Tag: GreatLakesNews

Kenyan police have asked Ugandan security forces to track down a German terrorist suspected to have crossed over into the neighbouring country following the Westgate attack.
Photos of the German known as Andreas Mueller alias Ahmed Khaled have been circulated widely by Ugandan police after it emerged that he was on board a bus that crossed Kenya’s Limulu border on Tuesday.

“Whoever sees anyone with features resembling the person in the picture, you should report immediately to the nearest police station/ post/ booth, mobile patrol or a security officer in the vicinity,” Ugandan Inspector General of Police Kale Kayihura stated in a terror alert issued on Wednesday.

The Ugandan police have also set up the hotlines, “0800199699, 0800199399 and 0714667743,” for citizens to report sightings of anyone who matches his description.

He is then thought to have travelled onto Kampala and alighted somewhere along the Ugandan capital’s Jinja road.

It is not the first time Ugandan police have issued a terror alert for Mueller who was also suspected of crossing into Uganda last year, again from Kenya, in the company of one Emrah Erdogan.

According to the BBC, Erdogan was later arrested by Tanzanian security forces after they circulated his photo, again at Kenya’s request, for suspected involvement in the bombing of Assanands in May last year.

An outstanding warrant however remains for Mueller’s involvement in that attack and now the killing of 67 people when terrorists went into Kenya’s Westgate shopping mall guns blazing on September 21.

The 25 year-old Erdogan who goes by the alias Salahuddin al-Kurdi is of Turkish origin and together with Mueller are said to have trained with the Al Shabaab in Somalia before orchestrating terror attacks in Kenya and Uganda.

Mueller joins Samantha Lewthwaite on the list of terror suspects the Kenyan security agencies are eager to apprehend for their suspected involvement in an array of terror attacks.

Lewthwaite who has been dubbed the, ‘White Widow’ has somehow managed to elude security agents in both South Africa and Kenya where she is said to have resided for extended periods of time.

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The International Criminal Court has issued an arrest warrant for a Kenyan man suspected of tampering with witnesses in the war crimes case against Kenya’s Deputy President William Ruto.

Judge Cuno Tarfusser at the Netherlands-based court in the Hague said on Wednesday that 41-year-old journalist Walter Barasa is suspected of attempting to bribe a potential witness. It is the first time the court has sought to prosecute someone for interfering with the legal process.

“The evidence collected so far indicates that there is a network of people who are trying to sabotage the case against Mr Ruto … by interfering with prosecution witnesses,” the case’s prosecutor Fatou Bensouda said in a statement.

Barasa allegedly offered to pay three witnesses at least $16,000 to withdraw as ICC prosecution witnesses.

He is described in court documents as a “former intermediary for the prosecution” in Kenya, meaning he liaised between witnesses and ICC prosecutors.

“I deny any such charges,” Barasa told Reuters news agency. “I have not gotten in touch with any witnesses or anybody having any intention of asking them or bribing them to pull out of the case.”

Ruto, whose trial began last month, and President Uhuru Kenyatta are charged separately with orchestrating violence that swept Kenya after contested elections in 2007 and in which 1,200 people were killed. Kenyatta’s trial starts in November.

Several witnesses have withdrawn, with prosecutors alleging intimidation and defence lawyers denying it. In March, the loss of a key witness led to the collapse of the case against Kenyatta’s co-accused, the former civil service head, Francis Muthaura.

Source: Agencies

{{Uganda has expelled a Sudanese diplomat over suspected espionage activities. Dr. Jad-el-Seed Mohammed Elhag, given 24 hours to pack his bags, left the country on Tuesday.}}

Elhag, who security has been monitoring, is said to have been in a habit of contacting different high level offices in the country with the aim of trying to obtain information illegally.

“We have been tracking his movements. In some cases, he would offer to pay some people for documents and over the weekend we set up a meeting between his contact and someone who had agreed to co-operate,” a senior security officer revealed on Tuesday.

The unsuspecting Elhag, was reportedly nabbed on Sunday as he was paying out money to an agent to secure classified information.

