Category: Somalia

Turkey to start distributing potable water to Somalis from well

Turkey to start distributing potable water to Somalis from well

The ministry said DSI teams would start distributing potable water to the tent-site as of Saturday.

Turkish State Water Works (DSI) will start distributing potable water to Somali people from well opened in the country.

Turkey’s Forestry & Water Works Ministry said on Saturday that DSI team had drilled a water well near a tent-site in Somalia, and found water in 90 meters dept.

“10 liters of potable water has been provided from the well per second,” the ministry said.

The ministry said DSI teams would start distributing potable water to the tent-site as of Saturday.

Potable water for 17,000 people can be provided from the well a day.

Thus, there will no more be any need for water tanks in the tent-site.

DSI will launch efforts to drill another water well near an area where Turkey will build its embassy.

Somalia is facing with one of the worst droughts in the past 60 years.

The epicenter of the drought lies on the three-way border shared by Kenya, Ethiopia and Somalia, a nomadic region where families heavily depend on the health of their livestock. Uganda and Djibouti have also been hit by the disaster.

Tens of thousands of people have so far been displaced due to the humanitarian situation in the region.

AA

January 9, 2012
Turkey starts work on modernising Mogadishu airport

By ABDULKADIR KHALIF Nation Correspondent

Posted Sunday, December 18 2011 at 19:11

MOGADISHU, Sunday

Turkey has started work to modernise Mogadishu’s Aden Abdulle International Airport.

Nine Turkish experts have been engaged in the setting up of a modern control tower from which all flights over Somalia’s territory would be monitored.

“Mogadishu’s airport operates under the old system and is mainly used by aircraft from Kenya,” said Mr Aydin Sarik, the head of the Turkish team.

Mr Sarik told journalists on Saturday that Turkish planes will start flights to Mogadishu after the airport’s infrastructure and systems are raised to world standards.

“It will ease the delivery of humanitarian assistance and development aid,” he said.

For nearly a year, a Dubai-based private company has been handling the airport services in Mogadishu.

SKA Air & Logistics officials have stated in the past that the company had plans to modernise the airport, named after Somalia’s first president, Aden Abdulle.

In late November, during a two-day visit to Mogadishu, Turkey’s Deputy Prime Minister Bekir Bozdag officiated a number of projects his country would implement in Mogadishu.

Immediately after landing in Somalia, Mr Bozdag laid the foundation stones for a modern tower and a fortified perimeter wall to improve the airport’s security.

During a visit to Mogadishu in August, Turkey’s Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan promised that his country would implement multiple projects in Somalia, including in infrastructure and social services.

via Turkey starts work on modernising Mogadishu airport – Africa |nation.co.ke.

December 19, 2011
Suicide bomber hits Somali capital, dozens killed in south

By Mohamed Ahmed and Richard Lough

MOGADISHU/NAIROBI | Tue Dec 6, 2011 12:20pm EST

(Reuters) – A suicide bomber struck the Somali capital on Tuesday, the latest in a wave of deadly attacks in Mogadishu, and dozens of Islamist rebels and Somali government troops have been killed in fighting in the south.

The car bomb exploded 50 meters from the recently reopened Turkish embassy, near to the Kilometer 4 (K4) junction, a busy intersection in Mogadishu’s administrative district. A health official said at least three people were killed by the blast.

The suicide attack piles yet more pressure on a Western-backed government that relies on African Union troops to prop it up and fight an insurgency by Islamist militants who control virtually all of Somalia outside Mogadishu.

Witnesses told Reuters that the security forces stopped the vehicle earlier, before moving the car to a quieter sideroad.

“The troops tried to question the driver and take photographs when the suicide bomber detonated his bomb,” Abdiweli Elmi, a policeman on patrol at the junction said.

Two policemen and one civilian were killed, Elmi said.

A Reuters witness said human body parts could be seen around the ripped-apart car and security forces fired into the air to disperse the crowds.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack. Suspicion is likely to fall on al Shabaab rebels.

The al Qaeda-linked militants, who have fought the government since 2007, have intensified the frequency of suicide attacks in Mogadishu since withdrawing from most of their bases in the capital in August.

A Turkish government official said the target of the attack was unknown. None of Turkey’s embassy staff hurt.

Turkey was the first state from outside the immediate region to open an embassy in Mogadishu.

Its interests have been the target of violent incidents since Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan visited Mogadishu in August. Erdogan was the first leader from outside Africa to visit the capital for nearly two decades.

