April 28, 2015 | Morning Headlines.
Forty Somali Refugees Killed By Saudi-led Bombing Campaign In Yemen
27 April – Source: Goodjoog News – 250 Words
An airstrike killed 40 of Somali refugees after Warplanes of the Saudi-led military coalition bombed on two buses carrying Somali refugees in Yemen, in what appeared to be the single deadliest attack on Somali refugees since a Saudi Arabia-led coalition sent warplanes to target Shiite insurgents advancing across the country. As many as 40 people died and about more others were wounded in the attack occurred between Al-Qaras and Basatir. Witness says the dead included women and children who were laying out on a blood-streaked floor. Mahad Mohamed, one of Somali consulate workers in Yemen has confirmed the attack on the buses carrying the refugees.
It was not immediately clear why the bus would have been targeted by an air strike, sources say there had been no fighting nearby. This comes when Somali government is undertaking initiatives to evacuate Somali refugees in Yemen. Somali government has declared that they will send two ships to evacuate Somali citizens from trouble-torn middle-eastern country Yemen. More than 100,000 Somali citizens who most of them are refugees are trapped in Yemen violence. While other foreign nationals have been evacuated from the impoverished gulf nation, the federal government has not yet moved to evacuate its citizens despite announcing plans to bring back them home. Since 1st April, 2423 of Somali refugees started to return home by themselves with small boats. They accused the government of ‘’failing’’ to intervene the situation of the trapped citizens.
Key Headlines
- Forty Somali Refugees Killed By Saudi-led Bombing Campaign In Yemen (Goodjoog News)
- President Mohamud Applauds Jubbaland Parliament Formation (RBC Radio)
- Drama As Two Bullet-Proof Vans Arrive In Mogadishu From The US (Somali Current)
- Somalia President Convenes Federal Parliament (Garowe Online)
- Likely Candidates To Clinch The Position Of Speaker Of Jubbaland Parliament (Wacaal Media)
- Somali Infighting May Halt Landmark Election (The Times Africa)
- Kenya Senate Staff Arrested Over Plot To Bomb Kenyan Parliament (Standard Media)
- In Bid To Counter Al-Shabaab Kenya Tightens Noose On Aid Efforts For Somalis (Devex.com)Pay Up Or Die: Mogadishu At Mercy Of Al-Shabaab (The Times)
- Uganda President Gives Rare Insight Into Shabaab Attacks In Kenya Somalia Kampala – and America’s Fail (Mail & Guardian Africa)
NATIONAL MEDIA
President Mohamud Applauds Jubbaland Parliament Formation
27 April – Source: RBC Radio – 126 Words
In a statement from Villa Somalia, President Hassan Shiekh Mohamud welcomed the the Interim Jubba administration Parliament, RBC Reports. Hassan Shiekh has applauded the administration’s steps towards implementing the federal system in the country, affirming Somali Federal government’s commitment to Federalism in the country. “We welcome the formation of interim Jubba parliament and this translate how Somali government is determined to implement Federalism in the country” read the statement. This comes days after International community unanimously welcomed and commended the establishment of house of representative of the Interim Jubba Administration. Jubbaland, Somali Federal State in southern Somalia paves the way for decentralization of governance and deliverance of services to across Lower and Middle Jubba and as well as Gedo.
Drama As Two Bullet-Proof Vans Arrive In Mogadishu From The US
27 April – Source: Somali Current – 155 Words
A United States cargo plane today touched down on Mogadishu’s Adden Adde Airport laden with a twin packages that had the residents of the city talking. Two bullet-proof vans were off-loaded from the cargo plane that touched down on the recently face-lifted airport, vans that will be used by the new ambassador to Somalia and her staff members. In February, the US government named Katherine Dhanani as the new US ambassador to Mogadishu since 1991 when the central government of Siyat Barre collapsed. The US appointed special representatives to Somalia that are usually based in Nairobi, Kenya. The only embassy that is currently based in Mogadishu is the British embassy that is located in a highly fortified compound at Halane district in the city. The US embassy will probably be based in the same neighbourhood. Also based in Halane is the AMISOM force.
Somalia President Convenes Federal Parliament
27 April – Source: Garowe Online – 259 Words
Federal Government of Somalia’s President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud has convened the sixth parliamentary session in the presence of Prime Minister Omar Abdirashid Ali Sharmarke, Speaker Mohamed Sheikh Osman Jawari and High Court Chief Judge Aideed Abdullahi Ilka-hanf on Monday, Garowe Online reports. At the onset of parliament session, President Mohamud witnessed the swearing-in of two new MPs who would replace deceased parliamentarians. Mohamud addressed MPs on, federalization, security, Somali refugees in Yemen and Kenya, political situation and economy. On federalism, Somalia President denied that the country’s loose federalization process will encourage division, and alleged national fragmentation: “those who believe that federalism will pave the way to division and hostility are not right,” said the president.
