Land of Gun: Crisis in Somalia

Today's global sociopolitical landscape is painted in red. Violence, terror, fear, turmoil and sadness have become commonplace themes in an increasingly internationalized and interdependent world that seems to fall victim to its own selfish aspirations which benefit a few, while marginalizing huge masses of internally displaced people. The global crises of today are at a scale unparalleled in human history. Darfur has witnessed close to 400,000 people dead and 2.5 million people displaced from their homes. These inconceivable numbers only appear to increase with each passing day. Iraq is now in a brutal and chaotic civil war in which there is no conceivable end in sight. A fundamentalist religious war now embroils the greater Middle East forcing entire nation-states to struggle for their own survival. The opportunities for a global peace are few and far between.

With so many enduring global assaults on basic human rights, the popular media tends to overlook some of the most pressing concerns facing the international community today. The humanitarian and political crisis in Somalia is a prime example. The coastal East African nation has been without a proper government since 1991, when Siad Barre was ousted from presidential power and the nation was plunged into a spiral of lawlessness and clan warfare. Since that time, Somalia has experienced the secession of three of its territories (presently known as Somaliland in the northwest, Puntland and Jumbland), United States military intervention and various failed United Nations peacekeeping overtures to restore central governmental authority and provide sustainable humanitarian support.

What makes the plight of Somalia so disheartening is that as a nation, it has endured so much civil strife. As an early colony that bounced between West European giants, eventually declaring its independence just 50 years ago, the experience of total economic stagnation and political mismanagement has contributed to a deep loss of basic human necessities. Many Somalis have never even seen the minimal elements of a sustainable life that we take for granted in America. By any measure, the levels of malnutrition and education are among some of the lowest in the world. Despite recent improvements, only 22 percent of children have access to primary school education, the worst figure globally. Child malnutrition rates of 15 to 20 percent have become normal for Somalia, while 10 percent or more would be regarded as an emergency elsewhere. Basic healthcare services are generally nonexistent and the rate of infectious diseases spreading throughout the country is increasing rapidly. Water sanitation is horrendous. For reasons such as this, Somalia has become the "optimum" breeding ground for extremism.

The international community has largely forgotten about Somalia with aid dropping precipitously since a failed military intervention ended eleven years ago. No other country has experienced that kind of total abandonment by the international community. For many western politicians and international aid organizations it is seen as too difficult and too dangerous to offer substantive support. The retrospective trauma of the failed peacekeeping attempt greatly limits the number of powerful politicians willing to openly assert the necessity of saving this region.
The nation's humanitarian crisis arises in the context of extreme political turmoil. The two are invariably interconnected and in many respects each can be seen as a causal agent for the other. Somalia's modern political regression can be traced to the ousting of Siad Barre. By the mid-1990s, international troops had become enmeshed in tribal conflicts that had undone the nation. With clan-based fighting increasing to such a degree, the last of the international troops left the country. Somalia was left to deal with its own turmoil. Without a governing body, how could it? The recurring civil war that encapsulated the entire region and was felt in neighboring states such as Ethiopia, Eritrea and Kenya caused much of the world to relinquish hopes for peace. In many respects Somalia was written off.

Though Somalia has been mired in state chaos for the past 15 years, new eruptions of violence emerged in May 2006. Somalia is now a resurgent hot zone that deserves conscientious international attention and intervention to avert insurmountable chaos and brutality. It seems, for now, that the supremacy of the warlords and their faction-based clan tensions are being replaced through force by a new threat: Islamic militias. Led by the Islamic Courts Union (ICU), the emergence of a dominant fundamentalist Islamic bloc as the new power brokers is sparking widespread international fear. Western nations fear the state will become a breeding ground for international terrorism while Somalia's neighbors are accused of influencing the nation's internal violence to serve their own interests.

Pitted against the Islamists is Somalia's internationally recognized transitional government, which was created in October 2004. The government wields very little, if any power. After convening for the first time in February 2006, it was moved outside of the highly unstable capital, Mogadishu, and placed in the southern city of Baidoa. Interestingly, many of the Parliamentarians and cabinet officials, including the current President, Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed, are former warlords, many with ties to Ethiopia, one of the principal external promoters of the instability. Just this past September, the president narrowly escaped an assassination attempt by a suicide bomber in Baidoa. Yusuf blames the ICU and, more specifically, al-Qaeda. Ethiopia, a close ally of the president, condemned the attack, noting, "This act is intended to wreak havoc and bring more instability not only to Somalia and its fledgling Transitional Federal Institutions, but also to the entire region of the Horn of Africa." With the warlords pushed out of Mogadishu, tensions between the ICU and Transitional Federal Institutions are rising. The government held talks with the ICU in June, but backed out of a second round in July. The parliament voted in favor of an African Union peacekeeping force against the wishes of the ICU. The African Union approved a force of Ugandan and Sudanese peacekeepers, but experts say the arrival of these troops is unlikely.

The role of the Islamic courts is a highly significant component of the conflict. Courts imposing sharia (traditional Islamic law) have been active in Somalia since the mid-to-late 1990s. In a nation that has been largely anarchic for the last decade and a half, these courts became increasingly popular because they demonstrated their ability to provide some semblance of order. By early 2005, eleven of these tribunals had joined the ICU. Business owners began doling out funds to fund privately supported ICU militias in hopes of bringing about a moderate level of stability to relieve them of the seemingly unending conflict. With this financial and military backing, the ICU spread their area of control from central Somalia south towards the entirety of Mogadishu.

