October 15, 2015 | Morning Headlines

Main Story

Somali Troops Capture Al-Shabaab Base Near Diinsoor Town, Kill 4 Militants

14 October – Source: Mareeg Online – 134 Words

Four Al-Shabaab fighters were confirmed killed following an attack by Somali National Army at the militants’ base near Diinsoor town in Bay region, a top a military commander said Wednesday. Abdullah Sheikh Mohamed, a senior military chief, told Radio Shabelle that the four were killed when government troops attacked the Gurban area, 30km away from Diinsoor town on Wednesday.

“The fighting erupted last night (Tuesday) outside Diinsoor city and continued untilWednesday.The Somali army made gains in their attack and managed to weed the militants out of Gurban village and killed four fighters,” said Mr Mohamed. Latest reports from military sources indicate that calm has returned to the area and the government troops are now in full control.

Key Headlines

Somali Troops Capture Al-Shabaab Base Near Diinsoor Town Kill 4 Militants (Mareeg Online)
Somalia President Confirms Candidacy For 2016 Elections (Horseed Media)
Heavy Fighting Breaks Out Outside Marko City (Shabelle News)
Constitutional Meeting Sets Roadmap For Inclusive Review Process (Goobjoog News)
Somali Refugees Leave Kenya And Head Home (CNN)
Nigeria’s Boko Haram Urges Somali Shabaab: Join Islamic State (Associated Press)
Workers Building Kenya-Somalia Security Wall Protest Over Delayed Pay (Daily Nation)
AMISOM Deputy Force Commander Completes Visit To Bardheere And Diinsor (AMISOM)
Putting Prices On Natural Assets Could Help Save Them (The Columbus Dispatch)

NATIONAL MEDIA

Somalia President Confirms Candidacy For 2016 Elections

14 October – Source: Horseed Media – 181 Words

With less than a year left for the 2016 Presidential elections, Somalia President Hassan Sheikh Mohamoud has for the first time publicly made his intentions known. He will be running for the top seat. Speaking to a group of the Diaspora via online, Mr Mohamoud strongly denied claims of being a member of the Damul Jadid party – a splinter group of the Al-Islaah- a moderate Somali Islamist movement formed in the late 1970s and affiliated to Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood.

“I want to start a new culture, of course I am a candidate… if I am elected I will continue, if not I will hand over the power to whoever is elected.’’ Mohamoud was elected in 2012 following the first peaceful elections held in the country for more than three decades. In July, Somalia’s Federal Parliament and government announced in a joint session in which they concluded there was no possibility of holding national elections across the country. The decision has been criticized by the Somali citizens and regional administrators, who accuse the government of failing to implement one of it’s key pledges since assuming office in 2012.

Heavy Fighting Breaks Out Outside Marko City

14 October – Source: Shabelle News – 118 Words

Heavy fighting between Somali military, backed by AMISOM forces, and Al-Shabaab fighters broke out at Gendershe village located in the outskirts of the southern port city of Marko. The fight flared up on Wednesdayevening when armed militants belonging to Al-Shabaab stormed government troops’ bases in the area, resulting in a fierce gun-battle with both sides exchanging fire. Figures of the casualties remain unknown as the battle was still going on by the time of going to the press. Gandershe, is a village near Marko city which was re-captured on Tuesday by Somali army and AMISOM from Al- Shabaab militants.

Constitutional Meeting Sets Roadmap For Inclusive Review Process

14 October – Source: Goobjoog News – 219 Words

A three day constitutional review consultative meeting bringing together the Ministry of Constitutional Affairs and constitutional ministers of the four regional states ended today in Mogadishu with a roadmap for inclusive and participatory process. The meeting, which for the first time had full representation from the regional states, emphasised the need for enhanced public participation in the constitutional review process to ensure the views of all sectors of the country are taken into consideration.

Speaking after the meeting, State Minister of Constitutional Affairs Hassan Mahmoud Jimalle said the two levels of government had agreed on a joint strategy for public consultations to iron out some of the key contentious issues in the provisional constitution: “We discussed ways on starting the constitutional review process, including educating the Somali people about the constitution and its impact on their lives. We also agreed to widen consultations by involving members of the public, within and in the Diaspora, in order to arrive at the an acceptable document,” said Jimalle.

The review of the constitution is expected to be concluded by early next year to pave way for parliamentary debate and approval around March 2016, ahead of General Elections scheduled for 2016. A provisional constitution was adopted by parliament in 2012 as the country’s guiding document after the end of the Transitional Federal Government.

INTERNATIONAL MEDIA

Somali Refugees Leave Kenya And Head Home

14 October – Source: CNN – Video: 2:18 Minutes

Nigeria’s Boko Haram Urges Somali Shabaab: Join Islamic State

14 October – Source: Associated Press – 130 Words

Nigeria’s Boko Haram extremists are urging Somalia’s Al-Shabaab rebels to join them in pledging allegiance to the leader of the Islamic State group, and thus abandon Al-Qaida. Al-Qaida and Islamic State are rivals for jihadi recruits and a video posted on Twitter on Wednesday tells Al-Shabaab fighters that uniting “is of greater benefit to the struggle on the path of Islam” and will “help in defeating the infidels of the world.”

The appeal from an unidentified armed fighter is part of a wider courting of Al-Shabaab. Similar messages came nearly two weeks ago from militant extremists in Iraq, Sinai, Syria, and Yemen. Al-Shabaab has been losing ground in Somalia to a multinational African force but staged an April attack in neighboring Kenya that claimed lives of nearly 150 students at Garissa University.