The President also said: “I request the national assembly members to speed up the passing of bills necessary for the federalization process, so that the existing federal states and the upcoming ones can fulfill the laws in place for the endeavor.” Renewing calls for amnesty for youths fighting alongside Al- Shabaab group, he unveiled that his administration is ready to welcome deserters. Prime Minister Sharmarke on the other hand spoke about the assets freeze and closure of Somali remittance firms by Kenyan government. Sharmarke expressed his pleasure over the outcome of talks with Kenya leadership, saying the repatriation of Somali refugees in Kenya will be voluntary. The often fickle 275-seat-chamber of parliament is set to debate and approve a number of bills over the course of the new session.
Likely Candidates To Clinch The Position Of Speaker Of Jubbaland Parliament
27 April – Source: Wacaal Media – 183 Words
Favorite contestants likely to clinch the position of speaker of the Jubbaland Parliament, the newly formed parliament of Jubbaland is set to elect its speaker and two deputies tomorrow morning. The elections will be held at the headquarters of the Jubbaland administration in Kismayu. Up to three contestants have emerged as favourites to clinch the position of speaker. Sources told Wacaal.com that although there is currently intense lobbying and campaigns for the positions, three names are likely to go neck to neck up to the final round of voting which may be done through acclamation. Mohamed Ali Yussuf, Abdi Ahmed Hussein and Abdullahi Dheere are said to be the names in contension. Although all of them are no pushovers, Abdullahi Dheere is mostly favoured as he held different responsibilities in the regional administration. The other two contestants are relatively new to the Jubbaland politics.
INTERNATIONAL MEDIA
Somali Infighting May Halt Landmark Election
27 April – Source: The Times Africa – 484 Words
They were hailed as the “foundation stone” of Somalia’s future, the “ultimate goal” of Britain’s support and the beacon that has guided more than a billion dollars in foreign aid and military support. Yet the first proper elections for almost 50 years look unlikely to take place as planned. Nicholas Kay, head of the United Nations mission to Somalia (Unsom), has given the clearest signal yet that plans for a one-person, one-vote ballot will not be realised next year. It would have been the country’s first shot at universal suffrage since 1968. “Realistically we are not in a position of knowing what the Somalis will be able to achieve or not achieve by September 2016,” Mr Kay said. The former British ambassador said there would still be “a transfer of public office” when President Mohamud’s term ended. “What method, and how that transfer of public office will be organised and decided is something which is still pending,” he added.
Al-Shabaab still controls 20 per cent of the country, according to one assessment, but the biggest hindrance to election planning has been infighting between the parliament, the president and three successive prime ministers, western officials said. The government has not appointed an election commission, or a boundaries commission, without which voting is impossible. At a meeting in Copenhagen last year, Mr Kay said the government risked failing “in the eyes of the world. More importantly,” he told Somalia’s president, prime minister and selected MPs, failure would mean “the shattering of the hopes and dreams of millions of Somalis”. In Mogadishu this week, he had changed his message. He said plans for elections had been “hugely ambitious” given the poverty, insurgency and lack of infrastructure, and the need for a new, federal constitution.
“If all of these are not completed by 2016, I don’t think anybody would judge that a failure,” he said. Mr Mohamud, a former university professor, was appointed in 2012 when 135 elders elected 245 MPs, who then voted on the presidency. The small pool of voters made it susceptible to bribery. Somalia could have a “hybrid election” in 2016, according to a western diplomat involved with contingency plans. Some people would vote, where it is safe to do so, and others would rely on elders where voting is impossible. “In almost every post-conflict country elections are seen as a sign of normalisation,” he said. “It is always assumed that is one person, one vote. It was conceptually very difficult to say we are going to support something which stops short of that.” Abdirashid Mohamed Hidig, the interior minister, said the election commission would be in place by mid-May and he insisted the elections could go ahead on schedule if the government “mobilised all its resources”. He blamed the delay on donor countries for not releasing funds quickly enough, and said the election commission might ask for more time to organise the polls.
Kenya Senate Staff Arrested Over Plot To Bomb Kenyan Parliament
27 April – Source: Standard Media – 612 Words
Police are holding a Parliamentary staff after he was named in an intelligence report that he planned to facilitate attacks on the National Assembly. The suspect, Ali Abdulmajid, is the vice-chairperson of the management committee of the Pumwani Riyadh mosque that has in the past been accused of financing terror activities. Abdulmajid who has been the vice- chairman of the mosque since 2009 was arrested at midnight on Sunday and booked at Kilimani Police Station.His family said the officers from CID and Anti-Terror Unit wanted to clarify with him a number of issues.
