A U.S. drone aircraft fired on two leaders of a militant Somali organization tied to al-Qaeda, apparently wounding them, a senior U.S. military official familiar with the operation said Wednesday.
The strike last week against senior members of al-Shabab comes amid growing concern within the U.S. government that some leaders of the Islamist group are collaborating more closely with al-Qaeda to strike targets beyond Somalia, the military official said.
The airstrike makes Somalia at least the sixth country where the United States is using drone aircraft to conduct lethal attacks, joining Afghanistan, Pakistan, Libya, Iraq and Yemen.
...
In recent months, U.S. officials have picked up intelligence that senior members of the group have expanded their ambitions beyond attacks in Somalia.
“They have become somewhat emboldened of late, and, as a result, we have become more focused on inhibiting their activities,” the official said.“They were planning operations outside of Somalia.”
Both of the al-Shabab leaders targeted in the attack had “direct ties” to American-born cleric Anwar al-Aulaqi, the military official said.
...
The White House declined Wednesday night to respond to questions about the attack.
But Obama administration officials have made repeated references to al-Shabab in recent weeks, indicating that the group has expanded its aims and its operations. In a speech Wednesday unveiling the administration’s new counterterrorism strategy, senior White House aide John O. Brennan included Somalia among the countries where the administration has placed a new focus on al-Qaeda affiliates.
“As the al-Qaeda core has weakened under our unyielding pressure, it has looked increasingly to these other groups and individuals to take up its cause, including its goal of striking the United States,” said Brennan, Obama’s chief counterterrorism adviser. “From the territory it controls in Somalia,” he said, “al-Shabab continues to call for strikes against the United States.”
And earlier this month, in a hearing to confirm him as Obama’s new defense secretary, CIA Director Leon Panetta told senators that the agency had intelligence on al-Shabab “that indicates that they, too, are looking at targets beyond Somalia.” Panetta said al-Qaeda had moved some of its operations to “nodes” in Yemen, Somalia and North Africa. The CIA, he said, was working with the U.S. Joint Special Operations Command in those areas “to try to develop counterterrorism.”
The Special Operations Command carried out last week’s Somalia strike, the military official said.
...
It was not immediately clear what kind of unmanned aircraft was used in the attack or where the drone originated.
The Somalia thread for the week ending October 25, 2009 at this site covered some of the media on the MQ-9 Reaper Hunter/Killer UAV being stationed on Seychelles.
-- -- --
Inner City Press dispatch on Wednesday:
In Somalia as elsewhere, the UN counts casualties but doesn't say, at least on the record, who is responsible. The most recent UN report on Somalia says that “during the period of 10-19 June, [the UN / World Health Organization] reported 973 casualties from weapons-related wounds treated in the three main hospitals in Mogadishu.”
Inner City Press asked for the breakdown between those caused by Al Shabaab and those caused by the Transitional Federal Government or AMISOM troops. Officially, there is no answer. On background, the UN estimated 60% caused by Al Shabab, 40% by the government or peacekeepers.
The latter percentage is higher than the UN says publicly. Now the UN mission UNSOA has brought on board a retired UK general to try, it's said, to minimize civilian casualties from the AMISOM peacekeepers to which the UN provides logistical support.
At least this shows a plan. When Inner City Press has asked UN spokespeople on the record, they say it is entirely up to AMISOM, despite the UN assistance and payments provided to AMISOM.
That "estimate" is surely more PR than a fact-based accounting - was the UN deferring to AMISOM for numbers on that too, or just their PR damage-control support team that has been focused on negating this ugly fact of counterinsurgency operations in an urban setting? As the archives here help document, a reading of Somali-based reporting, including statements from Lifeline Africa Ambulance Service's Ali Muse, leads to the incontestable understanding that a major share of the fatalities and casualties have been attributable, both directly and indirectly, to AMISOM and TFG-aligned forces.
-- -- --
Daily Monitor: US offers Shs120b to Amisom
The US is offering spy drones among a huge military consignment to AMISOM to help bolster its capability to decimate the al- Shabaab, foreign media reported yesterday.
The package includes four shoulder-launched Raven drones, other surveillance systems, body armour, night-vision gadgets, generators as well as communications and heavy construction equipment, according to the New York Times. This aid package will cost Washington nearly $45 million (Shs111b).
