Mombasa Central police station’s report office was set ablaze in an attack by suspected terrorists on Sunday.

Three women in hijabs are said to have hurled petrol bombs at the station in the incident at about 10.30 am.

A preliminary report indicated the women went to the station to report the loss of mobile phones.

One took out a knife and attempted to stab an officer while the others hurled the bombs.

Two of them were shot dead at the report office and the third one as attempted to escape.

An officers reportedly sustained serious injuries and was rushed to hospital.

A major security operation was launched to find two men also said to have escaped.

the-star.co.k

Mali’s defense ministry says three soldiers were killed and two seriously injured in an attack by unidentified gunmen near the central town of Boni.

A ministry statement said the “ambush” occurred Friday morning on the road linking Douentza and Gao in the central Mopti region.

Northern Mali fell under the control of Islamic extremists in 2012, prompting a French-led intervention that drove them from cities and towns.

Northern and central Mali remain unstable and attacks on security forces are common. The militant group Ansar Dine is especially active in central Mali.

Earlier this month, President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita removed Defense Minister Tieman Hubert Coulibaly from his post after militants briefly took over the town of Boni.

Coulibaly was replaced by Abdoulaye Idrissa Maiga, former minister of territorial administration.

ap.org

The US military conducted two strikes in southern Somalia early this week that killed four al Qaeda-linked al Shabaab militants involved in attacks on Somali government troops, a US military spokeswoman said on Wednesday.

The US military has in the past used drones to target al Shabaab’s senior leaders. The Pentagon said in June it carried out a strike in late May against Abdullahi Haji Da’ud, one of al Shabaab’s senior military planners and served as a principal coordinator of attacks in Somalia, Kenya, and Uganda.

The latest strikes took place in Torotorow in Lower Shabelle region, on Monday.

“During a Somali-led counter-terrorism operation, a large group of armed al Shabaab fighters attacked the force, threatening the safety and security of the forces in the area,” Captain Jennifer Dyrcz, a U.S. Africa Command spokeswoman, said. “In response, the U.S. conducted two self-defence strikes… killing four al Shabaab militants.”

Al Shabaab was pushed out of Mogadishu by African Union peacekeeping forces in 2011 but has remained a potent antagonist in Somalia, launching frequent attacks aimed at overthrowing the Western-backed government.

timeslive.co.za

The war robbed him of a homeland but in the refugee camp there was no future. That’s why Abdallah and his friends returned — to fight as child soldiers against Mali’s hated government

Abdallah’s war is only a short bus ride away. Mali, Abdallah’s long-suffering country, is 40 kilometers (25 miles) from the house where the shy boy is now crouched on the floor.

Abdallah was 11 when Tuareg rebels launched an uprising against Mali’s central government in 2012. He fled westward with his family, and they ended up in the Mbera refugee camp in Mauretania, not far from the border.

Today, Abdallah is a 15-year-old boy with black curls and a shy, questioning look in his eyes. He has just arrived for the second stay in the giant refugee city in the Mauritanian desert. Before coming back, he had returned to Mali — as a skinny boy with a Kalashnikov around his neck. Abdallah was a child soldier.

Friends had told him about the Tuareg’s fight against the government and he returned with them to Mali where, upon reaching his hometown, he joined an armed group. Abdallah had gone to fight in the same war that had prompted his family to flee.

Why does a boy do something like this? Perhaps because, with his almost complete lack of education, he felt that there was hardly a future for him in a camp like Mbera. Work as a day laborer, like his father? He would rather not. Be stuck in the camp for months, or even years, with no goals and nothing to work for? No. What does a boy want to be: A nobody? Or a warrior?

Abdallah now lives in a makeshift home. The Mbera camp is a collection of tents with a market in the middle, two infirmaries and several deep wells. It is the largest camp in the Sahel zone. Abdallah, like most of the residents, is a member of the Tuareg people, who live as nomads and herdsman, their lives adapted to the harsh conditions of the desert. They hate the Malian government, with many Tuaregs saying they are forgotten and discriminated against by the state on a daily basis.

About 41,000 people live in the camp on the southwestern edge of the Sahara Desert, where they are registered by the UN Refugee Agency and supported by the global community. The European Union and Japan are the camp’s biggest donors. Thanks to about three dozen aid organizations, the tens of thousands of refugees in the camp hardly lack for anything. The Mauritanian police provide security, doctors treat minor injuries and vaccinate the children and camp residents receive 30 liters of water a day, along with food. Even the livestock is cared for.

Recently, though, there has been a minor change. Now, instead of only providing refugees with the food equivalent of 2,100 kilocalories per person per day, the camp has become part of a new system that aid organizations across the world are experimenting with: Refugees now receive a third of their rations in the form of cash. In Mbera, that amounts to about €3 ($3.35) per camp resident each month. The goal is to help them feel like they have more control over their lives.

The sum is, of course, paltry — but it does take a small step toward acknowledging the fact that there is a serious problem when people live in a place where they have nothing to do and are at a safe distance from a war zone: They lack prospects, purpose and something to do.

