Somalia thread for the week ending August 28

Reports of looting by govt soldiers continue

Shabelle Media: Three killed as Somali soldiers fire at IDPs collecting aid

Some Somali government soldiers on Monday opened fire at internally displaced people collecting aid in Mogadishu, killing at least three people and wounding three others, witnesses said.

The fire came as the government soldiers were looting aid food from Turkish government destined to help Somalia’s famine affected people.

The IDPs are said to have fled from the scene not taking their food donations, according to eyewitnesses.

The witnesses said some government soldiers took all food aid brought at the IDPs camp to feed the famine displaced Somalis.

A report at Somalia Report puts the death toll at five.

Daily Mail Online: The firing squad who botched the job: Somalia executes two former government soldiers accused of murder to prove to West it is clamping down on lawlessness

Strapped to wooden posts in scrubland in Mogadishu, these are the last moments of two ex-government soldiers who have been executed to prove a point.

Crowds of local people had gathered in the Somalian capital to watch their final moments, excruciatingly drawn out as their former colleagues missed repeatedly and bullets landed all around them in the sand.

It took more than ten rounds of fire to kill the men with one having to be finished off at point-blank range with a bullet in the heart.

The Western-backed regime in charge of Somalia is desperate to prove it has a grip on law and order in the famine-hit state.

But the brutal images will win the country few friends in its efforts to present a credible alternative to the Islamic militants who provide such a threat to security.

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Judge Hassan Muungaab told Reuters: 'We caught these two soldiers red-handed. One killed a civilian and the other a soldier, so we have decided to execute them in accordance with the laws of Islam and our military court.

'They will serve a good example to all government forces, which should ensure reliable peace. This is to avoid killings and to safeguard our Somali people.

'Any soldier who kills a person or loots property or food at the market or in refugee camps will be executed likewise.'

Dozens of people watched as 15 soldiers open fire on the two soldiers, identified as Abdisankus and Abdullahi Jirow, who had been blindfolded and tied to two poles. The soldiers' bodies were then buried in a field.

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Some witnesses said they were distressed...

Liban Issa, who lives in Mogadishu, said: 'After more than 10 bullets hit each... a soldier went closer to finish one man who did not die immediately and shot several bullets into his heart.

'It was a bit shocking, some of us could not watch directly, we were looking down. Punishing criminals is fair but the beheading, limb cutting and execution by al Shabaab and the government is not something pleasant for our minds.'

In contrast, w/ masks on the executioners rather than the victims

Shabelle Media: Al shabaab executes three people in Mogadishu for spying

The movement of Al shabaab on Tuesday executed three Somali young people in Mogadishu for allegedly spying to the transitional federal government and Kenya.

The Al shabaab’s court in Benadir region said the men were sentenced to death as the execution took place at a square in the district of Daynile just north of Mogadishu, according to local residents.

Abdi Burkan Moallim, 25 and Hussein Mohamed Abdullahi, 16, were accused of working and spying for the transitional federal government of Somalia, the Al shabaab court said.

Al shabaab noted that Ibrahim Mohamed Abdi, 31, was arrested in Sakow district of Lower Jubba region and was found guilty of working with the Kenyan intelligence.

The Al shabaab judge of Benadir region Al Qadi Sheikh the executed men were spies to what he called the enemy of Islam, adding that they admitted their crimes.

A woman, who witnesses the incident, told Shabelle that the young boys were shot and killed by a firing whose faces masked as the security was tightened.

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Because we can...

Shabelle Media: Unlawful money imposed on aid planes landing at Mogadishu airport

Planes carrying aid to famine hit Somalia have been imposed illegal money to pay when landing at Mogadishu’s Aden International Airport, an official said on Wednesday.

Mogadishu airport authorities started to take a lot of illegal money from the airplanes carrying aid food and medicine to the starving people in the refugee camps in the capital, said an official at the Mogadishu airport who spoke on condition of anonymity for security reasons.

He said it is not still known where those money directly goes, adding that the aid planes landing at the airport were ordered to pay $ 2,000 for any flight to the capital.

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The move of taking a lot of illegal money from aid planes landing at Mogadishu airport is a new as Somalia’s government leaders said aid planes shouldn’t be taxed.

Shabelle Media: Shabelle Journalists blocked for reporting aid flights Mogadishu airport

The authorities of Mogadishu’s Aden Ade International Airport on Wednesday blocked journalists from Shabelle Media Network from entering Mogadishu airport to cover aid flights.

Abdirazaq Adam Qoslaye, Zakariye Ahmed Muse, Mu’awiye Ahmed Mudey and Ahmed Osman from Shabelle were denied access to the airport by the police of the airport.

The deputy health minister for the transitional government Moallim Ali Adam, accompanied by Shabelle reporter Qoslaye and his cameraman Osman, was informed that Shabelle representatives are not allowed to get in the airport.

Efforts by the minister to help reporters enter to the airport ended in vain, according to Qoslaye.

The airport police also hindered reporter Zakariye Ahmed Muse and his cameraman Mu’awiye Ahmed Mudey to cover reports at aid flights at the airport which is destined for helping famine stricken Somalia.

It is worthy mentioning that other journalists from local and international newsoutlets were permitted in.

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From a VOA interview w/ MSF's programs manager Duncan McLean

Doctors Without Borders, also known as MSF, is one of the many humanitarian groups caring for the Somalis.

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MSF also has medical teams north of Mogadishu in areas controlled by al Shabab. Many war wounded and road accident victims are being treated.

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While the withdrawal of al Shabab has allowed greater access to parts of the city, the Somali capital cannot be called safe.

“In Mogadishu we have access in the sense that we have Somali and international teams on the ground that are working in the various camps, displaced camps around the city,” he said. Those teams carry out vaccination and therapeutic feeding programs, along with basic medical consultations to check for cholera and acute water diarrhea.

While he describes the access as good, he remains cautious since it’s only been a few weeks since al Shabab left north Mogadishu. The militia is battling the U.N. and AU backed Transitional Federal Government (TFG).

McLean said, “It has left a security vacuum of sorts. And so, even, say, during the height of the conflict in Mogadishu, as dangerous as that city was, there was a clear front line even if there might be various targeted killings and bombings within TFG areas.”

Now pro-government forces have a much wider area to control without any additional troops. That allows other armed groups to act more freely.

“There are also private militias related to different clans and so on. And working in those circumstances I actually find almost as dangerous, if not more dangerous, than when there was a front line running through the city. Nonetheless, we do have access with extreme caution,” he said.

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Shabelle Media: Al shabaab displays battle wagons confiscated from TFG

The Al shabaab group on Wednesday put on show at least six military wagons they said had confiscated from the transitional federal government in the district of Bardhere in Gedo region of southern Somalia.

Reports emanating from the region of Gedo say that four of the seized military vehicles loaded with military supplies for the Somali government forces in the region.

Officials of Al shabaab said the captured the vehicles after fierce battles with Somalia forces backed by the moderate of Ahlu Sunna Waljama (ASWJ) that took place in the village of Busar just outside of Elwak town.

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Press TV: Two US drones go down in Somalia

Two unmanned aerial vehicles operated by the US military have reportedly crashed in Somalia's drought-stricken capital of Mogadishu.

The first drone went down in close proximity to Mogadishu's Aden-Adde International Airport on Wednesday evening. The remains of the aircraft were retrieved by Somali government and African Union forces, a Press TV correspondent reported.

Later in the day, another American remote-controlled drone crashed onto the Florenza Street, which connects the Presidential Palace, or Villa Somalia, with district of Hararyale.

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Shabelle Media: SKA denies illegal charges imposed on aid planes landing at Mogadishu

The SKA Air and Logistics Company on Sunday denied it had imposed unlawful charges on planes carrying food aid and landing at Mogadishu international airport.

Yusuf Sheikh, an official from SKA, said in an interview with Shabelle Media Network that the company doesn’t charge any plane carrying to famine stricken Somalis in Mogadishu.

The official admitted the leaders of Somali transitional federal government take the tax fees from the aid planes landing or taking off the airport.

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AP: Instructors struggle to rebuild Somalia's army

The instructor's whistle tweets, and around 50 Somalis drawing paychecks from the U.S. government punch the air in front of them with varying degrees of coordination and enthusiasm.

The men, destined to be part of the Somali government's VIP protection team, are practicing karate at a newly built parade ground in the capital. Instructors say the lessons are less about self-defense and more about trying to mold a collection of ragtag militias into a national army — a problem advisers have also faced in Afghanistan.

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In recent weeks Somali forces have shot civilians, each other, and looted food aid meant for famine-hit families. Yet these are the forces many aid agencies must rely on to protect vast amounts of food pouring into Somalia. They are also supposed to help the 9,000-strong African Union force secure the country's capital after Islamist rebels withdrew from bases there this month.

But many now fear that with the Islamists gone, Somalia's armed forces — still organized largely along clan lines — may simply fight each other and try to extort money from the civilians they are meant to protect.

"A real danger exists that the warlords and their militia groups will move forward to fill the vacuum created by al-Shabab's departure," said Augustine Mahiga, the U.N.'s special envoy to Somalia, after al-Shabab pulled out.

