Somalia

Here at Enough, we often swap emails with interesting articles and feature stories that we come across in our favorite publications and on our favorite websites. We wanted to share some of these stories with you as part of our effort to keep you up to date on what you need to know in the world of anti-genocide and crimes against humanity work.

Somali-born rapper K’Naan’s song Wavin’ Flag had been a radio hit in the U.K. and topped charts in 14 countries long before it became an anthem of the 2010 World Cup. But the popular song performed by K’Naan and will.i.am at the World Cup Kick-off Concert was revised from the original to give it a more uplifting spin. The BBC’s Ian Youngs described the real story behind the music.

Foreign Policy put together a spectacular photo collection to illustrate the Failed States Index released by FP and the Fund for Peace. Sixty photos in all, the list begins with Somalia and covers Enough’s full repertoire by the time we get to photo 9.

Writing on Change.org’s Human Rights blog, Daniel Gerstle responded to the Failed States Index with some valuable points about how aggregating statistics masks the serious challenges that marginalized populations in wealthy countries face – and the progress made by entrepreneurs in poorer, unstable countries. Such lists and criteria would be more helpful for development initiatives if statistics were grouped by community rather than theme, Gerstle argued. Here’s a key passage:

“[W]hat would really help the most is to isolate the ‘Mogadishus’ which need a dramatic increase in conflict mitigation and humanitarian aid from the ‘Hargeisas’ which need a dramatic increase in private sector employment, and which largely relies on partnerships with regional and distant traders. While one part of a country fails, another part of the same country may have solutions which need to be supported.”

Scott Simon of the NPR program Weekend Edition spoke to filmmaker Mark Hopkins and one of the doctors featured in the new film "Living in Emergencies." The film follows four doctors through their stints with Doctors Without Borders in Liberia and the Democratic Republic of Congo. In the interview, Simon delves into one of the film’s most provocative themes and one that creates the most palpable tension: MSF’s policy of leaving a crisis zone when a modicum of stability returns. (A couple of us from Enough saw the film while it was briefly playing in Washington. Seek this one out – it’s intense, thought provoking, and captivating.)

Sudan activist and former pro basketball player Manute Bol passed away last Saturday, June 19, at the age of 47. The Washington Post published this slideshow of photos from his public life, cut too short.

• Advocacy
• Darfur and Southern Sudan
• Eastern Chad
• Eastern Congo
• Peace
• Prevention
• Protection
• Somalia

This post originally appeared on Change.org's Human Rights blog.

The Obama administration rolled out an impressive full afternoon event last week at the State Department, headlined by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, which was very clearly designed to win over an audience of 300+ Africa specialists.

If the sampling of people I spoke to there were representative of the larger group, and I believe they were, there’s a sense of disappointment about President Obama’s limited engagement with the continent. Some pundits, like the New Yorker’s George Packer, point out, “Obama never placed democracy and human rights at the center of his foreign policy.” But President Obama’s well-regarded speech in Ghana last year certainly raised these expectations.

However, the briefing didn’t alleviate these concerns about the Obama administration’s follow-through, at least not on the conflict mitigation/prevention front.

Among my colleagues at the Enough Project and our partner organizations working on some of the most egregious human rights abuses, there is a particular frustration about the Obama administration’s hesitancy to criticize or use pressure to influence some of the continent’s most repressive leaders. Certainly after the policies of the Bush administration, the trend toward humility and respectful engagement is refreshing. But where’s the red line? So far, the Obama administration has been shockingly tolerant of backsliding on human rights issues and disrespect for democratic values, seemingly favoring policies that maintain the status quo rather than push for bold reforms.

Take the volatile Horn of Africa, for instance. The United States has good relations with most governments in the region, which is a useful diplomatic tool. But as Somalia expert Professor Ken Menkhaus aptly pointed out at a House subcommittee hearing recently, many of these governments are despised by their own people. The United States risks undermining the renewed good graces that the Obama administration ushered in if the U.S. government doesn’t using its leverage to push these “partners” to reign in corruption, address impunity rampant among security forces, allow press to report freely without fear of retribution. (I could list specific countries for each of these abuses, but this paragraph would get awfully long.)

