April 15, 2015 | Daily Monitoring Report.
Update: Death Toll Of Ministry For Higher Education’s Attack Rises To 18
14 April – Source: Goobjoog News – 174 Words
At least 18 people have been killed in an attack by Al-Shabab fighters against the Ministry for Higher Education in Mogadishu.The death toll of the attack is 18 including seven Al-Shabab attackers, eight civilians, and three soldiers said the spokesman for the Interior Ministry. Five bodies were displayed whom the government said were the attackers. The attackers stormed the ministry of higher education after a suicide car bomber detonated his vehicle at the gate of the ministry, opening the way for his gunmen to enter. The assault on the walled compound which also houses two government ministries are the latest attack by suspected Al-Shabab who are conducting a series of attacks in the capital on government targets and African Union forces supporting the government. In late March, the group attacked a hotel in the Somali capital using similar tactics of blasting and shooting their way inside which resulted in a death toll of 15 .Two weeks ago, Al-Shabaab staged a major attack on Kenya’s Garissa University College, killing 148 students
Key Headlines
- Update: Death Toll Of Ministry For Higher Education’s Attack Rises To 18 (Goobjoog News)
- IDPs In Elwak Pounded By Rain (Radio Ergo)
- Hundreds Of Migrants Believed To Have Drowned Off Libya After Boat Capsizes (Goobjoog News)
- BBC Is The Most Listened To International Radio In Somalia (Mareeg Media)
- U.S. Special Representative Condemns Attack On Ministry of Education In Mogadishu (Radio Danan)
- Kenya Ignores Intelligence Info On Al Shabaab Says Somali Commander (The Star Kenya)
- Gargash Receives Somalia’s FM (Emirates News Agency)
- Kenyan Money-Transfer Ban Puts Strain On Somalis (Wall Street Journal)
- Somali Students Tell Feds Of Bullying In St. Cloud Schools (MPR News)
- Act On Intelligence Avoid Erecting 700km Wall (The Star Kenya)
- Dispatches: After Garissa Carnage Kenya’s Backlash Begins (Human Rights Watch)
SOMALI MEDIA
IDPs In Elwak Pounded By Rain
15 April – Source: Radio Ergo – 116 Words
Internally displaced families living in Elwak district of Gedo region fear being left homeless if the Gu’ seasonal rains pounding the area continue. Heavy rains and strong winds buffeted the area in the past week. Mukhtar Mohamed, a member of the IDP committee, said rain destroyed a number of shelters in IDP camps on the outskirts of town. There are six IDP camps in Elwak hosting about 3,000 families displaced from Bay, Bakol and Juba regions and parts of Gedo. These families fled from drought and conflict and most of them live in flimsy makeshift huts. Mukhtar said the IDPs were vulnerable to sickness because of the poor conditions.
Hundreds Of Migrants Believed To Have Drowned Off Libya After Boat Capsizes
15 April – Source: Goobjoog News – 308 Words
As many as 400 migrants fleeing Libya are feared to have drowned after their boat capsized in the Mediterranean, survivors told an aid organisation. Italy’s coastguard had helped to rescue 144 people on Monday, but said it believed there were many more who had drowned given the size of the vessel and that nine bodies had been found. As an air and sea search continued, survivors were brought into the port at Reggio Calabria, on Italy’s southern tip, where they told Save the Children aid workers there may have been 400 others who drowned in the disaster. The UN refugee agency said the death toll was likely given the size of the ship. “There were 400 victims in this shipwreck, which occurred 24 hours after [their vessel] left the Libyan coast,” Save the Children said in a statement, citing survivors. “There were several young males, probably minors, among the victims” and also children among those rescued, it added.
Flavio Di Giacomo, a spokesman for the International Organisation for Migration in Italy, told Agence France-Presse several of the survivors had told his organisation there were between 500 and 550 people on board when the ship sank. “We are continuing to investigate in order to understand how the shipwreck happened,” Di Giacomo said. Initial investigations indicate the boat may have capsized after passengers started moving when they saw the Italian rescue team, AFP reported. The deaths, if confirmed, would add to the soaring numbers of migrants lost at sea: the IOM estimates that up to 3,072 migrants died in the Mediterranean in 2014, compared with an estimate of 700 in 2013. But even those figures could be low. The IOM estimates that since 2000 more than 22,000 migrants have lost their lives trying to reach Europe.
