December 7, 2015 | Daily Monitoring Report
KDF Bombs Al-Shabaab Juba Camp
07 December – Source: The Star – 83 Words
KDF jets yesterday carried out aerial bombing of two al Shabaab camps in Somalia’s Lower Shabelle. This was hardly 12 hours after US drones hit and destroyed other camps in the south of the country. Initial reports revealed the militants suffered huge casualties but the extent of destruction could not be ascertained. Reports indicate Kenya Air Force jets bombarded two al Shabaab logistics and training camps in Lower Juba. The region is believed to be pro-ISIL militant’s strongholds in Diif and Yara-lafagari villages.
Key Headlines
- KDF Bombs Al-Shabaab Juba Camp (The Star)
- An American National With Al-Shabaab Surrenders (Radio Dalsan)
- Nearly 100 Al-Shabaab Suspects Detained In Bulo-Burde Swoop (Shabelle News)
- Somali ‘Refugee’ Linked To San Bernardino Terror Attack (WND)
- Artificial Fish Habitats Along Somali Coast To Benefit Coastal Communities (FAO)
- President of Somalia: How My Country Defeated Extremism (Prosperity Magazine)
NATIONAL MEDIA
An American National With Al-Shabaab Surrenders
07 December – Source : Radio Dalsan – 227 Words
An American citizen believed to have been fighting alongside Al-Shabaab militants has surrendered to the government authorities. The District Commissioner of the coastal town of Barawe in the lower Shabelle region of Somalia, Mr Hussein Mohamed Barre, made the disclosure to the press on Monday: “We caught a man whose body complexion was white with a long beard. Upon interrogating him, he told us that he had escaped from Al-Shabaab and was willing to surrender to the Somali Government. He has identified his nationality as an American citizen.”
The DC explained that they caught the man while they were on routine patrol along the seashore.But the government official has declined to make public the name of the alleged Al-Shabaab fighter from America. By the time of going to the press, Shabelle News had not yet established from other independent sources that a foreigner in Al-Shabaab cell had surrendered to the Somali government officials. Similarly there was no official statement from Al-Shabaab over the development. Lately there has been a major rift within the Al-Qaida-linked Al-Shabaab group, on whether or not to join the Syria-based Islamic State terror group.
Nearly 100 Al-Shabaab Suspects Detained In Bulo-Burde Swoop
06 December – Source: Shabelle News – 109 Words
Somali security forces have launched a large-scale security operation in the Somali town of Bulo Burde, targeting suspected Al-Shabaab members hiding within the city. Area Security officials said that nearly 100 people were rounded up in the swoop on Sunday and now await investigations before trial for terrorism related crimes.The local officers foiled also managed to foil a possible blast after they removed three land-mines from the ground of the city’s main livestock market on Saturday.The security agencies of Somali Federal Government are struggling to contain the deadly attacks by the Al-Qaeda linked Al-Shabaab for years, since the militants were driven out of the capital, Mogadishu, in 2011.
INTERNATIONAL MEDIA
Somali ‘Refugee’ Linked To San Bernardino Terror Attack
07 December – Source: WND – 1043 Words
A young man, who came to Minnesota as a “refugee” from Somalia, has been linked to Syed Farook, the shooter who, along with his jihadist wife, killed 14 Americans in San Bernardino less than a week ago.Fox News contributor Rod Wheeler provided a key piece of information about the case, linking the San Bernardino shooters to Mohamed Hassan, a known terrorist recruiter who has been on the FBI radar screen for at least seven years.What Fox did not report, however, is how Hassan ended up in the United States.His family came into the U.S. as refugees from Somalia. The Somali refugee program has been going on for decades and has produced some of America’s most feared terrorists, even as the Syrian refugee program grabs most of the headlines.
As WND reported in May, Hassan also helped radicalize Elton Simpson, one of the two jihadists who tried to storm into a Prophet Muhammad drawing contest in Garland, Texas, on May 4. Their plans to kill the participants and behead free-speech activist Pamela Geller were foiled by an off-duty cop who engaged them in a gun battle before they could enter the auditorium where Geller was holding the art contest.“One of the two shooters in last week’s terrorist attack on a free-speech event in Garland, Texas, Elton Simpson, was reportedly radicalized over the Internet by former Somali refugee Mohammad Hassan,” WND reported on May 11. “The radical Islamist had lived in Minnesota before traveling to the Middle East to join ISIS, but he continues to recruit new ISIS fighters in America, largely through social media. Hassan used the Twitter handle ‘Miski.’”
