April 9, 2015 | Morning Headlines.

Main Story

Kenya Shuts Down Somali Remittance Firms, Freezes Accounts

08 April – Source: Reuters – 311 Words

Kenya has suspended the licences of 13 Somali remittance firms following the massacre at a Kenyan university last week, Somalia’s central bank governor said on Wednesday, and Kenyan media reported that dozens of bank accounts had been frozen. The killing of 148 students by Somalia’s al Shabaab at Garissa, some 200 km (120 miles) from the border, has piled pressure on President Uhuru Kenyatta to deal with the Islamists who have killed more than 400 people in Kenya in the last two years. Kenya’s biggest selling Daily Nation newspaper said on Wednesday that the government has “frozen the accounts of 86 individuals and entities suspected to be financing terrorism in the country”, including Somali remittance firms. Somalia’s central bank governor Bashir Issa Ali told Reuters that 13 Somali money transfer firms have been officially notified by Central Bank of Kenya (CBK) about the closure of accounts. He said the move would have a devastating impact Kenya’s Somali community, numbering just over one million people.

“It’s going to hurt Somalis in Kenya more than Somalis in Somalia. The amount of money sent from abroad to Kenya is huge,” Ali said, pointing out that many Somalis in Kenya rely on relatives abroad for basics including school fees. The owner of one Somali money transfer firm told Reuters the Kenyan government has not suspended remittance firms’ bank accounts but that the CBK had instead revoked their licences. “Last night we simply received a notice, without discussion and without informing us (beforehand),” said the owner. “This is not the way to fight terrorists.” Kenya’s Foreign Minister Amina Mohamed told Reuters that the east African nation is seeking additional foreign intelligence and security help after the Garissa massacre, the deadliest attack in Kenya since al Qaeda bombed the U.S. embassy in 1998, killing more than 200 people.

Key Headlines

Australian Government Pledges To Implement Developmental Projects In Puntland (Goobjoog News)
Kenya Names 86 Individuals And Organizations Suspected Of Financing Al Shabaab (Somali Current)
Uganda Detains Two Terror Suspects After Kenya University Siege (Radio Danan)
President Hassan Announces Administrative Capital Of Upcoming Somali Central State (Goobjoog News)
Heavy Rains In Dinsor Cause Damage (Radio Ergo)
Money Transfer Freeze To Kenya Will Hurt Somalis Somalia (News 24/AFP)
Plan To Vet Islamic Teachers Proposed (Daily Nation)
Kenya Shuts Down Somali Remittance Firms Freezes Accounts (Reuters)
Aid Agencies Ready For Yemeni Refugee Influx In Horn Of Africa (AFP/Yahoo News)
Despite Somali Setbacks Al Shabaab Still A Regional Threat (France 24)
Terrorist Turf Wars: Why Al Shabab Attacked Kenya’s Garissa University College (Foreign Affairs)
Somalia’s Disease Burden And The Spiral Of Silence On Mental Illness (AMISOM News)

SOMALI MEDIA

Australian Government Pledges To Implement Developmental Projects In Puntland

08 April – Source: Goobjoog News – 139 Words

The President of Puntland, Abdiweli Mohamed Ali Gaas, received the Australian Ambassador to Somalia, John Feakes at his office in Garowe on Wednesday. The two focused on a wide range of issues including Puntland’s security affairs and Australian development projects in Puntland State. After the meeting the two held a joint press conference in which they detailed their meeting. President Gaas said Puntland appreciates and welcomes the high Australian delegation which came to see and discuss the security situation and other issues. “The delegation pledged that the Australian government will implement developmental projects in Puntland State as soon as possible,” the President said. Amb. Feakes said that Australia will keep on supporting Puntland State and pledged to implement multiple projects in Puntland, including infrastructure and social services.

