May 4, 2015 | Daily Monitoring Report
Somali Official, Four Others Injured In Landmine Blast
04 May – Source: Shanghai Daily – 177 Words
A district commissioner and four other people were wounded Sunday in the border town of Elwak in Gedo, southern Somalia when a landmine exploded in a tea shop, a government official said. Farah Moalim Bishar, the Deputy Commissioner for Gedo region, said the explosion could have been targeting the district commissioner in the town. “The explosion went off minutes when the district commissioner Ibrahim Guled Aden and his team were taking tea and meeting with residents. He was injured and so were the guards. They were rushed to a nearby medical facility for treatment,” said Bishar.
An eyewitness said there was a huge explosion a few minutes after the district commissioner entered the tea shop. “I did not know what exactly it was, but I fled for safety when I heard a deafening explosion coming from the direction of the restaurant,” said the witness. Elwak is a border town with Kenya, and has been affected by similar instances targeting government officials and humanitarian agencies staff in the past.
Key Headlines
- Major Security Crackdown Apprehends Hundreds In Mogadishu (RBC Radio)
- Shabelle River Continues To Rise With Fears Of More Floods (Goobjoog News)
- Enhancing The Somali Language In Media (Radio Ergo)
- One Killed As Lorry Carrying Somalis Returning From Yemen Capsizes (Radio Danaan)
- Somaliland’s House of Elders To Discuss Presidential Term Extension (Garowe Online)
- Somalia To Establish Journalism Academy (Somali Current)
- Somali Official Four Others Injured In Landmine Blast (Shanghai Daily)
- Kerry Honors Victims In Kenya As Talks Focus On Al-Shabaab (Associated Press)
- ‘It’s Time For Brothers In The U.S. To Do Their Part’: American Jihadi Allegedly Called For Attack On Texas Muhammad Drawing Contest
- Minneapolis Somali Community To Open Expansive New Community Center (Star Tribune)
- Kenya Links 4 Terror Suspects To Youth Recruitment (China.org.cn)
- Nkaissery Denies Kenya Is building Sh20bn Border Wall (Business Daily Africa)
- The Garowe Agreement And The Smallness Of Our Leaders: The Politics Of Subtraction (RBC Radio)
- Somalia’s Vision 2016: Reality Check And The Road Ahead (The Heritage Institute)
NATIONAL MEDIA
Major Security Crackdown Apprehends Hundreds In Mogadishu
04 May – Source: RBC Radio – 144 Words
Somali government police in line with African Union police launched a major security crackdown in Mogadishu’s main districts, RBC Reports. The joint forces carried out heavy security operations in the heart of Mogadishu, apprehending hundreds. Launching tough security measures, the forces undertook door-to-door searches in several districts in Banadir. At least 450 people suspected to have relations with Al-Shabaab were taken into custody. After questioning, all were reported to have been freed except six who are believed to be linked the militants. Speaking to the press, National Security Ministry Spokesman Mohamed Osman Yusuf explained the security operation, saying the government is committed to enhancing the security of the capital city of Somalia, Mogadishu. Since Al-shabab militants were driven out of Mogadishu, the militants have carried out assassinations, suicide bombings and and other guerilla-tactics, killing government personnel.
Shabelle River Continues To Rise With Fears Of More Floods
04 May – Source: Goobjoog News – 159 Words
River Shabelle is 1130 kilometres long, extending for 1000 km inside Ethiopia and 130 km inside Somalia. The river, which flows through Middle and Lower Shabelle, and Hiiraan regions sometimes causes destructive flash floods. At the moment there is heightened fear that the Shabelle river might filled to the brim with frenzied heavy flushing water following heavy rains in the upper areas and heavy downpour in the Ethiopian highlands, and that increased levels of the Shabelle River could mean severe floods downstream. In Duduble village, recent floods affected hundreds of families who fled their houses cutting off their access to food and water. Reports indicate that over 200 families are homeless after their homes were washed away by the floods in the area. Sources say that locals in several villages and towns along the river are carrying out flood prevention practices.
Enhancing The Somali Language In Media
04 May – Source: Radio Ergo – 319 Words
A series of training workshops on improving the use of the Somali language in the media was conducted by Radio Ergo in Mogadishu, Garowe and Hargeisa. The workshops, organized in collaboration with local partners, attracted over 150 journalists including 51 women from local radio, TV, print media and online news portals. The training focused on four main topics: improving journalists’ skill in writing the Somali language, spelling and correctness of sentence construction; problems arising from incorrect use of language by radio and TV stations; enhancing the standards of Somali language used by the media; and incorrect translation and the impact on the language. Nimo Bashe Abdi, one the female participants, said she learnt a lot of things she didn’t know before about use of the language, but the time was short. She requested Radio Ergo to hold more similar training workshops in the future.
