MOGADISHU (Reuters) – Islamist militants killed Somalia’s deputy chief prosecutor and will target more judiciary staff while the government tries to reform the courts, a militant spokesman said on Friday.
The al Shabaab rebel group, which is linked to al Qaeda, has fought for six years to impose its strict interpretation of Islamic law, or sharia, on Somalia.
The shooting of Ahmed Sheikh Nur Maalin, Somalia’s deputy national prosecutor, on Thursday followed a wave of suicide bombings and shootings earlier this month in which 30 people were killed.
“It was part of our operation against courts and their men,” Sheikh Abdiasis Abu Musab, spokesman for al Shabaab’s military operation, told Reuters. “We shall also kill the remaining one by one.”
The attacks were launched at a time when security in Mogadishu had been improving after two decades of civil war.
The government believes strengthening the rule of law and reforming the judiciary is vital but al Shabaab is determined to prevent it.
Donor countries are working with Somalia’s new government to reform the judiciary, the police and the army.
Britain will host an international conference in London on May 7 on ways to bolster security, impose the rule of law and rebuild the nation. So far there has been slow progress on all three areas.
NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — A most-wanted American jihadi inSomaliasaid Friday that the leader of Islamic extremist rebels in Somali was starting a civil war, just hours after anassassination attemptleft the Alabama native with a neck wound.
Omar Hammamiposted on Twitter about what he labeled an assassination attempt late Thursday as he was sitting in a tea shop. He posted four pictures, one of which shows his face with blood on his neck and a dark blood-stained t-shirt.
Hammami, one of the two most notorious Americans in overseas jihadi groups, moved from Alabama to Somalia and joinedal-Shababin about 2006. He fought alongside the al-Qaida-linked group for years while gaining fame for posting YouTube videos of jihadi rap songs.
But Hammami had a falling out with al-Shabab and has engaged in a public fight with the group over the last year amid signs of increasing tension between Somalis and foreign fighters in the group. He first expressed fear for his life in an extraordinary web video in March 2012 that publicized his rift with al-Shabab. He said he received another death threat earlier this year that was not carried out.
“Just been shot in neck by shabab assassin. not critical yet,” Hammami tweeted late Thursday. On Friday he wrote that the leader of al-Shabab was sending in forces from multiple directions. “we are few but we might get back up. abu zubayr has gone mad. he’s starting a civil war,” Hammami posted.
Hammami has been a thorn in the side of al-Shabab after accusing the group’s leaders of living extravagant lifestyles with the taxes fighters collect from Somali residents. Another Hammami grievance is that the Somali militant leaders sideline foreign militants inside al-Shabab and are concerned only about fighting in Somalia, not globally. Hammami’s Friday comment about a civil war could refer to violence between those two groups.
Al-Shabab slapped Hammami publicly in a December Internet statement, saying his video releases are the result of personal grievances that stem from a “narcissistic pursuit of fame.” The statement said al-Shabab was morally obligated to stamp out his “obstinacy.”
Hammami has enemies on all sides. The U.S. named Hammami to its Most Wanted terrorist list in March and is offering a $5 million reward for information leading to his capture. Al-Shabab fighters are not eligible for the reward.
Along with Adam Gadahn in Pakistan — a former Osama bin Laden spokesman — Hammami is one of the two most notorious Americans in jihad groups. He grew up in Daphne, Alabama, a bedroom community of 20,000 outside Mobile. He is the son of a Christian mother and a Syrian-born Muslim father.
Hammami regularly chats on Twitter with a group of American terrorism experts, conversations that are so colloquial and so infused with Americana that many in the counter-terror field have formed a type of digital bond with Hammami.
After Hammami publicized the assassination attempt, one of his Twitter followers, a counter-terrorism expert from Canada, wrote that Hammami had nine lives. Hammami responded with an apparent reference to the movie The Blues Brothers. “‘I’m on a mission from God.’ minus the blues music,” Hammami wrote.
After the shooting, American terrorism expert J.M. Berger, who has a long-running Twitter relationship with Hammami, posted that it looks like Hammami came within a quarter-inch of death. “Perhaps it’s time to come in now,” Berger tweeted.
