28 Dec 2011 – Daily Monitoring Report
Key Headlines:
- Fresh fighting claims 10 extremists in southern Somalia (Source: Radio Shabelle Radio Mogadishu Jowhar Online)
- Blast kills 5 people in Kalabeyrka Hiiraan region (Source: Radio Mogadishu Radio Shabelle)
- Ahlu Sunnah and TFG troops en route to al Shabaab-controlled town (Source: Radio Garowe)
- Body of young man found dumped in Jowhar (Source: Radio Bar-Kulan)
- Mogadishu mayor says youth must join TFG (Source: Radio Kulmiye)
- Kenyan fighter jets strike in southern Somalia (Source: Radio Shabelle)
- Yaqshid DC: With sports peace is within reach (Source: Radio Bar-Kulan)
- Al Shabaab scare keeps Namanga officials on their toes (Source: Arusha Times)
- Somalis face tough times as banks halt money transfers (Source: Business Daily Africa)
- For Somali women pain of being a spoil of war (Source: NYT)
SOMALI MEDIA
Fresh fighting claims 10 extremists in southern Somalia
28 Dec- Source: Radio Shabelle, Radio Mogadishu, Jowhar Online- 175 words
At least ten people were reported to have been killed on Wednesday in a heavy battle between TFG troops backing the Kenyan army and al Shabaab in lower Jubba region in southern Somalia, officials said.
Somali government troops officials in the battle zone, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said that at least ten al Shabaab fighters were killed by the TFG troops and Kenyan army during an hour of fighting overnight in Burgabo village, lower Jubba province, close to Somalia’s border with Kenya.
The officials also confessed that one of their combat soldiers had been killed during the fighting.
Witnesses confirmed to Shabelle radio station in Mogadishu that the fighting erupted after al Shabaab fighters launched an offensive on joint military bases for Somali government troops and Kenyan army in Burgabo village in Lower Jubba region.
Residents said, both sides used heavy and light weapons during the fighting which could be heard on the outskirts of Burgabo village near Kenyan border.
Mogadishu mayor says youth must join TFG
28 Dec- Source: Radio Kulmiye- 181 words
Mogadishu current mayor Mr Mohamed Ahmed Noor called Somali youth to join in TFG. Mohamed Ahmed Noor, also known as Tarsan, has said the Somali generations has good opportunities in taking the rule of peace and participating in their country’s rebuilding and to join the TFG. Tarsan, has also called on the youth in al Shabaab to join in the government troops.
“If they come to us we welcome them, they have chances to come and join us”, he said, promising every young boy to get a better protection and safety if he renounce violence and al Shabaab.
Blast kills 5 people in Kalabeyrka, Hiiraan region
28 Dec- Source: Radio Mogadishu, Radio Shabelle- 78 words
Five people have died on the spot while several others were seriously injured after a deadly blast occurred in Kala beyrka in Hiraan region. The blast occurred at a roadside where people were having soft drinks.
Witnesses confirmed to the local media that five soldiers loyal to Shabelle Valley, a pro-government militia in central Somalia, have been injured in the remote-controlled landmine blast. Senior officers were among the wounded. The casualties of the deadly blast were rushed to Baladweyne hospital for treatment.
The police forces in the area launched a crackdown and later arrested several people suspected of being behind the blast. Nobody has claimed responsibility for the deadly blast so far.
New political party established in Somaliland
28 Dec- Source: Hadhwanaag Times, Somali Channel TV- 104 words
A new political party was launched on Tuesday in Somaliland’s capital of Hargeisa. The new party Damal is led by Mohamed Omar Arte and the ceremony of the establishment for the party was held at Mansoor Hotel.
Elders, scholars, young men, women and dignitaries have largely attended the ceremony as they were very happy for the creation of the new party.
The chairman of the party Mr. Mohamed Omar Arte Qalib said the young people of Somaliland should take part in the field of politics.
The formation of the new party comes less than 24 hours after another party was announced yesterday in the same city of Hargeisa.
Ahlu Sunnah and TFG troops en route to al Shabaab-controlled town
27 Dec- Source: Radio Garowe- 149 words
Ahlu Sunnah and the Transitional Federal Government (TFG) troops are en route to Bardare, an al Shabaab-controlled town located in southern Somalia, Radio Garowe reports.
Vehicles carrying anti craft artillery from both Ahlu Sunnah authorities and the TFG were seen on the road heading towards Bardare.
