Last Updated: Oct 2, 2008 - 5:28:44 PM
Somalia: The world's most utterly failed state
2 Oct
2, 2008 - 9:42:01 AM
TIPPED off by friends in ports from Odessa to Mombasa, Somali pirates
captured a Ukrainian freighter, the
MV Faina,
in the Gulf of Aden and steered it to Somalia’s coast. At first they
demanded $20m for the release of ship and crew. The captain died,
apparently of “hypertension”, and several pirates may have then killed
each other after a quarrel. This recent incident was only the latest in
a long list of similar outrages and highlights the growing menace
caused by the total failure of the state of Somalia, the ultimate cause
of the virus of piracy in the region.
The ship was carrying 33 T-72 Russian tanks, anti-aircraft guns and
grenade launchers. Lighter weapons may have been offloaded on the
Somali shore before an American warship arrived on the scene. Kenya
claimed ownership of the cargo but the manifest suggests its
destination was south Sudan, with Kenya’s co- operation in its delivery
to be rewarded in the future with cheap south Sudanese oil. At midweek,
a Russian warship was steaming to the scene to take responsibility for
its citizens on the ship.
The attack was only one of at least 60 off Somalia this year.
Foreign navies can intercept vessels captured by pirates, but the
desolation and length of Somalia’s coastline give them little chance of
stamping out piracy without much larger and better co-ordinated forces.
In cahoots with gangs in Yemen, Somali pirates look set to go on
hitting vessels heading into or out of the Red Sea or passing through
the Gulf of Aden: about 10% of the world’s shipping.
It is big business. The pirates are increasingly sophisticated,
handsomely bankrolled by Somalis in Dubai and elsewhere. They are not
yet directly tied up with the Islamist insurgents in Somalia, though
they may yet have to pay cash to whoever controls their coastal havens
in return for uninterrupted business, thus assisting the purchase of
weapons and fuelling the violence. The nabbed ships are mostly anchored
off the village of Eyl in Puntland in the north-east or the pirate town
of Haradheere farther south (see map) until a ransom is paid, which is
usually within a month of capture. The average ransom has tripled since
2007, as has the number of ships taken. Some $100m may have been paid
to pirates this year. By comparison, the United Nations Development
Programme’s annual budget for Somalia is $14m.
Piracy is a symptom of the power vacuum inside Somalia. The
country’s “transitional federal government”, headed by a warlord
president, Abdullahi Yusuf, and a bookish prime minister, Nur Hussein,
is powerless to stop its citizens raising the Jolly Roger, just as it
cannot halt the resurgent jihadists, some with al-Qaeda connections,
who have taken control of much of southern Somalia, including the port
town of Kismayo. Hundreds of thousands have fled street fighting in the
north of Mogadishu to camps outside the city; some head south to
refugee camps in Kenya. About 9,000 civilians have been killed in the
insurgency in the past year, according to human-rights groups.
The UN’s envoy to Somalia, Ahmedou Ould Abdullah, a former foreign
minister of Mauritania, is overseeing peace talks in nearby Djibouti
between the transitional government and the moderate wing of the
Alliance for the Reliberation of Somalia (ARS), an Islamist group
headed by a former teacher, Sharif Ahmed. The aim is to create a
genuine government of national unity before elections next year.
A condition of any agreement is the withdrawal of the 7,000-odd
Ethiopian troops now in Somalia. Mr Ould Abdullah wants to replace them
and a separate 2,200-strong African Union force of Ugandan and
Burundian troops with 8,000 UN peacekeepers. Ethiopia, which is losing
men and money, would be happy with that, if the peacekeepers were
somehow shoehorned in without the jihadists taking advantage of a
hiatus. America agrees, but only if the deployment of blue helmets is
matched by an effort to build a new Somali national army. Mr Ould
Abdullah is also keen for the International Criminal Court in The Hague
to indict some of the worst warlords, to show they cannot murder their
opponents with impunity.
But it is unlikely, in present circumstances, that UN peacekeepers
will ever arrive. If the UN cannot produce half its promised force for
Darfur, despite a detailed plan for one, Somalia stands little chance
of getting any blue helmets at all.
Feuding among Somali leaders makes matters worse. “Somalia is a
victim of its political, business and military elite,” says Mr Ould
Abdullah. “They’ve taken the country hostage.” A slender hope, backed
by Britain and some other EU countries, is that ordinary Somalis will
eventually force their leaders to put national interest above
self-interest and sign the proposed agreement in Djibouti. In any
event, says another diplomat, “There is no Plan B.”
As the peace talks limp on, the insurgency is getting stronger. It
is led by the Shabab (Youth), the armed wing of the Islamic Courts
Union, which ran Somalia with some success for a few months in 2006
until it was smashed, at the end of that year, by the invading
Ethiopians, with American backing. The Shabab has since reconstituted
itself, making ground with tactics copied from Iraq: roadside bombings,
the kidnap and murder of foreigners, local aid-workers and peace
campaigners, and grenade attacks on video shacks showing films or
football.
My enemy’s enemy is my friend
Its fighters come under the leadership of a wily red-bearded
70-year-old jihadist, Hassan Dahir Aweys, and a former deputy commander
of the Islamic Courts, Mukhtar Robow. They are backed by Eritrea, which
has offered sanctuary to the radical rump of the ARS in its capital,
Asmara. Eritrea’s interest is not to help Somalia but to hurt its
bitter enemy, Ethiopia. The Shabab
is also backed by fighters
from the Hawiye clan and by hungry young freelance gunmen who represent
Somalia’s huge lost generation. Half the population, 10m-odd before the
exodus, was born after Siad Barre’s regime fell in 1991. Since then, it
is guessed, only 10% have had even rudimentary education; health care
barely exists.
Few foreign governments have shown much interest in trying to end
Somalia’s woes. Diplomats charged with trying to do so are frustrated
and depressed. Meanwhile the suffering is mounting. The UN reckons 3.2m
Somalis now survive on food aid. The piracy means that warships have to
escort ships bringing food. If fighting intensifies, that will be
harder—and manipulating food aid could become a weapon, as it was
during fighting in 1991 and 1992, when 300,000 Somalis starved to
death.
Source:The Economist
Muslims "must" unite all over the World
and pray for the appearance of al Mahdi (r.a.) the Saviour of mankind
the descendent of Prophet Muhammed s.a.w.
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