April 6, 2015 | Daily Monitoring Report.
War Planes Hit Areas In Gedo In Response To Garissa University Attack
06 April – Source: Goobjoog News – 195 Words
Residents in Gedo are reporting airstrikes, presumably by Kenyan air forces responding last week’s Garissa university attack. War planes are mostly hitting rural areas suspected to be Al Shabab hideouts. Residents has told Goobjoog that there are casualties but could not confirm the extent. The airstrikes have been ongoing since yesterday but sources say the intended targets might have shifted already or dispersed in anticipation of the aerial attacks. Kenyan president Uhuru Kenyatta vowed on Saturday to hit back at Al Shabab, who claimed the responsibility for the attack on Garissa College University.
In previous cases, Kenyan planes have launched aerial attacks in Somalia almost immediately following a terror attack in Kenya. In November 2014, Deputy President William Ruto told the media that the Kenyan military had killed at least 100 Al Shabab members in response to the execution of 28 bus riders near Mandera, an act claimed by Al Shabab. Four heavily armed men belonging to Al Shabab carried out a brazen attack on Garissa University College where they killed 147 students and staff, the attack, which shocked the world, was the second deadliest attack since the 1998 embassy bombings in Nairobi.
Key Headlines
- War Planes Hit Areas In Gedo In Response To Garissa University Attack (Goobjoog News)
- Somali Clan Withdraws From Kismayo Assembly (Radio Danan)
- Grenade Attack At Checkpoint Kills One In Puntland (Radio Dalsan)
- Somalia: Federal Government In Talks With Senior Al Shabaab Officials (Garowe Online)
- Build The Somali National Army To Stop Al Shabaab Says Former Somalia Premier (Somali Current)
- Raila Odinga Wants KDF Withdrawn From Somalia To Curb Terror Attacks (Standard Media)
- State Shouldn’t Withdraw Kenya Defence Forces From Somalia Says Francis Atwoli (Standard Media)
- QC Sponsors 10000 People In Somalia (Gulf Times)
- Kenyan Churches Tighten Security After Al-Shabaab Kills 148 University Students (Xinhua News)
- Somali President Says Al-Shabab Must be Confronted (VOA)
- Kenyan Authorities Say Son of Official Was Among Gunmen in University Attack (The New York Times)
- Why Al-Shabab Has Gained Foothold In Kenya (Al Jazeera)
- Amisom Handed Shabaab A Lemon They Made Grapefruit Juice (The East African)
SOMALI MEDIA
Somali Clan Withdraws From Kismayo Assembly
06 April – Source: Radio Danan – 112 Words
Som clan members attending the Jubba Parliamentary Formation Assembly left the conference today in protest of what they described as ‘misappropriation’ by the town’s administration. Elders from the Dir clan said they were disappointed with the current process, calling on the Jubbaland administration to change the assembly’s framework. “In fact, everyone is losing patience with the current scenario,” one elder told Danan Radio in an interview. The latest withdrawal by Dir clan makes them the second clan to have withdrawn the assembly, saying that the local administration has picked some parliamentary members without their input, suggesting a rift within the region’s stakeholders.
Grenade Attack At Checkpoint Kills One In Puntland
06 April – Source: Radio Dalsan – 124 Words
At least three Puntland patrol soldiers have been wounded after unidentified gunmen launched an attack on a security checkpoint in Puntland’s port town of Bosaso on Sunday night. The gunmen hurled a bomb at the checkpoint, officials said. Puntland police officials reported that two militants and a soldier were killed following an exchange of fire between the gunmen and the police at the scene near Hotel Yasmin, located in the heart of Bosaaso. The region’s administration declined to give further details about the attack. A similar attack in Armo town wounded district mayor Mohamed Ali Shire. The mayor sustained bad injuries after the attack at his home in Armo, 90km south of Bosaso.
