August 27, 2015 | Morning Headlines
Al-Shabaab Militants Kill At Least Seven In Southern Somalia Attack
26 August – Source: Reuters – 213 Words
Al-Shabaab militants killed at least seven people including a regional official and local police commander in an attack on a government convoy in southern Somalia on Wednesday late evening, officials and the group said. Al-Shabaab attacked the convoy between Garbaharey and Balad hawo towns in the Gedo region, near the Kenyan border. The al Qaeda-allied group frequently launches attacks on officials in its bid to topple the Western-backed government and impose its strict interpretation of Islam on the nation, which is struggling to rebuild after two decades of war.
The group now controls increasingly smaller patches of territory since an African Union force and Somali troops drove it out of major strongholds in an offensive launched last year. “We ambushed them but it turned into a fierce battle later,” Al-Shabaab’s military operations spokesman, Sheikh Abdiasis Abu Musab, told Reuters. He claimed 18 people were killed. Senior Somali police officer Elmi Nur said three militants and seven others, including a deputy district commissioner and a regional police commander, were killed. “We have been launching operations to eliminate Al-Shabaab from the region. More police and military were sent after the ambush to chase the fighters hiding in the forested areas,” he said. Ordinarily, Al-Shabaab cites higher numbers for those killed than official figures.
Key Headlines
- Al-Shabaab Militants Kill At Least Seven In Southern Somalia Attack (Reuters)
- Somali President Reaches Diinsoor (Goobjoog News)
- European Union Delegates in Somalia To Address Illegal Immigration (Somali Current)
- Six Killed As Government Forces And AMISOM Launch Offensives Against Al-Shabaab In Bay Region(Wacaal Media)
- Jubbaland President Tours Al-Shabaab Bombed Training Military Camp (Goobjoog News)
- Guns Explosives Seized As Police Arrest Another Terror Suspect In Kenya (Daily Nation)
- Professor Samatar’s Flawed Support For Somaliland (Wardheer News)
NATIONAL MEDIA
Somali President Reaches Diinsoor
26 August – Source: Goobjoog News – 134 Words
High Delegation led by Somali President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud has reached Diinsoor town few weeks after the allied forces ousted Al-Shabaab fighters. The delegation which comprised of the regional leader of South-West State, several ministers from the Federal Government and parliamentarians was welcomed in the town by the traditional elders and the civil society. The leader is expected to meet with traditional elders, the civil society members and the interim administration of the town, according to closes sources to the president. Somali forces backed by African Union troops have recaptured Diinsoor town that was key stronghold of Al-Shabaab fighters as part of a renewed offensive. Over the last four years, Al-Shabaab fighters have been driven from most of the key towns they once held but they still control rural areas in the south.
European Union Delegates in Somalia To Address Illegal Immigration
26 August – Source: Somali Current – 274 Words
A European Union delegation led by the Head of Political and Liaison Officer in the Union, Tom EvansTuesday met with a section of Somali cabinet members, among them the Defense, Planning, Information and Religious Affairs to discuss about the emerging issues like security and immigration. The Deputy Prime Minister also attended the meeting. The delegates said they were in the country to try and address the emerging issues of immigration and security as more Somalis travel to European countries. The Deputy Prime Minister said the Federal Government of Somalia is working round the clock to address the issue of illegal immigration, which he termed as worrying trend among the Somali youth.
He added that a range of problems in the country could be blamed for the reason as to why lots of youths make the daring trip to European and other far countries “Lack of proper jobs and radicalisation are just but the reason why this youth continuously try the dangerous journey,” he said The delegation assured that they would cooperate with the government on how best to address the problem of joblessness, saying it was the only way to discourage the youths against leaving the country. More than 100,000 migrants, mostly from Africa and the Middle East, have arrived at the Italian coastline since the beginning of the year. Tragedies on the Mediterranean Sea have increased this year at an alarming rate.. It was April when 800 migrants drowned when the vessel they were travelling in capsized off the Libyan coast. According to the International Orgarnisation for Migration, more than 200,000 migrants have died in the sea.
Six Killed As Government Forces And AMISOM Launch Offensives Against Al-Shabaab In Bay Region
26 August – Source: Wacaal Media – 109 Words
Government forces squared it off with Al-Shabaab in several settlements in the outskirts of Diinsoor town in Bay region. A local resident whom we cannot name for security reasons told Wacaal media that in the last 24 hours, Federal Government forces battled the militants in Dhergo, Makoon and Manaas all located approximately 40km to Diinsoor town. The government forces assisted by their Ethiopian colleagues launched an offensive in the militant ruled areas with sources putting the casualties at 6 deaths from both sides. Uneasy calm has this morning returned to the area after the forces retreated back to Diinsoor which they took over from the militants two weeks ago.
