Let's Get Serious On the Somalia Problem

December 19, 2005
Posted to the web December 19, 2005

Abdul Ratif
Nairobi

A small incident went largely unnoticed last week. A Somali national was arrested with a rocket launcher in Wajir.

Even a rudimentary knowledge of weaponry should indicate that a rocket launcher is not your ordinary type of weapon.

That leads to the question: Is the world paying enough attention to the security problem posed by Somalia - the country that is now known as a "stateless nation?"

A recent report by the Italian intelligence warned that Somalia was fast becoming the base for international terrorists.

It said European al-Qaeda cells had operation bases in Somalia, and that it was using Somalia to expand operation bases into Kenya, Ethiopia, Eritrea, and Uganda.

You can trust Italians on matters related to Somalia. They know the terrain as a former colonial power.

But Italian intelligence report aside, there has been ample evidence that Somalia tops the charts as the biggest threat to world security.

Coast-line a no-go zone

In the last few weeks, Somalis have opened a new front in terrorism - sea piracy. At the moment, the Somali coast-line is a no-go zone after Somali bandits seized a UN-chartered ship, two Kenyan vessels, and an Egyptian freighter.

If unchecked, the threat could spread all the way from Oman to Durban. British maritime companies are already lobbying to have the Horn of Africa coast-line declared a war-zone.

Other recent terrorist "exports" from Somalia include the July bombing in London where two of the culprits were two Somalis with British passports.

Somalia was also the planning base for the August 1998 bombing of the US embassies in Nairobi and Dar es Salaam, and the 2002 terror attack on Mombasa's Paradise Hotel.

It is an open secret that one can purchase any weapon - from a pistol to a rocket launcher - in midtown Mogadishu in broad daylight and at a "reasonable" price.

Forged Somali passports are also available at as little as $10. Indeed, passport "manufacture" and sale of weapons are the most vibrant concerns in Mogadishu.

The Italian intelligence report said terrorist cells have been taking advantage of the instability and unmanageable borders of Horn of Africa countries to spread their tentacles. They are already active in Ethiopia and Eritrea, the report said. The situation might get worse should the two countries go to war as they are threatening to do.

Terrorist cells are also likely to take advantage of security loopholes in other Horn of Africa countries. Though peace has returned to the Sudan, the Khartoum Government is yet to have a tight grip on the huge southern expanse suffering from years of war.

So back to the earlier question: Is the world paying enough attention to the Somali question? Not quite.

Some background is necessary. When violence erupted in Somalia in 1991, the world watched with detached interest. It was only after two years when Mogadishu had literally turned into a slaughter-house that the world moved in.

The US sent troops to buttress the out-gunned UN peace-keepers dispatched earlier. But by then, the patient was too sick for treatment and both UN and US missions were recalled in a hurry.

After that humiliation, the world once again turned a blind eye on Somalia.

It was only after the 1998 bombing of the US embassies in East Africa that the world woke up to the dangers posed by the stateless country.

This led to re-activation of efforts to bring the warring Somali factions to a round table. After six years of hard bargains, the efforts culminated in the election of a Somali president and Parliament late last year.

But alas! Once again the world went back into deep slumber. The Somali president-elect, Abdullahi Yusuf, is a tenant at some Nairobi suburb, unable to set foot in his own country.

When his prime minister travelled to Mogadishu and made to address a crowd early in the year, they hauled a bomb at him. He fled back to Nairobi and has never returned.

Kenya getting fed up

Yet, nobody is talking about the need to facilitate the installation of a government in Somalia. Even Kenya appears fed up with the matter and has opted to concentrate on its own political problems. Iggad is not saying anything. The African Union and the UN too seem to have wiped off the name, Somalia, from their records.

So where do we start? Inevitably, charity must begin at home. Addressing a regional heads of intelligence meeting in Khartoum two months ago, Kenya's head of intelligence, Mr Wilson Boinnet, said the countries in the region need to see terrorism as an invasion and declare a conventional war on it.

So how about a regional army to install a Somali government in-exile and keep peace in the style of Ecomog forces in Liberia? Can Iggad organise what Ecowas did in Liberia?

Installing a government in the stateless Somalia is no doubt the first and most important step in dismantling terrorist cells.

That is where the world comes in. Iggad may not have the resources to storm Mogadishu. But surely, the world should help. It is in the interest of humanity to contain the terrorist threat posed by Somalia.

In the meantime, the world's most able countries should help countries in the Horn of Africa to mount interim measures to counter terrorism. This should include the capacity to keep tabs on terrorist activities and to pre-empt them.

the nation