February 24, 2015 | Morning Headlines.

Main Story

Fire engulfs fuel market in Mogadishu

23 Feb – Source: Hiiraan Online – 174 Words

A huge inferno engulfed a fuel market in the Somali capital, razing petrol shops and fuel depots in a city that lacks a proper fire fighting system, officials said on Monday. Witnesses at the Blacksea market in Hodan district told HOL that the inferno caused huge property losses as the fire, fanned by raging winds, destroyed large parts of the market before firefighters arrived to put out the destructive fire. The fire started at one petrol shop, spreading into adjacent shops in the market. It’s unclear how the fire started. Bangs and explosions were heard as fuel tankers exploded in the market, sending plumes of smoke into the air. However, fears of fire spreading into nearby residential areas have been raised by residents who struggled to put out the fire by pouring water and other available resources. No human casualties from the fire have been reported. Mogadishu which has a small fire brigade has seen a series of inferno incidents, which have caused large property losses in a city which is recovering from decades of war.

Key Headlines

Fire Engulfs Fuel Market In Mogadishu (Hiiraan Online)
Puntland Forces Repel Al Shabaab Attack (Garowe Online)
Several Arrested In Connection With Murder Cases In Wadajir District In Mogadishu (Radio Bar-Kulan)
Somali Police Force In Dhuusa-Mareeb Launches Security Operations( Radio Goobjoog)
Turkish Ambassador To Somalia Visits Kismayo (Radio Bar-kulan/Radio Goobjoog)
Khalifa Foundation To Build Water Project In Somalia (Gulf news)
AMISOM: Al Shabaab Is Doomed To Fail (The Insider Uganda)
East Africa’s Bloc Says Terrorists Won’t Stop Efforts To Stabilise Somalia (Xinhua News/China.org)
Security Chief Warns Shoppers After Terror Threat (BBC)
Al-Shabaab Video Shows How Far It Lags Behind In ‘Jihadi Draft’ (The Guardian)
In The Footsteps Of Somalia’s Civil War (CNN)

SOMALI MEDIA

Puntland Forces Repel Al Shabaab Attack

23 Feb – Source: Garowe Online – 189 Words

Puntland Forces repelled an attack by Al Qaeda linked Al Shabaab militants on their bases along Golis Mountain Ranges on Sunday afternoon, Garowe Online reports. An army troops commander who asked to remain anonymous because he was not authorized to speak on the matter told Garowe Online that Al Shabaab fighters launched a raid on their positions: “Al Shabaab groups attacked army bases on the Galgala mountains from two directions but we successfully pushed them back. One soldier sustained injuries [during the armed confrontations]”. Earlier on Sunday morning, another soldier suffered wounds after a troop transport vehicle drove into a minefield laid by Al Shabaab assailants along a feeder road that leads from the Garowe-Bossaso highway to the rugged terrain of Galgala. A week ago, Puntland troops killed five Al Shabaab militants in a pre-emptive raid on Madashoor, 23km west of Galgala. The move coincides with the sacking of two top security officials- Puntland Intelligence Agency (PIA) Director Abdi Hassan Hussein and Deputy Police commander Mohiyadin Ahmed Aw Musse-in a presidential decree. Al Shabaab opted for hit-and-run operations, mainly in the port city of Bossaso.

Somali Police Force In Dhuusa-Mareeb Launch Security Operations

23 Feb – Source: Radio Goobjoog – 176 Words

Reports from Galgaduud region state that police in Dhuusa-Mareeb launched security operations in different suburbs of the town on Monday. The door-to-door operations have reportedly shaken the town as they were different from previous operations. Abdullahi Guuleed aka Garaar, the Officer Commanding the Police Division (OCPD) in Dhuusa-Mareeb noted that the inspections were intended to tighten the security of the areas and to hunt down criminals violating the peace of the district. “The operations were conducted to confirm the security of Dhuusa-Mareeb, the police force patrolled every corner of the town. We shall keep on these operations to [ensure] the district is secure and safe,” said the OCPD. Mr Guleed called upon Somali National Army commanders in the district to keep their soldiers in the garrisons except when they are out for operations. This security sweep comes at a time when Dhuusa-Mareeb town is hosting reconciliation conference held for clans living Mudug and Galgaduud regions.

