October 5, 2016 | Morning Headlines
Four People Injured After Bomb Explosion Went Off On Busy Street In Somali Capital- Mogadishu
04 October – Source: Goobjoog News – 130 Words
Four people including university lecturer sustained varying injuries after bomb attached to a luxury car went off on Tuesday, in Mogadishu’s Wadajir district. University lecturer and activist Abdiwali Badi got one of his legs amputated and doctors said he in critical condition but stable. The bomb, which was attached to the lecturer’s car exploded when he stopped to repair a punctured tire. “Four people sustained injuries, one university lecturer and three others. All of them are civilians,” said Aboukar Ahmed- the deputy security chief of wadajir district. No group has claimed responsibility of the attack, but Al-Shabaab has in the past claimed responsibility of similar attacks. Three days ago, a car bomb, which killed five people in Bluesky restaurant in Somali capital Mogadishu was claimed by Al-Shabaab militants in Somalia.
Key Headlines
- Four People Injured After Bomb Explosion Went Off On Busy Street In Somali Capital- Mogadishu(Goobjoog News)
- AMISOM And SNA Forces Launch Security Operations In Elbur (Goobjoog News)
- Jowhar Voted As The Capital For Hiiraan-Middle Shabelle State (Garowe Online)
- Rain Seeking Prayers Performed Across Puntland Towns (Goobjoog News)
- Germany: Man Indicted For Joining Al-Shabaab In Somalia (Associated Press)
- We Don’t Want More Refugees Says Jubaland As It Stops Flights (The Star)
- Refugees Stranded In Somalia After Kenya Eviction (Al Jazeera English)
NATIONAL MEDIA
AMISOM And SNA Forces Launch Security Operations In Elbur
04 October – Source: Goobjoog News – 180 Words
Ethiopian troops under African Union and Somali forces have launched a large-scale sweep in Elbur town in Hiiraan region following Al-Shabaab attack on the area’s days ago, locals said. The forces commenced door-to-door searches at dawn on Monday in the area. A local resident who asked not to be named said forces began operations, searches aimed to Smoke out Al-Shabaab members who blend in with the people.“Al-Shabaab attacked the area’s days ago and the forces come to this area to hunt the perpetrators and Al-Shabaab sympathizers in the area,” he said.
He noted that the move was aimed at eradicating “anti-peace” groups as well as restoring peace and security around the town. “This is a normal security operation of the security forces aimed at ensuring peace and security of our community and eliminate few elements who want to cause trouble,” he said.
Another local resident said the forces were on Monday morning deployed in the areas. “They are checking everybody. They have arrested two youths, whom they suspected of being members of Al-Shabaab,” said a resident who sought anonymity.
Jowhar Voted As The Capital For Hiiraan-Middle Shabelle State
04 October – Source: Garowe Online – 228 Words
Traditional elders attending the inter-state formation conference for Hiiraan-Middle Shabelle regions, have voted to assign Jowhar as the new state capital. Jowhar city, which is hosting the second phase of the inter-state conference, was unofficially appointed as the capital for the forthcoming state, following a vote by over 200 delegates amid the absences of prominent elders from Hiiraan region, who boycotted the conference, citing the process is “unfair”. It is still unclear whether the voting was official or not, as some of Hiiraan prominent elders are still boycotting the conference.Hiiran-Middle Shabelle is the only remaining Federal member state to be formed before country’s polls due to conclude November 30. Continuous disagreements and mistrust between the Federal Government and traditional elders from both regions, led to the collapse of previous talks aimed to facilitate state formation.
The conference is attended by Somali government officials and some clan leaders, sponsored by Somalia’s Interior Ministry, which announced that the conference will be wrapped up in mid October with the formation of new state, while the upcoming third phase will conclude with the selection of new parliamentarians and a head of state. The process which was set to end last year has failed, after regional elders accused Somali government of interfering with the selection of delegates to the conference, a matter which degenerated into the collapse of the state formation process.
Rain Seeking Prayers Performed Across Puntland Towns
04 October – Source: Goobjoog News – 288 Words
Rain-Seeking Prayer was performed by a large number of people in all parts of Semi-autonomous region of Puntland this morning in practicing of traditions of Prophet Mohammed (Peace be upon him) whenever rain is delayed, praying that Allah Almighty will bring rains to all parts of the country. In Garowe, Puntland minister for agriculture accompanied by the ministry’s directors attended rain seeking prayers with the public to seek the mercy and grace of Allah, due to prolonged drought and lower precipitation of anticipated rainfall in the spring season.
Citizens across the regional state attended rain seeking prayers in all towns and villages of Puntland due to a drought which caused hardships to all. Rain seeking prayers have also been performed across the regions and cities of Puntland as people gathered in places destined for the prayers to be performed. In Sermons at the end of prayers performed, the Imams exhorted the congregations of the need to repent and return to Allah (Subhanahu Wa Ta’ala) pointing out that the lack of rain is the result of the sins of mankind.
