November 18, 2016 | Morning Headlines
AU To Facilitate Peaceful Somalia Political Transition: Envoy
17 November – Source: Xinhua – 256 Words
The African Union (AU) will help secure a smooth political transition in Somalia, which is struggling to recover from two decades of civil conflict, the AU envoy in Somalia said Thursday. Ambassador Francisco Madeira, the Special Representative of the Chairperson of the AU Commission for Somalia, told journalists in the Kenyan capital Nairobi the AU “remains heavily involved in the ongoing electoral process in Somalia through provision of technical advice at institutional level.”
“We are also aiding reconciliation and dialogue among various parties,” Madeira said. The career diplomat from Mozambique is also the head of the AU Mission in Somalia (AMISOM), which is helping the Somali government fight against militant group Al-Shabaab. Parliamentary elections in Somalia kicked off in October. Newly-elected lawmakers are due to choose a new president at the end of November. Madeira said lower house elections were currently ongoing.
He said AMISOM troops had secured polling stations to ward off attacks by Al-Shabaab militants. The last time Somalia held a peaceful electoral process was in 2012 when 135 elders were selected to become members of parliament. Madeira said 14,000 delegates would this time choose lawmakers who will serve a term of four years. He said elections would be finalized despite the volatile security situation in parts of Somalia.
“The Somalia elections are being held in a volatile environment and Al-Shabaab has vowed to halt the exercise through intimidation of voters and elders. They have even infiltrated polling stations. We are aware of this challenge and are prepared to tackle it,” he said.
Key Headlines
- AU To Facilitate Peaceful Somalia Political Transition: Envoy (Xinhua)
- Jets Bomb Al-Shabaab Bases Four Killed (Shabelle News)
- Interior Minister Elected MP In Galmudug Election (Shabelle News)
- Air Djibouti Begins Flights To Bossaso (Villa Puntland)
- UN Asks Norway Not To Send Refugees Back To Somalia (The Local)
- Somalia Calls For Sustained Security Support (Ethiopian News Agency)
- Al-Shabaab Not The Biggest Challenge: Somali Presidential Candidate (ENCA)
- ‘Anything That Flies Is An Enemy’: Filming Al-Shabaab With A Drone (Al Jazeera)
- The Islamic State Threat In Somalia’s Puntland State (International Crisis Group)
NATIONAL MEDIA
Jets Bomb Al-Shabaab Bases, Four Killed
17 November – Source: Shabelle News – 101 Words
Suspected Kenyan air force jets have carried out an airstrike on Al-Shabaab training camps in parts of Lower Jubba region on Thursday, reports said. Source said the warplanes struck Laan-Goori, some 120km away from Kismayo city, killing at least four Al-Shabaab members, including Abdullah Adow, who was a middle-level militant commander.
The fighter jets bombed two operational and training bases in the area, according to the sources. There was no immediate comment from Al-Shabaab regarding this latest airstrike in Somalia. KDF jets have been carrying out such air raids over the past few years as part of the war against Al-Shabaab.
Interior Minister Elected MP In Galmudug Election
17 November – Source: Shabelle News – 91 Words
The outgoing Interior and federal affairs minister of the federal government of Somalia (FGS) Abdirahman Mohamed Hussein Odawa has been elected as a federal MP in the Lower House election in Galmudug.
Mr Odawa, a close ally of the caretaker president Hassan Sheikh Mohamud, retained his parliamentary seat after defeating his rival contender by 46 votes, according to the ballot results. Abdulkadir Gafow Mohamud, a brother to the chief of Somalia’s National Intelligence and security agency (NISA) Gen Abdullahi Gafow Mohamud was also elected MP in today’s voting in Adado town.
Air Djibouti Begins Flights To Bossaso
17 November – Source: Villa Puntland – 84 Words
Air Djibouti has started flights to Bossaso just two days after it resumed flights to Mogadishu after 25 years. The inaugural Red Sea state flag carrier flight landed at the newly upgraded Bossaso International Airport, receiving welcome from local airport and Puntland government officials. Puntland welcomed the move by the airline to start flights to the commercial town of Bossaso. Recently, the private airline of Oman, Salalah Air, announced its plan to begin passenger and cargo service to Bossaso sometime in December this year.
