January 29, 2015 | Daily Monitoring Report.
President Hassan in Addis Ababa for AU Summit
29 Jan – Source: Garowe Online/Radio Goobjoog – 156 Words
Federal Government of Somalia’s President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud is in Ethiopian capital of Addis Ababa for the 24th session of African Union (AU) heads of State, Garowe Online reports. Accompanied by cabinet ministers and presidential officials, MohamudThursday jetted off at Adan Ade International airport. A spokesman for the office of the President Daud Aweys said the President will address AU heads of state on the progress being made in the last two years. On the sidelines of the summit, Somalia President will also hold talks with UN Chief Ban Ki-moon, Aweys added. Ebola crisis in West Africa, Boko Haram insurgency and investment opportunities for the continent are high on the agendas during the high-level gathering at AU headquarters in Addis Ababa. More than 20,000-strong AU peacekeepers prop up Mogadishu-based central government in the fight against Al Qaeda linked Al Shabaab militants. Intense military campaign removed Islamist insurgents from strongholds in central and southern Somalia.
Key Headlines
- Gedo military officials capture Al-shabaab members (Radio Goobjoog/Garowe Online)
- President Hassan in Addis Ababa for AU Summit (Garowe Online/Radio Goobjoog)
- Galmudug welcomes new Somali cabinet (Radio Bar-kulan/Radio Goobjoog)
- Hiran Governor refutes claims that he is forming his own militia (Radio Goobjoog)
- IJA forces recover areas from Al-Shabab (Radio Goobjoog/Mareeg Media)
- Somaliland interior minister vows to contain banditry activities in Hargeisa (Radio Bar-kulan)
- Al-Shabaab victims seek justice government support (Sabahi Online)
- Somalia PM urges Parliament to pass his new Cabinet list (Daily Nation)
- EU warship escorts UN food supplies to Somalia (Xinhua/China.org)
- Minneapolis FBI refused to use Somali outreach for spying (Star Tribune)
SOMALI MEDIA
Gedo military officials captured Al-shabaab members
29 Jan – Source: Radio Goobjoog/Garowe Online – 125 Words
Military officials in Gedo region said they have captured Al-shabaab fighters after heavy fighting between Somali National Army and Al-shabaab insurgents in the region. There have been recurrent clashes between the two sides for the last several days near Garbaharay town, the main city of Gedo.
Abdullahi Mohamed Abshir of SNA told Goobjoog that they have captured 2 middle ranking Al-Shabab commanders alive, one of them is injured. He promised to parade them in front of the media to authenticate his claims. Gedo is one of the last regions in Somalia where Al-shabaab controls some of its districts. They made their main base in Bardhere in Gedo, after losing much of the territory they had previously held due to major military offensive spearheaded by AMISOM and SNA.
President Hassan in Addis Ababa for AU Summit
29 Jan – Source: Garowe Online/Radio Goobjoog – 156 Words
Federal Government of Somalia’s President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud is in Ethiopian capital of Addis Ababa for the 24th session of African Union (AU) heads of State, Garowe Online reports. Accompanied by cabinet ministers and presidential officials, Mohamud Thursday jetted off at Adan Ade International airport. A spokesman for the office of the President Daud Aweys said the President will address AU heads of state on the progress being made in the last two years. On the sidelines of the summit, Somalia President will also hold talks with UN Chief Ban Ki-moon, Aweys added. Ebola crisis in West Africa, Boko Haram insurgency and investment opportunities for the continent are high on the agendas during the high-level gathering at AU headquarters in Addis Ababa. More than 20,000-strong AU peacekeepers prop up Mogadishu-based central government in the fight against Al Qaeda linked Al Shabaab militants. Intense military campaign removed Islamist insurgents from strongholds in central and southern Somalia.
Galmudug welcomes new Somali cabinet
28 Jan – Source: Radio Bar-kulan/Radio Goobjoog – 136 Words
Galmudug administration has welcomed the appointment of the new Somali cabinet by Prime Minister Omar Abdirashid Ali. Galmudug commissioner of Mudug region Aways Ali Said said the new line-up include efficient ministers and hoped they would execute work professionally in helping the country reach the 2016 goals.
Said advised the new cabinet to speed up implementation of key national issues including revision of the provincial constitution, forming the remaining federal states and establishing democracy across the country. He called on the parliament to endorse the new government to allow it embark on fulfilling the national tasks awaiting it. Women groups in Galmudug also hailed the new cabinet. Halima Olad Gurey, one of the local women, said the new cabinet include young and energetic members whom she said might help end the political instability in the country.
