August 13, 2013 | Daily Monitoring Report.
Somalia claims gains in al Shabaab security operation
13 Aug – Source: Africa Review – 249 Words
Somalia says it has destroyed 17 operation centres used by the al Shabaab militant group in Mogadishu as it looks to improve security in the capital. Interior Affairs and National Security minister Abdikarim Hussein Guled on Monday said that the security forces had also arrested dozens of loyalists to the terror group.
He was speaking following a high-level meeting held at Prime Minister Abdi Farah Shirdon’s residence which was attended by cabinet members and commanders of the army, police and the security agencies. The meeting was also attended by officials from Mogadishu’s municipality. The minister said up to 40 men were rounded up in the operation.
“Proactive moves by the security forces will continue until the capital’s security is guaranteed,” said the minister. Militants have in recent weeks especially during the just-ended holy month of Ramadhan waged attacks including a deadly suicide mission against the Turkish Embassy.
Key Headlines
- Somali PM holds security meeting with ministers and security officials (Radio Dalsan/Hiiraan Online/Jowhar Online/Shabelle)
- Government talks about Mogadishu security situation (Jowhar Online/Mareeg Online/Radio Dalsan)
- Somalia claims gains in al Shabaab security operation (Africa Review)
- Bloodshed in Mogadishu as terror group Al-Shabaab renews its campaign of violence (News Time/IPS)
- Kenyan faces terror case in the US (Daily Nation)
- 40 arrested in Beledweyne security swoop (Bar-kulan)
- Humanitarian and food support needed in Somalia (CCTV Africa)
SOMALI MEDIA
Somali PM holds security meeting with ministers and security officials
13 Aug – Source: Radio Dalsan/Hiiraan Online/Jowhar Online/Shabelle – 144 words
Somali Prime Minister Abdi Farah Shirdon has chaired a closed door meeting on security on Monday night, a statement from the prime minister’s office said. The meeting attended by the National Security and Defense ministers as well as other National Security and police officials was aimed to focus on the recent improvement of the security in Mogadishu, the country’s capital.
“During the meeting the National Security Minister briefed the prime minister as he reported during in the recent police operations, the security elements succeeded to destroy 19 al Shabaab units in Mogadishu.” the statement said.
The statement from the meeting also confirmed the arrest of 39 al Shabaab members in the midst of preparing actions to undermine the security. The meeting came as the government said it has alerted its security forces to prevent growing insecurity incidents in Mogadishu during the holy Ramadan month.
Government talks about Mogadishu security situation
13 Aug – Source: Jowhar Online/Mareeg Online/Radio Dalsan – 126 words
The Interior and National Security Minister of Somalia Abdikarim Hussein Guled has commented on the security in the capital. Mr Guled speaking with the local media after a closed door meeting security held at the prime minister’s office said that the security agents of the government were on high alert to prevent any insecurity incidents.
“The security forces have arrested more than 40 suspect of al Shabaab members in the latest operations in the capital,” the minister said.
Minister Guled said the security departments will work tirelessly to ensure peace and stability in Mogadishu. The minister has called on the people to assist the security forces in eliminating security threats.
Security operations in Afgoye
13 Aug – Source: Shabelle – 96 words
Abdiqadir Mursal who is the Deputy Police Commissioner of Afgoye district told Shabelle media that security forces searched houses in the town to hunt down for the culprits who terrorized residents for the past few days.
During the security operations, men suspected to be behind the insecurity acts have been arrested and will be brought to court to face the law according to the commissioner.
“ A man who was dressed in military uniform killed a civilian Monday night and escaped from the scene ; we are searching for him and will bring him to justice,’’Said Mursal.
40 arrested in Beledweyne security swoop
13 Aug – Source: Bar-kulan – 113 words
Somali government security forces have arrested 40 suspects in a security swoop in central Somali town of Beledweyne Tuesday following insecurity acts in the recent days. Soldiers went door-to-door in the regional capital in search of explosives, illegal weapons and militants causing instability.
