July 23, 2018 | Daily Monitoring Report
Somali Army Destroy Al-Shabaab’s Networks In Southern Region
23 July – Source: Xinhua – 150 Words
The Somali National Army (SNA) destroyed al-Shabab militants’ networks on Saturday in locations near Qoryoley town in lower Shabelle town in southern Somalia, officials said Sunday. Army Commander Mohamed Mohamud Gutale told State-owned radio the military operation targeted militants’ strongholds and successfully destroyed the terrorists’ equipment.
“Well-planned military operation destroyed al-Shabab networks in this region on Saturday, we captured some militant members during the operation where terrorists used to prepare explosive elements,” Gutale said.
He did not comment on the number of militants who were captured during the operation by the SNA or the number of casualties on the SNA side and if they were international partners who accompanied them in the operation so far.
Gutale said the militant group in January completely destroyed one of two main bridges in Qoryoley town with landmine explosion. The bridge was very important to the movement of people and goods in the region.
Key Headlines
- Somali Army Destroy Al-Shabaab’s Networks In Southern Region (Xinhua)
- President Moves To Military Base After Attack Outside Presidential Palace (Garowe Online)
- Al-Shabaab Militants Attack Somali Military Base Near Kismayo Town (Hiiraan Online)
- Somali Father Defends FGM After Daughter 10 Dies (BBC)
- Author Tells Of Kidnapping By Somali Pirates He’d Gone To Interview (9News.com)
NATIONAL MEDIA
President Moves To Military Base After Attack Outside Presidential Palace
23 July – Source: Garowe Online – 247 Words
Somali President, Mohamed Abdullahi Farmajo has reportedly moved his office to a military camp in the capital, Mogadishu. The move by the President, who momentarily shifted base upon returning from Brussels on official duty, follows Al-Shabaab’s deadly car bombings and gun attack outside the Presidential Palace, popularly known as Villa Somalia, on July 14. The attack left at least eight people dead.
Sources confirmed to Garowe Online that President Farmajo had temporarily moved his operational base to General Gordon, a former United Arab Emirates-run training center in the capital, from where he would continue to transact official government businesses.
Officials at Villa Somalia have raised concerns over State House security following latest attacks, which took place amidst the heavy presence of government troops along main roads of the seaside city. Last week, a car bomb went off on a road outside the entrance of the President’s official residence a few hours after Farmajo’s convoy had driven past the same route. This sparked off gunfight between the Al-Shabaab attackers, dressed in military uniform, and the presidential guards.
The security officials further said they believed the President’s motorcade was the main target. However, the office of President Farmajo is yet to comment on the incident. The western-backed weak Federal Government in Mogadishu is facing a major challenge of rebuilding the country’s security agencies, as the leaders of Somalia continue to differ on the best way of navigating through the process. The President regularly consults with the military commanders in their bases in Mogadishu. The army, is currently being prepared to a takeover security tasks from the African Union forces ahead of their anticipated exit in 2020.
Al-Shabaab Militants Attack Somali Military Base Near Kismayo Town
23 July – Source: Hiiraan Online – 119 Words
Heavily armed Al-Shabaab militants have attacked a Somali military base in southern Somalia. The fighters from the terrorist group on Sunday detonated Vehicle Borne Improvised Explosive Device (VBIED) at the military camp in the town of Bar-Sanguni near Kismayo town, before engaging soldiers from Somali National Army (SNA).
According to reports, the fighting is ongoing as the militants attacked the base from different directions. Residents near the town of Bar-Sanguni also reported a vehicle explosion targeting SNA troops on Sundaymorning.
Al-Shabaab, which is fighting to overthrow Somalia’s government, routinely targets SNA and AU forces stationed in south and central of the country. The group was pushed out of Mogadishu in 2011 by Somali troops backed by AMISOM soldiers.
INTERNATIONAL MEDIA
Somali Father Defends FGM After Daughter, 10, Dies
22 July – Source: BBC – 316 Words
The father of a 10-year-old girl who died after undergoing female genital mutilation (FGM) in Somalia has defended the practice. Dahir Nur’s daughter died of blood loss on 17 July, two days after being taken to a traditional circumciser.
But he told Voice of America (VOA) “people in the area are content” with FGM even considering the dangers, adding it is the country’s “culture”. According to Unicef, 98% of girls and women in Somalia have undergone FGM. This is despite Somalia’s constitution prohibiting – although not outlawing – the practice, which involves the partial or total removal of the female external genitalia or other injury to the female genital organs for non-medical reasons and can cause profound health problems.
Dr Abdirahman Omar Hassan, director of Hanano hospital in the city of Dhusamareb, told VoA he had never seen “anyone who was mutilated like that in my life”. Dr Hassan, who was on the team who tried to save the girl, also revealed she had caught tetanus, most likely from the unsterilised equipment used during the original procedure.
But Mr Nur said he did not want to pursue charges, and held no one to blame for his daughter’s death. Hawa Aden Mohamed, director of women’s rights group Galkayo Education Center for Peace and Development (GECPD), pointed out even if he did, it would be largely meaningless.
“The woman who performed the operation has not been arrested but even if she was, there is no law that would ensure she is punished for the act,” she told news agency Reuters. “This is just one among many cases happening on a daily basis across Somalia.” Efforts to criminalise FGM in Somalia have been stalled by politicians, who fear it will alienate voters who believe it is a religious requirement, while girls who have not undergone it are reportedly taunted for not being cut.