Still, Somalia's armed forces — 10,000 soldiers, 5,000 police and assorted allied militias — have seen some improvements over the past year. Since December, the soldiers have been receiving a regular $100 paycheck every month from the Italian and American governments. The police receive the same amount through the U.N.

International accounting firm PriceWaterhouseCoopers and the AU force administer the army payments, handing each man his cash in person to prevent theft by commanders.

The soldiers have also received new uniforms. Al-Jazira has been transformed from a wasteland dotted with a few ragged tents and no fence to a fortified camp with guard towers, razor wire, classrooms and a school. Vast white tents can house over a thousand trainees at a time. Before, they often slept under trees and those who weren't paid sometimes sold their weapons and bullets to feed their families.

Last year the European Union began training 2,000 Somali soldiers for six months at a time in Uganda. The U.S. helped by funding transportation for trainees to and from Somalia, paying for equipment and salaries for the soldiers, and supporting the Ugandan army.

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AU officers also say they are working more closely with the Somali army than they used to. AU front-line units were seen sharing equipment and sleeping quarters with Somali soldiers, something unthinkable only a year ago when there was deep distrust between the forces.

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Of course it's a deflection tactic, but does it signal any pending military campaign?

VOA:

Ethiopia's prime minister says East African countries are ready to help provide security for humanitarian aid deliveries to famine-stricken parts of Somalia controlled by Islamist insurgents. The remarks from Meles Zenawi came Thursday at an African Union pledging conference that netted more than $350 million in cash contributions to help those facing starvation in the Horn of Africa.

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Speaking to a hall filled with African and international dignitaries, the Ethiopian leader laid blame for the famine squarely on the al-Qaida-linked extremist group al-Shabab. He said it is no accident that the famine zone is limited mostly to areas of Somalia under al-Shabab's control, where aid groups have limited access.

"The lack of peace and security in many parts of the country and consequently the absence of governmental institutions has impeded effective response to the drought," Meles said. "The callous disregard for lives of the al-Shabab terrorists and their calculated sabotage of all efforts to help the needy has forced people to travel for weeks to get aid or die in their homes and on their way to refugee camps."

Meles said the six-nation East African regional group Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) has developed a plan to provide security for Somalia's Transitional Federal Government (TFG) as it expands aid deliveries into rural areas no longer under al-Shabab control.

"We should be able to provide aid in Somalia, not only in Mogadishu but also other areas that are not under the control of al-Shabab terrorists," added Meles. "The IGAD region is ready to contribute to such cross-border operation by assisting the TFG and other forces of peace to ensure the necessary environment for such an operation. Our foreign ministers and chiefs of staff have already made the necessary decisions in this regard."

Meanwhile,

Shabelle Media: Famine displaced people complain of robbing, looting by govt soldiers

Some of famine displaced people in the Somali capital Mogadishu are complaining about transitional federal government soldiers who always rob and loot aid food intended to feed them.

Drought affected families at internally displaced people (IDPs) camps in Mogadishu’s Dharkenley district told Shabelle radio that aid food was often looted before reaching to needy people.

They say that some aid from Turkish government has come under raid and then looted while hundreds of drought and famine hit families waiting for it.

Shabelle Media: IDPs at Mogadishu’s Badbado refugee camp start fleeing

Some of famine displaced people started fleeing from Badbado, a government established refugee camp in Mogadishu.

Badbado, which means safety, locates in Dharkenley district and was established to accommodate the people, who fled drought zones, and arrived at Mogadishu.

The fleeing people say the bad security was the main factor forced them to run away from the refugee camp.

They say they have moved to Tarabunk refugee camps in Mogadishu’s Hodan district to get a better life and security situation there.

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New Vision: Ugandans leading al-Shabaab

SOME commanders of the al-Shabaab militants fighting to overthrow the Transitional Federal Government (TFG) in Somalia are Ugandans, the UPDF spokesperson, Lt Col. Felix Kulayigye, has said.

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Kulayigye told heads of diplomatic missions and religious leaders from Africa that the militants commanding al-Shabaab were not Somalis, but Ugandans, Pakistanis and others from Arab countries.

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Kulayigye was speaking during a conference organised by a united religions initiative at Hotel Africana in Kampala on Tuesday.

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Shabelle Media: Somali PM, Puntland leader meet in Garowe town

In two days visit to Somalia’s semi-autonomous state of Puntland, Dr. Abdiweli Mohamed Ali, the prime minister of Somali interim government held key talks with Puntland leaders including Abdurrahman Sheikh Mohamoud Farole, the president of regional administration.

The prime minister and Puntland president Farole discussed the bilateral relations of the semi-autonomous state with the interim federal government.

To end the disagreements between the administrations and to cooperation assuring peace were also among the issues mooted in the discussions.

Shabelle Media: Somali president, Mahiga visit Puntland’s capital Garowe

A delegation led by Somalia’s president Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed and separately the United Nations special envoy to Somalia reached in Garowe town, the capital of Somalia’s semi-autonomous state of Puntland.

Somali president was warmly welcomed by Puntland leaders at the town of Garowe as his trip to the region is the first since he was elected as a president three years ago.

Previously, his Prime Minister Dr. Abdiweli Mohamed Ali visited there to pave the way for the tour of president to defuse tensions between the transitional federal government and Puntlnad administration.

Shabelle Media: Somalia, Puntland leaders agree Mogadishu to host consultative meeting

The president of Somali transitional federal government and the leader of Somalia’s semi-autonomous state of Puntland on Sunday agreed Mogadishu, the capital of strife torn Somalia, to be hosting the UN backed Somalia consultative meeting.

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Speaking jointly to the journalists in Garowe, the capital of Puntland state, the presidents of Somalia Mr. Ahmed said he and Farole agreed the first phase of Somalia’s consultative meeting to be held in Mogadishu, the second in Garowe town.

For his part, the Puntland leader noted that he was pleased with the visit by the president of Somalia to Garowe, adding that the consultative meeting will take plane in the Somali capital.

He also spelled out they concurred disagreements between the two administrations to be brought to an end and repair the strained ties between them.

Somalia thread for the week ending August 21

This story appears to be more sensationalistic than warranted by the discovery of - gasp! - the shadow economy in Somalia.

AP: Somalia famine aid stolen, for sale

Sacks of grain, peanut butter snacks and other food staples meant for starving Somalis are being stolen and sold in markets, an Associated Press investigation has found, raising concerns that thieving businessmen are undermining international famine relief efforts in this nearly lawless country.

The UN's World Food Program acknowledged for the first time that it has been investigating food theft in Somalia for two months.

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Underscoring the perilous security throughout the food distribution chain, donated food is not even safe once it has been given to the hungry in the makeshift camps popping up around the capital of Mogadishu. Families at the large, government-run Badbado camp, where several aid groups distribute food, said they were often forced to hand back aid after journalists had taken photos of them with it.

"They tell us they will keep it for us and force us to give them our food," said refugee Halima Sheikh Abdi. "We can't refuse to cooperate because if we do, they will force us out of the camp, and then you don't know what to do and eat. It's happened to many people already."

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In Mogadishu markets, vast piles of food are for sale with stamps on them from the WFP, the US government aid arm USAID, the Japanese government and the Kuwaiti government. The AP found eight sites where thousands of sacks of food aid were being sold in bulk. Other food aid was also for sale in numerous smaller stores. Among the items being sold were Kuwaiti dates and biscuits, corn, grain, and Plumpy'nut - a fortified peanut butter designed for starving children.

An official in Mogadishu with extensive knowledge of the food trade said he believes a massive amount of aid is being stolen - perhaps up to half of recent aid deliveries. The percentage had been lower, he said, but in recent weeks the flood of aid into the capital with little or no controls has created a bonanza for businessmen.

The official, like the businessmen interviewed for this story, spoke on condition of anonymity to avoid reprisals.

The AP could not verify the official's claims. WFP said that it rejected the scale of diversions alleged by the official.

At one of the sites for stolen food aid - the former water agency building at a location called "Kilometre Five" - about a dozen corrugated iron sheds are stacked with sacks of food aid. Outside, women sell food from open 50kg sacks, and traders load the food onto carts or vehicles under the indifferent eyes of local officials.

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WFP said it was "confident the vast majority of humanitarian food is reaching starving people in Mogadishu," adding that AP reports of "thousands" of bags of stolen food would equal less than 1 percent of one month's distribution for Somalia.

Somali government spokesman Abdirahman Omar Osman said the government does not believe food aid is being stolen on a large scale, but if such reports come to light, the government "will do everything in our power" to bring action in a military court.

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At the Badbado camp, Ali Said Nur said he was also a victim of food thefts. He said he twice received two sacks of maize, but each time was forced to give one to the camp leader.

"You don't have a choice. You have to simply give without an argument to be able to stay here," he said.

Really now, who is surprised that bags of donated food wind up in market stalls somewhere? Probably only those same people that don't know that the t-shirts and old clothes they donate to the Salvation Army and other orgs get sold in bulk "to companies for export to third-world countries." How exactly does a donee steal a charitable gift given w/o any return consideration anyway?

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Reuters feature on Madobe's Raskamboni militia being supported by (proxy) Kenya: Kenya looks to Somali troops, militia to create border buffer

Keen to avoid a spillover of violence by al Qaeda-trained foreign jihadists seeking haven in Somalia as well as al Shabaab rebels entrenched in the south, Nairobi wants to create a buffer zone.

