April 22, 2015 | Daily Monitoring Report.

Somali President Says ISIL Are Criminals Against Civilisation

22- April – Source: Somali Update 188 Words

Hassan Sheikh Mohamud, President of the Federal Republic of Somalia, today denounced the heinous acts of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), killing more than 20 Ethiopian Christians in Libya on Sunday 19 April. “The Federal Government of Somalia denounces this barbaric act. This is an act of horrific criminality; it is nothing but thuggery dressed up as ideology. It is clear that ISIL is interested only in spreading a message of calamity and brutality. They are criminals against civilization; predators who feast on our sons and daughters,” said the President.

The President further said that terrorism is a global threat, requiring collective responsibility, adding that Somalia – as it is a country hit by terror acts – will work closely with the international community to eradicate extremist groups. “Somalia pledges its ongoing commitment to our fellow nations in Africa and will allow no safe haven for these groups. We stand by to assist fellow African nations in their quest for peace. We stand with the civilized world in choosing freedom over oppression, law and justice over chaos, and humanity over deprivation,” the President concluded.

Key Headlines

Somali President Says ISIL Are Criminals Against Civilisation (Somali Update)
Differences Emerge Between Somalia’s Banadir And South West Regional Administrations (Wacaal Media)
Five Killed In Taleh Clan Fighting (Garowe Online)
US Designates Top Al Shabab Members As ‘Terrorists’( Horseed Media)
42 Bullet Proof Cars Missing From Somali Government Offices (Garowe Online)
Kenya Envisions a Border Wall That Keeps Shabab Violence Out (New York Times)
The Splintering Of Somalia Has Crippled Education (Al-Fanar Media)
Migrant Shipwreck: One Child’s Journey From Somalia To The Shores Of Italy (The Guardian)
AU: Somali Sex Abuse Allegations Largely Unproven (News 24)
Work on strategy to pull troops from Somalia Raila tells Government (Standard Digital)
Can Shabelle River Flooding Be Controlled? (Garowe Online)
Mogadishu Aviation Fire Fighters Refreshing Training (AMISOM)

NATIONAL MEDIA

Differences Emerge Between Somalia’s Banadir And South West Regional Administrations

22 April – Source: Wacaal Media – 152 Words

The regional administration of South West Somalia is up in arms against their counterparts from Banaadir over two incidents in Lower Shabelle where officials from NISA destroyed symbols on the border separating the two administrations. The South West administration also said that the national security forces attacked their minister of trade and industry Mr. Abdullahi Shiekh Hassan while he was on official duty in Jasiira district in Lower Shabelle region. Speaking to the local press, the administration’s internal security minister Mr. Abdifatah Geesey blamed the attack on NISA officials and expressed their displeasure at the incident. “We call on the Federal government of Somalia to shed light on the provocative attack in Lower Shabelle in which symbols of our administration was destroyed” said the minister. Minister Geesey added that they have informed the federal government and lodged their complaints with them over the matter.

Five Killed In Taleh Clan Fighting

21- April – Source: Garowe Online 136 Words

At least five fighters from opposing clans are reported to have been killed after clan fighting flared up in historic Taleh town of northern Somalia on Tuesday, Garowe Online reports. The fighting raged between the two clan militias-Samakab Ali and Farah Ali-leaving five others wounded according to medical sources. Puntland Interior Minister Ahmed Elmi Osman (Karash) told GO that traditional leaders were dispatched to Taleh which lies some 90 km from the capital, Garowe. The two clans struck a peace deal in Taleh at the beginning of this year, putting years-long hostility to an end. Somaliland troops seized Taleh from the self-declared administration of Khaatumo in late 2014, and retreated from temporary positions in the following days. However, tensions have risen of late as Puntland, Somaliland and Khaatumo compete for authority over Taleh and its surroundings.

