The two US Navy SEALs who went missing off the coast of Somalia on January 11 are dead, US Central Command said after searching for them for 10 days.
“We regret to announce that after a 10-day exhaustive search, our two missing U.S. Navy SEALs have not been located and their status has been changed to deceased,” Central Command said in a statement Sunday. “Out of respect for the families, no further information will be released at this time.”
CENTCOM added that teams from the US, Japan and Spain searched more than 21,000 square miles to try to locate the two missing SEALs. The two sailors were boarding a vessel in search of illicit Iranian weapons when one fell into the water due to eight-foot swells, and the second jumped in after them according to protocol, CNN previously reported.
“We mourn the loss of our two Naval Special Warfare warriors, and we will forever honor their sacrifice and example. Our prayers are with the SEALs’ families, friends, the U.S. Navy, and the entire Special Operations community during this time,” said Gen. Michael Erik Kurilla, US CENTCOM commander.
“We mourn the loss of our two brave Navy SEALs, and our hearts are with their families,” Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said in a statement Sunday. “The entire Department is united in sorrow today. We are grateful to all who worked tirelessly to try to find and rescue them.”
The US maintains a small military presence in Somalia that focuses on the threat of the al-Shabaab militant group, an extremist Islamist organization that has carried out attacks against the Somali government. The US recognizes al-Shabaab as a terrorist organization.
According to US Africa Command, “Al-Shabaab is the largest and most kinetically active al-Qaeda network in the world and has proved both its will and capability to attack U.S. forces and threaten U.S. security interests.”
This story has been updated with additional information.
CNN’s Oren Liebermann, Haley Britzky, Natasha Bertrand, Katie Bo Lillis and Jim Sciutto contributed to this report.
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Navy SEALsU.S. Navy photo by Senior Chief Mass Communication Specialist Jayme Pastoric
2 Navy SEALs fell into the water while on a mission off the coast of Somalia on Thursday.
A search and rescue operation is still underway.
The pair were boarding a vessel when one fell into the water, and the other jumped in to help.
Two Navy SEALs are missing off the coast of Somalia after falling into the water during a nighttime boarding mission on Thursday, US officials told the Associated Press.
The pair were climbing aboard a vessel while on a mission in the Gulf of Aden when high waves knocked one into the sea.
The second SEAL jumped in after him as part of Navy SEAL protocol to help a comrade in danger and both vanished, the AP said.
A search and rescue mission is underway to find two sailors, the US Central Command said in a statement Saturday.
The officials spoke to the AP on the condition of anonymity.
The Gulf of Aden has been a focal point of Navy activity in recent weeks. Still, officials told the AP and the Washington Post that the incident was not related to the ongoing United States response to Houthi-led attacks on shipping in the Red Sea or to Iran seizing an oil tanker.
However, two US officials later told the Post that the two sailors were sent to search for suspected Iranian weaponry heading for the Houthis in Yemen.
The details of the Navy SEALs’ mission and which vessel they were trying to board are still unclear, though it is known that pirates roam the coast of Somalia hunting for cargo ships to hijack.
US forces often work with other nations on counter-piracy missions in the area, which sometimes includes boarding vessels to ensure they have proper credentials and are not transporting illicit goods, according to the Post.
The US Navy has often conducted such interdiction missions to intercept weapons on ships heading for Houthi-controlled Yemen, per AP.
US Central Command, or CENTCOM, said the two sailors were “forward-deployed to the U.S. 5th Fleet (C5F) area of operations supporting a wide variety of missions.”
Pentagon spokesperson John Kirby told CBS’s Face The Nation on Sunday that the search is “still ongoing” and that the vessel was involved in a “normal interdiction” operation to try to disrupt the flow of weapon supplies to Yemen.
“It’s not related to the strikes that we took against the Houthis,” he said.
BRUSSELS — Western leaders are grappling with how to handle two era-defining wars in the Middle East and in Ukraine. But there’s another issue, one far closer to home, that’s derailing governments in Europe and America: migration.
In recent days, U.S. President Joe Biden, his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron, and British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak all hit trouble amid intense domestic pressure to tackle immigration; all three emerged weakened as a result. The stakes are high as American, British and European voters head to the polls in 2024.
“There is a temptation to hunt for quick fixes,” said Rashmin Sagoo, director of the international law program at the Chatham House think tank in London. “But irregular migration is a hugely challenging issue. And solving it requires long-term policy thinking beyond national boundaries.”
With election campaigning already under way, long-term plans may be hard to find. Far-right, anti-migrant populists promising sharp answers are gaining support in many Western democracies, leaving mainstream parties to count the costs. Less than a month ago in the Netherlands, pragmatic Dutch centrists lost to an anti-migrant radical.
Who will be next?
Rishi Sunak, United Kingdom
In Britain, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak is under pressure from members of his own ruling Conservative party who fear voters will punish them over the government’s failure to get a grip on migration.
U.K. Prime Minister Rishi Sunak speaks during a press conference in Dover on June 5, 2023 in Dover, England | Pool photo by Yui Mok/WPA via Getty Images
Seven years ago, voters backed Brexit because euroskeptic campaigners promised to “Take Back Control” of the U.K.’s borders. Instead, the picture is now more chaotic than ever. The U.K. chalked up record net migration figures last month, and the government has failed so far to stop small boats packed with asylum seekers crossing the English Channel.
Sunak is now in the firing line. He made a pledge to “Stop the Boats” central to his premiership. In the process, he ignited a war in his already divided party about just how far Britain should go.
Under Sunak’s deal with Rwanda, the central African nation agreed to resettle asylum seekers who arrived on British shores in small boats. The PM says the policy will deter migrants from making sea crossings to the U.K. in the first place. But the plan was struck down by the Supreme Court in London, and Sunak’s Tories now can’t agree on what to do next.
Having survived what threatened to be a catastrophic rebellion in parliament on Tuesday, the British premier still faces a brutal battle in the legislature over his proposed Rwanda law early next year.
