One of Pakistan’s most prominent investigative journalists was shot dead in Kenya in what police described as “a case of mistaken identity,” police in the East African country and relatives confirmed Monday.

Arshad Sharif, 50, was shot in the head Sunday night after his driver allegedly breached a roadblock that had been set up by police to check on motor vehicles on the highway between Magadi town and the capital, Nairobi, a prominent Kenyan newspaper reported.

The slain journalist, with two million Twitter followers, fled Pakistan in August, citing death threats and multiple court cases launched against him and several other journalists on controversial sedition charges. Sharif hosted a popular political talk show “Power Play” for years on one of Pakistan’s leading television channels, the ARY news, before leaving the country.

The news of Sharif’s death spread fast in Pakistan where condolences and condemnations started pouring in from across the country.

Journalists, opposition politicians, lawyers, and rights groups described his death as “shocking and disturbing,” urging the Pakistani government to swiftly investigate circumstances surrounding the deadly incident in Kenya.

“I lost friend, husband and my favourite journalist [Arshad Sharif] today, as per police he was shot in Kenya,” Javeria Siddique, the wife of the slain journalist wrote on Twitter.

Prime Minister Sharif said on Twitter he was deeply saddened and offered condolences and prayers for the family of the deceased journalists.

A foreign ministry statement said that officers from the Pakistan diplomatic mission in Nairobi had reached the location and identified the body of Sharif.

“His family has been assured of all possible assistance by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs,” it said, promising to facilitate “expeditious repatriation of mortal remains” of the journalist in coordination with Kenyan authorities.

Journalist Sharif was believed to be very close to the Pakistani security and intelligence agencies. He would often broadcast exclusive information focusing on alleged corrupt practices of top government officials, particularly those part of the coalition government of incumbent Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif (not related to the deceased journalist). He also used to frequently embed Pakistani troops on counterterrorism missions.

But in recent months Sharif had become a harsh critic of the Pakistani military leadership and the government.

There were growing calls for Pakistani authorities to swiftly investigate the journalist’s killing and the circumstances that forced him to go into exile.

“A long, grim record of violent tactics to silence journalists explain why the reported murder of journalist Arshad Sharif in Kenya has sent shock waves through the journalist community,” the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan [HRCP] wrote on Twitter. “The government must pursue an immediate, transparent inquiry into the circumstances of his death.”

“Obviously, there should be a transparent investigation,” Steven Butler, the senior program consultant at the U.S.-based Committee to Protect Journalists told VOA.

Pakistan’s populist former prime minister Imran Khan, who was ousted from power through a parliamentary no-confidence vote in April this year, called for a “proper judicial investigation” into the circumstances that led to the killing of Sharif.

“Shocked at the brutal murder of Arshad Sharif who paid the ultimate price for speaking the truth — his life. He had to leave the country & be in hiding abroad but he continued to speak the truth on social media, exposing the powerful. Today the entire nation mourns his death,” the deposed prime minister wrote on Twitter.

“We have descended into a state of brutality, unknown in civilised society, indulged in by the powerful against those who dare to criticise & expose wrongdoings,” Khan said but did not elaborate.

The former prime minister was ousted from power in April this year in a parliamentary no-confidence vote collectively moved by opposition parties.

Critics often dubbed the slain journalist sympathetic to Khan, who blames without evidence Prime Minister Sharif and the military for colluding with the United States to topple his government.

Washington and Islamabad deny the charges.

Hamid Mir, a top ranking Pakistani political talk show host, took to the Twitter to question the Kenyan police version about the late Sunday incident.

“Why they never fired on the tire of the vehicle? Why they never targeted the driver? Why they shot Arshad Sharif directly in the head?,” wrote Mir, who has 7.6 million followers on the social media platform.

Pakistan’s government and the military have been lately under increasing criticism for allegedly stifling media freedom and political dissent, charges officials reject as unfounded.
…

Sudan’s military government has withdrawn the accreditation of a consumer protection group that took it to court over internet cuts during last year’s military coup, the group said Sunday.

