October 10, 2013 | Daily Monitoring Report.
EU looking into establishing Somali coast guard
10 Oct – Source: Transport Journal – 121 words
During a recent press conference, Etienne de Poncins, head of the EU’s regional maritime capacity-building mission EUCAP Nestor, mentioned the possibility of a Somali coast guard.
As there is currently no coast guard in that country at all but only the Puntland maritime police forces, options for a Somali coast guard will be discussed later this year during a strategic review of the maritime training mission to the Horn of Africa and the western Indian Ocean, the EU official said.
The oceans off the Horn of Africa are currently being patrolled by EU Naval Force Operation Atalanta. 27 countries contribute some 1,200 personnel to the mission to help protect vessels in this area.
Key Headlines
- Somalia warns of disaster if Barclays stops money transfers (Financial Times)
- We are about to attack Barawe town says Somalia’s defense minister (Radio Shabelle)
- Six convicted pirates extradited to Puntland (Garowe Online/Raxanreeb)
- Somalia looks to rickety port to rebuild threatened state (Reuters)
- Nairobi attack puts pressure on Somalia leader to shape up or ship out (East African)
- EU looking into establishing Somali coast guard (Transport Journal)
- Interim Jubba Admin parades prisoners caught in Goobweyn operation (Kismaayo Online)
- Yemeni and Iranian boats ‘looting’ Somali fish stocks (Radio Ergo)
- Somali aid money seized in Kenya (World Bulletin)
- Leaders call on Kenyans to tamp down the flames of religious strife (Sabahi Online)
SOMALI MEDIA
We are about to attack Barawe town, says Somalia’s defense minister
10 Oct – Source: Radio Shabelle – 81 words
Somalia’s Defense Minister Abdihakim Haji Mohamud Fiqi has for the first time revealed the government’s intentions to attack Barawe town which is al Shabaab’s stronghold. “We are on the final preparations to liberate the entire Lower Shabelle region including Barawe,” said Fiqi
The minister added that Barawe will follow Mogadishu and other many towns which were freed from al Shabaab rule by Somali national army forces backed by AMISOM troops.
Six convicted pirates extradited to Puntland
10 Oct – Source: Garowe Online/Raxanreeb – 228 words
Six convicted Somali pirates have been brought in Bossaso port city to serve their prison sentences in Puntland state in northern Somalia on Wednesday.
African island, Seychelles extradited the convicted pirates to Puntland after bilateral talks in the capital, Victoria between a Puntland delegation including Counter-Piracy Director Mr. Abdirizak Mohamed Dirir “Du’caysane” and the Chief of Custodial Corps Gen. Ali Nur and Seychelles’ Minister of Interior, Energy and Public Housing Morgan and Foreign Affairs Minister Paul-Jean Adams this week.
A special flight carrying the convicted pirates, Puntland and UNODC officials landed at Bandar-Qasim International Airport in Bossaso and the pirates, except a younger boy who following the completion of his 18 months’ prison-term in Seychelles brought to Galkayo were taken into custody.
Interim Jubba Admin parades prisoners caught in Goobweyn operation
09 Oct – Source: Kismaayo Online/ Dhanaan Online/Kismaayo News – 222 words
The Interim Jubba Administration on Wednesday paraded five prisoners believed to be members of Col. Barre Hirale militia and al Shabaab militant group.
Speaking to reporters in Kismayo, Abdirashid Indho-yare who is one of IJA security officials said that three of the prisoners were members of Col Barre Hirale’s militia and were caught in an operation conducted in Goobweyn area in the outskirts of Kismayo on October 4 by Jubba forces.
Indho-yare said the other remaining two are al Shabaab members. One of them was caught in the Goobweyn operation, while the other was napped hiding in Kismayo.
Yemeni and Iranian boats ‘looting’ Somali fish stocks
10 Oct – Source: Radio Ergo – 251 Words
Fishermen in the northeastern coastal districts of Bargal and Laasqoray districts say foreign trawlers are looting fish stocks in Somali waters. “They are fishing just two miles away from the land, and the residents can see everything and even see the foreign fishing boats from their windows,” local fisherman Mohamed Abdi Osman told Radio Ergo’s local reporter.
