November 21, 2012 | Morning Headlines.

Main Story

Briton stars in Somali terror videos

21 Nov- Source: Telegraph-485 words

Terrorists in Somalia have produced a series of full-length documentaries featuring a masked narrator with a British accent as part of a publicity drive designed to attract Western recruits. The videos feature suicide bombers, the corpses of African peace keepers and describe military operations by the militant group al Shabaab, which is closely linked to al Qaeda. The footage is the latest addition to a well-oiled media machine which has attracted nearly 16,000 followers to its English-language Twitter account since it was set up last December. It is unclear whether the reporter is the same man behind the Twitter account and a press office that has churned out online press releases giving updates on battles and “martyred” fighters in recent months.

Key Headlines

Somali leader meets UN delegation in Villa Somalia (Radio Mustaqbal/Radio Mogadishu)
Four injured in Dusamareb blast (Radio Bar-kulan)
Kenyan Defence Minister tours Garissa after chaos (Radio Risaala/Somaliweyn)
MPs accuse State of using undue force (Daily Nation)
Briton stars in Somali terror videos (Telegraph)
Somalia: Cash transfers for social protection (IRIN News)

SOMALI MEDIA

Somali leader meets UN delegation in Villa Somalia

20 Nov- Source: Radio Mustaqbal/Radio Mogadishu- 160 words

Somalia’s president Hassan Sheikh Mahmud received a UN delegation in Villa Somalia today. The UN delegation comprised of Political Affairs, (DPA) Peace keeping ( DPKO) the field services (DFS) WFP and OCHA. The President commended the role of the UN in Somalia “United Nations engagement in our country saved many. The Somali people are grateful to the United Nations tireless effort in the past two decades. However, there is a necessity to streamline UN efforts to make agencies working under UN as one entity inside Somalia.” “The ultimate goal of the government is ending relief and starting recovery while at the same time finding permanent solution for the IDP’s,” he said. He has also emphasized the importance of each UN department in aligning with the right ministry in order to accomplish the strategic goals for the respective ministries.The President concluded the need to accelerate the relocation of all UN agencies into Somalia.

Gov’t should not allow Eastleigh looted, says Kamukunji MP

20 Nov – Source: Bar-kulan/Hiiraan Online/Radio Mogadishu/Shabelle – 123 words

A Kenyan member of parliament has said the government should not allow hooligans to loot and destroy properties in Somali inhabited Eastleigh district, Nairobi. Speaking at a security meeting in Nairobi on Tuesday, Kamukunji MP, Yussuf Hassan, urged the government to step up security by deploying for officers into the area. Eastleigh, a suburb north of the city mainly inhabited by ethnic Somalis, was on Monday the scene of deadly ethnic violence following the Sunday blast on minibus which killed more than eight people. On Monday non-Somali Kenyan rioted and attacked ethnic Somalis in the district forcing police to use teargas to disperse the rioters.

Kenyan Defence Minister tours Garissa after chaos

20 Nov – Source: Radio Risaala/Somaliweyn/Raxanreeb – 78 words

The Kenyan Defense Minister Mahmud Yusuf Haji reached Garissa town where several people were hurt in an operation conducted by the Kenyan defense forces Monday and Tuesday. The Head of Security Committee in Garissa town Hassan Osman Shuuriye confirmed to Radio Risaala in Mogadishu that the minister had arrived in Garissa town to assess the situation. He blamed the insecurity incidents happening in town on al Shabaab.

Four injured in Dusamareb blast

20 Nov – Source: Bar-kulan – 79 words

Four Ahlu Sunna militias were on Tuesday injured in an explosion in a restaurant frequented by the group’s fighters in central Somali town of Dusamareb. The explosion occurred when a grenade accidentally fall off the hand of one of the group’s fighters, according to area security boss Farhan Moalim Ali. He said three of the injured people were taken to the area hospital for treatment while the fourth one was taken to Guri’el as he was in critical condition.

REGIONAL MEDIA

MPs accuse State of using undue force

20 Nov – Source: Daily Nation – 110 words

A section of MPs on Tuesday threatened to seek international intervention over rising insecurity and also accused security agencies of using excessive force. The MPs led by Deputy Speaker Farah Maalim condemned the violence in Garissa and Eastleigh and blamed it on what they described as failed Government security machinery. The legislators demanded justice for those affected saying women have been raped and properties destroyed in the mayhem. “There is serious problem. There are excesses beyond belief. We won’t stop seeking justice even if it means going international like the 2007/2008 post-election violence case. Those responsible must be apprehended,” said Mr Maalim, who is also the Ladgera Constituency MP.

INTERNATIONAL MEDIA

Briton stars in Somali terror videos

21 Nov- Source: Telegraph-485 words

Somalia: Cash transfers for social protection

20 Nov – Source: IRIN News – 136 words

Expanding the use of cash transfer programmes could encourage sustainable development and reduce dependency on emergency support in fragile states such as Somalia, experts say. For decades, Somalia has been the recipient of emergency aid for chronic crises, such as persistent food insecurity. At present, 2.12 million people in Somalia are facing an acute food security crisis, according to the Food Security and Nutrition Analysis Unit (FSNAU). Social protection programmes – including cash transfers – are seen as a way to mitigate this consistent need for emergency relief. “Cash transfers can give the ability and flexibility to poor households to purchase according to their own priority needs,” Sara Pavanello, an independent researcher, told IRIN. They also give poor households the opportunity to save or invest, for example by sending children to school, reducing long-term vulnerability.

SOCIAL MEDIA

CULTURE / OPINION / EDITORIAL / ANALYSIS / BLOGS/ DISCUSSION BOARDS

“In a nutshell, the conflict between al-Ictisaam scholars and Shaikh Hassaan’s al Shabaab is at least partly dictated by the nature of political Islam. Each Islamic group has a phalanx of scholars who readily offer religious justification for their own actions and policies. Both groups wrangle and tangle as the spiraling saga of fatwa issuing intensifies.”

Somalia’s Salafi Groups and Fatwa Wars

20 Nov – Source: Wardheer News -1966 Words

In July of this year, a group of 22 Somali Salafi scholars met in Nairobi, Kenya, and issued a fatwa (a religious edict) that condemned a young Somali cleric based in Kenya named Shaikh Hassan Hussein Adam. He is widely known as a spiritual supporter of al Shabaab. The signatories and attendees of this meeting included a who’s who of the Somali Salafi community: Shaikh Mohamed Abdi Umal, Shaikh Mohamoud Shibli, Shaikh Abdirizak Mohamoud Takar, Shaikh Abdulkhadir Nur Farah, Shaikh Mohamed Idris, Sheikh Abdirahman Sheikh Umar and two former leaders of al-Ittihad al-Islami (AIAI), Shaikh Ali Warsame and Shaikh Mohamoud Issa. The scholars condemned Sheikh Hassaan as a heretic and asked the Somali public not to buy his work or listen to his lectures.