October 7, 2013 | Daily Monitoring Report.
Hagel says raids in Somalia, Libya send “strong message” to world
07 Oct – Source: Kuwait News Agency – 290 words
US Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel stressed here late Sunday that operations recently conducted in Libya and Somalia “send a strong message to the world that the United States will spare no effort to hold terrorists accountable, no matter where they hide or how long they evade justice.” Al Qaeda operative Abu Anas Al Libi, captured by US forces in the Libyan capital of Tripoli, is wanted for his role in the deadly 1998 bombings of two US embassies in Africa.
A team of US Navy SEALs also carried out a raid in southern Somalia targeting a leader of Al-Shabaab, which was behind last month’s mall attack in Kenya. Hagel said in a statement in this regard, “over the weekend, U.S. military personnel conducted operations in Libya and Somalia to bring international terrorists to justice.”
He commended “all of the service members who were involved in the planning and execution of these two operations, which demonstrate the unparalleled precision, global reach, and capabilities of the United States military.” “As a result of the Libya operation, one of the world’s most wanted terrorists was captured and is now in U.S. custody,” he noted.
Key Headlines
- Hagel says raids in Somalia Libya send “strong message” to world (KUNA News)
- Somaliland closes Somalia’s E-Passport office in Hargeisa (Raxanreeb/BBC Somali Service)
- Police offer reward for information on mall attack (AFP)
- Families return to Kismayo from Dadaab (Radio Ergo)
- AMISOM engaging global Somali diaspora (Raxanreeb)
- Kenya: Police say terror suspect Omar Nabhan escaped 2003 raid (Standard Media)
- Somali league match postponed due to torrential rains (Raxanreeb)
- Kenya police identify terror suspects (Daily Nation)
- Renown Somali cleric receives imminent death threats from al Shabaab (Radio Mustaqbal/Somali Channel TV)
- Ethiopia says no plans to withdraw troops from Somalia (AFP)
SOMALI MEDIA
Families return to Kismayo from Dadaab
07 Oct – Source: Radio Ergo/Dhanaan Online – 163 words
More than 300 families have returned from the refugee camps in Dadaab, northern Kenya, to their home area of Kismayo in recent weeks. They are mainly women and children from Ifo, and Hagardhera camps in Dadaab. They have settled temporarily in a new camp in the western corner of the port city of Kismayo.
“We have returned home because of the hardship of life in the camps, the food rations we used to receive reduced and security deteriorated,” Halima, a mother of seven children, told Radio Ergo’s reporter in Kismayo.
Halima said their two day journey from the Dadaab camps to Kismayo was peaceful and they had encountered no problems on the road. However, she said they were now suffering a food and water shortage in Kismayo. Mohamud Muse Ali, also recently returned to Kismayo, said people coming home had no shelter and not enough food. He said the numbers coming back to the city were increasing.
Somaliland closes Somalia’s E-Passport office in Hargeisa
07 Oct – Source: Raxanreeb/Hiiraan Online/BBC Somali Service – 98 words
Somaliland police have on Sunday closed an office in Hargeisa, the region’s capital where citizens used to apply for the Electronic Passport issued by the federal government of Somalia, RBC Radio reports.
Somaliland Interior Minister Ali Mohamed Warancade said the police found the office which he termed as illegal agent operating in Somaliland capital to issue the E-passport of Somalia.
“We have closed illegal office in Hargeisa.,” the minister said in an interview with the BBC Somali Service. “The police also apprehended several people in connection with the office and issuing Somali passport to the citizens of Somaliland.”
Somali league match postponed due to torrential rains
07 Oct – Source: Raxanreeb – 191 words
Torrential rains in Somali capital on Sunday caused the postponement of Somali Division C league match, Somali Football Federation Media officer announced in a press statement.
A little while before midday, the Somali Football Federation has announced the decision to postpone the match due to the torrential rain which continued for many hours on Sunday.
