The United Nations is reporting that malaria has dropped from being the leading cause of death among refugees living along the Sudan border. Among the locations where the new malaria-reducing strategies are being employed is the Kakuma Camp for Sudanese refugees in northern Kenya. Mohammed Yusuf reports from Kakuma, Northern Kenya.

Not long ago, malaria killed more Sudanese refugees than any other disease. But now, while it is still deadly, the U.N. reports it is only the fifth leading cause of death among the estimated 50,000 Sudanese refugees living in the Kakuma refugee camp in northern Kenya.

The reason – a five-year campaign called Nothing-But-Nets run by The United Nations Foundation. Nothing-But-Nets is the largest grassroots campaign in the world and it hopes to end malaria deaths by 2015.

Now, Nothing-But-Nets has launched an emergency appeal to send 100,000 life-saving bed nets to help thousands of South Sudanese refugees fleeing conflict and violence along the Sudan border.

Thirty-seven-year-old Achol Deng is a mother of three from Jonglei state. She is among thousands of new arrivals in the Kakuma refugee camp. Deng received mosquito nets that she will need to save her young family during the rainy season.

Deng says the mosquito net she received will protect her children if she uses it the way she was instructed. She says she hopes because of the net, her family will be free from malaria.

Refugees free from the disease are what malaria campaigners, partners, and supporters want to see as they make a two-day visit to the Kakuma refugee camp to distribute mosquito nets.

Chris Helfrich is the Director of the U.N. Foundation’s Nothing-But-Nets campaign. On a recent visit to the Kakuma camp he says life is tough enough for refugees, and they should not have to worry about dying from malaria.

“It’s a tough situation here in Kakuma, obviously, but we are happy to bring hope and do a little of something; these people, they have very tough lives but we are happy to bring nets because with everything else they have to deal with, malaria shouldn’t be one of them.”

The Nothing-But-Nets campaign was started after American sports journalist Rick Reilly challenged his readers to donate at least $10 to help purchase bed nets. Now, the group raises millions of dollars from hundreds of thousands of people worldwide.

Canadian actress Serinda Swan, who is best known for her role in the series “Breakout Kings,” is just one of many celebrities who have joined the campaign.

“We’ve come here to help bring awareness and stop malaria. It’s a killer of a child every 60 seconds in Africa and that’s a statistic that needs to stop. We are here to distribute nets, we here to talk to people, we are here to figure out what is going on in the camp, what can be improved just get their story out….”

While the Nothing-But-Nets campaign is saving lives, U.N. officials are concerned about a possible wave of new refugees fleeing violence between Sudan and South Sudan. Chris Helfrich of the U.N. Foundation says the Nothing-But-Nets campaign will continue as long as needed.

“We will continue raising money from Americans working tirelessly to try to save nets. We are committed to making sure that every refugee in Kakuma and across the continent has a net over their heads to keep them safe from malaria. We are not going away; we are going to stay committed to this.”

The U.N. says the Nothing-But-Nets campaign has distributed bed nets in 20 Sub-Saharan countries, cutting malaria deaths by one-third within the last decade.

Somalia’s Constituent Assembly conference has convened a series of meetings in Mogadishu, bringing together more than 100 traditional elders to decide the selection of the assembly that will adopt a constitution and a new parliament. Some analysts said elders from areas still under the control of al-Shabab and those clans supporting the group may elect members of parliament who favor the Islamist militant group. Mohammed Yusuf reports.

Less than three months before Somalia’s Transitional Federal Government is scheduled to come to an end, the government has started the process of convening a constituent assembly, one of several steps aimed at giving the war-torn nation a more permanent central government.

It is expected that the constituent assembly will appoint a new interim authority with the task of establishing the institutions of government and preparing elections.

Abdiwahab Sheikh Abdisamad, a Somalia analyst with Southlink consultants in Nairobi, said elders from al-Shabab-controlled areas will push the militant group’s agenda in the assembly.

“They are going to influence the elders, so what they are saying to them is ‘Elect so-and-so.’ The members of parliament who will be attending the parliament might be someone who is pro-Shabab; that’s one key issue al-Shabab is going to fight for,” Abdisamad said. “They [al-Shabab] want to make sure anyone who goes to the parliament must fulfill the policy of al-Shabab.”

