By Jared Kleinman

Impunity Watch Reporter, Africa Desk

MOGADISHU, Somalia – Hundreds of Somalis took to the streets of Mogadishu, Somalia, protesting against Al-Shabaab militants this Monday.

The protests began a few days after Al-Shabaab fighters, led by their commanders, began a destruction of the graves of revered religious leaders from the Sufi branch of Islam in the capital. This was only the nation’s second public demonstration against Al-Shabaab.
 
The protesters were mostly women and children, along with traditional warriors wearing white clothes, armed with spears and wooden shields.  The protesters chanted anti-Al-Shabaab slogans including ‘death to the monster’ and waving the Somali flag in the mainly government-held areas of Mogadishu. Some of the demonstrators carried posters with slogan such as “Down and defeat to Al-Shabaab,” observers said. They also carried slogans to support the transitional government such as “Support Peace and Government.”

The demonstration was staged in a government-controlled area of the city and was guarded by government forces, according to Yusuf Mohamed, who works for Shabelle Radio in Mogadishu.

“People were really disturbed by the move of Al-Shabaab to destroy the tombs of the revered sheikhs of Ahlu Sunna” said Mohyadin Hassan Afrah, who leads a civil society umbrella group in Mogadishu.

Al-Shabaab follows the strict Saudi Arabian-inspired Wahhabi interpretation of Islam, rather than the Sufi Islam of many Somalis. “We call for a holy war against them,” said Sheikh Abdulkadir Somow, from the Sufi Ahlu Sunnah Wal Jama group, which recently signed a deal with the government in neighboring Ethiopia.

Al-Shabaab argues that graves were being worshipped and that it is un-Islamic. Ali Mohamed Husein, the head of al-Shabaab explained to reporters his disapproval of people worshipping the remains of the dead bodies in tombs. “That is why we want to eradicate them, because there is nothing to worship or to ask help from but Allah.”

Al-Shabaab, which is in the list of Washington’s most wanted foreign terrorist group, is fighting the UN-backed government in a bid to overrun the Horn of African nation and subject it to strict version of Sharia Law.

Somalia has not had an affective government since warlords overthrew long time dictator Mohamed Siad Barre in 1991.

For more information, please see:

Africa News – Hundreds Kick Against Al-Shabaab – 30 March 2010

Garrowe Online – Mogadishu residents protest against Al-Shabaab – 30 Mar 2010

CNN – Hundreds protest against Al-Shabaab in Somalia – 29 March 2010

By Jared Kleinman

Impunity Watch Reporter, Africa Desk

NAIROBI, Kenya — Kenya serves as “a major base” for Islamist groups battling Somalia’s Transitional Federal Government, the United Nations says in a recent report.

The UN report says Kenyans account for about half of all foreigners fighting in Somalia under the banner of al-Shabaab and details Kenya’s training of TFG forces in apparent violation of a UN embargo.

Many of these fighters are recruited through a support network in Nairobi consisting of “wealthy clerics-cum-businessmen, linked to a small number of religious centers notorious for their links to radicalism,” the UN Monitoring Group on Somalia states in its March 10 report.

Leaders of Al Shabaab and Hizbul Islam, the other main insurgent group in Somalia, “travel with relative freedom to and from Nairobi, where they raise funds, engage in recruitment and obtain treatment for wounded fighters,” the report says.

Some African and European diplomats based in Nairobi meanwhile engage in visa fraud that enables the smuggling of illegal migrants into Europe and other destinations for fees of about $12,000 for a man and $15,000 for a woman, the UN says. The ambassador of an African country to Kenya reportedly plays a key role in this visa fraud scheme.

The Nairobi embassy of another country in the Horn of Africa is said to funnel cash to insurgents in Somalia monthly. “An estimated $1.6 million may have passed through Kenya.”

The report criticizes Kenya for not cooperating with the UN on breaches of an arms embargo slapped in 1992. “One notable exception,” the report says, “was the Kenya Police Criminal Investigations Division, which provided valuable assistance.”

The report points to Kenya’s training last year for the TFG of 2,500 youths recruited in Somalia and northeastern Kenya, including Dadaab camps. Officials acknowledged training TFG police, but “denied any other type of training.”

The report says training involved “irregularities,” like recruitment of children and Kenyans as well as “false promises of financial remuneration.”

In detailing connections between Somalis in Nairobi and the rebels, the report names several mosques in the Kenyan capital. It describes a 31-year-old cleric “believed by the government of Kenya to have obtained Kenyan nationality under false pretences,” as a key leader of one such mosque.

For more information, please see:

 The East African – UN Shows Kenya Links to Both Sides – 29 March 2010

Somaliweyn – UN Links Kenya to Somali Rebels – 29 March 2010

Daily Nation – UN Links Kenya to Somali Rebels – 28 March 2020

By Jennifer M. Haralambides
Impunity Watch Reporter, Africa

TAPILI, DR Congo  – A recent Human Rights Watch report accused 300 the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) of killing over 300 unnamed Congolese civilians last December.

This report has gotten the attention of UN peacekeepers who now say that a new strategy is needed to prevent future massacres.  Alan Doss, the head of the UN peacekeepers said that better intelligence gathering and greater air mobility was needed.  Because the LRA operate in small, highly mobile groups that spread over a wide area, it has made the UN’s job very difficult.

“But even small groups, moving as they do in the bush, can create havoc.  Their best weapon is fear and they create fear by their extremely brutal and violent tactics which we saw again in this latest massacre near Tapili.,” said Doss.