“The decision to postpone the scheduled match: Raadsan VS Bariga Dhexe, was taken by the SFF competitions affairs committee after members from the committee visited the Somali University Stadium and they confirmed that the open ground facility wasn’t ready to host the match” Somali Football Federation Chief Media officer Shafi’i Mohyaddin Abokar said in a press statement.
Renown Somali cleric receives imminent death threats from al Shabaab
07 Oct – Source: Radio Mustaqbal/Somali Channel TV – 179 words
Somali cleric Sheikh Mohamed Abdi Umal who is one of Somali prominent islamic scholars has expressed deep concern over threats from al Shabaab militants towards him. The Sheikh said that al Shabaab sent consecutive threats through the internet, his cell phone and sources informed him that al Shabaab are plotting assassination attempt against his life and that of another Sheikh called ‘Sheikh Mohamud Shibile’
Sheikh Umal said al Shabaab has prepared hit men, who according to him, are already in Kenya and are acting on orders to finish the two of them. “We have received threats and intimidations, from different sources, some of them within al Shabaab, that warned that they are targeting those scholars, including myself and Sheikh Shibile, who spoke about Westgate attack,” he said.
Meanwhile, Sheikh Umal said the attack at Westgate has nothing to do with Islam, adding that the religion doesn’t allow the humans to be killed aimlessly as many people were killed in the mall attack.
Leader of Jubba Admin jets back to Kismayo
06 Oct – Source: Kismaayo Online/Dhanaan Online/Kismaayo News – 106 words
The leader of the Interim Jubba Administration on Sunday returned to Kismayo after attending the Somalia New Deal Conference held in Brussels. On arrival, Ahmed Mohamed Islam (Ahmed Madobe) was warmly received by deputy leader, Gneeral Abdullahi Fartag and other Jubba officials.
After attending the Brussels Somalia conference, the IJA leader visited Denmark and Kenya, according to Iman Rashid Gure, IJA official. There are reports saying that he is planning to announce members of his cabinet during this week.
AMISOM engaging global Somali diaspora
06 Oct – Source: Raxanreeb – 181 words
The Special Representative of the Chairperson of the African Union Commission (SRCC) for Somalia and Head of the African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM), Ambassador Mahamat Saleh Annadif will, over this weekend, met with the Somali community in Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA.
The two-day consultative conference is part of AMISOM’s efforts at engaging the global Somali diaspora on developments in Somalia as well as facilitating their contributions to the peace, security, reconciliation and reconstruction of their country.
The consultations was held at a Town Hall in the evening of Saturday, 5th October during which Ambassador Annadif provided insights into the mandate and activities of AMISOM while the second day, 6th October featured workshops on concrete proposal of how the diaspora can contribute to women and youth employment, national reconciliation and institutional development in Somalia.
Puntland: Disabled people are encouraged to participate in local politics
06 Oct – Source: Radio Ergo – 205 words
Disabled people’s organizations gathered in Puntland’s capital Garowe this week to discuss ways to improve disabled people’s awareness of their rights and roles to play within the community. The two-day conference, organized by Puntland’s Disability Organizations Network, encouraged those living with disabilities to participate actively in local politics as Puntland’s presidential elections draw closer.
Mohamed Farah, director of Handicap, said: “As Puntland is becoming a multiparty semi-autonomous administration, we are advocating for disabled people’s involvement in good governance and politics, to have members in the political parties and to participate in voting in the elections.” The 66 members of Puntland’s parliament are due to choose a new president of the regional government on 8 January 2014. The incumbent president, Abdirahman Mohamed Farole, and former Somali prime minister Abdiweli Mohamed Gas are among the hopeful candidates.
As well as political participation, the 21 local organizations discussed other ways in which disabled people can be integrated into the mainstream of society. Farah said the gathering aimed at encouraging disabled people to see themselves as equal to able bodied people. “The disabled also should go to school, work on their own economic development and health services,” Farah said.
