Africa News blog

African business, politics and lifestyle

Oct 28, 2011 06:24 EDT
Aaron Maasho

Operation Somalia: The U.S., Ethiopia and now Kenya

Photo

By Aaron Maasho

Ethiopia did it five years ago, the Americans a while back. Now Kenya has rolled tanks and troops across its arid frontier into lawless Somalia, in another campaign to stamp out a rag-tag militia of Islamist rebels that has stoked terror throughout the region with threats of strikes.

The catalyst for Nairobi’s incursion was a series of kidnappings by Somali gunmen on its soil. A Frenchwoman was bundled off to Somalia from northern Kenya, while a British woman and two female aid workers from Spain, abducted from a refugee camp inside Kenya,  are also being held across the border.

The incidents caused concern over their impact on the country’s vital tourism industry, with Kenya’s forecast 100 billion shillings or revenue this year expected to falter. The likes of Britain and the United States have already issued warnings against travel to some parts of the country.

Kenyans have so far responded with bravado towards their government’s operation against the al Qaeda-linked al Shabaab group. Local channels regularly show high approval ratings for the campaign, some as high as 98 percent.

“The issue of our security is non-negotiable,” one commentator told a TV station in the wake of the announcement. Another chipped in with:  ”We’ve been casual to the extent of endangering our national sovereignty.  Kenya has what it takes to get rid of this dangerous threat once and for all.”

 

COMMENT

useless and insensitive comments ,AU esp Uganda and Burundi were not motivated to deploy their troops in war torn somalia because of money as somebody put it ,it was a pan AFRICAN spirist of the presidents of UG and Burundi , and the human heart to save our brothers and sisters including innocent children .UG and Bur are paying a high price that cant be compared with any material thing. the world shd wake up to the reality that somalia needs every bodys concern and assistance.

Posted by baingana | Report as abusive
Jul 19, 2011 10:08 EDT

from Photographers Blog:

AUDIO SLIDESHOW: Two Decades, One Somalia

In the 20 years since dictator Mohamed Siad Barre was toppled, Somalia has faced hunger, flooding, fighting, suicide attacks, piracy and insurgency.

Prevailing violent conflict inside Somalia makes it difficult if not impossible for aid agencies to reach people.

AlertNet brings you special coverage of the country which has struggled without a strong central government ever since.

Here is a selection of Reuters pictures from 1993 to 2011 on this war-torn country and failed state.

Apr 14, 2011 09:28 EDT
Aaron Maasho

Ethiopia/Eritrea: Another war?

Photo

Ethiopia is beating the war drums again. After a lull of more than a decade, the Horn of Africa giant is now threatening to attack its neighbour and foe Eritrea over claims it is working to destabilise the country.

When Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi said his country would no longer take a passive stance towards Eritrea, it marked an escalation in the bitter war of words that has ensued since a devastating border spat ended in 2000.

Addis Ababa should “either work towards changing Eritrea’s policies or its government,” he told local media last month.

“This could be done diplomatically, politically or through other means.”

The two countries have a long history of animosity since a vicious conflict was sparked in 1961 when rebels in Eritrea (then an Ethiopian state) took up arms to win independence.

A rebel group led by Meles and others joined the Eritreans, led by current president Isaias Afewerki, in 1975 and finally ousted dictator Mengistu Haile Mariam in 1991.

Despite fighting tooth-and-nail alongside each other since they were barely out of their teens , the rebels-turned-statesmen have always had an uneasy relationship.

COMMENT

‘Meles he is trying to divert the attention of his countrymen to avoid North African-style unrest in a country were high living costs and unemployment are taking their toll.’ He is doing this nothing else.

Posted by Ethiopian21 | Report as abusive
Sep 10, 2010 07:55 EDT

Is Eritrean policy shift just “tactical”?

Photo

Eritrea’s arms seem to have been folded in a sulk for a long time now. The Red Sea state has, for some, taken on the black sheep role in the Horn of Africa family. But President Isaias Afewerki is looking eager to get off the naughty step.

His opponents say he was put there for good reason. Eritrea became increasingly isolated in the region after a 1998 – 2000 border war with neighbouring – and much bigger – Ethiopia.

Things have been tense between the two ever since – partly fueled by the fact that Eritrea only fully ceded from Ethiopia in 1993 after rebels led by Isaias and Ethiopia’s Prime Minister Meles Zenawi ousted a communist regime.

Eritrea has also fallen out with another neighbour, Djibouti. The two countries have been kicking each other in small but regular border clashes since 2008.

But the biggest blot on Eritrea’s copybook is its alleged backing of Somalia’s Islamist al Shabaab rebels – fast becoming an ulcer, not just for Somalia, but for the whole region. Analysts say Eritrea funds and trains Shabaab as a way of getting at Ethiopia, the West’s closest regional ally and a country that sent troops into Somalia in 2006 to run another Islamist group out of the capital.

The United Nations Security Council finally took action against Eritrea last December, imposing sanctions for its destabilising meddling in Somalia.

