Saddam and Gaddafi’s gross miscalculation

 Saddam and Gaddafi's gross miscalculation

Oon Yeoh

LIKE Saddam Hussein before him, Muammar Gaddafi badly miscalculated, grossly overestimating his ability to stay in power and underestimating the masses' disdain of him.

That's what happens when you rule your country with an iron fist for so long. In Saddam's case, it was over 20 years and in Gaddafi's around 40. You start to believe in your own hype. They thought they were invincible and perhaps even well-loved.

Saddam was caught by American forces, stood trial in an Iraqi court and was sentenced to death. In that sense, he had a more dignified death than Gaddafi who was caught by Libyan rebels and – depending on which version of events you believe – either died during a crossfire or was executed.

If you watch the horrific video where a bloodied, dishevelled and disoriented Gaddafi can be seen being manhandled and taunted by rebels, it's hard to imagine he was not subsequently killed by his captors.

I'm hardly a bleeding heart liberal but I agree with commentators who say that Gaddafi should have been handed over to the International Criminal Court in The Hague to stand trial for crimes against humanity. As despicable as they may be, even brutal dictators deserve their day in court.

However, that Gaddafi would die at the hands of the very people he victimised is not at all surprising. It's only natural for a brutalised population to want revenge. Retribution might not be a virtue but it is human nature, and we've certainly seen hasty executions of totalitarian leaders before.

In 1989, Romania's Nicolae Ceausescu was not exactly lynched by a mob but he was tried in a two-hour show-trial and sentenced to death by a military court. Apparently, his execution happened so fast, the film crew failed to record it.

In 1945, Italy's Benito Mussolini was caught trying to flee to Spain and was summarily executed by a communist partisan commander. After that, his body was dumped in Milan where civilians kicked and spat upon it before hanging his cadaver upside down from the roof of a petrol station.

Gaddafi – and even Saddam before him – didn't have to suffer that kind of outcome. They both could have sought asylum in a third country willing to take them. Uganda's bloody dictator Idi Amin did just that and lived the rest of his days in relative comfort in Saudi Arabia.

Ironically, it was Gaddafi who helped Amin flee to Libya in 1979, where he stayed until 1980 when he moved to Saudi Arabia, after the Saudi royal family offered him sanctuary and paid him a generous subsidy in return for his staying out of politics. He died in 1983, never having had to pay for his crimes.

Earlier this year, Tunisia's Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali did the same thing, fleeing to Saudi Arabia where he now lives as a guest of the royal family.

Saddam and Gaddafi could have gotten a deal like that. For sure, neither one would have deserved amnesty – just as Amin and Ben Ali didn't deserve to go unpunished – but it would have spared their countries a drawn-out, bloody war.

Instead, they chose to fight. And it's in that context that we should view the Gaddafi killing. It's not justified but he suffered the consequences of his miscalculation.

If there's one good thing to emerge out of this, it's that it serves as a warning to other dictators. I'm sure Libya is not the last we've seen of the Arab Spring. Other autocrats facing popular uprisings would now know that their choice is clear: Fight and suffer the fate of Saddam and Gaddafi or spare your country from war and live in exile like Amin and Ben Ali.

Oon Yeoh is a new media consultant. Comments: letters@thesundaily.com

Somaliland: Vice President Officially Opened an Orphanage Center for needy children

 Somaliland: Vice President Officially Opened an Orphanage Center for needy children

HARGEISA (Somalilandpress)–Somaliland Vice President Mr. Abdirahman Abdilahi Ismail 'Saylici' cut the ribbon off at newly established orphanage center that will house street and orphaned children in the capital Hargeisa. This new location is located in the Mohamed Mooge district of Hargeisa. The project was reported to have price tag of $97000.00 dollars where majority of funds was contributed by Dahabshiil Group.

Well organized ceremony was attended by Somaliland Vice President, members of Somaliland cabinet ministers including interior, labor and social affairs, and top officials from the business community. The new facility consists of several buildings that will accommodate orphaned and street children who are vulnerable in Hargeisa streets. The housing units are furnished with beds and decors and will house separate dorms for girls and boys. Speaking at the ceremony first was the head of public relations for Dahabshiil Group Mr. Hassan Mohamed Jama 'Hasan Hiis' who acknowledged the contribution that Dahabshiil Group made to the creation of this orphanage facility. Mr. Jama added that Dahabshiil Group is known for its charity work in the country and that it is the responsibility of all Muslims to give back to those that are in need. Mr. Hassan Jama concluded his speech by saying their company has pledged to support the future needs of the facility.

