It was a question worth killing over, in the minds of some Somali Islamic extremists. In May, Ahmed Omar Hashi, a reporter for Mogadishu's Radio Shabelle asked Eritrean President Isaias Afwerki to explain his country's support for al-Shabab, the hardline Somali Islamic group. Afwerki explained that Eritrea only wanted to enable "Somali nationalists" in their efforts at "ensuring Somali unity, sovereignty and independence." Just days prior to the interview, which took place in the Eritrean capital of Asmara, al-Shabab had launched a major assault on the Western-backed Transitional Federal Government in Mogadishu. The attack came as moderate Islamist Sharif Sheikh Ahmed -- elected as president of the TFG in January and a personal and ideological rival of Al-Shabab leader Sheikh Hassan Dahir Aweys -- was beginning to move major elements of the TFG administration to Mogadishu, from their hideouts abroad. President Afwerki's reply to Hashi was a softball answer to a softball question. But that didn't matter to the Mogadishu-based Islamic extremists, who later called Hashi on his cell phone, accusing him of spreading lies about al-Shabab, and threatening to kill him. They almost made good on their threat. On June 7, gunmen attacked Hashi and a colleague, Moqtar Hirabe, while th
e two were walking in Mogadishu's Bakara Market. Hirabe, Radio Shabelle's widely respected director, died in the attack; Hashi sustained injuries to his hand and stomach, but survived. As Hashi was recuperating in a neighboring country, his attackers e-mailed him. "Neither a Muslim nor a Christian can give you safe haven," their message said. "And we know the people you were working with and the propaganda that you are waging." Al-Shabab's reaction to Hashi's reporting is indicative of a mounting identity crisis inside the hardline group. Al-Shabab insists it is fighting for a Somalia governed only by Somalis, and has declared the TFG a "puppet" of Western powers, particularly the U.S. and the U.K. To be sure, the TFG counts on high levels of foreign assistance, from arms to protection by a 5,000-strong African Union peacekeeping force. But al-Shabab, too, relies on recruits, cash and weapons shipments from other countries, especially Eritrea. Neither side likes to admit it, but Somalia's combatants are, to varying degrees, proxies for foreign powers, each with their own agendas. "This is an international war," Somali peace activist Abdullahi Shirwa said two years ago, at a time when Somalia was occupied by as many as 50,000 Ethiopian troops. The Ethiopians had invaded Somalia, with U.S. support, on the pretext of preventing the "Talibanization" of the country. Addis Ababa withdrew its forces earlier this year, but Shirwa's assessment is no less true today. The U.S., the U.N., the African Union, Ethiopia and Eritrea, all have a major stake in the current fighting. ..more..
http://www.worldpoliticsreview.com/article.aspx?id=4040
It was a question worth killing over, in the minds of some Somali Islamic extremists. In May, Ahmed Omar Hashi, a reporter for Mogadishu's Radio Shabelle asked Eritrean President Isaias Afwerki to explain his country's support for al-Shabab, the hardline Somali Islamic group. Afwerki explained that Eritrea only wanted to enable "Somali nationalists" in their efforts at "ensuring Somali unity, sovereignty and independence." Just days prior to the interview, which took place in the Eritrean capital of Asmara, al-Shabab had launched a major assault on the Western-backed Transitional Federal Government in Mogadishu. The attack came as moderate Islamist Sharif Sheikh Ahmed -- elected as president of the TFG in January and a personal and ideological rival of Al-Shabab leader Sheikh Hassan Dahir Aweys -- was beginning to move major elements of the TFG administration to Mogadishu, from their hideouts abroad. President Afwerki's reply to Hashi was a softball answer to a softball question. But that didn't matter to the Mogadishu-based Islamic extremists, who later called Hashi on his cell phone, accusing him of spreading lies about al-Shabab, and threatening to kill him. They almost made good on their threat. On June 7, gunmen attacked Hashi and a colleague, Moqtar Hirabe, while th
e two were walking in Mogadishu's Bakara Market. Hirabe, Radio Shabelle's widely respected director, died in the attack; Hashi sustained injuries to his hand and stomach, but survived. As Hashi was recuperating in a neighboring country, his attackers e-mailed him. "Neither a Muslim nor a Christian can give you safe haven," their message said. "And we know the people you were working with and the propaganda that you are waging." Al-Shabab's reaction to Hashi's reporting is indicative of a mounting identity crisis inside the hardline group. Al-Shabab insists it is fighting for a Somalia governed only by Somalis, and has declared the TFG a "puppet" of Western powers, particularly the U.S. and the U.K. To be sure, the TFG counts on high levels of foreign assistance, from arms to protection by a 5,000-strong African Union peacekeeping force. But al-Shabab, too, relies on recruits, cash and weapons shipments from other countries, especially Eritrea. Neither side likes to admit it, but Somalia's combatants are, to varying degrees, proxies for foreign powers, each with their own agendas. "This is an international war," Somali peace activist Abdullahi Shirwa said two years ago, at a time when Somalia was occupied by as many as 50,000 Ethiopian troops. The Ethiopians had invaded Somalia, with U.S. support, on the pretext of preventing the "Talibanization" of the country. Addis Ababa withdrew its forces earlier this year, but Shirwa's assessment is no less true today. The U.S., the U.N., the African Union, Ethiopia and Eritrea, all have a major stake in the current fighting. ..more..http://www.worldpoliticsreview.com/article.aspx?id=4040
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