Somali Authority From The Barrel Of A Gun

Up to 7,000 African Union troops help prop up the Somali government

The Somali government's authority, which comes only from the barrel of a gun,stretches for several hundred yards from the presidential palace in the capital Mogadishu and then ends.

After that a whole range of militias, Islamist groups, pirates and regional warlords control different parts of the country at different times.

What passes as executive power, led by President Sharif Sheikh Ahmed, is called the Transitional Federal Government, which as the name suggests is supposed to control the country as it transits from anarchy to stability.

It is propped up by 7,000 African Union forces without which it would be overrun in a weekend.

The majority of Mogadishu, and most of southern Somalia, is controlled by the Islamist groups al Shabaab and Hisbul Islam. Al Shabaab has links with al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) across the gulf of Aden in Yemen.

The regions of Puntland and Somaliland effectively run their own affairs.

In and among these factions is a clan system which further breaks down central control.

Hardline Islamist fighters from al Shabaab on the streets of Mogadishu

It has been this way since 1991 when the then president, Siad Barre, fled the country leaving it to the ravages of several clan based gangs who have no loyalty to the idea of a single state called Somalia.

So while the country now has a government in name, and a presidential palace, in effect there is no government because central authority runs for about four square miles.

This negates tax collection, forming an army, a national police force, judiciary building infrastructure, and having laws which are enforced across a defined geographical area.

A new cabinet was named on Friday consisting of just 18 ministers.

Several members live abroad and several others are relative unknowns with few lines of communication to either the African Union or the warlords.

There are few reasons to suggest that Somalia is destined to transition from a failed state to a functioning one.

Source: news.sky.com