Armies of Liberation

Courtesy of The Terror Free Somalia Foundation:

Terrorist al-shabaab owned radio station opened in Kismayo
A new radio that is said to be an Islamic station has been opened in Kismayo town (southern Somalia) which is controlled by al- Shabaab Terrorist group. the radio administration said that they were independent from the Islamist jehadist group controlling the town????, but that it is an Islamic station.A celebration held in Kismayo yesterday evening to inaugurate the radio was attended by Islamist jehadist administration officials.al shabaab command structure jubaland region, we learnt that the radio is owned by the Islamist jehadist administration in the area though they agreed not make it public in order to make the station free for business.This comes at a time when all other redio in the area are still closed after the station disagreed with the Islamists jehadist over airing of music programmes.This new radio station will be the only station operating in Kismayo

The second man of Al-Qaeda terror network Ayman Al-Zawahiri has been seen for the first time Habar Gidir stronghold Marka town 90km south of Somalia capital as quoted from officials of unnamed money transfer companies and aid agencies on Thursday.

“Here in Marka, I have seen an Arab man who was heavily guarded as he was walking inside the town, with his sides we could see foreign armed men. I glimpsed him and he was Terrorist Ayman Al-Zawihiri, the man we often see on the world televisions,” one of the remittance companies said in condition of anonymity.He said all the movements in the town were halted as some of the senior officials of Al-Shabab group confirmed that the man they are hosting is Ayman Al-Zawahiri.

“I could not exactly say he was himself but most of out spoken issue was that the man seen is Al-Qaeda’s second man,” he added.“The presence of Ayman Al-Zawahiri in Marka is widely known, many people saw him but they fear for their security.

Our friends over at Terror Free Somalia got information from Waaga’s Club, but it’s in Somali. He describes the source as, “terror sympathizer HABAR-GIDIR ..news from Somalia waagacusub.own by harar-gidir own.. Shabelle media.. we call shabaab media.” The site was suspended shortly after. He believes there’s possibly some validity. It could be a high level AQ rep, not Zawahiri, considering the difficulty Zawahiri would have traveling. It could be a lot of things. I can’t find anything on Shabelle about it in English, but since Shabelle and Wagacusub tend to work hand in hand, thats not surprising. Also Shabelle regularly puts out misinformation in English.

At this point, its a rumor, but given the recent deal making between the government of Yemen and al-Qaeda, the prospect of Zawahiri visiting nearby Somalia is not as far fetched as it may initially seem. Yemen is the primary supplier of weapons to Somalia (in violation of the UN arms embargo); weapons are shipped from Yemen across the narrow Bab al Mendab Strait and the same boats bring Somali refugees to Yemen on the return trip.

After the September attack on the US embassy in Yemen, the US intercepted a communication between Ayman Zawahiri and the Iranian al Quds force leadership that referenced a deal between Yemeni President Saleh and Zawahiri. The deal was Zawahiri would send more fighters to Saleh to use in the northern Sa’ada war (against the Zaidi Shiite rebels) and in return Saleh would release imprisoned al-Qaeda operatives.

In a second deal in January, Saleh met with the contingent of Yemeni old generation co-opted al Qaeda under the leadership of Tariq al Fahdli and made a deal to use them to undermine the southern separatist movement in exchange for the release of prisoners. Saleh also gave the jihaddists funds and a free hand in the southern province of Abyan. New jihaddist training camps were also established. Then President Saleh released 102 jihaddists, of which about a third were actual al-Qaeda, the rest were local militants, thereby upholding his end of both deals.

Current news reports from Yemen indicate hundreds of jihaddists are amassing in the north in Sa’ada, Yemenis and non-Yemenis including Arabs and non-Arabs. The influx of foreign jihaddists to Sa’ada as well as the structure, training and hierarchy being imposed on them, indicates this possibly is an outcome of the communication between President Saleh and Ayman Zawahiri. Maybe Ayman will pop over from Somalia for a quick pow-pow with Ali.

Update: considering the site’s down, I posted the original below: (Read on …)

I’ve recently been corresponding with some Somali refugees in Yemen. One who converted to Christianity says when he goes into the UN offices, he gets overtly harassed and insulted by the UN employees for converting. Other refugees report little assistance and open hostility from the office. The open letter below says refugees are beaten and intimidated by Yemeni security forces outside the UN offices. Three refugees were killed and two women raped by the security during a protest outside the UN offices in 2005. To date, the Yemen UN office has failed to register hundreds of thousands of refugees. Maybe it is time for a “new registration mechanism” to deal with the abysmal situation. A note from Yemen to the UN office on refugees:

Dear Mr.Andrew Kinght.
Really I read your answer about the Iraqi refugees protest. But really you comment or answer is very wrong as I understanding. You are side that there is not any protest, I am asking you not about protest but your office have interest to cooperate with refugees problem in this difficult country?
Dear Sir, how many refugees are (beaten) by the Yemeni Police Guard in front of your office every day, especial most of them they are old women.
Mr. Andrew, I hear from your good behave and humanity for refugees in this country, but I am asking you to keep this behalves my dear.
Yours
(redacted)
Sana’a Yemen

Yemen Post notes the UNHCR seeks aid and reform, good! Many of the international orgs dance around the regime because otherwise they make it impossible to get anything done. The ICRC still (!) has problems getting unfettered access to Sa’ada.

Yemen Post

More than 700 thousand Somali refugees in addition to thousands of other African nationalities in Yemen most of which are not registered with the Office of High Commissioner for Refugees, said the Deputy Foreign Minister and Chairman of the National Commission for Refugees, Muthana Ali Hassan.

(Read on …)

The US and counter-piracy coalition noticed the substantial support for Somalia piracy coming from Yemen. And it is substantial, including weapons, diesel, use of territorial waters, phone service, ship coordinates etc. Earlier the UN monitoring group noted the nexus of piracy, human smuggling from Somalia to Yemen and the weapons smuggling from Yemen to Somalia on the return trip. The US Admiral is careful to make the point that the support is coming from private individuals, when actually all substantial criminal networks in Yemen are tied to the highest levels of the Yemeni regime. The US hopes for Yemeni governmental support in diminishing logistical aid to the pirates.

