When the Black Hawk Down incident occurred in 1993, the U.S.
unofficially cut of diplomatic ties with Somalia. The people of Somalia, which had been under the control of
al Qaeda-linked insurgents called al Shabaab, then suffered through years of war
and poverty. Last year, after making significant progress in ending the
fighting with the help of the U.N., Somalia held their first elections and
elected President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud. These signs of political stability
have given hope of breaking the al Shabaab insurgents’ control over Somalia. Just
recently, African Union troops and Ethiopian soldiers were able to take control
of major Somalian cities away from the al Shabaab.
On Thursday, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton will
formally announce the U.S.’s decision to officially recognize the government of
Somalia. By doing so, the U.S. Agency for International Development, and other
international agencies like the World Band, will begin to provide much needed aid
to the impoverished, war-torn nation.
Despite all of this great progress in reforming the
government, Somalia still struggles with al Shabaab insurgents. Just this week,
al Shabaab threatened to execute a captured French intelligence officer after
“exhaustive attempts at negotiation” and a failed rescue attempt in Somalia.
What are your thoughts? Do you think this will help the
fight on terrorism? How much help can the U.S. really offer?
1 comment:
This is an interesting post, I for one had no idea that the US didn't officially consider Somalia a country. I suppose it's nice that we're supporting their bid for democracy, but unless we decide that we want to engage in another torturous "democratizing mission," I don't think our decision to recognize them will have much of an effect. This news is also interesting when you take into account that France has just started trying to flush Islamist extremists out of Mali. (http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/international/countriesandterritories/mali/index.html) We seem to be in a period of flux in terms of Al Quaida/Islamist insurgencies.
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