Workers Building Kenya-Somalia Security Wall Protest Over Delayed Pay

14 October – Daily Nation – 417 Words

The National Youth Service (NYS) team deployed to build a security wall along the Kenya-Somalia border in Mandera County is threatening to down tools over delayed pay.The over 50 workers including machine operators, instructors, surveyors and designers say they have not been paid since March: “We were taken to the Mandera military camp but we could not fit there because we are many plus we had the machines.”

“After two days, we were moved to a public works compound where we were attacked by Al-Shabaab militants,” one of the workers who sought anonymity for fear of victimisation said. He said the team was moved to the compound used by the Rapid Deployment Unit (RDU), a unit of the Administration Police, where they have been operating from.

“Our lives are at risk at the RDU camp because even the officers there say they will not secure us because they have not been paid as well,” said the NYS officer.They said their efforts to reach their boss through the coordinator of the project Charles Wambugu have been futile. “This situation has compromised the lives of our families. Our children are out of school due to lack of fees. We shall down our tools on Friday and start our journey back home if action is not taken,’ said another worker.

They said each worker had been promised Sh126, 000 at the start of the project in March 2015: “We asked to be paid before leaving Nairobi but the NYS director general said he feared some of us would drop out if paid in advance. He promised to pay us immediately we arrived but that is yet to happen,” said one of the drivers. He said they have information that the Ministry of Interior had wired their money to the NYS and cannot understand why they have not been paid up to now. The project, according to sources, is funded by various ministries and state departments. The wall is being built to ward off Somalia-based Al-Shabaab militants who have in the recent past launched deadly attacks in Kenya killing hundreds of civilians. The wall will stretch from Border Point One in Mandera to Kiunga in Lamu County.

AMISOM Deputy Force Commander Completes Visit To Bardheere And Diinsor

14 October – Source: AMISOM – 361 Words

AMISOM Deputy Force Commander Maj. Gen. Mohammedesha Zeyinu has completed a visit to the newly liberated towns of Baardhere and Diinsor, where he interacted with the troops and challenged them to continue striving for lasting peace in the region and Somalia in general. The two towns were until July this year safe havens for the Al-Shabaab, used as centers for training and recruitment as well as launching attacksg on civilians in the Bay, Bakool and Gedo regions.

Maj. Gen. Mohammedesha Zeyinu sought to interact with and motivate the troops as well as gain better understanding of the pertaining issues in the sector.Addressing the troops in the agricultural town of Bardheere, he commended them for the outstanding work that saw the terrorists flashed out of the area, ending years of civilian torture: “The operation you conducted to capture Bardheere was a shining victory for AMISOM forces. The Somali people and all partners know the great job you have done to make this happen in this mission. Therefore, I want to thank you very much,” he said.

Speaking in Diinsor, he appealed to AMISOM troops working together with their Somali counterparts to keep up the momentum until the entire Somalia is secured from Al-Shabaab:”The purpose of our mission in Somalia is to defeat and eradicate Al-Shabaab, to restore peace and stability in this country, the continent and region, because this enemy is the enemy of the Somali people and East Africa in general. If we do not eliminate this enemy and restore peace and stability, the consequences are clear, the fate of the Somali people is clear. There will be no peace, no stability and no development and the situation will be worse,” cautioned Gen. Mohammedesha.

OPINION, ANALYSIS, AND CULTURE

“Overfishing and pollution threaten ocean protein sources. As fisheries were wiped out near Somalia, desperate men turned to piracy.”

Putting Prices On Natural Assets Could Help Save Them

14 October – Source: The Columbus Dispatch 757 Words

In Africa, the average cost of an AK-47 is a little over $300. A single rhinoceros horn — reputed (falsely) in Asia to have cancer-healing properties — can bring $300,000 on the black market. So a criminal gang or a terrorist group knows what a dead rhino is worth: several hundred assault rifles (less the commission owed middlemen). Al-Shabaab, the Somali terrorist group behind the Westgate Mall attack in Kenya, uses poached ivory to fund its operations.

So what is a rhino worth to us? At one level, we value rhinos because we want endangered species and wild places to exist, even if we never see them. Respecting and preserving nature reflects an ethical impulse. But determining the full value of a rhino is more difficult. In some countries, where preserving animals and habitats are keys to tourism, losing these things imposes a steep economic cost. When terrorist groups trade in elephant tusks or rhino horns, the security costs are potentially very high. The difficult task of conservation — really of all environmentalism — is to place a value on things that we thought were free. Fresh water, the soil, pollinators, watersheds, rain forests — a certain kind of environmentalism views these things as priceless. A less sentimental, more effective variety gives them a price — to make them count in the calculations of communities and nations.

The contrast between these approaches is found in the evolution of Conservation International, one of the main global conservation groups. “When we started,” says it’s intense, visionary founder, Peter Seligmann, “we were just about biodiversity.” But then came what he calls an “epiphany.” “It is not about nature,” Seligmann told me, “it is about people. Nature would figure out a way to survive, but would people? Human development and progress can’t be successful unless conservation is a core issue, not a parallel track.”

Seligmann calls this a “radical shift in perception.” And when his shift came, about 20 percent of Conservation International’s staff responded by quitting. Since then, the organization has set out to put an accurate price on nature. With the growth of world population, and the expansion of a resource-ravenous global middle class, environmental stresses are found everywhere, feeding economic insecurity, political instability and security challenges.