Of the 40 detained, some were found innocent and released after questioning, said Hiiraan region police boss Colonel Isaq Ali Abdillahi. The remaining 10, suspected of having affiliations with al Shabaab, were taken into police custody for further investigations.
Detainees are believed to be al Qaeda-linked al Shabaab sympathizers. The security crackdown comes after a Somali government soldier was shot and killed in Beledweyne by unknown assailants who immediately managed to escape.
I will bring positive changes to Galgadud region, says new Governor
12 Aug – Source: Shabelle – 128 Words
Hussein Ali Wehliye who has been appointed as the new governor of Galgadud region in central Somalia has vowed to bring tangible development to the underdeveloped region which was previously governed by the Islamic umbrella of Ahlu Suna wal Jama’a sheikhs.
Mr. Wehliye says consultations are part of his plans and will consult both Ahlu Suna and traditional elders who helped in the liberation of the region from al Shabaab.
He also promised to continue with the unfinished projects started by the previous regime and thanked Ahlu Suna for their great development agendas. “We will establish friendship with neighboring regions and work together to establish peace,” said Wehliye.
REGIONAL MEDIA
Somalia claims gains in al Shabaab security operation
13 Aug – Source: Africa Review – 249 Words
Somalia says it has destroyed 17 operation centres used by the al Shabaab militant group in Mogadishu as it looks to improve security in the capital. Interior Affairs and National Security minister Abdikarim Hussein Guledon Monday said that the security forces had also arrested dozens of loyalists to the terror group.
He was speaking following a high-level meeting held at Prime Minister Abdi Farah Shirdon’s residence which was attended by cabinet members and commanders of the army, police and the security agencies. The meeting was also attended by officials from Mogadishu’s municipality. The minister said up to 40 men were rounded up in the operation.
“Proactive moves by the security forces will continue until the capital’s security is guaranteed,” said the minister. Militants have in recent weeks especially during the just-ended holy month of Ramadhan waged attacks including a deadly suicide mission against the Turkish Embassy.
Kenyan faces terror case in the US
13 Aug – Source: Daily Nation – 169 words
A Kenyan is being held in a US jail after being accused of financing al Qaeda and other terrorist organisations. Mr Mohamed Hussein Said, 25, who according to court documents is listed as a resident of Mombasa and Nairobi, is being held at a South Florida detention centre.
He is accused of conspiring with a resident of Saudi Arabia who is also a US citizen, Gufran Mohammed, 30, to provide, and attempting to provide, material support to three terrorist organisations.
On Thursday, the US Attorney’s Office in Miami announced a 15-count indictment, charging both men with the offences. If both are convicted, they could each face up to 15 years in prison for each count or a total of 225 years.
According to the indictment, Mr Gufran and Mr Said conspired to provide money and recruits to al Qaeda, AQI/al-Nusrah Front in Syria and al Shabaab in Somalia. The prosecutors say Mr Gufran wired funds to the Kenyan to support al Shabaab.
INTERNATIONAL MEDIA
Bloodshed in Mogadishu as terror group Al-Shabaab renews its campaign of violence
13 Aug – Source: News Time/IPS – 192 words
As the Somali government announced it would set up a coastguard to combat piracy in this Horn of African nation, insecurity is emerging as the biggest challenge that the government faces – and it is only getting worse.
Osman Aweis Dahir, director of the local Dr. Ismail Jimale Human Rights Organisation, said that the Somali militant group al Shabaab has renewed its campaign to bring instability to the country’s capital Mogadishu.
“The little stability that the city had experienced since the Al-Shabaab withdrawal appears to have been broken,” Dahir told IPS from Mogadishu. The Islamist extremist group was forced out of its bases in Mogadishu on Aug. 6, 2011 by Somali and African Union peace-keeping forces. Until the withdrawal, the government only controlled half of the city.
But in recent weeks there has been a rise in the number of ambushes, assassinations and suicide bombs in Somalia’s capital. “The city has experienced its deadliest attacks in recent times during the past two weeks,” said Dahir. More than 60 people, mostly civilians, have been killed in several incidents across Mogadishu. This is a setback to the rising hopes of a return to relative security.”
