15 killed after gun-battle inside UN office in Somalia following al-Shabaab attack
The Independent
A car bomb exploded outside the gate of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP)
base and attackers then ran inside and opened fire on security guards,
UN sources said. The al-Qa'ida-linked Islamist group al-Shabaab claimed
responsibility.
Showing posts with label al-shabaab. Show all posts
Showing posts with label al-shabaab. Show all posts
Thursday, June 20, 2013
Wednesday, January 30, 2013
In Kismayo (Somalia), the U.N. is starting food distribution assisted by contractors who are "cleared" by al-Shabbab
Somalis stand in front of a kiosk in market area of the port city of Kismayo, south Somalia. UN Photo/Stuart Price
With relative peace returning to the Horn of Africa nation, WFP managed to conduct an assessment of food security in Kismayo last November only to discover high levels of malnutrition and food insecurity throughout the city...
Click here for this in full @ : http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=44030&Cr=somali&Cr1=#.UQlFCLbTroA
Saturday, September 22, 2012
SCANDAL: In Somalia, UN charcoal purchases could be funding Al Shabab terror group
Read this story in full at MINNPOST: http://www.minnpost.com/christian-science-monitor/2012/09/somalia-un-charcoal-purchases-could-be-funding-al-shabab-terror-gr
A United Nations contract to buy charcoal for African Union troop kitchens in Somalia is believed indirectly to be funding the country's Al Qaeda-allied Islamist army, The Monitor has learned.
Al Shabab pays for weapons and fighters with the monthly $1.25 million it earns from taxing traders and from the export of charcoal, trade that was banned by both President Obama in July and a UN Security Council Resolution adopted in February.
The business has become the group’s “most lucrative source of income,” according to the UN Monitoring Group on Somalia and Eritrea.
Since April, the UN has been buying 52 tons of charcoal a week for the kitchens of peacekeeping forces in Mogadishu, and one Somalia expert says it is “highly unlikely” that the deal is “not at least indirectly benefiting” the terrorists.
The contract, worth close to $1 million annually, also directly spurs the destruction of southern Somalia’s last remaining tree cover, worsening conditions that cause drought.
The deal began in April, said the United Nations Support Office for AMISOM (UNSOA), the African Union peacekeeping mission in Somalia, meaning more than 1,100 tons of charcoal has so far been delivered and an estimated 5,500 trees have been felled.
A spokesman for UNSOA, headquartered in Kenya, said he was “unable to confirm” that supplies did not come from Kismayo, Al Shabab’s remaining stronghold and the epicenter of Somalia’s charcoal trade.
AMISOM forces this week closed in on the port city ahead of an expected offensive to push the Islamists out. Senior commanders are said to have fled already, and 10,000 civilians have also left, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees reported Friday.
The Monitor has seen an UNSOA purchase order for $17,722.50 for 52,125kg (about 115,000 lbs.) of charcoal due for delivery on Aug. 31, among the most recent of the deliveries. It was to be sent to Ugandan and Burundian peacekeeping troops based at Mogadishu’s airport and its university. The two countries’ soldiers make up the majority of AMISOM’s 17,000-strong contingent in Somalia.
The Aug. 31 delivery was to be supplied by Mogadishu Stars General Trading Company Ltd., a Somali-owned firm headquartered in Dubai with offices in Kenya and Somalia. The UN has reported that two of the firm's managers, Mohamed Ali Warsame and Abdulrazak Ali Warsame, have close connections to a Somali businessman associated with Al Itihaad Al Islaami, an earlier Somali militant group linked to Al Qaeda.
A manager at the firm’s Nairobi office denied that supplies for the UN tender came from Kismayo, saying that they were “sourced from around Mogadishu.”
But Al Shabab earns money not just from direct links to charcoal traders but also from taxing charcoal trucks as they pass through areas under Islamist control.
“It’s highly unlikely that Shabab will not at least indirectly benefit from this contract,” said Andrews Atta-Asamoah, Horn of Africa analyst for the Institute for Security Studies in South Africa. “It’s not possible for that much charcoal to come from areas the government controls. Even if Shabab is not directly selling the charcoal, once money enters the system in south-central Somalia, Shabab always takes its share.”
