March 24, 2016 | Morning Headlines
Somalia President Congratulates Puntland Forces On Victory Against Al Shabaab
23 March – Source: Garowe Online – 189 words
Federal Government of Somalia’s President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud has conveyed congratulatory message to Puntland forces for a major victory against militants. In a press statement to the media on Wednesday, President Mohamud saluted the acts of heroism demonstrated by Puntland troops in the course of cleanup operations in coastal villages along the Indian Ocean.
“I cordially welcome, and congratulate brave Puntland soldiers on the historic victory over Al-Shabaab terrorist group, which is infamous for un-Islamic and inhumane brutality,” said Mohamud. He added that the defeat of Al Shabaab serves as an encouragement to the public and once again shows that militants could be annihilated in the fewer areas remaining under their control.
“Somalia Federal Government and regional administrations stand in unity in the fight against insurgent groups,” stressed Mohamud. The Somali President said, Al Shabaab was unable to withstand mounting military pressure in central and southern Somalia, eventually fleeing to Puntland. Moreover, the President emphasized that rebuilding Somali National Army (SNA) is a top priority for his government. Puntland has concluded cleanup operations in which 173 militants were killed in a major blow to Al Shabaab.
Key Headlines
- Somalia President Congratulates Puntland Forces On Victory Against Al Shabaab (Garowe Online)
- 173 Al Shabaab Fighters Killed By Puntland Forces In Nugal Region Say Officials (Goobjoog News)
- KDF Bombs Al Shabaab Targets In Somalia (Shabelle News)
- Hiiraan Elders Declare New Conditions On State Formation (Goobjoog News)
- Somalia Prime Minister Sharmarke Backs Anti-FGM Campaign (BBC News)
- Court Acquits Four In Finland’s First Terror Case (YLE News)
- Somalia’s Few Catholics Survive In Secret (Catholic Culture)
- The West’s Islamophobia Is Only Helping The Islamic State (The Washington Post)
NATIONAL MEDIA
173 Al Shabaab Fighters Killed By Puntland Forces In Nugal Region, Say Officials
23 March – Source: Goobjoog News – 384 Words
At least 173 Al-Shabaab militants have been killed and 55 others captured by Puntland forces in two counter offensives in Suuj valley and Dhinowda areas, government officials have said. Speaking to reporters in Garowe town, Puntland Information Minister, Mohamud Hassan So’adde said that 173 fighters including foreign fighters were killed by Puntland in the last one week in Suuj and Dhinowda villages while 55 militiamen were nabbed with their rifles.
Puntland forces have been combating Al-Shabaab fighters, who reached Gara’ad town by boats mid this month. He said more than 500 militants, who stormed the region, have now been neutralized by the Puntland forces, and the forces are also pursuing those who escaped. On Monday Puntland forces paraded over thirty men said to have been Al-Shabaab fighters. Some of the captives who spoke to the media during the parading said they were lured by Al-Shabaab leaders for jobs and education in Yemen but ended up fighting alongside the militants.
Somali Islamist militants briefly held a port town of Gara’ad in the semiautonomous region of Puntland mid this month before withdrawing early next day following offensives from Puntland forces. Puntland, which occupies a region of northeastern Somalia, declared itself an autonomous state in 1998 but remains under the purview of the Somali federal government. Puntland lies outside the area of operation of the African Union mission in Somalia—known as AMISOM—which has deployed some 22,000 peace-keeping troops in Somalia.
KDF Bombs Al Shabaab Targets In Somalia
23 March – Source: Shabelle News – 75 Words
Kenyan Defence Forces warplanes have separately bombed several Al Shabaab targets in Lower and Middle Juba regions in south of Somalia, residents have said. Local residents, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told Shabelle Media based in Mogadishu that the strikes hit areas controlled by Al Shabaab near the towns of Jilib and Badhadhe in the region. The exact number casualties of the bombing are yet to be established. Neither Kenyan officials nor Al Shabaab have commented on the strikes.
Hiiraan Elders Declare New Conditions On State Formation
23 March – Source: Goobjoog News – 242 Words
Somali Prime Minister Omar Abdirashid accompanied by ministers of interior and information has individually been engaging elders, who deserted talks on regional state formation process, since his arrival in Baladweyne town. The Premier held closed door meetings with the nine sultans who lead clans living in Hiiraan region.
Goobjoog News has independently established that the elders told the Premier that the government must reconsider the formula of distribution of delegates for the state formation conference, which collapse in January. Hiiraan elders have set tough conditions for the formation of regional state with its neighboring Middle Shabelle region. They are demanding that their region, “being senior”, should be allocated a higher number of delegates than Middle Shabelle.
Somali government aims to reconcile Hiiraan and Middle Shabelle clan elders following a misunderstanding that brought to a halt the ongoing state formation convention in Jowhar. Today’s position seems to take a different turn from the March 7 joint communique with Middle Shabelle elders where the two agreed on a common understanding that the main obstacle was the Federal government, which the elders accused of interfering with distribution of delegates.
The elders had accused the government of unfair distribution of clan delegates and ‘ignoring the value and respect of both regional clan elders’. “We the clan elders of Hiiraan and Middle Shabelle, have come together today, 7th March, 2016, and decided collectively to boycott the above mentioned conference,” read the joint statement release then in Jowhar.
INTERNATIONAL MEDIA
Somalia Prime Minister Sharmarke Backs Anti-FGM Campaign
23 March – Source: BBC News – 264 Words
Somalia’s Prime Minister Omar Abdirashid Ali Sharmarke has publicly backed a campaign to ban female genital mutilation (FGM) in his country. It is currently against the constitution but parliament has not yet passed a bill outlawing the practice.
