Somali Prime Minister Omar Abdirashid Sharmarke will face a vote on a motion of no confidence that some 200 Somali lawmakers are planning to table against him in the parliament.
The members of parliament accuse Omar’s government of not doing enough to change the worsening security situation in country, urging to him to face the parliament and get its confidence.
"If Sharmarke’s government gets vote of confidence from the parliament, then it can continue with its work. But if it fails, then the president is required to appoint a new premier who forms a new government," said one of the MPs.
The MP said that the current government is more preoccupied by foreign trips without a giving a thought about the current situation in the country.
However, some other lawmakers have drumming up support for the current government, arguing that it has done wonderful job compared to the parliament, which they was lurked behind.
They are said to be preparing also a motion against Speaker Sheikh Adan Madobe, whom they accuse of the bickering in the parliament.
President Sheikh Sharif is said to be confused by the turn of the events.
Meanwhile, Somalia’s Constitution and Federalism minister Madobe Nunow Mohamed announced that the current Transitional Government would be the last one to govern the Horn of African nation if the ongoing new constitution is finalized and passed.
“The formation of the political parties is the major issue in the constitution which my ministry is working on it right now,” he said.
He adds, “The new constitution would be based on Islamic law, and the committee involved in making is independent.”
He argued that the country would move from one group dominance to civilian oriented government.
The minister of constitution and federalism appointed a committee, which consist of 30 members from the civil society and the government and it will gather ideas from population and orientation.
However, Somalia’s Puntland state, which maintains to remain in a federal Somalia, says it would not take part in any constitutional reform for the country because it was not consulted in the matter and is a unilateral decision.
Representatives of both governments on November failed to agree to harmonize an accord which its first phase was signed by Somali PM and Puntland President on August 23 in central Somali town of Galkayo.
If passed, the new constitution will change the national charter of Somali TFG, which was formed six years ago in neighboring Kenya. It would allow Somali citizens to elect their representatives directly rather than pin pointed by the clan.
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Garowe Online: WFP continue with aid work in Somalia: spokesman
A spokesman for the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) says the agency will continue distributing food aid to war-torn Somalia despite Islamist Al-Shabaab insurgent group orders to cease all its humanitarian operations.
Al-Shabaab, which controls much of south Somalia, accused the world food agency of giving out-of-date foodstuffs, undermining farmers and working under hidden political agenda
"WFP is determined to help the people of Somalia in need of assistance regardless of who controls the areas in which they live, as long as it is safe for our staff to do so," said WFP spokesman Peter Smerdon in Nairobi.
Shabelle Media: Farmers in southwestern Somalia welcome ban on WFP operations
armers in Baardheere District of Gedo Region, southwestern Somalia, have said they will start to cultivate their farms knowing that their harvest will fetch them good money. The farmers welcomed Islamist Al-Shabab's decision to ban WFP operations in the region, reports independent leading broadcaster Radio Shabeelle.
The farmers described the ban as a positive move to enhance agricultural produce in the country.
Al-Shabab administration recently took over WFP stores in the region and distributed food aid to hundreds of vulnerable people in the region.
WFP had suspended its operations in southern and southwestern Somalia in January after it received threats from Al-Shabab.
SimbaNews: Shabab urges farmers to produce more food
Al Shabab Movement officials in middle Shabelle urged farmers in the region to redouble food production a day after Shabab reiterated their ban on wfp which they accuse of harming Somali farmers.In a statement shabab warned Somali people against working with wfp and threatened to take measure against anyone who works with WFP.
Shabab officials told participants to produce food that can cover the needs of the people in the region as well as other regions to make up for the suspension of food rations by WFP. “Wfp food distribution has been fully banned, so you should rely on yourselves and produce the food we need” said senior shabab commander who did not want to be named. “We told them to buy food from Somali farmers”.
Meanwhile farmers who participated the meeting welcomed shabab decision and accused wfp of harming Somali farmers by importing large quantities of food during the harvest seasons. “We are ready to redouble our food production but we are facing many problems“.
Wfp accused shabab of imposing difficult and unacceptable conditions on them, a move that forced them to suspend rations Shabab controlled areas of the country.
Here is a link (again) to the FSNAU's Post Deyr '09/10 Analysis [pdf] for an idea of local food production figures across the various regions.
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What, exactly, is a "monthership"?
AFP: NATO sinks Somali pirate monthership (sic)
BRUSSELS — A Danish warship, the Absalon, sunk a Somali pirate "mothership" in the Indian Ocean, a NATO spokesman said Monday.