Kenya has already trained thousands of newly recruited Somali soldiers to man the frontier. It also provides logistical and intelligence support to Somali government troops.

"Dhobley is the first area we secured, pushing out al Shabaab. We expect in the coming days to push them out of the region," said the soft-faced Sheikh Dahir, one of Madobe's lieutenants.

Madobe was a senior member of an Islamist administration routed from power by Ethiopian forces in late 2006, early 2007. He later turned his guns on his former allies to side with the U.N.-backed government.

Dhobley's buildings carry the pock-marked scars of intense gunbattles in April this year when Raskamboni and government forces regained control of the town from the al Qaeda-affiliated al Shabaab group.

Another fighter says Kenya provided weaponry.

"They (Kenya) help with many things including guns and bullets. Without that support, how could we have beaten them?," said a Raskamboni intelligence officer, Major Abdikadir Bashir.

Dual track policy - guns and bullets.

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While much of the western media reporting still conveys the perception that H.S.M. pulled out of Mogadishu nearly two weeks ago,

Shabelle Media: Somali forces, Al shabaab fight in Mogadishu

Heavy battles between Somali government forces backed by African Union peacekeepers and Al shabaab fighters on Monday night rocked parts of northern Mogadishu, witnesses said Tuesday.

Most of combat took place in neighborhoods of Yaqashid and Karan north of the capital as the crackling of machine could viciously be heard in many parts of Mogadishu.

Witnesses said at least four people have been killed and dozens more injured during in overnight firefight.

Reports say that Al shabaab has launched hit and run attacks before the fighting flared up.

Shabelle Media:

Heavy fighting between Somali government forces and Al shabaab on Friday took in parts of Mogadishu, witnesses said.

At least two people have been killed and three others injured during the battles, locals said.

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Daily Nation: Amisom seizes arms factory and ammunition left by Al-Shabaab

The ammunition was found at Bakara market...

Amisom stated that it uncovered 137 rockets of 155 mm each and had loaded them in trucks before removing the ammunition from the market.

The peacekeepers were assisted by contracted Western experts in explosives, urban warfare and how to conduct DNA tests.

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The Western experts have dug out explosives that were haphazardly abandoned in some places, according to residents in areas abandoned by Al-Shabaab fighters in Mogadishu.

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Xinhua:

The African Union (AU) Peace and Security Council (PSC) on Tuesday said it requires military equipment in quantity and quality to help the AU Mission in Somalia (AMISOM) accomplish its mission efficiently.

After holding a closed session on Somalia at the AU Commission Headquarters in Addis Ababa, Ramtane Lamamra, AU Commissioner for Peace and Security told Xinhua that Uganda and Burundi have pledged to deploy further troops to AMISOM.

Lamamra said Djibouti is also offering a battalion with one hundred trainers...

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"We have more pledges from Uganda and Burundi; we already have 9000, and 3000 to the ceiling, and the pledge by the two countries is enough to meet the ceiling, 12, 000," he said.

"The focus now should be on the equipment which is deadly needed for us to make sure that AMISOM will enhance its efficiency, will expand its authority, and will be able to accomplish its mission the best possible condition," said the Commissioner.

He said helicopters, equipment used to attack tactical helicopters and member of engineering equipment are among the military equipment needed for the mission. [sic]

That last sentence is a nonsensical jumble of words. Was he really that unclear or did something get lost in the translation?

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Time's Global Spin blog lives up to its name: Somalia: A Very Man-Made Disaster

Delivering food aid is a dirty business, rife with pilfering, and like governments and aid contractors, al Shabab used to steal a proportion of the food that was delivered to its areas, either to eat itself or sell in the market. But with al Shabab's listing, US aid officials and any aid worker handling US food suddenly had a legal obligation to ensure none of benefitted al Shabab, even inadvertently. The way they dealt with that was to suspend most aid to southern Somalia by the end of 2009. Al Shabab then added its own block by banning WFP, which it accused of being a US puppet, from its territory in January 2010.

The result is that not only are there now very few assistance operations in southern Somalia, there is no pipeline in place through which to funnel large of amounts of food aid in the event of an emergency. Perhaps realizing it had unwittingly helped cause a famine, earlier this month the US tried to reassure aid workers that it would not prosecute them if they accidentally ended up aiding or abetting al Shabab.

To use the word unwittingly to describe the highly controversial decision to block food and aid shipments to the insurgent's support population implies that the effects of that policy were somehow unintended and unknowable. Nonsense. Population control is one of the classic counterinsurgency tactics - draining the swamp by punishing the civilian population that supports the insurgents and forcing them to seek sustenance/benefaction/protection from the other side, in this case the TFG. It also theoretically starves out the enemy, leaving them concentrated, identifiable, and subject to targeted military hits. Time's blogger seemingly cannot fathom the notion that the US would have indeed intended this to be the outcome yet has no problem then pointing out that "officials from the Transitional Federal Government (TFG) aren't shy about saying that they consider the famine, which has substantially weakened al Shabab, a real strategic boost." In the public arena, the US knows it would never be able to get away w/ saying thus or continuing the two-year blockade to the areas that were the first to be declared as suffering famine, and so they pledge lots of money toward "humanitarian" efforts in the HoA, milking the media for all it's worth while continuing to arm and finance the conflict and the foreign-created & installed unpopular transitional government at the root of the problem. Spin indeed.

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AP: Surveillance drone crashes in Somali capital

A surveillance drone has crashed in the Somali capital of Mogadishu.

An Associated Press reporter saw pieces of the drone, which was shaped like a small plane, before it was removed by African Union soldiers. It had crashed into a house in the city center.

VOA:

Security officials in Somalia say a drone crashed in the capital, Mogadishu, on Friday, but they did not provide details about who was operating the unmanned aircraft.

Officials told say the drone crashed into a house near the Libyan Embassy on Friday. The site is located in the city's southwestern Hodan district.

Authorities, who asked not to be identified, said African Union troops and an unidentified group of men took away the wreckage.

ENA: AU, east African military wing sign deal to deploy troops to Somalia

The African Union Commission (AUC) and the Eastern Africa Standby Force Coordination Mechanism (EASFCOM) signed on Thursday (18 August) a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to enhance the capabilities of the African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM) in the areas of operational planning, logistics planning and operations, training, medical support and assistance.

According to a statement THE AU sent to ENA (Ethiopian News Agency), THE AU commissioner for peace and security, Ambassador Ramtane Lamamra, and the Eastern Africa Standby Brigade Coordination Mechanism (EASBRICOM) director at the AU Headquarters, Maj-Gen (retd) Cyrille Ndayirukiye, signed the agreement.

It (the statement) said the MoU is a milestone in the operation of the African Standby Force (ASF) as it will provide the framework for the first ever deployment of an ASF regional standby force.

It is to be recalled that EASFCOM`s contribution is a follow-up to the recommendation of the seventh extraordinary meeting of the eastern Africa region council of ministers held in Addis Ababa on 28 January 2011 to deploy EASF capabilities within AMISOM, the statement noted.

Somalia thread for the week ending August 14

Bancroft Global Development's operations in Mogadishu start getting some media attention again for the first time since early 2009 when Duncan Rykaart and everyone else aboard a US-chartered cargo plane carrying armaments to Mogadishu died as the plane exploded and sank into Lake Victoria while departing Entebbe. After H.S.M. announced two weeks ago that fighters had killed at least one white USAmerican "fighting alongside" AMISOM forces, it looks like a public relations event was set up to bring the role of Bancroft and a few of its hired hands before the press.

AP: AP Exclusive: US company helps train African Union troops in Somalia, shares intel with FBI

On the front lines of Mogadishu's streets, Islamist militants battle African Union troops. Standing alongside the peacekeepers are members of an American-run team of advisers, former military men who play a little-known but key role in the war against al-Shabab.

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While troops struggle to get control of this shattered capital that has been filling with refugees fleeing famine in southern Somalia, The Associated Pressgot rare access to the military advisers, providing a first look into their work.
The men employed by Bancroft Global Development live in small trailers near Mogadishu's airport but often go into the field. It's dangerous work — two Bancroft men were wounded last month.

Among the advisers are a retired general from the British marines, an ex-French soldier involved in a coup in Comoros 16 years ago, and a Danish political scientist.

Funded by the United Nations and the U.S. State Department, Bancroft has provided training in a range of military services, from bomb disposal and sniper training to handing out police uniforms.

Michael C. Stock, the American head of Bancroft, said his men share information with the FBI about bomb materials and the DNA of suicide bombers, who sometimes turned out to be Somali-American youths from the Midwest. Stock said his company receives no recompense for sharing information with the FBI.

Stock strongly objects if "mercenary" is used to describe his men. Instead he describes Bancroft as a non-governmental organization dedicated to finding permanent solutions to violent conflict.

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At their beach-side camp in Mogadishu, diplomats, journalists and aid workers swap tip-offs by the bar. Stories fly through the air faster than the bats that hunt in the shadows, a way to unwind after a day of tense work.