The Sudanese Consumer Protection Society (SCPS) asked a court last year to order the government to restore internet services blocked during the October 25 coup, a power grab that has derailed a fragile transition to civilian rule.

A court had twice ruled that the internet should be restored, to no avail, before services eventually resumed on November 18 last year.  

Yasir Mirghani, head of the SCPS, told AFP he was handed on Sunday a decision dated October 9 to revoke the group’s permit after 24 years of operations.

A copy of the order, which has been seen by AFP, stipulated the “deregistration, seizure of assets and property, and the freezing of assets and accounts of the Sudanese Consumer Protection Society in all banks within and outside Sudan,” but did not list the group’s alleged violations.

Sudan has been in turmoil since army chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan ousted the mainstream civilian bloc from a power-sharing government a year ago, triggering widespread international condemnation.

The power-sharing administration had been established in 2019 after the military ousted longtime autocrat Omar al-Bashir amid enormous street protests.

Since last year’s coup, the protest movement has revived but been met by force that has killed at least 117 people, according to pro-democracy medics.
…

South Africa will overhaul its anti-corruption strategy and ensure the independence of prosecutors, President Cyril Ramaphosa said Sunday, responding to recommendations from a state inquiry into alleged corruption under his predecessor.

A judicial commission of inquiry was established to examine allegations of high-level graft during former President Jacob Zuma’s nine years in power from 2009 to 2018.

“The people of South Africa are tired of corruption and want it to end,” Ramaphosa said in a live television broadcast. “As a country, we are emerging from a dark and difficult period.”

The inquiry found Zuma had allowed businessmen close to him – brothers Atul, Ajay and Rajesh Gupta – to plunder state resources and influence policy, commonly known as ‘state capture’ in South Africa.

The Guptas deny any wrongdoing and have left the country but face extradition proceedings in Dubai. Zuma denies wrongdoing and at one stage refused to cooperate with the inquiry, leading to his imprisonment in July 2021 for contempt of court.

Inquiry reports said investigations, which implicated ANC politicians and company executives, found rampant graft across key economic sectors including state-owned companies such as power utility Eskom and freight and logistics group Transnet.

Evidence uncovered by the inquiry can be used by authorities to pursue criminal charges.

Ramaphosa said of plans to overhaul South Africa’s anti-graft strategy: “Through the implementation of the actions contained in this response, we can start a new chapter in our struggle against corruption.”

In a letter addressed to the Speaker of the National Assembly, Ramaphosa said his response outlined steps government will take to catch suspects and other reforms.

Ramaphosa, who served as deputy state president under Zuma, testified at the inquiry that he chose to “remain but resist” rather than resign when allegations surfaced.
…

Witnesses in Sudan’s Blue Nile region say more than 150 people have been killed this week in communal violence triggered by a land dispute. 

Blue Nile governor Ahmed al-Omda Badi declared a night curfew in Wed al- Mahi locality, Wednesday, after the renewed communal fighting between the Hausa and local Berti tribes.

According to an eyewitness, the three days of clashes have killed more than 150 people, injured scores of others and displaced thousands.

Speaking to VOA from al-Damazine town early Friday, local activist Abdulatti Ahmed al-Fekki says the fighting continued for a third day, displacing families, including women and children.

Al-Fekki says according to a report from Wed Al Mahi, houses have been burned to the ground and property is being looted. He describes the situation as horrible.

“The preliminary death toll up to this morning is more than 160 and up to this moment, there are uncounted wounded individuals from Madina villages, two and three who are unable to be taken to the hospital. I am quite sure that in such a situation, there will be victims who have yet to be identified,” he said.

VOA could not independently verify the casualty figures.

Inter-communal clashes erupted between tribes in July due to a land dispute.

Al-Fekki says all health facilities in the town of al-Russairis are filled with injured people, and that about two thousand displaced people have gathered in a nearby village.

The Sudanese national government has deployed more troops to the area to de-escalate tensions between the two rival communities.

