Assistant Secretary for the Bureau of African Affairs Linda Thomas-Greenfield testifies on "Security and Governance in Somalia

Never-before-seen military footage of "Black Hawk Down"

A Bet on Peace for War-Torn Somalia

Michael Stock is pursuing an extreme version of that basic investor’s principle: Get in early. He’s just finished building a resort on the coast of war-torn Mogadishu, Somalia. WSJ’s Christopher S. Stewart reports. (Photo: Dominic Nahr/WSJ) MOGADISHU, Somalia—Michael Stock sees things that others don't. "Imagine this," he says one recent afternoon, standing on the sunny second-floor deck of his new oceanside hotel in Somalia's war-battered capital. "There are banana trees where there's desert now, and there's this view." The banana trees haven't grown in yet, but International Campus, as he calls the complex, is the closest thing to a Ritz for many miles. A fortified compound sprawled across 11 acres of rocky white beach, it offers 212 rooms including $500-a-night villas, several dining rooms, coffee and snack shops, and a curving slate-colored pool where sun-seekers can loll away Somali afternoons. "It's going to be ridiculous!" Mr. Stock said, just weeks before residents began arriving for April's opening. A few hours later, the jittery sound of gunfire split the warm February air not far from his new hotel—a reminder that the country is still muddling through a decades-old conflict and that there are still bullets flying, bombs detonating. Bananas in the Desert Most Western countries have avoided Somalia, leaving a void to be filled by contractors like Michael Stock's Bancroft Global Development. He envisions 'banana trees where there is desert.' View Slideshow [SB10001424127887323741004578414433459523250] Dominic Nahr/Magnum Photos for The Wall Street Journal Here, Mr. Stock, left, outside Mogadishu, Somalia's war-battered capital, with an employee, Richard Rouget. Mr. Stock isn't just anyone gambling on a far-fetched idea in a conflict zone. In an unusual twist of the war business, the 36-year-old American is deeply involved in the conflict itself. In addition to being a real estate developer, his company also helps train Somalis in modern military techniques. His security company, Bancroft Global Development, has supported African troops since 2008 as they fought al-Shabaab, the Somali Islamic group tied to al Qaeda, which the U.S. views as a terrorist threat. The United Nations and the African Union, with U.S. State Department money, pay Bancroft to support soldiers in everything from counterinsurgency tactics to bomb disposal, sniper training, road building and, as Mr. Stock puts it, "bandaging shot-off thumbs." Security companies have, of course, been rushing into war zones forever, sometimes controversially. A recent congressional study on wartime contracting estimated that the U.S. spent some $206 billion on outside contracts and grants in Iraq and Afghanistan between 2002 and 2011. Most Western countries have stayed out of Somalia. Contractors like Bancroft partly fill that void. The U.S., which pulled its troops after American soldiers died in the 1993 Black Hawk Down tragedy, has spent more than $650 million since 2006 on supporting the African Union Mission in Somalia, known as Amisom, and its more than 17,000 soldiers. Unlike many security contractors, Mr. Stock's company, based in Washington, D.C., is a nonprofit not primarily concerned with making money on military support services. In fact, it actually sustains stretches of multimillion-dollar losses, Mr. Stock says. Meanwhile its sister company, Bancroft Global Investment, chases profits by pouring money into war-zone real estate. [image] Dominic Nahr/Magnum Photos for The Wall Street Journal Michael Stock develops real estate in Somalia and Afghanistan. Mr. Stock's gamble: The security outfit will help guide the country toward peace, turning his investments into big money. "It's like getting in at the bottom of the stock market," says Mr. Stock. His unusual war operation is making him into a kind of ultimate gentrifier, a mini mogul of Mogadishu, perhaps. His first properties went up in Afghanistan. But Somalia represents his latest push. Along with the new place, Mr. Stock says he has invested more than $25 million in various for-profit ventures, including a "trailer park" hotel built out of shipping containers at the airport, a compound of prefabricated buildings fronting the city's old port and a cement factory. Bancroft is the only contractor supplying military training to Amisom soldiers in the country. Mr. Stock estimates that his team of 100 or so people in Somalia works with roughly a third of the 17,000 Amisom forces at any given time. After more than two decades of violence in Somalia, there are glimmers of hope. African troops, with Bancroft's support, have pushed the insurgents to more rural areas. In January, the U.S. recognized the Somali government for the first time since 1991 and last month a U.S. Agency for International Development official urged at a news conference, "Get in on the ground floor." A new president leads Somalia. Expats are returning to rebuild and there are even people on the beaches. "We swim here all the time," said a Russian helicopter operator, as a friend floated on an inner tube along a bullet-littered stretch of ocean near the airport. "The water's good!" With dwindling war efforts in Iraq and Afghanistan, other American contractors are moving in, too. A Virginia company, Atlantean, is setting up an airport hotel in the south. Among its board members, according to its website, is former Maj. Gen. William Garrison, who led the mission associated with Black Hawk Down. In the movie version, he was played by Sam Shepard. Maj. Gen. Garrison couldn't be reached for comment. “'Will we get shot at the first day?' a colleague asked as they flew into Somalia. 