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| Africa Horn |
| Strategypage: Somalia |
| 2009-04-16 |
| April 16, 2009: Somali government (TNG) officials confirm that al Qaeda is using the country as a base, for training terrorists for attacks in neighboring Kenya, Ethiopia and Yemen. The most radical Somali faction, al Shabaab, has even recruited about a dozen young men from the Somali refugee community (of about 150,000 legal and illegal migrants) in the United States. The U.S. is now seeking to interrupt Somali pirate and terrorist factions access to banks in the region. Somaliland accused neighboring Eritrea of training and sheltering Islamic terrorists who are staging attacks inside Somaliland. Eritrea is allied with Sudan and Iran in supporting Islamic radical groups. So far this year, Somali pirates have attacked at least 80 ships, capturing about fifteen of them (many fishing boat captures go unreported, or are difficult to confirm). Since the international anti-piracy patrol has made the Gulf of Aden difficult (or even dangerous, depending on which country the warship is from) for pirates, more attacks have been made off the east coast. The pirates have the advantage here, because the 3,000 kilometers long Somali coast is far larger than the current force of two dozen foreign warships can effectively patrol. These multimillion dollar payoffs have attracted thousands of ambitious and fearless young Somalis, looking to score big, and retire. |
| Posted by:tu3031 |