US militant in Somalia still waging 'jihad' against US

WASHINGTON — American-born Islamic militant Omar Hamami remains committed to waging jihad against US interests, he said in an interview published on Thursday, despite a $5 million bounty that Washington placed on his head.

Hamami, who has parted ways with fellow Al-Shebab militants in Somalia, told the Danger Room website that he nevertheless remains committed to armed struggle against the United States.

"I believe in attacking US interests everywhere," he told Danger Room in a running dialogue on Twitter. "No 2nd thoughts and no turning back."

Nicknamed "the rapping jihadist" for his work enlisting Shebab recruits through his English-language rap songs and videos, Hamami, 28, is a former resident of Alabama who moved to Somalia in 2006.

Also known as Abu Mansoor al-Amriki or "the American," Hamami late last year announced his split from the insurgents, who he says now want to kill him.

Now the most prominent American jihadi left alive, Hamami told Danger Room that he is aware "my life may be in danger" as Washington targets Islamist militants overseas, including those with US citizenship.

Tweeting from an undisclosed location in Somalia, the militant -- who now spends his days online denouncing his former Islamist colleagues as corrupt -- refers to himself as the "former poster boy" of the group.

He told Danger Room that he also spends his time in Somalia growing vegetables, helping his wives around the house, and trolling his former Shebab colleagues on Twitter, under the handle @abumamerican.

Born in 1984 to a Syrian Muslim immigrant father and a white Protestant mother, Hamami was raised as a Christian but began to feel estranged from his upbringing as teenager before moving to Somalia.

Hamami was indicted in 2009 by an Alabama district court for providing support to a terrorist organization, and two years later he was placed on a US Treasury blacklist freezing all his assets in the United States. In November, his name was posted on the FBI's Most Wanted Terrorists list.

He and another militant, Jehad Mostafa, last month were named under the State Department's Rewards for Justice program for their ties to the Al-Qaeda linked Shebab.

He served as a military commander under Mostafa, a former resident of San Diego, California, who left for Somalia in 2005.

Funding to Somalia

The Foreign and Commonwealth Office and Department for International Development have published an infographic showing how UK aid to Somalia is helping the country.

The infographic, published ahead of the Somalia Conference, shows where aid is being spent and how it is making a difference.

For the period 2011-15 the UK is helping 45,000 people, including 15,000 women, secure new jobs. We are also helping over 60,000 children under five benefit from acute malnutrition programmes each year.

View the full infographic at www.flickr.com/foreignoffice

Funding is also helping over 100,000 babies to be born with the help of midwives, nurses and doctors as well as providing support to Somalia’s new government and federal parliament.

The Governments of the UK and Somalia will co-host the international conference on Somalia on 7 May. The conference aims to provide international support for the Government of Somalia as they rebuild their country after two decades of conflict.

The Conference will focus on four key areas: security, justice, public financial management and political stability.

Further information

Somalia Conference 2013 website

Kenya may reduce troops in Somalia

The Kenya Defence Forces could pull out more than 1,000 soldiers from the peacekeeping mission in Somalia after a battalion from Sierra Leone boosted the number of Amisom troops.

According to a statement from the African Union Mission in Somalia, a battalion from the Sierra Leone Armed Forces arrived in the Horn of Africa country on Tuesday and would be posted in the southern region.

Kenya has maintained a heavy military presence in Somalia since October 2011 when it launched “Operation Linda Nchi”.

Currently, its role is that of pacifying areas it took from Al-Shabaab including Kismayu, the last stronghold of the Al-Shabaab militants.

According to UN Security Council Resolution 2036 (2012), a country is allowed to withdraw a number of soldiers, once a fresh battalion from another country arrives.

Amisom spokesman Eloi Yao said the Sierra Leoneans would operate alongside the Kenyan contingent.

“The Special Representative welcomes the deployment of the contingent. Their integration into Amisom signifies the commitment across Africa to stabilise Somalia,” he said in a statement.

Hunting For The Most Dangerous Game

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April 5, 2013: AU (African Union) peacekeepers and government troops continue to chase down the remaining groups of al Shabaab gunmen. There are several thousand al Shabaab left, most of them armed and still dangerous. And even when you break up a group of al Shabaab, many of the surviving gunmen switch to more mundane criminal activities (theft and extortion).

