Editorial
Somalia's fractured government and the struggle for statehood
By
Aug 3, 2008 - 7:38:06 PM

SUNDAY EDITORIAL | Next year is very crucial for Somalia, as the TFG is required under law to hold national elections.

Since October 2004, when Abdullahi Yusuf was elected interim President of Somalia, much has changed in the country as the Ethiopian-backed Transitional Federal Government (TFG) made its slow march towards the capital, Mogadishu. Thousands of civilians were killed in a ferocious, four-month war between Mogadishu's notorious warlords and the Islamic Courts movement in early 2006, when the Islamists emerged triumphant and established a six-month reign of order after 16 years of anarchy. By Christmas Day that year, however, Ethiopian troops backing Yusuf's interim government invaded Mogadishu after conquering Islamist militias in a two-week ground-and-air war.

The seemingly Ethiopian 'victory' was anything but; in the early days of 2007, masked fighters began to appear on Mogadishu's rough streets and the muqawama – an insurgency that rages to date – erupted with violent flare. Thousands more Somalis have died since and whole neighborhoods extinguished, and as the TFG project endorsed by the United Nations nears the end of its five-year mandate in 2009, one wonders how far Somalia has come in the bloody struggle to regain its statehood and recover its standing as a respectable nation in the world.

If any indication, the signs on the ground are worrisome. President Yusuf and Prime Minister Nur "Adde" Hassan Hussein are at odds over the firing of Mogadishu Mayor Mohamed Dheere, exposing a new rift inside the TFG. The split between Yusuf and Nur Adde is reflected within other organs of the government; the 10 Cabinet ministers who resigned on Saturday are closely associated with the President.

Is the TFG – which some describe as weak and ineffectual – on the verge of splitting into two camps, again? Ironic, since Nur Adde's predecessor, Prof. Ali Mohamed Gedi, resigned as Prime Minister in October after a months-long public feud with the President that divided the government. The Somali leaders' personality feuds and endless squabbles is a serious threat to the international community's efforts to pacify the Horn of Africa country and help assuage the growing humanitarian crisis.

It can be argued that the struggle to reclaim the Somali nation-state, founded on lawful principles and guided by national interests, has been harmed by the TFG in its endeavor to establish a government friendly to the regime in Addis Ababa. After so much bloodshed, a government that provides vital public services has not come to power yet. Infighting among government leaders in Mogadishu is common, while less than 30km away, thousands of Somali women and children remain without access to food, clean water and shelter.

As the TFG mandate nears an end, will the sacrifices of Somali mothers who have endured war and pain for nearly two decades be rightly compensated? Next year is very crucial for Somalia, as the TFG is required under law to hold national elections. It is the international community's moral obligation to safeguard the successful implementation of the Djibouti Agreement, so the people of Somalia can get a chance at lasting peace.

The current political crisis brewing between the President and the Prime Minister presents a threat to the Agreement and to the Somali peoples' aspirations for the return of peace and national order.

Garowe Online Editorial, editorial@garoweonline.com