June 1, 2017 | Daily Monitoring Report
Al-Shabab Commander Defects To Somali Forces
01 June – Source : VOA News – 367 Words
An Al-Shabaab military commander has defected and surrendered to Somali Government Forces, authorities in Mogadishu said. Minister of Information Abdirahman Omar Osman confirmed on Twitter that Bishar Mumin Farah had surrendered Wednesday in the south-central part of the country, in Hiiraan region. A Somali general who interviewed the defector told VOA the Al-Shabaab commander had been sent to Hiiraan, a large and populous area of central Somalia, “in order to execute attacks during the holy month of Ramadan.” General Mohamed Ahmed Tredice said Farah left his camp around 1 a.m. Wednesday and surrendered to government troops at sunrise. He also handed over two AK-47 automatic rifles and ammunition. “He is a young man who had been brainwashed,” but who eventually realized that Al-Shabaab’s activities were evil and that he no longer wanted to be a part of the militant group, the general said.
Before deciding to defect, Farah had been in contact with some of his relatives who are members of the government forces. They were among the troops that received him Wednesday. Farah is the first high-profile member of Al-Shabaab known to have defected since early April, when President Mohamed Abdullahi Farmajo offered a two-month amnesty to members of the extremist group. Several “foot soldiers,” rank-and-file members of Al-Shabaab, had turned themselves in previously. Before coming to Hiran region, security sources told VOA Somali, the defector had been Al-Shabaab’s deputy commander of militias in Harardhere, the biggest town controlled by the militant group in Mudug region, in north-central Somalia.
Key Headlines
- Al-Shabaab Commander Defects To Somali Forces (VOA News)
- Gunmen Kill A Traditional Elder In Mogadishu (Hiiraan Online)
- Puntland Sends Stern Warning To Homes And Vehicle Owners (Goobjoog News)
- The Country’s Revenue Sources Increased Says Minister of Finance (Jowhar.com)
- Not Enough Funds To Fight Persisting Hunger In Somalia: WFP (South African Broadcasting Corporation)
- Spreadsheet-Armed US Soldiers Bring Lessons To Somalia (Stars and Stripes)
- Peter Power: Famine in Somalia – Are We Letting It Happen… Again? (The Irish Independent)
NATIONAL MEDIA
Gunmen Kill A Traditional Elder In Mogadishu
01 June – Source: Hiiraan Online – 89 Words
Unidentified gunmen Wednesday night killed a traditional elder in Mogadishu Waaberi district. Mohamed Sheikh Abukar was shot dead by young assailants armed with pistols, who managed to escape immediately. No arrests have been made in relation to the killing although security forces immediately arrived at the scene to carry out investigation. The elder’s killing hours earlier after similar assassination incidents took place in the city, one of them targeting a military officer. Such incidents are common in Mogadishu targeting traditional elders, electoral delegates, government officials and civilians as well.
Puntland Sends Stern Warning To Homes And Vehicle Owners
01 June – Source : Goobjoog News – 175 Words
Puntland sent stern warning to the landlords and vehicles owners in the Northern Eastern State not to ferry Al-Shabaab in their vehicles or rent them to their houses. The Security Minister Abdi Hirsi Ali Qarjab said they will impound any vehicle caught with Al-Shabaab or carrying explosives. Houses rented by them will also meet with the same punishment. “We shall impound any house found occupied by Al-shabaab as we said earlier. Likewise any house we find explosives or Al-Shabaab member shall be taken over” the Minister said.
On the other hand, Minister Qarjab has also sent a harsh warning to those people who come after impounded vehicles caught carrying explosives saying they will also be put behind bars. “Those who come after vehicles caught with explosives saying that they have nothing to do with it as they are only transporters shall be arrested because they don’t have proper details of the employed driver neither what is loaded into those cars” Qarjab said. Puntland security caught yesterday a truck loaded with explosives at Bosaso security checkpoint.
