August 18, 2016 | Daily Monitoring Report
AU, Somali Forces Kill 3 Al-Shabaab Militants In Somalia
18 August- Source: Xinhua – 118 Words
African Union and Somali forces on Wednesday killed at least three Al-Shabaab militants during a security operation in southern Somalia. Joe Kibet, spokesperson of the African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM), told Xinhua by phone that the forces carried out an ambush and killed the three militants in Abdala Birole, some 60 km southwest of the port city of Kismayo. AMISOM troops and Somali Special Forces carried out the operation without sustaining any casualties, Kibet said, adding that other militants fled without resistance. AMISOM has been helping the Somali government battle the Al-Shabaab Islamist group, which carries out periodic attacks, mostly in the capital Mogadishu.
Key Headlines
- AU Somali Forces Kill 3 Al-Shabaab Militants In Somalia (Xinhua)
- Book Lovers And Critics Throng Mogadishu For Literary Festival (Goobjoog News)
- Deadly Confrontation Between Al-Shabaab And Lower Jubba Clan Militia Leaves 5 Dead (Radio Kulmiye)
- Soma Loses U.K. Court Bid To Force SFO To End Corruption Probe (Bloomberg)
- Ilhan Omar Offers Answers To Questions About Her Marital History (Star Tribune)
- Somalia: One Man’s Terrorist Is Another Man’s Carpenter (The Guardian)
NATIONAL MEDIA
Book Lovers And Critics Throng Mogadishu For Literary Festival
18 August – Source: Goobjoog News – 264 Words
The second annual Mogadishu Book Fair opened Wednesday in Mogadishu featuring authors of different genres, stage performances, presentations and book critiques. Book lovers in their hundreds thronged to the Mogadishu venue to catch up with their favourite authors and follow proceedings which will run till Friday. Abdi Latif Ega, the author of Guban, a novel exploring the clash of modernity and the traditional egalitarian pastoralists in Somalia said the book fair was a fete of some kind just few years after Somalia regained its stability following years of destruction and war.
“You can’t believe people in such numbers can gather in Mogadishu to attend such an event. It resembles a performance in the west,” said Ega who teaches at Columbia University in the United States. Several other authors will make presentations in the remaining two days of the Fair including the former BBC Africa correspondent Andrew Harding who will be launching his book, The Mayor of Mogadishu.
The novel follows the life of former Mogadishu Mayor Mohamud Nur popularly known as Tarzan, born a nomad and became an orphan, then a street brawler in the cosmopolitan port city of Mogadishu – a place famous for its cafes and open–air cinemas. Book Reviews Editor for the Journal of The Anglo-Somali Society Mohamed Haji Ingiriis put up a strong case for his book ‘The Suicidal State in Somalia: The Rise and Fall of the Siad Barre Regime, 1969 – 1991’ highlighting the perils of a dictatorship in Somalia and it’s spiral down effects on the Somali society.
Deadly Confrontation Between Al-Shabaab And Lower Jubba Clan Militia Leaves 5 Dead
17 August 2016 – Source: Radio Kulmiye – 146 Words
At least five people were killed and four others injured after local clan militias and Al-Shabaab militants fought over a dispute involving charcoal business in Lower Jubba region. According to eyewitness accounts, the fight broke out after Al-Shabaab militants set on fire tracks full of charcoal for failing to meet the militant’s financial demands. This sparked a furious public backlash.
The reports further indicate that the incident comes following longstanding financial disputes between Al-Shabaab’s revenue collection authorities and the local communities, which often force the latter to take up arms in a desperate move to resist unproportionate financial demands from the Al-Shabaab.
The latest public revolt against Al-Shabaab exploitations has reportedly affected local charcoal business in the region as the militant group subsequently halted all Kismayo bound charcoal trucks, in a punitive measure to choke the local communities of their sole economic mainstay.
INTERNATIONAL MEDIA
Soma Loses U.K. Court Bid To Force SFO To End Corruption Probe
18 August – Source: Bloomberg – 511 Words
Soma Oil & Gas Holdings Ltd. lost a court bid to force the U.K. Serious Fraud Office to end a bribery investigation into the company despite arguing that the firm may become insolvent if the probe continues. Lawyers for Soma sought a judicial review of the probe from a London court Wednesday, saying the SFO hadn’t properly weighed the risks to the company’s viability of the investigation continuing. The application was denied because the judges didn’t see any “prospect of success.”
The SFO publicly opened an investigation into Soma in August 2015 in relation to possible illegal payments to Somali officials under a capacity-building program with the country’s Petroleum Ministry. Soma, which is headed by former U.K. Conservative Party leader Michael Howard, paid about $700,000 to the Somali government as part of the program that allowed it to explore the region for oil and gas.
The request for a judicial review — a procedure that allows a court to review the actions of a public agency — was expedited because the company claims it faces insolvency if it’s unable to enter into a number of contracts byAug. 25, something it says it can’t do with the SFO investigation still open.
