Somalia at cross point

For the past two years, Somalia which hit the worst ever crisis resulted by the Ethiopian occupation propping the weak transitional federal government now at cross point that either heals from the wounds and joins the world stage for self determination or plunge into further blow of dreadful events.

The Addis Ababa administration reiterated the withdrawal of its troops from Somalia is irreversible and conclude the mission at the beginning of January. If the Ethiopian promise that cast suspicion by many of Somalis meets the implementation, the aspiration of the young moderate Islamic leader Sheik Sharif will get public support that he can face the allegedly Al-Qaeda linked Islamists known as ‘Shabab’.

Shabab now controls most of southern and central regions where they impose strict rules which drawn the world criticism on the way they practice the Islamic Sharia like execution remarkably the recent killing of 14-year old girl in Kismayo, the southern part of Somalia where the Islamists accused her of adultery.

Islamists will

Earlier the Islamic militants vowed to continue the fighting even if the Ethiopian troops withdraw the country and indicated to face against the secular government to put an effect the Islamic Sharia law on all corners of the country. There seemed the war yet to be finished as Sheik Ahmed, who Shabab accused him of abandoning the jihad and dictated by the westerners, is now preparing to take the leadership for a government backed by UN and European countries.
There is a great doubt by the Jihadists on what Sheik Ahmed contacts on the ground as something aimed to end the Islamic radicalism in Somalia and facilitate US government to hunt down the Al-Qaeda operatives in the horn of Africa.

The last developments in Somalia envisage a worsening situation where the political squabbling between the fractured parts of the embattled transitional government could spur Islamists like Al-shabab fighters to seize more towns and regions in Somalia. The defunct government led by former warlord Abdullahi Yusuf is doomed to failure if the diplomatic efforts spearheaded by IGAD did not materialize.

There are conflicting reports about the alleged resignation of President Abdullah Yusuf in a bid to put an end to the row between the two camps of the government, after his spokeswomen W.Salleh dismissed his resignation. Political analysts believe that Mr. Yusuf will not resign -albeit mounting international and regional pressure-because his resignation could pave the way to be prosecuted as a war criminal. Abdullahi Yusuf, who the western now see him as peace-barrier was accused of being responsible for the mass killings and arrests carried out by his men and displacing of hundreds of Mogadishu residents as well as inciting hatred between Somali clans.
The Islamic fighters are among whose committed crimes in the country as they caused the deaths of many innocent civilians in the wake of the war with the Ethiopian and Somali soldiers in the densely populated areas. As shown in recent reports by the human rights organizations, all the warring parts in Somalia did acts against human rights law.

US Concern.

The US government has long been worrying that the poor horn of African nation ‘Somalia’ to be safe heavens for the international terrorists as along as it had been stateless for nearly two decades and now closely watching the activities of the Islamic fighters linked with Al-Qaeda network widely believed to be responsible for the 9/11 terror attacks on Washington and New York in America.

Ever since the Islamic Courts came into sight, Washington has been indirectly involving in Somalia as US spy intelligent services were in the region to collect more information on the Islamists’ movements and the possibilities of Al-Qaeda presence in Somalia. The US claim that Al-Qaeda actively operates in Somalia received strong indication in late 2006 when the military wing of Islamic courts called for world Jihadists to join the war with Ethiopia.

The impediments ahead of Islamists operating in Somalia are intensifying after two functions within the Islamists confronted in Beledweyne, Hiran region in central Somalia, its reported that the confrontation is based on the control of this town adjacent to the border between Somalia and Ethiopia, a high ranking military commander of the Islamists is killed during the fighting before traditional elders of the town intervened and succeeded to halt the fighting. This is a clear sign that the fragmentation and political squabbling is not confined to the transitional federal government but it is pervasive as long as Somali politicians are concerned regardless of their political affiliations.

To end current impasse between Somali politicians will necessitate the existence of political determination from Somali leaders and unwavering support from the international community to put an end the bloodshed in Somalia, it seems that the international community especially western powers are more interested in piracy than the political crisis in the country.

The piracy off Somali coast led many powerful countries like Chine to send its navy to protect commercial vessels to be hijacked by the marauding militias in Gulf of Eden and Somali coast, piracy seen as imminent danger to world interests might trigger to exploit the natural resources of Somalia.