A spokesman for the UNHCR says that the organization does not encourage refugees to return home. But those who do wish to go back can pick up their papers and receive a €70 travel subsidy. Their native Mali is still unsafe: Islamists are dropping bombs, rebels are fighting and the government is striking back — and the trip alone is extremely dangerous. Still, more than 1,400 people have opted to leave the camp for home thus far this year. “This is not a life for us here,” says one man who decided to take the risk. He is doing it for his family, he says, for his children.

Teenagers are a very vulnerable group in a refugee camp. They and their families have made it to safety, but there is no real future in the tent city. Mbera is in the far east of Mauretania, Hodh Ech Chargui, the poorest region in an already dirt-poor country. Almost 4,700 children attend elementary school in the Mbera camp. But what happens when they are finished?

A few hundred of the more than 10,000 adolescents in the camp qualify for slots to continue their education. And this spring, for the first time, 99 of them completed a Malian high-school education. They can hope to find a job with an aid organization in the camp.

One of the fortunate ones is 16-year-old Tinalbarka Walid Amano. Her family is from a family of musicians in Bamako, the capital of Mali, and one of her brothers lives and works in Belgium. She is also the face of a UNHCR promotional film about World Refugee Day. She is well aware of the opportunity she has been granted.

And the others?

Abdallah, the former child soldier is crouched on the floor of a mud house in the Mbera refugee camp. He gazes cautiously over his crossed arms, which are resting on his thin knees. His one-word answers are difficult to hear, because he whispers them into the crook of his arm.

“Fifteen,” is his age. “Business,” is his father’s profession. Did he attend school? “Madrassa.” A Koran school. When did he leave the regular school? “Fourth.” He means the fourth grade. He left the school because “friends” were attending the religious school. He also returned to Mali to fight with “friends.”

He can only withstand the gaze of the man who is recording his story for the UNHCR for a few moments. Abdallah is unable to say what he did in the war, or what the war did to him. Carrying an assault rifle didn’t make him more self-confident.

It is known that both Islamists in Mali as well as the pro-government Tuareg militias have trained and deployed child soldiers. Officials with the NGO that attends to child soldiers in Mbera know that at least five other adolescents from the camp fought in the war in nearby Mali. The aid workers fear that the number could even be as high as a few dozen.

Like Abdallah, two other boys also talk about their experiences fighting for the Tuareg. Eighteen-year-old Ahmed says that he rode on patrols for the MAA rebels and also fired his gun — and hit someone, he thinks. He says that he “defended a free Azawad,” using the Tuareg name for Mali’s northern provinces. In 2012, they and Islamist gangs proclaimed an independent state in the region. The government only regained the upper hand when the French military intervened. The case is clear for Ahmed: The Malian army is obviously the aggressor. The rebel group signifies protection, he says, and besides, he has nothing else to do. “I would go back and fight for my brothers,” says Ahmed.

UNICEF and the UNHCR want to prevent that from happening. The aid workers have provided Ahmed with a small shop, which he runs together with another former child soldier. Ahmed estimates that there were about 50 adolescents in his unit.

One of Mbera’s six elementary schools is on the way back to the UNHCR headquarters. Children are playing in the courtyard, running around and shouting. When they see a camera, they run toward it, throw their hands in the air and gleefully shout: “Azawad! Azawad!”

The battle cry of the Tuareg rebels in nearby Mali is part of their children’s game.

spiegel.de

At least eight Al-Shabaab militants were killed at Bud-bud location in central Somalia’s Galgudud region Wednesday after fighting between the militants and Somali National Army (SNA) backed by African Union (AU) forces.

“The joint forces killed 8 Al-Shabaab fighters and recovered grenades including an artillery gun which they were using. Our forces are still in the area,” SNA Commander in the region, Ahmed Mohamed, told reporters.

However, Al-Shabaab militants later claimed to have captured Bud-bud area from Ethiopian troops which are part of the AU and Somali forces, a claim which the government denied.

xinhuanet.com

farsnews.com

Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta on Wednesday launched a new strategy to help in the fighting against extremism and terrorism in the East African nation.

Kenyatta said the National Strategy to Counter Violent Extremism articulates Kenya’s efforts to prevent terrorism and violent extremism.

“This has resulted in a sharp increase in operational tempo, coordination and equipment aimed at detecting, deterring and disrupting the activities of terrorists,” he said during the launch of the strategy in Nairobi.

The strategy, which will be implemented by the Ministry of Interior and Coordination of National Government, will rally all sections of government, communities, civil society, the private sector and international partners in the war against terror.

Kenyatta said the launch of the strategy comes on the back of increased investments by the government in technology, skills and innovative approaches to countering terrorism.

He said the new strategy will add prevention and counter radicalization to the more traditional security approaches to fight the vice.

He said rehabilitation of foreign terrorist fighters who completely disavow the use of violence and adherence to the ideology and aims of terrorist groups is one of the crucial tasks being addressed by the new strategy.