Followed Mr. Hassan Hiis was Mr. Abdiwahab Maax who spoke on behalf of Telesom Company which also contributed to the building of the orphanage center; Mr. Abdiwahab said "it is very important that we safe guard the welfare of our orphanage because they are part of Somaliland and the future of Somaliland".

Minister of Labor and Social affairs Ms. Ilhan Mohamed Jama also spoke at the ceremony as she thanked all the attendees of the opening ceremony. Ms. Ilhan Jama especially thanked all those that took part in the achievement of building this need facility. Minister Ilhan Jama thanked the business community and Somaliland women living in Briminham, UK for their kind donation. The minister told that the audience the center can accommodate up to 300 children but future plan is that 300 children mainly of girls and boys will live in the center.

Somaliland Vice President Abdirahman Ismail closed the ceremony as he thanked the private sector and the community for the vital role that they played in accomplishing the creation of this orphanage center. He said, "I am indebted to big companies which contributed to this center and praised their unwavering commitment in improving social needs."

UGANDA: Lack of resources, political will slows male circumcision progress

Photo: Edward Echwalu/IRIN

Under the knife

KAMPALA, 31 October 2011 (PlusNews) -  Ugandan men have been seeking medical male circumcision in droves since the governmentlaunched a national policy in 2010, but the health system is not equipped to handle the caseload, slowing down the potential HIV prevention benefits of the campaign. 

"Communities have shown a lot of interest in male circumcision, but we are not meeting the demand; our target is 80 percent of uncircumcised men but we have only met about 5 percent of that," said Zainab Akol, manager of the Ministry of Health's AIDS Control Programme. 

"We have insufficient human resources, infrastructure, kits and of course money," she added. 

Just 56 percent of the country's health worker positions are filled, and many are not trained in male circumcision. 

An estimated 25 percent of Ugandan men are circumcised, but studies have shown the population to be open to the idea of male circumcision for both adults and infants. 

The US President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, PEPFAR, is supporting much of Uganda's male circumcision activities and since May, has conducted several mobile male circumcision clinics, recording high volumes in all the areas it has visited so far. 

At the Rakai Health Sciences Programme (RHSP) in central Uganda, one of the largest male circumcision providers in the country, there is a steady stream of men seeking the services and health workers seeking training, but even this relatively well-funded programme has difficulty meeting the demand for its services. 

SLIDESHOW: Male Circumcision in Uganda

Photo: Edward Echwalu/IRIN

View the Slideshow

"Last financial year, which ended on 31st March, 2011, we managed to train about 300 health workers, but this was way below the number of applications we received," Rajab Kakaire, a doctor with the RHSP, told IRIN/PlusNews. 

Costly sluggishness 
According to a recent report by the UN World Health Organization (WHO) on the scale-up of male circumcision delivery in eastern and southern Africa, just 9,052 circumcisions were carried out in Uganda in 2010, against more than four million men who would need to be circumcised for the country to reach its 80 percent target.

WHO estimates that if Uganda achieved the 80 percent target within five years, the country could potentially avert close to 340,000 new HIV infections. 

A study released in July 2011 found that a male circumcision programme in the township of Orange Farm in South Africa - one of the sites of the original randomized controlled study that showed the effectiveness of male circumcision in HIV prevention - resulted in a 55 percent reduction in HIV prevalence and a 76 percent reduction in new HIV infections in circumcised men. 

Political will
The WHO report found that Uganda's male circumcision lacked leadership, with no prominent national champion. In fact, HIV activists have blamed the lack of momentum in the national programme on President Yoweri Museveni's continued lack of enthusiasm for male circumcision. 

By contrast, Kenya's Prime Minister, Raila Odinga - who comes from the non-circumcising Luo community - has embraced the country's male circumcision campaign, which has been a runaway success; Museveni was earlier this year quoted by local media as questioning the scientific evidence behind medical male circumcision. 

