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Africa Horn
Unknown gunnies kill Hisbul Islam commander
2009-05-30
An Insurgent commander who was well-known in Mogadishu has been killed in Bakaro market in Mogadishu on friday evening, witnesses said on Friday. Bakaro is under the control of al Shabaab and Hisbul Islam rebels who are fighting against the fragile government to topple it.

Abdulkadir Hamsa Qatatow, [had been] leading some pro-government soldiers who launched heavy attack on rebel bases in Mogadishu last Friday, but [then] he defected from the government on Sunday and joined Hizbul Islam Insurgent group.
So naturally someone took out a contract on the turncoat. It's the Chicago Mogadishu Way.
The spokesman of Hisbul Islam, Sheik Hassan Mahdi, confirmed that gunmen shot him in the market but could not give further details about his killing.
He can say no more. Not much to say, anyway. The guy's dead, and HI is down one commander. Again.
Witnesses also said he has been killed in Bakaro market on Friday evening and it is not known why he was killed.
It may have involved goats.
He was famous for the fighting against the Ethiopian troops and the former transitional government led by president Abdulahi Yusuf Ahmed.
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Africa Horn
Somalis told to be ready to elect president this week
2009-01-29
(Xinhua) -- The Somali presidential election may be held this week and the proposed constitutional amendment to extend the one-month deadline is foregone after pressure from the international community, officials from the Somali transitional government and a major opposition faction who are now attending the on-going talks in Djibouti, said on Tuesday.

Diplomats from African and western countries at the power-sharing talks in Djibouti has insisted that the Somali presidential election be held within the timeframe set in the Somali Transitional Federal Charter, Mohamed Omar Dalha, deputy speaker of Somali parliament told local Shabelle radio in Mogadishu by phone from Djibouti.

The thirty-day deadline for the election of a president expires on Wednesday as former president Abdulahi Yusuf Ahmed stepped down on Dec. 29.

The Somali Transitional Federal Government and the Alliance for the Re-Liberation of Somalia (ARS) agreed last October on the outline of enlarging Somalia's Transitional Federal Parliament and forming Government of National Unity.

On Monday, the Somali lawmakers approved the expansion of the parliament to include members of the opposition faction, the ARS, who will be sworn in on Tuesday.

The enlarged parliament is expected to chose a speaker and a president for Somalia in time for the African Union summit in the Ethiopian capital Addis Abba early in February, Abdurrahman Abdishakur Warsame, a senior member of ARS told the local Horn Afrik radio.

"We are expected to swear in the newly elected president for Somalia next Saturday and then the president could get down to work to save the country as soon as possible," said Warsame, one of the newly nominated opposition MPs.


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Africa Horn
Somali lawmakers approve enlargement of parliament
2009-01-27
(Xinhua) -- Somali parliamentarians meeting in Djibouti City has overwhelmingly endorsed the enlargement of the legislative assembly to include opposition members in accordance with a power sharing deal reached last year, reports reaching here said Monday.

Somali lawmakers have held their session in the Djibouti People' s Assembly in the capital where 220 members of parliament converged to approve the crucial legislation that will pave the way for an inclusive parliament and a National Unity Government.

Sheik Adan Madoobe, speaker of the parliament and the acting president of Somalia who chaired the session, announced after the vote on the enlargement motion that out of the 220 members present211 voted in favor of the motion, 6 voted against while three abstained.

The parliament is expected to amend the country's interim charter to allow for the extension of the one-month deadline for the election of the president which will expire on Wednesday, after former Somali leader Abdulahi Yusuf Ahmed resigned on December 29.

Under an agreement reached between a major opposition faction, the Alliance for the Reliberation of Somalia (ARS), and the Somali transitional government, the membership of the current 275-member Somali parliament will be doubled to include 200 members from ARS and 75 from Somali civil society groups, women and diasporas.

Reports from Djibouti say that the new 200 opposition members of parliament will be sworn in Tuesday while the remaining 75 will be included at a later date when their allocation is agreed upon.

Meanwhile in Baidoa, tension mounts as uncertainty prevails following the withdrawal of Ethiopian troops from the town which has been the seat of the Somali transitional parliament for the past three years.

Two people have been killed and four others wounded after a shootout between Somali government forces and local militias vying for control of strategic locations as they prepare to confront a possible assault on the town by insurgent fighters stationed around it.

