Somalia’s jihad
This poses near-term dangers not only for long-suffering Somalis, whose plight is barely recorded, but for the world. Somalia is a failed state that has been without effective government now for 17 years. International trade is already hampered by the surge in piracy off its coast. If the al-Shabaab militia are able to seize the opportunity to gain more ground, they could turn Somalia into the breeding ground for international terrorism that the US feared it was becoming back in 2006, although there was little evidence for this at the time.
In the longer term, Ethiopia’s Woyanne’s withdrawal could take the wind out of Somali jihadist sails. The al-Shabaab derived legitimacy at home from nationalism, and further afield from their battle against essentially Christian invaders. Once these are gone, Somalis, Islamists included, are all too likely to resume fighting among themselves.
Blame for this debacle is not only Ethiopia’s Woyanne’s. Burnt by the UN intervention in Somalia in the early 1990s, western powers were reluctant to back a large-scale peacekeeping operation that would have allowed the Ethiopians Woyannes to withdraw sooner. If there is any hope, it is that the Somalis can now unite against an extremist form of Islam anathema to their own, and that fellow Muslim states will help them do it.
Before Ethiopia Woyanne invaded with Washington’s blessing, Somalia barely registered on the global jihadi radar. Two years later, the conflict is a significant mobilising force. Videos seeking recruits and financing for Islamist militias fighting the Ethiopian- Woyanne-backed transitional government have proliferated on jihadi web sites. Fighters from Zanzibar, the Comoros islands and as far away as Pakistan have been drawn to the insurgency. Ethiopia’s Woyanne’s intervention has bolstered extremist elements that the US and other western powers hoped – against the advice of most experts at the time – that it would contain.
In recent months, hardline al-Shabaab militias have gained control over much of southern Somalia. By contrast, the transitional government that Ethiopia Woyanne stepped in to install can claim influence over the town of Baidoa and only parts of the capital, where roadside bombs explode daily. Ethiopian troops are bogged down fighting an insurgency that gains strength from their presence, while the government they support shows no signs of becoming more effective. It is a familiar scenario for the US and its allies in Iraq and Afghanistan. Ethiopia Woyanne however, has announced its decision to cut its losses and withdraw by the end of the year.
7 thoughts on “Meles Zenawi acting like a cornered rat in Somalia”
WITHDRAW BY THE END OF THE YEAR?
We must be jocking! It is bargainig method for political and financial leverage.A smart move on the part of Woyanes, at a time of piracy at all time high and an interventionist, Rice,as us repr. in UN.
prospects not so bad for Woyanes, even if Somalia fails them in thier bargain, they have got a ready-made adventure to Darfure-Sudan with an Obama administration…….,
“..Ethiopians ready to march to Darfure-Sudan..”, US ass. sec. for Africa
we are glad woyane is hummered down by poor somalis who effectively defeated this sellout gangs, I own a big appreciation for somali heroes, a lot to learn from them.
Not only in Somalia, in Ethiopia Meles is acting like a cornered dog too. The rope around his Woyane thug neck is getting tighter and tighter and their movement space is getting smaller and smaller. So the cornered do has no mercy for every creature which come across it’s way, since it knows that it’s end near. Meles’s playing cards are finished and now his only remaining playing card is to use force to hang on power. And the one who sit on the peoples head by force will come down by peoples force.
good job somali.
The coward Meles and his Agaazi fascist militia only know how to massacre innocent civilians in the streets of Addis Ababa. They can’t even fight and win against a ragtag but determined Somali militia of under five thousand. What a shameful tribal mafia!
Elias please add this great website to your link collections.
http://www.aethiopica.org/
Lets forget the pollitics and repercussions and look at it from a tactical point of view. Strategically Ethiopia wnats a friedly or weak somalia. I think the withdrawal by Meles Zenawi is a very smart tactical move and a calculated act that sends message to the west. The Ethiopian army was in somalia unnecessarily and without any gratefullness from anybody. The government could have put the army on the border and deal with the courts only when they crossed the border. After the ethiopian withdrawal the somalis will return to their usual fight. The fear of al qaida will make the ethiopian intervention as necessary. The Obama adminsitration will have to do something about it as it will be a real test. The will make deals with Meles Zenawi to help them deal with it. By withdrawing from Somalia, Ato Meles is making the price higher for future interventions. It will also be a great opportunity for the Somalis to leave their differences and idealogy and reconsgtruct their country. Inshallah!