25 Nov 2011 – Daily Monitoring Report
Key Headlines:
- African Union force makes strides inside Somalia (Source: New York Times)
- Somali Government commits to ending child recruitment (Source: Office of the Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Children and Armed Conflict)
- IGAD held meeting to wipe out al Shabaab militias from Somalia (Source: Radio Bar-kulan)
- Turkish Red Crescent to build schools in Mogadishu (Source: Bariga Afrika Bar-Kulan)
- Kenyan troops destroy al Shabaab camps (Source: The Standard)
- Bomb blast hits Somali gov’t army vehicle in Mogadishu (Source: Radio Shabelle Kulmiye Risala Jowhar Online)
- US Senator asks US and NATO to support Kenya’s Somalia incursion (Source: the Standard)
- Kenya arrests hundreds after deadly attacks blamed on al Shabaab (Source: dpa-Deutsche Presse-Agentur)
PRESS RELEASE
Somali Government commits to ending child recruitment
23 Nov – Source: Office of the Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Children and Armed Conflict – 564 words
The Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Children and Armed Conflict secured a commitment from the President and Prime Minister of Somalia to enter a process to end the recruitment and use of children by the Transitional Federal Government (TFG) in Mogadishu today. The SRSG was also able to speak with child escapees from Al-Shabaab as well as with the AMISOM Force Commander.
“Completion of an action plan will ensure that the TFG forces are child-free,” said SRSG Coomaraswamy, “and allow the United Nations to remove the Government from the ‘list of shame’ of parties that commit this grave violation against children.”
In Villa Somalia, President Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed, Prime Minister, Dr. Abdiweli Mohamed Ali, and Minister of Defense, Hussein Arab Essa recommitted the TFG to the signing and implementation of a Security Council mandated plan to end the recruitment and use of children by its forces, and pledged to immediately nominate military and civilian focal points within the Government to work with the United Nations towards this end.
In downtown Mogadishu, SRSG Coomaraswamy visited a camp where Al-Shabaab defectors and surrendees are held, including some 37 former Al Shabaab child soldiers. There, she met Ismael (name changed), a 16 year old boy who had managed to escape the armed group after being trained as a suicide bomber and crippled by fighting between the Al-Shabaab and TFG forces.
“Ismael’s case highlights the fact that children associated with Al-Shabaab and other armed groups are victims. They must be transferred rapidly to civilian child protection actors, and be separated as soon as possible from adult ex-combatants in order to begin the transition back to civilian life,” said SRSG Coomaraswamy.
The United Nations is currently supporting programmes for the reintegration of children associated with armed forces and groups, and stands ready to provide continued support. These programmes promote rehabilitation of children through counselling, back to school initiatives and skills based training, including family reunification.
The AMISOM Force Commander, Gen. Fred Mugisha, reiterated the force’s commitment to protecting civilians, and children in particular, during AMISOM operations. He pledged to continue to provide maximum support for efforts to identify and separate children from the TFG forces, including through the appointment of a child protection advisor in AMISOM.
Ms. Coomaraswamy urges all United Nations partners to work closely with the TFG, AMISOM, and donors to step up prevention of child recruitment and the release and reintegration of children formerly associated with armed forces and groups. “With Mogadishu more secure following the withdrawal of Al-Shabaab, the onus is on the international community to assist the Government’s efforts toward stability,” said SRSG Coomaraswamy.
Both the Somali Government and Al-Shabaab are listed in the United Nations Secretary-General’s Annual Report on Children and Armed Conflict for recruiting and using child soldiers. In accordance with Security Council resolution 1612 (2005), listed parties must sign and implement action plans to end this grave violation or face the possibility of Security Council sanctions. In June of this year, the Security Council expanded the criteria for sanction able offenses in Somalia to include grave violations against children.
SRSG Coomaraswamy also welcomes the commitment by the Government to ratify the Convention on the Rights of the Child and its optional protocols. Earlier this week, SRSG Coomaraswamy signed an action plan and secured commitments for the end of recruitment and use of children by the CPJP and UFDR, both rebel groups in the Central African Republic.
SOMALI MEDIA
Six people killed in Garissa as Kenyan operation in Somalia enters the fourth week
25 Nov – Source: Radio Star FM, Radio Bar-kulan – 116 Words
Following last night’s incident in Garissa, North Eastern Kenya, six people have now been confirmed dead. 11 are being hospitalised and 21 have been discharged.
