June 27, 2018 | Morning Headlines
Al-Shabaab Suspect Sister Arrested For Colluding With Nairobi Lawyer
25 June Source: Citizen TV – 300 Words
Police have arrested a woman accused of allegedly impersonating and colluding with a Nairobi advocate, Chacha Mwita to falsely represent her sister in a Mombasa court. Abdia Adan Ali appeared in court covered up in a Niqab trying to pass herself as her sister Halima Adan Ali who was to appear in court for the final hearing in a terror related case.
Halima, who is a suspected Al-Shabaab recruiter, facilitator and financier, was first arrested in Mombasa on April 3, 2015 for allegedly facilitating three Kenyan women, to travel to Somalia and join the Al-Shabaab terror group. The three; Khadijah Abubakar Ahmed, Mariam Said and Umukheir a Tanzanian national were arrested in Elwak en-route to Somalia by Anti-Terror Police. The three women were members of “GHURABA” a Social Media group that was used to recruit, radicalise and facilitate persons to travel to Somalia to join the terror group.
Halima was then charged with recruitment and facilitation of individuals to join Al-Shabaab and being a member of Al-Shabaab and incarcerated at Shimo La Tewa. She eventually managed to secure bail and was released on April 23, 2017. After her release, she reportedly continued with facilitation and recruitment for the Al Shabaab and Islamic States of Iraq and Syria (ISIS).
In April 9, 2018 Halima was captured in Garissa by Anti-Terror Police while trying to escape to Somalia. She had been attending her court sessions in the ongoing case against her and this was to be the final hearing. While still out on bail, she continued aiding recruits to travel to Syria and was put on the police arrest list once again. On learning that the police were looking for her, she went into hiding and advised not to appear for the court hearing and send her sister Abdia to impersonate her.
Key Headlines
- Al-Shabaab Suspect Sister Arrested For Colluding With Nairobi Lawyer (Citizen TV)
- Somali Government’s Rhetoric And Acts Are Inconsistent Says Somaliland President (Hiiraan Online)
- Somalia Celebrates 58 Years Of Independence (Shabelle News)
- Traders Complain Of Big Loses As Kenya-Somali Border Remains Shut (Daily Nation)
- Somalia And International Partners Unveil New Policing Model (Africa Newsroom)
- Somali Memoir Tells Remarkable Story Of Survival (MPR News)
NATIONAL MEDIA
Somali Government’s Rhetoric And Acts Are Inconsistent, Says Somaliland President
26 June – Source: Hiiraan Online – 179 Words
Somaliland President Muse Bihi Abdi has lashed out at the Federal Government of Somalia. Addressing at a ceremony marking the independence day of the northern regions, he accused the Farmaajo-led administration of increasing its contempt for Somaliland in recent weeks. Bihi was referring to the Federal Government recent request pressurizing the international community to end the ‘special aid arrangement’ for Somaliland.
“It is irrational to call us for unity and wage war against us at the same time. As you are well aware, Somalia’s Prime Minister Hassan Khaire recently wrote a letter to the international donors demanding for the stop of aid to Somaliland. The regional states followed suit and asked for the same. So I say to them, your rhetorics and acts are contradictory.”
On the Tukaraq conflict, Mr Bihi said after 27 years of misfortunes, conflict and lack of education, his administration was not willing to engage in yet more conflicts. He accused Puntland President Abdiweli Gaas of igniting the conflict for personal reasons in a bid to get a two-year extension of his term in office.
Somalia Celebrates 58 Years Of Independence
26 June – Source: Shabelle Media – 133 Words
Somalia has marked 58 years of independence as the East African nation faces a great number of challenges including, political instability, security and economic crisis. As the clock ticked midnight in Somalia, the blue flag with the white star was raised at the local government headquarters in Mogadishu to celebrate the 58 years of self-rule.
President Farmajo laid a wreath during an event to mark Independence Day at the Daljirka Dahsoon [The monument of the Unknown Soldier] in the capital. Several Foreign diplomats based in Mogadishu have also attended the event in solidarity with a nation slowly emerging from conflict. Somalia has attained Independence from the two colonial powers– namely Britain in north and Italy in south in 1960. A two-decade-long civil war has also made Somalia one of the world’s poorest nations.
INTERNATIONAL MEDIA
Traders Complain Of Big Loses As Kenya-Somali Border Remains Shut
25 June – Source: Daily Nation – 940 Words
When Kenya closed its border with Somalia in 2014, most Mandera County residents thought it was a short-term measure to curb Shabaab terror attacks. This, however, was not to be the case. Besides the restricted movement of people and goods, the continued closure of the Kenya-Somalia border has affected legitimate businesses in the town. This has raised the cost of goods and reduced revenue earnings for the county. Hassan Ali Hassan, a businessman in Mandera town, says the local community has paid the price of the move through loss of their business.
