The intense pressure to keep quiet began almost immediately after four girls reported that they’d been molested by a well-known member of their community: You’re lying. Take it back. Change your stories. Source: Hiiraan Online

The $6.85 billion acquisition in 2006 of Peninsular & Oriental (P&O) Steam Navigation Company, a storied British shipping and logistics company, by Dubai’s state-owned DP World, one the world’s largest port management and terminal operators, sparked fears that governments could employ cash-rich sovereign wealth funds (SWFs) and state-run companies as political muscle. Twelve years later, with the Middle East fighting multiple battles and external powers jockeying for influence, those fears have proven justified despite the adoption in the wake of the sale of non-binding guidelines for sovereign funds that manage hundreds of billions of dollars. Concern that an Arab state would post 9/11 gain control of some of the busiest terminals in US ports, including New York, Newark, Baltimore, Philadelphia, New Orleans and Miami, forced DP World to exclude P&O’s American assets from the deal. The worries prompted the creation of a multilateral international working group chaired by a senior UAE financial official alongside an International Monetary Fund executive that in 2008 adopted the Santiago Principles designed to “ensure that the SWF undertakes investments without any intention or obligation to fulfil, directly or indirectly, any geopolitical agenda of the government.” Enforcing adherence to the principles has proven easier said than done. With the UAE, whose 1.4 million citizens account for a mere 15 percent of its population of 10 million, projecting itself as a regional military power in the war in Yemen and through the establishment of foreign military bases, DP World has since the US debacle been acquiring ports rights globally, including in countries where the UAE military is active. To be sure, DP World’s expansion in the Horn of Africa and the Gulf of Aden often makes economic sense and may well have been initially commercially driven in cases like the agreement in 2008 to operate for a period of 30 years the Yemeni port of Aden, once the British empire’s busiest port. The company lost its contract four years later because of its failure to invest in the port. The port has since taken on even greater geopolitical significance with the UAE military’s focus on Aden and alleged backing for a secessionist movement in southern Yemen in the almost three-year-old Saudi-led military intervention in the country that has allowed DP World to again enter into negotiations about assisting in rebuilding Yemen’s maritime and trade sector that would likely include the company’s return to the Aden port. DP World’s involvement in Aden tallies in geopolitical terms with its own as well as the UAE’s expansion elsewhere in the Horn of Africa. The company won two years ago a 30-year concession, with an automatic 10-year extension, for the management and development of a multi-purpose deep seaport in Berbera in the breakaway region of Somaliland. Berbera faces South Yemen across the strategic Bab al Mandab Strait, past which some 4 million barrels of oil flow daily. The UAE military is training Somaliland forces and creating an air and naval facility to protect shipping. DP World was also developing the port of Bosaso in Puntland, another Somali breakaway region, and was discussing involvement in a third Somali port in Barawe. The Somali ports compliment a UAE military base in Eritrea’s Assab as well as various facilities in Yemen. “Money and politics make a combustible mix: If you don’t get the formula right, it can blow up in your face,” analysts Adam Ereli and Theodore Karasik warned in a recent Foreign Policy article about the role of sovereign wealth funds in relations between Russia and the Gulf. In one instance, Kirill Dmitriev, a close associate of President Vladimir Putin and the head of Russia’s sovereign wealth fund, the Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF), met in early January 2017l in the Seychelles with Blackwater founder Erik Prince, a supporter of President Donald J. Trump and the brother of US Education Secretary Betsy DeVos in an effort to create a US-Russian back channel. The meeting, days before Mr. Trump’s inauguration, was arranged by UAE Crown Prince Mohammed bin Zayed. The meeting occurred as UAE, Saudi and other Gulf sovereign funds as well as DP World earmarked $20 billion for investments in infrastructure, energy, transportation, and military production through RDIF as a way of strengthening relations with Russia. RDIF is one of several Russian entities sanctioned by the US Treasury. “Even if allowances are made for sectorial and geographic diversification, the level of allocations to these markets is out of proportion to their size and viability,” Messrs. Ereli and Karasik said. In a separate article for The Jamestown Foundation, Mr. Karasik argued that “the Gulf states are using their economic strength to flex their political muscle, in order to invest in Russia at a time when Moscow’s embattled economy is struggling with low oil prices.” Debate about the political role of sovereign wealth funds subsided with the adoption of the Santiago Principles. Those principles are currently being flaunted in an environment of greater economic nationalism, reduced US emphasis on transparency and democratic values, Russian and Chinese focus on economic benefit, and Gulf governments that have become more assertive in flexing their muscles and asserting themselves internationally. Gulf sovereign wealth funds have learnt the lessons of DP World’s US experience and are likely to be more cautious in ensuring that potential future investments in the US do not challenge Mr. Trump’s America First principle as well as his emphasis on security. Elsewhere, they operate in an environment in which the Santiago Principles fall by the wayside and governments face little criticism of their use of sovereign wealth funds as geopolitical tools. James M. Dorsey

