January 15, 2015 | Daily Monitoring Report.

Main Story

KDF kills five Shabaab raiders in Lamu ambush – Updated

14 Jan – Source: The Star – 216 Words

The Kenya Defence Forces yesterday killed five al Shabaab fighters and injured several others during an encounter with the insurgents in Lamu county.A KDF soldier died while three others were injured.This is the first such incident to be reported between KDF and al Shabaab since the beginning of this year.The soldiers were moving from Kenya back into Somalia where they are based when they were ambushed by the al Shabaab fighters who have been fleeing the war-torn country for refuge after losing territories recently.The midday incident led to the launch of a major operation by KDF soldiers in Lamu to hunt down the militias trying to go back to Somalia.

KDF spokesman Col David Obonyo said the troops identified an al Shabaab ambush site near Basuba in Lamu county and engaged the insurgents in a gunfight.“Today at about 1120hrs, Kenya Defence Forces troops operating under Amisom while en-route to Ras Kamboni disrupted a suspected al Shabaab ambush site 6km to Basuba in Lamu county. The troops were on routine administrative duties when they identified the site,” Obonyo said yesterday.He urged residents to report to the nearest police station or any relevant authority any person with gunshot wounds.The KDF said details of the operation will be communicated in due course.

Key Headlines

Luq administration prepares resettlement centers for returning Somali refugees (Radio Goobjoog)
Somali pirate kingpin allowed wife in prison (Radio Dalsan)
Number of roadblocks on Mogadishu-Baidoa Highway double (Radio Danan)
Three fishermen rescued after fishing boat overturned in Bandar Beyla (Radio Goobjoog)
KDF kills five Shabaab raiders in Lamu ambush – Updated (The Star)
Somali forces clash with Al-Shabaab in Gedo region (Sabahi Online)
3 ISIS recruits from Edmonton believed killed (CBC)

SOMALI MEDIA

Luq administration prepares resettlement centers for returning Somali refugees

15 Jan – Source:Radio Goobjoog – 125 Words

The administration of Luq district, in Gedo region, has formed a committee to resettle Somali refugees coming back to the region from the Dadaab refugee camp. Luq District Commissioner, Ahmed Bulle Mohamed, confirmed that his administration has prepared resettlement areas in the district for the returning Somali refugees, adding that the administration has put in place a committee to assess the conditions of the people.
Mr. Bulle noted that the administration has also established health centers meant to welcome and support the refugees. In December 2014 over 200 Somali refugees from Dadaab Kenya returned home voluntarily after more than two and half decades, UNHCR officials told the media. UNHCR confirmed that there are more Somalis who have volunteered to be repatriated.

Somali pirate kingpin allowed wife in prison

15 Jan – Source:Radio Dalsan – 218 Words

Somali pirate kingpin Mohamed Abdi Hassan, famously known as Afyweyne or ‘big mouth’, has been allowed to meet his wife while in prison. Afyweyne was arrested on November 2013 following a fake Hollywood movie deal which lured him to jail in Brussels. Close family members confirmed to Dalsan Radio that his wife visited him in his Brussels prison.
Afweyne captured the attention of the international media during the height of piracy along Somali coastline 2009/2010 in which more than ten ships were hijacked.In 2012 he declared to have ceased the illegal operation in the piracy hub of Adado in central Somalia.He was arrested alongside former president of Himan and Heb administration Mohamed Adan Tici who is still in prison.

Number of roadblocks on Mogadishu-Baidoa Highway double

15 Jan – Source: Radio Danan – 272 Words

Motorists who drive public service vehicles on the Mogadishu-Baidoa Highway are concerned as the number of illegal checkpoints and roadblocks on that highway have increased. They lamented that the gunmen who man those roadblocks extort money from them. Many drivers who used to drive public vehicles on that road opted to halt their work, saying they were fed up. They said some of the gun men who are at those roadblocks are in military uniforms. One of the drivers who still travels on that highway says they charge them as high as Somali Sh 2.7 million. Elsewhere, the spokesperson of the Southwest State of Somalia, Siyaad Sheikh Daahir, told the media that his government will soon take action against the men who man illegal checkpoints and roadblocks on the Lower Shabelle Bay Road.Mr. Siyaad called for the people in Lower Shabelle to work with the government of Southwest state so that those men who engage in the illegal act of robbing people of their belongings can be irradiated. Somali military men are said to be among those people who man the illegal checkpoints in that region despite the fact that SNA denied the matter.

Three fishermen rescued after fishing boat overturned in Bandar Beyla

15 Jan – Source: Radio Goobjoog- 137 Words

Three people among four on board of a fishing boat were rescued and one is missing after the vessel overturned in Bandar Beyla, a town on the coast of Puntland. The search for the fourth missing fisherman is actively going on in the area according to the local residents contacted by Goobjoog FM.
Administration officials and fishermen searched for the missing fisherman as far as 25 kilometres from the site of the accident. One of the fishermen said that the boat overturned because of strong winds, and that the sea has been rougher everyday since last week.
The Somali fishermen also expressed concerns over an increase of illegal fishing trawlers, using drag nets, traps, and trawl nets to fish for seafood found in Somali waters like tuna, sardines and mackerel.