Fishermen say the foreign trawlers are taking all kind of fish, without selection, including from fish breeding grounds. Osman said he fears this will have a long term impact on the depletion of ocean resources. “This has made it hard for us to catch any fish because they are using bigger and better equipment than us,” said Osman.
The price of fish has increased recently in local markets in Puntland, as catches have dwindled. “White fish is getting very expensive because people like that fish and we can’t get many of them from the sea,” said another fisherman, Mohamed Abdi. He said high quality white fish used to sell locally at 20,000 Shillings (roughly one dollar) but had recently doubled in price.
Somaliland Prosecutor General Opens Two days National Symposium on Proposed Government law
09 Oct – Source: Somaliland Press – 146 words
The Somaliland office of the Prosecutor General has organized a two days national symposium whose aim is to bring the government officials, state and public agencies and the various stakeholders so as to discuss the proposed government Act which is expected to be tabled in the house in the near future.
Mr. Ibrahim lIdle Saleban, the Prosecutor General opened the two days whereby the various stakeholders to discuss and set recommendations for the Proposed Government law or Administrative Code which sets out the organization, powers and responsibilities of the central government before it comes up before the national assembly and the house of elders for approval.
“The drafting of a new government Law or Administrative Code is essential since the Constitution has an established Executive system of government, this in contrast to the essentially parliamentary system with a nominal president”, Stated the Prosecutor General.
Somaliland Police tortures local gov’ members in Las Anod
09 Oct – Source: Somali Current – 85 words
Somaliland Police in Las Anod town, the provincial capital of the northern Somali region of Sool, tortured two local government members in the area, according to Waaheen, a local newspaper based in Hargeisa.
The authorities assembled in the local government’s office in the town to vote for the impeachment of the city mayor, but before the opening of the session police arrived, spraying bullets to disperse them.
Waaheen quoting unnamed member of the local government said the police hit two of the assembly with gun butt, sustaining injuries.
REGIONAL MEDIA
Nairobi attack puts pressure on Somalia leader to shape up or ship out
09 Oct – Source: East African – 1856 words
The Somalia government is facing fresh pressure from regional governments and local politicians to quickly roll out a slate of security and reconciliation reforms or face a “regime change” in the wake of the recent attack on the Westgate shopping mall in Nairobi by al Shabaab.
Regional governments are concerned about Mogadishu’s lackadaisical approach to the fight against the al Qaeda-linked militants, especially after it emerged that it had embraced al Shabaab-linked warlords to scuttle a Kenyan-backed push to set up an administration in the south of the country, according to the latest UN report on Somalia.
Kenya and Somalia have in recent months been at loggerheads over how to manage border regions that President Uhuru Kenyatta’s administration treats as a major source of insecurity in his country.
Leaders call on Kenyans to tamp down the flames of religious strife
09 Oct – Source: Sabahi Online – 1213 words
Political and religious leaders in Kenya are calling on all sides to tamp down the flames of religious animosity that have spread following al Shabaab’s attack on Nairobi’s Westgate Mall last month and the killing of four Muslim clerics in Mombasa last week.
Riots broke out last Friday (October 4th) in Mombasa after unknown gunmen killed Sheikh Ibrahim Ismail and his three companions in a drive-by shooting late Thursday. Ismail was widely viewed as the successor to slain controversial preacher Aboud Rogo Mohammed. Both men had ties to the city’s Masjid Musa Mosque.
Rioters started a fire at the city’s Salvation Army church, and four youth were killed in confrontations with police. Muslim Human Rights Forum Executive Co-ordinator al-Amin Kimathi faulted police for Ismail’s killing and for failing to contain subsequent riots.
INTERNATIONAL MEDIA
Somalia looks to rickety port to rebuild threatened state
10 Oct – Source: Reuters – 978 words
The dock workers at Mogadishu’s port have to carry cargo on their backs to clear berths for the ships waiting out at sea. The dilapidated facility has no functioning cranes and the vessels must use their own gear to unload once they make it in.
Yet the port is one of the Somali government’s main sources of revenue, despite minimal investment over the years. “It’s the biggest asset the Somali government has,” said Abdirashid Hashi, a former cabinet minister.
