Ethiopia, Eritrea fuelling Somalia war

A year ago there were hopeful signs that after the withdrawal of Ethiopian forces from Somalia and the resignation of President Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed, Somalia factions would rally around their new leader, President Sheikh Sharif, and start the process of reconciliation.

The Somali problem has been around for two decades now and it is apparent that no quick fix will put the those fanning their proxy wars in the country at bay to allow for an environment that will end the political and clan antagonism.

Notably, 2006 was a clear turning point for the Somalia conflict.

It was then that the Union of Islamic Courts, which was supported by citizens tired of warlords pillaging their businesses, was formed following a merger of several local courts that became prominent in 2000 when they stepped forward to fill the vacuum left by the 1991 ouster of dictator Siad Barre.

Besides offering school and health services to the local population, the courts had been dealing with petty crimes but gradually graduated to handling bigger disputes and felonies.

After the powerful alliance, warlords who had dominated the conflict since 1991 were bitterly defeated in a ‘Somali revolution’ that never lasted.

Public opinion was against warlords, who were rightly said to have been bolstered by the CIA to counter militias across the country.

At the time, former Clinton administration official John Prendergast clarified to Reuters that there was clear evidence that the CIA pumped $150,000 monthly to the warlords while Ethiopia is said to have supplied truckloads of ammunition.

With the ICU in Mogadishu, relative calm was restored and southern Somalia towns such as Mogadishu, Kismayu, Baidoa, Bandradley and Beledwyene came under the firm control of the ICU.

In that brief lull, business performed and security improved. Schools and hospitals opened in Mogadishu.

But in a crusade of conspiracy by western media and intelligence, this turnaround was depicted as softening ground for al-Qaeda.

This line was wrongly swallowed by governments and intelligence in the West.

Analysts have often noted that the US frenzy on terrorism in the Horn is sometimes unfounded.

When Osama bin Laden lived in Khartoum, he naively thought that lack of central government in Somalia was a fertile ground for him to set base.

His men were later humiliated in Somalia due to several unfavourable factors among them the hold by the moderate strand of Islam, Sufism, among Somalis and a clan structure that refused sponsorship of his campaign.