The workshops were held in Mogadishu on 28-29 March attended by 45 journalists; Galkayo on 30 March for 28 journalists; Garowe on 2 April for 40 journalists; and Hargeisa on 5 April 5 for 40 journalists. Somaliland’s assistant minister of information Shukri Harirad addressed the Hargeisa event and spoke about the importance of journalists having an in-depth knowledge of their mother tongue. Puntland’s minister of information Abdiweli Hirsi Abdulle in Garowe praised Radio Ergo’s effort to improve the skills and knowledge of Somali journalists in the country. Media Association of Puntland chairman Faysal Khalif Barre, who co-facilitated the workshop in Garowe, encouraged journalists to apply their newly gained skills in the media. In Mogadishu, Ismail Sheikh Khalif, representing the media owners association, Network 2013, called on journalists to take skills and knowledge away with them and use them in their daily work. The workshops followed an earlier one-day event held in Nairobi in February marking International Mother Language day, organized jointly by Radio Ergo and the Somali Diaspora Press Club.
One Killed As Lorry Carrying Somalis Returning From Yemen Capsizes
04 May – Source: Radio Danan – 172 Words
Residents in a village near Jowhar town used ropes and manpower to rescue dozens of Somalis from a vehicle which capsized near the town on Sunday, killing at least one person. The lorry, which was carrying Somalis who returned home after fleeing fighting in Yemen, overturned on a low lying sandy pavement near Jowhar.Two other persons were seriously wounded after the overloaded vehicle overturned. The returning Somalis were heading to the Somali capital at the time of the accident after having travelled from Bossaso town, the commercial hub of Puntland region, according to local residents.
Since March 26, a Saudi-led coalition including Bahrain, Egypt, Jordan, Kuwait, Morocco, Qatar, Sudan, and the UAE has conducted numerous airstrikes throughout Yemen against Houthi forces, also known as Ansar Allah, who effectively ousted the government of President Abdu Rabu Mansour Hadi in January. Human Rights Watch accused these countries of using cluster bombs in their campaign against Houthi fighters and civilians in Yemen. None of these countries have signed the 2008 Convention on Cluster Munitions
Somaliland’s House of Elders To Discuss Presidential Term Extension
03 May – Source : Garowe Online – 163 Words
Somaliland’s House of Elders is exploring all avenues to extend President Ahmed Mohamed Mohamud’s term for an unspecified duration, Garowe Online reports. The Chairman of House of Elders Saleban Mohamud Adan said at a news conference in Somaliland capital of Hargeisa on Sunday that 28-member committee drawn from the chamber will discuss term extension for the current leadership and with the opposition and ruling Kulmiye Party. Wadani and UCID heavyweights who previously opposed election delay are likely to agree to term extension, insiders predict. Electoral commission postponed general elections due to lack of timely voters’ registration. Although the separatist administration was mired in a deadlock over the date elections, Adan mediated between Wadani leader and Parliament Speaker Abdirahman Mohamed Abdullahi Irro and President Siilaanyo in late 2014. Somaliland, located in northwestern Somalia declared its independence from the rest of the country as de facto sovereign state but it has not been recognized internationally yet.
Somalia To Establish Journalism Academy
03 May – Source: Somali Current – 140 Words.
Somalia Ministry of information has on Sunday announced that the ministry is planning to establish Journalism Academy that will improve the skills and knowledge of Somali journalists. Speaking at the event marking World Press day in Mogadishu, Somalia Minister of Information Mohamed abdi Maraye said the Academy will help the new recruits to gaining the necessary skills before starting their journalism carrier. Since the end of the civil war, Somalia Media have been criticized for its poor reporting and production quality with many news stations prioritizing profits over professionalism. Somalia is also one of the most dangerous environment for journalist to operate after Iraq and Syria. In 2015 alone, 5 journalist were killed in Somalia with many receiving threats.
