October 19, 2017 | Daily Monitoring Report
Security Agencies To Announce Initial Results Of Saturday’s Bombing Investigation
19 October – Source: Jowhar.com – 121 Words
Security agencies of the Federal Government are expected to announce an initial result of the ongoing investigation into the deadly Saturday bombing in the capital. The announcement was expected to be made on Wednesday night, but it was postponed. Reports say that security agencies are conducting an investigation into the incident and will share with the public what they have so far found.
Security forces so far made several arrests including men who reportedly asked for the release of the vehicle involved in the incident when it was stopped at a checkpoint. The Somali government has accused the militant group Al-Shabaab of being behind the massacre at Zobe junction, though the militant group has not yet claimed responsibility for the attack.
Key Headlines
- Security Agencies To Announce Initial Results Of Saturday’s Bombing Investigation (Jowhar.com)
- Interior Minister Excluded From PM Appointed Committee (Garowe Online)
- Italy Donates 300000 Euros To Somali Red Crescent (Shabelle News)
- Somalia To Set Up Civil Defense Force After Truck Bomb (Anadolu Agency)
- Somalis Fear The War Against Al-Shabaab Will Never End (Vice News)
NATIONAL MEDIA
Interior Minister Excluded From PM Appointed Committee
18 October – Source: Garowe Online – 266 Words
Somali Prime Minister Hassan Ali Khaire has excluded the country’s Interior Minister Abdi Farah Sa’eed “Juha” from the new National emergency committee. The committee made up of Ministers and members from the civil society are tasked with the coordination of the efforts to assist the victims of Saturday’s deadly truck bombing in Mogadishu’s Km5 intersection. It’s yet unclear reason behind the move, however, it comes amid disagreement between the PM and his interior in the past few months.
The two officials were reported to be in deadlock over the Federalism and the sacking of former Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Interior, Prof Yahye Ali Ibrahim early this year. PM Khaire appointed Ibrahim as his Federal and Constitutional adviser despite rift over the implementation process of the two laws. The Minister of Security, Mohamed Abukar Islow “Dualle” was picked to chair team that is working on government’s support mission. Garowe Online learned, citing reliable sources that the members of the committee, the ministers, deputies and state ministers are a close ally of the Prime Minister Hassan Ali Khaire.
The sources added that the council of ministers for the Federal government of Somalia is divided into two parts, one allied to the PM’s office and the other isolated for being independent serving. Last week, the minister of defense, Abdirashid Abdullahi Mohamed resigned following lack of collaboration and fall-out with the Prime Minister over a dispute on the foreign financial aid to Somali military, sources said. The Minister of humanitarian and disaster management, Dr. Maryam Qasim is the key ministers barred from becoming members of the new Committee.
Italy Donates 300,000 Euros To Somali Red Crescent
19 October- Source: Shabelle News – 138 Words
Italy has donated 300,000 euros to the Somali Red Crescent following last weekend’s terrorist attack in Mogadishu, the foreign ministry in Rome said on Wednesday. “I have arranged through the Italian Cooperation Service for the emergency funding of 300,000 euros to the Federation of the International Red Cross and Red Crescent (FICROSS) to at least partly alleviate the tragic consequences of the terrorist attack in Mogadishu a few days ago” said Foreign Minister Angelino Alfano. “The Somali Red Crescent Society will be able to use this money from Italy to provide medical care to those injured in the attack”. Central Mogadishu was hit by the terrorist attack on 14 October – 327 were killed and over 400 injured. “Italy wishes to show its support to all the families of the victims and the injured,” concluded Alfano.
INTERNATIONAL MEDIA
Somalia To Set Up Civil Defense Force After Truck Bomb
19 October – Source: Anadolu Agency – 231 Words
Somalia’s president said the government is launching a civil defense force after Saturday’s deadly truck bomb attack in Mogadishu that killed over 300 people. Addressing thousands at Banadir football stadium in Mogadishu, Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed also called for unity against al-Shabaab, which is blamed for the worst terrorist attack in Somalia’s history. “Every Somali citizen has to take a gun and fight al-Shabaab,” he said. “If our African brothers come here to defend us, why not us?” he added, referring to the peacekeeping forces in the country. “We have $14 million to establish the civil defense force, and government workers and civilians must register,” he said.