Several Arrested In Connection With Murder Cases In Wadajir District In Mogadishu

23 Feb – Source: Radio Bar-Kulan – 127 Words

Several suspects have been arrested in connection with murder cases in Wadajir district in Benadir region, officials said. Wadajir District Commissioner Ahmed Abdulle Afrah told Bar-Kulan the suspects were arrested in an operation conducted by the district’s security forces. He did not say the exact number of suspects arrested in the operation, nor the number of killings the suspects are held for. Meanwhile, he said that the district’s security situation improved significantly after the district’s security forces backed by government forces successfully managed to maintain security of the area. Wadajir is one of the most peaceful districts in Mogadishu, he noted. Meanwhile, he said his administration will not allow “the sound of illegal gunfire” in the area and threatened to take decisive measures against people found breaching the order.

Turkish Ambassador To Somalia Visits Kismayo

23 Feb – Source: Radio Bar-Kulan/Radio Goobjoog – 140 Words

A delegation led by the Turkish ambassador to Somalia visited Kismayo, the administrative capital of the Interim Jubba Administration on Monday. On arrival, Ambassador Olgan Bekar was received by IJA officials including the second vice president of the administration, Abdikadir Lugadere and other officials before he proceeded to the presidential palace where he held talks with IJA leader Ahmed Madobe.
The officials discussed a range of issues including strengthening cooperation between the two sides, promoting the area’s education sector and repairing the seaport. The IJA officials thanked the ambassador and his delegation for their visit to the town. The Bar-Kulan reporter in Kismayo said the Turkish delegation included members from various Turkish aid agencies. Earlier this month, the Turkish ambassador visited Baidoa where he held talks with the South-West regional president Sharif Hassan Sheikh Adan and several members of his cabinet.

REGIONAL MEDIA

Khalifa Foundation To Build Water Project In Somalia

23 Feb – Source: Gulf News – 130 Words
The Khalifa Bin Zayed Al Nahyan Foundation has launched a project to extract water and build a pipeline to provide water to the population of Hargeisa, Somalia. The project comes as an implementation of the directives of President His Highness Shaikh Khalifa Bin Zayed Al Nahyan, and the follow-up of His Highness Shaikh Mohammad Bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and Deputy Supreme Commander of the UAE Armed Forces.
An official source at the foundation said that the project began with the digging of 13 wells and construction of giant reservoirs. The pipeline, expected to be 52km long, is estimated to have a capacity of more than one million gallons of water per day. It is expected to serve 250,000 people in the city of Hargeisa.

AMISOM: Al Shabaab Is Doomed To Fail

23 Feb – Source: The Insider Uganda – 181 Words

The Special Representative of the Chairperson of the African Union Commission for Somalia (SRCC) and Head of AMISOM, Ambassador Maman S. Sidikou, strongly condemned the suicide car bomb attack on the SYL Hotel last week in Mogadishu. The SRCC extended his deepest condolences to the families of the brave police officers that lost their lives defending their fellow countrymen. “This is clearly a desperate and failed attempt to frustrate growing peace, stability, unity in governance and economic activities currently taking center stage in Mogadishu and Somalia as whole, and that their attempts are in vain because Somalia cannot turn back,” Ambassador Sidikou said. He added: “With this attack, Al-Shabaab has demonstrated once again that it has no interest in Somalia’s positive development and the improved welfare of its people.” The SRCC urged the people of Somalia, the international community and all friends of Somalia to not to be deterred by these extremists, whose cowardly attempts to create fear and perpetuate violence are doomed to fail.

INTERNATIONAL MEDIA

East Africa’s Bloc Says Terrorists Won’t Stop Efforts To Stabilise Somalia

23 Feb – Source: Xinhua News/China.org – 333 Words

An East Africa bloc said Sunday increased terrorist incidents in Somalia by Al-Shabaab will not prevent the international community with its efforts to stabilise the Horn of Africa nation. The Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD)’s Executive Secretary Mahboub Maalim, who strongly condemned Friday’s deadly terrorist attack on the Central Hotel in Mogadishu by Al-Shabaab, said despite attacks, war and violence is now fading in Somalia.

“Al-Shabaab’s latest act of terror at the Hotel Central was an attempt to demoralize the Federal government and people of Somalia, and to deter the international community from operating in the country,” Maalim said in a statement issued in Nairobi. “In these attempts, the criminals have failed. Such attacks against innocent civilians betray the desperation of Al-Shabaab, who faces the continued loss of territory, the defection of its fighters and the waning of its overall relevance in Somalia.”

