December 4, 2012 | Morning Headlines.

Main Story

Somali president pays first official visit to Turkey

03 Dec- Source: Todayszaman-255 words
Somali President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud will make his first diplomatic visit to Turkey on Tuesday since assuming his post on Sept. 10.
On the invitation of his Turkish counterpart, Abdullah Gül, Mohamud will visit Turkey with a five-member delegation composed of four ministers of the Somali federal government and Chief of General Staff Maj. Gen. Abdul Qadir Sheikh Ali Dini. The president will arrive in Ankara on Dec. 4 and stay in Turkey for four days.

Key Headlines

Somali minister unscathed in ambush (Shabelle)
Rally takes place in Mogadishu (Radio Kulmiye)
20 al Shabaab inmates escape from prison in Somalia (Africa Review)
Heavy rains leave Somali IDPs without shelter (Press TV)

SOMALI MEDIA

Somali minister unscathed in ambush

03 Dec- Source: Shabelle/Jowhar Online- 160 words
Abdikarin Hussein Guled, Somalia’s interior minister has escaped unscathed from an ambush by al Shabaab fighters during a visit to the Al-Qaeda-linked group’s former stronghold of Marka, 110 Km (68 miles) south of Mogadishu, reports said.
Ahmed was making a rare trip out of Mogadishu on Monday when the convoy was attacked.

Leaders discuss security situation in Lower Shabelle

03 Dec- Source: Radio Bar-kulan/Radio Mogadishu- 88 words
Officials from the Somali Defence Ministry and Lower Shabelle authorities held a security meeting in Marka to discuss the security situation in the region.
Ahmed Omar Mudane, Marka Deputy District Commissioner on security affairs said the meeting discussed security in the entire region and ways to strengthen the presence of police and the national security agency in liberated areas of the region.

Rally takes place in Mogadishu

03 Dec- Source:Radio Kulmiye/Radio Risaala/Dalsan/Allvoices/ Shabelle- 148 words

A well-organized and peaceful demonstration took place on Monday in Mogadishu in support of the national army’s removal of over 60 roadblocks in districts in Benadir region, reports said.
The Benadir regional administration organized the peaceful rally attended by hundreds of people, including some ministers of the Somali federal government, security officials, civil society, artists and all district commissioners in Benadir region.

EU to support Somalia strengthen its forces

03 Dec- Source: Radio Bar-kulan- 148 words
The EU Special Envoy to Somalia, Michele Cervone d’Urso has said the EU will support the Somali government in strengthening its forces, tackling terrorism and preventing al Shabaab attacks.
In an interview with Bar-kulan in Nairobi, Michele Cervone d’Urso said he recalls the December 3rd 2009 explosion where several people including students, lecturers, ministers and parents attending a graduation ceremony in Mogadishu were killed by a suicide bomber.
Michele said to avoid recurrences of such incidents in the future; the European Union will support the Somali government in establishing and strengthening its forces.

REGIONAL MEDIA

20 al Shabaab inmates escape from prison in Somalia

03 Dec- Source: Africa Review- 254 words

Some 20 members of radical Islamists Al-Shabaab group have reportedly escaped from a prison in Somalia’s Baidoa town.

Baidoa is 240km southwest of Mogadishu.

The prison break reportedly happened at around midnight Sunday, getting into Monday.

Preliminary investigations by the jail officials revealed that the inmates escaped through a hole that was dug in the wall.

INTERNATIONAL MEDIA

Fight against al Shabaab instructive model for future- US general

Dec 03 – Source: Reuters – 505 words

The African Union war against al Shabaab in Somalia this past year has left the Islamist group “largely in a survival mode” and is instructive for confronting the region’s extremist groups in the future, the head of U.S. Africa Command said on Monday.
General Carter Ham, who is responsible for U.S. military ties with Africa, told a forum at George Washington University he was concerned about growing cooperation among Islamist extremist factions across the region. But he also said Washington favored “African solutions for African problems.”

Somali president pays first official visit to Turkey

20 militants sought after Somalia escape

03 Dec- Source: UPI- 99 words
A search was on for 20 members of al-Shabaab who escaped from a jail by walking through its front gate in the Somali town of Baidoa, officials said.
The Shabelle Media Network reported some guards were involved in the Sunday escape.
Baidoa, about 155 miles from Mogadishu, the country’s capital, is largely controlled by Somali government forces working with Ethiopian troops.

Heavy rains leave Somali IDPs without shelter

03 Dec- Source: Press TV- 290 words
Hundreds of internally displaced persons (IDPs) camping in and around the Somali capital Mogadishu have been left without shelter after heavy rains pounded city.
Many of the temporary shelters were washed away due to the heavy rains leaving the war and famine ravaged poor people without any shelter or sheltering with other poorer families.

SOCIAL MEDIA

CULTURE / OPINION / EDITORIAL / ANALYSIS / BLOGS/ DISCUSSION BOARDS

“I wonder what my uncle, who has since passed away, would have thought about today’s Fuad Shangole, a fugitive from justice, and the fact that I have been writing about Shangole’s militant group. It is a situation rich with irony: Two former youngsters, one carrying an AK-47 and the other a pen. Such is the misfortune of our current circumstances.”

Shangole and I

02 Dec- Source: Wardheernews-1239 Words
I knew Fuad Mohamed Khalaf “Shangole” when he was a lad. Yes, the notorious Fuad Shangole, one of the top leaders of Al Shabaab and a man on whose head the U.S government has placed a $5 million bounty. Simply put, we crossed paths as children. Shangole always hummed with energy, and he used to dawdle in the streets of Mogadishu acting tough and thuggish. Fortunately, that was in the 1970s and Al Qaeda and Al Shabab did not yet exist.