April 22, 2016 | Daily Monitoring Report
Al-Shabaab Militants Kidnap Traditional Elders In Hiran Region
21 April – Source: Radio Kulmiye – 161 Words
Al-Shabaab militants have kidnapped at least 9 traditional elders from a rural location in Hiran region, central Somalia,. According to eyewitness account, the elders had gathered at a prayers session in Qarin-Ad location, west of the provincial capital Beledweyn, when heavily armed Al-Shabaab fighters stormed the event, taking the elders hostage.
One of the elders who managed to escape from the scene told Radio Kulmiye that the evening militant crackdown had caught them by surprise while praying for divine intervention from the prolonged drought in region. The source, who requested to remain anonymous for fear of reprisal, added that the elders who were mostly too old to flee the raid, had been taken towards Bulaburte district, designated to become the administrative seat of the upcoming Hiran/Middle Shabelle State. Al-Shabaab, who still control large swathes of rural areas in the country, have a notorious reputation of taking punitive actions against local elders who happen to defy their extortion demands.
Key Headlines
- Al-Shabaab Militants Kidnap Traditional Elders In Hiran Region (Radio Kulmiye)
- Police Launch Manhunt For ‘Mastermind’ Of Bardere Bomb Attack (Shabelle News)
- Hospital Face Medical Shortage Amid Outbreak of Diarrhea In Sakow And Jilib (Goobjoog News)
- Two Survivors From Ethiopia And Somalia Tell Of Mystery Migrant Shipwreck (Deutschwelle)
- Former Refugee Gives Back To Others ( Winnipeg Free Press)
- Somalia – In-Year Update December 2015 (FCO Report)
PRESS STATEMENT
AU Special Representative Mourns The Passing Of Major General Levi Karuhanga, The first AMISOM Force Commander
22 April – Source: AMISOM – 132 Words
The Special Representative of the Chairperson of the African Union Commission (SRCC) for Somalia, Ambassador Francisco Madeira and the entire AMISOM family has learnt with sadness the passing of Major General Levi Karuhanga, the first Force Commander of AMISOM.As the first Force Commander, Major General Karuhanga shaped the way the ensuing commanders have been able to fulfil their duties. He inspired AMISOM’s decisive move towards defeating Al-Shabaab and liberating the city of Mogadishu. Subsequent commanders have since been taking Gen. Levi Karuhanga’s method of work as a reference point in their operations.Ambassador Madeira and the entire AMISOM fraternity commiserate with General Karuhanga’s family, the government and people of Uganda. His contribution to the stabilisation of Somalia is highly commendable and will always be a reference point and source of inspiration.
NATIONAL MEDIA
Police Launch Manhunt For ‘Mastermind’ Of Bardere Bomb Attack
22 April – Source:Shabelle News – 123 Words
Authorities in Bardere city of Gedo region say security forces have launched a massive manhunt for the mastermind of a roadside bomb explosion on Thursday.
The Deputy Commissioner of Bardere Police, Salad Abdulle, told Radio Shabelle there were Series of police raids carried out late on Thursday, searching for the culprits of the IED attack.At least one person was killed and several were wounded in Bardere blast and there was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack.In mid July, 2015, Kenyan and Somali government soldiers recaptured the south-western Bardere town, which has been under Al-Shabaab control since 2008.The Al-Qaeda-linked Al shabaab is battling to unseat the UN-backed Somalia’s federal government for control of the war-torn horn of Africa country.
Hospital Face Medical Shortage Amid Outbreak of Diarrhea In Sakow And Jilib
22 April – Source: Goobjoog News – 215 Words
Hospitals in Jilib and Sakow town have been hit by a shortage of drugs following the outbreak of diarrheal disease in the two towns. The two towns are controlled by Al-Shabaab fighters who banned NGOs from their areas some years back.
Saakow district commissioner, Mohamed Haji Hussein who lives in the outskirt of the town since Al-Shabaab took control of the town told Goobjoog news that the town is no longer able to handle the situation as the hospitals face medical shortage. “Hospitals are experiencing shortages of medicines yet they need to distribute drugs to deal with outbreak of diarrhoea,” said Hussein. He added “At least three children dead in Sakow hospital following disease outbreaks as a result of the medical shortage,” he said.
Last week five children died while several others were affected by an outbreak of acute watery diarrhea in Saakow town. “So far more than 50 deaths have been reported in the past three weeks in the town,” a medical inspector, who declined to reveal his name, said.The outbreak was reported in the remote villages of the town. “The biggest problem is the inadequate water supply,” the officer said, as was the lack of basic hygiene. The outbreak had also affected local residents in the town, whose population are mainly nomads.
INTERNATIONAL MEDIA
Two Survivors From Ethiopia And Somalia Tell Of Mystery Migrant Shipwreck
22 April – Source Deutsche Welle: 401 Words
An Ethiopian and a Somali man say they were on two boats heading to Italy from Libya when one of the vessels sank. The UN refugee agency says up to 500 people may have drowned in the tragedy.
Visibly shaken from their ordeal, the two men – 25-year-old Muaz Mahmoud Aymo and 28-year-old Mowlid Isman – described how they were among 200 people aboard a small boat when smugglers forced them onto a larger vessel, which already had 300 people on board.”When we moved to that boat, the big boat fell into the water and my baby (of) two months and my 21-year-old wife, and all died in the middle of the ocean,” Aymo told reporters at the offices of the Greek charity Praxis.”Only 41 made it, we swam to save our lives to the small boat. And I saved two persons,” he added.
