It provides an important buffer of stability in a region that includes the fledgling Somali government and the politically tense Sudan and South Sudan.
As the largest economy in East Africa, it is a crucial trade route into the rest of the continent and provides an important buffer of stability in a region that includes the fledgling Somali government and the politically tense Sudan and South Sudan.
Another reason for disquiet among Somali officials is that Kenya has been assisting Somali efforts to establish a semi-autonomous region known as Jubaland or Azania.
Their release was the result of a long process involving contact with the Somali government, the collaboration of the authorities in the semi-autonomous Puntland region, and the work of the Italian intelligence services, he said.
In the Indian Ocean region, due to the challenges that we have with the Horn of Africa and Somalia, the Somali pirates have driven merchant traffic hundreds of miles into the Indian Ocean.