January 27, 2016 | Morning Headlines

Main Story

Attacks On Aid Workers In Somalia Leaves 17 Dead – U.N.

26 January – Source: Thomson Reuters Foundation- 298 Words

Attacks on aid workers delivering supplies in Somalia almost doubled in 2015 and the number killed jumped to 17 from 10 the year before, the United Nations said on Tuesday.Somalia has been mired in conflict since civil war broke out in 1991 and is one of the most difficult countries for relief agencies to operate in.The number of attacks on aid agency staff there rose to 140 last year from 75 in 2014, the world body said.
The Islamist militant group Al -Shabaab has waged a decade-long insurgency against the Somali government, which is backed by African Union troops. Warring parties have deliberately targeted aid workers and manipulated aid for political gain.”Attacks and threats against humanitarians increased,” the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said in a bulletin, adding that there were also 18 injuries, 11 abductions and 38 arrests in 2015 involving aid agency staff.

Fighting, poor infrastructure and funding shortages make it difficult to reach the 40 percent of Somalia’s 12 million people needing aid, OCHA said.Some parts of south-central Somalia are only accessible by air, driving up the cost of delivering essentials like food.African Union troops have taken major towns from al Shabaab but the group still controls swathes of countryside and has laid siege to urban areas.”Non-state armed actors continued to impose bans on commercial activities in some areas in Bakool, Bay, Gedo and Hiraan regions, thereby disrupting the delivery of humanitarian supplies and basic commercial commodities,” the U.N. said.
Northern regions of the Horn of Africa nation are experiencing drought, and almost 380,000 people are running short of water and pasture for their animals, it said.Aid agencies received less than half the money they requested for aid for Somalia in 2015.

Key Headlines

Attacks On Aid Workers In Somalia Leaves 17 Dead – U.N.(Thomson Reuters Foundation)
Diplomatic Push Underway Over Somalia Deadlock (Garowe Online)
Federal MPs Warned Against Absenteeism As Parliament Enters Its Final Session (Wacaal Media)
Swedish Army Chief Visits Somalia (Horseed Media)
Nigeria Somali Presidents To Honour Kenya’s Fallen Soldiers (Capital FM)
Senior Catholic Bishop Issues Stark Warning Over Islamic Terror Group In Somalia (The Tablet)
AMISOM Acting Force Commander Reiterates Mission’s Mandate Of Eliminating Terrorism In Somalia(AMISOM)
Somalia FA Donates 120 Beds And Football Equipment To A Children’s Rehabilitation Centre(Soko25east)
What Somalis Are Taking Refuge From (MaineMeetsWorld)

NATIONAL MEDIA

Diplomatic Push Underway Over Somalia Deadlock

26 January – Source: Garowe Online – 88 Words

International community representatives are scrambling to draw up an understanding between disputing Somali leaders in Mogadishu, Garowe Online reports.Separate meetings have taken place among Somali political leaders and foreign diplomats trying to break the political deadlock over model for electoral transition by 2016.The two camps have not eased their stands on continuation with traditional 4.5 quota and transition into either district or region-based model.On Tuesday evening, Puntland and Jubaland leaders and Prime Minister Omar Abdirashid Ali Sharmarke held a meeting at the prime ministry.

Federal MPs Warned Against Absenteeism As Parliament Enters Its Final Session

26 January – Source: Wacaal Media – 146 Words

The speaker of the Federal Parliament of Somalia has sent a stern warning to MPs against missing any session as the house enters its final session before it’s term end in the coming election. Speaking when he chaired a session, Deputy speaker Mahad Abdulle Awad said the seventh and last session of the house has a full in tray meaning members cannot afford to skip any session. “I am asking all absent members to immediately report as there is a lot of pending work that needs to be concluded before the house is dissolved” said Awad. His sentiments come at a time when federal government and federal member state officials were in Mogadishu to discuss the best method to be used in the coming elections. Sources however indicate there is a standoff as different sides favor different methods and no side is ready to cede grounds.

Swedish Army Chief Visits Somalia

26 January – Source: Horseed Media – 130 Words

Swedish Land Forces Commander, Brigadier General Stefan Andersson paid his first visit to the Somali capital, Mogadishu on Tuesday.Accompanied by other officials, the Swedish army chief was welcomed by the Somali Military commander General Mohamed Aden Ahmed.Both top officials held talks which were mainly concerned the military support that the Swedish government has been giving to the Somali national army as well military alliance.
Somalia’s military chief commended Sweden’s role towards the horn of Africa nation, specifically on its support towards the rebuilding of the national army.On his side, General Stefan Andersson stressed that his government will continue its support towards the rebuilding of the Somali national army.Sweden is one of the European countries that has been contributing to the process of rebuilding Somali national army.