The Imams and congregations at all places where prayers have been performed raised hands as required religiously invoking Allah as much as possible to call upon him for forgiveness and to shower on them his bounties. The performance of rain-seeking prayer was on Saturday declared by Puntland’s minister for Justice. “I hereby to inform all residents of Puntland including towns and villages to come out for the seek Allah and perform Rain-seeking prayers on Monday” he said. It’s for this season, that the prophet Mohamed peace of Allah be Upon him made it a custom on the Muslim Ummah to resort to this prayer whenever affected by this calamity.
INTERNATIONAL MEDIA
Germany: Man Indicted For Joining Al-Shabaab In Somalia
04 October – Source: Associated Press – 127 Words
Prosecutors have indicted a German man accused of joining the Islamic extremist group al-Shabab in Somalia on terrorism charges.German federal prosecutors said Tuesday that the indictment against the 28-year-old identified only as Abshir Ahmed A., in line with German privacy rules, was filed Sept. 12 at a Frankfurt court. The suspect was arrested at Frankfurt airport as he returned home in July.The charges include membership in a foreign terrorist organization and violation of weapons control laws.Prosecutors say the man is believed to have joined al-Shabab in Somalia in 2012, undergoing weapons training and then being deployed in a defensive position for the group. They say that health problems forced him out of that posting.Al-Shabab is waging an insurgency against Somalia’s weak western-backed government.
We Don’t Want More Refugees, Says Jubaland As It Stops Flights
04 October – Source: The Star, Kenya – 257 Words
Repatriation of Somali refugees from the Daadab camp has been suspended after the Jubaland administration refused to resettle returnees.Flights to the Somali capital, Mogadishu, were suspended due to security concerns, after al Shabaab staged suicide attacks in recent weeks.On August 31, Jubaland, through its Interior minister Mohamed Darwish, refused to receive about 2,000 refugees, mainly women and children. Darwish cited inadequate humanitarian support and “security risks” as the basis of their decision.
UNHCR Kenya Public Information Unit officer Duke Mwencha said after negotiations, the semi-autonomous region allowed in the stranded refugees, but vowed to receive no more.The Star has learnt efforts by Kenya and the UN refugee agency to convince Somalia to receive more returnees have not been successful.
Mwencha said repatriation will resume once security in the designated areas, especially in the capital, improves.
Many refugees have signed up to relocate to Jubaland due to its close proximity to the Kenyan border.The regions designated to receive the refugees are Baidoa, Bal-ad, Belet Weyne, Jowar, Kismayo, Luuq, and Mogadishu.“The refugees are dumped in an open place. We cannot afford to keep them in this condition. Our main city Kismayu is full of repatriated refugees,” Darwish said.“We opted to keep them at the transit centres at the border until the situation is improved. They had a good life in Dadaab. But here they are not getting anything.
OPINION, ANALYSIS, AND CULTURE
“Somalis are returning to Kismayo in a “voluntary” process to a homeland still stricken by war, drought, and hardship,”
Refugees Stranded In Somalia After Kenya Eviction
04 October – Source: Al Jazeera English – 1144 Words
The camp sprawls across a grey sand dune overlooking the Indian Ocean. A multitude of small shacks lashed together quickly by hand using whatever could be found: crumpled sheet-metal, acacia branches and cardboard. Children play in heaps of rubbish.
More than 16,000 people are living here, destitute and stranded, on the fringes of Kismayo, a port town in Jubaland state, on Somalia’s southern frontier.”There is nothing, there are no good services here… We don’t have a house, no education, no health, no work. We don’t know where to go and where to find what we need,” said Ahmed Mohamed Abukar, a father who returned to Kismayo – his hometown – in February.Abukar arrived in a truck with his wife and six children, crossing the wild border from northeastern Kenya where his family had lived as refugees for seven years in Dadaab, the world’s largest refugee camp.
He said he felt forced to return to Somalia because of food and healthcare cuts in Dadaab last year, and because of threats from the Kenyan authorities, he told Al Jazeera, seated on a plastic chair in the sand, a crowd of fellow returnees gathering around him.Abukar knew the situation in Kismayo would be worse than Dadaab. He suspected scant help for the returnees and he knew his country was still at war.Nevertheless, the United Nations refugee agency (UNHCR) has spent much of 2016 trucking and flying thousands of Somalis back into their country as part of a “voluntary repatriation” agreement between that organisation, the Kenyan government, and the fledgling federal government of Somalia.
Between December 2014, a year after the repatriation agreement was reached, and September 2016, a total of 30,731 Somali refugees from Dadaab went through the voluntary return process, according to UNHCR statistics. Of that total, 24,630 were returned in 2016 alone as the process was accelerated under pressure from the Kenyan government to close the camp. Kismayo is the first main town after the Dhobley border crossing and an island of relative security.