Alshabaab hijacks a hotel near the presidential palace

 

In this operation code names " Inghimasi" in somali ,Militants from the Islamist al-Shabab group have attacked a hotel near the presidential palace in Somalia's capital Mogadishu, security sources and witnesses said.

The group has attacked the Syl Hotel before, which is popular with government officials.

Witnesses reported blasts and gunfire coming from the hotel, telling Reuters that fighters were still inside.

It was not immediately clear if there were casualties.

"The armed Mujahideen control the hotel and are shooting workers and officers" of the government in the hotel, al-Shabab said in a statement claiming responsibility for the attack.

Resident Farah Ali, who lives near the president's office, told Reuters: "We first heard a huge blast, and then gunfire followed. We understand the fighters are inside [the hotel] for we hear exchange of gunfire."

"Several gunmen forced their way into the building after destroying the perimeter wall with a heavy explosion," a security officer told AFP.

Hassan Nur, who escaped by scaling a wall, said: "I don't know about the casualties but there were many people inside when the attack started."

Other witnesses reported seeing police arriving within minutes of the attack, which triggered a gun battle with militants.

Attacks had reduced in recent weeks amid heightened security after the government intensified its military offensive against the Islamist group.

Al-Shabab controls large parts of southern and central Somalia.

The group is affiliated to al-Qaeda and has waged a brutal insurgency for nearly 20 years against the UN-backed government in Somalia.

Somalia President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud on Thursday met defence officials to plan how to reclaim lost territory, Somalia's national news agency Sonna reported.

It is a proscribed terrorist group by countries including the UK and US. The US has intervened militarily to fight against the group.

Its fighters are known for targeting hotels, including the Syl Hotel in 2019.

In 2022, the group stormed the Villa Rays hotel in the capital, killing at least 14 people.

Three years before the storming of the Villa Rays hotel, at least 26 people, inclding a prominent journalist and several foreigners, were killed in an attack on the Asasey hotel in the port of Kismayo, southern Somalia.

This is almost the 11th hour since the siege and the alshabaab in a statement still claim tobbe holding the hotel,it is surprising how the alshabaab managed to beat all the road blocks and this hotel is only accessed by senior military officers only. According to confidants in somalia,this hotel is less than 500 meters away from both the presidential palace & the office of the Prime Minister.This raises questions about how AlShabab managed to infiltrate such a heavily guarded area of the city. 

 That is the alshabaab press statement released this morning.Alshabaab statement released this morning says the siege still ongoing, entered its 11th hour, with its fighters controlling the hotel.Alshabaab also said its militants repelled 7 attempts by govt forces to end the siege.

Information from my confidants and comrades from somalia indicate that this hotel is frequented by top political and military officers and undisclosed number of these have been wounded .

Some of the wounded and killed are listed below.

Ex Somali MP, Farah Abdi Hassan wounded in the ongoing attack at SYL hotel.

Spokesperson of OPM Somalia,  wounded in an ongoing attack on SYL hotel.

 MP, Osman Dhere, killed in an ongoing attack on SYL hotel

Abdihamid Fanah, Commander of the Turkish trained troops known as Haram'ad has been wounded in an ongoing attack on SYL hotel.

Wadajir deputy DC, Ali Indhoy injured in the ongoing attack at SYL hotel.

General Secretary of Banadir Region Administration, Feysal Arale, wounded in an ongoing attack on SYL hotel.

There are many disturbing video of alshabaab  patrolling the hotel and because of security reasons ,I cannot have them published here!

M23 preparing to lead an imcursion into Goma through a planned demonstration

 The elected national deputy for the city of Goma Hubert FURUGUTA said he was warning of a probable preparation for infiltration of the city of Goma by the rebels. According to the honorable Hubert, information from the authorized services indicates that these rebels are preparing to infiltrate among the demonstrators of an activity planned in Goma without mentioning it by name. This elected official added that this demonstration would begin in the area close to the border with Rwanda in order to facilitate said infiltration. He says he calls on the population to exercise extreme caution in this time of war, especially when it comes to participating in demonstrations.

Some adjustiment in death penalty ruling in DRC military courts

 

Another intelligence officer arrested for confiding with M23

 

The City of GOMA thought it had intelligence agents who help security agents do their job, but it is the opposite. After the arrest of two intelligence directors from the city of Goma for complicity with the M23RDF, here is again the Chief Warrant Officer CLARISSE_MAHORO. She is from Unit Bn HQ 34 of the North Kivu Military Region, and was arrested Tuesday March 12 in Goma. She held the position of intelligence agent of the 34th Military Region since 2014 at the Goma border post(commonly known as Grand barrier). She is accused of being the hub of the M23RDF in Goma. She has been in constant contact with colonel Makenga andBisimwa and helps move goods across the border into Rwanda. She maintains close ties with senior M23RDF executives,has been feeding ladies into GOMA for espionage operations and knows all the M23RDF hideouts in Goma.she takes images of the FARDC to feed the propaganda of the RDF terrorists on social media.She is the one who took the photos of Romanian instructors in the mortuary after attack on sake.This surprises more than one person because it is difficult to accept the fact that those responsible for intelligence, those who are supposed to guide the security services to bring order, are themselves in complicity. The question then is: have they really given good information to the FARDC since the start of this war?? Did they really help the DRC? Since the incident of Brigadier General Biagolo Ngondo,I have for two days invested much of my time into critical study of the traitors inside the Congolese military intelligence circles.These Biagolo and Clarisse incidence clearly show rot in  FARDC intelligence.I tried to make investigative research from ANR(domestic) and former DEMIAP members who told me that treason and traitors are the ones who have made this war difficult.These confidants informed me of a scenario in recent General Chiko command ,where his deputies had confided with enemy to have him arrested.They gave the enemy commander FARDC uniforms and commanded the army to withdraw from Rwindi,but a captain had already alerted General Chiko of the plan to have him betrayed by his deputies and he instead had to withdraw after knowing that his command had been surrounded.Each of these deputies who had planned to betray General Chiko had been give an amount of 50,000US $.