According to reports, al Shabaab have been preparing for the arrival of TFG and Ahlu Sunnah troops; one of their spokesman stated that if the TFG and Ahlu Sunna troops do not retreat that they will encounter a hard blow.
Local sources say that citizens of Bardare are worried that the conflict could affect the city although al Shabaab troops have advanced to face Ahlu Sunnah and TFG troops.
A prominent al Shabaab leader known as Sheikh Muktar Abdirahman, who recently spoke to al Shabaab-controlled radio, told the media outlet that al Shabaab will not give up their fight.
Kenyan fighter jets strike in southern Somalia
28 Dec- Source: Radio Shabelle- 176 words
Kenyan fighter jets bombed the outskirts of al Shabaab-controlled villages in Gedo region, on Wednesday, causing unspecified casualties according to residents.
Local people said two suspected Kenyan helicopters hit nomadic villages near Garbaharay town, the provincial capital of Gedo region, which is located on Somalia’s border with Kenya.
The two helicopters struck nomadic townships between El-adde and Likolay villages near Garbaharay district of Gedo region of southern Somalia, which locals said to be an al Shabaab military base.
It was not immediately possible to independently verify the exact number of casualties in these latest air strikes in southern Somalia but local people expressed concerns over the air raids.
Kenya has conducted numerous air raids in southern Somalia in the past three months.
Al Shabaab has not yet said a word about the air strike on its bases in Gedo region of southern Somalia on Wednesday.
Body of young man found dumped in Jowhar
28 Dec- Source: Radio Bar-kulan, Jowhar Online- 88 words
Residents Jowhar town were today shocked after an unidentified body of a young man was found dumped just few meters from the main Hospital early on Wednesday.
The body which bore gun wounds on the chest was found dumped on a street near the hospital next to an al Shabaab base in the area. The motive and those behind his killing are not yet known. Reports say one of the victim’s kidneys was missing from the body, raising suspicion that the victim was killed for either sacrificial or business purposes.
Yaqshid DC: With sports, peace is within reach
28 Dec- Source: Radio Bar-kulan- 156 words
Yaqshid district authorities say the ongoing Benadir’s inter-district tournament is a sign of peace in the region, including Mogadishu.
The area district commissioner Muhyadin Hassan Jurus told Bar-kulan that sports activities in the region symbolises the fact that life is back to normal after the withdrawal of al Shabaab from all positions in the city earlier last August.
He said sports always creates social interactions and can be used to advocate lasting peace in the country.
The DC praised government soldiers and the country’s top leadership for their role in bringing sanity back into the country which has been in chaos for the last two decades. He said that the fact that people now understand the importance of peace, saying that their large presence in football fields suggest their love for interactions which al Shabaab denied them before, is worth praising.
Meanwhile, Yaqshid team yesterday qualified for the final stage of the tournament after beating Wadajir district.
Senior Somali NOC official: the death of football fans shocks Somalis’ sporting family
28 Dec- Source: Radio RBC- 172 words
The senior vice president and the head of international relations of Somali National Olympic committee Mr. Duran Ahmed Farah described the sudden death of ten Somali Football fans on Tuesday evening as ‘the most shocking incident’ in recent years.
“The sudden death of the young age football fans vehemently shocked the entire Somali sporting fraternity—this is an agony we are sharing with the families who lost their beloved boys and the entire Somali people” the senior vice president said in a via phone press conference from Dubai over night on Tuesday.
“On behalf of Somali NOC I am sending our heart-felt condolence to their families, Somali Football Federation and the authorities of WadaJir district who unexpectedly met with the shocking tragedy” Duran Ahmed Farah noted.
Al Shabaab executes one of its militants in Marka, Lower Shabelle
28 Dec- Source: Radio bar-kulan, Somalimemo- 102 words
Al Shabaab in Marka town on Tuesday afternoon executed one of its militants accused of killing a civilian in Kuntuwarey town, Lower Shabelle. Nur Jeylani, who served in the group’s Amiyad Brigade ,was executed in public for allegedly killing a civilian, Hassan Bidale Maalim.
Speaking at the execution site, a rebel leader confirmed that Jeylani denied any wrongdoing and did not plead guilty of the said charges; however, he was convicted after the rebel court considered witness accounts of the alleged case.
Relatives of Bidale said he was killed inside a rebel-manned cell in Kuntuwarey town.