The amount of charcoal being produced to fulfill the contract would mean traders felling at least 250 trees a week, according to ecologists’ estimates.
Deforestation for charcoal burning is seen as one of the major causes of drought, which has left 2.1 million Somalis still in need of international help. Last year, parts of the country were struck by famine.
It is for this reason, and because the trade benefits for Al Shabab, that the UN Security Council adopted resolution 2036 during the London Conference on Somalia in February, which banned the export of charcoal from Somalia and its import into other countries.
In part the resolution stated, “charcoal exports from Somalia are a significant revenue source for Al Shabab and also exacerbate the humanitarian crisis.”
President Obama in July ordered sanctions to be enforced against anyone involved in the export or import of Somali charcoal.
Domestic trade within Somalia is, however, exempt from both the UN ban and the US sanctions, meaning that the UNSOA order is legal under the resolution’s terms. “Our delivery does not contravene the ban,” Simon Davies, UNSOA’s spokesman in Nairobi, told the Monitor.
“Nonetheless, we are acutely aware of the negative impact of the trade in charcoal and have been pro-actively working to transition AMISOM to other fuels. All AMISOM contingents are traditionally used to cooking with charcoal and we have had to make a deliberate effort to change that.”
It was the supplier’s responsibility to source the charcoal, and “I’m unable to confirm whether this charcoal comes from Kismayo or not,” Mr. Davies added.
“UNSOA utilizes a common UN vendor tracking database to assess risks associated with doing business with individual vendors. UNSOA also consults with other UN bodies as part of procurement due diligence,” he said.
“These are the primary means available to us in our effort to limit the chances of inadvertently funding Shabab. Regardless, our immediate near-term goal is to phase out AMISOM use of charcoal entirely by October, thereby eliminating risk.”
Read this story in full at MINNPOST: http://www.minnpost.com/christian-science-monitor/2012/09/somalia-un-charcoal-purchases-could-be-funding-al-shabab-terror-gr
A United Nations contract to buy charcoal for African Union troop kitchens in Somalia is believed indirectly to be funding the country's Al Qaeda-allied Islamist army, The Monitor has learned.
Al Shabab pays for weapons and fighters with the monthly $1.25 million it earns from taxing traders and from the export of charcoal, trade that was banned by both President Obama in July and a UN Security Council Resolution adopted in February.
The business has become the group’s “most lucrative source of income,” according to the UN Monitoring Group on Somalia and Eritrea.
Since April, the UN has been buying 52 tons of charcoal a week for the kitchens of peacekeeping forces in Mogadishu, and one Somalia expert says it is “highly unlikely” that the deal is “not at least indirectly benefiting” the terrorists.
The contract, worth close to $1 million annually, also directly spurs the destruction of southern Somalia’s last remaining tree cover, worsening conditions that cause drought.
The deal began in April, said the United Nations Support Office for AMISOM (UNSOA), the African Union peacekeeping mission in Somalia, meaning more than 1,100 tons of charcoal has so far been delivered and an estimated 5,500 trees have been felled.
A spokesman for UNSOA, headquartered in Kenya, said he was “unable to confirm” that supplies did not come from Kismayo, Al Shabab’s remaining stronghold and the epicenter of Somalia’s charcoal trade.
AMISOM forces this week closed in on the port city ahead of an expected offensive to push the Islamists out. Senior commanders are said to have fled already, and 10,000 civilians have also left, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees reported Friday.
The Monitor has seen an UNSOA purchase order for $17,722.50 for 52,125kg (about 115,000 lbs.) of charcoal due for delivery on Aug. 31, among the most recent of the deliveries. It was to be sent to Ugandan and Burundian peacekeeping troops based at Mogadishu’s airport and its university. The two countries’ soldiers make up the majority of AMISOM’s 17,000-strong contingent in Somalia.
The Aug. 31 delivery was to be supplied by Mogadishu Stars General Trading Company Ltd., a Somali-owned firm headquartered in Dubai with offices in Kenya and Somalia. The UN has reported that two of the firm's managers, Mohamed Ali Warsame and Abdulrazak Ali Warsame, have close connections to a Somali businessman associated with Al Itihaad Al Islaami, an earlier Somali militant group linked to Al Qaeda.