The first explosion took place on Ngamia Road near Garissa Catholic Church, some 3km from the town centre, while the other took place at Chege’s Caf� within the town. The injured as a result of the two explosions were taken to various medical centers of the district. Residents said they first heard three gunshots before the explosions.
Police said all security agents have been mobilised and a curfew imposed in the town. In Mandera, suspected al Shabaab militants blew up a Kenya military truck and opened fire on troops in the border town. In what is perceived as a revenge attack, the militants used an improvised bomb against the soldiers who were on patrol.
Bomb blast hits Somali gov’t army vehicle in Mogadishu
25 Nov- Source: Radio Shabelle, Kulmiye, Risala, Jowhar Online – 204 words
A road side bomb blast targeted a Somali government military convoy near the main Bakara market in Mogadishu, witnesses said on Friday.
Local residents who saw the road side explosions hit the convoy of government troops near a Bakara market intersection claimed that the blast struck one of the Somali government military personnel vehicles passing the on the road, causing a number of injuries sustained by the targeted soldiers . Residents described a huge explosion hitting a convoy carrying Somali government troops. Contradictory reports from the areas said that many Somali government troops have been conducting overnight land mine-clearing operations at the Bakara market junction. The TFG did not immediately comment on the blast.
Some government troop officials confirmed that one of their military personnel was struck by the blast, but declined to talk about the exact number of casualties. There are no details of fatalities or wounded as a result of the land mine blast in Mogadishu on Friday morning.
No one has so far claimed responsibility for the attack, but some government officials are accusing al Shabaab.
IGAD held meeting to wipe out al Shabaab militias from Somalia
25 Nov – Source: Radio Bar-kulan – 159 words
Leaders of East African countries are today meeting in Addis Ababa to consider ways of enhancing the military campaign aimed at wiping out Somalia’s al-Qaeda linked al Shabaab terrorists.
The Heads of State of IGAD, the Inter Governmental Authority on Development, are gathering in the Ethiopian capital in the hope of reaching a united position against al Shabaab militias who are threat to the region’s security.
The leaders in the meeting are anticipated to seek U.N. Security Council authorization for cutting al Shabaab’s supply lines through the strategic port of Kismayo, which is the rebel’s stronghold.
Monica Juma, Kenya’s ambassador to Ethiopia and the African Union, said the head of states who will be meeting in Addis Ababa consider the conference significant to cut down al Shabaab’s supply lines will be central to the war waged on the terror group.
TFG president, Sheikh Sharif Ahmed will attend the meeting where he is expected to give a speech touching on topic of Somali insecurity.
Turkish Red Crescent to build schools in Mogadishu
24 Nov – Source: Bariga Afrika, Bar-Kulan – 266 words
The Turkish Red Crescent Society stated yesterday that it will open schools in the Somali capital of Mogadishu to train health personnel.
Red Crescent, which has been in Somalia for the past 4 months to provide humanitarian aid, will build a nursing school and a health technician vocational school. Red Crescent’s Somalia delegation head Şafak Lostar told the media yesterday that there is currently a shortage of trained personnel in Somalia due to the civil war that has been going on for years, adding that the biggest shortage of trained personnel was in the health sector.
Noting that the construction of two buildings will begin in a month’s time, Lostar said that the project would be completed in ten months. Nearly 1,500 students will be trained in the schools every year, Lostar added.
Furthermore, Turkish medics provide medical assistance to the drought-stricken people of Somalia in aid camps, where the fatality rate among children has fallen by 90 percent over a short period of time thanks to the Turkish health services.
http://www.barigaafrika.com/
Ras Kamboni movement claims victory over a battle in southern Somalia
25 Nov – Source: Shabelle – 228 words
The Ras Kamboni movement said today that it has inflicted al Shabaab militant’s irretrievable fatalities in a combat which took place in the lower Jubba regions in southern Somalia.
Abdi Nassir Sarer, a spokesman for Ras Kamboni said that his fighters launched a big offensive on an al Shabaab military base near Afmadow town in Lower Jubba region of Somalia.
The spokesman also said Ras Kamboni loyalists backing Kenyan troops jointly attacked and shelled many al Shabaab bases and hideouts in Tabta village near Afmadow town, killing three militants.
