May be??? Piracy has been facilitated from Yemen for a long time. The presence of Yemeni pirates is little compared with the intelligence assistance, logistical and supplies from Yemen.
Red Sea piracy may be going multinational – U.S.
Reuters; LONDON, March 7 (Reuters) – Piracy in the Red Sea may be becoming a “multinational” business with Yemenis joining Somalis in the lucrative crime, a senior U.S. official said on Monday. (Read on …)
The arms flow between the two is well established. If we recall the eight foreigners arrested, and later released, for trying to ship weapons to Somali’s ICU in 2006. And the connection of Anwar al Awlaki with that case. Afterwards, numerous Somali Islamists came to Yemen. The weapons have been flowing from Yemen via Faris Manna, legally he claims. The boats delivering the refugees over the last several years wouldn’t return empty.
Telegraph: Yemeni officials have claimed that members of the al-Shabaab terrorist group have been arrested in refugee camps for Somalis. The government fears that refugee camps such as Al-Kharaz, which now houses 18,000 out of an estimated 2-300,000 Somali refugees in Yemen, could become recruiting grounds for radicals.
Officials also claim there are “regular links”, including arms transfers between al-Shabaab and al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, the group accused of planting parcel bombs on planes last month.
“I see Shabaab people on the streets of Aden,” said one former Somali airport official who fled with his family when he was threatened and now lives in a fly-blown two-room hut in the al-Kharaz refugee camp, two hours’ drive into the desert from the port city.
GAN
Yemen (Aden) – Aden Free Zone (AFZ) and the International Center for Auction Co., Ltd has signed a memorandum of understanding to set up a trade and storage complex and a global complex to organize and manage all kinds of auctions, Global Arab Network reports according to Saba. (Read on …)
More corruption, thievery, oppression and mismanagement, Attagammua:
لجنتان برلمانيتان لتقصي الحقائق حول ادارة دبي لميناء الحاويات بعدن و(PIL) تغير اتجاه حاويات الترانزيت من ميناء عدن الى ميناء جيبوتي Two parliamentary committees to investigate the facts on the management of the Dubai container port in Aden and (PIL) change the direction of transit containers from the port of Aden port of Djibouti
الثلاثاء , 26 أكتوبر 2010 م Tuesday, October 26, 2010 (Read on …)
Yemeni-Syrian committee discusses marine navigation company
[21/October/2010] DAMASCUS, Oct. 21 (Saba) – The Yemeni-Syrian Follow-up Committee discussed on Thursday the possibility to sep up a joint marine navigation company and direct marine line between the two countries ports.The committee was co-chaired by Yemen Minister of Transport Khalid al-Wazir and the Syrian Minister of Transport Yarub Suleiman.
Al-Wazir affirmed that holding these talks comes as an implementation of directives of the Yemeni-Syrian High Committee, noting that this company will represent a big leap in the national economy contributing to economic cooperation between the two countries.
For his part, the Syrian minister pointed out to concern of Yemen to upgrade the bilateral relations.
The meeting also dealt with the related issues of transport to boost the level of commercial exchange between the two countries.
I wrote about this issue on October 14, 2005: the Yemeni government recently entered into a 30-year contract for the port of Aden with its largest competitor, Dubai Ports International (D.P.I.). World Bank documents state that Dubai is in direct competition for container transshipment business with Aden…The majority owners of D.P.I. also are the managers of the Jabal Ali free zone in Dubai. D.P.I. will pay $83.5 million as a rent over 30 years for the Aden free zone, an area of 32 million square meters, effectively paying less than one penny per square meter in monthly rent. A Kuwaiti firm’s substantially higher tender was rejected in favor of D.P.I. As expected, DPI is raising birthing costs in port Aden, making Dubai port much more attractive to international shippers. Today’s news, Yemen’s Parliament begins a probe of the issue:
Yemen Post: Parliament approved on Saturday forming a panel to probe what MPs said were plans of the Dubai Ports World aimed at striking Aden Port, excluding it from providing services for ships and shifting international navigation route to Djiboutian and Dubai Ports.
The panel will comprise members of the Oil and Development and Transport and Communication Committees.