'Probably,' Mr. Stock laughed.” "There are infinite possibilities in a country that has to be literally built from the ground up," said Ken Menkhaus, a Somalia expert at Davidson College. These possibilities, however, also include the worst: a return to a hell-ripped Somalia. That reality loomed only weeks ago when militants bombed the capital's main courthouse, killing more than two dozen people. Contracting out security has its perils. An investigation by the U.N.'s Monitoring Group on Somalia and Eritrea last summer found companies "operating in an arguably paramilitary fashion." The investigation found a "growing number" of foreign private security companies working in Somalia with diplomatic missions, international companies and individuals. According to one person familiar with the confidential part of the report and unaffiliated with Bancroft, the report found that Bancroft was "very transparent about the way they operated," whereas some other companies were "more deceptive." Mr. Stock has attracted some big-name attention. In November, he flew in Warren Buffett's son Howard to look at potential agricultural projects—part of Mr. Stock's interest in creating a farming operation to service his hotels, among other things. "He was the only one who would bring me into the country," said Mr. Buffett, who has been involved in philanthropy around the Horn of Africa. Almost monthly, Mr. Stock commutes here from Washington, D.C. This time his "fast plane," a 10-seat jet, was in the shop so he borrowed a five-seater Cessna in Kenya from a friend. Accompanying him was a new Bancroft recruit. He had been a part of an Army Delta Force squad that chased al Qaeda in Iraq. "Will we get shot at the first day?" the former soldier asked at one point. "Probably," Mr. Stock said, laughing. "I promised you some spice!" Bancroft says it employs about 200 men around the world. About half work in Somalia. Some have roots in elite military forces including the Navy SEALs, French Foreign Legion and British Special Air Service, the employees say. "It's like an extreme sport," says one, Richard Rouget, a South African resident and former French soldier. Enlarge Image image image The idea for the business came during a summer job in 1998 with the U.S. embassy in Morocco, where Mr. Stock visited a refugee camp in the Sahara ringed by land mines. "Why hasn't someone shown them how to remove the mines?" he recalls thinking. A year later, after graduating from Princeton, he started a mine-removal company. "Like a dot-com," is how Mr. Stock describes the early days. He had no full-time staffers and spent months meeting people in the field. There was only sporadic mine-removal work, for little money, in some of the world's most unstable places: Mali, Chad, and Iraq. His family's wealth helped. His great-grandfather, Lewis Strauss, made tens of millions as partner at the investment firm Kuhn, Loeb & Co. In time, Mr. Stock borrowed some $8 million from different banks and invested about $2 million of his own money. As the U.S. military went after the Taliban in 2002, Mr. Stock's company landed in Afghanistan and offered services through a local partner, Mine Pro. He invested in the company and built a group to train bomb-detecting dogs and do anything from plumbing to car repair. But his company operated at a loss, he says. It didn't make money for about two years, the time it took to get his local Afghan partner up to speed and wait for it to win contracts. A more profit-minded security contractor might have called it quits. Mr. Stock, however, had another idea. "My thinking was that you could lose money on security to bet on development," he says. Afghanistan certainly lacked decent, secure accommodation. Initially he built an eight-bedroom compound in Kabul and another, bigger residence in Herat, the country's third-largest city. He started a car rental service, too. Eventually, security began paying off, Mr. Stock says. He started receiving a share of his partner company's contracts, with that revenue peaking at about $1.8 million in 2005. But the bigger money was in his properties. Today, the original two have been expanded into protected city blocks of multiple buildings. They house tenants associated with the World Bank and the International Development Law Organization, among others. Over the past eight years, the real estate and other commercial services like car rental in Afghanistan have brought in about $32 million in net revenue, according to financial documents provided by Bancroft. Much of that money is now being invested in Somalia. "It was like Stalingrad in 1942," Mr. Stock says of the day in late 2007 when he flew into Mogadishu. The city was a smoky battlefield of bomb explosions and firefights