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Somalia: Piracy And the Policy Vacuum

22 November 2008

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Washington, DC — "While the responsibility for this crisis [in Somalia] lies first and foremost with the Somali leadership, the international community, principally the U.S. government and members of the UN Security Council, has also failed ... They have failed repeatedly to take a principled engagement to solve the crisis, acknowledge the power realities on the ground, support peace negotiations without imposing external agendas, or provide independent humanitarian assistance." - Refugees International

Oil tanker Sirius Star, which was carrying $100 million worth of crude oil when captured by Somali pirates on November 15, is still being held for ransom a week later, as is the Ukrainian MV Faina, captured almost two months ago with a cargo of heavy weaponry.

Actual and attempted hijackings by Somali pirates have more than doubled from last year, with more than 60 through October 2008 as compared to 25 in all of 2007. The world's military chiefs and diplomats seem helpless to do much more than caution ships to post armed guards on deck, grease their railings, or take the long route around the Cape of Good Hope.

[For the most recent news on Somali piracy (over 16,000 stories as of this morning!), see http://tinyurl.com/597ap3 (Google News) and http://allafrica.com/somalia

For a 12-page background briefing paper on Somali piracy, see http://www.chathamhouse.org.uk/publications/papers/view/-/id/665

For an analytical article placing piracy in historical perspective, see http://www.policyinnovations.org/ideas/briefings/data/000090 ]

But while the rising threat of piracy off the Somali coast is now attracting world-wide attention, the United States and other world powers still have no serious policy to cope with the humanitarian and political crisis in Somalia.

The country's one recent experience of some months of relative stability, under the Union of Islamic Courts in 2006, was ended with a U.S.-backed Ethiopian invasion which has helped make the country the largest humanitarian crisis in the world. The Transitional Federal Government formed in exile in Kenya in 2004 with international support and now kept in power in Mogadishu with the aid of Ethiopian troops, is generally agreed to be both illegitimate and ineffective.

Sporadic peace talks under way in Djibouti have not slowed the advance of insurgents, and there is no coordinated international plan to promote peace (see http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=81499)

This AfricaFocus Bulletin contains a call for a new policy by analysts of the Washington-based Refugees International who have recently returned from the region.

For a report of the November 20 Security Council meeting on Somalia, see http://tinyurl.com/64w9zm The Secretary-General's report, dated November 17, is available at http://tinyurl.com/6bsaw4 (22-page report in PDF format).

For previous AfricaFocus Bulletins on Somalia, and additional background links, visit: http://www.africafocus.org/country/somalia.php

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Somalia: Policy Overhaul Required

November 19, 2008

Refugees International

2001 S Street NW, Suite 700, Washington, DC 20009

Phone: 202-828-0110 Fax: 202-828-0819

Email: ri@refintl.org

http://www.refintl.org

by Patrick Duplat and Jake Kurtzer, who recently returned from Djibouti, Somaliland and Kenya where they assessed the humanitarian situation for displaced Somalis.

Policy recommendations

The incoming U.S. Administration should overhaul U.S. policy towards Somalia by taking a comprehensive regional approach, prioritizing the provision of humanitarian assistance and calling for a truly inclusive political process.

The U.S. should provide non-earmarked funding that allows UNHCR to allocate funding in the Horn of Africa where it is most needed.

UNHCR Djibouti should maintain daily protection staff presence in the Ali Addeh camp.

UNHCR Djibouti should start an outreach program for urban refugees.

Somalia is the world's worst humanitarian disaster and aid agencies are unable to respond to the immense scale of needs. The insecurity preventing assistance is a consequence of failed international political and diplomatic efforts. To stabilize the situation in south central Somalia, U.S. policy requires a complete overhaul, prioritizing humanitarian concerns over narrow counterterrorism objectives. Neighboring countries are bearing the brunt of the refugee outflow and more needs to be done to help them. For example, in Djibouti, the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) should increase its protection staff as well as identify and provide services to urban refugees in Djibouti city.

Somalia is the world's worst humanitarian disaster. More than 3.2 million Somalis - 40% of the population - are dependent on external assistance, and 400,000 people have sought refuge in neighboring countries.

While the situation has deteriorated in the past two years, the last months have seen worsening indicators: more than 1.3 million Somalis are now displaced within the country; 35,000 fled from the capital in October alone; 10,000 Somali refugees crossed the border into Kenya in September; and one in six children under five years old in the southern part of the country is malnourished.

Exacerbating the problem has been the extreme difficulty in providing assistance. Somalia has always been a challenging operating environment for aid agencies, but it has now become one of the most dangerous places for humanitarian workers, alongside Iraq and Afghanistan. More than 30 staff from non-governmental organizations and UN agencies have been killed this year alone, as well as many journalists and human rights defenders.

While the responsibility for this crisis lies first and foremost with the Somali leadership, the international community, principally the U.S. government and members of the UN Security Council, has also failed in its duty to protect the Somali people.

They have failed repeatedly to take a principled engagement to solve the crisis, acknowledge the power realities on the ground, support peace negotiations without imposing external agendas, or provide independent humanitarian assistance.

This lack of principled engagement is demonstrated by the U.S. and the European Union's response to the piracy problems of the coast of Somalia. The root cause of the piracy is lawlessness inside Somalia, an environment where accountability means little and where the traditional clan linkages are giving way to the law of the gun.

Maritime patrols, whether by individual countries, NATO, or mercenary operatives, do little to stem the motivation behind those attacks. Moreover, the speed and resolve with which piracy has been addressed by the UN Security Council underlines Somalis' sentiment that economic interests trump humanitarian concerns. The United States swiftly and sternly condemned the pirates, and yet remains silent over egregious war crimes committed during the civil war.

Thanks to the efforts of the Special Representative of the UN Secretary General, political negotiations have been ongoing between Somalia's Transitional Federal Government (TFG) and the moderates in the opposition, mainly the Djibouti-based Alliance for the Re-liberation of Somalia (ARS). After several rounds of talks, an agreement was signed in late October 2008 calling for a ceasefire and joint security operations.

The inclusion of the opposition was a welcome recognition, albeit a late one, that the TFG was slowly slipping into irrelevance.

However the reluctance to include hardliners, who control much of south central Somalia, runs the risk of making the agreement largely symbolic. Until parties hoping to broker peace in Somalia find a way to engage these groups, including Al Shabaab, an Islamic group designated as a Foreign Terrorist Organization by the U.S.

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