May 5, 2015 | Morning Headlines.

Main Story

Somalia’s Government Ban Al-Shabaab Name From Media

04- May – Source : BBC – 302 Words

The Somali government has told media houses to stop referring to militant group al-Shabab by their name. They instead want the group to be called Ugus, an acronym for the Somali words meaning “the Group that Massacres the Somali People”. Al-Shabab responded by saying the Somali government should be referred to by the same acronym, Ugus.In this case, Ugus means “the Group that Subjects the Somali People to Humiliation”.Al-Shabab, which is affiliated to al-Qaeda, controls many rural parts of southern Somalia.

Key Headlines

Ahmed Madobe Arrives In Mogadishu In An Impromptu Visit (Wacaal Media)
Somaliland Says Creation of Somali National Army A Threat To Its Stability (Somali Current)
Humanitarian News From The Somali Region (Radio Ergo)
Somaliland Revolts Over Somalia’s Proposal Of Training Puntland Soldiers (Radio Danan)
Rwanda U-23 Somalia Tie For Kasarani (Wardheer News)
Kenya Charges Four People Over Recruitment For Al Shabaab (Reuters)
US Gives $45 Million To Help Kenya With Refugee Crisis (Associated Press)
UNHCR Head Due In Kenya To Plan Repatriation Of Somali Refugees (Xinhua News)
Somalia’s Government Ban Al-Shabaab Name From Media (BBC)
Gunman Outside Muhammad Cartoon Event Identified As Suspected Militant Sympathizer (Washington Post)
Somali Man Dies After Shop Torched (IOL News)
Suspect Oil Deals Are Sure To Add Fuel To The Fire That Is Ravaging Somalia (Daily Nation)

NATIONAL MEDIA

Ahmed Madobe Arrives In Mogadishu In An Impromptu Visit

04 May- Source: Wacaal Media – 103 Words

President of the Jubbaland state of Somalia Mr. Ahmed Mohamed Islam ‘Madobe’ arrived in Mogadishu on Monday in a trip that had not previously been made public.Accompanied by a delegation from his administration, Madobe left Kismayo earlier on Monday. A senior official of the Jubbaland presidency told Wacaal Media on the condition of anonymity that the delegation will attend a meeting between top leadership of the federal government, Jubbaland state and US foreign secretary John Kerry who is scheduled to visit Mogadishu. Although Kerry’s trip was not previously announced, he is reportedly set to hold talks with President Hassan Sheikh and Prime Minister Omar Abdirashid Ali Sharmarke.

Somaliland Says Creation Of Somali National Army A Threat To Its Stability

04 May – Source: Somali Current – 269 Words

The ongoing creation of the Somali National Army is dangerous to the stability of Somaliland, according to Somaliland Interior Minister Ali Mohamed Waran-Adde. Speaking after he arrived from official duties out of the country, Ali said he talked extensively about the issue of Somaliland security with officials in Kenya and Britain. “I told them about the dangers of having a strong army in Somalia and the risk it poses to the stability of the East African region,” he said at a press briefing at a hotel in Hargeisa. The national government of Somalia and regional governments have agreed to set up a well-structured national army that will comprise of all the tribes in the country. Somaliland officials did not react to that development until today. “They agreed to post 3000 soldiers in towns within Somaliland,” he said. “This indicates that the negotiations with Somalia over the re-annexation of the Republic of Somaliland is over and [they] are resorting to military solution.” Somaliland has distanced itself from the rest of Somalia, and wants to be recognized as a separate state.

Humanitarian News From The Somali Region

04 May – Source: Radio Ergo – 225 Words

More than 2,700 families displaced from parts of Bakol have settled in a new IDP camp on the outskirts of Hudur in the past two weeks. Speaking to Radio Ergo, Adan Abdi Abarey, Hudur deputy district commissioner, said the IDPs had been displaced by insecurity and food crises in parts of the region. They pitched makeshift houses in the new camp and cited insecurity and acute food shortages as the main reason that forced them to flee their homes, according to Radio Ergo’s local reporter, who visited them in the camp.

It is feared that the new influx will exacerbate already strained living conditions in the town, where the ongoing blockade of access roads by al-Shabab has affected movement of goods. Fadumo Ahmed Abdi, a mother of nine, fled from Kulan Jareer village, 45 km west of Hudur. She told Radio Ergo’s local reporter she left her area due to a severe shortage of food. Another mother of eight children, Dahaba Hassan, 60, said she fled from her village of Busley, west of Bakol, on 19 April due to a combination of insecurity and lack of food. “I came here to get food and security. I can’t explain how bad our situation was,” she said, as she prepared food, given to her by her IDP neighbours, for her children.

