Al Shabaab to Punish 15 Women for "Public Expression of Joy"

Afgoye Somalia (Alshahid) -Somalia militants loyal to al-Shabaab, have seized some15 women accused of ululating at a wedding in the country’s town of Afgoye.

The women who were expressing joy were held in Afgoye district in Lower Shabelle region, some 30 kilometres south of Mogadishu by the radical Islamist group, alshabaab, which is strongly opposing to the Transitional Federal Government (TFG) of Somalia.

Residents said that the women were taken to a detention centre in the district headquarter and have been charged with public expression of joy, which the fanatical Islamists prohibited.

Ululation is very popular among Somali women, especially among women in the southern and central regions who combine with songs and dances locally known as baraanbur to grace weddings and other celebrations.

Al-Shabaab also apprehended on Monday 10 youth in the so-called Afgoye-Mogadishu corridor, southwest of the Somali capital, where most of those who fled the war in Mogadishu found shelter.

The youngsters were accused of playing football, which the Islamists prohibited in May.

On 21st of May, an order from al-Shabaab office in Afgoye town ordered the youth to stop playing or watching football. Instead, they were instructed to attend the prayers at mosques and the religious sessions adapted to raise public consciousness on jihad (holy war).

If sentenced, residents in the district assume that the women and the boys may get fine, jail sentences or public disciplining like flogging.

The militants consider many social expressions like games, music and folk dances as incompatible with Islam. As a result, Radios and TVs in the al-Shabaab controlled areas have been banned from playing music and other lyrics since April 2009.

US Indictments for Support of al Shabaab Terrorists

Originally published on 5 August, 2010.

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(AP) MINNEAPOLIS - The federal government charged 14 people Thursday, including two women from Rochester, Minnesota, with supporting the terrorist group al-Shabaab in Somalia.

U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder called the cases in Minnesota, California and Alabama a “deadly [pipeline” of terrorist support.

He credited leaders in Muslim communities in the U.S. for helping law enforcement agencies address the problem and bring the cases to prosecution.

One of two indictments issued in Minnesota alleges that two Somali women and others went door-to-door in Minneapolis, Rochester and elsewhere in the U.S. and Canada to raise funds for al-Shabaab's operations in Somalia.

The indictment says the women raised the money under false pretenses, claiming it would go to the poor and needy, and used fake names for recipients to conceal that the money was going to al-Shabaab.

The indictment alleges the women, Amina Farah Ali and Hawo Mohamed Hassan, also raised money by making direct appeals to people in teleconferences "in which they and other speakers encouraged financial contributions to support violent jihad in Somalia."

During one teleconference, the indictment says, Ali told others "to forget about the other charities" and focus on "the Jihad."

Ali is accused of sending $8,608 to al-Shabab on 12 different occasions between Sept. 17 2008 through July 5, 2009.

After the FBI searched Ali's home in 2009, she allegedly contacted an al-Shabab leader in southern Somalia and said: "I was questioned by the enemy here. ... they took all my stuff and are investigating it ... do not accept calls from anyone."

The U.S. "must prevent this kind of captivation from taking hold," Holder said.

Most of the people charged are U.S. citizens.

• Some supported the terrorist organization from the United States and others traveled to Somalia to join up with al-Shabaab.
• The indictment says Ali and others sent the funds to al-Shabaab through various hawalas, money transfer businesses that are a common source of financial transactions in the Islamic world.
• Minneapolis Somali community advocate Omar Jamal said Thursday he was happy to hear of the indictments."We welcome this as a positive step toward the beginning of the defeat of al-Shabab," Jamal said.
• Amina Farah Ali and Hawo Mohamed Hassan were scheduled to make an initial court appearance at 2 p.m. Thursday in St. Paul.
  

The Rest @ myfox.com

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UN to Renew its Somali "Peacekeeping" Operation

The UN again does nothing to strengthenth Somalia but renews the authorization of their peacekeeping force. That way, they can "say the tried" when Somalia blows up in interfaction fighting that is soon to begin.

-Shimron

January 2009 – Renewing the authorization of the African Union peacekeeping force in Somalia today, the Security Council called for action to bolster those troops, while signalling its intention to establish a United Nations force, when conditions permit, in the Horn of Africa country that has lacked a functioning central government since 1991.

