October 3, 2013 | Morning Headlines.

Main Story

Somalia, Canada vow to re-open embassies

02 Oct – Source: AFP – 139 words

After more than 20 years of limited diplomatic relations, Canada and Somalia are hoping to trade embassies in the near future. In a joint press conference with Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird Tuesday, Somali Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation Fawzia Yusuf Adam said Somalia will open an embassy in Ottawa “soon.” “We are going to soon nominate our ambassador to Washington, who will be a resident ambassador for Canada,” said Adam. “Soon after that we will have an embassy and the Somali flag flying in Ottawa.” While Baird said Canada would “love” to see embassies open in both countries, he did not clearly indicate when Canada would open a mission in Somalia. He said that “fiscal realities” and the security costs in the capital city of Mogadishu are obstacles holding Canada back.

Key Headlines

Landmine explosion targets residential area in Kismayo (Raxanreeb/Kismaayo News)
Two journalists arrested in Las’Anod (Bar-kulan)
Al Shabaab fighters attack Mahaday town (Raxanreeb/Bar-kulan/Shabelle)
Briton held over mall attack freed (Star News)
Veteran journalist escapes assassination attempt in Mogadishu (Radio Dalsan)
Puntland VP resolves clan tensions in Sool region (Garowe Online)
Somalia Canada vow to re-open embassies (AFP)
Kenya Westgate attack: DNA tests after body parts found (BBC)
AFM soldiers back from Somalia anti-piracy mission (Times of Malta)

SOMALI MEDIA

Landmine explosion targets residential area in Kismayo

02 Oct – Source: Raxanreeb/Kismaayo News – 75 words

Reports from Somalia’s port city of Kismayo confirm that a landmine explosion on WEdnesday targeted a residential area in the town. According to residents and security officials, there were no casualties confirmed. Several elders and other officials were staying at the homes near the blast area, as the security officials said it was not immediately clear if the exact target was the elders or the officials.

Two journalists arrested in Las’Anod

02 Oct – Source: Bar-kulan – 99 words

Two reporters operating in Las’Anod, the administrative capital of the northern Sool region of Somalia have been arrested by Somaliland authority on Wednesday. Mohamed Shaqale Ashur, a journalist working for Somsat TV, a privately-owned television station based in London and Aden Mohamed Karama of Universal TV, a Somali television station in London as well were accused of reporting false information. Speaking to Bar-kulan, secretary of Somaliland’s local council in Las’Anod Abdi Khayre Dirir said that they two TV journalists were arrested after they reported baseless information on local government conducting operation intended to demolish illegal buildings along the road.

Al Shabaab fighters attack Mahaday town

02 Oct – Source: Raxanreeb/Bar-kulan/Shabelle – 74 words

Fighters from Somalia militant group Al Shabab have attacked Mahaday town in Middle Shabelle region on Wednesday. Residents said the fighters launched attacks on the town early in the morning as the sound of the heavy machine guns were heard by the residents. Regional spokesman Daud Hagi Irro said the government forces and AMISOM forces repelled the insurgent group and noted that the security was tightened in the area.

Veteran journalist escapes assassination attempt in Mogadishu

02 Oct – Source: Radio Dalsan – 93 words

Yasiin Mohamed Ali, known as Yasiin fayte, a former director of a Somali Sat TV, has survived an assassination attempt last week when he was attacked while driving to his home in Wadjir neighborhood of Mogadishu Somalia . Yasin told Radio Dalsan in an interview that he knows the attackers but he doesn’t want to reveal them. “I reported to the police, specifically the CID, and I know the group that is behind the attack but I don’t want to say anything until police finish their investigation,” said Yasin.

Puntland VP resolves clan tensions in Sool region

02 Oct – Source: Garowe Online – 105 words

The Vice President of Somalia’s Puntland government Gen. Abdisamad Ali Shire has on Wednesdayconcluded a month-long mediations between two fraternal clans in Sool region, Garowe Online reports. Speaking at an event held for the agreement in Taleh district of Sool region, 80 km north of Puntland capital, Garowe Gen. Shire commended the role of the two clans’ traditional elders during the mediation efforts which he said finally paved a way inclusive “consensus”. “I had been speeding up enormous efforts to make this occasion possible, frankly speaking the points of the agreement would be encouraging and progressive issue for Sool region inhabitants,” said Gen. Shire.