A manager at the firm’s Nairobi office denied that supplies for the UN tender came from Kismayo, saying that they were “sourced from around Mogadishu.”
But Al Shabab earns money not just from direct links to charcoal traders but also from taxing charcoal trucks as they pass through areas under Islamist control.
“It’s highly unlikely that Shabab will not at least indirectly benefit from this contract,” said Andrews Atta-Asamoah, Horn of Africa analyst for the Institute for Security Studies in South Africa. “It’s not possible for that much charcoal to come from areas the government controls. Even if Shabab is not directly selling the charcoal, once money enters the system in south-central Somalia, Shabab always takes its share.”
The amount of charcoal being produced to fulfill the contract would mean traders felling at least 250 trees a week, according to ecologists’ estimates.
Deforestation for charcoal burning is seen as one of the major causes of drought, which has left 2.1 million Somalis still in need of international help. Last year, parts of the country were struck by famine.
It is for this reason, and because the trade benefits for Al Shabab, that the UN Security Council adopted resolution 2036 during the London Conference on Somalia in February, which banned the export of charcoal from Somalia and its import into other countries.
In part the resolution stated, “charcoal exports from Somalia are a significant revenue source for Al Shabab and also exacerbate the humanitarian crisis.”
President Obama in July ordered sanctions to be enforced against anyone involved in the export or import of Somali charcoal.
Domestic trade within Somalia is, however, exempt from both the UN ban and the US sanctions, meaning that the UNSOA order is legal under the resolution’s terms. “Our delivery does not contravene the ban,” Simon Davies, UNSOA’s spokesman in Nairobi, told the Monitor.
“Nonetheless, we are acutely aware of the negative impact of the trade in charcoal and have been pro-actively working to transition AMISOM to other fuels. All AMISOM contingents are traditionally used to cooking with charcoal and we have had to make a deliberate effort to change that.”
It was the supplier’s responsibility to source the charcoal, and “I’m unable to confirm whether this charcoal comes from Kismayo or not,” Mr. Davies added.
“UNSOA utilizes a common UN vendor tracking database to assess risks associated with doing business with individual vendors. UNSOA also consults with other UN bodies as part of procurement due diligence,” he said.
“These are the primary means available to us in our effort to limit the chances of inadvertently funding Shabab. Regardless, our immediate near-term goal is to phase out AMISOM use of charcoal entirely by October, thereby eliminating risk.”
Read this story in full at MINNPOST: http://www.minnpost.com/christian-science-monitor/2012/09/somalia-un-charcoal-purchases-could-be-funding-al-shabab-terror-gr
Wednesday, February 8, 2012
SOMALIA SCANDAL: The UNDP officers in Mogadishu pay money for explosions against their building center
CLICK HERE TO VIEW THIS ON SUNA TIMES
IN ORDER TO RETURN THEIR OFFICES IN NAIROBI AND INCREASE THEIR "SECURITY SUBSIDIES" UNDP STAFF PAYS FOR FAKING EXPLOSIONS AND ATTACKS INTO THEIR COMPOUND.
Mogadishu (Sunatimes) The Somali government security officials have accused UNDP officers to manage the explosions against their center in Mogadishu which is lacked of casualty.
"The chief security of UNDP office in Mogadishu, Mr. Guled Yusufpays money for the explosions against its center, and we have known that sometimes a bottle with lubricate throw into UNDP building which cannot do Al shabab group. Second the explosions against UNDP center don’t cause any injury and death but the objective is two points only" said a Somali government security official who requested to hide his name.
While this security officer talking about the two points said "Mr. Guled wants to move UNDP from Mogadishu to Nairobi, so if this doesn’t work he likes to increase his salary in order to recruit militias from clan"
The chief security of UNDP in Mogadishu, Mr. Guled Yuusf is the cousin of Al shabab spokesman named Mr. Ali Dhere, therefore Mr. Guled was accused that he behinds the kidnap against the UNDP officials in Somalia as well as he invests the militias from Al shabab.
