This article titled “Somali Islamists ban Red Cross” was written by Clar Ni Chonghaile in Nairobi, for The Guardian on Tuesday 31st January 2012 21.49 UTC

Hundreds of thousands of Somalis could be deprived of critical food aid after Islamist rebels banned the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) from areas under their control.

The move severes a critical lifeline in the south of the country where famine still threatens 250,000 people.

Rebel group al-Shabaab, which professes allegiance to al-Qaida and is hostile to foreign intervention of any kind, said it had decided to “fully terminate” the Red Cross contract, accusing the group of delivering out-of-date food.

A Red Cross spokeswoman in Nairobi had no immediate comment. The aid group had suspended food distribution to 1.1 million people in southern and central Somalia on 12 January, saying militants were blocking deliveries.

The new ban could deal a major blow to aid operations in the dangerous south of the country as the Red Cross was one of only a few international agencies still able to operate there after al-Shabaab banned 16 other groups last November.

One official, who did not wish to be named, said the ban was serious because it affected the Somali Red Crescent Society, a well-respected local organisation working with the ICRC.

He attributed the ICRC’s expulsion partly to a breakdown of communication linked to increased militariastion in the zone, where Kenyan troops are also fighting al-Shabaab.

Given the scale of the Red Cross operation, it will be difficult for local organisations or other groups still operating in the south and centre to pick up the slack if the ban is upheld. Several Islamic relief agencies still have access to southern Somalia.

Mark Bowden, the UN humanitarian co-ordinator for Somalia, said the ICRC ban risked rolling back gains made after international relief began to flow into Somalia last summer, following a declaration of famine in six regions.

“Leaving so many vulnerable Somalis without food will endanger their lives and could also result in pushing a large number of people back into famine, reversing any gains made,” he said. “We appeal to all factions in Somalia to allow humanitarian actors to reach people most in need, wherever they are.”

Six months after famine was declared in six regions, Somalia remains the world’s worst humanitarian crisis although three areas have been lifted out of famine. The UN says 4 million people still need aid, and 1.4 million have been displaced inside the country.

Delivering food and other essential relief is complicated by al-Shabaab’s hostility to foreigners and the demands they make of aid groups. Somalia is one of the most dangerous countries for aid workers, al-Shabaab, pirates and bandits have all targeted aid workers in recent months with kidnappings and shootings.

The UN has appealed for $1.5bn (£952m) to fund relief programmes this year, and officials have warned that any delay could be catastrophic. One British estimate says between 50,000 and 100,000 people died across the Horn of Africa because of last year’s drought and famine.

In a statement from its Office for Supervising the Affairs of Foreign Agencies, al-Shabab said it had inspected Red Cross warehouses and food depots and found that up to 70% of the food was “unfit for human consumption.” It said it had publicly burned around 2,000 metric tonnes of food.

“Despite being offered unrivalled access to all the regions governed by the Mujahideen in south and central Somalia, the International Committee of the Red Cross has repeatedly betrayed the trust conferred on it by the local population,” the statement said.

Al-Shabaab posted a picture on its Twitter account of burning sacks of food. It was impossible to verify the authenticity of the photograph.

The rebel group, which numbers Britons and Americans among its ranks, is fighting Somalia’s weak, western-backed Transitional Federal Government and the African Union peacekeepers that support it. It is also battling Kenyan troops in the south and Ethiopian troops in the west of the country.

Once lauded by some Somalis for restoring order in a country that has not had a functioning government in more than 20 years, al-Shabaab lost a lot of popular support during the famine amid reports that it stopped hungry people from leaving villages, diverted resources and imposed taxes on residents.

Somalia’s descent into anarchy has raised fears among its neighbours, such as Kenya, but also further afield. David Cameron is to host a conference in February on a country he described as “a failed state that threatens British interests.”