The Economist notes the enmeshing of criminal gangs and Mukallah’s importance in particular: It is said that pirates from Somalia and Yemen have now teamed up with smuggling gangs elsewhere in Africa to conduct illicit trade through Yemeni ports such as Mukalla and Belhaf with coalition force having only occasional success, piracy is plainly spreading more widely across the Indian Ocean.

Good. We noted that Mukallah port was an important entry point for drugs and exit point for weapons in 2005: One regionally destabilizing regime activity is drug smuggling. A variety of illegal drugs are smuggled via the Indian Ocean into the southern Yemeni governate of Hadramawt. The drugs are then transported inland to Saudi Arabia and the Gulf States under the supervision of a close relative of the president who is also responsible for the governmental security apparatus, a well informed former regime official reported.

The 10 tons of hashish was coming in through Mukallah. I noted in the Yemen Times that Makallah is not under the authority of the Coast Guard yet:

Increased activity by the Yemeni Coast Guard between Aden and al Mukalla impacted arms shipments from ports in the patrolled areas. However, the monitoring group found that the lack of regular patrols in al Mukalla “means that arms traffic continues unabated.” The group recommended capacity building programs for the Coast Guard and direct naval interdiction.

Yemen’s coast line extends 1906 km. The Coast Guard, created in 2003, is working towards taking control of Mocha and al Mukalla from the military. The Republican Guard and Central Security forces have authority at ports where the Coast Guard has limited presence.

The Republican Guard is under the direction of Prince Ahmed and the Central Security is under Yahya Saleh, the “close presidential relative” referenced in the 2005 article above. The US says the logistical support for the pirates is undertaken by private individuals. ,

Reuters The international community should work with Yemen to stop its people supplying Somali pirates who are disrupting lucrative international shipping routes, a senior U.S. admiral said on Monday. Somali pirates, who have disrupted lucrative international shipping trade, are getting fuel and engine parts from individuals in Yemen, Admiral Mark Fitzgerald, a Nato commander and the top U.S naval officer for Africa, told Reuters….”The fuel for instance, is coming from Yemen, a lot of the logistic supplies, things like motor boat engines (too)… And so we just need work with the government there to start tightening up controls,” Fitzgerald said.

“Its (support) not from the Yemen government, its from people in Yemen,” Fitzgerald said on the sidelines of an African naval conference in Cape Town, without giving further details.

Yemen offers its Perim island for NATO-led anti-piracy fleet
Sanaa, 21 February – As NATO is expanding into the Red Sea and towards the Horn of Africa, the improvised naval and military base in Djibuti is perceived to be insufficient. French sources now revealed that French foreign minister Bernard Kouchner and Yemen’s President Ali Abdullah Saleh agreed to build an artificial port on Yemen’s Perim island, to harbour the international NATO-led naval forces that have been tasked by the United Nations Security Council with future large-scale and enduring anti-piracy missions. The Yemeni Perim island has been chosen for its strategic location at the entrance to the Red Sea between Yemen and Djibouti. Bernard Kouchner is expected to arrive in Djibouti tomorrow for talks with the local government and that of Somalia about a future coordination between their executive forces and the newly to be allocated international anti-piracy mission

(Read on …)

We knew this already, yes? That was the problem with the Somalis when they were demonstrating a year or two ago. The Somali refugees said the UN office in Yemen wasn’t processing paperwork (who’s paying for that slow down?) and discouraged them overtly. According to the Iraqi refugees, the UN office is extorting $10,000 to process documents.

There are some international orgs working in Yemen cleanly, like MSF for one, but others get sucked into the corrupt environment. Foreigners who can’t be bribed are sometimes overtly blackmailed or obliquely coerced by such tactics as threatened visa refusal.

This is part of the reason why Yemen, the real Yemen, is such a black hole, many Westerners go easy on the regime and self censor because those who don’t can’t come back and would lose their livelihood.

YemenOnline. Feb 18, 2009 – In a raging environment, a number of discontented Iraqi families headed for the gate of UNHCR office in Yemen where they tore up their own asylum and resettlement documents issued by UNHCR Yemen in protest to the degradation, ill-treatment and continuous extortion they received from UNHCR staff, as well as in protest to the violations against the international humanitarian laws.

A number of Iraqi refugees in Yemen said that UNHCR staff used to treat them with contempt and refuse to receive their resettlement documents to be processed and renewed. They added that a minimum of US$ 10,000 has to be paid to staff in order for the resettlement documents to be processed.

On a related note, Iraq issued a call for former Army officials to return, but there’s so many former Saddamists in high ranks in the Yemeni army now that I wouldn’t expect a mass migration of military personnel. The Saddamists impact on Yemeni policy, the military, the jihaddi rat trail and the Sa’ada War should not be underestimated, by any means. Thousands of Hussain’s officials and their money fled to Yemen at the start of the Iraq War.

Zawya

(AFP) - Iraq has invited soldiers who served under Saddam Hussein’s regime to come home or apply for their state pensions as part of a reconciliation process, the defence ministry spokesman said on Sunday.

The ministry is to send envoys to Iraqi embassies in Egypt, Jordan, Syria, the United Arab Emirates and Yemen to make contact with the ex-soldiers, General Mohammed al-Askari told AFP.

“The ministry’s decision aims to achieve national reconciliation” and “settle the issue of members of the former regime,” he said. Askari said that the former soldiers would “without exception” be given one month either to sort out their entitlement to a pension or to return to the ranks of the army….

According to another defence ministry official, an estimated 23,000 ex-Iraqi army soldiers, including 9,000 officers, have taken refuge in the five Arab countries.

What happened to Abu Yahya? Abu Osama, maybe its Saad, Hamza. Joking, of course…

From Empty Quarter:
Abu Osama of Jund al-Yemen “also said that Abyan, Shabwa, Hadhramout, Marib, al-Jawf and Sa’ada are on the verge of falling into al-Qaeda control. He also predicted more confrontations with Yemeni security forces in the near future, saying that the government’s efforts at negotiation with al-Qaeda had come to an impasse. He pledged attacks against military, oil and tourism targets.” (emphasis added)

Yemen Observer Over 300 young Yemeni men affiliated with al-Qaeda traveled to Iraq, Afghanistan and Somalia for Jihad in 2008, said an alleged al-Qaeda military leader on Wednesday.

