[Here are four updates that should have been included in the previous update, on Saturday, of Kenyan military operation in Somalia – ‘Operation Linda Nchi’.]
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Al-Shabaab puts bodies on display
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The French hostage died, yet ‘she’ is still a hostage
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Kenya’s Anti Terrorism Police Unit makes more arrests
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Kenyan Minister escaped the Mogadishu bomb narrowly
Note: Some analysts are estimating the number of Kenyan troops in Somalia at 4,000.
Al-Shabaab puts bodies on display
There had been a heavy fighting in Daynile district of Mogadishu between African Union Mission for Somalia (AMISOM) forces and government troops last week. AMISOM launched the military offensive to flush Al-Shabaab out of the remaining areas of the Capital – most of which has been freed since August.
The African Union peace force is made up mainly of 9,000 troops from Burundi and Uganda and assists the UN-recognized Transitional Federal Government (TFG) of Somalia.
Media reports indicated, citing residents, that at least three civilians had been killed in crossfire and 10 others injured in Thursday and Friday.
On the other hand, Al-Shabaab put on public display some 60-70 dead bodies in Alamada area, 18km outside the capital late on Thursday.
Al-Shabaab’s spokesman told reporters that all the bodies displayed were Burundian soldiers and bragged ‘you see their dead bodies here, our mujahedeen killed 70 of them today…Allah punished them in the hands of the mujahedeen when they tried to attack us’.
Photos show that some of those displayed wore flak jackets and helmets — equipment that is issued to AU soldiers but not common among government troops or insurgents. But many other bodies were only dressed in green camouflage uniforms.
One eyewitness, a photographer at the scene, said he counted 58 bodies. There were about 30 men in the line who were clearly Somali and some wore tattered government-issued uniforms, he said. The origin of nine bodies was unclear because their faces were down in the sand or for other reasons, he said.
But 19 others wore the type of uniform given to Burundian troops and looked like foreigners, he said. The militants also displayed a Bible and some crucifixes, items unlikely to be carried by Muslim Somalis. He did not see any identity documents, he said.
Reuters television filmed militants tossing some bodies out of a truck. A Reuters photographer counted 76 bodies, some of whom had helmets and flak jackets laid out nearby.
Burundi’s military spokesman, Ankunda, told reporters that said that 10 soldiers had been killed and two were missing after Thursday’s battle. The bodies of the 10 dead soldiers were safely in AU hands, he said. Ankunda was quoted as saying, ‘it’s a manipulated picture….They dressed up their own casualties … I think they’ve been keeping some uniforms’. Later, he said that the uniforms were so new that the Burundians had not even been issued them yet.
Another spokesman of the Burundian army, Colonel Gaspard Baratuza, said: ‘We have lost six soldiers and 18 wounded, including four seriously’, giving a ‘preliminary assessment.’ He added, ‘I cannot say at this stage whether or not there are missing soldiers, because the Deynile operation continues, and the soldiers have not yet returned to their base’.
However, AFP claimed that: ‘an internal AU document seen by The Associated Press said that 38 soldiers also had been wounded’.
Some news outlets reported, citing an unnamed ‘senior Burundian military official’ that: ‘11 Burundi peacekeepers were missing’.
AMISOM’s Commander, Maj. Gen. Fred Mugisha, said, in a press release, that said at least 10 of the force’s soldiers had been killed and two were missing. The Commander noted that:
‘The extremists have also been using the suburbs of Deynile as a base to assemble improvised explosive devices, including car and truck bombs such as those recently employed to target civilians in the capital.
As was to be expected, given Daynile’s significance, the operation has encountered heavy resistance but steady progress is being made.
As the operation is ongoing, the mision has been unable to provide final casualty figures at this stage.’
Media reports indicated, citing a Somali military official, that more than 10 Somali government soldiers were missing.
The French hostage died, yet ‘she’ is still a hostage
As reported earlier, four Europeans (one British, one French and two Spaniards) were kidnapped in Kenya, in September and October, allegedly by Al-Shabaab militants. The Kenyans believe the captors were Al-Shabaab’s fighters and the hostages have been moved in the past week to the port town, Kismayu, southern Somalia.
Intelligence sources indicated in mid-October that ‘active agents of the French Direction générale de la sécurité extérieure (DGSE) and servicemen in the Commandement des opérations spéciales (COS) have made many moves these last few days to try to locate the French hostage Marie Dedieu’, according to the French media – ION.
However, France confirms death of kidnapped woman. The Local.fr reported on Wednesday that:
Marie Dedieu, 66, a handicapped Frenchwoman who was kidnapped from her beachfront Kenyan home and taken to neighbouring Somalia has died, the French government confirmed on Wednesday.
"The contacts through which the French government was seeking to obtain therelease of Marie Dedieu, held in Somalia since October 1th, have announced herdeath, but we have not been able to determine the date nor the circumstances,"the foreign ministry said in a statement. "Mrs Dedieu’s state of health, uncertainty over the conditions of her detention and the fact that the kidnappers probably refused to give her the medication that we sent her lead us to believe that this tragic outcome is unfortunately the most likely," the ministry said.
A gang of 10 armed men seized Dedieu, 66, from Manda Island in Kenya’s Lamuarchipelago earlier this month and fled by sea to Somalia, fighting off an attempt by Kenya’s navy to stop them.
There had been serious concern over the health of Dedieu, who was wheelchair-bound after an accident several years ago and required medication every few hours.
