Al-Shabab militants have attacked the compound of a controversial cleric in the central Somalia town of Galkayo, killing him and at least 14 other people, officials and witnesses said.

Residents in the town said they woke up Monday to huge explosions followed by heavy, sustained gunfire at the compound in the southern half of the town.

Witnesses said that at around 6 a.m. local time, a car bomb rammed into the gate followed by suicide infantry who stormed the compound.

The compound has been the headquarters of the Sufi cleric Sheikh Abdiweli Ali Elmi and his congregation. 

Al-Shabab accused him of committing blasphemy last year and threatened to kill him after he posted controversial videos on YouTube. Religious leaders criticized him for posting videos that showed the cleric pointing to a picture some thought represented the Prophet Muhammad. He was also condemned for using music in his worship services.

Elmi had denied the blasphemy accusations against him and insisted music is not contrary to Islamic teachings. 

Via an affiliate website, the al-Shabab militant group claimed responsibility for killing the cleric.

Security forces have launched an attack on the militants, killing two. A third militant reportedly has been apprehended.

A journalist at the scene said security forces have taken control of the compound and have been collecting the bodies.
…

Cameroon medical doctors say they are overwhelmed with patients as many of their colleagues seek better pay and working conditions elsewhere. 

A two day old baby boy cries as his mother watches helplessly outside Santé Pour Tous, a private hospital in Cameroon’s economic capital, Douala.  Francine Tamenang said she has not slept since a traditional birth attendant helped her deliver the baby.

She said she wants to see the doctor because she has not got money to pay for an injection the nurse says will save the life of the baby she delivered at home.  She said the doctor has not even cared to examine the baby, but is instead promising to negotiate with the pharmacist to see if the price of the drug could be reduced.

Cameroon has a population of nearly 25 million people, who have been joined by 350,000 refugees fleeing the carnage in the neighboring Central African Republic and about 100,000 Nigerians escaping Boko Haram terrorism. The country also has 300,000 people internally displaced by Boko Haram conflicts in the north and the separatist crisis in its English speaking regions.

Central African refugee Emeline Boganda said she lost her best friend at a Cameroon government health center in Betare Oya because of negligence by the hospital staff.

She said she brought her friend Mariam to the health center and no one attended to her until she died.  She said she has a strong feeling that if the nurses and doctors paid just a little attention, Mariam’s life could have been saved.  She said she does not know what hospitals are for if not to save lives.

The vice chairman of Cameroon’s National Order of Doctors, Tetani Ekwe, said the health and humanitarian needs of the displaced and refugees increase by the day, yet the doctor-patient ratio stands at one doctor per 50,000 inhabitants in rural areas instead of the one doctor per 10,000 inhabitants recommended by the World Health Organization. He said in towns like Douala and Yaounde, the doctor-patient ratio does meet the WHO standard.

He said while only 15 to 20 percent of Cameroonians go to conventional health centers, the acute shortage of medical doctors, trained nurses and laboratory technicians means not all of them can be attended to. He said with the lack of universal health coverage plans, sick people, who are quite often the very poor, cannot pay their hospital bills and resort to Cameroon traditional medicine, some of which is not scientifically proven to be effective.

More than 500 medical doctors and 5,000 nurses are trained in Cameroon every year.  But in 1996, when the economy worsened, the pay of doctors was reduced by 60 percent, to about $300 per month, and many of them went abroad.  Some still leave now, complaining of low pay.

In August, Cameroon reported that medical staff were fleeing hospitals in the troubled English-speaking regions after attacks left several nurses dead and many others wounded.
…

Uganda police say at least 29 people died when a boat capsized in Lake Victoria near the capital, Kampala.

Rescue teams are retrieving bodies from the boat that overturned and sank about 7 p.m. Saturday night, said senior police officer Zurah Ganyana. She said that 27 people were rescued overnight, fewer than earlier reports. More than 90 passengers were on the boat, leading officials to believe that the death toll will rise.

Ganyana said the boat was in poor condition and had been grounded for some time. She said it did not have a valid license to operate. 

Pleasure cruise

The boat was taking passengers on a pleasure cruise on Lake Victoria, a popular weekend activity for young people in Kampala. It capsized close to shore.

Early Sunday a police chopper hovered low over where the boat sank as a team of divers searched for bodies under calm waters. As the death toll rose, so did the crowd of onlookers at a beach abutting a quiet village outside Kampala. 

Police carried victims in tarpaulins and hauled them into a waiting truck, occasionally drawing loud wails from some of the onlookers. One young woman, seeing a victim she apparently recognized, collapsed and was rushed to hospital.

Witnesses Saturday night said they heard people calling for help as they tried to stay afloat and others tried to swim ashore. Many were women. 

“They were shouting ‘Help us! Help us!’ and the boat was sinking very quickly,” said Sam Tukei, one of several men who gathered into fishermen’s canoes to rescue people. “By the time the police came we had saved many people.” 