Terrorism expert Clint Watts wrote on his blog, Selectedwisdom.com, that the attack proves that Hammami should fear for his life. Watts said Hammami’s anti-Shabab social rants were annoying the militant group and he predicted conflict between Somali militants and foreign fighters.
“If there is going to be a war inside Shabaab, I’m guessing it will happen soon,” Watts wrote.
MOGADISHU (Reuters) – In a sign of growing optimism thatSomalia is winning a struggle against pirates and al Qaeda-linked insurgents, Britain opened an embassy on Thursday in a set of four metal cabins at Mogadishu airport.
It was the first such move by a Western power since Somalia began to emerge from more than two decades of conflict. Turkey and Iran are among others vying for influence in the Horn of Africa country, with growing commercial ties and diplomatic missions already up and running.
“It is a symbol of our confidence and belief in the future of Somalia,” said British Foreign Secretary William Hague, who flew in on an unannounced visit to watch the Union Jack flag hoisted above the cabins, generator and satellite dish within the airport perimeter fence.
“This is a sign of where Somalia is now heading to,” said Somali President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud.
“Somalia is going back to the international arena,” he added, expressing hope that other Western states would follow suit.
The country is enjoying a delicate recovery but remains heavily dependent on others for its security. An African Union military offensive has driven weakened al Shabaab insurgents from bases in Mogadishu and other cities, and piracy in the strategic sea lanes off Somalia is at an all-time low, thanks largely to a heavy foreign naval presence.
REGIONAL BOOST
A stable Somalia would boost regional economies like Kenya and Ethiopia which have been rattled by their neighbor’s insecurity, and would reassure Western capitals which have long worried Somalia provides a base for militant Islam to flourish.
The British government says now is “the best time in a generation for Somalia to get back onto the road to recovery.” Britain will host an international conference in London on May 7 on ways to bolster security, impose the rule of law and rebuild the nation.
At the new embassy, due to be fully operational from late July, diplomats will live and work for a few weeks at a time in rotation behind two big blast walls, squeezed between the airport runway on one side and the Indian Ocean on the other.
Other countries with embassies in Mogadishu include Turkey, Libya, Ethiopia, Sudan, Yemen and Iran.
Britain’s previous diplomatic mission lies in ruins: it closed in 1991 as a civil war broke out that led to first warlords and then Islamist militants stepping into the political vacuum.
Once written off as a failed state, Somalia now has its most legitimate government for decades since Mohamud’s election in September. But the government still struggles to exert influence beyond the capital.
Foreign diplomats say they are spending more time in Somalia and will not be far behind the growing number of U.N. officials and aid workers slowly moving to Somalia from Kenya, where many organizations have been running their Somali operations.
ADDIS ABABA (Reuters) – Ethiopia will withdraw its troops from Somalia soon, its prime minister said on Tuesday, voicing frustration with the Mogadishu government and African Union peacekeeping forces that are also battling Islamist militants there.
After waging an ill-fated war in Somalia in 2006-2009, Ethiopia in 2011 once again rolled troops into Somalia to fight al Qaeda-allied al Shabaab, opening a third front alongside Kenyan troops and an African Union mission.
At the time Ethiopia pledged to stay in the war-ravaged country until Somali government could ratify a new constitution and its ragtag military was able to fend off the Islamist threat on its own.
However, last month Ethiopian troops unexpectedly withdrew from Hudur, the capital of Bakool province near the Ethiopian border, enabling al Shabaab to retake the dusty town.
Hailemariam Desalegn, who replaced Ethiopia’s long-serving Prime Minister Meles Zenawi in September, stopped short of announcing a full withdrawal but voiced concern with the pace of progress in Somalia, recovering from two decades of civil war.
“It has taken them (African peacekeepers and Somalia) a year already and they repeatedly assure us each month but fail to deliver so we pulled out,” said Hailemariam, referring to pledges by African Union’s Amisom force to replace Ethiopian troops.
“The main issue now is to accelerate our complete withdrawal towards our border. This is what we are fulfilling,” he told Ethiopia’s parliament.
Hailemariam said Addis Ababa was paying for its military mission in Somalia from its own coffers and Western diplomats say financial issues are one of the main reasons behind Ethiopia’s discontent, along with strained relations with Mogadishu and Amisom.
