August 31, 2015 | Morning Headlines
Female District Official Shot Dead In Mogadishu
30 August – Source: Horseed Media – 143 Words
A female district administrator has been shot dead by unknown gunmen in the Somali capital of Mogadishu, Police official have confirmed. Saido Sheikh Mursal, who was an official in the Hamar Jajab district, was killed near her home on Saturday evening.Gunmen managed to escape from the scene before the arrival of security forces. No group has yet claimed responsibility of the latest assassination in the capital.
Mogadishu has witnessed numerous assassinations of security and government officials, carried out by unknown gunmen, with al-Shabaab claiming most of the attacks. The killings of Government officials is nothing new as it is a known Al-Shabaab tactic. However the extremists are now targeting relatively junior government officials, who ordinarily are neither armed nor assigned bodyguards to protect them. Some of the victims have only the slimmest connections to the authorities.
Key Headlines
- Female District Official Shot Dead In Mogadishu (Horseed Media)
- Al-Shabaab Flog Somali Man On Rape Charges (Hiiraan Online)
- 3 Injured As Blast Rocks Garowe City (Wacaal Media)
- Former PM Farmaajo Declares 2016 Presidential Bid (Goobjoog News)
- Deadly Cache Of Weapons And Explosives Recovered In Bardhere Security Operations (Wacaal Media)
- Puntland President Lays Foundation Stone For Numerous New Public Premises In Galkayo (Villa Puntland)
- Seal Loopholes Used By Al-Shabaab To Raise Funds Former Somalia PM Urges (Standard Digital)
- Government Extends Terror Amnesty To Youths (Capital FM)
- 17 Iranian Fishermen Sailors Escape Somali Pirates’ Captivity (Fars News Agency)
- The Politics Of Being Somali In East Africa (Maandeeq)
NATIONAL MEDIA
Al-Shabaab Flog Somali Man On Rape Charges
30 August – Source: Hiiraan Online – 214 Words
The Al-Qaeda linked Al-Shabaab group has flogged a Somali man in public after a court run by the group convicted him of the rape charges leveled against him on Saturday.The whipping took place in Galhareri, a town in central Somalia where the man was given 100 lashes in an open area. This happened after the group’s judge read the verdict, signalling masked men to start beating up the man from the back. Saeed Ali Roble was declared guilty of raping a woman, whose name is withheld. The condemned man was sentenced to have 100 lashes in accordance with the Islamic sharia. The sentence was lighter because he was married. A married man would have attracted death penalty.
Despite losing most its key strongholds, Al-Shabaab still controls large swathes in south and central Somalia where the group carries out numerous executions, amputations, stoning and floggings on suspected spies, thieves and adulterers. Human rights groups often accuse the group of administering arbitrary justice and severely restricting basic rights by carrying out targeted killings including beheadings and civilian executions. Al-Shabaab has waged a deadly guerilla war against the government and African Union forces across Somalia. The allied African Union and Somali troops have launched a multi-pronged offensive which has seen militants pushed out of strategic towns and villages.
3 Injured As Blast Rocks Garowe City
30 August – Source: Wacaal Media – 89 Words
Up to three people sustained injuries after a vehicle exploded at Inji market in the Puntland city of Garowe. Eye witnesses told Wacaal media that police arrived at the scene immediately after the incident. The vehicle belongs to a woman and it was not clear who planted the explosives. Police arrested the woman in question and by the time of going to the press she was being interrogated at a local police station. The injured civilians were taken to a local hospital where they are currently being treated. Doctors said they were all in stable condition.
Former PM Farmaajo Declares 2016 Presidential Bid
30 August – Source: Goobjoog News – 318 Words
Former Prime Minister Mohammed Abdullahi Farmaajo has declared his candidature for the 2016 presidential elections, making it a probable second shot at the top seat after losing out in the 2012 poll to current President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud. Speaking to the media in Nairobi, Farmaajo said he was ready to join the 2016 presidential race vowing to wipe out the Al-Shabaab militant group should he clinch the seat. Farmaajo said Al-Shabaab remains a threat to Somalia and called on Kenya and Somalia to work together to cut off revenue sources for the group, a move he says could deny the group its much needed cash. “If elected these are some of the strategies I am going to apply in order to ensure the remaining regions under Al Shabaab are back under the government control,” said.