The Country’s Revenue Sources Increased, Says Minister of Finance
01 June – Source : Jowhar.com – 148 Words
Somali Minister of Finance, Dr. Abdirahman Du’ale Beyle stated that the last 60 days’ initiative to curb corruption has contributed to increase in government tax revenue sources. The minister stated that during his short tenure in office, he has contributed to the increase of government revenues since the implementation of the new changes at the port and Aden Adde Airport. He stated that the money collected from the port had doubled from $150,000 to $300,000 US dollars.
Such success is attributed to several meetings and monitoring the agency that manages and collects the revenues at the ports. He said they reduced accepting cash payments for taxes and instead instructed direct depositing to designated accounts, thus minimizing corruption levels. In the last few days, the Somali government has implemented changes at the tax collection services which have significantly contributed to increase in the government revenues.
INTERNATIONAL MEDIA
Not Enough Funds To Fight Persisting Hunger In Somalia: WFP
31 May – Source : South African Broadcasting Corporation – 613 Words
The World Food Programme is urging for more funding to fight the deepening hunger and nutrition crisis in Somalia where more than half the 12 million population are need of aid and the country risks a repeat of famine that killed hundreds of thousands of people just six years ago. It is a desperate situation. The World Food Programme is feeding about 2.3 million people right now per day but funds are short and if we do not receive the funds we need, we are talking about a situation that will be potentially much worse than the famine that took place in 2010, 2011 and 2012 when 260,000 people died and literally half of those died before the famine was declared.
We’re looking at multiples much worse than that with the numbers that we are seeing now so, we need the money and we need it now. Poor rains, disease outbreaks, widespread livestock deaths and the displacement of hundreds of thousands of people by drought is making the food and nutrition situation in Somalia far worse, the U.N. World Food Programme says. The U.N. says more than half the 12 million population need aid. A similar drought in 2011, exacerbated by years of civil war, sparked the world’s last famine, which killed 260,000 people. Now the country teeters on the brink again. At a camp in Dolow, a Somali town on the Ethiopian border, international aid agencies are helping families fleeing the devastating drought. They are issued with electronic cash vouchers, introduced to give the holder a choice of rations and to diversify diets.
Spreadsheet-Armed US Soldiers Bring Lessons To Somalia
31 May – Source : Stars and Stripes – 521 Words
The first group of soldiers has completed a U.S. Army-led effort to train Somalia’s fledgling military in logistics, a stepping stone toward building a force that can sustain itself in a fight against Islamic militants. The 101st Airborne Division dispatched a team of logisticians to Somalia’s capital of Mogadishu in April to begin working with a contingent of local soldiers on how to keep track of combat gear and maintain fleets vehicles needed to reinforce and resupply fighters in the field.
The attempt to professionalize forces in Somalia, an impoverished clan-based nation with no history of strong central government, is likely face challenges in the months ahead. Much of the effort has focused on combat arms, but the U.S. has added mundane tasks like basic bookkeeping to its training portfolio. “We definitely witnessed some development in their leadership,” said Capt. Seth Church of the 101st Airborne in a statement. “They were very curious, and we taught them some basic Microsoft Excel sheet methods of record keeping and watched as they began to implement some of our systems.”
The first class’ May 24 graduation was attended by Somalia’s prime minister and the U.S. ambassador to the country. Two more contingents of Somali soldiers will complete the course this year. The focus on logistics comes as the U.S. intensifies efforts to aid the Somali military in its fight against the militant group al-Shabab. The U.S. has deployed special operations forces to advise local troops. A Navy SEAL was killed earlier this month while working alongside Somali soldiers. The deployment of 40 troops from the 101st Airborne marks the first extended deployment of regular troops in the years since 1993’s tragic “Black Hawk Down,” incident that left 18 American soldiers dead. For about 20 years, the U.S. largely walked away from the country, conducting mainly secret operations.