“More than 300 young men from the land of Yemen, who are members of our organization joined their brothers in Iraq, Afghanistan and Somalia during 2008,” said Abu Osama, a member of the military council of al-Qaeda and the commander of the Yemen Brigades. (Fatah al Islam? Lebanon, no?)

In a statement published by the local weekly independent newspaper al-Wasat, Abu Osama claims that al-Qaeda in Yemen has become stronger than ever. He also said mediation between al-Qaeda and the Yemeni government remains deadlocked.

(Read on …)

Yemeni super-sleuthing uncovered an international conspiracy in the Gulf of Aden - the US is the source of Somali piracy! The US in a devilish plot created the pirates as a power play against the Islamic Courts, officials announced. The pirates’ true identity was probably discovered because they were wearing those American X-ray sunglasses or something.

As reported in Al-Sahwa, “The advisor of Yemen’s cabinet Salim Hussein said that the Somali piracy was produced by the U.S. because…it failed to control Somalia and when the Islamic Courts could get rid of warlords which were Unites states’ agents in Somalia.”

Back on planet earth, Yemen is the primary supplier of illegal weapons to Somalia, fueling ongoing instability (and piracy), the UN monitoring committee on the Somali sanctions reported in December. However, Israel’s total control of the planet is so all encompassing that the UN Monitoring Committee’s report was issued to divert attention from the existence of Israeli spies in Yemen. It’s all so fiendishly complicated! Its a good thing we have Naba News to explain it all to us.

Similarly, the recent report that Yemen smuggled Chinese missiles to Gaza was nothing but an Israeli diversion created to obscure the trial of the Mossad spies in Yemen. Or at least that’s what the Yemeni stooge newspapers are reporting.

Yemen’s president said the Islamic Jihad terror cell emailed Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, offering to spy and blow things up. “We are the Jihad Organization and you are Jews but you are honest and we are ready for anything,” the email said according to Yemeni security officials.

Olmert replied (also by email) that the arrangement would be just peachy, “We are ready to support you to be a stumbling block to the Middle East and we will support you as agents.” Aha!

There must be a government department in Yemen dedicated to concocting false trial evidence and cloning newspapers and NGOs to confuse the public. It probably clocks a lot of hours thinking up new insults for its critics and new enemies and new plots against Yemen and other ways to distract the public and confuse the international community.

When the spy story first broke in October, there were 40 Israeli spies “from different Arab nationalities spying for Mossad” according to the National and Political Security Units. Now its down to three on trial for espionage and threats against foreign embassies.

Islamic Jihad claimed responsibility the September terror attack on the US embassy in Sana’a that killed 12 people including an American. They threatened other western and Arab embassies. The attending implication in the stooge media is that Israel somehow orchestrated the bombing. Yemen’s scramble to blame Israel raises doubts about the level of collusion by regime officials in the bombing.

The Yemeni regime is quite consistent and Stalinistic in its broad deployment of outrageous propaganda. In 2006, Field Marshall Saleh publically accused the US of perpetrating the terror attack on the USS Cole that killed 17 sailors. The US wanted to invade and establish a naval base in Aden, the president said.

The funny part about the unending spew of small and large lies is they can’t keep track of what they said before. One of my favorite stories involves Abdulkhaled Nabi, leader of the Abyan Aden Islamic Army. The Yemeni regime told the US in 2003 that they killed al-Nabi in a shoot-out. In 2004, Yemeni officials admitted that they let al-Nabi go after he was spotted breathing. In 2005, top Yemeni officials claimed Nabi was completely rehabilitated and living the life of a peaceful farmer. In 2006, local media reported Nabi and his band of fanatics was training a tribal paramilitary for the government to battle Shiite rebels in Sa’ada. In 2007, the newspaper (Al-Sharie) was brought up on charges of revealing state secrets, and the editor faces the death penalty. In 2008, the Yemeni government announced with great fanfare that they had captured the dangerous terrorist al-Nabi after an intensive five year manhunt. The tickers all said, “Yemen captures al-Qaeda terrorist after five year hunt.”

Some Yemeni propaganda is designed for the domestic audience and some for the US policy makers. Abu Bakr al-Reibi, convicted in the 2002 maritime bombing of the French tanker Limburg, was sentenced to ten years. But his father said in an interview that Abu Bakr never spent a day in jail. Field Marshal Saleh called Abu Bakr at the beginning of the trial and asked him to go along with the charade and assured him that all would be well. The security officials would come to the house with a set of prison clothes and accompany him to court where everyone pretended (for the benefit of the US) that Abu Bakr had come from jail. Field Marshal Saleh is a compulsive liar. The sad and sorry thing is the US often buys it.

With American pirates in the Gulf of Aden and Mossad spies in Sana’a, who can focus on the abject failure of Field Marshall Saleh to spend any government money on the people? There’s no medical care, few schools, little clean water, no jobs given by merit and no electricity, but plenty of guns and drugs imported, child smuggling, prostitution by starving girls, missile purchases and tribal wars. However poor Ali Abdullah Saleh is a victim of circumstance, doing the very best he can and entirely sincere. Some believe that, really.

Another funny pattern is Saleh’s use of democratic terminology to legitimize his battle against basic civil rights including free speech and free association. “Democracy is the rescue ship of all regimes,” he says, therefore security forces slaughter protesters in the street, kidnap journalists and torture children. There are ten million literally starving children in Yemen. Poverty in Yemen exceeds poverty in Africa. Each one of the ten million is an actual kid, and its pretty damn sad.