Before 2014, most businesses in Mandera and Elwak, the two major commercial centres in the vast county, relied on Mogadishu for supplies. “We used to import goods for our shops from the Kismayu port in Somalia and paid tax at the main points in Mandera town and Elwak,” he said. The shorter distance between Mandera and Mogadishu, compared with Nairobi or Mombasa, made the traders prefer sourcing their goods from the neighbouring country. “It is only 600 kilometres to Mogadishu from Mandera unlike the 1,200 kilometres to Nairobi to get supplies for our shops,” he said.
Goods from Somalia are cheaper compared to same merchandise coming from Nairobi. Mandera, Somalia’s Bulahawa and Ethiopia’s Suftu are conjoined towns that tell a story of same people, same culture but different states. “Closing the border opened an avenue for police to make money from imports coming in through dubious means,” says Mr Hassan. At Border Point Two and Three in Mandera, police officers man unauthorised entries but movement of people and loaded donkey carts are high. There are no revenue offices at the Kenya-Ethiopia border. The place has been left in the hands of police reservists due to low business activities.
Somalia And International Partners Unveil New Policing Model
26 June – Source: Africa Newsroom – 320 Words
The Somali Federal government, Member States and international community partners launched a Joint Police Programme (JPP) for the Somali Police Force at a ceremony held in Mogadishu. The programme will strengthen the professionalism and accountability of the police and improve peace and security for all Somali citizens.
During the event, Acting UK Ambassador to Somalia Mary Shockledge announced £14 million to the JPP and called on other donors to support the coordinated implementation of the National Security Architecture through this mechanism. Speaking at the ceremony, UK Deputy Ambassador Mary Shockledge said, “We look forward to continued close working relations with all partners to drive effective implementation; ensuring this programme translates into tangible positive impact and change on the ground”. Spearheaded by the Federal Ministry of Internal Security, the programme is also expected to expedite the ongoing transition of security responsibilities from the African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM) to Somalia’s security forces.
The Somali Federal Minister of Internal Security, Federal Member State representatives, Somali Police Commissioner and Deputy Mayor of Mogadishu welcomed the JPP as a stride forward in building local ownership and long lasting peace and development. The Minister of Internal Security, Mohamed Abukar Islow said,”The Joint Police structure demonstrates the best way to coordinate policing so that we form an effective policing system in Somalia. This investment in the Somali Police is an excellent opportunity for rebuilding our country and the development of peace and security”.
OPINION, ANALYSIS AND CULTURE
“Despite a fear of execution if caught, he began secretly recording first-person accounts of life from Mogadishu and sending them to the United States. Many appeared on public radio. The stories so moved some listeners, a group calling itself Team Abdi formed to try to get him out.”
Somali Memoir Tells Remarkable Story Of Survival
25 June – Source: MPR News – 827 Words
If Abdi Nor Iftin had only won the U.S. diversity visa lottery, that would have been enough to tell his story. However, it is just one chapter in the life of the young man who grew up during the civil war in Somalia. He survived famine, drought and life under al-Shabab extremists. Now Iftin has written a memoir. He says his book, “Call me American,” tries to fill a gap he sees in U.S. media — in-depth stories about Somalia.
“The only things that you see coming from Somalia are the images that you can see on the television which are Islamists running over things or an explosion and people killed, and that’s it,” he said. Yes, he says, that was part of life, a big part of life, during the civil war. But he wants to tell the story of the struggles of ordinary Somalis.
His parents were nomads, who he says didn’t understand the idea of geographic boundaries. They saw themselves as well off, with all their camels and goats. But that ended when a drought killed their animals and they had to move to Mogadishu. It was there life took a strange twist, when someone saw his father leap over a fence. It was just something he did as a nomad, but that someone was a basketball scout. Soon afterward, Iftin’s dad was one of the nation’s top players. Life was good again — until the civil war hit, when he was about 6. Suddenly the streets were filled with militia fighters.
“What shocks me, first, is to see my favorite guy, the man who owns the snack bar on the corner, they kill him and he’s face down on the ground,” Iftin remembered. “And we are out there watching this happen. And I am like, ‘Is this real? Is he gone?'” His father had to flee. Very quickly food ran short. “I would say that somehow we survived, mostly because of the nomadic skills of my mother,” he said. She knew how to stretch food. She also knew the medicinal powers of plants she could find growing nearby. The war went on and on. “So it was a life full of violence, death and destruction. And somehow it becomes a game to us,” Iftin said.
He and his brother Hassan would take the family water canister to fill each evening, knowing they were going to have to dodge snipers along the way. They took pride in the way they always escaped. They could not, however, escape hunger. “You could eat grass, you could eat the leaves of the trees. We’d call it, ‘You could eat anything that’s out there that does not eat you.’ Eat it! We had wild dogs eating dead bodies, that was not a surprise,” he said.