Hiran Governor refutes claims that he is forming his own militia
29 Jan – Source: Radio Goobjoog – 143 Words
The governor of Hiran Abdifatah Hassan Afrah has strongly denied claimed by residents that he is forming a militia force for himself, parallel to Somali National Army in the region. While speaking at a police graduation ceremony on Wednesday in Baladweyne, the governor said “I would like to make it clear that the claims by people in Hiraan and elsewhere that I am forming my own militia are propaganda and baseless…If we look back, I am the one who helped formed the 10thregiment of Somali National Army, I donated my weaponry and transport to SNA, today SNA is a national army here, I did this out of the love of this country” said the vocal governor. Abdifatah is one of the government appointed governors for several Somali regions where federal states are to be formed.
Somaliland interior minister vows to contain banditry activities in Hargeisa
29 Jan – Source: Radio Bar-kulan – 91 Words
Somaliland interior minister Ali Mohamed Waran-adde vowed that his ministry would contain banditry activities in Hargeisa during nighttime. Speaking to Bar-kulan, Waran-adde said armed gangs have been recently terrorizing locals robbing them off their valuables such as mobile phones and money. He said such acts are dangerous and are against the decent culture of the society, and called on parents to monitor their children’s activities. He threatened tough punishment for gang members believed to be involved in such activities. Police have so far arrested several suspected gangs for allegedly terrorizing residents.
IJA forces recovers areas from Al-Shabab
29 Jan – Source:Radio Goobjoog/Mareeg Media – 73 Words
Mustaf Geed commander of Interim Jubbaland Administration Forces confirmed to Goobjoog that his troops together with AMISOM captured three little towns in lower Jubba. “Two of soldiers sustained minor injuries in the fighting, while we killed many fighters from Alshabab” said Mustaf Geedi . IJA forces had been recently launching massive onslaughts on the Al-shabab fighters that still control parts of Lower and whole Middle Jubba region, as well as parts of Gedo Region.
REGIONAL MEDIA
Al-Shabaab victims seek justice, government support
29 Jan – Source: Sabahi Online – 1, 084 Words
Victims of the harsh punishments al-Shabaab meted out during its rule in some parts of Somalia have asked the government for help as they are still suffering from the ill effects of al-Shabaab’s brutal actions. Al-Shabaab’s punishments, issued under the guise of sharia law, are not sanctioned by Islam because they are carried out without proper trials and evidence, the victims say. The victims, who include amputees, others who sustained permanent injuries and those who suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder, say they feel isolated from society and that they cannot live a normal life.
In 2009, the group cut off the right hand of Mustafa Abdirashid Dahir, now 26, accusing him of theft, which he denies. “I was living in El Bur and was one of the young people who worked in a quarry,” said Dahir, who hails from Mogadishu’s Daynile district. “One day I was summoned to the station along with three young men who were my friends.” “After an interrogation, the other young men were allowed to leave and I was brought before an al-Shabaab court where I was accused of stealing money from a shop that was broken into,” he told Sabahi. “They later cut off my right hand after summoning everyone to the town square [to watch].”
Somalia PM urges parliament to pass his new cabinet list
28 Jan – Source: Daily Nation – 275 Words
Somalia’s new prime minister has proposed a new Cabinet after Parliament rejected his last list of candidates, prompting international concerns political power struggles were stalling progress.Prime Minister Omar Abdirashid Ali Sharmarke, appointed last month after a damaging spat between his predecessor and internationally backed President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud, appealed to lawmakers to pass the latest list. “The task ahead of us is no easy one and the clock is ticking,” Mr Sharmarke said in a statement released on Wednesday.Winning parliamentary approval, however, means overcoming the country’s complex clan politics, in which each group expects its share of power in Mogadishu, a recipient of billions of dollars in foreign aid.Last week, international donors as well as regional nations warned of their “concerns over political delays”, in a joint statement signed by the African Union, the East African regional bloc Igad and the United Nations.
“Further delays could jeopardise the progress Somalia has made towards building peace and security,” said the statement, also signed by the European Union, United Nations and United States.Mr Sharmarke’s decision earlier this month to retract his first list avoided what would have been a highly damaging no-confidence vote.The new list features just 18 ministers rather than the previous 26 candidates and includes many relatively young Somalis who have been educated abroad. Somalia is due to vote on a new Constitution next year ahead of elections in 2016, but Al-Qaeda affiliated Al-Shabaab fighters remain a major threat and stage regular attacks.The Somali government, which took power in August 2012, was the first to be given global recognition since the collapse of Siad Barre’s hard-line regime in 1991.
