have donated $ US 3500 to over 35 poor and needy families in the city of Beled hawo.The money was sent through local organization to donate to the families and each family received a hundred dollars. Most of those who benefited were aged and disabled persons according to the local organization official Fatuma Shafii Ali who was tasked to hand over the donation to the 35 families. Somali Diaspora community plays an integral role in the recovery of the collapsed Somali economy. They send billions of dollars every year back home to their families for upkeep through traditional money transfer known as Hawala.

Galgaduud Regional Commissioner visits Gurieel

16 Dec – Source: Radio Dalsan/Radio Muqdisho – 112 Words

Galgaduud Regional Commissioner Hon. Hussein Weheliye Irfo today visited Gurieel town where recently Somali National Forces and other forces said to be Ahlu Sunna Wal Jamaa’a clashed. Recently, there were also other clashes there involving sea pirates. Mr. Irfo said his visit was a fact finding mission regarding the security of the town where the recent clashes inflicted injuries on people and destroyed property. Mr. Irfo also said that his administration is engaged in making sure how the setting up of the unitary state government for central Somalia would be completed. Apart from Guriceel, there were other clashes recently reported in Dusamareeb, the capital of galgaduud Region.

Landmine attack wound five people in Barawe

16 Dec – Source: Radio Goobjoog – 115 Words

At least five people were wounded after government forces were targeted with landmine in Barawe district of Lower Shabelle region. Eye witness told Goobjoog FM that the bomb planted beside the road went off as government forces on board of a military vehicle were passing the road.The forces opened fire though the casualties are not clearly known. After the incident government forces conducted security operations to pursue the attackers but no one has yet been arrested.The administration of Barawe district declined to give comment about the explosion and the outcome of the security crackdown. Barawe was a major stronghold of Al-shabab before it was captured by joint forces in a massive operation Indian Ocean.

At least five people including children starve to death in Bula Barte

16 Dec – Source: Radio RBC – 120 Words

At least five people are reported to have died due to hunger in Bulo-barte, district in central Somalia which was recovered by Somalia national army along with African Union peacekeeping forces from Al-shabab. Among the people who died from hunger are children after severe food shortages hit the region. This came after Al-shabab imposed a blockade on the a road that linked the district to the other parts of the country, prompting a shutdown of transportation. Al-shabab are reported to have attacked a number of vehicles that were trying to transport food materials to the Bula-barte thus caused the transport owners to hesitate traveling along the road that connects to the town.

Hormud foundation donates medical supplies to Benadir hospital

16 Dec – Source: Radio Bar-kulan/Radio Muqdisho – 98 Words

The management of Hormud foundation has handed over medical supplies equipment to Benadir hospital in Mogadishu. According to the vice chairman of the foundation Omar Salad Farah, the donation is meant for the hospital to help the victims of the recent Mogadishu’s Yaqshid district water poisoning. Farah said the foundation is committed to taking part in the community health affairs to improve health sector. Benadir general hospital director Abdirizack Yussuf Ahmed has thanked the foundation for the donation. He said the victims of last week Mogadishu neighborhood water poisoning in the hospital are recuperating.

REGIONAL MEDIA

Somali piracy threat always on the horizon

16 Dec – Source: National, Dubai – 637 Words

The name Captain Phillips is familiar to millions around the world. He was the subject of the 2013 Tom Hanks film about an American cargo ship skipper who was freed by US Navy Seals after being taken captive by Somali pirates in 2009. Almost no one, however, knows the names of 30 hostages who remain in captivity in Somalia, forgotten by the world. Hostages for four years and nine months, four unnamed Thais from the fishing vessel Prantalay 12 seized 1,200 miles off the Somali coast on April 18, 2010 have spent longer in captivity than anyone who has been seized by the Somali pirates. Certainly longer than the four days endured by Richard Phillips, master of the Maersk Alabama. Six of the Prantalay 12’s crew members were reported to have died when their vessel capsized in a storm and beached in its pirate anchorage on July 14, 2011, leaving the survivors with no ship and little hope of being freed for ransom. Similarly, the 26 anonymous Asian crew of the fishing vessel Naham 3, taken in the Indian Ocean on March 26, 2012, remain in captivity.

Somalia: more soldiers released

16 Dec – Source: The Observer, Uganda – 479 Words

After their release on December 11 by the General Court Martial, parties broke out in Kibuku to welcome Maj Frank D Kiweru and Capt Hassan Wantimba from a year in Makindye military barracks prison. Maj Kiweru and Capt Wantimba were accused of persuading UPDF instructors at the Al-Jazeera training centre in Mogadishu, Somalia, to train 19 Al-Jazeera Somali civilians outside the school training calendar. But the Court Martial chairman Maj Gen Levi Karuhanga ruled last week that the defence had not provided enough evidence to pin the accused officers. Prosecution claimed that the two officers in May 2013, working as the staff officer in charge of training at Amisom forces headquarters in Mogadishu and administrative officer at the Al-Jazeera training centre respectively, induced the UPDF instructors at the said training centre to train the 19 Al-Jazeera Somali civilians. On November 21, after prosecution closed its case, Chrysostom Katumba, the defence lawyer, asked court to release the army officers for lack of evidence.

