The gunmen were determined to drain every last drop of blood for the land they were being forced to cede in the heart of Somalia’s capital, Mogadishu.

There had already been months of fighting in the surrounding streets as African Union (AU) troops, deployed to bring peace to this most blighted of cities, advanced street by street.

Gunfights at the time had raged for days across narrow alleyways. On one side were soldiers from the Ugandan army, sent as the main component of the AU force. On the other, followers of al-Shabaab, the extremist al-Qa’ida-linked body that had sought to enforce its hard-line interpretation of Islamic law on the city.

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One of their final bastions was Mogadishu stadium, once the centre for Somalia’s national football team. Even when all the surrounding streets in the district had been cleared, the militiamen holed up there refused to surrender – requiring the soldiers to clear it one corridor and one stand at a time.

The devastation this battle caused can be seen in every bullet hole that peppers the structure. At its entrance way, gaping holes mark where shells had struck.

Even after the stadium was cleared, there had been one last shocking surprise. As African Union troops celebrated their victory and wandered inside, there was a gunshot and a soldier fell, shot between the eyes. An al-Shabaab fighter had hidden in a ventilation shaft to secure one last victim.

La Russie «pour établir la base de Somaliland» comme Poutine complote la suprématie navale

sa carte montre où la Russie veut localiser sa base navale dans une région de plus en plus militarisée par les puissances régionales et mondiales
La base de la base se trouve dans la corne de l’Afrique stratégiquement importante et offrirait la possibilité de projeter de l’énergie à travers le Moyen-Orient et des voies de navigation vers et depuis le canal de Suez.

La RUSSIE prépare une base navale en pleine mutation dans un Etat d’Afrique de l’est en voie d’expansion afin d’étendre considérablement sa puissance militaire au Moyen-Orient, selon des rapports.

Des pourparlers sont en cours entre Moscou et les dirigeants du Somaliland pour une base de 1 500 hommes afin d’aider ses navires de guerre et ses sous-marins chasseurs-chasseurs à opérer dans cette région instable et ses voies maritimes achalandées transportant la plupart des marchandises européennes.

L’emplacement supposé de la base est en dehors de la ville de Zeila, dans la république autoproclamée du Somaliland.

Il est également à la frontière avec Djibouti – à proximité de l’emplacement de la première base à l’étranger de la Chine dans les temps modernes qui a ouvert l’année dernière.

Les Émirats arabes unis construisent également une base militaire à Berbera dans ce qui est – et a toujours été – une position clé pour projeter le pouvoir dans une région instable.

“Les Etats-Unis et la Chine ont tous les deux des installations militaires à Djibouti, et il ne serait pas surprenant que la Russie veuille aussi des installations là-bas.

“La Russie a récemment prolongé son bail sur son installation navale à Tartous en Syrie et le développement d’une installation au Somaliland pourrait être vu comme une tentative de construire une marine d’eau bleue.

“Au cours de la dernière décennie, l’activité navale russe a augmenté dans les océans Atlantique, Méditerranéen et Indien, et ailleurs.”

Dr Foxall a déclaré que la doctrine navale russe, adoptée en 2017, promeut une vision de la marine russe en tant que force mondiale qui restera la deuxième plus puissante marine au monde, après les États-Unis, au cours de la prochaine décennie.

La Russie commande déjà une force navale puissante positionnée dans la mer Baltique
Selon les médias somaliens, Qarannews , la Russie propose un accord où elle reconnaîtra la république sécessionniste du Somaliland en échange d’être autorisée à établir la base.

La base navale compterait 1 500 personnes, des destroyers de service, des frégates et des sous-marins.

Au cours des dix dernières années, la Russie a étendu la portée de sa flotte de la mer Noire.

Dans ce cadre, elle a sécurisé sa base en Crimée en annexant la région à l’Ukraine en 2014 et rétabli une base dans le port syrien de Tartous – grâce au soutien de Poutine au dictateur Bachar al-Assad.

Tout vient au milieu des tensions croissantes avec les puissances occidentales.

Le ministre des Affaires étrangères de Poutine, Sergueï Lavrov, a comparé aujourd’hui le climat politique actuel à la guerre froide.

Les commentaires effrayants sont venus après que les Etats – Unis, la France et le Royaume-Uni ont lancé des frappes sur des sites en Syrie qui auraient été liés aux attaques meurtrières de guerre chimique contre Douma.

Image satellite montrant la base navale syrienne russe dans le port de Tartus la semaine dernière.
@IMAGESATINT

Au cours de l’attaque samedi matin, les forces russes basées en Syrie se sont abstenues d’abattre des missiles de croisière avec leurs redoutables unités de défense antiaérienne S-400 qui sont situées à sa base.