REGIONAL MEDIA
Somalis face tough times as banks halt money transfers
28 Dec – Source: Business Daily Africa – 326 words
Humanitarian groups in Somalia have raised the red flag as foreign banks prepare to pull out of money transfer business as the world seeks to paralyse Al-Shabaab operations.
Franklin Bank — the last of the US financial institutions in the unregulated money transfer business (hawala) in Somalia — plans to suspend money wiring services this week, putting at stake millions of dollars remitted from abroad.
Last week, Oxfam Group and the American Refugee Committee said the decision would disrupt aid from family members and well-wishers abroad, affecting 250,000 Somalis in need of urgent life-saving assistance.
“This is the worst time for this service to stop. Any gaps with remittance flows in the middle of the famine could be disastrous,” Shannon Scribner, Oxfam America’s humanitarian policy manager, said, adding that the $100 million in worth of remittances from US that is received each year in Somalia will be affected.
Franklin took the decision two weeks ago to ditch hawala, an unregulated money transfer service, at the end of this month saying it violates US counterterrorism financing regulations crafted after the September 11, 2001 al-Qaida bombings.
“The US government should give assurances to the bank that there will be no legal ramifications of providing this service to Somalis in need,” Ms Scribner said. Under hawala which is widely practised in Islamic countries, a recipient simply claims money from a broker in home city on promise that the sender has deposited similar amount with another hawala broker abroad.
This way, currency worth billions of shillings is exchanged across borders without any documentation as the parties rely on trust embedded in Islamic law to conduct the business.In war-torn Somalia where many residents do not have bank accounts, hawala services have thrived.
Al Shabaab suspect’s family in agony
27 Dec- Source: NTV- 3:40 min
It is now emerging the vast majority of the recruits in al Shabaab are Kenyans from different tribes with only a handful from the ethnic Somali community, a day when two suspects were released after surrendering to the police following links to the militant group. Our reporter Jane Ngoiri spoke to a parent of the youth released who had been recruited by the Islamist group to fight in Somalia.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?
Al Shabaab scare keeps Namanga officials on their toes
27 Dec- Source: Arusha Times- 471 words
Authorities at the Tanzania-Kenya border in Namanga area of Longido District have raised alarm over the possibility of having al Shabaab insurgents infiltrating into the country through the highly permeable borderline.
“The over 200 kilometers long borderline is mostly wilderness dotted with hundreds of ‘Panya routes’ through which, human trafficking business thrives,” said Mr Albert Kishe the head of immigration department at Namanga.
More than 200 illegal Somali immigrants have so far been arrested at either Namanga or Longido between January and December 2011, according to immigration officials.
Mr Kishe said they have now been compelled to formulate a working team comprised of immigration and police officers from both sides of the borders as well as customs officials to address the situation which now seems to be taking a dangerous twist.
“We are also involving residents of Namanga and Longido areas to help inform authorities over the current free movements of Somalis who through special arrangements with local conduits, have been flocking into Tanzania, through Namanga wilderness,” said Mr Kishe.
He added that since people from Somalia all look alike, it will be difficult to single out who are illegal immigrants heading to South Africa via Kenya and Tanzania or who could be al Shabaab militants out to establish secret bases in Arusha and other parts of the country.
Investigations conducted along Namanga border reveal that local residents, especially the Maasai smuggle and hide Somali immigrants at lucrative prices of up to 100,000/- per head.
Somalis are dressed in traditional Maasai attires and are ferried across the border among groups of native Maasais complete with herds of cattle then taken all the way to Arusha where they normally board trucks and buses to other parts of the country but with a mission to reach South Africa.
http://www.arushatimes.co.tz/
INTERNATIONAL MEDIA
Somali pirates hijack Italian cargo ship off Oman
28 Dec – Source: BBC – 204 words
Somali pirates have hijacked an Italian cargo ship with 18 crew off the coast of Oman, according to Indian shipping officials. The Turkey-bound Enrico Ievoli is now reportedly headed for the Somali coast.
The crew includes seven Indians, six Italians and five Ukrainians, the report said. The incident comes at a time when Somali pirates appear to be finding it increasingly difficult to hijack vessels at sea.
Latest figures provided by the European Naval Force show just 12 attempted pirate attacks in November 2011, compared to 35 in the same period last year.
Correspondents say this is partly the result of the growing number of armed guards on board ships. But at least 200 hostages are still being held in, or just off, Somalia.
