April 28, 2016 | Daily Monitoring Report
Government Forces Capture New Areas From Al-Shabaab In SW Somalia
28 April – Source: Shanghai Daily – 105 Words
Somali National Army (SNA) together with the African Union peacekeeping troops on Wednesday took control of new areas near Hudur town, capital of Bakool region in southwest Somalia, from militant group Al-Shabaab. Governor of Bakool region Mohamed Moalim told reporters that the SNA and Ethiopian forces under the AU peacekeeping forces captured new locations which were under the militant group control.
Moalim said the areas were captured without any resistance from the Islamist militants who fled the locations before the joint forces moved into. “The operation still continues, and it is aimed at liberating more areas under the group control at moment,” the governor said.
Key Headlines
- Government Forces Capture New Areas From Al-Shabaab In SW Somalia (Shanghai Daily)
- Tension Rises In Balad Hawo As Jubbaland Minister Reaches Town (Shabelle News)
- Renegades Soldiers Takes Control Of Buhoodle District (Mareeg Media)
- Puntland State Accused Of Being Involved In Galgadud Conflict (Shabelle News)
- Al-Shabaab Fighters Loyal To Islamic State Complicate Somalia Security (Voice of America)
- UN Donates Vehicles To Enhance Security At Refugee Camps In Kenya (Shanghai Daily)
- US Charges 2 In Attack On 3 Somali Men In Kansas (Voice of America)
- Minnesota Policymakers Here’s The Right Way To Help Somali-Americans (Star Tribune)
NATIONAL MEDIA
Tension Rises In Balad Hawo As Jubbaland Minister Reaches Town
28 April – Source: Shabelle News – 167 Words
Reports reaching us from Balad Hawo, near the Somali border with Kenya indicate that tension was very high in the city as a minister from Jubbaland arrives in. Reports say the tension rose after Deputy Interior Minister of Jubbaland state Abdirashid Mo’alin has reached the city with plans to restructure the current administration.
The current managing commissioner of Balad Hawo Yusuf Gandi, a federal lawmaker Abdifitah Nur Matan and local elders have refused to accept the minister’s proposed plan to appoint a new administration. Confirming the situation, a resident said forces allied both sides were amassing their military strength in the town raising fears that they could square it out at any time.
“There is a growing buildup of arms and troops in and outside the town,” said the resident who asked not to be identified who is fearing for his own safety. The reports suggest the officials and their troops left the city for nearby villages, to avoid civilian casualties, in case of possible armed confrontation between the opposing sides.
Renegades Soldiers Takes Control Of Buhoodle District
28 April – Source: Mareeg Media- 161 Words
Fully armed militia have on Wednesday taken control of Buhoodle district in the Togdheer region. According to reports the militia defected from the State of Khatumo and did not claim any affiliation with Somaliland and Puntland State. Mohamed Agadere who is one of the senior officers commanding of the militia addressed both the local population and the press in Buhoodle.
“We shall not allow the self-appointed President Ali Khalif Galeeyr to step in Buhoodle town, and its surrounding villages, and now we are taking over on every inch in Togdheer region,” said Mohamed Agadere. The officer has also added that initially they were loyal to Ali Khalif Galeeyr, but have now officially defected from them and hold no allegiance to any other military group. The President of the regional State of Khatumo has yet to comment about this tense scenario, likewise Puntland administration has also not spoken about whether these militias are part of their administration.
Puntland State Accused Of Being Involved In Galgadud Conflict
28 April – Source: Shabelle News – 148 Words
As there have been clashes in parts of Galgadud, local elders blame Puntland state for interfering the region’s conflict, and siding with the invading Liyu police. Confirming the report, Abdi Ali Farah who is an elder in Galgadud said they have evidence the Puntland is arming and funding Ethiopia’s Liyu police to stabilize the region.
“We have facts that Puntland has sent secret soldiers to Galgadud region to help Liyu police in the fight against local residents in the villages near Somali-Ethiopian border,” said Farah. Liyu police has stepped up attacks against herders and farmers at Da’deer village and nearby areas, killing unarmed civilians and raping women and girls.
The elders say special killing squads of the Somali Regional Administration in Ethiopia called the Liyu police, has committed genocide in the villages in Galgaduud region, central Somalia. Liyu police is funded, trained and armed by the Ethiopian government.
INTERNATIONAL MEDIA
Al-Shabaab Fighters Loyal To Islamic State Complicate Somalia Security
28 April – Source: Voice of America – 262 Words
Members of Al-Shabaab in Somalia who recently pledged allegiance to Islamic State are moving into the capital, Mogadishu, according to a senior intelligence analyst. Colonel Abdullahi Ali Maow, a former national intelligence officer who now heads the new Mogadishu-based Somalia Institute for Security Studies, told VOA that some Al-Shabaab members are fleeing to the capital and to areas near the border with Kenya because they were overpowered in the region of Middle Juba.
Maow said Mogadishu is attractive because, as a city of several million people, it is an easy place to blend in. This week, Islamic State claimed responsibility for an attack in Somalia when an explosion targeted a convoy of African Union troops outside the capital. But AMISOM military spokesman Joseph Kibet told VOA that Islamic State may not have been behind that attack.