The ministry said it had informed Dedieu’s family of her death and was demanding the unconditional return of her remains. "The French government expresses its profound shock, great sadness and solidarity with the family and loved ones of Marie Dedieu," it said. "It also expresses its indignation at the cruelty and complete absence of humanity shown by our compatriot’s abductors, whom we want to see identified and brought to justice."
Kenyan officials said they suspected Somali Islamist Shebaab insurgents had carried out the abduction, but sources in Somalia dismissed the theory.
Dedieu had lived for 15 years in the Lamu archipelago, off Kenya’s northerncoast.
The Kidnappers demanded ransom for the return of the body, according to the By Radio France International(RFI). RFI reported on Thursday:
The Somali kidnappers of a disabled French woman, Marie Dedieu, who died after she was snatched from her home in Kenya three weeks ago, are demanding a ransom for the return of her body. French Defence Minister Gerard Longuet described the move as “despicable”.
“Seizing a woman of this age, who is sick and paralysed and not giving her her medication, allowing her to develop septicemia from which she apparently died, and then proposing to sell her remains. These are not people who deserve anything but contempt,” Longuet told the i-TELE news network.
He added the French military were not planning any action against the kidnappers in Somalia because they were a “small band, a small minority, an exception who dishonour the territory”.
A gang of armed men seized Dedieu from Manda Island in Kenya’s Lamu archipelago earlier this month and fled by sea to Somalia, fighting off an attempt by Kenya’s navy to stop them.
Kenya has blamed Islamist Shebab rebels in Somalia for a spate of recent kidnappings of foreigners.
Two Spanish aid workers and a British woman, are still being held.
Kenya’s Anti Terrorism Police Unit makes more arrests
The Kenya police had been busy cracking down on alleged Al-Shabaab supporters inside Kenya. As reported earlier, the Kenyans had arrested two suspected British citizens, with tourist visa, in the past week. Though that seemed an isolated phenomenon earlier, the Kenyans made it clear they are waging a campaign to root out Al-Shabaab network in their country.
A security operation is also under way in Eastleigh, Nairobi’s business district, Nairobi, where it is believed sleeper cells of Al-Shabaab exist, AFP reported on Oct. 19. The news by AFP also stated:
Internal Security minister George Saitoti said the exercise would be carried out in a humane manner and would not be discriminatory.
Security forces are planning a “major operation in Nairobi to get rid of Al- Al Shabaab,” Assistant Security Minister Orwa Ojode said Wednesday, a rare admission from the government the Al Shabaab threat exists even in the capital.
Two Kenyan doctors charged for ‘being membership of Al Shabaab’. Capital-FM reported on Oct 21 that:
Two Kenyan doctors have been charged before Nairobi Chief Magistrate Gilbert Mutembei with being members of the outlawed terrorists group Al Shabaab.
Ali Omar Salim and Ali Hassan Hilow however denied engaging in organised criminal activity and were remanded at the Kilimani Police Station until October 25 when they will appear again before the court. They are accused of engaging in organised criminal activity on or about October 20 at Pumwani in Nairobi. The charge says: ’You were found engaging in organised criminal activity being members of Al Shabaab, an outlawed organised criminal gang group.’
The Anti Terrorism Police Unit has requested the court to give them three working days for them to finalise investigations against the two who were arrested on Thursday at their private clinic in Pumwani. The anti terror police want to take the suspects to Mandera border town for verification of some documentation found on them.
But their lawyer protested the police request claiming that his clients’ rights were infringed when police denied him access to them……the court ordered that they be remanded in police custody as anti terror unit investigates their activities as it relates to the Al Shabaab militia.
Police sources indicate that the two doctors have been aiding Al Shabaab by providing them with medical and other assistance.
Kenyan troops had arrested three clerics, according to Ibtimes, citing a ‘local al-Shabaab website’. The news claimed:
Kenyan troops had arrested three clerics on Thursday, including Sheikh Hassan Hussein, who is on a U.N. sanctions list. A Security Council report on Tuesday said Hussein had been involved in recruiting new members and soliciting funds for the militants.
Residents said the cleric was arrested shortly after he finished giving a lesson at a mosque in Eastleigh.
Reuters reporters have in the past seen al-Shabaab fighters in Eastleigh, sometimes returning for medical treatment. Somali parents living there complain that some mosques actively recruit youths to fight for al Shabaab.
Kenyan Minister escaped the Mogadishu bomb narrowly
As reported previously, there has been a suicide car bomb in Somalia’s capital, Mogadishu, last Wednesday, that a killed at least six people. At the time, a Kenyan delegation, consisting Foreign Affairs Minister Moses Wetangula and Defence Minister Yusuf Haji, was at Mogadishu airport with the President of the UN-recognized Transitional Federal Government (TFG) of Somalia.
Though the incident took place near the Foreign Ministry building, it was not clear if it targeted the Kenyan delegation.
The Kenyan Foreign Affairs Minister Moses Wetangula, provided some insights after his return to Nairobi. A Kenyan news outlet – The Nation, reported that:
During the Mogadishu meeting, Wetangula said a car bomb was planted on a route they were to use to the airport.
“We have now come back home in one peace and as you know as we were leaving Mogadishu, there was an explosion on a route we were to use to the airport but it was changed at the last minute,” he said and sent Kenya’s condolence to the families of people killed and injured in the blast.
He was not categorical if the bomb was targeted at them.
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