December 3, 2015 | Daily Monitoring Report
Suspected U.S. Air Strike Targets Islamist Militants In Somalia
03 December – Source: Bloomberg News – 180 Words
The Somali army has reported that the United States forces carried out an airstrike on a southern Somalia town, where Islamist-militant fighters from the Al-Shabaab group are reportedly active.The town of Kuunyo-Barrow, about 330 kilometers (205 miles) southwest of the capital, Mogadishu, was rocked by two explosions in the early hours of Wednesdaymorning, Sharifo Enow, a resident, said in a phone interview. One blast occurred at a gas station used by militants, and another on the outskirts of town, he said“We believe that a U.S. air strike hit Al-Shabaab targets in Kuunyo-Barrow,” Lieutenant-Colonel Mohamed Nur Hiirey said in a phone interview from the nearby town of Barawe. “We do not know exactly who was targeted in the attack. Further details are sketchy because the area is controlled by the militants.” The U.S. has carried out several drone strikes in Somalia since last year to help the government combat the Al-Qaeda-linked Al-Shabaab group. A raid in September 2014 killed the group’s former leader, Ahmed Abdi Godane. The U.S. declared Al-Shabaab a terrorist organization in 2008.
Key Headlines
- Suspected U.S. Air Strike Targets Islamist Militants In Somalia (Bloomberg)
- Somali Politicians Threatened With Accountability (Garowe Online)
- Deaths From Undiagnosed Disease And Diarrhoea In Middle Shabelle (Radio Ergo)
- The Brits Are Coming (Africa Confidential)
- Somali Who Escaped Detention Centre Two Years Ago Given Suspended Sentence (Mata Independent)
- British Terror Suspect Jermaine Grant Jailed In Kenya (BBC News)
- Newcomers’ Helpers Await Syrian Students (Toronto Star)
NATIONAL MEDIA
Somali Politicians Threatened With Accountability
03 December – Source : Garowe Online – 197 Words
The Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD)’s Special Envoy to Somalia, Ambassador Mohamed Abdi Afey, has told Somali political leaders to either live up to their promises or vacate office, Garowe Online reports. In a speech he delivered during the the signing of the ceasefire deal in central Somalia town of Galkayo, Afey advised Somali politicians to avoid hostilities and anything that could finally trigger conflict in the wake of deadly Galkayo fighting over the last two weeks: “I don’t personally regard today as joyful. I deem it as an unfortunate day that should never be discussed,” Afey said.
Stressed the IGAD envoy: “If you cannot lead, give chance to other people. Otherwise, be charismatic and shun the idea of turning your people against each other. You will not earn paradise for this and I can swear by Allah that you will end up in hellfire”.The top diplomat warned politicians that they will be held accountable for their crimes.“From now on, nobody will indulge in massacre with impunity. If we do not hold individuals accountable for their crimes, the slaughter of fellow human beings will continue unabated.” Meanwhile, intellectuals have called for an impartial probe into the sporadic clashes.
Deaths From Undiagnosed Disease And Diarrhoea In Middle Shabelle
02 December – Source: Radio Ergo – 353 Words
Five children are reported by medical officers to have died from an undiagnosed disease in Bardere location, 21 kilometers from Jowhar town.The director of Jowhar district hospital, Abdirahman Ali, said they were carrying out tests to find out the cause of the illness. He said they were not aware of any further cases of the disease so far.Parents described haemorrhagic symptoms in their sick children.Adan Sheikh Ali said his 12-year-old daughter died eight hours after falling sick and bleeding from the mouth and rectum. Rahma Mahamud Abukar’s son showed similar symptoms:“He woke up healthy and proceeded to the farm. However he later developed nausea, headache and dizziness as he went about his work and was taken home,” she said. The boy, who was bleeding from the nose, mouth and rectum, died three hours later.
Abdirahman Ali said local people first reported the rare condition on 19 November. The hospital, run by InterSos, sent a medical team to the area to try to provide treatment. However, raging floods and blocked roads delayed their rescue mission and by the time the team arrived the children were already dead: “We have not witnessed this condition before in this area. The local people told us their children died within twenty four hours of falling sick,” Ali said. Meanwhile, Jowhar hospital further reported the deaths of 18 children and four adults in an outbreak of diarrhoeal infection in villages along the River Shabelle. A large number of people are reported to be sick. The areas affected include Nookaay, Maandeere, Bakhdad, Bardere and Raqayle locations.
Flooding has aggravated poor sanitation conditions in an area, where few people have toilets and residents rely on water from boreholes and water pans which have been contaminated by floods. Aweys Hassan Adan, local administrator of Maandere, 15 km from Jowhar, said people were drinking and cooking food using water drawn from waterlogged areas. His counterpart in Bakhdad, Sheikh Omar Haji Ahmed, said they were cut off from the surrounding area and had to use boats to reach Jowhar town.