Secret documents Associated Press news agency obtained from Pentagon show Uganda will separately receive unspecified military communication and engineering gadgets worth $4.4 million (Shs10.9b). “I am not aware. The consideration may still be at policy level. We have not yet received anything,” Uganda’s Defence and Military Spokesman, Lt. Col. Felix Kulayigye, said yesterday when contacted.
News of the military aid comes six weeks after Gen. Carter Ham, the new commander of US Africa Command (AFRICOM), visited Uganda and held talks with President Museveni at his home in Rwakitura, Kiruhura District, on May 10 about Somalia’s hazardous situation.
Mr John Dunne, the deputy public affairs officer at the US Mission in Kampala, said last evening that they have increased their military spending on AMISOM in line with US commitments made during the July 2010 AU summit in Kampala as “the situation in Mogadishu remains difficult”.
...
In yesterday’s email, Mr Dunne wrote: “We have and will continue to provide equipment, training, and some logistical support to Ugandan and Burundian soldiers.” To date, Washington has directly committed $185 million to support AMISOM operations in Mogadishu beside its other assessed contributions to the United Nations that provides logistical assistance to the continental force.
...
AMISOM Spokesman Paddy Ankunda, promoted yesterday to Lt. Col, said from Mogadishu that the equipment, when it arrives, will be “force multiplier”. He said al-Shabaab has lost the enthusiasm to fight but still maintain some capability to harm civilians through suicide bombings.
Disregarding the obvious spin here, if one is to take AMISOM at its word that H.S.M. only has the "capability to harm civilians through suicide bombings", that places the onus for other civilian casualities in Mogadishu squarely in the AMISOM camp.
The Observer: Museveni makes changes in UPDF
The reshuffle, according to our military source, is mainly aimed at boosting the AMISOM offensive against Al Shabaab extremists in Mogadishu, Somalia. The changes, according to the military source based in the Somali capital, have seen three Mogadishu-based Majors promoted to lieutenant colonel, albeit in acting capacity.-- -- --
They are Paddy Ankunda, Chris Ogumiraki and Joab Ndahura, the 1st battalion commander. Ankunda continues to serve as commander, communications/public relations, for AMISOM...
UN News Centre: Ban calls for stepped-up action against attackers of children in armed conflicts
Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon today reiterated his concern over the growing number of attacks on schools and hospitals and threats to children in armed conflicts around the world, stating that the United Nations is considering targeted measures against those who commit such crimes.
“Beyond naming and shaming, we have a further tool we can consider employing to safeguard schools and hospitals in conflict,” said Mr. Ban at a panel discussion organized by Radhika Coomaraswamy, the Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Children and Armed Conflict, and Germany’s Ambassador to the UN, Peter Wittig, ahead of next month’s general debate on the issue in the Security Council.
“The threat of targeted measures against repeat violators – especially non-State actors – is credible and effective,” the Secretary-General said.
He said the protection of schools and hospitals is central to the UN’s work to protect children from those who seek to deny them education and health care.
“Let us resolve to keep up the pressure on all who violate the rights of children in conflict, whether it is in conscripting child soldiers or threatening schools and hospitals,” said Mr. Ban.
As pointed out in the week-ending June 5 thread,
Over the past three weeks, of 1586 weapons-related injuries reported by three major hospitals in Mogadishu, 735 cases or 46% were children under the age of five. Compared to April, the number of children casualties reported was only 3.5%The correlation b/w the AMISOM military campaign to capture more territory and the increase in children casualities is obvious.
...
..WHO said recent data showed that the main causes of death among under-fives were burns, chest injuries and internal haemorrhaging caused by blast injuries, shrapnel and bullets.
...
Marthe Everard, WHO's representative for Somalia, said: "This is the highest number of injured children that has been reported since the beginning of this year."
Fighting between government troops, backed by the African Union Mission in Somalia, and Al-Shabab has intensified in Mogadishu in recent weeks, with government troops trying to dislodge the insurgents from several parts of the city that had been under their control.