Jubbaland President Tours Al-Shabaab Bombed Training Military Camp
26 August – Source: Goobjoog News – 282 Words
The President of Jubbaland, Ahmed Mohamed Madoobe has toured former Kismayo University where last Saturday Al-Shabaab attacked with a vehicle-borne improvised explosive device (VBIED) that killed 20 soldiers and injured more than fifty others. President Madoobe took meeting with commanders of Somali National Army and AMISOM officials in the training camp. He condemned terror attack on the training camp and said that it will not derail efforts to defeat Al-Shabaab fighters. “Jubbaland State and AMISOM will continue with the momentum to rebuild Somali National Army and other security institutions” he said.
Madoobe was accompanied by the State’s Minister for Interior and Security Mohamed Farah Warsame Darwiish and Regional Commissioner of Middle Jubba Abdirashid Jire Qalinle. Al-Shabab has claimed responsibility for the bombing of the training camp. Despite being forced out of many of their strongholds, the rebels are still able to launch lethal attacks in the capital, Mogadishu, and elsewhere in Somalia. Sheikh Abdiasis Abu Musab, Al-Shabaab’s spokesman for military operations, said the group was behind the car bomb and claimed there were several casualties.
Al-Shabaab has carried out several deadly attacks on government institutions, army camps and hotels. The group has Saturday only conducted two separate suicide car attacks in Somalia, one in Mogadishu and another at a military training base in the southern port city of Kismayo that claimed lives of more than thirty people. AMISOM and Somali National Army have been advancing to Al-Shabaab controlled areas, the latest being Bardhere town that used to be the largest stronghold for Al-Shabaab’s top officials and its foreign jihadist fighters before they fled after heavy military assault by the Somali government forces and the African Union mission troops in Somalia.
INTERNATIONAL MEDIA
Guns, Explosives Seized As Police Arrest Another Terror Suspect In Kenya
26 August – Source: Daily Nation – 117 Words
Kenyan Security agencies have Wednesday evening arrested a terror suspect and recovered a cache of firearms and explosives. The weapons recovered from the suspect included three AK-47 rifles, 227 rounds of ammunition, seven rocket-propelled grenades, four magazines and four hand grenades. Police also recovered a metallic IED carrier, soldering wire and several mobile phones.
This comes just a day after reports emerged that six Tanzanians suspected to be on their way to join Al-Shabaab in Somalia were arrested in Garissa on Sunday. The Tanzanians aged between 20 and 40 were arrested in Dadaab town, from where they were planning to close into Somalia. They were also in possession of assorted weapons, according to North-eastern Regional Coordinator Mohamud Saleh.
OPINION, ANALYSIS, AND CULTURE
“Much as his critics will feel unhappy about his unexpected total turnaround in his loyalties, yet it is his fundamental right to do so. It is also the fundamental right of his critics, above all the unionists from the north who challenge his advocacy of the enclave when it is based on false or distorted historical claims and flawed reasoning legitimising its treacherous secession and illegal occupation of our regions, denying our people their inalienable right to be free and remain part and parcel of the Federal Republic of Somalia.”
Professor Samatar’s Flawed Support For Somaliland
26 August – Source: Wardheer News – 767 Words
I recently watched Professor Ahmed I. Samatar’s appearances on Somali satellite TVs posted on WardheerNews. This time, he was interviewed on 29 July by Abdiwahid Mohamoud Jama, one of the most gifted and competent Somali interviewers I have come across. With professional savvy, he pulled no punches to grill the Professor and give him a good run for his money. The interview covered the professor’s justifications for renouncing Somalia’s unity having lost the presidential election in 2012, when hitherto the union was for all appearances an article of faith for him to which he dedicated a great deal of his time. And as if that was not a bombshell, no less shocking was his overnight turnaround adoption of the secession and electing to champion it with missionary zeal at a time when many of its life-long adherents are despairing of recognition and gravitating towards the union. He could well be once again on the wrong side of Somalia’s history.
For southern Somalis, what draw their attention most from the Professor’s appearances and speeches is his rant against Mogadishu and southern Somalia politics. But for most of us unionists from northern Somalia, it is first his justification for changing sides – from unionist to secessionist; and secondly his flawed, spurious defence of Somaliland – a mainly one-clan based enclave – as being a country, a nation and a State to which all those who hail from the north (former British Somaliland) belong to it by choice, if not by force, which is case with the occupied Somalia regions of Sool, Sanaag, and Cayn regions (SSC) and his own Awdal region.
The question that arises immediately is what makes the secession acceptable to the Professor today which he has openly shunned or shied away from for nearly quarter of a century since its declaration by the one-clan based Somali National Movement (SNM)? No satisfactory answer is forthcoming from him other than to say that he had never at anytime denounced Somaliland, and hence the secession. And since Somalia is terminally a failure, as he would say ad nauseam, he opted for Somaliland, all the more so since he comes from the area. The conclusion one can draw is that he had all along kept one foot in each camp – identifying with Somalia and the union and at the same time maintaining his bridges with the secessionist enclave as a fallback position if need be.