REGIONAL MEDIA

KDF kills five Shabaab raiders in Lamu ambush – Updated

14 Jan – Source: The Star – 216 Words

Somali forces clash with Al-Shabaab in Gedo region

14 Jan – Source: Sabahi Online – 110 Words

At least five people were killed Tuesday (January 13th) in heavy clashes between Somali forces and al-Shabaab militants in the Tarako area of Gedo region, Somalia’s Goobjoog News reported.Somali forces backed by African Union Mission in Somalia troops stationed in the El Wak district attacked an al-Shabaab base in Tarako in an attempt to gain control of the area.
Although fighting has reportedly ceased, al-Shabaab militants remain in control of the region, which is approximately 50 kilometres outside Bardhere.Neither side has made an official comment on the clashes.Last week, hooded al-Shabaab gunmen executed four blindfolded men in Bardhere, accusing them of spying for Somali and foreign governments.

INTERNATIONAL MEDIA

3 ISIS recruits from Edmonton believed killed

14 Jan – Source: CBC – 314 Words

Three Edmonton cousins have died while fighting overseas for ISIS, says the father of one of the men. Ahmed Hirsi says his 20-year-old son Mahad was killed last fall along with cousins Hamsa and Hersi Kariye. A third cousin from Minnesota, Hanad Abdullahi Mohallim, was also killed, he said. Other family members deny the men died while fighting for ISIS, but Hirsi insists it’s true.He said his son and two nephews left Edmonton without telling him in October 2013.

He heard from Mahad for the last time when he called from Egypt saying he intended to leave for Syria. Hirsi’s sister Mulki Hirsi Hassan called him last fall to break the news that all four men had been killed, he said. It’s not clear how the four died or if they died at the same time. A family from war-torn Somalia, Hirsi said he can’t understand how his son became radicalized. Ahmed Hirsi says he cannot understand how his son Mahad became radicalized. He brought his family to Canada from war-torn Somalia to live in a peaceful country, he said, and he doesn’t know why his son and nephews joined ISIS.

SOCIAL MEDIA

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

“The re-appearance of the President’s allies — some with a questionable record of success — reinforces the unconventional norm of the President dominating the process to name the PM’s own cabinet.”

Analysis: Somali Prime Minister’s cabinet faces difficult challenges ahead

14 Jan – Source: Somali Newsroom – 259 Words

On 12 January 2015, PM Omar Abdirashid Ali Sharmarke’s new 60-member cabinet was announced after weeks of speculation about whether there would be fresh faces, or instead, the usual lot of Presidential allies and other personalities on the political merry-go-round. The latter turned out to be true. Several close associates of President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud are nominated to be back, including: Farah Sheikh Abdulkadir – Minister of Justice, the current Karl Rove of Somalia, and one of the President’s closest confidantes and negotiators; he was controversially moved to the political basement by ex-PM Abdiweli Sheikh Ahmed, who paid the price in his dismissal after a power struggle with the President. Abdikarim Guled – Minister of Interior and Federalism, Abdullahi Mohamed Ali “Sanbaloshe”- Minster of National Security, Hussein Abdi Halane – Minister of Finance, who has not sufficiently answered questions about financial improprieties involving the President and others in government.

Notably the recurrent of political and security crisis in Somalia preventing any meaningful solution to be realized, Somalia state- building needs rethinking, and leadership, currently the federalism model in Somalia is pursuing more inconstant and fragile approach.

Federalism for Somalia: Internal and external challenges in the post- transitional period

14 Jan – Source: Somaliland Press – 23 Pages
This paper critically examines the formation of a federal system in Somalia. Somalia was a country that had been functioning under centralized/unitary state system for a relatively long period of its post-colonial history. Somalia has yet failed to reconstitute the basic characteristics of statehood: the obliteration that followed the protracted civil wars, particularly; left Somalia as a “failed state” that cannot recover over a short period of time. Somalia is politically weak, socially fragmented and listed most fragile and vulnerable nation in Sub-Saharan Africa.

Nevertheless, the top down state-formation project in Somalia has experienced a lot of constrains over the past two decades and it is ostensibly not justifiable for such greater deficiency to be reiterated, subsequently, international community has paid unwavering efforts to Somalia statebuilding formation but it seems that Somalia has suffered this top down state building approach because many attempts of restoring peace, security and rebuilding state functions of Somalia failed. Notably the recurrent of political and security crisis in Somalia preventing any meaningful solution to be realized, Somalia state- building needs rethinking, and leadership, currently the federalism model in Somalia is pursuing more inconstant and fragile approach.

Top tweets

@SmithInAfrica Davies: Piracy in east Africa has disappeared. “Somalia has been solved.” Piracy is now a Gulf of Guinea, West Africa problem.

@hiiraan Somalia readies for fresh attack on Al-Shabaabhttp://fb.me/6nm4q4quR

@Vatescorp #Somalia #Bosaso policestation attack kills 1 soldier; 4 days after handgrenade attack on police station in cityhttp://ow.ly/HlQDY

@ikushkush Somali Author Nuruddin Farah Speaks Truth to Power-EBONY http://www.ebony.com/entertainment-c #Somalia #Africa #Literature

@ExplicittkgM H.E. Mustafa Duhulow, Minister of Information of Somalia is one of keynote speaker at the Global Communications Expo in Abu Dhabi.

@somaligov All foreign illegal companies in Somalia must report to the Somali Ministry of Foreign Affairs where they can enlist or they face penalties.

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Image of the day

Event MC Nimco Ahmed with officials from the Rwandan government at the Somalia Diaspora Conference in Kigali. Photo: AMISOM