Inner City Press: In Somali Chaos, Japan and Germany Offer Separate Training, U.S. Cuts Aid
Mirroring the chaos of the Transitional Federal Government in Somalia, donors and vultures and purported helpers are all working at cross purposes. Among the vultures we place a company called "Phoenix," which brags of having contracts with the TFG to train security forces in Jordan for deployment in Somalia. We will have more on this.
Meanwhile while the UN claims that it alone is authorized to train Somali forces, a senior UN official on Tuesday complained to Inner City Press that Japan and Germany are moving toward doing their own trainings, outside of Somalia.
This has reportedly angered the UN's envoy to Somalia Ahmedou Ould Abdullah enough that he has traveled to Tokyo. His spokesperson has repeatedly declined to answer questions from Inner City Press in the past.
Three top UN humanitarian managers for Somalia briefed the Press on Tuesday, about shortfalls in fundraising. Inner City Press asked if they have solved their dispute with the United States, which slowed aid because transfers to Al Shabaab would violate U.S. anti terrorism laws. Mark Bowden, the UN's Nairobi based humanitarian coordinator, confirmed his talks with "donors," stressing that time is of the essence.
Inner City Press asked Bowden about the UN urging the TFG president not to fire the police chief of Mogadishu, which nevertheless took place. Bowden confirmed the UN has concern[s], but said they "come from the political side." Then what is Ould Abdullah doing in Japan?
In belated disclosure of how the TFG's parliamentarians were paid, Inner City Press was told that when the parliament contained 250 members, countries including the U.S., UK and Norway paid their salaries. When the parliament swelled to 500, the UN Development Program started paying, Inner City Press was told. UNDP itself has repeatedly refused to answer questions about its funding in Somalia.
Al Shabaab has ordered the UN World Food Program to stop importing food, to buy locally or not bring food in. [e.g., Al-Shabaab bans WFP food distribution in southern Somalia, Somalia's Al-Shabaab accuses WFP of being farmers obstacle] The Food and Agriculture Organization's Graham Farmer conceded that bringing in food aid during the harvest season depresses the prices farmers get.
Does WFP buy locally in Somalia? Farmer said WFP tries to buy locally elsewhere, but does not do so in Somalia. Why not? Watch this site.
-- -- --
A new intelligence brief from Dr. Michael Weinstein is up at Garowe Online
Al-Shabaab's Encirclement Strategy
A closed source in the Horn of Africa reports on al-Shabaab's strategy at the current juncture of the conflicts in southern and central Somalia.
According to the source, Harakat al-Shabaab Mujahideen (H.S.M.) is preparing to launch an offensive in the central regions to gain the kind of dominance over them that it has achieved in the Jubba regions in the south over the past month by displacing its former ally Hizbul Islam (H.I.).
...
If the intelligence is accurate, then it reflects a set of judgments and decisions by H.S.M. on how it can most effectively gain political dominance in southern and central Somalia. The strategy of encircling Mogadishu, rather than going for an immediate confrontation with H.I. there, indicates patience and prudence on H.S.M.'s part, which in turn indicates that H.S.M. is confident that it need not bring along the baggage of rivalrous allies as it prepares for a stepped-up campaign against the African Union peacekeeping mission (AMISOM) and forces of the Transitional Federal Government (T.F.G.) in Mogadishu. Phase One of H.S.M.'s overall campaign is to consolidate armed opposition to AMISOM and the T.F.G. under its command. If it is successful, H.S.M. will have placed itself as the only alternative to the T.F.G. in the southern and central regions.
The intelligence casts doubt on frequent current claims by analysts and officials supporting the T.F.G. that H.S.M. has lost popular legitimacy and is weakening, and that its fight with H.I. indicates a collapse of the armed opposition and, therefore, presents an opportunity for the T.F.G. to expand its power in the regions, where it has no present control.
...
As for loss of popular legitimacy, one must ask, as many Somali intellectuals do: Why, if H.S.M. is so unpopular and is weakening, are there not insurrections in the territories that it controls? Southern and central Somalia is a country awash in arms. Sub-clans have not disappeared. H.S.M. appears to be able to hold and administer territory, and could not do so without some support and acquiescence among local populations.
...
H.S.M. is taking a risk, but it appears to be a well-calculated risk. The strategy does not appear to be a product of desperation or a last-stand mentality, any more than it appears to be the work of irrational exuberance.
The source's intelligence should be taken seriously, because, if it is accurate, it indicates that H.S.M. is thinking strategically and is neither over-valuing nor under-valuing its power. As the source puts it, "This is the most logical maneuver before dealing with Hizbul Islam in Mogadishu."
