Key Headlines

• Death Toll Rises In Jazeera Hotel Attack (Wacaal Media)
• Somali President: A Message for the Terrorists: Our Resilience Will Triumph Over Your Brutality (Somali Update)
• Somali Foreign Minister Says Al-Shabaab Attacks Will Not Deter International Community’s Presence In Mogadishu (RBC Radio)
• AMISOM And Government Forces Battle Al-Shabaab Between Garbaharey And Baardheere (Wacaal Media)
• Ethiopian Forces Vow To Eliminate Al-Shabaab (Baidoa News)
• Puntland To Upgrade Animal Quarantines (Googjoog News)
• New Kenyan Ambassador To Somalia Unhurt In Al Shabaab Attack (Radio Dalsan)
• Chinese National Killed In Somalia Bombing (Yahoo News/Reuters)
• China Strongly Condemns Attack In Somalia (Xinhua)
• While Obama Talks Security In Kenya Al-Shabaab Carries Out Attack In Somalia (NPR News)
• Somalis: After The Terror (International Policy Digest)
• From SYL Ideals To Mini Ethno States: How Federalism Is Tearing Somalia Apart (Hiiraan Online)

PRESS STATEMENT

UN Envoy Kay Condemns Terrorist Attack On Jazeera Hotel in Mogadishu

26 July - Source: UNSOM - 187 Words

Mogadishu, 26 July 2015 – The Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General for Somalia (SRSG), Nicholas Kay, condemned today’s terrorist attack on Jazeera Hotel in Mogadishu that resulted in several deaths and injuries. "I condemn the terrorist attack in Mogadishu today. The killers will not succeed in impeding the progress and extraordinary efforts of the Somali people and government,” SRSG Kay said. "I commend the swift response of Somalia’s security and first responders. The perpetrators need to be brought to justice swiftly.”

SRSG Kay offers his sincere condolences to the family and friends of all those who have suffered, as well as to the Federal Government of Somalia. He also extends his condolences to the family and friends of Abdulahi Hussein Mohamud, a Member of the Federal Parliament and law-maker, and Sai'd Ali Saleh, a government official, who were shot and killed in separate incidents yesterday. "The United Nations and international partners will stand firm in our efforts to help the Somali people to realise their aspirations for a secure and stable future," SRSG Kay added.

NATIONAL MEDIA

Somali President: A Message For The Terrorists: Our Resilience Will Triumph Over Your Brutality

27 July - Source: Somali Update - 348 Words

Somalia's President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud condemns in the strongest possible terms today's terrorist attack targeting the Jazeera Palace Hotel in Mogadishu. "On behalf of the Federal Government of Somalia, I offer my sincere condolences to the families of those killed in the attack on the Jazeera Palace Hotel in Mogadishu, and I hope for a speedy recovery for those injured. I also offer our gratitude to the men and women of both the security forces and the emergency services who sped to the scene, quickly taking control of the situation and providing life saving care to the injured.” the president said speaking at a ceremony in Kismayo to mark the inauguration of the first fully integrated, multi-clan Somali National Army unit.

The President continued: "The Somali people understand that this was an attack on a symbol. The Jazeera Hotel was a place where the international community met their counterparts in Somali politics, business and civil society and it stood prominently overlooking the airport as a sign that Mogadishu is being rejuvenated, that the city is back in business. But I have a message for the terrorists: the Jazeera Palace will be rebuilt and it will soon be back in business. That is how we respond to callous attacks such as this, attacks that, as is so often the case, harm only innocent Somali citizens and our international colleagues who are here to help. But our resilience will triumph over your brutality."

The president went on to say: "The joint SNA/AMISOM offensive to regain control of the few remaining pockets of terrorist influence, Operation Jubba Corridor, has obviously unnerved these gangsters and conmen, these twisters of our religion. They seek to distract from their daily losses, of Baardhere, of Dinsor, losses that will soon to be followed by Saaco, Bu’aale, and all the way to the coast. Rest assured, the men and women of the SNA and AMISOM will use this outrage to spur on their efforts to render the enemies of peace and prosperity irrelevant.” President Mohamud concluded.

