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Africa Horn

Bomb blast kills former Somali official

2009-03-13

A former Somali government official has reportedly died after a powerful bomb explosion ripped through his vehicle in northern Mogadishu. Ubeyd Mohamud Mohamed, the security head of former Somali prime minister Ali Mohamed Gedi, was killed after a roadside bomb targeted his vehicle at Shibbis district in north Mogadishu. His three security guards as well as four other police officers were killed in the incident. Witnesses said the car was completely destroyed by the bomb. Hassan Rageh Olow, a local official said he and his aides have gone to the scene of the incident to oversee the attack. No group has claimed responsibility for the bomb attack and the motive behind it remains obscure.

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Africa Horn

Somalia govt fighting al Qaeda: President Yusuf

2008-03-07

(Garowe Online) - Somalia’s interim President Abdullahi Yusuf has reiterated his position that al Qaeda terrorists are leading the insurgency to overthrow his Ethiopian-backed government in the capital, Mogadishu. Speaking with a BBC reporter who visited Somalia last week, President Yusuf said terrorists "trained in Afghanistan" and financed by Osama bin Laden are conducting active operations inside Somalia. The Somali leader’s interview came hours after American warships fired missiles into a southern town aimed at killing an al Qaeda-linked wanted fugitive. Yusuf has claimed for years that al Qaeda is active in parts of Somalia, namely in Mogadishu where the Islamic Courts Union took power in June 2006. Although Somalia’s Islamists repeatedly denied terror links, the U.S. and Ethiopian governments sided with Yusuf’s claims and cooperated in the military blitzkrieg to oust the Islamists from Mogadishu later that year. But the Islamists vowed a long and bloody insurgency, which has now entered its 15th consecutive month, killing and displacing hundreds of thousands of civilians. Insiders in Mogadishu and other parts of the country say the insurgency includes Islamist guerrillas supported by the international Islamic movement. Insurgent groups such as al-Shabaab have repeatedly stated their ultimate goal of reestablishing Islamic Sharia law across Somalia. In September 2006, President Yusuf survived a suicide car bomb that killed his younger brother and a dozen others. His former Prime Minister, Prof. Ali Mohamed Gedi, survived three assassination attempts during his three-year tenure. But groups fighting the government also include clan warriors opposed to the imposition of an Ethiopian-backed, Darod-led government in Hawiye-dominated Mogadishu. The Hawiye and Darod clans have been vying for control of the country’s resources since the eruption of the Somali civil war in 1991. Ethiopian troops are deeply unpopular in Somalia where many see them as the perpetrators of war crimes and supporters of the country's hated warlords. The African Union, which has 2,000 peacekeepers in Mogadishu, has failed to bolster its peacekeeping forces to replace the despised Ethiopian army.

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Africa Horn

Mortars fired as new Somali PM arrives in Mogadishu

2008-01-21

Gunmen fired mortars at the Somali president's house on Sunday, hours after the country's new prime minister arrived in Mogadishu for the first time since he was sworn in last November, a presidential aide said. "At least five mortar rounds have been fired at the president's house, where the prime minister is now staying, but they missed," the aide told Reuters on condition of anonymity. He did not know of any casualties. The attack also coincided with the arrival of 440 soldiers from Burundi, only the second nation after Uganda to contribute to an African Union peacekeeping force trying to bring order to the chaotic Horn of Africa nation. Somalia's parliament picked Prime Minister Nur Hassan Hussein in November to replace his unpopular predecessor Ali Mohamed Gedi, who quit last year over a feud with President Abdullahi Yusuf. "We will be engaged in reconciliation ... We will adopt a national system and try to secure Mogadishu by talking to the rebels," Hussein told journalists at the airport. Seen as a neutral figure in an often fractious political scene, Hussein's challenge is to help bring unity to a country in which fighting has displaced a million people. Last week, at least 13 people were killed and 75 wounded in heavy fighting in the Somali capital. The final contingent of Burundian peacekeepers, which an AU military source said numbered 440 soldiers, boosts an existing 1,800-strong African Union force.

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Africa Horn

Somalia: Premier to form new cabinet

2007-11-30

(SomaliNet) Somali’s new interim prime minister Nor Hassan Hussein is now involving in greater efforts over how he would form his government and continue to make consultations with the parliament members, reports say on Thursday. Sources close to the state house in Baidoa city say that the prime minister is due to announce his expected cabinet on 1st December. Unconfirmed reports also say the premier has already selected his cabinet in the parliament despite he was appointed from the outside. It will be the fifth cabinet for the transitional federal government since it was formed in Kenya 2004. Three weeks ago, former prime minister in Somalia Ali Mohamed Gedi resigned after political pressure from the outside over conflict with the country’s president Abdulahi Yusuf.