-- -- --
Shabelle Media: Shelling kills 8, injuries more than 20 others in Mogadishu
at least 8 people have been killed and more other have been wounded after heavy shelling targeted to parts of the residential districts in the Somali capital Mogadishu, witnesses told Shabelle radio on Tuesday.
Reports say that the shelling started at 5:20 PM Mogadishu in parts of the districts of Banadir region like Hodan, Hawl-wadag, Wardigley, Waberi and more other districts in north of the capital causing more casualties of deaths and injuries.
...
It is unclear the main aim of the bombing which started as there is no fighting between the two rival sides in Mogadishu.
...
Ali Muse, an official of the emergency traffic official told Shabelle radio that they took more than 20 civilians to hospital indicating that they were very busy for the call of deploying the injured civilians who were wounded by the heavy shelling.
...
Locals said that 8 people lost their lives while dozens injured during the shelling.
The shelling started as people were returning back from Bakara, the main market in the capital to their houses causing more casualties of deaths and injuries.
Most of the people who died were civilians.
-- -- --
WTVT Tampa: Questions about captain of hijacked ship
After days of being held captive by Somali pirates in April, Captain Richard Phillips returned to the Unietd States hailed by many as a hero. He reportedly gave himself up to save the lives of the other 19 on board.
Now, eight months after the fact, one of his own crew members says it's all a farce.
"He's not that guy. He's not the guy that does those kind of things and the world thinks he is," said Mike Perry, chief engineer of The Maersk Alabama.
Perry was on board that April day when pirates hijacked their vessel. It's a situation he never wants to relive.
"They were trying to kill those people. They threatened them. They had automatic fires in their faces next to their heads," added Perry.
It's a confrontation he and other crew members say could have been avoided. They say Captain Phillips ignored many safety measures, including keeping the ship 600 miles from shore. They were 400 miles offshore when they were hijacked. As far as Phillips surrendering himself to save the crew, Perry says, it's simply not true.
"All 19 of us are pretty firm that he did not give himself up to save the crew. He did not put himself in danger to save us. It was us who spent 33 hours trying to fight for him," according to Perry.
So why bring these allegations up now? Hard feelings aside, Perry says Phillips announced he plans on coming back to the Alabama this March. Perry plans to be on that ship. The engineer says since the hijacking they've made great strides towards better security and not one of the crew members wants Phillips to jeopardize that.
"You know we can't turn this thing around that's snowballing. Fine. He's got it. Let him have it. But don't come back and threaten our lives again, we don't want it," added Perry.
So far, Captain Phillips has not responded to the allegations. In a follow up interview he did admit he never offered himself up to pirates in exchange for the crew. He does say he's proud of his crew and the work they did under trying circumstances.
Now that that's settled, has there ever been any followup on the allegations that the Maersk Alabama was ferrying arms to the seaport in Mogadishu?
-- -- --
There's an audio link at Radio Daljir's website to a ~35 minute interview with Bronwyn Bruton on her "constructive disengagement" recommendations based her analysis/understanding of Somalia.
-- -- --
From a NPR interview w/ reporter Jon Lee Anderson on his New Yorker report as part of a PR exercise riding w/ Sh. Sharif for a few days in Mogadishu
The food convoys ... have to be shepherded into Mogadishu's port by American naval convoys, flotillas. I saw one arrive - there were about 10 battleships and frigates and so on that had to bring them into port.
2 comments:
I don’t know if you saw or mentioned this little detail on the Maersk Alabama. Dec. 2. It is not just the one guy, a number of his crew are angry with him.
AP Enterprise: Crew blames capt. for pirate attack
Crew members found the warnings in the ship's computer system when the Alabama returned to sea, Perry said. … When the Alabama was at sea, Quinn said he plotted the positions of recent pirate attacks, "and they were right on our course line. Phillips sailed us right through the middle of all of that." The ship could have gone another 100 miles out, "and it would've taken us out of the localized area where all the pirates were. That's what they were trying to tell us, to stay away from there," Quinn said. The ship's helmsman, Abu Tasir Mohammed Reza, of West Hartford, Conn., said he lost respect for Phillips once he found out about the warnings. "He didn't follow those warnings. He did not realize that something is coming ahead. He did not take it seriously. He did not change the course," … "I put faith in the fact that we were going to take some kind of evasive action," said John Cronan, of Merion, Pa., an engineer who has sued for injuries to his left knee and ankle. "I thought it was a given that we would do the best we could given our capabilities to get out of the danger zone.
thanks. there were a couple similar stories like that too. but none that i have come across broach the topic of the cargo the alabama was carrying or its itinerary. i will have to go back to my notes from that period, but iirc there were some questions about an excessive amount of time alloted for the ship to travel from the port at djibouti to mombassa. and then the apparent secrecy wrt unloading it once it did arrive in kenya.
Post a Comment