Headline: Somali navy seizes vessel loaded with charcoal off Somali coast
Source: (AHN) Reporter: Abdi Hajji Hussein
Location: Mogadishu, Somalia
Published: January 3, 2011 11:17 am EST
The newly coalesced Somali navy has seized a vessel they said was illegal exporting charcoal from the nation, an official said Monday.
In an interview with government-run Radio Mogadishu, Admiral Farah Ahmed, who commands the navy, said Somali naval forces captured the ship after operations off Somali coasts.
The seizure comes two weeks after Somali government banned the export of charcoal export.
In December, Prime Minister Mohamed Abdulahi Mohamed called on businessmen involved in this trade to look for other ways of making money.
“Exporting charcoal creates many problems including deforestation and we cannot accept our people to live in a desert,” he said.
This new government is the first administration to take steps to curb the deforestation of Somalia, a country that has had no effective functioning central rule since 1991.
Charcoal made in Somalia is reported to be exported to Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates and other Arab nations.
English 
French 