Time is running out for Sunak to find a fix. An election is expected next fall.
Emmanuel Macron, France
The French president suffered an unexpected body blow when the lower house of parliament rejected his flagship immigration bill this week.
French President Emmanuel Macron at the Elysee Palace in Paris, on June 21, 2023 | Ludovic Marin/AFP via Getty Images
After losing parliamentary elections last year, getting legislation through the National Assembly has been a fraught process for Macron. He has been forced to rely on votes from the right-wing Les Républicains party on more than one occasion.
Macron’s draft law on immigration was meant to please both the conservatives and the center-left with a carefully designed mix of repressive and liberal measures. But in a dramatic upset, the National Assembly, which is split between centrists, the left and the far right, voted against the legislation on day one of debates.
Now Macron is searching for a compromise. The government has tasked a joint committee of senators and MPs with seeking a deal. But it’s likely their text will be harsher than the initial draft, given that the Senate is dominated by the centre right — and this will be a problem for Macron’s left-leaning lawmakers.
If a compromise is not found, Marine Le Pen’s far-right National Rally will be able to capitalize on Macron’s failure ahead of the European Parliament elections next June.
But even if the French president does manage to muddle through, the episode is likely to mark the end of his “neither left nor right” political offer. It also raises serious doubts about his ability to legislate on controversial topics.
Joe Biden, United States
The immigration crisis is one of the most vexing and longest-running domestic challenges for President Joe Biden. He came into office vowing to reverse the policies of his predecessor, Donald Trump, and build a “fair and humane” system, only to see Congress sit on his plan for comprehensive immigration reform.
U.S. President Joe Biden pauses as he gives a speech in Des Moines, Iowa on July 15, 2019 | Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images
The White House has seen a deluge of migrants at the nation’s southern border, strained by a decades-old system unable to handle modern migration patterns.
Ahead of next year’s presidential election, Republicans have seized on the issue. GOP state leaders have filed lawsuits against the administration and sent busloads of migrants to Democrat-led cities, while in Washington, Republicans in Congress have tied foreign aid to sweeping changes to border policy, putting the White House in a tight spot as Biden officials now consider a slate of policies they once forcefully rejected.
The political pressure has spilled into the other aisle. States and cities, particularly ones led by Democrats, are pressuring Washington leaders to do more in terms of providing additional federal aid and revamping southern border policies to limit the flow of asylum seekers into the United States.
New York City has had more than 150,000 new arrivals over the past year and a half — forcing cuts to new police recruits, cutting library hours and limiting sanitation duties. Similar problems are playing out in cities like Chicago, which had migrants sleeping in buses or police stations.
The pressure from Democrats is straining their relationship with the White House. New York City Mayor Eric Adams runs the largest city in the nation, but hasn’t spoken with Biden in nearly a year. “We just need help, and we’re not getting that help,” Adams told reporters Tuesday.
Olaf Scholz, Germany
Migration has been at the top of the political agenda in Germany for months, with asylum applications rising to their highest levels since the 2015 refugee crisis triggered by Syria’s civil war.
The latest influx has posed a daunting challenge to national and local governments alike, which have struggled to find housing and other services for the migrants, not to mention the necessary funds.
The inability to limit the number of refugees has put German Chancellor Olaf Scholz under immense pressure | Michele Tantussi/Getty Images
The inability — in a country that ranks among the most coveted destinations for asylum seekers — to limit the number of refugees has put German Chancellor Olaf Scholz under immense pressure. In the hope of stemming the flow, Germany recently reinstated border checks with Poland, the Czech Republic and Switzerland, hoping to turn back the refugees before they hit German soil.
Even with border controls, refugee numbers remain high, which has been a boon to the far right. Germany’s anti-immigrant Alternative for Germany party has reached record support in national polls.
Since overtaking Scholz’s Social Democrats in June, the AfD has widened its lead further, recording 22 percent in recent polls, second only to the center-right Christian Democrats.
The AfD is expected to sweep three state elections next September in eastern Germany, where support for the party and its reactionary anti-foreigner policies is particularly strong.
The center-right, meanwhile, is hardening its position on migration and turning its back on the open-border policies championed by former Chancellor Angela Merkel. Among the new priorities is a plan to follow the U.K.’s Rwanda model for processing refugees in third countries.
Karl Nehammer, Austria
Like Scholz, the Austrian leader’s approval ratings have taken a nosedive thanks to concerns over migration. Austria has taken steps to tighten controls at its southern and eastern borders.
Though the tactic has led to a drop in arrivals by asylum seekers, it also means Austria has effectively suspended the EU’s borderless travel regime, which has been a boon to the regional economy for decades.
Austria has effectively suspended the EU’s borderless travel regime, which has been a boon to the regional economy for decades | Thomas Kronsteiner/Getty Images
The far-right Freedom Party has had a commanding lead for more than a year, topping the ruling center-right in polls by 10 points. That puts the party in a position to win national elections scheduled for next fall, which would mark an unprecedented rightward tilt in a country whose politics have been dominated by the center since World War II.
Giorgia Meloni, Italy
Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni made her name in opposition, campaigning on a radical far-right agenda. Since winning power in last year’s election, she has shifted to more moderate positions on Ukraine and Europe.
Meloni now needs to appease her base on migration, a topic that has dominated Italian debate for years. Instead, however, she has been forced to grant visas to hundreds of thousands of legal migrants to cover labor shortages. Complicating matters, boat landings in Italy are up by about 50 per cent year-on-year despite some headline-grabbling policies and deals to stop arrivals.
While Meloni has ordered the construction of detention centers where migrants will be held pending repatriation, in reality local conditions in African countries and a lack of repatriation agreements present serious impediments.
Italy’s Prime Minister, Giorgia Meloni at a press conference on March 9, 2023 | Tiziana Fabi/AFP via Getty Images
Although she won the support of Commission President Ursula von der Leyen for her cause, a potential EU naval mission to block departures from Africa would risk breaching international law.
