March 22, 2016 | Daily Monitoring Report.
Al-Shabaab Commander Seized In Diinsoor
22 March – Source: Shabelle News – 124 Words
A senior Al-Shabaab commander was arrested on Monday in security operation conducted by the Interim South West Administration forces in the Bay region of southwest Somalia, official said. Abdullah Sheikh Mohamed, a military officer in Bay regional district of Diinsoor, told Radio Shabelle, the commander whose name was only released as Marorow is being held at the city’s custody.
“The suspect is an elderly man and was working as a spy agent for Al-Shabaab in the town. We captured him previously after renouncing the group , but now he is seems to have gone back to his job,” said Mohamed. The troops of the South-West state of Somalia have been conducting security operations in the southern town of Diinsoor to flush out Al-Shabaab remnants, according to military source.
Key Headlines
- Al-Shabaab Commander Seized In Diinsoor (Shabelle News)
- Acute Diarrhea Kills 43 About 2000 Infected In Jowhar and Jubbaland (Goobjoog News)
- Fires At Two Mogadishu Hospitals Under Investigation As Possible Arson (Hiiraan Online)
- Captured Al-Shabaab Fighters Claim They Were Lured For Education In Yemen (Goobjoog News)
- Police Warn Of Possible Terror Attacks In Kenya After KDF Incursions In Somalia (The Star)
- Somalia Hails UAE For Development Projects (Khaleej Times)
- ‘We Are Demanding Change’: The Somali Woman Taking On International NGOs (The Guardian)
NATIONAL MEDIA
Acute Diarrhea Kills 43, About 2,000 Infected In Jowhar and Jubbaland
22 March – Source: Goobjoog News- 268 Words
An outbreak of acute diarrhoea in areas around the town of Jowhar, southwestern Somalia, has killed at least 24 people in the past three weeks, medical sources said on Tuesday. Another 19 have died of the same disease in Jubbaland with 1870 others infected. Local officials said over 80 more people have fallen ill as a result of the latest outbreak, which began in February in Jowhar district.
Aweys Hassan Adan, who is chief of Mandheer locality which lies 15 km southwest of Jowhar town confirmed to Goobjoog News that the death of the 18 people in areas is due to waterborne diseases. “Eighteen people have died in the village and over sixty others are recuperating from the disease,” Adan said. Four other people have died in Daymasame while another 2 succumbed to the disease in Bahadley, both villages in Jowhar district. Adan said acute water shortage in the region particularly Mandhere locality has forced many families to move to other areas in search of clean water and the remaining people to take contaminated water hence the spread of waterborne diseases.
He called on the federal government and humanitarian aid agencies to deliver emergency support to the residents. Aid organizations have been working to help those already sick and to prevent the epidemic from spreading further. “The situation here is worrisome. The number of cases is growing fast and we need more support,’’ said local aid worker in Maandhere village. Interim Jubba Administration Southern Somalia is also experiencing an increase in cases of acute diarrhoea, “with 1870 cases and 19 deaths reported between 26 February and 14 March.
Fires At Two Mogadishu Hospitals Under Investigation As Possible Arson
22 March – Source: Hiiraan Online – 257 Words
The Somali government has launched an investigation into two fire incidents at two major hospitals in the Somali capital on Saturday night, looking at the possibility that it might have been an arson case. The first fire razed the operating theater of the Benadir maternal hospital before it spread into the medicine storeroom, few minutes before another fire also erupted in the nearby Medina hospital, engulfing the operating theater and a medicine storeroom with 30 tons stockpiles of medicine in it.
“Questions are being raised on the coincidence of the two fire incidents – investigations are underway to determine the exact reasons behind it.” Yusuf Hussein Jimale, Mogadishu mayor told reporters after a visit he paid to the two hospitals. The fire at the Benadir hospital was contained about 15 minutes later after firefighters and residents responded, an action authorities said prevented the inferno from spreading into other parts of the premise.
