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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: 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

Mog mayor again survives bomb attack

2007-11-19

(SomaliNet) The mayor of Mogadishu, the capital of Somalia Mohamed Omar Habeb ‘Mohamed Dhere’ has escaped from bomb attack onSunday afternoon, witnesses said – it is the second time that the city’s mayor survived an attempt on his life. A remote controlled roadside bomb exploded as the convoy of the mayor was passing on the road between Afgoyie and Mogadishu. The mayor’s convoy came from Baidoa city where Mohamed Dhere met with the president Abdulahi Yusuf over the consultation on who will be the new premier from Mudulod sub-clan of Hawiye clan. There is no immediate casualty on the soldiers that were keeping guard the mayor. In May, the mayor escaped unhurt from bomb attack which occurred near his car in north of Mogadishu where the security forces killed a suspected man. The attack took place as the mayor's convoy was passing around Sisi Street in north of Mogadishu when a man on the top of a tree near the street threw a hand grenade which exploded far away from Mohamed Dheere's convoy.

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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

Somalia: Peace congress finalized amid tight security, 2 wounded

2007-08-31

(SomaliNet) The 45-day Somali’s reconciliation conference has been concluded on Thursday in Mogadishu, where the U.N. secretary-general's special representative to Somalia Francois Lonseny Fall and other international delegates attended the ceremony of the meeting’s closure. The security was heavily tightened as hundreds of forces were deployed in all streets of the capital to prevent any attacks from the opposition groups. How good could security have been if two were wounded? Oh right, this is Somalia. Somali’s president Abdulahi Yusuf, his Prime Minister Ali Mohamed Geedi and the parliament speaker Sheik Adan Madobe also attended the occasion of concluding the congress which lacked the needed financial support. Also officials from the United Nations, the donor nations and the neighbor countries today attended the ceremony, spokesman for the reconciliation congress Abdirahman Shift told reporters. The occasion of ending the congress came as many Somali peace delegates are not in a good mood complaining about the lack of payment. All about the Benjamins. Many Somalis believe that the conference which did not gathered the suitable stakeholders ended in failure and deepened the crises Meanwhile, two civilians got injured in police shootouts after two grenade bomb attacks in the capital. The first explosion happened on the main industry road near the former match and cigarette factory where bomb was thrown at the police. In Wardhigley district, the soldiers arrested several people suspected in connection with the bomb attack. General Abdiwahid Mohamed Hussein, the police spokesman said the city was quiet except two bomb incidents which the police succeeded to arrest the some of the attackers. “In Wardhigley district, the police forces confiscated a group of militants and their trying to escape after throwing bomb, also on the industry road, the soldiers arrested a man after he hurled grenade bomb,” said Mohamed.

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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: President resists insurgency, peace talks put off

2007-07-17

(SomaliNet) Somalia interim president Abdulahi Yusuf said today he had finished three years in the office with political violence and will stay in power for the next two years with boldness and unyielding rule as the national peace conference was adjourned to Thursday after today’s mortar attack around the venue of the talks. At the opening ceremony of the postponed peace conference in north of the Somalia capital Mogadishu, President Yusuf said he would never surrender to what he called ‘the Islamist elements’ whose aim is to destabilize the situation. “Stop the fear, you will die when your destiny ends” said president Yusuf when Ali Mahdi Mohamed, the chairman of the reconciliation conference whispered to him to finalize the speech as mortar shells slammed in an area not far from the conference venue. The mortar attack, which was coincided with the opening of the peace talks, wounded three civilians in Abdulaziz district, north of the capital. The reconciliation committee did not yet give any reason about the deferral of the talks but sources close to the conference venue say that the meeting was adjourned because of the violence in the capital. President Yusuf admitted that there is a chaotic situation in the country particularly in Mogadishu. “In fact there is uneasy situation and the government is doing all it can with the help of the society”. He said. “The delegates of Somali clans should not feel frightened but be relaxed and encouraged to maintain their meeting... this is a minor thing, the security forces will end up the matter,” said president Yusuf who wanted to calm down the spirit of the envoys who grew concerns after they received the news of mortar attack. Meanwhile, the executive council of the ousted Islamic Courts Union Sheik Sharif Sheik Ahmed who is now in Asmara, Eritrea has condemned the national reconciliation conference as fruitless and senseless. He accused the international community of putting trap for Somali people when they supported what he called ‘the deceitful meeting’ in Mogadishu.

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