Free Republic

South Sudan's civil war began on the night of December 15, 2013, when a firefight erupted between soldiers serving in the presidential garrison in the capital city, Juba. "Between" is an important word. The battle pitted soldiers from the Dinka tribe (largest in South Sudan) against soldiers in the Nuer tribe (second largest). The government, led by president Salva Kiir, a Dinka, and the rebels, led by Riek Machar, a Nuer, agreed to their first ceasefire on December 31. Fire and combat, however, never ceased. Instead, it spread. Every ceasefire and peace declaration since has failed to hold. Poor communication...

An explosion in southern Lebanon last week destroyed what is believed to have been a Hezbollah weapons depot. This latest in a series of mysterious “accidents” in Hezbollah-controlled precincts proved, as one Israeli official wryly remarked, that those who “sleep with rockets and amass large stockpiles of weapons are in a very unsafe place.” With the Party of God’s overland supply route through Syria choked off by the 22-month-long uprising against Syrian president Bashar al-Assad, and Israel virtually in total control of the maritime route, Hezbollah’s stockpile is being systematically degraded.Yet the arsenal of Iran’s other regional proxy force, Hamas,...

President Obama decided this week that the Muslim Brotherhood-linked regime ruling parts of Somalia out of the capital city Mogadishu is eligible to receive U.S. military aid and weapons. Obama Paves Way to Arm Muslim Brotherhood-linked Regime in Somalia The New American 12 April 2013 President Obama decided this week that the Muslim Brotherhood-linked regime ruling parts of Somalia out of the capital city Mogadishu is eligible to receive U.S. military aid and weapons, sending a memo to Secretary of State John Kerry announcing the new finding and laying the ground work for even more foreign entanglements in Africa....

Units of the National Army assume control of Las qorayPuntland militias are no longer terrorising residents of eastern sanaag. Residents of Las Qoray town in the East of Sanaag region after the national army took full control of following the eviction of Puntland militias from the area. According to the Las Qoray mayor Mohamed Hayan Arshe area residents are now moving freely and without fear since the army assumed full control once the terrorist militias funded by Puntland fled with their tails coiled in shame and fright. Mayor Arshe informs that his local council which is earnestly engaged in tax...

Meles Zenawi, Ethiopia's long-time ruler who held tight control over this East African country but was a major U.S counterterrorism ally, died of an undisclosed illness after not being seen in public for weeks, Ethiopian authorities announced Tuesday. He was 57. Meles died Monday just before midnight after contracting an infection, state TV said. Hailemariam Desalegn, who was appointed deputy prime minister and minister of foreign affairs in 2010, became acting prime minister and will be sworn in as prime minister after an emergency meeting of parliament, said Bereket Simon, the communications minister. Parliament is controlled by Meles' ruling party...

Residents believe the attacks targeted mosques run by al Qaeda-linked al Shabaab rebels, blamed for a roadside bombing a few hours before that killed a prominent cleric who was also a senior Puntland government official. ... "It appears to be a declaration of religious war," Mohamed Ali Yusuf, a Puntland security official... Earlier Saturday, a prominent moderate Sufi cleric who was a senior official in Puntland's justice and religion ministry was killed in the city after a remote controlled bomb exploded near his car, hours before the first mosque attack. "I have no doubt that al Shabaab is responsible for...

Mogadishu — At today's Consultative Meeting for Ending the Transition in Mogadishu, Mohamed Ahmed Alin, President of the Galmudug State of Somalia and Abdirahman Mohamed Mohamud ("Farole"), President of the Puntland State of Somalia, committed to a peaceful settlement of their recent dispute and in particular, adopted a four point plan to ensure that hostilities do not re-occur. This important agreement was enacted in the presence of Sharif Hassan Sheikh Adan, Speaker of the Transitional Federal Parliament, Prime Minister of the Transitional Federal Government Abdiweli Mohamed Ali, and a number of Ministers and high ranking Somali officials. "I am most...

There is a general agreement among academics, journalists and policy makers that piracy cannot be defeated at sea. It has to be fought on land. Since the Transitional Federal Government (TFG) is too weak to do so, many point to regional states as potential partners of the international community. Especially Puntland seems to be a good candidate, given that many pirates operate from its territory. However, some experts claim that the Puntland authorities are in fact involved in piracy... Puntland was established in 1998 as an autonomous state in Somalia. Local politicians, civil society and clan leaders had decided not...

Fears of all-out war in erstwhile peaceful northern Somalia grew dramatically Sunday after Puntland President Abdirahman Mohamed Farole warned Somaliland to "stop the massacre of civilians," Radio Garowe reports. During a Sunday interview, President Farole told the BBC Somali Service that Puntland's government "will not remain on the sidelines" if Somaliland continues the violence. "We [Puntland] wish to live in this region peacefully. We wish that the two stable states of Somalia [Puntland and Somaliland] co-exist in peace and we hoped that a new administration in Somaliland would withdraw its forces from Las Anod," President Farole said, adding: "But if...

