Somali terrorist group al-Shabab has threatened to attack electoral delegates who will be choosing lawmakers in parliamentary elections beginning next week.
 
The Islamist militant group has threatened to disrupt the upcoming presidential and parliamentary elections in the Horn of Africa country.
 
The leader of the group, Ahmed Abu Ubaidah, said Tuesday they are opposed to the poll process and threatened the electoral delegates.
 
He said the delegates should not be deceived by the empty promises such as financial benefit and secret ballot, and should think of the destiny of previous delegates who took part in 2017 elections, some whom were killed and others still live in fear.
 
Al-Shabab claimed responsibility for attacks that killed dozens of delegates during the last election process in 2017.
 
Ubaidah urged delegates to reconsider their decision to participate in this year’s election, adding that those who defy al-Shabab will not be safe.
 
The polls begin this Sunday with Somalia’s influential clans electing 54 members of the upper house of parliament.  
 
Abdisalam Gulaid, the former deputy director of Somali Intelligence Agency NISA, said this latest threat is aimed to create climate of fear among those involved in the polls.
 
He said the new threats by the group towards upcoming historic elections in the country should not be taken lightly, stressing there is need for a coordinated response. He said that while the threats will definitely impact the polls, the group will not achieve its main goal of halting the democratic process in Somalia.
 
Somali security forces in cooperation with the African Union force in Somalia, AMISOM, are gearing up to ensure the safety and security of the polls.
 
Principal Security Advisor at the office of Somalia’s Prime Minister Abdi Dirshe said no stone will be left unturned to counter the latest threats.  
 
He said the policy of the federal government regarding the al-Shabab group is very clear and thus they will be defeated and removed from the country. He said there is a security plan to ensure the safety of all the election venues across the country.
 
The Somali polls were delayed a year due to disagreements over the process. Lawmakers tried to extend the term of President Mohammed Abdullahi Farmajo but reversed the move under pressure from opposition groups and the international community.
 
