February 15, 2018 | Morning Headlines

Main Story

Kenyan Forces Kill 3 Al-Shabaab Terrorists

15 February – Source: Xinhuanet – 274 Words

Kenyan soldiers on Wednesday killed three Al-Shabaab terrorists during a security operation in the vast Boni forest in the coastal Lamu region. Kenya Defence Forces (KDF) spokesman David Obonyo said the troops who were on a routine patrol along Sarira-Kolbio route encountered the militants following a blast that had been heard early Wednesday.

Obonyo said in a statement that they found the body of a Al-Shabaab member following a suspected premature explosion of improvised explosive device the fighter was trying to place on the road used by the troops. He said the soldiers were later ambushed by another group of Al-Shabaab militants as they continued with the patrol to clear the area. “During the engagement, three Al-Shabaab terrorist were killed as others fled into the forest with injuries. The troops recovered three AK rifles, 236 rounds of ammunition, bomb-making materials and personal items,” Obonyo said.

He said there were no casualties on the KDF side and appealed for any information on any individuals seeking medical assistance in the area. The police and intelligence officials said the terrorists who are fleeing increased airstrikes in southern Somalia are trooping to Lakta belt near Boni Forest in Kenya’s Lamu with an aim of attacking locals.

Security officials said Al-Shabaab have changed tactics and resorted to using IEDs to carry out attacks in coastal and northeast regions. The have been using Boni forest as their hideout and also launch attacks in the region. The police said the explosive devices strategically planted along the roads near Kenya-Somalia border are slowing down security operations to flush out militants hiding in the vast Boni forest, which is near the Somali border.

Key Headlines

Kenyan Forces Kill 3 Al-Shabaab Terrorists (Xinhuanet)
Somalia: Abdi Hosh Accused Of Hijacking Constitutional Review Process (Garowe Online)
Somali National Army Makes Military Development In Gedo region (SONNA)
AMISOM Police Conducts Training On Security And Criminal Intelligence For South West Police Force (AMISOM)
AU Team In Somalia To Assess Peacekeeping Operations (Xinhuanet)
IGAD Confronting Violent Extremism In East And Horn of Africa (The East African)

NATIONAL MEDIA

Somalia: Abdi Hosh Accused Of Hijacking Constitutional Review Process

14 February – Source: Garowe Online – 227 Words

The Minister of Constitutional Affairs of the Federal Government of Somalia, Abdi Hosh Jibril has been blamed for hijacking the role of constitutional review bodies. In an exclusive interview with Garowe Online, Federal MP Mohamed Abdullahi Kamil who is the deputy chair of the joint Parliamentary Constitutional Review Committee said Hosh is misleading the process and conducting constitutional review activities unilaterally.

Kamil has also accused the Minister of power abuse and offences against members of the Constitutional Review Committees in making censorship and edit in their recent statement on the Somali National Television, SNTV. “The Minister is responsible for the current challenges and is waging war against the joint constitutional review committees on the media after they have spoken about his mistakes,” said Kamil during the Interview.

The lawmaker noted that they are dissatisfied with the Minister’s unproductive and unilateral work in the Constitutional review he is reluctant to continue collaboration and consultation with the joint Parliamentary Constitutional Review Committee. Last October, Abdi Hosh has cancelled a National Consultative meeting on the constitution after a boycott by the joint Parliamentary Oversight Committee and the Independent Electoral body, citing “confusion and lack of Collaboration”. “We have been at loggerheads over the constitutional review process for six months in the past and agreed to fix our disagreement in an inappropriate manner for the sake of the country,” added Kamil.

Somali National Army Makes Military Development In Gedo region

14 February – Source: SONNA – 109 Words

Somali National Army is making progress on the fight against the militant group Al-Shabaab after conducting military operation in lower Shabelle and Gedo regions in the last few days. In Gedo region, Somali National Army removed Al-Shabaab militants from several villages including Canaale on Monday.

Army Commander in the region, Abdifitah Mohamed Turba’ told Somali National News Agency that the military operation still ongoing. On the the hand, Somali National Army together with African Union forces took control of several key towns and locations in lower Shabelle region in the past two days. Al-Shabaab militants are escaping from the areas before the joint forces approach to capture their strongholds.