The Friday attack resulted in the death of 28 civilians, including two lawmakers, and 54 others were injuries. Deputy Prime Minister Mohamed Omar Arte, who was among the wounded, was flown to Turkey on Saturdayfor treatment. According to Maalim, the Somalis seek to build where the militants aim to destroy, adding that in collaborating with the international community, the people of Somalia have built a federal government, a functioning parliament and established security forces.

Security Chief Warns Shoppers After Terror Threat

22 Feb – Source: BBC – 349 Words

US Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson has urged people to be vigilant following a terror threat to Western shopping centres, including one of America’s largest malls. He said he took the threat by the Somali-based group al-Shabab seriously. In a video, the group urged followers to carry out attacks on shopping centres in the US, Canada and the UK.Al-Shabab was responsible for the 2013 attack on Westgate shopping mall in Nairobi that killed 67 people. Mr Johnson told CNN that the threat was part of “a new phase” of terrorism in which attacks would increasingly come from “independent actors in their homelands”. “Anytime a terrorist organisation calls for an attack on a specific place, we’ve got to take that seriously,” he said.

But Mr Johnson added that he was not advising people not to go to the malls named by the militants.In the video, a man with a British-sounding accent and full face covering calls on supporters of al-Shabab to attack “American or Jewish-owned” Western shopping centres. He specifically mentions Minnesota’s Mall of America – the second-largest US shopping centre – and Canada’s West Edmonton Mall, as well as London’s Oxford Street and the UK capital’s two Westfield shopping centres.
Co-ordinates for the various targets were listed on the screen as they were described.The BBC’s Naomi Grimley in Washington says it is possible that the video is part of a rivalry between al-Shabab, which is linked to al-Qaeda, and Islamic State, which has dominated media coverage recently. Al-Shabab killed 67 people in an attack on Kenya’s Westgate shopping centre in 2013.

SOCIAL MEDIA

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

“They probably feel their profile is significantly slipping,” he says. “It seems to be happening with all the al-Qaida offshoots: they believe that Isis is stealing the limelight with their well produced videos and slick messaging.” Boko Haram used “copycat tactics” by declaring an Islamic caliphate in northern Nigeria, he notes, but that option is not open to al-Shabaab following recent setbacks on the battlefield. Du Plessis warns, however, of the continuing potential for lone-wolf attacks.”

Al-Shabaab Video Shows How Far It Lags Behind In ‘Jihadi Draft’

23 Feb – Source: The Guardian – 727 Words

A propaganda video released by the Somali militant group al-Shabaab, threatening attacks against shopping centres in the west, smacks of a bid to remain relevant as other extremist groups such as Islamic State (Isis) and Boko Haram grab the world’s attention. The slickly produced 77-minute film, posted online on Saturday, calls for strikes on Oxford Street and two Westfield malls in London, the Mall of America in Minnesota and Canada’s West Edmonton mall. “Westgate was just the beginning,” it proclaims, invoking what might cynically be described as al-Shabaab’s greatest hit: the siege of the Westgate mall in Nairobi, Kenya, in which 67 people were killed by four gunmen.

But that was September 2013 and a great deal has happened since. Isis has overrun swaths of Iraq and Syria and produced macabre videos tailored to the modern media cycle. Boko Haram has rampaged through northern Nigeria and stolen headlines with the kidnapping of 276 schoolgirls in Chibok. Islamist gunmen have stunned the world by attacking a satirical magazine in Paris, killing 17 people over three days. In the perverse battle for eyeballs and retweets, al-Shabaab’s PR department has been outwitted by its murderous rivals, while it has been losing territory after a hammering by American drones and African soldiers. Last September its leader, Ahmed Abdi Godane, was killed in a US air strike, while his successor, Ahmad Umar, has so far failed to establish a similarly high profile. There are two ways for al-Shabaab, an affiliate of al-Qaida, to put itself back on the global agenda. One was seen last Friday with the suicide bombing of a hotel in Mogadishu, killing 25 people, injuring more than 40 and deliberately denting hopes that the capital now has unstoppable momentum with new businesses, a construction boom and a returning diaspora.

In The Footsteps Of Somalia’s Civil War

23 Feb – Source: CNN – Video – 14:02 Mins

In a three-part series, “Inside Africa” travels through Somalia with Oscar-nominated actor Barkhad Abdi who fled the country as a small child twenty three years ago.

Additional Somalia news will appear in the Afternoon Report