Somali Foreign Minister Says Al-Shabaab Attacks Will Not Deter International Community’s Presence In Mogadishu

27 July - Source: RBC Radio - 134 Words

Following a massive suicide attack that hit a popular hotel near Adden Adde Airport in Mogadishu, Somali Foreign Minister Abdisalan Hadliye Omar reassured the country that Al-Shabaab attacks will not deter International community’s presence in Somalia, RBC Reports. "The presence of Ambassadors and their staff in Somalia will not be influenced by the attacks of Al-Shabaab in Mogadishu and Somalia at large,” Said the foreign minister of the federal republic of Somalia. Speaking on Sunday’s deadly attack on Jazeera Palace Hotel that left close to 20 people dead, the minister further said the security agencies have being put on high alert and will counter such threats. Mogadishu has enjoyed a relative stability since the Al-Qaida affiliated militants were driven out of the war-ravaged capital city in 2011. Al-Shabaab has claimed for yesterday’s attack on Jazeera Hotel.

AMISOM And Government Forces Battle Al-Shabaab Between Garbaharey And Baardheere

27 July - Source: Wacaal Media - 95 Words

News reaching Wacaal media indicates that AMISOM and Government forces are for the second day battling it out with Al-shabaab militants between Garbaharey and Baardheere. The gun battle begun from Are-ase town which was a base to the Somali National Army as well as Ethiopian forces who form part of AMISOM. Sources say Ethiopian war planes were also carrying out air raids on militant bases in the area. Al-Shabaab lost key towns in the current operations launched by the allied forces. It includes Baardheere town which was under their custody for the last seven years.

Ethiopian Forces Vow To Eliminate Al-Shabaab

27 July - Baidoa News - 434 Words

The joint operations by the Ethiopian National Defense Forces and Somali National Army (SNA) in Bay, Bakool and Gedo regions against Al-Shabaab will continue until the terrorists are defeated, commanders and elders said on Sunday. Speaking in Baidoa and the recently liberated town of Diinsor in Bay region, Ethiopian and Somali National Army commanders reiterated their desire to continue the onslaught against public enemy number one Al-Shabaab and called upon locals to support ongoing efforts to rid off Somalia from the terrorism. "Our joint operations with Somalia national army will continue until the enemy of Somalia is eliminated. The Somali people are urged to condemn and help to combat the extremists," AMISOM Sector III commander Col. Yemane Gebremicheal said.

The AMISOM commander said that his force have hit hard Al-Shabaab destroying the group’s strength and killed many of their fighters said they will not stop their air assault until the enemy is wiped out. "The airstrikes will continue until the elimination of the extremists. Our strikes will increase from time to time to destroy the enemy's strength creating a crisis for them diminishing their ability to regroup and plot attacks on civilians," Col. Abene Teka, Chief of the East Airforce Base said. The ground and air assault by Ethiopian forces who are part of AMISOM and their Somalia comrades at arms received a major boost on Sunday after traditional elders from the Digil and Mirifle clan voiced their support for the ongoing operations and urged their people to support the forces and ignore the propaganda messages circulated by Al-Shabaab. "We fully support the ongoing operations against Al-Shabaab in our regions and call upon our people to work with the government and AMISOM to clear the enemy from our midst and Somalia as a whole. We are tired of the enemy's unabated attacks on poor unarmed civilians," Malaq Abdirashid Sheikh Abdisalan, Deputy Chairman of the Digil and Mirifle traditional elders said on Sunday in Baidoa.

Ethiopian AMISOM forces supporting Somalia National Army has so far recaptured Diinsor town in Bay region have also retaken Bardheere town of Gedo region. The southwest Somalia National Army commander Brigadier General Ibrahim Aden Yarow thanked Ethiopian forces for helping Somalia in the fight against Al-Shabaab. "AMISOM peacekeepers in particular Ethiopia troops are playing a significant role in their area of responsibility to destroying Al-Shabaab. The remaining task is upon us the Somalis to discharge our national duties of making sure Al-Shabaab does not resurface again. We will continue to work with AMISOM to clean up liberated areas and seize more towns still held by Al-Shabaab," Gen. Yarow said.