The Absalon, flagship of NATO's counter-piracy efforts off the Horn of Africa, "disrupted a piracy attack in the Somali basin on Sunday and then scuttled a mothership," the spokesman said.
The 'mother-ships' are used to move attack teams into an area from which they can launch raids on passing ships.
"This was a very well executed operation," said Commodore Christian Rune, commander of NATO's anti-piracy mission.
"Disrupting the pirates? capability just off their main pirate camps sends a strong signal to the pirates that NATO and the international community do not tolerate their actions" he added in a statement from the operation's British base.
"Disposing of their vessels before they can head to sea hits the pirates before they can present a threat to merchant shipping," he added.
More details/context on this story from Ecoterra International's SMCM Issue 336,
VIKINGS IN PIRATE-BOY BASHING EXERCISE OFF THE COAST OF SOMALIA
"NATO says one of its destroyers has sunk a "pirate mothership" in the Indian off the Somali coast" - wire service. An official statement said the Danish warship HDMS Absalon disrupted on Sunday a pirate operation by “scuttling” a pirate skiff, one of the boats Somali gangs use to transport attack teams to hunting areas far off the coast.
NATO anti-piracy spokeswoman Shona Lowe said the action occurred in the Somali Basin, a term the alliance uses to denote the Indian Ocean rather than the adjacent Gulf of Aden where most pirate attacks take place, AP explains.
Lowe said she could not immediately provide further details on the incident.
NATO news service then blew it out of proportion with the headline: "Danish NATO destroyer sinks pirate mothership off Somalia."
Reports from the ground speak of a rather small open coastal fishing vessel made from fibreglass with an inboard Volvo Penta engine, which was nabbed and later sunk by the military might of the Danish warship, like other navies had done and celebrated it before, creating huge fireballs due to the many plastic containers with fuel these boats carry for longer trips.
Produced under a Swedish development project and introduced into Somalia in the 80s two types of these small and open fishing boats were produced for the artisanal fisheries at the Somali coast: One is a 5-7m skiff, which the Somali fishermen lovingly call "Leila Alawi" after a famous Egyptian singer, which is powered by a "singing" petrol outboard engine of usually 40HP and the other is what the Somalis call "Volva" a 10-12m fishing boat with an inboard Volo Penta diesel.
"While it is true that the tiny skiff is often used as a kind of a fast boat to attack merchant vessels and the slightly larger one is used to carry fuel and food for the sea-shifta, the picture which certain media paint for the global news is certainly overdrawn," stated Andrew Mwangura of the East African Seafarers Assistance programme. "A real mothership is rather a commandeered larger vessel with strong double engines, a commando stand and cabins, like the FV EKAWATNAVA 5, which was blown out of the water by the Indian navy - killing 15 of the 16 men crew, while the pirates escaped," he explained.
"Though overstated, the Danish Navy and NATO at least are honest and report such incidents", commented an analyst working with ECOTERRA Intl. and added: "We observe an increasing number of such attacks by the international navies against Somalis - those caught red-handed and potential pirates as well as innocent fishermen alike -, which go completely unreported by the navies. Over four hundred names are now on our list of Somalis missing at sea."
In the moment there is still conflicting information from Somalia concerning the location where Sunday's incident happened - some say about 40-50 nm off the coast and well inside the 200nm zone, while others maintain that the group was found by the Navy ship without food outside the 200nm zone. It would be good if NATO comes clear.
However, the Danish warship - after first arresting and allegedly beating the eleven men and then exploding and sinking their boat - brought the Somali group back to the coast between Haradheere and Hobyo, from where they went home minus weapons and boat. It could not yet be clarified if that boat belonged to a pirate group or was stolen from the local fishermen for the trip and it must be noted that every Somali actually has a right to carry weapons on their seas, except for a small stretch near Mogadishu, where the TFG had tried to impose an gun ban on the fishermen.
Since this incident was said by local observers to have happened off the notorious pirate den of Harardheere, it might well have been the case that one of the gangs - after a good number of sea-jacked vessels were released recently - went out to sea again for another take, but legally the last word is not yet spoken concerning such action by the Danish navy under NATO command while being inside the 200nm zone of Somalia, because none of the anti-piracy agreements the international community tried to close with the Transitional Federal Government of Somalia or some Somali Regional Governments has been approved or ratified by the Somali parliament. This applies also for the UN Security Concil Resolutions, which could - as made conditional by these resolutions themselves - only could be valid legally implementable, if the Somali government in form of its parliament would have consented or actually demanded such assistance - which never was the case. Utterances and even signatures by individual Somali politicians - often coerced into such affairs by foreign promises - don't count.