He was picked up by officers from Central police station and was being grilled on Monday. “The officers want to confirm a number of issues. We don’t want to take chances,” said a senior officer at the Central police station, who asked not to be named. Abdulmajid who has worked with Parliament for nearly ten years was previously named in the 2011 UN Monitoring Group on Eritrea and Somalia as being linked to terror activities. He subsequently wrote to the police chief asking him to investigate the UN Monitoring Report so that his name could be cleared as he denied the allegations. “We have opened our doors to the police to come and investigate the mosque or any of our members. We have nothing to hide and we don’t support terrorists or terror activities,” an official of the mosque who requested not to be named said. His arrest came after police revealed Al-Shabaab terrorists’ plan to plant bombs in Parliament Buildings as part of high scale attacks.
“The terror group plans to use an operative (Abdulmajid) who is affiliated to the popular Pumwani Riyadh Mosque who is also a staff member at the Senate to actualise the attack.” The revelations were made in a letter by Central OCPD Paul Wanjama addressed to Parliament police station OCS Mr Samson Chelugo. Wanjama mentioned other targeted areas as Muthurwa Market, Nairobi Pentecostal Church (NPC), Holy Family Basilica, St Andrews PCEA church and University of Nairobi. “There is need to enhance security vigilance in the areas targeted by Al-Shabaab for attacks to neutralise the threat,” said Mr Wanjama in the letter dated April 23.
In Bid To Counter Al-Shabaab, Kenya Tightens Noose On Aid Efforts For Somalis
27 April – Source: Devex.com – 226 Words
In just a month, Kenya seemed to have intensified efforts to protect its borders and bolster counterterrorism efforts against al-Shabab. In doing so, however, it has impeded the work of many humanitarian and development organizations delivering aid to thousands of Somalis within and outside Kenya’s borders. On April 2, gunmen affiliated with Al-Shabaab attacked Garissa University College in northern Kenya, killing more than 140 students and teachers.
By attacking the only institution providing higher education in northern Kenya, Al-Shabaab affiliates are curtailing opportunities for marginalized youths in the region. Could a set of guidelines to prevent schools from being targets of violence protect young people’s right to education? Five days after the attack, the Central Bank of Kenya revoked the licenses of 13 money transfer companies in the country as part of government efforts to prevent the financing of terrorism. Four days later, Kenya’s deputy president gave an ultimatum to the United Nations: Move the world’s largest refugee camp back to Somalia over the next three months or the government itself will relocate the hundreds of thousands of Somalis that have called the camp home for decades.
Pay Up Or Die: Mogadishu At Mercy Of Al-Shabaab
27 April – Source: The Times – 893 Words
The calls to Mogadishu’s businessmen can come at any time. Sometimes the voices change, but their message is the same. “You have forgotten your Muslim brothers,” the caller says, with scarcely concealed menace. “Your contribution is no longer being received.” Shopkeepers, traders and restaurateurs — most of them know the drill. It is $50 for a small shop, $100 for an established store and $200 for a wholesaler, according to a merchant who asked not to be named. An official from the National Intelligence and Security Agency (Nisa) said the country’s biggest companies pay up to $200,000 a month, because the alternative is death. It could be a bomb, a bullet or a suicide attack.
Four years after al-Shabaab militants were forced to retreat from Mogadishu they can still strike at will, leaving them free to extort protection money beneath the noses of the government, the African Union forces (Amisom) and a UN mission tasked with helping the country back onto its feet. “It is not just in Mogadishu. It is all over Somalia,” said Abdirashid Mohamed Hidig, the interior minister. “At the end of the month they call and say send us the money. If they don’t send it, they attack. You can imagine how many hotels and how many businesses there are. It is a lot of money.” Al-Shabaab still levies taxes — which it calls zakada, or zakat — in the areas it controls but it has suffered a series of defeats since leaving Mogadishu in 2011 and its territory has shrunk.
The group lost the southern port city of Kismayo in late 2012 and the smaller port of Barawe in October 2014, but the loss of income has failed to curb attacks as much as western officials had hoped. “Security is getting worse in Mogadishu,” Mr Hidig said. “Shabaab have become hotel staff, they have become ministry employees, they have become security personnel and drivers. Everywhere you look they have planted someone.” At least three major hotels have been attacked in Mogadishu this year. “Maybe they didn’t pay,” Mr Hidig said. The first attack, in January, killed three guards outside the SYL Hotel, as Turkish diplomats prepared for a visit by President Erdogan, who had been due to arrive the following day.