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Africa Horn

Gedi’s deputy named Somali PM

2007-10-30

(SomaliNet) The deputy of outgoing Somali premier Ali Mohamed Gedi, who resigned today, has become the country’s acting prime minister, the president told parliament today, AFP reports. "Salim Aliyow Ibrow will be the acting the prime minister of Somalia until I appoint another one," Abdullahi Ahmed Yusuf said in Baidoa, the town where parliament sits. Yusuf was speaking moments after receiving Gedi’s letter of resignation. "I congratulate Mr Gedi for his decision," Yusuf said, adding that he would hold consultations with members of parliament and Somali civil society before choosing a new premier. Gedi is a member of the Hawiye clan - the largest in the country - while Ibrow is not. For his part, Yusuf is a member of the Darod clan, the country’s second largest.

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Africa Horn

Somali premier resigns

2007-10-30

Somali Prime Minister Ali Mohamed Gedi resigned Monday following a long-running feud with the president, as the Horn of Africa nation sank deeper into a political, security and humanitarian crisis. Gedi’s decision to step down came amid an upsurge in violence in the capital Mogadishu that has seen thousands of residents flee fighting between Islamist insurgents and Ethiopian-backed government troops. He personally handed his resignation to President Abdullahi Ahmed Yusuf after the two men “reached a deal to end the political confusion,” a close aide to Yusuf told AFP.

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Africa Horn

Somalia PM says he will never step down

2007-10-16

(SomaliNet) Somali’s interim Prime Minister Ali Mohamed Gedi said on Monday that he will hold the office even if his term ends. In interview with the London based Sharqal awsat newspaper, Mr. Gedi, who is at logger heads with president Abdulahi Yusuf, said he was so proud to serve for the nation and have no concern over his cabinet. “I know there some ministers who are pushing me to ask vote of confidence from the parliament but it is clear that they are hungry for my post and that will never happen,” said Gedi. His latest comment came as the difference he has with the president Yusuf spread into the cabinet and parliament. Meanwhile, two grenade bombs exploded overnight near a heavily guarded hotel which houses Prime Minister Ali Gedi in Baidoa city, 250km northwest of the capital. No one was reported hurt in the explosion as the security forces sealed off the site of the blast and began investigations

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Africa Horn

7 killed in fresh violence in Somalia

2007-10-12

(SomaliNet) At least 7 people were killed in fresh violence in Somalia, most of them in Somali capital, Mogadishu where the Ethiopian-backed government began security sweeps this week to find guns and insurgents, witnesses said on Wednesday. In the provincial town of Baidoa, President Abdullahi Yusuf and Prime Minister Ali Mohamed Gedi were meeting supporters amid rumours among legislators that the president wants to push a no confidence vote in his prime minister through parliament there. A growing rift between the pair has provided yet another headache for the Somali government, which has faced an Islamist-led insurgency all year in Mogadishu and is overwhelmed by humanitarian problems among its nine million population. Insurgents carried out one of their heaviest assaults late on Tuesday on a police station near Mogadishu's Bakara market, police spokesperson Abdiwahid Mohamed Hussein said. "Around seven in the evening, insurgents assailed Hawlwadag police station, firing rocket-propelled grenades and machine-guns," he told Reuters by telephone. "The police fought them and killed two of the insurgents while seriously wounding one. He was rushed to Medina hospital, but he died before reaching the hospital." On Wednesday morning, unknown gunmen shot three men in the south Mogadishu neighbourhood of Bulo Hubey. "Early this morning two men armed with pistols shot three men in civilian dress around Bulo Hubey. Two of them were dead and the third one was in serious condition. The victims were government employees," said a witness who asked not be named. Madina hospital sources confirmed one person who was gravely wounded in the head was admitted to the hospital. "We received one person who has serious bullet wound on the head and his condition is grim," Dahir Dheere, a medical officer in the hospital, told Reuters. Two civilians died and nine were wounded in the southern port city of Kismayu, after a landmine explosion targeted a security agent on Wednesday. "Unknown gunmen remotely detonated a landmine when my car was passing at Alanley neighbourhood. My bodyguards, driver and I survived, but the gunmen opened fire at us after the blast and my bodyguards defended me," the security agent told Reuters on condition of anonymity. Witnesses said the blast killed two. "They were cut to pieces," local inhabitant Fadumo Abdulahi Hirse said.-

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Africa Horn

Puntland president worries over federal parliament bill

2007-08-26

(SomaliNet)The president of the semi-autonomous region of Puntland in northeast Somalia Adde Muse Hersi said on Saturday that they have nothing to do with the decisions of Somali’s federal parliament over the oil contracts with the foreign companies. Speaking to the local media today, Puntland President said he could not accept any outcome from the Somali parliament based in Baidoa that would damage the rights of the Puntland’s natural resources. “We would not abide by the resolutions of the parliament in Baidoa and Puntland has rights to decide about the boodle and the baksheesh its oil and gas resources,” he said. The president’s comment came week ago when the Somali’s premier Ali Mohamed Gedi told the press that no deal would be regarded compatible until the new legislation is ratified. He called on foreign companies to negotiate only with the interim government. Recently, the second deputy parliament speaker Osman Elmi Boqare said they had received documents from the country's senior officials over oil contracts they signed with foreign oil companies. Puntland, which is now booming economically, is growing more concern over the future decisions by the federal parliament believing that oil bill will redirect power and potential wealth away from the region. It has been involving in contracts with the with Australia's Range Resources, giving the company exploratory rights to minerals and oil reserves in region.