Capsized close to shore

One reason many people died so close to shore was likely “intoxication,” said Asuman Mugenyi, national director of police operations. Citing the accounts of some survivors, he said there was a good number of life jackets aboard the doomed vessel that passengers neglected to wear. 

The boat’s passengers, in a party mood halfway through their journey, were possibly intoxicated and likely panicked when the vessel started to sink, he said. 

The boat is believed to have been on a routine weekend cruise that is popular among some young Ugandans. Victims include the couple who owned the boat, according to police officer Ganyana. 
…

A week before Donald Yamamoto arrived in Mogadishu, three car bombs exploded in the heart of the city, just outside the Sahafi Hotel.

Dozens of nearby motorists and pedestrians were killed or maimed. A fourth bomb went off when first responders arrived, bringing the death toll to at least 52, with more than 100 casualties.

It was the latest in a string of attacks by the Islamist terror group al-Shabab, which for more than a decade has sought to dismantle the Somali federal government.

But Yamamoto, the United States’ new ambassador to Somalia, isn’t deterred. By strengthening its institutions and economy, Somalia can achieve security and stability, Yamamoto told VOA’s Somali service.

“We see hope. I think, for the first time in a long time, we’re seeing opportunities that are expanding and growing,” Yamamoto said.

‘We’ve got to be seen’

Yamamoto brings 20 years of experience, both in Somalia and the broader East Africa region, to his new post. He has held top diplomatic positions in Eritrea, Ethiopia and Djibouti.

In Somalia, his experiences include engagement with both the Islamic Courts Union and the Somali Transitional Government, competing factions that preceded the current federal government.

Yamamoto hopes to use his experiences to build on unprecedented rapprochements among East African neighbors to create new opportunities for Somalia.

Now, the goal is to establish a permanent diplomatic presence in the capital, Mogadishu, and find ways to support the Somali people in their efforts to build peace and prosperity.

“What is the old American adage? It’s ‘90 percent is to be seen’? And so we’ve got to be seen. We’ve got to be present. And I travel through most of Somalia, so I think I’d like to do that as well,” Yamamoto said.

He plans to be operating out of Mogadishu on a permanent basis, with a small team, in the next few weeks.

Multipart strategy

Yamamoto acknowledges the work ahead won’t be easy. Despite an international presence, routine U.S. airstrikes, and elections in 2016 and 2017, security remains elusive.

“Is it dangerous? Sure. Is it challenging? I think it is. But we need to do it because it’s important,” he said.

Yamamoto has nearly four decades of experience in U.S. Foreign Service. He attended Columbia College, at Columbia University, in New York. His graduate degree in international affairs and language studies prepared him for his career in diplomacy where, at the State Department, he has received four Superior Honor awards for exceptional service.

In testimony to the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations this summer, Yamamoto said he would, as ambassador, strengthen institutions and governance; shift security responsibilities from AMISOM, the African Union’s peacekeeping mission in Somalia, to Somali forces; build economic opportunities, particularly for Somalia’s young labor force; and address humanitarian food and health crises.

Local, regional, international integration

Key to those efforts, Yamamoto said, is integration — within Somalia and beyond.

“You can’t have peace in East Africa without peace in Eritrea, Ethiopia, Djibouti, Kenya, Somalia, Tanzania. They’re all interrelated, and I think they can all benefit from a vibrant economic program. And that’s what we’re trying to do, not just for Somalia, but for the whole region,” he said.

For Yamamoto, that means tapping into a broad set of resources in East Africa — Djibouti’s port and sea cargo facilities, Eritrea’s strategic coastline and mining industry, and Ethiopia’s level-one airport in Addis Ababa, which permits direct cargo shipments to the U.S.

Yamamoto also sees a need for better communication within Somalia.

“You have to have a really strong integration and coordination and cooperation between the federal government and the federal member states,” he said.

The country is now experiencing “growing pains,” he added, and that highlights the importance of factions in the country understanding one another’s needs and demands.

Encouraging collaboration with a gamut of international players, from Gulf states to Russia and China, is also important, Yamamoto added.

“We’ve talked to the Chinese and the Russians very closely on a lot of areas. We see a lot of commonality. We also see some competition. We see some differences. So we have to resolve differences and emphasize commonality, but more important, we need to … focus [on] what is in the benefit of Somalia and the people of Africa, and how’s it going to help them.”

An African future

Yamamoto cautioned that ignoring Africa isn’t an option.

In less than a century, he said, 40 percent of the world’s population and 30 percent of its labor force will be African. Those numbers mirror United Nations projections.

“So Africa is going to be a major, major player. And you want a stable, vibrant, economically progressive continent. You do not need an unstable or a divided continent,” Yamamoto said.

And that, he added, is cause for optimism. 

“The future really is, I think, potentially very bright, particularly in Somalia.”

This story originated in the Somali service, with Sahra Abdi Ahmed conducting the interview with the ambassador and Salem Solomon writing the article.
…