Civilians Bear the Brunt of Suffering as Violence Escalates in Somalia

By Katherine Hubbard

The conflict in Somalia between the al Shabab Islamist militias and the transitional government of President Sheikh Sharif Ahmed is growing increasingly violent and forcing civilians from the capital city of Mogadishu to flee for their lives.  According to the UN, at least 8,000 residents have evacuated the capital in the past month due to the fighting.  Attacks from both sides have left civilians dead and maimed.  The International Committee of the Red Cross says that in their two hospitals in Mogadishu they have treated 1,500 war wounded this year.  Few children go to school, the infant mortality rate is among the highest in the world, and food is expensive and scarce.

The terror comes in the wake of last month’s announcement by Somalia’s Transitional Federal Government that it would begin offensives targeting the Al Shabab rebel group.  Al Shabab is a militant Islamist organization that controls much of southern Somalia, excluding the capital.  It has been waging an insurgency against the transitional government since 2006 and has claimed since 2007 to be affiliated with al Qaeda.  Although analysts believe that their ties to al Qaeda are weak, the U.S. added the group to their list of foreign terrorist organizations in 2008.  There is some hope that this long-awaited offensive against the group could finally bring some legitimacy to President Sharif’s government, but in the short run it has meant increased hardship for residents of the already war-ravaged country.

As tensions rise, the UN is bracing for a mass exodus of Somali refugees into neighboring countries.  A representative from the UN High Commissioner for Refugees says that they are stepping up preparation in Kenya and other East African countries

Recently al Shabab threatened to launch a jihad against Kenya for its supposed military support of President Sharif’s government.  Diplomats in Kenya have privately reported that the Kenyan army has trained some 2,500 Somali troops, but the Kenyan government officially denies having trained any troops because they do not wish to get into direct conflict with Islamists.  

Kenya is already home to an estimated 230,000 Somali refugees who are concentrated in congested camps in Kenya’s Northeastern Province of Dadaad.  Human Rights Watch has sharply criticized Kenya’s government for failing to protect these refugees from abuse by violent and corrupt police and calls the situation in the camps “a rapidly growing humanitarian emergency.”  Residents of the underfunded camps suffer from malnutrition, thirst, and disease and live in miserable and unsanitary conditions.  Human Rights Watch is calling on the Kenyan government to open up new land for camps and asking the UN and international donors to respond to the refugees’ urgent needs.

Flickr photo by Feinstein International Center used under a Creative Commons license.