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Somalia
Somalia is
still a
failed state
Even hope is
in short
supply as
violence
flares in
Mogadishu.
from
Economist.com
Aug 17th
2007
From
Economist.com
Reuters
Who
was behind
the murder
in the past
week of two
prominent
journalists
in
Mogadishu,
Somalia’s
wretched
capital
city? Ali
Imam
Sharmake,
the director
of the
country’s
respected
HornAfrik
Radio, was
killed while
returning
home from
the funeral
of a
colleague,
Mahad Ahmed
Elmi, head
of the
city’s
Capital
Voice Radio.
Mr Elmi,
also a
popular
presenter,
had been
shot dead
earlier the
same day by
unknown
attackers.
Mr
Sharmake's
jeep was
blown up by
a
remote-controlled
landmine—the
cowardly
assailants
watching
from a
nearby
alley. The
double
killing was
a miserable
reminder in
the
rubble-strewn
city of how
far Somalia
has to
travel if it
is ever to
become a
normal
country.
Both men had
been defiant
in the face
of threats,
providing
balanced
reporting on
the tense
local
situation.
The Somali
government
said the
killings
were
“obviously”
the work of
Islamist
insurgents
and quickly
picked up
two men it
says were
responsible.
The suspects
were also
accused of
trying to
murder a
Reuters
correspondent.
Were
Islamists
behind it
all? The
device that
shredded Mr
Sharmake was
apparently
of a type
used by
Islamist
fighters in
the city,
but no one
really
knows. Life
in Somalia,
for
journalists
and other
civilians
alike,
remains
perilous and
miserable.
The killings
in Mogadishu
are not
going away.
This week
alone at
least 30
people have
been
murdered and
60 seriously
injured,
most of them
civilians.
In one
incident a
grenade was
thrown at
police from
a crowd. In
the chaos
that
followed
somebody,
perhaps a
policeman,
let fly with
a gun and
several
others were
killed or
injured.
Elsewhere
there were
also
bombings,
mortars,
attempted
suicide
attacks and
sniper fire.
Life grinds
on, but
insecurity
keeps down
an already
feeble
economy.
Unlike Iraq,
Somalia has
no oil
revenues
(although
some,
including
Chinese
firms, are
rumoured now
to be
looking) or
Pentagon job
schemes to
keep poverty
at bay. Some
1.5m
Somalis,
about 20% of
the
population,
are thought
to need
humanitarian
aid. An
estimated
3,000
civilians
flee
Mogadishu
each week,
most of them
to
disease-ridden
camps at the
edge of the
city. The
World Food
Programme
says that
since June
insecurity
has made
proper
distributions
of food
impossible.
Even the sea
is unsafe:
some food
shipments
have been
intercepted
by pirates.
Mogadishu,
in any case,
remains too
dangerous
for
non-Somalis
to visit. So
most
outsiders
with an
interest in
helping the
country do
their
talking in
Nairobi, the
capital of
next-door
Kenya. The
Somali
government
wants to
create a
Green Zone
for foreign
visitors,
but that
would not be
likely to
have much
impact given
the world’s
indifference.
America
backed
Ethiopia's
invasion of
Somalia in
December, in
order to
bring down
an Islamist
group that
had control
of Mogadishu
and much of
the south of
the country.
The
Americans
have
promised
Somalia more
cash and
appointed a
new envoy,
based in
Nairobi. But
this seems
to be little
more than
window-dressing.
America’s
main
interest is
not in
creating
regional
stability
but in
catching a
few
suspected
al-Qaeda
operatives,
who may or
may not be
in Somalia.
America is
not alone in
its
clumsiness.
A report
issued this
week by
Human Rights
Watch, an
NGO, blamed
the Somali
government
and Ethiopia
for the
deaths of
hundreds of
civilians in
fighting in
Mogadishu
earlier this
year. The
shelling of
neighbourhoods,
occasionally
with
phosphorous
bombs, and
summary
executions
of
civilians,
caused
400,000
people to
flee the
city. The
report
documented
serious
abuses by
the Islamist
insurgents,
whose
fighters
took cover
in the
neighbourhoods.
Ethiopia,
meanwhile,
was bitter
in its
denial of
the report's
findings,
calling it
“factually
and morally
repugnant”.
But Ethiopia
was meant to
be gone from
Somalia in
February, to
be replaced
with
peacekeepers
from the
African
Union. The
fact that it
is still the
main
occupying
force
reflects the
listlessness
of the AU
operation.
So far, of
8,000
peacekeepers
promised by
the AU only
1,600
Ugandan
troops have
arrived.
Meanwhile,
the Islamist
insurgents
are
evidently as
determined
as ever,
remaining a
threat to
Somalis and,
perhaps, to
their
neighbours
as well |