Al-Fekki said he saw additional troops being sent to the area Friday morning to end the cycle of violence.

“As I speak, I could see some military Land Cruiser pick-ups, full of armed Sudanese Armed Forces, heading to the conflicted area. Apart from this, he adds, I can confirm that there are some forces that went yesterday to the conflict area to contain the clashes,” he said.

The U.N. humanitarian coordinator in Sudan, Eddie Rowe, expressed concern at the renewed inter-communal fighting in Blue Nile and West Kordofan, appealing for an end to the violence.

At least 1,200 people have been displaced and an unconfirmed 170 people have been killed and 327 have been injured, Rowe said in a statement published Thursday.

Rowe urged all parties in the conflict to enable the free and safe movement of affected people in search of safety and assistance. He said humanitarian organizations in Sudan stand ready to aid people affected by the conflicts.

The international charity organization, Save the Children in Sudan, also expressed deep concern about renewed violence in Blue Nile. “We urge authorities and community leaders to do everything possible to end violence affecting innocent civilians,” it said.
…

South Africa’s scandal-embroiled former president, Jacob Zuma, addressed the media Saturday for the first time after completing a 15-month jail term for contempt of court, alleging the country’s justice system is unjust and infiltrated by foreign interests.

Zuma, who has faced myriad corruption allegations, also had failed to appear in front of an inquiry into state graft — locally called “state capture” — that occurred under his nearly decadelong tenure.  

Yet, Zuma told the press he had been unfairly imprisoned without a trial, despite the fact he was summoned and failed to appear before the inquiry. Analysts say Zuma is refusing to acknowledge the validity of the inquiry, essentially attempting to portray the presiding judge as leading a witch hunt for the former leader.

Zuma said the country’s justice system has been “infiltrated” by both international interests and the interests of sympathizers of the former racially segregated apartheid regime.  

Zuma also claimed the judge presiding over the inquiry, Chief Justice Raymond Zondo, had unfairly targeted him and his allies to distract the public from the country’s real issues.  

At the time of his arrest in July 2021, protests led by his supporters in his home province of KwaZulu Natal spiraled into riots around the country that resulted in millions of dollars in damage to infrastructure and stolen goods.  

Police said earlier this week that one of Zuma’s daughters remains under investigation for inciting the unrest.  

Zuma spent just three of the 15 months behind bars, and he was released on medical parole for an undisclosed condition. 

On Saturday, Zuma didn’t provide any evidence of so-called infiltration of the country’s courts — which are viewed by many as the strongest institution for averting otherwise widespread corruption.  

Instead, Zuma blamed, but didn’t name, the country’s leadership for selling out the judiciary and the constitution to “global commercial interests.”  

The allegations come just two months ahead of the convention of the ruling African National Congress party, where current President Cyril Ramaphosa, who is politically at odds with his predecessor, Zuma, is expected to face fierce competition to retain party leadership.  
…

Guinea’s ruling junta has agreed to restore civilian rule in two years, after facing sanctions over its original plan for a three-year transfer of power, the West African bloc ECOWAS said Friday.

West African leaders had last month suspended Guinea from the bloc and imposed sanctions on a number of individuals following a military coup.

“In a dynamic compromise, experts from ECOWAS and Guinea have jointly developed a consolidated chronogram (timetable) for a transition spread over 24 months,” ECOWAS said in a report following a technical mission to the country published on social media by the junta.

The country’s military leader, Colonel Mamady Doumbouya, said in an address broadcast on state television that the timetable would take effect from Jan. 1, 2023.

Leaders from the Economic Community of West African States must approve the timetable before it is officially implemented, with the bloc due to hold a summit before the end of the year.

The bloc had given the junta one month to present a “reasonable and acceptable” timetable for the return to civilian rule, an ultimatum that theoretically expires this weekend.

Diplomatic links between the two sides have remained and Guinean authorities have reiterated their readiness to cooperate with ECOWAS, which had dispatched its mission to Conakry to work out a compromise schedule.

