April 9, 2015 | Daily Monitoring Report.

Somaliland Says Its Airspace Will Not Be Used By Saudi-Led Coalition To Attack Yemen

09 April – Source: Goobjoog News – 154 Words

The Somaliland Ministry of Air, Transport and Aviation has issued a statement rejecting the authorization granted by the Somali Federal Government for the Saudi-led coalition to launch attacks on Yemen using air and naval bases in Somalia. Minister Mohamoud Hashi Abdi said in his statement that Somaliland would never allow a country to use its air and naval bases to attack other country. The statement called on the international community to find an amicable solution to the crisis in Yemen instead of airstrikes. In a swipe to the Somali Federal government, the statement reminded the government to accommodate other people with what they have in their possession, meaning bases in Somaliland are not under the control of Federal Government and they can’t give authorization for its use. The Mogadishu-based Federal Government on Tuesday confirmed for the first time that it allowed the Saudi-led coalition to use Somalia airspace and naval bases to attack Yemen.

Key Headlines

Somaliland Says Its Airspace Will Not Be Used By Saudi-Led Coalition To Attack Yemen (Goobjoog News)
Somalis In Eastleigh Nairobi Concerned About The Closure of Remittances (Goobjoog News)
Some Major Mogadishu Roads Closed Today (Wacaal Media)
Life Goes From Bad To Worse For Somali Refugees In Yemen (Horseed Media)
Uganda Police Arrest Somali Man Over Terror Threat (Somali Current)
Terrorism And The Rising Cost Of Kenya’s War In Somalia (Standard Media)
Support Our Multi Agency Remittance Somalia Leaders Say (Citizen News)
US Maintains Existing Sanctions Against Somalia(China.org/Xinhua)
The Human Cost Of Ending Money Transfers To War-Torn Countries (The Guardian)
Kenyan Neglect Of Northeast Seen Stoking Islamist Resentment (Bloomberg News)
Attacks Are Crippling Northeastern Takeoff (The Star Kenya)

SOMALI MEDIA

Somalis In Eastleigh, Nairobi, Concerned About The Closure of Remittances

09 April – Source: Goobjoog News – 94 Words

Somalis in Nairobi have raised concerns about the closure of 13 remittance companies which they say were a vital lifeline for thousands of families there. Residents told the Goobjoog correspondent in Kenya, Hassan Abdi, that the remittances mean life to them, and if they closed permanently it will have devastating effects.They pointed out that Kenya has the right to investigate any wrongdoings, but has no right to deprive them of their income and livelihood. Kenya has closed the accounts for 13 Somali remittance companies on the suspicion that Al Shabaab gets financial assistance through them.

Some Major Mogadishu Roads Closed Today

09 April – Source: Wacaal Media – 58 Words

Security officers in Mogadishu sealed off several major roads in the area this morning but gave no reasons for the move. The closed roads include Taleeh junction, Makka – Al – Mukarrama, a section of 21st October, and areas surrounding of KM4. Both private and public means of transport and pedestrians were not allowed access to said roads.

Life Goes From Bad To Worse For Somali Refugees In Yemen

08 April – Source: Horseed Media – 212 Words

Somali refugees in Yemen have angrily protested against the federal government’s decision to support the Saudi-led military operations against the Houthi rebels. Hundreds of refugees took to the streets of Sana’a, the capital of Yemen on Wednesday to demonstrate the move by the government which they said it is not an “appropriate” one at this time. “The government has failed to rescue us from this conflict…This move will have a huge impact on our lives and makes our situation worse,’’ said one of the protesters. Another protester questioned why the government decided to get involved in the operations against the Iran-backed rebels at this time. “We are in miserable conditions, and worried that we will be attacked by the Houthis who are definitely not happy with that,” said another refugee. On Tuesday, Somalia’s minister of foreign affairs revealed that the government has allowed the airspace, land and territorial waters to be used for launching attacks in Yemen. More than 100,000 Somali citizens who most of them are refugees are trapped in the violence in Yemen. While other foreign nationals have been evacuated from the impoverished gulf nation, the federal government has not yet moved to evacuate its citizens despite announcing plans to bring back them home.