The militant group came close to having full control of Mogadishu in 2010, but has since been pushed out of the capital by African Union forces supporting the transitional government. Al-Shabab has also suffered reversals in central Somalia, where the group has fought Ethiopian troops, and in southern Somalia, where Kenyan forces crossed the border last October.

However, the group still controls sections of the country and is still capable of carrying out suicide attacks, giving it some influence over Somalia’s affairs.

On Sunday the militia group posted the list of 135 elders attending the conference, their telephone numbers and clans they represent.

Abdisamad said al-Shabab is posting the list to threaten the elders, knowing the power to elect lawmakers is in their hands. “They [the elders] are going to determine who is going to be a member of parliament – is he pro-Shabab or is he pro-government?” He asked. “So they are trying to elect people from al-Shabab controlled areas. They have to make sure those who are in the next parliament must be pro-Shabab.”

Informed sources close to the insurgent group said the group wanted to directly take part in the formation of the next Somali government but their hopes were dashed when the group joined the fold of the al-Qaida terrorist network.

For now, al-Shabab hopes the elders will provide them the chance to carry out their agenda as Somalia’s political process moves forward.

Human Rights Watch says the Kenyan police and army subjected hundreds of ethnic Somalis and Somali refugees to beatings and other abuses between November 2011 and February 2012. The alleged abuses were in apparent response to attacks carried out by militants with suspected links to the Islamist Somali armed group, al-Shabaab in the wake of Kenya’s military intervention in Somalia. Mohammed Yusuf reports.

Speaking to journalists in Nairobi, Human Rights Watch East Africa Researcher Neela Ghoshal accused the Kenyan security forces of arbitrarily arresting and mistreating ethnic Somalis in Northeastern Kenya rather than conducting investigations to identify individuals targeting security forces and civilians.

“Our particular concern which we have documented in this report is the response to those attacks by the security forces. Rather than doing what they ought to do which is to investigate each of the attacks carry out careful policing and intelligence work and identify the perpetrators or the suspects and bring them to justice process involving the rule of law But what has happened instead is arbitrary round up of residence in Northeastern province.”

The organization also documented cases rape and attempted sexual assaults, looting and destruction of property. According to Ghosal, there were also cases of degrading and inhumane treatment.

“I myself was in Garissa in January to document the abuses that had taken places in November and December, but what I ended up seeing were abuses taking place in front of my eyes while driving past military camp.” “We saw people were being grabbed from the street outside brought to the military camp it’s in an open field and you could see people being forced to roll on the mud, they were being forced to frog jump across the field and stand on one arm and one leg and this I saw with my own eyes.”

Kenya has witnessed a series of grenade attacks since Kenya Defense Forces joined in the effort to battle the militant group al-Shabaab last October. Ghoshal said the attacks carried out by suspected al-Shabaab sympathizers against security forces and civilians were abhorrent, but police and military could never justify indiscriminate attacks and abuses against civilians.

Mohamed Nur Hussein, of the Wajir Paralegal Network, says security officials have been abusing his people since independence. He says the difference now is, they are able to tell the world those abuses.

“Since 1963 when Kenya gained independence to date, we are in this kind of harassment, brutality, discrimination, segregation, even in terms of development and economic empowerment the only difference now we are able to speak.”

In an interview with VOA, deputy police spokesman, Charles Owino said the criticism is constructive but he says but alleged victims should also bring their concerns to the police and not just to rights organizations.

“We take criticism quite positively. But this doesn’t mean that we agree wholesomely to the criticism as they put,” he says. “We have tendencies of communities having various culture where by an offense can be committed but the person fear to report this offenses to police because may be nature of their society.”

Human Rights Watch says while little or no action has been taken to address the alleged abuses, but they have subsided because since February, there have been no attacks targeting security forces.
But the New York-based rights organization noted the alleged reprisals against ethnic Somalis have contributed to increased mistrust of the security forces at a time when Kenyan authorities need their cooperation for ensuring the security in that part of the country.

A Kenyan militant leader who commands 500 Kenyan youths in Somalia has pledged allegiance to al-Shabab chief Abu Zubeyr, also known as Godane. The announcement follows a series of military defeats for al-Shabab, which once controlled nearly all of southern and central Somalia. For VOA, Mohammed Yusuf reports from Nairobi.

