Archivo etiqueta «Somalia»
Par le Capitaine de corvette Alexandre Marchis, stagiaire de la 19ème promotion de l’Ecole de guerre (LE MONDE, 13/12/11):
Si ces derniers mois, la famine, les enlèvements d’occidentaux et les actions armées du groupe Al-Shabaab ont fait parler de la Somalie dans l’actualité, un autre mal, la piraterie, mobilise les forces navales depuis 2008. Parmi elles, la force navale européenne (EUNAVFOR) mène l’opération Atalante. Avec la stabilisation du phénomène, certains membres de l’Union Européenne souhaiteraient désormais conduire des actions plus offensives. Mais cet avis n’est pas partagé par l’ensemble des 27 membres tant il demeure des incertitudes quant aux … Seguir leyendo
Ken Menkhaus is a professor of political science at Davidson College and a fellow at the Enough Project, an anti-genocide group based in Washington, DC. (Project Syndicate, 02/11/11):
The latest outrage by the Somali jihadist group al-Shabaab – a truck bombing in Mogadishu that killed more than 100 people, targeting students lined up for news about scholarships to Turkey – has produced condemnation from the United Nations, Western states, the Somali Transitional Federal Government (TFG), and Somali civic groups.
That makes no difference at all. Al-Shabaab’s leadership wears criticism from the West like a badge of honor. As for the … Seguir leyendo
Por Fernando Reinares, investigador principal de terrorismo internacional en el Real Instituto Elcano y catedrático de Ciencia Política en la Universidad Rey Juan Carlos (REAL INSTITUTO ELCANO, 26/10/11):
Tema: Al-Qaeda estableció una célula en Kenia a inicios de los 90. Al-Shabab se formó posteriormente en Somalia. Pero la relación entre ambas es muy estrecha, constituyendo una amenaza terrorista para la región del Este de África y más allá.
Resumen: El Este de África es desde el inicio de la década de los 90 un escenario particularmente significativo del terrorismo yihadista, aunque sea en estos momentos cuando adquiera una especial … Seguir leyendo
By Nuruddin Farah, a Somali-born novelist, divides his time between Cape Town, South Africa, and Minneapolis, where he holds the Winton Chair in the college of liberal arts at the University of Minnesota and the author of the forthcoming novel Crossbones (THE WASHINGTON POST, 29/07/11):
If the past is anything to go by, TVs the world over will show heart-wrenching pictures of malnourished Somali babies with distended kwashiorkor bellies; of flies feeding on their eyes; of mouths sucking at milkless breasts. Environmental experts will pontificate on the recurrent droughts in Somalia. Aid organizations will canvass the world’s rich to … Seguir leyendo
By Ban Ki-moon, secretary general of the United Nations (LOS ANGELES TIMES, 22/07/11):
Across the Horn of Africa, people are starving. A catastrophic combination of conflict, high food prices and drought has left more than 11 million people in desperate need. The United Nations has been sounding the alert for months. We have resisted using the “F-word” — famine — but on Wednesday, we officially recognized the fast-evolving reality. There is famine in parts of Somalia. And it is spreading.
This is a wake-up call we cannot ignore. Every day I hear the harrowing reports from our U.N. teams … Seguir leyendo
By Ole Martin Moen, research fellow in philosophy at the University of Oslo (THE WASHINGTON TIMES, 14/07/11):
Since February, the Danish sailor Jan Quist Johansen, his wife, Birgit, and their three children, Rune, Hjalte and Naja, have been held hostage by Somali pirates. After a failed rescue attempt in March, the family has been treated brutally and many now claim that if the ransom is not paid immediately, they risk execution – just as two American couples, Jean and Scott Adams, and Phyllis Macay and Bob Riggle, were executed by pirates earlier this year when ransoms were not paid … Seguir leyendo
By Maryan Qasim, a medical doctor and a humanitarian who has worked as an obstetrician and gynaecologist as well as a university lecturer, scientist and school teacher for over 15 years, living and working in Somalia, Yemen, the Netherlands and Britain. Currently she is the minister for Women’s Development and Family Affairs serving in the Transitional Federal Government of Somalia (THE GUARDIAN, 17/06/11):
I recently learned of a poll showing the worst places in the world to be a woman. To my surprise, Somalia was ranked 5th. For me, the situation of women in Somalia stands as the worst … Seguir leyendo
By J. D. Gordon, a senior fellow at the Center for Security Policy and a retired Navy commander who served in the Office of the Secretary of Defense during the George W. Bush administration (THE WASHINGTON TIMES, 23/04/11):
While President Obama battles Republicans in Congress over federal budgets, spiraling debt and out-of-control spending, another out-of-control phenomena – namely piracy, continues to wreak havoc on the world economy with an estimated cost of $15 billion by 2015.
