Whitestardaily

  The Somali military executed three members of the Al-Shabab militant group who were convicted of several killings in the capital Mogadishu. The three included Mohamed Haji Ahmed Ilkacase, chief of Al-Shabab’s assassination unit in Mogadishu, according to military court officials. They were executed by firing squad on Sunday morning, the attorney general of the Somali military court, Abdullahi Bulle Kamey, told reporters “The members were found to be behind a series of assassinations in Mogadishu against government officials and senior army officers,” he said. The Al-Shabab militant group is a threat to Somalia as the East Africa nation prepares for presidential elections in early 2021. On Saturday, at least seven people were killed and more than 10 others injured in a suicide bombing at a popular ice cream and bakery shop in Somalia’s capital, the latest attack carried out by the group.

  A suicide bomber blew himself up in an ice-cream parlour in the Somali capital, Mogadishu, killing seven people, a police official said. Ten others were wounded in the attack on Friday, said senior police officer Mohamed Dahir. The death toll could rise as the critically injured were rushed to nearby hospitals, he added. The Gelato Divino restaurant is located near K4 Junction in the heart of Mogadishu, near the international airport. This latest attack comes days after five people were killed in Mogadishu on November 17, after a suicide bomber blew himself up in a restaurant near a police academy. It was not immediately clear who was responsible for the blast on Friday, but the armed group al-Shabab – which is allied with al-Qaeda – frequently carries out bombings in the capital and elsewhere, including the attack on November 17. Thousands of people have died in the fighting between the armed group and the Somali government forces in the past 30 years. In August, 10 civilians and a

  A CIA officer was killed in Somalia last weekend, according to a former senior administration official with knowledge of the matter. The officer was wounded in an operation in the country and later died, the source said. The identity of the officer has not been made public but the source said the officer was a former Navy SEAL. The death comes as the Trump administration is making plans to withdraw more than 600 troops from Somalia in the near future. US Special Operations forces have been embedded with the Somali National Army, assisting in the fight against the militant group Al-Shabaab. As well as advising on airstrikes and ground assaults, the Navy SEAL-led team's primary task is to train and build Somalia its own elite light infantry force. The CIA declined to comment. The New York Times first reported the death of the officer. As is tradition, the officer's death will lead to another star being placed on the CIA's Memorial Wall in the atrium of CIA headquarters. The

  The strongest tropical cyclone ever measured in the northern Indian Ocean has made landfall in eastern Africa, where it is poised to drop two years' worth of rain in the next two days. Tropical Cyclone Gati made landfall in Somalia on Sunday with sustained winds of around 105 mph. It's the first recorded instance of a hurricane-strength system hitting the country. At one point before landfall, Gati's winds were measured at 115 mph. "Gati is the strongest tropical cyclone that has been recorded in this region of the globe; further south than any category 3-equivalent cyclone in the North Indian Ocean," said Sam Lillo, a researcher with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Physical Sciences Laboratory. Its intensification from about 40 mph to 115 mph was "the largest 12-hour increase on record for a tropical cyclone in the Indian Ocean," Lillo added. One reason Gati intensified so quickly is because the size of the cyclone itself is

  With many around the world focused on the dangerous military confrontation in Ethiopia, Somalia too is facing a triple security crisis that can jeopardize the country’s halting progress. Ethiopia’s instability and ethnic strife are producing security repercussions in Somalia. Somalia’s upcoming parliamentary and presidential elections are the second component of the emerging security storm. And the Trump administration’s plan to withdraw U.S. special operations forces from Somalia in the next two months will further weaken the various struggling anti-Shabab forces and strengthen the militants. Here are the implications of the Ethiopian crisis for Somalia. Anti-Shabab operations The  escalating military confrontation  between the federal government of Ethiopia and the political leadership of the Tigray region has produced a worrying humanitarian situation. It also threatens to plunge the Tigray region into prolonged violent strife, ensnarl regional actors, and exacerbate ethnic violen

   The American-trained Somali commando force Danab is usually deployed to counter the Qaeda-linked group Al Shabab: liberating areas it controls, ending its attacks on government offices and beachside restaurants, and targeting senior Shabab operatives. But with President Trump expected to withdraw American troops from Somalia, the highly specialized Somali force will be left in limbo, jeopardizing whatever security gains it helped achieve in recent years, officials and observers said. The U.S. military presence has been heavily focused on training, equipping and supporting the elite 850-soldier Somali unit. “The United States troops and the Danab unit they have trained are the ones who have taken a critical lead in disrupting terrorism activities,” said Hussein Sheikh-Ali, chairman of the Hiraal Institute research group and a former national security adviser to the Somali president. “If the mentor leaves, the unit might just literally collapse.” Following the Pentagon’s formal announ

  At least five people, including two soldiers, were killed and more than 5 others wounded when a suicide bomber targeted a busy restaurant outside Somali police headquarters in the capital Mogadishu on Tuesday, officials said. Abdifatah Hassan, a Somali official in Mogadishu, told Anadolu Agency by phone the attack occurred near heavily-guarded General Kaahiye police academy in Hamarjajab neighborhood. The injured were rushed to hospitals. Ismail Mukhtar Oronjo, a government spokesman, has confirmed the attack. No group has yet claimed responsibility for the attack, but Somali-based al-Qaeda affiliated group al-Shabaab claimed responsibility for similar attacks in the Horn of Africa country. The attack comes hours after Somali military said it had captured three senior al-Shabaab commanders in a military operation in Somalia's central province of Hiraan on Tuesday

