06 Oct 2011 – Daily Monitoring Report
Key Headlines:
- Turkish premier says they will take 30 injured from Mogadishu suicide attack to Turkey for health care
- Somalia PM says suicide attack shows al Shabaab’s weakness
- UN: Somalia suicide blast death toll goes over 100
- AMISOM Force Commander: I’m horrified by Mogadishu suicide attack
- Somali Defense Minister: Terrorists have great hostility towards students youth
- Somaliland Government condemns al Shabaab’s Mogadishu bombing
- Canada donates $70 million to East Africa
SOMALI MEDIA
Turkish premier says they will take 30 injured from Mogadishu suicide attack to Turkey for health care
06 Oct – Source: Radio Mogadishu, Bar-Kulan – 87 words
Turkish premier, Rajeb Dayib Erdogan has expressed great sorrow about the Mogadishu blast that killed and wounded a number of innocent people, saying that his government would send a plane carrying the injured to Turkey for health care. Mr. Rajeb spoke to the Somali president by telephone and sent his condolences to the Somali people.
Borame youth mobilized against al Shabaab activities
05 Oct – Source: Radio Bar-Kulan – 111 words
A meeting was convened in Borame district to prevent youth from engaging in suicide attacks following Tuesday’s explosion in Mogadishu. The youth, who assembled in an Islamic school in Borame district of Awdal region were sensitized of the misconceptions al Shabaab militias are associating with Islam to woo youth to join their group. Both Sheikh Ali jowhar and Sheikh Omar Sai’d, who are Islamic teachers in Borame district, advised the youth to have a keen eye on militia activities that could result in them dying carelessly. The youth were encouraged to adopt good morality as they take the right directions for success both in the world and in hereafter.
AMISOM Force Commander: I’m horrified by Mogadishu suicide attack
06 Oct – Source: BBC Somali Service, Mareeg Online – 109 words
The Force Commander of the African Union peacekeeping forces in Mogadishu, Gen. Mugisha told that he was very much horrified by the deadly suicide attack that occurred in the capital Mogadishu and condemned it, reports said. “Al Shabaab did not leave from Mogadishu, but we’ll clear them from the capital and then from all regions,” Mugisha said speaking to BBC-Somali service.
Somaliland Government condemns al Shabaab’s Mogadishu bombing
06 Oct – Source: Somaliland Press – 272 words
The Somaliland government today condemned al Shabaab for their truck bombing of a Mogadishu hall where students assembled to register in an entrance exam to obtain Turkish scholarships. A truck full of explosives driven by a suicide bomber ramped the entrance of the building, killing over 70 students and civilians. The wounded were estimated to surpass 160, consisting of students, civilians and soldiers.
Somaliland Minister of Foreign Affairs Dr. Mohamed Abdillahi Omar speaking to the press at his office said his government and the people of Somaliland send their condolences to the people of Somalia, the Transitional Federal Government and Mogadishu residents. Dr. Mohamed Abdillahi Omar said: “we ask the international community to help those that were hurt in the bombing as they need urgent medical care”.
The Minister said Somaliland remains resolute on the fight against terrorism and that police and army forces have been put on high alert after yesterday’s truck bombing of al Shabaab in Mogadishu, adding “we also asked our citizens to be more vigilant and report any suspicious people or activities to the police”.
http://somalilandpress.com/somaliland-government-condemns-al-shabaab%E2%80%98smogadishu- bombing-24038
Somali Defense Minister: Terrorists have great hostility towards students, youth
06 Oct – Source: Mareeg Online, Jowhar Online – 89 words
Hussein Arab Issa, Defense Minister of the Somali Transitional Federal Government who is in the United States of America told that the rebel group of Al-Shabaab had a great hostility to the students learning for the future of their country, state media said. Arab Issa, the Somali defense minister sent condolence messages to the relatives of the deadly suicide bomb attack. Speaking to state media, Mr. Arab said his government would soon initiate an operation to remove al Shabaab from the whole country.
http://www.mareeg.com/fidsan.php?sid=21313&tirsan=3
Canada donates $70 million to East Africa
06 Oct – Source: Radio Bar-Kulan – 120 words
Canadian government has donated aid worth $70 million to more than 13 million people living in East Africa where droughts are ravaging. The international Co-operation minister of Canada Bev Oda said that Canada is standing in solidarity with drought-stricken people in Somalia and in the region at large where livestock herds were lost in large numbers. Oda said they will distribute the forthcoming donated-and-matched funds to humanitarian organizations in East Africa who will deliver aid to the people in need. The Canadian minister stressed the need to protect many people in East Africa who are grappling with hunger and water shortages. Among the countries that were hit by the droughts in East Africa are Somalia, Kenya, Ethiopia, Djibouti and Eritrea.