INTERNATIONAL MEDIA
Kerry Honors Victims In Kenya As Talks Focus On Al-Shabaab
04 May – Source: Associated Press – 632 Words
Secretary of State John Kerry commemorated the victims of Kenya’s past and present terror attacks Monday, and offered American support in the fight against an increasingly diffuse but perhaps more dangerous terror threat emanating out of Somalia. His trip to the African country coincides with improving U.S.-Kenyan ties and sets the stage for President Barack Obama’s visit this summer. Kerry laid a wreath for the victims of the deadly 1998 bombing of the U.S. Embassy in Kenya and offered condolences to families and friends of the 148 people, mainly students, massacred at a Kenyan university last month. The twin embassy attacks in Nairobi and the Tanzanian capital of Dar-Es-Salaam killed 224 people, the work of a rising al-Qaida just three years before the even deadlier Sept. 11 attacks against the U.S. homeland. Last month’s tragedy at Garissa University College was different, coming from an al-Shabaab network that is on the run in Somalia but expanding its activities elsewhere.
“Terrorists will always fail,” Kerry said at the site of the former embassy. “Yes, they can reduce a building to rubble. And yes, they can even deprive innocent people of their lives,” he said. “But they do not give anyone anything of what really makes life worthwhile.” Americans and Kenyans have the power to fight back, Kerry emphasized, militarily and “through our unity and the character of our ideals.” Earlier, he addressed the embassy’s current staff, which includes several employees that survived the attack 17 years ago. He praised their efforts. Kerry’s presence in Kenya, however, comes shortly after a Justice Department decision not to award victims of the embassy bombings money seized from Sudanese accounts at a French bank. The U.S. says Sudan financed and supported the attacks in Kenya and Tanzania. George Mimba, who headed embassy employees in Kenya at the time, said in statement that he and others were “deeply disappointed.” The secretary of state, previewing Obama’s scheduled trip here in July, met later Monday with Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta.
‘It’s Time For Brothers In The U.S. To Do Their Part’: American Jihadi Allegedly Called For Attack On Texas Muhammad Drawing Contest
04 May – Source: Daily Mail – 531 Words
An American jihadi allegedly called for Charlie Hebdo-style attack at a Texas ‘draw Muhammad’ event more than a week before it was attacked by two gunmen. Mohamed Abdullahi Hassan, a 25-year-old fighter with the Al-Shabaab terrorist group in Somalia, is thought to have posted messages urging violence against the event in the city of Garland, pre-empting the eventual attack. The two armed men were shot dead by security after they opened fire outside the Muhammad Art Exhibit event, where participants were told to draw the Islamic prophet – considered blasphemy by his followers – for the chance of a $10,000 prize.
Hassan is believed to have posted a message on Twitter calling for the violence on April 23. A twitter account believed to be his wrote: ‘The brothers from the Charlie hebdo [sic] attack did their part. It’s time for brothers in the #US to do their part.’ This was followed by a hyperlink to a news story describing the event, which took place at Garland’s Curtis Culwell Center Sunday night. The account which posted the message was named Mujahid Miski, believed to be Hassan’s jihadi alias.
Both the message and the account have now been removed from Twitter, but the call for an attack was recorded in passing by an article by Foreign Policy magazine published on April 27. It noted in the piece that the account, @Hoor_Watermelon, claimed it was the 31st such page run by the same user after previous iterations were shut down. According to the International Business Times, Hassan lived in Washington state and Minnesota before leaving the United States in 2008 to join Al Shabaab in Somalia. The paper noted that he also posted frequent messages in support of ISIS on his account and is thought to be involved in radicalizing and recruiting other would-be militants.
Minneapolis Somali Community To Open Expansive New Community Center
04 May – Source: Star Tribune – 427 Words
A Somali organization is opening a massive community center in Minneapolis, aimed at bringing a new level of workforce development, recreational activities and cultural programming to the growing East African population. The nonprofit Confederation of Somali Community in Minnesota has tried to provide these opportunities to immigrant populations but has been greatly limited by its space in their Cedar-Riverside neighborhood. “It’s just tough without no community [center], without no building,” said Ahmed Ismail, who runs a youth soccer league in the area. “The majority of the kids don’t have anyplace to go.” The nonprofit recently purchased a 24,000-square-foot building at 2639 Minnehaha Av., which is about a mile and a half from its current headquarters at the Brian Coyle Community Center. It plans to have the new programs running by this fall. “If you want to help the kids achieve in terms of their education, they need a space where they can learn,” Executive Director Mohamud Noor said.
