10 Nov 2011 – Daily Monitoring Report
Key Headlines:
- Deputy Prime Minister visits Germany (Source: Radio Mogadishu SONNA)
- TFG officials in Bakol region refute rebel claims (Source: Radio Bar-kulan)
- Somali parliament condemns killing of lawmaker (Source: Radio Shabelle Kulmiye Risala and Radio Mogadishu)
- Somali students graduate at Kampala International University (Source: Radio Mogadishu)
- TFG Kenya supporters freed from custody Dinsor Town (Source: Radio Bar-kulan)
- A small plane from Kenya crashes in Guri’el district central Somalia (Source: Radio Mogadishu Mareeg Online and Shabelle)
- Britain backs military operation in Somalia (Source: Daily Nation)
- Somalia’s al Shabaab says “obtained radar equipments to detect enemy aircraft” (Source: Xinhua)
SOMALI MEDIA
Deputy Prime Minister visits Germany
10 Nov – Source: Radio Mogadishu, SONNA – 129 words
The Deputy Prime Minister who is also the Foreign Minister of the TFG Mohamed Mohamud haji has held bilateral meetings with German officials.
The German government has promised to donate ten million euro to support Somalia The TFG government has embarked on a mission to build partnerships with other countries around the world.
TFG officials in Bakol region refute rebel claims
10 Nov – Source: Radio Bar-kulan – 207 words
The transitional federal government of Somalia has rubbished the recent assertion by al Shabaab rebel leaders in Hudur district claiming that government troops in the region have retreated from their bases in Yed and El-barde.
The area district commissioner Mohamed Moaalim termed the rebel claim as baseless and unwanted propaganda aimed at damaging the moral of government troops in the region. The DC said government troops in the area will soon embark on operations aimed at flushing out rebel fighters in Bay and Bakol regions. He said they will launch a fresh offensive against rebel positions in these two regions.
In an exclusive interview with Bar-kulan, Moaalim said their forces have already tighten security in Yed and El-barde and accused the militia group for arbitrary arrests against civilians who they suspect supporting the Somali government.
Just recently, al Shabaab imposed a nighttime curfew on the entire Hudur town following government’s military maneuvers in Yed and El-barde areas. The rebel group urged locals to remain indoors from 6pm till morning, threatening to deal with anybody found loitering during the night.
Somali parliament condemns killing of lawmaker
10 Nov – Source: Radio Shabelle, Kulmiye, Risala, and Radio Mogadishu – 209 words
The Transitional Federal Parliament of Somalia has condemned the killing Aden Bulle Mohamud a Somali lawmakers who was shot and murdered by armed gunmen in Mogadishu yesterday. Ahmed Dhimbil Roble, deputy speaker of the Somali parliament has sent a condolence message to relatives, friends and the family of the deceased.
“Mr. Bulle was our great friend indeed. We are saying to him may Allah rest his soil into the paradise. He will be buried in Mogadishu today. Many more members of the parliament and government officials will attend his funeral today,” said Mr. Dhimbil;
The deputy speaker of the parliament said that the parliamentarians share problems with the rest of the Somali people pointing out such killing was unfortunate for the Somali people. More lawmakers were separately killed in different parts in the Somali capital Mogadishu in the past.
‘Security improving in Mogadishu’ states the Government
09 Nov – Source: Radio Mogadishu, Somalia Report, Shabelle – 97 words
The Deputy Somali Police Commissioner Gen. Abdihakim Dahir Said has declared that the government has devised new plans for strengthening in Mogadishu. Gen. Said pointed out that the security of the capital has changed for the better noting that security has been increased in most of the areas recaptured from the al Shabaab. They have also succeeded in removing bombs and landmines in areas under their control.
Somali students graduate at Kampala International University
09 Nov – Source: Radio Mogadishu – 118 words
Somali students at Kampala University have successfully completed their studies and looked cheerful at a graduation dinner held at Kampala hotel. Somali elders and relatives of the university graduates attended the dinner. The dinner was held peacefully, as numerous elders advised the graduates to put more effort in their work.
Puntland forces conduct operations in Bosaso town
10 Nov – Source: Radio Shabelle, Kulimye – 157 words
The forces of the semi-autonomous regions of Puntland have arrested suspects believed to have been involved in the murder of Osman Ahmed Osman, a neighbourhood chief on Wednesday night. According to witnesses, 10 people were arrested in a security operation carried about overnight. Businessmen and young men are among those who have been arrested and the authorities are carrying out investigations.
Elders vow they will chase Shabaab from all the regions in Somalia
10 Nov – Source: Shabelle, Mareeg Online – 184 words
Yraditional elders from Lower and Middle Shabelle regions in southern Somalia have Thursday vowed they will get rid of al Shabaab.
