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Tag: Somalia

  • Somalia confirms killing of al-Shabab finance chief

    Somalia confirms killing of al-Shabab finance chief

    Somalia’s Ministry of Defence has confirmed the killing of a senior al-Shabab leader in charge of finance during a targeted operation carried out on Sunday in the country’s southwestern region.

    The ministry said on Monday that Abdullahi Abukar, al-Shabab’s head of finance who was responsible for managing funds extorted from civilians and coordinating the recruitment of child soldiers, was killed near Hudur town in the Bakool region.

    “Abukar was a key operative who had long operated in Bakool under al-Shabab’s control and was among the most sought-after figures in the group,” the ministry said in a statement.

    The ministry commended the successful operation carried out by the Somali National Army, which resulted in the killing of Abukar.

    It said the precision operation eliminated a significant threat and dealt a major blow to al-Shabab’s operational network in the region.

    The latest operation came a day after the allied forces recaptured the strategic town of Bariire, which al-Shabab had used as a launchpad for terrorist attacks in the region and Mogadishu.

  • Suicide bomber kills 13 soldiers at military academy

    Suicide bomber kills 13 soldiers at military academy

    A suicide bomber in Somalia’s capital Mogadishu on Monday killed at least 13 soldiers and wounded at least 20 more inside a military academy in an attack claimed by the al Shabaab militant group.

    A military campaign launched by government forces and allied militiamen in 2022 has forced the al Qaeda-linked group from large swathes of territory in southern Somalia, but the militants have continued to stage deadly raids.

    In recent weeks, with the military campaign against them stalled as the army prepared a second phase of the offensive, al Shabaab fighters had stepped up their attacks.

    In late May, they killed at least 54 Ugandan peacekeepers at a base south of Mogadishu. For nearly two weeks, they laid siege to Baidoa, one of the country’s largest cities. And they have staged a series of raids in Mogadishu this month.

    The bombing on Monday targeted the Jale Siyaad military academy. A soldier at Mogadishu’s military hospital who gave his name only as Ahmed said he had the bodies of 13 soldiers who were killed and 20 more that were wounded in the blast.

    The victims hailed from the Lower Shabelle region and had come to the capital for training, said Captain Ali Farah, who knew some of them. He said he was aware of 10 deaths so far.

    “The soldiers were being counted in the queue when the suicide bomber blew himself up,” Farah said.

    Al Shabaab said in a statement that the bomber had killed 73 soldiers and wounded 124 others. The group typically gives casualty figures that are significantly higher than those provided by the authorities.

    Al Shabaab has been fighting since 2006 to topple Somalia’s central government and establish its own rule based on its strict interpretation of Islamic Sharia law.

  • Somalia faces ‘dire hunger emergency’ as millions cut off aids over lack of funding- UN warns

    Somalia faces ‘dire hunger emergency’ as millions cut off aids over lack of funding- UN warns

    Somalia’s “dire hunger emergency” is spiraling upward with one-third of the population expected to face crisis or worse levels of food needs, but the UN has been forced to drastically cut food assistance because of a lack of funding, the head of the World Food Program said Thursday.

    Cindy McCain told the UN Security Council the latest food security data show that over 6.6 million Somalis desperately need assistance including 40,000 “fighting for survival in famine-like conditions.”

    But she said WFP was forced to cut monthly food assistance, which had reached a record 4.7 million people in December, to just 3 million people at the end of April,  “and without an immediate cash injection, we’ll have to cut our distribution lists again in July to just 1.8 million per month.”

    McCain, who visited Somalia last month, said she saw “how conflict and climate change are conspiring to destroy the lives and livelihoods of millions of Somalis.” She said the country’s longest drought on record, which killed millions of livestock and decimated crops, recently gave way to disastrous flash floods in the south.

    Urging donors to be as generous as they were and hauling Somalia “back from the abyss of famine in 2022,” McCain warned that the survival of millions of Somalis is at stake.

    UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres visited Somalia in April “to ring the alarm” and appealed for “massive international support” for Somalia.

    But the results of a high-level donors’ conference for three Horn of Africa countries, Somalia, Ethiopia and Kenya  on May 24 were very disappointing. It raised less than $1 billion of the more than $5 billion organizers were hoping for to help over 30 million people.

    Only in the past few years has Somalia begun to find its footing after three decades of chaos from warlords to the Al-Qaeda-linked Al-Shabab extremist group and the emergence of Daesh-linked extremist groups. Last May, Hassan Sheikh Mohamud, who served as Somalia’s president between 2012 and 2017, was returned to the top office by legislators after a protracted contest.

    Somalia has faced numerous attacks from Al-Shabab and recently the government embarked on what has been described as the most significant offensive against the extremist group in more than a decade.

    Catriona Laing, the new UN special representative for Somalia, told the council that the government’s operations have degraded Al-Shabab militarily and dislodged its fighters from a number of areas which is “a notable achievement.”

