April 3, 2015 | Daily Monitoring Report.

Somalia Calls For Closer Security Ties After ‘Barbaric’ Kenya Massacre

03 April – Source: AFP/Naharnet- 288 Words

Somalia and Kenya must boost security cooperation between them, Somali President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud said Friday, as he offered his condolences a day after “barbaric” Islamist gunmen massacred 147 students. Mohamud said he mourned the “lives of innocent students” killed in the university in the northeastern Kenyan town of Garissa, offering his “condolences to the families of those who have died in this attack by the merciless terrorists.” The attack on Thursday was claimed by al-Qaida-linked Shebab fighters, with all four of the gunmen detonating suicide vests after killing 147 people in the day-long siege. Mohamud said in a statement that the killings showed “the need to reinforce the anti-terror cooperation between the two countries, with the aim to eliminate this menace from the region.” Kenya has been hit by a wave of grenade and gun attacks, often blamed on sympathizers of the Shebab and sometimes aimed at police targets, since the army crossed into southern Somalia in 2011 to attack Islamist bases, later joining the African Union force fighting them. AU chief Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma on Friday said the killings were “cowardly”, and praised Kenya for “its outstanding contribution to the African Mission in Somalia (AMISOM) and the huge sacrifices made towards stabilizing that country.”

Key Headlines

Somali Cabinet Passes Anti-Terrorist Bill (Goobjoog News)
Kenya Offers $215500 Bounty On The Head Of Al-Shabab Leader Suspected Of Garissa University Attack (Somali Updates)
Ahlu Sunnah Accuses Government Of Violating Accord (Goobjoog News)
Somalia’s Defense Minister Arrives In Abuudwaq (Wacaal Media)
Parents Of Kenyan University Students Say Their Children Had Told Them The Region Was Insecure(Standard Media)
Interior CS Joseph Nkaissery Says Garissa Attack Caught Government By ‘Surprise’ (Daily Nation)
Searching For A Solution For Somali Remittances (Seattle Times)
Kenya Garissa University Attack: The US Is Waging A Little-Publicised War On The Al-Shabaab Terror Group (The Independent)
Kenya University Attack: ‘Kenya Has Learned Nothing’ (Deutsche Welle)
Who Are Somalia’s Al-Shabab? (BBC)

SOMALI MEDIA

Somali Cabinet Passes Anti-Terrorist Bill

03 April – Source: Goobjoog News – 98 Words

Somali cabinet ministers met on Thursday to discuss an anti-terrorist bill submitted by the Ministry of National Security. The meeting chaired by Prime Minister Omar Abdirashid Ali was focused on the bill aimed at tackling insecurity and terror attacks. The bill, which will allow security agencies to deal with any terror related cases effectively, needs to be approved by the Federal Parliament of Somalia. This comes less than a week after 17 were killed in an attack carried out by Al-Shabab fighters on Makka Al-Mukarrama, hotel in Mogadishu.

Kenya Offers $215,500 Bounty On The Head Of Al-Shabab Leader Suspected Of Garissa University Attack

03 April – Source: Somali Updates – 406 Words

A USD 215,500 (KSh20 million) bounty has been placed on the fugitive, Mohamed Kuno. He has been on the run since December last year, when he was identified as the Shabaab commander who oversaw the killing of 58 Kenyans in Mandera.The death toll in yesterday’s attack at the Garissa University College has been listed as 147. According to a statement from the government, Kuno has three aliases — Sheikh Mahamad, Dulyadin and Gamadhere. Kuno, a Kenyan, moved to Somalia at the time of the Islamic Courts Union, which later metamorphosed into Al-Shabaab, and became part of it. He uses his family members to carry out terrorist acts in northern Kenya. Some sources named his associates as Adam Kuso, Khalid Dheere and Mohamud Taro. The statement says Kuno is Al-Shabaab’s leader for the Juba region, Somalia, and is currently in charge of operations against Kenya. Juba shares a vast border with Kenya, and touches Mandera, Garissa, Wajir and Lamu counties. “He commands the militia along the border and is responsible for cross-border incursions in the country. In the recent past, he has intensified attacks in northern Kenya and the Coast region, particularly Garissa, Mandera and Lamu,” says the statement.