INTERNATIONAL MEDIA
UN Asks Norway Not To Send Refugees Back To Somalia
17 November – Source: The Local – 242 Words
Just a few weeks after the Norwegian authorities said they will send refugees back to Somalia, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) has urged Norway to change its mind.
In October, Immigration Minister Sylvi Listhaug said that the Norwegian government had concluded that the situation in Somalia has settled down and that 1,600 Somali refugees living in Norway should have their refugee status revoked.
In a letter dated November 7th, but first reported on Wednesday night, the UNHCR wrote to the Norwegian government and said that the security situation in Mogadishu was far too unstable to warrant Norway’s decision. Just two days before the letter was sent, a car bomb attack near the Somali parliament building in Mogadishu killed at least two police officers, with some reports indicating that up to 20 people were killed. The agency encouraged the Nordic nation to not take refugee status from Somali citizens, Dagbladet wrote.
Unaccompanied minor and families with small children were among the first 120 Somali to have receive notification of their repatriation. Norwegian authorities believe the situation in Mogadishu is safe and that the practise of sending people back is in line with the UN Refugee Convention. The UNHCR, however, said there is continued violence and conflict in the Somali capital, causing high levels of insecurity. The UNHCR’s letter pointed out that there is a difference between those who choose to go back voluntarily and sending people back by force.
Somalia Calls For Sustained Security Support
17 November – Source: Ethiopian News Agency – 490 Words
The Somali government has urged neighboring countries to continue their support towards peace and stability in the country especially during the upcoming election period. The call by the Somali Ambassador to Ethiopia is also directed at the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD), the African Union (AU), the United Nations (UN) and other troop-contributing countries. “This election is very important to the Somali people as well as to neighboring countries and international community after a long period of civil war,” remarked Ambassador Dr. Mohamed Ali-Nur Hagi during an exclusive interview with ENA.
Somalia expects a lot from the outside world to make the election a success, according to the Ambassador, who said: “we are expecting from them the continuation of support to the stability and security of Somalia and also we do expect that they respect the outcome of the election.” Ambassador Dr. Mohamed commended what he called pivotal role of troop-contributing nations and others in ensuring peace and stability in Somalia and called for the continuation of the support.
Somalia is poised to hold a nationwide election for the first time in decades. The Federal Parliament of Somalia is bicameral, consisting of an Upper House of 54 representatives and a Lower House (House of the People) with 275 members. According to the ambassador, there are enormous efforts being put into the upcoming election by Somali government and the international community. The election of members to the Upper House has already been completed while the election of representatives to the Lower House is in progress and will be capped with the election of the state president in a month time.
Al-Shabaab Not The Biggest Challenge: Somali Presidential Candidate
17 November – Source: ENCA – 374 Words
Somali presidential candidate Fadumo Dayib said the biggest challenges facing the country are “corruption” and “incompetency” rather than the militant group Al-Shabaab. She made the remarks in an exclusive interview with China Central Television (CCTV) in the Somali capital Mogadishu last month. “I am of the opinion that the biggest trap that is facing Somalia is corruption, it’s incompetency, and not really Al-Shabaab. I believe dialogue to be the way forward, I believe peace and reconciliation to be the cornerstones in the foundation to a prosperous and peaceful Somalia. Unless we do that, we will never ever attain peace,” Dayib said.
The 44-year-old candidate warned that Al-Shabaab “will continue to recruit because they know the drivers to the conflict,” and called upon politicians to enter into dialogue with the militants, as well as “addressing the social and economic disparities” in order to promote peace talks in the future. Dayib raised three pre-conditions for staging peace talks for the militant group, urging them to “stop killing Somalis”, “disarm” and “renounce their relation with international terrorism”.
She also replied to concerns over her uniqueness as a female candidate. “Although we speak about Somalia being a male-dominated society, actually a lot of female politicians globally, wherever they are, are facing the same challenges – it’s a global challenge. Take [U.S presidential candidate Hillary Clinton] for example, she is not running in Somalia, and she is facing massive challenges compared to many other female candidates. There are actually a couple of them in addition to myself,” Dayib said.
