Region Wary As Somalia Threatens to Degenerate

The insecurity in Somalia is fast threatening regional peace, with calls for international intervention to avert a continental crisis.Kenya, Ethiopia and Djibouti are at most risk because of their porous borders, the proliferation of small arms and the ongoing recruitment of young people from these countries into the Al-Shabaab militia s the militia group pull off a flurry of takeovers of areas previously controlled by the government, the United Nations-supported African Mission in Somalia (Amisom) are in danger of being overwhelmed.While Al-Shabaab is getting stronger, the Sheikh Sharif Ahmed-led transitional government currently controls only two of the 16 districts in Mogadishu -- Wadajir and Darkabley.Al-Shabaab's strongholds are Bakara market, Heliwa, Yaqshid.Amison controls the airport, the seaport and the area around the presidential palace.President Sheikh Shariff Ahmed, Speaker of the National Assembly Osman Elmi Boqore and the Prime Minister Omar Abdulrashid Sharmarke are all guarded around the clock by Amisom.Meanwhile, some officials are supplying Al-Shabaab with arms diverted from the government troops.Recently, Kenyan authorities arrested seven Somali nationals at Kilindini harbour with an assortment of arms including rocket launchers, grenades and AK-47s, clear evidence that small arms from the war-torn Horn of Africa country are already flowing within the region.Despite the threat, Kenya and Ethiopia, as the frontline states, were barred by the 2004 peace agreement from direct military intervention in Somalia because of conflict of interest.The Ethiopian intervention in 2006 went against this mutual agreement.