Oil, the real reason behind the attack on Somalia




Compiled by The Research Intelligence Unit – www.riunti.com


Just why did the US attack Somalia two weeks ago? Of course, the answer given for the US military intervention and the generally accepted notion is the hunt for terrorists. But is it? Are terrorists the only bone of contention the US has with Somalia? When the US military devised “Operation Restore Hope” in 1993 which was short-lived after they were whipsawed by rag-tag militia in and around Mogadishu, were they fighting the ‘war on terror’?

Un-conquered resources

They couldn’t have been because this war was to start much later, if anything it is a post-September 11 phenomenon. So then why did the US bomb ICU extremists in the name of Al Qaeda terrorists and not throughout last year when they occupied Mogadishu?
Just why is Somalia so important to the US, and by extension the big boys of Europe and some Gulf states? A UN Somalia Monitoring Group report released in November 2005 reveals that a dozen countries, namely Yemen, Djibouti, Libya, Egypt, Kazakhstan, Ethiopia, Iran, Syria, Eritrea, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia and Uganda were all poking their noses into the Somalia pie.

What the UN Somalia Monitoring Group didn’t reveal, however, is that these were not the only countries which were interested in the country. The little known yet well-heeled contact group, consisting of Norway, the US, UK, France and Tanzania (just an appendage) are also deeply enmeshed in Somalia.

While the terrorism theory holds some water, the reality of the factors contributing to the mess in Somalia is pegged on natural resources. Oil and gas are Somalia’s Achilles heel. It is an open secret that four US oil giants are sitting pretty on money-spinning concessions expecting to reap huge windfalls from massive resources of both oil and gas in Somalia.

The story of Somalia and oil goes back to the colonial period. British and Italian geologists first identified oil deposits during that period of imperialism. The first oil wells historically referred to as the Daga Shabell series were dug in the 1960s. Tiny gas discoveries adjacent to Socotra were also noted.

The race for these precious natural resources took a new turn in 1988, when the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the World Bank, with the support of the governments of Britain, France and Canada and backed by several Western oil companies financed a regional hydrocarbon study of the countries bordering the Red Sea and the Gulf of Eden.

The countries were Somalia, Ethiopia and Saudi Arabia. Saudi Arabia was later dropped, but not before it had been established that within the study area, massive deposits of oil and gas existed. The results of the findings were presented to a three-day American Association of Petroleum Geologists, Eastern Hemisphere group conference, in London in September, 1991. Is there oil in Somalia? Listen to the answer:

“It’s there. There’s no doubt there’s oil there,” said geologist Thomas E. O’Connor, the World Bank’s principal petroleum engineer, who steered the in-depth, three-year study of oil prospects in Somalia’s Gulf of Eden in the northern coastal region.

The study was intended to encourage private investment in the petroleum potential of eight African nations. The conclusions of their findings are quite telling as the geologists put Somalia and Sudan at the top of the list of prospective commercial oil producers.

While presenting their results during the conference, two geologists involved in the study (an American and an Egyptian) reported that the investigation of nine exploratory wells dug in Somalia pointed out that the region was “situated within the oil window, and thus (is) highly prospective for gas and oil.”

Geologist, Z. R. Beydoun, who was involved in the survey, noted that “the geological parameters conducive to the generation, expulsion and trapping of significant amounts of oil and gas” were within the offshore sites. Soon after a race for lucrative deals kicked off in earnest.

Four US oil companies, namely Conoco, Chevron, Amoco and Philips have concessions in nearly two thirds of Somalia. This quartet of oil conglomerates was granted these contracts in the final days of Somalia’s deposed dictator, Siad Barre. The US first military engagement in Somalia was fully supported by Conoco.


Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed, the deputy head of Somalia’s Islamist movement.

Reconciliation and peace?

Perhaps it is not accident then that the country has been experiencing sever internal conflict just as the mineral and diamond rich African states along the West coast. Following many years of tribalism, the Somalia Islamist movement swept into power last year disarming the warring tribes with the reported support of most Somalis. The reign was however, short living as the US and neighboring Ethiopia invaded the capital and regained control. Since then the Islamists have been on the run.

This week, a key Somali Islamist leader surrendered at the Kenyan border on Tuesday. The deputy leader of Somalia's Islamist movement gave him self-up to Kenyan authorities and is reported to be under police protection in the capital, Nairobi. Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed, chairman of the executive committee of the Somali Council of Islamic Courts (SCIC), was immediately flown to Nairobi and is under guard at a hotel, said government officials.

Mr Ahmed, 42, is seen as the moderate face of the SCIC and a key figure in future efforts to foster national reconciliation. He has been on the run since early this month but Mr Ahmed does not appear on any UN or US wanted lists, and had been involved in peace talks with the Somali government.

Michael Ranneberger, the US envoy to Kenya, has said Mr Ahmed was someone who could still play a "positive role" in Somalia. A US embassy official denied reports that Mr Ahmed was under its protection in Nairobi. The US was not holding or interrogating Mr Ahmed, she said: "We were not involved in his capture or surrender."
A cleric educated in Sudan and Libya, Mr Ahmed helped unite various Islamic courts in Mogadishu against the warlords who ran the city, and became the first leader of the SCIC. But after the warlords were defeated in June he was moved to the executive council, allowing the cleric Sheikh Hassan Dahir Aweys, who has alleged ties to al-Qaida, to take control.

While it is uncertain whether the Somali government will include Mr Ahmed in peace efforts, his surrender is a welcome boost for President Abdullahi Yusuf and his Ethiopian allies. Despite being forced into the bush in the far south nor any of the al-Qaida - for three weeks, none of the top Islamist leaders have been confirmed as killed or - leaders they are accused of harboring captured. Meanwhile in Mogadishu, guerrilla attacks are on the rise with Islamist sympathizers thought responsible.

The president's palace was hit in a mortar attack on Friday. The EU development commissioner, Louis Michel, told reporters today the attack "showed the risk of [Somalia] descending into a civil war". The violence is complicating plans for a peacekeeping force to take over.

Familiar pattern

As an East African developing country with an estimates income of $5 billion, Somalia has a per capita GDP of $600 (2006) and a GDP growth rate of 2.6 per cent. Deep political division has served to stifle any real progress on the economic front since 1991 when a coup overthrew the authoritarian socialist government that had ruled since the British pulled out in 1960.

Agriculture plays an important part in generating income and livelihood opportunities for the 3.7 million work force. Livestock rearing accounts for around 40 per cent of GDP and 65 per cent of export earnings. Other exports include hides, fish, charcoal and bananas. However, the countries small industrial sector that was engaged in processing agricultural products has been looted and sold for scrap metal during the long years of unrest.

Remarkably, the service sector has survived and continued to grow. Mobile telecommunications covering most cities are said to provide the lowest tariffs in the continent for wireless international calls. Money exchange services have also flourished and are estimated to handle between $500 to $1 billion remittances per annum.

Increasingly, more and more resource rich developing nations, including Sri Lanka, are experiencing a similar pattern of development where economic growth continues without having any connection to human welfare, wellbeing and rights. Only the ‘military solutionists’, their international backers and those who trade in military hardware are the winners.

Sources: Wanjohi Kabukuru (Daily Nation), Xan Rice (Guardian Unlimited), www.informationclearinghouse.com, Central Intelligence Agency.