Re the use of child soldiers,
HRW: US: Press Allies to End Use of Child Soldiers
The United States should suspend military assistance to countries using child soldiers, Human Rights Watch said today.-- -- --
On June 27, 2011, the US State Department released a list of six governments that use child soldiers in violation of US legislation adopted in 2008: Burma, Chad, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Somalia, Sudan and Yemen. Five of the countries - excluding Burma - receive US military assistance.
"The US strategy of just telling countries to stop using child soldiers is not working," said Jo Becker, children's rights advocate at Human Rights Watch. "So long as they keep getting US military assistance, these countries have little incentive to stop recruiting children."
The Child Soldiers Prevention Act of 2008 prohibits governments using child soldiers from receiving US foreign military financing, military training, and several other categories of US military assistance. The six countries identified in the new 2011 Trafficking in Persons report for using child soldiers were all included in the first State Department list in June 2010.
...
The administration contends that the military assistance it provides to Somalia is peacekeeping assistance that is not covered by the law. On June 22, Senators Richard Durbin of Illinois and John Boozman of Arkansas introduced legislation that would amend the Child Soldiers Prevention Act to prohibit peacekeeping operations assistance to governments of countries that recruit and use child soldiers.
FSNAU press release: 2.85 million people facing food security crisis in Somalia
FSNAU has just updated the number of people in crisis to 2.85million up from 2.4million reported in January (19% increase). The revised figures are the result of analysis done on the basis of new forecasts of the Gu harvest and its impact on the food security of the population. The overwhelming majority of the 2.85million are in the South (61% of the total population in crisis) where there is extremely limited food assistance due to insecurity. The 1.75 million people in crisis in the South include rural, urban and IDPs, an increase from 1.4million in January.
UN Deparment of Public Information: Press Conference by UN Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator for Somalia
“We are seriously concerned about the rapidly deteriorating situation in Somalia, where, without a rapid and effective response, more lives will be lost through malnutrition,” warned Mark Bowden at a Headquarters press conference this afternoon. Citing worrying reports from refugee camps in Kenya and Ethiopia, which indicated extremely high global acute malnutrition rates among new arrivals from Somalia, he said: “We must take action now to avert larger-scale crisis.”
...
“Levels of distress are increasing throughout the country,” he said, but stressed that the epicentre of the burgeoning crisis was in the central and southern parts of the nation held by al-Shabaab.
These are also the areas being targeted by TFG-aligned and "dual track"-funded milita campaigns to eradicate resistance to transitional govt rule. The media reports so far have definitely downplayed any significance to displacement as the primary result of conflict in favor of a narrative stressing alarming ecological & agricultural conditions. But as reporting from inside Somalia continues to make clear, much of this displacement is directly attributable to military operations and the perceived threat of escalated conflict.
RBC: Residents start on displacement, as war tension renews in Gedo region
Residents in Burdhubo and Bardhere districts of Gedo region in southern Somalia begun to displace from their homes after new tensions arise between government forces and Al-Shabab rebels in the region.
Residents in Burdhubo told RBC Radio on Thursday that nearly hundred families evacuated from the district on Wednesday to Kenyan-Somali border to run from possible battle in their town.
The residents with their children have now reached Elwak, a district near the Kenyan border.
The new displacement begun after Somalia government announced on Wednesday fresh military assault against Al-Shabab fighters in the region.
In such conditions of destabilization amidst warnings of state-sponsored violence, who can seriously be expected to maintain a farm, herd or livelihood? May be of interest to map the regional figures cited in the table in the FSNAU link w/ those of recent military operations against H.S.M.
-- -- --
AHN: Two slain as Somali refugees, Kenyan police clash over demolishing a mosque
At least two people were killed and 11 others injured after Kenyan police clashed with Somali refugees over demolishing a mosque and small business stalls in the Dhagahley refugee camp in Dadaab, a home for thousands of refugees from Somalia in northeastern Kenya, witnesses said Thursday.-- -- --
clearpxl
Kenyan police used tear gas to disperse Somalis protesting against moves by the government to pave the way for new roads in the Dhagahley area, according to an eyewitness who spoke to Shabelle, a radio station based in Mogadishu.
“Early Thursday morning, police arrived at the camp and started destroying a little mosque and business stalls,” the witness said. “The protest turned violent as Kenyan police started live rounds of ammunition against the refugees.”
