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Al Shabaab News

20 May 2021

First Ships Dock at Kenya's Lamu Deep Water Port

(Photo: LAPSSET)

The first ships docked at Kenya's deep water Lamu Port on Thursday as the country looks to open a new transport corridor linking its vast northern region and neighboring nations to the sea.Kenyan officials hope that the Indian Ocean port, the country's second deep water facility, will attract cargo destined for neighboring landlocked nations Ethiopia and South Sudan, and offer transhipment services where large vessels bring in cargo for onward distribution by smaller ships.The Lamu Port…

24 Apr 2017

US Sees Piracy Increase off Somalia Tied to Famine

Cargo ship MV OS-35 was recently attacked by suspected armed pirates in the Gulf of Aden (Photo: EUNAVFOR)

The United States is closely watching a recent increase in piracy off the coast of Somalia, a senior U.S. military official said on Sunday as Defense Secretary Jim Mattis visited an important military base in Djibouti. The rise in piracy attacks has at least partially been driven by famine and drought in the region, the top U.S. military commander overseeing troops in Africa said during Mattis' visit as part of a week-long trip to the Middle East and Africa. The United States uses the base in Djibouti…

12 Apr 2017

Somali Forces Clash With Pirates, Free Indian Ship Crew

Somali security forces clashed with pirates early on Wednesday and freed nine seamen kidnapped on an Indian cargo ship this month, officials said. The pirates seized the dhow Al Kausar off Somalia's coast, part of a surge of attacks after years without a reported incident. The kidnappers took the crew onshore in central Galmudug state on Monday and clashed with troops two days later, the territory's minister for ports and sea transport, Burhan Warsame, said. "We rescued the nine crew and they are healthy and safe," he added. Hirsi Yusuf Barre, mayor of Galkayo town in the area, said the security forces attacked the gang after it tried to move the hostages into an area controlled by the militant group al Shabaab overnight.

11 Dec 2016

Suicide Bomb Kills 29 at Somalia's Main Port

A suicide truck bomb hit the entrance of Somalia's biggest port on Sunday, killing at least 29 people, police said, an attack claimed by Islamist al Shabaab militants. The fighters said they were trying to disrupt protracted parliamentary elections - part of efforts to rebuild the fractured nation after decades of war. The three-month vote is due to end on Dec. 29. Gunfire rang out after the blast at Mogadishu Port, Mohamed Hussein, a worker there, told Reuters. Two others said work had been halted and staff sent home. The bodies of victims lay strewn outside the capital's terminal in a street filled with rubble from damaged tea shops. "At least 29 civilians died and 50 others have been injured in the blast.

08 Nov 2016

Ships More at Risk After First Somali Pirate Attack in Years

File photo: Euronav

Merchant vessels sailing through busy shipping lanes between Somalia and Yemen may be underestimating the risk of piracy and terrorism following two attempted attacks last month, maritime officials say. More than 40 percent of the world's seaborne oil supplies pass through the Gulf of Aden and Arabian Sea, a major shipping lane also used to move exports and commodities such as food between Asia and Europe. The European Union's counter-piracy naval force (EU Navfor) confirmed on Nov. 4 that six armed men attacked chemical tanker CPO Korea 330 nautical miles (610 km) east of Somalia on Oct.

15 Mar 2016

Somali Militants Seize Puntland Area Port

Somali al Shabaab fighters have seized a small port in the semi-autonomous Puntland region, the latest sign of a resurgence in activity by the Islamist militants in the Horn of Africa nation. A series of offensives last year by the African Union force AMISOM and the Somali National Army had driven al Shabaab out of major strongholds in the southern region of Somalia. At the time, officials said some al Shabaab fighters had moved north to the Puntland region, beyond AMISOM's area of operation. In recent weeks, al Shabaab has also retaken smaller towns and launched deadly attacks in the southern region. "Al Shabaab fighters with several boats captured Garad town," Hassan Mohamed, governor for Mudug region of Puntland told Reuters, adding that the attack took place on Monday.

06 Mar 2015

Piracy Still a Big Threat in the Indian Ocean

Photo: Alex Sergienko

Underestimating the security risk in the Indian Ocean could put ships in danger once again, says maritime security company MAST Ltd. “Whilst recent reports and incidents seem to be pointing to the Far East as the next piracy hotspot, the real security risk to shipping remains within the Indian Ocean, which is being ‘under-hyped’ by some commentators,” said Gerry Northwood OBE, COO of MAST. "It is clear that the level of maritime crime in the Far East is high, however in most cases…

24 Oct 2014

UN: Ship Inspections near Somalia for Arms, Charcoal

UN Photo/Amanda Voisard

The United Nations Security Council authorized the inspection of boats suspected of carrying illegal shipments of charcoal or weapons to and from Somalia on Friday, though Russia and Jordan abstained from the vote over concerns about the move. The resolution, adopted by the 15-member council with 13 votes in favor, approves the use of "all necessary measures" - diplomatic code for military force - to carry out such inspections. The council imposed an arms embargo on Somalia in 1992 to cut the flow of arms to feuding warlords…

