June 7, 2017 | Daily Monitoring Report
ISIS Fighter Surrender To Puntland Authorities
07 June – Source : Garowe Online – 220 Words
Military officials of Somalia’s northeastern region of Puntland said that a militant linked to the Islamic State (ISIS) has surrendered to the government forces in Bari region. The ISIS suspect was identified as Abdulahi Mohamed Saed, and has surrendered to the military forces stationed in Ja’el area. A senior military officer, Ahmed Mahmoud Yusuf told VOA Somali service that the military forces have in custody a defected ISIS member believed to hail from Bay region in southern Somalia.Yusuf indicated that the suspect will be handed over to the authorities who will conduct further investigation.
Asked about the number of ISIS fighters in Bari region, Yusuf revealed that the group has 70 fighters and on multiple occasions stole food, livestock and threatened local communities. However, Yusuf declined to give details about how the group receive its logistical support and indicated “such information cannot be disclosed to the public.” So far ISIS group hasn’t released any statement in regard to the recent arrest of one of its fighters by Puntland forces.
Last December, ISIS was driven out from port town of Qandala by the Puntland joint security forces, and moved to nearby mountains. ISIS group claimed responsibility for the latest suicide bombing that occurred in Bosaso town, which resulted in the death of 5 people and injuring of other civilians.
Key Headlines
- ISIS Fighter Surrender To Puntland Authorities (Garowe Online)
- Federal Government Departments To Be Opened In Kismayo Says President Farmaajo (Kismaayo News)
- PM Khayre Intervenes In Dispute Between Mogadishu Port Management And Businessmen (Jowhar.com)
- AMISOM Concludes Security Training For Somali Police Officers (AMISOM)
- Police Arrest Five En-route To Somalia To Join Al-Shabaab (Daily Nation)
- The Making Of A Climate Outlaw (Foreign Policy)
NATIONAL MEDIA
Federal Government Departments To Be Opened In Kismayo, Says President Farmaajo
07 June – Source: Kismaayo News – 84 words
Responding to a request made by Jubbaland President, Ahmed Madobe, President Mohamed Abdullahi Farmaajo announced that his government will establish federal offices in Kismayo. This will include presidential, government and parliament offices buildings. During his first day stay in Kismayo, President Farmaajo toured military training centres where he spoke to hundreds of Somali National Army recruits in the training camps. Jubbaland President, Ahmed Madobe, expressed his joy over the federal president’s visit to Kismayo and asked him to pay regular trips to the city.
PM Khayre Intervenes In Dispute Between Mogadishu Port Management And Businessmen
07 June – Source: Jowhar.com – 163 words
Prime Minister Hassan Ali Khayre has intervened in a dispute between the company that runs Mogadishu seaport operations –Al Bayrak and local businessmen. Prime Minister Khayre visited the facility on Tuesday, the fifth time he toured the port since he assumed office. Importers complained about a number of issues including poor services, shortage of cranes and lack of cooperation from the port management side. They lodged their complaint against the port management to the Prime Minister’s office, requesting him to intervene the dispute between the two sides.
During his meeting with port management officials, Prime Minister Khayre urged them to improve the delivery of public service, cooperation with the local importers and scale up work at the port. “The Somali businessmen should get the respect and consideration they deserve to make them feel they are the citizens of this country, thereby facilitating for them their businesses,” he said. He also met with businessmen and asked them to show cooperation with the port management.
INTERNATIONAL MEDIA
AMISOM Concludes Security Training For Somali Police Officers
07 June – Source : AMISOM – 423 Words
The police component of the African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM) has concluded a two-week training on close protection for South West state police officers. The training is aimed at enhancing capacity of security officers to offer adequate protection to government officials and other VIPs (very important persons). The training comes in the wake of increased cases of assassinations targeting leaders and government officials by Al-Shabaab militants.
Speaking during the closing ceremony, AMISOM Police Deputy Training Coordinator, ASP Christopher Mumo, said the training will enable Somali Police improve VIP security in the federal states. “We have been doing training on VIP close protection. We are intending to do another one in Mogadishu after doing one in Kismayo, Jubbaland state of Somalia. This was the second training and the third will be in Mogadishu,” Mr. Mumo stated. AMISOM Police has been training and mentoring Somali Police officers with an aim of transforming the security institution into a professional outfit capable of maintaining law and order.
The AMISOM official said it was important for Somalia to be able to provide adequate protection to elected leaders, following the conclusion of the electoral process early this year. “Our aim is that since Somalia has gone through elections and have several leaders, the police should be able to maintain their security especially in the wake of the many assassinations taking place. We are building the capacity of police officers to be able to protect their principals and leaders against attack of any kind including assassinations,” Mr. Mumo added.
Police Arrest Five En-route To Somalia To Join Al-Shabaab
07 June – Source : Daily Nation – 342 Words
Five youths from Isiolo County who were en-route to Somalia to join Al-Shabaab have been intercepted by the Anti Terror Police Unit (ATPU). The suspects all aged below 20 years are from Tulloroba and Chechelesi areas of Isiolo, neighbourhoods where several youth were reported missing last year. According to Isiolo County Commissioner George Natembeya, the suspects were in two groups at the time of their arrest.
