Somali conundrum

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The Horn of Africa is in flames. The Ethiopian invasion of Somalia designed to defend the Somali Transitional Federal Government (TFG) based in the central city of Baidoa. The Ethiopians also claim that they want to ward off the danger posed by the United Islamic Courts (UICs) -- who virtually control Somalia and were inching closer to the TFG stronghold of Baidoa.

Somalia is a country at war with itself. The Somali people have endured untold suffering since the ousting of the late dictator Siade Barre in 1991. Ever since, the country has been stateless and lawless.

It is in this context that the swift military successes of the UICs came as welcome relief to a wide section of Somali people. The areas controlled by the UICs enjoyed relative peace and security. However, a strict version of Sharia law was promptly imposed by the UICs.

The TFG felt threatened by the UICs, and many of the warlords defeated by the militias of the UICs aligned themselves with the TFG and yearned for an opportunity to get back at the UICs. This opportunity came when the Ethiopians decided to intervene militarily on behalf of the TFG. The warlords who formerly controlled the cities that the militias of the UICs had overrun now returned with a vengeance. They quickly assumed their former positions and will no doubt remain loyal to their Ethiopian protectors. Somalia is, therefore, now split politically along pro-Ethiopian and anti-Ethiopian lines.

The Arab League appealed to the Ethiopians to withdraw their troops from Somalia. Qatar, which holds the presidency of the United Nations Security Council, put forward a proposal urging the Ethiopian troops to withdraw immediately from Somalia. The United States and other Western countries objected.

The US had the resolution watered down to include the call for the vaguely-worded "foreign troops" to get out of Somalia. The differences of opinion between the Arab League and the African Union over the Ethiopian military intervention in Somalia was regretable. The African continent and the Arab and Muslim worlds should rally behind the Somali people at their time of need. Somalis need all the support, political and economic, their African and Arab neighbours can give. Somalia suffered serious flooding which threatened the lives of millions of people. Humanitarian relief was difficult to convey because of the war. It is in this context that Somalia's neighbours must help rebuild the war-torn country.

What is most needed at present is for Somalis to bury their differences and to focus on reconstruction. The Somali protagonists, the UICs and the TFG must get back to the negotiation table.

The UICs and the TFG held peace talks in the Sudanese capital Khartoum under the auspices of the Arab League. The talks failed, but now there is a chance that the talks will succeed. The entire world hopes that 2007 will be a kinder year to Somalia and its long-suffering people.