October 26, 2017 | Daily Monitoring Report
Suicide Bomber And Baby Killed In Botched Terror Plot In Mogadishu
26 October – Source: Goobjoog News – 299 Words
A bomb blast in a rental house in the outskirts of Karaan, a northern Mogadishu district has killed the perpetrator, his infant baby and injured his wife and another teenager who was also a tenant in the same house. The man who travelled yesterday from Qoryoley in the Lower Shabelle, which is largely under Al-Shabaab fighters is alleged to have died on the spot after the improvised explosive bomb he was making went off.
Speaking to the media, the Kaaran deputy commissioner in charge of policy and security, Salah Mohamed Muse said the man had travelled a day before from Qoryoley, Lower Shabelle region. “The man traveled yesterday from Qoryoley which is under the control of the peace haters [Alshabab]. He and his infant child were killed while the wife and another boy sustained injuries.”
The local security personnel who responded to the explosion sealed off the house and when they carried further inspection inside the low-income rental house, found more explosive devices in the compound. “When we searched the house, we found two unused hand grenades. The guy wasn’t a soldier but he is alleged to be a member of the [Al-shabaab] group” added the local commissioner.
The owners of the house have been placed under police custody and are currently under investigation on why they have ignored regulations on recording new tenants with the local administration for security purposes. “We have to interrogate who and when was the house rented to the man and we have arrested the owners. Regulations are in place for registering tenants with the local administration and anyone who ignores this will shoulder the consequences,” the official said. He noted the house in question has not been rented out procedurally since since they were no records indicating the suspect had rented the house.
Key Headlines
- Suicide Bomber And Baby Killed In Botched Terror Plot In Mogadishu (Goobjoog News)
- Policewoman Shot Dead In Mogadishu (Radio Dalsan)
- Heavy Inter-Clan Fighting Renews Near Galkayo Town (Shabelle News)
- Galmudug Says It May Not Attend Mogadishu Conference (Dhacdo.com)
- AU UN And Somali Federal Government Hold Crisis Meeting On Mogadishu Bomb Attack (AMISOM)
- Somali-American Father Killed In Bombing Dreamed Of Building A Place That Was More Than ‘War And Guns (ABC News)
NATIONAL MEDIA
Policewoman Shot Dead In Mogadishu
25 October – Source: Radio Dalsan – 77 Words
A police woman was on Wednesday night shot dead by unknown gunmen in Mogadishu’s Hodan district. The officer identified as Kaaha Jama was in the company of her daughter when the incident happened. According to a resident of Hodan Officer Jama had taken her daughter for shopping as the night set in before she fell to gunshots. Police have launched an investigation into the killing and Jama’s body is at the moment laying at the CID headquarters.
Heavy Inter-Clan Fighting Renews Near Galkayo Town
26 October – Source: Radio Shabelle News – 126 Words
Reports reaching Radio Shabelle’s news desk from Mudug region in central Somalia indicate that a fierce inter-clan battle has renewed at areas near Galkayo city on Thursday. A resident says the fighting between two clans hailing from Puntland and Galmudug states flared up at Godad and Gacmafale, two rural villages located on the outskirts of Galkayo.
The two sides have exchanged a heavy and small arms in the combat, which has caused casualties but the number of the people killed or wounded have not been confirmed yet. Puntland and Galmudug have not so far commented on the ongoing skirmish. This comes days after a heavy gun battle took place in Sangaduud area, about 50Km away from Galkayo, the regional capital of Mudug province in central Somalia.
Galmudug Says It May Not Attend Mogadishu Conference
26 October – Source: Dhacdo.com – 124 Words
The administration of Galmudug has strongly complained about individuals it accuses of spoiling the peace and stability of the Federal Members State which it says are representatives of the Federal Government of Somalia. According to a press release, the administration says the individuals are using state resources to fight the embattled Galmudug leader and have strengthened their campaign after President, Mohamed Abdullahi Farmaajo invited Presidents of the Federal Member States to a consultative meeting to be held in Mogadishu on Friday. The Federal Member State says if the challenges continue it will be difficult for President Xaaf to attend the talks in Mogadishu calling on the government to address their grievance.
INTERNATIONAL MEDIA
AU, UN And Somali Federal Government Hold Crisis Meeting On Mogadishu Bomb Attack
26 October – Source: AMISOM – 537 Words
A crisis meeting bringing together the African Union (AU), United Nations (UN), the Federal Government of Somalia (FGS) and other key stakeholders to review the recent bomb attack in the Somali capital, Mogadishu, yesterday agreed on key measures aimed at deterring future attacks. The Joint Crisis Management Team meeting, organized by the African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM), was attended by senior UN officials led by the Deputy Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General (DSRSG) for Somalia, Raisedon Zenenga, and top FGS security chiefs, including the new Chief of Defence Forces (CDF), Maj. Gen. Abdiweli Jama Hussein.
