UN sanctions monitoring teams are constantly trying to track where the weaponry of Somali rebel faction al-Shabaab comes from. They are reporting “concerns” about Yemen and Iran, but the ability to actually pin the weaponry on anyone is another matter entirely.
Yemen, the nation with the most trade ties to Somalia, should be the easiest case. With a large Somali refugee population and weapons a-plenty, figuring out even where those arms are coming from is a struggle for the monitors.
The issue of weapons from Iran and North Korea is infinitely more difficult, with officials saying they came by way of Libya, which is awash in looted weapons after the NATO-imposed regime change.
Not only can monitors not prove either government sent weapons to Somalia, and neither seems to have any ideological reason to back the Sunni al-Shabaab faction, but they concede that they can’t even tell how long ago the arms were sent to Libya, making it possible they predate many rounds of sanctions.
The UN Security Council has an embargo on sending weapons to Somalia since 1992. Somehow absent in the probe is that the United States has openly sent around 40 tons of small arms to the self-proclaimed Somali government, and that many of them simply went missing upon arrival to wind up on the black market.
Trying to fit the evidence to the policy of regime change – where have I heard that before?
"Somehow absent in the probe is that the United States has openly sent around 40 tons of small arms to the self-proclaimed Somali government, and that many of them simply went missing upon arrival to wind up on the black market."
Sounds like it's all working as planned. Send arms to a region and allow them to fall into "enemy" hands, increase instability and the effectiveness of that "enemy." Now you have justification for increased military spending and yet more intervention.