Three were arrested Tuesday shortly after they cancelled their mission at Sericho, along the Garba Tulla-Isiolo road some kilometers to Garissa and returned home while two others were intercepted last week at Bute, Wajir County while travelling to Somalia. He said those arrested at Bute have confirmed that they were on a mission to cross over to Somalia for recruitment but the three who returned voluntarily were under close surveillance. “The three young people admitted that they were on transit to Somalia but changed their minds along the way,” added the Commissioner.
The suspects currently in custody have been subjected to the multi-agency team for interrogation. Detectives are presently investigating suspected recruiters believed to be recruiting young people in Isiolo and smuggling them to Somalia as Al-Shabaab fighters. “We were celebrating that cases of violent extremism and radicalization had declined but we suspect that recruiters are taking advantage of Ramadhan to lure and mislead young people into joining the terror group,” he added.
OPINION, ANALYSIS AND CULTURE
“I was among the first people to step up and defend our waters,” he said. “We don’t know who owns those vessels. There are many nationalities, and we don’t know them. They had no flag or anything. They were just thieves.” The Somali “Coast Guard,” as the pirates took to calling themselves, hijacked 163 foreign vessels between 2007 and 2012, according to the U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime. Soon warlords and criminal syndicates were bankrolling their own piracy outfits that pulled in hundreds of millions of dollars in ransom payments before NATO, the European Union, and U.S. naval forces began patrolling Somali waters and all but stamped out the piracy trade”
The Making Of A Climate Outlaw
06 June – Source : Foreign Policy – 865 Words
Garowe, Somalia, and Dadaab refugee camp, Kenya One man became a pirate, hijacking cargo ships that passed within striking distance of the Somali coast; the other an insurgent, fighting alongside Al-Shabaab extremists seeking to topple the Somali government. Neither wanted to take up the gun. Both said they were driven to it by a vicious cycle of conflict and environmental decay. Abdikadir Hassan once made a good living as a fisherman in Eyl, a coastal town in Somalia’s semi-autonomous Puntland region. He supported his parents, wife, and children, setting off each afternoon in a skiff and returning the next morning with a bounteous catch. “I used to catch fish, lobsters, and sharks, and the fishing industry was strong,” recalled Hassan, who has a slender face and furrowed brow.
Somalia’s fish stocks have been declining since 1991, when rebels toppled dictator Siad Barre and the country spiraled into civil war. As rival warlords wreaked havoc on land, foreign commercial fishing fleets took advantage of the chaos and plundered Somalia’s coastal waters. Unlike small-scale Somali fishermen, the foreign vessels dragged massive mesh nets along the ocean floor, destroying coral reefs and sweeping up all sea life in their paths.
Foreign fleets still dredge up roughly three times the amount of seafood that Somali fishermen do, according to conservative estimates. Hassan watched his livelihood dry up during the war. For years, he scraped by on dwindling catches, but then his skiff was destroyed by the tsunami that rocked the Indian Ocean in 2004. He tried to revive his business with a rented boat, but he was barely getting by while foreign fleets carried off what he viewed as his country’s precious natural resources. So he and other struggling fishermen decided to fight back.
“I was among the first people to step up and defend our waters,” he said. “We don’t know who owns those vessels. There are many nationalities, and we don’t know them. They had no flag or anything. They were just thieves.” The Somali “Coast Guard,” as the pirates took to calling themselves, hijacked 163 foreign vessels between 2007 and 2012, according to the U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime. Soon warlords and criminal syndicates were bankrolling their own piracy outfits that pulled in hundreds of millions of dollars in ransom payments before NATO, the European Union, and U.S. naval forces began patrolling Somali waters and all but stamped out the piracy trade.
“Some people saw us as heroes, and some didn’t,” said Hassan, who quit piracy and started driving a taxi in Puntland’s regional capital, Garowe, in 2009, after a hijacking went sideways and two of his friends drowned. The same could be said of Al-Shabaab militants who were locked in a bloody conflict with Somalia’s Western-backed government at the same time as piracy was spiraling out of control on the high seas. The group’s inclusive vision of an Islamic state appealed to many who were weary of decades of clan warfare, even as its extreme ideology and brutal tactics alienated others.
TOP TWEETS
@TheVillaSomalia: Pres @M_Farmaajo visits the military base of the 43rd unit of the #SNA. Promised the central gov’t will cater for the needs of the force
@joaoscarpelini: Situation in #Somalia is deteriorating and 6.7 million people are in need of #humanitarian assistance https://medium.com/@unsom/
@ntvkenya: Anti-terror Police Unit arrest 5 youth from Isiolo County who were allegedly en-route to Somalia to join Al-Shabaab.
@channelrt: #Cabinet approves signing and subsequent ratification of Agreement on Transfer of sentenced persons between #India and #Somalia :
@TheVillaSomalia: Pres @M_Farmaajo“I will always interact & listen to my pple. Let’s together make our country peaceful & prosperous” #NabadIyoNolol #Kismayo
@TheVillaSomalia: Pres @M_Farmaajo visits the military base of the 43rd unit of the #SNA. Promised the central gov’t will cater for the needs of the force
@SomaliPM: Visited Mogadishu Seaport and met with the Minister and Port’s management team, improving the delivery of public service is vital.
IMAGE OF THE DAY
His Excellency President Mohamed Abdullahi Farmaajo is welcomed by Jubaland region of Somalia’s President Ahmed Mohamed Madobe during his first official visit to kismayo.
Photo: @MudaneFarmaajo