Both Somali government officials and Islamist commanders have said they want peaceful resolution of the standoff in the town which is witnessing widespread looting of government properties including the presidential residence and parliament house.
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Africa Horn
Spokesman says Somali President not resigning
2008-12-26
(Xinhua) -- Somalia's presidential spokesman, Hussien Mohamed Hubsired, Thursday said President Abdulahi Yusuf Ahmed is not planning to resign next Saturday as media reports has been indicating a day after his newly appointed Prime Minister stepped down.

"The president has no intention of resigning next Saturday or any other time as some media outlets have been speculating about lately," Hubsired told reporters in Mogadishu. "It is a media manipulation and a cheap propaganda by some rival politicians who want to create confusion in the country."

Hubsired has been responding to media reports about repeated suggestions that President Yusuf would resign next Saturday when he is expected to address the parliament.

Mohamed Mohamoud Guled, named by Yusuf last week as new Prime Minister to replace Nur Hassan Hussien whom he fell out with, on Wednesday has tended his resignation, saying he did not want to bean obstacle to peace.

The parliament and other countries around the world rejected to accept the Somali President's decision to sack Hussien whom the parliament overwhelmingly endorsed.

Kenyan and The East African regional body, the Inter Governmental Authority on Development (IGAD) threatened to impose sanctions on Yusuf and his associates whom they deemed as an obstacle to peace.
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Africa Horn
Somali insurgents welcome Ethiopia's hint to withdraw troops from Somalia
2008-08-31
(SomaliNet) Spokesman for Somali insurgents said on Friday that the Somali group welcomed Ethiopia's hint that it will withdraw its troops from Somalia even before the current Somali interim government is stable and effective.

Abdurahim Isse Adow, spokesman for the Union of Islamic Courts, told Xinhua by phone that: "We welcome Ethiopian Prime Minister's admission that he cannot rule Somalia and we will continue fighting his troops until the last soldier leaves Somali border."

On Thursday, Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi suggested in an interview with the Financial Times that Ethiopia would withdraw its forces from Somalia, saying Ethiopia's military commitment to the war-torn Horn of Africa country was "not open-ended".

The statement by the Ethiopian prime minister came a day after authorities in Addis Ababa managed to narrow a growing conflict between Somali President Abdulahi Yusuf Ahmed and Prime Minister Nur Hassan Hussein. The civil war in the country has resulted in a serious humanitarian disaster.
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Africa Horn
Somalia president in London for medical check up
2008-01-08
(SomaliNet) Somalia's president Abdulahi Yusuf Ahmed is now in London for medical checks after he had fallen ill last week, sources say on Sunday.

On Friday president Yusuf, 72, was taken to a hospital in Ethiopia before he was flown to London. Mr. Yusuf is said to have been undergone tests and check up in a London hospital. Unconfirmed reports say that the president was critically sick.
Pushing daisies real soon, I'm betting.
But the government officials that the country's president is in London for the results of his early medical check up.

Last month, the President of Somalia Abdulahi Yusuf was admitted to a hospital in Nairobi, Kenya after he had suffered from rejection of his transplanted liver bronchitis.
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Africa Horn
Somalia: Yusuf meets Puntland officials over security
2007-07-29
(SomaliNet) Somalia’s interim president Abdulahi Yusuf Ahmed is now in Puntland, the semi-autonomous region in northeast Somalia for talks with the officials of that regional government. President Yusuf who reached Garowe, the capital of Puntland yesterday met with Puntland president Adde Muse Hersi over the political and security issues in the region.

President Adde Muse said Puntland was ready to help the transitional federal government secure peace and stability as thousands of Puntland troops already joined the transitional government to defend its legacy.
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Africa Horn
Somalia: Nothing will delay reconciliation conference, president
2007-07-13
(SomaliNet) Somalia’s interim president Abdulahi Yusuf Ahmed insisted that the reconciliation conference will take place in Mogadishu as intended ignoring the violence in the city. In a news conference held today inside the presidential house jointly with the traditional leader of Hawiye clan Haji Abdi Iman, president Yusuf spoke out about the current situation in the country and the government’s decision to hold the reconciliation meeting on its deadline.

When asked about the night’s mortar attacks on government positions, Mr. Yusuf said the violence would not deter the government from its efforts to hold the meeting. “Let alone a mortar attack, even if a nuclear bomb is launched, the national reconciliation meeting will open on its scheduled time, our security forces will continue the disarmament operations and hunting down the plotters,” said president Yusuf.

In his speech, the president again offered an amnesty to all supporters of the ousted Islamic Courts Union except those who support extremism. “Somalia president promised us that all those who fled the country for fear of reprisal will be given amnesty and can return to their homes,” Abdi Iman told the reporters in the presidential palace.