‘Anything That Flies Is An Enemy’: Filming Al-Shabaab With A Drone
17 November – Source: Al Jazeera – 473 Words
“Anything that flies that’s not a bird, we consider it an enemy.” That’s how Hassan Yakub, Al-Shabaab’s most senior leader in Somalia’s Galguduud region, responded when I requested that we use a drone to film his fighters at one of the armed group’s training camps. His reaction was not surprising. Over the past few years, drone strikes have killed dozens of Al-Shabaab fighters, including the group’s former leader and at least 10 of its senior commanders.
The last drone hit to target the al-Qaeda-linked group’s leaders happened just a month ago, in the East African country’s Lower Juba region. Al-Shabaab fighters have been trained to hide from drones or, if the unmanned aircraft are low enough, to shoot them down. Our local fixer was equally reluctant. “Absolutely mad idea,” he said. Our cameraman was also not enthusiastic about taking a drone to an area controlled by Al-Shabaab.
To complicate things further, the drone had to be operated using a smartphone – another device the armed group has banned in the regions it controls. Al-Shabab is so sensitive about mobile phones that in many areas they don’t allow phones with cameras – let alone a smartphone like the one we were planning on using. It was a risky and delicate move. You spend months negotiating access, only to risk been kicked out for bringing a drone. Then there were other security matters to worry about.
What if the drone was compromised and we were tracked down by security services? Would they accuse the team of being US spies? Al-Shabaab has killed by firing squad people they accuse of being spies. And in rural Somalia, most bathrooms have an open roof and the possibility that residents could report us for flying a drone over their wash rooms while they were attending to nature’s call was a real and frightening possibility.
OPINION, ANALYSIS, AND CULTURE
“A stretch of Somalia’s coast has been seized by Islamic State fighters who split from the country’s main jihadist militia Al-Shabaab, which is aligned with Al-Qaeda. A concerted response by the Somali federal authorities is now urgently required to contain the threat.”
The Islamic State Threat In Somalia’s Puntland State
17 November – Source: International Crisis Group – 999 Words
On 26 October, about more than 50 heavily-armed Somali Islamic State (IS) fighters seized Qandala, a sparsely populated town in Somalia’s Puntland federal state on a rugged mountainous coastal strip overlooking the Gulf of Aden. It was a small, but highly symbolic, step forward for the group and demonstrates again how armed extremists exploit state disorder and local tensions to develop safe havens and rebuild after otherwise debilitating defeats. Unless Puntland treats this threat seriously and resolves internal tensions like that in the Qandala area and conflicts with neighbouring federal states, IS in Somalia could grow in strength and destabilise much larger parts of Somalia.
The takeover of Qandala comes one year after the IS leader in Somalia, Sheikh Abdulqadir Mumin, defected from country’s main Islamist group, Al-Shabaab, which is aligned with al-Qaeda. While Mumin’s pledge of allegiance (bay’a) to IS overall leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi failed to split Al-Shabaab, which remains a far larger Islamist insurgent movement and still dominates areas outside government control in South and Central Somalia, it did stir up internal ructions that now threaten to undermine its organisational and ideological cohesion.
IS’s expansion to Qandala, 75km east of Bosaso, the main port of the Somali federal state of Puntland, wins not just symbolic and propaganda value for the small group, but also the logistical advantages of an outlet to the sea, new financial opportunities and better connections to southern Yemen. However, the move is not without operational risks, considering its limited military capabilities and the superior firepower of the forces arrayed against it. This includes the U.S., which has significantly stepped up its drone strikes across Somalia in recent years.
The emergence of IS factions represents a serious threat to jihadist unity in Somalia – the importance of which was underscored by al-Qaeda’s leader Ayman al-Zawahri last year in the second instalment of his Islamic Spring video series and reiterated by Al-Shabaab’s current Emir Ahmed Diriye “Abu Ubaidah” in his first recorded audio message released in the summer.
Al-Shabaab’s leaders have so far resisted bids by IS to switch their allegiance from al-Qaeda. Al-Shabaab’s security and intelligence wing, Amniyat, has been hard at work quashing IS sympathisers and factions operating in southern Somalia. Many suspected IS supporters have either been arrested or killed, among them the prominent Al-Shabaab commander, Abu Nu’man Sakow. This purge coincided with the Somali Federal Government’s (SFG) own anti-IS sweeps, which led to the arrest of four suspected pro-IS militants operating in Interim South West Federal State in September 2016.