INTERNATIONAL MEDIA

Nigeria, Somali Presidents To Honour Kenya’s Fallen Soldiers

25 January – Source: Capital FM – 340 Words

Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari will land at the Eldoret International Airport on Wednesday where he will be received by President Uhuru Kenyatta for a three day visit. His first order of business on receiving a 21 gun salute will be to attend an interdenominational service at the Moi Barracks in Eldoret for the KDF soldiers who were killed in an Al Shabaab ambush in El Adde, Somalia, on January 15.

Buhari, whose government is itself fighting extremist group Boko Haram, will be joined by Somalia’s President Hassan Mohamud at the 9th Kenya Rifles, Moi Barracks, Eldoret: “Kenya and Nigeria have exchanged high level visits before with former President Jonathan Goodluck coming to Kenya in September 2013 and President Kenyatta paying a state visit to Nigeria in July 2014,”Esipisu recapped at a State House press briefing on Tuesday. Buhari’s visit, Esipisu said, is therefore intended to cement and grow the bi-lateral ties that already exist between the two countries.

Senior Catholic Bishop Issues Stark Warning Over Islamic Terror Group In Somalia

26 January – Source: The Tablet – 295 Words

The most senior Catholic in Somalia has cautioned the international community against complacency over the resurgence of Al-Shabaab after the country was left reeling by two terror attacks in a week by the Islamists extremists. The al-Qaeda-linked militant group killed more than 20 people on Thursday (21 January) during an eight-hour siege at a popular beachfront restaurant and hotel in the Somali capital of Mogadishu. At least three explosions were heard during the attack that Prime Minister of Somalia Omar Abdirashid Ali Sharmarke described as “barbaric”.

The attack on civilians occurred just a week after the same group claimed responsibility for attacking a camp of Kenyan soldiers in the El-Adde area of Somalia, close to the Ethiopian border on 15 January, killing at least 63 soldiers serving under African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM), injuring others and taking hostages. The Most Rev. Giorgio Bertin, the Bishop of Djibouti and Apostolic Administrator of Mogadishu, made the stark warning that the Islamic terrorist group is doing more than regrouping and has proved that it is still lethal and has the capacity and inclination to strike again: “Southern Somalia is still very unsafe. The international community has probably relaxed a bit, but the war is not yet over,” Bertin exclusively told thetablet.co.uk. “The political institutions are to be strengthened and as a consequence also, security,” added the bishop. Kenyan Catholic bishops mourned the fallen soldiers, saying they had paid the ultimate price in the line of duty and their selfless service to the country. They expressed sympathies to their families.

AMISOM Acting Force Commander Reiterates Mission’s Mandate Of Eliminating Terrorism In Somalia

26 January – Source: AMISOM – 492 Words

The African Union Mission in Somalia’s (AMISOM) Acting Force Commander, Maj Gen Nakibus Lakara has reiterated that the Mission will remain committed to its primary mandate of ensuring terrorist groups in Somalia, especially Al Shabaab, are destroyed. He was speaking during a visit to El-Adde and other Forward AMISOM Bases in Sector 2 and 3. El-Adde was attacked by Al Shabaab terrorists on January 15, 2016.

The visit by the acting Force Commander, accompanied by officers from AMISOM Force Headquarters (FHQ), was aimed at assessing the general situation in the bases and operations being executed by AMISOM troops in the region. In particular, the visit to El-Adde was meant to make an appraisal of on-going search and rescue as well as recovery operations by AMISOM KDF troops who re-took the base after the attack. The duty call was also to commiserate with, show solidarity and encourage the troops to continue the good work, while reaffirming AMISOM’s resolve to defeat terrorists.“I join his Excellency the President of the Republic of Kenya, Hon Uhuru Kenyatta, who is the Commander-in-Chief of KDF, in reiterating that we are here to ensure that Al Shabaab and other terrorist groups are eliminated from this great nation of Somalia. The Commander-in-Chief has spoken; you are the implementers of the command, I know you are ready,” Gen Lakara said.

He reminded them that AMISOM was not a peacekeeping mission but a peace enforcing mission, adding that casualties do arise given the nature of the task at hand. AMISOM troops’ onus was to minimize those casualties by taking out the enemy. In his remarks he noted the need for the Somali people to involve themselves in the process of bringing peace to Somalia.“AMISOM has been in Somalia for the last eight years. In these eight years, huge strides have been made in the restoration of peace in most parts of the country, giving way to the Federal Government consolidating and expanding its control over the territory. But for lasting peace to be achieved, the Somali people must reject and extract Al Shabaab terrorists from their midst. Only by doing this, will they rid themselves of terror. This cannot be left to AMISOM only,” Gen Lakara noted.