The president also ruled out the possibility of any foreign troops withdrawal from the country saying that the outside forces will stay in the country until peace is restored.
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Africa Horn
Hawiye Council shirks consultative talks
2007-07-06
(SomaliNet) The unity and the traditional council of Hawiye tribe Wednesday boycotted to attend the consultative meeting by Hawiye clans which is expected to take place in Mogadishu on Thursday.
Hmmm... Hawiyes get a wild hair up their collective derriere and Mog erupts in violence. Oh, who could possibly be responsible?
I'm still trying to parse that sentence. It makes my brain hurt.
In a press release contained of seven articles, the council said their refusal is based on several causes as written below:
41. That the conflict between Hawiye clans to be resolved.

36. That the Hawiye meeting would not be fruitful unless the president of Somalia Abdulahi Yusuf Ahmed and the leader of the national reconciliation conference committee Ali Mahdi Mohamed answer the text which the Hawiye council submitted to them.

43. That the agreement between the council and the national conference committee over the duration and the aim of the meeting was violated.

11. The Hawiye council said that there were some amendments on the agenda in the meeting and at the same time no definition was given.

84. That it was refused to raise the Ethiopian harassments on the Somali society particularly on the Hawiye people.

66. That it was absolutely fabrication that Hawiye consultation meeting is paving the way for upcoming the national reconciliation conference.
In the press release, the council put two conditions on attending the 15 July conference: The meeting should be held in a secure and neutral venue and it should be inclusive for political rivals.
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Africa Horn
Somalia: Militants spoil the spirit of 1st July
2007-07-01
(SomaliNet) A heavy explosion and gunfire could be heard tonight in Wadnaha road, south of the Somalia capital Mogadishu as celebrations marking the 1st July independence day continue in the presidential palace. A local resident who is in condition of anonymous told Somalinet by telephone that masked local militants have launched an ambush attack on the government soldiers stationing at the check points of Howlwadaag and Geed Jaceyl.

A ceremony of commemorating the 37th anniversary when Somalia took its independence from the Italian colonial in 1960 is currently going on in Villa Somalia, the presidential compound in Mogadishu where many top government officials are present under heavy tight security. Somalia’s interim president Abdulahi Yusuf Ahmed is expected to deliver his national speech at the occasion, at mid night local time the national flag will hoisted.
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Africa Horn
Somalia: fighting erupts in Kismayu
2007-06-23
(SomaliNet) Fresh gun battle between rival soldiers within the Transitional Federal Government has erupted in Somalia’s southern port city of Kismayu on Friday killing seven people and wounding 30 others - as heavily armed Ethiopian forces are heading to Kismayu to go between the warring clans.

The fighting that lasted for four hours in Bulo-Gadud and Gobweyn villages village, near Kismayu went between Sade and Majerten clans of Darod, one of powerful tribes in Somalia. Both clan soldiers in the government are fighting for the control of Kismayu, 500km south of the capital Mogadishu.

Unconfirmed reports say the soldiers that hailed from Sade clan who now control Kismayu overrun those from Majerten clan, led by Col. Abdirisak Afgadud who was close to the president of Somalia Abdulahi Yusuf Ahmed. A spokesman for Sade clan who declined to be named claimed that his militia seized six war vehicles from the other side and took hostage their commander Aden Bojar. There is no independent confirmation on that. Just in reports say that the fighting still continues as both sides regain reinforcements.
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Africa Horn
Somalia Conference Delayed for 30 days
2007-06-14
(SomaliNet) The chairman of the reconciliation conference in Somalia Ali Mahdi Mohamed announced Wednesday that the meeting which was scheduled to take place on 14 June has been delayed for one month.

In a news conference held in Hotel Amana, north of Mogadishu, Mr. Mahdi said his committee put off the timing of the reconciliation meeting for 30 days and it will be held on 15 July. “We did this after we received many requests from the Somali clans who are still busy in selecting the envoys that will represent them to attend the coming national reconciliation conference,” said Ali Mahdi.

He also said in his statement that the committee are still preparing the scene allotted for the meeting which is the former police transportation compound in north of Mogadishu where it is under heavy security.

Mr. Mahdi said the reconciliation committee took the decision of putting off the meeting to 15 July. It is the third but not the last time the reconciliation conference which had been announced by the Somali interim president Abdulahi Yusuf Ahmed faced delays.
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