Farmaajo said the government should also ensure soldiers’ welfare including paying their salaries on time is well maintained. “Insurgency cannot survive if you have the support of the people and this is the focus the government in Mogadishu needs to take,” he added. Mr Farmaajo asked the Somali government to work closely with their Kenyan counterparts if efforts to defeat Al Shabaab are to succeed. Professor Farmaajo was ousted in a UN backed deal in 2011 which saw the extension of the mandates of then President Sheikh Sharif Ahmed, Speaker of Parliament, Sharif Hassan Sheikh Aden and their deputies until 20 August 2012, when new elections were to be organised.
Despite his earlier stand that only parliament had the final authority to hound him out of office, Farmaajo bowed to pressure in June 19, 2011 following the Kampala Accord in which Speaker Aden had ruled Farmaajo’s exit as a condition of the deal. After his departure from government in 2011, Farmaajo joined the presidential race in 2012 but got a paltry 12 votes out of the possible 275. With that he went back to academia, where he has been teaching in American universities to date.
Deadly Cache Of Weapons And Explosives Recovered In Bardhere Security Operations
30 August – Source: Wacaal Media – 141 Words
Government forces in Gedo region’s newly liberated town of Baardheere on Friday evening managed to recover a deadly cache of weapons and explosives in security operations in the area. The carefully planned and executed operations targeted a house in the town where AK 47 rifles, several rounds of ammunition as well as land mines reportedly left behind by Al-shabaab were seized. Security officials thanked local residents for the intelligence that led to the recovery of the deadly arsenal. Several youths were also arrested on suspicion of being members of the terror group Al-shabaab and were now being interrogated at the local police station. Government forces have been combing the town for Al-Shabaab remnants and planted explosives ever since they took over the town a few weeks ago. The latest find is a step in the right direction local residents have said.
Puntland President Lays Foundation Stone For Numerous New Public Premises In Galkayo
30 August – Source: Villa Puntland – 164 Words
The President of Puntland government, Abdiweli Mohamed Ali Gaas has today laid a foundation stone for a new government premises including new State House in the Provincial capital of Mudug region, Villa Puntland Reports. The President along with members of his cabinet, lawmakers, city council members and Mudug regional authorities toured recently vacated public sites in Galkaio, laying foundation stone for a new glamorous presidential palace and a new premises for the Ministry of Commerce, Ministry of Agriculture, Ministry of Public works and Transport and the Central Bank.
A directive from the Government of Puntland ordered all privately equipped government buildings in Galkaio to be vacated not beyond August. “I’m very privileged to lay foundation brick for these public premises,” Said President Abdiweli. He commended the people of Galkaio for their cooperation and resilience. The government of Puntland has recently been making endeavours to redecorate and re-build government offices in a bid to catalyst the government’s works.
INTERNATIONAL MEDIA
Seal Loopholes Used By Al-Shabaab To Raise Funds, Former Somalia PM Urges
30 August – Source: Standard Digital – 529 Words
A former Somalia Prime Minister wants authorities to seal loopholes through which Al-Shabaab raises funds to support its terror activities.This, according to Mr Mohammed Abdullahi Farmaajo, is a key strategy to fight terrorism that is causing atrocities in both Kenya and Somalia. Speaking in Nairobi on Sunday, Farmaajo said if proper and effective strategies are used, Al-Shabaab can easily be defeated. “But key among the strategies to be applied is denying them avenues through which they raise revenue and support from local residents in the areas they control,” he said.
Al-Shabaab is known to raise billions of shillings through export of charcoal and collecting of revenue from local residents in the areas they control. He made the remarks after a Kenyan was jailed for 15 years in the US for conspiring to provide money and recruits to three terrorist organisations. According to a statement by the Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI), Mohamed Hussain Said aged 27, pleaded guilty to the charge. Mr Said admitted that he conspired to support the Al-Shabaab in Somalia, Al-Qaeda in Iraq, and AQI/al-Nusrah Front terror group based in Syria. The terror suspect is said to have received a series of wire transfers amounting to Sh1.2 million ($11,600) from a co-conspirator Gufran Ahmed Mohammed.