"Now it is circumcision which is not... being supported but even sabotaged by our political elite who openly discourage people from embracing the practice, saying it will not protect them," Stephen Waititi, a senior medical officer at Mildmay Uganda, an HIV-focused NGO, said in an editorial in a local paper in July. 

kr/mw 

Analysis: DRC poll campaigns under way amid fears of pre-rigging, violence

Photo: Jane Some/IRIN

The DRC's ruling coalition had started putting up banners and posters in Kinshasa long before the official start of campaigning on 28 October

KINSHASA, 3 November 2011 (IRIN) - Deteriorating security, rampant poverty and illiteracy, logistical difficulties and allegations of rigging are among the concerns raised by analysts and activists ahead of the Democratic Republic of Congo's (DRC) presidential and parliamentary elections, scheduled for 28 November. 

The Independent National Electoral Commission (CENI) has rebuffed opposition calls for the country's second democratic polls since independence in 1960 to be postponed to ensure better planning. 

"If things remain as they are - without dialogue between the electoral commission and political parties over the electoral process, as well as between the commission and civil society and the international community - and elections go on as planned, the result could be violence," Jerome Bonso, chairman of the National League for Free and Fair Elections, told IRIN in Kinshasa. 

Bonso said these elections were taking place in a different context from 2006, when the last elections were held. 

"We have to consider events such as the Arab spring where the population spearheaded change in their countries' leadership. The reality on the ground is that Congolese today need change," Bonso said. "If they fail to get this change through the elections, they might go the way the population in the Arab countries went." 

According to Bonso, a spate of demonstrations has already led CENI to allow opposition delegates to audit its database, which had allegedly been "cleaned" of some popular candidates. 

In a statement issued on 28 October - the day campaigns officially started - 41 international and domestic NGOs called for urgent measures to prevent electoral violence, better protect civilians and ensure credible, free and fair elections. 

"This election in Congo is the ultimate test," Thierry Vircoulon, Central Africa director at the International Crisis Group (ICG), said in the statement. "Is Congo on course to consolidate its fledgling democracy or return to a state of widespread instability, insecurity and violence? Second elections are vital to consolidate democratic peace gains in the country, complete a full electoral cycle and strengthen democratic institutions." 

In the statement, the NGOs said recent events had indicated the alarming potential for more violence and destabilization over the electoral period. In September, several deaths and injuries occurred as demonstrators and police clashed in the capital. 

"In addition to this election-related violence, the country has been ravaged by widespread insecurity for years, with a recent increase in attacks targeting humanitarian workers, including the deadliest incident in Congolese history, in which five aid workers were killed in October in South Kivu," the NGOs said. 

Photo: Jane Some/IRIN

The Electoral Commission is working to a tight schedule to prepare for elections on 28 November

"Security forces in the DRC are already struggling with ongoing insecurity and are unable to respond to any further escalation." 

Vision unclear 

According to Phillip Biyoya Makutu, a professor of political science and international relations and director of the Panafrican Institute of Strategy and International Relations, conditions for transparent elections are not in place. 

"In my opinion, the coming poll will weaken Congo rather than strengthen it because consensus was not respected [in the creation of the electoral commission] and we seem to be operating without one vision for the future," Biyoya said. "It seems the elections will be conducted on the basis of personal interest. The contenders are not prioritizing the aspirations of the voters; they are competing against each other – a fight of personalities." 

In an 18 October statement, the Carter Center noted delays in the electoral process, logistic challenges as well as those related to designing and printing the ballot papers. 

"CENI and its partners, notably the UN Mission in Congo (MONUSCO) which provides air support for distribution of election materials among other assistance, are under serious time pressure to ensure the timely distribution of all necessary materials for the November 28 presidential and legislative elections," the Center said. "The very high number of legislative candidates - 18,386 - creates a complex challenge for ballot paper design, printing, distribution and accommodation of the resulting large ballots by the ballot boxes. Moreover, ballot box production and delivery is still under way." 

CENI vice-president Jacques Djoli Eseng'Ekeli told IRIN the fact that the commission was operating under a tight schedule was the result of a parliamentary decision as "legally, CENI was set up in July 2010 but practically, it was installed in March 2011. 

"It is only from this time that we started the preparations and planning for the elections. Political parties and civic society representatives all wanted the polls held as stipulated by the constitution - meaning that the mandate of the current president must end on 6 December; they wanted the presidential and parliamentary elections held at the same time, this has meant that CENI has had to work under a very tight schedule." 