“Our fighters allied with the Kenyan army launched an ambush attack on al Shabaab hideouts in Tabta area. We also seized battle weapons from the militants, including AK-47 rifles and rocket-propelled grenades. We will wage war against al Shabaab fighters until we root them out from the region,” said Abdi Nassir Sarer, a spokesman for Ras Kamboni.
He said that they have captured a number of al Shabaab fighters during the attack and raids. There has not been any comment from al Shabaab militants about the claims of Ras Kamboni movement over the battle in Lower Jubba region on Friday.
http://www.shabelle.net/
Somali MP opposes Ethiopian troop’s presence in country
24 Nov – Source: Radio Shabelle – 142 words
A Somali Member of Parliament has described the entry of Ethiopian troops into Somalia as illegal. Speaking to the press in Mogadishu, Ugas Muhammad Bashir, a member of the Somali Transitional Parliament said Ethiopian forces’ entry inside Somalia is illegal.
The lawmaker further said it was necessary for the government to disclose if there was any agreement it signed with neighbouring countries. He described Ethiopian army’s entry into Somalia without the government making any statement about it as unfortunate. Furthermore, the Member of Parliament depicted that as a transgression to the freedom of the Somali people.
Recently, the Somali Defence Minister Husayn Arab Isse said the government will welcome Ethiopian troops who have entered the country, adding the army will support the government in its fight against al Shabaab.
Somali MP expresses concern over security in capital
24 Nov – Source: Radio Shabelle – 167 words
The parliamentary committee on Security has expressed concern over the security situation in Mogadishu as there were several explosions in the capital in the last few days. In which several people were killed.
Legislator Salad Ali Jele, one of the members of the committee, talked about the insecurity situation which the capital experienced in the last few days. He said one cannot rely on the capital’s security.
“Firstly, the enemy is still in the city, it is required to oust them from it. It is required [of us] to go to bridges in Afgoye and Balcad towns to strengthen the security of Mogadishu, ” said the Member of Parliament. He also urged government ministries concerning security matters to strengthen security in the country.
This comes a day after a bomb explosion killed several civilians in Wadajir District, Banadir Region in Mogadishu. Wadajir Administration accused al Shabaab of being behind the explosion.
Djibouti and Somaliland collaborate on water project
24 Nov – Source: Somaliland press, Universal TV – 147 words
A large delegation of Djibouti officials took a visit on Wednesday to the village of El-Gaal area Somaliland to Seleel which hosted the opening of a borehole built with financial support from the authorities of Djibouti.
Somaliland Minister of Energy and Water Resources, Mr. Hussein Abdi Dualeh, inaugurated a drill conducted with financial assistance from Djibouti in the town of El-Gaal, capital region of Seleel south of Somaliland.
Alongside this ceremony, Minister Somaliland Energy and Water took delivery of one ambulance granted by the governmental Djiboutian Medical Center locality to El-Gaal locality.
Two killed in Mogadishu roadside bomb targeting AMISOM Convoy
24 Nov – Source: Hadh-wanaag News – 123 words
At least two people have been killed by a roadside bomb attack targeting AMISOM convoy that was traveling north of Mogadishu. Local residents told Hadhwanaag Times that the bomb was very heavy as it was heard in many parts of the capital.
The slain people in the roadside bomb attack were reportedly civilians. No casualties were sustained by AMISOM soldiers who came under attack.
Al Shabaab is believed to have carried out the attack. In August this year, the al Shabaab Islamist movement pulled out of many parts in the capital after a relentless offensive by government forces backed by African Union forces.
Somalia retains its CECAFA position
25 Nov – Source: Hiiraan Online – 352 words
Somalia has successfully retained its executive committee member in the council of east and central African football Associations (CECAFA) with Somali FA secretary General Abdi Qani Said Arab elected as executive committee member once again yesterday.
CECAFA president Leodegar Tenga of Tanzania and his secretary General Nicholas Musonye of Kenya also remained in their seats of the regional football governing body election which went place in Tanzanian capital Dar es Salaam yesterday.
President Tenga, who also leads Tanzanian football federation was unanimously elected after his supposed challenger, the president of Djibouti’s Football Federation Mr. Hussein Fadoul Dabar failed to come to Tanzania for the election due to growing pressure from his government in Djibouti.