REGIONAL MEDIA
Wipe out al Shabaab, Kenyan MP tells government
05 Oct – Source: Star – 353 words
Saboti MP Eugene Wamalwa has urged the government to beef up security along its border with Somalia to stop the invasion and abduction of tourists. The legislator made the remarks at Matayos divisional headquarters where he presided over the presentation of driving licenses to boda-boda operators yesterday.
Wamalwa said the government must live up to its mandate of safeguarding and protecting the sovereignty of its citizens as enshrined in the constitution. “Tourism sector is the foreign exchange earner in the country and therefore the government should move with speed and beef up security at its border with Somalia in Lamu in order to ensure the safety of tourists and Kenyans at large,” said the MP, adding that unless vigilance is maintained tourists may opt to keep away from Kenya due to insecurity.
Wamalwa’s concern follows the recent abduction of two tourists by people suspected to be Al- Shabaab fighters from Somalia.
http://www.the-star.co.ke/local/western–nyanza/43173-wipe-out-the-al-shabaab-eugene-tellsgovernment
Crackdown against Somalia militants spares Miraa trade
06 Oct – Source: Business Daily Africa – 489 words
Police Commissioner Mathew Iteere’s Monday order to close the Kenya-Somalia border has not affected flights, offering Miraa traders and humanitarian workers a lifeline. Miraa is one of Kenya’s largest exports to Somalia, accounting for a substantial share of the Sh13 billion export values to the country last year, according to the Economic Survey 2011.
“We do not have any indication of cancellation of flights from the commissioner’s communication,” said Kenya Police deputy spokesman Charles Owino. Mr. Iteere ordered the closure while on a visit to Lamu, the scene of two recent kidnaps of British and French tourists believed to be held in Somalia as bargains for ransom.
The closure is set to affect food export to the war-torn country, which relies on road and sea routes to import consumables like cooking fat, washing powder, and leisure products mostly cigarettes. Kenya’s exports to Somalia have been growing in the last five years, rising from Sh7.6 billion to Sh13 billion last years.
A United States Agency for International Development (USAid) study says miraa exports to the country have been growing at an average of 9.7 per cent annually, accounting for 54.2 per cent of fresh produce export from Kenya to its peers in Africa last year. The decision to spare flights is based on security measures that ensure that airplanes that fly in from Somalia are inspected at Wajir military airport.
http://www.businessdailyafrica.com/Corporate+News/Crackdown+against+Somalia+militants+sp ares+miraa+trade+/-/539550/1248836/-/hahgyy/-/
Uganda beefs up security ahead of crucial Kenya clash
05 Oct – Source: the Citizen – 124 words
Uganda’s police force has put in place elaborate security measures ahead of the Africa Cup of Nation’s qualifier match between Kenya and Uganda in Kampala on Saturday, according to Kale Kayihura, the Inspector-General of Police.
“This is to assure the public that the police, supported by other security agencies, will deploy adequately both for crowd and traffic control as well as to counter the ever increasing threat of terrorism,” Kayihura said.
He said the force would do all it can to protect those coming into the country for the match. In 2010, at least 76 people died in the two bombing incidents at the Kyaddondo Rugby Club and the Ethiopian Village Restaurant in Kampala, which were later claimed by Somalia’s Al-Shabaab militia group.
Pirate attacks steer top fishing vessels from Kenyan coast
05 Oct – Source: Business Daily Africa – 413 words
Earnings from foreign fishing vessels have been dropping over the years because of piracy off the East African coast. Vessels are shifting to safer waters in southern Africa, the Atlantic and Pacific oceans.
In the last four years, the vessels have reduced from more than 80 to 35 this year, said the chief fisheries officer at the Marine and Coastal Fisheries directorate, Mwaka Barbara. “This is a significant drop in the past few years and it is mainly attributed to pirate attacks in the East African waters,” Ms Mwaka said. Foreign fishing lines pay an annual fee of Sh4.5 million after the fee was revised last year from Sh2 million,” said Ms Mwaka.
The managing director of East African Deep Fishing Ltd, Mr Jose Gonzalez, who’s fishing vessel MV Sakoba was hijacked last year, said, in an earlier interview, that operating in the East African Indian Ocean had become a huge challenge for the fishermen due to pirates.
Most of the fishermen do not process catches locally but exports to the European Union— mainly Portugal, Italy and Spain—making it easy to relocate in case of a change of environment.
http://www.businessdailyafrica.com/Pirate+attacks+steer+top+fishing+vessels+from+Kenyan+co ast+/-/539546/1248786/-/o5d2kaz/-/
INTERNATIONAL MEDIA
UN: Somalia suicide blast death toll goes over 100
06 Oct – Source: ABC News/ AP – 128 words
The U.N. says the death toll has gone over 100 after a suicide car bombing that targeted a government compound in Somalia’s war-ravaged capital. The U.N.’s office for the coordination of humanitarian affairs said in a report released Thursday that the blast is a stark reminder of the prevailing insecurity in Somalia amid a debilitating famine.