In a 22-minute audio message posted on al-Shabab’s website, Ahmed Iman Ali announced his allegiance to Abu Zubeyr and said his militia will fight under Zubeyr’s command.

“I, Ahmed Iman Ali, I give allegiance to my beloved leader Abu Zubeyr,” he said. “I promise to listen and take orders from you in the fight against the invaders. Am under your command and for better or worse, we will always be under your command.”

The announcement comes after a string of defeats for al-Shabab in the face of a concerted military offensive by multi-national forces in Somalia. African Union forces have pushed the Islamist militants out of the capital, Mogadishu, while the group is also facing pressure from Ethiopian forces in central Somalia and Kenyan forces in the south. Al-Shabab is also dealing with power struggles among its top leaders.

In his message, Ali said he will not be the kind of leader who fuels argument and wrangles in the group — unless someone shows signs of betraying their course. He urged Abu Zubeyr not to give up the fight against foreign forces.

“We would like to remind our leader Abu Zubeyr,” he said, “in this war you should not give up, we are with you shoulder to shoulder, till we make sure we have weakened and finished them (the non-believers) until they respect Islam and Muslims in the world.”

Ahmed Iman Ali was the one-time chairman of the Muslim Youth Center (MYC) in the Kenyan city of Majengo. According to a report by United Nations monitors, he openly used the organization to recruit for al-Shabab and to facilitate the recruits’ travel to Somalia for training, after which the fighters were active in both Kenya and Somalia.

Kenya’s deputy police spokesman, Charles Owino, told VOA that police have launched a manhunt in Majengo in connection with a church bombing in Nairobi Sunday that killed one person and wounded 16.

A suicide bomb attack on the newly reopened Somali National Theater in Mogadishu has killed at least eight people, including two top sports officials. The Islamist militant group al-Shabab has claimed responsibility for the attack. Mohammed Yusuf reports.

Witnesses said a female suicide bomber blew herself up inside the theater Wednesday as Prime Minister Abdiwelli Mohammed Ali began addressing the audience.

He and other top officials in the Transitional Federal Government (TFG) were participating in a ceremony marking the first anniversary of the Somali national television station.

The heads of Somali Olympic committee, Aden Yabarow Wiish, and the Somali football federation, Said Mohamed Nur, were killed in the attack. Several ministers and journalists were among those wounded.

Later, speaking on government-run Radio Mogadishu, Prime Minister Ali described the attack as a cowardly act. He said “whatever has happened today will not stop the government from achieving its goal of bringing peace and stability to the country.”

He said it is normal that international terrorists and al-Shabab come back and kill innocent people whenever they are defeated in the battlefield. As a government, he said “we will fight with them until we finish them.”

Al-Shabab said it had planted explosives at the theater, and denied that a female suicide bomber had been deployed.

The attack came just as life appeared to be getting back to normal in the Somali capital, after African Union forces drove al-Shabab militants from the city last year.

But the al-Qaida-linked group has claimed responsibility for some isolated attacks in the capital, including a suicide bombing outside the presidential palace last month that killed four people.

Somalia’s joint security committee has agreed to deploy AU troops to areas of central and southern Somalia captured recently from militant group al-Shabab by Ethiopian forces. The announcement came Wednesday at a meeting in Mogadishu. Mohammed Yusuf has more from VOA’s East Africa Bureau in Nairobi.

The decision to replace Ethiopian troops with African Union forces was agreed to by Somali Prime Minister Abdiweli Mohamed Ali, and representatives of the U.N., the African Union, the European Union and regional Somali factions. Ethiopian troops recently re-entered Somalia and helped Somali government forces capture the town of Baidoa.

The Ethiopian forces have faced a strong backlash from local Somalis, however, and fighting has been heavier in areas where they are active.

Somali government spokesman Abdirahman Omar Osman told VOA the priority is to have Ethiopian forces replaced by forces from Somalia’s Transitional Federal Government [TFG] and troops from the African Union peacekeeping force, known as AMISOM.

“AMISOM provided the current plan that they have with the TFG forces, which is within April we aim that two battalions from Uganda and Burundi will be moving to Baidoa, one battalion from Djibouti will be going to Beledweyne in order to allow Ethiopian forces to go back to their country,” said Osman.

