Saturday, November 3, 2007

Somalia


Violence and conflict are non-stop in Somalia. Since 1991 when the socialist military dictatorship of Siyad Barre was toppled, Somalia has been in a stateless condition. Because of historic reasons rooted in pre and post-colonialism and growing instability in the region capitalized upon by Islamic extremists, Somalia has been in recurrent misery for more than a decade... Militant groups and militias within and outside the country from neighboring states have been constantly fighting, unable to come to an agreement over power-sharing. Although there has been an interim government in place, it has been challenged by opposing groups. As a result, Somalia has been divided into smaller units, Somaliland, Puntland with little prospects of reunification or ceasefire at the very least. This all has caused a humanitarian crisis of great proportions in Somalia (here).

As BBC is reporting, there are heavy battles in Mogadishu, the capital. Now it is between Ethiopian troops in support of the interim government and the insurgent groups. Ethiopia, home to many Somalis as a result of post-colonial arbitrary map-drawing, has a vested interest in Somalia. Therefore, it will always play a role.

It is just interesting, how are these insurgent groups being funded... Where do they get their constant flow of guns and ammunition to sustain this type of violence? Aren't we, the developed world, responsible to some extent for selling them these guns? or at least for not being able to cut their source of funding?

2 comments:

Geedi said...

Hi
I am from somaliland, I read a lot of armenian genocide history- The March to death is always something i remember, but have you ever read our history of massacre in 1988.
at that i was just 5 years old enough to remember the slaughtered mothers infront of their children, the shelling from the corner of the town to another, the air-bombardment of the mig19 that detroying the town that it took off from its airport, 95% of Hargeisa my capital city was destroyed at least 78& of its inhabitants were killed or heavily injuried, less than 20% fled to neighbouring ccuntry Ethiopia.
the armenian genocide i studied but i beging you to read some history that we lost 400000- is that small number but its so much to population 2.5 million.
thanks- just we need omly sympathy.
VIVA ARMENIA

Abdillahi Hassan
Hargeisa, Somaliland

Narine Mkrtchyan said...

Thanks for your comment. Sorry about belated response. I am sorry to hear that you are a victim of the situation in Somalia. I have done some research on the history of your country and regret to see what has happened there since the early 90s. I can only say let us hope that something will be done soon by the international community to stop the violence there.

Thanks for posting.