The operation where he was “caught red-handed” in Kampala involved personnel from the Special Forces Command (SFC), Joint Anti-Terrorism Taskforce(JATT), External Security Organisation (ESO) and the Police.

Foreign Affairs ministry on Monday sent a diplomatic note to the Sudan embassy demanding for Elhag’s immediate departure.

“He was a diplomat but was not behaving as one. He no longer conducted himself as a diplomat and had been cited in cases of espionage,” said Asuman Kiyingi, the state minister for regional affairs, on Tuesday.

He added that after the arrest, Sudan embassy asked “to be given time to recall” the officer to which the ministry objected. Kiyingi maintained that the two countries’ diplomatic relations remain intact.

Elhag aged 50, came to Uganda in 2010 for a four-year diplomatic tour. He was a liaison officer external security although his formal title is “Foreign Service Officer”.

In a telephone interview, the Sudanese ambassador, Adil Sharfi, confirmed his officer’s exit saying that he has been recalled by Khartoum. Expressing ignorance about the diplomatic note from Foreign Affairs, he insisted that Elhag had not been expelled.

He, however, said he did not know why his government had recalled the officer.

Asked why Elhag’s diplomatic tour had been interrupted, the ambassador said it was normal. “I do not know how you got that news. It’s a normal return not anything else. He had finished his work here and has something else to do in Sudan . We expect a replacement soon,” said the ambassador.

The incident, he added, will not in any way affect the relationship of the two countries which he described as ”good”. Additionally, Sharfi said his mission had plans to ”develop the good relations” between the two countries.

The expulsion of a senior diplomat is not an isolated case since there have been cases of conflict between Khartoum and Kampala.

In March, Sudanese Parliament speaker Ahmed Ibrahim al-Tahir said that his government was working with forces in Uganda that are opposed to President Yoweri Museveni to bring about “positive political influence”.

Al-Tahir did not provide any details on Khartoum’s efforts in this regard. But reacting to Tahir’s remarks, Foreign Affairs minister Sam Kutesa said Sudan has no chances of succeeding in such plans

“They can try but there is no chance of succeeding. We have no intentions whatsoever of overthrowing the Sudanese government,” Kutesa said, while state minister Henry Oryem described the remarks as “the usual Sudanese rubbish”

Sudanese government was infuriated this year after rebel forces and opposition groups signed an accord in Kampala last January calling for toppling the regime of president Omer Hassan al-Bashir.

This has prompted Khartoum to lodge several complaints with the African Union and other regional blocs against Kampala, saying the latter is supporting regime change in Sudan.

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{{Canada announced Tuesday funding to bolster African Union forces in Somalia, after a deadly mall attack in Nairobi by Al-Shabaab Islamists last month}}.

Canadian Foreign Affairs minister John Bohn Baird pledged $4.8 million for enhancing counterterrorism efforts through the African Union Mission in Somalia (Amisom), as well as $960,000 for other security and conflict resolution programs in the Horn of Africa.

The funds are in addition to $35.7 million already committed by Ottawa for Somalia, and $2.4 billion committed by the international community.

At a joint press conference, Somalia’s visiting Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Affairs minister Fawzia Yusuf Adam said her government in partnership with the African Union “is defeating” Al-Shabaab.

“Al-Shabaab is on its last legs, they lost numbers, they lost morale, they lost ground, and they are only in small pockets. We are not worried about them. We are in control of the situation, but we need a last push,” with support from the international community to strengthen the country’s security forces, she said.

“We need to stand on our feet and defend our shores and defend our ground and finish Al-Shabaab.”

The four-day bloodbath at the upmarket Westgate shopping mall, which Kenyan forces brought to an end last Tuesday, left at least 67 people dead. The Kenyan Red Cross said Monday that 39 more were still missing.

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{{Many EU projects aimed at building justice and good governance in the Democratic Republic of Congo are failing to deliver results, European auditors say.}}

The EU “needs to improve significantly its aid effectiveness” in DR Congo, the European Court of Auditors says.

Their audit covered the years 2003-2011, when the EU granted about 1.9bn euros (£1.6bn; $2.6bn) to DR Congo.

The vast mineral-rich nation is plagued by poverty, corruption and conflict.

