July 31, 2018 | Morning Headlines

AMISOM Augments Plans To Enhance Its Forward Operating Bases

30 July – Source: AMISOM – 356 Words

The African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM), has intensified plans to enhance twenty of its Forward Operating Bases (FOBs), over the next six months, to bolster military operations. The enhancement of the selected FOBs, will be implemented in line with the Transition Plan. A team of AU and UNSOS engineering support teams; technical experts from the UK Mission Support Team (UKMST), the Joint Support Operation Centre (JSOC) and the United Nations Mine Action Service (UNMAS), is meeting in the capital Mogadishu, to map out a strategy for the enhancement programme.

Deliberations which will focus on a wellness programme for the FOBs, will also develop a list of bases in need of enhancement and reconstruction: “As AMISOM prepares to handover the security responsibility to the Somali security forces, this conference will come in handy to ensure that 20 FOBs meet the required international standards for security,” Col. Yinka Awolola, the AMISOM Force Engineer said at the official opening of the engineering logistics conference today.

Critical in ensuring effective engineering support to the AU Mission prior to the handover of security responsibilities to the Somali National Security Forces, the conference is expected to come up with firm recommendations to improve future operations. “You are so crucial because you actually determine the operating environment; you shape it; you enable the forces to perform in a better way. You are a force enabler, you are a force multiplier and so, without your skill, without your dedicated support, our forces cannot actually succeed,” the Deputy Head of AMISOM Mr. Simon Mulongo told participants.

He challenged them to ensure adequate technical support to all military activities being undertaken. “With this transition, we need you much more than ever before, so that when we bequeath to the government of Somalia, we have some assets that will remain, as a signature of AMISOM in this country,” he said. The Head of Mission Support Maj. Gen. Fidza Dludlu underscored the importance of ensuring well-fortified military bases. “We need to improve our FOBs; that is non-negotiable. You as sector engineers play a vital role in ensuring that this is complied with.”

Key Headlines

• AMISOM Augments Plans To Enhance Its Forward Operating Bases (AMISOM)
• SNA Seizes Assorted Weapons From Al-Shabaab In Gedo Region (Halbeeg News)
• Parliamentary Security Committee Meets Security Minister And NISA Boss (Jowhar News)
• Somalia Eritrea To Establish Diplomatic Ties Open Embassies (Reuters)
• Mandera Residents Want KDF Redeployed Along Kenya-Somalia Border (KBC News)
• Somalia Eritrea Reconcile As Change Sweeps Horn Of Africa (The New Arab)

NATIONAL MEDIA

SNA Seizes Assorted Weapons From Al-Shabaab In Gedo Region

30 July – Source: Halbeeg News – 193 Words

Somali National Army (SNA) soldiers seized assorted weapons and a technical vehicle in a covert operation in southern Somalia. Gedo Deputy Governor, Osman Nur Hajji, said soldiers who acted on a tip off successfully engaged Al-Shabaab fighters near Luq district.

“Al-Shabaab was amassing its fighters in Kabis village when the Somali military attacked them. Some of the assorted arms, ammunition and a vehicle were recovered,” he said. According to Hajji, Somali military has taken over the bases of the group in the village: “Government forces are now controlling Kabis village, which was previously under Al-Shabaab,” Hajji affirmed.

However Al-Shabaab did not comment on the Gedo deputy governor’s sentiments. The latest development comes barely five days after Somali military soldiers seized a cache of weapons in Bardhere town. Most of the Al-Shabaab fighters fled the region following intensive operation by the joint forces.

SNA and AMISOM forces have launched security operations aimed at opening up main roads linking towns in Gedo and Lower Jubba regions that were initially blocked by Al-Shabaab. The militia group, which wants to topple the internationally recognized Somali government, has been fighting Somalia military soldiers in southern Somalia.

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Parliamentary Security Committee Meets Security Minister And NISA Boss

30 July – Source: Jowhar News – 163 Words

Federal Parliament’s Security Committee on Sunday met with the Security Minister, Mohamed Abukar Islow and the National Intelligence and Security Agency (NISA) boss, Hussein Osman Hussein. The committee engaged the two officials in in-depth discussions on the security situation and ongoing security reforms in the capital of Mogadishu.

The security officials briefed the parliamentary committee on the latest security situation in the country, particularly Mogadishu, and the ongoing security reforms aimed at bolstering the security of the capital. Security Minister, Islow, said there were ongoing plans to reexamine the security reform process in the capital, and singled out some of the leadership changes in security organs including the stabilization force.

The deputy chairman of the parliament’s internal affairs and security, MP Mohamed Abdulle Farah ‘Gesey’, who spoke to the media at the end of the meeting, said they will be implementing all the points raised with the security bosses. Geesey said they also discussed how to conduct the anticipated security operations.

INTERNATIONAL MEDIA

Somalia, Eritrea To Establish Diplomatic Ties, Open Embassies

30 July – Source: Reuters – 218 Words

Eritrea and Somalia plan to establish diplomatic relations, their presidents said on Monday, the latest sign of thawing relations across the Horn of Africa following Eritrea’s rapprochement with Ethiopia. Somali President Mohamed Abdullahi arrived in Eritrea’s capital Asmara on Saturday for meetings with President Isaias Afwerki.

