Top al-Shabaab leader arrested by KDF; Somali pirates release tanker and 21 of its crew members, seized in April 2011; Ethiopia opens Bur Amino camp for Somali refugees; Intensified fighting took place in Southern Somalia
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    • SOMALIA

    In a major development, the Kenyan Defence Forces (KDF) have arrested a top leader of the Al Shabaab militia who continued to suffer heavy losses following the military onslaught. The militia leader is being grilled by the joint forces leading the operation in Somalia in a bid to get more details about the militia and its networks in the country. The Department of Defence spokesman Colonel Cyrus Oguna also revealed that KDF has changed tactics in its operations and had sealed off regions where the militias were seeking refuge.1

    Reports noted that Glory Ship Management announced that the pirates who seized the Singapore-registered MT Gemini releases tanker and its 21 crew members but instead took four South Koreans ashore. According to reports, the released crew members were in good health. Among the released crew members 13 were Indonesians, five Chinese and three from Myanmar. The pirates had seized the MT Gemini traveling from Indonesia to Kenya and its more than 28,000 tonnes of crude palm oil off the coast of Kenya on April 16, 2011.2

    In another development, Andrej Mahecic, spokesperson for the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), said that hundreds of refugees in southern Ethiopia have been relocated from an overcrowded transit centre to a new camp, the fifth one in the area for Somalis fleeing conflict and drought in their homeland. The Bur Amino camp in Ethiopia's Dollo Ado region was opened and has received the first group of some 400 Somali refugees so far.3

    In other developments, at least four people were reported killed and others wounded in an intensifying battle between soldiers loyal to the Kenyan government and Al-shabab fighters in Jubba region of southern Somalia. Reports noted that both warring sides sustained heavy casualties in the battle. The combat erupted after Al-shabab fighters launched an ambush attack on Kenyan military convoys from Qoqani township to Tabta village near Afmadow district in lower Jubba region of Somalia.4

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