Sunday, October 4, 2009 Somalia has existed without a central government since 1991. The country has been in the news frequently as pirates continue to operate in its waters and Al Qaeda continues to strengthen ties with indigenous militant groups.
Al Shabab, the most powerful militant group in the country, has released a video in which its leaders profess their allegiance to Al Qaeda. The group has been designated a terrorist organization by the US State Department and has been the focus of armed intervention sponsored by the U.S., Ethiopia, and the African Union. Al Shabab, like other militant groups in Somalia, supports a brutal form of Islamic governance. On Feb 28, Transitional President Sheikh Sharif Ahmed offered militants concessions by mandating Sharia Law for the country in exchange for a truce. That peace was broken by renewed militant attacks.
While Islamist militant groups continue to battle towards re-taking the capital of Mogadishu, they also continue to battle each other. Members of Al-Shabab and Hisb-Ul-Islam are currently fighting for control of the southern port city of Kismayo. At the beginning of the year it had been rumored that these groups were seeking a merger.
President Obama re-introduced direct U.S. intervention in Somalia when he sanctioned a commando helicopter raid that struck a Al-Shabab convoy in the southern province of Barawe District in September. In response to this provocation, Al-Shabab struck the Africa Unionmission headquarters at the Mogadishu Airport with suicide bombers driving stolen UN vehicles. It should be noted that the current AU President-Libyan leader Omar Qaddafi, in a highly destructive move against the legitimacy of the African Union, has publicly defended the activities of Somali pirates.
While the African Union presence continues to perform with limited effectiveness, Ethiopian troops have returned to Somalia to assist with anti-terrorism operations.
The United Nations has sanctioned an international arms embargo since civil war erupted in the country in 1992. But recent reports have uncovered the US successfully petitioned the UN to bypass the embargo and ship over 40 tons of guns and ammo, along with bags of cash-to support the Transitional Federal Government's fight to recapture the country. The only problem is that as 14,000 of the 17,000 TFG soldiers deserted last year, those weapons found their way onto the open market and into the hands of insurgents. Concern for misappropriated resources has also led the US to suspend food aid from Somalia.
Piracy sourced in the region also remains a critical concern for the international community. Somali pirates have been attacking high-value shipping lanes in the Gulf of Aden, disrupting global energy shipments. It should be noted that piracy evolved in the region as an organic response to the exploitation of Somalia's maritime economic zone. Most pirates are unemployed fishermen and dock workers who lost their jobs as a result of the destruction of the country's fisheries by international fishing companies and the illegal dumping of nuclear waste.
And while the background to this conflict should always be remembered, it should also be pointed out that anti-piracy operations provide a low-risk, high-value international effort for foreign military cooperation. Iran has been operating alongside the US; the US has assisted North Korean ships; the US and China have an opportunity to work together.
The Spanish Navy recently boarded a captured fishing vessel, and the EU has reconfirmed its dedication to anti-piracy operations, which it is conducting in coordination with naval forces from the United States, NATO, China, Japan, and South Korea.
The situation in Somalia is multi-faceted and tenuous; stay tuned. Events unfolding in the Horn of Africa are serving as a crucible for the theoretical linkages between global economic security and terrorism, between failed states and terrorism, and between evolving conceptions of state sovereignty and internationalist intervention.
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