What happened in Somalia?

Frederico

I still have very little idea what actually happened in Somalia recently. I know that a duck survived 2 days in a fridge and that Britney spears did something bad.

What I did hear was that for the first time there was relative peace in Mogadishu, then all of a sudden in the blink of an eye, Ethiopia appears to have what? invaded? retaliated? the Islamic courts are gone and the US is getting the boot in too.

Can anyone enlighten me?

DadaKopf

I'm sure your fingers can unleash the power of Google.

If not, try www.irinnews.org to keep up-to-date on humanitarian happenings in Africa, the Middle East and Asia.

It's a very complex situation, and there's a recent thread discussing it here somethere.

In a nutshell, Somalia is a broken country run by warlords, some of whom are Islamists. There's been a major conflict between the 'provisional government' and the 'Islamic courts' - the latter trying to establish Shariah rule in the country. Ethiopia got scared and, spurred on by the USA and it's War on Terror (TM), invaded in support of the 'provisional government' - first secretly, then unofficially, then officially and endorsed by the USA.

But Somalia is one of the poorest, drought-affected countries in the world, and has no functioning government. Many term it a 'failed state'.

A few days ago, it was reported that Ethiopian forces have left Mogadishu. While this may seem like a positive development, things remain uncertain. The African Union has pledged a peacekeeping force, but last I read, only Uganda promised any soldiers. Given the the diaster that was America's involvement in the 1990s, it's unlikely that a Western intervention force will be sent in. Not a bad thing if the African Union can maintain stability there themselves.

Zombrex

Frederico wrote:

I still have very little idea what actually happened in Somalia recently. I know that a duck survived 2 days in a fridge and that Britney spears did something bad.

What I did hear was that for the first time there was relative peace in Mogadishu, then all of a sudden in the blink of an eye, Ethiopia appears to have what? invaded? retaliated? the Islamic courts are gone and the US is getting the boot in too.

Can anyone enlighten me?

Basically the Islamists, who have been controlling the country for the last few months, attacked Ethiopian position which was really stupid considering Ethiopia has the largest army in Africa. No great surprise the Ethiopia army used that as an excuse to invade, with the help of US attack gun ships, and drove the Islamists into the sea (ie killed most of them).

The Ethiopian army say that they will withdraw from the country as soon as stability is restored. Unfortunately for the Somalians the Ethiopian/US idea of restoring stability is to restore the local warlords who don't exactly treat the local population with a whole lot of "liberal social democracy" respect.

So what is actually going to happen long term is still up in the air. Some think that anti-Ethiopian/anti-US/anti-warlord sentiment could see the Islamists regrouping and gaining popular support. Others think the country could descend into another bout of warlord on warlord in fighting.

NeverSayDie

This BBC page should provide some more info also:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/in_depth/africa/2004/somalia/default.stm

lostexpectation

Wicknight wrote:

Basically the Islamists, who have been controlling the country for the last few months, attacked Ethiopian position which was really stupid considering Ethiopia has the largest army in Africa. No great surprise the Ethiopia army used that as an excuse to invade, with the help of US attack gun ships, and drove the Islamists into the sea (ie killed most of them).

where was this position, ?

I gather the Somalia was messed unstable up country but now its our messed up even more unstable country.

Manic Moran

US involvement this time around has been primarily political and barrier in the sea. There have been three or four US strikes, but directed against targets of American interest (i.e. people involved in the Kenya bombing in 1998), not ones designed to particularly help the Ethiopians and Somali government.

About two weeks ago the African Union listed about six further countries that were going to deploy troops, including South Africa, which is a bit of a haul.

NTM

Zombrex

lostexpectation wrote:

where was this position, ?

Sorry, my mistake. I thought that is what it said in the Economist. But I can't find that repeated on the web, most reports say that they used a UN resolution as an excuse to invade.

adonis

Manic Moran wrote:

US involvement this time around has been primarily political and barrier in the sea. There have been three or four US strikes, but directed against targets of American interest (i.e. people involved in the Kenya bombing in 1998), not ones designed to particularly help the Ethiopians and Somali government.

About two weeks ago the African Union listed about six further countries that were going to deploy troops, including South Africa, which is a bit of a haul.

NTM

i thought they said that they didnt hit anyone they wanted to?

Manic Moran

I didn't say they hit, just that those were the targets!

NTM

Zambia

African Unioin troops have a reputaton of being under funded and seldom solve anything ...besides african countries are third world nations they cant afford protracted UN missons

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/5124608.stm

DadaKopf

That article from June 2006. That's ages ago. AU forces can also be kept alive by UN funding.

In anyways, there are positive spin-offs from increasing the capacity of the AU to police humanitarian crises in Africa. The strengthening of regional organisations such as the AU to tend to regional African affairs is a very important step in building the kind of human security needed to enable Africa to develop. It's politically, socially and economically counter-productive in the African context to continue to allow foreign troops to remind African societies how 'backward' they are. Many Africans put part of the blame for the continent's difficulties in its 'post-colonial' mindset, which many are trying to break through.

Sand

The good news is that Sudan is due to lead the AU in 2007, after it accepted a compromise in 2006. It might be dreadfully post-colonial of me to note thats like asking the Limerick gangs to join the Gardai.

I still have very little idea what actually happened in Somalia recently. I know that a duck survived 2 days in a fridge and that Britney spears did something bad.

What I did hear was that for the first time there was relative peace in Mogadishu, then all of a sudden in the blink of an eye, Ethiopia appears to have what? invaded? retaliated? the Islamic courts are gone and the US is getting the boot in too.

Can anyone enlighten me?

We live in an era of unrivaled information saturation. Google tbh. Do you expect the reporters to call round to your house to have a chat about it over tea and cakes?