African countries which sent troops into Somalia under the Amisom banner are compensated by the African Union but Ethiopian troops do not operate within that framework.
Al Shabaab has been greatly weakened since late September when Kenyan troops forced it to withdraw from the port of Kismayu, its last major urban stronghold.
But analysts say they doubt Ethiopia is set for a full withdrawal and Hailemariam suggested Ethiopia could continue its fight against al Shabaab, but in other parts of Somalia.
“Somalia is one of Ethiopia’s main security interest zones, so I don’t think they would change policy drastically,” said one Nairobi-based Western diplomat.
“It’s in Ethiopia’s own interest that Somalia stays intact and that gains achieved are not lost once again.”
Nairobi, April 22, 2013–The Committee to Protect Journalists calls on Somali authorities to keep their promise to prosecute journalists’ killers by investigating the murder of Mohamed Ibrahim Raage. Two unidentified gunmen shot Mohamed around 5:30 p.m. Sunday near his home in Mogadishu’s Dharkenley district, according to local journalists.
Mohamed, better known by his nickname “Honest,” had just completed work at state-run Radio Mogadishu in the capital when the gunmen attacked him on his way home, Radio Mogadishu Director Abdirahim Isse said. An experienced journalist who formerly worked as a reporter at Radio Shabelle, Mohamed had recently started work as a reporter and producer for Radio Mogadishu and Somali National Television, local journalists said. Mohamed primarily covered government and parliamentary affairs, according to local journalists and news reports.
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Mohamed Ibrahim Raage (NUSOJ)
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“We send our deepest condolences to the family and colleagues of Mohamed Ibrahim,” said CPJ East Africa Consultant Tom Rhodes. “The government has made a firm pledge to root out the perpetrators who target journalists, and now is the time to honor that commitment by ensuring those responsible for Mohamed’s death are brought to book.”
Mohamed, along with 14 other journalists, had left Mogadishu in 2009 because of the dangerous situation there. He lived in exile in Kampala, Uganda, returning only recently to Somalia, local journalists told CPJ. The reporter, 34, is survived by his pregnant wife and two daughters, local journalists said.
Twelve journalists were murdered for their work in Somalia in 2012, the worst year on record. CPJ research shows that more than 20 journalist murders over the past decade have gone unsolved. In light of this record of impunity, authorities recently set up a task force to investigate cases of killed journalists.
Although the government largely ousted Islamic militants from Mogadishu in 2011, the capital remains violent. On April 14, gunmen attacked Somalia’s Supreme Court, killing more than 30 people, including former journalist Mohamed Hassan Habeeb and well-known lawyers Mohamed Mohamud and Abikarin Hassan. The two lawyers were known for their role in defending Somali journalist Abdiaziz Abdinuur, who was imprisoned earlier this year for interviewing an alleged rape victim.
Journalist shot dead in Somalia’s capital, 5th journalist to be killed this year
MOGADISHU, Somalia (AP) — A Somali radio station editor says unidentified gunmen have shot dead a journalist in Mogadishu, the fifth to be killed in the country his year.
Mohamed Abdullahi Haji, a news editor at the state-run radio station, said that gunmen killed Mohamed Ibrahim Rage, who worked for the station, at his home in the capital Sunday.
Working as a reporter is a dangerous job in Mogadishu. Last year, 18 media workers were killed, most in targeted killings. The government has vowed to stop attacks against journalists, but so far little action has been taken.
Last week suicide bombers and gunmen attacked Mogadishu’s main court complex, killing 35 people, including one journalist. Last month, a suicide car bomber targeting Mogadishu’s intelligence chief killed six people, including a radio report.
NAIROBI (Reuters) – Somalia’s judges and lawyers need protection from al Qaeda-linked militants, the New York-based Human Rights Watch said on Tuesday after deadly bomb attacks targeted law courts in Mogadishu at the weekend.
The al Shabaab rebel group, which has waged a six-year insurgency to impose its strict interpretation of Islamic law, or sharia, on Somalia, killed about 30 people on Sunday in a wave of suicide bombings and shootings aimed at the courts.
The rights group described the attacks as a war crime.