Recent reports suggest Mogadishu's residents are pleased with the ICU's rule. The warlords' militias were notorious for indiscriminate violence; women and girls were often raped and locals could not move about the city without fear of being killed. Since the ICU took control, experts say there are noticeably fewer guns on the streets, and people move freely throughout the city without fear of attack. Historically, Somalis have been resistant to more extreme forms of Islam, and some of the ICU's measures could well draw the ire of the populace. Cinemas have been banned, women have been pressured to wear veils, and people found watching the World Cup soccer tournament were reportedly beaten or fined and, in one instance, shot.

While the ICU is credited by some residents in Mogadishu as having clamped down on criminal activity in the city before the recent upsurge in violence, there are elements within the Islamist militia pushing for an Islamic state. The militias became increasingly powerful as a military force after Mogadishu's main warlords formed the Alliance for the Restoration of Peace and Counter-Terrorism this year. The alliance said it wished to root out al-Qaeda members being sheltered by the courts. The widespread fear is that the ICU will garner enough support and resources to institute a Taliban style regime as previously seen in Afghanistan.

Despite its name, the ARPCT probably does little to combat terrorism and is more interested in maintaining the lawless status quo in which the warlords thrive. The moniker is most likely an attempt to make the group appealing to Western governments, highlighting their battle against the spread of an Islamic militia. The scheme seems to have worked. In June there were widespread reports the United States was providing financial support to the ARPCT. These reports resulted in a surge of support for the Islamic courts among residents of Mogadishu, who hold the warlords largely responsible for the rampant rapes and murders in the capital. Since their ouster at the hands of the Islamists, experts say the warlords who comprised the ARPCT have been largely marginalized.

Somalia's highly unstable political system and factionalized social structures only serve to worsen the already horrific situation the people of Somalia are forced to face and endure. This two-decade long civil war has been borne on the backs of the innocents: families that have been dislocated; children in poverty and on the verge of death and the countless individuals who begin to wonder if the hell they live in is the way the wider world really is. The people of Somalia can do nothing but stand idly by and watch any semblance of stability and happiness ripped from their very beings, leaving them powerless.

Every year, Somalia is among the lowest ranked of the 163 countries in the Human Development Index compiled by the United Nations Development Program. It currently ranks at 161. One in four Somali children will die before the age of 5; fewer than 25 percent of Somalis have access to clean water; 2.6 percent of all citizens make it past the age of sixty-five, and of the twenty-two percent of children who are enrolled in primary school, only one in eight is a girl.
By all estimates Somalia can be seen as a failed state, a fourth world region that has lost potential for social and economic development. But we cannot write off an entire civilization of people just because the barriers seem too formidable to penetrate. Many people will ask why not. Why is it in the interest of the global community, let alone our own, to save a population of people that lack the resources toward achieving social advancement? Is it not better to let these people perish than have them survive through such depravity and poverty?

The answer here lies in the resilience of the human spirit and the fact that we are all human as well. This is a question of morality and basic human dignity. Somalia is similar to many of its African brethren; while they have all experienced massive depravity, they share hope, believing that someone will come and save them. These people are not going anywhere. They will remain where they stand no matter how much turmoil they incur.

While countries like Uganda, Sudan, and Ethiopia receive billions of dollars in aid from various intergovernmental and supranational coalitions, Somalia is still largely ignored. This cannot continue. There needs to be a cohesive international contingency that brings forth various rich powers under the cloak of the United Nations. Shuttle diplomacy has proven to be inadequate. Diplomacy must now be aggressive, with deals being made and rival factions being forced to compromise. Somalia's neighbors must no longer stir the conflict, and a UN-led mission must be established to implement political stability.

It is also important to bring the Africans in themselves. In conjunction with a strong international force, they can implement change. Furthermore, humanitarian access is a vital precondition to peace. Somalis crave education for their children, greater nutritional access and increased exposure to proper healthcare before peace. Due to these perceivably unrelenting problems and increased violence between the Islamists and the warlords, over 25,000 Somalis just this year alone have fled conflict in south and central Somalia and arrived in Kenya €" including more than 5,000 in September alone. One refugee said, "I walked for 45 days. I fled because of the violence in Somalia".

The mounting problems of AIDS, drought, education, the protection of Somalia's most vulnerable groups, unbelievable malnutrition, the lack of sustainable human resources, and the implementation of basic human rights need to be addressed immediately. A call to action must be heard and met with equal passion.

For the human soul, there is only so much grief one can take. As Americans and university students, we are incredibly fortunate to live in a society that fosters and promotes individual freedoms and civic values, which, of course, many of us take for granted. We have such a strong ability to induce change in this world. For this reason, humanity cannot afford to let this region of intense culture and beautiful history be forgotten.

Unfortunately, many of us find ourselves so immersed in our daily routines that we neglect to seek enrichment and insight on these "forgotten" societies. Why? Because it does not seem to directly affect our own ways of living. The sad truth is that what goes on in these regions greatly impacts not only our future, but that of posterity. It is our inherent duty to promote constructive discourse and seek tangible solutions to this pandemic virus. If we do not, we risk losing our own cultural ideals and freedoms.

After traveling throughout the world extensively for the past two years, witnessing and experiencing some of the most marginalized regions, I can say with confidence that amidst so much turmoil these peoples have their souls intact and they will not sell them for anything. The people of Somalia deserve freedom. No longer shall this ideal stay a fleeting reality.