between the Shabaab and the African troops, who had arrived earlier in the year. But that was the point, he says. "We wanted get in at the worst time, when it's really bad." The Shabaab, Arabic for "The Youth," had taken over much of the capital. They built power over years, though the bloodshed had begun long before, in 1991, when armed clans forced out Somalia's military-run government. His team set up tents at the airport and struck a deal with the African troops, he says. "We said we'll help you, if you keep us from getting killed." Some worry that contractors like Bancroft face little scrutiny—an issue of "accountability," as one Western intelligence analyst put it. "Who works for them?" he said. "What are they doing?" "The pro side," he said, "is that they were here when no one else would come." A person familiar with the U.S. State Department's policy on Somalia said that the company had helped create an "effective fighting force." A U.N. official, meanwhile, noted that Bancroft's training in roadside bombs had reduced deaths among African soldiers. Mr. Stock winces at the terms "mercenary" and "hired guns," which he considers inaccurate. He calls his men "mentors" who train people rather than fight. Even though they don't carry weapons, working closely with soldiers, medics and others means that they are in the line of fire. "If the African forces are overrun, we're all dead," he says. Dressed in body armor and a helmet one morning, Mr. Stock says he had never considered joining the military himself. "I don't take orders well," he joked, riding along in a convoy of armored carriers in downtown Mogadishu, gunners manning the roof hatches. It was part of a sweep Burundi and Somali soldiers for insurgents. The streets alternated between bombed-out buildings and stretches of fresh paint. Soon, a sniper was spotted. Later, a gunfight broke out. Then, an exploded roadside bomb brought the convoy to a halt. By the end, six suspected militants were detained and Bancroft took the bomb for analysis. "Danger comes and goes quickly here," says Mr. Stock. "It's like lightning. If it hits, it hits." It was nearly three years of free security training in Somalia, and $6 million out of pocket, according to financial filings, before he landed his first contract with the U.N. Various U.N. agencies have paid the company some $15 million since then and the African Union, with the U.S. State Department money, will have paid Bancroft a total of about $25 million by the end of the year. All along, though, he expanded into real estate. In 2011, he created the for-profit side of the company, Bancroft Global Investment. That year, he sold an 18% stake, just under $1 million, in the Somali properties to a Washington, D.C., developer, Michael Darby. "When you hear Somalia, you think of the most dangerous place on earth," says Mr. Darby. "But I'm prone to take more risks than others." Making real-estate deals in Somalia wasn't easy, Mr. Stock says. It took "dozens" of meetings with government officials, clan leaders and neighbors of the properties. "You have to spend a lot of time figuring out who is who," he says. There is no formal contract for the land, but rather "consensus building," he says, that results in a verbal go-ahead from the collective parties. Mr. Stock made a similar land deal, a public-private partnership with the Somali government for some beach property near the port, but didn't work out as well. After constructing a facility there and managing it as a residence for the United Arab Emirates, the U.A.E. opened talks with the Somali government about a renewed diplomatic relationship—and sought direct control over the property. Bancroft ceded its rights to the property to the U.A.E., according to a letter describing the handover and making it official. While Mr. Stock recovered most of his roughly $6 million in construction costs, the deal didn't exactly work out to his financial advantage, he says. "There's no magic formula." International Campus, which he says cost more than $6 million, is now open for business and mostly booked. Beyond the pool and the ocean views, there is a bunker, a trauma hospital and something akin to Mad Max's version of an auto body shop, where specialized gear heads will fix "the ballistic glass on your armored vehicle," as Mr. Stock puts it. He expects the new place to break even next year. The trailer park, he says, is grossing about $2 million a year. When his cement-making business opens up, there is an entire city to patch and restore. Still, his work in Somalia is far from assured. The Shabaab remains unpredictable. Weeks ago, militants exploded a car bomb near the presidential palace and before that they struck a beachside restaurant. But Mr. Stock says he's in for the long haul. "We're betting on peace," he says. He is betting on hotels and perhaps houses in the future. "Picture this," he says later, standing near an expanse of mostly empty beach, stretching as far as the eye can see. "You could have a development based around a town center, like the golf resorts in the Midwest." Write to Christopher S. Stewart at christopher.stewart@wsj.com A version of this article appeared April 27, 2013, on page A1 in the U.S. edition of The Wall Street Journal, with the headline: A Bet on Peace for War-Torn Somalia.

