Somalia is 'most ignored tragedy'

Invisible

Robot
Feb 11, 2006
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By Mark Doyle
BBC World Affairs Corresponden

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Swathes of Mogadishu are skeletons of bombed-out buildings



The world should be shocked at the systematic destruction of Somalia's capital Mogadishu and its residents, says lobby group Human Rights Watch.

The organisation told the BBC the city had become a zone of free-fire between government and insurgent forces.

It said if such a situation was happening anywhere else in the world, like Georgia or Lebanon for example, it would be considered a travesty.

Instead Somalia was the most ignored tragedy in the world today, HRW said.

Mogadishu is dying.

It is a city on the Indian Ocean coast that used to be one of Africa's trading hubs with the Middle East.

Now whole swathes of it are rubble or skeletons of buildings without doors or windows or roofs.
The most shocking, eerie aspect of it is that in many parts of the capital all the people have fled.

Aid vacuum


The fighting is between the US-backed government and Islamist and nationalist insurgents, who Washington accuses of having links with al-Qaeda.

The Somali government has no capacity to count the number of people who have fled and there are no international aid workers left to do the job because they would be kidnapped for ransom or murdered.

But the fighting has been worse for the ordinary residents of Mogadishu than even the infamous period in the early 1990s that spawned the film Black Hawk Down, a portrayal of American troops killed in Somalia at that time.

Today is worse than Black Hawk Down for the people of Mogadishu, much worse.

I was in the city in the early 1990s. It was an extremely violent time.

Not a night passed without explosions lighting up the sky but even that did not empty the capital of Somalia like the daily fratricidal confrontations now taking place between the government and its armed opponents.
 
The way it looks is......It's very hard to help Somalia because of the violent forces (both the government and insurgents). So many humanitarian organisations would like to go and help the Somalian people (who are suffering) but it is very clear that they will be killed.
I don't think the talks held in Kenya are working. I don't think sanctions can be used on them as there is no solid government. The AU needs to pull up it's socks and try to find possible solutions to end this long term fighting in Somalia.
 
As long as the ones dying are Africans the world will always look the other way,it is indeed very sad.Kikwete as the AU chairman should look into this the problem.
 
somali,is a no man's land,this country is beyond help,in fact this country is in a permanent state of civil war,how does one solve in clan/tribal wars which seems to have no end.warlords abound in every corner.perhaps a solution is to install,a no nonsense strongman cum dictator in the said barre mould,who would knock sense into these warring warlords
 
Wasomali hawasaidiki hata kidogo tokana na tabia zao. Utaanzia wapi kusaidia wakati hakuna serikali?. Hayo mazungumzo ya amani utayafanya na nani kama hakuna serikali?.
 
somali,is a no man's land,this country is beyond help,in fact this country is in a permanent state of civil war,how does one solve in clan/tribal wars which seems to have no end.warlords abound in every corner.perhaps a solution is to install,a no nonsense strongman cum dictator in the said barre mould,who would knock sense into these warring warlords


You must be an kenyan preparing to invade Somalia!




Definition of no man's land in the Dictionary

1- an unoccupied area
2- land that is unowned and uninhabited

I think somalia is neither an unoccupied area nor unowned and uninhabited country. anyway. the slave mentality still exist among the African`s!
 
the west will not intervene, they will loose market for their weapons. Besides Americans still remember what the Somalis did to their soldiers, wasomali wanaonekana fragile lakini wabaya! The so called aid to Africa ni changa la macho in most cases coz the money goes back to them indirectly via consultation fees, purchases etc African problems need African solutions
 
Yani kila tatizo la Afrika, nchi za Magharibi ziingilie...lini tutaingilia matatizo yetu wenyewe?
 
mr ZANZIBAR thanks for the defination of 'no man's land'. ENGLISH has vast parameters,then one may think,i am sorry if u think i erred,BUT repeat BUT,i stand by my word
 
You must be an kenyan preparing to invade Somalia!




Definition of no man's land in the Dictionary

1- an unoccupied area
2- land that is unowned and uninhabited

I think somalia is neither an unoccupied area nor unowned and uninhabited country. anyway. the slave mentality still exist among the African`s!

Kwani Wakenya ndio wana-invade Somalia?????
 
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