October 18, 2017 | Daily Monitoring Report
Farmajo Blames Al-Shabaab For Mogadishu Blast
18 October – Source: Aljazeera – 270 Words
Somalia’s President has blamed Al-Shabaab for the country’s deadliest attack, in which more than 300 people were killed. Mohamed Abdullahi Farmajo told Al Jazeera that the armed group’s “fingerprints” could be found over Saturday’s blast in the capital, Mogadishu, explaining that al-Shabab had a history of similar attacks. “This is their fingerprints, this is what they have done,” Farmajo said, before calling on the international community to help combat the group.
Al-Shabaab has a strong presence in the south of the country. “If they succeed here, they’ll [find it] easier to promote their crazy ideology and their political ideology to the youth in the United States and Europe,” he added. Al-Shabab has not claimed responsibility for Saturday’s blast but the Somali leader had no doubt it was responsible. “I thought they would claim, but maybe they feel that this is a huge responsibility,” Farmajo explained, referring to the scale of the atrocity. The Somali President’s comments come as emergency workers continue to comb the rubble looking for the remains of those who died, with officials warning that some bodies might never be found.
Al Jazeera’s Mohammed Adow, reporting from Mogadishu, said investigators were trying to find out where the attackers procured the military grade explosives believed to have been used in the attack. “Another focus, officials say, is whether al-Shabab had help from within the security forces,” he said. The Somali government has been fighting al-Shabab for the best part of a decade and expelled the fighters from Mogadishu in 2011 with help from African Union soldiers. Al-Shabab has since retreated southwards and continues to hold swathes of territory there.
Key Headlines
- Farmajo Blames Al-Shabaab For Mogadishu Blast (Al Jazeera)
- Well-wishers Raise £20000 To Support Emergency Provider Aamin Ambulance (Goobjoog News)
- 8 Civilians Wounded In Airstrike Near Bariire (Garowe Online)
- Somalia’s Bakool Bans Miraa Consumption (The Standard)
- Survivors Recall Horror Of Somalia’s Deadly Truck Blast (Anadolu Agency)
- Somalia Reels Amid Carnage (Al Ahram Weekly)
NATIONAL MEDIA
Well-wishers Raise £20,000 To Support Emergency Provider Aamin Ambulance
18 October – Source: Goobjoog News – 190 Words
A crowd funding initiative to raise funds to support the ambulance service provider Aamin Ambulance following the Saturday terror attack in Mogadishu has raised £20,000 reaching its target in 2 days. The group behind the initiative, Somali Faces announced Wednesday donations through the Gofundme online platform had hit the target raising £20,607.
The funds, the group said will be divided between Aamin Ambulance and the victims of the attack. “Certain portions of the funds will be used to purchase additional ambulance vans, stretchers and communication tools for Aamin Ambulance,” Somali Faces said. The other, the group said will be given as financial assistance to the victims who have been most affected by the terrorist attack.
Somali Faces which catalogs stories of Somalis across the globe organized the started the initiative a day after the attack and has seen 878 people contribute. Aamin ambulance which provides free emergency medical services in Mogadishu through donations has been working round the clock transporting the injured to hospitals and moving bodies from the scene since the attack Saturday afternoon. UNDP Somalia yesterday donated VHF radios to Aamin Ambulance to support its operations.
8 Civilians Wounded In Airstrike Near Bariire
17 October – Source: Garowe Online – 149 Words
A Somali official says at least 8 civilians were wounded in a suspected drone strike near Bariire town in Lower Shabelle region on Tuesday. Ahmed Ibrahim, a military officer in the region, told Garowe Online over the phone that the attack targeted a convoy carrying Al shabaab commanders traveling in the area.
One of the missiles fired by the fighter jet struck a civilian house, injuring eight, including five men and three women. It was unclear how many militants have been killed or wounded in the air raid, he said. The wounded were transported to hospitals in Mogadishu for treatment, according to the residents. So far, Al-Shabaab did comment on the bombardment, which was the latest in series of air raids against the militant group in the country. U.S. military has in the past carried out airstrikes in southern Somalia, killing high- ranking Al-Shabaab leaders.
INTERNATIONAL MEDIA
Somalia’s Bakool Bans Miraa Consumption
18 October – Source: The Standard – 441 Words
A region in Somalia has banned miraa consumption, causing panic in the local export chain. Exporters fear the ban announced by the Bakool region could trigger a larger crisis in the embattled sub-sector. Bakool, a small neighbourhood of sorts in south western Somalia, consumes one tonne of miraa a day. Supplies to Bakool land at the provincial capital of Hudur, according to local exporters.
A tonne is 10 sacks of special miraa worth Sh50,000 each plus a carriage cost of $3,000 (about Sh300,000), meaning the landed cost to the region for a tonne is roughly Sh800,000 a day. Miraa exports average 10 cargo flights a day carrying nine tonnes of the stimulant with a combined value of over Sh63 million. “Our problem is they have the audacity to ban miraa. We view it as an indication of what the intentions are in other regions,” said the treasurer of Nyambene Miraa Traders Association (Nyamita), Kimathi Munjuri.
Survivors Recall Horror Of Somalia’s Deadly Truck Blast
18 October – Source: Anadolu Agency – 584 Words
As tales of horror unfold following the weekend’s massive truck bombing in capital Mogadishu, Anadolu Agency spoke to some of the survivors at a Turkish-Somali hospital that saved dozens of lives on the day. At least 300 were killed and hundreds more injured when a truck packed with hundreds of kilograms of explosives wiped out a busy road junction on Saturday afternoon in Mogadishu.