The UN officers in Mogadishu don’t affectionate to work inside of Somalia because of they used to enjoy in Nairobi hotels for the extra money that they take as salaries.
By Hawo Abdulle
Friday, July 22, 2011
Al-Shabaab say: UNDP is a western spy agency
Aid ban still in place in Somalia, Islamist militants say
(CNN) -- Islamist militants in Somalia have reversed a pledge to allow foreign aid agencies to operate in famine-struck regions in the nation.
''The lift of ban on aid agencies doesn't include the agencies that we banned earlier in areas we control because those agencies don't do relief work, they are spies and work on political agendas'," Al-Shabaab spokesman Ali Mohamud Raage said Thursday on the militants' radio station, Al Furqaan.
His announcement reverses his pledge this month that militants would allow aid groups to operate in areas under their control.
Al-Shabaab originally banned foreign aid organizations from providing aid in southern Somalia in 2009, describing them as Western spies and Christian crusaders.
The ban included the United Nations Development Programme, World Food Programme and CARE International. The World Food Programme has said that a new dialogue -- but not negotiations -- is under way with the group.
Raage accused the groups of having a political agenda in declaring a famine in Somalia.......
CLICK HERE TO READ THE FULL STORY ON CNN.COM
While U.N. sees the terror group al-shabaab as potential "partners" for Somalia - terrorism strikes central Oslo in Norway
Terror strikes in center of Oslo, Norway.
Can terrorists like al-shabaab be trusted partners in development?
Monday, July 18, 2011
BBCNews: - Somalia drought: Aid for camps under Islamists
CLICK HERE TO VIEW THIS ON BBCNEWS
The UN Humanitarian Co-ordinator for Somalia, Mark Bowden, says aid is being provided to camps controlled by the Islamist group al-Shabab.
Mr Bowden told the BBC that aid was being given through al-Shabab's drought committees, which run the camps.
Mr Bowden said this could be done as long as the aid was delivered according to humanitarian principles.
He described the situation as so severe that it was vital to scale up aid operations inside Somalia.
The UN's refugee agency estimates that nearly one-and-a-half million Somalis have been forced from their homes but remain in the country.
But until very recently helping them has been very difficult indeed.
Al-Shabab, which rules over large swathes of south and central Somalia, had imposed a ban on foreign aid agencies in its territories two years ago, accusing them of being anti-Muslim.
It lifted the ban 10 days ago as long as groups had "no hidden agenda".
'Humanitarian principles'Mark Bowden said that aid was being delivered to camps run by committees under the supervision of al-Shabab, despite the movement's known allegiance to al-Qaeda.
But he made it clear that this could only proceed as long as humanitarian aid was delivered free of any political connotations.
"The Shabab have, as I understand it, through their drought committees been distributing assistance to vulnerable groups of the population, so they have taken an interest and expressed concern.
"It is of course important to also recognise that the work that we do in these areas will be conducted under humanitarian principles and based on need and without any political association attached to the assistance," said Mr Bowden.
Mitchell rejects allegation that UK aid is going to Islamists
CLICK HERE TO VIEW THIS ON SPECTATOR.CO.UK
Yesterday, Andrew Mitchell was the toast of the broadcasters. They have turned on him to an extent today. The news that portions of the £52.25 million given in emergency aid to the starving masses in the Horn of Africa will be distributed in areas controlled by al-Shabaab has forced Mitchell onto the defensive. “We shall have no dealings with al-Shabaab,” he said, and then added that the aid will reach its intended recipients by means other than collusion with the jihadists.
This is an embarrassing moment for Mitchell and, of course, it is vital that money and supplies do not fall into the hands of well-fed fighters. However, it is worth pointing out that Mitchell has always intended to distribute aid in al-Shabab controlled areas of Somalia. In a speech made last year in which he recast the role of DfID as an agent of soft power, he insisted that aid must be used to improve stability in the area, arguing that western generosity would deprive the extremists of their anti-western memes. Food, education and opportunity would replace poverty, ignorance, and Kalashnikovs. So even in this minute of emergency, Mitchell is pursuing long-term policy goals, for better or worse.
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