August 26, 2016 | Morning Headlines

Al-Shabaab Militants Raid Beach Restaurant In Mogadishu After Setting Off Car Bomb

25 August – Source: The Independent – 334 Words

Al-Shabaab militants attacked a beach restaurant in the capital Mogadishu on Thursday, with gunmen raiding the building after setting off a car bomb, police and the insurgent group said. Sporadic shooting could be heard as night fell, Reuters witnesses said. It was not clear how many casualties there might be.

“A car bomb exploded at Banadir beach restaurant at Lido beach and there is exchange of gunfire. We have no other details so far,” police officer Major Ahmed Ibrahim told Reuters. Al-Qaeda-linked Al-Shabaab’s military operation spokesman Abdiasis Abu Musab said the group was responsible for the attack. “We attacked the Banadir beach restaurant and now our fighters are fighting inside it,” he told Reuters.

Al-Shabaab has carried out a series of deadly attacks in Somalia to try to topple the Western-backed government. In January, its militants stormed another restaurant on Lido beach, killing 17 people. On Sunday, more than 20 people were killed when its suicide bombers detonated two car bombs at a local government headquarters in Somalia’s semi-autonomous Puntland region.

On Thursday, Reuters witnesses near the scene of the beach attack said the restaurant had been sealed off by security officers and that the attackers had lobbed grenades at the officers and fired at them. They said they had also seen two bodies lying on the ground.

Internal Security Minister Abdirizak Omar Mohamed said on his Twitter account: “Warning: People near the blast scene should stay in the hotels and in their houses in which they are inside. Cars should not enter Lido beach area.”

 

Key Headlines

• Al-Shabaab Militants Raid Beach Restaurant In Mogadishu After Setting Off Car Bomb (The Independent)
• Somalia Hunts For Fake-Cash Bank Teller (Shabelle News)
• Landmine Blast injures Five Soldiers In Somalia (Shabelle News)
• UNDP Chief Vows Support To Development In Somalia (Xinhua News)
• UN: Somali Refugees Leaving Kenya Due To Threats Pressure (VOA)
• Black Lives Matter Protests Death Of Abdirahman Abdi Across Canada (The Globe & The Mail)

NATIONAL MEDIA

Somalia Hunts For Fake-Cash Bank Teller

25 August – Source: Shabelle News – 162 Words

A bank teller at Somalia’s Central Bank is on the run after allegedly stealing $530,000 (£402,000), the bank’s governor Bashir Issa Ali has said. Senior cashier, Muhidin Mohamed Hassan, is believed to be behind the scam where US dollar notes were exchanged with fake bills.

Police and security agencies are hunting for him and several other staff members at the bank were being questioned, the governor added. The Central Bank of Somalia has been hit by financial scandals in the past few years. In 2013, a United Nations’ Monitoring Group on Somalia said the Central Bank had become a “slush fund” for political leaders.

Yussur Abrar, who was appointed governor in the wake of the scandal, only lasted a few weeks in the new job, alleging there were corrupt practices at the bank. The latest embarrassment comes ahead of polls in Somalia, with the President due to be elected by Members of Parliament in October.

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Landmine Blast Injures Five Soldiers In Somalia

25 August – Source: Shabelle News – 90 Words

At least five Somali soldiers were wounded on Thursday when a remote-controlled landmine blast exploded at an army base in Bulo Mareer village in southern Somalia. Local residents said loud a explosion was heard in the area early on Thursday near the Somali military base. Five soldiers were injured in the IED attack.

The wounded soldiers were airlifted by AMISOM to Mogadishu for medical treatment. No group has yet claimed responsibility for the attack, but Al-Shabaab has in the past conducted similar attacks in Mogadishu and elsewhere in Somalia.

INTERNATIONAL MEDIA

UNDP Chief Vows Support To Development In Somalia

25 August – Source: Xinhua News – 180 Words

The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) will support Somalia’s development, peacebuilding and statebuilding, UNDP Administrator Helen Clark said during her visit to the country on Wednesday.

Among the topics of her discussions with Somali leaders were Somalia’s 2016 electoral process and the upcoming launch of the country’s first national development plan in more than three decades. Clark said that with elections coming up and the national development plan nearing finalization, Somalia’s development was gaining momentum.

