🔴 Sab6Apr2024 #Somalia 🇸🇴
i militanti #Alshabab hanno effettuato un attacco suicida con un veicolo seguito da uomini armati nel distretto di Balcad, nello stato #Hirshabelle
Funzionari della sicurezza sul posto dicono che nove militanti coinvolti nell'attacco sono stati uccisi e tre soldati sono rimasti feriti.
A lot of the western navies participating in the naval actions against the Houthis drones/missiles in the Red Sea and pirates from Somalia have been getting their first real combat shakedown and it hasn't always been going well. The French forces seem to be performing admirably and the Indian navy seems ready for gutsy actions, including airdropping troops into the water to conduct naval boarding operations against dozens of armed pirates!
The ship's targeting radar also malfunctioned, apparently severely enough that they were not able to launch missiles for a half hour. That is a half hour of vulnerability in which the ship's primary weapons system (missiles) were down.
It's enough to cause them to leave the theater prematurely, probably on the assumption that there is a realistic chance that they'd not be able to defend the ship...and they fired their defense chief.
“#UnitedNations helicopter carrying 9 passengers was captured in #Somalia on Wed by #terrorist group Al Shabab after making emergency landing in an area controlled by the group…
6 of the passengers were captured, while 2 escaped & 1 was killed... There were foreigners among the passengers, one of the officials said, though their nationalities were not known”
On New Year's Day, #Ethiopia signed a MoU with the unrecognized breakaway republic of #Somaliland to lease 20km of sea coast and set up a military base on soil internationally recognized as Somalia. #Somalia has strongly condemned the deal, calling it a violation of its sovereignty.
As tensions rise in the Horn of #Africa, I speak to experts who point out how the agreement may yet affect events as far away as #Yemen and #Gaza.
In a region infamous for war, instability & authoritarianism, Somaliland has been a beacon of relative stability, since declaring independence from Somalia in 1991 and despite being unrecognized by any nation in the world. Landlocked Ethiopia is vowing to become the first state to recognize Somaliland, in exchange for 20km of Somaliland's sea coast where it wants to conduct trade and establish a navy. The US, EU and other states have stated that they oppose the initiative & side with Somalia.
Further rendering the situation extremely messy is the fact that the central government in Somalia doesn't control much of the country, with militants from Al Qaeda affiliate Al Shabab controlling parts of the country for years. Somalia relies on its military but also peacekeepers from the African Union...a huge chunk of whom are Ethiopian soldiers. As I said, it's extremely messy. As such, war is unlikely. Somalia is likely to pursue legal avenues of shuttering the deal via the UN & AU.
« "When I went to Africa, it seemed like no one was paying attention. It was like: ‘We can do whatever we want.’"
These are the words of an American military drone operator – someone who, at the press of a button, can decide whether Africans live or die.
A devastating new investigation details how one particular drone strike killed a Somali mother and her four-year-old daughter. The United States military investigated itself and exonerated itself. Because in Africa, you can do whatever you want. »
The U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs warned of “a flood event of a magnitude statistically likely only once in 100 years, with significant anticipated humanitarian impacts.”
"Somalis are struggling to cope with never-before-seen flooding that has killed dozens of people and forced hundreds of thousands to abandon their homes, in the wake of extreme rainfall that has engulfed much of East Africa. Following days of heavy torrents, at least 29 people have been killed and more than 300,000 have fled their homes...#Somalia 's National Disaster Management Agency...call[ed it] the most severe in 'decades'"