Shabelle Media Network (Mogadishu)
Somalia: Ethiopia Denies Abduction of ONLF Officials
By Sh M Network, 1 February 2014
Adis-Ababa — An Ethiopian official from the Somali region of Ethiopia who gave an interview to the VOA somali branch denied allegations that the Ethiopian Government abducted two highly ranked ONLF memebers from Nairobi.
Abdinur Abdullahi Farah who is the presidents advisor in the Somali region of Ethiopia told the VOA that the two officials reached an agreement with the Ethiopian Government and are now in the region peacefully.
the two ONLF members are Ali Mohamed Hussein and Sulub Abdi Ahmed who were spearheading talks with the Ethiopiuan Government inside Kenya.
Shabelle Media Network (Mogadishu)
Kenya On High Alert Following Terrorist Threats
31 January 2014
Security agents are on high alert after intelligence reports indicated that Al-Shabaab militants were planning attacks in Kenya and other African countries with their soldiers to Somalia.
Information from Kenyan intelligence agencies and the 2014 US Global Threat Assessment report indicate that government buildings and other installations could be targeted. (SEE: US intelligence chief warns of new attacks on Kenya)
Also targeted are Burundi, Djibouti, Ethiopia and Uganda because of those countries' troop contributions to the African Union peace-keeping force in Somalia.
The Amisom military component has 5,432 troops from Burundi, 1,000 from Djibouti, 3,664 from Kenya, 850 from Sierra Leone and 6,223 from Uganda. Ethiopia last week officially deployed 4,395 to join the force.
Mr David Kimaiyo, the Inspector-General of Police, Thursday said that security had been beefed up in the areas identified as potential targets.
"We have our intelligence reports and have enhanced security across the country for some time now. It is not as a result of the warning issued on Wednesday," he said.
Mr Kimaiyo insisted that the beefing up of security was not as a result of the latest reports. A joint team made up of officers drawn from the National Intelligence Service (NIS), Anti-Terrorism Police Unit (ATPU) and the Criminal Intelligence Unit (CIU) have covertly been operating over the past few days in the places identified as terrorist risks.
On Wednesday last week, a team of 20 officers from the General Service Unit's Recce Squad was deployed at a shopping mall as a precautionary measure.
One embassy in the outskirts of the city centre also wrote to the police requesting enhanced security. In its letter, the embassy said it feared that some of its interests in the Horn of Africa and in East Africa could be targeted by terrorists.
Said part of the letter: "This Embassy received warning that the terrorists group Al-Shabaab is preparing an armed terrorist attack... The Embassy therefore requests the relevant Kenyan authorities to immediately strengthen and enhance the security of the embassy's compound."
COMBATING PIRACY
A European country, which has been active in combating piracy in the Indian Ocean is also believed to be among potential targets.
Information from the police indicate that terrorists could be planning two simultaneous attacks.
Already, airports, especially Jomo Kenyatta International Airport in Nairobi, have introduced tougher security measures which require that all vehicles be stopped and searched at entry points while the occupants should alight for frisking.
Among the new rules is a requirement that all airline passengers arrive at the airport an hour before the recommended reporting time to ensure they have sufficient time for the security checks. The security standard was raised a level higher two weeks after a small explosion at the airport which was blamed on security lapse.
During the January 16 incident, suspected terrorists threw an improvised explosive device (IED) within JKIA and sped off. On reaching the security barrier, they were challenged to stop but defied the orders.
The officers manning the barrier shot at the car but did not pursue it. (READ: Police launch probe over JKIA explosion)
An hour later, the body of a middle aged man of Somali origin was found in the rear seat of the bullet-riddled car abandoned at Nairobi's Shauri Moyo shopping centre.
Witnesses later told police that two men alighted from the car and rode away on a motorcycle. Several suspects have been interrogated over the incident, including the trader who sold the car to the suspects, but the suspects are still at large.
In the recent past, there have been reports that rogue police officers and airline employees were conspiring with potentially dangerous passengers to compromise security. On Wednesday night, nine suspects including a CID officer and a Kenya Airways employee allegedly involved in fake passports and visas cartel were arrested at JKIA.
The nine -- who included seven foreigners -- were Thursday charged in a Kibera court with conspiracy to forge identification and immigration documents.
Maalim Mustafa Ibrahim, a police officer attached to the JKIA police station, Paul Okoth, an officer with Kenya Airways and the foreigners from Somalia, Ethiopia and Banglandesh were not required to plead to the charges due to a communication hitch because the foreigners did not understand English or Kiswahili.
The foreigners faced a separate count of being in Kenya illegally.
The prosecution said that although Mr Maalim and Mr Okoth were Kenyans, they could not take pleas because they were jointly charged with the foreigners. Their lawyers asked the court to allow them to take plea.
The magistrate, Mrs Judith Wanjala, directed that interpreters be made available in court on February 4 to facilitate the suspects take plea.
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Shabelle Media Network (Mogadishu)
Somalia: Two Police Officers Arrested Over Abduction of Ethiopian Officials
3 February 2014
Two Kenyan police officers were Monday arrested in connection with the abduction of two top officials of Ethiopia's Ogaden National Liberation Front (ONLF) from outside a popular restaurant in Upper Hill, Nairobi last week.
The officers, an inspector and a constable attached to Nairobi Area CID are expected to face charges of espionage for Ethiopia's intelligence services.