India’s Directorate General of Shipping said in a statement that the hijacked ship was carrying a cargo of caustic soda from Iran to Turkey.
“The master of the vessel has reportedly informed the owners that the ship is now bound to Somali coast. There are no reports with regards to any injuries to the crew,” the release said. It added that 43 Indian crew members of various ships have been held by Somali pirates.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/
For Somali women, pain of being a spoil of war
27 Dec – Source: New York Times – 787 words
The girl’s voice dropped to a hush as she remembered the bright, sunny afternoon when she stepped out of her hut and saw her best friend buried in the sand, up to her neck.
Her friend had made the mistake of refusing to marry an al Shabaab commander. Now she was about to get her head bashed in, rock by rock.
“You’re next,” the Shabab warned the girl, a frail 17-year-old who was living with her brother in a squalid refugee camp.
Several months later, the men came back. Five militants burst into her hut, pinned her down and gang-raped her, she said. They claimed to be on a jihad, or holy war, and any resistance was considered a crime against Islam, punishable by death.
“I’ve had some very bad dreams about these men,” she said, having recently escaped the area they control. “I don’t know what religion they are.”
Somalia has been steadily worn down by decades of conflict and chaos, its cities in ruins and its people starving. Just this year, tens of thousands have died from famine, with countless others cut down in relentless combat. Now Somalis face yet another widespread terror: an alarming increase in rapes and sexual abuse of women and girls.
The Shabab militant group, which presents itself as a morally righteous rebel force and the defender of pure Islam, is seizing women and girls as spoils of war, gang-raping and abusing them as part of its reign of terror in southern Somalia, according to victims, aid workers and United Nations officials. Short of cash and losing ground, the militants are also forcing families to hand over girls for arranged marriages that often last no more than a few weeks and are essentially sexual slavery, a cheap way to bolster their ranks’ flagging morale.
But it is not just the Shabab. In the past few months, aid workers and victims say there has been a free-for-all of armed men preying upon women and girls displaced by Somalia’s famine, who often trek hundreds of miles searching for food and end up in crowded, lawless refugee camps where Islamist militants, rogue militiamen and even government soldiers rape, rob and kill with impunity.
SOCIAL MEDIA
CULTURE / OPINION / EDITORIAL / BLOGS/ DISCUSSION BOARDS
Horn of Africa: A devastating drought
27 Dec- Al Jazeera English- 591 Words
Death, starvation and displacement cried some parts of Africa seeking the world’s attention and relief, as some 13 million people in the Horn of Africa, including Somalia, Ethiopia and Northern Kenya as well as pockets of Uganda, Djibouti and Sudan, were affected by a drought described as the worst in 60 years.
As entire regions dried up, the world watched in horror as tens of thousands of farmers, mostly pastoralists, lost their lives, and hundreds of thousands were forced to flee homes for survival, in search of food and shelter.
By mid-2011, between 800-1,000 refugees from Somalia were arriving at the Dadaab Refugee Camp in Kenya or Dolo Ado in Ethiopia, on a daily basis, setting off alarm bells that the Horn of Africa needed desperate and immediate international attention, despite early warning systems (Six months earlier, FEWS, had warned of incessant food shortages in the region). The situation had worsened drastically by the time international media descended on Dadaab to tell the stories of women – who had left their husbands behind to mind over cattle or protect property – walking hundreds of kilometres from Somalia, which had often resulted in the deaths of their malnourished offsprings; and the UN calculated that $2bn was required to avert a complete humanitarian disaster.
It is estimated that 250 children died every day from malnourishment, while the death rate reached between 5 and 7 per 10,000 per day in parts of Somalia, forcing the UN to declare famine in parts of Somalia: the first such declaration in three decades.
As the repercussions of food shortages took grip of the region, and questions began to be asked over culpability over the existence of famine in the 21st century, the humanitarian disaster soon became an agonising reminder that the humanitarian disaster was a symptom of a larger story involving a two-decade-long civil war that has devastated the very social fabric of Somalia.
http://www.aljazeera.com/
Somalia’s Roadmap conspiracy unveiled in Garowe
28 Dec- Somali Talk Blog- 1379 Words
Holding a Somali conference in Garowe, the capital of Puntland State was high praise for the local population and opportunity for all Somalis to engage a genuine national reconciliation. Puntland State duly represents the interests of one sub-clan of one of the 4.5 Somali clan families. However, the population of Puntland State has no responsibility for the flaws and self serving outcome of a conference organized to promote externally driven agenda that conflicts with national reconciliation and ownership, transparency, accountability and sovereignty. Apart from the gaffes, strange and contradicting statements displayed during the opening and closing remarks, the conference ended peacefully and politely but it opened multiple doors wider for foreign influence and dismemberment of Somalia. The hard to seize solution is true commitment to “Somali national vision” based on widely accepted reconciliation, shared interests, values, and truths for restoring new national identity.