REGIONAL MEDIA

Briton held over mall attack freed

02 Oct – Source: Star News – 132 words

The Briton arrested by Anti-Terrorism police at the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport a day after the Westgate Shopping Mall attack has been released. Thirty five-year-old Sharif Ahmed Abdirizak, a Briton of Somali origin, was arrested while trying to board a plane to UK. He was released yesterday with no charges, eight days after he was arrested. He has been in detention under the anti-terrorism laws which allow for a suspect to be held for more than the 24-hour maximum period for other suspects. Initial reports indicated that he was found with a laptop that had a downloaded map of the Westgate Mall. According to the Daily Mail, a British Foreign Office spokesman confirmed that a Briton had been released from custody in Nairobi and is free to go back to the UK.

INTERNATIONAL MEDIA

Somalia, Canada vow to re-open embassies

02 Oct – Source: AFP – 139 words

Kenya Westgate attack: DNA tests after body parts found

02 Oct – Source: BBC – 120 words

Relatives of some of the people missing after the attack on a Kenyan shopping mall have come forward for DNA testing. The police made the request after the discovery of body parts. The four-day siege by Somali Islamist militants left 67 people dead; a further 39 are still missing. The BBC’s Robert Kiptoo says there have been conflicting reports about whether all the bodies have been retrieved from the Westgate shopping centre in the capital Nairobi. At least three bodies were brought to Nairobi’s morgue on Tuesday, he said. Al Shabaab, a Somali group linked to al Qaeda, said its militants had stormed the shopping centre in the Kenyan capital Nairobi on 21 September in retaliation for Kenya’s military involvement in Somalia.

AFM soldiers back from Somalia anti-piracy mission

02 Oct – Source: Times of Malta – 109 words

The AFM’s Special Duties Enhanced Boarding Team (SDEBT), led by Lt Col Ian Ruggier, has returned from an anti-piracy operation off the coast of Somalia. The team of three officers and 19 other ranks was based on the Dutch Navy ship HNLMS Johan de Witt. Their service was part of the EU Led Anti-Piracy mission codenamed EU NAV FOR ATALANTA. The Maltese contingent performed several board-and-search operations in the Gulf of Aden, deterring pirate attacks in the region, the AFM said. This was the third such operation by Maltese soldiers. Dutch Marines have now taken over the protection duties that were previously being carried out by the Maltese forces.

SOCIAL MEDIA

CULTURE / OPINION / EDITORIAL / ANALYSIS / BLOGS/ DISCUSSION BOARDS

“My favourite description of the country came from Souleiman Youssouf, a 35-year-old Somalilander who lives and works in Canada but tries to visit every year. “Somaliland is a naked man in a tie,” he told me, in a vivid reference to the way the country spans extremes of development.”

Reporting back: Katrina Manson on Somaliland

2 Oct- Source: Financial Times Blog-819 Words

In our Reporting Back series, we ask FT foreign correspondents to tell us about a recent trip. Katrina Manson, the FT’s east Africa correspondent, tells us about her visit to Somaliland. Why now? It was the perfect chance to visit the annual Hargeisa International Book Fair, now into its sixth year. For a nation that wrote down its script only 40 years ago, traditions of poetry and oral history still dominate – whether in assessing the value of a camel, the improprieties of a corrupt state or the riches of secret romance. For six days, writers from Kenya, Nigeria and the UK fly into the small capital as it celebrates its nomadic traditions with daily readings, dance, music and book sales of works from local favourites to Anton Chekhov and George Orwell. Somaliland – a self-declared republic that announced its separation from the Mogadishu government in Somalia 22 years ago – is also trying to improve itself in the absence of international recognition and in spite of dire finances.