May 24, 2017 | Morning Headlines

Main Story

Suicide Bomber Kills Five In Somalia’s Northern Puntland Region

23 May – Source: Reuters – 217 words

A suicide bomber killed five people, including a policeman, and injured 12 others on Tuesday at a police checkpoint in Somalia’s northern Puntland region, a local governor said, the first such attack in three years. Although suicide bombings are common in the capital of Mogadishu, they are relatively rare in the semi-autonomous region of Puntland, where the security forces are relatively regularly paid and receive substantial U.S. assistance.

“The bomber seemed suspicious as he walked and when he was ordered to stop, he blew himself up,” said Yusuf Mohamed, governor of Bari region in Puntland. The al Qaeda-linked Somali Islamist insurgency, al Shabaab, which claims responsibility for most attacks, told Reuters they were not behind the bombing. Puntland, which is just across the Red Sea from Yemen, is also home to a splinter group of al Shabaab that has sworn allegiance to the Islamic State group. Security sources say there is a small contingent of foreigners there too. The fighters loyal to Islamic State briefly seized the port town of Qandala in December but were driven back into the mountains by Puntland security services.

Key Headlines

Suicide Bomber Kills Five In Somalia’s Northern Puntland Region (Reuters)
ISIL Claims Responsibility For Bomb Attack In Somalia (Shabelle News)
Somali President Arrives in Djibouti on State Visit (Shabelle News)
Militants Attack 14 Villages In Southern Somalia (VOA News)
Mattis On Somalia (VOA News)
Somali Pirates Hijack Iranian Fishing Vessel: Somali Official (Reuters)
Hell To Heartland: Humanitarian Crisis In Somalia Goes Beyond Hunger (KSTV)

NATIONAL MEDIA

ISIL claims responsibility for bomb attack in Somalia

23 May – Source: Shabelle News – 169 words

The Islamic State Militants in Somalia have claimed responsibility for a deadly suicide attack in the port town of Bosaso on Tuesday evening, which left at least five people dead. In a statement released by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant’s official Amaq News Agency, ISIL said they killed police officers in the attack carried out by its bomber. The bomber blew himself up at a security checkpoint near a a hotel in the commercial city of Puntland shortly after the evening prayer, according to Radio Shabelle’s reporter in the area. The latest reports said the death toll jumped to 5 people, among them policemen.

A suicide bomber strapped with explosives rushed toward the police at the checkpoint at a busy junction, before blowing himself up, a witness told Radio Shabelle. Tuesday’s attack is the latest attack in an escalating campaign by Al-Shabaab and ISIS militant in the coastal city, which lies on the Gulf of Aden, and serves the main port and commercial hub for Puntland.

Somali President Arrives in Djibouti on State Visit

23 May – Source: Shabelle News – 116 words

Somali President Mohamed Abdullahi Farmajo and a delegation he was leading arrived in Djibouti on Tuesday morning, becoming his 9th foreign trip since he took the oath of office in February, 2017. President Farmajo is expected to meet with his Djiboutian counterpart President Ismail Omar Gelleh, to discuss the fraternal bilateral relations between the two nations, security and the fight against Al-Shabaab in Somalia. He will stay in Djibouti for three days, sources said. Djibouti is one of African countries that sent troops to Somalia as part of the African Union Mission in the country (AMISOM). After his visit to Djibouti, President Farmajo is set to fly to Qatar after receiving an official invitation from Doha.

INTERNATIONAL MEDIA

Militants Attack 14 Villages In Southern Somalia

23 May – Source: VOA News – 308 words

Al-Shabaab militants have attacked some 14 villages in southern Somalia, in an apparent attempt to disrupt a planned government offensive. Most of the villages that came under attack Tuesday are located near the towns of K50 and Murri, about 50 kilometers (31 miles) south of the capital, Mogadishu. Witnesses said teams of 10 to 12 militants attacked the villages, setting fire to houses, abducting civilians and stealing villagers’ livestock. “They took with them around 25 people mainly youngsters and torched many houses to terrorize the civilians and force them to leave their residences,” said Ibrahim Aden Najah, the governor of the Lower Shabelle region.

“I think they know about an ongoing military preparation for an offensive by Somali National Army and the African Union to liberate the entire region. They are trying to pre-empt this offensive,” he added. Sharif Hassan Sheikh Aden, the president of the South West Administration, sent a request to the federal government and the African Union mission in Somalia. “These militants continue to victimize residents in this region, who are already suffering from the impact of the drought. We appeal to the Somali government, the African Union mission in Somalia and the international community to take measures to protect these civilians from the ruthless militants and send them urgent aid too,” he told reporters in Baidoa.

Mattis On Somalia

23 May – Source: VOA News – 322 words

There is renewed hope for the peace process in Somalia, said U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis following a recent British-sponsored conference on Somalia in London. Secretary Mattis told reporters that he had a productive meeting with Somali President Mohamed Abdullah Mohamed. The United States, he said, has a role to play in Somalia, and in helping that nation defeat al-Shabaab, a vicious terror group. The United Nations, the African Union and the European Union joined with Arab, African and European nations to discuss the way forward.

