July 11, 2016 | Morning Headlines
Al Shabaab Hotbeds In Central Somalia Dismantled – Presidency
10 July – Source: Garowe Online – 139 Words
Special Forces have dismantled “at least three Al Shabaab hotbeds” on central Hiran region’s border with Middle Shabelle, Somali Presidency said in statement on Sunday. The commando troopers in helicopters raided Al Shabaab hideouts in Gobele area in what appears to be the latest in a string of pre-planned anti-terror assaults jointly coordinated by Somali government in Mogadishu, African Union peacekeepers and the US.
The statement from Somali President’s office noted that the neutralized hotbeds have been used by militants as a Launchpad for terror attacks in Middle Shabelle region. Residents in nearby vicinities reported that heavy shelling in Gobele was heard late on Saturday night.
Somali officials and local sources have confirmed that calm is prevailing in the areas where the raid took place. Allied forces have removed Al Shabaab militants from vast swathes in central and southern Somalia.
Key Headlines
- Al Shabaab Hotbeds In Central Somalia Dismantled – Presidency (Garowe Online)
- IGAD Delegation Expected To Visit Beledweyne City (Shabelle News)
- Somali Religious Council Call For Protest To Denounce Madina Attack (Radio Dalsan)
- Illegal Weapons Blamed For Mogadishu Insecurity (Garowe Online)
- Puntland Announces Orders In Tense Relation With Media (Garowe Online)
- Officers Escape Narrowly In Attempted Al-Shabaab Lamu attack (The Star)
- Somali Forces Arrest Several Seize Weapons In Southern Region (Xinhua)
- Al-Shabaab Testing Ground With Sporadic Attacks Mudavadi Tells Government (The Star)
- AU Trains Somalia Police To Beef Up Security (Xinhua)
- Al-Shabaab Attack Leaves One Dead Three Injured (Daily Nation)
- Somali Presidential Hopeful Speaks Of His Dreams For Troubled Country (Daily Nation)
NATIONAL MEDIA
Illegal Weapons Blamed For Mogadishu Insecurity
10 July – Source: Garowe Online – 166 Words
Mogadishu Mayor Yusuf Hussein Jimale said in an interview with VOA Somali Service that the use of illegal weapons and lack of military barracks both contributed to insecurity in Mogadishu. Wracked by chronic instability for more than two decades, Mogadishu has witnessed a series of bombings and targeted killings carried out by Al-Shabaab terror group in recent years.
Jimale added that possession of illegal firearms has its own dangers and threw a light on rising concerns over militants disguising themselves as soldiers for criminal activities. “Uniformed military officers go to frontline and return to Mogadishu. It of course happens everywhere when a country is in a state of war. I can say we have difficulties with controlling and regulating the use of illegal weapons,” admitted Jimale. Moreover, he faulted absence of proper military barracks on the “organized crimes” perpetrated against the public, government officials and foreigners in volatile Mogadishu. UN-backed national government has failed to staunch terror infrastructures embedded by beleaguered Al-Shabaab in most Mogadishu neighborhoods.
Puntland Announces Orders In Tense Relation With Media
10 July – Source: Garowe Online – 183 Words
Puntland government in northern Somalia has set a July 25 deadline for compliance by local media houses amid tense relationship with the press, Garowe Online reports. In a new rule – seen as yet another restriction on the freedom of press, Puntland Information Minister Mohamud Hassan So’adde ordered news outlets to send a list containing operating journalists to the ministry for registration before July 25.
The government letter dated July 9 also asked for addresses and accredited position of each media worker. The instructions have come in the context of tense ties between the state’s controversial Minister So’adde and the members of the press, who accused the former of enforcing censorship. So’adde recently threatened journalists with “bullets” in deliberate defiance to tenets of free speech enshrined in the regional constitution. In late June, the government closed down independent radio station Daljir for interviewing former Bari Governor Abdisamad Mohamed Galan.
The U.S. Mission to Somalia said the following day, it was alarmed by the closure that contradicts the right of free expression. Radio Daljir has been allowed to resume broadcasting on its FM stations.