Muqdisho (Caasimada Online)-War goordhow ina soo gaaray ayaa sheegaya in ciidamada loo yaqaan Danab ay weerar qorsheysan ku qaaden Saldhig weyn oo maleeshiyaadka al-Shabaab ay ku lahaayen Gobolka Shabeellaha Dhexe. Ciidamada oo aad u hubeysnaa ayaa la xaqiijiyay inay fuliyeen weerarkaasi xili ay maleeshiyadu aheyd kuwo ku mashquulsanaa dajinta weerar gaadmo ahaa. Weerarka ayaa lagu qaaday Saldhiga ay maleeshiyada ku leeyihiin degaanka Jameeca Jilliyaale ee Galbeedka Gobolka, waxaana qeyb kamid ah Saldhiga la weeraray ka socday diyaarinta maleeshiyaad loo soo xiray tababar oo la qorsheynaayay inay qaadan weerarka gaadmada ah. Ciidamada Danab ayaa inta uu socday weerarka maleeshiyada al-Shabaab kala kulmay iska cabin, inkastoo halkaa lagu dilay maleeshiyaad dhowr ah oo ay ku jiraan ilaa Seddex Horjooge. Horjoogayaasha lagu dilay weerarka ayaa waxaa ku jiray Horjoogaha maleeshiyada ugu magacawnaa Saldhiga iyo Shan ilaalo oo la soctay oo isla weerarka lagu dilay. Ciidamada ayaa sidoo kale al-Shabaab ka jiitay Gaadiid nooca dagaalka ah, waxa ayna horay usii qaaten Hub ay isticmaalayeen Horjoogayaasha iyo maleeshiyaadka la dilay. Sidoo kale, Ciidamada Danab ee sida gaarka ah u tababaran ee weerarkan fuliyay oo markii hore ka yimid degaanka Balidoogle ayaa dib ugu laabtay degaankaasi weerarka kadib. Dhinaca kale, Maamulka iyo Saraakiisha ciidamada dowlada ee Gobolka Shabeellaha Dhexe ayaan weli ka hadal weerarka iyo Khasaaraha kasoo gaaray al-Shabaab. Caasimada Online Xafiiska Muqdisho Caasimada@live.com The post Ciidamada Danab oo weerar lagu furtay Gaadiid dagaal iyo Hub ku qaaday xarun ay leedahay Shabaab appeared first on Caasimada Online.

