From: Biniam Tekle (biniamt@dehai.org)
Date: Thu Aug 28 2008 - 08:16:19 EDT
Pirate Ransom Helped Somalia Islamist Militants Seize Port By Alisha Ryu
Nairobi
*27 August 2008*
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*New details are emerging of a link between rising piracy off the coast of
Somalia and insurgent activities on shore. A Kenyan piracy expert says a
prominent Somali factional leader turned Islamist helped the country's
militant Shabab group seize the key southern port of Kismayo last week with
weapons he bought with ransom payments. VOA correspondent Alisha Ryu has
this exclusive story from our East Africa Bureau in Nairobi. *
During the first half of this decade, factional leader Yusuf Mohamed Siad,
better known by his nickname Inda'ade, was notorious in Somalia for engaging
in pirate activities and running a lucrative drug and weapons trafficking
operation from the city of Merca, the provincial capital of the Lower
Shabelle region.
Inda'ade joined the country's Islamist movement in early 2006 and late that
year he gained international attention when, as the chief of security for
the ruling Islamic Courts Union, he urged foreign fighters to come to
Somalia to carry out a holy war against troops from Ethiopia.
After Ethiopian troops ousted the Islamists from power, Inda'ade made his
way to Asmara, Eritrea, where he joined the opposition Alliance for the
Re-liberation of Somalia group and cast himself as a hard-line spokesmen for
the violent Islamist-led insurgency in Somalia.
[image: Kismayo, Somalia] Kismayo, SomaliaThe head of the Mombasa-based
Seafarers' Assistance Program, Andrew Mwangura, tells VOA that Inda'ade is
now the new Islamist leader in Kismayo.
"Inda'ade is a member of al-Shabab, the one who has taken over Kismayo and
is the most powerful person," Mwangura said.
Kismayo, a strategic southern port city that had been under the control of
local clan militias, fell to the radical Islamist Shabab group last Friday
after days of fighting that killed more than 70 people.
Mwangura, whose group has been involved in securing the release of 90
percent of the vessels hijacked by Somali pirates in recent years, says
Inda'ade still controls a personal militia of about 200 fighters and
pirates, and is involved in the trafficking of drugs and guns.
Somalis say the factional leader has long wanted control of Kismayo and its
port, and may have seen an opportunity to take the city through the Shabab,
an al-Qaida affiliated organization that has successfully re-established
Islamist control in many parts of southern and central Somalia in recent
months.
Mwangura says Inda'ade expanded his relationship with other established
pirate groups, particularly in the northern Puntland region, and used his
share of the ransom money to buy, among other things, weapons used in the
Islamist battle for Kismayo.
"So, they are working together. Now, they see one way of getting money for
terrorist activities (is) through gun-running and drug trafficking,"
Mwangura said. "Or maybe al-Shabab is using him because he has fire-power
and heavy military equipment."
Piracy has been rampant in Somalia since factional leaders overthrew the
government of Mohamed Siad Barre in 1991 and plunged the country into a
civil war.
It reached unprecedented levels last week, when pirates seized three vessels
in one day. Seven ships and their crew are being held with ransom demands
exceeding $1 million for each vessel.
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