A country in turmoil
Somalia has been a country in great turmoil since the ousting of the socialist dictator Said Bare in 1991 by the opposing clans which overthrew him. This led to the formation of the de-facto self declared Republic of Somaliland in the North and a war torn south, where violence between rival warlords has led to the killings of thousands of civilians and great displacements of its population internally. These situations have led to great human suffering and despair among its citizens with majority of its youth born into demoralizing sight of warfare and know nothing close to peace. Warfare to them has been the order of the day and killings a normal situation in life which they have had to live along with. The few who have managed to escape though were left with traumas for the rest of their lives. What they witnessed in their mother country and changed their lives, and they have never been the same since.
The situations in Somalia have been watched by the international community helplessly, with intervention proving futile with little or no success in trying to stabilising the war torn country. Each time an intervention is placed the internal situation worsens, like an insect’s metamorphosis it actually matures to a complex one. This has left the country’s southern part as a haven for terrorist and other war crimes activities.
This plight has captured the attention of the international community who have so far acted by intervening. This poses a question as to whether Somalia intervention is justified.
Responsible sovereignty
Responsible sovereignty is one of the latest customs of the 21st century and actually one of the greatest challenges of our times. It is simply based on the notion of partaking sovereignty as a responsibility. This concept was adopted in a 2005 world summit and was endorsed by the General Assembly and the Security Council. This concept is built on a three pillar concept:
- The first being that, states should protect their populations to include even non-citizens from genocide, war crimes, ethnic cleansing and from crimes against humanity.
- The second important pillar is the swiftness put in place to easily curb the four mentioned atrocities s, for instance there is no requirement of unanimity from the Security Council to act appropriately on cases of irresponsible sovereignty.
- The third pillar is UN members’ acceptance of their responsibility to respond in a timely and decisive manner, in accordance to the United Nation charter to help protect population from the four mentioned crimes and violations. The use of both pacific (peaceful) or forceful measures to salvage human populations from these crimes are applicable when necessary.
In this context Somalia find herself helpless from protecting its citizens from the above mentioned atrocities. This warrants intervention of the international community to meddle into their ‘sovereignty’.
The inability of Somalia to free their civilians from the forceful recruitment to the al-qaeda linked al-shabaab terrorist organisation that has threatened the existance of peace in the North Horn region of Africa. This has seen the intervention of African Union peace keepers, Ethiopian military in 2006 and most recently the Kenyan Defence Forces.
The inability of Somalia to free their civilians from the forceful recruitment to the al-qaeda linked al-shabaab terrorist organisation that has threatened the existance of peace in the North Horn region of Africa. This has seen the intervention of African Union peace keepers, Ethiopian military in 2006 and most recently the Kenyan Defence Forces.
Self defence
Kenya invoked article 51 of the United Nations charter as a legal basis for their actions in Somalia and had it that it plainly attacked the Al shabaab basically on matters of self defence as their right to do so and nothing else, and was to brief the security council on the issue. The article provide for the right of countries to engage in self-defence including collective self-defence against an armed attack. This is the same article the US used in killing Osama Bin Laden who was the head of the terrorist group Al-qaeda.
However the lack of the international community to really act swift to normalize the situation of the war torn country is what puzzles many, especially with the rise of concepts like democracy, human rights and now responsible sovereignty after the cold war. This gives scholars a ripe scope to look into, and perhaps to try and give us answers to that.
A show of concern
Somalia’s neighbours and her African partners have been the only interested actors in trying to act towards bringing peace to Somalia that has since be been labelled the black sheep of Africa. This may be attributed to the most disturbing acts ever committed by a country in response to humanitarian aid assistance. United States soldiers who were on a humanitarian mission and later on a ground operation labelled Operation Restore Hope were killed in a horrific manner. Somalis ungratefully video recorded themselves cheering in their streets to the dragging of killed US soldiers. This later on led to the mass exit of the American forces leaving the country in chaos and anarchy.
What A Peaceful Somalia Means To The World, and Her East African Neighbours
End of piracy
Piracy is one of the greatest effects felt by the international community as a result of anarchy in Somalia. The effects are felt by countries using the gulf of Eden as a conduit of their vessels to access their destination points. Majority of these vessels have been attacked and held hostage with their crew and huge amounts of ransoms asked from them. Statistics show that hijacked ships pay an average of $2 million per vessel and its crew. It is estimated that 80-120 ships get hijacked each year enabling the pirates to earn a whooping $200 million annually. This has forced other vessels to opt for other routes which are time consuming and expensive. This affects trade significantly and poses a great threat to the international community's well being. Piracy containment therefore means a lot to the international community.
Reduction of small arms proliferation
Conflict in Somalia and its continued control by militias has led to arms falling into the hands of many civilians. This has enabled easy proliferation of arms in her neighbors. Kenya for instance has suffered a great deal from this problem. Proliferation of arms has enabled the growth of armed violence crimes between Kenyan pastoral communities and has fuelled urban criminal activities. This is a major concern in any country that wants to uphold a stable society and that wants to sell herself as a safe hub for tourists and investors as Kenya and her East African partners are earnestly doing. Uganda and Sudan have also been a major consumer of small arms given the presence of militias in Uganda (The Lord’s Resistance Army) and war daring pastoral communities, the karamojong for instance. Sudan on the other side had been constantly on war and hence a weak Somalia meant easy access of arms for the factions that were engaging in liberation wars. A peaceful and a stable Somalia will enable management of small arms proliferation and access to unwanted groups and hence a peaceful Horn of Africa will come into existence.