The sounds of gunshots could be heard more two hours later as clashes between police and Somalis continued around Dhagahley.
HOL: Bloated Somali Parliament Overwhelmingly Endorsed New Premier Ali
The Somali parliament on Tuesday overwhelmingly approved Prime Minister Abdiweli Mohamed Ali to take over the office after the recent resignation of Mohamed Abdullahi Farmaajo.
...
Somali lawmakers endorsed the new premier by the show of hands in the house that for the first time in months appeared unanimously united. Ali was endorsed with 437 votes out of the 443 members present.
Only two Somali lawmakers voted against Ali’s takeover of the controversial office of Somali prime minister, while the rest did not took any stand during the critical house vote.
Shabelle Media: Somali president: Kampala Accord will not be implemented until parliament approves
The president of Somali interim federal government of Somalia on Tuesday announced that Kampala Accord will not be implemented until the parliament approves.
President Sheikh Sharif made the announcement while delivering a speech before the parliament after vote of vote of confidence was granted to his newly named prime minister, Dr. Abdiwel Mohamed Ali.
He noted he considers that the national interest is in the agreement, and also has interest for the exhausted Somali people.
The president reiterated he and the speaker of the parliament are committed to work work to gather for Somalis and the nation in general.
Would be interesting to hear what Sh. Sharif et al would then say should parliament end up not rubberstamping its approval of this controversial foreign agreement.
-- -- --
Faqi beats the new PM to the script...
AP: Somalia: US took bodies of militants after strike
U.S. military forces landed in Somalia to retrieve the bodies of dead or wounded militants after a U.S. drone strike targeted a group of insurgents, Somalia's defense minister told The Associated Press on Friday.
...
Defense Minister Abdulhakim Mohamoud Haji Faqi called on the U.S. to carry out more airstrikes against the al-Qaida-linked militants, though he admitted that Somali officials appear not to have been informed about the June 23 operation near the southern coastal town of Kismayo beforehand.
"But we are not complaining about that. Absolutely not. We welcome it," Faqi told AP. "We understand the U.S.'s need to quickly act on its intelligence on the ground," he said. "We urge the U.S. to continue its strikes against al-Shabab because if it keeps those strikes up, it will be easier for us to defeat al-Shabab."
...
Faqi said the June 23 attack was carried out by a U.S. drone, and that after the attack U.S. forces picked up militants who were either killed or injured. Residents in Kismayo reported hearing helicopters hovering overhead the night of the operation.
"We have intelligence reports from our own sources that the U.S. army picked up militants after the strike," Faqi said, declining to disclose them. He said that the Somalia government would release the militants' names when they're confirmed by DNA tests.
In late 2009 the U.S. deployed drone aircraft to the island nation of Seychelles. A U.S. official said then that the drones were primarily for anti-piracy efforts but that he couldn't rule out their use over Somalia.
...
Lt. Col. Paddy Ankunda, spokesman for the AU peacekeepers, welcomed the U.S. assistance, saying it will help the force increase its surveillance abilities. "With the help of drones, we can locate insurgents in real time and deal with them decisively," he said.
He also urged the U.S. to increase its strikes against militants to destroy insurgents' command and control capabilities. "If you eliminate al-Shabab leadership, you are limiting their power to conduct successful military operations," Ankunda said.
Even as the U.S. says it will increase its focus on al-Qaida and its affiliates, Faqi said al-Shabab fighters make an easier target than militants in Pakistan or Yemen, because Somalia has few mountainous areas that can serve as hideouts. He said he didn't believe militants in Somalia are as experienced as in other parts of the world.
...
Faqi said the U.S. pays the bulk of the army's salary, along with Italy, and that his government gets logistical and capacity building supports from America. He said his government is grateful but needs even more help with hospitals, communication equipment and vehicles.
Faqi said al-Shabab is in a "very, very difficult situation nowadays, financially, militarily and morally," and that any sustained aerial strikes would further weaken the militants, who control large swaths of the country's southern and central regions, including portions of the capital, Mogadishu, despite the success of the African Union offensive.
