baldilocks

New Place

I am now blogging at baldilocks: Member of the Funny Name Club.

UPDATE: Forwarding fixed.

New Gig: The Magnificent Seven

I am honored to be part of DaTechGuy's Magnificent Seven. I'll be posting there every Tuesday afternoon.  Look for my first post today at 2PM Eastern.

Kenya Project News Round-up, 10-15-2013

Nairobi

For this post, I'm featuring some of the pertinent history between Kenyans and Somalis. As with many regional wars and on-going conflicts, it's nearly impossible to mark the beginning of the bad blood between the Somalis and their neighbor--again, not just the Kenyans. But the more I look into things, the more I realize that there is no innocent group, other than children, of course.

The Shifta War (1963-1968)

 

(Wikipedia)

In which ethnic Somalis of Kenya's Northern Frontier District of Kenya tried to unsuccessfully to secede from the newly independent nation state. The word shifta means 'bandit' in Somali; this is what the Kenyans call the conflict.

It was difficult to find an unbiased source about the war, but it is agreed that it was an irredentist conflict on the part of Somalis in the wake of independence for many nation-states in the region--nation-state whose borders were determined by European colonial powers without regard to traditional and ancestral lands. That the Somalis are mostly nomads is part of the problem as well.

Garissa County, Kenya

Garrisa Massacre (1980)

Wagalla Massacre (1984)

(Wikipedia)

The Wagalla massacre took place on 10 February 1984 at the Wagalla Airstrip. The facility is situated approximately 15 km (9 mi) west of the district capital of Wajir in the North Eastern Province, a region primarily inhabited by ethnic Somalis. Kenyan troops had descended on the area to reportedly help diffuse clan-related conflict. However, according to eye-witness testimony, about 5,000 Somali men were then taken to an airstrip and prevented from accessing water and food for five days before being executed by Kenyan soldiers.

For years, the Kenyan government claimed that only 57 persons were killed. Then, in 2000, Kenya admitted that the original numbers were correct.

Somalia Timeline (BBC, UK)

The starting point: European annexation.

News

23 still missing almost a month after the attack

(The Star, Kenya)

TWENTY three people are yet to be found almost a month after the attack on the Westgate Mall by al Shabaab militants. Rescue operations that involved combing through the rubble to ensure there were no bodies trapped in the building ended two weeks ago.

Kenya Red Cross Society secretary general Abbas Gullet said the 23 are those whose family members have reported missing since the attack.

African Union Calls for More African Troops in Somalia

(Reuters)

AMISOM is made up of troops mainly from Kenya, Uganda and Burundi. Ethiopia has also sent in soldiers, but they are not under AMISOM command.

White Widow taunts detectives

(Times of India)

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Kenya Project News Round-up, 10-10-2013

SEALS in Somalia

About the Kenya Project

Kenya Project News Round-up, 10-4-2013

Kenya Project News Round-up, 10-1-2013

The Kenya Project

Please help keep this project going.

Go Fund Me: The Kenya Project 2013

Go Fund Me: Arlen's Harem

 

Kenya Project News Round-up, 10-10-2013

Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta Accused of Crimes Against Humanity following 2007 Post-Election Violence  

President Kenyatta is set to appear before the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague next month. If he does, he will be the first sovereign head of state to do so. This is the third time he has been summoned by the ICC and he is asking to appear via video link. One wonders what will happen if the ICC refuses this. BTW, Kenya's parliament passed a motion to pull out of the ICC.

Alabama Baptist Missionaries Survive the Attack 

A married couple--and their five children--were uninjured.

Ghana to celebrate life of native son, author and poet Kofi Awoonor, killed in the Wesgate Mall attack (Ghanaweb, Ghana)

From Wikipedia:

Awoonor was Ghana's ambassador to Brazil from 1984 to 1988, before serving as his country's ambassador to Cuba. From 1990 to 1994 Awoonor was Ghana's Permanent Representative to the United Nations, where he headed the committee against apartheid.He was also a former Chairman of the Council of State.

Awoonor's son, wounded in the attack, survived.

Kenya names 4 jihadists involved in Westgate mall assault (The Long War Journal, USA)

No westerners named.

Al Shabaab attacked Mogadishu UN compund back in June (Reuters, UK)

Uganda suspends army officers for black market activities in Somalia (AFP, France)

The officers were part of the AMISOM mission.

The Kenyan military says that there were only four attackers, and none were women. (WSJ subcription, USA)  

Ain't no White Widow--a least not in the attack.

Why Do All African Stories Need a White Face? (The Guardian, UK)  

Yes, someone went there. In fairness, I went there a number of years back with respect to works of fiction with Africa as the setting.

(Thanks to Charles O.)