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This article titled “US commando team that killed Bin Laden swoop on Somali pirates” was written by Karen McVeigh in New York, for The Guardian on Wednesday 25th January 2012 19.39 UTC

The special forces commandos who swept into Somalia under cover of darkness to rescue two hostages, an American woman and a Danish man, were part of Seal team six, the same navy unit that killed Osama bin Laden, it has emerged.

The Seals killed nine pirates on Tuesday night before rescuing Jessica Buchanan, 32, and Poul Hagen Thisted, 60. They had been held hostage for three months after their kidnap from Galkayo, in the Galmudug region of Somalia, last October.

President Barack Obama, who authorised the mission two days ago, made no mention of it in his state of the union address to Congress on Tuesday. But he was overheard congratulating the defence secretary, Leon Panetta, on a “good job tonight” as he entered the House of Representatives chamber to give his address.

Minutes after he had finished his speech, the president was on the phone to Buchanan’s father, John, to tell him that his daughter was safe.

Obama said in a predawn statement released by the White House on Wednesday: “Thanks to the extraordinary courage and capabilities of our special operations forces, yesterday Jessica Buchanan was rescued and she is on her way home.

“As commander-in-chief, I could not be prouder of the troops who carried out this mission, and the dedicated professionals who supported their efforts. The US will not tolerate the abduction of our people, and will spare no effort to secure the safety of our citizens and to bring their captors to justice,” he said.

The pair were working for the DGG, a land mine clearance unit of the Danish Refugee Council, which confirmed the hostages were unharmed and “on their way to be reunited with their families”.

A senior administration official who was not authorised to speak publicly told AP that new intelligence over the “deteriorating health” of Buchanan had prompted Obama to direct his security team to develop a rescue plan.

Mary Ann Olsen of the refugee council said Buchanan was “not that ill” and did not have to be hospitalised but did require medicine.

Olsen informed Thisted’s family of the successful military operation and said “they were very happy and incredibly relieved that it is over”. She said the freed hostages were in Djibouti and would soon be moved to a “safe haven”.

Pentagon officials have refused to discuss the details of the raid, which took place near the Somali town of Adado. But according to officials who spoke to AP on condition of anonymity, the rescue team, part of the naval special warfare development group, parachuted into the area before moving in on foot.

They arrived when the guards were asleep. A pirate who gave his name as Bile Hussein told AP the guards had been sleeping off the effects of the stimulant leaf khat, popular in Somalia, which they had been chewing for most of the evening. Hussein said he was not present, but had spoken to others who said that nine people had been killed and three were “taken away”. Officials said that the Seals had intended to capture the kidnappers, but, for reasons that have not been explained, nine were killed.

Following the operation, the rescue team and hostages flew by helicopter to Camp Lemonnier, a US base in Djibouti.

While the commandos were drawn from Seal team six, it is understood they were not the same personnel as those in the Bin Laden operation, and officials stressed that members of the other armed forces were also involved in the rescue.

When the pair were kidnapped, hundreds of Somalis demonstrated against the act in the streets.

“We are really happy with the successful release of the innocents kidnapped by evildoers,” Muhammad Sahal, an elder in Galkayo town, told AP. “They were guests who were treated brutally. That was against Islam and our culture … These men have spoiled our good customs and culture, so Somalis should fight back.”

Several hostages are still being held in Somalia, including a British tourist, two Spanish doctors seized from neighbouring Kenya, and an American journalist who was kidnapped on Saturday.

Negotiations with Somali pirates are notoriously tricky and they typically only release hostages for multimillion-pound ransoms. A British couple, Paul and Rachel Chandler, who were kidnapped from their yacht by Somali pirates in 2009 and held captive for 13 months, were finally freed in November 2010 after an undisclosed sum was paid.

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This article titled “Al-Qaida offshoot hopes to turn Africa’s Sahel region into a ‘new Somalia’” was written by Simon Tisdall, for The Guardian on Thursday 8th December 2011 19.02 UTC

An offshoot of al-Qaida is working to turn the whole of Africa’s Sahel region into a “new Somalia” and terrorist bases there pose a growing threat to European and pan-African security, a panel of experts has warned.

