July 8, 2016 | Morning Headlines
Security Council Extends African Union Mission In Somalia
07 July – Source: UN News Centre – 309 Words
Reauthorizing the African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM) until 31 May 2017, the United Nations Security Council today set out key objectives for the operation during its new mandate, including “to reduce the threat posed by Al-Shabaab and other armed opposition groups.” Under a unanimously adopted resolution, which maintains AMISOM’s troop deployment “up to a maximum level of 22,126,” the Council sets out further strategic objectives for the mission regarding facilitating the Somali political process at all levels, as well as enabling stabilization efforts, reconciliation and peacebuilding in the Horn of Africa country by providing security for the Somali people.
The text also says the AU-led mission would enable the gradual handing over of security responsibilities from AMISOM to the Somali security forces contingent on abilities of the Somali security forces. Among the ‘essential tasks’ authorized by the Council, AMISOM is to engage with communities in the country’s recovered areas and promoting understanding between AMISOM and local populations, to allow for longer term stabilisation by the UN Country Team and other actors. A related ‘priority task’ would be to secure key supply routes, including to areas recovered from Al-Shabaab, in particular those essential to improving the humanitarian situation, and those critical for AMISOM’s logistical support.
The text goes on to underline the importance of AMISOM forces carrying out their mandate in full compliance with their obligations under international humanitarian law and human rights law, and cooperating with the UN Assistance Mission in Somalia (UNSOM) and the UN Support Office in Somalia (UNSOS) in implementing the Human Rights Due Diligence Policy on UN support to Non-UN Security Forces (HRDDP). It also calls on the African Union to investigate and report allegations of violations and abuses of human rights and violations of international humanitarian law, as well as continuing to ensure the highest standards of transparency, and conduct and discipline.
Key Headlines
- Security Council Extends African Union Mission In Somalia (UN News Centre)
- We Have Made Remarkable Efforts A Year On Galmudug Vice President Says (Goobjoog News)
- Al-Shabaab Publicly Executed Two Men In Central Somalia (Shabelle News)
- African Union To Withdraw Troops From Somalia By 2020 (Associated Press)
- German Court Sentences Five Men To Jail For Joining Al-Shabaab Militants (PressTV Germany)
- Why Terrorist Groups Have Soft Spot For ‘A’ Students (Capital FM)
NATIONAL MEDIA
We Have Made Remarkable Efforts A Year On, Galmudug Vice President Says
07 July – Source: Goobjoog News – 290 Words
The administration Galmudug on Thursday said that it had made tremendous strides during its one year of existence. Addressing thousands of people that turned up to pray at the Eid Prayer in Adado town, Vice President of Galmudug state Mohamed Abdi Hashi said that his government has improved and restored the administrative system.
He pointed out his government is committed to tackling insecurity in the region and fostering relations with neighboring regional administrations in order to strengthen security. “Our fight against terror groups[Al-Shabaab] will never be won if we fail to address legitimate grievances that terrorists may try to exploit; if we don’t build trust with all people,” Hashi said.
The vice president lauded the work done by the security agencies and residents of Galmudug in fostering stabilization in areas recovered from Al-Shabaab. He called on residents of Adado town as well as people of Galmudug State at large to work hand in hand with the administration. ” I urge the Galmudug residents to remain cognizant of the challenges that lie ahead and steps that must be taken to address them,’’ he pointed out.
Political analysts and some of civil society members in the region have however criticized Galmudug government of neglecting the region saying it failed to offer the required services during their one year stay in office. Abdullahi Hussein, a political analyst in Galmudug State told Goobjoog News that there is a lot of challenges and neglect by the administration of president Abdikarim Guled.
“The Galmudug Government has failed to facilitate unity, making reconciliation happen and opening dialogue space for warring communities,” Hussein said. Abdikarim Hussein Guled who was a former minister of interior was elected as the president of Galmudug on 4 July 2015.
Al-Shabaab Publicly Executed Two Men In Central Somalia
07 July – Source: Shabelle News – 157 Words
The Al Qaeda-affiliated Al-Shabaab fighters in central Somalia have publicly executed two men by firing squad on Thursday afternoon, for killing unarmed civilians in the past. Sources say a firing squad from Al-Shabaab carried out the execution against the men at a square in the coastal city of Harardhere in Mudug province which is controlled by the militants. A local court belonging to Al-Shabaab has sentenced the two men whose names have been identified as Abdirahman Dhuhul Abdulle, 22, and Abdi Muse Hayle, 25, to death penalty in vengeance for previous two civilian killing.
