Somalia hit by bomb attack amid election crisis
Amid election challenges, three people including two police officers were killed and five others were wounded when a suicide bomber blew himself up near the Somali parliament in capital Mogadishu, a regional administration official said. The attack came 25 days before Somalis participate in the general elections. Al-Shabaab militant group claimed responsibility for the suicide blast via its Andalus radio channel, but it contradicted the Somalian government toll, saying the attack left "over 17 soldiers" dead.
Somalia hopes to elect a president, as well as members of two houses of parliament, by the end of November. The elections were postponed four times this year due to organizational delays. The election is however seen as a significant step towards strengthening the conflict-ridden country's fledgling institutions after decades of anarchy. The polls are also seen as being more democratic than those in 2012, when only 135 traditional elders elected a unicameral parliament.
About a third of parliamentary seats have been reserved for women since 2004, when traditional leaders elected a transitional parliament. But analysts say the quota has never been fully implemented in the country. The run-up to the poll has also been beset by allegations of corruption, gerrymandering, intimidation as well as disputes over clan representation.
The new parliament will face the challenges of consolidating the fledgling democracy, of diversifying an economy still largely dependent on livestock and money transfers from Somalis living abroad, and – above all – of defeating al-Shabaab.
Somalia's al-Qaida-linked al-Shabaab group remains capable of launching large-scale attacks despite claims that the insurgency is weakening, a U.N. report warned Friday. The militant group carried out six sophisticated hotel attacks in Mogadishu from November 2015 to June of this year, the report by U.N. sanctions monitors said. The al-Shabaab group "represents the most immediate threat to peace and security in Somalia and continues to be a destabilizing force in the broader East and Horn of Africa region," the report stated.
While the militants have not launched a major attack outside Somalia since the 2015 massacre at Kenya's Garissa University, the group "retains both the capability to carry out another such attack and a self-proclaimed motive with regard to targeting countries contributing troops to AMISOM," the report added. The African Union's AMISOM force in Somalia includes mostly troops from Kenya, Ethiopia, Uganda and Burundi.
Allied to al-Qaida since 2012, al-Shabaab controlled Mogadishu for several years until it was pushed out in 2011. However, the militant group continues to fight to overthrow the Western-backed government. After a bomb concealed in a laptop exploded on a Daallo airlines flight in February, the monitors warned that al-Shabaab were resorting to more sophisticated tactics targeting aircraft.
Somalia hopes to elect a president, as well as members of two houses of parliament, by the end of November. The elections were postponed four times this year due to organizational delays. The election is however seen as a significant step towards strengthening the conflict-ridden country's fledgling institutions after decades of anarchy. The polls are also seen as being more democratic than those in 2012, when only 135 traditional elders elected a unicameral parliament.
About a third of parliamentary seats have been reserved for women since 2004, when traditional leaders elected a transitional parliament. But analysts say the quota has never been fully implemented in the country. The run-up to the poll has also been beset by allegations of corruption, gerrymandering, intimidation as well as disputes over clan representation.
The new parliament will face the challenges of consolidating the fledgling democracy, of diversifying an economy still largely dependent on livestock and money transfers from Somalis living abroad, and – above all – of defeating al-Shabaab.
Somalia's al-Qaida-linked al-Shabaab group remains capable of launching large-scale attacks despite claims that the insurgency is weakening, a U.N. report warned Friday. The militant group carried out six sophisticated hotel attacks in Mogadishu from November 2015 to June of this year, the report by U.N. sanctions monitors said. The al-Shabaab group "represents the most immediate threat to peace and security in Somalia and continues to be a destabilizing force in the broader East and Horn of Africa region," the report stated.
While the militants have not launched a major attack outside Somalia since the 2015 massacre at Kenya's Garissa University, the group "retains both the capability to carry out another such attack and a self-proclaimed motive with regard to targeting countries contributing troops to AMISOM," the report added. The African Union's AMISOM force in Somalia includes mostly troops from Kenya, Ethiopia, Uganda and Burundi.
Allied to al-Qaida since 2012, al-Shabaab controlled Mogadishu for several years until it was pushed out in 2011. However, the militant group continues to fight to overthrow the Western-backed government. After a bomb concealed in a laptop exploded on a Daallo airlines flight in February, the monitors warned that al-Shabaab were resorting to more sophisticated tactics targeting aircraft.