I wouldn’t call it “smuggling”. more like legal imports considering the state of the Somali government. (httip kyros)
The Taliban-style Shabab group , which has already siezed control of much of the lawless nation, has enlisted the pirates’ services to smuggle in al-Qaeda fighters from across the Middle East, according to Somali government ministers. They claim that up to 1,000 have arrived in recent months, swelling the ranks of the Shabab in its bid to topple the fragile US-backed administration in Mogadishu.
The warning was issued by Somali’s first deputy prime minister, Professor Abdulrahman Adan Ibrahim, during a visit to London last week. He is lobbying for Britain and other Western countries to give more financial help to stamp out the piracy problem along the country’s vast 2,000 mile coastline.
“The Shabab are requesting the pirates to bring people in for them,” Prof Ibrahim told The Sunday Telegraph. “Somalia’s borders with neighbouring countries are now tightly policed, so the only corridor for them is via the sea. The pirates smuggle them, and if anybody stops them, they just say they are passing fishermen.”
Related posts:
- Somalia: Pirates release Saudi super tanker
- Somali pirates hi-jack Saudi oiltanker
- Somali Pirates attempt to hijack American Cruise ship
- Upping the Ante: Somali Pirates Now Hijack U.S. Tugboat
- Video: Somali pirates fire on US Navy helicopter
- Somali pirates target foreign cruise ship
- Somali pirates starving Russian hostages
- Somalia Says Foreign Powers May Use Force to End Standoff With Pirates
- Elderly Brits fight off heavily armed Somali jihadi pirates with deckchairs
- U.S. Navy Sends Warship to Protect Ukrainian Vessel From Somali Pirates
