{"id":16548,"date":"2013-07-20T14:19:26","date_gmt":"2013-07-20T11:19:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/warsom.com\/wararka\/?p=16548"},"modified":"2013-07-20T15:51:26","modified_gmt":"2013-07-20T12:51:26","slug":"kenyan-forces-in-somalia-aiding-enemy-un","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/warsom.com\/wararka\/2013\/07\/kenyan-forces-in-somalia-aiding-enemy-un\/","title":{"rendered":"Kenyan forces in Somalia aiding enemy- UN."},"content":{"rendered":"

\"charcoal\"<\/a>
\nIllicit trade in charcoal facilitated by Kenyan troops in Kismayu, Somalia is producing significant revenues for the al-Shabaab, a team of United Nations monitors say in a report published on Wednesday.<\/p>\n

Along with its local allies and in collaboration with al-Shabaab militants, the KDF has been exporting charcoal from the port of Kismayu for the past several months “in flagrant violation of the Security Council ban,” the report says.<\/p>\n

Kenyan forces’ involvement in the charcoal trade began soon after the KDF drove Shabaab out of Kismayu last September, according to the UN experts.<\/p>\n

Working in cooperation with Sheikh Ahmed Mohamed Islam \u201cMadobe\u201d and his Ras Kamboni militia, the KDF has helped export about one million sacks of charcoal per month, the report states.<\/p>\n

“Al-Shabaab, its commercial partners and networks remain central to the business locally and internationally,” the UN monitors find.<\/p>\n

They estimate that the charcoal trade is bringing Shabaab even more than the $25 million a year it was making prior to the KDF takeover of Kismayu.<\/p>\n

“Overall, the charcoal exports have increased by 140 per cent in comparison to previous years,” the report states, reiterating that “the charcoal business architecture and trade networks remain intact, with al-Shabaab maintaining a central role and continuing to benefit significantly.”<\/p>\n

“Essentially, with the changeover of power in Kismayu, the shareholding of the charcoal trade at the port was divided into three between al-Shabaab, Ras Kamboni and Somali Kenyan businessmen cooperating with the KDF,” the report adds.<\/p>\n

Reject allegations<\/p>\n

The Kenyan military has rejected the UN allegations.<\/p>\n

If accurate, the monitors’ study suggests that Kenyan troops are indirectly helping sustain Shabaab as a fighting force that in the past has killed Kenyan soldiers.<\/p>\n

Despite serious setbacks inflicted by the KDF and the African Union military mission in Somalia (Amisom), a Shabaab force of about 5000 fighters remains “arguably intact in terms of operational readiness, chain of command, discipline and communication capabilities,” the monitors say.<\/p>\n

They add that KDF units in southern Somalia are continuing at times to operate independently of Amisom.<\/p>\n

The Kenyan government and the African Union signed an agreement over a year ago stipulating that Kenyan troops would formally integrate into Amisom’s command-and-control structures.<\/p>\n

As of last February, however, the monitoring group “continued to receive corroborating reports indicating that the operational presence of KDF in Amisom was more theoretical than practical,” the report says.<\/p>\n

The monitors say they observed KDF personnel failing to wear the African Union\/Amisom insignia of a troop-contributing country in Somalia.<\/p>\n

In addition, the KDF has been carrying out “unauthorised air strikes in Somalia,” the report alleges, citing aerial attacks on Jungal village last July.<\/p>\n

Early this year, Colonel Cyrus Oguna, a spokesman for the Kenyan forces in Somalia, “confirmed that KDF had conducted more air strikes in the Gedo region,” the report notes.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Illicit trade in charcoal facilitated by Kenyan troops in Kismayu, Somalia is producing significant revenues for the al-Shabaab, a team of United Nations monitors say in a report published on Wednesday. Along with its local allies and in collaboration with al-Shabaab militants, the KDF has been exporting charcoal from the port of Kismayu for the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-16548","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-ogeysiiska-iyo-iidhehyada"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/warsom.com\/wararka\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16548","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/warsom.com\/wararka\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/warsom.com\/wararka\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/warsom.com\/wararka\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/warsom.com\/wararka\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16548"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/warsom.com\/wararka\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16548\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16582,"href":"https:\/\/warsom.com\/wararka\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16548\/revisions\/16582"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/warsom.com\/wararka\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16548"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/warsom.com\/wararka\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16548"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/warsom.com\/wararka\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16548"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}