“I take away a positive message from my visit about what is being achieved,” said Clark, according to a statement issued in Mogadishu on Thursday. Clark urged Somali government leaders to support achieving the 30-percent target for women members in both houses of the country’s next parliament due to be elected later this year.

Somalia is set to hold presidential election on Oct. 30, and parliamentary elections from Sept. 24 to Oct. 10. Clark said UNDP was very much involved in supporting the elections and promoting women’s political participation and representation. The three-year national development plan is due to take effect at the beginning of next year.

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UN: Somali Refugees Leaving Kenya Due To Threats, Pressure

25 August – Source: Voice of America – 518 Words

The United Nations refugee agency (UNHCR) says Somali refugees in Kenya are leaving the country due to threats and pressure from security officials.More than 300,000 Somalis reside in Dadaab, the world’s largest refugee camp, located in east-central Kenya. Kenyan officials have threatened to close the sprawling camp, citing national security issues.

Mohamed Mahad Gurhan, an officer in UNHCR’s Dadaab office, says families registering to return home report fearing for their lives: “Families we have interviewed and many of those who filled the repatriation forms have shown that they are returning because of threatening rhetoric by Kenyan regional security officials who recently visited the camp,” Gurhan told VOA’s Somali Service.

He says Kenyan regional security officials told the refugees they must leave before they are forcibly driven out “when the camp shuts down this month.”: “We spoke to families in the camp who are returning for fear, not willingly or voluntary,” Gurhan said. A recent agreement between the U.N. and the Kenyan and Somali governments stated the refugees would not be forced across the border, back into Somalia.

“The return of refugees to Somalia would contravene international obligations, We are committed to ensure that all returns to Somalia are voluntary and carried out in dignity, safety and protection. UNHCR would never be part of a repatriation process that forces refugees,” Gurhan said..

Gurhan said refugees forcibly returned to Somalia are vulnerable to theft and exploitation: “We fear that these people fall into the traps of armed groups when they return unprepared,” UNHCR has received reports that armed gunmen have robbed former refugees of their supplies.

Kenyan officials involved in the refugee repatriation process said a refugee verification exercise has been completed, but the repatriation process would take longer given the security situation in Somalia. Earlier this week, Interior Minister Joseph Nkaissery said the Kenyan government would not implement its decision to close the Dadaab camp until peace in Somalia is restored.

 

OPINION, ANALYSIS, AND CULTURE

“Other rallies for the slain Somali were held on Wednesday in Vancouver, Edmonton, Winnipeg, Ottawa, Kitchener-Waterloo and Hamilton. The coast-to-coast play echoes the Black Lives Matter’s surge in the United States, where a recent spate of police-involved shootings of black men has ignited racial tensions and sparked calls for police reform”.

Black Lives Matter Protests Death Of Abdirahman Abdi Across Canada

24 August – Source: The Globe & The Mail – 680 Words

Black Lives Matter staged seven rallies across Canada on Wednesday to protest the recent police-involved death of a Somali-Canadian man in Ottawa, its first nationwide action that signals rising momentum in what some activists consider a new civil-rights movement.

The rallies were far-reaching, spanning the country from Vancouver to an all-day demonstration in Mississauga at the entrance of the Special Investigations Unit (SIU) headquarters: “This is an exciting time for us,” said Rodney Diverlus, co-founder of BLM Toronto, at the Mississauga rally as passing cars honked in support.

The movement now has official chapters in Toronto and Vancouver, with two more set to launch in Edmonton and Montreal: “Black folks know that anti-blackness and police violence doesn’t happen in a vacuum,” Mr. Diverlus said. “We look at a situation that happened in Ottawa, and no matter where you live in this country, you think, ‘This could happen to me, too.’”

In Toronto, BLM’s long-standing target has been the SIU, the Ontario police watchdog that investigates fatal encounters with police in the province. The arms-length agency is currently reviewing the death of 37-year-old Somali, Abdirahman Abdi, which could take months to complete.

On July 24, Ottawa police responded to reports of Mr. Abdi groping a woman in a coffee shop. Witnesses said that police violently beat Mr. Abdi, who had unspecified mental-health issues. BLM Toronto is demanding that charges be laid against the two Ottawa police officers involved in the altercation. It is also calling on the SIU to release a full report into Mr. Abdi’s death. Such reports are normally kept secret.