The Somalia national army killed at least seven al-Shabab militants Thursday and destroyed their base during an operation in southern Somalia, officials and residents said. Somali army General Ismail Sahardid, the 43rd Infantry Division commander, told VOA Somali that the forces took control of Bar-Sanguni town, 45 kilometers (28 miles) south of the coastal city of Kismayo. “Our army launched a surprise attack on the militants’ hideouts late Wednesday and continued pursing them since the early hours of Thursday,” Sahardid said. “During the operation we killed seven of the militants, including local leaders of al-Shabab’s Amniyat unit, responsible for the group’s intelligence.” The general said that despite initial resistance, his forces destroyed several of the militants’ bases and vehicles they have been using to transport fighters, and they recovered ammunition. “We have inflicted heavy military losses on them and captured two of their vehicles mounted with anti-aircraft machine guns,” Sahardid said. Bar-Sanguni residents who spoke to VOA Somali on condition of anonymity said they heard explosions as government soldiers engaged in a gunbattle with the militants for several hours early Thursday. “It was around just before dawn Thursday morning when the Somali army entered the town. We first heard a fierce exchange of heavy gunfire and explosions,” one resident said. “As the day wore on, we saw government soldiers taking strategic positions in the town and searching the al-Shabab military bases, with seven dead bodies of the militants lying in the streets,” another resident said. Bar-Sanguni, under al-Shabab control for many years, is where the militant group has been organizing guerrilla attacks against government soldiers and Kenyan troops serving under the African Union peacekeeping mission (AMISOM) in Jubaland state. Tax on residents Sahardid said the militants in this area have been imposing zakat, or a tax, on the local population. “We have freed the local civilians who have been suffering under the militants’ harsh control, where they have been extorting their money and their livestock through what they call zakat,” said Sahardid. The operation came as Somali President Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed and Michael Keating, U.N. special representative for Somalia, hailed the completion of a power-sharing agreement signed in December between Galmudug state and the Ahlu Sunna Waljama’a. Ahlu Sunna is a moderate group that was founded to promote Sufi Islam in Somalia, which decided years ago to take up arms against the radical al-Shabab group, which is believed to be linked al-Qaida. In an event held Thursday in the central Somali town of Dhuusa Marreeb — attended by Somalia federal and regional leaders and foreign diplomats — Galmudug state President Ahmed Duale Ghelle “Xaaf” and Ahlu Sunna leader Sheikh Shakir vowed to join forces in the fight against al-Shabab. Under the power-sharing agreement, Sheikh Shakir will be the executive leader of Galmudug state. Source: VOA The post Somali Army Reports Killing 7 al-Shabab Militants appeared first on Caasimada Online.

Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi pledged on Thursday not to let differences over a dam Ethiopia is building on the Nile river ruin relations with Addis Ababa. Ethiopia hopes the hydroelectric Grand Renaissance Dam will make it Africa’s largest power exporter. Egypt says it threatens its water supply which relies almost exclusively on the Nile that runs from Ethiopia through Sudan and Egypt to the Mediterranean Sea. Addis Ababa says it will have no impact. Sisi said negotiations with its two African neighbors were progressing and said a deadlock over a disputed, ongoing study on the dam’s impact must end. “The Nile basin enjoys great resources and capabilities that makes it a source of interconnection, building and development, not a source of conflict,” Sisi told reporters after meeting Ethiopia’s prime minister, Hailemariam Desalegn, in Cairo. Hailemariam echoed his comments: “We must make sure that this great river never becomes an object of competition, mistrust or conflict.” Source: – Reuters The post Egypt, Ethiopia Leaders Say Nile Dam Must Not Ruin Relations appeared first on Caasimada Online.

A judge on Wednesday said no to three Kansas residents who requested to have Trump voters on their jury as they’re tried for attempting to bomb a mosque and a Somali refugee community. Gavin Wright, Patrick Stein and Curtis Allen were denied their request to include voters from a Trump-voting region in Kansas in their jury pool. The three men will be tried in the city of Wichita for plotting to use truck bombs in an apartment complex with a Somali refugee population and a mosque on the day after the 2016 presidential election, in Garden City, Kansas. The jury pool will draw from Wichita and Hutchinson, more urban areas than Garden City, but Wright, Stein and Allen wanted people who “live in rural areas and are more politically conservative,” according to High Plains Public Radio. They asked to draw from 28 counties in Dodge City, located in western Kansas. District Judge Eric Melgren said that their request did not have a legal basis, and they did not show that the current jury pool areas would discriminate against Republicans. The men are charged with conspiracy against civil rights and conspiracy to use a weapon of mass destruction, and they have pleaded not guilty. Their defense lawyers allege the men were exercising their free speech rights and right to bear arms. The thinking behind the request, according to the lawyer, was that one area’s residents have different beliefs and would be able to understand the men’s motives. In one area, two-thirds of residents voted for Trump, and in the other area the men wanted to pool from, three-fourths of residents voted for the Republican, according to Mercury News. The men were part of a group connected to the “Kansas Security Force,” a local militia group, prosecutors said. According to prosecutors and a wiretap transcript they obtained, Wright said he wanted the attack on Somalis in Kansas to “wake people up,” the publication added. At the time, the government said that setting that precedent for the jury pool would “wreak havoc” and open a “dangerous door” to similar jury pool requests. The trial, which was scheduled to start in February, is set to begin on March 19 in Wichita, according to the Associated Press. Source: Newsweek The post White men in bomb plot won’t get more Trump voters on jury, after judge denies request appeared first on Caasimada Online.