HEAVY FIGHTING, AIR STRIKES

The rebels, who control large swathes of Somalia, are also fighting against Somali government and Kenyan troops in the rebel-controlled southern and central parts of the country. Ethiopian forces have also crossed into Somalia.

More than 40 militants and 11 Somali government troops were killed in weekend fighting in the town of Hayo, between the Kenyan border and the al Shabaab stronghold of Afmadow in southern Somalia, a Kenyan military spokesman said on Tuesday.

Emmanuel Chirchir said Kenyan jets had also launched air strikes on al Shabaab bases on Monday, and that it was too early to give an assessment of damage.

Kenya is eight weeks into an offensive inside Somalia to crush rebel networks but the military campaign has become bogged down by heavy rains and lack of clear strategy, diplomats say.

“(Kenyan) jets targeted two al Shabaab camps south of Afmadow town, killing a number of al Shabaab fighters, and destroyed technical vehicles,” Chirchir said, referring to the machinegun-mounted trucks used by the militants.

A lawmaker from Somalia’s Lower Juba region that borders Kenya and nearby residents said al Shabaab had only clung on to Hayo for a few hours before government troops regained control.

The Kenyan government agreed on Tuesday that its force in southern Somalia should become part of the AU peacekeeping force (AMISOM) in the anarchic country.

Earlier this month, Kenya offered to boost AMISOM, which numbers about 9,400 and is made up of troops from Uganda and Burundi. Both the AU and regional bloc IGAD said they supported the idea of integrating the Kenyan soldiers.

“The cabinet … approved the re-hatting of the Kenya Defence Forces in Somalia to AMISOM, subject to approval by parliament,” the president’s office said.

“This has been done at the request of the African Union to enhance a combined strategy for the operation against al Shabaab,” it said in a statement.

However, analysts said it might not be that straightforward for Kenyan soldiers to become part of AMISOM – unless Nairobi is prepared to contribute the cost of its mission in Somalia.

If Kenya wants AMISOM to help fund its operation on the ground as part of the African Union force, the U.N. Security Council would need to approve extra funding, analysts said.

The AMISOM force is also capped at 12,000 soldiers. Uganda, Burundi and Djibouti have already committed to raising troop numbers to the mandated ceiling by early next year. Raising that limit cap would require a vote at the U.N.’s Security Council.

(Additional reporting by Abdi Sheikh in Mogadishu, Sahra Abdi in Nairobi and Jonathon Burch in Ankara; Writing by Richard Lough; Editing by Louise Ireland)

via Suicide bomber hits Somali capital, dozens killed in south | Reuters.

December 7, 2011
Uganda: U.S. Troops To Help Fight Lord Resistance Army

By JASON STRAZIUSO

NAIROBI, Kenya — Why is the U.S. sending its troops to finish off a fractured band of bush fighters in the middle of Africa? Political payback for the quiet sacrifices of Uganda’s troops in Somalia could be one reason.

President Barack Obama announced Friday he is dispatching about 100 U.S. troops – mostly special operations forces – to central Africa to advise in the fight against the Lord’s Resistance Army – a guerrilla group accused of widespread atrocities across several countries. The first U.S. troops arrived Wednesday.

Long considered one of Africa’s most brutal rebel groups, the Lord’s Resistance Army began its attacks in Uganda more than 20 years ago. But the rebels are at their weakest point in 15 years. Their forces are fractured and scattered, and the Ugandan military estimated earlier this year that only 200 to 400 fighters remain. In 2003 the LRA had 3,000 armed troops and 2,000 people in support roles.

But capturing LRA leader Joseph Kony – a ruthless and brutal thug – remains the highest priority for Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni, a 25-year-leader who has committed thousands of troops to the African Union force in Somalia to fight militants from al-Shabab, a group with ties from al-Qaida.

The U.S. has not had forces in Somalia since pulling out shortly after the 1993 Black Hawk Down battle in Mogadishu in which 18 American troops died.

Some experts believe that the U.S. military advisers sent to Uganda could be a reward for the U.S.-funded Ugandan troops service in Somalia.

“I’ve been hearing that. I don’t know if our group necessarily agrees with that, but it definitely would make sense,” said Matt Brown, a spokesman for the Enough Project, a U.S. group working to end genocide and crimes against humanity, especially in central Africa.

“The U.S. doesn’t have to fight al-Qaida-linked Shabab in Somalia, so we help Uganda take care of their domestic security problems, freeing them up to fight a more dangerous – or a more pressing, perhaps – issue in Somalia. I don’t know if we would necessarily say that but it’s surely a plausible theory,” Brown said.