Gamadhere, as the terrorist leader is commonly known, was first brought to the attention of Kenyans by the Directorate of Criminal Investigations on December 17 last year. At the time, the government offered Sh2 million to anybody who gave information that would lead to the man’s arrest. It circulated his photograph, alongside that of Ahmed Iman Ali, a terrorist from Majengo, Nairobi. “Gamadhere is believed to be very religious and has been a madrasa teacher for several years. He worked for Al-Haramain Foundation between 1993 and 1995 before the institution was closed. At the time, he was known as Sheikh Mahamad. He later became a teacher and principal at Madrasa Najah in Garissa from 1997 to 2000, where his extremist tendencies became more manifested. “He thereafter joined Al-Shabaab after being motivated by the ideology of the Islamic Courts Union to establish an Islamic statehood in Somalia,” says the statement. The document says most of his recruits are family members and former students of Madrasa Najah. He is also known to have an extensive terrorist network within Kenya, particularly at the Dadaab refugee camp. The statement goes on to list Kuno’s lineage, including tribe, sub-tribe and clan, and his three wives and children, some in Garissa and others in Somalia.

Ahlu Sunnah Accuses Government Of Violating Accord

03 April – Source: Goobjoog News – 128 Words

A meeting between top officials of Ahlu-Sunna Waljama’a recently concluded in Nairobi. The conference, which was attended by the chairman of the group Sheikh Abdiaziz, discussed a wide range of issues including the current situation in Somalia, and agreements with the federal government of Somalia. The chairman of the meeting, Mohamud Sheikh Hassan Farah, speaking at the conference blamed the federal government for breaking the accord it reached with them. He accused the government of interfering the affairs of the people in the central regions. “The residents in the regions should have been the ones to determine their future and the how they should form the administration,” Farah said. However, heaffirmed that they are ready to enforce the treaty.

Somalia’s Defense Minister Arrives In Abuudwaq

02 April – Source: Wacaal Media – 98 Words

Somalia’s Minister of Defense General Abdulqadir Shiekh Ali Dini and a delegation he was heading arrived in Abdudwaq, in central Somalia’s Galgadud region today. The delegation included the minister, the Assistant Minister for Justice Mr. Abdullahi Alankay and several members of parliament.They held discussions with the town’s administration, traditional and religious leaders, and addressed the general public. Members of the delegation hail from the area, and the purpose of their visit was not officially announced, however analysts link their visit to the process of forming a regional government for Galgaduud and Southern Mudug.

REGIONAL MEDIA

Parents Of Kenyan University Students Say Their Children Had Told Them The Region Was Insecure

03 April – Source: Standard Media – 380 Words

Ondieki Michina, from Kisii, who has a son at Garissa University was shocked when he was called by a friendon Thursday morning that the institution had been attacked by Al shabaab militia. He had just communicated with his son on Wednesday at 2pm and he also sent him some money to use during the examination period. “We communicated with him yesterday (Wednesday) and he was doing well. But when I received the news that their institution had been attacked, I tried to call him the whole day but he was unreachable. I am disturbed since I do not know if he is still alive,” Michina said amid sobs. He could also not reach his friends to know his whereabouts. When The Standard caught up with him at Kenyatta National Hospital, Michina could not hold back his tears as he narrated his last communication with his 25-year-old son, a second year who is doing Bachelor of Arts in education. “He had complained that the region was insecure saying it was bare and its proximity to Somalia posed great insecurity.”

Interior CS Joseph Nkaissery Says Garissa Attack Caught Government By ‘Surprise’

03 April – Source: Daily Nation – 310 Words

The government Thursday evening insisted it had been caught by surprise when terrorists descended on a university college in Garissa killing 147 students, despite reports that public institutions had been warned. Interior Cabinet Secretary Joseph Nkaissery brushed aside a question on whether a travel warning issued by the United Kingdom and Australian governments had been ignored. Instead, he said the attack was unexpected. “This incident, which happened today, is one of those incidents which can surprise any country,” he told reporters in Garissa during a briefing. The early morning attack on Garissa University College was preceded by travel warnings by the UK and Australia last week.The UK in particular said it was recommending only “essential travel” to areas around the Coast and northeastern, including Garissa County. The Kenyan government had also directed universities, especially those in Nairobi, to advise students on to be “vigilant” and report any suspicious sights on the campus or wherever they are.

The advice was informed by intelligence that there was an imminent attack on a vital installation in the country. Mr Nkaissery applauded the security forces for ending the siege quickly. But he admitted the price paid was high. “We commend our security forces and 90 per cent of the threat has already been eliminated. Of course at a very high cost in terms of loss of life,” he said in one of the briefings Thursday. The attack in Garissa mimicked the one on the Westgate mall in September 2013 and the number of casualties is more than double the death toll at Westgate. Both incidents were acknowledged by Al-Shabaab, which argued they were “at war” with Kenya. The Somali militant group said it was taking revenge on Kenya for sending troops in Somalia. The Kenya Defence Forces went to Somalia in 2011 to pursue Al-Shabaab following a spate of kidnappings on Kenyan soil.