Richard Rouget, a cigar-smoking, poetry-quoting, whiskey-drinking former big game hunter and right-hand man of French mercenary Bob Denard, has a long scar on his thigh from getting shot in Somalia last year. Another round slammed into the chest plate of his body armor.

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The Bancroft advisers camp out with AU soldiers on the front lines, training them to fight in urban areas and dispose of bombs.

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The U.S. State Department has funded the company's training in Somalia of soldiers from Uganda and Burundi, who comprise the AU peacekeeping force, in marksmanship and bomb disposal. Other funding has come from the U.N. The contracts have totaled $12.5 million since 2008, the year the company started working in Somalia, Stock said.

Earlier this week, Martinus "Rocky" Van Blerk swept the road to Mogadishu's port for bombs, blew up a grenade found in a newly taken al-Shabab base and answered two calls about suspected bombs. The defused mortar shells and bomb components lie rusting in a pile near the airport; interesting or unusual devices and remains from suicide bombers are sent to the FBI for analysis.

"That's where I blew up the bodies of those two suicide bombers last week," Van Blerk told AP at a newly taken al-Shabab base, pointing to a dip in the sand and a charred wall spattered with dark residue. The bombers were shot before they could detonate their suicide vests.

Wearing government uniforms, they had attacked with machine guns. They shot one of Van Blerk's South African Bancroft colleagues as well as a contractor from a demining company and 10 Ugandan soldiers trained in bomb disposal. The demining contractor and six of the Ugandans died. Dark trails of blood smear the floor inside the house where the trainer crawled for cover. Another Bancroft employee was shot in the stomach the day before but survived.

...

The Bancroft team this week was discussing their marksmanship training program. Their idea was to encourage the peacekeepers to use sharpshooters instead of mortars, which sometimes hit residential neighborhoods and kill civilians. They train the Burundian and Ugandan soldiers in the AU force in marksmanship. Now a list of no-fire zones is pinned to the wall of their office.

"We had a problem with indiscriminate indirect fire, so we encouraged the AU to use snipers instead," said Rouget, referring to weapons like mortars. "It's discriminate, accurate."

Lt. Julius Aine, one of the Ugandan soldiers trained by Bancroft, said the training has helped his men be more professional.

"The major lessons have been about fighting in built-up areas," he said, looking out at the smashed ruins of houses so full of bullet holes they resembled concrete lace. "We are used to the bush, not fighting in the streets. This has really helped us."

NYT: U.S. Relies on Contractors in Somalia Conflict

Richard Rouget, a gun for hire over two decades of bloody African conflict, is the unlikely face of the American campaign against militants in Somalia.

A husky former French Army officer, Mr. Rouget, 51, commanded a group of foreign fighters during Ivory Coast’s civil war in 2003, was convicted by a South African court of selling his military services and did a stint in the presidential guard of the Comoros Islands, an archipelago plagued by political tumult and coup attempts.

Now Mr. Rouget works for Bancroft Global Development, an American private security company that the State Department has indirectly financed to train African troops who have fought a pitched urban battle in the ruins of this city against the Shabab, the Somali militant group allied with Al Qaeda.

...

..over the past year, the United States has quietly stepped up operations inside Somalia, American officials acknowledge. The Central Intelligence Agency, which largely finances the country’s spy agency, has covertly trained Somali intelligence operatives, helped build a large base at Mogadishu’s airport — Somalis call it “the Pink House” for the reddish hue of its buildings or “Guantánamo” for its ties to the United States — and carried out joint interrogations of suspected terrorists with their counterparts in a ramshackle Somali prison.

...

..thanks in part to Bancroft, the private security company, the militants have been forced into retreat. Several United Nations and African Union officials credit the work of Bancroft with improving the fighting skills of the African troops in Somalia, who this past weekend forced Shabab militants to withdraw from Mogadishu, the capital, for the first time in years.

Like other security companies in Somalia, Bancroft has thrived as a proxy of sorts for the American government. Based in a mansion along Embassy Row in Washington, Bancroft is a nonprofit enterprise run by Michael Stock, a 34-year-old Virginia native who founded the company not long after graduating from Princeton in 1999. He used some of his family’s banking fortune to set up Bancroft as a small land-mine clearing operation.

In recent years, the company has expanded its mission in Somalia and now runs one of the only fortified camps in Mogadishu — a warren of prefabricated buildings rimmed with sand bags a stone’s throw from the city’s decrepit, seaside airport.

The Bancroft camp operates as a spartan hotel for visiting aid workers, diplomats and journalists. But the company’s real income has come from the United States government, albeit circuitously. The governments of Uganda and Burundi pay Bancroft millions of dollars to train their soldiers for counterinsurgency missions in Somalia under an African Union banner, money that the State Department then reimburses to the two African nations. Since 2010, Bancroft has collected about $7 million through this arrangement.

Both American and United Nations officials said that Bancroft’s team in Mogadishu — a mixture of about 40 former South African, French and Scandinavian soldiers who call themselves “mentors” — has steadily improved the skills of the African troops and cut down on civilian casualties by persuading the troops to stop lobbing artillery shells into crowded parts of Mogadishu. One Western consultant who works with the African Union credits Bancroft with helping “turn a bush army into an urban fighting force.”

The advisers typically work from the front lines — showing the troops how to build sniper pits or smash holes in walls to move between houses.

“Urban fighting is a war of attrition, you nibble, nibble, nibble,” said Mr. Rouget, the Bancroft contractor. Last year, he was wounded in Mogadishu when a piece of shrapnel from a Shabab rocket explosion sliced through his thigh.

Still, he seems to thoroughly enjoy his work. “Give me some technicals” — a term for heavily armed pickup trucks — “and some savages and I’m happy,” he joked.

Some critics view the role played by Mr. Rouget and other contractors as a troubling trend: relying on private companies to fight the battles that nations have no stomach for. Some American Congressional officials investigating the money being spent for operations in Somalia said that opaque arrangements like those for Bancroft — where money is passed through foreign governments — made it difficult to properly track how the funds were spent.

It also makes it harder for American officials to monitor who is being hired for the Somalia mission. In Bancroft’s case, some trainers are veterans of Africa’s bush wars who sometimes use aliases in the countries where they fought. Mr. Rouget, for example, used the name Colonel Sanders.

He denies that he is a mercenary, and said that his conviction in a South African court was “political,” more a “regulatory infraction” than a crime. He added that the French government, which sent peacekeeping troops to Ivory Coast, was well aware of his activities there.

Mr. Stock, Bancroft’s president, also flatly rejects the idea that his employees are mercenaries, insisting that the trainers do not participate in direct combat with Shabab fighters and are supported by legitimate governments.

“Mercenary activity is antithetical to the fundamental purposes for which Bancroft exists,” he said, adding that the company “does not engage in covert, clandestine or otherwise secret activities.”

He did say, though, that there is only a small pool of people Bancroft can hire who have experience fighting in African wars.

...

Unlike regular Somali government troops, the C.I.A.-trained Somali commandos are outfitted with new weapons and flak jackets, and are given sunglasses and ski masks to conceal their identities. They are part of the Somali National Security Agency — an intelligence organization financed largely by the C.I.A. — which answers to Somalia’s Transitional Federal Government. Many in Mogadishu, though, believe that the Somali intelligence service is building a power base independent of the weak government.

One Somali official, speaking only on the condition of anonymity, said that the spy service was becoming a “government within a government.”

“No one, not even the president, knows what the N.S.A. is doing,” he said. “The Americans are creating a monster.”

...

Over the past year, the American Embassy in Nairobi, according to one American official, has become a hive of military and intelligence operatives who are “chomping at the bit” to escalate operations in Somalia. But Mr. Carson, the State Department official, has opposed the drone strikes because of the risk of turning more Somalis toward the Shabab, according to several officials.

In a telephone interview, he played down any bureaucratic disagreements and rejected criticism that America’s approach toward Somalia had been ad hoc. It is a country with historically difficult problems, he said, and the American support to the African peacekeepers has helped beat back the Shabab’s forces.

And as for the rest of southern Somalia, still firmly in the Shabab’s hands?

“One step at a time, he said. “One step at a time.”

Mr. Stock, Bancroft’s president, said that bickering in Washington about how to contain the Shabab threat had made the American government even more dependent on companies like his.

As he put it, “We’re the only game in town.”

The UN Monitoring Group on Somalia's 2010 report limited it's acknowledgement of the company's activities in Somalia to a single, rather innoculous sentence:

Bancroft Global Development

221. Bancroft provides technical expertise to AMISOM, principally related to counter-improvised explosive device capabilities, and operates under the auspices of AMISOM.

In the 2011 report from this July, there are three sentences in appendix 6, 'Private security companies'

Bancroft Global Development

26. Bancroft provides technical expertise to AMISOM and, under its auspices, to the TFG military. They have assisted AMISOM in modernizing their sight system for mortar fire, and are taking an active part in the training of TFG soldiers, from infantry tactics to administration and accountability, and of the presidential guard in charge of the TFG President personal security details.

27. It is the understanding of the Monitoring Group that Bancroft's status as a contractor for AMISOM means that its activities are subject to the exemption to the arms embargo provided for in paragraph 11(a) of UNSCR 1772.

Bancroft Global Development was organized and filed as a non-profit 501(c)(3) public charity through 2009.

