February 11, 2016 | Morning Headlines
AMISOM: Al-Shabaab Plans Attacks Disguised As AU Troops
10 February – Source: VoA News – 150 Words
The African Union force in Somalia warns Al-Shabaab militants are planning to disguise themselves as AU soldiers to carry out attacks.AMISOM says it has information Al-Shabab fighters plan to dress in AMISOM uniforms and carry out atrocities in parts of Somalia controlled by the AU force and Somalia’s federal government.The goal, it says, is turn Somalis against AMISOM, which has protected the government for the past nine years.
The warning, issued Wednesday through the AU force’s Twitter account, says Al-Shabaab obtained the uniforms from AMISOM camps.Al-Shabaab has launched three major raids on AMISOM bases in southern Somalia over the past year. The most recent, in the town of Elbe last month, reportedly killed dozens of Kenyan troops, although Kenya has yet to release a final death toll.Kenya is one of five countries with troops in Somalia to fight Al-Shabaab, along with Burundi, Djibouti, Ethiopia and Uganda.
Key Headlines
- AMISOM: Al-Shabab Plans Attacks Disguised As AU Troops (VoA News)
- Galmudug President And Interior Minister Commission The Construction Of Hobyo Sea Port (Wacaal Media)
- Former Iraqi Vice President Pays Visit To Somalia (Horseed Media)
- TV Station Ransacked By Somaliland Minister’s Bodyguards (Reporters Without Borders)
- Int’l Maritime Watchdog Calls For Vigilance Against Pirates In Somalia (Xinhua)
- Somalilands Quest For Recognition Goes-on (New African Magazine)
NATIONAL MEDIA
Galmudug President And Interior Minister Commission The Construction Of Hobyo Sea Port
10 February – Source:Wacaal Media – 94 Words
Construction of a seaport for Hobyo town was today commissioned in the area at colorful ceremony attended by Federal internal affairs minister Abdirahman Odowaa and Galmudug State president Abdikarim Gulled. Speaking at the launch, the minister asked Galmudug diaspora to participate in the construction of the port which he said will play an integral role in the development of entire Galmudug State. On his part, Galmudug president Abdikarim Gulleid said the port was a key development for the region since it will be the first one of its kind in the country’s central regions.
Former Iraqi Vice President Pays Visit To Somalia
10 February – Source: Horseed Media – 125 Words
Former Vice President and Interim Prime Minister of Iraq Iyad Allawi paid a rare visit to the Somali capital, Mogadishu on Wednesday, Horseed Media reports.
During his one-day visit to the capital, he met Somalia’s President Hassan Sheikh Mohamoud, Prime Minister Omar Abdirashid and several ministers of the Federal government.
The talks concerned on ways of enhancing the diplomatic relations and close cooperation and the battle against terrorist groups according to a press statement from the Federal government. Speaking to journalists, Mr Alawi expressed his excitement on his visit to Somalia, adding that he will work on bolstering the relations between the two nations.Last year, Somalia reopened its embassy in the Iraqi Capital, Baghdad in a bid to restore the relations of both sides.
INTERNATIONAL MEDIA
TV Station Ransacked By Somaliland Minister’s Bodyguards
10 February – Source: Reporter Without Borders – 209 Words
Reporters Without Borders (RSF) condemns the ransacking of privately-owned Somali Channel TV’s offices in the northern city of Buuhoodle by the bodyguards of Dr. Suleyman Isse, the health minister of the self-proclaimed autonomous state of Somaliland. RSF urges the authorities to condemn this act of violence.
In the early hours of 8 February, Dr. Isse’s bodyguards fired shots at the main entrance door, forced their way inside and then seized computers and cameras. Fortunately no journalists were injured during the raid.The attack followed the TV station’s refusal to refrain from any further reference to the resignation of the minister’s chief of staff. The head of the station said he even turned down the offer of a bribe in return for his silence.“We are extremely shocked by the violence of this attack on a media outlet by what is tantamount to a private militia,” said Clea Kahn-Sriber, the head of RSF’s Africa desk. “We call on the local authorities to condemn this attack and to prosecute those responsible. The TV station must also recover its equipment, without which it cannot operate.”Somalia is ranked 172nd out of 180 countries in RSF’s 2015 press freedom index. It has been among the bottom ten countries for the past four years.