"There is mistrust among its top leaders, and between Somalis and foreigners. So I believe that new aerial strikes against its leaders will be another nail in the coffin of al-Shabab," he said.
-- -- --
Shabelle Media: Low-level flying aircrafts hover over southern Somalia town
Low-level flying aircrafts are seen hovering over parts of Kismayo port town, about 500 kilometers south of Mogadishu, witnesses said on Saturday.-- -- --
Local residents said they faced dreadful conditions after they were awakened by the sounds of unknown aircrafts flying over Kismayo which is Al shabaab stronghold town.
The planes had been apparently doing surveillance operations in the area where is believed to be the hideout of foreign militants fighting alongside Al shabaab, which US alleges to be Al Qaeda’s proxy in the horn of Africa nation, according to an eyewitness in the neighborhood of Alanley in Kismayo.
The witness mentioned some of the local residents started fleeing from their homes as result of fear sparked by the aircrafts.
Daily Monitor: UPDF in Somalia complain over pay cuts
The successful UPDF operations in Somalia could be undermined by issues of remuneration as soldiers are complaining of delayed payment and unclear deductions from their allowances.-- -- --
Some soldiers deployed in Somalia have told Sunday Monitor that $200 (about Shs500,000) out of $750 (about Shs1.5m) is deducted from their pay monthly without clear explanation.
They also say an increment to $1,028 a month that was promised by the commander of Land Forces, Gen. Katumba Wamala, when he visited the troops in January, has not been received.
And that compensation for the dead or injured is usually not received by all or if they do, it’s stressful to access as one has to be connected to powerful officers in order to easily be paid.
But the army denies any ill intentions and acknowledges some delays in payment; which, according to them, is not by commission.
The agitated soldiers told this newspaper that when Gen. Katumba made the pay rise promise, they were excited but that was soon extinguished when the Chief of Defence Forces, Gen. Aronda Nyakairima, who reportedly visited them and said there would be no increment.
One Maj. Kamara who had been deployed in Somalia reportedly raised the matter of delayed remuneration and compensation to Gen. Aronda during his January visit. After the incident though, Maj. Kamara was reportedly sent back home and asked to report to the Chief of Personnel and Administration for redeployment which, however, has not happened to-date. It is not known if the two developments are linked. We failed to reach Maj. Kamara for his side of the story.
...
“We became suspicious after the CDF contradicted Gen. Katumba on our pay rise,” a soldier said on condition of anonymity, “They say $200 is deducted for equipment but the UN told us that the government had been paid for two years and equipment provided.”
However, Gen. Wamala told Sunday Monitor on Thursday that the increment had been made and payment done up to May. He defended the $200 deduction saying it was meant to take care of other provisions.
“It was part of the MoU which is in black and white,” said Gen. Wamala, “When we went into the mission, the MoU between Uganda and AU said Uganda was going to be a budget neutral operation meaning that the government of Uganda would not provide anything in its budget.”
He said the soldiers who thought the mission was for making money would continue complaining. Defence Ministry and army spokesman Felix Kulayigye confirmed the increment had been made but the soldiers were paid the old rate of $750.
“ It’s true the payment was supposed to be $1,028 beginning with the first disbursement of this year from January to April but the UN only sent money at the rate of $750,” he said, “ The top-up has been sent to make it $1,028; they (troops) are going to receive the top-up effective Tuesday next week.”
Soldiers had told us that they received only one month pay in June but Lt. Col. Kulayigye has said payment for January to March had been done. “ It’s not true that we paid only one month; in fact even money for May has been received on the government account but not yet accessed by the soldiers,” he said.
The army publicist said the alleged delays in payment and compensation were partly the African Union problem. “That is a problem in Addis-Ababa,” he said, “The issue of compensation is not Uganda government; AU pays after doing their own study.”
On the deductions, Lt. Col. Kulayigye said “in the MoU, the government is entitled to retain $200 for operational costs.” He, however, did not say why that deduction is still counted on the soldiers allowances not as a direct remittance from AU to the government of Uganda. The soldiers see it as a tax on their pay by the government yet their operation logistics were provided for by AU and UNISOA, a UN logistics body.
The soldiers who spoke to us were suspicious that their superiors could either be making a killing through the cuts or making profits through the banks by delaying remittance of their allowances.