“After a marathon four days of meetings and hard jobs we have ended our election and we are now looking forward to the start of our competition tomorrow” Nicholas Musonye told a post election press conference yesterday.
“Our election has successfully concluded and the following people were elected as the CECAFA executive committee members: Mr. Lodegar Tenga is the president and will serve for the next four years and his executive committee members are: Abdi Qani Said Arab of Somalia, Tariq Atta Salih from Sudan, Sahilu Wolde from Ethiopia and Raul Gisanura from Rwanda—the executive committee members will serve for two years” CECAFA secretary General Nicholas Musonye said in his post-election press conference.
Four other executive committee candidates who failed in the election are: Justus Mugisha from Uganda, Tesfaye Gebreyesus from Eritrea, Hafish Ali Taher from Zanzibar and Abubakar Nkejinama of Burundi.
http://hiiraan.com/news2/2011/
REGIONAL MEDIA
US Senator asks US and NATO to support Kenya’s Somalia incursion
25 Nov – Source: The Standard – 720 words
Pressure mounted on the US and NATO to recognize and support Kenya’s incursion into Somalia to root out the Al Shabaab terrorist network in southern Somalia when a US Senator rose on the floor of the senate to applaud Kenya’s move.
Addressing his colleagues in the Senate in Washington, DC, Senator Mark Kirk (IL) thanked the Government of Kenya and President Mwai Kibaki in particular for the difficult and bold decision made to invade Somalia to get rid of Al Shabaab. The senator said he supported Kenya’s move and called on the US and NATO to support Kenya’s Action.
“I rise today to thank the Kenya government and President Mwai Kibaki for the difficult move made with regards to Somalia. I support Kenya’s move and ask the US government and NATO to support Kenya’s action. We all recall Somalia as the site of ‘Black Hawk Down’ tragedy in 1993 and as much as Americans might wish to ignore that troubled country, I think we can’t,” he said.
Kenya deployed tanks and troops to the Al Shabaab-controlled southern Somalia on October 14 to fight the Al-Qaeda-linked rebels the country blames for kidnapping foreigners and making cross-border raids thus disturbing the peace and threatening the tourism industry.
Since the invasion, Kenya has been on the diplomatic offensive to rally international support arguing that the Al Shabaab threat is not just a threat on the peace and security of Kenya but also the international community.
Ethiopian Prime Minister hold talks with Somali President
24 Nov – Source: Ethiopian News Agency – 119 words
Prime Minister Meles Zenawi here on Thursday held talks with the Somali Transitional Federal Government (TFG) President Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed.
Prime Minister Meles said Ethiopia will strengthen its support to the TFG in a bid to build peace and stability in that country. He said Ethiopia will closely work with the TFG to eliminate Al-Shabaab.
The Somali President Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed on his part said his government is desirous to further boost the bilateral relation with Ethiopia.
He urged the Ethiopian government to strengthen its support to the efforts of the TFG to eliminate Al-Shabaab. President Sheikh Sherif Sheik Ahmed arrived here on Thursday afternoon to take part in the IGAD meeting to be opened on Friday.
http://www.ena.gov.et/
Military should change tactics to win the war
24 Nov – Source: Daily Nation – 499 words Do not repeat the tactics which have gained you one victory, but let your methods be regulated by the infinite variety of circumstances.
“Military tactics are like water; water in its natural course steers away from high places and quickly flows downwards. So in war, the tactic is to avoid what is strong and strike what is weak. Water marks its course according to the nature of the ground over which it flows; a soldier works out his victory according to the enemy he is facing. He who can modify his tactics in relation to his opponent and thereby succeed in winning, may be called a heaven-boy”. Sun Tzu, the Art of War.
These words, so eloquently stated, can apply to our forces’ current position in Somalia. The promise that the Joint Task Force will not deliberately target Somalia towns and will take all measures necessary to minimise collateral damage, is a great comfort to the Somali citizens opposed to the Al-Shabaab militia.
First, it is bound to woo the moderates into supporting the Kenyan initiative. Secondly, it will deny the militia a weapon of propaganda that they have been anticipating with bated breath. Thirdly, it will give the TFG badly needed credit for being in control of the campaign.