Somaliland: SOLJA Concludes Training on Ethics
06 Oct – Source: Somaliland Sun – 128 words
The content produced by local media houses is set for dramatic change as pertains to strict adherence to professional ethics proper sourcing of information as well as proper observation and utilization of the constitutionally enshrined Freedom of press and speech.
Three days Ethics training for over 20 journalists representing public and private media houses implemented by the Somaliland Journalist Association-SOLJA with funding from the National Endowment for Democracy-NED concluded at the Imperial hotel in Hargeisa where participants concurred on the relevance of acquired skills.
Officially closing the training, the secretary general of SOLJA Mr. Mohamed-Rashid Muhumed Farah urged participants to not only utilize their acquired skills but become on the job trainers to their colleagues, adding that similar activities are to be conducted on a regular basis.
REGIONAL MEDIA
Hagel says raids in Somalia, Libya send “strong message” to world
07 Oct – Source: Kuwait News Agency – 290 words
US Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel stressed here late Sunday that operations recently conducted in Libya and Somalia “send a strong message to the world that the United States will spare no effort to hold terrorists accountable, no matter where they hide or how long they evade justice.” Al Qaeda operative Abu Anas Al Libi, captured by US forces in the Libyan capital of Tripoli, is wanted for his role in the deadly 1998 bombings of two US embassies in Africa.
A team of US Navy SEALs also carried out a raid in southern Somalia targeting a leader of Al-Shabaab, which was behind last month’s mall attack in Kenya.
Hagel said in a statement in this regard, “over the weekend, U.S. military personnel conducted operations in Libya and Somalia to bring international terrorists to justice.” He commended “all of the service members who were involved in the planning and execution of these two operations, which demonstrate the unparalleled precision, global reach, and capabilities of the United States military.” “As a result of the Libya operation, one of the world’s most wanted terrorists was captured and is now in U.S. custody,” he noted.
Kenya: Police say terror suspect Omar Nabhan escaped 2003 raid
07 Oct – Source: Standard Media – 334 words
Intelligence agents in Mombasa believe Omar Nabhan, who is said to have taken part in the Westgate terrorist attack, may have escaped from Mombasa after a raid on his father’s residence following the 2002 bombing of an Israeli hotel in Kikambala, Kilifi.
Agents have disclosed to The Standard that Omar, his father and other family members have been living in Barawa town in Southern Somalia for a decade. This is after the fugitive fled a house in Mombasa in 2003 as police closed in.
The agents claim that Omar may have met Sheikh Ibrahim, whose killing on Thursday sparked riots in Mombasa, earlier this year, after slipping in from Somalia to plot attacks in Mombasa and Nairobi.
Kenya police identify terror suspects
06 Oct – Source: Daily Nation – 491 words
Police have released photographs of two men believed to have been involved in the Westgate attack. The two have been identified as Abdukadir Haret Muhamed alias Muhammed Hussein. He is light skinned and about 5.8 feet tall. He speaks fluent Kiswahili and Sheng. He is believed to be a Kenyan from Mandera.
The other is identified as Adan Dheq, alias Hussein Abdi Ali, alias Abdulahi Dugon Subow. He is of dark and wears spectacles. He also speaks broken Kiswahili. Police Inspector General David Kimaiyo has offered a reward of Sh500,000 for the arrest of the two suspects.
Mogadishu-Jubba peace deal clears air over loyalty of KDF
05 Oct – Source: East African – 532 words
The recent agreement between the Somalia government and the Jubbaland administration has improved the security situation in Kismayo but the fight for resources between the clans remains a major challenge.
It has also downplayed the previous tension over concerns that the Kenya Defence Forces (KDF) — serving under the African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM) — were getting sucked into local politics and behaving like an occupational force.
According to Dr Muhammed Ali, a specialist on conflict in the Horn of Africa, the agreement was a positive political development that cooled earlier suspicions between Kenya and the government of Somalia over the real intention of the intervention and has been a major blow to al Shabaab, which sought to use the division to portray the Amisom forces in the south negatively.