A weak Al Jazeera program, Inside Story, focuses on African Union: Beyond passive peacekeeping?
The program opens w/ presenter Shiulie Gosh incorrectly claiming that "last month the mandate of the AU mission was expanded from peacekeeping to enforcement of peace. It means that AU soldiers can now lead the onslaught against al-Shabaab."
Al Jazeera's Mogadishu correspondant, Mohammed Adow, in a video report while embedded in an AMISOM unit, chooses his words a little more carefully, instead refering to AMISOM's foreign fighters "taking advantage of a change in the rules of engagement" to take the war to H.S.M.
But the UPDF continues w/ the "m" word: "The mandate has been so useful to us, because now we have options of pursuing Al Shabaab," states Colonel Paul L'Oketch. "We are no longer restricted... we are no longer restricted... we can just go on the offensive, and get there, ...and enforce peace and secure the area."
As the video report ends and the presenter begins addressing the program's guests, Gosh adjusts her description when posing her first question - "Do you think the extension of the rules of engagement will help" AMISOM deflect criticism (from whom?) that it hasn't done enough?
But when she goes on to ask her first question of the second guest on the program, she shows how poorly informed on this subject she truly is - "What do you think is the feeling of ordinary Somalis that, uh, the mandate of the AU [sic] has now been expanded from being able to be, uh, more offensive in chasing out Al Shabaab?"
Admittedly though, she offbeatly nails it w/ the description of whatever impetus AMISOM may believe it is operating under currently as "being able to be more offensive".
The controversial Omar Jamal, as the third guest, uses the term "extended mandate" twice in his response to a question posed re the "expanded" mandate.
There's no question that the mandate was extended again for this year (thru Sept), as it has been every year now since 2007, but where is any proof that the mandate itself was changed wrt taking the fight to the enemy? As I pointed out previously, there are no public documents to back up the rhetoric.
An article last week in The Independent.co.ug stated
“Our forces have become more offensive and the fight is now in the al Shabaab’s half,” [AMISOM spokesman Maj. Paddy] Ankunda said, “I think with more troops and logistics, Mogadishu should fall soon.” Although the AMISOM mandate has not changed, its Rules of Engagement have and now allow the force to be more robust in the conduct of offensive defence.
As that article points out, a force's mandate is not the same thing as a ROE. They are not supposed to be interchangeable terms. Mahiga's comments around this time last year specifically recommended leaving the mandate alone and adjusting one's interpretation to allow for enhanced ROE. That could be what UPDF officials (and official propagandists) are refering to.
But then that was already supposed to have changed 12 months ago, which they took no time to start acting upon in capturing territory. So why refer to that as something new? From July 28, 2010, United Nations blocks change of Amisom mandate
The African Union summit yesterday bowed to pressure from the United Nations and turned down a request that it support a change in the mandate of its peacekeeping mission in war-torn Somalia.
After three days of deliberations, the AU Summit, however, closed with a promise of more troops from more African countries to join Uganda and Burundi, which together currently have their soldiers serving under the African peacekeeping mission in Somalia (Amisom).
Pre-emptive strikes
It was also agreed that Amisom, which has until now been hobbled by a mandate which restricts its troops to firing back only when attacked, now enjoy a change in rules of engagement -- meaning they are free to carry out pre-emptive strikes against the al Shabaab radical Islamist militants.
ROE's change depending on the phase of operation or on other factors, internal and external. Claiming right now that a ROE has been changed to allow the foreign fighters to "be more offensive" thus comes across as more of a propaganda talking point rather than promoting anything new. As is talk of the much-requested always-rejected mandate change in degree of orwellian phrasing from "peacekeeping" to "peace enforcement."
-- -- --
The reporter of this article veers into delusional territory more than once but the story points out the repeated use of heavy, indiscriminate weapons fire...
New Vision: ‘Popcorn’ rules Mogadishu streets
Simon Etuket is sweating profusely one would think he has a fever. And so I thought until he corrected me.-- -- --
“It is because it is very hot here. These popcorn machines make the situation hotter too,” Etuket said as he manned one of the heavy machine guns, mounted on the top of a Caspir Armoured Personnel Carrier (APC), as it speeded through the potholed streets of Mogadishu.
