Somalia’s hardline Islamist insurgent movement al Shabaab yesterday promised to carry out further attacks against African peacekeepers after the deadliest strike yet killed at least 11 soldiers from Burundi.
“This is our land and you are non-believers,” said a statement in Somali on a Web site used by the militants, who are fighting against the Somali government and a 3,500-strong African Union (AU) peacekeeping force.
“Leave us for your safety or we shall never tire of increasing your death toll,” the statement said.
The site posted photos of two young men it said were suicide bombers who detonated explosives in a jacket and a car next to an AU compound on Sunday in a former university of the Somalian capital Mogadishu.
The militants’ Internet statement said 52 people died and 34 were wounded in the attack.
A military source said the soldiers were killed when attackers drove a vehicle into their camp and exploded it as the troops were offloading supplies on Sunday.
“Up to now, we count 11 soldiers killed and 15 others wounded,” Colonel Adolphe Manirakiza said, adding that the wounded had been evacuated to Nairobi.
Somali President Sheikh Sharif Ahmed, a moderate Islamist, and Prime Minister Omar Abdirashid Ali Sharmarke, the Western-educated son of a slain former president — were due in Mogadishu later yesterday. They have been in Djibouti to select a Cabinet under a UN-brokered process intended to form a unity government and end 18 years of conflict.
Their biggest threat is from al Shabaab, which along with allied militias controls large swathes of south Somalia, including the strategic towns of Baidoa and Kismayu.
The government controls only parts of Mogadishu.
Regional diplomats hope the inclusion of many moderate Islamists in the government will provide a new political dynamic that may marginalize hardliners like al Shabaab, which is on Washington’s list of terrorist groups.
In a statement, the Burundi government condemned the “barbaric attack against its contingent which deployed to this country in the interest of the Somali people and to seek peace.”
“Attacks by these evil forces will not deter Burundi or the African Union to help Somalis. We will reinforce our contingent with material and personnel,” the statement said.
The AU has also condemned the attack, the deadliest against the forces since their deployment, and said it will not deter its drive to help Somalia. The 3,400-strong AU force in Somalia is made up of Burundi and Ugandan troops.
Nauru has started selling passports to fund climate action, but is so far struggling to attract new citizens to the low-lying, largely barren island in the Pacific Ocean. Nauru, one of the world’s smallest nations, has a novel plan to fund its fight against climate change by selling so-called “Golden Passports.” Selling for US$105,000 each, Nauru plans to drum up more than US$5 million in the first year of the “climate resilience citizenship” program. Almost six months after the scheme opened in February, Nauru has so far approved just six applications — covering two families and four individuals. Despite the slow start —
North Korean troops have started removing propaganda loudspeakers used to blare unsettling noises along the border, South Korea’s military said on Saturday, days after Seoul’s new administration dismantled ones on its side of the frontier. The two countries had already halted propaganda broadcasts along the demilitarized zone, Seoul’s military said in June after the election of South Korean President Lee Jae-myung, who is seeking to ease tensions with Pyongyang. The South Korean Ministry of National Defense on Monday last week said it had begun removing loudspeakers from its side of the border as “a practical measure aimed at helping ease
DEADLY TASTE TEST: Erin Patterson tried to kill her estranged husband three times, police said in one of the major claims not heard during her initial trial Australia’s recently convicted mushroom murderer also tried to poison her husband with bolognese pasta and chicken korma curry, according to testimony aired yesterday after a suppression order lapsed. Home cook Erin Patterson was found guilty last month of murdering her husband’s parents and elderly aunt in 2023, lacing their beef Wellington lunch with lethal death cap mushrooms. A series of potentially damning allegations about Patterson’s behavior in the lead-up to the meal were withheld from the jury to give the mother-of-two a fair trial. Supreme Court Justice Christopher Beale yesterday rejected an application to keep these allegations secret. Patterson tried to kill her
CORRUPTION PROBE: ‘I apologize for causing concern to the people, even though I am someone insignificant,’ Kim Keon-hee said ahead of questioning by prosecutors The wife of South Korea’s ousted former president Yoon Suk-yeol yesterday was questioned by a special prosecutor as investigators expanded a probe into suspicions of stock manipulation, bribery and interference in political party nominations. The investigation into Kim Keon-hee is one of three separate special prosecutor probes launched by the government targeting the presidency of Yoon, who was removed from office in April and rearrested last month over his brief imposition of martial law on Dec. 3 last year. The incident came during a seemingly routine standoff with the opposition, who he described as “anti-state” forces abusing their legislative majority to obstruct
RSS