June 6, 2018 | Morning Headlines

Two Somali Lawmakers Killed In Al-Shabaab Ambush – Army Officer

05 June – Source: Reuters – 230 Words

Two lawmakers from Somalia’s semi-autonomous Hirshabelle state were killed on Tuesday along with several of their bodyguards in an ambush near the Somali capital Mogadishu claimed by militant Islamist group al Shabaab. Major Abdullahi Abdirahman, a Somali army officer, said the lawmakers had been riding in a small car escorted by 10 soldiers in a military pickup truck when the ambush took place in the village of Elka Gelow some 45 km (28 miles) north of Mogadishu.  “The lawmakers, Sheikh Dahir and Ismail Mumin, died in the fighting. Several of their bodyguards were also killed. Some bodyguards escaped into the jungle and are still missing,” Abdirahman told Reuters.

However, a local resident said no one riding in the two vehicles had survived the ambush. “Al-Shabaab hit the two cars with rocket-propelled grenades and the two lawmakers and their 10 bodyguards were all killed,” the resident, Ali Ibrahim, said. Al Qaeda-affiliated Al-Shabaab is trying to topple Somalia’s Western-backed government and establish its own rule based on a strict interpretation of Islamic Sharia law.

The group also aims to drive the Africa Union-mandated peacekeeping force AMISOM from Somalia.  Abdiasis Abu Musab, al Shabaab’s military operations spokesman, told Reuters they had carried out the ambush and said they had killed all the occupants of the two vehicles.  Last month the group killed another lawmaker from Hirshabelle state, also in an attack outside Mogadishu.

Key Headlines

• Two Somali Lawmakers Killed In Al-Shabaab Ambush – Army Officer (Reuters)
• Fish Prices Shot Up In Kismayo As Heavy Waves Bar Deep Sea Fishing (Goobjoog News)
• Somali Government Donates 1 Million Dollars To Cyclone-hit Communities In Somaliland (Hiiraan Online)
• AMISOM Lauded For Effective Implementation Of Community Projects In Somalia (AMISOM)
• Somalia And The Gulf Crisis (International Crisis Group)

NATIONAL MEDIA

Fish Prices Shot Up In Kismayo As Heavy Waves Bar Deep Sea Fishing

05 June – Source: Goobjoog News- 142 Words

Fish prices in Kismayo have shot up in the last few weeks owing to reduced supplies and high demand witnessed during the month of Ramadan. Fishermen in Kismayo told Goobjoog News the heavy waves at sea have made it difficult for fishermen to catch enough fish while at the same time the demand has significantly increased. The fishermen can not go for deep sea fishing now because the ocean in very hostile as a result of the waves, a local said. A kilogram of fish which retailed at $2 now goes for $5 forcing locals to resort to alternatives to meet their daily food needs.

The Somali fishing industry has a high potential for growth and job creation. Though it is not among the top three contributors to the country’s GDP, the fishing industry is gradually growing as Somalis adopt fish away from beef.

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Somali Government Donates 1 Million Dollars To Cyclone-hit Communities In Somaliland

05 June – Source: Hiiraan Online – 104 Words

The Somali Federal Government has donated one million dollars to the people affected by the recent cyclone that hit parts of the breakaway Republic of Somaliland. The announcement was made by the National Flood Response Committee in a meeting in Mogadishu, chaired by Deputy Prime Minister Mahdi Mohamed Guled, who is also the chairman of the committee.

Deputy Prime Minister Guled said the government allocated one million dollars to help the cyclone-affected communities in worst-hit regions in Awdal and Waqooyi Galbeed. He noted that the government paid extra efforts to help citizens affected by the floods and storms in several parts of the country.

INTERNATIONAL MEDIA

AMISOM Lauded For Effective Implementation Of Community Projects In Somalia

05 June – Source: AMISOM – 422 Words

A visiting delegation from the African Union (AU) headquarters left Somalia today, after a three-day assessment tour of AU funded community projects in the country. The team evaluated Quick Impact Projects in the capital Mogadishu and in Kismayo, the administrative capital of Jubbaland state, to assess their impact on beneficiary households. “We came to evaluate whether the Caterpillar Police Station has improved the working conditions of the police in Jubbaland; whether it has enhanced the maintenance of law and order to local communities here; to see also whether it has increased access to justice for women, children and for the general community,” said AU’s Mr. Mike Bugason, who led the delegation to a police station in Kismayo, which was refurbished and equipped by the African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM), last May.