INTERNATIONAL MEDIA

Searching For A Solution For Somali Remittances

03 April – Source: Seattle Times – 468 Words

Money transfers from people in the U.S. to relatives in third-world countries continue on a spotty basis even after the last bank handling such transfers abandoned the practice earlier this year. Shukri Olow is worried about a 15-year-old relative in Somalia. He is target recruiting age for the al-Qaida affiliate al-Shabab, a militant group in the country, and the best way to ensure he stays out of their hands is to keep him in school. Problem is, her family here in Seattle can’t figure out a direct way to send him money for the school fees. “[My aunt] is going to send money to his uncle in the U.K., who is going to send it to an uncle in Nairobi, who is then going to send it to an uncle in Mogadishu,” says Olow, who goes on to explain that the convoluted process is worth it. “It’s … $200 to save a kid’s future, you know?”Olow’s family is only one of thousands of Somali-American families in Washington and across the country that are struggling to find ways to get money, also called “remittances,” back to loved ones in Somalia.

In the past Money Transfer Operations (or “MTOs”) here in the U.S. worked with counterparts in Somalia (a country with no formal banking system) to move funds. This system required an American bank that helped settle accounts between the two MTOs by regularly wiring money to the country (which has no money-transfer services like Western Union). But this method, often referred to as hawala, or “transfer” in Arabic, has all but disintegrated over the years. The system has been used by a few to send funds to al-Shabab (there was one such case in Kent last summer). Resulting federal restrictions have spooked U.S. banks that fear they can’t comply. One, by one, banks have announced an end to money-transfer services to Somalia — essentially cutting off a crucial lifeline to this fragile nation.

Kenya Garissa University Attack: The US Is Waging A Little-Publicised War On The Al-Shabaab Terror Group

02 April – Source: The Independent 565 Words

When Adnan Garaar, who allegedly masterminded al-Shabaab’s attack on the Westgate shopping mall in Nairobi in September 2013, died in a US drone strike, he became the latest casualty of a little-publicised war on the Somalia-based terror group. Garaar was riding in a car with two other militants from the Islamist group in southern Somalia last month when the drone hit their vehicle with a missile. US officials said he was a key player in the al-Shabaab unit responsible for external operations of which the Westgate attack, which killed 67 civilians, was one. The strike was hailed, by the Pentagon, as “a significant blow” to al-Shabaab in Somalia, highlighting a controversial policy of airborne warfare that has seen the Americans pick off some of the terror group’s most senior figures in recent years. Since its first drone strike in 2011, the US has launched at least nine strikes on the al-Qaeda-affiliated militant group, the most high-profile target being its leader, Ahmed Abdi Godane, last September. The London-based Bureau for Investigative Journalism estimates that drones have killed between 23 and 105 people in Somalia.

It is a policy that has drawn criticism, in part because it deepens hostility to the West in places where drones have meted out civilian casualties, but also because of the perceived disconnect between those operating the drones and their victims. Americans were burnt by the so-called Black Hawk Down incident in Somalia in 1993, when a US raiding party went wrong and the bodies of American soldiers were paraded through the streets of Mogadishu. While drone strikes allow the US to conduct a war at minimal risk to its troops, analysts question the effectiveness of a tactic that appears aimed more at keeping a terrorist threat at bay than at tackling the appeal of a militant group that is increasingly looking to recruit marginalised Muslims in neighbouring Kenya to its cause, reflected by the growing number of deadly attacks on Kenyan soil. “It looks like [the US is] just keeping up the pressure on the group,” Paul Gabriel, an analyst at the London-based Control Risks, said. “How effective can drone strikes be unless you start addressing economic and political grievances, and human rights violations?”

SOCIAL MEDIA

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

Kenya University Attack: ‘Kenya Has Learned Nothing’

03 April – Source: Deutsche Welle – 283 Words

Al-Shabab has claimed responsibility for a deadly attack at Garissa University College in northeastern Kenya. Security experts say the country still lacks an effective terror response mechanism. It is now 18 months since al-Shabab attacked the Westgate shopping mall in the Kenyan capital Nairobi, killing more than 60 people. This was followed by a series of attacks in other towns and cities, considered to be carried out in revenge for the Kenyan army presence in Somalia, where it is part of an AU force fighting al-Shabab. On Thursday(02.04.2015) al-Shabab claimed responsibility for an attack on Garissa University College in northeastern Kenya, near the border with Somalia. At least 15 people are reported to have been killed. For an assessment of Kenya’s response to the terror threat, DW spoke to Peter Aling’o, office head and senior researcher with the Institute for Security Studies in Nairobi.