In late February, the U.N. Security Council authorized an increase in troop strength for AMISOM, raising troop strength from 12,000 to nearly 18,000. Funding and logistical support to the force also was increased, more than doubling U.N. member state contributions for the mission from $250 million to about $550 million.

Osman said the international community has acknowledged the security gains made across the country and is increasing assistance.

“International community were discussing with us on the current level of assistance they provide. For example, the Americans and Italy are providing stipends or allowance for our TFG forces and Japan is also providing some sort of stipends for our police forces,” said Osman. “After discussion, we agreed that they will continue the level of support they provide to TFG, as well as ensuring the future of Somalia depends on how we build our institutions, in particular our security sector.”

AMISOM also expects to welcome troops from Sierra Leone into the mission in June.

Osman said they will be deployed alongside Kenyan forces, who currently are operating in the southern Juba regions of Somalia, and will allow some Kenyan forces to leave.

With al-Shabab on the retreat in the face of gains by African Union (AU) forces in Somalia, the militant group is looking for new avenues to exert control both in and outside of Somalia. The group is focused on recruiting Kenyan Muslims to revolt against, what they term, state-sponsored oppression directed against them. Mohammed Yusuf has more from VOA’s East Africa Bureau in Nairobi.

Somalia’s Islamist movement al-Shabab has distanced itself from a series of grenade and bomb attacks inside Kenya, including last Saturday’s deadly explosions. However the group has not stopped recruiting Kenyan youths and calling on them to carry out attacks in Kenya.

A United Nations report released last year put the number of Kenyan youths recruited by al-Shabab at as many as 500.
Some security observers say al-Shabab has taken advantage of the Kenyan youths, who many times come from a background of poverty and limited opportunities.

Sheikh Juma Ngao, the chairman of Kenya’s Muslim National Advisory Council, says Muslim youths should participate in nation building instead of fighting against their own government.

“I strongly [do] not support the call [of] al-Shabab that the Kenyan youths should involve themselves to fight the government,: he said. “This call is totally out of sight. Majority of the Kenyan muslim youths are not well educated but that is not the cause to tell our youths they must stand up and fight the government of Kenya. How can they fight the government of Kenya by killing innocent people?”

Kenya has witnessed a series of grenade and bomb attacks for the last six months, killing dozens. The Kenyan government has blamed al-Shabab.

Ngao calls on youths to participate in activities that benefit them, rather than taking part in violence and the killing of innocent people.

A Muslim youth leader involved in empowering youth in his area told VOA they are victimized by the police because of a few local individuals who have joined al-Shabab and sent video messages back home.

One of those young people who joined al-Shabab, and commands 500 Kenyan youths in Somalia, is Ahmed Iman Ali, Chairman of the Muslim Youth Centre (MYC). According to the U.N. monitoring report, Ahmed Iman Ali used the community based organization openly in recruiting for al-Shabab in Kenya and making it easy for the recruits to travel to Somalia for training and then fighting in both Kenya and Somalia.

Like other clerics in the region, Sheikh Ngao has stressed there is no Jihad or holy war in Somalia, but a political war.

“In Somalia there is no Jihad, in Somalia what we are witnessing is political wars among Somali tribes so anybody who is changing the perception of these political and tribe war in Somalia to a holy war he is totally out of sight in Somalia there is no jihad,” he said. “You cannot preach Islam in an environment where there is no peace, so I am advising my brothers’ al-Shabab militia groups to create a space for peace in Somalia.”

It is unclear if messages like this from religious leaders will reach young members of al-Shabab in Somalia.

Meanwhile, the al-Shabab group continues to resort to violence. And on Tuesday the group banned the British-based aid agency, Save the Children from Somalia, accusing the organization of distributing stale porridge to children, as well as being corrupt and failing to comply with the rules laid down by the al-Qaida-linked group.

The turmoil and anarchy of Somalia has affected countries all over the world, but of course its neighbours have been hit the hardest by Somali lawlessness, and Kenya, east Africa’s commercial hub, is particularly exposed in money laundering terms. Of special concern are the earnings of Somalia’s rapacious pirates.