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One hundred civilians, kidnapped in early June by armed men in the village of Manawa in northwestern Nigeria, have regained their freedom after 42 days of captivity, Zamfara state authorities said on Tuesday.“On June 8, 2021, bandits invaded the village of Manawa and kidnapped 100 villagers including women, mostly young mothers, men and children,” according to the Zamfara state police statement.“The victims, who had been held by their captors for about one and a half months were released without the payment of any ransom,” said this statement, which does not specify how the release took place.Northwestern Nigeria has been the scene for several years of the activities of criminal gangs who attack, loot and kidnap villagers, stealing their livestock and burning their homes.The army has recently deployed new military reinforcements, including combat aircraft, in the region to put an end to the violence of the “bandits,” who have also been converted in recent months into the mass kidnapping of schoolchildren or children from high schools for ransom.The criminals are known to take shelter in the wooded areas of the Rugu Forest, which spans the states of Niger, Katsina, Kaduna and Zamfara.Zamfara authorities are used to discussing amnesty agreements with the criminal groups with whom they have been negotiating for over a year in exchange for handing over their weapons.It was the officials of the state of Zamfara who had also negotiated the release last December of 344 boys who had been kidnapped by bandits from their boarding school in the neighboring state of Katsina.With each release, the authorities deny paying any ransom to the kidnappers. However, there is little doubt for security experts who fear that this will lead to an increase in kidnappings in regions plagued by extreme poverty and with little to no security.President Muhammadu Buhari, a former army general in power since 2015, faces growing criticism for his inability to provide security in Africa’s most populous country, beset by unrest.
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Somali commandos coming under attack from the al-Shabab terror group got some help from above, for the first time in months, in the form of a U.S. airstrike.The Pentagon late Tuesday confirmed U.S. forces were behind the single strike near Galkayo, about 580 kilometers north of the capital of Mogadishu, which was first announced by Somali officials earlier in the day.A Pentagon official told VOA the strike was authorized under existing authorities to defend U.S. partner forces and came even though no U.S. troops were on the ground.“U.S. forces were conducting a remote ‘advise and assist’ mission in support of designated Somali partner forces,” U.S. Defense Department spokesperson Cindi King said. “There were no U.S. forces accompanying Somali forces during this operation.”Tuesday’s airstrike targeting al-Shabab is the first such strike in six months, and the first carried out since U.S. President Joe Biden took office.U.S. officials declined to elaborate on why this strike was approved or whether U.S. Africa Command will start conducting a more intensive air campaign in support of Somali forces, like those the U.S. has deployed in previous years.The U.S. carried out 63 airstrikes against al-Shabab in 2019 and 53 airstrikes in 2020.Another seven airstrikes were launched in the first two-and-a-half weeks of 2021, before former U.S. President Donald Trump left office.U.S. officials explained the slowdown by citing on a Biden administration review of the military’s airstrike policy. Still it, sparked concern among senior Somali officials, causing some to warn the change would allow al-Shabab “to come out of hiding.”Somalia Fears New US Airstrike Guidance Is Benefiting al-ShababOfficials tell VOA the lack of airstrikes against al-Qaida affiliate will allow group’s leaders to ‘come out of hiding’Since then, Somali officials have repeatedly called for the resumption of U.S. airstrikes.Somali Army spokesman Colonel Ali Hashi Abdinur told VOA earlier this week he hoped the U.S. would resume the strikes, especially to target the al-Qaida-linked fighters in areas where the Somali infantry can’t reach.“We have good cooperation and collaboration with the U.S.,” he said. “There are hard-to-reach areas in the forests where the airstrikes used to target their leaders.”Somali officials have also said they would like to see expanded support from the U.S., not just airstrikes.Last week, the U.S. military gave Somali special forces six armored personnel carriers (APCs), doubling the number of vehicles capable of protecting their elite Danab units from improvised explosive devices (IEDs).But Somali military officials say they need more.“We have AK-47s (automatic rifles),” one senior Somali military officer told VOA. “We need extra weapons like heavy machine guns, mortars … RPG (rocket-propelled grenades).”“We also need medical support, uniform, camps for troops to sleep and rest, and rations,” he added.Top U.S. military commanders have likewise warned about the growing danger, some admitting that the decision by the Trump administration to pull out almost all U.S. forces from Somalia has made the situation worse.”Since that time, we have been commuting to work,” AFRICOM commander General Stephen Townsend told lawmakers this past April. “There’s no denying the reposition of forces outside Somalia has introduced new layers of complexity and risk.””Our understanding of what’s happening in Somalia is less now than it was when we were there on the ground,” he added.In the meantime, AFRICOM has been trying to make do, sending troops into Somalia for periodic training missions to supplement about 100 troops now working mostly out of the U.S. Embassy.AFRICOM officials have also made their final recommendations regarding troop numbers in Somalia and all of Africa as part of the Pentagon’s ongoing force posture review, which is expected to wrap up around the end of August.For now, however, warnings about the danger posed by al-Shabab continue to abound.“Al-Shabab still enjoys a lot of freedom of action,” Vice Admiral Hervé Bléjean, director-general of the European Union Military Staff, said at a virtual defense forum last month. “You can really feel the atmosphere of the insecurity there.”Terrorism Spreading ‘Unabated’ Across Africa, Warns US CommanderBlunt assessment from top general of US forces in Africa comes one day after US-led coalition to Defeat ISIS pledged to push back against terror group’s gains thereYet there is some disagreement as to whether airstrikes, whether carried out by the U.S. or others, are the solution.Records kept by the Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project (ACLED), a U.S.-based nonprofit research group, suggest that the danger to civilians in Somalia from al-Shabab actually decreased in the absence of airstrikes.ACLED said it found 155 incidents in which al-Shabab targeted civilians in the six months before Biden took office, and just 90 in the six months after he became president.One former Danab officer, speaking on the condition of anonymity, also questions the dependency on airstrikes, even though he told VOA that “there is nothing that al-Shabab hates more.”The officer said U.S. airstrikes have killed about 100 of the terror group’s commanders, including former leaders Ahmed Abdi Godane and Aden Hashi Ayro, almost to no avail.“The strategy has failed,” he said. “We need to change the training. We need to change the dynamics and training. We have to have mobile forces, prepare the forces for guerrilla war, good at shooting.”An Africa Union official who asked not to be identified because he does not have authorization to speak to media agreed.“Airstrikes cannot have an impact until the ground forces are effective,” the official said. “Until you cripple the command and control, their capacity to regroup, to be organized to be led — that is when the airstrikes will be effective.”“But they still have leaders replaced, so what you are doing is quite minimal,” he added.VOA Somalia Service contributed to this report.
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Nigeria’s air force says armed bandits have for the first time shot down one of their fighter jets. It says the jet was shot down Monday as it conducted an airstrike against criminal gangs in northern Kaduna and Zamfara states. An air force spokesman said the pilot ejected safely but analysts and critics warn the attack shows a previously unknown level of firepower and threat to stability.Officers cheered at a military base in Kaduna as the pilot of the ill-fated Alpha attack jet, Abayomi Dairo, arrived back on the base Monday.The Nigerian air force statement said Dairo ejected from the jet shortly before it crashed and also survived intense ground fire from the bandits.Nigerian authorities have increasingly turned to air operations to decimate criminal gangs, locally referred to as bandits, operating in the country’s northwestern regions. Authorities say hundreds of bandits have been killed in airstrikes in recent weeks.But security analyst Senator Iroegbu says the downing of the fighter jet shows the bandits are getting emboldened.”It’s alarming that the so-called bandits have so much capacity and capability because to bring down an Alpha jet… meaning they could have air missile[s]. I’m not sure an ordinary anti-aircraft gun could have brought down such a jet,” Iroegbu said.The criminal gangs gained notoriety late last year through mass kidnappings of school students and demands of huge ransoms.More than 1,000 school students have been kidnapped since December. Most have been freed through negotiations, but some are still being held captive. Iroegbu said he suspects the ransom money paid to kidnappers is being used to purchase more sophisticated weapons. “This is their way of getting more money to acquire more weapons for whatever they’re doing,” he said.Authorities strongly oppose ransom payment to bandits. Last month, authorities moved to enact a law that criminalizes the payment of ransoms and punishes those who do with up to 15 years in prison. The bill has been met with resistance and is being reviewed.In May, eleven top ranking military officers, including the chief of the army, were killed in a plane crash in northwest Kaduna state.  Officials said that crash was caused by bad weather, and there have been no claims the plane was shot down.
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In a report released Tuesday, Human Rights Watch accused the Kenyan government of failing to properly handle a cash transfer program intended to help the poor during the COVID-19 pandemic. The rights group says the money instead went to people connected with officials and politicians. 
 