Somalia’s new government has made reforming the judiciary and imposing the rule of law a priority in its campaign to shake off the country’s “failed state” tag.
But the government’s control of the nation does not extend far beyond major urban centres.
“The current focus on judicial reform in Somalia is critical,” Leslie Lefkow, deputy Africa director at Human Rights Watch, said in a statement. “Crucial to these reforms is ensuring that judges and lawyers have the protection they require to do their jobs.”
The rights group did not spell out who should provide the protection but the Somali governmentrelies heavily on African peacekeeping forces for security.
Among those killed were two prominent lawyers who had represented a woman who faced criminal charges after she accused government forces of raping her, the rights group said. The case drew international condemnation and Luul Ali Osman’s conviction in February was overturned on appeal.
It was not clear if Mohamed Mohamud Afrah, the head of the Somali Lawyers Association, andAbdikarin Hassan Gorod, who also represented a journalist who interviewed Osman, had been deliberately targeted.
“Afrah and Gorod were humanitarian advocates. They were serving victims,” said Mohamed Ibrahim who heads the National Union of Somali Journalists.
In Sunday’s attacks, at least one car bomb exploded and several suicide bombers blew themselves up at Mogadishu’s law courts. Gunmen also stormed the court compound. Shortly after that, a car bomb hit a Turkish aid convoy near the airport.
“Al Shabaab’s attacks on a courthouse and aid workers’ convoy show utter disregard for civilian life,” said Lefkow. “The laws of war protect all civilians and civilian buildings from attack, and courthouses are no exception.”
It is not the first time Human Rights Watch has accused al Shabaab of war crimes. The group said in 2011 that all sides in Somalia’s conflicts – the insurgents, government troops and African peacekeeping soldiers – had indiscriminately killed civilians and were guilty of flouting international laws of war.
Somalia’s Prime Minister Abdi Farah Shirdon said on Monday foreign militants had been involved in the attacks. He called on other nations to help in the fight against the militants.
Burundi, one of the early contributors of troops to the African Union’s peacekeeing force in Somalia, AMISOM, said it would send 200 police officers.
“Burundi decided to send its police because it estimates that Somalia has made progress in restoring security,” Elie Bizindavyi, national police spokesman, told Reuters on Tuesday.
Although the mandate for the Burundian police was yet to be fully clarified, the first advance team of 200 police officers will protect unarmed units of AMISOM and other humanitarian workers in the field, Bizindavyi said.
Somalia is still bleeding. It is suffering endless self-inflicted horrors. Al-Shabaab terrorists are the main culprits of the present carnage in Mogadishu and other towns. In the latest terrorist attacks on the courthouse in the capital, the Al-Shabaab attackers were said to have acquired and were wearing the uniforms of the national security forces.
The terrorist infiltration into government forces and the accusation that the Somali military and its soldiers have committed acts of rape against the poor displaced women and girls in the camps is bringing unquestionable disrepute and bad name to the government and its security forces.
It is widely accepted notion in every circle and discussion: that the government soldiers are undisciplined and unprofessional; that the Somali government soldier is not capable to protect the lives and properties of the people she or he serves; that the government relies on Amisom forces for its existence; that the safeguarding of the Somali state and officials is in the hands of the Ugandan soldiers in Mogadishu.
The whole national security is in total disarray and not working right. The command is clannish, factional and their formation or nomination is politically driven. The composition of the Somali security forces is derived from the same warring factions that destroyed Somalia. Even those soldiers that are trained outside of Somalia become part of the conflict and corruption when they return to the few government compounds that exist.
The president of Somalia has repeated several times that security is his top priority. He categorically stated in his speeches that security is his first, second and third priority. It seems the president talks the talk and walks the walk in foreign capitals. It looks like that the national security is relegated to the clan factions and the personal security of the president and other big heads is the priority of the government. Friends in Mogadishu recount that substantial amount of resources is allocated for the protection of the top officials in the government. The Supreme Court and its employees perhaps are not part of the top echelons of the government as evidenced by the latest terrorist attack. All important government buildings were supposed to have well-functioning and built security perimeters just like Villa Somalia and the ports.