NAIROBI — Puntland, an autonomous Somali region home to pirates who threaten shipping in the Indian Ocean, said Sunday it was breaking with Somalia's transitional government until a legitimate federal authority is in place in Mogadishu. The decision was made during a special cabinet meeting in the Puntland capital Garowe, said a government statement received by AFP in Nairobi. It said the Mogadishu government "does not represent Puntland in international forums" and called on "the UN Political Office for Somalia (UNPOS) to reconsider its position and support for the TFG at the expense of other Somali stakeholders".

WASHINGTON — Somalia's breakaway Puntland state has hired a private security firm to fight piracy but Washington is concerned about the program's funding, aims and scope, a Pentagon spokeswoman said Friday. "The US is aware Puntland authorities are contracting with a private security company to assist them in counter-piracy," Lieutenant Colonel Tamara Parker told AFP. ... The US and other navies have deployed dozens of warships to patrol the region's waters but have failed to stem piracy, one of the few thriving businesses for coastal communities in Somalia, a country devastated by war and poverty. Over the past two years,...

Note: The following text is a quote: Terror Charges Unsealed in Minnesota Against Eight Defendants, Justice Department Announces The Justice Department announced that terrorism charges have been unsealed today in the District of Minnesota against eight defendants. According to the charging documents, the offenses include providing financial support to those who traveled to Somalia to fight on behalf of al-Shabaab, a designated foreign terrorist organization; attending terrorist training camps operated by al-Shabaab; and fighting on behalf of al-Shabaab. Thus far, 14 defendants have been charged in the District of Minnesota in indictments or criminal complaints that have been unsealed and...

MOGADISHU, Somalia – Gunmen have killed a top Somali judge who had sentenced many pirates and human traffickers to long jail terms, the security minister for northern Somalia said Thursday. Mohamed Said Samatar said three men were arrested Thursday over the killing of High Court Judge Mohamed Abdi Aware. In addition to jailing suspected pirates, Aware also recently jailed four members of Somalia's Islamic insurgency. Eyewitness Mohamud Dahir said masked men with pistols shot the judge in the head and chest several times as he left a mosque Wednesday evening in the port city of Bossaso. "These gangs hate him...

The newly elected leader of Somalia's self-governing Puntland regional authority has declared a new campaign to fight piracy in the region, using public support and government institutions, Radio Garowe reports. Dr. Abdirahman Mohamed "Farole," the president of Puntland State, spoke after Friday prayers at Sahaba Mosque in Garowe, the region's administrative capital. "We [government] wish to inform the public that we have began a direct campaign against pirate gangs and we urge everyone not to defend them [pirates]," President Farole said. Four suspects He explained the Somali culture of "defending criminals for clan reasons" but warned strongly against such practice,...

The men, who captured 12 armed pirates, are part of a newly formed militia. They are expected to turn the pirates over to Somali authorities.Somalis are fed up with pirates clogging up their ports – and they’re not taking it anymore. At least some of them. Somali vigilantes captured 12 armed pirates in two boats after regional leaders in the coastal towns of Alula and Bargaal in Somalia’s northern Puntland region told the BBC that they have formed a militia of fishermen to catch the modern-day swashbucklers. The vigilantes aren’t going to make the pirates walk the plank into the...

A militia of fishermen organized by regional leaders in the Somali coastal towns of Alula and Bargaal in the African country's northern Puntland region has captured 12 armed pirates in two boats. The leaders of the militia reported their success to the BBC on April 28. Though — for want of a better word — the militiamen have been described as "vigilantes" by the media. Given the state of lawlessness in Somalia, they probably have as legitimate a mandate to deal with the piracy problem as any other entity in the beleaguered state on the Horn of Africa. "They decided...

Security forces in Somalia's northern breakaway region of Puntland have arrested 24 suspected pirates off the coast, officials said Monday. The local governor, Muse Yusuf Gelle, said the arrests off the main city of Bosasso were among the first results of a unit launched earlier this month to combat piracy in the Gulf of Aden. "At least 24 suspected pirates were arrested yesterday and today with five small boats and seven RPGs. The local security committee is investigating them," he told AFP by phone from Bosasso. "We have set up a local security committee...there are about 200 soldiers and 10...

BARACK OBAMA PIRATE SONG

eavy fighting erupted today in Mogadishu between insurgents and AMISOM peacekeepers at a base of the African Union peace mission in Somalia, witnesses told the local media. Based on these accounts, a commando fired rocket propelled grenades in the KM4 base, a key crossing in southern Mogadishu. Radio Shabelle reports that it is unknown if there were any casualties. News is also unclear from the Afgoi district, in the Lower Shabelle region that surrounds Mogadishu: according to some local reporters, a blast severely damaged an Ethiopian military truck. Somalia, torn by a never resolved civil war since 1991, is in...

His Holiness Abune Dioskoros, Patriarch of the Eritrean Orthodox Tewahdo Church, who is currently in Europe on spiritual visit, said that the Eritrea people have religions of their own dating back to centuries on the basis of which they have been coexisting in peace and harmony. And as such, they are not in need of any religion from foreigners, he elaborated. During his stay in the Italian city of Milan from December 5 to 8, the Patriarch was accorded warm welcome by heads of the Office of the Eritrean Consul General, the Synod of the St. Mary Church and a...