At least 25 people died in February, including two MPs and the deputy mayor of Mogadishu, when gunmen stormed the Central Hotel after twin suicide attacks by a pair of Dutch-Somali dual nationals. The female bomber had worked there as a receptionist. The most recent hotel attack, on the Makka Al Mukarama in March, lasted 18 hours and left 24 people dead, including Somalia’s ambassador to the UN. “It’s Mogadishu. You have to roll with the punches,” said Liban Mahdi, the hotel’s owner, as he waded through the renovations. “It’s part of doing business in a place like this.” A Canadian citizen who came back to the country of his birth three years ago, Mr Mahdi insisted he had never been asked to pay al-Shabaab protection money, and he would never have done it anyway. “My gut feeling is that some people do pay,” he said. “There are two groups: People who ideologically support them, and people who pay because of fear for their livelihoods, or fear for their lives.”
The Mumbai-style attack on March 27 was the fourth time his hotel had been attacked in three years. The first three were car bombs outside the gates, and he said he always knew when they were coming. “Every time the government came and spoke to us and gave us a heads up. Word would spread,” he said. “You would see your clientele drop just before something happens.” Yet neither the police nor Nisa did anything to help, he added. “Go to all the major hotels of the city and you will not see a single policeman guarding a single hotel. A big chunk of responsibility lies with the government and the incompetence of the law enforcement.” Some traders said the phone calls were proof of al-Shabaab’s decline. “They used to control the city. Then there were attacks every day. Now they are on the phone,” said Dini Abdi. “Soon they will be gone.”
That confidence was abundant in 2012, when the spectacle of shopkeepers repainting storefronts was seen as a sign that the fighting was winding down. However, in 2013 al-Shabaab attacked the main UN compound, killing 15 people and forcing the survivors to retreat inside a military base at the airport. Government officials and western diplomats are almost totally sealed off from the city — and the people they are trying to help — by concentric rings of blast walls and razor wire. Those who can afford it hire legions of security guards. Amisom forces patrol in armoured personnel carriers from one heavily guarded compound to another. Members of Al-Shabaab, by contrast, live among the people. “They have very good information, very good intelligence,” said a merchant, who admitted paying protection money. They didn’t call every month, he said, but when they did he paid by sending money from his mobile phone to theirs. “If you start up a shop they will monitor it. They don’t ask you straight away. When they see it’s doing well, that’s when you get the call,” he added. “Nobody escapes.”
OPINION/ANALYSIS/CULTURE
“In their bankruptcy and ignorance of war, they miscalculate that attacking soft targets will frighten Africa and cause it to abandon the Somali people to these idiots. That will not happen.”
Uganda President Gives Rare Insight Into Shabaab Attacks In Kenya, Somalia, Kampala – and America’s Fail
26 April – Source: Mail & Guardian Africa – 2, 205 Words
THE most atrocious, criminal, cowardly and monstrous attacks by Al-Shabaab against soft and innocent targets such as shoppers in Nairobi’s Westgate Mall in September 2013; young students in northeast Kenya’s Garissa University on April 2 in which 148 were killed, or football fans watching the World Cup matches at the Rugby Club in Kampala in July 2010, may look very frightening to those that are not used to war or that are not well informed. However, those attacks, in fact, prove three things. They prove that Al-Shabaab is sectarian which is obvious because it only targets non-Muslims. Secondly, it proves that Al-Shabaab is bankrupt both morally and ideologically. Why attack non-combatants? Why not attack soldiers if you want to fight? Why attack only non-Muslims? Thirdly, however, it also proves that Al-Shabaab is already defeated. Why do I say this?
I say this because it is that bankrupt Al-Shabaab that initiated attacks against the Uganda People’s Defence Forces (UPDF) who were part of the African Union (AU) peacekeeping force AMISOM in the month of May in the year 2009 in Mogadishu. The UPDF had gone to Mogadishu, not to fight anybody, but, to stabilise the situation there and to guard the Port and the airforce. This was after the Somali factions had agreed to a shared government in Djibouti and after the American mistakes of manipulating the warlords had failed. We went there under the African Union Flag. You know that flag. It consists of the conspicuously huge map of Africa. Nobody that is not blind can mistake this for anything else. What the [Horn and East African grouping] Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) and AU wanted was negotiations to include anybody that had been left of out the interim government – especially the groups that had been in Eritrea. In any case, we were in just a small portion of Somalia, at Mogadishu port, at the airport and, later on, on the request of the Interim Somali Government, State House and Kilometre 4 (linking the different positions) was added.