Would the Arabs help Somalia at last?
By Mohamoud Hersi
August 31, 2006 — It is almost sixteen odd years since the collapse of Somali central government consequently thousands of innocent civilians were killed without apparent reasons while millions of people forced to exile and stay in Europe, Africa and America as refugees.
Over that long duration Somali people have suffered a lot and they received no proper response from the countries it had a very good friendship during the heyday of Somalia including Saudi Arabia and Egypt.
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Arab League Role
Although Somali neighbors have staged many peace conferences for Somali politicians, it is well documented Arab countries have extremely failed to salvage Somalia from the ashes. This has created that Somali people to question why Somalia is a member country when they never come and help Somalia the time of need.
It is worth Mentioning that Yemeni government have tirelessly tried its best to help Somalia and succeeded to solve Transitional Government split last year, this has proven that Arab countries have an important role to plat in Somali politics and they should not let Ethiopia and Eritrea to fight proxy war inside Somalia at the expense of Somali people.
African Union Role
African role in Somalia was minimal except sending a confusing signal and observers who failed to materialize to bring in normalcy to a member and founding member of that organization as they succeeded in Sudan, Liberia and other many places in the continent. The prime failure of African union was merely responsible by Ethiopian and Egypt disagreements on Somali affairs. Although history proven both countries has no good intentions on Somali’s internal affairs and wants to get its own interests from Somalia.
New hope and challenges
Since the Civil society upraising in Mogadishu and surrounding regions against ruthless warlords, there is golden opportunity of hope for Somali people and there are signs that peace is insight at last. However the challenges must be overcome in a wise manner.
The proposed peace conference in Khartoum on 1st of Sep 06 under the auspices of Arab League can be the turning point for Somali civil war. The Transitional Government and Union of Islamic Courts must be pressurized to come up with compromise and establish new unified government and in return Arab countries must be ready to re-build the country as they promise for Lebanon.
The stake is high on Somalia if this peace conference collapsed and Somali people will not forgive both Somali delegates as well as their Arab brothers in this failure. Arab Governments as well as their political heavy weights should be assigned and participate this important meeting in order to end in success. The strategic position of Somalia is important to Arab nations and dismemberment of Somali will be a high risk to the Gulf of Red sea as well as Indian Ocean which over the years turned to be the home of pirates and criminals.
The question that millions of Somalis are asking themselves is “Would the Arabs help Somalia at this delicate time or will they fail as they did many times in the past?
* Mohamoud Hersi is based in London United Kingdom. He can be reached at [email protected]