Somalia: Federal Government In Talks With Senior Al Shabaab Officials
05 April – Source: Garowe Online – 328 Words
Somali President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud revealed for the first time on Sunday that negotiations are underway between his government and top Al Shabaab commanders, Garowe Online reports. In an interview with VOA Somali Service, Mohamud also spoke on Garissa University campus attack and the Kenya wall project. Mohamud revealed that his administration began secret talks with high ranking Al Shabaab officials who are keen to renounce extremism years ago: “It’s true. Somalia has a visible strategy in this matter,” the President said. Adding that the negotiations are lengthy: “We are in talks with them. Anybody who takes a backseat over the terrorism and killings is welcome.” The President called the deadly siege at Garissa University by Al Shabaab gunmen an ‘inhumane and brutal act’ aimed at dividing Kenyan people along religious lines. “Garissa people have suffered immense problems, we are very sorry and we condole with them. Al Shabaab’s agenda was to wreak havoc in Kenya, but we are not ready to see Kenyans turning against each other,” said. “Al Shabaab ability is weakening with each passing day”.
Mohamud also said the Kenya wall project will not quell prevailing security challenges, adding that the Somali government was not consulted on the construction of wall along Somalia-Kenya border. “[The] Kenyan government didn’t officially write to Somalia about the [wall project,] we heard from the media. We are battling an ideology, not [just an] armed group positioned at known base,” he said. Calling Al Shabaab a regional problem, the President appealed for collective cooperation in the fight against extremists. Al Shabaab killed scores of students in a siege at a university campus in Garissa town which lies 100 miles away from the Somali border, the deadliest attack since the 1998 bombings in Nairobi.
Build The Somali National Army To Stop Al Shabaab Says Former Somalia Premier
05 April – Source: Somali Current – 166 Words
Former Somali Prime Minister Mohamed Abdullahi Farmajo has called on Western nations to help build strong Somali National Army if they want to stop Al Qaida affiliated group Al Shabaab. “If western nations want to stop Al Shabaab, let them train, supply and finance the Somali National Army, then Al Shabaab would be less capable of carrying out attacks inthe region,” Farmajo said. The former premier also urged the US to change its Somalia anti-terror approach, adding that changing course could be groundbreaking for the US. “Using Soldiers from neighboring countries, some with old disputes with Somalia to fight in Somalia gives Al Shabaab opportunity and a propaganda argument for recruitment,” he said. The US has military officers in Somalia who provide training for Somalia army, and the US also provides financial support to AMISOM who are conducting a peacekeeping mission in Somalia. A report released by US counter terrorism in 2013 said that despite Al Shabaab losing key towns and strongholds, the group remains a serious threat to the region.
REGIONAL MEDIA
Raila Odinga Wants KDF Withdrawn From Somalia To Curb Terror Attacks
06 April – Source: Standard Media – 302 Words
Coalition for Reforms and Democracy (Cord) leader Raila Odinga attended Easter mass in Mombasa Sunday where he called for immediate withdrawal of Kenya’s military from Somalia. The Cord leader said the continued stay of Kenyan Military troops in the war-torn country was one of the reasons the country was being attacked by members of the Al-Shabaab terrorist group. Mr Raila observed that an Africa Union (AU) resolution preceding Kenya’s intervention in Somalia late 2011 was against sending of soldiers from Somalia’s immediate neighbours into the war-torn country. “The AU has a resolution which discourages a country from sending military officers to a troubled immediate neighbouring country,” Mr Raila said. Long border “We have a long border with Somalia and even erecting a wall won’t work. It is time that we look into ways that will see how our troops can withdraw from Somalia,” he added.
The CORD principal was speaking at Jesus Winning Soul Ministry in Migadini, Changamwe, which is led by Bishop Daniel Indatala. Raila was accompanied by Nyali MP Awiti Bolo and Mombasa members of county assembly. “The US used to have many soldiers in Somalia but it recalled them. Kenya should also remove its military officers from Somalia,” former Primer Minister said. He however told Kenyans to remain united and resist attempts by Al-Shabaab terror groups to divide them along religious lines. “I ask Kenyans to reject the tricks by Al-Shabaab to drive a wedge between Muslims and Christians in Kenya while they are at war with fellow Muslims back in Mogadishu. They are on a deliberate campaign to divide Kenyans along religious lines and the tricks must be rejected.”