Millions of dollars are earned from ransoms and the same of seized cargoes, and these criminal enterprises are not known for their concern for social and economic development – so where does this money go? The chief executive of the Law Society of Kenya (LSK) says laundered money from Somali pirates is seeping into his country’s financial system and he warned the Money Laundering Bulletin could be spent on political patronage and campaign financing. Apollo Mboya explained: “We are not seeing an economy that can absorb millions of dollars of pirate ransoms being paid in Somalia, where does the money go? The money is being laundered somewhere. People say it being invested in real estate. And some business centres, especially in Eastleigh, Nairobi,” (an area close to the capital’s central commercial district populated mainly by Somalis).

As a result, it is rather dispiriting that Kenya has made slow progress on setting up a fully-fledged financial intelligence unit. In its assessment of Kenya released in June, global anti-money laundering body the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) said: “Although Kenya’s government had a “high-level political commitment to work with the FATF and [regional AML body] ESAAMLG to address its strategic AML/CFT [anti-money laundering/combating the financing of terrorism] deficiencies”, strategic AML/CFT deficiencies remain. Kenya needed to work on addressing these, including by…ensuring a fully operational and effectively functioning Financial Intelligence Unit…” The report added that Kenya needed to do better in “adequately criminalising terrorist financing;…establishing and implementing an adequate legal framework for identifying and freezing terrorist assets; raising awareness of AML/CFT issues within the law enforcement community; and implementing effective, proportionate and dissuasive sanctions” for both citizens and companies. Legislation needed to be properly implemented and a new AML Advisory Board needed to be brought into full operation.

Meanwhile, the 2011 US state department International Narcotics Control Strategy Report (INCSR) report was far blunter: “The Central Bank of Kenya (CBK) is relying on the future Financial Intelligence Centre (FIC), the financial intelligence unit, for implementation, as the police lack institutional capacity to handle complex financial crimes analysis and investigation. Although authorised…the FIC has not yet been established.”
And it needs to be, said Washington DC. Its report branded Kenya as “a major money laundering country”, noting it is a “transit point for international drug traffickers”. And the Somali problem is writ large, said the state department: “The laundering of funds related to Somali piracy, corruption, smuggling, the misuse of casinos and other assorted crimes is a substantial problem. Reportedly, Kenya’s financial system may be laundering over USD100 million each year, including an undetermined amount of narcotics proceeds and Somali piracy-related funds.”

Mboya agreed that there was a need to set up proper financial control institutions, to enforce Kenyan AML laws – which were recently strengthened by the passage of the Proceeds of Crime and Anti-Money Laundering Act (PCAMLA), which came into force in June 2010. This law considers all crimes should be considered as money laundering predicate offences, but the US report noted the act “has never been used to prosecute any crimes. Kenya’s criminal justice system remains open to interference and corruption and combating money laundering has not been given priority.”
Greater training in fighting money laundering is also needed said Mboya, for bodies such as the Central Bank of Kenya, and country’s accounting and legal professions. This is important, given the state department said more than USD100 million annually is laundered in Kenya, “including an undetermined amount of narcotics proceeds and Somali piracy-related funds.” Mboya said the actual amount of dirty money in Kenya would be very hard to quantify.
And without an FIU, the new act’s requirement that legal practitioners and others report suspicious transactions to the authorities is effectively still born: “That aspect of the act is not being enforced in the sense we are not seeing any entities reporting transactions. I have not seen any professionals’ body or individuals reporting to a central reporting place,” he noted. Even the law itself needed a reexamination, he said: “Crime evolves,” Mboya added: “We should see a re- examination of that legislation, to audit it to see if comprehensive enough to tackle [financial] crime.”

A Nairobi-based economic analyst Robert Shaw said it was almost inevitable Somali piracy money was being laundered in Nairobi given Kenya’s position as east Africa’s economic hub, possessing a financial system which is more sophisticated than anywhere else in the region.

“Nairobi is very convenient hub,” he said, adding: “If you look at the attraction of Nairobi you can see why it is attractive, not only for piracy money but also other money as well.” Certainly there are projects for investment – of dirty and clean money alike. Kenya has been witnessing a major construction boom over the past two to three years, and many Somali business men have invested heavily in the buying and selling of housing estates and office blocks in Nairobi. Some of this investment, said Shaw, will have come from the laundering of Somali piracy proceeds, although “it’s not the main driver of the construction boom,” he said.

