The world is hardly coping with the two-decade political crisis in Somalia. What was initially ignored as the country’s internal problem has assumed a life of its own, with piracy and terrorism assuming transnational dimensions.
Piracy and illegal trade especially have become lucrative activities whose control, the cartels that benefit from them would not like to relinquish. Nowhere on earth has there been such breakdown of law and order in recent history.
The insecurity Somalia poses in the Horn of Africa and the rest of the world is likely to escalate following the recent deal between pirates and Al Shabaab for a 20 per cent charge for ransom paid for hijacked ships. Apart from the insecurity that the political crisis poses both within and outside Somalia, the citizens of that country have had to bear the brunt of the anarchy. The current famine is so severe that most families do not have adequate food rations and are likely to resort to selling their assets to get a morsel of bread and yet because of insecurity, it takes long before relief food can reach those that deserve it. Whole generations of young people have grown up without an education and the country lags behind in vaccination as children succumb to preventable and treatable common ailments. The crisis is descending to the realm of a cataclysm.
Attempts to end the Somalia crisis have collapsed mainly because the peace processes have not involved all stakeholders and especially the people.
The highly ineffective and quarrelsome Transitional Federal Government that has been propped up by the international community, and whose mandate is ending in August, has not achieved the desired results because it lacks public goodwill.
When it was formed in 2004, the TFG presented the best hope of a caretaker government that would help Somalia on the way to peace. However, the leadership — that mainly comprised former warlords — soon took to perpetual wrangling and infighting based on personal and clan interests. The leaders were insensitive to the desires and aspirations of the common people of Somalia.
Realising that the TFG was weak and fragmented, militia groups rearmed and expanded their military influence, leaving the government in control of only the airport, the presidential palace, and a few streets in Mogadishu.
Military support by the United Nations was too little too late.
But previous failures to set up a working government in Somalia should not stop the international community from pursuing a solution for the country first, and foremost for the citizens of that country.
As the President of Ghana, John Atta Mills observed during the just-concluded peace summit in Accra, the leadership vacuum in Somalia must be filled.
Future efforts at helping Somalia set up a working government should be all-inclusive. The international community must appreciate that Somalis are coming from a past where a strong, centralised government controlled resources and sidelined other clans. Any future government should include a strong devolution component where power is shared between the centre and the grassroots. Peaceful enclaves like Puntland and Somaliland should also be incorporated in the efforts to bring stability.
Every effort should be made to bring all stakeholders to the negotiating table. This should lead to first and foremost a declaration of a ceasefire that would hopefully end hostilities.
Somalis must appreciate that without disarmament insecurity will continue to undermine their quest to build a peaceful and stable country that respects the rule of law and human rights.
The international community must ensure that the next caretaker team gets all the logistical support to set up structures for elections where the people would participate freely.
Somalis have seen the effects of poor and selfish leadership and the onus is on them to stand up to impunity and demand accountability.
Source: The Standard
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