At least nine people were killed and nearly 20 others injured Saturday in a car bomb blast at the front gate of a Somali military base in Mogadishu, witnesses and security officials said.  Government security officials contacted by VOA have confirmed that eight of those killed were government soldiers and other casualties included members of the solders’ families, who were at the base at the time.  “A suicide bomber driving an explosive-laden vehicle sped toward the front gate of the camp but the guards opened fire to stop it before it detonated,” Aden Mohamed, a police officer among the first responders, told VOA’s Somali Service.    Analysts Hope Elections Do Not Slow Somalia-Somaliland Talks The two sides disagree on the status of Somaliland, which declared independence from Mogadishu in 1991 The blast was heard throughout the area and sent a plume of black smoke into the air.  “I saw the dead bodies of at least eight soldiers and ambulances rushed to the scene to carry away the wounded,” a witness told VOA on condition of anonymity.  Hospital sources have confirmed that around 20 wounded people, mainly soldiers, were wounded in the blast. “We have taken at least 15 injured people [to hospitals], some of them in critical condition,” the city’s emergency medical responders told local media. The military camp is located near the city’s newly reopened main sports stadium in the Warta-nabadda district. The blast comes days after a suicide bombing killed at least four people, including the bomber at a Mogadishu restaurant that is popular with security forces and government workers.  Al-Shabab militants have claimed responsibility for the Saturday explosion, claiming they killed dozens of government soldiers.
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Two years after a pan-European military initiative was first proposed to help tackle the Sahel’s Islamist insurgency, the Takuba task force is finally becoming reality, as its first troops arrive amid the coronavirus pandemic, political turmoil and spreading unrest.A group of roughly 100 Estonian and French special forces are the first on the ground to comprise Takuba, the Tuareg name for a sabre. Some 60 Czech troops are to join them in October, and another 150 Swedish ones by early next year. Estonia, Belgium and more recently Italy count among others to announce troops for the mission intended to help Mali and Niger forces fight extremist groups in the region.But for now, and likely in the future, the main foreign troop contributor in the region is France, analysts say, whose own 5,100-troop Barkhane counterinsurgency operation enters its seventh year.And despite recent military victories, they say, chances of eradicating the conflict are remote, unless the Europeans and Africans offer more holistic, long-term solutions.“If you have a gushing wound on your neck, you don’t put a plaster on it,” said Andrew Yaw Tchie, a senior Africa security expert at the London-based Royal United Services Institute for Defence and Security Studies, or RUSI.Victory possible?France thinks differently. At a June Sahel summit in Nouakchott, Mauritania, French President Emmanuel Macron urged regional and international governments to intensify their military campaign against the Islamists.”We are all convinced that victory is possible in the Sahel,” Macron said, citing progress in recent months.Emboldening his stance was the early June killing of a key Islamist leader by French forces with the reported aid of a U.S. drone. Abdelmalek Droukdel, headed al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb, one of the main groups operating in the region.But other prominent jihadist leaders, including two linked to al-Qaida, remain at large, in a tangled conflict in which Islamist and local extremist groups have fueled and profited from inter-communal violence as well.Overall, the United Nations estimates terrorist attacks against civilian and military targets in three of the most vulnerable Sahel countries — Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger — has increased fivefold since 2016.In a recent interview with VOA, J. Peter Pham, the top U.S. envoy to the Sahel region, noted extremist attacks in Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger had increased 40 percent in the first quarter of this year alone.Asked whether counter-insurgency efforts were winning, Pham added, “It depends on what time horizon you use and what definition you use for winning.”While Droukdel’s death might be considered a “specific” success, he noted insecurity was expanding in Burkina Faso and central Mali, which “certainly cannot be counted a success.”Spreading threatExtremist groups are also spreading southward, deeper into sub-Saharan Africa — profiting from north-south ethnic and religious divides within countries, and more recently, analysts say, the coronavirus pandemic.Against this backdrop, there is no unified international military response, says Bakary Sambe, director of the Timbuktu Institute in Dakar.