Canadians Lead Hunt For Pirates

August 27, 2008: The clan fighting in Mogadishu continues, with neither side willing to give up trying to maintain control of the largest, and most lucrative, city in the country. The gunfire and random mortar shelling has not been good for business. But that has largely been the case for the last 18 years. No one has been able to work out a compromise deal, and with one faction influenced by Islamic radicals (who are on a Mission From God), compromise is even less likely.
The food situation in southern Somalia is getting worse, as is the security situation for foreign aid workers. While both the TNG and ICU realizes the need for foreign aid to keep their supporters alive, there are many "fringe groups" (as both the TNG and ICU describes them) who attack and plunder the foreign aid operations anyway. Many of these fringe guys are just bandits, out to score any way they can, and not caring about the consequences. But some of the ICU fringers buy into the al Qaeda belief that foreign aid, at least from infidel (non-Moslem) is a corrupting influence that must be eliminated. Nearly all the food and medical aid comes from Western nations, with most of the food supplied by the United States. more..http://www.strategypage.com/qnd/somalia/articles/20080827.aspx