Meloni has tried other options, including a deal with Tunisia to help stop migrant smuggling, but the plan fell apart before it began. A deal with Albania to offshore some migrant detention centers also ran into trouble.
Now Meloni is in a bind. The migration issue has brought her into conflict with France and Germany as she attempts to create a reputation as a moderate conservative.
If she fails to get to grips with the issue, she is likely to lose political ground. Her coalition partner Matteo Salvini is known as a hardliner on migration, and while they’re officially allies for now, they will be rivals again later.
Geert Wilders, the Netherlands
The government of long-serving Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte was toppled over migration talks in July, after which he announced his exit from politics. In subsequent elections, in which different parties vied to fill Rutte’s void, far-right firebrand Geert Wilders secured a shock win. On election night he promised to curb the “asylum tsunami.”
Wilders is now seeking to prop up a center-right coalition with three other parties that have urged getting migration under control. One of them is Rutte’s old group, now led by Dilan Yeşilgöz.
Geert Wilders attends a meeting in the Dutch parliament with party leaders to discuss the formation of a coalition government, on November 24, 2023 | Carl Court/Getty Images
A former refugee, Yeşilgöz turned migration into one of the main topics of her campaign. She was criticized after the elections for paving the way for Wilders to win — not only by focusing on migration, but also by opening the door to potentially governing with Wilders.
Now, though, coalition talks are stuck, and it could take months to form a new cabinet. If Wilders, who clearly has a mandate from voters, can stitch a coalition together, the political trajectory of the Netherlands — generally known as a pragmatic nation — will shift significantly to the right. A crackdown on migration is as certain as anything can be.
Leo Varadkar, Ireland
Even in Ireland, an economically open country long used to exporting its own people worldwide, an immigration-friendly and pro-business government has been forced by rising anti-foreigner sentiment to introduce new migration deterrence measures that would have been unthinkable even a year ago.
Ireland’s hardening policies reflect both a chronic housing crisis and the growing reluctance of some property owners to keep providing state-funded emergency shelter in the wake of November riots in Dublin triggered by a North African immigrant’s stabbing of young schoolchildren.
A nation already housing more than 100,000 newcomers, mostly from Ukraine, Ireland has stopped guaranteeing housing to new asylum seekers if they are single men, chiefly from Nigeria, Algeria, Afghanistan, Georgia and Somalia, according to the most recent Department of Integration statistics.
Ireland has stopped guaranteeing housing to new asylum seekers if they are single men, chiefly from Nigeria, Algeria, Afghanistan, Georgia and Somalia | Jorge Guerrero/AFP via Getty Images
Even newly arrived families face an increasing risk of being kept in military-style tents despite winter temperatures.
Ukrainians, who since Russia’s 2022 invasion of their country have received much stronger welfare support than other refugees, will see that welcome mat partially retracted in draft legislation approved this week by the three-party coalition government of Prime Minister Leo Varadkar.
Once enacted by parliament next month, the law will limit new Ukrainian arrivals to three months of state-paid housing, while welfare payments – currently among the most generous in Europe for people fleeing Russia’s war – will be slashed for all those in state-paid housing.
Justin Trudeau, Canada
A pessimistic public mood dragged down by cost-of-living woes has made immigration a multidimensional challenge for Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.
A housing crunch felt across the country has cooled support for immigration, with people looking for scapegoats for affordability pains. The situation has fueled antipathy for Trudeau and his re-election campaign.
Trudeau has treated immigration as a multipurpose solution for Canada’s aging population and slowing economy. And while today’s record-high population growth reflects well on Canada’s reputation as a desirable place to relocate, political challenges linked to migration have arisen in unpredictable ways for Trudeau’s Liberals.
Political challenges linked to migration have arisen in unpredictable ways for Trudeau’s Liberals | Andrej Ivanov/AFP
Since Trudeau came to power eight years ago, at least 1.3 million people have immigrated to Canada, mostly from India, the Philippines, China and Syria. Handling diaspora politics — and foreign interference — has become more consequential, as seen by Trudeau’s clash with India and Canada’s recent break with Israel.
Canada will double its 40 million population in 25 years if the current growth rate holds, enlarging the political challenges of leading what Trudeau calls the world’s “first postnational state”.
Pedro Sánchez, Spain
Spain’s autonomous cities of Ceuta and Melilla, in Northern Africa, are favored by migrants seeking to enter Europe from the south: Once they make it across the land border, the Continent can easily be accessed by ferry.
Transit via the land border that separates the European territory from Morocco is normally kept in check with security measures like high, razor-topped fences, with border control officers from both countries working together to keep undocumented migrants out.
Spain’s autonomous cities of Ceuta and Melilla, in Northern Africa, are favored by migrants seeking to enter Europe | Pierre-Philippe Marcou/AFP
But in recent years authorities in Morocco have expressed displeasure with their Spanish counterparts by standing down their officers and allowing hundreds of migrants to pass, overwhelming border stations and forcing Spanish officers to repel the migrants, with scores dying in the process.
The headaches caused by these incidents are believed to be a major factor in Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez’s decision to change the Spanish government’s position on the disputed Western Sahara territory and express support for Rabat’s plan to formalize its nearly 50-year occupation of the area.
The pivot angered Sánchez’s leftist allies and worsened Spain’s relationship with Algeria, a long-standing champion of Western Saharan independence. But the measures have stopped the flow of migrants — for now.
Kyriakos Mitsotakis, Greece
Greece has been at the forefront of Europe’s migration crisis since 2015, when hundreds of thousands of people entered Europe via the Aegean islands. Migration and border security have been key issues in the country’s political debate.
Human rights organizations, as well as the European Parliament and the European Commission, have accused the Greek conservative government of Kyriakos Mitsotakis of illegal “pushbacks” of migrants who have made it to Greek territory — and of deporting migrants without due process. Greece’s government denies those accusations, arguing that independent investigations haven’t found any proof.
