Tag: GreatLakesNews

{{A clan leader opposed by Somalia’s federal government has strengthened his grip on Kismayu after three days of fighting against rival militias battling for control of the strategic southern port city, residents said on Sunday.}}

Scores are feared to have been killed in clashes since Ahmed Madobe, head of the Ras Kamboni militia, was chosen in May by a regional assembly to preside over the Jubaland region, where the port lies. He now appears to have extended his control.

Madobe’s election had prompted rival claims to the regional presidency, including a clan leader viewed as backed by the Mogadishu government, Barre Hirale. The fighting has raised worries it could spark broader clan warfare across Somalia.

The African Union peacekeeping force, AMISOM, said the city was now calm and its troops had intervened to facilitate talks between rivals, although it said its mission was not to mediate.

“Most of my relatives have been killed today,” Faiza Nur, a mother of seven, told Reuters by telephone, without giving numbers. “I hear the sound of gunshots far out to the outskirts. I understand Ras Kamboni now controls all of Kismayu.”

The fate of Kismayu is viewed as a test of Mogadishu’s skill in building a federal system of government in a nation riven by two decades of conflict and still fighting Islamist rebels who were driven from power by African troops.

The government has said it is ready to compromise but has not spelled out how. Diplomats with a close knowledge of the Kismayu situation say Mogadishu is expected to back down and let Madobe hold the presidency, but only in an interim capacity.

{{HUNGER}}

A mother of five, Safia Abdulle, said from Kismayu: “This is the third day we are indoors. The children are very hungry but we cannot go out to buy food. We have no routes to flee.”

Residents said later on Sunday that gunfire had stopped, but said they were still too frightened to go outside.

Controlling the port is a lucrative prize for clan leaders, bringing with it revenues generated from port taxes, charcoal exports and levies on arms and other illegal imports.

Residents had said on Saturday they saw more than 20 bodies of those killed in fighting. Hirale told media the death toll of fighters and civilians was at least 50 from the street battles that had erupted on Friday.

Given the clashes and poor communications, it was impossible to obtain a clear death toll. Dozens of people have been reported killed in earlier flare-ups since May.

“We are trying to facilitate their talks, but we are not there to mediate,” Colonel Ali Aden Houmed, spokesman for AMISOM in Somalia, said by telephone, adding that African troops had intervened to restore calm which he said now prevailed.

Hirale said from Kismayu that Kenyan forces had deployed but said they had helped Madobe’s Ras Kamboni militia. The AMISOM spokesman denied this, saying African troops were neutral.

Madobe is seen as close to Kenya, which has played a key role clearing Islamists from the southern port that lies near Kenya’s border.

Nairobi acknowledges no such alliance and says its aim with the African forces is to restore peace in Somalia.

Regional and Western powers worry a slide back into conflict would hand the ousted al Shabaab Islamist militants a chance to regroup and spread their militancy beyond Somalia’s borders.

{{President Barack Obama on Saturday said impending cases facing Kenya’s top leadership at the International Criminal Court (ICC) was a factor he probably did not visit Kenya in his Africa tour.}}

He however said he has another three and a half years in office and might visit the country still as President of America.

“It is commendable that Kenyans had a peaceful elections that did not result in any violence as witnessed in 2007, it is not the best time for me as president of America to visit Kenya though, Kenya’s administration still has issues to manage at the International Criminal Court,’ he said.

“But I still have some three and a half years in the office and might visit the country, I have special attachment to Kenya as you all know,” he said.

Explaining why he settled on Senegal, South Africa and Tanzania in his second visit to Africa, Obama said US had initiated projects in countries such as South Africa which called for close monitoring. This is the second trip Obama is making to South Africa as President of United States of America.

Responding to satellite questions from Kenyans in Nairobi on any foreign policy shift from his adminstration following Kenya’s growing close trade ties with China and other countries from the East. Obama said Kenya was free to trade with anybody provided the relationship was symbiotic.

“I want to clarify that my visit to Africa is not related to China growing influence in Africa, Africa is the next big thing and everybody is encouraged to invest in the continent but any kind of trade should benefit the people of Africa,” he said in Soweto on Saturday.

“If somebdy is coming to construct roads in Africa, let Africans benefit in terms of offering labour ans etc, we dont want to see Africa just as the producer of raw materials yet somebody is pocketing the money,” he said.

He said his administration was committed to empowering youth and small business to create job opportunities in the continent. “We are committed to uplifting small businesses, and I am hopeful that incentives such as the Africa Growth and Opportunity Act ( AGOA) will be renewed upon expiry to enable Africa easily trade with the US,” he said.

