U.S. Military Turns Somalia into a Failed State for Shell and Exxon-Mobil to Steal Its Oil
AFRICA, 22 Mar 2021
Nick Alexandrov | Covert Action Magazine - TRANSCEND Media Service
15 Mar 2021 – “United States foreign policy in Somalia has always sided with the wrong side.” That’s how Mohamed Haji Ingiriis, a young Somali historian studying for his doctorate at Oxford, summarized Washington’s legacy there in an interview with CovertAction Magazine.
Instead of promoting what it claims to—peace, stability, “nation-building”—the U.S. government, Ingiriis elaborates, keeps Somalia “wartorn,” a “failed state.” The Somali people pay the cost—the ultimate cost, in thousands upon thousands of deaths—as a result. But not everyone loses.
“A promising new frontier for oil exploration”
Petroleum industry analysts call Somalia “promising,” “one of the last truly unexplored oil frontiers.” And major firms are keen to profit there. Shell and ExxonMobil, for example, paid Mogadishu $1.7 million in 2019 for 30-year rights to offshore blocks, and Somalia launched “its first offshore oil and gas exploration licensing round” last year to attract other companies.[1]
Developments like these suggest Somalia’s business climate is improving, after decades of conflict made it an unattractive, if not unviable, investment site. The International Monetary Fund and World Bank recently heralded the country’s financial reforms, for example, citing its Petroleum Act, oil production sharing agreements, and related measures as key developments.[2]
But if Somalia is open for business, it is a victory for state violence.
Because to create a legal and political landscape in which oil firms can profit, the perpetually weak, unpopular Somali government had to fight to extend its reach beyond Mogadishu in order to secure control of new territories at the expense of Islamist militants like al-Shabaab. In this fight, the Somali government and its allies—Ethiopia and the U.S.—have brutalized the Somali public.
“One of the fastest-growing sources of oil for the American market”
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Tags: Africa, Africom, Anglo America, Big Oil, Hegemony, Imperialism, Military Industrial Complex, Military Intervention, Military Supremacy, Oil, Predatory Capitalism, Somalia, US Military, USA
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