Mitsotakis insists that Greece follows a “tough but fair” policy, but the numerous in-depth investigations belie the moderate profile the conservative leader wants to maintain.
In June, a migrant boat sank in what some called “the worst tragedy ever” in the Mediterranean Sea. Hundreds lost their lives, refocusing Europe’s attention on the issue. Official investigations have yet to discover whether failures by Greek authorities contributed to the shipwreck, according to Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch.
In the meantime, Greece is in desperate need of thousands of workers to buttress the country’s understaffed agriculture, tourism and construction sectors. Despite pledges by the migration and agriculture ministers of imminent legislation bringing migrants to tackle the labor shortage, the government was forced to retreat amid pressure from within its own ranks.
Nikos Christodoulides, Cyprus
Cyprus is braced for an increase in migrant arrivals on its shores amid renewed conflict in the Middle East. Earlier in December, Greece sent humanitarian aid to the island to deal with an anticipated increase in flows.
Cypriot President Nikos Christodoulides has called for extra EU funding for migration management, and is contending with a surge in violence against migrants in Cyprus. Analysts blame xenophobia, which has become mainstream in Cypriot politics and media, as well as state mismanagement of migration flows. Last year the country recorded the EU’s highest proportion of first-time asylum seekers relative to its population.
Cypriot President Nikos Christodoulides has called for extra EU funding for migration management | Ludovic Marin/AFP via Getty Images
Legal and staffing challenges have delayed efforts to create a deputy ministry for migration, deemed an important step in helping Cyprus to deal with the surge in arrivals.
The island’s geography — it’s close to both Lebanon and Turkey — makes it a prime target for migrants wanting to enter EU territory from the Middle East. Its complex history as a divided country also makes it harder to regulate migrant inflows.
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MOGADISHU, Somalia — Floods caused by torrential rainfall have killed at least 31 people in various parts of Somalia, authorities said Sunday.
Since October, floods have displaced nearly half a million people and disrupted the lives of over 1.2 million people, Minister of Information Daud Aweis told reporters in the capital Mogadishu. They have also caused extensive damage to civilian infrastructure notably in the Gedo region of southern Somalia, he said.
The U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, or OCHA, which has given $25 million to help mitigate the impact of flooding, warned in a statement Thursday of “a flood event of a magnitude statistically likely only once in 100 years, with significant anticipated humanitarian impacts.”
“While all possible preparatory measures are being pursued, a flood of this magnitude can only be mitigated and not prevented,” OCHA said, recommending “early warning and early action” to save lives as “large-scale displacement, increased humanitarian needs and further destruction of property remain likely.”
The lives of some 1.6 million people in Somalia could be disrupted by floods during the rainy season that lasts until December, with 1.5 million hectares of farmland potentially being destroyed, it said.
Mogadishu has been ravaged by downpours that, at times, swept away vulnerable people, including children and the elderly, and disrupted transportation.
Floods are also affecting neighboring Kenya, where the death toll stood at 15 on Monday, according to the Kenya Red Cross. The port city of Mombasa and the northeastern counties of Mandera and Wajir are the worst affected.
An explosives-laden vehicle detonated Saturday at a security checkpoint in the central Somalia city of Beledweyne, killing at least 15 people and wounding 40 others, authorities said.
Abdifatah Mohamed Yusuf, the director-general of the Hirshabelle Ministry of Humanitarian and Disaster Management, confirmed the deaths.
“Twenty of the wounded have been admitted to Beledweyne hospitals, while another 20 are in critical condition, prompting a request for their airlift to Mogadishu for advanced medical treatment,” he said.
Hirshabelle is a state that includes Beledweyne, which is the capital of the Hiran region and has been the center of the Somali government’s latest military offensive against extremists from East Africa’s al-Qaeda affiliate, al-Shabab. This isn’t the first time Al-Shabab has used such techniques: A pair of car bombings in October 2022 that targeted the country’s education ministry left 100 dead and hundreds more injured.
In this grab taken from video, smoke billows after an explosion in Beledweyne, Somalia, Saturday, Sept. 23, 2023.
AP
Images on social media showed black smoke billowing and a smashed truck cab blazing at the checkpoint.
Dr. Suleyman Abdi Ali, the director of Beledweyne General Hospital, said the bodies of 10 victims were brought to his hospital.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility from al-Shabab, which has claimed responsibility for numerous attacks in Somalia in recent years, including an August 2022 hotel siege that injured over 100 people and killed 21.
“It was a truck loaded with explosive devices that forcefully passed through the government-manned checkpoint, and a pickup vehicle belonging to security personnel was chasing it when it exploded,” witness Abdikadir Arba, who said he was about 200 meters away and was one of the first responders, told The Associated Press by phone.
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The blast in the central town of Beledweyne comes as Somali government has intensified operation against al-Shabab armed group.
At least 10 people have been killed and 20 others injured after a truck bomb exploded at a checkpoint in a residential area in the central Somali town of Beledweyne, a police official said on Saturday.
Videos shared on social media and some of them verified by Al Jazeera appear to show local residents searching for survivors in the rubble of the destroyed buildings.
“So far I have seen 10 dead people including soldiers and civilians and over a dozen others injured, but the death toll is sure to rise,” police officer Ahmed Aden told the Reuters news agency.
Nearby buildings and shops were reduced to rubble, along with the checkpoint, he added.
A woman, Halima Nur, who was near the site, told Reuters her niece and others had been in a nearby shop and could not be reached. “I do not know what to say, all the kiosks are now just rubble. I can’t trace my niece,” she said.
Abdifatah Mohamed Yusuf, the director-general of the Hirshabelle Ministry of Humanitarian and Disaster Management, said that 40 people were wounded.
“Twenty of the wounded have been admitted to Beledweyne hospitals, while another 20 are in critical condition, prompting a request for their airlift to Mogadishu for advanced medical treatment,” he told The Associated Press.