The sources who spoke to Radio Shabelle on condition of anonymity by phone, said hundreds of residents, including women and children have watched to execution of the two men. Somalia’s central town of Haradhere, formerly a pirate hub is currently serving as the biggest operations and financial core for Al-Shabaab fighters in Mudug region situated in the Galmudug regional state.
INTERNATIONAL MEDIA
African Union To Withdraw Troops From Somalia By 2020
07 July – Source: Associated Press – 243 Words
The African Union says it plans to withdraw its forces from Somalia by the end of 2020 after years of trying to secure the Horn of Africa country against extremist group Al-Shabaab. The AU’s Peace and Security Council statement issued this week comes after a series of challenges for the 22,000-strong multinational peacekeeping force, including funding issues that left some troops without pay for the past few months.
The statement says that under its exit strategy, security responsibilities will be transferred to Somalia’s military gradually between 2018 and December 2020. The decision comes after the council met June 29 on the force known as AMISOM. Somali officials could not immediately be reached for comment because of the Eid holiday marking the end of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.
The AU council’s statement also said the European Union, the force’s largest funder, has decided to accelerate the payment of AMISOM’s troop allowance. The EU earlier this year cut its funding to the AU mission in Somalia by 20 percent, prompting Uganda, the largest troop contributor, to say it would withdraw its more than 6,000 troops from the Somalia mission by December 2017.
German Court Sentences Five Men To Jail For Joining Al-Shabaab Militants
07 July – Source: Press TV, Germany – 277 Words
A court in Germany has sentenced five men to jail for having joined the al-Shabab Takfiri militant group in Somalia. The Frankfurt higher regional court on Thursday sentenced the five men, all German citizens, to prison terms ranging from three-and-a-half years to five years for becoming members of a foreign terrorist group. A sixth man, who was allegedly jailed and tortured for months by the al-Qaeda-linked terror group on suspicion of being a Western spy, received a suspended sentence.
The men, most aged in their 20s and from the city of Bonn, and had traveled to Kenya in 2012 and then to Somalia the following year. Some of them had taken their wives and children along. They served for 13-18 months on various Al-Shabaab bases after several months of training, according to the court. In July 2014, they, however, decided to leave the terror group due to its “rigid treatment” of foreign militants, said the court.
Three of them were arrested when they flew back to Frankfurt. The two others had planned to travel to Syria to join the Daesh terrorist group but were arrested in Kenya and deported to Germany. The sixth man was arrested in Kenya and deported to Germany. Somalia has been the scene of deadly clashes between government forces and al-Shabab militants since 2006.
OPINION, ANALYSIS, AND CULTURE
“Youth’s Internet usage thrives on the ability to be involved with online content and communicate their opinions with the creators as well as with each other. Terror groups are increasingly using the platform in a bid to indoctrinate youth with radical messages. Although the full extent of their success cannot yet be measured, the Internet increasingly risks becoming a tool for recruitment and radicalization of young people according to security experts.”
Why Terrorist Groups Have Soft Spot For ‘A’ Students
07 July – Source: Capital FM – 1,180 Words
It has become evident that terrorist organisations in the world have changed tact and are now interested with ‘A’ students in their recruitment drive, even as the war on terror becomes sophisticated. Several incidents confirm that terror groups – the Al Shabaab militia included – have been using university students to plan and execute their atrocities, against people who don’t subscribe to their ideologies.
It is a fact police, lecturers and security experts admit, which they caution that it can easily get out of hand if not adequately addressed. The terrorists’ narrative, according to security experts, becomes appealing to the students who are enticed into graduating to a better life, a lie they come to know of, sometime when it’s too late.
On February 18, anti-terrorism police arrested a University of Nairobi student while on his way to Libya, to join the IS terror network. The first year biochemistry student had used his school fees to buy an air ticket to the North African country after he was lured by a terrorist organisation and told his starting salary would be $2,000 (Sh200,000). The student was to be employed as a phlebotomist and would have had a pay rise of $10,000 (Sh1 million) after sometime.
On April 5, 2015, the world came to yet another shocking reality, after it emerged that among one of the four slain Garissa University College terrorists, Abdirahim Abdullahi was a lawyer by profession. The slain terrorist is one of the four men who stormed the university and participated in the execution of 148 people, mainly students before three of them were shot dead by police.
The fourth blew himself up.Investigators traced records to a secondary school he studied at known as WAMY High School and established that he obtained an A- when he sat for his Kenya Certificate of Secondary School Examinations exam in 2007. Still in 2015, two Kenyan ladies went missing and reportedly joined IS in Syria.
Childhood friends Salwa Abdalla and Twafiqa Dahir in their 20s disappeared from Nairobi’s south C area.One of them had already joined university while the other one was to join at a later stage. They were all described as calm. All those are cases of brilliant brains being brainwashed into joining terror organisations.