February 29, 2016 | Daily Monitoring
At least 30 Dead In Shabaab Bomb Attacks In Baidoa: Governor
29 February – Source: Daily Nation- 278 Words
At least 30 people have been killed in twin bomb attacks claimed by Al-Shabaab Islamists in the Somali city of Baidoa, the regional governor said Monday.”The official number of the dead has reached 30 people — all of them civilians — and 61 others have been wounded, 15 of them seriously,” Abdurashid Abdulahi, governor of Bay region, told AFP.
An initial car bomb struck a popular restaurant in a busy part of the regional capital on Sunday afternoon, with a suicide bomber nearby hitting people as they fled the area.”The explosion occurred in a densely populated area,” said Abdirahman Ibrahim, a police officer in Baidoa.Another policeman, Abdi Hared, said there were “twin blasts” from a car bomb and a suicide bomber.
The explosions shredded the roofs of nearby buildings, tore chunks out of vehicles and left bodies, plastic chairs and tables strewn across the road.The Al-Qaeda aligned Al-Shabaab jihadists claimed responsibility for the attacks, saying local officials were targeted.”The mujahideen carried out two massive explosions in Baidoa targeting restaurants used by members of the apostate South West Administration,” the Al-Shabaab said in a statement.
The regional administration in Baidoa is protected by troops of the 22,000-strong African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM), which is protecting the internationally-backed government of Somalia.The African Union’s top official for Somalia, Francisco Caetano Madeira, condemned Sunday’s attack. “I am saddened by the loss of innocent lives through acts of terror committed by ruthless individuals who have no value for life,” he said.On FridayAl-Shabaab gunmen stormed a hotel in the capital Mogadishu and bombed a nearby park killing at least 14 people and wounding 18.
Key Headlines
- At least 30 Dead In Shabaab Bomb Attacks In Baidoa: Governor (Daily Nation)
- Income Generating Project For The Youth Launched In Mogadishu (Radio Bar Kulan)
- JICA Trains Somalis On Fishing (Goobjoog News)
- Al-Qaeda Attacks In Somalia Mount As Leaders Urge Troop Support (Bloomberg News )
- Regional Talks On Al-Shabaab Urge Resumption Of Military Operations (VOA News)
- In Mogadishu Out Of Tragedy Always Comes Hope (Medium.com)
NATIONAL MEDIA
Income Generating Project For The Youth Launched In Mogadishu
28 February – Source: Bar-Kulan – 125 Words
A project entitled ‘Fursad Fund’ that seeks to empower youth economically was launched on Saturday in Mogadishu. Fursad Fund seeks to recruit 5000 people who will each contribute $1 a day totaling to $365 a year per contributor. These funds will then be used to create income generating projects for an estimated 50,000 Somali youth in the next five years.
The project will be managed by 11 officials including the Planning Minister of the Federal Government Abdirahman Aynte and former minister Dr. Maryam Kassim Ahmed.In her speech during the launch, Dr. Kassim said the project was initiated to help the Somali people and was bringing together both locals and those in the diaspora. She noted Mogadishu alone has raised 700 members contributing to the project so far.
JICA Trains Somalis On Fishing
29 February – Source: Goobjoog – 203 Words
In a move to increase youth employment opportunities within the territory of Somalia the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) in collaboration with Fisheries Education and Training Agency (FETA) Mbegani will provide training for trainers to 15 Somalis. The training is pilot project which will be conducted for one month in May 2016 at Mbegani to equip trainers with fishing skills and methods for them to be able to conduct fishing clinics to Somali youths.
According to the 2012 Somalia Human Development Report entitled ‘Empowering Youth for Peace and Development’ the unemployment rate for youth aged 14 to 29 amounts to 67 per cent one of the highest in the world. Representative from the Ministry of Planning and International Cooperation in Federal Republic of Somalia, Mr Mohamed Farah, said Somali was coming from civil war thus needed support to equip their youth with skills to be self employed. “When you come from civil war it’s very hard to stand alone and recover thus we are looking for support from other governments and donors to support us in terms of training, 73 per cent of Somalia’s population is below the age of 30 and 42 per cent is between 14 and 29 years,” he said.
INTERNATIONAL MEDIA
Al-Qaeda Attacks In Somalia Mount As Leaders Urge Troop Support
29 February – Source:Bloomberg – 323 Words
Al-Qaeda-linked militants in Somalia claimed responsibility for attacks that killed at least 40 people over the weekend as African leaders called for increased international backing for multinational forces fighting the insurgents.Two bombings in the southern town of Baidoa on Sunday killed 25 people and injured another 48, police and health officials said. Blasts and gun attacks in the capital, Mogadishu, on Feb. 26 left 15 people dead. Al-Shabaab, the Islamist-militant group affiliated with al-Qaeda, said it carried out the latest attacks.
African leaders who gathered in Djibouti on Sunday said the United Nations and other international bodies should intensify their support of the African Union Mission in Somalia, known as Amisom, to “significantly degrade the growing threats posed by al-Shabaab.” The European Union earlier this month reduced it’s financial support to Amisom troop allowances by 20 percent, citing financial constraints. Unless the UN provides the force in Somalia with similar support that it does to other peacekeeping missions, “the AU would have to reconsider the Amisom mission,” the leaders said in a statement issued after a meeting of seven states that contribute security forces to Amisom.Twelve military helicopters authorized by the UN Security Council in 2012 have yet to be deployed, according to a statement issued by the Kenyan presidency on Feb. 28.“Whereas the continent is footing the bill of stabilizing Somalia by blood and flesh, it is disheartening that the international community is even contemplating to reduce support to Amisom,” Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta said in the statement.