Statesmen's Forum: Hassan Sheikh Mahamud, President of the Federal Republic of Somalia

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Hundreds of US forces conduct secret operations in Somalia: report

Hundreds of US forces conduct secret operations in Somalia: report

American troops carry out secret operations in the Somali capital, Mogadishu, according to local sources.

Sun Jun 24, 2012 12:34PM GMT

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Hundreds of the US military troops have been deployed in Somalia for secret operations in the capital Mogadishu, Press TV reports.

At least 390 American troops have been training local soldiers secretly in Somali training bases over the past two months, Somali military sources said on Sunday.

Somali military officer Abdiwahab Mohamed Ali told Press TV that at least 390 American forces, including 38 officers have secretly reached the Mogadishu international airport.

The American troops have also set up secret jails in the country and inject dangerous drugs to Somali soldiers, according to sources.

The report came following two Friday US assassination drone attacks on al-Shabab fighters’ Harweyne training base in Elasha Biyaha on the outskirts of the capital, which claimed the lives of at least 39 people.

Earlier in January, the White House officially admitted in a report that it is launching concerted deadly attacks in Somalia as part of its campaign against the war on terror and the al-Qaeda militant group.

Washington has been using assassination drones in Pakistan, Afghanistan, Yemen, and Somalia and claims that it is targeting terrorists in the operations, but civilians have often been killed in the strikes.