Acceptable

The poor but mineral-rich West African state has been under a military government since a September 2021 coup that ousted president Alpha Conde after more than 10 years in power.

Colonel Doumbouya has since appointed himself president and vowed to restore civilian rule within three years.

Several West African officials have indicated that a two-year transition period would be acceptable.

A similar timeframe was agreed between ECOWAS and the junta in neighboring Mali after months of wrangling.

Under the terms of that agreement, reached in July, the Malian military was to hand over power in March 2024. By that time, they would have been in power for more than three-and-a-half years since overthrowing the elected civilian president in August 2020.

In recent years, ECOWAS has witnessed a succession of military coups in West Africa, in 2020 and 2021 in Mali, in 2021 in Guinea and twice this year in Burkina Faso.

In the face of military authorities, the bloc has duly increased its summits and country missions while ramping up pressure to shorten the transitional periods back to civilian rule.

Four dead in clashes

The transition compromise was reached after demonstrations broke out Thursday in the capital Conakry, with young protesters clashing with security forces and opposition group the National Front for the Defense of the Constitution claiming four civilians had been killed.

The FNDC — outlawed by the junta — had called for the protests to demand a quick return to a civilian-led government and the release of all prisoners detained for political reasons.

In response, Guinea’s top prosecutor on Friday called for a crackdown on the organizers and participants of a giant anti-government protest in which he said six security personnel had been wounded while the opposition said four civilians had been killed.

The FNDC identified three of the people killed as Thierno Bella Diallo, Boubacar Diallo and Thierno Moussa Barry. It said 20 people suffered gunshot wounds while many others were arrested.

Justice Minister Alphonse Charles Wright confirmed their deaths in a statement on Friday, but said the causes “remain to be clarified by autopsy.”

He ordered prosecutions, without commenting on the alleged perpetrators.
…

The U.S. government on Friday granted Temporary Protected Status for 18 months for Ethiopians currently residing in the United States, the Department of Homeland Security said.

“The United States recognizes the ongoing armed conflict and the extraordinary and temporary conditions engulfing Ethiopia, and DHS is committed to providing temporary protection to those in need,” Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said in a statement announcing the designation.

The Ethiopian military and allies including troops from neighboring Eritrea have been battling forces from the northern region of Tigray on and off for two years.

The conflict has killed thousands, displaced millions and left hundreds of thousands on the brink of famine.

An estimated 27,000 Ethiopians in the United States will be eligible for TPS under the new designation, a Homeland Security department spokesperson said.

To qualify for the program, Ethiopians in the United States will have to show they have been continuously resided in the United States since Oct. 20, 2022, and those who attempt to travel to the United States after that date would not be eligible, the department said.
…

The World Health Organization says hundreds of thousands of people in drought-stricken Somalia may die unless the international community acts urgently to prevent the country from falling into famine.

The U.N. health agency says every single person in Somalia is facing hunger on a scale not seen since the famine in 2011, which killed more than a quarter million people, half of them children.

Speaking from the capital, Mogadishu, the WHO representative in Somalia, Mamunur Rahman Malik, said every night millions of people are going to sleep hungry. He said half of the country’s children, or 1.8 million, face acute severe malnutrition, warning that half of these children may die if they do not receive urgent medical treatment.  

“I have seen children dying almost every hour in some of the health centers that I visited,” he said. “Many of them have traveled miles after miles in search of food and water and their weak bodies just could not make it that last mile.”

The WHO reports one out of every 10 children in the country is visiting health centers with diseases that are largely preventable.

In addition, Malik said one out of every seven Somali children is missing out on life-saving vaccines against killer diseases such as measles, diarrheal diseases, cholera, and acute respiratory infections. This, because they and their families are forced to leave their homes in search of food.

“We have seen deaths and diseases thrive when hunger and food crises are prolonged,” he said. “I have visited a number of health centers which I have seen with my own eyes how health workers are struggling to deal with the increased influx of children suffering.… In one instance, as many as 100 children with severe diseases needed to be cared for by only one or two health workers in very difficult working conditions.”

