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Let us give "this one" a chance.
Mohamed Ishaakh
A small miracle is in the making in Somalia. Amid the
preoccupation with crises in Sudan, Iraq and Afghanistan, many have failed to notice that peace could finally be coming to one of the world's most
notorious trouble spots.
Somalia descended into chaos and anarchy when a popular
uprising expelled President Siad Barre on Jan. 27,
1991. Since then, warlords and faction leaders have
fought relentlessly, much as warring city states did in
medieval Europe, and Somalia has had no central or
regional government. While the warlords got rich, Somalia's people paid a heavy price throughout the conflict, none more so than its children.
Every year, Somalia is among the lowest ranked of 163
countries in the Human Development Index compiled by
the United Nations Development Program. It currently
ranks at 161. One in four Somali children will die
before the age of 5; fewer than 25 percent of Somalis
have access to clean water; fewer than 20 percent of children are enrolled in primary school and of the few who complete it, only one in eight is a girl.
In this failed state it is left to agencies like UNICEF
to provide services in health, education, water and
sanitation. But these basic services are delivered in unimaginable circumstances. Somalia is dealing with a
chronic, complex emergency with limited humanitarian
access and limited funding from an international community that turned its back after the horrors and defeat of its engagement from 1993 to 1995.
Now this may all be about to change. Somalia's 14th peace process since 1991 started in October 2002, and
although skeptics predicted the collapse of the reconciliation process at every stage, resolution was
reached on Oct. 10 this year. Abdullahi Yusuf was
elected president of the Transitional Federal
Government with a landslide two-thirds majority vote by
the 275-member Parliament and there are plans for the
new government, currently in Nairobi, to relocate to
Somalia by mid-December.
Many obstacles lie ahead. Some warlords are still
hostile toward the transitional government and some in
the international community refuse to support Abdullahi
Yusuf, either because of his military past or because
the transitional government is predicted to fail. But
abandoning the peace process and the newly elected government would be the worst disservice to the Somali
people. Though the challenges are innumerable, the
Somali people, the new government and the international
community must address four humanitarian imperatives.
Humanitarian access is a vital precondition. Although
peace is at its door, Somalia has never been as
dangerous for the aid community. Many UN colleagues
have been killed in seemingly targeted actions since
October 2003. Airplanes and landing strips used by
humanitarian agencies are clearly under threat. The
funds to provide adequate security must be found
immediately if services and assistance to the new
government are to be provided at all.
Combating the effects of drought is the first priority. From northern Somalia, drought has spread throughout
the country, destroying livestock and livelihoods.
Unless there are funds to tackle it, drought will
undermine the new government before it has effectively
begun to exercise its authority.
The second issue is education, particularly for girls.
Any Somali under the age of 30 is unlikely to have
attended school in Somalia or attained any academic
skills. You cannot have democracy without democrats and
peace cannot be decreed without building a culture of
peace. Reconstruction demands educated Somalis, so
investment in education must be a priority.
The third issue is AIDS, which is in danger of being
overlooked among Somalia's many urgent challenges. As
Somalia has a relatively low rate of infection with the
AIDS virus, the right kind of intervention would give
Somalia a historic opportunity to be one of the few
countries in sub-Saharan Africa to achieve early
control of the virus before it runs amok. But if
measures were postponed, Somalia would replicate the
devastating outcomes seen elsewhere in eastern and
southern Africa.
The fourth issue is protection of the rights of
Somalia's most vulnerable groups: children and women
returning refugees and internally displaced persons.
Their suffering has been enormous and their current
situation is almost inhuman. As the international
community supports the installation of the new
government, it must never be forgotten that equity,
alleviating poverty and protecting the most vulnerable
must be central to everything we do.
Nothing is more critical for Somalia than getting it
right in these four substantive areas - starting with
adequate funding. And without satisfactory security and
safe humanitarian access, nothing can happen.
Peace is knocking on Somalia's door. If we don't let it
in this time, it may never knock again.
Mohamed Ishaakh
E-mail: [email protected]
MN,USA
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