Mboya, however, is sure that the booming construction sector, has been a target of launderers, noting that the industry is easy to exploit for laundering, with good returns. He said Somali launderers had noted Kenya’s deficiency of houses and the desire of Kenyans to own a piece of land.

A Nairobi based lawyer Gideon Ongunde said that even if there is a law insisting on the reporting of suspicious transactions, it is very difficult for lawyers to report financial crimes since some lawyers were acting as real estate brokers. “Any lawyer who is having clients who want to buy and sell property, they are seen as lucky ones in town. That deal comes with huge payments when you are a middle man between a buyer and a seller,” he told the Money Laundering Bulletin. He stressed that Kenyan lawyers were taking advantage of lawyer-client privilege in Kenya, giving a primacy to protecting confidential information shared by a client. Moreover, one of the reasons it has been challenging to quantify the amount of money laundered in Kenya has been the fact developers sell their properties as quickly as possible to legitimise any transactions involved in securing finance and paying for the work, making it even more difficult for law enforcement to trace the original source of the money involved, should they be keen to investigate.

But how does this dirty money actually enter Kenya? Mohamed Aden, a businessman in Eastleigh, told the Money Laundering Bulletin, he was once approached by a Somali businessman who offered him a part in a counterfeit money ring, involving the import of fake Somali money into Kenya. “He showed me a [fake] 1,000 Somali shillings note as a sample. For each 100 US dollars they would print 10 million Somali shillings,” Aden recalls.
That said, from anarchic Somalia, even non-criminal money is hard to trace, especially internationally. Payments rely on Somalia’s hawala informal money transfer system.

This is ideal for laundering the proceeds of Somali piracy – a crime, said Farah Hussein, a Somali businessman in Nairobi – that actually generates comparatively little money for the pirates themselves. “There are big individuals behind this piracy issue. It’s not easy for a Somali boy with AK47 to hijack a big ship without the help of some people whom we don’t see who closely work with these pirates. Whatever these Somali pirates are getting is very minimal.” Hussein added. Indeed, Roger Middleton, an analyst in London for Chatham House, Britain’s premier foreign policy think tank, has noted: “In a variety of ways, some money is returned to investors who may then use the money for other activities, building their other businesses either in Somalia or abroad. Some is used to pay bribes to local officials, some is kept by the pirates involved in the attack directly they often spend the money improving their homes, getting married, buying cars and so on.”

Meanwhile the developers themselves take a dim view of all these accusations, saying they are just doing business – and at least they are building something. One Somali property developer – who wanted to remain anonymous – told the Money Laundering Bulletin they are well aware people accuse them of investing piracy money, but as long as there is no sufficient evidence to back that claim they will keep constructing houses and offices. “They say we Somalis are the big property developers in Nairobi developing it with pirate money, but when have you seen people talking about how they got their wealth – especially in Africa?” he asked. “We are doing business and you go for a business that gets you good income. We are doing construction because that’s where the money is and that’s why we are in it.”

Regional military forces battling al-Shabab militants in Somalia are leaving behind political vacuums in liberated regions. The Transitional Federal Government (TFG) and foreign powers say they want local administrations to set up in these areas, but it is hard to determine which of these will be reliable and trustworthy. Mohammed Yusuf has more from VOA’s East Africa Bureau in Nairobi.

The international community is following closely the events unfolding in central and southern Somalia, as al-Shabab loses more ground to forces from the Somali government and the African Union mission, known as AMISOM.

Foreign governments invested in Somalia’s political stability say it is important to see the quick establishment of local authorities in areas liberated from al-Shabab.

The U.S. government is one of the major parties supporting the political process in Somalia. U.S. policy is to give strong support to the federal government, while also expanding engagement with local authorities.

The U.S. special representative for Somalia, James Swan, says the U.S. is listening to the concerns of community representatives in newly-liberated to try to understand the situation better.

“The situation in all these newly-captured areas, we think there has to be a strong linkage between both a bottom up approach in which the community itself selects leaders in which that community and whom that community has confidence as their representatives, and as people who can help advance the interests of that community,” said Swan.

But there is fear within these areas that some individuals will hijack the process of establishing local authority and administrations for their own purposes.

Take, for example, the town of Baidoa, which was under the control of al-Shabab until Ethiopian troops pushed the group out last month. The operation to secure the town took place just a day before a conference in London on the future of Somalia.