INTERNATIONAL MEDIA
Police offer reward for information on mall attack
07 Oct – Source: AFP – 162 words
Kenyan police said Sunday they were offering a reward for information about a car reportedly used in the attack on Westgate mall last month. Police believe the car contained explosives and are offering a reward of 500,000 shillings ($5,827, 4,300 euros).
“The car had explosives and weapons and we want the owners,” said anti-terrorism police chief Boniface Mwaniki. The vehicle is registered as belonging to a Kenyan and a Somali, said Mwaniki. The four-day siege of the upmarket mall left at least 67 people dead with another 39 still listed as missing.
Officials have said that between four and six men carried out the attack and that they killed five assailants in a shootout though security camera footage released after the attack shows only four attackers.
Police have named four of the attackers as Abu Baraal Al Sudani, Khatab Ali Khane and one man known simply as Umayr — all Somalis, plus a Kenyan, Omar Nabhan.
Navy SEALs raid Somali town
06 Oct – Source: CNN – 01:09 min
CNN’s Nima Elbagir reports on a U.S. special forces raid targeting al Shabaab militants (Video).
Ethiopia says no plans to withdraw troops from Somalia
06 Oct – Source: AFP – 38 words
Ethiopia will not withdraw its troops from Somalia in the wake of the deadly attacks in Kenya, the Prime Minister said Friday. ?There is no reason we are withdrawing at this time, we will fight al Shabaab to the maximum possible,? Ethiopian Prime Minister Hailemariam Deslaegn told reporters.
Al Qaeda-linked al Shabaab extremists claimed responsibility for the attack in an upscale shopping centre in Nairobi last month that left at least 67 people dead.
Hailemariam said al Shabaab militants pose a threat to the region and that Ethiopia would support African Union (AU) and Somali troops in the country as long as the threat persists.
Target Of U.S. Raid In Somalia Called A Top Attack Planner
06 Oct – Source: NPR – 322 Words
A Kenyan intelligence official of Somali origin says that the “high-value terrorist leader” whose residence was targeted in Saturday was the senior al Shabaab leader Abdikadir Mohamed Abdikadir, alias Ikrima.
Ikrima is a Kenyan of Somali descent who boasts connections to both al Shabaab in Somalia and to a Kenyan jihadist group called al-Hijra. Kenyan authorities announced on Friday that two of the four terrorists killed in the were al-Hijra militants. A U.S. government official later confirmed that Ikrima was in fact the target, says NPR national desk correspondent Tom Bowman.
Matt Bryden, director of Nairobi-based think tank , says that the Nairobi mall attack two weeks ago demonstrated a “dangerous convergence of al Shabaab, al-Hijra and the old al Qaeda East Africa networks,” which may lay a foundation for future cooperative attacks in East Africa.
“Black Hawk Down” site revisited 20 years later
06 Oct – Source: 60 minutes – 14:24 min
Lara Logan reports on a defining moment in the history of U.S. Special Operations: the first battle between American forces and al Qaeda.
SOCIAL MEDIA
CULTURE / OPINION / EDITORIAL / ANALYSIS / BLOGS/ DISCUSSION BOARDS
“The untold story of al Shabaab’s murderous attack on the U.N. in Mogadishu.”
‘We Knew They Were Coming’
07 Oct – Source: Foreign Policy Blog – 3601 Words
It started on an uneventful day in May 2013, three weeks before the United Nations’ newly-minted special representative, Nicholas Kay, was due to arrive in Mogadishu. Kay’s presence would inaugurate a new era of international support for Somalia’s Western-backed government, which was not yet one year old.
Behind closed doors, a U.N. security analyst received a troubling intelligence tip: Al Shabaab, Somalia’s then-dormant Islamist militant group, which would orchestrate the bloody Westgate Mall massacre in Nairobi just a few months later, was plotting a sophisticated terrorist strike against a list of Somali government facilities and outposts of its African and Western allies. The prime target, however, was the U.N.’s humanitarian compound in downtown Mogadishu.