Djoli said the commission was ready for the 28 November polls, saying the printing of the ballot papers was nearing completion in South Africa while the ballot boxes were being sourced from China. 

"The South African army will help to bring the ballot papers to 15 points across the country, from where they will be distributed with the help of MONUSCO," Djoli said. "According to the electoral calendar, the distribution of the electoral material was to take place between 22 October and 20 November; on a logistic level, we are trying to adhere to this schedule." 

Photo: Jane Some/IRIN

Jérôme Bonso, president of the National League for Free and Fair Elections, a human rights NGO

As the main financier of the elections, the government was facilitating the process, Djoli said. "It gives us the funding as it wishes; yesterday [18 October] it gave us [US]$20 million; we are hoping to get $30 million more before the end of the week to finalize payment of expenses to suppliers, mostly aircraft suppliers, since most of the operations are done using planes." 

Composition of CENI 

According to Biyoya, the professor, although CENI was supposed to have been created through consensus, civil society was excluded from the process. 

"As a result, the current electoral context is not about trust; there is mistrust with a lot of contestations from the opposition," he said. "To understand how the coming elections could lead to a crisis, one must understand how the preparations for the poll have gone so far. 

"Mid-year, the authorities modified the country's constitution to pave the way for a single round of voting for the presidency instead of the previous provision which allowed a second round in case no clear majority winner emerged. This modification seems to have been made to suit the interests of individuals." 

The reality on the ground, however, Biyoya said, is that the majority of Congolese want change, especially in their social-economic situation. 

"Poverty is rampant, provision of basic services is inadequate, unemployment is widespread and human rights are not respected," Biyoya said, "and this makes for a catastrophic situation regarding social services. The question the Congolese are asking is 'will things change?' Not much has changed since 2006. Salaries remain low and often workers are not paid on time, hence the frequent strikes over pay and working conditions. The government responds that it is working to improve infrastructure such as roads but it seems it has neglected the people's welfare." 

International support 

Although there is international support for the elections, through the UN, the EU and other organizations, Biyoya said, the fact that it was not as big as in 2006 could undermine the conduct and outcome of the poll. 

The 28 November elections in figures:
	0: No female presidential candidate
	11: The number of presidential candidates
	37: The average number of candidates competing for one legislative seat
	56: The number of pages each ballot has due to the large number of parliamentary candidates
	147: The number of political parties in the DRC
	500: The number of parliamentary seats being contested
	2,200: The number of women contesting National Assembly seats
	18,500: The number of parliamentary candidates
	62,500: Estimated number of polling stations across the country
	32,500,000: The number of registered voters
	64,000,000: The number of ballots printed in South Africa
Sources: CENI, MONUSCO, Carter Center, media

"The legitimacy of the poll result will, however, depend on the arbitration of the international community. At least this time it looks like the international community is ready to sanction or act in case there is not transparency and credibility in the elections," Biyoya said. "Already, France and the UN Security Council have issued statements. This suggests they are closely watching the process." 

Opposition presidential candidate Oscar Kashala Lukumuena of the Union Pour La Reconstruction Du Congo (UPREC) said the main concern of the opposition was the electoral process. 

"Take voter registration for instance, this process was based on criteria set out in the constitution. A total of 32.5 million voters were initially registered and when the voters' register was published online, it was found to have over 119,000 irregularities. Now, some of these have since been rectified but the problem has been the delay in this clearing process; the electoral body was supposed to publish this list at least 30 days before the start of campaigns [28 October] but this was done just recently," Kashala said. 

"We have raised these concerns with the electoral commission because the elections must be done professionally and in a transparent manner. We, in the opposition, are not against the elections being held, we are concerned that it is unlikely that transparent elections will take place... We don't want even a single drop of Congolese blood to be shed after the elections, that is why I am calling upon my fellow contestants, the government and the electoral commission to make sure the country does not revert to violence." 

Transparency concerns 

Aubin Minaku, secretary-general of Majorité Présidentielle, President Joseph Kabila's ruling coalition, said: "Contrary to claims by the opposition that CENI favours Majorité Présidentielle, we picked our four nominees to CENI from civil society while the opposition picked their three from political parties; the chairman is from civil society and we even have a woman representative."