Captain Adan Nur Adan, a member of parliament from Baidoa, says the timing may have been politically motivated to give Ethiopia a larger role in the talks.

“Why did Ethiopian troops move 24 hours before London conference? Why didn’t they liberate Bakool which is very close to the Ethiopian boundaries before Baidoa itself? If you want to liberate an area, you need to have plan for that area, especially what you do after you liberate,” Adan said. “There is no plan still from the TFG and the Ethiopians.”

Adan says a new administration could gain support of the community if AMISOM forces move in fast and establish peace. But already, rival factions are wrangling for control of Baidoa.

Sources told VOA one group is led by Abdifatah Gessey, who was appointed by the Somali parliament speaker in 2009.

They say the other group is led by Mohamed Ibrahim, nicknamed Habsade, or “the collector,” who takes credit for liberating the town during the civil war in the 1990s.

This scenario is common across liberated areas of Somalia, with different groups vying to establish new states.

Mohamoud Mohamud, a former political advisor in Somalia, says he respects the idea of federalism but says he is against a situation where too many people claim to control one region.

“They are many people who came from Diaspora they are calling themselves presidents. You can see one region with ten presidents, people are playing and spoiling the name of the president, and personally myself, I don’t think the name president should not be applied to federal states.” He said.

With so many competing claims, it is hard to determine which administrations make reliable partners to the central government and the international community.

Ambassador Swan says no government would like to work with individuals who are forming states without the support of the local people.

“We want to see they are functional and genuine on the ground and have a presence. Just because someone sets up a new administration on a laptop in a hotel in Nairobi, doesn’t mean that’s the kind of administration we or other donor partners wants to work with.” He said.

Without a strong central government in place, Somalia’s future will depend on local authorities being able to reconcile differences and provide services for their communities.

A Mogadishu radio-station director has became the third Somali journalist killed in as many months. The death underscores the constant threat against journalists working in the war-torn country. For VOA Mohammed Yusuf reports.

Abukar Hassan Mohamoud is the latest journalist to be killed in the bullet-ridden Somali capital, Mogadishu. Witnesses say unidentified gunmen assassinated the Somaliweyn radio station director late Tuesday at his home in the Wadajir district.

Radio Somaliweyn is an independent radio station operating in northern Mogadishu.

The National Union of Somali Journalists has condemned the killings. Union Secretary General Mohamed Ibrahim said it is not clear why Mohamoud was targeted, but noted that in recent times he was involved in civil society activities.

“He was planning to bring the radio on air again. The reason is yet unclear, though he was very involved in civil society activism, such as youth in Banadir region in recent days. This is a really worrying trend for the journalists working in Mogadishu and the government has not done enough to investigate and bring suspects for prosecution,” said Ibrahim.

The killing came just a month after another journalist, Radio Shabelle Network Director Hassan Osman Abdi, was gunned down outside his house in Mogadishu. The Transitional Federal Government promised to investigate the murder and arrested two suspects.

In December, a government soldier killed journalist Abdisalan His at a checkpoint in the capital.

The head of the Reporters Without Borders’ Africa desk, Ambroise Pierre, said civil society and the elite in Mogadishu are targeted because of their political influence.

“When journalists are being targeted like this, and targeted in their house, it shows that people are really looking into killing the information. For an organization like ours what is important is to stop this process,” said Pierre.

Pierre also said for a country like Somalia, without a stable government, there is need for the international community to support independent investigations into such crimes. He said this may help to catch the killers and stop this cycle of violence against the media.

The Transitional Federal Government says it has secured Mogadishu and the city is safe. Ibrahim disagrees.

“I do no think Mogadishu is safe for journalists unless the government ends the culture of impunity and brings the killers to the court. We feel as a union, it is yet unsafe,” said Ibrahim.

Media-rights groups say Somalia is the most dangerous country in Africa for journalists.

In addition to the recent killings, the U.S.-based Committee to Protect Journalists [CPJ] also has condemned the arrest and assault of another journalist in the semi-autonomous region of Somaliland.

A CPJ statement this week said Mohamed Abdirahman was arrested and beaten by police, who accused him of publishing a false story that said Ethiopian separatists had settled in a town in the region.