Somalia: not piracy catch all thread
13 May Washington Post commentary - Ethiopia's Iraq by David Ignatius.
Quote:
"Get it done quickly and get out." That, says a senior U.S. diplomat here, was the goal of the little-noticed war that Ethiopia has been fighting, with American support, against Islamic extremists in Somalia. But this in-and-out strategy encounters the same real-world obstacles that America is facing in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Conflict is less the problem than what comes after it. That's the dilemma that America and its allies are discovering in a world where war-fighting and nation-building have become perversely mixed. It took the Ethiopians just a week to drive a Muslim radical movement known as the Islamic Courts from Mogadishu in December. The hard part wasn't chasing the enemy from the capital but putting the country back together...
Somalia: not piracy catch all thread
3 June Washington Post - U.S. Warship Fires Missiles at Fighters in Somalia by Stephanie McCrummen.
Quote:
A U.S. Navy destroyer launched an attack on foreign fighters in a remote corner of northeastern Somalia late Friday, according to a senior U.S. official, though details of the operation remained sketchy.
The bombardment was concentrated in and around the port town of Bargaal, the official said Saturday, speaking on condition of anonymity because the information is classified...
Somalia Continues its Political Collapse
14 June Power and Interest News Report - Somalia Continues its Political Collapse by Dr. Michael A. Weinstein.
Quote:
... Somalia's weak and internationally recognized Transitional Federal Government (T.F.G.) continues to be a severely impaired participant in the country's multiple conflicts, facing a chronic insurgency in its official capital Mogadishu; unrest, lawlessness and failing control in the country's regions; and inadequate funding from international donors, on which it depends for its financial survival. Ethiopia, on which the T.F.G. depends for military protection, has been over-strained financially and is anxious to withdraw its forces, yet their replacement by an 8,000 member African Union (A.U.) peacekeeping mission (AMISOM) has yet to materialize, except for a contingent of 1,500 Ugandan troops, which have withdrawn to guard duty at Mogadishu's airport and seaport, and at government facilities, after one of its convoys was attacked on May 16.
Despite efforts by the T.F.G. to gain control of Mogadishu through a crackdown on armed opposition, closure of independent media outlets and arrests of leaders of the Hawiye clan, which is distrustful of the Darod-dominated T.F.G., the city remains insecure. Although donor states and international organizations have edged toward providing the T.F.G. with greater financial support, the transitional authority still lacks the resources to govern...
Eritrea 'Arming' Somali Militia
28 July BBC - Eritrea 'Arming' Somali Militia.
Quote:
Insurgents in Somalia have received huge numbers of weapons in secret shipments from Eritrea, the UN says.
There are now more arms in Somalia than at any time since the civil war started in 1991, the UN report says.
Eritrea, which has repeatedly denied aiding the insurgents, dismissed the report as a "total fabrication"...
Mujahideen in Somalia (w/fighter from U.S.) [al-Jazeera]
For those who know Arabic and wish to know...
Interesting al-Jazeera video of the Mujahideen fighting in Somalia... Nearly at the end you can see a video of a Muslim fighter from America fighting side by side with his Somali brothers.
http://www.aljazeera.net/mritems/str...19191_1_12.wmv
Somalia - President hospitilized
It could get really worse their if he dies or somehow becomes incapable of performing his duties. It will be just going back to 2003 again. May be we will see the rise of the Islamist Militias again as the real power in Somalia.
Whatever the case, I think its tragic for my homeland.