MOGADISHU (Somaliguardian) – The UN Panel of Experts on Somalia, whose primary task is to minotor illegal arms, said they are probing a Turkish ship that had docked near Al-Shabaab stronghold in August 2021, Nordic Monitor reported on Thursday.
The ship, Anatolian, operated by Mavi Deniz Taşımacılığı ve Sanayi Ticaret Limited Şirketi, a company based in Istanbul remained stationary for about 24 hours less than 1 km off the Somali coast in an area controlled by the militant group Al-Shabaab.
“That area is not patrolled by Somali security forces and Al-Shabaab has a stronghold 30 kilometres inland in a locality named Ali Gaudud (coordinates: 3°10’42″N, 46°26’9″E),” the UN investigators concluded. It appears that suspicions were raised about why the ship remained so close to the al-Shabab area and if it was delivering supplies or arms to the group.
The ship had come under attack off the coast of Somalia on August 13 and RPGs and small arms were fired on it, according the Turkish owners of the ship and its captain.
UN Panel of Experts wrote to the ship owners and asked for an explanation on why it had sailed to waters close to Al-Shabaab-held town and demanded full information on reports of the attack.
Mavi Deniz and Turkish government had not responded to the UN inquiries by the time the report was submitted to the United Nations Security Council on October 6 2021, with its navigation chart showing that it had departed a seaport in Turkey’s southern province of Antalya and remained docked in an Al-Shabaab-held territory from August 12 to 13, 2021.
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