US Designates Top Al Shabab Members As ‘Terrorists’

21 April – Source: Horseed Media – 273 Words

The United States on Tuesday declared Ahmed Diriye, the leader of the Somali militant group Al-Shabaab and Mahad Karate, a senior members of the extremist organisation a global terrorist, making it a crime to engage in transactions. The State Department said in a statement the formal designation also allows the US government to seize any of their properties or interests in the United States, including those under the control of US citizens. “The U.S. Department of State has designated Ahmed Diriye and Mahad Karate under Executive Order 13224, which targets terrorists and those providing support to terrorists or acts of terrorism,” read the statement. Ahmed Diriye who is known as Abu-ubaidah was selected by Al-Shabaab to replace the former leader of the hardline group, Ahmed Godane, who was killed in a U.S airstrike in September last year. Following his appointment, the Somali federal government placed a $3 million bounty on his head. Mahad Karate, also known as Abdirahim Mohamed Warsame and thought to be the deputy of Ahmed Diriye, was described by the department for ‘’playing key role’’ in the amniyat department –a unit in the group specialized in executing suicide attacks inside Somalia as well as countries like Kenya, conducting assassinations, providing logistics and support for operations.

The Somali government placed a $100,000 bounty on his head earlier this month. Al-Shabaab emerged out of an insurgency fighting against Ethiopia, when its troops entered Somalia in a 2006 US-backed invasion to topple the Islamic Courts Union that was in control of the Somali capital, Mogadishu. It has claimed responsibility for many attacks in Mogadishu and central and northern Somalia. Its attacks have focused on the TFG and its perceived allies, AU troops and aid organisations. The group has assassinated peace activists, international aid workers and journalists. Al-Shabaab was designated a terrorist organization by the U.S. in 2008 and has been responsible for dozens of attacks in Somalia and in neighboring countries like Uganda and Kenya. Earlier this month, the group massacred about 150 students in a Kenyan university. The rebels still control many rural areas in Somalia where it imposes strict Shariah law, including stoning to death women accused of adultery and amputating the hands of accused thieves.

42 Bullet Proof Cars Missing From Somali Government Offices

21 April – Source: Garowe Online – 352 Words

As Somalia struggles to stave off the international partners’ concerns over the pervasive corruption and the slow pace for the vision 2016 goal, credible sources said that 42 bullet-proof cars have gone missing from Somalia Federal Government’s offices, Garowe Online has learned. The development is a major concern for the security agencies who expressed worries over the likelihood that the missing cars could fall into the militants waging a deadly insurgency against the government and the African Union forces in Somalia. Multiple independent sources who declined to be identified confirmed to Garowe Online that most of the missing bullet-proof cars were donated by United Arab Emirates in support of the safety of Somali officials.

At least 200 Ministers and sizeable number of deputy ministers have held various posts with three Prime Ministers including the incumbent Omar Abdirashid Ali Sharmarke since the end of transitional period, with overwhelming majority handed bullet-proof vehicles back to the government at after losing positions. However, information obtained by Garowe Online reveal that government officials who don’t hail from southern Somalia handed over their bullet-proof under oath. “President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud’s henchmen, and those who belong to the clan that the president hails from continue to drive bullet proof vehicles along Mogadishu roads,” a source said on condition of
anonymity.

The number could be far higher than the 42 vehicles, according to sources within Mogadishu-based Federal Government who passed along documents to Garowe Online. Only one bullet proof vehicle for the prime minister was destroyed in central hotel bombing on February 20, 2015. “The planning ministry’s bullet-proof car replaced the one awarded with the Deputy Prime Minister Mohamed Omar Arte,” One official who asked to remain anonymous told Garowe Online. Fear of attacks by Al-Shabaab gunmen is said to have gripped the current cabinet members whoe prefer staying inside their hotels rather than travelling across the extremely volatile capital. Somalia’s international partners spearheaded by the UN expressed dismay at ‘rampant’ corruption by government officials, saying it could deal blow to the efforts of pushing ahead with the agreed timetable towards election by 2016.

INTERNATIONAL MEDIA

Kenya Envisions a Border Wall That Keeps Shabab Violence Out

22 April – Source: New York Times – 1, 190 Words

As the border gate opened early in the morning, minibuses dropped off passengers, donkey-led carts trotted through and pedestrians began to cross freely on foot, heading in both directions. The Kenyan guards standing beside the empty border offices casually watched the stream of humanity coming in and out of the country. The many family, economic and educational ties straddling both sides of the border are just too entrenched to make any real dividing line practical, many local residents say. But the recent attacks by the Shabab, the extremist Somali group that has killed hundreds of people in Kenya in the past two years, have given rise to an ambitious national proposal that is supposed to begin right here: an enormous barrier along the 424-mile border with Somalia. “All the problems come from that side,” said Abdi Billow, 60, a Kenyan of ethnic Somali descent from this town.

