Somalia: not piracy catch all thread

[JJackson]

Peacekeepers sell arms to Somalis

Ugandan peacekeepers in Somalia have been selling arms to insurgents, a United Nations report says.

The report, by the UN monitoring group on the Somali arms embargo, says Ethiopia, Eritrea and Yemen are also breaking the embargo.

It cites one incident in which a group of Ugandan soldiers allegedly received $80,000 for a transaction

That bridge plan has been around for a while but a quick look at the map leaves you wondering just how much qaat these guys have been chewing. A mind bogglingly expensive bridge joining two bits of desert with no obvious demand or infrastructure at either end. The main takers for trips across this strip of water seem to be illegal African economic migrants or possibly Muslims on their way to fight the infidels.

[Ron Humphrey]

Peacekeepers sell arms to Somalis



The main takers for trips across this strip of water seem to be illegal African economic migrants or possibly Muslims on their way to fight the infidels.

Lord knows they wouldn't want to interrupt those particular supply lines

[davidbfpo]

In today's UK Mail on Sunday, by an excellent journalist, Aidan Hartley, who contributes to (UK) The Spectator and lives in NE Kenya: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/moslive/a...d-general.html

davidbfpo

[Jedburgh]

ICG, 23 Dec 08: Somalia: To Move Beyond the Failed State

Since 1991 Somalia has been the archetypal failed state. Several attempts to create a transitional set-up have failed, and the current one is on the brink of collapse, overtaken yet again by an Islamist insurgency, despite the support of an Ethiopian military interven-tion since December 2006. Over the last two years the situation has deteriorated into one of the world’s worst humanitarian and security crises. The international community is preoccupied with a symptom – the piracy phenomenon – instead of concentrating on the core of the crisis, the need for a political settlement. The announced Ethiopian withdrawal, if it occurs, will open up a new period of uncertainty and risk. It could also provide a window of opportunity to relaunch a credi-ble political process, however, if additional parties can be persuaded to join the Djibouti reconciliation talks, and local and international actors – including the U.S. and Ethiopia – accept that room must be found for much of the Islamist insurgency in that process and ultimately in a new government dispensation.....

Complete 45-page paper at the link.