OPINION, ANALYSIS & CULTURE
“By the time he arrived in Somalia in January 2012, piracy had become a cottage industry for a nation plunged into poverty and lawlessness by years of civil unrest. Young men unable to find other work sailed the high seas in small skiffs looking for people to kidnap and hold for multimillion-dollar ransoms”.
Author Tells Of Kidnapping By Somali Pirates He’d Gone To Interview
23 July – Source: 9News.com – 1066 Words
Michael Scott Moore is walking a bit gingerly these days, but it has nothing to do with the two-and-a-half years he spent imprisoned by Somali pirates, the beatings he suffered, his time spent in chains or the lousy food that caused him to lose 40 pounds. “I got thumped by a wave surfing off Manhattan Beach the other day,” the author of The Desert and the Sea: 977 days Captive on the Somali Pirate Coast says with a sheepish grin. “I’ve got a cracked rib.”
Otherwise Moore, freed by his pirate captors in 2014 after his mother raised a USD $1.6 million ransom, looks fine. He’s dressed casually in a dark blue shirt and jeans as he sits down in the shade of the century-old art-deco building that houses Los Angeles’ downtown library to talk about his latest book.
The Desert and the Sea goes on sale this week, and its 49-year-old author is about to embark on a cross-country tour of readings and signings. The page-turning thriller, published by Harper Collins, takes readers on a relentless journey as Moore reveals the squalid living conditions that nearly killed him, the beatings he endured and the thoughts of suicide he weighed, along with other thoughts of grabbing one of his captor’s machine guns (they were careless about leaving them lying around) and seeing how many of them he could kill before they killed him.
“I don’t know,” he says with a smile when asked how he survived it all. After several seconds of quiet contemplation, he adds that a combination of giving up any immediate hope of freedom and living in the moment helped. So did maintaining a sense of humour while trapped in a very unfunny situation. Thus, the book contains several darkly comic moments.
Like the one when Moore hid the keys to the chains the pirates kept him in after he tried to escape by leaping from an old fishing vessel and attempting to swim to shore. They never could find them and had to buy a new set, something that delighted their captive. Or the time one of the friendlier pirates, knowing Moore holds dual US-German citizenship, woke him one morning to say excitedly that Germany, that year’s World Cup winner, defeated Brazil 7-1 in the semifinal game. Moore dismissed the news as “more pirate bulls–t,” replying that no team scores seven goals in a soccer game. Then he turned on the radio and learned it was true.
Moore first thought of writing a book about modern-day piracy when he came across examples of it in coastal African and southeast Asian nations he visited while seeking out some of the world’s best surfing spots for a 2010 book. Sweetness and Blood, documenting how a loose-knit band of hippies, star-struck wanderers and US military personnel helped turn an ancient Hawaiian sport into an international pop-culture phenomenon, has been hailed as arguably the best historical account of modern-day surfing.
His plans to report on piracy weren’t sealed, however, until he covered the trial of 10 pirates captured after abducting a German cargo ship off Somalia in 2010. Their two-year trial, which Moore covered for the publication Spiegel Online, marked the first case of piracy prosecuted in Germany in nearly 400 years.
“I really wanted to write a book that had material that I hadn’t seen. On pirates,” he says now. “And it became an obsession.” By the time he arrived in Somalia in January 2012, piracy had become a cottage industry for a nation plunged into poverty and lawlessness by years of civil unrest. Young men unable to find other work sailed the high seas in small skiffs looking for people to kidnap and hold for multimillion-dollar ransoms.
TOP TWEETS
@Goobjoognews: @UN helps encourage a respectful panel discussion among Somalis about the future they want for their country – @SRSGKeating during a meeting with #media &#civilsociety members in #Mogadishu
@SRSGKeating: Michael Keating Retweeted UNSOM Lively discussion covering everything from state formation, whether security is possible without more trust among Somalis, whether eco Dev’t is possible without security, role of civil society and of international players. Somalia Somali baaleh.
@Goobjoognews: Al Shabaab attacks a military base in Sanguuni of Kismayo, Somalia
@mpfsomalia: Watch this video on the launch of @SomaliREN. Connectivity is everything in the 21st century – Somali students and researchers deserve the best. Supported by @mpfsomalia. cc: @HonAbdiDahir @engabdiashur
@HarunMaruf: Somali girl dies after undergoing FGM. Doctors say examinations show the girl contracted tetanus because the items used by the person who performed the procedure were not sterilized
@Fatumaabdulahi: Election day for #Kismayo land and dispute committees to choose their chair and vice chair. As part of a new way of working and supporting the committees, the process will be transparent and documented for future reference. #Jubbaland#Somalia
@mullaaxo: Hargeisa is like the 1970’s tonight. At@HargeysaCC , we are enjoying the poems and the jokes of the most famous poets in Somali history: Cabdiqays, Dheeg, Xaddi, Mohamed Dheere, Dacar with Weji and Muse Cali Faruur. #HIBF2018 #Kooxdamusdanbeed
@SRSGKeating: Enjoyed meeting representatives of Galkacyo civil society, youth and women leaders, elders and business people, hear about the role they are playing to prevent conflict, build trust. V happy to receive recognition from them of the work that UN colleagues have done to help them.
IMAGE OF THE DAY
Somali President Mohamed Abdullahi Farmaajo meeting with security agencies leaders in Villa Somalia, yesterday. He instructed the officers to reform the security of the capital.
Photo: Dhacdo.com