Somalia is an Extremely Dangerous Corner of the World

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 Men who reportedly stole mobile phones and other petty items had their arms and feet chopped off by the Islamists Al Shah Bhab who have taken swathes of land in Mogadishu recently and appear poised to take over power completely from the Transition Government in Somalia if no foreign help comes soon.

     Years gone by, being in the Land of the Punt was such a great honor that inspired nationalism and patriotism in the same measure. I don’t know what Said Barre did to his people. But if what we see in Somalia is a spell of curses, then I want to believe that the angry spirits of Said Barre is afflicting the very core of the Somali nation. Mayhem is the daily order of things here and normless  behavior has mingled so perfectly with fundamentalism that you can be excused if you asserted that evil has taken ove every inch of Somaliland.

     In the Clinton era, the United States of America thought they would sow seeds of Democracy and freedom in Puntland-the Somalis simply became too deadly and  the Americans with their high tech war machines had to leave the horn of Africa in a hurry. We All thought that if the Americans left, the Somalis would put their house in order, but they have continued to make  their country ungovernable. To date, no single building in Mogadishu has been spared the scar of war. Bullet holes are on every wall to the best of my knowledge. For every 10 bullet holes you see on a wall, 4 of which was caused by bullets that passed through a Somali innocent flesh. If a bullet is not at work in stiffling off a Somali life, then other sources of death like, suicide attacks, hunger, poverty and disease would be menacingly at play annihilating the innocent lives in Somalia. I am tempted to believe that taking a trip to Somali land today  is closely comparable to taking a journey to the grave.

      My country Uganda has already committed troops to Somalia-my President whose other motives transcend well beyond this current Somali debacle to building his own political capital out of the chaos is already reaping big politically from having troops here. Burundi has also done the same but all Somalia’s neighbors have resisted all the temptations of sending troops to this country. Ethiopia pulled out when they woke up to the plain truth that the Somali war Lords and other groups like the Al Shah bhab  are too dangerous.

      The world is underestimating the dangers of having a failed state like Somalia hold control of an area of such strategic importance as the Horn of Africa. Already, we have seen the growing threat of Piracy off the coast of Puntland and we know, no International vessel is safe here. To prove that the Somalis terrorists mean business, many lives have so far been lost at the hands of the Somali Pirates, let alone millions of dollars in ransom money dished out to free captured cargo ship.In a nutshell, there are two culprits to the Somali problem; culprit number one is found in Somalia itself-they are the Somalis themselves who take the path of self-destruction. Culprit number two is the world community who have all the resources to deal with the Somali problem but have lacked the will to do so.

     The way forward is for the whole world to rethink the Somali issue and act in one accord to solve the problem. If however, the world continues to look away,  then the current problem in Somalia  will not go away and many lives will continue to be lost.