Yusuf Haji Mohamed, a spokesman for the elders and scholars from the two regions said that the elders have pledged to protect residents against the brutal actions of al Shabaab.
“I can tell you that everything has beginning and end. So what I am saying to the people in both regions is to be patient. Al Shabaab will be out in the coming days,” said the spokesman of the traditional elders.
http://www.shabelle.net/
Somali Olympic committee distributes food aid to ex sport legends
09 Nov – Source: Radio Bar-kulan, APA, Gubta – 151 words
The Somali National Olympic committee has on Wednesday distributed food aid to at least 40 former national team members of different sport and as well as old fans. The food aid distribution was carried out by the Somali NOC’s Famine relief aid program.
The president of Somali National Olympic committee Aden Hajji Yeberow who talked to the media alongside the food aid distribution process said that for the past several months Somali NOC has been working as a relief aid in the wake of the severe draughts in the country which forced millions to displace from the regions. “I know that it had been better to reach you earlier, but our famine relief program has been coping with the follow of draught-displaced people coming to the capital and surrounding areas” the president said adding that Qatar Charity who is partner with Somali NOC has had a big role in this program.
TFG, Kenya supporters freed from custody, Dinsor Town
10 Nov – Source: Radio Bar-kulan – 150 words
Al Shabaab militant group in Dinsor, Bay region, on Wednesday night freed three traditional elders who were kept behind bars on Wednesday morning for allegedly supporting the TFG and the Kenyan incursion in Somalia.
The elders were among a group of 15 people who were arrested after they were accused of rallying behind the TFG and Kenyan incursion into parts of Somalia. Confirming their release, Mohamed Hassan Malaq, one of the area traditional elders said other traditional elders held talks with the militia leaders and pleaded with them to release the accused elders. He said the elders were held in a secret location immediately after their arrest, adding that rebel leaders warned other traditional elders in the area not to negotiate with them on such cases.
Al Shabaab militants release prisoners in Eelbuur
10 Nov – Source: Radio Shabelle – 116 words
Reports from central Somalia say that al Shabaab militants have released at least six prisoners in Eelbuur town of Galgadud region on Thursday morning.
Witnesses told to Shabelle radio that the released people were among many who were detained by al Shabaab in an operation carried out in the town yesterday. They said that jailed people were among well-known elders and businessmen linked to Somali moderate group of Ahlu suuna, a group against al Shabaab.
Five people including a famous cleric called Sheikh Da’ud are reportedly to be in the jails administrated by al Shabaab in El-bur town according to locals who also said the people were being asked questions related their involvement of charges against them.
Al Shabaab arrest elders for supporting Somali, Kenyan governments
10 Nov – Source: Radio Galkacyo – 102 words
Al Shabaab has arrested 12 prominent traditional elders in Kismayo over links with the Somali and Kenyan governments.
According to the radio, “al Shabaab arrested the elders after accusing them of having links with the Somali government and for supporting Kenya’s military incursion into Somalia”. An elder who spoke on condition of anonymity said “al Shabaab militants took the elders to undisclosed location in Kismayo”. He added that “some of the elders have been beaten and tortured.
A small plane from Kenya crashes in Guri’el district, central Somalia
10 Nov – Source: Radio Mogadishu, Mareeg Online and Shabelle – 98 words
Reports from Guri’el district of Galgudud region say that a small Kenyan plane transporting Kat has on Thursday morning crashed during landing at Guri’el airport, eyewitness said.
The plane crashed this morning before 8:00 A.M local time but no one was reported to have died in the accident and the pilots also survived as eyewitnesses and officials in the district told reporters.
http://www.mareeg.com/fidsan.
REGIONAL MEDIA
Britain backs military operation in Somalia
10 Nov – Source: Daily Nation – 111 words
The British government has officially endorsed Kenyan’s military operation in Somalia to wipe out the al Shabaab terror group.
UK`s Minister of State, Foreign and Commonwealth office David Howell told British lawmakers that London supported Kenya’s military action against militias.
He said the UK will work with Nairobi and other regional governments to ensure peace and stability in Somalia.
“We are discussing the Kenyan military intervention in Somalia with many of our partners including the EU and other organizations. The UK supports Kenyan action so long as it undertaken in co-ordination with the Transitional Federal government, and complies with international law” Lord Howell told UK`s House of Lords on Tuesday afternoon.
Hard-nosed officer at the battle front
09 Nov – Source: Daily Nation – 367 words
The man leading the Kenyan Army as it heads for Kismayu is a hard-nosed military commander, whose career began a year before Somalia descended into anarchy.
Although he speaks softly and I have yet to hear him shout, he commands silent authority. Lieutenant Colonel John Maison Nkoimo is commanding the Southern Sector, which has so far taken Ras Kiamboni, Bur Gabo and is aiming for Kismayu.
