Somalia Report says a Car Bomb blew around KM4 in Mogadishu

According to the website Somalia Report:

At least four people were killed and ten others were injured in two separate blasts that rocked in Mogadishu, the capital of Somalia, on Tuesday afternoon.

In what appears to be a forced suicide car bomber, the perpetrators detonated a four door sedan in the strategic road that links Mogadishu's main airport and KM4 junction, which is regularly used by Transitional Federal Government (TFG) and African Union (AMISOM) vehicles.

Locals said the man driving the car was a well known businessman, Arafat, who sold cars to the government and was not aligned with al-Shabaab. Independent sources said he was likely forced to drive the car wired with remote controlled explosives, which was then detonated by al-Shabaab sources nearby.

"The explosion was huge and those who carried out that explosion attached the explosive to the car. They then they used a remote control the explosion from another area where they monitored their operation,"' Saleoh Omar, a TFG official confirmed to Somalia Report.

Locals said the explosion was quick and likely premature.

“The car came out of a garage near the road and exploded immediately. We do not know the target. No government vehicles or AMISIOM were in the area. Only the driver was killed and a person passing by,” Mohamed Sa’id, an eyewitness, told Somalia Report.

Colonel Khalif Ahmed Ereg, a Transitional Federal Government (TFG) security intelligence chief for Banadir region who reached the scene, confirmed a car bomb was to blame, but suspected it was an intentional suicide bomber.

“We do not know the motive behind this barbaric attack, it seems that the intention was to damage TFG and AMISOM but it prematurely detonated. We can thank God for that. We are investigating the incident," said Colonel Khalif.

Grenade Attack in Bakara Market

Meanwhile, at least two people were killed and ten were injured, mainly civilians, when a grenade was thrown into a busy intersection of Mogadishu's largest market, Bakara. 

“The attack has happened as people were busy with their jobs. I saw many wounded people and then after the blast TFG forces opened fire into four directions so we were all scared,” Ali Ahmed, a conductor of public transport, told Somalia Report.

These attacks come as al-Shabaab fighters vowed they will increase their attacks on the capital as a warning to the traditional elders who are set to approve the new constitutional draft.

This also comes as a suicide bomber blew himself up in a restaurant in Galgadud, killing several prominent Somali lawmakers today.

Although no group has yet claimed responsibility for today's attacks, officials blame the al-Shabaab militant group battling for control of Somalia which is known for conducting suicide attacks.

Somalia Report is investigating the incident and will post an update shortly.

© Somalia Report 2012. All rights reserved. Republication or redistribution of Somalia Report content, graphics, photographs and web site image is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent from editor@somaliareport.com. The "Somalia Report" logo is a registered trademark of Somalia Report.

Somalia in Pictures: IDPs from Mogadishu

Currently, about 300 000 internally displaced people (IDPs) live in precarious conditions in the Somali capital.

They count on the World Food Programme dry and wet meals distribution and live under light shelter, despite the drought or the floods. The UN humanitarian aid organisations hope that 50 000 of these IDPs will soon return to there home. The remaining 250 000 will have to keep on living in camps for at least months...

Somalia in Picture: Mogadishu's view from Uruba Hotel

The former Uruba Hotel used to be the most luxuous of Somalia. It is now an AMISOM military base where Ugandan soldiers guard the city centre. The view remains amazing and the whole setting is breathtaking...

Somalia in Picture: Mogadishu's seaport

In transit

April 30th, a month has gone and a third of the year 2012 is finished. 

The year of travel has proved its efficiency so far. 

In my top three: India, Liberia and Somalia. Alphabetic order.
Of course, I could not say which one has my preference; it is a matter of combination. 

I had been willing to go to India since 1998.
 
I was really looking forward to my first trip to West Africa.
 
As for Somalia, I guess, it goes back to the 1980s and the pictures we used to see on television of Somalia and Ethiopia. Then there was this great trip to Somaliland last year that I enjoyed so much.
 
I have also travelled to Berlin, London, Paris and Kenya of course.
 
Now I’m on my way to my first visit to Tunisia, my third to Ethiopia and my I-cannot-count-how-many to Nairobi, my favourite African city.



More on Mogadishu soon folks.

Cheers from JKIA.
 

Mogadishu, days + 2

Second day in Mogadishu.

The Ugandan contingent of the AMISOM is making our stay very welcoming.

