We watch Somalia fail at our peril

While the world has focused on tackling the problems of Somali piracy, too little has been done to tackle the cause of the problem afflicting the Horn of Africa: endemic political unrest. The country has lurched from conflict to conflict, partly because of ineffective assistance or, at times, unproductive interference from other nations.The previous conflict between the transitional interim government and an Islamist insurgency ended with election of the Islamic Courts Union’s (ICU) leader Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed as president. But the ICU is now embroiled in civil war with former comrades. Rife with inter-clan rivalries and feuds, the country would have struggled to forge a nation even without the meddling of external powers in its domestic affairs. That is perhaps why the world is so reticent to intervene in the current conflict, preferring to let Somalia solve its own problems for once in its history. But at this point the country is incapable of doing so, and the world must now intervene or suffer the consequences of yet another state failure in Somalia.
Efforts to broker political reconciliation achieved a breakthrough in January when Sheikh Ahmed was elected president. But his movement, a conglomerate of religious figures and businessmen, had been engaged in war with the former government and Ethiopian forces for years – and soon after his election his former comrades in al Shabaab and Hizbul Islam took up arms against his government, considering his reconciliation an act of treason.
Now the country is again on the brink of collapse, having squandered yet another opportunity for stability. More than 100,000 people have been displaced in the past month alone. The conflict has spread to regions untouched by the previous conflict, and aid agencies are struggling to operate amid the current violence. Sheikh Ahmed has asked for international assistance in his fight against the militants, even extending a hand to Ethiopia, his former foe. The Somali government’s battle with rebels must be going badly indeed if it is asking the Ethiopians to return...more..http://www.thenational.ae/article/20090623/OPINION/706229906