July 10, 2015 | Morning Headlines

Main Story

Senior Al-Shabaab Officials Discussing Allegiance To ISIL

09 July – Source: Garowe Online – 249 Words

Senior Al-Shabaab officials including its Chief Abu Ubaidah have been discussing loyalty to the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) amid military setbacks on frontlines in central and southern Somalia, sources familiar with the matter told Garowe Online. Abu Ubaidah is believed to have eased his stance towards ISIL, and told militant ideologues to cut off ties with Al-Qaeda and its leader Ayman al-Zawihiri. The gathering is underway in the town of Jilib , some 97 km north of the southern port city of Kismayo.The tight secrecy of the meeting made details more convoluted, with sources telling Garowe Online that Mahad Karate, Abu Ubaidah’s deputy agreed to the allegiance of the Islamic State (IS) which is seeking to extend its influence into East Africa.

“This is not strange, and it seems that Al-Shabaab could be following in the footsteps of Boko Haram at the height of dire funds shortage, and blistering loss of grounds against allied forces,” said an analyst who asked not to be named. Al Shabaab merged with Al-Qaeda in 2012. Eversince, militants have been adhering to apostasy principles and the communications style of the network. In March, ISIL leader reportedly sent invitation to Al-Shabaab Chief Abu Ubaidah, encouraging the Somali militant group to wage Jihad on neighboring countries, notably Kenya, Ethiopia and Tanzania. Boko Haram fighters aligned themselves with ISIL in early March in well produced audio message posted online. If the discussion succumbs to ISIL loyalty, analysts predict unparalleled shuttle of foreign Jihadists

Key Headlines

Senior Al-Shabaab Officials Discussing Allegiance To ISIL (Garowe Online)
After Galmudug Elections Government Moves To Form Hiiraan/Middle Shabelle State (Hiiraan Online)
Work Starts On Bulo Burde Airstrip (Goobjoog News)
Ethiopian Troops Advance On Al-Shabaab Held Town (Garowe Online)
Assassinations Increase In Mogadishu Despite Government Security Plans(Horseed Media)
Minnesota’s Somali-Americans Urge New Treatment for Would-Be Terrorists (New York Times)
QC Gives Food Baskets To The Blind In Somalia (The Peninsula)
The Woman Who Needed To run (The Week)

NATIONAL MEDIA

After Galmudug Elections, Government Moves To Form Hiiraan/Middle Shabelle State

09 July – Source: Hiiraan Online – 442 Words

The recent Galmudug presidential election has been a major breakthrough for the central government which is attempting to implement a federalism system across Somalia. Overcoming the challenges of the State Formation process has been a major test for the federal government which in effect has completed the process now with the holding of a transparent election in which voters elected a new president. This is a rare attainment by the Somali people as the entire process was initiated and completed by Somalis without any outside support. Having completed the mission in Galmudug, Somalia’s government is now going to embark on a similar one: the formation of an administration for the neighboring Hiiraan and Middle Shabelle regions. Somalia’s Minister of Interior. Abdirahman Mohamed Hussein has unveiled the new plan though he has yet to provide more details on the scheme. Despite the new political exercise, there have been no consensus from clans who inhabit the two regions to integrate their regions to form their own administration. In addition to that, political analysts predict further political challenges moving ahead with the decision of forming the proposed administration at the present time due to clans mistrusts and rivalry.

Legislators from Hiiraan region have recently opposed the government’s plans to unite the two regions, warning the scenario would further polarize the two regions along clan lines. In a decree issued by the former Somali President Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed, he stated that Hiiran region would solely come under the control of the government, dismissing suggestions that it should be merged with Middle Shabelle region. Some of the key political arguments being raised by politicians from the regions include which region would be the regional capital if the two regions were merged as one state and how the two sides would share the government. The apparent political rivalry would further chip away at the government’s efforts to bring the two sides to the table to neutralize their political differences. The two regions’ clans unambiguously have clear interests in certain political outcomes and agreement thus far seems unlikely on their part to form an administration. Reflecting on the apparent challenges, observers believe forming an administration for the two regions at this time would promote the creation of more autonomous regions operating outside the government’s control, a development that may perhaps reverse recent security and political gains by the government. Autonomous region of Hiiraan and Middle Shabelle enjoy abundant natural resources in agricultural land, livestock and fishing industry. Despite the abundant resources, the Somali Federal Government has an uphill struggle to convince the tribal leaders of those supposed to share the newly proposed region that unity is in their best interests.

