al-Shabab

There be Pirates in Somalia

Author: 
Naheem Zaffar

We've all heard of Somalia and most of us will also have heard about the occasional pirate ship hijacking that happens off its coast. Everyone is also united in condemning the pirates for their piracy. Yes people, there are people off the coast of somalia, the pirates hijack the oil tankers and more, but is that the whole of it or is there more to it all?

Why are there are pirates in Somalia? What makes it the type of place where piracy can before rife?

Somalia is a place that has been without a functioning government for the best part of 20 years now and has been locked into almost constant conflict and violence between communities that live there.

Somalia: America needs to engage

The bloody al-Shabab attacks in Uganda underline that the US cannot simply outsource policing the Somali failed state

Last Sunday, during the World Cup final, suicide bombers struck two targets in Kampala, Uganda, killing 74 people and turning a global celebration into an unspeakable tragedy. The Somali militant group al-Shabab has claimed responsibility for the attacks, which targeted both a rugby centre frequented by foreigners and an Ethiopian restaurant. The bombers targeted Uganda because it is a leader in the African Union-led military force in Somalia backing the country's unpopular and fragile western-supported government.

Somali militants 'behind' Kampala World Cup blasts

The Somali Islamist group al-Shabab has said it was behind twin blasts which hit the Ugandan capital Kampala on Sunday, killing 74 people.

In a statement in Mogadishu, spokesman for the group Sheikh Ali Mohamud Rage threatened more attacks.

Police said the bombings targeted football fans watching the World Cup final.

A Ugandan official said a Somali's head was found at the scene of one blast, and he may have been a suicide bomber.

Ugandan peacekeepers are in Somalia, and al-Shabab has previously threatened Kampala.

"Al-Shabab was behind the two bomb blasts in Uganda," Ali Mohamud Rage said.