Some terrorists have infiltrated Kenyan prisons and are recruiting inmates, a study in Kenya shows.

A report by the Hans Seidel Foundation indicates that Al-Shabaab was exploiting Kenya’s ill-run prisons, turning them into thriving recruitment grounds.

A respondent in the study who had been jailed for petty theft said he was approached by some terror suspects while in prison. He had been placed in custody with all sorts of criminals who would persuade him and other inmates to join the terror group.

Some spoke of the powerful appeal of Al-Shabaab to those in prison as they offered forgiveness and the opportunity to be cleansed as opposed to the stigma offered by the current system.

Some of the people interviewed acknowledged the presence of rogue mosques and leaders who seemed to be stoking tensions for personal gain and who are key agents in identifying potential recruits. They also operate outside or around religious education system that is not standardised or transparent.

Speaking during a conference on combating violent extremism in Nairobi, Mr Rashid Abdi of the International Crisis Group warned that if the government did not come up with proper rehabilitation of about 1,500 returnees, they could easily go back.

“There is no coherent rehabilitation programme. The state views them as sleeper cells while Al-Shabaab views them as deserters,” Mr Rashid said.

In February, President Uhuru Kenyatta announced plans to stem radicalisation among inmates by building a separate prison for terror suspects.

nation.co.ke

A suicide car bomber crashed his vehicle into a gate outside a hotel frequented by lawmakers in the center of the Somali capital Mogadishu on Wednesday and the attack was followed by gunfire, police said.

Al Qaeda-affiliated al Shabaab militants quickly claimed responsibility for the attack near the Hotel Ambassador.

“A suicide car bomber has targeted the Hotel Ambassador along Maka Al Mukaram Road. He rammed into the gate. It is too early to know casualties,” Colonel Ali Mohamed, a Mogadishu police officer, told Reuters.

A Reuters witness could see a cloud of smoke rising from the area.

Maka Al Mukaram is a major street that links another major artery, K4, to the presidential palace, and it is lined with hotels, restaurants and banks in the heart of the capital.

In other incidents, Somali security forces killed 17 al Shabaab fighters including the head of their intelligence unit and a man suspected to have orchestrated a deadly attack on a Kenyan university in 2015, government officials said.

In one incident, Mogadishu municipality spokesman Abdifatah Omar said, security forces killed a man known only as Daud who headed al Shabaab’s intelligence wing, known as Amniyat. Omar did not say when he was killed or give other details.

In the second incident, Abdirashid Hassan Abdi, the semi-autonomous Jubbaland region’s security minister said its forces had killed 16 al Shabaab fighters in Bulagadud, some 30 km to the north of the Indian Ocean port of Kismayu.

Among the dead, he said, was Mohamud Ali Dulyadeyn, suspected to have been the mastermind of an April 2015 attack on Garissa University that killed 148 people, the worst such assault in Kenya in almost 20 years.

Four of those killed were al Shabaab officials, he added.

“We also seized this car which belonged to Dulyadeyn. The four al Shabaab officials including Dulyadeyn were responsible for masterminding explosions.”

Al Shabaab was not immediately reachable for comment.

Al Shabaab, which aims to topple Somalia’s government, was driven out of Mogadishu by the African Union force AMISOM in 2011, and last year was ousted from strongholds elsewhere in the south by AMISOM and the Somali National Army.

theglobeandmail.com

Somalian al Shabaab militants killed two soldiers in the country’s semi-autonomous region of Puntland on Tuesday in a bomb attack, according to an officer in the region’s military.

Al Shabaab took responsibility for the assault but cited a higher toll.

Al Shabaab, which seeks to impose sharia law in Somalia, has been pushed from its southern strongholds by a series of offensives by the African Union force AMISOM and the Somali National Army.

Officials, however, say the group remains resilient and is capable of mounting attacks on both civilian and military targets.

Major Mohamed Abdi told Reuters late on Tuesday the soldiers were killed when a military convoy was hit by two bombs as it headed toward Galgala Hills, located east of Bosasso.

“We lost 2 soldiers and 4 others were injured, al Shabaab planted two bombs as our convoy headed to Galgala Hills,” Abdi said.

Al Shabaab’s military operations spokesman, Sheikh Abdiasis Abu Musab, told Reuters they were responsible for the attack.