Red alert over al Shabaab attacks
25 Nov – Source: The Star – 68 words
Internal security PS Francis Kimemia wants Kenyans to be extra vigilant in the wake of attacks by sympathizers of al-shabaab yesterday in Mandera and Garissa. Kimemia says the attacks targeting non-Muslim establishments that killed four people are meant to generate public anger on the war on Al-shabaab inside Somalia.
Three people were killed in Garissa explosions and more than 27 injured, while a soldier was killed in Mandera.
Kenyan troops destroy al Shabaab camps
25 Nov – Source: The Standard – 901 words
Air strikes by the Kenya Defence Forces have destroyed two Al Shabaab camps identified as Wamaitho and Kisima near the town of Babade in Somalia, killing seven militants and injuring eight.
KDF and TFG troops also attacked an Al Shabaab training camp in the town of Hawina between the towns of Dobley and Tabda killing 3 insurgents and capturing two AK 47 rifles.
A statement released by the military said the latest assault had further crippled the militia group that has been under assault by a combined land, air and sea assault from the Kenya Defence Forces.
“KDF (Kenya Defence Force) air strikes successfully destroyed two Al Shabaab camps,” military spokesman Major Emmanuel Chirchir said the day after the attacks near Badade, some 30km from the Kenyan border.
Kenyan soldiers blockade al Shabaab revenue source
25 Nov – Source: Daily Monitor – 408 words
Kenyan troops have blockaded the port of Kismayu, effectively cutting off al-Shabaab’s main source of revenue.
The Kenya Air Force and Kenya Navy have been patrolling the skies above Kismayu and the sea. As a result, an operation at the busy port has significantly reduced over the last four weeks.
Air force pilots told the Nation on Wednesday after conducting aerial surveillance that five ships that had been docked at the port had departed leaving behind a few sailing boats and skiffs. Al-Shabaab has mainly relied on millions of dollars they collect from the ships that dock at the port.
The ships bring in sugar and electronics which are mainly smuggled into Kenya. They take out charcoal destined for the Middle East. The militants also collect revenue from fishermen in Ras Kamboni and Bur Gabo.
http://www.monitor.co.ug/News/
Four killed after separate attacks in northern Kenya
24 Nov – Source: Daily Nation online – 407 words
Four people were killed and at least eight injured in separate attacks in Kenya’s North Eastern province on Thursday. Three died on the spot in two near-simultaneous grenade attacks in Garissa Town on Thursday evening. The first explosion took place on Ngamia Road near Garissa Catholic Church, some three kilometres from the town centre, while the other took place at Chege’s Cafe within the town. Residents said they first heard three gunshots before the explosions. Police said all security agents have been mobilised and a curfew imposed in the town.
In Mandera, suspected Al-Shabaab militants blew up a Kenya military truck and opened fire on troops in the border town. In what is perceived as a revenge attack, the militants used an improvised bomb against the soldiers, who were on patrol. A soldier was killed and three others injured, according to the Department of Defence, bringing to nine the number of soldiers killed in Operation Linda Nchi. Five of those died in a helicopter accident at the border town of Liboi. Reports from witnesses said Kenyan troops were shot at from two directions after the explosion at Mlima Fisi. They suffered leg injuries and severe burns, witnesses said. The attackers reportedly fled into the bush after the troops returned fire.
Sophisticated improvised explosive devices have been widely used against allied forces in Iraq and Afghanistan, but the one used in the attack appeared to be a landmine. At the front, Kenyan forces attacked Al-Shabaab camps in air and ground assaults, Department of Defence Spokesman Emmanuel Chirchir said on Thursday.
The Kenya Air Force carried out two airstrikes on two Al-Shabaab training camps on Wednesday. Maj Chirchir said post-attack assessment confirmed seven militants were killed and weapons recovered. The third attack on another Al-Shabaab training camp by Transitional Federal Government and Kenyan ground troops killed three militants, the Army said.
Major Chirchir said Kenyan and TFG soldiers attacked an Al-Shabaab training camp in the town of Hawina between Dobley and Tabda. During Thursday’s engagement, “three Al-Shabaab militants were killed and two AK47 rifles captured. Several Al-Shabaab militias escaped with injuries,” he said.