In Loving Memory of Dr. Abdishakur Jowhar By Nur Bahal May 17, 2012

May 18, 2012 | Filed under: News in English,Warar | Posted by: admin

By Nur Bahal
May 17, 2012

It is with an exceptionally heavy heart and sadness that I am writing this tribute about my very close friend Dr. Abdishakur Sheikh Ali Jowhar – May Allah, the Almighty, rest his soul in peace and open the doors of Paradise for him.
Dr. Jawhar
There is so much to say about him that I feel bewildered at the thought of even writing this. He was a thinker, an intellectual, a daring pioneer, a conscientious humanist, an uncompromising advocate of peace and above all a miracle-giving healer.
His training in Psychiatry seemed to have prepared him for the unbearable sore sports of the Somali political landscape. Like a hawk, he watched the unending traumatic episodes of mass killings and aggression committed against human beings in the name of tribal politics masquerading as nation building. And like sage he always found ways to address it and call it to the attention of the sane. And as if his words were a palliative that may ease the pain and suffering of the aggressed, he never spared to find ways to describe them, ways to soothe the pain of the aggressed, unyielding souls. Time and again, he repeated his prescription for Somalia and despite vehement disagreements from Somalis and non-Somalis alike, the path of the unfolding events continue to give overwhelming credence to the doctor’s theory that “No person of sound mind will dare to predict or prescribe a solution for the Somali crisis. This much is clear however. The solution to the Somali crisis will not be more war, more hatred or more vengeance. Nor will it be about a strong man massacring his way to a Machiavellian peace based on fear and intimidation and corrupted “reconciliation conferences”. The African soil is littered with the carnage caused by strong men whose main weapon was the creation of inter-tribal death squads and hatred in search of personal power and personal glory. The solution to the crisis will not cost money. Indeed money poured from foreign sources will only fuel the crisis as combatants engage in deadly manoeuvres to guarantee their share on the basis of established reality on the ground.”1 His conscientious concerns stretched to all humanity with special attention to the Somalis and the rest of Africa whose leadership seems to be plagued by the same demonic behaviour.
Dr. Abdishakur dared to blatantly confront, and in no uncertain terms, corruption and clannism when the perceived aggressor comes from his tribal backyard. The Gadabursi Manifesto earned him the wrath of his fellow kinsmen and women but it contained the ultimate truth of the contemporary politics of the Somalis and these are the pitfalls that he dared to tackle. “The Gadabuursi tribe enters into a covenant with the nation that it will not allow this President (the son of the tribe) to appeal overtly or covertly to the primitive irrational tribal instinct to hijack national justice, to cover up corrupt practices or to curb the freedom of the citizens of the nation. …The Gadabuursi have no desire for national suicide; no appetite for the rule of a despot and the death of a nation.
Let there be peace for every citizen, justice for every citizen, prosperity for every citizen”2
In this instant, the nation that Abdishakur referred to is Somaliland but it will equally hold true if any other tribe is substituted for Gadabursi and any nation is substituted for Somaliland. Abdishakur was a passionate believer in the secession of Somaliland and I, on the other hand, ardently believe in the unity of Somalia. Yet, we always seemed to be at ease with each other. We always sought each others council and we bounced ideas off each other. That can only be true when people believe in the art of communication; we both believed in that problems can become sticking issues when the channels of communication break down; we both believed that what cannot be settled through dialogue cannot be settled by war.
As the ultimate humanist and an unyielding advocate for peace, Dr. Abdishakur Jowhar lamented the wars on every corner of Somalia and even challenged his own tribe to physically and emotionally harness the powers of restraint when the four travelers where killed in Gabiley on their way to Borama: “…And I must now address those in my tribe who has become possessed by the demons of vengeance, who dream of basking in its blooded glory, I say to you give me few moments of your precious time, for I too belong to the tribe and I too feel the pain”.3
And in the direst hopes that his words would bring back the sense of the murders he wrote: “… to these hate mongering tribal fringe I say: if your heart is already taken, and your soul is a prisoner to the master of darkness (Shaitan), if he has already locked up your ears and my words feel remote, inaudible, naïve, simpleminded and cowardly, in this case pray with me the two Rak’at of Salaat al Al-Istakhara (the prayers and supplication for guidance and counsel). Allah (SWT) is the most strong, the most wise and the most powerful, He will deliver you from the clutches of the demon. He will open your ears to me and soften your heart to my words”.4
The Sudden death of Dr. Abdishakur was a great loss to the Somali community everywhere. But there is no place where he will be missed more than in Toronto. As a practicing psychiatrist, Dr. Jowhar came to Toronto at a time when the rate of mental disease in the Somali community was at a peak. When there was not one Somali who did not know at least two or three people suffering from some kind of mental disorder. This is common for a society ravaged by conflict for such a long time. Yet, most of these victims of mental issues did not find the optimum care and medications they deserved even in a country as advanced as Canada. And the reason was very simple: language barriers on the part of the ailing persons and their interpreters, in most cases, conspired to the detriment of the sick individuals who then were prescribed the wrong medications according to the symptoms they or their interpreters gave to the doctor. After one of the many conferences that the Late Dr. Abdishakur organized for the Somali community, he said that language makes all the difference. “Habeen iyo maalin waxbaa ila hadla, waa la iga dhex guuxaya, madaxaa la igaga jiraa”. These are some of the terms that he understood very well whose extrapolations or interpretation into English could have far different meanings; very simple understanding with life-changing results. According to the late Dr. Abdishakur, simply changing the medications produced an amazing improvement for the overwhelming majority of the Somali patients. In a very short time, he became a household name for the Toronto community.
He recently moved back home to do his part in heeling the mentally ailing individuals society in Somaliland and Somalia. Patients were brought to him in from far and wide as far away as Merka and Kisamayo. To all his patients and friends, I would like to ask them to recite one ayah of the Glorious Qur’an for him. That vacuum that he left cannot be filled. But we can try to honour his role and instead of Let us fill that vacuum with the joy of the good memories we shared with him. May Allah bless his soul and open the doors of paradise for him. Aamiin.
Nur Bahal
Toronto Canada
Email: hildiid@gmail.com