IGAD Delegation Expected To Visit Beledweyne City
10 July – Source: Shabelle News- 107 Words
A high-level delegation from the Intergovernmental authority on development (IGAD) is set to pay a visit to Beledweyne city, the regional capital of Hiiraan in central Somalia. Reports say IGAD delegation will hold meetings with local elders to discuss on the shaping of the long-awaited inter-regional administration for Hiiraan and middle Shabelle regions.
IGAD took over the responsibility of the regional state formation following a stiff deadlock between clan elders who have been in dispute for months over the power-sharing model. Somalia’s federal government based in Mogadishu has been accused of failing to form an interim regional administration for Hiiraan and middle Shabelle regions in central Somalia.
Somali Religious Council Call For Protest To Denounce Madina Attack
10 July – Source: Radio Dalsan – 100 Words
Somali religious council has strongly condemned last week suicide attack on the Islamic holy city of Madina. The council press conference in the capital Mogadishu on Sunday also condemned what it described as continuous terror attacks in other Islamic states like Turkey, Iraq, Yemen and Syria. The committee which brings together leading Somali religious scholars called for mass protest on Monday in the country to denounce terror attacks they said is used to tarnish the beauty of Islamic religion. “We call for mass protest on Monday to denounce terror attacks in the holy city of Madina and other parts of the Muslim world,” they said
“The world must unite to fight terror and all related attacks should be condemned equally.” Saudi Arabian authorities said a suicide bomber who attacked the Prophet’s Mosque in the city of Madinah on Monday was a 26-year-old Saudi citizen with a history of drug abuse. Four security officers were killed in the suicide attack near the resting place of the prophet Muhammed six days ago.
INTERNATIONAL MEDIA
Officers Escape Narrowly In Attempted Al-Shabaab Lamu attack
10 July – Source: The Star – 175 Words
Police officers who were on their way to Lamu escaped death by a whisker after Al-Shabaab militia men attempted to attack their vehicle which was heading to Mokowe in Lamu County on Sunday. The militia men planted an IED beside a pothole full of water. It was not clear how many officers were in the vehicle. Sources told The Star that decision of the driver to wade through the puddle of water saved the officers.
“If the government does not improve the condition of that road more lives will be lost,” said the source. No casualties were reported. The attempt comes a week after heavily armed Al-Shabaab militia were spotted in the county.
Lamu county AP commander Abdullahi Adan said police had been tipped by the public that suspected terrorists were sighted in Milimani area, Lamu East on Friday morning. Adan said following the reports, KDF soldiers who were dispatched to the area immediately to assess the situation found nothing. He said police and military personnel have mounted patrols in the area as a result.
Somali Forces Arrest Several, Seize Weapons In Southern Region
10 July – Source: Xinhua – 126 Words
Somalia’s Security forces have arrested several people and seized a cache of weapons in the southern region of Gedo bordering Kenya. Mohamed Hassan, a police chief in the Bardhere town in Gedo, told reporters the security forces launched an operation early Saturday.
“We have arrested suspects and recovered weapons in their possession. We are still carrying our investigations to establish their intentions,” said Hasan.
Hassan did not give details about the weapons seized in the operation but said police were following up the matter. Islamist militant group Al-Shabaab was flushed out of Bardhere last year by troops of the Africa Union Mission in Somalia. The town, with a largely agricultural economy, was a source of supplies for Al-Shabaab. Al-Shabaab militants frequently carry out attacks in Somalia.
Al-Shabaab Testing Ground With Sporadic Attacks, Mudavadi Tells Government
10 July – Source: The Star- 376 Words
Amani leader Musalia Mudavadi has said government’s laxity in the fight against terrorism is worrying. Mudavadi said the Jubilee government was sitting on its laurels thinking it had won against an extremely determined enemy. In a statement on Sunday, Mudavadi said the terrorist group Al-Shabaab was testing the ground with freewheeling sporadic attacks. He said the terror group has grown in confidence that it can hit Kenya without raising as much a national furor.
“The silence by government is telling. Government is sending the wrong message that acts of terror be treated as normal criminal acts,” reads the statement. The statement further claims Al-Shabaab is emboldened by Kenyan security laxity therefore doesn’t even spare police or KDF as targets.