Colonel Ga Byinshi Gakunzi of M23 killed by FARDC missiles in an Ambush .

 Colonel Byinshi [photo below] had defected to M23 around March 3, 2023 and it was in March again that he was killed. Who is this Colonel Byinshi Colonel Byinshi Gakunzi Moïse, who had joined the Zairian army (FAZ) in the Mibunda region of the Itombe territory in South Kivu. Around 1991, he entered the Kagera,  located near  Uganda, Rwanda and Tanzania to join RPA for, according to them, which was meant for the liberation of Rwanda. In the struggle for the liberation of Rwanda, Colonel Byinshi fought, until 1996, he returned to Zaire to fight against President Mobutu Seseko Kukungwendo Wazabanga. After that, he joined the RCD GOMA, serving in Uvira, Baraka and Minembwe.Yesterday,the Wazalendo led an attack on his convoy that killed colonel Gakunzi and all his body guards.

General Chico Tshitambwe did not order the withdraw of soldiers from Rwindi!!

  The order to evacuate Rwindi was not given by General Chico, but rather by his deputies based in Rwindi in complicity with the head of the locality of Rwindi who would have played a key role in this game. According to the revelations from sources on thebfronline, at least 6 people have already been arrested and transferred to Kinshasa, among them the head of the locality of Rwindi as well as the general's two deputies.The error in our army: We change the Operations Commanders for inefficiency, but we leave the same deputies. These deputies have been there for years, they do tricks, betray, give bad orders, etc. but in the end, it is No. 1 who bears responsibility for the failure. Today General Chico is singled out following the failure in his area of command, but we forget that he works with the same deputies who brought down several cities, they became familiar with their troops, etc. Let's just take the example of the one who was based in Rwindi. This commander had brought down the city of Katsiru while he received all possible alerts. He had a lot of elements and ammunition in Rwindi, but he told the elements based in Katsiru to manage the war. Finally in one day of fighting, Katsiru had fallen. This same Commander, instead of changing him, is led but we change the overall commander. Do you see the error?? And there are many officers who order withdrawals without consulting their superiors, or who give false information to their superiors, etc. the General Staff must also see the case of these officers there. 

Vitchumbi falls in hands of M23 as congolese civilians continue demanding explanations as to why FARDC is withdrawing giving a free entry for the rebels to capture more areas.

  Vitshumbi, located approximately 130 kilometers north of the city of Goma, on the west coast of the Lake Edward would have come under the control of the M23 rebels and the Rwandan army this Monday March 11 according to certain local sources on site. The same sources added that the DRC army gave up without fighting, letting the rebels enter peacefully. In Masisi, it is reported that the M23 rebels withdrew from the locality of Kalembe last Sunday night, thus strengthening their positions in Kashuga. Note that some 24,000 people live in Vitshumbi and since November and the massive outbreak of the rebellion, this fishing town was cut off from the provincial capital, Goma, on which its survival depended. Goma will also have a fish deficiency, the bulk of which came from vitchumbi. After the capture of the town of Vitchumbi on Monday March 11, the M23 rebels and their allies held a meeting with the local population. 

The latter wanted to communicate their orientations and the course of action to be followed by the inhabitants whom they say they are “liberating”. Among the measures communicated by the rebels, is the opening of traffic on Kiwanja Vitchumbi for traders who will be escorted by their elements. The rebels say they are calling on the various leaders of this town, who fled shortly before their arrival, to return without delay for fear of being replaced by others of their persuasion. The same is being sent as a message to residents who have fled, who the rebels say risk losing their homes if they do not return. Note that Vitchumbi fell without shots being fired, the local residents say they saw the elements of the loyalist army break out the day before with their equipment. 

The local population is not happy with the FARDC's tactic.Many civil society organisations have angrily put up publications denouncing the act of folding their hands in the face of The advancing rebels.“The Forces Vives du Nord-Kivu civil society remains astounded by the fact that the FARDC continues to cling to a shameless defensive military tactic in the face of the dazzling advances of the M23-RDF terrorists in the Territory of Masisi and Rutshuru for more than two years since the resurgence of this sad rebellion”

The civilians are not happy with some commanders,they say that they only go to sleep in,with all sorts of luxury without thinking about war.They continue to say that FARDC should totally trust Wazalendo instead of trusting the rotten commanders who are the main source of FARDC's misfortunes.The civilians were furious on the way one commander in names of Biagolo spends his time in lavish style in hotels and they continue to say that Wazalendo had warned the Gorvenment about the same general.The civilians say"And now, while the fronts are raging,Brigadier General BIAGOLO is filming pornographic films and sex tapes in hotels in Goma with Rwandan girls. More serious, carried away by love, he gives his outfits to the girl and the girl wears the General's outfit with rank peeps and publishes on TikTok. Tiktok.The wazalendo are prophets in their home! The fardc command is rotten and is at the root of all the difficulties.The Gorvenment must leave the task to the wazalendo."