The Horn of Africa is currently
experiencing deadly famine, with 12 million at risk of starvation, 3
million of whom live in Somalia. Heightening the crisis in Somalia is
the over two-decade-long conflict that has turned Somalia into a
morass of warring fiefdoms.
The current famine has been caused by
an acute drought across the Horn of Africa, with seasonal rains 30
percent off their 1995-2010 average. In some areas, 40-60 percent of
livestock have died. Shortages have spiked prices for staple foods.
In Somalia alone, there has been a 240 percent price spike. It is
estimated that in the past 90 days over 29,000 children have died in
Somalia. At least 400,000 refugees have fled Somalia to Kenya, and
the capital Mogadishu is bulging with food-seeking refugees.
Without a central government since
1991, Somalia has been divided in a number of ways. The northern part
of the country governs itself with varying degrees of autonomy; one
province, Somaliland, has openly seceded. In the rest of the country,
there is a conflict between the “internationally recognized”
Transitional Federal Government and al-Shabaab, along with other
Islamic organizations.
War and social division have further
impacted the famine conditions, which were already at a critical
level due to extreme underdevelopment. Nonexistent or dilapidated
infrastructure and transportation severely hamper the marketing and
circulation of goods. Employment is limited and informal when
available at all, and social services are delivered sporadically at
best and mostly by non-governmental organizations.
For example, Lower Shabelle is one of
the most severely famine-stricken Somali provinces. Education is
almost non-existent accept for the religious kind, and only available
at the elementary level. According to the United Nations, just over 1
percent of settlements in the region have access to even the most
basic medical care, with just six doctors for 800,000 people.
Imperialists stir the pot
The TFG is backed by Western and East
African regional nations who fear an Islamic state in Somalia. The
United States gave encouragement, aid and comfort to an Ethiopian
occupation of Somalia in 2006-2007. After the collapse of the
occupation, an African Union force, AMISOM, made up primarily of East
African nations, has taken on the lead role in propping up the TFG.
U.S. and European imperialists have
provided funds and weapons to the TFG. Despite this, the TFG has
found itself unable to project power outside of the capital with any
consistency, at times controlling no more than a few streets in the
capital Mogadishu.
Al-Shabaab and other Islamic forces
have established control over large swaths of Southern Somalia,
although they recently were driven out of Mogadishu by AMISOM forces.
Suspicious of Western aid workers, al-Shabaab has often limited
distribution of food and other aid.
Predictably, the U.S. imperialists
are furiously waving the banner of “humanitarianism.” On Aug. 8,
the U.S. government announced $105 million for drought assistance in
the Horn of Africa, further underscored by a high-level visit by
Vice-President Joe Biden and his wife Jill Biden to a refugee camp in
Kenya.
Behind the tender façade of photo-ops
with the Second Lady is the agenda of geo-political domination. U.S.
imperialism destroyed the only semi-coherent government to emerge
from the post-1991 clan-based warlordism when, in league with
Ethiopia, they deposed the Islamic Courts Union in 2006.
After duly plunging the country back
into war, the United States and European Union have gone to great
lengths to support increases in AMISOM forces and provide money,
weapons and training to TFG troops. A recent report by The Nation
details substantial CIA operations in Somalia, where it runs a secret
prison and trains a secret police.
This is not a new trend in U.S.
imperialist strategy. U.S. imperialism fanned the flames of war
between Somalia and Ethiopia in the 1970s, and had its nose bloodied
in a failed 1993 intervention in Mogadishu. U.S. interest in Somalia
has nothing to do with “humanitarianism” or “human rights.”
Through six presidents, U.S. policy towards Somalia has been clear:
manipulate the internal politics to favor as much as possible U.S.
imperialist geo-strategic dominance.
For revolutionaries in the United
States, exposing this rank hypocrisy of the American capitalists must
be a priority. The anti-imperialist movement in the United States
must struggle to prevent hypocritical, warmongering intervention into
nations like Somalia.
Hands Off Somalia!