Attacks on shipping have skyrocketed to 142 incidents worldwide just within the first three months of 2011 – 18 vessels were hijacked and … Seguir leyendo
Por Félix Arteaga, investigador principal de Seguridad y Defensa en el Real Instituto Elcano y director del Grupo de Trabajo dedicado al seguimiento de las Misiones Internacionales de las Fuerzas Armadas españolas (REAL INSTITUTO ELCANO, 14/03/11):
Tema: El despliegue aeronaval internacional en torno al Cuerno de África permite mantener abiertas las líneas de comunicación marítima y el flujo de buques y mercancías pero no consigue disuadir a los piratas de actuar ni reducir significativamente las cifras de secuestros.
Resumen: La lucha contra la piratería en el Golfo de Adén y el Océano Índico ha movilizado las flotas de … Seguir leyendo
By Shannon Beebe, a lieutenant colonel in the U.S. Army and coauthor of The Ultimate Weapon Is No Weapon: Human Security and the New Rules of War and Peace. The opinions expressed here are his own and do not represent those of the Department of Defense (LOS ANGELES TIMES, 11/03/11):
It has become apparent that real piracy is far different from the lighthearted subject sometimes portrayed in popular culture, and the problem is growing much worse. Besides the tragic cost in lives, the U.S., many other nations and NATO spent roughly $2 billion combined last year to safeguard … Seguir leyendo
By Peter Chalk, the author of The Maritime Dimension of International Security: Terrorism, Piracy, and Challenges for the United States and a senior analyst at Rand Corp (LOS ANGELES TIMES, 28/02/11):
The killing of four Americans who were taken hostage aboard the yacht Quest off the coast of Oman serves as an ominous warning that pirate activity will increase in 2011 despite large-scale naval deployments in the Gulf of Aden.
The incident also underscores the limits of raw power. Those aboard the Quest, although surrounded by warships and tracked by a helicopter, still met a tragic end.
Indeed, intercepting … Seguir leyendo
By David B. Rivkin Jr., a Washington lawyer who served in the Justice Department and the White House counsel’s office in the Reagan and George H.W. Bush administrations. He has represented parties before international tribunals and Carlos Ramos-Mrosovsky, a New York-based attorney whose practice focuses on international and federal litigation (THE WASHINGTON POST, 09/12/10):
The international response to Somali piracy just became more complicated. Kenya’s second-highest court ruled last month that it has no jurisdiction to try pirates captured outside of Kenyan territorial waters. The decision underscores the need for a comprehensive international legal framework to address the … Seguir leyendo
By Peter Chalk, a senior analyst at the RAND Corporation (THE NEW YORK TIMES, 03/09/10):
Every 12 hours last year young men boarded motorized skiffs and hijacked vessels on the waterway used by 24,000 ships around the Horn of Africa. Pirate gangs have accrued $150 million in ransom to date, about $4 million per ship. Their take is likely to swell before year’s end. Somali gangs now hold 18 vessels and 379 crew members for ransom.
How do scruffy vagabonds as young as 16 overpower freighters and defy patrolling warships? And how, even when captured, do these modern pirates … Seguir leyendo
By Ioan Lewis, emeritus professor of anthropology, London School of Economics (THE GUARDIAN, 26/08/10):
The escalating war for control of what is left of Somalia, between the al-Shabab extremists and the African Union puppet “transitional federal government”, offers little hope of peaceful resolution. Al-Shabab is now deeply entrenched and, with the help of foreign jihadists, virtually controls all southern Somalia.
However contentious, their viciously anti-feminist interpretation of fundamentalist Islam brooks no opposition and is consequently far from popular, even outlawing watching sports contests and football on television. More significantly, it also strikes at the roots of traditional Sufi … Seguir leyendo
By Bronwyn Bruton, a former international affairs fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations (THE NEW YORK TIMES, 24/07/10):
In 2006, the Bush administration declared Somalia the latest front in the war on terrorism: a newly influential movement, the Union of Islamic Courts, was suspected of playing host to Al Qaeda there. When this union took over the capital in June 2006, the United States tried to coax moderates within it to enter a dialogue with Somalia’s official government, a toothless institution that was exiled from the capital. But by December of that year, when the Islamic courts seemed … Seguir leyendo