Mohamed SA'ID

Mohamed Sa'id "Atom" has engaged in acts that threaten the peace, security or stability of Somalia. Atom has directly or indirectly supplied, sold, or transferred to Somalia arms or related materiel or advice, training, or assistance, including financing and financial assistance, related to military activities in violation of the arms embargo. Atom has been identified as one of the principal suppliers of arms and ammunition for Al-Shabaab operations in the Puntland region. He is described as the leader of a militia that emerged in 2006 in the eastern Sanaag region of northern Somalia. The militia comprises as many as 250 fighters and has been implicated in incidents of kidnapping, piracy and terrorism, and imports its own weapons, in violation of the arms embargo. Atom has established his force as the principal military presence in the area, with a primary base near Galgala and a secondary base near Badhan. According to some information, Atom is aligned with Al-Shabaab and may receive instructions from al-Shabaab leader Fu'aad Mohamed Khalaf. Furthermore, Atom is reportedly involved in arms trafficking into Somalia. Information from a number of sources indicates that his forces receive arms and equipment from Yemen and Eritrea. According to a Dec 2008 report, an eyewitness described six such shipments during a four-week period in early 2008, each sufficient to fill two pickup trucks with small arms, ammunition, and rocket-propelled grenades. According to a Bossaso businessman familiar with the arms trade, Atom's consignments do not enter the arms market, suggesting that they are either retained for the use of his forces or are transferred to recipients in southern Somalia, where Al-Shabaab operates. Atom's forces were implicated in the kidnapping of a German aid worker, in the kidnapping of two Somalis near Bossaso, and in a bombing of Ethiopian migrants in Bossaso on 5 Feb 2008, which killed 20 people and wounded over 100 others. Atom's militia may also have played a secondary role in the kidnapping of a German couple captured by pirates in Jun 2008.