Work Starts On Bulo Burde Airstrip

09 July – Source: Goobjoog News – 92 Words

The administration of Bulo Burde district of Hiran and African Union peacekeeping troops has started renovation work on the town’s airstrip. Liban Abdi who is the Deputy District Commissioner, told Goobjoog News that the airstrip has suffered a great deal of destruction and needs refurbishment to meet basic standards of use “With the help of AMISOM troops from Djibouti and the helping hand from the residents, we have started renovating the airstrip” said the official. The airstrip is vital supply point for the town which was besieged by Al-Shabaab for many months.

Ethiopian Troops Advance On Al Shabaab-Held Town

09 July – Source: Garowe Online – 123 Words

Hundreds of Ethiopian soldiers in battle tanks have advanced towards strategic Baardere town in southwestern Somalia on Thursday, Garowe Online reports. Ethiopian troops crossed the border to intensify anti-militant push and liberate areas remaining under the control of Al-Shabaab fighters. The military maneuver comes in reaction at a series of seizures made by militants since the start of the holy month of Ramadan. Somalia government and Jubaland officials previously pointed to fresh military offensives against Al-Shabaab. African Union forces in Bay, Bakool and Gedo regions have similar moves. Ethiopian forces were officially integrated into African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM) in January 2014.

Assassinations Increase In Mogadishu Despite Government Security Plans

09 July – Source: Horseed Media – 235 Words

Somali extremist group Al-Shabaab has been stepping up a campaign of assassinations against officials and anyone else associated with the federal government in and outskirts of Somali capital, Mogadishu in the last 24-hours, Horseed Media reports. In one of the attacks, a senior intelligence officer was shot dead along with his three bodyguards near the popular Jazira beach. Reports say that he was the head of intelligence service in that area. A senior official of the Banadir regional administration survived a bomb attached into his car which exploded in one of Mogadishu neighbourhoods. According to witnesses, the official was not inside the car at the time of the blast. Elsewhere, a female trader was shot down by unknown gunmen in an area close to the Bakara market. The motive behind this killing is still yet unclear. With the onset of Ramadan, the Muslim religious holiday of fasting and prayer, Al-Shabaab insurgents have historically increased the number of attacks against African Union and Somali Security Forces during this month.Somalia’s Federal Government stepped up security in and around the Somali capital in the run-up to the holy month of Ramadan, but the militants have continued to carry out their bloody campaign. Earlier this week, a senior intelligence was seriously wounded in a bomb planted in his car. However, analysts believe that the recent attacks in Mogadishu didn’t reflect a stronger Al-Shabaab but did expose deficiencies in the security apparatus.

INTERNATIONAL MEDIA

Minnesota’s Somali-Americans Urge New Treatment for Would-Be Terrorists

09 July – Source: The New York Times – 1,005 Words

A federal judge here on Wednesday ordered three young men accused of plotting to travel to Syria to fight for the Islamic State kept in detention while awaiting trial, at least for now. That decision came after the defense argued that entrusting the men immediately to their families and Somali-American leaders was the best way to insulate them from radical Islam. But United States District Judge Michael J. Davis, in a shift from what other federal judges have done in similar cases involving young people accused of being Islamic State recruits, signaled a willingness to revisit his decision in the coming months. “This is way too important for us to treat it as a regular criminal case,” Judge Davis said at the end of the third hearing. “It has a dynamic to it that we have to address, and hopefully we can.” The issue of how to de radicalize young people attracted to the Islamic State, also known as ISIS, has become increasingly important here and in many other communities where recruitment by militant Islamic groups, often done online, has led to arrests.