Malik said the WHO is working hard to prevent this dire situation from getting worse. He noted the agency is providing health care in hard-to-reach areas and delivering essential medication and other services for nearly three million people.

But he said this is not enough given the magnitude of the crisis. He warned many more people will die from disease than from hunger and malnutrition combined unless the world takes action to stave off this impending disaster.
…

The British Defense Ministry says it is seeking to ensure retired members of the British Royal Air Force who were recruited via a South African company to train pilots in China’s People’s Liberation Army are fully aware of the risk of prosecution under the Official Secrets Act.

China has been recruiting former British military pilots to train their own personnel, Britain’s defense ministry said in a statement this week, warning that it “erodes the UK’s defense advantage” and that steps are being taken to stop it.

The Ministry’s Defense Intelligence Service issued a rare “threat alert” on Tuesday and its officials said that British pilots who transfer expertise to the Chinese military – possibly even teaching them how to defeat Western helicopters and warplanes – could be prosecuted under the Official Secrets Act.

Many of the 30 pilots believed to be involved were lured to work in China with the promise of lucrative salaries, officials said. Pilots from other allied nations have also been targeted.

Armed Forces Minister James Heappey spoke to Sky News about Britain’s concerns.

“There is no secret in their attempt to gain access to our secrets, and the recruitment of our pilots in order to understand the capability of our air force is clearly a concern to us,” he said.

Multiple media outlets reported an unnamed Western official as saying many of the pilots were being recruited through the Test Flying Academy of South Africa, a private company in a remote, semidesert area in the Western Cape, which allegedly was acting as a headhunter for the Chinese.

The company has a long history of involvement with China, saying on its website that it provides training to cadets from various Chinese airlines, as part of a deal with the Aviation Industry Corporation of China (AVIC), a state-owned aerospace and defense conglomerate. The website also says the company has experience with several aircraft used by the People’s Liberation Army.

Thomas Newdick, a writer specializing in air warfare at The Warzone, an American defense website, told VOA the company had made no secret of its relations with the Chinese on the commercial side.

“They have broader relationships with Chinese aviation industry, including parts of the industry that are responsible for military aviation as well, so it’s not a huge leap to imagine they may also have connections with the People’s Liberation Army as well,” he said.

Darren Olivier, director at the African Defense Review, said the aviation center has been operating openly for a number of years.

“With the caveat that we don’t have specific detail on what type of training the company’s been providing, what’s been revealed so far does indeed seem legal,” he said.

Tensions rising

However, he said, what made it controversial was that this kind of training would dramatically help accelerate China’s military aircraft programs. It comes as geopolitical tensions between China and the West are on the rise, he noted.

A receptionist at the academy told VOA on Wednesday that she was aware of the controversy surrounding the company and would pass on a request for comment. Multiple emails then went unanswered.

However, the academy’s president, Jean Rossouw, told Business Insider South Africa that no laws had been broken and the company did not deal with any client projects that could include classified information. He said the company had never recruited pilots directly from the British military, but that they were all retired pilots already working as contractors in the Middle East.

Jasmine Opperman, a South African security consultant, said there are many former army personnel in South Africa who provided training or acted as private military recruiters. But she said the reports about the flight academy were concerning.

“The problem for South Africa is you have a registered South African company responsible for training now acting as a go-between for two foreign entities,” she said.

In his speech to the Communist Party Congress in Beijing this week, Chinese President Xi Jinping emphasized the importance of security and the need to grow the country’s military – the world’s second largest after that of the United States. He also reiterated that China reserved the right to use force, if necessary, regarding Taiwan.
…

With Nigeria’s election campaigns in full swing ahead of February’s vote, fact-checkers in the country say they are working together to counter cases of disinformation.

For journalist Opeyemi Kehinde, the first task each day is searching the internet, television programs and social media for any information that may need a second look. If he spots anything dubious, Kehinde posts it to the messaging platform Slack, so that he and other fact-checkers can verify the information.