http://awdalpress.com/index/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/Dr-Abdishakuur.bmp GEESI LOO HANWEYNAA ( A tribute to my hero Dr. Abdishakur Jowhar) May 16, 2012 By staff-reporter Awdalpress - Abu Dhabi - Hearing of the death of Dr. Abdishakur Sh. Ali Jowhar struck me as a thunderbolt out of the blue. At no time can one be prepared for death but at times like this it is simply unbearable. The following eulogy poem is therefore a tribute to my friend, eminent scholar, unique thinker and philosopher, medical doctor and above all my irreplaceable intellectual soul mate and hero who was snatched by an untimely death in a tragic and unforgivable car accident on one of Somaliland’s deathtrap roads, between Dilla and Borama, on 13th May 2012. Dr. Jowhar was a man blessed with the gift of gab and it was our mutual love for words and ideas that brought us together. It is therefore imperative that I remember him in the way he knew and respected me best, as a poet. In time, I will write an obituary about him to share his life as I knew him with his fans and the general public but now let me try to touch on his character, his intellectuality, his passion, his bravery, his kindness, his wisdom, his patriotism, his rebellious thought and his modesty as well as his humor, his sarcasm and his flare with language in the following poem: Geesi Loo Hanweynaa ( A Greatly Sought After Hero). Geeriyeey gableeyaay Gudcur iyo habaareey *** Iyadoon laguu gogol Oon gu’ba laguu tirin Waxad soo guclaysood Kolba guri mug weynaa Goloftood ku heestaba Miyaad goor xun socodeey Maantana gab soo tidhi *** Ood gabi hadhweyniyo Geed lagu nagaa iyo Gumbur lagu dahsoonaa Geesi loo hanweynaa Gab intaad ku soo tidhi Gaar nooga qaaddoo Goonyaha dhulkaygiyo Gayigii u ooyoo Shakuur lagu gunaanaday… *** Maxaan gabay idhaahdaa Miyuu ii guntamayaa Godka uu baneeeyiyo Gabalaaxsigiisii Gololuhuu fadhiyi jirey Gereerka erayadu Qiimihiisi gaarkii Miyuu gudi karaayaa… *** Qalinkaygu gaydhada Miyuu guulihiisii Goohiyo dayaankii Geesaaska sheekada Siduu yahay gammaan faras Qoraalkuu galbini jirey Gibladiyo ciyaartiyo Gurxanka iyo loolkiyo Wilwilaha ku goyn jirey Weedhuu gorfeeyaba Guuxuu ka tegi jiray Goolkuu ku dhalin jirey Miyuu gaadhi karayaa… *** Geesi baan abiidkii Geeridu ka raagine Goortii la joogaba Guubaabadiisii Gurmad caymadkiisii Gaadh ilaaladiisii Guryo oodistiisii Gacal ururintiisii Miyaa galalawgiisii Durba loo go’doomoo Gar allee la tebayaa *** Goobtuu dhex joogsado Gole oogistisii Hadal godolintiisii Gar wanaajintiisii Talo loo gudboonyahay Gorfo buuxintiisii Garaad xoorintisii Miyaa garashadiisii Durba loo go’doomoo Gar Allee la tebayaa *** Jowharow waxaad guddo Gogoshaad ahaydiyo Beel gardaadintaadii Dareen garashadaadii Cilmigaagii gaankii Waa loo goblamayoo Goobtaad banaysaa Jiilaal ka soo galay *** Geeridu xaq weeyee Somaliland gaar Iyo guriga Soomaal Gaban yar iyo waayeel Geed kastoo la joogaba Gacmahaa la hoorshoo Gurayo hoyashadaadii Guus iyo quraan iyo Ducaa lagugu geebaray *** Guudkeeda dunidani Intaad joogtay gacallow Waajibkaagii gudatee Guryaheeda aakhiro Galihii firdowsaad Gama’ oo ku waar nabad. Bashir Goth, 13th May 2012.

