Pirates of Puntland

What is it that makes Pirates different from other brigands; why do dacoits of the sea excite the imagination where the land-bound highwayman invokes fear and loathing? To explain, we cite the curious case of the Pirates of Puntland.

Somalia may be an arid and environmentally challenged country, but its strategic location and long coastline is a major asset. How these improbable pirates came to fulfill the country’s manifest destiny is a long if circular story.

To begin with, during the Cold War, Somalia’s proximity to Arabia and the shipping lanes connecting Europe to its oil attracted superpower competition.

The Soviet Union befriended President Siad Barre during his scientific socialism phase (or “camel-sharing,” to use the local term). All Somalis were jalle, brothers — actually brothers-in-arms — after the Soviets provided weaponry that made Somalia Africa’s most militarised nation.

But some brothers were more jalle than others. In 1978, against the advice of his generals, Barre crossed the line and invaded the Ogaden to liberate the jalle in Ethiopia, who also belonged to his wife’s clan.

When Barre denied involvement during a visit to the Kremlin, his hosts produced aerial photographs pinpointing the Somali army’s positions.

The Soviets flip-flopped. Together with their Cuban protégés, they launched the largest single logistical operation in military history to support their new Afro-Marxist comrades in Ethiopia. The comrades scorched the jalle invaders.

The survivors limped home, leaving behind the hundreds of bombed out tanks and burning armoured cars testifying to Barre’s ill-advised gambit. Barre squashed an attempted coup by disillusioned army officers, and then executed the Majertain clan top brass.

The survivors escaped across the border, where Barre’s brother diktator, Mengistu Haile Mariam, funded an armed liberation movement led by the former army colonel, Abdullahi Yusuf.

Barre switched his support to clan-based militias (i.e., Darod clan militias) to stay in power; conservative Arab governments pitched in with small arms (i.e. AK-47s) worth $450 million.

Consistent with the law predicting that most policies end up producing the opposite results, jalle camel-sharing ended up reviving the monolithic status of the segmentary lineage and clans in Somali society, enabling Barre to hold on for another 15 years — a period during which conditions in Somalia in general declined.

But after Mohammed Farah Aideed’s Hawiye Habr Gedir dislodged Afwein (meaning “Big Mouth,” the dictator’s nickname) for good in January 1993, things began to seriously go south. Both literally, in regard to the thousands of refugees pouring into Kenya, and more figuratively in the case of the civil war erupting in the capital, Mogadishu.

The conflict provided the backdrop for the benignly entitled US intervention, Operation Restore Hope, which culminated with the battle Somalis dubbed Ma Alinti Ranga and Ridley Scott depicted on the silver screen under the title, Black Hawk Down.

We need to highlight two aspects of the failed special forces mission to capture the warlord Aideed:

One, the retreat of the international community from Somalia following the extended street fight between the rangers and his Habr Gedr clan; and, two, the contrast between the clan’s unseemly parading of the corpse of the fallen helicopter pilot and the capture of another pilot by a mooryan militia, who treated their captive’s wounds before collecting a ransom for returning him to the US command. Mooryan refers to gangs not affiliated to a particular clan — arguably the best prototype for understanding the Pirates of Puntland phenomenon.