To prevent rigging, Minaku said, the opposition should have its agents at all polling stations. "They also have recourse to the courts should there be cheating or fraud of any kind. For us, we are ready for the elections and are confident of winning. If the opposition is not ready for the polls, they should not use the claim of pre-rigging as an excuse." 

Christopher Ngoyi Mutamba, president and coordinator of the Synergie Congo Culturel et Développement (SCCD), stressed that civil society was concerned about the polls' transparency. 

"Even though civil society was not consulted in the nomination of CENI commissioners, we believe those picked must be accountable to the people. So far, transparency seems to be lacking, we have lodged many complaints with the commission and even with international human rights organizations denouncing the lack of gender equity in CENI's composition." 

Insecurity has increased across the country since the start of the electoral process, Ngoyi said. "Here in Kinshasa, for instance, I can no longer walk alone on the streets, I need my staff to accompany me as we try to sensitize people about the elections; we cannot go to elections when people are not informed of their rights, we cannot go to elections when opposition candidates are not free to move around." 

Somalia: Sierra Leone to Send Troops

Somalia: Sierra Leone to Send Troops
By JOSH KRON- Newyork Times 

Sierra Leone will send 850 soldiers to an African Unionpeacekeeping mission inSomalia, a military official said Thursday. The official, Lt. Col. Ronnie Harleston, Sierra Leone’s military attaché to the United Nations, said the troops would deploy in the middle of next year. They will join approximately 9,000 peacekeepers from Uganda and Burundi, who are currently trying to secure the Somali capital, Mogadishu, from Islamist rebels. Djibouti plans to contribute 850 troops to the force this month. The force has a mandate for 12,000 peacekeepers, but African Union officials say they would need 20,000 to try to pacify the entire country, which has been in a state of civil unrest for roughly 20 years.

Africa awash with conflicts and weapons

Somalia’s uneasy peace

by Glen Johnson

Abdullahi walked slowly past makeshift stalls in a crowded Mogadishu market, dragging his right leg. He’s in his fifties and unemployed, and relies on overseas remittances sent by his daughter to survive. In 2007 he was shot by Somalia’s increasingly powerful Islamist militia, al-Shabab (Youth). The bullet blew a hole through his right leg, just below his groin.
Like many Somalis, Abdullahi is a casualty of the conflict between Somalia’s Transitional Federal Government (TFG) and al-Shabab. He says he supports the TFG but doesn’t know whether it can succeed. “But it has to,” he said. “Look at the roads, look at the rubbish: this is what 20 years of no government does. We cannot have another 20 years of war.”
With renewed violence in October, the uneasy peace that has hung over Mogadishu since al-Shabab withdrew in early August may be over. Most analysts explain the withdrawal from the capital city by pointing to rifts that emerged within the organisation when it attempted to define who it should be fighting. Should it fight the ‘near enemy’ or the ‘far enemy’? Should it be national in its focus, or international? Part of the global jihad or not? Pressure from other militia notably the Sufi-oriented Ahlu Sunna Wal Jamaa compounded the organisation’s problems; so did the drying up of remittances from the Somali diaspora.
According to William Reno, of Northwestern University in the US, al-Shabab placed emphasis on ideology at the expense of political pragmatism, and fought on too many fronts at once. “They’ve overplayed their ideological hand and annoyed enough people so that, in the end, the communities they control are turning against them and starting to look to other people.” Reno, who has extensive experience throughout Africa, thinks that in some ways al-Shabab has pursued the sensible alternative when trying to figure out how to unite communities to use religion. “But,” he added, “in trying to articulate a religious idea they are too ideological. So they are insensitive to the political calculations and compromises they have to make.” (Al-Shabab’s ideological persuasion is Takfiri, an ultra-conservative interpretation in which the killing of apostates forms the core conceptual basis. Un-Islamic cultural practice is banned and a strict version of sharia enforced.)
In 2008, for example, a 13-year-old girl, Asho Duhulow, was raped by three militiamen. She took her case to a Kismayo court administered by al-Shabab and identified her assailants. The men were released, but Asho was charged with adultery (1). She was taken to a local sports ground, buried up to her neck and stoned to death. According to reports, al-Shabab militiamen opened fire on people who attempted to intervene, killing one.

