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— March 10, 2012 13:54 — 0 Comments
Weapons Deliveries to Bosaso Port
Our contact in Puntland’s port city of Bosaso has opened the seal on another leak in the troubled and potentially oil-bearing region. This time, it’s not about the oil, at least not directly. Saracen International and partners in the security contracting business have been flying weapons into the region again.
Since 2010, Saracen’s total spending on security support in Puntland has been estimated at $50 Million, and that doesn’t even include hardware. Among the most recent deliveries, our leak tells us, were several containers of ammunition–likely small arms, assault rifles and light machine guns for infantry and naval teams, as well as parts for machinery–mainly marine and aviation parts.
Aside from parts, ammo, and small arms were armored vehicles. It wasn’t specific which make they were, but a dozen or more armored personnel carriers (APC), more advanced than the common Fiat 6614 that virtually all of Somalia’s factions have in tow, were seen being docked at the port in previous weeks.
Less certain in his next assessment, our contact spoke of tanks, likely Soviet T-54/55 models, among the APCs, though there is not proper infrastructure in the region to ensure optimal movement of such vehicles in large numbers. Our contact anticipated the delivery of small support aircraft, but it wasn’t part of the latest batch of deliveries, although Saracen has agreed to provide them to the local security forces.
The last major items in the recent delivery were a few dozen pickup trucks, later to be outfitted with mounted machine guns, known in Somalia as a ‘Tikniko’.
Hirsi Fiqi, Editor
DissidentNation.com