Storm Brewing: Kenya, Somalia, Uganda and America

I'm nervous for Kenya, whose troops have for the last week been pursuing an aggressive intervention into neighbouring Somalia to hunt down Islamic militants from the al-Shabaab group, some of whom are believed to be behind a series of recent kidnappings and murders in the Kenya boarder area.

US forces are supporting the Kenyan incursion, with an American drone attack today killing 44 people and wounding 63 others in southern Somalia. 

US forces have also recently been sent to Uganda by Presidential decree, apparently to help combat the insurgent LRA in the north of the country. It seems that their presence will add support to US anti-terrorist operations in the horn of Africa.

Al-Shabaab will of course fight back, so the fear is for terror attacks in Nairobi and Mombasa as retaliation for the recent incursions.

I can't see it ending well. 

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Related articles

• Nairobi bomb attacks increase al-Shabaab fears (telegraph.co.uk)
• Kenyan troops near al-Shabaab town in Somalia (cbc.ca)
• U.S. Embassy Warns of Terrorist Attacks in Kenya (onebluestocking.wordpress.com)

Somali Pirates - Stop Paying Ransoms

The Director of the UN Office on Drugs and Crime has called on shipping companies and insurance companies to stop paying ransoms to Somali pirates.

Executive Director of UNODC Antonio Maria Costa made the appeal alongside proposals for "ship riders" from neighbouring nations to be placed on warships operating off the horn of Africa. The task of these local law enforcement officers would be to formally arrest pirates apprehended by international navies and escort them to their home country to stand trial.

"Pirates can not be keel-hauled or forced to walk the plank, nor should they be dumped off the Somali coast", said Costa, "they need to be brought to justice". The UNODC Director suggested that countries such as Djibouti, Kenya, Tanzania and Yemen could supply officers who, subject to international agreement, could be placed on board the European, American and Indian naval vessals currently patrolling the waters off Somalia, from where local organised gangs have been attacking and capturing ever larger ships and demanding payments in return for the crew, ship and cargoes.

Similar patterns of regional cooperation have sucessfully reduced piracy in the Straits of Malacca, near Indonesia, and have also been used to apprehended and charge drug traffickers in the Carribean in recent years.

The UN proposal comes on the back of an International Conference on Piracy around Somalia which took place on December 11th in Nasirobi.

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Throwback to Slave Trade as Somalis Drown off Yeman

News of over 75 Somalis drowning off the coast of Yemen is as distressing as it is inevitable.

With Yemen having established itself as the first destination-of-choice for thousands of Somalis fleeing the war-torn failed state, local boat owners have found a new and lucrative income stream from transporting groups across the Gulf of Aden to a new life in the gulf state of Yemen.

During such illegal and high risk ventures, where profit is king, fatalities are almost inevitable. Reports from the Yemeni authorities describe yesterday a boat carrying around 250 migrants whose captain, fearful of capture, forced his passengers to jump overboard and swim the final distance to shore. Only 180 Somalis reached the Yemeni beach.

The idea of black Africans being forced overboard by ruthless boat owners is a throwback to the slavery era when sick or “difficult” slaves would be jettisoned during the middle passage from West Africa to the Caribbean, a practice depicted in its brutality in the film Amistad.

It's a tragedy that such practices continue in 2008.

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Somalia - Some Good News

Polio has been eradicated from Somalia, despite the absence of a functioning central government in the war-torn country.

The announcement comes from the World Health Organization and is the result of a mass movement of volunteers and health workers who have implemented a pioneering immunization programme over recent years.

The 10,000-strong team of Somali volunteers successfully visited every household in every settlement across the entire country several times to administer the polio vaccine to more than 1.8 million children under the age of five. This was achieved without any national database and against the backdrop of mass migration and widespread conflict between rival militias, government forces and Ethiopian troops.

Mass community participation and repeat vaccinations within short time periods have been factors in the programme's success, which has resulted in health workers not reporting a single case of the disease since March 2007.

"This truly historic achievement shows that polio can be eradicated everywhere, even in the most challenging and difficult settings," said Dr Hussein A Gezairy, Regional Director for the WHO Regional Office for the Eastern Mediterranean.

Polio remains in only four countries - Afghanistan, Pakistan, India and Nigeria. Stopping the disease in these nations would result in the complete eradication of the polio from the planet.

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US Attacks Somalia - Again. What is the Legal Basis for This War?

As American missiles destroy a house in Southern Somalia (reports Reuters), questions urgently need asking about this and other attacks on the east African country in the last year:

• what is the legal basis for these attacks? There have been four since December 2006

• on what authority is the United States government carrying out these strikes?

• to whom is the US accountable for its actions in Somalia?

• what role, if any, does the United Nations have in the operations?

Claiming that the most recent missile attack was directed at "a known al Qaeda terrorist", US official have declined to give further details of the attack, which occurred on Monday 3rd March. Local reports claim that the target was near the town of Dobley and that casualties ranged from three wounded to six killed.

Previous attacks on Somali soil in recent months have included:

• an attack on January 8th 2007 by a U.S. AC-130 gunship in southern Somalia, allegedly at Islamists fleeing Ethiopian and Somali troops
  

• a missile launch on June 21st 2007 on suspected Islamists in the mountainous Puntland region in the north of the country

Steve Bloomfield writes here on the forgotten tragedy of Somalia. Essential background reading.

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