“The company faces an existential threat to its existence in circumstances where it it looks, we would say on all the information available, it will be exonerated,” David Perry, a lawyer for Soma, told the court. “There is a risk of death to the company.” The SFO said the probe must continue because it’s still looking into another strand of the investigation beyond the capacity-building program “in respect of serious criminality,” which came to light in December, that it cannot disclose details about.
Ilhan Omar Offers Answers To Questions About Her Marital History
18 August- Source: Star Tribune – 526 Words
Ilhan Omar, whose victory in a Minneapolis DFL primary last week means she likely will become the nation’s first Somali-American legislator, released a statement Wednesday that sought to clear up questions about her marital history. Omar married Ahmed Nur Said Elmi in 2009 in Hennepin County, but she identifies a different man, Ahmed Hirsi, as her husband in campaign literature.
The discrepancy led to a raft of speculation on conservative news and websites — beginning with a popular site called Power Line — about whether she had married Elmi solely to help him with his immigration status and whether he may have been a relative, perhaps even her brother.
According to her statement, although Omar never was legally married to Hirsi, they had an Islamic marriage that ended in 2008 when they reached “an impasse in our life together.” She then met and married Elmi, a British citizen, in 2009, according to the statement. That relationship ended, and Elmi has moved back to England. Omar said she is in the process of legally divorcing him.
“Insinuations that Ahmed Nur Said Elmi is my brother are absurd and offensive,” she said. Omar said that she reconciled with Hirsi in 2011 and that they are together today, raising their three children. In her statement, Omar said she was putting out the details so she could move on: “I will offer clarity and share a difficult part of my personal history that I did not consider relevant in the context of a political campaign, so that we can put these rumors to rest and return to what really matters: How we join together to build a more prosperous and equitable district and state.”
OPINION, ANALYSIS, AND CULTURE
“According to research based on focus group discussions by the UN assistance mission in the country, Unsom, the main attractions are: the promise of a large salary ($400-1,000); the power of the ideology; the cool uniform; the promise of an exciting life; and the attraction of fighting for Islam”
Somalia: One Man’s Terrorist Is Another Man’s Carpenter
18 August – Source: The Guardian – 1,252 Words
What does a terrorist look like? No such archetype exists of course, but you certainly wouldn’t figure somebody like Mohammed Abdi. Yet the slight, middle-aged man with a neatly trimmed beard was until 18 months ago a member of the Somali jihadist group Al-Shabaab albeit in its finance department.
He joined willingly. The former shopkeeper heard a sermon in the mosque in his home town, 50km north-west of the central city of Bosaso, urging people to stand up to defend Islam, and was convinced. He handed the keys of his shop to his aunt, and despite the objections of his family, joined the insurgency fighting what he regarded as an illegitimate government backed by western interests. “I was very excited and very happy as I was serving the religion,” said Abdi.
His job was to collect the money raised from Al-Shabaab checkpoints and the taxes levied once a year on households. When Al-Shabaab controlled much of the countryside before an offensive last year by the African Union’s intervention force, known as Amisom, they raised “a lot of money”, he said. It was enough to keep men like Mohammed Farah* armed, fed and fighting. The stocky, gravelly voiced former Al-Shabaab soldier had been with the militants from the early days, but now, like Abdi, he has defected.
Both men have taken advantage of a government amnesty and are in a voluntary programme for disengaged combatants. These are men and women who are assessed as low-risk by the Somali intelligence service, which means they have not been involved in major military action or committed any serious crimes.
The disarmament, demobilisation and reintegration (DDR) initiative provides them with vocational training, then hires them on public works projects – typically building schools and clinics – and finally they are set up with a trade and released. Throughout their time on the programme, they live in the community.
TOP TWEETS
@IlwadElman : Really excited 2introduce the Reflect Model 4 transformative education in #Somalia very soon which was influenced heavily by Paulo Freire
@Eye_on_Somalia : #hiiraan AU mission denies shelling residential areas in Somalia: In a statement, AMISOM said its ro… http://bit.ly/2bgSZqY #somalia
@rakidi : #Somalia: Tanzania based Tycoon Mohamed Ali Nur “How I Plan to Fix Troubled #Somalia”
@JustinTBrady : Heading to @UNOCHA global management meeting supported by #Switzerland who is also co-chair of informal humanitarian donor group 4 #Somalia
@Somaliupdate : #AU Envoy Urges International Community To Help #Somalia Hold Successful Electoral Processhttp://somaliupdate.
@alijira : Most of Somalis are believe #Somalia needs a new leader not former leaders like”Sharif,farmaajo & faroole”#Elections 30 October 2016.
@HornDiplomat : Nine #Ugandan soldiers serving under#AMISOM sentenced to prison for #misconduct
IMAGE OF THE DAY
A delegation of senior Burundi military personnel serving under the African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM) has held a meeting with Middle Shabelle administration officials, to discuss ways of securing the forthcoming elections in the region.
Photo: AMISOM