Kenya Names 86 Individuals And Organizations Suspected Of Financing Al Shabaab

08 April – Source: Somali Current – 32 Words

The Kenyan government has released a list of names comprised of 86 individuasl and organizations suspected of financing and supporting Al Shabaab, and has frozen their accounts.

Uganda Detains Two Terror Suspects After Kenya University Siege

08 April – Source: Radio Danan – 117 Words

Ugandan police arrested two suspected militants, saying they were allegedly plotting an attack, a Ugandan military spokesman said Wednesday. The arrest comes days after a man suspected to have links with the Somalia-based Islamist terrorist group Al-Shabaab was arrested on Friday at a hostel near Makerere University. The man whose identity has not been revealed was arrested following a tip-off from students. The military spokesman said the suspect was carrying expensive perfumes and phones but could not speak English, Swahili, or any Ugandan language. The suspect reportedly had pictures in which he was holding a human head. The spokesman said he could not reveal the identity of the suspect until the Counter-Terrorism Unit is through with its investigations.

President Hassan Announces Administrative Capital Of Upcoming Somali Central State

08 April – Source: Goobjoog News – 87 Words

The President of Somalia Hassan Sheikh Mohamud officially announced the administrative capital of the soon-to-be-formed Somali Central State. Speaking at a meeting held in Dhusamareb town, President Hassan declared that Dhusamareb, which is currently the administrative headquarters of Galgaduud region, will be the administrative capital of the Central Somali state. President Mohamud reached the town on Wednesday morning to hold talks with traditional elders and politicians. The meeting is ongoing.

Heavy Rains In Dinsor Cause Damage

07 April – Source: Radio Ergo – 252 Words

Heavy rains that have pounded villages near Dinsor district in Bay region this week have reportedly caused damage. In the worst hit villages of Dhaysale, Boromo, Rahole and Koore in the south of Dinsor, pastoralists said more than 100 goats died and other property was lost in the rains. They said the rains came after a severe drought that had left livestock, particularly goats, very weak and unable to withstand the cold that followed the downpour. Saney Mohamed Ali in Rahole village, 20 km east of Dinsor, told Radio Ergo that unanticipated rains fell in several villages. She said the rains caused floods that swept away many animals, mostly goats. “The rains washed away 15 of my goats and all my house belongings as well,” she said.

Speaking to Radio Ergo’s Bay reporter, Hassan Abdi Nur, a traditional elder in Dhaysale village, said: “The rains were very heavy and affected the villages. In our village alone, it killed more than 100 goats, while most of the houses were washed away by flash floods resulting from the downpour.” Locals said 60 families were left homeless by the rains and were currently without shelter. Despite the damage and losses, the rains were welcomed as a blessing in villages that have suffered from an acute shortage of water in recent months. According to Goof-gudud village chief, Shabelow Ahmed Mohamed Jadid, his village had not received enough rains in the past year, and as a result water pans were dry.

REGIONAL MEDIA

Money Transfer Freeze To Kenya Will Hurt Somalis, Somalia

08 April – Source: News 24/AFP – 661 Words

Kenya’s police chief issued Wednesday a list of 85 people and companies, including at least 13 key money transfer companies, of suspected links to Somalia’s Al-Qaeda-linked Shebab. Top of the list issued in an official government gazette notice was alleged Shebab commander Mohamed Mohamud, said to be the mastermind behind the university massacre of almost 150 people last week. But the list also included money transfer companies that provide a crucial way for relatives to send remittances from abroad to war-torn Somalia, including Dahabshiil, one of the most important transfer companies across the wider Horn of Africa region. Their suspension in Kenya would have major impact on money transfers, with aid agencies warning in the past their suspension would hit some of poorest people the hardest.