Col. Felix Kulayigye, Uganda’s military spokesman, told The Associated Press previously that Ugandan forces have long received “invaluable” support from the U.S. military, including intelligence sharing, in the fight against the LRA.

That support got a huge boost this week.

Though the deployment of 100 troops is relatively small, it marks a possible sea-change for Washington in overcoming its reluctance to commit troops to Africa. Even the U.S. Africa Command, which oversees U.S. military operations on the continent, is based in Germany. The U.S. maintains a base in the tiny East African nation of Djibouti, but most troops there are not on combat missions.

The LRA poses no known security threat to the United States, and a report from the Enough Project last year said that Kony no longer has complete and direct command and control over each LRA unit.

But the group’s tactics have been widely condemned as vicious. Few are expected to object to Obama’s move to help regional security forces eliminate a group that has slaughtered thousands of civilians and routinely kidnaps children to be child soldiers and sex slaves.

Kony is wanted by the International Criminal Court for his group’s attacks, which now take place in South Sudan, Congo and the Central African Republic.

Still, Bill Roggio, the managing editor of The Long War Journal, called the Obama administration’s rationale for sending troops “puzzling,” especially since the LRA does not present a national security threat to the U.S. – “despite what President Obama said.”

“The timing of this deployment is odd, especially given the administration’s desire to disengage from conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan,” Roggio said. “It is unclear why the issue has resurfaced, but the administration may be rewarding Uganda” for its military contributions in Somalia, he said.

Obama said that although the U.S. troops will be combat equipped, they will not engage LRA forces unless it is in self-defense.

In recent months, the administration has stepped up its support for Uganda. In June, the Pentagon moved to send nearly $45 million in military equipment to Uganda and Burundi, another country contributing in Somalia. The aid included four small drones, body armor and night-vision and communications gear and is being used in the fight against al-Shabab.

Last November, the U.S. announced a new strategy to counter the LRA’s attacks on civilians. U.S. legislation passed last year with huge bipartisan support calling for the coordination of U.S. diplomatic, economic, intelligence and military efforts against the LRA. That’s one reason, Brown said, Obama may be sending in advisers. He said that regional stability is also good for U.S. interests.

“It really doesn’t take that many U.S. resources,” Brown said. “You’ve got 100 troops to go in and take care of the LRA problem once and for all.”

__

Jason Straziuso has been AP’s bureau chief in East Africa since 2009.

www.huffingtonpost.com, 15.10.2011

October 16, 2011
Turkey’s Erdogan writes article on Somalia in US magazine

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan tells the ongoing tragedy in Somalia in an article he wrote for Foreign Policy, one of the leading magazines of the U.S.

“Somalia is suffering from the most severe drought and famine in the last 60 years, which has already resulted in the deaths of tens of thousands of people and endangers the lives of 750,000 more Somalis,” begins Erdogan in his article titled “Tears of Somalia”.

He continues on writing: “This crisis tests the notion of civilization and our modern values. It reveals, once again, that it is a basic human obligation to pursue international cooperation and solidarity to provide solace for those suffering from natural and man-made disasters.”

“It is not realistic to consider Somalia’s plight as caused solely by a severe natural disaster. We cannot ignore the fact that, in addition to the drought, the international community’s decision to leave Somalia to its own fate is also an underlying factor causing this drama.

Twenty years of political and social instability, lawlessness, and chaos have added enormously to the problems in Somalia. The horrifying truck bombing of the Transitional Federal Government’s ministerial complex on October 4 is just the latest evidence of this. The international community must not respond to this act of terrorism by retreating from Somalia, but by redoubling its efforts to bring aid to its people.”

“Nobody with common sense and conscience can remain indifferent to such a drama, wherever on earth it may be and whichever people have to bear it. Our urgent intervention as responsible members of the international community can contribute to the alleviation of the Somali people’s distress. However, the establishment of lasting peace and stability will only be possible through long-term, far-reaching, and coordinated efforts.”

“Turkey mobilized last month to help end this suffering. We consider this solidarity a humanitarian obligation toward the people of Somalia, with whom we have deep historical relations. Many of our institutions, NGOs, and people of all ages have made an extraordinary effort to alleviate the suffering of women and children in Somalia.

We are proud of the sensitivity and cooperation displayed by the Turkish people during the holy month of Ramadan. In the last month alone, approximately 280 million USD worth of donations for Somalia were collected in Turkey. The Turkish people’s generosity has served as an example to other donor countries as well as the international community, offering hope for the resolution of the crisis in Somalia.”