INTERNATIONAL MEDIA

AMISOM Police Conducts Training On Security And Criminal Intelligence For South West Police Force

14 February – Source: AMSOM – 315 Words

AMISOM Police is conducting a 10-day training course on security and criminal investigation for South West Police Force in Baidoa. Twenty officers, 16 male and 4 female, drawn from different parts of South West state are attending the training, whose objective is to strengthen the force’s capability to investigate crimes and prosecute suspects.

Tresphord Kasale, AMISOM Police Coordinator, for South West state, said the aim of the training is to develop the skills of the officers to enable them gather concrete evidence during investigation of crimes. “AMISOM Police has continued training Somali Police Force and today we have officially opened a course called security and criminal intelligence course. The purpose of this course is to empower our local police on how to gather information, how to process information and how to analyze that information and give an informed decision on their work,” Mr. Kasale noted.

Col. Adan Ali Hassan, Training Coordinator of South West Police, said the course will benefit the officers in their day–to-day activities of maintaining law and order.
“Today, we opened a seminar on criminal investigation where 20 officers from South West Forces will be trained. The training will continue for 10 days; 16 male and 4 female officers are taking part in the training. [I hope] they will benefit from the lessons covered during the course,” said Col. Hassan.

AU Team In Somalia To Assess Peacekeeping Operations

14 February – Source: Xinhuanet – 285 Words

An African Union (AU) team is in Somalia to assess peacekeeping activities as the transfer of responsibilities from AU mission to Somali national security forces gains momentum, officials said on Wednesday. The AU Mission in Somalia (AMISOM) said the ten-men delegation from the AU Peace Support Operations Division arrived in Mogadishu on Tuesday for a four-day mission and is scheduled to hold talks with senior government, UN and AU mission officials.

“The discussions will focus on a wide range of issues among them peacekeeping activities, achievements made and challenges being experienced in securing Somalia and transfer of responsibilities to Somali national security forces among others,” said the AU mission. Francisco Madeira, Special Representative of the Chairperson of the African Union Commission for Somalia who held talks with the delegation explained that the delegation is in the country on a routine assessment mission.

“They have very specific objectives to see how we are working, what our challenges are; what are our relations with our hosts and how we plan for the transition,” Madeira said. He noted that the delegation had frank discussions with the government of Somalia officials on issues focusing on peace and stability, noting that discussions also dwelt on the transition plan and the implementation challenges.

OPINION, ANALYSIS AND CULTURE

“Since 2006, Igad has been engaged in building capacity of the criminal justice system to prevent and counter terrorism through the framework of Igad’s Security Sector Programme.”

IGAD Confronting Violent Extremism In East And Horn of Africa

14 February – Source: The East African – 715 Words

East Africa’s security landscape is currently confronted by a significant increase in the activities of violent extremist groups, chief among them being the Al Shabaab, Al Qaeda and the so called Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant. Violent extremism has increasingly become a transnational security threat that is undermining international peace and security as clearly expounded in the 2016 UN Secretary General Plan of Action for Preventing Violent Extremism (PVE). This PVE plan of action urged national governments and regional bodies to develop strategies on how to coherently prevent and counter violent extremism.

Commendably, Kenya and Somalia took a bold move and developed national strategies. We encourage the other countries to follow in their footsteps. It is in this context that in July 2016, we at the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (Igad), embarked on developing a regional strategy for preventing and countering violent extremism through a highly comprehensive and inclusive consultative process that also involved Tanzania.

The first challenge we encountered was agreeing on a common conceptual definition of violent extremism. We defined it as an ideology that rejects the principles and values that underpin a peaceful orderly and non-violent society, instead espousing violence, terror and coercion as a pathway to change and to realising specific beliefs and vision of society. We therefore see preventing and countering violent extremism as a grand strategy that highlights non-coercive approaches designed to address the drivers, enablers or root causes of extremism in order to deny extremists an environment to radicalise and recruit followers to violence.

We are excited to note that regional experts on prevention and countering violent extremism drawn from governments, civil societies, academia and development partners met in Djibouti on March 1-2, 2017 and adopted this strategy. Our region is historically volatile. Terrorists are taking advantage of a mix of civil wars, conflicts and insurgencies, tapping into criminal networks, occupying weakly governed and sparsely populated spaces. They exploit widespread grievances relating to poverty, joblessness, exclusion, injustice and repression to radicalise and recruit to violence using radio and social media platforms to spread messages of hate against sections of communities.