“Attacks in Mandera county and an overran police station in Wajir County in weeks are not coincidences to be ignored. The terror group’s message is it can attack Kenya at will,” said the statement. “This lethargy against Al-Shabaab is pervasive in response to a lull in insurgency after Garissa last year,” he said.
Mudavadi said last week, six people were killed when the militants sprayed two buses with bullets in Elwak but no response was carried out by security forces. “Instead, transport to northern Kenya is suspended because operators cannot be guaranteed security.
AU Trains Somalia Police To Beef Up Security
09 July – Source: Xinhua- 191 Words
The Africa Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM) has kicked off a second phase of training for local police recruits in the southern city of Kismayo to boost the country’s ability to maintain security. A statement from AMISOM saidFriday the three-month training for the 203 Jubbaland police recruits will be conducted by AMISOM police trainers from July to October.
AMISOM deputy Superintendent of Police, Alexander Kweku Obeng, said the basic policing course would focus on human rights observance and community policing among others. “The training program for these recruits is very intensive because we are looking at both, practical and theoretical aspects that will affect their side of the community’s effective and communicative domain of the recruits,” Obeng said.
“This is to ensure that the liberated areas are secured for the general public to go about their routine activities,” he added, referring to areas retaken from Islamist group Al-Shabaab.
Obeng added 30 percent of the trainees were female recruits, describing it as an improvement from last recruitment exercise. AMISOM forces have for the past years been helping the Somali government battle Al-Shabaab militants who frequently carry out attacks in the country.
Al-Shabaab Attack Leaves One Dead, Three Injured
10 July – Source: Daily Nation – 756 Words
One person was killed while three others sustained serious injuries on Saturday night when their vehicle was attacked by suspected Al-Shabaab terrorists in Lafey Sub-County, Mandera County.
The whereabouts of three others is still unknown. Lafey police boss Bosita Omukolongolo said a female passenger died on the spot while the driver sustained bullet injuries on the chest.
Mr Omukolongolo said the occupants of the Toyota Hilux were headed to Lafey town to attend a funeral of their kin. “A motor vehicle travelling to Lafey from Mandera was attacked at around 7:30 pm approximately five kilometers from Fino town and on board were mourners. Two other passengers sustained minor bullet injuries,” he said.
Area Deputy County Commissioner Erick Oronyi said the security personnel could not be immediately deployed to the scene as it was not clear whether it was a trap to lure them into an ambush.
OPINION, ANALYSIS, AND CULTURE
Al-Shabaab can be divided into three, meaning they should be tackled in three ways. Some join Al-Shabaab because they are jobless. Seventy per cent of Somalis are young. Al-Shabaab can attract them using money. This category needs us to create jobs. But there are others with genuine political or religious grievances. We need to talk to them. The third are hardcore Al-Shabaab who have links with international terrorists. The only strategy for these is force. Some are not even Somalis and are not willing to talk.
Somali Presidential Hopeful Speaks Of His Dreams For Troubled Country
10 July – Source: Daily Nation- 554 Words
Somalia’s former Planning Minister Abdirahman Abdishakur Warsame has announced he will vie for the country’s Presidency when new polls are called in early September. But Somalia faces many problems from insecurity occasioned by extremists, resettling refugees returning from Kenya, corruption to a general lack of state facilities. So what does Mr Warsame offer to Somalia and the region at large? He spoke to the Sunday Nation’s AGGREY MUTAMBO about his ambitions.
What is your opinion on the closing of Dadaab refugee camp?
The issue is implementing the agreement between Kenya, Somalia and the UN, which allowed refugees to voluntarily go back home.
Somalia has sued Kenya over a maritime boundary. How do you intend to solve rows with neighbours?
When I was in government, we agreed to solve the problem with Kenya amicably. But parliament rejected that and the government took the matter to international jurisdiction. We have to go through the process and trust the court. Kenya and Somalia should be the best of neighbours and we have to figure out how to establish cooperation and work on building regional integration.
What will your relationship with the international community be like?
The global community needs to re-examine its relationship with Somalis. Six countries have been involved in rebuilding the Somali army, police and other security agencies. That assistance is not coordinated.
I will ask the international community to coordinate its help. I will ask the partners to come back to Somalia and stop operating from Nairobi.