Somalia

BOSASSO, Sept 17 (NNN-AGENCIES) — The United Arab Emirates no longer plans to establish a military airport in Somaliland and the facility currently being built will be turned into a civilian airport, the region’s president said.

Somaliland said last year that the UAE would train military in the semi-autonomous region, part of a deal to host a UAE base in the region.

“The Berbera airport which was being built by the UAE and designed to be a military base will become a public airport for civilians,” Muse Bihi Abdi said.

26 July 2019; AFP: Deployed in one of the world's most dangerous conflicts, Somali soldiers risking their lives daily against Al-Shabaab insurgents were growing weary of being paid months late and shortchanged by their superiors.

"We never received the complete amount," a captain told AFP on condition of anonymity, grumbling about "middlemen" who syphon off troops' meagre wages -- some as low as $100 a month -- and plunder budgets meant for weapons, rations and uniforms.

MOGADISHU, July 24 (Xinhua) -- At least six Somali government officials were killed and several others, including the Mogadishu mayor, were injured in a suicide bomb attack at the municipal government headquarters Wednesday, police said.

A police officer who declined to be named told Xinhua that Mogadishu Mayor Abdirahman Omar Osman was rushed to hospital after the attack in which two district commissioners and a former city official were killed.

MOGADISHU, July 12 (Xinhua) -- At least six people have been killed and about 50 others injured on Friday evening following a terrorist attack at a hotel in the southern city of Kismayo in Somalia, officials have confirmed.

Jubbaland security forces spokesman Abdi Nur Ibrahim Hussein said armed militants stormed a hotel in Kismayo after they rammed a vehicle loaded with explosives at the entrance.

MOGADISHU, Somalia (AP) — A pair of explosions rocked Somalia’s capital and left 11 people dead, the country’s police chief said Saturday, as the al-Qaida-linked extremist group al-Shabab claimed responsibility.

Another 25 people were wounded, Gen. Bashir Abdi Mohamed told reporters in Mogadishu. He said the first car bomb went off near a security checkpoint for the presidential palace and was responsible for nine deaths.

The second car bomb killed the driver and his accomplice near a checkpoint on the road to the heavily fortified airport, he said.

MOGADISHU, March 20 (Xinhua) -- Somali government forces have vacated three military bases to protest non-payment of salaries, a move that may jeopardize years of security gains, officials and local residents said on Wednesday.

Security officials who declined to be named said the Somalia National Army (SNA) soldiers vacated three bases in middle Shebelle, stoking fear among the residents that the al-Qaida allied terrorist group, al-Shabab may take over the abandoned bases.

Johannesburg, Feb 26 (AP) The United States military said that its latest airstrike in Somalia killed 35 fighters with the al-Shabab extremist group not far from the Ethiopian border.

The US military command for the African continent said Sunday's airstrike targeted the al-Qaida-linked fighters as they were travelling in a rural area about 23 miles (37 kilometers) east of Beledweyne in central Hiran region.

MOGADISHU, Feb. 21 (Xinhua) -- Somali Deputy Attorney General was shot dead by two armed men while driving a car in Somalia's capital Mogadishu, officials said late Wednesday.

Hassan Gelle, a police officer told reporters that two armed men with pistols shot Mohamed Mursal, a deputy attorney general in Sigale village in Mogadishu's Hodan district.

"The armed men ordered the deputy attorney general to get off his car and shot him dead, they sped off with the deceased's car, but the police later found it abandoned on the roadside," said Gelle.

Johannesburg, Jan 19 : The US military on Saturday said it had carried out its deadliest airstrike in Somalia in months, killing 52 al-Shabab extremists after a "large group" mounted an attack on Somali forces.

The US Africa Command said the airstrike occurred near Jilib in Middle Juba region. There were no reports of Americans killed or wounded.

UNITED NATIONS, Jan. 4 (Xinhua) -- Three days after the top UN envoy in Somalia was ordered to leave the country by its government, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has decided to appoint a new special representative.

Guterres "intends to appoint in due course a new Special Representative for Somalia and Head of United Nations Assistance Mission in Somalia (UNSOM)," said Farhan Haq, deputy spokesperson for the secretary-general, in a statement on Friday.