What's Next for Somalia?
Just two weeks after the resignation of Abdulahi Yusuf as Somalia’s President, Ethiopia has withdrawn its last troops from the Somali capital of Mogadishu. One day after the withdrawal, there are underscoring fears the country could fall into further chaos because of fresh clashes between rebel fighters and the departing Ethiopian forces. Reports are that hundreds of families are fleeing Bardera, the regional capital of the southwestern Gedo region, fearing clashes between various Islamist groups and tribal warlords.
Bardera was previously held by the Islamist group Al-Shabab but is now in the hands of a militia led by Colonel Bare Aden Shire, better known as “Barre Hiirale”, a former defense minister in the Transitional Federal Government. Meanwhile in Mogadishu, the last Ethiopian troops left the Somali capital on 15 January. “There are no Ethiopian soldiers in Mogadishu today [15 January],” said Abdi Haji Gobdon, the government spokesman. “They left peacefully and there were no major incidents.” More accurately there have been no major incidents as yet in Mogadishu. Elsewhere, the situation is less peaceful.
A spokesman for the aforementioned Al-Shabab Islamist group which has ties to Al-Qaeda, Sheik Muktar Abu Mansoor told reporters Wednesday in Mogadishu that they have lost two top leaders in the fighting that took place in the town of Guriel in central Somalia.
According to reports published in the All Africa news service at least 30 people, mostly fighters, have been killed and more than 50 others wounded in a heavy fighting between Islamist fighters of Al-Shabab and another Islamist group Ahlu Sunna Waljamaca that erupted in Gruel on January 11, 2009.
While world attention focuses on the actions of Somali pirates, many of whom are fishermen protecting their waters against overfishing, the world ignores the humanitarian crisis now developing in the southern part of the country. Then again, the world has largely ignored Somalia since it ceased to be a pawn in the Cold War. It’s not a coincidence that Somalia last had a central government in 1991.
In the northern third of the country, there are two de facto independent breakaway regions with functioning governments but it seems that Western diplomats and African governments as well are reluctant to recognize Puntland and Republic of North Somaliland for fear of opening up a Pandora’s box. Meanwhile it seems the country will be allowed to drift aimlessly. However, if the Islamists do gain power in the south then I suspect Somalia will garner more attention. Why does it always take a crisis before something is done?
Finally, I want to thank Adam for inviting me to write for the Daily Censored. I expect that I will largely cover international issues which is my true passion. I also blog with Adam’s cousin, Jerome, over at MyDD and on my own blog By The Fault.
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