January 28, 2016 | Daily Monitoring Report
International Community Agrees To Somalia President Blueprint
28 January – Source: Garowe Online – 128 Words
International community representatives have expressed their support for a blueprint by Somalia President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud, Garowe Online reports. Foreign diplomats in Mogadishu told National Consultative Forum (NCF) that stakeholders need to agree to 4.5 representation in Lower House and even distribution of Upper House members, as earlier hinted by Mohamud. Sources tell Garowe Online that Puntland refused to heed international community backing, saying it has still a disdain for any return to the controversial quota.
Meanwhile, Prime Minister Omar Abdirashid Ali Sharmarke has summoned his cabinet to extraordinary session that might greenlight President Mohamud’s long dragging stance on electoral option for 2016 transition. Mohamud has left for Kenyan capital, Nairobi to attend a national mourning for Kenyan soldiers killed in Al-Shabaab attack in northwestern Somalia.
Key Headlines
- International Community Agrees To Somalia President Blueprint (Garowe Online)
- Somali And AMISOM Forces Destroy Al-Shabaab Manned Roadblock In Galgadud Kill Six Fighters(Radio Bar-Kulan)
- Bardera Farmers Determined To Recover From Last Year’s Disaster (Radio Ergo)
- Kenyans Pound Al-Shabaab Hideouts (Garowe Online)
- KDF Will Stay In Somalia Says Uhuru Kenyatta (The Star)
- Al-Shabaab Raped Women In Lamu Raid Says Officer (Standard Digital)
- Amisom Releases Photos Of El Adde Attack Says It Is ‘Payback Time’ (The Star)
- Excerpts From Interview With Young Somali Writer (The Star)
NATIONAL MEDIA
Somali And AMISOM Forces Destroy Al-Shabaab Manned Roadblock In Galgadud, Kill Six Fighters
28 January – Source: Radio Bar-Kulan – 104 Words
Six Al-Shabaab fighters were on Thursday killed in an operation conducted by Somali government and African Union troops in Galgadud. The operation saw the successful destruction of an Al-Shabaab-manned roadblock along the road between El-may settlement and El-bur district where the group used to extort public transport vehicles. Speaking to Radio Bar-Kulan, Abdi Hassan Mohamed, a Somali military official in El-bur, said six Al-Shabaab fighters were killed in the operation, with no human casualty on their side. Mohamed said they are aiming to continue such operations until all illegally manned roadblocks are removed from the region. Al-Shabaab militants still control parts of Galgadud.
Bardera Farmers Determined To Recover From Last Year’s Disaster
28 January – Source: Radio Ergo – 106 Words
Farmers in the riverine area of Bardera district have started replanting their fields after the El Nino floods washed away all their crops towards the end of last year. At least 9,000 hectares have been planted with various fruits, vegetables as well as cereal grains for food production. They expect to harvest in March. Radio Ergo’s local correspondent Ahmed Omar Salihi spoke to some of the farming families at work. They told him they were trying to recover from the devastation and despair they had suffered when the Juba river washed everything away last November. Many people were displaced at the height of the flooding.
Kenyans Pound Al-Shabaab Hideouts
28 January – Source: Garowe Online – 100 Words
Kenyan fighter jets continue pummelling Al-Shabaab hideouts in southwestern Somalia. Deputy Mayor of Garbaharey Abdi Barre Mohamed told Puntland-based independent station, Radio Garowe that Al-Shabaab positions have been targeted in relentless airstrikes. Airstrikes forced locals out of their homes in areas surrounding El Adde. Kenya launched airstrikes on Al-Shabaab bases in revenge for the killing of soldiers in El-Adde attack on January 15. Al-Shabaab claims to have killed 100 soldiers in the deadly raid. Militants have lost a string of strategic towns in central and southern Somalia in coordinated onslaught by allied forces.
INTERNATIONAL MEDIA
KDF Will Stay In Somalia, Says Uhuru Kenyatta
28 January – Source: The Star – 220 Words
President Uhuru Kenyatta yesterday announced Kenya will not pull out of Somalia, despite the massacre of its soldiers. He said KDF will pursue Al-Shabaab terrorists “to their last hideouts”. “We will continue in Somalia to fulfil our mission. Some, whose courage has failed, want to give up the mission now,” Uhuru said. “They want to retreat, to leave the field to the enemy in the hope that they will leave them alone.”
He spoke in Eldoret during a memorial service for soldiers killed on January 15 in El-Adde, Somalia. It was held at the 9th Kenya Rifles, Moi Barracks. Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari was present. He received full state honours including a 21-gun salute from the KDF. Nigeria has also been fighting Boko Haram terrorists. Somalia President Hassan Sheikh Mohamoud was present.
Uhuru said those calling for KDF’s withdrawal have “forgotten the enemy has made it clear he will follow us home”. He said as good neighbours, Kenya cannot leave Somalia to terrorists. Uhuru said completing the mission is the right thing to do for security. He said: “This is not the time to waver or listen to the voices of defeat. This is the time for the people and the government of Somalia to choose peace.” Uhuru unveiled a statue erected in memory of the fallen soldiers.
Al-Shabaab Raped Women In Lamu Raid, Says Officer
28 January – Source: Standard Digital – 313 Words
The chief investigating officer in the trial of two men charged with the mass murder said yesterday the militants committed the offence after separating the men from their wives and children. Al-Shabaab claimed responsibility for the June 15 attack in which all victims were men, who were shot dead or beheaded. Mahadi Swaleh Mahadi alias Jesus and Diana Salim have been charged with the killings.