    But Laing said Al-Shabab remains a significant threat,” pointing to “a recent resurgence in the scale, tempo and geographic distribution” of its attacks including a June 9 attack on the Pearl Beach Hotel in the capital Mogadishu that killed nine people.

    The African Union has a force in Somalia providing support to government forces battling Al-Shabab. Last year, the Security Council unanimously approved a new AU transition mission known as ATMIS, to support the Somalis until their forces take full responsibility for the country’s security at the end of 2024.

    Laing said the drawdown of ATMIS and handover are proceeding, but her initial assessment “is that the complexity, the constraints, and pace of the transition process presents risks, and, this will be challenging.”

  • Breakthrough! Stray bullet removed from woman’s clitoris in unprecedented injury

    Breakthrough! Stray bullet removed from woman’s clitoris in unprecedented injury

    In what study authors described as the first case of its kind, a 24-year-old woman in Somalia underwent emergency surgery to remove a stray bullet that struck her clitoris while relaxing at home.

    Per New York Post, the woman’s case was recently highlighted in a report by the International Journal of Surgery Case Reports.“To the best of our knowledge, this is the first wayward bullet injury penetrating the vulvar area [the outer part of the female genitals] with a retained bullet in the clitoris,” study authors stated.

  • Police officer who killed man over lighter sentenced to death by firing squad

    Police officer who killed man over lighter sentenced to death by firing squad

     

    Mohamed Abdulkadir Sheikh Ibrahim, a junior Somali police officer who was sentenced to death

    A Somali military court has sentenced to death a police officer convicted of killing a civilian following an argument over a cigarette lighter.

    Mohamed Abdulkadir Sheikh Ibrahim, a junior officer serving in South West, one of the five Federal Member States in Somalia, was booked for a firing squad for the murder he committed in April.

    Ibrahim, who served in the police force in Afgoye town, 30 km southwest of Mogadishu, was found guilty by the court for the killing of Abdifatah Abdullahi Ali, a trader, on April 25, 2022.

    Ibrahim reportedly stabbed Ali to death after the two argued over a cigarette lighter.

    Firing squad

    Ali’s relatives were present in the army court when Ibrahim was sentenced to face a firing squad as pronounced by Major Mohamed Abdi Mumin.

    The community in Afgoye district has been stunned by incidents where locals are killed in quarrels over items worth about 10,000 Somali shillings (less than half a US dollar).

    In recent incidents, a man killed another over a cigarette while another was killed over a cup of tea.

  • Islamic militants storm hotel in Somalia’s capital, leave 20 dead and 40 wounded

    Islamic militants storm hotel in Somalia’s capital, leave 20 dead and 40 wounded

    No fewer than 20 people have been killed and 40 wounded after Islamic militants stormed a hotel in Somalia’s capital, engaging in an hours-long exchange of fire with the security forces.

     

    It was gathered that the attack occurred at late Friday night and security forces rescued many others, including children, from the scene at Mogadishu’s popular Hayat Hotel.

     

    The attack started with explosions outside the hotel before the gunmen entered the building.

     

    Somali forces were still trying to end the siege of the hotel almost 24 hours after the attack started.

     

    Gunfire could still be heard Saturday evening as security forces tried to contain the last gunmen thought to be holed up on the hotel’s top floor.

     

    The Islamic extremist group al-Shabab, which has ties with al-Qaeda, claimed responsibility for the attack, the latest of its frequent attempts to strike places visited by government officials. The attack on the hotel is the first major terror incident in Mogadishu since Somalia’s new leader, Hassan Sheikh Mohamud, took over in May.

     

    In a Twitter post, the U.S. Embassy in Somalia said it “strongly condemns” the attack on the Hayat.

     

    “We extend condolences to the families of loved ones killed, wish a full recovery to the injured, & pledge continued support for #Somalia to hold murderers accountable & build when others destroy,” it said.

     

    There was no immediate word on the identities of the victims, but many are believed to be civilians.

     

    Mohamed Abdirahman, director of Mogadishu’s Madina Hospital, told the AP that 40 people were admitted there with wounds or injuries from the attack. While nine were sent home after getting treatment, five are in critical condition in the ICU, he said.

     

    “We were having tea near the hotel lobby when we heard the first blast, followed by gunfire. I immediately rushed toward hotel rooms on the ground floor and I locked the door,” witness Abdullahi Hussein said by phone. “The militants went straight upstairs and started shooting. I was inside the room until the security forces arrived and rescued me.”

     

    He said on his way to safety he saw “several bodies lying on the ground outside hotel reception.”

     

    Al-Shabab remains the most lethal Islamic extremist group in Africa.

     

    The group has seized even more territory in recent years, taking advantage of rifts among Somali security personnel as well as disagreements between the government seat in Mogadishu and regional states. It remains the biggest threat to political stability in the volatile Horn of Africa nation.