The two said although they managed to get back on board the smaller boat, the smuggler refused to wait and help others struggling in the sea.Isman, who said his two sisters and her baby died in the tragedy, said “We saw the dead people with our eyes.”When the small boat’s engine broke down, the smuggler was picked up by a third boat and promised to return.”We were three days in the ocean,” the 25-year-old Aymo said, adding that they had nothing to eat or drink on boat.
Former Refugee Gives Back To Others
22 April – Source :Winnipeg Free Press – 913 Words
In January 2010, Liibaan Ali paid a trucker in the United States to drop him off near the border. He walked into Canada at Emerson and filed a refugee claim.No one could have guessed the Somali-born asylum-seeker would one day be the person hundreds of Syrian refugees in Winnipeg can call for help in the middle of the night.Ali, who grew up in Syria, started volunteering at the Islamic Social Services Association this winter when the number of Syrian refugees arriving in Manitoba soared. Now he’s working with ISSA as its refugee liaison to Manitoba Housing and Community Development and manning an Arabic phone line funded by the Red Cross that refers Syrian refugees to available services in Manitoba.
Having a black man speak to them in Arabic with a Syrian dialect has come as a surprise to many, said Ali. “They’re so happy when I tell them where I’ve lived,” said the man from a suburb of Damascus. “They say ‘At least we have someone who can understand us’ and ‘You get me, man.’”
Ali gets them, all right. His family fled civil war in Somalia in 1991 when he was 12 years old. At first, they went to Nairobi but were persecuted for being undocumented refugees. After a few months, they moved to Syria which, for a time, had opened its doors to citizens of Somalia, he said.”We had opportunities there — the right to education and health care,” said Ali. “I love the Arab people I grew up with.”
Ali trained as a nurse, then went on to study anesthesiology. While in university, his family was offered refugee status in the U.S. He decided to stay where he was. But as more family and friends left Syria, he missed them and travelled to the U.S. in 2001. He made a refugee claim and was granted temporary status.He lived and worked there for nine years: in Baltimore, for Dell in Nashville and at Handi-Transit in Phoenix where he met his wife, Sahra Farah. Her family fled Somalia’s civil war when she was a little girl. She had married an American and was working at Walmart after the man divorced her, leaving her status in limbo. She and Ali married and had a baby girl, who is a U.S. citizen. When Ali’s immigration to the U.S. was rejected, he faced removal to Somalia. His wife’s green card would expire in a year.
OPINION, ANALYSIS, AND CULTURE
“There was steady progress at the political level in the period under review, including regular meetings of federal and regional leaders within the framework of a National Leadership Forum, and a national consultative process aimed at agreeing a model for the electoral process due in August 2016,”
Somalia – In-Year Update, December 2015
21 April – Source: FCO Report – 1309
The human rights picture in Somalia remains bleak, marked by serious abuses and violations by various parties involved in the ongoing conflict, and an enduring culture of impunity. The Independent Expert for Somalia, Bahame Tom Nyanduga, stated in his report of 28 October that “years of conflict in Somalia have affected every aspect of human rights and destroyed governance structures”.
In its 2015-16 report, Amnesty International documented that “over 500 people were killed or injured by armed conflict and generalised violence, and at least 50,000 people were displaced”. Al-Shabaab’s (AS) ability to mount indiscriminate attacks across Somalia continued, often characterised by deliberate targeting of civilians, as well as parliamentarians and politicians. On 10 July, 11 civilians were killed and more than 20 injured in an attack on two Mogadishu hotels. On 26 July, a truck explosion outside the Jazeera Palace Hotel in Mogadishu resulted in the deaths of 15 people. AS also continued to conduct extra-judicial executions of civilians they suspected of acting for or on behalf of the Federal Government of Somalia (FGS) or the African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM).
Civilian casualties as a result of military operations conducted against AS also continued to be reported in the second half of 2015. In July alone, 22 civilians were reportedly killed by AMISOM in two separate incidents in Marka, Lower Shabelle region. In one incident, AMISOM soldiers killed six family members attending a wedding. In August, AMISOM’s Special Representative of the Chairperson of the African Union Commission, Ambassador Francisco Caetano Jose Madeira, held a press conference in which he announced the arrest of the soldiers involved in this incident. He also announced the establishment of an AMISOM civilian casualty tracking cell.
TOP TWEETS
@Daudoo:Shabelle river in #Somalia receives water after being completely dry in past few weeks, amidst devastating droughts.
@Daudoo: #Russia Ready to Sell Arms to #Somalia once sanctions imposed on it are liftedhttp://bit.ly/1r3k2eK
@USIP:#Somalia‘s nascent institutions need nurturing, said the president at USIP this week:http://www.usip.org/
@HarunMaruf:Prayers throughout region for the young refugees who perished in the Mediterranean Sea.#StopSmugglers #Somalia
@SalahOsman0:#Somalia Students @ SIMAD UNIVERSITY in#Mogadishu work hard 2 keep their dreams alive despite massive challenges
IMAGE OF THE DAY
Water flows in Somalia’s River Shabelle following a dry spell.
Photo: @daudoo