Somalia update

[Rex Brynen]

New York Times
Somalia Worst Humanitarian Crisis in Africa, U.N. Says (http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/20/world/africa/20somalia.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin)

AFGOOYE, Somalia, Nov. 19 — The worst humanitarian crisis in Africa may not be unfolding in Darfur, but here, along a 20-mile strip of busted-up asphalt, several top United Nations officials said.

A year ago, the road between the market town of Afgooye and the capital of Mogadishu was just another typical Somali byway, lined with overgrown cactuses and the occasional bullet-riddled building. Now it is a corridor teeming with misery, with 200,000 recently displaced people crammed into swelling camps that are rapidly running out of food.

...

Top United Nations officials who specialize in Somalia said the country had higher malnutrition rates, more current bloodshed and fewer aid workers than Darfur, which is often publicized as the world’s most pressing humanitarian crisis and has taken clear priority in terms of getting peacekeepers and aid money.

The relentless urban combat in Mogadishu, between an unpopular transitional government — installed partially with American help — and a determined Islamist insurgency, has driven waves of desperate people up the Afgooye road, where more than 70 camps of twigs and plastic have popped up seemingly overnight.

[tequila]

Something tells me that the Ethiopians will soon be knocking on Washington's door, looking for some kind of deal like the Pakistani Army is receiving now. Given a possible war with Eritrea, current "counterinsurgency" in the Ogaden, and brewing urban guerrilla war in Somalia, the Ethiopians will be in search of handouts. One wonders if we will be as recklessly generous as we have been with the Pakistani military --- thankfully the Ethiopians don't have a nuclear project or two to enable.

[SteveMetz]

Something tells me that the Ethiopians will soon be knocking on Washington's door, looking for some kind of deal like the Pakistani Army is receiving now. Given a possible war with Eritrea, current "counterinsurgency" in the Ogaden, and brewing urban guerrilla war in Somalia, the Ethiopians will be in search of handouts. One wonders if we will be as recklessly generous as we have been with the Pakistani military --- thankfully the Ethiopians don't have a nuclear project or two to enable.

FMF to Ethiopia has been declining (http://www.state.gov/t/pm/64657.htm) recently with IMET increasingly slightly. I think you hit the nail on the head--there are four things that generate extensive security assistance from the United States: 1) having a significant AQ presence; 2) having nukes; 3) producing narcotics; 4) being Israel or a threat to Israel.

From Ethiopia's perspective, that's 0 for 4. But maybe the creation of AFRICOM will help.

[Mark O'Neill]

FMF to Ethiopia has been declining (http://www.state.gov/t/pm/64657.htm) recently with IMET increasingly slightly. I think you hit the nail on the head--there are four things that generate extensive security assistance from the United States: 1) having a significant AQ presence; 2) having nukes; 3) producing narcotics; 4) being Israel or a threat to Israel.

From Ethiopia's perspective, that's 0 for 4. But maybe the creation of AFRICOM will help.

Target Round, out.

[tequila]

I think they will strain to provide (1) as much as possible. Worked during the invasion in 2006, after all.

[Beelzebubalicious]

Maybe someone can help me understand something here. When the ICU was in power, they were fundamentalists who installed Sharia Law. I understand that there were extremist elements of the ICU who supported terrorism. To what extent were the extremists opposed/supported by the broader ICU? I want to break down and differentiate Islamic Fundamentalism and Islamic extremism/terrorism.

In terms of stability and security, was a fundamentalist Islamic state under ICU better than the umpteen transitional governments that have ruled in the last 15 years?

[wm]

In terms of stability and security, was a fundamentalist Islamic state under ICU better than the umpteen transitional governments that have ruled in the last 15 years?

Not if one thinks that the only appropriate connection between church and state is a Christian connection (and that Christianity can probably be more narrowly defined as some subspecies of fundamental Protestantism that looks a lot like early Calvinism).

[Tom Odom]

Target Round, out.

Repeat, over.

[JJackson]

Islamist spokesman Sheikh Mukhtar Robow said the US was trying to hit Islamist hideouts in the area.

"The Americans bombed the town and hit civilians targets thinking that they were Islamist hideouts. They used an AC-130 plane," he told the AFP news agency.

Local official Ali Hussein told the BBC that many people were fleeing the town.

The border with Kenya has been closed for the past year.


Full story http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/7274462.stm