He served as a staff officer, analysing and advising the commander, trained his colleagues at the Kenya Military Academy in Lanet and served with the UN in Yugoslavia.
Before he was sent to head Kenyan troops in the Sector South, Lt-Col Nkoimo was at Shrivenharm Defence Academy in the UK.
With his experience working in areas with similar terrain and weather — Lokichoggio, Kainuk on the Turkana-Pokot border and Samburu — southern Somalia feels like home.
“To serve the country in this position marks the highest point in my career,” says Lt-Col Nkoimo. “Going to the front line is a dream come true for any military person. There is nothing as good as putting to use the skills acquired over time.”
Lt-Col Nkoimo was born on Mashujaa Day in Kilgoris, Trans Mara District in 1969. After primary and secondary school, he sat for his Advanced Level examination at Uasin Gishu High School and then taught in the same school as an untrained teacher.
He joined the Kenya Army as a Cadet in 1990 and was posted to the 20 Parachute Battalion at Gilgil as a Second Lieutenant.
Shabaab parade in stronghold
09 Nov – Source: Daily Nation, Africa Review – 336 words
Al-Shabaab fighters have paraded in the streets of one of their strongholds on the Somali coast and vowed to repulse the Kenyan incursion.
The show of force in Marka town, 500 kilometres north of Kismayu, involved a display of speed boats mounted with machine guns with which they hope to face the Kenya Navy.
Also on display were the four-wheel pick-ups mounted with machine guns, known as technical’s. Residents of the town said they were asked to come out on the streets and beach to witness the parade. Marka is about 100 kilometres south of the capital, Mogadishu, from where the rebels have been largely routed by African Union forces.
Kenyan and Somali government troops are approaching Kismayu from the south after taking a string of towns on the coastline. The Tuesday display came as Kenya’s military incursion inside Somalia was debated in the UK parliament.
Using loud speakers on minibuses, the militants drove around calling on the inhabitants of Marka, the capital of Lower Shabelle region, to come out and watch a big military display. Along the coastline, speedboats mounted with automatic machine guns, according to witnesses, cut across the water in formation.
http://www.nation.co.ke/News/
Prove we are arming Shabaab, Eritrea retorts
10 Nov – Source: Capital FM – 745 words
The Eritrean embassy in Nairobi is challenging anyone with evidence that its government is arming Al Shabaab militants in Somalia to go public with it. Ambassador Beyene Russom told Capital Newsbeat in an exclusive interview that his country has never been involved in the internal affairs of Somalia and cannot therefore arm Al Shabaab in any way.
Russom said his government supports peace in the region and “cannot undermine any efforts aimed at stabilising the war-torn country.” “All these are bogus propaganda fabricated by Ethiopia. It is a continuation of a series of previous lies about our government,” Russom said in the interview at the Nairobi Embassy Wednesday.
Citing recent reports that his government had delivered planeloads of arms to Al Shabaab fighters in Baidoa, the ambassador said he does not understand how planes could have landed in Southern Somalia with arms yet the region was under strict surveillance since Kenya sent its troops there.
“When I heard about these allegations, I did not sleep. It worried me so much… I have held meetings and I have spoken to various government officials in Kenya both formally and informally to explain this and even a delegation from my country is planning to come.” he said.
Asmara has announced it plans to send a delegation led by Foreign Minister Osman Saleh to Nairobi to discuss the matter which the Eritrean envoy said dents the country’s image. “These are wild accusations. They could have brought the plane down if indeed it was seen delivering arms in Baidoa. It is not possible that Eritrea can fly arms to Somalia. Not at all,” he said, fighting off the allegations he blames Ethiopia of fabricating.
During Wednesday afternoon’s interview, the envoy also dismissed allegations that he had been sending money to Al Shabaab militants in Somalia through the embassy. “Again these are the lies they [Ethiopia] have been propagating. When I came here, I found many allegations about me, and I even went and met the President and I explained to him and I was willing to be investigated and even my bank accounts. I have never supported Al Shabaab,” he said.
“I am here to represent my government not to support criminal groups like Al Shabaab,” he said adding that “since I came to Nairobi, I have never met a single Somali group or individual, I am very careful.”
He said his country has never participated in any cross-border attacks.
“We have never bombed a country; we are not crazy to do that. How can we then send arms to Al Shabaab,” he posed, adding “even the Al Shabaab are a creation of Ethiopia which has for several years tried to destabilise our country.”
The envoy blamed Ethiopia for some of the sanctions his country is facing “because it always ensures we are excluded from IGAD meetings.”
http://www.capitalfm.co.ke/
INTERNATIONAL MEDIA
Turkey-Somalia -The Doctors Worldwide Turkey branch opens health center in Mogadishu
10 Nov – Anadolu Agency (Turkey) – 73 words
Turkey branch of Doctors Worldwide association opened a nutrition health centre in Somali capital Mogadishu on Wednesday.
