Friday November 8, 2024

The Gulf state is also part of the Quintet Group on Somalia, which also includes the United States, the United Arab Emirates, the United Kingdom and Türkiye.

Friday 08, Nov 2024 {HMC} Qatar and Somalia have discussed strengthening bilateral cooperation during a preparatory meeting for the inaugural session of their Joint Supreme Committee, held under a previous memorandum of understanding.

In a statement on Wednesday, Doha’s foreign ministry said it was represented by its Director of the Arab Affairs Department at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Nayef bin Abdullah Al-Emadi.

Somalia’s Director of Arab Affairs at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, Mohamed Hassan Mohamed, represented his country at the meeting. On the same day, Al-Emadi held a separate meeting with Mohamed.

“During the meeting, cooperation relations between the two countries and ways to support and enhance them were reviewed,” the Qatari foreign ministry said, without providing further details on the matter.

In 2018, Qatar and Somalia signed a MoU on the establishment of a joint supreme committee in a move to further boost cooperation between both countries.

The latest meeting came nearly four months after Qatar hosted the Somali Diaspora Conference in July, where efforts to address issues facing Somalia were atop the agenda.

The discussions covered a range of topics, including education, entrepreneurship, culture and identity, youth empowerment, and promoting the return of Somalis and investment in the country.

As a diplomatic heavyweight, Qatar had assumed a major diplomatic role in 2021 during the reconciliation between Kenya and Somalia, which occurred following a dispute that saw the latter accuse Nairobi of interfering in its internal affairs.

Quintet Group

The Gulf state is also part of the Quintet Group on Somalia, which also includes the United States, the United Arab Emirates, the United Kingdom and Türkiye.

The group, which held its seventh meeting in Washington last month, is aimed at supporting Somalia’s peace and stability.

During their latest meeting, the Quintet members had reaffirmed their support for “Somalia’s sovereignty, territorial integrity, and unity” while stressing the need to address “ongoing and emerging threats from terrorist groups in the Horn of Africa”.

The meeting had also agreed to reconvene in Mogadishu for an eighth meeting, without disclosing further details on the upcoming discussions.
Throughout their past meetings, the group had underlined the need to support Somalia’s fight against the armed group of Al-Shabab.

Meaning ‘The Youth’ in Arabic, Al Shabab first emerged as the extremist youth wing of the now-defunct Union of Islamic Courts in Somalia, which briefly controlled Mogadishu in 2006 before Ethiopian forces drove them out.

Al-Shabab holds connections to other militant groups in Africa, including Boko Haram in Nigeria and Al-Qaeda.

The group seeks to overthrow the central government of Somalia and install its own system of governance based on their own strict application of Islamic law.

Somalia’s government had launched an offensive against Al-Shabab following the deadly attack on a hotel in the capital Mogadishu in August 2022 where 21 people were killed. Qatar condemned the attack at the time.

The fighting across Somalia has led to rising civilian casualties and forced at least 650,000 people to flee the country, according to Human Rights Watch (HRW).

Thursday 06, Nov 2024 {HMC} Kenyan authorities have tied Hashim Dagane Muhumed, already in custody for a notorious triple murder in Nairobi’s Eastleigh neighbourhood, to a fourth killing. The new revelation—linking Muhumed to the brutal death and dismemberment of another woman—has intensified community outrage and amplified calls for justice in a city increasingly anxious about violence against women.

Detectives with Kenya’s Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) announced the development on November 6, describing it as a major breakthrough. The victim, believed to be Deka Abdinoor Gorone, was last seen shopping at a Quickmart supermarket in Nairobi on October 29. CCTV footage showed Gorone entering an apartment in Lavington with Muhumed, where detectives suspect she was killed. Two days later, security footage captured Muhumed leaving the apartment, carrying two large bags thought to contain her dismembered remains, which were later found dumped at Lang’ata Cemetery.

Muhumed is suspected in the murder of Gorone.

According to DCI Director Amin Mohamed, the landlord of the Lavington apartment is also implicated in the cover-up. After reportedly discovering the crime scene, the landlord attempted to erase evidence by repainting and cleaning the premises before fleeing. “It’s only a matter of time before he is apprehended,” Mohamed noted.

The new link comes as Muhumed remains in custody, accused of orchestrating the October 21 brutal abduction and murder of three Somali women: Amina Abdirashid, her aunt Waris Dahabo Daud, and 12-year-old Nuseiba Abdi Mohammed. The three women, all from the Eastleigh neighbourhood, were abducted and later found dead at different locations across Nairobi and Machakos County. Their bodies showed signs of severe violence, including strangulation, mutilation, and, in Nuseiba’s case, evidence of sexual assault. A post-mortem revealed that Daud had been strangled and her hands amputated, while Abdirashid died from a stab wound to the heart.