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Africa Horn

Somalia to create Iraq-style "Green Zone"

2007-08-15

The Somali government is trying to create a Baghdad-style safe "Green Zone" in Mogadishu to protect senior officials and foreign visitors from insurgent attacks, Prime Minister Ali Mohamed Gedi said on Tuesday. Insurgents have been fighting Gedi's government, and its Ethiopian military allies, since Islamists were toppled from Mogadishu at the end of 2006 after a brief, six-month rule. To counter the threat of attacks, a security zone was being set up in the bullet-scarred coastal capital, Gedi said. "At the moment, the government security agencies are trying to create a Green Zone where international community workers, and those vulnerable, can stay for their security purposes," he said, without giving more details. "I can say no more hope that we will achieve positive results very soon." Gedi said government forces were winning the battle against insurgents and were now involved in "cleaning up" some 200 to 300 hardcore fighters left in Mogadishu and its surroundings. In an interview with Reuters, the Somali premier also accused U.S.-based Human Rights Watch of "abusing" his government and siding with radical Islamists in a report alleging war crimes against Mogadishu's population. Gedi was angry at a Human Rights Watch (HRW) report on Monday, saying his troops and their Ethiopian allies were responsible -- together with insurgents -- for widespread crimes against Mogadishu residents during this year's fighting. "I completely reject what they've said," he said. "Themselves, they abuse governments," Gedi added, arguing that HRW had wilfully ignored any positive aspects of his government's record like an ongoing peace conference, the set-up of local administrations, and aid to refugees. They had also ignored crimes by the Islamic Courts during their rule of Mogadishu, including killing and displacing people, destroying property, denying women's rights, using child soldiers, and banning cinema and sports-viewing, he said. "It seems that the Human Rights Watch or groups are in line with opportunistic people who ... want to keep Somalia in a vacuum, to be a safe haven for terrorist activities."

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China-Japan-Koreas

Chinese deal for Somalia oil

2007-07-23

CNOOC’s willingness to strike an oil deal with the fragile government of Somalia, which has been a failed state for more than a decade, has provided stark evidence of China’s willingness to brave terrain that western oil majors deem too treacherous. The state-owned Chinese oil giant has signed a production-sharing deal with the transitional federal government in the east African country, which ranks as a high-risk frontier even in an industry well accustomed to dangerous environments. Thereby making all members of the transitional federal government, their families, friends and cronies, wealthy. In doing so, CNOOC and its smaller partner, China International Oil and Gas, are gambling on three points. First, that the interim government has the authority to make such deals and will stay in power. Second, that violence stemming from perennial inter-clan conflicts and more recently Islamist extremism will not derail its work. Third – and most fundamentally – that the country has some oil worth extracting. Several western oil majors held exploration concessions in Somalia in the 1980s, but fled in 1991 when the overthrow of dictator Siad Barre ushered in 16 years of chaos. Ali Mohamed Gedi, Somalia’s interim prime minister, told the Financial Times last week that ConocoPhillips, Chevron, BP, Royal Dutch Shell and Eni would be invited to return and change their concessions into production-sharing agreements under a new oil law due to be published in the next two months. But that looks like a distant prospect. BP, Shell and Eni say they still consider the concession deals to be subject to force majeure – code for unexpected and disruptive events that prevent contractual obligations from being met. Chevron and ConocoPhillips have declined to comment.

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Africa Horn

Somalia: PM faces protesters in the US

2007-06-28

(SomaliNet) Hundreds of Somali Diasporas opposing the visit by the Somalia premier Ali Gedi in USA made demonstrations in front of the US State Department in Washington accusing Mr. Gedi of putting the country into the hands of the enemy of Somali people. The protesters gathered outside of the state department chanting anti Gedi slogans blaming him for the responsibility of the crisis in the horn of the African country Somalia. The marchers also condemned the presence of the Ethiopian forces in Somalia as illegal and in violation of the state sovereignty. Sources say that the organizers of the rally submitted a complaint letter to the state department on pressuring the Ethiopian government to pull its troops out of Somalia. They also asked for the US government to stop the financial support it offers to the transitional government. Somalia’s Prime Minister Ali Mohamed Gedi will attend the United Nations assembly on June 28 in New York where he will be delivering speech on the current crisis in Somalia.

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