Kenyatta also appointed Ambassador Martin Kimani, who heads the National Counter Terrorism Centre, as Special Envoy for Countering Violent Extremism.

The National Counter Terrorism Centre is the focal point and coordination centre for the anti-terror strategy.

Kenyatta urged all Kenyans to work together to deny violent extremists the room to radicalize their compatriots.

“Together, in coordinated fashion, we must as a people drain the swamp of violent extremism and deny it room to radicalize Kenyans,” said the President when he launched the report during a live media briefing.

President Kenyatta said he was confident that the new strategy was a critical step in protecting and advancing liberty and prosperity of Kenyans.

“Its lessons will be visible to all, and I look forward to their being shared with the region and the world as we look to build a just and peaceful international order,” he said.

xinhuanet.com

the-star.co.ke

Islamic State forces loyal to Adnan Abu Walid al Sahrawi, the emir of the Islamic State’s Sahara branch, claimed an attack in Burkina Faso yesterday according to Mauritanian news agency Al Akhbar. The claim, which has not yet been confirmed in a statement from the Islamic State, marks the first time this fledgling branch has claimed an attack in its one year of existence.

Al Akhbar, which has previously published statements from Sahrawi and other Saharan-based jihadists, reports that Sahrawi sent a message claiming that an attack on Sept. 2 in Burkina Faso, near the borders with Niger, was the work of his men. The assault, which occurred on a Burkinabe gendarmerie post in Markoye, left a border agent and a civilian dead.

If confirmed, this would mark the first operation claimed by the Islamic State in the Greater Sahara (ISGS). However, the group has issued threats to North African states in the past. In May, Sahrawi sent an audio statement to Al Jazeera in which he threatened “attacks on the United Nations mission in Western Sahara, Western tourists in Morocco, the headquarters of Moroccan security, and on foreign companies,” according to the report. (See LWJ report, Report: Head of the Islamic State’s Sahara branch threatens Morocco.)

Sahrawi was originally the spokesman and a senior leader for the al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) splinter group, the Movement for Oneness and Jihad in West Africa (MUJAO). In 2013, MUJAO merged with Mokhtar Belmokhtar’s Al Mulathameen Brigade to form Al Murabitoon. The new combined entity immediately swore allegiance to al Qaeda emir Ayman al Zawahiri.

After the group’s first emirs were killed in counterterrorism raids, Sahrawi became Al Murabitoon’s head. Last May, Sahrawi released an audio statement in which pledged his allegiance to the Islamic State and Abu Bakr al Baghdadi. He claimed to do so on behalf of the entire Al Murabitoon group. (See LWJ report, Confusion surrounds West African jihadists’ loyalty to Islamic State.)

However, only some of MUJAO’s fighters joined Sahrawi in defecting to the Islamic State. Belmokhtar, an al Qaeda loyalist, quickly released a statement saying that Al Murabitoon remained in al Qaeda’s camp. [See Threat Matrix report, Alleged statement from Mokhtar Belmokhtar denies his group swore allegiance to the Islamic State.]

After this occurred, clashes between Sahrawi’s men and fighters loyal to Mokhtar Belmokhtar was widely reported in local media. Additionally, Belmokhtar was elected leader of Murabitoon by its shura council last August and remerged with AQIM in early December. Since the clashes between the two opposing sides of Murabitoon, Sahrawi has been largely quiet since the aforementioned threats to Morocco.

Now, Sahrawi has claimed his ISGS has perpetrated its first military operation since being founded. While this does not bode well for the region’s stability, ISGS has experienced difficulty operating in the area. According to US officials contacted by The Long War Journal, Belmokhtar’s men intended to assassinate Sahrawi in the clashes in order to quell the jihadist dissidents. Al Qaeda’s domination of the jihadist landscape in Mali and neighboring states will also likely prove difficult for the Islamic State to gain any real foothold in the area.

While Sahrawi is loyal to al Baghdadi and the Islamic State, neither of the two audio statements sent to Al Akhbar and Al Jazeera have been released by official Islamic State media outlets. The Islamic State has not acknowledged any fighters, let alone a branch, in the Sahel either. This could mean that the Islamic State sees the fledgling group as too weak at this point or that the region is not a viable option for expansion at this point in time. Communication between ISGS and the mother organization in Iraq and Syria could also be an issue.

longwarjournal.org

Four militants of the Islamic State have been arrested by Somali security forces during operation in the southwestern town of Baidoa.

Mohamed Iska Aflow, Southwest Administration’s head of intelligence and security agency, told journalists late on Friday that the group’s commander in Bay and Bakool regions is among those arrested alongside his three collaborators.

He said the detained leader was in charge of IS’s terror operations in Bay region of southern Somalia.

“Mahad Nuh Sidow, Abdiasis Hassan Mural and Mohamed Sheikh Isak were dispatched to terrorize and carry out bomb attacks in this regional state, we successfully held them and we are displaying them to the media at the moment,” Aflow added.

The arrest comes a day after the United States added Abdulkadir Mumin, the Somali IS leader, to the terror list in East Africa.

punchng.com