Al-Shabaab has attacked our dignity, and we must respond decisively, defending our country and religion against them, he added. He urged people to turn the current national disaster into national unity. At the end of three days of national mourning, the capital Mogadishu was locked down by angry protesters as the country’s major cities held rallies against al-Shabaab. According to local media, several protesters were wounded after security forces fired live bullets.No group has claimed responsibility for the attack, but Mohamed said, “Al-Shabaab’s fingerprint could be found on the blast”. “The investigation is still ongoing, but with the help of military experts, we found that over two tons of explosives, including homemade and sophisticated military explosives, were used,” a police officer told Anadolu agency.
OPINION, ANALYSIS AND CULTURE
“Somalia’s local politics, rife with clan rivalries, have also contributed to al Shabaab’s perseverance. When a group successfully captures an area, they often offer tit-for-tat alliances to the clan, agreeing to defend them against rival clans in exchange for peacefully accepting al Shabaab’s presence. As a result, clans have frequently manipulated foreign forces,”
Somalis Fear The War Against Al-Shabaab Will Never End
19 October – Source: Vice News – 892 Words
They found hands and legs, some blackened bodies, and one business card. Wearing white shirts printed with the phrase “We never get tired of our country,” nearly 200 young Somalis gathered Tuesday at the site of this weekend’s historic terror attack to collect the remains of victims still buried among the rubble. Mogadishu is no stranger to terrorism: Since al Shabaab lost control of the capital in 2011, the city has experienced a car bomb or an assassination every few weeks.
But the attack on Saturday, caused when a truck loaded with explosives detonated beside a fuel tanker in Mogadishu’s bustling Kilometer Five intersection, was unlike anything the city had experienced. “It’s so painful. It’s unimaginable to see your city like this,” said 29-year-old Muna Hassan, who helped organize the city’s youth response in the aftermath of the attack.The attack killed 302 people and injured 429 more, according to local ambulance services, making it one of the world’s deadliest terror attacks since 9/11. In recent years, small-scale explosions have been followed by quick cleanups: Debris is removed, blood swept aside, and tables reset for serving tea hours later. But fours days after this one, while emergency personnel struggle to remove bodies from the rubble.
Mogadishu’s residents are wondering how the city they thought was on the road to stability could experience such gruesome violence and how the influx of international security support, particularly from the United States, has seemingly done so little. “The question many people are asking themselves now,” said Abdisalam Yusuf Guled, the former deputy director of Somalia’s National Intelligence and Security Agency,” is whether the government understands the root of this attack, where these people came from, and was this attack preventable.”
Under recently elected President Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed’s “stabilization campaign,” launched at the beginning of Ramadan in an attempt to crack down on the flow of arms, the city had enjoyed months of relative stability. Federal authorities limited the number of private armed security personnel in convoys moving through the city and the weapons those personnel could carry; National Intelligence and Security Service agents raided known arms dealers and seized their stocks; and more checkpoints appeared throughout the town. The strategy appeared to be working: Ramadan, a month that typically sees a spike in al Shabaab bombings, saw only one major attack and no such attacks in the three months since. But the magnitude of the blast on Saturday calls into question the long-term efficacy of a government seen as prioritizing physical security through force over a long-term comprehensive political solution. “Mogadishu is a difficult place to secure. There are so many roads — rough roads, alleys — it’s hard to search all vehicles coming into the city for explosives.”
TOP TWEETS
@AbdulBillowAli: “Down but not out”, engineers repair a section of the road destroyed in Saturday’s deadly truck bomb in KM5#Mogadishu. #Resilience #Somalia
@stability_fund: The SSF funded Hobyo airstrip has made it easier for aid agencies such as @WFPSomalia to access the town
@JustinTBrady: The @UN flag returned to half-staff today as we honor of our fallen colleague and friend Faiza Mohamed Sheik-Mohamud and all those killed
@HarunMaruf: The Mayor of #Mogadishu @ThabitMhd is to change the name of the junction of Saturday’s attack from Zobe (K-5) to October 14: local media.
@4Faisel: #Puntland had donated $500k with medical aid to help bombed #Mogadishu The amount is twice bigger than US’s aid to #Somalia after the blast. https://pbs.twimg.com/
@AKoronto: Somali minister of Information @engyarisow and#Somali Media meet to discuss best ways of aiding the Somalis affected by Zobe blast.
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/
IMAGE OF THE DAY
UN flag returned to half-staff today in honor of fallen UNDP staff Faiza Mohamed Sheikh who was killed in Saturday’s Mogadishu attack
Photo: @JustinTBrady