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Government offers humanitarian aid and security assistance in the hope of a stake in country's future energy industry

Government offers humanitarian aid and security assistance in the hope of a stake in country's future energy industry. Engineers and visitors explore an exploratory well near Dharoor town in Puntland Engineers and visitors tour an exploratory well in Somalia's semi-autonomous Puntland region. Photograph: Reuters The Observer home Mark Townsend and Tariq Abdinasir Saturday, February 25, 2012 Britain is involved in a secret high-stakes dash for oil in Somalia, with the government offering humanitarian aid and security assistance in the hope of a stake in the beleaguered country's future energy industry. Riven by two decades of conflict that have seen the emergence of a dangerous Islamic insurgency, Somalia is routinely described as the world's most comprehensively "failed" state, as well as one of its poorest. Its coastline has become a haven for pirates preying on international shipping in the Indian Ocean. David Cameron last week hosted an international conference on Somalia, pledging more aid, financial help and measures to tackle terrorism. The summit followed a surprise visit by the foreign secretary, William Hague, to Mogadishu, the Somali capital, where he talked about "the beginnings of an opportunity'' to rebuild the country. The Observer can reveal that, away from the public focus of last week's summit, talks are going on between British officials and Somali counterparts over exploiting oil reserves that have been explored in the arid north-eastern region of the country. Abdulkadir Abdi Hashi, minister for international cooperation in Puntland, north-east Somalia – where the first oil is expected to be extracted next month – said: "We have spoken to a number of UK officials, some have offered to help us with the future management of oil revenues. They will help us build our capacity to maximise future earnings from the oil industry." British involvement in the future Somali oil industry would be a boon for the UK economy and comes at a time when the world is increasingly concerned about the actions of Iran, the second-biggest oil producer in Opec. Hashi, in charge of brokering deals for the region's oil reserves, also said Somalia was looking to BP as the partner they wanted to "help us explore and build our oil capacity". He added: "We need those with the necessary technical knowhow, we plan to talk to BP at the right time." Somali prime minister Abdiweli Mohamed Ali said his government had little choice but to entice western companies to Somalia by offering a slice of the country's natural resources, which include oil, gas and large reserves of uranium. "The only way we can pay [western companies] is to pay them in kind, we can pay with natural resources at the fair market value." Britain is not the only country looking to develop Somalia's vast natural resources. Last month oil exploration began in Puntland by the Canadian company Africa Oil, the first drilling in Somalia for 21 years. Hashi, who sealed the Africa Oil deal, said the first oil was expected to be extracted within the next "20 to 30 days". The company estimates there could be up to 4bn barrels (about $500bn worth at today's prices) in its two drilling plots. Other surveys indicate that Puntland province alone has the potential to yield 10bn barrels, placing it among the top 20 countries holding oil. Chinese and US firms are among those understood to have also voiced interest about the potential for oil now that, for the first time in 20 years, the country is safe enough to drill. Yet it is the extent of oil deposits beneath the Indian Ocean that is most exciting Somali officials. One said the potential was comparable to that of Kuwait, which has more than 100bn barrels of proven oil reserves. If true, the deposits would eclipse Nigeria's reserves – 37.2bn barrels – and make Somalia the seventh largest oil-rich nation. The state-owned China National Offshore Oil Corporation has tried to acquire an interest in Somalia's reserves. Senior officials from the Somali transitional government are adamant that the imminent extraction of oil in Puntland next month would kickstart a scramble from the multinationals. On Thursday, the last day of the London conference, BP and Shell unveiled an initiative to support job-creation projects in the coastal regions of Somalia. A subsidiary of Shell was thought to have acquired exploration concessions in Puntland before the descent into lawlessness in 1991. A BP spokesman said there were "no plans" to work in Somalia and no official had recently visited the country. Source: The Observer

