by Dave De Camp, antiwar.com

The US and the UAE have both launched airstrikes targeting al-Shabaab in northern Somalia’s Puntland region in recent days amid clashes in the area between al-Shabaab and local Puntland forces.

US Africa Command said in a press release on Wednesday that its forces launched a strike on October 19 in the Cal Madow Mountains, about 22 miles south of the Gulf of Aden port city of Bosaso, where the US and the UAE have established a military presence. AFRICOM offered no details about the strike, as it has stopped sharing casualty estimates and assessments on civilian harm.

The AFP reported that the UAE had also conducted a drone strike in the Galgala mountain pass in the Cal Madow Mountains on October 20, marking the first known UAE airstrike in Somalia in nearly a year. Sources told the outlet that the strike targeted four al-Shabaab militants planting roadside bombs and wounded two of them, and then local Puntland forces moved in and killed two al-Shabaab fighters.

Claire's Observations:  Both resources, and geography, are reasons why this hunk of Somalia has been experiencing fighting recently.  Here's what Throck, my AI, tells us:

"1. Oil & natural gas — potentially transformational, but unproven commercially
2. Fisheries/marine resources — enormous renewable resource with substantial room for development
3. Frankincense & myrrh — established, distinctive, internationally valuable
4. Gold/tin and other minerals — potentially significant but poorly explored/developed
5. Livestock — by far the most established and economically important natural-resource sector

And there's a fascinating historical-geographical reason Puntland has this combination: its Golis mountain chain, extraordinarily long coastline and location opposite the Arabian Peninsula put it at the intersection of several very different resource systems."

Control over this area translates as control over a great deal of the fortunes of other emerging adjacent African countries.