“Today, there are 19 different international strategies in the Sahel and no coordination,” Sambe said. “At a time when terrorist groups are beginning to coordinate, international partners are diverging.”The Takuba task force is intended to facilitate regional coordination, as well as to provide equipment and training to Malian and other G-5 Sahel forces, which also hail from Niger, Mauritania, Burkina Faso and Chad.Some observers see it as a test case for Macron’s broader goal of a more unified European Union defense, which a number of other EU member states are lukewarm about.It’s also unclear how many European countries will ultimately commit to the Sahel initiative. Some, including Norway and Germany, have already bowed out for a mix of reasons. Britain, which formally exited the EU last year, plans instead to dispatch 250 forces to beef up the U.N.’s MINUSMA peacekeeping mission in Mali.RUSI’s Tchie, who describes Britain as joining an “unwinnable fight in the Sahel” with its U.N. commitment, has similar reservations about the Takuba troops.“In essence, all you’re doing is saying, ‘Let’s deal with counterterrorism, and at some point, we’ll deal with the other stuff,’” he said, summarizing what he considers the European thinking.Yet such thinking, he added, fails to address interlinking problems, including climate change, corruption, poverty and underdevelopment that are fueling the conflict.Parallels with SomaliaAdding to the challenges is the current political turmoil in Mali, where West African leaders are trying to find an exit plan to a crisis in which protesters are calling for President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita to quit.Some regional forces have been accused of civilian abuses. For their part, extremist groups have capitalized on the coronavirus pandemic to further their interests, including staging attacks and recruiting new members, analysts say.France faces its own set of challenges. Its Barkhane force has lost 43 men in its Sahel operations since 2013. It also faces a negative image in some countries, where memories of its colonial presence linger.Takuba is partly intended to send the message that “France is not alone in the Sahel,” the country’s newspaper Le Monde wrote.The Timbuktu Institute’s Sambe sees it another way.“I think that wanting to realize Takuba is in itself an admittance that Barkhane and other foreign interventions have been a failure,” he said. “It’s been years that a purely security and military approach hasn’t functioned to eradicate terrorism.”In London, RUSI’s Tchie draws parallels between the Islamist groups in the Sahel and Somalia, where the al-Shabab terrorist group has grown and spread despite years of U.S. and other military efforts. In both regions, he says, extremist groups have scored points in local communities, he says, in ways national and foreign intervention has not.“It delivers justice, it delivers humanitarian relief to communities, and people feel more secure,” he said of al-Shabab. “It’s not that people want to go to al-Shabab. But when they need security, justice and things to work for them, al-Shabab delivers.”  
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The African Union says “aggressive and bold” action is needed to combat the coronavirus outbreak on the continent.More than 1 million cases of the virus have been reported across Africa, but officials warn the real number is likely larger, citing the absence of comprehensive testing in some countries.Australia’s Victoria state reported more than 450 new coronavirus cases Saturday and 12 deaths. Victoria is home to more than two-thirds of Australia’s almost 21,000 COVID infections.On Friday, a day when more than 60,000 new COVID-19 infections were reported in the U.S., Sturgis, South Dakota, began welcoming participants for its annual motorcycle rally. Some 250,000 people are expected this year. The biker event regularly attracts 500,000, but the COVID-19 pandemic is expected to keep some people home.There are no mask requirements in Sturgis and people have been asked to social distance, a practice that was not being observed Friday on the town’s crowded streets.Elsewhere, a student who was suspended for posting a photograph of a crowded hallway in her school, where many students were not wearing masks in the U.S. southern state of Georgia will be back in school Monday. School officials were widely criticized for suspending her over the photograph. The student told CNN on Friday that she has no regrets about what she did.Johns Hopkins University says there are 19.3 million reported global COVID-19 cases and more than 720,000 deaths.
