October 28, 2016 | Morning Headlines
Five Killed As SNA Retake Town From Al-Shabaab
27 October – Source: Garowe Online – 159 Words
Five people, including three militants were reported killed in a fierce battle between Al Shabaab and Somali National Army (SNA) soldiers at Jungal, a small village located in the outskirts of Bardhere town. The battle flared up when Somali government forces attacked Al-Shabaab base at Jungal village near Bardere city in Gedo region overnight. Two SNA soldiers were among those killed in the combat. Confirming the incident, a Somali military commander told Garowe Online over the phone that government forces drove out Al Shabaab from the area, and killed at least three militants during the offensive. The commander who spoke on condition of anonymity said Al Shabaab used the liberated area to train its militants and organize attacks against bases belonging to the Somali troops in Gedo region. Despite being pushed out of major cities and towns in South and Central Somalia, Al Qaeda-linked Al-Shabaab group, still continues to launch deadly guerrilla attacks in the Horn of Africa nation.
Key Headlines
- Five Killed As SNA Retake Town From Al-Shabaab (Garowe Online)
- Djiboutian Envoy To Somalia Visits Beledweyne Town In Hiiraan Region (SONNA)
- Hirshebbelle State President Names New Governor For Hiiraan Region (Goobjoog News)
- Four Soldiers Killed Two Injured In Mogadishu Attack (Shabelle News)
- Group: Somalia Least Likely To Punish Media Murders (Associated Press)
- Man Shot Dead Outside US Embassy In Nairobi (Daily Nation)
- Somalia: The Forgotten Story (Al Jazeera English News)
NATIONAL MEDIA
Djiboutian Envoy To Somalia Visits Beledweyne Town In Hiiraan Region
27 October – Source: SONNA – 114 Words
Djiboutian Ambassador to Somalia, H.E. Aden Hassan Aden has on Thursday visited Beledweyne town in Hiiraan region in Central Somalia to encourage Djiboutian Army contingent under AU mission there. “Al-Shabaab terrorist attack at our army base in Beledweyne town in Hiiraan region yesterday on Tuesday will not discourage, we are committed to stand shoulder to shoulder with the Somali government and people and work peace efforts here”, Mr. Aden said. At least 2 Djiboutian soldiers were killed and 5 others wounded after suicide car bomb attack in Beledweyne town where Djiboutian are based. 10 Al-Shabaab terrorist who attempted to enter into the camp were also killed on spot according AU officials in Mogadishu.
Hirshebbelle State President Names New Governor For Hiiraan Region
27 October – Source: Goobjoog News – 155 Words
Hirshebble President Ali Abdullahi Osoble replaced former Hiiraan Governor Yusuf Dabageed on Thursday. President Osoble named Ali Jayte Osman to lead the region with Immediate effect. Ali Jayte Osman- former Federal MP and minister becomes the first official to be appointed for top post since the state was formed two weeks ago. However, the replaced governor Yusuf Dabageed has protested the decision and said his replacement was too early. He said, he was not even informed. “I have just heard from the media that I was replaced with another person. I understand that the president can name someone to replace me, but I was not even told and it’s too early” said Dabageed. The new governor in his side immediately started his day by meeting Security Council of region in Beledweyne. No stated reason as to why Yusuf Dabageed was replaced but some say deteriorating security situation in the region has prompted his quick departure.
Four Soldiers Killed, Two Injured In Mogadishu Attack
27 October – Source: Shabelle News – 111 Words
At least four Somali soldiers were killed and two others wounded in an attack by suspected Al shabaab militants in Mogadishu on Thursday, Witnesses said.
The shooting occurred after gunmen said to be Al-Shabaab assailants in a speeding vehicle sprayed a car transporting soldiers with bullets at SOS area in Huriwa district. The gunmen sped off in their car after carrying out the deadly shooting, an eyewitness who did not want to be identified confirmed the incident to Radio Shabelle over the phone. No group has yet claimed responsibility for the attack, but the militant group Al shabaab has carried out similar attacks in the East African country in the past.
INTERNATIONAL MEDIA
Group: Somalia Least Likely To Punish Media Murders
27 October – Associated Press – 257 Words
For the second year in a row, Somalia topped the list of countries where the killing of journalists is most likely to go unpunished, a prominent media watchdog said.