That appendix also lists nine PMCs working in Somalia as ISOA members. Bancroft is not.

7. Nine members of ISOA are currently or have recently been involved in Somalia: AECOM, Dyncorp, OSPREA logistics and PAE, contracted by the US Department of State to equip, deploy and train AMISOM [4], Agility and RA International, contracted by the United Nations also in support of AMISOM, International Armored Group, which provided Saracen International Lebanon with four B6-type armoured vehicles, Hart Security and Threat Management Group, a former branch of Agility...

[4] DynCorp International, AECOM and Pacific Architects & Engineers (PAE, a Lockheed Martin company) have signed in September 2009 a five-year contract with the US Department of State Africa Peacekeaping (sic) Program (AFRICAP) which includes provisions of logistics support, contstruction, military training and advising, maritime security capacity building, equipment procurement, operational deployment for peacekeepign troops, aerial surveillance and conference facilitation; in 2010, Dyncorp, in Somalia since February 2007 when AMISOM landed first in Mogadishu, was replaced by PAE and AECOM.

oh, and, big oops from last week...

Daily Monitor: UPDF dismiss al shabaab claims on dead soldiers

The army yesterday dismissed claims by the Somali insurgents that they killed 20 UPDF soldiers and three American snipers in Somalia on Monday.

Al Shabaab spokesperson, Sheikh Ali Mohamoud, said yesterday that they had carried out an attack inside African Union soldiers’ base in Wardhiigley District of Mogadishu, killing three American trainers, 20 UPDF soldiers, including eight commanders.

But the UPDF Spokesperson, Lt. Col Felix Kulayigye said Uganda lost two soldiers not 20 in the fighting that broke out in Mogadishu on Monday.

“We lost two soldiers and that was explained by Amisom. We are expecting their bodies today,” he said,adding “It’s a lie that there are American soldiers training UPDF soldiers in Somalia.”

H.S.M. never claimed they were active US soldiers, rather they were acting as advisors and combatants.

A Somalia Report daily wrapup mentions that pro-Islamist media are reporting that U.S. and French military officials paid a visit to Mogadishu at the end of the week.

-- -- --

More true than intended, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in an interview on CBS

No matter what anybody says about us anywhere in the world, people have to admit that when there's trouble anywhere, Americans are there.

-- -- --

Shabelle Media: AMISOM expands Al shabaab abandoned areas in northern Mogadishu

The African Union peacekeepers on Tuesday have established military bases in northern part of Mogadishu in an attempt to expand throughout Al shabaab abandoned areas.

Witnesses told Shabelle Media Network that they saw Africa Union infantry and their military vehicles settling in the districts of Shibis, Abdul-Aziz, and other neighborhoods in its vicinities.

During the expansionism move, no armed clashes were reported AMISOM to have with the remnants of Al shabaab.

Reports said that the AU forces are planning to move deeper into the north capturing Karan district, one of the key areas Al shabaab fled.

Shabelle Media: Residents flee Al shabaab abandoned Mogadishu districts

Some of the local residents started to flee from Al shabaab abandoned areas of Mogadishu after they failed to longer endure the heavy shelling landing there.

Mortar shelling pounded on some of Mogadishu neighborhoods after every battle between Somali forces backed by AU troops and Al shabaab took place in the capital.

Most of the locals fled from the neighborhoods of Towfiq, Jungal, Suq-Ba’ad, Jamhuriyah and others where civilians sustained causalities from the bombardments.

A resident in Yaqashid district told Shabelle Radio that most families there started to flee escaping with their lives.

Shabelle Media: Al shabaab says their fighters still in Mogadishu

The Al shabaab spokesman, Sheikh Ali Mohamoud Rage on Thursday disclosed their fighters are still in the seaside Mogadishu to keep on battling against the transitional federal government of Somalia and AU forces.

Rage made the comments while speaking to the local radio stations based in Mogadishu.

Shabelle Media: Al shabaab’s withdrawal precipitated by internal rift: An official

Hassan Dahir Aways, a high ranking Al shabaab official, on Friday proclaimed internal wrangle has precipitated the group’s unprecedented decision to retreat from the Somali capital Mogadishu completely.

Aways explained the rift undermined all cooperation and relations among the top Al Shabaab officials.

He said because the disagreement within the group, the commemoration of Osama Bin Laden’s death was several times postponed to be held in Afgoye town, about 30 kilometers south of Mogadishu.

“We tried to persuade to change our fight tactics by abandoning Mogadishu to launch Taliban Style attacks in Pakistan and Afghanistan, but some top leaders in the movement refused the plan” said the official.

He admitted some of Al shabaab fighters remained in the capital and are still continuing clashes with the government forces and AMISOM troops.

Mareeg Online:

Dahir said, “We don’t [have] tanks and it’s wrong to have face to face fighting with troops armed with tanks”.

Somalia Report:

"Conflict is nature, and I believe this dispute will make easier more difficulties and misunderstandings between leaders and some officials," Aweys told Radio Kulmiye. "I can tell you there is a dispute between me and Abu-Zubeyr ... I hope this will be solved."

"We are going to talk to reporters and media to admit and finalize any problem inside the al-Shabaab leadership; this step will cause more changes in the group."

Al-Shabaab pulled its forces out of Mogadishu on Saturday, and part of the reason was believed to have been the internal disputes. Somalia Report was told that al-Shabaab held a closed-door meeting in the capital last week, during which Robow and Aweys called for Godane to go, and demanded that humanitarian aid be allowed into al-Shabaab-controlled areas.

According to reliable sources, Godane and foreign fighters rejected the suggestion, prompting Aweys and Robow to withdraw their forces. Robow’s forces have reportedly withdrawn to his stronghold of Baidoa, which has been hit badly by the drought.

In the speech on Radio Kulmiye, Aweys said that al-Shabaab had not been able to continue waging conventional warfare in Mogadishu in face of advances by the African Union peacekeeping mission (known as AMISOM).

"We were not able to face AMISOM battle wagons during Mogadishu fighting, so we decided to change our military tactic," he said. "We will do as our brothers in Afghanistan do: we will increase hit and run attacks."

Shabelle Media: Al shabaab denies infighting within the group

The Al shabaab movement on Friday strongly denied there is infighting and wrangle within the group.

Speaking at BBC Somali Service, Sheikh Ali Mohamoud, the spokesman of Al shabaab said the group’s leaders are religious men and if they disagree they will revise back to the holly Kuran and Hadhith, the prophet’s examples (May blessings and peace of Allah be upon him).

He said the group has only one adversary which is the transitional federal government of Somalia.

The spokesman noted the government is the one which accustomed to disagree and speak about it publicly.

His comments came hours after Hassan Dahir Aways, a high ranking Al shabaab official, proclaimed internal wrangle has precipitated the group’s unprecedented decision to retreat from the Somali capital Mogadishu completely.

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Daily Monitor: Uganda to send 2,000 more troops to Somalia

President Museveni has pledged to send an additional 2,000 Uganda Peoples Defence Forces (UPDF) soldiers to beef up security in the war torn Somali capital Mogadishu.

The offer comes a week after the Islamic militants, al Shabaab, withdrew from areas they held in the capital.
Lt. Col. Paddy Ankunda, the spokesperson for the African Union peace keeping mission in Somalia (AMISOM), told Saturday Monitor that the increase in troop levels is intended to consolidate security in the capital and plan for phase two of the military assault against the al Shabaab.

“UPDF will instead increase the number of troops in Somalia. President Museveni has already pledged additional 2,000 soldiers,” Lt. Col. Ankuda said, adding, “UPDF will not withdraw because the mission to liberate Somalia has just started. (Getting al Shabaab out of) Mogadishu was Phase One, there are two more phases.”

...

AMISOM commander, Maj Gen. Fred Mugisha told journalists earlier this week that the militant al Shabaab group still threatened stability in Mogadishu and troops were needed to protect food aid. The group is blocking distribution of food aid to those affected by famine.

Gen. Mugisha, said the AU should immediately deploy about 3,000 troops to fill in the gap left by the al Shabaab.

Pana: More financial logistical support to stabilise Somalia

PANA learnt that the AU also planned to expand the mission to the south and to the borders of Kenya and Ethiopia and to the town of Kismayo, areas still controlled by Al-Shabaab and other militant groups.

-- -- --

Inner City Press:

On August 9, Inner City Press asked [this month's UNSC President, Hardeep Singh Puri of India], "Is Saracen on your radar?" Puri replied:

"I've seen some correspondence. My radar is a little diffuse. In Navy there is something called... the lazy eye -- I used to be secretary for the navy once -- if you fire a missile which is skimming the water, in air you can catch it, radar doesn't know if missile is skimming the water or play of light on the surface... The radar does a flip flip, like a lazy eye."

Inner City Press:

[Mahiga, in a video conference briefing from Mogadishu,] said he visited Puntland and Saracen is mostly gone, it "trained trainers" who themselves remain.

...

Inner City Press three times asked Mahiga what message the UN had for the Transitional Federal Government about it human rights record. The first two times he did not answer -- on the second, he diverged into a description of Al Shabaab "foreign fighters from Chechnya, Waziristan and Yemen."