State Shouldn’t Withdraw Kenya Defence Forces From Somalia, Says Francis Atwoli
06 April – Source: Standard Media – 181 Words
The Central Organisation of Trade Unions (Cotu) has called for vetting of Kenyans of Somali origin in the public service. This follows reports that the Al-Shabaab militants who attacked Garissa University killing over 147 people may have spent the night in hotels in Garissa town before launching the attack. “We call on the Government to vet Kenyan’s of Somali origin especially those holding Government positions because there is no way the militants could have entered the country and spent a night in our hotels without being noticed. Although this is not a religious issue, those inside and outside Government must be vetted,” he said. Unlike the Opposition, Atwoli said there was no need to withdraw the Kenya Defence Forces fighting the militants in Somalia. Atwoli, who made the remarks during a press conference yesterday, said withdrawing the forces would be tantamount to throwing in the towel in the fight against terror. The Cotu boss compared the current terror situation in the country to the shifter menace, pointing out that it was highly likely that the terror cell had influential local sympathisers.
QC Sponsors 10,000 People In Somalia
04 April – Source: Gulf Times – 277 Words
Qatar Charity (QC) has held a special ceremony to mark the sponsorship of 10,000 people in Somalia. The sponsorships include orphans, poor families, people with special needs, preachers and teachers, and come within the framework of comprehensive care adopted by the Somalia office, which prioritises support for the most vulnerable groups in society, according to a statement. The ceremony was attended by a large gathering and Dr Ali Sheikh Ahmed Abu Bakr, president of Mogadishu University. Mohamed Hussein Omar, director of QC Somalia, also discussed the importance of the programme and its role in the giving joy to those in need. He added that sponsorship is one of the most important pillars of QC’s work in supporting social and economic development.
QC provides material and moral support for the sponsored, helping them improve their material circumstances and enabling them to earn a living by providing support in addition to the monthly sponsorship. There have also been projects in the areas of education and health and the construction of mosques, benefiting tens of thousands of Somalis across the country. Construction projects in Puntland included the rehabilitation of health centres at an estimated cost of QR292,000. QC has also established nine mosques and eight centres for the memorisation of the Qur’an in three regions in northern Somalia (Somaliland), three mosques in Sahel, three in Burao and one in Odl, in addition to two mosques in the regions of Hiran and Benadir and eight centres for memorising the Qur’an in Hiran and Banadir in the city of Hargeisa, benefiting thousands of Somalis. QC’s Somalia office also distributed sewing machines in the city of Mogadishu and Hargeisa in Somaliland.
INTERNATIONAL MEDIA
Kenyan Churches Tighten Security After Al-Shabaab Kills 148 University Students
06 April – Source: Xinhua News – 217 Words
Churches in Garissa town and its environs on Sunday tightened security following a terrorist attack at Garissa University College on Thursday that claimed 148 lives. A spot check by Xinhua revealed that all the 36 churches in Garissa town doubled the number of armed security officers from three to six. The normally packed Christian churches experienced a low turnout on Sunday as worshippers stayed at home due to security fears. One of the largest churches in Garissa town, the East African Pentecostal Church (EAPC), recorded a 50 percent drop in the number of worshippers. The Church’s priest, Ibrahim Makunyi told reporters his parishioners expressed fear over a possible terrorist attack. “We should not let fear overcome us and must unite as a people despite religious differences to fight terrorism. There is no religion that support killings,” said Makunyi. He survived a terrorist attack in 2012 and has championed for inter-religious dialogue to fight this menace. “Kenyans are worried by the wave of terror that has terminated the lives of young and promising citizens. We need radical measures to prevent future attacks,” Makunyi remarked. Christians residing in Garissa town kept a low profile on Sunday as they discussed the aftermath of the worst terrorist attack in the region.
Somali President Says Al-Shabab Must be Confronted
05 April – Source: VOA – 435 Words
Somalia’s President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud says the Somalia-based al-Shabab militant group is a regional enemy that needs to be confronted. He was speaking exclusively to VOA Somali, three days after al-Shabab gunmen stormed and massacred 148 people at Garissa University in northeastern Kenya. The president expressed horror and sadness at the Garissa attack. He said al-Shabab’s aim to target mostly Christians in Kenya is to separate Muslims and Christians in that country, but he said that objective has failed because Kenyans understand the militants’ tactics. The president said he spoke with Kenyan leaders and urged Kenyans to unite and confront al-Shabab militants. President Mohamud said the group is an “enemy that has no dignity.” “They kill Somalis and their leaders,” and there is nowhere in Islam that says “kill non-Muslims.”