A new market for commodities
A stable and peaceful Somalia will mean a lot to businesses all over the world. Multinational corporations and other regional business ventures will find a new opportunity to expand. This will mean a lot to both the people of Somalia and these business entities at large. The people of Somalia will benefit from diversity of new commodities; job creation and development of knew skill to their human resource. These will improve the living standards of her people and at the same time bring prosperity for the business ventures.
Reduction of refugee influx and human smuggling
With the persistence of conflict in Somalia there has been a major problem with displacement of her civilians from their homes and some being internally displaced persons within their own country (UNHCR 2011, 1.4 million people) while others fleeing to neighbouring countries in search for safe havens. This has seen a large influx of Somalis into Kenya, Ethiopia and Yemen illegally. Some even die on transit while being smuggled, with the case of Yemen where they travel by water an estimated 150 people died over a span of 3 weeks in 2005 while trying to make their journeys to Yemen, due to their boats capsizing and others getting tortured to death will in transit. Illegal entry to these countries further causes straining the few resources in those countries. The burgeoning numbers of refugees are also becoming a worry to the international community given the cost of sustaining a growing number with no hope of curbing the problem. The Daabab refugee in Kenya hosting mainly Somalis is the largest refugee camp in the world, with an estimated 440,000. 150,000 of the refugees came within a span of 4 months in 2011 after a drought that had affected the war torn country.
A peaceful Somalia will therefore mean that Somalis will have an opportunity to find ways of mitigating their own internal problems in a very amicable manner, may be with a little help from the international community.
Resettlement of Somalis
Achievement of peace in Somalia will enable the resettlement of the internally displaced persons and return of refugees back to their country. This will benefit the people of Somalia as they will have back their human resource, who will then help rebuild their shattered country. The return of the skilled personnel from all the parts of the world will be the greatest of them all.
The return of the refugees to will help ease the burden in they pose to the host countries in various aspects, population pressure, spread of diseases human smuggling and scarcity of resources pose a threat to provision of social amenities to the unregistered population. This will also help avert cases of xenophobic attacks in cases of heightened tensions as witnessed in South Africa.
Contingency of terrorism (al-qaeda linked al shabaab)
Instability in Somalia has provided terrorist groups a good opportunity to train and get natured ‘indoctrinated’ by terrorist groups. The main terrorist threats in Somalia are from the Al-qaeda linked Al-shabaab terrorist groups.
The Al shabaab group came into existence after the Ethiopian army invasion which was fighting against the Islamic Courts Union. They then split from them after being out powered by the Ethiopian forces in 2006. The group claims to be waging a jihad against ‘enemies of Islam’ and is engaged in daily combat with the Transitional Federal Government and the AMISOM (AU mission) in Somalia.
This terrorist group have so far committed a lot of terror acts within the East African region and within its capital Mogadishu acknowledging their actions. This terror group boasts of about 1200 foreign fighters from the Diaspora with 200 of them being non Somalis, this further make their containment complex. The Al shabaab have been accused lately of a terror attack in Uganda where 70 people were killed in a twin attack in July 2010. In 2011, with Kenyans invasion Somalia attacked a bus station with a hand grenade during a rush hour killing civilians. Other acts have been reported in the northern frontier with the terror group sympathizers terrorizing residents and engaging the police in shoot outs.
The regular ambush by the rag tagged militia to the Kenyan security agents between the Kenya-Somali borders and the recent abductions and killings of foreign tourist in Kenya forced Kenya to invoke a UN provision to go after these terrorist militia. Kenya has so far received a major backing from the international community and her concerned neighbours both willing to offer support.
The AMISOM troops have so far managed to seize the capital city Mogadishu and their Kenyan counter parts are bracing themselves to seize the Southern part of Somalia with key targets being their training grounds and main and source of income the Kismayu port, which also serves as their escape points and a key source of their naval strength. The Kenyan defence forces victory will determine the future of these terrorist militias.
Economic boom for the threatened tourism in Kenya and Tanzania
A realization of a stable Somalia will mean a lot to the tourism industries within the East African region which boasts a major tourist destination in Africa. Majority of western countries have already issued travel warnings to tourists visiting Kenya for their holiday, which is a wreck to its tourism industry which is one of the main sources of foreign earnings to both Kenya and Tanzania.
With the curbing of the terrorism menace by the al shabaab Kenya and her East African counter parts will have a lot to reap from, the tourism industry being one of them.
End result
A peaceful Somalia means a lot to the world and will be viewed as a great success to humanity at large. To achieve peace in Somalia though will be a great task given that there are peaceful regions and conflicting ones. Merging them will be difficult. An intelligent approach is therefore needed, one with its own touch (from the Somalis themselves).
Capacity building is also necessary to enable the understanding that they are in control of their own destiny. Good governance should also be stressed with inclusive system of governance to enable all to participate in governance.
Nurturance by her neighbours will also be vital with the help of the international community especially on governance and leadership. Provision of development aid is also another aspect that needs to be looked in to. Africans therefore need to establish a ‘Marshall plan’ for Somalia to assist her pick up and stand on her feet once again. This will motivate refugees to return back to their homeland, with hope and a future to hold on to.
Otherwise the world and especially her neighbors will be sitting on a time-bomb ready to go off any time and the impact will leave nothing to smile about.
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