Somali President Gave Top Pirate Diplomatic Passport to Block Arrest

UN Complains Regime 'Shielding' Top Pirates

The self-proclaimed Somali government has never had a more tireless advocate than the United Nations, which has been cheering them ever since they were a group of exiles hanging out in a Kenyan hotel. The UN Monitoring Group on Somalia, however, is pushing a new “confidential” report that throws this relationship into serious doubt.

The report claims that they have obtained evidence that President Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed gave a special “diplomatic passport” to one of the top leaders of a Somali pirate faction, preventing the international community from arresting him when he traveled abroad.

The pirate king in question, Mohamed Abdil Hassan Afweyne arrived in Malaysia on a trip in April, waving the passport around and bragging that it was given to him on direct orders of President Ahmed, nominally so he would engage in “counter-piracy.”

President Ahmed his written a letter to the UN condemning the report as “one-sided,” though he didn’t appear to contest any of the actual allegations in the document. Somali officials have so far declined comment on the issue to the media.

Author: Jason Ditz

Jason Ditz is Senior Editor for Antiwar.com. He has 20 years of experience in foreign policy research and his work has appeared in The American Conservative, Responsible Statecraft, Forbes, Toronto Star, Minneapolis Star-Tribune, Providence Journal, Washington Times, and the Detroit Free Press.