Somalia teeters on edge of survival

By Jeffrey Gettleman

JOWHAR, Somalia, September 26, 2007 - The instant the sack of grain fell off the truck and thumped down on the ground, it was consumed in a whirl of dust, fists and knees.

The crowd of hungry people, who had been baking for hours in the skin-crisping heat at an emergency distribution center Wednesday, was in no mood to negotiate. One man whipped out a machete, another a dagger, a third a handgun, which he waved menacingly in the air.

"My food, my food, my food!" they all yelled, tussling over the sack.

Another sunny day in Somalia, another day in chaos.

It has been 9 months since this country went through its biggest change in 16 years, but actually very little has changed.

Hundreds of thousands of people are still on the verge of starvation, pirates still roam the seas, teenage gunmen still on the streets, and the idea of a functioning government remains a vapor.

The Transitional Federal Government of Somalia, a United Nations creation that was always seen as a shaky, short-term compromise at best, was installed in Mogadishu, the capital, in December, but it, like many Somalis, is now teetering on the edge of survival.

A raging insurgency has confined the government to a handful of heavily fortified buildings in Mogadishu, while the rest of the country suffers.

Jowhar, a town of donkey carts and dust storms about 50 miles, or 80 kilometers, north of the capital, has been hit recently by drought, then floods and a massive influx of needy people. The intensifying street fighting in Mogadishu has driven thousands from their homes and many showed up here, right when the local crops failed.

"There is nothing to eat," said Binti Olo Ahmad, a 40-year-old woman who trudged out of Mogadishu two weeks ago with eight children and now lives in a tent made from twigs and garbage bags. She laughed a short, throaty laugh when asked whether the anarchy days of the 1990s, when warring clans tore Somalia apart after the central government collapsed, were any worse.

"No way," she said. "I've never seen war like this."

UN officials are increasingly concerned. All the signs of a famine are on the horizon: Food prices have nearly doubled in some areas; it has been the worst cereal harvest in 13 years; malnutrition rates are rising sharply; and the weather forecast indicates that the rains this fall will be disappointing.

"Thousands of people are marching right up to the edge of a crisis," said Peter Goossens, the director of the World Food Program in Somalia. "Any additional little thing, any little flood or drought, will push them over."

"It's sad," he said. "This poor country keeps taking one blow after another. Ultimately, it will break."

Many Somalis feel that has already happened. A multimillion-dollar clan-reconciliation conference ended last month and some clan elders later traveled to Saudi Arabia to sign a ceremonial agreement. But Somalia's myriad clans are hardly at peace, and even the transitional government is showing worrying cracks.

This week, Prime Minister Ali Mohammed Gedi and President Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed got into a stand-off over whether some of Gedi's allies should face corruption charges. The two leaders hail from rival clans, and some Somalis fear that unless the dispute is quickly resolved, it could spell an end to the thin veneer of cooperation between the two men and possibly turn into a clan war.

Government officials in Jowhar admit there are huge challenges. Ministries are not functioning, the transitional government is running out of money, and all the recent turmoil has created overwhelming needs, said Hussein Hassan Mahamoud, the deputy governor in Jowhar.

"But we are trying," he said. "We just need time."

The question is, how much do they have? The withering insurgent attacks seem to be only increasing. Last week, more than a dozen government soldiers were killed in a single raid. The hit-and-run attacks started when Ethiopian troops invaded in December to oust an Islamist movement that had briefly ruled much of Somalia and to shore up the transitional government, which has never enjoyed a lot of support.

The result today is that the Islamists have regrouped in thickly forested areas of southern Somalia, where they operate with virtual impunity. Mogadishu, meanwhile, has become a Baghdad-like mess of suicide bombs, roadside bombs and political assassinations.

Earlier this month, the insurgents, who are mix of clan and Islamist militias, held their own reconciliation conference in Asmara, Eritrea. They formed the Alliance for the Re-Liberation of Somalia, a movement openly dedicated to overthrowing the transitional government.

Not all the country is up in flames, though. Jowhar is relatively stable. Girls flock to school in bright yellow veils. Battered old taxis glide down the streets. Tensions, like the ruckus over the sack of grain that fell off the food aid truck, are typically solved the Somali way.

As soon as the man yanked out his pistol, three heavily armed militiamen in wraparound sunglasses surrounded him. Facing superior firepower, the pistol-wielder smiled, shook his head and tucked his gun back into his waistband.

The sacks were then lugged back on the truck, which sputtered on, like most of this country.

Source: International Herald Tribune

Home | Contact us | Links | Archives | Search