Mogadishu, the last days of the Union of Islamic Courts
Benoit Schaeffer
After fifteen years of non-stop civil war starting in 1991 with the collapse of the regime of President Syaad Barre, which left Mogadishu in the hands of corrupt leaders and looters, the Union of Islamic Courts (the Supreme Council of Islamic Courts in Somalia) restored peace within weeks in June 2006, after hunting down the “War Lords”. But the War Lords are now back in Mogadishu; the same ones who, in October 1993, massacred eighteen US Marines after shooting down two fighter helicopters, then exhibited their bodies before the cameras of the world, forcing the US to leave Somalia in March 1994. Hasn’t the humiliation which the Americans experienced in Somalia in 1993 served as a lesson for today’s “fight against terrorism”? On December 5, 2006, at the instigation of the American government, the UN Security Council voted to end the arms embargo, thus making it possible for Ethiopia, supporting the transitional Somalian government in exile based in Badoia, to overthrow the Union of Islamic Courts which was suspected of having links with Al Qaeda.
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The story I am telling here is one of hope that was dashed, and of the anguish of those final days for some 3 million people living there, including 800 000 refugees and displaced persons who had fled Mogadishu when the Islamic Courts came to power. The transitional government of Somalia returned to Mogadishu, but fighting broke out with combined Somalian and Ethiopian forces backed by the War Lords’ militia opposing Islamist militia (between March 29 and April 1) and left 1 086 dead and more than 4 300 wounded; these are the figures of the commission set up by the transitional government together with Ethiopia and the powerful Halliye clan and which is responsible for assessing the toll of these clashes. According to the report by the commission, received by Reuters on April 10, 2007, a total of 1.4 million people had to flee their homes in Mogadishu to escape the fighting. Other sources give similar assessments and it is estimated that three to four thousand civilians were killed between December and April 2007. Of the 8000 soldiers in the peacekeeping forces which the African Union (AU) has scheduled to deploy, so far only 1 500 have reached Mogadishu; all are from Uganda, the only country to agree to send troops. Surely US bombing by both air and sea, plus US aid for Addis Abeba are making the fighting even worse and strengthening the determination of the International Jihad, as well as preparing the ground for yet another inextricable situation. Here is a new land for another confrontation between the West and Islam.
Benoît Schaeffer