Kehinde heads FactCheckHub, an Abuja-based organization that is one of eight members of a wider fact-checking initiative known as the Nigerian Fact Checkers Coalition.

Together, they combine resources and expertise to help tackle misinformation ahead of Nigeria’s general election.

The Nigerian Fact Checkers Coalition started four months ago.

“Since the advent of various social media platforms and internet access, a lot of people have access to much more information than a decade or two ago,” Kehinde said. “We felt as this election is coming up soon, there’s need for more advocacy, media literacy, fact-checking of information released by politicians, stakeholders in the elections, as well as the Nigerian populace.”

The Nigerian Fact Checkers Coalition holds weekly meetings and publishes its findings through the members’ respective newsrooms.

In August, the coalition published an open letter urging politicians not to use misinformation and falsehoods, and to ensure that information disseminated during campaigns is accurate and fair.

Last month, the group hosted politicians, security agents, independent electoral bodies and civil society groups at a conference to discuss the impact of falsehoods.

Kehinde said the group is seeing some successes, but is experiencing pushback, too.

“We have some politicians who are now setting up media teams to attack fact-checks that are published by members of the coalition, to provide alternative facts to some of our evidence-based reports, based on their misleading claims,” he said.

Public opinion in the country is often shaped by ethnic and religious backgrounds, especially during elections. And with a population of over 200 million, the ratio of fact-checkers to citizens in Nigeria is very low.

Abuja-based communications expert Pamela Braide said spreading falsehoods can have serious implications.

“Communications and politics go hand in hand, misinformation is part of it. What it does is it increases people’s mistrust, it [damages] relationships of the people, communities, and it often leads to violence before it is verified,” Braide said.

But by combining their efforts, members of the fact-checking coalition can quickly counter false information.

Kemi Busari, coalition member and editor at verification website Dubawa, explained how the coalition sprang into action when it spotted a viral video about a politician.

The fact-checkers found the video had been manipulated in an attempt to mislead voters into thinking the politician supported a member of the opposition party.

“We did the fact-check and we realized that some guys just decided to extract some part of it,” Busari said. “The video was shared in the group and we did the fact-check and all of us published it, and that increased the scale or audience of the fact-check. It’s best we come together. We can co-publish our fact-checks; we can co-author fact-checks.”

Busari said the coalition is just getting started.

“We’re also looking at several partnerships with embassies, Google, and some other organizations. Particularly we’re seeking partnership with organizations who could help with live fact-checking. We want to be engaged in live fact-checking of every [one] of these conversations,” he said.

As election campaigns and rallies gather pace across Nigeria, the fact-check coalition may have a large task ahead.
…

With its lush forests, abundant waterfalls and flamboyant birds, Guinea is the type of tropical paradise that draws tourists. But the West African country has few visitors and earns almost all its foreign revenue from mining, which can damage that environment. Now some are working to change that.

Guinean tour guide Mohammed Camara balances precariously on a slippery rock as water gushes around him and the three foreigners he’s leading on a hike. Below, the water slices through the cliff making way for a spectacular view of the forest.

He dreams of there one day being a boardwalk that spans the top of the waterfall so his clients don’t have to slip and slide to reach the view. Guinea’s government is more focused on developing the country’s mining industry than on creating ecotourism projects, he says.

“When people talk about mines, everyone talks about Guinea. But when people talk about tourism we don’t talk about Guinea,” Camara said. “And yet there is great potential for tourism in this country that could employ more people than mines and bring in much more money.”

Guinea is the world’s second largest producer of bauxite, the primary ore used to produce aluminum. The country is also rich in iron ore deposits as well as other minerals such as gold and diamonds.

Mining comprises about 25 percent of the country’s Gross Domestic Product, yet Guinea remains one of the poorest countries in the world with more than half the population living below the poverty line.

A 2018 report by Human Rights Watch found Guinea’s mining industry had destroyed ancestral farmlands, polluted water sources and blanketed villages and crops in dust. The environmental destruction of bauxite mining can be so severe it led Malaysia to implement an export ban in 2016.

