Somalia Sliding?
Posted by StormWarning on 29 Apr 2008 at 04:39 am | Tagged as: Uncategorized
Simple situational question. Is Somalia sliding down that slippery slope? Fighting has renewed in Mogadishu. Aid groups are being targeted by fighting, foreign reporters and volunteers are being captured and held for ransom, and Islamists are executing their captives.
While it could be argued that this is simply more of the same violence and disruption to civil society that has ripped through Somalia for nearly two decades, the fear is that the worst days are still ahead.
Recent months have seen a comeback by the radical Islamic groups that had asserted control over parts of the shattered country. Reports from the region suggest that the fundamentalist fighters will capture a town in a lightning raid and then retreat, more to show off their muscle than anything else. According to witnesses, the fighters behind these raids belong to the al-Shabab, a band of mostly young men who adhere to Taliban-style Islamic codes.
Thus, the security situation is deteriorating and the combination of the Transitional government and Ethiopian troops have not been able to stabilize the situation. It is very possible that the mere presence of the Ethiopians in Somalia is creating the situation in which the violence is increasing. Meet Africa, the next front in the GWOT.
Islamists, Mogadishu, Somalia
Somalia has been sliding since the U.S.-backed Ethiopian invasion.
The situation in occupied Somalia is very similar to the situation in Occupied Iraq. Somalia will most likely follow the same arc as Iraq has.
Ortho:
I’m not so sure that there is such a tight parallel between Iraq and Somalia. Afterall, Somalia has been brewing since the late 80’s and before, and the interferences from Ethiopia have been going on for quite some time. If If I remember my history correctly (but who am I???), the Eritrean-Ethiopia conflict has been going on for decades leading to the 1991 independence of Eritrea. So the fighting spread to Somalia and thus the entire region is unsettled. Many CT believe, and have believed for some time now, that Northern Africa is the next front against the al Qaeda form of Islamic Fundamentalist Jihadism.