Al-Shabaab, however, did not claim responsibility for that attack, as they often do. An intelligence official who did not want to be identified by name told VOA that Al-Shabaab is hostile to former members who have pledged allegiance to Islamic State, creating a rift between the two factions. He predicted there may be instances of violence known to the two groups, but left unexplained to the general public.
UN Donates Vehicles To Enhance Security At Refugee Camps In Kenya
28 April – Source: Shanghai Daily – 370 Words
The UN High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) on Wednesday donated 10 police vehicles to Kenya to help scale up security in the refugee camps in northeastern region. UNHCR Kenya Representative Raouf Mazou said the vehicles will be used by security officers to patrol in and around the Dadaab refugee camps.
“Our responsibility is to provide the necessary support to the host country to enhance security in and around the refugee camps,” Mazou said in Garissa town when he handed over the vehicles to Northeastern regional coordinator Mohamed Saleh. The vehicles will also be used to escort aid workers to and from the camps, and undertake other law enforcement functions.
Speaking after receiving the vehicles, Saleh said the police will use the vehicles to enhance security but blamed refugees for the insecurity in the region. He noted that for the past 10 months security in the northeastern region has stabilized. He noted that close cooperation between security apparatus, citizens and the entire leadership had led to the improved security.
US Charges 2 In Attack On 3 Somali Men In Kansas
28 April – Source: Voice of America – 132 Words
U.S. federal prosecutors have announced hate-crimes charges against two men in connection with an attack on three Somali men in Dodge City, Kansas, last June. The indictment, unsealed Wednesday, charged Omar Cantero Martinez, 31, and Armando Sotelo, 24, both of Dodge City, with three counts of causing bodily injury to a victim because of actual and perceived race and national origin.
It also alleged that they used a broken glass bottle in the assault on June 19, 2015, against two of the Somali men, who were staying in the United States legally. Each charge carries a maximum penalty of 10 years in federal prison and a fine of up to $250,000. Because the charges included a federal hate crime, the FBI joined the Dodge City police in investigating the case.
OPINION, ANALYSIS, AND CULTURE
“We live these negative effects when 13-year-olds shout down girls from our community as terrorists during club basketball games; when moviegoers call police on boys from our community because they were East Africans with backpacks; when women assault women from our community for not speaking English in a restaurant, and in so many other chilling daily instances.”
Minnesota Policymakers, Here’s The Right Way To Help Somali-Americans
28 April – Source: Star Tribune – 742 Words
Some 26,400 Somali-Americans were living in poverty in Minnesota in 2014, according to the U.S. Census Bureau’s American Community Survey and the state demographer. Another 11,700 were living in near-poverty. As Gov. Mark Dayton noted in his State of the State address, Somali-American family incomes are 71 percent lower than average white family incomes in Minnesota.
In the face of such well-established disparities for historically marginalized populations in Minnesota, policymakers in our state continue to leave the Somali community behind. The Cedar-Riverside neighborhood in Minneapolis — one of the most densely populated areas in the state, with approximately 1,800 apartment units on two city blocks that house a population whose median household income is $12,794 — is home to some of the most egregious health, education and income inequities in Minnesota.
But we are not without potential. Over 60 percent of our community members are under age 35, an increasingly important age group as Minnesota’s workforce ages. We are engaged and ambitious. We do not want to merely survive in the position we are currently in; we want to thrive so our neighborhood can see better days.
Unfortunately, our ambition is no match for the systemic barriers to success that we face. Even more unfortunate is that these barriers result in part from ineffective public policy of the past that left our neighborhood without access to many social services other neighborhoods have, such as a public library or a school.
And our barriers keep coming, through programs like the Department of Justice’s Countering Violent Extremism (CVE) program (known locally as Building Community Resilience), which focuses only on the Somali community, stigmatizing us as a result of the false premise that a person’s Islamic faith determines their propensity toward violence.
TOP TWEETS
@zakariyea : Take #action for #somalia and support free #fairand open #elections in #2016 http://sigad-united-somalia.
@MeetMastewal: Security Council Press Statement on#Somalia #UN #UNSC
@gcmcSomalia: #Somalia Somalia: Somalia Task Force on Yemen Situation: Inter-Agency Update #8 (11 April -…http://bit.ly/1SRNT6r #crisismanagement
@Politolizer : #Kenya Builds Wall Along Somali Border to Keep Al-Shabaab Out #Somalia http://politics.trendolizer.
@anadoluagency : #Africa ponders #Somalia mission after 9 years of killing http://v.aa.com.tr/562930
@omabha : Somalia strategy to enforce Illegal fishing Ships like Indonesia – Mareeg Media http://dlvr.it/L9c9GL #Somalia
@Mr_Omarsson : Gr8 initiative by #Sweden to #Somalia for a well needed #startups and structure for making #business@CarlssonSwe
@912CroozeFM : European Union says it will continue supporting #AMISOM in it’s efforts to stablise #Somalia despite the recent funding cut.#CroozefmNews
@4CAConsulting : Cooperative project changes way of life for rural families in #Somalia https://www.icrc.org/en/
IMAGE OF THE DAY
Students at Simad University in Mogadishu work hard to keep their dreams alive despite massive challenges
Photo: @SalahOsman0