Somaliland Revolts Over Somalia’s Proposal Of Training Puntland Soldiers

04 May – Source: Radio Danan – 226 Words

The breakaway region of Somaliland has condemned the Somali government’s proposal to train 3000 soldiers for the neighbouring Puntland region. The federal government recently agreed to train soldiers for Puntland as part of a resources and donor-funds sharing initiative at the leadership summit which was recently concluded in Garowe last week. Ali Mohamed Waran-Adde, Somaliland’s Interior Minister told reporters in Hargeisa on Sunday that his government raised the issue with Britain, to prevent the Somali government from building Puntland’s army. In Garowe, Somali President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud said his government would strive to improve relations with Puntland after regional leaders accused his government of not supporting Puntland as it faces an ongoing deadly insurgency from Al-Shabab.

Waran-Adde said that talks between Somaliland and Somali government stalled following a ‘failure’ by the Somali government, which led to the collapse of the talks.Puntland and Somaliland have a long-standing territorial dispute over the northern Somali provinces of Sool, Sanaag and Cayn. Puntland claims Sool, Sanaag and Cayn (SSC) based on kinship ties with the region’s dominant Darod clans. Somaliland claims the territory as part of the original borders of the former British Somaliland protectorate, which the self-declared country regards itself as the successor to. Fighting between the two forces led to casualties and captured prisoners, who were later exchanged.

Rwanda U-23, Somalia Tie For Kasarani

04 May – Source: Wardheer News – 246 Words

Somalia’s national U-23 football team will host their Rwandan counterparts at the Moi International Sports Centre in Nairobi, Kenya for the return leg of the Caf U-23 Championship preliminary round qualifier on May 9. According to Rwanda head coach Johnny McKinstry, this is good for his team since the pitch has natural grass, the same surface as the current training venue the team are training on in Kigali at the Amahoro Stadium. He said: “We begin training on Monday afternoon at Amahoro Stadium which has a grass surface and that is good for us because it is the same with the one at Kasarani. And also we shall not have so many fans at the stadium so the players can hear my instructions.”

Rwanda won the first leg 2-0 with goals from Yannick Mukunzi and 16-year-old Kevin Muhire and will be hoping to build on the two-goal advantage when they face-off again this weekend. Meanwhile, McKinstry has included six new faces in the 24-man provisional squad that commence training for the return leg on Mondayafternoon. The duo of Rachid Kalisa (Police FC) and Fitina Ombolenga (SC Kiyovu) return to the U-23 fold for the first time since the Rwanda U-23 1-1 draw with Tanzania U-23 in a friendly match in January. Goalkeepers Emmanuel Bwanakweri (Gicumbi) and Habarurema Gahunda (Marines) as well as the Gicumbi midfield duo of Cedric Mugenzi and Shadad Nsengayire have earned their first national team call-up.

INTERNATIONAL MEDIA

Kenya Charges Four People Over Recruitment For Al-Shabaab

04 May – Source: Reuters – 245 Words

Kenya charged four men on Monday over recruitment of youths to join the Somali Islamist militant group al Shabaab that has been carrying out frequent attacks in the east African nation. The militants killed 148 people last month when they attacked a university in the north eastern town of Garissa. President Uhuru Kenyatta said at the time the attackers were embedded within Kenya’s Muslim community. The men named as Abdulrahman Aboud Lali, Abubakar Famau, Sultwan Aboud Mzamil, and Abdillahi Mohamed Islam, were charged in a court in the coastal county of Lamu after they were arrested by Kenyan counter-terrorism police and military officers over the weekend at a roadblock. Lali is a local politician who had vied for the Lamu senate seat during Kenya’s last general elections but lost.

“They have been recruiting youths from Hindi and Mokowe to join al Shabaab. We also believe they hold crucial leads that will enable us to arrest more terror suspects in Lamu,” Kennedy Chikola, the investigating officer, said in court. He was referring to villages that were among the worst hit during last year’s attacks in the area, claimed by al Shabaab, in which at least 60 people were killed. The four, who were also accused of being al Shabaab sympathizers, denied all the charges. Chikola said they had confiscated literature and other material that linked the four to acts of terrorism and alliances with the al Shabaab.