Mattis said Somalia has an economic and a governmental program to put it back on its feet, and that international support is crucial to the process. “So, we were working on how the future looks and what nations could commit what to what and get the framework right,” Mattis said. “It includes on the security side both a continued maturation of their security forces in the defenses against al-Shabaab, but it also includes a reconciliation program designed to pull the fence-sitters and the middle-of-the-roaders away from al-Shabaab. It’s very well put together.”

The holistic approach to the situation in Somalia is the one that has a chance of succeeding, Mattis said. “There is certainly an attitude of renewed hope based on the election of what appears to be a very good leader in terms of understanding the need for military security, but as well economic efforts, and certainly reconciliation is going to have to mark this way forward, as well,” he said. Mattis praised the African Union peacekeeping mission in Somalia, saying the African Union Mission in Somalia troops have done a good job in a difficult position.

Somali Pirates Hijack Iranian Fishing Vessel: Somali official

23 May – Source: Reuters – 278 words

Somali pirates hijacked an Iranian fishing vessel on Tuesday to use as a base to attack bigger, more valuable ships, the mayor of a Somali town said, part of an upsurge in attacks following years of relative calm. Crews have let security procedures slip in recent years and travel far closer to pirate-infested shores than authorities recommend, shipping sources say. The pirate gangs launch small, fast skiffs from bases on shore to try hijack vessels. “A group of Somali pirates captured an Iranian fishing vessel and are using it as a mother ship in order to hijack (other) ships,” Ali Shire, the Mayor of Hobyo in the northern semi-autonomous region of Puntland, told Reuters. “The Iranian fishing vessel does not have a license (to fish) in Puntland,” he added.

Local fishermen have been angered by the return of unlicensed international fishing vessels to Somali waters, blaming them for reducing the local catch. The region is also suffering a severe drought that threatens to tip the Horn of Africa nation back into famine. So far this year, there has been three hijackings, one attempted hijacking – foiled when the crew locked themselves inside a reinforced room – and two vessels fired on off the Somali coast, the London-based International Maritime Bureau said. Last year only two ships reported being fired on off the Somali coast all year. In their heyday in 2011, Somali pirates launched 237 attacks off the coast of Somalia and held hundreds of hostages, the Bureau said. That year, the Ocean’s Beyond Piracy aid group estimated the global cost of piracy at about $7 billion. The shipping industry bore roughly 80 percent of those costs, the group said.

OPINION/ANALYSIS/CULTURE

“Their work is vital. Hundreds of thousands of vulnerable people are on the move across Somalia to find food and water. Omar says many of them are ending up in Kismayo. ‘We don’t know what to do. We have a war everywhere, we have Al Shabaab, we have international community that are not helping these people,’ she said.”

Hell to Heartland: Humanitarian Crisis in Somalia Goes Beyond Hunger

23 May – Source: KSTV – 896 words

The clock is ticking and the lives of children are hanging in the balance, as the worst famine since World War II is stealing lives in the Horn of Africa. The Secretary General of the United Nations told world leaders in London a few weeks ago that he is asking for another $900 million to go to humanitarian workers to aid people during a drought that’s getting worse. It’s a humanitarian crisis that goes far beyond hunger, and is most apparent in refugee camps across Africa. In Kismayo, a near-blind grandmother heard Fatuma Ibrahim’s cries of labor and delivered a baby rushing into what is there a cruel world. He’s only a few hours old, and already surrounded by unspeakable suffering. A grandmother’s helping hands are the only saving grace here.

“No food, nothing. We didn’t have anything to eat, we had hunger,” said Fatuma’s husband. He carried their two children, and a third walked with them as they made their way to Kismayo over two long days in the heat and two long nights through the dangers of the dark.Six million people like Fatuma and her family are at risk for starving to death. “As the drought goes on, people will become very weak to reach any area of help,” said refugee commissioner Maryam Omar. Omar and a reporter visited a parking lot in the middle of Kismayo to see the families who are the lucky ones. They survived their journeys. “People die, children die – mother, she watch her kids dying,” Omar said.

Some said they watched parents give urine to their children to keep them alive long enough to get to Kismayo. Fatuma’s husband said Al Shabaab terrorists took their goats and land and left them with nothing. Another mother said she traveled 100 miles to escape the famine and drought. She said she couldn’t carry both of her paralyzed children, and at one point had to decide which one she would leave behind. Her decision never became a reality, because a man in a donkey cart took her and her children the rest of the way to Kismayo. It’s a race against time to save lives here. A humanitarian agency based in Minneapolis is trying to save lives in Somalia by delivering food and water to people who need it most. The American Refugee Committee is the only agency with a country office in Somalia.