A truck loaded with drums of fuel exploded Tuesday at the gate of compound housing several government ministries on a busy Mogadishu street. It was the deadliest single bombing carried out by al-Shabaab in Somalia since their insurgency began.
The group promised more attacks, saying they will be “back-to-back” and will “increase day by day.” Most of the group’s fighters left the capital in August after an offensive by African Union forces.
http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/somalia-suicide-blast-death-toll-100-14679558
Somalia PM says suicide attack shows al Shabaab’s ‘weakness’
05 Oct – Source: VOA – 417 words
Somalia’s prime minister says Tuesday’s suicide bomb attack in Mogadishu shows the increasing desperation of al-Qaeda linked forces that still control large parts of the famine-wracked country. The blast killed at least 70 people and injured scores more.
Prime Minister Abdiweli Mohamed Ali vowed that the bomb blast outside Somalia’s education ministry would increase his transitional government’s resolve to crush the extremist group al Shabaab. “This is the time to intervene, as we cannot watch these cowards to regroup and carry out more vicious and cowardly acts. Most of those killed were students and families waiting to hear results of scholarship exams,” he said.
Al Shabaab claimed responsibility for the bombing. A spokesman warned Mogadishu residents to expect more attacks on government buildings. African Union peacekeepers broke al Shabaab’s three-year stranglehold on Mogadishu in August after weeks of heavy fighting, driving the extremists into rural areas hard hit by famine. Speaking to reporters while on a visit to Addis Ababa, Prime Minister Ali said the hard-line Islamist extremists are becoming desperate as people increasingly blame them for blocking distribution of food aid.
“It shows the weakness of al-Shabaab. They lost the fight, they lost the battle, and resorting to violence and killing innocent people is the weakness of al Shabaab. Violence against innocent people will not inculcate fear in the people’s mind as they intend to, but this will rather lead to their demise and isolation,” Ali stated. “Actually they have already lost hearts and minds of the Somali people.”
The prime minister called the bombing a crime, on top of the crime of preventing food aid from reaching desperate Somalis in the famine zone, effectively condemning many people to death.
http://www.voanews.com/english/news/africa/Somalia-PM-Says-Suicide-Attack-Shows-al- Shabab-Weakness–131157013.html
BLOGS/EDITORIAL/CULTURE
In Somali crisis an opportunity for real change
06 Oct – Source: the National (UAE) – 396 words
Tens of thousands of people have died in Somalia’s famine, and aid agencies warned two weeks ago that another 750,000 are at great risk of death in the next few months. By comparison, 70 bomb deaths may seem unworthy of big headlines around the world. But the front-page stories about the shameful Mogadishu blast were fully appropriate, because they remind us that political failure is behind Somalia’s crisis. The shock value of the bomb planted by the Islamist group Al Shabaab may at least sweep away the world’s donor fatigue and political despair and re-energize the old debate over how to fix a failed state.
Anyone who doubts that this crisis is political in origin should consider that drought has also ruined crops in Kenya, Ethiopia, and Eritrea. But those states function. Aid agencies can operate, food can be distributed and people can survive and remain in their homes. But in Somalia, most of the factions in the loosely-organized Al Shabaab have barred western aid agencies. Mogadishu’s port is moribund, Al Shabaab controls Kismayo port and pirates infest coastal waters.
In the arid desperation of Somalia, even Al Shabaab seems to have been failing. The movement abandoned most of Mogadishu this summer, probably because it could not feed the populace. But the weak UN-backed government has wasted this opportunity to win support.
Al Shabaab is promising more bombings, always a sign of weakness. However, excluding Somalia’s Islamists from political life, the policy pursued by the US and its allies, notably Ethiopia, can only perpetuate the nihilism we saw this week. Finding a way to persuade the Islamists through dialogue that there is an alternative to never-ending bloodshed is an option worth exploring. It is also time to rethink bans on aid, imposed to penalize militants but which have hurt the public far more.
There is at least one other promising approach. A UN monitoring group noted in July that “Al- Shabaab’s greatest asset today is its economic strength,” including $15 million a year from taxing exports of charcoal, much of which moves through the Gulf. The UN unit urged Dubai and Sharjah in particular to clamp down on this trade.
But while economic leverage – and good intelligence – can help, the solution to this political problem will ultimately be political. After years of failure, a new openness could lead the international community towards helping the hungry.
http://www.thenational.ae/thenationalconversation/editorial/in-somali-crisis-an-opportunity-forreal- change