Uganda Police Arrest Somali Man Over Terror Threat

08 April – Source: Somali Current – 160 Words

Uganda police have arrested Somali man suspected to be an agent of Al Shabaab. The arrest was made after students informed police of suspicious man taking photos of a hostel. Confirming the incident, Uganda Police spokesperson Mr. Fred Enanga said “he was around with pictures of the hostel and several and several pictures of warfare, including one which one in which he held a human head.” Uganda police are interrogating the suspect in Kampala police station. Uganda police issued fresh terror alerts following the attack on Garissa University College for which Al Shabaab claimed responsibility. Al Shabaab carried out a deadly attack in Uganda in 2010, killing 76 people, mainly foreigners. The group is also believed to have killed the prosecutor that was handling the 2010 bombing suspects.Uganda was the first country to deploy troops to Somalia, after Ethiopia and its troops make up the bulk of the AMISOM forces in Somalia. Uganda currently has over 5000 soldiers in Somalia.

REGIONAL MEDIA

Terrorism And The Rising Cost Of Kenya’s War In Somalia

09 April – Source: Standard Media – 418 Words

The US and EU have reportedly been footing the bill for KDF’s air and naval operations and Western allies provide extensive training and equipment support to Amisom including direct assistance to the armed forces of nations contributing troops to Amisom. The consequential costs to the Kenyan economy of Operation Linda Nchi were being felt by the end of October 2011 as Al-Shabaab initiated an escalating terror campaign against mainly civilian targets in Mombasa and Nairobi as well as in the towns and villages of Mandera, Garissa, Wajir and Lamu. Gun, grenade and bomb attacks in Nairobi and Mombasa began within one week of the Somalia invasion and Kenyan businesses have been forced to pay for expensive and often ineffective security measures whose costs are passed on to consumers in all of the nation’s income groups. In October 2011, Lamu’s high season tourist revenue had already been imperiled by the attacks, unrelated to Al-Shabaab, on foreign tourists staying at high end resorts. Rampant piracy activity originating mainly from coastal areas of Somalia outside of Al-Shabaab control had already detrimentally affected the cruise ship tourism sector throughout the Indian Ocean. During the first quarter of 2012, many foreign military observers had begun warning of the unforeseeable costs to Kenya of “mission creep”, which refers to the unintended consequences resulting from unplanned or ad hoc expansion of a nation’s military objectives after combat operations begin. This happened to the US and its allies in Iraq in 2004 and Afghanistan in 2002.

What many observers failed to notice were Kenya’s public pronouncements in January 2012 that Kismayo was the main objective of Operation Linda Nchi that had already morphed into an open-ended campaign to pacify “Jubaland” in southern Somalia. The internationally recognised doctrine of “hot pursuit” in no way implies “come we stay.” The port of Kismayo was attacked by the KDF on September 28, 2012 and Al-Shabaab completely withdrew its forces into the hinterland with very little resistance. Political leaders in Kenya proclaimed this as a “victory in our war on terror.” Domestic media which mischaracterized the initial cross-border operations against Al-Shabaab as being some sort of war on terror have been slow to recognise all of the costs associated with our misguided Somalia adventure including the clever shifting of KDF costs to Amisom.Closing the Somalia border at a total cost of $260 in money and kind accompanied by the long overdue reorganisation of Kenya’s security forces – including the withdrawal of KDF from Sector Two and even from Amisom – are investments into this country’s future.

Support Our Multi Agency Remittance, Somalia Leaders Say

08 April – Source: Citizen News – 280 Words

In a statement, the leaders called for both local and international communities to support the government’s efforts in promoting Somali remittances. The leaders said they strive to achieve “Somali-led, Somali owned and tailor-made solution for Somalia that captures all the peculiarities of a sizable challenge.” The STFR, read the statement, is mandated to connect and accelerate actions to address interests to remittances and formalise Somali financial sector to create a sustainable solution and a financial infrastructure. The composition of its membership includes government institutions, private banks and remittances.Government closes banks The initiative is said to have received overwhelming endorsement from the Council of Ministers who threw their weight behind national and international efforts to resolve the remittance crisis.

