Illegal exports of Somalian charcoal earned al-Shabaab militants tens of millions of US dollars in the past year and also financed violations of an arms embargo by clan-based militia that could fuel warlord tensions, UN investigators said in a new report.
The Somalia-Eritrea Monitoring Group, which oversees compliance with UN sanctions on the two countries, said it had counted 161 vessels exporting charcoal from Somalia’s southern ports of Kismayu and Barawe between June last year and May.
The UN Security Council prohibited charcoal exports from Somalia in February 2012 in a bid to cut off funds for al-Shabaab, a militant group that has been fighting for control of Somalia for years and enforces strict Shariah law in areas it occupies.
Photo: Reuters
“The total international market value of charcoal exported in 2013 and 2014 can be estimated as upwards of US$250 million and could be much more, given that the group may not have identified all shipments,” the monitors said in a confidential 482-page annual report, seen by reporters on Friday.
“The scale of the international trade in Somalian charcoal is largely consistent with its previous findings,” it said.
A third of the 161 shipments were in the names of two businessmen linked to al-Shabaab, said the monitoring group, and the shipments were primarily destined for the United Arab Emirates, Oman and Kuwait.
The group said charcoal was mainly exported from Kismayu and Barawe between June last year and January and shipments since January were primarily made from Kismayu, where port operations are supervised by the Ras Kamboni militia and the Kenyan military, which is part of an African Union peacekeeping force in Somalia.
The Kenyan military has denied allegations by the UN monitors that it aided illegal charcoal exports.
“The monitoring group has obtained information that, while businessmen linked to al-Shabaab ... continue to trade in charcoal freely, charcoal proceeds have also helped to finance the purchase of military vehicles by Ras Kamboni,” it said.
The council imposed an arms embargo on Somalia in 1992 to cut the flow of weapons to feuding warlords, who had ousted former Somalian president Mohamed Siad Barre and plunged the nation into civil war. In 2012, Somalia held its first vote to elect a president and prime minister since 1991.
“The import of vehicles, in violation of the arms embargo, is an example of how the unchecked scramble for charcoal revenue has contributed to the arming of the environment, which is likely to contribute more to historical clan tensions relating to the control of Kismayu,” the monitors said.
Dozens of people were killed last year when clan leader Barre Hirale’s forces battled for control of Kismayu from Ras Kamboni loyal to Ahmed Madobe, who was chosen by a regional assembly to preside over the surrounding Jubbaland region.
Hirale laid down arms and joined reconciliation talks in August.
The UN monitors said al-Shabaab had shifted most of its exports to Kismayu earlier this year to “disguise the operations of those traders working most closely with al-Shabaab in Barawe.”
However, this week military strikes drove al-Shabaab out of Barawe, their last major coastal stronghold.
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