Nairobi head of CID Nicholas Kamwende confirmed the arrests and said the officers expected in court Monday morning. "They will face various charges following the abduction of the two ONLF officials," said Kamwende.
He added the officers had been identified by witnesses as having participated in the abduction of Mr Sulub Ahmed and Ali Hussein who were members of the ONLF negotiation team that was in Nairobi for a proposed third round of talks.
Ahmed and Hussein were members of ONLF central committee and were abducted on January 26 from outside Arabian Cuisine in Upper Hill area.
They were later driven out of the country to Ethiopia by intelligence officials from Addis Ababa and their whereabouts are not known.
ONLF officials who asked not to be named had said security agencies from Ethiopia and Kenya were involved in the kidnapping. They had been invited for a lunch date at the restaurant near TSC headquarters when they were abducted by men who were in three waiting cars.
One of the cars, a black Toyota Prado and the driver were seized and detained at the Turbi police station the following day but the two were missing amid speculation they had been taken across to Ethiopia.
The ONLF officials who spoke in Nairobi said the two officials were invited by the Kenyan government for peace negotiations. Their whereabouts in Ethiopia are yet to be known
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Two police officers arrested over abduction of Ethiopian officials
Updated Monday, February 3rd 2014 at 10:13 GMT +3
By CYRUS OMBATI
The officers, an inspector and a constable attached to Nairobi Area CID are expected to face charges of espionage for Ethiopia’s intelligence services.
Nairobi head of CID Nicholas Kamwende confirmed the arrests and said the officers expected in court Monday morning.
“They will face various charges following the abduction of the two ONLF officials,” said Kamwende.
He added the officers had been identified by witnesses as having participated in the abduction of Mr Sulub Ahmed and Ali Hussein who were members of the ONLF negotiation team that was in Nairobi for a proposed third round of talks.
Ahmed and Hussein were members of ONLF central committee and were abducted on January 26 from outside Arabian Cuisine in Upper Hill area.
They were later driven out of the country to Ethiopia by intelligence officials from Addis Ababa and their whereabouts are not known.
ONLF officials who asked not to be named had said security agencies from Ethiopia and Kenya were involved in the kidnapping.
They had been invited for a lunch date at the restaurant near TSC headquarters when they were abducted by men who were in three waiting cars.
One of the cars, a black Toyota Prado and the driver were seized and detained at the Turbi police station the following day but the two were missing amid speculation they had been taken across to Ethiopia.
The ONLF officials who spoke in Nairobi said the two officials were invited by the Kenyan government for peace negotiations. Their whereabouts in Ethiopia are yet to be known.
“This is not the first time that such an incident happens and we urge that the government of Kenya provides us with security. We do not know the fate of our officials but we know they were taken to Ethiopia,” said an official who asked not to be named.
Analysts say that this move may affect diplomatic negotiations between ONLF and Ethiopia brokered by Kenyan Government on 2012.
ONLF is a separatist rebel group fighting to make the region of Ogaden in eastern Ethiopia an independent state.
ONLF, established in 1984, demands for the autonomy of this region, and claimed responsibility for several attacks since the beginning of 2007 aimed at Ethiopian forces in the area, which the government considers a region under the new federal system.
COMMENTS:
In the spirit of government-to-government tender/procurement, even at the lowest levels!
All opaque and criminal.
All opaque and criminal.
These kind of abuses and breach of international laws by the Ethiopian thugs must be stop by Kenyan authorities.
How in the world can a peace negotiator be abducted in broad day light under the noses of Kenyan police and intelligence forces in one of the busiest city in Africa, Nairobi. Now we know the Ethiopians had inside help and possibly paid money. Kenyan foreign minister Ambassador Amina Mohamed must demand strongly for the immediate return of these men from the Ethiopians, it must also protest strongly to the international body for the violations of its sovereignty and security by a neighboring state which sent to Nairobi and armed men to abduct people who stayed in Kenya as guests of the country.
How in the world can a peace negotiator be abducted in broad day light under the noses of Kenyan police and intelligence forces in one of the busiest city in Africa, Nairobi. Now we know the Ethiopians had inside help and possibly paid money. Kenyan foreign minister Ambassador Amina Mohamed must demand strongly for the immediate return of these men from the Ethiopians, it must also protest strongly to the international body for the violations of its sovereignty and security by a neighboring state which sent to Nairobi and armed men to abduct people who stayed in Kenya as guests of the country.
Ethiopian security forces are famous for torture and extra-judicial killings therefore these men are possibility being torture in a dark, cold underground room inside military camp in Ethiopia and they will soon be brought in front of a TV camera under the gun and will be told to admit crimes they did not commit and will also be forced to say that they came to Ethiopia on their own and no abduction has taken place. Kenyan officials must work hard for their safe return before its too late. A Somali-Canadian named Bashir Makhtal was taken from Kenya to Ethiopia on what is known rendition with full knowledge of the Kenyan Authority back in January 2007 and he is in Addis-abab jail until now. Kenya needs to change and upheld human rights of its citizens, guests and visitors.
..its such a stupid idea for the kenyan government to invite people for peace talks and then abduct them and hand them over to the ethiopian government - i thought some people in government had brains!!
That was a state to state operation. I would expect Ethiopia to do the same with MRC
Do not punish poor and innocent public servants for executing game plans for dangerous cards being played under the table.
