October 3, 2018 | Daily Monitoring Report
AMISOM, Partners Meet To Devise Strategies On Countering Potent Threat From IEDs
03 October – Source: AMISOM – 577 Words
The African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM) and key international partners have concluded a meeting in Mogadishu, convened to devise ways of reducing the threat posed by Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs) in Somalia. The meeting, a follow-up to a similar one held in April 2018, deliberated on specific threats, the dynamism of the threats; and explored ways of bolstering efforts to reduce them.
Facilitated by the United Kingdom Mission Support Team (UKMST), the two-day meeting was attended by representatives from the United Nations Support Office in Somalia (UNSOS), the United Nations Mine Action Service (UNMAS), the United States Army, the Turkish Army, the European Union Training Mission (EUTM) in Somalia, and military officers from AMISOM.
Participants discussed mitigation efforts, while analyzing the impact of IEDs along the Main Supply Routes. Also high on the agenda of the meeting, was the nature of the capacity building support, to the Somali National Security Forces, in counter IED efforts. They agreed to intensify sensitization of local populations on the impact of IEDs, especially along Main Supply Routes. “This is a threat that is being effectively utilized by the enemy. And so we must go after it and defeat it,” remarked AMISOM’s deputy Head of Mission Mr. Simon Mulongo, during the official opening on Monday.
Mulongo noted that the indiscriminate use of IEDs was inflicting colossal damage on civilian populations and the military. He emphasized increased focus on eliminating the IED threat, through the development of a clear and effective counter IED strategy, and the use of Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance (ISR) systems.
Key Headlines
- AMISOM Partners Meet To Devise Strategies on Countering Potent Threat From IEDs (AMISOM)
- Somalia Signs Convention On The Rights Of Persons With Disabilities (Shabelle Media)
- US Suspected Drone Hit Al-Shabaab Bases In Middle Shabelle (Halbeeg News)
- ISIL Claims Killing Two Foreigners In Bosaso (Mareeg News)
- Report: Uganda Less Vulnerable To Al-Shabaab Terrorists (Chimp Reports)
- Seeking An Enduring Solution To Seemingly Intractable Problem: Another Look At Somalia (Euraasia Review)
NATIONAL MEDIA
Somalia Signs Convention On The Rights Of Persons With Disabilities
03 October – Source: Shabelle Media – 84 Words
The Minister of Women and Human Rights Development of the Federal Government of Somalia, Deeqa Yasin, has signed the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities in New York City.
Somalia became the 178th signatory of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, which means that the Somali government has stood up to protect the rights of people with disabilities. Disabled persons in the country welcomed the move as an important step towards recognition of their rights.
US Suspected Drone Hit Al-Shabaab Bases In Middle Shabelle
03 October – Source: Halbeeg News – 137 Words
U.S. suspected airstrike allegedly hit Al-Shabaab bases in Basra village of Middle Shabelle region on Tuesday night, residents said. Sources in the area of Basra reported that there was heavy bombardment in the area at around midnight, but there were no immediate details of casualties.
The US has stepped up drone strikes in southern Somalia since last year targeting Al-Shabaab figureheads and their bases. In a statement, U.S. African Command on Tuesday said nine Al-Shabaab fighters were killed in the airstrike in an area, which lies approximately 40 kilometers (25 miles) northeast of Kismayu.
The mission pointed out that the fighters were killed in bombardment during a gun battle between the Somali forces backed by U.S. and Al-Shabaab fighters. The U.S. has conducted more than 25 such airstrikes in Somalia this year alone.
ISIL Claims Killing Two Foreigners In Bosaso
02 October – Source: Mareeg News – 202 Words
The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant group (ISIL, also known as ISIS) has claimed responsibility for the killing of Ethiopian nationals in Bosaso town, north of Somalia. The group says its fighters shot and killed two Ethiopian nationals and injured at least four others in Bosaso town. In a statement, the group said it had targeted Ethiopian spy agents.
Puntland Police said the killers fled from the crime scene. The victims were immediately rushed to hospital. The police said an operation relating to the incident had started. No arrests have so far been made. The Islamic State (IS) faction in Somalia has grown significantly over the past year, carrying out attacks in Puntland.
A report by UN sanctions monitors said the Islamic State has been receiving some funding from Syria and Iraq. In February, Islamic State gunmen stormed a hotel in Bosaso, the economic capital of Puntland, leaving several people dead. In May, the faction carried out its first suicide attack at a police checkpoint near Bosaso, killing five people. The UN report further warned that the Bari region could become a potential haven for foreign fighters as the extremists are driven out of their strongholds in Syria and Iraq.
INTERNATIONAL MEDIA
Report: Uganda Less Vulnerable To Al-Shabaab Terrorists
02 October – Source: Chimp Reports – 642 Words
Uganda is experiencing ‘relative quiet’ and remains less vulnerable to Al Shabaab extremism attacks compared to her East African neighbors, Kenya and Tanzania – a new report has revealed. The Somali-based terrorist group has not launched a successful assault in the country since coordinated July 2010 bombings in Kampala killed 74. Crisis Group said in a report seen by ChimpReports this week that there is no obvious constituency among indigenous Muslims from which militants can recruit. Muslims make up about 14 percent of Uganda’s population: “Most are well integrated and inter-confessional relations are relatively good, with inter-marriage between Christians and Muslims quite common.
Although Muslims have similar grievances to their co-religionists in Kenya and Tanzania, notably state neglect and lower access to formal education, Muslim elites in Uganda are relatively successful in business; they dominate the hospitality and transport industries, among other sectors,” the report reads in part. According to Hajj Nsereko Mutumba, spokesperson of the Uganda Muslim Supreme Council: “We historically did not have sufficient access to the education system but we focused on business and have done well”.