Congolese and UN troops are currently fighting M23 rebels near the eastern city of Goma.

For decades the authorities in the capital Kinshasa have struggled to quell insurgencies and hold the country together.

In response to the auditors’ report, EU Development Commissioner Andris Piebalgs said it was “premature” to judge projects which had not been completed.

He noted that progress had been made in areas such as police reform and elections, even if more work still needed to be done.

Monitoring programmes

The auditors said: “Fewer than half of the programmes examined have delivered, or are likely to deliver, most of the expected results.

“Sustainability is an unrealistic prospect in most cases.”

They criticised the design of EU programmes aimed at developing good governance in DR Congo, saying local risks had not been properly assessed in many cases.

The auditors also urged the European Commission to tighten up monitoring of such programmes, to ensure that money was not misspent.

They noted that fraud and corruption remained big problems in DR Congo and that EU aid should be targeted accordingly.

The report said that “although the country is facing a difficult economic and budgetary situation, and low salaries are one reason for the inefficiency of government departments, MPs’ salaries were increased from $1,500 during the transition period to $6,000 dollars in 2006 and $13,000 in 2012.

“In 2011, spending on the Presidency, the Prime Minister, the National Assembly and the Senate accounted for 11 per cent of total budgetary expenditure and was almost three times the amount spent on health.”

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{{Uhuru Kenyatta, Kenya’s president, has told Somalia to “put their house in order,” in a sign of frustration at the festering instability in the neighbouring country after members of a Somali armed group attacked and killed dozens at a Nairobi shopping mall.}}

The al-Qaeda-linked al-Shabab group said it raided the Westgate mall, killing at least 67 people in a four-day siege, in revenge for Kenya’s military campaign against its fighters inside Somalia.

Al-Shabab repeated its warnings to Kenya on Tuesday of new attacks if it did not pull troops from Somalia.

Earlier, President Kenyatta announced a formal inquiry into the deadly assault.

“We are putting in place a commission of inquiry to see if we could have done things better, to see if there were lapses,” Kenyatta said at inter-faith prayers led by leaders from the Muslim, Christian and Hindu communities.

The mall attack bore out widespread fears that Somalia, whose cash-strapped government exerts little control beyond the capital Mogadishu, remained a training ground for armed fighters and a launching pad for attacks beyond its borders.

The Kenyan president said he would not be bullied into withdrawing his soldiers, who are part of an African peacekeeping force.

{{Al-Shabab warning }}

He also took aim at the Somali government, which a source close to the Kenyan presidency said had also recently called for Kenyan troops to leave before withdrawing the demand under pressure from regional leaders.

“If their desire is for Kenya to pull out of Somalia, my friends, all they need to do is what they should have done 20 years ago, which is put their house in order,” Kenyatta told religious leaders at a multi-faith prayer meeting.

There was no immediate reaction from the Somali government.

But al-Shabab said in a statement that if the Kenyan government’s decision was to keep its forces in Somalia, it was an indication that it hadn’t yet learned “any valuable lessons” from the Westgate attack.

The group promised even more insecurity, bloodshed and destruction in Kenya.

“Harakat Al-Shabab Al-Mujahideen is fully determined to intensify attacks inside Kenya until the last KDF boots exit Somali soil,” the armed group’s press office said in a statement.

“If Kenya’s political leaders are still persistent in their quest to occupy our Muslim lands and carry out heinous atrocities against our people, then let them know that Kenyans will never find peace and stability in their country.”

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{{Samantha Lewthwaite, the ‘White Widow’ being hunted on suspicion of leading the Nairobi mall massacre, is or was secretly married to a former officer in the Kenya Navy, a British newspaper said on Monday, quoting a confidential Scotland Yard file.}}

Her new husband is Mr Abdi Wahid, whom the paper said is currently in Europe and freely moves around.

According to the Daily Mail, the dossier throws new light on the life of the mother of four who converted to Islam as a schoolgirl and is now the world’s most wanted woman.

However, Inspector General David Kimaiyo said they were not aware that the “White Widow” was married to a former Navy soldier.