“The Turkish government has also moved decisively to help alleviate this humanitarian crisis. Turkey took the initiative to hold an emergency meeting of the executive committee of the Organization of the Islamic Cooperation (OIC) at the ministerial level on August 17. At this meeting, which was attended by the president of Somalia and high-level representatives from 40 member countries of the OIC, 350 million USD was committed to help relieve the famine in Somalia, and the participants agreed to increase this amount to half a billion dollars. The Turkish Red Crescent is also standing shoulder to shoulder with international aid organizations and is working to meet the needs of those in all the camps in the Mogadishu region.”

“Following the emergency meeting of the OIC executive committee, I — along with a number of Turkish ministers, some members of parliament, bureaucrats, business people, artists, and families — visited the country on August 19 to tell the people of Somalia that they are not alone. We visited the camps. We tried to give hope and encourage people who live in very different conditions from ours. We took note of the lack of such a high-level visit from outside of Africa to Somalia for the last 20 years, and informed the international community of this fact.”

“Turkey has decided to launch a major humanitarian effort to help restore normalcy to Mogadishu. To this end, we are preparing to provide assistance in the fields of health, education, and transportation. We will inaugurate a 400-bed hospital, provide garbage trucks for the streets of Mogadishu, build a waste-disposal facility to burn the accumulated garbage in the streets, pave the road between Mogadishu’s airport and the city center, renovate the parliament and other government buildings, dig water wells, and develop organized agricultural and livestock areas. Our embassy, which will be opened in Mogadishu shortly and headed by an ambassador who is experienced in the field of humanitarian aid and familiar to the region, will coordinate these activities.”

“By supporting the restoration of peace and stability efforts, we will work with the Transitional Federal Government and other institutions in Somalia in order to launch the development process of this shattered country. To this end, we expect all Somali authorities to demonstrate an extraordinary effort in unity, integrity, and harmony.”

“The success of aid operations is directly linked to the establishment of security. The withdrawal from Mogadishu of armed elements in the al-Shabab organization is clearly a positive development for security in the region. But this is not sufficient. Moving the Somali-related U.N. offices currently located in Nairobi to Mogadishu will be a positive step to support this process and one that should be taken without delay.”

“Neighboring countries such as Ethiopia and Kenya bear a special responsibility regarding the restoration of peace and stability in Somalia. The Intergovernmental Authority on Development and the African Union will also share this responsibility, and Turkey supports them in their tasks. In line with the Djibouti peace process, Somalia’s Transitional Federal Government should intensify efforts at reconciliation by maintaining dialogue with all fighting groups and pledge prosperity, brotherhood, order, and prosperity in return for peace.”

“The military contribution provided by Uganda and Burundi within the African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM) to prevent chaos and terror deserves appreciation. With this opportunity, I would like to issue a call to all neighboring countries, including Eritrea, to increase their existing efforts for the establishment of peace and security in Somalia and to enhance long-term regional stability.”

“In Turkish culture, it is believed that something good will come out of all bad experiences. In Somalia, too, this disaster can mark the beginning of a new process by focusing international humanitarian efforts and global attention on the plight of the region. However, this situation will only be sustainable if we continue to be sensitive to the needs of the Somali people.”

“The tears that are now running from Somalia’s golden sands into the Indian Ocean must stop. They should be replaced by hopeful voices of a country where people do not lose their lives because of starvation and where they express their eagerness to develop and restore peace and stability. Regardless of which culture we come from or where we live, I am confident that our common heritage as human beings will motivate us to ease the suffering of Somalia.”

AA

October 12, 2011
Somali militants in key port ‘attacked by US drones’

US has been launching unmanned aerial vehicles, or drones, in an escalating campaign against Islamist militants

The United States has launched a series of attacks by unmanned drones on the Somali Islamist group al-Shabab, local residents say.

At least three targets were hit around Kismayo, the southern port which is under the control of the militants.

One reconnaissance drone is reported to have crashed.

Meanwhile, there have been clashes between Somali government troops and the militants in the Gedo region, further north.

Residents of Kismayo say there were explosions around the city, with at least three targets being hit.

It is reported that al-Shabab are patrolling the streets, preventing locals from using the hospital, which is treating their wounded.

Kismayo is a key asset for the militants, allowing supplies to reach areas under their control and providing taxes for their operations.

In the Gedo region, there has been fighting around the town of Garbahare between al-Shabaab and government troops backed by local militia.

A local MP, Mahmood Sayid, told the BBC that 120,000 people had fled to the town to escape the famine, but that there was nothing to give them.

Deaths are being recorded every day, he said.

www.bbc.co.uk, 25 September 2011

September 26, 2011