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The Indian Ocean island of Mauritius declared a “state of environmental emergency” late Friday after a Japanese-owned ship that ran aground offshore days ago began spilling tons of fuel.Prime Minister Pravind Jugnauth announced the development as satellite images showed a dark slick spreading in the turquoise waters near environmental areas that the government called “very sensitive.”Mauritius has said the ship was carrying nearly 4,000 tons of fuel and cracks have appeared in its hull.Jugnauth earlier in the day said his government was appealing to France for help, saying the spill “represents a danger” for the country of 1.3 million people that relies heavily on tourism and has been been hit hard by the coronavirus pandemic.Mauritius”Our country doesn’t have the skills and expertise to refloat stranded ships, so I have appealed for help from France and President Emmanuel Macron,” he said. Bad weather has made it impossible to act, and “I worry what could happen Sunday when the weather deteriorates.”Jugnauth shared a photo of the vessel, the MV Wakashio, tilted precariously.Video posted online showed oily waters lapping at the shore as people peered at the ship in the distance. Online ship trackers showed the Panama-flagged bulk carrier had been en route from China to Brazil.The French island of Reunion is the closest neighbor to Mauritius, and France’s Foreign Ministry says France is Mauritius’ “leading foreign investor” and one of its largest trading partners.”We are in a situation of environmental crisis,” the environment minister of Mauritius, Kavy Ramano, said, calling the Blue Bay Marine Park and other areas near the leaking ship “very sensitive.”After the cracks in the hull were detected, a salvage team that had been working on the ship was evacuated, Ramano told reporters Thursday. Some 400 sea booms have been deployed to try to contain the spill.Government statements this week said the ship ran aground July 25 and the National Coast Guard received no distress call. The ship’s owners were listed as the Japanese companies Okiyo Maritime Corp. and Nagashiki Shipping Co. Ltd.A police inquiry has been opened into issues such as possible negligence, a government statement said.Tons of diesel and oil are now leaking into the water, environmental group Greenpeace Africa’s climate and energy manager, Happy Khambule, said in a statement.”Thousands of species around the pristine lagoons of Blue Bay, Pointe d’Esny and Mahebourg are at risk of drowning in a sea of pollution, with dire consequences for Mauritius’ economy, food security and health,” Khambule said.A government environmental outlook released nearly a decade ago said Mauritius had a National Oil Spill Contingency Plan but equipment on hand was “adequate to deal with oil spills of less than 10 metric tonnes.”In case of major spills, it said, assistance could be obtained from other Indian Ocean countries or from international oil spill response organizations.
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As Somalia and the self-declared republic of Somaliland head toward elections, conflict experts are calling on both sides not to let politics disrupt progress in recent talks.The two sides disagree on the status of Somaliland, which declared independence from Mogadishu in 1991.In June 2020, Somali government officials led by President Mohamed Abdullahi Farmajo met a delegation from Somaliland led by President Muse Bihi Abdi.FILE – Somalia’s President Mohamed Abdullahi Farmajo addresses lawmakers in the capital Mogadishu, Feb. 8, 2017.The meeting in Djibouti was the first time Somalia’s and Somaliland’s presidents had met since 1991, when the Somali government collapsed and Somaliland declared its independence. Somaliland is not recognized by any country.The agreement reached in June not to politicize aid and investment was another first between the sides.However, both Somalia and Somaliland are scheduled to have elections in coming months, and analysts suspect that will hold up any further negotiations.”I think Mogadishu will be quite distracted in the next few months,” said Omar Mahmood, a senior analyst on Somalia at the International Crisis Group. “To what degree can the current government engage at a deep level, given that they have a few months remaining on this mandate?”Last month, the Somali parliament voted out Prime Minister Hassan Ali Khaire for failing to secure general election and national security. Since then, the technical team that is supposed to follow up on the Djibouti talks has not held any meetings, according to a member of the team from Mogadishu who was not authorized to speak to the media.Mahmood says it’s hoped that Somalia and Somaliland can still discuss issues that can be achieved in the short term.”That’s international assistance and humanitarian aid, and basically how they share that, and also security, security cooperation, the battle against al-Shabab,” he said. “They have already outlined these various specific topics, and they are supposed to have a sort of subcommittee meeting on those.”However, there appears to be no change in Somalia’s stance that Somaliland is not an independent country.Mogadishu’s technical team on the talks is led by the interior minister, signaling that Somalia considers the talks an internal matter. Somaliland’s team is led by the foreign affairs minister, signaling that Hargeisa sees the talks as a negotiation between two states.Faisal Ali Warabe, an opposition politician in Somaliland, says there is nothing to talk about with Somalia.”We will think about engaging Somalia in the future, knowing well there is no government,” he said.He says Somalia is a divided country, with five presidents and five states. “Since we have our country, there is no war between us, and they have no power over us. It was a mistake to engage them,” Warabe said.The people of Somaliland accused Somalia’s government of committing widespread abuses against them during the government of Mohamed Siad Barre in the 1980s.Still, the two sides have agreed to continue with the engagement, in hopes of finding a solution to their political and historical differences. 
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