September 17, 2015 | Daily Monitoring Report
Blast In Somalia’s Kismayu Port City Kills Three Soldiers – Police
17 September – Source: Reuters – 86 Words
A blast claimed by the Somali Islamist militant group Al Shabaab killed at least three soldiers who were waiting to collect their salaries at a military camp in the port city of Kismayu on Thursday, police and the group said: “So far, three officers who were handing out salaries have died and 10 others collecting it are wounded. The bomb was planted inside the camp,” Police Major Abdirahman Nur said. Sheikh Abdiasis Abu Musab, Al Shabaab’s military operation spokesman, said the group was behind the attack.
Key Headlines
- Blast In Somalia’s Kismayu Port City Kills Three Soldiers – Police (Reuters)
- Iranian Sailors Moved Into Forests In Hobyo As One Flees (Goobjoog News)
- Convoy Carrying Somali MPs Attacked in Baladweyne (Goobjoog News)
- Puntland Information Ministry Bans Local Radio Stations From Airing Mogadishu-Based Radio Station(Villa Puntland)
- Why Pirates Could Sail Back To Somalia (New Europe)
- Mombasa Police Question Suspects Planning To Join ‘Al-Shabaab’ (Coastweek/Xinhua)
- How The World Media Covers Somalia (Somali Current)
NATIONAL MEDIA
Iranian Sailors Moved Into Forests In Hobyo, As One Flees
17 September – Source: Goobjoog News – 265 Words
Twenty one Iranians who were captured six months ago by pirates in Mudug region, central Somalia, have allegedly been moved from their vessel into forests as rescue efforts intensify. Residents in El Hur town in Hobyo told Goodbjoog News that one of the captors escaped yesterday while the fate of four others, whose attempts to flee failed, remains unknown: “One of the men tried and managed to escape yesterday in a boat and then the captors decided to move the others from the ship inside the forests for fear of being caught,” said a school teacher in the coastal town of Hobyo. Negotiations between the government of Iran and the pirates have not borne any fruit with reports indicating that the pirates asked for huge ransoms to let free the captives.The development comes days after a campaign group warned of a possible resurgence of piracy in the Somali waters as a result of increased illegal fishing.
Secure Fisheries noted in its report that foreign boats take three times much more fish than the Somali fishermen, totaling to 132,000 metric tons against Somalia’s 40,000 metric tons. There has been a general lull in the Indian Ocean waters following a steady decline in piracy activities though there are reports pirates are still holding some foreign crews demanding ransom. Somali pirates released four Thai sailors in February after holding them for five years, the longest period of captivity of hostages held by Somali pirates. The four released were sailors of the MV Prantalay 12 vessel, a Taiwanese flagged fishing vessel seized by Somali pirates on April 18 2010.
Convoy Carrying Somali MPs Attacked in Baladweyne
17 September- Source: Goobjoog News – 102 Words
A convoy escorting two Somalia Federal MPs was attacked yesterday in El-ali village in Baladweyne with two security personnel wounded, sources say.The two lawmakers Dahir Amin Jesow and Mohamad Omar Godir escaped unhurt when the AMISOM and Somali National Army soldiers faced off with suspected Al-Shabaab attackers near Baladweyne town. Mohamad Ibrahim Sanbur, a former Vice Hiran region governor, who was travelling with the convoy, told the media that the security team repulsed the attackers and both MPs arrived safely in Baladweyne. Al -Shabaab has a strong presence in Hiran region and has previously assassinated a number of well known elders and politicians.
Puntland Information Ministry Bans Local Radio Stations From Airing Content Of Mogadishu-Based Station
16 September – Source: Villa Puntland – 84 Words
Local radio stations in Puntland had been banned from airing content of Radio Mogadishu, following a directive from the ministry of Information, Villa Puntland Reports.The directive warned Radio Stations operating in Puntland regions against airing editorial content of Radio Mogadishu – the Somalia Federal Government run station that is based in Mogadishu. According to the directive, Radio Mogadishu has continuously aired “propaganda against the government and people of Puntland”.The government earlier warned the Mogadishu-based station to refrain from airing what it termed “propaganda against Puntland”.