Life after death squads
13 Aug – Source: Northern Weekly – 778 Words
THE quietly spoken Abdi Aden tells a terrifying story in a voice so calm you can’t imagine the horror he endured as a teenager dodging bullets fired by killing parties hunting him down. He could be reciting a shopping list as he tells of companions gunned down, but his voice becomes passionate when he speaks of Prime Minister Kevin Rudd’s solution to boat people.
“No one flees their country unless they have to,” he says. “No one sets out on the ocean to die.” Aden knows from experience: in 1991 he was a 12-year-old playing soccer after school in Somalia’s capital, Mogadishu, when bombs started falling and life as he knew it shattered.
Now 37, the Craigieburn father of three boys aged five to 10 says he is lucky to be alive after civil war gripped his former homeland, launching him adrift. He says he was one of a group of about 300 who fled Somalia in 1991 and saw his companions picked off by gunmen and animal predators, including lions, leaving only a handful to survive.
“I was one of only five to survive and arrived in a refugee camp in Kenya almost four months and about 500 kilometres later after leaving Somalia,” he says. “At the time I was a kid on my own except for a [neighbour] woman who had five kids. “We buried four of them on the way to Kenya and left her behind as well because she said she couldn’t walk any more, but her [surviving] son and I made it to Kenya.”
Humanitarian and food support needed in Somalia
12 Aug – Source: CCTV Africa – 1:29 mins
Two years after famine, humanitarian support is greatly needed in the horn of Africa nation.
SOCIAL MEDIA
CULTURE / OPINION / EDITORIAL / ANALYSIS / BLOGS/ DISCUSSION BOARDS
“Mo Farah is currently campaigning to stop Barclays shutting down its money-transfer services to Somalia, a service upon which 40 per cent of the country is said to rely and through which £100m is sent from Britain every year. Since the UK government is not perfect at helping Somalia, closing a route through which Somalis can help themselves seems crazy. Farah’s campaign should be backed to the hilt.”
Mo-ving in the right direction on Somalia
12 Aug – Source: The Independent – 460 Words
I wonder what Mo Farah thinks about a comment our Prime Minister made last week. You might have seen the Somali-born distance runner grit his teeth and send those long, thin legs into warp-factor on Saturday to take the 10,000m world title – adding to the case of those who believe him to be the greatest British athlete of all time.
Go back two days though, and, speaking to the BBC Breakfast show, David Cameron was doing his best to drive a wedge between the two nations that make up Mr Farah’s heritage. The reason for sending aid to countries like Somalia, said Cameron, was essentially to keep Somalis out of Britain. By investing, the Prime Minister claimed, doing a decent-ish impression of a Ukip MEP, “we can stop them ending up on our shores”.
Maybe it’s wrong to bring Mr Farah into this (the man probably deserves a rest), so here’s why Cameron’s comments strike me – a short-distance jogger – as fairly to majorly venal. There are many, many better reasons for investing in Somalia than preventing immigration – and Cameron knows this. We might start in 2010, when the failure of rains, coming on top of two decades of absent government, lead to a famine that over the next two years would kill 258,000 people, roughly 5 per cent of the population.
“A life of travelling to war zones leads Paul Watson to conclude that food always tastes better when fear is on the menu.”
Somalia: Spaghetti at gunpoint
12 Aug – Source: The Star (Canada) – 546 Words
Good eating on the roads I travel usually owes more to hunger, and a healthy dash of fear, than to the cook’s skills. The squatting Afghan hawker’s liver kebab, cooked in clouds of roadside dust and served on a scrap of newspaper, isn’t seared into my memory by a special marinade or the chef’s deft turn of hand.
Forgiving the bits of carbonized meat, and grains of sand, it was the most memorable Afghan kebab among many because I felt so alive after running the Taliban gauntlet through southern Zabul province. For thoughts of pure flavor, nothing beats the steaming slice of raw seal liver I ate off the tip of an Inuit hunter’s knife, as the blood of the freshly killed animal pooled on the white snow.