Program manager Bosteya Jama travels to Wellstone International High School multiple times a week to help teach Somali refugee students English and other classes, as an example of one of the organization’s outreach efforts. The community is in desperate need of a space that’s sole purpose is to help ease issues within the Somali community, Jama said. “For the kids, the young boys, they’ll feel more comfortable,” she said. The organization has been operating for more than 20 years. It offers services — from medical referrals to legal advice — for Somali residents. And it has helped lead successful campaigns to raise awareness of Somali issues, like one last year to designate Minneapolis as a sister city to Bosaso, Somalia. Leaders have also been vocal about their work with combating terrorist recruitment.
Kenya Links 4 Terror Suspects To Youth Recruitment
04 May – Source: China.org.cn – 237 Words
Kenyan detectives on Sunday linked four wanted terror suspects whose photos were released Friday to alleged recruitment of Kenyan youth to Somalia as they intensified manhunt. According to police, the four, Abulkadir Abubakar, Issa Abdallah Kauni, Ahmed Said Omar and Hussein Said Omar, were behind the luring of three ladies arrested in the border town of Mandera heading to Somalia. Mombasa County Police Commander Robert Kitur said reports indicate that the four had been trained in Somalia and sneaked into the country to carry out attacks to unspecified places, targeting mainly shopping malls and key installations.
According to Kenya’s National Intelligence Service (NIS), most of the youth who were indoctrinated by slain terror suspects are now back in the country. Meanwhile, security has been enhanced in Nairobi and across the country as U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry arrived in the country Sunday for a number of meetings aimed at boosting bilateral ties and counter-terrorism cooperation with Kenya. Security checks were intensified at all airport entries and exits since Friday, with more security forces deployed in key roads and major installations to thwart of terror attacks in the country. Kerry is expected to hold talks with government, opposition leaders and the civil society until Wednesday. He is visiting the country ahead of U.S. President Barack Obama’s July tour, the first in the country since Obama became president.
Nkaissery Denies Kenya Is building Sh20bn Border Wall
03 May – Source: Business Daily Africa – 684 Words
Kenya is not building a wall on its entire border with Somalia, Interior secretary Joseph Nkaissery has said. Mr Nkaissery told a parliamentary committee that a security barrier is being constructed on a small portion around Mandera town to help control and screen people crossing into Kenya. “We are not building a 700-kilometre wall. We are only erecting a barrier between Bula Hawa and Mandera towns, which have no man’s land,” the minister told the National Assembly’s Committee on Administration and National Security last Thursday, adding that the plan was to establish entry points with police checks, immigration and customs officials. A wall, whose cost was initially estimated at Sh20 billion, had been touted as Kenya’s best bet in keeping Somalia-based terrorists Al-Shabaab from sneaking into the country.
Immigration Services Director Gordon Kihalangwa, who has been nominated to serve as principal secretary for Interior and Co-ordination of National Government, had indicated that the wall would be constructed along the entire Kenya-Somalia border to keep out illegal immigrants and to check the proliferation of small arms into the country. Deputy President William Ruto affirmed Mr Kihalangwa’s position on April 7 when he declared that construction of the 700-km wall had begun, even as he brushed aside questions whether proper procedures had been followed in hiring a contractor. The government has been weighing the option of erecting a security barrier in the wake of deadly terrorist attacks in its territory by Al-Shabaab insurgents.
OPINION/ANALYSIS/CULTURE
“This agreement is illegal and should not only be damned but also ignored. The correct platform for determining the boundary of a future Central Somalia state is the Boundaries and Federations Commission, which ought to make an informed and expert recommendation to the Federal parliament, and it is the Federal Parliament of Somalia that is constitutionally tasked to make the final determination.”
The Garowe Agreement And The Smallness Of Our Leaders: The Politics Of Subtraction
04 May – Source: RBC Radio – 919 Words
Yesterday, the Second of May, 2015, President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud and Puntland President Abdiwali Gaas signed a political agreement in Garowe, Puntland that severely tasks the mind and whose consequences have far reaching political as well as constitutional ramifications. This is what you get when you have timid leaders with small souls, small hearts, small brains and small balls. These leaders have shamelessly signed this agreement which contains provisions that are illegal, unconstitutional, un-Somali and also unconscionable. Article 4 (c) of the agreement declares that no Somali residents of Puntland can take part in the on-going Cadaado conference on the formation of the Central Somalia State; in other words this agreement that President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud committed his signature to prohibits Somali citizens from exercising their fundamental rights to freedom of assembly and also freedom of mobility. The fundamental inalienable rights of Somali citizens are enshrined in Chapter Two of the Provisional Constitution of Somalia, adopted on August 1, 2012 and which is the legal foundation under which the President was elected.