Medical staff across the capital struggled to deal with casualties suffering horrendous burns, particularly at the Recep Tayyip Erdogan Hospital, a facility built and run by Somalia and Turkey and named after Turkey’s president. The death toll is likely to rise in what has been described as war-torn Somalia’s worst terror attack. Although no group has claimed responsibility, al-Shabaab terrorists have been blamed. Many bodies were burned beyond recognition, according to local medical staff.
When Anadolu Agency correspondents visited the hospital, Isse Ali, who received burns to his face and body, was staring into the distance, lost in thought as he lay on the hospital bed. “I had a business center where the explosion occurred,” the 45-year-old said. “My head [and] other parts of my body were burnt. I wasn’t able to tell how the situation was after the bomb. “Some of my customers who were with me were killed in the explosion.”
OPINION, ANALYSIS AND CULTURE
“The militants were driven out of Mogadishu in 2011 and had been steadily losing territory since then to the combined forces of African Union peacekeepers and Somali security forces.The terror group has also taken the war abroad, especially to Kenya. In September 2013, Al-Shabab gunmen attacked the Westgate Shopping Mall in Nairobi, killing at least 67 people,”
Somalia Reels Amid Carnage
17 October – Source: Al Ahram Weekly – 744 Words
Barely a month goes by without a deadly assault, but this week’s Mogadishu twin attack was the deadliest in terms of casualties and bloodiness The death toll rose to 302, 15 of whom are children, with 400 injured. Somalis are calling it their 9/11 in terms of brutality. Hospitals in Mogadishu were overwhelmed and struggling to treat badly wounded victims, many burned beyond recognition. Doctors were working round the clock trying to keep their eyes open as the screams from victims and bereaved families echoed in hospital halls.
The initial vehicle bomb destroyed dozens of stalls and the popular Safari Hotel in the heart of Mogadishu. Minutes after the first blast, a second vehicle bomb went off nearby. No casualties were reported from that second blast, according to police. Qatar’s embassy was also damaged, according to a statement from its Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The embassy’s charge d’affaires suffered minor injuries, the statement said. A fragile Horn of Africa nation that reeled from one of the world’s worst attacks in years has very limited potential to withstand this scale of carnage. Authorities are in desperate need for blood donations to treat survivors. “We are requesting blood, we are requesting assistance for verifying the dead in order for their relatives to know,” Information Minister Abdirahman Omar Osman told Reuters by phone from Mogadishu.
A Turkish military plane had evacuated around 35 critically wounded people to Ankara, where they were taken to hospitals for treatment. Countries including Kenya and Ethiopia have offered to send medical aid in response to what the Somali government called a “national disaster”, Abdirahman Osman said. A plane carrying a medical team from Djibouti also arrived to evacuate the wounded, according to Health Ministry official Mohamed Ahmed. There was no immediate claim of responsibility, although accusations are pointing to Islamist militant group Al-Shabab, which is allied to Al-Qaeda.
The group stages regular attacks in the capital and other parts of the country. Violence is so pervasive that many embassies are inside the international airport. “No other group in Somalia has the capacity to put together a bomb of this size, in this nature,” said Matt Bryden, a security consultant on the Horn of Africa.
Analysts and diplomats said the fact that the bombers must have passed several checkpoints to reach the city centre in such a conspicuous vehicle — all trucks in the centre of the city are supposed to be searched — highlighted divisions within the government, especially the security services, and the broader fragility of the state eight months after the election of President Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed. The president has declared three days of national mourning.
The attack came two days after the unexpected resignation of Abdirashid Abdullahi Mohamed, defense minister, and Somalia’s Military Chief General Mohamed Ahmed Jimale. No explanation has been given for the officials’ departures, but in recent weeks Al-Shabab has been gaining territory. On Saturday, it took over the town of Bariire, 50 kilometres from Mogadishu in the Lower Shabelle region.
TOP TWEETS
@HarunMaruf: BREAKING: Turkish Military Base Was ‘Target’ of Somalia Truck Bomb: Senior Intel Officialhttps://www.voanews.com/amp/
@djmomgenes: Where Is the Empathy for Somalia?http://dlvr.it/PwJLw9
@iamsomali:We so far spent 1billion USD on Somalia and the world should follow #Turkey‘s footsteps to bring peace and stability in #Somalia‘ #TurkeyPM
@shiinetown:#Somalia resident in Baidoa town the current base of ISWA come out in thousands protesting against the deadly suicide attack in #Mogadishu.
@HaninSh:Heart and prayers go out to #Somalia & its people. Terrorism will always be nauseating by everyone and upon anyone. #MogadishuMassacre
@NashonTado:A shocking 1 million+ people in #Somalia forced to abandon their homes this year, mainly due to droughthttp://bit.ly/2hOvPL5 @NRC_HoA
@AMB_A_Mohammed: Kenya will evacuate 31 injured victims for specialised treatment in Nairobi and dispatch 11 tonnes of assorted medicine to Somalia.
@HarunMaruf: Large rallies planned throughout #Somalia today in protest of the attacks in Mogadishu.
IMAGE OF THE DAY
UNDP Somalia officials donated VHF radios to Aamin Ambulance to help them carry out their work easily.
Photo: Goobjoog News