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SMC: Somali Fishermen censure foreign vessels
Some of the Somali fishermen, are strongly censuring the foreign vessels which are claiming to be guarding the Somali waters from Somali pirates hijacking commercial ships which are voyaging the Somali waters and as well as off of the coast of Somalia.
Hussein Barqad a veteran Somali fisherman, who has contacted Somaliweyn Website,
has strongly criticized the NATO and EU sea guards, which he said cannot differentiate who is pirate and who is not.
“It was on Sunday when these so called EU and NATO troops, caught 5 of us in our fishing boat, and they took us to deep sea, and they tortured us, and they have later released us, they even threatened us with their gunpoint” said Hussein Barqad.
Mr. Hussein has also added that these troops have taken valuable materials from them such their fishing nets, and flung their cooking stuff into the sea.
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Where are all those western MSM headlines and selectively outraged right-wing bloggers with regards to this story...?
Mareeg Online: Moderate Islamists execute a man
Ahlu Sunna Waljama’a moderate Islamist group has executed a man in a town in Galgadud region in central Somalia, an official said on Monday.
Aden Abdi Isse known as Garase, an official from Ahlu Sunna Waljama’a said they have executed the man accused of killing another man in Bergadig Village in Hiraan region.
Mr. Garase said they have been looking for this man and finally captured him. He added they executed the man according to the Islamic Sharia.
“We have executed a young man who has killed another man in the street of village deliberately and in robbery way,” said Mr. Garase.
“The relatives of the two sides were present in the execution,” He added.
Aden Garase has also indicated there were robbers in prisons captured by Ahlu Sunna Waljama’a forces and were waiting court.
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Related to last Sunday's article on Bell Pottinger's PR programs in Mogadishu, Biyokulule Online has a short collection of articles on psyops efforts in the early 1990's to convince Somalis that those gum-chewing, gun-toting marines were there with only the best intentions, including these bits from a June 19, 1993 segment on All Things Considered
Daniel Zwerdling reports on the U.N. attempts to gain the support of the Somali people. The U.N. has set up a radio station and is distributing a newsletter to tell the Somalis how the U.N. has helped them.
GUEST(S): TED BARNES, Media Director; Capt. DOUG MANN
U.N. Waging Propaganda War in Somalia
KATIE DAVIS, Host: United Nations troops continue to search for Somali clan leader Mohamed Farah Aidid today as 2,000 of his supporters demonstrated against the U.N. and its presence in the country. The other battle the U.N. is waging is one for the hearts and minds of the Somalis. As NPR`s Daniel Zwerdling reports from the capital, Mogadishu, the weapons are a newsletter and a radio station.
DANIEL ZWERDLING, Reporter: Radio Manta {sp}, the voice of the United Nations operation in Somalia, hits the airwaves seven times a day, six days a week; they shut down on the Muslim holy day of Friday. If you`re passing through Somalia, you might catch it on your shortwave dial.
{excerpt of radio broadcast}
ZWERDLING: The U.S.-military officials who run the radio station say they don`t want to bludgeon people with propaganda - they want to have a program that appeals to the general population, so they start with some chanting from the Koran-
{sound of chanting}
...
ZWERDLING: On today`s U.N. broadcast, the newscaster leads with a U.N. general`s account of the attack earlier this week on Aidid`s headquarters. The report condemns Aidid`s forces as `brutal,` and hails the U.N. forces as `heroes.` But a couple days ago, the newscast reported that an American soldier had been charged with assaulting two Somalis. As psychological warfare goes, this is a pretty low-key operation. A few U.S. soldiers work with nine part-time Somalis knocking out stories on a word processor. Their radio studio is the size of a closet and when you hear the programs on the air, you hear the constant drone of an air conditioner going full blast just a few feet from the announcer, media director Ted Barnes {sp}.
...
ZWERDLING: It`s a tricky business figuring out exactly what kinds of messages will appeal to a given population, whether you`re talking about commercial advertisements or psychological warfare, and in this case, U.S. soldiers say, they realize they face an extra-tough sales job because a lot of their audience supports the enemy, warlord Mohamed Aidid. So, they`re experimenting. Earlier today, I found Captain Doug Mann {sp} working on a piece for tomorrow`s newsletter - a Somali version of the children`s story, `The Little Red Hen.`
{interviewing} Have you ever written children`s stories before this assignment?