BBC Is The Most Listened To International Radio In Somalia
14 April – Source: Mareeg Media – 416 Words
Almost every second adult in Somalia is a BBC radio listener, a new survey has found. The survey also confirmed the BBC as one of the most trusted news sources in Somalia, and the most relevant and objective among the international broadcasters. According to these figures, the BBC has further increased its reach on radio in Somalia, attracting almost half of the market. With 1.7 million tuning in to its radio programming, BBC World Service is the country’s most listened to international radio. In Somalia, the BBC broadcasts in Somali, English and Arabic. Almost all of the BBC radio audience in this country tune in to the BBC Somali programming. BBC Africa Editor, Solomon Mugera, comments: “Radio is the most popular platform and a very important source of news in Somalia, and it’s just great to see that people come to the BBC for news and information they can trust. These new stats show BBC Somali’s firm presence – alongside other BBC services – as a vital, objective source for audiences in the region, bringing them reporting and analysis that is relevant to them.”
As part of the two and a half hours of news and current-affairs radio programming throughout the day, BBC Somali offers a one-hour radio show on Fridays,Waxa ay ila tahay (In My View), debating the hottest topic of the week with invited experts and audiences interacting via phones and Facebook. The Monday sports programme, Barnaamijka ciyaaraha, brings 15 minutes of the week’s biggest regional and global sports stories. While about 70% of listeners in Somalia tune in to the BBC radio on FM, about a third access this programming via mobile phones. More than half of the traffic to the BBC Somali website bbcsomali.com also comes from mobile devices*. BBC Somali also connects with its audiences via social media – on Twitter@bbcsomali, on Instagram@bbcsomali and the BBC Somali page on Facebook.
BBC World Service’s radio broadcasts are available on shortwave and via rebroadcasting partner FM stations in the country, Radio Daljir, Radio Shabelle, Star FM and SBC. Audiences can also listen online and via mobile phones. BBC Somali has a considerable audience outside Somalia, in the wider region as well as among Somalis in the worldwide diaspora. In Kenya, 810,000 people tune in to BBC Somali radio every week. The update of the BBC’s audience in Somalia (including Somaliland and Puntland) came as a result of a national media survey conducted between May and July 2014.
U.S. Special Representative Condemns Attack On Ministry of Education In Mogadishu
14 April – Source: Radio Danan – 158 Words
U.S. Special Representative for Somalia James P. McAnulty condemns the reprehensible April 14 attack on the Ministry of Education in Mogadishu and reaffirms the United States’ solidarity with the Federal Government of Somalia and its people against terrorist organization al-Shabaab. We commend the timely response of the Somali and AMISOM security forces that saved many lives, and honor those who died fighting to protect the innocent.
The cowardly attack by al-Shabaab against the Ministry of Education underscores the terrorists’ fierce and misguided opposition to advancing the professional, educational, and vocational aspirations of all Somalis. Such attacks will not deter Somali efforts to counter radicalization and fight the domestic and regional threats posed by al-Shabaab. The United States understands the devastating impact of violent extremism on peace and security in Somalia and more broadly in East Africa. We stand with the resilient citizens of Somalia as they work to eliminate the scourge of violent extremism in their country.
REGIONAL MEDIA
Kenya Ignores Intelligence Info On Al Shabaab, Says Somali Commander
15 April – Source: The Star Kenya – 497 Words
Kenya is ignoring intelligence information about al Shabaab, a senior Somali National Army commander has said. Yassin Bare Hassan, the SNA Commander in the Gedo region immediately next to Kenya, sensationally claimed some senior Kenyan security officials turn a blind eye to al Shabaab. Speaking to the Star near Bulla Hawa town, near Mandera, along the Kenya-Somalia border, Hassan said attempts by his forces to collaborate with Kenya have repeatedly failed. “Kenya is not serious in the fight against al Shabaab,” claimed a visibly angry Hassan. “Some weeks ago, we gave names of individuals we knew to have links with terror networks in Somalia and who were in Mandera county. They were 14, including two whites. But Kenyan officials did not do anything about it,” he said. Asked why the Somali forces did not deal with them, he said the suspects enter and leave through routes manned by Kenyan forces. “The security forces know those routes. They cannot deny it. The individuals and their collaborators know that we know them. They avoid us,” he claimed.
He said the KDF knew the location of the al Shabaab stronghold. “There is a town called Gadandawe, some tens of kilometres from here [Bulla Hawa]. Kenya knows the town is a safe haven for al Shabaab. They never made an attempt to flush them out,” he alleged. He said al Shabaab members have “easy access” in and out of Mandera. He dismissed KDF’s claims that it bombed al Shabaab in the Lower Juba region as “inconsequential”. “KDF many times just bombed livestock herders and killed hundreds of animals. They actually know where al Shabaab adherents are and their movements,” he said. The Somali commander claimed that the route of the proposed Kenya security wall lies within Somali territory. “Kenya has taken advantage of the many years of Somalia’s lawlessness and encroached on our land. More than two kilometres of Somalia is now illegally inhabited by Kenyans,” he said.