(Read on …)

Yemen Online

Coast Guard Forces and Border Guards integrated.
YemenOnline. Sunday 25, 2009 – The President of the Republic, H.E. Ali Salih, declared yesterday that the Coast Guard Forces and Border Guards are intended to be combined into one authority reporting to the Ministry of Interior.In his speech delivered at the opening ceremony of the Ministry of Interior Leadership’s 19th Conference under the motto “Homeland’s security is a national and collective responsibility”, he said” We have recruited 1000 soldiers to enhance security capacities of Coast Guard Forces (CGFs) in particular after the recent increase of marine piracy.” In addition, these forces are to be provided with the necessary arms and equipments.

al-Motamar

- The leaders of Sana’a Coalition have on Tuesday confirmed their full commitment to work for achieving security, peace and sustainable development the Horn of Africa region and in south of the Red Sea and solving disputes in peaceful ways.

In the closing statement issued by Sana’a Gathering 6th summit on Tuesday the leaders of the Gathering welcomed invitation of President Ali Abdullah Saleh to host the 7th summit in the Yemeni capital Sana’a.

The closing statement of Sana’a Gathering held in the Sudanese capital Khartoum emphasized the necessity of enhancing and developing the level of cooperation between the Gathering member states in all areas. The summit was attended by President Ali Abdullah Saleh of Yemen, the Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi, the Prime Minister of Somalia Nur Hassan Hussein, the President of Djibouti Ismail Omar Guelleh who participated as observer.

(Read on …)

Yemen the main source of illegal arms to Somalia: UN
———————————————-

Jane Novak for the Yemen Times

SANA’A, Dec. 27— A UN investigation found Yemen is the primary source of arms and ammunition to Somalia which has been under an arms embargo since 1992. The panel of independent experts monitoring the embargo also reported arms smuggling from Yemen intersects with acts of piracy and human trafficking. The findings were presented in a December 10 report to the UN Security Council.

The report notes commercial weapons imports from Yemen supply Somali retail markets as well as opposition and criminal groups. The Yemeni government’s inability to stem the large scale arms trafficking is “a key obstacle to the restoration of peace and security to Somalia,” the panel found. The UN Security Council extended the monitoring group’s mandate for another year.

Yemen plans to refute the charges. SABA news agency dubbed the report “misleading” and noted that “smuggling weapons is sometimes associated with the arriving of displaced Somalis.” A Foreign Ministry statement said that one million Somali refugees in Yemen create an economic burden that “sometimes leads to social, security and health repercussions.” Nearly 50,000 Somali refugees made the maritime crossing to Yemen in 2008, authorities reported.

In prior years, about 30,000 Somalis migrated annually.

The UN report ties together weapons smuggling, human trafficking and piracy, noting some small boats used in acts of piracy also “move refugees and economic migrants from Somalia to Yemen, bringing arms and ammunition on the return journey,” Piracy in the waters between Yemen and Somalia spiked dramatically with over 100 pirate attacks and over 40 vessels captured by pirates this year. The authorities in Puntland and Somaliland told the UN monitoring group that “maritime traffic from Yemen, across the Gulf of Aden, remains their largest single source of arms.” Weapons purchased in Yemen are also smuggled to insurgent groups in Ethiopia, the investigation found. One intercepted shipment included 101 anti-tank mines, 100 hand grenades, 170 rocket-propelled grenade-7 rounds, and 170 boxes of 7.62 mm ammunition.

Increased activity by the Yemeni Coast Guard between Aden and al Mukalla impacted arms shipments from ports in the patrolled areas. However, the monitoring group found that the lack of regular patrols in al Mukalla “means that arms traffic continues unabated.” The group recommended capacity building programs for the Coast Guard and direct naval interdiction.

Yemen’s coast line extends 1906 km. The Coast Guard, created in 2003, is working towards taking control of Mocha and al Mukalla from the military. The Republican Guard and Central Security forces have authority at ports where the Coast Guard has limited presence. The Coast Guard has nine operational ships in a fleet of 15, and only two with deep water capacity.

Inadequate funding is an obstacle to increased capacity, Coast Guard Commander Ali Ahmed Ras’ee said in May.

The US provides some operational and training support and in 2004 donated seven patrol boats. With Italian financing, the Italian firm SELEX is implementing a coastal radar system that will eventually cover 450km of coast line including hot spots for piracy and smuggling.

Responding to the UN report, the Foreign Ministry said, “Yemen reiterates its readiness to cooperate with the UN and all regional concerned parties to fight piracy and all forms of weapon smuggling, the issues resulted due to the situation in Somalia where there is not a central government.”

Yemen has the second most heavily armed citizenry per capita after the United States. In August 2007, authorities implemented a ban against carrying weapons in cities and have confiscated over 150,000 weapons since the program began. Over 200 weapons shops were also closed.

Weapons smuggling from Yemen to Saudi Arabia is also a concern. In July, Saudi Arabia announced that in a three month period, border guards confiscated over a ton of explosives and a large number of arms including 13 rocket-propelled grenades, 99 sticks of dynamite, 100 fuses, 12 detonators, more than 100 guns and 15,000 cartridges.

The UN monitoring group on the 1992 arms embargo on Somalia finds “Yemen remains the most important source of commercial arms transfers to Somalia.”

One shipment for the ONLF in Ethiopia contained 101 anti-tank mines, 100 hand grenades, 170 rocket-propelled grenade-7 rounds, and 170 boxes of 7.62 mm ammunition, each containing 440 rounds. The mines were packed in rice sacks from a company in Sana’a. The same boats that bring the migrants bring back weapons and are involved in piracy.

143. Not surprisingly, there appears to be an intersection between piracy and other
criminal activities, such as arms trafficking and human trafficking, both of which
involve the movement of small craft across the Gulf of Aden. One sub-group of the
Puntland network, based in the Bari region, allegedly uses the same boats employed
for piracy to move refugees and economic migrants from Somalia to Yemen,
bringing arms and ammunition on the return journey.

Of course, commercial weapons trafficing in Yemen is often sponsored by those in official positions. The purported largest weapons dealers (for example, Faris Manna, Regent Street, Sana’a) are said to be partners with some very top officials (Salah & family). This is part of the reason the military budget is so high. Not only is this hooked in with piracy and refugee smuggling but also drug and oil smuggling. Its John Gotti with an air force.