Mogadishu (HOL) - The Central Bank of Somalia (CBS) and Somali Financial Institutions (SFIs) have announced that they will begin strengthening the inter-bank payment, clearing and settlement systems in Somalia in a bid to modernize the banking sector. Source: Hiiraan Online

MOGADISHU/NAIROBI, Jan 18 (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - S omalia’s Islamist militant group al Shabaab on Thursday denied that it was threatening and abducting civilians to hand over their children for indoctrination and military training. Source: Hiiraan Online

Muqdisho (PP) ─ Madaxweynaha Somalia, Maxamed C/llaahi Farmaajo ayaa wareegto uu soo saaray ku sheegay inuu ka walaacsan yahay jiritaanka warar sheegaya ku xadgudub dhulalka danta guud ee Magaalada Muqdisho. Farmaajo ayaa wareegtadiisa ku yiri. “Sida uu tilmaamayo Qodobka 43-aad ee Dastuurka Jamhuuriyadda Federaalka Somalia- Dhulku waa khayraadka koowaad iyo saldhigga nolosha dadka. Illaa inta laga soo saarayo hab-raacyada sharci ee waafaqsan Qodobka 43-aad ee Dastuurka, dhulka dowladda lama hibeyn karo, bixin karo, lamana wareejin karo.” “Iyadoo la ilaalinayo hantida qaranka ee dhul, cir iyo bad waxaan u sheegayaa shacabka Soomaaliyeed in wixii dhul ah ee la iibiyay ama la hibeeyay ama la kireeyay keddib 8-dii Febraayo, 2017 uusan haysan ogolaansho sharci ah. Haddii uu jiro muwaadiniin iibsaday ama kireystay dhul danta guud, waxaan u sheegayaa in iibsigaas uu yahay mid sharci darro ah,” ayuu Madaxweynuhu ku yiri wareegtadiisa. Isagoo sii hadlaya ayuu intaas ku daray. “Markii la I doortay, waxaan ballan-qaaday inaan ilaalinayo ammaanada la ii dhiibay, dhulka dowladdana wuxuu kamid yahay ammaanadaas. Waxaan u xaqiijinayaa shacabka Soomaaliyeed in guddi heer qaran ah aan u saari doono arrimaha la xiriira dhulka si baaritaan dhab ah loogu sameeyo, loona hubiyo inaan dhul dan guud loo adeegsan dan shakhsiyadeed.” Ugu dambeyn, Madaxweynuhu wuxuu farayaa dhammaan hay’adaha ay khuseyso arrintan inaan la bixin karin dhul dowladeed oo aan kusoo bixin wareegto Madaxweyne, lana soo marin habraac waafaqsan shuruucda u yaalla dalka. PUNTLAND POST The post Madaxweyne Farmaajo oo hakiyay bixinta Dhulalka Dowladda ee ku yaalla Muqdisho appeared first on Puntland Post.