Gargash Receives Somalia’s FM
14 April – Source: Emirates News Agency – 104 Words
Dr. Anwar bin Mohammed Gargash, Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, has received in his office at the Ministry, Somali Foreign Minister Abdisalam Hadliye Omar. During the meeting, Dr. Gargash and Omer reviewed bilateral relations and the latest regional and international developments in the region. They also discussed a number of issues of mutual interest, and ways to strengthen cooperation between the two countries. The meeting was also attended by Mahash Saeed Al Hamili, Director of International Security Cooperation at the UAE Ministry of Foreign Affairs, UAE Ambassador to Somalia Mohammed Ahmed Osman Al Hammadi, and Somali Ambassador to UAE Abdelkadir Sheikhey Mohammed Al-Hatimi.
INTERNATIONAL MEDIA
Kenyan Money-Transfer Ban Puts Strain On Somalis
14 April – Source: Wall Street Journal – 869 Words
The country’s latest bid to stamp out homegrown extremism stymied Idris Mohamed’s attempt this month to send $100 to his parents in Somalia. “We are closed for business until further notice,” read a sign on the door at a branch of Dahabshiil, the biggest of 13 money-transfer companies in Kenya that serve largely Muslim customers. Kenya’s government this month shut the firms, known as hawalas—“to transfer” or “to trust” in Arabic—in a bid to freeze assets suspected of flowing to al-Shabaab, the Somalia-based militant outfit that claimed responsibility for massacring 148 people at Garissa University College in central Kenya on April 2. On Tuesday, the group took responsibility for a suicide bombing at Somalia’s higher-education ministry, a strike that killed at least nine people, police said. But some of the 2.5 million Somalis living in Kenya say the ban has also severed their only means of reaching impoverished relatives in their war-torn home country. “They need this money, they depend on it to pay for food,” Mr. Mohamed said of his parents.
Human-rights groups, meanwhile, warn that the financial chokehold on the Somali community could further fuel radicalization, and that the closure of hawalas makes it impossible for them to fund their own operations in the country. Kenya’s government declined to comment on the impact of the closures. Somalis abroad send home as much as $1.6 billion each year, according to international aid agencies and the Somali government, half of the gross domestic product of a country ravaged by war for a quarter century. Humanitarian agencies say cutting off the fund flows could deepen feelings of disaffection that are straining religious and cultural ties in East Africa’s top economy. Other countries with large Somali populations have taken similar steps. Merchant Bank of California, the last U.S. bank to facilitate transfers to Somalia, suspended its services in February, following similar moves by U.K. banks in 2013. Hawalas’ informality make them susceptible to money-laundering, regulators say. Hawala agents rely on a network of trust and reputation to balance senders in one nation against receivers in another without using formal international banking networks. The system came under scrutiny after 9/11, when U.S. officials suspected they had been used to finance the attack. An investigation found Western banks, not hawalas, had passed money between terrorists. But regulators made it onerous for banks to keep sending money to Somalia, for fear of them becoming implicated in terrorism financing.
Somali Students Tell Feds Of Bullying In St. Cloud Schools
14 April – Source: MPR News – 573 Words
The St. Cloud Area School District has once again caught the attention of the federal Department of Education over its treatment of Somali-American students. Civil rights officials with the U.S. Department of Education and the Justice Department are visiting the district this week to check its progress on a four-year-old agreement in which the district declared it would work to reduce harassment. Their visit comes as the district is dealing with a fresh round of similar problems. The federal visitors listened and took notes Monday night as parents and a few students described tensions between the district’s Somali and white students that sometimes dissolve into bullying and harassment. “I get bullied because I’m black. Or because I’m Somali. Or because I’m brown. I get bullied because I wear a scarf. I pray — I’m a Muslim — and I get called a terrorist,” Nasteho Dini told the crowd. “You guys don’t know how that feels.” Dini, a student at St. Cloud Technical High School, organized a walkout of her classmates in March after another student posted a photo on social media showing a Somali-American girl in a wheelchair with a caption suggesting the girl was part of the terror group ISIS. After the walkout, a task force of Somali community leaders met with school officials to demand the school board make changes to curb harassment.
“We need to make sure that every child, irrespective of their color or background or nationality … comes to school safe, and they leave the school safe,” said Hassan Yussuf, who is leading the task force. “The school needs to make sure that that happens.” This is not the first time federal officials have studied what’s going on in St. Cloud public schools. The Department of Education investigated allegations of harassment and discrimination against Somali-American students in the school district five years ago. In a 2011 agreement with the department, St. Cloud schools pledged to work toward reducing harassment. “At this point, I think it’s disappointing we’re still here,” said Dennis Whipple, chair of the St. Cloud school board. “I feel for parents and kids who really want student achievement and education and how critical that is to their lives. I really am hopeful that we’re going to work through this together. It’s going to take some time, but we’re going to come out stronger and better on the other end. Since the walkout, Whipple and St. Cloud Superintendent Willie Jett have met with Somali community elders. Whipple acknowledged that the district is still dealing with the issues raised in the 2011 agreement. Yussuf, the task force leader, said the Department of Education had an opportunity to make change when it signed the agreement with the district.