Capt. DOUG MANN: I`ve written them, I`ve told them - I`ve got six kids.
ZWERDLING: In case you don`t have any kids and forget the first grade, the story is about a hen who asked her neighbors to help bake bread, but they all refuse to chip in, so when the bread`s finished, the hen refuses to share it. Mann says he`s ending this version of the story by pointing out that Somalis can`t enjoy peace unless they all cooperate.
Capt. MANN: You can`t sit by and let everybody else do the work for you. Everybody has to contribute to the peace. Now`s the time to step forward and do what`s right and what`s just and turn in the weapons so that Mogadishu can again return to peace. We have had some success with it, but not as much as we`d like.
ZWERDLING: Meanwhile, another soldier is writing tomorrow`s cartoon strip. The cartoon, which appears every day, is about a young man and his wise, philosophical camel who`s always doing and saying sensible things. In today`s cartoon, the camel says, `We thank Allah for what the United Nations is doing for us. The roads are now clear and we can travel freely.` - statements which many people here find to be exaggerated. The Americans running the media operation say their sense is that both the newsletter and radio show are popular all over Mogadishu. When I made a brief survey amongst Somalis standing along the street, I did not hear the same enthusiasm. Some told me they don`t listen to a word of the broadcasts because it`s all American and U.N. lies. One woman told me she reads the newsletter, not so much because she likes its, but because all the other newspapers went out of business during the civil war. At least the United Nations news, she said, is better than nothing. I`m Daniel Zwerdling in Mogadishu.
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From an article Tuesday at SMC
The spokesman the regional administration of Al-Shabab in the Jubbah regions in southern Somalia Sheikh Hassan Yakub has on Tuesday said that the Kenyan government has signed a new contract with the western countries to fight us.
“We have got very reliable tips that the government of Kenya has signed a new contract with the western countries to fight us, similar to previous contract which Ethiopia has signed with the western countries, but we assure you that Kenya will suffer a lot if it attempts to provoke us” said Sheikh Hassan Yakub speaking to Somaliweyn Website.
The spokesman has also added that the Kenyan government has been lately deploying its troops in the boarder between Kenya and Somali, and said that they have closely monitoring their movements.
“These maneuvers of theirs will take them to nowhere and they cannot scare us like that, we shall win over them and we know that there are militants from the Ogaden National Liberation Front who are in the frontier backing the Kenyan troops, these are all minor to us” added Sheikh Hassan Yakub.
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More propaganda on propaganda
AP: Somalia war moves to the airwaves
As the propaganda war intensifies in the battered Horn of Africa nation, the government is using a newly modernized radio station to get its own message across to more Somalis, and the U.N. is financing a new radio station.
...
For its part, the Somali government in October upgraded its Radio Mogadishu in the capital, changing antiquated equipment that had limited broadcast range. The station is now accessible worldwide via satellite or the Web.
Mohamed Guled Sheik, who lives in an area of the capital that's controlled by al-Shabab, listens to Radio Mogadishu on headphones for safety reasons. He said he especially likes the news and a daily show that pokes fun at al-Shabab's actions. Radio Mogadishu also broadcasts lectures by prominent Islamic scholars who praise modernism and dramas depicting radical Islamists as villains.
"I know I'm risking my life. But I need a different point of view," said Sheik, a father of nine who runs an electronics shop at the city's main Bakara Market. "Radio Mogadishu is not afraid of angering Islamists and exposing their mistakes. But all the other stations are."
Joining the fray, the U.N. is providing $1.7 million for a new radio station — called Bar-kulan, which means "the meeting place" in Somali — which ran a test transmission on Monday, said David Smith, its director. Programs will include debates on Somali affairs, call-in shows hosted by an Islamic scholar, news, sports and music.
"It is an independent station. If there is a good news to report we will report it and if there is a bad news to report we will report it. Even if it is about al-Shabab or the government," said Smith.
Information Minister Dahir Mohamud Gelle told AP he is confident the government can counter al-Shabab's efforts.
"I have high hopes that eventually we will defeat the anti-government propaganda," said Gelle. He said the government media strategy is based on "disseminating the truth and speaking to the conscience of those with twisted ideologies."
MPR: Somali information chief says war fueled by 'dueling messages'
St. Paul, Minn. — The minister of information for Somalia's embattled government says he is in a war of another kind with rebel groups threatening to destroy any hope for stability in the ravaged East African Country.
