The world’s largest advocacy group has urged the international community to enhance the role of Turkey and other Muslim nations in stabilization effort in Somalia and to build Somali confidence in the process.
The International Crisis Group (ICG) released a report on Wednesday regarding the political situation in Somalia, where it said the country faces a crucial six months as the mandate of the “feeble and dysfunctional” Transitional Federal Government (TFG) expires in August of this year.
The ICG said the international community is taking a renewed interest in the country and that emboldened troops from the African Union, Kenya and Ethiopia are keen to deal the weakened extremist movement al-Shabaab further defeats. It added that this confluence of factors presents the best chance in years for peace and stability in the country.
However, the advocacy group said achieving this requires regional and wider international unity of purpose and an agreement on basic principles; otherwise it predicted all peace-building efforts could be seriously undermined.
According to the crisis group, the root cause of Somalia’s many troubles — terrorism, piracy, periodic famine and constant streams of refugees — is collapse of effective governance, with resulting chronic conflict, lawlessness and poverty. “The most effective and durable solution to these ills is to build gradually an inclusive, more federal government structure that most clans can support. Otherwise, al-Shabaab (or some similar successor) and other disparate groups of would-be strongmen with guns will exploit continued dissatisfaction with Mogadishu and innate Somali hostility to ‘foreign occupation’,” it said.
The group also urged the international community to increase African Union (AU) forces’ strength and provide more resources. It suggested the international community endorse closer UN/AU cooperation and insure that the two organizations’ special representatives work together closely.
It added that the world should endorse the formation of a truly inclusive Somali deliberative body, one that represents all clans and regions of the country, and can establish an interim government to replace the TFG if necessary. The group advised the international community to enhance the role of Turkey and other Muslim nations in the war-torn country to further help stabilize the country.
AU peacekeepers recently pushed al-Shabaab militants out of Mogadishu, Somalia’s capital. The militia, which announced a merger with al-Qaeda earlier this month, is also fighting with Kenyan forces in the south and Ethiopian troops in the west.
The ICG report portrayed Turkey as the “newest serious entrant,” which it said entered Somalia in 2011 with noble, if naive, intentions to end the famine and provide the necessary support and guidance to make the TFG more effective and acceptable. According to the ICG, Turkey has quickly learned to be distrustful of Somali elites, but remains committed to helping the country.
However, it is suspicious of Western motives and wary of bureaucratic coordination, the report noted. The ICG underlined that Turkey has recently launched a very substantive initiative that extends from humanitarian aid to military cooperation and was put together largely outside the existing coordination frameworks of international assistance.
Somalia has been suffering from the worst drought in the region in the last 60 years along with an internal conflict that intensifies with every passing day. Turkey’s outpouring of support in the region has made it a leader among the international community.
The ICG report was released ahead of an international conference in London this week during which dozens of countries will try to agree on how to help Somalia. The UN Security Council is considering a new resolution that would authorize an increase of peacekeeping force from 10,000 to 18,000 troops.