Anette Okumu, 42, lost her business due to COVID-19. She and her neighbors in the Kibera section of Nairobi registered for a government cash support program in April to help her feed her nine children. 
 
Okumu says her husband was jobless, and she really needed that money because she has a child who has sickle cell anemia and the disease requires her to feed her child healthy food. Okumu says she was hopeful that she would receive help from the government.  She says she did not get the money — but others did. In May of last year, President Uhuru Kenyatta ordered the Treasury to release some $100 million to support the country’s most vulnerable people for at least eight months. 
 
The head of Human Rights Watch in East Africa, Otsieno Namwaya, says that money never served its intended purpose. 
 
“Most of the households that were supposed to have received support from the government never received anything,” he said. “The few who received something did not receive the amount the government said it had sent to them. The majority over a period of eight months received 3,000 – 4,000 shillings. The government was saying it was sending a total of 35,000 for the period of eight months.” The Washington-based rights group says its investigators spoke to 136 government employees and Nairobi residents for its eight-month study.  The researchers found that the cash transfer program lacked transparency in multiple ways, from the registration process to the distribution of funds. 
 
A report released by the Office of the Auditor-General in April 2021 said that some $4 million was dispersed to help nearly 100,000 Kenyans in a poor section of Nairobi for one month.  But the investigators said they could not verify the identities and addresses of more than 97,000 alleged recipients. Their report concluded “the lawfulness and utilization of the $4 million could not be confirmed.” Namwaya says most of the money instead went to friends and family of officials and the employees of certain government agencies. 
 
“Politicians and government officials actually ensured that official aides, people working offices and relatives were benefiting from the money when the evidence suggests that these people did not deserve to get the money. While the people who really deserve the money, people who were going hungry for even as far as four days a week were not getting the money,” he said.
 
The program was run by the Ministry of Labor and Social Protection. VOA reached out to the principal secretary of the ministry for comment but received no response. Human Rights Watch is calling on Kenyan authorities to investigate the issue and extensively review and strengthen internal mechanisms for implementing such programs in the future. 
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