Rather than relying on guns and mortar attacks, this battle is fueled by dueling messages, says Dahir Gelle, Somalia's minister of information. His country's weak government is trying to fend off the extremist group al-Shabaab, which has gained control of much of southern Somalia.
Gelle will join a U.S. State Department official [Don Yamamoto, the State Department's principal deputy assistant secretary] tonight [TUesday] at the University of Minnesota's Humphrey Center for a discussion on U.S. foreign policy in the war-ravaged East African nation.
Last fall, Gelle helped revive Radio Mogadishu, a nationally run FM radio station that had gone silent for nearly 20 years. Al-Shabaab has ordered residents under its control not to listen to the station, but Gelle says the ban has had the opposite effect.
"We are witnessing an increase of listeners," he told MPR News. "The Somali people (interpreted the ban) as urging them to listen because, as human beings, when someone tells you not to listen, you wonder what's going on." But some Somali-Americans fear the government is losing the communications battle, with groups like al-Shabaab portraying the government as puppets of foreign infidels.
Anyone trying to claim that they are not is waging a losing battle...
..Gelle says the re-launch of Radio Mogadishu is a key victory. He says the Web site has attracted nearly 500,000 visitors over the last two and a half months.
Good luck trying to find data via the larger web tracking services like Alexa, Quantcast, Compete or URL Trends. Google's AdPlanner estimates 22-43k unique visitors and 240k visits.
During Gelle's stateside tour, which included Washington D.C. and will continue in Columbus, Ohio, he is asking U.S. officials to increase financial and logistical support for his country, and to make a similar case to other countries who may be able to help. He says his discussions with State Department officials thus far have been positive, although he declined to offer details.
"We have basically received very good assurances that they are going to support the Somali government and the Somali people," Gelle said. "And we hope in the coming weeks or coming months, we might hear better news, and the level of support might be increased, hopefully."
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Where are all those western MSM headlines and selectively outraged right-wing bloggers with regards to this story...?
SMC: Ahlu-Sunnah Waljama demands for censorship of journalists
Armed, but moderate Islamist faction who controls much of central Somalia has on Tuesday said that all journalists in central region to register with them in 3 days time so that they can monitor and censor the work of the journalists in their region of control.
In a press conference Sheikh Abdullah Abdurrahman Abuu Yussuf Al-Qadi the head of the information department of Ahlu-Sunnah Waljama has officially announced that the entire journalists in the region to register within a period of three days.
“The press can create a favorable atmosphere among people of different races to live in harmony, and at the same time it has the ability to create enmity and abhorrence, among the population, so our decree of today doesn’t actually mean that we are pressuring the journalists, we cannot deny the role which the Somali media has played in these 20 years of anarchy in their country, I confess that it was a lion role” said Abuu Al-Qadi the head of the information department of Ahlu-Sunnah Waljama.
Abuu Qadi has also added that their aim and objective is merely to monitor the reports that which the stringers are sending are really based on facts.
“Sometimes back we have seen some stringers sending baseless reports to their respective stations, in fact that is not the way a reporter who is in the field of journalism should work, if you are a journalist you words should be based on facts and not faults” added Abuu Qadi.
On the other hand the administration of Ahlu-Sunnah Waljama has asked the entire humanitarian agencies on the ground to register with them similar to that of the journalists.
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SMC: Foreign vessels dump Somali fishermen at the coast
The foreign vessels on the surface of the Somali waters have overnight dumped at least 22 men which are believed to be all ordinary local fishermen along the coast of Haradere at Mudug region in central Somalia.
Reports which Somaliweyn Website has received from the immediate location of Fah where exactly the Somalis were dumped says that there wee 22 Somalis who were unload at the coast.
“In fact some of these men were identified by the local residents and they termed them as local fishermen and not pirates, some of them their bodies had bruises, and seemed to have been tortured” said Mahad Ali a resident in Fah location where these people were dumped speaking to Somaliweyn Website.
One of the victims who spoke to Somaliweyn Website in a low unclear voice said that they had their boats in the sea trapping fish, but unfortunately they were mistaken us pirates, and the entire of their fishing materials including their boats 5 of their boats were burnt in front of thief faces.
The district commissioner of Adado district in Galgadud region in central Somalia honorable Abdi Elmi has as well verified that those victimized people were not pirates, but ordinary fishermen.
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Careful with that phrasing, guys...