However, Dr. Mohamed Yusuf, the director of Medina hospital said that the health center had halted surgery operations for an indefinite period as result of the mysterious fire which entirely gutted the hospital’s operating theater. In the meantime, hospital workers have initially speculated that electrical discharges were behind the fires before authorities raised suspicions of a possible arson attacks.No arrests have so far been made in relation to the two fire incidents with investigators continued working to determine the exact causes of the fires on the two critical hospitals that despite working under tough conditions remained fully operational over half a century.
Captured Al-Shabaab Fighters Claim They Were Lured For Education In Yemen
22 March – Source: Goobjoog News – 301 Words
Al-Shabaab fighters engaged in clash with Puntland forces may have captured men as young as 12 to fight alongside them, reports suggest following the capture of at least thirty fighters who were paraded by Puntland troops Tuesday evening. The fighters who were clad in Al-Shabaab gear alleged they were lured by Al-Shabaab leaders for jobs and education in Yemen but ended up fighting alongside them when they were attacked by Puntland forces. Some of the fighters who were captured in Suuj valley, Nugal region in Puntland said they were waylaid after being accused they were government soldiers.
“I was told we were going to be given opportunities to study in Yemen but along the way we were given weapons and forced to fight alongside Al-Shabaab,” said one of the boys captured who claimed to be 12 years old. The fighters were paraded alongside their leader. Al-Shabaab has always deployed fighters young as 12 to act as suicide bombers. Puntland Information Minister Mohamud Hassan So’aade Monday said the state forces had killed 70 Al-Shabaab fighters and captured 30 others. The bodies of the fighters were carried in trucks and displayed in Suuj town and the administrative capital, Garowe. The minister said Puntland forces had cleared Suuj valley and all fighters killed or apprehended.
The fighting started a week ago in Gara’ad town after more than 200 Al-Shabaab fighters briefly captured the town before they were overpowered by Puntland forces. The Federal Government last week sent two airplanes loaded with military supplies to reinforce the Puntland forces that had been battling the fighters for about four days. There were reports the fighters could be affiliated to the Islamic State of the Levant and Iraq, ISIL and were headed to Galgala mountain ranges in Puntland where their founder Abdulkadir Mumin declared allegiance to ISIL last year.
INTERNATIONAL MEDIA
Police Warn Of Possible Terror Attacks In Kenya After KDF Incursions In Somalia
22 March – Source: The Star – 232 Words
Police have warned that terror group Al-Shabaab may retaliate following attacks by Kenyan troops and the Somali National Army. The militants have been fleeing Somalia towards Kenya and pose a real threat, said National Police Service spokesman George Kinoti. Security agencies asked the public to be vigilant and report any suspicious people or objects.
They asked security guards to thoroughly screen people and vehicles getting into premises. Matatu and hotel operators, and other service providers were also urged to be cautious. The Kenya Defence Forces killed 34 Al-Shabaab militants in two separate incidents on Saturday and Sunday in Somalia. On Saturday, 21 of the insurgents were killed in the southern town of Afmadow in an ambush in which two Kenyan soldiers died.
KDF spokesman David Obonyo said in a statement that on Sunday, Kenyan troops killed a further 13 fighters just north of Ras Kamboni, also in southern Somalia. He said from the two incidents, KDF troops had recovered 27 AK 47 rifles, five rocket propelled grenades, a pistol, two PKM machine guns and ammunition.
Somalia Hails UAE For Development Projects
22 March – Source: Khaleej Times – 267 Words
His Highness Shaikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and Deputy Supreme Commander of the UAE Armed Forces, on Monday received the visiting President of Somalia, Hassan Sheikh Mohamoud, at Beach Palace. The two discussed bilateral relations and ways to enhance them in the best interest of the two fraternal peoples and countries.
