"It’s a good news that the French navy seized that ship which was carrying illegal arms for the anti-peace elements,” Mohamud said in a statement issued on Tuesday evening. The seizure of the arms ship by the French naval forces come barely two weeks after Australian navy forces on a warship also seized a fishing boat carrying a large weapons cache which Somali government said was also meant for the Al-Shabaab group.

Somalia still remains under an arms embargo which was imposed by the United Nations Security Council in 1992 to stop flows of illegal arms to the country. Despite complaints by Somali government that the arms embargo is preventing the establishment of an effective Somali army in the face of Al-Shabaab’s ongoing war, UN officials blocked multiple efforts by the western backed government to apply arms deliveries. Last year, the Security Council extended the arms embargo on Somalia until 15 November 2016, a move which further dashed renewed hopes of lifting the decades old arms sanction on the country.

Key Headlines

• Somalia Hails Seizure Of Arms Ship By French Navy(Hiiraan Online)
• Government Asks Public To Help Restore Mogadishu Peace(Shabelle News)
• IGAD Pledges Support For Bossaso Airport Expansion(Goobjoog News)
• Leego Village Under Heavy Mortar Fire(Shabelle News)
• Huge Weapons Seized As UPDF Deploys New Group In Somalia(Daily Monitor)
• Somali Students Join Campaign Against Violent Extremism(AMISOM)
• Declare KDF Exit From Somalia In State Of The Nation Address MP Tells Uhuru(The Star)
• Al-Shabaab Have Suffered Heavy Losses In Recent Weeks(CCTV)
• I Opened The First Psychiatric Hospital In Somalia(BBC)
• Somalia's Sufi Revival(Al Jazeera)

NATIONAL MEDIA

Government Asks Public To Help Restore Mogadishu Peace

30 March - Source: Shabelle News - 113 Words

The Spokesman of Somalia’s Ministry of Internal Security Abdikamil Mo’alin Shukri has asked citizens to work closely with law enforcers, in bid to tighten security of Mogadishu. Mr Shukri said that police need to establish good working relations with the residents for them to share information on the location of Al-Shabaab sleeper cells in the capital of Somalia.

"The security force personnel alone can’t maintain law and order of Mogadishu, without better collaboration with citizens,” said Shurki while Speaking in an interview with Radio Shabelle. The spokesman’s call comes weeks after Somalia’s intelligence agency has handed over the security of the Somali capital to the Mogadishu’s local government following a deadly Al-Shabaab attacks.

IGAD Pledges Support For Bossaso Airport Expansion

30 March - Source: Goobjoog News - 198 Words

Inter­Governmental Authority on Development (IGAD) has pledged to support Somalia’s northern state of Puntland in the second phase of the Bossaso International Airport expansion. Bossaso Airport has been modernised to international standards after the upgrading work of the airport was completed early this year.

On his visit to Garowe town of Puntland, Executive Secretary of IGAD Ambassador Mahboub Maalim said IGAD will help to complete the second phase of the project of the airport. Puntland Minister of Civil Aviation, Hassan Hajji Saeed told Goobjoog News that IGAD will handle the remaining phase of the renovation project and this would enhance the airport’s capacity to handle increased air traffic from within the country and internationally. "IGAD has received financial assistance from European Union (EU) for Bossaso Airport upgrading project,” said Saeed.

Puntland President Abdiweli Ali Gaas thanked IGAD’s commitment to Somalia’s developmental goals, Puntland in particular. "This long expected visit highlights IGAD’s commitment to the development of its member states, in particular economic infrastructure.” said Gaas. The construction works which took a year and done by China Civil Engineering and Construction Company (CCECC), included renovation of runway, improvements for parking areas for both passenger and cargo planes, parking for cars.

Leego Village Under Heavy Mortar Fire

30 March - Source: Shabelle News - 126 Words

Mortar rounds were fired on Leego village and nearby environs in Lower Shabelle region on Tuesday night, according to the area chief Abukar Al Adala. Speaking to Radio Shabelle by phone, Al Adala said the Leego under heavy mortar bombardment fired from the suburbs of the village by unidentified assailants.

"Tonight, Leego is under mortar fire. We could not know exactly where the attack is coming from and who is firing,” said Leego village administrator Abukar Al Adala. Al Adala stated that the barrage in the latest in frequent such mortar attacks on Leego, around 90 kilometers north-west of Somali capital, Mogadishu. AMISOM has a military base in the area that was attacked by Al shabaab militants in June 26, 2015, killing scores of peacekeepers from Burundi.

INTERNATIONAL MEDIA

Huge Weapons Seized As UPDF Deploys New Group In Somalia

30 March - Source: Daily Monitor - 402 Words

A massive consignment of weapons suspected to be destined for Somalia was yesterday intercepted by the French Navy Frigate FS Provence. The weapons shipment of Russian-made AK-47 guns was in dhow sailing towards Somalia before the weapons’ smugglers were spotted by a French helicopter on routine surveillance in the Northern Indian Ocean.

It was not yet clear who was behind the shipment but Maj Gen Nakibus Lakara, the Deputy Commander of African Union troops in Somalia, yesterday said on phone from Mogadishu that it would be bad if the weapons were coming to Somalia. "It’s only the AU Special Representative who is authorised to speak on this issue. Kindly to talk to him,” he said.

