April 10, 2017 | Morning Headlines
Somalia’s New Army Chief Survives Car Bomb That Kills 13
09 April- Source:Associated Press – 593 Words
Somalia’s new military chief survived a suicide car bomb attack Sunday just moments after he was sworn in with a mandate to launch a new offensive against Islamic extremists. Thirteen people were killed in the attack.Gen. Mohamed Ahmed Jimale had just been sworn into office and was traveling in a convoy with senior military officials when the bomb exploded near Somalia’s defense ministry compound in Mogadishu, police say.
Five soldiers and at least 8 civilians travelling in a passing minibus were killed, said Capt. Mohamed Hussein, a senior Somali police officer.Somalia’s Islamic extremist rebels, al-Shabab, claimed responsibility for the attack.A huge cloud of smoke billowed over the scene and heavy gunfire was heard in the area. The wreckage of the minibus destroyed by the powerful bomb was in the street, with a pool of blood under the vehicle. Burning debris littered the scene.Soldiers fired in the air to disperse a crowd standing near a car of an electricity company that was destroyed by the blast.”What happened here was a painful tragedy – the blast struck two packed minibuses and no one survived,” said Abdifitah Halane, a spokesman for Mogadishu’s mayor.”There is flesh and blood everywhere,” he said looking at the destruction caused by the blast.
Key Headlines
- Information Minister Yarisow Sends Officials Home(Goobjoog News)
- Ahlu Sunna Welcomes Delay Of Galmudug Election (Shabelle News)
- Brief Hijacking Shows Return Of Piracy To Somalia Coast(Associated Press)
- AMISOMKDF Forces Foil Al-Shabaab Attack In Kuday Somalia Kill Top Commander (The Star)
- Somali Pirates Are Back In Business(Foreign Policy)
NATIONAL MEDIA
Information Minister Yarisow Sends Officials Home
09 April – Source : Goobjoog News – 230 Words
Information minister Abdirhaman Yarisow Sunday sacked officials from ministry, state owned radio, television and the news agency Sonna in what the minister said was based on complaints over service delivery and corrupt practices. Abdirizak Bahlawi, the director in the ministry of information has been fired and immediately replaced on temporary basis by Abdirahman Yusuf Adala. Liban Abdi Ali will now head the Somali National Television while Abdifitah Dahir Jeyte will be the new director of Radio Muqdisho.
The new minister also appointed Abdullahi Sheikh Abdirahman Heybe as director of the state news agency, SONNA while Abdinasir Hassan Hussein will be the new director of budget and administration in the ministry of information. The minister said his ministry will not condone any acts of corruption. “We have zero tolerance to either poor governance or corruption, this will be the first step to implement good governance with accountability and transparency, so as to serve well the Somali people” said Yarisow.
This is a message to the entire employees in the Ministry, and whoever is found subject to misconduct and corruption, will be automatically submitted to the concerned agencies, the minister said. Yarisow said those who were relieved of their duties are free to file their counter-complaints with the courts and the national audit office. He also implored upon the new office holders to execute the functions of their offices effectively.
Ahlu Sunna Welcomes Delay Of Galmudug Election
09 April – Source : Shabelle News – 104 Words
Ahlu Sunna has welcomed the postponement of the Presidential election of Galmudug state, and promised to collaborate in formation of an inclusive and united administration. Speaking to Radio Shabelle, the spokesperson of Ahlu Sunna Mursal Yusuf Mohamed Hafow said the delay of the vote to April 30 will help the unification of the central regions. Hafow said Ahlu Sunna is ready to recapture the towns vacated by Ethiopian forces, including Elbur district in Galgaduud region, which fell to Al shabaab last week. The election postponement came after the new Somalia’s Interior Minister has reached an agreement with Galmudug leaders in Adado city on Saturday.
INTERNATIONAL MEDIA
Brief Hijacking Shows Return Of Piracy To Somalia Coast
09 April -Source:Associated Press – 352 Words
The brief hijacking of a Lebanese-registered ship has drawn attention to the resurgence of piracy off the coast of Somalia, after five years of inactivity.Pirates boarded the OS 35, a cargo ship, Saturday evening but then abandoned it Sunday before naval forces rescued the ship, Mohamed Abdirahman, former director of Puntland’s marine forces, told The Associated Press.
The pirates were unable to take the crew hostage because they locked themselves in a safe room, said Abdirahman. No pirates were arrested and international naval forces are now escorting the ship, he said.The ship was hijacked off the coast of war-torn Yemen near Socotra Island.
Somali pirates in recent weeks have hijacked at least two vessels with foreign crews in the waters off Somalia and Yemen.In March, Somali pirates hijacked a Comoros-flagged oil tanker, marking the first such seizure of a large commercial vessel since 2012. They later released the vessel and its Sri Lankan crew without conditions.Pirates later seized a fishing trawler, which Somali authorities warned could be used for further piracy.
