November 17, 2015 | Morning Headlines
Al-Shabaab Militants Execute Prominent Cleric In Public
16 November – Source: Wacaal Media – 108 Words
Al-Shabaab militants killed prominent Muslim Cleric in an area between Jowhar and Beledweyn towns. The slain cleric was identified as Sheikh Abba and the militants paraded him in a public field, inviting members of the public to witness his execution. Sheikh Abba lived in the Bari regional town of Bosasso. He was reportedly on his way to Mogadishu when the militants captured him along the way. Sources say the militants forced him out of a public means he was traveling in but the motive of his killing was not immediately established. The militants are however known to execute Muslim clerics who preach against their violent extremist ideologies.
Key Headlines
- Al-Shabaab Militants Execute Prominent Cleric In Public (Wacaal Media)
- Police Commissioner Rebuts Reports Of Troops Clash In Daynille District (Goobjoog News)
- Somali Ministers And Members of Parliament Reach Jowhar Town (Shabelle News)
- Jubaland Says Kenya Security Wall Construction Ceased (Garowe Online)
- Somali Refugees Killed As Forces Clash In Mogadishu (BBC)
- Paris Attacks: Kenya And Uganda Step Up Security (BBC)
- World Bank Sees Growth In Somalia Picking On Stability (The Star)
NATIONAL MEDIA
Police Commissioner Rebuts Reports Of Troops Clash In Daynille District
16 November – Source: Goobjoog News – 151 Words
Police commissioner Ali Gaab has denied government troops were involved in a clash this morning which claimed 13 lives near the former national university in the outskirts of Mogadishu. Gaab said reports that government soldiers clashed killing 13 were untrue and that the rival militia groups were responsible. “Our troops were not in any way involved in the clash. Those were rival militias in the area,” said Gaab.
Meanwhile Benadir deputy governor has confirmed 13 people were killed. Earlier, area district commissioner Ahmed Noor said he had established that seven people had been killed when the soldiers clashed at a camp in the former national university near X-control. “I can confirm to you that seven people have been killed. The soldiers clashed after one of them tried to force his way into the camp where people were queuing for food rations,” said Noor. Noor said majority of the casualties were women.
Somali Ministers And Members of Parliament Reach Jowhar Town
16 November – Source: Shabelle News – 77 Words
A delegation from the federal government of Somalia has arrived in Jowhar town, middle Shabelle regional capital to open a reconciliation for the local community. The delegation visiting Jowhar is made of of lawmakers and ministers, including minister of petroleum Mohamed Mukhtar, and the state minister of interior Abdirashid Hidig. The residents in middle Shabelle region are in preparation of hosting a disputed a federal state formation conference for Hiiraan and middle Shabelle regions in central Somalia.
Jubaland Says Kenya Security Wall Construction Ceased
16 November – Source: Garowe Online – 127 Words
Jubaland administration in southern Somalia said, neighboring Kenya has stepped back from a controversial move to construct a security wall along border with Somalia, Garowe Online reports. Jubaland’s second Vice President, Abdulkadir Haji Mohamed (Lugadere) told VOA Somalia Service that Kenya relinquished its counter-terrorism strategy to bar off Al Shabaab threats through the implementation of ambitious wall project.
Kenya, which just last week began flattening down colonial border posts has not officially rescinded its decision. In weekly cabinet meeting, Somalia’s Federal Government expressed displeasure on the unilateral move. On smuggling of sugar and charcoal sacks, Lugadere dismissed media reports as ‘propaganda’. Kenyan Defence Forces crossed the border into Somalia in 2011 in response to a series of kidnappings and terror operations by Al Qaeda-linked Al Shabaab militants.
INTERNATIONAL MEDIA
Somali Refugees Killed As Forces Clash In Mogadishu
16 November – Source: BBC – 72 Words
At least 11 people have been killed in Mogadishu after rival Somali security forces argued over who was in charge, witnesses say. The security forces opened fire while people queued for food cards at a camp for internally displaced people. The mayor of Mogadishu Yusuf Hussein Jimale said some suspects had already been arrested and others will follow. The camp houses people fleeing Islamist militants Al-Shabab, drought and the country’s long-running conflict.
Paris Attacks: Kenya And Uganda Step Up Security
16 November – Source: BBC – 371 Words
Kenyan and Ugandan security forces have stepped up patrols in the wake of the attacks on Paris. Uganda’s army spokesman Lt Col Paddy Ankunda said that the “threat of terrorism is real”. The head of Kenya’s police, Joseph Boinnet, echoed those comments on Twitter and called for the public to be alert. Both Uganda and Kenya have experienced attacks by the Somalia-based militant Islamist group Al-Shabaab. In April this year 147 people died when a university campus in the Kenyan town of Garissa was attacked. That followed the September 2013 attack on the Westgate shopping mall in Kenya’s capital, Nairobi, in which 67 people were killed.
In July 2010, more than 70 people died in Uganda’s capital, Kampala, when a bar and restaurant were bombed as people were watching the World Cup final. In Nairobi on Sunday there were more police officers outside churches and shopping malls, reports Kenya’s Standard newspaper. Correspondents say increased concern amongst members of the public is evident. Uganda’s police spokesman Fred Enanga told journalistson Sunday that police have “heightened [the] level of alertness” and that they are working with the military “to ensure that all Ugandans and visitors are safe”. Kenyan and Ugandan soldiers are part of an African Union force in Somalia which is helping the government battle Al-Shabaab.
OPINION, ANALYSIS, AND CULTURE
“The report shows Somalia’s Diaspora is estimated to have sent home more than $1.3 billion (Sh132.98 billion) in 2014, which is nearly twice the $642 million (Sh65.67 billion) in development aid and $253 million (Sh25.88 billion) in humanitarian aid,”
World Bank Sees Growth In Somalia Picking On Stability
16 November – Source: The Star, Kenya – 326 Words
SOMALIA’s gradually rising political stability will lift momentum in the economy from this year through 2017, a new report by the World Bank showed yesterday, marking a turnaround for the country ravaged by over two decades of civil war since 1991.The World Bank said the security situation in the Horn of Africa has deeply affected investment, trade and monetary policy.A durable resolution of political differences is the key solution for sustainable growth in the short and medium term.“Intergovernmental fiscal relations is a mechanism for solidarity among all Somalis. It’s a mechanism which can help Somalia to fix the inequities between different regions in the country,” the bank’s country representative Hugh Riddell said yesterday at the launch of the first series of Somalia Economic Update report in Nairobi.
According to the report, Somalia is ranked the fifth poorest country in the world with an estimated gross domestic product of about $5.7 billion [Sh583.06 billion] in 2014 and a GDP per capita of $435 [Sh44,496]. It shows growth will continue to be driven by consumption, fuelled by remittance inflows and enhanced donor support. Investment demand is also projected to pick up.“As peace is secured and stability maintained, a larger share of remittances will be allocated to investments which will drive growth. Livestock will remain the main economic activity,” the report suggests.