March 18, 2016 | Morning Headlines
Federal Government Deploys Weapons To Puntland As Clash With Al-Shabaab Intensifies
17 March – Source: Goobjoog News – 261 Words
The Federal government has dispatched two airplanes with heavy weaponry to the semi autonomous state of Puntland to reinforce the local forces in the ongoing clash with Al-Shabaab militants who are alleged to be affiliated to ISIL.
Following a cabinet approval on Thursday, Information Minister Mohamad Abdi Hayir said the Federal Government provided one plane while the United Arab Emirates provided another. The deployment of military support to Puntland follows three days of clashes between Puntland forces and Al-Shabaab militants, who briefly seized the coastal town of Gara’ad on Tuesday before they were kicked out by Puntland troops.
Puntland indicated on Wednesday it had killed more than 20 Al-Shabaab fighters, who are believably associated with Islamic State of the Levant and Iraq, ISIL. The militants are said to have tried to head to Galgala mountains in Bari region, from where the ISIL de facto leader in Somalia, Abdulkadir Mumin, announced the group’s allegiance to ISIL, last year.
Meanwhile Puntland President Abdiwali Gaas has denied allegations by one of his Cabinet minister that the Federal government has secretly been sponsoring Al-Shabaab in its bid to coerce Puntland into backing the 4.5 electoral model adopted in January. Puntland security minister Abdi Hersi Ali on Tuesday claimed that the Federal government was intent on forcing them to accept the model by sponsoring Al-Shabaab to attack some parts of the state. Puntland does not fall within the province of AMISOM operation and has largely been dependent of local security forces to fight off the Al-Shabaab threat.
Key Headlines
- Federal Government Deploys Weapons To Puntland As Clash With Al-Shabaab Intensifies (Goobjoog News)
- Puntland Leader Vows To Crush Militants Without Outside Help (Hiiraan Online)
- Cabinet To Mobilise Emergency Aid As Drought Ravages Central And Northern Somalia(Goobjoog News)
- Five Jubbaland Soldiers Killed In Al Shabaab Attack (Shabelle News)
- Somalis And Libyans Are Actually Happier Than Nigerians And South Africans (AFK Insider)
- Station Looks Beyond Anti-piracy Mission (China Daily)
- Why Many Africans Wouldn’t Make Good Suicide Bombers (Daily Nation)
NATIONAL MEDIA
Puntland Leader Vows To Crush Militants Without Outside Help
17 March – Source: Hiiraan Online – 273 Words
The President of Puntland semi-autonomous state in northern Somalia reaffirmed his commitment to defeat fighters from the Al-Qaeda linked Al Shabaab group, who overrun towns in the region, without seeking assistance from the African Union force in Somalia.
The region’s military forces have reportedly regained control of a town in the east of the region after fierce clashes with Al Shabaab fighters. Speaking to the Voice Of America’s Somali service , Abdiweli Mohamed Ali described the new military attacks by Al Shabaab as ‘phenomenon’ that the group tries to open a second battlefront against Puntland.
“Our forces are sufficient to deal with Al Shabaab, therefore we don’t need any assistance from AMISOM. Nevertheless, we have asked the international community to support Puntlantttd forces in a similar way it assists AMISOM and Somali government forces,”he said in an interview. In addition, the Puntland leader has rubbished an allegation by a minister in his state that Somali government was involved in the Al Shabab invasion against the region.
“That’s not true – I don’t believe Somali government has any hand in these attacks, then again we and the government are united in the fight against Al Shabaab,” he said, Al Shabaab fighters seized the small port town of Garacad, in Mudug region on Tuesday night, increasing pressure on the regional administration which is already locked in a deadly conflict with another Al Shabaab group based in the largely mountainous town of Galgala and nearby villages. The surprise seaborne attack left Puntland authorities exposed as they struggled to mobilize forces to recapture areas lost to the militants.
Cabinet To Mobilise Emergency Aid As Drought Ravages Central And Northern Somalia
17 March – Source: Goobjoog News – 102 Words
The Cabinet has on Thursday appointed an ad hoc committee to oversee emergency response to drought situation in central and northern Somalia. The cabinet noted the committee will mobilise support from business community and international agencies to provide emergency aid in various parts of the country.
Lower and Middle Shabelle, Hiiraan, Puntland and Somaliland have been adversely affected with reports of people and livestock starving to death. The committee will be spearheaded by the ministries of information, interior, health, foreign affairs, planning, livestock, water, public works and environment.
Five Jubbaland Soldiers Killed In Al Shabaab Attack
17 March – Source: Shabelle News – 121 Words
At least five Jubbaland soldiers were killed when Al Shabaab militants attacked a military base in Kulbiyow village in Somalia’s southern Lower Jubba region on Thursday. The attack triggered long hours of fighting between the militants and the Jubbaland troops in the area, according to residents who spoke to Radio Shabelle via phone. Heavy weapons were used in the combat by the warring sides, according to locals. More than two other Jubbaland soldiers sustained wounds in the gunfight, sources said. Al Shabaab attacked Afmadow town, 120Km away from Kismayo city this week, targeting Jubbaland and Kenyan military forces stationed in the area. However, the Kenyan troops reported to have killed 19 Al Shabaab fighters and repulsed them from Afmadow.
