The Land of Last Pirates
With worlds eyes turned towards South Africa and its World Cup, discussions about the future of Africa and the changes it already has been through, started to heat up the atmosphere around the Dark Continent once again. Leaving the aftershock of the football festival in SA aside, as it is already the topic of many media researches, I will move miles up north to the Republic of Somalia.
When you look carefully on the map of the continent you realize that the peninsula on which Somalia is located looks just like a rhinoceroses horn, and as a matter of fact it is actually called the Horn of Africa. The Horn proudly encroaches into the Arabic Sea, reminding the forgotten history. History when due to all the important luxurious resources it was still called by the Romans the “Aroma Land” and in medieval times known to the Europeans as “Land of the Berbers” a mysterious land of fearsome warriors.
Nowadays the Horn is frequently torn by conflicts and unrest. Somalia became recently the grim leader of regional mayhem and disorder. Being considered as a haven for terrorists and Islamic radicals, as a state that is both internally unstable and dangerous to its neighbours, Somalia draw the attention of the international community. Concerning the common knowledge on how “quick” and “efficient” the heretofore world interventions in Africa were, it was reasonable to expect no serious international actions in the region. That would have been true, if not for the one thing that Somalia became later world-famous for. Pirates.
That is right, pirates. Most people have this romantic vision of pirates from the past - looking for treasure, sailing the seven seas, fighting with sabres and wearing eye-patches. Unfortunately the image of Somalian pirates is so much different than that of the cunning Jack Sparrow, from the popular pirate films. No parrots, no wooden legs but a lot of old guns, machetes and frustration. Instead of a majestic lofty, they use dirty motorboats that had their best days long ago. Somalia pirates where on the news radar of worlds media after a few spectacular kidnappings of huge cargo ships and tankers. The Somalian government having a handful of own problems and fighting a never-ending civil-war, had no means to intervene. After a couple of hostage crises and more aggressive kidnapping attacks, countries that had to protect their trading routes, decided to act. The US and EU sates agreed on sending their military fleets to patrol the waters and secure the cargo-ships that crossed the pirate territory. That has improved the situation on the surrounding waters, though the bloodshed on dry-land persisted if it has not developed.
The civil-war originated around old tribal and clan conflicts, going back to times where the main cause of war, were the resource conflicts between Christians and Muslims in the region. The actual modern conflict began in 1991, when the repressive regime of Siad Barre was overthrown. In spite of the success the anti-Barre insurgents achieved, Somalia fall deeper into havoc, what resulted in a counter-revolution group backing Barr.
In the same year the northern part of the country, generally the area known as Puntland declared independence as Somaliland. Even though the new state provided considerable stability in the region it wasn’t recognized by any foreign country. The United Nations tried to provide peace in the region by establishing three peacekeeping missions UNOSOM I, UNITAF and UNOSOM II. To put the story short, once again the “blue helmets” weren’t enough to establish peace in an African state. In fact the infamous raid on Mogadishu and the battle for the city in 1993 resulted in serious UN casualties, where local gunmen managed to trap a Pakistan patrol. The UN decided to pull-back all the troops.
After the UN troops left, a new axis of conflict broke out, between secular warlords and the ICU (Islamic Courts Union). The ICU radical Islam policies were the main obstacle in reaching a settlement, what resulted in more cooperation within the opposition of the ICU, which established in 2006 the ARPCT (Alliance for the Restoration of Peace and Counter-Terrorism). The ARPCT was backed by the United States.
After some major military success of the ICU, most of the country was in the hands of the Islamic militants. Finally an intervention of the Ethiopian army supported by the US, led to the downfall of the ICU. Though basically the militants lost the war with the government and most of their structures fell apart, they kept fighting as partisans and insurgents in southern provinces. When the Ethiopian forces withdrew from the country in 2009, the Islamic rebels raised once again against the government. With the rebels gaining power in the south, war broke out again at its fullest. While tribal conflicts where paralysing government efforts to restore peace, radicals managed to take Mogadishu.
Behind every war there is the tragic story of civilians, as they suffer the most. As the war goes on, once again the cries of people echo terribly in the air. The recent fights in the capital have already resulted in dozens killed and even more injured. Refugees try to leave the country or at least to find a safe place. In the first case refugee camps along the borders are already full and the conditions are terrible. Huge groups of refugees are being send back from Saudi Arabia, where they tried to find asylum, and they are sent right back into the middle of the conflict. In the whole country there is no safe place, however the northern regions of the country are still believed to be safer than central and south Somalia, where most of the fighting goes on.
International aid is crucial, basic supplies – water, food and medicine – are need. Another attempt of the UN to at least help the civilians should be considered. As the intervention against pirates was amazingly quick, it wonders me why aren’t there any actions taken against the radicals. Somalia is still considered to be an Al-Qaeda haven and an important point in the War on Terror policy. I would like to remind Barack Obama, that he was awarded the Nobel price, some believe that now he is in depth to world peace. What we need to remember is that in this particular depth, there is no interest rate, but human lives…
MP
Solid overview of Somalia’s affairs. I find it especially absorbing since our mass media rather do not speak about it. Therefore I would like to thank you for making me aware of all the matters you brought up.