April 24, 2017 | Morning Headlines
Roadside Bomb In Somalia Kills 8 Soldiers, Police Say
23 April – Source: New York Times-95 Words
A Somali police official says a roadside bomb in a remote town in Somalia’s semi autonomous state of Puntland has killed eight soldiers and injured three others.Ahmed Mohamed tells The Associated Press that Sunday’s blast targeted a military convoy in Galgala. Security forces have been battling Islamic State-linked fighters in the region.The Al-Qaida-linked Al-Shabaab extremist group claimed responsibility for the blast. IS-linked extremists also have carried out such attacks in the past.Fighters affiliated with the Islamic State are a relatively new and growing threat in Somalia, where al-Shabab has been entrenched for years.
Key Headlines
- Roadside Bomb In Somalia Kills 8 Soldiers Police Say(New York Times)
- Somali Journalist Escapes Assassination Attempt(Goobjoog News)
- Somali President Pays His First Visit To Baidoa Town(Shabelle News)
- Somali Troops Conduct Security Operation In Qoryoley After Assassination(Garowe Online)
- Trump’s Offensive To ‘Wipe Out’ Al-Shabaab Threatens More Pain For Somalis(The Guardian)
- Al-Qaeda or ISIS? Shabaab Militants Fight (Daily Nation)
- Granted UK Asylum After 2012 Olympics Somali To Run Again (Associated Press/Hiiraan Online)
NATIONAL MEDIA
Somali Journalist Escapes Assassination Attempt
23 April- Source:Goobjoog News- 263 Words
A Somali photographer, Faisal Omar Hashi on Saturday night survived an assassination attempt when bombs fitted into his car exploded in the capital, Mogadishu.Hashi who works with Reuters was not close to his vehicle when the explosion occurred near Benadir Junction, thus escaping the attempt.It is not clear which group launched the attack on the former legislator who is also a respected Islamic scholar.The country is however battling militant group Al Shabaab who have been staging similar attacks.Somalia is increasingly becoming a dangerous territory for journalists as three journalist have been attacked and two others arrested since March this year.
Hanad Ali Guled who works for privately-owned Goobjoog Television, was kidnapped from near his home by masked gunmen on 2nd April and was found the next day in a field 30 km south of Mogadishu, bearing the marks of torture and unable to talk.Abdihamid Mohamed Karzai, a Universal TV technician, narrowly escaped being killed by the explosion of a bomb placed under his car in the Mogadishu district of Hamarwayne on 12 March.Despite having no personal security concerns unlike their colleagues in southern and central Somalia, journalists in Somaliland and its neighbouring Puntland have in recent times been subject to intimidation, censorship and harassment, a scenario journalists’ rights groups criticize as ‘draconian’.Earlier this month, a court in Somaliland sentenced Abdimalik Muse Oldon to two years in prison for what they termed ‘endangering peace and security’ in Somalia’s breakaway region.Oldon was arrested after he travelled from Mogadishu where he met with Somali President Mohamed Abdullahi Farmajo.
Somali President Pays His First Visit To Baidoa Town
23 April-Source:Shabelle News- 131 Words
A high-level delegation led by Somali President, Mohamed Abdullahi Farmajo has on Sunday arrived in Baidoa, the administrative capital of Southwest state.Several ministers, including the the Minister of Defense, Abdirashid Abdullahi Mohamed and members of the Federal Parliament are accompanying the President on his visit to Baidoa.On arrival to Shati-Gadud International Airport, Somali President was warmly welcomed by top officials, including the leader of Southwest administration, Sharif Hassan Sheikh Aden.During his visit, President Farmajo will meet with elders, civil society groups, leaders and Somali and AMISOM commanders to discuss on the security and the humanitarian situation.This was the first visit by President Farmajo to a town in Somalia since his election in February 8 in Mogadishu. He paid several trips to Saudi Arabia, Kenya, Jordan and UAE.
Somali Troops Conduct Security Operation In Qoryoley After Assassination
23 April- Source:Garowe Online- 139 Words
Somali government forces carried out a security swoop in Qoryoley town in Lower Shabelle region following the assassination of a prominent elder last night, Garowe Online reports.The operation saw soldiers stopping vehicles for inspection and searching houses suspected to be a hideout for assassins who killed elder Hajji Hassan outside a mosque in the evening.The motive for the elder’s killing is still unknown and no group has claimed responsibility for the murder.There were no immediate official details about the latest operation in Qoryoley district, located about 120 kilometers southwest of Mogadishu; however, security sources said dozens of suspects were taken into custody.The Al-Qaeda-linked Al-Shabaab group carried out multiple deadly attacks in Qoryoley for the past few months, in an attempt to reclaim the strategic agriculture-rich town back from the Somali and African Union peacekeeping forces.
