Warlords in Somalia

The tragic situation in Somalia has attracted a renewed global attention. And as a concerned Somali citizen, I share my people’s desire for a restoration of peace and stability in their home country. Opposing sides of Somali conflict currently in Djibouti ought to show a reasonable level of national responsibility in a time of grave crisis and become serious to bring about a peaceful settlement.

 

Peace is the essence of life; the key to development and dignified life. Somali people generally, South in particular, have been deprived of this basic right for the better part of the last 18 years with the exception of the few months in 2006 under IUC. Everyone knows whom were (still are though not readily visible) the root cause of this national tragedy; dark and evil forces of warlords, who erected all kinds of stumbling blocks towards reconciliation and commitment to peaceful settlement. And as a direct consequence, Somalia today is under virtual occupation. Globally, Somalia, once a proud nation, has earned an unenviable image of being a place of human degradation. Conditions have further deteriorated significantly since the invasion of Ethiopian forces. In addition to bullets, people are dying for easily treatable diseases like malaria, diarrhoea, etc. More people will definitely suffer for malnutrition as a result of abject poverty exacerbated by global food crisis.  

 

To emerge from such a disastrous situation, there must be wise men and women who can get their act together to formulate Somali-owned conflict resolution approach. There is a growing consensus among Somali affairs commentators that while international community can, to some extent, act as facilitators; it will not be able to solve our tragic situation. Somalis alone can solve their problems. We should not be wasting our time and limited resources to blame others, including our neighbors namely Ethiopia. What is needed is a genuine attempt to device strategy (ies) to solve our internal conflict and tribal or ideological divisions.

 

Ask yourself and reflect upon the following questions:-

 

Why didn’t the international community in the first place, rush to try and save Somalia from faltering, the same way they did with our neighboring Ethiopia? Why weren’t people like Kofi Annan sent to bolster this seemingly important peace conference in Djibouti, the same way he was sent to Kenya to help resolve recent political conflict? Why aren’t Ms. Frazer and Ms. Rice endorsing it? More importantly, why is Eritrea reportedly amassing her troops at the Djibouti border? Is it to intimidate that small nation because they host potential Somali peace conference? More relevant perhaps is the unexpected position of Asmara group; that they did not come to Djibouti to meet the so-called TFG but to meet international community.

 

These are all critical questions and in the quest for suitable answers perhaps lies understanding the nature of our problems in relation to regional and international dimensions. We, Somalis, should realize that the constant interferences (political or militarily) of regional governments with obvious conflicting interests will only protract our people’s suffering.  

 

Dialogue is the only way we can get out of our present mess. We Somalis must put our house in order.

 

By Abdirashid Elmi,

Somali-Canadian teaching at Kuwait University.