Puntland To Upgrade Animal Quarantines

26 July - Source: Goobjoog News - 125 Words

The administration of Puntland State of Somalia has pledged to upgrade and re-energize animal quarantines in its territories to boast livestock exports. Puntland’s animal husbandry minister Abdi Jamal Osman has told the media that his ministry is engaged with ongoing plans of actions to set the records straight. He said that the fact that some quarantines have foreigners as shareholders shows that Somalia foreign nationals can invest in Somali businesses and that his ministry welcomes such business ventures so as to accelerate production. "We urge all parties that animal quarantines should be equipped to the requirements, for our side we are ready to work with the business people, and we are busy encouraging that this business should be conducted to international standard,” he concluded.

INTERNATIONAL MEDIA

Chinese National Killed In Somalia Bombing

27 July - Source: Yahoo News/Reuters - 55 Words

A Chinese national has died in a bombing at a hospital in the Somali capital of Mogadishu, state news agency Xinhua said on Monday, without providing details. The Somali militant Islamist group al Shabaab attacked the hotel on Sunday, driving a car packed with explosives through the hotel gate and killing at least 13 people.

China Strongly Condemns Attack In Somalia

27 July - Source: Xinhua - 242 Words

China on Monday strongly condemned a terrorist attack in Somalia in which a security guard at China's embassy was killed and three embassy staff wounded. China was greatly shocked by the attack and strongly condemned it, said Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lu Kang, referring to a suicide attack to Jazeera Palace Hotel at around 4 p.m. local time on Sunday in Mogadishu, which killed more than a dozen people and injured others. The six-story luxury hotel in the Somali capital houses some embassies and hosts high-level government meetings. Lu expressed deep condolences to the victims and their families.

China has lodged representations in Mogadishu and Beijing. The Somali side said it would take all necessary measures to treat the wounded and ensure the safety of China's organizations and people in Somalia. The Foreign Ministry will pay close attention to the local situation, strengthen security and protect the safety and interest of Chinese organizations and people in Somalia, Lu said. Embassy staff have moved to a safer place. The attack came a day after the murder of a Somali lawmaker in Mogadishu, among a string of security incidents that hit the capital. Al-Shabaab has claimed responsibility.

While Obama Talks Security In Kenya, Al-Shabaab Carries Out Attack In Somalia

26 July - Source: NPR News - 202 Words

As President Obama was in Kenya to discuss the threat from Islamist extremists, in neighboring Somalia at least 10 people were killed in a suicide car bomb by militants of Al-Shabaab – the extremist group considered the region's biggest danger. The explosion occurred outside the Jazeera Palace Hotel near the airport in the capital, Mogadishu. Officials initially but the death toll at four, with eight others wounded, but later, the BBC reported 10 people had been killed in the blast.

A spokesman for Al-Shabaab later claimed responsibility for the attack. On Saturday, Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta, speaking in a joint news conference with President Obama, referred to Al-Shabaab attacks in Kenya in 2013 and earlier this year, calling the threat from the group to his country ‘existential’. "The battle we are fighting is not a Kenyan war; Kenya just happens to be on the frontier," he said, referring to Somalia, long regarded as a failed state that has become a breeding ground for Islamist extremists. President Obama said the security concerns from the group had been "an extensive topic of conversation" with Kenyatta in closed-door meetings earlier in the day.

OPINION, ANALYSIS, AND CULTURE

"Al-Shabab was waging small-scale "Jihads” in Kenya long before Kenyan armed forces ever set a foot on Somali soil. The government sent troops to Somalia to root out Al-Shabab or at least to avert further attacks in Kenya that severely harmed its tourism industry. The decision was right. Al-Shabab is an enemy to both Kenyans and Somalis and must be viewed in that way or we play into Al-Shabab’s hands.”