On the Moyale attack, Major Chirchir said Kenyan troops on board a service truck drove over a planted improvised explosive device while on patrol duties in the general area of Mlima Fisi in Mandera. Five soldiers were seriously injured and were airlifted to Garissa for treatment. One soldier died.
Kenyan soldiers distribute food in Ras Kamboni
24 Nov – Source: NTV – 2:32 min
Kenyan soldiers deployed in Ras Kamboni took a break from combat operations against the Al Shabaab and took part in the distribution of relief food amongst locals, who have been facing starvation. NTV’s John-Allan Namu has more.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?
UNCHR worries on situation in Horn of Africa
25 Nov – Source: Kuwait News Agency – 279 words
The UN refugee’s agency UNHCR said on Friday that there are currently 950,000 registered Somali refugees in neighbouring countries, with Kenya, Yemen, Ethiopia and Djibouti hosting more than 90 percent of them.
“This year alone, some 289,000 Somalis have sought refuge in neighbouring countries, mostly in Kenya and Ethiopia. Within Somalia, nearly 1.5 million Somalis are internally displaced, mostly in south-central areas.”, said the UNHCR in its periodic update about the situation in the East and Horn of Africa.
The U.N. Food Security Nutrition Analysis Unit has lifted its “famine” designation for three Somali regions – Bakol, Bay and Lower Shabelle, downgrading them to “emergency” phase. The improvement follows a break in the region’s deadly drought and progress in the U.N.’s ability to deliver food to the country’s poorest people. The improved situation in famine data is however described as ‘precarious’.
Premature withdrawal of food and other aid could result in a relapse in the health of the affected population.
In recent months, the U.N. has increased assistance to more than 2.4 million people. The number of people in need of life-saving assistance in Somalia is some 3.3 million.
http://www.kuna.net.kw/
INTERNATIONAL MEDIA
African Union force makes strides inside Somalia
24 Nov – Source: New York Times – 1,208 words
When the first batch of African Union peacekeepers landed at Mogadishu’s decrepit airport in 2007, they were immediately shelled by insurgents with mortars and given little chance of success. This was Somalia after all, the graveyard of several other doomed interventions, and the African Union soldiers were a last resort for a deeply troubled mission.
But four years later and nearly 10,000 soldiers strong, the African Union force in Somalia has hardened into a war-fighting machine — and it seems to be winning the war. Analysts say the African Union has done a better job of pacifying Mogadishu, Somalia’s capital and a hornet’s nest of Islamist militants, clan warlords, factional armies and countless glassy-eyed freelance gunmen, than any other outside force, including 25,000 American troops in the 1990s.
The peacekeepers have “performed better than anyone would have dreamed,” said J. Peter Pham, director of the Africa program at the Atlantic Council, a Washington research institution.
Their surprising success has put the African Union in the driver’s seat of an intensifying international effort to wipe out Somalia’s Shabaab militants, once and for all. Kenya, Ethiopia, the United States, France, Djibouti, Burundi and Uganda have all jumped in to some degree against the Shabaab, a brutal and wily insurgent group that is considered both a regional menace and an international threat, with possible sleeper cells embedded in Somali communities in the United States and Europe.
The Shabaab have been terrorizing Somalia for years, imposing a harsh and alien form of Islam, chopping off heads and unleashing suicide bombers, including Somali-Americans recruited from Minnesota. But the African Union has dealt the Shabaab a crippling blow in Mogadishu, which is what may have encouraged Kenyan and Ethiopian forces to recently invade separate parts of Somalia in an unusual regional effort to spread the Shabaab thin on several fronts and methodically eliminate them. But the Shabaab are hardly giving up. Young, messianic insurgents are viciously resisting the African Union troops, sometimes fighting hand to hand, with both sides suffering heavy losses.
African Union officials, who have been reluctant to disclose casualties and in the past even provided apparently false accounting of the numbers, revealed that more than 500 soldiers had been killed in Somalia, making this peacekeeping mission one of the bloodiest of recent times.
Oct. 20 was a particularly bad day. Shortly after dawn, several hundred peacekeepers marched into Deynile, one of the last Shabaab strongholds in Mogadishu. “It started off easy, too easy,” groaned Cpl. Arcade Arakaza, a Burundian peacekeeper, from a hospital bed in Nairobi.
