The Pirates of Puntland

Interesting summary of the bizarre political situation in Somalia:

Somalia is heading towards its third decade of statelessness with no clear resolution to the country’s political impasse in sight. . . . The Transitional Federal Government occupies a small corner of Mogadishu. Islamist insurgents occupy most of the south. A traditionalist religious movement, As Sunnah Al Jamaah, holds sway in the central region. To the north, the semi-autonomous Puntland government and unrecognised Republic of Somaliland are experiencing internal issues of their own. Pirates based along the nation’s long coastline continue to prey on international shipping.

Puntland! There's a name it would be interesting to see back on the world map. And those pirates:

There are other interesting developments. Down south, the Islamists who had sworn to eradicate the piracy scourge have joined up with the pirates’ southern branch. There’s more: 13 pirate syndicates have gone public, becoming shareholding companies. The town of Barawa, pillaged and raped by Mohammed Farah Aideed’s Somali National Movement in 1991, is now the wedding capital of the Benadir, and according to a recent visitor’s account, an outpost of Blackberries, Porsches, and Bling.

As the saying goes, modern Somalis live in interesting times.