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Your Brain May Be "Wired" For Addiction (But You Don't Have To Surrender)

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Addiction is one of the most common mental health problems there is: Drug use alone affects tens of millions of Americans, and that’s only the illegal ones. Even more people deal with addictions to other things – alcohol, caffeine, nicotine, food, and various behaviors. People who are familiar with addiction, and certainly the researchers who study it, may wonder whether their brains are fundamentally different from non-addicts, making them more prone to addiction’s grasp. Now, a new study offers an interesting answer to this very basic question.
The problem with studying behaviors (and also what makes them so cool) is that there are both psychological and biological components to them. After all, you can’t have a behavior without some cellular activity to go along with it. But even mapping out the biology behind behaviors doesn’t explain everything, since there’s always the lingering question of which came first, the chick or the egg: or here, whether differences in the brain lead to a given behavior, or whether it’s the other way around.
Researchers at Cambridge setup a wonderfully simple study to address some of these issues. We know that there’s a strong family component to addiction – but it’s not been clear whether it’s the brain changes that are handed down through the generations or the family environment in which one grows up that’s conducive to developing addictions (the old nature/nurture question). It’s also known that people who are addicts seem to have deficits in self-control, which is even seen in differences in certain areas of the brain that govern it. But whether it’s brain changes that are actually handed down from parent to child, and make some families more prone to addiction, had yet to be shown.
To figure out the answer to this question, the researchers studied pairs of siblings, one of whom was a drug addict and the other of whom was not. The pairs took a “stop-signal test,” in which one has to stop a particular action whenever one gets a cue to do so. Earlier studies have shown that because the test challenges your self-control – or your capacity to inhibit your own behavior – the test correlates well with addiction risk. Unrelated pairs of people did the same task, serving as controls.

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The siblings – regardless of whether they were addicts or non-addicts – took significantly longer to halt their behavior than the control group. This could suggest that self-control runs in families, and the level of self-control between siblings is similar, regardless of whether they are addicts or not (more on this in a sec).
But do these behavioral differences correspond to brain changes? They seem to. Another part of the study looked at some of the brain’s white matter tracks, which serve as the lines of communication between brain cells in different areas. In the sibling pairs, there were deficiencies in the tracks that connected the emotion areas of the brain to the ones that govern self-control. So in other words, both addicted and non-addicted siblings had deficits in the connections involved in telling one to stop the behavior that one is engaged in.
The sibling pairs also had enlargements in the gray matter (brain cells) in regions that are known to be involved in addiction. All of these changes, in white and gray matter, could have “predisposed” the [siblings] to drug-taking,” the researchers conclude.
If you find this depressing because you have a relative who’s an addict (or come from a long line of addicts), don’t despair. Remember, one of each pair did not take drugs. Even with their “predisposed” brains, one sibling did not succumb to their brain morphology and become drug-addicted. It’s not totally clear why, but among the many reasons, it could have to do with minor differences in upbringing, and/or other variations in the brains of the un-addicted siblings, like some yet undiscovered “resilience factors that counteract the familial vulnerability.” Put another way, there are probably things going on in the unaddicted siblings’ brains/personalities that could help protect them and explain why they didn’t “succumb” to addiction.
The research also has implications for other disorders, like ADHD and OCD, in which people have problems in regulating their behavior. In fact the authors say that “like addiction, OCD is characterized by dysfunctional habits and ‘out-of-control’ behavior.” And in ADHD, people cannot ignore the stimuli that they should, which could be due in part to a faulty control center in the brain. Drug addiction involves a similar (albeit perhaps more severe) lapse in control: “Pathological habits in drug addiction typically result in compulsive drug-taking behaviors when prefrontal control fails to regulate behavior,” the authors say.
More research will be needed to understand how drug addiction is passed on, but the new study gives some nice clues into how “predisposition” may be transmitted. Just remember, your brain may be set up to lean in one direction, but you don’t have to follow it.