We have been able to visit Mogadishu's stadium, University and 'Tropical Hotel' where Ugandan and Burundian forces have taken position within the past year and now say Al Shabaabs are totally out of Somalia's sector 1.

We are now planning to meet OCHA workers at some IDP camps on Saturday and to walk around the market and the beach front where Somalis are supposed to start coming back and enjoying a new 'normal' life.

So many encounters. But it is still difficult to be sure how far peace and security have won over in Mogadishu.

More soon. 

Mogadishu calling

On my way to Somalia again. After Hargeisa in 2011, Mogadishu, the capital.
I will be flying tomorrow from Paris to Nairobi then Mogadishu.
See you there.

Voting Day

After covering a few elections around the world, in the US in 2008, in Uganda in 2011, it is time to vote again myself.

My voting station was really busy this morning at 11.20 Paris time. Commentators were fearing abstention, but participation at 12.00 (28,29%) is the highest since 2007 (30,88) then 1981, according to the Interior Ministry's numbers. A good sign? Well, compared to the US and Uganda, participation and fairness are still running values in France.

I know so many people who decided not to vote though, disappointed by programmes, campaigns, candidates. I personally think it is highly important to participate. I agree with those who say the power of the people has shifted to other places that political politics, but it's not a reason, according to me, to give up a right many others in the world simple do not even have. Well, this is just my view.

So, French people all over the world and English-speakers interested in French politics, have a good first round. Personally, I'm more into the second one, on May 6.

--

To follow news from France in English, a few links:

RFI:
http://www.english.rfi.fr/france/presidential-election-2012-sarkozy-hollande-lepen-bayrou 

The Guardian:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/french-elections-2012

and on Twitter with Paris correspondent Angelique Chrisafis @achrisafis

BBC Webiste:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-17801628

Reuters:
http://www.reuters.com/places/france

Introducing Noria

Noria is a network of researchers and analysts, which brings together and promotes the work of a new generation of specialists in international politics.  

Here is the link to the website:

http://noria-research.com/

Description

Noria , the word come from Spanish ”noria” and Arabic “nû-ora”...

Noria is a network of researchers and analysts, which brings together and promotes the work of a new generation of specialists in international politics.

Founded in 2011, a year littered with upheaval, Noria aims at providing a pertinent and in-depth perspective on the changing nature of the international landscape and a new approach to understanding and analysing international issues. 

It brings together researchers from around the world, including Paris, Mexico, London, Istanbul, Ramallah, New York, Vienna, Cairo, and Erbil. The network comprises a series of regional teams and chiefly works on issues pertaining to conflict, mobilizations, organized crime, and the foreign policies of emerging powers.

Noria’s approach is based on three fundamental principles:

Intellectual independence, guaranteed by the diversity of Noria’s members and by the collective desire to promote an autonomous voice free of any political or economic influence.

 

NORIA’S OBJECTIVES

To promote the work of a new generation of researchers specializing in international politics,

To develop a new publication platform dovetailing academic research and political analysis,

To establish an independent think-tank capable of providing high-quality expertise to public or private institutions, facilitating a greater understanding of the changing international landscape.

--

Follow Noria on FB:

http://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/Noria/333534136687584

Afua Hirsch, from The Guardian, on reporting in Africa

Appealing reflections on Africa are moving forward this month!

Please, read this article by Afua Hirsch on the Guardian: 


http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/apr/15/west-lazy-reporting-africa?fb=native&CMP=FBCNETTXT9038

The west's lazy reporting of Africa

Once in a while we see a positive 'Africa season' – then western media revert to sensationalist and stereotypical coverage

"Bad stuff, obviously, happens in Africa just like everywhere else – and no one is denying that those issues should be reported, but their coverage would be greatly improved if it were led by journalists whose mentality were not shaped by the Hugh Trevor-Ropers of this world", she writes, Hugh Trevor-Ropers being an English historian who declared in 1963 that “there is only the history of Europeans in Africa. The rest is darkness."


She adds later on: 'Africa is not, as the New York Review of Books reported recently, "plagued by countless nasty little wars". Nor can aviation within the continent, as Condé Nast Traveller recently suggested, be summarised by a "combination of political corruption, civil wars, numerous rogue carriers, airplanes at the end of their life cycles"...'

Afua Hirsch is the Guardian's west Africa correspondent based in Ghana. She makes here a loud and clear call.