Report text below the fold: (Read on …)

1-7-09

By Syed Saleem Shahzad/Asia Times
KARACHI -:

Al-Qaeda is passing through a transitional restructuring phase. The most crucial areas where it is transforming its organization and strategies are Somalia and Yemen, beside Iraq. Al-Qaeda plans to disrupt the sea routes between Somalia and Yemen, which would affect international trade through this route.

It has developed an understanding with the leadership of the opposition Islamic Courts Union of Somalia on common strategic goals. In Yemen, al-Qaeda leader Salem al-Radwui has been specially sent from Afghanistan by the al-Qaeda leadership to develop links with dissident Yemeni groups operating in southern Yemen, as well as with various Islamic groups. Al-Qaeda’s aim is to provide background guidance while encouraging the local groups to play a lead role.

Yemen Post

The Security Information Office in the Ministry of Interior told media outlets that security officials in Khanfer, Abyan’s district found last Saturday 140 kilograms of dynamite and explosive devises near the security officials head office.

Further, they added that explosive experts in the army managed to disable the explosives and sent them to the Central Laboratory in Sana’a for further investigations.

Meanwhile, counterterrorism specialists warned from the rapid increase of explosives in Yemen, claiming that Somali smugglers bring explosives to neighboring countries for trade purposes.

TWN

Some 16,000 ships navigate through the Gulf of Aden each year, with more and more of them coming under attack. The AP reported Thursday that six ships had fended off attacks over the previous two days and that a seventh had been captured. More than 77 ships have been attacked this year in the Gulf, at least 31 one of them falling to captors. Ransoms paid out in 2008 are reported to have topped $30 million.

(Read on …)

MOSCOW, October 26 (RIA Novosti) - A missile frigate from Russia’s Baltic Fleet arrived at the port of Aden in Yemen on its way to join an international naval group fighting piracy off the coast of Somalia, the Russian Navy said.

“After water and food replenishments, the warship will carry out measures to protect shipping in the coastal waters of Somalia where sea pirates are active. In particular, the Neustrashimy frigate may escort passenger and merchant vessels,” the Russian Navy said, adding that the warship had the right to use force, including weapons, against pirates.

The Neustrashimy (Fearless) frigate is to join an international naval group, which has surrounded a Ukrainian ship, the MV Faina, after it was seized by Somali pirates on September 25. The Faina, which was carrying tanks and heavy weapons, has a crew of 17 Ukrainian nationals, two Russians, and one Lithuanian on board.

The Faina’s Russian captain died of a heart attack after the vessel was seized. The pirates holding the ship have demanded an $8 million ransom, and have threatened to kill the hostages if a military operation is launched against them.

The Neustrashimy’s armament includes SS-N-25 Switchblade anti-ship missiles, SA-N-9 Gauntlet SAM, a 100-mm gun, torpedoes and depth charges. The frigate also carries a Ka-27 ASW helicopter.

Pirates are increasingly active in the waters off Somalia, which has no effective government and no navy to police its coastline. Somali pirates have seized around 30 ships so far this year off the coast of the east African nation.

Possible Base

Sana’a, 16 Oct. (ITAR-TASS). The speaker of the Federation Council Sergey Mironov does not exclude the possibility that during the Yemeni President would bring up the issue of re-establishing Russian naval bases on Socotra Island in the Gulf of Aden during his visit to Moscow.

In answer to the question if Russia has any plans to do so, Mironov said, “I think that this theme will be discussed concretely during Ali Abdallah Saleh’s visit to Moscow”. Mironov did not discuss the length of the visit.

The speaker considers the future use of Yemeni ports by the Russian Navy as well as re-establishment of a base to be possible. “We have to proceed step by step, taking into account new vectors in the foreign and defense policies of Russia and the increase in op tempo by the Navy. I think that its possible that we will examine the issue of the use of Yemeni ports by Russian Naval ships”, he said.

News Yemen

SANA’A, NewsYemen

Deputy Interior Minister and head of the National Committee for Refugees Ali Mothana Hassan said Yemen is ready to give a refuge to only people who escape wars.

Official almotamar.net quoted Mothana as saying that Yemen is committed to international resolutions approve refugee status only for people who escape war-torn countries, like Somalia, so it directly gives asylum to Somalis.

Mothana said other nationals who come to Yemen due to bad economic situations in their countries or for other reasons could be considered migrants but not refugees.

The source said Mothana’s statement came in response to the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) call on Yemeni government to clarify a orders by Interior Minister Mutahar al-Masri to security forces to deny the entry of Ethiopians and Eritreans to the country.

Yemen Observer: Yemeni security forces have closed the boarder crossings under the direction of Rashad Al-Masri, Minister of Interior in the face of the growing number of refugees the Yemeni coast has recently witnessed from Ethiopia, Eritrea and Somalia.

Al-Masri ordered the military units in the areas hardest hit by the influx to block refugees from Ethiopia and Eritrea, renewing his call for the international community to stand up to their commitments and support Yemen in receiving and hosting these refugees from the Horn of Africa.

Al-Masri expressed concern over the increasing number of the African Horn refugees which has increased to 200 - 300 a day, since last September. The ministry’s information center quotes al-Masri as saying that the ministry is extremely concerned over the influx which is not only restricted to Somalia, stating that there about 140 refugees from Ethiopia and Eritrea who recently landed at Dhibab and Ras al-A’ra in bab-Mindab.

The ministry of Interior’s statistics revealed that the Yemeni coast received 2214 Somali refugees during the period from the first to mid October.

The interior ministry is worried over the social, economic, cultural and security challenges that Yemen is now facing due to the continuing African refugee influx.

The Sana’a UNHCR’s reports states that the smuggling process has resulted in hundreds and possibly a thousand deaths due to the unsafe human piracy practiced in the Red sea.

Ambassador Al-Aishi asked the international community and the refugee agreement parties to undertake their responsibilities pertaining to this humanitarian situation. He called on the international community and particularly relevant neighboring states to share Yemen’s burden and accept some of the refugees and asked for NGOs to cooperate with the UNCHR commissioner to take new measures to prevent any country or countries from becoming a permanent haven for refugees as is now the case in Yemen.

