Exclusive - Kenyan peacekeepers aided illegal Somalia charcoal export - U.N.

[dipsydoodle]

Source: Reuters

(Reuters) - A confidential report by U.N. monitors accuses Kenyan soldiers in the African Union peacekeeping force in Somalia of facilitating illegal charcoal exports from the port city of Kismayu, a business that generates millions of dollars a year for Islamic militants seeking to topple the government.

The case of the failed ban on Somali charcoal outlined in the report highlights the difficulty of cutting off al Shabaab militants' funding and ensuring compliance with U.N. sanctions when there is little appetite for enforcing them on the ground.

The Kenyan military denied the allegations in the U.N. Monitoring Group's latest annual report to the Security Council's sanctions committee on Somalia and Eritrea.

The report was completed before recent clashes in Kismayu.


Read more: http://uk.reuters.com/article/2013/07/14/uk-somalia-charcoal-un-idUKBRE96D01C20130714

[7962]

1. I've heard of illegal diamonds, but illegal CHARCOAL?

Why would that be illegal? I didnt think it was hard to get. Guess I need to do some Googling.

[Hestia]

3. Not so much that making it is illegal, but that it cuts off funding for Shabaab

"militants"

[Trillo]

2. What's the difference between "Islamic militants seeking to topple the government" and

other businesses like the Koch empire "seeking to topple the government"? (things like elimination of social security, food assistance, civil rights, etc., )

[jmowreader]

4. The Kochs don't speak Somali