INTERNATIONAL MEDIA
The Brits Are Coming
03 December – Source: Africa Confidential – 1,900 Words
Curiosity is growing as to why business people close to the Conservative Party are so interested in such an unstable part of the world. Somalia has long been seen as too risky for even the hardiest foreign investors but now a new band of British money-men, adventurers and politicians, is setting up shop there. A former Home Secretary and Conservative Party ex-leader Baron Michael Howard of Lympne QC, who took the chairmanship of Soma Oil and Gas in 2013, is merely the most prominent of the bunch. All the ventures are related to resource exploitation or construction. Some have attracted criticism from the United Nations Monitoring Group on Somalia and Eritrea (UNMGSE) because a legal regime for tax and regulation does not exist.
Somali Who Escaped Detention Centre Two Years Ago Given Suspended Sentence
02 December – Source: Malta Independent – 112 Words
An 18-year-old Somali man who fled Malta to France while he was in detention was given a six-month prison-term suspended for a year. A court heard that the accused was still a minor when he escaped Malta. He had escaped from the Hal Fafi detention centre with another group of foreigners and they all ended up in France. While in France, the accused applied for asylum but the French authorities realised what had happened and sent the accused back to Malta. The accused admitted in front of Magistrate Clare Stafrace Zammit that he had escaped from Malta some two years ago. Police Inspector Frankie Sammut prosecuted. Patrick Valentino appeared as legal aid.
British Terror Suspect Jermaine Grant Jailed In Kenya
02 December – Source: BBC News – 202 Words
A British man accused of plotting terror attacks on the Kenyan coast has been jailed for nine years in Mombasa.Jermaine Grant, from London, was jailed for nine charges related to trying to illegally obtain Kenyan citizenship.He faces separate charges of “conspiring to improvise an explosive device” and a trial in Mombasa is ongoing. He denies the terror charges. Grant was arrested in 2011 when batteries and chemicals were discovered in his apartment in Mombasa.UK police – who have provided forensic assistance to Kenyan authorities – allege they were “precursors for making highly volatile explosive substances”. Samantha Lewthwaite, known as the “White Widow” and wanted in connection with the 7/7 bombings in London in 2005, is also suspected of being involved in the alleged plot.She escaped arrest in Kenya in 2011 and has been missing since then. The sentencing of Grant comes after Mombasa High Court judge Martin Muya overturned an earlier acquittal on the Kenyan citizenship charges.”I order that the accused serves one year of imprisonment on each of the nine counts,” the judge said while passing sentence.Addressing Grant, he added: “This sentence will run consecutively, which means you will serve a total of nine years’ imprisonment.”
OPINION, ANALYSIS, AND CULTURE
“Toronto District School Board gets new pupils from Somalia, Tibet and more familiar not just with the school, but with the details of North American childhood.”
Newcomers’ Helpers Await Syrian Students
03 December – Source: Toronto Star – 592 Words
When Paula Markus was teaching English to teenaged Somali refugees at Kipling Collegiate, she took them on a field trip that included a surprise detour to ride on swings: “Just to see the joy on their faces when they were swinging or going down a slide — at 15, even 18 years old — was worth it,” said the veteran English as a Second Language co-ordinator for the Toronto District School Board. “They had never played in a playground before.” When supporting young refugees like the wave of Syrians headed to Canada, it’s not just about catching up with school work, she said. It’s about catching up on the childhood so many of them lost, whether in Syria or Hungary, Vietnam, Somalia, Bosnia, Albania, Eritrea, Tibet or any other political hot spot from which Toronto schools have welcomed the displaced young.
“We try to expose them to some of the things kids who have had peaceful childhoods would have experienced — playing games, playing with toys, even doing simple crafts,” said Markus, one of a fleet of educators across the province preparing for a historic wave of young asylum-seekers. In Toronto and its neighbouring school boards, the country’s largest landing pad for newcomers, officials are hungry for details — How many will come? Where will they live? — but their overall stance seems to be “bring it on.” “We’ve done this before, and we’re set up,” said Markus. And seasoned ESL teachers know there may be gaps not just in curriculum, but in newcomers’grasp of the very concept of going to school: “For some, we’re really teaching them how to Do School. We can’t assume they know about keeping notebooks and agendas, or gym class and gym equipment, or field trips, or that they need to call the school if they’re not coming in the morning; it may all be new,” said Markus.
TOP TWEETS
@MinisterHashi It is official. Presidents Gas n Hussein signed a cessation of hostilities agreement in Galkaio. @SomaliPMbrokered it. Congrats! #Somalia
@SomaliaJunkie:Galkayo deal greeted with hope N rallies by#Somalia women who in truth have been @ forefront in struggle for peace.
@Daudoo: UPDATE: #Drone fired 2 missiles at #AlShabaabcontrolled town of Kunya-Barow, target & casualties unknown yet – Witness. #Somalia
@Tuuryare_Africa :Ilwad Elman says, In memory of her father, she returned for rebuilding #Mogadishu #Somalia
@DhanaanMedia:New fighting erupts in #Galkayo town a day after leaders of #Puntland and #Galmudug signed a peace deal. #Somalia
@AweysDr :#Somalia National Force must develop a measure of integrity and humanity which transcends a world of clan war, hatred and bloodshed
IMAGE OF THE DAY
President of Galmudug , Abdikarim Hussien Gulied and the President of Puntland , Abdiweli Mohamed shake hands after signing a peace deal in Galkayo on Wednesday. Photo: @SomaliPM.