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Najmanje četvero osoba je ubijeno, a nekoliko ih je ozlijeđeno kad je autobus eksplodirao u kenijskoj prijestolnici Nairobiju, javlja BBC.

Kenya—

Imperialism and Intrigue Behind Terrorist Attack on Shopping Mall

By Diane Secor

There is good reason to believe that last September’s terrorist attack on a shopping mall in Nairobi, Kenya had less to do with the “fundamentalist” religious views of its perpetrators than with a struggle for control over oil—not the olive oil of Islamic lore, but the black stuff buried beneath the soil of neighboring Somalia.

    The September 22 attack on Nairobi’s Westgate Shopping Mall left at least 72 dead and 200 others injured. No Americans were killed, but U.S. Ambassador Robert Godec immediately announced that U.S. aid would be provided to Kenyan security forces and medical responders, as well as investigators, to help find those responsible.

    Soon after the attack, Ahmed Godane Shaykh Mukhtar Abu Zubayr, leader of the Somali Al-Shabaab network, posted a statement on the Internet vowing that if all Kenyan troops were not withdrawn from Somalia, Kenya would face more such attacks. Kenyan troops entered Somalia in October 2011, ostensibly to track down Al-Shabaab fighters alleged to have kidnapped some tourists and foreign workers.

    Godane also stated that the Westgate attack was also “retribution against the Western states that supported the Kenyan invasion and are spilling the blood of innocent Muslims in order to pave the way for their mineral companies.”

    Indeed, according to the British newspaper, The Guardian (Feb. 22, 2012),Somalia is rich in uranium and other valuable minerals, as well as, rich in oil and natural gas. According to some estimates, Somalia may hold the second-largest oil deposits in Africa. Imperialist, regional, and local entities have formed complex alliances and have clashed in attempts to defend these and other material interests.

    Al-Shabaab is generally reported to be affiliated with international Al Qaeda terrorist networks, yet Al-Shabaab factions seem to create their own fiefdoms inSomalia through alliances with local warlords and clan militias. Also Al-Shabaab seems to forge networks with regional black market operations.

    Africafrique magazine, the international Environmental Investigation Agency, and other organizations have reportedly found that Al-Shabaab has received millions of dollars from ivory and rhino horn smuggling and from “illegal” mining in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). Al-Shabaab factions, who were forced to leave Somalia have reportedly settled in Kenya, the DRC, and other nearby nations. Certainly these various Al-Shabaab fiefdoms and economic interests could cause conflicts with Western “mineral companies,” multinational oil corporations, and Kenyan troops, who tend to support these imperialist material and strategic interests.

    Al-Shabaab has reportedly threatened and carried out terrorist attacks in Kenya, since Kenyan troops invaded Somalia in October 2011. According to another British newspaper, The Independent (Oct. 25, 2011), the U.S. and France denied direct military involvement with Kenyan troops in Somalia.

    However, Kenyan military sources reportedly confirmed that American and French air and naval strikes hit Al-Shabaab targets, in conjunction with operations by Kenyan ground forces. Apparently, in order to maintain some “deniability,” theU.S. has paid Kenyan and other African Union forces to fight in Somalia, ostensibly as an extension of an international “war on terrorism.” Indeed, Kenya was reported to have taken southern Somalian territory from Al-Shabaab, in order to carve out a separate Kenyan client state.

    Although the Kenyan military seems to serve as a proxy force for the Western powers, Kenya’s ruling class seems to have their own complex material interests wrapped up in Somalia. For instance, according to The Guardian, every year wealthy Somali expatriates invest an estimated $1 billion dollars in the Kenyan economy, through joint ventures with Kenyans, the Somali-Kenyan border region, and other channels.

    A third British newspaper, The Financial Times (May 13), reported allegations that Kenyan troops, who occupy the port of Kismayo, south of the Somali capital of Mogadishu, are conveniently positioned to further Kenya’s own oil interests. Highly competitive Western oil interests, vying for a piece of the action, seem to be further complicated by this and other territorial disputes between the central Somalian government and Kenya.

    Ironically, in many cases, American and other Western oil firms may actually be strengthening Al-Shabaab’s position by contributing to the fragmentation of Somalia. Some warlords and clan militias seem to make pacts with Al-Shabaab groups, Western oil conglomerates, private security contractors who work for foreign oil interests, or whoever seems to be able and willing to defend tribal or clan turfs.

    The Financial Times reported that although some Western oil corporations, such as Shell, have contracts with the national Somali government in Mogadishu, many other Western oil companies have secured deals with separatist warlords or clan leaders. For example, U.S. Congress member Trent Franks and his brother, Lane Franks, founded the U.S.-based Liberty Petroleum and the affiliated PetroQuest Africa. PetroQuest reportedly signed an oil contract with a separatist region called Galmudug.

    Other Western oil corporations seem to have done likewise, reportedly landing contracts with the separatist states of Somaliland and Puntland. The breakup ofSomalia seems to have become more dangerous and complex, since, in turn, the territory around Nugaal, Khaatumo reportedly declared its “independence” from bothSomaliland and Puntland.

    The Financial Times report has a grim reminder for American workers that Galmudug’s “president” is Abdi Hasan Awale Qeybdiid, who was a warlord portrayed in Black Hawk Down, a film about the 1993 war in Somalia, showing graphic pictures of American military personnel, who were killed in that war. In 1998, theU.S. embassy in Nairobi was also allegedly attacked by Al Qaeda terrorists, killing over 200 people. When webs of significant imperialist material and strategic interests become tangled up with local turf wars and transnational terrorist networks, events can slip out of control, igniting more bloodshed and regional wars. Such perils are rooted in the nature of capitalism itself, in the global race for control of key raw materials and international markets.