The Garowe Conference- dubbed the First Somali National Consultative Constitutional Conference was exclusively organized, funded and controlled by the United Nations Political Office for Somalia (UNPOS). It is far from the truth to say that the Transitional Federal Government (TFG) conveyed the conference. As a matter of fact, UNPOS made the hasty convocation of the conference scheduled on December 21-23, 2011 through a press release 022/2011 issued on December 19, 2011 after the Speaker Sharif Hassan Sheikh Adan has been ousted from office on December 13, 2011 with 280 and later with 287 votes. Furthermore, the selected participants were merely invitees to the conference opened by the President of Puntland. Finally, the agenda and the official document of the conference, certified by the Deputy Special Representative of the Secretary General of the UN for Somalia Christian Manahl, were exclusively written in English.
A systematic analysis of the Garowe document (Garowe principles) reveals abuses of national sovereignty, political manipulations and disregard of the provisions of the Transitional Federal Charter (TFC). The document contains threats and intimidation. Paradoxically, the signers including the ousted Speaker urged (ordered) the parliament to respect the Kampala Accord which violates the TFC and thus the legislative power. In addition, they requested the international community (IC) to take punitive action against any member of parliament and by extension any Somali citizen for any action or statement interpreted as derailing the implementation of the mysterious roadmap never submitted to parliament for approval. Out of the four elements of the Roadmap, the IC and Ethiopia are keenly interested in the introduction of clan based federal constitution for ending the current failed transitional period and inaugurating another 4 years transitional period with its causes of failure built in. Consequently, UNPOS’s mandate will automatically be extended for the same period.
http://somalitalk.com/2011/12/
Summary of the Garowe Agreement
27 Dec- Ilmaal (Somali Blog)- 991 Words
Continuing along the path laid by the so-called “Roadmap to end the transition” set forth during the June 2011 Kampala Accord, the conference resulted in the adoption of The Garowe Principles on the Finalization and Adoption of the Constitution and the End of the Transition (full document available below). The agreement set an April 20, 2012 deadline for the adoption of a Somali Federal Constitution, to be drafted by a Constituent Assembly composed of no more than 1000 delegates (30% of whom are to be women).
Following the dissolution of the Constituent Assembly on May 30, a Federal Parliament composed of 225 lawmakers is to be sworn in on June 12, for a term length of four years. Members of parliament are to be apportioned from among Somalia’s clans according to the long-established ‘4.5 formula’ (full representation for each of Somalia’s four major clans, and half representation for minority clans).
The Garowe Principles also stipulated that the 4.5 formula would be abandoned after the Federal Parliament has served its term, in favor of direct elections based on regional representation.
Representatives from the TFG, Galmudug region and ASWJ agreed on all the above points, and Puntland agreed with reservations over the 4.5 formula for selecting parliament members. Which ASWJ Signed the Agreement?
The Garowe conference was overshadowed by an internal split within ASWJ, between Garowe conference signatory Sheikh Mohammed Mohamoud Yusuf, who hails from the Dir clan, and Mohamed Yusuf Hefow, a member of the Ayr sub-clan of the Hawiye. Mr. Hefow’s forces remain in control of much of ASWJ’s forces in central Somalia, which in recent weeks have engaged in growing displays of brinksmanship with the TFG that threaten to become a permanent rift.
Representatives from the ‘Hefow-ASWJ’ declined to attend the Garowe conference, which was attended by ASWJ members handpicked by President Ahmed. Sheikh Yusuf, also known as Aw-Libaah, signed the agreement on behalf of ASWJ without the broader suppor of the ASWJ leadership.
“We are the real ASWJ, the ones controlling the territory,” Awliyo, a ‘Hefow-ASWJ’ spokesman in Europe told Somalia Report. “But last month the TFG began a cold war with us, and President Sheikh Sharif created his own ASWJ. He’s trying to destroy out organization, but we are powerful and we are keeping the security of our region.”
http://www.ilmaal.com/wadani/?