 

PREVIOUS:

SEALS in Somalia

About the Kenya Project

Kenya Project News Round-up, 10-4-2013

Kenya Project News Round-up, 10-1-2013

The Kenya Project

Please help keep this project going.

Go Fund Me: The Kenya Project 2013

Go Fund Me: Arlen's Harem

 

Real Life

...I'm living it for a couple of days. Then it's back to work!

 

Owners Kicked Out; Renters?

As part of the ongoing government shutdown, the feds evicted a number of homeowners from their houses located on federal land.

National Park Service officials cited the government shutdown as the reason for ordering an elderly Nevada couple out of their home, which sits on federal land.

"Unfortunately overnight stays are not permitted until a budget is passed and the park can reopen," an NPS spokesman explained to KTNV.

Ralph and Joyce Spencer, aged 80 and 77, respectively, own their home, but the government owns the land on which it sits.

One wonders if persons living in this type of housing will get the same treatment. Soon, I would guess. It would be a nasty tactic, and a good way to hasten the slow-brewing societal chaos. TPTB merely haven't thought of it yet.

(Thanks to a commenter at AoSHQ)

SEALs in Somalia

When I first saw this story a couple of days ago, my first thought was: why are SEAL missions front page news all of a sudden?

Now it's beginning to make sense.

A commando unit from the US Navy’s Seal Team Six launched an amphibious raid on a Somali town, but failed to confirm a capture or kill of their Al Shabab target, suspected to be linked to Nairobi’s Westgate mall terror attack.

(Emphasis mine.)

Because this team is the one that took out of Osama bin Laden--according to Vice President Biden--it must be continually humiliated in the public eye, even though many members of the team at the time of bin Laden raid are dead.

And if unnamed sources keep compromising SEAL OPSEC, even so soon after the fact, the present team members will end up dead as well. One wonders if that's the plan.

 

Posted with Blogsy

About the Kenya Project

I won't do much commentary on the project just yet. Right now, I'm just familiarizing myself with the background of the very complex matters in the region. Just trying not to make the same mistakes.

The links provided are just some of the reading material I've come across; I urge those interested to read them and to do your own homework as well. And feel free to give me informational links in the comments or send them to me in email or Twitter.

PREVIOUS:

Kenya Project News Round-up, 10-4-2013

Kenya Project News Round-up, 10-1-2013

The Kenya Project

Please help keep this project going.

Go Fund Me: The Kenya Project 2013

Go Fund Me: Arlen's Harem

 

Posted with Blogsy

 

Kenya Project News Round-up, 10-4-2013

Operation Linda Nchi: codename for combined action--part of the African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM)--between the Kenyan, Ethiopian and Somalian armed forces which

began on 16 October 2011, when troops from Kenya crossed the border into the conflict zones of southern Somalia. The soldiers were in pursuit of Al-Shabaab militants that are alleged to have kidnapped several foreign tourists and aid workers inside Kenya.According to the Ethiopian Foreign Minister, the operation represents one of the final stages in the Islamist insurgency of the Somali Civil War.

It is for this reason that Al Shabaab carried out the terror attack on Nairobi's Westgate Mall. Lots of detail in the Wikipedia entry.

AMISOM website (African Union)

AMISOM Meets With the Somali Diaspora in Minneapolis (All Africa, various African countries, USA)

Kenyan Soldiers Filmed Looting Mall (Daily Mail, UK) Way to lose empathy and sympathy, "gentlemen."

Kampala, Uganda Terror Attacks of 2010 (Wikipedia) Also, courtesy of Al Shabaab; in response to Uganda's support of AMISOM.

Dadaab website gives world’s largest refugee camp a voice (The East African, Kenya)

In 1991, thousands of Somalis flooded into Kenya’s barren northeast. The initial influx was prompted by the collapse of the Somali government, and by the prolonged civil war that followed.

Two decades later, little has changed. A refugee complex designed for 90,000 inhabitants in 1992 is now bursting at the seams. By May [2013], the official number of registered refugees in Dadaab was 401,913.

Al Shabaab's Osama bin Laden (The Daily Beast, USA)

Somali-Americans Condemn Terror (Voice of America, USA)

Just Kenya’s problem? (Frontline Club: The Forum Blog, UK)

PREVIOUS:

Kenya Project News Round-up, 10-1-2013

The Kenya Project

 *****

Thank you: Sabrina and Devon.

Go Fund Me: The Kenya Project 2013

Go Fund Me: Arlen's Harem

Time Correction for Interview (Updated)

4 Eastern, 1 Pacific.

UPDATE: Thank you, Ed, for giving me a platform to promote my projects! As a result, I have created a funding page for The Kenya Project 2013. Most of that will go toward a possible self-publishing effort.