The statement came as the Kenyan government closed 86 bank accounts belonging to individual and entities suspected of funding terror activities in the country. The Hawalas that are facing closure include: Amal Money Transfer, Dahabshil Money Transfer Ltd, Tawakal Money Transfer Ltd, Bakaal Express Money Transfer Ltd, Juba Express Money Transfer Ltd, Iftin Express Money Transfer Ltd, Hodan Global Money Remittance and Exchange, Amana Money Transfer Ltd, Kaah Money Transfer Ltd, Continental Money Transfer Ltd, Kendy Money Transfer Ltd, Flex Money Transfer Ltd and the UAE Exchange Money Remittance Ltd. The crackdown on financial institutions is one of the several measures that the government has implemented to tame terror activities in the country. Speaking after meeting President Uhuru Kenyatta, North Eastern leaders led by Majority Assembly Leaders Aden Duale said they will reveal names of terror financiers within a week adding that they will engage residents of the region to stem out suspected members of Al Shabaab hiding within the community.

INTERNATIONAL MEDIA

US Maintains Existing Sanctions Against Somalia

08 April – Source: China.org/Xinhua – 251 Words

U.S. President Barack Obama on Wednesday extended for one year the existing sanctions against Somalia, including a ban on imports of charcoal from the Horn of Africa country as they benefit the extremist al-Shabaab group. In a notice, the president said the situation in Somalia continues to pose an “unusual and extraordinary” threat to U.S. national security and foreign policy. He announced the continuation for one year of the national emergency he declared in April 2010 to address the threat. To deal with the emergency, Obama first ordered sanctions against some Somali individuals and entities in April 2010, and then in July 2012 slapped an import ban on charcoal from Somalia and expanded sanctions against those engaged in acts threatening the peace, security or stability in Somalia, blocking the delivery of humanitarian aid or targeting civilians.

Washington said the trade in charcoal generates “significant revenue” for al-Shabaab, an al-Qaida-affiliated group the Obama administration is fighting along with the African Union troops. The Obama administration recognized the Somali government in January 2013, which was formed in August 2012 as the first permanent central government in the country since the start of a civil war in 1991, and nominated its ambassador in February 2015, the first in over two decades. “Although these developments demonstrate progress with respect to Somalia’s stabilization, they do not remove the importance of U. S. sanctions, especially against persons undermining the stability of Somalia,” Obama said in a letter to top congressional leaders over the extended sanctions.

The Human Cost Of Ending Money Transfers To War-Torn Countries

09 April – Source: The Guardian – 948 Words

Each month, Ahmed Ismail makes his ritual trip to a money-transfer agent. Like a lot of Somalis living in Australia, he sends money home to his relatives in Bosaso, in the country’s north-east. He knows exactly what it pays for. “Normally, I’d cover my two cousins’ high school fees,” says Ismail, who owns a travel agency in Melbourne. “And my cousins in the UK and the US cover food, housing, all the other expenses.” That also means, if he doesn’t send the money – usually meagre sums of $200 or $300 – he knows exactly what his cousins cannot afford that month. That pressure has been building since October, when Westpac, the last big bank to facilitate money transfers, suddenly announced it was exiting the industry.A three-month stay imposed by the federal court in December expired on 31 March. Ismail’s family in Bosaso cannot understand why the lifeline they have depended on for 20 years might not come through this month. “They don’t understand how it’s not possible. Some of them think it’s a joke, or that I don’t want to send them money,” Ismail told Guardian Australia.“At the same time they have friends and colleagues who are still receiving money, and they want to know how … It causes a lot of issues within the family.”Somalia has no formal banking system, nor international money-transfer companies such as Western Union.