“We destroyed 17 Puntland soldiers and destroyed two of their vehicles using bombs yesterday,” he told Reuters on Wednesday.

reuters.com

A militant group in the Niger Delta has issued a renewed threat to international oil companies as Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari reportedly plans a visit to the troubled region.

The Niger Delta Avengers (NDA), which has carried out a series of crippling attacks on oil pipelines and facilities in the region, issued a statement on Monday warning companies based in the region—including Dutch giants Shell and U.S. firm Chevron—that “it’s going to be bloody this time around.” “Your facilities and personnel will bear the brunt of our fury, which shall fall upon you like a whirling wind,” said the statement, attributed to NDA spokesman Mudoch Agbinibo.

Buhari vowed on Sunday that he was ready to engage with leaders in the region, which also saw a sustained period of militancy in the mid-2000s led by armed groups protesting what they saw as the unfair distribution of Nigeria’s oil wealth. The Nigerian president said that the recent attacks would not distract his government and that security forces would “apprehend the perpetrators and their sponsors and bring them to justice.”

Buhari is planning to visit Ogoniland, a region in the Niger Delta damaged by years of oil spills, on Thursday to launch a clean-up program, an unnamed Nigerian official told Reuters. A spokesman for the president confirmed toNewsweek that the visit is going ahead without providing further details. It will be the first time Buhari has been to the Niger Delta since his inauguration in May 2015.

The NDA came to Nigeria’s attention in February after it claimed an attack on an underwater pipeline at Shell’s Forcados terminal in the Niger Delta—which produces 250,000 barrels per day (bpd)—temporarily taking the facility offline. The group has stated its aim is to cripple the Nigerian economy and appears to have links to the pro-Biafra movement, which wants to establish an independent state of Biafra in southeast Nigeria. Biafra existed as a republic between 1967 and 1970, when it was reintegrated into Nigeria following a bloody civil war. The NDA has frequently called for the release of pro-Biafra activist Nnamdi Kanu, leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra, who has been detained by Nigerian security forces since October 2015 on charges of treasonable felony, which he denies.

Mainly as a result of the upsurge in attacks, Nigeria’s oil production has decreased by 800,000 bpd to around 1.4 million bpd, dropping the West African country behind Angola as the continent’s largest oil producer.

newsweek.com

South Sudan’s armed opposition has accused Ugandan troops of allegedly crossing back into South Sudan and redeploying inside the country this week in violation of the August 2015 peace agreement which demanded their withdrawal from the territories of the world’s youngest and war-ravaged nation.

A senior military official of the Sudan People’s Liberation Army in Opposition (SPLA-IO) under the leadership of the First Vice President, Riek Machar, said convoys of hundreds or thousands of forces of the Ugandan People’s Defense Forces (UPDF) were seen sneaking back into South Sudan on Tuesday and Wednesday.

“Ugandan troops have crossed the borders back into South Sudan. We don’t know about their intention. This is a serious violation of the peace agreement. They were told to withdraw, and they did, then now why should they come back? To do what again?” the anonymous senior SPLA-IO military officer, who is also a member of the Joint Monitoring Ceasefire Committee (JMCC) that monitors implementation of the permanent ceasefire and security arrangements, told Sudan Tribune on Sunday.

He further explained that the Ugandan forces have allegedly re-entered South Sudan through Parjok payam in Magwi county of Eastern Equatoria state, east of the national capital, Juba, and another convoy crossed the border through Paluar payam of Keji-Keji county of the newly created Yei state of Central Equatoria, south of Juba.

Eyewitnesses in Magwi county contacted by Sudan Tribune also confirmed seeing Ugandan forces crossing the border again back into South Sudan, five months after their withdrawal from the territories of the northern neighbor.

They however said the foreign troops claimed to be hunting for suspected Uganda’s opposition forces being allegedly trained inside South Sudan.

The South Sudanese peace agreement brokered by the East African regional bloc, IGAD, and signed by top rival leaders, President Salva Kiir and opposition leader, Riek Machar, only allowed Ugandan troops based in Western Equatoria under the African Union (AU) mandate to continue hunting for rebels of the Ugandan Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) under the leadership of Joseph Kony.