“The two countries will establish diplomatic relations and exchange ambassadors, promote bilateral trade and investment, as well as educational and cultural exchanges,” the two leaders said in a joint statement. The decision by Isaias to invite Abdullahi marked a new chapter for the countries after years of sour relations, reflecting how regional politics have been transformed since a new Ethiopian leader reached out to Eritrea this year.

Past Somali administrations had accused Eritrea of supplying weapons to anti-government Islamist insurgents. Asmara has repeatedly denied this, saying the accusations were concocted by its enemy Ethiopia.

In 2007, Eritrea even walked out of the East African bloc IGAD in protest as Ethiopian forces entered Somalia to fight militants. Eritrea and Ethiopia staged a dramatic rapprochement in recent weeks, after Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed took power in Addis Ababa in April and subsequently announced that he wanted to implement a peace deal that ended their 1998-2000 border war. Eritrea and Ethiopia signed an agreement earlier this month to restore ties, ending two decades of hostility.

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Mandera Residents Want KDF Redeployed Along Kenya-Somalia Border

30 July – Source: KBC News – 231 Words

Residents of Mandera East Constituency have petitioned Parliament to approve the withdrawal of the Kenya Defence Forces from Somalia. The residents want KDF redeployed to man the Kenya-Somalia border, arguing that the mission in Somalia has failed to yield desired objectives.

The residents also want the government amnesty to be extended to all Kenyan returnees who have abandoned the Somalia based Al-Shabaab terror organisation. The residents argue that Kenya’s presence in Somalia has resulted in sustained sporadic attacks in Mandera by the Al-Shabaab. Mandera East MP Omar Maalim argues it is time Kenya called it a day in Somalia.

In the Petition obtained by Channel One, the residents also want Parliament to investigate the effects of terror activities on communities residing along the Kenyan border with Somalia. Dubbed Operation Linda Nchi, the Kenya Defence Forces crossed the border into Somalia on October 6th 2011 in pursuit of Al-Shabaab in response to the group’s terror activities on Kenyan soil.

Over the eight year period, the terror group has carried out dozens of sporadic attacks in areas such as Lamu, Garissa, Nairobi, Mandera and Mombasa. The Petition comes even as the government maintains that Kenya’s full objective is yet to be met in Somalia, with President Kenyatta on Saturday urging for support for Kenya’s men and women in uniform. Maalim is expected to present the petition to Parliament next week.

OPINION, ANALYSIS AND CULTURE

“The history of the three nations, and their fall-outs, have been intertwined. Somalia and Eritrea were once close. Under Somali dictator Siad Barre, the military regime in Mogadishu backed Eritrea’s long fight for independence from Ethiopia, which was attained in 1993.”

Somalia, Eritrea Reconcile As Change Sweeps Horn Of Africa

30 July – Source: The New Arab – 580 Words

The presidents of Somalia and Eritrea agreed to establish diplomatic ties after more than a decade of animosity on Monday, in the latest lightning rapprochement between Horn of Africa rivals. Somali President Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed’s three-day visit to Asmara coincides with an extraordinary peace process between Eritrea and Ethiopia – part of dizzying change in a region burdened by war, proxy conflicts, isolation and iron-fisted rule.

“The two countries will establish diplomatic relations and exchange ambassadors,” read a “joint declaration on brotherly relations” signed in Asmara by Eritrean President Isaias Afwerki and Mohammed, who left for Mogadishu shortly thereafter. The declaration placed special emphasis on Eritrea’s support for the Somali government. “Eritrea strongly supports the political independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity of Somalia as well as the efforts of the people and government of Somalia to restore the country’s rightful stature and achieve the lofty aspirations of its people,” it said.

The document, posted on Eritrea’s information ministry website, also said the two nations “will endeavour to forge intimate political, economic, social, cultural as well as defence and security cooperation”. In addition to this, the two sides will “work in unison to foster regional peace, stability and economic integration”, the document read.

The declaration came just three weeks after Ethiopia and Eritrea declared an end to two decades of conflict, rapidly restoring diplomatic ties and flights between their capitals. At a state banquet on Sunday, Isaias bemoaned the gloomy post-Cold War history of the Horn of Africa. He said the region had been destroyed by “ethnic and clan cleavages” and “external pillage and internal thievery” in the speech which also lashed out at the “micromanagement of anarchy” by the United Nations and NGOs.

“Under these bleak realities, interventionist and expansionist regional agendas in the name of religion, cultural intoxication under various extremist ideologies, terrorism, piracy, human trafficking, as well as trade in weapons and narcotics became the new normal,” he said, according to a speech posted on the information ministry’s website.

“But this epoch of crises, conflict and instability is not inherently sustainable. As such, it is nearing its end. We are indeed entering a new, transitional, phase.” Ethiopia, which is undergoing lightning reforms under new Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, has already formally requested that sanctions be lifted against Eritrea. And in the wake of Ethiopia’s peace with its former rival, its other neighbour and foe Djibouti asked the UN Security Council for help mediating a long-standing border dispute that has soured relations with Asmara.

The history of the three nations, and their fall-outs, have been intertwined. Somalia and Eritrea were once close. Under Somali dictator Siad Barre, the military regime in Mogadishu backed Eritrea’s long fight for independence from Ethiopia, which was attained in 1993. In 1998 Ethiopia and Eritrea began a bloody two-year war over their shared border which left 80,000 dead before settling into a bitter cold war.