There was little resistance, with a few Shabaab fighters fleeing in front of them. Civilians smiled from the bullet-riddled doorways, saying things like, “Don’t worry, Shabaab finished.” But suddenly the entire neighbourhood opened up on the peacekeepers with assault rifles, belt-fed machine guns and rocket-propelled grenades, “women, kids, everyone,” Corporal Arakaza said. It was a classic envelope trap, with the Shabaab drawing the peacekeepers deeper into their lair, sealing off the escape routes and then closing in from all sides.
Dozens of peacekeepers were wounded, including Corporal Arakaza, who was shot through the groin, and more than 70 killed in the span of a few minutes. But the African Union soldiers clawed back, eventually capturing a chunk of Shabaab territory.
Unlike the Americans, who hastily left Somalia after 18 soldiers were killed during the infamous Black Hawk Down debacle in 1993, or the United Nations mission that folded not long afterward, the African Union has pressed on. It plans to send thousands more young men from deeply impoverished sub-Saharan nations into the maw of Somalia, an arrangement that is lucrative for the governments of the contributing countries and the soldiers themselves — they each can make $1,000 a month as a peacekeeper compared with as little as $50 back home.
The American government is helping foot this bill, contributing more than $400 million. Even so, some American officials say the mission is underfinanced. They insist the African troops need better flak jackets, more armoured trucks and helicopters. Many peacekeepers bled to death that day in Deynile because they had no way of being rescued.
“These guys are fighting and dying every day and there’s a national interest for us in Somalia,” one American official said. “It’s crazy we’re spending more money on Congo and Darfur,” home to enormous United Nations peacekeeping missions that in total cost the American government more than $1 billion per year, though neither place is considered strategically vital to the United States.
Few in Washington are optimistic about getting the African Union better equipment during a painful round of budget cuts at the Pentagon and State Department. While Darfur, Sudan, and the Democratic Republic of Congo have high-powered champions like Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, who visited eastern Congo to spotlight the rape problem, or the countless celebrities who routinely tour Darfur, several American officials who work on Africa say there is not a strong lobby for Somalia in the White House.
The Pentagon has organized occasional Special Operations strikes to take out wanted Somali terrorist suspects — the Shabaab have drawn increasingly close to Al Qaeda — and the American government is paying contractors to train African Union troops in the ABCs of urban combat. But the official American policy is no boots on the ground, which goes for the French as well, who have also bombed Shabaab camps.
That leaves a dreary infantry war between the ill-equipped African peacekeepers, who come from Burundi and Uganda, with several hundred Djiboutians on their way, and the Shabaab. Sgt. Astere Nimbona, another Burundian peacekeeper, said that his unit had no armoured personnel carriers or tanks on the day of the Deynile battle. He marched nine hours straight under the equatorial sun, lugging pounds of bullets and an empty canteen, before he stepped into the ambush. “What we did was basically suicide,” he said.
The African Union has shifted from blasting Shabaab areas with long-range artillery, which it did in the beginning, killing many civilians, to using foot patrols. They have now succeeded in securing most of Mogadishu, without making nearly as many enemies.
The peacekeepers may soon venture into Somalia’s famine-stricken hinterlands, where the Shabaab have been blocking aid convoys from reaching starving people. There is also talk of bringing the Kenyan troops, and possibly the Ethiopian troops, under the green-and-white African Union flag.
But there is an uncomfortable bigger question. What will these African Union sacrifices amount to? All peacekeeping experts say the same thing: that peacekeepers are a Band-Aid on a gaping wound, a way to buy time until a political process takes hold and alleviates the causes of the conflict.
In Somalia, the political process seems as bleak as ever. The Transitional Federal Government, Somalia’s internationally recognized authority that the African Union protects, is a collection of corrupt politicians and warlords who control almost no territory and are exceedingly unpopular.
The government has yet to fix schools, open hospitals or deliver services in just about all the neighbourhoods the African Union has wrested away from the Shabaab in battles that often cost dozens of lives for a few crumbling city blocks.
Kenya arrests hundreds after deadly attacks blamed on al Shabaab
25 Nov – Source: dpa-Deutsche Presse-Agentur, monster sandcritics – 136 words
Kenyan authorities have arrested hundreds of people after attacks believed to have been carried out by the Somali al-Shabaab militia killed at least three civilians and a soldier in the east of the country, local broadcaster KTN reported on Friday. The arrests seemed to be focused on ethnic Somalis who live in the north-east of the country.