Earlier this month, Somali pirates seized a small boat and its 11 Indian crew members as the vessel passed through the narrow channel between Socotra Island and Somalia’s coast.Piracy off Somalia’s coast was once a serious threat to the global shipping industry. It has lessened in recent years after an international effort to patrol near the country, whose weak central government has been trying to assert itself after a quarter-century of conflict. Since then, concerns about piracy off Africa’s coast have largely shifted to the West Africa’s Gulf of Guinea on the Atlantic Ocean.
AMISOM,KDF Forces Foil Al-Shabaab Attack In Kuday Somalia, Kill Top Commander
08 April – Source : The Star – 193 Words
AMISOM and KDF forces on Saturday foiled an Al Shabaab attack in Kuday, Somalia, killing two militants in the process including a commander, Bashe Nure Hassan. Kenya Defence Forces spokesman Joseph Owuoth said in a statement the terrorists had launched an attack on the Somali National Army (SNA) camp adjacent to KDF and AMISOM’s. “In the subsequent engagement, AMISOM troops supported the SNA allies using mortars and machine gun fire to scuttle the terrorist attack,” he said.
Several militants were suspected to have escaped with injuries but Owouth said there were no casualties on the SNA, AMISOM or KDF troops during the dawn attack. Three AK 47 rifles, eleven magazines, a satellite phone and 290 rounds of ammunition were recovered from the attackers. “AMISOM/KDF soldiers remain vigilant and will continue to relentlessly pursue the terrorists to ensure peace and security of our country Kenya, as well as support AMISOM operations to stabilize Somalia,” Owuoth said.
The botched attack was staged two weeks after KDF raided Al Shabaab command and logistics centre in lower Jubaland, Somalia where they killed 31 militants and recovered assorted weapons in Baadhade, 40 kilometres from the Kenyan border.
OPINION, ANALYSIS, AND CULTURE
“The resurgence of piracy in the Horn of Africa’s busy transport corridor comes when both anti-piracy forces and shipping companies have let down their guard. A NATO naval force pulled out of the Horn in December, citing the decline in pirate attacks, though a European Union force remains,”
Somali Pirates Are Back In Business
09 April- Source: Foreign Policy – 1438 Words
After being all but stamped out by international naval forces following its late-2000s heyday, piracy has made a sudden return to the Horn of Africa. In the past month, there have been six suspected piracy incidents near Somalia, five of them successful, including three in the last week. That’s compared with zero successful attacks in 2016.
Three more murky maritime incidents off the coast of Somalia’s Galmudug state, where suspected illegal fishing vessels paid “fines” that may in fact have been ransoms, suggest that piracy has rebounded on a scale even larger than previously reported.“Now it’s in the original home of piracy, in an area they thought they cleaned up,” said John Steed, a senior maritime expert at the U.N. Office of Drugs and Crime. “It’s very disappointing.”
The spike in banditry on the high seas off the Horn is a blow to the decades-long battle to stem piracy there, and bad news for the international shipping industry, which transports $700 billion worth of cargo through the dangerous corridor each year. It’s also a stark reminder that one of the main drivers of piracy, rampant illegal fishing that depletes local fish stocks and drives some fishermen to take up arms, remains as big a problem as ever.On Saturday, pirates reportedly boarded a Tuvalu-flagged vessel known as the OS35, which was apparently traveling through the Gulf of Aden.
The hijacking came on the heels of two similar attacks last Monday, the first led by a kingpin known as Bakeyle, or “Rabbit,” whose men commandeered a cargo ship roughly 130 miles off the Somali coast and charted a course toward the coastal town of Hobyo, a notorious former pirate stronghold in the Galmudug state, according to Ben Lawellin, the Horn of Africa project manager for Oceans Beyond Piracy. The second attack, reported by Britain’s Maritime Trade Operation earlier the same day, involved suspected pirates attempting to board another ship north of Somalia near the entrance to the Red Sea, but backing off after armed guards aboard the vessel made a show of force.
Those incidents followed an April 2 attack on an Indian-flagged cargo vessel near the Yemeni island of Socotra, which is more than 125 miles from the Somali coast. The hijackers, led by another Galmudug pirate leader called Afweyne Dhibic, or “Big Mouth,” also headed toward Hobyo with their quarry, according to Oceans Beyond Piracy. The Galmudug pirates have demanded ransom in both cases.
Earlier in March, pirates hit two ships in Somalia’s semiautonomous Puntland region, which is north of Galmudug. Pirates under kingpin Jacfar Saciid Cabdulaahi captured the Aris 13 oil tanker, the first large merchant vessel allegedly hijacked in Somali waters since 2012. The other ship, a fishing vessel, was reportedly hijacked for use as a “mothership” to launch further attacks. It was brought to the Puntland town of Eyl, made famous for its pirates by the Hollywood film Captain Phillips. Both ships and crew were eventually released.