Cry more than for a goat: Kenyatta Pompeo chat on joint fight against Al Shabab

[Old_Observer]

US ‘to help Kenya’ fight Al-Shabaab

19th May 2018 John Snow Featured, Kenya 0

 

MOGADISHU, Somalia – The United States has pledged to help Kenyan government “take on Al Qeada linked Al Shabaab group,” President Donald Trump’s top diplomat Mike Pompeo.

Mike Pompeo delivered a message by Donald Trump to Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta during a phone call, according to Spokesperson for the US Department of State, Heather Nauert

Nauert says US Secretary of State, Pompeo had thanked Kenyatta for his leadership in calling for an important national conversation to move the country forward following the 2017 election.

“Mr. Pompeo and Kenyatta have discussed our shared goals of countering terrorism, promoting regional stability”, she said.

Nauert says United States was providing assistance to the Kenyan government, and will continue to partner with them as well as with others in the region to take on the terrorist group Al-Shabaab.

The Secretary of State, Pompeo pledged more US support in the war against the Al-Shabaab both within Kenya’s borders and in Somalia, she said.

The US has been trying to improve its diplomatic relationship and missions in Africa as US warplanes carried out several drone strikes targeting Al Shabaab and ISIL groups’ bases in south and central Somalia.

Reporting by Abdirisak Mohamud Tuuryare from Mogadishu, Somalia

[Old_Observer]

Somali colonel killed by Al Shabaab in Mogadishu

19th May 2018 John Snow Featured, Somalia news 0

 

A Blast in Somali capital Mogadishu [Abdirizak Mohamud Tuuryare/Al Jazeera]

MOGADISHU, Somalia – A Somali military officer has been killed late on Saturday in bomb explosion in Somalia’s capital Mogadishu, witness said.

The victim, whose name has been identified as Ragge was killed after bomb explosives fitted into his car, has exploded at Wadajir area in the capital, a witness said.

He was reportedly among Somali especial commandos trained by United State at Bailidogle.

Baledogle airfield is a military airbase, some 100 kilometers northwest of the capital Mogadishu.

The body of the colonel was taken into Criminal Investigation Department for further investigations, relatives said.

“We are now preparing his burial”, relatives said.

Somalia’s armed group al-Shabab has claimed the responsibility for the death of the colonel.

Al Shabaab group is battling the UN-backed government in Somalia, and has carried out a string of attacks across the region.

The group, which is allied to al-Qaeda, has been pushed out of most of the main towns it once controlled, but it remains a potent threat.

Mogadishu has been witnessed orchestrated assassinations, grenade bomb attacks suicide bombings and mortar rockets, which left dozens of people dead, as some those attacks were claimed by Al Shabaab group based in Somalia.

Reporting by Abdirisak Mohamud Tuuryare from Mogadishu, Somalia