The third and final time, he said that the TFG is improving, and of course these things happen in war. He said he didn't know if the TFG was involved in shooting into a crowd of aid-seekers in Mogadishu on August 5.

Shabelle Media: Somali military charges Benadir admin with bothering IDPs

The military commander of Somali transitional federal government on Thursday charged the soldiers of Benadir administration of bothering the drought displaced people in the capital.

In an interview with BBC Somali Service, Gen. Abdikarim Yusuf Adam, the military commander of Somali government said the Benadir and some districts administrations were behind the deadly event at Mogadishu’s Badbado camp, where several drought hit people, died and dozens more injured after some soldiers plundered and robbed food aid opening fire to the IDPs.

He said that every administration has its own soldiers who can not be described as the Somali national army soldiers.

BBC: PM Ali sets up aid protection force

Somalia's prime minister has announced the creation of a special force to protect convoys delivering aid to people affected by drought and famine.

Abdiweli Mohamed Ali said the force would comprise 300 trained men, helped by AU peacekeepers who are currently providing security in Mogadishu.

...

Mr Ali said the force would have two main jobs: "Number one is to secure the convoys and to protect food aid, and also to protect the camps when food is distributed," he said.

"Second is to stabilise the city and to fight banditry and looting and any sort of untidiness."

-- -- --

Reuters:

"In their tactical retreat, so to speak, al Shabaab seemed to have fragmented into three columns," Mahiga told reporters via video link from the Somali capital.

"One column going southwards, another going westwards and another going northwards," he said. "And they're still on the move. This already weakens their consolidated strength."

Before al Shabaab's decision to leave the city, Mahiga said, the group's funding sources had been drying up. He said that al Shabaab has been "starved of financial support."

"Most of it was coming from the Gulf and from the Middle East, not from states but from benefactors, and the events in those regions seem to have had a negative impact on their sources of financing," Mahiga said.

"And there's also financing locally, like in Bakara market, which has also been taken by AMISOM and the TFG forces," he said, referring to an African Union peacekeeping force and Somalia's Transitional Federal Government.

...

"It may regroup," he said. "It may melt into the population. It may go into what they're worst at doing -- terrorist tactics. This cannot be ruled out."

Earlier, Mahiga told the 15-nation Security Council that the United Nations intended to accelerate the expansion of its presence in Mogadishu.

He said the TFG, which is also struggling to deal with the influx of victims of a famine that has hit the Horn of Africa this year, needed to act quickly to prevent an administrative and security vacuum in Mogadishu.

"Without immediate action to fill this gap, a real danger exists that the warlords and their militia groups will move forward to fill the vacuum created by al Shabaab's departure," he said.

He reiterated that AMISOM needed increased financial and military support from the Security Council.

CSM:

Matt Bryden, a veteran Somalia analyst and co-author of the Monitoring Group report, says the current situation does provide “an opportunity,” however.

The mandate of the transitional federal government (TFG), which is accused of deep corruption and is not popular in Somalia, expires in 11 months.

Several smaller armed groups have successfully repulsed Al Shabab and are beginning to run their territories with some level of success and peace, Mr. Bryden says. While the international community may be tempted to reinforce the unpopular TFG, that's not the right course, he says.

“What they should be doing is distancing themselves from the TFG, and working with other armed groups, and any more moderate split-off from Al Shabab, to create an open political framework ahead of next year.”

This would “accelerate” the separation of Al Shabab’s radical commanders from its more “pragmatic” leaders, he says.

The Star: Shabab will return to Mogadishu, analysts warn

“When it’s put in context, it’s just not necessarily all that important,” said Matt Bryden, the former coordinator of the UN Somalia and Eritrea Monitoring Group. “It still leaves Al Shabab in a position of relative strength.”

Among the findings in a 417-page July report on the Shabab, co-authored by Bryden, is the surprising wealth of the organization. Bryden says the group collects as much as $100 million per year in “taxes,” if not more.

The Shabab does not have widespread ideological support in Somalia, but operates much like the mafia, in collecting funds through extortion and intimidation. The problem, says Bryden, is that many Somalis do not see the internationally supported, but notoriously corrupt, Transitional Federal Government as a viable alternative.

-- -- --

IRIN: Number of drought-displaced arriving in Mogadishu "dropping"

Humanitarian officials say the number of drought-displaced families arriving in Mogadishu, Somalia's capital, has dropped in the past two weeks as more and more families cross the border into neighbouring Kenya and Ethiopia, while others go to the Al-Shabab-controlled town of Baidoa, in the south-central Bay region.

"Between 15 June and 15 July, we had about 500 families reaching Mogadishu every day but the number has since decreased to about 250 families daily," said Ahmed Abdi Muhumed, a programme manager for Muslim Aid in Somalia, a UK-based NGO.

Muhumed said Baidoa, 250km northwest of Mogadishu, was now home to between 6,000 and 7,000 drought-displaced families. Baidoa, capital of the Bay region, is the third-largest town in south-central Somalia, after Mogadishu and Kismayo.

So far, Muhumed said, the NGO Islamic Relief and the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) were the only two aid organizations active in Baidoa. He added that Muslim Aid would begin operations there this week.

Shabelle Media: Kenya forces blocks famine hit Somalis from reaching at refugee camps

The Kenyan border guards have started blocking famine hit Somalis from reaching refugee camps just northeastern Kenya.

Reports say that many Somalis who run away from the drought and famine that hit south-central Somalia are stranded in the border areas.

The displaced people wanted to be part of the refugees who entered Kenya in search of food and water for the last few months.

Some of the blocked refugees commenced to return to parts of Lower Jubba region, Dhobley border town in particular.

Shabelle Media: Somali forces, Al shabaab clash in southern town

Heavy clashes and bombardments between Somali government forces and fighters loyal to Al shabaab movement on Tuesday night took place in the town of Afmadow in Lower Jubba region of southern Somalia.

The armed confrontation started after Somali forces, which moved from the border town of Dhobley, reached at the village of Hawina in Afmadow where they had a combat with Al shabaab.

Somali troops have launched mortar attacks on the village of Takta, where Al shabaab have main military bases.

However, reports said that the fighters responded with mortar shells.

At least one person has been killed and two others were wounded, according to witnesses and local residents.

Local inhabitants have expressed a deep anxiety about the bombardments and armed clashes there.

Shabelle Media: Military officer: Somalia govt soldiers making advances in south

A military officer on Thursday said the Somali government soldiers made huge gains after heavy battles with Al shabaab fighters in parts of southern Somalia.

Mohamed Farah Dahir, Lieutenant-colonel, said the fighting on Wednesday Somali soldiers attacked the village of Hawina, about 20 kilometers north of Dhobley town which is very close to Kenyan border with Somalia.

The official stated the forces of the government have established main bases in the village, adding that they are ready to counter and prevent any offensive from the fighters of Al shabaab.

-- -- --

From an op-ed in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette: U.S. in Somalia: Compassion and aggression define Obama's policy

U.S. policy toward Somalia contains a shameful contradiction between compassion for the famine its population is suffering and an aggressive, militarized approach to its contesting governments.

...

The sharp conflict between U.S. humanitarian and military goals in drought-ridden Somalia is too much for a country of that size in that situation to bear. U.S. policy needs more oversight to resolve these contradictions promptly.

-- -- --

IRIN:

As aid agencies attempt to scale up assistance to thousands of people in south-central Somalia, controlled by Al-Shabab militia, IRIN asked the Somali Red Crescent Society, which has been active in the region for the past four decades, how it operates.

“The thing is to be absolutely transparent in your dealings with Al-Shabab and other organizations [Al-Shabab is not a monolithic entity] and not politicize your work in any way," said Abdulkadir Ibrahim of the society. “That is the advice we would like to give to other NGOs who want to work here.”

The Somali Red Crescent, helped by more than 4,000 volunteers, runs operations in south and central Somalia. “We have been running OTP [outpatient therapeutic feeding programme] centres there for two to three years.”

...

..said Ibrahim. “We have never been asked to pay anything; we do not even pay tax for transporting aid on the roads.”

Before each aid consignment is transported outside Mogadishu, the Somali capital, Ibrahim said, the organization makes contact with whatever faction controls the route they intend to ply. “They go through all our papers and we explain what we are doing and why we are doing it and we are given the go-ahead.”

Ibrahim said because they had been around since 1963, survived the civil war which began in 1991 and the last big famine in 1991-92, they were “part of the community and much-respected and we believe in dialogue. We have constant dialogue with whoever is in charge in the areas we operate about the people’s needs and what we are doing.”

...

The Red Crescent is feeding about 160,000 people a month's supply of rice, oil and pulses across Somalia, said Ibrahim. “A Land-Cruiser takes about a day-and-a-half to travel a distance of 300km from Mogadishu; a truck laden with food aid takes about three to four days.”

The organization prefers to fly aid directly to Mogadishu as it then has to deal with fewer lines of authority. “We don’t like the overland route from the Kenyan border as we have to travel from Transitional Federal Government-run areas along the border into Al-Shabab areas. Crossing the lines from a TFG area into an Al-Shabab area is very difficult [involving a lot of negotiations at both ends].”