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Photo: Billboard honoring President Obama in Ghana (AP)

• Advocacy
• Africa
• Darfur and Southern Sudan
• Eastern Chad
• Eastern Congo
• Northern Uganda
• Prevention
• Punishment
• Somalia
• War Crimes
• Zimbabwe

In true Obama administration fashion, emphasizing open government and engagement, the State Department rolled out an impressive event Monday featuring top U.S. officials focused on U.S. diplomacy in sub-Saharan Africa. With Secretary of State Hillary Clinton rounding out the line-up and each official gamely taking audience questions, the point they were trying to make was clear: The Obama administration is fully focused on Africa.

The lengthy program and the frequent references to the trips Obama administration officials have made to the continent gave the impression that the key goal was to allay concerns that the administration is not living up to the expectations it set for engaging with Africa.

We heard from Assistant Secretary of State Johnnie Carson, Ambassador-At-Large for Global Women’s Issues Melanne Verveer, and Tim Shortley, deputy to the special envoy on Sudan, among the eight speakers in all. And the officials who might have been expected to participate all had good excuses. USAID administrator Raj Shah? In Senegal. U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice? Attending a Sudan briefing in New York. Sudan Special Envoy Gration? Traveling in the region to negotiate with Sudan's neighbors.

The nearly four-hour long event drew a packed room of NGO staff, members of the African diaspora, researchers, students, and even two members of Congress, Representatives Donald Payne (D-NJ), who stayed for the full program and mingled with the crowd during breaks, and Sheila Jackson Lee (D-TX).

A year and a half into the Obama administration, foreign policy pundits muse about whether the excitement progressives felt for President Obama were blinders that led many to misinterpret his priorities to suit their own passions and concerns. Perhaps we idealized Obama’s positions to the point that we attributed priorities to the president that he never articulated? This line of questioning is especially alarming when it comes from quarters that the administration didn’t expect to have to win over, such as the 300+ crowd gathered the auditorium in Foggy Bottom yesterday.

As concern mounts over the lack of preparation for the likely split of Sudan, the floundering Darfur peace process, the stranglehold of Shabaab militants in Somalia, ongoing sexual violence and massive displacement in eastern Congo – to name a few crises – many Africa watchers are frustrated that top officials in the Obama administration haven’t made these issues a higher priority and signaled that importance by getting directly involved in implementing policy. There was also a hope that the United States would hold its partners – like the Government of Southern Sudan, Somalia’s Transitional Federal Government, and the Rwandan government of President Paul Kagame – accountable for undemocratic policies, backsliding on human rights issues, or corruption, whichever the case may be. (It was an interesting coincidence that Monday’s New York Times featured a photo of a child soldier in Somalia on the front page, with the headline “Children Carry Guns for U.S. Ally, Somalia.”)

So with Vice President Joe Biden just back from a week-long trip to Kenya and South Africa and USAID chief Raj Shah participating in an economic forum in Senegal, it was the ideal moment to do some outreach to organizations and individuals working on Africa and make the case that much is going on behind the scenes.

As the final presenter, Secretary Clinton seemed to sum up the goal with a direct appeal to the audience members:

“[W]e need to do a better job of spreading the word about the progress in Africa. So if you’re part of the African diaspora community, we want you to stay in touch with us to get information about what we’re doing and what the impacts are, and we also need your advice. If you’re a student, we want to look for ways to involve you in the work that is improving the lives of the African people, whether it’s in public health, agriculture or entrepreneurship. If you’re in an NGO, we want you to let us know what you’re doing so we can better partner with you and support you.”

It’s certainly true that daily news coverage focuses very little on Africa (the current month, with all eyes on South Africa, being an obvious exception), so undoubtedly much of the good work that the Obama administration is undertaking there is going unnoticed. But when we narrow in on Africa’s crisis zones, rather than try to generalize about the continent as a whole, the fact is that the people of countries like Sudan and Somalia are heading towards more suffering, not less.