INTERNATIONAL MEDIA

Somalia’s Shabaab claims to collect $9 million in donations

16 Dec – Source: Anadolu Agency – 266 Words

Somalia’s Al-Shabaab militant group has claimed to have collected $9 million in zakat, or alms, in areas that it controls in the central and southern parts of the war-torn country. A video released by the group on one of its affiliated websites showed dozens of local Somalis lining up to report the number of heads of livestock they had in their possession so that the amount that they should pay in zakat could be determined. The footage also showed a number of poor Somalis receiving their share of the zakat and praising Al-Shabaab for the charitable gesture. An Al-Shabaab leader, identified as Abu Mohamed, showed in the video saying that alms had been distributed among the poor after having been collected from the rich. He said the zakat system was followed in all Al-Shabaab-held areas, including Middle Juba in the south, Gedo in the southwest, and Hiran in central Somalia. Zakat is one of the Islamic faith’s “five pillars,” according to which every able-bodied believer should pay 2.5 percent of their wealth every year to the poor.

Seychelles court of appeal acquits 3 suspected Somali pirates convicted of piracy

16 Dec – Source: SNA – 669 Words

The Seychelles Court of Appeal has acquitted and ordered the repatriation of 3 Somali pirates back to their homeland. The highest court in the land overturned a previous ruling delivered by the island nation’s Supreme Court citing “insufficient evidence that proves that they were indeed pirates.” The Court of Appeal’s ruling was delivered at the end of its last session for this year on Friday December 12. The court holds three sessions yearly, one in April, one in August and the last one in December.Two of the three men were appealing against their 21 year sentence while the third one, a juvenile aged 16 was appealing against his 14 year sentence.

According to an article published on Monday in daily newspaper, TODAY in Seychelles, the Court of Appeal judges “severely warned” the prosecution when delivering their ruling “to make sure they have concrete evidence before prosecuting suspects.”The 3 men were in fact part of a group of 25 suspected pirates arrested by a Danish Naval Vessel off the Horn of Africa, in January 2012.According to reports then, the Danish navy freed 14 Iranian and Pakistan hostages who were being held hostage on the ship on which the 25 Somali men were captured.

Somali shop attacks worry MEC

16 Dec – Source: South Africa Press Association – 181 Words

Recent arson attacks on Somali-owned shops in KwaMashu, near Durban, could be motivated by xenophobia, KwaZulu-Natal community safety MEC Willies Mchunu said on Tuesday. “Attacking foreign-owned shops is equal to xenophobic attacks,” Mchunu said in a statement.These acts were “against the values South Africa stands for”.Mchunu said there had been two petrol bomb attacks on shipping containers, from which Somalians operated their businesses, in the area’s C-section. Police were only able to confirm one attack, last Thursday, in which two people, a Somali business owner and his assistant, sustained serious burns.“ 1/8The owner and assistant were 3/8 accosted by two unknown males who threw petrol bombs through the window,” Major Thulani Zwane said.He said the motive was not yet known and no arrests had been made. Mchunu said the attacks were “unwarranted”.“If people have got issues with the level of competition presented by foreign business owners and their impact on local business owners, such must be discussed through proper channels and peacefully.”Mchunu said a community meeting would be held about the matter on Thursday.

SOCIAL MEDIA

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

“Another threat that poses danger to the country is the erosion of public trust in the courts because of government interference in the justice system”

The so called Somaliland: the new sick man of the Horn of Africa

15 Dec – Source: Mareeg media – 1245 Words

All over Somaliland there is a high degree of anxiety, cynicism and feelings of hopelessness and helplessness, which has not been seen since the fall of Siyad Bare’s regime. People are unhappy with the country’s direction and the situation in the country seems to be very reminiscent of that of Somalia in the latter years of 1980s.The former “beacon of hope” has finally shown 1980s Somalia-like symptoms of state collapse and is diagnosed by Somali political analysts as the new “sick man of the Horn of Africa”.

Most of the people in Somaliland have lost faith in President Silanyo and his administration. The president, because of his remarkable qualifications and exceptional experience, was expected to form a government that becomes a focal point where tribal interests converge or one that becomes an integrative locus in which tribal rivalries are eliminated or directed to the advantage or benefit of all the people in Somaliland, but instead his administration has become a divisive element in intertribal relations. There is also a general feeling in the country that the president is encouraging tribalism and using it as a tactic of a divide-and-rule policy.

“A few days later, Al-Shabaab militants carried out an attack on a Nairobi-bound bus, killing 28 passengers. The group claimed it was in retaliation for the mosque raids. And earlier this year, Abubakar Shariff, a fiery Kenyan Muslim cleric, was shot and killed by unknown assailants outside a law court in Mombasa.”

Sun, sea, and sex in a time of war and terror

15 Dec – Source: Warscapes – 1717 Words

Most people who move to Malindi, a small, sleepy resort town on Kenya’s coast, are exiles of one sort or another. The Italians, who form a sizeable proportion of the population, are escaping from the stifling routine and order of Europe. Some, they say, are fugitives, evading the law in their own country. The British pensioners who live here are running away from the cold and the prospect of spending old age in a miserable home for the elderly in Britain. Kenyans from other parts of the country, like myself, come to escape the rat race, crime and gridlocks that have come to define my birthplace Nairobi, Kenya’s political and commercial capital.

For decades, Kenya’s coastal communities have complained of state neglect. Landlessness and poverty are endemic in the region. Successive regimes, including Omani sultans in the 19th century, British colonialists and post-independence leaders, have been accused of grabbing land and rendering the local Mijikenda and Swahili populations poor and homeless. Al Shabaab, which promised to bring its war to Kenya after the country invaded Somalia in 2011, ostensibly to eject the terrorist organisation from Somali soil, appears to have found ready recruits among Kenya’s coastal youth. Last week, Kenyan security forces raided several mosques in Mombasa which they claimed were jihadist hotbeds.