The UN Monitoring Group report noted: “The principal impediments to security and stabilization in southern Somalia are the Transitional Federal Government leadership’s lack of vision or cohesion, its endemic corruption and its failure to advance the political process. Arguably even more damaging is the government’s active resistance to engagement with or the empowerment of local, de facto political and military forces elsewhere in the country.”

At the moment, aid could do with some coordination in Somalia, said Ibrahim.

"We have so many NGOs, including a lot of Arab ones, coming into Somalia to help but no one seems to know where they should focus, where the needs are - they are all in Mogadishu trying to link with local NGOs - this is an emergency, we need the help but someone must coordinate," Ibrahim said.

Somalia thread for the week ending August 7

Don't these sort of pronouncements typically mean the opposite?

Globe and Mail: Baird, Clinton oppose Somalia intervention

Canada and the United States oppose military intervention in Somalia despite evidence the Islamic militant group al-Shabab is blocking famine relief in parts of the drought-ravaged nation that are under its control.

Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird and U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton emerged from their first bilateral meeting on Thursday united in their approach to ending the humanitarian disaster in Somalia...

“At this time, we are not contemplating military action” in Somalia, Mr. Baird said.

If they are strategizing military intervention you can be sure it won't be for humanitarian purposes, though they would probably use that as the pretext in the same manner as Operation Restore Hope before it. However, the problem this time is that those looting and diverting food aid are primarily the very forces that Washington and the rest of 'the international community' are trying to prop up in Mogadishu.

AHN:

At least seven people have been killed and dozens more injured as starving refugees and government soldiers looted food aid at a Somali camp for those fleeing drought conditions in the interior of their country,
clearpxl

The Badbado camp for internally displaced people (IDPs), recently established in Mogadishu by the transitional federal government, was the scene of the bloody incident, according to Deqo Hussein, who noted that at least two trucks were driven by Somali soldiers to loot the supplies.

Hussein said the firefight broke out after other government forces tried to stop the looters from taking the loaded trucks.

“For three days, the WFP (World Food Program) chartered trucks loading aid food had been at the Badbado IDPs camp; because of security concerns, the aid food distribution was delayed for days” she said.

“Early Friday morning, the drought committee there started to distribute the aid food, but the situation got worse after some soldiers drove several trucks to loot,” she explained.

Minutes after the incident, more government forces were deployed to stop the looting. Police and military officers declined to give further details about the looting, but said an investigation is underway.

Reuters:

Government troops fired shots and fought amongst themselves as they loaded wheelbarrows and minibuses with emergency food provided by the World Food Programme (WFP) at the Badbaado camp on the outskirts of the city, the witnesses said, forcing hundreds of displaced Somalis to flee the camp.

Some Mogadishu residents also escaped with food on their shoulders.

"(Government forces) looted all the trucks. I'm lucky that my family is safe. I do not know where I'm heading to. I'm running for my life," Aliyow Hussein, a 40-year-old father of three, told Reuters on a street outside the camp.

...

Sacdia Kassim, a Somali aid worker working for a local charity in partnership with the WFP, told Reuters looting was becoming a common occurrence in Mogadishu.

"We often witness government forces and residents looting food for displaced people," Kassim said.

"We knew those trucks of food would be looted one day. They were mouth-watering for the government militia. Unfortunately, I saw fleeing IDPs and others running away with the aid food on my way to the camp," she added.

The WFP, one of several agencies working to bring aid to Somalis struck by the worst drought in decades, confirmed an incident at the makeshift Badbaado camp, home to nearly 30,000 refugees.

WFP spokesman David Orr told Reuters food distribution at Badbaado had begun some time after at 6 a.m. (0300 GMT) and carried on smoothly for about two hours.

"By all accounts, it got out of hand. It got a bit chaotic and looting of the food started."

"It seems that all the remainder was lost," he said, adding there had been 290 tonnes of maize and oil available for distribution.

...

Government troops and residents generally sell the aid to local markets for cash. Many displaced Somalis feel vulnerable in a city which is not their own or where they have no strong clan links, therefore choosing to flee the camp when fighting breaks out.

"All Somalis are hungry. What else would you do if you saw food being looted? You carry what you can to survive," 30-year-old Mogadishu resident Hashim Ibrahim, told Reuters as he rushed outside the camp with a wheelbarrow of rations.

"Government forces started the game and we pop in where there is unexpected chance. I will sell half of this food to get some cash. It is not a surprise."

Shabelle Media:

After some Somali soldiers clashed themselves over aid food looting in Mogadishu on Friday, death toll rose to 11 people, reports said.

Source said that at least 20 people mainly drought displaced people at Badbado IDPs camp in Mogadishu have been wounded.

Somali prime minister, Dr. Mohamed Ali has visited to Badbado IDPs camp to witness what had happened there.

Mr. Ali said that the soldiers who have been involved in the looting of aid food will be harshly punished, adding that they had established an investigative committee which will be tracking the perpetrators.

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Buffalo News: Return 'home' surreal after Somalia sojourn

Less than two months ago, he was prime minister of Somalia. He battled terrorists, pirates and warlords. He addressed dignitaries from the United Nations.

Now, Mohamed A. Mohamed is back at his old job at the state Department of Transportation downtown, back to his little cubicle with a window overlooking Swan Street.

...

Behind the scenes there were tensions between the Somali president and the speaker of parliament.

The two adversaries were under pressure to get along or face losing financial support from the international community, so they struck a deal. Part of the pact was that Mohamed would go.

...

While Mohamed agreed to bow out, rather than remain part of the problem, he had a condition of his own: His deputy from Amherst would succeed him.

The new prime minister, Abdiweli M. Ali, is an economics professor at Niagara University. Mohamed trusts him. The two shared many a coffee together at Tim Hortons in Amherst and Grand Island talking about Somalia in theory.

Now, they talk about the reality by phone.

"I've known him for a long time," Mohamed said.

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Shabelle Media: Al shabaab deserts Mogadishu

The Al shabaab movement, which controls much of southern and central Somalia, has deserted many parts of Mogadishu, the capital of war ravaged horn of African nation.

The withdrawal comes as heavy fighting between Somali government forces allied with AU troops and moderate Sufi group of Ahlu Sunna Waljama ASWJ from one side and Al shabaab on the other side rocked Mogadishu on Friday night, according to witnesses.

Most of the battles, which were launched by Al shabaab fighters, took place in the districts of Hodan, Howlwadag, Wardhigley, Daynile and parts of northern Mogadishu.

At least ten people have been killed and dozens more injured during overnight’s battles, according to sources who talked to Shabelle Media Network.

Al shabaab apparently encountered heavy losses in Mogadishu armed confrontations and that has precipitated to withdraw from seaside Mogadishu.

Reports say that the group’s fighters fled from Bakaara Market, Daynile district and many key positions in the capital following Friday night battles.

Shabelle Media: Al shabaab admits its withdrawal from Mogadishu

The spokesman of Al shabaab movement Sheikh Ali Mohamoud Rage on Saturday admitted that their fighters have abandoned Mogadishu, the capital of conflict ridden Somalia.

Speaking to the local media, Rage said they made tactical move to hit and break the backbone of AMISOM and Somali government forces.

He accused the United States and France of backing and helping AU forces in Mogadishu battles that prompted their failure.

The spokesman of the Al shabaab reiterated they will never neglect the Somali people in the capital.

He threatened they will launch heavy offensives on Somali and AMISOM forces in the hours to comes and recapture the areas they have retreated.

NYT:

Mogadishu residents said that emissaries of various warlords were beginning to identify bases in the neighborhoods that the Shabab had just vacated, which could spell another problem for the troubled government.

Reuters:

A Western diplomat, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said the militants’ withdrawal had caught the Somali government and peacekeepers off-guard.

New Vision: Somalia asks Uganda for more troops

SOMALIA leader Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed has asked President Yoweri Museveni to allow the UPDF to pursue the al-Shaaab militants beyond Mogadishu.

...

A security source, on condition of anonymity, said: “After al-Shabaab fled from Mogadishu, the Transitional Federal Government of Somalia (TFG) do not want to see a security vacuum in the capital, so government leaders made clear the importance of more troops at this time.”

Foreign affairs state minister Henry Okello Oryem said the two leaders yesterday held discussions on the AMISOM troops currently serving in Mogadishu.

According to Oryem, Sheikh Sharif hailed President Museveni for the role in pacifying Somalia.
The meeting took place at Museveni’s country ranch at Kisozi, Gomba district.

Oryem added that the two presidents discussed the steps to take after al-Shabaab have vacated their bases in Mogadishu.

The steps included the possibility of pursuing the rebels beyond Mogadishu.

However, the task of pursuing al-Shabaab beyond Mogadishu and consolidating the gains would require bolstering the numbers of troops in Somalia.

UPDF commander of land forces Gen. Katumba Wamala on Sunday said: “It is time for countries that promised us troops to come in and support the mission. We need more troops and other forms of assistance to pacify the whole of Somalia.”

According to Oryem, pursuing al-Shabaab would require the approval of the UN Security Council to extend the AMISOM mandate, which presently limits the troops to Mogadishu.

It would also mean changing the mandate from peacekeeping because it would be a war situation.

...

Somali media yesterday reported that Sheikh Sharif wants Uganda to send an additional 3,000 troops into Somalia to bolster the precarious peace in Mogadishu.

