Somalis fighting pirates, their own government

The tide may be turning against the Somali pirates, according to the New York Times. Tribal leaders in Garoowe, one of the pirate strongholds in the Puntland region of Somalia are apparently getting fed up with their antics, calling them burcad badeed, Somali for "sea bandits". And when the sea bandits come ashore, their behavior is decidedly un-Islamic, according to the tribal chiefs in Garoowe, who say the pirate's drinking and drug use is leading to an increase in street violence and HIV/AIDS infections and generally ruining life for the rest of the folks in Garoowe.

Officials in Puntland are talking boldly of ridding their self-governing territory of pirates once and for all. Honestly though, the tough talk isn't all that impressive, previous pledges by officials in Puntland about cracking down on piracy have gone nowhere. But this time, at least one of Somalia's top pirates is also talking about giving up life at sea.

According to the Times, Abshir Boyah, a pirate chieftain who claims, with his band of sailors, to have captured 25 ships, says he's ready to give up piracy - if the right deal can be struck. Negotiations might be tough though since Boyah says that some of the hard-line Islamists want to "cut my hands off", a traditional punishment for stealing...

Speaking of the Islamists, a huge battle for Somalia's capital, Mogadishu, is shaping up between the main Islamic group al-Shabab ("The Youth") and the fragile western-backed provisional government. In the past few days a surge in fighting has killed more than 100 people and driven nearly 30,000 from their homes. Al-Shabab (which the US accuses of having ties to al-Qaeda) already controls much of southern Somalia and is hoping to once again drive the provisional government back into exile.

And the Somali government might be causing some of their own problems. A report on the Voice of America says that the Somali government hasn't been paying their soldiers, who reportedly have begun selling their weapons on the black market, sometimes to the very same al-Shabab forces they are suppose to be fighting. Somalia's President Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed was quick to slam the report; his government claims that the army has in fact been paid through June.

The Somali government is hoping to get foreign aid flowing into the country to prop up their fragile position. A UN report, meanwhile, accuses several of the Gulf States, including Saudi Arabia and Qatar, as well as neighboring Ethiopia and Eritrea of all violating an arms embargo in Somalia, which has sparked the renewed fighting.