Word: somalia
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...relatively stable and democratic future, we currently must continue to shoulder the majority of the burden of the conflict in Afghanistan as NATO’s contribution dwindles. Radical Islamist terrorism has cost thousands of American lives and is gestating in ungoverned territories in South Asia, Yemen, Somalia, and North Africa. A bellicose Iran is approaching the nuclear threshold. Pirates range across the Indian Ocean. Across our own southern border, the Mexican government is struggling with sophisticated organized crime cartels over the control of significant portions of northern Mexico—a struggle that could spill into the United States...
...Monitoring Group on Somalia provided some illuminating details in a report in February. The report describes a corporate system in which pirates may be fined $1,500 for stealing from their ships or $500 for entering their bosses' offices without permission. On the flip side, pirates can win rewards of several thousand dollars for good behavior. "As the saying goes, 'the parents initially love their children equally, but it is the children who make them love some more than the others,' " says a document distributed to pirates by their bosses, according to the U.N. report. "It is up to your...
According to the report, rank-and-file militiamen receive $15,000 for their role in hijacking a ship. They get much more if they bring their own weapons or a boat. But pirates who have fled Somalia for Nairobi say that figure is much inflated. Ahmad, for example, says he might get a $10,000 share but his bosses would withhold as much as half of that to pay for his expenses. "The big fish are the guys who lead us, the ones who invest in the equipment, the boat, those things," he says. "Whether we die or not, they...
...investments. Wearing a cheap charcoal suit and dirty fake-leather shoes, this father of eight clearly doesn't make a lot from piracy. He is vague about his boss's investments and says they might be small stalls selling clothes or cheap hotels. Mohamed got across the border from Somalia by paying someone to hide him inside the back of a truck. "I'm not happy with it, but since I have no education, I have no choice," he said. "If I had another choice, I'd do it, but this is the only job I know. If you tell...
...half the food aid sent to Somalia is pocketed by crooked contractors, local U.N. staffers and Islamic militants. That's the unsettling conclusion of a new Security Council report, which recommends an independent investigation into the U.N.'s World Food Programme operations in Somalia. Officials blame the failure in part on the troubled nation's lack of security: food trucks must evade militias, bandits and insurgents, whose activity makes close scrutiny difficult for aid groups...