Somalia’s return

During the past few months the international fleet that protects -just a way of speaking- Somalia’s coasts, have been really happy and proud of their job. “Assaults have been reduced”, they said. Even they made it to zero assaults for a month. But it was all an illusion. When the cash starts to be needed again and, most important, the monsoon disappears, pirates are back in business.

Nor the incident with Capt. Phillips, nor a greater military deployment were a match for the skiffs. Only bad weather could stop them. But with the clouds out of the horizon, pirates are free to sail again.

Back in land, the situation isn’t better either. Yesterday we knew that two French agents had been kidnapped by Islamic militias in the Sahafi Hotel. At first it was though they were journalists, but later it was told they are intelligence analysts training their Somali counterparts.

That Somali Army, however, is something more like a project than a real deal. After every coup, war, skirmish or change of power in Mogadishu, that army had to be remade. The only permanent competent force in Somalia assisting the Government, are the African Union (AU) peacekeepers. They control the Presidential Palace, a few Government buildings and what keeps the keepers alive: the port and airport, where they got the international aid and weapons.

In the clan war -or even sub-clan war sometimes- of Somalia, the AU soldiers have developed a slightly good job. Their biggest foe is the Al Shabab Islamic militias. The peacekeeper forces have, however, the fire power on their side. Compared to the American army they are very poor equipped but against the Al Shabab, they are freakin’ Stormtroopers.

One of the most important pieces of their arsenal are two old T-55 Soviet tanks. According to David Axe, captain Paddy Ankunda of the AU forces, told him two years ago that even if they never used them, having them there was always welcomed. Not for being used, but for let the people know they could use them.

Until now. This weekend, the peacekeepers were surrounded and they needed the tanks. The inclusion of the tanks itself is a great deal and a symptom of the escalation in the war in Somalia. In the end, it is a no-man’s land with hundreds of weapons running free around and nobody knows what will be the next movement on any side. Somalia is a land of guns, just an augmented mirror of what happens in the rest of Sub-Saharan Africa.

In fact, recently were discovered satellite images suggesting that Faina freighter’s tanks, which was seized by Somali pirates half a year ago (do you remember it?) and later released after a ransom payment, ended up in South Sudan Army. The same one who is in the edge of a war with Chad over Darfur, a region full of refugees (do you remember it?). And part of the country whose head of state is Omar Bashir, wanted for The Hague International Court (do you remember it?) under the accusation of sponsoring Islamic militias among other charges. The same Islamic militias Ethiopia and Somalian governments try to fight back at home. And the same Governments unable to put an end to piracy on their costs.

Everything is connected in this annoying Africa.



Photo: AP

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