July 21, 2017 | Daily Monitoring Report
About 3,000 Students Fail This Year’s Secondary Exams
21 July – Source: Jowhar.com – 196 Words
The secondary school exam results for south and central regions have been released by the ministry of education. About 3,000 candidates who took this year’s secondary school exams have failed. State minister for education, Abdirahman Mohamed Abdulle said that 15,356 students of the 18,239 students who sat for the exams passed the exams. Those who passed include 5,094 female students.
Abdulle said the ministry registered 23,000 students for the exams, however 4,761 of them did not sit for the exams citing no reasons for the problem. It’s not known whether the Al-Shabaab threat to punish parents who send their children to western-style schools is a reason for the big number of students who failed to sit for the exams.
Meanwhile, the ministry has publicized the names of the top ten students who scored the highest points. They will receive education scholarships though it is not yet known which countries they will leave for their higher education studies. Nine of them are from Mogadishu while the tenth is from Guriel in Galgadud, administered by the moderate Islamist group Ahlu Sunna Wal-jama’a (ASWJ). Students from regional administrations are not in the top list.
Key Headlines
- About 3000 Students Fail This Year’s Secondary Exams (Jowhar.com)
- Somali Forces Seize A Car Loaded With Explosives At A Security Checkpoint Outside Mogadishu (Horn Observer)
- President Farmaajo Urges End Of Herale Clashes (Jowhar.com)
- Somali Presidential Secretary Is Suspended Over Power Struggle – Reports (Horn Observer)
- Terror Suspect Arrested After Turning Himself In (Daily Nation)
- No Al-Shabaab Is Not Deadlier Than Boko Haram. Here Are Better Numbers. (Washington Post)
NATIONAL MEDIA
Somali Forces Seize A Car Loaded With Explosives At A Security Checkpoint Outside Mogadishu
21 July- Source: Horn Observer – 147 Words
Somali security forces have on Thursday seized a car loaded with explosives at the Siinka Dheer checkpoint, south of the Somali capital Mogadishu, officials said. Al-Shabaab which is affiliated to Al-Qaeda in Somalia has been targeting the government and the African union troops with suicide attacks, landmines, assassinations among other attacks.
Somali officials said that the Thursday’s car was heading to Mogadishu and planning to harm the innocent civilians, but was apprehended including the would-be attackers.”Our forces have successfully seized a car loaded with explosives at the Siinka Dheer checkpoint.” Minister of Security Mohamed Abukar Islow Du’ale said, “the Shabab militias were planning harm the explosives to a innocent civilians.”
Two weeks ago, at least three people were confirmed killed and eight others were wounded after a suicide car bomber targeted a security checkpoint at Siinka Dheer area outside Mogadishu, in an attack claimed by Al-Shabaab.
President Farmaajo Urges End Of Herale Clashes
21 July – Source: Jowhar.com – 154 Words
Somali President Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed ‘Farmaajo’ has urged the warring sides in Heraale conflict to stop the bloodshed immediately and come to the negotiating table to solve their differences. President Farmaajo said the ongoing conflict in the area is uncalled for and there is need to stop further human casualty and destruction of property. He said they are planning to send a fact finding committee to the area to investigate the cause of the fighting.
He said it is unfortunate to hear the news of new clashes in the Galgaduud and promised that his administration will take every suitable step to stop the conflict. “The government cannot accept to see the conflict continue and its people to suffer and become victimized,” he added, while sending condolences to the families and relatives of the victims in the clashes. The clashes are reportedly between two militia groups allied to Ahlu Sunna Wal Jama’a and Galmudug respectively.
Somali Presidential Secretary Is Suspended Over Power Struggle – Reports
21 July- Source: Horn Observer – 161 Words
The Chief of Staff of the Somali Presidency suspended the presidential secretary in what many see an emerging power struggle and split among the president’s inner circles, local media reported. Habib Mohamed Egal who was identified as the president’s secretary and close ally to the president during his campaign, was suspended from duty by Fahad Yasin Presidential chief of Staff. The disagreement between the two further worsened when the Presidential chief of Staff Mr. Fahad Yasin wrote a letter barring Mr. Habib entry to the Villa Somalia, source obtained by the local news website, Jowhar.com revealed.
Among the people suspended include a former aide to the president during the campaign identified as Mohamed Abdullahi known as Mohamed Dhere who is remembered counting the voting ballots for President Farmaajo during the election. Fahad Yasin, the current chief of staff of the Somali presidency is a former journalist and powerful politician who is believed to have strong ties to the Qatar government.
INTERNATIONAL MEDIA
Terror Suspect Arrested After Turning Himself In
20 July- Source: Daily Nation – 496 Words
A Moi University student whom police had named as one of six suspects planning to stage terrorist attacks was on Thursday arrested by anti-terror officers moments after he turned himself in. Mr Salad Tari Gufu, 25, went to Huruma Police Station in the company of his two brothers, a nephew and two sisters early in the morning and officers of the Anti-Terrorism Police Unit arrested him.