The International Crisis Group describes itself as an independent organisation working to prevent wars and shape policies that will build a more peaceful world. Secondly, the Crisis Group researchers discovered, Uganda has better integrated its Somali population than neighbours such as Kenya, thus making them less susceptible to militant recruitment. The ethnic Somali population in Kampala is divided into two groups: those who have lived in Uganda for decades, and speak local languages, and more recent arrivals.
The first cohort is well integrated and prominent in commerce, particularly in the transportation and logistics businesses. The second is less well assimilated; donors and local NGOs focus support on them. A likely third factor, according to Crisis Group, is the Ugandan security forces’ close cooperation with Western intelligence agencies, which began soon after the 2010 Kampala attack. Ugandan security officials assert that shared intelligence helped thwart attacks, including a September 2014 plot to hit bars, a hotel and a university: “Despite this relative success, the Museveni administration’s policies and the security forces’ practices could yet drive young Muslims toward militancy,” the group observed.
“Indiscriminate arrests of Muslims every time a high-profile crime occurs are an acute source of grievance.” In 2012, amid a rising crime wave, Ugandan authorities rounded up dozens of Muslims, creating significant resentment among their co-religionists. The same has happened after other high-profile crimes, including the November 2016 shooting of police Major Mohammed Kiggundu and the April 2018 killing of businesswoman Susan Magara.
OPINION, ANALYSIS & CULTURE
“In order to crush Al-Shabaab and formulate an enduring solution to the seemingly intractable problem, it is imperative that a range of other significant issues and fundamental obstacles to peace are also addressed. Quite simply, military and security measures must be undertaken alongside socio-economic and political ones”
Seeking An Enduring Solution To Seemingly Intractable Problem: Another Look At Somalia
03 October – Source: Eurasia Review – 1095 Words
Late last week, a High-Level Meeting on Somalia, co-chaired by Ethiopia, Italy, Somalia, and the United Kingdom (UK), was held in New York. The meeting, which was also attended by Antonio Guterres, the UN Secretary General, Moussa Faki, Chairperson of the African Union Commission, Osman Saleh, Eritrea’s Foreign Minister, and other international representatives, focused on political, economic, social, and security issues, and was based on a serious rethink of engagement with Somalia. Indeed, genuine reconsideration and critical reassessment of the general international approach toward and policy prescriptions for Somalia are long overdue.
Despite years of international efforts and billions of dollars spent, sustainable peace, security, and stability remain elusive in Somalia. Currently, it is estimated that approximately 5.4 million people in the country are in need of food assistance, with about 2.6 million people internally displaced. The militant group al-Shabaab remains a formidable force, posing a great threat to stability and security in Somalia, as well as other parts of East Africa. Al-Shabaab regularly conducts deadly terrorist attacks, including in Mogadishu and against the bases of the multinational African Union (AU) peacekeeping force in Somalia, while the country’s national security capacity remains weak.
Months ago, the UN Security Council (UNSC) delayed a plan to draw down the peacekeeping mission in Somalia after finding that the fledgling, poorly equipped Somali security forces were not sufficiently prepared to take over from the exiting forces. Al-Shabaab, which is linked to al-Qaida and is among the deadliest Islamic extremist groups in sub-Saharan Africa, is an outgrowth of Ethiopia’s December 2006 invasion of Somalia, undertaken with the tacit support of the United States (then under the Bush administration) and approval of the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD), the East African regional bloc.
The invasion was in flagrant violation of IGAD’s and UNSC resolutions (i.e. UNSC resolution 1725 of 2006) that had prohibited military involvement or intervention of frontline or neighboring countries in Somalia, including through the mantle of peacekeeping. Ethiopia’s illegal invasion and general involvement within Somalia, its historical, bitter rival, would contribute to the increase and spread of terror and instability throughout the region.
Al-Shabaab flourished in the midst and aftermath of the brutal invasion, morphing from a small “non-player” in Somalia, with weak links to al-Qaida, to become one of the most devastating terror groups in the region. Today, the extremist militant group remains entrenched throughout vast parts of Somalia. It controls large swathes of territory, uses extortion and taxes on trade and businesses for funding, and it retains the ability to mount complex, deadly attacks.
TOP TWEETS
@RadioErgo: The rising level of the River Shabelle is causing high anxiety among people living along the river in southern#Somalia.
@Goobjoognews: AMISOM, Partners Meet To Devise Strategies on Countering Potent Threat From IEDs.
@HarunMaruf: Self-organised militias known Ma’awisley attacked, driven out Al-Shabab from villages near Adan Yabaal killing 4 militants on Sunday. On Monday Al-Shabab launched a counter-attack, killed two villagers including Hibad Ali Dasar (pictured) one of the Ma’awisley leaders.
@Mogadishu_News: UPDATE: Islamic State group says its fighters killed 4 #Ethiopia‘s Oromia men and injured 2 others in#Bosaso town, north of #Somalia.
@HarunMaruf: BREAKING: US military conducts new airstrike in Somalia on Monday. @USAfricaCommand says nine Al-Shabaab militants were killed, one injured in the strike which took place 40km NE of Kismayo (in the vicinity of Jamame). US has conducted more than 20 airstrikes in Somalia this year.
@Halbeeg_News: International Community calls for resumption of Somalia-Somaliland talks https://en.halbeeg.com/2018/
@MwomenHRD: #Somalia just acceded to the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, becoming the 178th State to do so. A truly historic day for the protection and promotion of the #HumanRights of all Somalis living with a disability.#Xuquuq #Sinnaan @SomaliPM @TheVillaSomalia.
IMAGE OF THE DAY
Minister Deeqa Yasin signing the UN Convention on the Rights of Person with Disabilities (PLWD) in New York.
Photo: @MwomenHRD