Photo: Secretary Clinton takes questions from the audience at a briefing about U.S. engagement in Africa. (State Department)

• Advocacy
• Africa
• Darfur and Southern Sudan
• Eastern Congo
• Somalia

An international peace conference for Somalia last weekend, hosted by the Turkish government, generated cautiously optimistic statements from top U.N. officials. But nearly 3,000 miles away from the conference in Istanbul, in the streets of Mogadishu, the militant group al-Shabaab made a particularly audacious move: firing mortars at the presidential palace. The attack spurred a response from African Union peacekeepers and sparked a battle in which as many as 20 people died.

The timing of the attack underscored the challenge that Somalia’s Transitional Federal Government, and the international community propping it up, face. Al-Shabaab controls much of the country, save a few blocks in the capital, and has recently set its sights on the few symbolic and strategic institutions controlled by the government. Earlier this month, Shabaab launched mortars at the Parliament during its first session of the year, killing at least seven people and wounding dozens more. The group has also attacked the capital’s airport and seaport.

The head of the A.U. peacekeeping mission AMISOM dismissed Shabaab’s vow to overtake the presidential palace, saying the insurgents are “blowing hot air,” but he added that the mission wouldn’t take the threat lightly.

Meanwhile, in spite of the events unfolding in Somalia, U.N. special representative for Somalia Ahmedou Ould-Abdallah called the Istanbul conference a “major breakthrough.” U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon commended the Transitional Federal Government for “some progress toward stability” and said that the fragile government represents the “best chance in years to escape from the endless cycle of war and humanitarian disaster.”

One unique feature of the conference was the presence and significant attention given to the Somali business community. The U.N. representative for Somalia noted that one of the key aims of the conference was “to begin building viable economic structures in Somalia that will sustain peace and stability.” But here again, the disconnect with the reality on the ground in Somalia is notable.

The participation of so many high-ranking diplomats (the U.S. sent its top diplomat for Africa, Ambassador Johnnie Carson) signaled a promising level of commitment from governments and international institutions to confronting Somalia’s challenges, but as always, the follow-through on pledges made in the culminating Istanbul Declaration remains a significant open question. Even in the declaration’s bland diplomatic-speak, the frustration over unfulfilled commitments from previous high-level forums came through:

The Conference noted the existence of several outstanding commitments made in previous forums on Somalia and urged the Transitional Federal Institutions and the International Community to implement them.

And a few lines down:

[The conference] emphasized the importance of coordinated, timely and sustained support from the international community and appealed for the prompt and timely disbursement of funds pledged in support of the Somali security institutions.

In related news, a piece in today’s Washington Post puts a spotlight on another set of religious warriors in Somalia, the Ahlu Sunna Wal Jamaa, which has recently logged some military successes against al-Shabaab. In March, Ahlu Sunna signed an agreement to work alongside the fragile Somali government. At the conference in Istanbul, this arrangement with Ahlu Sunna was often held up as a potential model for the government to pursue with other armed groups.

Photo: Somali militiaman (AP)

• Somalia

The number of internally displaced persons, or IDPs, in the world swelled to an alarming 27.1 million by the end of 2009, one million more than at the close of 2008. This is the largest number of internally displaced people since the mid-1990s, said the Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre, or IDMC, in a report released today.

Last year, 6.8 million people were newly displaced from their homes as a result of sustained conflict and violence around the globe—a significant hike from the number of people displaced in 2008 (4.6 million) and 2007 (3.7 million). Over 5 million people also returned to their homes in the last year, with the difference between the two numbers accounting for the increase in the overall IDP population.

“The massive population movements and shocking violence are a sad reminder of the price that civilians pay in armed conflict,” said Elisabeth Rasmusson, the Norwegian Refugee Council Secretary General. “Millions of people were newly displaced by conflicts in which combatants did not meet their obligations to protect civilians.”

