As Al-shabaab is identified as major threat to security and Puntland new base for terrorists 
Somaliland sun- The latest @UN sanctions report on Somalia indicates that Kenyan troops operating under the AMISOM command are facilitating illegal trade of charcoal.
The report by UN monitoring group states that illegal charcoal traders are paying the Kenyan troops a $2 fee to load a sack of charcoal for export at the Port of Kismayu.
“The Kenyan contingent of AMISOM continues to play a substantial role in the illicit export of charcoal from Somalia notes the monitoring group adding that , in exchange for allowing the loading of charcoal at a port effectively under their control, the Kenyan forces receive a fee of $2 per bag for charcoal exported from Kismayo.
On security the report states that “The Islamist militant group Harakat al-Shabaab al-Mujaahidiin (Al-Shabaab) represents the most immediate threat to peace and security in Somalia and continues to be a destabilizing force in the broader East and Horn of Africa region”
On the wider regional threat of Al-shabaab the monitoring group notes that “ Although Al-Shabaab remains a transnational terror threat, in particular to countries contributing troops to AMISOM, the group’s success in carrying out regional operations has declined during the current mandate. In particular, Kenya, historically the Member State most vulnerable to Al-Shabaab terror operations, has managed to avoid a major attack on its soil since the massacre of students at Garissa University College on 2 April 2015”
Touching on the Somalia administration .of Puntland where Al-shabaab and ISIS are entrenched, “The Monitoring Group notes with concern the ongoing difficulties faced by the Puntland Administration in paying the salaries of its security forces. The current mandate has seen protests by Puntland soldiers over unpaid salaries, as well as a threat by the head of the Puntland Defence Forces to resign if the military and police continued to go unpaid.30 Of even greater concern was the Administration’s response to the budgetary crisis, which has been to pay both its security forces and civil servants in newly printed counterfeit currency, causing destabilizing inflation both inside and outside the region”
On arms smuggling “ The Monitoring Group notes that most illicit weapons continue to enter Somalia through Puntland, and, to a much lesser extent, Somaliland. In May and June 2016, the Group investigated three shipments of small arms into the Puntland coastal town of Qandala, a weapon smuggling hub with historical ties to the port of Mukalla in Yemen. It is highly likely that a portion of these went towards equipping the militia of Abdisamed Gallan, a former governor of the Bari region who launched an insurgency aimed at overthrowing the Puntland Administration in June 2016. In late October 2015, a shipment of an unknown quantity of small arms, believed to include propellants for RPG-7 launchers,94 arrived approximately 5 km west of the port of Maydh, Somaliland. The shipments are discussed in the reports annexes 8.5 and 8.10, respectively.
continue reading Report of the Monitoring Group on Somalia and Eritrea pursuant to Security Council resolution 2244 (2015): Somalia
