Famine is forcing Somalis by the hundreds of thousands to leave their homes in search of survival. Some are fleeing across the border to refugee camps in Kenya and Ethiopia, where international aid agencies are providing food aid. But those reaching the Somali capital are finding little if any help. The famine is not limited to the country of Somalia but is occurring on the horn of Africa. Somalia is more affected for various reasons. One of the reasons is that the Somali government has very little control over its land area. This means that there is a large population of people who are beyond the arm of their help and control. Many of the refugees are moving towards the capitol to receive whatever assistance that the government can provide which is not much.
Women with scrawny children on their hips stand in line for hours outside the dirt-floored kitchen at Mogadishus Badbaado Camp, holding a pot or sometimes just a plastic bag. Inside, volunteers man two huge iron cauldrons, scooping out a ladle of boiled white rice into each container. For most of the camps 20,000 or so residents, that rice and a bit of thin soup is all they have to survive on.
Al-Shabab, the terrorist group linked top al-Qaeda has control over most of the country and rules by terror and brute force. They are not willing or able to help the refugees and in the past has denied them the opportunity to ask for help by not allowing them to migrate to the capitol for help.
The Somali government has asked for international help in guarding the aid workers which is necessary to insure that they get some of the help that they need. If this assistance is not given Somali warlords, and other criminals can take the food and other types of aid meant for its citizens and use it themselves. It would be beneficial for the international community and the Somalis to send protection but I get a sense of dejavu because this is almost the same situation which occurred in the early nineties when the US had the Blackhawk Down incident. I would say that we will probably not want to send Americans to help because a large part of the Somali population may still perceive Americans as the enemy in the aftermath of this incident.
While aid is reaching the refugee camps outside Somalia, the United Nations and the big international humanitarian agencies have still not been able to begin food distribution in Mogadishu. It was only a week ago that al-Shabab was driven out of the city, allowing aid workers to survey the scope of the unfolding catastrophe. However al-Shabab has also retreated from large areas of the country which has opened much more of its land mass to the government. It would be a good tactical decision to take control of that area with military troops while there is no physical resistance. It will take time for an occupation force to be assembled and put in place and to establish lines of supply throughout the area.
Many more people will probably die of starvation before aid can be adequately set up but we need to move as quickly as we can and do as much as we can. The international community also needs to help the Somali government to establish its military to the point where it will be able to control its land area. Once this has been accomplished we need to exit the country as quickly as possible. The history of this type of operation is that all goes well for a while but animosity always seems to take root between the host country and the organization providing the assistance.
Military Ring Express