Artificial Fish Habitats Along Somali Coast To Benefit Coastal Communities
07 December – Source : FAO – 638 Words
FAO, working with the European Union, has just completed the deployment of 25 “fish magnets” along Somalia’s 3,300-km coastline, a move that will boost the nation’s small-scale artisanal fisheries.The Fish-Aggregating Devices (FADs) consist of a floating buoy and “habitat mat” a few metres across. Plant life quickly grows under the mat, attracting large numbers of fish — in essence creating new high-density fishing grounds where none existed before.
The 25 “fish magnets” will attract many different fish species, including tuna, that normally small-scale fishers cannot easily catch, making fishing more safe and efficient, while also encouraging fishers to switch their fishing efforts away from habitats such as coral reefs and sea grasses that are vulnerable to overfishing.The effort has been funded by the governments of Japan and Switzerland, while the European Union Naval Forces (EUNAVFOR) – which has a regional role in combatting piracy and monitoring fisheries – has provided critical protection and logistical support for the vessel that deployed the FADs.”The FADs initiative is at the heart of the work by FAO and our partners to boost coastal livelihoods, strengthen resilience and tackle the underlying causes of piracy – Illegal fishing, degradation of local fisheries, high levels of youth unemployment, and food insecurity,” said Richard Trenchard, FAO representative in Somalia.
OPINION, ANALYSIS, AND CULTURE
“Mogadishu knows only too well the tragedy of the sort of attacks experienced last month in Bamako and Paris but it is bouncing back stronger,”– Hassan Sheikh Mohamud.
President of Somalia: How My Country Defeated Extremism
04 December – Source: Prosperity Magazine – 718 Words
If we get knocked down, we get back up stronger and more determined than ever. As in Somalia, so around the world.Four months ago, Mogadishu’s Jazeera Palace Hotel was nearly destroyed by a huge truck bomb in a wanton attack by terrorists as maniacal as those who attacked the Radisson Blue in Bamako on 20th November, and a concert, a sports stadium and the cafés in Paris on 13th November.
At the end of November, the rebuilt and refurbished Jazeera Palace announced that it was safe, sound and open for business again. This is not the only example of Somali resistance to terror; other successful businesses have been similarly attacked: the Village Restaurant famously three times, the Makka al Mukaram Hotel twice. Each time they have picked themselves up and quickly got back to work, their customers as keen as the businesses themselves not to be intimidated by those who want to drag them back to the dark ages. Somalia is a resilient country and Somalis are a resilient people.
Everyone knows that Somalia’s story over the last 25 years hasn’t been pretty. Civil war, piracy, famine, state failure and terror have been the all too familiar headlines. But now there is a new story, a story that shows the world that, together, these challenges can be overcome: violent extremism can be beaten. Of course, we still have a long way to go but since 2010, with the assistance of the African Union Mission in Somalia and our other partners, the Somali National Army has driven al-Shabaab out of all of Somalia’s major towns and cities and much of the rural hinterland. Proper political discourse is returning as we consult on our new constitution, federal system and prepare for the first democratic electoral process in 47 years. The economy is growing at a rate that most western countries would envy.
TOP TWEETS
@SomaliaNewsroom:#Somalia‘s regional leaders are going back to #Mogadishu to decide an election format for 2016. Will#Galkayo conflict impact negotiations?
@IlwadElman:#Somalia is largely governed by a tribal system,but women fall through the cracks,stuck somewhere between her father’s tribe & her husband’s
@SomaliaNewsroom:#Barawe‘s district mayor says they have a white dude, who is a “senior leader” in #Shabaab, in custody.#Somalia http://www.radiodalsan.com/
@omabha :Somalia: AMISOM – If Asked, We Will Send Peacekeepers to Galkayo City – http://AllAfrica.com http://dlvr.it/CxRDv9 #Somalia
@PuntlandPirates:Sometimes it’s forgotten that corruption in#Somalia isn’t only a donor issue …Somali law also criminalizes it.
IMAGE OF THE DAY
Somalia, Ambassador Francisco Caetano Jose Madeira addresses senior officials of the African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM) in Mogadishu, Somalia.
Photo: AMISOM