Sudan, Somalia, and the Congo were among the most afflicted countries in 2009, both in terms of total number of IDPs and rates of displacement. Sudan continued to have the largest IDP population in the world at the end of 2009, with about 4.9 million displaced. In the last year, 530,000 people in Sudan were freshly displaced—the majority fleeing inter-communal fighting and attacks by the Lord’s Resistance Army in the South, and the rest as a result of clashes between rebels and government soldiers in Darfur.

Seventeen percent of Somalia’s population—or 1.5 million people — is internally displaced because of unabated fighting in south and central Somalia between the transitional government and insurgents. Living conditions for IDPs in Somalia were substandard in terms of security for women and children, and basic services, according to IDMC. The center reported similarly atrocious conditions in the Congo, where in just a year, one million people were displaced (the second highest rate of displacement in the world last year) because of violence committed by armed groups and the Congolese government:

“The killing and rape of IDPs and other civilians continued at a horrifying rate in eastern DRC in 2009, and the protection of IDPs and other civilians in eastern DRC has remained of great concern. (…) Both government forces and rebel groups have attacked civilians, to defeat historic enemies and also to secure territory in order to benefit from the extraction of natural resources.”

Photo: Children play outside of an IDP camp in southern Somalia (IRIN)

• Darfur and Southern Sudan
• Eastern Congo
• Protection
• Somalia

Mere weeks before the Somali army reportedly plans to launch a major offensive aimed at recapturing the capital and weakening the government’s main opponents, Somali soldiers are deserting over lack of pay. Some are joining the insurgency, the Associated Press reported.

This story highlights a problem that so often plagues efforts to combat Somalia’s well-armed opposition groups and bolster the fragile Transitional Federal Government, whose own conduct in the conflict has also been cause for concern. Assistance is often provided with only limited oversight, creating new challenges exacerbated by a lack of follow-through. In the case of the deserting soldiers, it seems, funds provided by the U.S. and the European Union to conduct military trainings for Somali soldiers in Djibouti and Uganda ran out – or were siphoned off by senior officials – before they made it into the hands of soldiers in the promised $100 monthly increments. Out of desperation, “some gave up the army and returned to their ordinary life and others joined the rebels,” said Col. Ahmed Aden Dhayow.

In a country notorious for corruption, and where the government’s authority doesn’t extend far beyond the blocks surrounding the presidential palace in the capital, methods for providing payments to the Somali army are complicated and can easily be manipulated. Unsurprisingly, donors are often wary. From AP:

[T]he Somali government is forced to rely on donor nations that are often slow to pay, undercutting soldiers' confidence in regular paychecks, and feeding desertions and corruption. There are few signs Somalia's government will ever be able to deliver social services, shape military strategy and pay its army on its own.

Siyad said the success of the multimillion-dollar training programs funded by American and European taxpayers is completely dependent on being able to pay the graduates.

"If this is not done, then we shouldn't even start. Otherwise the soldiers will just join the opposition," he said.

The story seems part and parcel of a daunting trend in Somalia that has seen both food aid and arms fall into the hands of the adversaries of the U.N.-backed government. Last year, in response to allegations that U.N. food aid was being directed to al-Shabaab, the U.S. announced it would suspend delivery of an unspecified portion of its food aid contribution to Somalia, despite the dire implications of this decision in the context of one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises.

But contrary to where this story may seem to be heading, the U.S. is reportedly gearing up to back a major offensive starting this month to wrest control from the anti-government forces, which could involve conducting airstrikes and sending in American covert forces, according to a plans leaked to The New York Times. U.S. officials have not openly acknowledged the plan. If indeed the U.S. is ramping up direct military support to the Somali army, recent wayward trends in the distribution of American assistance to Somalia suggest that without proper oversight, the only thing U.S. aid is assisting is sustained conflict.  

Photo: Anti-government fighter in Mogadishu (AP)

• Somalia

Indiscriminant attacks in Mogadishu by both Islamist insurgents and the African Union-supported Somali government continue to brutalize civilians, warned both the U.N. and an international human rights organization in the past week.