Al-Sahwa:

The UNHCR said the Yemeni Interior Ministry has announced that Ethiopians and Eritreans would be denied entry to the country, which still grants immediate refugee status to Somalis fleeing their war-torn homeland.

“While recognising the generosity already shown by Yemen to refugees and asylum seekers, we are seeking clarification from the government on any changes in policy,” UNHCR spokesman Ron Redmond told a news briefing in Geneva.

The agency also said that some 87 Ethiopians were known to have been detained in Yemen over the past two weeks, while Yemeni authorities removed a further 25 Ethiopians from a vehicle transporting them to the UNHCR reception centre of Ahwar on Monday.

“We don’t know where they are but fear they were arrested and are being detained somewhere,” UNHCR spokeswoman Astrid Van Genderen Stort told Reuters.

The UNHCR urged Yemen, a signatory of the 1951 Refugee Convention, to maintain access to asylum procedures for all those in need of international protection.

The poor Arab country is struggling to cope with an growing number of asylum seekers smuggled from the Horn of Africa in risk-filled voyages across the Gulf of Aden.

A total of 37,333 people have arrived in Yemen so far this year on smugglers’ boats, and 616 died or were reported missing, according to the UNHCR. The current total is already more than 50 percent higher than in 2007, when 23,000 made it to Yemen.

(CNN) — One hundred people are missing in the Gulf of Aden after smugglers forced them overboard off the coast of Yemen, a U.N. spokesman said Friday.

The U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees in Yemen is taking care of 47 survivors, the spokesman said.

The U.N. offered no additional details on the type of vessel or its route.

Meanwhile, U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees spokesman Ron Redmond told The Associated Press in Geneva that about 32,000 people have arrived in Yemen on boats since the start of the year.

Many of them are fleeing violence and hardship in Somalia and other countries in the Horn of Africa, he said.

UNHCR estimates at least 230 people have died and 365 remain missing, including 100 from the latest incident

One ship captured, another released- the Iranian ship suspected of transaporting CW. (Saleh is worried about the internationalization of the waters off Yemen and is scrambling for an Arab initiative.) :

BOSASSO, Somalia, Oct 10 (Reuters) - Pirates in the commercially strategic waters between Somalia and Yemen hijacked one ship and released another on Friday, a government official and a shipping line said.

The panama-flagged Wail, carrying cement, was the latest in a long list of ships that have been boarded by pirates in recent months. Several have been released on payment of a ransom and one luxury yacht was liberated by French commandos.

“A Panama-flagged ship, Wail, was hijacked on Thursday night between Socotra Island and Bosasso,” said Ali Abdi Aware, state minister for northern Somalia’s semi-autonomous Puntland region.

He told Reuters the crew of 11 consisted of nine Syrians and two Somalis.

Also on Friday pirates freed an Iranian bulk carrier and its 29 crew after seven weeks of negotiations, Iran’s official IRNA news agency said, quoting the Islamic Republic of Iran Shipping Lines (IRSL).

(Read on …)

1400 died last year, and this year 165 are confirmed dead and 220 missing.

IRIN: SANAA, 9 September 2008 (IRIN) - Hundreds of African migrants, mostly Somalis, have taken advantage of calm seas to make the perilous journey from Somalia to Yemen in the first week of September and more are expected, Hussein Hajji, the Somali consul in Aden, said.

(Read on …)

Must be the increased efforts of the Coast Guard.

al-Motamar

Almotamar.net - Local sources in Shabwa governorate told almotamar.net Sunday 115 Somali refugees, among them 20 women, arrived at the beaches of the governorate, at a time some official sources announced the arrival of other 597 Somali refugees, among them 180 women and children, arrived at a number of Yemeni coasts in a new wave of Somali migration.

According to the sources the district of Maifa’a, the governorate of Shabwa received 115 Somali refugees on Saturday before sending them to Kharaz camp for the refugees in the governorate of Lahj.

This comes at the time when the Information Centre at the Ministry of Interior said beaches of a number of governorates received 597 Somali refugees as part of continual waves of refugees arriving in Yemen from Somalia and Horn of Africa countries. The Centre pointed out that beaches of Ahwar, Abyan governorate received 252 refugees and beaches of Radhoum, governorate of Hadramout received 115 refugees while 205 Somali refugees landed at the beaches of Thubab, the governorate of Taiz.

Last week a meting between Yemen’s Prime Minister Dr Ali Mohammed Mujawar and the UNHCR representative in Yemen discussed possibility of finding a law co concerning refugees or an institutional framework concerned with issues of this group through benefiting from experiments of countries having circumstances similar to those of Yemen.

It is worth mentioning that official statistics indicate that the number of African refugees in Yemen is 750 thousand refugees.

More boats? Greater demand?

Xinhua

NAIROBI, Sept. 11 (Xinhua) — At least 26 people died when smugglers transporting them across the Gulf of Aden from the Horn of Africa forced them overboard off the coast of Yemen in a recent incident, according to the UN refugee agency (UNHCR)….

Smuggling normally subsides between May and September because of stormy weather in the Gulf of Aden. With the early onset of calmer weather in August, smuggling resumed last month when 59 boats brought more than 1,700 desperate people to Yemen, nearly tripling the number of arrivals for the same month last year when 633 people landed in 10 boats.

The UN agency, which has been calling for global action to better address the problem, has stepped up its efforts in Yemen over the past year.

A 18.9 million U.S. dollar program is providing more staff, improved humanitarian assistance, additional shelter for refugees in Kharaz refugee camp, and training programs for Yemeni coast guards and other officials.

Late in August, 12 people died from one boat after jumping into the sea when a gun battle erupted between the Yemeni military and smugglers near the coast.

Ya think?

NST

KUALA LUMPUR: Pirates are charging ships using the Gulf of Aden a “toll” to fund their criminal activities, including help Somali insurgents fight their weak interim government.

Maritime industry senior officials are convinced that the toll, by way of ransom, is imposed to sponsor the activities of warlords and international terrorist groups.