DW: Has Kenya learnt from Westgate how to respond to terror attacks?

Peter Aling’o: I think Kenya hasn’t learnt anything at all in terms of how to respond to terror attacks. What we are seeing is a knee-jerk reaction that sends in security personnel in a manner that suggests they are not completely aware of what they are responding to. We need a closure in terms of lessons learnt but that has not been done. An effective response should also include the civilian component in terms of how civilians respond and react. Kenya has yet to learn, in my view, how to respond effectively to attacks of the magnitude that we have seen in the country since Westgate.Reports say there was a warning issued some weeks ago that al-Shabab was planning to attack major universities.

Who Are Somalia’s Al-Shabab?

02 April – Source: BBC- 570 Words

Islamist militant group al-Shabab is battling the UN-backed government in Somalia, and has carried out a string of attacks in neighbouring Kenya. The group, which is allied to al-Qaeda, has been pushed out of most of the main towns it once controlled, but it remains a potent threat. Who are al-Shabab? Al-Shabab means The Youth in Arabic. It emerged as the radical youth wing of Somalia’s now-defunct Union of Islamic Courts, which controlled Mogadishu in 2006, before being forced out by Ethiopian forces. There are numerous reports of foreign jihadists going to Somalia to help al-Shabab, from neighbouring countries, as well as the US and Europe. It is banned as a terrorist group by both the US and the UK and is believed to have between 7,000 and 9,000 fighters. Al-Shabab has staged numerous attacks in Kenya, most recently sending gunmen to storm the university in Garissa, near the border with Somalia.

The biggest attack was on Nairobi’s Westgate shopping centre in 2013 when at least 68 people died. In Westgate, and other attacks, its fighters have spared Muslims, while killing those unable to recite verses from the Koran. There are also regular gun and grenade attacks attributed to al-Shabab both in border areas, where many Kenyans are ethnic Somalis, and in Nairobi. Kenya has sent its troops into Somali territory, where they have joined the African Union force battling the militants. Al-Shabab has also set up a recruiting network in Kenya, especially around the port city of Mombasa, which has a large Muslim population. Although it has lost control of most towns and cities, it still dominates in many rural areas. It was forced out of the capital, Mogadishu, in August 2011 and left the vital port of Kismayo in September 2012. The loss of Kismayo has hit al-Shabab’s finances, as it used to earn money by taking a cut of the town’s lucrative charcoal trade. Although African Union (AU) forces are trying to squeeze al-Shabab further, the group is still able to carry out suicide attacks in Mogadishu and elsewhere. Al-Shabab advocates the Saudi-inspired Wahhabi version of Islam, while most Somalis are Sufis. It has imposed a strict version of Sharia in areas under its control, including stoning to death women accused of adultery and amputating the hands of thieves. In a joint video released in February 2012, former al-Shabab leader Ahmed Abdi Godane said he “pledged obedience” to al-Qaeda head Ayman al-Zawahiri. The two groups have long worked together and foreigners are known to fight alongside Somali militants.

Top tweets

@mofasomalia #President of #Somalia Hassan Sheikh Mohamud sends condolences, condemns #terrorist #attack at#Garissa University in North Eastern

‏@IdilayBilan This isn’t about KDF forces in #Somalia, but an aim to intimidate regional allies that support Somalia’s road to recovery & reconstruction

@IdilayBilan: In all this rhetoric & sea of hurt, please keep in mind that Al-Shabaab have two mandates; destabilising #Somalia & to break Somalis.

‏@AmbAmerico: I would like to congratulate our new Ambasador to Kenya, Gamal Hassan, I congratulated him yesterday. I wished him all the best. #Somalia
@jjwaziri: #bringbackoursoldiers from #SOMALIA! We cannot guard another country while ours is in shambles! We’ve been too generous #GarissaAttack
@stability_fund: Businesses want the #Somalia government to take a more active and effective role in business facilitation AND regulation.

@amisomsomalia · AU Special Representative condemns today’s terrorist attack at Garissa University College in Kenya.http://bit.ly/1CViBl4 #GarissaAttack
Follow the conversation →

Image of the day

Garissa residents donate blood after the brutal Al Shabaab attack on Garissa University on Thursday that killed 147 people, and left scores wounded . Photo: Facebook – Garissa County