Article 16 of the Constitution guarantees all Somali citizens the freedom of assembly and affirms that the state cannot force citizens to associate or disassociate whom the government desires or does not desire. Furthermore, Article 21 of the constitution guarantees all Somali citizens the freedom to move, visit, leave or reside in any city, town, village or hamlet anywhere in Somalia. The agreement that the president signed clearly constitutes a colossal violation of the constitution and may trigger a credible cause for his impeachment. The president already stands accused of usurping the powers of every prime minister under his appointment, – powers that are invested with the council of Ministers under Article 97 of the constitution-, as he is also faulted with interfering with the independence of the judiciary. His signature on this agreement would serve as the straw that broke the camels back, and it should signal to the Somali public that this president has a grave propensity for bending the rules, and in this case he has stomped on the basic law of the country, the constitution, notwithstanding the fact that he is duty bound to be the guardian of the constitution as reflected in Article 87(1)(c) of the constitution.
“To ensure the institutions and the government Somalia will get in 2016 are legitimate, credible, serve the citizens and ensure that gains made thus far are not reversed, principled rules of the game are needed. Shortcuts and manipulations will backfire. Self-serving gimmicks have the potential to give opportunities to the radical forces.”
Somalia’s Vision 2016: Reality Check And The Road Ahead
04 May – Source: The Heritage Institute – 2,093
Of late, the most oft-repeated phrase in Somalia seems to be Vision 2016. Visions, particularly when discussing countries, are usually about long-term, strategic and often developmental goals. Not in the case of Somalia. Vision 2016 is a purely political document crafted in September 2013 at the behest of, and under the auspices of, the Federal Government of Somalia (FGS). The stated objective of the vision is to achieve six specific political goals. Among the most important elements – and one the vision takes its name from – is the pledge to hold democratic elections in Somalia come August 2016. The current government was formed in August 2012 and its mandate ends in 2016. Since 2000, all the previous Somali governments have been transitional in nature, but not this one.
It was legally and technically designated as a non-transitional government – a label bestowed on it by the international community, although in reality the current government looks a lot like its predecessors in terms of how it came into being (selection of MPs by clan leaders).Other salient features of Vision 2016 include turning Somalia’s provisional constitution into a permanent document and creating federal states as stipulated by the provisional constitution. Vision 2016 however is often associated with organizing democratic elections in 2016 (or the impracticality of such endeavor). Unaccomplished Vision 2016 tasks, which were prerequisites for ushering in an era of one-person-one-vote, include the formation of an independent electoral commission within six months.
Likewise, Vision 2016 called for, but missed, the deadline to establish a constitutional court in 90 days. The creation of a boundaries and federations commission in 60 days and enacting laws for political parties within a year were also among the vision’s unmet targets. On the other hand, the commission tasked to review the constitution was established in June 2014, eight months later than planned. This five-member national commission, a credible team, has yet to produce harmonized draft document; it has yet to start serious national dialogue on the constitution or its most contentious clauses; and it has yet to secure the needed resources to accomplish the mammoth tasks with which it has been entrusted. Such a discernible deficit in achieving Vision 2016 deliverables is compounded by chronic political wrangling within the government.
TOP TWEETS@UNSomalia: #Somalia‘s first #Female #Prosecutors are changing the face of #Justice with support from @UNSomalia #Progress. http://on.fb.me/1I9reMy @mary_harper: Authorities in #Somalia direct the media to give #AlShabaab a new name – UGUS – or ‘Organisation for the Annihilation of the Somali People’. @mary_harper: #AlShabaab responds to name change order saying Somalis should call their government UGUS or ‘the group that humiliates the Somali people’. @Rooble2009: #Somalia: Commemorating The World Press Freedom Day (English subtitles) https://www.youtube.com/watch? @MohamedMascud: #Somalia is one of most dangerous places for journalists. Let’s ACT “together” to change that. #WorldPressFreedomDay @Somalia111: Delighted to see #Somalia DPM Mohammed Omar Arte back at work in #Mogadishu |
IMAGE OF THE DAY
Atul Khare, the United Nations Under Secretary-General for Field Support plants a tree in Garowe at the site of the 20 April attack that killed four UN staff and two Somali officers. Photo: UNSOM |
