February 4, 2015 | Morning Headlines.

Main Story

Twenty-seven Al-Shabaab fighters killed in airstrikes in Lower Jubba region

03 Feb – Source: Radio Bar-kulan – 522 Words

The Interim Jubba Administration has said on Tuesday that 27 Al-Shabaab fighters were killed in airstrikes in parts of Lower Jubba region during the past several days. Senior IJA security official Colonel Mohamed Sheikh Abdi said the aerial attacks were carried out by the African Union mission in Somalia targeting Al-Shabaab bases in Bulo-gudud, Yontoy, Qaamqaam, Jamame and Jilib in Lower Jubba region. He said their troops also conducted land operations in the targeted areas, adding that the combined operations caused the destruction of Al-Shabaab battle-wagons and military facilities in the targeted areas.

Key Headlines

Families returning to Gedo from Dadaab refugee camps (Ergo Radio)
Ahlu Sunna group hails Dhusamarreb reconciliation conference (Radio Bar-kulan)
Somali PM set to expand cabinet (Hiraan Online)
Three Somali jihadists fighting for ISIS killed in Syria (Horseed media)
Twenty-seven Al-Shabaab fighters killed in airstrikes in Lower Jubba region (Radio Bar-kulan)
Serbia appoints new ambassador to Somalia (Horseed Media)
Acquitted terror suspect now deported to Somalia (The Star)
Rep wants KDF out of Somalia (The Star)
Turkey extends naval presence off Somali coast (Today’s Zaman)
EU training mission in Somalia: Gen. Maggi an Italian is new commander (Onuitalia.com)

SOMALI MEDIA

Families returning to Gedo from Dadaab refugee camps

03 Feb – Source: Ergo Radio – 268 Words
Four families from Kenya’s Dadaab refugee camps have reached Luq, where they have been given temporary shelter before going on to their final destinations in Gedo region. Fatuma Yasin Hirsi, a mother of five, lived in Hagadera camp for eight years after fleeing her original home in Gedo’s Abudwak district. She was among the 24 people resting at Luq after three days on the road from Dadaab. She said life as a refugee was hard and did not live up to her expectations, so she had signed up to be assisted to return home. “Previously I was told that people were being resettled to third countries. But life was miserable; we were demeaned and treated badly. I am now very happy that I have returned to my home country,” she said.

Abdullahi Ali Dhiis lived in Hagadera for six years and said he was very happy to be going home. “We had no freedom in the camps; freedom of movement was restricted for us. We were not given enough food. We always feared to be arrested by the police. But I am now relaxed and have nothing to fear,” said Abdullahi, who was originally displaced from a village near Luq. Danish Refugee Council (DRC) has established a way station on the outskirts of Luq, where the returning refugees receive food, medical treatment and a cash grant of $100 for each person arriving in Somalia. Bashir Mohamed, the coordinator of the new centre, told Radio Ergo that this group was among 600 families registered to return to Luq during this month.

Ahlu Sunna group hails Dhusamarreb reconciliation conference

03 Feb – Source: Radio Bar-kulan – 131 Words

Ahlu Sunna Wal-jamaa’a administration in central Somalia praised the reconciliation conference in Dhusamarreb as an important step to end clan hostilities in the region and embrace peace among the locals. The conference which opened four days ago has been attended by traditional clan elders and intellectuals from Abudwak, Ballanbal, Guriel and Dhusamarreb districts. Speaking to Bar-kulan, the chairman of Ahlu Sunna’s three committees Sheikh Ibrahim Sheikh Hassan Gureye said their group strongly supports any reconciliation initiatives for the local communities and for the restoration of peace in the region. Gureye said their organization managed to liberate Al-Shabaab from key districts in the region and enabled locals to live in peace and harmony. He urged traditional elders and intellectuals to unite in strengthening the co-existence and peace among clans in the region.