INTERNATIONAL MEDIA
Somalis And Libyans Are Actually Happier Than Nigerians And South Africans
17 March – Source: AFK Insider – 227 Words
People living in the war-torn nations of Somalia and Libya are actually happier with their countries than those living in Africa’s top economies Nigeria and South Africa, according to The World Happiness Report 2016.
The report that ranked 156 nations worldwide showed that Libya and Somalia were the third and fourth happiest nation in Africa after Algeria — which was still the top on the continent in 2015 — and Mauritius. Nigeria, which slipped from the third position last year, came in at the sixth position on the continent, while South Africa close the top ten list.
Economic challenges facing these two countries due to the commodity price rout on the international markets and a series of other local factors are to blame for the drop in Nigeria’s and South Africa’s happiness index. The World Happiness index is produced by the Sustainable Development Solutions Network (SDSN), an initiative under the United Nations. It include variables such as real GDP per person, healthy life expectancy, corruption levels and social freedoms.
The index uses happiness as a measure of socio-economic progress and encourages nations to use it to guide their public policies. Denmark was ranked as the happiest nation in the world, followed by Switzerland, Iceland, Norway and Finland. The US came in 13th place, while the UK was the 23rd happiest nation in the world.
Sub-Saharan Africa was the least happiest region despite improving fortunes on a continent that has some of the fastest growing economies in the world, Quartz Africa reported. African countries made up eight of the bottom 10 happy nations. These included Burundi, Benin, Rwanda, Guinea, Liberia, Tanzania and Madagascar.
Station Looks Beyond Anti-piracy Mission
18 March – Source: China Daily – 360 Words
China would not have thought of establishing a logistic supply station in Djibouti were it not for fighting piracy off the coast of Somalia. As the country contributing the largest force to the counter-piracy mission, China has had at least three ships in the Gulf of Aden at any given time since 2009. So far 65 ships from the People’s Liberation Army Navy’s 22 task forces have been deployed on counter-piracy missions, and they have escorted more than 6,100 ships, half of them foreign vessels.
These achievements have been made under stringent conditions, however. Since the PLA Navy vessels have no supply or maintenance stations overseas, they have to carry huge amounts of food and spare parts, prompting some Chinese Navy personnel to say the spare parts are more than enough to assemble a helicopter on board.
Piracy off the coast of Somalia has been largely curbed thanks to joint international efforts which includes, but is not limited to, military operations. But nobody can safely conclude piracy is no longer a threat.
The piracy threat at sea has its roots on land. Although a federal government is now in place in the Somali capital of Mogadishu, its control over the country remains miserably weak. A Western analyst has said, almost sarcastically, that the Somali government’s control is restricted only to the airport and the presidential palace. And the United Nation has repeatedly warned piracy could stage a comeback if the political situation in Somalia remains unstable and the problem of high unemployment unsolved.
OPINION, ANALYSIS, AND CULTURE
“You are wasting your time frisking Africans. An African cannot be a suicide bomber, he said. At that time you would be hard put to name an African suicide bomber. Today, the list of African suicide bombers, from Somalia, Nigeria, to Egypt, would fill a small book” – Onyango Obbo, Editor, Mail & Guardian Africa.
Why Many Africans Wouldn’t Make Good Suicide Bombers
17 March – Source: Daily Nation – 728 Words
So, there I was in the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa, where a lot of clever Africans are in attendance. There were a couple of Kenyans who think seriously about the world in the house, too. The big issue was security and peace-building on the continent, but quite a bit of time was taken up by discussions on terrorism and violent extremism that produced a lot of gems.
One speaker noted that there were several new and disturbing things about militant group Boko Haram’s terror tactics in Nigeria. One of them was the use of women – mostly girls – as suicide bombers. It is a development other commentators have spoken and written about recently. Usually you do not expect that there would really be something more to say about that. Turns out there was.
A Kenyan speaker noted that Boko Haram’s use of women showed a shrewd understanding of how gender prejudice plays out in Africa. Women in many African societies are considered mothers of the nation, “innocent”, weak, and harmless, and the male security establishment cannot get their heads around the fact that they could be suicide bombers. It would require many of them to unlearn all the skewed things they have learnt about women.
In West Africa they finally smelt the coffee after many attacks by female suicide bombers. Therefore, she said, the issue of female suicide bombers at another level spoke to the wider problem of patriarchy in Africa. The striking thing about that is that probably no organisation in Africa treats women worse than Boko Haram. That is evil cynicism at its best.
They are not alone. Another speaker noted that though Islamic State in Syria and Iraq also treat women as badly, and would kill them if they had an abortion or birth control pills, nevertheless they are feeding their sex slaves contraceptives because pregnancy would get in the way. Modern-day jihadists are not just frightening and horrible people, they are a mega bunch of contradictions.