(Read on …)

On August 29, a Malaysian ship carrying 30,000 tons of petrochemicals was high jacked in the Gulf of Aden, the eighth ship to be high jacked since July 20th. Between April and June, 19 ships were attacked in the Gulf of Aden. US and allied navies will establish a maritime security patrol area in the waters between the coasts of Somalia and Yemen, under Combined Task Force 150. (Map)

ERIGAVO, Somalia June 8
(Garowe Online) - Police authorities in Somalia’s breakaway region of Somaliland are questioning two foreigners who were arrested in the region of Sanaag on Saturday, sources said.

The two men – one from Yemen, the other from China – were arrested alongside four Somalis in the port town of Las Korey. The two foreigners were transported to a police station near Erigavo, the provincial capital of Sanaag, Somaliland Defense Minister Abdullahi Ali Ibrahim told reporters.

(Read on …)

Yemen Post

Commander of Yemeni Coast Guard Forces Administration Ali Ahmed Ras’ee is a graduate of the Police Academy, and holds a degree in law, and a high diploma in economy.

In his interview with the Yemen Post, Ras’ee points out that the support of coalition forces to the coastguard harmed the country more than it benefited. (He doesn’t get the funding he needs.) Below are the details:

Yemen Post: What are the tasks of the coastguard forces?

Ali Ras’ee: The tasks of coastguard forces are stipulated in the establishment decree, and these tasks are varied. The coastguard forces have security and not military functions, including keeping order in Yemeni ports and launching patrols in Yemeni coasts and regional waters. Other tasks are limiting illegal immigration, protecting national waters against indiscriminate fishing, protecting environment against pollution, fighting piracy, rescue and search activities.

(Read on …)

Let me guess, the Saudi wheat that was donated to Yemen

ADEN

1800 tons of national goods exported to Somalia, Djibouti

Around 1800 tons of national goods were exported via Muala Sea Port in Aden City on Saturday to Djibouti and Somalia.

The goods exported to Somalia were biscuits, soap and sweets, in addition to 800 tons of wheat to Djibouti.

According to the statistics of the port, 32,752 tons of cement were unloaded in the platform of the port. The port also received on Saturday 1,115 sheep from Somalia.

UNHRC

Others have suffered far worse while attempting the perilous Gulf of Aden crossing in search of safety or a better future. Last year, at least 27,000 people reached Yemen but some 1,400 died or were missing, according to UNHCR figures. Of those who reached land alive, 7,010 were assisted by UNHCR in the May’faa reception centre. They came mainly from Somalia and Ethiopia.

Jeilany and fellow Ethiopian passenger Mussa, talking to UNHCR at the May’faa centre, said they and about 120 other desperate people in their boat had each paid smugglers about US$45 to bring them to Yemen….The situation is so bad that even those who endured years of war for more than a decade are now trying to escape Mogadishu. UNHCR estimates that there are at least 200,000 Somalis living in Yemen as refugees.

I dont get it.

Yahoo News: WASHINGTON - The U.S. military attacked a “known al-Qaida terrorist” in southern Somalia, a Pentagon spokesman said Monday.

Spokesman Bryan Whitman told reporters that the attack was launched on Sunday, local time, but he declined to provide any details, including whether the targeted individual was hit or whether there were any other casualties.

(Read on …)

Yemen Times

SANA’A, March 2 — Two men, Abdi Othman Soli, 28, a Danish citizen of Somali origin, and Abdullah Awadh Al-Masri, 37, a Yemeni national, were found not guilty this week of smuggling weapons to Somalia in 2006. However, the court gave Al-Masri a three-year prison sentence for other charges such as working with and providing shelter for Al-Qaeda operatives and illegal weapons trading.

Among other accusations, the two suspects were tried for smuggling anti-aircraft weapons and sniper rifles into Somalia for the Islamic Court, which was waging a coup at the time. Although Soli confessed to the charges, the court ignored his confession, according to the office of the Attorney General.

Besides Soli and Al-Masri, 12 other men, including four Yemenis and eight Western nationals, were arrested at the same time.

At the time of their arrest, Rashad Al-Alimi, Yemen’s Interior Minister, refused to transfer the men to the Guantanamo Bay prison facility and insisted on keeping the suspects in Yemen for trial.

Since the arrest, a German national was released in November 2007 after Yemeni interrogators said he had not been involved in any illegal activities. The other suspects, including three Australians, one British national, one Danish national and one Somali national, stayed in Yemen until they were extradited to their respective countries.

(Read on …)

Source: IRIN

SANAA, 17 February 2008 (IRIN) - A technical committee of Yemen’s Ministry of Human Rights recently finished drafting a 17-article parliamentary bill which, if ratified by parliament, aims to clarify the country’s asylum law and give the government more control over asylum seekers and refugees in the country.

Officials could not say when the draft law will be presented before the legislature.

Sulaiman Tabrizi, head of the rights ministry’s International Organisations Department, told IRIN that the driving motivation behind the draft law was to clarify the status of the continuous stream of Africans fleeing to Yemen. “Their legal status is not clear. Should all of them be regarded as refugees or migrants? Is the Refugee Convention applicable to them? Does Yemen have the capacity to deal with all of them?” he said.

Yemen is the only country in the Arabian Peninsula that has signed the 1951 UN Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees and its related 1967 Protocol, which removed a deadline and geographical restrictions from the Convention.

Tabrizi said if passed the new law would spell out the Yemeni government’s responsibilities towards would-be refugees. “There is a need to show how someone who has been persecuted in his country should be treated. In some cases, refugees [in Yemen] are not treated in accordance with the 1951 Refugee Convention and 1967 Protocol,” he said, adding that the new law would rectify this.

“The 1991 Yemeni Migration Law is the only law that is applied to refugees, but that does not comply with the Refugee Convention,” Tabrizi said.

New law defines refugees

Yemen’s draft law defines a refugee as anyone who has left his country of origin for fear of prosecution as a result of his race, religion, nationality, political views or social class; or as a result of foreign assault on, or occupation of, his country, riots or unrest.

The new law seeks to give the government more control over who is given refugee status, what they are entitled to and where they live.