Regional Talks On Al-Shabaab Urge Resumption Of Military Operations
28 February- Source: VOA News – 374 Words
The Somali president and leaders of countries contributing to the African Union force in Somalia (AMISOM) are calling for the immediate resumption of military operations against the al-Shabab militant group.The call came during a one day summit in Djibouti by the heads of states to reassess military strategy against al-Shabab.“Commence immediately the offensive operations, take back the initiative and attack the enemy and their positions, and movement and destroy their logistical and training centers,” the Somali President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud told the leaders. “Create an agile and mobile task forces that can easily maneuver and pursue the enemy and use hybrid warfare as needed to destroy them. “
In recent months Al-Shabaab has launched high profile attacks against AMISOM and Somali government military bases, killing scores of soldiers.The President of Djibouti Ismael Omar Guelleh who is hosting the summit says AMISOM and Somalia’s National Army “SNA” have been faced with “specular attacks” by al-Shabab. He said it’s time to recognize the results of the attacks and respond by reinvigorating the AMISOM and SNS military operations.“We need to reverse the situation now, restore our confidence and morale and retake the initiative back from the terrorists , attack the enemy and disrupt and deplete its capability to move around,” says President Mohamud.
AMISOM will be ten years old next year and the President of Somalia says time has come to focus on building a strong Somali force to take over the security from the AU peacekeepers.“After 10 years we are very much hopeful that AMISOM will be in a position to hand over the security of Somalia gradually. Therefore we recommend in the remaining two years in 2016 and 2017 for the success of the Somali political process as well as for building a Somali National Army that can take over the responsibility of the security,” he said.
OPINION, ANALYSIS, AND CULTURE
“The violence that currently dominates Somalia is as much physical and emotional as it is gruesome and ghastly. Those who have the will and the way are either hiding in buildings behind hesco barriers or leaving the country. Yet nobody is fully safe,”
In Mogadishu, Out Of Tragedy Always Comes Hope
28 February – Source:Medium.com – 980 Words
As a massive winter storm gathered steam and approached New York last month, I lost my cousin. I lost a very good friend from high school, too. Both Abdirahman Sheikh Bashir and Omar Olad died in the same place, at an attack that targeted a beachside restaurant in the Somali capital, Mogadishu.
When I first learnt of the attack through my Twitter feed, I posted a note of concern for those who were targeted. Lido beach, for those who have visited Somalia, is a symbol of the city’s comeback. It is a space that captures the rhythmic changes of Mogadishu, and the pulsing beat of a country shedding its war-weary image. “Stay safe everyone,” I wrote, rather naively. Just over twenty minutes later, I went on Twitter again and posted a message of prayer for those caught “in this dusk of danger and darkness.”
An hour later, I came to know about their deaths through the messaging app, WhatsApp. After the first group of people ran into safety, Abdirahman and Omar couldn’t be accounted for. When the siege ended in the wee hours of the day, family members went back to the restaurant and identified their bodies. That’s when my older sister texted me from Nairobi to break the news.The words on my phone’s screen reverberated throughout the quiet apartment. I felt the heat at the back of my head rising. Suddenly, the wheels of the cars speeding against the nearby highway came into focus. The stillness of the leafless trees outside was discernible. The world, for a moment, seemed to rise in collective upheaval and violent silence. And the first thing that came to my mind was the last time I saw my cousin Abdirahman.
It was in Lido beach. It was January 11, 2016 — eleven days before his death. He was sitting in the same café where he was killed. I had traveled to Mogadishu from Nairobi in early January for a reporting project that I was working on. That night, a friend picked me from my hotel, and we went to have dinner together. When we got there, Abdirahman was seated with a group of friends besides the beach. His feet were buried in the sand, and his sandals lay on his side. When I approached him and called his name, he leapt from his chair and gave me a tight hug. “I thought you were in New York,” he said, “I can’t believe this.” He was warm and cheery that night, the glint in his eye showing content. I had dinner with my friend. He finished his, and we bid goodbye.
When we were living in Mogadishu in the late 1990’s, Abdirahman was a pillar of strength for my siblings and I. Every weekend, he would come home and help us with our homework: Arabic grammar, science — and for me, the much-dreaded algebra equations. He was a person to rely on: shy and reserved, yet a go-getter. Growing up, often times, I saw myself in his image. As a young boy, I remember hating the idea of tucking my shirts. My mother had a hard time convincing me to do that too. Afterwards, she would cajole me by saying, “Don’t you want to be like Abdirahman?” And when I said, yes, she would add, “Then tuck in your shirt.” I almost always obliged, even though I disliked it after a while and untucked.
TOP TWEETS
@IncTravel:#businestsravel Alert: #Somalia: #Bombs target two restaurants in #Baidoa, killing at least 13http://www.incorporatetravel.
@mfaethiopia:Declaration of Djibouti on #Somalia and#AMISOM have been signed by the leaders of troops contributing countries
@HIPSINSTITUTE:Establishing a professional Somali security …is a prerequisite for enabling a successful AMISOM exit from#Somalia
@sprforum:Over 25 innocents were killed in Baidoa other 60 wounded for just being peace lovers. May Allah rest them in Janah #Somalia #PeaceAndLove
@sahro:In Somalia, Full of Ambitions, We Are Rising Again.http://wp.me/p4VwAj-9s For All Working 4 a Brighter #Somalia@FursadFund #FursadoAbuur
IMAGE OF THE DAY
The Djiboutian President Ismail Omar Guelleh (left) and the Somali President Hassan Sheikh Mohamoud (right) address a press conference during the AMISOM Troop and Police Contributing Countries Heads of State Summit in Djibouti, on February 28, 2016.
Photo: AMISOM/ Julian Amutuhaire