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When Somali piracy was at its height, I did a lot of reporting on the subject for the BBC. I spoke to lots of pirates and got to know people involved in trying to stop the problem, including British naval and other military personnel. They did a pretty good job - piracy dropped significantly in the Indian Ocean and Gulf of Aden. But it increased in West Africa, and some of the people fighting Somali piracy moved to the other side of the continent. They very kindly gave the superb journalist Penny Dale and me wonderful access to what they, the Nigerian navy and others are doing. Here is a link to our documentary: Chasing West Africa's Pirates documentary And here are a couple of BBC Online pieces: Danger Zone Kidnapped Twice Here is the script of a From Our Own Correspondent I did on the subject: It may come as a surprise to hear that Somalia is no longer Africa’s worst piracy hotspot. They may not be the subject of Hollywood movies or adventure stories, but West African pirates hav...

Here are some of the photos I took on my latest trip to Mogadishu A sunny day in Mogadishu  Mogadishu port is open for business Dhow - many of the sailors are Gujaratis and Yemenis - many carry goods from Dubai. The port is being run by a Turkish company Mogadishu's first apartment blocks I hope this will one day be my apartment (if I can afford it)   My future Mogadishu jacuzzi  Pakistanis putting in the lifts for the apartments I got lost in Villa Somalia - home of the government Eventually I found my way to the president's office - these are the 8 Somalia's presidents With President Number Eight - Hassan Sheikh Mohamud Negotiating road blocks can be tiresome and time consuming The Turks have fixed some of the roads.  So taxis and wheelbarrows filled with fresh Afgoye fruit can move around...   ....except during the frequent security alerts and lockdowns...   ...which disrupt business and daily life.    If you look carefully you can se...

Somalia is often described as the world's most dangerous country, the quintessential failed state. It has had no effective central government for more than two decades, and is affected by conflict, drought, piracy and famine. The BBC's Africa Editor Mary Harper has a special interest in Somalia. Today she found out something new: I was somewhat taken aback when I opened my Facebook page this Valentine's Day morning. I discovered it was the birthday of 30 of my Somali Facebook friends. It reminded me of New Year's Day when 279 of my Somali Facebook friends had their birthdays. True, I have a lot of Somali friends on Facebook - but those numbers are extraordinary. Or maybe not. Many Somalis don't know when their real birthdays are. They have after all lived through more than two decades of war. Records have been destroyed and there is currently no functioning administration. Even before conflict tore their country apart, most Somalis were nomads, and their cult...

GOVERNMENT STATEMENT ON THE TERRORIST ATTACK OF 30 TH DECEMBER, 2014 On Tuesday, 30 th December, 2014, at 2am GMT, the State House was attacked by a well-equipped, well-funded group of Gambian terrorists living in the U.S.A., U.K., Germany and Senegal with support from their collaborators abroad with sophisticated automatic machine guns and assault rifles. Five of these attackers launched their assault from the main gate of the State House by the Albert Market while the three others attempted to enter through the rear gate by Marina Parade. The leader of the attackers was Lamin Sanneh (codename ‘Gibia’), a former Lieutenant Colonel of the Gambia Armed Forces and former Commander of the State Guards Battalion who was dismissed from the GAF and fled to Senegal and then to the U.S. He was accompanied by Njaga Jagne (codename ‘Bandit’), a retired Captain of the US Army; Baboucarr Lowe, a former Warrant Officer Class 2 of the Gambia Armed Forces referred to as ‘Bai Lo’ who was wanted in co...

  Books for Peace One of the most magical weeks of my life was the one I spent at the Hargeisa International Book Fair in July 2012. Like many things in Somaliland, I found it delightful, surprising and inspiring, a bit like opening a box of secret treasures. I have chosen to write about the book fair because, in many ways, it represents in microcosm many of the good things about Somaliland. It also shows how challenges can be overcome because the very idea of holding such an event in Somaliland requires courage, imagination and determination. When I wrote a blog post about the fair, a journalist from a respected international publication asked if I was joking, if I had made the whole thing up. For many outsiders, the idea of a book fair on Somali territory is impossible to imagine because for them the word ‘Somali’ is associated with piracy, terrorism, war and famine. Somaliland suffers from a similar image problem; most people don’t know it exists, and have no idea that it is rel...

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Here is a piece I did for the BBC about my communications with the Somali Islamist group, Al Shabaab. You can read my report for BBC Online by clicking  here . And you can listen to my piece for BBC From Our Own Correspondent by clicking  here . Here is the script for my report: Speaking to Al Shabaab The other morning I woke up to a text message and missed call from Al Shabaab.   As always, the message was written in perfect English. It informed me about a film Al Shabaab have made called Beyond the Shadows which, it said, gave an ‘accurate portrayal’ of what happened when French commandoes last year tried – and failed – to rescue a suspected French intelligence agent held hostage by the group. I watched the film. Like some of the other material made by Al Shabaab's media arm, Al Kataib Foundation, it was slickly produced. It was like a cross between a video game and a war movie, and was full of suspense. It showed a drone hovering in the air, emblazoned with the words ...