Jay Bahadur is an independent researcher and investigator based in Nairobi. From 2015 to 2019, Bahadur served as the armed groups expert – and subsequently the Coordinator – of the UN Security Council Monitoring Group on Somalia and Eritrea and its successor, the Panel of Experts on Somalia. His areas of focus included the Islamist militant groups Al-Shabaab and the Islamic State, maritime arms smuggling networks, piracy, and the oil and gas sector. Bahadur is the author of the 2011 book The Pirates of Somalia.