The terrorist plot, hatched in coordination with al Qaeda’s East Africa cell, called for nearly a dozen militants disguised as security guards and contractors to board a passenger vehicle and shadow a U.N. convoy as it entered the compound.
Once inside, al Shabaab’s assassins would open fire on dozens of unarmed international aid workers who had taken up residence in Somalia to deliver life-saving assistance to the country’s poor. The terrorists’ ultimate goal: drive the U.N. out of Somalia, and thereby deprive the struggling new government of the international lifeline it depended on for survival.
“Military action alone won’t do the job, however. Al Shabaab maintains support among some Somalis by presenting itself as protecting their country from predatory foreign forces. Countries with a stake in a more stable Somalia have to do a better job of counteracting that claim. Kenya, for instance, can help by ending abuses by its security forces in the African Union mission and its domestic police force against Somalis who do not support al Shabaab.”
The fight against al Shabaab
06 Oct – Source: New York Times – 603 Words
The raid by Navy SEALs on a Somali villa in search of a senior al Shabaab commander (his fate is unknown) and the capture by American commandos of a key terrorist suspect in Libya on Saturday were signs of a more assertive, targeted American role in trying to curb rising militancy and terrorist enclaves in North Africa.
Somalia, which had no central government for two decades, has long been a haven for terrorists, though there was some limited improvement in its political system and security earlier this year.
But the brutal terrorist attack on an upscale mall in Kenya last month has revived fears about Somalia’s homegrown al Qaeda-linked extremists known as al Shababa, which claimed responsibility for the attack, and about the group broadening its reach to Kenya and beyond.
“Terrorism is a tactic of extremists within each religion, and within secular religions of Marxism or nationalism. No religion, including Islam, preaches indiscriminate violence against innocents.”
Westgate: Why do terrorists hate peace?
06 Oct – Source: The Observer – 871 Words
In May 2011, soon after US special forces killed Osama bin Laden in Pakistan, The Economist magazine ran a special feature titled, “Now, kill his dream”. The magazine declared: “Osama bin Laden’s brand of brutal jihad is losing its appeal in the Arab world.”
Like The Economist, various publications around the world led with triumphant headlines and some even predicted the “end of al Qaeda”! Other analysts received the news with cautious jubilation. President Barack Obama, the man who ordered the assassination of bin Laden, was quick to warn that violent Islamism was still a dangerous force and al Qaeda active, even without Osama.
What happened in Nairobi’s Westgate mall on September 21 is a stark reminder that ancient hatreds and prejudices still haunt our new world. The world became a very different place since September 11, 2001, and so conversations that will take place after Westgate will be of even greater importance.
Top tweets
@SomaliPM Constructive meeting with @Somalia111 this am, discussions included preparations for 2016 elections & the@New_Deal_ pic.twitter.com/AMX7E7Prtn.
@SahalTelecom @Somalia111 @ActForSomalia Great to see progress being made.The #UNSOM help in rebuilding the country is of utmost importance!
@forbidden_news Somali PM vows to eliminate al-Shabab – “We have over 17,000 AMISOM (African Union Mission in Somalia) troops in… http://is.gd/ztutAb.
@MohamedSGindhis The SRCC for #Somalia & Head of AMISOM, Mahamat Saleh Annadif meets Somali community in Minneapolis, Minnesota, #USA http://bit.ly/1aYQPUH.
@HOLUMELDEL Terror in Westgate, Benisheik: [Leadership]In a siege that sent shock waves across the globe, the Somalia-based… http://dlvr.it/45XLxD.
Image of the day
The Special Representative of the Chairperson of the African Union Commission (SRCC) for Somalia and Head of the African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM), Ambassador Mahamat Saleh Annadif, centre, meets with the Somali community in Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA.