Friday, January 30, 2009

Islamist to lead battle against Islamists

If you needed any further evidence about how bad things are in Somalia now that the Transitional Federal Government (TFG) has been basically abandoned by its allies, one need not limit one's self to stories like this one about how the TFG intends to integrate the "moderate" Islamist faction into the government...

...nor need one refer to this story where a suicide bomber in Mogadishu came close to killing both of the remaining African Union peacekeepers left in the country. (well, not both... there are a few thousand, but compared to the need there may as well be only two)

...nor this report on the confusion and political games happening *even after* the al-Shabaab "not moderate" Islamists took control of Baidoa in central Somalia earlier this week, effectively ousting the TFG from its seat of government.

It can all be summed up by looking at this report on the selection (by the new Parliament) of Sheikh Sharif Ahmed of the ARS, the above mentioned "moderate" Islamists, as the new President of the TFG. That would be the same Sheikh Sharif Ahmed who used to run the Islamic Courts movement government before the Ethiopians came in to re-establish the authority of the TFG in 2006.

Two years, and thousands of lives, wasted.

How wasted? The TFG couldn't even hold a session of government to select the new President inside Somalia.

They had to meet in Djibouti.

Gosh, Djibouti should still be safe, right? Only thanks to autonomous Somaliland.

The war will continue to spread, at least northerly, soon.

1 comment:

Purr said...

this one looks interesting--