The PM has joined more than a million others by signing an online petition calling for a comprehensive ban.The UN children’s agency, Unicef, estimates that more than 90% of Somali girls undergo FGM. It says that it is mainly performed on four to 11-year-olds and can have a long-lasting impact on the girls’ physical and mental health.
Somali anti-FGM campaigner Ifrah Ahmed told the BBC that she had persuaded Mr Sharmarke to sign the petition organised by online campaign group Avaaz. She said that it was a significant move as many people in Somalia do not openly speak about the issue. Ms Ahmed, who has experienced FGM herself, thought it would help put pressure on the lawmakers to pass the bill.
She has worked with Somalia’s Women’s Affairs Minister Sahra Samatar in drawing up the draft legislation. Ms Samatar told the BBC’s Newsday programme that the prime minister’s action was a “huge boost” to the efforts to get the law passed. But campaigners acknowledge that it will take more than a law to end the practice. Ms Ahmed said that an education campaign, as well as a willingness to enforce the legislation, will be necessary. She said that it is widely practised in Somalia as people believe it is a religious requirement and girls who have not undergone it are taunted for not being cut.
Court Acquits Four In Finland’s First Terror Case
23 March – Source: YLE News – 359 Words
Helsinki Appeals Court has acquitted four people of financing terror in Finland’s first terrorism case. Four defendants were accused of sending money to the terror group Al-Shabaab in Somalia and Kenya. One was also charged with recruitment and preparation for a terrorism-related crime related to his brother and nephew. A district court had earlier handed them all suspended prison terms.
The Appeals Court has overturned a lower court’s verdict in Finland’s first terror case, acquitting four people of funding terror. The court noted that at the time of their actions, financially supporting a terror group had not yet been criminalised in Finland, and there was little evidence to back up the other charges. Four defendants of Somali background were accused of sending money to support the terror group Al-Shabaab in Somalia and Kenya. One was also charged with recruitment and preparation for a terrorism-related crime.
A district court had earlier handed them all suspended prison terms. The Appeals Court noted that at the time of their actions, providing financial support to a terrorist group had not yet been criminalised under Finnish law except in cases where it was clear that the money would be used for terrorism. They sent mostly small sums of money between 2008 and 2010. One had sent a total of 2500 dollars.
The appeals court found that one of the defendants knew that the money was going to support paramilitary actions by Al-Shabaab. Even so, that could not be ruled to be supporting terror as there was a civil war in Somalia at the time, and Al-Shabaab was one party to that conflict.
Somalia’s Few Catholics Survive In Secret
23 March – Source: Catholic Culture – 86 Words
Catholic World Report offers a sobering picture of Catholicism in Somalia: a country where, after decades of anarchy, a provisional government is gradually seeking to regain control of territory held by Islamic radicals and traditional warlords.
In an overwhelmingly Muslim country, the few remaining Christians live underground, with any worship services held in secret. The last resident Catholic bishop, Salvatore Colombo, was killed while celebrating Mass in Mogadishu’s cathedral– which was later demolished. There are no remaining churches. .
OPINION, ANALYSIS, AND CULTURE
“When opinion polls find that most Muslims think Westerners are selfish, immoral and violent, we have no idea of the real causes. And so we assume such opinions must be an expression of their culture rather than our politics”– Arun Kundnani, Columnist and author
The West’s Islamophobia Is Only Helping The Islamic State
23 March – Source: The Washington Post – 1,131 Words
The promise of the “global war on terror” was that “it was better to fight them there than here.” That promise brought mass violence to Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Palestine, Yemen and Somalia — in the name of peace in the West.
That formula has clearly failed. Tuesday’s bombings in Brussels come on the heels of similar incidents in Grand-Bassam, Ivory Coast; Maiduguri, Nigeria;Istanbul; Beirut; Paris; and Bamako, Mali, all in the last six months. Rather than containing violence, the war on terror turned the whole world into a battlefield.
We should not be surprised. Violence inflicted abroad always comes home in some form. Last year, the U.S. military dropped 22,110 bombs on Iraq and Syria. The Pentagon says these bombs “likely” killed only six civilians, along with “at least” 25,000 Islamic State fighters. The true number of civilian deaths, though, is likely to be in the thousands as well.
Indeed, we know that the war on terror kills more civilians than terrorism does. But we tolerate this because it is “their” civilians being killed in places we imagine to be too far away to matter. There is no social media hashtag to commemorate these deaths; no news channel tells their stories. Because we pay little attention to the effects of our violence in the places we bomb, it appears that terrorism comes out of the blue. When it does happen, then, the only way we can make sense of it is by laying the blame on Islamic culture.
When opinion polls find that most Muslims think Westerners are selfish, immoral and violent, we have no idea of the real causes. And so we assume such opinions must be an expression of their culture rather than our politics. Donald Trump and Ted Cruz have exploited these reactions with their appeals to Islamophobia. But most liberals also assume that religious extremism is the root cause of terrorism. President Obama, for example, has spoken of “a violent, radical, fanatical, nihilistic interpretation of Islam by a faction — a tiny faction — within the Muslim community that is our enemy, and that has to be defeated.”
Based on this assumption, think-tanks, intelligence agencies and academic departments linked to the national security apparatus have spent millions of dollars since 9/11 conducting research on radicalization. They hoped to find a correlation between having extremist religious ideas, however defined, and involvement in terrorism.