Minneapolis, with its large Somali immigrant community, has been a recruiting hotbed for years. More than 20 people in Minnesota have faced federal charges related to Al-Shabaab, an African terror group, with at least 10 more cases related to ISIS. Defendants have usually been detained while awaiting trial, as prosecutors have argued that they remain flight risks and threats to the community. But some Muslim leaders here are trying to make a different case: that the best way to push young people away from militant Islamic groups is to keep them engaged with their community, with responsible clerics and their relatives. Such an approach, they say, would be a humane counterpoint to the terrorist narrative that the American justice system is anti-Muslim and strictly punitive. “If you integrate them back into their family relationships and you have responsible faith leaders, then that’s going to be the check on them that they need,” said Representative Keith Ellison, a Minnesota Democrat who is Muslim. “There’s going to be people watching them, encouraging them.”

Qatar Charity Gives Food Baskets To The Blind In Somalia

09 July -Source: The Peninsula – 467 Words

People with special needs are recognised as the society’s most vulnerable group that needs assistance to alleviate its suffering. Qatar Charity attaches considerable importance to this group by involving its members in the projects organised by Qatar Charity office in Somalia during Ramadan. The activities include distributing special food baskets to 60 blind people in Mogadishu, the capital of Somalia. Each beneficiary received a food basket for satisfying his/her family needs during the Holy Month of Ramadan.

The project is unique in its methodology for it gives priority to vulnerable groups in society, particularly to people with special needs who are often marginalised.This project comes as part of the Iftar project implemented by Qatar Charity’s office during the Holy Month of Ramadan. The project’s activities include operating Iftar centres in Mogadishu, Bosaso, and Hargeisa, distributing readymade meals among displaced families in camps, and activating the Comprehensive Care Program for sponsored beneficiaries. The project also includes distributing allowances among sponsored persons, honouring gifted orphan students, and organising public celebrations to bring joy and happiness to orphans during the month of mercy and good deeds.The activities were attended by a host of the city’s dignitaries and Somali governmental officials headed by the official of Hodan directorate in Banader district.

Qatar Charity’s office in Somalia distributed the allowances of this quarter of the year before the onset of the Holy Month of Ramadan among around 500 Somali families sponsored by Qatar Charity. The number of sponsored persons in Somalia is around 10,000 including orphans, indigent families, people with special needs, students, teachers, preachers, Imams, and others. The distribution coincided with the advent of the blessed Month of Ramadan to alleviate life’s burdens of indigent families.

OPINION, ANALYSIS, AND CULTURE

“Kadra knew the history of female Djiboutian athletes and, for her international debut at the Junior Olympics, she had something else in mind. She knew she couldn’t win, but she had no intention of finishing at the back of the pack. She was determined to launch a new era of female racing in Djibouti. She wanted a race with her name on the announcer’s lips. She didn’t know if that kind of race was possible, but Kadra wasn’t going to Nanjing to aim for last place.”

The Woman Who Needed To run

08 July- Source: The Week – 1,257 Words

By the time Kadra Mohamed Dembil went to the Junior Olympics in Nanjing China in 2014, when she was seventeen, expectations of female Djiboutian runners were clear. Last place. Maybe second to last. She would be that final struggling athlete from a poor, obscure nation with a name people have never heard and can’t pronounce. The one spectators clap for in a semi-inspired, semi-pitying way, cheering home the biggest loser. Such a runner, reeled in by the cheers of the crowd long after the other athletes have cooled down and begun interviews, is encouraged. But she is also sometimes embarrassed. Before Kadra’s time, Djibouti sent Roda Wais to race in the Sydney Olympics, in 2000. After placing dead last in the 800-meter race, she defected, with the help of a Somali Australian.

Eventually she married an Australian, had children, and never competed for her country again. In 2004, Djibouti sent no athletes to the Olympics. In 2008, Djibouti sent Fathia Ali Bouraleh to race the 100 meters in Beijing. Fathia false started. And, on the second attempt, she was so nervous from the false start that she ran one of her slowest races of the year. She placed last in her heat, her time the second slowest overall. In 2012, Djibouti sent Zourah Ali to race the 400 meters in London. Like Fathia, she finished with the second slowest overall time, faster only than Zamzam Mohamed Farah of Somalia, Djibouti’s neighbor to the east. No female Djiboutian had yet won a medal for her country. None had ever even advanced beyond the first heat in a major international competition.