With no formal banking system in the impoverished country, diaspora Somalis turn to money transfer services to send money back home to support their families, sending some $1.3 billion (1.1 billion euros) each year, dwarfing foreign aid. Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta on Saturday warned Shebab fighters his government will respond to their killing of 148 people in the university in Garissa in the “severest way” possible, with warplanes on Monday attacking Islamist bases in southern Somalia. But Kenyatta also warned that the masterminds behind last Thursday’s attack were inside Kenya, not Somalia. “The planners and financiers of this brutality are deeply embedded in our communities,” he said. “We will not allow them to continue their lives as normal, the full force of the law will be brought to bear with even greater intensity that has been the case in previous years.” The notice, issued under Kenya’s prevention of terrorism act and which gives the names listed 24 hours to demonstrate why they “should not be declared a specified entity,” was signed by Kenya’s police chief Joseph Boinett.There are huge flows of money both ways between the neighbouring nations, for trade and business, as well as in lifeline remittances to war-torn Somalia from relatives in the region.

Plan To Vet Islamic Teachers Proposed

08 April – Source: Daily Nation – 507 Words

The umbrella body of Muslims in the country has pledged to start vetting preachers and what they teach in madrasas to tame radicalisation of youth.The Supreme Council of Kenya Muslims (Supkem) on Tuesday unveiled its “emergency programme” to check the lure of Muslims youth into joining Al-Shabaab, the Somalia-based terrorist group blamed for the Garissa massacre. “We will respond to this problem with the seriousness it deserves,” said Mr Adan Wachu, the Supkem secretary-general.“We will be putting all our Imams and preachers, be it in Northeastern, at the Coast, in Nairobi or anywhere in Kenya, to speak with one voice with the view of taking inventory of all mosques and madrasas.” Mr Wachu, whose organisations is in charge of all mosques and Muslim educational centres in the country, said the new measures will weed out Imams who have been recruiting fighters for Al-Shabaab.

On Tuesday, Attorney-General Githu Muigai told the Nation that his office will continue meeting religious leaders to finalise regulations that will tame religious centres used by rogue preachers. “Those (religious leaders) who want to be part of this, and they are many, have already joined us and we are having a very healthy debate one the way forward. Those who don’t want to be part of this, we will leave the law to take its course on them,” Prof Muigai said in a telephone interview. To begin with, Supkem said that it will vet preachers and Quran teachers around the country with the help of the Council of Imams and Preachers of Kenya (CIPK). “We want to know them, have their records, (know) who they are teaching, what they are teaching and when they are teaching,” he said.

INTERNATIONAL MEDIA

Aid Agencies Ready For Yemeni Refugee Influx In Horn Of Africa

08 April – Source: AFP/Yahoo News – 445 Words

Refugees from war-torn Yemen fleeing intense airstrikes are arriving in the Horn of Africa nation of Djibouti, aid agencies said Wednesday, warning of a possible large influx ahead. While a total of 238 refugees from Yemen have registered in Djibouti in recent weeks, the UN refugee agency UNHCR said, preparations were being made for many more. “UNHCR and the Djiboutian authorities are expecting a big influx, but the extent is still unclear at the moment,” Frederic Van Hamme, from UNHCR Djibouti said. The movement of refugees from Yemen to Djibouti and Somalia reverses a decades-old trend whereby Somalis have sought safety from decades of war in Yemen. “The situation in Yemen is very violent and the people there are suffering,” the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said Wednesday in a statement from Djibouti. “The ICRC is scaling up its presence in Djibouti in anticipation of a possible increase in the number of people who may flee the southern regions of Yemen in search of safe haven from the fighting.”

A sea channel only 30 kilometres (20 miles) wide at its narrowest point separates Djibouti and Yemen. A refugee camp site is being set up in Markazi near the small northern port of Obock, Van Hamme added. “Yemen is undergoing intense air strikes and fierce ground fighting nationwide,” the ICRC added, noting that “air strikes continued in Sanaa, Taez, Ibb and Al Dhaleh over the last 24 hours,” while in the key southern port of Aden “there have been sporadic clashes with use of tanks in many parts of the city.” ICRC is supporting the Djibouti Red Crescent Society “to help reconnect refugees with any family members they might have been separated from while fleeing the violence”, it added. Even as Yemenis begin to arrive in Somalia, the Arabian peninsula nation continues to host more than 238,000 Somali refugees, according to UNHCR. UNHCR in Somalia has said it is “standing by” for more arrivals after the first Yemeni refugees arrived at the port of Berbera in northern Somaliland late last month, with Somalis also returning to their homeland.