En décembre de l’année dernière, Poutine a signé une loi ratifiant un accord permettant à la Russie d’étendre ses opérations à son installation portuaire de Tartus, qui est la seule base navale de Moscou en Méditerranée.

Les travaux de dragage et les nouveaux piliers permettront de loger jusqu’à 11 navires de guerre, ainsi que le plus grand croiseur de cuir russe, le Pyotr Velikiy.

Un navire Alligator-atterrissage a été repéré dans le Bosphore dimanche, alors qu’il était censé se rendre à la base syrienne dimanche.

La semaine dernière, avant l’attaque des missiles, un sous-marin britannique a été pris au piège dans une poursuite tendue de “chat et souris” par les sous-marins russes chasseurs furtifs qui seraient basés à Tartous.

Deux frégates russes et un avion anti-sous-marin auraient été à la recherche du HMS Astute alors qu’il manoeuvrait pour placer ses missiles de croisière Tomahawk à portée des sites chimiques d’Assad.

Plus tôt ce mois-ci, la Royal Navy a ouvert une base, le HMS Jufair, dans le pays du Moyen-Orient de Bahreïn, le premier nouveau port d’outre-mer de Grande-Bretagne depuis un demi-siècle.

SOURCE: Shakir Essa senior journalist Ex-UN news Agency’s

Reporter: Shakir Essa

SAUDI ARABIA
Riyadh aims to pressure Iran at Arab summit
Syria, Palestine to also figure prominently; Qatar crisis will not be discussed

Agencies
16:17 April 15, 2018

Riyadh: Saudi Arabia’s push for a tough stand against its arch-rival Iran is expected to dominate an Arab League summit on Sunday as regional tensions grow over the wars in Syria and Yemen.

The fate of occupied Jerusalem will also be on the summit’s agenda, as the United States prepares to move its embassy from Tel Aviv to the occupied city after declaring it the capital of Israel.

Saudi Arabia, which is hosting the yearly summit in the Eastern Province city of Dhahran, is likely to seek Arab support to pile the pressure on Iran, analysts say. “The Saudis are going to push for a much harsher stance on Iran — not necessarily on the nuclear dossier per se, but on Iranian influence in the Arab countries, particularly Iraq, Syria, Lebanon and Yemen,” said Karim Bitar of the Paris-based Institute of International and Strategic Affairs.

The Saudis are going to push for a much harsher stance on Iran — not necessarily on the nuclear dossier per se, but on Iranian influence in the Arab countries, particularly Iraq, Syria, Lebanon and Yemen.

Iran’s influence is wielded through a land route of armed parties in the Middle East — the so-called “Shiite crescent” that cuts across the Arab world.

Iran has long been a supporter of Bashar Al Assad and backs Lebanon’s Hezbollah movement, whose fighters are deployed in Syria alongside regime forces.

Iran also openly supports the Al Houthi militia in Yemen in their war against the Saudi-backed government.

And in Shiite-dominated Iraq, the Islamic republic backs armed groups and supports the government.

“Saudi Arabia has also reached out to Iraq to try and build ties and tackle militias there,” said Andreas Krieg, assistant professor of defence studies at King’s College London told AFP. “It’s definitely safe to say that Iran is the centrepiece of this summit.”

Syria

The summit will be attended by delegations from 21 of the Arab League’s 22-member states. Syria has been suspended from the organisation for seven years over Al Assad’s crackdown on protesters.

It comes as Saudi Arabia on Saturday expressed its full support for US-led strikes on Syrian regime military installations, saying they were a response to “regime crimes” against civilians.

“Saudi Arabia fully supports the strikes launched by the United States, France and Britain against Syria because they represent a response to the regime’s crimes,” a foreign ministry statement said.

Saudi Arabia and other Gulf states have been key backers of Syrian opposition groups fighting Al Assad.

The summit is expected to release a statement on the suspected toxic gas attack, but it remains to be seen whether the Arab League will take any action as well.

Syria serves today as a major pivot between Saudi Arabia and its allies on the one hand, and Iran and Hezbollah on the other.

Each party in the conflict backs opposing sides but all agree that the country’s future cannot be decided solely by the Al Assad regime, whose troops have regained territory with Russia’s support.

“Certain regional powers previously determined to bring down the Syrian regime — particularly Saudi Arabia and Turkey — have now accepted the status quo, that Al Assad is staying,” Bitar said.

“Bashar’s Iranian patrons are also very well aware that their protege cannot run the show on his own and they are starting to accept the premise that they will have to negotiate spheres of influence in Syria territories”.