OPINION, ANALYSIS AND CULTURE
“At the village of Sheikh Noor I met another Mother, Nada Hassan and her family, who set out from their home near Burao in Eastern Somaliland in January, and walked for six weeks to get to safety after drought killed most of their sheep and goats. They lost 430 of 500 animals, and their livelihood. Nada Hassan has eight children aged from 12 to 20. Local woman Huda, who has five children of her own, offered them shelter. This amazing woman took in the desperate family, even though they were strangers.”
Peter Power: Famine in Somalia – Are We Letting It Happen… Again?
01 June – Source : The Irish Independent – 785 Words
THE famine that was declared in parts of South Sudan earlier this year is threatening to spread. In Somalia, millions of children are at risk of death. We have been here before. We know this crisis. In 2011, 130,000 children died in Somalia because we did not act quickly enough. We have the skills to prevent that from happening again. These thoughts have been tormenting me this week, as I meet children on the frontline of hunger.South Sudan’s declaration of famine came in February. Somalia is currently categorised as one level below that on a five-level scale used by humanitarian organisations to assess famine risk. This week, I have come to some of the areas worst-affected by that crisis in Somaliland, Northern Somalia. The situation here was caused when the rains failed six months ago and a drought occurred.
If they are to live, children in Somalia need food and clean water, vaccinations and medicine. 275,000 children currently have, or will suffer with Severe Acute Malnutrition (SAM) this year. SAM is what we call malnutrition when it reaches the life-threatening stage. But 1.4 million children are currently malnourished in total. In South Sudan, Nigeria and Yemen, the other key crisis countries affected by this famine crisis, the numbers of malnourished are even greater. On Tuesday I met eight-month-old baby boy Hassan and his Mother Ugaso at the Hargeisa Stabilisation Centre for severely malnourished children with complications in the regional capital, Hargeisa. Hassan, who was already weak, had been vomiting when he was brought in five days ago after being referred by a maternal and child health centre. His poor Mum was very shaken by her infant’s brush with death.
Thankfully, Hassan is now getting the treatment he needs and has an excellent chance of making a full recovery. Over 680,000 people – the vast majority of them women and children – have already been displaced by drought since November 2016. The Gu (April-June) rains have arrived in many parts of the country, bringing flash floods. However, other areas have still had little or no rain. Most of the 260,000 victims of Somalia’s 2011 famine died because they were forced to leave their homes in search of food and water.
At the village of Sheikh Noor I met another Mother, Nada Hassan and her family, who set out from their home near Burao in Eastern Somaliland in January, and walked for six weeks to get to safety after drought killed most of their sheep and goats. They lost 430 of 500 animals, and their livelihood. Nada Hassan has eight children aged from 12 to 20. Local woman Huda, who has five children of her own, offered them shelter.
TOP TWEETS
@qayd2012: #Galmudug Drought Commission receives $200,000 from National Drought Commission. Gu’ rainfall isn’t as anticipated in Galgaduud. #Somalia
@HarunMaruf: One year ago today alleged mastermind of Garissa Univ attack Mohamed Dulyadeyn was killed in a joint US, Somali op in Bulogudud North of Kismayo.
@UNSomalia: Drought has caused the largest outbreak of cholera #Somalia has seen in the last 5 years. #AvertSomaliaFamine
@Daudoo: 4 separate assassinations in #Mogadishu in past 24 hrs. 3 electoral delegates & a military colonel shot dead by men with pistols. #Somalia
@engyarisow: #Somalia: Minister of Finance @DrBeileh today held press conference to provide update progress on public financial management in the country
@USAfricaCommand: .@101stAASLTDIV Soldiers conducted logistics training with Somali National Army in Mogadishu, #Somalia. 1st of 3 classes recently concluded.
@engyarisow: Al-Shabaab Commander in Mudug region called Mr Bishar Mumin Farah defects to Somali National Army in Hiiraan region of #Somalia
IMAGE OF THE DAY
Somali Prime Minister Hassan Ali Kheyre inspect a guard of honor after he visited General Kahiye Police Academy to access the training centre as well as boost the moral of new police recruits undergoing training at the academy.
Photo: Radio Muqdisho