US Gives $45 Million To Help Kenya With Refugee Crisis

04 May – Source: Associated Press – 805 Words

The United States said Monday it will give $45 million to help Kenya deal with an increasingly complex refugee crisis in a region long defined by Somalia’s endemic violence, but where war in nearby Yemen is now creating conditions so dire that some people are even fleeing to Somalia. In Nairobi, Secretary of State John Kerry announced the funding for the U.N. refugee agency’s operations in the east African country as it struggles to provide for some 600,000 refugees. More than half are Somalis living in the sprawling Dadaab complex, the world’s largest for refugees and the subject of what have been intense diplomatic talks between Kenyan officials threatening to close the camp and Americans insisting such action would violate international law.Kerry said he received assurances Monday from Kenya’s once-shunned president, Uhuru Kenyatta, that the camp would stay open while an international plan is devised to make Somalia safe enough for its citizens to return. He said he came away from the discussions with a deeper appreciation for the refugee burden Kenya carries.

The talks on refugees were part of a whirlwind day for the secretary of state that included commemorating the victims of Kenya’s past and more recent terror attacks, and holding extensive discussions with Kenyatta and other officials on combatting al-Shabaab extremists operating out of Somalia. His trip sets the stage for President Barack Obama’s visit this summer. Kerry said he needed to make no explicit demand regarding Dadaab, even though Deputy President William Ruto said last month the camp would close before August if the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees didn’t relocate the refugees to Somalia, likening his government’s anti-terror efforts to those of the U.S. after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.The massacre last month at Garissa University College killed 148 people, mainly students. Other recent attacks in Kenya include one on the Westgate shopping mall in 2013, where 67 people were killed by an al-Shabaab network that has been severely hampered by African military efforts and U.S. drone strikes in Somalia, but is expanding its activities elsewhere.Kenyan officials have regularly claimed Dadaab is a breeding ground for extremist attacks. But the U.S. has seen no evidence linking Dadaab to any of al-Shabaab’s recent atrocities, according to a senior State Department official.

UNHCR Head Due In Kenya To Plan Repatriation Of Somali Refugees

04 May – Source – Xinhua News – 423 Words

The UN refugee agency head is due in Kenya on Tuesday to discuss government plans on voluntary repatriation of more than 350,000 Somali refugees living in camps in the country’s northeast region. The UN High Commissioner for Refugees, Antonio Guterres, will be visiting Kenya from May 5 to 8 where he will hold meetings with government officials and donor community, focusing on refugee affairs. “Top on the agenda will be discussions with the government on voluntary repatriation of Somali refugees and how to ensure that security is maintained in refugee camps,” UNHCR Kenya said in a statement issued in Nairobi Monday. Kenya, Somalia and the UNHCR signed a tripartite agreement in 2013 with a lifespan of three years to voluntarily repatriate the Somali refugees. Kenya has for many years hosted tens of thousands of Somali refugees, fleeing fighting from central and southern Somalia whose lives were at substantial risk that requires international protection.

While in Kenya, Guterres who will be accompanied by the Director of Africa Bureau, Valentine Tapsoba, will hold meetings with high level government officials, including President Uhuru Kenyatta. “He will hold discussions with the donor community on resource mobilization to improve the living conditions in Somalia and support to the refugee hosting communities in Kenya. He will also be meeting UN officials and humanitarian workers,” said the statement. Guterres will also visit Dadaab refugee camp on Friday to assess the situation in the camps and meet with refugee representatives. “He will be briefed on the process of voluntary repatriation of Somali refugees. On Thursday, the High Commissioner will travel to Somalia to discuss durable solutions for Somalia refugees and efforts that should be made to ensure that Somalia is ready for sustained return of refugees,” the statement said.

Gunman Outside Muhammad Cartoon Event Identified As Suspected Militant Sympathizer

04 May – Source: Washington Post – 1,356 Words

A man once suspected of seeking to join Islamist militants in Somalia opened fire with another gunman outside a cartoon exhibit and contest depicting the prophet Muhammad near Dallas, authorities said Monday during a rapidly widening probe into the assault. The motive for the attack was not immediately clear, but one of the event’s keynote speakers — Dutch parliament member Geert Wilders — has been denounced by Islamist militant groups such as al-Qaeda for his outspoken criticism of the Muslim presence in Europe. The event’s organizer, too, has been criticized for its anti-Muslim rhetoric by rights groups such as the Southern Poverty Law Center. The firepower of the suspected attackers — assault weapons and some type of body armor — also suggested that the Dallas suburb could be the latest point of violence linked to tensions between Western-style open expression and drawings considered highly provocative by many Muslims. “Obviously they were there to shoot people,” Garland police spokesman Joe Harn told reporters. But he stopped short of describing the shooting as a terrorist attack.