COMMENT

Well Meles would say that wouldn’t he? but what is interesting is why is Meles spending so much energy in blackmailing and defaming Eritrean when he has so much to do in country

Let US BRIEFLY see the situation in Ethiopia
1. HIV/AIDS is in a rampant stage
2.There is chronic food shortage
3. the gab between the haves and the have nots increasing at sky rocketing rate
4.The prostitution industry is on the increase
5. People are dying from curable diseases
6. Ethiopians are know for poverty through out the world
7. the country is divided by ethnicity problems -very fragile politics that can shatter down any time
….etc
the list are endless

so what does it matter if Meles says anything about Eritrean-it would matter if such comment comes from a successful leader but From Meles–he is making himself subject of mockery

Meles is a failure
even his hometown Tigray is suffering from shortage of water

I urge Meles to deal with his domestic problems first before he can be consulted about regional issues

The leadership quality of a leader is not measured by the quality of his interviews or the equableness of his speech but by the change that he can bring on the quality of life of his people

Hence using Meles is a poor reference for any sort of political analysis of that region

Posted by MACKSUGAR | Report as abusive
Nov 17, 2008 10:37 EST

from Global News Journal:

What should the world do about Somalia?

Photo

Islamist militants imposing a strict form of Islamic law are knocking on the doors of Somalia's capital, the country's president fears his government could collapse -- and now pirates have seized a super-tanker laden with crude oil heading to the United States from Saudi Arabia.

Chaos, conflict and humanitarian crises in Somalia are hardly new. It's a poor, dry nation where a million people live as refugees and 10,000 civilians have been killed in the Islamist-led insurgency of the last two years. A fledgling peace process looks fragile. Any hopes an international peacekeeping force will soon come to the rescue of a country that has become the epitome of anarchic violence are optimistic, at best.

But besides causing instability in the Horn of Africa, the turmoil onshore is spilling into the busy waters of the Gulf of Aden. The European Union and NATO have beefed up patrols of this key trade route linking Asia to Europe via the Suez Canal as more and more ships fall prey to piracy. Attacks off the coast of east Africa also threaten vital food aid deliveries to Somalia.

As insurance premiums for ships rocket and carriers start taking the long route from Asia to Europe around the Cape of Good Hope to avoid attack, the cost of manufactured goods and commodities such as oil is likely to rise -- all at a time of global economic uncertainty and looming recession in major industrialised countries.

COMMENT

Unfortunately, this situation has escalated while other issues have absorbed our strategic attention. Today, we should begin viewing this area as a strategic “front”…the grey area between commercial interests and national interests. Note the number of nation states with deployed naval forces in the region. This is unprecedented in the modern age. Many “actors” have a stake in this…and there is no nation state or commercial company with a credible position of leadership…

Posted by Tom Ryan | Report as abusive
May 23, 2008 06:45 EDT
Reuters Staff

What hope for Somalia?

Photo

Fighting in Mogadishu. Kidnaps of foreign aid workers. Hijacks by pirates. Africa’s worst humanitarian crisis.

The news from Somalia seems to be relentlessly negative, writes Reuters Somalia correspondent Guled Mohamed. So it has been for the best part of 17 years since warlords overran the country in 1991 to usher in the modern period of chaos in this part of the Horn of Africa.

African Union peacekeepers have been unable to stem the violence; peace initiatives come and go with little impact; and the 14th attempt to restore central government is struggling as the Ethiopian-backed Transitional Federal Government finds itself up against a resilient insurgent movement including former members of the Islamic Courts Union that briefly held Mogadishu for six months in 2006.

However, tales of hope, entrepreneurship and solidarity abound among Somalia’s 9 million people.

How do you think Somalis can move forward? Can the diaspora wield its economic power to help? Has Ethiopia’s military intervention helped or hindered? Do the Islamic Courts represent the people as their fighters say? How can the world help, or should it just stay out and let Somalis sort things out themselves?

Have your say …

COMMENT

I say on open seas impose a law similar to Texas’s Castle Law. Arm the ships and handle the pirates as they want to handle you. Leave them floating, sharks gotta eat too. The millions being paid out would more than cover armed personel and or anti piracy equipment. These people could care less about you, me, or anything but money. Even the elders look up to these criminals. If the shipping companies would start throwing a little lead at them,things would change. They know that the worst thing they have to face is a firehose. Big Deal!!

Posted by D Moore | Report as abusive
May 14, 2008 10:01 EDT
Reuters Staff

Where is Eritrea headed?

Photo

Eritrean President Isaias Afwerki is probably one of Africa’s least-known yet controversial leaders. After a successful 30-year independence war against neighbouring Ethiopia, he won praise from the West in the 1990s for being part of a “new generation” of  progressive African leaders. In recent years, however, the Eritrean president has been increasingly criticised from abroad as running his small Horn of African nation along authoritarian lines.

Not usually keen on giving interviews to Western media, President Isaias Afwerki sat down this week for a nearly two-hour chat with Reuters’ Asmara correspondent Jack Kimball and East Africa bureau chief Andrew Cawthorne. In it, he criticised the United Nations, denied an incursion into Djibouti, outlined Eritrea’s economic policies and accused the United States of trying to destabilise his country.

Has Isaias Afwerki been good or bad for Eritrea and Africa. What do you think?

COMMENT

Thomas !
You put a ward on the confusing Western mass madia propaganda. I hope that time will tell soon. Now a days mass madia has changed it role, not in constractive and comprehencive way but miss informing and aggitating people and political ledears in animosity, distractive
political agenda. It has caused mass distraction, migration , hunger and terror among nations and etnich gruppes in the same teritory.I think it is madness to let such things happen in a modern and globalized world that we are living today.

Posted by yekealo | Report as abusive
  •