With the help of our guests, we begin to examine a number of issues relating to Somalia, including a recent story in the UK’s Independent Newspaper: Insurance firms plan private navy to take on Somali pirates stating that insurance companies have drawn up plans for “the world’s first private navy to turn the tide against Somali pirates.”

While the segment examines the ongoing humanitarian disaster in Somalia, our guests appraised, in the context of US foreign Policy goals in Africa, the implications of President Obama’s recent speech at the UN General Assembly (2010) in which he referred to planned partnerships with Somalia’s break-away regions.

Furthermore, with recent calls from the UN to create an international tribunal specifically to try pirates, the world’s leaders are clearly focused on criminalizing and effectively neutralizing one side of an ongoing resource war. Andrew Mwangura—who directs the Seafairers Assistance Program, has highlighted the failure of the UN and other leaders to condemn the illegal fish poaching by foreign governments and corporations in the Indian Ocean and the Gulf of Aden. See Andrew’s article in Pambazuka News: Somalia: Pirates or protectors?

The fish-poachers, which are estimated take out more than US$450 million in fish value from Somalia annually, neither compensate local fishermen nor pay taxes and royalties and they do not respect any management, conservation and environmental regulations – norms associated with regulated fishing. As Mwangura asks, “why are the UN resolutions, NATO orders and EU decrees to invade the Somali seas persistently failing to include the protection of the Somali marine resources from Illegal, unreported and unregulated violations in the same waters?

Our guests are Sadia Ali Aden and Ambassador Adonia Ayebare. Sadial Al-Bulushi joined AfrobeatRadio as co-host. Abdualaziz Billow Ali, AfrobeatRadio East Africa correspondent contributed an interview with a Somali pirate.

Sadia Ali Aden
Sadia a human rights advocate, freelance writer and co-founder of the Adar Foundation, Somali Diaspora Youth and the founder of the Diaspora Voice. Her articles have been published in various publications, including Foreign Policy Forum, and alJazeera Magazine. Sadia has also appeared for a number of interviews on NPR and BBC and other media outlets.

Ambassador Adonia Ayebare.
Adonia Ayebare is Director of the Africa Program at IPI. Mr. Ayebare was Deputy Permanent Representative of Uganda to the United Nations from 2005-2009. Fomerly a journalist, he covered major events in the East African region for several East African magazines and for IRIN, the regional information network for the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.

Co-host:
Samar Al-Bulushi is an independent researcher examining the role and impact of the U.S. Africa Command (Africom) on peace and justice efforts in Africa. She has written about U.S. legislation authorizing military action against the LRA in Uganda and about emerging cooperation between the U.S. military and the International Criminal Court. Samar is also a co-host of Global Movements, Urban Struggles here on WBAI.

This radio panel was broadcast live on Saturday October 2, 2010 on AfrobeatRadio on WBAI Pacifica Radio, 99.5 FM, New York.
Written by AfrobeatRadio