INTERNATIONAL MEDIA
Why Pirates Could Sail Back To Somalia
17 September – Source: New Europe – 308 Words
International naval patrols and armed guards on ships have discouraged Somalia’s fearsome pirates that had hijacked 28 vessels in 2011. This is the good news. The bad news is that illegal fishing is now rampant.As reported by Agence France-Presse (AFP), a report by Secure Fisheries, a part of the One Earth Future Foundation campaign group, warned foreign industrial fishing boats have resulted in “depleted stocks, a loss of income for Somalis, and violence against local fishers” the report read, adding “it also has threatened to ignite local support for a return of piracy”. At the peak of the crisis, Somali pirates held over 700 hostages, netting millions of dollars in ransoms and threatening key maritime trade routes, including the southern access to the Red Sea and Suez Canal, reported the AFP.“Illegal fishing was the pretext used by criminal gangs to shift from protectionism to armed robbery and piracy,” John Steed, Secure Fisheries chief for the Horn of Africa, was quoted as saying. “Now the situation is back where it was, with large numbers of foreign vessels fishing in Somali waters again – and there is a real danger of the whole piracy cycle starting all over.”
Mombasa Police Question Suspects Planning To Join ‘Al-Shabaab’
17 September – Source: Coastweek/Xinhua- 220 Words
Kenya’s anti terrorism police say they are interrogating three women who they suspect were heading to neighbouring Somalia to join the ‘Al-Shabaab’ militant group.The three, Nargis Arafat Gulam, Mwanajuma Mweru Tayari and Saumu Ali Athman, were to travel to Garrisa town to meet a point person who was to facilitate their movement to Somalia, police said Wednesday.A court in the coastal city of Mombasa has given police 30 days for investigation.The three were arrested at a weigh bridge in Mombasa on their way to Garissa in northeastern Kenya, according to the court document.
“They were in possession of a laptop, mobile phones, surveillance pen, military boots among other accessories they were to use to commit terrorism activities,” read the documents. An unnamed senior anti-terrorism police officer told Xinhua they intercepted the suspects’ communication and found they were talking to someone in Somalia. They also had communication with London, he further revealed. “We have evidence that it’s a wide terrorism network that involves relatives operating between Kenya, Somalia and London,” he said.
OPINION, ANALYSIS, AND CULTURE
“Somalia is arguably one of the world’s worst victims of biased and misinformed reporting about the developing world. A simple search of Somalia on Google News reveals more negative aspects of the country than positive ones.”
How The World Media Covers Somalia
15 September – Source: Somali Current – 2,257 Words
Before I engage in the issue of “How the World Media Covers Somalia”, I want to start with a hypothesis: Imagine a reporter just arrived from a renowned Global media outlet from outside the United States, comes to America for the purpose of doing a single report about the USA and recent incidents in the country; imagine this reporter presents to a global audience about a curio event in the United States; imagine this reporter is the only reporter from the said global media outlet visiting the USA, and this news report will be witnessed by potential investors, tourists, students, and others that the U.S needs to influence. Also for this hypothesis, let us assume that this is the only report that will appear in the global news for weeks maybe months to come, and this report and many of these kind will be covering and be branding the United States of America for the coming decades.
Imagine the reporter now just makes this short hypothetical report about the USA: As a nation of constant shootings, and violence demonstrations, race riots. Recently in the United States there has been brutal police shootings in Texas and in Illinois, as well as the violent shootings of two Virginia reporters, killed on air just a few weeks back. And a month ago, members of the US military were targeted in Tennessee. Movie-goers were killed in a Louisiana movie-Theater, and of course in June, nine people were killed in a mass shooting at Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, S.C. and many of the US cities are seeing an increased level of violence”, and then the reporter, appearing before the camera wearing a khaki shirt and a bullet proof vest, says, “reporting from the USA”.
Of course, no American would refute the reality of the stories, but no American or informed non-American would allow such incidents to define the United States. Because America is more than such individual, specific incidents. Countries like the US are and must be defined by many other factors: innovation, advances, hospitality, art, diversity, culture, history, society, and so on. However, narrow reporting by many global media outlets about Somalia have branded the nation by its challenges and obstacles alone. As a result, it falls to the Somali people and its Government to challenge the validity of such reporting and demonstrate that such reports should not be interpreted as truth.
TOP TWEETS
@Daudoo:BREAKING: Loud explosion rocks Shirkole military base in #Kismayo, casualties reported, #KDF soldiers cordon off the area – Witness #Somalia
@Somalia111:Met #Y-PEER #Somalia & pledged support for their efforts to increase youth representation in next parliament in 2016
@Hamza_Africa:Elephants & Giraffes seen in #Somalia‘s Lower Jubba area for the 1st time in decades. Residents say animals moved from #Kenya‘s Boni forest.
@UNHCRSom:3,924 @refugees supported to return from#Kenya to #Somalia since 8 DEC 2014: #UNHCR UPDATEhttp://goo.gl/cxxL6Y
@Goobjoognews :#BREAKING: 3 #Jubbaland military officials killed in landmine #explosion inside military camp. #Somalia
IMAGE OF THE DAY
Mariam Moalim, a member of Somalia’s parliament, speaks at the launch of the National Gender Policy Formation Process.
Photo: UNSOM