Occasionally, he let off a round, from his monster gun, another and another...
His face twitched, his head nodded as he let off one round after the other from the machine gun. Momentarily, he stopped firing and slowly turned the muzzle to another direction.
Then the gun went off again. His head nodding, his face beaming with each round of popcorn released. The convoy momentarily stopped just before Juba Hotel. This is battle territory.
Etuket bends to be able to see the horizon beyond the guns, but his firing was so measured — there was no doubt he knew what he was doing. To effectively reach the gun, he piled together several metallic boxes, then stood on top of them. There were so many boxes inside the fortified battle wagon filled with thousands of groundnuts and popcorns that if this was indeed food, the recipient would never go hungry.
But as soon as it negotiates a corner, the popcorn goes off again, Etuket nods, his face lightens up and his entire body shakes in unison to the firing.
Hearing Etuket’s and other guns from a distance is like listening to the pop of corn as it is being prepared and occasionally boo... similar to noise made when pounding ground nuts in an African mortar. This is why the soldiers refer to the bullets as popcorns and groundnuts. “This is the main food for those people. This is what they like eating most,” Etuket said.
...
At the Juba I and II fronts, the militants dug tunnels around the interior ministry building and several other buildings. AMISOM counters this by firing heavily into the tunnels.
“Fungua bara bara,” (Clear the way) Etuket exclaims as his 20mm bursts into life again. The other caspirs in the convoy opened up too, firing their red-hot groundnuts and popcorn into the empty buildings by the roadsides.
Yes, rats like popcorn and groundnuts, while the Al Shabaab are hiding in their ‘rat holes’ they receive roasted groundnuts and popcorn beyond measure!
Because of this firing, the forces expend a lot of groundnuts and popcorn that they have to be replenished regularly.
“When I talked to one of our commanders in Mogadishu, he told me that the ground nuts were getting finished,” President Yoweri Museveni said recently.
...
The battles are so close within these walls that sometimes, the belligerents stop roasting popcorn and turn to verbal artillery. “Most of them speak Swahili so they insult us,” a soldier facing the gates of Bakara, a distance away from El Hindi, says. When the verbal artillery fails, they throw stones at each other!
“We need human and other intelligence. We have to know what is happening behind the next wall,” a commander says. This will now be possible, after the US government announced that they were giving unmanned drones to the forces.
The East African: EA countries get more US aid for fighting Al-Shabaab
The US is escalating its military involvement in Somalia with a recent drone strike against Islamist insurgents and the provision of nearly $50 million in new military aid to Uganda and Burundi, the countries that make up the African Union fighting force inside Somalia.
In further US moves to bolster allies in East Africa, Kenya is set to receive $12 million for helicopter upgrades and training. Djibouti, the host of a large US military base, will get $17.7 million for aircraft.
...
The US will also deploy four hand-launched drones for reconnaissance purposes in Somalia. These Raven drones, which weigh only two kilogrammes and can fly for up to 90 minutes, are being given to Uganda and Burundi as part of the counter-terrorism package.
...
Washington has previously supplied hundreds of millions of dollars in military aid to Somalia’s Transitional Federal Government and to the African Union’s military mission in Somalia (Amisom). But this new infusion of aid is going only to neighbouring countries and not to the TFG itself — perhaps reflecting US expressions of frustration with the TFG’s performance.
The equipment being supplied to Uganda and Burundi includes body armour, night-vision gear, communications devices, generators, heavy-construction machinery and surveillance apparatus. Training for the use of the equipment is to be provided as well.
The Raven drones apparently do not carry weapons, but the US-Africa Command (Africom) announced two years ago that it was using MQ-9 Reaper drones, which have an armed capability to track suspected pirate ships in the Indian Ocean and Gulf of Aden.
That initiative, carried out from a base in the Seychelles, came to an end in the spring of 2010, according to an Africom spokesman. The Reaper drones were not armed and were part of a US-Seychelles collaborative effort to determine the feasibility of using drones in support of security operations in East Africa, the spokesman added.
“While we can’t get into specifics, we view the operation as successful,” he told The EastAfrican.
0 comments:
Post a Comment