François Kieffer is the operations manager for Belgian development agency Enabel in Guinea.

In September he helped launch an ecotourism project in Kindia – a forested region about 130 kilometers from Conakry with a high potential to attract tourists.

The project is focused on the construction of facilities that make sightseeing more accessible, such as boardwalks and trail signs, as well as the training of tour guides.

Kieffer said he hopes the projects will provide an alternative to environmentally destructive practices beyond mining, such as slash and burn agriculture and charcoal production.

“Today, human activity puts a lot of pressure on the environment and we realized that it’s the local people who are the first victims of these types of activities,” he said. “The potential for tourism here is incredible.”

Sites such as the breathtaking Mount Gangan and the pristine swimming holes beneath Kilissi Falls are largely unknown outside of Guinea.

From 2010 to 2017, the country saw an average of just 65,000 tourists per year – one-sixteenth the number who visited neighboring Senegal.

Sekou Camara is a local development officer in Guinea’s Linsan sub-prefecture.

“In Kindia, there are a lot of sites that are beloved by the locals. But because those sites aren’t developed, people are afraid to go,” said Sekou Camara, a local development officer in Guinea’s Linsan sub-prefecture. “If we succeed in developing them, Kindia could become attractive. But for now people are prioritizing the mines.”

He motions to the waterfalls plunging down the verdant face of Mount Gangan. That could be Guinea’s crown jewel, he says.
…

At least 21 people were killed in two separate bombings in the central Hirshabelle state of Somalia, officials said.

A powerful car bomb exploded in Jalalaqsi town when soldiers operating a security checkpoint intercepted a vehicle. The checkpoint is near local government buildings and a military base belonging to African Union peacekeepers from Djibouti.

“At around 2:30 p.m., a vehicle arrived at the checkpoint, one of the soldiers collecting taxation pointed a gun and stopped it,” said Mire Hussein Siyad, deputy district commissioner of Jalalaqsi.

“When the gun was pointed at [it], the vehicle exploded,” Siyad told VOA Somali.

He said Wednesday’s explosion killed at least 15 people, including the town’s two civilian leaders, Mayor Adan Mohamed Isse and Mohamed Nur Agajof Dabaashe, the district commissioner. Dabaashe was recently replaced as Jalalaqsi commissioner, but he had not handed over responsibility yet, Siyad said.

Other victims included soldiers at the checkpoints and civilians including street vendors. The explosion destroyed a building near the checkpoint where the local officials were based. Siyad said two AU peacekeepers were injured in the attack.

Siyad said the target was the town’s main bridge.

Meanwhile, six other people including four civilians were killed a separate explosion, when a three-wheeled motorcycle with explosives attached, struck the Bulobarde town bridge. The important bridge links Somalia’s south and central regions. Pictures taken by the witnesses show the explosion partially damaged the bridge.

The district commissioner of Bulobarde, Ahmed Mahad Nur, told VOA Somali that two men riding the motorcycle drove it onto the bridge. He said one of the men jumped off before the explosion while the second one detonated the explosive-laden motorcycle and died in the blast.

Nur said the man who jumped was shot and killed by security forces. He said troops seized two other motorcycles laden with explosives.

The officials said the two explosions were coordinated and intended to destroy the two bridges.

“They wanted to bring down the two bridges at the same time,” Siyad said.

“It’s the most crucial bridge between the central and southern regions,” said Nur.

Nur vowed the local government will rebuild the damaged bridge.

The al-Shabab militant group immediately claimed responsibility for the two attacks.

Bulobarde and Jalalaqsi in the Hiran region (Hirshabelle state) have been the focal point of efforts to mobilize the local population against al-Shabab.

Somali army spokesperson General Abdullahi Ali Anod on Tuesday reported that government forces and local fighters are completing preparations for new operations against al-Shabab in Hirshabelle, and in Southwest, Galmudug and Jubaland states. He said the operations could start within a “week or weeks.”

Al-Shabab has threatened clans mobilizing against them with violence.
…