24 Oct 2014

UN Authorizes Ship Inspections Near Somalia For Arms, Charcoal

The United Nations Security Council authorized the inspection of boats suspected of carrying illegal shipments of charcoal or weapons to and from Somalia on Friday, though Russia and Jordan abstained from the vote over concerns about the move. The resolution, adopted by the 15-member council with 13 votes in favor, approves the use of "all necessary measures" - diplomatic code for military force - to carry out such inspections. The council imposed an arms embargo on Somalia in 1992 to cut the flow of arms to feuding warlords, who ousted dictator Mohamed Siad Barre and plunged the country into civil war. The Security Council then banned charcoal exports from Somalia in February 2012 in a bid to cut off funds for al Shabaab…

25 Jul 2014

Police Kill 2 Kenyans Suspected of Planning Ferry Attack

Kenyan police said on Friday they shot and killed two armed men suspected of planning an attack on a ferry in the port city of Mombasa after one of them tried to hurl a grenade at approaching police. Mombasa and the coastal region has been struck by a series of attacks that have killed dozens of people in recent months. The worst shootings have been on the north coast, but Mombasa has been hit by several bomb attacks. Somalia's al Shabaab Islamist group has claimed many attacks, but the government has blamed some of the north coast raids on local political networks, leaving many Kenyans confused about who is responsible and angry at security failures.

08 Nov 2012

Somali Counter-piracy Offensive Paying Off

Piracy off the Somali Coast falls to lowest levels in years as result of tough measures on land & at sea. As Kenyan Defense Forces continue to weaken Al-Shabaab on the ground in Somalia, new reports indicates Somali pirates off the coast have similarly been weakened this year. According to the International Maritime Bureau’s Piracy Reporting Center, “The number of ships signaling attacks by Somali pirates has fallen this year [2012] to its lowest since 2009.” For example, only one ship has reported an attempted attack by Somali pirates from July 2012 to September 2012, compared with 36 incidents in the same three month period last year. Kenya has taken drastic action to combat piracy in the past decade.

09 Oct 2012

Pirates Beware as Somalia State-building Begins

“There is definitely unimaginable change in Somalia from a war situation to an increasing peaceful situation,” says UN top envoy. “It may be more difficult, it may be more challenging, [but] we have moved from transition to transformation which entails peacebuilding [and] around it is state-building,” the Secretary-General’s Special Representative for Somalia, Augustine Mahiga, told a news conference in Nairobi, in neighbouring Kenya, of the UN’s future role in a country that had been torn apart by more than 20 years of internecine warfare. The UN envoy paid tribute to the UN-backed African Union force in Somalia (AMISOM) and Somali forces…

03 Oct 2012

Africa Seeks to Make Maritime More Economically Important

Participants at the opening ceremony of the African Maritime meeting held in Mombasa, Kenya.

Plagued by low sources of revenue in their economies, African maritime stakeholders are meeting in Mombasa, Kenya to look into ways the industry could add to national revenue base. Key debate issue on the first day revolved around whether Africa should adopt an open or closed ship registry system. While maritime experts and industry players yearn for an open form of registry, viewed as a means to boost the number of ships in the continent, hence revenue from taxation, government representatives at the meeting were however cautious.

28 Jun 2012

Somali President Urges More Counter-piracy Help

Speaking at the opening of the two-day Marine Counter Piracy Conference, which runs in its 2nd edition in the Gulf Arab Emirate (UAE) of Dubai, the widely internationally recognized Somali president said that his country was suffering immensely from piracy. Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed, President of the Transitional Federal Government of Somalia said: "Criminal acts from pirates range from illegal fishery, violent seizure of foreign cargo ships, killings and rape. The Transitional Federal Government of Somalia has been fighting since 2006 against Al Shabaab insurgents. In August 2011, the government forces managed to force the Shabaab militia, regarded by the United States as an affiliate of the Al-Qaida network, completely out of the Somali capital Mogadishu.

01 Jun 2012

Kenyan Warship Bombards Somali Port Kismayu

Kenya's military spokesman Cyrus Oguna verified that his forces had shelled the town after Al-Shabaab militants opened fire at Kenyan warships patrolling Somali coast. This was the first bombardment of Kismayo by the Kenyans whose naval ships regularly patrol the Somali coast. Local eyewitnesses in Kismayo say that a Kenyan warship opened gunfire early morning of May 29, and shells wounded several residents including a boy and his mother. Analysts supposed that Kismayo port being the major source of income for Al-Shabaab islamists would be the key target of Kenyan forces which entered Somalia in Oct 2011. Nevertheless, the Kenyans have made minor progress inland Somalia through the recent 7 months.

16 Feb 2012

The Pirate Surge That Never Was

In September 2011, as the monsoon began to blow itself out, there were grave warnings from a number of sources and analysts that the shipping industry could expect to see a significant surge in pirate activity as conditions in the Arabian Sea and Indian Ocean became more favorable. But as conditions cleared, the anticipated increase in pirate activity failed to materialize, to the surprise of many in the industry. This was all the more remarkable given the business model of Somali pirates…

13 Apr 2011

Specialized Somali Courts for Pirates Considered

Recognizing the need for further steps to boost anti-piracy efforts, the Security Council decided to urgently consider the establishment of specialized Somali courts to try suspected pirates both in the Somalia and in the region. The Council also urged both State and non-State actors affected by piracy, most notably the international shipping community, to provide support for a host of judicial- and detention-related projects through the trust fund set up for that purpose. In its unanimously adopted resolution, the 15-member Council stressed the need for “a comprehensive response to tackle piracy and its underlying causes by the international community,” as it outlined a wide array of measures to more effectively counter the scourge of piracy.