This distant northern corner of Kenya has suffered the brunt of some of the violence, including attacks on a bus of teachers over Christmas and on workers at a quarry last year, where Christians were separated from Muslims and shot. One of the attackers in the assault on a university in eastern Kenya this month, which left almost 150 people dead, also came from here. “A wall will go a long way in instituting some control of movement,” said Alex Nkoyo, the Mandera County district commissioner. Kenyan officials say that construction equipment has arrived in Mandera to build what is often called a border wall but is actually envisioned as a barrier of fences, ditches and observation posts that extend from here all the way to the Indian Ocean. “It’s not like the Great Wall of China,” said Mwende Njoka, a spokesman for the Ministry of Interior. “That would be too expensive.”

The project has stirred intense debate here in Mandera, where the two sides of the border are highly interconnected. Bula Hawa is Mandera’s sister city, willingly or not, right across the border on the Somali side — a border that does not mean much to many residents. Cellphone services here routinely fluctuate between Kenyan and Somali companies, and merchants go back and forth across the border. Some children from Somalia come here, where it is safer, to get a formal education, and even the district commissioner of Bula Hawa has a house in Mandera. There is also the question of how a border barrier will address the stewing extremism among Kenyans themselves, some of whom have been implicated in deadly attacks, including the assault on the university. “A security wall will not help,” said Ishak Aden, 60, a Somali from Bula Hawa. “The Shabab mix with the people and have a lot of spies.”

The Splintering Of Somalia Has Crippled Education

21 April – Source: Al-Fanar Media – 1, 232 Words

Somali universities are beginning to recover from two decades of civil war but a lack of government oversight, an ongoing brain drain and security concerns continue to imperil higher education in the country. And education analysts don’t expect the situation to change anytime soon. “Somalia is a prime example of a nation that has effectively lost its entire educational footing as it is reeling from continuous and pervasive war that decimated its central governing capacities,” said Mohamed Mahmoud, a graduate student in public administration at Evergreen State College in Washington state and a co-founder of the East African Global Education Initiative.

“While local collectives and families have started coming together to create primary learning support for children in their towns and villages, the government hasn’t yet made higher education or student readiness a priority,” Mahmoud added. The state of higher education mirrors the troubles Somalia has endured since 1991, when the collapse of its military government unleashed a bloody civil war, analysts say. Afterward, in 2006, the country was divided into three zones—autonomous Puntland in the northeast, autonomous Somaliland in the northwest and the Somali government-controlled territory in the south. Critics say that arrangement has prevent the central government from recovering its ability to govern.

Adding to this, since the end of the civil war, an al Qaeda-linked Muslim extremist group, al Shabaab, has risen up to challenge the new order. In early April, the group attacked Garissa University College in eastern Kenya, killing almost 150 students and staff, and injuring around 80 others. On April 14, the group attacked the Ministry of Education in Mogadishu, killing more than a dozen people. The situation in the country has led to the Fund for Peace’s Fragile State Index to list Somalia as the second-most fragile country in the world, after South Sudan. Almost half of all Somalis live below the poverty line, and less than 42 percent of children enroll in primary school, one of the lowest student enrollment rates in the world, according to a 2015 study by the University College of London’s Institute of Education. Higher education is getting lost in the long list of the country’s priorities, analysts say. “Due to the war and continues political instability, particularly in south-central Somalia, the state of higher education in Somalia remains weak,” said Farhan Hassan, executive director of the U.K.-based Somali Heritage Academic Network. “No national policy or system of formal higher education exists today.”

Migrant Shipwreck: One Child’s Journey From Somalia To The Shores Of Italy

21 April – Source: The Guardian – 607 Words

Said’s journey from Somalia began about a year ago; it has not quite ended yet. The 16-year-old was trying to make his way to Norway, where his parents hoped he would meet relatives, but his journey was interrupted on the shores of Italy after his survival against the odds in the catastrophic shipwreck in the Mediterranean. He is one of just four children who have lived to tell the story of the disaster that killed up to 950 migrants from Africa who were desperate to reach Italy. About 100 children are believed to be among the dead, according to witness accounts collected by Save the Children, the aid agency that is working with migrants and focuses on meeting the needs of traumatised children who have made the treacherous journey.