INTERNATIONAL MEDIA
EU warship escorts UN food supplies to Somalia
28 Jan – Source: Xinhua/China.org 200 Words
The EU naval force said Wednesday that it successfully escorted a UN World Food Program (WFP) chartered vessel carrying humanitarian supplies to Somalia from Kenya. The anti-piracy task force said its Germany EU Naval Force ship, FGS Lubeck, safely escorted the WFP vessel from Mombasa to the port city of Kismayo in southern Somalia. “After rendezvousing outside the port of Mombasa, crew members from FGS Lubeck went on board the WFP vessel for a pre-voyage brief with the master of the vessel. It involved the setup and testing of communications and confirmation of response procedures in case of a pirate attack,” said the naval force.
The aid will be distributed to the Somali people soon. The UN food agency has delivered over 100 shipments to the Horn of Africa despite lack of protection and piracy incidents in Somali waters. Several governments have provided naval escorts for ships carrying food aid since November 2007 to troubled Somalia. Since then, no ship carrying WFP supplies has seen pirate attacks. The EU Naval Force warships are also providing protection to the UN chartered vessels supplying the African Union Mission to Somalia, which is supporting the transitional Somali government to stabilize the lawless nation.
Kenya drops some charges against British terror suspect
29 Jan – Source: AFP/Hiraan Online – 746 Words
A Kenyan court acquitted a suspected British Islamist militant of nine charges Wednesday but the key charge of terrorism for which he is on trial remains, a magistrate said.Suspected radical Jermaine Grant, accused of plotting bomb attacks and having ties to Somalia’s Al-Qaeda-linked Shabaab, was arrested in December 2011 in the Kenyan port city of Mombasa with chemicals, batteries and switches. Magistrate Anastacia Ndungu told a Mombasa court that he must be acquitted of nine charges, including trying to falsely register as a Kenyan citizen.“A conviction cannot be founded on mere suspicion however strong,” she said.Grant is believed to have become radicalised as a teenager in the same British prison where “shoe bomber” Richard Reid first turned to Islam.
Reid, who claimed he was an Al-Qaeda recruit, is serving a life sentence in the United States for trying to blow up a flight from Paris to Miami in December 2001.Grant pleaded guilty in December 2011 to charges of being in the country illegally and lying about his nationality, for which he was sentenced to two jail terms of two years, to run concurrently. The trial continues.Prosecutors have accused Grant, a Muslim convert, of working with fellow Briton Samantha Lewthwaite, dubbed the “White Widow”.Lewthwaite is the widow of British suicide bomber Germaine Lindsay who blew himself up on a London Underground train on July 7, 2005, killing 26 people. Her whereabouts are unknown.
Minneapolis FBI refused to use Somali outreach for spying
28 Jan – Source: Star Tribune – 792 Words
The local FBI office resisted 2009 orders to use community outreach as a cover to snoop, unveiled documents show.The FBI directed its agents in Minneapolis and five other U.S. cities in 2009 to use community outreach with Somali groups as cover to gather intelligence on terrorist recruiting efforts and on individuals who would likely be vulnerable to being radicalized, according to a newly released memo that outlines the secretive operation.
But the Minneapolis field office refused from the start to follow the spying directive, approved by then-FBI Director Robert Mueller in the waning months of the Bush administration, saying its efforts to build strong relations with Somalis would be destroyed under such a plan, an FBI spokesman in Minneapolis saidWednesday.“We never followed it because at the time we believed our brand of community outreach would engender the trust we’d built up here,” said Kyle Loven, the FBI’s spokesman in Minneapolis. “We took great care to make sure our outreach specialists were not involved in any investigations.”
In December 2010, the Obama administration ordered that the spy operation against Somalis be stopped immediately, saying that the bureau’s community outreach programs “must not report to the Field Intelligence Group or to an operational squad or task force,” according to an FBI directive obtained by the Star Tribune. “It is important to maintain an appropriate separation between outreach activities conducted to build trust and confidence, and those conducted with specific operational or intelligence purposes, i.e., human source development or setting tripwires as authorized” the overriding directive stated. “A Special Agent or Intelligence Analyst attached to an operational squad should not engage in community outreach. Under no circumstances may an FBI employee engage in any effort to dissuade individuals from adopting, practicing or espousing a particular religious belief.”
