 However, in response to the drought, al-Shabaab announced in July 2011 that it had withdrawn its restrictions on international humanitarian workers.In 2011, according to the head of the UN's counter-piracy division, Colonel John Steed, al-Shabaab increasingly sought to cooperate with other criminal organizations and pirate gangs in the face of dwindling funds and resources.Steed, however, acknowledged that he had no definite proof of operational ties between the Islamist militants and the pirates.