Martin Bell published an article in The Mail on Sunday (London) on 17 May 2009.
In his article, “After a Lifetime’s Travels I’ve Found the End of the World …. Somali’s Pirate Coast”, he described a visit to Somalia undertaken on behalf of the UNICEF. Bell writes at length of the violence and poverty in Somali, and ends with a reflection that the conflict in Somalia is now transnational. He says, “Borders mean nothing to those who wage holy war.” He notes that suicide bombings in Somalia’s western and northern provinces last October are now known to have been carried out by jihadists from Minnesota and that in a recent assault on Mogadishu, the forces of the Shabaab were supported and led by 2,000 foreign fighters – Afghans, Pakistanis and even volunteers of Western appearance who are thought to be American and European converts to Islam. The weapons for this conflict came in by air and the attackers advanced in a column of ‘technicals’ – pick-up trucks carrying the fighters and their heavy weapons. He notes that “They were under their own commanders and had their own logistics and communications.” The Somali government defeated them – but only just.
Bell adds that the foreign jihadists are training Somalia youths to fight and to become suicide bombers. He adds that, “One theory is that the jihadists, under pressure in the Pakistani tribal areas, have decided to open a new front against a weak government without much of an army to defend itself.” Bell concludes that, “There is nothing to prevent these militants, both the veterans and the new recruits, from exporting their campaign elsewhere. Nowhere is safe – certainly not Britain with its substantial Somali community.”
Finally he makes the point that we cannot ignore the conflict in Somalia because it may affect us in more ways than just maritime piracy.