In the resolution adopted unanimously by the 15-member body, Secretary-General Ban Ki-mooren is requested to establish a trust fund to help support the AU force, known as AMISOM, and to facilitate a logistical support package, training and equipment, in anticipation of its eventual absorption into a UN force.

The Council also urged African nations to boost AMISOM''s troop strength from the current 2,600 to the 8,000 originally authorized.

It requested Mr. Ban, by 15 April, to develop the mandate for a UN force including assisting the flow of humanitarian aid, monitoring a ceasefire and assisting “in supporting the effective re-establishment and training of inclusive Somali security forces, including military, police and judiciary.”

The “follow-on” UN force is subject, however, to a further decision of the Council, to be taken by 1 June 2009, according to the resolution.
Violence continues in Somalia despite the signing in June 2008 of the UN-facilitated Djibouti Agreement by the Transitional Federal Government (TFG) and the Alliance for the Re-liberation of Somalia (ARS).

Both sides agreed in that pact to end their conflict and called on the UN to deploy an international stabilization force in the troubled nation.

In his latest comments on the issue, Mr. Ban has stated that conditions are not yet right for a UN peacekeeping operation in Somalia and he recommended strengthening the AU Mission.

Many Security Council members at today''s meeting, while supporting assistance to AMISOM, also warned against a too-hasty authorization of a UN force, citing chaotic conditions in the country and difficulties in mobilizing peacekeeping resources.

In the past few days, as Ethiopian troops withdrew from Mogadishu two years after rolling in to support the embattled Government from a growing insurgency, Special Representative for Somalia Ahmedou Ould-Abdallah urged local factions to ensure peace and stability in the war-ravaged country and to hasten the election of a new president.

Today''s resolution reaffirmed that it was up to Somalis to abide by peace agreements and to establish national forces that would ultimately assume full responsibility for security.


UN team to explore ways of supporting security in violence-wracked Somalia
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UN Press Release

Shabaab keep 7 Aid WFP Trucks from Kenya from their Starving People

Last Updated: Dec 17, 2008 - 9:16:39 AM

Islamists in Somalia warn WFP, seize aid trucks17 Dec 17, 2008 - 9:13:29 AM
KISMAYO, Somalia Dec 17 (Garowe Online) - Islamist militia in control of Somalia's southern port of Kismayo seized aid trucks and warned the UN's World Food Program (WFP) about future aid deliveries, Radio Garowe reported Wednesday.

Witnesses and officials said seven aid trucks were seized near Kismayo, the country's third-largest city that has been under the control of the Islamist Al Shabaab militia since August.
The aid trucks came from Kenya, which shares a border with Lower Jubba region where Kismayo is located.

Sheikh Hassan Yakub, the Islamist administration's information secretary, later told a press conference in Kismayo that the aid trucks were seized for two primary reasons.

"For one, we prohibited WFP from continuing operations in Lower Jubba [region]," Sheikh Yakub said, adding: "Secondly, WFP has made farmer jobless."

He accused WFP of timing food aid deliveries with harvest season, when Lower Jubba farmers are expecting to collect crops.

The aid trucks are reportedly being kept at a Kismayo warehouse under the guard of Islamist gunmen.

WFP was not issued any public statements regarding the latest development, but many people worry WFP might completely stop its aid operations in the region.

The Rest @ Garowe Online

Shabaab Leader Ahmed Abdi Godane Commited the Hargeisa Attacks

Somaliland authorities announced today the final results of 30-days investigation of the suicide bombings in the capital city of Hargeisa.

• The Minister of interior said in a press conference that Al-Shabaab was behind the bombings.
• He said some of the Al-Shabaab members were detained after the attacks and others managed to flee to the war-torn city of Mogadishu in Somalia.
• The Minister said The Leader of the Al-Shabaab group, Ahmed Abdi Godane who is originally from Somaliland was the mastermind of the attacks.
• He said the regional court will announce the details of the operation very soon.
  
  Suicide bombers attacked the UNDP office, Ethiopian Embassy and the Presidential Palace on the 29th of October 2008. About 24 people were killed and more than 30 were injured

The Rest @ African Path.com

Kenya - Somali Joint Anti-Pirate Patrols to Begin

October 9, 2008: Kenya on Wednesday woke up to the piracy shock in its economy with an announcement that it is teaming up with Somalia to ensure the safety of ships around the Gulf of Aden.

