Somalia Hesitant on Mercenary Group

A representative of the Transitional Federal Government in Somalia stated that the country may be cutting ties with a mercenary group. The group, Saracen International, is a private security company said to be composed of South African mercenaries and the Blackwater Worldwide founder. The group first tried to sell their services to the TFG by offerring to train Somali troops to defend themselves from pirates and Islamic insurgents. While this agreement seemed to be working for the parties, a recently-released African Union report exposed Erik Prince, Blackwater's founder, as a financial and managerial backer in Saracen International. This revelation has caused many of the TFG's foreign supporters, such as the United States, to develop anxiety over the relationship. In response to this, the Somali Minister of Information has said, "At this point, our collective thinking is that this is not a good thing. We don't want to have anything to do with Blackwater. We need help, but we don't want mercenaries."

Mary Naset