SOCIAL MEDIA
CULTURE / OPINION / EDITORIAL / ANALYSIS / BLOGS/ DISCUSSION BOARDS
Act On Intelligence, Avoid Erecting 700km Wall
15 April – Source: The Star Kenya – 223 Words
The news that the government has started building a security wall the 700km length of the Kenya-Somalia border has raised eyebrows all around. At the same time, a Somalia police commander has told the Star that Kenyan authorities do not seem to want to act on comprehensive intelligence his country provides on al Shabaab. The government appears to be getting its priorities in the war on terror mixed up. The wall, probably a white elephant, will be massively expensive to build. There is no other such project anywhere else in Africa.
The most successful security barriers between and within nations remain the US-Mexico border long fence and the controversial Israel-West Bank wall, both of which employ the most advanced technology and are manned by fully trained and equipped special forces in very considerable numbers indeed, complete with air cover. The Kenya wall will require a minimum of 200 outposts backed up by a number of barracks and many helicopters. The Kenya government should act on intelligence first and only build a wall as a last resort. National security will be invoked every time the media asks searching questions about the Kenya-Somalia barrier. There are many more questions than answers about this wall and counterterrorism intelligence gathering.
Dispatches: After Garissa Carnage, Kenya’s Backlash Begins
13 April – Source: Human Rights Watch – 386 Words
This month’s bloody attack at Garissa was Kenya’s worst since the 1998 US Embassy bombing. Al-Shabaab – the Islamist armed group based in Somalia – claims credit for the attack, which killed at least 147 people at Garissa including 142 students, and injured one hundred more. Since Kenyan troops deployed in Somalia against Al-Shabaab in 2011, the group has claimed responsibility for several major attacks in Kenya, including the devastating 2013 assault on Nairobi’s Westgate shopping mall. In response to the carnage in Garissa, Kenya’s Deputy President William Ruto has announced that Kenya wants to close the country’s Dadaab refugee camp – the world’s largest – and send all 335,000 Somali refugees living there back home within 90 days.
But why are the authorities linking the horrors at Garissa to Somali refugees? Ruto and other officials claim that refugees are responsible for Kenya’s insecurity, but there’s no evidence to support this claim. Kenyan security forces reportedly killed all four of the Garissa gunmen, none of whom appear to have been refugees. To date, not a single Somali refugee has been prosecuted or convicted of any attack in Kenya. The Kenyan public’s anger over the Garissa attack and wider security fears are understandable. But the fact is most Somali refugees share these same fears too. Since 2006 hundreds of thousands of Somalis have fled Al-Shabaab-related abuses and fighting to seek refuge in Dadaab and elsewhere.
Over the years, many have told me how terrified they are of the group’s violence and tactics, which include forced child recruitment and suicide attacks. And the threat Al-Shabaab poses in Somalia is very real too. The UN refugee agency says governments, including Kenya’s, should not return anyone to parts of south-central Somalia where there is fighting, or which remain under control of groups like Al-Shabaab. This advice is based on international and Kenyan law, which clearly prohibit the forced return of refugees or asylum seekers to any place where they face a real risk of persecution or other serious harm. In all, more than 400,000 registered Somali refugees live in Kenya. Every one of them is now holding their breath to see whether Kenya really will rip up the rule book and send them home.
Top tweets
@Dahirkulane: Salute the people of Central Regions in the formation of the #CentralState #Somalia in #Cadaado #Peace#Stability & #Development #Vision2016
@ceoroble: The government media really needs to reassess their reporting…govt casualty is not more important than civilian #Mogadishu #Somalia
@LefkowHRW: Inadequate services & redress for victims of sexual violence, says UN report. A huge problem in #Sudan,#Somalia. http://www.hrw.org/news/2015/
@Aynte: RIP Ahmed Sandheere, police officer whose bravery saved dozens of Ministry of Education officials yesterday.#Somalia
@RikDelhaas: The deadlock of #Somaliland and #Somaliatalks, only happening because of foreign pressure. via@SJMadar http://www.centerforpolicy.
@Amelie_hinga: Sad that Somalia have a better response to terrorists than Kenya. #SomethingHasGotToGive #Somalia#Kenya #Alshabab
@abdiwelisheikh: As we fix #Somalia, focus must be on long-term solutions & big picture. Band aid solutions will fester into gangrenous wounds tomorrow
Image of the day
Each afternoon, streets in Mogadishu fill up with children coming out to play football. Sport has the power to inspire and unite people in a way that little else does. Photo: AMISOM