Foreign Affairs minister Moses Wetangula and his Somalia counterpart Ali Jamma said though naval security patrols was the immediate preferred solution, it would only be temporary and urged the international community to help resolve the governance crisis in the Horn of Africa. “

The piracy is just a symptom of an internal problem that should be best tackled by securing lasting peace in Somalia,” Mr Wetangula told journalists in Nairobi .

• In less than two years, more that 50 vessels have been seized off the Somalia coast and cargo owners forced to part with huge amounts of money in ransoms for the release of their wares.
  
• In a latest high profile incident, pirates captured a Ukrainian registered ship MV Faina with some 33 T-72 tanks and other artillery aboard and destined for the Port of Mombasa.
  Its captors are demanding $20 million in ransom even as controversy rages over the ownership of the cargo. There have been claims that the consignment was destined for Southern Sudan contrary to Kenya’s stand that the arsenal belonged to its army.
• East African households and businesses continued to feel the piracy heat as some merchant ship owners threatened to pull out from the troubled water way unless urgent steps were taken to guarantee the safety of their crew and cargo.
• “The piracy is indeed posing a major threat to the region and is undermining trade routes in Europe, the Middle East as well as the far East,” Mr Wetangula said, noting that Kenya and Somalia were negotiating with naval super powers such as the UK, the US , Russia and France for a remedial strategy.

Besides working for a stable government in Somalia, he said, the two Eastern Africa nations will conduct joint permanent naval patrols along their coastlines to deal with the pirates. “

• We want to engage our international partners in permanent patrols along the major trade routes because we face a real risk of merchant ships avoiding the region,” he said.
• “We want to take advantage of the new UN Security Council, resolution to push for this joint patrols.”
• The UN Council on Tuesday issued a repeat call urging countries with naval vessels deployed around the Horn of Africa to do whatever is needed to stamp out piracy off the coast of Somalia.

The 15-member council passed a similar resolution in June that gave countries the right to actively combat a surge in ship hijackings around Somalia for ransom. Mr Wetangula said the resolution accorded Kenya and other naval units powers to pursue pirate groups operating on the Somalia coastal water.

“We can now use extraterritorial force to get the pirates. "

"We are now free to fight them everywhere and anywhere off the coast of Somalia,” he said.

Somalia’s Foreign Affairs minister Ali Jamma said stabilisation of the governance system in the Horn Of Africa was the ultimate solution and needed to be supported by the international community.

“Piracy is just but one of the elements of the Somalia governance problem. We need an international stabilisation force to come and address the wider causative factor,” he told the press briefing.

He claimed lawlessness had seen illegal groups make huge investments in arms and equipment that were used in obscure ventures such as piracy. Kenya has insisted that the consignment of cargo aboard the MV Faina belonged to its military establishment contrary to claims by the London based news outfit BBC.

On Tuesday, the BBC claimed that it had obtained a copy of the cargo manifest that indicated that the contract for the artillery had been issued on behalf of the Southern Sudan with the Kenya Defence ministry listed as the consignee.

According to the BBC report, contract numbers for the military ware including 33 tanks, rocket-propelled grenade launchers and anti-aircraft guns contained the initials GOSS which ostensibly referred to the Government of Southern Sudan.

Mr Wetangula, however, termed the claims as erroneous saying the initials GOSS referred to General Ordinance Supplies and Security.

while another set of initials MSOD carried on the cargo manifest translated to the Kenyan ministry of State for Defence.

“Such speculation is not healthy and will not in any way help in tackling the matter at hand. The cargo is Kenya’s as we have said several times,” he said.

The minister said Kenya was keen on reclaiming its held cargo but stated they would not part with any ransom payout despite reports that there was a near deal between the MV Faina owners and the pirates that could see the vessel released in the next few days.

“We are not going to pay any ransom because it only served to abate piracy. We dont want to propogate a crime by according the criminals an enticement,” said Mr Wetangula.

The Rest @ Raxanreeb

Dayviile Passing Ayrow Rumor

Dayniile.com: Brother of the late Adan Hashi Ayrow, leader of Al Shabaab military wing told Daynille.com that a delegation Federal Government sent to Dhusamareb was behind the assassination of Al Shabaab leaders last week. “Members of the delegation contacted Adan Hashi Ayro while in Elbur district. He told them that Galgudud region does not belong to one clan.” The delegation was tasked to set up an adminstration in Galgudud region.

The Rest @Somalia Press Review