Saturday, July 28, 2012
Somali Troops (Reuters)
Twenty years after it helped establish a United Nations arms embargo on war-torn Somalia, the United States is now violating this international effort by helping local militias fighting Al-Qaeda.
According to the UN’s Somalia Eritrea Monitoring Group, the U.S. is carrying out three covert programs to assist Somali fighters in their battles with Al-Shabab, the Somalia affiliate of Al-Qaeda.
The Central Intelligence Agency has reportedly sent officers to the government of Puntland, a semi-autonomous region not recognized by the UN. Also, American special forces are fighting alongside Puntland soldiers.
The Obama administration has not notified the UN of these activities, which is required under the embargo established in 1992 after the Somalia civil war broke out.
The U.S. is not the only country violating the embargo. At least 11 other governments have failed to inform the UN of cargo flights to supply various parties in the Somalia conflict.
-Noel Brinkerhoff
To Learn More:
Obama’s Not-So-Secret Terror War (by Eli Lake, Daily Beast)
U.S. “Secretly” Circumvents Somalia Arms Embargo (by Steven Aftergood, Secrecy News)
Report of the Monitoring Group on Somalia and Eritrea (United Nations) (pdf)
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