By William Tucker
Radio Garowe is reporting that foreign military forces were recently involved in a raid in Burao, Somaliland with local police that resulted in the arrest of five al-Shabaab militants. According to residents that witnessed the event, a small plane landed at the Burao airport depositing what appeared to be several soldiers of western appearance. The Somaliland government has remained silent on the raid, and as such, the nation of origin of the foreign soldiers has not been identified. Radio Garowe’s sources reported that among those captured was Saleban Mohamed Hussein Naleye, a native of Somaliland, while the remaining suspects came from Mogadishu.
More after the jump.
There are two interesting points of intersection in this story. The first is that Burao is a known stop along one of al-Shabaab’s smuggling routes. Ahmed Abdi Godane, al-Shabaab’s reclusive leader, is originally from Somaliland and often uses local contacts for funding and logistical support. The second point is the proximity of international forces located in Djibouti, Ethiopia, and the antipiracy assets located off Somalia’s coast. While naval assets in the region offer great flexibility it is more likely that the foreign forces entered from Djibouti where a multitude of foreign militaries operate. The foreign cooperation in this raid indicates that foreign powers are looking at taking a more active role in disrupting al-Shabaab’s logistical network as a means of supporting the African Union troops in Mogadishu.
The mystery of this report isn’t that foreign troops were operating in Somalia, but rather that these troops didn’t enter covertly and attempt to remove the militants from the country. Somaliland has been accused by neighboring Puntland on several occasions of providing support to al-Shabaab, so it is surprising that the Somaliland government is being trusted with the militant’s incarceration. Although Somaliland has declared its independence in 1991 (this has not been formally recognized), it must still hedge its bets that the Transitional Federal Government (TFG) experiment will fail. With foreign backers of the TFG dragging their feet on several matters and al-Shabaab absorbing the forces of Hizbul Islam, the possibility that the jihadists will ultimately outlast the TFG is not a trivial matter. Puntland may have a point in decrying Somaliland’s so-called support for al-Shabaab, but like any nation, Somaliland will look out for its own interests.
Map: Central Intelligence Agency; text in red is mine
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