"I am deeply disturbed by the plight of civilians in Mogadishu, who are caught amidst the warring parties," said the U.N. Humanitarian Coordinator for Somalia Mark Bowden in response to shelling last Monday in the Somali capital that killed more than 20 civilians and injured 76—acts that Bowden called “clear violations of the law of war."

Human Rights Watch described a similarly dire situation for Mogadishu residents in its new report, as fighting between the Transitional Federal Government, or TFG (with the support of the African Union Mission in Somalia, or AMISOM), and Islamist militias rages on:

Civilians in Mogadishu continue to bear the brunt of the fighting, which has long been characterized by indiscriminate attacks by all sides. Opposition fighters have unlawfully deployed in densely populated civilian neighborhoods and at times used civilians as “shields” to fire mortars at TFG and AMISOM positions—attacks conducted so indiscriminately that they frequently destroy civilian homes but rarely strike military targets. Often AMISOM or TFG forces respond in kind, launching indiscriminate mortar strikes on the neighborhoods from which opposition fighters had fired and then fled—leaving only civilians to face the devastation that ensues.

The report emphasizes that such attacks, even when committed in reciprocity, are a breach of the conduct of war and international humanitarian law. According to Human Rights Watch, although both AMISOM and the government deny indiscriminately firing on civilians, neither party has detailed the measures taken to ensure that attacks are only aimed at military targets.

Countless civilians have already fallen victim to the fighting in Somalia. According to the U.N. humanitarian coordinator, the month of March was particularly deadly: more than 900 civilians were wounded as a result of fighting, including 100 children under five. In addition, the United Nations estimates that in the past two and a half months nearly 100,000 people have been forced to flee their homes.

Jennifer Altoff contributed to this post.

Photo: Islamist militia in Somalia. (AP)

• Peace
• Prevention
• Protection
• Somalia
• United Nations
• War Crimes

Here at Enough, we often swap emails with interesting articles and feature stories that we come across in our favorite publications and on our favorite websites. We wanted to share some of these stories with you as part of our effort to keep you up to date on what you need to know in the world of anti-genocide and crimes against humanity work.

With Sudan election madness winding down—at least with regards to the actual balloting—take a moment to look at this elections slideshow put together by Foreign Policy. These photos draw you intimately into the polling stations, alongside expectant voters waiting patiently in the hot sun, vividly showcasing the experiences of a country dealing with its first, though flawed, multi-party elections in over two decades. The earnestness and struggle for political expression at the grassroots is apparent from these images, in spite of the formidable obstacles stalling the will for change.

Though not a country Enough usually focuses on, this engaging piece on Guinea in the April 12th edition of the New Yorker is a must-read for those concerned with crimes against humanity. Writer Jon Lee Anderson delves deep into the now-deposed Guinean president Moussa Dadis Camara’s psyche and surveys the political landscape of the country in the aftermath of the massacres and rapes instigated by the ex-leader against opposition demonstrators last September.

In a worrisome trend, Islamist groups in Somalia continue to impose draconian interpretations of Islam onto the Somali population. Most radio stations in Somalia recently complied with the orders of extreme Islamist group Hizbul-Islam to stop playing music on radio stations, a demand that the BBC says “has strong echoes of the Taliban in Afghanistan.” According to the New York Times, school bells were also recently outlawed because they sounded too much like church bells.

Despite the unpopularity of these measures, groups like the Islamist insurgency al-Shabaab continue to find recruits among the Somali population, perhaps because of the economic incentive they can offer. This Christian Science Monitor article examines the rationale of ordinary Somalis when offered to join the ranks of al-Shabaab, an organization of fighters that continues wreak havoc on the civilian population. According to an interview with an al-Shabaab defector, recruiters offer $400 up front for joining in addition to a regular salary—promises not easily turned down by the many Somalis deprived of basic necessities.

If you’re still clamoring to get more of a Sudanese perspective of elections, Al-Jazeera’s “Africa Blog” has provided continuous on-the-ground coverage of the process since the start of the campaigning period. The blog, which highlights Sudanese voices, will undoubtedly continue to provide quality reporting with ballot counting underway.