Instead Somalis abroad rely on a system called “hawala”, Arabic for transfer, to send $1.3bn home each year. That includes about $33m from Australia, more than twice what the country gives to Somalia each year in foreign aid. Under hawala, Ismail’s money agent in Melbourne corresponds with another in Somalia, confirming that the Melbourne agent has received the $300 from Ismail. Shortly after, the Somali-side agent makes an equivalent sum available to Ismail’s relatives. The debt between the two agents is settled later, usually by moving money between traditional bank accounts. High-profile cases of the system being used to fund militant groups have led to regulators around the world cracking down on banks helping to square the accounts of money agents. Westpac persisted with the service long after its rivals had quit, starting with the Commonwealth bank in 2011. By October the risk calculations had become too high, as had the cost of complying with stringent new domestic and global regulation, much of it aimed at stopping the funding of militia such as al-Shabaab, the group responsible for last week’s attack that killed almost 150 people in neighbouring Kenya. The last US bank to facilitate money transfers to Somalia also ceased doing so in February. Remittances from Britain, too, have been severely constricted by the decision by Barclays in 2013 to close money agents’ accounts.

Kenyan Neglect Of Northeast Seen Stoking Islamist Resentment

08 April – Source: Bloomberg News – 1047 Words

The Islamist militant group that attacked a university in northeastern Kenya last week is drawing on local perceptions of historic marginalization and mistreatment to attract recruits, an analyst and a rights activist said.At least 147 people, most of them students, died when gunmen linked to Somalia’s al-Shabaab, including the son of a local politician, stormed Garissa University College on April 2. Kenya is about 11 percent Muslim, with most of the rest of the country Christian. The targeting of an institution mainly attended by Kenyans from other parts of the country plays on long-held grievances about regional underdevelopment held by a local ethnic Somali population that has some sympathies with the Islamist group, according to Amran Abdundi, executive director of the Frontier Indigenous Network, an advocacy organization. Some Kenyan Somalis “sympathize with al-Shabaab because they are manhandled by security forces” meant to protect them, said Khalif Abdi, an independent security analyst based in Garissa. “The majority of people here have nothing to lose,” he said, citing the government’s failure to develop infrastructure and education since independence in 1963.

The three counties that make up the northeast have some of Kenya’s largest proportions of people with secondary education or higher who are out of work, a measure of inequality, according to a 2013 report published by the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics. Some coastal counties and the capital, Nairobi, have similar figures. Deadly Assault The deadliest assault on Kenya in more than 15 years is the latest by al-Shabaab, which has waged an insurgency in neighboring Somalia since 2006 in a bid to impose Islamic law. After Kenya deployed troops there in 2011 following attacks on tourists and aid workers, the group responded by intensifying attacks on sites including bars and churches. In 2013, a raid on the upmarket Westgate shopping mall in Nairobi left at least 67 people dead. Six suspects in last week’s attacks, five of them Kenyan, are being held for a month while the police investigate, the Interior Ministry said Tuesday. Their nationality may signify that al-Shabaab has established itself on Kenyan territory and no longer organizes attacks from Somalia, according to Ahmed Salim, an analyst at Teneo Intelligence in Dubai. Kenya’s wider northeastern region that borders Somalia and Ethiopia has seen periodic unrest over the past three decades. The mainly ethnic Somali population campaigned for the region’s absorption into Somalia 50 years ago, fighting a 1963-1967 insurgency after Kenya’s government rejected the result of an plebiscite on which country it should belong to.

SOCIAL MEDIA

CULTURE / OPINION / EDITORIAL / ANALYSIS / BLOGS/ DISCUSSION BOARDS

Many Kenyans are already avoiding the region and moving their businesses and investments to their home counties. The local population is frustrated, angry and weary of a government that might come down heavy on them. It is their hope and resolve that the law will deal with criminals and safeguard the lives and businesses of the victims. The campus attack has surely affected all the facets of life and has crippled the region’s economic takeoff.

