October 19, 2008: With over three million Somalis in danger of starvation, the UN and other NGOs have responded with a food and medical aid program. But very few foreign medical personnel remain in Somalia, because of the risk of kidnapping, and violence in general. The food aid program is falling apart because of attacks on the program workers (nearly all Somalis) and hijacking of the food. The trucks are either taken by armed bandits, or mobs of hungry people (450 tons was taken from trucks in Mogadishu earlier this month.) Even foreign journalists are at great risk, and foreign media must rely on Somali free lancers for stories, and pictures, about the violence and starvation.
The fighting in Mogadishu has caused over 60,000 to flee the city so far this year. Over half the population has fled in the past year, as Ethiopian and Somali gunmen fight to prevent Islamic Courts and native (to Mogadishu) clan gunmen regain control of the city.
In the north, the ransom money (perhaps as much as $30 million so far this year) has created a new upper class in Puntland. Not all that cash has hit the local economy. Ransom brokers from the Persian Gulf take their cut, and some of it is stashed in off shore banks by the more prudent pirate chieftains. But at least half of it appears to have come ashore, and been spread around to buy local support, or just to have a good time.
The pirates are media savvy, and are pushing the line that they are simply patriots, getting payback for the foreigners who illegally fish in Somali waters (common) and dump toxic wastes off the coast (rare, but makes for great headlines). There are over a thousand gunmen attached to pirate gangs in the north. Most of the 32 ships seized so far this year were taken closer to the Yemeni coast, thus showing that the entire Gulf of Aden (between Yemen and Somalia, with the Indian ocean to the east and the entrance to the Red Sea to the west) is subject to pirate attacks. Despite the scary headlines this has generated, world trade, or even traffic to the Suez Canal (at the north end of the Red Sea) is not threatened. While ten percent of world shipping traffic goes through the Gulf of Aden each year, most of it is in ships too fast for the pirates to catch, and too large for them to easily get aboard. These ships pay higher fuel costs (for the high speed transit), higher insurance premiums, and two days of "danger pay" for their unionized crews, and that's it. This increases the annual operating costs of these ships by a fraction of one percent. But for smaller, and slower, freighters, mostly serving local customers, the pirates remain a problem. These ships tend to be owned by African and Arab companies, and manned by African and Arab crews. more..http://www.strategypage.com/qnd/somalia/articles/20081019.aspx
Sunday, October 19, 2008
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Ex-Somali Police Commissioner General Mohamed Abshir
Sultan Kenadid
Seyyid Muhammad Abdille Hassan
Sultan Mohamud Ali Shire
Designation of Al-Shabaab
SOMALI REPUBLICANS
About Us
The Foundation is dedicated to networking like-minded Somalis opposed to the terrorist insurgency that is plaguing our beloved homeland and informing the international public at large about what is really happening throughout the Horn of Africa region.
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- It's A Great Time To Be A Pirate
- The US Presidential election and anti-Ethiopian lo...
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- Statement from the United Nations on two UN staff ...
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- U.N. council mulls action in Eritrea-Djibouti dispute
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- A Week in the Horn
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- France 'captures Somali pirates'
- Pirates, clerics, warlords and the chaos in Somalia
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- UNICEF water engineer, Mukhtar Mohammed Hassan, ki...
- Implications of Terrorism and Counterterrorism in ...
- Al-Qaeda websites blocked
- Report: Hijacked Iranian Ship Contained 'Dirty Bom...
- Mostly Hawiye pirates threatening to kill Ukrainia...
- Africa mentioned only in passing in all the debates
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- Somalia National Day
- J. Peter Pham, Ph.D ??.or Formar Child Molester ??
- Somalia Journalists Kidnapping: Inside Job
- No end in sight in Somalia, but the future bears l...
- Islamist Guerrillas Battle Each Other, Two KilledI
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- Peeling the Layers, Donald Payne and Obama politic...
- Shoot On Sight, Shoot To Kill
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- Al Qaeda behind Red Sea piracy, official
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- UN aid worker gunned down in Somalia
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- Teenagers facing terror plot charge
- South Korean firm pays ransom to Somali pirates
- Bomb found in man's luggage at US airport
- At least 23 killed in Mogadishu fighting: witnesses
- Problems in the VOA-Somali Service (Part Two)
- Next round of talks to cement UN-backed Somali pea...
- ETHIOPIAN PM HOLDS TALKS WITH SENIOR US DEFENCE OF...
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- US Seeks Cooperation with China in Africa
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- Hijacked arms ship running out of fuel
- Videos: Jihad Camp in Somalia; English-Speaking Re...
- Time For McCain To Talk About Somalia Lesson For Iraq
- Ethiopian PM holds talks with UN peacekeeping chief
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- Insurgents Attack African Union Troops in Mogadishu
- Lawless Somalia elbows its way back into the news ...
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- Somali forces kill pirate on Panama ship
- kenyan forces participating crimes against humanity
- Internal clashes with pirates
- Here We Go Again ..the propaganda arm of the terro...
- America must adjust foreign aid to a new world order
- U.S. takes North Korea off terror list
- As US warships lurk nearby, pirates threaten to bl...
- Commentary: AFRICOM: No good deed Bush does goes u...
- FA president escapes assassination attempt
- 'Toxic waste' behind Somali piracy
- 400 AU Troops Arrive in Mogadishu - Sources
- Salvation Corps and Toxic waste on the shores of S...
- Questions swirl around arms on abducted Ukrainian ...
- Pirates threaten to blow up hijacked tanker off So...
- A Week in the Horn of Africa (10/10/2008)
- 2 expats appeal for release in Somalia
- Russia to U.S.: Let's Team up, to Fight Pirates
- WFP-chartered aid ship arrives in Merca town under...
- NATO to send warships to combat piracy off Somalia
- Ethiopia Always Calls International Community To E...
- All at sea in Somalia
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- us aircraft bombs Somalia al-shabaab Stronghold
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- Taking The War To The Terrorists
- Kidnapped Briton freed in northeastern Somalia
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Al-Qaida in Somalia. ...
We Are Winning the War on Terrorism in Horn of Africa
The threat is from violent extremists who are a small minority of the world's 1.3 billion Muslims, the threat is real. They distort Islam. They kill man, woman and child; Christian and Hindu, Jew and Muslim. They seek to create a repressive caliphate. To defeat this enemy, we must understand who we are fighting against, and what we are fighting for.
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