Recognizing the failure and the ineffectiveness of the government to protect itself from terrorist attacks is overdue and after acknowledgement it demands reform. When the government acts on its pronouncements that security is the top priority with credible reform, then it would be able to create conditions for good governance and harmony.
The successive transitional governments lacked leadership and were incompetent. The current one seems to have inherited that and is following suit. Most government soldiers have no standard military training. They lack discipline, have no morale, are not paid well, have no personal benefits, depend on mental stimulants to function, and most of the ranks are illiterate.
The military regime of the past, in its early and golden days was able to build an above average national security force and Somalia’s military and police was ranked high and among the best in Africa. However, tribal infiltrations, dominations and the dictatorial regime’s use of the military as instrument of oppression tainted its credibility. The decimating civil war, coupled with the state failure of Somalia destroyed the basic structures of Somalia’s national security. Where to start and who to rely to build a modern, well-disciplined military and police forces that is sensitive to human rights and is aware of its dignity and duty to serve and protect the nation well is a mystery to many of the current leaders.
It would be dangerous and disastrous to reform Somali’s forces and security institutions on the past and present structures. The remnants of the previous regime should not be allowed to structure the military without supervision and guidelines. The clan is non-starter. As stated earlier, the current ranks in the military are composed of clan factions that cannot be reliable. Clan militias and factions must not be the basis to organize our military and security institutions. Any warlord deemed to have been powerful because of the number of loyal clan militia he commands and arsenal his clan owns should not be allowed to be part of the military. We have seen many known warlords promoted in the ranks. Some of them now boast of being generals and colonels. Our military and security forces must not be allowed to become instruments of violence against the people. The men and women serving the military must be recruited from the unarmed populace and those who had never participated in clan militias and warring factions. They should be trained to be loyal to the nation and not to the clan. They should be taught of the constitution of the nation, rule of the law, due process and human rights. The military should be independent of conflicting and competing power cliques within the government and be under untarnished and adept civilian rule. Above all the government soldiers should be in military barracks and gain good salary and have substantial benefits so that they will not sell out to the terrorists and clan factions.
With competent leaders in charge and consulting with the right people, Somalia’s military and police force can be reconstituted. It is not that gloomy or hopeless. Giving proper training and incentives to the men and women who serve in arms, could the Somali government not only eliminate the terrorist infiltrations and attacks in its ranks and sites but safe guard and protect the nation and its people. It is time to for Somali leaders to start doing something and stop the senseless travels and talks. Somalia needs effective policy makers that can build institutions and not suit wearing globe-trotting politicians. Until we find the right effective people to lead us out of this misery our security crisis would remain the same and the terrorists would be emboldened to carry more attacks to prolong Somalia’s endless horror.
It is with great sadness that Strategic Initiative for Women in the Horn of Africa (SIHA) has learnt of the brutal deaths of Professor Mohamed Mahmoud Afrah, Head of Somali Lawyers Association and Abdikarin Hussein Gorod Lower, lawyer and human rights defender, both of whom were affiliated to SIHA member organisation, the Somali Women’s Development Centre, Mogadishu.
On the 14th April, a coordinated attack upon the Banadir regional Court in Mogadishu was carried out deploying armed militias, car bombs and suicide attackers. Estimates place the number killed as approximately 25.
A further four people were killed later the same day when a car laden with explosives exploded close to a vehicle carrying Turkish personnel.
The deaths of these two prominent legal advocates are a huge blow to the pursuit of women’s human rights and women’s access to justice in Somalia. Only recently, the two had successfully represented a woman who had been persecuted by the state for reporting that she had been raped by government soldiers.
By employing legal frameworks against this woman, the state endeavoured to create a veneer of legitimacy to the persecution of her and a journalist who had sought to investigate the case. Both Professor Afrah and Mr Lower quashed the charges and set about challenging the validity of placing survivors of sexual violence on trial.
These two men were at the forefront of the struggle against sexual violence which has become a plague in Mogadishu.
Only five days prior to this recent suicide attack, a woman, Ayaan Mohamud Adar, was publically executed in the town of Buulo Burde, Hiraan Region by Al Shabab on the pretext that she had been spying for the SNG. Her murder is one of many committed by both Al Shabab as well as frequently unknown actors across South Central Somalia and Mogadishu.