Despite Somali Setbacks, Al Shabaab Still A Regional Threat

08 April – Source: France 24 – 601 Words

Al Shabaab’s massacre at Garissa University College in northeastern Kenya last week is evidence that despite recent military setbacks in its Somali heartland the Islamist group has lost none of its ability to hurt its enemies abroad. The attack, which authorities say claimed the lives of 148 people, was the al Qaeda-linked group’s deadliest on Kenyan soil. It is further evidence that al Shabaab, which is fighting to establish a fundamentalist Islamic state in Somalia, is a versatile organisation that remains a regional threat despite international strikes targeting its Somali heartland. “What they’ve proven is that they’re adaptable. They are a small but disciplined organisation,” Cedric Barnes, Horn of Africa Project director for the Brussels-based International Crisis Group, told France 24.

Al Shabaab, which means “the youth” in Arabic, first formed in Somalia in 2006 as the youth militia of a now defunct alliance of sharia courts known as the Islamic Courts Union (ICU). By 2007 it was considered enough of a threat that the African Union approved a major mission (the African Union Mission in Somalia or AMISOM) to protect Somalia’s Transitional Federal Government. At the height of its power, the Islamist militant group controlled almost two-thirds of Somalia, including the capital, Mogadishu. In 2010, al Shabaab carried out its first attacks outside Somalia’s borders, coordinating near simultaneous suicide bombings at two different venues in Uganda’s capital Kampala, where crowds had gathered to watch the World Cup. Seventy-four people were killed. Uganda was the first country to send troops to Somalia under AMISOM in 2007. The following year marked a turning point in al Shabaab’s battle for control of Somalia. Weakened by AMISOM forces and famine, the group announced that it was withdrawing from Mogadishu in August, 2011.Since then, al Shabaab has seen its forces and territory steadily decline. In 2012, it lost the port of Kismayo, the last major town under its control and a key source of revenue for the group. Last year its leader Ahmed Abdi Godane was killed in a US air strike.

SOCIAL MEDIA

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

“During its war against al Shabab the Kenyan government has, at times, trampled some of its citizens’ civil liberties in the name of counterterrorism. After this latest attack, it will likely be tempted to do so again, but it must not overreach with counterproductive, draconian anti-terror measures that curtail civil liberties and deepen fissures between the country’s Christian and Muslim population, something that will only empower al Shabab. For now, Kenya is likely facing a group intent on focusing more of its energy on high-profile and barbaric attacks.”

Terrorist Turf Wars: Why Al Shabab Attacked Kenya’s Garissa University College

07 April – Source: Foreign Affairs – 1,070 Words

Sadly, the al Shabab attack on Kenya’s Garissa University College that killed at least 147 people was nothing new. Since October 2011, when Kenya invaded Somalia to fight the terrorist group in its home territory, the group has launched more than 100 attacks inside Kenya that have claimed hundreds of lives and sent the country’s tourism industry into a tailspin. Many of the attacks have been as ruthless as this latest outrage: the group killed at least 67 in an attack on the Westgate Mall in Nairobi in September 2013, and in June 2014 took over a Kenyan town and systematically executed its non-Muslim residents. Even so, al Shabab has been wounded by a sustained offensive from the multinational African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM), and its deeds are increasingly eclipsed by the lurid exploits of the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS) and Boko Haram. As the group feels its stature weaken, it is more likely to lash out, carrying out high-profile and gratuitously brutal attacks like the one in Garissa. The United States and the rest of the international community must do all they can to support Kenya as it weathers al Shabab’s grisly turn.