The Committee to Protect Journalists said in a report issued Thursday that al-Shabab militants were responsible for the majority of media killings in Somalia. In Iraq and Syria, the countries that ranked second and third for impunity in media killings, the Islamic State group was responsible for most of the deaths.”Impunity in the murders of journalists emboldens would-be killers and forces the media to operate in a climate of fear, which in turn restricts information available to the public,” said Elisabeth Witchel, author of the report and CPJ’s consultant for the Global Campaign Against Impunity. “States need to urgently address this situation with robust mechanisms to protect, investigate, and prosecute when journalists are threatened or attacked.”
The report found that although most of the unpunished killings of journalists were carried out by militants, criminal groups and government officials are also behind the killings of journalists in other countries, including the Philippines, Mexico, Brazil, Russia and India. Despite the continued impunity six countries, out of 13 on the list – Bangladesh, Brazil, Pakistan, the Philippines, Russia and Somalia – convicted people charged with killing journalists in the past year. The list is made up of 13 countries where there have been five or more unsolved killings of journalists over the past decade. CPJ said around 95 percent of the victims were local reporters, most of them covering politics and corruption.
Man Shot Dead Outside US Embassy In Nairobi
27 October – Source: Daily Nation – 331 Words
A suspected Al-Shabaab terrorist was on Thursday shot dead after he stabbed a General Service Unit (GSU) officer at the heavily guarded US Embassy in Gigiri, Nairobi. “The US Embassy confirms there was a shooting incident near the Embassy. No Embassy personnel were involved. We refer you to Kenyan authorities for further details,” said a statement from the embassy. The suspect, it is reported, was trying to forcibly gain entry into the embassy when he was blocked by the Kenyan officer at the gate. The attacker stabbed the GSU officer on the head and right hand before the officer gunned him down. Dressed in a dark blue jeans and grey sweat-shirt, he pretended to be passing by the Visa section gate when he attacked the officer. Gigiri OCPD Vitalis Otieno said the suspect hails from Wajir County but could not give his name.
An eyewitness said he saw the man attack the officer to ground and that the officer, however, managed to shoot and kill his attacker. Investigations into the incident were taken over by five detectives from the Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) who collected samples and exhibits, including his blood samples. Detectives said the suspect had no mobile phone but had a Safaricom SIM card in his pocket. Documents found on him indicated that he had reported three cases at the Pangani police station but the OCPD did not give the details. Security has been beefed up within Gigiri in the last one year following terror threats.
OPINION, ANALYSIS, AND CULTURE
“Opposition to the Barre government gradually increased and in May 1988, encouraged by Ethiopia, the same northern tribes – in what had once been British Somalia – rebelled against Barre’s dictatorship. This provoked the full force of his military power and aggression and thousands of northern Somalis were killed,”
Somalia: The Forgotten Story
28 October – Source: Al Jazeera English – 607 Words
Somalia’s modern history is a tale of independence, prosperity and democracy in the 1960s, military dictatorship in the 1970s and 1980s – followed by a desperate decline into civil war and chaos almost ever since. The effect of the war has been to scatter the Somali people in their millions to refugee camps and neighbouring countries – and in their hundreds of thousands to the UK, Canada and the United States.Somalia gained independence from Britain, France and Italy in 1960. It held free and fair elections and was ruled democratically from 1960 to 1969. Once labelled the “Switzerland of Africa”, Somalia enjoyed almost a decade of democracy. The first elected president of Somalia, uniting the former British and Italian territories, was Adam Abdullah Osman who reigned for seven years. He was succeeded, freely and peacefully, by Abdirashid Ali Sharmarke. Sharmarke, however, was assassinated by one of his own bodyguards in 1969.
Prime Minister Mukhtar Mohamed Hussein took over, but his brief, six-day tenure was cut short by a military coup led by General Siad Barre, ending Somalia’s period of democratic government.Whatever its faults – and there were many – Barre’s 22-year rule effectively created modern Somalia, building one of Africa’s strongest armies and massively improving the literacy of the population. Yet Barre, who gained the support of the US and the Soviet Union, the superpowers of the day, also dissolved parliament, suspended the constitution, banned political parties, arrested politicians and curbed press freedom.”From then, there was a downward trend. In everything. A disintegration. And every time things were going down, the military regime was becoming more brutal and more dictatorial,” says Jama Mohamed Ghalib, a former Somali government minister. But when Barre launched the Ogaden war in 1977 to take the Somali majority region from Ethiopia, it provoked serious international opposition, including that of the Soviet Union which had once supported Barre but now sided with Ethiopia. The Somali army was forced to withdraw.