SOCIAL MEDIA
CULTURE / OPINION / EDITORIAL / ANALYSIS / BLOGS/ DISCUSSION BOARDS
“Somalia has represented a unique foreign policy success for Turkey in recent years. It was in using its new tools of foreign policy that Turkey was able to achieve this success. It was able to bring about political support for peace, security and stability in Somalia. Not only this, but Turkish official organizations and civil society organizations were able to work in harmony in Somalia. What we saw presented in Somalia was a “Turkish model for assistance.”
Somalia: what is Turkey’s goal?
26 Jan – Source: Today’s Zaman – 746 Words
The first time Turkey sent an official on the level of prime minister to Somalia — which had been internationally isolated since 1991 and devoid of any sense of state authority since 1995 — was with then-Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s visit on Aug. 19, 2011, which revived a country many thought had effectively died. Hope blossomed anew in Somalia after this visit. In fact, some Somalis referred to what had unfolded as a “miracle of Allah.”
One result of Erdoğan’s visit was that he refocused some of the attention of the international community back on Somalia. Then, on Nov. 1, 2011, a Turkish Embassy in Somalia was opened. There is still no working embassy from the West located in the center of Mogadishu at this point (the British Embassy is functioning, but works out of the Mogadishu airport). Now Erdoğan is heading back to Somalia, this time as president, to examine what progress has been made on the humanitarian aid and development models he started when he was prime minister. Somalia is the first step in a large tour of 12 African countries Erdoğan is to make, which will take place in four phases. There are Turkish embassies located in just 30 of these 54 African countries.
“Omar’s work as an imam, a leader of worship at a mosque, has him answering questions for just about everybody. In Islam, there is a law for many subjects: civil, criminal, family, just to name a few. That means you need to know the Koran and the hadith — the collected works of the sayings and actions of the prophet Muhammad — backwards and forwards.”
Meet the Abu Huraira Islamic Center
28 Jan – Source: Twin Cities – 1045 Words
With a box of Little Caesar’s pizza and a chai tea, Abdirahman Omar sits down at a long table inside the building at 3055 Old Highway 8 in St. Anthony. He’s meeting with other members from the Abu Huraira Islamic Center, who convene almost every day to discuss current needs and events.Omar, an imam and spokesman for the group, says they have many hopes for the building, which they’ve owned since August 2012. One is to make a floor dedicated to healthcare for Somali people, who require a different cultural confidence in their medicine. Spaces could be rented to dentists, urgent care and other healthcare providers.
More than that, they want to make this building something that can belong to the Somali people, for the community and beyond. That includes accommodations for weddings, community meetings, a library, a gym for youth. The list goes on. Omar says there are close to 40 mosques in the Twin Cities area, but “this will be the first one that is Somali-owned.” A community affair Abu Huraira and the City of St. Anthony entered national news last year. The city denied Abu Huraira a permit to allow them to build a mosque in the building. It was zoned “light industrial” and should stay that way, they reasoned. Then the federal government jumped in, suing the city on grounds of religious freedom.
In December, a settlement was reached between the two parties. Ten percent of the 100,000 square building will be used for religious purposes, including the mosque and classrooms. What remains will be leased out to businesses, and the building will go through a planned unit development application with the city. As part of the settlement, the city also pays $200,000 in legal fees accrued by Abu Huraira, with the city’s insurance covering three-quarters of the bill. By Feb. 10 this year, Abu Huraira anticipates having a council vote allowing them to build their mosque. The mosque will only take up one space here. There are many unique spaces and uses in this building. Heavy metal bands rent out a couple rooms in the basement. An Ethiopian community group meets down the hall. A couple rooms here were used for product testing and focus groups, at a time when the building was owned and used by Medtronic.
Top tweets
@Goobjoognews #Somalia For the first time in 24 years, Mogadishu will host General Daud Basketball Cup during a night time, clear sign of prevailing peace
@MikaelLindvall Good week for Sweden’s #Somalia team: PSG 4 mtg & health missions in Puntland; political, stabilisation & human rights mtgs/events in Mog!
@cheikh @UNFPA_SOMALIA @UNDPSomalia a great example of partnership to improve mother and child health
@amisomsomalia ·#AMISOM requested AU Sp. Envoy on Women,Peace & Security to support the #Somalia Gvt. with the implementation of National Women Policy
@UNSomalia ·Ten #Somali Artists & Entertainers To Watch In 2015: http://www.okayafrica.com/
@Tuuryare_Africa #UPDATE: Somalia’s Lego DC, Abukar, denies, he was injured in an ambush attack that launched by#AlShabab in Somalia’s lower #Shabelleregion
Image of the day
President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud arrives in Addis Ababa for 24th session of African Union (AU) heads of State
Photo: Garowe Online