Word: puntland
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...Perhaps, but only if the authorities in the self-declared autonomous region of Puntland keep their end of the deal. And a look at the track record on controlling piracy of the authorities in Puntland and elsewhere in Somalia does little to inspire confidence. The pirates operate their increasingly lucrative industry with impunity from a number of fishing villages along the Puntland coast, where they currently hold at least 12 vessels, and more than 200 of their crew members, awaiting ransom payments. The best known of these is the Ukrainian freighter MV Faina, and its cargo of tanks and other...
...Ethiopian army, which invaded with U.S. backing to drove out an Islamist authority that had, ironically, managed to tamp down piracy, but was also harboring wanted al-Qaeda figures. And some of the warlords in the current government are accused by international observers of being the real commanders of Puntland's half-dozen main pirate groups...
...difference between the captives taken for trial in Paris and those handed over in Puntland, says Baptiste, is that French law allow those who have attacked French citizens to be tried, whereas its jurisdiction would not easily stretch to pirates waiting to strike in far-off international waters. And while Baptiste does not say as much, there's reason to believe that the French may have learned enough in the course of interrogating the nine to make it politically dangerous for their warlord masters to set them free. "We know who the pirates are, where they come from, what clan...
...summer, Ethiopian and U.S. officials were claiming that the little war in Somalia was over. Though his troops remained in Mogadishu, Meles told TIME that the operation was a "tremendous success." But the violence never disappeared. On June 1, a U.S. warship unleashed an artillery barrage on Puntland in northern Somalia, reportedly killing eight jihadis. In a four-day battle in the capital in April, some 1,000 Ethiopians and Somali rebels died. Fierce fighting broke out in Mogadishu again last month, after which tens of thousands more refugees fled the capital...
...troops in the world." Without those peacekeepers, however, the two sides seem destined to clash. A face-off would surely drag Ethiopia and Eritrea into a proxy--if not outright--war. The Islamists' stated aim to unite all of Somalia is believed to include the secular breakaway territories of Puntland and Somaliland, as well as portions of Kenya and Ethiopia. Once fighting has begun, there's little to prevent Somalia from becoming a conflict that could engulf the Horn of Africa, cause horrific loss of life and create the continent's next major humanitarian crisis...