(Reuters) - Islamist militants carried out a deadly assault on the main U.N.
compound in the Somali capital on Wednesday, dealing a blow to fragile
security gains that have allowed a slow return of foreign aid workers and
diplomats.
The assault, claimed by Islamist group al Shabaab, began before midday when
a car bomb exploded outside the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP)
base. Rebel gunmen forced their way into the compound and fought with
security guards.
The African Union (AU) peacekeeping force, which sent soldiers and armored
vehicles to the compound, which includes several buildings, said it was
under the control of friendly troops after a gun fight that lasted more than
90 minutes.
Interior Minister Abdikarim Hussein Guled said four foreign U.N. security
staff and four local guards were killed in the gun battle that left seven
insurgent fighters dead.
An ambulance service official said his crew carried away seven dead
civilians, bringing the total dead to 22.
It was the first significant attack on U.N. premises by al Shabaab since
they were driven out of Mogadishu in fighting with AU and Somali government
forces about two years ago.
More than a million Somalis live in crisis conditions, according to the
United Nations, which has started building up offices and international
staff after security improved.
U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said he was "outraged by the despicable
attack" in a telephone call to Somali President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud. Al
Shabaab accused the United Nations of serving U.S. interests.
"The U.N., a merchant of death and a satanic force of evil, has a long,
inglorious record of spreading nothing but poverty, dependency and
disbelief," al Shabaab said on its Twitter feed _at_HSMPRESS1
The South African state weapons firm Denel said two of its staff were killed
in the raid. Militants have launched grenade strikes and similar low-level
attacks on U.N. bases in the past, but no assault of this scale.
"HERE TO STAY"
One U.N. official said some Western nations that had been keen to support
the Western-leaning government elected last year had played down dangers
posed by al Shabaab and its ability to infiltrate the security forces and
attack the capital.
"This is part of the consequence of over-optimism in some Western nations
that has overshadowed the need to look at deeper problems before rolling out
any kind of U.N. mission," said the official, who follows Somalia closely
but is not authorized to talk to the media.
He said the government had not done enough to overhaul its security forces.
The top U.N. official in Somalia, Nicholas Kay, told Reuters there were
lessons to be learned but that the United Nations would not be deterred from
its mission.
Asked if U.N. staff would be evacuated from Mogadishu, Kay said: "No. The
U.N. is here to help and we are here to stay."
The initial bomb blast sprayed masonry and twisted metal across the road
that links the nearby airport, which serves as the main base for the AU
peacekeepers, and the city center.
The Somali government condemned the attack and offered "deepest sympathy to
all victims".
"Today all Somalia stands shoulder to shoulder with UNSOM," Prime Minister
Abdi Farah Shirdon Saaid said on Twitter, referring to the new U.N. Somalia
assistance program UNSOM.
Bystanders reported several smaller blasts inside the compound during the
gunfight.
The raid was a copycat of a strike on Mogadishu's law courts in April, when
gunmen detonated suicide vests during a gunbattle with security forces.
Interior Minister Guled confirmed some of the assailants blew themselves up
on Wednesday.
AU forces and government troops drove al Shabaab rebels out of the coastal
capital in 2011, but militants have kept up guerrilla-style attacks from
rural bases.
The overthrow of a dictator in 1991 plunged Somalia into two decades of
violent turmoil, first at the hands of clan warlords and then Islamist
militants, who have steadily lost ground since 2011 under pressure from the
AU military offensive.
(Additional reporting by Tom Miles in Geneva, Drazen Jorgic and Edmund Blair
in Nairobi, Tosin Sulaiman in Johannesburg amd Michelle Nichols in New York;
Writing by Richard Lough; Editing by Michael Roddy)
South Sudan president suspends two ministers in fraud inquiry
By Andrew Green
JUBA | Wed Jun 19, 2013 11:55am EDT
(Reuters) - South Sudanese President Salva Kiir has suspended two key
ministers in a fraud investigation, the government said on Wednesday.
Western donors have warned South Sudan's government that aid payments are at
risk unless it tackles the corruption undermining development in a country
devastated from decades of civil war with Sudan, from which it seceded in
2011.
Last year, Kiir wrote to 75 current and former officials to ask them to
return $4 billion in "stolen" public money, but no senior figure had been
publicly put under investigation until now.
Kiir has now lifted the immunity of Cabinet Affairs Minister Deng Alor Kuol
and Finance Minister Kosti Manibe Ngai and suspended them pending an
investigation into the procurement of fireproof safes for Alor's ministry
for $8 million, according to a government decree released on Wednesday.
It said the payment had been approved by the Finance Ministry, and that a
high-level committee would determine whether there was "an element of fraud
and forgery exercised in this process of transfer and payments".
South Sudan has been struggling to set up functioning state institutions
since gaining independence from Khartoum in 2011 under a peace deal that
ended the civil war.
The government is largely made up of former rebel commanders who dislike
scrutiny and have little experience of economic management. Financial
oversight is weak.
Samuel Dhong, secretary-general of the South Sudan Law Society, which
promotes the rule of law, welcomed the suspensions but said it remained to
be seen whether the men would be charged.
"We have experienced this kind of action, but the problem is that they don't
reach a logical conclusion at the end of the day," he said.
He pointed to an investigation led by the same committee chairman into the
theft of 176,000 South Sudanese pounds (around $45,000) from Kiir's office
in March. It concluded that office staff assisted in the theft but did not
name anyone.
Decades of conflict and economic neglect have left South Sudan with some of
the worst health and education statistics on the planet. Few paved roads
exist outside the capital Juba.
(Writing by Ulf Laessing; Editing by Kevin Liffey)