The aid group said 2,500 children could die in the Mediterranean by the end of the year if the current trend continues. Said arrived in Sicily on Monday night. His parents had put him in the care of Sudanese traffickers last summer in an attempt to get one of their children – he also has five sisters and three brothers – to Norway. His odyssey began with a journey across the desert until he reached the Libyan border, where he was taken and held by armed smugglers for nine months until his parents were able to pay for the first part of his trip. He wasn’t the only child there. Said told Save the Children that he witnessed other children being mistreated, and some dying from starvation and illness. Once his parents paid the smugglers, he was sent to Tripoli.

It was a terrifying ordeal that took six days. In that time, Said hid constantly and was afraid of being held captive again by the smugglers. Once he got to Tripoli, he became just one of thousands of migrants who are waiting to make the journey first to Italy and then – for many – other parts of Europe. Said said that at 11pm on 18 April he was put on a rubber dinghy which transported him to the now-notorious fishing boat. The date does not match a statement released on Tuesday by prosecutors in Catania, who said they believed the boat left Tripoli on 16 April. Said said there were many nationalities represented on the boat, including people from Mali, Ethiopia, Bangladesh, Sierra Leone, Niger, Nigeria, Sudan and Senegal. He overheard smugglers – who have been compared to modern-day slave drivers by Italy’s prime minister, Matteo Renzi – saying they wanted to get 1,200 people on board but stopped at 800.

AU: Somali Sex Abuse Allegations Largely Unproven

22 April – Source: News 24 – 369 Words

Allegations implicating African Union troops in Somalia in many cases of rape and sex abuse are largely unproven, the pan-African body insisted on Tuesday in a long-awaited reply to a damning rights report. The African Union said that out of 21 allegations of sexual abuse by its internationally-funded troops contained in a report by Human Rights Watch, only two were established as being true. The HRW report, released last September, said soldiers from the AU’s Amisom force, who are fighting al-Qaeda-linked al-Shabaab rebels had gang raped women and girls as young as 12 and traded food aid for sex. AU chief Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma ordered an investigation, and the bloc said it had spent nearly four months conducting its own probe into “the twenty-one allegations contained in the HRW report”.

“It found that two of these allegations are indeed proven cases [of sexual abuse] perpetrated by Amisom soldiers,” the AU said in a statement. The AU listed many of the other cases raised by HRW as either lacking in evidence or unable to be proven due to its own team’s inability to meet with either the alleged victim or perpetrator.It concluded that sex abuse by Amisom troops did “not seem to be widespread”. The AU nevertheless reiterated its “zero tolerance policy” on sex abuse, and said it was in the process of taking “concrete steps” to implement recommendations made by its own investigators and HRW. It also promised “to continue to respect the dignity of all Somali women and girls and to uphold the religious and cultural values of Somalia, as Amisom continues to implement its mandate to restore peace and stability”. The AU’s own recommendations included providing “recreational facilities” so Amisom soldiers can go the gym or play basketball and volleyball.

Work On Strategy To Pull Troops From Somalia, Raila Tells Government

21 April – Source: Standard Digital – 236 Words

CORD leader Raila Odinga has called on the Government to work on a strategy to pull Kenyan troops out of Somalia as a way to curb insecurity crisis facing the country. While speaking during the second annual Devolution Conference in Kisumu, Raila said that CORD is supportive of efforts the Government is employing to deal with terrorism. “I am not saying we pull out troops out of Somalia right now, but we should agree on an exit strategy,” said Raila, addressing the over 6,000 participants in the conference.

Raila told President Uhuru Kenyatta, who officially opened the four-day event, to crack whip on insecurity saying some issues were not being handled in the right way. Raila wondered why it took over six hours to transport anti-terror squad to Garissa University on the day when terrorists killed 148 people in the April 2 dawn attack. He however did not comment on the construction of the Kenya-Somalia border wall which several opposition leaders have been campaigning against. The Opposition leader lauded the fruits achieved through devolution, saying the system of governance is changing lives in ways never imagined before.