They were arrested days after the massacre and have been on trial since then. Yesterday, the investigating officer, Jeremiah Ikiao, told Justice Martin Muya that a survivor of the massacre who has been placed under protection by the State, told detectives in the wake of the killings that he had identified Mahadi among the attackers. The investigator said the witness knew Mahadi from his nickname Jesus and his distinctive heavy beard as a resident of Mpeketoni, with whom he had been in conflict over land.
Ikiao told Muya the witness’s description led police to the defendant. It is not clear how the witness, who cannot be named due to a court-sanctioned gag order, slipped away from the killings he claims to have witnessed. See also: Attacks on aid workers in Somalia almost double in 2015, kill 17: UN “During the investigations, the police established that Jesus actively participated in the killing of non-muslims at Poromoko, Kaiseri and Mavuno villages on the outskirts of Mpeketoni,” said Ikiao. Ikiao told the court that during the raid, the killers also raped scores of women.
AMISOM Releases Photos Of El Adde Attack, Says It Is ‘Payback Time’
28 January – Source: The Star – 499 Words
AMISOM has released photos of the El-Adde attack, including those of a vehicle-borne device that exploded on the camp’s perimeter causing a fire.The photos and video clips on the mission’s website also show mounds of earth, charred tanks and what was left after al Shabaab attacked KDF soldiers in Somalia on January 15.
Green sacks and drums likely used to store fuel, are also shown scattered around the camp. Also among the images are those of Kenya Defence Forces troops seated in their camps, devising ways to counter the al Qaeda-linked militants. In a video, a soldier is heard explaining to his seniors that the militants took their hardware including Land Rovers, and then adding “KDF bombed and killed the militants”.
The African Union Mission in Somalia is a peace-enforcing, not a peacekeeping, mission, said acting Force commander Major General Nakibus Lakara. “Casualties do arise given the nature of the task at hand. Amisom troops’ onus was to minimise those casualties by taking out the enemy,” Lakara said. He added: “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.”
OPINION, ANALYSIS, AND CULTURE
“My strong passion towards reading everything I met from newspapers to books made me fall in love with writing, especially short story writing. The first time I tried to write something was when I was in high school. I wrote a four-page story in a book which I lost. That did not discourage the aspiring young Muna to become a writer: After high school I wrote another short fiction story. I kept this story and never showed it to anyone.”
Excerpts From Interview With Young Somali Writer
28 January – Source: The Star – 583 Words
“Hargeysa is a very beautiful and lively city right now; you see. I still feel sad when I hear the stories about how beautiful Hargeysa used to be before the war. I wish I could travel back in time and see the theatre and the museum Hargeysa used to have. There was a big theatre downtown that people used to go and watch Somali plays. They used to show different Somali plays and drama. Back then, there was a very rich culture of art and theatre. Hargeysa had a famous nickname: ‘the poet’s nest.’
There was also a large museum near the national theatre. The museum was designed and built in a very beautiful circular fashion; it used to look like a Somali traditional hut. Both the museum and the theatre were completely destroyed by the civil war in 1988.” That is the plaintive voice of the brilliant young Somali short story writer Muna Ahmed Omar. We’re in Hargeysa, the capital city of Somaliland.
It’s 2pm and Muna has travelled from her workplace to honour the invitation to be my guest on The Books Café on KBC, the premier literature programme in the region. For breakfast I avoided taking any solid food, instead going for Somali porridge with malap, honey. I do not notice when its lunchtime! Muna was born in 1991 when British Somaliland announced its second independence after the disastrous marriage with Italian Somalia. Her childhood memories therefore are those of a country resurrecting from the ruins of the war of self determination. Siad Barre’s shelling and bombardment was not domiciled to the “flattened” Hargeysa; it was exported to other cities and villages in Somaliland territory.
TOP TWEETS
@Abdi_AlSheikh: SOMALIA: COMMUNIQUE ON THE ELECTORAL MODEL FOR 2016 – Horseed Mediahttp://dlvr.it/KLCsFZ #Somalia
@Shillinson : New trend: local people in Mogadishu publicly show resentment against Alshabaab whose days r numbered. Viva #Somalia
@DalsanFM_SOM: #Somalia protest in Liido beach Mogadishu in support of victims that lost their lives in Alshabaab attack last week.
@NaleyeAbdi : Breaking: Hundreds of people took to the streets of #Garowe in support of Abdiweli Gas’s refusal of the#NCF outcome in #Mogadishu. #Somalia
@AfroProgress : Small #Somalia stock exchange has big dreams http://goo.gl/6GhtEB #africanprogress #finance via@MadeItInAfrica
@hallaboutafrica: 60% of commercial ships sailing past#Somalia piracy danger zone no longer carry private security guards, raising risk of renewing #piracy.
@khaddarmania : #Kenya: #KDF soldiers ‘will fight on until there is peace in #Somalia‘… http://fb.me/7FrSuJ1LL
@MogadishuNews : #BREAKING A prosecutor is shot dead in#Mogadishu. #Somalia
IMAGE OF THE DAY
Protesters have taken to the streets to condemn last week’s Al-Shabaab attack at Mogadishu’s Liido Beach
Photo: @mogadishunews