Somali PM set to expand cabinet

03 Feb – Source: Hiiraan Online – 135 Words

Somalia’s prime minister is set to reshuffle and expand his 20-member cabinet ahead of vote of confidence by the country’s parliament, sources told Hiiraan Online Tuesday. The reshuffle is expected to affect key ministers in charge of several ministers simultaneously, with Omar Abdirashid adding five more ministers into his cabinet, mostly political novices. Major changes are unlikely at this point, according to sources. The development comes few days after the Somali parliament voted in a favor of the prime minister who requested an extension for cabinet confidence deadline, after MPs expressed their opposition to the appointment of certain ministers in his cabinet. The new political endeavors led by large number of legislators pose the most serious challenge to the new prime minister who is trying to balance his choices against the parliament’s checkmate game.

Three Somali jihadists fighting for ISIS killed in Syria

03 Feb – Source: Horseed media – 183 Words

Three Somali jihadists have died while fighting for the radical militant group ISIS, relatives and close friends in Sweden said. The three youths who were holding Swedish-citizenship, are understood to have been killed alongside during fierce clashes in the Syrian desert town of Dabiq. ‘’ Someone called us from Syria and told us the names of the three boys that they died without giving us further details,’’ said a close relative who refused to be named for security reasons. The parents of the boys were left shocked following the news of their deaths. “No one knew when they left, we just realised when they arrived in Syria and sent mails saying they are joining ISIS,’’ says again the relative.

In recent months, Syria has lured many young Muslim men from abroad who want to join the jihad against the Assad government, which has waged a bloody conflict against its opponents. Many of the foreign fighters are from other parts of the Middle East but some have arrived from far away parts of world. As many as 20 young Somali boys and girls have left their homes in western countries to join the Islamic state fighters.

Twenty-seven Al-Shabaab fighters killed in airstrikes in Lower Jubba region

03 Feb – Source: Radio Bar-kulan – 522 Words

Serbia appoints new ambassador to Somalia

03 Feb – Source: Horseed media – 153 Words

Serbia has appointed a new ambassador to Somalia, a move to establish first ever diplomatic relations between both countries.The New Serbian Ambassador, Ivan Zikovic, presented his credentials to the Somali President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud in a ceremony held at the Presidential Palace on Tuesday. Somalia President Hassan Sheikh Mohamoud said that he hopes both countries cooperate well and ”looks forward to a long and fruitful relationship.”

Ambassador Zikovic said Serbia stands ready to collaborate with Somalia in several development sectors such as education, science, agriculture, vocational training, and health. Serbia was one of six republics that made up the country of Yugoslavia, which broke up in the 1990s. In Feb. 2003, Serbia and Montenegro were the remaining two republics of rump Yugoslavia, forming a loose federation.It became a stand-alone sovereign republic in the summer of 2006 after Montenegro voted in a referendum for independence from the Union of Serbia and Montenegro.

REGIONAL MEDIA

Acquitted terror suspect now deported to Somalia

03 Feb – Source:Star Kenya – 171 Words

A former terror suspect Alweys Omar has been reportedly deported to Somalia after being arrested in Mombasa Monday evening.A combined contingent of officers from the Anti-Terror Police Unit and the General Service Unit arrested Omar at his house on Likoni Towers opposite Nakumatt Likoni in Mombasa.Omar was then taken to the ATPU Mombasa offices before being flown to Nairobi for further interrogation.Juniour Immigrations officials who spoke on condition of anonymity confirmed the incident saying Omar was put on a plane to Somalia Tuesday morning.

Mombasa police boss Robert Kitur maintained his earlier remarks that he was unaware of the arrest or the transfer of the terror suspect to Nairobi. In January Omar and another suspect Issa Matan who were co-accused on terror-related charges were acquitted after police failed to produce adequate evidence for a prosecution.The two were freed on January 3rd after Police officer Philip Tuwei told the court that Omar and Matan are in the country legally and are not in any way connected to terrorism.

Rep wants KDF out of Somalia

03 Feb – Source: Star Kenya – 56 Words

A Nyamira MCA wants President Uhuru Kenyatta to pull KDF troops out of Somalia.Bogichora’s Beauttah Omanga said the troops should be deployed to the Kenya-Somalia border.“Al Shabaab fighters enter Kenya through the porous border and our soldiers should be stationed there,” he said. Omanga was speaking at Nyamokeri village in his ward on Saturday.

