Somalia is this decades outcast

The haunting picture of Somalians dragging a US soldier’s dead body down the streets of Mogadishu was enough to trigger a pull out by President Clinton. This war-ravaged, lawless, pirate producing country is the poster child for a country out of control.

Since the government fell in the early 1990s, war lords of all types and heads of clans have ruled at will. Al-Shabaab, a cousin to Al Qaeda filled in where chaos ruled, proving the political maxim, people will for a time prefer social order to freedom. But even Al-Shabaab overplayed its hand. Ruling with the harshness characteristic of Islamic fundamentalism—as under the Taliban in Afghanistan—women were driven in doors, hands of thieves were hacked off and Christian charities were run out of the country.

The final straw was as drought moved south (an ecological disaster) and as famine (a political disaster) brought starvation, Al-Shabaab lost popular support. This along with the strength of the African Union army, in early August Al-Shabaab was driven out of the Somalian capital, Mogadishu.

A Muslim country, teetering on the edge of massive starvation, within the trilateral corners of Ethiopia, Somalia and Kenya, some 11 million will be harshly affected by famine, with Somalia the overall favourite to be the most affected. The current drought is part of a new ecological pattern in east Africa: drought used to cycle in about once every five years, now its frequency is every second year.

It was to this country I decided to visit in early August. Canadian Member of Parliament John McKay set up a meeting with Somalian expats in Toronto; I arranged for travel into the country but these arrangements fell apart.

Once in Kenya I suggested, “Let’s go to Mogadishu,” an idea met with incredulity. Why Somalia? Its reputation is one of the most tattered: home of piracy on the open sea, the new Afghanistan where training of Al Qaeda terrorism is sponsored; Al Shabaab, vicious, dangerous and murderous in the extreme. And a country ungoverned. On the world indices of violence where #5 is the highest, Somalia is number 5.

So why Somalia?

Two reasons. First because the few working to rebuild the country are in desperate need of our help. Living within the now guarded city of Mogadishu, expats from Australia, the UK, Canada and the US, among others, have returned to give of their experience and vision in the rebuilding of a government. These men and women, many highly educated are at risk, taking next-to-nothing in salaries, living in appalling conditions, away from family and losing a chunk of their vocational lives. Here they labour to rebuild. Saying we will help is not a bad start.

Second, millions are starving. While this is true in Ethiopia and Kenya, Somalia has particular needs because it lacks infrastructure of government and all Christian agencies—which are world-famous for delivery of food and equipment—have been run out. With Islamic fundamentalists no longer in control as they were just weeks ago, there is fresh opportunity for aid agencies to return.

Curious isn’t it, that as university students demonstrate and shout slogans over every imaginable cause from the Israeli/Palestinian debate to the environment, when Somalis kill their own people, when those of the same faith stone, flog, amputate their own citizens in the name of their fundamentalist doctrine, few lift a voice for women and children caught in this cross fire of warfare? Who raises an alarm? Who cycles across Canada for their cause?

Somalia is this decade’s outcast and when one witnesses a political outcast, it’s time to engage. Rather than allow Somalia to fester and become the new breeding ground for terrorism, would it not be in our interest to support the Somalians in the reconstruction of their government? Yes there is danger in aid work, but surely aid agencies can find ways to re-enter, helping to save the hundreds of thousands of lives at risk.

I visited refugee camps in Mogadishu but saw little evidence of agencies at work. We walked about the refugee camps, cluttered with make-shift huts and couldn’t find food stored or being prepared. And next to no medical help.

The warmth and welcome of its people emitted an embracing acceptance. A Somalian senior government officer said, “Canadians are cowards. It has been years since a Canadian has come here. You all go to Nairobi but never Mogadishu. You are the first Canadian I’ve seen taking a risk to visit us.”

What can we do about this human tragedy? Ask your national government to include Somalia on its list of help in government building and press your favourite aid agency to develop channels of support to get to those literally dying from hunger.

Violence still runs its course in some parts of the land. It will not be easy for aid agencies to start up again, but in time the ground will shift and people of goodwill will look again at this law-bereft land, people desirous for life and opportunity.


Brian Stiller served as President of Tyndale University College & Seminary from 1995 to 2009. He is currently a Global Ambassador for the World Evangelical Alliance