For Abdirashid Hashi, an analyst with International Crisis Group in Nairobi, the new president’s resounding victory was also “a protest vote” against Sharif.
International Crisis Group
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Second bomb this week kills three in Nairobi suburb | Reuters
By Richard Lough
A bomb blast in a predominantly Somali district of the Kenyan capital of Nairobi on Friday killed three people and wounded at least eight, the Kenyan Red Cross said.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack in the run-down Eastleigh suburb, the second explosion there since Wednesday night. Local lawmaker Yusuf Hassan was among the injured, Nairobi’s police chief Moses Ombati said.
Photo: Dan Kori/Flickr
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Somalia News Website Run By U.S. Military Aims To Counter Insurgents | AP via The Huffington Post
By Jason Straziuso
NAIROBI, Kenya – The website’s headlines trumpet al-Shabab’s imminent demise and describe an American jihadist fretting over insurgent infighting. At first glance it appears to be a sleek, Horn of Africa news site. But the site – sabahionline.com – is run by the U.S. military.
The site, and another one like it that centers on northwest Africa, is part of a propaganda effort by the U.S. military’s Africa Command aimed at countering extremists in two of Africa’s most dangerous regions – Somalia and the Maghreb.
Omar Faruk Osman, the secretary general of the National Union of Somali Journalists, said Sabahi is the first website he’s seen devoted to countering the militants’ message.
FULL ARTICLE (The Huffington Post)
Photo: U.S. Army Africa/Flickr
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Somali terrorists al-Shabaab threaten 7/7 style attack on UK | The Week
SOMALI militants linked to al-Qaeda have threatened to inflict on the UK a terrorist attack worse than the London bombings of 7 July 2005 for extraditing the Islamist cleric Abu Hamza to the United States.
Al-Shabaab made the threats in a series of messages on Twitter, The Times reports.
One tweet threatened the biggest Islamist terrorist attack yet on Britain: “The nightmare that surreptitiously looms on British shores is bound to eclipse the horrors of 7/7 and 21/7 combined.”
Another read: “Britain will pay the heftiest price for its brazen role in the war against Islam and endless brutality against innocent Muslims.”
Al-Shabaab also said it would “go to every possible length to attain the freedom of imprisoned Muslim scholars”.
Photo: C. G. P. Grey/Flickr
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“They are wounded and their strategy will now be to bide their time in the countryside and wait for the foreign forces to leave. They believe that time is on their side and they can fight a guerrilla war.” — Abdirashid Hashi, Crisis Group’s Somalia analyst, on the possibility of defeating al-Shabaab, in “The last stand of al-Shabaab”, The Independent -
Somalia: Militants said to leave last stronghold | The Examiner
Abdirashid Hashi, a horn of Africa analyst with the International Crisis Group, says he is not surprised that the militants are moving. The militants have not put up cohesive resistance in the southern Somali towns they once controlled, he said, noting that al-Shabab doesn’t have the firepower to match the tanks, warships and military planes the Kenyan military is using in southern Somalia.
FULL ARTICLE (AP via The Examiner)
Photo: United Nations/Flickr
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Somali rebels are said to flee their last coastal stronghold as African troops approach | Washington Post
Abdirashid Hashi, a horn of Africa analyst with the International Crisis Group, says he is not surprised that the militants are moving. The militants have not put up cohesive resistance in the southern Somali towns they once controlled, he said, noting that al-Shabab doesn’t have the firepower to match the tanks, warships and military planes the Kenyan military is using in southern Somalia.
FULL ARTICLE (AP via Washington Post)
Photo: United Nations/Flickr
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Inside Story - The promise of Somali elections | Al Jazeera English
Abdirashid Hashi, our Horn of Africa Analyst, discusses the implications of Somalia’s elections with Al Jazeera’s Inside Story,
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Political outsider tasked with rebuilding Somalia | The Korea Herald
By Paul Kerry
Hassan Sheikh Mohamud on Tuesday became the first leader to be chosen from inside Somalia since President Said Barre was overthrown by warlords in 1991.
Sharif Sheikh Ahmed, president of the outgoing U.N.-backed interim administration, accepted defeat and called the election free and fair. But adding democratic to that description is still a mighty task.FULL ARTICLE (The Korea Herald)
Photo: Expert Infantry/Flickr
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World hails election of Somalia president | Gulf News
Hassan “is very passionate about Somalia,” Hashi said.
“He has a good feel for what’s going on on the ground,” he said.
Photo: European Commission DG ECHO/Flickr
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“If they don’t have a consensus amongst those actors and stake holders, I think it could backfire, it could create a problem for African Union forces. So I think it’s very important to have some sort of political understanding, what will happen next, the morning after they got to Kismayo.” — Abdirashid Hashi, Crisis Group’s Horn of Africa Analyst, on the necessity of a political mechanism in Somalia, in “Politics Hinders Capture of Somali’s Kismayo”, Voice of America