Somali officials have offered conflicting casualty figures.
No group has claimed responsibility for the explosion in the town located in central Somalia’s Hiran region, which has recently witnessed battles between the military and the al-Qaeda-linked al-Shabab armed group.
The al-Shabab group has increased attacks since Somali President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud, who was elected for a second term last year, declared an “all-out war” on the group, which aims to overthrow the fragile internationally-backed government in Mogadishu.
The government forces on Friday claimed to have killed dozens of fighters in the state of Galmudug.
The Horn of Africa country has been plagued by armed rebellion for 15 years, with the main threats emanating from al-Shabab and the ISIS-linked (ISIL) armed groups.
The al-Shabab armed group was driven from Mogadishu in 2011 but it still controls swathes of the countryside.
President Mohamud, who has recently been visiting the front line, said in August that the government forces would “eliminate” the armed groups by the end of the year.
The US military conducted an airstrike killing five al-Shabaab terrorists on Tuesday, US Africa Command said in a statement.
The airstrike was carried out in support of Somali National Army forces “in a remote area near Cali Heele, approximately 244 kilometers North East of Mogadishu, Somalia.” The initial assessment showed that no civilians were killed in the airstrike, AFRICOM said.
“Somalia remains key to the security environment in East Africa. US Africa Command’s forces will continue training, advising and equipping partner forces to give them the tools that they need to degrade al-Shabaab,” the statement says.
The US has provided ongoing support to the Somali government since President Joe Biden last year approved a Pentagon request to redeploy US troops to the area in an attempt to counter the terrorist group.
The approval to send fewer than 500 troops was a reversal of then-President Donald Trump’s 2020 decision to withdraw nearly all US troops from the country.
Announcement comes a week after al-Shabab fighters stormed a base housing African Union peacekeepers in Somalia.
Uganda’s President Yoweri Museveni has announced the deaths of 54 Ugandan soldiers in an al-Shabab attack on a base housing African Union peacekeepers in Somalia.
Museveni’s statement on Saturday comes a week after al-Shabab fighters stormed the base in Bulamarer, 130 kilometres (80 miles) southwest of the Somali capital, Mogadishu.
The armed group claimed it carried out suicide bomb attacks on May 26 and killed 137 soldiers.
Museveni said on Saturday that the Uganda People’s Defence Forces (UPDF) had since recaptured the base from the al-Qaeda-linked armed group.
“Our soldiers demonstrated remarkable resilience and reorganised themselves, resulting in the recapture of the base by Tuesday,” the president said.
Museveni said last week that there had been Ugandan casualties but had not given further details about the attack on the troops, who are serving in the African Union Transition Mission in Somalia (ATMIS).
Al-Shabab has been fighting since 2006 to replace Somalia’s Western-backed government with its own rule based on a strict interpretation of Islamic law.
Last August, an intensive government offensive began after the election victory of President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud and has made significant gains in eroding the group’s control of vast swathes of Somali land.
But al-Shabab is still capable of launching significant attacks on government, commercial and military targets.
It also intermittently launches attacks in neighbouring Kenya as part of reprisals for Nairobi sending troops to support Mogadishu’s rebel pushback.
ATMIS, which has 22,000 troops, has been assisting Somalia’s federal government in its war against al-Shabab since 2022 when it replaced the AU Mission in Somalia (AMISOM).
UN says about half of Somalia’s population will need humanitarian assistance this year, with 8.3 million affected by the drought.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has appealed for “massive international support” for Somalia, which is facing the worst drought in decades.
During a joint news briefing with President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud on his visit to the country, Guterres told reporters in the capital Mogadishu on Tuesday that he was in Somalia “to ring the alarm” on the country’s need for significant international support.
Five successive failed rainy seasons in parts of Somalia, as well as Kenya and Ethiopia, have led to the worst drought in four decades, wiping out livestock and crops and forcing at least 1.7 million people from their homes in search of food and water.
While famine thresholds have not been reached in Somalia, the UN has said about half its population will need humanitarian assistance this year, with 8.3 million affected by the drought.
Adding to the woes, seasonal rains in March led to flooding that killed 21 people and displaced more than 100,000, according to the UN, which warned that the rains were unlikely to be enough to improve the food security outlook for many.
President Mohamud said the visit assures that “the UN is fully committed to supporting our plans for state-building and stabilising the country”.
“We are confident that the Somali people will be able to overcome the problems and challenges they are still facing through the completion of the liberation of the country and reconciliation,” he added.
The UN chief added that Somalia is dealing with humanitarian difficulties while also combating a serious “terrorism” threat. The country has faced insecurity as it battles thousands of fighters from al-Qaeda’s East Africa affiliate, al-Shabab.
Guterres visited a camp for internally displaced people in Baidoa, in southwest Somalia.
“This combination of terrorism and drought, largely caused by climate change, creates a perfect storm for the people of Somalia and requires massive support from the international community,” Guterres said during his visit to the camp.
The UN has launched a $2.6bn call for humanitarian assistance, but Guterres said the appeal was only 15 percent funded.
“The international community has been absent-minded in relation to the drama of the people of Somalia,” Guterres said.
In 2011, Somalia was hit by a famine that killed 260,000 people, more than half of them children under six, partly because the international community failed to act fast enough, according to the UN.
A report by the UN and the Somali government released in March said that drought might have led to 43,000 “excess deaths” last year, with children under the age of five accounting for half the victims.
NEW YORK (AP) — Two men have been convicted of helping Somali pirates who kidnapped a U.S. journalist for ransom and held him for 2 1/2 years, prosecutors said.
Mohamed Tahlil Mohamed and Abdi Yusuf Hassan were convicted by a federal court jury in New York on Feb. 24 of hostage-taking, conspiracy, providing material support for acts of terrorism and other crimes that carry potential life sentences.