OPINION/ANALYSIS/CULTURE

In accordance with economically feasible measures, the government can construct separate spillway or overflow dam to make some reliefs. Construction of multi-purpose dam which can hold the flood waters upstream, generate electrical energy and at the same time would release required amounts of water to the downstream farmers across either river appears too costly; yet cumbersome but it is at all costs unavoidable in the near future.

Can Shabelle River Flooding Be Controlled?

22 April – Source: Garowe Online – 512 Words

It’s a tradition for Shabelle River to overflow its banks, and sweep through riverine villages in central and Southern Somalia. Flash floods are also observed in the Major towns of Beledweyne, Jowhar and Afgoi where some are extreme downstream vicinities. Erstwhile records show the extent of worries of residents, and inability of local authorities to tackle the scenarios. Will imminent threats of flood be ever deterred? Of course this is not something else but normally questions wandering in the minds of many-more especially those who have long been affected by floodings. I have yet to come across study revealing the General Flood Characteristics of Shabelle River. Nonetheless I do commend Flood Alert report issued by Somalia Water and Land Information Management (SWALIM) in coordination with the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. Both moderate and heavy rains are expected in Eastern Ethiopia and inside Somalia, with reports revealing that Shabelle River is at full crest in Jowhar as of Sunday morning.

Not only will Shabelle River cause flooding and damage to homes but Juba River which last year destroyed crop stores in several villages including Makalagow, Mashaqo and Kabsuma is likely to threaten to burst banks. Depth of rainfall kept varying between 16th and 17th of April, and heaviest rains fell over Beledweyne, Doollow and Mogadishu at 103mm, 80mm and 77mm precipitation depths respectively. Flood Mitigation Lack of effective central government is perhaps another obstacle to finding viable solution to the flooding of Shabelle and Jubba Rivers. Somalia Federal Government might hold consultations with the international partners entrusted to the responsibilities of monitoring water resource programmes in the country on the ways forward.

Integrated Development Master Plan Study Project touching on groundbreaking researches into the climatology, Hydrology, Hydrogeology and irrigation and drainage characteristics of Shabelle and Jubba rivers may besides be much-needed. Shabelle River originates at incredibly rising elevation from Bale Mountain ranges, and interestingly it decreases erosion progressively before entering Somalia through Mustahil and Feer-Feer. All Somali regions do not completely fall in the basins of Shabelle and Jubba rivers.However based on the depths recorded at rain-gauge stations in Somalia, data is critically important for precautionary measures in the mitigations of imminent floods.

“The training was successful and it was well conducted. The students learnt a lot about it, and think it has been beneficial to them. This is the beginning of building up the capacity of fire service in Mogadishu, so it is a very big achievement.”

Mogadishu Aviation Fire Fighters Refreshing Training

22 April – Source: AMISOM – Video – 3:30

A total of 32 Mogadishu aviation firefighters have completed training aimed at boosting their skills and ability to respond to emergency situations in Mogadishu and Somalia in general. The refresher training conducted over a period of one month was facilitated jointly by the United Nations Support Office for AMISOM (UNSOA), the African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM) in collaboration with Fire and Emergency Department of the Mogadishu Municipality.

TOP TWEETS

@MogadishuNews 3 students injured after jumping from walls at their University of #Somalia‘s National when blast hit near their campus yesterday #Somalia

@Hamza_Africa BREAKING NEWS: US State Department designates #AlShabaab leader, Ahmed Diriye, and Mahad Karate as “terrorists”. #Somalia

@GateretsePhil Saddened by the loss of some of our soldiers in Somalia in an attack by extremists.They were defending a noble cause in Somalia.#Burundi

@Tuuryare_Africa #BREAKING: Somalia forces injured at least 3 people after opening fire on a luxury car along #Maka road in Mogadishu.

@UNFPA_SOMALIA Meeting Justice Minister for Somaliland Hussein Ahmed Aideed on fight against #GBV @GKyeyune @IsatuKajue @Pilirani

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IMAGE OF THE DAY

The government of Turkey building the its largest embassy in Africa in Mogadishu, Somalia.

Photo: @SalahOsman0