“I’m hearing about it for the first time. All we know is that she was living with someone in Mombasa who was charged in court and therefore we are not aware of any other person of interest,” Mr Kimaiyo said.

Her first husband, Jermaine Lindsay, blew himself up in a suicide bombing in Britain in July 2005.

She came to Africa in 2009 and had been on the run for nearly two years.

The latest developments emerged as MPs promised to use their powers to overhaul the security system, including closure of refugee camps and removal of non-performing security chiefs.

As the two National Assembly committees on Defence and Security start to grill security chiefs beginning today, they promised to get to the bottom of the terrorist attack at Westgate, including performance of security teams investigating the incident amid claims of laxity and looting.

“We want to know the truth about what happened at the Westgate, including the history, the actors and the failures,” said Defence and Foreign Relations Committee chairman Ndung’u Gethenji.

Wahid was arrested in 2011 when police discovered that his house in Mombasa had been turned into a potential bomb factory by Lewthwaite and her associates. He was never charged.

He was previously identified as her landlord, the paper reported, noting that it was not clear how much he knew about his wife’s terrorist activities.

But yesterday, Al-Shabaab insisted yesterday that no woman joined them in an attack on Nairobi’s Westgate shopping mall, dismissing speculation that the ‘White Widow’ took part in the massacre.

“We once again openly declare that no woman was involved at Westgate,” Al-Shabaab said on Twitter, reiterating it had a policy of “not employing sisters for such missions”.

Meanwhile, reports from Somalia said a controversial Muslim cleric was arrested yesterday in connection with the Westgate attack in Hargeisa, the capital of the self-declared Republic of Somaliland.

Mohamoud Abdullahi Ghelle was arrested for supporting the attack in which 67 people were killed and more than 175 others were injured.

The Daily Mail says that Wahid’s relationship with Lewthwaite “has baffled detectives, given his military background and because he once worked as a private security officer in Afghanistan, guarding westerners against attack from the Taliban”.

Lewthwaite’s two elder children, nine-year-old Abdullah and Ruqayyah, eight, both by Lindsay, have the middle names Shaheed and Shahidah, respectively, which means “martyr” in the male and female form, according to the police data, the Daily Mail reported.

She has two younger children, according to the paper — four-year-old Abdur-Rahman and Surajah, three, whose father could be another British Al-Shabaab recruit, Hounslow-born Habib Saleh Ghani, 28, killed in Somalia last month.

On Monday, the Kenya Red Cross reported that the number of people missing after the Westgate attack had dropped to 39, from last week’s 60.

Secretary-general Abbas Gullet said 14 among those reported missing had been found alive and discharged from various hospitals, while seven were confirmed dead.

Metropolitan Development Secretary John Maina said yesterday closed circuit television (CCTV) cameras have been mounted in a number of public places in efforts to beef up security in the country.

“Some 42 cameras have been mounted at roundabouts, bus stations, market areas and major crime spots in Nairobi,” Mr Maina said.

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{{The Tanzanian government has banned the production of two newspapers.

Mwananchi and Mtanzania newspapers were stopped for three weeks and three months respectively.}}

This was announced Saturday by Director of Information Department, Assa Mwambene.

Mr Mwambene alleged that the papers published seditious stories that aimed to provoke discontent between the government and public.

The ban, he said, was printed in Government notice No. 333 of Friday, September 27 and was in effect since then.

According to the statement, Mwananchi, owned by the Kenya-headquartered Nation Media Group, on July 17 published a story on new government salary structures retrieved from a confidential document embargoed for publication.

On the second count, according to the statement, the paper published a story on Saturday, August 17 saying Muslims prayed under heavy security, “The news was accompanied by a picture of a dog, which translated that police took the dog to the worship area, which was not true,” reads the statement in part.

Mr Mwambene said Mtanzania was warned on a number of occasions but opted to defy the Registrar of Newspapers directives and published a number of stories accusing the government of being slow in combating acts that ‘look-like’ terror acts in the country.

According to Mr Mwambene, Mtanzania published a story titled, ‘Bloody Presidential’ on March 20, ‘The Revolution is inevitable’ on June 12, and ‘The government smells blood’ on September 27.

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