Civilians have become targeted for real or perceived political affiliations and punishment is swiftly discharged by the gun.
Mogadishu and much of South Central Somalia continues to endure insecurity on multiple levels, from hand grenades thrown daily, through to suicide attacks and electronically controlled roadside bombs; rape and theft against IDP communities by armed militias continue to be a daily reality alongside the theft and diversion of humanitarian supplies by camp gatekeepers and district commissioners.
Since early this year the prevalence of rape has escalated tremendously, only between March 16 to March 18 SIHA members documented 21 incidences of rape from one IDP camp alone in Mogadishu.
There is no simple analysis to offer, and there are no easy solutions to overcoming such violence. We frequently look towards the Somali government and to Al Shabab as both protectors and perpetrators of violence.
The reality is that there are multiple bases of power and a monopoly of violence held by no-one. The withdrawal of Al Shabaab from Mogadishu in late 2011 created a power vacuum which many sought to fill, especially in lieu of a government with insufficient capacity to do so themselves.
In this jostle for power and competition, it seems that all of those who assert violence manage to make gains from the continued insecurity, the presence of IDPs and the availability of humanitarian aid. It is only civilians that seem to suffer.
That violence has become a daily occurrence both within Mogadishu and beyond should not allow the deaths of these two prominent lawyers, nor all of those who have died in these and other attacks, to diminish our sensitivity nor our outrage, compassion or concern.
We must not allow the cultivation of immunity or indifference and despite the frequency of these attacks; no victim should be rendered solely a statistic. Reminding ourselves of the human cost for families, friends and the community should always be at the forefront of our minds.
At no point should violence be accepted or tolerated in Somalia and there should be no normalisation of good people like Professor Mohamed Mahmoud Afrah and his colleagues to be publically executed for trying to restore a peaceful Somali society.
We endeavour to create alongside our Somali friends and partners a better place in which individuals and communities can exist in peace. But in the midst of violence, in the pursuit of human rights and justice, in our political analysis, in our critique of the security context, in our interrogation of our mode of work, there is one singular item we must retain as central; we must stay human.
Strategic Initiative for Women in the Horn of Africa (SIHA Network)
Somalia remained to be the most dangerous country in the world. Since Siyad Barre was ousted by rebel groups, Somalia has been safe haven for terrorism, piracy, human trafficking and other crimes. These crimes have international significance. All are recognized to be against humanity, and as such treated as international crimes with universal jurisdiction.
A country prevailed by criminality in all of these years cannot be safe within days. Southern Somalians says “you cannot be Shiekh within five days”.
The international community in many times tried to find solution for the Somalian problem, but all attempts failed. Every endeavor ended up with total failure, but no lessons were ever learnt.
These attempts included, but not limited to, imposition of government from outside. Now, the international community has another misconception of the Somalia puzzle. They are exaggerating the so-called Federal Government of Somalia led by Hassan Shiekh Mohmoud. Apparently, the international community is making another serious mistake by arming Somalia. It seems they are neglecting the reality that Somali Republic has ceased to exist. Hence Somaliland reinstated its independence. Therefore, arming Somalia and imposing embargo on Somaliland means siding with one warring party rather than mediating.
Recent looting of ammunition and arms from the Presidential Palace of the so-called Federal Government of Somalia made crystal clear the irresponsibility of Hassans’ government.
The complexity of the Somali political culture confused nations that master the world and has the belief that they do have the intelligence to analyze what is going on in Horn of Africa. History tells that they are not on the edge in understanding this scenario. Their policy is just trial and error.
President Obama of USA declared his commitment to arm Somalia, and Djibouti has already handed over to Somalia armored vehicles. It is very clear that USA will regret this action. It will backfire. These weapons will be undoubtedly used against USA interest. Al Qaida attacked US embassy in Nairobi in 1998, and Al Shabaab, group linked to al Qaida, has attacked western nationals in Kenya. The military support to Somalia will contribute towards destruction.
It is evident that such weapons will fall the hands of the terrorists, pirates and war lords. Somaliland is democratic and peace loving nation that contributed to the world peace and is active member of the global war on terror. Somalians are threat to themselves and to the world. Why the international community is supporting the perpetrator and punishing the victim?