Path to Islamisation

Yet, Somalia does not have a history dominated by Islamic extremism and most analysts note that al-Shabab’s ideology is an odd fit for Somalis. Political Islam emerged in the 1960s as Muslim Brotherhood ideology spread through the Horn of Africa and Egypt’s al-Azhar University funded religious schools in Mogadishu.
In the mid-1970s former president Siad Barre introduced a new family law, ostensibly promoting gender equality as part of his agenda of “Scientific Socialism”; this granted women equal rights in the area of inheritance. Abdurahman M Abdullahi wrote in an essay entitled Women, Islamists and the Military Regime in Somalia, that the law enraged Somalia’s religious leaders who saw it as a secular assault on Islam at the level of the family. An Islamist movement began to crystallise.
Saudi Arabian Wahabbism was imported into Somalia in the 1980s, via Saudi charities. By 1984 al-Ittihad al-Islamiya had emerged as a composite of two other radical groups. It morphed into a militant group in 1991, but suffered a series of stinging defeats in the mid-1990s.
The Union of Islamic Courts (UIC) was formed in the early 2000s; its basis is an ad hoc collection of Islamic courts that had administered justice in Somalia following the collapse of Siad Barre’s regime. By 2006 the UIC was seriously challenging Mogadishu’s warlords and took control of the capital in June, bringing stability but enforcing a strict form of sharia. The UIC was unacceptable to both Ethiopia and the United States, for geopolitical reasons. In December 2006 Ethiopia, acting as a crude proxy for the US, formally launched strikes against the movement and quickly overwhelmed it. Al-Shabab, the UIC’s youth wing, emerged. Led by Sheikh Aden Hashi Ayro, who is said to have received training in insurgency tactics and explosives in Afghanistan in the 1990s, the organisation began waging war against the TFG and soon controlled much of south and central Somalia (2).

The view from Bakara market

Some of the people perched behind temporary stalls were from Bakara market, which was closed by the TFG as it sought to secure Mogadishu after al-Shabab’s withdrawal. One storekeeper said he felt as if he was on holiday, but did not think the peace would last long. “Shabab was making problems for the people. It was better they leave us. [But] these people are from Bakara. By day they come here and sell, at night they fight with the government.”
Others claim al-Shabab cannot regroup, but express concerns about whether the TFG will act responsibly: the TFG is known to be corrupt and there are doubts over whether a western-style centralised system of governance is relevant or can be effective in a clan-based Somalia. But everyone agrees that further US involvement in the country would shatter the temporary peace. As Abdullahi put it: “We need help now, but then they [the international community] should leave.”
But recent reports that the US is expanding its capabilities throughout the Horn of Africa, while unsurprising, do not bode well, and could threaten Mogadishu’s shaky peace, while strengthening al-Shabab’s international factions.
It is clear the US is at war in both Yemen and Somalia. How it manages those wars will determine the damage to the region. Washington’s Somalia and Yemen strategy seems similar to its Pakistan strategy: by targeting leadership figures normally with drone strikes operational inefficiencies emerge over time and hinder the ability of jihad networks to carry out attacks. The networks then fragment as disagreements over how to counter US tactics emerge, amid an overall environment of rotating leadership, probably characterised by competition between potential leadership figures. Efficacy is lowered and the threat becomes localised, rather than global.
But this strategy lacks an end game. As the civilian casualties mount, the likelihood of ordinary people aligning themselves with the US’s targets increase. And so the US gets stuck in a pointless rut. Expanded US engagement in Somalia gives al-Shabab’s international factions a propaganda boost and could swing the balance in its favour while healing basic rifts within the group

http://mondediplo.com/2011/11/13somalia

Somalia - Mudug Regional Admin Welcomes Amisom Deployment

Shabelle Media Network (Mogadishu)

Somalia - Mudug Regional Admin Welcomes Amisom Deployment


Galka'yo — The Mudug regional administration under Somalia's semi-autonomous state of Puntland on Wednesday warmly welcomed the deployment of AU peacekeepers in central Somalia town of Galka'yo where the security was deteriorating.

Mohamed Jama, Puntland's Mudug governor, they are endorsing the remarks of Puntland leader Abdurrahman Sheikh Mohamoud Farole that AMISOM force are to be brought north of Galka'yo to help assuring the security of the town partially.

Insecurity, planned killings and roadside bomb attacks have been rampant in the town of Galka'yo as Punland leaders accused Al shabaab of being behind those insecurity activities.