These criminals and al Shabaab have one thing in common; they both hate journalists and anyone else who expose their crimes and name names. So do corrupt politicians, who are arguably the biggest crooks in Somalia. As a result it’s very dangerous to be a journalist or known critic of the bad guys in Somalia. It can be lucrative if you just take bribes to avoid news about certain bad behaviors. But those who report on the criminals are targeted for threats and often murder.

For more than a year now al Shabaab fleeing the Kenyan advance from the south and peacekeepers pushing out from Mogadishu ended up in the Gedo region (the southwestern area along the Ethiopian and Kenyan border). With the loss of Kismayo, the number of al Shabaab in Gedo is believed to have been as high as several thousand. That number has been shrinking over the last few months as AU peacekeepers and government troops move through the area seeking out al Shabaab camps and shutting them down. Gedo is thinly populated forests. There is good cover from air observation, but not much else. Supplies and new recruits are in short supply and these al Shabaab have to turn to banditry just to survive. The al Shabaab forces in this area are losing many men to desertion, but will sometimes put up a fight as the peacekeepers get close.

April 4, 2013: Japan will now allow its merchant ships to carry armed guards. Noting that nearly 40 percent of ships passing through Somali waters now carry armed guards and that this has helped halt pirates from seizing ships Japan amended its laws to allow the armed security personnel on Japanese flagged ships (which are about nine percent of those off Somalia).

April 3, 2013: AU peacekeepers and government troops have completed clearing al Shabaab and bandits from the 241 kilometer road connecting Baidoa and Mogadishu. This makes is easier to move foreign aid and commercial traffic between the two cities.

April 2, 2013: Al Shabaab detonated a bomb outside the headquarters of the largest bank in Somalia after the bank refused to obey al Shabaab orders to seize operations. Two security guards were wounded. Al Shabaab believes that Western style banks are un-Islamic, promote anti-Islamic materialism and business practices and should not be allowed to operate. But the banks also handle the $2 billion a year (over a third of GDP) that flows in from Somalis outside country and are a key element in the economic growth of the last few years.

March 31, 2013:  AU peacekeepers killed a senior al Shabaab commander (Mohamed Abu) 70 kilometers west of Mogadishu (near the town of Hurdur). Abu was leading one of the few al Shabaab groups still active in central Somalia. Most of the Islamic terrorists have been killed, captured, deserted or fled to Puntland and remote areas of the southeast in the last year.

March 24, 2013: Government troops returned to the town of Hudur (capital of the Bakool region) and chased out the al Shabbab men who had moved back in after government and Ethiopian troops left on the 17th. A local militia was supposed to provide security but these fellows were intimidated by over a hundred heavily armed al Shabaab who rolled in. The government is now working with the militia to improve their effectiveness.

First Sierra Leone peacekeepers arrive in Mogadishu

Sierra Leone President Ernest Bai Koroma (in cap) with the country's troops before they left for the peacekeeping mission in Somalia. FILE | NATION MEDIA GROUP

The first peacekeepers from Sierra Leone have arrived in the Somalia capital Mogadishu.

The West African troops become the latest to join the African Union Mission in Somalia (Amisom) contingent that continues to stay in the Horn of Africa state recovering from years of civil strife.

The Sierra Leonean troops were on arrival welcomed by the African Union’s Special Representative to Somalia, Mr Mohamed Salah Anadif.

The unit that arrived in Mogadishu Wednesday is an advanced team from the Republic of Sierra Leone Armed Forces (RSLAF).

Earlier reports released by Amisom Command indicated the RSLAF battalion would be deployed to southern Somalia where they would operate alongside peacekeepers from Kenya.

According to the peacekeeping mission, the Sierra Leonean contingent will enable Kenya to withdraw one battalion from the sector as per UN Security Council Resolution 2036.

Mr Anadif appreciated the efforts of the West African nation, saying: “Integration (of the RSLAF battalion) into Amisom signifies the commitment across Africa to stabilising Somalia.”

He added that their involvement would be invaluable in consolidating security in south - central Somalia.

Joining Djiboutian, Ugandan, Kenyan and Burundian contingents, the RSLAF will be the fifth party to contribute to the stabilisation of security in the Horn of Africa country including the fight against the Al-Qaeda linked Al-Shabaab, a fanatical Islamist movement vehemently opposing the Somali government.