AP: US looking into helping train Somali forces
The U.S. is considering joining a European Union effort to train a new army for Somalia, whose government is engaged in a war against al-Qaida-linked Islamic militants, a senior military official said Thursday.
Maj. Gen. Richard J. Sherlock, head of plans for the U.S. Africa Command said there is considerable scope for cooperation with the EU training program.
Washington has so far not participated in the effort to support the nascent Somali army, which is seen as crucial to bringing stability to a country that has been without a functional government for nearly two decades.
...
"We will look to contribute to the international effort to support Somalia's transitional government," Sherlock said.
Sherlock and Ambassador Anthony Holmes, in charge of the command's civil-military affairs office, said they were in Brussels to meet with senior EU officials and explore ways the U.S. military could contribute to the training and equipping of Somali forces.
"We're now looking into how to align our cooperation," Sherlock said. He noted that the U.S. had strong expertise it could contribute, particularly in training a professional core of noncommissioned officers, which form the backbone of any army.
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SMC: AU troops move to a new zone in Mogadishu
The African Union troops in Mogadishu have on Friday moved into Digfer the biggest hospital at Hodan district in Mogadishu which has been inactive since the collapse of the last effective central government of Somali led by late President Mohammed Siyad Barre in the year 1991.
“It was on the daybreak of Friday when we have seen the African Union troops with their
Armoured Personnel Carries in and around Digfer hospital they told to be calm and minimize our movement” said Muse Gelle a resident living just near Digfer hospital speaking to Somaliweyn Website.
When the Ethiopian troops reached to Somali capital Mogadishu the hospital was a base for them, and after their withdrawal from the country it has become a base for a company of the Somali government soldiers and it has become a base for the African Union troops.
It is not manifest the reason as to why the African Union troops have moved into Digfre hospital. Since the collapse of the last effective government of Somali their hospital has been a place where hundreds of Internal Displaced Persons were dwelling.
In the hospital is located in the frontline between the Somali transitional federal government soldiers and the armed Islamists rivals, and there had been speculations that the Somali government is intending to go into fight with its armed rival Islamists.
Mareeg Online: Fresh clashes erupt in Mogadishu
Fresh clashes between government Soldiers backed by African Union peacekeepers and Islamist rebels have erupted in Mogadishu on Friday.
Witnesses say at least three civilians have been injured in the fresh clashes in Mogadishu and several houses were destroyed in by mortars.
The clashes came after the African Union forces moved to former Digfer hospital in Mogadishu and made a base there.
Hawo Ali, a resident in Hodan district in Mogadishu said she saw African Union soldiers known as AMISOM with armoured vehicles moving towards Former Digfer hospital and ex Banadir secondary school where they have also made search operations.
She expressed concern about the movement of the African Union troops and the government soldiers.
The situation is calm now and the areas of the clashes are under the control of the AMISOM troops and the government soldiers.
Shabelle Media adds
Locals also said AMISOM troops had made new positions at Badir High School, Digfer hospital and Hoga hospital, all the flashpoint area which most of the clashes continued in the past.
“There is no movement of people, traffic and business at here. We have the fears of the fighting between the two sides and the new troops who reached around our houses,” said one of the women in areas.
The real aim that the African Union troops and the government soldiers formed new military bases in the area is unclear so far and the fighting seems following other clashes that continued in parts of Hodan district in Mogadishu recently.
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SMC: Hizbul-Islam says Ahmed Madobe is not one of them
The administration of Hizbul-Islam in Gedo region, an armed rival Islamists faction in Somalia which controls a small portion of the country unlike Al-Shabab has declared that Ahmed Madobe a man who is leading a gorilla war against Al-Shabab in the thick jungles of the lower jubbah regions in Somalia is not a member in their faction.
Sheikh Farhan Cilmoge the newly appointed regional commissioner of Hizbul-Islam
in Gedo region has strongly censured the action of Sheikh Ahmed Madobe.
“I am frankly telling you that Ahmed Madobe is not a member of Hizbul-Islam he is an agent for Ethiopia and Kenya and we have been closely following to assure this and we have eventually got evidences that he is a representative for these two countries in Somali soil” said Sheikh Fahan.
Ahmed Madobe has gone into deadly combat with Al-Shabab and the last his confrontation with Al-Shabab was in February in the town of Dhobley.
The Chairman of Hizbul-Islam Sheikh Hassan Dahir Aweys and the big officials of HIzbul-Islam have always been reiterating that Ahmed Madobe is effective figure in Hizbul-Islam representing them in the southern Jubbah regions in Somalia.