According to Oryem, Museveni said there was need for the transitional government to take charge of public places in Mogadishu such as markets, hospitals and schools.

Somalia Report:

At least two Transitional Federal Government (TFG) soldiers died and two others were injured as TFG and African Union peacekeeping (AMISOM) troops fought against al-Shabaab militants in Yaaqshid district of Mogadishu on Sunday, witness said.

The conformation erupted after the al-Shabaab militia launched an attack on TFG and AMISOM bases in Baar-Ayaan junction, Yaqshiid police station, Hotel Towfik and a former German technical college, which TFG seized on Sunday.

"Al-Shabaab attacked TFG and AMISOM bases using heavy gunfire. They killed two TFG soldiers and took the body of one soldier," said a Yaaqshid resident on the condition of anonymity. "The insurgents did not desert from the capital. They are in every house in Yaaqshid and Gubta districts".

...

"Some elements from al-Shabaab are still hiding themselves in the houses, but we understand all their tactics," [deputy Commander of Somali National Forces, Abdikarin Yusuf Dhego Badan] said. "They wanted us to think they vacated from the capital, but we know they have left fighters behind to launch attacks."

"We will reach all their bases, but carefully, because they left every village 30 or 40 fighters to fulfill their plan," he added.

Whether H.S.M.'s retreat from most districts in Mogadishu is a tactical move in the face of increasing heavily-armed foreign fighters or on account of strategic defeats, differing agendae and/or logistical limits, the net effect now is that Mogadishu is almost entirely under the control of foreign forces hellbent on propping up an unpopular & incompetent puppet govt. Don't expect things to stabilize any time soon.

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AP:

Somalis with new uniforms and guns they say were bought by Kenya's government are supposed to be guarding the Somali-Kenya border against al-Qaida-linked militants. But many don't get paid, and some sell their weapons or prey on refugees fleeing famine.

...

Aid groups operating around the sprawling Dadaab refugee camp in Kenya say many refugees have been attacked by gunmen, some of whom may have come from the so-called Jubaland militia that guards the Somali-Kenya border.

...

"About 60 percent of us get paid," said Mohamed, who was guarding the border on a recent day as a convoy of Kenyan government vehicles thundered past, escorting a local militia leader in a vehicle flying the blue-and-white Somali flag.

"The rest must share, or go without," he said.

...

In recent months, the Kenyan army has begun trying to tackle some of the problems of the border militia, said a Kenya-based security official. This includes keeping a tight control on ammunition, screening applicants and tracking down deserters, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk to the media.

But despite the recent efforts, militia members said they did not know who was paying them, how much or how often. They said wages were irregular and there was little tracking of weapons or ammunition.

"Sometimes we get paid and sometimes not," said Said Dahir, a 23-year-old militiaman. "We only get rice for food, so sometimes we go to the refugee camps (to eat) and come back."

Six deserters interviewed by AP said they left because they were not paid and food was scarce. Commanders pocketed most wages and only paid men from their clan, said the men, whose last names were withheld to protect them from retribution.

The deserters said rifles were changing hands for less than $100, a dramatic fall from the $230 they commanded just six months ago. Some attacks on refugees were carried out by fellow deserters and others were by bandits who bought the weapons, they said.

Ali, who said he deserted after two months, described a commander who was compiling a list of men who had deserted with their guns. The list was very long, he said.

But most deserters were not thieves, he added. They just wanted food and their guns were their only possession of value.

Abdi, a tall, thin 25-year-old, said he had received no pay and little food when he belonged to the guard force.

It had taken him 10 days to find someone to buy his gun because the market was so flooded with weapons. After he finally sold it, he said he used half the money to buy a bus ticket to a refugee camp.

But on the way, gunmen stopped the bus and robbed him of the rest.

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ICRC:

In close cooperation with the Somali Red Crescent, the ICRC is expanding services in existing health-care facilities and outpatient therapeutic feeding centres. Ten new centres will be opened in Bakool, Gedo and the Afgoye corridor. Additional mobile teams will visit people in the most affected areas to offer nutritional assistance to severely malnourished children. In addition, the ICRC is distributing high-energy biscuits to breast-feeding and pregnant women, who are vulnerable to malnutrition. A new feeding programme supplementing the regular therapeutic feeding is being launched for moderately malnourished children and breast-feeding and pregnant women. Some 49,000 malnourished children and 24,000 women will benefit from the supplementary and the therapeutic feeding programmes.

This week, the ICRC completed a first round of food distributions that covers the needs of 162,000 people in central and southern Somalia for the coming month.

Besides this emergency response, the ICRC is also providing sustainable aid that will ultimately enable people to meet their needs on their own.

Most farmers in Somalia depend on rainfall to water their crops. Irrigation is possible only along the rivers, and modern agricultural techniques are not widely known. For many years, the ICRC has been striving to help Somali agriculture to stand on its own feet again. Last year, an estimated 23,000 metric tonnes of grain was produced in Somalia with ICRC support – an amount that corresponds to 5.2 per cent of the country's current shortfall in grain production. Although that is a huge achievement, the ICRC continues to emphasize long-term development. Our priority is to enable the Somali farmer to earn a living without outside help.

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FEWS.net/FSNAU: Famine thresholds surpassed in three new areas of southern Somalia

New evidence indicates that both the prevalence of acute malnutrition and rates of crude mortality have surpassed famine thresholds in the agropastoral areas of Balcad and Cadale districts of Middle Shabellei, the Afgoye corridor IDP settlement, and the Mogadishu IDP community. Food access indicators in these areas surpassed the famine threshold earlier this year. As a result, FSNAU and FEWS NET have now classified these areas as IPC Phase 5 – Famine. These three areas join the Bakool agropastoral livelihood zone and the Lower Shabelle region, where famine was declared on July 20th. ... famine is expected to spread across all regions of the south in the coming four to six weeks and is likely to persist until at least December 2011.

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From a Red Emperor Resources Puntland Drilling Update

Red Emperor Resources NL is pleased to announce that its joint venture partner and Puntland PSA operator, Africa Oil Corp is currently in final preparations to commence a two well drilling campaign in the Dharoor Valley Block, with the first well planned to spud in the fourth quarter of 2011. Drilling locations have been selected over two robust prospects each targeting gross best estimate oil in place of circa 900 million barrels. Contracts for a drilling rig and third party services are in advanced stages of negotiations with contract execution scheduled for early August.

The Puntland Government and Dharoor Valley communities are fully supportive of the drilling project and have ensured they will do all to allow the project to move forward safely and expeditiously.

Specific milestone target dates have been adjusted by the Puntland Government allowing the joint venture to move the drilling start-up to the fourth quarter of 2011. In addition, partial relinquishments in both the Dharoor Valley and Nugaal Valley agreements have been finalized and approved.

As previously announced, Africa Oil has entered into a letter of intent for the creation of a new Puntland focused oil exploration company to be named Horn Petroleum Corp. (“Horn Petroleum”). Horn Petroleum will be created as a result of the sale of Africa Oil’s subsidiaries that hold its oil and gas properties in Puntland, Somalia.

On 2 August 2011 Horn Petroleum completed a US$41 million capital raising, with assistance from Africa Oil. These proceeds will be used to fund Horn Petroleum’s share of costs associated with the drilling of two exploratory wells in the Dharoor Valley Block. Africa Oil subscribed for US$10 million of the private placement and will have an approximately 50% interest in Horn Petroleum when the transaction completes. It will also provide certain management and technical services under a service contract.

The Puntland Government has also given its approval for the formation of Horn Petroleum and the impending transaction with Africa Oil.

Range Resources Ltd: Horn Petroleum to Commence Drilling Program in Puntland

Range announced that its Puntland Joint Venture partner and operator, Africa Oil, through its newly created company Horn Petroleum is currently in final preparations to commence the historic and highly prospective two well drilling campaign in the Dharoor Valley Block in Puntland, with the first well scheduled to spud early in the fourth quarter of 2011.

The drilling locations have been selected over two robust prospects and each well is targeting gross best estimate prospective resources of 300 million barrels and 375 million barrels recoverable for the two prospects (with net attributable prospective resources to Range of 60 million barrels and 75 million barrels respectively).

From Africa Oil Corp's press release:

The Company and Denovo Capital Corp. ("Denovo") have entered into a letter of intent dated May 11, 2011 for the creation of a new Puntland focused oil exploration company to be named Horn Petroleum Corp. ("Horn Petroleum"). Horn Petroleum will be created as a result of the sale, to Denovo, of the subsidiaries of the Company that hold its oil and gas properties in Puntland Somalia. Certain management and technical services are expected to be provided to Horn Petroleum by the Company under a service contract.

On August 2, 2011 Horn Petroleum completed a $40.98 million private placement financing, with assistance from Africa Oil. These proceeds will be used to fund Horn Petroleum's share of costs associated with the drilling of two exploratory wells in the Dharoor Valley Block. Africa Oil subscribed for $10 million of the private placement and will have an approximately 50% interest in Horn Petroleum when the transaction completes. Completion of the acquisition of Africa Oil's interest in Puntland, Somalia by Horn Petroleum remains subject to, amongst other things, TSX Venture Exchange approval.