Jerome Spinoza, head of the Africa bureau in the French ministry of defence, said the sub-Saharan Sahel area, up to 1,000km wide and stretching from the Atlantic in the west to the Red Sea in the east, presented challenges that western policymakers ignored at their peril.

“Instability is on the rise,” Spinoza told the Chatham House thinktank in London on Thursday. “Without a meaningful policy, the area could constitute a lasting safe haven for jihadists.”

Robert Fowler, a former UN special envoy to Niger and Canadian diplomat who was kidnapped and held hostage for four months in 2008-9 by al-Qaida in the Maghreb (AQIM), said the 31-strong group of captors was well-disciplined and wholly concentrated on its aim of creating an Islamic caliphate embracing the Muslim lands of Africa and the Middle East.

“These men are highly motivated and totally ascetic,” Fowler said. “These guys have no needs. They are dressed in rags. They have a bag of rice and a belt of ammunition and that’s it. I was held in 23 different locations in about 70 days. They are organised. They can break camp in under four minutes.”

Fowler continued: “This was the most focused group of young men I have ever encountered in my life. They are totally committed to jihad. They said to me, ‘We fight to die, you fight to go home to your wife and kids. Guess who will win?’ Even if it takes 200 years … They want to turn the Sahel into a new Somalia.”

Fowler said the terrorist threat to Europe’s southern flank had risen after advanced weapons were plundered during the collapse of the Gaddafi regime in Libya. “They (AQIM) are now equipped with enormous amounts of Libyan weapons and I mean sophisticated weapons such as 20,000 [shoulder-mounted] SA-24 missiles, heavy mortars, heavy artillery and thousands of anti-tank mines … The UN has demanded they be handed over. Well, good luck with that.”

The Sahel region embraces southern Mauritania, Mali, Burkina Faso, southern Algeria, Niger, northern Nigeria, Chad, South Sudan and Darfur in western Sudan, northern Ethiopia and Eritrea.

Spinoza said a host of critical issues faced the region going beyond terrorism. They included recurring rebellions by nomadic Tuareg tribesmen, some of whom were armed by and fought as mercenaries for Gaddafi in this year’s Libya conflict, cocaine trafficking to Europe from the west African coast, and people and arms smuggling.

The region was also confronted by rapid population growth, weak and ineffective governance, inter-state tensions, poor access to education and employment, and increasingly acute food supply problems exacerbated by climate change and the southward advance of the Sahara desert, he said.

AQIM was exploiting the resulting instability, he suggested, spreading its influence south from Algeria and raising the prospect of transcontinental link-ups with Boko Haram militant Islamists in Nigeria and al-Shabaab in Somalia.

Spinoza called for a joined-up approach by the international community, suggesting interested countries including France, the Netherlands and the US needed to coordinate their policies with regional and local players. “The EU’s strategy for security involves development, rule of law and (non-military) security but the EU needs to be more concrete,” he said.

Speaking this week, Kristalina Georgieva, the EU commissioner for humanitarian aid crisis response, said the Sahel was likely to experience severe food shortages next year because of erratic rainfall and localised dry spells.

Seven million people were already facing shortages in Niger, Chad, Mali, Mauritania, Nigeria and Burkina Faso, she said. Current trends pointed to a massive problem of food availability next year.

The European commission last month increased humanitarian funding to the Sahel by €10m (£8.5m) to a total of €55m this year. Niger and Mauritania have already declared a crisis, prepared national action plans, and appealed for international help.

At the eastern end of the Sahel arc, 13 million people remained in need of emergency help and the crisis there was expected to last until the spring and perhaps the summer of 2012, Georgieva said.

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This article titled “Afghanistan worst place in the world for women, but India in top five” was written by Owen Bowcott, for The Guardian on Wednesday 15th June 2011 01.12 UTC

Targeted violence against female public officials, dismal healthcare and desperate poverty make Afghanistan the world’s most dangerous country in which to be born a woman, according to a global survey released on Wednesday.

The Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Pakistan, India and Somalia feature in descending order after Afghanistan in the list of the five worst states, the poll among gender experts shows.

The appearance of India, a country rapidly developing into an economic super-power, was unexpected. It is ranked as extremely hazardous because of the subcontinent’s high level of female infanticide and sex trafficking.

Others were less surprised to be on the list. Informed about her country’s inclusion, Somalia’s women’s minister, Maryan Qasim, responded: “I thought Somalia would be first on the list, not fifth.”

The survey has been compiled by the Thomson Reuters Foundation to mark the launch of a website, TrustLaw Woman, aimed at providing free legal advice for women’s groups around the world.

High maternal mortality rates, limited access to doctors and a “near total lack of economic rights” render Afghanistan such a threat to its female inhabitants. “Continuing conflict, Nato airstrikes and cultural practices combine to make Afghanistan a very dangerous place for women,” said Antonella Notari, head of Women Change Makers, a group that supports women social entrepreneurs around the world.

“Women who do attempt to speak out or take on public roles that challenge ingrained gender stereotypes of what is acceptable for women to do or not, such as working as policewomen or news broadcasters, are often intimidated or killed.”

The “staggering levels of sexual violence” in the lawless east of the DRC account for its second place in the list. One recent US study claimed that more than 400,000 women are raped there each year. The UN has called Congo the rape capital of the world.

“Rights activists say militia groups and soldiers target all ages, including girls as young as three and elderly women,” the survey reports, “They are gang raped, raped with bayonets and some have guns shot into their vaginas.”

Pakistan is ranked third on the basis of cultural, tribal and religious practices harmful to women. “These include acid attacks, child and forced marriage and punishment or retribution by stoning or other physical abuse,” the poll finds.

Divya Bajpai, reproductive health adviser at the International HIV/Aids Alliance, added: “Pakistan has some of the highest rates of dowry murder, so-called honour killings and early marriage.” According to Pakistan’s human rights commission, as many as 1,000 women and girls die in honour killings annually.

India is the fourth most dangerous country. “India’s central bureau of investigation estimated that in 2009 about 90% of trafficking took place within the country and that there were some 3 million prostitutes, of which about 40% were children,” the survey found.

Forced marriage and forced labour trafficking add to the dangers for women. “Up to 50 million girls are thought to be ‘missing’ over the past century due to female infanticide and foeticide,”, the UN population fund says, because parents prefer to have young boys rather than girls.

Somalia, a state in political disintegration, suffers high levels of maternal mortality, rape, female genital mutilation and limited access to education and healthcare.

Qasim added: “The most dangerous thing a woman in Somalia can do is to become pregnant. When a woman becomes pregnant her life is 50-50 because there is no antenatal care at all. There are no hospitals, no healthcare, no nothing.

“Add to that the rape cases that happen on a daily basis, and female genital mutilation being done to every single girl in Somalia. Add to that famine and drought. Add to that the fighting [which means] you can die any minute, any day.”

Monique Villa, the chief executive of the Thomson Reuters Foundation, said: “Hidden dangers – like a lack of education or terrible access to healthcare – are as deadly, if not more so, than physical dangers like rape and murder which usually grab the headlines.

“In Afghanistan, for instance, women have a one in 11 chance of dying in childbirth. In the top five countries, basic human rights are systematically denied to women.

“Empowering women tackles the very roots of poverty. In the developing world when a woman works, her children are better fed and better educated because they spend their money for their family.”

The survey was based on responses from more than 200 aid professionals, academics, health workers, policymakers, journalists and development specialists chosen for their expertise in gender issues.

Each country was also ranked in terms of six risk factors including: health, discrimination and lack of access to resources, cultural and religious practices, sexual violence, human trafficking and conflict-related violence.

In terms of individual risk categories, Afghanistan was deemed to be the most dangerous for health, economic/discrimination and non-sexual violence; the Congo is most plagued by rape and sexual violence; and India has most problems with trafficking.