     

    Forced to retreat from Mogadishu in 2011, al-Shabab is slowly making a comeback from the rural areas to which it retreated, defying the presence of African Union peacekeepers, as well as U.S. drone, strikes targeting its fighters.

     

    The militants in early May attacked a military base for AU peacekeepers outside Mogadishu, killing many Burundian troops. The attack came just days before the presidential vote that returned Mohamud to power five years after he had been voted out.

  • Biden approves redeployment of U.S. troops to Somalia

    Biden approves redeployment of U.S. troops to Somalia

    U.S. President Joe Biden has approved a plan to redeploy U.S. troops to the eastern African country of Somalia to counter the extremist group al-Shabab, according to the White House.

    Drawn from forces already deployed in Africa, less than 500 U.S. troops will be repositioned in Somalia to constitute “a small, persistent U.S. military presence” in the country, a senior administration official said during a briefing with reporters.

    The official was speaking on the condition of anonymity under ground rules set by the White House.

    The administration’s move reversed former President Donald Trump’s order made in the waning days of his administration to pull out all of the approximately 750 U.S. military personnel from Somalia.

    U.S. troops have been serving their duties in the war-torn country on a rotational basis since Biden took office, a dynamic the administration now considers insufficient in addressing terrorist threats posed to Americans in the region.

    “Al-Shabab has taken advantage of Somali instability and fractious politics to become, as I indicated, al-Qaeda’s largest and wealthiest global affiliate.

    “We have seen regrettably, clear evidence of al-Shabab’s intent and capability to target Americans in the region,” the official said on the call with reporters.

    The official said Trump’s decision to withdraw U.S. troops in Somalia had created “unnecessary and elevated risks” to U.S. troops entering or exiting the country, arguing that the redeployment is “a step that rationalises what was essentially an irrational argument.”

  • Ex-president of Somalia, Mohamud, re-elected as head of state

    Ex-president of Somalia, Mohamud, re-elected as head of state

    Former Somali president Hassan Sheikh Mohamud was on Sunday re-elected as head of state of the East African country.

    The 66-year-old politician prevailed against 35 candidates in the election for the country’s highest office, including the incumbent president Mohamed Abdullahi Farmajo, who had replaced Mohamud in power in February 2017.

    Parliamentary and presidential elections were long overdue in Somalia, where Farmajo’s term expired in February 2021, but elections earlier this year were postponed due to a political impasse over electoral regulations.

    Amid fierce criticism, Farmajo extended his term in office as a result, causing tensions and clashes between supporters of different political factions.

    Somalia has been plagued with violence at the hands of Islamist terrorist group al-Shabaab for years.

    The militants, who control vast swathes of territory in the south and centre of the country, frequently target the country’s security forces as well as civilians.

    Security forces in Mogadishu have been on high alert in the days leading up to the election, and there has even been a curfew in force in the capital.

    The president is elected in an indirect vote by the 275 members of parliament and 54 representatives of the Senate.

  • Bomb blast kills Security chief, 3 others

    At least four people were killed as a result of a land-mine explosion in Somalia’s capital of Mogadishu, a local radio station reported on Tuesday.

    According to the Dalsan FM station, Deputy Commissioner for Security and Politics in Garasbaale Abdi-Rashid Dubad is among those killed in the explosion.

    Another six people were injured in the blast, according to the director of the local hospital.

    The al-Shabab radical Islamist group has claimed responsibility for the explosion, the news outlet reported

    Somalia’s al-Shabab is widely considered to be the most active affiliate of the al-Qaeda terrorist group (banned in Russia).

    The movement has been waging a battle against the country’s government and is impeding the humanitarian work of the UN.

  • 3 killed in explosive attack in southern Somalia

    3 killed in explosive attack in southern Somalia

    At least three persons, including a local government official, were killed on Saturday in a roadside blast along the road linking Bal’ad and Jowhar towns in Somalia’s Middle Shabelle region.

    The spokesman of HirShabelle state, Da’ud Haji Irro, told journalists that an improvised explosive device (IED) suspected to have been planted on the Gololey village exploded when a convoy, carrying officials from the local authorities, was passing by.

    “We can confirm the death of the Deputy Governor of Finance of Middle Shabelle region, Abdullahi Shatawe, former HirShabelle State Trade Minister, Sabriye Osman, and a local humanitarian activist, Hassan Baldos,’’ Irro said.

    The spokesman said security forces, who were accompanying the officials, shot dead a man said to have been guarding the remote-controlled landmine.

    Residents reported hearing heavy blasts near the scene of the deadly attack.

    “The blast happened in a road near my house.

    “We later learned some officials in the local government died,’’ Garad Hersi, an eye witness told Xinhua by phone.

    Meanwhile, HirShabelle State President, Mohamed Abdi Ware, condoled with the families of those who perished in the attack.

    “I convey my condolence to the relatives of those who died in this heinous attack,’’ Ware said.

    The al-Qaida affiliated group al-Shabaab claimed responsibility for the attack, which adds to several others targeting government officials and military convoys using the road.