29 Nov 2011 – Morning headlines
Key Headlines:
- UN condemns al Shabaab raids and humanitarian aid ban
- TFG seeks support from elders in Lower Jubba
- Armed clan militias clash in Galkayo Mudug region
- Somali government tightens Mogadishu security
- Somali rebel group bans 16 international local aid agencies
- Security operation launched in Garissa North Eastern Kenya
- Eritrea wants apology and Kenya publicly condemned
SOMALI MEDIA
TFG seeks support from elders in Lower Jubba
28 Nov – Source: Radio Bar-kulan – 149 words
Somali government officials in parts of Lower Juba are holding talks with the area’s elders in efforts to drum up support for the government’s military activities in the area. The meeting which is taking place in Qoqani town for the third day running is aimed at convincing traditional elders to rally behind government troops battling rebel fighters in the region.
100 Somali national deported from Saudi Arabia
28 Nov – Source: Radio Mogadishu, SONNA – 150 words
More than one hundred Somali nationals who sought asylum in Somali Saudi Arabia have been repatriated back to Somalia by the Saudi government. The Somalis who were in search of better livelihood in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia say that they were subjected to constant harassment and lacked the basic amenities for survival.
Somali rebel group bans 16 international, local aid agencies
28 Nov – Source: Mareeg Online – 149 words
Al Shabaab fighters have on Monday closed down about twenty aid agencies working in their strong hold famine-hit Somali regions, including some from the UN, accusing them of political bias. Militants stormed aid offices in the towns of Baidoa and Beledweyne, which are controlled by al Shabaab, witnesses say. The list of banned aid groups include the United Nations refugee agency, World Health Oganization, UNICEF and other international humanitarian agencies.
http://www.shabelle.net/
Armed clan militias clash in Galkayo, Mudug region
28 Nov – Source: Radio Bar-kulan, Radio Galkacyo – 76 words
Two people were killed and three others wounded after two clan militias exchanged gunfire inside Somalia’s central city of Galkayo, reports say. Eyewitnesses told Bar-kulan that the fight which occurred in the north of the city is said to have been triggered by long standing clan rivalry in the area.
Somali government tightens Mogadishu security
28 Nov- Source: Shabelle – 174 words
The TFG yesterday disclosed that, it will tighten the overall security of the capital Mogadishu as operations are under way for the third day conducting by TFG police. The commander of Somali armed forces A/kadir Shiek Ali Dini vowed, while addressing last night a ceremony held in the presidential palace in the capital to prevent any acts against the stability of the city.
http://www.shabelle.net/
Al Shabaab raid aid offices in Somalia town
28 Nov – Source: Somalia Report – 349 words
Al Shabaab have seized the offices and equipment of several aid agencies in Baidoa as the group issued a list of foreign organizations it said were banned from Somalia for conducting illicit information gathering operations. Witnesses said that fighters raided the offices of UNICEF, WHO, Concern and COOPI in Baidoa early Monday morning. “They put armed militias in front at the offices of these aid agencies,” an aid worker who wished to remain anonymous told Somalia Report.
Somali elders’ consultative meeting wraps up in Mogadishu
28 Nov – Source: Shabelle – 239 words
A three day consultative meeting for Somalia’s Hawiya elders has been on Monday wrapped up in Mogadishu, which has been shed the light on matters related to nation. Clan elders from Hawiya, Darod,Dir, Digil and Mirifle and ten members of the Somali Interim Federal parliament were among the attendants of the event.
http://www.shabelle.net/
REGIONAL MEDIA
Security operation launched in Garissa, North Eastern Kenya
28 Nov – Source: the Star – 464 words
A major security operation was underway yesterday in Mandera to arrest members of the suspected al Shabaab militia who raided a police post and seized weapons before burning a mobile phone transmission mast early Saturday. Internal Security permanent secretary Francis Kimemia said the soldiers and the police have been deployed to beef up security and prevent militias crossing over from Somalia and carrying out attacks.
http://www.the-star.co.ke/
Eritrea wants apology and Kenya publicly condemned
28 Nov – Source: Coastweek,Xinhua – 807 words
Kenya has filed a case before the UN Security Council’s sanctions committee, calling for investigations into Eritrea’s alleged support to Somali militants days after Asmara’s called for reprimand against Kenya. Kenya’s UN Permanent Representative Macharia Kamau filed the case days after the Eritrean foreign minister Osman Saleh wrote to the Council, calling for independent investigations into Kenya’s accusations that it was arming the al Shabaab in Somalia.
http://www.coastweek.com/3447_
INTERNATIONAL MEDIA
UN condemns al Shabaab raids and humanitarian aid ban
28 Nov – Source: VOA – 466 words
United Nations officials have condemned Somalia’s al Shabaab insurgents for raiding the offices of several humanitarian agencies on Monday and banning their activities. The developments come as the Islamic rebels face mounting military opposition. U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon condemned al Shabaab’s seizure of property and equipment belonging to aid groups and U.N. agencies in central and southern Somalia, calling the attacks “brazen.”
Somali militants ban 16 aid groups and UN agencies in south Somalia ‘after year-long review’
28 Nov – Source: AP – 621 words
The Somali militant group al Shabaab on Monday banned 16 aid groups — including a half dozen U.N. agencies — from central and southern Somalia, a decision likely to harm Somalis already suffering from drought and famine. The banning of the aid groups falls in line with the group’s skeptical view of the outside world, but will worsen the suffering of the hundreds of thousands of Somalis who have come to depend on aid in the Horn of Africa country’s worst famine since 1991-92.
Tough sentences for Somali ‘pirates’ urged
28 Nov – Source: AFP – 282 words
French prosecutors urged a court on Monday to impose tough sentences of up to 16 years in prison on six Somali men on trial in Paris for taking a French couple hostage on their yacht. “We cannot compromise on the fate and the freedom of our citizens,” lead prosecutor Anne Obez-Vosgien told the court. The “misery” of life in war-torn Somalia, she added, cannot “justify crime”.