May 9, 2016 | Daily Monitoring Report
Al-Shabaab Car Bomb Attack Kills At Least Two Somali Police
09 May – Source: Reuters – 148 Words
A suicide car bomb at Mogadishu’s traffic police headquarters killed at least two officers on Monday, Somali police said, and the country’s Al-Shabaab militant group claimed responsibility. Three other police were wounded during the attack, said traffic police officer Mohamed Nur. “It was a suicide car bomb that hit the gate. We also shot dead an armed militant who wanted to storm the building,” he told Reuters.
Abdiasis Abu Musab, Al-Shabaab’s military operations spokesman, said they lost the two attackers and said the death toll on the government side was nine policemen. It was not possible to verify the death toll independently. Al-Shabaab, which frequently attacks military and civilian targets in its campaign to topple Somalia’s Western-backed government, has inflated casualty figures in the past. Local residents said the front of the traffic headquarters was damaged extensively by the blast, which also destroyed nearby shops.
Key Headlines
- Al-Shabaab Car Bomb Attack Kills At Least Two Somali Police (Reuters)
- PM Forms Fact Finding Committee Over Claims Of NISA Using Children As Spies (Goobjoog News)
- 2nd Annual Mogadishu International Book Fair To Be Held On August (Radio Dalsan)
- Floods Force Hundreds To Flee Homes In Beledweyne (Goobjoog News)
- MH370 Search: Flight Recorder Found In Somalia Not From Missing Plane (The Guardian)
- AMISOM Holds Civilian-Military Coordination Workshop For Hiiraan Region (AMISOM)
- A Brush With Somalia’s People Smugglers (BBC)
NATIONAL MEDIA
PM Forms Fact Finding Committee Over Claims Of NISA Using Children As Spies
09 May – Source: Goobjoog News – 282 Words
Prime Minister Abdirashid Sharmarke has formed a fact finding committee to investigate allegations that Somali security agencies were using children as a spies following a report published by the American newspaper, The Washington Post. The committee which comprises of three ministers and head of custodial corps ‘will look into and investigate allegations against the said agencies who are allegedly using children that defected from Al-Shabaab as spies.
According to The Washington Post says “The child informants were used to collect intelligence or identify suspects in some of the world’s most dangerous neighbourhoods, according to their accounts.” The teenagers, The Washington Post says were marched through neighbourhoods where Al-Shabaab insurgents were hiding and told to point out their former comrades.
The Prime Minister said the government has offered pardon to any defectors from Al-Shabaab and that those who accepted were granted protection and rehabilitation. “The Federal Government would like to reaffirm that it has in the past and continues to extend pardon to any person who defects from the terrorist group Al-Shabaab. And in particular the brainwashed children who defect are granted protection and rehabilitation program back into the society,” read the statement from the PM. The committee includes the Minister of Justice, Minister of Interior and Federalism, Minister of Security and commander of the Custodial Corps.
2nd Annual Mogadishu International Book Fair To Be Held On August
09 May – Source: Radio Dalsan – 102 Words
The organisers of the annual Mogadishu International book fair have confirmed that the event will be held on August. Over 30 authors and 300 books by Somalis were displayed at first historic annual event on May last year. High profile dignitaries are expected to grace the occasion according to organisers. President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud who in person attended the event and purchased some books described it as recipe for the return of peace and security in Somalia. The hashtag #MIB216 is already trending in social media in Somalia and across the region. The event is expected to attract more authors this year.
Floods Force Hundreds To Flee Homes In Beledweyne
09 May – Source: Goobjoog News – 271 Words
Hundreds of families have been forced out of their homes following flush floods in Beledweyne after torrential rains pounded the area in the last few days, authorities there have said. The heavy rains led to the bursting of River Shabelle which caused massive floods in areas along the river and beyond. Beledweyne Mayor Omar Adan who spoke to Goobjoog News said that hundreds of residents of Beledweyne vacated their homes, and fled with their necessary belongings.
“Few months ago people were complaining about water shortages but today floods caused by recent heavy rainfalls have displaced hundreds of people” said Adan. He added “Many people who fled their homes in Beledweyne are in need of humanitarian assistance”. Residents in flood prone areas are advised to evacuate from villages near to the river banks. Waters flowing back from the hilly areas of the town caused flooding that caught most of the families unprepared on Sunday night, despite the earlier warning of an El Nino phenomenon.
However, nobody was reported to have been killed in this incident, although many residents have been left once again with homes and belongings destroyed. The worst affected areas are HawoTako and other neighbourhoods in the town. The houses owned by the fleeing families were swept away by rampaging floodwater from the heavy downpours that hit their suburbs over the past two days, according to Mohamed Sugal Osman. Beledweyne, located in central Somalia is prone to flash floods when river Shabelle hit full crest. Recurrent droughts have so far left tens of thousands of households, mainly in southern and central Somalia more destitute according to the United Nations aid agencies.
INTERNATIONAL MEDIA
MH370 Search: Flight Recorder Found In Somalia Not From Missing Plane
09 May – Source: The Guardian – 338 Words
A flight recorder found washed up on a Somali beach is not from the missing Malaysian Airlines flight MH370. The orange, spherical object was found on a beach near the coastal town of Gara’ad by a local businessman identified only as Gaashaanle Ciiraale, Somalia’s Jariiban News Network reported on Thursday. Ciiraale posted images of himself posing with his discovery to his Facebook page.
