WASHINGTON - Erik Prince, the founder of the security giant Blackwater Worldwide, is backing an effort by a South African mercenary firm to insert itself into Somalia's civil war by protecting government leaders, training Somali troops and battling pirates and Islamic militants there, according to U.S. and Western officials.
The disclosure comes as Prince sells off his interest in the company he built into a behemoth with billions of dollars in U.S. government contracts in Iraq and Afghanistan, work that mired him in lawsuits and investigations amid reports of reckless behavior by his operatives, including killing civilians in Iraq.
His efforts to wade into the chaos of Somalia appear to be Prince's latest endeavor to remain at the center of a campaign against Islamic radicalism. Somalia is a country where Western militaries have long feared to tread. The government has been cornered in a small patch of Mogadishu, the capital, by Al-Shabab, a Somali militant group with ties to Al-Qaida.
This, along with the growing menace of piracy off Somalia's shores, has created an opportunity for private security companies like the South African firm Saracen International to fill the security vacuum.
Prince's precise role remains unclear. Some Western officials said that it was possible he was using his international contacts to help broker a deal between Saracen executives and officials from the United Arab Emirates, where Prince now lives. A spokesman for Prince said he "has no financial role of any kind in this matter" and was primarily involved in humanitarian efforts and fighting pirates.
Saracen is training a 1,000-member antipiracy militia in northern Somalia and also plans a Mogadishu militia.
NEW YORK TIMES