Mohamed Abdi

A bomb exploded outside the headquarters of Somalia’s biggest bank on Tuesday, wounding at least two people hours after al Qaeda-linked militants ordered the company cease operations in areas under their control.

The blast outside Dahabshiil’s office in Mogadishu shattered its doors and littered the area with debris, police said.

“A remote-controlled bomb planted in front of Mogadishu’s Dahabshiil bank and money transfer headquarters injured two guards,” police captain Nur Hassan told Reuters.

Earlier, members of Islamist group al Shabaab walked into Dahabshiil branches in areas of Somalia under their control and demanded they close, accusing the company of working for aid agencies they have banned in their territories, according to a statement on the movement’s website.

Money transfer firms like Dahabshiil are vital to the Horn of Africa country’s fractured economy, which lacks a developed banking sector after 20 years of civil conflict.

Security in the coastal capital Mogadishu has improved greatly since al Shabaab fled the city after a military offensive in August 2011. But bombings and assassinations – blamed on militants – are still frequent.

Police said they had yet to identify who was behind the blast, but that a mobile phone attached to the device was used to detonate it. It was the first such attack to target a bank.

“The explosion crashed open the main entrance glass window but good luck it was dark, and customers were not near,” a Dahabshiil worker, who asked not to be named, told Reuters.

Somalis typically transfer money via “hawala” agents, an informal system based on trust, including $2 billion the Mogadishu government says Somalis abroad send home every year.

Dahabshiil declined to comment on the threats by Shabaab, which in 2010 briefly banned money transfers by mobile phone, saying it helped feed Western capitalism.

“I heard they accused us of allowing aid agencies to send cash through our bank,” Dahabshiil employee Sabdow Ali said from the al Shabaab-controlled southern town of Hudur.

Al Shabaab has thrown out more than a dozen humanitarian groups from areas under its control in the past three years, including the United Nations’ food agency, the International Committee of the Red Cross and Islamic Relief.

The militants say aid creates dependency.

In control of much of the capital Mogadishu between 2009 and 2011, the group has been driven from most major cities in central and southern Somalia by African Union peacekeepers.

But in rural areas its fighters are notorious for amputating thieves’ limbs and stoning to death women suspected of adultery, under a strict interpretation of sharia, Islamic law.

Source: Reuters 

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President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud on Saturday congratulated Kenya’s president-elect Uhuru Kenyatta on his victory and urged Kenyans to maintain peace.

Mr Kenyatta, the son of Kenya’s founding President Jomo Kenyatta garnered 50.07 per cent of the vote against his closest opponent Raila Odinga who received 43.6%.

“While about 85 per cent of registered voters got the opportunity to cast their vote to choose their leader, I therefore would like to congratulate the Kenyan public for exercising their democratic rights peacefully,” said president Mohamud.

“The Somali government and its people wish to congratulate the president-elect Uhuru Kenyatta. We are committed to continue strengthening relations between us and Kenya,” added the president.

He said he is optimistic that Kenyans will react peacefully with the outcome of the election and resolve disputes through legal system to avoid repeat of the 2007-2008 post-election violence in their country.

“Security and stability of East Africa as a region is in doubt, we must all work together in maintaining peace in the region. So, we would like to urge our Kenyan brothers and sisters and their leaders to respect the value of human life and their property.”

After the results were announced, Mr Kenyatta told cheering supporters he would serve all Kenyans “without fear or favour”.

He said voters had “demonstrated a level of political maturity that surpassed expectations”, and he called on Mr Odinga and other leaders to “join us in moving our nation forward”.

However Mr Odinga, the current prime minister, said the election commission had “failed Kenyans” and that democracy itself was “on trial”.

He announced that he would challenge the results of a “tainted election” in the Supreme Court.

He also appealed for calm, saying: “Any violence could destroy this nation forever.”

Source:Alshahid

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Galka’yo (OneSomali)-Alshabaab militant group has claimed responsibility of the deadly Monday suicide bombing in central Somalia town of Galka’yo that reportedly killed several people and injuring dozen others including the deputy police Chief Gen. Muhyadin Ahmed Muse.

In a statement posted on its new twitter account, the Al-Shabaab group said they carried out a “Martyrdom Operation” in Galkayo, targeting Senior Puntland officials.

The group claimed it has killed at least six Puntland officers and injured nine others in the attack.

Gen. Muse survived with minor injuries but unconfirmed reports say at least ten people are feared dead and many more police officers as well as civilians were injured in the blast.

There has been a surge in suicide bombings and remotely detonated blasts in south-central Somalia since Alshabaab pulled out of its fixed positions in Mogadishu earlier last August.

The militant group maintains presence in parts of Puntland including Galgala Mountains and around Puntland’s commercial town of Bosasso in Bari region after being forced out of parts of South-central Somalia.

Source : Alshahid

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Somalia Prime Minister Abdi Farah Shirdon Tuesday hosted a group of Burundian legislators in his office in the capital Mogadishu.

The visiting Burundian legislators led by the Chairperson of the Burundian Parliament Defence Sub-committee, Emalein Hakizima, have been in Mogadishu since Sunday.

During their meeting with Prime Minister Shirdon, they discussed enhancing collaboration between the two governments.

They also discussed security cooperation between the two countries and the current Burundian efforts towards stabilizing Somalia by contributing to AU mission in the country.

Speaking to members of the press in Mogadishu, Prime Minister Shirdon termed the outcome of the meeting as positive.

The PM acknowledged Burundian efforts towards attaining stability in Somalia by sending g peacekeeping forces to the country and straining Somalia forces.

The ten-man delegation on Monday also separately met President Mohamoud and Speaker of the Federal Parliament Mohamed Osman Jawari at Villa Somalia, the country’s State House in Mogadishu.

Burundi is one of the African nations that deployed troops to Somalia to keep peace under the African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM).

Resource: Alshahid

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Mogadishu ( OneSomali) President Hassan Shiekh Mohamud, who returned back yesterday from a trip that took him to Europe and Egypt, has told at a news conference in Mogadishu  that the world community is ready to help Somalia and its people but the Somalis are first needed to help themselves and start rebuilding their nation after long years of chaos and war.



’’ We have to move forward from where we are now’’ said the president during his news conference in which he detailed about his trip to the headquarters of the European Union, London and finally the Islamic summit in Cairo.

The president said that at the Islamic summit in Cairo, leaders from the Islamic world have discussed Somalia and ways to help Somalia and he mentioned that the summit donated economic fund to Somalia which would be administered by a joint commission from Somalia and the Islamic development bank.

Resource: Shablle.net

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