Dhuusamareeb (Caasimada Online)-Salaad Cali Jeelle oo kamid ah siyaasiyiinta Somalia isla markana kamid ah wafdiga Madaxweyne Farmaajo ee magaalada Dhuusamareeb ayaa ka hadlay ahmiyada ay leedahay midnimada Galmudug iyo Ahlusuna. Salaad Cali ayaa sheegay in midowga labada dhinac uu yahay mid ku imaaday is fahanka labada Hogaamiye, waxa uuna lama huraan ku sheegay in dowlada Somalia ay isgarabtaagto Galmudug. Salaad Cali, waxa uu tilmaamay in Ahlusunna ay taariikh ku leedahay dagaalka lala galay al-Shabaab, waxa uuna cadeeyay inay dhabar jabiyeen al-Shabaab. Waxa uu Salaad Cali sheegay in mudadii uu ku guda jiray safarka dhulka ay indhahooda kusoo arkeen amni iyo shacab kuwanaagsan marti soorka. Waxa uu Salaad Cali sheegay in socdaalkood dhulka uu hordhac u yahay rajada laga qabi karo dowladnimada Somalia oo gaarta heerkii laga sugaayay. HOOS KA DAAWO HADDALKA UU DHUUSAMAREEB KA JEEDIYAY SALAAD CALI JEELE The post Daawo: Salaad Cali Jeelle oo Khudbad ka qosolsiisay dadbadan ka jeediyay Dhuusamareeb appeared first on Caasimada Online.

Voice actors gather in a radio studio in Mogadishu to create a public service announcement to help fight outbreaks of diarrhea and cholera. Source: Hiiraan Online

MOGADISHU,(HOL)-Somali President Mohamed Abdullahi Farmajo on Friday halted selling, leasing and allocation of public land amid grabbing of public properties is increasing. Source: Hiiraan Online

Zimbabwe will hold elections in four to five months, the country’s new president has said, pointing to an earlier date than expected following the ousting of long-time ruler Robert Mugabe. Source: Hiiraan Online

The US State Department has suggested that President Donald Trump's recent vulgar comments will not hinder US efforts to persuade African countries to sever ties with North Korea. Source: Hiiraan Online

A decapitated doll was left in front of a mosque with an Islamophobic banner in the Dutch capital Amsterdam by a group of far-right extremists, head of the mosque said on Thursday. Source: Hiiraan Online

Kenya has joined the African Union in demanding an apology from Donald Trump following reports that he termed some countries shitholes. Source: Hiiraan Online

Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi pledged on Thursday not to let differences over a dam Ethiopia is building on the Nile river ruin relations with Addis Ababa. Source: Hiiraan Online

The Dutch government has told the highest representative of Eritrea in the Netherlands to leave the country, minister of Foreign Affairs Halbe Zijlstra said on Wednesday. Source: Hiiraan Online

The Somalia national army killed at least seven al-Shabab militants Thursday and destroyed their base during an operation in southern Somalia, officials and residents said. Source: Hiiraan Online

Throughout 2017, extreme weather events reached epic proportions: In January, the Arctic and Australia suffered serious heat waves that melted ice caps and cut power to 40,000 homes. By February, droughts dried out Somalia and lasted the full year. Source: Hiiraan Online

A judge on Wednesday said no to three Kansas residents who requested to have Trump voters on their jury as they’re tried for attempting to bomb a mosque and a Somali refugee community. Source: Hiiraan Online

Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el Sisi says the Nile should serve as a source of cohesion and development, not of conflict with Ethiopia. Egypt’s President Abdel Fattah el Sisi and Ethiopian Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn said on Thursday at talks in Cairo they were opposed to any “conflict” over the sharing of Nile waters. Sisi said that Desalegn’s visit was “a clear sign for our peoples and the entire world of our political will and determination to overcome all obstacles” between the two countries. The Nile should serve as “a source of cohesion and development, not of conflict” with Ethiopia, which is building a controversial dam that has raised Egyptian concerns over water supplies, he said. “We agreed that we must make sure that this great river never becomes an object of competition, mistrust and conflict,” Desalegn told a joint news conference. Sisi said Ethiopia was not aiming “to harm the interests of Egypt”, while reiterating Cairo’s call for the World Bank to serve as a neutral interlocutor between the two countries on technical issues related to the Nile. Egypt relies almost totally on the Nile for irrigation and drinking water, and says it has “historic rights” to the river, guaranteed by treaties from 1929 and 1959. Ethiopia’s Grand Renaissance Dam project on the Blue Nile, launched in 2012, is designed to feed a hydroelectric project to produce 6,000 megawatts of power, equal to six nuclear-powered plants. The Blue and the White Nile tributaries converge in Sudan’s capital Khartoum and from there run north through Egypt to the Mediterranean. AFP