Somalis: After The Terror

26 July - Source: International Policy Digest - 408 Words

Somalis are at the front in the fight against terror. The Kenyans’ view, however, according to the Newsweek article, "After Garissa, Kenyans and Somalis Face Divided Future,” of putting the entire blame on Somalis is both unfair and unhelpful. Many Kenyans including the Newsweek interviewee misread the situation politically. Al-Shabab members are brutal Muslims with a political agenda which would pit Kenyans against each other on religious lines in order to ease the pressure on the Kenyan forces in Kismayo. They want us to go into their trenches because the rest of the world considers Somalis to be fair game. I urge you to not buy this.

Al-Shabab was waging small-scale "Jihads” in Kenya long before Kenyan armed forces ever set a foot on Somali soil. The government sent troops to Somalia to root out Al-Shabab or at least to avert further attacks in Kenya that severely harmed its tourism industry. The decision was right. Al-Shabab is an enemy to both Kenyans and Somalis and must be viewed in that way or we play into Al-Shabab’s hands. "Kenya, a bulwark against the spread of Islamic terrorism in Africa, has received billions of dollars in foreign funding for its security services,” according toNewsweek. Kenya is waging someone "else’s war” for a song and the Kenyan government has done so in response to attacks from Somalia. That’s clear.

The ruling party struggles to save face domestically for the prolonged "crusade” in Somalia and recurrent attacks by the terrorists. The recent one in Garissa might have diminished Kenyans’ support for the war but Kenyans, despite the horrors of soft targets, need to be resilient until the last terrorist is either killed or captured alive. We shouldn’t let terrorists feel victorious nor should we feel vanquished. As Winston S. Churchill said, "Never, never, never give in!” President Obama’s tour to the Horn of Africa region is timely. Although it may not bring about a breakthrough, it will boost the declining morale of the peacemakers in Somalia and those who have suffered military setbacks.

"Even more alarming – and this is something which I suppose most of the so called federalists are either unaware of or simply averse to talk about - is the inevitable emergence of sectarian minds which are trapped in the realm of narrow clan interests and are sadly incapable of thinking beyond selfish populist gains. One only has to look at the Mudug debacle to understand how even men claiming to be of education aren’t exempt from such misfortune. This, sadly, is a national catastrophe and only goes to show how imminent of a threat the current "federalism project” is to Somalia’s national security.”

From SYL Ideals To Mini Ethno States: How Federalism Is Tearing Somalia Apart

25 July - Source: Hiiraan Online - 1,040 Words

As I was lurking through the personal archive of a close friend of mine the other day, I couldn’t help but notice an incredible score of files with SYL members portraits. The 20 plus year old I am and being a first generation Somali born into the civil war, I’d heard of the SYL before but little did I know about the struggles and history behind the group’s founding, much less the fact that this year marked the 72nd anniversary of their establishment as a political front. Dumbfounded as I was by my ignorance of such an important event in our history, I was equally motivated to learn more about the legacy of the group which I was never taught about in my history class and whose selflessness and sacrifices led to the birth of the Somalia I dearly call home.

In the several paragraphs that follow, I will share the principles that’d been the linchpin in terms of the SYL struggle for an independent and united Somalia, discuss how this current generation of leaders have managed to stain the spirit of nationhood the group embodied by more or less balkanizing the country and while I offer no alternative to the Ethio-Kenyan led ambition or rather quest to federalize Somalia along substandard clan enclaves, I will touch on, briefly, how Somalia is being coerced into playing a game i.e. the federalization Project that is not hers. Needless to say, when one plays another’s game, one is bound to lose. Before I get to the heart of it though I’d like to throw in a little caveat – a disclaimer more like it - that under no circumstance should this article be taken as a political argument intended to advocate or rather undermine a certain political enterprise.

On the contrary, I write this as a young adult and on behalf of many others like me who, in the eyes of the world, have been deemed refugees and a laughing stock and are seen to be dangerous persons with no value to community and whose own leaders, by means of their bickering and political myopia, have decided to deny them the opportunity to a normal citizenship resolving instead to treat our youth like convicts under sentence of penal servitude. It’s rather bizarre - and you will perhaps agree with me that I resemble neither very much a convict nor a victim and yet I am both.