Nearly 900 miles to the west, meanwhile, investigators searched the Phoenix apartment of a suspect, identified as Elton Simpson, 30, as officials tried to piece together the planning behind the late Sunday attack that wounded one guard and left both gunmen dead. Officials also looked for possible links between the attack and Simpson’s roommate, who was not immediately identified. Some Twitter posts, including several claiming affiliation with the Islamic State, had appeared in recent days decrying the cartoon event organized by group widely viewed as anti-Muslim. But investigators had made no public connections between the social media traffic and Sunday’s attack. A U.S. law enforcement official told The Washington Post that one of the suspected gunmen was Simpson, who had been the target of a previous terrorism-related investigation. Simpson was convicted in 2011 of lying to federal agents about plans to travel to Africa in an apparent attempt to join a terrorist group in Somalia. The judge ruled there was insufficient evidence to link Simpson to “international terrorism” and placed him on three years’ probation.

Somali Man Dies After Shop Torched

04 May – Source: IOL News – 337 Words

One of the two Somali shopkeepers set alight in their shop in Soshanguve has died of his injuries. Ibrahim Rana, reported to have suffered 80 percent burns to his body, was admitted to the ICU unit at George Mukhari Hospital along with Ismail Ismail. While seen as part of the xenophobic attacks, their landlord attributed the attack to criminality, saying those who set the store alight stole airtime, food and money. A resident said police informed them on Sunday that Ismail had been discharged from hospital but Rana had succumbed to his injuries.Meanwhile, in the quiet farmlands of Groot Drakenstein near Paarl, nine people were arrested following an attack on a Somali shopkeeper last week. The accused, all South Africans from Mbekweni informal settlement appeared in the Paarl Magistrate’s Court and have been charged with assault, damage to property and theft after allegedly attacking the shopkeeper before ransacking the shop and fleeing with stolen goods.

In the past month mobs in KwaZulu-Natal and Gauteng have targeted nationals from other African countries, leaving eight people dead.Paarl deputy mayor Conrad Poole confirmed the incident in Groot Drakenstein, saying he and mayor Gesie van Deventer condemnded the attack.Poole said it was the first time they had xenophobic attacks in Paarl and that the municipality was working closely with police to curb xenophobia.Eden Davids, 35, who lives in Groot Drakenstein near Mbekweni said there has been an influx of foreigners over the past five years. “Some to work on the farms, others set up shops. The tensions are growing because the locals blame foreigners for the lack of work. The real problems behind this tension is poverty and poor service.” A source in Paarl said an argument ensued between the shopkeeper and a local resident on Wednesday. “The customer left the shop but returned with a group of his friends. They attacked the shopkeeper and ransacked the shop. There was damage done inside the shop and lots of items were stolen.”

OPINION/ANALYSIS/CULTURE

“As the country prepares for an election in 2016, there are fears that the secret contracts between the Somali Government and foreign oil companies could sabotage Somalia’s institution-building efforts. The international community has pledged to rebuild the country’s financial institutions, but it has been silent about the controversial oil contracts that favour companies based in key donor countries.”

Suspect Oil Deals Are Sure To Add Fuel To The Fire That Is Ravaging Somalia

03 May – Source: Daily Nation – 708 Words

With a weak and unstable government in Mogadishu and few regulatory systems and institutions in place, is it wise for Somalia to enter into oil deals with foreign companies? Will the exploration and exploitation of oil exacerbate an already tense political situation characterised by in-fighting and terrorist threats? Will oil be the source of renewed conflict in an already troubled region? These are some of the questions that Somalia’s Federal Government should have been asking before it participated in a forum on oil and gas mining in London last week that was sponsored by, among others, Soma Oil and Gas, a British company which, according to United Nations monitors, has already entered into a deal with the government of Somalia, the details of which have not been made public.

Apparently, the Somali Government has also held talks with Shell, Exxon, Mobil Corp, and BP to revive pre-1991 oil contracts that were put on hold when civil war broke out and the government of Siad Barre collapsed. Recently, concerns about secret oil contracts between the Somali Government and foreign companies eager to tap the country’s vast oil reserves have escalated. Many observers believe that it is highly irresponsible of the government to enter into deals that may ignite further divisions and civil strife in the oil-producing regions of the country, especially in the absence of legislative and regulatory provisions. A paper published by the Heritage Institute of Policy Studies last year concluded that it was still too early for Somalia to be venturing into the oil industry as it faces a host of challenges and obstacles that need to be addressed before any viable oil exploration and production can start. These challenges and obstacles include scant infrastructure for the transporting and processing of oil, political volatility, institutional fragility, physical insecurity, and ambiguous property rights. If not handled with caution, warns the report, Somalia’s oil could prove to be a curse.