Michael Scott Moore, a German-American journalist, was abducted in January 2012 in Galkayo, Somalia, 400 miles (643.7 kilometers) northeast of the capital of Mogadishu. He was working as a freelancer for the German publication Spiegel Online and researching a book about piracy.
The kidnappers demanded $20 million in ransom and at one point released a video showing Moore surrounded by masked kidnappers who pointed a machine gun and rocket-propelled grenade at him.
Moore was freed in September 2014. Moore has said his family raised $1.6 million for his release.
“Tahlil, a Somali Army officer, left his post to take command of the pirates holding Moore captive and obtained the machine guns and grenade launchers used to threaten and hold Moore,” U.S. Attorney Damian Williams said in a statement. “Hassan, the Minister of Interior and Security for the province in Somalia where Moore was held hostage, abused his government position and led the pirates’ efforts to extort a massive ransom from Moore’s mother.”
Hassan, who was born in Mogadishu, is a naturalized U.S. citizen. He was arrested in Minneapolis in 2019 and charged with federal crimes.
Details of Tahlil’s arrest haven’t been disclosed but he was jailed in New York City in 2018.
In a 2018 book Moore wrote about his captivity, he said that Tahlil got in touch with him from Somalia by Facebook two months after the journalist’s release and included a photograph. Moore recognized him as the “”boss” of his guards.
The men began a correspondence.
“I hope u are fine,” Tahlil said, according to the book. “The pirates who held u hostage killed each other over group vendetta and money issues.”
According to the criminal complaint reported by the New York Times, that was consistent with reports that some pirates were killed in a dispute over division of Moore’s ransom.
Hassan and Tahlil were scheduled to be sentenced on Sept. 6.
Attorneys for the two men were emailed for comment by The Associated Press after hours on Monday but the messages weren’t immediately returned.
Below-normal rainfall is expected during the rainy season over the next three months in parts of Somalia, Kenya and Ethiopia, a climate research centre says.
Drought trends in the Horn of Africa are now worse than they were during the 2011 famine in which hundreds of thousands of people died.
The IGAD Climate Prediction and Applications Center said on Wednesday that below-normal rainfall is expected during the rainy season over the next three months.
“In parts of Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia, and Uganda that have been most affected by the recent drought, this could be the 6th failed consecutive rainfall season,” it said.
Drier than normal conditions have also increased in parts of Burundi, eastern Tanzania, Rwanda and western South Sudan, the centre added.
While famine thresholds have not been reached, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said on Wednesday that 8.3 million people – more than half Somalia’s population – will need humanitarian assistance this year.
Workneh Gebeyehu, the head of IGAD, urged governments and partners to act “before it’s too late”.
The drought, the longest on record in Somalia, has lasted almost three years and tens of thousands of people have died.
Last month, the UN resident coordinator for Somalia warned excess deaths in the country will “almost certainly” surpass those of the famine declared in the country in 2011, when more than 260,000 people died of starvation.
A camel carcass rots in the desert near the village of War Idad in Somalia [File: Scott Peterson/Getty Images]
Ongoing hunger crisis
About 1.3 million people, 80 percent women and children, have been internally displaced in Somalia by the drought sweeping the Horn of Africa. After five consecutive poor rainy seasons, the ongoing drought has already become the longest and most severe in Somalia’s recent history.
Close to 23 million people are thought to be highly food insecure in Somalia, Ethiopia and Kenya, according to a food security working group chaired by the UN Food and Agriculture Organization and the regional Intergovernmental Authority on Development.
Already 11 million livestock that are essential to many families’ health and wealth have died, Wednesday’s statement said. Many people affected across the region are pastoralists or farmers who have watched crops wither and water sources run dry.
The war in Ukraine has affected the humanitarian response, as traditional donors in Europe divert funding for the crisis closer to home.
“These prolonged and recurrent climate change-induced droughts will further worsen other existing, mutually exacerbating humanitarian challenges in the region, including the ongoing hunger crisis, the impacts of COVID-19, and internal displacement.
“We need an all-hands-on-deck approach to strengthen food systems, livelihoods, and climate resilience,” said Mohammed Mukhier, the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies director for Africa.
A US strike in Somalia killed five al-Shabaab fighters on Wednesday, US Africa Command said in a statement. The strike was carried out at the request of the Somali government and was a “collective self-defense strike,” according to AFRICOM.
The strike was carried out approximately 300 miles north of the Somali capital of Mogadishu.
No civilians were injured or killed, AFRICOM said, citing the remote location of the operation.
The latest strike marks the second time in a week that the US has targeted al-Shabaab forces in Somalia. On Friday, the US carried out a strike that killed 12 al-Shabaab fighters northeast of Mogadishu.
Since the beginning of the year, the US has conducted a total of five strikes aimed at al-Shabaab, according to AFRICOM, an indication of the increased partnership between the US and Somali government and Somali forces targeting the terrorist group. AFRICOM considers al-Shabaab the largest and most deadly al Qaeda network in the world with a demonstrated will to carry out attacks against Somalia, the US and others.
In late January, the US also carried out a counterterrorism operation in Somalia that killed Bilal al-Sudani, an ISIS leader responsible for spreading ISIS ideology in Africa.
The US has provided ongoing support to the Somali government since President Joe Biden approved a Pentagon request last year to redeploy US troops to the area in an attempt to counter al-Shabaab. The approval to send fewer than 500 troops was a reversal of former President Donald Trump’s decision to withdraw all US troops from the country in 2020.
At least five injured in a huge explosion on Sunday that damaged buildings near the mayor’s office in the Somali capital.
At least five people have been injured in a blast near the mayor’s office in Somalia’s capital Mogadishu, with gunfire erupting afterwards, according to police and witnesses.
Witnesses said the huge explosion on Sunday damaged nearby buildings.
“Terrorists blasted a vehicle loaded with explosives onto a perimeter wall of the Mogadishu mall which is next to the Banadir administration headquarters,” police officer Abdullahi Mohamed said.