MPs urged to seriously address the issue of the port, which has already lost its prestige and significance as one of the old and strategic ports in the world due to irresponsible acts by the DP World.MP Muhammad Abdu Saeed revealed that he had received a complaint from an international navigation company saying the consistently increasing fees for ship anchorage forced ships to redirect to Djibouti Port. He considered increasing the fees was aimed at striking Aden Prot through forcing ships to abandon it.
For his part, MP Ali Al-Maamari said Dubai World Ports is seeking to exclude Aden Port from international navigation route and switching the route to Djiboutian Port because the latter boosts the importance of Dubai Port. While MP Sakhr Al-Jeeh requested to turn who brought about the agreement between the government and the DP World to investigation.
This strike has been going on for years. I have a copy of the employment contract for the port workers. It allows punitive transfers and termination without cause, among a number of other illegal provisions.
HOOD: About the suffering of the workers port of Aden container from abuse
Revealed by local authorities in the governorate of Aden and the ugly face biased to manage the company operating the port of Aden Container “DP World” in farsightedness, in violation of the Constitution and the law to prevent dock workers from exercising their constitutional and legal in the peaceful sit-in to claim their rights project, but proceeded to launch phase new use of cruelty and violence when dispersing the peaceful sit on Saturday 5/6/2010, which resulted in injuries to workers and the arrest of (9) after the port workers had gathered in the round of Caltex for going on strike, which started on 05/24/2010 after reversed (down) the company’s implementation of the commitments made in the minutes earlier with representatives of the workers of the equality of reward paid workers, the nearest port run by “DP”, a port of Djibouti, and following this record has been suspended a strike a year and a half, as well as the right of workers in health care and the demands of related, including the employer must provide the rights of the worker in accordance with the Labour Code. (Read on …)
Update: Iran denies ship seized.
The last report we had was about a purported Iranian missile shipment from the Sudan prior to the outbreak of the sixth war. Now theres news of a new shipment, not to be confused with the ship with the Chinese weapons. Mohammed Sudaam is the Reuters reporter which raises several red flags, and the question of how big was the boat if it only had six crew. This story could be a diversion for the weapons sent on the Chinese freighter, which may be a weapons shipment to al Qaeda by Yemeni govt officials. But on the other hand, it could true.
al Motamar Local sources I n Hajah province said the Yemeni nay caught an Iranian suspect ship loaded with weapons offshore Midi in Hajah province, to the remotest north-west part of Yemen.
The sources said the ship is thought o be smuggling weapons to the Houthi elements of sabotage and its crew was composed of five Iranians and an Indian one.
According to the sources security apparatuses were then interrogating the ship’s crew to disclose more information about the event.
SANAA (Al Arabiya) has more: (Read on …)
This is an accurate though dire asssessment of Yemen’s oil future and the late arrival of “self-awareness” and the current scramble to court oil majors. The whole thing is worth a read but here’s a bit:
IHS Global Insight Perspective
Significance Yemen is offering radically revised production-sharing agreement (PSA) terms and the opportunity of one-on-one bilateral negotiations with the Ministry of Oil and Minerals (MOM) in order to rekindle IOC-and especially oil-major-interest in exploration and production (E&P) investments in the country and reverse its rapidly evaporating fortunes.Implications
Yemen’s completely failed offshore licensing round late last year served as a wake-up call, bringing the realisation that term revisions, institutional and legal reform, the cutting of red tape, and depoliticisation, are all necessary to kick-start investment.Outlook
Even with this realisation the country’s deteriorating security situation-both on- and offshore-is likely to present a formidable obstacle to attracting new investment, while doubts about Yemen’s continued prospectivity seem well founded…For companies looking to undertake virgin exploration, this would today most likely mean venturing out into areas where government authority is completely absent and where the possibility of this being reasserted might well come down to formal military conquest of the territory in question.
Also largely avoided is the topic of piracy emanating from neighbouring Somalia, which is making all sea journeys in the Gulf of Aden, around its far-flung Socotra Island and through the Bab al-Mandab Strait into the Red Sea perilous. The upsurge in incidents over the past year has made undertaking offshore exploration with slow-moving-and extremely expensive-hi-tech seismic vessels virtually impossible, not to mention placing static drilling rigs in the waters.
This was a huge bust, tens of millions in street value. As usual, it was with a bit of help: On Thursday, a source indicated that Yemeni Coast Guard forces in collaboration with military ships belonging to coalition forces positioned in the Arab Sea managed to seize a Pakistani ship (Makran) boarding 10 ton of drugs. It was seized near Mukallah, where lots of guns exit en route for Somalia.