The sorry state of affairs shows the challenges Somalia faces as it tries to rebuild crumbling institutions and stabilize a nation under threat from an Islamist insurgency.
Somalia warns of disaster if Barclays stops money transfers
10 Oct – Source: Financial Times – 711 Words
Somalia has warned that it will face disaster if Barclays withdraws banking services from the country’s largest money transfer company next week. Around half of the 10m population of Somalia and the republic of Somaliland are reliant on money sent by friends and relatives living overseas, most of which is used to pay for food and basic healthcare.
Following years of civil war, Somalia has been left without a functioning banking industry and remittances sent to the country via transfer shops and kiosks are worth about $1bn – $2bn a year, exceeding official international aid.
Barclays is the last major bank providing services to companies that operate in Somalia and the flow of funds is expected to fall dramatically if it stops providing accounts to a number of companies that send money from the UK to Somalia. This summer Barclays announced that it would close accounts for 250 money transmitters after coming under pressure from the regulator to ensure appropriate checks and controls were in place to avoid potential money laundering.
EU looking into establishing Somali coast guard
10 Oct – Source: Transport Journal – 121 words
During a recent press conference, Etienne de Poncins, head of the EU’s regional maritime capacity-building mission EUCAP Nestor, mentioned the possibility of a Somali coast guard.
As there is currently no coast guard in that country at all but only the Puntland maritime police forces, options for a Somali coast guard will be discussed later this year during a strategic review of the maritime training mission to the Horn of Africa and the western Indian Ocean, the EU official said.
The oceans off the Horn of Africa are currently being patrolled by EU Naval Force Operation Atalanta. 27 countries contribute some 1,200 personnel to the mission to help protect vessels in this area.
Somali aid money seized in Kenya
10 Oct – Source: World Bulletin – 171 Words
Turkish Red Crescent said $ 350,000 amount of money seized in Kenyan capital was allocated for Somali humanitarian operation, not for Eid al Adha. Turkish Red Crescent reminded 3 of its officials on Somali duty were released after being arrested in Kenya’s capital Nairobi, but $ 350,000 carried by the captured officials that was to be spent for humanitatian aid operation in Somalia were still not released.
According to a statement released by Turkish Red Crescent, the money was held in Kenyan banks because of incapacity of Somalia banking system. Turkish foreign ministry and Nairobi Embassy were in touch with Kenyan authorities for the release of seized money, said the statement.
Referring to about two years old aid operations of Turkish Red Crescent in Somalia, the statement said: “Red Crescent has established and been administrating Life Tent City with 30,000 human-capacity. Besides, it has been restructuring Somalia’s infrastructure together with Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality by joint power plant project. Everyday hot bread and food are being served to at least 10,000 people.”
Extremist Group Gains Foothold Among Kenyans
09 Oct – Source: New York Times – 679 words
When the United States tried to capture a powerful militant in Somalia last weekend, it did not go after the leader of al Shabaab extremist group, but a Kenyan national whose ties were as much in his native country as in the Horn of Africa.
Outside of Somalia itself, Kenya sends more fighters to al Shabaab than does any other country, analysts say. Young Kenyan men have ridden buses to the border in large numbers for years, local Muslim leaders say, drawn by payments of up to $1,000 to cross into Somalia and fight for the group.
But ever since the Kenyan military stormed into southern Somalia two years ago, many Kenyan fighters have been coming back home, local leaders and experts say, creating a larger, increasingly sophisticated network of trained jihadists in a country where people from around the globe gather in crowded, lightly protected public places.
SOCIAL MEDIA
CULTURE / OPINION / EDITORIAL / ANALYSIS / BLOGS/ DISCUSSION BOARDS
“A series of broad, multi-stakeholder approaches via the CBCG into Somalia via clan networks would provide perhaps a better guarantee of success more quickly while at the same time engaging federal and regional governments. Ideally, community engagement programs via clans would likely provide viable results as Somalia begins its recovery.”
Does The Key To Somali Capacity Building Reside In Clans?
10 Oct – Source: Eurasia Review – 1136 Words
Given that piracy off the coast of Somalia is dwindling down to a few isolated incidents with no successful captures in well over a year, the international community, regional actors, non-governmental organizations, and other pertinent stakeholders are focusing on capacity building initiatives in Somalia itself.