Speaking after the meeting, the Deputy Special Representative of the Chairperson of the African Union Commission (DSRCC) for Somalia, Simon Mulongo, noted that the consultation was meant to avert and mitigate future incidents, through improved security and enhanced coordination. “The meeting has agreed on putting in place some mitigating measures of better response in future. We have a technical team that is going to work out more details in terms of sequence and form of response and how quickly that response can be, and secondly, we shall have our efforts coordinated in a manner that is more orderly and ensure that command and control issues are properly fleshed out,” Mr. Mulongo explained, adding that the meeting also agreed to have a standby team to respond to future incidents.
OPINION, ANALYSIS AND CULTURE
“Eyow dreamed of helping those children get an education so they could lift up their nation. In addition to the library, he also hoped to build a place where they could simply be children, with playgrounds, basketball courts, and even a pool,”
Somali-American Father Killed In Bombing Dreamed Of Building A Place That Was More Than ‘War And Guns’
25 October- Source: ABC News- 1254 Words
After putting their three children to bed in Bloomington, Minnesota, Ruun Abdi and her husband would stay up late, just to talk. He was the first man she met when she came to America and the two had been married nearly 17 years, but they never tired of laughing together. “We’d drink tea together in the middle of the night, talking and laughing,” Abdi, 45, told ABC News. “He was my best friend.”
But on Oct. 14, as her husband, Ahmed Abdikarin Eyow, 52, checked into his hotel room on a visit to his native Mogadishu, Somalia, a truck bomb went off near the Safari Hotel, killing more than 350 people and injuring more than hundreds of others. At least two victims, including Eyow, were U.S. citizens, according to the State Department. Eyow, a Muslim and a Somali refugee, had been in the city only a few hours when he died in the blast.
Abdi, also a U.S. citizen, said she was in the parking lot of the Islamic center in Bloomington when her brother-in-law called to tell her the news. “He said, ‘Something happened to the hotel where Ahmed was and people over there they can’t find him.’ And at that time, my world just crashed. I couldn’t move, I couldn’t drive the car. I just stopped the car and I started calling people,” she said. “We waited and waited and waited and waited until around six o’clock. Finally, we get the call and they say they find his body.”
Al-Shabaab, which pledged allegiance to al-Qaeda in 2012, claimed responsibility for the Mogadishu bombing. It was the deadliest attack in the country’s history, but far from the only one. Al-Shabab, an international terrorist group, launched an insurgency on major cities in Somalia beginning in 2009. Although it has lost control of many urban centers and towns, the group has continued to carry out deadly attacks in the northern part of the country.
Among those killed in the Oct. 14 bombing were Somali-Americans like Eyow. After fleeing as refugees, many of them resettled in Minnesota, which is home to the largest Somali community in the United States, according to census data. Nearly 74,000 people in Minnesota speak some Somali, according to estimates released by the U.S. Census Bureau. “We know at least 200 families or 200 individuals in our community have lost a relative in this bombing, whether it’s a first cousin or a relative, or a distant cousin,” Jaylani Hussein, the executive director for the Council on American Islamic Relations in Minnesota, told ABC News. “It’s not just relatives, but it’s also close friends.”
TOP TWEETS
@HarunMaruf: #Somalia: On his return from Uganda, Ethiopia and Djibouti, @M_Farmaajo vows to “take the war to Al-Shabab” and “deny them time to plan”.
@GermanyinKenya: Congratulating #Somalia on progress with Development & Rehabilitation Facility. Germany @BMZ_Bundhappy to co-chair infrastructure pillar
@HarunMaruf: 5 dead in renewed clashes bwn coalition of Southwest-Robow militias vs Al-Shabab militants in Korkor and Sarman villages near Abal: reports
@amisomsomalia: #AMISOM troops on routine patrol yesterday morning, between #Arbiska & #Lafoole towns, encountered an Al-Shabaab IED & ambush attack.
@HassanIstiila: #BREAKING: President @M_Farmaajo has fired 8 Ambassadors representing #Somalia in China, Uganda, Djibuti, UAE, Qatar, Kuwait, Zambia & Sudan
@HassanIstiila: #BREAKING: Gunmen shot dead a woman identified as Kaaho Jiis in #Mogadishu‘s Hodan district.#Somalia
@HarunMaruf: Breaking: The 1st and longest serving commander of Somali police force Gen Mohamed Abshir Muse dies in the US, he was reportedly 91: Govt
IMAGE OF THE DAY
Somali PM Hassan Ali Kharye inspect a guard of honor in Ankara, Turkey where he was welcomed by his Turkish counterpart Binali Yildirim.
Photo: @TC_Basbakan