15 June 2006
editorial
Lagos — After weeks of fighting against an alliance of warlords, an Islamist militia has proceeded to seize Mogadishu, capital of Somalia. Shortly before the takeover, United Nations aid workers, anticipating a deepening of the hostilities, withdrew from their base in Jowhar, 90 kilometres north of the capital. That move is ominous for the Central African country.
Few countries in Africa have had the kind of chequered contemporary history like Somalia's. An impoverished nation of eight million people, it has been divided into two opposing fiefdoms since 1991 when its long-time dictator, Mohamed Siad Barre, was overthrown. The Islamic militants, the first group to grab and wield power over Mogadishu neighbourhoods, also had an overwhelming political and economic influence in Somalia. Despite that equation, relative peace, albeit fragile, was in place.
All that changed and violence began earlier this year when some warlords formed an Anti-terrorism Alliance to confront the Islamic courts which they accused of sheltering al-Quaeda elements. It was an ambitious and potentially explosive mission as the courts were established in Mogadishu by a measure of businessmen to achieve some law and order in a city that lacked an identifiable judicial structure. The tempo of the present animosity increased when the Islamists and warlords started reasserting themselves after a UN-backed interim government (still confined to Baidoa, away from Mogadishu) began to gain international recognition.
This is, no doubt, a picture of a dismembered country. Not only in geographical terms but also in the psyche of the populace. Two Somalian citizens, Abdulqaadir, a computer engineer and Abdinasir Ahmed, an economist, put this dichotomy succinctly. According to Abdulqadir, "The Somalian people are afraid of the Islamists' new wave of hatred and renewed fighting. The Islamic clerics want to be like the Taliban regime in Afghanistan." Ahmed's view is, however, antithetical to his compatriot's. His words: "The victory of Islamic courts is a major step towards a lasting peaceful settlement in Mogadishu. We are tired of the deception and rhetoric of the warlords."
The import of this divergence should not be lost on the United States of America. As it champions the fight against terrorism around the globe, the US must be transparently sensitive to other people's cultural and religious sensibilities. The warlords who have enjoyed America's support because of their antagonism to the fundamentalists are not saints at home. The fact that most of them have fled Mogadishu is indicative of their current below-average rating and strength. Also, the disgrace that met America's invasion of Somalia in the 1990s should convince the world's only superpower to temper its might with humility and caution.
That advice also applies to the rest of the world, except that it should react promptly. The African Union, enfeebled by the poor economies of and lingering conflicts within its member nations, has called the UN to step into the Somalian crisis. That appeal should not be ignored. The victorious Islamists have vowed to convert Somalia into an Islamic state. Faud Ahmed, a militiaman, revealed that resolve when he swore that, "This is a long Islamic struggle and it will continue until the whole country comes under Sharia law. We are ready to shed our blood in order for that struggle to succeed." Those who are conversant with the continent's troubled life have learnt not to dismiss that kind of threat as empty. And not even interim Prime Minister, Mohamed Ali Gedi's excitement at the Islamists' triumph should be interpreted as the automatic opening of an era of peace. Warlord Bashir Raghe's declaration that "We(warlords) have to continue fighting the terrorists in Mogadishu. We w ill remain in Mogadishu" is enough cause for worry.
United Nations' intervention is, therefore, inevitable if nomalcy is to be restored soon. Apart from peace-keeping, the UN should strengthen Gedi's government to steer the fractured country away from the grip of war mongers whose interests are manifestly parochial. And instead of its workers to retreat, the world body should protect and equip them to face the task, no matter how daunting. This familiar journey into disintegration is needless. The world can and must do something now to avert an irredeemably failed Somalia.
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