They also tackled bilateral ties and the UAE’s role to implement development, economic and humanitarian projects in Somalia for the benefit of its people as well as ways to provide all support to build its future and achieve stability, security and development.
President Mohamoud briefed Shaikh Mohammed on the latest positive development in Somalia, especially in the areas of security and stability. But he indicated that the threat of terrorism still exists. He extended thanks to the UAE for its continuous efforts in ensuring the security and stability in Somalia.
The two sides exchanged views on cooperation and promoting economic sectors, especially livestock, agricultural and transportation. Shaikh Mohammed hoped for further development and welfare of Somalia, and noted that the UAE, led by President, His Highness Shaikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan, is the main supporter of the development projects in Somalia, and backs the Somali people to tackle terrorism and violence.
OPINION, ANALYSIS, AND CULTURE
“I left the US thinking I was going to leave behind a system of institutionalised racism. Unfortunately, I found a different form of institutionalised racism in the humanitarian system.”
‘We Are Demanding Change’: The Somali Woman Taking On International NGOs
21 March – Source: The Guardian – 1,1193 Words
In a Geneva conference hall last October, at the last global consultation meeting of the current humanitarian reform process, the great and the good of the humanitarian world mingled and chatted over coffee and croissants. The mood was collegiate and cosy – until a bespectacled Somali woman, in hijab and flowing robes, took to the stage and began to berate the humanitarian system. The establishment, she said, was failing local NGOs. International organisations had lost their moral compass and local groups were not prepared to put up with it any longer.
“We are demanding change,” Degan Ali, executive director of the Kenyan-based NGO African Development Solutions (Adeso), told the audience. “Be prepared to be uncomfortable.” She wasn’t kidding. Over the last few years, Ali has led the charge of small, local, predominantly southern organisations – the kind who do most of the work, yet receive the smallest share of funding – against the northern humanitarian establishment.
She has described the sidelining of local organisations as “grotesque”, highlighted the derisory 2% that local organisations currently receive directly of humanitarian funding, and accused the entire sector of racism. When it comes to making people uncomfortable, she has succeeded. “Power is never given,” she declares. “Power is taken.”
On paper, Ali is an unlikely revolutionary. Born in Somalia to a political family, the family moved to the US with her diplomat father when she was nine. When war broke out they stayed, and Ali went to high school, and then university in the US. Bilingual, educated, she cut her teeth as a social activist on the notorious south side of Chicago, but never lost sight of her desire to go back to Africa. So, with the offer of a job with the UN, she returned to Somalia where her mother had set up Adeso, then a small organisation.
TOP TWEETS
@Eye_on_Somalia : #goobjoog Acute diarrhoea kills 43, about 2000 infected in Jowhar and Jubbaland: An outbreak of acute…http://bit.ly/1VyzZ8q #somalia
@Eye_on_Somalia: #hiiraan 65 Shebab insurgents killed in NE Somalia: army: Mogadishu (AFP) – Somalia security forces h…http://bit.ly/22BtyU3 #somalia
@gulledyariis : #Somalia #alShabaab releases pictures of weapons & equipment captured during the attack on Lanta Buro military base
@HassanIstiila : #Somalia @amisomsomalia has donated#equipment to the #Somali Police Force. This is no the #firsttime
@somaligov: @UNHumanRights The #European #Union in#Somalia violated local & international labor laws including the#UN Charter https://www.youtube.
@USAIDSomalia: USAID-Funded New Building Somaliland’s Ministry of Interior Improves Service Delivery #USAID@USAforSOMALIA #Somalia
@mustafaxaaji : “Complete dryness likely for #Somalia‘s#Shabelle river..lives of thousands could be at stake” #Experts.
IMAGE OF THE DAY
Economic conditions are rapidly improving in Somalia, led by growth in livestock and fisheries, and a private sector resurgence due to the return of diaspora Somalis. With relative peace in most towns, businesses continue to thrive and Somalia is slowly rising again.
Phoot: AMISOM