Garowe Online: Hizbul official accuse colleagues of weakening Islamists
A top official of Somalia’s Hizbul Islam has lambasted his colleagues over the war against Al-Shabaab in southern Somalia.
Sheikh Farhan Abdi Ali Moge, who was recently appointed the groups chairman in Gedo region, accused his fellow group members Sheikh Ahmed Madobe and Sheikh Mohammed Maalin executing foreign-backed agendas to destabilize Somali Islamists.
“The war Sheikh Ahmed Madobe is waging was planned in Kenya and Ethiopia and backed by the Transitional Federal Government. It is meant to cripple the strength of Islamist in Somalia,” he said.
“I am also categorically pointing accusing fingers on Sheikh Mohammed Maalin, the groups Press Secretary who supports Sheikh Madobe agendas of putting the group at loggerheads with Al-Shabaab,” he added.
His remarks come days after Sheikh Ahmed Madobe described Al-Shabaab as his number one enemy, vowing to wipe it out of the country.
Al-Shabaab, which broke ranks with Hizbul Islam over the control of southern Somali regions, has all along being insisting that Madobe is an Ethiopian-backed individual has is out there to wreak chaos amongst the Islamists.
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Garowe Online: Aweys: Madobe is still part of Hizbul Islam
The leader of Somalia’s Hizbul Islam group, Sheikh Hassan Dahir Aweys has reiterated that Sheikh Ahmed Mohammed Islam ‘Madobe’ is still part of his group.
Sheikh Aweys who was addressing congregation at Bakara Market, directly responded to a claim by one of the group’s top official in Gedo region, who accused Madobe of executing agendas backed by Ethiopia and Kenya.
"I can say Sheikh El-Moge was talking from his own personal views. It does not represent the views of the group,” he said.
...
Aweys said the war between his group and Al-Shabaab over the control Kismayo, a lucrative port city is an economical one and can not be translated into a religious affairs.
“If we look back at the fight over Kismayo, I can say it was a worldly affair. We were angered by the way Al-Shabaab unilaterally elected administration for the town to accumulate wealth and discard us. The war will continue if quick solution is not found,” he stated.
Commenting about the decision by his former deputy Sheikh Hassan Abdullahi Al-Turki to join Al-Shabaab, he said the official has taken his own decision with out discussing with any one in the group.
“It is surprising that Sheikh Hassan Turki, who was behind the formation of Hizbul Islam, thinks that Al-Shabaab is more powerful than Hizbul Islam,” he said.
The 65-year old cleric accused Al-Shabaab of labeling all its oppositions include his group as religious apostates, urging them to stop the war and allow reconciliation to consolidate the powers of Islamists in the country.
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This news on the role of the u.s. in training Somali forces is hardly a surprise. The real question is whether there is anything more to the planted leak wrt SOF boots on the ground again than just scare or incitement tactics - who or what exactly determines the identification of "dislodged al-qa'idah terrorists"?
NYT: U.S. Aiding Somalia in Its Plan to Retake Its Capital
The Somali government is preparing a major offensive to take back this capital block by crumbling block, and it takes just a listen to the low growl of a small surveillance plane circling in the night sky overhead to know who is surreptitiously backing that effort.
“It’s the Americans,” said Gen. Mohamed Gelle Kahiye, the new chief of Somalia’s military, who said he recently shared plans about coming military operations with American advisers. “They’re helping us.”
That American assistance could be crucial to the effort by Somalia’s government to finally reassert its control over the capital and bring a semblance of order to a country that has been steeped in anarchy for two decades. For the Americans, it is part of a counterterrorism strategy to deny a haven to Al Qaeda, which has found sanctuary for years in Somalia’s chaos and has helped turn this country into a magnet for jihadists from around the world.
The United States is increasingly concerned about the link between Somalia and Yemen, a growing extremist hot spot, with fighters going back and forth across the Red Sea in what one Somali watcher described as an “Al Qaeda exchange program.”
But it seems there has been a genuine shift in Somali policy, too, and the Americans have absorbed a Somali truth that eluded them for nearly 20 years: If Somalia is going to be stabilized, it is going to take Somalis.
“This is not an American offensive,” said Johnnie Carson, the assistant secretary of state for Africa. “The U.S. military is not on the ground in Somalia. Full stop.”
He added, “There are limits to outside engagement, and there has to be an enormous amount of local buy-in for this work.”