Attacks Are Crippling Northeastern Takeoff

09 April – Source: The Star Kenya – 769 Words

Once again Kenya is in mourning after a 15-hour siege at Garissa University College left some 147 young Kenyans from all walks of life and faith lifeless. The country is in panic, parents are frantically searching for their children and security experts are trying to piece together events leading to the attack and possible security lapses. My heart and prayers go out to the bereaved families and the country at large. The gunmen may be dead but their heinous crime left behind a population frustrated and angry as ordinary Kenyans and the security machinery now view all of Northeastern with suspicion. Security agents say more than half of the attacks in the country since 2012 happened in Northeastern. This essentially justifies population’s fears and memories of the notorious collective punishment past governments have meted out to them.

The Northeastern region has for years been marginalised by successive regimes. This has affected all facets of life, including health, infrastructure, livelihood and the general economy. However, economic policies by President Kibaki’s government have ameliorated the situation and the region was slowly taking off. How are these attacks crippling the region’s economic take-off? Despite some challenges, the three Northeastern counties seem to have embraced devolution and its impact is already being felt. Governor Ali Roba is on record saying Mandera has received more resources than the combined investment by the national government in the country since Independence. The counties are improving roads, water and health facilities. A recent World Bank report stated that Wajir county spent 58 per cent of its budget allocation on development projects. The counties’ leaderships are wooing investors and the reception has been positive. The local population is investing in the counties. But these attacks are clawing back the gains made as institutions and political leaders now discuss insecurity at the expense of programmes to improve lives.

“Acts of Al-Shabab terror like the one in Garissa, cannot be dealt with mere military response, a construction of a wall that separates and restricts the local nomad inhabitants or the repatriation of refugees, many whom fled the very same group that is waging attacks in Kenya. The underlying causes of this phenomenon should be sufficiently addressed like systemic government corruption, youth alienation, Muslim marginalization, and lack of economic opportunities. Only then will the terrorists be deprived the grounds for further recruitment of unemployed and disenfranchised youth.”

Garissa University Massacre: What Went Wrong?

08 April – Source: Wardheer News – 1,241 Words

On Thursday, April 2nd, 2015, a cowardly and deliberately instigated incident that shocked the world happened in Garissa town, in northern Kenya. Located in a semi-arid desert, Garissa is the headquarter of Garissa County. At about 5:00 AM, at the campus of Garissa University, a branch of Moi University in Eldoret in western Kenya, Christian and Muslim students of the university were performing their morning prayers. Strange as it was, hell broke loose when several heavily-armed men from the radical Al Shabab terror group started shooting indiscriminately at the student prayer gatherings. Al Shabab, a religious group fighting in Somalia, is known to follow a strict version of Islam. Since the time of the attack corresponded to the Fajar, or dawn, Muslim prayer, one could doubt if these attackers who claimed to profess the Islamic faith, ever performed the obligatory dawn prayer. Whatever their version of Islam is, the time the attackers blasted through the gates of this educational institution of higher learning, ought to have been a time for meditation and contemplation, and an hour of solace and peace.

The famished young men who ambushed Garissa University were spotted around the premises of the university days before the dreaded attack, perhaps taking high-level reconnaissance of the entire university. They were well-armed with light weapons such as AK 47; add that to the pouches of bullets that would last for well over 24-hours even though some students narrated how the attackers ran out of ammunition after having done much damage then resorting to using knives to slaughter their young victims. The attackers had tossable hand grenades; some wore suicide belts. These young suicide bombers were well-organized, had knowledge of the terrain and understood the local Kiswahili dialect spoken in Kenya’s educational institutions. Even before the sun rose over the horizon on that particular day, the unsuspecting gunmen shot their way through the university security gate killing the guards instantly. Minutes later, there was a complete pandemonium that sent over 800 students scampering for safety. By the time the operation was over, medics reported the deaths of 147 aspiring students including the security guards, three policemen and three soldiers.

“It is widely believed that the attack on Kenya’s Garissa University College on Thursday is part of a strategy by the militant group al-Shabab to divide Christians and Muslims and deepen sectarian divisions. The attackers spared Muslim students during the violent attack at Garissa but brutally murdered their Christian counterparts. Al-Shabab probably wanted to show that they are still very much a force by trying to inflame religious and sectarian violence in order to deepen divisions in Kenya and appeal to more alienated Muslim youths in the country.”