At least three people were killed and 27 injured in two grenade blasts at a hotel and a popular shopping are in the town of Garissa, near the border with Somalia. The Kenyan military also said a soldier was killed by a landmine in Mandera on Thursday.
Kenya launched a military assault against the al-Shabaab militia in neighbouring Somalia, sending in hundreds of troops, backed by the air force, to set up a buffer area in the border region.
Four killed in Mogadishu explosion
25 Nov – Source: AFP – 147 words
Three Somali soldiers and a civilian were killed Friday when a roadside bomb the officers picked up to detonate elsewhere exploded inside their vehicle, officials and witnesses said.
The soldiers picked up the device at a road intersection in Mogadishu’s Bakara district and moments later it ripped apart their vehicle, also killing one civilian and injuring four others who were nearby.
“Three soldiers and a woman who was passing by the area were killed and several others injured in the explosion,” Mohamed Ali, a government security official told AFP.
Jama Ibrahim, a witness, said: “The pick-up truck was totally destroyed by the explosion. It was driving off and suddenly there was a heavy explosion and smoke.”
Several roadside bombs and grenade explosions have rocked the war-shattered Somali capital since the Al-Qaeda-linked Shabaab rebels abandoned their bases there in August and resorted to guerrilla attacks against the government.
Fact box: Foreign military incursions in Somalia
25 Nov – Source: Reuters – 469 words
Ethiopia is standing by to bolster forces in Somalia to stretch Islamist rebels targeted by a Kenyan military incursion. Here are details of foreign interventions in the anarchic Horn of Africa country over the last 20 years.
- 1990s
August 1992 – The first contingent of U.N. troops under the United Nations Operation in Somalia, or UNOSOM, arrives to monitor a ceasefire in Mogadishu after the fall of Dictator Mohammed Siad Barre, overthrown the year before. In December the United Nations authorises member states to form the Unified Task Force (UNITAF) led by the United States to deploy troops to deliver humanitarian aid. UNITAF sends in some 37,000 troops.
May 1993 – A second U.N. force, UNOSOM II, takes over from U.S. troops. On June 5, 23 Pakistani soldiers arekilled in fighting with warlord Mohammed Farah Aideed’s forces. The U.N. mission suffers a fatal blow soon afterwards when 18 U.S. Rangers sent to hunt down Aideed are killed in Mogadishu.
- Remaining U.S. forces withdraw and UNOSOM II follows in March 1995, leaving local warlords to fight on. Some 150 U.N. personnel were killed during the mission.
- 2006 -2010
June 2006 – Islamist militia loyal to the Somalia Islamic Courts Council seize Mogadishu after defeating U.S.-backed warlords.
December 2006 – With tacit U.S. approval, Somalia’s neighbour Ethiopia sends in troops to defend the interim government. The Ethiopian force advances rapidly, taking Mogadishu and driving the Islamists to Somalia’s southern tip.
Early 2007 – AMISOM, an African Union peacekeeping force, deploys, comprised of Ugandan and Burundian troops, with main responsibility for keeping the interim authority, the Transitional Federal Government, in power.
January 2009 – Ethiopian troops withdraw, leaving Islamist al Shabaab rebels in control of much of southern and central Somalia.
- 2011
Mid-October – Kenya deploys troops into Somalia to pursue rebels it blames for a series of kidnappings on Kenyan soil and frequent assaults on its security forces in its North Eastern border province. Al Shabaab had pulled most of its fighters out of Mogadishu in August, resorting to suicide attacks and guerrilla-style tactics against AMISOM troops.
October 29 – Kenya’s military chief says it will end its Somalia campaign only when it is satisfied it has stripped al Shabaab of its capacity to attack across the border. Al Shabaab, intent on imposing a strict version of Islamic sharia law in Somalia, vows revenge against Kenya and to bring the “flames of war” to its neighbour.
Nov. 21 — Residents say al Shabaab has begun withdrawing from at least two rebel enclaves in central Somalia after an incursion by hundreds of Ethiopian troops.
Addis Ababa denies that its forces have entered Somalia, but local residents and elders say scores of Ethiopian vehicles ferrying troops and weapons have moved at least 80 km (50 miles) into the country.
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