Most of the American military assistance to the Somali government has been focused on training, or has been channeled through African Union peacekeepers. But that could change. An American official in Washington, who said he was not authorized to speak publicly, predicted that American covert forces would get involved if the offensive, which could begin in a few weeks, dislodged Qaeda terrorists.
“What you’re likely to see is airstrikes and Special Ops moving in, hitting and getting out,” the official said.
Over the past several months, American advisers have helped supervise the training of the Somali forces to be deployed in the offensive, though American officials said that this was part of a continuing program to “build the capacity” of the Somali military, and that there has been no increase in military aid for the coming operations.
The Americans have provided covert training to Somali intelligence officers, logistical support to the peacekeepers, fuel for the maneuvers, surveillance information about insurgent positions and money for bullets and guns.
Washington is also using its heft as the biggest supplier of humanitarian aid to Somalia to encourage private aid agencies to move quickly into “newly liberated areas” and deliver services like food and medicine to the beleaguered Somali people in an effort to make the government more popular.
...
..officials say that this offensive, or at least the preparations for it, feels different. First, the government has the advantage of numbers, about 6,000 to 10,000 freshly trained troops, compared with about 5,000 on the side of Al Shabab and its allies.
In the past six months, Somalia has farmed out young men to Djibouti, Ethiopia, Uganda, Kenya and even Sudan for military instruction and most are now back in the capital, waiting to fight. There are also about 5,000 Ugandan and Burundian peacekeepers, with 1,700 more on their way, and they are expected to play a vital role in backing up advancing Somali forces.
The government is also better armed and equipped. Parked in neat rows behind Villa Somalia, the president’s hilltop villa in the center of Mogadishu, are newly painted military trucks, tanks, armored personnel carriers and dozens of “technicals,” pickup trucks with their windshields sawed off and a cannon riveted on the back of each one. The government also recently bought 10 Chevrolet ambulances.
There seems to be a qualitative difference, too. Somalia’s forces are now led by General Gelle, a colonel in Somalia’s army decades ago who most recently was an assistant manager at a McDonald’s in Germany. He is known among Somali war veterans as one of the best Somali officers still alive.
Shows how dubious those recent stmts by AFRICOM's Sherlock and a public affairs flak at the Brussels roundtable were:
Q: At the moment, the US is not actually engaged in training Somali troops.
MAJ GEN SHERLOCK: No, we’re not involved in the direct training of Somali troops.
PAO: We’re not directly involved right now with Somalia.
Right...
Anyway, there is no military solution for Somalia. The TFG does not have very much of a support base (excluding foreigners) and thinking you can kill and terrorize enough Somalis in Mogadishu into supporting it isn't going to work out anything like you might expect it to. It will only make the situation more volatile & remove any doubts in even the most naive as to who calls the shots in the presidential villa. And if the plan includes offensives throughout southern and central Somalia - good luck trying to contain that. Think you have a political Islam problem now? Just wait.
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From a recent blog post at Inner City Press:
On March 4, Inner City Press asked [UN spokesman Martin] Nesirky to explain Ould Abdallah's recent call for UN agencies to return to Somalia when he himself can't or won't move to Mogadishu, but rather works out of Nairobi. Nesirky acknowledged it look contradictory and said he would get an answer. But thirty hours later, there was no answer.
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SMC: Mogadishu fishermen glum with extortion from Somali Marine Force
The Somali fishermen particularly those in Hamarweyne and Shangani districts in Banadir region are complaining of the Somali marine force, who often asks them for what they have termed as extortion money.
“We cannot be silent for more than this and it is the time to say enough is enough, the Somali Marine Force are frequently asking us to pay them extort money which is not legal because if
it could have been legal there would have something a ticket to verify that we have paid money” said Bashir Yussuf the spokesman of the Fishermen in Hamarweyne district in Bandir region speaking to Somaliweyn Website on Saturday.
The spokesman has also added that they have reported the matter to the big government officials, and so far nothing has been done to curb the situation.
Mr. Basihir said that each fishing boat which goes into the sea for fishing is suppose to pay 100 Somali shillings which is equivalent to something to do with $3.5, and if you come back with fish he said you will be charged again.
”Not only that we face constant threats from the Marine Force, and sometimes torture, and the government is yet looking at the matter with wide open eyes which means nothing to us” added Mr. Bashir.
Mr. Bashir has strongly denied statement released by the Somali Marine Force admiral Farah Qare saying that there are no complains which have come from the side of the Banadir Fishermen regarding about the frequent irregularities which comes from the Somali Marine Force.
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