But that was more an hors d’oeuvre than a meal. My most unforgettable meal was in Somalia, I’m sorry to say, in the middle of an epic famine. It was 1992, and the country had descended from civil war to anarchy. Gunmen were looting relief supplies and blocking aid deliveries in the hardest-hit areas. I was working out of Baidoa, in south-central Somalia, where the starving died on the bare ground where they slept.
“In collaboration of Federal Government, the IMF is planning to build capacity in the key economic agencies like the ministry of finance, the central bank, and the statistics office. The Ministry of Finance managed to raise capacity as well as control public finances. The central bank staffs will be assisted by the IMF for developing the ability to license and monitor commercial banks. In addition to this, the IMF will also assist to establish functioning domestic and international payment system.”
Economy of Somalia: Is it being re-established with the support of IMF?
12 Aug – Source: Somaliland Press – 672 Words
Somalia’s economy has been seriously weakened by the devastating civil war. In this part, agriculture is considered as the most important sector for livelihood as the livestocks account to 40% of the GDP and 65% of export earnings. In this area, a large portion of the population is occupied by the nomads and semi nomads.
They directly depend on the livestocks growing in this land. Well, the small industrial sectors, based on the processing of agricultural products have been shut down due to the civil strife. However, there is a constant intervention in Somalia economy by the Italian Fascists, Somalia Marxists and International Monetary Fund (IMF) economists for restoring the economy.
The IMF has set three agendas on the list in order to rebuild the Somali economy. At last after 22 years, IMF extends its support to check the Somali economy. As a matter of fact, the focus is on restoring security and to meet humanitarian needs, establish institutions and offer services to the citizens. So, IMF is trying to establish central bank as well as fiscal institutions in Somalia. Recently, the Federal Government of the Somalia received international recognition. So, it’s easier for the IMF to provide technical support as well as offer policy advice to war devastated east African Nation.
“Ahmed Egal argues that the Kulmiye government has destroyed political opposition, undermined Somaliland’s nationalist ambitions, and sown the seeds of its own demise.”
Keeping it in the Clan: Somaliland’s Tribal Turn under Silanyo
12 Aug – Source: Think Africa Press – 1898 Words
President Ahmed Mahamoud Silanyo of Somaliland, the self-declared sovereign state in northern Somalia, came to power in July 2010 after routing the UDUB government of Dahir Riyale Kahin in elections.
Silanyo and his Kulmiye party ran a campaign that was slick, energetic and media-savvy. Capitalising upon the fatigue of the Riyale administration that had been in office for eight years and had largely run out of new ideas, Kulmiye promised the people of Somaliland a government that was modern in approach, modest in number, professional in execution, and meritocratic in the selection of its office holders.
However, underneath the slick presentation and ‘promise everyone everything’ approach to securing support, the Kulmiye electoral campaign was characterised by a dark underbelly of naked tribalism. While a certain level of tribal politicking is inevitable in a society where the principal social cleavage is the clan or sub-clan, the 2010 Kulmiye election campaign was easily the most ‘tribal’ experienced in Somaliland since the country recovered its de-facto sovereignty in 1991.
Top tweets
@Semhar #Somalia: Mogadishu Aden Adde International Airport launches its new website: http://mogadishuairport.com h/t @AfrAviaTribune.
@tobinbjones A weightlifter at a gym in #Mogadishu, #Somaliapic.twitter.com/JshNN86XuW.
@amisomsomalia VIDEO OF THE DAY: March 08, 2013 –#Mogadishu livestock export http://bit.ly/16FAdil ,http://on.fb.me/YJ6HUd w.
@Rooble2009 The Hargeisa International Book Fair to Kick Offon Friday, Full Details at http://www.hargeysabookfair.
@A_wars01 Spaghetti maybe Italy’s national dish but #Somali‘s make best Spaghetti at gun point http://t.co/DRlDi6KpBN .
Image of the day
Somalia’s Interior Minister Abdikarim Hussein Guled, left and police chief Brigadier General Abdihakim Dahir Saaid address a security meeting chaired by Prime Minister Abdi Farah Shirdon in Mogadishu on August 12, 2013. Photo: Hiiraan Online.