Top official of the United Nations Mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo (MONUC) says even more is needed.  “Money or military troops on the ground that’s not enough…we need more cooperation between the three countries where the LRA is operating — that is the DRC, Uganda and Central African Republic. Also those countries need to have better cooperation in terms of exchanging intelligence so that they can better organize the operation on the ground,” he said.

Early on, LRA leaders claimed their violent mission was to install a theocracy in Uganda based on the Biblical Ten Commandments.  Although, now they are only moving across Sudan, Central Africa, and DR Congo attacking villages.

During the latest attack, in December, villagers were hacked to death by rebels.  Just before they attacked, the rebels pretended to be Congolese soldiers and asked for food and other goods.  Witnesses say the stench of death hung over the area for weeks after the massacre.   Aside from the killings, at least eighty were taken by force.  Boys to become child solders and girls to be used as sex slaves for the LRA fighters.

For more information, please see:

BBC – DR Congo Needs New Strategy, UN Chief – 28 March 2010

Times Online – Lord’s Resistance Army Killed 321 People in Democratic Republic of Congo – 29 March 2010

VOA – MONUC Official Says Regional Cooperation Could Counter LRA Atrocities – 28 March 2010

By Jared Kleinman

Impunity Watch Reporter, Africa

MOGADISHU, Somalia – The Chief of the Uganda People’s Land Defense Forces has called for urgent and immediate assistance for the Somalia Transitional Federal Government to address the deteriorating humanitarian situation in the war torn country. Lt General Katumba Wamala said that urgent support needs to be given to the government to improve the besieged government’s capacity and to deliver badly needed services to its people.

 Wamala’s statements were made following heavy clashes Monday which left at least 3 people dead and 4 others wounded in Mogadishu. The most recent fighting occurred between the AMISON backed transitional government and Islamist fighters.

 Uganda is one of two countries that have responded to an AU request for AMISOM troops to Somalia. Since responding, AMISON troops have come under constant attack by Al Shabaab and Hizbul Islam insurgents fighting to oust the Western backed government of President Sheikh Ahmed Sharrif.

 “Normalcy can only return to Somalia if the government is able to provide basic services to the people and this can be made possible if there is a public service that is equipped with the necessary knowledge and is committed to service delivery,” said Deputy Special Representative of the African Union Commission for Somalia Wafula Wamunyinyi.

 Clashes in Mogadishu have displaced more than 55,000 people from Mogadishu since the beginning of February, with many of them heading out of Somalia to neighboring Kenya, according to the UN Refugee Agency.

Hawo Sheiikh Ali, a refugee who left Mogadishu at the end of February after a mortar shell killed 15 people in her neighborhood said, “Staying in Mogadishu now is like a death sentence: you are not safe; your neighbour is not safe.”

 “I was selling tea when it hit and all of a sudden I could not see anything. By the time the dust settled 10 young boys were dead,” Ali said. “I don’t know how I survived but I did and I left. I also lost two of my sons, aged 10 and 11; we got separated and up to now I don’t know where they are.”

 Ali said she had never considered becoming a refugee, but now felt she had no choice. He said many families are continuing to arrive “almost daily”.

 For more information, please see:

 Daily Nation – Uganda Urges Immediate Help for Somali Regime – 24 March 2010

Shabelle Media Network- Heavy Clashes Restarts, Kills 3, Injuries 4 in Mogadishu – 23 March 2010

IRIN – Kenya – Somalia – Thousands Flee Mogadishu ‘Death Trap’ – 22 March 2010

 

By Jonathan Ambaye

Impunity Watch Reporter, Africa

THE HAGUE, Netherlands– Last week saw Charles Taylor’s defense provide key witness testimony that could be potentially damaging to Sierra Leone Special Court Prosecutors.  One witness testified that over 300 Liberians and Sierra Leoneans were based and being trained in Liberia under a top Sierra Leonean rebel leader, prior to attacking Sierra Leone in 1991.

This particular witness, whose name and personal information were kept private, told judges he was a part of the rebel force that trained under the Revolutionary United Front (RUF) leader, Foday Sankoy, in Liberia at Camp Nama sometime around the early 1990’s. The witness also recalled additional rebel commanders who participated in these training camps, some of whom would later be prosecuted and convicted by the Special Court for Sierra Leone for their roles in war crimes committed during the Sierra Leonean conflict.

The witness testified, “I can remember Sam Bockarie who is Mosquito, I knew Sam Quelleh, I knew Issa Sesay, I knew Morris Kallon, I knew Augustine Gbao, I knew Jonathan Kposowa, they were many, I can’t recall all of their names now.”

Prosecutors are alleging that Taylor was aware of, and supported these training facilities at Camp Nama in Liberia. Taylor denies having any knowledge of the camp’s existence.

Another witness testified that Charles Taylor never ordered his rebel forces to commit crimes. The witness further claims that Taylor was actually being prevented from liberating the Liberian people by other foreign countries that interfered in the country’s conflict.

For more information please see:

Charles Taylor Trial – Foreign Countries Prevented Charles Taylor From Liberating Liberia – 11 March 2010

Charles Taylor Trial – Foday Sankoh Wanted To Free Sierra Leoneans From The Misery of Politicians – 12 March 2010

Charles Taylor Trial – Liberian Witness Says Sierra Leonean Rebel Forces Were Trained in Liberia – 13 March 2010