Almotamar.net – The Specialised First Instance Criminal Court in Yemen passed its sentence Monday against Pakistanis condemned of bringing drugs into Yemen. It has sentenced execution penalty against one of the Pakistanis and gave other 15 Pakistanis 25 years in jail for each. They have been convicted of bringing and transporting a quantity of 10 thousand kg of drugs to Yemen.
In the court sitting on Monday chaired by Judge Muhsin Mohammed Alwan the Judge read out reasons and findings of the ruling that also stipulated the destruction of drugs materials and confiscation the boat on board of which the drugs were seized.
After reading the verdict, the defendants began shouting and called names against the Judge and the sentence that they described as unjust. They resisted security men inside the court and attacked some of them.
The prosecution had charged the accused with bringing 10 thousand kg of drugs on board of a boat coming from the Pakistani port of Qawadir and entering in it into the Yemeni regional waters.
The convicted were caught in the Indian Ocean during their entering the Yemeni territorial waters and in their possession the quantity of the hashish drug.
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
10,000 bottles of wine, if one of those bottles…misses its mark, there’ll be 9,999 bottles of wine in a shark.
Yemen Authorities discovers over 10 thousand bottles of liquor smuggled inside the guts of sharks.
YemenOnline. Feb 09, 2009 – Yemeni security forces discovered in Bajil city, Hodeidah governorate 10260 bottles of liquor in the guts of sharks loaded on trucks that were heading to the capital Sana’a, official said. The source added that this fish load was smuggled into Yemen through one of the African countries
How big of a boat would it take to smuggle a load of that size? And related, two million Keptagon tabs found, it is implied, on a tip. Its always Keptagon. The shipment was pre-cleared with on a Yellow Route not subject to inspection. Y Observer:
Security authorities in the Aden Free-Zone port have prevented the importation of over 2.6 million narcotic tablets hidden in ovens being shipped from Egypt. The authorities said they seized 2,610,000 keptagon pills in five bags. Authorities stated that new measures in place ensured they had few problems seizing and finding the narcotics. (Read on …)
No point in building a refinery if the oil is running out. Also the criticism of the government’s unplanned decision making and thrir handling of the wheat pricing is interesting. HSAG has that millary at Aden port. Yemen Post
The current global financial crisis prompted several businessmen and investment companies in Yemen to suspend or halt their investment projects.
In this regard, Hayel Sa’eed Anam Group of Companies, one of the largest commercial houses in Yemen, has halted the establishment of oil refinery project whose preliminary costs could reach $265 million.
Member of the Board of Directors of the group Shawqi Hayel Saeed Anam told media that freezing the project was made after making extensive feasibility and economic studies for the project upon which they decided to halt its implementation. (Read on …)
Yemen, US discuss ports security
Minister of Transport Khalid al-Wazir discussed here on Monday with Deputy Chief of U.S. Mission to Yemen Angie Bryan coordinating efforts between the two countries in field of ports’ security.The meeting dealt with exchanging visits between the two friendly countries and how the Yemeni part could availing from the American experiences in fields of maritime transport and ports security.
Good! After they finish discussing weapons smuggling to Somalia, maybe they can ask Saleh’s nephew to shut down that dock that recieves the drugs.
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.
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.
Aden, Laziqia ports to be twined
LAZIQIA, Dec. 19 (Saba) – Yemen ambassador to Syria Abdul-Wahab Tawaf discussed on Friday with the governor of the Syrian city governorate of El-Laziqia the executive procedures of the Joint Yemeni-Syrian Committee regarding twining the two ports of Aden city and El-Laziqia as well as establishing a direct sea line between them.The discussed the executive steps of the cabinet regarding Yemen’s joining to the Syrian-Jordanian Company for Maritime Navigation.
On the other hand, Tawaf also met with rector of Tashreen University of El-Laziqia Mohammed Muala and discussed with him situations of Yemeni students in the university and means of reinforcing scientific cooperation between Yemeni and Syrian universities
Update: Russia denies plans finalized.
I hope the base is not on poor Socotra of the pristine unexplored biodiversity…
MOSCOW (Reuters) – Russia has decided to establish naval bases in Libya, Syria and Yemen within a few years, Itar-Tass news agency quoted military officials as saying on Friday, in a sign of Moscow’s growing foreign policy ambitions.