Asked why terror attacks on Kenyan soil have increased recently, and whether Kenya has learned any lessons from previous attacks, the president said al-Shabab can’t target military and government institutions, but now only targets vulnerable areas because it’s easy for them. He said this tactic shows that they are in a desperate mood and are coming to an end. Some political leaders in Kenya have urged the repatriation of Somali refugees from the Dadab camp in the wake of last week’s attack, accusing them of the insecurity in Kenya. The Somali president rejected that allegation, saying “there is no connection between refugee camps and terrorism activities.” He said one refugee can join the group, but that the majority of the Somali refugees are peace-loving people who reject al-Shabab militants. Asked about Kenya’s plan to build a wall along the border to keep out al-Shabab attacks, the president said he heard it from the media, but he said a wall will not stop al-Shabab’s “hostility.” He said we are fighting an “ideology, not fighters,” so a separation barrier can’t solve the problem.
Kenyan Authorities Say Son of Official Was Among Gunmen in University Attack
05 April – Source: The New York Times – 908 Words
One of the gunmen who attacked the Kenyan university where nearly 150 students were massacred last week was the son of a government official — and once a promising student himself — who had recently broken off contact with his family and disappeared, the Kenyan authorities said Sunday. The discovery was made after Kenyan police officers paraded the gunman’s naked, bullet-riddled body in the back of a pickup truck. It immediately rekindled fears that chaos in neighboring Somalia was not the only factor driving terrorist attacks in Kenya and that the problem here may be more homegrown. Tremendous grief, pain, rising frustration and a palpable sense of dread were starting to seep across Kenya as a three-day period of mourning began and the students’ bodies slowly made their way back to towns and villages in nearly every corner of this country. Accounts emerged Sunday that the police commandos who finally ended the siege of the university did not arrive until more than eight hours after the attack began because of logistical issues, raising questions about whether more young people could have been saved. “Something has to change,” said an editorial in the Sunday Nation, a Kenyan newspaper. “Kenya must change from its Hakuna Matata posture” — “hakuna matata” is a common Swahili expression meaning “no problem” — “and realize that a war is afoot against a merciless enemy.”
Kenyan officials believe there were four gunmen who stormed Garissa University College on Thursday, moving from dorm to dorm, tricking students into coming out of their rooms and lying down in rows and then shooting them in the head. The Kenyan commandos, after waiting several hours to fly from Nairobi, the capital, to Garissa, a frontier town in eastern Kenya, cornered and killed all four gunmen, the authorities said. One of the gunmen was identified as Abdirahim Abdullahi, approximately 25, the son of a local chief near the Somali border and considered by acquaintances to be exceptionally bright. Mr. Abdullahi graduated from the University of Nairobi and worked at a bank in Nairobi, but he abruptly quit in recent months to join the Shabab Islamist militant group in Somalia, Kenyan officials said. The Shabab are considered one of the most violent offshoots of Al Qaeda and vowed this weekend to make Kenyan cities “run red with blood” as retribution against the Kenyan government for sending troops into Somalia to help restore order. Kenyan officials are increasingly worried that the Shabab have succeeded in co-opting disaffected youth inside Kenya, especially Somali-Kenyans like Mr. Abdullahi.
SOCIAL MEDIA
CULTURE / OPINION / EDITORIAL / ANALYSIS / BLOGS/ DISCUSSION BOARDS
“The group seems to have found in Kenya the perfect ground to advance its ideology of violence and bloodshed. It has established within the country sleeper cells mainly made up of young radicalised Kenyan youth, whom it’s using for such attacks. This, of course, helps it to show al-Qaeda, to which it is affiliated and which is a key source of finances, that it still is a force to reckon with despite its losses in Somalia.”
Why Al-Shabab Has Gained Foothold In Kenya
05 April – Source: Al Jazeera – 1,043 Words
Kenya grieves for 148 lives gone too soon. My country is in shock at the cold-blooded murder of young students in their hostels and lecture halls at Garissa University College. Garissa is the place where I grew up and after Thursday’s gruesome attack, life will never be the same again. The scale of the dawn attack – Kenya’s deadliest since the 1998 bombing of the United States embassy, which killed 213 – became clear as survivors fled the buildings during the course of the day. Gunmen held hostage dozens of students and employees of the college for close to 15 hours. By nightfall the government confirmed that 148 had died, and that the siege was over. Retrieving the bodies from the university buildings started only after that. Accounts from residents and eyewitnesses to the attack suggest that the four gunmen had all the time they needed as security forces failed to respond quickly. Kenyans are asking themselves many questions. Key among them: Could the attack have been avoided?