Int’l Maritime Watchdog Calls For Vigilance Against Pirates In Somalia
10 February – Source: Xinhua – 564 Words
The International Maritime Bureau (IMB) has called on foreign vessels to remain vigilant off the coast of Somalia despite no Somali-based attacks being reported in 2015.
The maritime body in its annual report for 2015 warned vessels transiting the Gulf of Aden and Indian Ocean to stay particularly vigilant.”Somalia remains a fragile state, and the potential for an attack remains high. It will only take one successful hijacking to undo all that has been done, and rekindle this criminal activity,” said Pottengal Mukundan, Director of IMB, which has monitored world piracy since 1991.
The report says the threat of these attacks still exist in waters off Southern Red Sea/Bab el Mandeb, Gulf of Aden including Temin and the northern Somali coast, Arabian sea/off Oman, Gulf of Oman and off the eastern and southern Somali coast.In the past, vessels have been attacked off Kenya, Tanzania, Seychelles, Madagascar, Mozambique as well as in the Indian Ocean and off the west and south coasts of India and west Maldives.”Masters are reminded that fishermen in this region may try to protect their nets by attempting to aggressively approach merchant vessels. Some of the fishermen may be armed to protect their catch and they should not be confused with pirates,” IMB said.
Experts say piracy off the coast of Somalia has been curtailed over the last four years due to effective deterrence by international naval forces, privately armed security guards on board merchant ships, and mariners avoiding the high-risk area along the Somali coast.The drop in piracy incidents had been a relief to shipping companies using the Indian Ocean that have been target of pirates often paying heavy ransom to secure release of their vehicles and the crew.
OPINION, ANALYSIS, AND CULTURE
“For anyone walking along the coast of Berbera in the late afternoon, the gentle lapping of the waves from the Red Sea along the Gulf of Aden brings with it a warmth to the feet and that revitalising feeling that is often associated with world travel destinations such as Hawaii in the US, the north coast of Barbados or even Sydney in Australia,”
Somalilands Quest For Recognition Goes-on
10 February – Source: New African Magazine – 1056 Words
Berbera’s pristine coastal beaches and maritime economy are a complete contradiction to the chaotic image presented in popular media about the Horn of Africa and Somaliland. For the outsider, “Somali” connotes anarchy and chaos and Mogadishu’s Bakaara market (made famous in the movie Black Hawk Down) depicts the traumatic failure of US Special Forces in a botched operation in 1993.However, Somaliland’s relative peace and stability over the past two decades plus, and its democratic elections, place it on the cusp of transformation and regional projection.This article argues that Berbera’s tourism potential and the socio-economic turnaround taking place in larger Somaliland is part of a suppressed narrative of home-grown, post-conflict reconstruction.
This effort at nation-building, if given prominence and resources, makes redundant the international community’s preference for intervention. At a time when the international discourse around self-determination is shifting with the recent secession of South Sudan, the positive steps made in Somaliland, over the past two decades, towards democratic consolidation present a chance to interrogate the claim that secession efforts open a Pandora’s Box in terms of encouraging other regions to secede.
Barely two hours’ journey from Hargeisa, Somaliland’s capital, Berbera is a city bursting at the seams with activity courtesy of its booming port which serves as a key export gateway to the Middle and Far East.
It is the face of Hargeisa’s resilience and defiance of the international isolation following its breakaway and autonomy from Somalia 24 years ago. The possibility of ongoing discussions concerned with its ongoing quest for self-determination may soon bear fruit. Among other things, this would mean that Ethiopia, with its over $1bn-a-year export economy, might look to Berbera rather than exclusively depending on Djibouti as it does now.Perhaps even landlocked South Sudan might be interested to tap in to this port. Moreover, there has been a renewed foreign investor interest in Somaliland’s energy and extractive resources sector. They could be key to developing energy resources.According to the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Dr Saad Ali Shire, Somaliland offers investors one of the best returns on capital, despite its de facto isolation in terms of international recognition.