Qatar

Not on the table at the summit, according to Krieg, is Qatar, cut off from its Gulf allies over accusations of ties to Iran and support for Islamist extremists. On the eve of the summit, Saudi Foreign Minister Adel Al Jubeir confirmed as much, saying a solution for Qatar would be found within the six-state Gulf Cooperation Council.

Palestine

The summit also comes after 33 Palestinians were killed and hundreds wounded at the hands of Israeli occupation forces in mass protests along the Gaza border in recent weeks.

The protests are to continue until mid-May, around the time Washington is to move its embassy to occupied Jerusalem, which both Palestinians and Israelis claim as their capital.

Senior Palestinian official Hanan Ashrawi has said she hopes the summit will lead to a resolution, and concrete action, supporting the Palestinian position on occupied Jerusalem.

Author source: Shakir Essa

A Senior Journalist and writer, Ex- UN news agency in #Africa, all views are my own. The Voice of voiceless
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PENTAGON — 04-09-2018

The United States is suspending aid for much of Somalia’s again  over corruption concerns, U.S. officials confirmed to VOA on Sunday.

The suspension reflects the Somalia government repeated inability to account for aid items such as food, fuel and weapons, and also high corruption

A State Department official said the “pause” in aid is being made “to ensure that U.S. assistance is being used effectively and for its intended purpose.”

Somali security force members who are actively fighting al-Shabab and receiving some form of mentorship from either the U.S. or a third party will continue to receive appropriate assistance, the official said.

She added that the Somali prime minster has agreed to develop new accountability criteria that meet American standards, in order for other Somali units to receive U.S. assistance in a way that “builds greater transparency.”

“We don’t want to give away support that isn’t working and isn’t helping the counterterror fight,” another official said

According to documents obtained by the Reuters news agency, the Somali military has been unable to properly feed, pay or equip its soldiers, despite hundreds of millions of dollars of American support.

​‘Big setback

Plans to suspend the support will be a “big setback” to the effort by Somali security forces to fight against Al-Shabab, warns the former Somali defense minister, General Abdulkadir Ali Dini.

General Dini, who worked closely with American officials in Somalia for many years…first as chief of the Somali national army and later on as defense minister, says the decision did not come at the right time.

“If the United States suspends food, fuel and stipends, that will hamper the war and work against the enemy and terrorists,” he said. “It does not help these operations and it damages morale.”

General Dini says “mistakes” were made by successive administrations but that the fighting against terrorism is taking longer at a time when the Somali government does not have the capacity to build its own army.

“Mistakes happened but it should not be suspended,” he said, without elaborating further.

Freelance journalist

Shakir Essa

Shakir Essa –The voice of the voiceless community

Somali security officials said they have seized a large cache of money that arrived Sunday at Mogadishu airport from Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates.

Two senior security officials told VOA Somali three suitcases containing $9.6 million have been put In storage in the central bank of Somalia pending an investigation.

Another security official said Ambassador Mohammed Ahmed Othman Al Hammadi, UAE envoy to Mogadishu, was at the airport to receive the money.

The official said Al Hammadi’s entourage tried to take the money out of the airport but were instructed by security forces to have the bags scanned.

“The ambassador refused, walked back to the plane with three bags, and counterterrorism units confiscated the three bags,” said the officer who requested anonymity.

The Royal Jet plane has since been released.

Al Hammadi told VOA Somali the money was not intended for the UAE embassy. “The money is for the ministry of defense. It’s for the salary of the Somali soldiers,” he told VOA.

He said the government knew in advance that the money was coming for the troops. The UAE has been training Somali soldiers in Mogadishu, as well as about 1,000 maritime police in the Puntland region.

Somali officials argue the money was not intended for the Somali army. “The salary for the army is less than $1 million. This is almost $10 million,” the official said.

“I’m certain that they have been informed not to bring money. The onus is on us to respond,” the official said. He added that an investigation will determine whether the money was brought in to “destabilize” the country.

Relations between Somalia and the UAE have been frosty since last year when the government of Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed resisted pressure to cut ties with Qatar and took a neutral position on a dispute between Saudi Arabia and Qatar.

Last month, the Somali government rejected an agreement between the UAE’s Dubai World, Somaliland and Ethiopia over Berbera port, saying the deal violates the territorial integrity of Somalia.”

Somali officials said a foreign country believed to be Saudi Arabia has agreed to mediate between Somalia and UAE. It is unclear if there were direct talks between the two countries.

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According to Somali diplomatic sources, late last month the Somali Ministry of Foreign Affairs summoned Al Hammadi and explained its position on the port agreement, as well as a separate military agreement between Somaliland and UAE to build a military base in Berbera.