INTERNATIONAL MEDIA

EU training mission in Somalia: Gen. Maggi, an Italian, is new commander

03 Feb – Source: Onuitalia.com – 240 Words

Brigadier General Antonio Maggi has been appointed new Mission Commander for the EU Training Mission in Somalia (EUTM Somalia). General Maggi, from Italy, takes up his duties on 8 March 2015. He will succeed Brigadier General Massimo Mingiardi, who had been in the position since December 2013. The decision was taken by the European Council’s Political and Security Committee. EUTM Somalia, launched in spring 2010, is part of the EU’s comprehensive approach for a stable, democratic and prosperous Somalia and embedded in the EU strategic framework for the Horn of Africa. It has contributed to training over 4.000 Somali troops so far, with a special focus on officers, specialists and trainers. The mission delivers political and strategic advice to the Somali ministry of defence and the chief of defence forces on security sector development. It also advises on military training so as to lay the foundations of a Somali-owned military training system. Since January 2014, the mission has been based in Mogadishu, Somalia.

Turkey extends naval presence off Somali coast

03 Feb – Source: Today’s Zaman – 249 Words

Turkish Parliament has approved a government-sponsored motion to extend the presence of Turkish navy in the Gulf of Aden, the Arabian Sea and the coastal waters off Somalia for one year. The motion, first approved in 2009, extends for another year the Turkish Naval Forces’ mandate to participate in NATO’s international anti-piracy mission Operation Ocean Shield to prevent pirates from hijacking foreign ships in the Gulf of Aden and off the Somali coast, where commercial vessels are often taken over by pirates. The motion will expire on Feb. 10, 2016.

While the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) and the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) extended their support for the motion, the lawmakers leveled criticisms against the government for its what they said “misguided” foreign policy. MHP Ankara deputy Özcan Yeniçeri, who spoke on behalf of this party, said they attach importance to the navy’s role in important regions. Yeniçeri, however, described the government’s foreign policy as “strategic blindness,” referring to Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu’s book on foreign policy conduct, Strategic Depth. Yeniçeri said the current situation on the foreign policy front is a cause for concern and that policies that don’t fit in the realities of history and geography has no future.

SOCIAL MEDIA

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

“Where would any of these regional entities cropping up fit in such an international order and why on earth are the Somali government and members of the international community encouraging them to shape up and without any real synergy vis-à-vis developments at the national level? Why are we dividing the country? Why are we rebuilding, for example, a new Somali army which derives from clan-based brigades?”

Somalia towards 2016 and beyond: a few reflections

03 Feb – Source: Jowhar.com – 911 Words

A flashback to the Arta peace process in late 1999 and throughout 2000, the 2002 – 2004 Eldoret/Mbagathi talks, the Djibouti talks in 2009 and the recent indirect ‘elections’ in Mogadishu in late 2012 one will be left wondering whether history does repeat itself or it is us, the Somalis, who like making the same mistakes all over again while at the same time expecting different results. The various products of these processes made all kinds of promises: from federating the country, to writing a ‘Somali’ constitution, to stabilizing it and most important, of late, of all leading to ‘free and fair elections’ if such exists in the Somali mentality of both yesterday and today. There have been, however, numerous achievements among them some form of elections, the drafting of a constitution, regardless of how unSomali it is, as well as some semblance of governance in places like Mogadishu, the capital city.

These aside, there was more than hope when the current government came into office; with all kinds of predictions basically because of its non-warlordistic nature, its civic background in terms of orientation coupled with the highly unpopular fatigue by a majority of the Somali people at the time. Whether the government delivered and/or slept onto the job is yet to be assessed: of course the Somalo-pessimists will tell you my Awowe is done but we also have the blind, die-hard loyalists and the innocent nationalists who are always taken for a ride who will not be cowed by any type of criticism. The aim of this article is not to assess who is there but what: In other words, where is Somalia today? Where are we on the road to 2016? What are the fears and hopes in Somalia beyond 2016? and in the form of reflections lest I push a few mindful members of the wider policy community on Somali affairs: from our colleagues at Villa Somalia and around.