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{{An advocacy group said six people were killed this week in different attacks perpetrated by unidentified armed men near Nyala, South Darfur, and called on the peacekeepers to hold up their mandate.}}

In a statement extended to Sudan Tribune on Friday, SUDO (UK) reported that unknown gunmen killed six internally displaced persons (IDPs) and wounded five others in three attacks carried out this week on civilians outside Nyala.

According to the independent group, four IDPs, moving to Dereige IDP camp from their farms in Um Dirbahia, were killed 15Km North East of Nyala on Monday 24 June.

On Tuesday 25 June, gunmen murdered two people outside their home in Korea area and Kass, which are inhabited by IDPs. The group did provide the reasons of the circumstances of this two separate criminal incidents.

SUDO, reported that a third attack occurred on Wednesday 26 June on a group of IDPs heading to Ottash camp. The assailants who were ridding camels looted the mobile phones and money of the travelers and injured five people among them.

The London based group condemned the attacks and blamed UNAMID for not taking any action over these incidents.

“All of these incidents were brought to the attention of UNAMID in Nyala but they have not taken any action”, the group stressed, urging the hybrid mission to “exercise its responsibility towards the protection of civilian”.

It also called on Sudanese authorities to probe the incidents and bring the culprits to justice.

ST

{{At least five people have been killed in two days of fighting in a strategic Somali port city, a militia commander said on Saturday, despite talks to end a leadership row aimed at stopping a slide back into broader clan warfare.}}

The threat of the kind of clan fighting that tore Somalia apart over two decades has hung over the city of Kismayu since Ahmed Madobe, leader of the Ras Kamboni militia, was chosen by a regional assembly in May to lead Jubaland and its port.

Dozens of people have been killed in sporadic fighting since then between backers of Madobe and a rival claimant to the leadership, Barre Hirale, who is widely seen as having the backing of the federal government in Mogadishu.

“From our side, five have died and 20 others were injured,” Ibrahim Saiid, a commander in a militia backing Hirale, said by telephone, adding that the Ras Kamboni militia behind Madobi had also suffered an unknown number of casualties.

Other witnesses confirmed the clashes which erupted on Friday and extended into Saturday, but there was no official death toll. Poor communications to the city made it difficult to obtain a casualty count on Madobe’s side.

Worried that the clashes could spread and undermine fragile security gains secured by African peacekeepers in the battered nation, the United Nations called for an immediate halt to fighting and said talks should resolve the dispute.

“At the same time as this new fighting has broken out, contacts are underway to put together an inclusive process to defuse tensions,” the top U.N. diplomat in Somalia, Nicholas Kay, said in a statement, adding that fighting would entrench positions and “make it all the harder to achieve a settlement”.

Witnesses said Kenyan troops, part of the African Union peacekeeping force, had been deploying along a vital road in Kismayu on an apparent mission to halt the fighting.

Senior diplomats earlier told Reuters the Mogadishu government was expected to accept Madobe as the regional leader but on an interim basis. The government has said it is ready to compromise but has not said whom it would back to hold the post.

What happens in Kismayu is seen as a vital test of the skill of the new government in Mogadishu, in place for less than a year, in building a federation in a nation torn by war, deep clan rivalries and breakaway regions.

Regional and Western powers worry that a slide back into conflict would hand an opportunity to al Shabaab Islamist militants to regroup and regain more territory.

African troops led a campaign that drove the militants out of major centers, although al Shabaab still controls swathes of countryside.

That means the leader of Kismayu and Jubaland would in reality only control the port and its immediate surroundings.

{reuters}

{{Nearly 100,000 Rwandans still living in exile are to loose their refugee status on the 30th of June this year, according to the UN refugee agency (UNHCR).}}

The cessation of refugee status will however only apply to Rwandan refugees who fled the country before 31 December 1998.

UNHCR says both the International and the African Union Refugee Conventions provide for refugee status to end once fundamental and durable changes have taken place in the country of origin and the circumstances that led to the flight no longer exist.

Adrian Edwards from UNHCR says Rwanda is enjoying relative peace and stability which has enabled majority of the 3.5 million refugees who fled the country in the wake of the 1994 genocide and the 1997/98 armed clashes in the northwestern parts of the county to return home.

“There are 100,000 refugees still remaining out of their country. As of Sunday refugee status will end for them. And then it’s the process-this has been with all cessations of persuading people to voluntarily return, looking whether the local integration is an option and also trying to make sure that anyone who still needs international protection continues to get it.

But on a step by step basis this will mean that the majority of them will be returning to Rwanda.

The remaining Rwandan refugees are hosted mainly by Burundi, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Kenya, Malawi, Mozambique, the Republic of the Congo, South Africa, Uganda, Zambia, and Zimbabwe.”

Refugees from Sierra Leone and Angola have also had their cessation of refugee status implemented in 2008 and 2012 respectively.

{agencies}