Good News (By Somalia's Standards)
After 18 years of civil war, some good news is finally coming from Somalia. The recent election of Sharif Ahmed, a moderate Islamist, as Somalia’s new president brings the country a chance for peace and stability. But the country faces enormous problems and President Ahmed has a mammoth task on his hands — both domestically and internationally.
Perhaps the biggest challenges lay within Somalia’s own borders. Considered as a failed state since the early 1990s, Somalia has seen its worst spate of violence in decades over the past two years: Ethiopian troops invaded the country, at least 10,000 Somalis have been killed and more than one million displaced.
Much of this bloodshed and displacement comes from the poor security conditions and widespread lawlessness spawned by fighting between rival warlords, clans and other armed groups. This lack of national security poses a huge problem for Ahmed’s nascent presidency: Somalia’s two main insurgent groups, Hezbul Islam and Al-Shabaab, control “much of the south of the country” and refuse to recognize the election. Getting Somalia’s clans behind a centralized government is a task that previous Somali leaders have failed to meet.
In a country that has no almost running water or electricity, Ahmed also has numerous humanitarian challenges. The Red Cross considers Somalia's food crisis to be one of the worst in the world. And the country's infrastructure, already-limited agricultural systems and market linkages, has been severely damaged during the continuous internal conflict of past decades. As a result, more than a third of the population depends on food aid. Health care has also been decimated: Mogadishu, Somalia’s capital city of 3.6 million people has only two or three hospitals that barely operate at all.
Providing this critical food and health care will be very difficult, however, until some form of security is established. The government must find a way to ensure that youth have the education and economic opportunities they need so that they have less incentive to take a $15-a-day paycheck to join one of armed groups. But the already-precarious education gap is widening: at least 81 percent of Somalia's population is now illiterate — the highest such rate in Africa — and only 17 percent of Somali children go to school.
A moderate new government headed by an energetic and idealistic president has succeeded in giving Somalis hope — but delivering results is crucial to showing the country’s embattled population that their government is actually making a difference.
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Comments
A silver lining to piracy?
This post seems especially relevant because of the recent piracy incidents off the coast of Somalia and I think the post raises important questions about how we can best address the underlying causes of the problem. Based on the coverage I have read and watched of the recent incident in which Somali pirates took an American captain hostage, I worry that an opportunity for discussion about the root causes of such an act could be passed over. I came across a BBC News article from April 15 that says
Hopefully we can avoid sensationalizing the recent piracy events and the recently ignited attention on Somalia can instead be a catalyst for greater action to address the core issues “ashore.”
Of course, this potential shift in focus raises the question: how can the underlying problems actually be addressed? The original poster mentions many issues, including poor security conditions; lawlessness; lack of resources like food, water and electricity; and the inability of the central government to gain domestic legitimacy and control. I think there is an opportunity for humanitarian action from governments and NGOs to address problems like food scarcity, lack of education and poor infrastructure, but only in the short-term. Even with improvements in these areas, progress would be unsustainable without increased stability and security. Perhaps UN Peacekeeping forces could play a role, although surely since the failed American intervention in the 1990s it would probably be difficult to rally support for such a move. My ideas are just a brainstorm of options but, despite potential pitfalls, it does seem like Somalia’s root problems could best be addressed through cooperation between many entities like NGOs, the Somali government, and states. I hope that the upsurge in Somali piracy, or at least the media coverage of it, possesses a silver lining that will generate more widespread interest in Somalia’s situation. Recognizing how Somalia’s stability and security affects our own would be an important first step to addressing the root issues.
The need for international cooperation
The article rightly points at Somalia's disastrous situation: Its poor security conditions, the lawlessness or anarchy as well as the humanitarian challenges such as the food crisis. Likewise, Somalia's new government under Sharif Ahmed is likely to bring about change but nevertheless we do not need to neglect the fact that even the new government alone is not able to bring the country under domestic control. As my previous speaker has already indicated, Somalia can only survive in the lon rung when it is embedded in a context of international cooperation. This has also been grasped by the UN and EU who set a conference of donor countries at the next thursday where they plan to support Somalia financially with about 190Mil.€ in order to contribute to its stablization in the long run.
Hence, what should be clear right now is that we need both a moderate Somalian government who is committed to combating the poverty and chaos within its own country as well as the good will of international and supranational organizations.
Somalia
Missing Questions with New Hidden Answers
Pirates are to do what?
What is different from police and pirates?
How does police maintain order, chaos, and creativity?
Government is similar and different from craziness with order?
What does inspirations and aspirations do?
What is S O M A L I A? hint: how does radioactivity and electrical difference has to do with this is the key of it all...
Why is saving the details and then get a head used more often in the times of chaos, crisis and demise for some perspective(s)?
Exactly what is everyone else missing?
What's in a name?
Look at the difference between the word, "Feel" and "Sense"
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