During an African Union summit
July 25-27 in Kampala, the Ugandan capital, U.S. and AU officials expressed
continued support for the AU “peacekeeping” mission, with Guinea pledging 2,000
additional troops. This continued support comes at a time when the “African
Union Mission in Somalia” troops have been criticized from a number of quarters for
their deliberate and routine shelling of civilian areas.
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The Transitional Federal Government has no legitimacy or
governing capacity and relies totally on AU troops to defend a very small area
directly around the presidential palace. According to some reports, fighters
from one of the government’s primary antagonists, Al Shabab, are only 300 yards
away from the palace.
Al Shabab, the larger of the two
main hard-line Islamic opponents of the government, controls most of Mogadishu,
including the central Bakara Market. In response to mortar fire from populated
areas such as the market, AU forces fire indiscriminately causing civilian
causalities. A recent AU report called for “urgent attention” to this problem,
citing worries about de-legitimizing the so-called “peacekeepers.”
A further sign of the TFG’s
weakness was the recent defection of members of the presidential guard to Al
Shabab, acknowledged by TFG officials July 22.
The TFG receives military and
financial support from both the European Union and United States, and the
African Union Mission’s largest
donor is the United States. The Western powers’ most recent engagement with
Somalia started in 2006, when the country was unified for the first time since
1991 under the aegis of a group known as the Islamic Courts Union. The ICU was
a hard-line Islamic coalition of various Somali groupings, some accused of ties
with Al Qaeda but also having ties to a number of U.S. allies such as Egypt and
Saudi Arabia.
Ethiopia invades with U.S. backing
Nevertheless, the United States
felt the ICU was not amenable to its interests and encouraged and backed a
disastrous invasion of Somalia by Ethiopia. This invasion again broke apart the
country, and even after Ethiopia withdrew left a divided landscape. On the one
side was the TFG with control over a small patch of Mogadishu, and on the other
several militant Islamic groups including Al Shabab.
At least 21,000 Somalis have been
killed in the conflict and over 1.5 million displaced. This is not to mention
the lack of a central government since 1991, which has meant no transport
infrastructure, very few jobs, uneven food and water distribution, lack of
medical facilities, and so on. The killing has mainly affected Somalis, but Al
Shabab recently detonated a bomb in Kampala that killed 76 persons watching the
final game of the World Cup.
The more than two decades of
suffering of the Somali people continues simply because the United States, European
Union, and some African powers refuse to allow any government other than one
amenable to them.
More fighting in store
Despite the weak position of the
TFG government, the coming influx of more troops, money, and weapons means the
fighting will continue, most likely at an intensified pace. For the people of
Somalia, this will mean increased suffering in almost all facets of life with
no end in sight.
For progressive and revolutionary
people in the United States, opposition to U.S. policies in Somalia must be a
paramount task. Under the guise of fighting terrorism, the United States is
attempting to install a government of warlords, Islamists and technocrats that
from a distance appears not that much different from its opponents—not to
improve the lives of the Somali people but to guarantee a government that will
respond willingly to their dictates.
The
only chance the Somali people have to forge a new future is under their own
terms and free of outside influence from the United States and allied regional
powers like Uganda and Kenya. The AU mission and U.S. support for it and the
TFG should end immediately. All progressive and revolutionary people and
organizations should raise the demand: U.S. hands off Somalia!