Kenyan authorities have arrested Muhumed following an intensive manhunt that concluded in Nairobi’s Starehe district on October 27.

Detectives tracked Muhumed through a combination of CCTV footage, forensic evidence, and digital surveillance, piecing together a trail that began with his vehicle, a Nissan Note with registration number KDQ 718Y, captured on CCTV near the Eastleigh residence of the three victims on the night of their disappearance. The footage shows the car pulling up to the building where the women were last seen. Evidence from the vehicle, later found abandoned near the busy Wakulima Market, suggested Muhumed had transported the victims under duress.

The vehicle became a critical piece of evidence. Forensic teams recovered biological traces, including blood and fibres, indicating a violent struggle had taken place inside the car. Personal belongings linked to the victims were also found, further corroborating Muhumed’s alleged role in the crime. Digital tracking of Muhumed’s cell phone locations led detectives to Starehe, where he was ultimately cornered and surrendered without resistance.

Investigations into Muhumed’s background have revealed troubling details. Authorities allege that Muhumed was a police officer in Ethiopia and had fled his home country under suspicion of murdering his wife. Upon arrival in Nairobi, he reportedly assumed a false identity, using forged documents to evade detection. Muhumed managed to establish a small taxi business in Eastleigh, blending into the community. His ability to remain undetected for years has sparked concerns about Kenya’s vetting procedures and raised questions about potential security lapses.

With Muhumed now suspected in two separate murder cases, detectives are expanding their investigation to determine whether he had accomplices. Officials are exploring possible connections with individuals who may have sheltered him or provided logistical support as he evaded authorities. The DCI has also widened its scope to examine whether Muhumed may be linked to other unsolved cases in Nairobi, particularly those involving similar patterns of violence and abduction.

SOURCE

Thursday 06, Nov 2024 {HMC} Human Rights Watch on Tuesday accused Kenyan security forces of abducting, torturing and killing people believed to be leaders of anti-government protests that took place between June and August.

The group said security officers held abductees in unlawful detention facilities, including in forests and abandoned buildings, and denied them access to their families and lawyers.

Mary Muthoni Mwangi of Kirinyaga, in rural central Kenya, said she lost her son in the protests, in which thousands of young Kenyans demonstrated against a bill that would have increased taxes.

Her son, 20-year-old Kennedy Njeru, took part in a protest on June 25, she said, when demonstrators stormed the parliament after lawmakers passed the tax increase.

Mwangi said she searched for her son for four days, finally finding his body in the city mortuary. She said a postmortem examination found a bullet wound to his head.

Human rights groups say 61 people were killed across the country during the weeks of protests.

Human Rights Watch blamed Kenyan security agencies for the abduction, torture and killing of people seen as leading or taking part in the demonstrations.

Mausi Segun, head of HRW’s Africa division, said, “Whoever the initial abductors were, the police were involved because people were taken to police stations and many times the torture happened while people were in police custody.”

She added, “Those who are dead, we don’t have details of what happened to them, but people who witnessed their abduction said that individuals who took them away were clearly security agents.”

HRW researchers spoke to 75 people, including victims, family members, journalists, parliament staff and police officers.

The interviewees said that police officers hunted down protesters. But because the officers wore plain clothes, covered their faces and traveled in unmarked vehicles, it was difficult for family members, rights groups, lawyers and government agencies to trace victims’ whereabouts.

Segun said some of those taken away were tortured and killed.

“Many of the bodies of those who have been abducted have showed up sometimes on the streets, sometimes in quarries, unmarked places where they have been dumped,” she said.

“Many of those bodies have shown signs of torture and dismemberment of body parts, showing what they went through at the hands of their captors,” she said. “Many of these bodies have not been released to family members.”

Kenyan security forces deny that their officers were behind the abductions and killings.

President William Ruto, speaking at a town hall gathering in Kisumu in late August, said he was not aware of any abductions and called on family members to forward the names to the government to take action.

Human Rights Watch said reports of abductions, missing people and killings are well documented and called on the president and other government institutions to hold those responsible to account.

On September 24, Mary Mwangi was among dozens of activists and victims’ family members who tried to submit a list of the missing and dead to the president’s office.

They were driven back with teargas.

Ruto ultimately declined to sign the tax increase into law.

SOURCE VOA