Al Shabab was once one of the premier terror groups in the world. Years before ISIS gobbled up sections of Syria and Iraq, al Shabab conquered and then governed most of southern Somalia. Its mix of religious and nationalist appeals drew in recruits from around the globe, including dozens of Somali Americans. ISIS and Boko Haram have increasingly stolen international media attention, something the Somali terrorist group needs to attract recruits and donors. But the group has been in decline since its apex in 2010. AMISOM has driven it from all its major strongholds, and its fighters have defected in droves. It once raised millions of dollars a year in taxes on goods coming into the ports it controlled and from the people under its dominion, but as its territory has shrunk, its revenue almost certainly has as well. The rise of ISIS and Boko Haram has exacerbated al Shabab’s problems. Those groups have increasingly stolen international media attention, something the Somali terrorist group needs to attract recruits and donors. Indeed, ISIS has become the group du jour for aspiring foreign jihadists.

“Because of its debilitating effects, mental illness remains a taboo in Somali society, there’s a spiral of silence about it, with mentally sick people either isolated, chained or kept in extreme situations. For those lucky to find help, essential psychotropic medicines are hard to come by, and many depend on people of good will, to keep the supply of medicines flowing. For a country emerging out of war, Somalia’s mental health problem is a conspiracy of factors — a rundown health care system, lack of a mental health care policy and legislation, no budgetary allocation for mental illness and a laissez faire attitude towards the problem by other stakeholders. This calls for quick intervention.”

Somalia’s Disease Burden And The Spiral Of Silence On Mental Illness

07 April – Source: AMISOM News – 959 Words

Any mention of Somalia conjures up images of war. Yet hidden from international glare is a huge disease burden that keeps the Federal Government anxious for solutions. Following decades of war, the national health infrastructure disintegrated to a level where basic health care systems ground to a halt. According to World Health Organization (WHO), lower respiratory infections is still the leading cause of deaths in Somalia, followed by diarrhoeal diseases, measles, malnutrition, tuberculosis, meningitis and maternal conditions. Statistics about Somalia’s health status is scanty. WHO 2013 figures estimate under-five mortality rate in Somalia, at 146 deaths per every 1,000 births and maternal mortality rate at 850 deaths, for every 100,000 live births. This means that Somalia has fallen short of meeting the Millennium Development Goals(MDGs), whose deadline is June 2015, by a big margin. A reports by UNDP describes Somalia’s situation as “seriously off track”, with only one out of eight targets likely to be met. The report concludes that, “There is insufficient data to plot progress of Somalia’s MDGs, but the country is predicted to be seriously off track in meeting them. With the current political instability it is unlikely that Somalia will reverse this pattern in the near future.”

Grim as it may be, the report is an outcome of a capacity building workshop for MDGs, held in Kampala, Uganda in 2010. Somalia’s Director of Policy Planning and Coordination in the Ministry of Health Dr. Abdi Hamid Ibrahim concurs with this report. He says, “The health report of the country is very bad. I think it is the second worst in the world but this is because of a number of the numerous and endless conflicts, social unrest and famine that the country has faced which have led to the total collapse of infrastructure.” The situation is compounded by limited resources, but there is a ray of hope. Dr. Ibrahim says plans are underway by the government to reverse the downward trend. “Together with other partners such as WHO, UNICEF and UNFPA we are trying to revamp the country’s health system,” says Dr. Ibrahim. He adds that to date, the government has so far managed to draft a national health policy, promising that more key health documents are in the offing, even as he concedes that the task before the government is huge. On the surface, respiratory infections and childhood diseases such as malnutrition, seem like the only hurdle Somalia needs to jump. However, statistics from the world health body, WHO, also shows a significant rise in suicide, homicide and conflict related deaths in Somalia since 2012, indicative of increased mental disorder. With the war almost gone, a new challenge stares Somalia in the face: mental illness.