Daily Monitor was unable to get a comment from Ambassador Francisco Caetano Jose Madeira, the special representative to Somalia and Head of the AU Mission in Somalia because his phone was off. Somalia faces UN arms embargo, and the seizure is under the United Nations Security Council mandated embargo that authorises interdiction on the high seas of illicit weapons destined for Somalia.

Somali Students Join Campaign Against Violent Extremism

30 March - Source: AMISOM - 567 Words

Female university students have resolved to join the campaign against violent extremism to help promote peace and stability in the country. The resolution was made at a half-day roundtable meeting organized last week to commemorate the International Women’s Day and raise awareness among the youth on the dangers of violent extremism. The meeting also aimed at popularizing the African Year of Human Rights with particular focus on the rights of women.

The discussion organized by the African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM) and the Federal Government of Somalia was presided over by the Deputy Special Representative of the Chairperson of the African Union Commission (DSRCC) for Somalia, Lydia Wanyoto, and the Federal Government Deputy Minister for Women and Human Rights, Mumina Sheikh Omar.

Organized under the theme; Engaging students in parity: Promoting peacebuilding and gender equality, the function also sought to engage the students on the role women can play in politics and peacebuilding. A group of male university students also attended the discussions to support their female counterparts.

Declare KDF Exit From Somalia In State Of The Nation Address, MP Tells Uhuru

30 March - Source: The Star - 304 Words
Uhuru Kenyatta must break his silence over the KDF's continued stay in Somalia in his State of the Nation address on Thursday, an MP has said. Tim Wanyonyi of Westlands said it is time for Kenya to develop a strategy for exiting the war-torn country as "we are no longer welcome, even by the government".

"It is time the President tells the nation when we are pulling out of Somalia. Our soldiers have stayed there for a long time,” he said at Parliament buildings on Tuesday. The MP further said Uhuru should give the number of soldiers killed in an ambush by al Shabaab fighters in El Adde on January 15.

"To date we do not have official figures yet other countries do,” he said. The militants initially said they killed 63 soldiers but revised the number up to 100, and added that some were kidnapped. The government confirmed that some soldiers were captured. Uhuru said on January 28 that Kenya will not pull out of Somalia , despite the massacre of its soldiers.

Al-Shabaab Have Suffered Heavy Losses In Recent Weeks

30 March - Source: CCTV - Video: 6:15 Minutes

Reports out of Somalia suggest Al-Shabaab militia group has suffered one of the bloodiest setbacks of its insurgency. In recent days, close to 300 militants have reportedly been killed. That's after a botched attempt to gain a foothold in the north. So what does that mean to the fight against the Al Qaeda-linked group?

OPINION, ANALYSIS, AND CULTURE

"In 2005, Outlook Inspirations nominee Abdirahman Ali Awale opened Somalia’s first psychiatric hospital. The country has one of the highest rates of mental illness in the world, but most sufferers receive no medical help – instead many patients are simply chained up to restrain them.”

I Opened The First Psychiatric Hospital In Somalia

29 March - Source: BBC - Audio: 7:57 Minutes

"I was taught this way. I was taught under a tree. My teachers were not educated in Saudi Arabia or anywhere else but Somalia. I want to revive our way of teaching Islam, Ma'alim Mohamed Ibrahim Mohamed, a teacher at the Sufi religious school, told Al Jazeera.”

Somalia's Sufi Revival

29 March - Source: Al Jazeera - 1,132 Words

As the last rays of the afternoon sun bounced off the coloured tin roofs of the Somali capital, Mogadishu, a group of Sufis came out of a gated house, singing hymns while holding hands, black prayer beads dangling from their hands and necks. They were making a short but a symbolic slow walk to a nearby mosque in the Bakara area of the seaside city to continue their afternoon prayer programme.

Crowds stopped to look and take photos with their phones; the odd person opened a window to see what was happening. These scenes - Sufis walking down the streets and chanting - are rarely seen in Somalia these days. The country was once majority Sufi but all that changed in the past two and a half decades. Sufis were almost wiped out from Somalia: in the early 1990s, by warlords and their marauding militias, and, in the last decade, by the hardline al-Qaeda-linked group Al-Shabaab, which sees them as non-believers and legitimate targets for attacks.

Sheikh Adan Sheikh Ahmed Gure led the group forth. In his late 30s, he is a man on a mission. Gure is from a well-known Sufi family: both his father and grandfather were Sufi leaders. He has seen it all - from the time of their near extinction to their currently slow precarious revival.

"The last 25 years have been really bad for us. We suffered immensely like everyone else in Somalia during the civil war. We were targeted by every group," Gure told Al Jazeera, taking a quick break from leading the prayers. The rest of his congregation continued with their prayer chants.

Several prominent Sufi leaders were either killed or died in refugee camps in the neighbouring countries following Somalia's brutal civil war which started in 1991 after the government of Siad Barre was overthrown by rebels. "We have been here before any group. We are part of this soil. We are going nowhere, no matter what some people may want," Gure said defiantly.