At present in Yemen, the government gives Somalis, who make up the vast majority of African asylum seekers, automatic refugee status once they apply for it, while non-Somali Africans (mostly Ethiopians and Eritreans) must apply to the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) for refugee status.

New restrictions

Under the new law, a governmental committee would be formed to consider asylum applications from all nationalities and decide whether or not to grant applicants refugee status. The committee would be chaired by an elected official from the rights ministry and its membership would consist of officials from the interior and foreign affairs ministries among others. The committee would work in coordination with UNHCR.

Yemen’s government currently allows African refugees to move freely in the country and work in non-government jobs. Under the draft law, refugees would only be allowed to live in areas assigned by the rights ministry.

According to Yemeni security authorities, many African migrants enter Yemen illegally and many do not register at any of the country’s seven government/UNHCR-run reception centres. Under the new law, the rights ministry would have the authority to expel any asylum seeker or refugee in Yemen, after consulting with security authorities and UNHCR, if it is deemed necessary to protect national or public security.

Ahmed Hayel, an official at the interior ministry, told IRIN that by the end of 2007 the number of Africans (both legal and illegal migrants) in Yemen had reached about 800,000 out of a total population of 21 million. Most were Somalis.

The UNHCR office in Yemen put the total number of African registered (legal) migrants at over 100,000, mostly from Somalia, although, Abdul-Malik Aboud, a UNHCR official, recently conceded that the number of Africans in Yemen was more than the number registered.

One dead in grenade attack.

MOGADISHU, Feb 14 (Reuters) - Yemen’s ambassador to Somalia survived a grenade attack on Thursday while attending a ceremony held by members of the Yemeni diaspora in Mogadishu, an aide to the envoy said.

Unidentified gunmen hurled a grenade at a school in the Bulo Hubey neighbourhood in south Mogadishu where the party took place, killing one of the guests and wounding two others.

However, Yemeni envoy Ali Masud was quickly escorted away by government troops before he was due to deliver a speech.

(Read on …)

Well thats good, very good, but what about the Yemeni kids also starving?

Yemen Times

SANA’A, Feb. 6 — The UN World Food Program (WFP) announced on Wednesday that it was expanding its operation in Yemen to feed thousands more Somali refugees fleeing the conflict in their country.

“More and more people are arriving on Yemen’s shores after barely surviving the dangerous journey by boat. It is up to us to help them as Yemen’s economy is already overstretched,” said WFP Yemen Country Director Mohammed El-Kouhene.

Since 1992, African refugees, mostly Somalis, have been streaming into Yemen, crossing the Red Sea from the Horn of Africa. Many of them hope to make their way to the oil-rich Gulf states. Now, the Yemeni government says that with its limited resources, it is no longer able to cope with new arrivals and has urged the international community for more assistance.

The agency appealed for $4.4 million in funds for an operation running from February 2008 to January 2010 to provide a total of 5,000 metric tons of food to 43,500 of the most vulnerable refugees. This is up from the 33,000 it was previously helping.

In the past year alone, nearly 30,000 people landed in Yemen after crossing the Gulf of Aden, while more than 1,400 died or are missing and presumed dead. Most of the arrivals were Somalis, of whom many said conditions in Somalia were so bad that they felt they had to risk the sea crossing.

More than 670,000 people fled fighting in the Somali capital of Mogadishu in 2007. The WFP expects to feed 1.8 million people in Somalia in 2008, up from 1.53 million in 2007.

Upon their arrival in Yemen, the refugees receive food from the WFP for the first few days until they are moved to the refugee camp of Kharaz where they receive a monthly ration. In addition, the WFP provides supplementary food to malnourished children and pregnant and lactating mothers, as well as providing a midday meal to children in school.

“We are grateful that WFP is responding to the needs of an increasing number of refugees.

Now is the time when we most need international support,” said Yemen’s Deputy Prime Minister for Economic Affairs and Minister of Planning and International Cooperation, Abdulkarim Al-Ar’habi.

El-Kouhene said the recent increase in beneficiaries was based on the anticipated arrival of new refugees at transit centers in Yemen, as well as refugee population growth at the isolated Kharaz camp in Lahj Governorate, where job opportunities are scarce. To that end, the operation will also include food assistance in return for work and/or training to help refugees become more self-sufficient.

The operation will be implemented in cooperation with the government of Yemen and in partnership with the UN High Commissioner for Refugees and various NGOs.

The WFP has provided around $400 million of food assistance to Yemen since 1967, when the country was split into North and South Yemen.

10% die generally in the crossing from Somalia. What is the answer: let them land? Set up a UN station in Bossasso?

GENEVA (Reuters) - More than 1,400 would-be migrants, mostly Somalis and Ethiopians, have drowned off Yemen this year trying to cross the Gulf of Aden on rickety boats run by brutal smugglers, the U.N. refugee agency said on Tuesday.

The toll includes nearly 200 people believed to have died last weekend after one vessel capsized off the coast of Yemen and another broke up after hitting a rock.

Desperate passengers have been beaten, pushed overboard and doused with acid on perilous journeys during 2007, according to aid workers who are trying to halt further loss of life.

“This has been a tragic year in the Gulf of Aden. As of now we have statistics that more than 1,400 people have died. These are the ones that we have recorded, and there might be more,” Astrid van Genderen Stort, spokeswoman of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), told a news briefing.

(Read on …)

Telegraph:

Britain has launched a drive for an international accord granting the Royal Navy and Western warships rights to enter Somali territorial waters in pursuit of pirate gangs linked to al-Qa’eda.

Pirate activity has soared off the Horn of Africa this year with the emergence of highly sophisticated gangs that use fast patrol boats, launched from “mother ships” to board cargo vessels in the Gulf of Aden and Indian Ocean.

The lucrative multi-million-dollar kidnap and ransom trade, which is dominated by al-Qa’eda, according to terrorism experts, threatens to disrupt international shipping lanes used to carry cargo from the Far East to Europe. A meeting in London of the International Maritime Organisation (IMO), the United Nations’ watchdog of the seas, is to consider a resolution today instructing Somalia’s interim government to drop its legal right to block foreign navies from entering its waters.

(Read on …)