Many see it as a failure of not just intelligence, but also a result of the security forces’ slow response. “Why did the entire siege last for close to 15 hours?” they ask. Government officials say they had intelligence that al-Shabab was planning an attack on a university. Why did they then forget all about the only university in the region where majority of the group’s attacks have happened? Garissa University College has the single largest non-Somali population in any one place in the entire region. Its more than 800 students are from all corners of Kenya. It should have been better protected. The government ought to have learnt its lessons from the more than 100 attacks al-Shabab carried out in Kenya since October 2011. Yet it seemingly hasn’t.
“In societies already divided by ethnic rivalries, regional rivalries, and inter-Christian rivalries, Shabaab is deliberately trying to insert another lethal one — Christians vs Muslims. Shabaab can still be defeated, but doing that requires that celebrations about its impending demise be tempered. Amisom handed Shabaab a bitter lemon, and the militants seem to have somehow made grapefruit juice with it.”
Amisom Handed Shabaab A Lemon, They Made Grapefruit Juice
04 April – Source: The East African – 534 Words
Perhaps we misunderstand and underrate Al Shabaab. Before the scale of the massacre at Garissa University College in northeastern Kenya where masked militants staged a dawn raid on Thursday emerged, many analysts had been saying the Shabaab was on the ropes or on the run. This, they said, was because it had been beaten out of its strongholds in Somalia by African Union peacekeeping forces over the past three years, and American airstrikes and defections had taken out many of its top leaders. By the time Kenyan security forces took back control of Garissa University, 147 people were dead. That was the most deadly terror attack in Kenya since the 1998 US Nairobi embassy bombings, and more than double the 67 people who were killed in the September 2013 Westgate Mall attack. Yes, all these things have happened. I think the mistake has been to think that it necessarily left Shabaab in a weaker position. When Shabaab controlled large parts of Somalia, and the lucrative Kismayo port, it had its hands full, and a smaller appetite to wreak havoc outside the country because it was distracted by having to keep control of the areas it held, and these in turn provided it with enough money.
This stage of insurgencies usually attracts many people, including the half-committed looking for easy excitement, or in the case of Shabaab — and Islamic State in Iraq and Syria — those looking to dabble in “jihad lite.” When the going gets tough, however, the half-committed usually flee and it is only the hardliners and true believers who remain. The second thing that seems to have happened with Shabaab is that, shorn of the burden of having to administer territory, it can now singlehandedly focus on its original mission — jihad and, as emerged for the first time from its statements about the Garissa attack — a pan-Somali agenda it never talked about in the past. In that sense, the defeats Shabaab has suffered at the hands of Amisom could actually have made it a more disciplined and focused and, therefore, deadly organisation. What is the evidence of this? Inside Somalia, Shabaab now concentrates more closely on political and military targets — the presidential palace, parliament, the Amisom base, and hotels where government officials hang out — and less on civilian targets like markets.
Top tweets
@irinnews: Of 10 deadliest attacks by Al Shabaab, only 4 in #Somalia http://newirin.irinnews.org/
@abshiraxmad #Kenya Air-Force airstrike destroys #AlShabaab bases-Camp Gondodwe & Camp Sheikh Ismail in #Somalia in retaliation to the #GarissaAttacks
@Gobannimo: #Somalia AU soldier searching a native Somali police officer #sadstory pic.twitter.com/0TQMjMgHe3
@AbdiqaniDirie #Somalia: if they r given an opportunity #youth can improve the peace coexistence – football 4 peace in #Sool region
@4DialogSK: [#Somalia] More politicians, intellectuals & other societal elites trendily zoom into #Vision2016. To see z whole landscape 1 must zoom out.
@waithash: Charcoal worth at least $250 million (Sh22 billion) was shipped to the international market from #Somalia in 2013 and 2014. – UN Report
@Delalorm: I think about you, Mogadishu: http://wp.me/p1hjCh-gp #Somalia #Mogadishu #poetry #amwriting
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