The opposition’s official of the SPLA-IO said the sudden and illegal redeployment of the UPDF inside South Sudan is a violation of the country’s territorial integrity and sovereignty which he also said raised suspicion about their intention this time of peace.

He said the regional and international bodies, such as IGAD, AU and the United Nations (UN) should put pressure on Uganda to withdraw its forces and stop “meddling” in the internal affairs of South Sudan.

Before the civil war, UPDF crossed the border into South Sudan days before the 15 December 2013 crisis and eventually took part in the direct combat against the opposition forces of Machar in assisting President Kiir’s forces.

When strategic Bor town, the state capital of Jonglei state was overrun and captured by the opposition forces in January 2014, three weeks after eruption of the war, it took the Ugandan troops to recapture it and took control of the town for almost two years.

Thousands of Ugandan forces backed by helicopter gunships, tanks and other armoured vehicles pushed back poorly armed opposition forces, mainly of armed young civilians from the Lou-Nuer community in Jonglei state.

The troops of the southern neighbour also provided much of the security for the capital, Juba, including the airport and protection of the top leadership in the capital during the 21 months of the civil war.

Uganda argued that it sent troops in order to avoid genocide from occurring in South Sudan.

But opposition faction of the SPLA-IO accused the UPDF of instead taking side in the internal war and prolonging it.

sudantribune.com

Five United Nations peacekeepers were killed and one other seriously injured in an ambush in central Mali on Sunday, the United Nations said.

bdnews24.com

Three Kenyans were killed on Sunday by suspected Al-Shabaab returnees in the coastal town of Kwale.

Regional police commander Francis Wanjohi said the three who were involved in ensuring security among communities were shot dead by armed men in separate locations.

“They were killed on Sunday morning and reports indicate that nothing was stolen from them. We are still pursuing the attackers,” said Wanjohi.

According to the police, Al-Shabaab returnees are suspected to be behind the Sunday fatal shooting. Recently the same gang has executed a reformed Al-Shabaab returnee in Kwale.

Over 300 Kenya youth who had joined the Al-Shabaab group have abandoned the group and have been reintegrated into communities.

xinhuanet.com/

An explosion in northern Mali has led to the death of five Malian soldiers, four others were wounded, the country’s military said.

• Detainees are being given food once or twice a week
• Satellite image evidence of the four shipping containers
• Soldiers periodically take detainees out of the containers and beat them

Dozens of people who are being held in poorly ventilated metal shipping containers in a detention site in South Sudan, 20km south away from the capital of Juba, are at risk of death, warned Amnesty International today.

The detainees are being fed only once or twice a week and not given enough drinking water.  These conditions have apparently resulted in the death of many people who have been detained at the Gorom detention site.  Soldiers also periodically take them out of the containers and beat them.

Most of the people being held are civilians and are accused of links to the former rebel Sudan People’s Liberation Movement/Army-in Opposition (SPLM/A-IO), which is now part of the government of national unity. They have not been charged with any offence, have no access to family members, lawyers, or courts.

A satellite image of what Amnesty believes to be the detention site at Gorom shows four metal shipping containers arranged in an L shape, inside two perimeter fences.  Amnesty also procured evidence that the four containers are used to house detainees and were brought to the site in early November last year.

Amnesty International’s East Africa, Horn and Great Lakes Director Muthoni Wanyeki said:

“Detainees are suffering in appalling conditions and their overall treatment is nothing short of torture.

“This egregious disregard for human life and dignity must stop and for that to happen, the detention site should be immediately shut down until conditions are brought into compliance with human rights standards.

“All detainees should be released or charged and brought before independent courts. Civilian detainees should only be held in civilian detention facilities and tried by civilian courts.”

Amnesty has written to the Director of Military Intelligence, Major-General Marial Nour for more information about the Gorom detention site, including the conditions of detention, the names of individuals who are held there and those who have died.

Amnesty has also written to President Salva Kiir informing him of the situation at Gorom, and calling on him, as commander-in-chief of the armed forces, to intervene and end the human rights violations at the site.

Muthoni Wanyeki added:

“President Kiir should order an independent investigation into this site and into military intelligence detention practices generally, with a view to reforming the practices and ensuring that those responsible for torture, death or enforced disappearances are held accountable.

“Pending such investigations, President Kiir should immediately suspend those credibly suspected of responsibility.”

amnesty.org.uk