Just ran across this story: Pirates 'bring shame on Somalia'.

I think they have it wrong - it is the world's shame that brought pirates to Somalia.

The Somali pirates at one point were honest do good hard working fishermen when major ship companies decided that it was ok to dump toxic waste off the shores of Somalia - and since Somalis had no functioning government (a situation which was also facilitated by the world at large), there was no one to stop the illegal dumping of waste.

Somalia's al-Shabab Islamist rebels have pulled out of all positions in the Somali capital of Mogadishu, government and rebel spokesmen say.

President Sheikh Sharif Ahmed declared the rebels defeated after they left overnight on trucks.

However, al-Shabab described the move as a "change of military tactics".

The conflict has hampered aid efforts in the famine-hit country, with the militia barring some aid agencies from central and southern areas it controls.

Read more @ BBC News

Hidden in this news report is the line that "a large number of Somali militiamen have reportedly distanced themselves from al-Shabab's de facto leader" and that this has significantly weakened them.

So maybe there is hope there again.

After fighting for 20 years in Afghanistan, Tajikistan, Bosnia and Somalia – Yemen is the country the mujahideen now call home

Hamza answered the call of jihad 20 years ago, when he was 16. He left his family home in Jeddah and headed to Afghanistan to join the long line of jihadis fighting the "apostate" Soviet-backed government.

Read more @ The Guardian

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.

An old BBC article, but since it seems that Al Shabab will have full control over southern Somalia probably sooner than later, it is... relevant:

Since they began to capture large swathes of southern Somalia, radical Islamists have been undertaking a programme of destroying mosques and the graves of revered religious leaders from the Sufi branch of Islam.

The destruction of non-approved religious sites started last year when they began to knock down an old colonial era church in the town of Kismayo.

Most Somalis are Sufi Muslims, who do not share the strict Saudi Arabian-inspired Wahhabi interpretation of Islam with the hardline al-Shabab group.

They embrace music, dancing and meditation and are appalled at the desecration of the graves.

A 25-year-old Somali pirate has told the BBC's Mohamed Olad Hassan by telephone from the notorious den of Harardhere in central Somalia why he became a sea bandit. Dahir Mohamed Hayeysi says he and his big-spending accomplices are seen by many as heroes.

"I used to be a fisherman with a poor family that depended only on fishing.

The first day joining the pirates came into my mind was in 2006.

A group of our villagers, mainly fishermen I knew, were arming themselves.

One of them told me that they wanted to hijack ships, which he said were looting our sea resources...

Read more @ BBC News