Before going to the station, Mr Gufu had told the Nation that he was innocent and that he wished to set the record straight with the police regarding the allegations. “I am not involved in any terror activities and I am not armed like the police are saying. I am a student at Moi University and I have just completed my attachment waiting to resume my studies in September after the elections,” Mr Gufu said.
Police had placed a Sh2 million bounty on the student in the statement released on Wednesday and described him as a recruiter and a facilitator of a terror network. They had also said that he was out of the country and that his brother was trying to help him sneak back, an allegation he denied. Mr Gufu said he had been in Nairobi and that he stayed indoors after police released a photo of him and five others linked to terrorism, for fear that he may be killed by police or victimised. “I am a fourth year student pursuing a bachelor’s degree in the faculty of education at Moi University (main campus). I am being suspected of a crime that I am not even capable of … Salad wasn’t, isn’t and won’t be a terrorist,” he said in a post on Facebook.
OPINION, ANALYSIS AND CULTURE
“This month, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson assured Somalia that it had the United States’ full support in the fight against al-Shabab and extremism, according to a statement from Somalia’s Ministry of Information, Culture and Tourism,”
No, Al-Shabaab Is Not Deadlier Than Boko Haram. Here Are Better numbers.
21 July – Source: Washington Post – 951 Words
In May, a U.S. Navy SEAL was killed and two other U.S. service members were wounded on Somali soil. It was the first U.S. combat death in the East African country since 1993 — and it came amid ramped-up efforts to fight the deadly extremist group Al-Shabaab. For years, Boko Haram has carried the dubious distinction of being Africa’s deadliest terrorist group. But a multinational task force has weakened the group. It has been crippled so badly that Al-Shabaab has emerged as Africa’s deadliest extremist group.
That is according to a report by the Africa Center for Strategic Studie spublished in April. Based on that report, Quartz and Newsweek ran stories last month exploring exactly how al-Shabab surpassed Boko Haram in lethality. But is Al-Shabaab really more lethal than Boko Haram? We disagree. A closer look at the data suggests, however, that it might be too early to pass the “deadliest group” mantle to al-Shabab. Here’s what ACSS concluded: Al Shabaab grew more lethal in 2016, with fatalities increasing by a third — from 3,046 in 2015 to 4,281 in 2016. Al Shabaab has now surpassed Boko Haram as Africa’s most deadly militant Islamic group.
ACSS based its conclusions on data from ACLED, the Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project. But on the basis of the same data set, our analysis found that Boko Haram remains Africa’s deadliest terrorist group — and that al-Shabab killed a fraction of the victims reported by ACSS. How could our conclusions be so different?To understand how such a discrepancy might arise, it is important to consider what ACLED does and does not do. ACLED tracks incidents of violence across Africa and Asia. It draws its data from reports from news organizations, governments, nongovernmental organizations and published research.
ACLED codes entries by type (for example, battles, riots, protests and violence against civilians). It also identifies primary and secondary actors. It does not, however, label actors as terrorists or events as terrorism incidents. Here is how ACLED describes its approach in an overview of its methodology: ACLED does not categorize clusters or campaigns of events, largely because political violence, protest and conflict are aggregations of multiple actors, attacks, goals, etc. To classify events as discrete acts in an ‘insurgency’ or ‘terrorism’, ‘civil war’ or ‘livelihood conflict’ is often a reductive choice, leaving out the complex ways in which conflict creates multiple scales of violence and intended outcomes within a territory.
TOP TWEETS
@AbdulBillowAli:#UNSOM launches joint police patrol training in #Galkacyo for #Puntland and #GalMudug. #Somalia
http://reliefweb.int/report/
@HassanIstiila: #UPDATE President Farmaajo says they will send a fact-finding committee in Herale which will investigate the reason behind the war. #Somalia
@RadioErgo: #Somalia:Crop-eating birds bring another blow to #Somali farmers http://bit.ly/2vqhdro
@Vatescorp: #Somalia: Somaliland’s dock workers begin strikes against reforms at DP World, UAE run port
@WBG_Climate:In drought-stricken #Somalia, 680,000+ ppl have been displaced from rural areas in last 6 months.#IDAWorks to help: http://wrld.bg/xTOJ30dISw9
@amisomsomalia: Communique of the 700th PSC Meeting on#Somalia:
http://www.peaceau.org/en/
@HassanIstiila: #UPDATE: At least 10 were killed in a fighting between Ahlusuna Militia and civilians in Herale in Galgadud region. #Somalia
IMAGE OF THE DAY
First Somali Female Pilot Marwo Asli returns to Somalia after two decades in exile.
PHOTO: Dalsoor News