Abdikadir Abdirahman, director of Aamin Ambulance Services, told Reuters news agency that ambulance staff evacuated five injured people from the scene of the blast.
The mayor’s office is located in the local government headquarters building in a well-guarded area of Mogadishu.
“We were in the office and we were deafened by a blast, we ran out, gunfire followed,” Farah Abdullahi, who works in the mayor’s office, told Reuters.
Security forces immediately put the area under lockdown but an exchange of gunfire between the army and the assailants was ongoing, an intelligence officer who only gave his name as Ahmed, told Reuters.
The United States carried out a strike in Somalia that killed approximately 30 al-Shabaab fighters, US Africa Command said in a statement Saturday.
US forces on Friday “conducted a collective self-defense strike” in support of Somalia National Army forces who were “engaged in heavy fighting following a complex, extended, intense attack by more than 100 al-Shabaab fighters,” the statement said, referring to the terror group linked to al Qaeda.
There were no US military present on the ground when the airstrike occurred, a US defense official said.
The strike occurred about 260 kilometers northeast of the Somalian capital of Mogadishu, near Galcad. US Africa Command assessed that no civilians were injured or killed due to the remote location.
The US has provided ongoing support to the Somali government since President Joe Biden approved a Pentagon request to redeploy US troops to the area in an attempt to counter the terrorist group in May 2022. The approval to send fewer than 500 troops was a reversal of former President Donald Trump’s decision to withdraw all US troops from the country in 2020.
“Somalia remains central to stability and security in all of East Africa. U.S. Africa Command’s forces will continue training, advising, and equipping partner forces to help give them the tools they need to defeat al-Shabaab, the largest and most deadly al-Qaeda network in the world,” the US military said in Saturday’s statement.
In recent months, US forces have conducted numerous strikes in the region that have resulted in dozens of al-Shabaab casualties.
Kenya has suffered attacks for a decade as retribution for joining the peacekeeping force fighting al-Shabab in Somalia.
Kenyan security forces have killed 10 fighters from the Somalia-based al-Shabab group in eastern Kenya, a government official says.
They also recovered rocket-propelled grenades and improvised explosive devices after fighting the group on Wednesday in the village of Galmagalla in Garissa county, Thomas Bett, deputy county commissioner of the Bura East sub-county, said on Thursday.
“The operation to flush out the Somalia militants’ group in the region was carried out by our multi-agency team, … and [it] managed to neutralise 10 Islamist group militants and recovered assault weapons,” he told the Reuters new agency.
Spokespeople for al-Shabab could not be reached for comment.
The al-Qaeda affiliate has made incursions into Kenya for years to pressure the country into withdrawing its troops from the African Union-mandated peacekeeping force helping Somalia’s central government fight the group.
Al-Shabab has targeted security forces, schools, vehicles, towns and telecommunications infrastructure in eastern Kenya although the frequency and intensity of their attacks have declined in recent years.
A 2013 attack on the Westgate shopping mall Nairobi, killed 67 people.
Al-Shabab has been fighting for more than a decade to topple Somalia’s central government and establish its own rule, based on its strict interpretation of Islamic law.
Last week, the group killed four workers from Kenya’s highway authority when their vehicle hit a roadside bomb in Garissa county. On Tuesday, one person died when a convoy was hit by a rocket-propelled grenade in the same region, police said in a report.
Government forces and allied clan militias recaptured the base from al-Shabab in October.
Fighters from the al-Shabab group stormed a military base in central Somalia that the government had recaptured from them last year, killing at least seven soldiers, including the base commander, an officer said.
Assailants from the al-Qaeda affiliate rammed the base in the village of Hawadley with a suicide car bomb on Tuesday and then opened fire, Captain Aden Nur, a military officer in a nearby town, told the Reuters news agency.
“We repelled al-Shabab [but] lost seven soldiers, including our commander,” Nur told Reuters.
Al-Shabab claimed responsibility for the attack in a statement, saying it had killed “many apostate soldiers and their commander”.
The base is located about 60km (35 miles) north of the capital, Mogadishu, and was wrested from al-Shabab’s control in October by government forces and allied clan militias.
The operation was part of a broader government offensive, which began in August and has made significant gains. On Monday, the government announced it had captured Harardhere, an al-Shabab stronghold on the Indian Ocean coast that it had held for a decade.
As pressure on al-Shabab has grown, its fighters have struck back. They have stepped up gun and bomb attacks on the military and civilians, including in areas where they have retreated.
The group has been fighting since 2007 to topple Somalia’s central government and impose its strict interpretation of Islamic law.
In some regions, residents said al-Shabab’s tactics – including torching houses, destroying wells and killing civilians, combined with demands for taxes during the worst drought in 40 years – has pushed locals to form paramilitary groups to fight alongside the government.
But in other towns and villages, al-Shabab’s courts are gaining widespread acceptance as constitutional courts struggle with backlogs and a perception of being corrupt.
The conflict has contributed to a food crisis in Somalia. More than 200,000 Somalis are suffering from catastrophic food shortages, and some parts of central Somalia are on the brink of famine.
The US carried out a strike in Somalia that killed six al-Shabaab militants on Friday, US Africa Command said in a statement.
The strike was in “self-defense,” according to the command, or AFRICOM, and it was carried out at the request of the Somali government. According to an initial assessment, no civilians were killed or injured, AFRICOM said.
It was the third such strike in 10 days, and it occurred in the same area of Somalia near the city of Cadale, about 150 miles northeast of the capital of Mogadishu.
The first was on December 14, and AFRICOM said seven al-Shabaab militants were killed. The second strike came three days later and killed eight al-Shabaab militants.
“Al-Shabaab is the largest and most deadly al-Qaeda network in the world and has proven both its will and capability to attack Somali, East African, and American civilians,” AFRICOM said in the statement.
NAIROBI, Kenya — Journalists in Somalia say the government is further restricting their work amid a significant military offensive against the al-Shabab extremist group, with a new directive to submit content for approval before publication.