Mohamed Mire Fahie, a friend of Ciiraale’s, told Malaysia’s Rakyat Post on Sundaythat the object had been given to a reporter. It was not clear whether it had been handed over to police. The Rakyat Post said the object may be linked to flight MH370, still missing after more than two years, given the separate discoveries of debris on two beaches in Mozambique.
American blogger Blaine Alan Gibson and South African teenager Liam Lotter both found debris washed up on beaches that was subsequently confirmed to “almost certainly” be from the wing of the missing plane. But although it appeared that the object was a data recorder, experts did not think it was from MH370.
A spokesperson for the Australian Transport Safety Bureau, which is coordinating the search for the plane, said it was of the type used from the late 1960s to the 1970s, and had come from either an aircraft or possibly a ship. “In any case, it is definitely not from MH370, which was equipped with a modern ‘orange brick’-style flight data recorder.
AMISOM Holds Civilian-Military Coordination Workshop For Hiiraan Region
09 May – Source: AMISOM – 408 Words
A group of officers drawn from the African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM) and Somali national security agencies have completed a two-day course in Beletweyne, aimed at improving coordination with humanitarian agencies. The training workshop held by the regional Civil-Military working group took place in Beletweyne, the capital of Hiiraan region, from 6 – 7 May 2016.
The workshop was jointly organised by the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UNOCHA) and the African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM). It aimed at providing guidelines for interaction between humanitarian actors and the security agencies in areas under the control of AMISOM, as well as promoting Civil-Military coordination and dialogue with humanitarian actors and security agencies in Somalia.
“The aim is basically for everyone of us in AMISOM to know what are we expected to do. And to have a common interaction without competition with each other,” said Chief Superintendent of Police Ezeona Ifeoma, from AMISOM Police. A total of 26 participants among them AMISOM military and police officers from Djibouti, Ethiopia, Uganda, Burundi and Nigeria contingents; and their counterparts from the Somali Police Force (SPF) and the Somali National Army (SNA) attended the workshop.
Capt. Osman Ibrahim Abdi, a participant from the Somali National Army (SNA) said the training had equipped him with knowledge that would improve his ability to relate and cooperate with the civilian communities.
OPINION, ANALYSIS, AND CULTURE
“As we drove back towards Kalabeydh, a small town north of Wajale, Yassin told me the people smugglers prey on young women and men at marketplaces and in the streets, falsely promising them lucrative jobs abroad. They transport them to Sudan through Ethiopia. When they reach Sudan, the traffickers, locally known as ‘magefe’, turn violent and hold them to ransom, demanding thousands of dollars from their parents or risk being left to die in the desert.”
A Brush With Somalia’s People Smugglers
09 May – Source: BBC – 761 Words
I came home from work to find my wife, visibly worried, standing at the gate. She had news about my teenage nephew. “Abdirisaq hasn’t come home yet. Something must have happened to him. He’s never been out beyond6pm”, she stressed as she flexed her fingers. I tried to calm her but as the evening progressed, I had no choice but to go out and look for him. The first place I checked was his friend’s home, only to find out that his friend was missing too.
I checked the hospital and the central police station in vain. It was now approaching midnight and my search was unfruitful – he was nowhere to be found. We spent the long night calling relatives and thinking of places he might have gone. Our biggest fear was that, like so many young men in our community, he had decided to migrate illegally, known here as ‘tahrib’ and was already on his way to Ethiopia.
Many young men like him dream of destinations in Europe, Canada, Australia and America, hopeful of a better and brighter life. The next day, I left at dawn accompanied by a police officer, driving towards one of the main migration points at the border town of Toog Wajale. On arrival we were told by an immigration official that he suspected my nephew had already left with people smugglers.
I tried to persuade him to accompany us in our search. “I can’t because I am all alone here,” he said. “But I do know a young man who can help you.” He took his phone out of the pocket and called. After 20 minutes or so, a young man came. “This is Yassin” the immigration official said, “He will help you as he knows a lot about tahrib.”
TOP TWEETS
@AU_PSD : We cannot forget those who’ve lost their lives in the line of duty in #Somalia; we pay tribute to their sacrifice
@Limettamelitta: #VOAnews Attack on Police Headquarters in Mogadishu Kills 5: At least five people were killed and 13…http://bit.ly/23AXRsG #Somalia
4Faisel:#MH370 search: #flight recorder found in #Somalia not from missing plane http://www.theguardian.com/
@EurasiaEng : #Somalia car bomb attack kills at least two police officers | Eurasia Diary http://bit.ly/1ULRodS via@EurasiaEng
@joaoscarpelini : Former Al-Shabaab combatant calls on other#women to renounce #terrorism http://unsom.unmissions.org/
@AU_PSD : We continue to encourage Partners to persist in search for creative approach to dealing with current challenges in #Somalia: #AU Amb.Madeira
@HassanIstiila : @SomaliPM has appointed a Fact Finding Committee to look into allegations made against Security Agencies.Written by @washingtonpost #Somalia
@GovernorKalil : Very sad to hear death of Ugas Isse Ugas Abdule #Marehan Clan chief .Condolences to his family#Somalia RIPUgasIsse
IMAGE OF THE DAY
This Europe Day, AMISOM salutes the EU’s support to the stabilisation of Somalia.
Photo: AMISOM