INTERNATIONAL MEDIA
Trump’s Offensive To ‘Wipe Out’ Al-Shabaab Threatens More Pain For Somalis
23 April- Source:r The Guardian, UK- 273 Words
A new US-backed military offensive against Islamist militants in Somalia could undermine the massive international effort to help millions of people threatened by the worst drought there in more than 40 years, aid officials in the unstable east African state fear.More than £50m has been raised by individual donors in the UK and the British government has contributed another £110m to help avert hundreds of thousands of deaths in Somalia. More than six million people there are in need of immediate assistance, with half of them facing famine.
British officials in Mogadishu, Somalia’s capital, said that the effort was “unprecedented”. The UN target of raising $835m (£654m) has largely been met, raising hopes that a repeat of the tragedy of the 2011 famine, which killed 250,000 people in the country, will be averted. However, aid workers in Somalia warn that any significant offensive, especially if accompanied by the use of air power, could have a devastating effect on relief operations.“Increased belligerence from some international and national actors is not going to help us … if things deteriorate as a result of military effort, that will be man-made,” said Peter de Clercq, the United Nations’ deputy special representative of the secretary-general in Somalia. “We have argued very strongly that this is not the time for military action.”
Al-Qaeda or ISIS? Shabaab Militants Fight
23 April- Source:Daily Nation – 375 Word
Security agencies have been placed on high alert after fighting broke out among Al-Shabaab factions in Somalia, with some militants fleeing to Kenya.Some Al-Shabaab commanders want to remain committed to Al-Qaeda while a new crop of leaders want to be allied to the Syrian-based Islamic State group.The war broke on April 15 when Al-Shabaab executed Sheikh Said Bulbul and Abu Karim, who ranked high in the organisation’s hierarchy.The two had sworn allegiance to IS.
Soon, Al-Shabaab, which years ago joined Al-Qaeda, started what security agencies described as cleansing of militants who could not be trusted, most of them foreign fighters.Ahmed Yusuf Hassan, 26 and Ahmed Nur Abdi Osoble, 20 — both Kenyans — were executed by firing squad at Buq Aqable in Hiraan region on March 27.Other Kenyans killed include a fugitive identified as Asum from Majengo, Nairobi, Omambia Jared, a former Moi University student, and Faraj Abdumajid from Mombasa.
Al-Shabaab squads also publicly beheaded four foreign fighters in Lower Juba, accusing them of spying for the Kenya Defence Forces and Somali National Army.Civilians suspected of spying by the terrorists have not been spared either.Security sources say at present, only one Kenyan is in the good books of the terrorist organisation.
Ahmed Iman, a former Kenyatta University student who grew up in Majengo, Nairobi, is in-charge of prosecutions and executions.He was previously in charge of Al-Shabaab propaganda on the internet.Iman is a common figure in internet videos, and if often seen wearing military fatigues and taunting the KDF and AU missions in Somalia.Kenyan soldiers entered Somalia in October 2011 to neutralise the Al-Shabaab threat.
OPINION, ANALYSIS, AND CULTURE
“Even as Farah seizes new opportunities in life — like taking a course in English and information technology — being separated from her family is a daily torment. And all because of the faceless, nameless extremists who endanger her life,”
Granted UK Asylum After 2012 Olympics, Somali To Run Again
23 April- Source: Associated Press/Hiiraan Online-850 Words
Glancing at the Olympic Stadium for the first time in five years, Zamzam Farah’s troubles momentarily wash away and she fondly reminisces about competing in the London Games.“It was overwhelming,” the Somali runner says. “It wasn’t like anything I had experienced before. The whole world was coming together.”
The London Olympics felt like a sanctuary from the suffering in Mogadishu, from the violent threats that failed to deter her from running those 400 meters in the 80,000-seat stadium as half of the two-person 2012 Somalia team.Then came a knock on her bedroom door in the athletes’ village late one evening. A 21-year-old Farah was woken by a team official with disturbing information: Islamist extremists had posted death threats on Facebook.“I didn’t take it seriously,” Farah said. “I thought it was a joke.”“I don’t want to lose you, but you have to be safe,” Farah recalled being told by her mother. “It doesn’t matter how long we are separated from each other.”
It’s been almost five years now.Farah had little choice but to pursue a new life in Britain. One that ultimately led her back to the Olympic Park this week, accompanied by The Associated Press, to look ahead to her fresh sporting challenge.Farah is ready to run again. This time pounding the streets of the city that granted her asylum in Sunday’s London Marathon.Permanent resident status was granted by the British government six months after the Olympics, on Feb. 28, 2013.“The day I got the letter was so overwhelming,” Farah said. “I was jumping around. I couldn’t believe it.”
Starting a new life in London didn’t feel like a choice for Farah but a necessity. It wasn’t about collecting benefits from the state, but staying alive.“It was a dark life,” Farah said. “Not to be going back to my country. Not having the freedom that anyone in this world would have of going back where he or she was born or belonged. It was really sad for me. But I still really appreciate being here and feeling more safe. I feel more happy. I can do what I want and follow my dream.”