Somali Health Minister Abdul Aziz and Turkish Ambassador in Mogadishu Cemalettin Kani Torun attended the inauguration of the centre.
Torun told AA that the center aimed to treat Somali children who had nutrition disorder due to serious hunger in that country.
Nutrition experts from Turkey could work in this center in the future, he added. The center was opened in Lafole region of Somalia.
Somalia’s al Shabaab says “obtained radar equipments to detect enemy aircraft”
10 Nov – Source: Xinhua – 367 words
The rebel militants of Al Shabaab in Somalia said they have obtained radar equipments and other military hardware to fight against Kenyan and Somali troops battling the group in the south of the war-torn country, a pro-Al Shabaab website reported on Thursday.
The claim by the radical group comes as row over alleged shipment of arms for Al Shabaab have been growing between Kenya and Eritrea. Eritrea is accused of sending weapons to the group, but the country has strongly denied the accusation.
“Radar equipments have been brought to some of the Somalia Wilaayaats (provinces) to detect enemy aircraft breaching Somalia’s airspace, “said Somali memo, a website used by Al Shabaab. The site quoting an unnamed official added “other ‘modern equipments ‘were found to counter the aging Kenyan aircraft fleet”. The Al Shabaab official did not give further details about where the group got the new military equipment or where they were installed.
Kenyan have lately been carrying out air raids against Al Shabaab targets in southern Somalia where the group controls. Allied Kenyan and Somali government troops have since early October been carrying out a military action aimed at ousting the militant fighters from the south of the war-ravaged Horn of Africa nation.
Kenyan have lately been carrying out air raids against Al Shabaab targets in southern Somalia where the group controls. Allied Kenyan and Somali government troops have since early October been carrying out a military action aimed at ousting the militant fighters from the south of the war-ravaged Horn of Africa nation. The group also asserted they have enlisted the retired senior military officials of former Somali government of Mohamed Siyad Barre to advise on and take part in the fight against Kenyan and Somali government troops.
The radical rebel group of Al Shabaab this week displayed several speedboats and dozens of newly trained fighters carrying AK-47s as well as local traditional fighters armed with spears, bows and arrows in the southern port town of Marka.
Al Shabaab reiterated threats of attacks against Kenyan for sending its troops across the border to Somalia as well as against Burundi and Uganda, two countries who are currently contributing troops to the 9,000-strong African Union mission in Somalia (AMISOM) based in Mogadishu.
http://news.xinhuanet.com/
Three killed as al Shabaab fighters clash with each other
09 Nov – Source: All Headline News – 150 words
Fierce clashes between members of al Shabaab erupted Tuesday afternoon in the Bardale district of the Bay region of southern Somalia, killing at least three militants, residents said.
The armed confrontation broke out after fighters manning a checkpoint in Bardale got into an argument over fees being charged illegally to buses and trucks travelling between the capital city of Mogadishu and southern regions of the country, according to local residents.
“In the clash, the two warring sides in the same group used both heavy and light guns,” Faay Elay told All Headline News by phone.
Heavy gun battle could be heard throughout the district, according to Elay. She added the warring sides are continuing with military maneuvers around the checkpoint and inside the district.
Since al Shabaab began facing repeated defeats in Mogadishu and parts of southern Somalia six months ago, infighting and wrangling within the group has been intensifying.
South Africa: No safe haven for Somalis
10 Nov – Source: BBC – 821 words
Many thousands of Somalis have fled famine and warfare at home, braving a treacherous journey across the continent to reach South Africa but some feel their new lives in Africa’s richest country are little better than the misery they left behind.
“If we wanted to fight we would have stayed in our land. We didn’t come here to die we came here to take care of our families,” says Qorane Haji, 29, whose shop was looted and burnt down in recent months.
Mr Haji has been living in South Africa for over five years. He owns a shop in Motherwell, a township in Port Elizabeth, Eastern Cape Province. More than 300 shops are owned by Somalis in the area, he says.
Most of the Somali population in South Africa lives in the Eastern and Western Cape provinces. But business has not been easy. Poverty and unemployment are high in South Africa – many people in the poor communities believe that foreigners are “stealing their jobs”.
Somali-owned shops have been looted or burned down as a result. In 2008, South Africa saw a wave of xenophobic violence which shocked the nation and shook up the world’s view of the “rainbow nation”. Some foreigners were necklace – set alight with petrol doused tyres around their necks – and their shops were burned down.
Mostly Somalis, Zimbabweans and Mozambicans were targeted during the violence which left more than 100,000 foreigners displaced and at least 60 people dead.