A UPDF soldier at Base Camp, the headquarters of the UPDF in Mogadishu on Dec. 17, 2017. In the background are the army’s Armoured Personnel Carriers. ALL PHOTOS INDEPENDENT/ IAN KATUSIIME How a clan system and external players are complicating the country’s reconstruction When I flew to Mogadishu, Somalia’s sandy capital, on December 16, 2017; I was filled with a heady mix of anxiety and excitement because of the image we all have of Somalia; bomb wreckages, lone wolf assassins, and Al Shabaab Muslim militants lurking in the shadows everywhere. Mogadishu is still reeling from the shock and awe of a truck bomb that killed over 500 people last October. Even though the attack, for which Al Shabaab claimed responsibility, was the deadliest Somalia has seen in decades, the country has long witnessed such acts of terror since Mohamed Siad Barre was ousted from power in 1991. He had been president since he captured power in a coup in 1969. His ouster led to the birth of Islamic Courts Union (ICU), a ragtag Islamist group which alongside other armed factions in the country battled for the control of the Horn of Africa nation- perpetrating mayhem and anarchy until relative stability was established in the late 2000s, first by the Ugandan army forces -Uganda Peoples Defence Forces (UPDF) and later by joint forces of the African Mission in Somalia (AMISOM) that include UPDF. On my trip, and after interviews with the President of Somalia, Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed, some AMISOM commanders, and officials of the African Union (AU) based in Mogadishu, I witnessed not only a sense of accomplishment but a puzzle over the next move. The question of whether UPDF stays is no longer debated. Instead, the question is what happens when it leaves. Part of the reason is that nothing inside Somalia is what it appears to be to those outside the country. The UPDF, under AMISOM, has accomplished a lot; from pushing Al Shabaab out of Mogadishu, securing the country’s airport and State House, and providing some social services to ordinary Somalis in a country that has barely had a working government for years. Yet commanders on the ground, including Brig. Kayanja Muhanga, who until recently has been the UPDF contingent commander in Somalia, remain apprehensive about the future. When we sat down with Muhanga in his office at Base Camp, the expansive AMISOM base controlled by UPDF, he was preparing to hand over in three days to Brig. Paul Lokech. So he was in reflective mode and spoke expansively about what has made UPDF so successful in Somalia. He also revealed a few things that most external players do not know about, downplay, or totally miss about Somalia; including that the Muslim fighting group; al Shabaab, might not, in fact, be the enemy of the people one imagines. The tall, broad shouldered, and thick mustached Muhanga had just completed a year as UPDF contingent commander in December and it was his second tour of duty in Somalia. Having served as commander of Battle Group Eight and deputy contingent commander in 2011/2012, he has garnered a rare understanding of Somalia and Somali clan members now call him ‘Ugasi’ which is Somali for elder. He is sometimes called upon to mediate in conflicts among the clans, even when he is back in Uganda. “Counter insurgency in Somalia is about winning the hearts and minds of the people. “Any force that comes here needs to first understand the clan dynamics in Somalia,” he says, “You have to be a friend to all clans because there is heavy rivalry between them.” Clan system “Once you are in Somalia, you realise Al Shabaab is not exactly the problem,” Muhanga told our group of journalists, “There are times when a clan can unite with Al Shabaab say when a force is simply intent on capturing local territories without anything it is offering to the local population, they will say ‘we have a common enemy.” The clan system is Somalia’s model of democracy and, depending on whom you speak to, it either works well for the country or harms it. Members of Parliament are elected to represent their clans. The clans are involved in lobbying for positions in government, hold negotiations for economic power, and are routinely defending their territory from intruders- with guns.