• Darfur and Southern Sudan
• Somalia

Hundreds of Somalis took to the streets of the capital of Mogadishu on Monday, protesting the militant Islamist group Al Shabaab that controls large swaths of the country. In a demonstration closely overseen by pro-government security forces, women and children, as well as traditional warriors shouted slogans such as “down and defeat to al-Shabaab.” 

Shabaab, a militant group with ties to al Qaeda has attracted foreign fighters from around the world, including the United States, and has effectively sidelined Somalia’s fragile Transitional Federal Government, or TFG, in most of the southern areas of Somalia. The TFG came to power in 2004 with the backing of the African Union, United Nations, and the U.S., but now only controls a handful of blocks in the capital city.

Civilians are not only caught in the crossfire between Shabaab and government-aligned forces; they are often targeted. Numerous groups have documented these attacks, including Amnesty International which brought attention to the problem in a report issued just last week.

Yesterday’s protest was a bold expression of disgust for Shabaab’s tactics. In particular, people gathered to protest the desecration by Shabaab of the tombs of seven revered Sufi clerics, who represented a more moderate form of Islam than the Shabaab seeks to impose.

In a related development, the prominent Sufi group Ahlu Sunna signed a power-sharing agreement with the TFG last week, pledging that "together, we are going to eliminate radical Islamists from the country.” Ahlu Sunna is one of the strongest forces battling Shabaab and has controlled parts of the central Somalia since late 2008.

Amy Doherty contributed to this post.

• Prevention
• Somalia

Here at Enough, we often swap emails with interesting articles and feature stories that we come across in our favorite publications and on our favorite websites. We wanted to share some of these stories with you as part of our effort to keep you up to date on what you need to know in the world of anti-genocide and crimes against humanity work.

In an op-ed in the Guardian, journalist and Sudan expert Julie Flint described some of the ways the Sudanese government is using its national security law – ostensibly in place to keep al-Qaeda suspects in custody – to violently suppress opposition, even in modest forms, in the run-up to the election next month. As she points out through examples, the ‘African success story’ the Guardian recently described deserves a bit more nuance, published, as it was, a day after Sudanese security services arrested a student leader in Khartoum and subjected him to a mock execution.

In her weekly segment for the New York Times magazine, Deborah Soloman interviewed author Chinua Achebe about the recent religious violence in Nigeria, the political turmoil that recently saw the country’s president go “on leave” in Saudi Arabia, and Achebe’s experience living in exile in the United States. (The best-selling author recently published a collection of short stories, his first book in more than 20 years.)

Sean Brooks from the Save Darfur Coalition, fresh from a trip to Darfur, made some excellent points about the serious challenges faced by the U.N. peacekeeping mission in Sudan’s troubled western region. Here’s one:

(…) UNAMID can only carry out its Chapter 7 mandate and other duties to protect civilians with the consent of the Sudanese government. (…) For citizens throughout Darfur, this arrangement means that daily security depends almost entirely on the local relationships between residents, UNAMID, and the controlling authorities in the area.

Despite the immense difficulty of gaining reliable information from the war zone that is Somalia today, Amnesty International issued a report this week documenting abuses against civilians during the past six months. Amnesty found that the most egregious and widespread abuses – torture, stoning, amputations – are occurring in areas controlled by groups opposed to the fragile Transitional Federal Government in efforts “to intimidate and instill fear in the population in order to assert their control over territory,” they wrote.

A piece by the Washington Post/Foreign Policy’s Colum Lynch, writing on his new blog Turtle Bay, gives a good useful overview of some of reasons why the United States and the United Nations are in an “awkward” position as Sudan prepares to hold its first multiparty elections in over 20 years. Lynch’s piece also highlights some of the most quote-worthy remarks of the week.

• Africa
• Darfur and Southern Sudan
• Genocide
• Peace
• Prevention
• Protection
• Somalia
• Sudan Election
• Sudan Now
• United Nations
• War Crimes