Since it’s renovation, the station has facilitated speedy determination of criminal cases.  At least 80-criminal cases have been conclusively investigated by Jubbaland Police through the facility. “The existence of the police station has improved the security situation in this area and served the community well. The level of crime has gone down and the public is able to access the station to report crime,” said Abdinasir Mohamed Shire, a resident of Alanley village.

His sentiments were echoed by the station’s Commander Mohamed Ahmed Ali. “The station has been effective in preventing crime and maintaining law and order,” said the Ali, who emphasized the importance of involving local communities in fighting crime. “The officers socialize with the local community and the community in turn works closely with the station, by sharing important information with the police,” he added.

OPINION, ANALYSIS AND CULTURE

“Farmaajo’s position of neutrality in the Gulf crisis shocked and angered the Saudis and Emiratis. He reasoned – correctly in my view – that Somalia had important relations with all parties and no interest in their dispute. Asserting Somalia’s sovereignty was in Somalia’s interest. Besides, Turkey is a huge investor in Somalia and Qatar helps in other ways. Roughly four years earlier, when the Saudis demanded that Somalia break ties with Iran and expel its diplomats and citizens, it did so immediately. This defiance from a formerly compliant and weak African state was unwelcome.”

Somalia And The Gulf Crisis

05 June – Source: International Crisis Group – 8,124 Words

The bitter rivalries underpinning the crisis among members of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) have added a dangerous new twist to Somalia’s instability. Competition between the United Arab Emirates (UAE), on the one hand, and Qatar and, by extension, Turkey on the other has aggravated longstanding intra-Somali disputes: between factions in the capital; between Mogadishu and the regions; and between it and the self-declared Republic of Somaliland. Abu Dhabi’s relations with the government of President Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed “Farmajo” have tanked. Farmajo’s government accuses the Emiratis of funding its rivals and stoking opposition, particularly in Somalia’s federal states. Emirati officials deny meddling and accuse Farmajo of falling under Doha’s and Ankara’s sway. All sides need to take a step back. Farmajo’s government should abide by strict neutrality in the intra-GCC spat and seek to reconcile with its Somali rivals. The UAE should pledge to coordinate its aid and commercial interests with Mogadishu. Talks between the Somali and UAE governments are a priority.

After the June 2017 Gulf crisis, which saw Saudi Arabia, the UAE and a number of allies sever diplomatic relations with and impose an economic blockade on Qatar, President Farmajo, who had assumed office only months earlier, faced intense Saudi and Emirati pressure – reportedly pushing him to cut ties with Doha. Farmajo insisted he preferred not to pick sides. But for the UAE, reports that the president had received Qatari funds ahead of his election and his appointment of officials known to be close allies of Doha belied his claims of neutrality. Abu Dhabi feared that increased Qatari and Turkish backing for the Somali government could embolden political Islamists – whose influence it regards as a threat but to whom Doha and Ankara tend to be more sympathetic – and that, amid intense jockeying for influence around the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden, it was fast losing ground to its main geopolitical rivals.

In response, the UAE appears to have stepped up support for other Somali factions and Somalia’s federal states. The Farmajo government in turn has displayed an increasingly authoritarian bent, using rivals’ alleged ties to the UAE to justify crackdowns against them. Long adept at manipulating foreign involvement, politicians across the Somali spectrum have exploited the escalating rivalry for their own ends. Mounting tension between the UAE and what it perceives as a Qatar- and Turkey-backed government in Mogadishu intersects with a number of Somali fault lines. First, it has amplified disputes between the government and rival factions in the capital, complicating a crisis in the Somali parliament that threatened to turn violent in late 2017. In early 2018, the government raided the homes and offices of two prominent critics, accusing them of receiving Emirati funds. Deteriorating relations between the Somali government and the UAE also may heighten risks of factionalism within the Somali security forces; Somali officials accuse Emirati-backed units of ignoring orders (Abu Dhabi says all troops were under the Somali Ministry of Defence’s command).

Still more perilous is the deterioration in Farmajo’s relations with Somalia’s federal states. As his government refused to distance itself from Qatar, federal states, some of which depend on Emirati investment and chafed at Mogadishu charting a course on the Gulf crisis they perceived as contrary to their interests, took a public stand against his position. Circumventing the capital, some appear to have accelerated negotiations with DP World – an Emirati conglomerate the activity of which is widely perceived as serving Abu Dhabi’s strategic goals – over deals that would see DP World develop and manage their ports. Recent months have seen increasingly heated recriminations between senior government officials and federal state leaders, some of whom have made provocatively timed trips to Abu Dhabi.