In the latest incident, police in the central state of Hirshabelle detained four media personnel in Beledweyne for reporting that al-Shabab attacked rural areas after local militias fighting them withdrew over pay issues, media groups said.
Chief editor Mustaf Ali Adow of the independent Radio Hiiraanweyn and three colleagues were detained Thursday and the station was taken off the air.
A joint statement by the Somali Journalists Syndicate, the Somali Media Association and Somalia Mechanism for Safety of the Journalists condemned the raid and demanded the journalists’ immediate release.
“State security personnel shouldn’t use the continuing security operations as a justification to impose restrictions on press freedom,” Mohamed Ibrahim, president of the Somali Journalists Syndicate, told The Associated Press.
Media organizations have expressed concern about the new directive by the office of Somali President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud that instructs media outlets to submit news content for consent before it is aired.
Many journalists have denounced the order and said that submitting content for government approval would obstruct editorial independence and the public’s right to know.
“The president’s communication office issued a new order to local news outlets on Saturday demanding they submit their content for permission before any broadcast. We all refused,” the secretary-general of the Somali Media Association, Mohamed Osman Makaran, told the AP.
Authorities haven’t publicly acknowledged the directive.
Since the government declared an all-out war against al-Shabab earlier this year, there has been growing pressure on local journalists.
The government has said journalists reporting on al-Shabab’s activities should either go to the scene or abide by authorities’ restrictions.
Abdalla Ahmed Mumin, the secretary-general of the Somalia Journalists Syndicate, an independent journalists’ union based in Mogadishu, was arrested earlier this year after criticizing a government decree telling journalists not to report on al-Shabab propaganda. He was later released on bail pending his court hearing on Jan. 4.
Somalia is considered one of the most dangerous places in the world to be a journalist. According to media watchdogs, journalists face risks including detentions, attacks and threats.
A February 13, 2012, file photo shows an armed member of the militant group al-Shabaab at a rally on the outskirts of Mogadishu, Somalia.
AP
Mogadishu — At least four people were killed in an ongoing attack by Al-Shabaab militants who laid siege to a popular hotel in Somalia’s capital Mogadishu overnight, a security agency official told AFP on Monday. Gunfire and explosions could still be heard more than 12 hours after the militants stormed the hotel near the presidential palace in a hail of bullets.
Mohamed Dahir, an official from the national security agency, told AFP the gunmen were holed up in a room at the Villa Rose surrounded by government forces.
“So far we have confirmed the death of four people”, he said, adding that others had been rescued from the besieged venue. “Very soon the situation will return to normal.”
Government officials were among others injured, he added.
The Villa Rose is frequented by parliamentarians and located in a secure central part of the capital just a few blocks from the office of Somalia’s President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud.
Al-Shabaab, a militant group affiliated with al Qaeda that has been trying to overthrow Somalia’s central government for 15 years, claimed responsibility for the attack.
Police said the gunmen rushed into the hotel in Bondhere district at around 8:00 p.m. (noon Eastern) on Sunday and an operation was under way to “eliminate” them.
More than 12 hours later, witnesses near the scene described still hearing loud explosions and gunfire.
“I saw several military vehicles with special forces heading towards the hotel, and a few minutes later, there was heavy gunfire and explosions,” said local witness Mahad Yare.
In a statement late Sunday, the African Union Transition Mission in Somalia (ATMIS), a 20,000-strong military force drawn from across the continent, praised the “swift” security response to the attack.
On its website the Villa Rose describes the hotel as the “most secure lodging arrangement in Mogadishu” with metal detectors and a high perimeter wall.
Al-Shabaab has intensified attacks against civilian and military targets as Somalia’s recently-elected government has pursued a policy of “all-out war” against the Islamists.
The security forces, backed by local militias, ATMIS and U.S. airstrikes, have driven Al-Shabaab from central parts of the country in recent months, but it still holds ground, and as CBS News correspondent Debora Patta has reported, that’s one of the factors complicating efforts to save millions of people at risk of starving to death in Somalia’s drought-ravaged south.
The Somali government’s offensive has also drawn retribution.
On October 29, two cars packed with explosives blew up minutes apart in Mogadishu followed by gunfire, killing at least 121 people and injuring 333 others. It was the deadliest attack in the fragile Horn of Africa nation in five years.
At least 21 people were killed in a siege on a Mogadishu hotel in August that lasted 30 hours before security forces were able to overpower the militants inside.
The United Nations said earlier this month that at least 613 civilians had been killed and 948 injured in violence this year in Somalia, mostly caused by improvised explosive devices (IEDs) attributed to Al-Shabaab. The figures were the highest since 2017 and a more-than 30% rise from last year.
The U.S. considers al-Shabaab one of the al Qaeda network’s most lethal affiliate organizations and has targeted it with dozens of airstrikes. Hundreds of U.S. military personnel returned to the country under orders from President Biden, after being withdrawn by his predecessor Donald Trump.
The al Qaeda linked terror group al-Shabaab has carried out a suicide attack and stormed a central Mogadishu hotel frequented by Somalia’s ministers and members of parliament, Somali police said Sunday.
Al-Shabaab stormed the Villa Rose hotel near Somalia’s presidential palace following a suicide bombing at the gate at 8 p.m. local time (noon ET), according to police.
Capt. Bishar Ahmed confirmed to CNN that a major attack occurred at the hotel, which lies in a heavily protected zone in downtown Mogadishu, where the state house, ministries and a high-security intelligence prison are also located.
Adam Aw Hirsi, the state minister for the environment, said he escaped the attack.
Police have not released details on the number of casualties. Al-Shabaab claimed responsibility for the attack.
Somalia’s armed forces, backed by the United States, have been carrying out a military campaign against the group since August in parts of southern and central Somalia.
In May, US President Joe Biden decided to redeploy troops to Somalia in support of the local government and to counter al-Shabaab. The move reversed a decision by former President Donald Trump to withdraw all US troops from the country.