  Somalia has already unveiled the plan for the upcoming 2020/2021 national elections. According to the schedule, parliamentary elections both for Upper and Lower Houses will run from December 1 to 27, 2020, while presidential elections will be held on February 8, 2021. For several months, the country has been thrown into a complex impasse regarding the modalities of voting; particularly, whether to adopt a universal suffrage of one-person-one-vote or to uphold Somalia's traditional clan-based delegate voting system. The announcement which came after a tediously-sought agreement between the Federal Government of Somalia (FGS) and the Federal Member States (FMS) to continue with the clan-based delegate voting model, now paves way for an election season that promises to have a heated competition. Alongside President Mohammed Abdullahi Farmaajo who is seeking a second term, several senior politicians including the immediate former Prime Minister Hassan Ali Khaire, former finance minis

  The International Crisis Group says Somalia is getting behind schedule on conducting parliamentary and presidential elections. The Brussels-based research organization says the process is threatened by disagreements and the lack of a mechanism to handle disputed election results. It’s calling for term extensions to avoid political conflict. The Somali government’s plan to hold elections by February is facing resistance from opposition groups displeased with the choices to represent their clans in the first round of voting. Somalia holds indirect elections in which clans choose members of parliament through special elections. Then the 275 lawmakers and 59 senators elect the president. Omar Mahmood, a Somali analyst for the International Crisis Group, says the disagreement could affect the electoral process. “I think it will be a little difficult with the timeline in place," said Mahmood. "We’ve already seen some slippage around that the federal electoral commission, the na

  More than 130,000 people have been displaced in the Karabakh conflict between Azerbaijan and Armenia since late September, UNICEF said Wednesday. In a statement, the UN agency for children said 76 schools and kindergartens have been damaged, and one maternity hospital shelled in the conflict. "Countless children are being scarred by the psychological impact of daily exposure to rocket and missile attacks in civilian areas," it said. "For children, this is the horrific tally of four weeks of fighting, and three thus far unrespected ceasefires". Relations between the two former Soviet republics have been tense since 1991 when the Armenian military occupied Upper Karabakh, or Nagorno-Karabakh, an internationally recognized territory of Azerbaijan, and seven adjacent regions. New clashes erupted Sept. 27, and since then Armenia has repeatedly attacked Azerbaijani civilians and forces, even violating three humanitarian cease-fires since Oct. 10. Multiple UN resolutions

  Somalia will hold a presidential election on 8 February 2021, when President Mohamed Abdullahi Farmajo’s term in office ends. Top contenders include the president, former presidents Sharif Sheikh Ahmed and Hassan Sheikh Mohamud, who might run as a joint ticket and Wadajir Party Leader Abdirahman Abdishakur Warsame. Given that the election is less than three months away, it is time to speculate on who will be the Horn of African country’s next leader. In the following analysis, we will discuss each of the main presidential candidates’ chances as well as the challenges facing them. The Key to Success 1- The clan opportunity/advantage: You have to be from either the Hawiye or Darod clans. The calculation of many is that the next president will be from the Hawiye, given that President Farmajo is from the Darod clan. That is why the victor in the next election might be from Hawiye. 2- Must have the requisite leadership potential: You must inspire hope in the public that you can bring abou

  Qatar apologized Wednesday after authorities forcibly examined female passengers from a Qatar Airways flight to Australia to try to identify who might have given birth to a newborn baby found abandoned at the airport earlier this month. Under pressure after Australia condemned the searches, Qatar's government said it had begun an investigation into the treatment of the women who were taking Qatar Airways Flight 908 to Sydney on Oct. 2. Qatar offered no immediate explanation of how officials decided to perform invasive vaginal examinations on the women. Human rights activists describe such examinations conducted under duress as equivalent to sexual assault. The small, energy-rich country on the Arabian Peninsula is a major hub for East-West travel and host nation for the 2022 FIFA World Cup. Hamad International Airport is the main hub for state-owned long-haul carrier Qatar Airways. In Qatar, like much of the Middle East, sex outside of marriage is a criminal act. Migrant workers

  In a joint commemoration held in Mogadishu on the International Day to End Impunity for the Crimes Against Journalists on 2nd November, Somali Journalists Syndicate (SJS), Somali Media Association (SOMA) and Media Women Network (MWN) called for an urgent action to end the culture of impunity for the crimes against the journalists in Somalia. Eleven journalists were killed in the country in the past four years: 3 in 2017; 4 in 2018; 2 in 2019 and 2 in 2020, making the country to remain as one of the most dangerous places for journalists across the globe. For the sixth year in a row, the country has maintained the ignominious world title for impunity towards killed journalists. Unfortunately authorities in Somalia are reluctant to carry out credible, proper and independent thorough investigations into the cases of killings or attacks on journalists and media outlets. The total impunity enjoyed by the killers of the journalists allows them to attack scribes for the slightest infraction

  he Prime Minister of the Federal Republic of Somalia, Mohamed Hussein Roble has vowed to fight corruption after he paid a surprise visit to the Ministry of Finance, the Central Bank and the Port of Mogadishu. The Prime minister indicated that the Government was stepping up its efforts to combat corruption and misuse of state resources. Speaking during his tours the prime minister vowed to step up efforts to combat corruption and misuse of state resources. "Prime minister Roble today inspected the Ministry of Finance, the Central Bank and the Mogadishu Port Authority, stating that his government is committed to fighting corruption and increasing the country's revenue," his office tweeted. "I urge to continue to strengthen our economy, improve public financial management and good governance," the PM said in a post. The move came less than a week after the Somali Cabinet approved the government's annual budget for 2021. The budget registered a 46% increase wh