Government Extends Terror Amnesty To Youths
30 August – Source: Capital FM – 287 Words
The Government has once again extended the amnesty to youths who have joined the Al-Shabaab militia in Somalia. Interior Cabinet Secretary Joseph Nkaissery says the extension will allow more youths to be rehabilitated. The CS has however cautioned police officers from mishandling those who wish to denounce the Al-Qaeda linked terror group. He also says that investigations were ongoing over alleged forceful disappearance of youths by a section of Muslim leaders and human rights defenders. “We want to get to the bottom of the allegation…the security organs are there to provide security to the citizens,” he said. Already the National Police Service has strongly dismissed claims that police were behind forceful disappearance of terror suspects.
Rights defenders and political leaders have made allegations of disappearances in Northern Kenya, the coastal region and Nairobi. Kenya Police Spokesman Charles Owino says they have registered cases of youths who have fled to the war torn Somalia to join the Al-Qaeda linked Al-Shabaab militia. “We know a number of youths are missing… some have been killed during attacks there. We have parents telling us their youths are in Somalia,” he said. Owino said according to intelligence reports, some youths in Somalia have been hoodwinking their relatives that they had been kidnapped by the police.
17 Iranian Fishermen, Sailors Escape Somali Pirates’ Captivity
30 August – Source: Fars News Agency – 369 Words
7 Iranian fishermen and sailors who had been taken hostage by the Somali pirates 5 months ago have escaped and will come back home soon, officials announced on Sunday. “17 fishermen and sailors of Konarak (a region in Southern Iran) who had been abducted by the Somali pirates in March managed to escape from their hands last week,” Director-General of Iran’s Fishery Organization Mosen Ali Golshani told FNA on Sunday. “The Iranian officials’ efforts to free them continued (since their abduction) but we were informed that they had managed to escape from the Somali pirates’ captivity using stormy weather and were rescued by a European warship,” he said.
Golshani said efforts are underway to transfer the fishers’ boat to Iran by the weekend through cooperation with the Iranian Navy. The Iranian Navy has been conducting anti-piracy patrols in the Gulf of Aden since November 2008, when Somali raiders hijacked the Iranian-chartered cargo ship, MV Delight, off the coast of Yemen. According to UN Security Council resolutions, different countries can send their warships to the Gulf of Aden and coastal waters of Somalia against the pirates and even without prior notice to Somali government enter the territorial waters of that country in pursuit of Somali sea pirates.
OPINION, ANALYSIS, AND CULTURE
“Somalis over the last 15 years have been cast as the villains in this part of the world. In fact a great deal of energy is spent by political leaders in reminder of the correlation they’ve made between instability, violence, terrorism and Somalis, terms that have become interchangeable”.
The Politics Of Being Somali In East Africa
30 August – Source: Mandeeq.com – 808 Words
These last few weeks in Arusha have taught me what it means to exist as a body that is read differently from the average Tanzanian. There’s no question that my Blackness gives me a particular kind of African membership, but my body is still viewed peculiarly. My hair produces the greatest confusion. When it is uncovered people ask me if I’m biracial, insinuating that my curls are only possible if one of my parents is white. When its in a hair wrap, people yell ‘warya’ at me from across the streets startling me and making me feel hyper visible where only moments before I was anonymous. Clothing and in this case head covering is the way in which I become marked. This is the way in which I become understood as either Somali or not Somali, if I am visibly Muslimwith particular features I must be Somali and if not I cannot be. All of this while my curls mark me as not quite African enough.
One day while I mind my aunts’ shop two Tanzanian women enter. They tease me about my lack of conversational Swahili and state emphatically that I need two languages in order to survive. I laugh with them and say my fluency in Somali gives me my second language. They hadn’t placed me as Somali before that moment. I can tell instantly that the mood in the room has changed. One of the women is clear in telling me Somalis bring large problems with them wherever they go. They are troublemakers. I’m angry, the hot air balloon in my throat is large and fills fast. My heat shows on my face and I turn on my heel and walk away leaving the shop girls to help them finish choosing the clothes they wish to buy. My anger is still reverberating through my body. The callousness of those who would dare call me or my people an imposition is heady.