“You have to look at all the dangers to women, all the risks women and girls face,” said Elisabeth Roesch, who works on gender-based violence for the International Rescue Committee in Washington.

“If a woman can’t access healthcare because her healthcare isn’t prioritised, that can be a very dangerous situation as well.”

The TrustLaw website has been in existence for some time, linking up local NGOs and social entrepreneurs with established law firms who are prepared to offer legal advice on a pro-bono basis. The groups are vetted by Transparency International.

More than 450 law firms are already involved including some from China. Among those that have recently benefited have been the charity Riders for Health, which delivers medicine to remote villages, and reviewed its contracts in Nigeria.

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Islamic militants in Somalia are patrolling the streets looking for people watching the World Cup on television. The Muslim thugs have already killed two people and arrested 10 others.

A spokesman for the group, Sheikh Mohamed Abdi Aros said the rest of Somalia should respect their ban on the World Cup.

"We are warning all the youth of Somalia not to dare watch these World Cup matches. It is a waste of money and time and they will not benefit anything or get any experience by watching mad men jumping up and down," he said.

Locals say they watch the game with the sound turned down while keeping one eye on the TV and one on the door.

Like the Taliban in Afghanistan, the Somali militants have banned all forms of entertainment considered “un-Islamic” — which includes pretty much everything.

The main reason for the bans according to local Islamic radicals is that watching sports or other entertainment distract from waging “holy jihad.”

Sounds like a perfectly good reason for banning entertainment wouldn’t you say? It looks like that darn “religion of peace” strikes again!!

(image via Islam Review)

From ABC News:

A U.S. commando attack in Somalia has killed an al Qaeda operative who is on the FBI’s list of most wanted terrorists, sources tell ABC News.

The dead terrorist, Saleh Ali Nabhan, is believed to have taken part in the 1998 attacks on U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania. He is also believed to have orchestrated the 2002 bombing of a resort hotel in Mombasa, Kenya, and a failed missile attack on an Israeli airliner leaving Mombasa airport.

Several sources tell ABC News at least one U.S. helicopter fired on a convoy carrying suspected al Qaeda targets in southern Somalia. An American official says a U.S. Navy ship was also nearby to monitor the situation and provide assistance if needed.

Ali Nabhan’s death has not yet been officially confirmed, but sources tell ABC News that his body is now in U.S. custody.

Ali Nabhan, a 28-year-old Kenyan, is on the FBI’s most wanted list for terrorist activities such as the resort and missile attacks as well as participation in the 1998 attack on the U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania.

An internal U.S. government report described to ABC News details Ali Nabhan’s efforts in Somalia as a top al Qaeda officer in East Africa. The report claims that Ali Nabhan ran training camps in Somalia for foreign fighters, including some Americans of Somali descent. Some of the graduates of these terror camps have been tied to attacks and threats around the globe, the report states.

According to one source, U.S. military helicopters attacked suspected al Qaeda elements traveling south of Mogadishu and killed all the occupants of the convoy. Initial reports say the U.S. choppers landed on the scene and took the bodies with them. Ali Nabhan’s body was among the causalities, the source said.

A U.S. official confirms that Ali Nabhan’s body was recovered by the attacking U.S. forces.

That was a gutsy move on our part. Major kudos to President Obama for having the stones to approve a mission like that. It sounds like our special ops guys once again performed flawlessly.

Look at this video of an American traitor leading a “Holy War” in Somalia. He even calls for other Americans to come and join him. I hope we drop a bomb on this guy’s head soon.

In an extremely rare public expression, North Korea officially thanked the United States for helping the crew of a North Korean cargo ship hijacked by pirates off the Somali coast late last month, describing the rescue as a symbol of Washington-Pyongyang rapprochement.

“We feel grateful to the United States for its assistance given to our crewmen. This case serves as a symbol of the DPRK -U.S. cooperation in the struggle against terrorism,” the North’s state-run Korean Central News Agency said.