He implored all AMISOM troops to use the El-Adde attack to re-strategize the battle against terror. “The El-Adde attack against friendly forces should be a launch pad that will embolden, strengthen and motivate us to go all out and hunt down Al Shabaab and other armed enemies of Somalia. We shall re-strategize. Our defenses must now become offensive by nature. It is payback time, we shall win this war, and the Somali people shall be free,” Gen Lakara said.

Somalia FA Donates 120 Beds And Football Equipment To A Children’s Rehabilitation Centre

26 January- Source: Soko25east – 350 Words

As part of its humanitarian program, the Somali Football Federation donated 120 beds and football equipment to the country’s main children’s rehabilitation centre through the Somali correction troops who runs the centre.The centre holds hundreds of children and teenagers including some from poorer families, children whose parents died in Somalia conflicts and street boys.

CECAFA vice president and the president of Somali Football Federation (SFF), Abdiqani Said Arab accompanied by his senior vice president, Ali Abdi Mohamed handed over the donation to the Somali deputy Prime Minister Mohamed Omar Arte and the chief of Somalia’s correction troops (former FIFA referee) Major General Bashir Mohamed Jama.“We visited the centre several weeks ago and we learned that these children didn’t enough beds and mattresses, so we decided to provide them with beds and football equipment so that they can life in a different life”

Somali FA president, Abadiqani Said Arab told the media while presenting the equipment to the government officials over the weekend.“This is part of our humanitarian program and we will continue helping our people as much as we can. Our country experienced lawlessness and humanitarian problems which affected so many people in the country and that is why the SFF decided to establish its own humanitarian program last year” the president noted during his address at the donation presentation ceremony on Sunday.

OPINION, ANALYSIS, AND CULTURE

“This is the history of the conflict in Somalia in a nutshell:It has mutated from a civil war in the 1980s, through state collapse, clan factionalism and warlordism in the 1990s, to a globalized ideological conflict in the first decade of the new millennium,”

What Somalis Are Taking Refuge From

26 January – Source: MaineMeetsWorld- 1061 Words

Somalis are an oft-discussed group in Maine. Beginning in 2001, a wave of Somali refugees, primarily from other states, moved to Maine and settled in Lewiston and Portland. They are still arriving as well, with 148 refugees coming into the state directly from abroad in fiscal year 2014. That they are refugees is well-known, but less well-known is what they are actually taking refuge from. For most Mainers, like most Americans, the primary source of information on the Somali Civil War is probably Black Hawk Down, a movie depicting events that occurred in 1993. But the conflict has changed significantly in the 23 years since then.

Over a period of four years beginning in 1986, there was a jockeying for power in the national government as the dictator, Mohamed Siad Barre, was in failing health. Unrest increased throughout the country and eventually the anti-government forces picked up arms and coalesced into multiple rebel groups. One of these organizations, the United Somali Congress, toppled the ruling regime in December 1990, but the numerous other rebel groups, each with their own territory, refused to cooperate with them. What ensued was a war between and within factions primarily defined by clan, multiple parallel peace and reconciliation and transitional government attempts, numerous interventions by other countries, regional organizations, and the UN, and ultimately the death of hundreds of thousands of Somalis over a decade and a half.
This was the period that the events of Black Hawk Down occurred in. The two Black Hawk helicopters shot down in Mogadishu in 1993 were part of a U.S. military task force under the umbrella of the UN peacekeeping and humanitarian mission in Somalia that spanned from 1992 to 1995. The mission started when a drought compounded by the conflict created a famine in the early ‘90s, and it ended when it became clear that the warring groups weren’t going to make peace anytime soon.
The UN mission created a relative lull in violence that continued after their departure, but the country was still far from peaceful. As the conflict continued, other actors got more involved, particularly Ethiopia, Djibouti, and the Arab League. Through various peacemaking efforts by these groups (sometimes competing with one another), the warring factions consolidated somewhat into a transitional government in the early 2000s, although insecurity still reigned.

A distinct turn in the nature of the conflict came in 2006. In April of that year, a group known as the Islamic Courts Union (ICU) took over Mogadishu from a group of warlords that were backed by the U.S. Unlike the failing transitional government of the time, the ICU managed to provide services and brought a brief period of peace to the city. By the end of 2006, they controlled most of southern Somalia. When a mediation attempt failed to reconcile the ICU with the transitional government, Ethiopian forces entered Somalia, forced out the ICU, and put the transitional government back into power in Mogadishu. The ICU splintered after it lost its territory, with one of the offshoots becoming the now infamous Al Shabaab militant group, which pledged allegiance to Al Qaeda in 2012. The heart of the ICU fled to Eritrea and established another group, the Alliance for the Re-liberation of Somali (ARS). In their absence, and with a weak transitional government in place, Al Shabaab was able to take over large swaths of territory.