On the sidelines of the September 11-12, 2013 Counter Piracy Conference held in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, the Capacity Building Coordination Group (CBCG) met to discuss key issues for the near future. The CBCG, which works under Working Group 1 of the Contact Group on Piracy off the Coast of Somalia (CGPCS), besides other topics, focused on the need for the international strategic positioning of the CBCG to be and remain the central mechanism and platform for efforts in the field of capacity building in Somalia.
The CBCG called upon all stakeholders to work through the CBCG and ensure that projects and needs are identified and given to the Capacity Building Coordination Platform for the synchronization of their capacity building programs.
The work of the CBCG is an important first step in the transitioning of what has been a purely maritime-based police and military action to land-based solutions for ending the causes of piracy. Somalia indeed is ready for such international and regional activity now that there is a federal government with regional government structures. Yet the problems and issues that remain, at the very root, are based on Somali clan structures.
“As the artists come out of the shadows of war, and into a new era of hope, it is their dream to one day show the world a portrait of a new Somalia.”
Hidden Talent: Artists Re-emerge in Mogadishu
10 Oct – Source: VOA – 314 Words
After years working in the shadow of war, Somalia’s artists are stepping back out into public view and contributing to the difficult discussions of a country struggling to find its identity.
A garage in Mogadishu is a place of renewal for Somalia’s art scene. Known as the Center for Research and Dialogue, it attracts artists who kept their talents hidden during more than two decades of war. One of the most prolific is Adan Farah Affey, who discovered painting as a child in a Catholic orphanage in the city.
“The nuns admired my work and would bring me paintbrushes and tell me to paint for them. And when I had a better understanding of my skills, I noticed I was better than the other kids,” recalls Affey.
“The storming of a villa in the Somali coastal town of Barawe was a different kind of mission. Mr Obama could have chosen to send in a drone. Instead, he sent in men from the same Navy SEALs unit that killed Osama bin Laden.”
Fighting terrorists: Kill or capture?
09 Oct – Source: The Economist Blog – 682 Words
ON OCTOBER 5th American special forces launched two nearly simultaneous raids in Libya and Somalia. Rather than sending in a Predator drone to vaporise jihadists with Hellfire missiles, the plan was to capture them and take them to America to face justice. The targets were Abdulkadir Mohamed Abdulkadir (a leader of al Shabaab group that carried out the recent massacre in a shopping mall in Kenya) and Abu Anas al-Libi (a veteran al Qaeda operative, long on the FBI’s most- wanted list).
Could this mark a shift in tactics? To fight terrorism, Barack Obama has relied far more than any previous president on the use of aerial drones to kill suspected terrorists. (He has ordered over 400 such attacks since 2008.) Such assassinations are, to put it mildly, controversial. Civil-liberties groups say they are illegal, as do some members of Congress. Even counter-terrorism officials privately fret that they may in some instances be creating as many militants as they kill.
Mr Obama’s right-wing critics note that, although he has broken his promise to close the prison camp at Guantánamo Bay, he has not sent any new prisoners there. Rather than capturing and interrogating jihadists, he is simply killing them. That, say his critics, deprives America of vital intelligence.
Top tweets
@TheVillaSomalia We must fight our enemies on all fronts: “A Somali imam declares war on #Shabab, in #Somalia &#Minnesota“
http://www.pri.org/stories/
@Draz_DJ #Mogadishu port is #Somalia‘s biggest source of income but UN estimates at least a third of all revenue siphoned off http://reut.rs/17pqbAh.
@arafrika Sierra Leone boosts security due to the threats of al Shabaab after #Westgate. Country has about 850 troops among the AU forces in #Somalia.
@jeromestarkey Send us helicopters & we’ll capture Baraawe,#Somalia PM says after botched SEAL raidhttp://tmblr.co/ZIzNZyxGOPj8.
@tresthomas_HOA Le Sage: AMISOM needs probably at least 5 more years of support while Somali forces/intelligence capabilities built up.
Image of the day
Two of the six convicted Somali pirates that Seychelles authorities transferred to the Somalia’s semi-autonomous region of Puntland, handcuffed after arrival on October 09, 2013. Photo: Raxanreeb.