Only Somalis Can Solve Somali Problems

08 April – Source: China.org – 582 Words

This columnist had the opportunity this past weekend to talk with Dr. Robert G. Patman, head of the Department of Politics and professor of international relations at the University of Otago, New Zealand, regarding the recent attack by Al-Shabab in Garissa, Kenya. Dr. Patman, the author of “Strategic Shortfall: The Somali Syndrome and the March to 9/11,” stressed that a Somali problem can only have a Somali solution.

Q:What is the significance of the Garissa attack in Kenya? Does it showcase a resurgent al-Shabab?

A: Following the 2013 terrorist attack on the Westgate Mall and several other terrorist incidents in Kenya, the Garissa attack highlights several points. First, Kenya’s participation in the African Union’s intervention in Somalia continues to have blowback for the Kenyan government. Second, the Islamist al-Shabab is far from defeated. The militants may have been beaten out of their strongholds in Somalia by Kenyan and other AU peacekeeping forces over the last two years and lost some of their leaders through a combination of American airstrikes and defections, but ironically these reverses in Somalia made the terrorist group more diffuse and more likely to resort to periodic soft-target attacks like Garissa in neighboring Kenya. When it controlled large parts of Somalia, its hands were full: collecting taxes, policing the streets and administering its cruel forms of Shariah law justice. It was stretched thin and distracted. Now relieved of the burden of administering territory, al-Shabab can focus on jihad.

Q: Is the African Union force effective at all in tackling the problem in Somalia?

A: The African Union Mission in Somalia, or AMISOM, is an active, 21,500-strong regional peacekeeping mission operated by the African Union with the approval of the UN in Somalia. After AMISOM troops from a coalition of countries dislodged al-Shabab from areas it controlled in Somalia, ill-disciplined militia forces filled the vacuum. In other words, AMISOM prevailed in military terms against al-Shabab, but did not have an effective plan to win the peace in Somalia. The Obama administration backed AMISOM troops, but it was a relatively low-investment, light-footprint approach to counterterrorism. The White House’s approach reflects Obama’s firm belief that outside military forces can’t compel change in troubled parts of the world. This week’s vicious killings in Garissa were depicted by White House officials as desperate actions by an al-Shabab organization in decline, but some analysts disagree with this assessment. They argue the recent atrocity in Kenya demonstrates how difficult it is to destroy militant groups in places such as Somalia, where decades of war and famine have created vast, chaotic and largely ungovernable areas.

Top tweets

‏@mohamedomaryar1 #Somalia: Puntland’s ministry of Justice builds a new justice court at Burtinle district of Nugal region

@WFPSomalia ·A big thank you to #Canada for their generous & continuing support to @WFP‘s work in #Somalia cc@CanadaFP @DFATD_DEV

@UNLazzarini · Comprehensive article by @WomenUndrSiegeon fight against #GBV in #Somalia & importance of the Sexual Offenses Bill http://bit.ly/1M2mwCQ

@HussienM1 #RWB:Reporters Without Borders condemns the latest raid by Somalia’s National Security and Intelligence Agency (NISA) on Radio Shabelle

@Tuuryare_Africa: Former Minister of Justice, Farah Sheikh Abdulkadir is expected to be appointed Director of NISA.#Somalia

@Goobjoognews: #Somalia New public school named after fallen Somali language hero Hussein Sh. Ahmed Kadare inaugurated in Mogadishu

@NadiraMahamoud: Hundreds of residents have fallen ill, suffering from mouth, abdominal bleeding, skin infections due to toxic waste. #LeaveOurWaters #Somalia

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Image of the day

A boy plays with a kite in front of his home – another peaceful scene in the city where, just years ago, Islamist militants and African peacekeepers fought regular battles in the streets. ‘Life in Mogadishu’ series. Photo: Reuters