“It is difficult to say how much time it will take to create the bases for our fleet in these countries, but within a few years this will be done without question,” a military official was quoted as saying. “The political decision on this question has been taken,” the official said.
Kill fisherman
SAN’A, Yemen A Russian helicopter attack on Somali pirates in the Gulf of Aden earlier this week killed a Yemeni fisherman and three others, security officials said Thursday.
The fishermen were in two boats nearby when the Russian helicopter fired on pirates in three speedboats trying to hijack a Dutch container ship on Tuesday, said two officials from Yemen’s Interior Ministry and coast guard….
The helicopter was dispatched from a Russia warship that was sent to the area in September after Somali pirates hijacked a Ukrainian freighter, the Faina, with a cargo of battle tanks and three Russian crew members.
www.alghadyem.net
Received an official note tomorrow to complain about the Coast Guard and the Customs Directorate of the coastal province of Hodeidah beard that their employees are threatened by the border guards prevented from carrying out their duties in the seizure and prosecution of smugglers of petroleum products, sheep from Africa across the coast of the Directorate.
وأوضح مصدر محلي مسؤول في المديرية، فضل عدم الكشف عن هويته، بأنه قد تم إبلاغ الجهات المعنية بالمحافظة والعاصمة بالقضية، إلا أنه لم يتم اتخاذ الإجراءات القانونية لوقف عمليات التهريب، ومحاسبة حرس الحدود المرابطين في المنطقة ممن يقومون بحماية المهربين بالتعاون مع مجموعة من مشائخ المنطقة المتنفذين. The source said a local official in the Directorate, on condition of anonymity, that he had been informed stakeholders and to maintain the capital case, however, are not taken legal action to stop the smuggling operations, and to hold the border guards stationed in the region who were protecting the smugglers in collaboration with a group of the region Mchaik powerful.
وأكد المصدر بأن ظاهرة تهريب الأغنام والمشتقات النفطية إلى بلادنا من إفريقيا تسير بوتيرة عالية وبصورة علنية عبر سواحل المديرية، وخاصة في خور المديرية ومرسى العلوي دون أي حسيب أو رقيب، وبحماية من حرس الحدود المتواجدين في المنطقة، والذين يقومون بمنع أفراد خفر السواحل والجمارك بالمديرية من مزاولة أعمالهم في مكافحة التهريب وضبط المهربين وهم في حالة تلبس، كما يمنعونهم من ترقيم القوارب اليمنية والأجنبية والكشف عليها أو تفتيشها. The source added that the smuggling of sheep and oil derivatives in the country of Africa is moving quickly across the public and the coast of the Directorate, particularly in the Directorate and the creek without any upper berth total impunity, and to protect the border guards who are in the area, who are members of the prevention of the Coast Guard and the Customs Directorate of the to operate in the fight against smuggling and smugglers who are controlling in the case of flagrante delicto, and prevented the boats from the numbering of the Yemeni and foreign disclosure or inspection.
Over 445000 containers unloaded at Aden seaport in 2008
[06 March 2009]ADEN, March 06 (Saba) – The total number of containers which have been unloaded in the Aden seaport in 2008 were al last 445126 containers from different sizes.
According to statistics issued on Friday by Aden Port Corporation, the harbor of Aden received in 2008 more than 510 ships and supertankers coming from international ports.
The Free Zone Customs at the Aden seaport has achieved a record increase in the revenue in January 2009, through incomes, fees and other various returns, amounting to up YR 1 billion, an increase of YR 246 million over the revenues during the same month in 2008.
Yemeni exports through the Aden seaport during January reached more than YR 517 million, including fish, cotton, coffee, honey and other various national products.
The number of local consumption goods’ containers locally marketed during the month amounted to 4,626 containers, an increase of 854 containers over the number of such containers during the same month last year.
The increase in the volume of exports and revenues followed growth in maritime activity and cargo ship movement at the port.
Since ancient time, Aden has played an important role as an economic and commercial port in the southern part of Yemen and as a destination that serves as a meeting point in world trade.
Armies of Liberation website was banned by Yemeni authorities in 2007 and remains blocked by government censors despite a partial regime change in 2012.
Yemen Articles 2004-2010
Bad Behavior has blocked 4081 access attempts in the last 7 days.
